RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List contents & links :: JRL 2020-#171 :: Monday, 21 September 2020

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2020-#171 :: Monday, 21 September 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. American Committee for East-West Accord: VIDEO: Stephen F. Cohen at the AJC 2017 Forum about Russia and Terrorism. (With Julia Ioffe and Andrew Weiss)
2. American Committee for East-West Accord: Max Blumenthal: RIP Stephen F. Cohen (with CNN clip with Max Boot)
3. New York Times: Stephen F. Cohen, Influential Historian of Russia, Dies at 81. (Russian translation)
4. TASS: Shipments of Coronavir drug begin to major Russian cities.
5. rt.com: More than 60,000 volunteer for final trial of pioneering ‘Sputnik V’ Covid-19 vaccine, 100s get jab and ‘feel well’ – Moscow mayor.
6. The National Interest: Eric Shiraev and Konstantin Khudoley, How Russia Plans to Navigate Through a Post-Virus World. Russian leaders continue to believe their country belongs to the global decisionmaking club and relentlessly backs the idea of a new “concert” of great powers.
7. TASS: Vedomosti: Nearly one in seven Russians live below poverty line.
8. Financial Times: Russia to cut defence spending in bid to prop up ailing economy. Continued support for less well-off set to wipe out fiscal surplus of recent years.
9. Intellinews: The Kremlin is hiking taxes for the first time in twenty years.
10. RFE/RL: On Russia’s Far Eastern Frontier, Vast Stretches Of Free Land, But Little Interest.
11. ChessBase: Grandmaster Chef: Peter Svidler (excerpt)
12. TASS: Russia has no fear of potential US sanctions over arms deals with Iran – senior diplomat.
13. rt.com: US envoy says Russia must agree to arms control deal with no NATO scaleback, or else it’s ‘happy to modernize nukes without START’
14. Kremlin.ru: Conversation with Gerbert Yefremov. Vladimir Putin congratulated Professor Gerbert Yefremov, prominent missile and space-rocket designer.
15. rt.com: ‘Obama was a schoolboy when we started hypersonic experiments,’ Russian missile guru rebuffs Trump’s claims of stealing US tech.
16. Reminiscence of the Future: Andrei Martyanov, Russia Steals Everything.
17. gilbertdoctorow.com: Gilbert Doctorow, Provocative U.S. air and sea maneuvers at Russia’s borders: shift from reconnaissance to mock cruise missile attacks.
18. TASS: Russian Supreme Court abolishes opposition figure Alexey Navalny’s political party.
19. Interfax: Russian prosecutors ask German counterparts to interview Navalny, find out who planned Tomsk trip.
20. TASS: Germany says still processing Russia’s second query over Navalny.
21. Meduza: Tomsk hotel managers say they assisted Navalny’s associates after his illness, and Navalny demands return of evidence now that inquiry deadline has passed.
22. www.rt.com: US-based ‘creator of Novichok’ apologizes to Navalny, but Russian scientists say he wasn’t even involved in poison’s development.
23. Intellinews: Hackers release another 1,000 Belarusian police officers’ names after OMON again ratchets up violence at weekend rallies
24. https://theduran.com: George Callaghan, Belarus’s future outlook.
25. TASS: ‘We’re not going to satisfy swindlers from abroad’: Lukashenko nixes privatization notions.
26. The Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation: ON THE SITUATION IN BELARUS.
27. The Strategist (Australian Strategic Policy Institute): Matthew Sussex, In search of a clear-eyed US strategy on Russia.
28. Washington Post: Tim Weiner, The unanswered question of our time: Is Trump an agent of Russia? Neither Mueller nor the FBI took it on. It’s crucial someone does. This is a case for super-secret mole hunters.
29. The Daily Beast: Tim Weiner, Trump Makes America More Like Russia Every Day. The terrible question at the heart of the matter remains: What is the influence that Putin has on Trump? And that mystery never has been fully investigated.
30. The Hill: Democrats fear Russia interference could spoil bid to retake Senate.
31. New York Times: The Sunday Read: ‘The Agency’ From an office building in Russia, an army of “trolls” tried to wreak havoc all around the internet – and in real-life American communities.
32. The Daily Beast: Michael Weiss, Did Russian Spies Use Diplomatic Cover to Run a Global Cocaine-Smuggling Operation? After a massive embassy drug bust, a trial is being held in secret, the Kremlin seems to be lying, and sources believe Russian agents are covering up the involvement of officials.
33. Sunday Express (UK): Putin on the OFFENSIVE: Panicked leader becoming MORE aggressive – UK and NATO on alert. VLADIMIR PUTIN’s increasing unpopularity at home has led to a large increase in Russian military aggression abroad, Nato’s former director of policy warned last night.
34. Vox: Yes, Russia is interfering in the 2020 election. It wants to cause chaos, again. But it’s also learned some lessons from 2016.

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