President Poroshenko visited State Archive of Sweden where Latin version of Pylyp Orlyk’s Constitution is stored

November 17, 2016 (www.president.gov.ua) On November 14, 2016, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko paid his first official visit to the Kingdom of Sweden. The agenda included meetings with Prime Minister of Sweden Stefan Löfven, Speaker of the Riksdag Urban Ahlin and leader of the Moderate Party Anna Kinberg Batra.

In the course of the meeting with the President of Ukraine, Prime Minister of Sweden S.Löfven recalled that the EU has agreed on a firm response to Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, and its aggression in Eastern Ukraine.

In the framework of the official visit to Sweden, President Petro Poroshenko visited the State Archive of Sweden. The Head of State examined the Latin version of the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk and other documents of Ukrainian Cossacks stored in the State Archive of Sweden. The document dated after 1710, and consists of 13 pages. “This is one of the first Constitutions on the European continent and a symbol of the Cossack state and democracy. It is very important for Ukrainians,” Petro Poroshenko said. The State Archive of Sweden pays special attention to this historic document, which is securely stored in a separate vault with steady moisture, temperature and other conditions necessary for its preservation.

Enormous containment arch finally moving into place over exploded Chernobyl reactor

November 16, 2016 Over the next five days, engineers at Chernobyl, the Ukrainian site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, will be moving an enormous roof over the still irradiated remains of the plant’s No 4 reactor. Hopes are high that the new superstructure can contain radiation while Ukraine works to deal with the nuclear waste within the exploded reactor. Bellona’s executive director and nuclear physicist Nils Bøhmer, however, said the new roof will not entirely remove radiation dangers from the area. Chernobyl’s reactor No 4 exploded on April 26, 1986, and over the ensuing 10 days, its nuclear fuel continued to burn, issuing clouds of poisonous radiation and contaminating as much as three quarters of the European continent, hitting northern Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, especially hard. Sweden was the first country to report irregular radiation readings. The Chernobyl plant was the suspected culprit, but Soviet officials remained mum.

Construction of the "sarcophagus" at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine, following the explosion on April 26, 1986. UPI/INS

In the days following, 116,000 people were evacuated while some 600,000 liquidators, comprised of police, fire fighters, military and engineers, operated in chaotic and dangerous conditions, often without protective gear, to implement a containment structure of cement and steel to squelch emissions of radiation. The ad-hoc structure trapped 200 tons of uranium, but many liquidators feared at the time that the cement barrier would eventually give up. In 2005 it did.

This week, the New Safe Confinement, a €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion), 36,000 ton steel structure, will slide into place with the goal of trapping that radiation for the next 100 years – by which point it is hope engineers will contain it for good. Financed by donations of more than 40 countries coordinated by the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, the New Safe Confinement is the largest movable land-based structure on earth, and will fully enclose the remains of Chernobyl’s No 4 reactor.

A view of the New Safe Confinement structure. (Photo: Nils Bøhmer)  

The arch structure is the largest moveable land-based structure ever built, with a span of 257 meters, a length of 162 meters, and a height of 108 meters. That’s big enough to house London’s St. Paul’s cathedral or Paris’s Notre Dame. The London-based EBRD calls it “one of the most ambitious projects in the history of engineering”. The New Safe Confinement was constructed in a clean area near No 4 reactor and will over the next week slide a little more than 327 meters to seal off the unit, World Nuclear News reported. It’s hoped to make the site safe to allow for eventual dismantling of the crumbling concrete shelter, called the sarcophagus, currently covering the remains of the reactor. It will also facilitate management of the waste within the structure, the EBRD said.

The full article is available at http://bellona.org/news/nuclear-issues/2016-11-enormous-containment-arch-finally-moving-into-place-over-exploded-chernobyl-reactor

United States to continue increasing their presence in Europe

November 12, 2016 (AFP News) The United States are will continue to increase their military presence in Europe according to plan, independently from the future intentions of president-elect Donald Trump, the U.S. Department of Defense announced. The statements of president-elect Donald Trump during his campaign that as president, he would only defend allies, who have met their financial obligations to NATO, were a cause of worry in Europe. The U.S. is sending an armored brigade to Eastern Europe beginning February 2017. With it, the number of American brigades on European soil increases to three. A battalion-strength battle group to be sent to Poland will also be led by the Americans. The aim is to reinforce the alliance’s eastern flank, and Eastern Europe’s defenses for the case of a Russian attack.

 Press spokesman for the Pentagon, Peter Cook, said that the U.S. was putting the plan into practice as agreed with its European NATO allies. About the upcoming change of the presidency, Cook said that the military would leave policy to the next government. “We have one commander-in-chief at a time,” Cook said. The new brigade will start its operations with training exercises in Poland. After this, companies will be sent to Bulgaria, Romania, and to the Baltic states. Trump, who during his campaign praised Putin on a few occasions and criticized President Barack Obama’s policy in matters concerning Moscow, has said that he wants to improve relations with Russia. NATO decided at its Warsaw Summit last summer to send battalions to Poland and the Baltic states. The battalion to be sent to Estonia will be led by the British, the unit to be sent to Latvia led by the Canadians, the Lithuanian battalion by Germany, and the one to be sent to Poland by the United States.

The full article is available at:

http://news.err.ee/v/news/8f6eab6a-a3b0-4b4f-9293-a87b3295090f/united-states-to-continue-increasing-their-presence-in-europe

What scientists have discovered in the Chernobyl forest, shocked the whole world!

November 8, 2016 (The Telegraph) On April 26, 1986 was a tragic day in the history of the Soviet Union and the world at large. On this day the accident occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. About 116,000 people were evacuated from a 1,600 square mile exclusion zone around Chernobyl, on the border of Ukraine and Belarus. A huge area around the station became the exclusion zone. Recently, scientists have launched a project that aims to learn more about the fauna of this abandoned place. It turns out that the presence of people affects wildlife much more than radiation, because in the Chernobyl area found fauna, which were not observed more than a century.

The research results have drawn a wide response among biologists. The study revealed that in the Chernobyl forests significantly increased the number of wild boars, wolves, roe deer and foxes. In addition, scientists found the rare animals, which for many years did not appear in these places: European lynx and brown bear. Professor at the University of Portsmouth Jim Smith claims that this accident has created a certain reserve: “We are not saying that radiation is good. But the lack of human impact has allowed the animal population to grow”.

Russia may be wounded, but it can still bite

November 3, 2016 (The Washington Post) Whoever wins Tuesday’s presidential election will face an assertive, aggrieved Russia whose risk-taking behavior under President Vladimir Putin is increasingly worrisome to U.S. experts.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Mikhail Klimentyev/Pool photo via Associated Press)

Today’s pushy, headstrong Russia presents a paradox: By most measures, it is a country in decline, with a sagging economy, an underdeveloped technology base and a shrinking population. Corruption pervades nearly every sector. The collapse of the Soviet Union is still an open wound, and many Russians blame the United States for taking advantage of them during their years of decline.

Yet this inwardly weak Russia displays the cockiness of a street fighter. It is waging war in Syria, Ukraine and cyberspace with a seeming disdain for U.S. power. According to Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., Russian hackers sought to “interfere with the U.S. election process,” on authority of the highest levels of the Russian government.

“Putin’s definition of risk-taking has evolved in the direction of greater boldness and less attention to how it will affect the U.S.,” argues Dimitri Simes, president of the Center for the National Interest. “Putin thinks that American positive inducements are next to nonexistent, and that the penalties are minimal, and will be imposed whatever he does.”

The next president must assess how to alter Russian behavior without direct military confrontation. Is that best done by cutting deals with Putin, as Donald Trump suggests? Or should it be a firmer process of asserting U.S. power and interests, as Hillary Clinton has argued? This may be the biggest national-security issue in the election. The full article is available at

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/russia-may-be-wounded-but-it-can-still-bite/2016/11/03/ec2287c0-a205-11e6-a44d-cc2898cfab06_story.html

Ukraine stunned as vast cash reserves of political elite are made public

November 1, 2016 (The Gardian) Two years after angry Ukrainians deposed Viktor Yanukovych and broke into his vast, opulent residential compound outside Kiev, revelations thrown up by a new system that requires government officials to declare their wealth and property online have led many to suspect the new elite are no better. The declarations, which all officials were required to file by Sunday evening, have made public many curiosities, including politicians who own multiple luxury watches, Fabergé eggs and large collections of weapons. One politician declared that he owned a personal church. By far the biggest shock, however, has been just how much money Ukraine’s politicians seem to stash away in hard cash.

The Ukrainian prime minister, Volodymyr Groysman.

Photograph: Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty Images

The prime minister, Volodymyr Groysman, declared $1.2m (£980,000) and €460,000 (£410,000) in cash, as well as a collection of luxury watches. Many other officials declared hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cash. “Everyone is amazed that there is so much cash in our country,” said Kristina Berdynskykh, an investigative journalist who has written extensively on corruption among the elite. Mikhail Dobkin, an opposition MP, declared 1,780 bottles of wine, while Roman Nasirov, the head of the state fiscal service, declared that together, he and his wife owned Swiss watches, diamonds, fur coats and held more than $2m in cash. Observers have pointed out that when the head of the national bank keeps his savings in dollars, it can hardly fill the population with confidence about the prospects for the hryvnia, Ukraine’s national currency. Other curiosities found among the declarations included a Nazi SS dagger and medieval religious icons. Anatoly Matviyenko, the deputy leader of the presidential faction in parliament, declared ownership of a church.

Read full article at

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/31/ukraine-stunned-vast-cash-reserves-political-elite-made-public

‘Increasingly aggressive’ Russia a growing threat to UK, says MI5 head

November 1, 2016 (The Guardian) Russia poses an increasing threat to the stability of the UK and is using all the sophisticated tools at its disposal to achieve its aims, the director general of MI5 has told the Guardian. In the first newspaper interview given by an incumbent MI5 chief in the service’s 107-year history, Andrew Parker said that at a time when much of the focus was on Islamic extremism, covert action from other countries was a growing danger. Most prominent was Russia.

Andrew Parker said Russia was “using its whole range of state organs and powers to push its foreign policy abroad in increasingly aggressive ways”. Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA

“It is using its whole range of state organs and powers to push its foreign policy abroad in increasingly aggressive ways – involving propaganda, espionage, subversion and cyber-attacks. Russia is at work across Europe and in the UK today. It is MI5’s job to get in the way of that.”

Parker said Russia still had plenty of intelligence officers on the ground in the UK, but what was different now from the days of the cold war was the advent of cyberwarfare. Russian targets include military secrets, industrial projects, economic information and government and foreign policy.

Parker said he was talking to the Guardian rather than any other newspaper despite the publication of the Snowden files and a consistent scepticism about the need for extra powers for the security services. “We recognise that in a changing world we have to change too. We have a responsibility to talk about our work and explain it,” he said.

The full article is available at:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/31/andrew-parker-increasingly-aggressive-russia-a-growing-threat-to-uk-says-mi5-head