RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2018-160 :: Monday, 3 September 2018

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2018-#160
Monday, 3 September 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, At Asia’s heart, Lake Baikal stirs Russians to protect nature. Environmental protections are often reactive, coming only after pristine areas have succumbed to pollution and degradation. But on Siberia’s Lake Baikal, care for nature has always been a way of life. Fifth in a five-part series.
2. Interfax: Putin says he had no presidential ambitions during early years.
3. TASS: Kremlin spokesman describes Putin as empathic person.
4. Moscow Times: Putin Gets Love From New State TV Show as Poll Ratings Slide.
5. Jacobin: Tony Wood, The Crisis That Created Putin. Twenty years ago, a crisis of Russian capitalism doomed Moscow’s pro-Western regime and gave birth to the Putin era.
6. TASS: Putin worked on his pension reform address by himself – Kremlin.
7. www.rt.com: Rallies against raising of retirement age held in Moscow (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
[rt.com/politics/437452-russia-rallies-retirement-age/]
8. AP: Russians rally to stop increase of pension eligibility age.
9. Interfax: A Just Russia offers Communists to pool efforts for pension referendum – Mironov.
10. Russian International Affairs Council: Babones, Pensions Policies Should Focus on Jobs, Not Retirement.
11. Bloomberg: Putin Wants Big Business to Spend $120 Billion to Revive Economy.
12. Reuters: Interview: Russia’s oil industry can shoulder extra taxes, finance ministry says.
13. www.rt.com: Russia closes 93 prisons in 7 years due to more lenient laws – official.
14. Financial Times: Max Seddon, Rich Russians: From Oligarchs to Bourgeoisie, by Elisabeth Schimpfössl. A fresh look at how Russia’s elite sees itself.
15. Paul Goble: Russia is in a Stalemate Today But Can’t Stay There for Long, Shevtsova Says.
16. Pravda.ru: Putin loses everything he has. It appears that Putin may eventually lose control of the patriotic idea – the only idea that still helps him stay in his office.
17. TASS: Russia’s response to US sanctions does not necessarily have to be tit-for-tat – Lavrov.
18. The National Interest: Josh Cohen, How Russia Would Strike Back if America Launches “Dollar” Sanctions. It won’t be pretty.
19. Sputnik: Consulate Closures, Seized Docs, Sanctions: US-Russia Relations Over Past Year. [sputniknews.com/us/201809011067669535-us-russia-diplomatic-relations/]
20. Moscow Times: Chrisopher Stroop, The Rising Tide of Orthodox Christian Politics . Moscow and Kiev are locked in a religious dispute with political overtones.
21. Russia Matters: Kissinger on Russia: Insights and Recommendations.
22. Paul Goble: Russia Losing Out to US in Central Asia, ‘Nezavisimaya Gazeta’ Says.
23. Wall Street Journal: Russia Offers a Carrot to Embattled Syrian Rebels. Moscow is trying to wind down a war that has cost it billions, promising some groups an end to violence in exchange for loyalty to Assad.
24. TASS: Kommersant: Leaked secret UN report says aid for Syria possible only after regime change.
25. Antiwar.com: US Strategy in Syria: ‘Create Quagmires Until We Get What We Want’
[Text with links https://news.antiwar.com/2018/08/31/us-strategy-in-syria-create-quagmires-until-we-get-what-we-want/]
26. Facebook: Fred Weir, US Policy on Syria.
27. TASS: Kremlin lambasts US spy agencies’ recent ‘crude attempts’ to recruit Russians.
28. www.rt.com: Desperate for collusion proof, FBI ‘tried & failed to recruit Russian oligarchs’ – report
29. The Hill: John Solomon, Russian oligarch, Justice Department and a clear case of collusion.
30. Meduza: A separatist leader in eastern Ukraine has been assassinated, and here’s what we know, so far.
31. The Unz Review: Anatoly Karlin, BREAKING: DNR Head Alexander Zakharchenko Has Been Assassinated. [unz.com/akarlin/zakharchenko-assassinated/]
32. The Unz Review: Anatoly Karlin, Putin Needs to Sacrifice the Donbass to Survive. (Not Really). [unz.com/akarlin/donbass-or-death]
33. Facebook: Ivan Katchanovski, Maidan shootings.
34. Bloomberg: Leonid Bershidsky, Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin Missed Historic Opportunity. Transcripts from the 1990s show how the U.S. could have helped put Russia on a different course.
35. Counterpunch.org: Jim Kavanagh, Be Careful What You Ask For: Wasting Time with Manafort, Cohen, and Russiagate. [counterpunch.org/2018/08/24/be-careful-what-you-ask-for-wasting-time-with-manafort-cohen-and-russiagate/]

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