RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2016-170 :: Thursday, 15 September 2016

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2016-#170
Thursday, 15 September 2016

A project sponsored through the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs
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1. Michael McFaul and Barack Obama share insights about Russia.
2. Russia Beyond the Headlines/Gazeta.ru: Fyodor Lukyanov, The Russian card: How Clinton is using Moscow to attack Trump. Russia has been a central part of the respective election campaigns of U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, with the former in particular outspoken in her criticism of the Kremlin, but is there any real substance to this demonization by the Democrats, or is it pure election rhetoric?
3. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, ORIGINS OF THE WAR IN DONBASS.
4. The Kremlin Stooge: Mark Chapman, Seeing More of the Big Picture in Ukraine.
5. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Khodorkovsky’s new project aims to find challenger to Putin. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the exiled former head of Yukos, has launched the “Instead of Putin” project, aimed at identifying a popular opposition candidate who will be able to challenge Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the support of the former oil tycoon. What do political analysts have to say about the project and its chances of success?
6. The Guardian (UK): Sasha Raspopina, The Russian woman who travels 500km to vote. Despite Sunday’s parliamentary polls drifting towards an inevitable conclusion, Russians’ faith in the democratic process is at an all-time high. Five people explain why their vote matters.
7. Wall Street Journal: Russian Communists Rebrand to Attract Young Supporters. As parliamentary elections loom, party reimagines Lenin, Marx in a modern context.
8. www.rt.com: Russian public doesn’t trust monitors to make elections fair – poll.
9. BBC Monitoring: Russian pollster protests against “foreign agent” label.
10. Politkom.ru: Russian expert forecasts State Duma election results. (Igor Bunin)
11. BBC Monitoring: Russia’s election chief vows “freest poll ever.” (Ella Pamfilova)
12. Moscow Times: Boris Grozovsky, Russia’s Post-Election Economy: Down, But Not Out. Parliamentary elections are rapidly approaching, but this time politicians aren’t making any pie-in-the-sky promises.
13. USAToday.com: Anna Arutunayn, Amid clampdown, Russian parliamentary election offers hope for opposition.
14. Paul Goble: Russian Opposition Just as Moscow-Centric as Russian Regime, Shtepa Says.
15. Moskovsky Komsomolets : Op-ed views Kremlin’s options for keeping social consensus. (Oleg Bondarenko)
16. www.rt.com: US allocates $3mn to back Russian NGOs ahead of parliamentary elections.
17. http://theduran.com: Alexander Mercouris, The great debate on Russia’s economic policy. Comments by Central Bank Chair Elvira Nabiullina confirm Russia will maintain tight monetary policy as it seeks to rein in inflation and to move from an economic model based on consumption towards one focused on investment, manufacturing and export.
18. Wall Street Journal: In Russia, Patriotism Now Comes in a Wine Glass. As sanctions and counter-sanctions between Moscow and the West persist, Russian vintners have gotten an unexpected boost.
19. Reuters: Citi sees Russia business pick up as crisis abates.
20. www.opendemocracy.net: Sean Guillory, Kremlinology: an intervention. Protests and strikes across Russia show that the country’s “silent majority” is becoming louder. But are pundits even listening?
21. Levada.ru: Russians no longer see USA as ally against terrorism – poll.
22. The Nation: James Carden, Kerry and Lavrov’s Syrian Diplomacy Shows (Once Again) the Value of Détente. Serious observers understand that working with Russia to ease Syria’s civil war is the only way to stop the crisis.
23. Russia Direct: Nikolay Surkov, What does the US-Russia agreement change in Syria? From Russia’s standpoint, the Syrian ceasefire agreement still faces serious challenges ahead. The good news, though, is that the U.S. appears willing to accept Russia as an equal and constructive partner in Syria.
24. Valdai Discussion Club: Alexander Aksenenok, THE SYRIAN SWING: WILL THE RUSSIAN-US CEASEFIRE PLAN WORK? We have a situation in which Russia, the United States and regional players understand that they need to adjust their approaches.
25. Reuters: Aligned with Russia in Syria, Pentagon awkwardly treads on new terrain.
26. The National Interest: Dave Majumdar, Is Russia Preparing for War?
27. Washington Post: Anne Applebaum, How Russia could spark a U.S. electoral disaster.
28. New York Times: Thomas Friedman, Donald Trump’s Putin Crush.
29. The RAND Corporation: Christopher Paul and William Courtney, Russian Propaganda Is Pervasive, and America Is Behind the Power Curve in Countering It.
30. Washington Post: As Russia reasserts itself, U.S. intelligence agencies focus anew on the Kremlin.
31. BBC Monitoring: Russian TV show ponders post-election relations with USA.
32. www.rt.com: US presidential campaign generating ‘ridiculous & dangerous’ charges against Vladimir Putin.
33. Consortiumnews.com: Robert Parry, The Existential Madness of Putin-Bashing. Official Washington loves its Putin-bashing but demonizing the Russian leader stops a rational debate about U.S.-Russia relations and pushes the two nuclear powers toward an existential brink.
34. MIT News: From Russia to MIT. A new collaboration is bringing Russian culture to the Institute.

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