MINSK/KIEV, Belarus/Ukraine -- Belarus restricted its airspace on Saturday and airports in Ukraine including the capital Kiev closed to flights because of the huge volcanic ash cloud drifting over Europe.
Belarus closed its airspace overnight to flights at altitudes between 6,000 and 11,000 metres, but some routes east and south were open, the head of the aviation security department, Vladimir Nagulevich, told Reuters.
Ukraine's Aerosvit airline said the main Kiev airport would remain closed until at least 1800 GMT and possibly into Sunday.
Ukraine's Lvov, Odessa, Donetsk, Simferopol and Dnepropetrovsk airports were also closed to flights for an unspecified period.
Europe's air travel chaos deepened on Saturday as the huge cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland spread further across the continent, halting nearly three in four flights and stranding passengers worldwide.
Authorities in Belarus said they were offering to waive visa requirements for European Union citizens stranded in Russia and willing to return to the EU by road or rail through Belarus.
Sunday, 18 April 2010
Saturday, 17 April 2010
Hewlett-Packard’s Moscow offices raided over bribery claims
Russian and German authorities are pursuing IT firm Hewlett-Packard over claims that executives paid a huge bribe to land a lucrative contract with the Russian Prosecutor General's Office.
On Wednesday the firm's corporate HQ in Moscow was searched by officers of Moscow's economic crimes department. Several employees of the firm wrote on their blogs that they were told to leave the office at 9:40 am, and were not allowed to return.
Corporate marketing manager Olga Ekkert confirmed that the office was indeed searched, but did not comment on what the search pertained to, RIA Novosti reported.
Other sources in the company revealed that the search was related to a "seven-year-old case that mostly involves employees who are no longer with the company."
And the raid was followed by a warning that more was to come as Russia attempts to clean up its act on corruption.
The head of Russia's National Anti-Corruption Committee Kirill Kabanov told The Moscow News that this is just the tip of the iceberg. "This isn't going to be the last case like this that we see this year," he says, explaining that there is a strong move by western companies to rid their business partners of corruption.
"There is no other way to do business in Russia", said Kabanov. "Either you play by the rules, or you don't work in the field."
Kabanov added that a culture of corruption meant that Russian officials tended to be more concerned about the size of the bribe on offer to them than the quality of the products or services offered to the public.
But among signatories to the Group of States against Corruption agreement (GRECO) - including Russia - zero tolerance of bribery is a must and failure to crack down is criminally negligent. As more foreign companies do business here that is putting pressure on Russia to conform to new standards.
Kabanov also stressed that Russian public officials don't care about the quality of products that is offered, they tend to care more about the size of the bribe. But for those countries that have signed the GRECO (Group of States against Corruption) agreement, accepting that bribes are a way of doing business is impossible, and criminally negligent, thus it is in their best interest that all of their partners play the same set of rules.
The Wall Street Journal reported that HP paid up to $10.9 million to secure the $47 million contract, and added that the company was cooperating with Russian and German authorities as well as launching its own investigation.
Russia's General Prosecutor's office has not commented on the matter, citing the lack of information.
The news follows the recent admission that Russia's Daimler franchises had been involved in paying bribes, while in February IKEA fired two senior officials over a bribery scandal at their store in St. Petersburg.
Hewlett-Packard is an American corporation that has an office in nearly every country. They specialize in computer equipment, printers, and other assorted IT infrastructure.
Web under scrutiny
Over the last decade, the ability of Russia's TV, radio and print media to pursue independent editorial policies has largely been curtailed by state control and self-censorship. Freedom House now ranks Russia 78th out of 100 in its Freedom of the Press index. Meanwhile, Internet use has been spreading like wildfire among those Russians who seek alternative news content.
Vladislav Surkov, the Kremlin's chief political strategist, recently proposed setting up a national search engine, akin to Google but financed strictly by Russian investors, RBK Daily reported.
Whether this idea is just part of Surkov's grand proposal to align Russia's science and technology industries with those of the West and whether this project can indeed be implemented is unclear. But Yevgeny Morozov, a politics and technology researcher, wrote: "We should not underestimate the Kremlin's capacity to adapt to digital realities: it has cultivated a sprawling community of Internet gurus who work or consult for the government."
In 2007, then-President Vladimir Putin encouraged many of his acolytes to set up blogs and news web sites. A 2009 report by the Washington-based Freedom House found that this period was marked by an emergence of Kremlin-affiliated propaganda and blogging sites.
Pavel Danilin, who runs the pro-government Kreml.org page on LiveJournal, said the initiative to use the blogosphere to mobilise supporters "came primarily from Dmitry Medvedev himself".
Following Medvedev's election as president, proselytising for an Internet revolution became one of his signature undertakings.
In March Medvedev, an avid blogger, berated his colleagues for their lack of Internet know-how, urging them to start their own blogs and noting that only "Those who know [how to use the Internet] can be called modern managers." But Iosif Dzyaloshinsky of the Higher School of Economics said that such efforts were merely an attempt to improve the government's image, and were not that effective: "We've done the research - these public websites and blogs are not popular... particularly the regional ones, where people scarcely know of them."
Now Medvedev is reportedly planning to start his own Twitter account. Over the past year, this social networking and microblogging service had amassed more than 180,000 Russian-speaking users, which is some 26 times more than the previous year.
In the hours following the March 29 metro bombings, Twitter also became one of the top sources of information, delivering firsthand accounts and bringing worldwide attention to the situation. Ekho Moskvy radio even quoted one of its users, comparing the rate of 40 tweets per second to the four television reports broadcast live that morning - a statistic that has prompted some to hail the medium as a possible substitute for Russia's ailing journalism.
Pyotr Polonitsky, a spokesman for the Russian Union of Journalists, insisted that a cyber platform that merely provides space to exchange information cannot compete with officially licenced and professionally-run media, adding: "It is like comparing a bicycle to a motorbike."
Alexey Sidorenko, co-editor of the Echo on Global Voices blogging site, said that LiveJournal was "a lot better at fostering political debates and creating stimulating discussion forums."
But in March 2008 a LiveJournal blogger, Dmitry Solovyov, was accused of "inciting hatred against the police and the FSB." According to Sidorenko, Solovyov had been "invited" to the regional FSB office several times because of posts that criticised the state. "Just like the KGB," Sidorenko said.
The charges against Solovyov were eventually dropped, but his vociferous writing was significantly toned down. Solovyov's case was included in the report on Internet censorship issued in March by the press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders. The report highlighted six more similar cases of bloggers being persecuted and one journalist, the owner of Ingushetia.ru Magomed Yevloyev, being murdered. The organisation listed Russia as a country "under surveillance", citing government propaganda and blocking of independent sites as additional considerations.
Russian ISPs have no fears over new rules
Russia's Ministry of Communications insists that an order for Internet providers to log IP addresses and share them with the authorities is not a clamp-down on net freedom - because it's been going on for ages.
But a federal ban on hosting "extremist" sites already seems to be counter-productive, according to many experts.
The new decree about storing IP addresses - both static and dynamic - along with logins and passwords is intended to make it easier to track down web criminals, iToday.ru reported.
And the ruling was received calmly, with 80 per cent of ISPs already doing this, according to Andrei Vorobyov of RU-CENTER's PR department.
"The logic of our business makes us take part in the fight against cybercrime -companies are objectively interested in it. Large companies have been registering clients' IP addresses for a long time. Now those who neglected it will have to register - for example small ‘last-mile' providers," Leonid Filatov, CEO of Masterhost hosting company told iToday.
But Andrei Kolesnikov, the Director of Coordination Center TLD.RU, is certain that fixing IP addresses will not eliminate the problem of the search for cybercriminals: "Those who want to commit a crime on the Internet can take measures to make sure that they are not found afterwards."
Meanwhile Kommersant was unimpressed with a the federal Communications Monitoring Service's efforts to block extremist sites.
Reports cited one Chechen rebel site which attracted a mere handful of visitors until the ban was announced - and the subsequent publicity boosted its traffic as the restrictions were technically difficult to implement
Aeroflot cancels flights to Europe
A huge volcanic eruption in Iceland has forced Aeroflot to suspend flights to much of northern and western Europe due to dangerous clouds of ash in the sky.
Flights to London, Paris, Riga, Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Munich, and Kaliningrad have been cancelled.
Aeroflot is closely monitoring the situation in St Petersburg, Murmansk and Kalinigrad and has set up a crisis centre,
Passengers on the cancelled flights will receive free meals and hotel rooms. They will be able to leave as soon as the airports open.
At the moment more than 30 European flights from Moscow airports by Russian companies Aeroflot and Transaero and foreign carriers, are delayed indefinitely.
A volcano below Eyjafjallajokull glacier, 200 km east of Reykjavik started erupting on Wednesday; a huge cloud of volcanic ash was carried to the sky over the Northern Europe, paralysing air traffic. At the same time, the sky over Iceland is completely clear.
The first country to close its airspace was Norway, followed by Sweden and Great Britain. Ireland, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Finland followed suit on Thursday evening.
Airports in Northern Germany and France are closed for traffic. Brussels, Geneva, Warsaw, Amsterdam and Tallinn are affected.
Eurocontrol expects around 11,000 flights to take place today in European airspace, on a normal day, they would expect 28,000, says the message on the air traffic controller's website. The agency says the disruptions could last for further 48 hours.
The ash's impact was felt further afield, with intercontinental flights routed through Heathrow and Frankfurt also forced to cancel. Many Asian companies, including Japanese and Singapore airlines, had to stop flights via northern Europe.
Volcanic ash poses a threat to turbines of the planes' engines and can cause problems if it lands on the wings.
In 1982, all four engines of a British Airways Boeing 747 were shut down after the plane flew through the cloud of volcanic ash on its way to Perth, Australia. The plane fell for nearly four miles, before one engine was started again and the plane was able to make an emergency landing.
"The length of the eruptions varies from a few days to a year," Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson, an Icelandic geophysicist informed. The ash could cause disruptions in air traffic for up to six months, reports Reuters.
The activity of the volcano increased in the last two days. If it does not diminish, in a few days the cloud of ash could cover most of the Northern Hemisphere.
Meanwhile clouds of volcanic ash have reached the Moscow region, reports the agency. They do not pose a threat for the population.Viktor II Takes Washington
WASHINGTON, DC -- Viktor Yanukovych is a man in a hurry. And whatever one’s political persuasion, the Ukrainian President’s first weeks in office have been a tour de force. He has moved quickly to create a legislative majority, a new government, consolidate power and re-establish the informal predominance of the presidency in Ukraine. No less impressive has been the dynamism he and his team have displayed in international affairs.
This energy and momentum were in clear evidence in Washington, D.C., on April 11-14. For a short visit whose primary purpose was participation in a nuclear security summit with 46 other government leaders, Yanukovych’s schedule was unusually rich and substantive. He signaled his skilled team’s ability to advance Ukraine’s interests in a crowd.
Significantly, he secured a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, one of only a handful such meetings with the American leader. The meeting occurred because Ukraine remains an important U.S. priority.
As importantly, it happened because Ukraine’s president had come with what in D.C. parlance is called a “deliverable:” Ukraine’s agreement to relinquish its remaining stockpile of highly enriched uranium. In this matter, Yanukovych resolved an issue that had remained unsettled for a decade and a half.
For U.S. administrations that have lived through nearly five years of frustration with Ukraine’s political stalemate and policy deadlock, preceded by two years of scandals involving ex-President Leonid Kuchma, this was a refreshingly impressive accomplishment. The agreement signaled the emergence of a Kyiv that is not only rhetorically committed to cooperation, but one that can achieve tangible results.
At the same time, the agreement on uranium was a sign that Yanukovych is aiming to maintain a balance in Ukraine’s relationships with Europe, the U.S. and Russia. Strong and pragmatic relations with the U.S. – as with Europe – are essential for the new Yanukovych team, which understands that U.S. support is crucial within international financial institutions.
The visit also suggests that Yanukovych appears to understand that Ukraine will have a stronger hand in shaping its relationship with Russia in the context of deepening relations with Brussels and the Washington.
As Jackson Diehl, a Washington Post editor and acute foreign policy analyst, noted: “By quickly accepting [Obama’s proposal to get rid of Ukraine’s highly enriched uranium], Yanukovych built a link to the White House to balance his longstanding connection to the Kremlin – and managed to stand out among the dozens of leaders jamming the luxury hotels of downtown Washington Monday.”
In addition to participating in the summit and meeting with Obama, Yanukovych held talks with International Monetary Fund managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The Ukrainian president paved the way for the upcoming visit of Deputy Prime Minister Sergiy Tigipko to the World Bank-IMF annual gathering.
He also held bilateral discussions with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President Nicholas Sarkozy of France, Prime Minister Manhmohan Singh of India, President Hu Jintao of China, Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
And the schedule included a substantive meeting with members of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, an interview with CNN and a discussion with the editors of the Washington Post, who received a clear-cut message from Ukraine’s president: “Yanukovych’s ambition [is] to position Ukraine between Russia and the NATO powers – outside the Western alliance, but also not part of a Russian sphere of influence.”
No less energetic have been his other foreign travels, which have included an early trip to Brussels that yielded the most concrete official expression of Europe’s commitment to Ukraine’s eventual membership in the European Union, as well as two “atmospheric,” rather than substantive, visits to Russia and one to Kazakhstan.
To be sure, there are strong advocates inside the Party of Regions and among its coalition Communist partners, of a tilt toward Russia. But the early signs are that Yanukovych is resisting these lobbies and is seeking to create a genuine equilibrium that will allow Ukraine to protect its sovereignty as he works to rebuild the economy and move the country toward the aim of eventual membership in the European Union.
Ukraine’s president is yet to be tested by conflict or crisis. And his efforts to maintain equally friendly relations with Russia, Europe and the U.S. may in the end prove unsustainable. It is also an open question whether Ukraine's security neutrality can be sustained and its security ensured solely by relying on its own defense capabilities.
While one swallow does not a spring make, the early weeks of Yanukovych’s presidency –and his U.S. visit – suggest that Ukraine’s international relations are moving forward in a balanced fashion. So, too, are the first indicators of Ukraine’s commitment to economic reform, fiscal stability and cooperation with international financial institutions.
Such pragmatism creates some hope that Ukraine’s new president will in the end also pursue a similar tack on matters of national identity and reject the divisive cultural and linguistic agenda being pursued by some in the current government.
These, at least, are the hopes and signals that come from a substantive and successful first foray to a city that is one the centers of our globalized world
This energy and momentum were in clear evidence in Washington, D.C., on April 11-14. For a short visit whose primary purpose was participation in a nuclear security summit with 46 other government leaders, Yanukovych’s schedule was unusually rich and substantive. He signaled his skilled team’s ability to advance Ukraine’s interests in a crowd.
Significantly, he secured a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, one of only a handful such meetings with the American leader. The meeting occurred because Ukraine remains an important U.S. priority.
As importantly, it happened because Ukraine’s president had come with what in D.C. parlance is called a “deliverable:” Ukraine’s agreement to relinquish its remaining stockpile of highly enriched uranium. In this matter, Yanukovych resolved an issue that had remained unsettled for a decade and a half.
For U.S. administrations that have lived through nearly five years of frustration with Ukraine’s political stalemate and policy deadlock, preceded by two years of scandals involving ex-President Leonid Kuchma, this was a refreshingly impressive accomplishment. The agreement signaled the emergence of a Kyiv that is not only rhetorically committed to cooperation, but one that can achieve tangible results.
At the same time, the agreement on uranium was a sign that Yanukovych is aiming to maintain a balance in Ukraine’s relationships with Europe, the U.S. and Russia. Strong and pragmatic relations with the U.S. – as with Europe – are essential for the new Yanukovych team, which understands that U.S. support is crucial within international financial institutions.
The visit also suggests that Yanukovych appears to understand that Ukraine will have a stronger hand in shaping its relationship with Russia in the context of deepening relations with Brussels and the Washington.
As Jackson Diehl, a Washington Post editor and acute foreign policy analyst, noted: “By quickly accepting [Obama’s proposal to get rid of Ukraine’s highly enriched uranium], Yanukovych built a link to the White House to balance his longstanding connection to the Kremlin – and managed to stand out among the dozens of leaders jamming the luxury hotels of downtown Washington Monday.”
In addition to participating in the summit and meeting with Obama, Yanukovych held talks with International Monetary Fund managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The Ukrainian president paved the way for the upcoming visit of Deputy Prime Minister Sergiy Tigipko to the World Bank-IMF annual gathering.
He also held bilateral discussions with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President Nicholas Sarkozy of France, Prime Minister Manhmohan Singh of India, President Hu Jintao of China, Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
And the schedule included a substantive meeting with members of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, an interview with CNN and a discussion with the editors of the Washington Post, who received a clear-cut message from Ukraine’s president: “Yanukovych’s ambition [is] to position Ukraine between Russia and the NATO powers – outside the Western alliance, but also not part of a Russian sphere of influence.”
No less energetic have been his other foreign travels, which have included an early trip to Brussels that yielded the most concrete official expression of Europe’s commitment to Ukraine’s eventual membership in the European Union, as well as two “atmospheric,” rather than substantive, visits to Russia and one to Kazakhstan.
To be sure, there are strong advocates inside the Party of Regions and among its coalition Communist partners, of a tilt toward Russia. But the early signs are that Yanukovych is resisting these lobbies and is seeking to create a genuine equilibrium that will allow Ukraine to protect its sovereignty as he works to rebuild the economy and move the country toward the aim of eventual membership in the European Union.
Ukraine’s president is yet to be tested by conflict or crisis. And his efforts to maintain equally friendly relations with Russia, Europe and the U.S. may in the end prove unsustainable. It is also an open question whether Ukraine's security neutrality can be sustained and its security ensured solely by relying on its own defense capabilities.
While one swallow does not a spring make, the early weeks of Yanukovych’s presidency –and his U.S. visit – suggest that Ukraine’s international relations are moving forward in a balanced fashion. So, too, are the first indicators of Ukraine’s commitment to economic reform, fiscal stability and cooperation with international financial institutions.
Such pragmatism creates some hope that Ukraine’s new president will in the end also pursue a similar tack on matters of national identity and reject the divisive cultural and linguistic agenda being pursued by some in the current government.
These, at least, are the hopes and signals that come from a substantive and successful first foray to a city that is one the centers of our globalized world
IMAX Expands Partnership With Top Entertainment Developer In Ukraine
KIEV, Ukraine -- IMAX Corporation and Triumf Media Group, one of the largest entertainment developers in the Ukraine, today announced an agreement to expand their relationship with the installation of three additional IMAX theatre systems in the city of Kiev and two other cities in the country.
The agreement doubles the number of IMAX theatres scheduled to open in Ukraine, bringing that total number to six, all operated by Triumf Media Group, and it was signed following the box office success of the first IMAX location in Kiev.
A second location from the original contract is scheduled to open in the city of Odessa and a third in the city of Lviv later this year. Under the terms of today's announced agreement, the first of the three additional systems is scheduled to open in Kiev in 2012.
"Our first IMAX theatre has demonstrated tremendous potential for the IMAX brand in the Ukraine, and through this new agreement we aim to capitalize on our initial success by doubling the number of IMAX screens in the country," said Andriy Shpyg, General Director of Triumf Media Group.
"Our single IMAX screen is consistently generating as much as 10% or more of the nationwide box office for major Hollywood IMAX releases such as Avatar, and demand for The IMAX Experience(R) has been so high on the weekends that many of our shows consistently sell out."
"Ukraine is a new market for IMAX and to have one of the country's largest developers double its number of IMAX screens based on the early success of its first installation is very encouraging," said IMAX CEO Richard L. Gelfond.
"The performance of the country's first IMAX theatre, as well as the significant success IMAX theatres are having in Russia, reflects the strong appeal of the IMAX brand in this part of the world, and we're optimistic about continued success and growth throughout the region."
The Triumf Media Group's first IMAX theatre opened at the Blockbuster Entertainment Complex in Kiev in September of 2009. All six IMAX locations will utilize IMAX's digital projection system, which eliminates the high cost of film prints, making the IMAX theatre business more attractive for exhibitors worldwide.
IMAX theatres deliver the world's most immersive cinematic presentations in both 2D and IMAX 3D, and showcase Hollywood blockbusters that have been digitally re-mastered into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience.
The agreement doubles the number of IMAX theatres scheduled to open in Ukraine, bringing that total number to six, all operated by Triumf Media Group, and it was signed following the box office success of the first IMAX location in Kiev.
A second location from the original contract is scheduled to open in the city of Odessa and a third in the city of Lviv later this year. Under the terms of today's announced agreement, the first of the three additional systems is scheduled to open in Kiev in 2012.
"Our first IMAX theatre has demonstrated tremendous potential for the IMAX brand in the Ukraine, and through this new agreement we aim to capitalize on our initial success by doubling the number of IMAX screens in the country," said Andriy Shpyg, General Director of Triumf Media Group.
"Our single IMAX screen is consistently generating as much as 10% or more of the nationwide box office for major Hollywood IMAX releases such as Avatar, and demand for The IMAX Experience(R) has been so high on the weekends that many of our shows consistently sell out."
"Ukraine is a new market for IMAX and to have one of the country's largest developers double its number of IMAX screens based on the early success of its first installation is very encouraging," said IMAX CEO Richard L. Gelfond.
"The performance of the country's first IMAX theatre, as well as the significant success IMAX theatres are having in Russia, reflects the strong appeal of the IMAX brand in this part of the world, and we're optimistic about continued success and growth throughout the region."
The Triumf Media Group's first IMAX theatre opened at the Blockbuster Entertainment Complex in Kiev in September of 2009. All six IMAX locations will utilize IMAX's digital projection system, which eliminates the high cost of film prints, making the IMAX theatre business more attractive for exhibitors worldwide.
IMAX theatres deliver the world's most immersive cinematic presentations in both 2D and IMAX 3D, and showcase Hollywood blockbusters that have been digitally re-mastered into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience.
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