Happy Birthday St Pete! 305 years young

Russia’s second largest city, Saint Petersburg, is marking its 305th anniversary. Founded in 1703 by Peter the Great, it was the country’s capital until the Bolshevik revolution in 1917.Celebrations got under way with a two-day carnival. Russian’s northern capital will enjoy various open-air concerts and theatrical performances with the main events taking place next weekend. 

The city expects a rush of tourists, drawn by the so-called white nights, when it’s possible to walk the streets after midnight in almost broad daylight.

Russian communists call to boycott Indiana Jones, a movie for perverts

St. Petersburg communists have spiced up the distribution of a new film about Indiana Jones in Russia. As soon as the film opened in cinemas across Russia, the communists of St. Petersburg called to boycott “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”

In Steven Spielberg’s new film archeology professor Jones competes with Soviet intelligence agents headed by agent Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) who speaks with a Ukrainian accent. The film is set in 1957 during the Cold War.

Spokespeople for the communist movement of St. Petersburg said that the film slandered Soviet intelligence. “With this film the new generation of Russia will obtain a pessimistic mood, uncertainty in the country’s power and idolatry of the USA,” said the statement posted on the website of the movement.

The activists are going to send a letter to the Ministry of Culture with a request to ban the film in Russia. “It is unclear why we should buy a film devoid of any artistic merits, while Russian films acquire no state support. Let Russian enemies watch Spielberg’s low-grade libel on DVDs secretly like perverts,” they said. “American Indians and aliens help Jones and his dubious companions save the world from the Russian threat. That’s disgusting like a paranoid dream of Churchill. We will write a letter to the Committee for Culture to take the film off Russian screens,” Vladimir Muhin, a deputy from St.Petersburg said.

Police lieutenant and communist Veronika Klinovitskaya labeled the film as “a spit in the soul of Soviet people.”

“I remember characters of Soviet films – courageous members of underground organizations, intelligence agents, excellent workers and their inspiring faces that have nothing in common with a predatory face of vicious Cate Blanchett. So I am speechless.”

Communists also demanded the authorities should deprive Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett of an entry permit to Russia. “I want to look in the eyes of Ford. I remember him coming to Russia, eating our bread and salt and admiring Russian women. But in the film he doesn’t make bones about eliminating a Russian woman. Even aliens seem closer to him than Russians,” said another communist, Andrei Gindos.

Another party at fault, actress Cate Blanchett, told the Vedomosti newspaper that most of the Soviet intelligence entourage was made up by George Lucas. “The personality of parapsychology doctor Irina Spalko was developed by the scriptwriter and my imagination; it is not based on anything real. However, George Lucas, the author of the plot, assured me that he knows for certain that at the beginning of the Cold War there was a super secret service in the USSR that specialized in researching paranormal phenomena, telekinesis and remote viewing. My character works there,” the actress said.

When asked whether “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull” may provoke another outbreak of interest in the subject of the Cold War era and the iron curtain, Cate Blanchett said assuredly that “the political situation in the world won’t let us go back to the past.” The iron curtain provokes suspicion and mysteries; no good dramatic concept can exist without mysteries. “The Cold War helped us make an engrossing movie,” the actress said.

Russia, Denmark sign visa facilitation, readmission agreements

 

Russia and Denmark have signed intergovernmental agreements on visa facilitation and readmission during a visit by Russia’s foreign minister to Copenhagen, the Danish foreign minister said on Tuesday.

Per Stig Moller said the agreements will help to ease contacts between scientists, businessmen and students of the two countries. The deal is in line with agreements signed between the EU and Russia in December 2006, which did not cover some EU countries, including the U.K., Ireland and Denmark.

“I am sure that the signed documents today will considerably ease possibilities for contacts between our people,” the minister said following a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Moller also accepted Lavrov’s invitation to visit Russia.

In addition to his meeting with the Danish foreign minister, Lavrov will also meet with Queen Margrethe II and Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen during his two-day visit to Denmark.

 

Russia and Europe to build new manned spacecraft

Russian and European space agencies are due to discuss the joint development of a manned spacecraft at a Berlin air show taking place May 27 to June 1, the head of Roscosmos said on Tuesday.

A spokesman for the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) said earlier that it had agreed with the European Space Agency (ESA) to jointly build a manned spacecraft for flights to near-Earth orbits and the Moon.

Anatoly Perminov said further talks would focus on areas of responsibility for the agencies.

“Concerning the joint construction of the system, we have signed the documents, and now we will discuss the issue of dividing responsibilities for developing elements of the new spacecraft,” Anatoly Perminov said.

He went on to say that once responsibilities had been settled, funding and commitments at the level of production facilities would be considered in detail.

“ESA head Jean-Jacques Dordain is coming to Berlin. As a separate issue we will consider the creation of a future transportation system. It is very important to us, and we will continue the work right here, at the exhibition,” he said.

He said that flight tests of the joint craft were due to start in 2015, with the maiden launch to follow in 2018.

Perminov also said that Russia would be responsible for developing the transport capsule, while Europe would build the service module and engines for the new vehicle. RSC-Energia, a leading Russian spacecraft maker, will be responsible for project integration.

Moscow concerned by Ukrainian plans to cut Russian TV channels

Moscow said on Tuesday Ukraine’s plans to cut Russian TV channels from its cable television network would be a violation of the rights of millions of Russian speakers in the country.

Ukraine cautioned Russia earlier this month that it could stop retranslating Russian language channels over their alleged biased coverage of “sensitive bilateral issues.” The warning came after Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov called for Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula to be handed back to Russia.

“We believe such a decision would violate Russian-Ukrainian agreements on media cooperation and hamper bilateral relations in general,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“We will insist Ukraine observe international democratic principles and ensure people are free to choose information sources,” the ministry said.

Luzhkov has been barred from entering Ukraine for defying numerous warnings and “continuing to call for actions that threaten Ukraine’s national interests and territorial integrity.”

His emotional statement echoed warnings by other Russian politicians that Russia could reclaim the Crimea, now an autonomy, if Ukraine was admitted to NATO, one of a key goals of the country’s Western-leaning government.

The Crimea, which has a predominantly ethnic Russian population, was Russian territory until Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev ceded it to Ukraine in 1954. Russia’s Black Sea Fleet uses a range of naval facilities in the peninsula as part of a 1997 agreement, under which Ukraine agreed to lease the bases to Russia until 2017.

The Foreign Ministry said Ukrainian organizations and individuals have repeatedly complained about the clampdown on Russian language broadcasts. And they have sent letters to Ukraine’s president, premier and parliamentary speaker requesting that they rethink the situation.

Language has been a contentious issue in relations between Russia and Ukraine, where some political groups have opposed the “Russification” of the country.

Russian is still widely spoken in Ukraine, especially in the east, the Crimea and the capital. Many people have never learnt to speak Ukrainian.

A response to America’s Excalibur

 

RIA Novosti military commentator Ilya Kramnik

Artillery-launched guided projectiles were developed long ago. The laser-guided Copperhead and Krasnopol have already been in use for more than 20 years.

As technology evolves, the latest generation of these weapons use signals from satellite navigation systems. The first munition of this type to go into production was the American M982 Excalibur, named after King Arthur’s legendary sword.

Unlike laser-guided projectiles, this weapon is unaffected by weather conditions and needs no target illumination, which enables it to hit targets at the anticipated coordinates with pinpoint accuracy. Its circular error probable is 10 meters (compared to 200-300 with non-guided projectiles), dramatically decreasing the number of rounds required to destroy a target. The only disadvantage is the Excalibur’s high cost, exceeding $100,000 per shell.

Tests were completed last year. Besides the U.S. Armed Forces, Canadian, Swedish and, recently, the Australian military wish to have the new weapon in their arsenals.

Like any other monopoly in military technology, U.S. and their allies’ monopoly of the new projectile lasted only for a short period, with the Moscow Design Bureau Kompas (Compass) developing a new guidance system for artillery-delivered munitions within the Dinamika (Dynamics) program. Like Excalibur, the new Russian projectile can use either the GPS (Global Positioning System) and GLONASS (Global Navigation Satellite System) signals for homing.

In comparison to the American projectile, the Russian weapon, currently under development, has one major advantage – it does not have to decrease the rotation rate to receive a signal from the navigation system, simplifying the control system and reducing costs.

The Russian 152-203 mm GLONASS projectiles’ circular error probable will be 10 meters, similar to that of the American one. The rounds can also be equipped with laser-seekers, which when combined with satellite guidance enable them to hit targets with a precision of 1-2 meters, without adjustment fire. These capabilities will provide a sudden hit on a hard target with minimum ammunition expenditure, which is valuable in any possible armed conflict, either a limited counterinsurgency or a full-scale warfare against large regular armed forces.

The Kompas Bureau spokesmen say that work on the Dinamika program will be finished by 2011, though problems of GLONASS deployment, already behind schedule, could slow the process down.

The importance of GLONASS is high, and it keeps growing steadily, and so do the number of military and civil technologies bound with it. The Kompas Bureau alone, beside the Dinamika program, is developing a series of systems meant to be used in connection with GLONASS, ranging from a landing system, enabling the use of deck-pad helicopters at night and in stormy weather, to portable and vehicle navigation units for civil use. The bulk of these products, which are based on domestic-made components, are supposed to hit the market in the near future. Therefore a number of science-intensive programs depend on the deployment of Russia’s satellite navigation system.

Another problem is the frequent changes in the government’s defense order management system, each slowing the work down by a few months, as weapons, military equipment and components developers and manufacturers complain. Management stability and transparency of rules are also considered to be the key factors for the success of any high-tech development. Non-system approach and lack of uniform understanding can bury any plan.

Many captains sink the ship, as the saying goes.

 

Dmitry Medvedev congratulated the staff of the State History Museum on the 125th anniversary of its founding.

The message of congratulations reads, in part:

“Since its inception, the museum has become one of the leading national cultural centres. It houses our country’s largest collection of historical monuments and unique exhibits of a truly global significance. Getting acquainted with the variety of displays and exhibitions in the museum provides its many visitors with an excellent opportunity to appreciate the rich spiritual and cultural heritage of the peoples of Russia and to discover the wonderful world of history.

The museum’s staff has become one of its most treasured assets, consisting of generations of well-known historians, specialists in museum management, high-level cultural authorities and a talented group of like-minded people motivated by a genuine love for what they do”.

Located on Red Square, the State History Museum houses a collection that represents the history of Russia since ancient times. The collection includes about 4.5 million items and more than 15 million pieces of documentary evidence.