The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

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Putin says trade with Italy to exceed $30 bln in 2007

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi Greeting Russian President Vladimir Putin

Trade turnover between Russia and Italy this year is likely to exceed last year's figure of $30 billion, the Russian president said on Thursday during talks with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi. "The scale of our cooperation is such that we always have something to talk about," Vladimir Putin said. "This year we will probably surpass last year's trade turnover record." Putin said Russia's economy is open to European partners, which is confirmed by the acquisition of Russian gas and electric power assets by Italian companies Enel and Eni S.p.A. He said, however, that cooperation with Italy is not limited to energy: "Our relations are quite diverse, involving the power industry, high technology, space, and aviation." Gazprom is currently in talks with oil and gas giant Eni and Italian electricity giant Enel on an asset swap, through which the state-controlled Russian energy giant could gain power generating assets from both firms. The Italian companies each own 20% in Gazprom Neft, Gazprom's oil production arm.

Gazprom and Eni agreed on Thursday to create a joint venture to develop a feasibility study for a gas pipeline to run under the Black Sea from Russia to the European Union. The document was signed in the Kremlin by Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Eni President Paolo Scaroni in the presence of Putin and Prodi. Gazprom and Eni agreed in June to build the South Stream pipeline, which will deliver 30 billion cubic meters of gas annually via Bulgaria to Austria, Slovenia and Italy. Putin told journalists after his meeting with Prodi that he and the Italian premier believe trade and economic cooperation is developing successfully. The president highlighted joint work in creating the Superjet-100 aircraft, and the possibility of jointly building infrastructure for the 2014 Olympic Games in the Russian southern resort city of Sochi.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/business/20071122/89198902.html

Russia, Italy Agree to Build Gas Pipeline to Europe

Russia, supplier of a quarter of Europe's gas, signed a pipeline agreement with Italy today that will give the Kremlin more control over the continent's energy market. OAO Gazprom, Russia's gas exporter, and Italy's Eni SpA agreed to form the operating company for a 10 billion-euro ($14.8 billion) link from Russia to Europe via the Black Sea. The deal was signed in the Kremlin during Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi's visit with President Vladimir Putin, Gazprom said in an e-mailed statement.

"We're using this opportunity to get a political blessing,'' Eni Chief Executive Officer Paolo Scaroni told reporters. "Pipelines in general, and South Stream in particular, are such a significant infrastructure investment that they raise political attention.'' Gazprom and Eni will each own half of the new company, which will hammer out the technical details of constructing the 900- kilometer (560-mile) South Stream pipeline, Scaroni said. The company will be formed by Jan. 15, 2008, and start deliveries in 2013, Gazprom said in the statement. South Stream will be Russia's second underwater gas link to the European Union that bypasses Ukraine and Belarus, through which most of Gazprom's exports flow, after the Nord Stream pipeline is built under the Baltic Sea to Germany. The two projects will enable Russia to boost shipments to Europe by more than 50 percent as early as 2013.

More Partners

Running under the Black Sea to Bulgaria, South Stream will cost ``more than 10 billion euros,'' Scaroni said. The operator will be registered in Switzerland or the Netherlands. Gazprom and Eni already have Blue Stream, which moves Russian gas across the Black Sea to Turkey. This year Gazprom plans to transport 10 billion cubic meters of gas via Blue Stream, up from 7 billion in 2006, according to the statement. The operating company may take on more partners depending on which countries the pipeline crosses on its way to western Europe, Scaroni said. In Bulgaria, the pipeline will split into a northern route going to Austria via Romania and Hungary, and a southern route crossing the Balkan peninsula to Italy.

The northern route passes through the same countries as the Nabucco pipeline from Turkey to Austria, which the EU is pushing to reduce dependence on Russia. Both South Stream and Nabucco are designed to carry about 30 billion cubic meters of gas a year. "I think Europe has room for Nabucco and South Stream,'' Scaroni said. "We expect a lot of support from the EU because South Stream is a European project.'' When asked if South Stream and Nabucco could share the northern route, Scaroni said: "Why not? It's not on the agenda, but we're open to cooperation.''

Deeper Ties

South Stream is the southern link in Gazprom's strategy to boost capacity and cut reliance on transit countries. Gazprom plans to build the Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany with partners E.ON AG, BASF AG and Nederlandse Gasunie NV. Eni unit Saipem SpA was contracted to build the 1,200-kilometer link in September. Together the two pipelines will have a capacity of 85 billion cubic meters, more than half of the 151 billion cubic meters Gazprom delivered to Europe in 2006. Nord Stream is scheduled to start pumping gas in 2010 and reach its full capacity of 55 billion cubic meters three years later. Gazprom cut deliveries to Ukraine briefly over a price dispute in January 2006, causing shortfalls across Europe. The Russian gas export monopoly threatened to shut off gas to Belarus on Jan. 1 this year in a similar price disagreement.

Eni, Gazprom's single biggest customer in Europe, has imported Russian gas since 1974. The two companies signed a ``strategic partnership agreement'' a year ago to develop projects jointly in Russia and North Africa in return for Gazprom gaining the right to sell gas directly to Italian consumers. The companies deepened their ties this year when Eni bid for oil and gas assets owned by bankrupt OAO Yukos Oil Co., including a 20 percent stake in Gazprom's oil arm OAO Gazprom Neft. Gazprom hasn't yet exercised a call option to take control of the assets. When it does, Eni will be left with a 30 percent stake in the production assets, allowing it to book reserves of 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent, Scaroni said.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...vOY&refer=home

In related news:

Russia can become one of five leading world economies within 10 years - Putin

If Russia's current economic growth rate remains in place in the next ten years, it could become one of the five most economically developed nations in the world, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. "If the current trends continues and if the economic growth rate remains the same, Russia could become one of the five leading economies in the world within ten years. And we will surely accomplish this," Putin said at a forum of his supporters in Moscow on Wednesday.

Source: http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/...issue=11914691

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Russian president lashes out at West

Vladimir Putin called his critics foreign-funded "jackals" and accused the West of meddling in Russian politics in a scathing speech Wednesday meant to drum up support for the main pro-Kremlin party. The thunderous attack came as Russia heads toward Dec. 2 parliamentary elections that have turned into a plebiscite on Putin and whether he should retain power after stepping down as president next year after two consecutive terms. Thousands of flag-waving supporters who packed a Moscow sports arena for the speech joined in chants urging Putin to remain Russia's "national leader."

It isn't clear what formal title he might hold, but he heads the ticket of the dominant United Russia party and has suggested he could become prime minister. Opinion surveys suggest the party will win two-thirds of the votes and a crushing 80 percent of the lower house of parliament's 450 seats. With approval ratings exceeding 70 percent, Putin cast the election as a black-and-white choice between the current economic boom and the poverty and political chaos of the 1990s — doomsday rhetoric clearly aimed at getting his supporters to the polls.

"Nothing is predetermined at all," a grim-faced Putin said. "Stability and peace on our land have not fallen from the skies; they haven't yet become absolutely, automatically secured." Addressing about 5,000 backers at the rally, which blended elements of a Soviet-era Communist Party congress with the raucous enthusiasm of an American political convention, Putin suggested his political opponents are working for Russia's Western adversaries. "Regrettably, there are those inside the country who feed off foreign embassies like jackals and count on support of foreign funds and governments, and not their own people," Putin said. He accused unidentified Russians of planning mass street protests, like those that helped usher in pro-Western governments in the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine in 2003 and 2004.

"Now, they're going to take to the streets. They have learned from Western experts and have received some training in neighboring (ex-Soviet) republics. And now they are going to stage provocations here," he said. Putin seemed to refer to anti-Kremlin demonstrations planned for this weekend in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Police have used force to break up several marches and demonstrations, beating and detaining dozens of protesters. Putin, whose nearly eight years in power coincided with rising energy prices, has repeatedly charged that the West wants Russia weak and compliant.

"Those who confront us don't want our plan to succeed," he said. "They have different plans for Russia. They need a weak and ill state, they need a disoriented and divided society in order to do their deeds behind its back." Without naming names, Putin railed against his liberal, pro-business and Communist opponents, raising the specter of the economic and political uncertainty that preceded and followed the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. "If these gentlemen come back to power, they will again cheat people and fill their pockets," he said. "They want to restore an oligarchic regime, based on corruption and lies."

After his speech, the normally reserved president plunged into the crowd, shaking hands and kissing a woman. The crowd, consisting mainly of young people, responded with chants of "Russia! Putin!" Some blew horns and jumped in excitement. With the election nearing, Putin has made a string of appearances at carefully staged events where speakers have emphasized his indispensability as a leader. The campaign has drawn heavily on imagery from the Soviet and czarist eras, periods that still evoke feelings of pride in Russians despite their history of bloodshed and oppression.

But there is also an effort to appeal to a new generation of Russians with few memories of the country's past struggles. The scenes in the grandstand at Wednesday's rally sometimes resembled those of a rowdy soccer game. Nostalgic Soviet-era bands mixed on stage with young performers, including a girl group in miniskirts who sang "I want someone like Putin." Elderly women wore blue United Russia T-shirts. A young man had "Russia" painted on his shaved head, and a woman sported "Putin" written by lipstick on her cheek. Many had faces painted with bands of white, blue and red — the colors of the national flag and the United Russia party.

The speech seemed intended to transfer some of Putin's popularity to United Russia, which controls parliament but stirs few passions among voters. An overwhelming victory for United Russia, which is all but assured given the Kremlin's tight control over the media and government, would limit the clout of his successor — and possibly lay the groundwork for Putin's return to the presidency in 2012 or sooner. Apart from United Russia, only the Communists seem certain to clear the minimum threshold for getting seats in parliament — 7 percent of the total vote. But the Kremlin is leaving little to chance. Two top liberal parties, Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces, have complained of what they call official intimidation and harassment.

Some Putin supporters have called for rewriting the constitution to allow him to stay on as president. He has promised to step down, but says he will continue to play a role in Russia and has not ruled out a presidential bid in the future. First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told foreign reporters Tuesday that Putin wouldn't seek a position not envisaged by the constitution, but said a new parliament could change the law. He said portraying the vote as a referendum on Putin's policy was a campaign tactic, not a maneuver to change the government structure. A parade of speakers preceded Putin to the stage Wednesday. Rifle designer Mikhail Kalashnikov and Olympic figure-skating champion Irina Rodnina both urged voters to back United Russia and showered Putin with praise.

"We athletes call him our senior coach," Rodnina told the rally. "With him, we will always win." Putin's former teacher, Vera Gurevich, said in a taped address that Putin was an "extremely decent" person who would step down as he pledged. "But he must stay in politics to complete the work he started to do," she said from her home in St. Petersburg.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071121/...u/russia_putin

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Russia dismisses US offers on missile defence - reports UPDATE

Russia is not satisfied with written US offers aimed at meeting its concerns over planned missile defences in Eastern Europe, news agencies quoted a foreign ministry source as saying today. 'They have sent concrete proposals. We are continuing to study them, but our first impression is that they do not meet our expectations. This is not what was promised orally' in recent talks on the subject, the source said. The comments were in marked contrast to remarks yesterday by President Vladimir Putin, who said he discussed the issue with US President George W. Bush 'the other day' and 'it seems that our concerns are being listened to'.

The foreign ministry source said the written offers from Washington 'do not correspond' with proposals made orally by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates in talks in Moscow last month. Those proposals included a proposal to delay activation of the missile defence system until Washington and Moscow were in agreement on 'definitive proof' of missile threats from Iran or elsewhere. They also included a plan to station Russian liaison officers at proposed US missile defence sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, as long as the host countries agreed to this.

The US plan calls for setting up a powerful early-warning radar station in the Czech Republic to assist in guidance of interceptor missiles, 10 of which would be based in Poland. Putin has compared the US plan to set up the system in close proximity to Russia to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when the Soviet Union began deploying nuclear-capable missiles in Cuba. The United States has rejected the comparison as well as Moscow's assertion that the missile defence system is a security threat to Russia. Russia however says it will be forced to take 'adequate' steps to protect its security if the United States goes ahead with the plan.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited...fx4368004.html

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Litvinenko death fuels UK-Russia spy war

Interesting Video Presentation Regarding the Litvinenko Case - The Mystery Continues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri4l2glGAfI

One year after the agonising death from polonium poisoning of former KGB officer-turned-dissident Alexander Litvinenko, relations between Britain and Russia have gone from strained to rocky. Litvinenko was a British citizen (his citizenship came through shortly before he was poisoned) and his death in a London hospital was investigated with some urgency by detectives from Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command. For them, this was not just a case of some Moscow spat spilling over onto the streets of London, it was the deliberate, planned murder of a Briton on British soil using a lethal radioactive substance that potentially endangered the health of many people. In January 2007 the Metropolitan Police handed the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) a file that contained, among other things, the name of their chief suspect in the case: Andrei Lugovoi, another ex-KGB officer who had met Litvinenko for tea at the time he fell ill. Mr Lugovoi, who is now poised to enter Russian politics, denied then and continues to deny any involvement in the murder. Yet police detectives who followed the forensic trail of polonium-210 around London and Europe say they can see no other explanation of how Mr Lugovoi and his effects could have been so heavily contaminated with polonium, while he himself escaped poisoning. Polonium emits radioactive alpha particles which can be stopped by human skin or even a piece of paper, but which can be lethal if ingested. Litvinenko is believed to have drunk a heavy dose disguised in a pot of tea.

Officials expelled

The CPS digested the police file and then, in May, announced it had enough evidence to charge Mr Lugovoi with murder, and instructed its lawyers to request his extradition from Russia to Britain to stand trial. That, said Russian officials, was not going to happen, as it was "against the Russian constitution". How about a trial in Russia instead, they offered? Out of the question, said the CPS, which feared for the safety of key witnesses like the poisoned Russian's widow, Marina Litvinenko, if she went to Moscow to testify. So British officials huffed and puffed, but Russia would not budge. Then in July the UK Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, announced the expulsion of four Russian diplomats without revealing whether they were spies or not. Russia responded by expelling four Britons from the embassy in Moscow. Russia's President Vladimir Putin - perhaps under-estimating how seriously Britain took Litvinenko's murder, perhaps seeking to calm the situation - dismissed the whole spat as all rather silly. But since the summer relations have not improved, in fact if anything they have deteriorated further - though trade ties continue to flourish. Mr Lugovoi, whose extradition has foundered, has hit back with counter-accusations of "dirty tricks" by Britain's MI6, even suggesting it had a hand in Litvinenko's murder.

MI6 complaint

The Kremlin is deeply irritated by the presence in Britain of Mr Putin's opponents, like Boris Berezovsky (who appears to have survived an assassination plot this year). Moscow has complained of a lack of co-operation in its own investigations in Britain. In October, Britain annoyed Russia further by appointing the most famous KGB defector, Oleg Gordievsky, a Companion of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the Queen's Birthday Honours. Russia responded a month later by awarding the MI6 defector George Blake the prestigious Order of Friendship. To anyone outside Whitehall this might all sound quite childish, a game of tit-for-tat where nobody wins. But on 5 November Jonathan Evans, the director-general of the security service MI5, took the almost unprecedented step of publicly accusing Russia of spying on Britain and of taking up his organisation's time in countering this espionage when it needed to stop al-Qaeda. "Since the end of the Cold War we have seen no decrease in the numbers of undeclared Russian intelligence officers in the UK - at the Russian embassy and associated organisations conducting covert activity in this country," he complained. "So, despite the Cold War ending nearly two decades ago, my service is still expending resources to defend the UK against unreconstructed attempts by Russia, China and others, to spy on us". Little wonder, then, that intelligence co-operation on counter-terrorism between London and Moscow is effectively frozen, and that mutual suspicions are back close to where they were in the dark days of the 1980s.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7108524.stm

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UR-100N / SS-19 STILLETO

Once regarded by some as the "backbone" of the Soviet ICBM force, the fourth generation UR-100N / SS-19 intercontinental ballistic missile is a two-stage, tandem, storable liquid-propellant missile. The SS-19 is approxiamately 80 feet long and 8 1/2 feet in diameter. It was a competing design with the SS-17 Spanker, though in fact both were deployed to partially replace the SS-11 force.

The UR-100N is similar to the UR-100, but with an increased diameter and longer propellant tanks its launch weight was more than doubled and the throw-weight was increased over three-fold. The UR-100N uses asymmetrical dimethylhidrazine and nitrogen tetraoxide propellants. The first stage consists of four autonomous closed-cycle single-chambered rocket motors. The second stage has a closed-cycle single chambered sustainer and a four chambered open cycle control motor with four rotating nozzles. The guidance and control system of the SS-19 is identical to that of the SS-18, and permits remote monitoring of missile status while on alert, as well as automatic pre-launch preparation, remote missile targeting before launch and in-flight control of the missile via a flexible pitch control program. The UR-100N silos were constructed at the same sites as the UR-100U silos but were completely dismantled and rebuilt to increase the survivability of the new missiles. The UR-100N was launched in the hot mode through the thrust of the first stage sustainer engine. The SS-19 has been deployed in three configurations.

* SS-19 Mod-1 - Through the increase of throw-weight and reduction of the size of the warheads relative to the UR-100 the UR-100N carries six MIRV warheads with a yield of 550 KT each according to Russian sources [Western estimates suggested a yield of one- to two-megatons]. According to Western estimates the booster alone was limited to a range of 4900 nm but the total system, booster plus PBV, was assessed as being capable of delivering all six RVs to a maximum range of 5200 nm. Development was approved on 19 August 1970 and developed by V. N. Chelomey. The flight tests of the UR-100N were conducted at the Baikonur cosmodrome from 09 April 1973 through October 1975. The missile was initially deployed on 30 December 1975, though according to Western estimates it achieved an initial operational capability in 1974. The first regiment with UR-100N missiles was put on alert on 26 April 1975 and by the end of 1975 a total of 60 launchers were deployed. The missile employed an inertial guidance system that was is estimated by some Western sources to have an operational CEP of 0.3 nm in 1975 with a potential CEP of 0.25 nm by 1980. However, due to the hasty deployment of the UR-100N a major design flaw was overlooked. Training launches that took place after its deployment revealed a significant reduction of accuracy due to resonant oscillations of the missile. Subsequently all deployed missiles were modified to eliminate the problems.

* SS-19 Mod-2 - Otherwise similar to the Mod-1, this variant carries a single warhead with a yield reported by Russian sources of between 2.5 and 5 MT. Between 1976 and 1978 the UR-100N reached its maximum operational inventory of 180 missiles, of which 60 carried a single warhead. Both of these SS-19 Mods were attributed "hard target kill" capabilities by the West.

* SS-19 Mod-3 -The development of an improved version was authorized on 16 August 1976. The upgrades to the missile involved the development of improved engines and modification of the command system. The extent of protection from a nuclear strike at their silos was considerably improved. The flight-design tests of the improved version that received the designation UR-100NUTTH were conducted between 26 June 1979 and 26 October 1979. Its deployment began on 05 November 1979.

The first regiment with the UR-100NUTTH was put on alert on 06 November 1979. Between 1980-1982 UR-100N missiles with a single warhead (SS-19 Mod 2) were replaced by the UR-100NUTTH (SS-19 Mod 3). The replacement of all UR-100N missiles was completed in 1983. In 1984 the UR-100NUTTH reached its maximum operational inventory of 360 missiles. From 1987 on they were gradually replaced by new missiles. The silo-based version of the SS-24 replaced some SS-19s. Then the START-1 treaty was signed in 1991 the Soviet Union had a total of 300 UR-100NUTTH missile stationed in Russia and Ukraine. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union Ukraine claimed ownersip of the missiles located on its territory. In compliance with the START treaty provisions Ukraine is in charge of the dismantling the launchers for the SS-19 missiles. However, all nuclear warheads that were deployed in Ukraine were dismantled by Russia.

Some 170 launchers remain in Russian territory, of which 10 were deactivated but not dismantled. In December 1995 Strategic Rocket Forces Commander Colonel General Igor Sergeyev announced a policy under which the service life of the SS-19 would be extended from 10 years to 25 years. The missiles will remain on alert at least through 2005, and the missiles that were deployed in the early 1980s will serve beoynd this. Following the ratification of the START-II treaty by the Duma, Russia is obliged to dismantle all ground-based ICBMs with multiple warheads. Under the treaty provisions a total of 105 of the UR-100NUTTH missiles can be retained provided they are downloaded to carry only one warhead instead of six.

Source: http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/icbm/ur-100n.htm

Source: http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20071107/86970928.html

Russia launches ICBM RS-18 from Baikonur in Kazakhstan



Russia's Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) have successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile RS-18 (SS-19 Stiletto) from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, an SMF spokesman said. Russia's SMF regularly launch missiles to test their performance characteristics and decide whether they can remain in service. "The launch of the ICBM RS-18 was successfully conducted at midday Moscow time [8:a.m. GMT] October 29 from the Baikonur space center," Colonel Alexander Vovk said. "A simulated warhead has reached the Kura testing site on the Kamchatka peninsula [in the Russian Far East]," the official said. He said the launch had been conducted in order to assess the possibility of extending the service life of the Stiletto ICBMs, which have so far been operational for 29 years. "As a result of the successful test launch, the service life of one of our most reliable missile complexes will be extended to 31 years," Vovk said. RS-18 missiles have a combat range exceeding 9,600 km [more than 6,000 miles], and are considered to be highly reliable. Over 100 silo-based Stiletto missiles are currently in service with the SMF, with each missile carrying six 550-kiloton warheads. The SMF commander, Colonel General Nikolai Solovtsov, said last Friday that RS-18 (SS-19 Stiletto) and RS-12M (SS-25 Sickle) will be gradually replaced by new RS-24 ICBMs, equipped with MIRV warheads and characterized by high missile-defense penetration capability.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071029/85783408.html

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Russia, China espionage in Germany

The Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China are involved in high profile spying activities in Germany, reports say. While the Russian secret service agents target German lawmakers and political parties, Chinese spies in Germany are interested in German technology and economic policies. Many Chinese researchers and scientists who work in German companies provide valuable information to Chinese secret service agents. The German press reported last summer that numerous computers of the German government were infected by the Chinese espionage programs. According to the Verfassungschutz, the Chinese hackers are believed to be linked to China's People's Army. China is continuing its efforts to plant Trojan programs via the internet on German government computers, Der Spiegel said. In response to the allegations the Chinese embassy in Berlin dismissed it as "irresponsible speculation without any basis of proof".

Source: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id...onid=351020604

China, Russia to build 10-mln-ton oil refinery in Tianjin

China and Russia have agreed to locate a planned oil refinery capable of processing 10 million tons a year in the northern port city of Tianjin. China's top oil firm, China National Petroleum Cooperation (CNPC), and Russia's Rosneft, have set up a joint venture in Tianjin to implement the project, which is still subject to approval by the National Development and Reform Commission. The refinery project is a concrete followup to the two companies' agreement reached in March 2006 to intensify cooperation in the oil sector. During a recent meeting with a Rosneft delegation, Tianjin's vice mayor Yang Dongliang promised to allocate quality land for the project before June. A possible site for the refinery will be the Tianjin Harbour Industrial Park, about 80 square kilometers off the Bohai Bay east of Beijing. The central government has listed Tianjin as a national base for the development of the oil industry.

Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_7136919.htm

[Armenian]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

MiG-31 modernization. INFOgraphics

The interceptor is equipped with two D-30F6 turbofan two-shaft engines with a common afterburner and variable supersonic nozzle, which allow the aircraft to fly at supersonic speeds of up to Mach 2.83. The modernized interceptor will also feature unique air-to-air missiles capable of hitting targets at ranges exceeding 200 kilometers (125 miles), including aircraft with stealth capabilities, cruise missiles, and supersonic aircraft.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20071121/88998069.html

[skhara]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

Kasparov arrested:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7110910.stm

[Armenian]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

He is making a total fool of himself, he should have stuck to chess. I guess his Jewish side is beginning to show. Justin Raimondo says it well:

Kasparov, aside from his well-known exploits in the game of chess, is a pawn of American neoconservatives: his real constituency isn't in Russia, where he remains an obscure political figure, but in Washington, D.C., where he stands amid such neocon luminaries as Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and James Woolsey as a member of the Center for Security Policy. The Center is a major neocon propaganda outfit headed by longtime neocon activist Frank Gaffney, whose name is virtually synonymous with the military-industrial complex. Kasparov served on the Center's National Security Advisory Council along with Woolsey.

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Amateurs Unravel Russia’s Last Royal Mystery

On the outskirts of this burly industrial center, off a road like any other, on a nowhere scrap of land — here unfolded the final act of one of the last century’s most momentous events. A short way through a clearing, toward a cluster of birch trees, the killers deposited their victims’ bodies, which had been mutilated, burned and doused with acid to mask their origins. It would be 73 more years, in 1991, before the remains would be reclaimed and the announcement would ring out: the grave of the last Russian czar, Nicholas II, and his family had been found. But the story does not end there. Eleven people were said to have been killed that day in July 1918 on Lenin’s orders. Just nine sets of remains were dug up here and then authenticated using DNA. The remains of the czar’s son, Aleksei, and one daughter, whose identity is still not absolutely clear, were missing. Did their bones lie elsewhere, or could it actually be that they had escaped execution, as rumor had it for so long?

Only in the past few months have these questions dating from the Russian revolution apparently been resolved here, and only by a group of amateur sleuths who spent their weekends plumbing the case. In fact, it appears that the clues to what happened to the two children were always there, waiting to be found. All that was needed was to listen closely to the boastful voices of the killers. Their accounts are in secret reports in Soviet-era archives, one of which offered the most tantalizing hint: a single phrase in the recollection of the chief killer that seemed to suggest where the two bodies might have been deposited.

“All of them wanted to leave a trace in history, for they considered that this was a kind of heroic deed,” said Vitaly xxxxov, who lives in the area and undertook a review of the testimony to hunt for the remains. “They wanted to promote their roles.”

Following that wisp of a clue this summer, Mr. xxxxov and other amateur investigators went to where the other remains had been found — and they kept walking. Away from the road, about 70 yards from the first burial ground, is a slightly elevated area among the trees. It is there that the bodies of Aleksei, 13, and his sister were apparently consigned. The amateurs found the bones, many of them charred by fire, scattered among bullets and pieces of jars that held acid used to disfigure the bodies. These fragments appeared similar to those from the first grave. So it seems that for all the years since the first discovery, even as people made pilgrimages to the site and wondered what had happened to Aleksei and his sister, their remains were only a short stroll away. Scientists in Russia and the United States are testing the new finds extensively. The sister is believed to be Maria, 19, though that is not entirely settled. Others long conjectured that the sister was Anastasia, 17, a theory that fed a belief that she survived. (A woman named Anna Anderson was one of several who over the years claimed to be Anastasia, but DNA testing later disproved her.)

If, as expected, results of DNA tests on the two sets of remains are conclusive, they would put to rest many of the doubts that have arisen in Russia and worldwide about the inquiries into what had happened to the royal family. Among the most skeptical has been the Russian Orthodox Church, which has never recognized the authenticity of any of the bones here, in part because it said that the missing remains raised questions about whether the nine sets were authentic. Among some Russians and foreigners alike, the fate of Aleksei and his sister drew intense interest in recent years, as if the inability to find their remains and give them a proper burial was a final affront to the royal family by the Bolsheviks. People looked for bones all over Yekaterinburg, which is in the Russian heartland, 900 miles east of Moscow, on the divide between Europe and Asia.

They painstakingly went over the events of July 17, 1918, when the killers knifed and gunned down Nicholas II, his wife, five children, doctor and three servants in the basement of a house where they were being held after Nicholas was forced to abdicate. It was not easy determining what had occurred — the efforts to dispose of the bodies were poorly planned and inept. Subsequent recollections in the archives are sometimes contradictory. The killers wanted to conceal the bodies so their graves would not become rallying points for the czar’s supporters. They first dumped them in a mine shaft, then moved them to the burial site off the road. In recent years, the mine was searched for the missing two sets of remains. People also periodically hunted in the immediate area around the grave where the first set of bones was found.

Then Mr. xxxxov and his colleagues decided to scrutinize a statement by the chief killer, Yakov Yurovsky, in the archives. Yurovsky related how he had set aside two corpses, believing that if they were burned and buried separately they would confuse royalists who later might be seeking 11 bodies, not nine. But how separately? The amateur investigators focused on a Russian phrase that Yurovsky used to describe the sequence of events in the second burial. The phrase — “tut zhe” — can mean “nearby,” “right here” or “right now.” It had often been interpreted as indicating that the second grave was next to the first. But now a different thought arose. From the context, the experts wondered whether Yurovsky meant that the grave was in the area, but not very close to the first. They also presumed that to burn the bodies he needed to find a place away from the wet ground near the road.

Working weekends this summer, they began searching away from the first grave and road, and first found the remnants of the bonfire that was apparently used to burn the two bodies. Sergei Pogorelov, an archaeologist who was called in to oversee the work, said that about 15 intact bone fragments were recovered, and more than 40 pieces of charred bone. Mr. Pogorelov emphasized that many of the reservations about the discoveries at the first site cropped up because the excavation there had been done haphazardly. This time, he said, a professional archaeological dig was done, and the Russian Orthodox Church was invited to observe.

“We have tried to avoid the mistakes that they made in 1991,” he said. “Before, there was simply not any scientific method.”

The nine sets of remains were interred in a lavish ceremony in 1998 at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg, which contains the crypts of earlier Russian royals. But the Russian Orthodox Church would not formally take part in that ceremony because of its concerns about authenticity. For now, the church has declined to say whether it considers the newly found remains genuine, pending further tests. But people who have long sought the remains say they are hopeful that once the results are in, the church will formally conduct a service at the cathedral in St. Petersburg to lay to rest the final remains of the Romanovs.

“This brings closure to a very sad chapter in Russian history,” said Peter Sarandinaki, an American of Russian descent who started an organization to help find the remains and had conducted several searches here. “It is because their murder symbolizes the start of a diabolic era in world history. And now that has all come to an end.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/wo...tml?ref=europe