Russia 091204 Basic Political Developments
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RIA: Russia to equip railways with antiterrorist attack detectorshttp://en.rian.ru/russia/20091204/157095393.html 12:0104/12/2009 MOSCOW, December 4 (RIA Novosti) - A group of Russian scientists has developed detectors to prevent terrorist attacks on Russian railways, a former Russian railways engineers research institute head told Russian Channel 1 television on Friday. According to Viktor Poplavsky, the detectors will use the Global Navigation Satellite System (Glonass), the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Global Positioning System, or GPS, and is designed for both military and civilian use. Both systems allow users to determine an object's position to within a few meters. The statement came after last week's terrorist attack on the Nevsky Express high speed train between Moscow and St. Petersburg. This week the Russian Railways company said that a railway linking Moscow and St. Petersburg will be equipped with a video monitoring system within five years.
MOSCOW, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- A special Russian commission announced on Thursday the final list of the crew members for the 22nd mission to the International Space Station (ISS). U.S. astronaut Timothy J. Creamer, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov and Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi (L-R) wave to the media during a news conference at the Star City space centre outside Moscow Dec. 3, 2009. All three astronauts, including one Russian, one American and one Japanese, had passed their final tests before flight with extraordinary scores last weekend, said Russia's astronaut training center. The mission is scheduled to leave for the ISS on board the Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft on Dec. 21.
(AFP) – 6 hours ago MOSCOW — US astronaut Timothy Creamer said on Thursday he was impatient to taste "space sushi" courtesy of his Japanese crewmate after they arrive on the International Space Station (ISS) later this month. "We can't wait for when Soichi makes us sushi!" Creamer said, referring to Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, at a press conference at the Star City cosmonaut training centre outside Moscow, the Interfax news agency reported. Noguchi and Creamer -- a US Army colonel making his first flight to space -- as well as Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov will blast off on December 21 from the Baikonur space base in Kazakhstan for a two-day voyage to the ISS in a cramped Soyuz capsule. Separately, recent ISS resident Robert Thirsk said the re-entry ride in the Soyuz had been his favourite part of his entire six-month space voyage. "The landing was the most interesting and dynamic part of my expedition," said Thirsk, a Canadian astronaut who returned to Earth on Tuesday along with Belgian Frank De Winne and Russian Roman Romanenko. "In the last 20 minutes before landing the shuttle shook violently and plasma fire could be seen out the window. The feeling was 10 times stronger than all of my expectations!" Despite the fiery visuals described by Thirsk, Japan's Noguchi expressed full faith in the safety of Russia's Soyuz capsule, whose Soviet-era design has not changed since the 1960s. "The Soyuz is a very reliable and time-tested space shuttle. I really like its design and I am sure that our flight on it will be without incident," Noguchi said, quoted by RIA-Novosti news agency. The ISS will be manned by just two people, US astronaut Jeff Williams and Russian cosmonaut Maxim Surayev, until the three new crew members arrive on December 23.
By Anna Hassapi POLICE investigators are reportedly examining the possibility that the murder of 61-year-old Russian millionaire Yuri Kirilov was a mafia hit. It has already been confirmed that investigators are looking into his past in Russia in search of a business associate with whom Kirilov may have had differences. Statements given to police by Kirilov’s friends and business associates in Cyprus have revealed that the 61-year-old maintained a booming business in Russia in the 1990s. Some of these statements also indicated that Kirilov’s business activity got him involved in dangerous circles and that there had been friction in his past business dealings. Investigators have contacted Russian authorities and have initiated a close cooperation in search for leads in solving the beach murder. They suspect the murder was a Russian mafia hit even though the way in which Kirilov was killed was not the usual modus operandi of mafia-style assassinations, as there was evidence that a struggle preceded the 61-year-old’s death. According to police information the man had gone to the Ayios Tychonas spot where he was killed to meet people representing the interests of business rivals. The fact that Kirilov was beaten and then strangled indicates that murdering him was a spontaneous decision and therefore may not have been premediated as a professional hit would have been. It is therefore being speculated that Kirilov may have turned down a proposal or that the victim and whoever he met on the night of the murder had an argument prior to the strangling. Furthermore, if Kirilov was killed by a mafia rival with whom he had differences in the 1990s the question is raised as to why the Russian mafia waited close to two decades to take vengeance.
RIA: One killed, four injured in attack on south Russia caféhttp://en.rian.ru/russia/20091204/157093941.html 09:1804/12/2009 MAKHACHKALA, December 4 (RIA Novosti) - One civilian was killed and four police officers injured when a gunman opened fire in a cafe in Dagestan, the southern Russian republic's Interior Ministry said on Friday. The gunman opened fire using an automatic weapon against the officers in a cafe in the town of Khasavyurt, close to the administrative border with Chechnya, late on Thursday, the ministry said. "Four police officers were hospitalized, one civilian died at the scene," the ministry said adding one of the officers is in critical condition. Dagestan and the other mainly Muslim regions of Russia's North Caucasus have been plagued by instability recently. Skirmishes between troops and separatists, and attacks on police and other officials have been reported daily. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pledged in his annual phone-in on Thursday to wage "a ruthless fight" against militant groups, but also acknowledged a need to tackle unemployment, organized crime, clan rivalry and corruption as causes of the ongoing violence. |