RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents & links :: JRL 2020-#99 :: Tuesday, 2 June 2020

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2020-#99 :: Tuesday, 2 June 2020
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1. Interfax: Russia publishes list of key dangers due to which nuclear deterrence may be used.
2. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, Nuclear arms control: What happens when US and Russia let it lapse? In less than a year, the world could enter a period free of nuclear arms control treaties for the first time in more than a half-century. Is such a state of affairs sustainable?
3. TASS: Vedomosti: Putin sets new date for Russia’s constitutional amendments vote.
4. TASS: Observers to monitor all modes of nationwide voting on constitutional amendments, vows CEC.
5. TASS: Politician sees Putin’s possible reelection as buffer against the unexpected.
6. TASS: Russia’s coronavirus death toll exceeds 5,000 – tass.com/society/1162943
7. Forbes.com: Kenneth Rapoza, How Bad, Really, Is The Coronavirus Pandemic In Russia?
8. Bloomberg: Russia to Ship Covid-19 Drug to Hospitals in Race for Treatment.
9. Intellinews: Mark Galeotti, Coronavirus and Kremlin stressing Russia’s elite social contract. Russia’s coronavirus epidemic has caught the Kremlin off guard and its failure to respond adequately will undermine its hold on power.
10. www.rt.com: Bryan MacDonald, Russian media’s muted coverage of US riots: Sorry America, the world doesn’t revolve around you – rt.com/russia/490430-russian-media-us-riots-coverage/
11. TASS: Kremlin weighs in on police brutality issue, says US far more extreme.
12. Moscow Times: Russia Says Only ‘Coronavirus Immune’ Troops Will March at Victory Day Parade
13. Moscow Times: Russia Prices Economic Recovery Plan at $70Bln. Government ramps up the next phase of economic response to the coronavirus.
14. Kremlin.ru: Meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin – en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/63445
15. Moscow Times: Russian Ruble Approaches Pre-Coronavirus Levels. Ruble hits three-month high as oil prices stabilize.
16. TASS: Izvestia: Russian citizens’ disposable income will drop in 2020.
17. Asia Times: Dmitriy Frolovskiy, Investors may be wary of post-pandemic Russia. The rise of state capitalism under Putin and a spike in arrests for economic crimes could give investors pause.
18. Bloomberg: Russia Gets Higher Oil Prices as Payoff for Joining OPEC+ Cuts.
19. Oilprice.com: Defense and Foreign Affairs, Russia Is Quickly Becoming The Most Dominant Force In Energy.
20. www.rt.com: G7 is indeed outdated and out of touch, Moscow agrees with Trump, but without China it will stay that way.
21. Russia International Affairs Council: Andrey Kortunov, What is Multilateralism in European Terms? – russiancouncil.ru/en/analytics-and-comments/analytics/what-is-multilateralism-in-european-terms/
22. The National Interest: Daniel DePetris, The True Danger of Withdrawing from the Open Skies Treaty. The demise of Open Skies bodes ill for the New START agreement, which caps the number of strategic nuclear weapons Washington and Moscow can deploy at 1,550.
23. Asia Times: U.S. B-1 bomber drills aim at China, Russia. JASSM missiles on some B-1 bombers can knock out hardened ground targets or attack ships at sea.
24. The Drive: Air Force Reveals B-1Bs Were Practicing Decapitating Russia’s Black Sea Fleet Last Week. Russia has decried that mission, as well as other American and NATO exercises around its borders in recent months, as provocative.
25. Indian Punchline: M.K. Bhadrakumar, NATO returns to Libya to challenge Russia. Libyan conflict set to intensify as NATO plans to intervene.
26. Russian International Affairs Council: Aleksandr Aksenenok, The Coronavirus and Conflicts in the Middle East – russiancouncil.ru/en/analytics-and-comments/analytics/the-coronavirus-and-conflicts-in-the-middle-east/
27. The National Interest: Kamal Alam, Russia Is Not Abandoning Syria or Assad. The talk of a Russian rift or frustration with Damascus fundamentally overlooks Russia’s historic role in Syria.