RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents & links :: JRL 2020-#100 :: Thursday, 4 June 2020

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2020-#100 :: Thursday, 4 June 2020
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.
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1. Intellinews: Ben Aris, Russia’s rebound becomes visible as the ruble breaks below RUB70 to the dollar. After crashing to RUB80 to the dollar, Russia’s national currency has broken below RUB70 as oil prices briefly touch $40 again. Russia’s rebound from the depths of the coronacrisis is now visible.
2. Intellinews: Russian government presents National Recovery Plan to President Putin. The Russian government has rolled out two economic support packages, worth RUB3.1 trillion ($42.1bn), or 2.8% of GDP. The RUB7.3 trillion final recovery plan was cut from the previously reported RUB8 trillion plan, and also includes the two previously announced packages.
3. www.rt.com: Face masks to be mandatory in Moscow until city has been vaccinated, mid-autumn at the earliest – Mayor Sobyanin.
4. Reuters: Russia Gets More U.S. Ventilators as Coronavirus Cases Climb.
5. Moscow Times: Russia’s Coronavirus ‘Patient Zero’ Emerged in January, Moscow Official Says.
6. Moscow Times: Ilya Klishin, Russians Watch the American Protests as Clouds Gather at Home. Russians are more fascinated by the images of the mass protests in response to George Floyd’s death.
7. RFE/RL: ‘The Message Sends Itself’: In Coverage Of U.S. Protests, Russia Reveals Its Own Fears Of Unrest, Disorder.
8. TASS: Media: Russia declares state of emergency after huge oil spill in the Arctic.
9. Forbes: Ariel Cohen, Diesel Spill In Russian Arctic Could Be Putin’s Exxon Valdez.
12. Meduza: ‘There’s nothing the Kremlin hasn’t tried’. How Russian election officials plan to secure 55-percent turnout in the upcoming constitutional plebiscite.
13. No Yardstick: András Tóth-Czifra, The newfound assertiveness of regional leaders.
14. Stalker Zone: Why Russian Liberals Don’t Speak Out About the Protests in the US & the Actions of the Police – stalkerzone.org/why-russian-liberals-dont-speak-out-about-the-protests-in-the-us-the-actions-of-the-police/
15. Consortiumnews: Foiling Predictions, Russians Did Not Go Hungry After 2014. Natylie Baldwin, in this excerpt from her new book, describes what happened after the U.S. and EU sought to punish Moscow with agricultural sanctions. – consortiumnews.com/2020/06/03/foiling-predictions-russians-did-not-go-hungry-after-2014/ [Book: amazon.com/View-Moscow-Understanding-U-S-Russia-Relations-ebook/dp/B087X9114H/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Natylie+Baldwin&qid=1591282153&s=digital-text&sr=1-1]
16. Reuters: Senators to Announce Sanctions Bill on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 Gas Pipeline.
17. www.rt.com: Russia ramps up natural gas delivery to China via Power of Siberia mega pipeline.
18. TASS: Kommersant: Kremlin clarifies conditions for the use of nuclear weapons.
19. TASS: Russia will never initiate use of nuclear weapons, Kremlin says.
20. AP: Russia’s New Nuclear Deterrent Policy Allows Nuclear Strikes Against Non-Nuclear Threats.
21. Interfax: Moscow would benefit from Beijing’s involvement in strategic arms reduction talks – expert. (Sergei Rogov)
22. Asia Times: Prabir Purkayastha, Arms-race clouds loom over Open Skies. Seeking to cling to its role as a global hegemon, the US is shooting down treaty after treaty.
23. Consortiumnews: Ray McGovern, US-Russia Ties, from Heyday to MayDay. Whatever hopes Russia’s leader may have had for a more workable relationship with the U.S. have been “trumpled,” so to speak. – consortiumnews.com/2020/06/03/ray-mcgovern-us-russia-ties-from-heyday-to-mayday/
24. Russia Matters: Bruce Laird, The Risks of Autonomous Weapons Systems for Crisis Stability and Conflict Escalation in Future US-Russia Confrontations. (excerpt)
25. www.outlookindia.com: Russia pitches for constructive relationship between India and China for regional stability.
26. TASS: Nezavisimaya Gazeta: West, Russia turn their backs on Belarusian leader.
27. Interfax: Ukrainian police studying circumstances of Zelensky violating quarantine, president facing fine.
28. Carnegie Moscow Center: Konstantin Skorkin, Ukraine’s Latest Schism: Zelensky Against the Regions. The coronavirus pandemic has turned the mounting tension between the center and the regions into an open conflict. Now threats loom of revenge by the old elites and a new wave of populism exploiting the idea of regional independence.
29. Wall Street Journal: Rod Rosenstein Offers Limited Defense of Russia Probe. ‘I still believe it was the right decision under the circumstances,’ former deputy attorney general says.

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