Moscow is mourning the victims of the terrorist acts in the metro on March 30. The bombings on two central stations – Lubyanka and Park Kultury – killed 39 people. Over 70 people have been hospitalized, five remain in critical condition.

Flags have flown at half mast in Moscow, all entertaining events and programs on TV channels and radio stations have been canceled.

Muscovites and guests of Moscow continue bringing flowers to the two stations in memory of the victims of the bombings.

Medics say that some of those, who refused from hospitalization yesterday, will ask for medical help during the next several days.

The first explosion took place at Lubyanka at 07:57 a.m. The second one occurred at 08.37 at Park Kultury.

Alexander Bortnikov, the Director of the Federal Security Bureau, said that the acts were most likely organized by a terrorist group from the Northern Caucasus.

President Dmitry Medvedev stated that the organizers of the explosions would be found and eliminated.

Employees of the Moscow metro put up a special desk in the center of the Lubyanka station on which people can lay their flowers.

Metro passengers using Lubyanka today can still see vestiges of yesterday’s tragedy: fragments of broken glass on the railway tracks, marble walls damaged with the explosion and large black spots on the ceiling of the station.

Passengers lay tulips and carnations near the edge of the platform. Someone left a small Orthodox icon in memory of the victims.

The explosion at the Park Kultury station was less powerful, and the station itself suffered minor damage. People started bringing flowers to the station on Monday night. Many brought candles, although it is not allowed to light them for safety reasons.

Many of those, who had to use the metro soon after the stations were reopened yesterday, said that there were a few people traveling in the trains. The passenger traffic on the Red Line of the metro became usual already in the evening when people were returning home from work.

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Source & Courtesy : Pravda.Ru

Russia will become the country with the strongest economy in Europe in 20 years and will be ranked 5^th on the world rating, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP specialists said in their recent report, Itar-Tass news agency said.

Russia’s economy in Europe will be the strongest by 2030, specialists of the world’s largest auditing and consulting company said. Germany and France will come next on the list.

The world economy is on the brink of experiencing a geopolitical revolution, the report said. The traditional leaders – the industrially developed countries of the West united in the Group of Seven (the USA, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada) – will be replaced with a new group – E7. The new association will unite the countries of the emerging market – China, Russia, India, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey.

By 2019, the overall GDP of the E7 group will let it catch up with the G7. A decade later, by 2030, the E7’s GDP will take a 30-percent advantage of that of the G7.

By 2030, the list of world’s strongest economic countries will be as follows: China, USA, India, Brazil, Russia, Germany, Mexico, France and Britain.

It is worthy of note that Fitch Ratings downgraded the forecast of the rating of the Russian Federation from “stable” to “negative” on Friday, Jan. 22.

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Source / Courtesy : http://pravda.ru/

For the first time in history, Russian troops will be joined by the troops of former USSR’s World War II allies in a Victory parade on Red Square on May 9 (the World War II Victory Day). A preliminary agreement with military and politics official of France, the USA and Great Britain has been reached. Invitations have been sent to all heads of the CIS countries, except for the President of Georgia. The Kremlin chose not to invite the troops of the former Soviet republics.

Vladimir Kozhin, head of the department of Presidential affairs, announced earlier that for the first time in history of Victory parades on Red Square, Russia invited military contingents of NATO member countries, namely, France, the USA and Great Britain, to participate in the parade to celebrate the 65th anniversary of Great Victory. According to Kozhin, the preliminary agreement has been reached, and the final decision on the issue is to be made in the near future. He clarified that he was not talking about the war veterans who would participate in the parade as honorary guests, Kommersant reports.

As of now, only participation of the French contingent has been fully coordinated. The French government and Ministry of Defense accepted the invitation. The French contingent will include 70 air force soldiers (including three officers). They will march on Red Square under the banner of the legendary Normandie-Niemen fighter squadron of the French Air Force. Currently, the squadron is virtually disbanded and removed from active duty.

If the US government makes a positive decision regarding participation of its troops in the parade, its contingent will most likely include 70 people. British officials said that the final decision had not been made yet, but is expected in the near future.

It was earlier reported that the Kremlin would not send out official invitations to the world leaders. According to Kozhin, Moscow was expecting a visit from the French President Nicolas Sarkozy. He said that Barack Obama’s participation remained open, while a visit from Gordon Brown was expected unless he preferred to stay at home on the ground of a busy schedule and tense relations with Russia.

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source / courtesy :  http://www.pravda.ru/

Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power (ATBIP) (Russian: Авиационная вакуумная бомба повышенной мощности (АВБПМ)), nicknamed “Father of All Bombs” (FOAB), is a Russian-made air-delivered/land activated thermobaric weapon. In describing the bomb’s destructive power, Russian deputy armed forces chief of staff Alexander Rukshin was quoted as saying, “all that is alive merely evaporates.” The bomb is reportedly four times as powerful as the U.S. military’s GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb (MOAB, backronymed as the “Mother of All Bombs”). This would make it by far the most powerful conventional (non-nuclear) weapon in the world, although the legitimacy of the weapon’s size and power has been called into question by some U.S defense analysts.

The bomb was successfully field-tested in the late evening of September 11, 2007. According to the Russian military, the new weapon will replace several smaller types of nuclear bombs in its arsenal.

The vacuum device yields the equivalent of 44 tons of TNT using 7.8 tons of a new type of high explosive developed with the use of nanotechnology. Because of this, the bomb has the same destructive power as a small tactical nuclear weapon. The bomb works by detonating in mid-air. Most damage is inflicted by a supersonic shockwave and extremely high temperatures, which incinerate everything nearby.Thermobaric weapons differ from conventional explosive weapons by using oxygen from the atmosphere, rather than carrying an oxidizing agent in their explosives. They produce more energy than normal weapons but are harder to control.

According to General Alexander Rushkin, the Russian deputy chief of staff, the new bomb is smaller than the MOAB but much deadlier because, due to nanotechnology, the temperature at the centre of the blast is twice as high. He says the bomb’s capabilities are comparable to nuclear weapons, but unlike a nuclear weapon, use of the weapon does not damage or pollute the environment beyond the blast radius.

In comparison, the MOAB produces the equivalent of 11 tons of TNT from 8 tons of high explosive. The blast radius of the FOAB is 300 m, more than double that of the MOAB, and the temperature produced is twice as high

A strange light phenomenon could be observed in the sky above Norway on Wednesday morning. Some people thought that it was a UFO, but local media later said that it was the consequence of a Russian rocket launch. Indeed, Russia attempted to conduct another test of its new Bulava intercontinental missile. The 13th attempt ended with a failure again, the Vedomosti newspaper wrote with reference to a source at the Russian defense industry.

A malfunction occurred during the separation of the third stage. The launch can therefore be considered as successful, since it was the first stage that malfunctioned during the previous launches, the source said.

A source of the Kommersant newspaper confirmed the information. Russia released an official warning last week to inform other countries of the intention to conduct missile launches in the southern part of the White Sea during December 7-14. One of the indicated time intervals coincided with the appearance of the UFO in the sky above Norway on December 9.

In addition, it was said that Russia’s Dmitry Donskoy submarine, from which Bulava tests are conducted, went to sea for shooting practice.

Residents of the north of Norway witnessed an unusual phenomenon early in the morning on Wednesday, December 9: a huge shining spiral appeared in the sky above the town of Tromso. Local newspapers quickly wrote that the spiral was most likely caused with a failed launch of a Russian rocket, most likely a Bulava.

The shining spot appeared above a mountain. Eyewitnesses took pictures of the phenomenon. The spot, as they said, was larger than the Moon.

Preparations to the most recent launch began in the summer of 2009, after the unsuccessful result of the previous launch.

The Russian military developed Bulava to possess advanced defense capabilities making it nearly impervious to existing and future missile-defense systems. Among its claimed abilities are evasive maneuvering, mid-course countermeasures and decoys and a warhead fully shielded against both physical and Electromagnetic pulse damage. The Bulava is designed to be capable of surviving a nuclear blast at a minimum distance of 500 meters. Prime minister Putin has claimed that Bulava could penetrate any potential anti-missile defense system.

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source :  pravda.ru

Russia believes that the UN International Criminal Court in The Hague does not have the jurisdiction to consider Georgia’s lawsuit against Russia, which the former Soviet republic filed in connection with the armed conflict in August of 2008.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry filed an objection, RIA Novosti reports. In the lawsuit, Georgian officials stated that Russia conducted, encouraged and supported the racial discrimination of ethnic Georgians facilitating their deportation from Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

“We filed the objections to substantiate the ungrounded nature of Georgia’s accusations against Russia and show that the International Court has no jurisdiction to consider Georgia’s lawsuit,” an official spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.

Now Georgia will have to take Russian’s objections into account and set forth additional thoughts on the matter before March of 2010,” the official added.

Russia vehemently rejects Georgia’s accusations claiming that Georgia is entirely responsible for the war.

The UN International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression (although it cannot currently exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression).

The court came into being on 1 July 2002 — the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, entered into force — and it can only prosecute crimes committed on or after that date. The official seat of the court is in The Hague, Netherlands, but its proceedings may take place anywhere.

The ICC can generally exercise jurisdiction only in cases where the accused is a national of a state party, the alleged crime took place on the territory of a state party, or a situation is referred to the court by the United Nations Security Council. The court is designed to complement existing national judicial systems: it can exercise its jurisdiction only when national courts are unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute such crimes. Primary responsibility to investigate and punish crimes is therefore left to individual states.

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source : pravda.ru

The relations between Russia and NATO have been put to the test. One of the members of the North Atlantic Alliance – Canada – blocked the approval of all documents which were supposed to be discussed at the meeting of foreign ministers of Russia and NATO members on December 4.

The talks, which are to take place this Friday in Brussels, are supposed to become the first meeting of the Russia-NATO Council on the level of foreign ministers after the completion of the war in South Ossetia. Last year, the alliance suspended the work of the council over its disagreement with Russia’s actions during the war.

On December 4, the ministers are expected to gather in Brussels to discuss the development of cooperation between Russia and NATO.

No one said that the meeting can be canceled. However, it can become a formal gathering over Canada’s stance.

“Canadian officials blocked the approval of all documents at the meeting of the Russia-NATO Council. It means that there is a faction being created inside NATO, and this faction stands against the reset of relations with Russia,” Russia’s Ambassador at NATO, Dmitry Rogozin said December 1.

“The very essence of the work of the council has been taken away from the documents. Our partners strongly reject all of our attempts to designate the perfection of the European security as the goal of the Russia-NATO Council. They are trying to pack our initiative in some other international forms of negotiations,” Rogozin stated.

“Since all questions at NATO are solved through a consensus, any delegation has a right to block a situation, and this is what we have today,” the official added.

Dmitry Rogozin also said that Britain and the Baltic States supported Canada’s anti-Russian stance.

“We are not going to add more drama to the situation. Lavrov (Russia’s Foreign Minister) will come and conduct negotiations in accordance with the agenda which we consider positive. Maybe the events that have just happened are useful because it shows that NATO as a military block is not ready to build an equitable partnership with Russia,” Rogozin concluded.

Canadian officials have not released any statements yet. NATO’s spokesman James Appathurai spoke instead. Mr. Appathurai stated that Canada had not blocked the talks, and added that the talks on several documents related to the upcoming meeting were continuing.

It is worthy of note that Canada has never supported Russia in any of its initiatives during the recent years. Quite on the contrary, when Stephen Harper took the office of the Prime Minister of Canada, he proclaimed the struggle for Arctic natural resources as a top priority of his politics.

Mr. Harper regularly visits northern territories where he personally observes military drills and considers an opportunity to set up a powerful naval base in the area. The financial crisis did not let it all happen.

It is very easy to guess the goal of those plans.

“I have expressed at various times the deep concern our government has with the increasingly aggressive Russian actions around the globe and into our airspace. We will defend out airspace … we will respond every time the Russians make any kind of intrusion on the sovereignty of Canada,” he said in February of this year after a Russian strategic bomber approached Canadian airspace.

Canada conducted military drills in August of the outgoing year. The drills, which lasted for 12 days, took place three weeks after Vladimir Shamanov, the Commander of Russia’s Airborne Troops, said that the Russian troops would land on the North Pole in April of 2010.

If Canada hampers the new dialogue between Russia and NATO, it will prove to be a vehement adversary to new relations between Russia and the West.

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source : pravda.ru