RUSSIA AND COVID. Today’s numbers: total cases: 250K; total deaths: 2305; tests per 1 million: 42K.Russia has done six million tests (second after USA); among countries with populations over 10M it’s fifth in tests per million and of those over 100M first; one could therefore expect it to find new cases – most of which have little effect. Mishustin is back at work, Putin’s spokesman is not. Putin, in a virtual meeting, announced the end ofthe “paid holiday period” and a gradual lifting of lock-down in a report on the state of play. There’s a report that Russia is undercounting: actually it’s taking a hard approach while some other countries take a soft approach (the from vs with question.) Which of course means that the numbers at worldometers.info are so varied in methodology as to be practically worthless…

OIL WARS. Prices creeping up to about $27. This piece argues that Riyadh has made a really big mistake and enumerates the ways it has. The US industry is in trouble.

RUSSIA INC. The IMF says, in PPP terms, Russia’s economy passed Germany to become number five.

BROWDER. His story takes another hit – as it always does when someone takes a real look at it. The German press council rejected his complaint against Der Spiegel saying his narrative lacked proof.

NORDSTREAM. After a long trip from Nakhodka in which it kept pretending to change its destination, the pipe-laying ship Akademik Cherskiy is now ready to complete Nord Stream 2. In an amazing coincidence, the Russians hack Merkel’s cell phone. Get in line Russia!. (Bernhard catches the NYT in another sloppy anti-Russia assertion.)

RUSSIAN YOUTH. It’s a widespread delusion, strengthened by the narrow circle Western reporters talk to in Russia, that “the government’s anti-Western agenda and reports of widespread corruption are turning young Russians against the leader.”Levada has done a survey of Russian youth and that’s pretty hard to find; in general they’re not far off their parents: a bit more liberal but also a bit more nationalist. Perhaps the most interesting result was that a solid majority thought Russia was not European. Robinson discusses. He wonders why so few show much support for “‘classical’ civil and political liberties”. My guess is that 20 years of observation of Western practice of these noble ideals has soured them.

PROVOCATIVE. US and British warships enter the Barents Sea, promoting regional security and stability, while building trust. I think a Russian-Chinese naval trip to the Beaufort Sea would get us all some stability and trust, don’t you?

WESTERN VALUES™. Given that NATO likes to blather on about how it “promotes democratic values“, it’s amusing to see that Freedom House says that Hungary, Poland, Hungary, Montenegro and Turkey don’t make the cut as “consolidated democracies”.

AMERICA-HYSTERICA. Transcripts from House hearings have been published. Here they are. Nothing. It was all lies. Remember Crowdstrike and its “proof” the Russians hacked it? When they’re under oath, nothing. Remember all those people on TV saying there was strong evidence of collusion? Under oath, they said there wasn’t any. Schiff knew this and said it anyway. Justice Department drops case against Flynn – entrapment.More to come. But that doesn’t mean that the shills have given up: Russia will steal the next election; or will China? But does Beijing want Trump or out? (Wouldn’t it be fun if Moscow and Beijing disagreed on whom to put into the White House?)

DOES THE NYT PLAGIARISE RUSSIAN REPORTERS? You decide.

WHY IS THE US IN SYRIA? Washington longer bothers to prettify – the boot is straight to the face. ISIS? Forget ISIS says Jeffrey: “My job is to make it a quagmire for the Russians“. An amazing confession, in the same class as “We lied, we cheated, we stole“.

DOUMA. More leaked documents expose OPCW corruption – the whistle-blower was not, as we we told, some marginal guy, but one of the leaders of the inspection team. The official line requires us to believe that this smashed through a steel reinforced concrete ceiling and landed peacefully on a bed.

UKRAINE. A police official wants to know the names, addresses and phones of all the Jews in Kolomyya, a city in western Ukraine; “most of its Jews were murdered by February 1943 at the Szepariwice forest outside the city and the Bełżec death camp.” “Is Ukraine a Hub for International White Supremacist Fighters?” wonders a piece published by Harvard. Remember when it was Putin disinformation about nazis in Ukraine?

© Patrick Armstrong Analysis, Canada Russia Observer