RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2018-26 :: Tuesday, 6 February 2018

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2018-#26
Tuesday, 6 February 2018
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1. Vesti.ru: What Global Warming? Moscow Recovers From “Snowfall of the Century”, Prepares For Record Cold. [Video with English subtitles https://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=2984691&cid=4441]
2. Komsomolskaya Pravda: Analyst views presidential election, Russia-West relations, Ukraine. (Valery Solovey)
3. Carnegie Moscow Center: Andrei Kolesnikov and Denis Volkov, The Perils of Change: Russians’ Mixed Attitudes Toward Reform.Most Russian citizens do not express a strong desire for sweeping change and do not have in mind a specific road map for reforms. And yet most Russians understand that the country cannot move forward, or even stay in place, without reforms. [Text with charts http://carnegie.ru/2018/02/06/perils-of-change-russians-mixed-attitudes-toward-reform-pub-75436]
4. www.rt.com: Central elections commission registers Putin as candidate for March 2018 election.
5. The Guardian: Shaun Walker, 2018 election is no problem for Putin – but what about 2024? Vladimir Putin dominates Russian politics, but legally he can only serve two terms.
6. www.opendemocracy.net: Alexander Kynev, The symbolic meaning of the presidential elections for Russian liberals. The Sobchak and Navalny campaigns are two very different options for the future of Russia’s democratic movement.
7. TASS: TV socialite Sobchak set to run in 2021 parliamentary polls after presidential race over.
8. Bear Market Brief: Kudrin’s experts find another politically unfeasible reform approach.
9. TASS: Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Russian business feels import substitution leaves much to be desired.
10. TASS: List of entrepreneurs who want to return to Russia handed to Putin.
11. Bloomberg: Kremlin’s Bid to Woo Rich Exiles Home Meets Skepticism.
12. www.rt.com: ‘Shameful & politicized’: Russian PM slams IOC move to bar cleared athletes from Olympics.
13. TASS: Izvestia: Russians vow to follow the Olympics despite IOC scandal.
14. Toronto Star: Rosie Dimanno, Russian team is here, let’s stop pretending they’re not. Let’s forgo the fig leaf of censure, the public shaming, and call them what they are: Team Russia. They should be allowed to hear their anthem if they win.
15. The Calvert Journal: Howard Amos, Boris Akunin: the evolution of Russia’s dissident detective novelist into a master historian. Boris Akunin is one of Russia’s best known authors of contemporary fiction, but in recent years he has wrapped up the adventures of his most successful character, Erast Fandorin, and re-invented himself as a writer of Russian history. The Calvert Journal caught up with him to talk literature, politics and career change.
16. Moscow Times: Michael Kofman, Starving Wolf No Longer: Can Russia Sustain Its Military? Russia is having to balance its demand for more advanced weapons with a slew of other priorities.
18. Asia Times: M.K. Bhadrakumar, Russian-Turkish axis in Syria faces meltdown. With suspicions running high that the nominal allies drew each other’s blood on February 3, Ankara may well seek a modus vivendi with the US.
19. TASS: Kommersant: Moscow questions US data provided for New START treaty.
20. AP: Russia questions US compliance with key nuke accord.
21. Wall Street Journal: U.S., Russia Say They Have Met Nuclear-Reduction Targets Under Treaty. Nations meet Monday deadline, but face task of renewing pact in three years amid dispute over another weapons agreement.
22. AP: Little place for arms control in Trump’s nuclear strategy.
23. Washington Post: Michael McFaul and Jon Wolfsthal, The right way to manage nuclear competition with Russia.
24. Valdai Discussion Club: Alexander Lomanov, CHINESE BELT AND ROAD IN THE ARCTIC.
25. CNBC.com: Clay Dillow, Russia and China vie to beat the US in the trillion-dollar race to control the Arctic.
26. Daily Beast: Anna Nemtsova, The Frightening Far-Right Militia That’s Marching in Ukraine’s Streets, Promising to Bring ‘Order’. Members of the ‘National Squad’ have shed the trappings of neo-Nazis. No straight-arm salutes, no offensive insignia. But their roots and their objectives have Ukrainians worried.
27. Wall Street Journal: David Garrow, Democrats and FBI Abuses. In the 1970s, progressives stood up for civil liberties. Today they’ve reverted to the J. Edgar Hoover era.
28. Wall Street Journal: Michael Mukasey, The Memo and the Mueller Probe. If the investigation arose from partisan opposition research, what specific crime is he looking into?
29. The American Conservative: Robert Merry, The Nunes Memo and the Death of American Journalism. Remember when reporters spent their time digging for answers rather than advancing their favored political narratives?
30. http://theduran.com: Alexander Mercouris, Grassley’s, Lindsey Graham’s referral on Steele: did US media, Clinton campaign provide content for Trump Dossier? Heavily redacted referral memo suggests US media, Clinton associates, had a hand in producing Trump Dossier. (excerpt) [Full text http://theduran.com/grassley-lindsey-graham-referral-steele-us-media-clinton-campaign-trump-dossier/]
31. Reuters: U.S. libel case testimony could put sources at risk – UK spy behind Trump dossier.
32. Sic Semper Tyrannis: Pat Lang, Will Christopher Steele Be Charged in the UK as a Spy? (excerpt)

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