RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents & links :: JRL 2019-#198 :: Monday, 9 December 2019

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2019-#198 :: Monday, 9 December 2019
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1. The New Kremlin Stooge: Mark Chapman, Tell Me How It Is.
2. www.rt.com: Fyodor Lukyanov, Normandy Four summit on Ukraine’s future: What’s at stake?
3. www.rt.com: Ukraine’s Zelensky to be TOPPLED by protests if he crosses ‘red lines’ in Paris, TV host warns, as crowds cheer.
4. TASS: Media: No breakthroughs expected from Normandy Four summit.
5. The National Interest: Dimitri Alexander Simes, What Does Russia Expect from the Putin-Zelensky Meeting? At first glance, the upcoming Putin-Zelensky summit appears to have all the necessary ingredients for a potential breakthrough meeting. But can the Putin-Zelensky summit live up to these high expectations?
6. Delovaya Stolitsa (Kyiv): Ukraine’s position in talks with Russia weakest in five years.
7. Vesti.ru: Shakhnazarov: Ukraine is Lost to the West, But Donbass Is Now Forever Lost to the Ukraine.
8. The Economist: The world in 2020 through Putin’s eyes. Russia’s game plan for Ukraine.
9. Foreign Policy: Alexander Motyl, It’s Time for Ukraine to Let the Donbass Go Reintegration would be too costly; beyond an expensive reconstruction, it would entail reintegrating a deeply pro-Russian region at a time when Ukraine is finally moving West.
10. Washington Post editorial: This is a nuclear weapons offer Trump ought not refuse. A five-year extension of the historic agreement should be a no-brainer.
11. Vesti.ru: Putin: Russia Ready to Extend SNV-III Treaty. No Real Hope That US Will Reciprocate.
12. Valdai Discussion Club: Russian Economy: Better Than Expected. (panel on World Bank report)
13. BMB Russia: Macro, (re World Bank report)
14. Facebook: Fred Weir, Re “A Powerful Statement of Resistance from a College Student on Trial in Moscow”
15. The New Yorker: Masha Gessen, A POWERFUL STATEMENT OF RESISTANCE FROM A COLLEGE STUDENT ON TRIAL IN MOSCOW.
16. Awful Avalanche: Who is Egor Zhukov? – Part I.
17. Financial Times: Moscow is being forced to change its energy strategy. Russia’s power in oil and gas is curtailed by the buyer’s market.
18. TASS: Vedomosti: Russia opening new avenues to attract investment.
19. Carnegie Moscow Center: Sergei Kapitonov, Russia Taps Into Chinese Gas Market via Power of Siberia Pipeline. The Power of Siberia pipeline is a long overdue step in the right direction in developing the strategic relationship with China in the gas sector. Yet plenty of questions remain about the implementation of future pipeline projects.
20. Awful Avalanche: Can Russia Become a World Center for Medical Tourism? – Part IV
21. www.rt.com: WADA leaves door open for Russia ban to be lifted early ‘if raw lab data is provided’
22. www.rt.com: Russia banned from major sporting events for 4 years
23. www.rt.com: WADA has the power to cancel entire countries from sports, despite its flawed methods and arbitrary rules.
24. Intellinews.com: Russian Olympic athletes should be allowed to compete under the Russian flag says businessman Alisher Usmanov.
25. Russia Beyond: 10 unwritten rules of being Russian.
26. Financial Times: The Return of the Russian Leviathan, by Sergei Medvedev. A striking study of corrupt and complacent elites.
27. Geohistory: An Introduction to Russian Archives.
28. Dances With Bears: John Helmer, THE SKRIPALS UNDER US CONTROL, AT A USAF NUCLEAR BOMBER BASE IN FAIRFORD, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.
29. Bloomberg: Leonid Bershidsky, Blaming Document Dumps on Russia Won’t Cut It. Boris Johnson should deal with the substance of what the leaks reveal about post-Brexit trade talks with the U.S.
30. Facebook: Fred Weir, Re “US government drops case against Max Blumenthal after jailing journalist on false charges”
31. Wall Street Journal: Carl Schramm, ‘The Interagency’ Isn’t Supposed to Rule. The Constitution gives the president, not a club of unelected officials, the power to set foreign policy.
32. New Eastern Outlook: Caleb Maupin, Democrats Hate Russia, Republicans Hate China – the New Divide in America’s Ruling Class. (excerpt)
33. Voice of America: Pentagon Concerned Russia Cultivating Sympathy Among US Troops.
34. The New Yorker: Joshua Yaffa, LETTER FROM MOSCOW. THE KREMLIN’S CREATIVE DIRECTOR. How the television producer Konstantin Ernst went from discerning auteur to Putin’s unofficial minister of propaganda.