RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2017-36 :: Monday, 20 February 2017

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2017-#36
Monday, 20 February 2017
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1. Medium.com: Sarah Lindemann-Komarov, Lost in Translation.
2. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, BOOK REVIEW: SHOULD WE FEAR RUSSIA? (re Dmitri Trenin)
3. The National Interest editorial: The “Russia Scare” Coalition: ISIL’s “Useful Idiots”? Victory by the “Russia scare” coalition will limit America’s ability to fight ISIL, complicate efforts to win UNSC support for tough enforcement of the Iran nuclear deal and give China more leverage over both Moscow and Washington.
4. Russia Insider: She Helped Reagan End the Cold War – Suzanne Massie Returns to Moscow. (Video)
5. Interfax: Over 80% of Russians sure army can deter military threat – poll.
6. Consortiumnews.com: Robert Parry, The Did-You-Talk-to-Russians Witch Hunt. Democrats, liberals and media pundits – in their rush to take down President Trump – are pushing a New McCarthyism aimed at Americans who have talked to Russians, risking a new witch hunt.
7. www.project-syndicate.org: Sergei Karaganov, Mutual Assured Deterrence.
8. www.rt.com: Bryan MacDonald, Decade after Putin shook Munich, Lavrov indicates ‘post-West’ is now a thing in Moscow.
9. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s address and answers to questions at the 53rd Munich Security Conference, Munich, February 18, 2017.
10. Interfax: Moody’s upgrades Russia rating outlook to stable.
11. New York Times: Where the Booze Can Kill, and Putin Is Deemed a ‘Good Czar’
12. www.opendemocracy.net: Dmitry Lebedev, Kicking habits, kicking back. In Russia, a punitive Soviet approach to drug users is still in place. But a new generation of activists is ready to challenge it.
13. The Sunday Times (UK): Robert Service, After 100 years, his tsar is in the ascendant. A century after the Russian Revolution, Vladimir Putin is taking inspiration from opposing legacies – imperial authority and Soviet military might – to project his power.
14. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Munich 2017: U.S. envoys harden security stance on Europe and Russia. The annual Munich Security Conference (MSC) was a double disappointment. Trump’s team failed to reassure Europeans that the U.S. would stand for them through thick and thin, and Russia was hardly pleased to hear the old Obama-made mantras about its alleged violations of international law.
15. Valdai Discussion Club: Alexander Dynkin, MSC-2017: A LOT OF WORDS AND UNCERTAINTY.
16. Russian and Eurasian Affairs: Gordon Hahn, American Misadventures and Russian Gains: Obama’s Muslim Brotherhood Strategy, General Flynn’s Russia Play and Trump’s Debacle.
17. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Trump’s first month in the White House: What does it mean for Moscow? Feb. 20 marks one month since Donald Trump moved into the White House. So far the new president has not taken any measures to end Barack Obama’s policy on Russia, and there has been no lifting of economic sanctions. RBTH has answers to six crucial questions about Russian-U.S. relations.
18. Russia Direct: Ivan Tsvetkov, After Flynn’s dismissal, Russia starts to doubt Trump. After National Security Advisor Michael Flynn’s scandalous resignation and Donald Trump’s tough new rhetoric toward the Kremlin, Russia has started to back away from the U.S. president. That could be dangerous.
19. BBC News: Russian press ponders message of Putin’s latest decree. (re Donbas)
20. http://theduran.com: Alexander Mercouris, A warning to Merkel: Russia recognises documents issued by Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. Russia’s recognition of documents issued to their citizens by the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics stops well short of diplomatic recognition, but as well as having humanitarian considerations it appears intended as a warning to Merkel and the Europeans to take the settlement process of the Ukrainian conflict more seriously.
21. Awful Avalanche: 1937 – What is the connection between Stalin and Pushkin? – Part VI.
22. UN News Centre: One million Ukrainian children now need aid as number doubles over past year – UNICEF.
23. Facebook: Ivan Katchanovski, Maidan Massacre.
24. NBCNews.com: Russia Compiles Psychological Dossier on Trump for Putin.
25. New York Times: A Back-Channel Plan for Ukraine and Russia, Courtesy of Trump Associates.
26. New York Times: Susan Glasser, Our Putin. Don’t worry too much about whether Trump and the Russian leader are working together. Worry about what they have in common.
27. Wall Street Journal: Andrew Weiss, KGB Tactics. Russia is returning to the playbook of the Cold War in its covert efforts to interfere with elections in the West.
28. Washington Post: If Moscow tried to influence the U.S. election, things aren’t going as planned.
29. Washington Post: Anne Applebaum, The specter of Trump in Munich.
30. Foreign Affairs: Eugene B. Rumer, Richard Sokolsky, and Andrew S. Weiss, Trump and Russia. The Right Way to Manage Relations.
31. Bloomberg: How the Kremlin’s Disinformation Machine Is Targeting Europe.
32. www.rt.com: ‘Year of kicking Russia in the ass’: US Senator Graham urges more Russia sanctions.