russia

Russia

Kosova government declare independent from Serbia in 2008.

DAMAGE TO SPEKTR MODULE OF THE RUSSIAN SPACE STATION MIR  WAS DUE TO OOLLISION WITH A SOYUZ CARGO SHIP.



World’s longest cable-stayed bridge unveiled by Russia
Russia has brought out the world’s longest cable-stayed bridge (1,104 m) linkingVladivostok to Russky Island.
Russia is spending 20 billion US dollars in pursuit of its Soviet-era dream of turning the port into a Russian version of
San Francisco to pull massive investment.
This troubled multi-billion investment is directed at reviving the country’s distant Far East.






THE REASON FOR CHECHENYA IN NEWS WAS THE SEPARATIST ACTIVITY BY LOCAL PEOPLE AGAINST RUSSIAN GOVT



PRIME MINISTER OF SERBIA WAS ASSASSINATED IN 2003
SERBIA WAS IN NEWS BECOSOF ITS LONG RUNNING CIVIL WAR KILLINGOR DISPLACING THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE.







VALDIMIR PUTIN INVITED 40 HEAD OF STATES IN MAY 2003 TO CELEBRATE TRICENTENARY OF CITY OF ST.PETERSBERG





Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd.(SSTL) lost 21 licences after the Indian Supreme Court cancelled all 2G spectrum licences in February, 2012. Sistema, which holds a 53 per cent stake in SSTL is a Russian conglomerate.




Republic of Tatarstan
The Republic of Tatarstan  is a federal subject of Russia (a republic) located in theVolga Federal District. Its capital is the city of Kazan, which is one of Russia's larger and more prosperous cities.

It was recently making news as an Indian company has reportedly decided to invest in petrochemical or refining facility in the region.




First woman in space
Valentina Tereshkova is a retired soviet cosmonaut who became the first woman in space aboard Volstock 6 in 1963.
In April 1961, the Soviet Union launched Vostok-1 carrying Yuri Gagarin, the first man, into space. Tereshkova’s flight on the Vostok-6 spaceship lasted for
three days, or 48 circuits.
In June 1963, then 26-year-old, Tereshkova, code-named Chaika (Seagull), went into space onboard the spaceshipVostok VI.









Person in News: Viktor Bout; Russia furious over U.S. Bout verdict
Who is Viktor Bout?
Viktor Anatolyevich Bout (a citizen of Russia) is a convicted arms smuggler and political prisoner. He was
arrested in Thailand in 2008; extradited in 2010 to US to stand trial on conspiring to kill Americans,
attempting to buy and sell missiles to use against US forces and supporting terrorism via collaboration
with a terrorist organization, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
On April 5, 2012, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a U.S. judge. The judge has sentenced Bout to 25 years and
held that the minimum sentence was appropriate because there was no evidence that Bout would have committed the
crimes for which he was convicted.
The ex-Soviet officer Viktor Anatolyevich Bout, who is suspected of dealing in arms since the 1990s, has pleaded that
he is innocent. Russia has condemned the US prison sentence for arms dealer Viktor Bout as biased and politically
motivated.
Why is he making in News, what’s the problem?
Russia denounced the prison sentence handed out to its citizen Viktor Bout in the United States as “groundless and
biased” and pledged to seek his return home using available mechanisms of international law. Russian held that the
Current Affairs Published on www.gktoday.in from January 1, 2012 to
September 10, 2012
case against Mr. Bout set a dangerous precedent as the U.S. had no right to arrest a foreign citizen in a third country
on the basis of U.S. laws that only apply to the U.S. and to try him for a crime that never took place.






Russia- Vladimir Putin wins Presidential polls
 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin paved way for his 3rd term as the President of
Russia after he won the Presidential polls and thus secured a record 3rd term in the Kremlin. He
recorded a landslide victory over his four rivals.
The Exit polls and preliminary results gave him about 60% of the votes. Putin who was Russia’s
President from 2000-08 (two consecutive terms) was not allowed to contest 3rd time consecutively
for the Presidential term as the Russian constitution doesn’t allows for standing for Presidential term for a third consecutive term. He will be swapping role as Prime Minister with his close aide Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

ROCKETS--

Russia's Soyuz-FG carrier rocket set off from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan on 22 July 2012. The rocket will put the Russian satellites Canopus-B and MKA-PN1, a Belarusian BKA satellite, the Canadian ADS-1B and German TET-1 into orbit.

The Canopus-B satellite, developed by the All-Russia Research Institute of Electromechanics, is designed for remote sensing of the Earth. It weighs about 400 kg and will work on a circular orbit at a height of 510 km.

The MKA-PN1 satellite, developed by Russia's NPO Lavochkin aerospace company, will collect data to help meteorologists build models of ocean circulation - particularly in Arctic waters along Russian shores - and climate dynamics.

The German TET-1 satellite, a part of the German Aerospace Center's On-Orbit Verification Program, will conduct a test on new space technologies.

The ADS-1B satellite, built by the Com Dev aerospace company, will form part of a ship-identification satellite system.

The satellites were earlier planned to be launched in the first half of 2012, but was postponed several times as Kazakhstan kept the decision to let Russia use its territory for rocket launch on hold.

Russia got the permission to launch the rocket following a meeting between Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in June 2012.

Plastic Omnium, the French Auto Part supplier on 18 September 2012 declared their plan to build a factory in Russia. The decided location of the factory is St. Petersburg and this will be third factory for the French company in Russia.

This decision came following the growing demands of the products of Plastic Omnium in Russian Market.  Inergy that was launched as a 51 percent joint venture of Plastic Omnium with fuel systems manufacturers, DSK will build the factory. Inergy, which has recently won the contracts of General Motors, Ford and Nissan manufactures fuel system for Renault Dacia and supplies to AutoVaz.

ROMANIA---
 People of Romania voted in a referendum on impeaching the President Traian Basescu

SERBIA

catastrophic forest fires spurred by hot and dry weather have ravaged
vast areas of _______, and ruined the region’s ecosystem. Siberia













Russia test fires Topol RS -12M
Russian Strategic Rocket Forces, RVSN, test-fired a Topol RS-12M. The missile launched from Kapustin Yar launch site in
the southern Russian region of Astrakhan, hit the target successfully in Sary Shagan range in Kazakhstan.
Some facts about Topol RS –12M:
 New version of Topol M Series
 Single-warhead Inter-continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)
 Weighs 45-ton
Current Affairs Published on www.gktoday.in from January 1, 2012 to
September 10, 2012
 3-stage missile
 Range: 10,000 km
 Carrying capacity of nuclear warhead: 550 kilotons
What could be the possible hidden agenda behind this launch by Russia?
 Recent NATO declared that it placed an interim missile defense shield in Europe. Now, Russia test-fired RS-12M,
a move that came amidst the tensions about the US-developed Missile Shield System.
 The interim system by NATO will link the allies’ missile defense systems i.e. satellites, ships, radars and
interceptors under NATO control from a U.S. base in Ramstein, Germany.
 The New Generation of Topol-M Family is aimed at countering the US-developed Missile Shield System being
deployed in Western Countries.
What went wrong at the dialogue b/w NATO and Russia over the Missile Defence System?
NATO has invited Russia to be a part of the Missile Defence System but negotiations were deadlocked over Russia’s
demand for a legally binding treaty undertaking that the Missle Defence Shield would not be used as an impediment to
Russia’s own systems. However, US refused to put any such guarantee in writing.
Tensions over the same matter in recent past:
 In 2011, the then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev periled to recede from the START treaty on nuclear
weapons reductions and position ballistic missiles in its dominion of Kaliningrad on its border with Europe, if
NATO went on with the plans for missile defence.
 Tensions further rose in December 2011, when Russia’s ambassador to NATO held that Russia would shut transit
routes that send life-sustaining supplies to troops in Afghanistan.