RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents & links :: JRL 2020-#114 :: Thursday, 25 June 2020

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2020-#114 :: Thursday, 25 June 2020
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. Carnegie Moscow Center: Dmitri Trenin, How Russians are Reading Bolton and Trump. John Bolton suggests that Putin can play Trump like a fiddle. The truth is that under the forty-fifth U.S. president, the bilateral relationship with Russia is now as bad as at any time since the early 1980s.
2. Russia Matters: Marlene Laruelle, Russia’s Constitutional Amendments Keep Several Futures Open for Putin.
3. Moscow Times: Russians Rushing Back to Work as Pre-Virus Life Returns. Most workers are back in the office, while traffic data shows Moscow is one of the busiest cities in the world again.
4. Opednews.com: Natylie Baldwin, Is Putin a Nationalist and What are the Implications for Russia’s Relationship with China and the West?
5. TASS: Amendments will reinforce civil and labor rights of Russians, vows Medvedev.
6. TASS: Russian constitutional amendments to bolster separation of powers – ex-PM Medvedev.
7. TASS: Constitutional amendments to confirm Russia’s social guarantees – Kremlin.
8. Moscow Times: Explainer: What Are Russians Voting for in Putin’s Constitution Poll?
9. AP: Vote to Extend Putin’s Rule Faces Little Protest in Russia.
10. TASS: Western politicians know truth about World War II, promote other ideas, says Putin.
11. Moscow Times: Mark Galeotti, This Year’s Victory Parade was Both Impressive and A Little Sad. The limits of Russia’s present strength were evident in the supporting cast Putin could assemble.
12. Meduza: It’s all Sobyanin’s fault . How Moscow’s mayor tried to tackle the coronavirus but ended up at odds with Putin.
13. New York Times: Decades-Old Soviet Studies Hint at Coronavirus Strategy. A married pair of virologists in Moscow tested a vaccine on their own children in the 1950s. Now, a side effect they found is sparking new hope for a defense against the coronavirus.
14. Meduza: The 0.5 percent. How Russia plans to drop flat income taxes.
15. Interfax: IMF forecasts deeper slump for Russian, global economies.
16. rt.com: International air links with Russia may remain closed until fall as EU discusses ban on Russians & Americans entering bloc – rt.com/russia/492902-international-flights-remain-closed/
17. Valdai Discussion Club: Andrey Bystritskiy, We Need a Vaccine for Something More Dangerous Than the Coronavirus. Democratic slogans swaying on the surface of mass protests can often lead to outright fascism and totalitarianism. So it happened in the first half of the last century in Italy, and in Germany, and in Spain, and in Russia. So it can happen in the USA today, and not only there, writes Valdai Club chairman Andrey Bystritskiy – valdaiclub.com/a/chairman-speech/coronavirus-should-it-be-vaccinated/
18. TASS: US Democrats try to use anti-racist protests to woo electorate ahead of election – expert.
19. TASS: No progress in Russian-US relations in any field, senior diplomat says.
20. Interfax: Primakov Readings: Russia to remain negative factor in U.S. domestic politics – Deputy FM Ryabkov
21. Financial Times: Philip Stephens, Russia cannot afford another 15 years at war with the west. Vladimir Putin should brush off the cold war cobwebs in pursuit of a hard-headed look at national interests.
22. rt.com: Trump says US will ‘probably’ relocate some troops from Germany to Poland as ‘signal’ to Russia.
23. The Diplomat: Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, The Sino-Indian Clash: Russia in the Middle.
24. Sputnik: Shock Horror! May and Johnson Ignored Steele’s Claims of Russia’s ‘Likely Hold’ Over Trump – sputniknews.com/military/202006241079711222-shock-horror-may-and-johnson-ignored-steeles-claims-of-russias-likely-hold-over-trump/
25. Dances With Bears: John Helmer, MAJOR GENERAL IGOR KONASHENKOV TO BE CALLED TO TESTIFY IN MH17 TRIAL – JUDGE STEENHUIS WILL RULE NEXT WEEK TO ACCEPT OR REFUSE EVIDENCE OF UKRAINIAN FINGERPRINTS ON THE WEAPON OF THE CRIME – johnhelmer.net/major-general-igor-konashenkov-to-be-called-to-testify-in-mh17-trial-judge-steenhuis-will-rule-next-week-to-accept-or-refuse-evidence-of-ukrainian-fingerprints-on-the-weapon-of-the-crime/print/
26. Oriental Review editorial: How Should We Deal With Russia?
27. Intellinews: Belarusians are striking back with satire at the repressive random arrests of pedestrians.
28. Washington Post editorial: People are finally fed up with Belarus’s leader. Will they be heard?
29. Intellinews: Robert Homans, Yanukovych’s “Own Goal;” Zelenskiy’s “Lesson Learned”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has learnt the lessons ousted president VIktor Yanukovych taught by his failure.
30. New York Times: Sergei Khrushchev, Son of Former Soviet Premier, Dies at 84. A rocket scientist in the Soviet Union, he became a U.S. citizen long after the Cold War ended. “I’m not a defector,” he said. “I like this country.”

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