Tag Archives: russia

Fukushima, International

Russian leaders say situation in Japan Real Bad

Who better to know when a nuclear situation is real bad, then those who dealt with Chernobyl.  Russia, back then part of the now extinct Soviet Union when the Chernobyl disaster happened, says Japan is in trouble.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says the situation at Fukushima Daiichi is showing no signs of improvement. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says the situation is still out of control.

From the very beginning of the nuclear disaster in Japan, Russian nuclear engineers have warned that the type of design used at Fukushima Daiichi (by the way, designed by General Electric) is dangerous if damaged in a natural disaster. Basically it can not be saved.

 

Fukushima, International

Russia offers Nuke Sub Cleaner to Japan

Russia is offering a ‘water cleaner’ used on decommissioned nuclear submarines, to Japan.

State-run Rosatom corporation, which is involved with taking apart old nuclear submarines, has a device that ‘cleans’ low level radiation from water.  TEPCo has to periodically release low level radioactive water into the ocean, to maintain operational safety at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Also, Reactor 2 continues to dump high level radiation contaminated water into the ocean.  However the Russian water cleaner can not handle the higher levels of radiation.

The Russian water cleaner is a 65 meters (213 feet) long floating platform that was build with money from Japan. Rosatom officials say they are ready to tow it to Japan, if requested.

International

No more Daylight savings for Russia

“the need to adapt [to the time change] is connected with stress and illnesses.”-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev

This spring is the last time Russia will change its clocks. Come October they’ll be no daylight savings to deal with. In 1981 the Soviet Union started a daylight savings program. Russia continued the program, but more and more health studies, in Russia, are pointing to daylight savings as a cause of stress. Other scientists question those studies.

That fact is that, even here in the United States, a lot of people hate daylight savings.

In the U.S. the idea of daylight savings has been around since Benjamin Franklin. Since 1916 many countries have been experimenting with it.  And many of them think it’s time to get rid of it.

International, U.S.

Russian Duma Demands Attacks against Libya Stop

The majority of the lower house of the Russian Duma (Parliament) approved a resolution condemning the military action against Libya, and demanding it be stopped.

“The State Duma expresses concern over the scale and form in which the military force is used against Libya and calls for parliaments of France, Great Britain, United States, Italy, Canada and other states that are conducting the military operation to assist the immediate end of combat that damages the peaceful Libyan infrastructure and most importantly causes new casualties among civilian population.”

Russian politicians point out that UNSCR 1973 does not have specific limits on military action. Also, each of the UN coalition members are interpreting it differently, which is why the operation looks so haphazard.

This lack of specifics in the UN resolution is partly why President Obama is still trying to work out who will take the lead from the U.S., days after he told Congress that the U.S. involvement would end in a few days.


International

Russia wants to mediate peace in Libya, militant rebels say they don’t want peace

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared that Russia is willing to mediate peace talks in Libya.   Medvedev believes the conflict will not be resolved quickly, despite what President Obama said.

Russia abstained from voting of UNSCR 1973 not because they were against a no fly zone, but because the language of UNSCR 1973 did not sound like a no fly zone resolution.

Even if there was a team put in place for peace talks, the militant rebels have stated that they do not want to talk peace.  The announcement came from the National Council of Libya, which proclaimed itself to be the country’s new government and has already established ties with foreign powers.  The European Union has already recognized the “self proclaimed government” (gee what happened to democratic elections?).

International, U.S.

Libya working to get support from China

A Libyan government official said they will discuss oil contracts with China, India, Russia and Brazil.

This is to gain support against “neo-crusaders”, taking military action against Libya, through the UN resolution.

China has already condemned the military operation against Libya.  20,000+ Chinese were evacuated from Libya at the end of February.

Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh said he wanted to see Libyans make their own decisions “free of outside interference.”  India evacuated 18,000 workers from Libya.

Will Russia resume weapons sales to Libya?  Russia stopped weapons sales, but only on the condition that military action would not be taken against Libya. “In Moscow, we regret this armed action within the hastily passed UNSCR Resolution 1973,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich.

Brazil’s newly elected president, Dilma Rousseff, said Brazil expects more of the United States, criticizing American protectionism. Brazil opposes military action against Libya. Brazil has also evacuated citizens from Libya.

Brazil, Russia, China and India are now the world’s strongest economies.

International

Russia says attacking Libya will validate WMDs for extremists

Alexei Arbatov, the head of the International Security Center of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said attacking Libya will prove that obtaining WMDs is necessary to keep from being attacked by the West.

“An attack against Libya would be a gift for all violators of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. If Libya becomes an object of a military operation, it will lead some countries to believe that no one would think of threatening Gaddhafi with a military operation now if he had not voluntarily given up his nuclear program several years ago.”

In order to receive financing from western countries, and gain favor from western governments,  Gaddafi revealed his WMD program and allowed international inspection and dismantlement of that program.  That’s why President Bush Jr removed Gaddafi from the terrorist list.  Now the West is about to attack him.

Arbatov says “This will lead Iran, Syria, and some other countries violating the non-proliferation regime to make a new powerful step towards obtaining nuclear weapons.”

International, U.S.

Russia warns U.S. it will be held accountable in Libya

Russia’s Ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, warned that any “humanitarian consequences” following any military action to enforce a no fly zone, will be on those enforcing the no fly zone: “Responsibility for inevitable humanitarian consequences caused by excessive use of outside force in the Libyan situation would be fully born by those who resorted to such actions.”

Russia abstained from voting on the no fly resolution, because there were no plans presented to actually protect peaceful Libyans.

Fukushima

Russians trapped in Sendai, asking for air rescue

150 Russians, including rescue workers sent to help Japan, and Russian news reporters, are trapped in Sendai, dozens of kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

They ran out of fuel for their vehicles, and where apparently left behind by rescue workers from other countries.  It sounds as if there was a panic to escape the area after the Japanese government order evacuations.