The diplomatic Middle East Quartet, which met in Moscow Friday 19 March, has issued a strongly worded reaction to Israel’s recent announcement it intends to build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem. The group of four (the UN, US, Russia and the EU) are calling for Israel to remove settlement homes within 24 months. and for Palestinians and Israelis to negotiate an agreement in the same time period that provides for an independent Palestinian state living next to Israel in peace. “The quartet condemns the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem, “UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon said unequivocally.
The New York Times had earlier reported that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared anxious to lower the temperature after Israel came in for heavy criticism over the housing. “We all condemned the announcement, and we all are expecting both parties to move toward the proximity talks and to help create an atmosphere in which those talks can be constructive,” Clinton said before the Quartet’s statement.
Links to other sites: Guardian, UK, Jerusalem Post, Moscow Times, New York Times
Hillary Clinton, Geneva, March 2009
Update 16:12 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State and Sergey Lavrov, Russian foreign minister, have said after meeting in Moscow that the two countries are very close to an agreement on the Start talks. Clinton was in Moscow for a meeting of the Middle East Quartet.
The announcement by the pair comes just after the publication of a lengthy interview of Clinton by New Times, a Russian magazine, where she says the US and Russia are “close” to an agreement on reducing their arsenals of nuclear weapons. “I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to complete this agreement soon.”
Clinton and Lavrov agreed in Geneva in March 2009 to seek a new Start treaty by the end of 2009, and while both sides said in December that good progress had been made, the year-end goal was not achieved. Few details of the talks have escaped the total news blackout which both sides have respected.
Update 12:35 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) has criticized the impact on wildlife of construction projects for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. The cumulative impact, in particular, of several projects around the Black Sea resort are not being addressed, says Unep in a new report that was requested by the Russian government. The report follows a late January visit to the site by a Unep team.
It is not too late for the Games to serve as an environmental showcase, however, says Unep, which praises the Russian Railway, Ministry of Natural Resources and the 2014 Sochi Games organizers for being open to discussions.
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
Russia has announced it will station troops permanently in the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia, in a meeting with Abkhazian leader Sergei Bagapsh in Moscow, 17 February. The two did not announce a time frame. Russia fought a brief war with Georgia in August 2008 over two regions Georgia considers its own and which Russia has recognized as independent. Georgia calls the Russian military presence an “occupation”.
Links to other sites: Al-Jazeera, AP, Ria Novosti
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - US State Department spokesperson Philip Crowley told reporters in Washington Wednesday 27 January that the Start talks were briefly reviewed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov when they met London Tuesday. The talks resume Monday 1 February in Geneva after a six-week break, with both sides saying they are optimistic.
China and US dethroned as Internet attack traffic sources
Taking a break from the speedy Internet in Lausanne
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Lausanne was the city with the fastest broadband connection in Europe in the third quarter of 2009, at 24MBps (megabytes per second) says Akamai in its most recent study of the state of the Internet.
The company is one of the world’s major managers of Internet connectivity, with a vast international network of servers.
The report also notes that 75 percent of the Lausanne’s Internet users are working with broadband speeds of 5MBps, which means that it’s not just multinationals benefiting from high speed networks. “As the quantity of HD-quality media increases over time, and the consumption of that media increases, end users are likely to require ever-increasing amounts of bandwidth. A connection speed of 2 Mbps is arguably sufficient for standard definition TV-quality video content, and 5 Mbps for standard-definition DVD quality video content, while Blu-Ray (1080p) video content has a maximum video bit rate of 40 Mbps,” according to the report.
Switzerland as a whole remains one of the top countries for fast (over 5MBps) broadband access, in eighth place, with 31 percent and a growth rate of 7.6 percent, Q3 2009 compared to a year earlier. Korea remains the world champion of high speed Internet use, with 76 percent of users at over 5MBps and a growth rate of 28 percent, well beyond that of other countries.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The nuclear arms reduction talks (Start) between the US and Russia will continue in January, the two countries have announced, with both sides saying they believe good progress has been made. “This is a much different environment that we exist in today,” PJ Crowley, US State Department spokesperson said in a briefing Wednesday 22 December in Washington.
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Kremlin announced late Saturday 12 December that the Russian and US presidents, Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama, discussed by phone Saturday the progress made in Geneva with talks to replace the Start I treaty. The Russian government had said Friday that it will be meeting with US this coming week, in Geneva. The talks have been shrouded in secrecy, with a virtual news blackout, but reports have emerged that differences are linked to verification procedures.
The Kremlin issued a statement Saturday that “the heads of state agreed to give the order to continue active work and not to reduce the high level and tempo of cooperation, with the aim of securing decisive agreements on all issues,” according to Reuters. Ria Novosti in Moscow quoted the Kremlin as stating that the two men “noted with satisfaction that the work of the two countries’ delegations in Geneva is intensive and targeted, which allows [us] to speak of considerable progress in the talks.”
Russia is holding a day of mourning for the 112 people, now all identified, who died when a club caught fire Friday night 4 December in the city of Perm in the Urals. The fire appears to have been started by fireworks inside the club, officials say. Some deaths were caused by inhaling deadly plastic fumes, others by the smoke and flames. Four people are under arrest but a fifth is fighting for his life, one of the 123 injured who are hospitalized. The government has banned club fireworks and is reviewing safety legislation.
Links to other sites: Moscow Times, Ria Novosti
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.”
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Russia and the US are close to signing a new treaty to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start), which expires Saturday 5 December, Russian news agency Ria Novosti reports late Friday, although it is unlikely the pact will be signed before the end of the year. The agency sites Russian military sources and says the two sides will meet again Saturday in Geneva. According to Ria Novosti, “The chief of the Russian General Staff said earlier that the ongoing talks had run into disagreements on inspection and verification procedures.”
Photo: World Trade Organizaion 2 December 2009
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - In a highly publicized event, its opening marred by street violence, the Seventh Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has brought together government officials from 153 countries in Geneva for three days to discuss trade.
On the other side of town, delegations of experts on foreign policy, military affairs and arms control from Russia and the US are meeting to hammer out the details of a treaty that will reduce their countries’ nuclear arsenals.
For a world with more trade
Trade ministers from the WTO’s 153 member countries have been meeting in Geneva for their biennial conference amidst the worst recession in 80 years, with trade volumes down more than 10 percent in 2009 compared to last year, according to WTO figures.
Update 16:00 Genthod, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Russian media have been carrying stories about the accident Thursday 19 November in Genthod where a Lambhorgini driven by a 22-year-old Russian crashed into a Golf driven by a 70-year-old German, both resident in the Geneva area. The older man is in serious condition in the hospital. The Russian articles and a flood of comments and e-mail received by GenevaLunch are focusing on the likely names of those involved, with children of politicians and rich businessmen heading the top of the list of suspects. The names are openly published in Russia, with one notable family mentioned in the Guardian Tuesday afternoon.
In Switzerland, the Tribune de Geneve/24Heures published a story Tuesday afternoon saying three of those involved left Geneva Sunday on a private jet, thus avoiding having to give evidence to a Geneva judge. (Ed. note: the story cites “our sources” without details and appeared after Russian media reports).
Russia’s decision to continue its ban on the death penalty was praised by the Council on Europe and media in Europe Thursday and Friday. The country’s Constitutional Court 18 November decided to continue indefinitely a country-wide moratorium on the death penalty, in place since 1999, which was scheduled to end in January 2010. Its rulings must be followed by all Russian courts, according to the Moscow Times. The government and the Kremlin have said they did not want executions begun again. Ten years ago the court decided that executions could take place only if all Russian regions had trials by jury in murder cases, and the last of the regions to implement this has been Chechnya, which is slated to start them in January.
Links to other sites: die Welte, Moscow Times, Ria Novosti
African roads are the world's worst, for numbers of accidents (image: WHO, click on image to view larger)
Geneva / Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Roads kill 1.3 million people every year – some 3,000 people a day – and the United Nations estimates that the number will rise by 60 percent in the next few years. Half of those who die are pedetsrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Switzerland’s transport minister, Moritz Leuenberger, told the first ministerial level world conference on road safety, which opened in Moscow Thursday 19 November, that deaths and injuries can be reduced if safety regulations are increased and enforced. He pointed out that Switzerland has reduced its road traffic deaths more than fourfold since 1971 despite a large increase in traffic during that time.
Leuenberger, who presided over one of three key discussions at the United Nations WHO conference, says that safety education campaigns are essential, but they can’t hope to compete with James Bond style advertising on the part of the automobile industry.
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.
A Russian police officer has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for the murder by beheading of a 20-year-old on the same day that Russia’s Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said in his annual police day speech that officers should aim their weapons only at criminals, and not at peaceful citizens. His remarks highlight a series of incidents in the country where police officers have attacked citizens. The man sentenced Monday 9 November was in a friend’s taxi when the driver tried to collect 90 rubles (CHF2 approximately) for a ride that the court heard normally costs 60, in the Urals, and the young client couldn’t pay. The two older men then took him to the toilets on an allotment and proceeded to slice his neck with a pocketknife.
Links to other sites: Novosti news agency
Shabtai Kalmanovich, who was accused of spying for the KGB in Israel in 1988 after 17 years in the country to which he had emigrated, was killed after being shot in central Moscow Monday 2 November. The Lithuanian-born Kalmanovich was shot more than 20 times by a passing car, according to Russian media, and his driver sustained serious injuries. Kalmanovich moved to Russia in 1993 after being given a medical pardon in Israel, and he became a successful businessman who owned a women’s basketball team and organized major international concerts, among other ventures.
Links to other sites: Jerusalem Post, Moscow Times, Novosti
correction 11:45 Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss government is officially mum on whether or not the event will take place, but the US State Department and the Kremlin in Russia have both announced that they are sending top officials to a ceremony in Zurich Saturday 10 October where Armenia and Turkey will formally establish diplomatic and bilateral relations. The signing of two Protocols will end a standoff that has at times flared into serious tensions, which has existed since Turkey recognized Armenia’s independence in 1991 without then establishing diplomatic relations.
Switzerland has served as mediator in the long process of talks that has finally brought the two together.
A senior US State Department official at a press briefing Thursday 8 October said that while the Swiss have not officially announced the meeting, which is opposed by some groups in both Turkey and Armenia, “They have invited the parties, and the parties have agreed to come, including Secretary [Hillary] Clinton.” The foreign ministers of France and Russia are also expected, he says.
US President Barack Obama chaired a UN Security Council meeting 24 September at which the council unanimously approved a US-drafted resolution calling for concrete steps to be taken towards ridding the world of nuclear weapons. The resolution calls on the declared nuclear powers to cut back their arsenals and to share the peaceful benefits of nuclear power with other nations, while cracking down on proliferation of nuclear materials and know-how.
The US is set to begin new talks with Russia on reducing their nuclear arsenals to replace the 1980s-era Start treaty. Obama says he will ask the Senate to ratify the comprehensive test ban treaty, which the US has signed but not ratified.
The nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) which is the basis for the peaceful use of nuclear power, comes up for review next year, and may be strengthened. BBC, Miami Herald
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.
The US has put on hold a plan to deploy missiles in Poland and a radar tracking station in the Czech Republic as a defense against possible Iranian nuclear missiles. The Czech prime minister, Jan Fischer, announced this afternoon 17 September that US President Barack Obama had called him just past midnight to inform him that the US “had reconsidered its intention to build a radar facility in the Czech Republic as a part of the missile defense system.”
The US signed an agreement with the Czech Republic and Poland in August 2008 to deliver and install 10 missile interceptors in Poland and the tracking station in the Czech Republic by 2012. They were meant to defend European countries from Iran and other “rogue” states. The BBC says that Obama ordered a review earlier this year, and the Pentagon has said that shelving the missile defense plan was a “major adjustment”.
The missile defense plan was “vigourously opposed” by Russia which saw it as a threat to its own nuclear arsenal. It was held to be an obstacle to talks meant to replace the 1980s era strategic arms reduction treaty, or Start, which expires in three months. BBC, Moscow Times
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev strongly criticized, but did not name, the US for its domestic policies which tipped the world to the brink of financial melt-down, in a speech 14 September. “Last year, we witnessed how one country’s ill-conceived financial policies became the reason for a global financial crisis, whose effects every country. . . feels today”, he said at a conference in Yaroslavl, Russia, organized by the Kremlin. Some observers believe the speech was an attempt by Medvedev to distinguish himself from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who jokingly hinted at the same meeting that he may stand for re-election as president in 2012. Putin was president until 2008, and hand-picked Medvedev to succeed him.
Medvedev is expected in New York in the next few days to address the 64th session of the UN General Assembly, which opens 15 September. He is scheduled to take part in the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 24 and 25 September, and he will visit Switzerland on a state visit 20 and 21 September. Moscow Times, Reuters
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced on his weekly radio show Sunday 13 September that his government was buying 92 Russian T-72 tanks and several Russian S-300 surface-to-air (SAM) missile systems. Chavez was in Moscow, Russia a week ago. Venezuela views neighbouring Colombia’s efforts to upgrade its military relationship with the US, including a standing US military presence in Colombia, as potentially a first step in a US intervention in Venezuela.
The S-300 system is considered one of the best in the world and has been deployed in several countries. The US bought one for evaluation.
He said Russia was lending the government $2.2. billion to make the purchase. A consortium of Russian oil companies has paid Venezuela $1b for access to Venezuela’s Orinoco oil fields, the Venezuelan oil company PdVSA announced. BBC, El Nacional, El Tiempo
