RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2017-30 :: Thursday, 9 February 2017
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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2017-#30
Thursday, 9 February 2017
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1. Russia Beyond the Headlines/Gazeta.ru: Resilient Russians enjoy life in spite of everything. Despite economic hardship, more than half of Russians consider themselves happy, but levels are still lower than the world average.
2. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, With court ruling, Kremlin moves to block political biggest threat: Navalny. The ruling reinstating a guilty verdict for anticorruption blogger Alexei Navalny effectively rules him out of next year’s presidential race. But it may help him remain a viable Kremlin opponent.
3. http://theduran.com: Alexander Mercouris, The Navalny case and Russia’s challenge to the European Court of Human Rights. By reconvicting the Russian liberal activist Alexey Navalny in a case where the European Court of Human Rights had set aside his previous conviction, the Russian authorities are issuing a challenge to the European Court of Human Rights.
5. www.rt.com: Opposition figure Kara-Murza out of coma, father denies allegations of poisoning.
6. Rethinking Russia: Open Primaries as an Instrument to Streamline Russia’s Political System.
7. www.rt.com: Duma committee wants Russian lawmakers to withdraw ‘obsolete’ bills.
8. Vedomosti: Daily views “mystery” of Russian governors’ reshuffle.
9. Moscow Times: How Does Conflict of Interest Translate Into Russian? It Doesn’t.
10. TASS: Bank of Russia is conservative in its forecasts due to risks of new ‘black swans’
11. Intellinews.com: Russia exempts 64 “elite” companies from procurement rules.
12. Snob (Russia): Alexei Gaskarov, A 25,000 Ruble Minimum Monthly Wage Is a Good Idea.
13. Sputnik: Snowden Cautions Russia Against Enacting New ‘Big Brother’ Bill on Terrorism.
14. The National Interest: Daniel McCarthy, The Media’s Self-Defeating Outrage over Trump and Russia. A comparison is not the same thing as an equivalence.
15. Paul Goble: Does Putin have a Trump Problem with the Media? Russians Say It is Failing to Report or Understand His Words.
16. Marketwatch.com: Trump may ignite a surge of Russians visiting the U.S.
17. Interfax: Lifting of some restrictions from FSB confirms Trump’s intention to normalize relations with Russia – former FSB Director Kovalyov.
18. Moscow Times: Russia Set to Send ‘Bull Terrier’ Ambassador to Washington.Russia appears to be falling back on Soviet-era policy of disarmament as the focal point for relations with the U.S.
19. www.foreignpolicy.com: Moscow Readies a New, Hard-Line Ambassador for Washington.
20. Fort Russ: Ruslan Ostashko, The Art of the Wedge: Can Trump buy Russia’s Neutrality?
21. Carnegie Moscow Center: BALÁZS JARÁBIK, Escalation in the Donbas: Ukraine Fights for the Status Quo.
22. Russia Direct: Daniel Kozin, Moscow and Kiev: Testing the US in Ukraine. Whatever the cause for the recent flare-up in Eastern Ukraine, the signs indicate that the U.S. position will be instrumental in any future resolution of the conflict, one way or the other.
23. The Nation: Stephen Cohen, Ukraine Revisited. From the beginning of the crisis more than three years ago, false (or half-true) narratives have dominated US media accounts and policymaking.
24. Intellinews.com: Ukraine Country Report January, 2017. (summary)
25. Valdai Discussion Club: Andrey Sushentsov, GEORGIA’S SECURITY AND THE GEOPOLITICAL FRONTIER IN EURASIA.
26. The Guardian (UK): Shaun Walker, Russian hacking group’s ‘last member at liberty’ comes out of the shadows. ‘Alexander’ tells how Shaltai-Boltai, or Humpty Dumpty, terrorised Russian officials for three years, combining hacking, leaking and extortion.
27. Vedomosti: Russian experts dismiss criticism of political TV – paper.
28. Russia Insider: Mark Nicolas, If RT Is Just the Kremlin’s Mouthpiece Explain This Video — Putin Pays American Lady to Savage Him. If this is the Kremlin’s propaganda they’re masochists.
29. www.rt.com: US backed Russian-language channel launched in Prague to spread ‘alternative’ views.
30. Awful Avalanche: Ballet Review: Swan Lake Part III.
31. The Economist editorial: Russia and America. Donald Trump seeks a grand bargain with Vladimir Putin. It is a terrible idea.
32. Andrew Weiss (Carnegie Endowment): Findings of Bipartisan Task Force on U.S. Policy Toward Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia.
