RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#182 :: Friday 18 September 2015

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#182
Friday – 18 September 2015
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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RUSSIA

1. Los Angeles Times: On a chilly beach in Russia, an unlikely surf culture takes root.
2. AFP: Russia kicks off 1,000-day countdown to 2018 FIFA World Cup.
3. Sarah Lindemann-Komarova: Running for Office in Siberia: And the winner is….Last in a series covering the District #35 Novosibirsk City Council election.
4. Carnegie Moscow Center: Tatyana Stanovaya, Russia’s Paralysed Party System.
5. Interfax: Putin sees non-parliamentary parties taking part in 2016 Duma polls.
6. Kremlin.ru: Meeting with newly elected regional heads.
7. TASS: Putin: import substitution is “not some kind of fetish” for Russia.
8. Moscow Times: Russians’ Incomes Fall at Fastest Pace in 8 Months.
9. Bloomberg: Russian Consumer Rot Worsens as Wages Decline More Than Forecast.
10. TASS: Russian Energy Strategy includes giving independent companies access to export pipelines.
11. Business New Europe: Deutsche Bank confirms its retreat from Russia.
12. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Unhappy with one in a 100, Russia goes for 5. Project 5-100, launched by presidential decree two years ago, sets the ambitious goal of getting five Russian universities in the world’s top 100 by 2020.
13. www.rt.com: Senators seek to soften law that restricts Russian bloggers.
14. TASS: Russian state exhibits to US on hold for next few years – culture envoy.
15. Moscow Times: News of Closure of American Center in Moscow Rattles Muscovites.
16. CNN.com: Putin becomes a political punching bag in White House race.
17. Business New Europe: Snowman warms to Russia as Western stars seek new home. If you can right hook or roundhouse with the best of them, or rattle off 100 uses for a giant nose, then the door to Russia and the Kremlin may be wide open to you.
18. Russia Beyond the Headlines: TROIKA REPORT: EU sanctions against Russia: a bitter harvest. RBTH presents its weekly analytical program TROIKA REPORT, featuring a look at three of the most high-profile recent developments in international affairs.
19. www.project-syndicate.org: Sergei Karaganov, A Eurasian Solution for Europe’s Crises.
20. Russia Direct: Ruslan Kostyuk, Britain’s Labor Party could be ready to change the nation’s Russia policy. With the election of Jeremy Corbyn as the new leader of the British Labor Party, there are signs that the longstanding foreign policy consensus in Britain could be changing in Russia’s favor.
21. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Ambassador-at-large Grigoriy Berdennikov’s interview with Rossiya Segodnya, 11 September 2015. (excerpt re nuclear talks with US)
22. RFE/RL: Impasse Over U.S.-Russia Nuclear Treaty Hardens As Washington Threatens ‘Countermeasures’
23. TASS: Russia helps Syrian state against ISIS, not Asad’s regime – Foreign Ministry.
24. Russia Beyond the Headlines/Gazeta.ru: Fyodor Lukyanov, Creating a defensive ‘island’ in Syria against ISIS. World must stop Damascus falling to the Islamic State.
25. Komsomolskaya Pravda: Russian Defence Ministry officer details Moscow’s intentions in Syria.
26. Russia Direct: Pavel Koshkin, Will Russia contribute to solving Syria’s refugee crisis? With Europe facing its biggest refugee crisis in recent history, both refugees and the organizations aiding them are asking the question of whether Russia should play a greater role in alleviating the problem.
27. International Business Times: Syrian Civil War: Russian Refugee Tent Camp In Syria Is Country’s First, Will Accommodate Thousands.
28. Interfax: Moscow can neither confirm nor deny US special forces “on ground” in Syria.
29. Antiwar.com: Patrick J. Buchanan, Putin: Friend or Foe in Syria?
30. Washington Post: Senior U.S., Russian defense officials talk to defuse tensions over Syria.
31. Business New Europe: Kazakh, Uzbek leaders reignite talk of succession.
32. www.rt.com: Murad Gazdiev, The BBC’s (Funded by the Kremlin Downing Street) Three-Step Guide to Making Boring Propaganda.

UKRAINE

33. Interfax: UN: War in Donbass takes 8,000 lives.
34. AP: OSCE Warns of Breakdown of Central Heating in East Ukraine.
35. www.opendemocracy.net: Richard Sakwa, Ukraine and the postcolonial condition. What does the debate over Ukraine’s postcolonial status reveal about the future of the country’s domestic and international politics?
36. Bloomberg: Putin Tightens Reins on Ukraine Rebels, Putting Conflict on Ice.
37. AFP: Shells silent, stressed Ukraine fighters face alcohol threat.
38. AFP: ‘All in all, it wasn’t a bad week. I didn’t die,’ writes mystery diarist in Ukraine.
39. Huffingtonpost.com: Nikolas Kozloff, Kiev Right Wing Violence: Time for Poroshenko to Look in the Mirror?
40. Kyiv Post: Brian Bonner, Bandits of Ukraine, keep stealing with impunity.
41. www.foreignpolicy.com: Frank Brown, The World’s Biggest Work in Progress. Why Ukraine’s effort to curb corruption is a Sisyphean task. A situation report.
42. Fort Russ: Andre Vadjra, Ukraine Multiplied by Zero on the Eve of Maidan Squared.
43. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, Ukraine president blacklists journalists as ‘threat to national interests’
44. Bloomberg: Ukraine Bond Deal at Risk Again as Rebel Investors Demand Change.
45. TASS: Experts: Crimean Tatar activists’ threats to blockade Crimea nothing but PR campaign.
46. Dances With Bears: John Helmer, MH17 – THE LIE TO END ALL TRUTHS, AND THE NEW EVIDENCE.
47. Fort Russ: CIA in 1948: Ukraine is inseparable from Russia and incapable of independence.