Russia 110505 Basic Political Developments

Belarusian police release Russian human rights activists

http://en.rian.ru/world/20110505/163860646.html
00:32 05/05/2011

The Belarusian authorities have released five Russian human rights activists detained on Wednesday, a spokesman for a Belarusian human rights group said.

Viktoria Gromova, Lyubov Zakharova, Irina Paikacheva, Yury Dzhibladze and Alexander Mnatsakyan were detained at the office of the human rights group, Vyasna (Spring), shortly before they were to attend a news conference on recent human rights abuses in the country.

"All of them have been released. No charges were pressed against them," Valentin Stefanovich told RIA Novosti.

Belarusian police earlier said the Russians were being questioned for identification purposes but "not detained."

Belarusian authorities detained and later expelled two Russian human rights activists earlier this year for taking part in anti-government protests following Belarusian presidential elections in December.

MINSK, May 5 (RIA Novosti)

Presidential council for human rights will monitor situation with Russians detained in Minsk

Today at 09:20 | Interfax-Ukraine

The Russian presidential council for human rights is alarmed by the detention of prominent Russian human rights activists in Minsk.

"We will respond to that. The development is one more proof of the need to set up a Russian-Belarusian human rights commission with the presidential council," head of the council Mikhail Fedotov told Interfax Wednesday evening.

He said that the regulations of the council imply that the council reports on the state of human rights in foreign countries to the Russian president.

"Belarus is the most immediate subject of our studies. Russia and Belarus are members of the Union State. We are not indifferent to the way human rights are observed in fraternal Belarus," he said.

"We will regard any encroachment on the rights of Russian citizens as a violation of the Union Treaty," Fedotov said.

Belarusian law enforcers detained several Russian civil activists in Minsk on Wednesday, among them a member of the presidential council, Yury Jibladze.

It was not the first detention of Russian rights activists in Minsk. A leading figure of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Andrei Yurov, was expelled from Belarus earlier this spring.

The Russian-Belarusian commission with the presidential council actively functioned in the middle of last decade. Prominent representatives of the Russian and Belarusian civil society were on it. Among other things they filed queries to Belarusian security and law enforcement bodies in relation to the disappearance of journalists and independent politicians.

Read more: http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/103669/#ixzz1LSPJKDIH

US prosecutors told not to call Viktor Bout “Merchant of Death” in court

http://rt.com/politics/news-line/2011-05-05/
RT News line, May 5
The nickname “Merchant of Death” has been banned from use in the court proceedings against Russian businessman Viktor Bout, who is expecting trial in the US on charges of selling arms to terrorists and plotting to kill American citizens. The American prosecution has satisfied the request by Bout’s lawyer, who asked that the nickname be eliminated from the case materials as it is irrelevant and provocative. After the 2007 book on Bout, Merchant of Death, and the 2005 movie Lord of War, Bout - who claims he is innocent - has been struggling with his media image of the bad guy.

Equatorial test launch gives new spin to Soyuz

http://rt.com/news/soyuz-europe-russia-project/print/
Published: 5 May, 2011, 10:31
Edited: 5 May, 2011, 12:09

A Russian Soyuz rocket is preparing for a dry-run at the Kourou Cosmodrome in French Guiana, as part of an ambitious joint space project with Europe.

The rehearsal of a launch that is due in August 2011 is aimed at testing all the systems and working out all the procedures. The only thing different from a real launch is that the rocket is not actually fuelled.

The Soyuz spacecraft have decades of successful exploitation history in the Soviet Union and Russia.

However, in the Russian-European project the launch procedures have to undergo some changes.  

First of all, the climate and the weather conditions in French Guiana are vastly different from those at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, from where Russian rockets are usually launched.

In order to protect the rocket from the heat and humidity, a special mobile tower that works as a cover for the rocket was designed.

Apart from this, at the Kourou Cosmodrome the payload has to be put into the rocket strictly in a vertical position, whilst at the Baikonur the rockets are usually loaded horizontally and are then rolled out to the launch pad and made vertical.

The load that the Soyuz will have to carry contains satellites for the Galileo, Europe’s own navigation system.

The Soyuz-Kourou space project is quite beneficial for both sides.

Europe on its behalf gets to use one of the most reliable spacecrafts in the world.

Meanwhile, Russia has a chance to launch a rocket from a site very close to the equator. This allows the payload to be significantly increased, as the rocket gets additional starting speed from the Earth's faster revolution around its axis.

Russia orbits military communications satellite

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20110505/163862104.html
04:13 05/05/2011

A Russian Meridian series military communications satellite has been put into a designated orbit, a spokesman for the Russian Space Forces said on Thursday.

A Soyuz-2.1a rocket carrying the Meridian 4 satellite lifted off from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia at 09.41 pm Moscow time (17:41 GMT) on Wednesday.

"A Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with a Fregat booster has successfully orbited a Meridian satellite," Lt. Col. Alexei Zolotukhin said.

The official said that a communication link with the Meridian 4 had been established, and the satellite's on-board systems were operating without glitches.

The Meridian 4 satellite is the fourth in a series of military communications satellites being launched by Russia to replace the ageing Molniya system.

Russia has more than 100 satellites in orbit. Two-thirds of them are military or dual-purpose spacecraft.

MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti)