RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List contents & links :: JRL 2021-#36 :: Thursday, 18 February 2021

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2021-#36 :: Thursday, 18 February 2021
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1. Kremlin.ru: Meeting with State Duma party faction leaders. (Transcript continued) – en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/65013
2. TASS: IT exceptionalism? Putin calls out Big Tech’s ‘ideological divide’, widespread censorship – tass.com/politics/1257699
3. Foreign Affairs: Anna Arutunyan, Russia Will Never See the United States the Same Way Again. After Trump, Washington Must Work Through Allies to Influence Moscow.
4. Carnegie Moscow Center: Dmitri Trenin, Russia and Europe: the Current Impasse and the Way Out. Russia and the European Union need to imagine a more realistic goal for their relationship: a model of neighborliness, in which the inevitable disagreements will be managed in order to prevent disruptive conflicts and damaging collisions. – carnegie.ru/commentary/83905
5. Moscow Times: Russia Has One of the World’s Highest Excess Death Rates. Why Aren’t Russians Angrier? Surging coronavirus fatalities have played little or no role in a recent wave of protest. (“A Russian tendency to place less value on human life than people in more developed countries may also play a role in the tendency to accept large numbers of Covid-19 fatalities.”)
6. TASS: Media: Russia won’t cave to ECHR’s demand to release Navalny – tass.com/pressreview/1257867
7. Carnegie Moscow Center: Alexander Baunov, Why the Kremlin’s Anti-Navalny Strategy Just Might Work. When the government shows that it’s prepared to use violence against peaceful protesters and to lock them up for extended periods, it plays on a preexisting mindset that perhaps protesting won’t lead to any actual changes in society.
8. Kommerstant: Alexei Navalny was equated with the Nazis. The prosecutor’s office asks to check whether the politician has offended her and the court. – kommersant.ru/doc/4693559?
9. Dances With Bears: John Helmer, RUSSIA’S BIG PHARMA IS A PRIVATE BUSINESS FED BY THE STATE, AND THIS IS HOW THE FEEDING WORKS. (excerpt) – johnhelmer.net/russias-big-pharma-is-a-private-business-fed-by-the-state-and-this-is-how-the-feeding-works/print/
10. rt.com: Investment guru Jim Rogers bullish on Russia thanks to ‘lots of oil & agriculture’ – rt.com/business/515818-russia-oil-agriculture-investment/
11. Intellinews: EU imports of Russian gas surge in January, despite objections to Nord Stream 2
12. Valdai Discussion Club: Timofei Bordachev, Double Standards Are Not Enough: The Impossibility of Morality in a Multipolar World – valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/double-standards-are-not-enough/
13. TASS: Kommersant: NATO allies to plot new scheme for containing Russia.
15. Interfax: Russian experts Sergei Rogov, Viktoria Zhuravleva: U.S. foreign policy determined by domestic problems.
16. Russia Matters: Paul Saunders, Biden’s Russia Policy Will Be Shaped by His Priorities, Not Just His People.
17. Asia Times: M.K. Bhadrakumar, Biden has adult conversations with China, Russia on Iran If the US can work with China and Russia to resolve the Iran nuclear issue, what else can be achieved? – asiatimes.com/2021/02/biden-has-adult-conversations-with-china-russia-on-iran/
18. rt.com: Western countries imposing sanctions on Nord Stream 2 want to make Russia pay for ‘geopolitical project’ in Ukraine, Putin says – rt.com/russia/515842-putin-western-sanctions-ukraine/
19. rt.com: With Crimean reservoirs running low, Ukraine vows to complete dam on canal which once provided almost 85% of the peninsula’s water – rt.com/russia/515924-ukraine-dam-crimea-water/
20. Antiwar.com: Ted Galen Carpenter, Washington’s Foreign ‘Democratic’ Clients Become an Embarrassment Again – original.antiwar.com/Ted_Galen_Carpenter/2021/02/17/washingtons-foreign-democratic-clients-become-an-embarrassment-again/
21. TASS: Current Ukrainian government can’t objectively investigate Maidan events, expert says.
22. Atlantic Council: Peter Dickinson, Putin the Poisoner