RUSSIA & UKRAINE: JRL 2014-#240 table of contents with links :: Wednesday 19 November 2014
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Johnson’s Russia List
JRL 2014-#240 :: Wednesday 19 November 2014
E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net
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Ukraine
1. Interfax-Ukraine: Ukraine says Russian-trained “terrorists” targeted Dutch delegation in Kharkiv.
2. AFP: Teachers, doctors struggle on without pay in eastern Ukraine.
3. Voice of America: Pro-Moscow Separatists Face Health Crisis.
4. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, Ukraine takes economic swing at rebels – but might hit pensioners instead. President Poroshenko canceled a ‘special status’ law for Donetsk and Luhansk, effectively cutting off the regions’ hospitals, schools, and pensioners from state money. Many worry that it will hurt defenseless locals.
5. TASS: Ukraine opposition seeks reversal of decree blocking welfare benefits for eastern regions.
6. Reuters: Ukraine rules out direct talks with separatists.
7. Interfax: Ukraine insists on efficiency of Geneva negotiating format – Yatsenyuk.
8. Interfax: Russian diplomat says Kiev needs to negotiate with rebels, not Moscow.
9. Bloomberg: Russia Denies Ukraine Blame After Germans Push for Talks.
10. Sputnik: Ukrainian Prime Minister Says Ready to Sign Poroshenko’s Coalition Deal.
11. Interfax: Head of LPR challenges Poroshenko to duel.
12. Russia Direct: Will the G20 make the Kremlin reassess its Ukraine policy? Russian and foreign experts analyze what to expect from the Kremlin after the G20 summit. Some hope that Western pressure in Australia and the threat of further sanctions may finally force Russia to change its Ukraine policy.
13. TASS: Ukraine to keep buying gas from Russian, European companies – Naftogaz CEO.
14. Antiwar.com: Justin Raimondo, Stay Away From Kiev. Where the chief of police is an out-of-the-closet neo-Nazi.
15. Interfax-Ukraine: Number of suspects in crimes on Maidan hiding in Russia – interior minister’s advisor.
16. Euromaidan Press/Ukrayinska Pravda: Results of Maidan: the first anniversary.
17. Interfax: Gorbachev: West has probably accepted fact that Crimea is Russia.
18. TASS: Russian officials deny reports of ethnically motivated oppression in Crimea.
19. http://readrussia.com: Mark Adomanis, Russian Policy Is Bad but It Isn’t Irrational.
20. Sputnik: Russia Needs Guarantees Ukraine Will Not Join NATO: Kremlin.
21. Paul Goble: Window on Eurasia: Proper Response to Kremlin is to Make Ukraine a NATO Member Now.
Russia
22. Bloomberg: Putin Said to Stun Advisers by Backing Corruption Crackdown.
23. Business New Europe: Number of Russians who think corruption got worse in past 15 years went down 20%.
24. TASS: Russian health service reform painful but unavoidable.
25. Kremlin.ru: Meeting with Russian Human Rights Commissioner Ella Pamfilova.
26. www.rt.com: Putin: ‘US wants to subdue Russia, but no one did or ever will’
27. Kremlin.ru: Russian Popular Front’s Action Forum.
28. Reuters: Putin wants ties with U.S. based on equality, respect.
29. TASS: Russia ready for cooperation with US on basis of equality – Putin.
30. Business New Europe: Ben Aris, Russia moves to free-sinking currency.
31. Moscow Times: 10 Kremlin Moves That Hurt Russia’s Economy.
32. Reuters: Ukraine crisis pushing Russia into recession, hits east Europe – EBRD.
33. Sputnik: Alexander Mercouris, Crisis? What Crisis? There Is No Crisis Around the Rouble.
34. Bloomberg: Russia Sees Recession Next Year If Oil Price Falls to $60.
35. www.rt.com: Economic contraction, oil price fall won’t be as severe as 2008-2009 – Finance Minister.
36. Interfax: Russian central banker says economy can withstand lower oil price, sanctions.
37. Moscow Times: Sanctions Affect Half Of Russia’s Banking Sector, Report Says.
38. Carnegie Moscow Center: Yuval Weber, Weak Ruble Exchange Rate Represents Political Bargaining Challenge.
39. Bloomberg: McDonald’s Moscow Restaurant Reopens After 3-Month Shutdown.
40. New York Times: Organic Farms Become a Winner in Putin’s Feud With the West.
41. Moscow Times: Magazine Pays Homage to Embattled Russian Activists With Global Thinkers List.
42. Interfax: Gazprom Media to consider proposal on selling stake in Echo of Moscow to minority shareholders – editor.
43. Interfax: Russian independent radio board chairman says not aiming to destroy station.
44. Moskovskiy Komsomolets: Anti-Semitism on rise in old, new media, says Russian observer.
45. Dances With Bears: John Helmer, THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN OLIGARCH AND A CRONY – WASHINGTON BELIEVES IN KONSTANTIN MALOFEEV.
46. Interfax: Lavrov says Kerry told him to ignore Obama’s words on Russia threat.
47. Sputnik: Lavrov Says 1990 Military Treaty With Europe ‘Dead’ for Russia. (CFE)
48. TASS: Russia cuts investments in US government securities to $117.7 billion.
49. Jamestown Foundation Eurasia Daily Monitor: Roger McDermott, Protecting the Motherland: Russia’s Counter-Color Revolution Military Doctrine.
50. Russia Direct: Catherine Trainor, Why Russia’s Arctic strategy is starting to worry NATO. Given Russia’s renewed strategic emphasis on the military and economic development of the Arctic, the newest area of confrontation between NATO and Russia might not be in continental Europe – it might be in the Arctic.
51. Washington Post: Masha Gessen, Putin’s combative course.
52. TASS: Backers, critics of European integration to clash in Moldova’s parliamentary election.
53. Russia Beyond the Headlines: The world without the Wall. Andrei Grachev, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s former press secretary, has written a book called “The Soviet Titanic: An On-board Magazine,” which will be released in Russia. With the author’s permission RBTH is publishing an extract from the book.
