Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#210 :: Thursday, 21 November 2013

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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#210 :: 21 November 2013
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POLITICS

1. Forbes.com: Mark Adomanis, Large Parts Of The European Union Have Demographic Indicators Worse Than Russia’s.
2. Moscow Times: Putin Meets for First Time With Nonparliamentary Opposition.
3. Interfax: Putin praises “liberalization” of Russian political system.
4. Interfax: Putin: direct gubernatorial elections a key political trend but specific features of regions must be taken into account.
5. Interfax: Putin may include far-reaching objectives in annual address to Federal Assembly in December.
6. RIA Novosti: Detained Greenpeace Activists Deserve Clemency – Putin.
7. www.russiatoday.com: Putin opposes homophobia, reiterates state stance on gay propaganda.
8. Kremlin.ru: Meeting with leaders of non-parliamentary parties.
9. ITAR-TASS: State should not be cruel, it should show forgiveness.
10. www.russiatoday.com: Lawlessness can bring back 1917 revolution -­ Putin.
11. Moscow Times/BBC Monitoring: What the Papers Say, Nov. 21, 2013.
12. Sobesednik: Russian Analyst Views Public Putin-Medvedev Spat as Trivial. (Stanislav Belkovskiy)
13. Moscow News: Anna Arutunyan, For Russia, size matters. Why some lawmakers want to make promoting separatism illegal.
14. Interfax: Corruption is called systemic threat in Russian public security policy.
15. Interfax: State of public security in Russia is unstable, extremism is main source of threat – public security policy.
16. RIA Novosti: Putin’s spokesman says Russia has no political prisoners, writer disagrees. (Boris Akunin)
17. Interfax: Patriarch Kirill denies accusations of church dictate, says he is anti-clericals’ main target.
18. www.opendemocracy.net: Geraldine Fagan, Russia’s spinning moral compass. Vladimir Putin’s latest political course as president ­ from the jailing of Pussy Riot to the law against gay ‘propaganda’ ­ strikes many as being one defined by the Russian Orthodox Church. But is it really so?
19. BBC Monitoring: Jailed Pussy Riot member feeling ok in Russian prison hospital – husband.
20. Moscow Times: Writers Snub Putin Prior to Literary Conference.
21. AP: Ousted Bolshoi head testifies in acid attack trial.
22. Moscow News: Swan Lake Shocker.

ECONOMY

23. RIA Novosti: Putin Says Without Environmental Policy Russia Could Be ‘Left With Nothing’
24. Interfax: Putin opposed to nationalizing companies privatized in auctions in 1990s.
25. Interfax: Putin thinks ‘deoffshorization’ could be conducted through transfer of business to Russian jurisdiction.
26. Interfax: Putin not sure progressive income tax can improve tax collection.
27. Moscow Times: Russia’s Tax Climate Rated 56th in the World.
28. Moscow News: Russian clusters needing coherent policy.
29. New York Times: Russia Revokes License of a Bank With Ties to Putin.
30. ITAR-TASS: Russia’s energy saving measures may boost GDP by extra 2-3%.
31. ITAR-TASS: Forbes puts Rosneft’s Sechin on top of Russia’s highest-paid top managers list.
32. ITAR-TASS: Too strict property purchase procedures for foreigners may scare off investors.
33. Moscow Times: Mikhail Degtyaryov, The Dirty and Dying Dollar.
34. Moscow Times: Yulia Latynina, Saving the Economy by Outlawing Dollars.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

35. www.russiatoday.com: 24,000-year-old Siberian boy links Western Europeans to Native Americans.
36. www.russiatoday.com: 40,000 NATO troops to stage massive European war games.
37. Svobodnaya Pressa: Russian Commentators Differ on Likelihood of Armed Conflict With United States.
38. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Lavrov says West needs to do their ‘homework’ on Syria. Russia’s foreign minister called upon other leaders to deal with the conflicts, rather than their symptoms in Syria.
39. Reuters: Israeli leader lobbies in Russia against Iran deal.
40. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, Who’ll blink first? Putin debates Netanyahu on Iran. The Kremlin, which has long backed a negotiated solution with Iran, isn’t going to yield to Israel’s objections, say Russian experts.
41. ITAR-TASS: Press Review, Israeli Prime Minsiter focuses on Iranian problem at Moscow talks.
42. RIA Novosti: Russia Concerned at US Plans for Bases in Afghanistan.
43. Interfax: McFaul angry with Russian mass media reports on U.S. sponsoring opposition in Russia.
44. The Voice of Russia: McFaul says Obama did not want to bomb Syria.
45. RIA Novosti: 90% of Russians Asking for US Visas Obtain Them ­- Ambassador.
46. Moscow Times: Vadim Lyalin, Get Rid of U.S. Cliches About the Russian Mafia.
47. Reuters: Ukraine drops plan to go West, turns East.
48. RIA Novosti: Ukraine Ditches Plans for EU Deal, Turns to Russia.
49. Interfax: Russia not against Ukraine’s association with EU, would object to NATO membership – Putin.
50. Reuters: Georgia’s new premier says will seek thaw with Russia.

LONG ITEM

51. www.opendemocracy.net: Aleksei Tarasov, Has Siberia had enough of Russia? With Siberia’s enormous natural resources being mercilessly exploited by Russia, and now China as well, Aleksei Tarasov wonders if the region might some day amount to more than someone else’s colony.