RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents & links :: JRL 2020-#46 :: Sunday, 15 March 2020

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2020-#46 :: Sunday, 16 March 2020
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1. Moscow Times: Coronavirus in Russia: The Latest News | March 15.
2. Siberian Times: Seven time zones of Siberia and Russian Far East are almost clear of coronavirus – but why? Virus expert says doubts ‘gnaw’ at him over lack of confirmed cases east of Urals to Pacific.
3. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, Why coronavirus crisis may keep Putin in office until 2036. In January, Vladimir Putin seemed to be laying out a future for Russia where the country would no longer revolve around the presidency. But this week he unexpectedly shifted gears. Why?
4. Kremlin.ru: The President issues inquiry to Constitutional Court – en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/62989
5. Kremlin.ru: Law on amendment to Russian Federation Constitution – en.kremlin.ru/acts/news/62988
6. The National Interest: George Beebe, What Are Putin’s Real Presidential Plans? Vladimir Putin openly acceded to the Duma’s “request” that it pass a law enabling him to remain president until 2036 if voters approve. Many observers believe that this had been his plan all along, that his earlier coyness was simply a clever means of testing how much support he might have for end-running constitutional restrictions on his time in office.
7. Russia Matters: Simon Saradzhyan, 16 More Years of Putin: A Promise of Stability That Looks Like Stagnation.
8. Strategic Culture Foundation: Tom Luongo, Putin Unleashes Strategic Hell on the U.S. – strategic-culture.org/news/2020/03/15/putin-unleashes-strategic-hell-on-us/
9. The Bell: The eternal president – thebell.io/en/the-eternal-president/
10. Facebook: Ajay Goyal, My analysis of Russian constitutional amendments and western media obsession with #Putin2036
11. Wall Street Journal: David Satter, Putin Can’t Afford to Leave Office When His Term Ends. Surrendering power would endanger his cronies and subject him to a grim historical reckoning.
12. Financial Times: Moscow’s ambitious bid for cultural capital status. With a vast power station gallery and new and revamped museums, the city is aiming to rival St Petersburg.
13. Moscow Times: Leaving Moscow For the Good Life. Ambitious young Russian professionals are moving out of the capital.
14. New York Times: ‘Here I Can Be My Own Dictator’. The Kremlin’s plan to hand out plots of land in Russia’s Far East, long a magnet for dissenters, idealists and oddballs, has attracted some unusually freethinking settlers.
15. RFE/RL: ‘A Whole New Ecosystem’: Independent Journalism Learns To Survive In Putin’s Russia.
16. www.rt.com: Flares & crazy moves: Russia’s Little Big disco-inspired Eurovision clip becomes most viewed among all contenders (VIDEO)
17. Carnegie Moscow Center: Andrey Movchan, War With OPEC Can’t End Well for Russia. Falling oil prices leave no chance Russia’s GDP will grow in 2020-a bleak prospect for both ordinary people and once optimistic investors.
18. The Diplomat: Ka-Ho Wong, How Will the Coronavirus Outbreak Affect Russia-China Relations? The current disruption to ties doesn’t change the structural features uniting Moscow and Beijing.
19. Delfi (Lithuania) (BBC Monitoring): ‘Soviet nostalgia’ linked to Putin’s popularity in Lithuania.
20. Awful Avalanche: USSR Not Prepared For Nazi Surprise Attack Because Iran – Part I.
21. Meduza: Pond hockey propaganda . How Bernie Sanders’s nefarious Burlington-Yaroslavl sister cities program is still bringing Russians and Americans together in Vermont.
22. Kyiv Post: In controversial change, Ukraine to enter direct negotiations with Russian-led militants.
23. www.rt.com: Ukrainian nationalists fire FLARE GUN at Russian embassy in Kiev, threaten to storm diplomatic mission (VIDEO)
24. www.rt.com: Robert Bridge, The Democrats are weaponizing Covid-19 against Trump to do what Russiagate & impeachment could not.
25. Just the News: John Solomon, FBI’s Russia collusion case fell apart in first month of Trump presidency, memos show. Flynn collusion ruled out, Steele dossier debunked in January 2017, more than two years before Mueller announced it.