Periscope No. 11

Sentence

GOOD PAY BUT LITTLE

For the first time in Russian judicial practice, a sentence was passed for refusing to perform alternative civilian service (ACS). The opportunity to choose between the army and the ACS appeared among conscripts in January 2004. And in November last year, the Nizhny Novgorod conscript Maxim Zavrazhnov was sent to undergo the ACS in a nursing home for the elderly and disabled. Position - ward orderly, salary - 750 rubles. Zavrazhnov refused to work for such money, the case was taken to court. And now the Moscow District Court of Nizhny Novgorod sentenced the "refusenik" to 180 hours of corrective labor. After that, Maxim will be drafted into the army. Neither he nor his defense is going to give up and in the future they are ready to reach the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights. “As far as I know, Maksim demanded at the military registration and enlistment office that he be given a better-paid job,” says Natalia Zhukova from the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the Soldiers' Mothers committee. “But he was denied it.” According to the ACS law, the conscript can choose his place of service from the list of vacancies, which is compiled by the Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Defense explained to Newsweek. If he doesn’t choose, he will go to work where the military enlistment office sends him: “If an employee is not satisfied with the conditions for passing the ACS, he has the right to refuse it and go to the Russian army for two years. But do not demand better conditions of service.”

Auto industry

OLD AGE BEGINS AT 5

The Russian authorities want to further restrict the import of used foreign cars. Nikolai Sorokin, deputy head of the industry department at the Ministry of Industry and Energy, said last week that his department is studying the issue of extending "actually prohibitive" duties on imported cars older than 5 years. Now the "embargo" applies to cars whose age exceeds 7 years. If the proposal of the Ministry of Industry and Energy finds support in the government, then the prices for imported "old women" may rise significantly. As a result, according to Aleksey Khramsovsky from the Rolf Group (an official dealer of Audi, Ford, Hyundai, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Volvo), the demand for new foreign cars, as well as domestic cars, will increase. “With the current growth rate of car purchases on credit, old cars are bought less and less willingly anyway. And if the duties increase, they will stop buying at all,” adds Khramsovsky.

Archeology

NINE GRAVES OF SUSANIN

Last week, folk hero Ivan Susanin again led someone into a dead end. This time, the participants of the church-scientific conference "Time of Troubles in the context of the formation of Russian statehood and the personality of Ivan Susanin: myths and reality" held in Kostroma. A couple of years ago, on the territory of the Isupov necropolis in the Kostroma region, archaeologists found the remains of human bones, including a skull with characteristic traces of chopped wounds. The head of the Identification Department of the Russian Center for Forensic Medical Examination (RTsSME), Viktor Zvyagin, and his colleagues carefully examined the bones and now said: he is sure these are the remains of Susanin. However, other conference participants expressed doubts. According to Professor Pavel Ivanov, Head of the Department of Forensic Genetic Studies of the RCSME, bone remains and teeth from nine graves were taken for analysis. “While we are trying to extract at least some DNA from them for further analysis. If we succeed, then it will be possible to compare samples of this genetic material with the DNA of possible descendants of Susanin.”

Tired of arguing, the conference participants decided to ask Vladimir Putin personally for advice. On March 23, he is to hold a meeting of the State Council in Kostroma dedicated to the protection of cultural heritage. It was then that they would tell him about the “Susanin case”.

Statistics

OLD AND FAT LIGHT

At least seven European states are now challenging the "leadership" of the United States in the number of overweight residents. Experts came to this conclusion after examining the population of the EU countries. In Cyprus, Malta, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece and Slovakia, about two-thirds of the male population is obese, reports the Associated Press. The same figure is typical for the United States.

Experts were also alerted by the number of overweight children - there are 103 million of them in the European Union, and every year this number increases by another 400,000. Experts see the reason for the rapid "fat" of Europeans, especially those who live along the shores of the food. Instead of fish, fruits and vegetables in Europe in recent years, they are consuming more and more high-calorie, high-fat and carbohydrate fast food.

Similar studies have not yet been conducted in Russia. However, according to Professor of St. Petersburg State Medical University Yuri Sedletsky, even without any research it is clear that the problem of excess weight is also relevant for our country. If 20–30 years ago, obese among Russians were only 10–15%, now this figure has risen to 40%.

Ecology

BORES BUSH

The US wants to "get off" the Arab "oil needle", no matter what it costs them. Recently, the US Senate approved a plan to develop deposits in Alaska. Oil reserves there, according to various estimates, range from 7 to 16 billion barrels. Due to them, next year it is planned to cover at least 4% of US oil needs. The project was "pushed through" by the Republicans, led by President George W. Bush. Until now, the bowels of Alaska have remained intact due to the requirements of environmentalists. Oil reservoirs lie beneath the National Arctic Reserve, home to over 20,000 rare animal species. Drilling and the construction of an oil pipeline through Alaska will destroy the reserve. “The damage will become noticeable very soon. Most of the rare birds will die out immediately,” says Tatyana Serykh, coordinator of the WWF oil and gas sector environmental policy program.

Story

REMOVED THE LAST

The last monument to General Franco was sent to a warehouse on the outskirts of Madrid. The 7-meter equestrian statue of the Spanish dictator stood on the square in the center of the capital in front of the building of the Ministry of the Environment for 45 years. According to the press service of this ministry, it was decided to remove the statue due to the overhaul of the building, besides, its presence caused dissatisfaction among the residents. Nevertheless, the government ordered the monument to be dismantled at two in the morning so as not to cause popular unrest.

According to Vyacheslav Glazychev, doctor of art history, monuments in the form of sculptures are fragments of a bygone imperial culture. “It is ridiculous now to erect a monument to Chekhov,” the expert believes, “if the best memory of him is the performances that are still staged in theaters.” Demolishing monuments, according to Glazychev, is either on a revolutionary upsurge, as the monument to Dzerzhinsky was demolished on the Lubyanka, or in a couple of generations, when the monument ceases to be dear to a large number of contemporaries. “In Spain, there are much more opponents of the Franco monument than supporters,” he says. “In our country, as polls show, monuments to the leaders of the proletariat are still valuable to half of Russians.”

Pirates

BOTTLENECK

On March 14, in the Strait of Malacca, a Japanese tugboat was attacked by pirates. Forcing the captain to stop the ship with shots, the invaders stole about $ 7,000 from the ship's cash desk, and then took away three crew members in an unknown direction. Japan immediately turned to neighboring countries with a request to help in the search for the kidnapped sailors. Soon the Malaysian police announced that they had hit the trail: they managed to find a schooner, allegedly used by pirates. At the same time, Japan began supplying special boats to neighboring countries to fight pirates. In Russia, this problem is solved in a similar way: "Our navy is always ready to help civilian ships in trouble," says Igor Dygalo, head of the press service of the Russian Navy. The ships themselves are not equipped with anything other than an electronic warning system, and each ship-owning company decides the issue of arming the crew in its own way.