Politics – Page 2 – Connect Russia

Alcohol blamed for half of Russia’s premature deaths

Excessive drinking causes nearly half of all deaths among Russian men of working age, researchers have found. British researchers who investigated drinking habits in one town in the Urals found men were imbibing colognes, medical tinctures and cleaning agents containing up 97 per cent alcohol.

Past studies have suggested that Russian men drink more than 15 litres of pure alcohol a year on average – equivalent to a 70cl bottle of spirits a week.

Professor David Leon and colleagues from the LSHTM and the Social Technologies Institute in Izhevsk say earlier research has neglected the “vast area of manufactured alcohol” and the significant contribution it makes to the death rate.

“We only came across it when we were sitting round a table with our colleagues in Izhevsk and asking what could men be drinking,” said Professor Leon. “They mentioned tinctures and eau de colognes. We had no idea this was going on.”

A 100ml bottle of Hawthorn tincture is more than 90 per cent alcohol and costs 15 roubles (35p), compared with the cheapest vodka which is 70 roubles for a standard bottle (700ml) and only 40 per cent alcohol. “Not only is it cheaper unit for unit of alcohol, but because it comes in smaller bottles it is cheaper to buy,” said Professor Leon. “We have pictures of eau de colognes – shelves and shelves of them displayed like a drinks counter in a supermarket rather than an aftershave counter. In Omsk we visited a shop where the top shelf carried a row of eau de colognes, the next one bottles of anti-freeze and the one below that cleaning fluids. They all contained ethanol – the way they were displayed was testimony to the fact that they were being sold for their ethanol.”

Professor Leon said men who turned to these products had entered a downward spiral that accelerated as their drinking increased.

(Via The Independent)

A Day That Shook The World: Chernobyl disaster

On 27 April 1986, the Chernobyl atomic power plant near Kiev in the USSR exploded in the world’s worst ever nuclear disaster.

The ensuing crisis was totally mismanaged by Soviet authorities, and spread radioactive material halfway around the world, causing untold harm – and the deaths of many of the workers battling to contain the meltdown.

The disaster would put the whole future of nuclear power in doubt across the world.

Watch original British footage from the disaster after the link.

(Via The Independent.Co.Uk

Fallout from Chernobyl in Poland

It is not uncommon today to read, or hear that the effects of the Chernobyl accident “have been greatly exaggerated” and that “only” 31 people died immediately when the disaster occurred (particularly as people rushed to minimize the dangers posed by Japanese Reactors following the recent earthquakes).

Naturally, the former Soviet republics of Belarus and Ukraine come to mind quickly. But what about other countries?

Poland was the third country profoundly affected by Chernobyl.

It was a glorious late-spring time, sunny, warm, blue sky, light breeze. On Sunday evening, April 27th, the wind became very strong and changed direction. Many people had similar feelings of sleeping badly that night, waking several times and sweating. “It must be that hot eastern wind”, people commented.

The sister of the journalist, aged 40 at the time, a scientist in the field of fishery and hydrobiology, spent the day working on lakes in north-east Poland, about 40 miles from the former USSR border. On April 29th, the evening news on Polish TV was interrupted by a special communiqué from Moscow. “There was an accident in Ukraine nuclear power-station. “Shortage of tincture of iodine, all sold out” – a perplexed, tired looking lady chemist announced. (Iodine tablets did not exist in Poland).

My parents had a small bottle of iodine tincture at home. Ten million Polish children continued their normal school routine getting plenty of “fresh air” in their usual sport and outdoor exercise activities.

March 18th 2011 marked the 10th anniversary of her death.

(via The Irish Times)

Putin Wants Greater Biotech Role

Russia wants to have a 5 percent share in the global biotech market by 2020, a senior official said Friday after a government meeting chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

“The new wave of global technological development will be linked to biotechnologies and new materials unlike the previous wave linked to information and computer technology,” Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach told reporters.

The government approved on Friday 25 so-called “technology platforms,” modeled on their European equivalents, which will provide framework and coordination for research and funding. Three of the platforms are linked to biotech.

(Via The Moscow Times)

Putin Links Economy and Ecology

Experts estimate that about 15 percent of the country is in critical environmental condition, and further neglect may have an irreversible impact, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.

“Yearly reports indicate that the man-made impact on ecological systems is not abating and is only increasing. Air and water pollution in virtually all Russian regions remains at a high level,” Putin said at a meeting on ways to improve the environmental situation in the country.

Companies must be forced to implement new environmental technologies, otherwise the country is doomed “to trail behind,” Putin said.

“I am perfectly aware of the concerns of those specialists who are thinking about the need to increase labor productivity and about the state of our competition. But we all understand that the lack of stimulus is helping preserve old production facilities and old technologies, leading to an extensive approach to growth that will always leave us lagging behind,” the prime minister said.

(via Moscow Times)

Russian bombers ‘intercepted in British airspace’

March 25, 2010 (last year)

Rare photos of Russian strategic bomber jets purportedly intercepted in British airspace show Moscow’s war machine is becoming increasingly bold, analysts said Thursday as Russia denied any territorial violations.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence released images it said were taken earlier this month of two Russian Tu-160 bombers — known as Blackjacks by NATO forces — as they entered UK airspace near the Outer Hebrides islands off Scotland’s northwest coast.

It said the March 10 incident, which resulted in crystal clear images of the planes against clear blue skies and a dramatic sunset, was one of many intercepts carried out by British Royal Air Force crews in just over 12 months.

“This is not an unusual incident, and many people may be surprised to know that our crews have successfully scrambled to intercept Russian aircraft on more than 20 occasions since the start of 2009,” Wing Cdr. Mark Gorringe, of the RAF’s 111 Squadron, said in a statement.

(Via CNN)

Baikal Airport to Become International Transportation Hub for Southeast Siberia

Russia will allocate around US$6.8 million in the federal budget for the continuing reconstruction of the Baikal International Airport OJSC in Ulan-Ude, Buryat Republic this year, the local press office announced on Monday.

Plans include building a second runway, enlarging the first runway, improving passenger facilities, and modernizing of the taxi lane.

The reconstruction of the airport is planned to be finished in 2012, when the last tranche of US$11.3 million will be invested.

The whole reconstruction project, implemented within the framework of a federal program of economic and social development of the Far East and Transbaikalia since 2008, is estimated to cost around US$30 million when completed.

After the reconstruction of the runway, the airport will be able to serve any type of aircraft without restrictions on take-off weight. New lighting equipment will also allow the airport to accept aircraft at night time on request of air companies and to operate 24 hours in the future.

(Via Russia Briefing News)