Subject: Fake RAND memo Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2014 From: Hiday, Jeffrey <jhiday@rand.org> David, Saw that you carried a report on the supposed RAND Ukraine memo. [JRL #148]. We produced no such memo or study. I’ve alerted RT et al to that effect. Thanks. Jeff Jeffrey Hiday Director, Office of Media Relations RAND Corporation
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… 10. The Voice of America: Q&A With Masha Gessen: Russia in ‘Final’ Phase of Putin’s Rule.
11. Euromaidan Press: Ukraine’s possible backstabbers in Europe. …
(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, July 4, 2014) That Putin has intervened in Ukraine at least in part to overcome the political challenges he faced in 2011-2012 and that he has made Russian more authoritarian in the process is largely common ground. But a new book gives remarkable details about these links and these trends and suggests […]
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(Paul Goble – Staunton, July 5, 2014) “Putin’s Russia has already long been a Reich” much like Hitler’s Germany, but ordinary Russians now, like ordinary Germans 75 years ago, have not taken note of the fact because so far the state’s repressive attentions have not been directed primarily at them, according to Vitaly Portnikov. Portnikov, a Ukrainian commentator who earlier […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ian Wishart, Elizabeth Konstantinova – July 3, 2014) Joining the European Union was meant to give Bulgaria a fresh start. Try telling that to Anna Dimitrova. “Bulgaria didn’t gain from the EU as much as it could have, because it’s mismanaged by corrupt politicians,” said Dimitrova, a law student, in central Sofia. “Our politicians are not […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Viktor Kuzmin, special to RBTH – July 3, 2014) Tourist operators in Russia have expressed alarm at a substantial drop in the number of foreign visitors coming to the country in 2014. Key figures in the tourist industry speculate that the fall in tourist numbers may be a result of the Ukrainian crisis, […]
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(RIA Novosti – Moscow, July 3, 2014) The US has turned the tool of sanctions into a new kind of offensive weapons. Russia will not get involved in this kind of arms race but has the right to seek ways to protect itself, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has said. “It seems that the Washington administration has come to […]
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MOSCOW, July 4 (RIA Novosti) – US exports to Russia rose 21 percent and reached a record high of $1.25 billion in May, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, an arm of the US Department of Commerce. During the same month, American exports to the EU and China increased by only 2.5 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively. US imports […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – July 4, 2014) President Vladimir Putin signaled a switch Thursday from the government’s previous youth policy of aggressive political groups toward a more traditional approach to instilling patriotism. “We need to give young people more knowledge about Russia’s historical, cultural and natural riches back in school,” Putin said. “This is, perhaps, the […]
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(The Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 4, 2014) EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger on Thursday asserted European companies’ right to sell Russian gas back to Ukraine, flying in the face of warnings from Russian energy giant Gazprom as tensions continue to build over energy policy. Energy companies in the EU have an “absolute right to dispose of gas bought from […]
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MOSCOW, July 4 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday congratulated his US counterpart Barack Obama on Independence Day and said Russia and the US share the responsibility of protecting global security and stability, and should cooperate to the benefit of the world. “Russia and the United States, being the powers with special responsibility to ensure global stability […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Darya Lyubinskaya, special to RBTH – July 3, 2014) RBTH presents a selection of views from leading Russian media, featuring news of the revival of negotiations between EU ministers and parties to the conflict in Ukraine, reports on the resumption of intense fighting in Donetsk, Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, and analysis of the possibility […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Glenn Kates – July 3, 2014) Angry about continued protests outside Ukraine’s parliament building and an apparent attack on a female journalist, a Facebook user vents his anger on his personal page. “The real Ukrainian warriors [the troops fighting against separatists in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions] will return from the front for just a minute and beat you so […]
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KIEV, July 4 (RIA Novosti) – At least two residents of Luhansk have been killed and eight others injured after the Ukrainian Army shelled a residential area of the city, local authorities reported Friday. Pro-Kiev forces shelled residential buildings on Thursday, according to the statement. The injured people were hospitalized. A local oncology center and a school were also damaged […]
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MOSCOW, July 2 (RIA Novosti) – Advisors from the United States are actively working in Ukraine and developing Kiev’s strategy, Russian Deputy Security Council Secretary Evgeny Lukyanov told RIA Novosti Wednesday. “We could say without a doubt that we’re not just talking about American mercenaries, but also intensive activities on Ukrainian territory by the so-called advisors from Washington. I’m referring […]
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LUHANSK. July 4 (Interfax) – Snipers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have opened fire on a road leading to the Izvarne border crossing point on the Ukrainian-Russian border, militiamen of the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) have said. “Ukrainian snipers are targeting the drivers of cars heading to the Izvarne checkpoint located on the Ukrainian-Russian border,” a local militia spokesman told […]
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KIEV, July 4 (RIA Novosti) – Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk during a parliament session Friday threatened to change the format of the country’s parliament, government and coalition, if the majority continues not to support the legislative initiatives of the Cabinet of Ministers. “I believe that it is very difficult for the government and parliament to work in this type […]
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… 49. The Aspen Institute: Michael McFaul Dissects US-Russian Relations.
50. Paul Goble: Window on Eurasia: Putin’s Authoritarianism Now Self-Re-Enforcing, New Book Concludes.
51. Wall Street Journal: Five Best: Simon Sebag Montefiore on Russia in fiction.
52. The Paris Review: Diana Bruk, Thawing Out. Why are there so few courses in Soviet literature at American universities? …
[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: russialist.org/funding.php Thursday – JRL 2014-#146 :: 3 July 2014 1. Interfax-Ukraine: NSDC: Government forces continue to free towns and capture […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 3, 2014) Leading Russian search engine Yandex will not have to register with the government as a media outlet, the Prosecutor General’s Office said Wednesday, setting a precedent that suggests search engines’ news aggregating sites may be safe from a wave of heightened regulation of the Internet. “Based on the results of our inspection, […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headliines – rbth.ru – Nikolai Litovkin, RBTH – July 2, 2014) A law making it illegal to use swearwords in television, movies, literature, media reporting, concerts, and theatrical productions entered into force on July 1. Violators will face stiff fines. Prominent figures have expressed their dismay over the ban, arguing that it will limit cultural expression. Russia’s […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Dmitry Agnin, special to RBTH – July 2, 2014) Prospects for peace in Ukraine have receded again after President Petro Poroshenko called an end to the ceasefire in the east of the country. Continuing hostilities, ongoing attempts to negotiate a political settlement and a growing stream of displaced citizens mean that the outcome […]
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(Interfax – July 2, 2014) The president of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Vladimir Fortov, is set to develop the Academy’s cooperation with American scientists regardless of the political situation. “I will do whatever I can to develop our contacts, despite the winds blowing in one direction or another,” Fortov told a press conference on Wednesday. The RAS chief […]
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(RIA Novosti – July 2, 2014) Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council Yevgeniy Lukyanov has commented on the Ukrainian conflict, sanctions imposed against Russia after it was joined by Crimea and the Russia-West relations in an interview with Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti, published on the agency’s website on 2 July. [1] Ukraine Commenting on the recent developments […]
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(RIA Novosti – July 2, 2014) The USA is not interested in the EU participating more actively in settling the Ukrainian crisis and for this reason, among other things, is pushing Europe towards sanctions against Russia, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigoriy Karasin said in an interview to state-controlled rolling news channel Rossiya 24 broadcast on 2 July; his remarks were […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jennifer Monaghan – July 3, 2014) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has lashed out at a U.S. State Department spokeswoman for suggesting some of the supposed refugees fleeing war-torn Ukraine for Russia could be going to visit their grandmothers. Spokeswoman Marie Helf on Tuesday played down a report by the UN’s Refugee Agency, or UNHCR, […]
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(Interfax – July 2, 2014) The Basmannyy court of Moscow on 2 July issued a warrant for the arrest of a Ukrainian billionaire and Dnipropetrovsk Region governor, Ihor Kolomoyskyy, at the request of the Investigations Committee of Russia, Interfax news agency reported the same day. Kolomoyskyy, who resides in Ukraine, is accused of committing four serious crimes. The spokesman of […]
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(Interfax – July 3, 2014) Proposed constitutional amendments stipulate that Ukrainian will remain the sole state language in Ukraine, the country’s President Petro Poroshenko said in parliament on Thursday. “We have delivered on our promise to give additional powers in language issues to local authorities. Article 10 of the Constitution remains unchanged – Ukrainian is the one-and-only state language in […]
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MOSCOW. July 3 (Interfax) – The Russian Foreign Ministry insists that the Ukrainian authorities immediately stop the bombardment of civilian sites in the southeast, which is claiming civilian lives. “We once again demand that the Ukrainian authorities stop shooting on civilian sites and save human lives,” the ministry said in a commentary posted on Thursday. The ministry is hopeful that […]
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MOSCOW, July 3 (RIA Novosti) – The destruction of an orphanage by the Ukrainian Army in Slaviansk is a serious violation of international law, signaling that the punitive operation should be ended, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law Konstantin Dolgov said Thursday. “This is a very powerful signal that the violence, bloodshed […]
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KYIV. July 3 (Interfax) – Only one in ten reservists in Kyiv has been mobilized voluntarily, said Volodymyr Kidon, the Ukrainian capital’s military commissar. Speaking at a Kyiv Council session on Thursday, Kidon said that a total of 1,558 conscripts and 342 officers have been mobilized, but only 10% of them “were called up on a voluntary basis.” These conscripts […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 2, 2014) McDonald’s plans to open 70 restaurants in 30 Russian cities by the end of this year, significantly expanding its reach into cities that were never home to the fast food empire before, McDonald’s development director in Russia told ITAR-Tass on Tuesday. “We’ll have restaurants in Siberia, in the Central Federal District, and in […]
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… 11. The Daily Telegraph (UK): Ukraine launches new offensive to rid east of rebel ‘parasites’
12. Wall Street Journal: Ukraine Says Military Offensive Against Rebels Yielding Results.
13. AsiaNews: In eastern Ukraine, Slavyansk cathedral shelled. …
(opendemocracy.net – Elena Vlasenko – June 30, 2014) Elena Vlasenko is a Russian journalist Russia has no treatment programme for drug addicts; cold turkey is the only way they can kick the habit, either in prison or in rehab centres like Yevgeny Roizman’s City Without Drugs Foundation. But the foundation has been engaged in some very questionable practices. On 30 […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Nicholas Watson, Ben Aris, Tim Gosling, Rob Whitford – June 30, 2014) The growing confrontation between Russia and the West ranges across many fronts, none more significant than in an area of rural northwest Bulgaria, where in October workers began welding pipes that will feed a natural gas compressor station near the settlement of […]
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(Interfax – July 1, 2014) The United States must respect Russia’s interests if there is to be any possibility of an improvement in Russian-American diplomatic relations during the Obama administration’s tenure, Russia’s ambassador to Washington Sergey Kislyak has said, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 1 July. “I think all the possibilities exist for an improvement in relations. The […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Dmitry Agnin, special to RBTH – July 1, 2014) The United States has asked the Russian Foreign Ministry for approval to John Tefft’s appointment as the new U.S. ambassador to Moscow. Experts polled by RBTH believe that Tefft’s appointment has already been approved in principle, although it is likely to make relations between […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – COMMENT: Marcus Svedberg and Aivaras Abromavicius of East Capital – July 1, 2014) Marcus Svedberg is Chief Economist, and Aivaras Abromavicius is Partner, of East Capital Ukraine signed an Association Agreement (AA) and a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) with the EU in Brussels on June 27. President Petro Poroshenko, in his […]
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MOSCOW, July 2 (RIA Novosti) – One of the main political goals of the Ukrainian “Euro-Maidan” movement is the further expansion of NATO to the east, Russian Deputy Security Council Secretary Evgeny Lukyanov told RIA Novosti in an interview Wednesday. “It’s quite apparent that this is one of the goals,” Lukyanov said in reference to the West criticizing Russia for […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Allison Quinn – July 2, 2014) As a video of the death of Channel One cameraman Anatoly Klyan went viral ahead of his memorial service on Wednesday, the world got its starkest glimpse yet of the reality faced by journalists on the ground in Ukraine: The 68-year-old veteran war reporter is literally shown bleeding out […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Nikolai Litovkin, RBTH – June 30, 2014) The events surrounding Ukraine have not only dragged the world into a new information war but have also revealed serious differences in how the powers that be perceive reality. Some of Russia’s most respected experts in foreign policy discussed the information war over Ukraine in a […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 11, Issue 119 – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Paul Goble – July 1, 2014) Ukraine’s intelligence service has identified five centers within the Russian Federation where Moscow is recruiting and training mercenaries and diversionists to work against Ukraine in the eastern portions of that country and perhaps further west as well (Newsru.ua, June 28). Even more worrisome, […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – July 2, 2014) Russian President Vladimir Putin lambasted the West in a speech to assembled diplomats call on July 1, although he stopped short of making new military threats against Ukraine as Kyiv resumed its antiterrorism operation in the east of the country. The Russian rhetoric is becoming somewhat […]
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KIEV, July 2 (RIA Novosti) – Kiev is ready to continue consultations with independence supporters from eastern Ukraine at any acceptable location, the Ukrainian president’s administration said Wednesday. The Ukrainian authorities “are ready to continue consultations with the participation of the contact group at any acceptable location in order to search for ways of peaceful settlement,” said Valeriy Chaly, the […]
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… 18. Bloomberg: Why Putin Is in Trouble With 86% Approval.
19. Washington Post: Fred Hiatt, A familiar Russian playbook. The modern parallels to Russian attacks on Boris Pasternak.
20. Moscow Times: Washington Asks Moscow to Approve John Tefft as new U.S. Ambassador. …
MOSCOW, July 1 (RIA Novosti) – Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reminded that Russia is not a party to the conflict in the east of Ukraine and its influence on self-defense forces should not be overestimated. “Russia is not a party to the confrontation, it’s an internal Ukrainian conflict. And Moscow can’t tell self-defense forces what to do and how to […]
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MOSCOW, July 1 (RIA Novosti) – External influence pushed Kiev to decide against extending the ceasefire in southeast Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday. “There’s an impression that Kiev’s change in position, including its announcement late on June 30 on the non-extension of the ceasefire regime, happened regardless of the position of leading EU members,” the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – July 1, 2014) Washington has requested Moscow’s formal approval of its appointment of John Tefft as U.S. ambassador to Russia, a source in the Foreign Ministry told The Moscow Times on Monday. Tefft served as ambassador to both Ukraine and Georgia in the past decade, and as a top diplomat in Moscow […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Evgenia Pismennaya, Henry Meyer, Brad Cook – June 27, 2014) One month he wins the Olympics and kudos from world leaders. The next he grabs Crimea and gets kicked out of their most exclusive club. Now he’s facing a recession with few tools to fight it save the public’s love. Even Vladimir Putin, in his 15th […]
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… 16. CNN: Ukrainian President: Peace depends on Putin’s mood.
17. Kyiv Post: Poroshenko: ‘Russian society is full of aggression today.’ (speech at the Council of Europe)
18. Reuters: Sharp rise in people fleeing eastern Ukraine – UNHCR. …