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.
.....
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.
.....
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.
.....
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.