Foreign Ministry warns Belarus over detained Russians

Moscow insists on the immediate release of Russian citizens detained in Belarus and stresses the delay may impact bilateral relations.

­Russia wants all its citizens who were detained on December 19 during a protest rally in Minsk to be released immediately, the Foreign Ministry has said. The delay in resolving the issue “has a negative impact on the general atmosphere of bilateral Russian-Belarusian relations,”  the ministry said in a statement.

Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin on Monday discussed the situation with the Belarusian ambassador in Moscow, Vasily Dolgolev.

The Minsk City Court has turned down a plea for the early release of nine of the 11 Russian detainees. They all were arrested for alleged participation in unauthorized opposition riots in the Belarusian capital after the presidential election on December 19.

The lower courts sentenced the Russian citizens to terms of between 10 and 15 days of administrative arrest, and the city court upheld the decision. Two more appeals regarding the Russian citizens may be heard on December 30.

The Russian Foreign Ministry is insisting the detainees should be released immediately. Moscow “is not satisfied” with the Minsk City Court’s decision, Vladimir Gusev, an advisor at the Russian Embassy in Belarus, told NTV television. New steps to release Russian citizens will be made, he added. In particular, the embassy is preparing to ask the Belarusian Supreme Court to review the lower courts’ rulings.

Police in Minsk detained more than 600 participants of a rally and riots in the Belarusian capital as they protested against what they called the “rigging” of the presidential election results.

Nema zezanja sa Rusima 

Three dead as plane catches fire while taxiing

At least three people have been killed and 40 injured after a regional Russian airliner caught fire and exploded at an airport in the eastern Siberian city of Surgut.

­The Tupolev-154 was being used on Kolavia Airlines flight 348 bound for Moscow. The airliner was taxiing prior to take-off when a fire started on board. It is not yet clear what exactly caused the blaze, but according to some reports one of the turbines caught fire, perhaps due to a foreign object entering it. Eventually, one of the fuel tanks exploded.

There were over a hundred passengers on board the plane, including members of one of Russia’s most famous pop-groups, “Na-Na”, plus eight crew members. According to passengers, black smoke first filled the cabin and sparks were in the air while people were literally climbing over the heads of one another, in order to get out.

“We were able to escape through only one exit. So everyone was crowding on the wing. There were stairs, but some fell down and limped away,” one of the passengers later said.

The passengers and the crew were evacuated before the blast. The plane was completely destroyed in the explosion.

Injured passengers and those who suffered from smoke inhalation have been hospitalized. One of the injured remains in a serious condition, while eight others are listed as being moderately severe. The state of other 21 affected passengers is “satisfactory”, Interfax news agency has quoted the Emergencies Ministry as saying.

Of those who died, at least one person – a 52-year-old woman – most likely succumbed to severe burns. The families of those who died will receive nearly 70 thousand dollars in compensation.

Investigators are currently working on the scene. A criminal case has been launched over suspected negligence and violation of safety procedures – the preliminary suspected causes.

The Tupolev-154 is Russia's most successful ever plane with around a thousand of them produced since 1968.

The three-engine medium range passenger plane is still one of the main work-horses of Russia's domestic aviation. It reaches speeds of over 900 kilometers per hour and is among the fastest in its class.

Despite being criticized for its safety record, aviation experts say all fatal incidents are usually not due to faults with the aircraft's design.

This is the second crash of Tu-154 in less than a month. The previous incident happened in December in Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport, when a Dagestan Airlines plane suffered engine failure en-route to the southern Russian republic. Two died and more than 80 were hurt when the plane skidded off the runway and broke up. Pilot error is being investigated as a possible cause.

Another recent tragedy involving the Tu-154 happened in April 2010 with an airplane carrying Polish president Lech Kachinsky onboard.

However, several modifications of the Tu-154 exist. The one that was carrying the Polish president was one of the newest models, and the plane itself was relatively new. The airliner involved in the Surgut accident was among the oldest.

Meanwhile, Rostransnadzor – the Federal body responsible for security-related issues on public transport – has instructed all airlines operating the old modification of the Tu-154 from the 1970s, called the Tu-154B, to ground these planes. Fifteen are still in service throughout Russia. The ban for this model aircraft will remain in place until the circumstances around the Surgut incident are investigated.

Amid more electricity cuts, officials celebrate New Year in affected villages

The consequences of bad weather are still affecting lives of many people in the Moscow Region. Some of them had to celebrate their New Year in darkness, with some receiving surprise guests from Moscow.

­The energy company servicing the Moscow Region has sent its teams to restore power lines ruptured in snow storms on New Year’s Eve.

”In order to eliminate technical problems caused by heavy snowstorms on New Year’s Eve, on January 2 the Moscow United Electric Company is sending 97 emergency brigades with 319 people and over 40 units of special equipment,” the company’s press service told Interfax news agency.

On Saturday, the head of the company, Nikolay Shvets, told Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that due to 988 trees falling in the storms on New Year’s Eve, many power lines were once again damaged in the Moscow Region.

Earlier, some officials had to celebrate their New Year in the villages left without electricity. Hours before the New Year, the Russian PM lashed out at the governor of the Moscow Region, Boris Gromov, Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko and the head of the Moscow United Electric Company Nikolay Shvets.

“You promised that by 6pm today electricity would be back on. It is 6 now,” he said. “35 villages, 4,000 people are still without power.”

”I have an idea: you go to these villages and celebrate the New Year together with these people!” Putin suggested.

As a result, all three officials spent their New Year visiting villages left without electricity.

However, as of January 1, many localities across the Moscow region were still experiencing electricity problems. Some of the region’s residents said that they did not have electricity starting December 28, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Icy rain, which fell in central Russia last Sunday, coupled with subsequent bad weather conditions, caused not only major disruptions in power supplies, but serious transportation problems as well.

Thousands of stranded travelers had to start their holidays sleeping on the floor at Domodedovo Airport, where flight delays have caused pandemonium.

At Sheremetyevo Airport, passengers of delayed flights reportedly stormed passport control zones, blocked luggage areas and clashed with police.

It was no better outside. On December 29, the length of traffic jams in Moscow reached 3,200 kilometers. If the traffic was in one straight line it would stretch all the way from Moscow to Barcelona.

Rusi ga vole a to je ono to je za Rusiju i Ruse najbitnije.

Русију сви воле док не оду у њу. Четиеи пута сам био у русији по 15-ак дана и доста ми је за цео живот. 

Bogme,druze,ja sam bio 12 dana,presao preko 2000 km kroz nju,i samo mi se jos vise svidela.

no,dobro,razumem da svako nadje nesto sto mu se svidi,i nesto sto mu se ne svidi.

@steeevo jednom davno bese srao kako Rusi nemaju male,"licne" letelice koje ce voditi turiste-astronaute do ivice svemira.

pa,mozda zato sto im ni ne trebaju... 



uz obican Mig-31 iz pocetka 80ih,koji i dan danas nadmasuje sve americke krntije u performansama,lako dostizu ivicu svemira. 

dok se americke krntije poput F-18 muce da se popnu do jedva 15.000 metara,ovaj Brzi Gonzales se penje na 25.000 metara,do granice svemira za samo par minuta. 


p.s. -ups...to su radili cak i sa Mig-25 iz 1970. godine.  joj ti Rusi,mamicu im bezooobraznu! 

To ipak nije to.

A uz to nije finansirano iz privatnih dzepova nego je u pitanju vojska tj vojna letilica.


Nisi upoznao dovoljno rusa.

а колико си ти упознао руса?
не рачунајући наравно оне курате на тенку са којима си општио

A ti jesi?

Primetio sam da cesto smaras ovde, narocito na ovoj temi i to kad nemas sta da napises onda napises neku tesku nebulozu.

Niti znas bilo koju osobinu MIG-a 31, sem da je ruski, niti si bio u Rusiji ali neka si mu reko.

I da, argumentovano ili u kantu, izaberi.

PS: ups, ima neko cudo sto leti na slicnoj visini i predje put od Njujorka do Londona za manje od dve chuke, na 20 km visine putna brzina od skoro 3000 km na sat, mislim, putna brzina a ne neki zalet nizbrdo od po minuta. A poceli da lete tamo pred kraj sezdesetih...  



Opasna ova "crna ptica" Blackbird 
A ovaj Mig 31 je samo 2000 godine imao oko 35 nesreca, cesto nesto pada  

Ako pitas koliko sam Rusa upoznao, pa 20-tak, cak sta vise imao sam priliku da saradjujem sa njima, tako da nemam bas lepo misljenje sa te strane.

A sto se MiG-31 tice, potrebno znanje vezano za datu raspravu  je ograniceno na:
- ne dostize orbitu
- razvoj je finanisaran iz drzavnog budzeta za razliku od SpaceShipOne programa.

Posto se diskusija odnosila bas na SpaceShipOne.