RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2017-25 :: Thursday, 2 February 2017

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2017-#25
Thursday, 2 February 2017
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1. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, BITE AND HOLD. (re Donbas)
2. Russia Beyond the Headlines: The Americans are searching for Putin’s bunker. U.S. intelligence is studying Russia’s capabilities for a retaliatory strike in the event of a nuclear war. Special attention is paid to bunkers that the Russian military plans to use to hide the country’s top leadership if the need arises.
3. The National Interest: Thomas Graham, Toward a New Equilibrium in U.S.-Russian Relations.The new administration must understand how Russia relates to American goals.
4. Die Welt (Germany): Sergei Karaganov, A view from Moscow.
5. TASS: Poll shows Russians’ trust in Putin high.
6. kremlin.ru: Meeting with Government members.
8. TASS: Russia’s Federation Council backs law on decriminalizing domestic violence.
9. www.rt.com: Domestic violence bill: Senator says NGOs distort statistics in bid for grants.
10. Vedomosti: Russian paper details poll on “foreign agents” law. (Levada’s Denis Volkov)
11. Bloomberg: Russia Nears End of Recession as GDP Shrinks Less Than Forecast.
12. www.bearmarketbrief.com: Business Orgs Submit Reform Proposals to MinEcon.
13. TASS: Russian government enacts 2017-2019 state assets privatization plan.
14. TASS: Russian government aims to raise billions of rubles from privatization deals in 2017-2019.
15. Russia Direct: Viktor Katona, Why Russia should liberalize its gas market. The liberalization of Russia’s gas market would almost certainly entail the downsizing of Gazprom and the rise of new “independent” producers competing on a level playing field.
16. Reuters: In Russia, McDonald’s ‘Golden Arches’ Have a Russian Shine.
17. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Russia’s rank in global corruption index rating remains the same.
19. Paul Goble: Russians Less Convinced by Political Talk Shows than Audience Figures Suggest, Journalists Say.
20. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Iran’s missile launch gives the Russian-U.S. honeymoon its first crisis. On Jan. 29, Iran conducted a test launch of a mid-range missile, which the U.S. considers a violation of a United Nations Security Council resolution. Russia, however, might not back its new American friend on this issue, say experts.
21. Interfax: Kosachyov sees ‘window of opportunity’ for building pragmatic relations with U.S. under Trump.
22. Raymond Smith: Thoughts on first Trump-Putin summit.
23. The Nation: Stephen Cohen, The Friends and Foes of Détente. The January 18 phone conversation between Presidents Trump and Putin signified their quest for a new détente, and its enemies quickly struck back.
24. Reconsidering Russia and the Former Soviet Union: Pietro A. Shakarian, What Do Average Americans Really Think of the Russians?
25. Russia Beyond the Headlines: The FSB breaks up Russia’s most notorious hacker group. The alleged leader of the Anonymous International hacker group, also known as Shaltai-Boltai, has been arrested along with important officials in the security services who collaborated with the group. For several years Shaltai-Boltai terrorized state officials, businessmen and media figures by hacking their emails and telephones, and threatening to post their private information online unless blackmail paym
26. www.rt.com: Alexander Yakovenko, Crimea & Minsk Agreements: What the British media fails to mention.
27. TASS: Poroshenko says he plans referendum on Ukraine’s NATO membership.
28. The National Interest: Matthew Rojansky, The Ukraine-Russia Conflict: A Way Forward. Washington cannot afford to miss this window of opportunity.
29. TASS: Poll shows only 13% of Ukrainians trust Poroshenko.
30. www.rt.com: Bryan MacDonald, Backed into a corner, Kiev reignites the Ukraine War.
31. Fort Russ: Colonel Cassad, Is the War in Donbass Back On? 3 Possible Scenarios.
32. Interfax: By urging Moscow to influence militiamen NATO is turning blind eye on Kyiv’s offensives – Russia’s permanent mission to NATO.
33. www.thedailybeast.com: Anna Nemtsova, Will Ukraine Build a Wall to Keep Out the Russians? As rumors mount of a Trump-Putin deal on Ukraine, some in Kiev talk about walling off the Russian-sponsored east. For others, that’s anathema.
34. Awful Avalanche: Declassified CIA Documents Show American Support for Ukrainian Terrorists.
35. Intellinews.com: Belarus reportedly mulls leaving Eurasian Economic Union as relations with Russia worsen.
36. The Guardian (UK): Jonathan Jones, We cannot celebrate revolutionary Russian art – it is brutal propaganda. The Royal Academy is showcasing Russian art from the age of Lenin – but we must not overlook that his regime’s totalitarian violence rivalled nazism.