RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List contents & links :: JRL 2020-#222 :: Thursday, 10 December 2020

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2020-#222 :: Thursday, 10 December 2020
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1. TASS: Putin sees prospects for creating domestic human rights court in Russia.
2. TASS: Putin labels attempts to bring high treason charges for public data transfer as ‘nonsense’
3. Kremlin.ru: Meeting of Council for Civil Society and Human Rights – en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/64638
4. Kremlin.ru: Meeting on economic matters – en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/64624
5. Wall Street Journal: Russia Struggles to Make Promised Doses of Its Sputnik V Vaccine. Country turns to private drug companies as equipment problems and technical challenges hit year-end manufacturing targets.
6. Moscow Times: ‘Gross Violation’: In Open Letter, Russian Scientists Criticize Lack of Vaccine Data. Russia has launched mass Sputnik V vaccinations. But concerns over weak data and cut corners continue to mount.
7. rt.com: Nasty Russian needles & brave British grannies! BBC’s politicised Covid vaccine schizophrenia plays into hands of anti-vaxxers – rt.com/russia/509126-sputnik-vaccine-bbc-attack/
8. Financial Times: Russia’s regions hit hard by Covid second wave. Outside Moscow, hospitals are struggling to cope as infections spiral
9. Meduza: Russia’s democracy starts when its rulers stop appointing their own adversaries. (Fyodor Krasheninnikov) [republic.ru/posts/98870]
10. Moscow Times: Russia Moves to Further Curb Protests
11. Meduza: Levada Center: Youth support for Putin drops to 20 percent.
12. rt.com: Expected polling bounce for Navalny fails to materialize as trust rating drops; Putin also down, Communists & Nationalists up – rt.com/russia/509252-navalny-putin-rating-drop/
13. TASS: Foreign funding of organizations in Russia often pursues containment aims, says Putin – tass.com/politics/1233637
14. Moscow Times: Vladimir Slivyak, An Epidemic of Foreign Agents. The proposed new law on ‘foreign agents’ gives carte blanche to law enforcement officials who subscribe to conspiracy theories.
15. Vedomosti: Russian daily says elite, not opposition, to be main victim of foreign agent law.
16. TASS: Persistent resistance: West rattled by Russia’s success as independent power, says Lavrov.
17. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at the general meeting of the Russian International Affairs Council, Moscow, December 8, 2020 – mid.ru/en/press_service/minister_speeches/-/asset_publisher/7OvQR5KJWVmR/content/id/4470074
18. TASS: Nezavisimaya Gazeta: ‘Political time bomb’ ticking over Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.
19. rt.com: Fyodor Lukyanov, The end of Ostpolitik: Dream of Europe ‘whole & free’ over as Russian-German friendship fades & Moscow pivots to Asia – rt.com/russia/509221-germany-friendship-fade-asia/
20. rt.com: ‘Upper Volta with helium?’ Russia’s new status as squeaky-voiced ‘superpower’ makes it a threat, says New York Times – rt.com/russia/509157-helium-superpower-world-economy/
21. Washington Post editorial: Biden must call out Putin’s secret war against the United States.
22. rt.com: Who caused ‘Havana syndrome’? With latest research naming no culprit, MSM rushes to declare Russia ‘microwave’ exposure mastermind – rt.com/usa/508829-havana-syndrome-russia-blamed/