RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2016-89 :: Wednesday, 18 May 2016

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2016-#89
Wednesday, 19 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
The contents do not necessarily represent the views of IERES or the George Washington University.
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RUSSIA

1. The Guardian: West and Russia on course for war, says ex-Nato deputy commander. Former British general predicts Russia will seize territory in eastern Ukraine and invade Baltic states, sparking war.
2. Moscow Times: Russian Charities to Be Exempt From ‘Foreign Agent’ Label.
3. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, DE-BUREAUCRATIZATION. (re Brian Whitmore)
4. Sharon Rivera: 2016 Hamilton College Levitt Poll, “The Russian Elite 2016: Perspectives on Foreign and Domestic Policy.”
5. Bloomberg: Russia Retools After Crash as Post-Oil Economy Takes Shape.
6. BBC Monitoring: Russian TV talk show guests differ on US ABM “threat”
7. Russia Direct: Marina Obrazkova, In Russia, some media companies are more equal than others. After Russian media company RBC underwent an editorial reshuffle last week, media insiders are once again raising the issue of the freedom of the press in Russia.
8. Vedomosti: Influential daily decries “purge of quality independent media” in Russia.
9. Moscow Times: Cossacks Chief Denies Attack on Navalny Group at Anapa Airport.
10. www.rt.com: Russian opposition figure Navalny hit, fellow activist injured in mass brawl with ‘Cossacks’ (VIDEO)
11. US-Russia Business Council: Putin Tasks Kudrin With Structural Reform Effort.
12. Interfax: Weekly inflation in Russia still 0.1%, annual steady – Rosstat.
13. http://theduran.com: Alexander Mercouris, Russia, the Western Media, and the Credit Crunch that Wasn’t. Western media’s reporting of a Russian credit crunch – which was never threatened – is a case study of how it gets the Russian economy repeatedly wrong.
14. Russia Insider/Komsomolskaya Pravda: The Average Russian Family Is Comfortable With 1,000 USD a Month. But they’d like $3,000 per month to be totally happy.
15. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Russia eyes $12.6 billion windfall from privatization of state companies. In 2016 the government intends to sell a part of the shares in its large raw commodity companies. The buyers can be foreign investors, but on certain conditions. It has already been announced that shares in Russia’s largest diamond mining company, Alrosa, will be sold through the Moscow Stock Exchange.
16. Moscow Times: Russia’s Single-Industry Towns to Lose 16,000 Jobs in 2016.
17. Sputnik: Trump Card: Why the Candidate May End Fed’s Global Economic Dictatorship. (re Russian economist Mikhail Khazin)
18. Interfax: Russian Olympic Committee to cooperate with WADA over Sochi doping.
19. New York Times editorial: Shamelessly ‘Ashamed’ in Moscow.
20. New York Times: Justice Department Opens Investigation Into Russian Doping Scandal.
21. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Should the world worry about Russia’s reformed military? It took years of reforms and two defense ministers for Russia to transform its bulky army into a modern capable force. Today, many observers struggle to grasp the scale of the transformations that have taken place, while others voice concern that they signal the likelihood that Russia is now more likely than ever to resolve disputes by force.
22. The Hamilton Spectator (Canada): Gwynne Dyer, The Russians were right about Syria. They foresaw a compromise with Assad, but now it looks like the only hope.
23. www.rt.com: ‘No new military base in Palmyra’ – Russian Defense Ministry refutes AP report.
24. War on the Rocks: Robert Murray, DO NOT OVERSELL THE RUSSIAN THREAT IN THE ARCTIC.
25. Sputnik: US Spies at Russia’s Northern Doorstep: Intelligence Tightens Around Russia.
26. Reuters: Josh Cohen, Current U.S.-Russia tensions are dangerous — but not ‘Cold War Two’
27. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Russia and the U.S. make progress in the fight against cancer. Scientists from the U.S. and Russia identified several recurrent mutations that are likely to be recognized by the immune system and that could be strong candidates for cancer vaccines.
28. Consortiumnews.com: Joe Lauria, If Russia Had ‘Freed’ Canada.

UKRAINE

29. Bloomberg: Ukraine Bailout Set to Be Unlocked in June.
30. TASS: US has no plans to recognize Donbass elections outside Minsk framework.
31. Voice of America: Ukraine Talks Seek Progress, But Donbas Elections Remain a Hurdle.
32. https://dninews.com: DPR Leader Zakharchenko: Only Donetsk region is not enough, we need the whole Ukraine.
33. Interfax: Yanukovych is ready to give evidence to Ukrainian investigator on “Maidan case” – lawyer for Yanukovych.
34. Facebook: Ivan Katchanovski, Maidan Trial.
35. The Observer (New York): Derek Monroe, The U.S. Is ‘Missing’ Millions in Ukraine. Marie Antoinette would be proud-the revolution which cost her head is back, and inflicted on ordinary people.
36. Sputnik: National Security’: Poroshenko Urges Finalizing Decommunization in Ukraine.
37. Al Jazeera: Christopher Allen, Who owns Ukraine’s media? There is a war being waged in Ukraine and it is playing out on television sets and in the minds of viewers.
38. https://newcoldwar.org: Feature interview with pianist Valentina Lisitsa in Donetsk: ‘They have threatened me many times’
39. Reuters: Putin says Crimea now free of reliance on Kiev for its power.
40. Sputnik: Ukrainian Economy: From European Mega Power to Third World Backwater.
41. Kyiv Post: Geoffrey R. Pyatt: The whole system in Ukraine ‘is in need of root and branch reform’
42. Euromaidanpress.com: Kremlin reads the West wrong but the West is beginning to read Russia right, Shevtsova says.