RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List contents & links :: JRL 2020-#157 :: Monday, 31 August 2020

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2020-#157 :: Monday, 31 August 2020
A project sponsored through the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. The contents do not necessarily represent the views of IERES or The George Washington University.
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1. rt.com: First batch of Sputnik V, Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine, to be supplied in September – 40,000 volunteers ready for 3rd-stage trials.
2. Facebook: Fred Weir, Vaccine.
3. Paul Goble: More than Twice as Many Russians Doubt New Moscow Vaccine as Take Pride in It, Levada Survey Finds.
4. TASS: Russian schoolchildren not required to wear masks in class.
5. The Atlantic: Bathsheba Demuth, The Empty Space Where Normal Once Lived. In the heat of COVID-19 and climate change, it’s too easy to forget what flourishing feels like.
6. Moscow Times: Russia Upgrades Economic Outlook on Strong Data. The hit to GDP is expected to be less severe than first thought.
7. Russian and Eurasian Politics: Gordon Hahn, Khabarovsk Demonstrates Putin’s Soft Authoritarianism.
8. Intellinews: Ben Aris, People numbers and girl power overwhelm Lukashenko’s riot police in Belarus’ twin weekend rallies. Some 20,000 women marched on Saturday in solidarity with the protest movement, but another 200,000 filled the streets on Sunday, overwhelming police deployed to prevent the rally from happening.
9. AFP: Belarus Leader Proposes Vote on Constitution Reforms.
10. TASS: Belarusian opposition leader says ready to consider Russia as mediator.
11. Wall Street Journal: Belarus’s Struggle to Escape Its Soviet Past Pushes It Into Russia’s Embrace. Amid protests over Lukashenko, many fear the country’s economic weakness could bind it more tightly to Moscow.
12. Awful Avalanche: Lukashenko’s Win Is Moscow’s Victory – Part I – awfulavalanche.wordpress.com/2020/08/31/lukashenkos-win-is-moscows-victory-part-i/
13. rt.com: ‘An internal issue’: Russia has shown ‘much more restraint’ in its response to events in Belarus than EU & US, says Putin. – rt.com/russia/499434-russia-reserved-belarus-protests-putin/
14. Paul Goble: Belarus has been Transformed Regardless of Whether Lukashenka Survives with Putin’s Help, Shelin Says.
15. Politico.eu: Maryia Sadouskaya-Komlach, Who can replace Lukashenko in Belarus? Winning the fight for free elections would just be the beginning.
16. The National Interest: Melinda Haring, Why Lukashenko Will Prevail in Belarus. Large-scale protests are expected this weekend, but they may not be enough to threaten Lukashenko’s rule in any serious fashion.
17. Valdai Discussion Club: Timofei Bordachev, Lessons from the Belarusian Crisis: Russia and its Neighbors – valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/lessons-from-the-belarusian-crisis/
18. Russian International Affairs Council: Russia-China Dialogue: The 2020 Model – russiancouncil.ru/papers/Russia-China-2020-Report58-En.pdf
19. The American Conservative: Ted Galen Carpenter, Are We Deliberately Trying To Provoke A Military Crisis With Russia? Tensions are becoming dangerous in Syria and on Russia’s back doorstep.
20. Business Insider: As Trump shakes up the military footprint in Europe, the US and Russia are making moves in the high north.
21. Forbes: Submarine Scare Off Alaska May Have Been U.S. Navy, Not Russian.
22. Carnegie Moscow Center: Marianna Belenkaya, In Libya’s War, Russia Is Directionless-and Falling Behind.
23. TASS: Vedomosti: New Japanese PM unlikely to closely cooperate with Russia.
24. Moscow Times: James Brown, The Coming Chill: Russia-Japan Relations After Abe. Abe’s successor will not show the same enthusiasm for Russia. For this, the Putin administration has itself to blame.
25. Consortium News: Ben Norton, US Sanctions Russian Research Institute that Developed COVID-19 Vaccine . A Russian government spokesperson called the decision “the sanctions theater of the absurd” – consortiumnews.com/2020/08/28/us-sanctions-russian-research-institute-that-developed-covid-19-vaccine/

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