RUSSIA & UKRAINE: JRL 2014-#265 table of contents with links :: Monday 29 December 2014

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Johnson’s Russia List
JRL 2014-#265 :: Monday 29 December 2014
E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net
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1. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Russians still ‘happy’ despite economic difficulties, say sociologists.
2. Russia & India Report: New Year’s Eve dinner. Russia’s biggest night of the year combines family traditions with a big party and enough food to last a week.
3. Russia Beyond the Headlines: From Lermontov to Gorby: 2014’s literary events in review. Today’s Russian writers are Pushkin and Tolstoy’s worthy successors. This year showed that contemporary literature is thriving and that, despite the Internet’s growing global popularity, book publishing is here to stay.
4. TASS: Russians read ever less, reading stuff gets more primitive.
5. The Jerusalem Post: Is Putin building the next Noah’s Ark?
6. Kremlin.ru: New Year reception at the Kremlin.
7. Sputnik: Vitaly Tretyakov, On Russia, Europe and US: New Year Dreams.
8. Reuters: Russian economy suffers first major contraction since 2009.
9. Sputnik: Medvedev: Russia to Define Measures to Support Economy After Holidays.
10. www.seekingalpha.com: 4 Reasons Why Russia Isn’t Doomed.
11. Russia Direct: Six key events for the Russian energy sector in 2014. The economic landscape for the Russian energy sector changed dramatically over the past 12 months, primarily due to a steep fall in oil prices to their lowest level since 2008.
12. Reuters: Elizabeth Piper, Special Report – Crunch time: As sanctions bite, Putin ally gets into apples.
13. Wall Street Journal: U.S. Social-Media Giants Are Resisting Russia Censors. Facebook, Twitter, Google Wrestle With Kremlin Orders to Erase Content.
14. NTV Moscow: Russian TV accuses election watchdog of working for US interests.
15. Valdai Discussion Club/Rossiyskaya Gazeta: Konstantin Simonov, Three Myths of the Opposition.
16. Carnegie Moscow Center: Dmitri Trenin, 2014: Russia’s New Military Doctrine Tells It All.
17. www.rt.com: West wants to end confrontation with Russia over Ukraine – EU foreign policy chief.
18. Russia Direct: Top 10 most significant events in Russia-US relations in 2014.
19. TASS: Obama calls to remain firm on Russia policy amid Ukraine crisis.
20. Interfax: Settlement of crisis in Ukraine in 2015 is not only possible, but realistic – Lavrov in interview with Interfax.
21. Interfax: Russian foreign minister: we are not interested in alienation or confrontation between Russia, West.
22. Indian Punchline: M K Bhadrakumar, Obama’s Russia fiasco.
23. http://reconsideringrussia.org: Pietro A. Shakarian, Keeping Georgia Balanced.
24. The Automatic Earth: Raúl Ilargi Meijer, 2014: The Year Propaganda Came Of Age.
25. RFE/RL: Russia’s Media Machine Looks West.
26. The Irish Examiner: Yuliya Tymoshenko, Vladimir Putin brings darkness to the edge of Europe.
27. Townhall.com: Mark Nuckols, Putin Is Mentally Unhinged.
28. The Washington Times: Stephen Blank, Russia’s Vladimir Putin clearly wants to dominate all of Europe.