Year: 2018
NEWSLINK: “Russia’s latest attack on the Ukrainians is a warning to the West; Moscow is counting on our passivity” – Washington Post/ Anne Applebaum
RUSSIALINK: “What Drives the Russian State; To understand what makes Putin and his allies act the way they do, you need to look beyond the myths” – New York Times/ Alexander Baunov/ Carnegie Moscow
“Since … Putin came to power … analysis of Russia … has largely focused on two interpretations …. The first argues that Russia is a mafia state in which the main aim of the ruling elite is to steal money at home to conceal and spend abroad. The second states that Mr. Putin is a hostage of his own popularity […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “85 Years Later, Ukraine Marks Famine That Killed Millions” – New York Times/ Iuliia Mendel
“His frail hand covering his heart, Mykhailo Matvienko, 92, peered at the yellow flame of a candle on his kitchen table on Saturday and recounted his childhood during the Great Famine. A searing event seen as one of the great atrocities of 20th-century Europe, the Ukrainian famine of 1933 killed more than three million people, by most estimates, and has […]
» Read moreRUSSIALINK: “Poroshenko fails to make speech on martial law after several factions block Rada rostrum” – Interfax
KYIV. Nov 26 (Interfax) – Several factions in Ukrainian parliament blocked its plenary session on Monday, preventing President Petro Poroshenko from explaining his proposal to impose nationwide martial law, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction said. “A number of factions decided to block the rostrum without even allowing the president to reveal what exactly is happening in the Sea of Azov […]
» Read moreJRL NEWSWATCH: “Russia-Ukraine Standoff Intensifies Over Captured Vessels; Kiev has troops on military alert and demands Moscow releases the ships and crew members” – Wall Street Journal/ Thomas Grove, Ann M. Simmons, Emre Peker, Georgi Kantchev
“Ukraine’s defense ministry put its troops on military alert … a day after Russian forces fired on and detained three Ukrainian naval vessels near the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, a move that threatened to reignite tensions between Moscow and Kiev. … Poroshenko has called for martial law – that could last for 60 days after being enacted and give […]
» Read moreRUSSIALIST: “Russia Says It Is Planning for New U.S. Nuclear Missiles in Europe” – Moscow Times
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 26, 2018) Russia said on Monday it was planning for a U.S. deployment of new nuclear missiles in Europe following Washington’s planned withdrawal from a landmark Cold war-era arms control treaty despite the United States denying it has such plans. Russia is keen to dissuade U.S. President Donald Trump from carrying out a threat […]
» Read moreRUSSIALINK: “Ukrainian Security Council proposes martial law until Jan 25, 2019” – Interfax
KYIV. Nov 26 (Interfax) – The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council proposes in its resolution of November 26 that President Petro Poroshenko declare martial law for 60 days, until January 25, 2019. The Council resolved “to propose that the president of Ukraine declare martial law in Ukraine for 60 days, from 2:00 p.m. November 26, 2018 until 2:00 p.m. […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “James H. Billington, 89, Dies; Led Library of Congress Into Digital Age” – New York Times/Robert D. McFadden
“James H. Billington, the librarian of Congress for nearly three decades, who led the nation’s treasure house of knowledge into the digital age and added millions of books, films and cultural artifacts to its historic collections, including a trove of tweets, died on Tuesday in Washington. He was 89. His daughter Susan Harper Billington said the cause was complications of […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “James H. Billington, long-reigning librarian of Congress, dies at 89” – Washington Post
“James H. Billington, an eminent American scholar of Russian culture who reigned for three decades as librarian of Congress, propelling the expansion of the world’s largest library but struggling to lead it through the challenges of the digital age, died Nov. 20 at a hospital in Washington. He was 89. …”
» Read moreRUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2018-206 :: Monday, 26 November 2018
To inquire about a subscription to the full Johnson’s Russia List e-mail newsletter, e-mail David Johnson at davidjohnson@starpower.net Support the JRL: russialist.org/funding.php Donate Online: click here for direct link at GWU [check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2018-#206 :: Monday, 26 November 2018 A project sponsored through […]
» Read moreJRL NEWSWATCH: “Russia rewrites nuclear rule book to fire first” – The Times (UK)/ Marc Bennetts
“… Senators in [Russia’s] Federation Council … have recommended … allow[ing] … [P]resident [Putin] to order nuclear strikes in response to enemy use of conventional weapons, a significant departure from the military doctrine that prohibits first use unless Russia is threatened by [WMD] or if its ‘very existence is in jeopardy.’ The council proposes that Russia be allowed to retaliate […]
» Read moreNearly Two-Thirds of Russians Say Putin Responsible for Problems in Their Country, Levada Center Poll Says
(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, November 22, 2018) Sixty-one percent of Russians polled by the Levada Center say that Vladimir Putin is responsible for the problems Russia now faces, up from 55 percent a year ago and the highest figure since such questions began to be asked a decade ago in the wake of the 2008 economic […]
» Read moreJRL NEWSWATCH: “New Ukrainian Opposition Party Names Presidential Runner; A pro-Russian candidate could present a real challenge to Poroshenko, pundits say, if the squabbling opposition parties join forces” – Transitions Online
“The split between the successors to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions widened this week when the parliamentary Opposition Bloc stripped its co-chairman Yuriy Boyko of membership. … three days after Boyko threw his hat into next spring’s presidential race …. Earlier this month, Boyko and another Opposition Bloc member, Vadym Rabinovych, announced the formation of an offshoot […]
» Read moreJRL NEWSWATCH: “Baron Sobyanin; Moscow’s mayor squashes competition but transforms his city; Sergei Sobyanin has turned his city around” – The Economist
“… The previous mayor, Yuri Luzhkov… ruled Moscow as a medieval fief since 1992, developing a reputation for corruption and crass taste. Historic buildings … crashing down, glitzy shopping malls … traffic [grinding] to a halt … his [construction magnate] wife became the country’s richest woman. … Sobyanin set out to break with the Luzhkov era …. focus[ing] on urban […]
» Read moreRUSSIALINK: “WTO modernization among key issues at G20 summit – Russian Sherpa” – Interfax
MOSCOW. Nov 22 (Interfax) – The G20 summit will discuss ways to modernize the World Trade Organization (WTO) as one of the key issues at their summit and, hopefully, find a common approach to the matter, Russia’s G20 Sherpa Svetlana Lukash said. “As for trade, the key question of course is: what is going to happen to the main international […]
» Read moreRUSSIALINK: “No rapid de-dollarization, national currency settlements pose certain risks – Kudrin” – Interfax
MOSCOW. Nov 22 (Interfax) – There will be no rapid de-dollarization in settlements which, when conducted in other national currencies, including those of Eurasian Economic Union countries, pose certain currency risks, said Alexei Kudrin, head of the Russian Accounts Chamber. “I’m in favor of a company being able to choose [the currency of settlements], which would be in keeping with […]
» Read moreRUSSIALINK: “Dozens leave St. Petersburg’s Yabloko branch over differences with Yavlinsky” – Interfax
ST. PETERSBURG. Nov 22 (Interfax) – Mikhail Amosov, a deputy of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, said he is leaving the Yabloko party. Several dozen others in the region have also left. “The wish to decide from Moscow who will run the organization, who will be included in the bureau, the issuance of yarlyks for princedoms – unfortunately, these things […]
» Read moreRUSSIALINK: “Losing the Plot – Ukraine’s Opposition Seeks a Strategy; Ukraine’s pro-Russian opposition is targeting next year’s parliamentary elections, not the presidential ones-so is Russia. But they cannot agree among themselves on who their leader should be and what their strategy is” – Carnegie Moscow/ Konstantin Skorkin
“Disoriented since the downfall of former president Viktor Yanukovych, the parts of Ukraine’s opposition more sympathetic to Russia have not disappeared. They are regrouping, with an eye mainly to next year’s parliamentary elections, seeing the presidential election as all but lost. But they have yet to find a common leader or unifying idea. …”
» Read moreRUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2018-205 :: Friday, 23 November 2018
To inquire about a subscription to the full Johnson’s Russia List e-mail newsletter, e-mail David Johnson at davidjohnson@starpower.net Support the JRL: russialist.org/funding.php Donate Online: click here for direct link at GWU [check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2018-#205 :: Friday, 23 November 2018 A project sponsored through […]
» Read moreOne-Fifth Of Russians Live In Poverty, 36 Percent In ‘Risk Zone,’ Study Finds
(Article ©2018 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – Nov. 21, 2018 – also appeared at rferl.org/a/study-22-percent-of-russians-live-in-poverty-36-percent-in-risk-zone-/29613059.html) More than one-fifth of the Russian population now lives in poverty, according to a new study by a research institute with ties to the Kremlin. The November 21 report by the Russian Presidential Academy of the National Economy and Public Administration says […]
» Read moreRussia Today is Not Where USSR was in 1991 in Three Important Respects, Two Bloggers Say
(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, November 21, 2018) The Russian commentariat ever more frequently features apocalyptic predictions about the rapidly approaching end of Russia, with some like MGIMO professor Valery Solovey suggesting that the situation in Russia today is very much like that in the Soviet Union in 1990-1991 and that the results will be similar. But […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “Robert Legvold on Russia: Insights and Recommendations” – Russia Matters
“This evolving compilation of observations and policy ideas about Russia by Robert Legvold is part of Russia Matters’ ‘Competing Views’ rubric, where we share prominent American thinkers’ takes on Russia, U.S.-Russian relations and Washington’s policies toward its Cold War-era foe. Robert Legvold is one of America’s most authoritative experts on Russia and the international relations of the post-Soviet states. He […]
» Read moreRUSSIALINK: “Russia strengthening presence in Arctic – Putin”- Interfax
MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax) – The Arctic is important for Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “The Arctic plays a strategic role for Russia. Today we are strengthening our presence in the region, we are implementing scientific research initiatives, large-scale programs for its economic development, we are implementing ambitious infrastructure projects,” Putin said in his message to the participants and […]
» Read moreRUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2018-204 :: Wednesday, 21 November 2018
To inquire about a subscription to the full Johnson’s Russia List e-mail newsletter, e-mail David Johnson at davidjohnson@starpower.net Support the JRL: russialist.org/funding.php Donate Online: click here for direct link at GWU [check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2018-#204 :: Wednesday, 23 November 2018 A project sponsored through […]
» Read moreJRL NEWSWATCH: “Russian, US Officials Say Space Cooperation Remains Strong” – AP/ Washington Post
“Russian and U.S. space officials hailed the joint work of their programs Monday and said cooperation remains strong despite political tensions …. Roscosmos director Dmitry Rogozin and Bill Gerstenmaier, head of NASA’s human explorations and operations, said after a conference marking the 20th anniversary of the International Space Station that their agencies plan to collaborate on developing a moon orbiting […]
» Read moreJRL NEWSWATCH: “U.S.-Russian Relations and the ‘New Cold War’ Metaphor [Excerpt]” – PONARS Eurasia
(PONARS Eurasia – Mark Kramer – November 2018) Mark Kramer is Director of the Cold War Studies Program and Senior Fellow at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. [Full text ponarseurasia.org/memo/us-russian-relations-and-new-cold-war-metaphor] Over the past twenty years, observers such as Stephen F. Cohen have argued that relations between the United States and Russia have been plunged […]
» Read morePutin Views World as His TV Portrays It – and Himself as Russia’s Savior Not Its Problem, Davydov Says
(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, November 19, 2018) Most commentaries on Vladimir Putin are based on the assumption that he views Russia and his role in it in much the same way as his critics, with Russia beset by many problems and himself one of them, Ivan Davydov says; but that is almost certainly incorrect. Instead, he […]
» Read moreHow to think about Russia without Putin; “Russia without Putin” is more than a slogan. It’s an analytical claim.
(opendemocracy.net – Karine Clement – November 20, 2018) Karine Clément is a sociologist and research associate at CERCEC/EHESS (Paris). [opendemocracy.net/od-russia/karine-clement/how-to-think-about-russia-without-putin] A review of Tony Wood, Russia Without Putin: Money, Power and the Myths of the New Cold War (Verso Books). [Amazon: amazon.com/gp/product/1788731247/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1788731247&linkCode=as2&tag=faitcent-20&linkId=ecd69929f1165153c42f42523c2d050c] [Amazon promo: How the West’s obsession with Vladimir Putin prevents it from understanding Russia It is impossible to […]
» Read moreRUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2018-203 :: Tuesday, 20 November 2018
To inquire about a subscription to the full Johnson’s Russia List e-mail newsletter, e-mail David Johnson at davidjohnson@starpower.net Support the JRL: russialist.org/funding.php Donate Online: click here for direct link at GWU [check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2018-#203 :: Tuesday, 20 November 2018 A project sponsored through […]
» Read moreJRL NEWSWATCH: “Pre-election poll gives Poroshenko highest ‘anti-rating’ of all presidential candidates” – Kyiv Post/ Daria Shulzhenko
“… [incumbent President] Petro Poroshenko is facing an uphill battle for re-election …. Nearly 50 percent of Ukrainians won’t vote for Poroshenko under any circumstances, according to [a] poll … conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, the Razumkov Center, and the Rating Group sociological organization. … giv[ing] Poroshenko the highest ‘anti-ranking’ …. The poll shows presidential candidate Yulia […]
» Read moreRussia Takes Major Leap In European Gas War
(Oilprice.com – Vanand Meliksetian – Nov. 17, 2018) [Text with links and graphics oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Russia-Takes-Major-Leap-In-European-Gas-War.html] On November 19th, President Putin will stand shoulder to shoulder with President Erdogan during a ceremony to celebrate the completion of the first string of Turk Stream. The subsea gas pipeline will transfer 15.75 bcm directly from mainland Russia to Turkey. The capacity will double after […]
» Read moreEvery Fifth Married Russian has More Children than He or She Wants, Sociologist Says
(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, November 18, 2018) Seventy-five percent of married couples in Russia have children, but only 55 percent say they would like to have them, according to a 17-year-long study by Yuliyz Lezhnina of the Institute for Social Policy of Moscow’s Higher School of Economics (rosbalt.ru/moscow/2018/11/17/1746996.html) Having children is still the basis for marriage […]
» Read moreNew Russian Study Partially Lifts Veil on Post-1945 Trials of Soviets who Collaborated with Germans
(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, November 17, 2018) Court cases against Soviet citizens who collaborated with the Nazis has long been a little studied “and in part taboo subject,” according to Irina Makhalova, a historian at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics who is leading a small team that has partially lifted the veil on this subject. She […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “European diplomats mount last-ditch effort to stop US scrapping INF treaty” – The Guardian
“European officials are seeking to act as intermediaries between Russia and the U.S. in the hope of salvaging a cold war-era arms control treaty that Donald Trump has threatened to scrap. However, the diplomats involved are not confident of success in the effort to save the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. Although they have the support of senior officials […]
» Read moreRUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2018-202 :: Monday, 19 November 2018
To inquire about a subscription to the full Johnson’s Russia List e-mail newsletter, e-mail David Johnson at davidjohnson@starpower.net Support the JRL: russialist.org/funding.php Donate Online: click here for direct link at GWU [check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2018-#202 :: Monday, 19 November 2018 A project sponsored through […]
» Read moreAfter U.S. Midterms, Dialogue With Russia May Become Easier, Not Harder
(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – Paul J. Saunders – Nov. 14, 2018 – russiamatters.org/analysis/after-us-midterms-dialogue-russia-may-become-easier-not-harder) Paul J. Saunders is executive director of the Center for the National Interest and directs its U.S.-Russian Relations Program. While conventional wisdom has suggested that America’s 2018 midterm elections are likely to further harden U.S. policy toward Russia-and to further undermine prospects for a more functional […]
» Read moreFor Russian Authorities, Reforming is Risky; Not Reforming Even More So, Gontmakher Says
(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, November 13, 2018) Polls show that an ever larger share of Russians want radical change, something that is unwelcome news for the core of the ruling elite, Yevgeny Gontmakher says, because any change carries risk to those who launch reforms; but it also carries even greater risks for those who assume they […]
» Read moreAzov, Ukraine’s Most Prominent Ultranationalist Group, Sets Its Sights on U.S., Europe
(Article ©2018 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – Christopher Miller – KYIV, Nov. 14, 2018 – article also appeared at rferl.org/a/azov-ukraine-s-most-prominent-ultranationalist-group-sets-its-sights-on-u-s-europe/29600564.html) Robert Rundo, the muscly leader of a California-based white-supremacist group that refers to itself as the “premier MMA (mixed martial arts) club of the Alt-Right,” unleashed a barrage of punches against his opponent. But Rundo, a […]
» Read moreRussia’s Most Powerful Oilman: We’re Fine With Any Oil Price
(Oilprice.com – Irina Slav – November 15, 2018) Rosneft is fine with any level of oil prices, chief executive Igor Sechin told Kommersant radio station as quoted by news agency TASS. “We manage risks. If prices fall, we will work on increasing our market share,” Sechin said, adding that if prices continued their current slide, Rosneft would focus on maintaining […]
» Read moreJRL NEWSWATCH: “China and Russia’s awkward romance” – Washington Post/Jonathan Hillman
“… China still towers above Russia in economic and demographic terms. With a long history of invasions, Russia’s paranoia about foreign powers approaching its borders will not vanish overnight. … Russian policymakers must be persuaded to take China’s economic power as seriously as the West’s military power. China’s grand ambitions run through Russia and its neighbors, but its investments and […]
» Read moreJRL NEWSWATCH: “A Dissident Wins a Bittersweet Victory Over Putin; Europe’s rights court condemned the Kremlin’s persecution of Alexei Navalny, but the ruling could push Russia further away from the West.” – Bloomberg/Leonid Bershidsky
“… Russian dissident Alexei Navalny has long had a catch-and-release relationship with … Putin and his regime. … [T]he European Court for Human Rights ruled that arrests in 2012 and 2014 violated Navalny’s rights. … likely to bring Russia a step closer to breaking off its remaining ties with European institutions. The Putin regime has been playing an unpredictable game […]
» Read moreJRL NEWSWATCH: “IMF, World Bank see little progress in fight against corruption in Ukraine” – Interfax-Ukraine
“… key donors of Ukraine – the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank – note low effectiveness of the Ukrainian authorities in the fight against corruption. ‘We see good and important progress in setting out institutions for tackling investment …. Shortcomings in the judicial system and corruption are some of the key reasons why investment is so low […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “3 Days Stranded in Siberia? Flight Delays Don’t Come Much Worse Than This” – New York Times/Sophia Kishkovsky
“Pretty much all seasoned travelers know the frustration of flight delays — the time wasted puttering in an airport, waiting in a hotel room or, perhaps worst of all, stuck on the tarmac in an idled plane. But how about three days stranded in Siberia? That was the nightmare experienced by the passengers and crew of Air France Flight 116 […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “Walter Laqueur obituary; Influential but pessimistic historian who tried to find answers to the Holocaust and was among the first scholars to study terrorism” – The Times (London)
“… Laqueur’s curiosity, interest in the future and anxiety remained into his nineties …. As always he was interested in the attacks societies faced, and how internal weaknesses made them vulnerable. … He spoke sometimes of hope, but the searing experience of seeing the society he was born into collapsing into barbarism had never left him. Walter Laqueur, historian, was […]
» Read moreRussian Educational System Threatened by Privatization, Underfunding
(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, November 15, 2018) The explosive growth of private for-profit higher educational institutions and mounting anger in the regions about the costs of public schools at the primary and secondary level are threatening the quality of the Russian educational system, a system on which the future of that country heavily depends. If the […]
» Read moreRUSSIALINK TRANSCRIPT: “Answers to Russian journalists’ questions; At the end of his three-day state visit to Singapore, Vladimir Putin answered questions from the Russian media” – KremlinRu
(Kremlin.ru – November 15, 2018 – en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/59131) Question: Mr President, you have had many meetings during your three-day visit to Singapore. We noticed that the Prime Minister [of India] greeted you very emotionally at the dinner. President of Russia Vladimir Putin: We are friends. This kind of greeting is normal for those who maintain such relations. Question: Out of the […]
» Read moreRUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2018-201 :: Friday, 16 November 2018
To inquire about a subscription to the full Johnson’s Russia List e-mail newsletter, e-mail David Johnson at davidjohnson@starpower.net Support the JRL: russialist.org/funding.php Donate Online: click here for direct link at GWU [check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2018-#201 :: Friday, 16 November 2018 A project sponsored through […]
» Read moreJRL NEWSWATCH: “Russia draws closer to Southeast Asia with arms and energy trade; Putin to attend regional summit to build on economic and political cooperation” – Nikkei Asian Review (Japan)/JUN SUZUKI, TOMOYO OGAWA
“… Putin will for the first time attend the East Asia Summit, to be held in Singapore …. Putin aims to boost arms and energy trade with the region … [and is] seeking new partners to help offset the pressure of Western sanctions over its annexation of Crimea. … Putin will … attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders’ […]
» Read moreJRL NEWSWATCH: “U.S. military might ‘struggle to win, or perhaps lose’ war with China or Russia, report says” – CBS
“Absent renewed investment … and … strategic realignment of its … capabilities, the U.S. military could lose the next state-versus-state war it fights, according to … the National Defense Strategy Commission. ‘America’s ability to defend its allies, its partners and its own vital interests is increasingly in doubt’ … ‘It might struggle to win, or perhaps lose, a war against […]
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