Russia’s Putin shakes off alleged assassination plot, says, ‘Let them fear us’
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared Tuesday he doesn’t fear assassination attempts, a day after state television reported that security forces had foiled a plot to kill him.
Putin said Tuesday in his first comment on the plot that he had been informed about it but wasn’t intimidated.
“People in my position have to live with it,” he said on a trip to the southern city of Astrakhan. “It would be impossible to carry on if you fear that. Let them fear us.”
Gennady Zyuganov, the Communist leader running a distant second to Putin in the polls, called the report “a cheap trick that reeks.”
The nationalist party leader, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, said the assassination plot was invented by political spin doctors and designed to appeal to “poorly educated old ladies.”
“Russia, for a day, was on the brink of the biggest catastrophe since the time of Chernobyl,” Vlast reported. The 1986 disaster in modern-day Ukraine is regarded as the world’s worst nuclear accident.
The respected Vlast weekly magazine quoted several sources in the Russian navy as saying that throughout the fire on Dec. 29 the submarine was carrying 16 R-29 intercontinental ballistic missiles, each armed with four nuclear warheads.
The rubber covering of the submarine then caught fire, sending flames and black smoke 10 metres (30 feet) above the stricken vessel. Firemen battled the blaze for a day and a night before partially sinking the submarine to douse the flames, according to media reports.
“K-84 was in dock with rockets and torpedoes on board,” the magazine said, adding that apart from the nuclear weapons the submarine was carrying torpedoes and mines as well as its two nuclear reactors.
The magazine said that if one of the torpedoes had exploded it could have threatened the nuclear missiles, leading to an extremely dangerous nuclear accident.
Report: Russia Nuclear Disaster Narrowly Averted In Submarine Fire
MOSCOW, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Russia came close to nuclear disaster in late December when a blaze engulfed a nuclear-powered submarine carrying atomic weapons, a leading Russian magazine reported, contradicting official assurances that it was not armed.
Activists from Ukrainian feminist group FEMEN shout slogans during a topless protest against the Worl Economic Forum(WEF) annual meeting on January 28, 2012 in the Swiss resort of Davos.
Going shirtless in Ukraine in winter. Certified badass.
Представители политических партий дискутируют, как изменить избирательную систему
Political parties discuss how to change the electoral system
(Source: 1tv.ru)
Баскетболисты ЦСКА выиграли 12-ю встречу подряд в Евролиге
Basketball CSKA won the 12th consecutive meeting in the Euroleague
(Source: 1tv.ru)
Putin Tries Making Nice With Angry Russian Voters
Russian president-in-waiting, Vladimir Putin, has been the source of much disdain since the Dec. 4 Parliamentary elections. His party, United Russia, was accused of fraud. No criminal charges have occurred since. United Russia also lost over 50 seats in the Parliament to rival Communist and Liberal Democrats, which, ironically, are not liberal democrats but are a pro-nationalistic anti-immigrant party. Their voters, and others, have taken to the streets to demonstrate their disdain for Putin and his party, which he leads. Putin is expected to be voted in as President once again in March. He is now Prime Minister. So to calm the rabble, Putin penned an op-ed in Izvestia, a daily newspaper, earlier this week where he wrote about corruption and what he heck Russia should do, after they elect him.
Putin, the charismatic ex-KGB agent, called politics “short of breath” and limited to matters of preserving or redistributing power and wealth.
“Traditionally, in Russia this situation was caused by weak public control over politicians as well as by an underdeveloped civil society. This is gradually changing, but still very slowly. There can be no real democracy without policies that are accepted by a majority and that also reflect the interests of this majority,” he wrote. “It is possible, for a short period of time, to captivate a large part of society by colorful slogans, by images of a wonderful future. But if people then do not see themselves in this future, they will permanently turn away from politics and society. This has already happened many times in our history.”
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Obama Says So Long SOPA, Killing Controversial Internet Piracy Legislation
President Barack Obama has stepped in and said he would not support the bill.
SOPA has been delayed, for now. The House has agreed to revisit the issue next month, but they now know the White House will veto any bill that’s not more narrowly focused.
(Source: anzesemin)
Russia squabbles over Phobos-Grunt debacle
Russia was understandably upset and perhaps more than a little embarrassed when the Phobos-Grunt probe - slated to explore a Martian moon - failed to escape Earth’s orbit and crashed into the ocean.
Some individuals in the Russian space community hinted that a radar station in Alaska could have caused interference that ultimately damaged the probe.
Of course, Russia hasn’t officially accused the US or any other countries of tampering with their probe. However, certain officials noted it was quite curious that a number of spacecraft were lost at a point where ground control couldn’t receive telemetry or communications.
So it comes as little surprise that Russia will now officially attempt to determine if a radar station manned by the US could have inadvertently interfered with the Phobos-Grunt probe.
The catch for Moscow? Russian space experts argue that the claims of US radar interference with the Phobos-Grunt is quite unlikely. Nevertheless, Russia State news agency RIA Novosti quoted the former head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, Yury Koptev, as saying that investigators from Russia will conduct tests to see if the US radar could have interfered.
“The results of the experiment will allow us to prove or dismiss the possibility of the radar’s impact,” Koptev claimed.
As noted above, Russian scientists scoff at the suggestion that US satellite stations could have damaged the probe and caused it to fail. For example, Alexander Zakharov from the Russian Academy of Sciences and Space Research Institute (the very place where the Phobos-grunt probe was researched and developed), says the US had absolutely nothing to do with the failure.
Zakharov said, “Consider the power of the impact. I don’t think the Americans have radars capable of ensuring such power at such an altitude [about 200 kilometers].”
Zakharov figures that the theory of US interference is simply a smokescreen to cover up the mistakes of some people on the program. The scientist went so far as to call the suggestion of US radar interference “far-fetched.” He also recommended that the spacecraft be examined.
“You can come up with a lot of exotic reasons,” explained Zakharo. “But first you need to look at the apparatus itself, and there is a problem there.”
Meanwhile, Alan Stern, former associate administrator for science at NASA and now director of the Florida Space Institute at the University of Central Florida, said “the Russian Space Agency would do themselves and the future of Russian planetary exploration some good to look inside the project and the agency to find the cause of the Phobos-Ground mishap.”
Some individuals in the Russian space community hinted that a radar station in Alaska could have caused interference that ultimately damaged the probe.
Of course, Russia hasn’t officially accused the US or any other countries of tampering with their probe. However, certain officials noted it was quite curious that a number of spacecraft were lost at a point where ground control couldn’t receive telemetry or communications.
So it comes as little surprise that Russia will now officially attempt to determine if a radar station manned by the US could have inadvertently interfered with the Phobos-Grunt probe.
The catch for Moscow? Russian space experts argue that the claims of US radar interference with the Phobos-Grunt is quite unlikely. Nevertheless, Russia State news agency RIA Novosti quoted the former head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, Yury Koptev, as saying that investigators from Russia will conduct tests to see if the US radar could have interfered.
“The results of the experiment will allow us to prove or dismiss the possibility of the radar’s impact,” Koptev claimed.
As noted above, Russian scientists scoff at the suggestion that US satellite stations could have damaged the probe and caused it to fail. For example, Alexander Zakharov from the Russian Academy of Sciences and Space Research Institute (the very place where the Phobos-Grunt probe was researched and developed), says the US had absolutely nothing to do with the failure.
Zakharov said, “Consider the power of the impact. I don’t think the Americans have radars capable of ensuring such power at such an altitude [about 200 kilometers].”
Zakharov figures that the theory of US interference is simply a smokescreen to cover up the mistakes of some people on the program. The scientist went so far as to call the suggestion of US radar interference “far-fetched.” He also recommended that the spacecraft be examined.“You can come up with a lot of exotic reasons,” explained Zakharo. “But first you need to look at the apparatus itself, and there is a problem there.”
Meanwhile, Alan Stern, former associate administrator for science at NASA and now director of the Florida Space Institute at the University of Central Florida, said “the Russian Space Agency would do themselves and the future of Russian planetary exploration some good to look inside the project and the agency to find the cause of the Phobos-Ground mishap.”
