To inquire about a subscription to the full Johnson's Russia List e-mail newsletter, e-mail David Johnson at davidjohnson@starpower.net Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2016-#230 Thursday, 15 December 2016 A project sponsored through the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs The contents do not necessarily represent the views of IERES or The George Washington University. [ 876 more words ]

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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has selected ExxonMobil chief Rex Tillerson as a key member of his team. "Pragmatic," "professional" and a "friend" of Vladimir Putin - the announcement of his appointment comes as potentially good news to Russia. (Russia Beyond the Headlines - rbth.ru - YEKATERINA SINELSCHIKOVA, RBTH - December 14, 2016) Donald Trump has chosen the next U.S. Secretary of State - 64-year-old ExxonMobil chief Rex Tillerson. [ 777 more words ]

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MOSCOW. Dec 15 (Interfax) - The resignation of former Economic Development Minister Alexei #Ulyukayev after he lost the president's trust and confidence does not mean Ulyukayev has been found guilty of the crimes he has been accused of, Prime Minister Dmitry #Medvedev said. "The president made the decision to dismiss the former minister from his duties due to loss of trust. [ 265 more words ]

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Make the oligarchs equal to ordinary citizens, reduce the power of the siloviks, get out of Syria and Ukraine: opposition figurehead Alexei Navalny has spoken about his electoral program while internet users and political analysts have evaluated his chances. (Russia Beyond the Headlines - rbth.ru - YEKATERINA SINELSCHIKOVA, RBTH - December 14, 2016) Opposition figurehead and anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny has announced that he will be running for president in March 2018, sparking a wave of interest online and in the media and promising to shake up elections that have become lifeless and predictable. [ 710 more words ]

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Subject: Sharing The Foreign Service Journal's Focus on the new #Russia at 25 Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2016 From: Shawn Dorman <dorman@afsa.org> This is Shawn Dorman, editor of The Foreign Service Journal, the foreign affairs and diplomacy magazine published by the American Foreign Service Association 10 times a year. One of our authors this month, retired FSO Louie Sell, suggested that I share links to the December issue with you, as the focus is on the new Russia at 25. [ 37 more words ]

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Somewhere in the #Kremlin ... #Putin must be laughing. The #Russian strongman almost certainly sought to undermine public confidence in American democracy ... and as the Obama Administration leaves town it is playing into his hands. ... the real story behind ... reports that U.S. intelligence services have concluded that #Russia intervened to assist ... #Trump's presidential campaign. ... attributed to 'senior administration' officials who won't go on the record but assert murky details ... [ 113 more words ]

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... we know that Russian actors stole data from people working at the Democratic National Committee. We know that another foreign actor, WikiLeaks, published data stolen from the DNC .... We also know that WikiLeaks and others published data stolen from John Podesta, Clinton's campaign chairman .... We also know that Russian hackers were probing computers that contained information on voter registration, and poking around at actual voting machines and tabulators. [ 145 more words ]

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(Bloomberg - bloomberg.com - Joe Carroll - December 12, 2016) For Rex #Tillerson, #Russia was the proving ground that helped vault him to leadership of a company whose annual sales dwarf the economic output of most nations. Tillerson, Exxon Mobil Corp.'s chairman and chief executive officer since 2006, has emerged as President-elect Donald Trump's favorite for secretary of state despite, or perhaps because of, a long record of engagement with America's former Cold War adversary. [ 992 more words ]

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"The first thing ... #Trump can do is strike a new tone ... open, respectful, businesslike and disciplined. He should acknowledge ... deep concern at the state of U.S.-#Russia relations ... and express that his administration views Russia as an essential partner in reducing #nuclear risks ... fighting #terrorism and bringing more stability to the greater #MiddleEast, and mitigating our mutual vulnerabilities to #cyber attacks. [ 130 more words ]

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"President Vladimir V. #Putin of #Russia, in a meeting with film directors and artists, vowed on Friday to protect artistic freedom in the country but also said a court was right to give one director a 20-year prison term. ..."

http://www.nytimes.com/…/in-meeting-putin-vows-to-protect-a…

"... Three prerequisites should guide #Trump's strategy with #Russia. First, he should reaffirm America's commitment to #NATO, while calling for defense spending and efficiency to be the main issue at the 2017 NATO Brussels summit. Second, before meeting with #Putin, Trump should visit key allies and learn their priorities while sharing his own. Third, he ought to review his strategy with congressional leaders. Many of them see #Kremlin policy, from the war on #Ukraine to cyberattacks to interference in U.S. elections, as hostile. ..."

http://www.usnews.com/…/how-donald-trump-could-normalize-re…

(Paul Goble - Window on Eurasia - Staunton, December 12, 2016) For months, #Moscow commentators have suggested that #Russians are caught between what the #Kremlin shows them on television and what they see in their increasingly empty refrigerators and predicted that eventually the refrigerator would defeat the TV and that this would have immediate political consequences. The findings of two polls published today suggest that these prognosticators were half right: ever more Russians view the refrigerator - their personal well-being - as more important than television's ideological messages about Russia as a great power but few think they can or should take political action, concluding they must try to save themselves in other ways. [ 300 more words ]

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(Moscow Times - themoscowtimes.com - Matthew Kupfer - December 10, 2016) It took two weeks for President Vladimir #Putin to find a replacement for Alexei #Ulyukayev, the economic development minister sacked in a corruption scandal. His final choice of Maxim #Oreshkin, a largely unknown 34-yearold deputy finance minister, raised a few eyebrows. "Maxim, you are a fairly young man, but I cannot call you a young specialist," Putin said to Oreshkin during the appointment meeting. [ 585 more words ]

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(Kennan Institute, Wilson Center: Ground Truth Briefing - December 8, 2016) The Takeaways President-elect Donald #Trump has promised to shift U.S. foreign policy priorities and to reshape America's system of alliances. What might this new stance mean for #Russia and for Mr. Trump's relationship with President Vladimir #Putin? On December 8th, 2016 the Wilson Center's Matthew Rojansky, Director of the Kennan Institute, moderated a discussion on how the election of Donald Trump will affect U.S. [ 725 more words ]

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In a more detailed version of the report released in July, the head of the independent WADA commission has announced that the international doping scandal implicates over 1,000 Russian athletes, and has repeated accusations of state involvement. (Russia Beyond the Headlines - rbth.ru - ALEXEY MOSKO, RBTH - December 12, 2016) The publication of the long-awaited second part of the McLaren report into doping in international athletics has seen Russian sports hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons once again, with the investigator saying that the findings show international sport has been "unknowingly hijacked by the Russians" for years. [ 725 more words ]

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