RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List contents & links :: JRL 2021-#27 :: Sunday, 7 February 2021

To inquire about a subscription to the full Johnson’s Russia List e-mail newsletter, e-mail David Johnson at davidjohnson@starpower.net

Support the JRL: russialist.org/funding.php
Donate Online: click here for direct link at GWU

[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter]

Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2021-#27 :: Sunday, 7 February 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.
JRL Home: russialist.org – JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist – JRL on Twitter: @JohnsonRussiaLi
Support for JRL is provided in part by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York to the George Washington University and by voluntary contributions from readers.

1. Intellinews: Ben Aris, Kremlin lays out new rules of the game for post-Trump relations. Russian President Vladimir Putin clearly feels comfortable enough to stand up to the West and has laid down his new rules of the game in the post-Trump world: Russia will no longer tolerate any meddling in its domestic affairs.
2. TASS: Sputnik V piercing through cordons of political lobbyism across the world – expert – tass.com/society/1253455
3. Bloomberg: Putin’s Once-Scorned Vaccine Now Favorite in Pandemic Fight
4. The National Interest: David Saveliev, Why Putin is Winning the Power Struggle With Navalny in Russia. The Navalny protests have failed and Putin is expelling western diplomats who he says joined them.
5. Kommersant: Yavlinsky has criticized Navalny for “populism and nationalism” – kommersant.ru/doc/4681597?utm_source=yxnews&utm_medium=desktop [DJ: See also echo.msk.ru/blog/yavlinsky_g/2786494-echo/]
6. Paul Goble: Navalny’s Ethnic Prejudices May Not have Changed but His Use of Nationalist Rhetoric Has, Verkhovsky Says.
7. Andrei Liakhov: Navalny saga: What does it mean?
8. Wall Street Journal: Navalny Movement Scraps Protests as It Digs In for Long Haul. Following mass arrests and police violence, the opposition in Russia shifts focus from the streets to the ballot box.
9. Financial Times: Rising poverty and falling incomes fuel Russia’s Navalny protests. Living standards slide amid stagnant growth, weak investment and government austerity.
10. The Harvard Gazette: Is this the tipping point for Putin? Growing protests over prosecution of dissident Alexei Navalny shake Kremlin. (interview with Alexandra M. Vacroux)
11. Forbes: Kenneth Rapoza, Putin’s Navalny Antics Has Wall Street Giving Up On Russia
12. Russia Matters: With New START Extended, What Is Future of US-Russian Arms Control?
13. AP: Work resumes on disputed Russian-German undersea pipeline.
14. Bloomberg: Get Ready For a Merkel-Biden Bust-Up Over Russian Gas.
15. rt.com: Paul Robinson, Western pundits believed post-Maidan Ukraine would serve as an ‘example’ for Russia – in reality, it’s become a cautionary tale – rt.com/russia/514702-west-ukraine-example-maidan/
16. Al Jazeera: Mnsur Mirovalaev, In risky move, Ukraine’s president bans pro-Russian media. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has unplugged three television networks he accuses of spreading Kremlin-funded ‘propaganda’, a development the EU has reprimanded. Millions in Ukraine’s east and south are Russian speakers – without necessarily being pro-Kremlin – and their votes propelled Zelenskyy to the country’s presidency against all political odds.
17. The Observer (UK): Face off: the extraordinary power struggle between Vladimir Putin and Alexei Navalny. He’s been poisoned and jailed… but not silenced. Now Navalny poses the greatest threat to the president’s 21-year rule.
18. Moon of Alabama: New York Times Editors Lie, Obfuscate Facts, To Reinforce Their False Russia Narrative – moonofalabama.org/2021/02/new-york-times-editors-lie-obfuscate-facts-to-reinforce-their-false-russia-narrative.html
19. New York Times: What Awaits Navalny in Russia’s Brutal Penal Colony System. Its prison camps, descended from the Soviet gulag, are notoriously harsh. But in a shift from the Stalin era, inmates have treated political prisoners with respect.
20. Washington Examiner: Marjorie Taylor Greene to CNN reporter: ‘Have you apologized for Russian collusion conspiracy lies?’
21. The Times (UK): RT’s fake news and propaganda should bar it from Britain.
22. Newslines: Recruited to Work for Russian Intelligence. A classified KGB training manual on “confidential contacts” explores the gray area between informant and agent. – newlinesmag.com/reportage/you-dont-have-to-be-recruited-to-work-for-russian-intelligence/
23. New York Times: Vladimir Putin Has Become America’s Ex-Boyfriend From Hell. He’s not very important to us, but he keeps stalking us.