RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2018-176 :: Wednesday, 26 September 2018

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2018-#176
Wednesday, 26 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. The Unz Review: Anatoly Karlin, The End of TV and the Future of Russian Politics.[unz.com/akarlin/the-end-of-tv-and-the-future-of-russian-politics/]
2. Russian and Eurasian Politics: Gordon Hahn, Forgotten Russia: Is Putin’s Foreign Policy Focus a Fatal Obsession?
3. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, In a first for Russia, Moscow agrees with locals that their election was rigged. Westerners often assume that Russian politics is wholly corrupt. But the response to blatant ballot stuffing in Russia’s Far East shows some limits to what Russia will tolerate – and such fraud may be on its way out.
4. Meduza: Russians have elected several new ‘opposition’ governors, here’s the likely fate that awaits these politicians, warts and all.
5. www.rt.com: Bryan MacDonald, Blip or trend? Regional elections suddenly become less predictable in Russia. [rt.com/op-ed/439383-russia-far-east-election/]
6. Bloomberg: Leonid Bershidsky, Putin Is Losing Russia’s Far East. The Kremlin is throwing money at a strategically important region. That isn’t buying loyalty.
7. Bear Market Brief: Recent elections. This week in Telegram channels.
8. RFE/RL: Russian Retirement-Age Hike Advances As Putin’s Adjustment Approved.
9. www.rt.com: Duma unanimously passes Putin’s amendments to pension reform bill.
10. Interfax: Pension bill passes 2nd reading in State Duma, 3rd reading due on Thurs.
11. Reuters: Polina Ivanova, Above the Russian Arctic Circle, prisoners of Putin’s pension reform.
12. Coda Story: Daria Litvinova, Russia’s Disability ‘Denialism.’ A controversial new film about a boy born paralyzed has conjured nostalgia for Soviet times, when the disabled were kept out of sight.
13. Intellinews.com: Russian economy is quasi-feudal, antimonopoly watchdog complains.
14. TASS: Izvestia: Russia’s key economy sectors demonstrate growth.
15. RIA Novosti: Medvedev said Russia’s dependence on imports in the field of electronics.
16. Wall Street Journal: Shipping’s New Arctic Routes Won’t Thaw Cold Economic Reality. The ballyhooed sailing of a container ship shows how far the Northern Sea Route lane has to go to provide a viable alternative to traditional commercial shipping lanes between Asia and Europe.
17. Financial Times: Bridge-building a pillar of Sino-Russian detente. Project to fill gap in historic connection will facilitate mineral exports to China.
18. Facebook: Fred Weir, Alternative to SWIFT.
19. EUObserver: World upside down as EU and Russia unite against US. [https://euobserver.com/foreign/142953]
20. Interfax: Russia to make maximum effort to keep Iran in JCPOA – Matviyenko.
21. Interfax: Russia denies military-grade nerve agent used in Salisbury.
22. Sputnik: Russian Deputy FM: US Base in Poland Will Dismantle NATO-Russia Founding Act.
23. Russia Beyond: Why Russia intends to supply Syria with new S-300s to replace outdated S-200s.
24. TASS: Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Despite S-300s, Iran still in crosshairs in Syria.
25. The National Interest: Dave Majumdar, Russia’s S-300 Play in Syria Is Creating Geopolitical Waves. The Kremlin made the decision to supply Damascus with the potent S-300 air-defense system after a Syrian surface-to-air missile battery mistakenly shot down a Russian aircraft during an Israeli raid.
26. The National Interest: Paul Pillar, Russian-Israeli Conflict in the Skies of Syria. Russia, Iran and the Syrian regime have been functioning as allies in the Syrian war despite their different interests.
27. Asia TimesL Stephen Bryen and Shoshana Bryen, Giving air-defense system to Syria threatens broader war. Russian defense minister’s response to losing a surveillance plane to Syrian fire last week could spark a dangerous flare-up.
28. Valdai Discussion Club: Artyom Lukin, RUSSIA AND SOUTH KOREA: TOWARDS A STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP? [valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/russia-and-south-korea-towards-a-strategic-partner/]
29. Interfax: Trump mentions Russia once at UN, in context of new energy sources for Germany – Zakharova.
30. Daily Beast: Rand Paul Wants to Scrap Some U.S. Sanctions on Russia. The senator will introduce a bill to lift U.S. sanctions on Russian lawmakers if the Kremlin does the same for U.S. lawmakers, The Daily Beast has learned.
31. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, LIVING IN WACKO-LAND.
32. Awful Avalanche: Genocidal Schimasmatics and Nazi-Jews: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up! – Part III. [awfulavalanche.wordpress.com/2018/09/26/genocidal-schimasmatics-and-nazi-jews-you-cant-make-this-stuff-up-part-iii/]
33. AFP: Russia’s ‘blockade’ of Sea of Azov ports angers Ukraine.
34. Asia Times: Giovanni Pigni, In breakaway Ukraine, those who live by the sword are dying by it. Could an anonymous cull of Donbass’ violently charismatic separatists precede a peaceful solution?
35. Consortiumnews.com: Patrick Lawrence, The Battle for Our Minds. There are battlefields in Syria, Ukraine, Yemen, and elsewhere, but given the state of corporate media, perhaps the most consequential battle now being fought is for our minds. [consortiumnews.com/2018/09/25/the-battle-for-our-minds/]
36. Washington Post: David Ignatius, A GOP spin on the Russia probe reads like a noir thriller – but doesn’t add up. All of the Steele dossier can’t be discredited just because the contacts between private investigators and government officials were sometimes incestuous.
37. Washington Post: Alla Baranovsky-Dewey, Russia is trying to influence the 2018 U.S. election. But this time the U.S. is prepared.
38. New York Times: Our Investigative Reporters Explain the Trump-Russia Story. Mark Mazzetti and Scott Shane answer readers’ questions on Russian interference in the 2016 election, the Mueller investigation and their reporting process.
39. New York Times: Is a New Russian Meddling Tactic Hiding in Plain Sight?
40. Brookings: On the record: The U.S. administration’s actions on Russia.

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