RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents & links :: JRL 2019-#128 :: Wednesday, 14 August 2019

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2019-#128 :: Wednesday, 14 August 2019
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1. Moon of Alabama: The Man Who Weaponizes And Loses Everything. – moonofalabama.org/2019/08/the-man-who-weaponizes-and-loses-everything.html#more
2. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, Isolated by Ukraine’s war, Mariupol looks for a peaceful future. For those living in the shadow of eastern Ukraine’s simmering civil war, the country’s recent elections were a chance to express their desire for peace. But in Mariupol, people are not waiting to plan a better future.
3. TechRadar Pro: How Moscow became a smart city. Making daily life easier for residents with e-government services.
4. TASS: Vedomosti: Poll shows voter dissatisfaction with status quo.
5. Meduza: Putin’s pesky millennials. Sociologist Olga Zeveleva explains what makes today’s protesters in Moscow something new for Russia.
6. RFE/RL: Four Yabloko Party Members Get On Ballot For Moscow Municipal Vote.
7. Wall Street Journal: Moscow Court Permits Opposition Candidate to Run in Local Election. Ruling marks concession to opposition after weeks of rallies in Russian capital.
8. Interfax: Rights activists ask prosecutors to investigate use of foul language by law enforcement officers at unauthorized rallies.
9. TASS: Kremlin says Russians’ declining interest in elections may be part of European trend.
10. TASS: US schemes to meddle in Russia’s domestic affairs bound to fail, assures senior MP.
11. Moscow Times: The Kremlin Sees Signs of Foreign Interference All Around. One lawmaker pointed to the dual citizenship of a rapper who performed at a Moscow vote protest as evidence of meddling.
12. Bloomberg: Leonid Bershidsky, Moscow Protests Are Getting More Dangerous – for Putin. Now, the unrest is directed against disproportionate police violence, and that makes it more dangerous for the Kremlin.
13. The Daily Beast: Amy Knight, Street Protests Might Bring Down Putin-Or Make Him Even More Dangerous to U.S.. Putin has only begun to use the enormous coercive power he has at his disposal, and as he blames the Americans his motive for interference in the U.S. grows.
14. The Times (UK): Russia after Putin: 2024 is a long way off, but the battle for the Kremlin has already begun. The violent state response to protests in Moscow is evidence of the growing influence, at the highest level, of the security apparatus, writes Tom Parfitt.
15. Vedomosti: Pundit views Russia’s drift towards authoritarianism. (Kirill Rogov)
16. Intellinews.com: Ben Aris, The Kremlin’s attempts to control the internet threaten Russia’s most vibrant sector.
17. www.rt.com: Russia may ‘gradually’ adopt 4-day work week to decrease unemployment.
18. Stratfor.com: Slow and Steady Won’t Win Russia’s Economic Race.
19. Riddle: A Quiet Revolution in the Analysis of Foreign Investments. Ivan Tkachev on how a new way of looking at Russia’s FDI offers clues of how intertwined Russian economy still is with the West.
20. Transitions Online: Russia Intensifies De-Dollarization Drive. Buying gold, dumping U.S. assets – many countries are doing it, but Moscow’s reasons are as much political as financial.
21. TASS: Potential US pullout from WTO would cloud organization’s survival, Kremlin cautions.
22. RFE/RL: U.S. Efforts To Derail Russian Pipelines To Europe Have Failed Since The 1960s. Will Nord Stream 2 Be Any Different?
23. www.rt.com: Russia & China set to double trade turnover to $200 billion in 5 years.
24. Interfax: Sensitive equipment shows background radiation in Nyonoksa normal – source.
25. The Barents Observer: Testing weapons with radiation source near populated areas a ‘serious concern’. Nuclear safety expert Andrey Zolotkov with the Murmansk-based environmental group Bellona says there is always a risk of unforeseen circumstances as now seen with the missile blast and radiation spike in the White Sea.
26. Washington Post editorial: Another Russian nuclear accident seems to be characterized by lies.
27. Valdai Discussion Club: Richard Weitz, Nuclear Arms Control: Dying But Not Dead.
29. Lobelog: Shireen Hunter, Could Russia Get Its Persian Gulf Port?
30. AP: Russia, Iran, others debate how to split Caspian oil riches.
31. Valdai Discussion Club: Evgeny Vinokurov, Caspian Economic Forum Is More Useful Than It Might Seem. – valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/caspian-economic-forum-is-more-useful/
32. Times Literary Supplement (UK): Amy Knight, Poking the bear. Amy Knight considers alternative views of modern Russia. (re Eliot Borenstein, PLOTS AGAINST RUSSIA Conspiracy and fantasy after socialism and Mark B. Smith THE RUSSIA ANXIETY And how history can resolve it)
33. Beyond the Kremlin: Mark Smith, The Russia Anxiety: what it’s not. [Amazon: amzn.to/2Z628Jd]
34. Beyond the Kremlin: Mark Smith, The Russia Anxiety – why Stalinism was so terrible.
35. Russia Matters: Thomas Graham, The Retreat of Western Liberalism and New Competition of Great Powers.
36. Sabato’s Crystal Ball (University of Virginia): Alan Abramowitz, Did Russian Interference Affect the 2016 Election Results?