RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents & links :: JRL 2020-#144 :: Tuesday, 11 August 2020

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 2020-#144 :: Tuesday, 11 August 2020
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. rt.com: Bryan MacDonald, Putin says Russia’s Health Ministry has approved world’s FIRST Covid-19 vaccine, his own daughter has been vaccinated – rt.com/russia/497671-putin-covid-19-vaccine-first/
2. Wall Street Journal: Russia Registers World’s First Covid-19 Vaccine Despite Safety Concerns. Officials in Russia and the West express alarm at the speed the vaccine was developed.
3. Moscow Times: ‘World’s First’ Coronavirus Vaccine: What We Know So Far About Russian Injection.
4. TASS: RBC: Russia’s healthcare watchdog shrugs off COVID-19 vaccine naysayers.
5. Government.ru: Meeting of the Government Coordination Council to control the incidence of novel coronavirus infection in the Russian Federation – government.ru/en/news/40176/
6. Moscow Times: Jake Cordell, Six Months into the Coronavirus Outbreak, Russia’s Statistics Still Provide More Questions than Answers. Analysis of excess fatalities show regions may be underreporting deaths from Covid-19.
7. The National Interest: James Holmes, Vladimir Putin Is No Mastermind, But He Has Played Russia’s Cards Well. It verges on impossible to forecast what Moscow will do tactically. What it will do strategically, however, is more intelligible and thus more predictable.
8. rt.com: Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Europe will be completed soon – Lavrov.
9. TASS: US on wrong track imposing sanctions against Nord Stream 2 – German foreign minister.
10. TASS: Vedomosti: Russia’s oil industry might not recover before 2021.
11. rt.com: Exports of Russian oil products to US hit 16-year high.
12. Valdai Discussion Club: Vadim Kozyulin, Open Skies Treaty: From Dusk to Dawn in Vienna. The OST remained the last island in the archipelago of conventional arms control treaties. The arms control system is collapsing in plain sight. But the talks in Vienna give grounds for some optimism, writes Vadim Kozyulin, PIR Center’s Asian Security, Emerging Technologies and Global Security Project Director – valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/open-skies-treaty-from-dusk-to-dawn-in-vienna/
13. PONARS Eurasia: Polina Sinovets, Hot of [off?] the Press, Colder in Scope: Russia’s Nuclear Deterrence Fundamentals 2020.
14. Intellinews: US President Donald Trump says again he intends to invite Russia’s Vladimir Putin to the G7 summit this autumn.
15. Interfax: U.S. and Russian border guards conduct joint patrol in Bering Strait
16. War on the Rocks: Michael Kofman, THE EMPERORS LEAGUE: UNDERSTANDING SINO-RUSSIAN DEFENSE COOPERATION. (excerpt) – warontherocks.com/2020/08/the-emperors-league-understanding-sino-russian-defense-cooperation/
17. Intellinews: Russian MP Konstantin Zatulin and head of the Duma’s foreign relations committee calls Belarus’ election results a hoax.
18. TASS: Vedomosti: Protests in Belarus may continue but have little chance of success.
19. rt.com: Dmitry Babich, Lukashenko: Short-term victory, long-term defeat – rt.com/op-ed/497697-belarus-lukashenko-election-protests/
20. rt.com: Paul Robinson, Belarus on the brink? Unloved in Moscow, a pariah again in the West & facing protests at home, Lukashenko is running out of road – rt.com/russia/497634-lukashenko-moscow-belarus-protests-putin/
21. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, DEAD MAN WALKING
22. Intellinews: Tadeusz Giczan, Why the Kremlin wouldn’t mind if Lukashenko is deposed. The Kremlin wins both ways if Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko is deposed or manages to hang on to power.
23. Wall Street Journal: With Belarus in Turmoil, Russia Sees Chance to Expand Its Influence. Moscow offers to strengthen Russian integration with Minsk in attempt to shore up Lukashenko after unprecedented protests.
24. The Unz Review: The Saker, Putin and Russia Are Facing a Very Serious Crisis in Belarus – unz.com/tsaker/putin-and-russia-are-facing-a-very-serious-crisis-in-belarus/
25. RFE/RL: U.S. ‘Deeply Concerned’ By Russia’s Targeting Of ‘Foreign Agent’ Media.
26. Russian and Eurasian Politics: Gordon Hahn, All Too Little, All Too Late: On the Open Letter ‘It’s Time to Rethink Our Russia Policy’