RUSSIA & UKRAINE: JRL 2015-#15 table of contents with links :: Thursday 22 January 2015
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Johnson’s Russia List
JRL 2015-#15 :: Thursday 22 January 2015
E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net
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1. Bloomberg: Ukrainian Deaths Surge as Merkel Sharpens Rhetoric on Russia.
2. Interfax: Support for urgent heavy arms withdrawal from Donbas line of contact is crucial decision of Berlin meeting – Lavrov.
3. Sputnik: Donetsk Militia to Move Front Line Away From City to Avoid Shelling by Kiev.
4. Washington Post editorial: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should cause much more than a hiccup in relations.
5. Defensenews.com: US Trainers To Deploy To Ukraine. Also Will Begin Shipment of US-funded Armored Vehicles.
6. The National Interest: Samuel Charap and Tymofiy Mylovanov, For Ukraine, Weakness Could Be Its Greatest Strength. If Kyiv assumes that Western leaders consider Ukraine too strategically important to let fail, then they will likely be in for an unpleasant surprise. It must clearly make its present difficulties an asset-not a weakness.
7. Russia Insider: Alexander Mercouris, Ukraine – IMF Admits Failure, Scraps Plan A, Goes for Plan B. IMF now admits original aid plan has failed. Has been forced to get behind the more generous Soros Plan. Question is can it work without Russia.
8. Dances With Bears: John Helmer, POROSHENKO MAKES THE BATTLE OF DONETSK AIRPORT PRECONDITION FOR NEW $50 BILLION BAILOUT – UKRAINIANS REPELLED IN BATTLE OF DAVOS.
9. Bloomberg: Leonid Bershidsky, The Deadly Legend of the Donetsk Airport.
10. Business New Europe: Russia prepares RUB1.375 trillion anti-crisis plan.
11. Russia Beyond the Headlines: ‘Current situation similar to one the Soviet Union experienced in 1986.’ Vladimir Mau, one of the authors of the Russian economic reforms of the 1990s, spoke with RBTH about the challenges facing the country’s economy.
12. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Fall in oil prices could shrink Russia’s GDP by five percent. Russian experts say that due to a six-year low in oil prices, Russia’s economy could contract by up to five percent in 2015. Moreover, the situation drastically differs from the 2008-2009 crisis when Russia was not as dependent on oil prices or under sanctions.
13. The Motley Fool: Alex Planes, The Oil Price Crash Could Be Good for Russia in the Long Run.
14. www.rt.com: No chance of state default in Russia-Deputy PM> (Arkady Dvorkovich)
15. Valdai Discussion Club/Vestnik Kavkaza: Fyodor Lukyanov, Gas Relations Are Not Connected With Sanctions Directly.
16. Reuters: Sanctions sap allure of Russia’s Arctic shipping route.
17. Paul Goble: Russia about to Lose Its ‘Thick’ Journals and Culture Ministry Won’t Help.
18. Russia Insider: Eric Dragster, Russia MP Gives a ‘How To’ Lecture on Russia Regime Change in Washington. If it were Republican Lindsay Graham giving a lecture to Russian nationalists on taking down Obama – would it be called treason?
19. Moscow Times: Lavrov: Russia to Push Ukraine Agenda Until Bitter End.
20. Russia Direct: Eugene Bai, What is behind the Kremlin’s sensitive response to Obama’s speech? Russia’s emotional response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech might be accounted for by both Russia’s historic inferiority complex and the mounting toll of the country’s current economic difficulties.
21. Moscow Times: Russian Authorities to Create Blacklist of Corrupt Officials.
22. Russia Direct: Pavel Koshkin, The Kremlin might create a list of ‘undesired’ foreign organizations. Another controversial legislative initiative proposed by the Russian State Duma and dubbed “the bill on ‘undesired’ organizations” fuels debates about the country’s political future.
23. Reuters: EU foreign policy chief’s paper on EU-Russia relations – text.
24. www.opendemocracy.net: Bob Rigg, In Ukraine, NATO has ceased to be an instrument of US foreign policy. In the renewed cold war over Ukraine, while Russia’s economy has been weakened by European sanctions, the US is no longer the hegemon it once was-and NATO is under strain.
25. Fort Russ: French historian: Europe is wrong about Ukraine The French historian and Russia specialist Hélène Carrère d’Encausse was in Geneva Tuesday.
26. Kyiv Post: One year later, no justice for first EuroMaidan victims.
27. Forbes.com: Doug Bandow, U.S. Should Stay Out Of The Russo-Ukrainian Quarrel: A Baker’s Dozen Reasons Why The Conflict In Ukraine Is Not America’s Business, Part One.
28. Salon.com: Patrick Smith, Distortions, lies and omissions: The New York Times won’t tell you the real story behind Ukraine, Russian economic collapse. International papers will cover America’s role in the world honestly. Only our best paper willingly blinds itself.
29. Russia Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s address and annual news conference on Russia’s diplomatic performance in 2014, Moscow, 21 January 2015.
