(RFE/RL – Claire Bigg – December 23, 2015) A group of prominent Russian dissidents has identified what it says are Russia’s 10 most harmful laws. Their project, “Sanatsia Prava,” or Sanitation Of The Law, calls for the abolition of legislation that they say causes extensive harm to Russian society. The project’s initiators include writer Grigory Chkhartishvili, better known under his […]
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Reuters covers concerns over health care in Ukraine. A reform drive launched by the Western-leaning government installed after a pro-Moscow president, Viktor Yanukovich, was overthrown in a popular uprising last year has become mired in bureaucratic inertia, arguments and allegations of corruption. * * * [A] stalled health bill is one of many examples of the slow progress Ukraine is […]
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AP covers unseasonably mild temperatures in Moscow. It’s usually the cold that’s bitter in Moscow in December, but this year it’s the humor that bites during an unusual warm spell. … temperatures climbed as high as 7 degrees Celsius (45 degrees Fahrenheit) … a joke began circulating … This was nature’s compensation for Russians being unable to take vacations in […]
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The year 2015 has demonstrated a severe imbalance in the world order and the impossibility of returning to interaction governed by old principles. As global players strive for a return to their individual perception of a “golden age,” Fyodor Lukyanov considers which geopolitical model appears the most likely in the near future. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Fyodor […]
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(Kremlin.ru – December 22, 2015) Vladimir Putin attended the First Russian Internet Economy Forum. The First Russian Internet Economy Forum is taking place in Moscow on December 21-22. The plenary session, attended by representatives of the national IT industry and relevant ministries and agencies, is dedicated to initiatives for the long-term development programme of the Russian Internet segment and branches […]
» Read more[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#249 Wednesday 23 December 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 The contents do not necessarily represent the views of IERES or the George Washington University. JRL homepage: russialist.org – JRL […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Svitlana Prokopyeva and Tony Wesolowsky – PSKOV, Russia – December 18, 2015) Svitlana Moroz, her two sons, and her elderly mother have lived in the spartan Sport hotel in Pskov, in western Russia, for nearly a year and a half now. But they and hundreds more like them who fled the fighting at home in eastern […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Sergei Khazov-Cassia – December 19, 2015) VEGARUS, Russia — The stream bounces gaily on its bed of pebbles as it passes through this tiny village in Russia’s republic of Karelia, some 70 kilometers from the Finnish border. Up until 1939, the pristine, wooded area was part of Finland. Today, despite its proximity to one of Europe’s […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Natasha Doff and Marton Eder – December 20, 2015) A two-year feud between Ukraine and Russia is on the verge of being played out in a London courtroom after the government in Kiev defaulted on $3 billion in bonds. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko followed through on months of threats on Friday by reneging on the debt […]
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Russia is finally embracing transparency-so long as it poses no threat to political stability. (opendemocracy.net – Andrei Jvirblis – December 18, 2015) Andrei Jvirblis is a Moscow-based journalist and head of Transparency International Russia’s Public Activism group. As the response of Russia’s Prosecutor General to accusations of graft this week shows, nothing gets Russian public officials angrier than journalists rooting […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 21, 2015) The Orthodox Church has been the biggest beneficiary of presidential grants given to non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, in Russia over the past several years, a study published Monday revealed. According to the report prepared by the Center for Economic and Political Reforms, the organizations controlled by the Moscow Patriarchate or close to […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Anna Andrianova – December 21, 2015) A renewed sell-off in oil means the Russian economy will be testing new lows for much of next year. With crude trading near the lowest since mid-2004, banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. say a second year of recession is all but inevitable. JPMorgan reversed its call for 0.5 percent […]
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The difficult economic conditions have forced Russian businesses to reassess, which could be a good thing in the long run. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Ben Aris – December 21, 2015) Sanctions imposed by Western nations on Russia over its involvement in the Ukraine crisis and absorption of Crimea have hurt the country’s economy, but not mortally wounded […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 21 (Interfax) – World history shows that ideological wars have become a constant of Western policies, Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said in his article published by Russian newspaper ‘Izvestia’ on Monday. “The fact is that from time to time the West attempts to ‘educate’ the East. But having no authority to do this, it gets rebuffed, […]
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(Interfax – December 20, 2015) Moscow, 20 December: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he has always warned Western partners against “automatically, mechanically” spreading their ideas about democracy to other countries and nations. “I have spoken to many leaders, both European and American, over many years. And when it came to various operations, in Afghanistan, or in Iraq, or […]
» Read more[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#248 Tuesday 22 December 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 The contents do not necessarily represent the views of IERES or the George Washington University. JRL homepage: russialist.org – JRL […]
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(Interfax – December 20, 2015) Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, 20 December: Russian President Vladimir Putin regrets that in the implementation of its policy with regard to Ukraine and the whole post-Soviet space, the West is guided by the erroneous notion that Moscow wants to restore the Soviet Union. “As for Ukraine and all the former Soviet Union, I am convinced that the position […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 19, 2015) Russia has no objections to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s ouster after the peace process starts in the country, Western diplomats say, the Reuters news agency reported Friday. Russia had been repeatedly voicing its support to the Syrian president, but since Western powers, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have agreed that Assad can stay […]
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Analysts have reacted to the latest collapse of oil prices with varying forecasts. Some believe oil prices are on their way down to the critical level of $35, which would keep the Russian economy in recession. Others, however, including Western analysts, are of the opinion that 2016 may see the first shoots of recovery. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru […]
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Russian Christmas – celebrated in January – is still a noncommercial family occasion. December is now the main month for holiday shopping. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – ALEXEI LOSSAN, RBTH – December 21, 2015) According to the city’s press services, festivals and fairs, such as the Journey to Christmas, are engines of development for tourism, business activities and […]
» Read more[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#247 Monday 21 December 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 The contents do not necessarily represent the views of IERES or the George Washington University. JRL homepage: russialist.org – JRL […]
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(Interfax – December 22, 2015) The chances of obtaining information from the black box of the Russian bomber Sukhoi Su-24, which was downed by the Turkish Air Force, are extremely low because of the severe damage to the recording device, says Oleg Smirnov, a prominent Soviet pilot and chairman of the civil aviation commission of the Public Council at Russia’s […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – George Butchard – December 14, 2015) In early December a group of young journalists from over a dozen countries attended the New Generation program in Moscow, where they had the opportunity to tour some of Russia’s key media publications and ask questions about the way the state media apparatus works. First on the […]
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Russia’s middle class, which was growing in the early 2000s, has born the brunt of the economic downturn along with small-business owners. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – ALEXANDER BRATERSKY, SPECIAL TO RBTH – December 22, 2015) They created their wealth in the 1990s, enjoyed the fruits of the oil-rich 2000s and hoped to give their children a better […]
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On Dec. 18 in New York, members of the International Syria Support Group agreed on the principles of reaching a political settlement to the crisis in Syria. Later, after five hours of discussions, the group’s decisions on Syria were unanimously adopted by the UN Security Council. But what questions are still hindering progress? (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – […]
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Reuters covers Russian President Vladimir Putin’s admission at a press conference that Russian personnel are present in conflict-torn eastern Ukraine, even while disputing whether that meant regular Russian troops were present. … Putin said … Russia did have personnel in eastern Ukraine who were carrying out certain military tasks but denied Moscow had deployed regular troops …. ‘We never said […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Dmitry Elovsky, Mikhail Fishman – December 17, 2015) The mob-style execution of Vladimir Petukhov, mayor of the Siberian oil capital Nefteyugansk, one summer morning in 1998 was not an unusual occurrence for the “wild 90s” era of Russian business. But it has returned to the spotlight as part of the reanimated prosecution of former Yukos […]
» Read more[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#246 Friday 18 December 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 The contents do not necessarily represent the views of IERES or the George Washington University. JRL homepage: russialist.org – JRL […]
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(Kremlin.ru – December 17, 2015) The President’s news conference was broadcast live by Rossiya-1, Rossiya-24 and Channel One, as well as Mayak, Vesti FM and Radio Rossii radio stations. Television channel Public Television of Russia (OTR) and its site (http://www.otr-online.ru/online/) provided live sign language interpretation of the news conference. President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Friends and colleagues, We regularly meet […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Andrew Mayeda – December 17, 2015) The International Monetary Fund’s executive board ruled that a bond sold by Ukraine to Russia should be considered official sovereign debt, putting pressure on Ukrainian officials to start restructuring talks with their Russian counterparts. Russia bought a $3 billion bond from the government of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, December 17, 2015) Russian commentators across the political spectrum, from the most liberal to the most nationalistic, agree that Vladimir Putin achieved a significant victory for his policies in Syria and Ukraine in the course and as a result of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Moscow. One Moscow analyst […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Peter Hobson – December 17, 2015) [Chart here themoscowtimes.com/business/article/is-russias-cheap-oil-nightmare-coming-true/553010.html] Picture the scene. It is 2016, oil costs on average $35 per barrel, and Russia’s recession rolls into its second year. The economy shrinks by 2-3 percent. Unemployment creeps up, and wages continue to fall, depressing consumer spending. The ruble devalues, driving up inflation. To keep […]
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s official visit to Moscow this week for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov caught Russian pundits off guard, with Kerry striking a conciliatory tone and insisting that the U.S. was not seeking to isolate Russia. But can any serious change in Washington’s stance be read into Kerry’s comments? (Russia […]
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(Kremlin.ru – December 17, 2015) [Text in Russian and video here http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/50971] The President’s news conference was broadcast live by Rossiya-1, Rossiya-24 and Channel One, as well as Mayak, Vesti FM and Radio Rossii radio stations. Television channel Public Television of Russia (OTR) and its site (http://www.otr-online.ru/online/) provided live sign language interpretation of the news conference. President of Russia Vladimir […]
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Subject: What is going on in Russia? The views and values of ordinary Russians Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2015 From: Karen Hewitt <karen.hewitt@conted.ox.ac.uk> I am attaching the talk which I have given (with adaptations) to various groups of non-professionals who are interested in Russia. Some professionals in the audience, sometimes, but it was not intended for them. — What is […]
» Read more[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#245 Thursday 17 December 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 The contents do not necessarily represent the views of IERES or the George Washington University. JRL homepage: russialist.org – JRL […]
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RFE/RL and AFP report on theories that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unusual gait, including a tendency to keep his right arm closer to his torso while in motion, might be linked to KGB training that valued the ability to draw a weapon quickly. A team of European neurologists says … Putin walks with a peculiar “gunslinger’s gait” — a reduced […]
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Former Deputy Finance Minister and former deputy governor of the Russian Central Bank Sergei Alexashenko speaks about the economic challenges currently facing Russia, including sanctions, crisis management, the need for reform, and the country’s dependence on oil. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – MIKHAIL BOLOTIN, SPECIAL TO RBTH – December 16, 2015) RBTH: Recently economic experts have been speaking […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – December 15, 2015) Less than a week after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden asked Ukraine’s political leaders to play nice, the quiet war between the teams of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and President Petro Poroshenko has turned publicly and comically violent. The situation is growing increasingly reminiscent of Ukraine’s previous attempt to break […]
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(Kremlin.ru – December 14, 2015) Vladimir Putin spoke at the plenary session of the IV St Petersburg International Cultural Forum. The IV St Petersburg International Cultural Forum is taking place on December 14-16, 2015. Every year the forum brings together experts in culture, politicians, representatives of state bodies and business people, and this year’s event is dedicated to the 70th […]
» Read moreJohnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#244 Wednesday 16 December 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 The contents do not necessarily represent the views of IERES or the George Washington University. JRL homepage: russialist.org – JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist – JRL on Twitter: @JohnsonRussiaLi Support for JRL is provided in part […]
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The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace undertakes an overview of former Soviet states two-and-a-half decades following the USSR’s collapse. For nearly twenty-five years following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia, Ukraine, and the rest of the former Soviet lands now collectively referred to as Eurasia defied the best and the worst expectations of students of the region’s history. Unfortunately, […]
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