BRUSSELS/WARSAW — After centuries as Europe’s stomping ground and years as its prickly gadfly, Poland is now poised to lead the continent. Poland, a member since 2004, takes over the European Union’s six-month rotating presidency amid high hopes. “Europe’s foundations are threatened” and strong leadership is needed, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said recently, in [...]
Archives: June 2011
June 30, 2011
June 30, 2011
Ships and helicopters at International Maritime Defense Show
Add to blog You may place this material on your blog by copying the link. Publication code: Ships and helicopters at International Maritime Defense Show 16:15 30/06/2011 The fifth International Maritime Defense Show opened in St. Petersburg. More than 400 companies from 29 countries are taking part. Over 40 ships and boats from the Navy are moored [...]
June 30, 2011
Christine Lagarde takes IMF reigns
Christine Lagarde has been elected by the IMF’s Executive Board to be the fund’s new managing director, filling the vacancy created by the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. France’s Minister of Economic Affairs, Finances and Industry and a former synchronized swimmer, Lagarde will lead the global rainy day fund for the next five years. As the [...]
June 30, 2011
Gazprom prioritizes Yamal, Arctic shelf as Russia’s major gas projects
Gazprom will prioritize development of its gas field projects on the Yamal Peninsula and the Arctic shelf, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said on Thursday. “In actual fact, we are creating another Gazprom. The creation of a new gas production center on Yamal and on the Arctic shelf is comparable with the development of the giant [...]
June 30, 2011
No place for emotions in Russia-Belarus relations
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned that emotions should not interfere with Russia-Belarus relations. Lavrov was speaking as Belarus paid off its $21.16-million debt to Russian energy export monopoly Inter RAO, a day after Moscow cut electricity supplies to the country. “It is in our interests that any emotional outbursts should be removed from [...]
June 30, 2011
Competition watchdog demands Russian oil majors cut fuel prices
Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has ordered major Russian oil companies to bring wholesale fuel prices down in line with market prices and warned that it may launch new investigations into price fixing, the competition watchdog said on Thursday. “FAS considers it necessary that the oil companies should cut wholesale prices for oil products in [...]
June 30, 2011
Russian court allows police, officials to criticize state institutions
Russia’s constitutional court ruled on Thursday in favor of two former state officials who filed complaints after they were sacked for criticizing the institutions they worked for. Lyubov Kondratyeva, the former chief tax inspector from Russia’s Federal Tax Service, was fired after he criticized the tax service’s system of repaying travel allowances during an interview [...]
June 30, 2011
Russia set to build nuclear-powered destroyer by 2016
Russia will finish in 2016 the construction of a new class destroyer, which will most likely be nuclear powered, commander of the Russian Navy Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky said on Thursday. “A prototype of an ocean-going class destroyer will be built in 2016 for the country’s Navy,” Vysotsky said at the 5th International Maritime Defense Show, [...]
June 30, 2011
Irate WWII vet moves into refurbished house instead of new home
A Russian World War II veteran who made headlines by mailing his war medals to the prime minister demanding a new house, on Thursday agreed to move into his old house after it was completely refurbished. The authorities in the central Russian Voronezh region said they were unable to provide 87-year-old veteran Vasily Zasorin with [...]
June 30, 2011
Putin drops possible election hint
Vladimir Putin gave a cryptic hint as to his possible participation in the 2012 presidential polls on Thursday, saying that he would need to “wash” himself after the elections. “I shall go and have a wash, in the hygienic sense of the word, but also in the political sense,” Putin said at a regional conference [...]
June 30, 2011
Putin speaks out against compulsory drug treatment
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin spoke out against compulsory drug addiction and alcohol treatment on Thursday. “It is necessary to persuade a person, to bring up his inner motivation to overcome this ordeal,” Putin told a regional conference of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party in Yekaterinburg. The premier stressed the importance of the state’s role [...]
June 30, 2011
Tymoshenko Goes on Trial
Yulia Tymoshenko kissing a supporter outside a Kiev court on Wednesday. KIEV — Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko went on trial on Wednesday on charges of abuse of power in a case that has raised Western concerns over President Viktor Yanukovych’s commitment to democracy and the rule of law. Western reaction is important since Ukraine, a major grain and steel exporter, badly needs outside investment and is [...]
June 30, 2011
North Korea, Russia Abandon Plans for Kim Meeting
Protesters rallying against North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, pictured with a firing target, in Seoul on Wednesday. The leaders of North Korea and Russia appeared on Wednesday to have canceled plans for a summit in the Far East when the Kremlin said President Dmitry Medvedev had no meetings scheduled with Kim Jong Il. Authorities in Vladivostok, 130 kilometers from the North Korean border, had [...]
June 30, 2011
Kaczynski’s Brother Faults Russia for Jet Crash
WARSAW — Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Poland’s main opposition party, said Wednesday that Russia bore the main responsibility for a plane crash in April 2010 that killed his twin brother, then Poland’s president. Kaczynski’s Law and Justice Party, known for its deep distrust of Russia, presented its report into the causes of the crash that killed all 96 on board, including President Lech Kaczynski and his [...]