Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#27 :: Sunday, 9 February 2014
Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#27 :: 9 February 2013
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POLITICS
1. The Guardian: Sochi is to Putin what Berlin in 1936 was to Hitler, says Garry Kasparov. Russia’s former chess champion says Winter Olympics 2014 are all about Vladimir Putin’s cult of personality – ‘a one-man circus’
2. Moscow Times: Nina Khruscheva, Putin’s Pompous and Potemkin Olympic Games.
3. Forbes.com: Mark Adomanis, Russia Just Recorded Its First Natural Population Growth Since The Collapse of The Soviet Union.
4. Reuters: Olympics -Russia’s Putin says Olympic preparations helped avoid crisis.
5. www.news.com.au (Australia): Sochi’s shocking secret: It’s absolutely beautiful.
6. Interfax: Show during Sochi Olympics opening ceremony designed as story about Russia – author.
7. Los Angeles Times: David Wharton, From the first steppe, a thoroughly Russian showcase. With its barrage of traditional imagery, the Sochi Games’ opening ceremony aims to let viewers ‘experience this love of Russia.’
8. AP: A cultural guide to Sochi opening ceremony.
9. The Globe and Mail (Canada): Roy MacGregor, For young Russians, opening ceremony triggers exultant patriotism. Exceptional, extravagant, memorable: Olympic curtain-raiser will be remembered by Russians for a long time, which is as it should be.
10. The Guardian: Alan Yuhas, Mythbusting: Russia, Putin and why the Sochi Olympic Games matter. Outrage over gay rights and half-built hotels obscures a more nuanced picture of a country, its divisions and its leader.
11. The New Republic: Julia Ioffe, The Only People Harassing the Gays of Sochi are the Foreign Journalists.
12. ru-facts.com: At the opening ceremony next to Vladimir Putin sat bobsledder Irina Skvortsova. After a terrible accident she was forced to retire from professional sports, but wanted to get to the XXII Winter Games.
13. www.russiatoday.com: Kirill Karnovich-Valua, Why I cried during Sochi Olympics opening ceremony.
14. Financial Times: Christopher Caldwell, Foreign leaders’ judgment of Putin is hasty and harsh. Those who criticise him on Sochi focus on a short list of causes beloved of western elites.
15. Financial Times: Catherine Brown, How Russia’s writers saw the Caucasus.
16. RFE/RL: Tom Blamforth, It’s Bolotnaya, But Not As We Know It.
17. National Public Radio: When It Comes To Human Rights, Is Russia Moving Backward?
18. The Guardian: Anonymous members of Pussy Riot, We wish Nadia and Masha well – but they’re no longer part of Pussy Riot. It is harmful to the collective to confuse a campaign for prisoners’ rights with our all-female separatist art performances
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
19. The National Interest: Dimitri K. Simes, Paul J. Saunders, Foggy Bottom Phone Follies. The real problems with an intercepted phone call about Ukraine.
20. AFP: Tens of thousands gather in Kiev for new anti-Yanukovych protest.
21. The Globe and Mail (Canada): Doug Saunders, Ultra-right-wing movement has become sharp edge of Ukraine protests.
22. RIA Novosti: Ukraine On Terror Alert Amid Explosion Threats.
23. The Voice of Russia: Ukrainian crisis may help resolve deadlock in Russia-EU relations – expert. (Nadezhda Arbatova)
24. www.foreignpolicy.com: Samuel Charap, Ukraine’s False Choice. There are no winners in the geopolitical tug of war between Russia and the West.
25. JackMatlock.com: Jack Matlock, Ukraine and the United States. Implications of Victoria Nuland’s Candid Remark.
26. Orientalreview.org: What about apologizing to Ukraine, Mrs. Nuland? (transcript of phone calls)
