RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List contents & links :: JRL 2022-#2 :: Tuesday, 4 January 2022

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2021-#2 :: Tuesday, 2 January 2022
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.
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1. Intellinews: OUTLOOK: 2022 Russia. Russia’s economy bounced back strongly in 2021, but growth will slow in 2022.
2. Intellinews: Russia’s reserves ended 2021 at an all-time high of $630.5bn.
3. Moscow Times: Russia’s Economy Set to Face Old Problems in New Year. After a swift recovery from the coronavirus recession, the Russian economy is facing a familiar set of challenges.
4. Moscow Times: Russia’s Climate Epiphany May Be Greenwashing. Experts fear the country cares more about carbon levies than the environmental crisis.
5. Financial Times: Gas superpower Russia struggles to connect millions to network. While Moscow focuses on lucrative exports, cities such as Chita in Siberia are desperate for cleaner energy sources.
6. TASS: Stability requires more positive shifts apart from nuclear war prevention – expert. (Andrey Kortunov) – tass.com/politics/1383723
7. Al Jazeera: Dimitar Bechev, Russia-U.S. face-off: What should we expect in 2022? The US and its European allies are pushing for diplomacy with Russia but a renewed conflict in Ukraine is still possible.
8. Brookings: Michael E. O’Hanlon, Russia-Ukraine conflict: America needs a better idea than NATO expansion to keep the peace – brookings.edu/opinions/russia-ukraine-conflict-america-needs-a-better-idea-than-nato-expansion-to-keep-the-peace/
9. Paul Goble: Time Horizons of Russians Short and Bases for More Optimism in Short Supply, Volkov Says.
10. Washington Post: Katrina vanden Heuvel, What a sensible Ukraine policy would look like.
11. Russia Observer: Patrick Armstrong, SOMETHING HOPEFUL FOR THE NEW YEAR – SORT OF – patrickarmstrong.ca/2022/01/04/something-hopeful-for-the-new-year-sort-of/
12. Valdai Discussion Club: Andrey Bystritskiy, New Humanitarian Disaster. We are used to different acronyms. BLM, GOP, COP and so on. They all make sense, they allow us to save time, and turn out to be symbols which represent very sensitive and important processes. But it looks like it’s time to introduce a new acronym. We can call it NHC in English – “New Humanitarian Catastrophe” or NHD if you use the word Disaster. – valdaiclub.com/a/chairman-speech/new-humanitarian-disaster/
13. Foreign Policy: Brent Peabody, Russia Doesn’t Have the Demographics for War. The 1990s collapse in birth rates still impacts Moscow’s ambitions.
14. Geohistory: Josh Wilson, The Ukraine Border Crisis: Seven Questions Answered – geohistory.today/ukraine-border-crisis/
15. Wall Street Journal: Russia’s Military Buildup Near Ukraine Is an Open Secret. Satellite images, social media posts and flight-tracking data allow private analysts to track details governments once classified.
16. Responsible Statecraft: Doug Bandow, GOP war drummers demanding action against Russia. Republicans should demand better from their lawmakers in DC, lest they risk fighting again for someone else’s war.
17. Antiwar.com: Ted Galen Carpenter, Dangerous Democrats Push Confrontational Policies Toward Russia and China.
18. Meduza: ‘Alarm bells’ about Russia are finally ringing louder in Washington than Kyiv. (Anne Applebaum) [referencing theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/ukraine-russia-kyiv-putin-bluff/621145/]
19. Asia Times: China and Russia team up to establish joint moon base. Planned Sino-Russian joint moon base aims to overtake the US in reaping lunar strategic benefits.
20. TASS: Ukraine may have to siphon off Russian gas from transit pipelines – former Naftogaz chief – tass.com/economy/1383745
21. New Cold War: Dmitriy Kovalevich. December update: Ukraine’s gas prices bankrupt industries; women to face mandatory military service. – newcoldwar.org/december-update-ukraines-gas-prices-bankrupt-industries-women-to-face-mandatory-military-service/
22. Bloomberg: U.S. Catches Kremlin Insider Who May Have Secrets of 2016 Hack. IT executive Vladislav Klyushin’s journey into U.S. custody is a blow to the Kremlin, say people familiar with a Russian intelligence assessment of what he may have to offer.
23. Moscow Times: New Year Museum Highlights. Our picks for the must-see big shows of the year.

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