RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List contents & links :: JRL 2021-#184 :: Saturday, 18 September 2021
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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2021-#184 :: Saturday, 18 September 2021
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1. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, Russians vote Sunday. Why don’t dirty tricks dissuade the opposition? Why do opposition-minded Russians vote in the elections? Because despite the state’s tight controls over parties and the dirty tricks of the ruling United Russia, voting can make a difference.
2. TASS: Some 20 million Russians, including president, cast ballot on voting day one – tass.com/politics/1339373
3. New York Times: As Russians Vote, Resignation, Anger and Fear of a Post-Putin Unknown. Many in Russia say they are fed up with corruption, stagnant wages and rising prices. But they worry, as one man said, that “if things start to change, there will be blood.”
4. No Yardstick: András Tóth-Czifra, Look closely: the districts to watch in Russia’s elections – noyardstick.com/?p=916
5. Paul Goble: Duma Vote Outcome Will Show Who’ll be President in 2024, Former Yeltsin Advisor Says.
6. Carnegie Moscow Center: Tatiana Stanovaya, How the Duma Elections Could Decide United Russia’s Fate. The upcoming Duma elections could turn out to be United Russia’s farewell tour in its current lineup.
7. The Times (UK): Putin’s nemesis pins hopes on army of tactical voters. Alexei Navalny is determined to hurt the president’s party at the polls even if it means entering into some odd alliances, writes Marc Bennetts.
8. rt.com: Paul Robinson, Russian elections: Communists set sights on major gains, but Western pundits are already dusting off their ‘rigged vote’ rhetoric – rt.com/russia/535106-russian-elections-western-criticism/
9. New York Times: Fake Parties and Cloned Candidates: How the Kremlin ‘Manages’ Democracy. The Russian authorities have used a variety of deceitful tactics to try to manufacture a big victory in parliamentary elections this weekend. Here’s how they do it.
10. Wall Street Journal: In Russia’s Election, Putin’s Opponents Are Seeing Double. Doppelgängers and the silencing of dissidents have marred the run up to this weekend’s parliamentary elections.
11. AP: In Russian Far East city, discontent smolders amid election.
12. Washington Post editorial: Apple and Google are showing Putin just how much he can get away with.
14. Russia Observer: Patrick Armstrong, RUSSIAN FEDERATION SITREP 16 SEPTEMBER 2021 – patrickarmstrong.ca/2021/09/16/russian-federation-sitrep-16-september-2021/
15. Moscow Times: Russian Firms With Foreign Links Down 40% in 3 Years. The Kremlin’s drive to isolate the economy along with sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic have pushed out foreign investors.
16. rt.com: America’s evacuation of troops from Afghanistan looked more like a ‘downright escape’ than a ‘hasty withdrawal,’ Putin says – rt.com/russia/535120-putin-eurasian-forum-us-escape/
17. TASS: Kommersant: US diplomat Nuland making her way to Moscow.
18. The National Interest: John Ruehl, Belarus Is Drifting Back to Russia. Despite their sometimes-fractious relationship, Russia aims to slowly increase Belarus’ dependency on it through steady integration, while ensuring its stability. This way, if reunification eventually occurs, it will change little except on paper.
19. Wall Street Journal: Russia’s Deepening Belarus Ties Squeeze Western-Backed Ukraine. Biden and NATO voice support for Kyiv as Moscow steadily increases pressure on its neighbor.
20. Reuters: Ukraine seethes as Putin’s party courts voters in separatist-held Donbass.
21. The New Statesman (UK): Ido Vock, How the fall of the Soviet Union still haunts Ukraine. As western Ukrainians clash with their eastern counterparts, the divides that Soviet authoritarianism masked are reasserting themselves.
