RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2016-81 :: Monday, 2 May 2016

Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2016-#81
Monday, 2 May 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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TODAY

1. www.rt.com: Bryan MacDonald, Does anything good ever happen in Russia?
2. NBCNews.com: Holy Fire: Millions of Russian Christians Embrace Ritual.
3. TASS: Putin congratulates Russians on Orthodox Easter.
4. Kremlin.ru: Meeting with members of Legislators’ Council.
5. Interfax: Putin views fair competition during parliamentary election as basis for building confidence in authorities among citizens.
6. Moscow Times: Russians, Their Guns And the State.
7. Russia Beyond the Headlines: A sheltered existence: Life in Russia’s closed cities. Dating back to the Soviet era, closed cities, where important strategic facilities were hidden and secured, continue to exist in today’s Russia. These cities cannot be entered without a special pass, but tourists occasionally manage to make it inside.
8. Moscow Times: Russian Consumer Confidence Falls to Historic Lows.
9. Intellinews.com: Ben Aris, Rate of Russian early repayment of credits doubles as incomes improve.
10. Interfax: Ex-minister joins Putin’s economic policy advisors. (Alexei Kudrin)
11. New York Times: Russia’s Economic Pain Reveals Limits to Putin’s Power.
12. Vedomosti: Yabloko party said set to benefit from opposition coalition split.
13. Moskovsky Komsomolets: Russian analyst criticises controversial article by investigations chief. (Mikhail Rostovsky on Bastrykin)
14. Interfax: Higher School of Economics shrugs off reports on its involvement in new Russian constitution drafting allegedly contracted by Khodorkovsky.
15. Yezhednevny Zhurnal: Russian expert comments on new National Guard’s anti-protest exercises. (Aleksandr Golts)
16. Russia Beyond the Headlines/Vzglyad: French parliament votes in favor of lifting EU sanctions against Russia. French lawmaker Thierry Mariani, author of the document calling on the French government to cancel the sanctions against Russia imposed by the EU, which was adopted by the National Assembly on April 28, explains the significance of this decision, which is unlikely to be adopted by the government.
17. Russia Direct: The world’s top military brass ponders how to respond to global terrorism. Military officials and experts from around the world came to Moscow this week to discuss how to deal with the most pressing global security challenges, including global terrorism.
18. Sputnik: US, Russia Agree on Creation of New Syria Ceasefire Monitoring Group.
19. Russia Direct: Why Russia needs stronger ties with Japan. Ahead of the upcoming visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Russia, top experts debate the importance of improved Russian-Japanese relations, especially in the context of Russia’s ongoing confrontation with the West.
20. www.rt.com: ‘Stay away from Russian borders or keep transponders on’: Russian MoD on US spy planes in Baltics.
21. Wall Street Journal: NATO’s Breedlove Calls for Sharper Focus on Russia Ahead of Departure. Gen. Philip Breedlove says U.S. needs more reconnaissance satellites amid Russian threat.
22. Wall Street Journal: NATO Allies Preparing to Put Four Battalions at Eastern Border With Russia. U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense says buildup is response to Moscow’s military activity near the Baltics.
23. Boston Globe: Stephen Kinzer, Handle the Bear with care.
24. UPI.com: Harlan Ullman, Needed — a new detente with Russia.
25. Foreign Policy in Focus: Conn Hallinan, NATO’s Dangerous Game: Bear-Baiting Russia. After the Cold War ended, many of the safeguards preventing war between Russia and the West have been allowed to lapse.
26. American Committee for East-West Accord: Peter Rieth, Are Poland’s Elites Itching for War with Russia?
27. Consortiumnews.com: Gilbert Doctorow, Russia Rises From the Mat.
28. Sputnik: Skeptics Waiting for Russia’s Collapse Will End Up Waiting Forever.
29. Time.com: Lev Golinkin, The Lasting Effects of the Post-Chernobyl May Parade.
30. Standpoint (UK): Ben Judah, How Russia Is Ruled By The Putin Doctrine. Eurasian ideology, with its appeal to a glorious but bogus past, is assiduously promoted by the Kremlin to shore up the regime.
31. Intellinews.com: Ukraine: war, peace and the return of the king. A deal over Donbas elections and self-rule is still some way off, but if one can be reached, oligarch Rinat Akhmetov could be the most suitable candidate for the role of a new governor of the Donetsk region.
32. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s address at the Fifth Moscow Conference on International Security, Moscow, April 27, 2016.
33. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, Moscow, April 28, 2016.