JRL Table of Contents :: Johnson’s Russia List 2012-#186 – 20 October 2012

Johnson’s Russia List
2012-#186
22 October 2012
davidjohnson@starpower.net
A World Security Institute Project
www.worldsecurityinstitute.org
JRL homepage: www.russialist.org
JRL wordpress homepage: www.russialist.org/wordpress
JRL on Facebook: www.facebook.com/russialist
JRL on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi
Support JRL: www.russialist.org/funding.php
Your source for news and analysis since 1996

In this issue

POLITICS

1. Moscow Times: First Frost Forecast for This Week.
2. Moscow Times: Russians Say State Institutions Depend on Kremlin.
3. Kommersant: COUNTRY OF TRIUMPHANT VERTICAL. THERE IS NO SEPARATION OF POWERS IN RUSSIA.
4. Interfax: Less Than Quarter of Russians Content With Cabinet – Poll.
5. ITAR-TASS: Kremlin wants its new department to teach Russians to love their country.
6. Bloomberg: Putin Balks at Pension Threats as Aging Russians Hold Trump Card.
7. Moscow Times/BBC Monitoring: What the Papers Say, Oct. 22, 2012.
8. Vedomosti editorial: LOVE OF PROJECTS. NEW DIRECTORATE FOR PUBLIC PROJECTS SET UP WITHIN THE PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION. Another bureaucratic structure was set up to control processes within society.
9. Moscow Times: Cyberattacks Disrupt Opposition’s Election.
10. ITAR-TASS: RUSSIAN PRESS REVIEW. The elections in the Coordination Council of the opposition extended for a day.
11. Izvestia: PUBLIC HOUSE CRITICIZES COORDINATING COUNCIL ELECTION. PUBLIC HOUSE DISCOVERED DEVIATION FROM DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES IN HOW ELECTION OF THE COORDINATING COUNCIL OF THE OPPOSITION WAS ORGANIZED.
12. New York Times: Masha Gessen, For Fair Elections.
13. BBC Monitoring: Russian TV slams controversial anti-opposition TV film as ‘black PR’
14. www.russiatoday.com: Opposition activist claims torture, police say he turned himself in.
15. Interfax: Navalny threatens with a new “Magnitsky list” if the information on the torture of opposition activist is confirmed.
16. Kommersant-Vlast: SOMETHING INTERESTING. UNITED RUSSIA IS VULNERABLE TO INTERNAL DISCORD. Analysis of the election of mayor in Pushkino, Moscow region, on October 14.
17. Moscow Times: Nikolai Petrov, Kremlin Is the Big Loser in Regional Elections.
18. Moskovskiy Komsomolets: State Duma Deputy Ponomarev on Need for New Opposition Strategy in Russia.
19. Moscow Times: 2 Years After Luzhkov, Most Muscovites Happy With Sobyanin.
20. Moscow Times: Vladimir Frolov, Putin Turns Into Russia’s Most Indispensable Man.
21. Sean’s Russia Blog: Sean Guillory, For the Spies Among Us.
22. Reuters: Headscarf debate highlights Russian Muslims’ grievances.
23. Reuters: Russia’s jailed punk rock band members sent to prison camps.
24. Moscow News: The one who got away. Pussy Riot’s Yekaterina Samutsevich talks to The Moscow News about life behind bars ­ and more.
25. Interfax: Negative Attitudes Toward Stalin Drop By Almost Two Thirds in 15 Years – Levada Center.
26. Interfax: Victims of Stalin’s Terror to Be Remembered in Moscow.

ECONOMY

27. Interfax: Russian Unemployment Spans From 0.6% in Moscow to 47.3% in Ingushetia.
28. ITAR-TASS: Russia can have benefits from WTO membership in 5-10 years, said Dmitry Medvedev.
29. AFP: BP, Rosneft agree mega shake-up of Russia energy landscape.
30. Forbes.com: Matthew Hulbert, A Weak Russia Is A Dangerous Russia For BP.
31. Business New Europe: Ben Aris, THE INSIDERS: Jim Rogers on the road to Damascus.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

32. Valdai Discussion Club: Alain Deletroz, Foreign and domestic risks for Russia.
33. New York Times: Russia Stages Missile Test, With Putin Taking the Helm.
34. AP: Romney rips Russia, at least on campaign trail.
35. www.russiatoday.com: US media: ideological arm of American foreign policy ­ Russia.
36. Moscow Times: Russians Warn on U.S. Child Adoptions.
37. Sky News: Remember, Russia Is More Important Than Assad. Insisting on President Assad’s fall damages Britain’s relations with his longstanding ally, writes defence analyst Paul Smyth.
38. Foreign Policy Research Institute: David Satter, Russia and the U.S. Elections.
39. RIA Novosti: Georgian Speaker Urges End to Anti-Russia ‘Pinpricks’
40. Democracy & Freedom Watch: Tedo Japaridze, Neither Saakashvili nor Ivanishvili is what the West believes.
41. Paul Goble: Window on Eurasia: Great Power Rivalries in Central Asia Seen Intersecting with Water Conflicts.

LONG ITEM

42. US-Russia.org: Expert Panel. Is the West Forgoing Incalculable Benefits by Continuing the Cold War? (with Vlad Sobell, Patrick Armstrong, Sergei Roy, Richard Sakwa, Anatoly Karlin, Edward Lozansky, Dmitry Mikheyev, and Anthony Mele)