Why Russian Punks Pussy Riot Aren't Heroes

"Pussy Riot is more a performance art collective than a punk rock band in the classical sense," Whitmore explains, saying the group has their roots in a underground anarchist art collective Voina and that membership is interchangeable.

Whitmore then goes on to take apart the image of a "punk concert" at a Russian Orthodox cathedral, saying instead that the group mimed their performance and pointing to the lack of drums or amplifiers in the video (the music was added later in post-production). He explains the trial of the group isn't just about the performance (two members of the group who appeared at the cathedral escaped with just $15 fines), but about the disrespectful conduct of the members of the group once in the church (for example, the group can be heard saying "Lord's Crap" — a popular Russian expletive — inside the church).

The charge "hooliganism", as Ben Johnson of Slate explained earlier this month, isn't used in Russia the same way as it might be used in the US (emphasis ours):

Russia’s criminal code explains hooliganism in article 213, where it’s defined as “The flagrant violation of public order expressed by a clear disrespect for society.” There are two different categories: hooliganism committed with a weapon, and hooliganism committed for reasons of politics, ideology, racism, nationalism, religious hatred, or enmity with respect to any social group.

Pussy Riot's hooliganism charge is specifically related to their disrespect to the church, and much of the defense at the trial has rested on rejecting that notion. "There is absolutely no basis for charging them with inciting religious hatred," lawyer Mark Feigin told the Moscow Times in June.

While international opinion may be heaping praise on the girls, it doesn't seem like many in the Russian opposition would argue that Pussy Riot are heroes for their performance. Alexei Navalny, probably the most prominent member Russia's opposition movement, has stopped short of defending their actions and called them "silly girls". Jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky called their actions "the mistakes of youthful radicalism".

Pussy Riot Sentenced to Two Years in Jail

MOSCOW, August 17 (RIA Novosti)

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The three have already spent more than five months in pretrial detention, which, according to Russian legislation, equals ten months in prison.

The custodial term is effective from the moment of arrest, which for Samutsevich was March 15, 2012 and Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova March 3, 2012. The three will therefore be due for release at the beginning of 2014.

Head of Russian rocket maker resigns following launch failures

MOSCOW, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- A senior official at Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos had resigned after the country's string of launch failures, Roscosmos said Thursday.

Vladimir Nesterov, head of the Khrunichev Space Research and Production Center, had submitted his resignation to the government, Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin said.
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Analysts believe Nesterov's resignation was the first but may not be the last casualty following sharp criticism from the federal government.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday that hardships the space industry had been experiencing could not justify the string of failures in recent years and warned he was going to make some decisions on those responsible for the failures.

On Aug. 6, a Proton-M carrier rocket failed to put two telecommunications satellites into the correct orbit.

Authorities Face Hard Choice in Pussy Riot Verdict

MOSCOW, August 16 (Dan Peleschuk, RIA Novosti)

And the decision, experts say, is a difficult one for the authorities to make – no matter the outcome.

If the women are released, it sends a signal to critics that open protest will now be tolerated, and the Kremlin has grown hesitant to continue its crackdown on dissent, analysts predict. If they are jailed, however, it may only intensify the simmering public discontent with the government.

Since the end of the trial last week, in which prosecutors asked the court for a three-year prison sentence for the three women – Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30 – speculation over their fate has only grown. They have already spent five months in custody, and two of the women have small children with whom they have been deprived of contact since their incarceration.

Debate has raged in recent weeks over how – or even whether – to punish the women for their brief “punk prayer” in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral in February. The case has come to represent the greater clash between conservatism and liberalism in Russia, dividing almost evenly people who support Pussy Riot and criticize the authorities, and those who have called for a swift punishment and who support the Putin regime.

How NATO Expansion Makes America Less Safe

The “North Atlantic” Treaty Organization was formed in the aftermath of World War II to protect war-torn and disunited Western Europe from the Soviet Union as well as reintegrate defeated Germany into Western Europe. Americans believed it was in their interest to defend Europe in order to prevent the U.S.S.R. from dominating Eurasia.

With the end of the Cold War the justification for NATO disappeared. The Soviet Union split, the Warsaw Pact dissolved, the global communist menace vanished. There no longer was any there there, as Gertrude Stein said of Oakland.

President Putin is no friend of liberty, but he evidences no design—and possesses no capability—to recreate a global empire. Under him Russia has reverted to a pre-World War I great power, focused on winning respect and protecting its borders. A Russian invasion of Eastern Europe, let alone the core western members of NATO, is but a paranoid fantasy.
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Attempting to establish friendly, democratic regimes along Russia’s borders, and turn them into military outposts as members of the historic American-led, anti-Soviet alliance, is geopolitically aggressive. As America developed, Washington demonstrated little patience for European “meddling” in Central and even South America, which it considered to be America’s backyard. Perhaps U.S. intentions were better, though the Latin Americans might not agree. Nevertheless, European security guarantees for America’s neighbors would have made Washington less rather than more tractable.

Worse, NATO expansion brings the political and territorial disputes of new members with each other and Russia into the alliance. The organization then threatens to act as a transmission belt of rather than firebreak to war.

Countries reliant on their own resources are more likely to compromise. In contrast, having a superpower in their corner makes them more likely to be intransigent. Although most of the new NATO members, and especially the most recent additions like Albania and Croatia, are money pits for American aid, at least these nations are geopolitically irrelevant. Moscow has no reason to pay them any mind.

Georgia, bordering Russia and home to the independence-minded provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, matters much more to Moscow. While renewed conflict is unlikely, it is possible. If Tbilisi was a NATO member, the U.S. would be obligated to come to Georgia’s defense. The result would be a possible nuclear confrontation with Russia over issues of negligible importance to America. Such a policy would be madness.

Turkey builds significant ties with Asia

Since its days as the capital of the Eastern Roman, Latin and Ottoman empires, Constantinople has historically been known as the “gateway to the east.”

Centuries later, modern-day Turkey is building significant bridges with Asia, most recently by joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as a dialogue partner.
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In sharp contrast to its rocky EU bid, Turkey’s admission into the SCO as a dialogue partner has been smooth.

Now a high-profile regional group covering about three-fifths of the Eurasia land mass, the SCO has served as a pivotal mechanism for regional security cooperation since it was established 10 years ago.

From primarily focusing on regional security, the inter-governmental organization, formed in 1996, has of late expanded into law enforcement and economic cooperation.

This is particularly enticing for Turkey as it tries to offset dwindling trade with debt crisis-hit Europe by making inroads into rising Asian markets.

“Turkey’s location at the crossroads of Asia, Caucas, the Black Sea, Europe and the Middle East means Turkish foreign policy has always been multi-dimensional,” said Murat Bilhan, a former Turkish ambassador and professor of international relations at Istanbul’s Kultur University.

“With Asia emerging, it is very important for Turkey to cooperate with nations like China, India and Russia,” he added.

Russian Warships Head to Mediterranean

The group of Russian warships and support ships from Russia’s Northern, Baltic and Black Sea fleets was to have made a call in the port of Novorossiisk on Sunday.

“At present, vessels from the group have sailed past the Italian coast and are now headed westward,” the source said without explaining why the route had been changed.

The ships are currently performing combat training exercises in the central Mediterranean Sea, the source added.

The task force comprises three large amphibious assault ships, two Neustrashimy class frigates, an Udaloy class destroyer and two support ships from Russia’s Northern, Baltic and Black Sea Fleets.

Late last week, the joint naval task force conducted two-day tactical exercises with live-firing in the Mediterranean.

Russia furiously preparing for Sochi Games

The rest of the world might still be thinking warm thoughts, but for the organizers of the next Olympic Games - the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics - there is a massive project underway to build a resort city on the Black Sea almost from scratch, and with it, the center of the universe for sports played on ice and snow.

"We are building an Olympic structure in the middle of nowhere," said Dmitry Chernyshenko, president of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee. "It's like a painter with a blank canvas painting a masterpiece. We are building a new city with more than 100,000 hotel beds. It's the biggest construction project in the world."

There's nothing quite like trying to build an all-new Olympic site at break-neck speed in the midst of a bad economy in a volatile part of the world. Sochi is right next to Russia's border with Georgia, nearer to Turkey than it is to Moscow.
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Sochi will have a compact Games - far different than the far-flung London Olympics, for instance - with two venue clusters linked by high-speed trains, one by the Black Sea and the other in the mountains, just 22 miles away. Unburdened by having to use existing structures, organizers have been able to create a city built specifically for the Olympics.

Construction is almost complete. Officials report that all the "mountain cluster" venues held pre-Olympic test events during the last winter sports season. All the other venues - the "coastal cluster" - will be tested by the end of 2012. The only venue to be completed in 2013 is the stadium that will host the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
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"It's like Cannes and Davos all in one," Chernyshenko said. "A Mediterranean climate with palm trees, but you drive 30 minutes and you are in the mountains. It's really a unique location. We are building the Olympic site, but the future of the city is to be a year-round resort. "

Pussy Riot's Closing Statement

The trial for three members of Pussy Riot, a Russian punk band that got in a lot of trouble for a prank/protest event where they crashed the altar of Moscow's largest Orthodox Church to play a single anti-Putin song, concluded this week. The members gave closing statements, which they used to reassert their objections to the authoritarian state and the way that religious faith is being hijacked to garner support for government oppression. Business Insider ran a video and a translation of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova's closing statement, where she clearly laid out the case for breaking the back of all oppressive institutions and linked her ordeal with that of many historical figures who have faced similar censorship efforts from social and governmental authorities.

"Essentially, it is not three singers from Pussy Riot who are on trial here. If that were the case, what’s happening would be totally insignificant. It is the entire state system of the Russian Federation which is on trial and which, unfortunately for itself, thoroughly enjoys quoting its cruelty towards human beings, its indifference to their honor and dignity, the very worst that has happened in Russian history to date. To my deepest regret, this mock trial is close to the standards of the Stalinist troikas. Thus, we have our investigator, lawyer and judge. And then, what’s more, what all three of them do and say and decide is determined by a political demand for repression. Who is to blame for the performance at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and for our being put on trial after the concert? The authoritarian political system is to blame. What Pussy Riot does is oppositional art or politics that draws upon the forms art has established. In any event, it is a form of civil action in circumstances where basic human rights, civil and political freedoms are suppressed by the corporate state system."

Pussy Riot set out to draw attention to the link between sexist, corporate, religious, and state oppression. Whether or not these three women go to jail, it can safely be said that they succeeded in their mission. As Jos Truitt of Feministing, who was raised Russian Orthodox, explained, decades of being stifled under the Soviets can make it easy for some of the faithful to convince themselves these women were doing something oppressive themselves by holding a harmless protest, but the way that everything has played out has made it all too clear that the church authorities pushing for punishment are drunk on their own power.

Litvinenko inquest: Judge appointed to oversee inquest

9 August 2012 Last updated at 10:12 ET

A High Court judge has been appointed to hold the inquest into the death of Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned in London in 2006.

Mr Litvinenko, 43, is thought to have been poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 after having tea with two Russians at a hotel in November 2006.

Former KGB agents Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun returned to Moscow.

High Court Judge Sir Robert Owen will hold a pre-inquest review in public on 20 September.

Sir Robert, who has been appointed an Assistant Deputy Coroner, wants to hold the review so he can give "directions as to the conduct of the inquest".

Earlier this year the justice secretary wrote to Deputy Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe, who was then in charge of the inquest, to ask for clarification about 

Europe: The Resurgence of Nationalism!

Even if you’ve only caught 10 minutes of the Olympics, you’ve surely noticed the omnipresence of the flag. London is covered in flags of every size and color, from the national flags of Guam and the Solomon Islands, to Old Glory, to the Union Jack. National flags are painted on the faces of tourists, emblazoned on jerseys, shirts and backpacks, fluttering in stadiums, on cars, and on the backs of beaming medalists. Every European country is represented, from mighty Germany all the way down to Macedonia and Albania. Every European flag, that is, except for the national emblem of the entity that is supposed to unite them all: the European Union.

The photo of Robert Harting captures the essence of the Olympics: that it’s one giant, all-consuming, once-every-four-years celebration of patriotism, of national pride, of the love on one’s own nation.

More than any other event, the Olympic Games is a celebration of pure, untarnished, unchecked, nationalism.
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There’s no mistaking the reversion to nationalism, warned foreign-policy analyst Ulrich Speck. “Narratives about the euro crisis remain strikingly national, and they are worryingly diverging,” he wrote recently, “Euroskepticism is on the rise. It looks rather as if the limits of integration have been reached.” Last September, George Friedman, ceo of Stratfor, wrote an article in which he explained how the vision of European unity is fast vanishing. He wrote, “[W]hat was inconceivable—the primacy of the traditional nation-state—is now commonly discussed, and steps to devolve Europe in part or in whole (such as ejecting Greece form the eurozone) are being contemplated.”

Putin Vows Sport ‘Changes’ After Olympics

Russian President Vladimir Putin promised Wednesday the government would make “changes” to Russian sport after the Olympics.

Russia is now fifth in the medals table with ten gold medals after a slow start that saw the country win just three golds in the first eight days and prompted a bout of soul-searching in the Russian media.

“We’ll analyze the results a bit later and we’ll make relevant changes,” Putin said, adding that he congratulated Russian athletes on their success.
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The Russian government proposed a change to the law last month that would give the state the power to hire and fire the leadership of sports federation that receive more than half their income from the government.

Once-powerful Russia far behind in gold medal race

LONDON (AP) — After a miserable first week in the gold medal stakes, traditional powerhouse Russia is showing signs of a revival — though not enough to avoid its lowest Olympic finish in 60 years.

While some of Russia’s strongest events are still to come, the team is set to wind up outside the top three in golds for the first time since the Soviet Union began competing at the games in 1952.

It’s a worrying sign for a country that will host the next Olympics, the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, and follows Russia’s worst-ever performance at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
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Russia’s recent decline has coincided with China’s rise as an Olympic superpower and continued dominance by the United States.

The Russian daily Sports Express said in a front page commentary Monday that Russian sports was ‘‘frozen’’ between the Chinese and American systems. It blamed a shortage of state funding and lack of oversight and control over national sports federations.

‘‘It’s very far from China, where the watchful Communist Party is eyeing the selection process starting from the kindergarten stage, builds giant sports arenas and finances powerful medical research — and harshly demands results,’’ the paper said. ‘‘We must admit that we stand even further from the American model, and the distance keeps growing. Because it would be deadly if we end state involvement in sports as they did. Sports industries that will feed themselves are simply absent in our country.’’

Pussy Riot: Russia prosecutors seek three years' jail

Russian prosecutors have asked for three years' in prison for three women musicians accused of inciting religious hatred during a protest in a cathedral.

The three members of the punk band Pussy Riot played a song attacking Russian leader Vladimir Putin in front of an altar on 21 February.

They told the court their performance was a political act, not aimed at hurting the feelings of believers.

Concern about the case has been voiced by the EU and others.

Maria Alyokhina, 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29, could have faced a maximum sentence of seven years.

They said their performance of the "punk prayer" was a reaction to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, publicly backing Mr Putin in elections.

Putin: Punishment for feminist punk rockers shouldn’t be too severe

By Associated Press, Published: August 2

LONDON — Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Thursday criticized the feminist punk rockers facing trial for performing a “punk prayer” against him at Moscow’s main cathedral, but said that a punishment for them shouldn’t be too severe.

Putin’s comments to Russian reporters on a visit to the London Olympics were the leader’s first reaction to the trial of three members of the Pussy Riot band, whose imprisonment has drawn international outrage. It may signal that the Kremlin has opted for a milder punishment for the women than the seven years they could face.

Asked about the case, Putin said that the stunt “was no good” and would have entailed a much tougher punishment for its participants if they had performed it at a holy site in Israel or even death if they had done it at some Muslim site in Russia’s North Caucasus region.

Mixed Russian Feelings on Jailed Punk Rock Band

MOSCOW — The Rev. Aleksandr L. Ptitsyn did not pause even a fraction of a second when asked if Jesus would have forgiven the three young members of a feminist punk rock band — two of them the mothers of small children — who have been jailed since March and face up to seven years in prison for staging a guerrilla performance on the altar of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

“Of course he would,” the priest said. “No doubt.”

But Father Ptitsyn, who is the rector of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross, the Russian Orthodoxparish closest to the courthouse where the members of the band, called Pussy Riot, are now on trial, was not so quick to offer forgiveness of his own. Instead, retelling the story of St. George, who reputedly killed an evil dragon even after taming it, Father Ptitsyn made a forceful case for punishing the three women whom he described as paid agents of the West. “The gist of this parable is that evil unpunished is the same as evil encouraged,” Father Ptitsyn said, sitting in the gated courtyard of his church, which was built in the mid-1600s.

Mitt and Lech

Romney's world tour hasn't been the most auspicious, rankling Brits with the comments he made about the Olympics, angering Palestinians over the comments he made in Israel, and turning off Pols with his attacks on trade unions.  But, he seems to have won Lech Walesa's heart,

Mr Romney was met in Gdansk by Mr Walesa - Solidarity's first leader and Poland's first democratically-elected president - and by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

"He's very open, and brimming with values, his wife is always by his side, he's got five kids -- we're very much alike, I really like him and am pleased we met," Mr Walesa told reporters.

But the trade union movement, which originated in Gdansk and toppled Poland's communist regime in the late 1980s, said it had nothing to do with Mr Romney's trip to the city.

"Regretfully, we were informed by our friends from the American headquarters of AFL-CIO (trade union in the US), which represents more than 12 million employees... that Mitt Romney supported attacks on trade unions and employees' rights," Solidarity said in a statement.

Mr Walesa and Solidarity have not seen eye to eye for some years.

read more

Pussy Riot Apologize, Plead Not Guilty

MOSCOW, July 30 (RIA Novosti)

Members of the female band Pussy Riot have called their “punk prayer” performed at a Christian church an “ethical mistake,” but pleaded not guilty to charges of hooliganism that can land them in prison for seven years.

“We never said anything insulting to the believers, the church or God,” group member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova said in a statement read out loud by the defense at the Pussy Riot trial in Moscow on Monday.

The group expected its political performance to be viewed as ironic, Tolokonnikova said, adding that “perhaps we had no right to invade the ritual space.”

The group staged its performance in the altar zone of Christ the Savior Cathedral only because its members were unaware of church rules, fellow band member Maria Alyokhina said.

The Not So Secret Life of Anna Chapman

I thought that was Anna Chapman on Secrets of the World, a Russian version of the old American series, In Search Of, with Leonard Nimoy.  Anna plays a pretty small role in the series.  It is mostly a menacing voice trying to connect loose strands provided by dubious experts on everything from the Illuminati to vast underground cities into elaborate conspiracy theories.  Suffice it to say that dear Anna seems to be enjoying life after her brief stint as a spy.

I Don't Want To Be Sedated

Five members of the band called Pussy Riot were detained in February after they performed an anti-Putin song, jumping up and down at the altar of Moscow's Christ the Savior Church. The group, clad in their trademark colored balaclavas and spandex outfits, sang about a divine intervention that would remove President Vladimir Putin from power.

Three members of the group have been held in jail without a trial ever since. Officials recently announced their pre-trial detention has been extended until 2013. They face charges of "hooliganism on the grounds of religious hatred," which could result in up to seven years in prison.

Figure With Ties to Milosevic Is Set to Become Serbia’s Premier

The wartime spokesman for Slobodan Milosevic’s party will be sworn in as prime minister of Serbia on Thursday, officials said, stoking international concerns that Serbia will abandon its European path and return to the nationalism of the past.
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Although Mr. Dacic and Mr. Nikolic say they have left nationalism behind and have embraced the European Union, the new coalition government will need to convince skeptics that it does not intend to forsake the West for closer ties with Moscow. Mr. Nikolic once said that Serbia would be better off as a province of Russia than as a member of the European Union.

Like much of Europe, Serbia faces economic challenges, including 25 percent unemployment, rising inflation, a weak currency and woefully low incomes for workers. A headline published online last week by B92, a Serbian broadcaster, lamented that “10,000 Serbian Children Eat Only One Meal Per Day.”

While top economic posts in the new government are to be held by supporters of free-market economics, some voices in the coalition have been calling for radical steps like breaking with the International Monetary Fund, which froze a $1.2 billion precautionary loan to Serbia in February over concerns about overspending and spiraling public debt. Rather than adopt harsh austerity, some analysts say, the new government may seek a loan from Russia.
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Serbia has refused to recognize the independence of Kosovo, a former Serbian province that broke away in 2008, taking with it territory that Serbia cherishes as its medieval heartland, though it is now populated largely by ethnic Albanians. Mr. Dacic gave signs in Berlin recently that he was open to improving ties with Kosovo, but he has also discussed a partitioning of the new country as a possible solution to tensions there.

Oligarch v. Oligarch: London's Courts Attract Litigious Tycoons

Berezovsky v. Abramovich is the highest-profile (and highest-paying) case to date in a London legal trend that only seems to keep gaining steam. An estimated 60 percent of the cases in England's commercial and chancery courts now have ties to Russia or other former Soviet bloc countries--including many that involve oligarchs like Abramovich and Berezovsky, who have long-standing grudges and are making London their arena of choice in which to battle things out. English lawyers like to point out that their courts are incorruptible, in contrast to a Russian system that is often described as being open to influence, both political and financial, especially where the biggest fish are concerned. But it also seems to be a sort of fashion statement among oligarchs these days. "It's almost like a designer tie," says Brian Zimbler, one of the longest-practicing Western lawyers in Moscow. "These oligarchs like to dress well, they like fancy cars, they have houses in the south of France. And if there are lawsuits, they like them to be in the London courts."

The London legal scene has been happy to oblige. Competition for oligarch clients is fierce, and the firms who win them are raking in record fees. (The fee for Abramovich's lead counsel is rumored to be between $4.7 million and $15 million, an astronomical price tag even at the lower end.) Meanwhile, booming cottage industries have sprung up for things like Russian court translators and paralegals specializing in Russian law. This has been a boon to a struggling economy that has seen law as one of the few sources of growth-legal services accounted for 1.8 percent of Britain's GDP in 2009.
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And so oligarchs in London must stay on the alert for writs, on occasion from one another. ("Sometimes oligarchs try to serve other oligarchs," one CIS lawyer in London says.) Private investigators are employed to track oligarchs' time in London, in hopes of making the case for residency, which allows jurisdiction in English courts-by British standards, just a few weeks in town annually can be enough to make the case. Even divorce lawyers in on the CIS game. This promises more high-profile cases on the way, often featuring the headline-grabbing marriage of brass-knuckle Russian businessmen and the British high society scene. "The docket looks full for years to come," Shaw says.
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Rupert D'Cruz, who is secretary of the British-Russian Law Association and is one of England's top experts on CIS cases, says the English courts, with their long history of settling complex international disputes, are uniquely suited to handle convoluted cases like the oligarchs battles, which are often based on handshake agreements-saunas are said to be the Russian equivalent to the golf course for sealing deals. "It's often done on trust," he says. "And when things go wrong there is a great problem of putting together the jigsaw of who said what, and what was agreed."
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The big guys often aren't used to playing nice, which can make things tough for lawyers. London CIS specialists report working on cases where they suspect the key documents are forged, and where clients have to be reminded that they can't try to buy the judge. Often they worry that their offices are bugged. Adam Greaves, a lawyer in London who has tried a long line of high-profile CIS cases, says he's had clients with bullet wounds and knife scars, including one who had an old wound running all the way up his neck. Cases have been filled with tales of things like illegal share dilutions and staged bankruptcies. "You've got to hand it to the Russians. They know how to develop a convoluted fraud," he says.

The oligarchs also are used to getting what they want, and not afraid to take grudges against their opponents as far as they can, sometimes happy to tarnish a rival's reputation even if it means hurting their own case. "They are generally extremely aggressive litigators. They don't take no for an answer," Greaves says. "They will litigate every point, including bad ones, and frequently against your advice-either to spill out information, or cause the other side grief, or make spurious or defamatory statements."

United Nations secretary-general arrives in Serbia

Ban is holding separate talks with Jeremić - who will in September take over as UN General Assembly chair - and Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić and, PM-designate Ivica Dačić.

In Ban's talks with Serbian officials, special emphasis is expected to be placed on Kosovo, where the UN secretary-general will visit the members of the UN mission and meet with officials of the government in Priština.. 

While in Kosovo, Ban will also visit the medieval Serb Orthodox monastery of Visoki (High) Dečani, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. He will also travel to the town of Prizren. 

Ban's tour of the Balkans started on July 20, and he has so far visited Slovenia, Croatia, and Montenegro. After Belgrade and Priština, the UN chief will travel to Macedonia, and then Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Officials in southern Russia held over floods

Russian police have arrested three officials in the southern Krymsk region accused of failing to warn residents of disastrous flooding earlier this month.

The former head of Krymsk district, who had already been fired for his handling of the floods, and the mayor of Krymsk town are among those held.

The floods claimed the lives of 171 people, mostly in the town of Krymsk.
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"Essentially ignoring the weather service forecasts, the suspects did not inform the population about the looming danger and did not take steps to evacuate people," spokesman for the Investigative Committee said to Russian TV, according to the AFP news agency.

The floods were the first major disaster of President Vladimir Putin's third term in office, and federal authorities have been eager to show they are heeding criticism of the official response, which has been voiced even in normally pro-government media outlets.

Echoes of 1878

The Balkans Game, Then and Now
by Nebojsa Malic, July 20, 2012

"The Balkans of today is a product of Imperial intervention, created and maintained by force, deception and propaganda. Those who served Empire’s purposes – e.g. Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, the Albanians or the Bosnian Muslims – feel they should have gained more in the bargain. The Serbs, who lost out at every turn, aren’t willing to concede any more. None are happy with the status quo. Yet the Empire persists in efforts to make it final."

Punk Band Feels Wrath of a Sterner Kremlin

MOSCOW — When four young women in balaclavas performed a crude anti-Putin song on the altar of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in February, it seemed like just one more episode in a season of audacious, absurdist and occasionally offensive protest.

Instead, the case of the young punk rockers, whose group is called Pussy Riot, is becoming a bellwether event in the Russian capital, signaling an end to the chilly tolerance the Kremlin displayed in response to the winter’s large demonstrations.

The three women arrested after the performance have been held in custody for more than four months, a term that was extended on Friday by six months, through next January. They could be sent to prison for seven years.

Preliminary hearings in the case offered some of the most striking courtroom images since the trial of Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, which took place in the same building. While that case tested Russians’ feelings toward a billionaire businessman, this one picks as its targets slender young women with hooded sweatshirts and Twitter accounts — avatars of the protest movement itself.
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The government picked a ripe opportunity to crack down, since many Russians found the cathedral performance offensive. It took months for the case to provoke support for the women, even in the opposition-minded city of Moscow. But the balance seemed to shift last month, when a roster of famous artists and musicians, including some vocal supporters of Mr. Putin, signed a petition contending that the case “compromises the Russian judicial system and undermines trust in the authorities.”

Serb leaders from northern Kosovo send open letter to Ban

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Heads of the four north Kosovo municipalities sent on Thursday an open letter to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ahead of his tour of the region.

In it, they underlined that the entire Serb community and the four Serb municipalities in the northern part of the province are at serious risk, and that in the process of finding a solution for the Kosovo issue, the UN and UN SC Resolution 1244 must not be circumvented.

Taking into account numerous killings, incidents and pressures, the security situation in Kosovo and Metohija gives a cause for concern, the letter reads, adding that the lives, human rights and freedoms of members of the Serb ethnic community are at particular risk.

Underscoring that in the last 13 years, more than a thousand Serbs were killed, while tens of thousands Serb houses and apartments are still usurped, or were burnt down or demolished, four municipal presidents claim that several hundred thousand Albanians still possess arms, and that they have not been disarmed as was stipulated in UN SC Resolution 1244.

“The fact that more than a thousand (ethnic) Albanians, who committed murders and serous crimes against Serbs, have the full freedom of movement and take part in the political life, as they have not been prosecuted, is yet another cause for concern,” the letter reads.
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Together with Albanian leaders from Priština, certain international actors and power centers intend to the complete the project of Kosovo's independence by using force, the letter adds.

Inquiry Seeks Accomplices of Bomber in Bulgaria

BURGAS, Bulgaria — Police officers fanned out across the tranquil beach towns here on the Black Sea on Friday, searching for clues to the identity of the bomber who blew up a bus filled with Israeli tourists on Wednesday, focusing new attention on his possible accomplice or accomplices.

Bulgaria’s interior minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, said at a news conference Friday that investigators had determined that the suicide bomber, who died along with five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver, was a foreigner. He later told state television that the attacker used nearly seven pounds of TNT to build his bomb.

“He couldn’t have been alone, a person alone in an unknown country,” said a senior Bulgarian official familiar with the investigation. “We believe it took at least a week to organize.”
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Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the Israeli police, said a team of eight forensics officers had spent about 12 hours at the site in Burgas. They returned late Thursday night with “a lot of evidence,” Mr. Rosenfeld said, which they are giving to Israeli and other security agencies.

The Bulgarian Interior Ministry said in a statement that experts from France, the United States and Switzerland working for Interpol were expected to arrive here on Friday. At the news conference in Burgas on Friday, Mr. Tsvetanov said investigators would have to sift through “more than 100 bags” of evidence gathered from the crime scene to determine the full picture of the attack before details could be made public. The investigation is painstaking work, he said, noting that the remains of the bomber were dispersed “in a 50-60-meter perimeter,” or up to nearly 200 feet.

The intensity of the investigation reflected not only the severity of the crime, but its international significance. Israel immediately blamed Iran and its surrogate, Hezbollah, a charge Iran denied. American officials speaking on the condition of anonymity identified the suicide bomber as a member of a Hezbollah cell operating in Bulgaria.

Finland Rejects Talk of Euro Exit After Backing Spain Rescue

Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen dismissed speculation his government is considering dropping the euro should the debt crisis deepen after the Nordic nation’s parliament agreed to back a Spanish bank bailout.

“We will not and do not consider exiting the euro,” the premier said today in an interview in Helsinki. “We want to be at the heart of European development. A stronger euro, a better euro is the only, and reasonable, thing for Finland.”

Finland’s demand that bailouts come with strict terms such as austerity and burden sharing, coupled with Katainen’s rejection of common bonds, has prompted economists including Nouriel Roubini to suggest the nation may ultimately quit the euro in protest.
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Finland, which saw the anti-bailout party the “The Finns” become the third-biggest in elections in 2011, also demanded collateral to back a second bailout for Greece last year. It was not an easy decision to back Spain, Katainen said.

“It was a necessary decision to take, even though it’s very hard,” he said. “It’s unpopular, but we have to take responsible moves and steps because the economic situation is so challenging.”

Turkey: Syria Crisis Causes Russian Relations to Suffer

Although Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan brought his energy minister along on a one-day visit July 18 to Moscow, it’s safe to assume that rather than oil and gas prices, the question of how to resolve the crisis in Syria dominated the discussion between Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

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“I think that the Syria crisis – in conjunction with other issues such as Cyprus, NATO missile defense and pipeline politics, all of which put Turkey against Russia – is going to erode substantially the amity between the two countries,” added Blank. [Editor’s Note: Blank contributes occasional commentaries to EurasiaNet].

Just a few months ago, many Turks had good reason to believe their country and Russia were heading toward a golden age in their relations, which had for decades been dominated by the divisions of the Cold War. As one overly optimistic Turkish paper described it only this past January, Turkey was “now a strategic partner of Moscow.”

Business between the two counties has boomed in the last decade, with Russia now representing Turkey’s largest trade partner. Between 2001 and 2011, Turkish exports to Russia grew 548 percent, from $0.9 billion to $5.9 billion, while Russian exports to Turkey – mostly gas and oil – increased almost 600 percent, rising from $3.4 billion to $23.9 billion.
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“There was always the hope in Moscow that they could somehow woo Turkey and exploit the rift between Turkey and the United States and the EU. I think Moscow was pretty shocked when Turkey came on board in Libya,” says Fiona Hill, an expert on Russia at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.

Indeed, since the NATO-led operation in Libya last year, Turkey’s ties with the Atlantic Alliance – as well as with Washington – have deepened. Ankara’s role in NATO has become more prominent, particularly with regards to the deteriorating situation in Syria. Like it or not, Ankara may find that it and Moscow are again standing on opposite sides of what should be familiar ideological and geopolitical fault-lines.

Shots fired as Russia detains Chinese fishing ships

(CNN) -- The Russian coast guard seized two Chinese vessels and detained 36 fishermen Tuesday after they were allegedly found fishing in Russian-controlled waters in the Sea of Japan, according to state media

Warning shots were fired at one vessel during a three-hour pursuit by Russian Coast Guard, which eventually rammed the vessel and soldiers fired directly on the ship when sailors resisted being boarded, according to Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news agency.
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An editorial in China's People's Daily condemned the firing on the vessel, calling the move "reckless."

"In 1983, the Soviet Union shot down a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 civilian airliner. Now Russia, for at least the second time, has fired on a Chinese civilian ship. Such conduct will stay in the memory of people in Northeast Asia," the editorial said. "The aggressive behavior by some Russians at the grass-roots level not only harms Chinese confidence in fostering a long-term friendship with Russia, but also provides excuses for forces seeking to undermine China-Russia ties."

In Trade Deal With Russia, U.S. Plans Sanctions for Human Rights Abuses

By PETER BAKER

Published: July 17, 2012

WASHINGTON — In the two decades since the end of the cold war, the United States has extended its economic reach to the far corners of the old Communist world, establishing full-fledged trade ties with the likes of Ukraine, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. Even still-Communist nations like China and Vietnam have been granted full trading status. But not Russia.

That seems about to change. For the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union, a bipartisan coalition in Congress has agreed to normalize trade relations with Russia, the onetime adversary in the long struggle between capitalism and communism. But at a time of renewed tension with Moscow, lawmakers have decided to grant the status with one large caveat — that Russian officials be held responsible for human rights abuses.

Russian base in Tajikistan to remain for 49 more years

Tajikistan has agreed on the Russian version of an agreement on the deployment of the 201st military base on its territory. After 2014, the base will remain in Tajikistan without compensation. After the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan, the Russian base will be a guarantor of security for the republic from threats from the south.
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For Russia, the military base in Tajikistan is first and foremost a guarantee of its own security. China is also following in similar footsteps and planning to set up a base in Pakistan. When NATO contingent leaves Afghanistan in 2014, a war might break out in the region with renewed vigor and will easily spread to the neighboring countries, says a fellow at the Institute of World Economics and International Relations, Alexander Krylov.

This base is very important for Russia because it is located near the Afghan border and assures security at its outer approaches. After the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan, the situation in the region will worsen radically. It’s crucial for Russia to have means to respond to new challenges. The radical Islamists might try to cross the Afghan border. In these circumstances, the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization can play the role of containing buffer which will stabilize the situation. The Russian military presence at the borders of the former Soviet Union will be a stabilizing factor. Not only Afghanistan, but also Iraq, Syria and Kurdistan will be the territory of a large war in the future. We are monitoring a single zone of instability and fighting the outcome of which is unpredictable,” Alexander Krylov said.

Russia lays charges over journalist's murder

Russia has charged a retired policeman with organising the 2006 murder of newspaper reporter Anna Politkovskaya amid an investigation that has been criticised in the West for taking too long.
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The Investigative Committee said on Monday it now believed that top former Moscow policeman Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov helped organise Politkovskaya's murder and helped track her movements for months.

The former head of the Moscow police surveillance department was arrested on August 23 and has since faced a series of different charges while continuing to deny all responsibility.

"Between July and September 2000, Pavlyuchenkov established the victim's place of residence, the route she takes [home], and reported this information to other members of the organised crime group," the committee said in a statement.

"Moreover, he obtained the weapon and ammunition that were later used in the killing," the statement added.

Metropolitan hopes “NATO will break up”

PODGORICA -- Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral Amfilohije once again said he was against Montenegro joining NATO

 “I hope to god that Montenegro will not join NATO that bombed us,” he told Podgorica-based daily Dan. 

Amfilohije believes that Montenegro would by joining the EU become a link in the military organization that “exerts violence on the entire world”. 


Russian Ship Tries Again to Return Syrian Helicopters

by Jason Ditz, July 12, 2012

The Russian cargo ship the Alaed has left Russian waters again on an attemptto deliver refurbished Syrian helicopters back to the Syrian military. The last shipping attempt failed after British officials, under US pressure, forced the revocation of their insurance.

The Alaed had been a Curucao-flagged ship, and British officials made a big deal of having given serious considerationto launching a naval attack on the ship and capturing it to prevent the return of the helicopters. It was at this point the insurance was pulled and the ship slunk back to Murmansk.

This time, things are different. The ship has been reflagged as a Russian ship and while still traveling as a private vessel it is trailing not far behind a flotillaof Russian naval ships headed to the same area on a “training” operation.

Being a Russian-flagged ship removes the insurance obstacle, and the close proximity of the flotilla presumably will prevent Britain from giving serious consideration to attacking it when it gets close to British waters.

Hidden in Afghanistan: Soviet Veterans of a Previous War Compare and Tremble

There are only a few of them left — deserters and MIAs of the huge Soviet Red Army divisions sent in to control Afghanistan. But they still remember how it all ended — and worry that the American war will end the same way

Even after three decades, Gennady Tseuma remembers the wavering call to prayer that went up clear over the hillside village. It floated out over the fields and river and pierced the early morning hush on the Bangi Bridge. Tseuma, then a Soviet soldier assigned to a small force guarding the river crossing in northern Afghanistan’s Kunduz province, recalls a feeling of dread when he heard the sound. Like many of the conscripts serving in the Red Army in Afghanistan, Tseuma was bored and undisciplined, and after 10 months of service, curiosity finally got the best of him.

The decision to investigate the call to prayer cost him the life he had known up to that point. “Our checkpoint was close to the village. Every morning the mullah did the call to prayer. It was totally new to me. I didn’t understand what was going on. I thought maybe they were killing people or something,” Tseuma tells TIME. “So, one day, early in the morning, I got off my base to take a look. When I got close to the mosque there was an old man sitting there. Then suddenly men with guns surrounded me and captured me. After that, the mujahedin told me to convert to Islam or they would kill me. I decided it was better to live than to die, so I became a Muslim.”

For the past 29 years, Tseuma and maybe around a hundred other Soviet POW/MIAs have lived through some of the most violent history of one of the most violent countries on earth. After serving in the European-style Soviet army, they lived and sometimes fought as Afghans. Those of them still alive have an extraordinary window into Afghan society combined with unique insight into the historical parallels between the Soviet defeat and the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces at the end of 2014.

Russia Sends Warships Toward Syria

The naval flotilla is a show of force and a reminder that Moscow will block any Western attempt to intervene against the Assad regime

by John Glaser, July 11, 2012

Russia has dispatched eleven warships to the eastern Mediterranean, some of which will dock in Syria, in Moscow’s latest attempt to display Russian power in the region and ward off a Western intervention in Syria.

About half of the ships are capable of carrying hundreds of Russian Marines, although its unknown if any forces are set to go ashore after docking at Russia’s naval base in Tartus.

The announcement came just one day after Russia officially said it would halt all new weapons sales to Syria. Russia has provide arms and backing to the regime of Bashar al-Assad throughout the 16-month long conflict.

Sending naval vessels, as Russia has done periodically throughout the past, seems an attempt to reassure the US and its allies that Moscow still plans to block any attempt to intervene militarily against the Assad regime.

Russia’s main concerns regarding Syria is that Washington will try to usher in regime change, and possibly military intervention, and exploit any political transition for their benefit, thus stamping out Russia’s valuable Middle Eastern ally.

UN envoy Kofi Annan said this month that while Russia has received a lot of criticism for continuing to back the violent President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, “very few things are said about other countries that send arms and money and weigh on the situation on the ground,” without naming any specific countries.

Foreign meddling on behalf of all sides has been instrumental in prolonging the conflict by emboldening both sides and making a political settlement more remote. But now Russia seems to be altering its posture to one of preventing any military intervention against Assad, instead of arming the regime as a proxy client. This position is more amenable to a resolution to the conflict, unlike the position of the US and its allies in arming and aiding the Syrian rebel fighters.

Journey by Sea Takes Awkward Turn in Russia

MOSCOW — It is hard to imagine who was more stunned: the team of adventurers who succeeded in crossing more than 50 miles of the Bering Strait’s frigid, treacherous swells to Russia from Alaska last week, or the Russian border patrol agents in an armored tank who watched them appear on shore, seemingly out of nowhere.

On Wednesday, the team of six men — shadowed by a Russian military helicopter — did an about-face and returned to the Alaskan coast after spending four days in detention in Lavrentiya, a remote village in the Chukotka region.

The six, led by Steven Moll, 41, of Folsom, Calif., had hoped that after reaching Chukotka in the Russian Far East, they could continue south for 5,000 more miles to Taiwan.

Each of the six rode a 2008 GTX, 215-horsepower Sea-Doo made by the Canadian company Bombardier that carried enough gasoline for a 250-mile trip. They had planned to buy more fuel at stops along Russia’s vast eastern coast.

But what seemed like a well-scripted stunt hit a snag when the headlights from the watercraft sent Russian border agents into high alert. Much of the Russian coastal region is designated as a prohibited military zone.
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Chukotka has proved a formidable obstacle to would-be world travelers before. In 2006 Karl Bushby, a Briton trying to circumnavigate the globe on foot, walked across the frozen Bering Strait into the region and was arrested for failing to register with the Russian authorities after coming ashore. On Wednesday, after their release from custody but expulsion from Russia, the team made a six-hour cannonball run back across the Strait, whose waves can reach a height of 20 feet or more.

Russian Warships Sent on Maneuvers Near Syria

MOSCOW — Russia, which seems intent on positioning itself as an increasingly decisive broker in the Syrian crisis, announced on Tuesday that a flotilla of navy vessels had sailed to the Mediterranean Sea and some would dock in the Syrian port of Tartus. The naval group includes several landing craft with marines.

The voyage and naval maneuvers seemed designed to convey a message that Russian leaders would protect their interests in Syria, Russia’s most important relationship in the Middle East, even as they restrict new shipments of weapons to President Bashar al-Assad’s government until the conflict subsides, as military export officials had announced on Monday.
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Russian military officials have repeatedly hinted at a possible role in Syria for their naval power, diminished but still floating two decades after the Soviet collapse. The ships have been presented as a means either to evacuate Russian citizens or to secure the naval fueling station at Tartus, on the Syrian coast.

Though little more than a floating pier and small barracks, the site is Russia’s only remaining foreign military base outside the former Soviet Union. Any Russian presence on the coast would serve as a tripwire to prevent Western military intervention.

The statement by the Defense Ministry said ships had steamed from ports of the Northern and Black Sea fleets.

Russia Picks Politics Over Syria Arms Exports

Moscow’s announcement on Monday that it was refusing to make new arms sales to Syria came unexpectedly, after top Russian diplomats previously staunchly defended Russia’s right to supply arms to the embattled Assad regime.

“Until the situation stabilizes we will not deliver any new weapons” to Syria, Dzirkaln said at the Farnborough airshow in Britain. He said this included, in particular, the 36 Yak-130 combat training aircraft that Syria was intending to purchase for a total price of $550 million.

From the onset of the conflict in Syria last spring, Russian Foreign Ministry and political leadership has persistently maintained that Moscow’s arms shipments do not violate any international laws and will be continued.

Putin Says Russia to Prioritize India, China

Russia intends to maintain special cooperation with the emerging powers of China and India, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday at a gathering of Russia's top diplomats and foreign representatives.

"Our cooperation with China has the most important strategic and practical importance," Putin said. "We intend to pay special attention to deepening all forms of cooperation with our Chinese partners including coordination of our actions in the agenda of international affairs," he added.

"This also applies to other rapidly developing and increasingly politically important Asian states, including foremost our traditional partner and friend India," Putin said.
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"The June summit with the EU confirmed the priority character of Russian-European strategic dialog," he said. "At the same time, the level of cooperation with the EU in our view, has not reached its full potential,"he said.

Russia's Putin says the West is on the decline

(Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Monday the West's influence was waning as its economy declines but warned Russian diplomats to be on their guard against a backlash from Moscow's former Cold War enemies.

In a biennial speech to Russian ambassadors, Putin also took a shot at the West by condemning any unilateral actions to solve international disputes and underlined the importance of resolving such conflicts through the United Nations.
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"Domestic socio-economic problems that have become worse in industrialized countries as a result of the (economic) crisis are weakening the dominant role of the so-called historical West," Putin told a meeting of Russian ambassadors from across the world.
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Putin reiterated accusations that the West is engaging in unilateral diplomacy outside the United Nations to maintain influence in world politics, and implied again that the West was behind the Arab Spring revolutions.

"We are seeing attempts by individual players in the international community to keep the influence they are used to by which our partners often use unilateral actions that contradict international law," he said.

"This can be seen from the so-called humanitarian operations ... and intervention in internal conflicts."