These four photos say it all. On Sunday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was with a group of scientists in the Dalny Vostok (Russian Far East) and a Siberian tiger pounced on the scientists. Prime Minister Putin cooly picked up a tranquiliser gun and brought down the beast. He later helped the scientists to put a radio collar on the tiger. Vova brings down the tiger… Cheney shoots his friend on the hunt… Hmm… I know who I want at my back!
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Geneticists at the Sverdlovsk oblast bureau of forensic medical examination announced that they had extracted DNA from a sample taken from a bloodstain on a jacket once worn by Tsar St Nikolai II. They obtained the sample by moistening gauze with distilled water and applying it to the area, Nikolai Nevolin, the head of the bureau, reported to Interfax. “We were able to establish a genetic profile for Nikolai II. We did this with 13 loci (locus: linear section of chromosome: Interfax) of autosomal DNA and 15 loci from the Y-chromosome. So, we shall be able to carry out tests using 28 loci, this is much more than usual, in fact, it is more than twice the number usually used in such tests”, he explained.
Professor Nevolin said that it would be possible very shortly to compare this DNA sample with the DNA of the remains found at the first burial site in the outskirts of Yekaterinburg in 1991. “Our laboratory did not investigate the remains found at the first burial site that were reputed to be Nikolai II. Therefore, we do not have available genetic data on Skeleton no. 4, which according to the results of previous tests, was identified as being Nikolai II. Therefore, as soon as other labs can give us a genetic profile of the tsar, we shall have the ability to compare the data”, he said.
The blood on the tsar’s jacket, which is kept in storage at the Hermitage (large art museum in St Petersburg: editor’s note), was the result of an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Nikolai II in Japan whilst he was still Tsarevich. A Japanese policeman attacked him with a sword, wounding him. It is planned to compare the DNA sample taken from the bloodstain with profiles taken from the remains found at the first burial site on Staroy Koptyakovskoy Road on the outskirts of Yekaterinburg, which earlier were declared to be the remains of the last Russian tsar. This shall enable the remains to be identified with a high degree of accuracy.
2 September 2008
Interfax-Religion
http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=26314
Editor’s Note:
Watch for the Church to declare the relics buried in 1998 as genuine after these new tests. The true reason for the Church not taking such a stance in 1998 was very simple, and it was due to church politics. At that time, the ROCOR was led by a senile obscurantist, Vitaly Ustinov (He was so barmy that he was ousted three years later because his senility was harming the ROCOR… oh, that’s right… he “resigned”… believe what you will!). Vitaly and his confederates absolutely refused to accept the remains found as relics of the Royal Martyrs. The MP did not wish to queer any future reconciliation with the ROCOR (such did occur in 2007, thanks be to God!), so, the MP took a skeptical, almost agnostic, position on the remains. They were buried in the imperial crypt, but, they were not named at the pannikhida.
In my view, if the tests are at all positive, there is going to be a grand declaration of the genuineness of the remains made by the Church, probably not in Moscow, but, at Yekaterinburg or Ganina Yama. I believe that the relics shall be translated to the memorial church of the Spas-na-Krovi (Saviour on the Spilled Blood) in Yekaterinburg and put out for veneration in many cities along the route. It shall be one of the BIGGEST religious events in Russian history. One of the first to venerate the authenticated relics shall be Metropolitan Hilarion Kapral of the ROCOR, just you see!
I believe that it shall happen as I have written because it would be the logical capstone to the patriarchal reign of Aleksei Rediger. It would be a logical time for either a resignation on health grounds (he shall be 80 in 2009) or the naming of a younger coadjutor to assist him. Somehow, I don’t believe that Kirill Gundyaev’s ambitions are going to bear fruit…
BMD
The EU will maintain partnership relations with Russia based on pragmatic dialogue. In a nutshell, that is the outcome of the emergency EU summit that just ended in Brussels. The leaders of 27 European states discussed behind closed doors the EU’s future relationship with Russia in the wake of the recent tragic events in the Caucasus. Two main approaches were voiced at the meeting. The older EU members such as Germany, Italy, and France emphasised the importance of maintaining pragmatic relations and cooperation with Russia to avoid a new Cold War. This clashed with extremist demands by newer EU members demanding the “punishment” of Russia, to isolate it from the rest of Europe. This faction was headed by Poland, and they insisted that the EU introduce punitive sanctions against Russia and establish a coalition to counter Russia’s alleged “expansionism”.
This emotional outburst has no grounding in good-sense. The Poles received some backing from Britain, whose Prime Minister Gordon Brown insisted on suspending talks on a new partnership and cooperation agreement with Russia until Moscow pulls all its troops in Georgia back to their pre-7 August positions. This demand clashes with the truth. Mr Brown demands that Russian forces withdraw from Georgia. This is an odd ultimatum, since Russia’s EU ambassador Vladimir Chizhov earlier said that Russia had already pulled out its troops on schedule in keeping with the settlement plan agreed by Russian and French Presidents Dmitri Medvedev and Nicolas Sarkozy. He said that the EU was knocking on an already-open door.
When some at the EU summit spoke of the disproportionate use of force by Russia in the South Ossetian conflict zone, no one offered standards for such a statement. Very surprisingly, no one even bothered to recall why exactly Russian troops intervened in the conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia. Unfortunately, this was to due to the fact that some EU leaders were trying too hard to show their solidarity with the régime of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili… Still, the opinion of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who said that the situation in Georgia was not reason enough to launch a new Cold War, that there are too many conflicts in the world at present, and it is senseless to add another, eventually prevailed at the summit.
In Moscow, Mikhail Margelov, an influential senator in the Federation Council (the upper house of the RF parliament: editor’s note), commented on the EU’s position on the matter. “No matter how hard Mr Saakashvili tries launching all kinds of PR campaigns; Georgia will never become a bone of contention between Russia and the European Union. In this particular case, the EU bureaucrats see no pragmatic reason whatsoever for antagonising Russia…” In any case, the EU remains a negotiating partner with Russia and is always ready to discuss any mutual problems that may arise. This is confirmed by the forthcoming visit to Moscow of French President Nicolas Sarkozy on 8 September. Speaking in anticipation of his trip, President Sarkozy described his meeting with Dmitri Medvedev as “decisive” and “all-important”.
2 September 2008
Voice of Russia World Service
http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=82197&cid=19&p=02.09.2008
Editor’s Note:
This torpedoes the neocons for good and all. If they attempt to enflame such parties as Poland and the Baltic states, the older EU members shall form a new body excluding them. This is not outside the realm of possibility, and could become probable if the jingoistic rhetoric in Washington does not cease.
As for Poland, it has not gotten over 1612. In that year, Russian forces decisively whipped the Polish invaders and threw them out of Moscow. The Poles were brutes, pure and simple. They starved Patriarch St Germogen of Moscow to death. Just think of that! They did not have the decency and humanity to kill him outright, they put him to death by starvation, the slowest and most painful method possible. If there is Polish resentment of Russia, do recall that the Poles started the fight, and they were beaten in the end, mostly due to their stiff-necked and stubborn conceit. If you add such enormities as the attempted Polish imposition of the Unia at sword-point, one can see why the Russians had to resist them and throw them out. The Poles attempted to destroy our existence as a people (sounds like Hitler, does it not?). We shall never forget that. The EU should not listen to such sorts.
As for France, Russian troops are joining a French-led UN peacekeeping force in Chad. I don’t think that M Sarkozy is advocating a cordon sanitaire against Russia! As for Italy, Signore Berlusconi has made it clear that he opposes the American/British plans. Frau Merkel is a weak reed, her coalition is fragile, and the Greens could join a SPD coalition against her, they were in league with the SPD before, after all. Herr Schröder is laughing at her attempts to follow the Washington line in Georgia and the Ukraine.
Let’s end this with an interesting quote, and I’ll let you decide whether the “old EU” is America’s ally in this mess. Don’t forget, France has granted political asylum to one of Saakashvili’s main political opponents. Here is the quote from Asia Times:
“Saakashvili, the Russian argument runs, initiated military escalation over the past year because his political base has cracked and his domestic support is dwindling. The Georgian political opposition at home, and in exile abroad, agrees. They charge the president and his family, including the powerful Timur Alasaniya, Saakashvili’s uncle, of growing corruptly rich off the arms trade and of seizing the country’s resource, port, and trading concessions for themselves and their supporters. Alasaniya, brother to Saakashvili’s mother, holds the official position of Georgian representative to a United Nations Commission on Disarmament in New York (no relation to Irakly Alasaniya, Georgia’s ambassador to the United Nations).
The leaders of the Georgian opposition nearly succeeded in toppling Saakashvili last autumn. The president was forced to impose military rule in Tbilisi, while his former defence minister, Irakly Okruashvili, publicly accused him of murder and corruption. Okruashvili is currently in Paris, where he has been granted political asylum by the French government. In June, a French court rejected Saakashvili’s warrant for the arrest and extradition of his former friend and now bitterest critic. Okruashvili is uncompromised by early career links to Moscow, unlike a number of political party leaders in Tbilisi. Okruashvili is a likely candidate to replace Saakashvili, if and when Georgian public opinion turns against the president…”
The author, John Helmer, has been a Moscow-based correspondent since 1989, specialising in the coverage of Russian business.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JH12Ag02.html
BMD
The London newspaper The Daily Telegraph said that the Netherlands withdrew its intelligence agents from Iran because of fears that America will soon launch a military attack against Iranian nuclear sites. The Telegraph said that in recent years the American and Dutch special services (Russian terminology for intelligence/internal security bodies: editor’s note) established close contact, including the exchange of information. Right up to the present, American officials have not excluded the possibility of mounting offensive military operations against Iran, in particular, conducting strikes against the country’s nuclear sites. The Pentagon and State Department believe that Iran’s nuclear programme has a military component and they are determined to prevent such by using any means possible.
Although America gives verbal assurances of its preference for a peaceful solution, it actively prepares for a military strike. The US Navy is massing a carrier task force near to the Iranian coast and, needless to point up, US troops have been in neighbouring Iraq for more than 5 years now. Admiral Eduard Baltin, the former commander of the Black Sea Fleet, links the unprecedented focus that the Americans are placing on Georgia to their anti-Iranian plans. “Georgia is seen as a convenient bridgehead for launching strikes against Iran. Combat aircraft taking off from Georgian bases will be hidden from the radar units of the Iranian forces by the ridges of the Caucasus and it shall take attacking aircraft only two minutes to reach firing range for their missiles after they cross the radar horizon. With only two minutes to react, especially if it is complicated by electronic jamming, Iran’s air defence forces will have no practical chance to intercept any incoming air strike”, Admiral Baltin said.
Some experts believe that the polemics over the Iranian nuclear programme has, to a large extent, been artificially been blown out of proportion and that a military strike on Tehran is a foreordained action of the Bush administration. Many experts link such an attack to the plans of some to export American-style “democracy” to the Middle East, a pet pipe-dream of the current America administration. The core of the scheme comprises the political restructuring of the region to ensure American control of its natural resources. After the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, Iran was viewed as the remaining stumbling block on the road toward achieving this colossal plan, and, hence, régime change in Tehran and foisting an American-manipulated puppet government (as one sees in Georgia and the Ukraine: editor’s note) on Iran was and remains the uppermost goal of some in Washington. One ought not to forget the internal political considerations of the supporters of a forcible solution of the Iranian nuclear problem. A quick victorious military strike on Iran is part of the calculations some in the higher echelons of the Republican Party, in an attempt to influence the November presidential election in the USA. They believe that such a “victory” would propel the Republican candidate into the White House.
2 September 2008
Voice of Russia World Service
http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=82250&cid=21&p=02.09.2008
Editor’s Note:
Do note Admiral Baltin’s comment. It carries within it the essence of what Russia is going to do to aid Iran in the case of a probable American and/or Israeli assault. Already, Russia has destroyed an air base in Georgia that could have been used in such a strike. In addition, there is a technical work-around to the problem of the radar horizon in the Caucasus. Russian AEW aircraft could circle in Russian airspace and warn the Iranians of any suspicious activity originating in Georgian or Azeri airspace. The Americans could do nothing of it. Any attack on a Russian AEW aircraft would be a casus belli, and it would mean that Russian PVO units of the 40th Air Army would be scrambled to attack the American and Israeli aggressors.
As an aside, I should mention that President Medvedev was in Krasnodar yesterday for the celebrations of The Day of Knowledge (the traditional school-opening day in Russia). Krasnodar is where the headquarters of the 40th Air Army is located. Could he have visited it whilst he was in the area? Perspiring minds want to know!
Do not forget that such an incident would be viewed as an attack against Russia itself, and the neocons would find that the Cuban Missile Crisis was a cradle exercise in comparison to what they would unleash. It would be dicey, indeed. Bush, Rice, Cheney, and McCain are irresponsible lunatics, and should be treated accordingly. The RVSN is targeted on US cities; it is all that needs to be said.
God help us. Not only are the inmates running the asylum, they have access to “sharps”. The survival of civilisation as we know it shall be in suspense for the next 140 days. That is what the proposed strike on Iran may bring. I do not wish for thermonuclear Ragnarok, but, that is what Bush and his juvenile junta are playing with, heedless of any consequence. Thank God, there is a cool head in Russia. However, if Russia is attacked in any way in the course of any strike on Iran, all bets are off.
May cooler heads such as Mr Gates and Admiral Mullen prevail, and let nothing happen. Our survival depends on it.
BMD
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