Translated material
Periscope No. 30
attacks
PEOPLE'S DIPLOMACY
Increasingly warm and friendly relations continue to be maintained between Poland and Russia. Four days after the attack on an employee of the Polish embassy, Andrzej Uriadko, the second secretary of the embassy, Marek Reshuta, was beaten in Moscow. After that, the mission staff was ordered not to leave the building one by one, and a note was sent to the Russian Foreign Ministry of Russia. And right there, a third Pole was beaten up, Pavel Reshka, a correspondent for the newspaper Rzeczpospolita. After that, the parties spoke harshly. Polish President Kwasniewski said that "such dangerous incidents create tension in Russian-Polish relations." The Polish embassy said that all three incidents followed the same scenario, the descriptions of the attackers match and "there is no doubt that they are well organized and prepared." It was hoped that the perpetrators "would be punished according to their deserts". Russia, in turn, expressed regret and promised to look into it.
According to the second secretary of the embassy, Vitold Yurash, there is no particular sense of danger, but there are some inconveniences: “For example, I forbade my wife to go to the store alone. As a result, I have been eating dumplings for the third day.” The embassy is much more concerned about the “campaign of lies” around the incidents: at first they wrote that the embassy forbade the victims to speak to the police (although the ban came from doctors). Then they lied (with reference to the same doctors) that the victims were drunk.
As befits a diplomat, Vitold Yurash expressed the hope that all this would not affect relations between the two countries. But Viktor Bater, head of the Moscow bureau of Polish television, disagrees: “I think this is a purely planned action. Behind this are the secret services, which can involve hooligans, it is possible that in this case this happened. In Warsaw (where the children of employees of the Russian and Kazakh embassies were beaten - Newsweek ) there was a purely hooligan outing. In Moscow, the third case in a row, there is no need to talk about chance. I would not want Russians to be beaten in Poland. But now such a wave has risen there that, I am afraid, there will be forces that will act in such a spirit.
AND NOW - CONTINUE
IRAN RENEWALS NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Caspian Sea
Tabriz
Chalus
Karaj
Koladuz
Tehran - highly enriched uranium found in the building of the state electric company
Erak - production of heavy water. research reactor
Natanz - uranium enrichment plant
Isfahan - uranium ore processing plant
Sagan - uranium mine
Erdekan - uranium ore processing plant
Enerak - uranium mine and storage of nuclear waste
Darkovin
Bushehr - Russia's light water reactor is due to start operating in 2006.
Bandar Abbas - uranium mine
2001
US intelligence says Iran will have nuclear weapons in 5 years
2002 January
President Bush Declares Iran Part of 'Axis of Evil'
2002, August
The National Resistance Council (NCC), an Iranian opposition group, reports that Iran has built an enrichment plant in Natanz and a heavy water plant in Erek
2002, September
Russia begins construction of a reactor in Bushehr
2002 December
US spy satellite images confirm NSS information
2003 summer
IAEA detects traces of highly enriched uranium at Natanz
2003 October
Iran admits it has conducted 'limited experiments' on enrichment since 1999
November 2003
Iran admits it is building a heavy water reactor at Erek. It will be possible to produce weapons-grade plutonium there
2004 January
IAEA accuses Iran of obstructing inspections at its facilities
January 2005
President Bush does not exclude the possibility of military action against Iran
February 2005
President Khatami says Iran "will not back down from its nuclear program"
2005, May
During negotiations with the EU, Iran undertakes to suspend its nuclear program for 8 months
2005 August 8
New Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that Iran will resume its nuclear research. But at the same time, I am ready to continue negotiations with the EU
Rest
THE PRESIDENT'S TUMBLING
President Bush loves cycling. Now he is on vacation and will probably ride around the expanses of his Texas ranch to his heart's content. The walks will be widely covered by the press: the president wants to demonstrate "the importance of being in shape," says White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan. However, friends of the president who happened to ride with him say that George the cyclist is very aggressive. “The way he rides… It’s complete madness,” says a family friend who asked to remain anonymous because the president is private. “He throws out all the energy he needs to burn.” Sometimes aggression borders on recklessness: last summer, Bush managed to fly over the handlebars of a bicycle, scratching his face and hands. During the G8 summit in Gleneagles, he also wanted to ride, even asking for advice on how best to ride on the rolling Scottish plains—but still crashed into a police officer. “I still have some asphalt on my knuckles,” the president recently boasted.
VICTORY MACHINE
Maria Sharapova became world number one last week. This is a huge breakthrough in tennis robotics
Until now, only men have been the first Russian rackets—Yevgeny Kafelnikov in 1999 and Marat Safin in 2000. But their triumph did not last long - neither one nor the other did not last a year on the pedestal. It's just that they successfully took advantage of tennis timelessness, when the previous king, American Pete Sampras, was already old, and the future king, Swiss Roger Federer, was just studying at the tennis academy.
With Maria Sharapova, who has just ascended to the tennis throne, everything is different. She will be a real queen. First of all, she's only 18 and a fast learner: in the year since her Wimbledon win, Sharapova's backline shot has gone from being just good to being the best in the world, and her batting percentage has nearly doubled.
Someone a year ago predicted a sad fate for Maria - too early fame will break the young tennis player, and sooner or later she will turn into the second Anna Kournikova, earning advertising contracts, not tennis victories. It was said that the beautiful Masha would soon want to take a break and get herself a boyfriend, and then her success would come to an end.
Everything was half done. Huge popularity fell on Masha, she was offered serious advertising contracts (and she, of course, did not refuse them), her earnings increased tenfold and, according to rumors, she had a boyfriend masquerading as a consultant coach. But all this did not hurt her success on the court in any way - she still wins, and each time more and more confidently.
It is foolish to accuse journalists of short-sightedness, because they simply did not know the main secret. This Kafelnikov could be so upset after the defeat that he missed the next few tournaments. It’s Myskina who can get herself a new boyfriend and forget about training for a month, then lose a couple of times and become discouraged: they say, I’m already sick of this tennis. It is Safin who breaks racquet after racquet on the court and gets seriously injured in the heat of the moment. Nothing like this can happen to Masha. She is the first Russian among tennis players of a fundamentally new type, for whom neither emotions nor nerves exist—professional tennis robots created exclusively for victories.
This, in fact, is the main secret of Masha Sharapova - she is not an infantile girl at all, but a real tennis robot - the most perfect to date.
And, by the way, this robot is much prettier than its predecessors. We can say that this is a technique of another generation. Having won at Wimbledon, he can get confused in words and even cry from excitement - just like a real person who is overwhelmed with feelings.
Or a smile. Sharapova's program has a dozen variants of a smile: after an unexpected victory, after a hard victory, after a nervous victory. There are variants of a tired smile—and smiles that are usually found on the faces of ordinary 18-year-old girls who first came to a big social event. Sharapova smiles even after defeats, and this is also an obvious technological breakthrough, since all previous tennis robots, as a rule, after losses, carried out only one command - "gloomy leave the court."
Sharapova, according to the assumptions of technologists, should be liked by everyone - and she is liked: she has beautiful hair, bright eyes, an expressive forehead, long and slender legs. There was nothing like this in previous robot tennis players. And she churns out victories no worse than the unsympathetic robot Monica Seles did.
Dear to our hearts, Kafelnikov and Safin will remain in tennis history as temporary workers who occupied the first ratings while a new superman was being assembled on the tennis conveyor. When the robots Federer and Sharapova appear on the courts, ordinary Russian guys and girls, really, have nothing to do on the podium.
Therefore, it is probably worth once and for all to stop the stupid debate about who Masha Sharapova is - Russian or American. We all know very well our little weaknesses: Russia has never been strong in electronic technology. Not our character.
Politicians
SMART AS BOVARETS
Edmund Stoiber, the prime minister of Bavaria and chairman of the opposition Christian Democratic Union, believes that residents of eastern Germany, former citizens of the GDR, have no right to participate in parliamentary elections. Moreover, he said this with his characteristic directness: "Disappointed should not decide the fate of Germany." And even more offensively, he added that "not in all the lands of Germany, people are as smart as in Bavaria." Stoiber “made a simply unforgivable political mistake,” Stefen Hilsberg, a Bundestag MP from the ruling Social Democratic Party, told Newsweek with undisguised glee. For Hilsberg, it is obvious that "in such statements, Stoiber's deep dissatisfaction with the unification of Germany is manifested." And, of course, another attack on Angela Merkel, a native of the GDR. They say Stoiber still can't get over the fact that it was Merkel, and not himself, who became the leader of the party's opposition bloc and a likely candidate for the future chancellor. Merkel was not long in coming with the answer: "Anything that contributes to the split of Germany is wrong." The phrase about "smart Bavarians" was left unanswered.
Extradition
LUKIC CAUGHT
Argentina extradites to The Hague Tribunal Arrested in Buenos Aires, Milan Lukic, a former field commander of the Bosnian Serbs, one of the most notorious fugitives from international justice. Lukic confessed that he entered Argentina on false documents, hiding from Serbian justice. At home, Lukic is accused of war crimes, in particular, the murder of more than 100 Bosnian Muslims. In Serbia, he was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison. According to Jim Landau, spokesman for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, it is too early to say how Lukic's trial will end—it will only begin "in the next six months." Now the main thing is "legal, practical and transport preparations" for Lukic's extradition to The Hague, Landau said. Meanwhile, the Hague is awaiting the capture of two more Serbian commanders who, like Lukic, are accused of crimes against humanity: Radko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic. “They have been hiding from international justice for more than 10 years. It's just a shame! Landau says. Indeed, cooperation with the tribunal, the restoration of justice for the victims of the terrible crimes of the 90s, as well as the maintenance and strengthening of the rule of law, are in the interests of all the countries of the former Yugoslavia.
Rescuer
"YOU DON'T KNOW WHETHER YOU WILL SUCCESS OR NOT"
The Russian bathyscaphe "Priz", entangled in the antenna of a secret surveillance system for submarines, was rescued by British sailors from a special team created after the disaster with the Russian nuclear-powered ship "Kursk". The commander of the British rescuers, Captain of the Royal Navy, Ian Riches, told Newsweek correspondent Anton Chermensky about the rescue operation.
- When did you find out that you were flying to Kamchatka to rescue Russian submariners?
— I heard about the accident from the news on TV. I knew we could help. Our command immediately offered to help, but it took some time to agree on the formalities.
What was the situation like when you arrived? What were you told?
We flew there, knowing about what had happened only in general terms. We were given the details on the spot. What kind of bathyscaphe, where it lies and so on. We developed the plan ourselves, although we consulted with Russian sailors. Some of them spoke very good English.
- You worked near a secret facility of the Russian Navy. Did they somehow try to limit your information or, maybe, take something like a non-disclosure agreement?
“We were simply told that this AS-28 bathyscaphe, “Priz,” as it was called, got tangled in the antenna. What kind of antenna, we did not know. And they didn't give us all the details. Besides, to be honest, we were not up to it. On the monitor screen, which was connected to the video cameras of the device, we, of course, saw where the bathyscaphe got confused. Iron wire, something else, but now you asked me, and I thought that I can’t even talk about it plainly. I just don’t remember, then it was not up to it. We were thinking about how to finish the operation faster, and not about where exactly we work and what of what we saw is really of any value or secrecy.
- And how long did the operation itself to save the bathyscaphe last?
As far as I remember, it all lasted about five hours. According to rough estimates, we knew that we had about six hours for the entire operation. We knew they were running out of air and almost out of food. From my own experience as a submariner, I can say that one could imagine what it was like for them there. It's dark, it's cold. They are weakening. Therefore, we tried to finish our work as quickly as possible in order to get them out of there.
- Some Russian military said that the submariners could have been saved without your help. How do you feel about this point of view?
These things are very difficult to assess. Then, being at sea, we, frankly, did not know exactly how much time we had. Such estimates are approximate, and you do not know if you will make it in time or not. Now, of course, it is easier to look at it from the outside and evaluate it differently. We just did our best and tried not to think that we might be late. On the other hand, besides us, there were also Americans and many others who were ready to help. So if we didn’t succeed, they would take over and so on until we were completely sure that nothing could be done. We were just ready first.
- How did you live in Kamchatka, what were the conditions, where did you sleep, what were you fed?
“To be honest, I didn’t get to sleep. On the ship we were given a room where we could rest, but we did not use it. And there was no time to drink Russian vodka either. But then, when everything was over, we were settled in a hotel. Everything was pretty good. We've been invited to lunch with your Secretary of Defense. He turned out to be a very pleasant person. And at the base, of course, we were treated to vodka. Never tried anything like this in my life.