RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2018-1 :: Tuesday, 2 January 2018
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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2018-#1
Tuesday, 2 January 2018
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1. Kremlin.ru: New Year Address to the Nation.
2. TASS: Putin dreams of hearing on TV about Russia’s best development results.
3. TASS: Putin tells about watching news, ice hockey matches on TV 50 years ago.
4. TASS: Putin says no thoughts about role in history.
5. AP: Putin Toughens Penalty for Bomb Threats Plaguing Russia.
6. TASS: Russia to cast ballots in presidential election on March 18.
7. Sputnik: Russia’s Law on Disclosure of Political Party Funding Comes Into Force.
8. Valdai Discussion Club: Andrey Bystritskiy, NEW WORLD VISION.The mankind enters an era of critical transformation. The conflict between different political forces is deepening. But, most importantly, the communication zone of political battles expanded enormously. Formerly an insignificant player – the broad world masses – gained space for direct political action. Traditional political elites – educated and wealthy – risk losing control over the world processes.
9. Valdai Discussion Club: Andrey Sushentsov, COMBATING FUTURE UNCERTAINTIES: GOALS FOR 2018. Combating future uncertainties is the main task when it comes to forecasting anything. Speaking about international relations, there are two key uncertainties here – the unknown motives of actors in a crisis and the likelihood of spontaneous relevant events.
10. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, TAKING THE OFFENSIVE.
11. Paul Goble: Russian Nostalgia for Soviet Times Not Nostalgia for Soviet Realities, Psychologist Says.
12. Bloomberg: OPEC Deal Doesn’t Stop Russia From Record Oil Output in 2017.
13. Bloomberg: Russia Natural Gas Output Jumps to Record in Expansion Drive.
14. UNIAN (Kyiv): RAND: No indication Russia seeks large-scale conflict with peer competitor.
15. Financial Times: Nato’s logistical battle to deter Russia. The alliance is building up its presence on its eastern front, but the practical problems are formidable.
16. Foreign Affairs: Julia Gurganus, Russia’s Afghanistan Strategy. How Moscow Is Preparing to Go It Alone.
17. Interfax: N. Korean leader’s New Year address sends message positive for intra-Korean relations – Russian expert.
18. New York Times: Ukraine’s Lofty Ambitions, Fallen to Earth. Signs of the country’s space-age glory are everywhere, and Ukrainians are determined to hold on to their scientific traditions.
19. Kyiv Post: Changes in 2018: Biometric control, lower speeds, higher wages and more.
20. USAToday.com editorial: Russia the ‘evil empire’ again. Selling defensive arms to Ukraine is a welcome step to counter Putin.
21. USAToday.com: Rajan Menon and William Ruger, Arming Ukraine provokes Russia. Trump administration’s decision is counterproductive and dangerous.
22. Salon.com: Patrick Lawrence, Seeing the unseen in Ukraine: Why is America sending arms? Unnoticed by the West, ceasefire talks continue, even as the Pentagon ships weapons to a corrupt Ukrainian regime.
23. Euromaidan Press (Kyiv): What Ukraine can take from the “Croatian Scenario” of conflict resolution.
24. DutchNews.nl: MH17 may have been shot down ‘by mistake’, investigator tells NRC.
25. National Public Radio: The Russia Investigations: 4 Big Storylines To Watch In 2018.
26. Consortiumnews.com: Dennis Bernstein, The Still-Missing Evidence of Russia-gate . The central groupthink around Russia-gate is the still unproven claim that Russia hacked Democratic emails in 2016 and publicized them via WikiLeaks, a crucial issue that NSA experts say should be easy to prove if true.
27. National Review: Andrew McCarthy, As the Dossier Scandal Looms, the New York Times Struggles to Save Its Collusion Tale The totality of the evidence undermines the Times’ collusion narrative. (excerpt)
28. Foxnews.com: Bryan Dean Wright, Why is the NY Times suddenly so interested in Trump staffer Papadopoulos rather than the Russia dossier?
29. http://theduran.com: Alexander Mercouris, The NYT’s latest Russiagate story on George Papadopoulos is not believable. Here’s why. Attempt to distance Russiagate investigation from discredited Trump Dossier fails on Papadopoulos’s inherent unreliability as a witness. http://theduran.com/nyt-russiagate-story-george-papadopoulos-unbelievable/
30. Washington Post: New NYT scoop on Russia raises questions about old NYT story on Russia.
31. Moon of Alabama: NYT Writes Epic Cover For Comey’s FBI – Its Sole Source: “Officials Said.” (excerpt) http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/01/nyt-writes-epic-cover-for-comeys-fbi-its-sole-source-officials-said.html#more
32. London Review of Books: Jackson Lears, What We Don’t Talk about When We Talk about Russian Hacking.
33. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with RT, Moscow, 25 December 2017.
