Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#155 :: Tuesday 11 August 2015

Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#155
11 August 2015
A project sponsored through the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs
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UKRAINE

1. TASS: Moscow calls on Kiev to show restraint after failed attempt to break militias’ defense.
2. New York Observer: Mikhail Klikushin, In Modern Ukraine, People of Color Need Not Apply. Attacks on dark-skinned visitors and Aryan-only pools reveal post-Maidan Ukraine still has some maturing to do.
3. Ukrayinska Pravda (Kyiv): Ukraine’s General Staff says Russian general commands Donbass militants.
4. Interfax: Gen. Lentsov refutes his presence in Donbas claimed by Ukrainian General Staff.
5. The Guardian (UK): Ukraine rebel republics are united by football’s separatist derby. A match between the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk achieved its goal of offering local people a brief return to normality.
6. Washington Post editorial: Putting Ukraine in an untenable position.
7. Washington Post: Former president of Georgia seeks to free Ukraine from Moscow’s orbit.
8. Wall Street Journal: Georgian Ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili Vows to Tackle Corruption in Ukraine. Former nemesis of Russia now serves as governor in Ukraine’s main port of Odessa.
9. www.opendemocracy.net: Kathleen Weinberger, Georgia’s healthcare privatisation stands as a warning to Ukrainian reformers. Ukraine’s government is eager to overhaul the country’s ageing healthcare system. Following Georgia’s example may be tempting, but is not without risk.
10. US Embassy Kyiv Blog: U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt, Odesa: Cosmopolitan Crossroads with Extraordinary Potential.
11. Interfax-Ukraine: U.S. to allocate extra $500 mln to Ukraine for army training.
12. Interfax: London promises to increase training program for Ukrainian troops.
13. Russia Direct: Sergey Markedonov, How Russia’s protracted conflict with Georgia impacts how we view Ukraine. Even though the Ukraine crisis has significantly overshadowed the 2008 Russian-Georgian war, the frozen conflict in the Caucasus continues to have important implications for Russian foreign policy.
14. TASS: Russia-Georgia armed clash on August 8-12, 2008 was Saakashvili’s fiasco – experts.
15. TASS: Over 500 shells fired by Ukrainian troops at DPR in past day – DPR defense ministry.
16. AFP: Ukraine ‘repels’ rare tank assault by pro-Russian rebels.
17. Bloomberg: Ukraine Returns Artillery to War Zone as Ministers Hold Call.
18. www.rt.com: Ukraine OSCE mission’s cars set on fire in Donetsk.
19. Sputnik: History Shows ‘Yanukovych Was Right to Oppose EU Association Deal’
20. Paul Goble: Crimean Anschluss Divides Russian Left Just as Much as It Does Russian Right.
21. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Crimean Tatars split as world congress calls for return to Ukrainian rule. Russia’s controversial takeover of Crimea in March 2014 has led to a split among the native population of the peninsula – the Tatars. While senior Crimean Tatar public figures generally oppose Russian rule and call for the territory to be returned to Ukraine, another part of the Crimean Tatar elite is in favor of forging a future as part of the Russian Federation.
22. Sputnik: Ukranian FM Calls to Prepare OSCE-Monitored Elections in Donbass.
23. AFP: Ukraine: turning economic basket case into breadbasket.
24. BBC: Ukraine bans 38 Russian ‘hate’ books amid culture war.
25. Den (Kyiv): Ukrainian daily notes new escalation in Donbass, views last round of Minsk talks.
26. Interfax-Ukraine: Investigators cannot draw conclusion on ‘causal connection’ between possible Buk parts and MH17 crash – Netherlands.
27. New York Times: A Ukrainian Border Town Once Fenced by Soviets Blossoms Into a Shopper’s Paradise.
28. Canadian Press: CP Investigation: Canada’s embassy in Ukraine used as pawn in 2014 uprising.
29. Fort Russ: Nuland and Poroshenko Play at Constitutional Reform to Blame Russia.
30. Euromaidan Press: The postcolonial syndrome in Ukraine. (interviews with Mykola Riabchuk)
31. http://slavyangrad.org: America’s Dark History of Supporting Ukrainian Fascists and War Criminals.
32. National Catholic Register: Victor Gaetan, Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity – and Its Predators. Ukraine continues to be imperiled by internal and external forces, but a recent USCCB delegation found strong faith amid the nation’s confusion and turmoil.
33. Sputnik: Holodomor Hoax: Joseph Stalin’s Crime That Never Took Place.
34. Huffington Post: Kristofer Harrison, Putin’s Man in Congress. (Rep. John Conyers)
35. RFE/RL: Brian Whitmore, Why Putin Is Losing.
36. www.rt.com: Mikhail Gorbachev to RT: America wanted to rule the world but lost its way.