RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2017-85 :: Wednesday, 3 May 2017

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2017-#85
Wednesday, 3 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. Russia Beyond the Headlines:Why half of Russians are ready to back Putin for a 4th term.According to a Levada Center survey,48 percent of Russians are ready to vote for Vladimir Putin at the next presidential elections.Sociologists say that Putin continues dominating the domestic political arena.The absence of a strong opposition and the citizens’ memories of his past successes are the main reasons.The only problem for the government in the 2018 elections,if Putin runs, will be a low turnout.
2. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, ALEXEI TWO PERCENT. With comments. (re Alexei Navalny)
3. Facebook: Vladimir Golstein, Tarkovsky Test for dissident movements.
4. Paul Goble: Russians Remain Too Atomized and Lacking in Empathy to Make a Revolution, Kirillova Says.
5. www.rt.com: United Russia MP denounces dye attacks on opposition as criminal violence.
6. TASS: Navalny’s defense team files appeal to overturn embezzlement verdict.
7. Interfax: Russian police act with far more restraint than some of their European counterparts – Putin.
8. Gazeta.ru editorial: Dangerous work. Why political life is returning to the regions.
9. The Guardian (UK): Viv Groskop, Personal distance: why Russian life has no room for privacy. A survey into how different countries view ideal personal space suggests Russians like to keep things close. Could language and communal living have something to do with it?
10. Pavel Koshkin: Why the revival of the commodity market is not good for the Kremlin.
11. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Why young Russian mothers are launching their own businesses. Employers in Russia do not want to hire young mothers. In response, more women are starting their own businesses.
12. TASS: Russia’s GDP growth may reach 2.7% in 2018 – former finance minister. (Alexei Kudrin)
13. Deutsche Welle: Western sanctions and languid Russian economy. Stringent international sanctions imposed on Russia for its role in the Ukraine conflict have sucked the momentum out of the Russian economy over the past couple of years. The nation’s growth prospects remain lethargic.
14. Bloomberg: Putin Meets Erdogan as Russia Pursues Syria Diplomacy Blitz.
15. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Merkel tests limits of Putin’s pragmatism and patience. The two rounds talks between Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Sochi could be assessed as a modest ‘warming up’ of cooled relations, if it were not for the new Berlin wall the EU keeps erecting around Russia.
16. http://theduran.com: Alexander Mercouris, Putin and Merkel: Europe’s titans meet in Moscow. The key point about the summit meeting in Moscow between Russian President Putin and German Chancellor Merkel is that it signals Merkel’s acceptance that Putin’s hold on power is secure.
17. Forbes.com: Kenneth Rapoza, Will Merkel’s Meeting With Putin Signal An End To Russia Sanctions?
18. www.rt.com: Russia never interferes in others’ internal politics, yet feels such attempts from outside – Putin.
19. Kremlin.ru: Press statements and answers to media questions following meeting with Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel.
20. Moscow Times: Vladimir Frolov, Russia won’t agree to the West’s conditions for reconciliation – at least not in an election year.
21. Financial Times: Arab youth turns to Russia as US influence wanes. Annual survey shows big jump in those who view Moscow as most trusted ally.
22. World Socialist Web Site: Vladimir Volkov, The Soviet poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko (1932-2017) and the fate of the ’60s generation.
23. Consortiumnews.com: Robert Parry, NYT Cheers the Rise of Censorship Algorithms. The New York Times is cheering on the Orwellian future for Western “democracy” in which algorithms quickly hunt down and eliminate information that the Times and other mainstream outlets don’t like.
24. www.breitbart.com: ‘Shattered’ Revelation: Clinton Campaign Hatched Russian Hacking Narrative 24 Hours After Hillary’s Loss.
25. Atlantic Council: Mikheil Saakashvili: “By my own standards, I failed on every account in Odesa.”
26. Interfax: Conflict in Ukraine cannot be settled without direct talks between parties to it – Putin.
27. www.rt.com: ‘Three years later, EU & Kiev still lack will to investigate Maidan tragedy’
28. http://politicalcritique.org: Nowadays, Everyone Is a Potential Target in Ukraine. We spoke to journalist Aliona Liasheva about the recent attacks and the situation of left-wing activists in Ukraine.

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