Some 400 Injured in Russian Meteor Shower

______________________________

The MVD reported that more than 150 people sought medical help in one of three Russian oblasts hit by a meteorite shower on Friday. It said that dozens of people suffered cuts from broken glass as the meteorites smashed windows in numerous buildings across the Chelyabinsk Oblast, but “no-one suffered serious injuries”. On Friday, Russian government officials confirmed that the meteorite shower hit three oblasts of Russia and Kazakhstan. The police are searching for the fallen meteorite pieces and protecting affected buildings from looting. Reports are inconclusive about whether one large meteorite or several smaller ones caused the incident. Residents of three villages in Sverdlovsk Oblast reported witnessing the shower, but nobody there was injured.

******

The hail of meteor pieces that hit Russia on Friday fell in an area with a cluster of major nuclear facilities, including the largest Russian nuclear fuel-processing plant, but officials said early on that none suffered any damage and that they detected no radioactive contamination. In a statement released within hours of the strike, which damaged factories, schools, and residential buildings, Rosatom, the state nuclear agency, said, “All of Rosatom’s facilities in the Urals region are working normally. They’ve suffered no consequences from the meteorite shower”. The most well-known facility in the area, located in hard-hit Chelyabinsk Oblast, is the Mayak nuclear-fuel processing plant, where a major accident in 1957 caused some of the worst nuclear contamination in the USSR’s history, second, perhaps, only to the infamous Chernobyl reactor accident. Local officials said that they had noticed no contamination there.

******

The MVD reported that the number of people who sought medical help across three Russian oblasts hit by a meteorite shower on Friday climbed to over 400. Officials said that hundreds suffered cuts from broken glass as the meteorites smashed windows in numerous buildings across Chelyabinsk Oblast. An MVD spokesman said, “The condition of at least three [people] is considered serious”. The shower hit at least six cities in three centrally-located Russian oblasts. On Friday, Russian government officials confirmed that the shower also affected some areas of neighbouring Kazakhstan.

******

On Friday morning, Russian officials said that falling meteorite particles and the shock waves and sonic booms caused by them damaged buildings across Chelyabinsk Oblast. The MVD reported that a roof and wall partly collapsed at a zinc factory in Chelyabinsk Oblast after a shock wave from a meteorite struck it. The officials didn’t specify which factory it was. In an online statement, the oblast authorities said that the factory continued working normally despite the damage. South Ural State University cancelled classes for at least two days due to damage to its buildings. A university spokesman told RIA-Novosti, “The roof didn’t collapse, but the damage is quite significant. The windows are broken; some of them were blown in with their frames”. She also added that some ceiling tiles also fell down. EMERCOM reported that windows were also broken at least a dozen schools and three hospitals. The roof of a Chelyabinsk ice rink also suffered damage.

Chelyabinsk municipal authorities reported that at least 454 residential buildings had their gas supply cut off in central Chelyabinsk as of 16.30 local time Friday afternoon after protective safety systems were activated, but they reported no damage to gas pipelines. Energy supplier Inter RAO reported that the Yuzhnouralskaya district power station had 10 percent of its windows broken, but there was no effect on its operations. Rosatom, the state nuclear agency, said that its facilities across the affected regions were functioning normally. The Defence Ministry also said that none of its property was damaged. In Chelyabinsk Oblast alone, hundreds of people were injured, mainly due to cuts from flying glass. People in at least three Russian oblasts (Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, and Tyumen), as well as those in the northern area of neighbouring Kazakhstan, witnessed the meteorite shower early on Friday morning.

******

Chelyabinsk Oblast Governor Mikhail Yurevich said in a statement posted on his website that a meteorite that injured scores of people in central Russia when it fell to earth early on Friday plunged into a lake in the Chelyabinsk Oblast, noting, “The meteorite that passed over Chelyabinsk Oblast fell into a body of water 1 kilometre (2/3 mile) from the city of Chebarkul”. Almost 500 people were injured when fragments from what EMERCOM said was a single meteorite fell across central Russia. Most people were hurt by shattering glass. Five people are in hospital, an MVD spokesman described the condition of three of them as “serious”. Roscosmos confirmed that the object was a meteorite and said that it was moving at “around 30 kilometres per second (108,000 kph/18.6 miles per second/67,100 mph) at a low trajectory”.

*******

The European Space Agency (ESA) said that the meteorite that hit the Urals on Friday morning was not debris from the 2012 DA₁₄ asteroid, which is due to pass close by the Earth later the same day. ESA said on its official Twitter that its experts confirmed that there’s no link between the meteorite and the asteroid, but provided no details of its analysis. The 2012 DA₁₄, which is roughly 50 metres (165 feet) in diameter, will pass 27,000 kilometres (16,800 miles) from Earth… closer than satellites in geosynchronous orbit, which is 36,000 kilometres (22,400 miles). The 2012 DA₁₄ flyby will take place at 19.24 UTC (11.24 PST 14.24 EST 23.24 MSK 06.24 16 February AEST), about 16 hours after the meteorite incident in Chelyabinsk Oblast which left at least 400 injured, mostly from glass broken by the shock wave as the meteorite flew past. Numerous media reports linked the asteroid to the meteor. Tatiana Bordovitsina, an astronomy professor at Tomsk State University in western Siberia, told RIA-Novosti two hours before the ESA statement that the meteorite could’ve been debris preceding the asteroid, but she said that we needed a more thorough examination of the incident. NASA confirmed that 2012 DA₁₄ isn’t on a collision course with the planet, but said that if the asteroid hit the Earth, the resulting explosion would be 1,000 times more powerful than the nuclear bomb that obliterated Hiroshima in 1945.

******

On Friday, health officials confirmed that a hail of meteorite fragments injured hundreds of people in central Russia. Various officials said that as of mid-day MSK, as many as 725 people, including up to 159 children, sought medical assistance in hard-hit Chelyabinsk Oblast because of the strikes. Figures on hospitalisation in the oblast varied significantly, from 34 to 112, with several reported to be in “serious” condition. Most people were hurt by shattering glass. President Vladimir Putin ordered EMERCOM officials to provide “immediate” assistance to the people affected by the meteorite. Gas supplies were cut off to hundreds of homes in Chelyabinsk as a safety precaution, and some 3,000 buildings were reported to have been damaged. The government mobilised an estimated 20,000 emergency response workers. Reportedly, background radiation levels remain unchanged. Both EMERCOM and Rosatom confirmed this, as the area has a fair number of nuclear facilities.

Reports about whether this was one large meteorite or many smaller ones initially varied, but Roscosmos confirmed by early afternoon that the object was a single meteorite, a report given earlier by EMERCOM. Yelena Smirnykh, deputy head of the EMERCOM press office, said, “Verified information indicates that this was one meteorite, which burned up as it approached Earth and disintegrated into smaller pieces”. Roscosmos stated that the meteorite fragments were moving at a speed of 30 kilometres per second.

A teacher in Chelyabinsk Oblast told RIA-Novosti, “All the city’s residents saw blinding flashes, very bright ones. Suddenly, it was very, very horribly bright. Not like the lights got turned on, but as if everything was illuminated with unusual white light”. Officials are trying to determine where the fragments landed. The governor of Chelyabinsk Oblast said that one had fallen in a lake in his oblast, whilst others were reported in Tyumen, Kurgan, and Sverdlovsk Oblasts as well. Police said an eight-metre-wide (26-feet-wide) crater was discovered near the Chelyabinsk lake. They reported that the radiation levels around the crater were normal.

Emergency officials in west Kazakhstan said that they were searching for two unidentified objects that fell in Aktobe Oblast. The European Space Agency (ESA) said that there was no link between the meteorite and the DA₁₄ asteroid, which is due to pass close by the Earth later on Friday. NASA also said that there was no connection because the asteroid and the “Russian meteorite” are on “very different paths”. Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, speaking at an economic forum in Krasnoyarsk Krai in Siberia, called the meteorite “a symbol of the forum”, saying, “I hope that there’ll be no serious consequences, but it’s a demonstration that it isn’t only the economy that’s vulnerable, but our planet as well”.

******

On Friday, nationalist lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky, long known for his flamboyance and outrageous remarks, said that meteorite fragments hadn’t rained down on Russia in the morning, but that the light flashes and tremors in several oblasts resulted from American weapons tests. Zhirinovsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, told journalists several hours after EMERCOM began issuing statements on the incident, which injured hundreds and damaged scores of buildings, “Those aren’t meteors falling, it’s the Americans testing new weapons”. He also said that US Secretary of State John Kerry wanted to warn Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about the “provocation” on Monday, but couldn’t reach him… a reference to US State Department comments earlier this week that Kerry had spent several days trying to speak to Lavrov by phone to discuss North Korea and Syria. Zhirinovsky went on to say, “Outer space has its own laws. Nothing will ever fall out there. If [something] falls, it’s people doing that. People who’re instigators of wars, provocateurs”.

NB:

Click here and here for a video; click here for a photo gallery

15 February 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/science/20130215/179481989/Meteors-Injure-Over-150-in-Chelyabinsk-Region.html

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20130215/179483089/Russian-Nuclear-Sites-Unharmed-by-Meteors–Atomic-Agency.html

http://en.rian.ru/science/20130215/179483483/Some-400-Injured-in-Russian-Meteor-Shower.html

http://en.rian.ru/science/20130215/179484907/Russian-Meteor-Leaves-Trail-of-Damage-Across-Region.html

http://en.rian.ru/science/20130215/179484346/Russia-Meteorite-Fell-in-Lake–Regional-Governor.html

http://en.rian.ru/world/20130215/179485761/Russian-Meteorite-Not-Asteroid-Debris–Space-Agency.html

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20130215/179481049/Meteorite-Shower-Hits-Russia-Kazakhstan.html

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20130215/179489080/Russian-Politician-Denies-Meteorite-Claims-US-Weapons-Tests.html

Outspoken Zhirinovsky Hit with “Cabbage Salad Bomb”

______________________________

On Monday, in the Ukraine, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the outspoken leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, was plastered with cabbage salad during a press conference in Kiev. RIA-Novosti reported that a woman in the hall stood up and tossed marinated cabbage salad at Zhirinovsky, calling him a “Ukrainophobe”. Zhirinovsky, obviously caught off guard by the flying cabbage, demanded to know where his security was and that he wanted them to “remove that schizophrenic woman”. The journalists at the press conference translated from Ukrainian into Russian what the woman yelled to Zhirinovsky, but he didn’t entirely understand the neologism “Ukrainophobe”. When people told him that the term meant that he “doesn’t love the Ukraine”, Zhirinovsky didn’t agree, saying, “There isn’t a milligram of anti-Ukrainian feelings in Russia“. Zhirinovsky said that he’s always called for and still calls for “friendly neighbourly relations between the two countries”. After security removed the cabbage-wielding woman from the hall, the press conference continued.

28 January 2013

Moscow News

http://themoscownews.com/international/20130128/191180252/Outspoken-Zhirinovsky-hit-with-cabbage-salad-bomb.html

 

Exit Polls Say Putin to Win Kremlin Vote in First Round… Russians Say “Nyet” to American-Style Rightwing Neoliberalism

_____________________________

On Sunday, exit polls indicated that Vladimir Putin gained 58.3 percent of the vote in the Russian presidential election, enough to hand him outright victory. His nearest rival, KPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov, took 17.7 percent, state pollster VTsIOM said. No other candidate gained more than 10 percent. If the results of polling confirm the exit polls, Putin, 59, would be inaugurated as new president in May and serve for six years, not four, as previously. The elections took place under the backdrop of mass demonstrations triggered by allegations of vote fraud by Putin’s United Russia Party in December’s parliamentary polls.

4 March 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20120304/171708401.html

Editor’s Note:

America’s darling, Prokhorov, got only about 5 percent of the vote. That’s why you should NEVER listen to pretentious loudmouths like Anya Schmmemann, Victoria Nuland, Sophia Kishkovsky, and Katrina vanden Heuvel… they’re lazy dogs-body layabouts who only give you the opinions of the English-speaking “middle-class” (properly footnoted, of course)… you’d NEVER see them in Bibibrevo or Lyubertsy! EEK! Those smelly and semi-literate WORKING CLASS PEOPLE live there! What’s worse (in their eyes), they have their own opinions, they won’t listen to their betters.

Russia voted LEFT… no doubt about it. Russia rejected the McMansion option. I think that America’s getting ready to do the same… expect a landslide FOR President Obama in the fall. NO… he’s not perfect… but he doesn’t go about calling his opponents “sluts” and he doesn’t lie about his opponents’ birth certificates. Expect Presidents Putin and Obama to get on famously… why shouldn’t they?

BMD

3 March 2012. Reflections on the Upcoming Election: Putin Goes “All-Out”… Zyuganov “Turns Pink”

******

“Power and Property to the People! On 4 March, vote for Zyuganov!”

______________________________

Experts said that the presidential election campaign due to finish on 2 March has become one of the most vigorous and interesting of the last decade. In their opinion, Putin made an all-out effort, whilst his opponents put up a real fight, supplementing their usual arsenals with tougher rhetoric and high quality video commercials. They utilised not only PR experts but also psychologists in their campaigns. The Russian presidential election will take place on 4 March. The following candidates are vying for the presidential chair, for a six-year term:

• current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
• KPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov
• Head of the LDPR Vladimir Zhirinovsky
• Head of A Just Russia (SR) Sergei Mironov
• Independent candidate Mikhail Prokhorov

Political scientist Vladimir Slatinov said, “This campaign has obviously been much more interesting than previous ones. In 2004, nobody opposed Putin. Let’s be honest about it… he didn’t have a serious contender. Unlike previous years, this time, we’ve actually seen a real campaign”. He emphasised that, this time around, Putin’s opponents really fought a hard campaign.

Putin’s Three Pillars

Political analysts praised Putin’s election campaign, noting a substantial change in his style of conduct compared to 2004. Political scientist Nikolai Zlobin said, “[Putin’s] making an all-out effort in the election campaign for the first time, working in a Western style, working really hard. He’s developed a certain Western style, and we should give him credit for this. I didn’t expect him to work so flat-out. [Putin] changed the style of his election campaign and started conducting it personally, not delegating to anyone”. Western experts agree that, during this campaign, Putin’s come across as quite a different leader than he usually does in his meetings with officials and opted for an informal style of communicating with his audience, as they do in Europe and the United States. They noted that the days of sullen Russians monotonously reading out texts written in advance are long gone.

Yevgeni Minchenko, Director of the International Institute for Political Analysis, said that Putin’s weekly articles on his programme helped him stay in the public spotlight, saying, “Putin’s articles came out at the beginning of every week, helping him command the agenda”. Slatinov noted that the prime minister’s campaign relied on three pillars, noting, “The first pillar is spoon-feeding the paternalistic strata and making them ever more lavish promises. The second is the rhetoric of intimidating people with the chaos and instability of the 1990s, and the third is his, I believe, quite skilful use of a lack of a viable alternative. There’s no doubt, this campaign was a success… he’s pulled off playing the role of the father of the nation who listens to everyone and makes promises to one and all”. He emphasised that the campaign was “designed to show that there are sparring partners engaged in noisy debates and, then, there’s the father of the nation who cares about everyone, hears everyone, and is ready to do even more”.

Political commentators believe Putin made a good choice in his election agents, many of whom are authorities in their fields. Although this provoked extensive negative coverage in social networks and blogs, Putin managed to score points with it, thereby resolving one of the main problems that emerged during the protests in the wake of the December elections. Minchenko commented, “There’s a stereotype that all celebrities are opposed to the government. When the public saw Putin’s election agents and videos coming out in support of him, it turned out many people working in culture and the arts were actually on his side”.

Experts believed that the debates were the weak point of his campaign. They noted that the election agents who acted on Putin’s behalf during verbal duels couldn’t compare with the “usual crowd” and looked quite unconvincing. At the same time, they thought that Putin never intended the debates to play a serious role in his campaign. Slatinov noted that people who represented Putin at the debates found it hard to compete with seasoned politicians. He observed, “Take Narochnitskaya [political scientist Natalia Narochnitskaya], she’s a smart person, but it was obviously a mistake on her part to oppose Zhirinovsky because politically they’re light years apart”. Zlobin believed that Putin needed a “strong intellectual sparring partner” to point out the most acute and pressing issues for him.

The Outrageous Zhirinovsky

Expert opinions on Zhirinovsky’s campaign varied. Slatinov called it one of the most boisterous. He noted that Zhirinovsky acted in his usual scandalous manner and stuck to his tough rhetoric in criticising the current government. However, Minchenko didn’t see anything new in this. He said, “There’s no point in performing the same trick twice. Zhirinovsky was his usual self… aggressive and, at times, downright rude. I think he turned out to be Putin’s main opponent in this campaign. At least, he lashed out at the current government as nobody else did. He made the most accusations, and these accusations were the most harsh and biting”. He noted that Zhirinovsky “described the mechanism of fraud in minute detail and raised the issue of the role of administrating the elections”. His campaign videos, including the one with the donkey, which provoked widespread discussion, “were in the same scandalous vein. Although his age is showing, his campaign was very bright. Of course, he made the most of his talents as a speaker and his customary image”. He suggested that this might be Zhirinovsky’s last presidential campaign and that his main purpose was to show that “over the next five years his party will be a serious political force to be reckoned with”.

According to Minchenko, Zhirinovsky conducted the campaign in his traditional style and didn’t make any new moves, saying, “Zhirinovsky reminds me of old Russian movies like The Straw Hat, The Carnival Night, or The Irony of Fate… it seems we know everything by heart and won’t see anything new, but we’ve gotten used to watching them… just like we feel we have to watch The Irony of Fate again every New Year’s Eve, we think that we have to take another look at Zhirinovsky during the election campaign”. Minchenko said that his slogans, “Vote for Zhirinovsky, and life will be better”, or, “Vote for Zhirinovsky, or life will be worse”, are similar to those that accompanied Boris Yeltsin’s campaign in 1996… “Vote or lose” and “Vote and win”.

Zyuganov Turns Pink… Mironov Shows Restraint

Slatinov said, “Zyuganov conducted an impressive campaign. I liked his promotional videos… they were excellent and convincing. They showed Zyuganov as a respectable statesman”. He observed that the Communist leader changed his rhetoric during this election campaign, “It was more moderate, not so hard-line left-wing. Zyuganov turned ‘pink’. After all, the KPRF’s increasingly moving toward the centre. Zyuganov understands that the only way that he can get additional votes isn’t from his core constituency, but from other sections of society that are dissatisfied with the government. These are people who are less communist in their views and more middle-of-the-road”. At the same time, there was some inertia in Zyuganov’s campaign because he’s been in politics for too long and “couldn’t avoid making some repetitions”. Minchenko thought that Zyuganov was very traditional during the debates and that his duels with opponents were some of the dullest.

Experts called Mironov’s campaign weak. They said it was even less convincing than his party’s campaign during the elections for the Gosduma. They believed that Mironov failed in his bid to become a serious centre-left opponent to the current government. Slatinov noted, “It’s clear that something was holding Mironov back. Although he seemed to criticise the government, there was something that prevented him from going all-out”. Minchenko believed that Mironov was relying primarily on his low disapproval ratings and the hope that undecided voters would support the least-repulsive candidate. He summed it up by saying, “Mironov’s campaign was very conservative”.

Prokhorov… A Fresh Face

Experts were generally positive about Prokhorov’s campaign although they had earlier criticised it for its weak start… he didn’t have a meaningful agenda and was not open enough with his potential constituents. Experts said that Prokhorov, who came to politics less than a year ago and had some negative experience in party-building with the Right Cause Party (PD), still had one indisputable advantage… he presented a fresh face. Slatinov said, “He’s the only new man out of the five, and this gives him an advantage… not just among the middle-class, but amongst all those who’re tired of the same old players”. He suggested that the primary aim of Prokhorov’s sharp criticism of opposition leaders in the Gosduma, whom Prokhorov repeatedly called “Duma seniors” and accused of having ties with the Kremlin, was to emphasise that he’s a new man, and to win the votes of a tired electorate.

Minchenko agreed with assessment, saying, “Debates with Prokhorov had the highest ratings because all the others are so familiar. He’s a new man and people watched him with interest”. Slatinov pointed up that the billionaire proclaimed himself as “the chief anti-Putin” opponent, but “didn’t dare criticise the current government too much. Prokhorov was obviously trying to curry favour with voters from the angry middle-class. I think he looked quite convincing to the middle-class. However, he was more eager to present himself and his programme than to oppose the government”. In Minchenko’s opinion, Prokhorov’s campaign commercials were weak and his campaign lacked a creative approach. At the same time, he noted Prokhorov’s progress since the start of his political activities, noting, “Prokhorov made progress. It’s obvious that his psychologists and specialists have done a good job”.

2 March 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20120302/171695773.html

26 February 2012. Three Brief Biographies of Russian Presidential Candidates

******

******

______________________________

22-24 February 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20120222/171455294.html

http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20120223/171455527.html

http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20120224/171455679.html

Kremlin Mobilises “Working Stiffs”

______________________________

On Thursday, Rossiiskaya Gazeta said that supporters of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the Ural region created a political movement called In Defence of the Working Man, reviving old Soviet rhetoric. Local news web site Ura.ru reported that the group, which has Kremlin endorsement, planned to give political representation to the country’s 27 million workers. Ura.ru said that it aims to help Putin in his campaign for the presidential elections on 4 March, mobilising workers in the Urals and other industrial regions.

Igor Kholmanskikh, a worker in a tank factory in the city of Nizhny Tagil, is a co-founder and the informal leader of the movement. In mid-December, Kholmanskikh made headlines when he said to Putin that he’d go to Moscow with his friends and personally disperse anti-government protests, which saw tens of thousands rally in the capital against alleged rigging of the parliamentary elections. In Defence of the Working Man may also convert into a political party following the elections, or, possibly take the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia away from its leader, the flamboyant populist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the report said, adding that 65-year-old Zhirinovsky is reportedly ready to part with his political vehicle for 50 million dollars (1.512 billion Roubles. 38 million Euros. 31.6 million UK Pounds). Earlier media reports indicated that Putin’s campaign staff’s planning to counter the growing opposition protests by mobilising their own supporters. An unidentified official confirmed the strategy to Ura.ru, saying, “There’s a huge risk of a public standoff on the country’s [public] squares” after the elections.

2 February 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/society/20120202/171098776.html