RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents & links :: JRL 2019-#208 :: Monday, 30 December 2019

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2019-#208 :: Monday, 30 December 2019
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1. AFP: 2019 Was Hottest Year on Record for Russia.
2. Sputnik: Adidas? Vodka? Balalaikas? Sociologist Reveals What Russians Value Most.
3. www.strategic-culture.org: Patrick Armstrong, Twenty Years Later – How Did Putin Do?
4. Bloomberg: Henry Meyer, Putin’s Russia Is 20 Years Old and Stronger Than Ever. Or Is It? Two decades after he rose to power, Vladimir Putin has restored the country’s global reach-but at home, risks are growing.
5. AP: Putin Weighs Future Options as He Marks 20 Years in Power.
6. RFE/RL: By The Numbers: 20 Years Of Putin’s Russia.
7. Paul Goble: Putin has Succeeded by Luck and By Challenging Arrangements Many Thought Couldn’t Be but His System is Wearing Out, Shelin Says.
8. Financial Times: Russians sober up under health-conscious Vladimir Putin. Moscow pushes lifestyle shift in country stereotyped for its heavy drinking.
9. Moskovsky Komsomolets: Russian daily says society fragmented due to economic inequality.
10. Moscow Times: Jake Cordell, Russia in 2020: Business Is Booming but the Future Is Unclear. While Russian businesses are feeling confident and growing their revenues, a lack of ambition and risk-taking could limit potential.
11. Vesti.ru: Putin Meets With Top Businesses, Promises to Cut Through Regulatory Red Tape Next Year.
12. www.rt.com: ‘Flow of global capital impossible to stop’: Foreign investments in Russia expected to jump 70% this year despite sanctions.
13. RFE/RL: Russia Rubs Its Hands At The Prospect Of Profit From Climate Change.
14. Meduza: Coding from Russia’s countryside . A group of Moscow programmers has launched a crowdfunded project to bring metropolitan expertise to remote towns.
15. www.rt.com: ‘You did absolutely nothing!’ Russian champions hit out at athletics bosses for ‘not protecting them’
16. Forbes.com: Kenneth Rapoza, U.S. Sanctions On Russia’s Nord Stream 2 May Be Half-Hearted.
17. Asia Times: Asia connects to Russian energy. Gas and oil from ‘Russia’s Canada’ are of great and increasing importance to China, Japan, Korea and India.
18. Russia Beyond: 10 best Russian books translated into English in 2019.
19. The Ambassador’s Brief: Andrei Tsygankov, Russia and America: The Asymmetric Rivalry.
20. Bloomberg: Putin’s Hypersonic Nuclear Missile Stirs Fears of New Arms Race.
21. www.rt.com: Scott Ritter, US plans to conduct cyberwar against Russia in retaliation for unproven election meddling.
22. www.rt.com: Putin thanks Trump for information that helped prevent acts of terrorism in Russia in phone call.
23. The New Yorker: Geoff Manaugh, WHEN RUSSIA AND AMERICA COOPERATED TO AVERT A Y2K APOCALYPSE.
24. Russia in Global Affairs: Mikhail Karpov, From “Chaos” to “Order” to Uncertainty Chinese Quintessential Reading of Russia’s Post-Communist Transformation. (excerpt)
25. Russia in Global Affairs: Elena Pavlova and Tatiana Romanova, Resilience in EU Discourse: A New Norm in Relations with Russia? (excerpt)
26. InfoBrics: Paul Antonopoulos, Georgia and Ukraine Joining NATO Will Likely Have the Opposite Effect Against Russia.
27. TASS: Izvestia: Kiev, Donbass to continue prisoner swap dialogue in 2020.
28. Wall Street Journal: Ukrainian Government, Rival Separatists Exchange Prisoners Amid Push for Peace. Prisoner swap follows peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.
29. TASS: Kiev-Donbass prisoner swap to raise Zelensky’s approval rating, expert says.
30. BBC Monitoring: Ukrainians see prisoner swap with rebels as gift, compromise.
31. The National Interest: Bruce Allyn, What Kissinger Teaches Us about Negotiating with Russia. As the United States works to develop a coherent strategy toward Russia, the lessons of the Kissinger and Reagan period suggest a good place to start in our current negotiations is with serious engagement with Russia on specific nuclear risk-reduction measures. (excerpt)
32. Immigrants as a Weapon: Yasha Levine, Trump’s Impeachment, Ukraine, and War With Russia. Let me get all official and DC-like and call it the “Ukraine Doctrine.” (excerpt)
33. Washington Post: Erik Wemple, Rachel Maddow rooted for the Steele dossier to be true. Then it fell apart.
34. Wall Street Journal: Holman Jenkins, A Horowitz Report Reveals Bias, but What Kind? The FBI gave Mrs. Clinton a pass while pursuing Mr. Trump even after the evidence fell apart.