Ukraine Activists Protest Russia Language Bill

About 1,000 opposition activists were rallying in the capital of Ukraine on Thursday to protest legislation upgrading the status of the Russian language.

The Ukrainian parliament passed the bill Tuesday that would allow the use of Russian in courts, education and other government institutions in Russian-speaking regions of the country.

Members of Ukraine's pro-Western opposition say that such a law would effectively smother the Ukrainian language by removing any incentive for millions of Russian-speaking Ukrainians to learn it. They also say it would bring Ukraine back into the Russian orbit and torpedo its efforts to forge closer ties with the European Union.
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Lawmakers loyal to President Viktor Yanukovych, who draws his support from the Russian-speaking east and south, rushed the bill through the parliament, without giving the opposition much chance to oppose it in a debate. Parliament's speaker, whose signature on the bill is required before it is given to the president, resigned in protest.

Ukraine's jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko sent a message of support to the protesters from a prison in the country's east where she is serving a seven-year term for abuse of office.

From farms to factories, Russians wary of WTO

LENIN STATE FARM, Russia (AP) — Migrant workers, some stripped to their underwear in the sweltering heat, pick fragrant strawberries from the sprawling fields of Lenin State Farm, a former collective that has become one of the most successful farms around Moscow.

Director Pavel Grudinin says his strawberries are better than anything else in the Russian capital because they go from field to shelf in under 24 hours.

But with Russia joining the World Trade Organization next week, Grudinin worries that rules designed to ensure fair trade will put him at a disadvantage. He says it will be hard for him to compete with U.S. and European producers who can offer lower prices — because they don't have to deal with corruption and bureaucracy.

Thousands of businesses across Russia are fearful as the country — after 18 years of negotiations — is set to join the WTO, which restricts import duties and subsidies in an effort to even the playing field for international trade. Parliament needs to approve the ascension by July 10, something almost sure to happen as Russian President Vladimir Putin — whose party controls parliament — says WTO membership will bring increased foreign investment and make Russian companies more competitive.

Grudinin says those rosy projections fail to take into account the toll of never-ending inspections and official checks.

"That's why we're not competitive," he says. "We don't get much support compared to European and American farmers. We'd better deal with corruption first and then join the WTO, not the other way around."

Euro 2012: For Poland and Ukraine, the hangover begins now

In one of his short stories, Polish science-fiction writer Stanislaw Lem imagined a spy from an alien culture making a report on the Earth’s activities based on years of distant observation.

One of the things he marvels at is our piety — every weekend, tens of thousands of us fill large, open-air houses of worship to cheer on the priests, who work in teams on grass.

Lem meant this, like he meant just about everything, as a swipe at totalitarianism and our circus-cult generally. Like all great satire, it turns out to be indistinguishable from the truth.
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For Poland and Ukraine, the hangover started Monday.

Euro 2012 left little of real worth for either country. Many of the planned infrastructure improvements — the easiest way to sell these things to non-sports fans and various other realists — weren’t finished. Watchdog groups have been stymied in their efforts figure out the exact cost of hosting the tournament — originally estimated around $50 billion (U.S.).
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When people remember the tournament in five years time, they’ll remember Spain, Pirlo’s Panenka and racism. None does Poland or Ukraine any good.

All big, expensive, global showcases are idealized as a vast program of forced modernization. They need to be. Developed countries, where it’s harder to hide the cost overruns, have been slowly losing interest.

Space Station Crew Lands in Kazakhstan

A Soyuz reentry capsule with three members of the International Space Station (ISS) crew landed safely in Kazakhstan on Sunday, mission control said.

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, NASA astronaut Don Pettit and European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers have spent more than six months in orbit.

While in orbit, the crew performed one space walk and several docking and undocking operations. They also conducted more than 30 scientific research experiments.

Russia Approves Ulyanovsk NATO Hub

The Russian government has given approval for the United States and its NATO allies to use a Russian air base in the Volga city of Ulyanovsk as a hub for transits to and from Afghanistan.

The decree is dated June 25.

Moscow announced plans to create a NATO transit hub in Ulyanovsk in March. The decision sparked protests in the city, the birthplace of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin.

Dozens wounded as Serbs, Kosovo police clash

By Fatos Bytyci and Aleksandar Vasovic

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 17:32 GM

PRISTINA/BELGRADE, June 28 (Reuters) - More than 50 people were injured in clashes on Thursday when the authorities in Kosovo deported a group of visiting Serbs who accused the police of shooting at them, leaving one with life-threatening gunshot wounds.

The group of about 70 mostly young Serbs was travelling in two buses to Gazimestan, a religious and historic site close to the capital Pristina, when police turned them back, arguing they had become "very aggressive, drunk and were provoking both police and citizens".

Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, but tensions between the 90 percent Albanian majority and the small Serb minority have persisted, and relations with Belgrade itself have remained strained.

Serbian health authorities said one Serb sustained life-threatening injuries in the clashes and that five others were hospitalised with gunshot wounds. A total of twenty Serbs sought medical care in the towns of Kursumlija and Prokuplje, just outside Kosovo.

Police in Kosovo declined to confirm whether they had fired live rounds at the Serb group.

Doctors in Gracanica, a Serb municipality close to the capital Pristina, said they had treated 17 injured people after Molotov cocktails and stones were thrown at the Serbs' buses.

NATO's mission in Kosovo also said Molotov cocktails had been thrown at the convoy - as it passed through Pristina - and condemned the violence.

An Olive Branch from the Kremlin?

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday proposed legislation that analysts say could considerably weaken the power vertical he has spent the past 12 years erecting. In a draft bill submitted to legislators on Wednesday, Putin set out the principles by which the upper house of the Russian Parliament will be formed. This is his fourth attempt to reform the largely rubber-stamp chamber in 12 years.

A wave of massive protests that swept the country after the December parliamentary elections has forced the Kremlin to undertake some political reforms. Five days before leaving office, former President Dmitry Medvedev signed laws introducing gubernatorial elections and lowering requirements for running in parliamentary and presidential elections. But analysts said the measure, which Medvedev said would "raise the level of political culture," did not go far enough to enshrine the fundamental principle of democracy.

One of the shortcomings of Medvedev’s hasty political reforms, analysts say, is the absence of direct elections to the Federation Council. The latest amendments submitted by president Putin are expected to bridge that gap by instituting “direct elections” for senators. The current Federation Council, which cements Putin’s power vertical by routinely rubber-stamping all of the Kremlin’s legislative initiatives, is made up of two randomly chosen representatives from each of Russia’s 87 regions.