RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List contents & links :: JRL 2020-#233 :: Thursday, 24 December 2020

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2020-#233 :: Thursday, 24 December 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. Russia Beyond: 10 Soviet & Russian movies for your New Year spirit – rbth.com/arts/333188-soviet-russian-new-year-movies
2. AFP: Russia sets records for virus cases, deaths. According to a survey, only 38% of Russians are planning to get inoculated against the coronavirus.
3. AP: Russia cuts size of COVID-19 vaccine study, stops enrollment.
4. rt.com: Russia avoided critical economic contraction in face of coronavirus crisis – Putin.
5. Carnegie Moscow Center: Dmitri Trenin, An ‘Act of War?’ Avoiding a Dangerous Crisis in Cyberspace. The current U.S.-Russian confrontation is a state of relations one step removed from war. Engaging in consultations aimed at developing some basic rules of the road in cyberspace makes eminent sense.
6. New York Times: Paul Kolbe, With Hacking, the United States Needs to Stop Playing the Victim. The U.S. also uses cybertools to defend its interests. It’s the age of perpetual cyberconflict.
7. rt.com: Russians rank Belarus protests as worst political event of 2020, but more tolerant of demonstrations in Khabarovsk, poll reveals – rt.com/russia/510567-belarus-protests-russians-poll/
8. Russia in Global Affairs: Fyodor Lukyanov, OPEN ENDING. (preface to issue with table of contents) – eng.globalaffairs.ru/articles/open-ending/
9. Kremlin.ru: Meeting with Government members – en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/64743
10. Kremlin.ru: Joint meeting of the State Council and the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects – en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/64736
11. Moscow Times: Russian Lawmakers Back New Restrictions on Free Speech, Information, Protests
12. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, ON WEAPONIZING CATS AND VACCINES – irrussianality.wordpress.com/2020/12/22/on-weaponizing-cats-and-vaccines/
13. rt.com: With less than seven weeks left before New START arms treaty expires, Russia once again urges US to sign extension – rt.com/russia/510547-new-start-arms-treaty-expiration/
14. Wall Street Journal: Kathryn Stoner, The U.S. Should Stop Underestimating Russian Power. Vladimir Putin deploys capabilities and resources that have made his country a resurgent global player.
15. Indian Punchline: M.K.Bhadrakumar, China to strengthen military coordination with Russia – indianpunchline.com/china-to-strengthen-military-coordination-with-russia/
16. rt.com: US sanctions may lead to dollar’s demise, Russian central bank warns.
17. rt.com: Scott Ritter, If Biden seeks to put a shorter leash on Russia, he may find Putin’s bite is far worse than his bark – rt.com/op-ed/510637-solarwinds-hack-biden-russia-putin/
18. Responsible Statecraft: Ted Galen Carpenter, Is NATO provoking the Russian military build-up in Kaliningrad? – responsiblestatecraft.org/2020/12/14/is-nato-provoking-the-russian-military-build-up-in-kalingrad/
19. Valdai Discussion Club: The ‘Difficult Age’ of Eastern Europe and the Case of Belarus. Poland and Lithuania are young and strategically inexperienced countries that do not fully understand the consequences of their actions. Their goal is to undermine Belarus internally, to deprive it of its subjectivity in international affairs, and to make use of its resources and the outflow of people that may occur as a result of the crisis, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Andrey Sushentsov. – valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/the-difficult-age-of-eastern-europe/
20. rt.com: British medical journal The Lancet publishes German doctors’ report on treatment of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny – rt.com/russia/510539-lancet-navalny-treatment-report/
21. Dances With Bears; John Helmer, BERLIN DOCTORS’ REPORT ON NAVALNY CASE REVEALS NEW EVIDENCE, RAISES NEW QUESTIONS – johnhelmer.net/berlin-doctors-report-on-navalny-case-reveals-new-evidence-raises-new-questions/print/
22. rt.com: Half of Russians believe alleged Navalny poisoning was faked or carried out by Western intelligence, only 15% blame Kremlin – poll – rt.com/russia/510640-navalny-poisoning-fake-poll/
23. New York Times: As Evidence Mounts that Navalny Was Poisoned by State, Russians Just Sigh. Aleksei Navalny, the top critic of President Putin, has aired evidence that he was poisoned by his own government. Russians have responded with fear, disbelief and a lot of apathy.
24. zen.yandex.ru: 10 questions to Navalny exposing a staged call to the FSB – zen.yandex.ru/media/id/5d9f88f9ec575b696c7b2511/10-voprosov-navalnomu-razoblachaiuscih-postanovochnyi-zvonok-fsbshniku-5fe20c64a26fb132ca621958
25. riafan.ru: Five inconsistencies in Navalny’s staged call to “FSB poisoner” – riafan.ru/1358116-pyat-nestykovok-v-postanovochnom-zvonke-navalnogo-otravitelyu-iz-fsb?utm_source=yxnews&utm_medium=desktop
26. greenwald.substack.com: Glenn Greenwald, With Biden’s New Threats, the Russia Discourse is More Reckless and Dangerous Than Ever. The U.S. media demands inflammatory claims be accepted with no evidence, while hacking behavior routinely engaged in by the U.S. is depicted as aberrational. (excerpt) – greenwald.substack.com/p/with-bidens-new-threats-the-russia

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