RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2018-132 :: Thursday, 19 July 2018

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2018-#132
Thursday, 19 July 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. Kremlin.ru: Moscow Urban Forum Megacity of the Future: New Space for Living.
2. TASS: Russians’ ideal family: Poll says over 40% believe it consists of two or three children.
3. Interfax: Russian population falls by 77,800 in 5M 2018 – Rosstat.
4. Izvestia: Russian expert views impact of US protectionism on world economy. (Yaroslav Lisovolik)
5. TASS: Putin calls for work to commence immediately on extending New START treaty.
6. PONARS Eurasia: Shadows Over the Putin-Trump Summit | Commentary by Fyodor Lukyanov & Keith Darden.
7. Russian International Affairs Council: Igor Ivanov, The Helsinki Summit: the Beginning of a Journey.
8. Valdai Discussion Club: Maxim Suchkov, BEYOND THE HORIZON: WHO WON IN HELSINKI?
9. The National Interest: The Trump-Putin Summit and Reliving the Cold War. President Trump blundered in his appearance with Putin, but his intuitions are nevertheless correct: a new Cold War with Russia would not end as happily as the real Cold War did.
10. RFE/RL: Back To Business As Usual: Russian Analysts See Helsinki Meeting As Opening To Normalization.
11. http://theduran.com: Alexander Mercouris, Assessing the Putin-Trump Helsinki summit: neither a breakthrough nor a damp squib but a possible start towards detente. The US and Russian Presidents took the first step towards ending the downward spiral in their countries’ relations but the obstacles ahead remain formidable. [Text with links theduran.com/the-putin-trump-helsinki-summit-neither-breakthrough-nor-damp-squib-start-detente/]
12. Foreignaffairs.com: Michael McFaul, The U.S. Needs a Russia Strategy Now More Than Ever. The Real Lesson From the Helsinki Summit.
13. The Nation: Stephen Cohen, Trump as New Cold War Heretic. The president has broken with the nearly 20-year orthodoxy of blaming Russia alone for today’s post-Soviet confrontations.
14. The Hill: Alexander Gabuev, Sanctions give America zero leverage in punishing Russia.
15. theduran.com: Paul Goncharov, Russia just DUMPED $80 billion in US debt. The US Treasury published a report naming those countries that are the largest holders of US bonds. The list includes 33 countries, and for the first time Russia is no longer in. [theduran.com/russia-just-dumped-80-billion-in-us-debt/]
16. Washington Post: Katrina vanden Heuvel, Parsing the surreal from the sensible in Trump’s Helsinki performance.
17. www.aljazeera.com: Roman Dobrokhotov, Trump is not Putin’s puppet and here’s why. Trump has been trying to erode Russia’s monopoly over Europe’s gas market for the past year.
18. The Unz Review: C.J. Hopkins, Trump’s Treasonous Traitor Summit or, How Liberals Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the New McCarthyism.
19. Asia Times: Mikhail Molchanov, The Trump-Putin summit: Russophrenia explained.
20. Bear Market Brief: Pension reform passes first Duma reading.
21. TASS: Russia to spend $47.2 bln on pension hikes over six years.
22. Bear Market Brief: Eloise Goldsmith and Kasey Stricklin, No rest for the weary babushka: would pension reform benefit older Russian women?
23. Washington Post: Samuel Greene and Graeme Robertson, Vladimir Putin’s approval ratings are dropping. This is why.
24. www.rt.com: Russia plans national road reconstruction project essential to economic growth.
25. The American Conservative: Harry J. Kazianis, The Coming American-Russian Alliance Against China. Why not? A rising power challenging the international order can make even sworn enemies into bedfellows.
26. Interfax: Damascus winning war, West’s hopes for regime change unrealistic – Russian ambassador.
27. Interfax: Syria’s Idlib problems should be addressed carefully, delicately – Russian ambassador.
28. TASS: Kommersant: Pressure on Iran counterproductive, says Russia’s envoy.
29. Lawfare: Jack Goldsmith, Uncomfortable Questions in the Wake of Russia Indictment 2.0 and Trump’s Press Conference With Putin.
30. Reuters: Tim Weiner, Commentary: Trump has attacked U.S. intel agencies. Expect them to strike back.
31. The Hill: Stephen Blank, Putin’s ‘incredible offer’ is a ploy to learn what we know and how we know it.
32. Counterpunch.org: David Swanson, The Intelligence Community Is Neither.
33. The American Conservative: Scott Ritter, Let’s See Who’s Bluffing in the Criminal Case Against the Russians.Putin twice invoked an obscure 1999 treaty with the U.S. that could obligate his cooperation in such investigations.
34. Washington Post editorial: Putin wants to silence one of his biggest critics. Trump is eager to help. As Putin tries to stifle Bill Browder, Trump champions the Russian strongman’s agenda.
35. The Unz Review: Israel Shamir, The Untouchable Mr. Browder? The Browder affair is a heady upper-class Jewish cocktail of money, spies, politicians and international crime.
36. www.rt.com: Identification of Skripal suspects is ‘wild speculation’ – UK security minister.

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