Month: February 2016
NEWSLINK: “World War Three: Inside the War Room” – BBC
NEWSLINK: “How Litvinenko’s poisoning fits into Putin’s power play. Everything Vladimir Putin has done to reassert Russian power has seemed farfetched, outlandish and inconceivable-until he did it” – Maclean’s (Canada)/Michael Petrou
U.S. Senator Predicts Revelations Of Putin’s Wealth Will Destabilize His Rule
(RFE/RL – rferl.org – February 1, 2016) A senior U.S. lawmaker says revelations about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s wealth will be “destabilizing” to his rule as the Russian population becomes increasingly aware of them. U.S. Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Voice Of America on February 1 that the Russian people “are beginning […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “Reinforcing Deterrence on NATO’s Eastern Flank Wargaming the Defense of the Baltics” – RAND
RAND addresses the military dynamic in the Baltics in the event of a hypothetical prospective Russian attack. Russia’s recent aggression against Ukraine has disrupted nearly a generation of relative peace and stability between Moscow and its Western neighbors and raised concerns about its larger intentions. From the perspective of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the threat to the three […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “Russia could overrun Baltics in 3 days. NATO forces would face severe casualties.” – Washington Times
The Washington Times covers a recent RAND report about the military dynamic that could exist in the Baltics in the event of a hypothetical Russian attack. On the same day the Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter, announced new resources being sought to strengthen Eastern European defenses from any possible Russian aggression, a report from the RAND corporation was released and […]
» Read moreCan Russia Be More Miserable? Judging by Oil, the Answer Is Yes
Combining inflation and unemployment, Russia is among the world’s unhappiest economies (Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Elena Popina – February 4, 2016) [Charts here bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-04/can-russia-be-more-miserable-judging-by-oil-the-answer-is-yes] The sinking price of crude has Russia hostage over a barrel of oil. For an inkling of how unhappy everyday Russians have gotten as Brent crude heads further south, take a look at the Misery Index […]
» Read moreWhy Germans Supported Hitler to the End and Why Russians May Do the Same with Putin
(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, February 3, 2016) In a recent book review essay in the New York Review of Books, military historian Max Hastings cites a passage from Nicholas Stargardt’s “The German War” (Basic Books, 2015) to explain why Germans continued to “close ranks around Hitler” even after it became obvious that their country was going […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “For Putin, For Stalin. Fearful of unrest, Russia’s president is using the memory of Stalin to exhort his people to sacrifice.” – Foreign Policy/Hannah Thoburn
NEWSLINK: “Pussy Riot Video Mocks Russian Prosecutor Accused of Corruption” – New York Times
RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2016-25 :: Thursday, 4 February 2016
Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2016-#25 Thursday 4 February 2016 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 […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “Putin must be stopped. And sometimes only guns can stop guns. The time for diplomacy will come again, but it is not now: Ukraine urgently needs military support, and a counter to Russian propaganda.” – The Guardian/Timothy Garton Ash
NEWSLINK: “Russian Banks, Lies and Emojis” – International New York Times: Masha Gessen
NEWSLINK Tavis Smiley (PBS): “Interview with Marvin Kalb [author of ‘Imperial Gamble: Putin, Ukraine and the New Cold War’]”
NEWSLINK: “Pay Attention, America: Russia Is Upgrading Its Military. The Kremlin’s forces are in the midst of a historic overhaul.” – The National Interest/Steven Pifer
NEWSLINK: “Oil gains after Russia says open to talking with OPEC” – Reuters
Ukrainian Cabinet to keep working, fuss surrounding its work aimed at redistributing financial flows, seizing power – Yatsenyuk
KYIV. Feb 3 (Interfax) – The Ukrainian Cabinet of ministers will continue working, and if some parliamentarians disagree with this, they are free to initiate a vote of no confidence in the government, says Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. “We, as a government, will keep doing our job, we will be fulfilling the government action program, we will pursue reform, and […]
» Read more52% of Russians favor open borders with Ukraine, without visas or customs
(Interfax – February 3, 2016) Half of Russians (52 percent) believe that Russia and Ukraine should be independent countries but friends, with open borders and without visas or customs, Levada Center told Interfax. The opinion was held by 52 percent of respondents in 2015, and 59 percent in 2014, the sociologists said. A third argue that Russia-Ukraine relations should be […]
» Read moreMoscow Institution in the Top 20 of the World’s Best Small Universities Ranking
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – February 3, 2016) Moscow’s National University of Science and Technology (MISiS) has taken 19th place in the Times Higher Education’s World’s Best Small Universities Ranking for 2016. The Times Higher Education (THE) defines small universities as having fewer than 5,000 students, with teaching and research across more than four academic disciplines. The ranking, published here […]
» Read moreTRANSCRIPT: [Putin at] Meeting with the core group of the Leaders Club
(Kremlin.ru – February 3, 2016) Vladimir Putin met with the core group of the Leaders Club, an informal association of small and medium business owners from various economic sectors. The Leaders Club was established in February 2012 and is engaged primarily in having businesspeople provide independent evaluations of conditions for doing business in Russia’s regions and the quality of state […]
» Read morePutin Opens Asset Sales to Foreigners as Budget Gap Widens
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov and Andrey Biryukov – February 2, 2016) President Vladimir Putin will allow foreign investors to bid for stakes in some of Russia’s largest companies as the government prepares its most ambitious asset-sale program in years to close a widening budget gap. “Russia was and remains open for foreign investment and Russia is interested in […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “Russian oligarchs most likely buyers in Putin’s new privatisation plan” – Reuters
NEWSLINK TASS: “Russia’s ex-PM asks FSB to launch criminal proceedings against Chechen leader”
NEWSLINK: “Could sanctions spur Russia’s ascent to agricultural superpower? Since the end of the Soviet era, Russia’s agricultural industry has languished. But with sanctions now keeping European goods out of the Russian market, small domestic farmers are stepping up.” – Christian Science Monitor
NEWSLINK: “The Pentagon’s Top Threat? Russia” – New York Times
NEWSLINK: “Ukraine’s Poroshenko sees increased risk of open war with Russia” – Reuters
NEWSLINK Interfax-Ukraine: “Ukraine won’t give up Donbas – Poroshenko”
RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2016-24 :: Wednesday, 3 February 2016
[check back for updates, including article links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2016-#24 Wednesday 3 February 2016 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 […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “Ukraine’s police must not collaborate with Azov xenophobes” – Human Rights in Ukraine (Kharkiv, Ukraine)/Halya Coynash
NEWSLINK: “Ways out of a blind alley in Ukraine. Almost one year after the Minsk agreement to resolve the Ukraine crisis, diplomats are working frantically behind the scenes but the two sides are still entrenched. Frank Hofmann reports from Kyiv.” – Deutsche Welle
NEWSLINK: “U.S. ambassador to Ukraine on Abromavicius: One of Ukrainian government’s great champions” – Interfax-Ukraine
NEWSLINK: “Blow to Ukraine’s reform hopes as economy minister quits” – Reuters
NEWSLINK UA Wire: “Russian Propaganda Film about Ukraine to be Shown on French Television”
NEWSLINK: “Ramzan Kadyrov, the Putin of Chechnya. Putin’s Dragon. Is the ruler of Chechnya out of control?” – The New Yorker/Joshua Yaffa
RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2016-23 :: Tuesday, 2 February 2016
[check back for updates, including article links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2016-#23 Tuesday 2 February 2016 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 […]
» Read moreVirtual Stalinism
(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – February 2, 2016) Russian officials seem to have developed an execution fetish of late. One example, of course, is the disturbing video Ramzan Kadyrov posted on Instagram showing opposition figures Mikhail Kasyanov and Vladimir Kara-Murza in the crosshairs of a sniper’s rifle. Another is the bizarre series of animated clips Vladimir Putin’s All-Russian […]
» Read moreInterfax: DPR militiamen accuse Kyiv of over 100 shellings over past day
DONETSK. Feb 2 (Interfax) – The Defense Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said that the Ukrainian military have breached the ceasefire 28 times over the past day; two people were wounded. “The situation on the contact line has not changed over the past day. The Ukrainian army has shelled the territory of the republic 109 times as […]
» Read moreWhat do the U.S. presidential candidates think about Russia?
On Feb. 1 the first important stage of the selection of presidential candidates from the Republican and Democratic parties – the Iowa Caucus – was held in Iowa. The subject of relations with Moscow is a key geopolitical trump for participants in the U.S. election race, with even those who are not too savvy in international politics making their position […]
» Read moreIs liberalism the future for Russia?
For years, ‘liberal’ has been a dirty word in Russia, a shorthand for everything undesirable. Yet state propaganda is having an unexpected side-effect: the rehabilitation of liberalism. (opendemocracy.net/Colta.ru – Andrei Arkhangelsky – February 2, 2016) Andrei Arkhangelsky is a Russian journalist, essayist and scholar of cultural studies. He is also cultural editor for Ogonyok and researches contemporary Russian media. According […]
» Read morePeskov on Kasyanov’s plans to await president’s response to threats from Kadyrov: “This is his right”
MOSCOW. Feb 2 (Interfax) – The Kremlin has said that PARNAS opposition party leader, Mikhail Kasyanov, has a right to expect a response from the Russian president, as the guarantor of the constitution, to Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov’s Instagram publication with threats toward the non-systemic opposition and Kasyanov personally. “This is his right,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on […]
» Read moreOil prices could reach $40 a barrel if Russia made deal with OPEC
Analysts say that if Russia reduces its oil production by 5 percent, black gold prices may increase to $40 a barrel and over. However, the Russian government admits that it has no real control over production policy in private companies, though firms may reduce production themselves due to the fall in hydrocarbon prices. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – […]
» Read moreKremlin: Privatization of Russian companies open for foreign investors
(Interfax – February 2, 2016) Privatization of Russian companies is open for foreign investors, and Russia is interested in attracting new foreign partners, the Kremlin has said. “Russia has always been interested in foreign investors; we value cooperation with those who continue to operate on the Russian market and we are interested in an inflow of fresh investments,” Kremlin press […]
» Read morePutin Says No Privatization at Knockdown Prices
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – February 2, 2016) President Vladimir Putin on Monday threw cold water on proposals to quickly sell stakes in state companies to fill holes in Russia’s budget. “There should be no sale of shares cheaply, at giveaway prices. This won’t bring particular benefit to the budget,” Putin said at a meeting with officials and heads of […]
» Read moreTRANSCRIPT: [Putin at] Meeting on privatisation
(Kremlin.ru – February 1, 2016) Vladimir Putin held a meeting to discuss privatisation issues. President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues. We have met today to discuss the Government’s privatisation plans for 2016. I have just looked over a few issues with [Prime Minister] Mr Medvedev. The privatisation process plays an important part in changing the Russian economy’s structure […]
» Read moreEconomic Minister says moderate economic growth possible in Russia in 2016
(Interfax – February 2, 2016) Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev does not rule out the possibility of the Russian economy shifting to moderate growth in 2016. “A shift is already possible this year, perhaps, to moderate, recovery growth in the economy for the time being. We should be prepared for this,” Ulyukayev said at a ministry meeting on Feb. 2. […]
» Read moreInflation Is Most Worrying Problem for Russians – Poll
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – February 2, 2016) The number of Russians that consider high inflation one of the country’s biggest problems increased sharply in January, a survey by state-run pollster VTsIOM revealed Tuesday. Twelve percent of Russians were concerned about rising prices in December, but in January that number jumped to 20 percent, according to the poll. Other problems […]
» Read moreRussians put economy, inflation on top of most pressing national problems
(Interfax – February 2, 2016) The economy, inflation, and low living standards have been viewed by the public as the top three most pressing problems in Russia, for the past six months, the Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) has said. The economy was the number one problem in the January rating. Concerns about economic affairs started growing in November […]
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