GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A long-range rocket launched by North Korea Friday 13 April to mark the 100th anniversary of the regime’s founding leader exploded 90 seconds after taking off, nonetheless drawing condemnation from G-8 countries.
A joint statement from foreign ministers of the G-8, which comprises the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy, condemned the action, and said they may request an “appropriate response” from the United Nations Security Council.
Switzerland also condemned the North Korean move.
The launch, which North Korea said was intended to put a satellite into orbit, has been widely seen as an attempt to test long-range missile technology forbidden by UN resolutions.
The failure of the much-lauded Unha-3 rocket was reported on national television in North Korea, in a rare demonstration of candor. A statement said that it had failed to enter orbit.
The UN Security Council is scheduled to meet Friday to discuss the launch.
Links to other sources: BBC, The Guardian, MSNBC
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Dmitry Ivanyuta, 25, has been discovered in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Siberia, after being declared one of the 31 people who died in a plane crash near Tyulen, Russia 2 April. Twelve people survived the crash and are “recovering slowly” reports the Moscow Times. The newspaper says that the survivor’s sister recognized his face, initially unrecognizable. The man under whose name he was admitted to hospital was one of the dead, his family learned after requesting DNA testing.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Russian media Ria Novostisay reports that 31 of the 39 or 43 (accounts vary) people aboard a UTair plane flying from Tyumen to Surgut in Siberia died when the plane crashed while trying to make an emergency landing at 01:50. The crash into a snowy field near the village of Gorkovka occurred shortly after takeoff, abut 3km from the airport. The eight passengers who were injured are reportedly in serious condition.
The plane was an Italian-French ATR-72 jet.
Eyewitness reports indicate that smoke was coming out of the engines and that there was a bang and a flash. Russian officials have reportedly ruled out terrorism and are saying that the accident was most likely a technical failure.
An eyewitness said he saw smoke coming from the plane’s twin engines as it plunged to the ground at around 01:50 GMT.
Another witness said there had been a “bang” and a flash before the craft crashed in a snowy field just outside the village of Gorkovka.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – North Korea’s plan to launch a long-range rocket next month upstaged talks at the 53-leader summit on nuclear security as it came to a close Tuesday 27 March in Seoul, South Korea.
The North Korean foreign ministry said it would carry out plans to launch a satellite missile into orbit next month to commemorate the 100th birthday of the regime’s founder, Kim Il-Sung. The ministry declared in a statement published by state news agency KCNA, “We will never give up the launch of a satellite for peaceful purposes” and that North Korea has “as much right to launch our satellite as other countries do”.
The United States, Japan, South Korea and other states expressed concerns that the launch breaches a United Nations ban and would violate an agreement concluded last month between the US and North Korea.
Meanwhile world leaders at the Seoul meeting called for closer cooperation to deal with nuclear terrorism, and issued a joint communiqué calling for an effort to secure “vulnerable nuclear material”.
Eyes, or rather ears, were raised at the summit on Tuesday, when US President Barack Obama was heard telling Russian President Dimitri Medvedev, as his microphone was on, that he would be more flexible about discussing missile defense following US elections in November.
Obama later explained his not-so -private exchange with the Russian leader to reporters, “You can’t start that a few months before presidential and Congressional elections in the United States, and at a time when they just completed elections in Russia, and they’re in the process of a presidential transition.”
Links to other sources: BBC, New York Times, The Telegraph
Visit “against deteriorating humanitarian aid background” as fighting breaks out in capital
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Jacob Kellenberger, head of the Geneva-based International Red Cross, is in Moscow Monday 19 March to ask Russian authorities for help in getting a two-hour daily break in fighting in Syria.
Kellenberger’s visit “takes place against the background of a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Syria,” the aid group said Sunday.
“The humanitarian situation in Homs, Idlib, Hama, Deraa and other areas affected by the unrest remains extremely difficult and could deteriorate further. People have been suffering for several months in some areas, with women and children particularly affected,’ Kellenberger said before leaving
“A daily cessation in the fighting for a period of at least two hours remains essential in order for emergency medical evacuations to take place safely and for aid to reach vulnerable people swiftly,” he noted. “The ICRC is asking for an unambiguous commitment from all concerned to these breaks in the fighting, so that it can reach people in urgent need.”
Moscow said last week it will continue its “military cooperation with Syria”. Russia is reported Monday, by Swedish think tank and research group The Stockholm International Peace Initiative (Sipri), to have supplied 78 percent of Syria’s arms in the past five years – which have increased 580 percent.
Monday fighting in capital heaviest in a year
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Russian media Saturday 17 March quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying he spoke to UN Syrian mediator Kofi Annan after Annan and Bashar al-Assad spoke, in early March and “I can assure you that there was no talk about Assad’s departure.: The remarks were published by Russia’s foreign ministry on its website. They are from an interview on Russian television Saturday night. Two days earlier he told the Duma that Russia will continue its military cooperation with Syria and that “Russia aims to defend not the regime of Bashar Assad but the right of Syrians to choose their own leader and stability in the Middle East,” reports the Moscow Times.
In other Syrian news, 27 people are reported to have died Saturday when two bombs went off at security installations in Damascus, and Thursday 15 March Saudi Arabia announced it was closing its Syrian embassy and removing staff.
Links to other sites: Ahram, Moscow Times, RiaNovosti news agency
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A Canadian naval intelligence officer accused of counterespionage has inflicted “grave injury” on relations with the country’s allies, The Globe and Mail reports, citing anonymous government sources. They are quoted as saying that the full extent of the damage will be fully gauged only once the government determines the content of classified information he allegedly passed to a foreign power.
The case of sub-lieutenent Jeffrey Delisle, who worked at an intelligence hub in Halifax and who was arrested in January, has been very sensitive with few officials knowing the extent of the damage. No details about the case have been disclosed publicly.
Defense Minister Peter MacKay reacted by saying that the allies maintain “full confidence in Canada”.
The newspaper says that there has been concern among officials over the years that as a “net importer” of intelligence from allies, Canada may, as a result of the spy case, be excluded from receiving such information.
Delisle, the first person accused of violating the country’s post-9/11 Security of Information Act, allegedly began leaking material in July 2007.
Six Russian diplomats were expelled from Canada in January following Delisle’s arrest.
Links to other sites: The Globe and Mail, The Huffington Post
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Vladimir Putin Sunday 4 March won a third term in office as president of Russia, winning with a 61 percent landslide, with 58 percent of voters turning up at the polls, according to the Moscow Times. Chechnya, it notes, had a 94 percent turnout.
Putin, who has been serving as prime minister since his second term in office ended in 2008, had President Dmitry Medvedev by his side as he announced the victory, calling it a fair win. Opponents have been vocal in their claims of fraud. Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov was running second in early official results reports, with 17.7 percent of the vote, reports RiaNovosti news agency.
©2012 Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay came down hard on Sri Lanka's post-war report
(Land mine information corrected) GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva’s international profile was particularly high during the past week.
The Human Rights Council condemned Syria but also highlighted growing concerns over Sri Lanka, the World Trade Organization picked up the Acta Internet freedom debate, Cern announced it will be using cloud computing to help handle massive LHC data and a campaign was kicked off to to raise awareness about anti-personnel landmine issues.
The International Red Cross Saturday morning 3 March has a team ready to provide emergency supplies to badly hit Baba Amr in Homs, Syria, after being told it could go in, with permission then denied.
Highlights from international Geneva actions during the week of 28 February – 2 March:
Cern and the computing cloud GenevaLunch story 1 March; Reuters
Human Rights Council Syria: GenevaLunch story 1 March, NY Times, Palestine News Network, Ria Novosti. Sri Lanka: The country’s ambassador to the country, Tamara Kunanayakam, reacted strongly, as did media in Sri Lanka, to a resolution presented by the US and the European Union that call for Colombo to speed up efforts to restore peace. The resolution came as Sri Lanka published a report by its Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), which was also criticized by UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay, who said it fell short of the accountability process demanded by UN Experts.
Kunanayakam argued that the council is overstepping bounds in not allowing the LLRC, a domestic panel created by the president, to complete its work, and she called the US in particular “impatient”, saying that “the majority of the international community supports Sri Lanka’s efforts and its stand that a functioning domestic mechanism should not be circumvented by interference until its conclusion. ‘The hypocrisy and the double standard thus displayed (by the US and the European Union), if should they be encouraged would affect the credibility and undermine gravely the legitimacy of the Council,’ the Sri Lankan ambassador warned,” reports Colombo Page.
Marla Otero, a US under-secretary of state, speaking to the council in Geneva 2 March, said “We know from experience that there can be no lasting peace without reconciliation and accountability, but the United States is concerned that, in Sri Lanka, time is slipping away. The international community has waited nearly three years for action, and while we welcome the release of the LLRC report, the recommendations of the report should be implemented. ”
ICBL, International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a Nobel Laureate organization, kicked off its “Lend your leg” action to call attention to the landmine issue and to urge governments to put a full stop to the devastating harm mines cause in the run-up to mine awareness day 4 April. The 13th anniversary of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention was 1 March.
ICRC, International Red Cross, was told by the Syrian government 1 March that it could enter the battered city of Homs to provide emergency food and medical supplies to thousands of civilians who have been the victims of weeks of shelling. But Friday 2 March the head of the ICRC said they were not allowed to enter the area as promised. “It is unacceptable that people who have been in need of emergency assistance for weeks have still not received any help,” said ICRC president Jakob Kellenberger. “We are staying in Homs tonight in the hope of entering Baba Amr in the very near future. In addition, many families have fled Baba Amr, and we will help them as soon as we possibly can.”
WTO, World Trade Organization Media attention to Acta, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, has been focused mainly on the European Commission and European Parliament arguments over the hotly debated legislation, but it was also under scrutiny this week in Geneva.
IP Watch carries a lengthy article on the Acta debate, which prompted 2.5 million people to sign a petition given to the European Parliament, opposing it. IP Watch reports that Acta was discussed in the WTO “in the context of enforcement trends on the agenda of the Council on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS),” which met at the start of last week. It cites one unnamed participant: “Acta was considered one of the ‘tools’ governments had against counterfeiting and piracy, but now there is misinformation about it that is leading to reactions, the participant said. In particular, the Acta debate gets ‘mixed up’ with copyright issues, when copyright itself is not addressed in Acta, the participant said.
“‘Acta enforces copyright. It does not say something is legal or illegal,’ the participant said. ‘Acta gives a tool to address illegality. Acta does not say what is a copyright infringement.’”
Strong opposition to Acta is linked in part to international opposition to Pipa, a US law that prompted Wikipedia and scores of other major Internet organizations to call a one-day whiteout 17 January 2012.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Already taut relations between tiny Estonia and giant Russia are worsening over the arrest of an Estonian security official and his wife in Tallinn, reports the Moscow Times. Alexei Dressen and his wife Viktoria were stopped at the airport where she, allegedly acting as a courier, was about to board a plane for Moscow. He is accused of handing state secrets to the Russians.
Tunis conference on Syria goes ahead without China, Russia
Deaths Thursday include 13 members of one family
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Syria’s neighbours, other key countries and international organizations met in Geneva Thursday 23 February at the invitation of Switzerland to resolve a number of issues related to the tough task of getting humanitarian aid into Syria. Today’s meeting was a follow-up to an informal meeting in Berlin 17 February where options for aid were considered.
Bern’s statement on the meeting notes that it
“brought together government representatives from the key countries, including those in the neighbouring region, as well as representatives of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Programme (WFP), and other humanitarian actors strongly involved in the Syrian context.
“The meeting pointed out the urgent need to improve the conditions of humanitarian access to the civilian population of Syria due to the escalating humanitarian needs. The participants came to an agreement on the role of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in this regard. Against this background, the announcement of a visit to Damascus by Ms. Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, was applauded by the entire assembly.”
The International Red Cross in Geneva has been trying to get both sides to agree to brief daily ceasefires, long enough to allow in humanitarian aid, but their appeal has so far failed to extract an agreement.
Fighting continues, journalists’ bodies and injured foreigners trapped
Meanwhile, the fighting rages on in Syria, with reports that among today’s dead were 13 members of one family who were lined up and killed by security forces. Reuters, in one of the most complete updates today, reports that outrage is growing outside the country and that UN investigators Thursday accused the al-Assad regime of crimes against humanity. Water is scarce and electricity cut drastically in cities under siege by government forces.
The bodies of two Western journalists killed by shelling Thursday remain in Homs and other reporters injured by the same attack are unable to get out for treatment.
Several nations, including the US, are meeting in Tunis Friday to discuss options, but China and Russia have both said they will stay away from the conference, with China arguing that outside intervention will lead to civil war.
Ed. note: Marie Colvin’s last video interview with CNN is a moving and disturbing tribute to her work and to the people of Syria.
Cartoon by Chappatte, Globe Cartoons ©2011
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A Monday night Moscow protest of 5-8,000 people, followed by thousands taking to the streets Tuesday, has led to 600 people being arrested, according to Russian state media.
Those pulled in by police include opposition leaders, liberal Boris Nemtsov and liberal party Yabloko head Sergei Mitrokhin among them, as well as well-known political and anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny.
The rally, which was licensed to go ahead, was organized to demonstrate against alleged ballot-rigging in last weekend’s Puma (parliament) elections, with claims that ballots were rigged in favour of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s Unted Russia party. It won 238 of the 450 seats, a sharp drop from its previous majority of 315 seats.
Mikhail Fedotov, chairman of the presidential council for human rights and civil society and advisor to President Dmitry Medvedev Wednesday morning criticized the police. “If a person commits an administrative offence, namely, takes part in an unauthorized rally, the maximum penalty they may get is a fine. They do not face administrative arrest,” Ria Novosti quotes Fedorov as saying.
Reuters reports that pro-Putin youths tried to crash the rally and there were some scuffles. “After permitting the biggest opposition rally in Moscow for years on Monday evening, the police were out in large numbers. The Interior ministry said about 2,000 special troops were supporting almost 50,000 police, and some moved through the city centre in armored vehicles in a show of force.”
Links to other sites: CBC, Moscow Times, NDTV, Ria Novosti
AFP video
High turnout in Egypt, with new Islamist group taking 24%
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Russians appear to be falling out of love with former leader Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party and turnout has been high, 62 percent, in Egyptian voting as parts of the country move into runoffs in a complex voting system.
Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party has enjoyed almost unrivaled popularity for the past 10 years, but early election results appear to show a change of heart by voters, with the party’s majority in parliament disappearing.
In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party, described by Business Week as “broad-based”, is expected to win the largest number of seats in the first elections since Hosni Mubarak’s long reign of power ended early in 2011. But the conservative, Islamist Salafi Nour party, a newcomer, secured 24 percent of early results, surprising observers with its strong showing. The country now faces runoffs in several voting areas; results from the country’s complex voting system will not be known until January 2012.
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, Business Week, Guardian, Reuters
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Swiss companies share first place at the bottom of the list, but for a change this is a good thing: the list is Transparency International’s (TI) rankings of countries most likely to bribe abroad. Russia heads the list, with China close behind. The last two invested $120 billion overseas in 2010.
The Netherlands and Switzerland are the countries whose companies are the least likely to bribe. The report ranks 28 major international and regional exporting countries by the likelihood of their firms to bribe abroad, based on surveys of 3,000 business executives.
The annual report on bribery looks, for the first time, at business to business bribery rather than just bribes paid to government officials. Story continues …
Source: Transparency International, November 2011
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – China and Russia used their vetoes in the UN Security Council late Tuesday to stop a United Nations draft resolution that threatened sanctions against Syria. It would have been the first such UN decision since March, when President Bashar Assad’s military regime began using tanks and soldiers to crack down on protester. US Ambassador Susan Rice walked out after the vote and remarks against the US by Syria.
The double veto 4 October was the first by the two countries since 2008, when they opposed sanctions against Zimbabwe and it came after several attempts to renegotiate the draft text failed.
The vote was 9-2, with four countries abstaining: India, South Africa, Brazil and Lebanon.
NPR in the US reports that “Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the council after the vote that his country did not support the Assad regime or the violence but opposed the resolution because it was “based on a philosophy of confrontation,” contained “an ultimatum of sanctions” and was against a peaceful settlement of a crisis. He also complained that the resolution did not call for the Syrian opposition to disassociate itself from ‘extremists’ and enter into dialogue.
Ria Novosti reports that Russia “stands firmly against any mention of sanctions citing the example of Libya where the Nato countries largely overstepped the UN mandate in a military operation against Muammar Qaddafi’s regime, said the text of the document was ‘unacceptable’ despite several changes to the draft. The Russian news agency cites Churkin’s complaint that “the document did not contain provisions on the unacceptability of an external military intervention.”
China’s Ambassador Li Bandong says that China is concerned about the violence but that sanctions achieve little and can complicate the situation rather than help it.
Links to other sites: BBC, The Globe & Mail, NPR, Ria Novosti, Xinhua
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Russian government is reportedly ready to write off $11 billion in North Korea’s mainly Soviet era debt, reports Izvestia. The move would follow previous similar action over North Vietnam’s debt, for example, with the debt converted into a mix of investment and repayment in goods and services.
The move acknowledges that North Vietnam is basically insolvent, according to the Russian news source.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Urban myths die hard and the one about bromine being used by the Soviet Union to suppress its soldiers’ sexual urges lingered long after it proved to have no factual basis. But jokes based on the old stories were about the only cheerful thing in Chelyabinsk this weekend, reports the Moscow Times, after 40-50 litres of bromine spilled and orange clouds of toxic fumes rose into the sky over the city of 1.1 million and nearby Kopelsk 1 September. One hundred people were hospitalized with unnamed symptoms and authorities warned people to stay indoors.
The chemical is not considered highly dangerous; it is used in medicines to treat epilepsy and was once used as a sedative. But Twitter saw a host of sexual appetite jokes, says the newspaper, including one that warned the town it now faces a year without sex.
The bromine spilled after glass jars in which it was being transported broke when the train carrying them rolled down a hump. Investigators are seeing if transportation rules were broken.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – US Ambassador to the UN Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe was quick to praise a resolution condemning Syria, taken by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council Tuesday 23 August. The council also agreed to set up a commission of inquiry to further investigate the human rights situation in Syria.
The vote was 33 in favour, 4 against and 9 abstentions. Russia called the draft resolution one-sided and politicized, saying it was essentially aimed at removing a legitimate government. China said that the correct way to protect human rights was not through accusations and that a response to the crisis should respect Syria’s sovereignty and the promotion of dialogue.
The council stated at the close of the meeting, the second special session on Syria called this year:
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Russian authorities look set to continue their investigation into the affairs of Sergei Magnitsky, who was beaten to death in prison in November 2009, after the Heritage Capital lawyer spent 11 months in prison, in pre-trial detention. He was arrested on tax evasion charges, reports the Moscow Times, after he “accused several tax and police officials of embezzling $230 million of state money through tax refunds. A case against him was opened shortly thereafter, which was handled by the same officers he accused of corruption.”
A high court ruled in July that the death of an accused person does not mean the case is closed, if his or her family requests that it remain open. Supporters of Magnitsky are divided over whether the case could clear his name or serve public officials who want to justify their case against him.
Switzerland opened an investigation into possible fraud linked to the case in April 2011. Hermitage Capital, based in London, was once the largest foreign investor in Russia; it was founded in 1996 by William Browder and Edmond Safra and specializes in investing in emerging markets. The company has gained a reputation for battling Russian corruption, after bringing to light several cases.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Five years of Chinese-Russian talks and the promise of a nearly done deal were not enough to put ink on paper and seal what would be “one of the largest energy deals in history” worth billions of dollars, as the Moscow Times puts it. The two appeared so close to agreement that it was to be at the centre of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, which ended 18 June, and a four-day visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao to Moscow.
Officials from both sides are now saying more talks are needed. Russia’s “Gazprom sold pipeline gas to Europe in the first half of 2011 for an average of $346 per 1,000 cubic meters and may raise the price for long-term contracts to $500 per 1,000 cubic meters by December on the back of high oil prices. China is seeking a discount on the price at which Gazprom sells gas to its European customers”, reports the Moscow Times.
Bloomberg quotes the head of Gazprom, interviewed last week, as saying a deal should still be feasible in 2011.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Forty-four people died and eight survivors are hospitalized with serious injuries, Russian media are reporting, when a RussAir Tu-134 airplane crashed in the northern republic of Karelie. The dead include four foreigners, a Swedish and a Dutch citizen and two Ukrainians, and a family of four with dual US-Russian citizenship, according to state news agency Ria Novosti.
The flight from Moscow’s Domodedovo airport to Russia’s northwest city of Petrozavodsk, ended several kilometres short of its destination when the plane made an emergency landing on a highway just before midnight. Petrozavodsk is about 900 km from Moscow, and it is the province’s capital.
The cause of the accident is not yet clear.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The United Nations Security Council Wednesday debated a draft resolution that France and the UK presented condemning Syria’s actions against protesters, but the resolution does not appear to have Chinese and Russian support. It stops short of sanctions and military action, but the two have said they fear destabilizing a key Middle Eastern country. The resolution comes on the heels of a bloody weekend, where 120 police and army troops were killed.
Turkey has opened its arms to Syrian refugees fleeing the northern town of Jisr al-Shughur, where the killings took place, as residents fear government reprisals. Xinhua news agency carries a story picked up from Syrian agency Sana that says the Syrian government has begun a “delicate” operation designed to avoid casualties, in the city, following the deaths.
Pre-television: swimmers training for 1912 Stockhom Olympics (Photo, ©2011 International Olympic Committee, by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The Beau Rivage in Lausanne will be bustling with sports and TV executives Monday and Tuesday 6-7 June, as intense bidding gets underway to win US broadcast rights for upcoming Olympic Games. Day’s end Tuesday, after a cocktail party where the bidders will socialize while waiting for news, should see the winner named—or just possibly, everyone adjourned to come back another day with another bid.
The stakes are high for all concerned: US rights provide about one-third of all IOC (International Olympic Committee) revenues for the Games and about half of the TV revenues, according to USA Today. The US Olympic Committee, whose senior executives are in Lausanne for the bidding, receives 12.75 percent of the rights, according to Insidethegames.
The Beeb will be watching closely for the impact on world Olympics coverage
And the BBC in London is watching closely because this week’s bids could have a major impact on their ability to continue covering the Olympics, reports the Telegraph in the UK.
The IOC is hearing bids from three networks, ESPN, Fox and NBC, who are vying for the potentially valuable TV broadcast rights to two and possibly four Olympic Games after the 2012 London Games.
“Nothing else in US sports costs so much and has so many variables. Airing the Olympics means selling millions of viewers on largely unknown athletes in sports few Americans watch,” USA Today sums up.
It’s the 14th year running that Russia has made the US list for countries that don’t do enough to fight pirated goods, and the 7th year for China. The 2011 list was released by US Trade Representative Ron Kirk in Washington, who called on the many countries on the “Special 301 Report” list to do more to crack down on copyright fraud. He said in a statement that US companies lost $18 billion in 2010 to fake copies, affecting 18 million Americans who work in industries affected by the frauds.
Canada and India are among the countries listed.
Kirk’s office in a statement noted that “America’s two largest trading partners, Canada and China, remain on the Priority Watch List. The report notes the failure of Canadian efforts in 2010 to enact long-awaited copyright legislation and to strengthen border enforcement. It highlights ongoing concerns about the prevalence of piracy and counterfeiting in China, and China’s implementation of ‘indigenous innovation’ and other industrial policies that discriminate against or otherwise disadvantage US exports and US investors.”
Links to other sites: Moscow Times, Scribd, US report, US Trade Representative’s Office
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Hermitage Capital Management, based in London, has filed complaints in London and Bern that a former Russian tax official pocketed $38 million from fraudulent tax returns, through Swiss bank Credit Suisse. The Swiss attorney general’s office has confirmed to Hermitage that it is opening an investigation, according to the Moscow Times.
The company was once the largest foreign investor in Russia, according to the newspaper, and the suspected fraud may be linked to a larger fraud case involving Russian government officials that resulted in the death in 2009 of detained lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
Accounts at Credit Suisse that may have been involved are said by Hermitage to have been used to buy property in several countries.
Hermitage was founded in 1996 by William Browder and Edmond Safra and specializes in investing in emerging markets. The company has gained a reputation for battling Russian corruption, after bringing to light several cases.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Russia has decided not to use its quota to hunt 29 polar bears but the decision is probably due to a lack of means to survey the situation, a WWF official in Russia says, according to the Moscow Times. Russia and the United States agreed in 2010 to a culling quota of 58 polar bears that could be hunted by natives for traditional and cultural purposes.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said 8 April on his website that the culling will no go ahead.
Russia had previously banned polar bear hunting but it agreed to the quota system as a means of stopping poaching. The WWF’s Russia office told the Moscow Times that it believes about 30 animals, out of a Bering Straits population of some 2,000 bear, are killed illegally every year. The US estimates that 100 are killed illegally in Alaska.
The Russian programme to end poaching has strong support from Putin, reportedly a wildlife fan.
Links to other sites: Moscow Times, Seattle PI, WWF polar bear page
WWF Umky Patrol, polar bears, in Russia
Imagine a world where government officials reply to their constituents directly, and in a timely manner. In Russia, this might become a reality. A bill submitted to the Russian Duma Friday 1 April would require officials to be fined $350 (10,000 rubles) for not responding to letters from citizens suggesting changes and improvements.
Russian officials are currently required to provide information about federal, regional and municipal agencies when requested. Officials who do not reply within 30 days are fined 5,000 rubles, under a law passed in 2006, according to the Moscow Times.
A citizen’s constitutional right to receive a prompt response does not, however, include suggestions made to officials, and the new bill seeks to remedy this. “The bill will make these proposals harder to ignore,” Vladimir Pligin, head of the Duma’s Constitution and State Affairs Committee, is cited as saying, by the Moscow Times.
Rude and indifferent officials are not limited to Russia. Australian citizens phoning the government for help with relatives in the US after hurricane Katrina were hung up on. A US congressman was berated for breaching protocol by calling out and accusing President Obama of lying, and in New Zealand, a local lawyer in 2009 accused staff at the Department of Education of being “rude”.
Links to other sites: The Canberra Times, Capitol Hill Blue, The Moscow Times, The Sydney Morning Herald
Nursultan Nazarbayev has ruled Kazakhstan, the oil-rich Central Asian nation, for two decades and now the 70-year-old is set to rule for another five years, after winning Sunday’s election, 3 April, by 95.5 percent. Security, with continuing strong economic development, was his platform, but there are growing concerns that not only was the election unchallenged, but there are no apparent successors.
China and Russia remain close allies. Xinhuanet, Chinese news agency, reported as the polls opened that “besides Nazarbayev, who is supported by the largest political party in Kazakhstan — Nur Otan (Fatherland’s Ray of Light), the other three candidates are Zhambyl Akhmetbekov of the Communist People’s Party, Gani Kasymov of the Party of Patriots, and independent Mels Yeleusizov.
“A total of 22 people applied for candidacy, but 18 of them were out of the race either because they had not passed the Kazakh language test or failed to collect enough supporter signatures.” Kazak law requires candidates to have 91,000 signatures.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) in Europe sent 300 foreign observers to the country for the election, in addition to 800 local observers.
It issued a statement Monday 4 April noting that “yesterday’s presidential vote in Kazakhstan revealed similar shortcomings as those noted in previous elections in the country, international observers said in a statement issued today. They noted that reforms necessary for holding genuine democratic elections have yet to materialize. While the election was technically well administered, the absence of opposition candidates and of a vibrant political discourse resulted in a non-competitive environment. A limited field of candidates did not seek to challenge the incumbent.”
Voter turnout is reported by Ria Novosti in Russia to have been about 60 percent, some 6.9 million people out of the country’s total population of 16.4 million.
Links to other sites: Central Asian Newswire, The Globe & Mail, Reuters/Jerusalem Post, OSCE, Xinhua
A bottle tossed out at sea nearly a quarter of a century ago has washed up on a beach in Russia. “My name is Frank, and I’m five years old. My dad and I are traveling on a ship to Denmark. If you find this letter, please write back to me, and I will write back to you.” So wrote the 5-year-old Frank Uesbeck back in 1987, before throwing his bottled message out to sea. His request for an answer has finally been granted.
Daniil Korotkikh, Russian and age 13, chanced upon the bottle recently while walking on Curonian Spit, a 60-mile stretch of sand that runs along the Lithuanian and Russian border. He thought it looked interesting, “like a German beer bottle with a ceramic plug”, and immediately replied to the letter’s return address in Coesfeld, Germany. Uesbeck, now 29 and whose parents still live at the Coesfeld address, barely remembers having written the letter or indeed the ship journey itself, but he has already replied to his new Russian friend. “It’s really a wonderful story,” he says, “and who knows? Perhaps one day we will actually be able to arrange a meeting in person.”
Links to other sites: The Moscow Times, The Telegraph
