RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2016-206 :: Friday, 4 November 2016

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2016-#206
Friday, 4 November 2016
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1. Russian Realism.
2. Washington Post: Michael Hayden, Former CIA chief: Trump is Russia’s useful fool. And that’s the nicest way of characterizing the GOP presidential nominee’s views toward Vladimir Putin.
3. Washington Post: David Ignatius, Russia may be wounded, but it can still bite. The country is in decline, but Vladimir Putin is willing to take bold risks.
4. Washington Post: U.S. officials warn of Russian mischief in election and beyond.
5. Washington Post: From ‘reset’ to ‘pause’: The real story behind Hillary Clinton’s feud with Vladimir Putin.
6. Moscow Times: Michele Berdy, A Russian Holiday By Any Other Name.
7. TASS: Putin calls to counter challenges, rely on spiritual precepts of forefathers.
8. Rethinking Russia: November 4: What You Should Know About National Unity Day.
9. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Why more than half of Russians miss the Soviet Union. According to a number of surveys and polls, more than 50 percent of Russians are nostalgic for the Soviet era – even those who never lived in it. Sociologists say the attitudes are a reflection of today’s economic challenges and the mythologization of the USSR in pop culture.
10. Kremlin.ru: Meeting with Chairman of the Council for Civil Society and Human Rights Mikhail Fedotov.
11. Moskovsky Komsomolets: Putin is “prepared for strategic changes” – analyst. (Nikolai Zlobin)
12. www.rt.com: Supreme Court urges caution over prosecutions for social network reposts.
13. RFE/RL: Russian Rights Official Says Amnesty To Return To Moscow Office.
14. Moscow Times: Russia Supreme Court Proposes Ban on Pre-Trial Detention for Economic Crimes.
15. Moscow Times: Leaders Stand Up to Censorship. An impassioned speech on censorship in the arts attracted unexpected support among Russia’s cultural elite, and forced the Kremlin to rethink
16. TASS: Russian health official repudiates reports of HIV epidemic declared in Yekaterinburg.
17. Bear Market Brief: EBRD: Russia has Seen Worst of Recession.
18. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Can Russia repopulate its Far East with the offer of free land? The government plans to tempt Russians with a complimentary hectare in one of the country’s most remote regions – but the initiative faces a number of problems that need to be solved if it is to become a success.
19. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, Despite military successes, Russia’s main goal in Syria remains elusive. While Russian and Syrian forces are set for a major offensive on Aleppo after the end of today’s cease-fire, the potential military success is overshadowed by the Kremlin’s inability to return to superpower-style dealing with the US.
20. http://theduran.com: Alexander Mercouris, SYRIA: Al-Qaeda launches ‘do or die’ attempt to break siege of eastern Aleppo. As time runs out on Vladimir Putin’s offer for Jihadi fighters to quit eastern Aleppo peacefully, and as the Russian fleet approaches the Syrian coast, Al-Qaeda again launches despite heavy losses assault to break siege of eastern Aleppo.
21. Russia Direct: Pavel Koshkin, Will Central Asia become a field of rivalry or cooperation? With Chinese Premier Li Keqiang planning a series of visits to Central Asian countries in early November, Russian and foreign experts are mulling over the role the region will play in global stability in the future.
22. Vedomosti: Nikolai Epple, Playing at thaw once again. What’s behind change of rhetoric in Kremlin?
23. Rethinking Russia: Nikolay Pakhomov, Anti-Russian Consolidation of American Establishment.
24. www.opendemocracy.net: Diana Bruk, Why do Russian-Americans hate Hillary Clinton? Caught between bickering governments, many Russian-Americans just want mommy and daddy to stop fighting. But the decision to back Trump over Clinton is more than an attempt to appease Putin.
25. TASS: Russian PM says impossible to exert impact on elections in US.
26. The Hill: Margarita Simonyan, U.S. media’s false narrative of Russian election influence.
27. http://thesaker.is: The Saker, The Russian media just loves the campaign to demonize Putin.
28. The Economist: Putinism’s icons. A tale of two Vladimirs. In Russia, statues are politics by other means.
29. Paul Goble: Russians Won’t Overthrow Putin but May Cease to Pay Attention to Him, Commentators Say.
30. The Economist: The battle for Russia’s history. Remember, remember. Memorial was founded to commemorate victims of state repression. Now the human-rights group may fall victim itself
31. Carnegie Corporation: Russia in Focus Podcast Series.