RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2017-216 :: Tuesday, 14 November 2017

St. Basil's Domes

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-#216
Tuesday, 14 November 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 contributions from readers.

Support JRL: russialist.org/funding.phpDonate Online: direct link

1. The National Interest: Nikolas Gvosdev, Trump and Putin: What Comes Next? Will a future, formal Trump-Putin summit be a game changer?
2. Meduza: When Russians stopped believing in the Western media. Journalist Oleg Kashin says American journalism has lost his compatriots’ faith. (op-ed)
https://amp.meduza.io/en/feature/2017/11/13/the-day-russians-stopped-believing-the-western-media
3. www.rt.com: Someone in Russia sent some tweets, Theresa May warns the entire Western world may crumble.
4. Paul Goble: Looming Demographic Collapse Now ‘Main Threat to Russian National Security,’ Health Expert Says.
5. Reuters: Exclusive: Kremlin tells companies to deliver good news.
6. Fort Russ: Putin to run in 2018 Election independent of “United Russia” – reports.
7. Vedomosti: Daily views blueprints for state administration reform in Putin new term.
8. Vedomosti: Pundits view announcement to set up Putin Team movement.
9. Intellinews.com: GDP growth in Russia disappointingly slows.
10. Bloomberg: Leonid Bershidsky, Russia’s Economy Is Growing With Borrowed Money. Sustaining even this small level of growth without structural change will be a challenge.
11. TASS: Expert predicts Russian unemployment to take on ‘female face’ in ten years.
12. Moscow Times: Elizaveta Osetinskaya, Why Russian Oligarchs Will Be First to Leave Their Offshore Paradise . The Paradise Papers could help Putin’s efforts to return capital onshore.
13. Kremlin.ru: Meeting with Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky.
14. Moscow Times: Oscar Contender Andrei Zvyagintsev Feted in Hollywood.
15. TASS: Premier believes US sanctions will not harm Russia. (Medvedev)
16. Rethinking Russia: Evgeniya Drozhashchikh, New Turns of the Sanctions Spiral.
17. Sputnik: Dmitry Babich, Russian Business Abroad: Which is the Correct Response to Discrimination?
18. The National Interest: Paul Pillar, Emulate Russian Realism.
19. Sputnik: New Survey Sheds Light on Europeans’ Strong Desire for Closer Ties with Russia.
20. TASS: Russia, US discuss de-escalation zone in Syria’s southwest – Lavrov.
21. Valdai Discussion Club: Andrey Kortunov, FROM ASTANA TO GENEVA WITH A STOP IN SOCHI?
22. Washington Post editorial: A new deal with Russia sounds too good to be true. It probably is. The accord about Syria puts too much trust in Putin.
23. ORIGINS: Pietro A. Shakarian, Top Ten Origins: Russia’s Relations with the Kurds.
24. Valdai Discussion Club: Timofei Bordachev, WHAT WENT WRONG WITH EURASIAN INTEGRATION AND HOW TO FIX IT.
25. Interfax: Russian Justice Ministry to recognize media outlets as foreign agents – Tolstoy.
26. Interfax: Foreign media outlets refusing to comply with foreign agent law to lose opportunity to work in Russia – Tolstoy.
27. www.rt.com: Forcing RT to register as ‘foreign agent’ is a ‘horrendous blow to press freedom’
28. www.rt.com: Duma may order foreign media outlets to register as foreign agents to work in Russia.
29. Wall Street Journal: Russia-Backed Network RT Denies Kremlin Influence, Demurs on Ownership. Filings say U.S. production unit isn’t engaging in political activities or attempts to influence U.S. policy.
30. Washington Post: Babak Bahador, Those Russian social media ads weren’t as powerful as you think.
31. Forbes.com: Shellie Karabell, Leadership In Russia: Hacking, Trust And Where Do We Go From Here?
32. Atlantic Council: ANDERS ÅSLUND, DANIEL FRIED, ANDREI ILLARIONOV, AND ANDREI PIONTKOVSKY, How to Identify the Kremlin Ruling Elite and its Agents. Criteria for the US Administration’s “Kremlin Report”
33. New York Times: CINDY OTIS, NED PRICE and JOHN SIPHER, Don’t Muzzle Former C.I.A. Officers.
34. Salon.com: Alyona Minkovski, Worshipping the intelligence community is not “resistance.” Trump’s comments in Asia are an abomination, but let’s not give the CIA and NSA a pass on their actual record.
35. Carnegie Moscow Center: Sergei Markedonos, Russia and the West’s South Caucasus Dilemma. Russia and the West have a choice in the South Caucasus. They can either treat the situation in Abkhazia and South Ossetia as being isolated from other conflicts-such as those in the Donbas and Transdniestria-or they can use it as an additional argument in their overall confrontation.
36. TASS: Russia, US thoroughly discuss possibility of deploying UN mission to Ukraine.
37. RFE/RL: U.S., Russia Envoys Differ On Peace And Peacekeepers In Eastern Ukraine.
38. Facebook: Ivan Katchanovski, Maidan shootings.
39. Russia Insider: Chris Kanthan, Stop Saying, “Putin Invaded Ukraine and Annexed Crimea.” More than 80 percent of Crimeans voted to declare independence and petition Moscow to join Russia.
40. The National Interest: Doug Bandow, Here Is How America Can Bring Peace to Ukraine.

Map of Commonwealth of Independent States, European Portion

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

Map of CIS Central Asia and Environs

Eurasia Map

Comment