(Business New Europe – bne.eu – COMMENT: Vera Graziadei – August 19, 2014) “The lawgivers and founders of mankind, starting from the most ancient and going on to the Lycurguses, the Solons, the Muhammads, the Napoleons, and so forth, that all of them to a man were criminals, from the fact alone that in giving a new law, they thereby […]
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MOSCOW, August 19 (RIA Novosti) – Russia is systematically providing the US Department of State, which continues accusing Russia of escalating tensions in Ukraine, with selections of publications, reports by Russian and foreign media from hot spots, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Tuesday. “We have started gathering facts; we have started collecting publications, media reports. In particular, the […]
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(Interfax – August 22, 2014) Russia’s Ukraine-bound humanitarian aid convoy is starting to move in the direction of the city of Lugansk, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its website. “Continuing to put forth new artificial demands and excuses has already become derisive. It is impossible to put up with this mayhem, blatant lies and this unwillingness […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Graham Stack in Stannitsa Luhanska – August 22, 2014) The city of Luhansk, a centre of the Russian-backed insurgency in East Ukraine, could fall to Ukrainian government forces in the next few days, the commander of an army battalion moving up on the strategically crucial north-eastern flank of the city tells bne. The commanding […]
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… 25. Kyiv Post: Yatsenyuk: ‘I think we will win’
26. The Economist: Ukraine and Russia: Battering on. The fighting in eastern Ukraine intensifies as pro-Russian rebels lose ground, raising fresh questions over the plans of Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
27. Kyiv Post editorial: More sanctions now.
28. The National Interest: Stephen Blank, A Time for Deterrence. …
KYIV. Aug 21 (Interfax) – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko could make a decision to disolve the Verkhovna Rada on the Independence Day, his press secretary Svyatoslav Tseholko said. “Poroshenko on the disbandment of the Verkhovna Rada: the decision will be made when constitutional reasons arise. And their time falls on Independence Day,” Tseholko wrote on Twitter. Ukraine marks its Independence […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Joe Parson in Moscow – August 21, 2014) US and EU sanctions are threatening to derail a monster exploration and production project in the Russian Arctic between state-owned Rosneft and US oil major ExxonMobil. The threat is not that Washington will pressure US companies to pull out of Russian deals. Rather, the latest round […]
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(RFE/RL Explainer – rferl.org – Charles Recknagel – August 21, 2014) Moscow’s sweeping ban on food imports is meant as a slap in the face to Western powers for imposing sanctions on Moscow over Ukraine. But the ban is also causing food prices to rise in Russia, which is a major importer of food and has few immediate supply alternatives. Here are four things to know […]
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… 28. Peterson Institute for International Economics: Anders Aslund, Is the West to Blame for Russia’s Aggression in Ukraine? Of Course Not!
29. The National Interest: James Carden, Ukraine’s Nightmare Drags On. In recent weeks, the American media has seemed focused on reporting on nearly every newsworthy event-except the Ukraine crisis.
30. Carnegie Corporation of New York: Rebuilding US-Russia Relations: Deana Arsenian, Introduction. United States and Russia: A Relationship to Manage …
… 13. Wall Street Journal: Fighting Rages in Eastern Ukraine Ahead of Meeting Between Russia’s Putin and Poroshenko.
14. New York Times: Plenty of Room at the Top of Ukraine’s Fading Rebellion.
15. Reuters: Ukraine rebel movement faces uncertain future. …
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – August 18, 2014) To international audiences, Ukraine is now no more than the scene of a Russian-inspired armed conflict. The fighting, however, is confined to areas that are home to 6.5 million of Ukraine’s total population of 45 million. Although the outcome there is important to all Ukrainians, there is a bigger issue: Will the […]
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KYIV. Aug 20 (Interfax) – Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the damage done to Ukraine by the war in southeastern Ukraine is in the billions of dollars. “It is very difficult to have a working economy and a healthy financial sector in a situation when there is a war going on in the country,” Yatsenyuk said while opening a […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – August 20, 2014) The price of Urals crude oil, Russia’s key export and the lynchpin of its government finances, fell below $100 this week for the first time in more than a year, after plummeting $15 in under a month. Russia relies on hydrocarbon exports for 50 percent of its budget. Already […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Graham Stack in Kyiv – August 20, 2014) The Russian-backed insurgency in the Donbass region of east Ukraine is forcing numerous industrial giants to suspend operations. With the region accounting for over 25% of Ukrainian exports, the effect will hit hard currency revenues and the embattled hryvna. The flashpoint marking the start of the industrial collapse […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Daryna Krasnolutska, Anton Doroshev – August 20, 2014) Ukraine’s armed forces said they continue to push back separatists in fighting in the country’s east ahead of a possible face-to-face meeting of the Russian and Ukrainian leaders next week. Soldiers from Ukraine’s National Guard captured the city of Ilovaysk, leading separatists to counter-attack using tanks and artillery, […]
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(Oilprice.com – Robert Bensh – August 18, 2014) Ukraine’s next crisis will be a devastatingly economic one, as violent conflict destroys critical infrastructure in the east and brings key industry to a halt, furthering weakening the energy sector by crippling coal-based electricity production. The Ukrainian military’s showdown with separatists in the industrial east has forced coal mines to severely cut […]
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… 1. Foreign Affairs: John J. Mearsheimer, Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault: The Liberal Delusions That Provoked Putin.
2. Huffingtonpost.com: Russia Has Already Invaded Ukraine: Strobe Talbott.
3. Moscow Times: Natalia Antonova, Kiev Must Show Compassion to Eastern Ukraine.
4. The Guardian: Shaun Walker, Moscow and Kiev may both need a deal over Ukraine soon. …
… 1. The Australian: Chris Griffith, Ukrainians starve and die for Putin’s political ambitions.
2. Wall Street Journal editorial: Some Realism on Russia. The U.S. has done far too little to deter an invasion of Ukraine.
3. The Sunday Times (UK): Sick babies left behind in city caught in crossfire.
4. The Times (UK): A mother’s flight to safety: ‘I didn’t walk, I crawled. It was a nightmare’ …
KYIV. Aug 18 (Interfax) – Ensuring the impenetrability of the border with Russia is one of conditions for achieving a bilateral ceasefire in south-eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said. “We said yesterday in Berlin that everyone should do everything that depends on them in order to block the border, to stop gunfire on our territory and so that […]
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KIEV, August 17 (RIA Novosti) – Right Sector militants will continue to fight against the militia forces in the east of Ukraine and will not march on Kiev, because the authorities partially complied with the demands presented by the movement, the leader of the organization Dmitry Yarosh said. On Saturday, the Right Sector ultranationalist movement addressed to the president of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – August 18, 2014) The European Union’s united front on Russia sanctions seems to be buckling, as Eastern European countries hit hardest by Moscow’s retaliatory food import bans begin to question the wisdom of wrecking their economies in the name of a strategy that has seen the crisis in Ukraine only escalate. Hungarian […]
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BERLIN, August 18 (RIA Novosti) – The recent demarche by Ukraine’s radical Right Sectormovement, which demanded the closure of all criminal cases against its members, shows that the Kiev government fails to control paramilitary groups active in the country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday. “The Kiev government fails to control numerous armed groups, including the Right Sector,” Lavrov […]
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DONETSK, August 18 (RIA Novosti) – TheDonetsk city council urged the residents of the besieged Ukrainian city in the east to store drinking water before the water supply would be cut off for an indefinite period as a result of the ongoing fighting, the council told RIA Novosti. “Urgent: all Donetsk residents must stock up on water before 9:00 p.m. […]
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Subject: RE: 2014-#176-Johnson’s Russia List/Stephen Cohen Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 From: Keith Smith <keith.smith@cepa.org> Ambassador Keith C. Smith (Ret.) Center for European Policy Analysis 1225 19th Street NW, Suite 450 Washington, D.C. 20036 August 15, 2014 Fallacies in Support of Russia’s Ukraine Policies By Keith C. Smith Center for European Policy Analysis I read with considerable interest Stephen F. […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Delphine d’Amora – August 15, 2014) Russian politicians have declared the recent bans on Western imports a golden opportunity for Russian agriculture – but farmers and economists warn that upping production is a question of years, not months, and closing the market will not be enough to solve its problems. Against a background of international […]
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MOSCOW. Aug 15 (Interfax) – Members of far-right groups disrupted a religious service being conducted by Priest Volodymyr Navozenko at the Church of the Holy Intercession in the village of Chervona Motovylivka outside of Kyiv. A video posted on YouTube shows several dozen people entering the church holding Ukrainian flags and symbols of the far-right party Svoboda (Freedom) and the […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List JRL 2014-#178 :: Friday 15 August 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 JRL: russialist.org/funding.php Ukraine 1. www.foreignpolicy.com: Sergeii Leshchenko, Ukraine’s Oligarchs Are Still Calling the Shots. […]
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ROSTOV-ON-DON. Aug 15 (Interfax) – Officials of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry who are accompanying Russia’s humanitarian aid convoy and the Ukrainian authorities are discussing ways to transfer the cargo intended for people in eastern Ukraine, a source familiar with the situation told reporters on Friday. “At the moment, the main questions surrounding the transfer of this humanitarian aid depend […]
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MOSCOW, August 15 (RIA Novosti) -The eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk has run out of fuel and is running out of medicine after being isolated from the outside world for 13 days, the Luhansk City Council said Friday. “There is a pressing issue of a lack of fuel supplies in the city, all the reserves have been emptied,” according to […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Tim Ash, Standard Bank – August 15, 2014) Putin speaking in Crimea, at session of Russia’s National Security Council. This is about as far as Putin gets to extending an olive branch and saying “lets talk”. Also noting that he does not want Russia to be isolated internationally. We had the Sochi summit over […]
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(Interfax – August 14, 2014) There are many problems in Crimea which had not been solved for decades, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. He made the statement at a meeting with members of Russian parliamentary parties in Yalta, as quoted by Russian privately-owned news Interfax agency on 14 August. “There is a lot to do here [in Crimea]. There […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Carl Schreck and Luke Johnson – August 14, 2014) The speech was Putin’s first major speech on the peninsula since May, when he spoke in glowing, historical tones about the Crimea annexation during a visit to the city of Sevastopol.The absence of television coverage appeared all the more unusual given the fact that the Ukraine crisis has been […]
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MOSCOW, August 15 (RIA Novosti) – Russia has deployed mobile teams of border guards to the vicinity of the border with Ukraine, but they are to operate strictly on the Russian side, a spokesman for Russia’s FSB Border Guard Service said Friday. The spokesman said that residents of the border territories are under threat due to increased numbers of Ukrainian […]
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MOSCOW. Aug 15 (Interfax) – The European Union would not want to continue the sanctions policy regarding Russia and is not ruling out the possibility of canceling the existing measures if the situation in eastern Ukraine stabilizes. “When clear results in terms of stabilizing the situation in eastern Ukraine appear, of course, the EU will be ready to consider the […]
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(Interfax – August 15, 2014) Most Russians are aware of sanctions imposed on their country but the sanctions seem to have gone unnoticed by an overwhelming majority, sociologists told Interfax. Some 92 percent of the respondents said the Western sanctions had not harmed them, 4 percent spoke about a price rise and the others mentioned the freeze of accounts, the […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines Press Digest – rbth.ru – Ivan Konyukhov, special to RBTH – August 14, 2014) RBTH presents a selection of views from leading Russian media on the latest developments in Ukraine, including the controversial humanitarian aid convoy sent by Moscow to Ukraine, the election of the new head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and the fate of […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List JRL 2014-#177 :: Thursday 14 August 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 JRL: russialist.org/funding.php 1. Reuters: Putin sounds conciliatory note on visit to annexed Ukraine […]
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MOSCOW. Aug 14 (Interfax) – The election of Metropolitan Onufry as head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church indicates that the majority of the bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate adhere to “Russian world” ideas and puts an end to the idea of creating a local Church of Ukraine, the self-proclaimed “Kyiv Patriarchate” said. “Despite the hopes for the furthering, especially in […]
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MOSCOW, August 14 (RIA Novosti) – Officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) met Moscow’s convoy carrying humanitarian aid to Ukraine in Russia’s southern Rostov Region, ICRC tweeted Thursday. “We’ve made initial contact with Russia-led aid convoy, Rostov region, Russia. Many practical details to be clarified,” ICRC wrote in Twitter. Russia sent a convoy of 280 white […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris MOSCOW BLOG – August 14, 2014) What does the west hope to achieve in its show down with Russia over the fate of Ukraine? An increasing number of articles have appeared recently arguing that the west has no long-term strategy to end this conflict and is being sucked into a destructive “sanctions […]
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MOSCOW, August 14 (RIA Novosti) – The defense minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Igor Strelkov, resigned from the post Thursday, the republic’s official website said in a statement. “At today’s session, the Cabinet of Ministers approved DPR Defense Minister Strelkov’s resignation due to his appointment to a new position,” the statement reads. Alexander Zakharchenko, who heads the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – August 14, 2014) Only a “thin line” separates Russia and Ukraine from going to war, a pro-Kremlin lawmaker said, arguing that Moscow has been careful in its policies to avoid tipping the scale and that Kiev should demonstrate more restraint. The head of the federal parliament’s International Affairs Committee, Alexei Pushkov, said Wednesday that the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – August 14, 2014) As President Vladimir Putin touched down in the Crimean city of Sevastopol on Wednesday, a poll revealed that his support among voters has almost doubled since January, largely due to the Kremlin’s policies in Crimea and Ukraine, analysts said. The turmoil in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea in […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, August 13, 2014) By shelling Russian territory, Ukraine would like to provoke a prolonged conflict with it and Russia’s response should be extremely careful, head of the Russian State Duma International Affairs Committee Aleksey Pushkov (One Russia faction) has said. “Our actions must be extremely level-headed. After all this could entail a prolonged conflict and Ukraine will […]
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MOSCOW. Aug 13 (Interfax) – A total of 63% of Russian citizens believe that actions and statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the situation in Ukraine assist in the peaceful resolution of the conflict, the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) said citing a poll held. This stance is mostly shared by residents of cities with populations of over […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Danske Bank – August 13, 2014) We analyse the economic and financial impact of the Ukrainian crisis with a special focus on our footprint Nordic markets. We view the situation in Ukraine as far from de-escalating as fighting continues in Donetsk and Lugansk, which we expect to weigh on market sentiments near term. However, […]
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[Photos here http://en.ria.ru/world/20140813/191975347/Nazi-Symbolism-Flourishes-in-Post-Maidan-Ukraine.html] MOSCOW, August 13 (RIA Novosti) – Ukrainian authorities have vehemently denied that Ukraine’s armed forces have slightest correlation with neo-fascists. However, open use of Neo-Nazi symbolism in their crusade against militia forces and civil population of eastern Ukraine explicitly suggests otherwise. The country’s special unit for protection of public order – the Azov Battalion, often referred to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexey Eremenko – August 13, 2014) Concerns voiced by Kiev and the West that Moscow’s humanitarian convoy to Ukraine’s battle-scarred east is nothing more than a Trojan Horse are – most likely – unfounded, Russian military analysts said. Pundits told The Moscow Times on Tuesday that the limited scope of a “peacekeeping” operation would be […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List JRL 2014-#176 :: Wednesday 13 August 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 JRL: russialist.org/funding.php 1. Reuters: Ukraine crisis death toll doubles in two weeks to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – August 13, 2014) Fewer Russians are concerned about inflation than they were a month ago, a new poll published Tuesday showed, even as analysts warned recession was inevitable and that a ban on many foreign food items would push up prices for consumers. The state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Center found that between June and […]
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