RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List contents & links :: JRL 2021-#255 :: Friday, 31 December 2021

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2021-#255 :: Friday, 31 December 2021
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1. AP: Putin wishes Russians happier new year, hails their strength
2. Whitehouse: Background Press Call by a Senior Administration Official on President Biden’s Call with President Putin of the Russian Federation
3. rt.com: Five key takeaways from latest Putin-Biden call. The Russian and US presidents focused on Ukraine and Moscow’s proposals for security guarantees in Europe – rt.com/russia/544866-five-key-takeaways-from-latest/
4. rt.com: Putin warns Biden of ‘complete breakdown’ in US-Russian relations. Washington appears to have acknowledged some of Moscow’s security concerns, but situation remains tense – rt.com/russia/544861-kremlin-pleased-biden-putin-talks/
6. RFE/RL: Amid Rumblings About A Russian Invasion, ‘No Hysteria’ In Ukraine
7. Foreign Policy: Anatoly Antonov, An Existential Threat to Europe’s Security Architecture? What happens next in Ukraine depends on the West’s readiness for dialogue, says Russia’s ambassador to the United States.
8. The National Interest: Mark Episkopos, Can the Biden-Putin Call Really Avert War Over Ukraine? As military tensions simmer between Russia and Ukraine, the West is bracing for three rounds of high-stakes negotiations with the Kremlin in early January.
9. gilbertdoctorow.com: Gilbert Doctorow, Deciphering the Biden-Putin Telephone Chat of Yesterday, 30 December 2021 – gilbertdoctorow.com/2021/12/31/deciphering-the-biden-putin-telephone-chat-of-yesterday-30-december-2021/
10. Los Angeles Times: Rajan Menon, How the U.S. could help prevent the Russia-Ukraine crisis from morphing into war.
11. Geopolitical Futures: George Friedman, Russia, U.S. and Ukraine: The State of Play
12. Moscow Times: Felix Light, Three Decades After Soviet Collapse, Life in Russia Could Be Worse. Society is wracked by contrast, but genuine progress coexists with painful failure.
13. Bloomberg: Russia Faces Lost Decade After Its Deadliest Month of Pandemic
14. Meduza: Stanovaya says Putin has actually built a ‘de-personified regime,’ not a personal dictatorship
15. RFE/RL: Steve Gutterman, The Week In Russia: The Shifting Shape Of The Past
16. Counterpunch: Monika Zgustova, Bells Tolling for Russian Memory
17. Facebook: Fred Weir, Sanctions.
18. rt.com: How new Russian-built passenger jet MC-21 took off despite Western sanctions. The first Russian-made plane of its kind, MC-21 has proven its airworthiness after years of delays due to Western sanctions. – rt.com/russia/544697-mc21-passenger-jet-certified/
19. Carnegie Moscow Center: Alexnder Gabuev, Neighbors, Partners, Competitors: Drivers and Limitations of China-Russia Relations. Over the course of the last thirty years, China and Russia have demonstrated that their partnership is resilient and expanding. Any pragmatic leadership in the Kremlin—even a democratic one that seeks to improve ties with the West—will try to maintain stable and friendly relations with China, just as any pragmatic Chinese leadership will do with Russia.
20. gilbertdoctorow.com: Gilbert Doctorow, Russian elites talk: will the negotiations in Geneva on January 10 bring about a roll-back of NATO? – gilbertdoctorow.com/2021/12/31/russian-elites-talk-will-the-negotiations-in-geneva-on-january-10-bring-about-a-roll-back-of-nato/