KYIV. March 10 (Interfax) – The United States will support any president the Ukrainian people will elect, U.S. Ambassador in Kyiv Jeffrey Payette said at a news conference on Monday. The U.S. will support anyone, who will win during the democratic elections and who will be elected by the Ukrainian people, the ambassador said. The most important thing is that […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Dan Pototsky, RBTH – March 10, 2014) Hackers have taken down several Russian media website in the past week and alleged attacks on defense infrastructure in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine. On March 7, the website of Rossiyskaya Gazeta, one of the largest Russian dailies, the paper of record of the Russian […]
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(RFE/RL– rferl.org – Halyna Tereshchuk and Claire Bigg – March 8, 2014) LVIV, Ukraine — As millions of women across the world looked forward to celebrating International Women’s Day on March 8, Tetiana Turchina was in no mood for flowers, chocolate, and festivities. The young Ukrainian woman watched with dismay as Russian troops took control of Crimea, the picturesque and […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#51 :: 9 March 2014 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Tom Balmforth – DONETSK, Ukraine – March 8, 2014) Just a month ago, few people were talking about more autonomy for Donetsk — less still about it joining Russia. But with Russian troops in Crimea and the Black Sea peninsula soon to vote on joining Russia, some in Donetsk are agitating for a referendum to widen the […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Volodymyr Verbyany, Daryna Krasnolutska & Stepan Kravchenko – March 9, 2014) Pro-Russian forces advanced in Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, ignoring Western calls to abandon a military takeover in the run up to a separatist referendum slated for March 16. Russian forces took control of the province’s Chernomorskoye border base today, detaining Ukrainian soldiers, a day after gunmen […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – March 6, 2014) According to the state-owned All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion, 73 percent of Russians are against intervention in Ukraine. All the leading opposition forces in Russia have condemned the military invasion and the planned annexation of Crimea. The Institute of Modern Russia publishes excerpts from Russian opposition statements […]
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SIMFEROPOL, March 9 (RIA Novosti) – The authorities in Ukraine’s breakaway region of Crimea on Sunday ruled out negotiations with the central government, which they say is illegitimate. “The incumbent authorities are absolutely illegitimate, they were brought to power by guns, knives and baseball bats. While they are in office, there will be no dialog not only with them, but […]
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(Interfax – March 9, 2014) Crimean Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Konstantynov said during negotiations in the Russian State Duma that the decision to hold a referendum in Crimea and the decision made by the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to join Russia are forced measures caused by threats made by Ukraine. “Volodymyr Konstantynov pointed out the importance of […]
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(Interfax – March 8, 2014) Ukraine did not ask Russia to hold a meeting in Paris at the level of foreign ministers, while when planning contacts in Paris between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Western counterparts nothing was said about expanding the number of participants, a Russian Foreign Ministry source has said. “When planning contacts between the Russian […]
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(Interfax – March 8, 2014) Ukraine is not abandoning the hope to preserve good neighborly relations with Russia and Russians, Ukraine’s Acting Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsa said. “We would like to have good neighborly relations with all our neighbors, including Russia. That is the reason why we are still keeping the option of a diplomatic dialogue with Russia, keeping the […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – March 07, 2014) With officials in the Ukrainian region of Crimea preparing a referendum on joining the Russian Federation and Russian lawmakers drafting legislation that would enable Moscow to accept Crimea as a new subject of Russia, RFE/RL correspondent Robert Coalson discussed the issue of annexation with Adam Roberts, senior research fellow in international relations at […]
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MOSCOW, March 8 (RIA Novosti) – The head of Russian diplomacy on Saturday slammed Ukrainian post-revolutionary authorities and alleged attempts to demonize Russia’s involvement in the Ukrainian crisis. “The so-called ‘interim government’ [in Ukraine] is not independent and, sadly, depends on radical nationalists who seized power in an armed coup,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. Ukrainian opposition took power in […]
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MOSCOW. March 8 (Interfax) – Ukraine could soon announce setting up a commission to investigate the so-called problem of Maidan snipers, which arose after publication of the transcript of a telephone conversation between Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton. It was reported earlier that the head of the […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#50 :: 8 March 2014 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#49 :: 7 March 2014 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – editorial – March 6, 2014) As the U.S. and Europe consider financial sanctions to punish Russia for trampling on Ukraine’s sovereignty, they are coming up against an uncomfortable reality: Those sanctions tend to cut both ways. But how deep do they cut? Russia is far more financially intertwined with the West than it was back in […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Tim Ash – March 7, 2014) Ok, so here is my quick fix for a solution herein. The West – or US – has just rediscovered the wheel almost by hitting on the idea of financial sanctions as a way to get Russia back to the negotiating table. This will have impact and even […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – March 7, 2014) Let’s get a few things straight at the start. Russia’s actions in Crimea is not the start of a war nor is it an invasion. There are no tanks on the street. No shots have been fired. No one has died. In fact almost no force […]
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MOSCOW. March 7 (Interfax) – Russian President’s Press Secretary has called the actions of Western countries over Ukraine “a triumph of double standards.” “All in all, what we see now happening in and around Ukraine is such a triumph of lawlessness, a triumph of cynicism and a triumph of the collapse of international law, a triumph of double standards,” Peskov […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – March 7, 2014) In May, Ukraine will elect a president, whose history with Russia and perception by the Kremlin could advance or delay the cooling of relations with Kiev. It is far from obvious which of the current possible top contenders would be more palatable to President Vladimir Putin, but observers in […]
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(Interfax – March 6, 2014) Most Russian citizens believe that their country should actively protect the interests of ethnic Russians in Crimea, the head of the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM), Valeriy Fedorov, has said. He was speaking at an Open Tribune session in the State Duma on 6 March, as reported by privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax on […]
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MOSCOW. March 7 (Interfax) – Russian President’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov has urged people not to look for “the hand of Moscow” in protest actions in eastern Ukraine and Crimea. “What is happening in the east (of Ukraine) and Crimea has nothing to do with the Russian Federation. These are not manipulated processes, let alone those that are the consequences […]
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(Moscow News – moscownews.com – David Burghardt – March 7, 2014) A woman’s place is in the kitchen, according to a recent poll by the All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Research (VTsIOM) published on Friday. According to the latest survey, 72 percent of Russians believe a woman should choose the home and family over her career. “When there’s a choice […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#48 :: 6 March 2014 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support […]
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(US Department of State – state.gov – Fact Sheet – Office of the Spokesperson – Washington, DC – March 5, 2014) As Russia spins a false narrative to justify its illegal actions in Ukraine, the world has not seen such startling Russian fiction since Dostoyevsky wrote, “The formula ‘two plus two equals five’ is not without its attractions.” Below are […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Kateryna Choursina, Eduard Gismatullin and James M. Gomez – March 6, 2014) Near a display of confiscated weapons from elite police who fired on Ukrainian protesters during Kiev’s uprising, Mykola stands guard duty in a shack beside a barricade of tires, wire and park benches. The hated riot police gone, activists in camouflage mingle with tourists […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – March 6, 2014) As world leaders increase or trash their political clout depending on their audience and the statements they make about the situation in the Ukraine, some analysts were revising Russian GDP growth estimates to as low as 1.1 percent for the year. Wednesday was a calmer day on the stock […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Robert Coalson – March 5, 2014) Getting the real story of what is going on in Ukraine is hard enough. And the Russian media seems intent on making it even harder. With Russian forces controlling Crimea and with Moscow contemplating further military action in Ukraine, Russian media and leading political figures have been shrill in their […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – March 6, 2014) Russian human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin called crackdowns on unsanctioned opposition protests illegal. According to Russia’s Supreme Court decisions, unauthorized protests were not necessarily illegal, Lukin said, Interfax reported. He added that often the protests pose no disturbance to citizens and that violations should only be pursued when the actions “create a […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – March 6, 2014) The Federation Council is drawing up a bill that would allow the government to confiscate the property of U.S. and European companies in the event of Western sanctions, though political analysts dismiss both actions as intimidating rhetoric unlikely turn into action. Further decreasing the possibility of asset confiscation is […]
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MOSCOW, March 5 (RIA Novosti) – The top diplomats of Russia and the United States agreed at their meeting on Wednesday that they should help Ukraine to implement the EU-brokered reconciliation deal. “We have agreed that Ukrainians need assistance to implement the February 21 accord,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. He met with US Secretary of State John Kerry […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – March 6, 2014) Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina have been attacked by five young men at a McDonald’s in Nizhny Novgorod on Thursday. The attackers threw metal objects at the women as they were eating, leaving Alyokhina with “a cut to her forehead,” their lawyer said, Interfax reported. Furthermore, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#47 :: 5 March 2014 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support […]
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(Kremlin.ru – March 4, 2014) Novo-Ogaryovo, Moscow Region The President of Russia met with media representatives to answer a number of their questions, in particular with regard to the situation in Ukraine. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, colleagues, How shall we do this? This is what I’d like to suggest: let’s have a conversation, rather than an interview. […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#46 :: 4 March 2014 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support […]
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(Interfax – March 4, 2014) The heads of Russian leading television stations have responded to their Ukrainian colleagues’ call for unbiased coverage of the ongoing events in Ukraine. The general directors of Channel One, the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) and NTV, Konstantin Ernst, Oleg Dborodeyev and Vladimir Kulistikov, said in an official statement, posted on the […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Matthew C. Klein – March 3, 2014) Matthew C. Klein is a writer for Bloomberg View You may have missed it amid the ongoing drama in Ukraine, but Russia’s central bank raised its main interest rate today to 7 percent from 5.5 percent — the single biggest increase in Russian benchmark rates since the country desperately […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine, March 4, 2014) The only place where you can see the Crimean peninsula from Russia is Port Kavkaz, a small harbor on the Kerch Strait, from where it takes only 20 minutes to get from Russia to Crimea by ferry. From there, the two entities look as close as they […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Darya Lyubinskaya, special to RBTH – March 3, 2014) Russians hold rallies in support of and in protest against sending troops to Ukraine. Rallies in support of and against a possible military operation in Ukraine were held in several Russian cities yesterday. Rallies of those who oppose a military intervention in Crimea ended […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Teneo Intelligence – March 3, 2014) Despite the ratcheting-up of rhetoric by European countries regarding the events in Ukraine, it remains unlikely for now that the European Union (EU) will impose sanctions on Russia. Not only would a high degree of consensus among EU member states be required in order to approve them; what […]
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MOSCOW, March 4 (RIA Novosti) – An adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that authorities would issue general advice to dump US government bonds in the event of Russian companies and individuals being targeted by sanctions over events in Ukraine. Sergei Glazyev said the United States would be the first to suffer in the event of any sanctions […]
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SIMFEROPOL. March 4 (Interfax) – Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov said a referendum may be held in Crimea before March 30. “I think the referendum will be held even before March 30. We will make this decision in a working group [on the organization of the referendum] and we will try to fully learn what the people of Crimea want […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Tatyana Lisina, special to RBTH – March 4, 2014) The tensions in Crimea have already had serious economic consequences for Russia. The country’s stock market fell dramatically on Monday and the ruble continued its slide. Many experts compare the current developments to the events of August 2008, when Russia began a military operation […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – March 5, 2014) A cheaper ruble and more expensive oil could actually go a long way in improving Russia’s economy, possibly offsetting other potential aftershocks of the Ukraine crisis. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in interviews on Sunday identified the ruble’s slide as among Russia’s economic challenges that could get worse […]
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GORKI, March 4 (RIA Novosti) – The head of Russia’s state energy giant Gazprom said Tuesday that it will annul its discount on natural gas sales to Ukraine from April, a move that will further stretch Kiev’s teetering finances. Alexei Miller, who made the announcement while meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev outside Moscow, motivated the decision by pointing out […]
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Subject: JRL 2014-#44/ Matlock Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2014 From: Reuben F. Johnson – Warszawa, Rzeczpospolita Polska reuben.johnson@sambadoaviao.org I have the honour to refer to Item 1 of this issue of JRL. I have enjoyed reading JRL for years and almost never make any comments on the pieces that are published. We all have too much to read the way […]
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TUNIS. March 4 (Interfax) – Russia thinks that the European Union and the United States want to cancel agreements reached between Ukraine’s authorities and opposition on February 21. “They are trying to annul the February 21 agreement on settling the crisis in Ukraine that was signed by Ukraine’s president and opposition,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference […]
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NOVO-OGARYOVO. March 4 (Interfax) – Far from all moves of Western countries are legitimate, Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the Western criticism of Russia. “We are often accused of taking illegitimate actions. And when I ask if they think [their actions] are totally legitimate, they say yes. They have to be reminded about the U.S. actions in Afghanistan, Iraq […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Christopher Brennan – March 4, 2014) President Vladimir Putin spoke publicly about the political turmoil in Ukraine on Tuesday for the first time since ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled Kiev amid violence between police and anti-government protesters. Putin echoed comments made by Yanukovych at a news conference in Rostov-on-Don last week, saying that the […]
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