http://www.svd.se/opinion/brannpunkt/artikel_1656487.svd

Rena smörjan om ni frågar mig! Han har antagligen ett dolt motiv. Alla vet ju att Ola Tunander är en konspirationsteoretiker av rang i ubåtsfrågan. Ändå hänvisar Koivisto till hans påståenden som ”bevis”??!

Så här skrev Koivisto bland annat; ”Vem som visste är oklart, men någon visste. Om det hade varit Sovjetunionen som i stor skala låg bakom kränkningarna hade det lett till starkt tvivel om landets pålitlighet och vilja till avspänning.”

Ja, så kan man resonera om man är intresserad av efterhandskonstruktioner. Det var precis samma sak som hände när Alexander Litvinenko blev förgiftad av polonium 210 i London. Då sades det från visst politiskt/medialt håll att Putin (eller FSB) aldrig skulle vara så uppenbar att han hade låtit mörda Litvinenko med ett gift som så uppenbart skulle komma fram i dagen. (Man får inte glömma här att Poloniumproduktionen/hanteringen uteslutande är en statligt rysk angelägenhet.) Men vad man inte sade var att giftet valdes just p.g.av sin förmåga att undgå detektering. Så fungerar ryska makthavare! Ryska makthavare är manipulerande risktagare, om något skulle gå fel så kan de alltid manipulera lite till och snacka sig från ansvar, även om avslöjandet är genant för dem. De tänker inte på konsekvenserna av sitt handlande. Att hävda annat är att göra sig skyldig till en efterhandskonstruktion!

Ytterligare misstänkt argumentation som Koivisto gjort/gör sig skyldig till, i texten; ”Andropov bad mig förmedla beskedet till svenskarna att Sovjetunionen bad dem sänka varje ubåt de kunde upptäcka i de egna vattnen. När jag ett par månader ­senare berättade detta för Palme i samband med världsmästerskapstävlingarna i fri­idrott i Helsingfors såg han vresig ut och sade ingenting.”

Så dags att komma med det efter att incidenten var slut, då fanns det ju inga ubåtar kvar att sänka! Kremls ärend… jag menar, vems ärenden springer Koivisto, både då och idag?

Roger Klang, Lund den 03/09/2008

FSB: a Final Solution for Bloggers

Dmitry Soloviev, a leader of the Oborona youth movement in Kemerovo region, faces criminal charges for criticizing the “siloviki” in a LiveJournal blog. He is accused by the regional prosecutor of posting information that "incites hatred, hostility and degrades a social group of people—the police and FSB”. According to the anti-extremist legislation introduced in 2006 (more specifically, the infamous paragraph 282 of the Criminal Code), he may face up to two years imprisonment if convicted.

The case was initiated on August 11th and was based on an expert study conducted by an anonymous FSB “specialist”. The next morning, detectives and FSB officers conducted a search in Dmitry’s home and office, confiscated his computers and disks as well as Oborona printed materials, and questioned the activist.

The entries that the FSB considered "extremist" in actuality contain no sign of incitement to violence nor even a strong word. Most of them are in fact reposts from other blogs or from Internet media. Here they are (in Russian):

- about a police raid on Oborona's headquarters in Moscow;

- about FSB banning transportation of biomaterials abroad for medical purposes;

- about prosecutors and the Supreme Court refusing to rehabilitate the last Russian tzar Nicholas II, executed by the Bolsheviks;

- about me being drafted illegally into the army;

- about crimes of KGB in Soviet times.

This is not the first such case. A month ago, another blogger, Savva Terentyev, received a suspended sentence for 1 year’s imprisonment on similar charges. He was found guilty of "inciting hatred" against the police in a LiveJournal comment he had left. The difference is that Terentyev’s comment was in fact quite insulting (he suggested organizing the regular burning of corrupt policemen on the central squares of cities, not literally, of course), while Soloviev is only charged with posting already well-known facts about FSB and police activities.

This news has alarmed the Russian Internet community. Information about the new criminal case was reposted by hundreds of bloggers. Hundreds more signed a petition in support of Dmitry within a few hours after it appeared. This case has remained one of the top subjects for discussion for over a week. In fact, millions of Russian Internet users feel in danger now.

The police are extremely unpopular in Russia because of human rights abuses, brutality, corruption, invention of criminal cases, inefficiency, and lack of consideration for citizens. Unsurprisingly, blogs have probably been the most important media where people could discuss these problems. Even a simple query on [the popular Russian search engine] Yandex reveals that bloggers use the sarcastic term “ment” [similar to “fuzz” in the 1960s USA—Ed.] for a police officer almost twice as often as the more proper synonym “militsioner”. So, the strong reaction of Russian Internet users is understandable: nobody wants to be next.

A Committee in Support of Dmitry Soloviev has been created by popular bloggers, civil and political activists. They have begun to plan a campaign to help Dmitry and the Russian Internet community in general. Many bloggers have reposted Dmitry’s disputed entries on their own blogs, in order to put a dilemma before the police—who will not have to either arrest everyone or turn a blind eye to this “distribution of extremist information”. Donations are also welcome, because Dmitry will need to pay for lawyers and independent experts. The Committee asks for donations through PayPal to Oborona (please specify that this is for Dmitry Soloviev) or directly to Dmitry using Yandex Money (account # 41001167818533). More actions in support of Dmitry are planned for upcoming weeks.

The freedom of expression that Internet users enjoy is unseen on television or in newspapers in contemporary Russia. Those who have started this new campaign of harassment have a clear goal: to diminish this freedom. Any blogger now ought to think twice before posting anything that the police, special services or any other government body may find offensive or unpleasant. If Soloviev is found guilty, almost any kind of such criticism effectively becomes a crime.

Localităţi georgiene bombardate de ruşi

Declaraţia Uniunii Creştinilor Baptişti Evanghelici din Rusia cu privire la războiul din Georgia

Moscova, 28 august 2008

În cursul ultimilor cincisprezece ani, baptiştii din Rusia şi din Georgia s-au îndepărtat unii de alţii. [1] După secole de relaţii armonioase între cele două popoare ale noastre, [2] deplângem faptul că prietenia noastră este pe cale a se stinge. Noi, baptiştii, ne înstrăinăm unii de alţii. Ruşii trec acum prin clipe grele. [3] Noi respectăm şi iubim profund pe creştinii din regiunea caucaziană şi pe cei din Vest. Cu toate astea, noi, ruşii, suntem acuzaţi de agresiune, [4] şi mulţi dintre surorile şi fraţii noştri din Occident nu consideră că noi, credincioşii, facem excepţie de la aceasta. [5]

Nici nu mai ştim ce să spunem. Care este „adevărul" adevărat cu privire la conflictul dintre Georgia şi Rusia? Noi suntem foarte îngrijoraţi de războiul informaţional. Propaganda a inundat popoarele noastre de multă vreme, [6] dar războiul cuvintelor a devenit tot mai rafinat şi mai profesionist. Auzim astăzi despre maeştri ai comunicării (spin doctors) şi despre ştergerea graniţei dintre relaţii publice (PR) şi publicitate. [7] Firme de PR, aşa cum este Grupul Rendon din Statele Unite (care a fost angajat şi de organizaţii ruseşti) se autodefinesc drept „războinici ai informaţiei" şi „manageri ai percepţiei", oferindu-le jurnaliştilor informaţii. De aceea trebuie să nu ne grăbim de a formula judecăţi pripite. [8]

Noi, credincioşii, trebuie să ne ridicăm deasupra conflictelor; deasupra partizanatului politic îngust şi egoist. [9] Georgienii se simt invadaţi; [10] Rusii simt că îi protejează pe cei slabi şi vulnerabili din Osetia. [11] Crime de război au fost comise de ambele părţi. [12] Haideţi să privim lucrurile în adâncime şi să denunţăm războiul drept ceea ce este: o expresie satanică a urii. De fapt, războiul nu rezolvă niciodată nimic, ci conduce la noi războaie. Războaiele creează numai perdanţi. [13] Dumnezeu este împotriva războiului din Georgia - şi la fel trebuie să fim şi noi. [14] Acest război are şi cauze spirituale, [15], iar noi trebuie să le evidenţiem şi pe acestea. [16]

Expansiunea NATO şi reacţia rusească la aceasta dezbină Europa. [17] NATO şi rachetele sale se extind în ceea ce a fost altădată sfera sovietică de influenţă. Dacă NATO şi Rusia se află pe poziţii opuse, atunci expansiunea NATO nu poate crea decât teamă şi suspiciune de cealaltă parte. [18] Războiul din Georgia este rezultatul acestor temeri. [19]

Noi dorim să întindem o mână prietenească surorilor şi fraţilor noştri din Georgia. Îi invităm deci să ne întâlnim şi să discutăm. [20] Acest lucru este valabil şi pentru alte naţiuni şi popoare care au fost altădată parte a blocului răsăritean. Trebuie să discutăm despre trecut - nu în general, ci cu privire la felul în care noi, credincioşii, am devenit vinovaţi, în egală măsură, de crimele comise de guvernarea sovietică. Noi, ruşii, suntem parte a unei moşteniri tulburi pe care trebuie s-o clarificăm. [21]

Dar, odată cu aceasta, trebuie să discutăm şi despre viitor - despre felul în care noi, cei care am trăit cândva în sfera sovietică, am putea deveni o mare forţă pentru pace? [22] Noi nu vrem cu nici un chip să ne întoarcem la mijloacele şi condiţiile Războiului Rece - noi, ruşii, nu vrem să fi iarăşi izolaţi de Occident. [23] Haideţi să devenim împreună o voce pentru pace şi înţelegere. Împreună, noi, creştinii evanghelici, putem da o mână de ajutor pentru a reversa tendinţa actuală, care ne conduce pe drumul unui nou Război Rece. [24]

Rev. Vitaly Vlasenko, Directorul Departamentului de Relaţii Externe

Rev. Yuri Sipko, Preşedintele Uniunii Creştinilor Baptişti Evanghelici din Rusia

Comentarii

1. Textul nu ne spune şi a cui este vina pentru această răcire a relaţiilor. În esenţă, cele două uniuni baptiste s-au îndepărtat atunci când ruşii au încercat să păstreze controlul dictatorial asupra uniunii georgiene şi au catalogat drept erezie procesul de convergenţă şi contextualizare ortodoxă în care sunt implicaţi baptiştii georgieni de aproape douăzeci de ani.

2. „Secole de relaţii armonioase"? Interesant optimismul şi perspectiva pozitivă a puterii ocupante. Baptiştii ruşi nu par să fi auzit de audiate et altera pars. Mă tem că georgienii, baptişti sau nu, nu împărtăşesc aceeaşi viziune pozitivă asupra relaţiilor ruso-georgiene, baptiste sau nu.

3. Vă spun drept, mă podidesc lacrimile şi mi se rupe inima de baptiştii ruşi. Vai, ce oprimaţi şi nedreptăţiţi sunt drăguţii de ei. Re cineva nişte batiste în plus?

4. Auzi, „acuzaţi"; cu alte cuvinte, pe nedrept. Fraţilor, aţi citit ziarele în ultima vreme? Nu trupele georgiene sunt în Rusia, cu armata rusă a invadat teritoriul suveran al Georgiei.

5. Este oare de mirare că creştinii din Vest îi privesc pe creştinii ruşi ca fiind solidari guvernul rus, atunci când liderii baptiştilor ruşi acţionează în cel mai sfruntat mod ca unelte ale maşinii ruseşti de propagandă?

6. Este bine că recunosc influenţa propagandei, dar, din păcate, ţinta acestei afirmaţii nu este felul în care au fost spălaţi ei la creier, ci influenţa propagandei imperialiştilor occidentali, şi mai ales a nenorociţilor de americani, asupra georgienilor.

7. Mărturisesc sincer că sunt impresionat de aerul doct al acestor consideraţii J. Din păcate impresia îmi trece repede când mă gândesc la văduvele şi orfanii lăsaţi în urmă de invazia rusească în Georgia.

8. Iată că fraţii au informaţii „pe surse". Probabil le-au primit la ultima instruire la FSB ori la de Departamentul Cultelor.

9. Vai, ce nobile (şi banale) cuvinte! Parca văd babele din biserică smiorcăindu-se impresionate de aşa strălucită înţelepciune eclesială.

10. Nu „se simt invadaţi", frăţiorilor, ci chiar sunt, chiar şi acum, la aproape o lună de la începerea conflictului. Nu vreţi să de scutiţi de această sofistică de doi bani?

11. Vai, ce sentimente nobile. Mea culpa. NU mi-am dat seama până acum că armata rusă se află în Georgia cu o misiune cristică, mesianică. Desigur, nu înţeleg exact ce are asta cu bombardarea blocurilor de locuinţe, cu jaful la drumul mare, cu violurile şi cu crimele la care s-au dedat „mesianicii" soldaţi ai vajnicei armate a „Sfintei" Rusii. Iarăşi mi se face de Emetiral.

12. E drept că au fost crime de ambele părţi. De aceea e războiul atât de hidos. Dar ce au făcut baptiştii ruşi pentru a acuza crimele de război făcute de armata rusă? Ori aici nu facem decât să „vorbim discuţii"?

13. Iarăşi am căzut în banalitate.

14. Dacă Dumnezeu este împotriva războiului din Georgia, oare ce de încearcă baptiştii ruşi să-l justifice?

15. Ei, cu „cauzele spirituale", începem să lăsăm deoparte propaganda politică şi să ne apropiem de teologie.

16. Ne întrebăm şi noi care ar fi acele „cauze spirituale" şi aşteptăm să fin luminaţi. Din păcate, ceea ce urmează este iarăşi propagandă, baptiştii ruşi plângându-se de faptul că se simt „agresaţi" de extinderea NATO. Asta îmi aduce aminte de o explicaţie a unui ierarh ortodox care justifica agresiunea de acum câţiva ani a unei mulţimi de beţivi asmuţiţi de un popă ortodox asupra unui grup de baptişti la Ruginoasa, spunând că ortodocşii s-a simţit „agresaţi din punct de vedere spiritual". Măi să fie! Şi asta justifica pe deplin, în ochii ierarhului, ciomegele şi pietrele zeloşilor apărători ai credinţei strămoşeşti. Pentru orice om de bun simţ, apropierea dintre cele două situaţii este izbitoare.

17. Corect, dar ce drept are Rusia să se amestece în decizia unor ţări suverane de a adera la o alianţă sau alta? În afară de cazul în care consideră că acele ţări sunt încă parte a imperiului ei. Şi, de fapt, chiar aşa priveşte Rusia situaţia. Iar baptiştii ruşi par să împărtăşească aceeaşi perspectivă pur imperialistă.

18. Uitaţi-vă cum menţionează baptiştii ruşi, fără să clipească, „sfera sovietică de influenţă", ca şi cum existenţa acesteia ar fi parte a normalităţii. Absolut incredibil.

19. Cu aceasta am intrat direct in psihanaliză. Num Rusia nu a atacat Georgia din motive imperialiste, ci pur şi simplu pentru că s-a speriat, sărăcuţa. Şi speriată a rămas. De aceea nu reuşeşte să-şi retragă trupele e pe teritoriul invadat.

20. Să dea Dumnezeu ca această invitaţie să fie sinceră. În ce mă priveşte, dat fiind tonul acestei declaraţii, ca să nu mai vorbim de mesajul lui Belkov, mă fac să fiu sceptic. Pariez că ceea ce sugerează ruşii este o întâlnire la Moscova. Unde altundeva s-ar putea întâlni supuşii decât în capitala imperiului? Sunt foarte curios cum vor răspunde acestei provocări baptiştii georgieni.

21. Această idee a vinovăţiei egale în faţa comunismului este o marotă a celor care vor să vopsească superficial pentru rugina trădărilor din trecut. Nu, iubiţilor, nu suntem toţi egal de vinovaţi. Unii au fost mai laşi ca alţii, iar unii au făcut crime pentru care vor trebui să plătească, dacă nu aici, atunci la Judecata cea mare.

22. Interesant pentru această mentalitate a soluţiilor de circumstanţă este înclinaţia acestor pacifişti făţarnici de a exclude complet din discuţie chestiunea dreptăţii. Pacea veritabilă nu poate fi construită pe nedreptate şi crimă. Pacea ieftină pe care o predică aceşti propagandişti nu are nicio legătură cu pacea lui Dumnezeu. Ca să facă pace cu omul alienat de el, Dumnezeu a plătit preţul suprem al jertfei fiului său. Aceşti lideri îndoielnici ai baptiştilor ruşi vor să ne vândă în mod făţarnic o pace falsă şi ieftină. E dreptul lor, dar mă îndoiesc că vor găsi cumpărători atât de proşti ca să-i creadă atât în Georgia, cât şi oriunde altundeva în Europa de est.

23. Aici vedem de fapt motivaţia reală a acestei pledoarii. Baptiştii ruşi sunt îngrijoraţi de faptul că decizia lor de a se lăsa folosiţi de maşina propagandistă rusească îi izolează din nou de lumea liberă şi, nu de alta, dar riscă să rămână de sponsorizările din care se mai „lipesc" şi ei de câte ceva.

24. Un nou Război Rece ar fi o adevărată nenorocire, dar există şi nenorociri şi mai mari, cum ar fi un nou imperiu sovietic. Iar în viaţă trebuie să alegem uneori răul cel mai mic. Desigur, creştinii evanghelici ar putea şi ar trebui să joace un rol pozitiv în instaurarea păcii, dar nu orice preş este acceptabil în realizarea acestui scop. Şi, pentru a fi făcători de pace, evanghelicii trebuie să înceteze a acţiona ca agenţi de propagandă ai puterilor pământeşti. Biserica creştină este chemată să joace un rol protetic în lume, în raport cu puterile temporale. Acest lucru presupune însă un preţ pe care nu orice creştin este gata să-l plătească.

That some voices in Finland may be helping to foment a movement which they call a "Russian Intifada" among Estonia's Russian-speaking minority is shown by this blog, which is dedicated to the subject.

There has long been a noted connection between the Kremlin and Islamist groupings, and it is no secret that, as Alexander Litvinenko pointed out before he was brutally murdered in London, Al-Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri trained at a Federal Security Service (the former Russian KGB) base in Dagestan in 1998.

Even before the Georgian attack that triggered the Russian invasion of 7 August, there had been an upsurge in intelligence and counter-intelligence work by the various antagonists. Eduard Kokoity, president of the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia, claimed on 4 August that Georgian intelligence officers were preparing ‘acts of terrorism.’ Possibly; certainly there have been several bomb attacks in the region, although if so, they really should have concentrated on trying to block the Roki tunnel linking North and South Ossetia. It seems that the Georgians launched an unsuccessful military attack on the tunnel in the early stages of the conflict, but were blocked by Russian and South Ossetian forces, but the tunnel could have been sabotaged in advance.

Conversely, the South Ossetian intelligence and security agency, still tellingly called the KGB – although it is largely an offshoot of Russian military intelligence (GRU: Glavnoe razvedyvatelnoe upravlenie) – was reportedly behind a series of attacks on Georgian officials and police.

However, it has become clear the extent to which Georgian and Russian policy alike was informed – sometimes misinformed – by their intelligence agencies. While Georgia had good tactical intelligence on South Ossetian forces and defences, much gathered by the defence ministry’s Military Intelligence Department, this proved to be quite static, and they did not appear aware that the Ossetians were dug in on the approaches to the Roki tunel. Perhaps more seriously, they seem completely to have underestimated Russia’s will and ability to involve itself in the conflict. This was not just a diplomatic but also an intelligence failure. The Georgian Foreign Intelligence Service seems to have contributed to this mistake, and so the Georgians were caught entirely unawares by the scale and readiness of the forces Russia had prepared in its North Caucasus Military District.

As for the Russians, some analysts in Moscow and the West have claimed that the war represented an intelligence failure, because Russian forces in South Ossetia were taken unawares by Georgia’s attack on the region’s capital, Tskhinvali, such that they were virtually surrounded for a day, with no easy opportunity to withdraw. However, this is only part of the truth. The Russians had been anticipating and preparing for a conflict since early summer, not least by using their Kavkaz-2008 exercises to test invasion plans and moving 5 battalions of troops to the border with South Ossetia. However, they always intended to wait for Georgia to move first to allow them to present themselves as the peacekeepers and defenders of the Ossetians. It does appear that Moscow was caught off guard by the exact date when Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili moved against Tskhinvali while Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev were at the Beijing Olympics. The Russians appear to have expected the Georgians to take another week to prepare for their offensive, possibly a miscalculation by the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR: Sluzhba vneshnogo razvedky). However, in the main Moscow was not only ready for the attack, they proved to have a good and detailed knowledge of Georgian deployments and capabilities.

Once hostilities had begun, tactical intelligence became increasingly important. As well as electronic intelligence, the Russians relied on data gathered by aircraft, unmanned aerial drones and scouts from the GRU’s Spetsnaz special forces, specifically the 45th Detached Reconnaissance Regiment. The latter proved especially effective, not least considering their ability also to act as elite light infantry. President Saakashvili claimed that his forces killed 60 Spetsnaz, but this has not been confirmed and seems very unlikely.

By contrast, the Georgians’ tactical intelligence-gathering capacities were limited. Russia’s rapid assertion of complete air superiority prevented manned reconnaissance flights and also constrained their use of drones. Furthermore, the Military Intelligence Department’s assets within South Ossetia were largely within Georgian enclaves and had little opportunity to monitor Russian movements in the rest of the region. More to the point, the Georgians proved unable effectively to fuse intelligence from a range of sources in the chaotic and sometimes panicked atmosphere which followed the Russian onslaught. The extent to which the government genuinely believed that the Russians planned to attack Tbilisi demonstrates this failure effectively to assess Russian moves, not least because to defend the capital forces were withdrawn from Gori and the Kodori Gorge – which were key Russian objectives.

Russia also used the conflict as an opportunity to settle scores at home. On 11 August, FSB director Alexander Bortnikov announced that a Georgian Foreign Intelligence Service network had been smashed, with ten agents arrested including a senior officer, identified only as ‘Kherkeladze’, who was tasked with spying on Russian forces in the North Caucasus and the activities of Eduard Kokoity, as well as a Russian lieutenant colonel of Georgian descent. In an increasingly extreme propaganda blitz, they also accused Tbilisi of trying to recruit other Russians of Georgian ancestry by threatening their relatives.

In short, the successful incursion has strengthened the hands of the military and security interests in Moscow. These ‘siloviki’ – literally, ‘men of force’ – played a key role under Putin and it was unclear how influential they would be under President Medvedev. In fact, they have proved just as influential, shaping the conduct of the campaign and claiming the credit for what, in Moscow’s eyes at least, has been a successful operation. Already, Putin has decorated more than 50 GRU, SVR and FSB officers for their work associated with the campaign, and their distinctively hawkish policies are once again becoming Kremlin orthodoxy.

Firma MSI przedstawiła swoją najnowsza płytę główną P45-D8 Memory Lover, która jako pierwsza na świecie dysponuje aż ośmioma wolnymi złączami na pamięci RAM – po cztery na DDR2 i DDR3.

Urządzenie potrafi obsłużyć do 16GB pamięci typu DDR2 lub 8GB DDR3. MSI P45-8D zbudowano w oparciu o chipset Intel P45 Express. Współpracuje z procesorami wielordzeniowymi Intela z FSB do 1600MHz. Dodatkowo na płycie znajduje się złącze na kartę graficzną PCI Express 2.0 x16.

Źródło & Obrazek: 4press.pl

Russia rejects UN Georgia draft

Russia paraded captive Georgians on armoured vehicles

Russia has rejected a draft UN Security Council resolution on Georgia, saying it contradicted the terms of last week's ceasefire deal.

The draft text called on Russia to pull back its forces to the positions held before the current conflict.

But Russia says the truce allows its troops to stay in a buffer zone on the Georgia side of South Ossetia's border.

Moscow earlier dismissed a NATO warning that normal relations were impossible while its troops remained in Georgia.

The conflict broke out on 7 August when Georgia launched an assault to wrest back control of the Moscow-backed breakaway region of South Ossetia, triggering a counter-offensive by Russian troops who advanced beyond South Ossetia into Georgia's heartland.

Georgia says its action was in response to continuous provocation.

UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who is visiting the region, is to visit a camp for displaced people in Georgia on Wednesday. Tens of thousand of people have been made homeless by the recent conflict.

PEACE PLAN No more use of force Stop all military actions for good Free access to humanitarian aid Georgian troops return to their places of permanent deployment Russian troops to return to pre-conflict positions International talks about security in South Ossetia and Abkhazia

On Tuesday, Mr Miliband held talks with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, to update him on Nato's reaction at an emergency meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels which demanded that Russia pull its troops out of Georgia.

The foreign secretary criticised Russia's failure to keep to a promise to withdraw troops from Georgia.

Meanwhile, a Russia's main security service, the FSB, says a Russian officer has been detained accused of spying for Georgia.

An ethnic Georgian, Mikhail Khachidze was arrested in the southern Russian region of Stavropol near Georgia, an FSB spokesman said.

"[He] was involved in collecting secret information on Russian armed forces, its combat readiness as well as data on other servicemen," he said.

Russian veto

At the UN, Russia's ambassador said the French-drafted UN resolution went against the terms of the ceasefire brokered by France's President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Vitaly Churkin said the resolution should incorporate all elements of the six-point peace plan agreed last week.

He also objected to language in the draft reaffirming Georgia's territorial integrity, saying South Ossetia and Abkhazia did not want to be part of Georgia.

Russia can veto UN resolutions and the ambassador told the BBC that putting the text to a vote would be pointless.

He said: "It's a waste of time because the process of the withdrawal of Russian forces will continue."

Following a rebuke from Nato's 26 foreign ministers in Brussels, Moscow accused NATO of bias in favor of the "criminal regime" in Tbilisi.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Russia risked becoming the "outlaw" of the conflict, in an interview with CBS news on the sidelines of the NATO emergency meeting.

Russia says President Dmitry Medvedev told President Sarkozy that by Friday, Russian troops would either be sent home, be pulled back to South Ossetia or to a buffer zone along the border.

Russia said it had begun a pullback on Tuesday as it withdrew 11 military vehicles from the Georgian town of Gori.

A Russian officer told reporters invited to watch that the column was heading for South Ossetia and then home to Russia, but Georgia dismissed it all as a show.

Correspondents there say there are still several artillery positions and checkpoints in Gori.

And the operators of the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti told the BBC that Russian forces had seized the commercial harbour.

In an apparent goodwill gesture on Tuesday, the two sides exchanged prisoners at a checkpoint near Tbilisi, but on the same day Russia paraded captive Georgians on armored vehicles.

Now you are started in business 

The Business and Enterprise Select Committee quite rightly called for action on rising gas and electricity invoices, and the FSB has also raised its concerns that the situation will only get worse with the closure of Energywatch. There is a further need for recognition of the similarity between small businesses and domestic consumers and the creation of fairer pricing in the energy market. Much to address but who will take responsibility and when?

With over 30,000 calls from small businesses received every year, Energywatch is a familiar brand to many business owners. But from October 1 2008 it will be disbanded and with Parliament's Summer Recess the concern is that impact of the report will be lost and small businesses will have no recourse.

Celwyn Richardson, FSB Cornwall's Regional Secretary and Energy Spokesman said:

"I find it most unfortunate that this report comes out while Parliament is in recess, and with such a short time before Energywatch is "killed".

"The result is that there will be little chance of holding Government to account (even if the opposition parties wanted to do so), and the only scrutiny will be after the event when the initial damage will have been done!"

"As one who is working within the Energy Markets, I can see what others would describe as a "disaster" syndrome, descending upon us. But, those making the decisions in Whitehall and Downing Street will continue drawing their ample salaries while the small businesses who indirectly pay for them struggle even more."

John Holbrow, FSB environment and energy chairman, said:

"The FSB welcomes the recommendations of The Business and Enterprise Select Committee on rising energy prices and the recognition that these costs have an extremely adverse effect on business.

"Small business owners are very similar to small domestic consumers in terms of energy consumption patterns and expertise but often fall foul of complex bill formats, infrequent meter readings, incorrect billing, poor customer service and lack of information on switching suppliers.

"This report underlines our warnings that the demise of regulator Energywatch will have a detrimental effect on small businesses. Their work is unlikely to be covered by Consumer Direct, which will nominally take over energywatch's responsibilities but has shown little willingness or ability to tackle small business energy issues.

"It is alarming that with increased prices there will be nowhere for small businesses to turn."

Notes to Editors

The FSB is Britain's biggest business organisation with over 215,000 members. It exists to protect and promote the interests of the self-employed, and all those who run their own business. More information is available at www.fsb.org.uk.

More information about energywatch is available at www.energywatch.org.uk .

If you found this story interesting please press the button below to bookmark using one of the many social bookmarking sites. If you would like to keep up to date with news as it happens, why not subscribe to our RSS feed at the top of the right hand column?

Today’s employers face a difficult and confusing situation and risks arise as soon as they employ someone Whether you only have one or two part-timers or whether you’re IBM, you’re equally affected. 

So what can you do to minimise your risks?

Firstly, take time to get your recruitment right.  My top tip is “don’t recruit a problem”.  Follow these simple steps to massively reduce your risk:

Define your requirement.  Make sure you have an accurate and up-to-date job description and person specification.  Job descriptions have three main areas.

- the job title

- a summary of the main purpose of the job

- a list of the key tasks.  The last of these should always be “any other reasonable management request”

A person specification identifies essential job criteria. 

Data collection during the recruitment process should be rigorous.  Ask for relevant information in your application form and at interview ask questions which probe actual experiences and behaviours.  Do include some testing.  This must be relevant, non-discriminatory and consistently applied.

Keep full, accurate and objective records of your recruitment activities.  There are lots of bounty hunters out there.  For instance, a disabled applicant may submit two identical applications and disclose in one that he has a disability.  If you only ask the applicant without the disability in for interview, he will probably have grounds to complain to tribunal that you are discriminating on grounds of his disability.  Remember too that you may be required to disclose your interview notes.

Always take up references to cross-check information you have collected.  It’s perfectly reasonable to ask about employment dates, job title, salary, appraisal rating, recent disciplinary record, attendance record and circumstances of termination because these are all matters of historical record.

Secondly, standards are the minimum conduct required by an employer so communicate them early.  Some standards may be unpopular, for example, dress code or uniform.  If a prospective employee is unable or unwilling to comply with a reasonable and lawful standard, there’s not much point in progressing the application.

People tend to communicate in very general terms.  Develop the ability to be precise about what you want.  Take the time to check understanding of what you’ve said.

Where things do go wrong, most employers don’t do anything concrete early enough (“the ostrich manoeuvre”).  When they finally pull their head out of the sand, they realise they’ve had lots of little chats with an erring employee, discover nothing has changed and suddenly jump off the deep end by dismissing or by giving an inappropriately heavy sanction. This is unfair and can lead to tribunal claims.

Always tackle problems as soon as they arise and where problems continue escalate through the formal disciplinary process.  Employees who want to do so will improve.  Where an employee is unwilling to do so, he’ll realise that you’re going to pursue this. Such employees usually leave.

Kate Russell qualified as a barrister and later worked in industry.  She started Russell Personnel & Training in 1998 advising businesses on HR issues and delivering a range of highly practical employment law awareness training.  Famous (or possibly infamous) for once writing a short booklet for her clients called “Can I Sack The B*****d?”, she is also the author of the rather more sober 101 Tips For Employers – the briefcase bible to employment questions and the Law on the Move, a quarterly employment update.

Her new book Off the Sick List! How To Turn Employee Absence Into Attendance is published in September 2008.

For more information about HR products and services, visit her website at http://www.russell-personnel.com/ or call 0845 644 8955.

Free resources

To sign up for Kate’s free monthly newsletter or for a free fact sheet on recruitment email her at info@russell-personnel.com

Today I finally finished putting together my new PC (R.I.P. P4). I got my hands on a brand new Asus P5Q3 Deluxe motherboard and an Intel Q6600. I am running 4 GB of corsair DDR3 1333 ram with an Nvidia Quadro FX1500 graphics card from PNY. I have O.C. the CPU to 3.0 GHz multiplying the FSB 9*333 and have been doing some stress tests in order to verify stability. Hopefully tomorrow I will have positive results and some action shot of the computer running for you guys.

Intel esta trabajando en este momento en un ''nuevo'' Quad-Core, se trata del Core 2 Quad Q8200, trabajando a una frecuencia de 2.33Ghz, y sera lanzado el 31 de Agosto. Hablando mas sobre el CPU, tiene un FSB de 1333Mhz y un cache L2 de 4MB, de acuerdo a los planes de Intel, el precio del CPU seria de US$224.

El Q8200 sera el Quad-Core en 45nm, mas barato hasta la fecha, mientras que el Q9300 (2.5Ghz) y el Q9400 (2.6Ghz) seguiran a un precio estimado de US$266.

Solidarity is just the latest union to emit a collective brain fart of epic proportions, as well as displaying paranoid thinking of laughable quality.

According to Dirk Hermann, deputy secretary general of Solidarity, the union is concerned about the possibility that Investec's announcement on July 14 was only aimed at boosting its share price.

And of course Investec responds with the contempt that Solidarity deserves.

"It's a ridiculous statement they [Solidarity] are making," said Koseff in an interview with Fin24.com.

If I was Koseff, I would have used words like "fucking morons" and "dumb dickheads" and then proceed to teach, the now patently half-witted, Dirk Hermann from Solidarity the meaning of post hoc ergo propter hoc as well as how stock markets actually function.

While I am not a fan of Investec (it was absolutely lovely being short of the share, but that party is now over), I cannot help but feeling sorry for them in this case. The accusations are false, misleading, stupid, moronic, uninformed etc etc... and all that Solidarity has achieved is chucked all credibility out the window.

Bottomline: How do you know when Solidarity is talking shit in the future? Their lips will be moving.

Waar zal ik 'ns beginnen want zijn oeuvre is omvangrijk en zijn invloed op hedendaagse ontwerpers is nog steeds groot. Bij het grote publiek is hij bekend als ontwerper van Rotis (Serif, Semi Serif, Semi Sans en Sans Serif) en als de man achter het Erscheinungsbild van de Olympische Spelen 1972 in München.
Ook ontwierp hij de huisstijlen voor onder andere Lufthansa, ZDF, ERCO, Braun, bulthaup om er maar een paar te noemen. Zijn 'collega' Erik Spiekermann noemde het Rotis font overigens een Kopfgeburt; niet één echte letterontwerper vindt Rotis een echt font omdat Aicher het beeld van de letter belangrijker vond dan de leesbaarheid. Een font is geen kunstwerk maar dient ertoe informatie duidelijk over te brengen.

In 1952 trouwde hij met Inge Scholl, zus van Hans en Sophie Scholl. Zij werden in 1943 veroordeeld vanwege de verzetsbeweging Die Weiße Rose. Aicher zelf was geen lid maar heeft wel degelijk invloed gehad op hun denkwijze.

Aicher stond bekend om zijn analytische, bijna filosofische benadering als hij aan een project begon.

Een mooi voorbeeld daarvan is zijn werk voor FSB (een firma in duurzaam deurbeslag). De directeur kwam naar hem toe in Rotis (zijn atelier) en vroeg Aicher of hij "even een nieuwe catalogus voor hem kon ontwerpen." Aicher antwoordde: " Jongeman, ik ben toch geen huisschilder. Ga eerst maar 'ns naar huis en denk over het doel van uw bedrijf na; wat wilt u bereiken? Als u dat heeft bedacht, kom daarna nog maar 'ns bij mij terug." Zo kwamen zij samen tot een serie boeken die de doelen en bedrijfsfilosofie beschreef. Daaruit kwam dan als laatste het corporate design van FSB tot stand (het proces duurde vijf jaar!). Het bedrijf staat vandaag de dag bekend als 'de uitgever die ook deurklinken maakt'.

Al met al een korte weergave van de inhoud van dit omvangrijke boek. Blijf dit blog bezoeken voor deel 2!

Verkrijgbaar bij Phaidon Press voor € 51,99,-
Otl Aicher. First monograph on German graphic designer and educator Otl Aicher. Markus Rathgeb. 240 pagina's. ISBN 0714843962

(Afbeeldingen: www.phaidon.com, www.fsb.de)

Ryssland allt mer totalitärt.

Så visar det sig att jag nog hade rätt angående Medvedevs ensidiga ”korruptionsbekämpning”, som jag skrev till er om den 13/07. Han målar fan på väggen angående utländska företagsuppköpare och anklagar dessa för brott, korruptionsbrott, eller rättare - ”raiding”, som inte är ett brott i något land i västvärlden vad jag vet. Samtidigt försöker han att släta över FSB:arnas korrupta metoder att skaffa sig en förmögenhet, i det förflutna (och även släta över vad de gör idag förmodligen, eftersom han inte klarar av att frigöra sig från Putin), men det kan han inte säga trots att det är/borde vara ett brännande hett ämne, så han undviker FSB-frågan medvetet!

http://www.russiatoday.ru/news/news/27579

Nu vet jag att Ryssland bara kan bli så rikt som deras olje- och gasproduktion tillåter dem! Det är en lättnad för oss svenskar! Medvedev väljer vägen som mellanöstern och Afrika valt, och den är dålig för ett lands ekonomi. De är lika dumma som Mgabe, de förstår inte att de inte kan både ha kakan (blomstrande ekonomi) och äta upp den (begränsa ägandet till sin egen etnicitet)!

De må skapa aldrig så finurliga lagar för att komma runt detta faktum, men de kommer att finna att det inte fungerar! Och när det inte fungerar så kommer de att ropa att västvärlden och USA ligger bakom den ekonomiska lågströmmen i landet, precis som Mgabe och Idi Amin och alla övriga Afrikanska och Arabiska skurkledare gjort sedan de förstört sin egen ekonomi och dragit in sitt folk i inbördeskrig och konflikter. De är helt enkelt spaggar i stort format som tar till ”rasistkortet”, typ; ”svenska poliser är rasister”, ”jag får inget jobb för alla rasister vill inte anställa mig”. Eller i en stats fall; ”Det är sanktionerna som följde på vår frihetssträvan som orsakar recessionen/inflationen” et. cetera.

De kunde börja med att uppföra sig så skulle de snart få jobb - eller i statsfrågan - leva i blomstrande ekonomier, säger jag och nobelpristagaren i ekonomi 1999, Amartya Sen! Med våld förtrycker de sina kvinnor, och då menar jag inte nödvändigtvis våld riktad direkt mot kvinnorna, jag menar machokulturen som sådan, och på det följer en flytande skala av fattigdom och ineffektivitet, enligt Sen. Men de känner sig åtminstone tuffa, utom när USA och Israel förödmjukar dem i krig! Jag har sagt det tidigare; vi lever i två världar, i den ena visar man sin mandom i arméer i krig, och i den andra mer omedelbart i boxningsringen eller på gatan i gangstergäng och i mobbar, om man ska hårddra det! Hur ska man jämka ihop dessa två ytterligheter som har flytande gränser? Det är där etniska motsättningar föds i eller genom USA, för den ene kan förödmjuka, alternativt förnedra den andre i olika situationer om de är skitstövlar (som amerikanarna gör med Iraks män). Men det kan bara vara en sak som betyder något, och det är att stå närmare Gud, vilket inte Bush gör idag till skillnad från för ett antal år sedan! Där av den av mig förutspådda långa recessionen i USA, som lätt kan förvärras beroende på amerikanarna själva imorgon. Jag har roat mig med att samla urklipp på indicier om hur USA fundamentaliserats de sista fem åren. Det är min övertygelse att om man håller inne med sin reaktion innan man agerar med våld, så står man närmare Gud! Det är då man får statsvåld, till skillnad från i det motsatta fallet där man får en omedelbar reaktion av en mobb. Om man aldrig slår ifrån sig så är man enbart ett offer, och ett offer kan varken hjälpa sig själv eller andra. Guds utvalda nationer kan därför inte vara pacifistiska offer!

Hedersmord och självmordsbombningar kommer inte från vilken Gud man har, det kommer inifrån förövarna själva - det som försiggår i deras huvuden och hjärta, det är därför som även somliga kristna människor i mellanöstern praktiserar hedersmord. Allah eller den kristna guden blir aldrig tillfrågad om vad som är rätt i åsiktsförtryckande kulturer och av åsiktsförtryckande individer.

Jag är inte ute efter att stänga gränserna till vårt land, nej, faktiskt vet jag att den allra största anledningen till Amerikas överlägsna välstånd är deras (f.d.?) öppenhet för andra nationaliteter. Jag försöker vända kvinnoströmmen istället. Där skiljer jag ut mig från S.D., och den skillnaden gör hela skillnaden!

M.v.h. Roger Klang, Lund den 17/07/2008

On 24 November 2007 in Moscow, there took place "March of Those Who Disagree" – the largest action of the democratic opposition. I was one of its official organizers, and during the time of this March was detained by employees of the police upon the instructions of an UBOP [Administration for the Struggle with Organized Crime] operative. The court, which tried me in express mode without a lawyer and witnesses, issued a verdict – 5 days of arrest. Soon after leaving the special intake centre of the GUVD [City Administration for Internal Affairs] of Moscow, I noticed that outdoor surveillance of me had been established. The first time I uncovered it in the metro on the next day after release and two days before the elections – on 30 November. A tall man in a coat and with a bag on the shoulder was following me along the road from my home to the home of Garry Kasparov, with whom I was supposed to meet then.

On the next day, 1 December, a meeting of activists was taking place in the headquarters of «Oborona», dedicated to observing at the elections and to the actions planned for the next few days. Yulia Malysheva noticed a VAZ-2111 automobile of dark-green color with tinted windows (license plate P548PB97), in which two men were sitting. The car stood the entire evening adjacent to the entrance to the building where the headquarters of Oborona was found, while the men observed everyone entering and exiting from the door. After the close of the meeting, we decided to discuss certain questions in another place, inasmuch as the space of the headquarters, perhaps, is being bugged. Part of the people went there on foot, while I, Yulia, and another three of our activists rode there in Yulia’s car. A suspicious «Lada» drove off after us. In order to check if this was indeed surveillance, we did several circles and loops, in so doing the car did not stop following us. Any last doubts dissipated when we and they were standing at a traffic light, the light turned green, and Yulia decided to slow down. All the surrounding cars drove off ahead, while the car suspected by us stayed to wait for our maneuver.

After around half an hour of “confusing our tracks” we apparently managed to shake our tail. Just in case, we decided to make one more circle and noticed another car — a Daewoo Nexia of a silvery color with tinted windows (the numbers on the license plate were 791, region 177). It was driving behind us at a certain distance and several times pretended that it was parking: it would drive up to the sidewalk, reduce speed, lag behind us, — and suddenly would catch up to us once again. When we stopped not far from the metro, this car also stopped alongside. After this, we split up: Yulia went to converse with activists of the NDSM [People’s Democratic Union of Youth] to one café, and I with our guys to another. It is interesting that two men of characteristic appearance sat down next to us there as well. Maybe this could have been a coincidence too, but in the words of Yulia, the same kind of “couple” turned out to be next to their table concurrently as well.

On 2 December, Yulia and I were supposed to organize a mobile group and drive around to voting stations where violations had been recorded. Towards 13:00, we arrived at the Frunzenskaya metro station, adjacent to which Yulia had left the car after all the adventures described. The night hadn’t passed for the automobile without cost: all four wheels turned out to have been punctured, and the police later discovered 7-centimeter slashes on them. We were forced to move further by metro. On that same day, Yulia filed a complaint at the Khamovniki OVD [Department of Internal Affairs – police station] on the basis of the fact of the puncturing of the wheels. In the complaint, she made mention of the surveillance that she had noticed on the previous evening, but at the police they obviously did not believe her. Nevertheless, the policemen together with Yulia drove to the scene of the incident, while I set off there as well on the metro (there wasn’t enough room in the car). I got there a bit later and saw that two policemen next to Yulia’s car are conversing with three young people in civilian dress. The young people until then were sitting in a VAZ-2115 Lada of a silvery color with tinted windows (license plate M992OA177) and were watching Yulia’s automobile. The policemen just in case decided to check their documents, to which they got an unexpected reply: you can’t check us, talk with our bosses, they’ll explain everything to you. In so doing, the young people were extremely self-confident and aggressive, and at least one of them was obviously drunk. He kept writing down the license numbers of the police cars and was loudly promising the policemen that they would pay for their impudence. When I started to shoot what was taking place on video, the men hid in the car, and then began to shoot us on video. By this time, reinforcements that had been called in had arrived: two «Gazelles» with armed employees of the police. However they could not bring themselves to detain the three aggressive men: apparently, the threats had seemed real to the policemen. Ourselves, we decided not to tempt fate, and drove off from there.

…On the evening of 3 December dozens of people set off to the building of the Central Electoral Commission, in order to symbolically pay tribute to the memory of Russian democracy. Some (like myself) put on black armbands, others brought flowers with them, while one girl even put on a mourning dress. Still back on 2 December, all the approaches to the CEC had been blocked off. The situation was reminiscent one-to-one of Manège Square: trucks, cordons, OMON, police, access only by pass. All of Bolshoy Cherkassky per. was blocked off, and several adjacent blocks. I met with journalist acquaintances of the German television company ARD not far from the CEC (or rather, from the cordon that separated us from the Central Electoral Commission, to be more precise). When I started to comment on the action and our attitude towards the elections that had passed, people in civilian dress immediately appeared alongside, listening intently to me, but not undertaking any active measures. It is interesting that despite all the seeming indifference of the power to its reputation, the siloviki are afraid (for now) to act within the sight of journalists.

Soon more journalists and participants in the action appeared next to us, and we came up to the police barrier behind which stood so-called “cosmonauts” — OMON in full battle regalia, complete with body armor, helmets, knee pads, and so on. We asked for people to be let inside, but at first received a refusal. After lengthy negotiations the bosses in charge of the “protection” of the Central Electoral Commission nevertheless did agree to pass two people through into the reception area of the CEC. With me went yet another supporter of «The Other Russia», Pavel Zherebin. They checked our documents. Alongside me was standing a young person in civilian dress and saying to another: “That’s Kozlovsky, remember the face”. “Why remember?”, I asked. “You’ve got photographs, after all.” The young person replied: “Yes, we’ve got photographs, we’ve got everything!” Zherebin and I were escorted into the reception area, in total silence, by no less than ten people: the police top brass, OMON, UBOP, representatives of the CEC. Near the main entrance to the Central Electoral Commission stood spetsnaz armed with machine guns (presumably, «Vimpel»). In the yards stood more vehicles with OMON and military people. It was clear from the faces of those protecting the CEC: they had been told to be prepared for armed resistance. To me this seems absurd, after all the Russian opposition has never used methods of force, and besides, it doesn’t really need the CEC all that much. This can be explained, perhaps, only by the peculiarities of the world-view and thinking of the siloviki themselves.

On the next day, I first discovered outdoor surveillance near my home. Not far from the entrance stood a Lada of a silvery color with tinted windows (license place P995BA99), in which sat three men. Having stood there until around 13:00, they drove off, and in their place came a blue Ford— and also, of course, with tinted windows (license plate Y381OO177). Sitting in the Ford are three men and one woman. Then at night the cars switched places yet again — and it’s been going on like this for several days already. At the same time, neither the FSB nor the UBOP have not once undertaken any kind of serious attempts to “make contact” with me. Apparently, they consider “elaboration” [Russian intelligence term, meaning roughly “development”—Trans.] of me as a potential informant to be ineffective: I don’t have serious vulnerable places in my biography, while getting me to blow my top or forcing me to blab something inadvertently is also very complicated. By the way, it’s possible they’re being guided by some other considerations. It is likely that the objective of such close surveillance is to force me to get nervous, change my plans, perform ill-considered deeds. It needs to be said that they’re not having much success at this. At any rate, those close to me ascribe far more significance to this than I myself do.

I know that in recent days Yulia Malysheva, Alexander Averin (member of the Executive Committee of «The Other Russia»), and Igor Dandin (NDSM activist have all noticed surveillance after them, while a major from criminal investigation came to Mikas Murashev in his home — he wanted to chat about something. Likewise, employees of the law-enforcement organs and special services came recently to our activists in Tula and a series of other regions. There have also been graver situations: for example, on 22 November, two days before the March of Those Who Disagree, an assault was perpetrated on «The Other Russia» supporter Yuri Chervochkin in Moscow-suburban Serpukhov. He managed to report to associates that employees of UBOP familiar to him are conducting surveillance of him, but in an hour was found at his home cruelly beaten. The attackers beat to kill, but Yuri miraculously managed to survive. Now he remains in a coma, and doctors continue to fight for his life. A criminal case has been initiated, but few believe that the investigation will allow the guilty parties to be found and punished. The actions of the special services show that the greatest threat they consider to be the extrasystemic opposition – that is, organizations that reject the political horse-trading for power that is traditional for Russia. This is, besides the movement «Oborona», the United Civic Front, the prohibited natsbols, and the NDS/NDSM. To all appearances, these organizations have been attributed to the category of “incapable of negotiation” [nedogovorosposobnye] and therefore a tactic of suppression has been adopted in relation to them. Activization of the work of the special services with respect to me personally in recent times is explained, in my opinion, by the approach of the elections and adjacent loud actions, in the preparation for which I had participated (several actions by «Oborona» this autumn, the Marches of Those Who Disagree, and others).

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The warning comes as an FSB snap poll of over 1,000 business owners reveals that 57 percent have made complaints to their energy companies and that only half of those complaints are being dealt with satisfactorily.

With over 30,000 calls from small businesses received every year, energywatch has built up a solid reputation for small business representation in the energy market. But from October 1 2008 it will be disbanded. The FSB is warning that energywatch's work is unlikely to be covered by Consumer Direct, which will nominally take over energywatch's responsibilities but has shown little willingness or ability to tackle small business energy issues.

Celwyn Richardson, FSB Cornwall's Regional Secretary and Energy Spokesman
said:

"This is appalling news. As someone who works with Energy suppliers, I am well aware of the complications within the Energy Supply process and the difficulty a customer has getting to someone in authority when something goes wrong. Consumer Direct do not stand a chance. This whole idea is innocent in the extreme. As it is, most of the suppliers hide behind foreign call centres, and use those operations as "cut out" by then failing to support them by actioning the requests made."

John Holbrow, FSB environment and energy chairman, said:

"This survey provides damning evidence that some energy companies are still not treating small businesses properly.

"It is sad to see that the government is disbanding energywatch at the very time when its work on behalf of small business consumers is most needed.

"The government has so far failed to ensure that there is an effective alternative in place. With Consumer Direct seemingly uninterested, come October there will be thousands of small business owners with nowhere to turn for help when their energy companies take them for a ride."

Notes to Editors

Of the 1063 businesses that responded to the question "Have you ever lodged a complaint with your gas or electricity supplier?" 57% said yes and 43% said no. The reasons for their complaints were: billing problems (46%), inaccurate meter reading (21%), customer service (9%), difficulty switching supplier (24%). Only 51% of businesses had their complaints dealt with satisfactorily while 49% did not.

More information about energywatch is available at www.energywatch.org.uk

The FSB is Britain's biggest business organisation with over 215,000 members. It exists to protect and promote the interests of the self-employed, and all those who run their own business. More information is available at www.fsb.org.uk.

If you found this story interesting please press the button below to bookmark using one of the many social bookmarking sites. If you would like to keep up to date with news as it happens, why not subscribe to our RSS feed at the top of the right hand column?

• The housing sector - supply and construction of all housing (including renovation, maintenance and cleaning);
• Minor repair of tangible movable goods, including bikes but excluding other means of transport. Examples include shoes, clothes, computers, watches;
• Cleaning and maintenance services of all these goods and, in this case, other means of transports are included;
• Domestic care services (e.g. home help and care of the young, elderly, sick or disabled);
• All personal care services (including hairdressing, beauty services);
• Gardening services;
• Restaurants.

The FSB has called for the British government to seek a less rigid application of VAT rules to enable more flexibility in reducing sales tax. It has also insisted that the UK's historic exemptions - in place since EU accession - remain.

Sue Cave, FSB Cornwall's Vice Chairman and Financial Affairs Spokesperson said:

"With the building industry languishing and the tourism sector reporting a downturn, help for both sectors here in Cornwall is sorely needed, and any help would have a knock on effect to many other businesses. However whether the UK will take the opportunity to reconsider its VAT regime to encourage business across the board is open to question."

Tina Sommer, EU and international affairs chairman, said:

"As the credit crunch bites, some of the first luxuries to go will be home improvements, eating out and a trip to the hairdressers, so local businesses in these areas will welcome this move. The British government must take advantage of these proposals to ensure our high street can survive the economic downturn.

"National governments should be given more control over how they use VAT to stimulate demand, so long as there are not drastic consequences for the Single Market.

"The UK has been allowed to exclude certain items, such as newspapers and children's clothing, from VAT altogether, and this historic exemption must continue."

Notes to editors

In 1999, the Commission began a three year experiment to see whether reduced rates of VAT in certain sectors would have a positive impact on job creation and combating the black economy. National governments could submit to reduce VAT to not less than five percent in two labour-intensive areas. This experiment has been extended several times, but now the Commission has suggested formalising the arrangement to allow national governments more flexibility in applying reduced rates to stimulate the economy. More information can be found here:

The FSB is Britain's biggest business organisation with over 215,000 members. It exists to protect and promote the interests of the self-employed, and all those who run their own business. More information is available at www.fsb.org.uk.

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It has thereby fomented anti-Americanism domestically, while creating sympathy for itself in the West.

Russia plans to use nuclear weapons against the United States, and to use jihadists as its fall guys.

From Once Upon a Time in the West:

[…]
Earth Times has one of the best summations of the incident, pointing out that the previous day, in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, Lukashenko predicted that a street bombing would disrupt the campaigns preceding the October 12 parliamentary election. Comrade Alex linked his political opponents to the USA, with the following accusation: "They have always said it openly: They only give money when something happens. Therefore demonstrations or even better riots or explosions." Anti-Lukashenko critic Anatoly Lebedko, who was quoted by Kremlin-run Novosti, fears that the Belarus' neo-Soviet regime will identify the country's beleagured opposition as the bombing perpetrators. In addition to regime critics, the Belarusian KGB has targetted for repression evangelical Christian groups, ethnic Polish associations, and Western non-governmental organizations, such as the Washington-based National Democratic Institute. "There are circles of people close to the state, who could well be interested in increasing tensions before the vote," intimated Svetlana Kalinka, chief editor of the opposition Narodnaya Volia newspaper, quoted below.

[…]

Notwithstanding the confusion and recriminations generated by today's bombing in Minsk, Belarusian opposition parties, including the Belarusian Social Democratic Party-Assembly, whose leader Alexander Kozulin has been in jail since 2006, intend to contest the October parliamentary election. In the Kremlin-run Interfax report below the anti-Lukashenko Party of Communists of Belarus (PKB) is to be distinguished from the Communist Party of Belarus, which supports the president and is allied with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The world communist movement considers the PKB to be a capitalist-funded front for "Western subversion" in Belarus.

[…]

Similarly, a vanished story from Novaya Gazeta, many of whose journalists have been assassinated:

FSB Bombers

A series of terrorist attacks took place in Moscow in the mid-1990’s. The most tragic was an explosion in a trolley on Strastniy Boulevard. It was described as a well-coordinated attack on Moscow by militants. But suddenly it turned out that the bus at the VDNKh Station was blown up not by Chechen militants, but by none other than a former KGB colonel. His guilt was established in court.

Besides that, it also came to light that an attempt to blow up a railroad bridge over the Yauzu River was also done not by militants, but by a former officer of the FSB. Evidently he would have succeeded too, had he not been blown up himself while placing the explosives.

It turned out that both of the former members of the special services were directly connected to the gang of Maksim Lazovskiy. At least eight of the men working in close contact with the group were current FSB officers. This was established by the chief of the 12^th Department of Moscow Criminal Investigations (MUR) unit, Police Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Tskhai. As soon as it became clear that Petrovka [TN: Moscow headquarters of the MVD, located at 38 Petrovka] would not let go of its prey, Lazonskiy and his closest subordinates were killed. Tskhai also died, from cirrhosis of the liver. However, not one of the Colonel’s colleagues believed he died of natural causes; they noted he led an exemplary, sober lifestyle. Tskhai’s friends are convinced that he was poisoned.

In connection with the explosions that it turned out involved officers of the security services, working with the Lazovskiy gang, one cannot sidestep the explosions of the apartment buildings which shook Moscow on the eve of the second Chechen war. The explosions were blamed on Chechens. But one of the main witnesses in this story told me in a recorded interview that contrary to what was asserted in the investigation, he did not rent out the basement of the building on Guryanova to the militant Gochiyaev, but to someone else entirely. From the sketch put together from eyewitnesses, former FSB Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Trepashkin recognized an agent of the special services… [TN: ellipsis in original.]

Besides that, the leadership of the FSB has not been able to plausibly explain what sort of training they were conducting in Ryazan with a bag of RDX and a timing device. Nor what became of the officers who were placing this device and whose conversations with their leadership were identified on the city telephone switch.

After the scandal that arose in connection with the “training”, the investigation into the circumstances surrounding it was curtailed.

Do the interests of the State require it to murder people?

One more example. In Kaliningrad employees of RUBOP exposed a group backed by officers of the local FSB office. A person who worked at kidnapping and extortion turned out to be an agent of the special services. In a videotape of his interrogation he described how he had used an automatic rifle to kill a well-known entrepreneur in the city. He said did it on the orders of none other than the head of the Department of Counter-Terrorism and Defense of Constitutional Order of the Kaliningrad regional FSB office. An officer of state security was directly involved in a physical elimination.

It is telling that these circumstances were investigated by neither the FSB nor the Prosecutor’s office. Furthermore, officers of RUBOP refused to investigate information they received on possible criminal activities of the special services.

What is the meaning of all these strange stories? Apparently during the trial of the former KGB lieutenant colonel Vorobyev, who blew up the VDNKh bus, he cried out, “This is a insult to the special services!” What was the former officer trying to say with this? Why in his view is the trial of a man who committed a terrorist act not a completely natural, legal activity, but an insult? Perhaps because, acting on orders, he was convinced that he was working in the interests of the State, a man devoted to his work as a professional, but who had been sent to the plank as a common terrorist? If so, then can you imagine the divide in the mind of this special services officer between the concepts of what is legal and what, in his view, is expedient?

The curious phrase of the lieutenant colonel took on a new meaning when a document turned up in my hands that seems to me has extraordinary social significance. This is, judging from its contents, a 70-page top-secret instruction that explains a lot of what has been happening in this country for the last fifteen years. It brings together dozens of terrorist acts, committed on the territory of Russia and abroad, under one strategic concept.

I publicized excerpts from this instruction in 2002, but events associated with the murder of our colleague Anna Politovskaya, former KGB Lieutenant Colonel Aleksandr Litvinenko, and the attempted poisoning of Yegor Gaidar, have caused me to consider this document anew.

“The processes underway in the criminal sphere,” reads the introduction to the instruction, “represent developments that could directly affect state security. Organized criminality and its manifestation as criminal terror threatens the bases of state power…. Standing in opposition to our society now are clearly organized structures, founded in the enormous potential of the shadow economy, able to cover their activities with the help of corrupt government officials, and having available first-rate professionals for the liquidation of both non-criminal businessmen and politicians… What is critically needed is a structure with the genuine capability of fulfilling -- through the use of intelligence, agent operations and technical means -- assignments aimed at preventing and neutralizing specific negative developments…

“The direct insertion of personnel from the clandestine services into service, commercial, entrepreneurial and banking structures, agencies of state direction and executive power, as well as the creation of offices and firms covered through the use of contacts within these structures will allow… the creation of a vast agent network.”

The document spells out in detail exactly where agents should be inserted: into the executive agencies, the financial-banking system, the tax and customs services, the stock markets and courts.

“At the stage of gathering operational materials, penetration and neutralization of gang-formation would also be possible using operational-action methods,” reads the instruction. “A completely secret special branch is being created… In addition to the creation of a central special branch, the creation of regional operational-action groups would also be expedient…”

The organizational form of this extra-legal structure “could be a private detective or guard service. The leaders of the enterprise would for the most part be individuals… released from the operational services of the MVD, FSB and GRU of the Russian Army General Staff.”

“In order to cover these intelligence-gathering and operational-action activities… it is proposed that the creation of social organizations like the ‘Association of Veterans of the Russian Special Services’, etc., would be expedient. The offices of such organizations could be used as safehouses for bringing together operational-action groups and housing employees who find themselves in an illegal situation.”

“On the basis of such structures, it would be possible to create permanent criminal pseudo-gangs, which would come into close operational contact directly with organized crime groups of a bandit type, as well as those specializing in contract murders and terrorism…”

“In order to provide the highest quality cover for non-officially covered employees involved in the conduct of complex operational activities for the swift alias penetration into criminal surroundings, and in order to increase their security, there is a genuine need for organizing in both the regions and at the center fictitious military units with all the proper attributes.”

And further – note: “In cases of extreme need… branches of non-officially covered intelligence services – Spetznaz – could be used for the physical liquidation of leaders and active members of terrorist and intelligence-diversionary groups engaged in conflict with the federal authorities. Physical liquidation can only be carried out on individuals sentenced to death by the Russian judicial organs, or with the aim of preventing severe consequences, also in accordance with existing laws of the Russian Federation…”

The Special Services Threaten

The current document contradicts, of course, the Constitution, the norms of criminal law, and our conception of government, in which extrajudicial reprisals are not possible. This, in any event, that is what Russia’s leaders tirelessly emphasize. It turns out, however, that in Russia a complete system has been put together from the special services exactly for extra-judicial reprisals.

But should one really believe a piece of text without signature or classification markings? The person who gave the document to me swore that it was signed by one of the heads of GUBOP at the time, the decorated Hero of Russia Colonel Seliverstov, and the person removed the classification markings at the time he photocopied the document in order, as he put it, “not to cause problems for journalists.”

I got in touch with the Colonel. The fact that the secret instructions had fallen into the hands of the mass media, it seemed to me, threw the Colonel into shock. Seliverstov assured me that he had signed no such document, but went on to say, “The person who passed you this document committed a crime against the State.”

In his place, Seliverstov sent a man who presented himself only as “an employee of the competent organs.” He tried to convince me that the document itself was not criminal, in the same way that a knife is not necessarily a murder weapon: “The question is how it will be used -- it could be used to cut bread,” the unnamed man explained. He insistently recommended against publicizing the document, otherwise, he claimed, “problems might arise [for me] as they did for Pasko and Nikitin.” (The reader is reminded that Pasko and Nikitin were former Navy officers who were accused of exposing state secrets. – Author.)

The telephone conversation with Seliverstov and the meeting with his representative convinced me that this secret instruction actually did exist. In addition, experts on the special services with whom I discussed the document noted that such a document could not come into existence without a more general directional document at the level of the government. This was consistent with what was said in the document that was passed: it stated that there existed a secret government decree, in the elaboration of which the instruction was also composed. Yet another person claimed that First Prime Minister Yuri Skokov had a hand in the creation of the decree in the beginning of the 1990’s.

Of course, no one associated with the creation of documents contradicting the law, and thereby providing grounds for criminal prosecution, would willingly admit to this, much less publicly. But might there be a few indications that would allow one to establish with a high degree of certainty that such a document exists and is in action to this day?

For instance, in the beginning of the 1990’s one of the leaders of the MVD in a private conversation told me about how the current methods for fighting organized crime had become obsolete, and it was necessary to develop new approaches. In particular, he said, it was necessary to make it legal for agents inserted into criminal gangs to kill.

In the secret instruction, I noted an echo of the thoughts of the General about the use of non-traditional methods in fighting organized crime: “…The capabilities and methods of the special services and law enforcement agencies for fighting organized crime… are insufficient to requirements. The documentation of criminal activities is being perfomed at a low level of professionalism and on a weak material-technical base… non-traditional approaches are needed, methods and decisions for the conduct of operational-investigation activities.” It would seem the General was musing about what had already been laid out in the lines of the government decree and agency instruction.

There is yet another indication that the document was not a fake: real life. A large number of crimes were conducted literally according to the scenario quoted in the document. Compare the activities of the groups that we already discussed with the instructions. They coincide completely. Can one not conclude that the criminal gangs of the Larionov brothers in Vladivostok, Vepsa in Nakhodka and Lazinovskiy in Moscow were all pseudo-gangs, created by the special services? And the 45^th Airborne Brigade – a “fictitious military unit with all attributes”? If so, then it becomes understandable why the small group of service members were not subordinate to the brigade’s commander, but detailed to the intelligence chief of the VDV.

The instruction speaks of the need to create -- “in order to cover these intelligence and operational-action activities” -- “social organizations, for example the ‘Association of Veterans of the Russian Special Services,’ etc.”. Look around – there are now dozens of such associations.

Going back to the instruction: “What is critically needed is a structure with the genuine capability of fulfilling -- through the use of intelligence, agent operations and technical means -- assignments aimed at preventing and neutralizing specific negative developments…” Were such structures created? I think so. This was probably the top-secret branch of the FSB created at the beginning of the 1990’s, called URPO. The expansion of the acronym was: Directorate for the Investigation of Criminal Organizations. It was headed by General Yevgeniy Khokholkov. The branch had a staff 150 officers, whose job it was to insert clandestine members into criminal surroundings. On the basis of personal conversations with Khokholkov, I came away with the impression that URPO was created for the specific objectives laid out in the instruction.

The country learned about URPO in 1998, when five members of the directorate held a press conference and announced that a secret branch was performing extra-judicial reprisals. In particular, the officers said that the leadership had hatched a plan for the physical elimination of Boris Berezovskiy. Senior government officials ridiculed the press conference. At the time, it seemed to me that the senior officials were right. Nowadays I do not so unequivocally accept their arguments. It is hard to imagine that five officers of the FSB – all solid lieutenant colonels and colonels – all of a sudden lost their minds and publicly started talking nonsense, knowing perfectly well that they would not escape punishment. (Today one of the participants lies murdered, a second was thrown in prison on fabricated charges. The remainder, having repented, helped “expose” their comrades who refused to repent.)

After that press conference at which the true role of URPO emerged, the Directorate was quickly shut down and re-formed, and it leader at the time, FSB Director Kovalev, was sent into retirement.

The series of apartment bombings that was used to justify the Second Chec