RUSSIA & UKRAINE: JRL 2015-#61 table of contents with links :: Johnson’s Russia List – Friday 27 March 2015

Johnson’s Russia List JRL 2015-#61 :: Friday 27 March 2015
A project sponsored through the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs
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RUSSIA

1. Moscow Times: Putin Urges FSB: Harder, Faster, Stronger.
2. Kremlin.ru: Federal Security Service board meeting.
3. Business New Europe: Ben Aris, MOSCOW BLOG: Putin marks 15 years in power with harangue against West.
4. TASS: 75% of Russians ready to vote for Putin at next election – pollster.
5. Fort Russ/VM.ru: 10 Major accomplishments of the age of Putin.
6. Forbes.com: Mark Adomanis, Russian Support For Democracy Just Hit The Lowest Level In More Than 20 Years.
7. Moscow Times: Russian Government Struggles to Check Surging Cost of Medicine.
8. TASS: Russia’s 200,000 employed senior citizens worry they may lose old age pension.
9. Vestnik Kavkaza: Elena Bibikova: “One third of Russian citizens don’t pay fees to the pension system”
10. Moscow Times: Soviet-Era ‘Objective Truth’ Bill Would Imperil Presumption of Innocence.
11. Interfax: Witness can’t recognize suspected Nemtsov assassin – newspaper.
12. Sputnik: Alexander Mercouris, CNN and the Ban That Never Was.
13. Moscow Times: Russians Increasingly Believe State Planning Better Than Market Economy.
14. TASS: Russia begins recovering from the ‘Dutch disease’ – Finance Minister Siluanov.
15. Forbes.com: Mark Adomanis, Russian Inflation: Worse Than Almost Everywhere In Eastern Europe.
16. Russia Direct: Vladimir Korovkin, What Yandex’s battle with Google means for Russian innovation. Russia’s largest Internet company is locked in a major dispute with rival Google, a situation complicated by highly unfavorable investment conditions in Russia. Can Yandex compete by itself or does it need the help of the Russian government?
17. PONARS Eurasia: Mark Kramer, Sanctions and Regime Survival.
18. Washington Post: A year into a conflict with Russia, are sanctions working?
19. Valdai Discussion Club: Vladimir Petrovsky, Russia’s “Asian drift”, or its Pivot to the East?
20. Valdai Discussion Club: Arnaud Dubien, Is Putin Preparing a Breakthrough in Relations with Japan?
21. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, Russia heads to ‘America’s backyard’ to find salve for sanctions. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited several Latin American nations this week to seek trade opportunities that could offset US efforts to puncture Russia’s economy.
22. TASS: Russia capable of countering US missile-defence system in Europe – spokesman.
23. Interfax: Russia to take into account threats resulting from new U.S. security strategy.
24. Russia Direct: Michael Slobodchikoff, Russian Studies programs in the United States need a boost. While many factors remain outside of the control of Russian Studies programs, there are certain factors that can be improved.
25. AFP: Feud on Earth but peace in space for US and Russia.
26. http://readrussia.com: Will Wright, The Putin Myth on American TV. (re House of Cards)
27. Russia Beyond the Headlines: 3 Russian contributions to theater that changed the world.

UKRAINE

28. The Guardian: Nicolai Petro, How do you solve a problem like Ukraine? Analysis: Kiev should stop banning Russian films and TV programmes and start talking to Russophone Ukrainians.
29. Al Jazeera: Katherine Jacobsen, Families of slain Ukraine demonstrators demand justice. More than 100 people were gunned down in Maidan Square a year ago, but investigations have failed to bring prosecutions.
30. Interfax: Ukraine to speed up Project Stina on Russian border in April.
31. www.thedailybeast.com; Katie Zavadski, Ukraine Psych Wards Prepare For Soldiers’ PTSD. As young men return from the battlefields in east Ukraine, the country’s underfunded psych wards are scrambling to treat the psychological wounds of war.
32. Kyiv Post: Right Sector defies government’s calls to pull out of frontline.
33. www.foreignpolicy.com: Alexander Motyl, Ukraine Doesn’t Have a Warlord Problem. Ukraine’s volunteer battalions are not undermining the state — they’re saving it.
34. Fort Russ: The “Night of Long Knives” Cometh?
35. Sputnik: Infernal Affairs: Ukraine Minister Regrets Not Killing Protestors at Outset.
36. Business New Europe: Support for Ukrainian government plummets.
37. Kyiv Post: Power Play: Does Kolomoisky’s exit signal start of real crackdown against oligarchs?
38. Russia Insider/Hromadske TV: Ukraine’s Chief Anti-Corruption Official Fired after Uncovering Millions Stolen. Ukrainian State Financial Inspection uncovered 7.5 billion Ukrainian hryvnia (about $0.3 billion now, up to $1 billion at the time) that have been stolen from state funds under the new post-Maidan government.
39. The Economist: Ukraine’s Future. President v oligarch. Building a nation means putting plutocrats in their place.
40. Off Guardian: Is Yats Packing Too?
41. Wall Street Journal: Default Threat Haunts Ukrainian Corporate Debt Investors. Concerns mount amid fears of a default on government bonds.
42. www.rt.com: Ukraines’s $3bn debt to Russia puts multibillion dollar IMF package at risk.
43. Reuters: London or Paris: which is the club for Russia’s Ukraine debt?
44. Ukraine Today: Poll finds Ukrainian audiences in Odesa and Kharkiv give most credence to Russian media.
45. New York Times: No One Sees Easy Way Out on Ukraine.
46. Hoover Institution (Stanford University): Hoover Roundtable: Perspectives On Russia’s Hybrid War On Ukraine And US Foreign Policy. (Michael McFaul and others)
47. Dissident Voice: Eric Zuesse, Why Ukraine’s Viktor Yanukovych Spurned EU’s Offer on 20 Nov. 2013. The $160 Billion Cost.
48. http://gordonhahn.com: Gordon Hahn, WORKING PAPER: Violence, Coercion and Escalation in the Ukrainian Crisis, Parts 1-3: November 25 and 30, 2013 and January 21-22, 2014.
49. Gazeta.ru: Website traces chronology of Crimea annexation: Kremlin had not prepared.

 

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia Map of Commonwealth of Independent States, European Portion

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