US to put military equipment in several European countries

Image Credit: Kyiv Post

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The U.S. will spread about 250 tanks, armored vehicles and other military equipment across six former Soviet bloc nations to help reassure NATO allies facing threats from Russia and terrorist groups, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Tuesday.

Carter’s announcement, made as he stood with defense chiefs from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, comes a day after he announced that the U.S. would have other weapons, aircraft and forces, including commandos, ready as needed for NATO’s new rapid reaction force, to help Europe defend against potential Russian aggression from the east and the Islamic State and other violent extremists from the south.

The defense chiefs standing with Carter all spoke bluntly about the threat they perceive from Russia, and the latest military plans provide a show of solidarity across the region and in NATO.

Estonia Defense Minister Sven Mikser said the Baltic leaders aren’t trying to restart the Cold War arms race or match Russian President Vladimir Putin “tank for tank,” but the additional military presences will be a deterrent to Russia and could change the calculous.

“In global terms Russia is no match conventionally to U.S. or to NATO, but here in our corner of the world, Putin believes that he enjoys regional superiority,” Mikser said, adding that Estonia is eager and ready to accept the equipment immediately.

Each set of equipment would be enough to outfit a military company or battalion, and would go on at least a temporary basis to Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania. Carter said the equipment could be moved around the region for training and military exercises, and would include Bradley fighting vehicles and self-propelled howitzer artillery guns.

Germany will be participating in the expanded military effort, but already has U.S. equipment.

“We intend to move those equipment sets around as exercises move around,” Carter told a news conference. “They’re not static. Their purpose is to enable richer training and more mobility to forces in Europe.” He said the U.S. presence will be “persistent” but “agile,” and he said the troops will be able to stay at a higher state of readiness.

But while the stated goal of the move is that American forces moving in and out of Europe will be better able to do training, it also would allow NATO nations to more quickly respond to any military crisis in the region.

The U.S., said Carter, is also going to work with NATO’s cyber center, located in Estonia, to help allies develop cyber defense strategies and other protections against computer-based attacks. Russian hackers have become particularly adept, including breaking into U.S. State Department computers.

The countries for the equipment storage were chosen based on their proximity to training ranges, to reduce the time and cost of transporting it for exercises.

The two-pronged U.S. plan — with the placement of equipment in Europe and the commitment of resources for NATO’s very high readiness task force — underscore America’s commitment to helping allies counter growing threats on Europe’s eastern and southern fronts.

U.S. and NATO allies have criticized Russia for its increasingly aggressive actions, including the annexation of Crimea and its backing of separatist troops on Ukraine’s eastern border.

Under the plan to commit troops and resources if needed during a crisis, the U.S. could see a temporary increase in American troops in Europe, although many could be reassigned from bases already in the region. No U.S. troops or equipment will move immediately.

Read Full Article: AP

Russia calls investigation into whether US moon landings happened

The increasingly tense relationship between the United States and Russia might be about to face a new challenge: a Russian investigation into American moon landings.

In an op-ed published by Russian newspaper Izvestia, Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the government’s official Investigative Committee, argued that such an investigation could reveal new insights into the historical space journeys.

According to a translation by the Moscow Times, Markin would support an inquiry into the disappearance of original footage from the first moon landing in 1969 and the whereabouts of lunar rock, which was brought back to Earth during several missions.

“We are not contending that they did not fly [to the moon], and simply made a film about it. But all of these scientific — or perhaps cultural — artifacts are part of the legacy of humanity, and their disappearance without a trace is our common loss. An investigation will reveal what happened,” Markin wrote, according to the Moscow Times translation.

The op-ed is unlikely to raise worries among Nasa officials. In 2009, Nasa itself admitted that it had erased the original video recordings of the first moon landing among 200,000 other tapes in order to save money, according to Reuters. However, Nasa has since restored copies of the landing, using recordings from other sources such as CBS News. The organization says that due to restoration efforts, the recordings’ quality is superior to the original one that has gone missing.

Nasa did also emphasize the uniqueness of lunar soil and rock in the past. “They differ from Earth rocks in many respects,” David McKay, chief scientist for planetary science and exploration at Nasa’s Johnson Space Center, where most of the material is stored, was quoted as saying by Nasa’s website in 2001.

So, why is Investigative Committee member Markin speculating about conspiracy theories surrounding US moon landings that happened decades ago? In his op-ed, the Russian official also emphasized that “US authorities had crossed a line by launching a large-scale corruption probe targeting nine Fifa officials,” according to the Moscow Times.

Read Full Article: The Independent

Nationalists ponder prison sentences for selling unmarked GMO products

Image Credit: Reuters / Jim Young

A number of Russian MPs have suggested altering the current legislation and introducing criminal responsibility for illegal trade in GMO products. The idea is to mete out prison terms of up to two years for repeated offenders.

The bill tightening the rules for selling genetically modified products has been prepared by lawmakers representing the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, known for its nationalist stance. The draft has already been forwarded to the government and Supreme Court for assessment, and it will then be submitted to parliament.

If passed the bill would amend the existing article of the criminal code that orders punishment for concealing any information about potential hazards for human life and health. It would include violation of the rules for marking goods containing GMO material. Those found guilty would face fines of up to 300,000 rubles (about $6000), or up to two years in prison or penal labor. The bill specifies that, depending on the crime’s circumstances, the punishment could be applied to the head of the company and the workers involved in the violations.

Currently, improper labeling of GMO products is punished by fines ranging between 20,000 and 50,000 rubles ($400 – $1,000) for individual entrepreneurs and between 100,000 and 500,000 rubles ($2,000 – $10,000) for companies. The law regulating the turnover of GMO was first introduced in Russia in 2007. It requires clearly visible indication on all goods containing 0.9 percent of genetically modified organisms by weight.

One of the sponsors of the new bill, MP Kirill Cherkasov, said in comments to the Izvestia daily that the document was necessary until experts release full scientific research on the effects of GMO on human health. He added the current practice could lead to abuse, as sometimes the profits from selling unmarked GMO products can potentially cover even heavy fines.

Experts who took part in developing the bill also said that producers often sent “clean” products for government evaluation, but sold cheaper products with GMO content on the mass market.

According to the government statistics overview released in 2014, the share of GMO in the Russian food industry has declined from 12 percent to just 0.01 percent over the past 10 years, and currently there are just 57 registered food products containing GMO.

In February 2014, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev held a government session dedicated to the problem. He said Russia will create its own research base for genetically modified organisms that would provide the authorities with expert information and allow for further legislative measures and executive decisions.

Read Full Article: RT

Swedes Use ‘Gay Propaganda’ to Deter Russian Submarines (Video)

Image Credit: Svenska Freds / YouTube

A Swedish peace group has devised a unique way of fending off unwanted naval intrusions after reports of Russian submarines entering the country’s territorial waters last year — erecting a device that taps out in Morse code: “This way if you are gay.”

The broadcasting device, which has been lowered into the sea near Stockholm, is also covered by a flashing neon sign that shows a sailor gyrating back and forth in nothing but skimpy pants, according to a video published last week by The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society, the group behind the move .

“Welcome to Sweden, gay since 1944” reads the neon sign in English. Sweden decriminalized homosexuality 71 years ago, while Russia recently banned the promotion of “gay propaganda” to minors in what critics say represents a crackdown on LGBT rights.

The Swedish military was put on high alert last fall after reports of submarine sightings in its territorial waters amid rising tensions between Russia and the West over the crisis in Ukraine. Moscow has denied that the alleged vessels belonged to its navy.

Since then there have been calls to raise defense spending in Sweden, although the peace group in a video suggests that its “Singing Sailor” is a much more cost-effective way to fend off unwanted intrusions.

“Instead of angry threats, any visitors will now receive a warm welcome” to Sweden, the peace group said.

The project comes after neighboring Finland last month fired a depth charge in a warning to a suspected submarine in its waters near Helsinki.

Read Full Article: The Moscow Times

Russian spacecraft still spinning out of control in orbit

Image Credit: Space.com

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s Mission Control has failed to stabilize a cargo ship spinning out of control in orbit, but says it has not yet given up on saving the unmanned spacecraft.

The Progress M-27M was launched Tuesday and was scheduled to dock at the International Space Station six hours later to deliver 2.5 tons of supplies, including food and fuel.

But flight controllers were unable to receive data from the spacecraft, which had entered the wrong orbit.

Mission Control spokesman Sergei Talalasov told the Interfax news agency on Wednesday that flight controllers were still trying to restore communication with the Progress.

Russia’s space agency and NASA both said the six crew members on board the orbiting space station have sufficient supplies and are in no danger.

Read Full Article: AP

Road-Eating, Slow-Motion Landslide Caught on Video

Like watching a slow-motion disaster, a video that’s going viral this week shows a dramatic landslide in eastern Russia gradually swallowing up a road and railway, knocking down trees and power lines, and dragging heavy equipment.

No one was hurt in the creeping landslide, or earthflow, coal industry representative Larissa Beresneva told local Russian media. The disaster happened on April 1 near Novokuznetsk, east of the Ural Mountains. (Learn more about the impacts of coal.)

The region is an active coal mining area and the massive slide seems to have occurred as a result of a collapse of the waste material, or overburden, from the Taldinskoye coal mine, Beresneva said. Russian authorities are investigating.

The relatively slow-moving slide was filmed by a bystander as it spilled over a road between Novokuznetsk and Bolshaya Talda, knocking over trees and a transmission line. (Learn about the causes of the Oso landslide in Washington.)

Daniel Doctor, a research geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, previously told National Geographic that mining activities are known to trigger landslides around the world. In March 2013 a mining-related landslide in Tibet killed 83 people.

In February, another landslide near Novokuznetsk briefly blocked a road and was reportedly linked to mining activity, according to local media.

The ingredients for a landslide include a steep slope and, typically, water to lubricate the motion. Landslides are especially common in spring, when rains can be heavy and melting snow and ice provides additional water.

Read Full Article: National Geographic

Revolutionary: Russian man to undergo first head-to-body transplant

Doctors seem to be a step closer to performing a breakthrough surgery: transplanting a human head onto another body. A Russian man with a rare genetic muscle-wasting disorder has volunteered to be the first to try the procedure.

“I’m very interested in technology, and anything progressive that might change people’s lives for the better,” Valery Spiridonov from the Russian city of Vladimir, told RT.

Spiridonov, a 30-year-old qualified computer scientist, works for an IT firm.

He said that his disease is getting worse every year, and usually people with Werdnig-Hoffman disorder – a disease that wastes muscles – don’t live longer than 20 years, so it would be a chance to prolong his life and help scientific research in the process.

“Doing this isn’t only an excellent opportunity for me, but will also create a scientific basis for future generations, no matter what the actual outcome of the surgery is,” he said.

The operation is set to be conducted by renowned Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero, who sees the procedure as comparable to space exploration.

“Russia sent Yury Gagarin into space with fair chances of dying. America sent Neil Armstrong to the moon with fair chances of dying. And the chances here are much, much better,” Canavero told RT.

According to Canavero, the operation is set to last up to 36 hours, and will cost over $11 million.

During the procedure, the patient’s brain will be cooled down to 10-15 degrees Celsius (50-60 Fahrenheit) to prolong the time the cells are able to survive without oxygen.

Still from Ruptly video

The body will be taken from a brain-dead but otherwise healthy donor.

An ultra-sharp scalpel will be used to cut through the spinal cord, and a special biological glue will be used to connect the head to the new body.

After the operation, Valery will be put into a coma for three to four weeks to prevent any movement. He will also be given immunosuppressants with the aim of preventing the body rejecting its new head.

Many medics are against carrying out the procedure, with a Californian doctor saying it is “too overwhelming a project to succeed,” while others branded it “too outlandish to consider” and simply “crazy.”

Read Full Article: RT

Ordinary folk take up military training over Russia threat

Image Credit: Lukasz Szelemej

WARSAW, Poland (AP) – NATO aircraft scream across eastern European skies and American armored vehicles rumble near the border with Russia on a mission to reassure citizens that they’re safe from Russian aggression.

But these days, ordinary people aren’t taking any chances.

In Poland, doctors, shopkeepers, lawmakers and others are heeding a call to receive military training in case of an invasion. Neighboring Lithuania is restoring the draft and teaching citizens what to do in case of war. Nearby Latvia has plans to give university students military training next year.

The drive to teach ordinary people how to use weapons and take cover under fire reflects soaring anxiety among people in a region where memories of Moscow’s domination – which ended only in the 1990s – remain raw. People worry that their security and hard-won independence are threatened as saber-rattling intensifies between the West and Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, where more than 6,000 people have died.

In Poland, the oldest generation remembers the Soviet Army’s invasion in 1939, at the start of World War II. Younger people remain traumatized by the repression of the communist regime that lasted more than four decades.

It’s a danger felt across the EU newcomer states that border Russia.

“There’s a real feeling of threat in our society,” Latvian defense ministry spokeswoman Aija Jakubovska told The Associated Press. Military training for students is a “way we can increase our own defense capabilities.”

Most people are still looking to NATO’s military umbrella as their main guarantor of security. Zygmunt Wos waved goodbye to a detachment of U.S. armored vehicles leaving the eastern Polish city of Bialystok with apprehension: “These troops should be staying with us,” he said, “not going back to Germany.”

Poland has been at the forefront of warnings about the dangers of the Ukraine conflict. Just 17 hours by car from the battle zone, Poland has stepped up efforts to upgrade its weapons arsenal, including a possible purchase of U.S.-made Tomahawk missiles. It will host a total of some 10,000 NATO and other allied troops for exercises this year. Its professional army is 100,000-strong, and 20,000 reservists are slated for test-range training.

It’s the grassroots mobilization, however, that best demonstrates the fears: The government has reached out to some 120 paramilitary groups with tens of thousands of members, who are conducting their own drills, in an effort to streamline them with the army exercises.

In an unprecedented appeal, Parliament Speaker Radek Sikorski urged lawmakers to train at a test range in May, while Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak called on men and women aged between 18 and 50, and with no military experience, to sign up for test-range exercise. So far, over 2,000 people have responded.

“The times are dangerous and we must do all we can to raise Poland’s ability to defend its territory,” President Bronislaw Komorowski said during a recent visit to a military unit.

The Poles believe they have grounds for feeling particularly vulnerable because they have been invaded by Russia repeatedly since the 18th century. Russian leader Vladimir Putin seems to have singled out Poland, a staunch U.S. ally, as a prime enemy in the struggle over Ukraine, accusing it of training “Ukrainian nationalists” and instigating unrest.

Recently Moscow said it will place state-of-the-art Iskander missiles in its Kaliningrad enclave, bordering Poland and Lithuania, for a major exercise.

Last week, over 550 young Polish reservists were summoned on one hour’s notice to a military base for a mobilization drill. In their 20s and 30s, in jeans and sneakers, the men and women arrived at a base in Tarnowskie Gory, in southern Poland for days of shooting practice. One of them, 35-year-old former soldier Krystian Studnia, said the call was “absolutely natural.”

“Everyone should be willing and ready to fight to defend his country,” he said.

In Warsaw, Mateusz Warszczak, 23, glowed with excitement as he signed up at a recruitment center. “I want to be ready to defend my family, my relatives, from danger,” he said.

Even older Poles feel obliged to take responsibility for their own safety.

Read Full Article: AP

Russia boosts air defense in face of US Prompt Global Strike capacity

Image Credit: RIA Novosti / Artem Zhitenev

Russia’s active steps in boosting its air and missile defense capabilities are aimed against the potential threat of Prompt Global Strike which US “under certain conditions” might decide to carry out, says Russia’s Aerospace Defense Forces’ deputy chief.

The potential threat of Prompt Global Strike by the United States against the Russian Federation is one of the top challenges for the Aerospace Defense Forces, Major General Kirill Makarov told the Russian News Service radio.

In this regard an effective air and missile defense system remains one of Russia’s top priorities, since PGS initiative aims to deliver a precision-guided conventional weapon airstrike within less than one hour after Washington deems the target to be a national security threat.

“It is precisely to combat these aerial assets that we are building the air and missile defense of Russia’s system,” said Makarov, emphasizing that Russian political and military leadership considers this task to be of “paramount importance.”

Washington’s PGS has an overall structure similar to that of a nuclear triad. It first of all aims to conduct swift strikes from land and sea using already existing inter-continental and submarine-based ballistic and cruise missiles. Air-launched hypersonic missile currently in development is a second option the Pentagon is working on. In addition there were hypothetical plans of kinetic bombardments from an orbiting space platform.

Russia estimates that by 2020, the US will have up to 8,000 cruise missiles, some 6,000 of which will be capable of carrying nuclear warheads. With “some degree of certainty” one could asses that “under certain conditions” these military assets could be deployed against targets in the territory of the Russian Federation, Makarov said.

Russia’s new military doctrine, adopted last year, stresses that the country’s army remains a defensive tool, but lists the PGS concept as one of the main security threats along with NATO’s military buildup along Russian borders. The Russian military however may still be eventually forced to to match the PGS with a rival initiative. “Russia is capable of and will have to develop a similar system,” Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said last year.

To counter the threat, Russia is developing a new generation mobile surface-to-air missile system – the S-500 – designed among other things to intercept supersonic targets. While the missile for the system is “still under development,” Makarov says once completed, it would be capable of intercepting any perspective ballistic and aerodynamic targets.

In the meantime, Russia has carried out successful testing of a new longer-range guided missile for the current generation S-400 surface-to-air air defense system. “Tests are currently in full swing. Three days ago we successfully carried out testing of a surface-to-air missile which successfully hit its target,” Makarov

Read Full Article: RT

The International Space Station Is a Springboard for Future Mars Exploration

Image Credit: NASA

This week NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will launch to the International Space Station (ISS) to begin a yearlong mission onboard the orbital laboratory, where they will conduct research to test how the human body endures a long-duration stay in space. Their mission is part of the work NASA is presently doing on the ISS to develop and test a whole host of long-duration mission capabilities and health-risk mitigations that are moving us forward toward a future Mars mission. Sustained risk reduction research and testing on the ISS provides the most viable and best path to sending astronauts to the Red Planet.

Contrary to the opinion the editors of Scientific American expressed in their commentary, “A Waste of Space,” the ISS is the most important laboratory for implementing exploration-enabling research. Furthermore, the NASA risk reduction strategy to protect the health and well-being of astronaut explorers has been vetted by the National Academies. With the launch of the ISS one-year mission, the agency is making an important move to begin extrapolating what we know about ISS six-month missions to the requirements for a journey to Mars and back. The ISS one-year mission fits in our overall risk mitigation strategy in multiple ways.

First, it gives us an initial opportunity to examine in detail the physiological and psychological effects from exposure over a longer mission. Whereas we have a significant evidence base of similar effects during six-month missions for comparison, a yearlong study on the two crew members will expand our ability to plan and execute longer deep-space human voyages with higher probability of success. Because space physiology can be a complicated business, extrapolating ISS one-year human data to a 30-month Mars round-trip will leave us with fewer uncertainties. Furthermore, the unexpected opportunity to compare data from Scott Kelly on the ISS with his identical twin brother on Earth, former astronaut Mark Kelly, will let us explore for the first time how genetic expressions might be altered by long-duration spaceflight. This will provide us with initial insight into the possibility of using emerging personalized precision medicine to address human health exploration risks in a more effective manner.

Read Full Article: Scientific American

World’s ‘strongest’ girl asks Schwarzenegger to reconcile US with Russia

Image Credit: RIA Novosti/Kirill Kallinikov

A 15-year-old powerlifting champion, Maryana Naumova from Russia, has met with ‘The Terminator,’ Arnold Schwarzenegger, and asked him to make peace between US and Russia. “He promised to work on it,” she said.

The schoolgirl from the Moscow region, who currently holds the title of the strongest teenage girl in the world, met with the former California governor, film actor and bodybuilder at a sports tournament, organized as part of Arnold Sports Festival in Ohio last weekend.

After setting a new world record in the bench press, having pressed a 150 kilo (330 pounds) weight, Naumova got to meet the event’s organizer, who congratulated her personally, Russian Argumenty i Fakty (AiF) daily reported. In turn, Naumova asked Schwarzenegger to become the US president and to reconcile America with Russia.

“Arnold Schwarzenegger himself congratulated me with the record and we got to talk for a while. I told him that I’m dreaming of him becoming a US president, so he can definitely mend relations with Russia… He listened to me carefully and promised to work on it,” the schoolgirl told AiF.

Naumova said she also handed Schwarzenegger letters and photographs from Donbass children. “He took the envelope. I hope he will reply,” she later wrote on her Vkontakte page. The region in Ukraine has been torn by civil war for nearly a year, with thousands of people – including many civilians, children among them – having been killed in the conflict between Kiev and anti-government forces.

Naumova, who has set over a dozen world records in powerlifting, regularly takes part in various humanitarian missions while traveling around the world.

Read Full Article: RT

Snowden ‘working exhaustively’ with US to secure terms of trial

Image Credit: Reuters / Mark Blinch

Whistleblower Edward Snowden says he has been working with the US government since he fled the country two years ago to secure the terms of a fair trial should he decide to return to America, but says that at the moment proceedings are not on the horizon.

“I’ve been working exhaustively with the government now since I left to try to find terms of a trial,” he said Wednesday during a live question and answer session organized by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression.

However, the former NSA contractor said that because the US government is not at the moment willing to offer him a fair trial, he has no plans to return in the near future.

“I would love to go back and face a fair trial, but unfortunately … there is no fair trial available, on offer right now,” he said in a live question and answer discussion organized by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, Ryerson University and the CBC.

On Tuesday Snowden’s Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena told a news conference that his client has started working with a team of US and German lawyers trying to arrange a way for Snowden to return to the United States. Many in the media took this to mean that Snowden’s homecoming was imminent. Kucherena clarified his statements on Wednesday.

“Some reporters must have misinterpreted what I said during my press conference and jumped to the wrong conclusion that my client was about to go home already,” Kucherena told the Los Angeles Times. “This is not happening until the US government stops politicizing Edward’s case and offers him a fair and unbiased trial.”

Read Full Article: RT