Russian space industry recovers from hibernation

In the past year, the Russian space program and related industries seem to have gotten out of the state of economic hibernation. It appears that the industry's stagnation is over, and distant and near prospects have been identified in a recent large-scale meeting near the new cosmodrome in the Far East. The world is entering the stage of post-industrial informational development. Primitive market "buy-sell" relationships will be replaced by the demand for high-tech products and services, among which the space industry products will be one of the most sought after. Today, the market amounts to $300-400 billion, and by 2030 it could reach $1.5 trillion. Space development can be much more profitable than increasing the exports of energy resources. Obviously, these considerations were taken into account by the Russian leadership that allocated 181 billion rubles to fund space programs in Russia. This is three times more than in 2008. This allowed getting ahead of the leading space powers by nearly five times in terms of average annual growth in federal funding. Approximately one trillion six hundred million rubles will be allocated for space activities from 2013 to 2020. Where would this money go? First, the orbital parameters should be restored to the size of those supported by the leading space powers, including the United States and China. This will be done at existing Plesetsk and Baikonur cosmodromes, where infrastructure for launching rockets of middle class "Soyuz-2", "Proton-M", "Zenith" and "Rockot" will be developed. The next task is to create and launch a space rocket complex of heavy class "Angara" and rebuild new facilities at cosmodrome Vostochny. We are talking about a radical modernization and renovation of the space technology and the means of delivery. Where would the new missiles fly? First of all, to the near-earth orbit. They will deliver a multi-laboratory module and autonomous free-flying modules to the International Space Station. In parallel, robotic tools for the study of the moon will be developed, and the moon landing runway complex and inter-orbital tug for manned spacecraft will be created. As emphasized by the Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, this will be done to deploy and begin to operate a permanent scientific base on the Moon, and further implement a manned mission to Mars. For these purposes, heavy rockets with carrying capacity of over 50 tons are required. A mission to Mars will require a launch vehicle capable of moving approximately 180 tons in a vacuum, which is equivalent to three fully loaded railroad cars. The program of deep space studies, nearly forgotten in the last 15 years, will be revived. Today, there are two spacecraft "Spektr-R" that allow observing the core of galaxies at a distance of 5 to 7 billion light-years. Next year another such machine will be launched into space that will further expand the range of visibility, allowing studies of the so-called black holes. Another sensation is a breakthrough project to develop transport and energy module based on the nuclear power unit. A nuclear spacecraft was started by Soviet designers and engineers, and their designs are still seven to ten years ahead of similar ones produced by Western scientists. According to the head of Roscosmos Vladimir Popovkin, a nuclear missile will provide a very different capacity and travel speed, which would have revolutionary implications in space science. Of course, the specific terrestrial tasks of the space industry will not be forgotten. Satellite group "Glonass" is in great demand by transporters, industrialists, and signalers. "Glonass" is inferior to its Western competitors in terms of accuracy, which necessitated the task to raise this indicator to one - three centimeters. The success of the national system will capture a significant segment of the operator services market, estimated at $200 billion. Another direction is creating bandwidth in the Arctic zone, including the Northern Sea Route and the transpolar route for aircraft. The period of anarchy in the management of the space industry has come to end. The anarchy was caused by the fact that powerful governmental scientific and production associations that solved world-class problem split into dozens of obscure firms with big names, striving for economic independence. A decision was made to preserve and enhance the role of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) as a federal executive authority. The rocket and space industry will be consolidated into a few large specialized scientific and industrial holdings with one hundred percent government participation. These structures will be controlled by Roscosmos. In fact, the Soviet space control scheme is being reconstituted with two competing basic space holdings in Moscow and Krasnoyarsk. Will the Russian space program reach the high level of development it enjoyed during the Soviet times? According to the stated objectives, it is feasible. There is another important factor: a program has been established that is worthy of a great power and scale and innovation potential. The space construction that involves hundreds of thousands of citizens in a large scale project may significantly improve the public perception of the world, give a sense of optimism and prospects to the country oppressed by the ideology of consumerism and social Darwinism.

Russian Navy to receive 2 Borei and 1 Yasen nuclear subs in 2013

This year, the Russian Navy is to receive two submarine cruisers created under project 955 ("Borei") and a multipurpose nuclear submarine of project 885 ("Yasen"), Andrei Vernigora, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry, and Yuri Borisov, Deputy Defense Minister, told reporters. Borisov confirmed that two serial missile strategic submarines "Alexander Nevsky" and "Vladimir Monomakh" as well as multipurpose nuclear submarine "Severodvinsk" will enter service in the Russian Navy in 2013. In addition, Vernigora added that upon the completion of tests, the Navy of Russia would receive another nuclear cruiser -

Putin: 'There's no Stalinism in Russia and never will be'

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a regular televised Q&A conference with Russian citizens on April 25th. For Putin, it was the eleventh conference like that, but such a form of communication between the president and the people is still highly actual. Putin set a new record for himself: he was answering questions for 4 hours 47 minutes. More than three million questions were received in total; Putin answered 85. "This format is a well known one. Of course, it can be formal, but still it's very useful. This is absolutely correct and obvious. Such direct contacts with citizens give a very true slice of what is most important in the present-day society. Therefore, such a direct exchange of views, direct information, getting feedback from regions is extremely important and extremely useful," Putin said. As in the previous times, there were plenty of issues to discuss. Traditionally, Putin paid a lot of attention to issues of economic and social development. In addition, the participants of the conference (including the expert part of it) were highly interested in the political component of the conversation. It has been less than a year since Vladimir Putin's inauguration. However, these months were extremely important in he political sense of the word. It was about disturbances and changes in the area of ​​political rights and freedoms, the electoral law, and, of course, about questions to the government formed by Putin, at least about several members of the government. "It is necessary all leaders of any rank - both in presidential structures, and in the government - should feel and understand that ordinary citizens are closely monitoring our work and give their assessment to it," - he said. As for requirements to sack one, two, or all ministers at once, Putin explained that the government had been working for less than a year, "so one must give people an opportunity to realize themselves or come to understanding that someone is not in a position to do it. " "I repeat, claims may be plentiful, but whether a reshuffling is required, I do not know. Most likely, it will do more harm than good," said the president. Speaking of ministers, Putin mentioned ex-Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. According to the President, the ex-Minister of Finance received requests to return of the bodies of state power, but Kudrin declined. As for the Russian opposition, Putin said that the opposition refuses to conduct a dialogue with the authorities. "As for the so-called non-systemic opposition, we offer this dialogue to them, but some opposition leaders shy away from this dialogue," said Putin. "Maybe something that they offer and say will become more understandable to our society, maybe we need some of their offers. Maybe they would be able to push the government to not very popular, but necessary things in the economy," said Putin. "The concept of non-systemic opposition, as it seems to me, should gradually lose its relevance," the president said, recalling that the law provides the right to form political parties with minimal bureaucratic costs. "Screaming help is one thing, but offering a positive agenda is another one. And this can only be done in a legal form, using the power given by the law. You're welcome to take action, fight, get into the parliament and prove your rightness," Putin said. Actually, this can be considered a response to the Kremlin's opponents when they say that the Russian parliament is entirely controlled by the state. "This is a mistake, I think, to believe that in some other country, in the U.S., for example, the Congress and the upper house are not controlled by the state at all. Nothing of the sort is consistent with the practice of our political life," he explained. According to Putin, Russia has the ruling party, which represents the majority in power. But as practice shows, even in the ruling party, people share different views. In general, over the last few years, the State Duma has showed that, it serves as a real battlefield of opinions, ideas and characters. The name of late Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky emerged during the conference too. To be more precise, it was his "letters of repentance" Putin, the news of which appeared only after his death. The President confirmed that he indeed received two letters from the fugitive oligarch. The first one arrived in February of this year, and the second letter came after his death. "One letter was handwritten in full, the second one - in part: first handwritten, then typed text, then handwritten again," said the president. However, Putin did not unveil any details about the content of the letters. He only said that Berezovsky wrote that he had made a lot of mistakes and caused damage. He asked for forgiveness and for an opportunity to return to his homeland." Putin emphasized that he had never been in close relationship with Berezovsky. "We were acquaintances. He was writing with a request. Some of my colleagues immediately asked to publicize the contents of the letters. I am very grateful to the Lord that He has saved me from that," Putin said, adding that that he did not respond to letters. As for other problems related to politics, one can mention the scandal with Oboronservis company that, without a doubt, gained political colors. "The case (of Oboronservis) will be brought to an end. But that does not mean that we should, for political reasons, in order to look good in front of outraged citizens, put them (the suspects) in jail, at any cost. We do not need to go back to that dark period - to 1937," said Putin. The question about the fate of Russian blogger Alexei Navalny, who acts as a defendant in the criminal case on grand embezzlement in the Kirov region, may also refer to this category. "I am confident that the proceedings on this and other cases will be extremely objective. By the way, I drew the attention of Prosecutor General's Office and other law enforcement agencies to this issue," said the president. But at the same time, Putin emphasized that "the people who fight against corruption, must themselves be crystal clear, otherwise all this takes the form of self-PR and political advertising. All must be equal before the law. And no one should have any illusions. If someone screams "stop the thief," it does not mean that he himself is allowed to steal," said the head of Russia. Vladimir Putin explained his position about another issue that caused a strong reaction in the society. It goes about the prohibition to officials to have foreign bank accounts and property abroad. According to the President, there is no obstacle - either moral or legal - for people to be free to choose where to deposit their money or buy apartments. "But there is a special category of people who consciously choose public service for themselves, and let them decide for themselves what is more important: to keep their money abroad or serve for the citizens of the Russian Federation on these high positions to which they have grown in their service," Putin said, adding that such an official "is always in a state of dependence on the system of the state in which he or she keeps their money." This problem may seem far-fetched to some. However, one can not deny the fact that some foreign governments use every opportunity to put pressure on the Russian authorities. This, in particular, goes about the so-called Magnitsky list, the adoption of which in the USA was a manifestation of imperial aggression, as Putin said. According to Putin, the U.S. authorities were forced to cancel the Jackson-Vanik amendment, as in the current situation it was detrimental to American businessmen. "They (the United States) had to cancel it (the Jackson-Vanik amendment). And it would have been a good reason to do it, forget it all that we had in the days of the Cold War and move on. No, they had to come up with another anti-Russian necessarily act (the Magnitsky list). Why was it done? Simply to show that they are the coolest guys. Why? This is the imperial behavior in the foreign policy field," said the president of Russia. In general, evaluating the style of his policy, Putin said that it was impossible to compare the current model of governance with that of Stalin's era. "I do not think there are any elements of Stalinism here. Stalinism is associated with the cult of personality and mass violations of the law, repressions and camps. There is nothing like that in Russia, and hopefully never will be," said Putin stressing that Russia should have "order and discipline." "All citizens of the Russian Federation, regardless of their official position, shall be equal before the law," the president said, adding that the girls from Pussy Riot and young people who commit acts of vandalism on the graves of soldiers should be held accountable before the law.

Vitali Klitschko: Can Boxing's 'Dr Ironfist' Become The Next President Of Ukraine?

KIEV, Ukraine -- At the end of a hotel bar in central London is an object that, momentarily, resists identification. It could be the back of a gigantic beshadowed human being. Or it could be a freezer with a melon on top of it. Only when the object moves do I realise that, despite the apparently impossible proportions, it’s him: the Ukrainian Vitali Klitschko, the 6ft 7.5in world heavyweight boxing champion-turned-politician now aiming to become president of one of the most hostile and treacherous political systems on the planet. Klitschko’s only visiting London briefly and I’m one of a few journalists to have been granted a brief audience. I’m early, and the reporter who had the slot before me is still buttoning up her coat. She seems rather flustered and is grinning at him dreamily. To be honest, it’s hard to blame her. Klitschko is intensely handsome, his face all deep angles and epic bones. But there’s also a surprising softness to him, a velvety quality to his smile and a luxuriant slowness in the way he moves his limbs. When I eventually sit in front of him, there is a sense of great power in repose. It’s like watching a panther snoozing in the sun. Klitschko has had an amazing life; two amazing lives, in fact. His first incarnation, alongside his equally fearsome brother, Wladimir, is that of sporting megastar. The first siblings ever to have held world boxing titles at the same time, both are considered to be among the greatest heavyweights of the modern age. Vitali has won 45 of his 47 bouts, 41 by a knock out. Klitschko officially retired on November 9 2005, before un-retiring himself again two years later. Although he’s still officially the WBC world heavyweight champion (while Wladimir holds the WBA, IBF and WBO belts) he hasn’t fought for six months – a situation which British fighter David Haye, who’s been baiting the Klitschko brothers for years, would apparently like to change. After losing to Wladimir on points in 2011, Haye claims to be desperate to step into the ring with the elder sibling, telling sports writers that, “I’m too fast, too sexy and too talented to be blown away by a large, slow robot from Ukraine.” But, while insisting that he remains “the best in the world”, Vitali is now 41 and equivocates when asked whether he intends to keep fighting. He has, however, ruled out the possibility of fighting 32-year-old Haye. For one thing, he says that, when offered the chance of a bout in 2011, Haye failed to sign the contract. And he’s certainly not going to be doing any favours for the Briton: in the run up to his encounter with Wladimir, Haye wore a T-shirt that bore an image of him holding both Klitschkos’ severed heads. Wladimir called him an “embarrassment to boxing”, a remark that served to underscore the differences between the pugnacious Haye and the cerebral Klitschkos. Vitali, nicknamed “Dr Ironfist”, has a PhD, and both men speak a multitude of languages. Similarly, Vitali also rejects the possibility of ever taking part in what would surely be one of the most emotionally dramatic and compelling bouts ever staged: a fight between the brothers. Such an event, he has said, would “break the heart of my mother”. It might also break his own. The siblings are famously close. Their father was an officer in the Soviet air force, and raised them, with his wife, Nadia, at an airbase in Kiev. At home, where all four Klitschkos shared a single room and kitchen, Wladimir Snr imposed strict discipline and punished his sons regularly with the belt. Vitali was tall and skinny at school, and the target of bullies. Shortly before his death from cancer in 2011, Vitali’s father told a documentary crew, “I drummed it into him that he had to fight. Losing was not an option.” Growing up, the pair worshipped Bruce Lee and Arnold Schwarzenegger. They attended kick-boxing classes which, as it was seen as a Western pollution of martial arts, was forbidden. They would spar with each other and, being five years Wladimir’s senior, Vitali would usually win, although both would end up bloodied. Today, Vitali regards those days as a “sign from God” that the two should never fight. It was Vitali’s fighting, and the opportunity it presented him to travel outside the Soviet Union, that ultimately led him to the life he wants to talk about today. His new fight is on behalf of Ukraine, his stated mission: to take one of the world’s most corrupt countries, known best for its fixed elections and parliament punch ups, and turn it into a modern, functioning, democratic member of the EU. “Many times, I had the chance to see many different countries,” he says. “And always when I come back to Ukraine I ask why is it that very simple things that work around the world don’t work in my home country? And slowly I started to understand. Many politicians are not interested to make a change in our country. That’s why I came to this idea. We need to create a European country.” As a youngster, Vitali was convinced that Ukraine was already the world’s greatest nation. His parents would tell him how the capitalist leaders used their citizens as slaves while, at school, the pupils would spend time every morning writing lists of all the bad things they could think of about the United States. But after he was actually offered the chance to visit the US, the lie could no longer bear scrutiny. In the 2011 documentary, Klitschko, directed by the German film-maker Sebastian Dehnhardt, Vitali memorably recounted his first enraptured impressions of America. “How can there be 100 types of cheese?” he recalled thinking. “That’s madness. There’s only one type of cheese. It’s called cheese.” He wanted to drink an entire bucket of Coca-Cola; to stand in the middle of a shopping mall and just smell it. It was, he says, like “going to the moon”. When he returned home, he informed his father that everything they’d been told about capitalism was untrue. His dad rejected the view. “He said, ‘it’s a show put on especially for you," Vitali tells me now. "They show you some nice places and, after that, use you as propaganda." When communism dribbled to a halt, in 1991, Klitschko expected Ukraine to become an ordinary capitalist country. But a healthy free market economy, with public employees on one side and private business owners on the other, wasn’t properly established. Hence today, powerful politicians and glitteringly wealthy profit-makers tend to be the same people. In Ukraine, as in many former Soviet states, public resources are routinely used for private gain. “If you look at [the anti-corruption organisation] Transparency International, Ukraine comes out as the most corrupt country in Europe,” says Dr Sarah Whitmore, senior lecturer in politics at Oxford Brookes University. “And the state is the main source of that corruption because it’s the main source of wealth. There are very few people with clean hands in places of power in Ukraine. Very few.” Klitschko formed his party, the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform (the acronym of which, UDAR, means “punch” in Ukrainian) to solve these chronic and institutional problems. And, as the third largest faction in parliament, the party provides its leader with a good base to become president in the 2015 general election. “It’s corruption that destroys our economy,” Klitschko tells me. “Many investors are afraid to come into it. Secondly, there’s no competition. "Thirdly, in most countries, more than 60 per cent of the budget comes from taxes from small and middle businesses. In Ukraine, it’s less than 10 per cent. That’s why our economy doesn’t work. We have to change that. The first step will be to destroy corruption.” It might not be so easy. The last man who promised to drag Ukraine westward, and to exorcise corruption, was Viktor Yushchenko. He ended up on the losing end of a fixed election, on the verge of death, with a catheter in his spine, his face blackened and pocked by the poison dioxin. Does Klitschko worry that he’ll end up dead or, like Yushchenko’s equally ambitious prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, imprisoned on spurious charges? “It’s true that politics is a dirty game, especially in Ukraine,” he says. “They play with no rules. And we want to make rules. But my main interest has to be the millions of Ukranians and the interest of the country.” Such idealism, however, might count for nothing if he attempts to reform the wrong sort of people. It’s still not known who was behind the attempted assassination of Yushchenko, although historian and Vladimir Putin biographer Yuri Felshtinsky believes it was organised by the Russian security service, the FSB. “It’s difficult to prove, but the person who was accused, the Ukrainian secret service officer Volodymyr Satsyuk, has received political asylum in Russia,” he says. Suspicions of Russian involvement are not soothed by the fact that Putin himself went to extraordinary lengths to secure the election of his rival, the eastwards-looking Viktor Yanukovych. While in London, is Klitschko not scared he could be assassinated by the shadowy Russian figures that flit around the city? Klitschko grins and lifts the cup he’s been drinking from. “Tea!” he says. “You’ve been thinking about Litvinenko!” His two assistants giggle at the reference to the former FSB agent, Alexander Litvinenko, who was murdered by radioactive tea in 2006 at the Millennium Hotel, just one mile from where we are sitting. “I have a feeling you’re…” he confers with his neighbour, checking the right word. “Paranoid!” But surely Putin doesn’t want a westward-leaning Ukraine? “Russia is not our enemy. Russia is a different country. You overestimate the power of Putin in Ukraine,” he says. Practicalities, then. How will this anti-corruption drive actually work? Let’s start with the state services – the police and security agencies. How do you clean decades of human muck from those vast, intricate hierarchies? “You reload the system,” he says. “I understand this will not be a popular decision, but I can’t see another way. We investigate, fire the old people, bring in new staff and pay good wages. And we have one law for everybody.” This sounds simplistic. After so many years of rot, how many incorruptible police officers can there possibly be? How do you find the good ones? “It will be by personal selection,” he says. “Like in Georgia. Maybe it’s a bad example, but in one day, in Georgia, the whole police force was fired.” So he’d sack the whole of the police? “Yeah,” he says. Klitschko pauses. “Well,” he says, apparently thinking again, “I don’t think the example of Georgia would work in Ukraine. But it’s working in Georgia! It’s working!” It’s hard to know if Klitschko is really as oblivious as he seems to the dangers of his plan. Clearly, he’s taking his fight to ruthless people, with riches to protect. Perhaps the self-confidence he’s gathered as a boxer has given him an exaggerated sense of his own invulnerability? “I can’t be alone,” he says. “That’s why I do it with a team. Alone, it’s not important how strong you are – if you’re alone, you’re weak. I am not alone.” Yushchenko wasn’t alone, I point out, and he was nearly killed. There’s a silence. His eyes bear down at me. “Thousands, millions of Ukrainians support us,” he says. “And I’m not afraid to fight.” Which is exactly why the corrupt agencies that he’s seeking to “reload” must be concerned. I ask Klitschko if his phones are tapped. He nods at the mobile in front of him. “I know that,” he says. When I ask him if his family is afraid, he smiles. (Klitschko is married to Natalia Egorova, a former athlete and model, and has three children.) “It’s better not to explain to my family,” he says. “My children don’t realise what I’m doing.” Up until now, Klitschko has been sitting back in his chair, his left arm on the table, his body facing slightly away from me. When I press him, for one final time, to acknowledge the perils that he’s inviting into his life, he turns, leans forward and faces me squarely, his brow lowering, his jaw squeezing. “In professional boxing,” he says, “if you go inside the ring and you’re not ready to give your life, you will never be the best. But you have to be prepared. You need good defence. "You have to know your skills. And must never give your opponent a chance to attack you. It’s exactly the same in politics. "If you prepare well, have a good team around you and know the idea you’re fighting for, you will be successful. But a very important point: you always have to be ready to give everything to achieve your goal.” Including your life? He nods. “Including your life.”

EU Puts Fresh Pressure On Ukraine Over Tymoshenko, Reforms

KIEV, Ukraine -- Foreign ministers of several EU countries gave Ukraine a discouraging report on Thursday on its efforts to deepen ties with the bloc and suggested the jailing of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko remained a serious obstacle. They said agreements on free trade and political association with the European Union were being stymied in particular by cases of "selective justice", a term used by the West to describe the prosecution of rival politicians, including former prime minister Tymoshenko, under President Viktor Yanukovich. Ukraine hopes to sign the deals at a summit in Vilnius in November. But Brussels has made it conditional on Kiev passing a number of legal reforms and addressing Western criticism of its justice and electoral systems. "The stakes are very high and time is very short," Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters in Kiev on Thursday after meeting Yanukovich together with his colleagues from Lithuania, Denmark and the Netherlands. "If the decision was to be taken now, I'm afraid, the answer on the signing would be 'no'," he said. Yanukovich this month pardoned two former members of Tymoshenko's government who had been jailed on abuse-of-office charges, a move welcomed by Brussels. But diplomats and analysts say he might be reluctant to do the same with regards to Tymoshenko, his fiercest political foe who led the 2004 Orange Revolution protests, derailing his first bid for presidency. Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison in October 2011 on charges related to a 2009 gas deal with Russia which Yanukovich says has saddled Ukraine with an exorbitant energy prices. Since last May, Tymoshenko, who has served twice as prime minister before narrowly losing the 2010 presidential run-off to Yanukovich, has been receiving treatment for back trouble in a state-run hospital in the city of Kharkiv. Yanukovich himself says he cannot order her release because Tymoshenko is also due to be tried on tax evasion and embezzlement charges and is being investigated in a murder case. She has denied all charges against her. The EU shelved the deals with Ukraine over Tymoshenko in 2011, when they were initially due to be signed. "You (Ukraine) have to dismiss all doubts about selective justice," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told reporters when asked about Tymoshenko. The EU says a deal needs to be sealed this year before the bloc turns its focus to European Parliament elections in 2014 and Ukraine itself holds a presidential election in 2015. Poland's Sikorski urged Ukraine to act quickly. "Ukraine has three critical months to do what is necessary... if we fail, we can spend decades, maybe generations arguing what went wrong," he said.

Ukraine Marks Chornobyl Anniversary

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainians have held a memorial ceremony in a downtown Kyiv church to honor the victims of the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear-power plant disaster. At the ceremony, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Vilkul paid homage to the "hundreds of thousands" of people who sacrificed their health or their lives to cope with the crisis. Other top Ukrainian officials, including President Viktor Yanukovych and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, are participating in events to mark the 27th anniversary of the accident, which released radiation equivalent to 500 Hiroshima atomic bombs. Yanukovych said the total cost of the incident for his country over the last 27 years has been almost $180 billion. Anniversary Also Marked In Central Asia Elsewhere, several Central Asian cities have been marking the 27th anniversary of the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear-plant disaster. In a ceremony in Kyrgyzstan's capital on April 26, Bishkek, Mayor Isa Omurkulov and diplomats from the Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian Embassies laid flowers at a monument commemorating the disaster's victims. A similar ceremony was held in Kyrgyzstan's southern city of Jalal-Abad. In several cities in neighboring Kazakhstan, local citizens and Chornobyl veterans also honored the victims. Dozens of Chornobyl veterans and their supporters rallied in Kazakhstan's western city of Oral demanding benefits and financial support from the government. More than 50,000 of some 600,000 so-called Chornobyl liquidators, who participated in the effort to contain the disaster, were from five Central Asian republics.

NJ Train Explosive Plot Thwarted: Ukraine Man Caught With Bombs

HOBOKEN, USA -- A Ukrainian man was arrested in New Jersey after he brought two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on a New Jersey Transit train just days before the Boston marathon bombings, a new report details. Reports indicate that 27-year-old Mykyta Panasenko had the explosive devices eight days before the Boston Marathon explosions, which killed three people and injured over 200, according to The Jersey Journal. Officials revealed that Panasenko boarded a train in Hoboken that was destined for Suffern, New York on April 7 while carrying the explosive devices. Police noticed his unusual activities and arrested the man at the scene. The investigation into Panasenko's intentions has been conducted by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Port Authority Police Department. Authorities indicated that the suspect built "two destructive devices, specifically improvised explosive devices (IEDs) constructed from a cylinder containing Pyrodex (black powder)." The report has yet to be made public, but will be made so after public until his court hearing on April 31, according to the Huffington Post. Initial reports indicate that Panasenko was born in Kiev, Ukraine and has lived in Jersey City for the last several years. Records also show that he attended Rutgers University in New Brunswick and has been working with gaming company High 5 Games. Panasenko was "recklessly creating widespread risk of injury or damage to a building which normally contains 25 or more persons by constructing the explosive devices," a source told The Jersey Journal. Officers from the Jersey City Police Department Bomb Squad raided the house and found more evidence of suspicious activity. Jersey City Police Deputy Chief Peter Nalbach explained that an anonymous tip led them to Panasenko and a search of his house uncovered more items that could have been used to build more bombs. "Materials that may have been used to make an explosive device" were recovered at the residence, a law enforcement source added.