JRL Table of Contents :: Johnson’s Russia List 2012-#174 – 4 October 2012

Johnson’s Russia List
2012-#174
4 October 2012
davidjohnson@starpower.net
A World Security Institute Project
www.worldsecurityinstitute.org
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In this issue

POLITICS

1. Russia Beyond the Headlines/Moskovskiye Novosti: Svetlana Babaeva, A new social contract for Russia? Although the protest movement in Russia is waning, society and authorities are still at odds. The only way out is to learn to find compromises.
2. Russia Beyond the Headlines/Moskovskiye Novosti: Russia’s brewing social unrest may foretell a system collapse. Sociologist Olga Kryshtanovskaya talks about the political risks facing the Russian authorities.
3. ITAR-TASS: RUSSIAN PRESS REVIEW. Material wants of Russians up by 30 percent.
4. Paul Goble: Window on Eurasia: Soviet Values Re-Intensified Under Putin, Sociologist Says.
5. AFP: Battling protests, Putin turns 60.
6. Moscow Times: New NTV Documentaries Likely to Cause a Stir.
7. Moscow TImes/BBC Monitoring: What the Papers Say, Oct. 4, 2012.
8. Moscow Times: Putin Signs Law Creating Single Voting Day in September.
9. Novye Izvestia: ONE DAY. Ballot day in Russia: the ruling party is fixing the rules to its own advantage.
10. Kommersant: ELECTIONS CONFIRM APPOINTMENTS. Brief analysis of the gubernatorial campaigns under way in five Federation subjects.
11. Vedomosti: CHIRIKOVA IS NUMBER THREE. An update on the campaign in Khimki where the mayor is soon to be elected.
12. Moscow News: Levada Center releases report on the protest movement ‘without a plan’
13. Interfax: Most Russians Welcome Opposition MP’s Expulsion From State Duma – Poll.
14. BBC Monitoring: Russian TV show discusses bill criminalizing religious offences.
15. www.russiatoday.com: Presidential Council prepares strategy for interethnic peace – report.
16. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Sergei Markedonov, Russia needs to sort out the “Caucasian Issue” before Sochi Olympics. Over the past few years the so-called “Caucasian Issue” has featured ever more heavily on Russia’s political agenda. In 2014, the city of Sochi on the Black Sea will welcome the world for the Winter Olympics, inextricably linking the world’s largest sporting event with this hot-button issue.
17. RIA Novosti: Prominent Russian Rights Worker Threatened. (Tanya Lokshina)
18. Moscow Times: Russia Left Out of Top 200 Universities List.
19. Interfax: Russian Environmentalists Sceptical As Spy Chief Blames Al Qa’idah For Wildfires.
20. New York Times: Despite Predictions, Jewish Homeland in Siberia Retains Its Appeal.
21. Sarah Lindemann-Komarova: USAID Russia Lessons Learned.

ECONOMY

22. Interfax: Not Possible to Support Social Protections, Large Army, Many State Properties Simultaneously – Dvorkovich.
23. Business New Europe/VTB Capital: Russia’s new model of economic growth.
24. Moscow News: New extended holiday schedule to hit GDP.
25. Gazeta.ru editorial: The country of hardworkers.
26. Russia Beyond the Headlines/Gazeta.ru: Wave of pessimism bypasses Russian investment market.
27. Financial Times: Russia faces end of petrodollar surplus.
28. Bloomberg: Leonid Bershidsky, Zuckerberg Visit Sparks Brain-Drain Debate in Russia.
29. Moscow Times: Altai and Chechnya “Greenest Economies” in New Integrated Index.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

30. Moskovskiye Novosti: Analysts Assess Prospects of ‘Closing Off’ Russia From the West.
31. Moscow Times: Andreas Gross, A Tough Friendship With Russia.
32. Valdai Discussion Club: Jeffrey Mankoff, What they mean when they talk about Russia.
33. AP: Winner of Georgian election to visit US first.
34. Vedomosti: NOT WITHOUT SAAKASHVILI. Transition period in the political system of Georgia compels Bidzina Ivanishvili to negotiate with the president.
35. ITAR-TASS: RUSSIAN PRESS REVIEW. Georgia wants better relations with Moscow.
36. www.russiatoday.com: Fyodor Lukyanov, Georgia has chance for normal development.
37. Voice of America: James Brooke, Is Ivanishvili a Trojan Horse for Russia’s Return to Georgia?
38. New York Times: Job Henning and Nino Japaridze, Georgian Democracy on the March.
39. New York Times editorial: Georgia Speaks Its Mind.
40. CNN: Matthew Rojansky, US Needs Ukraine Priorities Straight.
41. www.opendemocracy.net: Paul Rogers, Central Asia, the power-contest.