JRL NEWSWATCH: “Has Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine Improved His Standing in Russia?” – The New Yorker

Aerial View of Kremlin and Environs

“As Russians go to the polls, the economy is booming and the public feels hopeful about the future. But the politics of Putinism still depend on the absence of any means to challenge it.” “… Putin has ruled … for nearly a quarter century, just a few years shy of Stalin’s epoch-spanning grip …. No genuine opposition candidates have been […]

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Expert Survey: Does Russia’s Presidential Election Matter to U.S. and Its Allies?

Kremlin and River

(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – RM Staff – March 15, 2024) Russia’s presidential election, whose outcome is near certain to grant Vladimir Putin a fifth term, got underway on March 15. Given the inevitability of Putin’s victory in what one Kremlin-connected insider has described as a “well-designed simulation,” one might wonder what impact the Russian election has on the U.S. […]

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West Mistakenly Thinks Russia in Terminal Decline While Moscow Elites Even More Wrongly Believe They can Restore Russia’s Superpower Status, Pastukhov Says

European Portion of Commonwealth of Independent States

(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, Mar. 11, 2024) Many of the mistakes Western elites have made about Russia and that Moscow elites have made about their own county arise from misconceptions each has about Russia’s future, Vladimir Pastukhov says. The West has mistakenly assumed Russia is in terminal decline while Moscow elites think they can restore the […]

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RUSSIALINK: “What’s the Kremlin Scared Of? Pro-War Ultranationalists” – Moscow Times

File Photos of Law Books and Gavel, adapted from image at fjc.gov

(Moscow Times – Lucy Birge – March 15, 2024) The killing of Alexei Navalny four weeks before the Russian presidential election appears to portray an increasingly brazen and self-assured Kremlin. Yet its treatment of ultra-nationalist Igor Strelkov tells a different story, that the Kremlin is afraid of ultra-nationalism as a political force. On Jan. 25, 2024, Ukraine and Russia became […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Putin Pointed to War’s Economic Windfall With Russia Set to Vote” – Bloomberg

Diverse Paper Currency, Coins, Line Graph

“Wages are soaring, unemployment falling amid labor shortage Budget deficit, dwindling reserves pose long-term challenges” “… Though the war has left hundreds of thousands killed or wounded, and long-term challenges continue to build with officials still wrestling [with] inflation … , for now, [Putin] is pointing to the economy and claiming success. The government is spending massively on social support […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “The drama in Russia’s election is all about what Putin will do with another 6 years in power” – AP

Kremlin and River

“… [Russian] voting … conclud[ing] … Sunday is all but certain to allow Putin to remain in office until 2030, giving him a full three decades of leading Russia as either president or prime minister. … [T]hat long tenure and the thorough suppression of effective domestic opposition voices gives Putin a very strong — and perhaps unrestrained — hand … […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russia’s 2024 Presidential Election: What to Know” – New York Times

Vladimir Putin file photo, adapted from screenshot of video at shareamerica.gov

“[Russia’s] presidential vote … begins Friday and lasts through Sunday … but is more of a predetermined, Soviet-style referendum. … Putin, 71, will undoubtedly win a fifth term, with none of the three other candidates … permitted on the ballot presenting a real challenge. The main opposition figure who worked to spoil the vote, Aleksei A. Navalny, a harsh critic […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Forever Putinism: The Russian Autocrat’s Answer to the Problem of Succession” – Foreign Affairs

Aerial View of Kremlin and Environs

“… Early-stage Putinism was marked by … public complacency and indifference. Complacency flourished when the Russian economy expanded between 2000 and 2008 …  enabling the rise of a Russian middle class. Indifference, which the Kremlin inculcated in part by discouraging public participation in politics, assisted in the regime’s creeping authoritarianism. One need not love Putin; it was sufficient to merely […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “How Russian elections became a futile exercise for Putin’s opposition” – Christian Science Monitor

Map of Russia and Russian Flag adapted from images at state.gov

“Russia’s presidential election appears largely a rote exercise, as a popular, unchallengeable leader faces only nominal competition from three ‘systemic’ opponents. The Kremlin has worked for years to make it this way.” “… ‘[M]anaged democracy’ … under … Putin used to offer plenty of opportunities … to … members of various ‘loyal opposition’ parties, [including the chance to] get elected […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Putin Has Russian Elite in a Frenzy Over Their Political Futures” – Bloomberg

File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

“The government may feature new names and responsibilities, but there’s no sign Putin plans to alter the direction of policy.” “The Kremlin elite is feverishly jostling for position in [anticipation of] … Putin’s new term as the president surrounds himself with loyalists to pursue his war in Ukraine. Putin [reportedly] may carry out a significant government shake-up for the first […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russia Is Burning Up Its Future” – Foreign Affairs

Vladimir Putin file photo, adapted from screenshot of video at shareamerica.gov

“How Putin’s Pursuit of Power Has Hollowed Out the Country and Its People” “… Russia is neither stable nor normal. The [Russian] presidential election brings to maturity the late-stage Putinism that began with the [2020] constitutional referendum … when Putin’s potential mandate was extended until 2036. … Putin has made clear that Russia is fighting a permanent background war with […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russia’s opposition and Ukraine find it impossible to unite against Putin” – Washington Post

European Portion of Commonwealth of Independent States

“… Russia’s liberals … walk[] a tightrope. Their opposition to the war puts them at odds with much of their own society …. [M]any Ukrainians still feel … the Russian opposition has not gone far enough in condemning the killing of Ukrainians and occupation of their lands, instead opposing the war from a Russian viewpoint, focused predominantly on the losses […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Kremlin Seeks to Suppress Navalny’s Influence, in Death as in Life” – New York Times

File Photo of Alexei Navalny Marching on Street with Others in Background; adapted from image at commons.wikimedia.org with credit to Evgeny Feldman, subject to Creative Commons license; original image at commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FEV_1795_(cropped1).jpg, with license information at creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en and creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode

“The Russian authorities vilified the opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny with a viciousness that suggested he was more influential than Moscow would admit. Little has changed since he died.” “When … Navalny was alive, the Kremlin sought to portray him as an inconsequential figure unworthy of attention, even as … Russian authorities vilified and attacked him with a viciousness that […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Free Boris Kagarlitsky: The Nation joins the global appeal for his release” – The Nation: Katrina Vanden Heuvel

Lit Candle with Reflection and Dark Background

“… [O]n February 13, a military court sentenced Boris Kagarlitsky, prominent sociologist, Marxist scholar and labor activist, to five years in prison for criticizing the war in Ukraine … after a Moscow court initially ordered him to only pay a $6,500 fine for ‘justifying terrorism,’ charges which Kagarlitsky denied. Prosecutors appealed … calling [the initial judgment] ‘excessively lenient.’ Kagarlitsky, … […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Ukraine Braced for Russian Disinformation Attacks on Zelenskiy” – Bloomberg

File Image of Laptop Computer, Tables and Mobile Device, adapted from image at energy.gov

“Kremlin campaign to focus on legitimacy as vote scrapped Ukrainian leader sensitive over issue as war footing shifts” “… With … Ukrainian territory under Russian occupation, millions … having fled … and [Ukraine’s] infrastructure battered … martial law has imposed restrictions on elections. Zelenskiy … would otherwise be campaigning for a vote held at the end of March if he […]

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Russia in Review, Feb. 23-March 1, 2024

File Photo of Red Square, Kremlin, Environs, adapted from image at state.gov

(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org) 7 Things to Know Vladimir Putin used his annual address to the Russian parliament to not only rattle his nuclear saber at the West again, but also to accuse his Western counterparts of “spooking the world” with the threat of a nuclear war, all while claiming to be ready for talks on nuclear arms control. “We remember what […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Navalny’s Funeral to Be Held on Friday, Spokeswoman Says” – New York Times

File Photo of Alexei Navalny Marching on Street with Others in Background; adapted from image at commons.wikimedia.org with credit to Evgeny Feldman, subject to Creative Commons license; original image at commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FEV_1795_(cropped1).jpg, with license information at creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en and creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode

“The service for the Russian opposition leader will be open to the public, but it was unclear whether the authorities will try to stop people from attending.” “… The planned service, at a church on Moscow’s outskirts, sets up the possibility of a rare display of opposition sentiment in the Russian capital … [] Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, advised anyone […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Kremlin propagandists attack director of new ‘Master and Margarita’ film captivating Russians” – The Telegraph (UK)

File Photo of Reel of Film

“Adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s anti-totalitarian Soviet novel wins rave reviews but pro-Russia activists want Michael Lockshin probed” “A new film adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s anti-totalitarian Soviet novel Master and Margarita is winning rave reviews in Russia but irritating the Kremlin and its supporters. Colleagues of Michael Lockshin, the American-Russian director of the Russian-language film, have … accused Kremlin trolls of […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Vladimir Putin, riding high before Navalny’s death, seems unstoppable” – Washington Post

Vladimir Putin file photo, adapted from screenshot of video at shareamerica.gov

“When prison authorities announced the death of … Navalny, … Putin’s most potent political opponent, the Russian president appeared to be overflowing with cheer. Addressing … workers and students at a machinery plant in the … industrial city of Chelyabinsk …, a smiling Putin, unsurprisingly, made no mention of Navalny’s death … and instead professed himself … satisfied at the […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Leadership Change in Russia: Contingency Planning Memorandum” – Council on Foreign Relations: Liana Fix, Maria Snegovaya

File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

“Vladimir Putin’s grip on power in Russia does not appear as ironclad as it once did. Liana Fix and Maria Snegovaya recommend that the United States prepare for potential leadership change in Moscow and develop response strategies with its allies to mitigate fallout.” “… Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 … Putin looked set to stay in power […]

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Like Hitler Before Him, Putin has Had to Go to War to Try to Save His Regime — but He Won’t Succeed, El Murid Says

Vladimir Putin file photo, adapted from screenshot of video at shareamerica.gov

(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, Feb. 15, 2024) There are ever increasing signs of problems in all sectors of Russian life, Anatoly Nesmiyan who blogs under the screen name El Murid says. Some of these are the product of media outlets seeking attention; but some reflect an underlying reality that Russians living under pressure now want to […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Vladimir the Poisoner of Underpants; What Navalny’s death means for Russia, Putin and the world” – The Economist

File Photo of Alexei Navalny Marching on Street with Others in Background; adapted from image at commons.wikimedia.org with credit to Evgeny Feldman, subject to Creative Commons license; original image at commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FEV_1795_(cropped1).jpg, with license information at creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en and creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode

“Fear and greed drive Russia’s regime. The opposition leader struck at both.” “… Navalny’s death was blamed by Russian prison authorities on a blood clot … [H]is doctor said he suffered from no condition which made that likely. Whatever ends up on his death certificate, he was killed by … Putin. Russia’s president locked him up; in his name [] […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “With Navalny’s death, Russia’s opposition loses its last leader” – Christian Science Monitor

File Photo of Alexei Navalny Marching on Street with Others in Background; adapted from image at commons.wikimedia.org with credit to Evgeny Feldman, subject to Creative Commons license; original image at commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FEV_1795_(cropped1).jpg, with license information at creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en and creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode

“Many in the West saw Alexei Navalny as the Russian opposition’s most promising challenger to Vladimir Putin. His death in prison on Friday brings a tragic end to a struggle the Kremlin had already largely contained.” “Alexei Navalny, Russia’s best-known and most indefatigable Kremlin opposition figure[,] … died in an Arctic penal colony Friday under as yet unknown circumstances …. […]

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UKRAINELINK: “A Long War Made Longer by the West’s Unaddressed Mistakes” – Kennan Institute: Victor Andrusiv

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(Kennan Institute – wilsoncenter.org/program/kennan-institute – Victor Andrusiv, Officer, Ukrainian Armed Forces; Former Director, Kyiv School of Public Administration – Feb. 14, 2024) Two years of war in Ukraine is already a long time, but recent events suggest that all forecasts regarding the end of hostilities no longer apply. For the first time, in speaking of a “long war” we’re referring […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “How Putin’s Obsession With History Led Him to Start a War” – WSJ

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

“Long-winded, often factually erroneous arguments back his conviction that Russia has a historic right to Ukraine” “[In his] two-hour interview with Tucker Carlson … Putin recounted events of centuries past and trotted out 17th-century documents … expounding on deeply held views about the past, many widely disputed by historians, that have driven him to launch the continent’s bloodiest conflict since […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “National Security Expert Fiona Hill Says Russia ‘Will Always Matter’ at HKS Event” – The Harvard Crimson

Redacted File Photo of Fiona Hill, adapted form image at seanmaloney.house.gov

“…Hosted by Russia Matters — a project at the HKS Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs that publishes analysis on U.S.-Russia relations — [an] event [featuring Fiona Hill ] was moderated by former HKS Dean Graham T. Allison ’62 and former Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula J. Dobriansky. Hill, the former senior director on Russia and […]

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De-Centering Russia

Bookcase file photo, adapted from image at nlm.nih.gov

Subject: De-centering Russia Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2024 From: Karen Hewitt <karen.hewitt@conted.ox.ac.uk> My comments on the lecture by Juliet Johnson on ‘De-centering Russia’ aseees.org/news-events/aseees-blog-feed/2023-presidents-address-de-centering-russia-challenges-and I am not a specialist in Slavic Studies. My academic work has been in English Literature, and my focus in Russia has been on introducing English Literature, especially contemporary literature, to some seventy university departments across […]

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Filtering the News: Why Russians Prefer Propaganda and Shield Themselves from Independent Reporting

File Image of Laptop Computer, Tables and Mobile Device, adapted from image at energy.gov

(PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 873 – Anton Shirikov, Postdoctoral Scholar in Russian Politics at the Harriman Institute, Columbia University – Jan. 29, 2024 – Click here for PDF) How do the lies of Russian propaganda work? In recent years, Kremlin-controlled media have promoted thousands of fabricated stories, including some completely absurd narratives — e.g., about “Nazis” in Kyiv or […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russia Tomorrow: Five scenarios for Russia’s future” – Atlantic Council: Casey Michel

Kremlin and River

“Briefly, the five scenarios … include: Putin’s continued rule Putin’s ouster, followed by the installation of a far-right, nationalistic figure or cadre Putin’s ouster, followed by a technocratic, if still largely antidemocratic, regime Putin’s ouster, followed by the rise of a liberal, thoroughly pro-Western government Russian Federation state fracture” * * * “… Scenario #1 Putin’s Russia survives Scenario #2 […]

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Russia in Review, Jan. 26-Feb. 2, 2024

File Photo of Red Square, Kremlin, Environs, adapted from image at state.gov

(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org) 7 Things To Know Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy summoned Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (ZSU) Valerii Zaluzhnyi on Jan. 29 to tell the general he was being fired. At the meeting, Zaluzhnyi was offered the post of secretary of the national security council, but he turned it down, according to The Economist.[1] Two days […]

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Russia’s Ruthless Renaissance

Kremlin and River

(Kennan Institute – wilsoncenter.org/program/kennan-institute – Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Colorado State University; Evgeniya Pyatovskaya, PhD candidate, Department of Communication Studies, University of South Florida – Feb. 1, 2024) Two years into the war with Ukraine, today’s Russia can best be understood through the lens of a slogan that once appeared in a Solovki special prison, part […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “A century after Lenin’s death, the USSR’s founder seems to be an afterthought in modern Russia” – AP

File Photo of Vladimir Lenin at Desk adapted from nps.gov image

“Take a look at Vladimir Lenin’s legacy, 100 years after the first Soviet Union leader’s death shocked Russia.” “… A century later, the once-omnipresent image of Vladimir Lenin is largely an afterthought in modern Russia …. The Red Square mausoleum where his embalmed corpse lies in an open sarcophagus is no longer a near-mandatory pilgrimage but a site of macabre […]

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Cursed land: About a radically pessimistic scenario for Russia and the whole world

Map of Russia and Russian Flag adapted from images at state.gov

(Kennan Institute – wilsoncenter.org/program/kennan-institute – Jan. 22, 2024) Egor Mostovshchikov is a reporter, editor, publisher, director, screenwriter, and producer. He is the founder of the self-published media outlet Batenka, da vy transformer. Machine translation: wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/proklyataya-zemlya Peter Zeichan is exceptionally selfless: in his works, he meticulously destroys everything that a person who grew up in Russia knows about his country. A […]

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Russia in Review, Jan. 12-19, 2024

File Photo of Red Square, Kremlin, Environs, adapted from image at state.gov

(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org) 1. In the past month, Russian forces have gained 57 square miles of Ukrainian territory, while Ukrainian forces have re-gained 1 square mile, according to the Jan. 16, 2024, issue of the Russia-Ukraine War Report Card. In an article on the war entitled “Russia Regains Upper Hand in Ukraine’s East as Kyiv’s Troops Flag,” NYT noted […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Protests in Russia Put Spotlight on Wartime Ethnic Grievances” – New York Times

Russia Regions Map

“The trial and conviction of an activist in the Ural Mountains region sparked one of the biggest outbreaks of social unrest since the start of the war.” “The trial of a minority rights activist in Russia … sparked one of [Russia’s]  biggest outbreaks of social unrest … since the start of the [Russo-Ukrainian] war … highlighting the strain … on […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Putin’s Domestic Woes Continue as Russian Military Struggles in Ukraine” – Newsweek

Vladimir Putin file photo, adapted from screenshot of video at shareamerica.gov

“… Putin … fac[es] a deluge of domestic difficulties as Moscow’s military struggles nearly two years after invading Ukraine. Putin … has been the focus of … increasing … criticism … over issues that include inflation, winter blackouts and the treatment of soldiers in Ukraine. Despite … recent … relentless Russian air and ground attacks against Ukraine, Moscow has seen […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “What To Read To Understand Russia” – The Atlantic/ Anastasia Edel

Bookcase file photo, adapted from image at nlm.nih.gov

” …[A]uthors such as Tolstoy and Dostoevsky still rule the canon of Russian literature. But … Anastasia Edel, … author of Russia: Putin’s Playground: Empire, Revolution, and the New Tsar, … suggests … readers who want to comprehend Putin’s Russia look to Chevengur, an epic account of the Russian Revolution, written in 1929 by … Soviet writer Andrey Platonov. His […]

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Russia in Review, Jan. 5-12, 2024

Kremlin and Red Square file photo, adapted from image at state.gov

(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org) 6 Things to Know The Pentagon has failed to properly track at least $1 billion in weapons that the U.S. has provided to Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion, according to a report by the Defense Department’s inspector general, FT  reports. The high rate of weapons that were missing or otherwise immediately unaccounted for in government […]

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Russians who Want Peace Say They Support Putin because Only He is Strong Enough to Achieve It, Zhuravlyev Says

European Portion of Commonwealth of Independent States

(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, Jan. 3, 2024) Polls show Russians increasingly would like to see peace in Ukraine but continue to support Vladimir Putin as their preferred candidate in the presidential elections even though he is the man who decided to invade Ukraine in the first place and has continued to expand the Russian invasion. Oleg […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “As 2023 draws to a close, Putin wants the world to think he is winning” – CNN

Vladimir Putin file photo, adapted from screenshot of video at shareamerica.gov

“… [I]f Putin is running as a wartime president, he has to massage the facts. Russia does not fully control the Ukrainian regions it claimed in September 2022; the war on the ground has been extremely costly in terms of Russian lives and equipment; and Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has taken a serious beating. … [T]he war has … come […]

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RUSSIALINK: “Russia’s Civil Society in 2023: Beleaguered But Not Beaten” – Moscow Times

Map of Russia and Russian Flag adapted from images at state.gov

(Moscow Times – Dec. 28, 2023) As the year draws to a close, Russia’s motley landscape of civil rights defenders, election monitors, environmental campaigners, anti-war activists and others is more beleaguered than ever before. Confronted with the increasingly oppressive machinery of the Russian state, scores of activists and the organizations to which they belong have gone into survival mode, with […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “The Peril of Abandoning Ukraine; If Congress forces Kyiv to accept a Russian victory, the result won’t be peace but a new war. – WSJ

File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

“… If [U.S.] aid is cut off and Ukraine is forced to accept a Russian victory, the result won’t be peace but Russian preparation for a new war. The war in Ukraine activated the Soviet totalitarian psychological inheritance in Russia … [that] never disappeared. … Russia is more dangerous than … since the height of the Cold War [with] [m]ilitarization […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Bureaucracy as the Pillar of Stability: Are There Any Real Institutions Inside the Russian Political Regime?” – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Tower and Building Inside Kremlin

“Russia’s ruling mechanism — bureaucratic institutions — may outlast the current personalism. This vast network of civil servants, technocrats, and administrators forms a modestly resilient framework that endures beyond individual political decisions, providing continuity and ensuring the steady day-to-day functioning of the government.” “A persistent question … has been whether Russia has transitioned from … authoritarian … to … totalitarian […]

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Russia Analytical Report, Nov. 27-Dec. 4, 2023

File Photo of Red Square, Kremlin, Environs, adapted from image at state.gov

(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org) Miscalculations and divisions marked the efforts of Kyiv and its allies to plan the Ukrainian military’s summer offensive, according to the results of extensive research by Washington Post staff into the lead-up to the largely unsuccessful operation. “The year began with Western resolve at its peak, Ukrainian forces highly confident and … Zelensky predicting a decisive […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Putin’s Favorite ‘Project Managers’ Could Become a Risk to the Regime” – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace/ Andrey Pertsev

Tower and Building Inside Kremlin

“New favorites have appeared in … Putin’s inner circle in recent years. Using their access … they come up with new projects to manage, promote themselves in the media, and try to impress everyone with their professionalism … distinguish[ing] them[selves] from veteran members of Putin’s entourage … [and] help[ing] shore up the system. … [T]hey are … starting to overshadow […]

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Russia Analytical Report, Nov. 20-27, 2023

File Photo of Red Square, Kremlin, Environs, adapted from image at state.gov

(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org) There is no “durable stalemate on the ground” in the Russian-Ukrainian war as there is “no clear-cut parity,” CEIP’s Michael Kofman said in a War on the Rocks podcast shortly after returning from Ukraine. Looking back, Kofman advised that “the sooner we can say” Ukraine’s counteroffensive has not been successful, “the sooner we can learn from it.” Looking […]

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Emerging Leadership Crisis in Moscow Could be a More Violent Version of August 1991, Gallyamov Says

File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, Nov. 27, 2023) Even now, “Russian elites are unhappy with Putin, but they aren’t trying to overthrow him” because “they have something to lose and don’t want to take risks,” Abbas Gallyamov says. But “at some point, it will be this conflict within the elites that will destroy the regime.” According to […]

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“The Russia Program at the George Washington University is a data-driven analytical center that combines knowledge, technologies, and networks into a research ecosystem.”

The Russia Program - A New Way to Study Russia with logo

(The George Washington University – Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies – ieres.elliott.gwu.edu/  – The Russia Program – therussiaprogram.org) The Russia Program The Russia Program at GW is a university-based, data-driven analytical center that combines knowledge, technologies, and networks into a research ecosystem. We condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and call for the restoration of Ukraine’s sovereignty. Read Our […]

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Russia in Review, Nov. 17-21, 2023

File Photo of Red Square, Kremlin, Environs, adapted from image at state.gov

(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org) 3 Things to Know In the past month, Russian forces have gained 16 square miles of Ukrainian territory, while Ukraine gained 7 square miles, according to calculations by Katherine Davidson, associate of the Belfer Russia-Ukraine War Task Force.1Yet, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has this week denied his top general Valery Zaluzhny’s recent claim that the war has reached […]

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Russia in Review, Nov. 9-17, 2023

File Photo of Red Square, Kremlin, Environs, adapted from image at state.gov

(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org) The U.S. Congress’ interest in financing Ukraine’s fight against invading Russian forces has “dipped lower than ever,” according to WP. Moreover, rising competition from other national security priorities could “sound the death knell for continued American aid” for Kyiv, this newspaper predicted shortly before Biden signed a bill that is designed to avoid a government shutdown, […]

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