Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#21 :: Friday, 31 January 2014

Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#21 :: 31 January 2013
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POLITICS

1. Moscow News: Natalia Antonova, A non-review of Anna Arutunyan’s ‘The Putin Mystique’
2. Los Angeles Times: Vodka and Russian men: a tempestuous (and tragic) love affair.
3. CBC News (Canada): Nahlah Ayed, Young and restless, Russia’s polarized ‘Putin generation.’ Demonstrations, counter-demonstrations, theirs at least is a generation seeking answers.
4. Moscow Times: What the Papers Say, Jan. 31.
5. ITAR-TASS: Ministers, governors to be fined for failing to implement presidential decrees.
6. Moscow Times: New Bill Proposes Weakening Presumption of Innocence in Favor of ‘Objective Truth’
7. ITAR-TASS: Khodorkovsky and Lebedev remain debtors. Russian Press Review.
8. ITAR-TASS: Prosecutors to present all evidence in Politkovskaya murder case in February.
9. Moscow Times: A Week Before Games, Sochi Still Lacking Final Touches.
10. Christian Science Monitor: Sochi terror threat: US concerns focus on region outside ‘ring of steel’
11. R-Sport: Battle Rages for Sochi’s Political Legacy.
12. The Economist: Putin’s Russia. Sochi or bust. The conspicuous dazzle of the games masks a country, and a president, in deepening trouble.
13. US-Russia.org: Discussion Panel. Why is the West waging a campaign against the Sochi Olympics?

ECONOMY

14. Moscow Times: It’s Been a Bad Week for the Ruble
15. Moscow Times: Chris Weafer, Two Sides to Every Weak Ruble.
16. Moscow Times: Skolkovo Foundation Touts Growth as Innovation Rating Drops.
17. Moscow News: Russian start-ups hungry for risk, reward.
18. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Ben Aris, Russian equities a case for cautious optimism.
19. ITAR-TASS: Russia ponders upon WTO evaluation centre for asserting its trade interests.
20. ITAR-TASS: Rosneft maps out plan to end Gazprom’s gas export monopoly.
21. Bloomberg editorial: Putin’s Russia Will Prosper Until It Doesn’t.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

22. Carnegie Moscow Center: Akio Kawato, Munich Security Conference is Indivisible from Asia-Pacific.
23. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Russia proposes fresh round of U.S. trade talks. Russian officials are looking to open talks on reducing trade barriers with the country’s former Cold War adversary, despite facing a host of political disagreements in other areas.
24. The Economist: Russia and America. Testy relations. Why Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin will never get along
25. Paul Goble: Window on Eurasia: Struggle over Arctic Not as Imminent as Many Imagine, Moscow Scholar Says.
26. Reuters: Ukraine president signs amnesty into law, currency slumps on crisis.
27. ITAR-TASS: Settlement of crisis in Ukraine delayed for two weeks. Russian Press Review.
28. ITAR-TASS: Ukraine’s first president hails law on amnesty for participants in protest actions.
29. Interfax: Ulyukayev: economy bottomed out in Q3 2013; signs of recovery visible.
30. Bloomberg: Ukraine Is Caught in a Tug of War.
31. Business New Europe: KYIV BLOG: The opposition are asking for all the wrong things.
32. Moskovskiy Komsomolets: Mikhail Rostovskiy, Russia-Ukraine: To Be Rescued or Left Alone?
33. The Economist editorial: The triumph of Vladimir Putin. Russia and the world. Successes abroad and the Winter Olympics make Russia look strong; but where it matters, it is weak.
34. The Economist: Ukraine’s protests. Praying for peace. The government resigns, but opposition protesters remain defiantly on the streets.
35. The Guardian (UK): Seumas Milne, In Ukraine, fascists, oligarchs and western expansion are at the heart of the crisis. The story we’re told about the protests gripping Kiev bears only the sketchiest relationship with reality.
36. Democracy Now: Debate: Is Ukraine’s Opposition a Democratic Movement or a Force of Right-Wing Extremism? (with Stephen Cohen and Anton Shekhovtsov)
37. Carnegie Moscow Center: Tedo Japaridze, Georgia and Russia: Too Much Geopolitics, Too Little Strategy. Reflections on the Future.