(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Lyubov Chizhova and Farangis Najibullah – MOSCOW – April 09, 2014) It will take some time to revise Russia’s history textbooks to reflect the annexation of Crimea. But that’s not preventing the authorities from moving quickly to assure the country’s school curriculum sticks to a politically — and patriotically — correct line on the issue. In recent weeks, a new […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – April 9, 2014) As the EU presses on with sanctions against Russia for seizing Crimea, the $50 billion South Stream pipeline, meant to bring Russian gas through the Black Sea to Europe, may be frozen in favor of other projects. The European Union is close to freezing the progress of South Stream […]
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KYIV. April 8 (Interfax) – Most Ukrainian citizens would like the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, including establishing a free trade zone, to be signed as quickly as possible but stances as to when this should be done differ. According to the poll held by the Rating sociological group, the results of which Interfax obtained on Tuesday, 38% of respondents believe that […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – April 9, 2014) Russia’s top university for aspiring diplomats, the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, makes a show of being a worldly place. In the university’s main building, a sprawling gray structure in southwest Moscow, students dressed in suits stroll along hallways named after international streets like New York’s iconic Broadway. […]
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DONETSK. April 9 (Interfax) – The building of the Donetsk region’s administration, which was occupied by anti-Maidan protesters on April 6, stayed under their control in the morning of Wednesday. An Interfax correspondent has reported that there are three lines of barricades made of cement and sand are located in front of the building. The metal Mertsalov Palm Monument, a […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 9, 2014) A major reason the crisis in Ukraine is now so dangerous, Georgy Mirsky says, is that “neither [Russian President Vladimir] Putin nor [US President Barack] Obama wants to go into history as the politician who ‘lost’ Ukraine, although [that country] does not belong to either the one or the […]
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(Stratfor.com – George Friedman – April 8, 2014) George Friedman is the Chairman of Stratfor. Ever since the end of the Cold War, there has been an assumption that conventional warfare between reasonably developed nation-states had been abolished. During the 1990s, it was expected that the primary purpose of the military would be operations other than war, such as peacekeeping, […]
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… 38. Stratfor.com: George Friedman, U.S. Defense Policy in the Wake of the Ukrainian Affair.
39. New York Times editorial: A Familiar Script in Ukraine.
40. Wall Street Journal editorial: Putin’s Latest Escalation. Russia follows the Crimea script in eastern Ukraine. …
(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Antoine Blua – April 8, 2014) Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) says it has “neutralized” the activities of Chechen militant leader Doku Umarov. The April 8 announcement stops short of a full confirmation of Umarov’s death, but it comes one month after a website close to Russian Islamist militants, Kavkaz Center, said Umarov had “become a martyr.” Considered the leader […]
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(Interfax – April 8, 2014) Vladimir Putin would win a convincing victory were presidential elections to be held next Sunday, the Levada center pollster told Interfax. Forty-six percent of respondents and 77 percent of those who have made up their minds already would vote for Putin, it said. The poll was conducted on March 21 to 24 in 130 urban […]
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(Kremlin.ru – April 7, 2014) Vladimir Putin took part in an expanded meeting of the Federal Security Service board. The meeting reviewed the results of the FSB’s activities in 2013 and set the priorities for 2014. —– PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, At this expanded meeting today, we will discuss the Federal Security Service’s results over the recent […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov – April 8, 2014) The Russian Foreign Ministry has warned Ukraine against a reportedly planned sale of technology for long-range missiles, saying the Kiev administration was illegitimate but still needed to act responsibly on the world stage. Citing two international nonproliferation treaties, to which Ukraine is a signatory – the International Code of […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – April 7, 2014) With pro-Russian protests in eastern Ukraine turning violent and fears growing of a Russian incursion on the pretext of “protecting” ethnic Russian civilians, attention is now turning to what the economy of this country would look like were those regions to split. The answer: not good. A group of protestors who […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Ben Aris, special to RBTH – April 8, 2014) Ben Aris is the editor-in-chief of Business New Europe. The incursion into the Crimea was as much a shock to Russia’s business leaders as it was to the politicians in Brussels and Washington and is bound to hurt both domestic and foreign investment this […]
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BRUSSELS, April 8 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s set price on gas for Ukraine is unfairly high and is creating a threat of transiting Russian gas to Europe, Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan said Tuesday. “In this situation, the threat of cutting gas deliveries to Ukraine arises, as well as the threat of cutting transit gas to Europe because Ukraine’s ability […]
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MOSCOW. April 8 (Interfax) – Presidential candidates nominated by Ukrainian political parties may represent eastern and southern Ukraine at multilateral consultations about the Ukrainian crisis settlement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “Practically all the leading political forces have nominated and approved presidential candidates; no matter how one may feel about these presidential elections. After all, the candidates approved by […]
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(Interfax – April 8, 2014) Claims that Russia is financing massive protests in southeastern Ukraine should be left on the American partners’ conscience, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “Concerning who financed what in this situation, a rather large amount of information has leaked through, is available and has never been denied by anyone. These payments are connected with the […]
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KYIV. April 8 (Interfax) – Only official representatives can take part in the international negotiations over the situation in Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Yevhen Perebyinis said. “First of all, these should be talks among official representatives of Ukraine, Russia, as well as the European Union and the United States,” Perebyinis told reporters on Tuesday. The Ukrainian government repeatedly expressed […]
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MOSCOW, April 8 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow is prepared to consider multilateral negotiations on the situation in Ukraine involving the US and EU, but a date has not yet been agreed on for the talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday. US Secretary of State John Kerry proposed holding talks on the crisis-hit country within the next 10 days […]
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DONETSK, April 8 (RIA Novosti) – Ukrainian law enforcement agents continued talks with protesters occupying several government buildings in the eastern city of Donetsk on Tuesday, officials said. “Exhaustive measures are currently being taken to hold a dialogue aimed at peacefully unblocking the seized administrative buildings in the city,” prosecutors said in a statement, citing the success of talks on […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Inna Fedorova, special to RBTH – April 8, 2014) The Russia of the 1990s is staunchly associated with the epithet “heady”. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the arrival of democracy gave the nation not only freedom of choice and an abundance of goods, but also organized crime and wild business. Fashion […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Anastasia Maltseva, special to RBTH – April 7, 2014) Sociologists have conducted research on what professions Russian parents would like their children to do in the future. The results follow the changing dynamics of the job market in recent years and show that humanities-based occupations are no longer seen as desirable. Sociologists at […]
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MOSCOW. April 8 (Interfax) – Washington has announced it is halting financing of work on improving the security of Russian nuclear facilities, citing its disagreement with Moscow’s actions in regard to Ukraine, national daily Kommersant reported on Tuesday. The U.S. has suspended all work on physical protection of nuclear facilities in Russia, National Nuclear Security Administration representative Anne Harrington said, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – April 8, 2014) As the worst standoff since the Cold War emerges, energy and economic diplomacy are the tools the West applies to contain Russia, expecting them to be more effective than military confrontation. Business executives and energy industry analysts, however, were doubtful that these tools had any commercial value added to […]
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(Interfax – April 8, 2014) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lowered its 2014 Russian GDP growth forecast from 2 percent to 1.3 percent. The IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) Update that the 2015 forecast was now 2.3 percent, down from the 2.5 percent the Fund was predicting in January. CIS economic growth might be 2.3 […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 7, 2014) The domestic consequences of Moscow’s Crimean policy combined with Russia’s weakening economic prospects will drive ever more young Russians to seek work and possibly permanent residence abroad, an “exodus” that will hurt the country far more than any of the sanctions announced so far, according to Yevgeny Gontmakher. In […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Vladislav Shayman – April 8, 2014) Calling Novosibirsk a provincial backwater would be incorrect. With 1.7 million residents, Novosibirsk is Russia’s third-largest city with a nationally known opera theater and nearly 70 local universities and colleges. It also is known as “the town of academicians” for hosting the internationally known scientific center Akademgorodok. City inhabitants […]
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(Interfax – April 8, 2014) The mere fact that a nonprofit organization receives foreign funding cannot provide grounds for identifying this organization as a foreign agent, Constitutional Court Judge Sergei Knyazev told reporters on Tuesday. Such an organization will however find itself in the group of foreign agents if it engages in political activities, he said. “The status of foreign […]
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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#77 :: 7 April 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
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – April 7, 2014) While Russia’s standoff with the West over Ukraine may have caused Italian energy group Eni to distance itself from the huge South Stream gas pipeline project linking Russia to Central Europe, partners from Germany, which is highly dependent on Russian gas, have stayed faithful. On Friday, German engineering conglomerate […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Peter Spinella – April 7, 2014) President Vladimir Putin is expected to hold his annual call-in show on April 17, Russian media reports said Monday. The question-and-answer session will be broadcast on national television and radio stations and is expected to cover “Crimea, the international situation, the domestic economy and the ruble,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov […]
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MOSCOW, April 7 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday the country will not allow the activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to be used toward destructive ends as has recently happened in Ukraine. “Modern Russian legislation creates all of the conditions for the transparent and free activity of non-governmental social organizations, but we will never allow them to […]
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MOSCOW, April 7 (RIA Novosti) – EU financial losses if broad economic sanctions are imposed against Russia could reach a trillion euros, according to Sergei Glazyev, an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “It’s an open question who would sustain greater losses from the sanctions,” Glazyev told the Russian RT TV channel in an interview over the weekend. “If the […]
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MOSCOW, April 7 (RIA Novosti) – American gas cannot become an alternative to the Russian fuel in Ukraine for the lack of “vacant export objects” in the foreseeable future, said Sergey Kupriyanov an official spokesperson for Gazprom in his interview with TV-channel Rossiya 24 Saturday. He stressed that the claims of Ukranian authorities about possibly importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) […]
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MOSCOW, April 7 (RIA Novosti) – The violent suppression of anti-government demonstrations in eastern Ukraine would lead to a full-scale civil war, the president of the Center of System-based Analysis and Forecasting told RIA Novosti on Monday. “A violent crackdown is a possibility since [former Ukrainian Prime Minister] Yulia Tymoshenko has called to start shooting to quell the mob,” Rostislav […]
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KYIV. April 7 (Interfax) – The Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday will debate the issue of increasing liability for separatism and banning parties that engage in separatist activities, Oleksandr Turchynov, acting president of Ukraine and speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, said. “One of the first issues to be debated by the parliament tomorrow is the law increasing criminal liability for separatism […]
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STRASBOURG. April 7 (Interfax) – There will be no stability in Ukraine until it begins heeding the opinion of the Russian-speaking population, Alexei Pushkov, the head of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the head of the State Duma committee on international affairs, said. “The situation in eastern Ukraine shows that stability […]
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DONETSK, April 7 (RIA Novosti) – The situation in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Region requires individual examination and is not identical to the Crimean scenario, the deputy chairman of Russia’s upper house of parliament told RIA Novosti on Monday. “The situation [in Donetsk Region] requires separate consideration due to its historic and political background,” Federation Council member Ilyas Ukhmanov said in […]
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MOSCOW, April 7 (RIA Novosti) – Russia has no plans to increase its fortifications along the border with Ukraine, a source in the the country’s Border Guard Service told RIA Novosti on Monday. “All the necessary measures have already been taken, no follow-up steps for fortifying the borders with Ukraine are being considered,” the source said. The comment followed an […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 7, 2014) The only option Vladimir Putin has if he is to advance his policies in Ukraine is to use force because the majority of Ukrainians in every region of that country do not support him, do not believe what he says, and do not want what he wants, according to […]
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MOSCOW, April 7 (RIA Novosti) – The United States has completed payments under a historic agreement providing for the import of Russian highly-enriched uranium for electricity production, Russia’s state-owned uranium producer and trader Techsnabexport said Monday. “We received the final payment from the United States Enrichment Corporation in March,” the company said, adding that its obligations under a contract for […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Dan Pototsky, RBTH – April 7, 2014) This year marks 20 years since the internet first appeared in Russia. The first Soviet internet user, the well-known Soviet-American scientist Anatole A. Klyosov, speaks about the internet in the USSR, espionage and the surreal logic of history in an exclusive interview with RBTH. Anatole A. […]
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Subject: Russia’s confederal-disintegration, not federal, proposal for Ukraine Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2014 From: Ira Straus (IRASTRAUS@aol.com) Re Washington Post aticle “Kiev sees Russian federalization plans as attempt to destroy Ukraine.” I think it’s not just interesting but important. It says Ukrainians, by large polling majorities even in the East and South, reject Russia’s “federalization” proposal, and explains why it […]
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Subject: Sergei Roy’s piece Date: Sat, 5 Apr 2014 From: [experienced Western journalist] I spent one month in Kyiv, Crimea and eastern Ukraine and will be back there again soon. I have also been to Ukraine many times before, including Crimea. Sergei Roy’s piece is not insightful, it is inciteful. Below are a few private ruminations on that piece. It […]
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Subject: Ukraine and Sergei Roy Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 From: Stephen D. Shenfield <sshenfield@verizon.net> I would like to thank readers who have sent me appreciative and encouraging responses to my paper “Ukraine:Popular Uprising or Fascist Coup?” (which is now online on my site at http://www.stephenshenfield.net/themes/international-relations/164-ukraine-popular-uprising-or-fascist-coup). I would also like to respond to the long article by Sergei Roy (JRL […]
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(Moscow Times – cc – Ingrid Burke – April 7, 2014) International law is the weapon of choice in the Crimea conflict, with adversaries using sections of the United Nations Charter like artillery to bolster their own defenses and target their opponents’ weaknesses. But who will end up on the right side of history? The fact that the international community has […]
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(Interfax – March 5, 2014) Ukraine must pay its debt for gas supplied by Russia based on the contracts signed in 2009, Aleksey Miller, the head of Russian gas giant Gazprom, has said, as reported by privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax on 5 April. Meanwhile, Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov has said Ukraine has no grounds to take Russia to international […]
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MOSCOW. April 7 (Interfax) – Russian peacekeepers can be sent to a foreign country exclusively within the framework of international law, not at the request of local authorities, Chairman of the Federation Council’s Defense and Security Committee Viktor Ozerov told Interfax while commenting on the Donetsk People’s Council’s possible appeal to Russia to send peacekeepers to this part of Ukraine. […]
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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#75-#76 :: 4-5 April 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
MOSCOW, April 4 (RIA Novosti) – The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) seems to be gradually softening its stance toward Crimea’s reunification with Russia, the head of the Russian delegation to the assembly told journalists Friday. “There’s been a certain shift in the attitudes of political groups. Some national delegations feel there’s no need to force Russia […]
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