RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List contents & links :: JRL 2021-#111 :: Thursday, 27 May 2021

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2021-#111 :: Thursday, 27 May 2021
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: Global warming continues to hit Russia hard as country records ‘mind-boggling for May’ 30 degrees Celcius inside arctic circle – rt.com/russia/524957-global-warming-arctic-circle/
2. Moscow Times: Putin Rules Out Mandatory Vaccinations
3. TASS: Media: Putin, Biden to discuss strategic stability and diplomats’ work in Geneva.
4. Meduza: ‘Predictability and stability’. Ahead of Geneva summit, White House officials hope for a frank conversation between Biden and Putin.
5. USA Today: Michael O’Hanlon, To face Russia and Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden needs a smart strategy. We can’t turn Putin into a nice guy or the West’s relationship with Russia into a friendly one. But we could lower tensions and the risk of war.
6. Intellinews: Andras Toth-Czifra, Force vs. Smartness – Russia three months before legislative elections. Russia will go to the polls in September to vote in a new parliament. However, the landscape has changed dramatically since the arrest and jailing of Alexey Navalny and the outlawing of his organisation that intended to use its “smart voting” to block the election of ruling United Russia candidates.
7. TASS: Bank of Russia Chief considers it necessary to wind up anti-crisis measures gradually – tass.com/economy/1294599
8. Moscow Times: World Bank Urges Russia to Adopt Guaranteed Minimum Income to Slash Poverty. Russia spends $30 billion on social welfare, but only 10% goes to the extremely poor.
9. TASS: Kommersant: Russia mulls World Bank’s idea of adopting Guaranteed Minimum Income
10. rt.com: Khodorkovsky’s Open Russia to dissolve & completely cease operations as organization’s leader believes crackdown is around corner – rt.com/russia/524948-khodorkovsky-open-russia-dissolve/
11. TASS: Nezavisimaya Gazeta: US pressure strengthens Russian-Chinese partnership.
12. Washington Post: Isaac Stone Fish. Why does everyone assume that Russia and China are friends?
13. Valdai Discussion Club: ‘Strategic Frivolity’ of the West and the Belarus Issue. The Lukashenko government is becoming one of the permanent opportunities for the United States and Europe to stage high-profile political campaigns without a real threat to the world, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Timofei Bordachev. But this is not a guarantee that if there are grounds for a big conflict, the behaviour of the West would be more reasonable than these days. – valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/strategic-frivolity-of-the-west-and-belarus/
14. TASS: Izvestia: Lukashenko rejects ‘hijacking’ accusations as EU mulls new sanctions.
15. New York Times: Belarus Plane Crisis Tightens Lukashenko’s Awkward Embrace of Putin. For years, the leader of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, has played the West against Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Now, weakened and isolated, he is losing leverage.
16. The Unz Review: Anatoly Karlin. Roman Protasevich Served in the Azov Battalion – unz.com/akarlin/protasevich-served-in-azov/
17. rt.com: Jailed Belarusian activist Protasevich spent Donbass War with Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, but was it as a soldier or journalist? – rt.com/russia/524867-belarusian-activist-neo-nazi/
18. Bloomberg: Leonid Bershidsky, Lukashenko’s Air Piracy Has No Western Precedent. There’s a world of difference between what just happened to the Ryanair flight carrying a Belarusian journalist and to Bolivian president Evo Morales’s jet in 2013.
19. NPR: What Russia Stands To Gain By Backing Belarus. (interview with Fiona Hill)
20. RFE/RL: Ukraine Unhappy With Lack Of Progress In Joining NATO As Kyiv Is Not Invited To Summit.
21. Carnegie Moscow Center: Konstantin Skorkin, Donbas Escalation Has Given Zelensky a Boost—But for How Long? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sees his growing popularity as proof that he chose the right course when he gave up trying to please all the disparate groups that voted for him in 2019. He is likely to continue his anti-Russian rhetoric and sanctions against domestic enemies. – carnegie.ru/commentary/84617
22. Death of University Of Birmingham Professor R.W. (Bob) Davies 1925-2021

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