Too much foreign influence in the Russian Internet – report

The Civil Society Development Fund, led by the former head of internal policy for the presidential administration, Konstantin Kostin, published a report warning of international pressure on the Russian segment of the Internet. The report’s authors are worried that if Russians start to trust information on the Internet more and more, then it will play a pivotal role in the next presidential and parliamentary elections in 2016-2018, Gazeta.ru reported. “The Internet will become the basic source of information for Russian in several years’ time,” said the report. “This tendency has special significance in view of the upcoming political cycles in 2016-2018. If citizens’ trust in the Internet as their main source of information keeps growing, then we can safely say that elections for State Duma in 2016 and especially presidential election 2018 will take place in a new information reality, where the main role will belong to the World Wide Web.” The authors of the report pointed to the rapid rise of the Internet’s acceptability and reach, the Internet audience growing to include progressively older people and that users stopped seeing it as only the source of entertainment. American services too powerful Moreover, they reported that now there is an active expansion of U.S. services into the Russian market. At the moment, based on average daily audiences, five out of 20 leading Russian Internet players are not Russian – Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook and Twitter. “If this tendency continues, then in a few years time there could be a situation where the majority of the Russian Internet is controlled by foreign services, located on servers outside of Russia and registered in domain zones abroad,” the report says. Russia low on Internet freedom list Meanwhile, U.S. organization Freedom House published a ranking of countries with the most freedom online. Estonia, the United States and Germany took the top three places, and Russia was ranked 30th out of 47 countries examined. While Internet is wide-spread in Russia, online journalists often feel pressure from the authorities. In 2011, 49 percent of the population was online, up from 18 percent in 2006. However, some areas, like the Far East, Siberia, Sakhalin and North Caucasus, are still poorly connected to the Internet. Internet providers are often encouraged by the prosecutors to remove materials before court hearings, which promote self-censorship, the report says. Russia was overtaken by Kenya (13th place), Nigeria (15th place) and Uganda (17th place). Russia’s neighbour Ukraine is 12th and Belarus is 37th. Estonia is one of the most technologically-developed countries in the world, according to the U.S. government funded organization, with accessible “online government.” The United States took second place, because even if more people are connected to the Internet there, tariffs and speeds are often worse there than in other countries. The top 10 is made up of Australia, Hungary, Italy, the Philippines, Great Britain, Argentina and South Africa. The worst situation is in Uzbekistan, Syria, China, Cuba and Iran.

DUI tragedy forces Russian road safety rethink Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2012/09/25/4214370/dui-tragedy-forces-russian-road.html#storylink=cpy

MOSCOW — It took a weekend road tragedy to jolt Russia into action over one of its most deadly threats: a chronic culture of drunken driving. Five orphaned teens were waiting for a bus with their guardians in Moscow on Saturday when a car careened into them, killing all seven. Grief turned to outrage when it emerged that the driver was heavily drunk and had a string of traffic violations on his record - including a DUI arrest two years ago. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and lawmakers have reacted with proposals to stiffen penalties on drunken drivers, and parliament debated the measures on Tuesday. But with bribery so commonplace and road laws rarely enforced, many wonder whether even the toughest response can change a deep-set culture of reckless driving. After the crash, police video shows, Alexander Maximov stumbled out of his Toyota sedan, which he had been driving at 200 kilometers (125 miles per hour), bloodied and barely able to stand. He appeared in court Monday with his head wounds dressed, but still wearing the blood-speckled sweatshirt from the day of the accident. The punishment for killing while drunken driving in Russia is stiff: The 30-year-old Maximov faces up to nine years in prison. But lawmakers are currently debating whether to make jail sentences even harsher, matching laws in the West. Even President Vladimir Putin weighed in Tuesday, demanding tougher punishments and condemning Maximov's apparent blithe indifference after the crash. "This criminal, he's a killer in fact, when speaking to investigators just said: 'I always do what I want,'" Putin said. "There are some things for which people just must be punished." Many Russians are furious that Maximov, who already had a DUI penalty on his license from 2010, was allowed back onto the roads in the first place. Drunken driving is punishable here by suspension of the driver's license for up to two years. In much of the West, by comparison, drunken driving is punished with jail time, heavy fines and re-education courses. It isn't only irresponsible drinking that makes Russia's roads dangerous. Russia's cities are struggling with fast-growing traffic density, which spurs drivers into pulling crazy stunts to get home as early as possible, such as jumping lights, squeezing through every gap in traffic and opportunistic trailing of racing ambulances. According to a 2007 survey, the number of cars on Moscow's roads had increased threefold since the early 1990s, while road capacity has increased by only 30 percent. Each year, approximately 30,000 Russians die in road accidents - about the same as in the European Union, which has three times as many people and about six times as many cars as Russia. According to official statistics, only about 1,000 of those deaths are attributable to death by drunken drivers, but given the laxity of police enforcement and investigation, many in Russia doubt those figures. Medvedev, who championed a no-tolerance policy in 2010 against drivers with even the slightest amount of alcohol in their blood, spoke out in favor of tougher penalties. "Most of (our accidents) are committed by drivers who are completely drunk, and in this regard our country is in a worse state than any other," Medvedev said Monday, adding that it was necessary to think about "toughening the legal responsibility for such a crime." In the wake of Saturday's tragedy, Moscow police have scrambled to show they are doing their bit, announcing that they had arrested over 130 drunken drivers on Sunday alone, according to Interfax news agency. Over the past few days, lawmakers from the pro-Kremlin United Russia party have come forward with various proposals to tackle drunken driving. One plan suggested a fine of up to 100,000 rubles ($3,200), while another more drastic bill calls for life imprisonment for anyone convicted of killing someone while under the influence. Pervasive bribery, and its acceptance among much of the population, will make implementing any such measures an uphill struggle, however. According to a Levada Center poll in 2010, only 10 percent of those questioned said they thought negatively of people who gave bribes, whereas the majority considered it "necessary" in dealing with public officials. The same survey showed that Russians pay the greatest amount of bribes for medical treatment. Paying off traffic police came in at a close second. "Of course it's important to propose new laws, they need to be stricter," said Natalya Agre, president of Road Safety Russia. "You can increase the fine to $2,000, but once again, who is going to keep track of whether that fine is given, and who is going to pay it?" Agre's company has run a sleek social advertising campaign against drunken driving, and has begun attracting attention from big talent. A feature-length film by the company titled "There's No Hurry" was made with the help of some of the country's best directors and actors. More important than police enforcement may be fundamental change to the car culture in Russia, where drivers are notoriously aggressive and fast. "The driving culture in our country plays a key role," said Agre.

China's Naval Might Levels Up As Ukraine Delivers Aircraft Carrier

BEIJING, China -- China's first aircraft carrier was handed over Sunday to the navy of the People's Liberation Army, state press said, amid rising tensions over disputed waters in the East and South China Seas. The handover ceremony of the 300-meter (990-foot) ship, a former Soviet carrier called the Varyag, took place in northeast China's port of Dalian after a lengthy refitting by a Chinese shipbuilder, the Global Times reported. During the handover ceremony the aircraft carrier raised the Chinese national flag on its mast, the PLA flag on its bow and the navy's colours on its stern, the short online report said. A ceremony to place the ship into active service would be held sometime in the future, the paper said without elaboration. China's defense ministry was unavailable to comment on the ceremony. The announcement comes at a time of heightened tensions over maritime disputes in the Asia-Pacific region, where China's growing assertiveness has put it on a collision course with Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines. China also Sunday postponed a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties with Japan, due to a noisy territorial dispute with Tokyo over the Diaoyu Islands, known in Japanese as Senkaku. Tensions have also risen this year with Vietnam and the Philippines over disputed islands in the South China Sea. Beijing confirmed last year it was revamping the old Soviet ship, and has repeatedly insisted the carrier poses no threat to its neighbours and will be used mainly for training and research purposes. But numerous sea trials of the aircraft carrier -- currently only known as "Number 16" -- since August 2011 were met with concern from regional powers including Japan and the United States, which called on Beijing to explain why it needed an aircraft carrier. Construction of the Varyag originally ended with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. China reportedly bought the carrier's immense armoured hull -- with no engine, electrics or propeller -- from Ukraine in 1998 and began to refit the vessel in Dalian in 2002. The PLA -- the world's largest active military -- is extremely secretive about its defence programmes, which benefit from a huge and expanding military budget boosted by the nation's runaway economic growth. China's military budget officially reached $106 billion in 2012, an 11.2 percent increase. According to a report issued by the Pentagon in May, Beijing is pouring money into advanced air defenses, submarines, anti-satellite weapons and anti-ship missiles that could all be used to deny an adversary access to strategic areas, such as the South China Sea. China's real defense spending amounts to between $120 to $180 billion, the report said.

Ukraine Agrees $3Bn Loan-For-Corn Deal

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine is set to sign an unusual loan-for-crops contract with China that will see Kiev access $3bn in credit lines in exchange for supplies of corn, a commodity that Beijing has started to import in large quantities. The deal expands into food the scheme that Beijing has used to secure energy supplies through so-called oil-for-loans deals with countries such as Venezuela, and comes amid concerns about global food security. Mykola Prysyazhnyuk, Ukraine agriculture minister, said in an interview that the deal with the Export-Import Bank of China would be signed in mid October. “China is asking for about 3m tonnes of corn each year ... to be supplied at market prices that are set at the time of export,” Mr Prysyazhnyuk said. The deal between Kiev and Beijing comes as China has rapidly become the world’s fifth largest importer of corn. The country will buy overseas about 8.3m tonnes of the commodity between 2011 and 2013, or as much as it imported in the previous 15 years combined, according to estimates from the US Department of Agriculture. Corn is a key feedmeal to fatten cows, sheep and pigs as consumption of meat in China continues to grow, analysts said. “This market is important and attractive for us. We have not yet exported crop there,” Mr Prysyazhnyuk said. Ukraine, already one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat and corn, is betting that a new relationship with China will open up access to a huge market, boosting agriculture investments. Corn prices hit an all-time high last month due to the impact of the worst drought in 50 years in the US, the largest producer. France has called the first ever emergency meeting next month of a new G20-backed group to discuss shortages in global agricultural markets. The Ukraine-China loan-for-crop deal is likely to raise concerns among other big importers of agricultural commodities in Asia, including Japan and South Korea. Mr Prysyazhnyuk said the Chinese loans will be used to finance the purchase of Chinese agriculture technologies, herbicides and pesticides. “We will use these investments to boost our harvest and, in turn, fulfil export obligations to China.” China in the past has bought corn from the US and Brazil through international agricultural trading houses such as Cargill and Louis Dreyfus Commodities. Last year Beijing imported 5.3m tonnes of corn, the most since at least 1960. Beijing has used its financial firepower over the past five years to secure supplies of commodities, particularly crude oil, offering Russia, Brazil, Ecuador and others repayment of multibillion dollars loans with raw materials rather than money. Venezuela, for example, ships at least 100,000 barrels a day of crude oil, or five per cent of its production, to repay $4bn from the Chinese Development Bank. Ukrainian officials have in recent months revealed that discussions are also under way to land billions of dollars in additional loans from China in return for help with energy modernisation as part of a new “strategic” partnership. China’s Embassy in Kiev declined to discuss the corn and energy deals. For Kiev, the deal with China forms part of an effort to restore its credibility in global agricultural markets after it alienated buyers in 2010-11 by restricting grain exports due to a bad crop. Mr Prysyazhnyuk said the country was unlikely to restrict exports now, pointing to an expected 46-47m tonnes grain harvest, more than recent forecasts. Ukraine is expected to harvest more than 20m tonnes of corn this year, and could export more than half of it.

Full Senate Okays Tymoshenko Resolution

WASHINGTON, DC -- Sending shockwaves through the Ukrainian government, the U.S. Senate on Saturday approved resolution demanding the release of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko and calling for visa restrictions against those responsible for her imprisonment. The unanimous approval of the resolution comes only days after its approval by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, showing strong bilateral support for the measure in the Congress. The quick approval comes as a surprise for the Ukrainian government, which has apparently expected the issue to linger for months and definitely until after October 28 parliamentary elections in Ukraine. The development comes as major setback for President Viktor Yanukovych, who is expected within days to travel to the U.S. to join the United Nations General Assembly. The Yanukovych administration has been hastily cancelling interviews with U.S. media outlets that had been earlier scheduled in New York, including with Bloomberg News, citing a “change of plans.” The development also puts major pressure on Foreign Minister Kostiantyn Hryshchenko and may lead to his dismissal by Yanukovych for his apparent failure to anticipate and prevent the worst-case scenario. “The resolution on Yulia Tymoshenko was approved in the Senate UNANIMOUSLY!!!!” Serhiy Vlasenko, Tymoshenko’s lawyer, wrote on his blog on Saturday. “What will Hryshchenko say now?! They hoped this would continue for years!!!” The resolution condemns the “selective and politically motivated” prosecution and imprisonment of Tymoshenko. It also expresses “deep concern” the continued detention of Tymoshenko “threatens to jeopardize ties” between the United States and Ukraine. The resolution calls for the government of Ukraine to release Tymoshenko, to provide her with timely access to medical care, and to conduct the October parliamentary elections in a fair and transparent manner consistent with OSCE standards. The resolution also calls on the Department of State to institute a visa ban against those responsible for the imprisonment and mistreatment of Tymoshenko and the more than dozen political leaders. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement questioning the legality of the vote by the U.S. Senate, calling the procedure of its approval “doubtful.” “It is hard to take seriously a document that has been approved last night at procedure that with all diplomatic etiquette restraint can be called doubtful, at least,” Interfax reported citing an official at the Foreign Ministry. “The friends of Tymoshenko made everything for throwing into a Ukrainian information space a falsified reason for loud and ungrounded discussions and to discredit the future parliamentary elections,” the official said. “These efforts contradict the national interests of Ukraine and are doomed to fail.” “What were the motives of authors of the resolution that have been trying at any cost to navigate through protests of other senators over the resolution?” the official said. “With this goal they have been hastily making amendments and have suggested the Senate to approve it as a new document after 3:00 AM, only several minutes before the Congress was set to close the current session and when there were less than half a dozen of members of the upper house of American Parliament.” But the Foreign Ministry’s response was harshly criticized by opposition and by analysts in Ukraine. “I don’t know what Minister Hryshchenko and his diplomats have been smoking to issue such a rude statement on behalf of the state of Ukraine,” Hrytsenko wrote on his blog. “The resolution of the Senate is not a direct action document. It only has a recommendation character. But even that has scared Yanukovychs, Azarovs and Hryshchenkos so much that it has paralyzed their ability to think.” Serhiy Leshchenko, a journalist at Ukrayinsla Pravda, said. “Despair is how one can describe the state of mind of Foreign Minister Hryshchenko.” “The reputation of Ukraine in the world has reached the bottom,” Leshchenko said, adding that any rude statement or other tough talking may create even more problems for government officials and their allies. “These people seem to have forgotten in what currencies they keep their assets and which resorts overseas they travel to for vacation and to what countries they send they kids to school,” he said.

Why Do So Many Officials Die On Ukraine's Roads?

KIEV, Ukraine -- When Roman Shubin, the deputy prosecutor of Vinnytska Oblast, died on September 23 in a car crash, some people immediately suspected foul play. After all, as chief prosecutor for Ukraine's high-profile crimes unit, Shubin worked on some pretty touchy cases -- including the 2004 dioxin poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko, who was in the midst of a hard-fought presidential election campaign against current Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, and the gruesome killing of investigative journalist Heorhiy Gongadze in 2000. The trails of suspicion in both cases led high up into the ruling elite. And suspicious "accidents" seem to happen fairly often in Ukraine. In 1999, opposition presidential candidate Viacheslav Chornovil -- running against President Leonid Kuchma -- died in a car crash that the Interior Ministry determined was "accidental." A new investigation was opened in 2011. In 2002, Yulia Tymoshenko -- then one of the leaders of the opposition to Kuchma -- was involved in a mysterious car accident in Kiev that some observers have speculated may have been an assassination attempt. In 2004, Yuriy Chechyk, director of Radio Yuta in Poltava, was killed in a suspicious car crash while on his way to a meeting with representatives of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service. In Shubin's case, there have been reports that he had been threatened in the past and that he had asked to be transferred to another position. Reporting the death, Kiev's "Segodnya" newspaper quoted an unnamed former investigator as saying he "doubts" the car crash was accidental. "[Shubin] had enemies," the source said. Details of Shubin's crash are sketchy, but apparently he rammed into the back of a KamAZ truck, either at "high speed" or at "very high speed," according to different reports. Some media reported that he might have had a heart attack or other medical problem prior to the collision, although there has been no evidence of that. All of which appears to point to another, more prosaic, explanation of the tragedy. As is the case across the former Soviet Union and in many other parts of the world, Ukraine's political and other elites very often treat the country's roads as their own private racetrack. Party of Regions lawmaker Vladislav Lukyanov bragged on Facebook in July that he drove from Kiev to Odesa in 2 hours and 40 minutes, which would give him an average speed of 200 kilometers (124 miles) an hour. Asked about it by journalists, Lukyanov was unapologetic. "When we went to Odesa and I was at the wheel, we selected a stretch of road where there were no obstacles or other cars and I experimented to see what speed my car could achieve. We did not create any obstacles or danger for other road users because there were none." Apparently, Lukyanov got around every corner without encountering a fully loaded KamAZ truck. He added that he learned that his Audi is capable of speeds of more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) per hour. On the evening of September 23 in Kiev, two people died -- including the director of the financial policy office of the Economic Development Ministry -- in a crash during what police suspect was an illegal street race on a highway in the capital. Serhiy Chekashkin was driving a Dodge Viper SRT10 when he died while racing someone in a Ferrari. The $160,000 American-made Viper can go from 0 to 160 kph (100 mph) in 8.6 seconds. According to media reports, Chekashkin also owned a Ford Mustang GT, another Mustang, a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 Hennesy, and a Nissan GT-R. For visitors to Ukraine, the British government offers this advice on its website: "Local driving standards are poor: street lights are weak, speed limits, traffic lights and road signs are often ignored, and drivers rarely indicate before maneuvering."

Passenger plane with 14 on board crashes in Russia, 4 survivors left

The AN-28 aircraft with 14 people on board crashed on Wednesday morning, September 12, near the village of Palana, in Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. An EMERCOM helicopter found the plane about 10 km from the village on the slope of Pyatibratka Mount, at the height of 900 meters in the thickets of mountain pines. The aircraft was entirely destroyed as a result of the crash. Its fragments were scattered on a large area. According to Interfax, ten people were killed and four were wounded. A child, who was one of the passengers, died soon after the arrival of the rescuers. There is also a 14-year-old girl among the victims. Like others, she suffered numerous fractures and a brain injury, officials said. Currently, rescuers explore the area of three kilometers around the crash site to find a place, where an ambulance helicopter can land to evacuate the wounded. The survivors will then be flown to the regional hospital in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The aircraft was flying from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Palana. Connection with the plane was lost at 12:28 local time. There were 12 passengers and two pilots on board. The cause that led to the emergency landing remains unknown. According to officials, it could be either an engine failure or weather conditions. "There are downpours in the area, the clouds are about 400 meters above the ground. This could be a cause of the accident," an official said.

Man slaughters his own family of five and then self in Russia

The police of the republic of Khakassia investigate the circumstances of the massacre that took place in one of the houses in the village of Podsineye, the Altai region. Six bodies with gunshot wounds were found in the house. According to preliminary information, the mass murder was committed by 43-year-old resident of Belarus, writes Life News. After the divorce, the suspect's wife came to live with her parents, and the man decided to take revenge. Having murdered his wife, children, his mother-in-law and her husband, the man committed suicide. The bodies of two children (aged four and nine) and two married couples (two of the killed were in their retirement age) were found on Monday in one of the houses of the village of Podsineye, officials said. According to investigators, the suspect, named as Pyotr Ivanshin, shot dead his 38-year-old wife, Tatiana Ivanshin, and their children from a 12-mm caliber rifle. Afterwards, he shot the 67-year-old father-in-law and 66-year old mother-in-law. The elderly man died at the scene, whereas his wife died a few hours later at hospital. "After that, the suspect threw $5,000 and 40,000 rubles ($1,500), as well as a suicide note over the fence to his neighbor. In the note, he asked his neighbors to bury everyone with that money," - said a press release. Then, the man entered the children's room and shot himself. According to preliminary data, the offender made six shots in total. The killed pensioners Nina and Anatoly Gusev had been living in the village for a long time. A few years ago, their daughter Tatiana Ivanshin with her two sons - Maxim and Vladislav - returned to them from Belarus, where she lived with her husband. A criminal case was opened under Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code (murder of two or more persons, including minors, known to be in a helpless state).

Russia's textile industry needs new technologies

The town of Plyos, the Ivanovo region of Russia, hosted The Golden Ring Forum on September 7-8. The forum was held to discuss mechanisms to support complex investment and innovative projects in textile and light industries under Russia's accession to the WTO. Deputy Industry and Trade Minister of the Russian Federation Georgy Kalamanov said during the forum that Russia had obtained knowledge before joining the WTO. "The light industry is among the top three industries that are exposed to risks most in connection with Russia's accession to the WTO, and the task of the state is to minimize these risks," he said. Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy, Yuri Roslyak, noted that one had to have innovative transformations in the Russian light industry. He expressed the need to avoid the dependence of raw materials supplies and move towards the diversification of raw materials. The official spoke in support of the Ivanovo region plant for the production of synthetic fibers. The Governor of the Ivanovo Region, Mikhail Men, said that the regional administration pinned great hopes on the project of the synthetic fiber plant, which is going to be built in the region. The region has been preparing to implement the project for several years already. The projected capacity of the plant is 200 tons of synthetic fiber per year. This amount will satisfy the needs of Russia in this raw material entirely. A member of the Expert Advisory Council under Russia's Federation Council, Igor Filkevich, described the processes that accompany Russia's accession to the WTO. The official also spoke about the membership benefits in the organization and the peculiarities of Russia's accession to the WTO. According to him, the subjects of the country need to have adaptation strategies for regional and business development. They need to estimate the opportunities for using special protective, antidumping and countervailing measures. The project for the construction of the plant for the production of synthetic fibers in the Ivanovo region is strategically important for the future development of the domestic textile industry, ministerial officials say. The ministry is ready to do everything to facilitate the implementation of the project in the Ivanovo region. "The project is a large-scale one. Its implementation requires about ten billion rubles, so one needs to have all resources involved, including the private sector," said Kalamanov. The deputy minister said that new technologies were vital to meet domestic producers' urgent needs in raw materials. Georgy Kalamanov stressed that it was important to implement the project in the next few years, as such raw materials are imported at present. This gap has to be filled, the official believes. "During the discussions at the forum, we tried to develop a recipe for promoting this project," he said. The Ivanovo region plans to participate in a number of federal programs to bring infrastructure to large industrial facilities. This would solve a number of problems on the project.

Medvedev privately pardons Pussy Riot

The controversy about the Pussy Riot verdict received an unexpected turn as Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev released a number of quite unexpected statements about it. "A well-known group of girls has been in prison for a long time - this is already a serious punishment for what they did," Medvedev said during a meeting with activists of "United Russia" in Russia's Penza. "If we talk about the essense of the offense, then, in my view, the punishment that they had already served is quite enough for them to think about what they did. Extending their stay in prison is counterproductive, I believe. In my opinion, a conditional sentence would be enough in this case," he added. Undoubtedly, the prime minister and chairman of the ruling party United Russia expressed his personal point of view. It is possible that he did it without a second thought or intent. Medvedev knew, of course, that his words could be misinterpreted as criticism of the verdict. Moreover, the prime minister expressed his thoughts about the case being aware of the fact that the verdict had been appealed. Medvedev reminded that he had not formulated his position after the announcement of the verdict, taking into consideration the fact that the lawyers of the three girls appealed the verdict. Indeed, Medvedev preferred to withhold comments on the controversial case. Earlier, Prime Minister actually refrained from any specifics of the case, having said that it would be better to wait for the verdict. "Investigation is underway, positions are different. In some countries, responsibility for such actions would be much more stringent, not to mention the fact that such acts could lead to highly lamentable consequences under certain political conditions for those who performed them being in a temple of any confession," he said in an interview with Times. As for lamentable consequences, the recent events in Libya can be a good example. In Libya, angry protesters attacked the US consulate Office and killed several US diplomats, including US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens. The attack, as it turned out, was caused by the intention to show "Innocence of Islam" documentary in the United States. As the protesters believe, the documentary defamed their saint, Prophet Muhammad. The film called Islam "cancer," and presented Prophet Muhammad as a fraudster, who called on people to slay each other. The film itself has not been released, but some of its excerpts appeared on the Internet in the Arabic language. That became the spark that blew up the Muslim world. Mass riots occurred in Egypt, Libya and Yemen. YouTube, where the excerpts appeared, was blocked in Afghanistan to avoid trouble. However, it is the reaction of the United States that was most demonstrative. The U.S. Air Force was not set on high alert. The US did not deploy additional troops in Benghazi. To crown it all, official statements from the White House were quite restrained. U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the murder of his fellow citizens, but at the same time he noted that the U.S. would not tolerate the attempts to vilify the religious faith of others. Noteworthy, Russian President Vladimir Putin said a few days ago, answering questions from an RT journalist, that he was not much concerned about the development of the Pussy Riot case. "I think that those girls have lawyers, and it is them who should represent their interests in court. They can appeal the verdict in a higher court and seek its reconsideration. But it is their business, it is purely a legal issue ... I do not even know whether their lawyers have appealed to the higher court or not. I just don't follow it. But if a higher instance considers the issue, it has the right to make any decision. You know, I just try not to touch upon this case at all. I know what's going on there, but I do not go there at all," Putin said. Of course, both Putin and Medvedev have their own position regarding the rebellious "Pussy." This position is well known: the state duty is to protect the feelings of believers. At the same time, the president does not consider it possible to comment on the court ruling of justice, while the prime minister directly speaks about the unproductive outcome of the court hearing. Has the tandem split? Not likely. Is it a game of a good cop and a bad cop? No. If the judge leaves the verdict unchanged, it will mean that the Russian justice does not depend even on the opinions of top officials. However, should the Moscow City Court follow the recommendations from the chairman of the government, there will definitely be problems.

Europe turns into sea of Sodom

A few days ago, Germany's Ministry of Justice exposed the draft amendments to the legislation to legalize gay marriage in the country. In fact, sexual minorities enjoy complete freedom in the country. In 2001, their freedom became official: their relationship was called a "civil partnership". Something like a civil marriage or live-in relationship. Nowadays, according to the proposed innovations, changes will be made to the provisions of all laws - both civil and criminal that touch upon ordinary families. The addition "...and civil partners" will appear in all German laws. To put it in a nutshell, gay people will be able to legally divide property, require alimony from each other, etc. If a homosexual partner has another partner on the side - he or she will be tried for polygamy. The further equalization of rights between normal and unconventional marriage, will most likely follow soon. For example, on the model of good old England, Germany may ban the use of such "outdated" terms as 'father,' 'mother,' 'husband,' 'wife' in official documents. Like in England, such words will be replaced with 'parent 1,' 'parent 2,' 'partner' and other novelties of homosexual lifestyle. At first glance, this news does not seem to be surprising. The blessed Europe in the face of the majority of its members surrendered to the sexual values ​​of Sodom origin a long time ago. England even put homosexual values above traditional ones, having banned the use of "outdated" terms. Germany is the most powerful nation in the EU. The country definitely has the right to have its own opinions. Even though German constitutional judges had been blaming the authorities for their "old-fashioned" way of thinking, the authorities, until recently, preferred to stay on the traditional side of the issue. The ruling political force in Germany is the community of sister parties CDU/CSU - the Christian Democratic and Christian Social Union, respectively. The objective of this actually single political force is "to contribute to the enforcement of Christian values." The bloc includes both Catholics and Protestants, but the German Church has not declared homosexuality an acceptable norm of life yet. Alas, no existing political party in Germany has managed to receive absolute majority of votes during the last decade. Politicians had to organize coalitions for the right to form governments. The past one, for example, was a large one - between the CDU/CSU and Social Democrats. The current one, after the 2009 elections, was formed with other Democrats, this time Free Democrats. The latter traditionally receive fewer votes than Social Democrats do, but they also play the role of the golden share during the formation of a government. The adjective "free" came for a reason for those politicians. The word, among other things, designates their free manners. They are free from the Christian values, the supporters of which took the Free Democratic Party as their coalition partners. They turned out to be the supporters of another partnership - the civil homosexual one. Let's take the leader of the 2009 election, Guido Westerwelle, who received the honorable and influential positions of foreign minister and vice-chancellor. He introduced his lifetime partner, Michael Mronz, as ... the "partner of the heart" back in 2010, when they attended Angela Merkel's 50th birthday. The would-be civil partners had German thoroughness as the basis of their friendship. They tied the knot only in 2010. However, in 2011, Mr. Westerwelle formally stopped to be the leader of the party, although he retained the position of the foreign minister. German politician Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, a representative of Free Democrats, is the head of the Justice Department of Germany - the department that prepared the above-mentioned notorious amendments. The German media say nothing about her non-traditional orientation, though, but this is a matter of principle and the party program! It is hard to say how the supporters of two absolutely different principles - Christian and Sodom - are going to compromise. Formally, the Christian Democrats, who have the majority both in the government and the parliament, may easily block the controversial bill. But they can also receive a government crisis and early elections for that, especially if Free Democrats suddenly decide that they can not sacrifice their "principles" either. However, there is another option - to pass the final (and easily predictable) decision to the Federal Constitutional Court. Guido Westerwelle's party colleagues will be able to go to this court with their complaints in case they come across the "wall of misunderstanding" on the part of their coalition partners. In this case, the politicians declaring Christian values will be able to save both their face (we're not at that - it's the law) and the coalition together with the coveted power. Well, in the last case, we will be able to acknowledge the fall of one of the last islands of traditional Christian attitude to marriage in the "sea of ​​Sodom," which the erstwhile Christian Europe became long ago.

Euthanasia in Russia unacceptable forever and always?

The issue of euthanasia has attracted public attention in London yet again. UK Health Minister Norman Lamb stated that the practice of euthanasia should be legalized in the country. Earlier, Anna Soubry, a member of the Conservative Party, suggested that the Parliament should review the law on euthanasia and give terminally-sick people the right to choose their own destiny. According to the laws of the United Kingdom, helping a patient leave this life is considered an act of criminal offense and entails a punishment of 14 years in prison. The patients, who wish to stop their sufferings, are not eligible for help from medical personnel to end their life voluntarily. The Ministry of Health of the United Kingdom has decided to revise the legislation on the issue, although it is not going to be an easy goal to pursue in such a conservative country like the UK. The British Parliament does not plan to discuss the issue yet, but the Ministry of Health hopes that the discussion will take place next year. One of the most resonant cases, which gave occasion to speak about the legalization of euthanasia in the UK and other countries around the world, occurred this year to Tony Nicholson. Having suffered a stroke, Nicholson could neither move nor speak. He had lived in this condition for ten years, seeking permission for death through lawyers. The fact is that the UK legislation permits, in exceptional cases, the implementation of suicide with doctor's help. However, as BBC commentator on legal issues Clive Coleman pointed out, in the case of Tony Nicholson, the lawyers did not give permission for that, because the patient was paralyzed and could not commit suicide. Therefore, one had to find someone who would have to kill the patient with the authorization of the law. In his request to relieve him of his own sufferings, Nicholson appealed to Article 2 of the European Human Rights Act, which guaranteed people the right to live. Consequently, the paralyzed patient believed, the person should have the right to die voluntarily, for humane reasons. However, the court dismissed Tony Nicholson's suit. Ten days after the court decision, the patient died in agony due to his refusal to take food. In 2009, Harris Interactive conducted a survey in Britain to find out people's attitude to euthanasia. According to the survey, about 80 percent of respondents agreed that a sick person should have the right for euthanasia. Eighteen percent said that they would refuse to help such a person commit suicide, and eight percent said that the people, who help terminally sick patients die, should be brought to justice. In 2010, English author Terry Pratchett spoke of the need to create some sort of tribunals that would have to decide in each particular case whether euthanasia should be allowed or not. According to him, such instances should consist of a doctor and a lawyer, who would make decision. The British Medical Association is against legalizing euthanasia in the United Kingdom. Representatives of the association believe that if euthanasia becomes legal, then the decision would erode the line between the cases when it is a person who decides to die, and when it is other people, who make the decision for another person, who, for example, stays in a coma. As for the second case, one can actually talk about the judicial murder. What about euthanasia in other countries? World practice The first country in Europe, where euthanasia, as the implementation of actions aimed at killing an individual with his or her consent, was legalized, was the Netherlands. Officially, the law on euthanasia came into force in the Netherlands on April 1, 2002. In September 2002, Belgium decided to follow the example of the Netherlands. The third state of the Old World, where euthanasia was legalized, was Luxembourg. The adequate law came into force in the country in March 2009. As for the U.S., euthanasia is permitted in two states - in Washington and Oregon. In Oregon, it was legalized in 1998, and in Washington, DC - March 5, 2009. In these states, doctors may prescribe a dose of poison to terminally ill people, which they take on their own. In Switzerland, euthanasia as murder of an incurable person is prohibited. However, pursuant to law, doctors have the right to allow patients to leave this life. Doctors give them a drug, which patients inject themselves. This form of euthanasia is allowed if there is no material interest on the part of the people, who help to implement it. In May 2011, Zurich legalized euthanasia not only for Swiss citizens, but also for the tourists coming to the country. Several patients from the UK used that law. There is also the so-called "passive euthanasia," in which doctors simply do not interfere. They do not provide medical assistance to terminally ill patients and let him or her pass away peacefully. Passive euthanasia was first authorized in California - it happened in 1976. Similar laws were passed in France, Sweden, Germany and Israel. Pros and cons Which arguments do supporters use? Some of them believe that in fact the procedure of euthanasia is fairly common in practice, so it should be legalized. In 2001, Bernard Kouchner, France's Minister of Health, said that two out of ten people actually die from passive euthanasia, although no one discussed that publicly. Another argument for euthanasia is based on the free will of a person and their right to define their own destiny. Doctor must give patient a choice: either to continue the treatment and live, or voluntarily and consciously leave life. The proponents of euthanasia also say that terminally ill people should maintain human dignity, which can be expressed in the possibility of death. The material side of the question also plays an important role here. Euthanasia is much cheaper than coercive maintenance of painful life for a person, who will die sooner or later anyway. The opponents of euthanasia have their own arguments, of course. One of them is humanism. According to the opponents of euthanasia, if patients are respected and treated in a humane manner, requests for voluntary death are very rare. Vera Millionshchikova, the head physician of the First Moscow Hospice, said that if the sick people receive decent care, they do not feel abandoned, which excludes requests for euthanasia. Opponents of euthanasia assert that assistance in death is contrary to medical ethics and the Hippocratic oath. The Lisbon Declaration on Euthanasia from 1987 points out the unethical side of euthanasia. There is also a possibility of medical errors. As a result of this error, one can take the life of a person who can be actually cured, either now or in the future. One should also note that such world religions like Islam, Judaism and Christianity are ardent opponents of voluntary death. Life is a gift from God to man, and only God can take it back. What about Russia? In Russia, the ban on any form of euthanasia is regulated by the law from November 21, 2011, under which medics are prohibited to commit any action or inaction aimed at depriving patients of their life. In Russia, like in any other part of the world, there are many of those who support and oppose euthanasia. Stanislav Minin, an observer with the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper, believes that it is up for a person, but never for the government to decide whether to live or to die. Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said that maybe it is not necessary to maintain life with the help of medical equipment if a person was suffering for many years, showing no signs of meaningful life. In this case, Chaplin said, it is not clear whether there is a soul in the body or not. However, chief sanitary doctor of Russia, Gennady Onishchenko, speaks strongly against euthanasia. He says that doctors should not be executioners. According to him, such actions and thoughts humiliate medical specialists. Should Russia allow euthanasia on the legislative level, even in a passive form? Probably not - for a variety of reasons. If euthanasia is approved in Russia, where corruption is still quite strong, it will most likely lead to the appearance of a great deal of violations at this point. It is quite possible that people will be put to death through forged documents and bribed doctors in order to obtain material benefits.

USSR's first-ever nuclear sub was destroyed by beer bottle cap

The first and one of the major accidents at the Navy of the USSR took place 45 years ago. On September 8, 1967, an accident on board the first Soviet nuclear submarine K-3 Leninsky Komsomol killed 39 people. The causes of the accident had been classified for 20 years. It is only now, in September 2012, when a special commission is going to finish the investigation. Before we go directly to the accident, let us remember the heroic and long-suffering history of the submarine. Leninsky Komsomol, originally K-3, was the very first Soviet (and the third in the world) nuclear submarine, the head one of the series. It was the only sub of Project 627. All subsequent subs in the series were based on the finalized project 627A. The sub inherited the honorary title Leninsky Komsomol from the diesel submarine M-106 of the Northern Fleet, which was destroyed in one of the combat missions in 1943. During the last years of service, the K-3 was reclassified from cruise to large submarine. The construction of the sub was started on September 24, 1955 at the plant in Severodvinsk (nowadays Sevmash Plant), serial number 254. In August of 1955, captain of the first rank Leonid Osipenko was appointed the commander of the sub. The reactors were launched in September of 1957; the sub was launched on October 9, 1957. It was passed into service on July 1, 1958. In 1961, the submarine was on combat duty in the Atlantic Ocean. In July 1962, for the first time in the history of the Soviet Navy, it went on a long mission under the ice of the Arctic Ocean, in which it passed the North Pole twice. Under the command of Lev Zhiltsov, on July 17, 1962, the K-3 surfaced near the North Pole for the first time in the history of the Soviet submarine navy. The crew hoisted the flag of the USSR somewhere near the pole. Nikita Khrushchev himself and Defense Minister Rodion Malinovsky came to the pier to celebrate the return of the submarine. The administration of the legendary, first-ever mission to the Pole later received the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union. The entire staff of the sub were decorated with orders and medals. But there were some difficulties too. Since the boat was entirely new, and because it was designed and built in a hurry, it constantly required repairs and technical servicing. The works were hidden under the words "pilot operation." In the first years of service and during the mission to the North Pole, the maintenance of the submarine, which was often staying in a state of emergency, was provided by a very skilled team of people, who could perform complex repairs themselves. The never-ending technical works on board the sub and the appearance of new welded seams led to the increased exposure of the crew to radiation. On September 8, 1967, a fire broke out in the first and second compartments during a combat mission in the Norwegian Sea. Thirty-nine people were killed. The sub returned to the base, though. The probable cause of the accident was the unauthorized replacement of a gasket in the fitting of the hydraulic machine. There was a leak, and the leaked hydraulic fluid, which was not collected in full, caught fire... BaltInfo agency quoted then-deputy commander of the sub, Alexander Leskov. According to him, the accident was actually based on the fact that after the mission to the North Pole in 1962, the crew of the Leninsky Komsomol was executing presumably representative functions at countless Komsomol and party conventions. The submarine did not participate in combat missions for three years, and the level of training of the crew considerably decreased. The crew of the sub became exemplary. The circumstances of the fire and the actions of the crew at the time of the accident were kept secret for a long time. The official version of events of September 8 did not correspond to reality. The survivors were obliged not to disclose any details for several decades. At the end of September 2012, a commission of experts is to dot all i's in the case of the tragic death of submarines of the first Soviet nuclear sub K-3 Leninsky Komsomol. "A non-standard gasket from...a beer bottle was installed in the ballast tank. Naturally it was displaced, the hydraulic fluid leaked under the pressure of 100 atmospheres and got sprayed onto the lamp, which had a broken protective cap. Inflammation occurred immediately," former assistant commander of the K-3 said. "By falsifying documents, investigation allegedly found that a submariner climbed into one of the compartments and lit a cigarette, but it was not true!" Leskov told a news conference. Only in 50 years it became known that it was a man-made, not a human factor that caused the accident. According to Leskov, on September 30, 2012, a meeting of the expert council at the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy will take place to put an end to this story. The killed 39 sailors will be submitted to state awards.

Russians converting to Islam become foreign natives

From the history of the Caucuses War of the 19th century and the two Chechen wars, we know that many Russians converted into Muslims against their will. Many, but not all. A Soviet soldier "Afghan" from the film by Vladimir Khotinenko "Muslim" embraced the faith of Muhammad by sincere convictions. There are many people like him in Russia. Every Muslim neophyte has their own motivation for acceptance of Islam. But the situation is such that many eventually delve into Wahhabism. A Russian Muslim in Russia is foreign for both Russians and Muslims. The author of this article knows a young Russian lady, a Muslim, an active journalist and blogger. Before accepting Islam, she studied at MSU, sympathized with National Bolsheviks, "Slavic Union" of Dyemushkin and lived a typical rave life. Alcohol, weed, rallies and concerts followed one another like pieces of glass in a kaleidoscope, year after year. For some time she was not seen at any social outings. The news about her emerged a few years later. "Did you hear? Our Natasha converted to Islam, just crazy," I was told by a member of "Slavic Union". Then, after a moment's thought, he added: "We, Russian patriots, should have stopped drinking. Natasha drank a lot. Apparently, she became a Muslim because they do not drink." Natasha, who became Khadijah in Islam, explained her choice differently: "I began to sympathize with Islam in 2004, when the U.S. invaded Iraq. Then I converted to Islam, no regrets. Auzubillyah, may Allah protect us," wrote Natalia- Khadijah in her Live Journal blog. People like Natasha are treated by Russians in different ways. At best, people are surprised, at worst, they call them traitors. In the social network "VKontakte" there are groups dedicated to Russian Muslims. A member of one such group, Anastasia Evstifeeva, said that her acceptance of Islam immediately made her a pariah. "I have problems with people. Many do not understand me and interfere with my life. I am bullied by people who are close to me." Another Russian Muslim woman in the same social network said that her father, when he saw his daughter with a book of prayer, nearly disowned her. "He shouted that he was ashamed of what I was, that he did not want to know that I was suicide bomber, killing peaceful people." The young Muslim woman was treated similarly by her brothers. Then, the situation in the family settled. The young Russian Muslim is dreaming that someday she will give her family davaat and explain the basic principles of faith of Mohammad. Under Islamic canons davaat cannot be forced on people. Unfortunately, there are examples when Russian people who just converted to Islam follow the path of the Wahhabi. This was the story of Alexander Tikhomirov born in Ulan-Ude, also known as Amir Said Buryat. Traditional Muslims of Russia have always been careful about the Russian neophytes of Islam, and after the "Russian Wahhabi" case - even more so. "We believe that people who change their beliefs have labile psyche, susceptible to the influence from outside. These people are influenced by experts on agitation and propaganda, usually of more radical direction," said to GTimes Zagid Makhmudov, Dagestani expert on youth relations. According to him, the problem of the so-called Russian Wahhabi is psychological rather than national. Russians become Wahhabi Muslim not because they renounced their roots or orthodoxy. Such people have never had a strong spiritual support. "Most radical converts are a consequence of marginalization due to the fact that there is a conflict of a new consciousness and conscious behavior with a hereditary subconscious condition. For the Russians, Orthodoxy is the most comfortable religion. Separation from it means confusion, unpredictable behavior, and marginalization. Such people can be led anywhere," said the expert. If Islam did not exist, such lost people would join the Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons. "For example, in Dagestan there are active Christian sects, and often representatives of the peoples of Dagestan go there. It all depends on the level of activity and abilities of the "missionaries", society and the state to defend their interests in the spiritual sphere of life of its citizens," said Zagid Makhmudov in an interview with GTimes. Radicalism of neophyte views of any faith is similar to teens' puberty. In psychology, there is a religious term "neophyte syndrome." "Russian Muslims converting to Islam experience the "neophyte syndrome. "Faced with guilt for the fact that before they and their people did not practice "true faith," they have a zeal that turns into fanaticism and fundamentalism," said to the publication the expert of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, Rais Suleymanov. "Without a theological tradition of Islam in its history, as the traditional religion of the Russian people was and is Orthodoxy, Russians are easily influenced by Islamic radicals or begin to manifest exotic for Russia forms of Islam. The National Organization of the Russian Muslims (NORM), positioning itself as the organization expressing the interests of the Russians converting to Islam, preaches Islam of Muslim Maliki school, common in North Africa, while the indigenous Muslims of Russia are Muslims of the Hanafi and Shafi'i schools of thought. But, not being able to understand the intricacies of these theological religious and legal schools of Islam, Russian Muslims usually choose Wahhabism and other forms of fundamentalism, such as "Hizb-ut-Tahrir," said Suleymanov. According to the expert, "ethnic" Muslims, on the one hand, are tolerant towards the Russian co-religionists because in their eyes acceptance of Islam by the "ethnic" Orthodox looks like a triumph of righteousness of their own religion. "However, the excessive zeal of Russian Muslims, which is often accompanied by criticism of the religious traditions of "ethnic" Muslims for a departure from the "pure Islam" causes resentment among indigenous Muslim peoples who perceive reproaches from Russian Muslims as a threat to their ethnic identity," said Rais Suleymanov. In an interview with GTimes he noted that Russia still does not have a single imam who is a Russian national. "Ethnic Muslims are prepared to see brothers in faith in Russians, but do not want Russians to hold any positions in the spiritual hierarchy. Tatars and people of the Caucuses accept Russians as Muslims, but do not want to see them as the clergy. As a result, in the Muslim Ummah of Russia, Russians plays the role of a "little brother." To the rest of the Russians - Orthodox - Muslim converts look like traitors. Among ethnic Muslims Russians retain second-class status, since they are not even given the right to become imams. To prove that they are the real Muslims, Russians are ready for extremes to show devotion. And this is a direct path to terrorism," summed up the expert.

Ukraine grants gas rights to Shell and Chevron

The Ukrainian government has confirmed that two Western energy companies have been awarded the right to develop two large shale gas fields. The anglo-Dutch company Shell, and Chevron from the United States, have beaten off competition from three other rival bids – including one from Russia. One area, Olesska, is in the western region of Lviv – while Yusivska, is in the eastern Donetsk and Kharkiv regions. Although relations with Moscow have improved under President Yanukovitch, Ukraine has been trying to reduce its dependence on gas imports from Russia. Ukraine’s prime minister Mykola Azaraov said the decision was approved at a meeting of government ministers on Thursday, adding that the two gas deposits had enormous capacity. Ukraine has Europe’s third-largest shale gas reserves after France and Norway, according to the US state Energy Information Administration. The technique used to exploit the fields will be the process known as fracking – or hydraulic fracturing – which has proved controversial elsewhere. Environmentalists say it may contaminate groundwater and trigger earth tremors.

Gas price still sticking point between Ukraine and IMF

Although the International Monetary Fund has praised Ukraine’s economic reforms, it is also warning more needs to be done otherwise there is a risk of a greater slowdown in the country’s growth. The IMF also continues to urge Ukraine to significantly increase gas prices for domestic consumers if it wants to get more bailout money. Max Allier, the IMF representative in Ukraine, said that is the only way forward: “Our conditions are clearly known, we believe they are very important. These are conditions on the energy sector, related to gas prices, we also see important fiscal and budget conditions, because we believe it’s important that to sustain growth Ukraine has a budget that is consistent with medium-term fiscal sustainability.” But with a parliamentary election due in October, the Ukrainian government is baulking at angering voters by raising domestic gas prices by the up to 50 percent that economists have said is needed to put public finances on a more sustainable track. Ukraine blames Russia on which it depends heavily for gas imports. A recent meeting between President’s Putin and Yanukovich brought no revision of a 2009 deal which Ukraine argues set an exorbitant price for gas. Ukraine’s Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said that is undermining growth: “High gas prices are absolutely slowing down our economic growth. Faced with conditions of intense competition they’re making some areas very vulnerable – such as metallurgy, our chemical industry, and agriculture because of expensive fertilisers.” In order to get a discount on gas prices, Moscow insists that Ukraine must either let Russian energy giant Gazprom take over its gas pipelines – which carry Russian gas to Europe – or join a Russia-led Customs Union, a post-Soviet trade bloc

Ukraine To Introduce European Standard Of Biometric ID

KIEV, Ukraine -- A bill concerning the introduction of biometric IDs in Ukraine passed the first reading in the country's parliament. Biometric documents will contribute to border security between Ukraine and the EU. The draft law provides for the creation of a unified state demographic register, which will contain basic personal information on each citizen. Additionally, the draft stipulates issuing the documents for traveling abroad that have a built-in proximity chip with registry information on the holder. The new document standard will help eliminate ID fraud and thus increase border security. The registry may become accessible to all the relevant European services and institutions, improving the time and cost efficiency of their work, including the shortened border control procedure. The Action Plan on visa liberalization with Ukraine was adopted in November 2010. The document stipulates that the government of Ukraine has to carry out a set of reforms regarding document security, illegal migration, internal security, external relations, and fundamental rights. Moreover, the EU plans to assess the effect visa liberalisation would make on illegal migration streams between Ukraine and the EU. Working towards the goal of visa free regime, in 2010, Ukraine adopted the strategy of integrated border management. Same year the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych created the State Migration Service, responsible for managing citizenship, immigration, registration, and asylum issues. Furthermore, Ukrainian government took steps towards personal data protection necessary to launch biometric IDs, informed the Polish Centre for Eastern Studies. Another development following the Action Plan is reforming border control system. The State Border Guard Service adopted new standards of recruitment, training and career development, highlights the Polish Centre for Eastern Studies. Ukraine has also been increasing border protection efficiency - through agreements with neighboring Belarus and Russia regarding common borders. Currently, Ukraine is at stage one of the two-stage visa liberalization process. In July 2012, the EU and Ukraine extended the list of categories of Ukrainian citizens using the simplified visa procedure while travelling to the EU. Notably, the number of visas issued to the Ukrainian citizens demonstrates steady year on year increase, said Jose Manuel Pinto Teixeira (the Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine at the time) in August 2012.

EU Urges Ukraine To Free Prime Minister Tymoshenko

YALTA, Ukraine -- European Union officials warned Ukraine on Friday that the ex-Soviet nation can't integrate with the EU as long as former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko remains in jail. The jailing of Tymoshenko, the country's top opposition leader and the heroine of the 2004 Orange Revolution, has strained Ukraine's relations with the 27-member bloc, which has condemned the move as politically motivated and frozen a key cooperation agreement with Kiev. "The issue of selective justice needs to be addressed in order to move ahead to a new level of our relations through the association agreement," Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule said in a joint statement. The statement dealt a blow to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who vowed earlier in the day that the conduct of October's parliamentary election will convince the EU that Ukraine is on the right track. "We are actively moving toward signing an association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union," Yanukovych told a conference devoted to Ukraine's EU integration in the Black Sea city of Yalta. " At the moment, our partners have some additional questions for Ukraine, but I am convinced that after the current parliamentary elections, all those concerns will disappear and the path toward full integration of Ukraine and the EU will be completed." In the elections, Yanukovych's Party of Regions will struggle to retain its parliamentary majority against the opposition, united and re-energized by Tymoshenko's jailing. Bildt and Fule expressed concern that the election will take place without Tymoshenko and another top opposition leader who served in her government and stressed that the legitimacy of the vote will depend on whether it is free and fair. "Of course, it's impossible to do everything as fast as we would like to do," a visibly irritated Yanukovych said. "The path of reform is not a simple path, but we have been following it and will continue following it." Tymoshenko, Yanukovych's fiercest critic, was sentenced to seven years in prison last October on charges of abuse of office while negotiating a natural gas import contract with Russia in 2009. She denies all the charges against her and accuses Yanukovych of throwing her in jail to bar her from the election. Tymoshenko was the heroine of the 2004 Orange Revolution mass protests, which annulled Yanukovych's fraud-tainted election victory and brought a pro-Western government to power. However, Yanukovych was able to return to power, narrowly defeating Tymoshenko in a 2010 presidential vote by riding a public irritation over slow reforms and constant bickering in the Orange camp. The opposition and rights groups accuse Yanukovych of concentrating too much power in his hands and undoing many of the democratic achievements of the Orange Revolution. Tymoshenko's top aide Hrihoriy Nemyria said that Ukraine is doomed to isolation as long as Tymoshenko is kept in jail. "It means that Yanukovych does not have an answer, it means that Yanukovych and Europe are still incompatible," Nemyria said.

Ukraine Risks Failing Election Test, U.S. Warns

YALTA, Ukraine -- The United States warned Ukraine on Saturday the prosecution of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko was damaging its ties with the West, but a Ukrainian official responded by asking for U.S. help to mount another criminal probe against her. The case of Tymoshenko, a former prime minister jailed for seven years for alleged abuse of office, dominated a two-day international gathering ahead of a parliamentary election next month which Ukraine hopes will enhance its democratic credentials. Just a day after President Viktor Yanukovich told the conference he expected the October 28 poll to help Ukraine seal a long-sought association agreement with the European Union, a senior U.S. State Department official said it was falling short of democratic standards. "I think if the international community, the international observers were to give a grade today on this election environment and whether it is going to mark a step towards Europe and the West, I think it failed that test today," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Melia told the conference on the Black Sea coast. Most commentators expect Yanukovich's allies to emerge from the election with a continued majority in the 450-seat chamber even though his government's tax and pension reforms have made it unpopular. Two of the main opposition parties, including Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna party, have united to fight the election. But the imprisonment of the 51-year-old firebrand, the most vibrant figure in the opposition, has greatly weakened their campaign. Echoing earlier comments by officials from the European Union, Melia listed Tymoshenko's jailing as one of the main U.S. concerns. "The election is another important moment for national choices, national decision-making and I think that unless or until some significant steps are taken to improve things like the election environment you are not going to be able to move as closely as many of you want to Europe and the United States," he said. Hours later, Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin told the same audience that his office was seeking U.S. help in another criminal probe against Tymoshenko. "We intend to bring up fresh charges against the former prime minister and some of the information that we need is in the United States," he said. Kuzmin did not elaborate on the charges but has previously said prosecutors are investigating Tymoshenko's alleged involvement in a 1996 contract killing of a parliament deputy. State prosecutors want to question another former prime minister, Pavlo Lazarenko, who has been convicted in the United States for money-laundering, fraud and extortion, Kuzmin said. Tymoshenko emerged as a major player in the energy business in the heady 1990s when Lazarenko was in power and she was briefly a member of his political party. Kuzmin said prosecutors also wanted to question Mykola Melnichenko, a former presidential security guard who has, after leaving Ukraine, claimed he had evidence linking Tymoshenko to the murder case. Tymoshenko has dismissed all charges and allegations against her as politically motivated by Yanukovich, who narrowly beat her for the presidency in a run-off vote in February 2010. The United States and the EU say her prosecution smacks of "selective justice". "POLITICAL PROSECUTION" EU officials on Friday expressed a similarly dim view of Ukraine's democratic progress, saying Tymoshenko's case remained a stumbling block to good relations. Speaking at the conference on Friday, Yanukovich ignored the Tymoshenko case and said the October election would help Ukraine's integration into the European mainstream, a top priority in his foreign affairs agenda. But Melia made it clear that Tymoshenko's jailing would affect the West's judgment on the election as an exercise in democracy. "I think with the political prosecution, politically directed prosecutions against certain opposition candidates, that has serious consequences on the quality of the election here," Melia said. Citing other U.S. concerns, Melia said some Ukrainian media were biased against the opposition in their coverage while others, such as the TVi television station which has complained about tax police raids and steps reducing its audience, were under pressure. "Some of the independent media like TVi are undergoing very specific, directed harassment," Melia said. He also questioned the procedure used to appoint local election commissions. He urged the government to address these issues before the election. "It is time for choices to be made by Ukrainians. Good choices will work, bad choices will have consequences. There is a number of things that could be done yet," he said.

Yalta 2012: All Ukraine Needs is Love

YALTA, Ukraine -- While global issues, chiefly the economy and innovation, were the focus of Day One of the Yalta European Strategy conference Yalta European Strategy conference, the conversation on Day Two centered more around the host country, Ukraine. The country’s Prime Minister, Mykola Azarov, began in the morning by detailing Ukraine’s challenges. Food and energy security remain central concerns for him, while he also admitted he was not satisfied with the results of measures to tackle corruption. If Ukraine is to meet these challenges it needs a committed partner. The good news is it has two suitors: the EU to the west and the Russian-led Customs Union to the east. The less good news is that both come with baggage. Let’s start with the EU, whose future was the topic of the first of the day’s sessions. All four panelists provided examples of Europe’s ‘baggage’, to differing degrees. Former UK leader Gordon Brown was the least scathing of the four. For him, an economist, the problem is economic and stems from a lack of fiscal union and the disparity in wealth between it’s richest and poorest members. Egemen Bagis, Turkey’s negotiator with Brussels, illustrated his country’s frustrated EU membership ambitions by comparing the Union to an overweight dietician; he says it has helped Turkey by urging reforms even if, itself, it has failed to follow its own advice. Then Mani Shankar Aiyar, a member of the Indian Upper House of parliament and former diplomat, described Europe as “a figment of the imagination…a geographical abstraction” that needs to give up its “quest for world dominance.” He backed up his criticism of the old colonial powers with a joke about the old saying that “the sun never sets on the British Empire”, not because it was so vast but, he said, “because not even God trusts the British in the dark.” The fourth speaker, Scottish Harvard professor Niall Ferguson, quickly criticised Aiyar’s anti-colonial rhetoric as outdated but provided a metaphor of his own: the EU is a game of jenga, in which players take it in turn to remove blocks from a tower without causing it to collapse. Each time there is a national election in Europe, he explained, it is like removing a block and being one step closer to bringing the whole thing crashing down. All four agreed that Europe needs to stop looking inwards and instead expand, take on new members. For Aiyar, it should reach out and be more friendly to countries in Eurasia. “All You Need is Love”, he suggested. So that’s the EU. But Russia is no perfect partner either as the following session on Energy made clear. Ukraine pays more than anyone else for Russian gas, on which it depends. When Russian Deputy prime minister Arkady Dvorkovich was asked why this was, he gave a master class in dodging the question. Something about European hypocrisy in demanding a special partnership discount, while at the same time insisting Russia obeys market forces. Session Three, ‘Ukraine: east or west’ got straight to the point. The conference’s moderator Chrystia Freeland summed up the argument of guest Kairat Kelimbetov thus: “the Custom Union loves Ukraine more than Europe does.” Andrei Kostin, chairman of Russia’s VTB bank chipped in with a comment that Europe offers love to Ukraine with strings attached, whereas Russia’s love would be unconditional. With the tears welling in my eyes I didn’t even notice who said it, but the phrase “All You Need is Love” was definitely repeated by someone on the panel. Then came lunch, which had a Russian theme and was delicious. It got me thinking that if the way to Ukraine’s heart is through its stomach, all the love-torn country has to do is choose between the gastronomical sophistication of the French combined with Italian culinary simplicity, German bratwurst and English fish and chips on the one hand and caviar and Russian salad on the other. If it was up to me I’d walk down the aisle with China. The feel good factor continued during the interval with an unexpected performance by the Buranovskiya Babushki, the elderly ladies who represented Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest back in May. Not quite the Beatles but it brought a smile to most faces all the same. After lunch the love-fest came to an abrupt end and tension fell on the proceedings with a session about Ukraine and the Tymoshenko case. While I had been looking forward to it I was left disappointed. Perhaps, after the emotions of the morning, I expected someone to announce Tymoshenko had been released and pardoned. Nope. In fact the session was almost farcical. Supporters of the jailed former Ukrainian prime minister railed loudly that the trial was unfair and political. The Ukrainian Foreign Minister and its Chief Prosecutor gave lengthy but completely irrelevant answers seemingly designed to play for time until 17:00 when European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso was scheduled to give a live link-up by satellite. Barroso spoke again about the need for a “coordinated and cooperative approach” on just about every issue. I’m starting to think he gets paid a bonus for saying those words given the frequency with which he uses them. I suppose he’s right but it’s hardly the best chat-up line around. The battle for Ukraine’s heart goes on….

Moscow Hopes EU Criticism Will Push Ukraine Back Into Its Orbit

MOSCOW, Russia -- Russia is hoping that anger at Ukraine in European capitals will push the country back into Moscow’s orbit, and is pressuring Kiev to sign up to a Moscow-led customs union as an alternative to closer integration with the EU. European leaders told Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych at the weekend that he can forget about his goal of increased cooperation with the EU while former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko remains in jail. Mr Yanukovych used a speech at a discussion forum in the Crimean resort of Yalta to reiterate that Ukraine is determined to integrate further with Europe, but was told in no uncertain terms that the door is closed until the country reforms. The main talking point is the jailing last year of Ms Tymoshenko, who was sentenced to seven years for abusing her authority as Prime Minister during gas negotiations with Russia, under a legal statute that European nations say should not exist. Critics say the charges were politically motivated and that Mr Yanukovych himself took the decision to jail his political rival. "He made the wrong decision, he has to acknowledge it, release Yulia and solve all of this mess," said Arseny Yatsenyuk, the country’s former foreign minister. However, instead of reversing the verdict, Ukrainian authorities say they are preparing new charges against Ms Tymoshenko and there could be a second trial. "You have no idea how much this case is damaging the image of Ukraine in Europe," Mario David, a Portuguese MEP, told Ukrainian ministers. "If we have no common values, then you can forget about the association agreement." Ukraine and the EU have signed a document that paves the way for Ukraine’s eventual entry into the union, but the EU has made it clear that it will not be ratified in the current political climate. Despite the EU’s woes, Mr Yanukovych has said that the country wants further integration, but now that Europe is pressuring Kiev, Russia is using the opportunity to state a case for Ukraine to return to Moscow’s orbit. Russian officials, also in Yalta for the weekend’s discussion forum, are pushing Ukraine’s leaders to join a newly formed Customs Union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Alexei Kostin, head of Russia’s VTB bank and close to President Vladimir Putin, said that Russia would not impose any preconditions on Ukraine. He accused Europe, in making demands for reform, of offering an "arranged marriage" to Ukrainians, whereas Russia offered the country "real love" with no conditions. Continuing the metaphor, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Valery Khoroshovsky shot back that relations between Moscow and Kiev had "started with a bit of flirting and then turned into hardcore pornography." Despite the fact that Mr Yanukovych was once considered Moscow’s stooge, there is a wariness of the big neighbour to the East, which has driven him to seek closer ties with Europe. However, the case of Ms Tymoshenko has ruined the relationship. Carl Bildt, the Swedish Foreign Minister, told The Independent that during a meeting with Mr Yanukovych on Friday, he impressed upon the Ukrainian President that Europe wants to see free and fair elections before the Accession Agreement is ratified. "The Yulia situation is really just the tip of the iceberg, and there is real concern about rule of law and the politicisation of courts." Parliamentary elections are due next month, when Mr Yanukovych's Party of Regions will come up against Ms Tymoshenko's party, and several smaller opposition parties, including one run by the champion boxer Vitaly Klitschko, and one that features the former Chelsea footballer Andrei Shevchenko. Mr Yanukovych says European observers have been invited to monitor the vote and insists that the elections will be free and fair, but critics say this is impossible while Ms Tymoshenko remains in jail.

Ukraine Leader Threatens To "Tear Off" Heads Of Ministers

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich told government ministers he would "tear off" their heads if they did not stop political intriguing before October 28 parliamentary elections, Ukrainian media reported on Friday. Yanukovich, who is known for his rough language, made his outburst last Wednesday after Economy Minister Petro Poroshenko appealed to him for more active support in imposing a recycling fee on cars and machinery from Russia. "A bad dancer is always impeded by something," Yanukovich replied, a slightly softer version of a crude Russian expression that says a poor dancer always blames his testicles. Clearly seeing Poroshenko's request as a stalling tactic, he said: "I'll tear off your heads very soon. Straight after the elections if you go on talking without doing anything." Yanukovich, who was presiding over an economics strategy meeting in the town of Dnipropetrovsk, went on: "I told the prime minister this and today I am telling all of you sitting in the front row the same thing. "We have a month and a half left (before the election). If you want to play at politics - go on play at politics (at your own risk)." Yanukovich's caustic remarks appeared to reflect some unease over how his Party of Regions may perform in the October election given his government's unpopularity over tax and pension reform. Despite a united opposition bringing together the main opposition parties, including Batkivshchyna of jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, experts predict Yanukovich's allies will hold on to their majority in the 450-seat parliament. Poroshenko, a billionaire businessman whose assets include chocolate factories and a major television station and who was named economy minister in March, was reported by Interfax news agency as replying to Yanukovich: "Alright then, thank you. We'll do it without your help." The online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda quoted Poroshenko as telling journalists in the Black Sea resort of Yalta on Friday that the comment had not been personally directed at him alone. "It was addressed to everyone who was on the front row. I was standing at the tribune at the time ...," he said.

NBU Urges Government Compromise With IMF

KIEV, Ukraine -- The National Bank of Ukraine urged the government Thursday to reach a compromise with the International Monetary Fund to unblock access to a $15.2 billion loan that may be needed if the economy continues to deteriorate. “We call on the government to resume negotiations with the IMF,” Ihor Prasolov, the head of the NBU Council, the central bank’s strategic policy body, said at a press conference. “The government has to find certain compromises.” “This is very important for our country,” he said. “This is the cheapest money we can get.” The comment resonates with recent concerns by former President Viktor Yushchenko, who said the failure to resume cooperation with the IMF may lead to Ukraine defaulting on foreign debts early next year. The comments also underscore a continued clash between the government and the NBU over the future cooperation with the IMF with the government being more reluctant to implement suggested reforms. Prime Minister Mykola Azarov repeatedly said Ukraine will not agree to hike natural gas prices or take other unpopular measures recommended by the IMF that may have negative impact on the economy. He said Ukraine can handle without the IMF lending. Prasolov said access to the loan may be needed if the world economy continues to deteriorate. “We cannot predict how the situation develops on world markets,” Prasolov said. “Just in case, we have to have a possibility to ask the IMF for the money.” Meanwhile, there were growing concerns over the world economy after demand for steel, Ukraine’s main exports, had continued to weaken, reducing hard currency earnings by Ukrainian companies. Azarov, concerned with the weakening steel exports, said the government will restrict imports of the commodity and boost demand for domestically produced steel. These concerns over the state of the world economy were shared by President Viktor Yanukovych on Thursday. He said the government must pay greater attention to fending off any external shocks. “During this difficult times, when economic crisis is raging in the world, it cannot avoid touching upon our country,” Yanukovych said. “Every time we look into these issues, we see that one cannot take a nap,” Yanukovych said. “We have to look and watch every day, what should we do.”

Court Rejects Lawsuit Against Yanukovych

KIEV, Ukraine -- A class-action lawsuit filed by an opposition leader and backed by 500,000 people seeking to remove President Viktor Yanukovych from office was rejected by the High Administrative Court on Friday. The lawsuit, filed by Arseniy Yatseniuk, sought to punish Yanukovych for “usurpation of power” following controversial changes to the constitution in October 2010 that granted the president massive powers he had never had when he was elected in February 2010. “Judge M. M. Oleksiyenko approved the ruling on Sept. 7 to return the lawsuit back to the plaintiff,” the court said in a statement on Friday. The judge argued the lawsuit lacked reasoning to prove there were violations in the first place. The ruling is a setback for Yatseniuk, who leads Batkivshchyna, the largest opposition group, for parliamentary elections on October 28. But the developments now open way for the opposition group to file the lawsuit with the European Court of Human Rights. It may also be used by the opposition group to call on their supporters to take to the streets for anti-Yanukovych protests. Yatseniuk filed the lawsuit on August 20, but the High Administrative Court had asked the plaintiff to submit additional evidence indicating the case must be heard. Yatseniuk submitted the additional papers on Thursday, along with a petition signed by 500,000 people across Ukraine seeking to join the lawsuit. The lawsuit attacked the constitutional amendments that had reshaped political system in Ukraine overnight by dramatically increasing presidential powers, allowing the power to dismiss the prime minister, to appoint and to dismiss ministers of the Cabinet. Supporting the lawsuit was evidence submitted by a former judge of the Constitutional Court that had claimed the presidential administration has put pressure on judges at the court to force the amendments through. The amendments made Yanukovych the dominant political authority in Ukraine. A separate judicial reform, drafted and launched by the presidential administration in 2010, had also allowed Yanukovych to de-facto increase his influence over courts and the country’s legal system. Yanukovych loyalists dismissed merits of the lawsuit as purely political and probably aimed at energizing opposition supporters ahead of the October 28 parliamentary elections. After the ruling was approved on Friday, the High Administrative Court told the opposition group Batkivshchyna to remove more than 200 boxes with names of people that had signed the petition to join the lawsuit. The boxes, which were unloaded in front of the court on Thursday, and the court said it “could not assume responsibility for keeping” them because they were not properly registered with the court.

Ukraine Made No Guarantees For UESU's Obligations To Russia's Defense Ministry, Says Tymoshenko's Defense Lawyer

KIEV, Ukraine -- There are no state guarantees on the obligations of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine Corporation to the Defense Ministry of the Russian Federation, according to the defense lawyer of former Ukrainian premier Yulia Tymoshenko, Serhiy Vlasenko. "There are no guarantees of the Ukrainian state for the UESU's obligations to the Defense Ministry. If the Justice Ministry does not know this, I have to inform them that government guarantees are included by finance ministries in the state budget," Vlasenko told reporters on Monday near Central Clinical Hospital No. 5 in Kharkiv, where his client is undergoing treatment. According to him, should there be such guarantees, then all these 16 years, these guarantees would be taken into account in the state budgets of the Russian Federation and Ukraine. "These budgets are approved by parliaments and fulfilled by finance ministries. If these guarantees existed, then for sure, Russia would have already made such claims to Ukraine, and would not silently wait for 16 years," the lawyer said. As reported, the Russian Defense Ministry filed at Kiev Economic Court a lawsuit against the Ukrainian government for the non-payment of UAH 3.239 billion ($400 million) under a criminal case on the activities of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) Corporation. Russia demanded the summoning of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the State Treasury Service of Ukraine as defendants in the case. The UESU is the third party on the side of the defendant in the case. Meanwhile, a district court in Kharkiv is hearing the criminal case against former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko on the activities of the UESU. The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine (PGO) has filed a lawsuit against Tymoshenko with the demand that she pay UAH 19.5 million ($2.4 million) under the UESU case. Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka said that the UESU case against Tymoshenko was illegally closed in 2005 under pressure from former Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko, following the appointment of Tymoshenko as prime minister. Ukraine's United Opposition said it believes that the reports about the UESU's debt to the Russian Defense Ministry are the attempt by the authorities to discredit Tymoshenko on the eve of the parliamentary elections.

Russian tanks on top of the world again?

he first prototype based on the unified fighting module "Armata" will be released next year. Starting in 2015, it will enter into service. This was announced by the Commander of the Russian Land Forces Vladimir Chirkin. According to him, a tank on the basis of "Armata" is being created at an accelerated speed. The military are optimistic. The project is financed in full, and specialists of "Uralvagonzavod" are working on the creation of the new prototypes. The director of the establishment Oleg Sienko said that the plant, along with the military, was already testing units and sets for the new tank, according to Rossiyskaya Gazeta. A year ago, Russian generals were skeptical of the national armor. The former Commander of the Land Forces (now deputy chief of the General Staff) Alexander Postnikov stated once that the money spent on the construction of a T-90 would be better used for a purchase of three units of the German "Leopard." Naturally, the colonel-general was criticized by everyone. The criticism was justified, since Postnikov's statement about the price of "Leopard" was not very consistent with the reality. The disputes between the Ministry of Defense and the defense industry on the prices and characteristics of the samples of weapons for several years ended in frustrating defense contracts. That is, on the one hand there was no desire to spend money on God knows what. Think back to the epic five-billion expenditure on the development of domestic drones with zero result. On the other hand, the "defense" companies cannot produce vehicles without set expectation, in the hope that it will be purchased one day. The country's leadership has repeatedly intervened in the disagreements between the military and the directors of defense enterprises. Some resignations took place. Only after the intervention the situation is beginning to change for the better. Relapses still occur. In May, for example, it was reported that Russia may purchase a license for the production of the Italian wheeled tanks Centauro. It was reported that these machines were tested in the Moscow suburbs. Since then, however, there has been no news on thiss project. According to the chief editor of "National Defense" Igor Korotchenko, in terms of armored vehicles, the bet will not be made solely on the Russian development. He stressed that the development of the platform of main battle tank "Armata" is key. If successful, mass production of the fifth generation will be implemented. At the same time, said Igor Korotchenko, there are technologies that Russian defense enterprises do not possess. "It concerns optoelectronics, night vision devices, perhaps some elements of personnel equipment, etc." said the expert. "The main task is to give the Russian soldiers and officers a complete set for the armed struggle in order to be able to solve problems more successfully than the enemy on the battlefield, fighting with comfort and, most importantly, to ensure the safety and lives of personnel, protecting them to the maximum," said Igor Korotchenko. The "Armata" replaced two other projects for tanks building, "Black Eagle" and "Object 195". The military were not happy with the high cost and technical complexity of the previous projects, as well as their non-universality. Judging by the statements of the Land Forces Commander, now these problems are irrelevant and the main bet was placed on "Armata."

Russia may attract billions of foreign investment at APEC summit

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation business summit opened in Vladivostok, the Far East of Russia, on Friday, September 7. Working sessions of the summit will take place on September 8 and 9. The business forum is held in conjunction with the meeting of the heads of APEC. Its main subjects include the economic integration, monetary policy, increasing the efficiency and reliability of logistics chains, food security, the problem of the shortage of infrastructure, etc. On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who arrived in Vladivostok the day before, made a keynote speech and also held bilateral meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao and the Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah. As a rule, no one expects any breakthroughs from APEC summits. The organization per se bears a consultative status, and the agendas of its forums can very often be too general. Russia's chairmanship at APEC takes place under the motto "Integration - for development, innovation and prosperity." On the other hand, Putin's talks with hundreds of business leaders about the development of the economic cooperation between Russia and its partners in the region can be very fruitful. According to a recent survey conducted among CEOs of APEC companies, Russia holds the leading position as an object of their investment strategy for the next three or five years. The research conducted by a subdivision of Pricewaterhouse Coopers showed that China, the U.S., South Korea and Singapore lag behind Russia at this point. At the summit, Russia has a chance to announce the plans of the new stage of development of the Far East and Siberia. However, the Russian administration has not developed a systematic approach to solving the problems of the Far East and Siberia. However, Viktor Ishayev, the minister for the development of the region, insists that the state has specific plans which will attract 3 trillion rubles of investments to the Far East in 2015, and 9 trillion by 2025. Within the scope of the forum, Russian business officials proposed to develop alternative routes of delivery of goods between Europe and Asia. This will give APEC countries and Russia an opportunity to save about $ 300 billion by 2020 in bilateral trade and about $ 370 billion in transit. In this case, each percent of trade between Europe and Asia that passes through Russia, will bring about $ 1 billion to the economy. However, Russia would needs to upgrade its railroad infrastructure across the nation. Above all, the country needs to increase the capacity of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) and the Trans-Siberian Railway. Officials with Russian Railways evaluated the works at about 1 trillion rubles. In addition, in the struggle for the transit of goods from Asia, Russia is ready to cut a new window into Europe via the Arctic. The time to deliver goods by the Northern Sea Route from the Japanese port of Yokohama to the Dutch Rotterdam makes up 15 days, while deliveries via the Suez Canal take a month. The Suez Canal is dangerous in terms of piracy. However, the Northern Route has a huge disadvantage. It can be navigated for only two or four months a year. The lack of funding during the 1990s almost destroyed the system of meteorological services and closed the Arctic ports, where the towns of border guards are located. The business summit also holds discussions about the availability and efficient use of resources to ensure sustainable economic growth. The participants discuss the availability of energy resources and energy efficiency constraints in the supplies of metals and other raw materials. "The major resource projects focused on APR markets will become the centers of new economic clusters. Afterwards, there will be companies and services created. Combined with investments in infrastructure, this will turn the east of Russia into one of the key points of economic growth," says CEO of En+, Mr. Volynets. However, things may turn out to be worse in reality. A week before the APEC summit, Gazprom said that the project to develop the Shtokman deposit, which is being implemented in cooperation with France's Total, would be postponed. China, which is interested in regular deliveries of Russian hydrocarbons at estimated prices, will be forced to seek alternative sources of supplies. In this regard, Beijing can turn to Kazakhstan, which is also interested in extending its pipeline to the Chinese border, a study conducted by Valdai Club said. The Russian political elite believes that it is Europe and not Asia that should remain the main economic partner despite the crisis in the eurozone. Meanwhile, the center of gravity of the world economy gradually moves to Asia. Russia could use this to attract investment in infrastructure and the companies that make products of high processing. Nonobvious prospects of the already announced projects to upgrade the BAM, the Trans-Siberian Railway and uncertainty in the development of the Shtokman field confirm the conclusions of Valdai's study about the absence of a specific plan for a new development of Siberia and the Far East. All statements about the development of production in the region will be purely declarative, until the authorities make a decision to establish special industrial clusters in the Far East and Siberia, as it happens in China, experts of Valdai Club believe.

Siberian cranes bring extremely good luck to Russia's APEC summit

The 9th summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) has ended in Russia's Vladivostok on September 9. The summit surprised many people with its effectiveness. Moreover, the forum proved to be unexpectedly successful for Russia. The APEC forum is a place for holding debate and outlining plans, rather than for making decisions. However, the most recent summit became an exception, although its agenda, which was defined six months ago, did not stipulate that it could turn into something really meaningful. Following the summit, it became clear that the "turn to the east" of the Russian economy is an issue to talk about, although experts and observers expressed concerns before that such a favorable turn for Russia was not going to happen. The forum, from which no one expected any decisions, has turned into the platform that gathered the leaders of major powers in the region (China, Russia, USA, Japan) and where a number of various arrangements was signed, The Izvestia newspaper said. After the summit, Russia has obviously gained weight among APEC member countries. The center of the world is shifting to Asia, leading scientists of politics say. Russia wants to keep up with the process and even become one of its leaders. Russia that joined the APEC in 1998 initially considered the summit in Vladivostok as a foreign policy event - largely contrary to the sense of this association, which officially positions itself not as an alliance of "states" or "countries", but rather as an "alliance of economies." But it is now clear that the APEC has worked precisely as an economic union. Perhaps it goes about the creation of an alternative to the WTO inside the APEC so that the members of the association could play on the contradictions in the WTO with the EU. Some agreements look broad in the final declaration of the forum. In particular, it is the intention to fight corruption, strengthen the financial system, reduce price fluctuations, etc. But there are a lot of specific details too, the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper said. Thus, the leaders agreed to refrain from imposing new export restrictions and creating barriers to trade and investment before the end of 2015. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who replaced President Obama in Vladivostok, and Russia's Putin were advocating the joint refusal from protectionism at the summit. The leaders also agreed to reduce the total energy intensity of the Asia-Pacific economies by 45% by 2035 from the level of 2005. Putin himself was satisfied with the agreement, which could not be achieved "within ten years of work on the WTO platform." Namely, it was decided to reduce customs duties on 54 "green" products to 5% (wind generators, water and air pollution sensors, etc). The issue of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was initiated by the United States in 2009, did not receive a development in Vladivostok, to Russia's great satisfaction. In 2009, the USA put forward an initiative to conclude an agreement on free trade between nine developed APEC economies. Russia and China would have had no chances to enter that agreement. The "Japanese" outcome of the summit was positive too, despite contradictions between Moscow and Tokyo on the Kuril Islands. Japan expressed its willingness to participate in the Russian project to export liquefied natural gas from the Russian Federation. A railway transportation agreement was signed between ICT Group and Mitsui, as well as several other smaller contracts. Surprisingly, the United States had no objections to Russia's Asia-Pacific plans. In general, there are a lot of reasons to talk about the success of the summit. But on the other hand, this was due to the extremely good luck. The realization of bonuses earned is more complicated than a good forum in Vladivostok. The APEC summit, according to various estimates, cost Russia 700 billion rubles. However, Vladimir Putin, commenting on the results of the forum, said that the unprecedented cost seemed reasonable to him. "No offense, but what you are talking about, which 700 billion?" he replied, when asked about the cost of the summit. He explained that the money was mostly spent on the development of the infrastructure in the region, rather than preparations for the summit. At the press conference, Putin spoke about many things, but it was a question from a correspondent of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper that received most attention. The journalist asked Putin about his flight with cranes. Journalist: Vladimir Vladimirovich, my question is not quite about the summit. May I ask you about the cranes? Putin: About the cranes? Journalist: Yes. About the cranes , whom you showed the way to warmer places. (Putin shrugs.) The fact is that on the Internet there are plenty of highly caustic remarks about it - people do joke a lot about it. Putin: Do they? They should try and take a flight themselves. Journalist: Well, your successive opponent Ksenia Sobchak [Russian it-girl, celebrity TV host] projected it all on the electoral statistics. She said that 63% of the cranes flew after Putin and the rest preferred to head south. Only a small part remained to nest on squares and boulevards. (Journalist laughs.) There is some truth in these words - not all birds flew after Putin. Here, Mr. Putin, answer! Putin: (applause heard in the hall) Indeed, not all cranes flew ... only the weak ones did not fly. (Applause in the hall again). It was with the first attempt - all of them flew with the second attempt (laughter and applause). It is true, I must admit and say it honestly, it is partially the pilot's guilt too that no all of them flew after him (silence in the hall). Because he was gathering speed and height too fast, so they simply couldn't catch up. But this is not the whole truth and not the whole situation. Just at some point - I mean, bad weather and strong crosswind - the pilot is forced to gather the height and speed quickly. Otherwise, the aircraft can turn over. (Putin thinks.) What else is there to add? Yes, there are, of course, birdies that do not fly in the pack, they prefer to nest somewhere separately. What to do? That's another problem. Even if they are not members of the pack, they are still members of our population. And they should be treated with care. (Putin pauses) If possible ... (a storm of applause).