RUSSIA & UKRAINE: JRL 2015-#30 table of contents with links :: Tuesday 17 February 2015

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Johnson’s Russia List
JRL 2015-#30 :: Tuesday 17 February 2015
E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net
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1. The Academe Blog: Two Additional (and Important) Documents on the Stephen Cohen-ASEEES Controversy.
2. Russia Direct: Pavel Koshkin, Four different visions for the future of Russian Studies in America. Russia Direct asked four prominent experts what should be done with America’s Russian Studies programs to boost understanding of Russia in U.S. academic and political circles. (Robert Legvold, Andrei Tsygankov, Gregory Feifer, and Victoria Zhuravleva)
3. Moscow Times: Russia Is Americans’ Enemy Number One, Poll Shows.
4. Reuters: Ukraine truce fades as fighting rages, arms pullback stalls.
5. Interfax: Ukraine rebels offer safe passage to surrounded Kiev troops.
6. Interfax: Donbas militia engage in first ever contact with Kyiv officials – militia leader.
7. Interfax: Luhansk republic leader announces “closure” of Debaltseve.
8. Kyiv Post: Both sides refuse to withdraw heavy weapons as Ukraine cease-fire fails.
9. AFP: Ukraine rebels bury dead who fell hours before ceasefire.
10. Sputnik: Donbas Heavy Weaponry Pullout Could Be Resolved at Contact Group Talks.
11. RFE/RL: In Ukraine’s West, Patriotism Is One Thing. Fighting’s Quite Another.
12. Interfax: Kyiv blames Moscow, Donetsk and Luhansk republics for violating Minsk agreements.
13. The Economist: Ukraine’s ceasefire. Pseudo-peace. Pro-Russian rebels are still fighting for a key town, and Ukrainians are waiting for the ceasefire to fail.
14. Business New Europe: Mark Galeotti, Minsk deal offers Ukraine tough long-term opportunities.
15. TASS: Russian diplomat says East Ukraine was home to massive arms stocks long before the crisis.
16. Fort Russ: Is Poroshenko Sacrificing the Neo-Nazi Battalions?
17. TASS: Russian experts moderately optimistic about first days following Minsk-2.
18. Kyiv Post: Brian Bonner, Fight this war or surrender.
19. Novaya Gazeta: Russian journalist describes everyday life in Ukraine’s troubled east. (Pavel Kanygin)
20. www.opendemocracy.net: Balázs Jarábik, It is time for Ukraine to start helping itself. Notwithstanding the ceasefire agreed in Minsk, unless Western policymakers take into account just how fragile the situation inside Ukraine really is, the promise of last year’s Maidan revolution may be snuffed out.
21. The Guardian: West must learn to live with Putin, former MI6 head warns. Sir John Sawers says provoking the Russian president risks deepening the security crisis facing Europe.
22. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Do Putin’s comments mark a turning-point for LGBT rights in Russia? In a recently-broadcast film, Russian President Vladimir Putin has advised Russians to get rid of their aggression toward sexual minorities. While many observers do not believe that the climate is not yet right for a large-scale change in attitudes in Russian society, the LGBT movement is hoping for a change in policy from the authorities.
23. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Entrepreneur Alexei Gisak: ‘You have to work much harder now.’ RBTH is launching People in Crisis, a series of stories about how people of different social groups are surviving the economic crisis and how their lives have changed. Our first installment features businessman Alexei Gisak – co-founder of the pan-Asiatic fast-food chain Wokker in Moscow.
24. Sputnik: Deputy PM Says Low Oil Prices A Temporary Condition Created to Hurt Russia. (Arkady Dvorkovich)
25. Interfax: Russian economy to enter period of lengthy decline in 2015 – Econ Ministry.
26. Reuters: Foreign debt burden at heart of Russian economic worries.
27. Business New Europe: Chris Weafer, MACRO ADVISER: It’s the economy, stupid.
28. The Vineyard of the Saker: Western sanctions and Russian perceptions.
29. www.opendemocracy.net: James Kovpak, The American credibility trap. American politicians’ attempts to look ‘credible’ when talking about Russia are hypocritical, self-serving and self-defeating. If they really want Russia to change its policies, they need to act smarter, not tougher.
30. The Globalist: Michael Vlahos, Putin’s and Russia’s Quest for Identity and Belonging, How withholding respect for Russia could lead to war.
31. Moscow Times: Josh Cohen, If U.S. Arms Ukraine, Russia Could Arm Iran.
32. www.opendemocracy.net: Serhiy Kudelia, Review: Frontline Ukraine: Crisis in the Borderlands. Richard Sakwa’s Frontline Ukraine is both a searing critique of Western policies after the Cold War and a thorough revision of cheerful and monochrome accounts of Ukraine’s latest revolution.
33. Business New Europe: Mark Adomanis, COMMENT: To arm or not to arm Ukraine.
34. Paul Goble: Russia and the West Must Begin Thinking Seriously about a World ‘After Ukraine,’ Kolerov Says.
35. The National Interest: Ian Bond, Denis Corboy, William Courtney,and Kenneth Yalowitz, The Next European Flashpoints. Ukraine is not the only bone of contention between Russia and the West.
36. Townhall.com: Pat Buchanan, Putin Paranoia.
37. www.rt.com: Edward Lozansky and Martin Sieff, The wise men, please step forward.
38. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Speech by Permanent Representative to the OSCE Andrey Kelin at the OSCE Permanent Council meeting on the situation in Ukraine and the need for urgent steps to implement the Minsk agreements, Vienna, February 12, 2015.
39. www.thedailybeast.com: Anna Nemtsova, Can Russia Survive After Ukraine? While fighting raged in Ukraine a conference brought together economists, politicians and journalists to debate the war’s causes and question Russia’s future.
40. Foreign Affairs: Stephen Kotkin, The Resistible Rise of Vladimir Putin. Russia’s Nightmare Dressed Like a Daydream.
41. The Atlantic: Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy, The American Education of Vladimir Putin.
42. Der Spiegel: The War Next Door. Can Merkel’s Diplomacy Save Europe?