Eutelsat Cuts Satellite Deal With Ukraine, Buys Access To Brazilian Slot

Even as it struggles to resolve orbital-access issues at 26 degrees east longitude with Saudi Arabia and Iran, satellite fleet operator Eutelsat has reached an agreement with Ukraine to develop the 48 degrees east slot and is confident of finding an equitable compromise on a separate Iranian satellite system at 34 degrees east, Eutelsat Chief Executive Michel de Rosen said.
The Paris-based operator is expanding westward as well.

Eutelsat has won an auction sponsored by Brazil’s Anatel telecommunications authority for the rights to a Brazilian orbital position.

Industry officials said the Brazilian slot is at 65 degrees west and that Eutelsat plans to develop it for Ka-band broadband applications.

In a briefing with reporters March 14 here at the Satellite 2012 conference, de Rosen declined to discuss the auction beyond saying Eutelsat won it for “quite an attractive price.”

“We are not ready, today, to tell you how we plan to use this,” de Rosen said of the Brazilian slot.

Eutelsat, which is the world’s third-biggest satellite fleet operator measured by revenue, had been negotiating with the government of Ukraine over access to frequencies around 36 degrees east.

Ukraine had proposed to put its first telecommunications satellite, called Lybid, near that position.

Eutelsat protested that its two spacecraft already at 36 degrees east had regulatory priority.

Ukraine’s national space agency, which is managing the Lybid project, was forced to suspend its $254 million contract with MDA Corp. of Canada for the satellite’s development.

MDA Corp. officials told investors Feb. 28 that the Lybid contract, which was financed in part by Canada’s export-credit agency, Export Development Canada, is now back on track following a resolution of the frequency coordination issues.

De Rosen said Eutelsat and Ukraine will cooperate in the development of the 48 degrees east orbital position.

Eutelsat has two spacecraft at that slot now, one in inclined orbit and nearing retirement, the other a small satellite that suffered a partial failure of its power system and has never generated much revenue for Eutelsat.
We learned one day that Ukraine had this satellite program and that they had underestimated that the program might cause problems for us at 36 degrees,” de Rosen said.

“It could have become a lose-lose situation. We have now discussed with them and it will be a win-win situation.”

Eutelsat Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Wallace said during the briefing that the compromise with Ukraine “will ensure that what we do with Russia at 36 degrees will be clear for Russia and for the large Russian-speaking population of Ukraine, and it gives extra momentum to the development of 48 degrees.”

Eutelsat’s issue with Iran over the 34 degrees east slot, meanwhile, stems from the recent decision by international frequency regulators attending the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) to reinstate Iran’s Zohreh-1 satellite system into a global registry of approved satellite networks.

In what several WRC delegates admitted was a contradiction, the recently concluded meeting also endorsed an earlier decision by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to expel Zohreh-1 from the list because it had missed deadlines for starting service.

If Iran places a Zohreh-1 satellite at its designed slot at 34 degrees east, it will be close enough to a Eutelsat spacecraft to force the two sides into close coordination discussions to avoid frequency interference.

“We believe that the WRC decision was more a political position than one based on technical aspects,” de Rosen said.

“We will now need the help of the ITU to make sure that the presence of an Iranian satellite there does not cause interference. I believe that, with an enormous amount of goodwill on all sides, we can achieve this result.”

U.S. Heritage Foundation Urges EU To Commit To Ukraine

WASHINGTON, DC -- Influential American conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation issued a report on U.S. - EU cooperation featuring a chapter on the Eastern partnership focusing mainly on Ukraine.
"Urgently, the EU should re-engage Ukraine by committing itself to ratifying the EU-Ukrainian Association Agreement, which will pave the way for a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement," stated in her report Sally McNamara, Senior Policy Analyst in European Affairs at The Heritage Foundation.

The paper by The Heritage Foundation, the famous publisher of the annual Index of Economic Freedom, provides an in-depth analysis of the current Ukrainian foreign policy.

It notes that Ukrainian government did not want the country "to fall into the Russian sphere of influence".

The author reckons that USD $8 billion discount for Russian gas in exchange for Ukraine's joining the Customs Union "may be attractive to [the President of Ukraine] Yanukovych in the short term, [but] accepting it would represent a long-term disaster for Ukraine - and for the West."

The report discusses EU's Eastern Partnership.

The initiative offers both bilateral and multilateral measures for enhanced cooperation based on the progress made in the European Neighbourhood Policy, according to the official outline of the initiative.

The Heritage Foundation report claims that Russia viewed the Eastern Partnership as a challenge in its sphere of influence from the start, and objected Ukraine's westward tilt.

Emphasizing the importance of the West-oriented Ukraine, Sally McNamara concludes: "It behooves the EU, with U.S. support, to avoid Kiev closing the door on its European aspirations entirely."

As of now, negotiations over the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine are over.

The initialing of the document has been going on for the last several weeks - following the 15th EU-Ukraine summit on December 19, 2011.

At the summit the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych emphasized that the agreed document would become key for European integration of Ukraine.

In 2009 Foreign Policy Research Institute ranked The Heritage Foundation fifth most influential think tank in the country.

The personnel of the organization served, or went on to serve in senior U.S. government positions.

The Heritage Foundation co-hosted a U.S. presidential debate on November 22, 2011.

Ukraine-Born Demjanjuk Asks Judge To Reconsider Citizenship Bid

TOLEDO, USA -- Convicted Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk wants a federal judge to reconsider a decision denying his bid to regain his U.S. citizenship.
U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster had rejected the citizenship request just over two weeks ago, saying Demjanjuk lied about where he was during World War II.

Demjanjuk's attorney asked the judge Thursday to reconsider the request, saying he had not seen all the newly discovered documents that could help his cause.

The Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk was a Soviet Red Army soldier captured by the Germans in 1942.

He was convicted in May by a German court that found he had served as a guard at the Nazis' Sobibor death camp in occupied Poland. He was sentenced to five years in prison.

Demjanjuk cannot leave Germany because he has no passport after being stripped of his U.S. citizenship ahead of his deportation to Germany in 2009.

Demjanjuk, who is in his 90s, has been in poor health for years and has been in and out of a hospital since his conviction.

Federal authorities had said Demjanjuk, who has denied serving as a guard at any Nazi camp, was trying to cast himself as a victim following his conviction on more than 28,000 counts of accessory to murder.

His lawyers argue that the U.S. government failed to disclose important evidence, including a 1985 secret FBI report uncovered by The Associated Press that indicates the FBI believed a Nazi ID card purportedly showing that he served as a death camp guard was a Soviet-made fake.

Demjanjuk's public defender, Dennis Terez, said in the latest filing that the judge should give him the chance to question the government's claims and ask what caused a retired FBI agent to become suspicious of documents released by the Soviet Union.
The government has submitted an affidavit from former FBI agent Thomas Martin who said the March 4, 1985, report written by him was based on speculation about a Soviet forgery, not any investigation.

A Terrifying Blockage

LUND, Sweden -- Some of us believed that at the end of the Cold War in 1991 American and Soviet nuclear rockets would be left to rust and rot in their silos.

Indeed, we actually saw Ukraine, where the Soviets made most of their rockets and based many, calling in American engineers to help dismantle them.

Moreover, Ukraine decided to forsake nuclear power status — for which the world should give more praise than it does.

President George H.W Bush and even more so Ronald Reagan before him did quite a lot for nuclear disarmament.

At a summit in Iceland, Reagan and Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, panicked most of their advisors and western commentators when they nearly agreed to total nuclear disarmament.

Only Reagan’s persistence in demanding to keep alive research into “star wars” anti-missile systems and Gorbachev’s unwillingness to agree to this stymied an agreement.

Both sides were equally at fault.

Despite all his rhetoric and bear hugging of Russia’s first president, Boris Yeltsin, Bill Clinton achieved very little.

His successor, George W. Bush did only a bit more.

Hopes were focussed on Barack Obama who was chosen be honoured with the Nobel Prize partly because it was thought he would be a standard bearer for disarmament.

Apart from an initial agreement with Vladimir Putin to reduce superpower long-range rockets down from 2,200 warheads each to 1,500, still enough to blow up most of civilisation, Obama has done precious little.

The resistance in Congress to ratifying this pact was immense and passage only came on the promise of spending $80 billion to modernise nuclear forces.

Even Bush junior’s plan to base an anti-ballistic missile system on Polish soil to deter Iranian missiles has been modified only somewhat in an attempt to satisfy legitimate Russian concerns about it being used to intercept a Russian attack.

More American compromise is needed on this, such as moving the site to Romania, nearer to Iran and further from Moscow and finding a way for Moscow to share the running and control of the system.

Turning the page, the US has not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which would help stymie the further spread of nuclear arms to other countries.

If you can’t test you don’t know if you have a workable bomb.

The next stage in the disarmament process should be getting rid of short-range tactical missiles base in Europe.

Moscow is insisting that the first step must be the US removing all its tactical weapons from Europe, which is fair given their proximity to Moscow.

Obama has pledged to fight for “a new treaty that verifiably ends the production of fissile materials intended for use in state nuclear weapons”.

The idea behind this is to stop in their tracks any country thinking of building a nuclear armoury whilst setting limits on the renewing of warheads by those who already have them.

Meanwhile the main issue — the number of long distance super-destructive rockets held by Russia and the US — is not on the agenda despite Obama’s pledge in Oslo to work towards zero possession.

The US Senate is an immovable brake on Obama.

And the Russians, observing the power of the US Senate to probably refuse to approve any new treaties, stops them suggesting opening negotiations.

But how is it, 11 years after the end of the Cold War, that either side can justify nuclear weapons?

Is Russia an enemy or is it not?

Successive American presidents have said it is not.

The Russians say the same thing about the US and Europe.

Non-enemies don’t have nuclear weapons pointed at each other.

At least that is what basic morality and common sense would say.

Certainly they are never going to be used.

So what is it all about?

Don’t the US and Russia want to set an example to the rest of the world, as is their sworn obligation under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty?

After all sauce for the goose is good for the gander might say the Iranians and those in the Middle East that will probably emulate Iran if it does go nuclear.

Obama is checkmated. Therefore the world is checkmated. What a terrifying impasse this is.

Stalin's daughter Lana Peters dies in US of cancer

Stalin's daughter Lana Peters dies in US of cancer

The only daughter of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin has died of colon cancer in a US care home, aged 85.

Svetlana Alliluyeva, also known as Lana Peters, passed away in the state of Wisconsin on 22 November, US officials have confirmed .

Her defection from the Soviet Union in 1967 was a propaganda coup for the US. She wrote four books, including two best-selling memoirs.

But she said she could not escape the shadow of her father.

When Peters arrived in the US, she said she had come for the "self-expression that has been denied me for so long in Russia".

Her defection was partly motivated by the Soviet authorities' poor treatment of her late husband, Brijesh Singh, she said.

Peters went to India in 1966 to spread Singh's ashes, but instead of returning to the Soviet Union she walked into a US embassy to seek political asylum.

She burned her passport, denouncing communism and her father, whom she called "a moral and spiritual monster".

She graduated from Moscow University in 1949, initially working as a teacher and translator.

Peters was married four times - three of them in Russia - and left two children behind in her homeland.

Her first memoir, Twenty Letters to a Friend, was published in 1967 and made more than $2.5m.

She took the name Lana Peters upon marrying architect William Wesley Peters in the US.

The couple settled in central Wisconsin and had a daughter, Olga, before divorcing in 1973.

She returned to the Soviet Union briefly in the 1980s, renouncing the US, but left again after feuding with relatives.

In an interview in 1990 with the Independent newspaper, Peters said she had no money and was living with Olga in a rented house.

Stalin, who died in 1953, is deemed responsible for the deaths of millions of his countrymen.

Peters - who was six years old when her mother took her own life - was once close to her father, who called her his "little sparrow". But they grew distant in his final years.

He sent her first love, a Jewish filmmaker, to Siberia.

Peters's brother, Jacob, died in a Nazi concentration camp during the Second World War when her father refused to exchange him for a German general, while her other brother, Vasili, died an alcoholic, aged 40.

Peters bemoaned the constant association with her father.

"People say, 'Stalin's daughter, Stalin's daughter,' meaning I'm supposed to walk around with a rifle and shoot the Americans," she once said.

"Or they say, 'No, she came here. She is an American citizen.' That means I'm with a bomb against the others.

"No, I'm neither one. I'm somewhere in between. That 'somewhere in between' they can't understand."

While Peters denounced her father's regime, she also blamed other communist party leaders for the Soviet Union's policy of sending millions to labour camps.

Putin upsets Condoleezza Rice

The security advisor and the Secretary of State in the administration of the most unpopular president in US history believes that Putin's intention to run for presidency will lead to mass riots in Russia. Not now, of course, but some time later.

After she stopped serving as the head of the US State Department, Condoleezza Rice became a professor of Political Economy in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Ms. Rice does not release many comments about Russia on her current position. This is the reason why her recent remarks attracted so much attention - in Russia, first and foremost.

Rice's interview to Reuters meets the standards of the conservative wing of the Republican Party. According to her, Putin's intention to run for democracy is a "mockery of democracy."

Condoleezza Rice believes that Vladimir Putin, if elected president, will most likely try to limit dissent and centralize power even further.

This path, Rice said, may lead to mass riots in Russia. The risk for such riots is very high, the former Secretary of State said.

Ms. Rice is not the first person, who forecasts such a scenario, although she is no match to Senator John McCain.

It is worthy of note that the arguments of American scientists and experts about imminent "mass riots" in Russia surprisingly coincide with expectations of a part of the Russian non-system opposition. Aleksei Navalny, for example, does not miss a chance to say that the power in Russia will change in two or three years by the example of "Arab revolutions."

The thoughts about "mass riots' in Russia from the official of the administration of the most unpopular president in US history, sound very entertaining. Condoleezza Rice considers herself a big specialist for Russia. If so, it would be very interesting for us to know why she decided that Putin would "limit dissent and centralize power" in case of his victory? Why does she think that the risk for mass riots in Russia is very high? Is it because the Russians use the Internet and travel abroad?

Speaking about the Internet, the number of Internet users in the Russian Federation is the largest in Europe. The number of tourists is not that high, but several millions of Russian citizens travel abroad on a regular basis and their number constantly grows. It appears that the Russian authorities have chosen a paradoxical way of restricting liberties for people...

US justice lets adoptive parents kill Russian children

S citizens Michael and Nanette Craver have been charged with the murder of seven-year-old Russian boy Ivan Skorobogatov. The US couple was put on Interpol's wanted list, Interfax reports with reference to Vladimir Markin, an official spokesman for the Investigation Committee of the Russian Federation.

"The central investigation department of the Investigation Committee of the Russian Federation ruled to name Michael and Nanette Craver as defendants in committing the crime stipulated by Part 2, Article 105 of the Russian Penal Code - the murder of underage individual staying in a helpless condition by a group of people," Markin said.

"We sent the adequate documents to the National Central Bureau of Interpol at the Interior Ministry. The defendants have thus been put on international wanted list to determine their whereabouts, conduct their arrest and deliver them to Russian prosecutors," Markin said.

The above-mentioned US citizens committed the murder of the adopted Russian citizen, Ivan (Vanya) Skorobogatov, Vladimir Markin said. "An order about the pre-trial detention of the defendants has also been sent to the court," the official said.

On November 18, a court of York, Pennsylvania, sentenced the Cravers to 16 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter of Ivan Skorobogatov, their Russian-born adopted son. However, since the couple has already spent nearly 19 months in jail, they will not serve any more time.

Russia's Ombudsman for Children's Rights Pavel Astakhov addressed US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in connection with the mild sentence against the Cravers.

"I believe that Clinton must take Ivan's case under special control and attain justice," Astakhov tweeted.

The official also believes that US prosecutors must appeal the sentence. "I addressed Attorney General Eric Holder. I believe that they must appeal the ill-founded sentence," Astakhov wrote.

Ivan Skorobogatov died away in August 2009 after he had been hospitalized with a serious cranial injury. Doctors connected the boy to the artificial respiration system. Several days later, the parents insisted the life-support system should be deactivated. The parents claimed that Ivan (Nathaniel Craver) was suffering from a serious mental disorder. According to them, he would throw himself on the floor and against the walls injuring himself.

Michael and Nanette Craver claimed that the boy hit his head against the fireplace in their house. The injury, which the boy received, subsequently resulted in his death, the Cravers said.

However, forensic experts found over 80 bruises on the boy's body. Twenty of those bruises were found on his head. The experts also determined that the boy was suffering from malnutrition. The boy was staying in an extreme condition of exhaustion, the medical specialists concluded.

The adoptive parents were free during the time of the expertise. The official results of the investigation were exposed in the middle of February 2010. The Cravers were immediately arrested and faced the danger of death penalty.

Russia and USA on verge of another Cold War

Russia will pull out from the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and refuse from the steps in the field of disarmament, if the USA continues to build the missile defense system in Europe, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stated in a televised address to the nation Wednesday.

According to Medvedev, Russia is going to deploy Iskander missile complexes in the west and in the south of the country. The systems will guarantee the total destruction of the European part of the air defense system.

In addition, Russia's new strategic ballistic missiles will be outfitted with advanced complexes to overcome the air defense system. The missiles will also have highly efficient warheads, Medvedev said.

The president ordered the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to start elaborating the measures which, if necessary, would guarantee the destruction of informational and administering means of the air defense system.

The President also charged the Defense Ministry of Russia with putting the radar system in the Kaliningrad enclave in operation.

Medvedev emphasized that Russia was still prepared to continue the dialogue with the United States and NATO regarding the issue of missile defense. However, the president said, this cooperation must be conducted on the legal base, which would protect Russia's legal interests.

"We still have time to reach mutual understanding. Russia has political will in reaching necessary agreements, which may open a principally new page in our relations with the USA and the North Atlantic Alliance," Medvedev stated.

The Russian president is still certain that the creation of the joint missile defense system in Europe will give Russia and NATO opportunities for genuine strategic partnership. He reminded of his initiative of the sectoral missile defense system. Each side would be responsible for a certain sector, whereas cooperation would be based on the principles of equality, mutual confidence and predictability. However, Western partners have not demonstrated "serious readiness for moving in this direction," Medvedev noted.

Russia will not agree to take part in the missile defense program which would weaken the strategic potential of the country in several years. This program is currently being developed, Medvedev. "It's being implemented in Poland, Turkey, Romania, Spain, and they make us face the facts," the head of state said.

"They are not going to, at least for the time being, take account of our concerns about the architecture of the European missile defense system. They only tell us that their plans are not targeted against Russia. This is not against you, don't worry, they say - they want us to calm down," Medvedev stated.

According to the Russian president, such remarks can be heard on the level of executive power. "However, law-makers in several countries tell us directly - "this is all against you - keep that in mind." When we ask them to put that all on paper in the form of precise legal obligations, they say no," the president stressed out.

Russia and NATO agreed to cooperate on the project of the European missile defense system at the summit in Lisbon in November 2010. The talks reached a deadlock because the USA refused to guarantee that the air defense system in Europe would not be aimed against Russia.

Medvedev's unusually tough statements have not led to expected results. Official spokespeople for the US administration stated that they were not going to refuse from missile defense plans.

"Implementation of the New (Strategic Arms Reduction) Treaty is going well and we see no basis for threats to withdraw from it. We continue to believe that cooperation with Russia on missile defense can enhance the security of the United States, our allies in Europe and Russia, and we will continue to work with Russia to define the parameters of possible cooperation. However, in pursuing this cooperation, we will not in any way limit or change our deployment plans in Europe," Fox News quoted National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor as saying.

It is not ruled out that the positions of Moscow and Washington will shelve the missile defense talks at least before the spring of 2013, when the United States and Russia have new presidents. Experts say that the current state of affairs may seriously affect the reset of relations between the two countries.

Russia to finalize visa deal with US in November

Russia will finalize the details of a long-discussed visa agreement with the United States by the end of November, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Thursday.

"Within the next few days we will complete all the technicalities concerning simplification of the visa regime [with the United States],” Ryabkov said.

The agreement will shorten the time it takes to process visa applications and extend the visa validity period.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin proposed scrapping visa restrictions between the two countries altogether during a meeting with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in Moscow in March.

USA unwilling to discuss its own opposition

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the West, questioning the policy of the Russian authorities against the opposition, does not want to discuss its own problems.
 The Russian Foreign Minister commented on the events surrounding the campaign "Occupy Wall Street" at a press conference in Moscow. According to Sergei Lavrov, "looking at the way the protesters of "Occupy Wall Street" are treated, we have quite a vivid illustration of the fact that a number of our colleagues and partners from western countries are practicing double standards."


As an illustration, let us recall the reaction of the American officials at the detention of Boris Nemtsov on December 31 of last year. Then, the US State Department and National Security Council spoke up.
The campaign ""Occupy Wall Street" has started when on September 17 several hundred demonstrators attempted to occupy the building of the New York Stock Exchange. Then the protesters staged their tent encampment next to the building.

The organizers have never denied that they were inspired by the example of the so-called "Arab revolution". The "Occupy Wall Street" campaign was originally conceived as a protest against the actions of the U.S. financial institutions.
 
"The only thing that unites us all is that we are the 99 percent that would no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the one percent," says the official website of the campaign whose creators also blamed Washington for reducing the funding for social programs in favor of military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. 
In the past 6 weeks the campaigns similar to one in New York were held in dozens of American cities, but also in several European countries. The organizers of the protest in New York clearly did not expect such results.

To a large extent the protest was unexpected for both the authorities and the press. Many major U.S. television networks and print media for several days simply did not know how to react to the campaign, preferring to ignore it.


It is interesting that in spite of the relatively small number of the participants these protests had such a significant impact. Their slogans reflect the attitude if not of the majority of the US people and Western European states, then at least a large part of them. 
Professor of Economics University of Missouri (Kansas City) Michael Hudson explained that since the late 1970s the average wage in the United States have not grown by much, while the tax burden has grown, as well as the price of real estate, education and health services. This has reduced the market for the goods and services. The American economy is now entering a period of deep L-shaped recession similar to the economy of Western Europe. Most of the population suffers from this and becomes poorer.

This was said before the launch of "Occupy Wall Street." Economists and political scientists around the world have been talking about it over the past few years. Yet, there is not much effect of such warnings.


USA Will Provide Technology To Ukraine In Exchange For Uranium Removal

KIEV, Ukraine -- The United States of America are ready to provide Ukrainian research institutions with new technology in exchange for removal of highly enriched uranium from the country, stated the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych on September 22 after meeting President of the United States Barack Obama in New York City.

To compensate Ukraine's loss of highly enriched uranium, the United States have offered Ukraine new technology which would enable its scientists to conduct studies on low-enriched uranium.

"Currently, the U.S. is ready to launch production of the respective equipment for Ukraine and gradually deliver it to our research centers. All the necessary documentation will be signed, which will provide guarantees to the both parties of the agreement," stated Ukrainian president at the 66th plenary session of the UN General Assembly.

The Ukrainian President highlighted that Ukraine is consistent in its efforts toward nuclear disarmament and supports complete liquidation of nuclear arms around the world.

He also urged the leaders of other countries to follow Ukraine's example and promote disarmament and proliferation by actual deeds.

In June 2011, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov declared that Ukraine has largely implemented its commitment of removing highly enriched uranium from its territory.

The country's decision to remove the nuclear substance was a great input into nuclear security of the world, stated Azarov at the meeting with Yukia Amano, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in Vienna.

In 2010 alone Ukraine removed 106 kilograms (approx. 234 pounds) of enriched uranium, as reported by Korrespondent.net.

The decision to get rid of highly enriched uranium was first stated by President Yanukovych in April 2010 during the Washington Summit on nuclear safety, initiated by the U.S. President Barack Obama.

In the meantime it's been noted that Ukraine would convert its nuclear reactors for the use of low-enriched uranium.

The country is set to remove the rest of the high-enriched radioactive material before the upcoming Seoul summit.

Russia and North America join anti-terror air drills

The Russian Air Force and NORAD, the US and Canadian joint air defense command, will hold a second round of anti-terrorism exercises this month.

“The main aim of the drills is to improve the Russian Air Force’s and NORAD’s capabilities for fighting terrorism in the air,” Igor Muginov, the Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern military district, said on Monday.

The Aug. 8-11 exercises will include airborne early warning and control (AWACS) and refueling aircraft, and combat aircraft.

The first Russian-NORAD joint anti-terrorism drills, dubbed Vigilant Eagle, took place in 2010.

Russia calls for missile partnership

Russia wants to be a real partner in NATO’s controversial European missile shield, not just a passive observer.

Dmitry Rogozin, Moscow’s ambassador to the alliance, stated the country’s position in an interview with the Washington Post.

And he complained that the proposed US scheme was disproportionate, saying the Americans wanted to shoot rabbits with a weapon intended to battle with a bear

Washington And Kiev: Progress And Problems

WASHINGTON, DC -- On July 7, three prominent Washington think tanks — the Atlantic Council, the Brookings Institution and the Peterson Institute for International Economics — organized a big conference on Challenges and Impact of Governance in Ukraine.

It was held at the Peterson Institute in Washington.

This conference attracted no fewer than 300 participants, including 50 representatives from the US government.

This brought home the message that Washington remains very interested in Ukraine, but also that Ukraine is a source of both hope and concern.

Media reporting from the event has appropriately been dominated by the observation by David Kramer, the President of Freedom House, that the current criminal cases against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko were turning from a farce into a tragedy and may destroy Ukraine’s prospects for real integration into the Euro-Atlantic community.

There is a tension in American and European perceptions of Ukraine.

On the one hand, the West has nothing but praise for Ukraine’s foreign policy, which it genuinely appreciates as friendly and constructive.

On the other hand, the West is concerned about Ukraine’s slippage from a free to a semi-free country, as Freedom House has recorded it.

Three sessions were primarily devoted to foreign policy, with Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, Pavlo Klimkin, and the former US national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski as keynote speakers.

Damon Wilson, executive vice president of the Atlantic Council, summed up the US position in three points.

First, the United States has not lost interest in Ukraine.

All agreed that Ukraine’s current negotiation with the European Union on an association agreement, including a deep and comprehensive free trade agreement, is the most important element of Ukraine’s present foreign policy.

European integration will be a game-changer for Ukraine, and Brzezinski underlined that the EU cannot refuse Ukraine as a fully European country from membership if it complies with all the membership criteria.

At the same time, James Sherr of the Royal Institute for International Affairs in London doubted that the Ukrainian leaders understood what European integration was really about, and former US Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer, now senior fellow at Brookings, concluded with the pointed question: “Can Ukraine join the European Union without full democracy?”

A notable development was that nobody questioned President Viktor Yanukovych’s policy on Russia any longer.

Brzezinski referred to his old statement from 1994 “that without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire, but with Ukraine suborned and subordinated, Russia automatically becomes an empire.”

He emphasized that he was no longer afraid that Ukraine would be suborned by Russia.

On the contrary, he harbored good hopes for Ukraine helping Russia to find its way to Europe and become fully European.

Still, concerns were uttered that Ukraine would once again become subject to undue pressure on energy supplies and trade.

Andriy Fialko, foreign policy adviser to President Yanukovych, said that Ukraine’s negotiations with the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus are simply aimed at resolving practical trade issues between the Customs Union and Ukraine.Ukraine would definitely not join the Customs Union.

The panel on governance in Ukraine was all the more critical.

A broad consensus reigns that the country is pervasively corrupt, but that has long been the case.

The current administration in Kiev is not accused of anything specific, although observers fail to notice any improvement.

One journalist in the audience cited the specific case of how President Yanukovych had acquired his current residence and how large state funds had been invested in this now private property, asking whether this must not be described as personal corruption.

The key concern is the government’s misuse of law enforcement and especially the judicial system, which seems to be in really bad shape.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Oleh Rybachuk detailed the actual repression carried out by the Yanukovych administration, and David Kramer clarified this in the most direct and dire terms.

Adrian Karatnycky, a former President of Freedom House, who otherwise tried to explain and belittle the current administration’s mistakes, also emphasized that a sentencing of Tymoshenko could derail Ukraine’s endeavors to integrate into the European Union.

The two first cases against Tymoshenko, which were constructed by the three Washington firms Akin Gump, Trout Cacheris, and Kroll, which have been hired by the government of Ukraine to investigate corruption.

These cases have been rebutted by a fourth Washington firm, Covington & Burling, hired by Tymoshenko’s party.

The third case, involving Ukraine’s gas agreement with Russia in January 2009, appeared to many critics and analysts as completely political and seemed to fall apart in farce in the court room.

Subsequently , the Security Service of the Ukraine government was returning to focus on Tymoshenko’s old commercial gas case with Russia in 1996, creating the suspicion that the government had decided to sentence her to prison, but it did not quite know for what reason.

Similar views were presented about the legal case against the former minister of interior, Yuriy Lutsenko, and many other former officials of the Tymoshenko government who are now being prosecuted for what look suspiciously like political offenses.

Karatnycky saw the case against former President Leonid Kuchma as an example of the new administration trying to be somewhat impartial, while others argued that it represented Yanukovych’s revenge against Kuchma for his refusal to order special forces to crack down during the Orange Revolution in November 2004.

Viktoria Siumar, executive director of the Institute of Mass Information in Kiev, mentioned a large number of cases of repression of journalists, many of which were carried out by the Security Service or the personal security guards of Ukraine’s top politicians.

Andriy Kulykov, the talk show host of Svoboda Slova of the private television channel ICTV, tried to de-dramatize the situation, arguing that there is pressure on the media, but it comes from many sources.

The duty of journalists was to stand up to these pressures in a sensible, responsible and courageous fashion, he said.

This conference devoted only slight attention to economic matters.

orge Zukoski, president of the American chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, repeated the old adage: “Ukraine is a success story waiting to happen.”

He and Karatnycky enumerated the many economic reform measures that had been undertaken – the early adoption of a substantial reform program and an International Monetary Fund (IMF) program, the adoption of the tax code, health care reform, the promulgation of a cadastre law governing property taxes on the day of the conference, and a substantial reduction of regulations and the number of regulating staff.

Yet, corruption remains endemic and the favoritism of a few big Ukrainian industrial groups is most disturbing.

Pifer summarized that the economic picture is mixed.

While the Ukrainian officials emphasized their interest in foreign direct investment, the question was whether much investment could be realized under the current conditions, as corporate interests dominate over national interests.

C. Fred Bergsten, the director of the Peterson Institute, concluded the conference by emphasizing that his dominant impression was the contradiction between Ukraine’s ambition to integrate with the European Union and queries whether Ukraine was really sufficiently democratic to be able to do so.

Sharapova sunk in Wimbledon final

Russia’s Maria Sharapova missed out on a second Wimbledon title after going down to Petra Kvitova in straight sets in Saturday’s final.

Despite being the hot favorite before the match, Sharapova made another sluggish start against her Czech opponent.

But unlike Thursday’s semi, where she recovered to reel off a blistering nine-game salvo against Sabine Lisicki, the sixth seed was unable to impose herself in the face of some inspired tennis from Kvitova.

And in the final game a flawless show of strength from the Czech’s left-handed serve was enough to secure a 6-3 6-4 win crowned with a blistering ace on match point.

The opening two games set the tone for the match - both players seeing their serves easily broken - and Sharapova once again struggled to find the mark.

By the closing stages the statistics for her service game were dire: 57 per cent of first serve points won, and a miserly 15 per cent on her second serve.

The gremlins which had beset her in the semi against Lisicki were back once again, and unlike the German, Kvitova was better able to take advantage.

While the young Czech has a reputation for losing concentration at key moments - and a sequence of broken service games in the middle of the second set showed that it is no unearned - she came up with the big points when required.

Leading 4-3, but having seen the four previous games go against serve, Kvitova pulled off a vital hold to put her one game away from a maiden Grand Slam success.

Not even seeing Sharapova hold to love in a desperate effort to stay in the match could distract her at that stage as she completed a deserved win.

Russia-US visas to ease 'within weeks'

Russia-US visa rules will ease within weeks, according to US Ambassador John Beyrle.

Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum he said major changes could be just three weeks away.

And he is expecting tourists and business travelers to be issued with three-year multi-entry visas as standard.

The news comes after reports of that an easier visa regime with the EU is also making progress.

Gibson's ex files appeal over lawyer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mel Gibson's ex-girlfriend has asked an appeals court to disqualify the Oscar winner's attorneys handling a bitter custody dispute because she consulted with one of their partners in a paternity dispute with another actor.

Attorneys for Oksana Grigorieva asked the California 2nd District Court of Appeal to intervene in the case on Monday.


They sought to either disqualify Gibson's attorneys or require a judge hearing the case to review records of the Russian musician's dealings with the firm.

Grigorieva met with a partner in the firm of Kolodny and Anteau in 2008 at Gibson's suggestion, while she was dealing with custody issues involving her son with British actor Timothy Dalton, according to court filings.

The appeal said Gibson's attorneys sought records of the dispute with Dalton, including emails, text messages and other correspondence between the former couple.

Dalton played James Bond in two films in the late 1980s.

Stephen Kolodny, one of the Gibson's attorneys handling his dispute with Grigorieva over their infant daughter, said in an email that he would not comment on Grigorieva's appeal.

His partner, Ronald Anteau, has not appeared in the case, but Grigorieva's filing named her discussion with him as important to her current fight with Gibson.

"The matters discussed with Mr. Anteau concerned the same subject matter that has been inquired into in the present case by Stephen Kolodny both in open court and at deposition," her filing said.

Grigorieva asked the court to issue a ruling before a key hearing this month.

Last month, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon ruled that Grigorieva waited too long to raise the issue of a potential conflict with Kolodny's representation of Gibson.

She claimed she did not make the connection between her consultation with Anteau and Gibson's attorneys until recently.

Grigorieva wants the appellate court to require the judge to review Anteau's notes of his meeting with her and reconsider the ruling or disqualify Kolodny and Anteau's firm outright.

Gibson and Grigorieva's custody case is by law confidential, as would be any case she had involving Dalton.

Her efforts to disqualify Gibson's attorneys have been heard in open court.

The case has spanned 65 hearings and the judge had issued more than 100 rulings.

There were thousands of pages of pleadings in the case, and most of Gibson's filings were handled by Kolodny's firm, Gordon said.

Leaked Cables Show U.S. Was Wrong On Ukraine's Yanukovych

KIEV, Ukraine -- The U.S. Embassy cables from Ukraine leaked recently by the website WikiLeaks prompt two observations.
The first is that the embassy believed Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych had changed from what he was during the 2004 election, when he sought to come to power through election fraud.

The second is that U.S. officials believed Yulia Tymoshenko was not a better option than Yanukovych in the 2010 presidential election. One cable quotes former President Leonid Kuchma as saying the 2010 election was one of "choosing between bad and very bad" -- with Tymoshenko allegedly being the latter.

Both of these positions were fundamentally wrong -- especially as seen from the hindsight of Yanukovych's first year in power.

The WikiLeaks cables critical of Tymoshenko were a reflection of her own mistakes and of lobbying by U.S. political consultants working for Yanukovych and the Party of Regions since 2005. One of the main criticisms was that Tymoshenko is a "populist," a claim that ignores widespread populism among all Ukrainian politicians.

Indeed, Yanukovych was the most populist in the 2010 elections and the prize for the most populist billboard goes to former President Viktor Yushchenko, who promised to place a 20 percent tax on yachts, limousines, and villas.

The U.S. Embassy bought into the accusation that Tymoshenko was beholden to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Tymoshenko was allegedly the biggest threat to Ukraine's sovereignty and willing to be Russia's pawn, according to a cable quoting oligarch Dmytro Firtash.

Evidence to back this conclusion was her supposed concessions on Georgia during Russia's 2008 invasion and Moscow-friendly positions on the Holodomor and the Black Sea Fleet.

In reality, Yanukovych has caved in to Russia on all three issues. During the Georgian crisis, the Party of Regions and the Communist Party (KPU) supported Russia's dismemberment of Georgia. Likewise, the Party of Regions and the KPU did not support the 2006 law on the Holodomor, and Yanukovych has adopted Russia's position that it was a Soviet (not Ukrainian) famine.

As president, he has extended the Black Sea Fleet base in Sevastopol until 2042-47. A January 2010 U.S. cable reports Yanukovych telling the U.S. ambassador that he was ready to extend the base in exchange for economic preferences from Russia.

Yanukovych, The Pro-Russian Candidate

All this led to the mistaken impression that Russia supported both Tymoshenko and Yanukovych in the 2010 election, as they were both "pro-Russian" and Moscow would be satisfied with either winning the election.

Yushchenko made this argument during the campaign, calling for his supporters not to vote for either candidate in the second round of balloting. That decision probably cost Tymoshenko the election, since she ended up losing by just 3 percentage points.

Other cables claimed it made no difference whether Yanukovych or Tymoshenko were elected as both are authoritarian and would allegedly seek to build a "Putinist vertical power." Such analysis contradicted the reality that Tymoshenko did not have the political machine, ability to blackmail deputies, or control of television stations necessary for such a project.

In addition, since 2008 Tymoshenko has consistently argued for the need to move toward a full parliamentary system. The authoritarianism of the Party of Regions is well documented among Ukrainian sociologists and has been plain to see during the transformation of parliament into a rubber-stamp institution and the return to a presidential constitution.

U.S. cables also buy into the argument of a "pragmatic" wing in the Party of Regions that supposedly desires to unify Ukraine and is pro-European, even possibly willing to compromise on NATO. Such views were intensely lobbied by U.S. political consultants working for the Party of Regions.

But the pragmatic wing of the Party of Regions was not evident in 2005-08 when the party voted with the KPU against legislation to join the WTO. Ukraine's 2008 WTO membership paves the way for the signing of a Deep Free Trade Agreement with the EU, a process the pragmatic wing of the Party of Regions allegedly supports.

These cables also ignored the anti-NATO stances of Yanukovych and the Party of Regions, arguing that this was election rhetoric to mobilize eastern Ukrainian voters that would be ignored after the voting. Again this was wrong, as President Yanukovych is the first of four post-Soviet Ukrainian presidents to not support NATO membership.

The party has also adopted contradictory positions on Ukraine's participation in NATO's Program for Peace exercises, opposing them when in opposition (leading to the cancellation of the Sea Breeze exercises in 2006 and 2009) and supporting them when in power.

U.S. cables from Ukraine also claimed that Yanukovych, if he won the 2010 election, would not be a Russian pawn and would defend Ukraine's interests, even if only in the economic sphere. Although Yanukovych defends his economic interests from Russia, he has adopted domestic, national-identity, and foreign policies that are in Russia's national interests.

Russia successfully lobbied for the four candidates who became the chairman of the Security Service (SBU) and ministers of education, foreign affairs, and defense. Russian citizens illegally control the president's bodyguards and the media-analytical section of the presidential administration.

The Real Yanukovych

U.S. cables from 2005-06 were more critical of the Party of Regions, but in 2008-10 two factors changed. First, public-relations efforts by U.S. consultants persuaded many in the West, including the U.S. Embassy, that Yanukovych had changed.

This ignored his unwillingness to concede the election fraud of 2004 and his continued contention that he won that election. A December 2005 cable quotes Yanukovych as complaining that a "putsch" and "Kuchma's machinations" had denied him the presidency. One cable analyzed the Party of Regions' "heavily pro-Russian campaign rhetoric" in 2006, attributing this to its co-option of Communist voters.

A second factor that changed the tone in the U.S. cables by 2008 was Western fatigue with the feuding Orange political leaders, Yushchenko and Tymoshenko. The pair had squandered the five years of opportunity given to them by the Orange Revolution.

All four elections held on Yanukovych's watch -- two as governor in Donetsk in 1999 and 2002 and two as prime minister and president in 2004 and 2010 -- have been criticized as unfree.

U.S. cables from 2005-06 showed that senior members of the Kuchma government who were involved in abuse of office and election fraud were embedded in the Party of Regions, which is described as a "cover for Donetsk criminal circles and oligarchs."

These cables continued to be skeptical about the new face of the Party of Regions and express concern it would abuse state administrative resources, tamper with election laws, and seek to close media outlets they do not control. This is precisely what Yanukovych has done in his first year in office.

Biden Thanks Yanukovych For Evacuation Of U.S. Citizens From Libya

KIEV, Ukraine -- U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden has thanked Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych for Ukraine's assistance in the evacuation of U.S. citizens from Libya, the press service of the Ukrainian head of state has reported.
In a phone conversation on March 2, the sides also discussed the fulfillment of mutual commitments in the sphere of nuclear security.

"Ukraine is ready to conduct further work to remove all stocks of highly enriched uranium before a nuclear security summit in 2012," Yanukovych said.

The sides appreciated the outcome of the third session of the U.S.-Ukraine Strategic Partnership Commission, which was held in Washington on February 15, 2011.

Speaking about the development of democracy in Ukraine, Yanukovych said that he highly appreciated the efforts taken by the United States to promote democracy in the world and its attention being paid to the development of democratic institutions in Ukraine.

"We remain open to the constructive dialog on the strengthening of democracy and the rule of law, as well as the implementation of relevant reforms," Yanukovych said.

The parties also discussed the improvement of criminal justice and electoral legislation in Ukraine in order to strengthen civil society.

Yanukovych and Biden also discussed preparations for a summit dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Chornobyl tragedy. Biden said that the United States would be represented at a high level at the summit.

"Ukraine, together with the international community, is currently actively preparing for the summit and a scientific conference. Our initiative was supported by most countries and international organizations," Yanukovych said.

The sides also spoke about the improvement of the business climate in Ukraine and the creation of better conditions for attracting foreign direct investment.

"Ukraine is currently introducing a number of important reforms that should thoroughly modernize the country," Yanukovych said.