Muscovites have been shocked by the news of a suicide bomb going off at the city’s largest airport, Domodedovo International Airport, at 16:40 Monday afternoon 24 January. Authorities say a suicide bomber was among a crowd waiting at an arrivals gate, with a bomb the equivalent of 5kg of TNT. Russia’s transport minister has ordered tightening of security at all the country’s airports, effective immediately. According to state news agency Ria Novosti, “Planes from London and Brussels, as well as Greece, Ukraine and Egypt, had landed in the 30 minutes preceding the attack.” A flight from London turned around before landing, after hearing the news, but flights have begun to land again, late in the evening Moscow time.
President Dmitry Medvedev has postponed his Tuesday flight to Davos, Switzerland, where he was scheduled to speak at the World Economic Forum.
Links to other sites: Ria Novosti, for updates, Reuters
Reuters video
Italian prime minister says he helped Russia win World Cup bid
Sochi, Russia and Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Russian news agency Ria Novosti reports Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as saying that he is happy with Russia’s decision to not demand visas for European Union visitors to the 2018 World Cup football championship.
Berlusconi told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev after Russia’s win was announced, that he had helped push through the Russian bid, according to the news agency, which says the two spoke Friday.
“‘We would like to create a special atmosphere during the tournament,’ Medvedev said after talks with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Russia’s southern Black Sea resort of Sochi.”
Afghanistan top of list
Nato (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) member nations are meeting in Lisbon, Portugal 19-20 November in what is widely considered one of the most crucial meetings it has held in years. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will attend, a sign of a significant shift in relations between East and West in recent years. These are the highest-level meetings between the former Cold War adversaries since 2008, when tensions rose over Russian troops moving into Georgia.
The group of heads of state and government expects to approve a new mission statement with a revised strategic concept document that will reflect changes in the security environment since 9/11, Nato says.
The organization’s role in Afghanistan and in particular a timeline for its presence there are high on the agenda, with 2014 as a pullout date being touted Friday. The number of Isaf (Nato’s United Nations-mandated International Security Assistance Force) troops has grown from 5,000 to around 130,400 troops from 48 countries, including all 28 Nato member nations.
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, BBC, NPR, Ria Novosti, VOA, Xinhua
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – The UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) in Geneva is sending emergency aid teams to 75,000 Uzbeks who have crossed the border from Kyrgyzstan into Uzbekistan since Friday.
“We have agreed with the Uzbek government to support their efforts and assist tens of thousands, mostly women and children seeking safety in Uzbekistan,” notes UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres. The UNHCR emergency team includes experts on operations, field officers and logistics. It is scheduled to deploy immediately, the organization says in a news release Monday afternoon. The UNHCR is also preparing an airlift from its emergency stockpile in Dubai.
The refugees continue to flee from violence, including men on the loose with hatchets, as ethnic unrest in the area flairs. Georgia’s minister for re-integration, Temur Iakobashvili, called the violence Russian-inspired “ethnic cleansing” of Uzbeks, according to Civil.Ge, a Georgian news media. Aljazeera’s reporter on the border says the fleeing Uzbeks are making claims that are difficult to substantiate, that Kyrgystan’s military are joining in some of the attacks. The country’s interim leader, Roza Otunbayeva, in place since early April, says an outside third party is needed to calm the situation and that she has contacted Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to ask for help.
Al Jazeera video
Update 18:15 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will meet in Prague, Czech Republic Thursday 8 April to sign a new Start treaty, bringing to an end months-long negotiations to reduce strategic arms. The US Senate and Russian Parliament will need to ratify the treaty.
The two presidents agreed to the meeting Friday morning 26 March, in the 13th phone call they have had over the Start talks. The terms of the new agreement will reduce arms stockpiles considerably, according to the White House announcement:
Yury Kalinen, Russia’s deputy justice minister who has been harshly criticized by human rights groups and the media, has been fired by Russian President Dimtry Medvedev, with no reason provided in the announcement. Kalinen is widely considered to be the man who created a prison system noted for its violence and lack of respect for the justice system. A dozen top prison officials were fired in November 2009 by the president after a Moscow lawyer died in prison while awaiting trial. Kalinen was chief of the prison system from 2004-2009.
Links to other sites: Moscow Times, Ria Novosti
Early January evening snowfall at Bern's Aare River and Bear Park
Bern's new Bear Park offers a lovely riverside walk, information on the animals
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Winter may not appear to be the ideal time to visit bears at parks, given their reputation for hibernating, but this is not stopping tourists from streaming to see the new bear park in Bern, which opened in late October 2009. Finn, a young male bear recovering after he was shot when an intruder went into the animal’s den, is particularly sought out.
“He’s in a kind of micro-hibernation,” says bear park spokesperson Marc Rosset, who says you have to have luck on your side to see Finn during these wintry days.
Finn, swimming again in December 2009
“He came to us from the Helsinki zoo, where he did hibernate during his first two years.” But in the slightly warmer climate of Bern, he occasionally goes outside. “He gets hungry, so he goes looking for food,” says Rosset.
Finn’s fourth birthday is 15 January.
Update 2 18:55 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev late Friday 4 December issued this joint statement after a week of high-level negotiations in Geneva:
“Recognizing our mutual determination to support strategic stability between the United States of America and the Russian Federation, we express our commitment, as a matter of principle, to continue to work together in the spirit of the Start Treaty following its expiration, as well as our firm intention to ensure that a new treaty on strategic arms enter into force at the earliest possible date.”
The treaty officially expires Saturday 5 December 2009. The two countries have said in recent weeks that while they were working towards completing a draft for a new treaty by the time the old one ends, it would more likely be the end of 2009 before a draft could be ready. The new statement avoids setting a deadline, but reinforces the commitment of both sides.
A spokesperson for the US Mission in Geneva said that “The US and Russia are continuing to work hard to complete the new Start Treaty and our delegations are making significant progress toward that end, nonetheless, some difficult issues remain.”
No end yet to Start talks in Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – US President Barack Obama met Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev on the fringes of the Apec meeting in Singapore 14 November, to discuss the resumption of the Start talks on reducing both countries’ nuclear arsenals. Obama hailed the “excellent progress over the last few months”repors the Moscow Times. The Start talks resume in Geneva Monday 16 November.
The current treaty expires 5 December, and though hopeful that a new treaty will be hammered out before the end of the year, Obama’s team suggests a bridging agreement may be necessary because the treaty is unlikely to be signed and ratified in time, reports Fox News.
Siberian bear cubs (Photo: RANDO)
Siberian bear cubs, welcomed at Bern's Tierpark (Photo: RANDO)
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, arrived in Bern 21 September to military honours and a town that was completely locked down for security reasons. It is the first state visit to Switzerland by a Russian head of state. Medvedev thanked his host, Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz, for representing Russia’s interests in its conflict with Georgia, and he suggested that Swiss neutrality might enable Switzerland to act as a go-between to build bridges between Russia and Nato in order to advance Russia’s new vision for security in Europe.
Switzerland’s programme for economic cooperation with Eastern Europe has supported the transition process in the Russian Federation since 1993. The focus has been mainly on building the private sector, sustainable development of natural resources and governance issues such as migration, human trafficking and prison management.
Switzerland has been working with Russia on sustainable forest projects for several years, part of the economic cooperation programme.
Four agreements were signed at the end of the first day of the two-day visit, covering visas, repatriation, aid in cases of disaster, and a memorandum on sport. The two countries have now signed several treaties.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The murder in Chechnya of Natalia Estemirova, who worked for the humanitarian organization Memorial, which has ties to Geneva-based humanitarian organizations, has prompted widespread condemnation. Suspicion outside the country is falling on government-backed militia who reportedly have much to fear from evidence she had been gathering into human rights abuses. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he was outraged and the pro-Moscow president of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said the murderers must be punished.
Russian and US presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama have agreed, during a meeting in Moscow 6 July, to reduce “the number of deployed nuclear warheads to 1,500-1,675 from levels above 2,200″, reports Reuters, and Russia agreed to allow US troops en route to Afghanistan to fly over its territory. Obama Wednesday 7 July meets Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, whom he referred to before his trip as still having one foot in the cold war. Major US companies traveling with the americaqn president to boost trade with Russia include Deere & Co, PepsiCo and Boeing. Moscow Times, Washington Post
