Putin ejects Kremlin ‘puppet master’ after protests

Vladislav Surkov (right) in this February 6, 2007, file photo with then President Vladimir Putin.


The architect of Vladimir Putin’s tightly controlled political system became one of its most senior victims yesterday when he was shunted out of the Kremlin in the wake of the biggest opposition protests of Putin’s 12-year rule.

The sacrifice of Vladislav Surkov, branded the Kremlin’s “puppet master” by enemies and friends alike, is also a rare admission of failure for Russia’s “alpha dog” leader: Surkov’s system was Putin’s system.

Russia’s Putin deflects calls for election rerun

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin listens during a televised question-and-answer session in Moscow December 15, 2011. Putin on Thursday deflected opposition allegations that fraud helped his ruling party win a parliamentary election, saying the result reflected the views of the population.



Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin today dismissed opposition allegations that fraud had helped his ruling party win a parliamentary election and signalled he would not bow to calls at mass protests for the poll to be rerun.

In his annual televised call-in question-and-answer session he tried to shrug off the significance of the biggest opposition protests of his 12-year rule. Initial reaction on social media suggested many Russians see him as out of touch with his people.

Putin, dressed in a suit and tie behind a desk as he took questions by phone and from a studio audience, looked less at ease than in previous years in an appearance intended to help rebuild his authority before a presidential election in March.

“From my point of view, the result of the (Dec. 4) election undoubtedly reflects public opinion in the country,” Putin said in a show broadcast live to the nation.

“As for the fact that the ruling force, United Russia, lost some ground, there is also nothing unusual about this. Listen, we have gone through a very difficult period of crisis, and look at what is happening in other countries.”

Russian police crack down on anti-Putin protests

Policemen detain an activist during a rally to protest against the results of the parliamentary elections and the policies conducted by Russian authorities in Moscow December 6, 2011.


Hundreds of people took to the streets of Moscow for a second successive day yesterday to demand an end to Vladimir Putin’s 12-year rule, defying a crackdown by tens of thousands of police reinforced by crack Interior Ministry troops.

Police said they had detained about 250 people in central Moscow when they tried to stage an unapproved rally and held about 200 more in St Petersburg, where opposition forces have also been emboldened by the prime minister’s worst election setback since he took power in 1999.

After permitting the biggest opposition rally in Moscow for years on Monday evening, the police were out in large numbers. The Interior ministry said about 2,000 special troops were supporting almost 50,000 police, and some moved through the city centre in armoured vehicles in a show of force.

Putin hits West's 'meddling'

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused the West of meddling in his nation's forthcoming elections. Speaking as he was endorsed by 614 votes to 0 as United


Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused the West of meddling in his nation's forthcoming elections.

Speaking as he was endorsed by 614 votes to 0 as United Russia's candidate for the March presidential election, Mr Putin said other countries were paying non-government organisations in Russia ''to eventually influence the course of the election campaign in our country''.

Russia sending warships to its base in Syria

Russia is sending a flotilla of warships to its naval base in Syria in a show of force which suggests Moscow is willing to defend its interests in the strife-torn country as international pressure mounts on President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Arab League sanctions and French calls for the establishment of humanitarian zones in Syria have increased international pressure on Assad to end bloodshed that the United Nations says has killed 3,500 people during nine months of protests against his rule.

Russia, which has a naval maintenance base in Syria and whose weapons trade with Damascus is worth millions of dollars annually, joined China last month to veto a Western-backed UN Security Council resolution condemning Assad’s government.

Izvestia newspaper reported today, citing retired Russian Admiral Viktor Kravchenko, that Russia plans to send its flagship aircraft carrier the “Admiral Kuznetsov” along with a patrol ship, an anti-submarine craft and other vessels.

44 killed in Russian highway plane crash - Russian plane crash blamed on "pilot error"

A 9-year-old boy died of his injuries Wednesday, bringing the death toll in the crash of a Russian passenger plane that slammed into a highway in heavy fog to 45, officials said. The RusAir Tu-134 on a flight from Moscow crashed just ...

Fearing power vacuum, Russia cosies up to Afghanistan

Still haunted by its own disastrous war in Afghanistan, Russia is tiptoeing back into Kabul’s affairs ahead of a gradual withdrawal of Nato troops that could leave a dangerous power vacuum in what was once a traditional sphere of influence.

Moscow has refused to send troops to the war, which is becomingly increasingly unpopular as it drags into its 10th year, but it has backed drug raids, and increased support for Nato and local forces. It has also showed interest in business deals as it vies to boost its clout in Afghanistan.

Russia has welcomed Afghan President Hamid Karzai twice in the past 12 months, where he directly asked his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev for help with security.





Long indirectly involved in Afghan affairs through supporting foreign operations, Russia is now pursuing ‘independent engagement’, said Vanda Felbab-Brown, an expert on Afghanistan and fellow at the Brookings Institution.

‘Russia’s primary objective is to avoid having civil war, instability and leakages into Central Asia and into Russia itself,’ Felbab-Brown told Reuters from Washington.

Moscow has also been courting Pakistan, seen as instrumental to peace plans in Afghanistan, where some 15,000 Soviet soldiers died fighting mujahideen insurgents before pulling out in 1989.

Russia agreed last year to expand on a transit deal to allow Nato to take armoured vehicles through its territory. It had already allowed the military alliance to ship food and fuel.

An agreement to supply the United States with 21 military helicopters is also expected to be completed by year-end.

‘Russia certainly does not want America to remain in the region,’ said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the journal Russia in Global Affairs. ‘At the same time, there is also the concern that the US departure, particularly a swift one, will make the situation much more difficult’.

Moscow also hopes to be involved in several economic projects, including a proposed gas pipeline and hydroelectric power facilities in Kabul. Russia has said it would rebuild Soviet-era infrastructure, which it built in the 1950s-1970s, if the international community footed the bill.

Violence, uncertainty

Despite escalating violence, Washington and Nato have pledged to begin a gradual security transition from July as part of a plan that will see all foreign combat troops leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Experts say the first transition phase — to begin in seven areas — is more about symbolism than substance, but agree the handover is still crucial to determining the readiness of Afghan forces.

Violence last year hit its worst levels since US-backed Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban government in late 2001, but Washington and its allies have backed Karzai’s peace plan, which includes negotiations with Taliban-led insurgents.

However, there is still little idea how that plan will work and the likelihood of more political uncertainty looms.

Still wary of a country at the heart of the ‘Great Game’ — the historic rivalry between Britain and Russia during the 19th and 20th centuries, Moscow is now also driven by its fear of growing Islamism.

Russia is afraid the troop drawdown will allow militants to filter into the oil and gas-producing mainly Muslim countries of ex-Soviet Central Asia.

Last month the head of a Russia-dominated regional security bloc, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), warned member states that Afghan insurgent activity was already spreading to the bordering Central Asian countries.

‘This is one of the main destabilising factors presenting a real threat to collective security in the Central Asian region,’ the CSTO’s Nikolai Bordyuzha said in Moscow.

Moscow is so alarmed, security sources and analysts say, that it is in talks with Tajikistan — whose southern border with Afghanistan is long and porous — to send up to 3,000 Russian border guards to protect the country from a spillover of violence.

Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan also border Afghanistan.

‘It is possible we could see a resurgence of the Taliban, and the Islamist movements in Central Asia might be emboldened by this,’ said Gemma Ferst from the London-based Eurasia Group.

Twenty years after the fall of the Soviet Union, homegrown Islamist movements now exist in all Central Asian countries, Ferst added, and links to the international radical community have already been established.

Uphill battle

Russia also has worries closer to home.

The Kremlin is waging an uphill battle with Islamist insurgents in its mainly Muslim North Caucasus region, underpinned by Soviet-era deportations and two separatist wars in Chechnya since 1994.

Potential chaos in Afghanistan after foreign troops leave could encourage Russia’s rebels, who are bent on carving out an independent Islamic state and stage near-daily attacks across the North Caucasus.

Escalating their campaign, they also said they carried out the suicide bombings that killed a total of 77 people in Moscow’s busiest airport in January and on the Moscow metro last year.

‘There are fears that (violence) might reverberate into the North Caucasus, and how moral encouragement from Afghanistan could fuel salafism and separatism there,’ said Felbab-Brown, referring to the ultra-conservative branch of Islam that the Caucasus rebels follow.

Afghan militants have openly supported the North Caucasus in the past: the Taliban government recognised Chechnya as independent in 2000 and even set up an embassy in Kabul.

Russia’s crippling drugs crisis and a looming HIV/AIDS epidemic have also reignited Moscow’s interest in Afghan intervention. A quarter of all Afghan heroin reaches Russia through Central Asia, making it the largest per capita user in the world with up to 3 million addicts.

Though Russia has vowed repeats of a joint raid with the US last year, in which they destroyed four drug labs and a tonne of heroin near the Afghan border with Pakistan, it also disagrees with its Cold War foe over local drug output.

‘The drug trade feeds into militant activity, which poses a risk for Central Asia, and this is of course something that motivates us,’ said anti-drugs tsar Viktor Ivanov, referring to Russia’s desire to destroy poppy crops.

The United States has said eradicating poppy plantations would push disgruntled Afghan farmers into insurgents’ hands.

Rebel chief pained by bloodshed in Gaddafi family - Russia says Nato may be targeting Gaddafi

Rebel chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil said today he felt “pain and sorrow” even for Muammar Gaddafi’s family following a Nato air strike on his house in Tripoli, but blamed the Libyan leader for the violence.

Gaddafi survived the air attacke on the dwelling but his youngest son, Saif al-Arab, and three grandchildren were killed, according to a government spokesman.

Abdel Jalil, speaking in comments broadcast on the Qatar-based Al Jazeera channel, also offered amnesty to Gaddafi supporters who abandon the Libyan leader and join the rebels.

“We feel pain and sorrow for any bloodshed, even when Gaddafi’s house was bombed last night. We feel pain for any blood that is shed unjustly,” Abdel Jalil said.

“But the blood of Gaddafi’s sons is not more precious than the blood of Libyan men and women,” he added.

Abdel Jalil said Gaddafi was to blame for the civil war.

“He bombed our cities and villages with rocket launchers and planes. He shed blood and killed children ...,” he said.

Abdel Jalil urged Gaddafi supporters to join the rebels.

“You must abandon him and you will live with us in peace and security. Anyone who abandons Muammar Gaddafi in these moments will have peace and security for him and his family and will live with us in prosperity in the future.”





Russia’s Foreign Ministry said today that Nato could be targeting leader Muammar Gaddafi and his family, after Libyan officials said his youngest son and three grandchildren were killed in an air strike.

Russia has been an outspoken critic of the Western military alliance’s intervention in Libya.

Earlier, Russian parliament member Konstantin Kosachev told Interfax news agency the attack was proof the coalition was not protecting civilians, as mandated by the United Nations.

“We have serious doubts about statements by the coalition members that attacks on Libya are not intended to physically eliminate Gaddafi and his family,” the ministry said in a statement.

Nato denied targeting Gaddafi or his family in the Saturday evening’s bombing, but said it had launched air strikes on military targets. Libyan officials said there had been an “assassination attempt”.

Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said Gaddafi’s youngest son Saif al-Arab, 29, was killed in the attack along with three of Gaddafi’s grandchildren.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry echoed its plea of a week ago for an immediate ceasefire and the “beginning of a political settlement without any preconditions”.

“Moscow is treating the reports about civilian casualties with growing concern,” it added.

The Libyan rebels and Nato have rejected Gaddafi’s offer for a ceasefire, saying it lacked credibility.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has criticised the Western countries enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya and said they have gone beyond the limits of a UN Security Council resolution designed to protect civilians.

Russia holds the power of veto as a permanent member of the Security Council but abstained in March in a vote on a resolution authorising force to protect civilians.

Russia’s Putin criticises Customs’ YouTube video

Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with senior officials in Moscow on March 30, 2010.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin today criticised a group of customs officers for a video clip they posted on YouTube celebrating the lavish lifestyle they say comes with their government jobs.

The mock rap video http://link.reuters.com/dyt97r made in the Pacific port city of Vladivostok shows customs officials in sunglasses driving a Rolls Royce and drinking champagne surrounded by scantily clad women.

“You can’t even imagine how the customs officials have fun,” officers sing in chorus as a topless woman clutches customs forms to her breasts.

No disciplinary action has been taken to date against the officers who posted the video, but Putin, Russia’s paramount leader, condemned the bling-filled video’s tongue-in-cheek look at corruption.

“Discipline is needed in several of the divisions, we have to raise it a little,” Putin said at a meeting with the head of the Federal Customs Service.

“I like to joke and laugh a little myself, but this kind of creativity should be saved for a talent show,” said Putin, who has hinted he may run for president in 2012.

The average monthly salary for customs officials — US$1,000 (RM3,050) — is also the size of the average bribe in Russia, according to a recent report in financial daily Vedomosti.



Russians lament corruption and bribe-taking by government officials to carry out standard procedures and the customs service is perceived as a major offender.

From cars to wine, imports are sought after in Russia and often cost at least twice as much as in the country of origin.

Corruption is also considered the biggest obstacle to doing business in Russia, and investors have demanded more measures to fight the growing problem.

Berlin-based graft watchdog Transparency International ranks Russia 154th out of 178 countries in a corruption perception index, putting it on par with Laos and Cambodia.

Government jobs are among the most sought-after and are often sold for thousands of dollars in Russia, where bureaucrats often supplement modest incomes with sometimes huge bribes.

Some visitors to the YouTube site praised the video, including a suggestion that they should go on tour. Others scathingly mocked the idea and criticised the clip.

“What tour? They make more on bribes than any star. There is a stream of goods flowing in from China through Vladivostok, They are literally raking in the money,” said one person who identified themselves as GiusAppuleiusDiocles.

President Dmitry Medvedev today sent a bill to parliament increasing the fines on officials caught taking bribes to up to 100 times the size of the original bribe.

Many Russians say paying bribes has become a regular feature in almost every sphere of life, from ensuring attention in the health care industry to getting better marks in university or evading penalties from traffic police. Bigger bribes are paid by companies to secure contracts or other business.

US, Russia cap ‘reset’ in ties with START treaty

Clinton and Lavrov exchange documents formally, bringing into force the landmark nuclear arms reduction pact START during the 47th Conference on Security Policy in Munich today, February 5, 2011

The United States and Russia formally inaugurated their new START nuclear arms treaty today, capping two years of work to “reset” the sometimes strained ties between the former Cold War enemies.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov exchanged the final START documents at the Munich security conference, where two years ago US Vice-President Joe Biden launched the Obama administration’s push for better relations with Moscow.

“Two years ago we all laughed about the translation of the ceremonial ‘reset’ button I gave to the foreign minister,” Clinton said, referring to a diplomatic gaffe in which she presented Lavrov with an oversized button on which “reset” was mistranslated into the Russian for “overcharge”.

“But when it came to the translation that mattered most, we turned words into action to reach a milestone in our strategic partnership.”



Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and US President Barack Obama signed the deal in April after a year of tough negotiations, committing the world’s top two nuclear powers gradually to reduce their atomic arsenals.

The START treaty has been at the centre of Washington’s effort to improve ties with Moscow, which hit a low with Russia’s 2008 war against pro-western Georgia and were further strained by disagreements on trade and US concerns over Russia’s record on human rights and free speech.

US officials say the “reset” has delivered results on a number of fronts including efforts to rein in the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea, co-operation on the halting Middle East peace process and growing ties between Russia and Nato.

The START treaty itself is also seen as an important step towards Obama’s goal of nuclear disarmament — though analysts say there are much higher hurdles ahead if further progress is to be made.

Obama faced down sharp objections from some Republican senators, who said the new treaty gave too much away, to win Senate ratification late last year in a major political victory.

The START treaty commits the two nations, with 95 per cent of the world’s nuclear weapons, to ceilings of 1,550 deployed strategic warheads in seven years, up to 30 per cent lower than in the 2002 Moscow treaty.

It will limit each side to 700 deployed strategic missiles and bombers and establish verification rules, absent since the US-Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) expired in 2009, enabling them to keep tabs on each other’s arsenals.

Now the treaty has taken effect, the two nations will begin exchanging information about the status of their nuclear forces and, within weeks, hold the first on-site inspections of each other’s nuclear arsenals in nearly two years.

The United States and Russia have already signalled differences over further cuts, including on tactical nuclear weapons that many analysts regard as a more immediate danger.

The US Senate has asked Obama to seek negotiations on tactical nuclear weapons within a year after START enters into force. But Russia, which has a stockpile several times larger than that of the United States, has resisted, saying talks should not be held until each country confines its tactical nuclear weapons to its own territory.

Russian investigators uncover identity of Moscow bomber that kills 35 people

Russian investigators have said they now know the identity of the suicide bomber who claimed the lives of 35 people in an attack on Moscow's busiest airport last Monday.

Russia’s Khodorkovsky sentenced, West concerned

A man holds a portrait of jailed Russian former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky during a picket in support of Khodorkovsky near the court building, as an Interior Ministry officer walks past in Moscow on December 30, 2010.

Former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s jail term was extended until 2017 yesterday when he was convicted of theft and money-laundering in a trial condemned in the West as politically motivated.

With Khodorkovsky and co-defendant Platon Lebedev watching from a glass-walled courtroom cage at the close of their trial, the judge said there was no way they could be reformed without “isolation from society.”



Russia’s leading human rights activist called the sentence “monstrous” for the defendants and their country, and the United States said it appeared to result from “an abusive use of the legal system for improper ends.”

Moscow judge Viktor Danilkin granted the prosecutors’ request and ordered Khodorkovsky serve 14 years in prison, including his current eight-year term and counting from the day of his arrest at a Siberian airport in October 2003.

Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man and head of the now defunct Yukos oil company, is in the final year of an eight-year sentence imposed after a politically charged fraud and tax evasion trial that marked one of the defining acts of Vladimir Putin’s 2000-2008 presidency.

Russia has told the West to mind its own business and rejected as “groundless” US suggestions that the verdict resulted from selective justice.

“We remain concerned by the allegations of serious due process violations, and what appears to be an abusive use of the legal system for improper ends,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

A senior official in President Barack Obama’s administration said the verdict would complicate Russia’s bid to join the World Trade Organisation — an effort Obama has supported as part of a “reset” that has improved Russian-US relations.

“It is not going to help their cause, it is only going to complicate their cause,” the official said.

“The impression remains that political motivations played a role in this trial,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin. “This contradicts Russia’s frequently repeated intention to pursue full adoption of the rule of law.”

One of the young tycoons who built fortunes after the Soviet Union’s 1991 collapse, Khodorkovsky fell out with Putin’s Kremlin after airing corruption allegations, challenging state control over oil exports and funding opposition parties.

Dressed in black, Khodorkovsky, whose previous sentence was due to end next October, stood stunned as Danilkin announced the sentence, which his lawyers said was made under pressure from Prime Minister Putin.

“May God damn you and your descendants,” Khodorkovsky’s mother, Marina, shouted at the judge’s back as he hurriedly left the courtroom immediately after the sentencing.

Khodorkovsky had adamantly denied the charges, and supporters said the conviction made a mockery of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s pledges to improve the rule of law.

“Our example shows that in Russia, you cannot hope the courts will protect you from government officials,” Khodorkovsky and Lebedev said in a statement read out by lead lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant after the sentencing.

“The sentence was clearly issued under pressure from the executive authorities, headed as before by Mr. Putin,” said Yuri Shmidt, another lawyer on the defence team.

“Putin signalled to the court who is the boss today and who today decides Khodorkovsky’s fate and life,” he said.

“This sentence is monstrous for these two honourable people and for the country,” Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a Soviet-era dissident and Russia’s most prominent right activist, told Reuters.

“The fate of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev and the length of their imprisonment depend on how long Putin stays in power.”

Putin made no public reference to the sentence, and his spokesman declined to comment. President Medvedev also made no public comment.

WEST CRITICAL OF RUSSIAN RULE OF LAW

The sentence stoked renewed accusations of selective justice and could strain Russia’s ties with the United States and the European Union, which said the conviction raised questions about Moscow’s commitment to human rights.

“The consequences will be hard for Russia as a country seeking to attract investment and will take a toll on its reputation internationally,” Maria Lipman, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Centre, told Reuters.

The Obama administration official said the case would complicate Russia’s bid for membership in the WTO, which Putin said on Wednesday Moscow could be expected to join next year, because “the WTO is a rules based, rule of law organisation.”

“Most countries around the world do not look at this verdict as a demonstration of the deepening of the rule of law in Russia It will definitely have an effect on Russia’s reputation,” the official said.

With the economy slowing after the global financial meltdown hit Russia harder than its emerging market peers, Medvedev has courted the West and sought US and EU support for a campaign to modernise the energy-reliant economy.

He has vowed to curb corruption and lawlessness that hinder investment, but has made little progress. Western nations have warned pointedly that independent courts are a crucial foundation for economic progress.

INVESTMENT ISSUES

But many investors are inured to the backdrop for business in Russia, and the Kremlin may have calculated it could afford to keep Khodorkovsky in jail. Putin has tried to soothe investors by casting him as an isolated case.

In the second trial, which dragged on in a drab Moscow courtroom for nearly two years, prosecutors said he and Lebedev stole nearly US$30 billion (RM94.2 billion) in oil from Yukos subsidiaries through price mechanisms and laundered some of the money. Khodorkovsky’s lawyers dismissed the charges as a pretext to keep him in jail.

They vowed to appeal the verdict, opening the door to a potentially divisive debate over his fate in the run-up to parliamentary elections next year and a 2012 presidential vote that could see the return of Putin to the Kremlin.

After Khodorkovsky’s 2003 arrest, Yukos was bankrupted by back-tax claims and its top assets sold to the state.

Russia agrees to buy French helicopter carriers

The Mistral class is a class of three amphibious assault ships, also known as a helicopter carrier, of the French Navy.


Russia has agreed to buy two helicopter carriers from a French-led consortium, the French and Russian governments said yesterday, in Moscow’s first major foreign arms purchase since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Under the long-discussed deal, the Mistral-type amphibious assault ships will be built by French shipyard companies DCNS and STX along with Russia’s state-run United Shipbuilding Corporation, known as OSK.

Some of France’s NATO allies had voiced concern, urging Paris not to sell Moscow high-tech systems that could be used against Russia’s former communist neighbours, especially since Russia’s brief 2008 war with neighbouring Georgia.




Here is some background to the deal.

MISTRAL CAPABILITIES

The Mistral-class ships can carry up to 16 helicopters such as Russia’s Ka-50/52. They also carry landing barges and hovercraft, allowing vehicles, tanks and soldiers to be taken ashore — an important capability if Russia had to fight a war similar to the one it waged with Georgia in 2008.

The Mistral can carry 450 troops for up to six months, but that number can rise to 700 for shorter periods.

COASTAL CONTROL

Russia failed to gain control of Georgia’s Black Sea coast in its five-day conflict with Tbilisi. It currently depends largely on helicopters and unmanned planes to control its coastal regions on the Baltic and Black Seas. The Mistral will give Moscow much greater command of its coastlines.

FOREIGN PURCHASES

The Mistral purchase of is the first major defence import deal since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, showing Russia’s need for foreign technology in the sector. The deal was a surprise as Moscow’s defence procurement strategy to 2015 did not include construction or purchase of any large combat ships.

BOON FOR NAVAL DEFENCE INDUSTRY

One of the main sticking points in Russia’s negotiations over the Mistral is whether it will get access to the same technology used on French ships, giving Russia a glimpse of more advanced naval weapons and defence systems.

The reputation of the Russian naval defence industry had been tarnished by an Indian order of the Admiral Gorshkov heavy aircraft carrying cruiser. Moscow-based defence analysts Cast say Russia has nearly tripled the price and delayed delivery of the cruiser by four years since signing the contract in 2004.

US Senate close to approving Russia arms treaty

Missile defence sticking point with Republicans

President Barack Obama wrapped up enough support yesterday to win Senate approval for a strategic nuclear arms pact with Russia later this week, a key step in his drive to improve ties with Moscow and curb atomic weapons proliferation.

The new START treaty cleared a procedural hurdle in the US Senate by a vote of 67-28 as 11 Republicans joined Democrats in a decision to limit further debate. The treaty will move to a final vote today after lawmakers deal with a rash of last-minute amendments.

Obama’s Democrats need a two-thirds majority in the 100-member Senate for final approval of the treaty. Senator John Kerry, who led floor debate as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he expected 70 senators to ultimately vote in favour of the accord.




“We are on the brink of writing the next chapter in the 40-year history of wrestling with the threat of nuclear weapons,” Kerry said.

The treaty, which would cut strategic atomic weapons deployed by each country to no more than 1,550 within seven years, was signed by Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in April.

It is a centrepiece of Obama’s bid to “re-set” relations with Russia, which has been increasingly cooperative on issues related to US national security, from curbing Iran’s nuclear programme to the war in Afghanistan.

“This treaty will make America safer and restore our leadership in global efforts to stop nuclear proliferation,” Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said.

Senators yesterday debated and defeated a series of amendments aimed at changing the treaty’s handling of weapons inspections, data exchanges and other issues. Changes that would amend the treaty would effectively kill it by forcing a renegotiation with Russia.

At least 12 Republicans have said that they will vote with Democrats to approve the pact, which would give Obama his third major victory on Capitol Hill in less than a week.

He earlier won repeal of the US ban on gays serving openly in the military, and passage of an US$858 billion (RM2.69 trillion) deal with Republicans to extend expiring tax cuts and spur economic growth.

Republican opponents of the accord, angered by the their inability to stop the march towards passage, charged the Obama administration had negotiated a bad treaty that let Russia limit US missile defence options when the real strategic threat was not Moscow but states such as North Korea and Iran.

“Nothing that he has done has convinced me that he is committed to missile defence,” Senator Lindsey Graham told a news conference, saying Obama was effectively “giving the Russians a veto” over US missile defence plans.

The Senate’s top two Republicans — Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Whip Jon Kyl — have announced they will vote against START, saying lawmakers haven’t had enough time to fully consider the treaty.

But the chamber’s third-ranking Republican, Lamar Alexander, joined Democrats yesterday in agreeing to end debate and move to approve the pact.

“I will vote to ratify the New Start Treaty . . . because it leaves our country with enough nuclear warheads to blow any attacker to kingdom come, and because the president has committed to an $85 billion, 10-year plan to make sure that those weapons work,” Alexander declared in a Senate speech.

Alexander’s state of Tennessee is home to one of the nuclear facilities that will receive billions of dollars in modernisation funding under an agreement worked out between lawmakers and the White House.

There has been far less public or political debate over the treaty in Russia. The Russian State Duma has yet to approve the accord and Medvedev has made clear that parliament should not ratify the treaty until US Senate approval is certain.

Konstantin Kosachyov, the pro-Kremlin chairman of the international affairs committee, said Russian lawmakers would carefully examine the US Senate’s resolution of ratification and other declarations before proceeding with their own vote, which could conceivably be held this year.

Russia supports India UN seat quest, seals deals

the two countries have been close economic and political partners since Soviet days but India’s growing ties with the US has made Russia ill at ease


Russian President Dmitry Medvedev today threw his weight behind India’s quest for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council and secured agreements to deepen nuclear energy and defence cooperation.

Russia has been India’s close economic and political partner since Soviet days, and monopolised India’s defence market for decades, but New Delhi wants to reduce its reliance on one country to reflect its growing clout on the world stage.

India’s growing ties with the US, underscored by a landmark civil nuclear deal, has made Russia ill at ease.





New Delhi had been expected to seek backing from Russia during Medvedev’s visit for its ambition to secure a permanent seat on an enlarged UN Security Council, following statements of support from Washington and Paris in recent months.

“The Russian Federation supports India as a deserving and strong candidate for a permanent seat in an expanded UN Security Council,” a joint Russian-Indian statement said.

Leaders from Britain, the United States, France and China – along with Russia, the permanent members of the UN Security Council – have all visited India in the last six months, securing contracts worth a total of around US$50 billion (RM157 billion).

Russia and India signed today a long-awaited contract to jointly develop fifth generation fighter aircraft, potentially worth tens of billions of dollars, and clinched a deal to expand capacity at a Russian-built nuclear power plant in south India.

The deals announced on Tuesday were largely already known, and no financial figures were given, but the agreements may go some way to satisfy those concerned about India too quickly cutting its defence cord with its Cold War-era ally.

Russia also sees India as a counterweight to China and a potential ally in Afghanistan.

Medvedev, accompanied by a large delegation of business leaders, was holding talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi today in New Delhi. He was then to visit the Taj Mahal in Agra and India’s financial capital Mumbai tomorrow.

“It is well known that we want to diversify our basket of suppliers for our strategic areas. We will always have close ties with Russia, but they are no longer the only game in town,” said a top Indian government official, who declined to be identified.

ENERGY-HUNGRY

A statement said the two countries would work on a design project for the stealth fighters and had agreed to discuss building the third and fourth reactors for a nuclear power plant in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu.

Medvedev had been expected to secure a contract on jointly developing 250-300 fifth generation fighter aircraft over 10 years. The contract amount was unknown, but unofficially said to be around US$35 billion.

US and European companies are lobbying hard to win contracts for new fighter jets in one of the world’s biggest defence contract markets.

Today’s statement said the two sides had also signed a deal for Russia to supply missiles to the Indian army. No details were given on the size of the deal.

Russia is also keen to continue supplying nuclear technology and expertise to energy-hungry India as it plans to add 63,000 MW of nuclear power by 2032 to support its economic growth.

“Energy is one area where Russia will be the most important partner for India both in terms of conventional and non conventional energy ... Russians are one of our main suppliers of nuclear power plants,” said Lalit Mansingh, former Indian foreign secretary.

Behind the rhetoric of expanding ties with its fellow BRIC economy – the term used to group emerging powers Brazil, Russia, India and China – bilateral trade is eclipsed by Russia’s booming ties with the European Union and China.

The Kremlin said trade with India would total US$10 billion this year, while statistics show Russia’s trade with the European Union stood at US$246 billion in the first 10 months of 2010, and trade with China was US$47.5 billion in the same period.

India and Russia agreed to boost annual bilateral trade to US$20 billion by 2015.

Medvedev’s stop in Mumbai includes a visit to the Hindi-language movie industry Bollywood.

“(In Russia there is a) 24/7 broadcast of Indian movies. I think that exists only in India and Russia,” Medvedev told a joint news conference with Singh.

Stockholm bomber.CCTV video shows how close killer came to murdering hundreds of festive shoppers

Dramatic footage of what are thought to be the final moments of the Swedish suicide bomber has emerged, showing how he was moments from killing and injuring hundreds of Christmas shoppers.

The film, from a CCTV camera only yards from where British-educated Taimour Abdulwahab Al-Abdaly detonated his home-made device, shows a man wearing a backpack walking down one of Stockholm’s busiest shopping streets surrounded by dozens of members of the public.

The man appears to rummage inside his coat, possibly trying to detonate the bomb. He then quickly changes direction, walking back through the shoppers and down a quiet side street.



Hidden threat: The man walks amid shoppers


Suspicious: He turns towards a side street

Panic: Shoppers scatter from the blast on the left

Four minutes later a huge explosion erupts from the same side street, tearing across the left side of the screen and sending passers-by running amid billowing grey smoke.

Abdulwahab, 28, killed himself and injured two members of the public. Had he successfully detonated the device earlier, police believe he could have killed or injured hundreds of innocent shoppers.

Peter Jonsson, a security expert and former employee of the Swedish intelligence service Saepo, said: ‘The footage shows a very focused individual, walking on a very deliberate line who was not out for Christmas shopping.


It looks as if his equipment malfunctions in the crowd and he went back to the quiet side street to go and check on it. Obviously he would not do this on an open street where people would panic.

‘In the footage it looks like he is doing something with his left hand in front of the jacket.

‘With his right hand side, just before he cuts the corner, you can see an antenna and that could be the walkie-talkie that was pictured on the floor after the explosion – he was either talking to an accomplice, or this may have been rigged to ¬detonate the bombs.’

Mr Jonsson revealed security teams were attempting to estimate the height of the man in the video to compare it to Abdulwahab.

He said that although others had speculated that the bomber might have had second thoughts and tried to stop the device, the position of the body after the explosion suggested otherwise.

‘It was on its back, leading to the conclusion that he was facing a wall when the device exploded,’ he said.

‘It looks like he was trying to face away from the crowds and fix the equipment at this time.’

Investigators from Saepo have added to speculation that the bomb could have malfunctioned before it went off – forcing Abdulwahab to try to fix the device.

Saepo security chief Jan Garton said: ‘Our current picture of the final movements of the bomber was that he had trouble exploding the device and was therefore moving back and forth close to the street where he was found.’

Abdulwahab was born in Iraq but raised in Sweden from the age of ten until he took up a university course in Luton around 2001.

While in the UK, he became increasingly radicalised and was thrown out of an Islamic centre for his extremist views.

He returned to Sweden in the past few weeks and last Saturday carried out the attack, setting off a car bomb shortly before blowing himself up.

The CCTV footage was released as it was claimed Scotland Yard was investigating a link between Abdulwahab and radical preacher Abu Hamza, who used to operate from the notorious Finsbury Park mosque in north London.

Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported that the Met – whose officers raided Abdulwahab’s house in Luton last week – were looking into the link with Hamza, 52, who is serving a seven-year sentence for incitement to murder and racial hatred.

Swedish investigators refused to give any more details of the link and last night Scotland Yard declined to comment.

Meanwhile Abdulwahab’s father-in-law, Ali Thwany, yesterday released a statement saying he was glad his son-in-law was dead. And he denied rumours that his daughter Mona, 28, knew of the suicide plan.

Mr Thwany said Mona had been suspicious about her husband’s radical views and frequent foreign trips but had been too frightened to speak out. In an email to the Swedish media, Mr Thwany said: ‘We feel no sorrow. We are not sad over his death.

‘On the contrary. I view his departure as the door to freedom for my daughter. Now she can be free from the brainwash of terrorism. She has told me that she deeply regretted that she has been silent all the time.’

Suspicious: Suicide bomber Taimour Abdulwahab Al-Abdaly's wife, Mona, was concerned about his extremist views

Confusion: Smoke billows out over the crowds

Russian spy Anna Chapman makes rare public appearance at cosmonaut ceremony

A Russian rocket with a U.S. astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts onboard blasted off successfully early Friday for the International Space Station, with flame-haired Russian spy Anna Chapman making an unexpected appearance at the cosmodrome to wave them goodbye.

The Soyuz TMA-01M was launched at the scheduled time of 5.10am from the Baikonur cosmodrome in the vast steppe of southern Kazakhstan.

The crew's relatives and supporters cheered when the Soyuz engines roared and the spaceship lifted off in a blaze of orange flames, making the ground shudder.

Russian engineers hugged and kissed one another after the craft shed its first stage and it became clear the launch was a success.

I spy: Miss Chapman was spirited away shortly after the launch

International Space Station crew member U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly waves before entering the Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft

Mike Suffredini, head of Nasa's space station programma who watched the launch from an observation point with his Russian counterparts, gave his thumbs-up to the launch: 'You can hear it all the way up.'

Scott Kelly and Russia's Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka are due to reach the orbiting laboratory in two days to begin their five-month mission.

They will join two U.S. astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut who have been at the station since June.

Chapman, who has avoided the public and the press since being deported from the United States in July, appeared at the farewell ceremony for the space crew.

She told a reporter that she had 'just arrived' and refused to answer any questions.

She then walked hastily to a guarded guest house near the launch pad accompanied by a burly man who blocked her from reporters.

An official with Russia's space agency, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Chapman was at Baikonur as an adviser to the president of FondServisBank.

The bank works with space industry companies and was handing out awards, the official said.
Chapman was one of 10 Russian spies deported from the United States.

Her sultry photos gleaned from social-networking sites made her a tabloid sensation.

Since returning to Russia she has kept a low profile. Last week, a trendy Moscow night club invited the media to a party to meet 'the head heroine of the spy scandal of the year, the Russian Mata Hari Anna Chapman.' But she did not show.

Kelly and the two Russians on their way to the International Space Station are flying in Russia's first all-digital Soyuz TMA-01M.

The overhauled Soyuz will allow a doubling of the launch rate of Soyuz spaceships, which will help maintain a crew of six aboard the space station when the Nasa shuttle fleet is retired.

Kelly, a New Jersey native, will be joined at the space station by his twin brother Mark, another Nasa astronaut who will fly a shuttle mission in February.

The Endeavor that will bring Mark Kelly to space is the next-to-last U.S. shuttle before Nasa wraps up 30 years of shuttle flight.

The International Space Station celebrates its 10th anniversary on Nov. 20. The mammoth station consists of 10 modules built by the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and the 18-nation European Space Agency.

The Soyuz that will be used to ferry the next crew to the station in December was damaged during transportation by rail from the factory outside Moscow, and Russian space agency chief Anatoly Perminov said Thursday that the launch could be delayed by a few days if experts rule that the craft needs repairs.

Nasa's Suffredini said the United States is not worried about the incident and he expressed confidence that 'the Soyuz that flies out in December will be in excellent shape.'

A Russian Soyuz TMA-01M rocket with International Space Station (ISS) crew members - Russian cosmonauts Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka and US astronaut Scott Kelly - blasts off from a Russian-leased Kazakh Baikonur cosmodrome

Lady in red: The Russian spy was snapped at a farewell ceremony for some astronauts - and only briefly spoke to journalists to say 'I've arrived'

Service towers move away from the Russian Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft carrying the International Space Station crew

Kremlin fires iconic Moscow mayor after 18 years

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday fired Yury Luzhkov, ending the 18-year rule of the Moscow mayor who gave the crumbling metropolis a glamorous facelift but was maligned for outdated values and bellicose posturing.

Medvedev signed a decree relieving the 74-year-old mayor of his duties due to the president's "loss of confidence" in him, according to the Kremlin website.

After a series of minor scandals, speculation over the future of the flat-cap-wearing mayor swirled, forcing him to declare on Monday that he wouldn't quit. The next day he was removed by the president. Russian news agencies cited Medvedev's spokeswoman Natalya Timakova as saying the Kremlin gave Luzhkov the chance to step down voluntarily.

"I decree that Yury Mikhailovich Luzhkov be dismissed from his position as mayor of Moscow due to a loss of confidence in him by the president," Medvedev's order said.

Luzhkov garnered criticism in July when repairs to the main highway leading to Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport created lengthy traffic jams.

Anger rose further when the mayor remained on vacation in Austria in August even as Moscow suffered through weeks of smog from nearby forest and peat-bog fires.

The final blow apparently came when Luzhkov criticized Mededev's decision to suspend building a highway through a forest outside Moscow.

Luzhkov's long tenure saw Moscow undergo an astonishing makeover from a shabby and demoralized city into a swaggering and stylish metropolis. Russia's capital sprouted gigantic construction projects — malls, offices, soaring apartment towers, all fueled with oil money.

Much of that work was done by the construction company headed by Luzhkov's wife, Yelena Baturina, who is believed to be Russia's only female dollar billionaire. Suspicions swirled consistently of corruption by Luzhkov to feed his wife's wealth.

Luzhkov was despised by preservationists for his administration's penchant to bulldoze historic buildings that sat on potentially valuable land.

Luzhkov also appalled human rights activists by his frequent denunciation of gay rights activists — at one point calling them "satanic" — and vehemently blocking their attempts to rally.

His bullying ways and reactionary stances had seemed in concert with the tough-guy years of Vladimir Putin's presidency and Putin tolerated him although the two were widely believed to dislike each other.

However, Luzhkov's demeanor contrasted with Medvedev's hesitant reform moves, and speculation about his imminent departure soared.

Russian president confirm Iran missile deal frozen

Russia will not deliver S-300 air-defence missiles to Iran, Russian news agencies reported. The state-run RIA reported that Russian President Medvedev has prohibited the delivery of S-300 air defence missile systems to Iran.

Earlier, Russia’s armed forces chief of staff also confirmed a government decision to hold off on a deal that has deeply worried Washington and Israel.

General Nikolai Makarov said the delivery of the high-precision missiles would violate UN sanctions Moscow has supported, Russian news agencies reported.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (R) talks to armed forces chief of staff General Nikolai Makarov, as they walk in Tskhinvali in this file photo of July 13, 2009




“A decision was taken not to supply S-300s to Iran, they definitely fall under sanctions,” Makarov was quoted as saying by state-run RIA.

The remarks show a sign of Russia’s increasing willingness to join the West in putting pressure on Tehran over its nuclear programme.

French officials had said that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told French President Nicolas Sarkozy in June that Moscow would freeze the missile deal. Before that, Russian officials had made conflicting statements about whether new sanctions against Iran would prevent the sale.

The S-300 is a mobile, long-range air defence system that can detect, track and destroy ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and low-flying aircraft.

Iran announced a deal to acquire S-300s from Russia in 2007, and Russia has used it as a lever in diplomacy with Tehran and the West.

The United States and Israel, Iran’s foes and rivals for predominance in the Middle East, have opposed the sale because it could give Iran the means to withstand air strikes aimed at knocking out its nuclear sites.

Russia’s ties with Israel and the United States have been warming and the Kremlin has expressed irritation with Tehran’s defiance of efforts to rein in its nuclear programme.

Russia angered Israel and caused US concern by saying last week that it would go ahead with a $300 million (RM930.38 million) sale of Yakhont anti-ship cruise missiles to Syria.

Russian officials have rejected Israeli concerns that the missiles could fall into the hands of Hezbollah guerrillas in neighbouring Lebanon.