British company to supply Russian naval vessels

Russia’s seamen are to get softer beds and fancier finishings as the Defense Ministry employs the services of a British company to furnish its vessels.

This has prompted controversy at home, naysayers say the money would be better spent on rockets and defending the country than making life easier for its sailors and that if they really feel the need to spend money on soft beds they could use the services of a Russian company.

Strong Box Maritime Furnishings is the name and Morskiye Kompleksniye Systemy its representative in Russia. The British firm also supplies the Royal Navy.

Journalist Stabbed To Death In Ukraine's Capital

KIEV, Ukraine -- A Ukrainian photojournalist has been killed in the capital, Kiev, in what the official media describe as a personal conflict.

Vitaliy Rozvadovsky, a reporter with the Ukrainian weekly 2000, died hours after an assailant stabbed him at the entrance to the stairway of a Kiev building.

Officials say the murder does not appear to be linked to his profession.

News media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders expressed shock Tuesday at Rozvadovsky's death and urged authorities to explore all possibilities that may have lead to the killing.

The group quoted a police spokesman, Vladimir Dmitrenko, as saying the incident is being treated for the time being as "murder with premeditation" under the presumption that it was the result of a personal dispute.

Reporters Without Borders ranks Ukraine as one of the countries with the least press freedom and says attacks on journalists remain frequent.

Last month investigative reporter Oleksander Vlaschenko was shot in the head by unidentified attackers in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolayiv.

He was hospitalized with a bullet lodged in his brain.

Earlier this year, U.S.-based Freedom House reported that freedom of press declined in Ukraine during 2010.

Ukraine Hoping For Unforgettable Sheva Goodbye

KIEV, Ukraine -- Already drawn into Group D as top seed, Euro 2012 co-hosts Ukraine will take some comfort in knowing that they will at least avoid 2010 World Cup finalists Spain and the Netherlands in the draw Friday.

However, the cautiously optimistic nation could well face a fascinating tussle with old rivals Germany, Russia or Italy, who knocked them out in the quarter-finals of Germany 2006 in Ukraine's only other major tournament appearance.

It could be good news for the former Soviet Republic that there are many echoes of five years ago in the team.

The familiar blue and yellow side are again coached by icon Oleg Blokhin, a former European Player of the Year, and it is a team built around some of the same players from that success at Germany 2006.

National icon, captain and all-time leading scorer, Andriy Shevchenko is still hoping to lead the line up front despite a lingering back injury.

At 35 years old, 'Sheva' is at the tail end of a long career that included a European Player of the Year award of his own in 2004 and almost half a century of goals in 105 international appearances.

Being drawn against Italy might be a particularly sentimental outcome for player that peaked in his success at AC Milan.

Shevchenko's status within the Ukraine squad is almost matched by all-time cap leader Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, who has found a new lease on life at Bayern Munich and anchors the midfield, which also can call on familiar faces like Serhiy Nazarenko, Andriy Voronin and Oleg Husyev.

Blokhin and his team have made it clear that they intend to get out of the opening group in front of their home fans, so the 55th-ranked team in the world will be watching the draw closely and hoping to avoid as many giants as possible.

'We have bigger goals, but our first target must be to qualify for the knockout round,' said Blokhin, who returned to the post in April after a spell away from coaching.

'Our job is to win Euro 2012, but we must move one step at a time.'

After losing a national team record four matches on the trot, Blokhin's team have recovered their confidence in the last two months to beat Bulgaria, Estonia and Austria and draw with an in-form Germany 3-3.

Ukraine Veterans Clash With Police In Kiev Over Cuts

KIEV, Ukraine -- There have been clashes in the centre of the Ukrainian capital Kiev amid a protest by veterans from the Chernobyl disaster and the Soviet-Afghan war of the 1980s.

Police moved in when protesters tried to block traffic and set up tents. Several people were wounded.

The protesters chanted “shame” as they demonstrated against cuts in pensions and benefits.

The former Soviet republic is trying to reduce its public deficit to secure funds from the International Monetary Fund.

The death of a protester in Donetsk on Sunday night has fuelled their anger.

The 70-year-old man died as police evacuated the protesters’ camp.

Emergency services said he had previously been suffering from chest pains.

“I came here to protest in Kiev because of the man who died in Donetsk,” said an Afghan war veteran called Mykola.

“He was the one who made the rich people the billionaires they are. This man died after working for them for 40 years. They came and stole everything; he was simply trampled on.”

The demonstrators, some of whom have tried to storm Ukraine’s parliament, include workers sent to clean up after the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986.

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.

Ukraine Commemorates The Victims Of The Great Famine

KIEV, Ukraine -- About 2 thousand people marched in Kiev to the National Memorial of Holodomor victims to commemorate the children who died during the artificial famine in 1932-1933. Kiev, Ukraine. 26th November 2011.

The procession also devoted to the unborn because of famine.

Participants of the rally were carrying about 500 unlited candle, symbolizing the young, unlived life, and black ribbon with the names of children who died of starvation.

Names of children aged 6 months to 17 years were taken from the book of the Holodomor victims.

Later, near the National Museum of the "Memorial of Holodomor victims," the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kiev Pathriarchy Metropolite Philaret served requiem, which was attended by representatives of the Greek-Catholic Church, an autocephalous and the Roman Catholic Church.

The ceremony to commemorate attended by former Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko, members of the Cabinet and other central bodies of executive power, the Presidential Administration, as well as representatives of the diplomatic corps.

The Holodomor (literal translation Killing by hunger) was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933.

During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of Ukraine.

Early estimates of the death toll by scholars and government officials varied greatly; anywhere from 1.8 to 12 million ethnic Ukrainians were said to have been killed as a result of the famine.

Recent research has since narrowed the estimates to between 2.4 and 7.5 million.

The exact number of deaths is hard to determine, due to a lack of records, but the number increases significantly when the deaths inside heavily Ukrainian-populated Kuban are included.

The demographic deficit caused by unborn or unrecorded births is said to be as high as 6 million.

Older estimates are still often cited in political commentary.

Scholars disagree on the relative importance of natural factors and bad economic policies as causes of the famine and the degree to which the destruction of the Ukrainian peasantry was premeditated on the part of Joseph Stalin.

Scholars and politicians using the word Holodomor emphasize the man-made aspects of the famine, arguing that it was genocide; some consider the resultant loss of life comparable to the Holocaust.

They argue that the Soviet policies were an attack on the rise of Ukrainian nationalism and therefore fall under the legal definition of genocide.

Other scholars argue that the Holodomor was a consequence of the economic problems associated with radical economic changes implemented during the period of Soviet industrialization.

Jailed Ukraine Politician Feted By Supporters

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian singers have staged a birthday concert for Yulia Tymoshenko, the opposition leader, at the gates of the Kiev prison where she is being held,

More than 3,000 of her supporters chanted messages of solidarity as the crowd heaped flowers and nailed up hand-written greetings messages on heart-shaped cards outside the jail on Sunday to mark her 51st birthday.

Many, bearing flags with the slogan "We will overcome!", chanted her name.

Tymoshenko, who was twice prime minister, has been held at the Lukyanivska detention centre in Kiev since she was jailed this summer for seven years for abuse of office.

She and her supporters say the case is a political vendetta against her by President Viktor Yanukovich, who narrowly beat her in a bitterly fought run-off for the job in February 2010.

The affair has derailed Ukraine's plans for closer ties with the European Union.

The 27-member bloc says the trial was politically motivated and has called on Yanukovich to secure Tymoshenko’s release.

But he has refused to intervene and prosecutors are pressing ahead with investigations into a variety of fresh criminal charges against her.

"Yanukovich locked her up on purpose because he knows that she is worse than a nuclear war for him. If she gets out, he will not be president much longer," Viktor Redzhuk, a pensioner from the town of Zhitomyr, said.

Tymoshenko's daughter, Yevhenia, said outside the prison: "For me it's obviously not a celebration. Of course it's a holiday, because my mom was born, but for me it's a sad day, because she is in prison."

Police made no attempt to intervene or to disperse the crowd.

Supporters joined in when popular singer Nina Matvienko, one of several performers who Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna party said would appear during the day, sang a Ukrainian folk song.

There was no sign of Tymoshenko at any of the windows of Luk'yanivska prison, a long, rose-coloured building set back from the road, and there was no way of knowing whether she could hear the crowds outside.

Supporters fear her health is declining and there have been reports that she is suffering from a recurring back problem.

Army staffed by 10-20 percent conscripts soon -- Medvedev

President Dmitry Medvedev has promised that only 10-20 percent of the army would be manned by conscripts in the near future.

“The draft is to continue, but only those people who believe it to be important and necessary for themselves will do military service,” Medvedev said at a women’s forum, Gazeta.ru reported. The change is set to happen in the next five to seven years, he added.

“The rest is to be done by people serving under contract,” Medvedev said.

Earlier, Medvedev said the army would be in need of conscripts for the next 10 years. Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said earlier this year, that the army would be manned by 50 percent conscripts by 2017.

China gas deal sidelines Russia

Russia’s position in long-standing gas negotiations with China was delivered a new blow this week when China signed an agreement with Turkmenistan to increase natural gas supplies from the Central Asian country.

The agreement, signed between the presidents of the two countries on Wednesday, will more than double the gas stream through the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-China gas pipeline in 2012.

Reserves in Turkmenistan’s core gas field, Southern Iolotan, were recently estimated to be the second biggest in the world, with an capacity of some 13-21 trillion cubic meters (cm).

Under the deal, Turkmenistan will supply China with some 65 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year by 2014-2015, three times current volumes, the Kommersant business said on Thursday.

Russia has been negotiating a gas supply contract to China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, for five years but the sides have been unable agree on pricing.

Sources close to Wednesday’s talks told Kommersant that Turkmenistan agreed to supply gas to China for $250 per 1,000 cm, a $150 discount on Russia’s asking price.

“The deal will decrease Gazprom’s negotiating power – it will have to continue negotiations with China under less favorable conditions,” said Elena Savchik, an oil and gas analyst at Aton investment bank.

“From China’s point of view, signing a deal with Turkmenistan is a good way to push its terms to Russia and prove they have other suppliers” she added.

China has invested some $4 billion in the development of the Southern Iolotan field and says it will continue to invest further to secure its hold on supplies from Turkmenistan.

“Beijing does not want Turkmenistan to build a pipeline to the European Union, get a different gas price on the European market and then increase it for China…Beijing will do its best to make sure the Transcaspian pipeline project is not developed,” a Chinese diplomat said.

Russia bans European flights for several domestic airlines

Russia's Aviation Agency Rosaviation restricted the flights to Europe for six Russian airlines. The new regulations touch upon the following companies: VIM-Avia, Dagestan Airlines, Tatarsran, Yakutia, Aviastar-Tu and UTair cargo.

The head of Rosaviation, Alexander Neradko, told reporters yesterday that the agency restricted the European flights for those airlines after SAFA (Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft) lowered the safety coefficient for the airlines.

The restrictions can be lifted, but it will depend on how the airlines manage to remove the drawbacks of their work and whether they demonstrate the readiness not to let such violations occur again.

"This program exists for many years, and I feel uncomfortable in front of our European colleagues because our airlines continue to make childish violations. They probably hope that SAFA inspectors will leave them out of attention," Neradko said.

It was previously reported that the European Commission was going to consider the issue about blacklisting several Russian airlines, including VIM-Avia, Dagestan Airlines, Yakutia and Tatarstan. This black list bans airlines from flying to Europe. It just so happens that Rosaviation has taken the lead at this point.

Yury Luzhkov returns to Moscow to become teacher

Former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov has returned to Mosco. On November 15, Mr. Luzhkov is going to appear at the interrogation to testify as a witness on the case of the Bank of Moscow.

A source and the International University said that Luzhkov was going to start working soon. The former mayor will teach at the University, Rosbalt said.

Officials with the Russian Internal Affairs Ministry previously said that the ex-mayor refused to appear at the interrogation because he was not staying in Russia. The event was thus postponed.

Luzhkov's lawyer Henry Reznik said that the former head of Moscow had previously notified prosecutors of his inability to participate in the interrogation on October 28. The sides agreed on another date - November 15.

The case, in which Luzhkov acts as a witness, was filed at the end of 2010. The case was filed against the former president of the Bank of Moscow, Andrei Borodin and his deputy Dmitry Akulinin.

According to prosecutors, the bankers have laundered 12.76 billion rubles from the budget of the city with the help of a loan from JSC Premier Estate.

Putin returns to top three of world's most powerful people

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was ranked second on Forbes magazine's annual list of 70 most powerful people of the world. Putin has thus returned to the top three of the leaders after he took the fourth place on the list last year. Putin's positions became stronger after he announced an intention to run for president. In 2009, Putin was third on the list, Pravda.Ru reports.

The rating of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is a lot lower. In 2010, Medvedev was ranked 12^th, whereas this year he slipped to the 59^th place. Specialists explain such a decline with Medvedev's decision to refuse from his participation in the presidential vote. He also publicly acknowledged that Putin was more popular.

The world's most powerful person, according to Forbes, is US President Barack Obama. Obama climbed one step up in comparison with the previous year. Obama remains the head of state with the world's largest and most dynamic economy. The magazine also wrote that Obama was the unofficial leader of the free world, but this is obviously a ridiculous statement to make. Obama's rating improved owing to the destruction of Al-Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden. However, his death is shrouded in mystery and will probably remain one of the biggest secrets of the 21^st century. NATO's operation in Libya and the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi also improved the rating of the US president.

The third place on the list belongs to last year's leader, China's President Hu Jintao. His "decline" is connected with the fact that Hu is supposed to step down as the head of the Communist Party of China in 2012.

The top ten list also includes German Chancellor Angela Merkel (#4), Microsoft's founder Bill Gates (#5), Saudi King Abdullah (#6), Pope Benedict XVI (#7), Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (#8), Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (#9, the youngest of the world's most powerful people), and British Prime Minister David Cameron (#10).

Russian entrepreneur Alisher Usmanov was ranked 70^th. One of the Google founders, Sergey Brin, who was born in Moscow, takes the 30^thposition.

This year, several constant participants of the rating are no longer considered influential and powerful individuals. Forbes magazine "disqualified" TV host Oprah Winfrey, former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and former Japanese PM Naoto Kan. The list does not include Apple's late CEO Steve Jobs and Al-Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden, who was supposedly killed in Pakistan in May.

Last year, Putin's and Medvedev's ratings were very close to each other. Russian experts, who made the list of Russia's 100 leading politicians in November 2010, put Putin on the first place with 9.46 points. Medvedev gained 9.39 points.

This year, the gap between the two leaders has grown. According to the rating of the Agency of Political and Economic Communications, Putin traditionally took the first place with 9.76 points. The sitting president was ranked second with 8.21 points.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky predicts revolution in Russia

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former CEO of oil giant Yukos predicted a revolution in Russia. On Tuesday, the website of Echo of Moscow radio station published Khodorkovsky's answers that he gave to people's question. One of the questions was as follows: "How did you manage to buy Yukos for 350 million in 1995, even though the real price of the company made up 6.2 billion in eight months?"

Here is what Mr. Khodorkovsky said: "This is a myth. The stock exchange quotations of shares in the middle of the 1990s were not reflecting the real state of affairs. In 1998, Yukos cost less than $200 million on the same quotations. As a matter of fact, in 1995, $350 million for 70 percent of the holding that owned 38 percent of branch companies and had the debt of $3 billion was not a very low price. Especially prior to the elections, in which communists had good chances to win."

Someone asked Khodorkovsky about shares-for-loans auctions. According to the former CEO of Yukos, the auctions were just as fair "as it was fair to buy an apartment in Moscow in 1995, even if the price on that apartment could grow by ten or even fifty times by 2003."

"A tax for such an increase of capital could be fair for business, and that's what we offered to the state in 2002-2003. However, well-known people in the Kremlin preferred to keep big business on the hook instead of getting funds for the state budget," he added.

This is wonderful, of course, but why did those things occur to Mr. Khodorkovsky and his colleagues only seven or eight years after they bought their "apartments?" Has it become obvious to them that they would not be able to use the "apartments" for nothing when Putin came to power?

Khodorkovsky received many questions about the future of Russia.

"I am afraid that the country will see many years of standstill. There will be a political crisis and the revolutionary (and bloodless, I would like to hope) change of power, he said.

As for the revolution, this has been a favorite subject for discussion in the camp of the non-system opposition after the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Indeed, this is a popular topic among nationalists and liberals. There are not many of such sentiments in the camp of the leftist forces. It is worthy of note that Khodorkovsky refers to himself as a social liberal.

"Our country needs more social justice and it can not exist without it. It can not exist without the care for those who can't take care of themselves. It can not exist without giving all children an equal chance to be settled in life. These are leftist or social ideas, to be more precise. However, we will be able to reach this harmony only if we step on the way of political pluralism and honest elections - on the way of liberalism that is to say."

Khodorkovsky believes that Russia should refuse from the imperial ambition and concentrate on building a nation state instead.

"Russia is ready to become a nation law-governed state of the European type. The most important aspect here is culture. More than 80 percent of the population in Russia refer themselves to the Russian culture," the former CEO of Yukos believes

"We are very close to committing national suicide. The attempts to preserve the empire instead of building the nation state governed by the rule of law have cost us a lot. We need to urge everyone who identifies themselves with the Russian culture to come to Russia. We need to change the environment for that, to move to the European, pluralistic political model with the division of authorities and with influential opposition," he said.

The swiftness of thoughts is very impressive. One the one hand, Khodorkovsky calls himself a social liberal. On the other hand, would Mikhail partake in the "Russian march" if he had such a chance?

Here is a definition of the nation state that can be found in encyclopedias. "The nation state is a state that self-identifies as deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign entity for a nation as a sovereign territorial unit."

No country in Western Europe (one shall assume that Khodorkovsky offers to line up with Western Europe) falls under the definition of the nation state. There can be some elements of it found, of course, but not more than that.

Does the former CEO of Yukos offer to follow the example of Romania? The national character of this country is defined in its constitution. If so, it may only mean that Mr. Khodorkovsky aims very low.

Russia saves strongman Lukashenko from complete isolation

Alexander Lukashenko, the President of Belarus, has recently supported the development of integration within the scope of the Customs Union and the Eurasian Economic Community. Russia responded with a positive reaction immediately. Experts started saying that the relations between the administration of Russia and Belarus would improve.

The cooldown period in the relations between Russia and Belarus started when Lukashenko refused to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Afterwards, the two countries had gas, milk and other scandals. As a result, Russia decided not to support Lukashenko (at least publicly) at the presidential election in Belarus in 2010.

Belarus then suffered from the currency crisis. Russia's former Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin released several negative remarks about the economic model of Belarus. Nevertheless, the relations between the two countries have never come to a standstill despite complications.

The process of integration became stronger after the establishment of the Customs Union and the creation of the Joint Economic Space. The Eurasian Economic Community decided to give Belarus a loan of $3.5 billion. Russia approved the initiative, but it still seems that top officials are fighting for pieces of cheap Belarusian public property.

However, the relations between Russia and Belarus have been improving recently. Low duties on Europe-made cars were raised to the Russian level on July 1, as it was promised before. Belarus is currently in talks with Russia's financial organization about opportunities for new loans on the security of the shares of Belarusian enterprises.

In October, the two countries signed the agreement about the construction of the nuclear power plant in the Grodnensky region. In November, Russia and Belarus are to sign a number of other agreements in the field of oil and gas shipments and other moot questions in the energy industry. At any rate, Lukashenko stated that all of those questions had been settled.

Thus, it may seem that the "big fight" between Russia and Belarus is drawing to its end. In the meantime, the situation in Belarus remains quite intense. On October 20, the official and the market value of the Belarusian currency were equalized, which marked the drop of 189 percent since the beginning of the year. The collapse of the national currency led to the inflation rate of over 80 percent, whereas salaries remained virtually unchanged.

As for the above-mentioned integration, the opportunity for Belarus to integrate with Russia and Kazakhstan may lead to positive and negative changes for the troubled nation. One of the conditions for participation in the Joint Economic Space includes the abolishment of liabilities for businesses to sell 30 percent of currency income to the state. Belarus is not ready to take up this option because it may extend the currency crisis and therefore aggravate the economic condition in the country even further.

Therefore, the Belarusian administration tries to correct the terms of their stay in the EEC. The Customs Union committee received amendments to the currency regulation treaty within the scope of the EEC. Minks asked to preserve the 30-percent mandatory sale of currency income to residents before January 1, 2017.

The financial authorities of Belarus hope to stabilize the rate of the national currency in five years.

It goes without saying that this year's events in Belarus resulted in the growth of opposition sentiments in the country. The "revolution in social networks" conquered young people's minds. Many silent actions of protests were held in many cities of Belarus, but the actions eventually came to nothing owing to weak organization and resistance of the authorities.

One may conclude that the Belarusian opposition has not used the chance to make the name for itself а again. The Belarusian president understands that: he initiates more and more restrictions to practically all actions that are not coordinated with the authorities. In the beginning of October, the Belarusian deputies passed the bill, which toughened the requirements to organizers of mass events. The bill equated flashmobs of the Belarusian opposition to pickets.

The parliament of the country received amendments to the law "About State Security Bodies" (State Security Committee, or KGB, and its local departments). The new amendments specified the possibilities for the president of the republic to control special services. The document particularly says that the president is entitled to decide when KGB officers can resort to arms and military equipment.

It is worth mentioning that many of those, who were convicted on the cases connected with the events of December 19, 2010, are still jailed.

The terms of the new stage of integration with Russia and Kazakhstan and the economic consequences that it will lead to the residents of Belarus will not show any influence on the structure of political and socio-economic relations in the country. The society will find itself under the pressure of the authorities.

If the relations between Russia and Belarus eventually improve, it will mean that Strongman Lukashenko will avoid the complete isolation, at least in the east.

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...

Russian passports can save thousands of Kosovo Serbs

Russian citizenship can save lives, the Kosovo Serbs believe. Officials from the Russian Embassy in Belgrade received the list of 21,000 Serbian residents of the region, who set out their wish to become Russian citizens.

"More than a thousands Serbs have been killed since the arrival of peacemaking forces, even though we stay under the protection of those forces. We are completely rightless, we are on the brink of extinction. The parties that support the recognition of Kosovo's independence now appear even in Serbia. That's why we created the list of those who want to obtain Russian citizenship. We delivered the list to the first secretary of the Russian embassy. We have not received the answer yet, though. We see Russia as our only protection and savior," Zlatibor Djordjevic, a spokesman for the Old Serbia movement said.

This is not the first action of the kind. Last year, the people who initiated the petition, addressed to Russian Ambassador Alexander Konuzin. The ambassador showed no interest in it, though. Now the Kosovo Serbs give it another try. It is not only the residents of Kosovo, who would like to receive Russian passport. Now it goes about the residents of central Serbia too.

The Belgrade authorities did not leave the petition out of their attention. State Secretary with the Serbian Ministry for Kosovo Oliver Ivanovic harshly criticized the people who wanted to obtain Russian passports.

"I don't believe that it is possible to achieve anything like this. If some people are discontent, it would be much better for them to take part in the forthcoming parliamentary elections and vote for those who is going to defend their interests," the official said.

Assistant Minister for Kosovo Kruna Kaličanin, described a terrifying picture of the genocide of the Kosovo Serbs.

"Fro twelve years, the international community has been trying to silence everything that has been happening. They are trying to underestimate the number of Serbian victims of violence in Kosovo. The authorities of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo take no steps to defend the Serbs that live there," Kalicanin said.

More than 1,000 Serbs have been murdered in Kosovo since June 1999, when the war ended and international forces were deployed in the province, she added.

In 1999, soon after the appearance of KFOR international forces, Albanians shot 14 residents of Staro Gracko village. An Albanian, who was suspected of the crime, was given the benefit of the doubt. A year later, the Albanian shot dead three Serbians, his neighbors, but remained unpunished again. The man, suspected of exploding a passenger bus in 2003, avoided responsibility too. The explosion killed 12 people.

Opposition New Serbia leader Velimir Ilic had a personal meeting with the organizers of the action. "It's such a shame for all of us that our people seek citizenship from any other country. The authorities are incapable of reaching an agreement on the common declaration on Kosovo. They are not capable of doing anything serious. The people from Kosovo say that it seems to them that it is Russia that defends them, not Serbia, so they decided to ask for citizenship," he said.

The initiators of the action and Assistant Minister for Kosovo explained everything clearly. The Serbian authorities have done very little to defend their country fellows. Kosovo Albanians tried to seize Yarine and Brnyak boundary points in violation of international agreements. Serbian law-enforcement structures did not arrive to support the Serbian citizens.

If the points had been taken by so-called Kosovo customs officers, it would have meant that Kosovo's northern areas would be separated from Serbia. The Kosovo Serbs erected barricades and came into clashes with the Albanian intruders and KFOR officers and soldiers, who were on the side of the Albanians. It seemed that NATO made the Kosovo Serbs live under the oppression of the Albanians, who wanted to exterminate them.

What about Serbian President Boris Tadic? He periodically calls upon the West to respect the human rights and pay attention to the mess in Kosovo. It appears that no one listens to him. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called upon the Serbian authorities to remove all parallel power structures in Kosovo.

Russia's Ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, regularly pays attention to the physical threat to the Serbs in Kosovo. Several times a year, Churkin submits draft resolutions to the UN Security Council demanding the end of the violence. The USA and EU countries take the side of the Albanians, so they simply block the resolutions. However, the Kosovo Serbs praise the work, which Mr. Churkin and other Russian officials conduct on the matter.

As a result, it appears to them that Russia could defend them better than Serbia. Should the Russian authorities give the Russian citizenship to the Kosovo Serbs? Elena Guskova, a historian and specialist for the Balkan region, told Pravda.Ru that the address to receive the Russian citizenship looks like a gesture of despair.

"It looks like an attempt to put pressure on their own leadership, which does nothing to defend their country fellows. Belgrade does not even resettle the Kosovo Serbs to the Serbian territory. Tadic does not have any politics at this point. As a result, the Kosovo Serbs defend themselves alone.

"In this situation, the Kosovo Serbs see Russia as their last hope and support. They worship Russia in the north of Kosovo now. One may very often come across Putin's photos there. Russia should treat the idea of giving the Russian citizenship to the Kosovo Serbs seriously. This decision requires political will, though. It goes about the international prestige of our country, and we have no right to fail.

"It is possible to give them Russian passports and allow them to move to Russia. Serbs are very good workers. Serbian builders are valued a lot in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Sweden. Will Russia be able to take proper care of them? For the time being, Russia shows little interest in taking care of its own citizens abroad."

Why do Russian generals criticize Russian arms?

Russian top defense officials say it again: Russian arms are worse than their Western analogues. The latest statement on the subject was made by Nikolai Makarov, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia. Russian defense officials have already expressed their concerns about the quality of Kalashnikov assault rifles, SVD sniper rifles and T-90 tanks. This time, Mr. Makarov criticized Smerch (Tornado) multiple rocket launchers.

Russia's T-90 tank lags far behind Israel's Merkava-MK4, whereas Smerch is much worse than USA's HIMARS, the general said. Makarov claimed that the firing range of the Merkava-4 tank is 6 kilometers vs. 2.5 kilometers of the T-90. In its turn, Smerch systems are capable of striking targets in the radius of 70 kilometers. This makes the Russian multiple rocket launcher inferior to USA's HIMARS, which is supposedly capable of destroying enemy's forces at a distance of up to 150 kilometers.

In addition, Makarov said, Russia's modern military hardware does not guarantee a high level of protection for personnel on battlefields. "We must make the hardware which would keep people alive in any conditions," he said.

The general also criticized Russian optoelectronic reconnaissance spacecraft. The spacecraft, the official said, last only for three or five years, whereas foreign analogues operate for 15 years.

Alexander Postnikov, the commander of Russian ground forces, stated earlier, in March 2011, that the hardware produced by the Russian defense industry, particularly armored hardware, artillery and small arms, could not compete vs. NATO and even Chinese weapon systems. Postnikov also said that it would be much easier for Russia to purchase three Leopard tanks instead of spending 118 million rubles on building one T-90 tank.

Experts stated, though, that most recent modifications of Leopard tanks were much more expensive than the legendary T-90. In addition, the Leopards would not operate very well under Russian service conditions.

It is worthy of note that Russia already buys weapon systems from other countries. In addition to small arms for special units, Russia buys unmanned aircraft from Israel, Mistral helicopter carriers from France, Iveco LMV Lynx from Italy and Rheinmetall armor from Germany.

Is the situation as sad as Nikolai Makarov sees it? Pravda.Ru asked this and other questions to Konstantin Sivkov, the first vice president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems.

"The new attacks against Russian arms mean that Russia needs to justify its purchases of defense products from foreign enterprises. Unfortunately, I have to admit that the tradition to destroy the national defense industry, which began during Yeltsin's times, continues today. Years ago, Yeltsin was doing it under the pretext of having no external enemies.

"Many important defense enterprises were shut down. Now they want to destroy the national defense industry by purchasing military hardware from abroad. It is possible to improve the situation, though. One only needs the funds to modernize the industrial base, prepare qualified personnel and develop the vital industry in general.

"Makarov compares Soviet-era weapon systems to state-of-the-art products of foreign countries. As for T-90 tanks, I would like to know which modification of this tank exactly raises concerns with Mr. Makarov. The T-90 appeared in the USSR at the end of the 1980s, whereas Israel passed Merkava-4 tanks into service in 2002. I'd like to say here that Merkava-4 tanks proved to be vulnerable against Russian anti-tank complexes during the war in Lebanon in 2006.

"As for the firing range, the general is not right either. It particularly goes about Merkava's ability to attack with anti-tank LAHAT missiles. It seems that Makarov has forgotten that T-90 tanks are also equipped with anti-tank complexes. With such complexes, the Russian tank can strike targets at a distance of up to 5.5 kilometers.

"Nevertheless, the T-90 has gone out of date a little in a quarter of a century. Why not investing in new products then? One would not have to spend billions that the country currently spends on purchasing foreign arms. We developed Black Eagle, or Molot tanks, for example, at the end of the Soviet era. What is more, Russia can launch the T-95 tank, whose performance is much better than that of its predecessor. As for the protection of the personnel, which Makarov pointed out as a problem, the T-95 has a special capsule, in which military men will stay alive in case of attack.

As for the comparison drawn between Russian Smerch and American HIMARS, Mr. Makarov is mistaken too. HIMARS is not a classic multiple artillery rocket system. It is an artillery tactical missile complex. There are two variants of HIMARS. The system carries six volley fire rockets with range of 45-70 km. Russia's Smerch carries 12 rockets. General Makarov has also forgotten that there were powerful ammos designed for Smerch. Their impact zone is up to 90 kilometers. HIMARS's firing range of 150 kilometers, as Makarov noticed, refers to ATACMS tactical missiles. Tactical missiles and the missiles of multiple artillery rocket systems are two absolutely different things.

"We have our analogue of such system - this is Tochka-M, which, like Smerch, was designed during the 1980s. Its firing ranger is smaller than that of HIMARS - 120 km, but its precision is higher. Iskander systems will replace Tochka-M in the near future. Iskander's firing range is 280 km, which makes any further discussion about HIMARS pointless.

"Our officials crack down on the weapons of the past and refuse to believe that the problem can be solved by developing the nation's defense industry. If we continue to purchase military hardware from other countries, the Russian defense industry will die. The defense complex can not develop alone, without the support from the state. As a result, Russia supports the economies of other countries, although we need to support our own economy.

"One should bear in mind the fact that Western weapon systems will never wage war against their creators. We could see that in Iraq. Saddam Hussein had US and French air defense complexes, but they simply deactivated them during Operation Desert Storm. If we buy arms from abroad, we become dependent on their producers. Everything that we purchase may turn into metal scrap if we receive no spare parts and fuel one day."