RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents & links :: JRL 2019-#58 :: Friday, 5 April 2019

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2019-#58 :: Friday, 5 April 2019
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1. PBS Newshour: Kurt Volker, U.S. special envoy to Ukraine and former ambassador to NATO, on election in Ukraine: “And now the Ukrainian public is faced with this choice. Do they want someone who is just going against the establishment, promising massive reform? Or do they want someone who maybe has been disappointing to them in some respects, but has done more on reform than anyone else has in Ukraine for the past 20 years and stood up to Putin?”
2. The National Interest: George Beebe, Making Sense of Our Russiagate Failure. Healthy skepticism took a back seat to a story that too many were too eager to believe.
3. The Nation: Nadezhda Azhgikhina Russia Reacts to the Release of the Mueller Report. While few people in Russia expect relations between the two countries to improve, some hope that direct, citizen-to-citizen contact can slowly bridge the rift.
4. RFE/RL: Rising Mortality Rates Challenge Russia’s Efforts To Kick-Start Population Growth.
5. RFE/RL: Gallup Poll Shows One In Five Russians Would Migrate West If Possible.
6. TASS: Russia’s rate of emigration-minded people no higher than in US, Kremlin says.
7. Vesti.ru: Raising Living Standards: Record Number of Civic Projects Now Underway in 100 Russian Cities. [vesti.ru/doc.html?id=3133978&cid=4441]
8. Paul Goble: Russians’ Happiness More Dependent on Nationalism than on Money, Sociologists Say.
9. Paul Goble: Tired of Strong Hand, Ever More Russians Want a Parliamentary Republic, ‘Nezavisimaya Gazeta’ Says.
10. Bear Market Blog: Audit Chamber announces who will be audited.
11. Financial Times: Chess: a pawn in Russia’s power game. An FT investigation into how the Kremlin won the bitter battle to control world chess. (excerpt)
12. www.rt.com: Russian sovereign bonds selling like hotcakes as demand breaks all-time record.
13. Financial Times: The UK executives helping Putin burnish Russia’s image. Meeting with top British businessmen could not come at a better time for the Kremlin.
14. The Economist: The uses of fear. Vladimir Putin turns to attacking the elite. It’s an ancient tactic.
15. Time: Simon Shuster, How Putin Built a Ragtag Empire of Tyrants and Failing States. (excerpt)
16. Reuters: Kremlin Says Trump Idea for Deal to Cut Arms Spending Should Be Looked At.
17. Meduza: NATO was born 70 years ago today. Moscow has always viewed it as a threat, but that hasn’t prevented three attempts to join the alliance.
18. Washington Post: Henry Olsen, It’s time to rethink the NATO alliance.
19. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Comment by the Information and Press Department on the 70th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
20. Valdai Discussion Club: Alexander Rahr, Europe’s Choice.
21. Russian International Affairs Council: Andrey Kortunov and Emily Ferris, UK-Russia Security Relations: Talking To, Not Past Each Other. – russiancouncil.ru/en/activity/publications/uk-russia-security-relations-talking-to-not-past-each-other/
22. Foreign Affairs: Leon Aron, Are Russia and China Really Forming an Alliance? The Evidence Is Less Than Impressive.
23. TASS: Izvestia: Russia has the answer to Washington’s anti-Venezuela sanctions.
24. Russian International Affairs Council: Karsten Riise, A Scenario in Syria. – russiancouncil.ru/en/analytics-and-comments/columns/middle-east-policy/a-scenario-in-syria/?fbclid=IwAR3nv-9xT0o9IXDVkYtpZhBnrTEqsQy_5g26_aS872w9S-I9yWHNxJDNxko
25. Al-Monitor: Maxim Suchkov, Putin, Netanyahu break ground on deeper Russia-Israel engagement.
26. AP: Russia revamps Arctic military base to stake claim on region.
27. Reuters: Children of Stalin’s Victims and Jailers Bury Ghosts of Past in Siberian Village.
28. Intellinews.com: Ben Aris, Pro-Russian vote in Ukraine’s presidential election first round revealed as strong by official tallies.
29. TASS: Nearly half of Ukrainians expect presidential candidates to offer Donbass issue solutions.
30. The Guardian (UK): Volodymyr Ishchenko, A comedian could be Ukraine’s next president. How did that happen? Volodymyr Zelenskiy has united a polarised country by rejecting angry nationalism – but his politics offer no panacea.
31. Intellinews.com: Ben Aris, Showdown: Ukraine’s president and comedian challenger to square off in Olympic Stadium debate.
32. Reuters: Comedian Rips Up the Play Book in Ukraine Election Success.
33. Vedomosti: Paper considers Zelensky’s future if elected president. (Ruben Yenikolopov)
34. The Economist: Send in the clown. A TV comedian wins the first round of Ukraine’s presidential election. A massive rebuff to Petro Poroshenko.
35. Wall Street Journal: Kimberley Strassel, The Mueller ‘Coverup’ Gambit. Why Barr is right to release the report with redactions and publicly, all at once.
36. Kirk Bennett: TYING UP THE LOOSE ENDS OF RUSSIAGATE. The unfinished business of Russiagate consists of clearing the names of innocent people; holding senior bureaucrats to account for errors of judgment and abuses of power; and restoring the tarnished image of democratic governance.
37. The Hill: Edward Lynch, Was President Obama better for Russia than President Trump?
38. The New Republic: Jacob Bacharach, MSNBC’s Wild Ride. Thanks to Trump and the Russia investigation, the liberal network is booming. But is it selling its viewers a conspiratorial fantasy? (excerpt)
39. Spectator USA: Michael Tracey, ‘Boom!’: an autopsy of the media after the Mueller bombshell. Dunking on Rachel Maddow may be fun, but she’s far from the sole perpetrator.