RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List contents & links :: JRL 2020-#232 :: Tuesday, 22 December 2020

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2020-#232 :: Tuesday, 22 December 2020
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1. YouTube: Full 49 minute call between Alexey Navalny and FSB Officer Konstantin Kudryavtsev. [English subtitles]
2. YouTube: Navalny video (“Я позвонил своему убийце. Он признался”) 33 minute video of call. (English subtitles)
3. Meduza: Indirect confessions . We asked lawyers if Navalny’s recording is valid proof that the FSB tried to poison him.
4. RFE/RL: Navalny Says He Duped Russian Agent Into Confessing Poison Plot.
5. Moscow Times: Anna Arutunyan, The Spy Who Took Out the Dirty Laundry. A prank call reveals the ugly new face of international espionage.
6. TASS: ‘Compares himself to Jesus’: Kremlin derides Navalny as having ‘delusions of grandeur’ – tass.com/politics/1238351
7. TASS: Kommersant: Navalny publishes alleged call with Russian FSB officer.
8. The Spectator (UK): Mark Galeotti, Heads will roll following the Navalny prank call blunder.
9. Washington Post editorial: Russia’s leading dissident just exposed the spy team sent to kill him.
10. Russian Public Affairs Committee (Ru-PAC): Mark Mednikov, Why We Should Still Be Rooting For Russia’s Covid-19 Vaccine. Now more than ever, we should remember that the field of medical advancement, meant to improve the lives of all regardless of national origin or political ideology, should remain neutral – ru-pac.org/post/why-we-should-still-be-rooting-for-russia-s-covid-19-vaccine
11. TASS: Russian State Council to build relations between public power bodies, Secretary says.
12. Opendemocracy.net: Kirill Kobrin, Russia’s liberal intelligentsia and the post-Putin consensus. After Putin, Russia’s cultural consensus will package private property together with neo-colonialism, racism and Social Darwinism. The signs are already there.
13. Interfax: Russia needs to diversify energy exports amid developing global climate agenda.
14. IMEMO, Interfax expert meeting with special guest Deputy Prime Minister Novak addresses protracted oil demand recovery.
15. Oilprice.com: Russia Cries War As U.S. Tries To Kill Nord Stream 2
16. American Committee for East-West Accord: Nicolai Petrov, Tragedy, Dialogue, and Politics: Applying Tragedy’s Therapy to Russian Relations with the West.
17. Valdai Discussion Club: Strategic Rivalry: Prospects for Russian-American Relations in the New US Political Cycle. Joe Biden won’t alter the structure of Russo-American relations or the basic constants of US foreign policy regarding Russia. We need to soberly assess the nature of our relations, as well as the strategic objectives of the American administration’s actions, Valdai Club Programme Director Ivan Timofeev writes. – valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/strategic-rivalry-prospects-for-russian-american-r/
18. Valdai Discussion Club: New US Approaches to Risk Reduction in Cyberspace and Russia’s Place in It. It looks as if Washington’s activities are based on the unproductive premise of doing anything other than what Russia suggests. This approach will maintain the division for years without any hope for rapprochement in cyberspace or on the entire range of cooperation issues on the international agenda, Sergei Sebekin and Ilya Storchilov write. – valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/new-us-approaches-to-risk-reduction-in-cyberspace-/
19. Interfax: Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul: The new U.S. president will not seek friendship with Putin.
20. strategic-culture.org: Tim Kirby, Does Russia Actually Have an Advantage in the Battle for Multipolarity? – strategic-culture.org/news/2020/12/21/does-russia-actually-have-advantage-in-the-battle-for-multipolarity/
21. rt.com: Neil Clark, It’s just not cricket! – Russia’s sporting ban is being dictated by geopolitics, not justice – rt.com/op-ed/510367-russia-sporting-ban-geopolitics-wada/
22. Moscow Times: Russian Film ‘Beanpole’ Awarded Top Prize by U.S. Film Critics. The film won first place for best foreign language film.