RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2017-83 :: Monday, 1 May 2017

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2017-#83
Monday, 1 May 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
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1. Stanford News: Stanford professor analyzes Russian Empire’s history in new book. Stanford history professor Nancy Kollmann discusses the establishment of the Russian Empire and how Russia’s past shapes its present.
2. The Wire (India): Sudha Rajagopalan, Looking Back With Fondness at the Soviet Everyday. Online recollections of better, gentler time are not unique to the post-socialist experience, but here they suggest the Soviet everyday is just as redeemable as Soviet heroism.
3. New York Times: Vivian Gornick, When Communism Inspired Americans.
4. Russia Beyond the Headlines: A letter to Putin: Open Russia’s Khodorkovsky inspires Moscow protest. On April 29, rallies were held in Moscow and several other Russian cities under the slogan “We are sick of him” protesting against President Vladimir Putin running for another term in office. Publicity for the campaign had been going on for a month, yet the number of protesters who showed up was little more than the number of journalists covering the event.
6. http://theduran.com: Alexander Mercouris, Protests today in Russia called by Khodorkovsky were a damp squib. Attempt to follow up earlier protests by calling more protests today merely highlighted lack of support for Russia’s ‘liberal opposition’.
7. Moscow Times: Young, Hipster and Red: Meet Russia’s New Generation of Communists. The crusty shell of Russia’s Communist Party may be associated with pensioners, but the movement is undergoing a face-lift.
8. Brisbane Times (Australia): Director Oliver Stone on his new film subject: Russian President Vladimir Putin.
9. Bloomberg: Does Putin Still Favor Sidekick Medvedev? After graft allegations sparked anti-Kremlin protests, the political future of Russia’s prime minister is cloudy at best.
10. www.bearmarketbrief.com: Fabrice Deprez, Dirty Jobs: Being a Governor in Russia is Proving Tough.
11. Gazeta.ru: Intentions behind Kremlin’s drive to fund local NGOs viewed.
12. Paul Goble: 10 Percent Decline in Number of Births in Russia over Last Year Frightens Economists.
13. www.rt.com: Russian foreign reserves reach highest level in 28 months.
14. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Informal economy in Russia grows to record levels. The informal economy is being helped by economic decline, on the one hand, and the growth of technologies and Internet-markets for work and part-time work, on the other.
15. www.opendemocracy.net: Behind the Russian mirror. For Russia’s media, social inequality has never been a hot topic. Meet the people behind a new media organisation trying put injustice on Russia’s political agenda.
16. Fortune.com: Richard Nephew and Colin Rowat, ExxonMobil Just Challenged Trump to Get Serious With Russia Policy.
17. www.rt.com: Russia slams US arms control report as ‘biased’, says it ignores Washington’s violations.
18. www.rt.com: Danielle Ryan, NATO mission creep on road to Russia reaches Montenegro.
19. War on the Rocks: STEPHEN BENEDICT DYSON AND MATTHEW J. PARENT, IN HIS OWN WORDS: VLADIMIR PUTIN’S FOREIGN POLICY ANALYZED.
20. Awful Avalanche: “Hidden Agendas” – Why Hollywood Be Hatin’ On the Russians – Part II.
21. Counterpunch.org: Pepe Escobar, Why There Will be no Russophobia Reset.
22. Common Dreams: Norman Solomon, How the Russia Spin Got So Much Torque.
23. http://theduran.com: Alexander Mercouris, Trump casts doubt on Russian DNC/Podesta hacking claims. Despite policy reversals President Trump continues to cast doubt on claims Russia hacked John Podesta and DNC and passed on their emails to Wikileaks.
24. Washington Post editorial: The Kremlin turns its electoral meddling to Western Europe. Russia’s next targets are moderates in France and Germany.
25. Fort Russ: Le Monde Diplomatique publishes factual on-site report on Donetsk. [cf: http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2017/05/RAMIREZ/57461]
26. Call for proposals: Aleksanteri Conference 2017 “Russia’s Choices for 2030”, University of Helsinki, Finland, 25-27 October 2017.

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