It had been orbiting the Earth since last November when its main engine developed faults, derailing plans to send Phobos-Grunt on a 2.5-year mission to retrieve samples of rock from the Martian moon Phobos. The Fobos-Grunt probe had circled Earth in a decaying orbit, refusing to respond to ground commands from mid-December, after its interplanetary engines failed to ignite following its launch on November 9. The craft weighed 13.5 tons and cost 5 billion roubles.

More than 80 per cent of the spaceship’s mass was rocket fuel, which was expected to burn up passing through the Earth’s atmosphere, but officials at national space agency Rocosmos had said some 20-30 pieces of the probe could survive re-entry.

The 150-million-dollar Fobos-Grunt project had been intended to boost the prestige of the Russian space programme, 15 years after the
Russia’s last interplanetary mission.

Between the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and 2010, more than 90 per cent of China’s imported major conventional weapons were supplied by Russia. Since 2007 there has been a dramatic decline in the volume of Chinese arms imports from Russia. China is today mainly interested in acquiring technology to further develop its own arms industry, which is increasingly capable of meeting both domestic needs and export demand.

Image: Indicative

As of 2009 Russia became the world’s largest producer of oil and second largest of natural gas, whereas China, which shares a 4000 kilometre border with Russia, surpassed the USA in 2010 to become the world’s largest energy consumer. Despite these complementarities, Russian crude oil constitutes a smaller share of China’s overall oil imports compared with five years ago. China has strategically diversified its suppliers. Its largest oil supplier is Saudi Arabia, followed by Angola, Iran and Oman. In the gas sector, Russia’s negotiating position has been seriously weakened by China’s success in finding other partners, especially in Central Asia.

China and Russia do not share a deeper world view. While China and Russia still often take similar positions on significant global issues in opposition to the United States and share a dislike of a unipolar world, for both China and Russia individually their relationship with the US is paramount. Furthermore, there are strategic planners in Beijing and Moscow who view the other side as the ultimate strategic threat in the long-term.

‘The China-Russia partnership is plagued with problems. In reality cooperation is not as smooth as depicted in official rhetoric by top leaders on each side’, says co-author Linda Jakobson, formerly with SIPRI and presently at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. ‘Above all, both countries approach the relationship pragmatically. When interests converge, Beijing and Moscow collaborate, but when interests diverge the strategic partnership has little meaning. Genuine political trust is lacking.’

Pilots Andrei Lamanov and Yevgeny Novoselov were awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation for their courage and heroism in an emergency situation. The other seven crew members were awarded the Order of Courage.

The passenger Tu-154 aircraft with 72 passengers and nine crew members on board was flying from Yakutia to Moscow on September 7, 2010 when its electricity supply, navigation equipment and radio communications failed at an altitude of more than 10 kilometres and so it was forced to make an emergency landing at a military airfield in Izhma, Komi Republic (Northwestern Federal District), not designed to handle large aircraft and in recent years used to serve helicopters only. No one was injured during the landing and the plane received only slight damage.

Addressing the All-Russia Heads of National Central Bureaus (NCB) Seminar meeting in Ekaterinburg, the head of the world policing body said their efforts meant that INTERPOL ‘can connect together police forces from different continents to achieve results in the field, close to where crime strikes every day.’

In addition to being among the first countries to connect to I-24/7 – INTERPOL’s secure global police communications system – Russia has implemented one of the widest expansion programmes to provide access to INTERPOL’s services beyond the NCB, with more than 40 remote sites now connected across the country.

Image: Interpol. File Picture

“It is this proactive approach that will allow us to strike new victories against our common enemies, such as
organized crime.” said Secretary General Noble. “At times of deep financial crisis around the world, crime syndicates are a threat not only to the security of citizens, but also to the stability of entire financial and political systems.

“Twenty years ago, when the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics became a member of the INTERPOL family, the world was a very different place than it is today.

“While we cannot know what changes will take place over the next 20 years, what we can say is that the support which INTERPOL receives from member countries such as Russia will play a central role in ensuring that we do all that we can to make the world a safer place.”

During his mission to Russia, Secretary General Noble met with Minister of the Interior, General Rashid Nurgaliev who underlined his country’s ongoing commitment to INTERPOL and the wider law enforcement community.

“We are proud to celebrate 20 years of membership of INTERPOL, and proud of the contribution that Russia has made during these years to world policing,” said Minister Nurgaliev.

“We will continue to play a central role in working with law enforcement across the globe, to protect the safety and security of our citizens at home and abroad, and of visitors to our country,” added the Minister.

In 2007, the INTERPOL Anti-Heroin Smuggling Training Centre was officially opened in Domodedovo, providing comprehensive training in combating illegal drug trafficking to more than 2,000 officers a year from around the world, and in 2008, Russia hosted the 77th General Assembly in St Petersburg, one of the largest in INTERPOL’s history.

The agreement establishes the maritime boundary between Norway and Russia in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean. It also includes provisions on the continuation of fisheries cooperation and cooperation on the management of any oil and gas deposits that extend across the delimitation line.

It will be submitted to the Norwegian Storting and Russian Duma for ratification. The text of the treaty will be made public when it is signed.

The agreement was reached between the Norwegian and the Russian negotiating delegations on the bilateral maritime delimitation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean on 27.04.2010.

The recommended solution involves a maritime delimitation line that divides the overall disputed area of about 175 000 square kilometres in two parts of approximately the same size. In addition to a maritime delimitation line, the two delegations recommend the adoption of treaty provisions regarding cooperation on fisheries and petroleum activities. Norway and the Russian Federation wish to maintain and enhance the longstanding cooperation with regard to living marine resources in the area. In the field of hydrocarbon cooperation, the two delegations recommend the adoption of detailed rules and procedures ensuring efficient and responsible management of their hydrocarbon resources in cases where any single oil or gas deposits should extend across the delimitation line.

The dispute has been simmering since 40 years.

Last night, twenty-five prisoners escaped a pre-trial detention facility belonging to Tajikistan’s State Committee on National Security. They killed several guards and seized their weapons. The prisoners, who had all been sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, included four citizens of Afghanistan, six citizens of Russia, and citizens of Tajikistan.

87 people are said to have died. The press secretary of the Polish Foreign Ministry Piotr Paszkowski had told reporters that President Lech Kaczynski of Poland was on board the plane. The Polish President was part of an official Polish delegation heading for Katyn to attend memorial events there.

Lech Kaczynski, Photo: Polish Presidential website

The Russian Federation has made a statement on missile defence. As per the statement, “the Treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States of America on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms signed in Prague on April 8, 2010, can operate and be viable only if the United States of America refrains from developing its missile defence capabilities quantitatively or qualitatively. Consequently, the exceptional circumstances referred to in Article 14 of the Treaty include increasing the capabilities of the United States of America’s missile defence system in such a way that threatens the potential of the strategic nuclear forces of the Russian Federation.”

Signing of Russian-US Treaty on New START

Medvedev will take part in Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, DC (USA), on April 12-13, 2010.

“The interpretation of the treaty’s language and intent in reference to linkage of U.S. missile defense will have considerable influence on the outcome of the Senate and Duma votes; of which 67 out of 100 U.S. Senators are required to ratify the treaty.

“With this in mind, both Presidents will look to release unilateral statements outside of the treaty as well as language in the preamble to the treaty that will appease their legislators on the linkage or non-linkage of U.S. missile defense which may not be in the treaty, but will be regarded as binding by both sides. This diplomatic skill is necessary to achieve a ratified treaty that would unequivocally link missile defense forever to this treaty in intent and interpretation.

“The Russians have concerns that further expansion and development of U.S. missile defense, including President Obama’s Phased Adaptive Approach (PAA) in Europe, is a threat to Russian missile forces both tactical and strategic and could potentially upset the future ‘nuclear balance of terror’ between the two countries.

“For the Americans, any linkage of missile defense in an attempt to limit its capability, development and growth is unacceptable; this includes the PAA as well as existing systems. Any linkage to or limits of missile defense in the treaty are seen as being contrary to U.S. national security and its ability to protect the homeland, troops, force structures overseas and allies from ballistic missiles; as was laid out and directed by President Obama’s Ballistic Missile Defense Review (BMDR) released February 1st. The BMDR further documented that the number of ballistic missiles currently in existence outside of the control of our allies, Russia and China, is 5,900. Limiting our nation’s protection from current and future ballistic missile threats would put American lives and U.S. national security at unacceptable risk; especially with the increasing likelihood of a nuclear Iran and the continuing proliferation of missiles and nuclear technology around the world.

“The American public views Iran, North Korea, emerging terrorist groups and countries that sponsor those groups as the main threat to our national security, not Russia. The American public and war fighter would not dare give up or limit its current and future defensive capability against those existent and emerging threats for a strategic arms control agreement with the Russians; who are not viewed as a current or future threat to the United States.

“As such, the U.S. interpretation of non-linkage to missile defense in the treaty is the direct opposite of the Russians perception.”

Ellison concluded “As the Senate works to understand, interpret and debate the intent of the new START treaty, it is beyond comprehension how it can have two diabolically opposing interpretations of missile defense. The reality of a successfully ratified new treaty outcome will most likely not happen unless we agree to disagree on the linkage of missile defense with Russia.”

Putin said that “some 40% of R&D projects have stalled. There is no lack in investment and new solutions are being developed, but they often fail to find application. This situation must be rectified. New solutions must comply with the industry’s needs.

I understand that a part of them could never be used by the Armed Forces, but 40% is too much.”

Despite the difficulties of 2009′s economic downturn, Russian military production increased by 13%, with defence and industrial production growing by 4%. As per Putin, the Russian government allocated a total of 93 billion Roubles to defence companies in 2009, and will continue to support the industry this year and next.

He said that Venezuela will place orders worth over $5 billion with Russia’s 13 largest defence companies, including Izhmash, a Tula-based company, among others.