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SIPRI, Top 100 arms-producing companies – 2009.
21 Feb 2011 For the first time, the turnover of arms manufacturing companies in 2009 exceeded $ 400 billion, an increase of 8% over 2008 and 59% compared to 2002. The figures are contained in the annual report of SIPRI, the Peace Research Institute in Stockholm.
The U.S. holds 61% of turnover, with 8 companies in the top ten. Among the most important companies Lockheed, Boeing and British Bae Systems. The Italian Finmeccanica is eighth in this special standing with 13 billion dollars and 3.3% of the market share.
“This is the 8th year in which Russian companies have been covered by the SIPRI Top 100. There may be other Russian companies that should be in the list but for which insufficient data is available. Figures for Russian companies are from the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST), Moscow.
This is the first year in which United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) and United Engine Corporation (UEC)—the two new main Russian state-owned conglomerates—reported parent company figures and subsidiary figures. In previous years, these figures were reported separately for each subsidiary or not reported at all. This year figures for Irkut, MiG and Sukhoi are reported as subsidiaries of UAC. UEC also reported overall arms sales figures. Although reported as a parent company here, Vertolety Rossii is a subsidiary of OPK Oboronprom.”
For more detail on Russian arms-producing industry consolidation, see Jackson, S., ‘Arms production’ SIPRI Yearbook 2010; and Perlo-Freeman, S. et al., ‘The SIPRI Top 100 arms-producing companies, 2007’, SIPRI Yearbook 2009, pp. 286–87.
Report – SIPRI – Stockholm –
Gorbachev, the Kremlin and Russia.
21 Feb 2011 Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev urged Russia to adopt a new approach to terrorism – and for the Middle East to embrace democracy. He also criticized Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev for saying they will decide between them who should run for president in the March 2012 presidential vote.
”Most likely he (Putin) will not run for the presidency. Two terms is enough – well, he has had his two terms. What will they do in the future? Maybe he and (President) Medvedev will swap places again,” said former Soviet leader who is 80 next month.
He called for an investigation into statement by an assistant to the judge who convicted oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky who said the judge did not write the verdict and read it against his will in the Moscow courtroom. The main pro-Kremlin United Russia party is a ”bad copy” of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
SKYNEWS – February 21st, 2011.
The Khan’s Palace of the Bakhchisaray Historical and Cultural Reserve could become the first Crimean site of cultural heritage to be included on the UNESCO World Heritage List, the main information policy department of the Crimean Council of Ministers has reported, referring to the director general of the Bakhchisaray Historical and Cultural Reserve, Yevhen Petrov.
The procedure foresees the carrying out of preliminary restoration work. The inclusion of the Khan’s Palace on the list would mean it might be able to receive financial support from the UNESCO Fund. ”By Sept. 1, 2011 a dossier, which will include the plan of management of the territories and facilities of the reserve, and reports on the monitoring of the facilities of the Khan’s Palace, is to be submitted to UNESCO,” Yevhen Petrov said.
Source: Interfax-Ukraine
“As far as I know, this conflict has been ended,” Yanukovych told reporters during a visit to Poland, Ukraine’s co-host for the 2012 European football championships.
Yanukovych said he stepped in personally to settle wrangling over alleged government interference in Ukraine’s football association, which is banned under the game’s rules and can lead to nations being barred from international competition.
Article – AFP – February 3rd, 2011
The Apostolic Nuncio, Mgr Antonio Mennini, said goodbye to Russia’s Catholic community. In his address, he appealed for unity against any resigned acceptance of Catholic-Orthodox division.
“With perestroika, the Catholic Church, like the Orthodox Church, came out of a long period of trials and persecution,” he said. “Now these problems are slowly finding a solution, and Catholics feel increasingly part of the country. This comes with a gradual opening to cooperation and dialogue at the social and Church levels… Culture, education and social services are privileged fields because Christians are increasingly conscious that they must respond together to the growing challenges of secularist society… Today the contribution the Catholic Church can make to Russian society and the Russian Church is that of Christian witness and presence, especially in the cultural and social fields, which for historical reasons were monopolised in Russia by the atheistic regime.” Indeed, “I think that Russian Catholics can find their place and discover their mission in society to the extent that they deepen the knowledge and experience of their tradition, of their ‘Catholicity’.”
In appealing to unity, Mgr Mennini did not refer only to relations “to brothers in other faiths or Christian confessions,” but also to “the Catholic community, its associations, parishes and families: that they may all be one so that the world may believe and may be the subject of your daily and lifelong prayers.”
Appointed nuncio to Russia in 2002 by John Paul II, Mgr Mennini, 63, will now devote himself to relations with the Anglican Church, after personally experiencing renewed cooperation with the Moscow Patriarchate.
Complete Article – AsiaNews
Ecco il primo video dell’attentato. First Video after the explosion.
Attenzione. Immagini assai crude. Images not for people under 18.
V I D E O
Poland – Lithuania, the “W” dispute.
14 Jan 2011“Poland and Lithuania are deeply divided over the letter w. Used a lot in Polish, the letter doesn’t exist in Lithuanian. That and other spelling differences are irritating Lithuania’s Polish minority, who demand the right to spell their names in Polish in passports and other documents…in recent months other disagreements have helped escalate it to a full-blown diplomatic standoff….Similar disputes are happening elsewhere in Eastern Europe. A Slovak language law limiting the use of Hungarian and other minority languages went into effect Sept. 1, 2009, stoking political tensions between Slovakia and Hungary and garnering criticism from EU authorities.”
Article – AP Lithuania – January 14th, 2011
During January-December 2010 the average price for Russian Urals oil was 78.2 dollars per barrel, said the specialist for the Ministry of Finance Alexander Sakovich. According to him, in 2009 the same price was at 61.065 dollars a barrel.
Earlier, the Ministry of Economic Development had raised the forecast of oil prices in 2010 and 2011. The updated forecast for 2010 was 77.5 dollars per barrel compared to $ 75 budgeted. At the beginning of December Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said that over the next three years the price of oil might fall below 60 dollars per barrel for a period of up to six months. In the past, he underlined, the price of oil was above 70 per barrel only for two years, and the rest of the time in the last decade it was below 70. “And we are planning that it will remain above the 70, and we’ll live with it,” said a worried Kudrin.
He also highlighted that now Russia is in a situation of “high enough” state budget deficit. Today with oil prices at $ 75 per barrel Moscow has a shortfall of 4.6% of GDP. In 2007 with the oil price of 70 dollars per barrel Russia had a surplus of 5% of GDP. So it is time to cut the State expenses.
Russian Outlook - EuropaRussia 2010-2011
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Estonia, Euro Happy End.
1 Jan 2011
The dream has become reality. Estonia is now totally part of Europe after Tallinn’s adoption of the Euro. The long path, begun in the Eighties of the 20th century when the Baltic republic was enclosed forcefully in the USSR, has come to the most cheerful happy end.
After getting its independence from the Kremlin in 1991 Estonia started moving westwards away from the dominance of its mighty neighbour. In 2004 Tallinn entered the European Union and NATO. But it was not enough for the young Estonian rulers. “We are at sea in a small boat tied to an ocean liner. In a storm or otherwise, we’d feel better being on board,” explained the Estonian Minister of Finance Jürgen Ligi why his country had decided to become the 17th State to use the common currency.
And without any doubt for the Baltic state of 1.3 million inhabitants, being in the Eurozone club is preferable to uncertainty linked to its outgoing kroon currency and is seen as a way to attract further investment. “In Estonia we are also sure that the euro will support trade,” Prime Minister Andrus Ansip told Reuters, pointing to gains for ordinary people. “Now people are just wasting their money in the currency exchange, why do they have to do that?” he said.
Estonia’s debt and budget deficit are among the lowest in the Eurozone. To meet the common currency entry terms, Ansip’s centre-right government made budget deficit cuts equal to more than 9 percent of GDP. Inflation also fell as the economy contracted nearly 14 percent in 2009 after a pre-crisis boom.
The European Commission raised in its fresh autumn forecast Estonia’s economic growth forecast to 2.4% for the year 2010 and 4.4% for 2011. In 2012 the economy should grow 3.5%.
“The foreign policy goals of Estonia have been to embed itself in as many international organisations and clubs as possible, so that it will never find itself isolated or without friends ever again,” Andres Kasekamp, director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute said. “Membership of the Eurozone will not only boost Estonia’s economic prosperity, but will enhance security,” he added.
But there are some sceptics. “Welcome to the Euro Titanic” is their slogan. “We are joining at the worst possible time and cannot be sure the Eurozone will exist in the same form as it does now. Even in 2011 there could be very big changes or reforms,” said lawyer Anti Poolamets, who lead an anti-Euro campaign.
Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat became acting president automatically at the moment the first session of the new Moldovan parliament was convened, the Moldovan Constitutional Court told Interfax.
“This is stipulated by the Constitution, and there is no need to adopt any legislative acts. If there had been a legitimately elected president in Moldova, he would have continued performing his duties until the new parliament elected a new president. However, Moldova had an acting president, parliamentary speaker Mihai Ghimpu. His powers expired at the moment the mandates of the newly elected parliamentarians were recognized and the first parliamentary session was convened. When the new parliament elects a speaker, the presidential duties will be delegated to him. For the time being, the prime minister is acting president,” the court said.
Filat said in an interview that he was disappointed that a parliamentary majority was not put together and a parliamentary speaker was not elected on December 28th. A two-day recess has been announced in the first session of the new Moldovan parliament at the Democratic Party’s request, and it will continue until Dec. 30.
Meanwhile, negotiations on setting up a ruling coalition continued on Wednesday. Democratic Party leaders met with members of the Party of Communists, after which Democratic Party leader Marian Lupu met with Liberal Party leader Mihai Ghimpu. Then Lupu, Ghimpu, and Filat held a tripartite meeting.
A simple majority of 51 seats is enough in the Moldovan parliament to form a government and other governing bodies, but the votes of at least 60% of all the deputies, i.e. 61 out of the 101 votes, are necessary to elect a president.
There were no clear winners at last November’s Parliamentary elections. Moldova is in a long deep political crisis, started in April 2009, and some observers see risks for its future as an independent state. Recently, Romanian president Traian Basescu said that “in the next 25 years Romania and Moldova could be united again.” The Transdniestrian region broke away from Chisinau when USSR collapsed at the beginning of the Nineties.
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