MOSCOW, May 30 (RIA Novosti) – Officials from Russia, Ukraine and the EU are set to hold talks in Berlin on Friday, a third attempt to resolve the gas dispute caused by Ukraine’s $4 billion outstanding gas debt. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak is also scheduled to meet with EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger on Friday. AND SO IT BEGINS […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Darya Lyubinskaya, special to RBTH – May 29, 2014) RBTH presents a selection of views from leading Russian media, featuring U.S. character references of Ukraine’s president-elect Petro Poroshenko, the options open to the new president, and the release of a manifesto by Maidan activists outlining their post-election vision. Russky Reporter In an editorial […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Fyodor Lukyanov, special to RBTH – May 30, 2014) The author is editor in chief of Russia in Global Politics magazine. The election of Petro Poroshenko marks a watershed moment in the Ukrainian crisis. There are now clear opportunities for both Kiev and the self-proclaimed “people’s republics” in the east of the country […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, May 29, 2014) Even if the recent much-ballyhooed rise in Russian fertility rate were to last and that is almost certainly impossible, a Moscow State University demographer says, the population of the country would decline by half over the next 50 years. In fact, it is likely to decline further and faster […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexey Eremenko – May 30, 2014) Russia is about to criminalize failure to declare dual citizenship in what lawmakers say is a bid to crack down on the “fifth column” – and the fifth column is duly scared. Exposing holders of multiple passports may be the first step to banning dual citizenship, said a holder […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Delphine d’Amora – May 30, 2014) In an effort to jumpstart Crimea’s faltering economy, a government plan could offer tax breaks and other juicy business conditions on the peninsula for the next half century – but even this may not be enough to attract businesses to the badly run-down region. Russian politicians began talking about […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Charles Recknagel – May 29, 2014) When Ukraine’s President-elect Petro Poroshenko visits Donetsk after his inauguration next month, he is likely to get an earful of demands from eastern Ukrainians who are unhappy with Kyiv. Here are five things to know about why many harbor grievances against the Ukrainian authorities and how Poroshenko might address them. What are the main grievances? […]
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(Center for American Progress – americanprogress.org – Cory Welt [@cory_welt]) Cory Welt is an Adjunct Fellow at the Center for American Progress and the associate director and research professor at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University‘s Elliott School of International Affairs After three months of interim rule, Ukraine once again has a democratically elected president at the […]
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… 17. Wall Street Journal: Mikheil Saakashvili, The Tasks Ahead for Ukraine’s New President.
18. The Peterson Institute for International Economics: Anders Aslund, Dissolve the Ukrainian Parliament!
19. The Guardian: Miners hold pro-Russia rally in Donetsk. Around 300 coalminers march through city centre in show of support for self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
20. Moscow Times: Chechens in Ukraine Capture Public Interest. …
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Breffny Morgan – May 29, 2014) Sanctions may come and go, but bad reviews last a lifetime. TripAdvisor, the second most popular travel website, has recently blasted Russia on several counts of being the world’s worst travel destination in its yearly Cities Survey. This is not an overt move by a TripAdvisor editorial team to […]
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(Voice of America – James Brooke – May 28, 2014) The American confrontation with Russia over Ukraine has caused relations between Moscow and Washington to plummet to the lowest level in a generation. American school children singing the Star Spangled Banner in the ballroom of Spaso House, the neoclassical ambassador’s residence in the heart of Moscow, seemed to signal that […]
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WASHINGTON, May 29 (RIA Novosti), Lyudmila Chernova – The Ukrainian crisis has had an immense effect on the opposition in Abkhazia, Thomas de Waal, Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told RIA Novosti. “It’s a very complex situation in Abkhazia, maybe the ‘Maidan Effect’ has emboldened the opposition and they have the impression that President Aleksandr Ankvab […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – May 29, 2014) In the direct aftermath of a political uprising that threatened to destabilize Abkhazia, Russia demonstrated its role as the ultimate arbiter of political life in the small breakaway province of Georgia. Presidential aide Vladislav Surkov met on Wednesday with both sides of a conflict that saw between 1,000 and […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexei Lossan, RBTH – May 29, 2014) In spite of boycotts by CEOs of top global companies by the U.S. and a number of other Western nations, the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, held on May 22-24 in Russia’s second city, saw contracts signed between U.S. firms and Russian market players. The St. […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – May 29, 2014) Russian consumers ranked second only to Estonians in terms of the amount of money they spent on alcoholic beverages last year, Euromonitor International said in a report. While Estonian consumers spent 6.5 percent of their cash on beer, wine or spirits in 2013, Russians spent 5.8 percent, or $61.5 million, on alcohol. […]
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MOSCOW, May 29 (RIA Novosti) – The popularity of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev among Russians continues to grow, according to data released Thursday by the independent pollster Levada-Center. “Vladimir Putin’s public approval rating continues to grow, reaching its peak in the last four years,” an appendix to the survey reads. Eighty-three percent of respondents said […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – May 29, 2014) The number of Russians who regard old age positively has grown over the past 10 years, a poll released Wednesday showed. The poll, conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation, showed 45 percent of respondents said they believed there were distinct advantages to old age, compared to 20 percent a decade ago. A […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Tim Ash, Standard Bank – May 29, 2014) I guess that is the $2.5bn for the period to the end of March, another $1bn for April/May, and then $1.7bn in pre-payment for June, as previously demanded by Moscow. EU officials have suggested though that $4bn is owed to date, and under a provisional deal […]
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ROSTOV-ON-DON. May 29 (Interfax) – Viktor Yanukovych has said that he believed the continuation of the violent operation in southeast Ukraine after the presidential election was a bad omen. “This is a very bad sign – to start a presidential path from such a bloody, deadly firework show which causes the ire and curses from mothers who see their children, […]
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(Interfax – May 28, 2014) A senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin has reiterated the Kremlin’s position that it “respects” the outcome of Ukraine’s presidential election, won by confectionery tycoon Petro Poroshenko, the privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 28 May. “Our president has already said that, of course, we respect the results of the elections that took […]
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KYIV. May 29 (Interfax) – The Ukrainian Central Elections Commission (CEC) has processed 100% of electronic reports from territorial electoral commissions in the presidential election and found out that Petro Poroshenko has won the race with 54.7% of the vote, interim Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov said. “After 100% of the electronic reports have been processed, Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko has won […]
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MOSCOW, May 29 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned Thursday that new pitfalls in the country’s economic development cannot be ruled out due to strained ties with Ukraine and possibly with other ex-Soviet states. “The next few years will be marked by continued instability and strained environment in some markets. New risks cannot be completely ruled out, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber – May 29, 2014) Amid deadly clashes between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian security forces in eastern Ukraine, reports that militants from the Russian republic of Chechnya have joined the insurgents have been buzzing on Russian social media for weeks. As videos and photos purportedly showing Chechen militants in Ukraine emerged on the web, […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – May 29, 2014) Gazprom, which earlier sent a prepayment bill to Ukraine, will limit gas supplies on June 3 if Kiev does not pay the advance bill for June, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said Wednesday at a meeting of President Vladimir Putin with the government, Prime reported. According to Miller, Ukraine purchased 3.5 billion […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, May 28, 2014) The Federation Council [Russia’s upper chamber of parliament] has approved a draft law giving the Justice Ministry authority to include a noncommercial organization [the usual Russian phrase for what is referred to elsewhere as NGOs] on the register of foreign agents, even if that same NGO has not applied for inclusion on the register. […]
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[“Ferocity of Ukraine clashes increases risks for Putin” – Reuters – Timothy Heritage – May 27, 2014] Reuters covers Ukraine’s efforts to use force to put down separatist militants in eastern Ukraine, and Russia’s potential reaction: An army assault on pro-Russian rebels in east Ukraine will not have taken Vladimir Putin by surprise, but the ferocity of the clashes may have – and […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#119 :: 28 May 2014 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 To subscribe to the JRL email version, email David Johnson at davidjohnson@starpower.net 1. Wall Street Journal: […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Robert Coalson – May 28, 2014) It’s full steam ahead for the Moscow-backed Eurasian Economic Union — even as its prospective members express serious reservations. At the May 29 summit of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan in Astana, the three are expected to sign a treaty to transform their tripartite Customs Union into a Eurasian Economic Union (EES) by January 2015. […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – INVISIBLE HAND – Liam Halligan in London, Editor-at-Large of BNE – May 28, 2014) The St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), now in its 18th year, was less well attended than usual. The absence of various US and Western Europe CEOs, responding to pressure from their governments following sanctions on Russia, was heavily commented […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, May 28, 2014) Russians are now far more concerned about defending what they have than in getting something better, Lev Gudkov says. Consequently, if the Kremlin does try to take away something the majority thinks is rightfully theirs, such a step would almost certainly put the survival of the current regime at […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – May 28, 2014) Rosneft head Igor Sechin has filed a lawsuit against journalists and publishers of the Russian edition of Forbes and Komsomolskaya Pravda for an article he says threatens to damage his business reputation. The lawsuit, filed on May 15, demands that the journalists and publishers behind a November report describing him as the […]
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MOSCOW, May 28 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s known oil reserves are enough to provide a yearly extraction of 600 million tons of oil for the next 30 years, Natural Resources Minister Sergei Donskoi told lawmakers on Wednesday, reaffirming the country may continue to heavily rely on natural resources to sustain its economy. “The Russian Federation has a substantial potential to […]
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(Moscow Time – themoscowtimes.com – May 28, 2014) As Russians brace themselves for a public smoking ban to come into effect on Sunday, lawmakers have submitted a new draft law hiking the minimum price on cigarettes in the latest bid to change the country’s attitude to smoking. The new law would see a 41-percent increase in the minimum price for […]
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(Oilprice.com – Robert Bensh – May 27, 2014) Kiev is feeling emboldened by the successful election of a new Ukrainian president and a bloody surge against separatists in the east, but in just a few days, Russia says it will twist the gas spigot, and there’s very little Kiev can do to stop that. On June 3, Russia plans to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – May 28, 2014) Acting Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Tuesday that Russia should return the $1 billion worth of gas that he said it stole while annexing Crimea, and accused Moscow of not being trustworthy when it comes to negotiating. “We would like to hear an explanation from Russia, including the […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Mikhail Molchanov – May 27, 2014) Mikhail A. Molchanov was born and raised in Ukraine, where he worked as Head of the Department of Public Administration at the National Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine. He currently works as Professor of Political Science at St. Thomas University, Canada. He is the author of Political Culture […]
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(democracynow.org – May 27, 2014) At least 30 pro-Russian rebels have reportedly died in fierce fighting at the airport in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk. The Ukrainian government bombarded the airport with air strikes, then paratroopers, after rebels seized it on Monday. The fighting began just hours after the pro-European billionaire candy tycoon Petro Poroshenko won Ukraine’s first presidential […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Tim Ash, Standard Bank – May 28, 2014) Ukraine’s Central Electoral Commission has confirmed that Petro Poroshenko has in effect won the presidential election, with over 54% of votes, after 95% of votes have been tallied. The president elect has promised to engage in talks to bring peace to Ukraine Ð but not with […]
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MOSCOW, May 28 (RIA Novosti), Daria Chernyshova – Six months after protests began in Ukraine, the crisis in the country appears to be far from solved. In an attempt to adopt policies that could help deescalate the conflict and find a constructive path forward, top diplomats from Russia, the US, EU and representatives of Ukraine’s interim government met in April […]
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MOSCOW, May 28 (RIA Novosti) – Food giants Mars and Nestle have been tipped as favorites to buy Ukraine’s leading chocolate firm Roshen, currently owned by likely president-elect Petro Poroshenko, for as much as $1.5 billion. The candy-maker-turned-politician earlier vowed to sell his biggest asset if elected president, and summoned investment advisors and bankers to assess a best price. Poroshenko’s […]
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MOSCOW. May 28 (Interfax) – Russia will decide on whether or not to congratulate Petro Poroshenko on winning the presidency in elections in Ukraine only after the final results of the voting are officially announced, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said. “When the final results are officially specified, then a decision will be made,” Ushakov said at a news conference in […]
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KIEV, May 28 (RIA Novosti) – Tycoon Petro Poroshenko has scored 54.7 percent of the vote in Ukraine’s presidential election with 99.05 percent of ballots counted, the country’s Central Election Commission announced Wednesday. Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko came second with 12.82 percent. Oleh Lyashko, the leader of the Radical Party of Ukraine, came third with 8.33 percent of […]
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(Interfax – May 28, 2014) The Ukrainian State Border Service has observed a withdrawal of Russian troops from the bilateral border but is wary of the remaining infrastructure. “Our information suggests troops’ withdrawal from our border is under way, but with certain peculiarities. Intelligence radio units, radio interception units remain in place, so does the logistical infrastructure of the camps. […]
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KYIV. May 28 (Interfax) – Maidan activists said they would not leave the Independence Square in central Kyiv until all their demands are met. According to the declaration of Maidan communities on the situation development after May 2014 released at a news conference in Kyiv on Wednesday, “Maidan will not disperse until the demands – punishing criminals, purging, changing the […]
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… 1. Youtube.com: FEEM Lecture by Anatol Lieven, King’s College London: “The Ukraine Debacle.”
2. Washington Post: Jackson Diehl, Ukraine’s Poroshenko says he wants direct U.S. military aid.
3. The Times (UK): Battle is on to stop foe at border with Russia. (Estonia) ….
MOSCOW, May 27 (RIA Novosti), Rick Rozoff – This past week the North Atlantic Treaty Organization continued its ongoing efforts to prepare the nation of Georgia for full membership in the military bloc. A meeting of the NATO Military Committee, consisting of military representatives and the chiefs of defense of the 28 full members of the alliance, and the chief […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov – May 27, 2014) Russia’s media watchdog has drafted a resolution that would allow it to block foreign websites in the country for failing to register with the Kremlin’s monitors, a news report said. The proposed government resolution, drafted by media regulator Roskomnadzor, would cover all websites that allow their users to exchange […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – COMMENT: Jennifer Freedman of Borderlex – May 17, 2014) Less than two years after becoming a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Russia has filed two complaints with the dispute settlement body in Geneva that target the EU, Russia’s main trading partner. These complaints concern antidumping duties and a package of EU laws […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – COMMENT: Lord Peter Mandelson of Global Counsel – May 27, 2014) Peter Mandelson was European Trade Commissioner between 2004 and 2008. He is now Chairman of Global Counsel Despite Russia’s recent underperformance, the size and potential of its economy has made it an attractive prospect for global companies. From German manufacturers to French and […]
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(Interfax – May 27, 2014) Russia will be prepared to continue negotiations with Ukraine concerning gas prices if Ukraine pays off $2 billion worth of its debt before the end of the week, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said at a press conference after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Yuriy Prodan and European Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger. During the […]
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