Russia To Conduct 28 Space Launches From Baikonur In 2008

The number of spacecraft to be launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan will increase 33%, year-on-year, in 2008 to a total of 28, the local mayor said on Tuesday. Baikonur, built in Kazakhstan in the 1950s, was first leased by Russia from Kazakhstan under an agreement signed in 1994 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russian officials have repeatedly said Russia will continue to use the Baikonur launch site until at least 2050.

 

Alexander Mezentsev, the mayor of Baikonur, told a news conference that Russia launched a total of 21 carrier rockets from the site in 2007.

At present, the two countries are working to build a space complex at Baikonur, Baiterek, to launch Angara carrier rockets capable of delivering 26 metric tons of payload into low-Earth orbits. The project is being implemented on a parity basis and enjoys tax, customs and other privileges.

Kazakhstan and Russia have reportedly each allocated $223 million for the construction of the Baiterek launch site under a 2004 agreement.

“We have prepared the documentation and developed technical requirements [for the project], and all that’s left is to start construction,” Mezentsev said without revealing any specific details.

 

China Goes Berserk In Russian Arms Bazaar Up

An indigenised J-11B in flight test. The J-11B was developed from the J-11/Su-27SK and fitted with Chinese-made avionics

The lack of significant new arms orders for Russia from China could be caused by its efforts to further develop its own arms industry, dissatisfaction with delays on outstanding orders, or disappointment with the quality of Russian weapons delivered in recent years.

 

Despite this, China is still rumored to be interested in the Russian offer of Su-33 and Su-35 combat aircraft for use on Chinese aircraft carriers. However, there are also reportedly divisions within Russia over whether to meet Chinese requests for advanced Russian weapons systems. There are concerns that China will only buy limited numbers of such systems with a view to “copying” them.

Russia’s caution is not unfounded. In 1996, China signaled its intention to buy around 200 Sukhoi Su-27SK kits for its J-11 combat aircraft program. In 2004, China revealed that only about 100 J-11 combat aircraft would be constructed from Su-27SK kits, as an increasing share of the components for its J-11 were being produced in China.

Then, in 2007, the first prototypes of the J-11B were unveiled, revealing a combat aircraft that bears a remarkable resemblance to the Su-27SMK, but for which a reported 90 per cent of components are Chinese. Some reports say that the J-11B will feature Chinese-produced weapons systems and a WS-10A engine.

Although the Chinese appear to have annulled the contract for the joint development of the J-11, Russian officials have not yet condemned this move. Yet China’s behavior perhaps helps to explain Russia’s October 2007 agreement with India for the joint development and production of a fifth generation combat aircraft.

Russia had also discussed the possibility of such a project with China, but October’s announcement reinforces the impression that Russia is more willing to transfer its most advanced weapons systems (and possibly even technologies), to India rather than to China.

All these factors, combined with this year’s decline in deliveries and orders, suggest that the slump in Russia’s arms exports to China will not be temporary. Indeed, in Russia such a drop has been anticipated for some time, and Rosoboronexport and Russian officials have worked hard in recent years to secure alternative orders.

The head of the Russian government’s Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation, Mikhail Dmitriev, announced in late December 2007 that Russia had an order portfolio for an estimated $32 billion worth of arms and military equipment, boosted by significant orders in recent years from Algeria, Indonesia and Venezuela. It remains to be seen, however, whether orders from these states can make up for the expected drop in orders and deliveries to China.

(Paul Holtom is a researcher for the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. This article is reprinted by permission of the RIA Novosti news agency. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent those of the RIA Novosti news agency.)

 

Gazprom gets Libyan assets

President Vladimir Putin discussed energy relations with top managers of the Italian companies Eni and Enel at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow on April 2. Eni said it would share its development quotas for Libyan gas deposits with Russia’s Gazprom. Putin described the two countries’ energy relations as a breakthrough.

 

A year ago Eni and Enel bought several companies, including Arcticgas and Urengoil, at an auction held to sell the assets of bankrupt oil company Yukos, as well as a 20-percent stake in Gazprom Neft, the oil division of Gazprom. They paid $5.83 billion for these assets.

Eni also owns 50 percent of the Blue Stream gas pipeline under the Black Sea (the rest belongs to Gazprom). Enel holds a 59.8-percent stake in the wholesale generating company OGK-5 and a 49.5-percent stake in the Russian power supplier RusEnergoSbyt. Eni is also involved in the South Stream pipeline, which was mentioned at the meeting with Putin as one of the most promising cooperation projects.

The list has now been extended to include asset swap deals between Gazprom and Eni.

Libya has become a highly promising source of oil and gas supplies for Europe now that sanctions against it have been lifted. Its proven natural gas reserves are estimated at 1.49 trillion cubic meters (the fourth largest in Africa after Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt). Libya annually produces 80.1 million tons (588.74 million bbl) of oil and 7 billion cubic meters of gas. It consumes 83 percent of its gas and exports the rest.

Libya is ranked first in Africa and fifth in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (after Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq) in terms of proven reserves of low-sulfur light oil (5.1 billion tons, or 37.48 billion bbl).

Gazprom wants to have a share in Libyan deposits. Last year it bought an exploration and development license for Block 19 there, with gas reserves comparable to the reserves of the South Russkoye gas deposit in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area in the northeast Urals. It plans to invest $300 million in the project within four years.

The gas monopoly acquired three projects in Libya in 2007. In March it signed a production sharing agreement with Libya’s National Oil Corp. for a 10.3-square-kilometer block in the Mediterranean Sea, where it intends to invest $200 million by 2012.

Gazprom also recently received a 49.9-percent stake in two oil concessions from Germany’s BASF under last year’s asset-swap agreements.

Gazprom has long been eyeing Eni’s projects in Africa, which it discussed in 2006, when Eni wanted to buy Gazprom’s stake in the independent Russian gas producer Novatek.

Eni holds a 50-percent stake in the Green Stream pipeline in Libya with an annual capacity of 8 billion cubic meters. It links two offshore deposits in the Mediterranean with Sicily. The Italian company also owns a stake in an LNG plant with a capacity of 3.2 million tons a year, a 33.3-percent stake in the Elephant oil deposit, whose reserves are assessed at 68 million tons (499.8 million bbl), and four exploration and development licenses for deposits in central Libya.

Last fall the Italian concern strengthened its foothold in Libya by agreeing to prolong its contracts for the production and export of oil and gas for 25 years. The agreements also provide for doubling the facility for Libyan gas exports to Italy by increasing the capacity of Green Stream by 3 billion cubic meters (today its annual capacity is 8 bcm) and building an LNG plant with a capacity of 5 bcm.

Eni and NOC are implementing these projects and using the reserves needed for them, such as the Bahr Essalam offshore deposit and the Wafa onshore deposit, on a parity basis.

Apart from the Libyan projects interesting for Gazprom and its oil subsidiary, Gazprom Neft, Eni can offer them cooperation in Egypt, where it owns a stake in an LNG plant in Damietta. The plant’s annual capacity is to be increased to 15 bcm. Eni also owns an exploration license for the El-Bougaz block in the Mediterranean.

During the meeting at Novo-Ogaryovo, Eni CEO Paolo Scaroni outlined the assets his company is prepared to turn over to Gazprom. Apart from power plants in Italy, the Russian company can hope to get a third of the Elephant oil deposit in Libya.

Gazprom’s successful foray into North Africa is worrying Europe, which fears that the Russian gas monopoly will reinforce its already strong presence in the European gas market. Gazprom supplies 25 percent of the EU’s gas and plans to increase its share to one-third.

The Libyan, and possibly Egyptian, projects will secure enough reserves for Gazprom’s emergence on the Italian and Portuguese markets, while the Egyptian assets will help it get a foothold in Spain.

Gazprom will greatly benefit from delivering gas to Europe from North Africa and strengthen its presence in the markets of southern Europe. A share in LNG production in North Africa will greatly contribute to Gazprom’s plans, recently made public, to account for 25 percent of the global LNG market by 2030 and to stop using intermediaries for LNG deliveries to and sales in the United States.

(Igor Tomberg is a senior research fellow at the Center for Energy Studies, the Institute of World Economy and International Relations at the Russian Academy of Sciences. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti. This article is published with permission from RIA Novosti.)

 

Russia’s top general quits

It was reported last month that chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, four-star Army Gen. Yury Baluyevsky was going to retire. There was no official denial of this report, and political analysts have interpreted it as valid.

 

There was another telltale detail. Baluyevsky always took part in strategic security talks with the United States on a par with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s deputy, Sergei Kislyak. But this time he was conspicuously absent from the recent bilateral two-plus-two summit attended by Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and by Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and his U.S. counterpart, Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Baluyevsky’s place was occupied by his first deputy, three-star Col. Gen. Alexander Burutin. Officially, Baluyevsky was absent because he was on vacation. It is not uncommon to summon experts for a couple of days when they are on leave, but Baluyevsky was not asked to come for a reason.

The foreign media even carried a report that his absence at the recent summit may mean the Kremlin has decided to ease its stand on the deployment of a U.S. missile defense shield in Eastern Europe.

But both Lavrov and Serdyukov said at the final news conference that there are no changes in Moscow’s position on this issue.

Baluyevsky celebrated his 61st birthday on Jan. 9 and may have applied for retirement — by law, Russian generals serve until 60. But, most likely, he did this because he openly disagrees with some of Serdyukov’s decisions. Replying to a question from the audience at the session of the Academy of Military Sciences on Jan. 19, he described the transfer of the Navy’s Chief Command from Moscow to St. Petersburg as “untimely,” which was Serdyukov’s decision.

Incidentally, this decision is being criticized in letters to the president by high-level admirals and heroes of the Soviet Union, including the former commanders in chief and heads of the navy’s headquarters. Open discontent with decisions of superiors is not accepted in the military environment, and a resignation tender is only natural.

Baluyevsky’s colleagues said that he sent in for resignation several times because he disagreed with the defense minister’s views on the military reform and his decisions to get rid of non-core assets, move the Peter the Great Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Force out of Moscow, to introduce changes in other higher educational military establishments, and to oust the military from a number of historic buildings in downtown Moscow without proper compensation.

Baluyevsky also criticized the situation where more than 30 civilian advisers to the defense minister — who previously headed the Federal Tax Service — were making decisions without consulting military professionals. He and a number of other generals believe that these civilian decisions may reduce the country’s defense capability and security. But expert opinions are not heeded. Judging by everything, it was too much for the chief to bear.

Before, Baluyevsky managed to get along with many complicated superiors, including Gen. Vladislav Achalov, a former member of the State of Emergency Committee, which staged a coup in 1991, General of the Army Anatoly Kvashnin, and former Russian Defense Minister and now First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov.

It is rumored that Serdyukov has already approved Baluyevsky’s resignation, and that now the document is in the Kremlin — only the president has the right to make decisions on the appointment or resignation of the chief of the General Staff.

Few doubt that Baluyevsky’s resignation papers will be signed. Too much independence and open discontent with the superiors are not favored in the administrative sphere. But will they be signed before or after the president-elect’s inauguration in May? Experts have different opinions on this score. In the meantime, Baluyevsky has not been seen in public for several weeks now.

His responsibilities are carried out by the recent presidential adviser on military-technical issues and current First Deputy Chief of the General Staff Burutin, who may take over Baluyevsky’s position. But his appointment is a big question. Burutin does not have combat experience and served mostly in the General Staff. But maybe this will help him occupy the position?

(Nikita Petrov writes on military affairs for RIA Novosti. This article is reprinted by permission of RIA Novosti. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.)

 

Russia’s Progress Develops New Bion-M Biosatellite

Russia’ Progress design and production center is developing a new Bion-M biosatellite for scientific and applied research in space biology and medicine, a spokesman for the center said on Tuesday. He said the new Bion-M being developed by the Samara-based company (European Russia) will be capable of “spending around six months in orbit compared to the current 14 days.”

 

He also said a more advanced engine will allow the new research craft to reach a higher orbit of 400-500 km compared with 200-300 km.

The first Bion-M is scheduled for launch in 2010 with the second to follow three years later.

Experts say that the scientific data obtained through Bion-M research will extend the time humans can stay in space by up to two or three years.

A total of 11 Bions have been launched since 1973 with over 37 kinds of biological species on board, including single-cell organisms, plants, rats, tortoises and monkeys.

 

Caspian nations pledge support for non-proliferation treaty

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is key to international stability and security, participants in a summit of Caspian nations said in a joint statement on Tuesday. The five countries – Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan, confirmed “the unassailable right of all signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to research, produce, and use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, without discrimination, and within the provisions of this treaty, and the safeguards of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency],” the statement said. The second summit of Caspian nations opened in Tehran earlier in the day, and is expected to bring closer an agreement on dividing the resources of the sea between its five littoral states. The summit held at the Sadabad Palace, a former residence of an Iranian shah, in northern Tehran was preceded by a bilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Putin Calls For Shared Use Of Most Of Caspian Sea

Russian President Vladimir Putin told a Caspian summit in Tehran that the bulk of the Caspian Sea should be left for the common use of its five littoral states. “The Caspian Sea should not be covered by numerous state borders, sectors and exclusive zones,” Putin said. “The less territory they occupy and the more water remains in common use, the better.” The Russian leader said the Caspian states could develop oil and gas resources under the seabed using existing national zones for mineral use, which have already been defined in the northern part of the sea.

“We believe that in the southern Caspian also, interested parties will be able to find a balanced and mutually acceptable solution. To reach an agreement on delimiting the seabed for mineral use, there is no need to wait for a convention to be drawn up on its legal status, we can act in a five-way format,” Putin said.

The summit’s host, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said: “Energy resources should benefit all countries, regardless of the development stage they are at.”

Among priority spheres for cooperation, the Russian leader highlighted comprehensive security and stability in the region, including “security of navigation, the protection of oil and gas production facilities and the joint fight against international terrorism and extremism.”

He pointed to specific initiatives in the sphere, such as a draft stability pact proposed by Kazakhstan, and Iran’s initiative to sign an agreement on confidence and stability measures. Putin also mentioned Russia’s proposal to set up a joint naval group for strategic cooperation on the Caspian Sea, to be named CasFor.

Among other things, Russia has proposed building a canal as soon as possible to connect the Caspian Sea to the Black and Azov seas to establish a North-South transport corridor, Putin said.

The Iranian leader urged for laws to be coordinated on “the presence of military and other ships on the Caspian Sea.”

Speaking on a draft declaration to be adopted at the summit, Putin said: “We acknowledge the need to solve a number of key issues… considering our interests and maintaining sovereignty, and refraining from any use of force.”

Both Putin and Ahmadinejad urged countries to act responsibly to preserve the sea’s resources.

The ongoing summit, attended by the leaders of Iran, Russia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, is expected to yield a political declaration on the long-debated status of the sea, which could act as a guideline until the approval of a convention on the issue.

 

Brazil & Russia to build jet fighter

Brazil and Russia signed an agreement on Tuesday to jointly develop top-line jet fighters and satellite launch vehicles.

Brazil’s Strategic Affairs Minister Roberto Mangabeira Unger told reporters the agreement will lead to the development of fifth-generation jet fighters that are built using sophisticated engineering, such as composite materials, stealth technology and advanced radar.

The agreement signed by Unger and the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Valentin Sobolev, includes the construction of rockets capable of hurling several kinds of satellites into space.

Brazil builds its own small and medium-size rockets that are launched from the Alcantara base in the northeastern state of Maranhao.

The base is considered an excellent launch site because it is located just 2.3 degrees south of the equator, the line at which the Earth moves the fastest, helping propel rockets into space with less fuel.

Tuesday’s agreement calls for advanced training in the field of cybernetics, which Mangabeira called “essential for the defense and the technological evolution of our industry.” It also involves the transfer of technology, something Brazil has always insisted on.

Earlier this year, France aid it would transfer technology to the Brazil for construction of the Scorpene attack submarine, helicopters and the Rafale fighter plane.

The Scorpene is a conventional attack submarine, but Brazilian officials have said they want the diesel-powered vessel to serve as a model for the development of a nuclear submarine that would be the first in Latin America.

University of Brasilia political scientist David Fleischer said the agreement may not advance very far because Russia may limit the transfer of technology for the fighter jets.
“The problem is that the Russians have never been all that keen on technology transfer,” Fleischer said. “But then again the Russians may want to beat out the French, so the deal could eventually go through.”

“A deal with Russia, together with Venezuela’s recent purchases of Russian weapons, could spark an arms race in South America,” Fleischer added.

Venezuela recently bought 53 Russian-made attack helicopters, 100,000 assault rifles, 24 Sukhoi fighter jets, 12 military transport planes and 5,000 sniper rifles.

Georgian policy toward Russia provocative – Russian envoy to NATO Rogozin

Tbilisi is behaving in a provocative manner toward Russia over the issue of Georgia’s breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Russia’s envoy to NATO said Monday.

“Georgia is behaving in a provocative way. One gets the impression that someone irresponsible is seeking a pretext for a war,” Dmitry Rogozin said.

Georgia claims that on April 20 a Russian MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter from the Gudauta military base in Abkhazia, where Russian peacekeepers have been stationed since the end of a bloody conflict in the early 1990s, shot down a Georgian drone.

The incident came after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calls earlier this month for closer ties with Georgia’s two breakaway provinces, and has plunged relations between Moscow and Tbilisi to a new low. Putin’s statement provoked an angry response from Tbilisi, with Georgia’s foreign minister accusing Russia of attempting “to annex” the two republics.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Georgia in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Georgia is looking to regain control over the two republics.

Ex-Soviet breakaway regions have stepped up their drive for self-rule since Kosovo’s declaration of independence on February 17. Georgia’s Abkhazia and South Ossetia, along with Moldova’s Transdnestr, have since asked Russia’s parliament, the UN and other organizations to recognize their independence.

Valery Kenyaikin, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s ambassador at large, said on April 25 that Russia would do everything possible to protect the interests of Russian citizens living in Georgia’s breakaway republics.

“We will not leave our citizens in Abkhazia and South Ossetia in difficulty and this should be clearly understood… We will do everything possible to avert a military conflict.” He also added however that Russia would “have to use military force,” if the need arose.

Alexander Torshin, a deputy speaker at the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, said on Monday that this statement “should be interpreted as a warning against adventurism.”

Signing of Czech-U.S. radar deal delayed – Czech Foreign Ministry

The signing of a treaty on the deployment of amissile-defense radar station in the Czech Republic has been postponed, a Czech Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Monday.

The spokesperson dismissed talk that the radar deal was in jeopardy, however, saying that the postponement was merely a matter of “logistics.”

She added that the deal had been delayed as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would not be able to arrive in Prague on May 5, as previously announced. It had been expected that Rice would sign the radar deal on behalf of the U.S. during her visit.

The U.S. is planning to modify its X-band radar on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific and relocate it to the Czech Republic as part of its proposed European missile shield, which will also include deploying 10 interceptor missiles in Poland.

Czech Premier Mirek Topolanek announced later on Monday that the deal could be signed in early June. However, the signing of the treaty does not provide a 100% guarantee that the U.S. radar station will actually be deployed on Czech soil. The document has yet to be ratified by parliament and signed by President Vaclav Klaus. Opinion polls also indicate that a majority of Czechs are opposed to the U.S. radar being deployed on Czech territory.

There is also considerable opposition to the deployment plan in the Czech parliament, with the leading opposition force, the Social Democratic Party, demanding a referendum on the issue.

Russia has also spoken out against the missile defense shield plan, saying it poses a threat to its national security.

At a meeting in Moscow last month involving the two countries’ top foreign policy and defense officials, the U.S. proposed measures to build transparency and confidence. The possibility of deploying Russian officers at U.S. missile defense locations in Europe was also discussed, but the proposals did not include their permanent deployment, on which Russia has insisted.

Russia has rejected Washington’s assurances that the planned missile defense system is designed as protection against possible attacks by Iran and other ‘rogue’ states.

Russian defense minister to visit radar site in Belarus

Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov will visit a Russian radar site during his April 29-30 trip to Belarus, the ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The Volga-type early missile warning radar in the town of Baranovichi in the Brest Region, near Poland, became operational in October 2003. It is designed to detect ballistic missiles launched from Europe and the Atlantic Ocean.

The deployment of the system has closed a gap in radar coverage on Russia’s western borders after the closure of a radar site in Skrunda (Latvia) in late 1998.

The Volga radar operates in the decimeter bandwidth, which greatly improves the accuracy of tracking.

Serdyukov said last year that Russia has stepped up military cooperation with Belarus in response to the United States’ plans to deploy missile defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic, along with NATO’s eastward expansion.

Several years ago, Russia launched a program for the development of Russia’s Space Forces, which includes building and using early warning radars in the country.

Russia currently rents ground-based radar stations in Sevastopol and Mukachevo in Ukraine; in Baranovichi, Belarus; Balkhash in Kazakhstan; and Gabala in Azerbaijan. It also has radars on its own territory in Murmansk (arctic northwest), Pechora (northwest Urals), and Irkutsk (east Siberia).

Russia’s Space Forces Commander Colonel General Vladimir Popovkin said in January that a new Voronezh-type radar in Lekhtusi, Leningrad Region, would be put on combat duty this year without delays.

Another Voronezh-type radar is being built in Armavir in southwest Russia. It is expected to be put on combat duty in 2009.

North Korean stabbed to death in Russia’s Volga area

A North Korean man was found stabbed to death in the early hours of Monday in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia’s third-largest city, local investigators said on Monday.

“The body of a North Korean national was found with stab wounds soon after midnight on a building site where he had been working,” a spokeswoman for the investigators said.

Abkhazia ready to sign military agreement with Russia

The Georgian breakaway republic of Abkhazia is prepared to sign a military agreement with Russia, the Abkhaz foreign minister said Monday.

“We are ready to sign a military agreement with Russia. We are ready to observe all Russian interests in the region in exchange for military protection by Russia and open economic cooperation,” Sergei Shamba said, speaking on the phone to a RIA Novosti correspondent.

Shamba also said if Russia had an interest in a military presence in Abkhazia, then the republic was ready to oblige. “We realize that Russia has military interests in Abkhazia, because it’s a strategically important region,” he said.

The head of the Russian lower house’s committee on CIS affairs, Alexei Ostrovsky, suggested on Monday waiting until Abkhazia’s status has been better defined before talking about a possible Russian military presence in the republic.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Georgia in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Georgia is looking to regain control over the two republics.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called earlier this month for closer ties with the breakaway republics. Putin’s statement provoked an angry response from Tbilisi, with Georgia’s foreign minister accusing Russia of attempting “to annex” the two republics.

Georgia also claims that on April 20 a Russian MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter from the Gudauta military base in Abkhazia, where Russian peacekeepers have been stationed since the end of a bloody conflict in the early 1990s, shot down a Georgian drone, a claim Russia has denied.

The incidents have seen relations between Moscow and Tbilisi plunge to a new low.

Ex-Soviet breakaway regions have stepped up their drive for self-rule since Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia on February 17. Abkhazia and South Ossetia, along with Moldova’s Transdnestr, have all asked Russia’s parliament, the UN, and other organizations to recognize their independence.

The State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, proposed in March that the president and the government consider the issue of whether to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Valery Kenyaikin, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s ambassador at large, said on April 25 that Russia would do everything possible to protect the interests of Russian citizens living in Georgia’s breakaway republics.

“We will not leave our citizens in Abkhazia and South Ossetia in difficulty and this should be clearly understood… We will do everything possible to avert a military conflict.” He also added however that Russia would “have to use military force,” if the need arose.

Sergei Mironov, speaker of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, said on Monday, commenting on Kenyaikin’s statement that: “Russia proceeds from the fact that a great number of Russians live in Abkhazia. It is evident that if there is a threat to the lives of Russian nationals – or any other threat – Russia will not remain on the sidelines.”

Also on Monday, acting Georgian Foreign Minister David Bakradze called Mironov’s statement an attempt by Moscow to switch to “a policy of military aggression.”

“This threatens switching from a policy of annexing our territories to a policy of direct military aggression,” he told journalists in Brussels.

Georgia’s Rustavi-2 TV station also quoted Bakradze as saying that Georgia would attempt to get Russian peacekeeping forces stationed in Abkhazia replaced with NATO peacekeepers.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai told Georgian TV reporters in Brussels that all NATO members believe that the Russian peacekeeping contingent should leave the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone.

Vakhtang Lezhava, a deputy Georgian economic development minister, told journalists on Monday that Georgia would link its consent to Russia’s admission to the World Trade Organization to the Abkhazia and South Ossetia issue. He said in particular that Tbilisi was seeking a retraction of President Putin’s statement on the strengthening of ties with the breakaway republics.

Mironov reelected leader of Kremlin-loyal A Just Russia party

Sergei Mironov, the speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, has been reelected as leader of the A Just Russia party for another four years.

Mironov was the only candidature for the post in the party – which describes itself as a leftist force, but supports the Kremlin – receiving almost a unanimous backing by 235-2. The reelection was needed after the party adopted a new charter it said was designed to improve performance.

Speaking at the party congress, Mironov pledged to work for the good of the country as leader of A Just Russia: Rodina/Pensioners/Life.

Founded in October 2006 after the merger of three parties, the bloc suffered internal conflicts as many regional branches of the Party of Pensioners and the left-leaning Party of Life contested the leadership of Mironov’s Rodina, the smallest of the three. Many members have since left the party.

The new charter consolidates the power of regional branches in the hands of chairmen, according to one of the delegates. Regional branches were earlier run by three leaders with no clearly divided responsibilities.

Mironov said at the congress: “Our party advocates ideological diversity and a multi-party system.” He also expressed hope that outgoing President Vladimir Putin’s decision to head the ruling United Russia party would not lead authorities across the country to clamp down on “initiatives not originating from United Russia.”

Putin will take up the post of premier after stepping down next month. He will also be chairman of the country’s largest party with a two third majority in parliament.

Chernobyl victims remembered on 22nd anniversary

Ukraine and other former Soviet states affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster are holding ceremonies on Saturday to mark the 22nd anniversary of the explosion.

Church services will be held throughout Ukraine in memory of the victims, and President Viktor Yushchenko will take part in a ceremony to lay flowers at the memorial to Chernobyl Heroes in Kiev.

The speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, Boris Gryzlov, told reporters in Moscow: “Today we remember the events of 1986, the Chernobyl tragedy… We must always remember the heroism shown by those that took part in the liquidation of the accident and its consequences.”

Vast areas, including beyond the Soviet Union, were contaminated by the radioactive cloud that spread after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant’s fourth reactor.

For the anniversary, former residents of the 30-km restricted zone surrounding the plant have been allowed to re-visit the area, where abandoned ghost towns lie almost untouched since Soviet times.

The Chernobyl disaster was caused by overheating following a disastrous experiment involving fuel rods, which was ironically aimed at improving safety.

While the initial Soviet cover-up was condemned by the West, it is almost certain that the authoritarian regime in place at the time, which sent dozens of workers to their certain death in the operation to seal the damaged reactor, averted much greater loss of life using means that would have been inaccessible to an open, democratic society.

There is no accurate data on the number of deaths, due to Soviet secrecy over the disaster. The Chernobyl Forum said 56 people, mainly rescue workers, were killed at the scene, and another 4,000 died of thyroid cancer shortly afterwards.

Several million more people are believed to have been exposed to varying degrees of radiation.

More than 300,000 people were relocated. Some 5 million people live in areas of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine classified as “contaminated” by radioactive elements.

Ukraine has approved a new shelter to be built over the damaged reactor, and last year signed a contract with French contractor Novarka.

The giant arch-shaped steel casing is expected to cost $1.4 billion and will take five years to complete.

The current badly-worn protective shelter has been repaired and reinforced by Russian contractor Atomstroyexport, in a project funded by the international Chernobyl Shelter Fund comprising 28 countries and run by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Russia warns Georgia could use force against Abkhazia, S.Ossetia

Georgia could use force in the near future over its breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia as the May 21 parliamentary elections approach, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official said on Friday.

Valery Kenyaikin, the Russian ambassador at large, said an outside enemy is needed to whip up support for the upcoming election campaign, and Abkhazia along with South Ossetia could fit the bill.

“The danger [of Georgia’s military aggression] exists and could take place in the near future,” the official told a news conference.

Kenyaikin said that the drone shot down over Abkhazia had a number of uses, including directing artillery fire.

Georgia claims that on Sunday a Russian MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter from the Gudauta military base in Abkhazia, where Russian peacekeepers have been stationed since the end of a bloody conflict in the early 1990s, shot down a Georgian drone.

Abkhazia claimed responsibility for the downing of the aircraft. Russia’s Air Force has dismissed Georgia’s allegations.

The high-ranking diplomat reiterated that Russia would do everything possible to protect the interests of Russian citizens living in Georgia’s breakaway republics saying “In any case we will not leave our citizens in Abkhazia and South Ossetia in difficulty and this should be clearly understood.”

The official went further to say that Russia could use military force to protect its nationals if Tbilisi provoked military conflict in the breakaway republics.

“We will do everything possible to avert a military conflict. But if it is provoked, we will have to use military force,” he said.

Sunday’s downing of a Georgian surveillance drone is the latest dispute in the region, following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calls last week for closer ties with Georgia’s two breakaway provinces, which has plunged relations between Moscow and Tbilisi to a new low.

The move provoked an angry response from Tbilisi with Georgia’s foreign minister accusing Russia of attempting “to annex,” Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Georgia is desperate to retain control over the two republics.

Ex-Soviet breakaway regions have stepped up their drive for self-rule since Kosovo’s declaration of independence on February 17. Georgia’s Abkhazia and South Ossetia, along with Moldova’s Transdnestr, have since asked Russia’s parliament, the UN and other organizations to recognize their independence.

Russia launches second satellite for Galileo navigation system

A Russian carrier rocket has delivered the second satellite for Europe’s Galileo navigation system into orbit, Russia’s Space Agency (Roscosmos) said on Sunday.

The experimental satellite, Giove-B, was put into orbit by a Soyuz carrier rocket launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan in the early hours on Sunday, Roscosmos said.

“The foreign satellite separated from the Russian Fregat acceleration unit at the designated time and the space vehicle was transferred to the customer for control,” Roscosmos said.

The Galileo new positioning and communications system will eventually comprise 30 satellites and is expected to become operational from 2013.

Galileo will be Europe’s own global navigation satellite system, providing highly accurate global positioning service under civilian control. It will operate along with Russia’s GLONASS (global navigation satellite system) and the U.S. GPS (Global Positioning System).

Kasparov attacked with smoke flare in central Moscow

Moscow police detained two students accused of throwing a smoke flare at opposition leader and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, a police spokesperson said on Thursday.

The incident took place around midday as the leader of the United Civil Front was leaving an independent press center in the city center.

“Two young people threw a smoke flare under his feet and escaped,” the police representative said.

The spokesperson said the suspects, who were later arrested, turned out to be students from the provinces. No information has been released on whether they belong to political youth movements.

Kasparov is an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, who he accuses of turning Russia into a “police state.”

He was arrested in central Moscow in late November while leading a pre-election coalition rally for opposition coalition The Other Russia. Kasparov was held in custody for five days, on charges of violating laws on public meetings.

Moscow authorities set to ban gay parade again

Moscow authorities said they will ban all attempts to hold unsanctioned events by the gay community over the May holidays, City Hall said Thursday.

“The capital’s authorities will not permit unauthorized actions by sexual minorities in Moscow scheduled for May 1 and 2,” the City Hall press service said in a statement.

Moscow authorities rejected official applications by Gay Parade organizers in 2006 and 2007 for permission to march, on the grounds that it would interfere with the rights and everyday lives of ordinary Muscovites.

The statement also ran that the authorities would block all attempts to hold such events “as society’s absolute majority does not accept gay lifestyles or their philosophy.”

Mayor Yury Luzhkov has branded gay pride parades “Satanic” and vowed that they would never be permitted in the capital, while the Russian Orthodox Church and various far-right groups have sworn to halt any attempt to hold a march in support of gay rights in Russia.

Last year, Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court ruled that a city ban on holding a Gay Pride Parade was legal. Around 100 protestors subsequently gathered outside City Hall to submit a petition to the mayor against what they called an ‘unfounded and illegal prohibition on holding the march in support of sexual minorities in Russia.’

The protest turned violent and a British gay rights activist was kicked and beaten by nationalists, and police detained 31 people, including two Italian members of the European parliament, in the ensuing skirmish.

Homosexuality was legalized in Russia in 2003, but discrimination against gays and lesbians remains widespread. The hostile crowd during the 2007 May demonstration included people carrying crosses and wearing Orthodox Church dress, along with ultranationalists.

 

Russian bombers refuel in flight under NATO watch

Russian Tu-95 Bear strategic bombers and two Il-78 aerial tankers performed in-flight refueling accompanied by NATO fighters during a routine patrol flight over the Atlantic, a Russian Air Force spokesman said Thursday.

“Two Tu-95 bombers and two Il-78 planes have successfully completed a 15-hour routine patrol over neutral Atlantic waters,” Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky said. “They were accompanied by NATO Tornado and F-16 fighters, including during in-flight refueling.”

Drobyshevsky said the crews practiced their in-flight refueling techniques, allowing the bombers to remain in the air for more than 24 hours, which are considered extremely difficult, “especially when the Russian planes are accompanied by NATO interceptors.”

Interceptions of Russian combat aircraft by NATO fighters are becoming a common occurrence again, after Russia resumed strategic bomber patrol flights over the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic oceans last August, following an order signed by President Vladimir Putin

Although it was common practice during the Cold War for both the U.S. and the Soviet Union to keep nuclear strategic bombers permanently airborne, the Kremlin cut long-range patrols in 1992. The decision came as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the ensuing economic and political chaos.

However, the newly-resurgent Russia, awash with petrodollars, has invested heavily in military technology, and the resumption of long-range patrols is widely seen among political commentators as another sign of its drive to assert itself both militarily and politically.

Russia through the eyes of the world’s press

As a country that plays an important role in world politics, Russia draws a lot of media coverage. LexisNexis, a company which runs an archive of printed sources has carried out an analysis of Russian stories in the world press over a two-week period.

Around 37,000 printed news sources from more than 100 countries published in 23 different languages were scanned, ranging

from the world’s leading newspapers, such as the Financial Times and Washington Post to the regional press in various countries.

Among the countries that give a lot of column inches to Russia are the U.S., Britain and France. Almost 30 per cent of articles about Russia published in America were devoted to the recent NATO Summit in Bucharest. In the French press the ratio was 20 per cent. 

The second most popular Russian topic in the American and British media was energy security. Gazprom, TNK BP, Lukoil and Rosneft were the most mentioned. LexisNexis said it was because these countries depend on Russia’s oil and gas, while in France, which uses more nuclear energy, Russia’s natural resources were less discussed.

Other key issues were Russia’s investment climate and its ambition to enter the WTO. As for the tone of stories about Russia among different countries, neutral stories were more numerous than positive or negative ones.

Russia’s image in Spain’s mass media was more negative than positive. Nick West, LexisNexis Strategy Director, explained this tendency.

“Most of the negative coverage focused on tensions between Russia and the U.S. about missile shields in Europe and Russian pressure on NATO not to admit Ukraine and Georgia. Apparently, Spain is taking a pro-U.S. stance,” West said.

Another NATO member, Italy, doesn’t cover Russian stories through the prism of its relations with the alliance. The Italian press focuses on energy and investment in Russia and gives the most positive take on the country.

 

U.S. scientists raise doubts about anti-missile shield

American scientists have expressed doubts to U.S. Congress about the effectiveness of the planned anti-missile defence shield in Europe. They say the system would not be able to provide the U.S. and Europe with protection against Iran and North Korea.A senior advisor at the Centre for Defence Information says the system in its current form is not yet proven in real-life situations.

Russia insists that the possible construction of AMD bases in Poland and the Czech Republic is a threat to its national security.

During the latest negotiations, the U.S. acknowledged Russian concerns and offered to be fully transparent about its plans. Negotiations are set to continue.

Belarus again advises U.S. to reduce embassy staff

Belarus has again called on the United States to reduce its embassy staff in Minsk, a statement from the country’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

Earlier in the month Belarusian Foreign Minister Viktor Gaisenok asked the U.S. to cut its diplomatic staff to seven, i.e. an ambassador and six embassy personnel, but Washington has so far not made any response.

This time the statement did not specify the number of personnel that Minsk wants to see at the U.S. diplomatic mission, but said that the Foreign Ministry summoned on April 23 the U.S. charge d’affaires in Belarus, Jonathan Moore, to deliver the official note.

Belarus recalled its ambassador earlier in March for consultations and demanded that the U.S. cut the number of embassy staff in Belarus by half. The U.S. agreed.

Until recently the U.S. employed 38 diplomats in Belarus, and Minsk had 18 diplomatic staff in Washington.

Tensions between the two countries heightened after Washington imposed sanctions last November against Belarus’s state-controlled petrochemical company Belneftekhim and froze the assets of its U.S. subsidiary. American companies were banned from dealing with it.

The U.S. and the European Union have accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of clamping down on dissent, stifling the media and rigging elections. Lukashenko, who was re-elected to a third term in 2006, and other senior Belarusian officials have been blacklisted from entering the U.S. and EU.

Russian bombers patrol over Atlantic Ocean

Two Russian Tu-95 Bear strategic bombers and two Il-78 aerial tankers are carrying out routine patrols over neutral Atlantic waters, a Russian Air Force spokesman said on Wednesday.

Interceptions of Russian combat aircraft by NATO fighters are becoming a common occurrence again, after Russia resumed strategic bomber patrol flights over the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic oceans last August, following an order signed by President Vladimir Putin

“During the flights the crews develop their flying skills in northern latitudes, over unmarked terrain,” Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky said.

He said the crews also perfect their in-flight refueling techniques, allowing the bombers to remain in the air for more than 24 hours and is considered extremely difficult “especially when the Russian planes are accompanied by NATO interceptors.”

“All Russian Air Force flights are performed…in strict accordance with international rules on the use of airspace over neutral waters without violating the borders of other states,” he also said.

Although it was common practice during the Cold War for both the U.S. and the Soviet Union to keep nuclear strategic bombers permanently airborne, the Kremlin cut long-range patrols in 1992. The decision came as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the ensuing economic and political chaos.

However, the newly-resurgent Russia, awash with petrodollars, has invested heavily in military technology, and the resumption of long-range patrols is widely seen among political commentators as another sign of its drive to assert itself both militarily and politically.

Russia plans nuclear project for Kaliningrad

RIA Novosti commentator Tatyana Sinitsyna

Russian plans to build a nuclear power plant in the Kaliningrad Region have provoked protests from Europeans concerned about environmental and radiological safety.

The plant is intended to ensure the Baltic enclave’s energy security. Russian physicist Anatoly Zrodnikov once said, “The world is now not ruled by the dollar or the euro, but by the joule.” (The joule is a unit of energy measuring heat, electricity and mechanical work named after English physicist James Prescott Joule).

There are many nuclear power plants in Europe, notably in France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Finland.

A nuclear power plant is absolutely necessary for the Kaliningrad Region. It will ensure its competiveness and sustainable development, Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Federal Nuclear Power Agency, Rosatom, said when signing the framework agreement on the construction of the plant on April 16.

The other signatory was the regional governor, Georgy Boos, who said energy supply was a major headache for the region because gas prices keep rising.

Speaking before regional Duma deputies, Kiriyenko said, “The nuclear power plant is vital for that part of Europe in terms of market and energy security.”

The European Union, and especially Kaliningrad’s Baltic neighbors, do not like the idea of the nuclear power plant. But nuclear power generation seems to be the only solution now in view of the feared global energy crisis. Experts say that energy consumption will double by 2050.

Even such small countries as Albania and Estonia are considering building nuclear power plants. Lithuania, which does not want to part with its energy comfort, is planning to build a new Ignalina plant instead of the old one. The Baltic countries on both sides of the Kaliningrad Region are prepared to pool their funds to finance Lithuania’s project. Finland, which has four nuclear reactors and will commission a fifth one in 2009, has announced its intention to build another two or three reactors.

The EU looks benevolently on its members’ nuclear ambitions, but complains about environmental and other dangers when Russia advances nuclear plans. Twenty-two years after the Chernobyl disaster, the world should have cured itself of radiophobia.

As the saying goes, “once bitten, twice shy,” but the probability of an accident at a modern nuclear reactor is one in a million. Such reassuring figures do little to assuage the public, however.

Russia could simply disregard the opinion of its neighbors, but it respects Europe and its standards – especially since the Kaliningrad Region is surrounded by EU countries.

On the other hand, many EU countries in the Baltic region either already have, or plan to build, nuclear power plants, and so the Russian enclave is located in a hypothetical nuclear risk zone. It can continue to buy energy from neighboring countries at market prices, or build its own nuclear power plant.

Besides, the Kaliningrad plant will provide electricity not only to the enclave, but also to its close and distant neighbors. According to experts, the plant’s two reactors will enable Russia to diversify its foreign trade by selling not only commodities (oil and gas) but also high-tech nuclear generated electricity.

In short, Russia plans to make a strong geopolitical move, and it is probably this that worries Europe most of all.

The planned Kaliningrad plant is similar to the Belene nuclear power plant in Bulgaria, which has been certified by the EU. This should be enough to allay Europe’s fears. But it is also worried by the plant’s huge capacity. After long debates, it has finally accepted the experts’ arguments that a plant with two 1150 MW reactors will be the best choice economically and operationally.

The two twin reactors with common infrastructure will make the plant cheaper and ensure that operation will not be interrupted by routine maintenance shutdowns of one of the reactors.

Experts have estimated the cost of the project at 5 billion euros. Atomstroyexport, Russia’s nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly, will be the main contractor.

This, too, should go some way to allaying European safety concerns. Atomstroyexport is known for working to the highest standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and European requirements for nuclear projects. It was granted the EUR (European Utility Requirements) certificate for the Belene project.

Foreign investors and nuclear construction companies will be invited to take part in the Kaliningrad project. Russian legislation dictates that the state owns and holds controlling stakes in all nuclear power plants. However, Russia is ready to offer foreign partners, above all European ones, a 49% stake in the Kaliningrad plant, Kiriyenko said.

Several potential partners have already expressed interest in supplying equipment to the plant. Now that the agreement has been signed, talks will be held officially.

As for investment, Rosatom plans to consider the issue thoroughly and hold a tender, even though “some investors have expressed willingness to buy everything without a tender,” Kiriyenko said.

The decision to build the plant was made after a yearlong survey. Since the plant cannot be built on the Baltic coast for geophysical reasons, it will be built inland, on the area of 13.300 square kilometers, some 120 km (75 miles) from the capital city in the east of the region.

The project will be adapted to the site geographically, will take into account possible environmental effects, undergo thorough ecological expertise and will be approved only after public debates.

Russia Air Force to get new Tu-160 strategic bomber in April

 

A new Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bomber will enter service with Russia’ Air Force by the end of this month, the Air Force chief said on Tuesday.

“We hope that the 121st heavy bomber regiment [based at Engels airbase in the Saratov Region] will receive a new Tu-160 plane on April 29,” Col.Gen. Alexander Zelin said.

“It is a fully upgraded plane, adapted to new weapons systems,” he said.

He added that another three to four such bombers will enter service before the end of the year.

The Tu-160 Blackjack is a supersonic, variable-geometry heavy bomber, designed to strike strategic targets with nuclear and conventional weapons deep in continental theatres of operation.

The aircraft has all-weather, day-and-night capability and can operate at all geographical latitudes. Its two internal rotary launchers can each hold 6 Raduga Kh-55 cruise missiles or 12 Raduga Kh-15 short-range nuclear missiles.

The plane bears a strong resemblance to the U.S. B-1A Lancer strategic bomber, although it is significantly larger, and with far greater range, up to 11,000 miles without refueling.

According to official reports, there are at least 15 Tu-160 bombers in service with the Russian Air Force. Russia plans to upgrade the existing fleet and build at least one new bomber every one-two years to increase the number of available aircraft to 30 in the near future.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the resumption of strategic patrol flights last August, saying that although the country had halted long-distance strategic flights to remote regions in 1992, other nations had continued the practice, and that this compromised Russian national security.

Although it was common practice during the Cold War for both the U.S. and the Soviet Union to keep nuclear strategic bombers permanently airborne, the Kremlin cut long-range patrols in 1992. The decision came as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the ensuing economic and political chaos.

However, the newly-resurgent Russia, awash with petrodollars, has invested heavily in military technology, and the resumption of long-range patrols is widely seen among political commentators as another sign of its drive to assert itself both militarily and politically.

 

Russian Navy conducts tactical missile drill in Barents Sea

 

The nuclear powered missile cruiser Pyotr Velikiy of Russia’s Northern Fleet has completed a missile firing exercise in the Barents Sea, a Navy spokesman said on Wednesday.

“The live fire exercise was carried out as part of a tactical drill at a test site in the Barents Sea,” Capt. 1st Rank Igor Dygalo said.

He said, in particular, the battle-cruiser had successfully engaged a mock target launched from the missile ship Rassvet.

The cruiser also repulsed a mock air attack with an onboard antiaircraft complex.

Dygalo said Pyotr Velikiy’s operations in the Barents Sea were ensured by Northern Fleet warships and support vessels.

 

Kyrgyzstan says Russian officer “accidentally shot” by traffic cop

Kyrgyzstan’s Interior Ministry said on Monday a Russian airbase serviceman hospitalized after a clash with a Kyrgyz traffic policeman was accidentally shot.

The ministry earlier said the officer and a fellow Russian base serviceman, along with a Kyrgyz national, ignored police orders to stop their vehicle on Sunday. They were chased by police and forced to stop near the Kant airbase, about 20 miles west of the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.

“A traffic police officer approached the car and demanded ID,” Deputy Interior Minister Temirkan Subanov said. “The serviceman behind the wheel refused to comply, insulted the officer, and attempted to seize his gun.”

Subanov said the Kyrgyz officer fired his gun inadvertently in the ensuring clash. The gun was cocked as he had earlier fired several warning shots into the air, the deputy minister said.

The Russian Embassy in Bishkek said on Sunday that the Russians had been attacked for an unknown reason, and that one of the attackers had shot the serviceman several times while he was lying on the ground. The embassy has demanded an investigation into the incident.

The condition of Maxim Zotov, 24, the head of the Russian airbase’s financial service brought to a Bishkek hospital with a bullet wound to his right lung and spleen and rib fractures, remains serious, but that he has “shown signs of recovery,” the country’s Health Ministry said on Monday.

A senior Kyrgyz Interior Ministry official engaged in the investigation said the use of weapons was justified.

 

Chinese national stabbed in St. Petersburg

A Chinese national is in a critical condition in a St. Petersburg hospital after being stabbed by an unknown assailant in Russia’s second city, a police source said on Monday.

The man, who works for a local construction company, was stabbed in the stomach. An investigation into the attack is ongoing.

This year has seen a further rise in the number of attacks on foreigners in the city. Late last month a Ghanaian student was beaten and stabbed in the city center. In mid-March an Uzbek national was stabbed to death in St. Petersburg and another was found dead in the Leningrad Region.

Russians are not like many people in the West. They want to defend their territory.

Over 110 aircraft to take part in CIS command-and-staff drill

 

More than 110 military aircraft from eight CIS states will take part in a large-scale command-and-staff exercise on April 22 led by the Joint Air Defense Force, a senior Russian military official said Monday.

“Over 20 scenarios will be rehearsed, designed at strengthening the air space of CIS countries – Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan,” said Lt.Gen. Vadim Volkovitsky, deputy commander of the Russian Air Force.

He said command of the drill will be provided by Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin, Russian Air Force chief, from the Central Command and Control Post.

More than 10 missile, air defense, anti-aircraft, and electronic warfare units will rehearse missions to protect the air space around Moscow and the Central Federal District.

MiG-29 Fulcrum and Su-27 Flanker fighters will practice interception missions.

 

 

Iran and Russia need not fight for gas market

Russia, Iran will continue to observe Soviet-era Caspian treaty

Russia will stick to the 1921 and 1940 treaties with Iran on the Caspian Sea until a new convention on the sea’s status is adopted, a senior Foreign Ministry official said on Wednesday.

The status of the inland sea has been a source of long-running disagreements between the five littoral states – Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan – since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

“Russia’s position is that until we produce a new convention the agreements that are still valid between the Soviet Union and Iran will remain in force,” said Alexander Golovin, the Foreign Ministry’s special envoy, who headed the Russian delegation at a regular meeting of the Caspian working group in Tehran.

Under the 1921 and 1940 treaties between the Soviet Union and Iran, no borders were ever established. Moreover, the treaties related to shipping and fishing regulations, without covering oil and gas exploration.

Gololvin reiterated Russia’s opposition to the introduction of unilateral demarcation lines, zones and borders on the Caspian.

Iran has insisted it will not sign any agreements on the status of the oil-rich sea until its national interests in the region are fully safeguarded. Iran, whose portion makes up only 14% of the Caspian shoreline, is demanding 20% of the sea.

At a summit in Tehran in October 2007, Caspian leaders failed to make any headway in resolving the dispute, but adopted a joint political declaration promoting efforts to build and enhance mutual confidence, regional security, and stability, and to refrain from the use of force in solving mutual problems.

The Caspian leaders are expected to hold the next summit in Baku later this year.

Russia to build nuclear plant in Baltic exclave

Russia plans to build a nuclear power plant in its Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad with the participation of European companies, the head of nuclear power agency Rosatom announced on Wednesday.

Sergei Kiriyenko told reporters: “We are ready to offer foreign partners, primarily European ones, up to 49% in the Kaliningrad Nuclear Power Plant.”

He said the power station will be a slightly modernized version of the Belene plant being built by Russian contractor Atomstroyexport in Bulgaria, and that foreign companies will be invited to supply equipment for the facility’s construction.

Atomstroyexport will be the main contractor of the project, and partners will be chosen in the near future, he said.

“Whoever offers the best price will be chosen to supply equipment,” Kiriyenko said.

Outside View: Why a Russia-Iran gas fight?

Iran has stepped up its diplomatic activity, suggesting that its conflict with the West over its nuclear program is losing momentum, and the use of military force to settle it is no longer the only option.

Americans, who are preparing for presidential elections, are more concerned about Iraq and the mortgage crisis.

But when analyzing the situation from the Russian perspective, we should remember that Iran has added energy to the quiver of its military and political arrows. Its advance to the global gas market could disrupt the current balance of interests there.

Iran is the world’s fourth-largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait, and has the second largest gas reserves after Russia.

Missile defense – back to the sixties

RIA Novosti military commentator Ilya Kramnik

 

On par with NATO’s expansion, deployment of a U.S. missile defense system has already become the most sensitive issue in Russia’s relations with the West.

When discussing the political side of this issue, many forget about its military-technical and operational aspects, which override everything else.

U.S. missile defense has two directions. The first one is theatre missile defense, a system designed to protect the troops and bases of the United States and its allies against tactical missiles with a range of 700km-800km. The second direction is the formation of a global system of missile defense aimed at protecting the United States and its allies against medium-range and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

U.S. withdrawal from the 1972 Soviet-American ABM Treaty, which imposed a direct ban on national missile defense, and the start of its deployment, has caused the worst crisis in Russian-American relations since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Russian military and diplomats have serious grounds for concern because this treaty was the main guarantee of nuclear missile parity.

Today, the U.S. global missile defense system consists of three echelons. The main one is based on the ground, and has the greatest potential for intercepting ICBMs. It includes two positioning areas for ground-based interceptors (GBIs) – in Alaska and California. These Boeing-produced missiles are targeted by early warning and acquisition radars. Such radars are located in Norway and Greenland.

In the next ten years, the ground-based echelon will be supplemented with a third positioning area in Europe. As the first two areas, it will include GBIs and early warning and acquisition radars. Today, these functions are combined in a single “firing” radar.

GBIs are the backbone of the ground-based echelon. PAC-3 and THAAD missile systems will also be used against ballistic targets. The latter has a cutting edge hit-to-kill capability and is primarily designed for intercepting medium and shorter-range missiles.

The second echelon of U.S. missile defense consists of sea-based SM-3 missiles deployed on NAVY cruisers and destroyers, equipped with the AEGIS information and control system. These missiles can intercept both medium-range missiles and ICBMs. They are on combat duty in the regions close to the territory of a potential enemy. Thus, a group of AEGIS ships is now based in Japan (needless to say, North Korea is the main U.S. enemy in the region).

The third echelon, detection satellites, supports the operations of the first two. Moreover, in the next 10-20 years, the United States may deploy combat missile interceptors in space, and develop serial pilotless aircraft and laser-equipped interceptors, which would patrol the skies near potential enemy territory, and destroy missiles during their launch.

Despite the high technical parameters of this hardware, the planned system of U.S. missile defense will be unable to protect U.S. territory from a massive strike by ballistic missiles equipped with multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicles (MIRVs). To resolve this task, the United States will use other branches of its armed forces.

The main condition for protecting U.S. territory against a massive nuclear strike is the destruction of the maximum number of carriers and warheads before the start. In this context, in the event of an armed conflict, emphasis will be put on the active use of general purpose forces (air force, navy and special units of all branches of the armed forces) against strategic enemy nuclear potential at an early stage.

Apart from missile bases, submarines, and bombers, early warning radars will be considered priority targets. Their destruction will make a pre-emptive strike much more effective – most of the missiles which could leave their silos as soon as the launch of missiles from U.S. territory is detected, would be destroyed.

In this case, retaliation will be carried out by a small number of missiles (several dozen), which the U.S. missile defense system would be able to intercept. Single warheads, which would reach their targets, would not be able to inflict unacceptable damage. This is the main task of the missile defense system – to prevent “unacceptable damage” and “assured destruction.” These two factors were the main deterrent to a new world war for several decades – since the Soviet Union developed ICBMs.

If a potential U.S. enemy wants to ward off such a scenario, its only option would be to launch a pre-emptive strike itself, while destroying the missile defense systems. Thus, missile defense can take the world back to the 1960s, when war was seen as an exchange of major nuclear strikes.

Moreover, other nuclear powers are bound to take part in such a conflict. Today’s warheads are much more precise and have a smaller yield than in the sixties, and therefore humans could survive such an exchange, but living under the permanent threat of nuclear war is very uncomfortable.

Russia ups pressure on ex-war crimes prosecutor Del Ponte

 

RIA Novosti

Russia’s delegation to PACE has gathered sufficient signatures to force an investigation into controversial claims made by former Hague Tribunal prosecutor Carla Del Ponte in her book.

On Tuesday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry asked the office of the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to provide an explanation and details of crimes described in a book by Del Ponte, who stepped down as the UN’s chief war crimes prosecutor in January.

The tribunal confirmed on April 11 that it has received the Russian ministry’s request.

In her book entitled The Hunt: Me and War Criminals, Carla del Ponte described atrocities against Kosovo Serbs and other ethnic groups committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during 1998-99.

Last Monday, the ministry denounced a ruling by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia last week which saw a former Kosovo prime minister acquitted for crimes committed during the conflict between Kosovo and Serbia in 1998-1999.

Ramush Haradinaj, 39, a former KLA guerilla leader, accused of organizing the rape, murder and intimidation of thousands of Serbs and Roma was found ‘not guilty’ on April 3.

The ministry said in an official statement the verdict “questions the impartibility and objectiveness of the International Criminal Tribunal” and accused the court of “double standards” in their treatment of conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.

According to claims made in Del Ponte’s book, Haradinaj was involved in the sale of organs taken from prisoners executed in Kosovo.

She alleges that there was sufficient evidence for prosecution of Kosovo Albanians involved in war crimes, but it “was nipped in the bud” focusing on “the crimes committed by Serbia.”

The claims have caused a storm in Serbia and among the international community. The president of the Association of Families of Kidnapped and Missing Serbs in Kosovo, Simo Spasic, said he wanted to sue Carla Del Ponte for “concealing the crimes.”

 

Italy to extradite two suspects to Russia

Italy will extradite to Russia on Monday a Moldovan accused of abduction and extortion and an Russian-Israeli national accused of smuggling works of art, the Russian bureau of Interpol said.

The bureau said Ion Fynaru, 27, accused of kidnap and extortion with the use of violence as member of an organized criminal group in 2003 in Moscow, was detained in Italy in 2006.

Mikhail Pombrik, 77, accused of smuggling art works, has been on the Interpol wanted list since 2004, and was arrested in Italy in May last year. He fled to Italy from Israel, where he previously served a two-year jail term for assault.

Fynaru and Pombrik will be extradited to Russia by a convoy made up of officers from the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service and Interpol’s bureau in Russia.

Teacher finds old coins worth over $20,000 in Central Russia

A total of 8,000 old coins worth over 500,000 rubles ($20,000) have been found in an abandoned church in central Russia’s Lipetsk Region, a local scientist and archeologist said.

The find was discovered by a local teacher, who took her class to help in restoring an abandoned church near Lipetsk, used as a grain warehouse in Soviet times. The coins were discovered in a metal chest, which the teacher accidently found when her foot went through a floor board.

“The metal chest with coins was hidden under the church floor, near the altar. Many coins were wrapped in oiled paper,” Alexander Bessudnov said.

He said that of almost 8,000 coins, 700 were silver. The treasure was taken to a nearby police station in buckets.

“The oldest coins dated back to 1737, while the newest one was minted in 1914, three medals were also found,” the archaeologist said. “All [the coins] are well-preserved and are virtually uncorroded, probably, because the church stands on a hill.”

Although the teacher will receive 25% of the treasure’s value, it is still unclear what will happen to the rest of the coins.

“Russian law does not specifically cover procedures for handling treasure,” the head of the local cultural heritage department, Andrei Naidenov, said. “That’s why everything is up to the local authorities.”

According to a member of the local Christian community, villagers expect the money will be used to restore the church.

It is still not known who the owner of the coins is and why they were buried in the church. One version said the chest may have been buried by a former church leader, who died in 1914, while other people say that a priest named Pyotr Nadezhdin buried the coins to save them from the Bolsheviks.

“Similar cases have occurred in other regions,” Naidenov said.

This is the second archaeological find in Lipetsk in just over a year. In March 2007 archaeologists found a chest containing two silver goblets, a cigarette case and 1,050 coins in the foundations of an old house in downtown Lipetsk.

Russia to test flight new-generation space rocket in 2010

Flight tests of a new-generation Russian space launch vehicle will start in 2010, the director of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Center said on Monday.

The Angara rocket, currently under development, is designed to put heavy payloads into orbit. It is mainly planned for launch from the Plesetsk space center, in northwest Russia, which will reduce Moscow’s dependence on Kazakhstan’s Baikonur, the main launch pad for the current generation of Russian rockets.

“Flight tests are due to start in 2010. In early 2011, a lighter version of Angara is to be launched and by the end of the same year a heavy-class, Angara-5 vehicle is to lift off,” Vladimir Nesterov said in an interview with the Rossiiskaya gazeta daily.

He added that the Angara will not only be used for military but also civilian purposes, specifically to put into orbit satellites as part of the Federal Space Program, as well as joint international space projects.

The new line of rockets will be available in a range of configurations capable of lifting between two and 24.5 metric tons to low-earth orbit.

Nesterov also said the center could, if necessary, develop a new super-heavy-lift rocket capable of putting into orbit payloads of between 45 and 175 tons.

Russia’s Sukhoi to become fourth largest fighter jet maker

 

Russia’s Sukhoi aircraft manufacturer will rank fourth globally in terms of fighter plane production up to 2012, the company’s press service said on Monday, citing a market researcher.

Forecast International, which specializes in defense market research and consulting, said that in 2008-2012 the world leader will be Lockheed Martin with 346 fighters (23.9%) followed by Eurofighter with 290 (20%), China’s Chengdu Aircraft with 228 (15.7%), Sukhoi with 177 (12.2%) and Boeing with 159 (11%).

Sukhoi, which is part of Russia’s United Aircraft Building Corporation (UABC), is the country’s largest aircraft exporter.

The company trades in ready machinery, spare parts and assemblies, and carries out repairs and upgrades on previously sold models.

 

Russia could pay off $3 billion debt to World Bank in June

 

RIA Novosti

 

Russia could repay a $3 billion debt early to the World Bank in June, a Russian deputy finance minister said on Monday.

“We are likely to pay off single-currency loans only. We are talking about around $3 billion. We plan to pay it off in June,” said Dmitry Pankin, who attended the 2008 spring meetings between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) in Washington.

Russia’s debt to the WB stands at around $4.5 billion.

Though the issue of Russia’s early debt payment was not raised at the Washington meeting, Pankin said, relevant agreements were available, and the process was underway despite technical difficulties.

“As to multi-currency loans, we will see, calculate and attempt to verify each loan. We may repay more later in the year,” the official said.

Pankin said Russia’s Finance Ministry planned to submit later in April a draft resolution on repaying the final, third tranche of the former Soviet trade debt of around $600-700 million.

Russia is ready to exchange verified claims for Eurobonds. The two previous swaps were made in 2002 and 2006, when $1.28 billion and $1.075 billion were repaid, respectively.

Last Wednesday, the lower house of parliament instructed the State Duma’s budget and tax committee to demand information from the Russian government on the reasons for writing off over 90% of Iraqi debt this year.

In February 2008, Moscow cancelled $12 billion of Iraqi debt, or 93% of the total sum ($12.9 billion) owed by the Middle East state. The Russian Finance Ministry said the debt would be cancelled in several stages. In the first stage, 65% would be written off. The remaining $4.5 billion debt would be cancelled in two stages, subject to further negotiations.

“The initiative was not from the Finance Ministry, this was a government decision,” Pankin said.

 

Statue To Pioneering Russian Space Dog Unveiled In Moscow

Laika was launched into space on November 3, 1957 and died a few hours later from overheating.

A bronze monument to a former street dog called Laika, which was the first living creature in space and paved the way for manned flights, was unveiled in northwest Moscow on Friday. The monument, erected a day before Russia’s Cosmonautics Day celebrated on April 12, is a two-meter (6.5 feet) high space rocket with Laika proudly standing on top.

The three-year-old mongrel, originally named Kudryavka or ‘little curly-haired one,’ was selected from an animal shelter to become the first living passenger to fly on the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2.

Russia Should Promote Hi-Tech, Not Just Space Services – Putin

ussia should not only be involved in orbiting foreign-made satellites and payloads but promote its hi-tech developments and services, President Vladimir Putin said Friday. “We need to significantly expand our presence on the global market for space products and services,” he said. He said an effective space program could become a significant factor in innovative economic development, calling for new ambitious space projects to be implemented.

Putin said it was necessary to begin financing the Vostochny space center in Russia’s Far East this year and urged its construction to be speeded up.

Last November President Putin signed a decree to construct a new space center, named Vostochny, in the Amur Region.

“We must begin [the construction] now. Finances for its construction must be allocated this year,” he said.

Statue To Pioneering Russian Space Dog Unveiled In Moscow

A bronze monument to a former street dog called Laika, which was the first living creature in space and paved the way for manned flights, was unveiled in northwest Moscow on Friday. The monument, erected a day before Russia’s Cosmonautics Day celebrated on April 12, is a two-meter (6.5 feet) high space rocket with Laika proudly standing on top.

 

The three-year-old mongrel, originally named Kudryavka or ‘little curly-haired one,’ was selected from an animal shelter to become the first living passenger to fly on the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2.

Laika was launched into space on November 3, 1957 and died a few hours later from overheating. Officials said she died due to a lack of oxygen, but the true cause of death was only made public in October 2002.

The experiment, which marked its 50th anniversary last year, paved the way for human spaceflight and provided scientists with information on how living organisms become accustomed to space environments.

At the unveiling ceremony the head of the Institute of military medicine, Igor Ushakov, said: “I’m looking at the monument and indeed recognize Laika. She is glancing at the house where the pre-flight preparations and training took place.”

Three years after Laika’s death her successors, Belka and Strelka, went into space aboard Sputnik 5 safely returning to Earth.

Russia celebrates Cosmonautics Day on April 12 in honor of the historic first manned space flight made by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961.

Russia to increase security if Georgia, Ukraine join NATO

 

Russia will be forced to strengthen security on its borders if Georgia and Ukraine join NATO, Army General Yury Baluyevsky, chief of the country’s General Staff, said on Friday.

At a summit in Bucharest last Thursday, NATO members decided to postpone offeringGeorgia and Ukraine the chance to join the NATO Membership Action Plan, a key step toward full membership, but promised to review the decision in December.

“Russia will undoubtedly take measures to ensure its security near the state border. These will be both military and other measures,” Baluyevsky said.

When asked to give details of the possible measures, Baluyevsky said that “We will wait, as the issue is ambiguous.”

“Ukrainians are unanimously against Ukraine joining NATO,” the military official said adding that in Georgia about 70% of the population is in favor of membership, but there is still time and this could change.

NATO’s eastward expansion, as well as U.S. plans to deploy components of an anti-missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic, have been a source of concern for Moscow.

Last week Russian President Vladimir Putin told a news conference after meeting with leaders of the 26-nation alliance on the sidelines of the Bucharest summit that “The appearance on our borders of a powerful military bloc… will be considered by Russia as a direct threat to our country’s security.”

In an interview with RIA Novosti on Friday Mikhail Kamynin, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said that one of the problematic issues between Moscow and Kiev is “the course of the Ukrainian authorities toward integration into NATO.”

The issue of Ukraine’s drive for NATO will be discussed among other issues between Ukrainian Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow on April 15.

Konstantin Kosachyov, the head of the international affairs committee, said that Ukraine’s possible NATO admission would completely destroy cooperation between Moscow and Kiev in the defense sector.

“Bilateral cooperation between Russia and Ukraine in the security sphere, which was established in the Soviet era by integrating respective structures and continues developing, will end if Ukraine joins NATO,” Kosachyov said.

 

 

Japan against joining U.S. global missile shield – Baluyevsky

RIA Novosti

Japan will not join the U.S. global missile defense network in the near future despite close cooperation with the U.S. on boosting its own missile defenses, Russia’s chief of the General Staff said Friday.

“Japan is not planning to integrate its national missile shield into the U.S. global missile network,” Gen. Yury Baluyevsky said after talks with his Japanese counterpart Adm. Takashi Saito in Moscow.

Under a December 2004 missile defense cooperation arrangement with the U.S., Japan intends to build by 2011 a national missile-defense network comprising sea- and land-based components.

Japan’s determination to boost its missile defenses was strengthened after North Koreaconducted a series of ballistic missile tests in July 2006, and an underground nuclear test explosion three months later.

Japan’s Cabinet endorsed in December 2007 a review of emergency missile defense rules giving Self-Defense Forces (SDF) the discretion to fire missile interceptors without the premier’s go ahead.

The government also authorized the use of U.S. SM-3 interceptor missiles as part of Japan’s two-layer missile shield.

The U.S. sea-based SM-3 interceptor missiles are designed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles in mid-trajectory at altitudes up to 300 kilometers (about 190 miles), while land-based U.S. Patriot PAC-3 systems, which will be deployed at four ground-to-air missile units, are expected to shoot down missiles before they hit the ground.

During a test-launch on December 17 last year from the Japanese Aegis-equipped destroyer Kongou, an SM-3 interceptor shot down a simulated target over the Pacific near Hawaii.

However, Japan is opposed to the use of space-based elements in a global missile shield which Washington is proposing.

U.S. plans to deploy elements of the missile shield in Central Europe are expected to cost $1.6 billion over the next five years. The program will later be expanded to include sea-based missiles and missile tracking systems in space.

Washington insists that space-based systems would provide anti-missile protection independent of geographic location, strategic warning or permission to deploy bases, and would make it possible to intercept ballistic missiles in mid-trajectory.

Russian aircraft will ensure blue skies in Moscow on Victory Day

 

Up to 12 military aircraft will disperse clouds to ensure good weather over Red Square during Victory Day celebrations in Moscow on May 9, an Air Force spokesman said on Friday.

Employing techniques perfected over decades, Moscow authorities plan to use environmentally friendly and harmless chemicals to clear clouds and prevent rain. Last year the Russian Air Force dispersed clouds above the city using dry ice, silver iodide and cement powder.

Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky said “the most experienced An-12, Il-18 and An-26 crews” would be used to guarantee good weather in the Russian capital.

The weather regime will start on May 7, and preparations will begin from May 5, Drobyshevsky added.

Victory Day marks the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union in the Second World War. The conflict is commonly referred to as the Great Patriotic War in Russia.

More than 30 military aircraft are due to fly over Red Square during the May 9 military parade which will see a display of the country’s most advanced weaponry, such as BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles, BTR-80 armored personnel carriers, T-90 tanks, and Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile mobile launchers.

The Air Force will be represented by Tu-160 Blackjack and Tu-95 Bear strategic bombers, Su-34 Fullback fighter-bombers, MiG-31 Foxhound interceptors, An-124 Condor heavy-lift transport planes and helicopters of various types.

Cloud seeding causes an intensive crystallization process which produces ice crystals that are normally dispersed hundreds of meters from the target area.

 

Moscow air defenses to be strengthened next year – 16th Air Army

 

The main unit of Russia’s Air Force protecting western and central Russian airspace, including Moscow, will undergo a major overhaul next year, the commander of the 16th Air Army said on Friday.

The 16th Air Army is the most important unit of the Special Purpose Command. Initially formed during the Second World War as a part of the Soviet Air Force, it is now the tactical air force component of the Moscow Military District, headquartered at Kubinka airbase near Moscow.

“We will start transforming the 16th Air Army into an Air Force and Air Defense army in 2009,” Major General Alexander Belevich said, adding that the major changes would reflect the addition of air defense units and strengthening of existing units.

The army will receive new Su-34 Fullback fighter-bombers by the end of 2008, the general said.

The first two Su-34s were procured by the Defense Ministry in 2007 and have been deployed at the Lipetsk pilot training center for practical training of military pilots.

Designed by Sukhoi, the $36 million Su-34 fighter-bomber is a two-seat strike aircraft fitted with twin AL-31MF afterburner turbojet engines. It is designed to deliver high-precision strikes on heavily-defended targets under any weather conditions, day or night, and is equipped with a 30-mm GSh-301 cannon, up to 12 Alamo or Archer AAMs, ASMs, and bombs.

Experts say the new tactical bomber has the potential to become the top plane in its class for many years to come. A total of 70 aircraft will be purchased by 2015 to replace around 300 Su-24s, which are currently undergoing modernization to prolong their service life.

 

Statue to pioneering Russian space dog unveiled in Moscow

A bronze monument to a former street dog called Laika, which was the first living creature in space and paved the way for manned flights, was unveiled in northwest Moscow on Friday.

The monument, erected a day before Russia’s Cosmonautics Day celebrated on April 12, is a two-meter (6.5 feet) high space rocket with Laika proudly standing on top.

The three-year-old mongrel, originally named Kudryavka or ‘little curly-haired one,’ was selected from an animal shelter to become the first living passenger to fly on the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2.

Laika was launched into space on November 3, 1957 and died a few hours later from overheating. Officials said she died due to a lack of oxygen, but the true cause of death was only made public in October 2002.

The experiment, which marked its 50th anniversary last year, paved the way forhuman spaceflight and provided scientists with information on how living organisms become accustomed to space environments.

At the unveiling ceremony the head of the Institute of military medicine, Igor Ushakov, said: “I’m looking at the monument and indeed recognize Laika. She is glancing at the house where the pre-flight preparations and training took place.”

Three years after Laika’s death her successors, Belka and Strelka, went into space aboard Sputnik 5 safely returning to Earth.

Russia celebrates Cosmonautics Day on April 12 in honor of the historic first manned space flight made by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961.

Russia to put new radar station on combat duty by yearend

 

A new missile early warning radar station will go into service by the end of the current year, the Russian Space Forces commander said on Friday.

Col.Gen. Vladimir Popovkin said construction of the Voronezh-type radar in Armavir in southwest Russia is going according to schedule.

“We intend to put the station on combat duty by the end of 2008,” he said.

It was previously reported that the Armavir station would become operational in 2009.

With an effective range of 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) the Voronezh-type radar has capabilities similar to its predecessors, the Dnepr and Daryal, which are currently deployed outside Russia, but uses less power and is more environmentally friendly.

Russian top military officials said earlier the addition of new radars will provide comprehensive and reliable early warning coverage for the whole of Russia’s territory.

Washington wants to place 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar station in the neighboring Czech Republic, purportedly to counter a missile threat from Iran and other “rogue” states. Russia has fiercely opposed the plans, saying the European shield would destroy the strategic balance of forces and threaten Russia’s national interests.

President Vladimir Putin proposed last year setting up missile defense information exchange centers in Moscow and Brussels. Russia has also offered the U.S. use of radar stations at Armavir and Gabala in Azerbaijan, as alternatives to the missile shield deployment in Central Europe.

 

NATO is Ukraine’s Catastrophe

Фонд стратегической культуры

Strategic Culture Foundation

en.fondsk.ru

 

The visit to Ukraine of US president G.Bush is over. A number of bilateral documents were signed, in particular, “the road map” of US–Ukrainian cooperation that defined priorities of their short-time interaction. But different issues keep the attention of the world and Ukrainian public glued on, including other run-of-the-mill documents defining the USA and Ukraine mutual relations. What they focus on is the fact of the visit of head of US White House to Ukraine as such.

The visit of US president to Kiev right before the NATO summit in Bucharest was one of the empty body language acts the official Washington uses to indicate its influence on the Ukrainian political elute. The US is merely incapable of offering to Kiev what it expects. These expectations include: 1) large-scale assistance in the post-Communist Ukraine’s transformation; 2) real support of Ukraine’s entry into the EU.

As for US assistance, in 2005 it totalled $174 million, with $53,3 million earmarked for the implementation of social and economic reforms, a ridiculous amount when serous reforms are on the agenda, and, given the continuing aggravation of the financial situation in the United States there’s hardly anything Ukraine can currently count on.

As for Ukraine’s NATO membership that was the main topic of negotiations Bush held with his Ukrainian counterparts, Kiev is to consider this membership as a step towards another goal for Ukraine’s entry into the EU.

However in their Ukrainian policies, EU leaders stick to a firm line. They think that Ukraine’s membership in the EU is totally out of the question, so its NATO membership would change nothing. True, what Kiev is offered to create together with the EU a free-trade zone (after Ukraine becomes a WTO member). In other words, Ukraine’s status will make it equal to EU Mediterranean partners with many of whom it has free-trade agreements with. More than that, with many of them it has association agreements. But a free-trade agreement would not make Ukraine a millimetre closer to a EU membership, and Brussels would close its ears on Washington’s calls to open its doors to the “democratic Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, the option of becoming a NATO member without any prospect of getting an EU membership cannot satisfy Ukrainian elite on the whole (to say nothing of Viktor Yuschhenko). Kiev politicians realise that a NATO membership first and foremost means that Ukraine’s military and industrial complex would be technologically and financially strangled due to the severing cooperation ties with Russia and the forced refusal of deliveries of armaments to the countries that in the West are considered hostile, and secondly; the full-fledged frontier regime on the Ukrainian-Russian and Ukrainian-Belorussian frontiers with the inevitable consequences for the residents of Ukraine’s east. But Ukrainian authorities would decide to step on this “slippery” path only if they get as “compensation” real prospects of an EU membership, otherwise the course towards a NATO membership would become their political suicide.

That is why Ukrainian political heayweights, Yulia Timoshenko and Viktor Yanukovich are more and more demonstrating their reticence where issues of the North Atlantic organisations, whereas Viktor Yushchenko is the only enthusiast of Ukraine’s NATO membership, but his electoral base is melting and who would need more and more support of the United States in his striving to keep his president’s chair.

The question is how long would Ukrainian elite be satisfied with meaningless and absolutely unfeasible promises of its Western partners. Sooner or later that Ukrainian leadership will have to admit that the prospects of Ukrainian EU membership is a “carrot” that the donkey cannot get, whereas huge political costs of nothing but an attempt to ensure Ukraine’s NATO membership would have to be paid for immediately and in full.

Russia to fight terrorists ideologically

http://english.pravda.ru

Federal Security Service of Russia is going to fight terrorists not only be the means of force, but also with ideological decimator.

It is well-known that foreign intelligence often uses Nongovernmental organizations (NGO) both to obtain useful information and to force concealed influence on political processes. It was a headache for the authorities to realize that terrorists use exactly the same methods.

 

For example, the militia of Grozny noticed a car parked in the desert area. When the militia demanded to show documents, 2 passengers exerted armed resistance and flew the coop. The third passenger, Salambek Evloev, was arrested. He had the ascertainment of the International Nongovernmental organization. In the boot there were found 2 Kalashnikov guns and 3 explosive belts. The convicted man, though, stated that his mates and he cooperated with World Vision.

Perhaps such stories are also common in the USA. At least it’s known that last year the US Parliament stated that all Nongovernmental organizations need to provide detailed information about its members “to maintain national security”. NGO need to reveal its member’ names, addresses, dates and places of birth, nationality, passport and social card number. All the data than will be transformed to FBI and also to foreign intelligence that will check whether the NGO members have anything in common with terrorists.

This problem was also widely discussed in Russia, despite NGO members’ accusations in impairment of their rights and freedoms. Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service, stressed that Nongovernmental organizations play a big role in our life and only those NGOs that are holding illegal activities will be checked.

However, the first priority for the Russian militia is not that much of NGOs, but religious organizations.

The research made in Dagestan says that among 50 arrested Wahhabites only 1 understood he was wrong. After people are ideologically processed, they become real zombie, who is targeted to the only task he is commanded to do. The most frightening is, he considers it the main goal of his life.

So it’s not surprising that this problem was discussed at the National Antiterrorist Committee in Moscow. Mr. Patrushev stated that in Southern Federal District of Russia terrorists make everything to enroll youth into terrorists’ rows. Terrorists use economical and political problems as a way to draw the youth against the authorities and make them become terrorists. So, it’s necessary to oppose terrorism not only with armed methods, but also to suppress their ideology. “Domestic and international experience shows that terrorists can be damaged with weapon, but to destroy them completely we need to destroy their ideology”.

However, religious terrorism shouldn’t be divided from political terrorism. The history of armed conflicts in Eastern Europe shows that there took part countless soldiers from Middle East, Northern Africa, chains of foreign Islamic foundations, nongovernmental organizations that covered that spread radical Islamic ideology under the cover of religious activities.

 

In Kosovo, for example, a famous Saudi fund “Al- Haramein” while founding “schools of Koran research” worked in close connection with a well-organized chain of Kosovo Liberation Army. One of the main external sources of financing of Islamic organizations in Kosovo is a “Committee of Kosovo’s help in Chechnya”.

It’s probable that the Crimea will explode in the near future, where several nongovernmental religious organizations operate. For example, ‘Islam Liberation Party’, which is a moderate wing of the organization called ‘Muslim Brothers’.

By the way, the activity of one of radical religious organizations was suppressed in Ural, Russia, in 2005. The representatives of Southern Urals’s Islamic organization said that Islamic party tried to penetrate, but not as terrorists, but as oppositionists to traditional Islam. However, the risk that religious discussion will grow to jihad.

Translated by Lena Ksandinova

 

Putin triumphs against NATO expansion

President Vladimir Putin joined the NATO summit Thursday after triumphing in a bitter campaign to scupper the membership hopes of pro-Western Georgia and Ukraine.
Putin arrived in the Romanian capital Bucharest for dinner and was to deliver an address on Friday with expectations high that he will invite the alliance to use Russia for transit to the war in Afghanistan.

The ex-KGB officer, who is due to move to the prime minister’s post in May after eight years in the Kremlin, is the alliance’s most bitter critic, particularly over eastward expansion into the former Soviet bloc.

Iran proposes missile shield against U.S., Israel

Iran’s defense minister said the world needs a missile shield to protect against threats from Israel and the United States. Tehran has joined Russia in opposing U.S. plans to deploy elements of its missile defense system in Central Europe to counter possible strikes from “rogue states,” specifically Iran.

“If the world needs an anti-missile shield, it must be used to counter missiles and the nuclear menace coming from the U.S. and Israel, which directly or indirectly threaten different countries with aggression and war,” Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said. The minister said U.S. claims that the European missile shield would defend against Iran’s missiles were nothing but a sham.

“Our country’s missile arsenal is purely defense-oriented and is only a threat to aggressors,” the minister said.

Washington plans to deploy interceptor missiles in Poland in addition to installing radars in the Czech Republic. The ten missiles in Poland could be placed on duty by 2013.

Najjar said Tehran was open to cooperation with every country except Israel, whichIran does not recognize, to ensure stability and security in the Middle East.

Almost 200 militants killed in North Caucasus in 2007

RIA Novosti

 

A total of 192 militants and armed gang members were killed and more than 700 arrested in anti-terrorist operations in Russia’s North Caucasus last year, a deputy interior minister said on Thursday.

A total of 17 armed criminal groups were eliminated and 28 leaders killed in the region during the year, Arkady Yedelev said.

According to police reports from March, some 103 militants have been arrested or killed in Chechnya since the start of this year.

Yedelev also said that the number of terrorist attacks had significantly reduced over the past year: “Last year 11 terrorist attacks were registered against 39 in 2006.”

The high-ranking official added that abductions in the republic had significantly reduced over the past two years, signaling a breakthrough in the situation surrounding kidnappings.

“Eighteen criminal cases were launched for the abduction of 21 people in 2007, while in 2002 845 people were abducted in Chechnya with 611 cases opened,” Yedelev said.

Although the active phase of the North Caucasus anti-terrorist campaign officially ended in 2001, periodic bombings and clashes between gunmen and federal troops still disrupt Chechnya and nearby regions, including Daghestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Karachayevo-Circassia.

Russia bans Turkish Islamic sect Nurcular

Russia’s Supreme Court has ruled that Turkish Islamic organization Nurcular is an extremist organization, and has banned its activities in the country.

The court granted a request by Russia’s top prosecutors.

“The Supreme Court, having considered in a closed session the Prosecutor General’s Office request to protect Russia’s interests by ruling the activities international religious organization Nurcular extremist, and to ban its activities on Russian territory, decided to grant the office’s request,” the court said.

Representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Justice Ministry and Federal Security Service attended the session, but Nurcular was not represented.

The ruling can be appealed within 10 days.

According to international intelligence data, Nurcular members are connected with the Gray Wolves organization that some consider to be a terrorist group. Nurcular members include wealthy businessmen with substantial political influence in Turkey and abroad.

Russian law enforcement officers said over 20 Turkish followers of Nurcular were deported from Russia in 2002-2004.

A Moscow court ruled in May last year that translations of 14 books by Said Nursi, the sect leader, were extremist literature.

Russia completes deliveries of humanitarian aid to Kosovo Serbs

 

European Friends of Serbia

http://efserbia.wordpress.com

 

Russia completed its deliveries of aid to Serbs in north Kosovo on Thursday as an IL-76 cargo plane of the Russian Emergencies Ministry carrying 40 tons of humanitarian aid landed at a Belgrade airport.

A total of 150 metric tons of food, including canned meat and fish, baby food, rice, and sugar, along with substantial amounts of medical equipment, medicines, disinfectants and other healthcare products have now been delivered to Belgrade in four deliveries. The supplies are worth around 40 million rubles ($1.7 million).

The aid will be later transferred to a local Red Cross department for shipment to Kosovo.

Serbian Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic said earlier that Serbs urgently need humanitarian aid in Kosovo and Metohija. He estimated the number of families in need of the supplies at 8,300.

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to provide humanitarian aid to Serb areas in Kosovo last month after a request from Serbia’s government.

Kosovo, with a 90% ethnic-Albanian majority, all immigrants, has been recognized as a sovereign state by 36 countries including the United States and most European Union members since it proclaimed its independence from Serbia on February 17. Russia and China continue to back Belgrade’s position that Kosovo will always remain a part of Serbia.

 

Russia’s international reserves rise to $508 bln in week

Russia’s international reserves reached $508 billion as of April 4, up by $1.2 billion against $506.8 billion on March 28, a Central Bank spokesman said on Thursday.

Russia could claim Crimea if Ukraine joins NATO – MP

A senior member of the Russian lower house of parliament said on Wednesday that Russia could claim the Crimea if Ukraine was admitted to NATO.

NATO decided at its recent summit in Romania not to offer Ukraine and Georgia the chance to join a program that would have put them on the track to join the military alliance, but promised that the decision would be reviewed in December. The ex-Soviet republics had received strong U.S. backing for their bids.

“If Ukraine’s admission to NATO is accelerated, Russia could raise the question of which country the Crimea should be a part of,” Alexei Ostrovsky, the head of the State Duma committee on CIS affairs, said in a radio interview.

“The Russian Federation has legal grounds to revise agreements signed under Khrushchev.”

Former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who grew up in Ukraine, made the Crimean Peninsula – a territory of 26,100 sq km washed by the Black and Azov seas – part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1954. The peninsula had formerly been a part of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic.

The Crimea, now an autonomous region within Ukraine, is a predominantly Russian-speaking territory. Since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, the Crimea has unsuccessfully sought independence from Ukraine. A 1994 referendum in the Crimea supported demands for a broader autonomy and closer links with Russia.

The Russian Black Sea Fleet retains a Soviet-era base in Sevastopol in the Crimea. Disputes between Russia and Ukraine over the lease of the base are frequent.

However, Ostrovsky admitted that Ukraine was unlikely to join NATO any time soon, saying that the Ukrainian president, prime minister and parliamentary speaker were the only people in the country seeking membership of the Western military alliance. His comments referred to recent opinion polls that have indicated that about 70% of the population is opposed to joining NATO.

NATO’s ongoing expansion, as well as Washington’s missile plans for Europe and an ongoing dispute over the recognition of Kosovo by the U.S and the majority of EU states have plunged Moscow’s relations with the West to a post-Cold War low.

Rubber – Soled Tanks For Russia Red Square Parade

New York Times

Russian tanks will be fitted with rubber pads to protect the cobble stones on Red Square when they take part in the Victory Day parade for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Tanks and mobile rockets rumbling past the Kremlin were a feature of the parades on May 9 in Soviet times. Post-Communist Russia slimmed down the parade to troops and light vehicles.

This year, more than 110 tanks, missiles and artillery pieces will join the parade, along with 32 aircraft. The decision to revive the tradition is regarded by some observers as a sign the Kremlin is flexing its military muscles.

The pads will be fitted over the tanks’ metal tracks.

UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural arm, has listed the Kremlin and Red Square as a world heritage site since 1990.

The tanks and other hardware will roll past the Kremlin walls where the embalmed body of the first Bolshevik ruler, Vladimir Lenin, is still on view inside a marble mausoleum.