GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Police in Russia have arrested a noted historian for keeping 29 mummies which he reportedly dug up from graveyards and dressed. He has not been identified by police but Russian media have given his name as Anatoly Moskvin, a 45-year-old historian “who was considered the ultimate expert on cemeteries in Nizhny Novgorod”, according to wire service AP (Sydney Morning Herald and Moscow Times), which carries a photo released by police Monday, of one of the dolls in his apartment.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Mandarin is making quiet steady inroads in European education, with the Financial Times the latest media to focus on West facing East in the area of languages. The British newspaper, in a feature Monday 17 October, notes that Chinese has become the fourth major language, behind French, German and Spanish. In the US, “the rise is reflected in the number of students sitting SAT II standardized tests, up 50 per cent since 2001; Advanced Placement programmes run by the College Board have grown by more than 2.5 times. In Britain, Chinese A-level exam entries in England in Wales rose 36 per cent in 2011 alone, the fastest of any major language. With 3,237 candidates, one in 11 final-year language exams are now for Chinese.”
The Economist, in an article in November 2010, took a more restrained approach, noting that Russian and Japanese also had language course booms which turned out to be fads.
The Sydney Morning Herald in February 2011 pointed out that while Australian language programmes and enthusiasm may be strong for starting Chinese, there remains a paucity of students completing Chinese courses with true proficiency in the language.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Michael Perler, head of the Swiss Federal Judicial Police until last Wednesday, has come to a temporary agreement with his employer, the Federal Office of Justice and Police. Perler was charged with inappropriate actions linked to a “sentimental relationship” by the Federal Administrative Tribunal, which concluded that he was a danger to Swiss national security, and he was suspended as a result.
The arrangement announced 4 October allows him to continue to receive a salary, and his employer can continue to assign him tasks, but not in his old job. Perler is also free to find a new job.
Perler is accused of assigning subordinates to conduct a security check on his new companion, a Russian, who accompanied him on business trips that may have involved security issues. The Tribunal Administrative noted in its decision that Perler’s post is an extremely sensitive one, given his access to highly confidential information. The fact that his new companion accompanied him on a 2010 trip to St Petersburg in Russia showed a lack of awareness of risks, and the security checks before the trip should not have been assigned to people working under him, the tribunal noted. In addition, he is accused of having carried out the security checks for his own interest and to secure the relationship.
He met the woman in a cafe in January 2010 and the trip to Russia took place five months later, reports Le Temps.
Perler is appealing the decision to the Swiss Federal Tribunal and the new job agreement is in place until the Supreme Court’s decision.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Olympic Movement has lost one of its all-time greats with the death Tuesday 22 March of Russian gymnast Nicolai Andrianov, age 58. Andrianov won more medals in his sport than any other gymnast: 15 medals in total, including 7 gold, in 1972, 1976 and 1980.
He held the honour of having more medals than any other male Olympic athlete until US swimmer Michael Phelps took it in 1980. Only Larisa Latynina, also a gymnast, has had more medals than Phelps, 18.
Andrianov, from a poor family in Vladimir, Russia, then part of the Soviet Union, retired in 1980. He worked in Japan from 1994-2006, where he coached Naoya Tsukahara, son of former competitor and friend Mitsuo. Father and son credited him with helping the son have the confidence to compete in the Olympics and helping Japan take a team gold at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. SportsFeatures writes thtat “Andrianov was inducted into the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) Hall of Fame in 2001, widely recognized as the best gymnast of all time.”
He was ill for the last few years of his life with multiple system atrophy, according to the Russian Gymnastics Federation, a neurological degenerative disease that left him without the ability to use his arms and legs, or to speak.
He is survived by his wife, former Olympic gymnast Lyubov Burda, and two sons.
Links to other sites: IOC page on Andrianov’s medals, Sports Reference, Wikipedia
Video A fascinating look at the politically charged world of gymnastics events in 1978, World Championships in Strasbourg, France, US commentators:
Bern, Switzerland and Athens, Greece (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss embassy in Athens received a package with a bomb Tuesday 2 November, one of five embassies in the city to receive such packages. The bomb sent to the Swiss was not thrown into the courtyard, nor did it explode, contrary to initial international media reports, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Bern, although it sent out a flame .
The news comes the day after a young Greek man was arrested on suspicion of having sent a package, intercepted in Greece, to French President Nicolas Sarkozy as well as to the Belgian, Dutch and Mexican embassies Monday. An employee in a courier delivery service was injured when one of them exploded at the company’s office.
The other four packages sent Tuesday, to the Bulgarian, Chilean, German and Russian embassies, were dismantled by bomb specialists from the Greek police.
Metal was detected in the package delivered to the Swiss embassy, prompting a check. Based on initial information, the local embassy team at the gate, considering the package suspect, threw it into a courtyard. It is unclear if the flame shot out when it was thrown.
India, Algeria, China, Venezuela, Malaysia and Syria are the main customers for the Russian arms industry, which expects to see a 12 percent increase in international sales in 2010, to $9.5 billion. Vietnam also recently became a client, ordering submarines, aircraft and “other military hardware”, reports Russian news agency Ria Novosti. Russia’s main competitors are China, Germany and the US.
Igor Sedykh, journalist
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Igor Sedykh, Geneva-based Russian journalist who in 2009 was awarded the Swiss-Russian Cooperation award for journalism at the World Association of Russian Press congress held in Lucerne, died Friday 12 March in Geneva, his widow, Barbara Sedykh, announced.
Sedykh began his career with the monthly Sa Rubeschom, worked in Geneva as a correspondent for the Russian news agency Ria Novosti, and most recently he was known for his reporting for Kommersant from Geneva on Russian affairs, war and arms-related topics. His articles were often picked up elsewhere in other languages.
Sedykh was a longtime member of the Swiss Foreign Press Association.
Links to other sites: Cooperation Council Switzerland-Russia, Kommersant, Medecins sans frontieres
The new Aminona resort would be built next to the three existing white towers
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The WWF Switzerland and the Swiss Fund for the Protection of Nature (FP) said Tuesday 8 December they have filed an appeal against the Aminona resort project near Crans-Montana in canton Valais, saying they “fear a fiasco for nature and the surrounding countryside, as well as for the region itself.”
The CHF350 million-plus plan, proposed by Aminona Luxury Resort and Village (ALRV)/Mirax, with support from the commune of Mollens, calls for 15 buildings to be constructed. Mollens has given a green light to the first phase of the project moving ahead, but environmental groups say neither the Russian developer Mirax nor the commune have given adequate assurances to a series of questions raised: the additional pressure on surrounding undeveloped areas, transport management, water supplies in this dryest part of Switzerland, energy management. For transport, WWF and the FP say the commune has provided only contradictory information, saying on the one hand public transport will be provided, and on the other, that the plans call for more than 500 parking spaces with no coordinated public transport.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The European Free Trade Association (EFTA), of which Switzerland is a member, and Russia have agreed to start negotiations in September for a free trade agreement. The announcement follows a preliminary study by the two groups. The other members of EFTA are Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
The BBC says it is the first reported accident of its kind: two intact spacecraft hitting each other at high speed, one from a US company and the other a defunct Russian satellite. They were reportedly 780 km over Siberia and have left a cloud of debris that scientists are now tracking, but they hope the pieces will burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. The BBC reporter in Miami says while there are concerns for the International Space Shuttle the risk of it being hit by debris is “low.”
Title: Russian new year celebration, Geneva
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: It is not too late to ring in the new year at the traditional Alhambar cafe/theatre in Geneva. A celebration of the Russian new year will include caviar, vodka, music, folk dances and more.
Date: 10 Jan 2009
Evian, France (GenevaLunch) – French and Russian leaders Nicolas Sarkozy and Dmitri Medvedev closed the World Policy Conference in Evian Wednesday on a cordial note, following Medvedev’s announcement that Russia would be withdrawing troops from its Georgian buffer zones by midnight, and his presentation of a new, world security pact.
