RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List contents & links :: JRL 2022-#45 :: Monday, 28 February 2022

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2021-#45 :: Monday, 28 February 2022
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1. The National Interest: Paul Pillar, The Shot That Was Called: Intelligence and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine; The response of policymakers to intelligence — including not just paying attention to it but believing it and acting on it—is always at least as important as what the intelligence itself says. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/paul-pillar/shot-was-called-intelligence-and-russian-invasion-ukraine-200846
2. TASS: Kommersant: Why Putin put nuclear forces on special alert.
3. The National Interest: Mark Episkopos, Can Russia and Ukraine Negotiate an End to War? Top Kremlin officials, up to and including Putin, continue to insist that Russia’s goal remains the “denazification and demilitarization” of Ukraine, suggesting that Moscow will accept nothing short of Kiev’s total and unconditional capitulation.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/can-russia-and-ukraine-negotiate-end-war-200858
4. Intellinews: Ben Aris, Russia, Ukraine to meet for possible peace talks, Putin puts nuclear forces on alert.
5. Reuters: Ukraine ceasefire talks begin.
6. Wall Street Journal: Kyiv and Moscow Hold Talks as Ukrainian Troops Repel Russian Attacks. Prospects for cease-fire in talks held in Belarus are uncertain as Russia continues its invasion and Ukraine mobilizes more defenders.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/kyiv-and-moscow-hold-talks-as-ukrainian-troops-repel-russian-attacks-11646046458?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1
7. Moscow Times: “Why Do We Need a World if Russia Is Not In It?”: State TV Presenter Opens Show With Ominous Address.
8. AP: Ruble plummets as sanctions bite, sending Russians to banks.
9. Counterpunch: Kenneth Surin, Crisis Over Ukraine: A Primer.
10. The Bell: Everything changed.
11. Asia Times: David Goldman, Russia’s strategy to destroy Ukraine army going to plan. European intelligence sources tell Asia Times Moscow sucessfully deploying ‘time-honored’ encirclement tactic to hem in Ukrainian forces.
12. TASS: Russian diplomat blames NATO’s actions, West’s silence on Donbass for disaster in Europe.
13. Asia Times: Stephen Bryen and Shoshana Bryen, Time to engage the Russians. Russia appears ready to negotiate and the contours of a war-ending deal are in sight.
14. Canadian Dimension: Andrei Tsygankov, The Russia-Ukraine War: Why the hawks prevailed. However soon the war ends, its effects on Europe and the world are already profound. https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/the-russia-ukraine-war-why-the-hawks-prevailed
15. Consortium News:Joe Laurie, Why Putin Went to War. Russia says it has no intentions of controlling Ukraine and its military operation is only to “demilitarize” and “de-Nazify” Ukraine in an action taken after 30 years of the U.S. pushing Russia too far.
16. Responsible Statecraft: David Kaiser, With Russian invasion comes new world order. What started out as a league of nations turned into a unipolar century. That’s evaporating quickly and the US now has to reckon with it.
17. New Cold War: Halyna Mokrushyna, My answer to Canadian friends worrying about the war in Ukraine.
18. The National Interest:Jacob Heilbronn, Why Putin’s War Against the West Is Just Beginning. A bellicose Russia, shorn of its empire and suffused with resentment, is being led by a leader intent on payback for the wrongs that he believes were inflicted upon his nation after the end of the Cold War by vengeful and unscrupulous Western powers.
19. Strategic Culture Foundation: Finian Cunningham, Echoes of Georgia 2008, Not Czechoslovakia 1939. Making up false historical analogies as Western leaders and media are doing is preventing a rational, intelligent discussion to resolve deep-seated problems.
20. Wall Street Journal: How the West Misread Vladimir Putin. The former KGB officer spent years assailing the post-Cold War order and sent repeated signals he intended to widen Russia’s sphere of influence. https://www.wsj.com/articles/putin-invaded-ukraine-west-misread-russia-11645822427?mod=Searchresults_pos3&page=6
21. Moscow Times: Some of Russia’s Elite Oppose War in Ukraine.
22. The Spectator (UK): Mark Galeotti, War in Ukraine has divided Putin’s court.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-war-in-ukraine-has-divided-putin-s-court
23. Leonid Gozman: Defeat: seven conclusions from the first three days.
24. Counterpunch: Patrick Cockburn, Putin has Gambled Everything on His Snap-Invasion of Ukraine, Now His Political Survival in Russia is in Doubt.
25. https://greenwald.substack.com: Glenn Greenwald, War Propaganda About Ukraine Becoming More Militaristic, Authoritarian, and Reckless. Every useful or pleasing claim about the war, no matter how unverified or subsequently debunked, rapidly spreads, while dissenters are vilified as traitors or Kremlin agents. (Excerpt)