RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents & links :: JRL 2020-#87 :: Tuesday, 12 May 2020

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2020-#87 :: Tuesday, 12 May 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. Russian International Affairs Council: Andrey Kortunov, About the Wise Monkey Who Came Down from the Mountain – russiancouncil.ru/en/analytics-and-comments/analytics/about-the-wise-monkey-who-came-down-from-the-mountain/
2. TASS: Extraterrestrial civilizations’ signals may be imperceptible for Earthlings – scientist.
3. Intellinews: Ben Aris, Putin eases Russia’s coronavirus lockdown restrictions. Putin has eased the lockdown restrictions a little, but the change has more to do with restarting Russia’s stalled economy than with the population’s frustration at being kept indoors.
4. TASS: WHO says no evidence of Russia’s underreporting COVID-19 mortality.
5. TASS: Coronavirus spread coefficient in Moscow lower than 1 for two days running.
6. www.rt.com: Russia becomes world’s second hardest-hit country with 230,000+ confirmed Covid-19 cases, surpassing Spain & UK.
7. www.rt.com: Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov hospitalized in Moscow with Covid-19.
8. Twitter: Bryan MacDonald, Re “A Coronavirus Mystery Explained: Moscow Has 1,700 Extra Deaths”
9. TASS: Vedomosti: Russia’s third anti-crisis package to cost over $10 bln.
10. Intellinews: Russian government adopts a third economic stimulus package, calls for rescue plans by June 1. The Kremlin has adopted a third economic stimulus package to reduce the damage that the current crisis will do.
11. TASS: Vedomosti: Half of restaurants in Russia may not survive lockdown.
12. The Calvert Journal: See lockdown Moscow life in this bittersweet musical mockumentary.
13. Financial Times: Coronavirus crisis leaves Russian government rudderless. Prime ministerial stand-in faces task of managing pandemic while getting economy moving again.
14. Moscow Times: Mark Galeotti, Putin Withdraws From the Coronavirus Crisis in a Political Abdication. Putin is clearly eager to avoid being identified with the pandemic and the difficult measures being adopted to fight it.
15. Council on Foreign Relations: Stephen Sestanovich, Will the Pandemic Weaken Russia’s ‘Deep State’-or Make It Stronger Still?
16. Interfax: Some 200 journalists contract coronavirus virus, 5 die in Russia.
17. Consortiumnews: Ben Norton, Russian Journalist Accuses New York Times of Stealing Pulitzer-Winning Scoop . The accuser is joined by other liberal, anti-Putin Russian reporters who say the Times has taken their stories without giving any credit. – consortiumnews.com/2020/05/11/russian-journalist-accuses-new-york-times-of-stealing-pulitzer-winning-scoop/
18. www.rt.com: German media watchdog rejects Browder’s complaint against Spiegel over Magnitsky story report, says his own narrative lacks proof – rt.com/news/488395-german-media-watchdog-browder-spiegel/
19. The National Interest: Michael Hall, Cold War Ideology Was Outdated Before the Coronavirus Era. The world changed dramatically after the Cold War ended. The coronavirus is likewise a significant force for change, one with the potential to shift the balance of power. This current crisis should remind us we have finite resources and should allocate those with prudence-otherwise, we risk further overstretch and depletion of U.S. power.
20. Defensenews.com: Steven Keil, What’s preventing a respite from the broken US-Russia relationship?
21. Breaking Defense: Victoria Samson and Brian Weeden, US Should Start Space Security Talks With Russia, China. The Trump administration should declare a U.S. moratorium on destructive ASAT testing and work with like-minded countries to begin laying the groundwork for an eventual legal prohibition. These would be an immense step forward on limiting future ASAT testing and enhancing space security for both the United States and the world. – breakingdefense.com/2020/05/us-should-start-space-security-talks-with-russia-china/
22. Just the News: John Solomon, Dirty Dozen: The 12 revelations that sunk Mueller’s case against Flynn. After a prescient 2017 tip from inside the FBI, a slow drip of revelations exposed the deep problems with the Flynn prosecution. – justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/dirty-dozen-12-revelations-sunk-muellers-case-against
23. New York Post: Obama’s top brass contradict public statements about ‘collusion’ under oath.
24. Townhall.com: The Obama Official Who Lied About Russian Collusion Is Using the Narrative to Get Elected. [Re: Evelyn Farkas]
25. The Atlantic: Franklin Foer, Putin Is Well on His Way to Stealing the Next Election. RIP democracy.
26. Consortiumnews: Patrick Lawrence, The ‘See-No-Evil’ Phase of Russiagate. The media spinfest following the collapse of this conspiracy theory suggests our troubled republic simply cannot accept its errors, leaving us unable to learn from them. – consortiumnews.com/2020/05/11/patrick-lawrence-the-see-no-evil-phase-of-russiagate/
27. The Epoch Times: CrowdStrike Had No Evidence of Russians Stealing Emails From DNC, Declassified Transcript Shows – theepochtimes.com/crowdstrike-had-no-evidence-of-russians-stealing-emails-from-dnc-declassified-transcript-shows_3346901.html
28. Sergei Karaganov and Dmitry Suslov: Russia in the Post-Coronavirus World: New Ideas for Foreign Policy.

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