RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents & links :: JRL 2019-#209 :: Tuesday, 31 December 2019

To inquire about a subscription to the full Johnson’s Russia List e-mail newsletter, e-mail David Johnson at davidjohnson@starpower.net

Support the JRL: russialist.org/funding.php
Donate Online: click here for direct link at GWU

[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter]

Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2019-#209 :: Tuesday, 31 December 2019
A project sponsored through the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. The contents do not necessarily represent the views of IERES or The George Washington University.
JRL Home: russialist.org – JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist – JRL on Twitter: @JohnsonRussiaLi
Support for JRL is provided in part by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York to the George Washington University and by voluntary contributions from readers.

1. Russia Beyond: How Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first president, resigned – rbth.com/history/331510-how-boris-yeltsin-resigned
2. RFE/RL: Putin Welcomes New Year With A Message Of Unity For Russians.
3. Kremlin.ru: Selected photos and videos from the President’s personal video and photography team available at 20.kremlin.ru – en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/62525
4. TASS: Vedomosti: New Year to bring more political risks.
5. NPR: How Vladimir Putin Has Continued To Remain Popular In Russia.
6. Los Angles Times: With the new year, Russians will ring in 20 years of Vladimir Putin.
7. Moskovsky Komsomolets: Daily says Putin ‘tests ways’ to stay in power.
8. Riddle: Putinism in 2020. Tatyana Stanovaya on the transformations that await Russia’s political system in 2020.
9. Meduza: Finish the year off right A hand-selected list of 2019’s best Russian movies, music, and TV.
10. The Unz Review: Anatoly Karlin, Tver 2019 – unz.com/akarlin/tver-2019/
11. New York Times: Andrew Higgins, It’s 50 Below. The Past Is a Horror Show. You’d Dream of Escaping Too. Best known as the most feared and frigid outpost of the Soviet gulag, Magadan struggles to keep its residents from fleeing. The ice cream isn’t enough to keep them. (excerpt)
12. TASS: Izvestia: What awaits the ruble in 2020.
13. Valdai Discussion Club: Yaroslav Lissovolik, Russia-2019: A Summing Up of the Economic Track-Record – valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/russia-2019-a-summing-up-of-the-economic-track/
14. Moskovsky Komsomolets: Russian paper views income figure ‘manipulation’ by state statistics agency.
15. Oilprice.com: Russia Goes For Global Gas Dominance.
16. Reuters: Factbox: Russia’s oil and gas disputes with Belarus.
17. Interfax: Arctic temperatures 2.5 degrees higher than normal in 2018, fall and winter warmest since 1938.
18. High North News (Norway): Full Steam Ahead in Russia’s Arctic. Moscow’s heavy investments in Arctic industry and shipping have direct impact on security in the Arctic.
19. Japan Times: Gwynne Dyer, Don’t believe Putin’s hype about hypersonic missiles.
20. Russia in Global Affairs: Dayan Jayatilleka, Counter-Containment of Unipolarity. Only a strong and well-considered relationship between Russia and China can constitute a powerful enough global counterweight to the unipolarity and the United States’ strategic offensive posture, and also act as a midwife in the birth of an undeniably multipolar world order – eng.globalaffairs.ru/number/Counter-Containment-of-Unipolarity-20313
21. Russia in Global Affairs: Sergey Lavrov, The World at a Crossroads and a System of International Relations for the Future. Rivalry and Confrontation or Cooperation and Security – eng.globalaffairs.ru/number/The-World-at-a-Crossroads-and-a-System-of-International-Relations-for-the-Future-20306
22. Valdai Discussion Club: Timofei Bordachev, Greater Eurasia: What Is Yet To Be Done?
23. The Unz Review: How Impeachment Is Escalating the New US-Russian Cold War. (with Stephen Cohen – unz.com/scohen/how-impeachment-is-escalating-the-new-us-russian-cold-war/
24. www.rt.com: Bryan MacDonald, Joe Biden’s man shows the world why US policy towards Russia has completely failed. (re Michael Carpenter) – rt.com/op-ed/477209-us-policy-russia-biden/
25. Meduza: Ukraine and separatist fighters exchange prisoners for the first time in two years, furthering Putin-Zelensky agreements.
26. TASS: Putin, Zelensky speak out in favor of developing Russia-Ukraine relations in 2020.
27. Financial Times: Russia and Ukraine sign deal to secure European gas flows. Germany welcomes new five-year agreement between state groups Gazprom and Naftogaz.
28. Valdai Discussion Club: Danila Bochkarev, Russia-Ukraine Gas Negotiations: (Energy) Politics Is the Art of the Possible – valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/russia-ukraine-gas-negotiations-energy-politics/
29. TASS: Izvestia: What 2020 has in store for Donbass.
30. www.stalkerzone.org: Rostislav Ishchenko, The End of Zelensky’s First Year: The Outcome of 2019 – stalkerzone.org/the-end-of-zelenskys-first-year-the-outcome-of-2019/
31. New Cold War: Dmitriy Kovalevich, December update: peace and warmongering policies are a total failure. (re Ukraine) – newcoldwar.org/december-update-peace-and-warmongering-policies-are-a-total-failure/
32. TASS: Ukrainian Security Service encouraged militants to torture prisoners, former detainee says.
33. www.rt.com: Embassy row: US & Germany jump into spat over WWII outbreak between Russia and Poland – rt.com/news/477150-poland-russia-ww2-quarrel-auschwitz/
34. The New York Review of Books: Amy Knight, The Secret Files of the Soviet Union. (re Bukovsky/excerpt)