RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2018-67 :: Friday, 13 April 2018

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2018-#67
Friday, 13 April 2018
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1. Government.ru: Government report on its performance in 2012-2017. (excerpt)
2. Bear Market Brief: Medvedev’s Duma address: “six years of conquering peaks”
3. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, Russian consumerism may be poisoning this town. But nascent civil society is pushing back. Locals in Volokolamsk say the massive garbage dump outside of their town is poisoning their children. The dump is a byproduct of Russia’s transformation from communist to capitalist society – but the locals’ lawsuit to move it shows that civil society is growing too.
4. CBSNews.com: “The Circus”: How Russian millennials view U.S.-Russia relations.
6. Russia Observer: Patrick Armstrong, WHY MOSCOW’S FOREIGN PHILOSOPHY IS “WESTPHALIAN” [Text with links https://patrickarmstrong.ca/2018/04/11/why-moscows-foreign-philosophy-is-westphalian/]
7. www.rt.com: ‘We’re exceptional, Russia is not’: Pompeo takes hard line in Senate pitch.
8. Slate.com: Pompeo Boasts About U.S. Killing “a Couple Hundred Russians” in Syria.
9. www.rt.com: OPCW backs UK findings over nerve agent used in Salisbury poisoning, but doesn’t identify source.
[Official summary of report here https://www.opcw.org/fileadmin/OPCW/S_series/2018/en/s-1612-2018_e_.pdf]
10. www.rt.com: Mattis: Still no evidence on Syria chemical attack, but I believe there was one.
11. Valdai Discussion Club; Oleg Barabanov, A TOXIC WAR INSTEAD OF A COLD WAR. It has become popular recently to say that Russia-West relations and the world as a whole are sliding into a new Cold War, or “Cold War 2.0,” to sound current. The implication is that for all intents and purposes a familiar dynamic has been forced on the world, minus the communist ideology.
12. New York Times: Russia Trained ‘Special Units’ on Door Handle Poisonings, U.K. Says.
13. Moscow Times: Yuri Barmin, Putin and Trump Are Headed for a Syrian Showdown That Neither Wants. The Syrian War is turning into a war for Syria.
14. Bloomberg: Leonid Bershidsky, Trump Is Locked in a Macho Contest With Putin. His administration’s Russia policy hasn’t suddenly turned hostile over Syria: Let’s admit it was hawkish from the start.
15. The Unz Review: Anatoly Karlin, The Road to World War III. (excerpt)
16. Novaya Gazeta: Russian pundit warns of ‘catastrophic’ escalation in conflict in Syria. (Middle East analyst Alexander Shumilin) [Extensive full text with comments http://www.unz.com/akarlin/ww3/
17. Intellinews.com: Ben Aris, Planet Business crashes into Planet Politics.
18. www.rt.com: Steve Keen, Western Media’s conundrum – why is ‘bad guy’ Putin so popular at home? [Text with links and charts https://www.rt.com/op-ed/423921-putin-economy-russia-capitalism/]
19. Russian and Eurasian Politics: Gordon Hahn, Moscow’s Nearing Military-Political Triumph in Syria and Its Implications for the East-West Balance of Power. [https://gordonhahn.com/2018/04/12/moscows-nearing-military-political-triumph-in-syria-and-its-implications-for-the-east-west-balance-of-power/]
20. Bloomberg: ‘Market Fundamentalism’ Tested as New Economic Storm Hits Russia.
21. Wall Street Journal: Russia Funds Draw Money, Despite Sanctions and Syria.
22. Bloomberg: Russia Plans Return to Bond Market as Panic Subsides.
23. Wall Street Journal: Russia’s Trade With the West Surges Even as Sanctions Mount. Last year’s increase, three years after penalties tied to annexation of Crimea, shows limits of curbs in longer term.
24. Bear Market Brief: Experts: Economy will weather new sanctions.
25. Paul Goble: U.S. Sanctions aren’t Splitting Russian Elites or Dividing Elites and People, ‘Nezavisimaya’ Says.
26. New York Times: Putin, or the World? Sanctions May Force Oligarchs to Choose.

27. Russia International Affairs Council: Ivan Timofeev, The Sanctions Against Russia: Escalation Scenarios and Countermeasures. [http://russiancouncil.ru/en/activity/publications/the-sanctions-against-russia-escalation-scenarios-and-countermeasures/]
28. Financial Times: Tom Keatinge, This time, sanctions on Russia are having the desired effect. The country’s integration in global finance has made it vulnerable
29. Intellinews.com: Ben Aris, Kremlin working on schemes to protect oligarchs hit by new sanctions list.
30. Moscow Times: Pavel Aptekar and Vladimir Ruvinsky, Can Russia Afford Its Save-a-Billionaire Relief Program? Russia’s poorest will end up footing the bill.
31. Vesti.ru: Russian Rouble Plunges – Hard Blow For Russia’s Oligarchs, But Russian People Will Outlast New Sanctions. News video with English subtitles [https://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=3006351&cid=4441]
32. Intellinews.com: Kremlin to reduce share of state in economy by encouraging private business growth.
33. Carnegie Moscow Center: Dmitri Trenin, The Southern Vector: Russia’s Need to Upgrade Its Policy in the South Caucasus. To ensure its national security, Russia needs a comprehensive strategy in the South Caucasus region.
34. www.rt.com: US demands shared use of Russia’s Northern Sea Route.
35. Asia Times: Richard A. Bitzinger, The Arctic as the next battleground? Don’t count on it.
36. The Intercept: Glenn Greenwald and Zaid Jilani, With Latest Syria Threats, Trump Continues to Be More Confrontational Toward Russia Than Obama Was. [Text with links and graphics [https://theintercept.com/2018/04/11/the-trump-administration-continues-to-be-more-confrontational-toward-russia-than-obama-was/]
37. Russia Insider: Dmitry Orlov, The West Gets Russia Wrong Because the Media Are Peddling a Pack of Lies. ” … if you have been visiting Russia periodically, every few years, as I have for many decades, you will have found that it has been changing at breakneck speed.” [Text with links https://russia-insider.com/en/west-gets-russia-wrong-because-media-are-peddling-pack-lies/ri23122]
38. Miami University’s Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies: In Memoriam: Karen Dawisha.