Day: May 6, 2011

That cup of coffee is extra special today. I got my sweetie with me in Ukraine. We are at the Kiev Train Station at this moment…

I really like the Kiev train station. It is like home away from home and I have spent many hours waiting for trains at this station…

Sveta is here with me now and we are waiting for our train to Odessa Ukraine. We decided to take a week and explore the Odessa area…

Sveta and I were stunned. We were able to get train tickets from Kiev to Odessa for less that USD amount of 10 dollars each. That is great…

So we are off to explore and enjoy life. I hope to have access to internet in Odessa but that may not be possible…

You all have a great weekend because I know we will…

Windows to Russia!

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will pay an official visit to Russia on May 11-14, the Kremlin said on Thursday.

The visit will take place on an invitation from President Dmitry Medvedev, the presidential press service said, adding that talks between Medvedev and Zardari will take place on May 12.

The visit was announced just days after world’s most wanted terrorism Osama bin Laden was killed in a U.S. raid on his compound 50 kilometers from the Pakistani capital.

Islamabad has both praised and criticized Monday’s operation by U.S. troops on its territory, which the Pakistani government was not told about until it was over. In a statement on Wednesday, Pakistan expressed “its deep concerns and reservations on the manner in which the government of the United States carried out this operation without prior information or authorization from the government of Pakistan.”

A cradle of the Taliban movement, Pakistan allied with the United States when U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan in a hunt for bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

Russia has expressed its readiness to support Pakistan in its fight against terrorism. Last March, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called for an international assistance to the Pakistani government in combating terrorist activity.

However, the Russian government has reiterated that it will not develop military cooperation with Pakistan, taking into account the concerns of India, a major purchaser of Russia’s military equipment.

MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti)

Media should cover issues concerning health care and especially children’s vaccinations extremely precisely and responsibly, avoiding the dissemination of medieval myths, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday.

“Our media are free, but they should be responsible. They, of course, should not spread grand old Middle Ages [ideas], when saying that vaccinations are a devil-like matter and children get sick from them and sometimes even die from them,” Medvedev said during a visit to a children’s hospital in Moscow.

The issue was raised by one of the doctors of the hospital who took part in the meeting with Medvedev. “I am afraid to switch on the TV in the morning. They say awful and absolutely incorrect things about vaccinations. Elementary control should exist,” the doctor said.

Everybody knows that “incidents and mishaps sometimes occur after inoculations,” the president said. “But of course no one should fan fears and create a psychopathic atmosphere because this would have a negative impact on the interests of the people,” he added.

MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti)

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday instructed the Agriculture and Energy ministries to solve the problem with gasoline shortages in the country to ensure the start of spring cultivation.

The government boosted gasoline export tariffs to nearly 44 percent from May 1 to fight local shortages which started in mid-March in some regions. Russian oil companies prefer to sell gasoline abroad where prices are higher than in Russia, where the state has capped prices.

“I instruct you [Agriculture Ministry] with the Energy Ministry to see what is really happening [with fuel in the regions] and not just on pieces of paper.”

Putin cited a statement from the Volgograd and Saratov regions, suffering from gasoline shortages, which says the lack of gasoline is hampering spring cultivation.

The Russian prime minister promised his support.

The Russian government may take more steps to ensure uninterrupted deliveries of gasoline to the local market, including examining the operation of crude oil trading and gasoline exchanges if it does not see a stable market, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said on Thursday.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service, the government’s competition watchdog, has accused large oil companies of operating a cartel.

The government believes that the introduction of exchange trade in oil products will help regulate the market and has ordered companies to sell 15 percent of their products via exchanges.

Sechin criticized state-run gas giant Gazprom, which owns an oil refinery, for not participating in the exchange market.

“A lack of work through the exchange creates conditions for setting inappropriate prices, which is why officials from oil refineries, which are not part of vertically integrated companies, are participating in the work of the government commission on their failure to participate in exchange markets today,” he said.

MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) 

A Moscow court sentenced ultranationalist Nikita Tikhonov to life in jail on Friday for the murder of human-rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova in 2009.

The court also sentenced Tikhonov’s accomplice and civil partner Yevgeniya Khasis to 18 years in prison.

Markelov and Baburova, who worked for the liberal Novaya Gazeta newspaper, were gunned down in broad daylight in downtown Moscow in January 2009. Investigators said Baburova was killed as a witness to the murder of Markelov, who was an active member of an anti-fascist movement.

A jury found Tikhonov and Khasis guilty of the murders on April 28. Both are linked to the outlawed ultranationalist group, Russky Obraz.

During the hearings, Khasis pleaded not guilty while Tikhonov admitted to a separate arms trading charge but denied involvement in the murder.

Tikhonov and Khasis embraced while the verdict was being announced, apparently oblivious to the judge’s words. When the judge asked whether the sentence was clear, Tikhonov answered, “It’s been clear since March.”

The defendants’ lawyers said they would appeal the ruling.

The court also ordered Tikhonov to pay Baburova’s parents 2 million rubles ($73,000) in moral damages and 40,000 rubles ($1,500) in material damages. They had originally made a claim for 5 million rubles ($182,000.)

A handful of supporters and friends of the defendants, present at the hearing, smiled when the verdict was announced.

“In five years they will get out, and someone will be dead,” one said.

MOSCOW, May 6 (RIA Novosti)