Germanwings Crash Investigators Sorting Through Physical and Psychological Clues - NYT
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DÜSSELDORF, Germany — As aviation experts in the French Alps piece together the shattered fragments of the Germanwings jetliner that crashed there on Tuesday, investigators here are engaged in a task that is at least as challenging: trying to understand what drove Andreas Lubitz, who was at the controls, to the apparent decision to fly the plane into a mountainside.
In what amounts to one of the most high-profile cases to date of forensic psychiatry, French and German investigators must not only piece together the strands of Mr. Lubitz’s professional and personal lives, they must also try to determine what was going on inside his head before and during the fateful flight on Tuesday.
Five days after the crash, the investigators have three main lines of inquiry: his apparent depression; a problem with his eyesight that might have compromised his ability to continue flying; and his personal relationships, including one with his longtime girlfriend. His personal writings suggested a confused young man who feared failure and was scared he was going to lose his job because of his vision and mental health problems, an official said.
How those elements fit together — and the relative weight each should be assigned — would be hard to determine under the best circumstances. In this case, it is not clear that it will ever be settled with any great degree of confidence, no doubt frustrating those who want answers, including the families of victims and regulators seeking to ensure it does not happen again.
“In a judicial investigation there are several working hypotheses, and you never discard all of the other hypotheses in one go, in order to give priority to just one of them,” Jean-Pierre Michel, the chief French investigator and deputy head of the judicial police for the French National Gendarmerie, said at a news conference here Saturday. “Of course, you have to be able to prioritize these different investigations to give yourself the maximum chances of solving the investigation as quickly as possible.”
As many as 200 German law enforcement officials have been working on the case, a spokesman for the Düsseldorf police said Sunday. He added that no updates were expected from prosecutors before Monday at the earliest.
They have learned thus far that Mr. Lubitz, the co-pilot on the flight, was dealing with psychological problems serious enough to require medication, sources with knowledge of the investigation said, which may have dogged him for many years. Antidepressants were found during the search of his apartment, as were notes from multiple doctors, one of which was torn up and thrown in a wastebasket.
Investigators also discovered that Mr. Lubitz was having trouble with his eyesight, either as a psychosomatic symptom related to his mental health issues or as a separate physical malady that could have depressed his mood further.
The young man’s identity was tied to his dream of becoming a pilot from an early age, at least since he began flying gliders as a 14-year-old.
To acquaintances and colleagues, Mr. Lubitz was personally polite and professionally accomplished, a co-pilot crisscrossing Europe for Germanwings, a loyal son who spent much of his time in his hometown Montabaur with his parents, and the long-term boyfriend of a woman he had known since before entering pilot training. In the last few weeks he had purchased two new cars, according to German news reports, presumably one for him and one for her.
“He was a colleague like every other,” Frank Woiton, a fellow pilot for Germanwings, told German television after the plane crash. “We sat together in the cockpit. We talked about his plans for the future. He said he wanted to fly long-haul flights. He was not someone who said, ‘I want to end my life.’ ”
But his private papers indicated a fragile mental state. A high-ranking investigator, speaking with the newspaper Die Welt, characterized Mr. Lubitz’s writing as a window into the dark world of illness the co-pilot had skillfully concealed from outsiders.
There have also been reports, largely from anonymous sources, that his personal life had become complicated. Germany’s highest circulation newspaper, Bild, published an interview on Saturday with a flight attendant who also claimed to be his girlfriend. The woman, speaking under an assumed name, said that Mr. Lubitz was mentally unstable, screaming at night, at one point locking himself in a bathroom and complaining bitterly about how he was treated at his job.
The woman said that he told her he would someday “do something that will change the entire system and everyone will know my name and remember it,” which she in retrospect interpreted as an oblique reference to crashing a plane, despite the fact that it was a broad comment open to wide interpretation.
In its Sunday edition the paper reported that his long-term girlfriend, who teaches math and English at a school in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia, was pregnant.
The authorities close to the investigation said Friday they had already questioned the co-pilot’s girlfriend, whom they described as someone he had shared his life with for many years, including up to the day of the crash. The woman, who has not been formally identified, is believed to have shared a top-floor apartment with Mr. Lubitz in a residential Düsseldorf neighborhood surrounded by a forest where neighbors have reported that he often went for runs.
Another question that has defied easy answers is whether Mr. Lubitz might have acted impulsively after being left alone in the cockpit or could have planned such a move in advance and waited for an opportunity. Nothing like a suicide note or other indication was found in his apartment to suggest premeditation.
Bild also claimed to have quotes from the cockpit recording. During the flight when the captain asked his co-pilot to prepare for the landing, Mr. Lubitz replied “hopefully” and “we’ll see,” according to the newspaper. When the captain returned from a bathroom break he found the door to the cockpit locked. As the plane began to descend the pilot could be heard banging and yelling, “For God’s sake open the door.”
The passengers had begun to scream. Then metal clanging on the door was audible, followed by the automatic warning: “Terrain. Pull up. Pull up.”
At that point the pilot yelled, “Open the damned door.”
Martine del Bono, the spokeswoman for the French Bureau of Investigations and Analyses, which is charged with the technical inquiry into the crash separate from the French criminal probe, condemned the leaking of the transcripts of the voice recorder that have appeared in the German news media.
“We are shocked by these leaks, which constitute a complete lack of decency for the families of the victims,” Ms. del Bono said.
Heinz Joachim Schöttes, a spokesman for Germanwings in Cologne, declined to discuss details of Mr. Lubitz’s past medical exams performed by Lufthansa’s medical services bureau, nor could he confirm German news media reports that the co-pilot had been due for his next annual medical exam in June.
He said that all of Mr. Lubitz’s personnel and medical records held by the airline had been turned over to investigators.
Forensic experts in France are attempting to identify the remains of victims and have thus far isolated DNA from 78 different people found at the mountainous crash site, leaving 72 victims unaccounted for, the French prosecutor Brice Robin told the Agence France-Presse news agency on Sunday. He added that workers were building an access road to aid in the removal of larger pieces of the aircraft, work that could be completed by as soon as Monday night.
While investigators are focusing on the assumption that Mr. Lubitz crashed the plane on purpose, Mr. Michel, the chief French investigator, said, “We have no right today to rule out other hypotheses, including the mechanical hypotheses, as long as we haven’t proved that the plane had no problems.”
An official in the French National Gendarmerie press office said that Mr. Michel and two investigators from the Air Transportation Gendarmerie arrived in Germany on Friday to “coordinate the action of the French investigators with what was being done in Seyne-les-Alpes, and to ensure that this work was being coordinated with the Germans.”
Mr. Michel later returned to France, leaving his colleagues to work with their counterparts “as long as the mission requires it,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Read the whole story
· · · · · ·
The partner of the Germanwings co-pilot who crashed Flight 9525 into the French Alps was pregnant and the couple were apparently planning to get married, according to reports.
Directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov, the production is respectful of the opera’s history and meanings, even when it diverges from the libretto’s particulars.
 РИА Новости Украина |
Украина не вернула Индии пять самолетов после ремонта
Коммерсантъ Украина не вернула Индии пять военно-транспортных самолетов Ан-32 после ремонта, сообщает 30 марта «РИА Новости» со ссылкой на издание Defense News. Индия и украинское государственное предприятие «Укрспецэкспорт» в 2009 году заключили договор, согласно которому ... На Украине потерялись пять транспортных самолетов ВВС ИндииLenta.ru Украина потеряла пять индийских транспортных самолетовKM.RU Украина не вернула Индии пять самолетов, отправленных на модернизацию"Что происходит?" Mail.Ru -Российский Диалог Все похожие статьи: 42 » |
Putin bends the narrative of Russia's past to justify his mission to reclaim the country's lost glory.
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Военные США и Украины проведут наблюдательный полет над территорией РФ
ИА REGNUM С 30 марта по 4 апреля военные инструкторы США совместно с украинскими коллегами проведут наблюдательные полеты по заранее согласованным маршрутам. Специалисты из России на борту самолета ОС-153В, с которого будет осуществляться наблюдательная операция, ... Инспекторы США и Украины выполнят наблюдательный полет над РФ и БелоруссиейМаяк Представители США и Украины проведут наблюдательный полет над РоссиейАргументы и факты Представители США и Украины совершат наблюдательный полет над РоссиейСЕГОДНЯ Вести.Ru -Lenta.ru -Накануне.RU Все похожие статьи: 41 » |
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Two finance ministers are the perfect foils for the new German self-confidence as it emerges in the course of the European debt crisis.
Staunton, February 18 – As Vladimir Putin’s rule has taken on ever more features of fascism, analysts have focused on those fascist and proto-fascist writers he has cited in his speeches. But there may be a more immediate model: Admiral Kolchak who has been called Russia’s “first fascist ruler” by both his supporters and his opponents.
Three years ago, Mikhail Vtorushin researched Kolchak’s “fascism” (“The Phenomenon of Fascism at the Beginning of the 20th Century and Its Development in Siberia During the Civil War” (in Russian in the Omsky Nauchny Vestnik, no. 5 (2012), pp. 18-21.)
But now his findings and arguments are being disseminated to a much larger Russian audience by Pavel Pryannikov on the web site Tolkovatel, an especially important development because Vtorushin devotes as much attention to fascist practice as to ideology and because he is a historian at the influential Russian Armed Forces Academy.
As Pryannikov points out, “up to now even among the educated there is a view that ‘the White Movement’ in the Civil War was monolithic.” Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, among those opposing the Bolsheviks were people from the extreme right, the left, liberals, national democrats of the ethnic minorities and fascists.
To be sure, the last were identified as fascists only after the fact by Russian emigres who were struck by the parallels between the regime of Admiral Kolchak and that of Mussolini who called himself a fascist and by other parallels between tsarist Prime Minister Petr Stolypin whom they identified as a proto-fascist.
Sometimes those classifying Kolchak as a fascist were his opponents and did so to discredit him, but at others those doing so were his supporters and did so in order to praise what Kolchak did and to argue that his regime in Siberia was a model for the future government of Russia as a whole.
In his memoirs, K.V.Sakharov, a general who served under Kolchak, said that “the striving of the White idea to take the form of fascism in Siberia during the Civil War was only the first timid attempt,” but he added that “the White Movement in its essence was the first manifestation of fascism…not its foretaste but a pure manifestation of it.
Another Kolchak general, A.F. Matkovsky, said that the core of Kolchak’s idea was “the formula of ‘a united and indivisible Russia’ as ‘a democratic, legal and national state,” and that “it is time for all Russians to remember that they are children of Great Rus’ which could not fail to be a Great State. We are Russian and we should be proud of this.”
And Kolchak himself uttered words which remind one of Putin’s. “I was a witness,” he declared, of the failure of autocracy to prevent revolution and disintegration. And “I will not” seek to restore any system that cannot block such things but rather build a new kind of state capable of preventing them.
Kolchak attempted to implement Stolypin’s land program. He proclaimed the introduction of government guarantees for workers, including an eight-hour day, health insurance, and old age pensions. And all these things alienated the extreme right, as did his dropping of “nationality” from the Ogarev trinity of official nationality.
Liberals saw this as an indication of Kolchak’s support for the wealthy and his unwillingness to open the way for democracy which would have brought to power those who spoke for the poorest and most deprived groups. One of their number, the Social Revolutionary Ye.Ye. Kolosov was explicit on exactly that point.
As he put it, “Siberian fascist with Admiral Kolchak at their head represented a purely caste system of power, narrow and closed in on itself and consisting of the upper strata of the military circles. European fascism preserves a civilian structure … but the Siberian fascists subordinated the civilian authorities entirely to the military, reducing them to nothingness.”
What struck both supporters and opponents of Kolchak and his fascism, Pryannikov says drawing on Vtorushkin, was the enormous role intellectual advisors who had fled from central Russia to Siberia played in elaborating this system. Indeed, Pryannikov suggests that it is possible to speak of “’the philosophy of fascism of the Russian intelligentsia.’”
As Kolchak faced defeat at the front and in the rear, he turned ever more to the use of force against the population and any political opposition, something that drove ever more people into the arms of the Bolsheviks even if they had been opposed to them at the outset. As a result, the first attempt at Russian fascism failed.
After the Bolshevik victory in the Civil War, the Tolkovatel editor says, supporters of Russian fascism fled abroad writing and organizing where they could, “from small fascist parties in Manchuria, the US and Europe to the proto-fascism of Stalin and his Russian opponents in the Great Fatherland War.”
And he adds in conclusion: “the defeat of Germany and its allies in World War II delegitimized the idea of fascism, and only 70 years later, on the post-Soviet space is its renaissance beginning” – and like a century ago, Pryannikov says, “the intelligentsia is again its advance guard” with political leaders following their lead.
Read the whole story
· · ·
Germanwings Crash Settlements Are Likely to Vary by Passenger Nationality by JAD MOUAWAD and NICOLA CLARK
The payout for an American aviation disaster victim averages $4.5 million versus $1.3 million for a German victim.
Russian Theater Director Fired for Offending Christiansby NEIL MacFARQUHAR and SOPHIA KISHKOVSKY
The Culture Ministry said Boris Mezdrich had failed to mitigate an outcry among the Russian Orthodox Church who were offended by various aspects of the production of “Tannhauser.”
 Последние новости России и Украины, главные новости дня. |
Летчик разбился, пытаясь облететь земной шар
Последние новости России и Украины, главные новости дня. Внимание! Обнаружив ошибку или неточность в тексте, выделите ее и нажмите Ctrl+Enter. Далее следуйте инструкциям. Редакция портала заранее благодарит всех бдительных читателей! Летчик разбился, пытаясь облететь земной шар. Как передает talks.su, 62-летний Эрик Гиллу ... Решивший обогнуть земной шар швейцарский пилот-одиночка разбился в ЭквадореAviation EXplorer Швейцарец разбился во время перелета памяти погибшего другаDay.Az Швейцарский летчик разбился при попытке облететь земной шарИА "NewTimes.kz" Все похожие статьи: 51 » |
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New York Times “I am very worried and afraid about what Russia might do next,” said Urszula Wronko, 69, a retired postal worker who watched in a bright red jacket and beret from a nearby stone bench, her shaggy dog squirming happily in her lap. “It gives us all ... and more » |
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Greenaway offends Russia with film about Soviet director's gay affairby Carmen Gray for The Calvert Journal, part of the New East network
British director speaks to The Calvert Journal about his latest work featuring Sergei Eisenstein’s hidden relationship with a Mexican man in 1931
Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein is revered as one of cinema’s founding fathers. So it’s no surprise that Russia – in its crackdown on free expression and its repressive stance on homosexuality – has been touchy about Peter Greenaway’s depiction of the figure in his new feature Eisenstein in Guanajuato, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival last month.
The British auteur director displays his typically transgressive irreverence in depicting the national hero’s 10-day love affair with a male guide in Mexico, offending a Russia that previously celebrated him for decimating capitalist vulgarity in his 1989 masterpiece The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.
You can’t make realism – it’s an absolutely ridiculous cul-de-sac. And why bother trying? God has done it already
How is it that Russia has never made a good film about Eisenstein?
Continue reading... Московский комсомолец |
Следователи вышли на след возможного организатора убийства Немцова
Московский комсомолец Следствию стало известно имя и фамилия человека по прозвищу Руслик: согласно показаниям Заура Дадаева, он предоставил участникам преступления пистолет и автомобиль, а также обещал им по 5 миллионов рублей. По данным газеты "Коммерсант", Руслик может быть и ... СМИ: СК установил личность возможного организатора убийства НемцоваРИА Новости «Ъ»: СК установил личность еще одного фигуранта дела об убийстве НемцоваГазета.Ru СМИ: Следствие вышло на след организатора убийства НемцоваГазета Труд Аргументы и факты -ИА REGNUM -Утро.Ru Все похожие статьи: 145 » |
Five Reasons Why Russia Should Never Have Sold Alaska to the U.S.by By Katrin Scheib <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com>
When a large swath of land changed hands from Russia to the United States 148 years ago, both sides in the Alaska Purchase felt it was a good bargain.
 Ura.ru |
08:47 Русик «нарисовался». Следователи, занимающиеся делом об убийстве Немцова, сообщили о новом фигуранте
Ura.ru Следователям СКР и оперативникам, расследующим дело об убийстве политика Бориса Немцова, удалось установить личность человека по прозвищу Русик, который, по данным следствия, передал преступникам оружие и пообещал заплатить пять млн рублей. Пока следствие ... и другие » |
Czech President Milos Zeman has confirmed his plans to visit Moscow to participate in the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the World War II victory over Nazi Germany.
Российская журналистика умерла by Радио Свобода
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Леонид Парфенов, Леся Рябцева, Роман Супер и Галина Тимченко - о том, смогут ли медиа в России выжить в услови...
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From: Радио Свобода
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 CNNMoney |
Now might be the time to buy Russia. Yes, really.
CNNMoney Is the worst over for Russia? Some brave investors seem to think so and are piling back into its markets. The oil-dependent economy is on track for a deep recession this year, and there's a risk that the West may impose more sanctions over Ukraine. and more » |
U.S. Says Shipping Uranium Out of Iran Is Still Part of Possible Nuclear Deal by MICHAEL R. GORDON and DAVID E. SANGER
An Iranian official had seemed to rule out an accord under which the fuel would be sent abroad, but American negotiators said the issue had not yet been decided.
Tehran says a U.S. drone strike killed two Iranian advisers in Iraq last week, but the United States says it has only struck Islamic State (IS) militants in its campaign.
 NEWSru.com |
Яшин обнародовал рукописную записку Немцова о погибших на Донбассе бойцах из РФ
NEWSru.com Оппозиционер Илья Яшин рассказал о том, как продвигается работа над докладом, посвященным участию российской армии в военном конфликте на юго-востоке Украины, подготовкой которого занимался Борис Немцов. "Мы работаем по плану и в скором времени надеемся его ... "Груз 200" из Украины в Россию шел в две волны - материалы НемцоваУНИАН Соратник Немцова рассказал, сколько получили семьи российских солдат, погибших на ДонбассеГлавред В РФ платили за молчание семьям погибших солдат в Донбассе - ЯшинЛІГА.net СЕГОДНЯ -РБК Украина -Forbes Россия Все похожие статьи: 58 » |
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10 Charts That Explain Russia
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The co-pilot who killed 149 people when he plunged Germanwings flight 9525 into the French Alps had been treated for suicidal tendencies, it had emerged.
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Staunton, March 30 – Most analysts have suggested that sanctions and international isolation were a cost Vladimir Putin was willing to pay in order to get his way in Ukraine, but Andrey Lipsky, an editor of Novaya Gazeta, says that is exactly backwards: the Kremlin leader wanted isolation and launched his Ukrainian campaign to get it.
Indeed, he suggests, Putin’s comments to the FSB leadership last week confirm that interpretation because they suggest that the Russian president is worried that further contacts with the outside world could lead to a repetition of the destabilizing protests of 2011-2012 during the upcoming 2016 and 2018 election seasons.
And to prevent that from happening and thus to ensure the continuation of his own power, the Novaya Gazeta editor argues, Putin is quite prepared to suffer what he believes will be the short-term costs of sanctions and isolation in order to ensure his own long-term political survival.
Since the Crimean Anschluss and the West’s response, Lipsky points out, people in both Russia and Western capitals have been asking why – why did Putin need to take a step that he might have been expected to understand in advance would entail so many costs and bring what seems to others so few benefits?
Clearly, most of the propagandistic memes – “Russia wants to restore the empire,” “It must defend Russian speakers from the fascist junta,” and “a desire to seize the territories of others is in Russia’s blood” – are now explanations but rather something that must be explained, he continues.
What else is left? Preventing Ukraine from joining NATO and the West establishing a base in Sevastopol? “Strengthening the security of the country? The growth of Russia’s influence in the world? The rallying of the ‘Russian world’? [or] Consolidation in the framework of a ‘Eurasian project’?
Very early on, Lipsky says, it became clear that Putin’s policies in Ukraine had done Russia more harm than good, that Russian influence in the world had declined, its security had been compromised, that NATO had been reinvigorated under expanded American influence, and the status of Russian speakers abroad had gotten worse.
All this happened not because of the West’s desire to box Russia in but because by Putin’s actions in Crimea and Ukraine more generally, “Russia violated the [existing world] order, and the others simply have been defending themselves.” And they now view Moscow as a dangerous source of instability, “unpredictable and unprofitable.”
Given this balance sheet, the commentator says, many have simply decided that Putin miscalculated, but quite possibly there is a better explanation. His actions in Ukraine, Lipsky says, are “only a cover for something more essential for the ruling political command in Russia” – the preservation of its political power.
The Kremlin leader’s remarks to the FSB last week provide a clear indication of this. He talked about “attempts by ‘Western special services’ to use Russian NGOs and ‘politicized unions’ to discredit the authorities and destabilize the situation in Russia in the course of the 2016 Duma and 2018 presidential campaigns.”
In thinking about these words, it is important to remember that “precisely injustice and falsifications during the Duma elections of 2011 in favor of the party of power led angry citizens in Moscow and certain other major cities into the streets,” something that clearly frightened Putin and his entourage and led to a tightening of the screws.
Increasingly, this campaign presented the opponents of the regime as “agents” of the West, something that required presenting the West as an external enemy. Otherwise the moves against the regime’s domestic opponents could go only so far, at least by making use of this ideological paradigm, Lipsky suggests.
But until Crimea, the Kremlin lacked one thing to ensure acceptance by the Russian population of the equating of the opposition with Western agents and that was “the mass mobilization and rallying of the population around the existing authorities. The Ukrainian crisis,” Lipsky says, “and ‘the return of Crimea’ provided this happy possibility.”
Whether Putin can maintain that without doing something more for any length of time remains an open question, but it is clearly the case, the Novaya Gazeta editor says, that the Kremlin is going to do everything it can to maintain it through the 2016-2018 “political season by propaganda, the actions of the force structures, and new legislation.”
Obviously, “total isolation would not be profitable” for Russia even in pursuit of that goal, Lipsky says. “But partial, with a limitation of harmful contacts and with sanctions which mobilize the population…and explain why the economic situation is deteriorating…is completely useful.”
And indeed, it may “at the present stage only strengthen the arguments of the regime which is seeking to go into the new political season” without having to face any real danger that Putin and his regime will be challenged.
Read the whole story
· · ·
Staunton, March 30 – The announcement three weeks ago that Prague is prepared to transfer 360 hectares of territory to Poland in the Těšín Silesia area is the latest indication that the border changes in the former Soviet and Yugoslav spaces are sparking new questions about borders in the northern portion of Eastern Europe, according to Aleksey Fenenko.
On March 6, the Moscow State University international relations specialist notes in an article in NG-Dipkuryer, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Subotka announced the transfer, something he said would end a territorial dispute between the two countries that has been going on since 1958.
Because Subotka provided no additional details and because the amount of land involved was so small, his words attracted relatively little attention. But Fenenko argues that border disputes are endemic in the region and that “the wave of de-Stalinization” at the end of the 20th century “has led to the de-legitimization of the borders of the 1940s.”
That is because, he continues, “for public opinion of these countries, references to the fact that the borders were established by ‘Stalin’s USSR’ is sufficient to recognize their illegitimacy.” The EU has been able to quiet “but not stop the process of their review.” And after the Těšín Silesia case, “the process is starting to take on a practical character.”
“Up to the present,” Fenenko says, “border changes have taken place in the Balkans and the territory of the former USSR. In Central Europe, on the contrary, the borders of the 1940s have been preserved.” He suggests that “the disintegration of Czechoslovakia … did not change the situation since it occurred quickly along administrative borders within the country.”
Now, however, “the situation is changing,” the Moscow specialist says, as the Těšín Silesia shows. Warsaw and Prague, under pressure from the Entente agreed to the border in 1920. But both sides had problems with it, and immediately after Munich in 1938, Poland demanded and got a border adjustment in its favor.
In 1947, following the Soviet occupation of the entire area, Poland and Czechoslovakia signed an accord that largely restored the 1920 border; but Poland later tried to make greater changes, something Czechoslovakia rejected. In any case, the small adjustment announced now highlights the reality that “Poland and the Czech Republic have a problem” with borders.
The 1938 Munich agreement between Hitler and Chamberlain is “traditionally viewed in Europe exclusively in a negative way.” Any reference to it, including by Moscow, Fenenko says, represents a kind of “’red line’” that must not be crossed. But Prague’s action this month has the effect of implicitly and partially rehabilitating of part of Munich.
Could this prompt other countries in Central Europe, and especially Hungary, to raise similar issues, Fenenko asks. The answer is far from clear. Germany isn’t going to question its borders: the current ones are too much part of that country’s self-definition. But the situation with regard to Lithuania may be different.
The current Polish-Lithuanian border follows a line established by the Soviet-Polish treaty of August 16, 1945, but “problems of the border delimitation between Poland and Lithuania remain,” the Moscow scholar says, with each side having claims to portions now within the borders of the other.
On the one hand, many in Lithuania consider portions of Poland and Russia’s Kaliningrad Region to be part of Little Lithuania. And many Poles still remember when Vilnius was within Poland, not Lithuania. As a result, Fenenko says, “Warsaw could activate discussions about the principles of the delimitation” of the border.
There is also the possibility of disputes between Poland and Ukraine. According to the 1945 Soviet-Polish treaty, Poland gave up territories to the Ukrainian SSR;” and “officially, Warsaw has refrained from advancing demands on Ukraine.” But that doesn’t end Ukraine’s western border problems: it also has them with Moldova.
The most serious set of border issues involve Hungary and Hungarians. After 1945, some of Hungary’s lands were handed over to Romania, others to Yugoslavia, still others to Czechoslovakia and the USSR. In 1991, Budapest began talking about the formation of “a Greater Hungary” that would reunite all of these.
The US blocked that at the time by promising Hungary eventual NATO membership if it refrained. But, Fenenko points out, “over the last few years,” discussions of this kind in Budapest have “intensified.” Budapest now has problems with Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine, problems it has exacerbated by demanding autonomy and offering dual citizenship to ethnic Hungarians.
Now, given “the precedent of the Polish-Czech negotiations,” the Moscow specialist continues, “Budapest in the future may achieve the establishment of a negotiation framework with Ukraine about the provision of particular rights to Hungarians” in that country.
Fenenko’s article is important for three reasons: First, it is clearly an effort to set the stage for Russian demands for border changes by suggesting that this is not a “Moscow problem.” Second, it suggests that some in the Russian capital are interested in promoting such conflicts as a way of expanding Moscow’s influence over the region.
And third, it is a reminder that the West, having failed to stop Russia’s “territorial” adjustments in Georgia in 2008 or in Ukraine in 2014, has opened the door not only to Vladimir Putin but to other leaders around the world who may decide that the era of fixed borders is over and that they have everything to gain by seeking to expand their own.
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 Дни.Ру |
Обама повис на трапе самолета
Дни.Ру 14:19 / 30.03.2015 ОБАМА, падение, СШАПрезидент США Барак Обама едва не совершил затяжное падение по ступеням трапа, выйдя из самолета. Для того чтобы сохранить равновесие, ему пришлось ухватиться обеими руками за перила. < НАТО ищет российские танки под ... Обама чуть не упал с трапа борта №1ИА REGNUM Барак Обама едва не рухнул с трапа самолета: видеоНТВ.ru Обама чуть не упал с трапа самолетаМосковский комсомолец Российская Газета -РИА VladTime.ru -Российский Диалог Все похожие статьи: 43 » |
 io9 |
No, NASA Is Not Planning To Build A Space Station With Russia
io9 This past weekend, the head of Roscosmos announced plans to build a new orbital space station in partnership with NASA to replace the aging International Space Station. Too bad it isn't true. This now appears to be a classic case of wishful thinking ... Russia announces plan to build new space station with NASARaw Story Russia and US to Build New Space StationteleSUR English Is Russia Building A Brand New Space Station With NASA?Yibada (English Edition) all 53 news articles » |
Russians’ Hatreds Easy to Unleash But Difficult to Limit, Reverse or Overcome by paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, March 30 – Many are taking comfort in the notion that just as
Russians appear to have reduced their hatred of immigrants when encouraged by the Kremlin to hate Ukrainians instead so too their hatred against the latter could be ended relatively easily if Moscow changed course -- and in any case won’t expand to include others.
But in fact, as a panel discussion organized by Radio Liberty points out, there are two problems with the optimistic vision. On the one hand, it ignores that there was a reservoir of hatred among many Russians ready to be whipped up by the government for its own purposes. Moscow did not create it; it exploited it (svoboda.org/content/transcript/26926308.html).
And on the other, such a view also downplays the danger that while Moscow may be able to exploit such hatreds, it could quickly lose control over them and not be able either to restrain them once they are unleashed or to prevent them from being extended to other groups that the regime either wants to protect or does not want to offend.
Indeed, to deal with this situation, the panel suggested, the regime will either have to offer new objects of hatred in the hopes of diverting Russians from one enemy to another or employ massive amounts of repression in order to limit the expression of that hatred. In either case, the problems involved with such feelings and their use are not limited or short term.
Thus, for example, any lessening of official anti-Ukrainian hysteria in theabsence of any new target group almost immediately threatens to provoke new outburst of hostility toward migrants or toward other groups, including Chinese workers and industrialists in the Russian Far East whom Moscow has every reason to protect lest it offend Beijing.
(Indeed, that issue is so sensitive that the authorities have taken down an entire website after it featured an article showing that xenophobic attitudes and actions against the Chinese are in the rise there. The article was it sibpower.com/novosti-regionov/kitaiskaja-migracija-na-rosiiskom-dalnem-vostoke.html, but now even the site has been shut off.).
Consequently, thanks to Putin’s actions in unleashing and exacerbating Russian hatreds in the current crisis, Russia and the world are entering a Martin Niemöller moment, one in which just because they hate someone else now, there are no guarantees that they will not hate others, including ourselves, later.
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 Bloomberg |
Why the Jihadi Threat to Russia Is Getting Worse
Bloomberg The number of Russian nationals fighting alongside Islamic State forces in Syria and Iraq has roughly doubled over the past year, to a range of 1,500 to 1,700, according to recent estimates by the head of Russia's FSB security agency and by the Kremlin ... and more » |
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US Coding Site GitHub Disrupted by Cyberattackby webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
U.S. coding site GitHub said it was deflecting most of the traffic from a days-long cyberattack that had caused intermittent outages for the social coding site, with The Wall Street Journal citing China as the source of the attack. "Eighty-seven hours in, our mitigation is deflecting most attack traffic," the GitHub Status account said in a tweet on Sunday. "We're aware of intermittent issues and continue to adapt our response." GitHub supplies coding tools for developers and calls itself the world's largest code host. The attackers paralyzed the site at times by using distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attacks, a technique commonly used to disrupt websites and computer networks, according to The Wall Street Journal. They pushed massive amounts of traffic to GitHub by redirecting overseas users of the popular Chinese search engine Baidu Inc, according to the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper said they targeted two GitHub pages that link to copies of websites banned in China - a Mandarin-language site from The New York Times and Greatfire.org, which helps Chinese users circumvent government censorship. A Beijing-based Baidu spokesman said a thorough investigation had determined it was neither a security problem on Baidu's side nor a hacking attack. "We have notified other security organizations and are working to get to the bottom of this," said the spokesman. On its blog, GitHub said the attack began early on Thursday and involved "every vector we've seen in previous attacks as well as some sophisticated new techniques that use the web browsers of unsuspecting, uninvolved people to flood github.com with high levels of traffic." GitHub said it believed the intent of the attack was to convince the company to remove a specific class of content. The Chinese government has repeatedly denied it has anything to do with hacking. Asked about the report, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China itself was one of the world's largest victims of hacking and called for international dialogue to tackle the issue.
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Министерство: культуры или культа? by Радио Свобода
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Дело "Тангейзера" и клерикализация власти. Скандальное увольнение министром культуры Владимиром Медински...
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From: Радио Свобода
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| Time: 00:00 | More in News & Politics |
 Российская Газета |
Минобороны сформировало в Крыму 96 частей и соединений
Российская Газета С апреля до середины июля на военную службу отправят около 1,5 тысяч молодых крымчан и севастопольцев. Об этом сегодня на коллегии Минобороны сказал глава ведомства Сергей Шойгу. По его словам, некоторых призывников распределят по воинским частям, дислоцированным ... Шойгу рассказал о подготовке обороны КрымаГазета Труд Шойгу: Из центра в Евпатории можно будет управлять всеми типами военных спутниковВзгляд Шойгу заявил, что в Крыму развернута полноценная войсковая группировкаГазета.Ru Аргументы и факты -РИА Новости -ЮГА.ру Все похожие статьи: 105 » |
 Комсомольская правда |
В США водитель авто попытался протаранить ворота штаб-квартиры АНБ
Комсомольская правда В США неизвестный попытался протаранить ворота штаб-квартиры Агентства национальной безопасности (АНБ) и был застрелен. ЧП произошло в городе Форт Миде, расположенном в американском штате Мэриленд, неподалеку от Вашингтона. Полицейские и представители службы ... Стрельба у штаб-квартиры АНБ: неизвестный протаранил воротаМосковский комсомолец В штаб-квартире АНБ около Вашингтона произошел инцидент со стрельбойРБК В перестрелке у здания АНБ один человек погиб и один раненНовости Армении Корреспондент.net -TLTnews.net -euronews Все похожие статьи: 42 » |
Islamic State Destruction Renews Debate Over Repatriation of Antiquities by TOM MASHBERG and GRAHAM BOWLEY
As militants ravage artifacts, a debate has resumed over whether Western collectors should return disputed items to their countries of origin.
Although the security threat posed by radical Islamist groups is hardly a new concern in Russia, Kremlin officials in recent weeks have intensified their rhetoric, specifically around the domestic security dangers of the Islamic State (IS) militant group.
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Russian Museum Seeks a Warmer Adjective for Ivan the Terrible by NEIL MacFARQUHAR and SOPHIA KISHKOVSKY
The 16th-century czar’s reputation was scrubbed in one of several exhibitions that have presented a generous view of the country’s history.
Новая жизнь «Анны Карениной» by Голос Америки
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Популярность романа в англоязычном мире растет Originally published at - http://www.golos-ameriki.ru/media/video/new-life-of-anna-karenina/2699946.html.
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From: Голос Америки
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| Time: 02:42 | More in News & Politics |
With relations between US and Israeli leaders plunging to an all-time low, US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appear to be employing a divide-and-conquer strategy to promote divergent agendas
Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, NATO deputy secretary general, on NATO's response to Russia's rising nuclear rhetoric.
Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, NATO deputy secretary general, on NATO's Russia deterrence.
Russia's helicopter industry, shepherded by Russian Helicopters — last year the world's largest copter exporter — has its eyes set on competing in the emerging market of high-speed helicopters.
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Over the past few years, Russia has increasingly been spouting nuclear rhetoric to scare America and Europe into getting its way. Vladimir Putin recently said he considered mobilizing his nuclear forces as he seized Ukrainian territory.
Tormented killer co-pilot Andreas Lubitz thought he was going blind - when there was nothing wrong with his sight.
In the months before the Airbus 320 tragedy, the Germanwings first officer booked himself in for checks at the University clinic in Dusseldorf.
He convinced himself he had an eye condition which would see him lose his job, and end his dream of flying jumbo jets.
Investigators fear delusions over his sight -caused by his fragile mental health - may have driven him to commit mass murder for nothing.
They believe his 'eye problems' were a figment of his imagination.
The clinic is handing over medical records on Lubitz to German state prosecutors, a spokesman confirmed today.
They would normally be prevented from doing so under the country's strict laws on patient confidentiality.
But the move came amid calls for greater openness on the health of pilots who hold the lives of others in their hands.
Lubitz, 27, went for checks at the clinic at least three times between February and March 10 this year.
German state prosecutors said he was was being seen for an 'existing condition with the relevant medical treatment'.
His employers confirmed that he had passed the usual 'fit to fly' examinations and they had not shown any problems.
Cops now believe Lubitz's fear over his sight was purely psychosomatic.
He was set to undergo his next medical checks with the German aviation authority Luftfahrtbundesamt (LBA) in June, and may have feared his depressive illness and eye sight 'problems' were about to be revealed.
Germanwings stress that Lubitz did not inform them of the sick notes which he had been given for work, which covered the day of the tragedy.
Dusseldorf clinic confirmed he was being treated there, but declined to give specific information on his medical files.
A spokesman said the records which were being given to state prosecutors contained 'explanations' of his diagnosis.
The clinic had previously denied that Lubitz had been treated there for depression.
Timeline: Germanwings plane crash investigation
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· ·
Guards shot one man dead and seriously wounded a second when they tried to ram a vehicle into the entrance gate at the Fort Meade, Maryland, headquarters of the National Security Agency on Monday, news reports said.
Federal law enforcement officials told Reuters that two people in a car tried to ram the spy agency's gate and initial indications are that at least one was seriously injured.
The motive was unknown but the incident was not related to terrorism, the officials said. The FBI is investigating.
One federal law enforcement official told Reuters the incident appeared to be a local criminal matter.
White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz said: "The President has been briefed on this morning's incident at the National Security Agency and will be updated as appropriate."
NBC, quoting sources, said the men, disguised as women, were in a stolen car. A guard shot at least one of the men and a gun and drugs were found in the vehicle, a Ford Escape.
NBC Washington showed a photo of a uniformed man being put into an ambulance in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
The NSA is investigating the incident, which occurred about 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Washington, NBC said.
Television helicopter video footage showed two damaged vehicles outside the gates and at least one person in uniform being wheeled to an ambulance.
One of the vehicles was marked 'police' on the side and had its hood up. The other, a dark vehicle, had front-end damage.
An NSA spokeswoman had no immediate comment. Spokesmen for Fort Meade and Anne Arundel County Police referred questions to the spy agency.
Earlier this month, a former prison guard was arrested for shooting at the NSA building at Fort Meade.
Hong Young, 35, was a suspect in shootings at nine locations. No one was seriously injured in any of the incidents.
The NSA is the United States intelligence agency responsible for global monitoring, collection, decoding, translation and analysis of information and data for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes.
The NSA is also charged with protection of US government communications and information systems against hackers.
Around 40,000 people work at the facility which is located in Fort Meade, Maryland.
Read the whole story
· ·
“Helicopter footage showed two cars – one a police vehicle and the other a black vehicle with no insignia – in a junction that had been roped off near the security gates,” reports BBC News. “The cars appear to have collided and debris is strewn across the intersection. A white cloth appears to cover something beside the black vehicle.”
“Local emergency responders say that the NSA police force is handling the incident, and local agencies are providing support,” according to the BBC, which said it was unable to obtain an official comment from the NSA.
The UK Mirror says two people were injured during the incident, one of them the uniformed man described being placed in an ambulance by the BBC. Ynet News says the man who tried to ram the gates was shot dead by security forces. CBS News confirms that one fatality occurred during the incident, plus two injuries.
CBS News is reporting that two women were in the vehicle attempting to ram the NSA gates, and that at least one woman is dead, with the other “taken to Shock Trauma for treatment.” The CBS report claims authorities have also found “cocaine and a weapon” in the car involved in the incident, and that there is currently no armed shooter at large.
The gender of the individuals attacking the NSA headquarters is disputed in various reports. NBC News is claiming that the two people in the car were “men disguised as women,” not women. The NBC report does note that drugs were found in the vehicle, coinciding with CBS. CNN is also reporting that the attackers were two men.
Further updates note the car was stolen, and there is not yet any indication of an organized terrorist attempt but, rather, one anonymous official described the attack as a “local criminal matter” to NBC.
This is not the first recent report of trouble at NSA headquarters. Earlier this month, the FBI arrested a man for firing shots at the building, as part of a shooting spree that lasted several weeks, including shots fired at a service truck which injured one of the passengers with shattered glass.
Update 12:30PM: ABC News reports that one of the perpetrators was shot dead on the scene, while the other is “severely injured” and probably will not survive. The injuries of the security officer are said to be “non-life-threatening.” Some reports have suggested the officer was struck by one of the vehicles involved in the crash – two damaged SUVs can be seen in helicopter footage – rather than being hit by gunfire.
CBS News in Baltimore reports the FBI will take over investigation of the incident from the NSA’s security force. There are still said to be no links to organized terrorism.
This story has been updated as developments surface.
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· ·
FORT MEADE, Md. —A firefight erupted Monday when two people in a car tried to ram a National Security Agency gate at Fort Meade, killing at least one person, according to preliminary reports cited by two U.S. officials.
The two federal officials said at least one of the people in the car died after the firefight ensued just after 9 a.m. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing incident on the record.
The FBI released a statement, saying, "FBI Baltimore is investigating a shooting incident which occurred this morning at a gate at the National Security Agency at Fort Meade just off (Route) 295 in Anne Arundel County, MD. The shooting scene is contained and we do not believe it is related to terrorism. We are investigating with NSA Police and other law enforcement agencies. Our Evidence Response Team is processing the crime scene, and FBI Agents are doing joint interviews with witnesses. We are working with the US Attorney's Office in Maryland to determine if federal charges are warranted. We have no further information at this time to release."
Col. Brian Foley, Fort Meade garrison commander, released a statement, saying, "The incident has been contained and is under investigation. The residents, service members and civilian employees on the installation are safe. We continue to remain vigilant at all of our access control points."
NBC News is reporting two men disguised as women tried to enter the facility, which led to an exchange of gunfire.
NBC News reported a search of the vehicle, a stolen Ford Escape registered in Maryland, revealed a gun and some drugs.
Aerial video showed multiple vehicles involved in a crash on the connector road from Route 295 to the Fort Meade entrance gate.
Aerial video showed an emergency responder being loaded into an ambulance.
An NSA spokesperson declined to comment.
Refresh <a href="http://wbaltv.com" rel="nofollow">wbaltv.com</a> and our app, and watch 11 News for late-breaking updates.
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One man is dead and another severely injured after a shootout at one of the main gates of theNational Security Agency located at Fort Meade, Maryland.
Two men dressed as women attempted to “penetrate” the entry point at 9 a.m. ET with their vehicle when a shootout occurred, officials said.
"There are indications they were dressed as females," an official said.
One perpetrator is confirmed dead on the scene; the other "severely injured” and is not likely to survive, according to one official.
“The incident has been contained and is under investigation,” Colonel Brian Foley, Fort Meade garrison commander, said in a statement. “The residents, service members and civilian employees on the installation are safe. We continue to remain vigilant at all of our access control points."
The FBI said they do not believe the incident is related to terrorism. Law enforcement sources say there are initial indications that the vehicle used by the suspects was stolen. The FBI evidence response team is on the scene investigating and testing for the possible presence of drugs.
The incident is being investigated by FBI, NSA Police and Army Criminal Investigation Command. Anne Arundel Police and Maryland State Police are also on the scene assisting.
President Obama has been briefed on the incident, according to White House spokesman Eric Schultz.
ABC's Devin Dwyer contributed to this report.
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- Men Dressed as Women Shot Outside NSA Gate, Tried to Ram Past Checkpoint, Officials SayABC News - 2 hours ago
- Official: 1 dead at Fort Meade gate crashingWBAL Baltimore - 36 mins ago
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