Agreement Signed, but, Problems Remain

Rally against proposed US radar site in Czech Republic

A massive petition campaign demanding a referendum on the question of the stationing of a US ABM radar site near Prague is underway in the Czech Republic. The government ignored public opinion and signed an agreement with the American administration to allow the construction of a radar site 50 kilometres from Prague. But, the signing of the agreement has not put an end to the argument about an American military presence in the Czech Republic. (65 percent of Czechs oppose the radar per AP. Bush embraces democracy? I think not…: editor’s note) 

The government of Miroslav Topolanek believes it is to its credit that the US chose Prague as one of the sites of the American global ABM defence system. They scorned the opinion of their NATO allies that a decision on such a highly sensitive issue should have been taken at a European level. But, the ruling coalition in Prague countered this by saying that their ties with America were more important, and that, sooner or later, European states will be sucked into an American ABM system in any case.

Russia’s concerns that a US defence system poses a threat to global stability and to its national security were seen as a manifestation of imperialism. The Czech Republic shall get an ABM shield to protect it against notional missile attacks from Iran and North Korea, as well as against a hypothetical Russian attack. But, independent experts, including those inside the Czech Republic, have poured scorn on this argument, saying the belief that the American ABM defence system will protect the whole of Europe against a likely attack is misguided.

Jan Dolezal, a security expert, said, “We were assured that the radar will protect Europe against ballistic missiles from Iran and North Korea. I would say, concerning North Korea, the argument does not even deserve discussion. As for Iran, we should remember that America encouraged Saddam Hussein to make war on Tehran, turning Iran into an adversary, perhaps, unwittingly. As a result, there is no love lost between America and Iran. America has done nothing to make amends for that blunder, and it is still not ready to cooperate with Tehran. To a large extent, the building of the ABM radar site is a continuation of such US hostility towards Iran”.

The Czech Republic government does not have a majority in parliament, so, the ABM defence system agreement remains to be ratified. Hence, discussion could last until autumn, and stretch into the time of the American presidential election.

15 July 2008

Aleksandr Vatutin

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29699&cid=58&p=15.07.2008 (in English)

Orthodox Pickets Protested the Start of NATO Exercises in Odessa

Odessa, 15 July 2008 (Interfax):

Patriotic Ukrainian Orthodox organisations picketed the opening of the “Sea Breeze 2008” NATO military manoeuvres in Odessa. Activists from “United Fatherland”, “Rus”, and “A Free Choice”, and representatives from the Russian communities of the Crimea gathered in front of the Officer’s Club in Odessa, where the official opening ceremony took place. The protestors carried anti-NATO placards and passed out copies of the Orthodox newspaper Pravoslavny Telegraf (Orthodox Telegraph). The demonstrators lined the route that the buses with NATO personnel had to pass, and their signs read, “Get out, NATO!” “We are not Yankees, we are Slavs, Russians are our brothers!” “Real Odessa people don’t want NATO in their house!”

“That’s how it’s going to be, those taking part in the manoeuvres shall have to withstand anti-NATO placards and speeches as they go to the training grounds. It’s obvious that the organisers couldn’t isolate the NATO troops from the fired-up Ukrainian people”, Valery Kaurov, the head of the Ukrainian Union of Orthodox Citizens and one of the organisers of the protest, said to our Interfax-Religion correspondent. On the eve of the manoeuvres, more than 80 members of patriotic anti-NATO defence groups led a waterborne “raid” off the coast of Odessa with 15 boats decorated with flags and placards. Mr Kaurov said that a large number of people on holiday at the beach greeted the “raiders” with gusto. The Orthodox protestors are going to set up tent camps near military training grounds near the Black Sea. Protestors shall picket all areas of the Sea Breeze 2008 manoeuvres.

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=25468 (in Russian)

Editor’s Note:

Ura! The real people are rising. America had best understand that only a tiny minority of Orange fanatics and Galician Uniates support them. Everyone else wants them off the soil of the rodina. America has no business interfering in the affairs of the Orthodox civilisation, in any case. Why don’t they go against true monsters like those in the Sudan or Zimbabwe? That would actually do the world some good. “Democracy?” No, thank you, very much. We have our own ways, and we prefer them to yours. America has not stood the test of time, and has no right lecturing others older and wiser than they are. 

Archbishop Mark, Bishop Diomid’s Replacement, Presented his Documents in the Presence of the Police

Bishop Diomid of Anadyr and Chukotka (1961- ), he has taken to flight after the rightful bishop arrived. Where, oh, where, did my little dog go? I say, good riddance to bad rubbish. Time to take out the trash! 

Anadyr, 15 July 2008 (Interfax):

On Tuesday, Archbishop Mark of Khabarovsk and Priamursky presented his documentation as locum tenems of the Diocese of Anadyr and Chukotka at the diocesan offices. “The transfer of documents took place in the presence of the police, a condition insisted upon by the supporters of Bishop Diomid, the former diocesan ordinary”, said Hieromonk Agafangel Belykh, who arrived in Chukotka with Archbishop Mark, to our Interfax-Religion correspondent. He said that the numbers of the supporters of Bishop Diomid present were not numerous, only some 10 to 15 people, but, “they created a very tense atmosphere for Archbishop Mark and those who came with him from the airport. For some reason, they refuse to have any contact with us, and they leave if we are present. For example, during the transfer of documentation, they sat with us in the same room, but, they said not a word”. In like manner, he added, Bishop Diomid categorically refuses to have any contact with Archbishop Mark. Diomid has taken flight to the northern part of his diocese.  

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=25480 (in Russian)

Editor’s Note:

After all the sturm und drang, it ends with a whimper. When the real bishop showed up, Diomid took to his heels. Anadyr itself isn’t exactly a booming hub of civilisation. Where is he now? In an igloo? I doubt that, for any native would have chased him out with a harpoon! Perhaps, he is in a former outpost of the GULag, for such were numerous in that part of the world. How appropriate… 

Patriarch Bartholomew Demands the Exclusion of Schismatics from the Celebrations of the Baptism of Russia

The Baptism of Russia (Viktor Vasnetsov, 1896)

Kiev, 15 July 2008 (Interfax):

Representatives speaking for EP Patriarch Bartholomew demanded the exclusion of the “hierarchs” of the so-called “Patriarchate of Kiev” from any of the events marking the 1,020^th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia. This was reported in an article on the recent visit to Kiev of an official EP delegation posted on the official website of the Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church (MP) by Archimandrite Kirill Govorun, the chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the UAOC (MP). The members of the Istanbul delegation remarked that Patriarch Bartholomew recognises Metropolitan Vladimir of the UAOC (MP) as the sole canonical First Hierarch of the Ukraine. In addition, Fr Kirill wrote that, throughout the course of their Ukrainian visit, the EP delegation repeatedly emphasised that Patriarch Bartholomew would only participate in events in the company of Metropolitan Vladimir, and they demanded that schismatics be totally barred from taking part in them.

Fr Kirill also wrote that consultations between the MP, EP, and UAOC (MP) resulted in an agreement concerning a liturgy to be held on Vladimirskoi Hill on 27 July to be served by Patriarch Aleksei, Patriarch Bartholomew, Metropolitan Vladimir, and the representatives of the other Local Orthodox Churches. On 28 July, the feastday of Grand Prince Equal-to-the-Apostles St Vladimir, a festal liturgy shall be served at the Kievo-Pecherskago Lavra led by Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow and all Russia and assisted by Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev and all the Ukraine and the representatives of the other Local Orthodox Churches. Other main church figures known to be participants in the coming events are Archbishop Ieronym of Athens and all Greece, Archbishop Anastasy of Tirana and all Albania, and Metropolitan Chrysostom of Czechia and Slovakia.

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=25459 (in Russian)

Editor’s Note:

A complete volte-face on the part of the EP! One wonders… how did such a good result come about? My thought is that Fr Vsevolod Chaplin had a little prophylactic chat in Rome with Benedict, Black Bart’s paymaster. Since Benedict is lusting after a meeting with His Holiness Aleksei, he is not going let anyone stand in the way of such, especially not a pipsqueak hireling such as Bart with no flock. Philaret Denisenko gets the cardboard box. The Uniate Husar gets a cardboard box too. Benedict deep-sixed both of ‘em to keep good relations with the MP (that is Vatican policy, after all). Bartholomew has to eat crow supreme and SMILE. Yes, Virginia, there is a God… what a sense of humour he possesses! 

Yushchenko must not be long for this world, politically. His whole aim was to pump up Denisenko and use the EP as his weapon. Bartholomew may be a Roman hireling and mostly a heretic, but, he is also no one’s fool. If he is toeing Moscow’s line, both Rome and Moscow know something, but, they are keeping MUM.

A Few Words about the Export of Democracy

It is not only the loss of the war in Iraq and the economic fiasco that come to mind when one speaks about the American defeats over the past eight years. There is also another hard-to-admit defeat. The 43rd President of the United States of America said in his inauguration speech that he would be concentrating on the promotion of his vision of democracy. A fifty-page document came off the presses with the catchy title of National Security Strategy, confirms his words. George W. Bush was the first President of the United States to see national security as a by-product of ideology. 

Because they felt they had a messianic role to play, the Bolshevik leaders of 20th century Russia spent decades and uncountable sums of money in vain efforts to preach Communism to the rest of the world. But, the political leaders and ideologues of today’s America learned no lesson from the tragic experience of the messianic endeavours of 20th century Russia. Their aim is to replace the export of revolution with the export of democracy. Being conceited, self-centred, and narrow-minded, today’s American policy-makers believe they enjoy an exclusive right to the understanding of true and genuine democracy. President Bush and the men under his command see their efforts to promote and impose democracy as a necessary condition for the safe existence of the United States. 

The unavailability of their sort of democracy in Iraq, which allegedly threatened the United States, was the formal excuse for the military invasion of that sovereign country. But, although they have left thousands of American soldiers wounded and dead, the five years of the multi-billion dollar war in Iraq have brought chaos, instead of the promised democracy, to the banks of the old Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The economy of Iraq lies in ruins and Iraq is about to fall apart. The forcible promotion of American democracy in Afghanistan has yielded as little result. It is only in the capital city of Kabul, if there, that the situation is controlled by a pet government of the United States. Even the US media are reluctant to speak of a triumph of democracy in Afghanistan. Terrorist groups that protect the biggest of the proclaimed enemies of America, Osama bin Laden, are based on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Washington pinned its hope on the democratisation of Pakistan, but, that country has proved to be the wrong place for an attempt to transplant American-style democracy. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto in the course of her American-style electoral campaign demonstrated the futility and danger of attempts to grace that country with a foreign code of conduct and some strange stereotypes. 

The policy-makers of today’s America pay no attention to the history, mentality, and traditions of the objects of their messianic endeavours, peoples who are the offspring of ancient civilisations, of countries that inherited ancient behavioural patterns and non-American systems of values. Some hatchling nations are products of the break-up of colonial empires. They have yet to break the shell of feudalism and tribal relations of the pre-colonial period, and it is impermissible, not to mention dangerous, to rape history in a bid to saddle a nation with the rules of a strange game. Dangerous it is, even from the point of view of democracy, which gets discredited when it is forced down someone’s throat. The painful defeats of the years that have gone by since the export of democracy was proclaimed the cornerstone of the foreign policy of the Bush Administration prove beyond any doubt that the attempts to export American democracy are doomed to failure. 

A statesman must be able to make conclusions and draw lessons from his own mistakes. The leaders of today’s America seem to lack this ability and little time is left for the correction of their mistakes. Those who will enter the White House next January can fare better than the outgoing Administration. Will they, though?

30 May 2008

Valentin Zorin

A View from Moscow

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=27750&cid=170&p=30.05.2008 (in English)

Editor’s Note:

Do notice the parallel that Mr Zorin is drawing being the Bushie neocons and the Red Bolshies… that is, their motivations and methods are IDENTICAL. This is what America has sunk to. No wonder the Bushies support neo-Nazi regimes in Croatia, the Ukraine, and the Baltics, and they uphold Muslim terrorists in Albania, Bosnia and Kosovo. Our grandparents would hurl at the sight. Nazism was defeated in 1945, rightly so. Let’s not support its successors today. Otherwise, you spit in the face of every veteran of World War II and you desecrate the grave of every hero of that war (as the Estonians did recently).

Let Russia and America stand together, in amity, not in hatred. Don’t listen to bitter nationalists. They don’t care if Americans die; they only care for their fanciful dreams of an imaginary past and a delusionary future. Such haters of peace, good-will, sanity, and good-sense should be given short shrift.

Let there be peace. 

A Barrier has been Breached

This is slightly off-topic, but, not by much. Today, on foreign-exchange markets, the US dollar fell below 0.50 UK pound per US dollar (it is at 0.498 UK pound/1 USD at present). One of the main shouting points of the Bushie fanatics is that the US economy is SO much stronger than the Russian economy. The dollar is in freefall, two of the largest mortgage lenders are in the ICU, and 150 banks may fold or become merger fodder in the next two years.

This is the end result of the neocon posturing of the Bush administration and its attempts to wage a rather expensive war without raising taxes or expanding an already minimal military force. The US is now in a position where it cannot respond to another crisis because all of its military assets and finances are committed to a peripheral theatre. Were Russia to take back its traditional territories in the Ukraine, Byelorussia, and the Baltics, the US has nothing to send in response. The Galician Uniates shall find that the US is not going to commit ICBMs to their defence.

In short, we are on the cusp of great events. Bush or Putin? Whom would you have as leader? Make mine VVP, and straight-up, please… 

Vara Drezhlo

Tuesday 15 July 2008

Phrase-Mongering and Real Action

One question of the American electoral race has been answered. Two members of the US Senate, the Republican John McCain and the Democrat Barack Obama, will compete for the right to run America. Now, it is time for policy-makers and newspapers alike to wonder what sort of course of action the next President of the United States of America will pursue. One of the most influential media outlets, the Wall Street Journal, refrains from forecasting domestic policy, but, expects little change in the foreign strategies of the White House. According to the Wall Street Journal, neither of the presidential contenders called for an end to the war on terrorism or said that today’s vision of antiterrorist action failed to meet the mark of modern policy-making. Hope for updated foreign strategies is sure to give way to disappointment. Since the Wall Street Journal is a mouthpiece of powerful circles within the American business community and political élite, reading it is worth the effort. 

John McCain, who advised his country to keep fighting in Iraq, even if the fighting goes on for a hundred years, made a live confirmation to the pessimistic forecast of the Wall Street Journal. His anti-Russian statements tie in well with his call for continued warfare. Senator McCain would like to expel Russia from the G-8 Club and replace the United Nations with a League of countries obedient to Washington. His anti-Russian statements may, in good measure, judging by all indications, be a product of the superhawks’ efforts. The superhawks nest on the extreme right of the Grand Old Party. They have made a substantial contribution to the negative record of the Bush Administration and their new leader is surrounded by equally disoriented rednecks, ardent advocates of what they describe as new Americanism. 

Far be it from me to overestimate the impact of anti-Russian diatribes. Ronald Reagan, who described the Soviet Union as the “evil empire” in the course of his presidential campaign, paced Moscow’s Red Square arm-in-arm with Mikhail Gorbachev, in May 1998. The author of these lines met with him in the Oval Office of the White House days before he paid his memorable visit to Moscow. Asked how he felt about visiting the capital city of the “evil empire”, President Reagan said it was one thing to look at the world from the office of the Governor of California, and quite another, if you become President of the United States and felt the heavy burden of responsibility for the fate of your country and the rest of the world resting on your shoulders. “Things keep changing”, he said. The way things are today, now is the best time to recall that telecast interview with President Reagan. 

The Democratic contender Barack Obama has, so far, refrained from making controversial statements. He indulged, instead, in criticism of the war in Iraq. He is proud to say he was not one of those who voted for the war unleashed by the Bush-Cheney Administration in the US Senate. No, he didn’t, because he had not yet been elected to the Senate. But, when George W. Bush requested the Senate to earmark more than half a trillion dollars (11.558 trillion roubles. 313.146 billion euros. 249.297 billion UK pounds) for next year’s military spending, Senator Obama was quick to give a favourable answer to his request. This translates into a move to uphold the Republican Administration’s decision to galvanise the dangerous and wasteful arms race. Don’t deeds speak louder than words? Furthermore, although he had long refrained from doing this, Senator Obama lashed out the other day against Iran. Russia could not help noticing that the ambitious Senator from Illinois touched on the widest range of issues, but, evaded the problem of US-Russian relations. Political leaders who aim to win a presidential race can hardly fail to see the importance of relations with a key partner of their country. His reluctance to address Russian-US relations raises many questions. 

While the main characters of the electoral show are busy playing their respective roles, the string-holders have no time to lose. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, asked some of his subordinates to list the threats to the United States. He wants to put the product of his men’s effort on the desk of the next President of his country. The Pentagon’s willingness to list alleged threats to the United States requires no comment. But, presidential agendas are never reduced to Pentagon briefings. The next President of the United States will have to deal with many complicated problems at home and abroad. He will have little time left for phrase-mongering. 

14 June 2008

Valentin Zorin

A View from Moscow

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=28416&cid=170&p=14.06.2008 (in English)

Editor’s Note:

Bush has forgotten, if he ever knew in the first place, how the USA “won” the Cold War. Essentially, the USA outspent the USSR, and it placed an unsustainable burden on the Soviet economy. It was a close-run thing, and the USA was left with a tremendous public debt as a result. It needed a generation of peace to recover from this conflict.

However, the USA launched an aggressive foreign policy, certain that no one could resist them. For ten years, it ran riot, the Clinton aggression against Federal Yugoslavia being the most egregious example. The lies tied in with this were beyond belief, yet, the American media trumpeted them as truth. We are told that only some 4 aircraft were lost in the course of 37,000 sorties flown against Serbian targets. This is ridiculous. I remember reading in Nezavisimaya Gazeta (a VERY reliable source) that Marshal Ivanov, the Defence Minister, gave a briefing stating that NATO lost 127 fixed-wing aircraft and 17 helicopters. The sortie/loss ratio would have been 0.4 percent, that is, an aircraft going on a mission would have a 99.6 percent chance of returning to base. Not bad. However, the American administration lied. How could it do this? It has to do with the type of troops used in this campaign.

There is a political reason for relying on long-service contract military personnel rather than conscripts. Conscripts serve for a relatively-limited time, then, they go home. Besides, they do not have a “vested interest” in military service, so, they feel free to speak out. Since the American forces were composed entirely of contract personnel, pressure could be exerted on them to be silent. If one spoke out, one would lose not only one’s livelihood, but, one’s reputation as well. I do not blame those who are silent in the face of such KGB tactics. They are doing what they must.

This has resonance in our Orthodox Church situation in the US as well. If we live in a country where falsehood and deception are well-established, it should not surprise us if the church catches some of it as well. If you combine a willingness to lie together with the use of therapeutic pyschobabble catchphrases as balms for the conscience, I am actually surprised that the situation is not worse. However, that being said, the next two years shall see whether we shall remain Orthodox in fact or become nothing but loopy Anglican/Evangelical wannabes with the slightest patina of ritualism and incense.

May God keep us. All at once, the situation in the world at large, our country, and our church is coming apart at the seams and it seems like Vesuvius time. Why must we live in “interesting times?” Do step lively or the lava flow SHALL get you.

15 July 2008. Out and About…

St Petersburg boffins make genetics breakthrough

Scientists at the St Petersburg branch of the Vavilov Institute of General Genetics developed a highly effective test-method to discover genetically active factors of environment, mutagens, and carcinogens. The test system uses specially selected cells of yeast, which respond precisely to mutagens that could be in food and provoke regeneration of cells. It is developed as a part of a Genetic Toxicology programme of the RAN. It helps to determine quickly whether a food sample contains agents or not. Scientists believe that the new system shall help to prevent the appearance of unhealthy food on the market. 

9 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29476&cid=61&p=09.07.2008 (in English)

Memorial Train arrives in Kursk

The Memorial Train shall arrive in Kursk, a city of military glory, on Sunday. Its passengers shall be veterans of the Great Patriotic War and the Battle of Kursk, former partisans and underground activists, honoured railway workers of the Soviet Union, and young activists. The event is devoted to the 65th anniversary of the defeat of German Fascist forces in the Battle of Kursk fought from 5 July to 23 August 1943. When the train arrives in the station, a meeting will be held with the involvement of local government leaders and residents of the region. An excursion will be organised for the veterans, and they will visit places of military glory and the memorial to the “Command Staff of the Central Front” in Svoboda in the Zolotukhin raion.

13 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29615&cid=48&p=13.07.2008 (in English)

Tsar Aleksandr II and President Abraham Lincoln exhibit in the US

the famous composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov [1844-1908] as a naval officer in the 1860s, he sailed with the Russian squadron that visited the US in 1863

An exhibition devoted to Tsar Aleksandr II and American President Abraham Lincoln opened in the state of Wisconsin. It was organized by the American-Russian Cultural Foundation and is devoted to the 200th anniversary of the birth of President Lincoln. The display presents unique parallels in the life of the two historical figures who shared a tragic fate. Both were killed by conspirators and terrorists. Russian-American relations occupy a large part of the exhibition. Photos show the visit to New York and San Francisco of Russian naval squadrons in 1863 (the future composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was a young naval cadet on the frigate Almaz in this squadron: editor’s note) and how the Russian sailors were welcomed warmly by the Americans. The exhibition confirms the important role played by the Russian fleet in averting a foreign invasion of the US during the Civil War.

13 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29622&cid=48&p=13.07.2008 (in English)

The SP-35 Arctic drift-ice research station to be evacuated

Icebreaker Mikhail Somov

The scientific research ship/icebreaker Mikhail Somov is expected to start evacuating the SP-35 drift-ice research station on Sunday. According to the press service of the Arctic and Antarctic Scientific Research Institute, the nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika will take part in the operation. The research station was set up on a drifting ice-floe north-west of the Northern Land archipelago. The expedition of the drifting station was launched by the institute as a part of International Polar Year 2007-2008.

13 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29614&cid=175&p=13.07.2008 (in English)

Russia’s 12-year development plan includes sharp boost to public heath care

Russia’s 12-year development plan includes a sharp boost to public heath care. The expenditure on it should go up several times. Overall, close to 3 percent of the GDP will be annually spent on free health care provision. President Medvedev said this at a conference of health officials in Klin northwest of Moscow. As First Deputy Prime Minister under President Putin, he was in charge of priority national programmes, including heath.

14 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29669&cid=46&p=14.07.2008 (in English)

Russian Islamic Scholarship Foundation spent 14 million dollars on various programmes

Mosque in Tatarstan

In its first year of operation, the Russian Islamic Scholarship Foundation has spent 14 million dollars (324.058 million roubles. 8.777 million euros. 7.001 million UK pounds) on programmes to coach Mullahs, publish Islamic literature, and support family members of Islamic clergy killed by terrorists in the Russian Caucasus. The donations come from Muslim-owned businesses from all over the world. Not a single penny goes to supporters of terrorism.

14 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29667&cid=48&p=14.07.2008 (in English)

Russian holiday camps to provide summer accommodation to children from China

Russian holiday camps are going to provide summer accommodation to 900 children from the earthquake zone in Sichuan province of south-western China. Education Minister Andrei Fursenko says this is part of Russia’s response to similar help from China to the children from Beslan. He emphasised the importance of international cooperation in disaster management. 

14 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29665&cid=48&p=14.07.2008 (in English)

Rescue operation at the SP-35 Arctic drift-ice research station underway

Russian authorities successfully carried out a rescue operation at the SP-35 drift-ice research station. An icebreaker arrived to save the researchers, as they were under a growing threat as their ice-floe is melting. The rescue operation was started this week when the icebreaker Mikhail Somov sailed from Arkhangelsk towards the Spitsbergen archipelago. 

14 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29639&cid=175&p=14.07.2008 (in English)