RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents & links :: JRL 2020-#140 :: Wednesday, 5 August 2020

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2020-#140 :: Wednesday, 5 August 2020
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1. rt.com: All volunteers in Russian Covid-19 trials in good health as tests suggest new drug ‘Avifavir’ capable of suppressing virus.
2. Washington Post: Why the Kremlin cares about protests on the other side of Russia
3. Meduza: Putin’s relationship with the governors is coming full circle.
4. Meduza: Russia’s electoral testing ground . Welcome to Novosibirsk, where multiple opposition parties are battling for real power and setting the stage for Russia’s nationwide elections.
5. Foreign Policy: Mark Galeotti, Putin’s Security Forces Are Increasingly Unsure About Putin. Anti-government protests are growing, and the Kremlin doesn’t have stormtroopers willing to mount a crackdown.
6. Paul Goble: Anti-Centralism Now Embraced by Both Russian and Non-Russian Radical Oppositions, Sidorov Says.
7. Russia Beyond: 5 closed cities Russia hides from prying eyes – rbth.com/travel/332535-russia-secret-closed-cities
8. TASS: Vedomosti: Russians beef up their spending.
9. Wall Street Journal: Foreign Investors Flock to Russian Government Bonds. After a feud with fellow oil exporter Saudi Arabia, Russia’s efforts to shore up its finances may be paying off.
10. Carnegie Moscow Center: Nikolai Markotkin and Elena Chernenko, Developing Artificial Intelligence in Russia: Objectives and Reality. Even if AI development becomes Russia’s highest priority, Moscow has no chance of catching up with Washington and Beijing in this field. Under favorable conditions, however, Russia is quite capable of becoming a serious player and even a local leader in certain areas. (Excerpt)
11. The Barents Observer (Norway): Russia has several thousand nuclear objects dumped on its Arctic sea floor. Now, the most dangerous will be removed.
12. New York Times: ‘Red Penguins’ Review: A Rowdy Look at Post-Soviet Russia. This new documentary tells the tale of the Americans who invested in Russia’s premier hockey team in the early 1990s. Unsurprisingly, things went awry.
13. Valdai Discussion Club: Timofei Bordachev, Some Uncalled-for Ideas on Chinese Foreign Policy – valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/some-uncalled-for-ideas-on-chinese-foreign-policy/
14. Bloomberg: China’s Assertiveness Is Becoming a Problem for Its Friends, Too. Partners like Russia, Iran and Kazakhstan also face concerns when it comes to Beijing’s behavior.
15. Russian International Affair Council: Danil Bochkov, China Replacing Russia as the Boogeyman in the U.S. Presidential Campaign: Implications for Russia-China Relations – russiancouncil.ru/en/analytics-and-comments/analytics/china-replacing-russia-as-the-boogeyman-in-the-u-s-presidential-campaign-implications-for-russia-chi/
16. rt.com: Russian ambassador tells Britain: you exaggerate your political importance & London has become a haven for Russian criminals.
17. Facebook: Fred Weir, Re “Russian ambassador’s chilling warning”
18. Russian International Affairs Council: Russian Mamedov, How U.S. “Caesar Act” Will Affect the Situation in Syria and Moscow’s Policy – russiancouncil.ru/en/analytics-and-comments/analytics/how-us-caesar-act-will-affect-the-situation-in-syria-and-moscow-s-policy/
19. TASS: Growing Russia-US mistrust will trigger arms deployment in space – expert.
20. TASS: Multilateral arms control system to replace New START, Russian expert says.
21. Vox: Alex Ward, “The end of arms control as we know it”. The last agreement limiting America’s and Russia’s nuclear arsenals is months away from expiring. (Excerpt)
22. Der Spiegel: The New Nuclear Dawn. Threat of Atomic Weapons Grows as U.S., Russia and China Renew Arms Race. Seventy-five years after the dropping of the first atomic bomb in Hiroshima, one nuclear non-proliferation after the other is lapsing. A new arms race is already taking shape between Russia, the United States and China.
23. Interfax: Medvedev: Moscow-Minsk relations bargaining chip in election campaign.
24. Intellinews: Belarusian establishment remains monolithic. or does it?
25. Financial Times: Lukashenko rhetoric shows fallout between Minsk and Moscow. Arrest of 33 Russians comes as Belarusian president’s strategy of playing Russia and the west off each other founders.
26. Washington Post: Michael McFaul, Why Trump’s complacency about Putin is a problem – whatever his motives.