Global Politician: Medvedev-Merkel duo have started campaign to excuse Stalin, Hitler

Japan and Russia have never signed a peace treaty over World War II. The reason for this is that there is a dispute over four islands off Hokkaido that were occupied by Soviet forces that were once in Japanese hands. A 1956 Japanese-Soviet joint declaration signed in Moscow stated that Shikotan island and the Habomai islets would be returned to Japan after a peace treaty was concluded between Japan and the Soviet Union.

The Japanese call the islands the ‘Northern Territories’ and the Russians call the islands the Southern Kurils.

Japan has rejected the Russian solution to the land dispute. Russia has offered that they would return two of the four islands seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. Japan expects that all four will be returned. Japan has been flexible on the timing of the return of the islands and the recognition of Japanese sovereignty.

According to a 2006 report by the Pacific Forum of the Center for Strategic Studies, the “Northern Territories” problem is a multilaterally created bilateral problem. “Chapter II of the San Francisco Peace Treaty specified that Japan renounced Southern Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands, but did not specify these territories’ recipient or their precise boundaries. The treaty was legitimized in a multilateral framework in being signed by forty-nine countries, but the signatories did not include the USSR.” According to the report, agreement to transfer Southern Sakhalin and the Kurils from Japan to the USSR was reached by Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin at their Yalta Conference in February 1945. When the parties saw that the San Francisco Treaty did not include clear boundary demarcations, the problem arose which led to there being no peace treaty between Russia and Japan.

In 1951, Prime Minister of Japan S. Yoshida, speaking at the Conference in San Francisco, stated:

… With respect to the Kuriles and South Sakhalin, I cannot yield to the claim of the Soviet Delegate that Japan had grabbed them by aggression.

At the time of the opening of Japan, her ownership of two islands of Etorofu and Kunashiri of the South Kuriles was not questioned at all by the Czarist government. But the North Kuriles north of Urruppu and the southern half of Sakhalin were areas open to both Japanese and Russian settlers. On May 7, 1875 the Japanese and Russian Governments effected through peaceful negotiations an arrangement under which South Sakhalin was made Russian territory, and the North Kuriles were in exchange made Japanese territory. But really, under the name of “exchange” Japan simply

ceded South Sakhalin to Russia in order to settle the territorial dispute. It was under the Treaty of Portsmouth of September 5, 1905 concluded through the intermediary of President Theodore Roosevelt of the United States that South Sakhalin became also Japanese territory.Both the Kuriles and South Sakhalin were taken unilaterally by the Soviet Union as of September 20, 1945, shortly after Japan’s surrender. Even the islands of Habomai and Shikotan, constituting part of Hokkaido, one of Japan’s four main islands, are still being occupied by Soviet forces simply because they happened to be garrisoned by Japanese troops at the time when the war ended.

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR A.A. Gromyko, speaking at the Conference in San Francisco, stated:

“The rights of the Soviet Union to the southern part of the Sakhalin Island and all the islands adjacent to it, as well as to the Kurile Islands, which are at present under the sovereignty of the Soviet Union, are equally indisputable.

Thus, while resolving the territorial questions in connection with the preparation of a peace treaty with Japan, there should not be any lack of clarity if we are to proceed from the indisputable rights of states to territories which Japan got hold of by the force of arms…

Similarly, by attempting to violate grossly the sovereign rights of the Soviet Union regarding Southern Sakhalin and the islands adjacent to it, as well as the Kurile Islands already under the sovereignty of the Soviet Union, the draft also confines itself to a mere mention of the renunciation by Japan of rights, title and claims to these territories and makes no mention of the historic appurtenance of these territories and the indisputable obligation on the part of Japan to recognize the sovereignty of the Soviet Union over these parts of the territory of the USSR.

We do not speak of the fact that by introducing such proposals on territorial questions the United States and Great Britain, who at an appropriate time, signed the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations, as well as the Yalta Agreement, have taken the path of flagrant violation of obligations undertaken by them under these international agreements.”

The omission of text in the peace treaty that specifically stated that Japan acknowledged the sovereignty of the USSR over southern Sakhalin and the Kurils resulted in the Soviet Union’s delegation refusing to sign the San Francisco Peace Treaty.

Soon thereafter, the 1956 Joint Declaration of Japan and the USSR was signed on October 19, 1956 in Moscow and was ratified on December 7, 1956.

Not Quite Rapprochment

The disputed territory was discussed at the opening of Russia’s first liquefied natural gas plant. In February, OAO Gazprom opened the new plant on the Sakhalin Island. According to the Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, who attended, Russia is “building a window to Asia” and it will provide about 7% of Japan’s LNG

demand. He is the first Japanese Prime Minister to visit the island since World War II. According to the BBC, Mr. Aso and Mr. Medvedev spoke after the inauguration of the LNG plant and they have accelerated their efforts to resolve the territorial dispute without leaving it to future generations.

According to the Moscow Times, President Medvedev and Japanese Prime Minister Aso met on the sidelines of the Group of Eight meeting in L’Aquila, Italy. They exchanged views on the dispute of the Kuril Islands. They have “agreed to disagree.”

On June 11th, the lower house of the Japanese parliament amended a bill on what Japan calls the Northern Territories and declared the islands “historic territory of Japan.” Russia’s reaction and response at the time was disapproving. On July 3rd the upper house of the Japanese parliament approved that the four southern islands of the Kuril chain belong to Japan.

“These actions by Japan are out of place and unacceptable. It is well known that the South Kuril Islands legitimately went over to the Soviet Union and then to Russia on the basis of the results of World War II. Consequently, any ‘return’ of those territories has never been, is not, and cannot be considered,” the document said.

“It is a bewildering fact that Tokyo has recently decided to escalate its illegitimate territorial claims on Russia. First, unacceptable statements on ‘the illegal occupation of the South Kurils by Russia’ were made at the highest governmental level, and now Parliament is persistently voicing the objective of ‘returning’ them,” the statement continued.

“It has not gone unnoticed for Moscow that the further development of visa-exempt exchanges with Russians living on the islands and the ‘rejuvenation’ of the Japanese participants of the so-called ‘movement for the return of the northern territories’ have been named among ‘methods’ of achieving the goal of ‘the earliest possible return of the islands,’” it said.

“The fanning of territorial claims on Russia, with the attempt to tie visa-exempt exchanges between Russia and Japan to this, does not promote bilateral dialogue on signing a peace treaty and may impede contacts in the border regions of the two countries,” the statement said.

Prior to the parliamentary moves, political analyst Ekaterina Koldunova said that ownership of the Kuril Islands is an issue of strategic importance for Russia since it’s the country’s access to the Pacific Ocean. 

Whether or not the Kuril Islands are as strategically important to Russia as the islands may have been a few decades ago has been a topic of discussion among other strategic experts.

Since, Russia’s State Duma responded to the parliamentary moves suggesting that the Japanese parliament disavow its decision in order to further talks on a peace agreement.

As recently as August 8th, Japan has been sending delegations to the islands under visa-free exchange programs. On August 8th, a delegation of 64 Japanese teachers and students visited Shikotan Island under a bilateral visa-free exchange program. In order to deepen mutual understanding between Japan and Russia toward a solution of the territorial dispute, the exchange program was launched in 1992.

Russia has interpreted the June parliamentary decision as a dangerous precedent in world politics and in the Asia-Pacific region and as a threat to Russia’s national security, according to Vladimir Kozin, an independent political analyst. Kozin also has said that from the Russian perspective the June parliamentary move has been

regarded as an attempt to redraw postwar borders already fixed by international law.

However, while the debate now seems to have shifted to be centered on the parliamentary decisions in Japan, whether both parties will ever try to achieve the conditions as set out in the 1956 Japanese-Soviet declaration in order to move forward on a peace treaty seems less probable at this point. So does the prospect of using the framework of international law. Should a problem that started in a multilateral framework be solved within another multilateral framework like the UN? Both countries are using domestic politics to assert their historical claims to the territory and are not looking for mutually acceptable solutions to the dispute.  While Japan has been hoping for an official end to World War II by resolving the Kuril dispute, Russia has been for years emphasizing that stronger trade ties will normalize Japan-Russia relations.  

Japan has since stated that there would be less economic cooperation in Russia’s Far East without progress in finding a solution to the territorial problem. Japanese Prime Minister Aso has expressed his frustration with the status quo by stating that “Japan cannot be satisfied with this situation. Unless Russia takes practical steps to sign a peace treaty, we will be unable to develop partner relations with it in the Asia-Pacific region.”  The impact to both economies might not be deserving casualties.  

Analysts have been considering how Aso’s clear-cut statement will affect Japanese business owners who might be willing to conduct business in Russia even without a political solution surrounding the Kuril Islands dispute.

Most recently, Federation Council of Russia Chairman Sergey Mironov arrived in Sakhalin Region on August 11th in order to get acquainted with the Kuril Islands and to get to know the social and economic situation in the region. 

It has labeled the Japanese parliamentary initiative as “the most unfriendly gesture, which is insulting to the Russian people.”

Over the years, solutions as to how to resolve the territorial issue have included involving a third party, especially the United States, in the negotiations. Other solutions have included cooperative ways to share the land, a two island solution, and retaining the status quo.

http://www.examiner.com/x-5249-SF-Foreign-Policy-Examiner~y2009m8d18-Annexed-islands-in-the-sea-Russia–Japan-since-the-end-of-World-War-II-not-status-quo-ante-bellum

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Russia, Czech Republic: Trading Diplomat Expulsions

Stratfor Today » August 18, 2009 | 2050 GMT

MICHAL CIZEK/AFP/Getty Images

Czech President Vaclav Klaus (L) with Russian Ambassador to the Czech Republic Alexei Fedotov on Jan. 7

Summary

A day after the Czech Republic expelled two Russian diplomats, Russia expelled two Czech diplomats Aug. 18. Such tit-for-tat expulsions are not uncommon, but the Czech Republic’s expulsion of the Russian diplomats likely is linked to Russian plans to undermine support for a U.S. ballistic missile defense (BMD) installation on Czech soil. Russia has proven before that it can influence public opinion abroad, and the Czech population is already divided over the U.S. BMD issue.

Analysis

Russia expelled two Czech diplomats Aug. 18, according to an announcement from a Russian official. This came in response to the Czech Republic’s expulsion of two Russian diplomats a day earlier. The Czech government accused the two Russian diplomats — one of them a deputy military attache — of spying for the Kremlin.

Such tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats are not uncommon, especially between Russia and European countries which still are home to a large number of Cold War-era “diplomats.” In the past few months alone, Russian diplomats allegedly involved in spying have been expelled by countries such as Ukraine, Estonia and the United Kingdom, and Moscow has promptly sent these countries’ diplomats back home in response.

But the occurrence in the Czech Republic is a bit more intriguing. According to STRATFOR sources, the Czechs are accusing the expelled Russian diplomats of working directly for the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, with the goal of influencing public opinion against the construction of a U.S. radar facility on Czech soil. This radar facility is a key part of the United States’ controversial plan to develop a ballistic missile defense (BMD) system in the Czech Republic and Poland. Russia sees this plan as a strategic threat. Though Washington has said the BMD system is not meant to be used against Russia but to serve as a defense against rogue states like Iran, this provides little relief to Moscow. Russia is not as worried about the BMD system itself as it is about the associated U.S. boots on the ground.

Russia has proven over the years that it can be quite effective at masterminding grassroots movements abroad that are in line with its interests, such as the Russian-supported anti-nuclear movement in the West during the 1960s (which still maintains a level of support to this day). Moscow has also strongly asserted itself in the

former Soviet republics to maintain influence, promoting Russian interests via outlets such as religion and youth groups and other social movements. In a recent address, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev advocated the building of Russian “cultural centers” in Ukraine and referred to the two countries’ shared history and brotherhood.

Russia’s efforts to influence Czech public opinion — if that is in fact what the expelled diplomats were doing — are facilitated by the split among the Czech population over the BMD issue. A recent poll indicated that 68 percent of the population is against a BMD installation on Czech territory, with many seeing it as an unnecessarily provocative move. Furthermore, the Czech government is perennially fragile and divided. Former Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek’s government fell only months ago in the middle of the Czech Republic’s EU presidency. The current caretaker government of Prime Minister Jans Fischer remains just as unstable, and BMD plans are one of the most divisive issues.

The activity of alleged Russian spies in the Czech Republic suggests that Russia is still working in its own way to advance Moscow’s interests abroad. The Czech government’s weakness and the population’s division on the BMD issue make it easier for Moscow to influence the Czech anti-BMD movement rather effectively, and create a big headache for both Prague and Washington.
 

http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20090818_russia_czech_republic_trading_diplomat_expulsions/?utm_source=Snapshot&utm_campaign=none&utm_medium=email

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Battle for Arctic territory continues, Canada increases military presence, Russia is best equipped

August 16, 10:22 PM · Joe D’Aquisto - Tucson World Travel Examiner

Russia’s NS 50 is the largest Icebreaker in the world.

Canada has recently begun Military exercises in the North Arctic region of their Country. This has been an ongoing discussion over the last few years. Canada, USA, Denmark, Norway and Russia are the only 5 countries that lay claim to regions of the Arctic. Due to global warming many of the ice caps and glaciers are melting and scientists believe there may be valuable natural resources such as minerals and even oil.

There has been a lot of speculation as to who will control the Arctic territory. Back in 2007 Russian explorers planted their flag on the seabed below the North Pole which caused a lot of ruckus and controversy among the other countries. Although this topic has been somewhat under the radar expect to see more coverage as time progresses and more ice starts to melt.

The Canadian Forces are attempting to show strength. The country’s military is not viewed as very powerful by most other nations and Denmark and Norway’s defense forces are significantly smaller than Russia’s or the United States. Denmark has just fewer than 23,000 active military members, Norway has around 27,000 and Canada is at right around 66,000. Russia has the 5th largest active duty military behind China, USA, India and North Korea. If you were to count active and inactive duty members, Russia would outnumber the United States.

Unlike Antarctica, which has a treaty that restricts territorial claims, there is no agreement on the Arctic region. So questions about drilling and territorial claims or even who would be responsible for environmental damage are very unclear.

Security expert John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org speculates that whoever has the best access to the Arctic region is most likely to control that area and right now it is Russia. Arctic sea ice is usually 1 to 3 meters up to (9 feet) thick. It is thickest during autumn and winter and shrinks during the spring and summer. Researchers have studied this for the past 50 years. It takes a special kind of ship called an “Icebreaker” to penetrate this ice. As of 2008, Russia reportedly had 6 Icebreaker boats, working to increase their fleet to 14. The USA has 2 that are worn out and very old. Russia also boasts of owning the world’s largest one, completing it in May of last year. These boats can take a long time to manufacture, up to 10 years.  Canada has 2 active Icebreakers and has had this technology for over 100 years.

For more information on Icebreaker statistics navigate to:

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/List_of_icebreakers

Canada is also concerned by the melting of ice each year through their Northwest Passage area, again according to scientists to be the result of global warming. This passage area if melted could be a key area that links the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, providing a significant shipping route for the country.

For statistics on World Military population navigate to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_active_troops

*The numbers provided are an approximation and not exact

 

Related Articles: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8204531.stm

Copyright 2009 Examiner.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Author

Joe D’Aquisto is an Examiner from Tucson. You can see Joe’s articles at: “http://www.Examiner.com/x-14096-Tucson-World-Travel-Examiner”

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Russian punk rockers rage against the Putin machine
Aug 16 08:26 AM US/Eastern

Alexei Nikonov (2nd left) and fellow members of the Russian punk rock group PTVP pose for a picture at a band rehearsal in St. Petersburg on August 10. Brashly shouting out his lyrics in crowded, smoky clubs, Nikonov zeroes in on provocative themes that most musicians here ignore — authoritarianism and injustice in today’s Russia.       Brashly shouting out his lyrics in crowded, smoky clubs, Alexei Nikonov zeroes in on provocative themes that most musicians here ignore — authoritarianism and injustice in today’s Russia. Nikonov, the outspoken singer of Saint Petersburg-based punk rock band PTVP, saves much of his venom for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, referring to him as a “pig” in one of his most strident songs. “We live in a feudal society,” Nikonov fumed in a backstage interview before a recent concert. “Everything is decided by one person, the dictator. The dictator decides everything.” This is not the sort of opinion one can find anymore on Russian television channels or most radio stations, where criticism of the government faded away after Putin became president in 2000. Though Putin stepped down last year to become prime minister, he is still widely seen as Russia’s true ruler. Meanwhile Russian rock music lost much of its rebellious spirit after being at the forefront of perestroika, the liberal reforms introduced by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s, musicians and critics say. Ironically, some of the leading figures in 1980s rock now perform at patriotic concerts organised by the Kremlin. But in Saint Petersburg, a city long seen as Russia’s “window to the West”, a handful of bands have defied the trend and continue to speak out. They include PTVP, whose full name translates as “The Last Tanks in Paris,” and some veteran bands who complain of being marginalized on television and radio because of their politics. “Most bands, for some reason, have become conformist and most music is just fun,” said Sergey Chernov, a music columnist for the St. Petersburg Times newspaper who has followed Russian rock since the 1980s. “PTVP are unique in touching on political and social subjects. There are probably two or three well-known bands who do this.” In 1981, when Saint Petersburg was called Leningrad, Communist authorities allowed the opening of the Soviet Union’s first legal rock-music club. Though closely overseen by the KGB, the Leningrad Rock Club became the heart of a vibrant scene in which many bands inserted veiled protest messages into their songs, which won enormous popularity as perestroika anthems. But with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, the old censorship vanished and capitalism became the new master of Russia’s music industry. The result was the “degradation” of Russian rock, said Mikhail Borzykin, the frontman of Televizor, a band which got its start in the Leningrad Rock Club and which is now one of Russia’s few politically outspoken rock groups. “When it comes one’s position as a citizen, it has become unfashionable to express it openly. There is an attitude that politics should be separate from art,” Borzykin said. The crushing of media freedom under Putin also had a devastating effect, as television and radio stations were taken over by Kremlin-friendly owners who feared the slightest hint of dissent, Borzykin said. “All show-business managers are connected, through rent or other financial obligations, to officials,” he said. “So they are very afraid of losing their small business by getting into any conflicts, even petty ones, with the authorities.” Last year, Televizor — which means “Television” — got into a conflict with a Saint Petersburg television channel that asked them to do a live performance, then canceled it after reviewing the songs Borzykin planned to sing. The channel said it was because the songs contained inappropriate words, but Borzykin called it political censorship. For radically outspoken PTVP, which was founded in 1996 in the small town of Vyborg near Russia’s border with Finland, the problems are even worse. Several times over the years, police rushed the stage and stopped concerts after Nikonov sang about Putin, and once in Vyborg he was hauled off to jail before being freed without charges, band members recalled. “It is mostly provincial towns that are afraid,” Nikonov said. The band is undoubtedly disrespectful to Putin, especially in its 2002 song “FSB Whore,” whose title refers to the KGB’s post-Soviet successor agency, which Putin once led. The song’s lyrics are: “Don’t listen to anything! / He always lies to you! / Putin, Putin, Putin! / A pig will find filth everywhere!” Whether due to censorship or simply the limited appeal of its raw punk rock, PTVP’s songs virtually never appear on television or radio. The band plays at clubs where it has a small but loyal following. “They have a clear point of view on what’s happening in Russia today on the political front,” said Pavel Isakov, a young fan at the recent PTVP concert in Saint Petersburg. “They have the right approach to this, the position that young people share, and not what the media like to promote.”

http://www.breitbart.com/print.php?id=CNG.3d88f50b0c43ce8c7501f32de76aa596.7c1&show_article=1

 

 

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Russia to Build Berlin-Style Wall in Abkhazia, Georgia Says

August 17, 2009

By Helena BedwellRussia plans to build a “Berlin- style” wall along the de facto border between Georgia and its separatist region of Abkhazia, Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said. “This once again proves that Russia’s real intention is to turn Abkhazia into a military outpost and to isolate the region from the rest of the world,” Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Davit Jalaghania told reporters in the capital Tbilisi today. Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba said planned improvements of border defenses “may involving building a wall in some areas that are considered dangerous.” The Abkhaz government is still demarcating the border, which runs along the Inguri River, Shamba said by telephone from the regional capital Sukhumi. Russia routed Georgia’s U.S.-trained army in a five-day war last August over the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Moscow later recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as sovereign states, a move condemned by the U.S. and many European countries. Russia has agreed to defend both regions’ borders. Russia has deployed 1,700 soldiers in Abkhazia and will increase that number to 3,636 by the end of this year when renovations are completed at its military base in the region, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Aug. 12. The number of Russian military personnel stationed in South Ossetia is slightly smaller, Serdyukov said.  URL: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aEjRH.MD3Zg0

 

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The Moscow Times » Issue 4211 » Opinion

Putin’s Golden Age 17 August 2009By Alexei Bayer To Our Readers The Moscow Times welcomes letters to the editor. Letters for publication should be signed and bear the signatory’s address and telephone number. Letters to the editor should be sent by fax to (7-495) 232-6529, by e-mail to oped@imedia.ru, or by post. The Moscow Times reserves the right to edit letters. Email the Opinion Page Editor Rereading my recent Moscow Times columns, I find that their negative tone conveys a wrong impression. Actually, I believe that the decade since Vladimir Putin became prime minister has been Russia’s Golden Age. I’m eager to set the record straight — not only because it is August, often a calamitous month in Russia, but also because troubling signs, ranging from the worsening economic crisis to increasingly brazen political murders, are multiplying. Over the past 10 years, Russia has prospered. Consumers have not had as wide a choice of goods and services — which they can also afford to buy — since 1913. Oil wealth may not have been divided equitably or used rationally, but money has trickled down, at least in Moscow. By the standards of the recent past, Russians have been remarkably free. There are no limits on foreign travel, and everyone can maintain contacts with foreigners without fear. Aside from the main television channels, journalists can generally write whatever they wish and criticize and ridicule even topmost officials. There is religious freedom and no ideological line that artists and writers must toe. Access to the Internet remains unrestricted. Until the war with Georgia, Russia had been at peace with its neighbors. It still respects post-Soviet borders, even though it lost historic territories and a large number of Russians are stranded in former Soviet republics. All in all, the next generation may look back at the Putin era with nostalgia. However, it is precisely the root of the problem. First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov this year declared that Russia could become the world’s most attractive country to live in by 2020. His words deserve to be carved in stone, along with that fabulous declaration by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev: “The current generation of the Soviet people will live under communism.” Based on every parameter — from incomes, life expectancy and environmental protection to highway quality, corruption, crime and legal protection — Russia is actually one of the worst places to live, at least in Europe. In 10 years of oil-fed prosperity, it has become even less attractive in some ways. Ugly nationalist, illiberal and intolerant forces have become more vociferous, and nostalgia for putative Soviet greatness and revanchist dreams has come to the fore. Any regime change in today’s Russia is bound to be for the worse. I recently spoke to an American businessman who praised Putin highly — if only because Putin has kept out some very angry people with very murky ideologies. However, the fact that those murky ideologies are on the rise is largely the fault of the Putin regime. At home, it opted for crony state capitalism, rewarding its inner circle by increasing the role of the state in the economy and rolling back liberal reforms. In foreign policy, Russia engaged in a low-grade confrontation with the West, accusing the United States of infringing on Russia’s spheres of influence and picking petty diplomatic squabbles with its neighbors. Russia is living in a self-imposed international isolation and has an inefficient, nontransparent economy dominated by corrupt bureaucrats and well-connected clans. Shameless personal enrichment has become the sole preoccupation of its elites, who see themselves as temporary caretakers. Much like the Soviet Union, the system fears change and has no mechanism for changing peacefully. Unlike the Soviet Union, however, it offers no solidarity of equal poverty and no hope for a better future. Now, there are the haves and the have-nots and an every-man-for-himself mentality. It does not make for a pretty picture. Alexei Bayer, a native Muscovite, is a New York-based economist.   http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1016/42/380831.htm     ===========================================================

 

Eastern Europe Shows Green Shoots as Germany Recovers (Update1)

 

By Zoltan Simon

Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) — East Europe’s economies, most of which endured record output declines last quarter, look poised to start recovering from recession in the second half as key export markets in western Europe return to growth.

Industrial production contracted at a slower pace in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia in June, helping the Slovak and Czech economies to grow last quarter from the first three months of the year.

“These are definitely green shoots,” Raffaella Tenconi, a Prague-based economist at Wood & Co., said in a phone interview. “For 2010, there’s definitely mounting evidence that GDP projections will be revised upwards.”

Eastern Europe’s export-reliant economies need a western European recovery to revive their manufacturing sectors and spur job growth. After Germany and France exited their recessions last quarter, prospects have brightened for a resurgence of demand that might help the region’s emerging economies expand.

“We see a good chance that the economic decline has already bottomed out in the region,” said Laszlo Bencsik, Chief Financial Officer at OTP Bank Nyrt., the Hungarian lender with units in Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine.

The forint traded at 274.56 per euro at 9:24 a.m. in Budapest, from 271.84 late on Aug. 14. The zloty fell to 4.1927 per euro from 4.1453 and the koruna slipped to 25.772 against Europe’s common currency from 25.686.

Worst Over?

The second quarter may have been the worst for most of the region’s economies.

The Czech Republic on Aug. 14 said its output contracted at a record annual pace of 4.9 percent last quarter, after shrinking 3.9 percent in the previous three months. Romania on Aug. 13 reported an annual economic contraction of 8.8 percent in the second quarter after slumping 6.2 percent in the first three months. Hungary’s economy fell an annual 7.6 percent last quarter, after shrinking 6.7 percent in the first quarter.

In Slovakia, where output grew on the quarter, the economy contracted an annual 5.3 percent in the second quarter, compared with a 5.6 percent slump in the previous three months. Poland is the only eastern European country to have avoided a recession.

At the same time, the decline in Czech industrial output eased to 12.2 percent in June from 22.1 percent at the start of the quarter. Hungary’s industrial output fell an annual 18.8 percent in June, compared with 22.1 percent in May.

Growth

The Czech economy may grow 1.4 percent next year, according to a Bloomberg survey of 11 economists, with separate surveys forecasting economic expansion in Poland, Russia and Slovakia. Three of eight forecasters expect Hungary’s GDP to increase in 2010. The median forecast is for a 0.5 percent contraction.

Even so, the recovery may be slow, after recessions left most governments hampered by swollen budgets, forcing them to push through austerity measures that may hurt demand, said David Oxley, a London-based economist at Capital Economics.

Hungary, Latvia and Romania have the added burden of meeting budget deficit targets set by the International Monetary Fund, which provided emergency loans to the countries to help them finance their deficits.

“There are signs of easing though it’s still quite a grim economic picture overall for eastern Europe,” Oxley said in a phone interview. “It’s too early to talk about a return to sustained growth.”

Oxley forecasts quicker recovery for Poland and the Czech Republic and a protracted road back to growth for Hungary, Romania and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, where he said budget constraints are tighter.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zoltan Simon in Budapest at zsimon@bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=av2×10BeexKI#

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Lithuania’s President; ‘NATO doesn’t have a defence plan for this (Baltic States) region’

July 28, 2009 <!–Ruslanas Iržikevičius–>

As the Lithuanian President Grybauskaite admitted the NATO has no plan a defence plan for the Baltic States.  A custom NATO defence plan for the Baltic States could be expected no earlier than in two years time.

As the BNS writes, a small state has to consider a mixed model for its armed forces, not excluding a certain extent of conscription, Grybauskaite on 28 July told the press after receiving the oath of office of Lithuania’s new Army Chief Major General Arvydas Pocius.

“A little country can think and consider mixed options. Especially as NATO, as you are aware, doesn’t have a defence plan for this region, and won’t have one for another two years at the least,” Grybauskaite said.

The shape Lithuania’s army reserve could take on, i.e. whether this would require reinstating mandatory military training for Lithuania’s youth, is still the object of discussions, Grybauskaite said.

“I haven’t heard any specific proposals, meaning at this time I have nothing to discuss in this respect,” the president spoke.

The North Atlantic Alliance’s developments on a specific defence plan for the Baltic State are yet to be clearly formulated and communicated.

Source BNS

http://irzikevicius.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/lithuania%e2%80%99s-president-%e2%80%98nato-doesnt-have-a-defence-plan-for-this-baltic-states-region%e2%80%99/

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Nigeria: Militants Free Lithuanian Hostages -Baltic Foreign Ministry

Paul Arhewe with Agency Report

15 August 2009

Lagos — Five Lithuanian sailors kidnapped off Nigerian coast have regained their freedom after 11 days under their ordeal, Baltic state’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Rolandas Kacinskas, announced on Friday.

“I can confirm that the kidnapped sailors are free and in good health,” Kacinskas told AFP.

The five men are due to return home within two to three days, he added. Beforehand, they are due to undergo medical checks and be questioned by Nigerian authorities. The Lithuanian-flagged refrigerator vessel, Saturnas, was attacked off Nigeria on August 3 by unidentified men.

The ship had a total crew of 14, all of them Lithuanian citizens. The attackers did not seize the vessel itself but left in a high-speed boat with the hostages.

No information about the captors or means used to win sailors’ release has been made public.

The Saturnas belongs to Lithuania’s Limarko Shipping Company, but like the government, the company had refused to comment on attempts to free its employees.

Last month, militants also freed six foreign crew members of a chemical tanker seized more than two weeks in the Niger Delta region.

Copyright © 2009 Daily Independent. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200908171071.html

 

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Porpoises make welcome Baltic return

Published: 14 Aug 09 16:55 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/21478/20090814/

Dictionary tool Double click on a word to get a translation

Marine biologists have been thrilled to hear of two porpoise sightings in the Baltic Sea in recent days. The blunt-snouted mammals, relatively common off Sweden’s west coast, have become almost extinct in the Baltic.

The Swedish Museum of Natural History is currently carrying out studies on the health, susceptibility to pollution, and genetics of the endangered species.

“To get two reports from the central Baltic in such a short space of time is fantastic,” said museum researcher Anna Roos in a statement.

“We generally just get the occasional report per year form the Baltic Sea and we now encourage anybody who spends time around the Baltic Sea area to keep an eye out for porpoises and report observations to us via our website,” she added.

The museum said the first of the two recent sightings was recorded south-east of Stora Fjärdholmen in the Stockholm archipelago. The second came a week later when a group of five to ten porpoises was spotted between the Söderarm and Tjärven lighthouses north-east of Norrtälje.

Porpoises are small-toothed whales and are related to dolphins. But, unlike dolphins, they can be hard to spot as they are quite shy and rarely leap out above the water’s surface.

Baltic Sea porpoises often die after becoming entangled in fishing nets and are listed as Critically Endangered.  

External link: The Swedish Museum of Natural History’s porpoise link »

Paul O’Mahony (paul.omahony@thelocal.se/08 656 6513)

http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=21478&print=true

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Baltic presidents urge citizens to remember ‘Baltic Way’

Posted on : 2009-08-17 | Author : DPA News Category : Europe

Riga - The presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania urged their people Monday to remember the events of 20 years ago that helped lead to the collapse of Communism. Toomas Hendrik Ilves of Estonia, Valdis Zatlers of Latvia and Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania released a joint statement calling on their citizens to take part in a Baltic unity run called “Heartbeats for the Baltics.”  As the Baltic states are currently experiencing the deepest recessions in the European Union, all three presidents stressed the need to revive the spirit of the “Baltic Way,” the name given to the human chain created on August 23, 1989, to call for the re- establishment of the three countries’ independence.  Some 2 million people participated in the original event, forming a 600-kilometre unbroken chain from Tallinn, through Riga, to Vilnius.  The Heartbeats for the Baltics event will see thousands of runners following the same route in a 24-hour relay race starting in Vilnius on August 22.  Estonian President Ilves said: “Let’s stay together in Estonia, and also with our friends in Latvia and Lithuania. I think that this run through three countries is a good idea which everyone should support.”  President Zatlers of Latvia spoke of “a new Baltic Way” that would “confirm unity,” while Lithuanian President Grybauskaite said it was “very important” to stand together.  “We can reduce the negative consequences of the recession, undertake greater responsibilities and be more courageous in dealing with the challenges of our age,” Grybauskaite said.  Besides the Heartbeats for the Baltics run, several other activities are planned to mark the occasion. Motorcylists will be riding the route in a parallel event, with flying clubs participating in an airborne version.

  http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/printstory.php?news=281690

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Memorial for 20th anniversary of Baltic Way to be unveiled in the Lilli-Ungurin border

BC, Tallinn, 17.08.2009.

 

On August 23, the Karksi municipality from Estonia and the Nauksene municipality from Latvia will unveil a memorial for the 20th anniversary of the Baltic Way in the Lilli-Ungurin border crossing point, writes the National Broadcasting/LETA.

The monument depicts seven life-sized human figures cut from the metal wall, standing, hand-in-hand. The author of the monument is the Latvian artist Andris Dunkurs who works with metals.

On behalf of Estonia, the minister of foreign affairs Urmas Paet, professor Rein Taagepera and the Viljandi County People’s Front leader Arnold Kimber will give speeches at the opening ceremony. Tõnis Mägi, Ieva Akuratere and local performers will perform.

A symbolic Baltic Way chain will be formed with those who attend the ceremony and a folk party will follow the ceremony.

 

BC, Tallinn, 17.08.2009.

 

On August 23, the Karksi municipality from Estonia and the Nauksene municipality from Latvia will unveil a memorial for the 20th anniversary of the Baltic Way in the Lilli-Ungurin border crossing point, writes the National Broadcasting/LETA.

The monument depicts seven life-sized human figures cut from the metal wall, standing, hand-in-hand. The author of the monument is the Latvian artist Andris Dunkurs who works with metals.

On behalf of Estonia, the minister of foreign affairs Urmas Paet, professor Rein Taagepera and the Viljandi County People’s Front leader Arnold Kimber will give speeches at the opening ceremony. Tõnis Mägi, Ieva Akuratere and local performers will perform.

A symbolic Baltic Way chain will be formed with those who attend the ceremony and a folk party will follow the ceremony.

 

http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/baltic_news/?doc=3684&ins_print

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Russia imposes restrictions on Lithuania’s exports of dairy products

Danuta Pavilenene, BC, Vilnius/Moscow, 17.08.2009.

As of this Monday, the Russian Federal Agency for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision introduces temporary restrictions on the imports of Lithuanian dairy products.

 

According to the site vesti.ru/LETA, four Lithuanian milk processing companies were banned from exporting milk, sour cream, curd and butter to Russia. The Russian veterinary service reported that these dairy products contained the prohibited antibiotic tetracycline.

Russian specialists intend to visit and inspect these Lithuanian companies in the short-run.

The Lithuanian State Food and Veterinary Service reacted to the document concerning the prohibition of exports which was presented by the Russian Federal Agency for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision and inspected the companies.

Another nine companies have also been crossed out from the list of exporters due to non-compliance with Russia’s regulations: several meat processing companies, suppliers of fish and refrigeration products. A total of 110 Lithuanian milk processing companies export to Russia.

http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/markets_and_companies/?doc=17062

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Capitals Hire Arturs Irbe as Goaltending Coach
http://capitals.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=469964
Thursday, 08.13.2009 / 9:03 AM / News

 

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900 police officers might be sacked in Lithuania

 

 

ARLINGTON, Va. – The Washington Capitals have hired Arturs Irbe as the organization’s goaltending coach, vice president and general manager George McPhee announced today. Irbe replaces Dave Prior, who recently resigned after 12 years with the club to spend more time with his family.

Irbe, 42, is a native of Riga, Latvia, and served as the goaltending coach for his hometown Dinamo Riga last season in the Kontinental Hockey League. He has also worked with the Latvian national team, which he represented in the 2002 and 2006 Olympics. Irbe is also a former teammate of Capitals’ assistant coach Dean Evason, as both players were with the San Jose Sharks from 1991-93.

Irbe native is a 13-year NHL veteran and played for San Jose, Dallas, Vancouver and Carolina. He played in 568 games and compiled a career record of 218-236-79 while appearing in two NHL All-Star Games (1994, 1999). His last NHL season was 2003-04, and he finished his NHL career with a 2.83 goals-against average and an .899 save percentage. Irbe played professionally in Europe after he left the NHL and retired completely after appearing in six games with Slovakia’s HK Nitra in 2006-07.

Irbe is fluent in English, Latvian, Russian and also speaks some German. He was selected in the 10th round, 196th overall, in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft by the Minnesota North Stars. He spent five years in the San Jose organization and made his NHL debut in the 1991-92 season when he appeared in 13 games. Irbe played in 74 games for the Sharks during 1993-94 and set an NHL record (since broken) by playing 4,412 minutes in the regular season. He spent the 1996-97 season with Dallas and the 1997-98 season with Vancouver before joining Carolina for the final six years of his career.

Irbe became a fixture in the Carolina net and played more than 50 games in each of his first four seasons with the Hurricanes. He registered career-best marks in GAA (2.22) and in save percentage (.923) during the 1998-99 season, his first with Carolina. He played a career high 77 games during the 2000-01 season and a year later he helped lead Carolina to the Stanley Cup final.

WASHINGTON — A pair of nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines has been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States in recent days, a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies about a more assertive stance by the Russian military.

The episode has echoes of the cold war era, when the United States and the Soviet Union regularly parked submarines off each other’s coasts to steal military secrets, track the movements of their underwater fleets — and be poised for war.

But the collapse of the Soviet Union all but eliminated the ability of the Russian Navy to operate far from home ports, making the current submarine patrols thousands of miles from Russia more surprising for military officials and defense policy experts.

“I don’t think they’ve put two first-line nuclear subs off the U.S. coast in about 15 years,” said Norman Polmar, a naval historian and submarine warfare expert.

The submarines are of the Akula class, a counterpart to the Los Angeles class attack subs of the United States Navy, and not one of the larger submarines that can launch intercontinental nuclear missiles.

According to Defense Department officials, one of the Russian submarines remained in international waters on Tuesday about 200 miles off the coast of the United States. The location of the second remained unclear. One senior official said the second submarine traveled south in recent days toward Cuba, while another senior official with access to reports on the surveillance mission said it had sailed away in a northerly direction.

The Pentagon and intelligence officials spoke anonymously to describe the effort to track the Russian submarines, which has not been publicly announced.

President Obama spoke by telephone with President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia on Tuesday, but it was not clear whether the subject of the submarines came up, although another source of friction between the two countries did. Mr. Medvedev called Mr. Obama to wish him a happy birthday and the White House said the president used the opportunity to urge Russia to work through diplomatic channels to resolve rising tensions with Georgia.

The submarine patrols come as Moscow tries to shake off the embarrassment of the latest failed test of the Bulava missile, a long-range weapon that was test fired from a submarine in the Arctic on July 15. The failed missile test was the sixth since 2005, and some experts see Russia’s assertiveness elsewhere as a gambit by the military to prove its continued relevance.

“It’s the military trying to demonstrate that they are still a player in Russian political and economic matters,” Mr. Polmar said.

One of the submarines is the newer Akula II, officials said, which is quieter than the older variant and the most advanced in the Russian fleet. The Akula is capable of carrying torpedoes for attacking other submarines and surface vessels as well as missiles for striking targets on land and at sea.

Defense Department officials declined to speculate on which weapons might be aboard the two submarines.

While the submarines have not taken any provocative action beyond their presence outside territorial waters of the United States, officials expressed wariness over the Kremlin’s motivation for ordering such an unusual mission.

“Anytime the Russian Navy does something so out of the ordinary it is cause for worry,” said a senior Defense Department official who has been monitoring reports on the submarines’ activities.

The official said the Navy was able to track the submarines as they made their way through international waters off the American coastline. This can be done from aircraft, ships, underwater sensors or other submarines.

“We’ve known where they were, and we’re not concerned about our ability to track the subs,” the official added. “We’re concerned just because they are there.”

Once among the world’s most powerful forces, the Russian Navy now has very few ships regularly deployed on the open seas. Moscow has contributed warships to the international armada searching for Somali pirates. In addition, a flotilla of Russian warships participated in exercises with Venezuela last year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/world/05patrol.html?_r=2&ref=europe&pagewanted=print

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MI5 is facing allegations that it mistakenly recruited Al Qaeda sympathizers who were trying to infiltrate the British secret service.

Patrick Mercer, a Conservative member of Parliament, is demanding a probe into claims six Muslims were thrown out of MI5 because of concerns about their past.

Two of the six allegedly attended Al Qaeda training camps in Pakistan while the others had unexplained gaps of up to three months in their resumes.

Mercer, counter-terrorism sub-committee chairman, told Sky News that MI5 is believed to have detected two sympathizers at a “fairly early stage” of their secret service training.

The others allegedly did not make it through vetting procedures.

However, Mercer wants clarification on how successful the security services have been at detecting enemy infiltrators.

“This is exactly the sort of work that MI5, MI6 and the other security services should be up to,” he said. “Of course, they should be attracting recruits from all sorts of different backgrounds, diverse backgrounds. The fact remains, it is not without risks… a subversive organization that is worth its salt will, of course, try to infiltrate.”

A government spokesperson said the service “takes vetting very seriously.”

“All candidates are required to undergo the most comprehensive process of security vetting in the UK.”

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,536081,00.html

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Sudanese Journalist ‘Ready for 40,000 Lashes’ for Wearing ‘Indecent’ Trousers

Monday, August 03, 2009

 AFP

Sudanese journalist Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein poses in Khartoum on June 13, 2009.

Sudanese journalist Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein poses in Khartoum on June 13, 2009.

Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein — an employee with the media department of the United Nations Mission in Sudan — will reportedly receive her punishment Tuesday after waiving the immunity granted to UN workers.

Article 152 of Sudanese law calls for 40 lashes for anyone “who commits an indecent act which violates public morality or wears indecent clothing.”

Sudanese authorities arrested Hussein and 12 other women for wearing trousers deemed inappropriate at a restaurant in Khartoum on July 3.

The two other women are also facing charges, according to the AFP.

“I’m ready for anything to happen. I’m absolutely not afraid of the verdict,” Hussein told the AFP.

“If I’m sentenced to be whipped, or to anything else, I will appeal. I will see it through to the end, to the constitutional court if necessary,” she said. “And if the constitutional court says the law is constitutional, I’m ready to be whipped not 40 but 40,000 times.”

Hussein told the news agency that her “main objective is to get rid of Article 152.” She said the article is “against both the constitution and sharia,” the Islamic law that governs northern Sudan.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,536261,00.html?test=latestnews

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Russian troops on high readiness in South Ossetia

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

MOSCOW — Russian troops in the breakaway province of South Ossetia have been put on increased combat readiness amid rising tensions on the de facto border with Georgia, according to officials.

Andrei Nesterenko, the spokesman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, said Tuesday the move was a response to Georgian “provocations” and meant to prevent more violence.

“The most important thing now is to prevent escalation and not to allow skirmishes to grow into bigger clashes,” Nesterenko said.

The situation near South Ossetia has become increasingly tense as the first anniversary of the Russian-Georgian war approaches Friday, with Georgia and Russia blaming each other for provocations and intentions to resume fighting.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called U.S. President Barack Obama late Tuesday “to wish him happy birthday,” and during the conversation the two leaders “discussed the situation in Georgia and the need to decrease tensions in the region,” the White House said in a statement.

Obama “reiterated the importance of working through established crisis management mechanisms such as the Joint Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism and underscored the need for international monitors,” the statement said.

The Kremlin said in a statement that Obama and Medvedev discussed the “lessons of last year’s Georgian crisis.” There was no elaboration.

Obama said during a recent summit in Moscow that Georgia’s territorial integrity must be respected.

The August 2008 conflict erupted after escalating exchanges of fire between Georgia and Moscow-backed South Ossetian forces.

South Ossetia’s separatists and Georgian authorities have accused each other of firing guns and mortar rounds on several occasions over the past few days.

The separatist leader, Eduard Kokoity, told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that “there is a danger that August 2008 will be repeated.”

“Today, Georgia’s military is more combat-ready and has a stronger potential” than during the run-up to last year’s conflict, Kokoity said.

In the latest incident, Monday night, South Ossetia’s separatist authorities said three mortar rounds were fired into South Ossetia from Georgian-controlled territory. Georgian authorities denied the claim and accused separatists of firing rocket-propelled grenades at a Georgian checkpoint near South Ossetia. No one was hurt.

The European Union said it was concerned about mutual accusations of shelling and other incidents, but added that EU monitors in Georgia had seen no evidence confirming them so far.

“The EU urges all sides to refrain from any statement or action that may lead to increased tensions at this particularly sensitive time,” the international organization said in a statement late Monday.

EU monitors are the only international ones remaining in Georgia, but they are blocked from traveling inside South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway region in Georgia.

An EU-brokered truce ended the five-day August war between Georgia and Russia. Russia sent in thousands of troops and tanks that routed the Georgian military and drove deep into Georgia.

Georgian authorities claimed they had to launch the artillery barrage on Tskhinvali, the provincial capital, because Russian troops had moved into South Ossetia hours earlier. Russian officials denied this, and claimed the country acted to protect its peacekeepers and civilians there.

After the war, Russia recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent nations and permanently deployed thousands of troops there.

The only other country to recognize the regions’ independence is Nicaragua.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said in an interview with France’s RTL radio broadcast Tuesday that there is a risk of a new conflict because Russia was putting constant pressure on Georgia. He said Georgia would not engage in conflict with Russia but would defend itself if necessary.

Meanwhile, a senior Russian diplomat voiced concern about what he said were U.S. plans to provide military assistance to Georgia.

“Washington is playing the key role in rearming the Georgian military machine,” Grigory Karasin, a deputy foreign minister, said in comments reported Tuesday by the Interfax agency. “It would be in the interests of Georgian democracy … to refuse to arm this country at all.”

South Ossetia’s Kokoity echoed Karasin’s sentiments, saying countries that arm Georgia “are responsible for any further (military) developments.”

On Tuesday, U.S. officials said that they have not ruled out providing defensive weapon systems for Georgia despite warnings by Russia.

Assistant Secretary of Defense Alexander Vershbow told lawmakers at a Senate hearing that U.S. military aid to Georgia was focused on training and modernization of Georgia’s military.

But he added that “other forms of assistance can take place. Nothing is off the table.”

Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon said at the same hearing that there “is no arms embargo on Georgia.”

The U.S. is discussing a Georgian request for $16 million in military aid this year, with most of the money intended for training and technical assistance. But Washington reacted coolly after Saakashvili told The Washington Post that Georgia was interested in acquiring heavy weapons for defensive purposes.

—-

http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1103ap_eu_russia_georgia.html

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Published: 10:55AM BST 05 Aug 2009

Madonna has been attacked by Catholics in Poland for a decision to stage her Sticky and Sweet concert on an important feast day.

 

Religious leaders have said that the decision to hold the concert, at an old Warsaw airfield, on August 15 is “blasphemous” since it coincides with the Feast of the Assumption, the day Roman Catholics believe that the Virgin Mary was taken to Heaven.

August 15 is also the Armed Forces Day, a combination of a religious and patriotic festival, since the Virgin Mary is believed to have defended Poland first from invading Swedes in 1655 and then against the Soviet Army’s cavalry in 1920.

In August, Poland, which is generally considered to be the centre of European Catholicism, is awash with pilgrims.

But this year, the faithful are flocking to the centre of Warsaw to pray for God to prevent Madonna’s concert, and open-air masses are being planned to mobilise support for the campaign against her.

They are also considering whether to take legal action against the organisers of the concert.

The Polish Solidarity founder Lech Walesa, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for establishing the first free trade union movement in the communist world, is among those preaching against the Material Girl.

“It’s a Satanic provocation,” Mr Walesa told The Times.

“I am a man of faith and ask for such events not to happen on such an important feast in my religion.”

Father Stanislaw Malkowski, one of the protest leaders, said the concert was “a profanity and blasphemous”.

“This is an attack by the devil on our immaculate Catholic nation, “said Father Malkowski.

It is not the first time the Material Girl has caused controversy in the Catholic world.

The video for her song, Like a Prayer, featured burning crosses and a kiss with a Christlike figure, while her Confessions tour three years ago saw the star crucified herself while wearing a crown of thorns.

At least one Cardinal has called for her to be excommunicated and German prosecutors considered, but later dismissed, charging her with deliberately offending religious communities.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/madonna/5975719/Madonna-attacked-by-Polish-Catholics-for-feast-day-Sticky-and-Sweet-concert.html

 

 

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Russia Threatens Retaliation After Lithuania Bars Journalist

The Macomb County Sheriff’s Office identified today the man and his 13-year-old nephew who drowned Tuesday on Lake St. Clair.

The pair was identified as Ricardas Repsys, 59, a priest from Southfield who was the administrator of Divine Providence Lithuanian Church in Southfield and his nephew, Toutvydays Skudas of Lithuania, who was visiting the area, according to sheriff’s news release.

Repsys’ other nephew, an unidentified 29-year-old man also of Lithuania who was visiting, was swimming when Skudas jumped into the water and began to have problems staying above the surface about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to the release.

Repsys then jumped in to try to rescue the teen, leaving a 72-year-old Warren woman alone on the 20-foot Southbay pontoon boat that was about one mile off Jefferson Avenue near 12 Mile in St. Clair Shores.

No one was wearing life jackets.

The woman, who was not identified, tried to throw life jackets to the trio, but was unable to reach them, the sheriff’s office said.

The 29-year-old tried to rescue Skudas and Repsys, but was unable to reach them and tried to flag down help.

He was pulled from the water unconscious and treated at Mt. Clemens Regional Medical Center, the sheriff’s office said.

The teen was found about 4:30 p.m. and rushed to St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit, where he was pronounced dead a short time later. His uncle’s body was found before 6 p.m.

Investigators previously said the woman who remained on the boat isn’t related to the victims. She called 911.

The Macomb County Medical Examiner is expected to conduct autopsies today on Repsys and Skudas.

Contact CHRISTINA HALL: 586-826-7265 or chall@freepress.com.

Edited by Michelle Koueiter and Michele Siuda Jacques.

http://www.freep.com/article/20090729/NEWS04/90729033/2-dead-in-Lake-St.-Clair-rescue-attempt-are-identified

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The Recession in Central Europe, Part 2: Country by Country

http://www.stratfor.com/node/143425/analysis/20090804_recession_central_europe_part_2_country_country

 

Stratfor Today » August 5, 2009 | 1146 GMT

Summary

No region has been affected by the global financial crisis quite like Central Europe, where a heavy burden of foreign debt, accumulated during the boom years of the 2000s, must be repaid in 2009. Not all Central European states are burdened by the same external debt load, but most face cutting social welfare expenditures as they sign on for relief from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. Administrations old and new will have a tough time protecting their currencies and stimulating growth at the same time.

Editor’s Note: This is part of an ongoing series on the global recession and signs indicating how and when the economic recovery will begin.

Analysis

Print Version

• To download a PDF of this piece click here.

Related Special Topic Page

• Special Series: The Recession Revisited

Related Links

• The Recession in Europe
• The Recession in Central Europe, Part 1: Armageddon Averted?

Central Europe is at the epicenter of the global financial crisis. The region became the top destination for foreign capital in 2002, overtaking East Asia; but since September 2008, it has experienced a massive outflow of foreign capital that threatens to crash the region’s currencies. The region founded its growth largely on the influx of foreign loans that are now in danger of appreciating in real value as domestic currencies depreciate.

Part 1 of this two-part analysis looked at the problems and policy options faced by Central Europe as a whole; Part 2 examines the economic and political situations unique to each country. For the purposes of this analysis, Central Europe is defined as Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Serbia. We exclude Austria, Slovakia and Greece because those countries are in the eurozone.

Complete report: http://www.stratfor.com/node/143425/analysis/20090804_recession_central_europe_part_2_country_country

 

 

The Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)

Of the three Baltic states, Latvia has thus far suffered the most from the financial crisis. However, in terms of macroeconomic indicators, Estonia is not much different than Latvia. Estonia’s gross external debt, most of which is privately held, is 116 percent of GDP, compared to Latvia’s 124.6 percent. Furthermore, Estonia and Latvia both have a very high percentage of foreign currency-denominated loans in their loan portfolios (86 percent and 90 percent, respectively). Were Latvia to abandon its currency peg to the euro, Estonia’s kroon would likely devalue as well because of investor pressures on the region as a whole.

Meanwhile, unemployment in Latvia is soaring, reaching 17.2 percent in June, compared to 7.5 percent in 2008. With one prime minister ousted in February, the current four-party coalition is looking shaky, especially as it attempts to implement the rigid austerity measures of the IMF.

Lithuania is not doing any better, with a 22.4 percent-of-GDP decline in the second quarter. Lithuania does have less of a reliance on foreign currency lending — 66 percent of total lending is in foreign currency — but it still has enough that a serious currency depreciation caused by a devaluation in Latvia would hurt many consumers and businesses.

The Baltics remain the most volatile region in Central Europe and the most likely flash point for social angst over austerity measures and the effects of the recession. One should not discount the possibility that Lithuania and Estonia could ask for an IMF loan or that further political changes are in store.

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Any talks on release of 5 Lithuanians taken hostage by pirates could last months, expert says

By Associated Press

8:59 AM EDT, August 5, 2009

 

 

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — A Lithuanian maritime expert says that any negotiations with pirates about the release of five Lithuanian sailors abducted in Nigeria could last months.

Petras Bekeza, the chairman of Lithuania’s sailors’ union, says that the pirates who seized the crew members of a Lithuanian ship on Monday while it was docked in a Nigerian port may not have known that the small nation of Lithuania is in a deep economic crisis.

Bekeza said Wednesday the Lithuanian owner of the ship that the hostages were working for does not have the money to pay a ransom.

Officials from Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry and Litmarko, the private company that owns the ship, are refusing to provide information for fear of jeopardizing the hostages’ safety.

http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-piracy,0,3206905.story

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11% of Lithuanian residents might not be able to pay loans

Danuta Pavilnene, BC, Vilnius, 05.08.2009.

According to an opinion poll, 11% of Lithuanian respondents who have borrowed think that they might face financial problems when repaying their loans.

 

In the opinion of the respondents, financial burden will be mostly felt by elderly people and the residents of smaller towns. Among those polled 85% of borrowers stated that they would be able to fulfill their financial obligations, informs ELTA/LETA.

According to the results of the survey conducted by the Lithuanian Consumer Institute in June, less than a third (29%) of respondents took loans.

http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/finances/?doc=16652

 

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Baltic Coal Terminal handles record large coal cargo in one day

100 mln litas to be allocated to reconstruction of Lazdynai bridge in Vilnius

 

Danuta Pavilenene, BC, Vilnius, 05.08.2009.

The Transport Ministry of Lithuania has decided to allocate 100 million litas (28.964 million euros) from the Cohesion Fund of the European Union (EU) to the reconstruction of Lazdynai bridge in Vilnius in 2009.

 

The decision was made after reviewing the priorities of transport projects that were to receive funds and with regard to the application of the capital’s municipality.

 

According to the plan, the Lazdynai bridge will be expanded to eight lanes from the existing four ones. It is also intended to reconstruct the Oslo St, access to the bridge and distribution systems. The work is to be carried out by November 2010. The total value of the project stands at 125.51 million litas (36.35 million euros).

 

http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/transport/?doc=16642&ins_print

 

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This record amount of coal was handled on July 30 at Ventspils Port, as the coal was later transported to Great Britain.

In July, Baltic Coal Terminal handled over 350,000 tons of coal, but since March, when the terminal began operation, a total of 1,450,000 tons of coal have been handled.

The chairman of the board of Baltic Coal Terminal, Ilja Sokolovs, admits that the situation in the global coal market has improved a bit, and with the heating season approaching, there is traditionally an increase in demand for coal.

However, the terminal’s success is more dependant on Latvian Rail (LDz) transportation tariffs, instead of the situation within the global coal market, Sokolovs said, adding that LDz’s tariffs are much too high and is not helping expand the increase in coal cargo transportation through the country.

As reported, last year, Baltic Coal Terminal operated with LVL 550,461 in losses. In 2007, the company posted LVL 256,626 in losses.

 

AFP - Russia’s failure to convict those behind the murder of journalists creates a climate of impunity that increases the peril of such work, the editor of slain reporter Anna Politkovskaya said Tuesday.
  
“This atmosphere of impunity is responsible for the number of crimes against journalist,” Dmitry Muratov, the editor-and-chief of Novaya Gazeta, the paper for which Politkovskaya worked, told journalists in Moscow.
  
His comments came a day before the start of a new trial over the murder of the investigative reporter.
  
But Politkovskaya’s friends and relatives say the hearings — ordered after the supreme court annulled a February acquittal of the suspects accused in her 2006 murder — are fundamentally flawed and a new investigation is needed.
  
The men on trial are all accused of being accessories to the murder, but the authorities have still failed to find the triggerman, let alone identify the mastermind of the killing.
  
“The situation is paradoxical in Russia: the assassins of journalists feel socially closer to power than journalists themselves,” Muratov said.
  
The murders may even feel they are acting in the state’s interest, he said, pointing to the psychology of the man jailed for the 2002 killing of another Novaya Gazeta journalist Sergei Zolovkin.
  
The convicted assassin wrote then-president Vladimir Putin for a pardon arguing he had served Russia’s interest by eliminating a traitor, he said.
  
Since 1993 at least 40 journalists have been murdered in Russia in apparent contract-style shootings, according to the Center for Journalist in Extreme Situations in Moscow.
  
But no suspect has been named for ordering any of these crimes, it added.
  
The Novaya Gazeta newspaper alone has seen four of its journalists murdered since 2001.
  
Politkovskaya wrote dozens of articles for Novaya Gazeta and a book called “Putin’s Russia,” accusing Putin of strangling democracy and detailing horrific abuses during the Kremlin’s war in Chechnya.
  
She was gunned down in the stairwell of her apartment building on on October 7, 2006.
  
Her unsolved murder was once more brought into sharp focus last month with the abduction and killing of her close colleague Natalya Estemirova, a prominent rights activist in Chechnya.
http://www.france24.com/en/20090805-new-trial-starts-over-murder-campaigning-journalist-politkovskaya-russia?pop=TRUE

By George Friedman

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Georgia and Ukraine partly answered questions over how U.S.-Russian talks went during U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Russia in early July. That Biden’s visit took place at all reaffirms the U.S. commitment to the principle that Russia does not have the right to a sphere of influence in these countries or anywhere in the former Soviet Union.

The Americans’ willingness to confront the Russians on an issue of fundamental national interest to Russia therefore requires some explanation, as on the surface it seems a high-risk maneuver. Biden provided insights into the analytic framework of the Obama administration on Russia in a July 26 interview with The Wall Street Journal. In it, Biden said the United States “vastly” underestimates its hand. He added that “Russia has to make some very difficult, calculated decisions. They have a shrinking population base, they have a withering economy, they have a banking sector and structure that is not likely to be able to withstand the next 15 years, they’re in a situation where the world is changing before them and they’re clinging to something in the past that is not sustainable.”

U.S. Policy Continuity

The Russians have accused the United States of supporting pro-American forces in Ukraine, Georgia and other countries of the former Soviet Union under the cover of supporting democracy. They see the U.S. goal as surrounding the Soviet Union with pro-American states to put the future of the Russian Federation at risk. The summer 2008 Russian military action in Georgia was intended to deliver a message to the United States and the countries of the former Soviet Union that Russia was not prepared to tolerate such developments but was prepared to reverse them by force of arms if need be.

Following his July summit, Obama sent Biden to the two most sensitive countries in the former Soviet Union — Ukraine and Georgia — to let the Russians know that the United States was not backing off its strategy in spite of Russian military superiority in the immediate region. In the long run, the United States is much more powerful than the Russians, and Biden was correct when he explicitly noted Russia’s failing demographics as a principal factor in Moscow’s long-term decline. But to paraphrase a noted economist, we don’t live in the long run. Right now, the Russian correlation of forces along Russia’s frontiers clearly favors the Russians, and the major U.S. deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan would prevent the Americans from intervening should the Russians choose to challenge pro-American governments in the former Soviet Union directly.

Even so, Biden’s visit and interview show the Obama administration is maintaining the U.S. stance on Russia that has been in place since the Reagan years. Reagan saw the economy as Russia’s basic weakness. He felt that the greater the pressure on the Russian economy, the more forthcoming the Russians would be on geopolitical matters. The more concessions they made on geopolitical matters, the weaker their hold on Eastern Europe. And if Reagan’s demand that Russia “Tear down this wall, Mr. Gorbachev” was met, the Soviets would collapse. Ever since the Reagan administration, the idee fixe of not only the United States, but also NATO, China and Japan has been that the weakness of the Russian economy made it impossible for the Russians to play a significant regional role, let alone a global one. Therefore, regardless of Russian wishes, the West was free to forge whatever relations it wanted among Russian allies like Serbia and within the former Soviet Union. And certainly during the 1990s, Russia was paralyzed.

Biden, however, is saying that whatever the current temporary regional advantage the Russians might have, in the end, their economy is crippled and Russia is not a country to be taken seriously. He went on publicly to point out that this should not be pointed out publicly, as there is no value in embarrassing Russia. The Russians certainly now understand what it means to hit the reset button Obama had referred to: The reset is back to the 1980s and 1990s.

Reset to the 1980s and 90s

To calculate the Russian response, it is important to consider how someone like Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin views the events of the 1980s and 1990s. After all, Putin was a KGB officer under Yuri Andropov, the former head of the KGB and later Chairman of the Communist Party for a short time — and the architect of glasnost and perestroika.

It was the KGB that realized first that the Soviet Union was failing, which made sense because only the KGB had a comprehensive sense of the state of the Soviet Union. Andropov’s strategy was to shift from technology transfer through espionage — apparently Putin’s mission as a junior intelligence officer in Dresden in the former East Germany — to a more formal process of technology transfer. To induce the West to transfer technology and to invest in the Soviet Union, Moscow had to make substantial concessions in the area in which the West cared the most: geopolitics. To get what it needed, the Soviets had to dial back on the Cold War.

Glasnost, or openness, had as its price reducing the threat to the West. But the greater part of the puzzle was perestroika, or the restructuring of the Soviet economy. This was where the greatest risk came, since the entire social and political structure of the Soviet Union was built around a command economy. But that economy was no longer functioning, and without perestroika, all of the investment and technology transfer would be meaningless. The Soviet Union could not metabolize it.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was a communist, as we seem to forget, and a follower of Andropov. He was not a liberalizer because he saw liberalization as a virtue; rather, he saw it as a means to an end. And that end was saving the Communist Party, and with it the Soviet state. Gorbachev also understood that the twin challenge of concessions to the West geopolitically and a top-down revolution in Russia economically — simultaneously—risked massive destabilization. This is what Reagan was counting on, and what Gorbachev was trying to prevent. Gorbachev lost Andropov’s gamble. The Soviet Union collapsed, and with it the Communist Party.

What followed was a decade of economic horror, at least as most Russians viewed it. From the West’s point of view, collapse looked like liberalization. From the Russian point of view, Russia went from a superpower that was poor to an even poorer geopolitical cripple. For the Russians, the experiment was a double failure. Not only did the Russian Empire retreat to the borders of the 18th century, but the economy became even more dysfunctional, except for a handful of oligarchs and some of their Western associates who stole whatever wasn’t nailed down.

The Russians, and particularly Putin, took away a different lesson than the West did. The West assumed that economic dysfunction caused the Soviet Union to fail. Putin and his colleagues took away the idea that it was the attempt to repair economic dysfunction through wholesale reforms that caused Russia to fail. From Putin’s point of view, economic well-being and national power do not necessarily work in tandem where Russia is concerned.

Russian Power, With or Without Prosperity

Russia has been an economic wreck for most of its history, both under the czars and under the Soviets. The geography of Russia has a range of weaknesses, as we have explored. Russia’s geography, daunting infrastructural challenges and demographic structure all conspire against it. But the strategic power of Russia was never synchronized to its economic well-being. Certainly, following World War II the Russian economy was shattered and never quite came back together. Yet Russian global power was still enormous. A look at the crushing poverty — but undeniable power — of Russia during broad swaths of time from 1600 until Andropov arrived on the scene certainly gives credence to Putin’s view.

The problems of the 1980s had as much to do with the weakening and corruption of the Communist Party under former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev as it had to do with intrinsic economic weakness. To put it differently, the Soviet Union was an economic wreck under Joseph Stalin as well. The Germans made a massive mistake in confusing Soviet economic weakness with military weakness. During the Cold War, the United States did not make that mistake. It understood that Soviet economic weakness did not track with Russian strategic power. Moscow might not be able to house its people, but its military power was not to be dismissed.

What made an economic cripple into a military giant was political power. Both the czar and the Communist Party maintained a ruthless degree of control over society. That meant Moscow could divert resources from consumption to the military and suppress resistance. In a state run by terror, dissatisfaction with the state of the economy does not translate into either policy shifts or military weakness — and certainly not in the short term. Huge percentages of gross domestic product can be devoted to military purposes, even if used inefficiently there. Repression and terror smooth over public opinion.

The czar used repression widely, and it was not until the army itself rebelled in World War I that the regime collapsed. Under Stalin, even at the worst moments of World War II, the army did not rebel. In both regimes, economic dysfunction was accepted as the inevitable price of strategic power. And dissent — even the hint of dissent — was dealt with by the only truly efficient state enterprise: the security apparatus, whether called the Okhraina, Cheka, NKVD, MGB or KGB.

From the point of view of Putin, who has called the Soviet collapse the greatest tragedy of our time, the problem was not economic dysfunction. Rather, it was the attempt to completely overhaul the Soviet Union’s foreign and domestic policies simultaneously that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. And that collapse did not lead to an economic renaissance.

Biden might not have meant to gloat, but he drove home the point that Putin believes. For Putin, the West, and particularly the United States, engineered the fall of the Soviet Union by policies crafted by the Reagan administration — and that same policy remains in place under the Obama administration.

It is not clear that Putin and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev disagree with Biden’s analysis — the Russian economy truly is “withering” — except in one sense. Given the policies Putin has pursued, the Russian prime minister must believe he has a way to cope with that. In the short run, Putin might well have such a coping mechanism, and this is the temporary window of opportunity Biden alluded to. But in the long run, the solution is not improving the economy — that would be difficult, if not outright impossible, for a country as large and lightly populated as Russia. Rather, the solution is accepting that Russia’s economic weakness is endemic and creating a regime that allows Russia to be a great power in spite of that.

Such a regime is the one that can create military power in the face of broad poverty, something we will call the “Chekist state.” This state uses its security apparatus, now known as the FSB, to control the public through repression, freeing the state to allocate resources to the military as needed. In other words, this is Putin coming full circle to his KGB roots, but without the teachings of an Andropov or Gorbachev to confuse the issue. This is not an ideological stance; it applies to the Romanovs and to the Bolsheviks. It is an operational principle embedded in Russian geopolitics and history.

Counting on Russian strategic power to track Russian economic power is risky. Certainly, it did in the 1980s and 1990s, but Putin has worked to decouple the two. On the surface, it might seem a futile gesture, but in Russian history, this decoupling is the norm. Obama seems to understand this to the extent that he has tried to play off Medvedev (who appears less traditional) from Putin (who appears to be the more traditional), but we do not think this is a viable strategy — this is not a matter of Russian political personalities but of Russian geopolitical necessity.

Biden seems to be saying that the Reagan strategy can play itself out permanently. Our view is that it plays itself out only so long as the Russian regime doesn’t reassert itself with the full power of the security apparatus and doesn’t decouple economic and military growth. Biden’s strategy works so long as this doesn’t happen. But in Russian history, this decoupling is the norm and the past 20 years is the exception.

A strategy that assumes the Russians will once again decouple economic and military power requires a different response than ongoing, subcritical pressure. It requires that the window of opportunity the United States has handed Russia by its wars in the Islamic world be closed, and that the pressure on Russia be dramatically increased before the Russians move toward full repression and rapid rearmament.

Ironically, in the very long run of the next couple of generations, it probably doesn’t matter whether the West heads off Russia at the pass because of another factor Biden mentioned: Russia’s shrinking demographics. Russian demography has been steadily worsening since World War I, particularly because birth rates have fallen. This slow-motion degradation turned into collapse during the 1990s. Russia’s birth rates are now well below starkly higher death rates; Russia already has more citizens in their 50s than in their teens. Russia can be a major power without a solid economy, but no one can be a major power without people. But even with demographics as poor as Russia’s, demographics do not change a country overnight. This is Russia’s moment, and the generation or so it will take demography to grind Russia down can be made very painful for the Americans.

Biden has stated the American strategy: squeeze the Russians and let nature take its course. We suspect the Russians will squeeze back hard before they move off the stage of history.

RALEIGH, N.C. — A federal grand jury in North Carolina on Monday indicted seven men on terrorism charges, accusing them of plotting to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad in an unspecified attacks.

Indicted were: Daniel Patrick Boyd, 39; Hysen Sherifi, 24; Anes Subasic, 33; Zakariya Boyd, 20; Dylan Boyd, 22; Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan, 22; and Ziyad Yaghi, 21.

All are charged with conspiring to provide support to terrorists and conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad.

The charges are related to allegations that they helped raise money and provide training for terrorism operations in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Federal officials will not say where the men are being held.

Daniel Boyd is alleged in the indictment to have practiced “military tactics and the use of weapons” on private property in Caswell County, N.C., in over the past two months.

Public records show that the Boyds are residents of Willow Spring in Johnston County.

According to the indictment, Daniel Boyd, Zakariya Boyd, Dylan Boyd, Hassan, and Yaghi are U.S. citizens and residents of North Carolina. Subasic is a naturalized U.S. citizen and North Carolina resident, and Sherifi is a Kosovo native and U.S. legal permanent resident living in North Carolina.

According to U.S. Department of Justice release, all were arrested at various locations Monday morning by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

The indictment alleges that Daniel Boyd “is a veteran of terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan who, over the past three years, has conspired with others in this country to recruit and help young men travel overseas in order to kill,” said David Kris, an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

According to the indictment, Daniel Boyd travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan from 1989 to 1992 where he received “military-style training in terrorist training camps for the purpose of engaging in violent jihad,” the Justice Department release stated. The indcitment says he then fought with U.S-allied Afghan forces against Soviet troops then occupying Afghanistan.

From approximately November 2006 through July 2009, Daniel Boyd and the others “conspired to provide material support and resources to terrorists,” the release said, including currency, training, transportation and personnel.

The indictment says that Daniel Boyd and several of the accused travelled to Israel in June 2007 to engage in “violent jihad” but subsequently returned to the U.S. after “failing in their efforts.”

In February 2008, the indictment says, Daniel Boyd solicited funds to help pay for the travel of what it called “additional individuals overseas” to engage in “violent jihad” and in March 2008, discussed with Subasic plans to send two individuals abroad for this purpose.

In July 2008, Sherifi left the U.S. for Kosovo to “engage in violent jihad,” according to the indictment, later returning in April of this year “for the purpose of soliciting funds and personnel to support the mujihaden.”

The indictment also states that Daniel Boyd possessed a variety of weapons as part of the conspiracy to commit murder overseas and provide support to terrorists.

=====================================================================

RALEIGH, N.C. — A federal grand jury in North Carolina on Monday indicted seven men on terrorism charges, accusing them of plotting to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad in an unspecified attacks.

Indicted were: Daniel Patrick Boyd, 39; Hysen Sherifi, 24; Anes Subasic, 33; Zakariya Boyd, 20; Dylan Boyd, 22; Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan, 22; and Ziyad Yaghi, 21.

All are charged with conspiring to provide support to terrorists and conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad.

The charges are related to allegations that they helped raise money and provide training for terrorism operations in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Federal officials will not say where the men are being held.

Daniel Boyd is alleged in the indictment to have practiced “military tactics and the use of weapons” on private property in Caswell County, N.C., in over the past two months.

Public records show that the Boyds are residents of Willow Spring in Johnston County.

According to the indictment, Daniel Boyd, Zakariya Boyd, Dylan Boyd, Hassan, and Yaghi are U.S. citizens and residents of North Carolina. Subasic is a naturalized U.S. citizen and North Carolina resident, and Sherifi is a Kosovo native and U.S. legal permanent resident living in North Carolina.

According to U.S. Department of Justice release, all were arrested at various locations Monday morning by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

The indictment alleges that Daniel Boyd “is a veteran of terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan who, over the past three years, has conspired with others in this country to recruit and help young men travel overseas in order to kill,” said David Kris, an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

According to the indictment, Daniel Boyd travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan from 1989 to 1992 where he received “military-style training in terrorist training camps for the purpose of engaging in violent jihad,” the Justice Department release stated. The indcitment says he then fought with U.S-allied Afghan forces against Soviet troops then occupying Afghanistan.

From approximately November 2006 through July 2009, Daniel Boyd and the others “conspired to provide material support and resources to terrorists,” the release said, including currency, training, transportation and personnel.

The indictment says that Daniel Boyd and several of the accused travelled to Israel in June 2007 to engage in “violent jihad” but subsequently returned to the U.S. after “failing in their efforts.”

In February 2008, the indictment says, Daniel Boyd solicited funds to help pay for the travel of what it called “additional individuals overseas” to engage in “violent jihad” and in March 2008, discussed with Subasic plans to send two individuals abroad for this purpose.

In July 2008, Sherifi left the U.S. for Kosovo to “engage in violent jihad,” according to the indictment, later returning in April of this year “for the purpose of soliciting funds and personnel to support the mujihaden.”

The indictment also states that Daniel Boyd possessed a variety of weapons as part of the conspiracy to commit murder overseas and provide support to terrorists.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/v-print/story/72538.html

============================================================

FBI confirms terror indictments, missing Somalis linked

St. Paul, Minn. — A federal grand jury in St. Paul has indicted two men on terrorism charges, in connection with the ongoing investigation of missing Somali men.

The indictment, which was filed in February but unsealed Monday, names Abdifatah Yusuf Isse and Salah Osman Ahmed of Brooklyn Park with providing material support to terrorists, namely themselves.

The indictment also charges the men with conspiring to “kill, maim, and injure” outside of the U.S. It says Ahmed boarded a Northwest flight last December from Minneapolis to Amsterdam with a final destination of Somalia to “fight jihad in Somalia.”

Ahmed is also charged with lying to the FBI.

E.K. Wilson, spokesman of the FBI office in Minneapolis, confirmed that the indictments were connected to the investigation of missing Somali men believed to have joined a terrorist group fighting in their homeland.

Wilson said authorities arrested Ahmed, of New Brighton, in that town Saturday without incident. He declined to comment further. “The investigation continues,” he said.

About 20 men from Minnesota are believed to be fighting in Somalia’s civil war. The first wave left in 2007. Authorities think one of those early travelers, Shirwa Ahmed of Minneapolis, blew himself up in a suicide bombing in Somalia last fall.

==========================================

Grand jury: 2 conspired to commit terror acts in Somalia

http://www.twincities.com/news/ci_12828798?source=rss

Federal authorities today unsealed a five-month-old indictment charging two Twin Cities men with terrorism conspiracy in their native Somalia.

One of the men, Salah Osman Ahmed, had been a fugitive but had been apprehended recently and appeared before a federal magistrate today. He is to have a detention hearing Thursday.

Federal officials would not say when or where he was taken into custody.

The other man, Abdifatah Yusuf Isse, was arrested in February and has been held since then, said his attorney, Paul Engh, of Minneapolis.

The indictment says that at least Ahmed, of Brooklyn Park, traveled to Somalia in December 2007 with another person “so that they could fight jihad in Somalia.”

Engh — who is required to have a security clearance just to defend Isse — said that because virtually all of the case remains sealed, he couldn’t discuss the case.

“I can’t do that without talking about something that’s sealed,” he said. “I can’t even say if they traveled together. I’ve read a ton of stuff and I’d rather not comment on the substance of it. I’m totally aware of the facts. I’m well-versed in what’s going on, but I really can’t say much.”

Similarly, the office of outgoing U.S. Attorney Frank Magill declined comment. “Our office is not issuing a news release on the Salah Ahmed indictment. Our office also has no statement regarding the indictment,” said David Anderson, a spokesman for Magill.

Federal officials have been investigating claims that some young male Somali refugees in the Twin Cities have been recruited by Islamic groups to fight in their homeland.

A fourth young Somali-American man who disappeared from the Twin Cities in recent years apparently has been killed in Somalia, a local community leader said Sunday night.

Omar Jamal, executive director of the St. Paul-based Somali Justice Advocacy Center, said his group had received word that Zakaria Maruf, 30, of Minneapolis was killed in combat.

Maruf is one of an estimated 20 men from the Twin Cities suspected of going to Somalia to fight in the Islamist Shabaab insurgency in the country’s civil war. Last weekend, relatives and community leaders said another from the group — Jamal Bana, 20 — also had been killed in Somalia.

Another young Somali man from Minneapolis, Shirwa Ahmed, is believed to have carried out a suicide bombing last October as part of coordinated attacks that targeted a United Nations compound, the Ethiopian consulate and the presidential palace in Hargeisa, capital of the Somaliland region.

FBI Director Robert Mueller said in February that the bomber had probably been “radicalized” in the Twin Cities.

In June, the Minneapolis family of another young Somali, Burhan Hassan, said they believed he had been killed and buried in Somalia.

Isse and Ahmed were each charged with a single count of providing material support to terrorists, as well as a count of conspiracy to “kill, kidnap, maim and injure.” The alleged incidents occurred between September 2007 and December 2008, the indictment claims.

The dates coincide with the disappearance of the first wave of young Somali men from the Twin Cities.

The recruitment of the Twin Cities men can be traced to a group of Somali immigrants from Northern Europe and other countries who traveled to Somalia in 2005 to fight with the Islamist movement, a senior law enforcement official said, according to a New York Times report Sunday. A handful of those men later went to Minneapolis and helped persuade the first large group from the Twin Cities to leave for Somalia starting in late 2007, the official said.

The material support, the indictment alleges, was “namely personnel including themselves, knowing and intending that the material support and resources” were going to be used to kill, kidnap or injure people in a foreign country.

The conspiracy charge alleges that they conspired with each other “and others, known and unknown to the grand jury,” to engage in terrorism.

The indictment alleges that on Dec. 6, 2007, Ahmed boarded a Northwest Airlines flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, “with a final destination of Somalia.”

Ahmed is named in two additional counts of making false statements to FBI agents. The first of the counts alleges that while he knew people on his December 2007 flights to Somalia, on July 30 he told the FBI that he didn’t know anyone on the flights.

The second of the charges claims that he traveled with others on the flights, but on Dec. 8, he told the FBI that he traveled alone.

===============================================================

Security Chief Urges ‘Collective Fight’ Against Terrorism

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 29, 2009 5:17 PM

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano urged Americans on Wednesday to join a “collective fight against terrorism” that combines the efforts of individuals, companies and local, state and foreign governments.

Answering critics who have accused the Obama administration of downplaying the risk of terrorist attacks, Napolitano said the threat has not abated and outlined an approach that emphasizes burden-sharing as federal spending and political support for post-Sept. 11 security measures wane.

“I am sometimes asked if I think complacency is a threat. I believe the short answer is ‘yes,’ ” Napolitano said, speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York before visiting the World Trade Center site destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“But I think a better question is this: Has the U.S. government done everything it can to educate and engage the American people? The answer is ‘no,’ ” she said.

In what aides called a major counter-terrorism policy address, Napolitano noted that American hotels were targeted in bombings this month in Jakarta, six Americans were among 164 people killed in a commando-style assault in Mumbai in November and three Americans were among 54 killed in a Marriott Hotel in Islamabad in September.

To confront a terrorism threat that “is even more decentralized, more networked and more adaptive,” she said, counter-terrorism efforts also need to exploit the values of “networks.” For example, the nation needs better technology, training and linkages to share information with 780,000 local law enforcement agents, Napolitano said, promising to strengthen 70 state-run intelligence “fusion centers” that began under the Bush administration.

James Jay Carafano, an analyst with the conservative Heritage Foundation, praised the speech as a nonpartisan, policy-oriented approach that reflects political and budget realities.

“The only fiscally responsible way they can keep levels of homeland security up is to stop doing stupid things that waste money and integrate efforts with other communities and have them work better,” Carafano said. “The old answer, throwing more money at the problem, is not going to be the routine.”

He also noted that Republicans accused Obama this winter of softening his stance by abandoning the phrase “war on terror” and faulted Napolitano for not mentioning the word “terrorism” in remarks prepared for her first appearance before the House. This time she used the word or its variants 23 times in a half-hour speech.

Still, Napolitano laid out few new programs, mostly signaling continuity with work begun under former President George W. Bush. But she faulted approaches that stoked public alarm while asking little from individuals to improve society’s resilience against attacks.

“The consequences of living in a state of fear, rather than a state of preparedness, are enormous,” Napolitano said. “For too long, we’ve treated the public as a liability to be protected rather than an asset in our nation’s collective security.”

She also singled out the need for greater cooperation from companies.

“More than dollars,” Napolitano said, the nation needs “the active engagement of employers” who control most critical targets, such as power plants and communication systems to help identify them and plan how to secure them.

In a blunt warning, she added, “We may be better prepared as a nation than we were on 9/11. But we are nowhere near as prepared as we need to be.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/29/AR2009072901604_pf.html

========================================================

By James Rodgers
BBC News

It may become a criminal offence to infringe on “historical memory” about WWII

What is worrying Russia? Why is the country convinced that it is the victim of a campaign to make it look bad?

“It is something that is very strong in historical tradition and in popular opinion. This commission is partly a response to this atmosphere.”

The authorities want to rule the version of the past which dominates today

 

The creation of this commission seems to go to the heart of what troubles modern Russia.

The chaos which followed the collapse of communism left many Russians deeply distrustful of politics and officialdom.

President Medvedev has complained of the corruption and “legal nihilism” which plague his country.

Russia’s leaders today know that they need this shining, sacred, memory of victory to give their people something to believe in.

In the near future, it may even be backed up in law.

The Russian parliament is on its summer break at the moment, but legislation is being considered - legislation that would make it a criminal offence to “infringe on historical memory in relation to events which took place in the Second World War”.

James Rodgers was formerly the BBC’s Moscow correspondent.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/8166020.stm

 

 

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Skype singled out as threat to Russia’s security

Fri Jul 24, 2009 11:49am EDT

By Simon Shuster and Anastasia Teterevleva

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s most powerful business lobby moved to clamp down on Skype and its peers this week, telling lawmakers that the Internet phone services are a threat to Russian businesses and to national security.

In partnership with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s political party, the lobby created a working group to draft legal safeguards against what they said were the risks of Skype and other Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone services.

VoIP software has used the Internet to let hundreds of millions of people talk long-distance for free, or at far cheaper rates than traditional service providers can offer.

At a meeting of the lobby this week, telecom executives portrayed the most popular VoIP programs like Skype and Icq as encroaching foreign entities that the government must control.

“Without government restrictions, IP telephony causes certain concerns about security,” the lobby’s press release said. “Most of the service operators working in Russia, such as Skype and Icq, are foreign. It is therefore necessary to protect the native companies in this sector and so forth.”

Skype was not immediately available for comment.

In a presentation posted on the lobby’s Web site, Vice President of TTK, a telecoms unit of state-owned Russian Railways, Vitaly Kotov, called on regulators to stop VoIP services from causing “a likely and uncontrolled fall in profits for the core telecom operators.”

Valery Ermakov, deputy head of Russia’s No.3 mobile phone firm MegaFon, drove the point home with a picture of two hands in handcuffs, the caption running, “protect investments and fight VoIP services.”

Delegates at the meeting also warned that it has been impossible for police to spy on VoIP conversations, Vedomosti business daily reported on Friday.

The lobby, called the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, forecast that 40 percent of calls could be made through VoIP services by 2012.

As an alternative to Skype and its peers, the telecom executives proposed creating VoIP services inside their own firms, which would then make them safely available to the Russian public.

“MegaFon is interested in this market. We’re interested in providing analogous services. We don’t support limiting competition, but we want the market to be civilized,” Ermakov said.

TTK’s press service said on Friday that it will take until September for the relevant legal amendments to be drafted by the special committee, whose members include top telecoms executives and lawmakers from Putin’s United Russia party.

(Editing by Rupert Winchester)

http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USTRE56N41I20090724

================================================================

Russia warns West again over Georgia and Nato

July 30, 2009 11:57 pm admin frontpage, news

by Marcus Papadopoulos

Russia’s envoy to Nato said last week that allowing Georgia entry into the Western military alliance would defy logic if its new borders were not internationally recognised beforehand.

Speaking to the Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy, Dmitri Rogozin responded to the recent visit to Georgia by United States Vice-President Joe Biden – in which American support for Tbilisi joining Nato was reaffirmed – by raising a new perspective on Georgian aspirations to join the alliance.

He said: “If a decision on Georgia’s accession to Nato is made now, the alliance will have to admit what was left of Georgia thanks to [President Mikheil] Saakashvili. It is absurd.”

Mr Rogozin was implicitly referring to Georgia’s attempt last August to recapture its breakaway region of South Ossetia by force – which not only resulted in Russia mobilising its forces in the region and repelling the attack but also saw Moscow recognise the independence of South Ossetia and Tbilisi’s other secessionist republic of Abkhazia.

Since then, the Kremlin has deployed thousands of its troops to both South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Many analysts consider the two regions as now a de facto part of the Russian Federation.

There has been an increase in tension in recent months along Georgia’s border with the two disputed territories, with reports noting a build-up of Georgian military formations in the area. That has been in addition to President Saakashvili asking Washington for help in rebuilding his country’s shattered military capacity following the war in South Ossetia.

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev issued a presidential decree earlier this year stating that Russia will limit military co-operation with any country found to be providing Georgia with armaments.

Mr Rogozin, in his radio interview, warned of the implications of Georgian attempts to reconstruct its armed forces and of the consequences for countries which choose to assist in this.

He said: “Georgia’s ongoing militarisation is dangerous, as we know what it leads to. If it is proven that a producer – it is not important where, in the Arctic or in America – supplies offensive weapons, it will undoubtedly fall under the influence of this [President Medvedev’s] decree.”

Rumours persist of another war breaking out in Georgia this summer. It is believed that the Kremlin intends to depose President Saakashvili, whom it constantly refers to as a “political corpse”.

And this month witnessed the largest Russian military manoeuvres in the North Caucasus since Soviet times.

http://www.tribunemagazine.co.uk/2009/07/30/russia-warns-west-again-over-georgia-and-nato/

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Rogozin: U.S. claims about Russia’s possible NATO membership nonsense

 

U.S. assistant secretary of state
Philip Gordon told earlier the CongressU.S. assistant secretary of state
Philip Gordon told earlier the Congress that Russia could join NATO

 

Today, 11:53

The statement by a U.S. administration official that Russian could become a member of NATO should not be taken seriously, said Russia’s ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin.
“All this is nonsense, to be honest. I cannot take it seriously,” Rogozin said live on the Russian News Service on Thursday.

U.S. assistant secretary of state Philip Gordon told earlier the Congress that Russia could join NATO.

“You should read the text. Gordon said: if there is a consensus within NATO - and this consensus will never be there,” Rogozin said.

NATO members such as Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, “which are demolishing our monuments, the monuments to the soldiers who fell during the Great Patriotic War fighting for the liberation of the world from Nazism” will never let Russia become an alliance member, Rogozin said.

“How can they vote for us joining NATO if they got enrolled there to hide from us?” he said.

In the mid-1950s the Soviet leadership seriously considered joining NATO, but Moscow’s initiative was rejected by Western countries, Rogozin recalled. “When the Soviet Union collapsed, there was another chance to reformat itself, to become one single pan-European security system. Again, they did not want it,” the diplomat said.

http://www.kyivpost.com/world/46211/print

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Design work of Rail Baltica started

Danuta Pavilenene, BC, Vilnius, 31.07.2009.

The design work of the railway line Rail Baltica has started. On Friday, the company Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways) signed a contract with the private company Kelprojektas on the drafting of a special plan and environmental impact assessment of the railway line to be built from the Polish state border to Marijampole. The contract was signed by CEO of Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai Stasys Dailydka and head of Kelprojektas Algimantas Medziausis.

 

A contract with the international company SYSTRA S.A, winner of the second tender, will be signed in August. The first contract is valued at 450,000 litas (130,425 euros) and the second one – at over 1 million litas (289,830 euros), informs ELTA/LETA.

Kelprojektas is obliged to draft the special plan of the railway line in 13 months, yet Medziausis told at a news conference on Friday that it would be sought to carry out the work sooner.

“From the economic point of view, we are interested in completing the work as soon as possible as we would be able to save up in this way,” Medziausis said.

The building of the railway line will start after the special plan and assessment of the environmental impact are drafted and the necessary land is acquired for the new railway.

The Rail Baltica project foresees that multiple units would go at the speed of 160 kilometres per hour on the route Warsaw-Helsinki and freight trains would be able to go at the speed of 120 kilometres per hour. It will be possible to reach Warsaw from Kaunas by train in a few hours.

 

http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/transport/?doc=16486&ins_print

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The Baltic Way included in the memory of the world register

BC, Riga, 31.07.2009.

 

On July 30, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) approved the nomination of the Baltic Way to be included in the Memory of the World Register in the 20th anniversary since the event took place.

President of the Latvian National Commission for UNESCO Andris Vilks said: “It is confirmation of the Baltic Way being a world-wide phenomenon. As it is known, the action in the Baltic States was followed by the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Velvet Revolution in the Czech Republic took place, and Eastern Europe peacefully got free from the enforced regime.”

On 23 August 1939 foreign ministers of the USSR and Germany – Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop, as ordered by their superiors Stalin and Hitler, signed a treaty which affected the fate of Europe and the entire world. This pact, and the secret clauses it contained, divided the spheres of influence of the USSR and Germany and led to World War II, and to the occupation of the three Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

50 years later, on 23 August 1989, the three nations living by the Baltic Sea surprised the world by taking hold of each other’s hands and jointly demanding the disclosure of the secret clauses in the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and the re-establishment of the independence of the Baltic States.

About two million people of various ages and social, national, and religious backgrounds all joined hands to create a 600 km long human chain from the foot of Toompea in Tallinn to the foot of the Gediminas Tower in Vilnius, crossing Riga and the River Daugava on its way, creating a synergy in the drive for freedom and democracy that united the three countries. The event proved the strong will of the three Baltic States to restore their independence.

The main achievement of the Baltic Way was the fact that the USSR yielded to the joint protest of the residents of the three Baltic States by confessing part of its crimes in the past. The USSR officially acknowledged the existence of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its secret protocols and on December 24, 1989 it was announced to be invalid.

The struggle for independence of the Baltic States had received so much support during the Baltic Way that it was self-evident that the national movements achieved a decisive victory in the elections of the Supreme Councils of the states in 1990 (February 24, 1990, in Lithuania, March 16, 1990, in Estonia and March 18, 1990, in Latvia). Without much hesitation the newly elected Supreme Councils of the three Baltic States made a decision to reinstate the independence – the decree was passed on March 11, 1990, in Lithuania, March 30, 1990, in Estonia and May 4, 1990, in Latvia.

The documentary heritage of the Baltic Way consists of a significant collection of different text, video and photo documents about this historical event. The National commissions for UNESCO of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania started to work on the nomination in cooperation with the respective national memory institutions in the Baltic countries and a number of documentary heritage experts already in 2005. The nomination jointly developed by all three Baltic States was handed in to the UNESCO Secretariat on March 31, 2008.

The Baltic Way is not only a human chain linking three states in their drive to freedom, it is also a strong symbol in the eyes of each and every Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian. It is a symbol of unity of the Baltic States, of common aspirations for restoring the independence, of spiritual unity to face the injustice of the past, and a historic symbol of the power of non – violent action.

On July 31, the touring exhibition The Baltic Way that moved the world will be opened. The exposition contains 40 photographs and photo collages by Baltic photographers that are not only documentary testimony of the historic event but also reflect emotional experiences. Until 25 August, the exhibition will be displayed in Riga, in the lobby of the Foreign Ministry building, but at the end of the month it will move to Paris, to be presented at the events organised by the Senate of France and the Embassies of the Baltic States, as well as in Le Pont Neuf art gallery.

After that, it will be shown in London and Stockholm.

http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/baltic_news/?doc=3596&ins_print

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Minimum wage in Baltic States is one of the lowest in Europe

Juhan Tere, BC, Tallinn, 31.07.2009.

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have one of the lowest minimum wages in Europe, the Estonian newsportal PM Online/LETA reports.

 

According to Eurostat, the minimum wage in Estonia is LVL 197.7 or EUR 278, in Latvia it is LVL 180, whilst in Lithuania the minimum wage is LVL 163 per month.

The minimum wage in countries such as France, Ireland, Great Britain and the Netherlands is over EUR 1,000 (LVL 703) per month.

Finland, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Italy and Greece have not regulated their minimum pay with laws.

In comparison to the ratio of minimum pay towards the average pay, Estonia is also among the tailgaters, only ahead of Romania with 30%.

 

http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/analytics/?doc=16479&ins_print

 

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Grybauskaite admitted that Lithuania could be forced to seek help from IMF

Petras Vaida, BC, Vilnius/London, 31.07.2009.

Lithuania’s new president has admitted that her country could be forced to seek help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if it fails in efforts to raise more money from foreign capital markets to prop up its teetering economy.

 

Dalia Grybauskaite, who became Lithuania’s first woman president when she was sworn in this month, said the finance ministry was considering “one more shot” at raising money this year after a 500 million-euro bond issue in June, writes ELTA/LETA.

However, in an interview with the Financial Times, she acknowledged that an IMF loan might prove necessary “if external conditions will not allow Lithuania to refinance our debts . . . if the markets are closed”.

Lithuania has so far resisted following the example of neighbouring Latvia, which received a 7.5 billion-euro emergency loan from the IMF and European Union in December, as the Baltic countries have plunged into deep recession.

But this week’s announcement of a steeper-than-expected 22% drop in second quarter gross domestic product has increased doubts over Lithuania’s ability to weather the storm without international support.

Ms Grybauskaite, a martial arts black belt nicknamed the “Iron Lady”, was elected by a landslide margin in May on a promise to rebuild the economy and increase government transparency. She took an early step to tackle the country’s ballooning budget deficit on Thursday by signing a law that would reduce public sector pay by an average of 5% – the second such cut this year. The IMF said it was an important move that would help place “the country’s budget finances on a sounder longer-term footing and was necessary to address tight financing conditions”.

All three Baltic countries – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – are in the grips of deep recession after their over-heated economies fell victim to the global credit crunch. The downturn followed an era of rapid growth since the trio, all former Soviet states, joined the EU in 2004.

Each of the Baltic trio is battling to avoid a currency devaluation that would break their prized peg to the euro – a central pillar of economic policy in the region as the countries strive for membership of the single currency.

Speculation has mounted in financial markets that all three will be forced to devalue to make their economies more competitive. However, Ms Grybauskaite, a former finance minister and EU budget commissioner, ruled out such a move. The fate of the Baltic economies is being watched across Europe amid fears that they could trigger devaluations and defaults in eastern and central Europe. Sweden and other Nordic countries are especially sensitive because their banks expanded aggressively in the region and now face a rising tide of bad loans.

 

http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/baltic_states/?doc=16466&ins_print

 

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Pirates seize freighter in Baltic Sea

Submitted by Mohit Joshi on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 04:57

 

Stockholm/Helsinki  - Pirates seized a freighter in the Baltic Sea off Sweden, Swedish and Finnish media said Friday.The attack against the Malta-registered freighter Arctic, which was carried a cargo of logs, took place last week and ended after 12 hours.

Eight masked men boarded the ship and searched its hold, claiming to be drug police.

The 15 Russian crew members were imprisoned and some of them beaten. The shipping company reported the incident only to the Russian embassy in Helsinki, which passed on the information to Scandinavian authorities with a delay of several days.

Swedish police confirmed the incident, but said it had no further information circumstances and motives behind the attack. (dpa).

http://www.topnews.in/pirates-seize-freighter-baltic-sea-2196307

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Russian Journalist Not Allowed Into Lithuania

 

Jul 30, 2009 (Radio Free Europe Documents and Publications/ContentWorks via COMTEX) — VILNIUS — The editor in chief of Russia’s Regnum Information Agency, Modest Kolerov, has been prevented from entering Lithuania by train despite having a valid Shengen visa in his passport, RFE/RL’s Russian Servicereports.

Kolerov was on his way to the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, to take part in an international conference on Russian-Lithuanian relations.

Lithuanian border guards asked Kolerov to step off the Moscow-Vilnius train and told him that Lithuania’s migration authorities consider him an undesirable alien.Kolerov said he still intends to take part in the conference via mobile phone and the Internet.

He accused media in Lithuania of mischaracterizing him as an adversary of Lithuania.

http://www.tmcnet.com/scripts/print-page.aspx?PagePrint=http%3a%2f%2fwww.tmcnet.com%2fusubmit%2f2009%2f07%2f30%2f4301134.htm

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President of Lithuania opens way to elimination of LEO LT

Petras Vaida, BC, Vilnius, 31.07.2009.

President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite has signed the amendments to the law on nuclear power plant and in this way has created conditions to the elimination of the company LEO LT.

Dalia Grybauskaite.

 

“We know the opinion of lawyers and the opinion of public organizations, the specter of these opinions is really broad. We could take the way proposed by public organizations and try appealing to the court for the transaction to be declared void.

Such a way would mean that in line with the binding law the declaration of the transaction void is possible only in the Stockholm Arbitration Court. This means a court process of at least two years, during which LEO LT would continue its existence and receive European money. I cannot let this happen. Therefore, I will sign the legal portfolio, because it enables the state to eliminate the company and this means to annul the transaction itself,” Grybauskaite said on Thursday.

The amendments to the law on the nuclear power plant passed by the Seimas foresee that the Government has to strive for managing over two thirds of the shares of LEO LT. the amendments also open the way for the reorganization of LEO LT or its elimination.

 

http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/legislation/?doc=16461&ins_print

 

 

 

 

 

Natalia Narochnitskaya, member of the Historical Truth Commission