RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#187 :: Friday 25 September 2015

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#188
Friday – 25 September 2515
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. The National Interest: Robert Legvold, Lowdown: What Russian Citizens Really Think of Putin and Why. The stats show that the average bus driver shares sentiments similar to the average academic when it comes to Kremlin policies. Why?
2. Moscow Times: Putin Praises American Qualities in Interview with U.S. Television.
3. www.rt.com: Putin: ‘Not important how I’m called, only what I do for my country’
4. Business New Europe: Ben Aris, MOSCOW BLOG: Putin looking limber for his UN Syria leap.
5. Wall Street Journal: U.N. Speech Marks Putin’s Return to Center Stage. Kremlin watchers say move in Syria may be bid to get beyond Ukraine crisis.
6. Interfax: Research on tsarist family assassination case goes on actively – senior criminal investigator.
7. Politkom.ru: Arrest of Russian governor shows anti-graft fight ‘inevitable”, says website. (Konstantin Kalachev)
8. Paul Goble: Putin Pushing New Social Contract Based on Fighting Corruption Rather than Economic Growth, Petrov Says.
9. www.opendemocracy.net: Svetlana Prokopyeva, The opposition’s last mandate. Deputies of the Pskov regional assembly are attempting to remove a colleague from their ranks-opposition lawmaker and journalist Lev Shlosberg.
10. TASS: Kremlin spokesman says it took several attempts for Putin to reach Elton John by phone.
11. Kremlin.ru: Federal Anti-Monopoly Service Competition Week in Russia forum.
12. Moscow Times: Russia Plans $3.6 Billion Food Stamp Program as Poverty Rises.
13. Moscow Times: Energy Sector Accounts for 98% of Russian Corporate Profits.
14. Oilprice.com: How Russia’s Oil Companies Are Defying Sanctions and Low Oil Prices.
15. Russia Beyond the Headlines: TROIKA REPORT: Pope Francis may help defuse Russia-West dialogue. RBTH presents its weekly analytical program TROIKA REPORT, featuring a look at three of the most high-profile recent developments in international affairs.
16. Russia Direct: Syria is now in the middle of a new, more dangerous Cold War. RD Interview: Professor Emeritus of Columbia University Robert Legvold argues that Russia and the U.S. are in the second phase of a new Cold War that has the potential to exacerbate the situation in Syria and become another missed opportunity for cooperation.
17. New York Times: White House Says President Obama and Vladimir Putin Will Meet Next Week.
18. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Russia and U.S. will have to come to agreement on Assad’s future. As Moscow and Washington continue to debate how to resolve the Syrian crisis, RBTH asked several Russian experts how realistic a compromise is between the two powers and what potential scenarios await Syria.
19. www.rt.com: Upper House: No request from Putin to dispatch troops in Syria.
20. Council on Foreign Relations: Steven Cook, Syria: Let Putin Bleed.
21. TASS: Russia’s Federal Migration Service ponders over possibility of accepting Syrian refugees.
22. Asia Times: Salman Rafi Sheikh, Saudi-Russia alliance in the offing?
23. www.penguinrandomhouse.com: new book, The New Tsar: THE RISE AND REIGN OF VLADIMIR PUTIN by STEVEN LEE MYERS (New York Times reporter)
24. PBS Newshour: Why Putin is prepared to fight for Ukraine. In “Imperial Gamble,” journalist Marvin Kalb argues that Russian President Vladimir Putin has won in Ukraine. Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner sits down with Kalb to discuss Putin’s world view and game plan.
25. The Ripon Forum: William Pomeranz, Is Time Working for or Against Putin?

UKRAINE

26. The National Interest: Nicolay Pakhomov, Why the ‘Normandy Four’ Summit Is a Big Deal for Ukraine. It is in everyone’s interest, including Russia’s and the Donbas region’s republics’, to see that the Minsk II ceasefire agreement is held up.
27. Valdai Discussion Club: Mikhail Pogrebinsky, History and Prospects of Ukrainian Crisis Settlement.
28. UNICEF.org: A community centre in eastern Ukraine offers respite for vulnerable families.
29. The Economist editorial: Progress in Ukraine, Look west, Maidan. The revolution in Ukraine is being smothered by corruption and special interests.
30. TASS: Analysts: Ukraine’s Right Sector strong enough to stage coup.
31. Sputnik: Ukraine Likely to Face Civil War in West of the Country – German Media.
32. TASS: Russia hopes for compromise on weapons withdrawal in Donbas – Foreign Ministry.
33. The Economist: Rule of law in Ukraine, Mr Saakashvili goes to Odessa. A Georgian reformer tackles Ukraine’s real public enemy number one: corruption.
34. Interfax-Ukraine: Poroshenko approves new military doctrine calling Russia current military threat to Ukraine.
35. Interfax: Ukraine reforms national security sector for future membership in EU, NATO – military doctrine.
36. US Department of Defense: Carter Reaffirms U.S. Commitment to Ukraine.
37. Kyiv Post: NATO deepening cooperation with Ukraine, but membership far away.
38. Fort Russ: Donbas is the reason Ukraine can’t join NATO.
39. www.rt.com: Kiev should ‘walk away’ from $3bn debt to Moscow – US senator.
40. Business New Europe: Graham Stack, Ukraine’s seamy coal trade learns to vault the frontlines.
41. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Crimean Tatars blockade border posts over political discrimination. For the last several days Crimean Tatar demonstrators have been refusing to allow trucks with Ukrainian goods into Crimea and are putting forward political demands, calling for an end to discrimination by the peninsula’s Russian authorities.
42. TASS: Crimea ready for electricity turn-off by Ukraine.
43. TASS: Russian gas price for Ukraine will be at level of neighboring EU states – PM Medvedev.
44. Kyiv Post: Soldiers enter politics to seek big changes.
45. Chicago Tribune: Ukraine making comeback, finance minister says. Natalie Jaresko, who grew up in Wood Dale and Chicago, took over as Ukraine’s finance minister last year.
46. Brookings: Steven Pifer, The unending saga of Ukrainian reforms.
47. Fort Russ: Pravy Sektor raids churches and beats up parishioners as churches are violently turned over to Ukrainian Patriarchate.
48. http://newcoldwar.org/Jacobin: Who was Stepan Bandera?