RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2016-33 :: Tuesday, 16 February 2016

Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2016-#33
Tuesday, 16 February 2016
A project sponsored through the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs
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RUSSIA

1. RFE/RL: Brian Whitmore, The Daily Vertical: The Extortionist In The Kremlin.
2. Kremlin.ru: Conference of court chairmen.
3. Interfax: Jury trials may be brought to district court’s level – Putin.
4. Kremlin.ru: Meeting with President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin.
5. Russia Direct: Andrei Zolotov, Jr., How the Pope-Patriarch declaration may impact Russian foreign policy. An unexpectedly religious declaration from Havana could have important implications for the crises in Ukraine and in Syria. And it might even be used to solidify Russia’s arguments about the role of family values in a secularizing Europe.
6. Russia Insider: Anthony Salvia, The Results of The Pope – Patriarch Meeting Were Substantial and Meaningful.
7. Carnegie Moscow Center: Alexander Baunov, The Pope and the Patriarch: Russia’s Search for the Right West.
8. New York Times: Russian Orthodox Church Blocks Funeral for Last of Romanov Remains.
9. The Guardian: Fresh attack on Russian opposition leader amid crackdown on critics
10. www.rt.com: Communists put own anti-crisis program to Putin.
11. Russia Direct: Munich 2016 and the historic meeting between the Pope and Patriarch. Weekly Media Roundup: The historic meeting between the Pope and Patriarch in Cuba and the 2016 Munich Security Conference made headlines in the Russian media this week.
12. Forbes.com: Kenneth Rapoza, Signs Of Patience Running Thin In Russia.
13. Vedomosti: Russian economy may face 15 years of stagnation – Finance Ministry “forecast”
14. New York Times: Russia and Three OPEC Members Agree to Freeze Oil Output.
15. Interfax: Agreement between Russia, three OPEC countries concerns average oil output for year – Energy Ministry.
16. Forbes.com: Kenneth Rapoza, Russia Temporarily Saves Stock Market And Maybe Economy With Oil Deal.
17. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Even if Russia and OPEC tango, oil prices won’t budge an inch. As Russian officials consider trying to forge an agreement with OPEC in order to help push up oil prices, they are missing an unfortunate truth – factors such as the discord within the oil producers’ body, the positions of Saudi Arabia and Iran and the strength of the dollar all mean that the price of oil is unlikely to bounce back any time soon.
18. Forbes.com: Mark Adomanis, Something Isn’t Right About Russia’s Alcohol-Related Mortality Rate.
19. Russia Direct: Munich Security Conference: Ukraine still top-of-mind for Russia. With the beginning of the Munich Security Conference, Russia Direct talked to a member of the Russian delegation, Andrey Kortunov, general director of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), to discuss this year’s conference agenda and the most serious security challenges for Russia and the West.
20. TASS: After Munich, world leaders strive to prevent crisis from spiraling out of control.
20. TASS: After Munich, world leaders strive to prevent crisis from spiraling out of control.
21. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Georgy Bovt, The rules of the new ‘Cold War’: Empty words and no retreat. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s recent speech in Munich openly spoke of relations between Russia and the West in terms of a new “Cold War.” Dialogue between the two sides is now looking increasingly like a rhetorical war of attrition, with neither side on the offensive but neither willing
22. Rethinking Russia: Boris Mezhuev, Why Henry Kissinger Came to Moscow.
23. Moscow Times: Majority of Russians Back Continuation of Syria Campaign.
24. The Independent (UK): Patrick Cockburn, Syria: The winners and losers are becoming clear in this war. The war is far from over, but the faint shape of an endgame is coalescing amid the bloodbath.
25. Reuters: In Syrian war, a bigger role for Russian strategists.
26. Boston Globe: Stephen Kinzer, On Syria: Thank you, Russia!
27. Washington Post: Morgan Kaplan, Why are Syrian Kurds pivoting toward Moscow?
28. Russia Insider: Alexander Mercouris, Syria: Russia Advances – Washington, Riyadh and Ankara Freak Out. Threats of Turkish and Saudi military intervention in Syria look like bluff in absence of support from Washington.
29. www.rt.com: Russia has no ship in Caspian Sea that could hit Syrian hospital with ballistic missile – MoD.
30. www.rt.com: Neil Clark, Bombing plagiarism – And why it’s taking place.
31. Wall Street Journal: Q&A With Russian NATO Ambassador.
32. Russia Beyond the Headlines: NATO vs. Russia: Why all the recent talk of World War III?
33. www.foreignpolicy.com: Scott Radnitz, Europe’s Extremists Are Not Putin’s Fault. Europeans should look to Brussels – not Moscow – for the source of their extremism problem.
34. http://readrussia.com: Mark Adomanis, Follow the People But Know That Not Many of Them Are Going to Baltics.
35. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s speech at the ministerial panel discussion during the Munich Security Conference, Munich, February 13, 2016.

UKRAINE

36. AFP: Ukraine’s Poroshenko asks embattled PM to resign.
37. Kyiv Post: Poroshenko wants to dump Yatsenyuk and Shokin.
38. Facebook: Ivan Katchanovski, Crime.
39. www.opendemocracy.net: Mikhail Minakov and Maryna Stavniichuk, Ukraine’s constitution: reform or crisis? Constitutional reform was supposed to put post-Maidan Ukraine on a firmly democratic footing. This process, however, has gone seriously off track.
40. Washington Post editorial: Ukraine should heed its economy minister’s warning on corruption.
41. AFP: Ukraine’s graft problem tests Western patience and resolve.
42. www.rt.com: Saakashvili wants IMF out of Ukraine.
43. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, REPORT ON DONBASS.
44. www.opendemocracy.net: Denys Gorbach and Oles Petik, The rise of Azov. War in the east, political and economic crisis in Kyiv – these are ideal conditions for Ukraine’s far right to capitalise on their frontline successes.
45. Paul Goble, Russian Nationalists Oppose Moscow’s Plan to Resettle Ukrainian Refugees in Far East.