It’s always great when something you write receives a thoughtful response, but I did feel I needed make a couple of responses to Nicolai Petro’s open reply to my short commentary in The Spectator […]
» Read more
Subject: A comment on Galeotti Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2020 From: Nicolai Petro <npetro@uri.edu> Nicolai N. Petro Professor of Political Science University of Rhode Island “Our beef is with Putin, his thugs, spies and oligarchs, not Russia – and we need to make sure that while we win today’s struggle, we don’t waste the chance for better relations with a […]
» Read more
Subject: New book: SOVIET JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG – A New History of the International Military Tribunal // Pub. July 2020 Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2020 15:05:20 +0000 From: PAYNE, Sarah <Sarah.Payne@oup.com> Amazon: https://amzn.to/3ffJmId Standard Western accounts of The Nuremberg Trials fixate on key figures like Justice Robert H. Jackson, the U.S. chief prosecutor and Supreme Court judge, as well as […]
» Read more
Subject: [UTExpertsDiscGrp] Re: “Three Russian doctors fall from hospital windows” Date: Thu, 7 May 2020 From: Luis Alcalá <luismalcala@gmail.com> It is a waste of time to comment on these news. In England and the USA, medical personnel commit suicide and nobody says it is the fault of Trump or Boris, but in the news about Russian suicides or accidents they […]
» Read more
Subject: Correction: Re: 2019-#187-Johnson’s Russia List/#20 Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2019 From: Jessica Pisano <pisanoj@newschool.edu> To: davidjohnson@starpower.net Dear David, I hope all is well with you. There is a line in your reproduction of my WaPo piece (#20) below that was not part of my article: “the Republicans say that Trump’s quid pro quos are normal. Here’s why they’re wrong.” […]
» Read more
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Russian Scientists Instructed to Report on Foreign Colleagues Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 From: Elena Gapova <e.gapova@GMAIL.COM> Reply-To: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list <SEELANGS@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> Ministerstvo Justicii announced that this ‘ruling” had never been submitted for expertise (and without the verdict of the Ministry, laws pertaining to citizens rights cannot be adopted), while the […]
» Read more
Subject: RE: FT Article on Sheremetievo disaster (JRL May 22) Date: Thu, 23 May 2019 From: Andrei Liakhov <gaffriloff@yahoo.co.uk> I am a certified aircraft accident investigator. I have read all reports about the Sheremetievo crash which were published in the Russian press and a fair number of professional and not very much so commentaries. I have also watched three videos […]
» Read more
Subject: Whaddaya know — an upbeat story on Moscow news media! Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2019 From: Mark H. Teeter <markhteeter@gmail.com> AND NOW THE NEWS, WITH SOMEBODY YOU WEREN’T EXPECTING by Mark H. Teeter, Moscow TV Tonite https://www.facebook.com/pg/Moscow-TV-Tonite-349389231807098/posts/ Mark H. Teeter, a former opinion page editor and media columnist for The Moscow Times and The Moscow News, is the editor […]
» Read more
Subject: TYING UP THE LOOSE ENDS OF RUSSIAGATE Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2019 From: Kirk Bennett <kirkbennett7@yahoo.com> TYING UP THE LOOSE ENDS OF RUSSIAGATE The unfinished business of Russiagate consists of clearing the names of innocent people; holding senior bureaucrats to account for errors of judgment and abuses of power; and restoring the tarnished image of democratic governance. By Kirk […]
» Read more
Subject: Response to Matt Bivens Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2019 From: Steve Shabad <steve.shabad@gmail.com> To: davidjohnson@starpower.net Response to Matt Bivens (JRL #50 “Russiagate: The Great Tragic Comedy of Modern Journalism”) From Steve Shabad [Bivens: blog.usejournal.com/russiagate-the-great-tragic-comedy-of-modern-journalism-fd2a451aaa25][russialist.org/jrl-newswatch-russiagate-the-great-tragic-comedy-of-modern-journalism-matt-bivens/] Matt Bivens’ essay on what he calls the “tragic comedy of modern journalism” made for provocative reading, and I agreed with some of his points. […]
» Read more
Subject: Video: Russian Journalist Dimitri Babich Speaks to CCI Group Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2019 From: Sharon Tennison <sharon@ccisf.org> Video: Russian Journalist Dimitri Babich Speaks to CCI Group: youtube.com/watch?v=Np0XktwyekQ&feature=youtu.be I want to share with you my favorite young news journalist in Moscow, Dmitri (Dima) Babich. He is one of our “CCI Experts.” I’ve known Dima a long, long time. He […]
» Read more
[originally posted 12.6.18] Subject: Russia’s Happy Ending Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2018 From: Sarah Lindemann-Komarova <echosiberia@gmail.com> Russia’s Happy Ending By Sarah Lindemann-Komarova [Founder, Siberian Civic Initiatives Support Center 1995 – 2014. Helped to establish this as the hub for the first civil society development support network in the former Soviet Union.] Link for article with pictures and video medium.com/@ECHOSiberia/russias-happy-ending-c77b332a6eec How […]
» Read more
Subject: RE: 2019#1 (#4 Moscowexile – On New Year’s Eve, TV channel “Rain” showed a speech made by Akhedzhakova instead of Putin) Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2019 From: Домрин Александр Николаевич <domrin@hse.ru> To: davidjohnson@starpower.net Dear David – Happy New Year to you and JRL readers! “Panorama” is a satire web site. The same web site has just reported that on […]
» Read more
Subject: Book announcement Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2018 From: John Helmer The Man Who Knows Too MuchAbout Russia By John Helmer THE GENUINE GOLDEN SHOWER – JOHN HELMER’S MEMOIRS OF VLADIMIR PUTIN FROM 1991 TO 2018 John Helmer is the longest serving foreign correspondent in Russia; he has been reporting from Moscow since 1989, and on Wednesday, December 19, […]
» Read more
From: Nick Magliato <nmagliato@skyhorsepublishing.com> Subject: New book Stephen F. Cohen, War With Russia? From Putin & Ukraine to Trump & Russiagate Date : November 15, 2018 War With Russia? From Putin & Ukraine to Trump & Russiagate By Stephen F. Cohen Hot Books paperback, also available as an ebook On Sale: November 27, 2018 / $18.99 ISBN: 9781510745810 Amazon: https://amzn.to/2P4KsZr […]
» Read more
Subject: Oct. 16, 2018 #41: IMF ranks Ukraine as Europe’s poorest country Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2018 From: David Malaher <david@malaher.org> To: David Johnson <davidjohnson@starpower.net> I try to follow Ukraine news through the Johnson List, among other sources. I visited Ukraine in June, touring through nine cities from Liviv to Odessa via a combination automobile and boat (on the Dnieper […]
» Read more
Subject: Applications open – American Councils Russian study abroad programs + financial aid Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2018 From: Elliott Kaduck <EKaduck@americancouncils.org> Program website: http://acstudyabroad.org/rlasp/ Dear Colleagues, American Councils for International Education is currently accepting applications for Spring 2019 semester Russian language study-abroad programs. The application deadline is October 15, 2018 for the following programs: Applications: https://americancouncils-horizons.symplicity.com/index.php?s=programs&mode=form&id=bb7e0d8cd1ba264823238be9da64773d&au=&ck= Advanced Russian Language […]
» Read more
Subject: “Sara’s Century” podcast Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2018 16:43:23 +0000 From: BARBARA T NORTON <btnorton@widener.edu> I wanted bring to your attention a fascinating new podcast serial, “Sara’s Century,” by a colleague at Rutgers U-Camden. The description below is from the website http://sarascentury.blogs.rutgers.edu/: “Sara’s Century” is a 12-episode podcast serial about Sara Mebel, a nearly 100-year-old Jewish woman who left […]
» Read more
Subject: Short comment on Weir/Galeotti (Re: 2018-#157–Johnson’s Russia List item #1) Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2018 From: Andrei Liakhov <gaffriloff@yahoo.co.uk> Short comment on Weir/Galeotti What these two gentlemen miss in their assessment of the NYT totally improbable story is this: NYT was asked to publish this totally as a diversion for the Russian counter intelligence in an attempt to divert […]
» Read more
Subject: [SEELANGS] European University at Saint Petersburg Reopens Its International Programs Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2018 From: Maria Trofimova <mtrofimova@EU.SPB.RU> Dear SEELANGers, I am happy to let you know that on August 10 2018 European University at Saint Petersburg has received a new educational license. After a forced year without students we are opening our doors for them again. This […]
» Read more
Subject: BOFIT Policy Brief: Assessing Western sanctions Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2018 From: Nigel Gould-Davies <nigelgd.office@gmail.com In case of interest to JRL, my policy brief for the Bank of Finland’s Institute for Economies in Transition (BOFIT) on “Economic effects and political impacts: Assessing Western sanctions on Russia”, just published: helda.helsinki.fi/bof/bitstream/handle/123456789/15832/bpb0818.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Abstract: This brief assesses the effectiveness of Western sanctions on […]
» Read more
Subject: Russia and Germany: From Estranged Partners to Good Neighbors Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2018 From: Dmitri Trenin <info@carnegie.ru> Dmitri Trenin Director Carnegie Moscow Center Article: carnegie.ru/2018/06/06/russia-and-germany-from-estranged-partners-to-good-neighbors-pub-76540 After the end of the Cold War, Russia and Germany entered a period of progressive rapprochement. This was based on the goal of Russian integration into Europe and the wider West. Over the […]
» Read more
Subject: Solzhenitsyn at Harvard (JRL #105 item 31) Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2018 From: Boyle, Francis A <fboyle@illinois.edu> Forty years ago, I went there just to hear him speak. Originally I was not going to bother to attend Harvard’s Commencement in June of 1978 just to pick up my Master’s Degree in Political Science from the Harvard Graduate School of […]
» Read more
Subject: Re: 2018-#105-Johnson’s Russia List (re The Spectator (UK) Owen Matthews) Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2018 From: Andrei Liakhov <gaffriloff@yahoo.co.uk> Comments on Owen’s Piece I am really surprised by this piece. I wonder where he took his statistics about number of schools and “crumbling houses”. UNESCO praised Russian pre-school education as recently as in 2014 (increase to 84% of kids […]
» Read more
Subject: Nuclear Arms Control and U.S.-Russia Relations Date: Thu, 31 May 2018 From: US-RussiaFuture <info@us-russiafuture.org> U.S.-RUSSIA WORKING GROUP RELEASES STUDY ON NUCLEAR ARMS CONTROL Bilateral report highlights opportunities for United States and Russia to reinvigorate nuclear arms control cooperation CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 31, 2018 – The Working Group on the Future of U.S.-Russia Relations, a bilateral collective of rising experts […]
» Read more
Subject: Trump-Putin petition Date: Thu, 17 May 2018 14:20:17 -0400 From: Edward Lozansky <lozansky@gmail.com> A group of activists will post a petition on the White House website to call for the urgent Trump – Putin summit “to find the way out of the most dangerous security crisis facing both nations and the world.” Petition urges President Trump to follow in […]
» Read more
Subject: Comment on Keith Gessen’s “The Quiet Americans Behind the U.S.-Russia Imbroglio” Date: Wed, 16 May 2018 From: Sean Guillory <seansrussiablog@gmail.com> Sean Guillory, host of the SRB Podcast (http://seansrussiablog.org/), a weekly podcast on Eurasian politics, culture and history and Digital Scholarship Curator at the Center for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. I read Keith Gessen’s […]
» Read more
Subject: RE: Keith Gessen’s article Date: Mon, 14 May 2018 From: Richard Sakwa <R.Sakwa@kent.ac.uk> [Richard Sakwa is a Professor of Russian and European Politics at the University of Kent and Associate Fellow of Chatham House] Keith Gessen’s fascinating account of the inner workings of the US foreign policy establishment provides real insight into how policy is formulated and implemented. Of […]
» Read more
Subject: re Gessen’s article Date: Thu, 10 May 2018 From: Jerry Hough <jhough1935@gmail.com> [Jerry Hough is James B. Duke Professor of Political Science at Duke University. Author of How the Soviet Union is Governed; Soviet Leadership in Transition; The Struggle for the Third World; Soviet Debate and American Options; Democratization and Revolution in the USSR 1985-1991; and The Logic of […]
» Read more
Subject: re Gessen’s article Date: Wed, 9 May 2018 From: Mary Dejevsky <marydejevsky@gmail.com> [Mary Dejevsky is a writer and broadcaster. She is a former foreign correspondent in Moscow, Paris and Washington, and a special correspondent in China and many parts of Europe.] Who makes US Russia policy and why is it in such a mess is the question Keith Gessen […]
» Read more
Subject: Re: Keith Gessen’s “The Quiet Americans Behind the U.S.-Russia Imbroglio” Date: Wed, 9 May 2018 From: Stephen Blank <traininblank@aol.com> [Stephen Blank is a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council.] [nytimes.com/2018/05/08/magazine/the-quiet-americans-behind-the-us-russia-imbroglio.html] Having read Gessen’s article, I must say that it is tendentious, simplistic and unconvincing. He only solicited the view of a few people who appear to share […]
» Read more
[DJ: More comments on Keith Gessen’s “The Quiet Americans Behind the U.S.-Russia Imbroglio.” With Richard Hofer, James Carden, Nicolai Petrov, and Hank Gaffney.] Subject: Re: 2018-#82-Johnson’s Russia List Date: Tue, 8 May 2018 From: Richard Hofer <richofer@yahoo.com> Richard Hofer Central Asia Consultancy Ltd Canada Very thoughtful of course and quite alarming. One must have a sense of sympathy for those […]
» Read more
Subject: Comment on Keith Gessen’s “The Russia Hands” Date: Tue, 8 May 2018 From: William Hill <williamhhill@gmail.com> [William Hill is Professor of National Security Strategy, National War College, Washington D.C. and a retired Foreign Service officer. Was head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova] Thanks for flagging this piece early in the week. I suppose I would have found it […]
» Read more
Subject: Exclusive analysis about Russia Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2018 From: Tatiana Stanovaya <analysis@rpolitik.com> New project dedicated to Russian politics Dear colleagues, I would like to present you a new issue of analytical Bulletin #2(3)2018 «RUSSIAN POLITICS. Unvarnished and Undiluted». https://rpolitik.com/category/bulletins/ Main headlines: The Kemerovo fire. What impact it will have on the FSB’s growing role? Ziawudin Magomedov and the […]
» Read more
Subject: Re: 2018-#8-Johnson’s Russia List [re Russia and NATO expansion] Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2018 23:24:42 -0500 From: Alexander R. Vershbow <arvershbow@gmail.com> David: Re: JRL No. 8 item 19: Happy New Year. Steve Cohen and others, in accusing the West of “deceiving” Gorbachev and breaking an alleged “promise” not to enlarge NATO, forget that Gorbachev himself refuted this in an […]
» Read more
By Pavel Koshkin (pkoshkin.russia.direct@gmail.com). Pavel Koshkin is a contributor for Forbes-Russia magazine and the deputy editor of International Desk at RBC Daily, a Russian independent newspaper. He is the former editor-in-chief of Russia Direct, an English-language analytical media outlet that suspended its activity due to various challenges. With Russia celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 1917 Revolution, here are five […]
» Read more
Subject: Re: 2017-#98-Johnson’s Russia List Date: Wed, 24 May 2017 20:01:47 +0300 From: Andrei Liakhov <gaffriloff@yahoo.co.uk> My answer to the “prominent Washington expert”: Dear expert, you have not read the report correctly. [“Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections”] The January report never stated unequivocally that Russia’s interference is an established fact. At most, to me, as to […]
» Read more
Response by prominent Washington expert on Russia to JRL 2017-#95, 18 May 2017: “I was surprised to read Prof. Robinson’s analysis on your Russia List. His analysis misses one rather central point, without mention of which everything else that he says instantly loses credibility. It is not leaks — what would the in-party do without leaks to blame? — that […]
» Read more
Subject: New Book: Ukraine In The Crossfire /dePloeg Date: Wed, 03 May 2017 From: Clarity Press, Inc. <clarity@islandnet.com> UKRAINE IN THE CROSSFIRE By Chris Kaspar de Ploeg Chris de Ploeg (1994) is freelance journalist and political analyst. His publications have appeared in De Groene Amsterdammer (NL), Follow the Money (NL), Dissident Voice (US), De Wereld Morgen (BE), De Omslag (NL) […]
» Read more
Subject: Why the revival of the commodity market is not good for the Kremlin Date: Tue, 2 May 2017 From: Pavel Koshkin <pkoshkin.russia.direct@gmail.com> Title: Why the revival of the commodity market is not good for the #Kremlin Pavel Koshkin is a contributor for Forbes-#Russia magazine and the deputy editor of International Desk at RBC Daily, a Russian independent newspaper. He […]
» Read more
Subject: Crises in the Second Nuclear Age Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2017 From: STEPHEN CIMBALA <sjc2@psu.edu> Crises in the Second Nuclear Age By Stephen J. Cimbala and Paul Bracken Stephen J. Cimbala is Professor of Political Science at Penn State Brandywine. Paul Bracken is Professor of Management and Professor of Political Science at Yale University. Nuclear weapons coincided with the […]
» Read more
Subject: New info re RT Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2017 From: Ellen Mickiewicz <ellen.mickiewicz@gmail.com> Ellen Mickiewicz James R. Shepley Professor of Public Policy Studies in the Sanford Institute for Public Policy and Professor of Political Science at Duke University. Maxim Audinet’s piece about RT in Le Monde diplomatique [JRL#65] provides data that are partly right, partly not. Does the corrective […]
» Read more
How did the intelligence community know that the Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee? CrowdStrike told them so. From the March 20 House Intelligence Committee hearing: Congressman Will HURD: Have you been able to — when did the DNC provide access for — to the FBI for your technical folks to review what happened? FBI Director COMEY: Well we never […]
» Read more
Just for arguments sake here’s one speculative hypothesis about how we got to where we are today vis-a-vis the “Russian hacking” story. In the context of the 2016 highly emotional presidential election pitting Clinton vs. Trump there was a concerted effort on the part of Clinton-partisans to try to make the central campaign theme an expose of alleged Trump-Russia connections. […]
» Read more
Subject: The Gathering Storm Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2017 From: David Law <davidmurraylaw@gmail.com> The Gathering Storm By David Law Senior Associate, Security Governance Group; former Head of NATO Policy Planning and Speechwriting Unit With Donald Trump now sworn in as the American President and Commander-in-Chief, here are some thoughts on where the world may be headed. In 1948, Winston Churchill […]
» Read more
Subject: Findings of Bipartisan Task Force on U.S. Policy Toward Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2017 From: Andrew S. Weiss <RussiaEurasiaProgram@carnegieendowment.org> http://carnegieendowment.org/specialprojects/TaskForceonUSPolicyToward RussiaUkraineandEurasia/ Dear Colleague, The breakdown in U.S.-Russia relations in the wake of the Ukraine crisis threatens the entire post-Cold War transatlantic security order. As the new administration prepares to reengage with Moscow, what principles should […]
» Read more
Subject: Free issues of Slavic Review in Washington Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2017 20:17:47 -0500 From: Yale Richmond <yale.richmond@verizon.net> Would you like to have 34 hard print issues of the Slavic Review (Vol. 67. #3 to Vol. 75, #4)). I no longer have use for them, and rather than trash them, I am looking for someone who might find them […]
» Read more
Subject: Reminder: Everyone Loses: The Ukraine Crisis and the Ruinous Contest for Post-Soviet Eurasia | Thursday, January 12th at 9:00am Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2017 From: Samuel Charap <Charap@iiss.org> The International Institute for Strategic Studies – Americas Everyone Loses: The Ukraine Crisis and the Ruinous Contest for Post-Soviet Eurasia Thursday, January 12, 9:00-10:00am IISS-AMERICAS BOOK LAUNCH 9:00-10:00am Discussion followed by […]
» Read more
Subject: Sharing The Foreign Service Journal’s Focus on the new #Russia at 25 Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2016 From: Shawn Dorman <dorman@afsa.org> This is Shawn Dorman, editor of The Foreign Service Journal, the foreign affairs and diplomacy magazine published by the American Foreign Service Association 10 times a year. One of our authors this month, retired FSO Louie Sell, suggested […]
» Read more
(Robert O. Freedman, Johns Hopkins University – 31 October 2016) There is no question but that Russia has been very active in the Middle East over the last year, especially in Syria. There is a question however as to whether Moscow has been able to transform this activity into actual influence in the region. I would argue that the answer […]
» Read more