RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents & links :: JRL 2020-#56 :: Friday, 27 March 2020

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2020-#56 :: Friday, 27 March 2020
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1. Moscow Times: Spend an Evening at the Bolshoi. The “golden collection” of ballet and opera will be broadcast online free.
2. Valdai Discussion Club: Andrey Kortunov, Coronavirus as a Problem of Fathers and Sons. There is actually nothing good about a coronavirus. But if you look for at least some positive moments in this global tragedy, then one such moment could be the launch of a mechanism for the changing of the guard of the political elites in the world, Valdai Club expert Andrei Kortunov writes.
3. Postsocialism: Jeremy Morris, Corona in a comparative perspective – will it help ‘restore justice’ in Russia, or show the weaknesses of its incoherent state? – postsocialism.org/2020/03/27/corona-in-a-comparative-perspective-will-it-help-restore-justice-in-russia-or-show-the-weaknesses-of-its-incoherent-state/
4. TASS: Kommersant: Russia’s government seeks right to enact nationwide state of emergency.
5. Moscow Times: Russia’s Aeroflot Still Flying Limited International Routes Despite Virus Grounding Order.
6. Reuters: Russia Confirms Coronavirus Case in Putin’s Administration, Tightens Curbs.
7. Moscow Times: In First Address to Nation on the Coronavirus, Putin Holds Back From Stringent Measures.
8. RFE/RL: Putin Makes Plea For Sanctions Relief At G20 Summit.
9. Kremlin.ru: G20 Summit. The President is taking part in the Extraordinary Virtual G20 Leaders’ Summit – en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/63070
10. Government.ru: Meeting of the Presidium of the Government Coordination Council to control the incidence of novel coronavirus infection in the Russian Federation – government.ru/en/news/39290/
11. Government.ru: Government meeting. Measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Russia and reduce its impact on the economy – government.ru/en/news/39277/
12. Riddle: Vladislav Inozemtsev, 2020: Russia’s historical watershed. Vladislav Inozemtsev on how the coronavirus will help citizens ‘swallow’ both the economic recession and constitutional reform. – ridl.io/en/2020-russia-s-historical-watershed/
13. Russia Beyond: What is quarantine like for coronavirus patients in Russia? – rbth.com/lifestyle/331900-quarantine-russia-coronavirus-patients
14. The Unz Review: Anatoly Karlin, Chinese, Russian Corona Aid Is 80% Useless (Says CIA?) – unz.com/akarlin/chinese-russian-corona-aid-is-80-useless-says-cia/
15. Financial Times: Letter: Can we never credit Russia with altruistic motives? From David C Speedie
16. Wall Street Journal: Putin Exploits Coronavirus to Justify Centralized Russian Power. President touts Russian model, deriding Western liberal democracies as weak and globalism as fragile.
18. Meduza: ‘They need to quarantine Moscow’ . How small businesses in Russia’s capital are scrambling to stay afloat as coronavirus clobbers the economy.
19. www.rt.com: Poll: Russians split down the middle on presidential terms reset as Putin’s approval rating falls.
20. TASS: Results of new poll on ‘reset’ of Putin’s terms not in line with Kremlin data – spokesman.
21. https://en.zois-berlin.de: “Support for Putin has more to do with Russian’s social lives than with politics”. In their book “Putin v. the People: The Perilous Politics of a Divided Russia”, political scientists Samuel A. Greene and Graeme B. Robertson shed some light on the relationship between the Russian people and their president. By conducting a multitude of surveys, they try to explain through a more bottom-up approach why support for Putin is so strong.
https://en.zois-berlin.de/publications/meet-the-author/samuel-greene/
22. Moscow Times: How Much of a Hit Will Russia’s Economy Take From the Coronavirus? It’s Anybody’s Guess. As the economic picture grows bleaker every day, economists and policymakers are struggling to come up with new ways to crunch the numbers.
23. Riddle: Russia can weather the oil price storm. Ivan Tkachev writes that Russia’s economy can survive the collapse in oil and gas prices – but at what long-term cost? – ridl.io/en/russia-can-weather-the-oil-price-storm/
24. TASS: Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Coronavirus quarantine might bolster some market segments.
25. The Economist: Fortress Russia. Russia’s economy is isolated from the global rout. For now.
26. BOE Report: Russia calls for new enlarged OPEC deal to tackle oil demand collapse – boereport.com/2020/03/27/russia-calls-for-new-enlarged-opec-deal-to-tackle-oil-demand-collapse/
27. https://russia-insider.com: Tom Luongo, Russia Is Going to Be an Investment Safe-Haven in an Inflationary Post-COVID World – russia-insider.com/en/russia-going-be-investment-safe-haven-inflationary-post-covid-world/ri28474
28. Infobrics: Lithuania on the brink of a catastrophe. Incompetent to deal with the pandemic, Lithuanian government is targeting Russia – infobrics.org/post/30626/
29. Carnegie Moscow Center: Konstantin Skorkin, Pandemic Unsettles Ukraine’s Zelensky. In Ukraine, the chaos caused by the coronavirus pandemic combined with the country’s existing political problems could sharpen the appetite for authoritarianism in Ukrainian society.
30. International Centre for Defence and Security (Estonia): James Sherr, The End of Zelenskiy’s Dream. – icds.ee/the-end-of-zelenskiys-dream/?fbclid=IwAR3m1HE_pVuUuO6gUAZUgYu1LeFUluDStaWPsgfki1iKmNY-8Ucks-hpgt0
31. Counterpunch: Richard Moser, Russia-gate: the Dead But Undead – counterpunch.org/2020/03/27/russia-gate-the-dead-but-undead/
32. Russia in Global Affairs: Dmitry Trenin, U.S. ELECTIONS AND RUSSIA-U.S. RELATIONS. CAN THE TWO COUNTRIES BREAK THE VICIOUS CIRCLE OF CONFRONTATION? – eng.globalaffairs.ru/articles/us-elections-russia-us-relations/
33. Russia in Global Affairs: “POPULISTS ARE NOW LYING LESS THAN ‘SYSTEMIC POLITICIANS'”. ROUNDTABLE with Fyodor Lukyanov Yuri Vasilyev, Gleb Kuznetsov, Vitaly Leibin and Oleg Kharkhordin – eng.globalaffairs.ru/articles/populists-are-now-lying/