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
Moscow’s air waves are a little quieter today after the BBC ended its live broadcasts in Russia Friday 26 March. The British radio programmes had aired since 1946 and were stopped as part of major BBC spending cutbacks in the face of UK government spending reductions. The Moscow Times carries a lengthy obituary to the BBC programmes that quotes government and industry observers, who praise the Beeb’s role for more than half a century, with some saying it had become part of Russian culture.
The recollections of famous BBC moments include former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev listening to the British broadcasts, the only news to which he then had access, when he was briefly sent to a Black Sea island in 1991 following a short coup. The BBC had played a role in giving Russians another view of the news during the Cold War.
The Russian language BBC web site remains alive and well, however.
Background story on BBC cuts, GenevaLunch
Link to Voice of Russia article
Swedish home furnishings giant Ikea is continuing its June 2009 decision to put a freeze on opening new stores in Russia, outside Moscow, reports the Moscow Times. The newspaper argues that the company’s firm and very public anti-corruption policy is causing headaches for President Dmitry Medvedev’s push to abolish corruption.
Ikea has been waiting for permits for its Samara and Ufa stores. “‘The reason the stores aren’t opening is that Ikea is refusing to pay bribes to safety inspectors,’ said Kirill Kabanov, head of the nongovernmental National Anti-Corruption Committee.”
Medvedev is keen to reduce the foreign perception that Russia has too much corruption, says the Moscow newspaper, in order to increase foreign investment. “At stake is President Dmitry Medvedev’s goal to match the economic growth rates of other Bric nations. With barely more than one-tenth the population of China and India, Russia needs to attract non-energy investors to grow and diversify. Corruption has ‘penetrated all branches of power,’ Medvedev said in a recent interview.”
Among a number of companies threatened, says the Moscow Times, is Swiss-based Nestlé, which was told in 2010 and again this year that it is not meeting Russia’s safety standards.
Libyan crisis brings foreign minister to UNHRC meeting
US Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe speaking with the press 25 February 2011 during the Special Session of the Human Rights Council on Libya. (photo, US Mission, Eric Bridiers)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are both attending the 16th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva starting Monday and a plenary session of the Conference of Disarmament. Russian media reported Sunday that the Americans and Russians were discussing the possibility of a bilateral meeting between the two on the sidelines of these sessions.
The two met in Munich in early February to exchange the Instruments of Ratification that put the new Start treaty into place.
The situation in the Middle East and in Libya in particular are expected to be the focus of any bilateral meeting, which Itar-Tass reports was initiated by the Americans.
Lavrov will address the UNHRC, the first time a Russian foreign minister will address the council. Itar-Tass reports that “Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich, when commenting on Lavrov’s upcoming trip, said, ‘While in Geneva, Lavrov will hold talks at the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.’” He is reportedly scheduled to meet Swiss President and Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey Tuesday.
The UNHRC last week recommended to the UN General Assembly that Libya be stripped of its membership in the Geneva-based body, for gross abuse of human rights.
Links to other sites: Itar-Tass, Ria Novosti, The Voice of Russia, US Mission in Geneva
Mikhael Gorbachev, the former Soviet leader whose meeting with US President Ronald Reagan in Geneva in 1985 led to the end of the Cold War, has sharply criticized current Russian leaders Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, calling them conceited for their remarks that they will decide between them who will run for president in 2012.
Putin, who stepped down after two terms and who helped his protege move into the job, is widely expected to run again. But Gorbachev says the Russian people should be deciding this and he is quoted by AP/Moscow Times as saying at a news conference that “It’s not Putin’s business. It must be decided by the nation in the elections, by those who would cast ballots.”
He also called for an investigation following remarks by a court spokesperson who says the judge had a verdict forced on him in the politically hot Khodorkovsky oil company case.
Sunrise: and the time is?
Russia’s nine time zones will leap forward an hour 27 March when daylight saving time starts in much of Europe, but this year, the Russians will not change back in the autumn. President Dmitry Medvedev 11 February signed a law moving the country an hour east, timewise. Daylight saving time, which has never been very popular in Russia, will no longer be observed, reports the Moscow Times. Medvedev’s move could send a signal to the UK and France, where similar moves have been proposed, but where there is stiff opposition. Scotland in particular has said it does not want the sun to rise at 10:00.
On a brighter note for Britain, LighterLater is proposing double summer time: move the clocks to benefit from daylight saving time, but also permanently move the clocks forward one hour.
WikiLeaks and criticism of Putin appear to be behind it
Luke Harding, the correspondent in Moscow for the British newspaper, the Guardian, was deported by Russian authorities Monday 7 February, without being given an explanation, he says. The reporter returned to Moscow after two months away, but upon arriving at the airport he was “detained in a cell for 45 minutes”, according to Ria Novosti. He was then put on a plane to London and once on the plane he was given back his passport, with his Russian visa cancelled.
Ria Novosti mentions that Harding reported on WikiLeaks cables, publishing at least one that was critical of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, but the information is taken virtually word for word from the Guardian‘s own report. The Russian state news agency also notes, as does the Guardian, that this is the first time since 1989 that a British journalist has been expelled.
The Guardian reports that the British Foreign Office is trying to ascertain, with its Russian counterpart, what lies behind the expulsion, but no explanation has been provided yet:
“Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian editor-in-chief, said: ‘This is clearly a very troubling development with serious implications for press freedom, and it is worrying that the Russian government should now kick out reporters of whom they disapprove. Russia’s treatment of journalists – both domestic and foreign – is a cause of great concern. We are attempting to establish further details, and are in contact with the Foreign Office.’”
The Russian government siad 29 January it has identified the suicide bomber who killed 35 people and injured 180: a 20-year-old man from the Caucasus region. It also issued a photo of Vitaly Razdobudko, 32, who is suspected of being the mastermind behind the blast. He is wanted in connection with a number of other attacks in the recent months. Moscow Times reports that he “is a Russian-born adherent of the fundamentalist Wahhabi branch of Islam, which is popular among terrorists, a law enforcement source told RIA-Novosti.”
Link to Ria Novosti, which carries several new articles on the people behind the bomb, which Russian authorities now say was clearly aimed at foreigners.
The author of a book about being an illegal immigrant in Norway was deported to Moscow Monday, 11 years after she last saw Russia, at the age of 14. Her case has sparked heated debates in Norway over the rights of children who are illegal immigrants, once they are adults, a subject that has repercussions elsewhere in Europe.
The Moscow Times notes that she flew into Sheremetyevo Airport, not Domodedovo, where a bomb exploded Monday, killing and injuring scores. The newspaper carries a lengthy feature about her case.
Maria Amelie, the nom de plume for the author who was born Madina Salamova, was sent back by Norwegian authorities after she became a celebrity. The young woman fled from North Osetia with her family, to Finland, where their request for asylum was not accepted. Norwegian media have carried stories of the family’s possible flight from heavy debts. The daughter learned Norwegian, earned a university degree but lived without papers. Her Norwegian boyfriend, who followed her to Moscow, cannot marry her because she has no papers.
Norwegian officials say she can return with a work permit, since she has been offered a job with a newspaper, but it’s unclear how long this could take, possibly months. Norway’s prime minister told journalists Monday he has no regrets about the decision to deport her.
Links to other sites: Dagbladet (Nor), News and Views from Norway, wikipedia
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
©2010 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.
Russia's Lavrov, US's Clinton kick-started the new Start Treaty talks in March 2009 in Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) -The US Senate has ratified a treatycovering US-Russian nuclear arms and handed the Obama adminstration one of the few foreign policy triumphs in almost two years. The vote 22 December was 71-26 and included 13 Republican senators who joined the entire Democratic caucus.
The treaty governs strategic nuclear weapons between the former Cold War foes and reduces each side to 1,550 nuclear warheads as well as providing verification procedures.
The new treaty replaces one that expired in December 2009 and is the result of a series of talks sparked by a March 2009 Geneva meeting between the two countries’ foreign ministers, Sergey Lavrov and Hillary Clinton. The talks in Geneva in December 2009 were shrouded in secrecy, prompting much media speculation about the likelihood they would indeed result in a treaty.
The ratification of the Start treaty has been portrayed as being much more important in its symbolism than its actual content, say some observers, because it sends a strong signal to other countries that the USA can be relied on. The two countries still have 95 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The question of UNHCR help for what Russia refers to as Georgian refugees in Abkhazia, the break-away Georgian republic, is on the agenda in Geneva 16 December, with the 14th round of talks on security in the Georgia-South Ossettia region underway. Ria Novosti reports that “The former Georgian republic of Abkhazia will press for the UN to register Georgian refugees on its territory at security talks in Geneva, the delegation’s chief Vyacheslav Chirikba said on Wednesday,” noting that Georgia has repeatedly blocked attempts by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to register up to 60,000 refugees in Abkhazia.”
Geneva-based UNHCR in June 2010 published a report on the precarious situation in Abkhazia two years after the war ended. The area was the focus of a new approach to aid and fundraising by UNHCR in 2008, with UNHCR providing basic aid for 45,000 refugees at the time, and seeking to provide more aid.
