Author Archive
Posted on December 20, 2010 - by Venik
US embassy cables: More troubles at Bulgarian nuclear power plant
Tuesday, 07 July 2009, 08:56S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 SOFIA 000363 SENSITIVE SIPDIS FOR SPECIAL ENVOY FOR EURASIAN ENERGY RICHARD MORNINGSTAR FOR USEU ENERGY OFFICER RICHARD FROST FOR EUR/CE JENNIFER HOOVER EO 12958 DECL: 07/01/2034 TAGS ENRG, IAEA, PREL, PGOV, BU SUBJECT: BULGARIA: BELENE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT: MORE TROUBLESREF: A. [...]
Posted on December 20, 2010 - by Venik
US embassy cables: Trouble at Bulgarian nuclear power plant
Tuesday, 17 February 2009, 14:14C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SOFIA 000069 SIPDIS PASS TO EUR/CE TOM YEAGER EO 12958 DECL: 02/17/2019 TAGS ENRG, PGOV, PREL, BU SUBJECT: BULGARIA’S BELENE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT – BUYERS REMORSE ON ALL SIDES EXCEPT RUSSIA’SREF: 08 SOFIA 0815Classified By: [...]
Posted on December 20, 2010 - by Venik
Conspiracy Theory
I am at work, filling my office with clouds of cigar smoke and reading Jim Goad’s “Julian Assange’s Honey Trap: That’s Rape in Sweden“, perhaps the most entertaining account to date of Assange’s Stockholm adventure. And a seemingly redundant question popped into my head: why exactly did Assange go to Sweden? I know, he went [...]
Posted on December 20, 2010 - by Venik
The EU blew its chance to bring Belarus in from the cold | Simon Tisdall
The post-election brutality and President Lukashenko’s renewed Russia pact show Europe’s last dictator has reverted to type Alexander Lukashenko and his black-shirted riot police reverted to type at the weekend, cracking heads and arresting opponents while fabricating a landslide election victory. This violent regression victimised the people of Belarus. But it was also a striking [...]
Posted on December 20, 2010 - by Venik
Belarus election: opposition leaders beaten as Lukashenko declares victory
Alexander Lukashenko’s hardline regime detains hundreds after election protests as international monitors condemn Belarus poll A Belarusian presidential candidate was dragged from his hospital bed and arrested today, just hours after police beat him and other protesters who rallied against an allegedly rigged election victory for the hardline leader, Alexander Lukashenko. Men thought to be [...]
Posted on December 20, 2010 - by Venik
Belarus president’s rival Vladimir Neklyayev dragged from hospital bed
Alexander Lukashenko’s hardline regime detains hundreds after election protests as international monitors condemn Belarus poll A presidential candidate in Belarus was arrested and dragged from his hospital bed early today, just hours after police beat him and other protesters who rallied against an allegedly rigged election victory for the hardline leader, Alexander Lukashenko. Men thought [...]
Posted on December 19, 2010 - by Venik
WikiLeaks cables: How US ‘second line of defence’ tackles nuclear threat
Diplomatic dispatches reveal world of smugglers, ex-military fixers and radioactive materials found in unlikely locations The leaked US cables reveal the constant, largely unseen, work by American diplomatic missions around the world to try to keep the atomic genie in its bottle and forestall the nightmare of a terrorist nuclear attack. The leaked cables tell [...]
Posted on December 19, 2010 - by Venik
US-Russian nuclear treaty on verge of collapse
Treaty may fall short of the two-thirds of support required from the 100-member Senate The fate of the US-Russian treaty on reducing nuclear arsenals is in the balance after the Republican leader in the US Senate, Mitch McConnell, vowed today to vote against it. The treaty needs to be ratified by two-thirds of the 100-member [...]
Posted on December 19, 2010 - by Venik
Belarus election: The last dictator in Europe | Andrej Dynko
Heading for a fourth term as president, Lukashenko demands one thing in return for economic freedom: don’t touch my authority Belarus’s presidential elections are being held today – and never have there been so many candidates. But the number of candidates is no guarantee of any substantial political change. The country itself has changed a [...]
Posted on December 18, 2010 - by Venik
Moscow riots expose racism at the heart of Russian football
Links between neo-Nazis and fans are growing as the country gears up for the 2018 World Cup Behind a black door just steps from the golden domes of Novodevichy monastery, a group of young men and women sit huddled at computers. They are surrounded by racks of the red and white jumpers and scarves that [...]
Posted on December 18, 2010 - by Venik
Why western authors are in love with Mother Russia
Novelists from Le Carré to Amis have an obsession with Russia. Small wonder: it’s fertile territory for fiction A man walks into a room. Let’s say he’s 50-ish, greying, slightly dishevelled. What is his story? If he’s a Russian, one of his grandparents might have died in the siege of Leningrad and another in the [...]
Posted on December 18, 2010 - by Venik
Vladimir Putin: the pantomime hero – and the villain too | Dorian Lynskey
The karaoke singer, saviour of tigers and firefighter supreme would be hard not to like, if he didn’t control a corrupt superstate You might think The X Factor had cornered the market in strange and embarrassing performances by musically challenged exhibitionists but in that area, as in so many others, Vladimir Putin is not to [...]
Posted on December 17, 2010 - by Venik
WikiLeaks cables describe Belarus leader as ‘bizarre’ and ‘disturbed’
Leaked cables report Alexander Lukashenko, who is set to win Sunday’s election, intends to ‘stay in power indefinitely’ Alexander Lukashenko, the autocratic ruler of Belarus who is poised for re-election for a fourth term this weekend, is an increasingly “bizarre” and “disturbed” ruler who plans to stay in power indefinitely, according to US diplomats in [...]
Posted on December 17, 2010 - by Venik
US embassy cables: Poles complain as Jagland elected head of Council of Europe
Friday, 02 October 2009, 13:44C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 STRASBOURG 000023 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT ALSO FOR EUR/ERA AND EUR/WE EO 12958 DECL: 10/2/2019 TAGS PREL, PHUM, SENV, COE, FR, GG, NO, RS SUBJECT: COE: NEW SECRETARY GENERAL; RUSSIA, GEORGIA, CLIMATE CHANGEREF: STRASBOURG 21 AND PREVIOUSSTRASBOURG [...]
