RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2016-71 :: Friday, 15 April 2016

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2016-#71
Friday, 15 April 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
The contents do not necessarily represent the views of IERES or the George Washington University.
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RUSSIA

1. Politico.com: Bryan Bender, The Secret U.S. Army Study That Targets Moscow. A quarter century after the Cold War, the Pentagon is worried about Russia’s military prowess again.
2. TASS: Putin confirms importance of waste recycling problem.
3. Kremlin.ru: Direct Line with Vladimir Putin (transcript concluded)
4. www.rt.com: Top quotes from Putin’s 2016 Q&A.
5. www.rt.com: Happy personal life, porridge for breakfast & occasional swearing: Putin opens up during Q&A.
6. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, A kinder, gentler Putin? President speaks softly on Russian call-in show. Vladimir Putin took questions from reporters and the public, on topics ranging from his love life to foreign policy. But the overarching theme seemed to be an effort to sympathize with and reassure Russians suffering from the recession.
7. www.rt.com: Neil Clark, Putin’s Q&A: Around the world in 80 questions.
8. AP: Problems Fixed All Over Russia After Appeals on Putin’s Show.
9. RFE/RL: Brian Whitmore, The Daily Vertical: What I Learned On Russian Television.
10. Reuters: John Lloyd, When will Russia break?
11. Moscow Times: Former Finance Minister in Line for Top Position at Putin’s Think Tank. (Alexei Kudrin)
12. Interfax: Government incomes: Abyzov pulls into first place in 2015.
13. https://gordonhahn.com: Gordon Hahn, Putin’s Golden Ticket: The New National Guard.
14. Rossiyskaya Gazeta: Russian paper looks at new National Guard’s role.
15. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Ildar Dadin: The first Russian imprisoned for attending a public rally. Only one person has been jailed so far under 2014 amendments to the law on violations of the rules of holding public meetings – activist Ildar Dadin. What exactly was Dadin sentenced for and is he really a criminal, or just a “prisoner of conscience”?
16. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, BOOK REVIEW: PUTIN COUNTRY (in JRL #70, further comments here)
17. TASS: Putin says Russian reserve funds will last another 4 years.
18. TASS: Russian economy’s trend is proper but results are not outstanding – IMF Managing Director.
19. Intellinews.com: Russia has largest volume of new housing contracts since Communist times in 2015.
20. The Economist: Putin’s right-hand woman. The Russian economy is in a bad way, but Elvira Nabiullina has saved it from worse.
21. www.rt.com: Russia doesn’t expect oil price boost after Doha meeting – Finance Minister.
22. Russia Direct: Viktor Katona, What you need to know about Rosneft. Over the past 25 years, Rosneft – now Russia’s largest company by stock market capitalization – has expanded aggressively, thanks primarily to the savvy political maneuvering of the company’s executive leadership.
23. Bloomberg: Ford Mulls New Russia Investment as Quarterly Sales Jump 93%.
24. CNBC.com: Templeton’s Mark Mobius: Russian stock market is bargain of the century.
25. Carnegie Moscow Center: Andrey Movchan, Economic Triage: How Russia Could Cope With the Crisis.
26. www.rt.com: ‘Not aimed at Russia’: State Dept. contradicts Pentagon on US missile defense expansion goals.
27. The National Interest: Maxim Starchak, U.S.-Russian Nuclear Diplomacy is Deadlocked. Moscow has its reasons for stepping away from the table.
28. TASS: USS Donald Cook was about 70 km from Russian Navy base when warplanes passed it.
29. Russia Beyond the Headlines/Gazeta.ru: U.S.-Russia Baltic Sea encounter: Americans ‘recognize only force.’ Former Russian pilots speak about why the “buzzing” of the American destroyer U.S.S. Donald Cook by Russian fighter jets in the Baltic Sea on April 12 was not dangerous and explain the main difficulties in maneuvering over sea.
30. Russia Direct: Dmitry Polikanov, Would the Kremlin prefer Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump? U.S. presidential frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are likely to pursue completely different approaches toward Russia if elected president. For now, the Kremlin is taking a pragmatic look at both candidates.
31. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Panama Papers scandal: Russian state TV explains away Roldugin’s billions. In the wake of the Panama Papers offshore scandal, Russian officials and cultural figures have rushed to offer their explanations of the revelations about the financial affairs of cellist and Putin Sergei Roldugin, the man at the heart of the affair.
32. The Federalist: Christopher Caldwell, Why Vladimir Putin’s People Love Him. President Vladimir Putin curbed exploitative leaders, fought Communism, and protects his country’s interests above all others.

UKRAINE

33. Reuters: Putin Believes There Will Be No Military Action in East Ukraine.
34. TASS: Kiev to unveil strategy for Donbass reintegration in coming days – FM.
35. Russia Direct: James Carden, The cost of war in Eastern Ukraine, two years later. Until there is progress in implementing the Minsk agreements and some form of economic aid, the situation in Eastern Ukraine will continue to deteriorate – or perhaps even collapse entirely.
36. The National Interest: Matthew Rojansky, Ukraine Just Got a New PM. What It Needs Is Reform. A fresh face isn’t enough to fix corruption.
37. Kyiv Post editorial: Repression lives.
38. Kyiv Post editorial: So does regression.
39. The Nation: Stephen Cohen, President Poroshenko’s Problems and the Crisis of the US ‘Ukrainian Project.’ Poroshenko’s succession of political setbacks reflects his regime’s unsavory history.
40. Bloomberg: Leonid Bershidsky, In Ukraine, Expats and Romantics Are Out.
41. www.rt.com: US-born Ukrainian finance minister may buy country’s largest telecom company – reports.
42. UNIAN (Kyiv): Former Finance Minister gives some advice to new Ukraine Prime Minister. (Natalie Jaresko)
43. http://euromaidanpress.com: Five facts about Ukraine’s new prime minister Volodymyr Groysman.
44. New York Times editorial: The Next Chapter for Ukraine.

 

Map of Commonwealth of Independent States, European Portion

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

 

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