PARIS, July 22 (RIA Novosti) – Paris doesn’t call into question compliance with its obligations under the Mistral helicopter carriers deal signed with Russia, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told TF1 TV-channel Tuesday.
“This contract was signed during the previous government in 2011. According to international laws, a signed and prepaid contract has to be fulfilled,” Fabius said.
Meanwhile, U.S. State Department once again criticized France for sticking to the Mistral contract.
The delivery of Mistral warships to Russia would be "completely inappropriate" in the light of the recent events in Ukraine, deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters.
Russia and France signed a $1.6 billion deal for two Mistral-class helicopter carriers in June 2011.
Under the contract, the first ship, the Vladivostok, is to be delivered to Russia by the end of the year, while the second, the Sevastopol, is due in 2015.
The vessels are capable of carrying 16 helicopters, four landing craft, 70 armored vehicles and 450 soldiers each, and are expected to be deployed with Russia’s Pacific Fleet.
MOSCOW, July 22 (RIA Novosti) - Sanctions against Russia will have a negative impact on economies of many European countries, such as Britain, Italy, France, and Holland, with Germany being hit the hardest, the Telegraph reported on Tuesday.
“Germany is Russia’s biggest European investor, with German companies pouring in £13 billion last year [over $22 billion]. Eckhard Cordes, head of Germany’s Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, said a decline in trade this year was already putting some 25,000 jobs at risk in Germany,” the Telegraph reports.
According to the article, although British Prime Minister David Cameron was the one who spoke for implementing further sanctions against Russia, Britain’s economy will also be hurt.
“Where possible sanctions would bite the hardest, would be the financial sector. Russian companies are well represented on the London Stock Exchange, and UK Trade and Investment market. It 'is helping Moscow realize its ambitions to become an international financial center.' London is also a prime destination for Russian businesses, and Russian oligarchs are major property owners in Britain. The energy sector could also be hit,” it says in the article.
Despite Barack Obama’s calls to impose broader sanctions against Russia, French leaders decided not to stop country’s lucrative defense contracts with Russia and confirmed France would meet its obligations under the contract worth $1.6 billion for two Mistral-class helicopter carriers to be built for Russia.
Italy is another country, where domestic market will be seriously hurt by further sanctions against Russia. The country is currently attempting to boost its economy and attract foreign investors, particularly Russians. Italian goods sell well in Russia, many Russian tourists go to Italy for holidays, and so Italian government is reluctant to implement further sanctions against Moscow.
The Netherlands will also be affected if broader sanctions against Russia are implemented.
“The Netherlands is the largest single recipient of Russian exports – 9.2 percent in total. Outside of the EU, Russia is the biggest Dutch market for flowers. In 2011, imports from Russia to the Netherlands amounted to £13.2 billion and exports to Russia amounted to £5 billion,” the Telegraph reports.
Last week, Washington imposed a new round of sanctions against Moscow as a response to Crimea’s reunification with Russia following a referendum held in March. The first round was implemented by the United States and the European Union immediately after the referendum.
Following the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 crash, Washington has been pushing the EU to implement further sanctions against Moscow.
Many experts argue that the 28-member bloc is not willing to implement so-called “Tier 3” sanctions against the sectors of Russian economy, including defense cooperation and financial services.
Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly called the language of sanctions counterproductive and said these measures would have a boomerang effect on European economies.
President Vladimir Putin said the new sanctions required a careful look but warned they could bring the US-Russian ties to a dead end.
MOSCOW, July 22 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it believed that an end to military hostilities around the crash site of the Malaysian airliner in eastern Ukraine would prevent such tragedies from happening in the future.
“We remain convinced that a stop to military actions in the area around the crashed plane, as well as in eastern Ukraine as a whole, would guarantee that such tragedy would never happen again, thus saving many innocent lives,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
It added Russia was keeping tabs on the investigation into the cause of the Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing 777 crash in Ukraine’s airspace. The lead in the probe has been given to the International Civil Aviation Organization, which is a United Nations agency.
“We commend the handover of ‘black boxes’ to Malaysian representatives by militia. We expect them to be forwarded to the group of international experts under the auspices of the ICAO, with whom the Russian side is willing to cooperate,” the ministry said.
The foreign office added that the efforts of the Trilateral Contact Group – consisting of Ukrainian and Russian senior representatives, and the OSCE Chairperson-in Office – to approach local self-defense forces were successful and allowed for the transportation of crash victims’ bodies to the government-controlled city of Khrarkiv in eastern Ukraine.
“We believe this will enable an impartial and objective investigation into the cause of the Malaysian Boeing disaster in the sky over Ukraine,” the ministry stated.
A Malaysia Airlines’ passenger plane en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed on July 17 near the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board, including 283 passengers and 15 crew members.
On Monday, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution demanding that those responsible for this incident be held to account and all military activities be immediately ceased near the crash site to ensure safety of international investigators.
Akkurum is a mountain area in Altai, Russia, it has interesting stone formations that resemble mushrooms according to their shape. They are usually called “kurums” and consist of rock debris. Created by the wind on the slopes and at the foothills they moving slowly down those slopes.
Stone mushrooms are formed by selective outwashing of rock formations or scientifically speaking by denudation. They grew like this: mushroom caps were formed by thick plates of conglomerate while the mushroom stipes were formed by poorly consolidated sediments that were less resistant to disruption caused mainly by the water slowly flowing from the slopes.
The result of this process – giant figures resembling mushrooms this much.
Height of these “mushrooms” reaches seven meters, diameter of their caps – 2 meters, their thickness – 0, 5 m. Stipes are 1-1,5 m. thick.
They are standing like this for hundreds of years but partially they are getting destructed to be completely broken and to vanish. One generation of the mushrooms is replaced by another but what’s more interesting, they continue to grow! The reason is the soil consisting of clay and crushed stone. It’s solid when dry but being influenced by moisture it starts floating.
In the end of the nineteenth century collapsed the highest and one of the most beautiful mushrooms. Its cap is still lying there between other formations. In 2003 a series of earthquakes made many other mushrooms fall and break.
The phenomenal natural creations are protected by the state – the valley of Sotera was announced a natural sanctuary in 1960, since 1980 it has been a reserved mountain area.
Local excursions are rather popular despite the fact the place is rather hard-to-reach. By the way, the stone formations do not look good enough on photographs because they are standing in the shadow of a mountain. The best pictures can be taken at the sunset before 7 a.m.
Similar stone formations can also be seen in the Crimea and in Ural. But these ones are more beautiful and unique due to the nature of their origin.
Some locals believe when all the mushrooms fall the doomsday will come.