Public Television in Russia May End Up Satisfying No One | Features, Opinion & Analysis | RIA Novosti

President Dmitry Medvedev’s call for a new public television platform last December conjured visions of a Russian BBC for the country’s liberals. Yet worries are now growing that the president’s control over the new television station could prevent it from broadcasting opinions critical of the government. Medvedev has maintained that the new station will be the freest television channel in Russia. But like a number of other liberal initiatives that Medvedev has undertaken in the waning days of his presidency, the television station is increasingly being seen as a half-measure meant to mollify the public.

Medvedev signed a decree creating the new public station on Tuesday, saying it would likely be released by next January. Speaking at his “Open Government” initiative, Medvedev said that “measures have been taken to relieve needless government influence on the activities of this public institution.”

Now, controversy is centering on just how independent Russia’s public television will be. The decree signed by Medvedev gives the president the right to appoint the general director and the editor-in-chief of the new station. Moreover, the station’s board of directors, entrusted to provide for public oversight of the station’s content, will also have to pass through a presidential filter.

via Public Television in Russia May End Up Satisfying No One | Features, Opinion & Analysis | RIA Novosti.

Civil.Ge | Georgia Welcomes Release of Belarus Opposition Figures

Georgian Foreign Ministry has welcomed a decision by Minsk to release two jailed opposition figures and expressed hope the move would help in “normalization” of EU-Belarus relations.

In a statement on April 17 the Georgian Foreign Ministry expressed hope that the release of two “opposition leaders… will facilitate the renewal of direct dialogue between Belarus and the EU and the country’s full-fledged participation in the Eastern Partnership initiative, as well as normalization and further development of Belarus-EU relations, which, on its part, will promote strengthening of democracy in the country.”

Authorities in Belarus released Andrei Sannikov, who ran against President Alexander Lukashenko in the 2010 presidential election, and his campaign aide Dmitry Bondarenko on April 15.

The European Union welcomed the early release of Sannikov and Bondarenko, but called on Minsk “to release unconditionally now also all other remaining political prisoners.” The U.S. Department of State has also called on Belarus “to immediately and unconditionally free all remaining political prisoners.”

The release came after the EU stepped up pressure on Belarus in late March by adding another 12 persons and 29 companies to a blacklist of around 200 who are already banned from travelling or accessing assets in the EU.

After these sanctions were announced, the Georgian Foreign Ministry released a statement expressing “concern” about further worsening of tensions between the EU and Belarus.

via Civil.Ge | Georgia Welcomes Release of Belarus Opposition Figures.

Belarus arrests 3 leading opposition activists  | ajc.com

Belarus arrests 3 leading opposition activists  | ajc.com.

 

By YURAS KARMANAU

The Associated Press

MINSK, Belarus — Belarus arrested three top opposition figures Wednesday who were on their way to Brussels to meet with European Union officials, a move certain to further fuel tensions with the bloc.

The 27-nation EU already has imposed sanctions on authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime over its crackdown on dissent and recalled its ambassadors from the ex-Soviet nation, which is wedged between Russia and Poland.

Those arrested were Anatoly Lebedko, the head of Belarus’ largest opposition United Civil Party; Sergei Kalyakin, the leader of the Fair World leftist party; and Alexander Otroshchenkov, a leading activist of the European Belarus group.

 

Via:

Belarus arrests 3 leading opposition activists  | ajc.com.

 

News Desk: “We Are Not Sheep” : The New Yorker

One of the pleasures of a recent trip to Moscow was getting to know the country’s best-known and most political hip-hop star, Ivan Alexeyev, who goes by Noize MC. He is part of a galaxy of civil-society activists whom I wrote about recently for the magazine in a piece called “The Civil Archipelago.” Alexeyev became widely known for his rap “Mercedes S666,” in which he expressed his outrage at yet another politicized incident on the Moscow roads—a car ferrying an executive for a major Russian oil concern, Lukoil, smashed into a much smaller private car, killing two women. The police blamed the “civilian” driver; eyewitnesses said the Lukoil car was to blame. The video is a cry of outrage, and there is a decent translation from a YouTube viewer:

via News Desk: “We Are Not Sheep” : The New Yorker.

Russian nuclear icebreakers fleet – Bellona

Putin and Kiriyenko meet to discuss new nuclear icebreakers

In a meeting yesterday between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko, Putin requested Rosatom develop long term plans for strengthening Russia’s nuclear icebreaker fleet for the purpose of gaining predominance in the Northern Sea route, the official Russian government website government.ru reported.

via Russian nuclear icebreakers fleet – Bellona.

Russia taking on Northern Sea Route as Bellona raises alarm over Norwegian vessels under escort of nuclear icebreakers – Bellona

MURMANSK – The Russian news agency RIA Novosti earlier this month hosted a roundtable discussion on developing the Arctic Northern Sea Route, the possibilities of exploiting cargo transport through it, the future of the Russian nuclear icebreaker fleet, and legislation needed to effect these plans.

Anna Kireeva, Charles Digges, 12/04-2012

Notably, legal instruments concerning icebreaker escort through the Northern Sea Route and amendments to Russia maritime law were the target of much of the discussion.

The theme of the roundtable had particular resonance in Norway, as the scandal surrounding the Russian nuclear icebreaker 50-Let-Pobedy (50-Years-Victory) that set sail two years ago to to clear ice for the Norwegian owned MV Nordic Barents vessel as it travelled the route to China has been the focus of a recent Norwegian media scandal.

The MV Nordic Barents was hired by a Danish shipping company by the Norway-based Tchudi Shipping Company, owned by Norwegian billionaire Felix Tchudi.

Scandal over Northern Sea Route shipments in Norway

Last month it was revealed by Norwgiain daily Dagbladet that Tchudi has received expedited grants – including a grant that was approved four days after it was applied for – from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by Tchudi’s close friend and Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre.

According to the paper, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2008 granted NOK 6 million to the establishment of the Centre for High North Logistics (CHNL). The application for the 5-year project, which is stipulated to end in 2013, had been made by billionaire Tschudi, and Tschudi is also chairman of the board.

“We are strongly critical of Norwegian companies using nuclear icebreakers and that public money from foundations that Tchudi oversees have gone to such a project,” said Nils Bøhmer, Bellona’s managing director and nuclear physicist.

“It is very unfortunate because there have been several serious accidents involving nuclear powered icebreakers, including fires. A nuclear accident far out in the ice can cause catastrophic damage in the Arctic’s sensitive ecosystem,” he said, adding, “During a serious accident far from shore, accompanied by a meltdown of an icebreaker’s reactor, it is such a long distance to land that it is almost impossible to mount a rescue mission – it would take too long to arrive and would be too late.”

Defining the area considered to be the Northern Sea Route, Bellona Murmansk director Andrei Zolotkov said, “we can figuratively say that the Northern Sea Route begins at the Kola Peninsula.”

Industrial and nuclear waste concerns in Russia

Zolotkov’s concerns lie with the massive industrial build-up certain to follow on more shipping through the area.

It is precisely along the western side of the Kola Gulf that enormous build-outs in the area of the coal and oil industry, such as terminals, refineries, are planned – meaning tens of thousands of tons more cargo, said Zolotkov.

“One can assume that the [Russian Naval] Northern Fleet will start building up their own number of vessels and submarines,” said Zolotkov.

Zolotkov noted that neither Murmansk nor Severomorsk – another important port city on the Kola Gulf – have the means to clean oil spills.

“The Kola Gulf has already been seriously polluted by petroleum products, industrial waste and sewage. This is all visible to the naked eye. But for all of these problems, the concerns and consensus about these developments for local residents remains invisible,” said Zolotkov. “We better be careful, Gazprom, Rosatom, and the Ministry of Defense, before we kill off Kola Bay, turning it into a lifeless basin.”

via Russia taking on Northern Sea Route as Bellona raises alarm over Norwegian vessels under escort of nuclear icebreakers – Bellona.

SOVIET ICEBREAKERS CLOSE TO FREEING WHALES 2 GRAYS SPLASH WITH NEW LIFE AS MACHINES NEAR | Deseret News

Two once-doomed California gray whales splashed with new life Wednesday as a pair of powerful Soviet icebreakers leading a massive rescue effort bashed through the last frozen barrier to their escape to the open sea.

“The whales are ready to get out of there,” said Cindy Lowry of Greenpeace as the two Soviet icebreaking ships cracked their way through the wall of ice at the edge of the arctic floe trapping the two young giant mammals.The whales, whose dramatic plight has set off an extravagant international rescue effort in the icy arctic, responded by vigorously swimming around their latest breathing hole.

“They are swimming up and down, really energetic,” Lowry said. She said the whales were “so active they were causing waves.”

The 20,241-pound Admiral Makarov, an 11-story icebreaker, and the 13,514-ton Vladimir Arseniev, an icebreaking cargo vessel flying an American flag alongside the hammer and sickle of the Soviet Union, began their attack on the icy ridge Tuesday afternoon.

They moved through the ice with such force that Lowry and another Greenpeace member keeping an all-night vigil beside the whales were afraid the huge icebreakers would plow right into them. But the threat turned out to be illusory.

The Soviets battered their way through the ice until 3 a.m. Alaska Daylight Time (5 a.m. MDT), getting within a half-mile to a mile of the whales.

Other rescue teams planned to fire up the 11-ton one-of-a-kind Archimedean screw tractor sometime after the Alaska sunrise to finish clearing a 16-foot-wide path for the whales to a 220-mile channel that will eventually take them to the open sea. The tractor’s pontoons are equipped with screw-like ridges that cut through the ice.

via SOVIET ICEBREAKERS CLOSE TO FREEING WHALES 2 GRAYS SPLASH WITH NEW LIFE AS MACHINES NEAR | Deseret News.

Cold War Ending for Soviet Icebreakers : Tourism: Soviets offer sightseeing trips to North Pole and hope to guide Western cargo ships through the frozen Arctic. – Los Angeles Times

Cold War Ending for Soviet Icebreakers : Tourism: Soviets offer sightseeing trips to North Pole and hope to guide Western cargo ships through the frozen Arctic. – Los Angeles Times. (1990)

MURMANSK, Soviet Union — Travelers wanting to witness an offbeat ending of the Cold War can book a trip to the North Pole on a Soviet nuclear-powered icebreaker.

The icebreakers, rarely seen in the West except on spy-satellite photographs, are starting sightseeing trips to the pole and may soon be guiding convoys of Western cargo ships through the Arctic wilderness.

Beaufort Gyre Exploration Project | History | Early Soviet Exploration

Early Soviet Exploration (1920s-1930s)

The rapidly growing fleet of Soviet icebreaking vessels was also opening up the Arctic. The icebreaking steamer Sedov was used on two research expeditions in 1929 and 1930, headed by O. Schmidt. The first year, a polar station on Frantz Josef Land was established where Georgy Sedov had wintered, becoming the world’s most northern settlement. The next year, another station was located on Domashniy Island near the western coast of Severnaya Zemlya. From 1930 to 1932 a special expedition determined that the archipelago of Severnaya Zemlya consisted of four larger and a number of minor islands, filling in the last “white spots” on the map of the Arctic.

Icebreaking steamer Sibiriakov under sail power. Image courtesy Ecoshelf.

Click to enlarge this image and to see photo of Captain Voronin

To join the western and eastern legs of the Northern Sea Route and make a regular working transport way from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, the Chief Administration of the Northern Sea Route was established in 1932, and more polar stations and observatories were created. The first passage through the Northern Sea Route during one navigation was performed by the icebreaking steamer Sibiriakov, organized by the All-Union Arctic Institute (presently known as the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute). The Sibiriakov sailed from Archangelsk, crossed the Kara Sea and chose a northern, unexplored way around Severnaya Zemlya to the Laptev Sea. In September the propeller shaft broke, the icebreaker drifted for 11 days, and using sails arrived in the Bering Strait in October completing the first successful crossing of the Northern Sea Route during a single navigation without wintering.

In 1933 the second sailing from Murmansk to the Pacific Ocean was undertaken by the icebreaking steamer Cheluskin. There she was taken by the current northward through Bering Strait, trapped in the Chukchi Sea pack ice, and crushed and sank. The expedition members escaped to the ice, organized a camp, and were rescued with the help of aircraft. The icebreaker Litke first navigated along the Northern Sea Route without accident from Vladivostok to Murmansk in 1934. In 1935 the first commercial cruises were carried out by two cargo steamers each way between Murmansk and Vladivostok, proving the practical possibility of safe navigation in the Arctic seas. Gradually the Northern Sea Route was supplied with more powerful icebreakers and reliable radio communication, new ports were founded along the coast, and the network of polar stations increased.

via Beaufort Gyre Exploration Project | History | Early Soviet Exploration.