RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List contents & links :: JRL 2021-#205 :: Wednesday, 20 October 2021

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2021-#205 :: Wednesday, 20 October 2021
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1. Intellinews: Russia’s coronavirus spike threatens the whole region. Russia is now into a fourth wave of the coronavirus epidemic and death rates have passed 1,000 per day – its highest ever. The growth of the infection rate now also threatens the whole CIS region.
2. Moscow Times: Putin Approves Non-Working Week to Stem Virus Spread.
3. TASS: Putin suggests regions declare non-working days as early as October 23, if needed – tass.com/politics/1351937
4. rt.com: Three decades on from Soviet collapse, nearly HALF of all Russians are not interested in ‘democratic values’ – bombshell new poll – rt.com/russia/537944-russian-poll-about-democratic-values/
5. Moscow Times: 6 in 10 Russians Say Law Does Not Protect Them – Poll.
6. rt.com: Worldwide popularity of Russian leadership surges ahead of Chinese & American for first time, while Germany remains in lead – poll – rt.com/russia/537958-gallup-poll-popularity-leadership/
7. Carnegie Moscow Center: Andrey Pertsev, Putin’s Labyrinth: Career Stagnation in Russia’s Corridors of Power. The path of career progression within the power vertical has stopped being predictable, and has turned into a labyrinth with no windows of opportunity offered by reshuffles.
8. Asia Times: Pepe Escobar, Sochi probes the Utopia of a multipolar world. The annual Valdai Club meeting in Sochi, Russia, was another lively affair for envisioning a post-unipolar global order.
9. Financial Times: Anthony Brenton, Letter: An oddity exists in the media’s approach to Russia.
10. New York Times: Putin Won’t Go to Glasgow for Climate Conference. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia may make a speech by video at the United Nations summit, which is seen as pivotal in efforts to stem climate change.
11. Washington Post: Russia allows methane leaks at planet’s peril.
12. TASS: Izvestia: Energy shift to cost Russia billions of dollars.
13. Moscow Times: Gazprom Rejects Gas Supply Increase to Europe. The Russian gas giant has booked only minimal capacity on pipelines to Europe for November.
14. TASS: Vedomosti: No new US sanctions in sight for Russia.
15. Bloomberg: Russia Urges Major Foreign Aid for Taliban-Ruled Afghanistan.
16. Wall Street Journal: Russia Faces Difficult Balancing Act as It Hosts Taliban in Moscow. Kremlin wants to maintain good ties with Afghanistan’s new leaders but worries over Islamist creep into former Soviet republics.
17. Indian Punchline: M.K. Bhadrakumar, Moscow meeting is a landmark event.
18. Responsible Statecraft: Russia relations sour as Austin floats Georgia, Ukraine NATO membership. The latest tit-for-tat comes amid signs of warming relations.
19. The Unz Review: Israel Shamir, Victoria Annoys Russians, But Properly – unz.com/ishamir/victoria-annoys-russians-but-properly/
20. TASS: Media: Moscow moves to cut ties with NATO.
21. rt.com: Paul Robinson, Russia’s dramatic decision to cut direct diplomatic ties with NATO further proof that Moscow no longer cares what the West thinks – rt.com/russia/537892-russia-us-bloc-relations-dead/
22. Wall Street Journal: Russia’s Move to Cut NATO Ties Complicates Biden’s Pivot to China. Moscow will withdraw its diplomats and close the alliance’s Russian office following NATO’s expulsion of Russian officials as spies.
23. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answers to media questions following the 18th annual session of the Valdai International Discussion Club, Sochi, October 19, 2021 – mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/4908916
24. Intellinews: Disinfo Napalm. Leonid Razgozin, a well know Russian journalist who worked for the BBC for a decade, found himself in the crosshairs of Ukrainian infowar outfit Informnapalm. They claimed a picture of his arrest at an anti-Putin demo was staged and he is actually a Russian spy.