RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List contents & links :: JRL 2021-#225 :: Thursday, 18 November 2021

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2021-#225 :: Thursday, 18 November 2021
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1. Intellinews: Ben Aris, KYIV BLOG: Don’t believe the hype. Western powers have been decrying the Russian build-up of troops on Ukraine’s border, but Ukraine itself says there are no troops there. Politicians are cynically hyping these fears for their own ends.
2. Moscow Times: Putin Accuses West of ‘Escalating Situation’ in Ukraine.
3. Interfax: West being too superficial about Russia’s warnings against crossing red lines – Putin.
4. Foreign Policy: Jeff Hawn, Russia Isn’t About to Attack Ukraine. Moscow occupying its neighbor would be expensive, dangerous, and pointless.
5. rt.com: Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner fined for breaking ‘foreign agent’ law – rt.com/russia/540632-nobel-winner-fined-break-law/
6. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, THE BANNING OF MEMORIAL: LIBERAL SAYS LIBERALS TO BLAME – irrussianality.wordpress.com/2021/11/17/the-banning-of-memorial-liberal-says-liberals-to-blame/
7. Postsocialism: Jeremy Morris, Russian public memory of Gulag and Terror will never be adequate. But that’s not forgetting – postsocialism.org/2021/11/17/russian-public-memory-of-gulag-and-terror-will-never-be-satisfactory-that-is-not-the-same-as-forgetting/
8. Moscow Times: Russia’s Economy Grew Strongly in Third Quarter. But economists say Russia’s economic momentum is waning under the pressures of a fourth wave and high inflation.
9. Russia Beyond: 5 reasons to watch ‘Unclenching the Fists’, Russia’s Oscar-nominated drama – rbth.com/arts/334424-unclenching-fists-kovalenko-oscar
10. Oilprice.com: The Real Reason Russia Isn’t Pumping More Gas.
11. Financial Times: Alexander Gabuev, Russia’s energy deals with China may backfire on the Kremlin. Moscow has much leverage over Europe as a gas supplier, but an over-reliance on Beijing carries long-term strategic risks.
12. Meduza: Russia’s ASAT missile test in context . Meduza explains why Moscow risked an international scandal to shoot down an orbiting hunk of Soviet metal.
13. Wall Street Journal: Joshua Robenstein, ‘Collapse’ Review: The Shock of Reform. The rush of intellectual and creative freedom couldn’t be contained, but gratitude turned into anger as the Soviet economy faltered.
14. Valdai Discussion Club: Timofei Bordachev, Border Conflict and the New European Reality. After the countries of Western Europe implemented their large-scale project of expanding the European Union to the East in the early 2000s, they hoped to create a belt of countries around its perimeter, which could ensure a peaceful neighbourhood. This, however, turned out to be impossible — now the EU borders are a continuous conflict zone. – valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/border-conflict-and-the-new-european-reality/
15. strategic-culture.org: Pepe Escobar, Frozen Deutschland. A “perfect storm of Russian aggression during the coming winter months” is all but inevitable. Watch it on your screens while you properly freeze – strategic-culture.org/news/2021/11/17/frozen-deutschland/
16. rt.com: Germany agreed on plan to open humanitarian corridor for refugees on Poland-Belarus border – Minsk – rt.com/russia/540651-belarus-germany-eu-refugees-corridor/
17. Intellinews: Lukashenko demands EU recognise him as president, withdraw sanctions during Merkel call
18. Bloomberg: Leonid Bershidsky, Putin’s Priority Is Selling Gas, Not Waging War. Russia knows that a military invasion of Ukraine could scupper its Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which still awaits German regulatory approval.
19. Moscow Times: Russia Unlikely to Invade Ukraine Despite Ratcheting Tensions, Experts Believe. Losses would be too great and gains too limited, analysts told The Moscow Times.
20. rt.com: 33 Russian ‘mercenaries’ targeted by Ukrainian sting operation.
https://www.rt.com/russia/540605-russians-detained-belarus-ukrainian-operation/
21. rt.com: France & Germany blocked Russian Donbass peace plan – leaked cables – rt.com/russia/540609-france-germany-plan-donbass/
22. Washington Post: Glenn Kessler, The Steele dossier: A guide to the latest allegations
23. taibbi.substack.com: Matt Taibbi, The Russiagate Whitewash Era Begins. After the WMD mess, Judith Miller got the blame, while a long list of just-as-guilty media villains failed upward. Now, a nervous press is looking for Russiagate’s fall guys. (excerpt) – taibbi.substack.com/p/the-russiagate-whitewash-era-begins
24. jonathanturley.org: Jonathan Turley, Six Degrees From Brookings: How a Liberal Think Tank Keeps Coming Up in the Russian Collusion Investigation.
25. The National Interest: Paul Pillar, Durham’s Dry Hole and the Trump-Russia Connection. There is very likely much more to the story of Trump and Russia than what has so far become public. A well-funded investigation to look into this further would be justified—much more so than an investigation, which has come up dry, into supposed witch-hunting by the U.S.