RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2017-9 :: Tuesday, 10 January 2017

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2017-#9
Tuesday, 10 January 2017
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Intelligence community analyzes Kremlin propaganda:

January 6, 2017

“Background to ‘Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections’: The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution”

“Annex A
“Russia — Kremlin’s TV Seeks To Influence Politics, Fuel Discontent in US”

“This annex was originally published on 11 December 2012 by the Open Source Center, now the Open Source Enterprise.” dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf

Check in with Michael McFaul here: msnbc.com/hardball/watch/trump-this-is-a-political-witch-hunt-849510979977

In this issue
1. Washington Post: David Filipov, It was minus-22 in Moscow last weekend. So of course it was outdoor party time.
2. Moscow Times: Sex, Suicide and Death Named Russia’s Top Taboos.
3. New York Times: Robby Mook, Russia’s D.N.C. Hack Was Only the Start.
4. Reuters: Democrats Want 9/11-Style Special Commission to Probe Russia.
5. Bloomberg: Leonid Bershidsky, 6 Problems With U.S. Intel on the Russian Hacks. (with comment by Andrew Kuchins)
6. New York Review of Books: Masha Gessen, Russia, Trump & Flawed Intelligence.
7. Russia Direct: Pavel Koshkin, Intelligence report on Kremlin hacking makes any reset close to impossible. Expecting conclusive evidence in the declassified intelligence report about the Kremlin’s alleged hacking would be naive in the current U.S. political environment, where Russia is seen as an adversary.
8. The National Interest: Nicolai Petrov, Blaming Russia Will Only Hold America Back. Instincts from the Cold War are no longer the right response.
9. The Nation: James Carden, The New Intelligence Report On Russia Shows We Need An Independent Bipartisan Commission Now More Than Ever. The report contains not a shred of forensic evidence that the Russian government directed the hacks of the DNC or of John Podesta.
10. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Vladimir Mikheev, Trump desperately needs better intelligence briefings on Russia. The flawed report by U.S. intelligence agencies the CIA, FBI and NSA on allegations that Russia hacked computers to help Donald Trump win the presidential elections raises a broader issue. Will the new resident of the White House get briefings good enough on which to base responsible foreign policy decisions?
11. www.rt.com: US establishment ‘sticking it to Trump’ because he seeks cooperation with Russia. (interview with Joshua Landis)
12. Counterpunch.org: Gary Leupp, The Utter Stupidity of the New Cold War.
13. Washington Post: Glenn Kessler, Here’s a guide to the Trumpian spin on the Russian hacking report.
14. The National Interest: Paul Pillar, Russia Had Plenty to Work With: The Crisis in American Democracy.
15. Forbes.com: Tim Reuter, No Eternal Enemies: America’s Once And Future Entente With Russia.
16. Russia Direct: Marina Obrazkova, The Dadin List could become the new sequel to the Magnitsky List. Human rights activists within Russia are pushing for the creation of a Dadin List, which would sanction top Russian officials implicated in the detention and systematic torture of Ildar Dadin, an opposition activist.
17. Interfax: Russia may take asymmetric measures against U.S. in response to ‘Magnitsky list’ expansion – Russian MP Slutsky.
18. TASS: Putin praises global rankings for evaluating Russian universities ‘more objectively’
19. TASS: Russian PM predicts 4% inflation fairly feasible this year.
20. Sputnik: Russian Gov’t Accomplished Most of 2016 Development Tasks Despite Sanctions – PM.
21. CNBC.com: Investing legend Jim Rogers: ‘Forget China, buy Russia’
22. Russia Insider: Stanislov Krapivnik, Russia Has Vast Untapped Energy Potential. It’s not all about oil and gas, but also metallurgical energy, solar, and even compost.
23. BBC Monitoring: Russian press weighs future of US relations amid hacking row.
24. CBSNews.com: For 1st time since Cold War, U.S. tanks roll into Russia’s backyard.
25. TASS: Kremlin ready for talks on normalizing U.S. ties even under sanctions.
26. Wall Street Journal: U.S. Pilots See Close Calls With Russian Jets Over Syria. As planes share crowded airspace fighting parallel wars, militaries struggle to minimize threat of an accident.
27. Russia Beyond the Headlines: A welcome cold war: Russia and the U.S. fight to protect polar bears. In late 2016, Russia and the U.S. jointly studied 180 polar bears living along the border of Alaska and Chukotka. Their findings will help develop a three-year plan to save the species.