Man sentenced to 5 years for tweeting death threats against children

A Moscow court sentenced blogger Vladislav Sinitsa, a financial manager who lives in the Moscow region, to five years in a colony. The court thus found the blogger guilty of calling for violence  against law-enforcement officers' children after clashes with security forces during protest actions in Moscow. Vladislav Sinitsa was persecuted for the message that he tweeted under the moniker of  Max Steklov on July 31. According to prosecutors, the blogger urged "a wide range of individuals to commit unlawful violence against children of law enforcement officers."

The message in question was a response to the question of whether it was appropriate to de-anonymise law-enforcement officers. "They'll take a look at happy family photos, study the geolocation, and then a child of a brave law-enforcement officer simply will not come home from school one day. Instead, the officer will receive a mail package - a CD with a snuff video on it," the blogger tweeted.

The blogger said that he did not call for violence against specific people and their children, but only allowed such a possibility. He said that his words were misinterpreted as the message that he posted did not contain any verbs of imperative mood. Sinitsa's lawyer said that the tweet was part of the blogger's reflection of a situation that could take place conceivably.

The court brought down the sentence two days after the blogger was arrested. The judge decided that Sinitsa "committed acts to incite hatred or enmity, to humiliate dignity of a person or a group of people on grounds of gender, racial, ethnic, language, origin, religious discrimination, including with the use of media outlets or information and telecommunication networks, including the Internet, containing a threat of violence.

Representatives of the Russian Federal National Guard Troops Service (Rosgvardia) said that the service was satisfied with the sentence.

Vladislav Sinitsa will appeal the verdict.

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Russian Mi-38 helicopter shows better results with US engines

The Mi-38 Soviet-Russian multi-purpose helicopter outfitted with US-made engines showed "amazing" results during a test flight, when the helicopter broke through the "ceiling" of 8,000 eight meters, the Military-Industrial Courier publication said.

Source: Wikipedia

According to the publication, which refers to an employees of the Mil Helicopter Plant, engines still remain a weak point of the Russian aviation industry.

In July 2017, representatives of the Russian Helicopters Holding said that the first two Mi-38 helicopters would be handed over to the Russian Ministry of Defense in 2018 and 2019.

The Mi-38 performed its first flight in December 2003. The second prototype of the helicopter was equipped with a two of PW127TS turboshaft engines.

Russia has been developing the Mi-38 helicopter since 1981. The vehicle made its first flight in 2003, but engineers have been finalizing the helicopter since then. In the winter of 2018, the Mi-38 was tested at temperatures of -40 °C without warming up the engines.

The Mi-38 is 19.9 m long and 4.5 m wide. It can develop speeds of up to 320 km/h, carry up to 6 tons of cargo and fly up to 1,300 kilometres without refueling.

The Mi-38 is equipped with TV7-117V engines with a capacity of 2,800 horsepower. The engine is developed on the basis of the engine for the Il-112V and Il-114 aircraft. During the tests, the helicopter ascended to an altitude of 4,000 meters, where temperatures fall at -30 °C. The test was successful.

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British pound sterling hits lowest vs. US dollar in three years

On September 3, the pound sterling hit the lowest against the US dollar in almost three years due to investors' growing concerns about the possibility for hard Brexit (without a deal).

The British currency fell to 1.1968 US dollars for one pound, which marked the strongest fall of the pound since October 2016, when it fell to the level of 1.22 dollars for one British pound.

In July, the British currency fell to low levels of April and then March of 2017.

The UK was supposed to exit the EU in March, but the British parliament repeatedly rejected the proposal from then Prime Minister Theresa May on the terms of the deal with Brussels. London received a delay until April 12, and then until October 31. Before this deadline, the parties must develop an agreement that will satisfy both London and Brussels. At the same time, the likelihood for hard Brexit remains.

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Russia blasts Boris Johnson for his remarks about USSR's role in WWII

The Russian Embassy in London responded to remarks from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who compared the actions of the USSR at the beginning of World War II with the aggression of the Third Reich.

Russian diplomats called Johnson's statement unacceptable. It was the British, who sabotaged USSR's proposals to create an anti-Hitler alliance that could have helped defend Poland.

"This statement, made on the day of the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War, is perplexing. With all historical discussions around the Soviet military operation in the eastern areas of Poland (Western Ukraine and Western Belarus), to describe things in a way that effectively equates the actions of the USSR to Hitler's aggression is absolutely unacceptable. If one is to discuss who, apart from Hitler, is responsible for the Polish tragedy of 1939, one cannot avoid recalling the role of the British diplomacy that not only connived in the Nazis' aggressive policies (remember Austria, Czechoslovakia, Memel), but also continuously frustrated Soviet proposals to build an efficient anti-Nazi alliance, including specifically to defend Poland. This discussion may be lengthy, but let's leave it to historians. A vast majority of Russians and Britons, when recalling the Second World War, pay tribute to the fallen and to the Soviet-British alliance. It is regrettable that the Prime Minister has chosen a different angle which, thankfully, does not enjoy much popularity in Britain," the message posted on the website of the Russian Embassy to the UK said. 

The Second World War began on September 1, 1939, with the invasion of Nazi Germany in Poland. On September 17, Soviet troops entered the territory of Poland. Following the results of this campaign, Western Ukraine and Western Belarus became part of the USSR.

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How Angela Merkel interferes in Italian political issues

By Giovanni Giacalone

Angela Merkel phones Italian left-wing party "Partito Democratico (PD)" and pushes its leaders to form a government with Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S) in order to put a stop to Salvini and the "sovranist" forces.

It is not a joke, but pure reality as exposed by Italian newspapers "La Repubblica" and "Il Giornale".

As optimally illustrated by Italian journalist and "Il Giornale online" chief editor, Andrea Indini, Merkel's phone call arrived on Friday evening, after vice-prime minister Luigi Di Maio had raised the stakes by imposing a more articulated program in order to find a deal to form a new government with Partito Democratico.

In addition, Di Maio seems to have asked PD for the vice-presidency and one of the important ministries (such as Interior Affairs or Defense), something which Partito Democratico does not seem to appreciate and neither do the financial markets and the EU.

Infact, as Di Maio slowed the negotiations down, the financial markets immediately fell back to negative terms, making it clear that they will not accept a failure of an agreement to form a new pro-EU government that should replace the Lega-M5S one.

It was already interesting enough to see the financial markets respond positively as the Italian "populist-sovranist" government reached the end of its course. Now we are seeing the opposite sign as the pro-EU government is having a hard time in finding an agreement.

Is the financial world basically deciding who will rule Italy? Well, it seems that Angela Merkel has her own part too, as she picked up the phone and called a high member of Partito Democratico (maybe Paolo Gentiloni, according to Italian media) and told him that "the government must be made at all costs in order to stop the sovranists".

Consequently, as Giuseppe Conte called the Partito Democratico representatives, they gave a green light to further negotiations.

The Italian "yellow-green" government which saw Giuseppe Conte as prime Minister and Matteo Salvini (Lega) and Luigi Di Maio (M5S) as vice-prime ministers and respectively minister of Interior and minister of Labor, reached its end in mid-August as Salvini denounced heavy interferences by both, M5S and the EU against his policies, especially the block of illegal immigration coming from the African route.

Since then the right wings have been calling for immediate elections due to their extremely positive results at the latest EU and regional elections.

However, Partito Democratico is trying to find an agreement with M5S (which has a slight majority in the Parliament) in order to form a wide majority that will lead to a new government. It doesn't matter if PD had disastrous results at the latest elections. The Italian parliamentarian system permits such negotiations before indicting new elections.

The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, seems to be well behind this PD-M5S negotiations which has been going on for days now, blocking the whole institutional mechanism.

Obviously, the most logical and healthy solution would have been to immediately head for new elections. Let's keep well in mind that an eventual "deal" between PD and M5S would lead to a non-elected government formed by parties that did not perform well at the last elections and it would send Lega, which was close to 40% consent until a few weeks ago, to the opposition.

Partito Democratico leaders are well aware that by going to elections they would unavoidably be defeated, so why not try to find a deal with M5S, which still has a majority in Parliament, in order to form a coalition and gain power without elections?

Some members of "Partito Democratico" claimed that it's a necessary measure to stop the fascist-sovranist advance; in few words, it doesn't matter if the Italian people do not want to be ruled by PD, they will still find  a way to take power and keep it as long as possible.

Going back to Angela Merkel, is it normal that the leader of another European country interferes in such a brazen manner in the internal political issues of another country?

Just imagine what would have happened if Russian president Vladimir Putin would have called Salvini to advise him on what to do. We would have seen all kind of accusations on "Russian interference", another "Russiagate" and other ridiculous claims. However, if Angela Merkel decides to interfere in Italia political issues, then it's fine. After all Pope Francis already had interfered on several occasions against the new anti-immigration policies implemented by Salvini, and let's keep well in mind that the Vatican is a sovereign State, it is not Italy. Let's also recall that the Pope is supposed to deal with spiritual issues rather than interfering in the internal political issues of other countries.

However all these seem to just be insignificant details if the objective is stopping the rise of political forces that are not welcome by the EU, the so called "sovranists", as if "sovereign state" was some sort of evil project or curse word and it might very well be in the eyes of certain lobbies and pressure groups, especially if these "sovranists" are against sanctions on Russia, the EU economic policies and against illegal immigration.

Photo provided by the author of the article

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