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.

Venezuela to Buy More Russian T-72 Tanks

Caracas and Moscow have agreed on the purchase of additional 100 T-72 main battle tanks by Venezuela as part of a $4-bln loan secured by the oil-rich Latin American country in 2011 to buy Russian weaponry, Russia’s Kommersant newspaper said on Wednesday.

Russia completed in March the delivery of 92 modernized T-72B1V MBTs, the Smerch multiple-launch rocket systems and other military equipment to Venezuela under a separate $2.2-bln loan secured by Chavez' government in 2010.

Venezuela is a leading importer of Russian arms. Between 2005 and 2007, Caracas signed $4 billion worth of arms deals with Russia to buy Sukhoi fighter jets, combat helicopters, and small arms.

Mongolia: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Sandwiched between China and Russia, Mongolia has long faced the dilemma of which neighbor to look to for economic and political support. However, since the fall of the Communist regime, Mongolia has pursued a ‘third neighbor’ policy that aims diversify its investment and trade relations beyond China and Russia. Since then, Mongolia has boosted ties with the United States, Canada, the European Union (Germany and the UK in particular) as well as South Korea and Japan. Beyond the economic realm, Mongolia has also contributed to UN peacekeeping missions, deployed troops to Iraq, and conducted joint military exercises with a host of states. In May 2012, Mongolia attended the 2012 NATO summit in Chicago under auspices of the Individual and Cooperation Program.

Mongolia also participates in regional initiatives such as the ASEAN Regional Forum. The country also holds observer status within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and is actively seeking membership of organizations like the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Yet regional initiatives or cooperation with NATO do not provide Mongolia with any concrete security guarantees. Regional cooperation across East Asia – which is mainly focused on the economic realm – does not in its current form alter the balance of power politics still dominant in the region’s security dynamics. And while globalization may diminish the significance of physical distance, Northeast Asia’s economic and security dynamics ensure that Ulan Bator needs to maintain stable relations with its two powerful neighbors.

German court rules religious circumcision on boys an assault

BERLIN — Circumcising young boys on religious grounds amounts to grievous bodily harm, a German court ruled Tuesday in a landmark decision that the Jewish community said trampled on parents' religious rights.

The regional court in Cologne, western Germany, ruled that the "fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental rights of the parents", a judgement that is expected to set a legal precedent.

"The religious freedom of the parents and their right to educate their child would not be unacceptably compromised, if they were obliged to wait until the child could himself decide to be circumcised," the court added.

The case was brought against a doctor in Cologne who had circumcised a four-year-old Muslim boy on his parents' wishes.

A few days after the operation, his parents took him to hospital as he was bleeding heavily. Prosecutors then charged the doctor with grievous bodily harm.
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The head of the Central Committee of Jews, Dieter Graumann, said the ruling was "an unprecedented and dramatic intervention in the right of religious communities to self-determination."

The judgement was an "outrageous and insensitive act. Circumcision of newborn boys is a fixed part of the Jewish religion and has been practiced worldwide for centuries," added Graumann.

Putin, Peres unveil Netanya memorial honoring Red Army

The tragedies and triumphs of the Soviet experience during World War II were remembered at the unveiling of a monument dedicated to the Red Army in Netanya on Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who began a tour of the country on Monday, and President Shimon Peres both attended the ceremony. They spoke of the crucial part the USSR played in defeating Nazi Germany.

“This is an opportunity to thank the Red Army,” said Peres. “Had it not defeated the Nazi beast then it is doubtful we would be standing here today. In World War II the Soviet Union prevented the world from surrendering.”

Putin, who spoke after Peres, expressed his gratitude to the president for his speech.

“What I just heard has warmed my feelings toward the Jewish people and especially toward Israel,” he said.
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The Victory Monument, as it is officially called, was a joint initiative of Israel and Russia implemented by a committee with members from both countries. It has two parts The first is a tunnellike passage made of black concrete symbolizing the hardships and sacrifices of the war. It leads to the second part, an open space overlooking the sea where two giants wings made of white marble have been erected.

More than half a million Jews fought in the Red Army in WWII against the Nazis; 120,000 were killed.