(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – August 14, 2014) As President Vladimir Putin touched down in the Crimean city of Sevastopol on Wednesday, a poll revealed that his support among voters has almost doubled since January, largely due to the Kremlin’s policies in Crimea and Ukraine, analysts said. The turmoil in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea in […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, August 13, 2014) By shelling Russian territory, Ukraine would like to provoke a prolonged conflict with it and Russia’s response should be extremely careful, head of the Russian State Duma International Affairs Committee Aleksey Pushkov (One Russia faction) has said. “Our actions must be extremely level-headed. After all this could entail a prolonged conflict and Ukraine will […]
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MOSCOW. Aug 13 (Interfax) – A total of 63% of Russian citizens believe that actions and statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the situation in Ukraine assist in the peaceful resolution of the conflict, the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) said citing a poll held. This stance is mostly shared by residents of cities with populations of over […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Danske Bank – August 13, 2014) We analyse the economic and financial impact of the Ukrainian crisis with a special focus on our footprint Nordic markets. We view the situation in Ukraine as far from de-escalating as fighting continues in Donetsk and Lugansk, which we expect to weigh on market sentiments near term. However, […]
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[Photos here http://en.ria.ru/world/20140813/191975347/Nazi-Symbolism-Flourishes-in-Post-Maidan-Ukraine.html] MOSCOW, August 13 (RIA Novosti) – Ukrainian authorities have vehemently denied that Ukraine’s armed forces have slightest correlation with neo-fascists. However, open use of Neo-Nazi symbolism in their crusade against militia forces and civil population of eastern Ukraine explicitly suggests otherwise. The country’s special unit for protection of public order – the Azov Battalion, often referred to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexey Eremenko – August 13, 2014) Concerns voiced by Kiev and the West that Moscow’s humanitarian convoy to Ukraine’s battle-scarred east is nothing more than a Trojan Horse are – most likely – unfounded, Russian military analysts said. Pundits told The Moscow Times on Tuesday that the limited scope of a “peacekeeping” operation would be […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List JRL 2014-#176 :: Wednesday 13 August 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 1. Reuters: Ukraine crisis death toll doubles in two weeks to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – August 13, 2014) Fewer Russians are concerned about inflation than they were a month ago, a new poll published Tuesday showed, even as analysts warned recession was inevitable and that a ban on many foreign food items would push up prices for consumers. The state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Center found that between June and […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Concorde Capital – August 13, 2014) The Russian government has agreed upon the route of the humanitarian convoy and hopes that the Ukrainian government will ensure its safety on its controlled territory, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in an Aug. 12 statement. The two governments agreed that the humanitarian aid will be delivered to […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Ilya Slastenov, Nikolai Litovkin, RBTH – August 13, 2014) Moscow’s decision to send an aid convoy to eastern Ukraine has been received with mistrust by the U.S. and a number of European countries. RBTH interviewed a number of Russian experts on how the political scenario in relations between Russia and the West will […]
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Subject: People from the Donbass seen from other Ukrainians Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 From: Antony Penaud <antonypenaud@yahoo.fr> Below is part of an email from a Ukrainian girl (she is a pretty 30yrs old girl from Zaporizhya and lives in London): “As for Donbass region – if you do some research you might understand a bit more about the population […]
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… 7. Wall Street Journal: Russian Aid Convoy Leaves for Ukraine. Kiev Had Demanded Aid be Coordinated Through Red Cross.
8. Business New Europe: Russian and Red Cross convoy leaves Moscow for Ukraine, bearing humanitarian aid.
9. Reuters: Kerry says hopeful Russia and Ukraine can work together. …
KYIV. Aug 12 (Interfax) – Ukrainian forces, pushing towards Donetsk, have seized control of a stretch of the motorway between Horlivka and Donetsk, the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council spokesman said. “Forces involved in the counterterrorism operation have captured a stretch of the motorway between Horlivka and Donetsk, cutting Horlivka from the main forces,” Andriy Lysenko said at a […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – August 12, 2014) Russia in cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will send a humanitarian convoy to Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said in a telephone conversation with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Monday. An enormous Russian convoy of about 280 trucks carrying humanitarian aid has left Moscow for […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List JRL 2014-#174 :: Monday 11 August 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 Ukraine 1. Moscow Times: Fyodor Lukyanov, Putin Has Stumbled in Ukraine. […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Tom Balmforth – MOSCOW, August 7, 2014) Moscow’s upmarket food shoppers are reacting variously with patriotic approval and gloomy resignation at the prospect of going without some of their favorite foreign foods for a year. The Russian government on August 7 approved a lengthy shopping list of foods and produce that cannot be imported from countries that have imposed […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, August 11, 2014) The notion that the West has a strategy for Ukraine is “a myth of Kremlin propaganda,” Vladimir Pastukhov says. “What is happening in Ukraine is the result not so much of the application of a mistaken strategy by the West as much as it is the sad consequence of […]
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SOCHI, August 11 (RIA Novosti) – Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow has a wide range of possible responses to Western sanctions under the rules of the World Trade Organization that can be used by any member. “There is a whole range of measures and defined tools within the WTO which, of course, each WTO member state has the right […]
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(Interfax – August 11, 2014) As of Monday morning, the situation in Lugansk remains critical – the city is completely cut off from power, the Lugansk city council press office said in a statement. “About 250,000 Lugansk residents, who stayed in the city, have no power and water for nine days already, cellular and landline service do not operate,” the […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Kateryna Choursina and Volodymyr Verbyany – August 11, 2014) Ukraine told residents of separatist strongholds in its easternmost regions to flee as government troops close in after dismissing a cease-fire offered by the militants. Inhabitants of Donetsk and Luhansk, cities that were home to 1.5 million people before the pro-Russian insurgency began, can leave via humanitarian […]
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(Interfax – August 10, 2014) A senior figure in the Donetsk people’s republic has set out terms for a cease-fire with Ukraine, which Kiev has rejected, Interfax news agency reported on 10 August. “The main condition for a cease-fire is the Ukrainian army doing exactly the same. A cease-fire has to be reciprocal,” the self-proclaimed republic’s prime minister, Aleksandr (Oleksandr) […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Olga Tanas – August 8, 2014) From his perch as Vladimir Putin’s adviser for building ties with fellow former Soviet republics, Sergei Glazyev perceives the world shifting to a war footing. There’s a war waged against Russia with economic sanctions and military conflicts roiling Ukraine to Iraq, according to Glazyev, 53, an academician and a native […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List JRL 2014-#173 :: Sunday 10 August 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 1. Handelsblatt (Germany): Gabor Steingart, The West on the wrong path. […]
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Johnson’s Russia List
JRL 2014-#172 :: Friday 8 August 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
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov – August 8, 2014) Ukraine has claimed that pro-Moscow separatists downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 after mistaking it for a Russian Aeroflot plane that they supposedly wanted to shoot down to provide Moscow with a pretext for invading Ukraine. The latest theory in an array of conflicting claims about the possible causes of […]
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MOSCOW, August 8 (RIA Novosti) – Russia has alternative routes to deliver oil to Europe if Ukraine decides to stop transit via its territory, but Hungary, Slovakia and Czech Republic will sustain losses, a spokesman for Russia’s oil transit monopoly Transneft said Friday. Russia delivers about 14 million tons of oil to European consumers via the Druzhba pipeline laid through […]
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(Interfax – August 8, 2014) As of Friday morning, Lugansk is completely disconnected from power, the city does not have water, landline and cell service for six days already, the Lugansk city council press office said in a statement. “Yesterday gunfire continued on the territory of the regional center, in which 250,000 residents remain. During the armed clashes Lugansk sustained […]
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KIEV, August 8 (RIA Novosti) – The activists still occupying Kiev’s Independence Square are protesting the new Kiev authorities and the government’s military operation in eastern Ukraine, a Euromaidan representative said Friday. “Why are factories and plants being closed? Why is the war underway? Nothing has changed under the new government; there is still no work and corruption is flourishing,” […]
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WASHINGTON, August 7 (RIA Novosti), Lyudmila Chernova – Russia’s food embargo is a smart move on Moscow’s part that is set to show the United States and its allies that Russia is not going to give in to Western pressure, an American economist and co-director of a US-based research center told RIA Novosti Thursday. “It is smart of Moscow to […]
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MOSCOW. Aug 8 (Interfax) – Russia’s response to the anti-Russian measures taken by the West was forced and further unwinding of the “sanctions spiral” is absurd and dangerous, Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said. “As to the measures taken by Russia on the countries that initiated or support anti-Russia sanctions, they are a response aimed at protecting our citizens […]
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… 33. NBCNews.com: Winging It: Putin Has No Master Plan for Ukraine Crisis, Officials Say.
34. Financial Times: Russia stirs fears of repeat Georgia war in Ukraine.
35. www.foreignpolicy.com: Emile Simpson, Give Putin a Way Out. With Russian troops massing on the Ukrainian border, the talk of war is getting louder. But it doesn’t have to happen.
36. Foreign Policy Journal: Masha Mitaeva, Ukraine Crisis: Ceasefire Anyone? A Memo for Europe.
37. Reuters: Ian Bremmer, Putin’s Ukraine invasion threat is more than a bluff – but not his preference.
38. CNN.com: What is Putin’s endgame in Ukraine? …
MOSCOW. Aug 7 (Interfax) – The countries from which Russia has just banned food imports supply over 10% Russia’s pork, fish and fruit, Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov told a briefing. Russia consumes 2.345 million tonnes of beef, but the embargoed suppliers, the EU, United States, Australia, Norway and Canada supply 59,000 tonnes of this. The figures for pork are 3.415 […]
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The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release August 06, 2014 Remarks by the President at Press Conference After U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit [excerpt re Russia] Q Thank you, Mr. President. Russia said today that it is going to ban food and agricultural product imports. That was about $1.3 billion last year. At the same time, Defense Secretary […]
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MOSCOW. Aug 7 (Interfax) – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said that Russia is considering a potential ban on European and U.S. air carriers using trans-Siberian routes as a possible retaliatory step against Western sanctions targeting Russia’s low-cost airline Dobrolet. “The government of the Russian Federation is considering a number of retaliatory steps. But it does not mean that […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Allison Quinn – August 7, 2014) Anti-Western sentiments in Russia have hit a fever pitch amid the ongoing conflict in neighboring Ukraine, a survey conducted by independent pollster the Levada Center revealed Wednesday. A mere 18 percent of respondents harbor favorable attitudes toward the U.S., a significant decrease from January’s 43 percent. The number of […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.ru – Teneo Intelligence – August 7, 2014) Ukrainian forces have stepped up their campaign to retake the cities of Luhansk and Donetsk from separatists; Russia will likely respond with increased efforts to help the pro-Russian militias to stay in control. Yet, the new tactics will likely fall short of direct military invasion and instead take […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – August 7, 2014) The grounding this week of Russia’s low-cost airline, Dobrolyot, by European Union sanctions has exposed the vulnerability of Russia’s airline industry, which relies on aircraft leased from abroad that can be withdrawn at the push of a pen in Brussels or Washington. Russian airlines lease 90 percent of their […]
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KIEV, August 7 (RIA Novosti) – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko thanked US Vice President Joe Biden for America’s consistentsupport to Ukraine, Ukrainian President’s press service said in a statement following Poroshenko’s phone conversation with Biden. “Petro Poroshenko expressed his gratitude for the United States’ continued backing of Ukraine,” the statement reads. “In his turn, Biden assured that the US would […]
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MOSCOW, August 7 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow hopes that economic pragmatism will guide political decisions taken by the West, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday after announcing a sweeping ban on food imports from countries that sanctioned Russia. “I sincerely hope that the economic pragmatism of our Western partners will prevail over ridiculous political ideas and they would start […]
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KIEV, August 7 (RIA Novosti) – The head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Andriy Parubiy said Thursday he had tendered his resignation and the country’s president had accepted it. “I consider it inadmissible to comment on my resignation while the war continues. I continue to aid the military, first of all to battalions of volunteers,” Parubiy wrote on […]
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… 33. Carnegie Moscow Center: Akio Kawato, Who Is in Charge of an End Game in Ukraine? A View From Tokyo
34. Moscow Times: Georgy Bovt, Moscow Needs a Plan B in Ukraine.
35. www.chathamhouse.org: John Lough, The West Needs an ‘Off Ramp’ for Putin in Ukraine.
36. Washington Post: Danel Drezner, The most annoying tic in the American foreign policy machine
37. Stars and Stripes: Leaders call for NATO to boost military presence in east. …
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexey Eremenko – August 6, 2014) The recent Western sanctions, the harshest in decades, are meant to stun Russia’s economy. But one person’s loss is another one’s gain – and this is also true for companies and countries in a globalized world. Following the U.S.’s example, the European Union last week imposed broad economic sanctions […]
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(Interfax – August 5, 2014) The concerns voiced by US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki about the Russian military exercise at the Ashuluk range in Astrakhan Region are unfounded, a Russian Defence Ministry official spokesman told journalists on Tuesday [5 August]. “People at the Russian Defence Ministry have relished the latest pronouncements by the official spokesperson for the US foreign […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines Press Digest – rbth.ru – Sofia Savina, special to RBTH – August 5, 2014) RBTH presents a selection of views from leading Russian media, featuring news of possible restrictions on the use of Russian airspace by European airlines in response to sanctions, U.S. concern over large exercises by Russia’s air force on the Ukrainian border, and […]
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MOSCOW, August 6 (RIA Novosti) – Alexei Pushkov, a senior Russian lawmaker and chairman of the State Duma foreign affairs committee, on Wednesday lambasted American media outlets, saying the fifth pillar of US democracy has devolved into a State Department spin-off. “The US media are dead. Now they are just subdivisions of the US State Department,” Pushkov said in a […]
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KIEV, August 6 (RIA Novosti) – A Ukrainian military spokesman officially confirmed Wednesday that foreigners are taking part in a special operation in eastern Ukraine, but denied that the Kiev government receives military hardware and weapons from abroad. “It is untrue that foreign weapons are being used [in the military operation]. But it is true that representatives of other nations […]
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MOSCOW, August 6 (RIA Novosti) – Spokesperson for the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine Michael Bociurkiw said Wednesday he believes it is not correct to refer to the independence supporters in eastern Ukraine fighting against government forces as “separatists.” “Well, usually we use the term ‘rebel groups’ or groups opposed to the government. It’s quite a neutral term. There […]
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MOSCOW, August 6 (RIA Novosti) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is ready to help Russian human rights advocates to set up a humanitarian corridor which would allow the safe transit of sick children from Ukraine, Raisa Lukutsova, the head of the Russian Red Cross, said Wednesday. “They said that they are studying this issue and will […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, August 5, 2014) Russian human rights ombudsman Ella Pamfilova has recommended to Ukrainian journalists to turn attention to the creation of a humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian servicemen and said she expects Kiev to open corridors to evacuate sick children, who are staying in the zone of the armed conflict in the southeast of the republic. “We can […]
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MOSCOW, August 6 (RIA Novosti) – Ukrainian Army has used Uragan multiple-launch rocket system and a cruise missile in the country’s east for the first time, RIA Novosti correspondent reported. On Tuesday, self-defense forces in the city of Horlivka in Donetsk Region said they noticed a cruise missile flying in about 40 meters above the ground. Shortly after, the missile […]
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