RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2018-131 :: Wednesday, 18 July 2018

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2018-#131
Wednesday, 18 July 2018
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1. American Affairs: Matthew Dal Santo, Nicholas II: A Tsar’s Life for the People? [americanaffairsjournal.org/2018/07/nicholas-ii-a-tsars-life-for-the-people/]
2. www.rt.com: Russian patriarch heads 100,000-strong procession honoring Romanovs’ martyrdom.
3. The Unz Review: Anatoly Karlin, There Is A Russian Civil Society. But You Might Not Like It. [Text with links, video and comments: unz.com/akarlin/there-is-a-russian-civil-society-but-you-might-not-like-it/]
4. Vedomosti: Experts criticise emphasis on geopolitics in Russia-West relations.
5. TASS: Russian ambassador affirms no ‘secret deals’ struck between Putin, Trump in Helsinki.
6. TASS: Russia has questions about US fulfillment of new START Treaty – ambassador.
7. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, Russia chalks up Trump-Putin summit as success. But is there a hidden cost? For all the backlash in the US to President Trump’s comments in Helsinki, there are pressing issues that Moscow and Washington need to discuss. And the Kremlin was very happy with how the summit addressed them.
8. The National Interest: Thomas Graham, Was the Helsinki Summit Worth It? The Helsinki summit set the right course for the United States and Russia in defusing tensions-until the last thirty minutes.
9. Wall Street Journal: Russians Also Criticize Trump for His Helsinki Summit Conduct. Some Russians blamed Trump for not publicly airing disagreements with Putin, saying that curtails his ability to rebuild ties with Moscow.
10. VIDEO: HBO/ViceNews: American Scholars Say The Real Threat To The U.S. Is Russophobia. (Stephen F. Cohen and John Mearsheimer)[youtube.com/watch?v=SJBQikfYyKs&feature=youtu.be]
11. Asia Times: Pepe Escobar, A walk on the wild side as Trump meets Putin at Finland station. US President stirs up a hornet’s nest with his press conference alongside his Russian counterpart, but it seems that no ‘grand bargain’ was struck on Syria, and on Iran they appear to strongly disagree.
12. Meduza: Like the failed summit before the Cuban Missile Crisis Long-time Soviet interpreter Pavel Palazhchenko puts the Trump-Putin meeting in historical context.
13. Valdai Discussion Club: Andrei Tsygankov, RUSSIA-US: WEATHER FOR TOMORROW WILL BE ANNOUNCED THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW.
14. Russia Matters: Nikolas Gvosdev, In Helsinki, Trump Takes ‘Do No Harm’ Approach to Russia on 2 Issues: Syria and Energy.
15. The National Interest: Curt Mills, Trump’s Inartful But Necessary Summit With Vladimir Putin. The opprobrium hurled at the White House Monday should remind the president of a potential core constituency: foreign policy restrainers.
16. Wall Street Journal: Joshua Rubenstein, ‘The Code of Putinism’ Review: Summing Up a Summit Partner. Upon taking control, Vladimir Putin began to rein in Russia’s independent civil society and discourage free expression and pluralism. Joshua Rubenstein reviews “The Code of Putinism” by Brian D. Taylor.
17. TASS: Kommersant: Push to raise Russia’s pension age meets heated debate in State Duma.
18. Interfax: Civil Solidarity’s request to authorize rally against pension age increase in Sokolniki on Wednesday approved.
19. Paul Goble: Working-Age Russians Now More Pessimistic about Future than Pensioners, Levada Poll Finds.
20. www.rt.com: The great dollar dump: Russia liquidates US Treasury holdings.
21. www.rt.com: Trump calls Germany slave to Russian gas but is US overly dependent on Russian oil?
22. The New Kremlin Stooge: Mark Chapman, Imagine My Surprise. (re Nord Stream II pipeline) [thenewkremlinstooge.wordpress.com/2018/07/15/imagine-my-surprise/]
23. The Unz Review: Paul Craig Roberts, Is President Trump A Traitor Because He Wants Peace with Russia? The Democrats say he is.[unz.com/proberts/is-president-trump-a-traitor-because-he-wants-peace-with-russia/]
24. Washington Post: Michael McFaul, The Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki was a historic event – in the worst possible way.
25. New York Times: Ross Douthat, Trump and Russia: One Mystery, Three Theories. An agnostic’s guide to our president’s strange conduct.
26. Wall Street Journal: Holman Jenkins, Trump Delivers on Russia. His Helsinki outing was tone-deaf but his policy is cribbed from Bush and Obama.
27. AP: In Battle for Putin’s Affections, Cupid Favors Xi Over Trump.
28. TASS: Russian prosecutor general’s office says Browder financed US Democrats.
29. www.rt.com: Russia wants to question Christopher Steele, Michael McFaul, top politicians for aiding Bill Browder.
30. Slate.com: Osita Nwanevu, Clueless. Liberals playing detective are missing an opportunity to engage in meaningful politics.
31. TASS: Diplomat slams US ‘espionage’ arrest as ‘hunting for Russian citizens’ overseas.
32. Sputnik: “Russian Agent” Arrested in US Was Endorsed by Anti-Putin Opposition.
33. Meduza: Meet Maria Butina, the FBI’s Russian gun nut undeclared foreign agent.
34. Sputnik: Butina’s Arrest Is Nonsense: Many US Citizens Lobby in Russia – Analyst.
35. The Real News Network [Text & Video]: Has Mueller Caught the Hackers? Special Counsel Robert Mueller has indicted 12 officials with the GRU, Russia’s main foreign intelligence agency, for allegedly meddling in the 2016 election, including hacking Democratic Party emails. Case closed? Author and investigative journalist Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News joins TRNN’s Aaron Mate to discuss.
36. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Comment by the Information and Press Department on the fourth anniversary of the of MH17 plane crash in eastern Ukraine.
37. Dances With Bears: Eric van de Beek and Max van der Werff, JULY 17 IS THE FOURTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MH17 ATTACK – TIME AND REASON TO DOUBT THE ALLEGATIONS.
[johnhelmer.net/july-17-is-the-fourth-anniversary-of-the-mh17-attack-time-and-reason-to-doubt-the-allegations/]