RUSSIA & UKRAINE: JRL 2014-#262 table of contents with links :: Monday 22 December 2014

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Johnson’s Russia List
JRL 2014-#262 :: Monday 22 December 2014
E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net
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1. The Guardian: Ian Traynor, US campaign behind the turmoil in Kiev.
2. National Public Radio: Suddenly, Russia’s Confidence Stumbles. (interview with Michael McFaul)
3. Sputnik: US to Fire Russians From its Embassies and Consulates, Swap for Americans.
4. USA Today: Coming winter is a weapon of war in east Ukraine.
5. AFP: Long road to recovery for injured in east Ukraine.
6. www.euronews.com: Kyiv terror plot foiled, says Ukrainian security service.
7. http://fortruss.blogspot.com: English-speaking Mercenaries Spotted 83 Kilometers from Donetsk.
8. Der Spiegel: Ukrainian Prime Minister: Putin ‘Needs New Annexations.’ (interview with Arseniy Yatsenyuk)
9. www.truth-out.org: A Very Difficult Task of Reconciling Donbas and Euromaidan Ukraine: An Academic Viewpoint. (report on Canadian conference)
10. Los Angeles Times: Rajan Menon and Alexander Motyl, Ukraine should put Russia to the test.
11. Reuters: Russia moves to avert banking crisis.
12. Reuters: Russia entering ‘full-fledged economic crisis’, says ex-minister Kudrin.
13. www.rt.com: Ruble crisis may spell financial disaster for Europe.
14. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Georgy Bovt, Does anybody in Russia care about the ruble? After becoming two times poorer in real terms since the beginning of the year due to the collapse of the ruble, Russians could well have taken to the streets to protest against the government’s economic policies. Why hasn’t that happened? And why is mass unrest likely?
15. Paul Goble: Window on Eurasia: Russians in Biggest Cities Feel the Most Pain from Crisis, Gudkov Says.
16. www.opendemcracy.net: Anna Fofanova, The rouble crisis in Siberia. As the rouble collapses, residents of Tomsk have long memories – from Black Tuesday 1994 to Black Tuesday 2014.
17. www.rt.com: Stratfor founder: ‘US fears a resurgent Russia’
18. Sputnik: Stratfor: Ukraine Coup Plotted by US Over Russian Stance on Syria.
19. Kommersant: “In Ukraine, U.S. interests are incompatible with the interests of the Russian Federation.” Stratfor chief George Friedman on the roots of the Ukraine crisis.
20. Russia Insider: Mark Nicholas, Moscow 1993: Western Press Is No Friend to Russia People Power. Western media backing a bloody crackdown against Russia protesters? Never!
21. Consortiumnews.com: Robert Parry, Krugman Joins the Anti-Putin Pack.
22. Russia Insider: Jon Hellevig, Paul Krugman’s Notes on Russia Debt Are Upside Down. The debt is small. Krugman makes a host of schoolboy errors to “prove” the opposite.
23. New York Times: Paul Krugman, Notes on Russian Debt.
24. Russia Insider: The Saker, On Economics Putin Is on the Defensive. Spending Personal Political Capital. Does not seem as resolute and with as clear vision on the economic side side of things as he does on the political side.
25. www.westernjournalism.com: L. Todd Wood, The News Of Russia’s Death Is Greatly Exaggerated. The talking heads are all abuzz over…
26. Consortiumnews.com: Robert Parry, The Crazy US ‘Group Think’ on Russia.
27. www.rt.com: Mikhail Gorbachev to RT: America wanted to rule the world but lost its way.
28. The Sunday Telegraph (UK): It was the EU that provoked the Ukrainian shambles, not Vladimir Putin. The EU has a remorseless urge to draw the cradle of Russian identity into its own empire, writes Christopher Booker.
29. The Mail on Sunday (UK): Peter Hitchens, Forget ‘evil’ Putin – we are the bloodthirsty warmongers.
30. Russia Direct: How Russian press responds to ‘Black Tuesday’, Putin’s press marathon. The Russian press this week focused mostly on domestic issues, including “Black Tuesday” and Vladimir Putin’s annual press conference. But the media also picked up on the detente in relations between Havana and Washington.
31. Financial Times: Putin Treats Russia’s Oligarchs to a Free Supper.
32. Politkom.ru: Tatyana Stanovaya, The Old and the New in Medvedev’s Public Image.
33. Paul Goble: Window on Eurasia: A New Genre in Russian Commentary – Thinking about Russia after Putin.
34. www.opendemocracy.net: Chris Weafer, Putin stays. The Kremlin has adopted a deliberate strategy – to let the rouble continue falling as the “lesser of two evils”; and protect President Putin’s core support base.
35. www.opendemocracy.net: Aleksandr Morozov, Putin goes. Until ‘Black Tuesday’ on 16 December 2014, fifteen years after he first took power, there were no grounds for any consideration of whether Putin might resign or of snap elections. Now there are.