Periscope No. 8

Solution

AVALANCHES ARE WAITING IN STRASBOURG

In addition to reimbursement of legal costs, the court ordered the Russian government to pay Akayeva €20,000 in compensation for non-pecuniary damage. But money, Rosa says, is not the main thing for her: “We still lost 10 times more. We will consider that I have fulfilled my civic duty—me and everyone who helped me.” Roza Akayeva is one of the first six Chechens whose complaint against Russia was considered by the Strasbourg Court. In all six cases, Russia lost. Lawyers from the Human Rights Center "Memorial", who represented the interests of the plaintiffs in Strasbourg, say that an avalanche of new ones will follow the first court decision. In "Memorial" alone there are 35 cases on complaints of residents of Chechnya against the Russian Federation, many of them the Strasbourg Court has already accepted for consideration. “We have the feeling,” says Dina Vedernikova, Memorial's lawyer, “that the court was waiting for these first decisions in order to quote them later—since many circumstances coincide. For example, the court held that the applicants had exhausted all domestic remedies available in Russia in 2000 when the applications were lodged. So, in subsequent cases, this issue will no longer be raised. ”

Publishers

MORE ABOUT BLOODY BROTHER

The Witness, a book about the Peterson case written by his former girlfriend Amber Frey, has been on the NewYorkTimes bestseller list for five weeks now. The fifth edition is in preparation. A book is coming out next week by Ann Byrd, Peterson's half-sister, with whom he hid from the police; the work of the sister is called "Bloody brother: 33 reasons why my brother should be guilty." But that's not all: The Death Game, written by court correspondent Katherine Cryer, comes out on March 11th. All of these books are published by the same publisher, ReganBooks. "Judith Regan [head of publishing] decided to cash in before the market got saturated," comments Ashley Abbott of PublishersWeekly. But saturation, apparently, is still far away: Simon & Shuster publishing house is planning to release its own version of events, Black Heart, soon. So when is the market going to be saturated? In 1995, three NewYorkTimes Top-10 books were devoted to the trial of OJ Simpson; the first place was occupied by the book “I want to tell you”, the author is OJ himself ... However, if Peterson also decides to take up the pen himself, he will not see the money: his wife’s family has already sued the killer for 5 million, having seized all the money in advance, which he could get for the sale.

Museum

BLAST FROM THE PAST

Museums in our time are rarely able to truly impress someone. However, visitors to the new Nuclear Testing Museum in Las Vegas can almost experience a ground-based nuclear explosion: the floor trembles, thunder rumbles, and the shock wave sweeps by. Of course, this is all a simulation. “What we show has little to do with how it actually looked,” says Bill Johnson, museum director. “Not the same temperature, not the same intensity.” The public is shown a film about the history of nuclear tests that were carried out in Nevada until 1962, when all explosions, except for underground ones, were prohibited by an international treaty. In addition, the museum has a large collection of artifacts from the "Eisenhower era" - comics about the atomic war and postcards, where Las Vegas is proudly called the "nuclear city". Organizations that unite the "scorched by the wind" - victims of the proximity of the nuclear test site, are outraged. According to Ivan Eland, director of the Center for Peace and Freedom at the Independent Institute in Washington, simulating a nuclear explosion "is like putting on a 9/11 entertainment show." Eland believes that the museum is clearly going too far. Even by Las Vegas standards.

Aircraft

WINGED WORDS

By the end of 2006, a united aircraft building corporation is to be set up in Russia—a decision taken last week at a meeting of the State Council.

In the military part of the domestic aviation industry, the merger is already in full swing: the two leading manufacturers of military aircraft (MiG and Irkut, which produces Su and Be-200 amphibians) have been merged through a “personal union”—they have been headed by Alexei Fedorov since last fall . In addition, according to Rosoboronexport, military aviation accounts for more than 50% of the proceeds from Russian arms exports, so there is money for development here.

The fate of domestic civil aircraft manufacturers is less clear. Between the three leading factories (two Volga regions assemble medium-haul "Tu", as well as powerful cargo "Ruslans", Voronezh - Il-96), according to military analyst Sergei Sokut, there is a serious struggle for financing the production of new aircraft - currently produced are not in demand either in Russia or abroad.

Whoever emerges victorious as a result of the planned merger, the main goal of creating a corporation—to capture 10% of the world market by 2015—can hardly be considered realistic. According to Vladimir Kulakov, the head of the State Council working group, for this our aviation industry will need to raise about $35 billion. Despite the fact that revenues from sales of Russian aircraft, both military and civilian, by the specified date, according to the optimistic estimates of the Ministry of Industry and Energy, can reach only $6 billion.

Compensation

GET FOR INVASION

The lower house of the Czech Parliament on Wednesday passed a law on the payment of compensation to the victims of the "Prague Spring". If the upper house and the president vote in favor, the relatives of the Czechs who died during the invasion of the Warsaw Pact countries in 1968 and the subsequent occupation (several dozen people died then) will receive 150,000 crowns (approximately $ 6,600) from the state, and those who have been maimed or abused by soldiers of the "fraternal liberation armies" can count on 30,000 crowns ($1,320). The total amount of compensation may exceed 2 million kroons. “In Lithuania, the victims of the occupation have been receiving subsidies from the state since 1997,” says Algirdas Stankevičius, a lawyer at the Vilnius Genocide and Resistance Center. “Former exiles and political prisoners receive payments in the amount of a basic pension every month.” Relatives of those who were shot, died in prison or in exile can receive 20,000 litas (about $5,700) from the state. Former "volunteer soldiers" who fought against the Soviet army after the end of World War II receive a "state pension of the first degree."

Traditions

RITUAL LAW

Moscow's animal rights activists are trying to ban ritual sacrifices that take place during the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha. With a similar appeal to the mayor of the capital, Yuri Luzhkov, animal rights activists from the Vita Center addressed. According to them, on the 20th of January, which fell on one of the main Islamic holidays this year, sheep were slaughtered in several districts of the city right in the street in front of passers-by.

“We were outraged by what we saw,” the address to the mayor said, “the animals were killed on a truck in front of the [Cathedral] mosque [near the Olimpiysky sports complex] on the roadway next to residential buildings and shops.” The chairman of the Islamic Committee of Russia, Heydar Dzhemal, considers the statements of human rights activists a "political provocation." Dzhemal is sure that in fact, they are trying to pass off the desire to limit the religious rights of people as caring for animals, as they have repeatedly tried to do in Western countries. “These people just don’t know anything about the traditions and the way of slaughter,” he says. “It’s actually much more humane than what happens in ordinary slaughterhouses, for example, in the USA.” And publicity, Dzhemal believes, should not be avoided: “It is useful for a person to see blood and suffering from time to time.” Animal sacrifices are not only practiced by Muslims. However, in all civilized countries where Islam is not the state religion, public sacrifice in a public place is prohibited.

CROWING MARTYRS OF THE FAITH

Islam

Confess: about 1 billion people.

Sacrificial animals: camel, goat, ram, rooster

Hinduism

Confess: about 900 million people.

Sacrificial animals: buffalo, goat, drake, rooster

Armenian Apostolic Church

(Christian Monophysites)

Confess: 400,000 people

Sacrificial animals: ram, dove, rooster

voodoo

Haiti and other Caribbean Islands, USA

Confess: about 4 million people.

sacrificial animal: rooster

Santeria

Cuba and other Caribbean Islands, USA

Confess: about 3.6 million people.

Sacrificial animals: rabbit, dove, pig, rooster

Mayor

DO NOT AGREE FOR BRONZE

A resident of the Moscow region, Eduard Arustamov, turned to the Moscow City Duma with a proposal to erect in Moscow a bronze monument to the current mayor of the city, Yuri Luzhkov, using public money. But Luzhkov himself did not want to go bronze: he called the initiative of the grateful townspeople "a disservice." At the same time, there are already two large monuments by Zurab Tsereteli in the capital, which, however, are not considered monuments, but exhibits of the Museum of Modern Art: Luzhkov the football player in spacious sports shorts and Luzhkov the janitor with a huge broom and a cap. And without the consent of Luzhkov himself, it is impossible to erect a full-fledged monument to him: the final decision on the installation of any monument in the city, after the approval of the project by the public commission on monumental art at the Moscow City Duma, is made personally by the mayor. In addition, the current legislation prohibits the installation of lifetime monuments and even memorial plaques in the capital.

Brands

BOUGHT A WOLF

The Pyaterochka retail chain is going to shoot two new series of the cartoon “Well, you wait!” - the 19th and 20th. And it has already allocated $400,000 for this. Toward the end of the year, cartoons will appear in cinemas. At the same time, Pyaterochka bought the rights to use the name, characters and phrases from the legendary animated series from its creators and their heirs. Although the company itself emphasizes the non-commercial nature of the initiative, it is possible that the Hare and the Wolf will appear in the network's advertising or in private labels. "This is a very strong move," says Alexander Trubnikov, head of the advertising portal Sostav.ru. In his opinion, the network will be able to recoup production costs by renting and selling discs, and the well-known brand, to which both adults and children are loyal, will get the company inexpensively. In Russian practice, there are already examples of successful purchase of cartoon brands. Two years ago, Unimilk bought the rights to Prostokvashino characters from Eduard Uspensky, thanks to which sales of dairy products increased several times. And in the US, thanks to the cartoon about the sailor Popeye, who became stronger from the fact that he constantly ate spinach, sales of this canned greens increased by 30%.