RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2018-108 :: Thursday, 14 June 2018

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2018-#108 :: Thursday, 14 June 2018
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.
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1. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, As World Cup kicks off, Russia aims to prove a world-class host again. The world’s most popular single sporting event starts Thursday, but it’s more than just a game for Russia. It’s an opportunity to bolster infrastructure, stir national pride, and spotlight Russian modernity.
2. Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC): World Cup dream is ‘sportswashing’ Russia’s appalling record. 
3. TASS: Major Kremlin administration officials retain positions as Putin announces reshuffle.
4. Bear Market Brief: No major changes for the presidential administration.
5. TASS: Retirement age to be gradually raised to 65 years for men, 63 for women – PM.
6. Meduza: Russia to raise its pension age for the first time in modern history.
7. Meduza: Russia to raise its Valued Added Tax.
8. www.rt.com: Low debt & high reserves: Russia’s economic strategy paying off.
9. Paul Goble: Russians Getting Older, Reducing Pressure for and Likelihood of Change, Pryanikov Says.
10. The National Interest: Lyle Goldstein, On Putin’s Right Flank. A broadside is leveled against Russia’s president from the military sector.
11. The Nation: Nadezhda Azhgikhina, Will an Independent Press Survive in Russia? With journalists under attack in many forms, a new generation of truth-tellers is bringing fresh ideas to a troubled profession.
12. Moscow Times: Russian Ministry: Gulag Prison Records Digitized, Not Destroyed.
13. TASS: Izvestia: Long-awaited FIFA World Cup kicks off in Russia.
14. Wall Street Journal: World Cup Gives Putin’s Policies a Global Stage. Russia’s president plans to present Moscow as a rising global power.
15. AP: Russian Official Urges Love at World Cup After Backlash.
16. Washington Post: Richard Arnold and Andrew Foxall, Russia is hosting this year’s World Cup. What could go wrong?
17. TASS: Russian deputy PM welcomes decision to hold 2026 FIFA World Cup in US, Canada, Mexico.
18. AP: US gets Russia’s World Cup vote as logic trumps politics.
19. Atlantic Council: Peter Dickinson, Will Ukraine Be the Ultimate Loser of Putin’s World Cup?
20. Human Rights in Ukraine: Ukrainian neo-Nazi C14, known for racist and homophobic attacks, gets public funding for ‘patriotic education’ 
21. New York Times: United States, Saudi Arabia and Russia Find Agreement on Oil Policy.
22. TASS: Putin hails outcome of Trump’s meeting with North Korean leader.
23. TASS: Nezavisimaya Gazeta: US-North Korea summit was Pyongyang’s success, expert says.
24. Carnegie Moscow Center: Alexander Gabuev, Everyone Wins: Russia, China, and the Trump-Kim Summit. The summit of Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in Singapore brought the Korean peninsula closer to peace, but it was more about symbolism than substance. Its most important outcome is to bring North Korea out of diplomatic isolation-something that is welcome to both China and Russia.
25. Israel National News; Mark Langfan, When Putin drops hints, the West should listen. Putin is hinting at a Syrian Euphrates partition – and beyond. This is a positive plan that the USA should join.
26. Townhall: Wow: Trump’s Russia Policy is ‘Pretty Good’ and I Support It, Says…Obama’s Ambassador to Moscow?
27. Politico.com: Poll shows Mueller’s public image at all-time low.
28. www.rt.com: Mueller’s smoking gun? White House video on N. Korea’s future features Russian car factory. [Video https://www.rt.com/news/429733-trump-kim-video-russia-lada/]
29. The Nation: Aaron Mate, The Mueller Indictments Still Don’t Add Up to Collusion. A year of investigations has led to several guilty pleas, but none of them go to the core of the special counsel’s mandate.
30. The Unz Review: Boyd Cathey, Russia, the Neoconservatives, and the Real Issues Involved. [Text with links http://www.unz.com/article/russia-the-neoconservatives-and-the-real-issues-involved/]
31. YaleGlobal Online: Mikhail Troitskiy, Leveraging Ambiguity in Foreign Relations. Ambiguity contributes to global uncertainty and risks, but can be a force for good when practiced consensually.
32. Jacobin magazine: Kevin Murphy, Richard Pipes, Prosecutor of the Russian Revolution. Relentless anticommunism defined the late Richard Pipes as more propagandist than historian.

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