RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2016-163 :: Friday, 2 September 2016

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2016-#163
Friday, 2 September 2016
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1. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Has life in another star system contacted Russia?
2. www.rt.com: ‘Alien cliques’ may be keeping Earth isolated – study.
3. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, As kids go back to school in Russia, much debate over what to teach. Russian schools have radically changed since the Soviet era, often for the better. But the shape of Russian education policy is still largely undecided.
4. Russia Beyond the Headlines: School expenses grow for Russian parents.
5. Bloomberg: Putin Blasts Trump and Clinton for ‘Shock’ Campaign Tactics.
6. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Putin: Russia didn’t hack Clinton server – but society needed to know. On Sept. 2, at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Vladimir Putin gave an interview to the Bloomberg international news agency. The Russian leader spoke about his readiness to renew dialogue with Japan on the Kuril Islands, about the agreement with the U.S. on Syria and about Russian hackers. RBTH presents the seven key points of Putin’s interview.
7. www.rt.com: Putin on DNC hack: Let’s talk content, not hackers’ identity.
8. Bloomberg: Putin Says Russia and U.S. Close to Breakthrough Deal on Syria.
9. Kremlin.ru: Interview to Bloomberg. Part One.
10. Moscow Times: Down, Down, Down: Why Russia’s Ruling Political Party Keeps Losing Support.
11. Moskovsky Komsomolets: Russian paper sees low effort to boost turnout for Duma vote. (Mikhail Zubov)
12. BBC Monitoring: Russian election debate: Fighting corruption again.
13. Moscow Times: Aging Rebel: Vladimir Zhirinovsky Is Enjoying Another Moment. Hidden behind rabble-rousing rhetoric, pragmatic conservatism is what really keeps Russia’s political maverick in place.
14. www.opendemocracy.net: Tatyana Dvornikova, Cuts, cuts, cuts: the life and times of Russia’s university teachers. Russia’s higher education sector is at a crossroads. A few universities are trying to raising their game in the hope of international ranking, but most are barely surviving staff and funding cuts.
15. Awful Avalanche: Putin Meets England’s Golden Youth – Part I.
16. Russia Beyond the Headlines: What will happen to disabled sports in Russia after the Paralympic scandal? Russian Paralympic athletes will not go to Rio, to the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang and a number of other international competitions. Sports officials interviewed by RBTH were remarkably sanguine on the ban, with some observers even seeing a silver lining in the highly publicized scandal.
17. Rethinking Russia: Nikolay Pakhomov, Russia’s champions in Rio: politics is not an obstacle.
18. Eurasia Review: Michael Averko, Russians Held To Different Standards – Analysis.
19. Russia Direct: Russian experts weigh in on Turkey, NATO and the US elections. Think tank review: In August, Russian experts discussed Russian-Turkish rapprochement, the U.S. presidential race, and the emergence of a “new Cold War” with NATO.
20. The National Interest: Lawrence J. Korb and Priya Misra, Russia’s Avoiding Its ISIS Problems, Not Solving Them. Short-term comfort doesn’t translate into long-term strategy.
21. Valdai Discussion Club: VISION OF GREATER EURASIAN PARTNERSHIP. SPECIAL SESSION AT THE EASTERN ECONOMIC FORUM.
22. Moscow Times: Vladimir Frolov, The Final Encounter: Obama and Putin to Meet at G20 Summit. Anticipating Hillary Clinton’s presidency, Vladimir Putin doesn’t want to spoil his final chance with Barack Obama.
23. Izvestia: Russian pundit predicts Turkmenistan scenario for Uzbekistan. (Adzhar Kurtov)
24. Vedomosti: Alexei Malashenko, All is quiet in Tashkent. On the forthcoming transition of power in Uzbekistan.
25. Reuters: U.S. Imposes Sanctions on ‘Putin’s Bridge’ to Crimea.
26. Atlantic Council: Thomas Theiner, What Business in Ukraine is Really Like.
27. Counterpunch.org: Roger Annis, Western Media Propaganda Threatens Peace and Prolongs the Deadly Conflict in Eastern Ukraine.
28. Awful Avalanche: Dangerous Water Shortage in Luhansk.
29. Defensenews.com: Tensions Heightened: Ukraine takes on Russia. (interview with with Valeriy Chaly, ambassador of Ukraine to the US)
30. Paul Goble: Moscow’s Disinformation Efforts Move Far beyond Mere Lying and Obfuscation.