http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/ Russia and former Soviet Union http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122967/ Russia and former Soviet Union Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:19:03 +0200
"The sides spoke out in favour of Syrians themselves overcoming the crisis as swiftly as possible through exclusively peaceful means, without foreign intervention," Medvedev's press service said in a statement.

Russia has protected Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from U.N. Security Council condemnation and potential sanctions during nearly a year of violence most countries blame on his government, twice vetoing resolutions along with China.

In line with Russia's position, the Kremlin said Medvedev and Ahmadinejad called for an internal Syrian political dialogue "without preliminary conditions" - wording that means Assad should not be required to step down as a condition for talks.

They also called for "the continuation" of political and socioeconomic reforms in Syria, the Kremlin said.

"The heads of state agreed that the main task now - including in the framework of international organisations, primarily the United Nations - is not to allow civil war, which could destabilise the situation in the entire region."

Medvedev also spoke separately to the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Iraq, the Kremlin said.

He told them Russia vetoed the most recent Western-Arab draft resolution to prevent nations in the Middle East and further afield "from using the resolution to implement a scenario of external intervention" in Syria's affairs.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122965/ Russia and former Soviet Union Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:57:00 +0200
"Two people were detained this morning at Tallinn airport and are under investigation for treason," said Harrys Puusepp, a spokesman for the Security Police, which is the country's counter-espionage and anti-terrorism force.

He named the detainees as Aleksei Dressen, an employee of the Security Police, and his wife, Viktoria Dressen.

"It is believed that he was passing information to the Russian FSB for some years," he added, referring to Russia's successor to the feared Soviet-era KGB.

He said the two had not yet been charged and were giving their statements. The couple had some state secret documents with them, he added.

In 2008, Estonians and NATO allies were shocked by the arrest of senior Defence Ministry official Herman Simm for spying for Russia.

Simm was sentenced in 2009 to 12 years in jail after being found guilty of handing over more than 2,000 pages of information, including top secret NATO documents, to his handlers in Russia's SVR Foreign Intelligence service.

Police would not say what material Dressen is suspected of sending to Moscow. They said he was a long-time employee of the Security Police, though not in the senior management.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122962/ Russia and former Soviet Union Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:31:33 +0200
"If there is such a commitment from the Russian government we see that that would allow us to avoid the heavy military means that would be needed to protect a safe passage," SNC spokeswoman Bassma Kodmani told reporters in Geneva Wednesday after holding talks with the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Russia, which has opposed harsher international measures to end the Syrian government's crackdown against the opposition, voiced support Wednesday for the Red Cross's suggestion of a daily two-hour humanitarian cease-fire in Syria. But Moscow opposes the creation of so-called humanitarian corridors, saying they could be used to smuggle arms to opposition fighters.

Kodmani said she understood why the Red Cross had focused on calling for aid groups to be given time to bring in emergency supplies and reach those in need of medical help.

But she said the SNC would also be pressing for the "humanitarian corridors" — allowing aid to be brought in from Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey — at a "Friends of Syria" conference Friday in Tunisia.

"I'm not sure without those passages the ICRC alone will be able to respond to the needs on the ground," she said.

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov has criticized the idea of humanitarian corridors, saying that potential differences over safe zones could lead to an escalation of violence.

Gatilov criticized the Tunis conference, saying that its organizers made a mistake by failing to invite representatives of the Syrian government. He also blamed unspecified powers for arming the Syrian opposition, saying the weapons deliveries were fueling the conflict.

Russia and China have vetoed two Security Council resolutions backing Arab League plans aimed at ending the conflict and condemning President Assad's crackdown on protests.

Kodmani said time was running out for the world to act.

"There is a humanitarian emergency," she said. "The world has not responded to this emergency adequately. The people in Syria feel abandoned. They feel they are being let down by the world."

The United Nations estimated that 5,400 people have been killed in the 11-month uprising against Assad and his government in the last year. Hundreds more have died since, activists groups say.

The Red Cross says negotiations on humanitarian access with Syrian authorities and opposition groups are at a very early stage.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122960/ Russia and former Soviet Union Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:50:35 +0200
Two of those included former Foreign Minister Antanos Valionis and former national security chief Arvydas Pocius.

Burauskaite said Wednesday thousands of documents on KGB officials' biographies, activities and operations — including interrogation techniques — are slated for release in the near future. Lithuania split from the Soviet Union in 1991.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122953/ Russia and former Soviet Union Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:06:08 +0200
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who was in Helmand on Monday to meet his country's troops, said after the deaths that Georgia stood by its commitment to the increasingly unpopular war, dragged into its 11th year.

"The sacrifice of Georgian servicemen is appreciated by the Georgian people... future generations will live in a united, much stronger and more successful country," Saakashvili said in a statement.

The former Soviet country has over 900 troops supporting the NATO-led war in Afghanistan, including 750 in Helmand.

Another deployment of 600-700 will be sent this year, making Georgia one of the largest non-NATO contributors in the war.

Georgian troops have been in Afghanistan since 2004, a commitment that underscores Tbilisi's ambition to join NATO, despite fierce opposition from neighbouring Russia, with which it fought a brief war in 2008, and waning enthusiasm among the coalition's member states.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122934/ Russia and former Soviet Union Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:29:03 +0200
It was one of Russia's starkest warnings against resorting to force, an option Israel and the United States have not ruled out if they conclude that diplomacy and increasing sanctions will not stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb.

"I hope Israel understands all these consequences ... and they should also consider the consequences of such action for themselves," Gatilov said. "I hope a realistic approach will prevail, along with a sensible assessment."

Russia, China as well as many allies of the United States are concerned that any military action against Iran could engulf the Middle East in wider war, which would send oil prices rocketing at a time of global economic troubles.

Iran has threatened to retaliate for any attack, or even if it feels endangered, by closing the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for Gulf oil exports crucial to the global economy, and hitting Israel and U.S. interests in the Middle East.

Tehran has refused to stop sensitive nuclear work such as uranium enrichment despite four rounds of U.N. sanctions and a slew of additional measures imposed by the United States and the European Union, which fear Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons.

The Islamic Republic says its efforts to produce nuclear fuel are solely for electricity generation.

IAEA-IRAN TALKS GO NOWHERE

The failure of two days of talks between Iran and senior International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials, who were refused access to a military site where they believe Iran tested explosives of use in nuclear weapons, dimmed the chances of Western powers agreeing to renew broader negotiations with Iran.

A warning from Iran's clerical supreme leader on Wednesday, hours after the Tehran talks concluded, that no obstacle would derail Iran's nuclear course added to tensions.

Gatilov suggested that Iran should be more cooperative but there is more room for diplomacy. He said Iran's discussions with Russia, China, the United States, Britain, France and Germany, frozen for a year, could still be revived.

"Iran and IAEA should boost their dialogue in order to rule out the ... possibility of the existence of military dimensions in the Iranian nuclear programme. We hope that this dialogue will be continued," he said.

"I think we still have opportunity to continue diplomatic efforts, to renew the six-nation talks."

Russia, which built Iran's first nuclear power plant, has often stressed the need for talks and that too much coercive pressure on Iran is counterproductive, a stance that has prompted concerns Moscow has helped Tehran play for time.

Last week, Russia said global powers must be serious about proposing solutions Iran might accept, warning that Tehran's desire for compromise was waning as it moved closer to being technically capable of building atomic weapons.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122947/ Russia and former Soviet Union Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:16:51 +0200
Toy bears and rabbits he had put on a bench in front of the Minsk mayor's office carried banners such as "Police have ripped my eye out", "Where is media freedom?" and "Alejandro, let the people go", a mocking appeal to President Alexander Lukashenko.

Protests involving teddy bears carrying protest banners and Lego men were first reported in the city of Barnaul in Russia, where they are now staged regularly against Putin who is widely expected to return as president next month.

Lukashenko, who has run the former Soviet republic since 1994 tolerating little dissent, has become target of sanctions by the United States and the European Unbion for cracking down on a public protest after his re-election in December 2010.

Two opposition leaders who ran against him in 2010, Andrei Sannikov and Nikolai Statkevich, have since been jailed.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122936/ Russia and former Soviet Union Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:54:24 +0200
"Our judges are doing fine. They do not succumb to anyone but continue to mind their business," the presidential press service quoted Lukashenko on Tuesday.

"I have no claims to the judiciary. You must know that I protect our judiciary very carefully from any interference in its work," the president said.

He also said there were no big problems in the national judiciary. "It is impermissible to break the Belarusian judiciary," he said.

As for law enforcement agencies and prosecutor's offices, Lukashenko said that new persons should be promoted to high-ranking positions. "Shall they be young? I do not insist on that. Certainly, we must promote young people. But I prioritize professionalism and loyalty to the country rather than age. I am very glad that the Prosecutor General's Office has begun this work," he said.

There will be a conference in April or May 2012 to define "areas of activity of our prosecutors," he said.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122929/ Russia and former Soviet Union Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:33:31 +0200
Russia would like "countries that have influence on the Syrian opposition to make use of their channels and capabilities to bring all parties in Syria together at a negotiating table," he said.

"We see this as our priority task for the moment," Lukashevich said.

Concurrently, Russia will make further steps to ease the suffering of the Syrian people, he said.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122922/ Russia and former Soviet Union Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:07:16 +0200
"Our initiative is aimed at providing safety of humanitarian cargo deliveries, we are actively working with Syria and (countries) around it," he said.

"We are working in this area with the Syrian leadership and representatives of the opposition, with the International Red Cross," he said.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122921/ Russia and former Soviet Union Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:56:30 +0200
Deputy editor Andrei Lipsky said Wednesday the Central Bank's ongoing investigation of the National Reserve Bank has "paralyzed" its work, affecting the accounts of its customers, including the newspaper's owner, Alexander Lebedev.

Still, Lipsky said the paper will "keep on working."

Lebedev, who also owns two newspapers in Britain, has called the bank probe in Russia part of authorities' campaign to silence independent media ahead of March's presidential election.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122916/ Russia and former Soviet Union Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:01:30 +0200
The Kremlin recognised Abkhazia as an independent state after a 2008 war in which Russia crushed a Georgian attempt to take control of another breakaway region, South Ossetia. Russia dominates the two regions which Georgia claims as its own.

Authorities in Abkhazia said their self-styled leader, Alexander Ankvab, was not wounded when a remote controlled mine exploded in the path of his cortege as he was driven to work.

Attackers then opened fire with machine guns and a grenade launcher, local media said.

"Abkhaz President Alexander Ankvab was not wounded in the assassination attempt and is now at his desk," his head of security, Anri Bogua, was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.

"One guard has been killed and one is in an extremely grave condition," Bogua said.

Ankvab has been the target of at least four assassination attempts in the past, including an attack on his house with a grenade launcher while he was vice president.

Officials in Abkhazia say they are trying to use Russian protection to grasp independence and throw off centuries of Georgian domination.

But Georgia says the region is completely dominated by Moscow and is being used as a hideout for Russian criminal gangs and corrupt officials.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122912/ Russia and former Soviet Union Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:15:46 +0200
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack that comes as Abkhazia is set to hold parliamentary elections next month.

Russia recognized Abkhazia and another separatist province, South Ossetia, as independent states after the August 2008 Russian-Georgian war, and has kept its troops there.

Ankvab, elected in August, had survived four earlier assassination attempts.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122908/ Russia and former Soviet Union Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:27:56 +0200
He also suggested that a party to be set up by Prokhorov could in fact be a Kremlin project. "I do not rule out that this party would be the Kremlin's puppet. This could be something like a new edition of Right Cause," he said.

It is also important what Prokhorov does as a politician following the March 4 presidential elections, Mitrokhin said. "He could well phase out his political activities after the upcoming presidential elections," he said.

Another opposition politician and the leader of the unregistered party The Other Russia, Eduard Limonov, was also skeptical about Prokhorov's chances to set up a new liberal party.

"He is a businessman and doesn't imagine how difficult this is. He thinks he can put together a huge conglomerate for money, but this is an illusion," Limonov told Interfax on Tuesday.

"It takes a long time to set up a party. He does have ambitions, that's for sure. He may have good intentions, but we have seen already what a mess he got into with Right Cause. He doesn't seem to understand well what he is up to. A party is not an enterprise or a corporation but something different. You can set up an armchair party for half a year for money, but this won't be a political party," he said.

Prokhorov announced earlier on Tuesday that he decided to start building his own party without waiting for the outcome of the presidential elections.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122897/ Russia and former Soviet Union Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:29:02 +0200
"A visit of a parliamentary delegation implies an invitation from parliamentarians of a host country - in this particular case, the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus. At the same time, Polish parliamentarians planned their visit to Belarus not only disregarding interaction with their Belarusian counterparts but failing to notify Belarus at all," she said.

"Belarus proceeds from the commonly acceptable practice of international relations, which implies that parliaments of different countries pursue their dialogue on a mutually respectful and equal basis," Vanshina said.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122894/ Russia and former Soviet Union Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:21:47 +0200
"It basically means that the highest yielding destinations will be chosen," he said.

This will give Russia some of the flexibility enjoyed by Saudi Arabia, the world's second largest oil producer, which is the only country regarded as a swing producer that has spare production capacity and can ramp up output levels relatively quickly if markets need more oil.

Russia has always pumped at full capacity and Kollek said that was unlikely to change, but by 2015 the country's export pipeline capacity will exceed production by 109 million tonnes a year (2.2 million bpd).

By comparison, 109 million tonnes of oil is enough to meet British oil demand for 15 months.

One project to expand Russia's export capacity is a new crude export outlet in Ust Luga in the Baltic, the launch of which has been postponed from last year due to construction problems.

It is now scheduled to export the first cargo in February and Kollek said it should already allow producers to divert oil from less attractive destinations such as the Black Sea.

"It is a material uplift in value for producers if (Russian oil pipeline monopoly) Transneft can operate the terminal in a fair and transparent way," he said.

OIL PRODUCTION AND SOCIAL UNREST

To sustain production at current levels of above 10 million bpd, Russia needs to further adjust taxation and limit government interference in business, Kollek said.

"If you don't do this, Russia won't be number one anymore. Under this scenario Russia loses income, there will be social unrest," he said.

Russia reshaped its tax system last year to encourage crude output and exports by lightening the burden that captures over 90 cents of every $1 increase in the price of exported crude.

The new system gave a new lease on life to mature fields in western Siberia by cutting the marginal rate of crude export duty to 60 percent from 65 percent.

Kollek said that should be reduced in the future to 55 percent as production from mature fields in West Siberia was declining fast, having amounted to 300,000 bpd in 2010 alone.

Kollek also said he was enthusiastic about an idea of building a large new terminal in the port of Rotterdam to help trade in Russia's main crude oil become more liquid, launch paper trade for Urals and potentially turn the grade into a benchmark.

Russian investment group Summa Capital and a branch of oil trading giant Vitol, VTTI, will invest $1 billion in building a new oil terminal.

"The idea is positive and a hub could be created which would lead to Urals becoming a benchmark, provided it is transparent and there is no government intervention," said Kollek adding it would be wrong for Transneft to become a stakeholder in the project.

"All Russia has to do is to guarantee stable flows to (its main Baltic Sea port of) Primorsk," he said.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122893/ Russia and former Soviet Union Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:57:53 +0200
Visiting a police academy in the Altai region, his final stop in a five-day trip across Siberia, Putin, 59, singled out police in Moscow as due for salary increases.

"There are problems with police (pay rises) in some regions, including Moscow and the Russian north," he told an audience in Barnaul ranging from cadets and rank-and-file officers to Interior Ministry officials.

"They also had a pay rise, but not as big as elsewhere ... The size of the wage increase in these regions will reach the same level," he said, promising further hikes.

Putin, a KGB spy in Soviet times, hopes to avoid a runoff by winning at least half the vote in the election, and has courted high-tech workers, striving middle-class entrepreneurs and defence industry employees in separate cities during the trip.

Police form a crucial part of Putin's security machine which has kept a lid on the opposition movement during his 12-year rule, dispersing unsanctioned protests when ordered but laying off when restraint is in the Kremlin's interest.

Tens of thousands of people have turned out for opposition protests three times since a Dec. 4 parliamentary election, venting anger over suspected fraud in his party's favour and calling for a "Russia without Putin".

Police have been dispersing smaller protests held without official permission in the runup to the election.

On Tuesday, Moscow police said they detained about 10 people protesting outside the Central Election Commission headquarters, while Interfax news agency cited a protest leader as saying 26 were detained.

NATIONWIDE PROTESTS

Protests have been held nationwide but those in Moscow have been by far the largest, reflecting discontent among middle-class Russians who want change and are dismayed by the prospect that he could potentially remain in the Kremlin until 2024.

Putin and his protege, President Dmitry Medvedev, have handled police gingerly, instituting reforms meant to curb corruption while dispelling perception of police as servants of the state and themselves rather than the people.

As part of the reform, police wages have doubled since the beginning of this year but in some regions, including Moscow and the surrounding province, local bonuses were abolished, resulting in smaller pay increases than expected.

Critics say the reform, one of the biggest initiatives of Medvedev's term, only scratched the surface by largely just changing the name of the institution from the Soviet-style "militia" to "police", but doing little to change the culture.

Putin appears to have been taken by surprise by the scale of the biggest opposition protests since he rose to power in 1999.

Moscow police dispersed a protest that drew several thousand people the day after the parliamentary vote, jailing several opposition leaders, but changed tactics and left protesters alone at subsequent protests that were much bigger.

In Barnaul, local authorities have denied groups permission to hold rallies. In a show of defiance with a humorous twist, protesters placed stuffed animals and Lego men carrying banners criticising Putin on a central square on Sunday.

But among academy students who also do police work and enjoyed the salary increase, the mood was staunchly pro-Putin.

Vladimir, a student in his 20s who guarded a polling station in the parliamentary election and will do so during the presidential vote, said his monthly salary rose to 28,000 roubles ($940) from about 12,000 roubles ($400) months ago.

"I think we need to maintain stability and complete the police reform," said Vladimir, a student in his 20s who said he could only be identified by his full name with the permission of the academy's chief.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122891/ Russia and former Soviet Union Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:16:06 +0200
Putin is running to regain the post of president in a March 4 election. He is expected to win, but is facing the first serious challenge to his 12-year rule.

A broad protest movement has been galvanized by a December parliamentary election that Putin's party won through what appeared to be widespread fraud.

While police have allowed mass demonstrations to take place peacefully in Moscow, they have continued to use force to break up small, unauthorized protests such as the one held Tuesday night.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122882/ Russia and former Soviet Union Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:48:28 +0200
In January, the Russian ship Chariot, loaded with arms and ammunition, turned off its radar and sailed quietly to Syria to avoid attracting the attention of world powers increasingly frustrated by Russia and China's refusal to back U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at ending 11 months of violence.

Citing the increased violence, Arab and Western countries have started hinting they could arm Assad's opponents, a move that some political and defence analysts say could increase the possibility of civil war.

Moscow accuses the West of being one-sided, and says the arms it sells have not been used by Assad loyalists to kill 7,000 people, a figure used by advocacy groups, as violence has raged.

But rebel soldiers and an official who defected from the government say Moscow's small arms trade with Damascus is booming, and the government doubled its military budget in 2011 to pay for the crackdown on the opposition.

"I would say that on average the funds (for Defence Ministry expenditure) were doubled for 2011," said Mahmoud Suleiman Haj Hamad, the former chief auditor for Syria's Defence Ministry who defected in January.

He said by telephone from Cairo that Russian arms accounted for 50 percent of all deals before Assad's crackdown on the protesters. China and North Korea provided 30 percent, and Iran and other suppliers 20 percent, he said.

The government had boosted its defence budget and arms imports by cutting funds to other ministries in areas such as education and health by as much as 30 percent, he said.

"Before the uprising, Russia was trading weapons with Syria in a more limited manner. More recently ... Russia began giving more weapons to Syria," he said.

"To my knowledge, Russia was shipping monthly," he said, referring to deliveries prior to his defection last month.

A LEGAL TRADE

ThomsonReuters shipping data shows at least four cargo ships since December that left the Black Sea port of Oktyabrsk - used by Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport for arms shipments - have headed for or reached the Syrian port of Tartous.

Separately was the Chariot, a Russian ship which docked at the Cypriot port of Limassol during stormy weather in mid-January. It promised to change its destination in accordance with a European Union ban on weapons to Syria but, hours after leaving Limassol, reset its course for Syria.

A Cypriot source said it was carrying a load of ammunition and a European security source said the ship was hauling ammunition and sniper rifles of the kind used increasingly by Syrian government forces against protesters.

The source also said Russian manufacturers had increased production to meet the demand from Syria. The ship's owner Westberg said that the ship was carrying a "dangerous cargo".

Syria hosts a Russian naval facility on its Mediterranean coast, a rare outpost abroad for Moscow's military. Damascus has also been a loyal Russian arms customer since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, when it used Soviet-made weapons against Israel which was largely supplied by the United States.

Assad has been perhaps the closest ally Russia has in a region where a year of unrest has set back its efforts to build influence and economic clout.

Numerous Russian weapons advisers work in Syria and Rosoboronexport has an office with a staff of about 20 in the country, a source close to the company said.

CAST, a Moscow-based defence think tank, says Russia sent Syria at least $960 million worth of heavy arms - which included several missile systems - in 2011 and has some $4 billion in outstanding contracts.

Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution last year that could have led to an international arms embargo on Syria. They also blocked a resolution this month calling on Assad to step down.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called this month's veto by Russia and China a "travesty" and Washington's U.N. ambassador Susan Rice said "any further bloodshed that flows will be on their hands".

British-based advocacy group Avaaz Campaign Director Alice Jay said there was an "urgent need for an arms embargo".

Hamad, the former military auditor, said many sales of Russian small arms are carried out through traders. It was not clear if they had the Kremlin's blessing to trade the weapons.

Soviet arms are also sold by other states that have stockpiles of Soviet-era weapons that can be confused with arms coming from Russia.

"I know that Syria is paying for some of the weapons through traders and middlemen, not through contracts between states," said Hamad.

A spokesman for Rosoboronexport said Russia's small and heavy arms delivery programme to Syria was running on schedule without any increases in volumes.

"The rate of delivery is not being changed. They are going according to plan. They are not being sped up or increased. Of course if there were sanctions, we would stop it completely," said spokesman Vyacheslav Davidenko.

COUNTERFEIT WEAPONS

Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, denied Moscow had a hand in aggravating the conflict in Syria, "especially when what we are delivering is not that which can be used to shoot demonstrators".

Russia has suggested that the arms the Syrian military is using against forces Assad describes as foreign-backed terrorists and armed gangs are not of Russian origin but copies of Soviet weaponry.

"I would not make any statements that they are killing demonstrators with Russian arms," Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov told Itar-Tass news agency. "If Kalashnikov machine guns are being used to these ends, then it is obvious that they are counterfeit."

Defence analysts say Syria also receives arms from long-time ally Iran that are dominated by copies of Soviet-era arms or Chinese-made copies.

"Iran is swimming in Chinese weapons, cheap Soviet clones or pseudo-indigenous weapons, so they get Chinese weapons. But we don't know what because they come from Iran. (They are) most probably small arms and light weapons," said Ruslan Pukhov, director of the CAST think tank.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin denied last week any suggestion that Beijing shipped weapons to Syria through Iran.

But shipments of Russian arms to Syria have become so frequent that rebel soldiers try to track the deliveries from Syria's ports to military bases in the interior.

A former army lieutenant who defected in August and gave his name only as Omar explained how he and dozens of other fighters use a network of port workers to find out when shipments of arms arrive and where they are going, sometimes ambushing convoys.

"Every few weeks, trucks move weapons from the coast to bases in the interior," he said. "Almost all of them are Russian."

Anti-government rebels and defence analysts say that even if Russia cut its supplies to Syria, Damascus would still be able to get hold of Iranian, North Korean and Chinese imports. It also produces some of its own weapons.

The loss of revenue from arms sales to Syria would deal only a limited blow to Russia as it is much smaller than the income from deals with Rosoboronexport's larger customers, India and Algeria.

Russia may also find that the demand for small arms grows, rather than heavy weapons, as the conflict moves to the cities and the prospects of civil war grow.

"We're talking about light weapons that allow the army and security services to be more mobile and confront what is practically turning into a civil war," said Ayham Kamel of risk research organisation Eurasiagroup.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122878/ Russia and former Soviet Union Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:51:15 +0200
It filed the lawsuit with the Arbitration Tribunal in Stockholm. It refused to give more details.

Gazprom in January eased prices for some of its clients in Western Europe, but not for PGNiG, which has been lately asking for price cuts.

Under the current deal, Poland's imports of Russian gas were more than 318 billion cubic feet (9 billion cubic meters) in 2011 and were to rise to 360 billion cubic feet through 2022, but the prices was not released to the public.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122874/ Russia and former Soviet Union Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:18:37 +0200
"The authorities have failed to break my will and my desire to be free," said Kovalenko, who is so thin that all his ribs showed clearly.

Last week, European Parliament President Martin Schulz demanded that Kovalenko be freed immediately, warning officials in Belarus they will "have blood on their hands if he dies."

In 2010, Kovalenko received a three-year suspended sentence for hoisting an opposition flag atop a Christmas tree in the Belarusian capital. He went on a hunger strike to protest his arrest in December on charges of violating the terms of his sentence.

Authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, who Western rights group have called "Europe's last dictator," has been in office since 1994. He has consistently suppressed opposition groups and cracked down on independent media.

Belarusian rights activists say that 15 people, including two former presidential candidates, have remained in prison on political charges.

"The authorities are trying to suppress any opposition activities amid an economic crisis," said Valentin Stefanovich of Vyasna rights group.

Schulz repeated his call for the government to free and rehabilitate all political prisoners.

"I am appalled by the deteriorating situation in Belarus regarding human rights and political freedoms," he said. "The citizens of Belarus deserve better."]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122863/ Russia and former Soviet Union Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:46:44 +0200
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met with the leaders of unregistered Russian parties on Monday.

One of the meeting attendees, opposition activist Sergei Udaltsov, said that Medvedev did not give concrete answers to most of the questions put to him.

In particular, Medvedev rejected some radical initiatives, including proposals for putting off the March 4 presidential elections and calling a parliamentary election rerun, Udaltsov said.

"To our proposal for amnestying political prisoners who are on a list compiled during the rally on Bolotnaya Square, the president said separate work was needed on each person and that detailed investigations were needed. At the same time, on the cases of Taisia Osipova, Grigory Torbeyev, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and others, he said he would give additional instructions to investigate each specific case," Udaltsov said.

"Medvedev said he didn't need protest activity and would try to give everyone an opportunity to express themselves."

Earlier, presidential spokeswoman Natalya Timakova told reporters that political reform proposals put forward by opposition activists at the meeting would receive consideration at a planned meeting of Volodin's working group in the middle of this week.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122851/ Russia and former Soviet Union Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:30:36 +0200
Dagestan's Nature Protection Ministry spokesman Arslan Dydymov said Tuesday that about 20 birds have died of hunger despite hundreds of kilograms of fish that his ministry and a local lawmaker are purchasing daily to feed them.

The birds flew to Makhachkala last week from the frozen deltas of the Volga and Terek rivers up north.

Fewer than 1,400 Dalmatian pelicans, the world's largest, live in southern Russia.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122848/ Russia and former Soviet Union Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:56:56 +0200
"Public broadcasting represents a traditional and necessary element in the media systems of European and North American countries and a necessary element of the functioning democracy," she said.

Only three European countries, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, do not have public TV, she recalled.

"I hear the arguments that there is no difference between state and public broadcasting, therefore there is no need to transform one into another. These arguments do not hold water. There are not differences but a yawning gulf between the two models of broadcasting," Mijatovic said.

"Public broadcasting is structured to have legal and political safeguards against being held hostage to the top politicians. Public broadcasting is capable of making society better by sharing with citizens the depths of knowledge, information and culture that has been amassed by mankind," she said.

Medvedev voiced the idea of creating public TV channel in Russia in his address to the Federal Assembly in December 2011.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122847/ Russia and former Soviet Union Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:44:02 +0200
The Russian Foreign Ministry regretted that the only Syrian representatives would be from the opposition, and suggested that the United Nations Security Council should send a special humanitarian envoy to Syria.

"Thus, the meeting can hardly help start all-Syrian national dialogue in a search for ways to combat the internal crisis," ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement.

"We don't see a possibility for us to take part in the meeting," he said.

Russia and China vetoed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution this month that would have backed an Arab plan calling for Assad to step down. The two countries also voted against a non-binding resolution in the General Assembly last week that backed the Arab plan.

The Foreign Ministry made a new call for Europe, the United States and the Arab region to join forces and bring together the Syrian opposition and government without preconditions to help them agree on reforms.

Once reforms are implemented and violence ends, it will be possible to send humanitarian aid to Syria, Lukashevich said.

"We suggest that the Security Council members tell the U.N. General Secretary to send a special envoy to Syria to reconcile the issues of providing safe delivery of humanitarian shipments," he said.

Russia's ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin had said on Monday that Moscow was preparing to make proposals on humanitarian relief for Syria.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122839/ Russia and former Soviet Union Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:09:16 +0200
On Monday Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the world body should help solve humanitarian issues in Syria, after Damascus allowed the Red Cross to bring humanitarian aid to some regions.

Russia and China have vetoed two Security Council resolutions backing Arab League plans aimed at ending the conflict and condemning President Bashar Assad's crackdown on protests that killed 5,400 in 2011 alone, according to the U.N. Hundreds more have been killed since, activist groups say.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122833/ Russia and former Soviet Union Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:08:09 +0200
The experiment proves that permafrost serves as a natural depository for ancient life forms, said the Russian researchers, who published their findings in Tuesday's issue of "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" of the United States.

"We consider it essential to continue permafrost studies in search of an ancient genetic pool, that of pre-existing life, which hypothetically has long since vanished from the earth's surface," the scientists said in the article.

Canadian researchers had earlier regenerated some significantly younger plants from seeds found in burrows.

Svetlana Yashina of the Institute of Cell Biophysics of the Russian Academy Of Sciences, who led the regeneration effort, said the revived plant looked very similar to its modern version, which still grows in the same area in northeastern Siberia.

"It's a very viable plant, and it adapts really well," she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the Russian town of Pushchino where her lab is located.

She voiced hope the team could continue its work and regenerate more plant species.

The Russian research team recovered the fruit after investigating dozens of fossil burrows hidden in ice deposits on the right bank of the lower Kolyma River in northeastern Siberia, the sediments dating back 30,000-32,000 years.

The sediments were firmly cemented together and often totally filled with ice, making any water infiltration impossible — creating a natural freezing chamber fully isolated from the surface.

"The squirrels dug the frozen ground to build their burrows, which are about the size of a soccer ball, putting in hay first and then animal fur for a perfect storage chamber," said Stanislav Gubin, one of the authors of the study, who spent years rummaging through the area for squirrel burrows. "It's a natural cryobank."

The burrows were located 125 feet (38 meters) below the present surface in layers containing bones of large mammals, such as mammoth, wooly rhinoceros, bison, horse and deer.

Gubin said the study has demonstrated that tissue can survive ice conservation for tens of thousands of years, opening the way to the possible resurrection of Ice Age mammals.

"If we are lucky, we can find some frozen squirrel tissue," Gubin told the AP. "And this path could lead us all the way to mammoth."

Japanese scientists are already searching in the same area for mammoth remains, but Gubin voiced hope that the Russians will be the first to find some frozen animal tissue that could be used for regeneration.

"It's our land, we will try to get them first," he said.



×èòàéòå îá ýòîì íà www.kyivpost.ua]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122802/ Russia and former Soviet Union Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:52:23 +0200
In an attempt to assuage public anger, Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev have proposed some reforms to allow more political competition.

Opposition leader Vladimir Ryzhkov said after Monday's meeting that he was pleasantly surprised by the president's position on political parties. Overall, though, he said there was only about 15 percent agreement on how to move forward and Medvedev refused to consider a demand for new parliamentary elections.

He said Medvedev also did not respond to his proposal to form a permanent "round table" to bring together representatives of the president, the parties in parliament and the protest movement to work out a strategy for the formation of a "legitimate and effective" system of government.

Ryzhkov, speaking during a talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio, said the protests would continue until Russia's leaders understood that the parliament does not represent the will of the people and cannot be allowed to remain for the full five-year term.

Ryzhkov, 45, served in parliament from 1993 until the rules were changed in 2007 to block him and other independents from running.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122824/ Russia and former Soviet Union Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:14:49 +0200
China and Russia's blocking this month of a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that backed an Arab plan demanding that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad step aside angered the West and Arab states.

They also voted against a non-binding General Assembly resolution to back the Arab plan last week.

China has sent envoys to the region, stung by Western criticism that by vetoing the resolutions it was allowing the violence in Syria to increase.

Elaraby also said a meeting on Friday in Tunisia of the "Friends of Syria" - a group that includes Arab and Western nations - was to "put extra pressure on Syria."

The President of the General Assembly Nasser Abdel Aziz said before the news conference in Cairo the international community could no longer remain silent on the situation in Syria.

"We know there are difficulties in the Security Council but I think we cannot stay silent and have to exert the utmost pressure so that the (Syrian) government implements what was agreed upon, or make the Security Council look into the matter more seriously because it is dangerous and there are big violations," he said.

"The international community cannot remain silent in such a dangerous case as Syria's," he added.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122822/ Russia and former Soviet Union Mon, 20 Feb 2012 20:16:49 +0200
He prefaced his trip with a newspaper article intended to burnish his image as a strong leader, saying Russia would spend 23 trillion roubles ($768 billion) over a decade to modernise the former Cold War superpower's armed forces.

"New regional and local wars are being sparked before our very eyes," Putin wrote in the article published on the front page of Russia's official gazette, Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

"There are attempts to provoke such conflicts in the immediate vicinity of the borders of Russia and our allies," he wrote ahead of the March 4 election which he is expected to win.

Putin gave no details of specific threats but said Russia needed to develop weapons that were better than those of any potential enemy and called for making Russia's armed forces more professional and versatile.

Russia's once-mighty armed forces underwent a decade of spending cuts after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, although Putin tried during his 2000-08 presidency to slow the decline. The military now has about 1 million personnel.

With his calls to increase Russia's might and spend state cash to improve military technology, Putin can count on strong support from the defence industry.

Dressed in a black coat on a visit that mixed elements of governance and campaigning, Putin looked down into the cockpit of a Sukhoi Su-30 fighter. He also examined a T-50, which Russia designed to rival the U.S. F-22 stealth fighter.

"With him it is getting better and better. It is not getting worse. I am afraid that if someone else comes to power, only God knows what may happen," said Sergei, a Sukhoi factory worker who was assembling a fighter jet.

But with other plants in the city of 260,000 are struggling, many did not share Sergei's enthusiasm for Putin.

"I am not going to vote for any of these power usurpers," said Andrei, a 28-year-old technician, referring to all five presidential candidates including Putin.

CORRUPTION CONCERNS

Putin, 59, has presented himself as the guarantor of stability and accused foreign powers of helping the organisers of the biggest opposition protests of his 12-year rule. But many are concerned with rampant corruption and political stagnation.

Andrei, sitting at a cafe with his girlfriend, said he had been trying to set up his own business but had failed because of kickbacks demanded by local authorities.

Putin acknowledged the role of corruption in the defence industry and urged the private sector to help in boosting competition. He cited oil companies Surgutneftegas and TNK, which he said helped pay for the renovation of a submarine base at the Pacific port of Kamchatka in 2002.

"We need to ... attract enterprises from the civilian sector, private companies to compete for military tenders," Putin told a government meeting on the arms industry.

"In order to rearm the army and the navy we need to involve not only the defence industry but the potential of the whole Russian economy," he said.

Russia has criticised the NATO mission in Libya, saying it overstepped the mandate it was given by the United Nations Security Council and helped rebels oust Muammar Gaddafi last year, and it has stood behind Syrian President Bashir al-Assad, one of Moscow's few allies in the Middle East.

In the latest of his articles published on the key policies if his presidential campaign, Putin made no specific mention of uprisings in Libya, where NATO air assaults helped topple Gaddafi, or Syria, whose president has been under Western-Arab pressure to step down.

But he wrote that recent events showed the diminished stature of international law.

Putin said Russia, which has vetoed two U.N. Security Council resolutions on Syria with China, must rely on a powerful military to make sure its position is understood.

"Under these conditions Russia cannot depend solely on diplomatic or economic methods of resolving conflict," he wrote.

"Before us stands the mission of developing our military potential in the framework of a strategy of containment and remaining sufficiently armed."]]>