RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2017-233 :: Thursday, 14 December 2017

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2017-#233
Thursday, 14 December 2017
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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1. Washington Post: Carol Morello, What is Vladimir Putin really up to? Carnegie scholars aim to find out.
2. Intellinews.com: Putin plays to the domestic audience at annual press conference.
3. Reuters: Russian President Putin’s End-Of-Year News Conference. (highlights)
4. TASS: Main issues raised by President Putin during his annual news conferences. (since 2001)
5. www.rt.com: Putin to run for new term as an independent.
6. Levada.ru: Opinion poll shows Putin far ahead of election rivals.
7. Paul Goble: Half of Russians Now Blame Putin for Russia’s Problems — But Most Support Him Anyway.
8. Russia Beyond: ‘Uncle Vova, we are with you!’ Russian songs about Vladimir Putin.
https://www.rbth.com/arts/327015-uncle-vova-we-are-with-you
9. Russia Matters: From Cockroaches to Weather: What’s Russia Weaponizing? Everyone knows that Russia has Kalashnikovs and intercontinental ballistic missiles in its arsenal. But in recent years its been accused of weaponizing much, much more-from refugees and national trauma to media and its own population. Here’s our list so far.
https://www.russiamatters.org/blog/cockroaches-weather-whats-russia-weaponizing
10. Valdai Discussion Club: Andrey Bystritskiy, THE ETERNAL ENGINE OF PROGRESS BROKE DOWN IN 2017.
11. TASS: Putin urges constructive agenda from the opposition.
12. Bear Market Brief: The Navalny agenda.
13. Bloomberg: Another Six Years of Putin Could Be Bad News for the Ruble.
14. Bloomberg: Putinomics Loses Its Power in Russia.
15. Carnegie Moscow Center: Yekaterina Schulmann, How Regime Self-Preservation Could Accidentally Democratize Russia.
16. Intersection: Ivan Davydov, The Fate of Putin’s Minister. The verdict in the Ulyukayev case will be the first serious step in Putin’s reelection campaign.
17. Washington Post: Rick Noack, U.S. sanctions against Russia are also hurting Germany – a lot.
18. www.rt.com: US has de facto left missile treaty, Russia will not – Putin.
19. National Security Archive: NATO Expansion: What Gorbachev Heard.
20. The National Interest: Dave Majumdar, Newly Declassified Documents: Gorbachev Told NATO Wouldn’t Move Past East German Border.
21. Bloomberg: Leonid Bershidsky, The Story Behind Putin’s Mistrust of the West. A collection of declassified documents regarding a broken NATO promise explains a cornerstone of Putin’s worldview.
22. Russian and Eurasian Politics: Gordon Hahn, Broken Promise: NATO Expansion and the End of the Cold War.
23. The National Interest: Nikolas Gvosdev, Putin Declared ‘Mission Accomplished’ in Syria. What’s Next? Victory is all in how you define it.
24. Foreign Affairs: Dmitri Trenin, Putin’s Plan for Syria. How Russia Wants to End the War.
25. Valdai Discussion Club: Alastair Crooke, RUSSIA HAS DISSOLVED AMERICA’S UNI-POLAR PROJECT IN THE MIDDLE EAST.
26. The National Interest: Dave Majumdar, Could Russia and Japan Finally Settle Their Island Dispute?
27. Russian International Affairs Council: Russian Mamedov, Yemen after Saleh’s Death: Moscow on Standby.
http://russiancouncil.ru/en/analytics-and-comments/analytics/yemen-after-saleh-s-death-moscow-on-standby/
28. Newsweek.com: U.S. MILITARY AND NATO MAY NOW TARGET RUSSIA WITH CYBER WEAPONS, MARKING HUGE POLICY CHANGE.
29. Washington Post: Doubting the intelligence, Trump pursues Putin and leaves a Russian threat unchecked.
30. PBS Newshour: How Putin’s emotional reactions drive Russian strategy.
31. The Nation: Stephen Cohen, Media Malpractice Is Criminalizing Better Relations With Russia. The pillorying of General Flynn and hounding of Secretary of State Tillerson equate détente with “collusion with the Kremlin.”
32. Reuters: Facebook Says Russian-Linked Accounts Spent Just 97 Cents on Ads Over Brexit.
33. Consortiumnews.com: Robert Parry, The Foundering Russia-gate ‘Scandal.’ Taking on water from revealed FBI conflicts of interest, the foundering Russia-gate probe – and its mainstream media promoters – are resorting to insults against people who note the listing ship.
34. Intellinews.com: Trump administration signs off on delivery of lethal defensive weapons for Ukraine.
35. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, WHAT’S THE OBJECTIVE, AND HOW DOES THIS HELP ACHIEVE IT? (re Ukraine)
What’s the objective, and how does this help achieve it?
36. http://theduran.com: Alexander Mercouris, Ukraine goes on spiralling down. As political conflict continues and corruption remains as before even Ukraine’s most fervid Western friends are now in despair.
http://theduran.com/ukraine-spiralling-down/
37. RFE/RL: What Russians Are Reading. On the Moscow subway, 10 readers open up about the books they’ve chosen for their daily commute.
38. Between Two Worlds: The “Art” of an American Surviving in Small Town Russia, Hal Freeman, RUSSIFICATION: A CONCLUSION.

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