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Posts Tagged ‘Russia’

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Russia tightens checks on meat imports over dioxin crisis

In Uncategorized on January 8, 2011 at 12:02 pm

Russia said Saturday it had heightened checks on meat from Germany and other European countries and threatened an import ban after Germany closed thousands of farms over animal feed tainted with dioxin.

Eggs suspected to be contaminated with dioxin, are pictured at a laboratory of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia’s food control institute in Muenster January 4, 2011

The Russian agriculture watchdog said in a statement sent to AFP on Saturday that it had “taken the decision to heighten control of food of animal origin imported from Germany and several other European Union countries”.


It did not specify which European Union countries fell under the tougher rules.


The watchdog also threatened that Russia could ban meat imports if it did not receive official information on the situation as soon as possible and if it were not satisfied by European measures to control the situation.


The watchdog “retains the right to introduce restrictions on supplying food of animal origin to the Russian market from the regions of heightened risk”, it said in the statement.


German officials said Friday they had shut 4,700 farms and destroyed more than 100,000 eggs after tests showed dangerous levels of dioxin, a poisonous chemical compound, in fatty acids used to make industrial animal feed.


The Russian agency complained of its “serious concern” that it had not received any information from Germany or the executive European Commission on the situation and said it had sent an official request.


“The European Union still lacks a system to react urgently to cases that could be dangerous for animals and humans,” the watchdog’s spokesman Alexei Alexeyenko told the Interfax news agency.


 

Source: SGGP

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Russia to approve nuclear treaty with US

In Uncategorized on December 24, 2010 at 5:57 am

 Russia was due Friday to give initial approval to a historic nuclear arms pact with the United States that opens the way for the former Cold War foes’ cooperation on everything from Afghanistan to Iran.


The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) that was passed after a months-long political battle by the US Senate on Wednesday has been the centerpiece of Washington’s efforts to “reset” lagging relations with Moscow.


The agreement slashes the two sides’ nuclear arsenals to 1,550 deployed warheads per side and leaves each country with no more than 800 launchers and bombers.


But besides also restoring vital inspections the treaty also goes a long way toward easing Russia’s worries that it will soon begin losing nuclear parity with the United States — a point of national pride since the Soviet era.

US President Barack Obama leaves the White House.

The State Duma lower house of parliament was scheduled to hold the first of three required votes on the treaty in its final session of the year Friday.


But a top ruling party member said that no emergency sessions would be held next week and that final passage was not expected until lawmakers returned from their New Year’s vacations on January 11.


“Further work on the ratification bill will continue once the Duma resumes its work in January,” news agencies quoted the Duma’s foreign affairs committee chairman Konstantin Kosachev as saying.


Yet the timing glitch seemed of secondary importance as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev phoned US President Barack Obama in the wake of the Senate vote, according to a statement from Obama’s office Thursday.


“President Medvedev congratulated President Obama on the Senate’s approval of the new START Treaty, and the two leaders agreed that this was an historic event for both countries and for US-Russia relations,” said the White House statement.


Pro-Kremlin deputies also took turns hailing the agreement as an important signal that relations between the two one-time rivals were finally getting back on track.


“There are times when our interests do not contradict each other. This is precisely one of those times,” said the upper chamber’s foreign affairs committee chairman Mikhail Margelov.


“We are standing side by side on this one without stepping on each other’s toes.”


Obama and Medvedev had signed the agreement in April as part of a renewed US commitment to win both Russia’s trust and cooperation in the handling of pressing international disputes.


The treaty works in Moscow’s favour because it slashes the United States’ nuclear arsenal to a size that Russia can keep up with despite its financial difficulties and its need to take old nuclear warheads out of commission.


But it also suits the United States because it removes a major roadblock in the two sides’ relations and paves the way for Russia joining international efforts to halt the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran.


Russia’s assistance is also important in transporting support equipment for the NATO-led campaign in Afghanistan and deputies said that all types of cooperation were possible now that the Senate had passed the pact.


“Ratification will have a positive effect on all areas of our bilateral cooperation — especially Afghanistan and Iran,” ruling United Russia party deputy Ruslan Kondratov said in comments posted on the party’s website.


Yet some lawmakers are uneasy about the non-binding amendments that US senators attached to the so-called “resolution of ratification” that was aimed at soothe sceptical Republicans’ worries about the pact.

Duma deputies were expected to add their own non-binding resolutions to the text that did not change the essence of the treaty but underscored Russia’s displeasure with US plans to deploy a new missile defence system in Europe.

The disputed US amendments are already a part of the treaty and several lawmakers said they understood that the additions were primarily meant for US audiences.

“This is all a part of a grand chess game … that Obama is playing home,” Margelov said.

Source: SGGP

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Foreign ministers of China, Russia consult on N.Korea

In Uncategorized on November 27, 2010 at 1:51 pm

The foreign ministers of Russia and China held telephone consultations Saturday over ways to ease the surging tensions on the Korean peninsula, the Russian foreign ministry said.


Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi “underscored the need to prevent a further escalation in the situation and to work toward conditions that can ease the tensions in the two Koreas’ relations and resume the six-party talks,” the ministry said in a statement.


Both countries are involved in the six-nation negotiations on the North Korean crisis, although Moscow’s close contacts with Pyongyang have waned considerably since the Soviet era.



 

Source: SGGP

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Russia summit seeks to save tiger from extinction

In Uncategorized on November 19, 2010 at 4:26 am

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Tokyo summons Russia envoy over Medvedev Kurils visit: Jiji

In Uncategorized on November 1, 2010 at 5:41 am

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Russia eyes more nuclear power projects in Asia: FM

In Uncategorized on October 30, 2010 at 11:40 am

HANOI, Oct 30, 2010 (AFP) – Asian nations are keen on striking nuclear power deals with Russia, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday, as world powers race to secure projects in the energy-hungry region.


“Our partners expressed particular interest in nuclear energy, noting Russia’s vast experience in this sphere,” Lavrov said in Hanoi, where President Dmitry Medvedev attended a regional summit.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during the ASEAN summit in Hanoi on October 30, 2010. AFP

During Medvedev’s visit to Vietnam, Russia will also sign a multi-billion-euro deal on Sunday to build Vietnam’s first nuclear power plant.


An official with Russian state nuclear conglomerate Rosatom told AFP the construction of the two-unit plant is estimated at over 4.0 billion euros (5.5 billion dollars).


Russia is locked in a global race with competitors like the United States, Japan and France to clinch lucrative worldwide contracts as demand for nuclear energy increases.


Vietnam has approved the construction of the country’s first nuclear power stations, and its initial plans call for four reactors with a total capacity of 4,000 megawatts, at least one of which should be operational from 2020.


Lavrov added that Russia and its ASEAN partners were interested in pursuing joint projects in geothermal energy in the region.


“The prospects are quite good,” he said, adding the potential projects would be the focus of the countries’ action plan through 2015.


Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) secretary general Surin Pitsuwan told reporters at the 10-member bloc’s summit in Hanoi that leaders agreed on the need for clean energy projects in the region.


“Without energy we could not drive our economy, but at the same time using traditional energy may impact upon our global environment,” he said, adding that member countries are working on “green energy, clean energy, new, alternative energy that would not have any impact on the environment”.

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Source: SGGP

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US, Russia join Asian summit as regional spats simmer

In Uncategorized on October 30, 2010 at 11:10 am

HANOI (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Saturday join 16 Asia-Pacific leaders at a summit in Vietnam dominated by China’s territorial disputes.


The United States and Russia will be formally invited as members of the East Asia Summit at the group’s annual gathering, in what analysts say is a blow to Chinese attempts to diminish US influence in the region.


Their entry into the EAS, which elevates its diplomatic heft, comes despite Chinese attempts to promote another grouping — which does not include the US — as the region’s premier forum for regional cooperation.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is greeted by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Hanoi Oct. 30. AFP

US membership is seen as part of its strategic return to Southeast Asia to balance China’s growing influence in the region, where Beijing’s more aggressive stance on territorial disputes has unnerved its smaller neighbours.


Clinton, in a speech on Asia-Pacific relations made in Honolulu earlier this week, downplayed suggestions the US is duelling with China for influence.


“There are some in both countries who believe that China’s interests and ours are fundamentally at odds. They apply a zero-sum calculation to our relationship. So whenever one of us succeeds, the other must fail,” she said.


“But that is not our view.”


Nevertheless, China has been irritated by Washington wading into the issue of its claim over the resource-rich South China Sea, where several Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries are also claimants.


Clinton said in July that resolving disputes over the strategic area is “pivotal” to regional stability and offered to negotiate a settlement.


On the eve of the Hanoi summit, China hit out at Clinton’s remarks that other disputed islands in the East China Sea, the flashpoint for a serious feud with Japan, fall within the scope of the US-Japan security alliance.


“The Chinese government and people will never accept any word or deed that includes the Diaoyu islands within the scope of the US-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security,” foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said.


The disputed islands — called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan — have been at the centre of a deepening row between Beijing and Tokyo which erupted again in Hanoi, evaporating hopes for talks between their leaders.


Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara met his Chinese counterpart Friday and said they had agreed to improve ties. Japan’s delegation announced direct talks between the leaders, but then retracted the statement.


China’s assistant foreign affairs minister, Hu Zhengyue, then issued a statement using extremely strong terms to condemn Japan.


“Japanese diplomatic authorities have partnered with other nations and stepped up the heat on the Diaoyu island issue,” he said.


He said Japanese comments had “violated China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”


“The Japanese moves, which is clear for everyone to see, have ruined the needed atmosphere for a meeting between the two leaders. Japan should take full responsibility for the result.”


Japanese Premier Naoto Kan’s spokesman, Noriyuki Shikata, said there was no reason for “heightened tensions… between the two countries” and that Japan stood ready to “engage in dialogue.”


The neighbours have been feuding since the September 8 arrest of a Chinese trawler captain after a collision with Japanese coastguard vessels near the disputed East China Sea island chain.


The United States called on China and ally Japan to ease tensions.


“We want China and Japan to sit down, to have dialogue and work through the issues,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters in Washington.


“We would hope that both countries will take affirmative steps to de-escalate tensions around this issue and that will create the conditions for a meaningful dialogue.”


The East Asia Summit is a forum for dialogue on strategic, political and economic issues involving the 10-member Southeast Asian bloc as well as Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

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Source: SGGP

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Russia hosts Karzai, Zardari for Afghan summit

In Uncategorized on August 18, 2010 at 7:24 am

SOCHI, Russia (AFP) – Russia on Wednesday hosts Pakistan’s embattled President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai for a regional summit expected to focus on security in Afghanistan.


The Pakistan leader is expected to fly in to the Black Sea resort of Sochi for only a few hours after he was heavily criticised at home for his handling of the devastating floods that have caused a massive humanitarian crisis.

An Afghan policeman patrols in Kandahar province’s Arghandab Valley. AFP

A key aspect of the meeting will be a rare bilateral encounter between Zardari and Karzai, whose country has consistently accused Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agency of supporting Taliban insurgents.


Pakistan has reacted furiously to the allegations, particularly after Karzai declared in July that “this war is in the sanctuaries, funding centres and training places of terrorism which are outside Afghanistan.”


Russia, still haunted by the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan which cost over 13,000 Soviet lives, has kept a wary distance from the troubles of NATO forces in the country.


Moscow had made clear it has no plans to send troops to Afghanistan but like several other ex-Soviet states has allowed NATO states to use its airspace for the transit of equipment.


But the summit also allows Russian President Dmitry Medvedev the chance to show his country is engaging in a major international issue at a time when it is seeking to improve its profile on the world stage.


Also taking part will be Tajikistan President Emomali Rakhmon, whose country borders Afghanistan.


“It is planned that special attention is given to the issue of regulating the situation in Aghanistan, the fight against terrorist and narcotic threats, economic reconstruction and the development of Afghanistan and the region,” the Kremlin said in a statement ahead of the meeting.


The meeting is the second such four-way meeting of the heads of state, the first taking place in the Tajik capital Dushanbe in July 2009.


Medvedev’s foreign policy advisor Sergei Prikhodko said ahead of the meeting that Russia would be interested in delivering helicopters to Afghanistan.


“The question of the delivery of Russian helicopters will be discussed, if it is raised by the Afghan side,” he added, the Interfax news agency said, adding that Afghanistan required 100 additional choppers.


Kremlin sources told the agency that such a move could put Russia in direct competition with NATO states also interested in the contract but the whole issue of financing also had to be addressed.


Zardari had originally been planning a two-day visit to Russia but the situation with the floods means his visit has been cut to a few hours and he will not even attend lunch, officials in Islamabad have said.


Moscow is not usually seen as a close ally of Islamabad, not least because of its historically close relationship to Pakistan’s traditional foe India.

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Source: SGGP

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US aid arrives as Russia says no nuclear risk from fires

In Uncategorized on August 15, 2010 at 11:22 am

The first planeloads of US aid for the Russian wildfire tragedy arrived in Moscow on Saturday as officials said a fire raging close to a top nuclear facility did not risk causing an atomic catastrophe.


Officials said that nationwide the area alight with fires was almost a quarter that of a week ago, although there appeared to be little progress in reducing the size of the blaze close to Russia’s main nuclear research centre in Sarov.


Two US Air Force C-130 planes carrying aid for Russia touched down early Saturday at a Moscow airport, followed by a charter flight from California ordered by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, state television and the foreign ministry said.


Two additional C-130 flights were expected in the “next days”, the Russian foreign ministry said. Another charter was also due in the coming week.


A Russian man attempts to put out a blaze some 155 kms south of Moscow in Shatura on August 13.

“We will always remember this gesture, this arm that was extended to us at a very difficult time,” the deputy head of the international department of the Russian emergencies ministry, Valery Shuikov, said at the Vnukovo airport.


According to the US State Department, the total value of the support from Russia’s Cold War-era ex-foe is around 4.5 million dollars.


The emergencies ministry said there were still 480 fires in Russia covering an area of 56,000 hectares (138,500 acres), a quarter of the area of almost 200,000 hectares (495,000 acres) reported at the peak of the crisis and down around 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) from Friday.


“At the current moment the situation with the wildfires has improved considerably,” said Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu in a statement on the ministry’s website.


“The weather has not helped us. Everything has been done by the emergency services, the interior ministry, the defence ministry and volunteers.”


Along with Sarov, fires have also raged close to another research centre in the town of Snezhensk and the Mayak nuclear reprocessing site, both in the Urals, but the authorities appear to have controlled those fires.


“There are no threats from the forest fires to potentially dangerous sites. Potentially dangerous sites are reliably protected,” said Shoigu.


The head of Russia’s Rosatom nuclear agency, Sergei Kiriyenko, told reporters that the fire that has been menacing the Sarov centre, 500 kilometres (310 miles) east of Moscow, for the past two weeks does not risk causing a nuclear disaster.


“We can say today for sure that there is no nuclear risk, no radioactive threat and that there is not even an ecological threat on Sarov territory,” Kiriyenko told Russian media.


“We pushed back an attack from the west side two weeks ago. Now the fire is coming from the east… and it continues to burn. Nevertheless, the situation on the eastern side has ceased to be critical,” he said.


Kiriyenko said radioactive and explosive materials had been removed a second time from the Sarov centre because of the threat of the flames, which approached the perimetre of the installation on Friday before being brought turned back.


The Mordovia region emergencies ministry said the fire in a neighbouring nature reserve that threatens Sarov, a town still closed to foreigners as in Soviet times, covers 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) and is still not under control.


Thousands of firefighters have been sent to the reserve to put out the flames.


Kiriyenko said that if the winds shift the Sarov centre could come under threat once again from the fires in the nature reserve.

“Until (the fires are) put out there, Sarov remains at risk,” he said.

The fires have been sparked by the worst heatwave in Russia’s history, which destroyed one-quarter of its crops and last week blanketed Moscow in a toxic smog that has raised major concern for public health.

There have also been fears the fires could stir up particles on land in western Russia still contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster but officials have said radiation is normal throughout the country.

Source: SGGP

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Russia: Iran’s nuclear plant to get fuel next week

In Uncategorized on August 15, 2010 at 11:21 am

Russia announced Friday it will begin the startup next week of Iran’s only atomic power plant, giving Tehran a boost as it struggles with international sanctions and highlighting differences between Moscow and Washington over pressuring the Islamic Republic to give up activities that could be used to make nuclear arms.


Uranium fuel shipped by Russia will be loaded into the Bushehr reactor on Aug. 21, beginning a process that will last about a month and end with the reactor sending electricity to Iranian cities, Russian and Iranian officials said.


“From that moment, the Bushehr plant will be officially considered a nuclear energy installation,” said Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for the Russian nuclear agency.

In this photo released by the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), the reactor building of Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant is seen, just outside the port city of Bushehr 750 miles (1245 kilometers) south of the capital Tehran, Iran, in this Nov. 30, 2009 file photo.

If Russia carries out its plan, it will end years of foot-dragging on Bushehr. While Moscow signed a $1 billion contract to build the plant in 1995, its completion has been put off for years.


Moscow has cited technical reasons for the delays. But Bushehr has also been an ideal way to gain leverage with both Tehran and Washington.


Delaying the project has given Russia continued influence with Tehran in international attempts to have it stop uranium enrichment — a program Iran says it needs to make fuel for an envisaged reactor network but which also can be used to create fissile warhead material. The delays also have served to placate the U.S., which opposes rewarding Iran while it continues to defy the U.N. Security Council with its nuclear activities.


After Russia said in March that Bushehr would be launched this year, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that until Iran reassures the world it is not trying to build a nuclear weapon, “it would be premature to go ahead with any project at this time.”


Formally, the U.S. has no problem with Bushehr.


Although at first opposed to Russian participation in the project, Washington and its allies agreed to remove any reference to it in the first set of Security Council sanctions passed in 2006 in exchange for Moscow’s support for those penalties. Three subsequent sanctions resolutions also have no mention of Bushehr.


The terms of the deal commit the Iranians to allow the Russians to retrieve all used reactor fuel for reprocessing. Spent fuel contains plutonium, which can be used to make atomic weapons. Additionally, Iran has said that International Atomic Energy Agency experts will be able to verify that none of the fresh fuel or waste is diverted.


Still, the U.S. sees the Russian move as a false signal to Tehran as Washington strives to isolate Iran politically and economically to force it to compromise on enrichment.


A senior diplomat from an IAEA member nation said Friday the Americans had “raised those concerns with the Russians” in recent weeks. The diplomat, who is familiar with the issue, spoke on condition of anonymity because his information was confidential.


In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Bushehr “does not represent a proliferation risk. … However, Bushehr underscores that Iran does not need its own indigenous enrichment capability. The fact that Russia is providing fuel is the very model the international community has offered Iran.”


Russia, in turn, argues that the Bushehr project is essential for persuading Iran to cooperate with the U.N. nuclear watchdog and fulfill its obligations under international nuclear nonproliferation agreements.


Crowley added: “Our views on the Bushehr project should not be confused with the world’s fundamental concerns with Iran’s overall nuclear intentions, particularly its pursuit of uranium enrichment, and Iran’s willful violation of its international obligations.”


Russian officials did not say why they had decided to move ahead with loading fuel into the Bushehr plant now. But the move could have been triggered in part by Moscow’s desire show the Iranians it can act independently from Washington after its decision to support the fourth set of U.N. sanctions in June and its continued refusal to ship surface-to-air missile systems that it agreed to provide under a 2007 contract to sell the S-300s.


The sophisticated S-300 anti-aircraft missiles would significantly boost Iran’s ability to defend against airstrikes. Israel and the United States have strongly objected to the deal.


Russia has walked a fine line on Iran for years. One of six world powers leading international efforts to ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon, it has strongly criticized the U.S. and the European Union for following up with separate sanctions after the latest U.N. penalties — which Moscow supported — were passed.

Iran’s semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who also heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, as saying that the country had invited IAEA experts to watch the transfer of fuel, which was shipped about two years ago, into the Bushehr reactor.

“Fuel complexes are sealed (and being monitored by IAEA). Naturally, IAEA inspectors will be there to watch the unsealing,” ISNA quoted Salehi as saying.

Russia has said the Bushehr project has been closely supervised by the IAEA. But the U.N. watchdog has no monitoring authority at the plant beyond ensuring that its nuclear fuel is accounted for, and U.S. and EU officials have expressed safety concerns.

They note that Iran — leery of opening up its nuclear activities to outsiders — refuses to sign on to the Convention on Nuclear Safety, making it subject to international monitoring of its atomic safety standards.

“We expect Iran to meet established international norms and practices to ensure the safe operation of the reactor under full safeguards monitoring” by the IAEA, Crowley said.

Source: SGGP