RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2017-13 :: Monday, 16 January 2017

To inquire about a subscription to the full Johnson’s Russia List e-mail newsletter, e-mail David Johnson at davidjohnson@starpower.net

[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter]

Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2017-#13
Monday, 16 January 2017
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.
JRL homepage: russialist.org – JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist – JRL on Twitter: @JohnsonRussiaLi
Support for JRL is provided in part by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York to the George Washington University and by voluntary contributionswhinin from readers.
Support JRL: russialist.org/funding.php – Donate Online: direct link

1. NBCNews.com: Watch Full Interview With Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
2. The National Interest: Anatol Lieven, Is America Becoming a Third World Country? Conspiracy theories about Russia suggest that the awful prospect for the USA is of a global superpower with the domestic politics of the Philippines or Argentina.
3. Consortiumnews.com: Michael Brenner, America’s Self-Destructive Obsessions.The U.S. population is led from one hysteria to the next, now transitioning from the Global War on Terror to the New Cold War with Russia, a fearful madness that is infecting the collective psyche.
4. The Independent (UK): Mary Dejevsky, The unexpected thing you can learn from the Donald Trump leaks. Reliability, even reliable hostility, is something Russian leaders tend to prefer. There’s reason to believe they may have preferred Hillary Clinton in the White House.
5. Valdai Discussion Club: Oleg Demidov, WHY TRUMP BELIEVES THE US INTEL REPORT ON ‘RUSSIAN HACKING’
6. PBS Newshour: Once a superpower, how strong is Russia now?
7. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, THE RUSSIAN SOUL AND THE TOXIC WEST.
8. Awful Avalanche: Comic Book Teaches Migrants How To Behave In Moscow.
9. www.rt.com: Inflation, not Trump or Brexit biggest headache for Russian central bank.
10. Intellinews.com: Technological lag threatens Russia’s security, warns Kremlin adviser Kudrin.
11. BBC Monitoring: Russian press looks at Gaidar Forum.
12. Paul Goble: Another Fatal Flaw in Russia’s Company Towns: Business More Powerful than the State.
13. www.rt.com: Big surge in cyberattacks on Russia amid US hacking hysteria – Russian security chief.
14. Russia Direct: Pavel Koshkin, Can Russia realistically integrate with China and Europe at the same time? Russia has been trying to align its Eurasian integration project with China’s One Belt, One Road initiative. But has the Kremlin really assessed the political and economic consequences of such an alignment?
15. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Russia and China vow action against U.S. ABM plans on Korean Peninsula. On Jan. 12, Moscow and Beijing said they will take joint action against the U.S. missile defense system to be deployed on the Korean Peninsula. Experts say this ABM system may be easily transformed from defensive into offensive, and that Washington is basically pushing Russia and China towards cooperation in missile defense.
16. www.rt.com: ‘Utterly bizarre’: Trump team seeks good relations with Russia, but threatens China – John Pilger.
17. Russia Direct: Pavel Koshkin, A disintegrating Europe should not be in Russia’s best interests. Europe is facing difficult questions about what will happen after Britain leaves the EU. For Russia, too, the future of European integration remains a hot-button issue.
18. Valdai Discussion Club: Nana Gegelashvili, PROSPECTS FOR THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S POLICIES IN THE POST-SOVIET SPACE.
19. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Russian and American pilots fly dangerously close in Syrian skies. Unlike the Russian air force, American military planes operate in Syrian skies without official government permission. This recklessness has created a dangerous situation, and instead of conforming to the framework of international law, the U.S. complains that Russian pilots are flying too close to NATO planes, and do not react to radio communications. Russia exhorts the Pentagon to cooperate in o
20. Moskovsky Komsomolets: Russian commentator views Trump presser, Tillerson hearing. (Mikhail Rostovsky)
21. AP: Muted Reaction in Russia to Trump’s Talk of Nuclear Arms Cut.
22. www.rt.com: Russia won’t trade security for lifting of sanctions – senator.
23. Interfax: Russian business ombudsman to attend Trump inauguration ceremony. (Boris Titov)
24. Wall Street Journal: Donald Trump Demands Apology From Intelligence Agencies, Media Over Dossier. Trump tweets comments made by veteran journalist Bob Woodward during talk show Sunday.
25. Forbes.com: Paul Roderick Gregory, The Trump Dossier Is Fake — And Here Are The Reasons Why.
26. The National Interest: Curt Weldon, U.S. Russia Relations: How Did We Get Here? If only we had followed Reagan’s approach to Russia, just imagine how different the world would be today.
27. RFE/RL: Brian Whitmore, The Impossible Grand Bargain.