RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2017-165 :: Tuesday, 29 August 2017

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2017-#165
Tuesday, 29 August 2017

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1. www.rt.com: Sharapova stuns world no. 2 Halep in emotional Grand Slam return at US Open.
2. TASS: US B61-12 nukes may lower threshold of using nuclear weapons, diplomat says.
3. TASS: Nezavisimaya Gazeta: US threatens Russia with total isolation.
4. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Making Russia into a ‘Disneyland for adults.’ While the world criticizes Russia, extends sanctions and tallies up the number of times Vladimir Putin has appeared shirtless, the country continues to experiment with its image. Some publicists have gone away, but they’ve left space behind for provocateurs.
5. Moscow Times: Russian Language on the Decline Thanks to English, Says Official.
6. Carnegie Moscow Center: Denis Volkov, Russian Society Wants Change-But of What Nature?
7. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Can you afford to live in Moscow? Moscow is not the most expensive city in the world, but living here might be a challenge for new expats. Check out the average prices for housing, transport and entertainment to see if your wallet can bear it.
8. Asia Times: Russia to spend $2.5 bln on Trans-Siberian, Baikal-Amur railroads. Investment is first stage in expanding railroad capacity to increase exports from Far East Russia.
9. www.rt.com: Trans-Siberian railway extension to Austria to cost $6.5bn.
10. Asia Times: Inga Velanskaya, Move Moscow to Far East Russia? Russian demographer Yury Krupnov has proposed transferring the capital to an area nearer to China, Japan and South Korea, which he calls the center of the world’s geo-economic map.
11. Interfax: Russian GDP could grow more than 2% in Aug, 2017 – Oreshkin.
12. AP: Russian economy boss: sanctions no longer bite.
13. Reuters: Despite New U.S. Sanctions, Russian Oil Traders Say It’s Business as Usual.
14. Interfax: Russia destroys 17,600 tonnes of embargo-busting produce since August 2015 – watchdog.
15. Sputnik: Betting on Red: How Russia Is Turning Its Back on the US Dollar.
16. RFE/RL: Brian Whitmore, Life After Putin?
17. Cornell Daily Sun: Artur Gorokh, On Free Press in Russia.
18. TASS: Russia, US plan to develop cooperation between archives.
19. TASS: Russia invites foreign military top brass and journalists to West-2017 drills.
20. www.rt.com: Defense Ministry rejects claims of war games threat to western neighbors.
21. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Comment by the Information and Press Department on compliance with transparency measures during preparation for West 2017 drills.
22. Consortiumnews.com: Jonathan Marshall, Inflating the Russian Threat. The U.S. mainstream media, led by The New York Times, has behaved as classic propagandists, hyping a Russian military “threat” and promoting a new Cold War hysteria.
23. Valdai Discussion Club: Ivan Timofeev, SANCTIONS AND SECURITY: STABILIZING RUSSIA-US DETERRENCE.
24. Russian International Affairs Council: The Western Guide to Understanding the Russian Mind. An exclusive interview with Count Nikolai Tolstoy, the head of the senior branch of the Tolstoy family. (excerpt)
25. TASS: Trump confident that US will eventually get along with Russia.
26. Bloomberg: Leonid Bershidsky, Trump’s Business Record in Russia Is Humiliating. He never had what it takes to negotiate with Moscow.
27. Facebook: Fred Weir, “Russia’s propaganda machine amplifies alt-right.”
28. Russia Insider: Peter Korzun, Russia, China to Join Together in Space Exploration Effort. The first cooperation agreement spanning five years which allows for more ambitious missions to be planned.
29. Valdai Discussion Club; Timofei Bordachev, A REGIME WITH NO HEGEMON? LESSONS FROM THE WEST AND COOPERATION IN EURASIA.
30. Business Insider: The 10 worst cities to live in the world in 2017. (excerpt)
31. Politico.com: Lily Hyde, Ukraine’s TB problem is ticking time bomb for Europe. Controlling the airborne disease takes on additional urgency this year as the country seeks to integrate into EU with a new visa-free regime.
32. Kyiv Post editorial: Marking time.
33. The National Interest: Brian Milakovsky, The Real Danger of Sending U.S. Arms to Ukraine. Putin could regard U.S. arms transfers as a symbolic test of who dictates conditions in the Donbass warzone.
34. The National Interest: Jordan Michael Smith, Who Won the Cold War? A straight line can be drawn from the idea that Ronald Reagan’s military buildup and assertive rhetoric ended the Cold War to the fantasy that the United States could rebuild the Middle East.

Map of Commonwealth of Independent States, European Portion

 

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

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Eurasia Map

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