Russian Press - Behind the Headlines, March 11

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Russia and NATO develop joint counterterrorist system / Church spokesman justifies Gaddafi-style violent crackdown on protesters / Charity scandal continues

Kommersant
Russia and NATO develop joint counterterrorist system
The recent high-profile terror attacks in Russia have spurred Russia-NATO cooperation in countering terrorism. Kommersant has learned that Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are in the final phase of a classified joint project called Standex, to help identify even low-yield bombs carried by suicide bombers.

The first tests will be carried out on the Paris metro. Serial production of the device is scheduled to start ahead of the Sochi Winter Olympics. Moscow has called it an unprecedented success: the first time that NATO and Russia have produced an integrated intelligent anti-terror system.
The tests are scheduled for spring. The specifications of the system, which is even able to detect small quantities of explosives on a suicide bomber, from 200 grams in TNT equivalent, will not be disclosed. The project has successfully passed the research and development stage. Jamie Shea, who leads NATO’s Emerging Security Challenges Division and is Director of Policy Planning in the Private Office of the Secretary General, launched it during the Russia-NATO Council ambassadorial meeting on March 2.

The system, already dubbed the “electronic nose,” will be tested under real conditions. Test facilities chosen include several of Paris’ most crowded metro stations. “The idea is not only to detect the explosives carried on a person remotely, but also anonymously,” a source familiar with the project told Kommersant. “No one will know where these ‘electronic noses’ are located.”
The trial run aims to establish whether Standex is able to pinpoint the exact location of the bomber, in addition to identifying the presence of explosives. If these and other tests are successful, the system will go into regular production. This must happen before the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi.

It was not accidental that Paris was chosen as the test location: France is one of the five Russia-NATO Council countries involved in running and subsidizing the project. The others are Russia, the United States, Germany and the Netherlands. They will all hold rights to this “smart” anti-terror system. In Russia, the Khlopin Radium Institute in St. Petersburg is also involved in the project. As well as contributing some of its finest minds, Russia is also providing financial support. However, the project is not particularly costly and the Russian financial contribution is relatively small.
Work on Standex is not being made public either by Russia or by the alliance. Experts and diplomats say this secrecy is necessary, as they don’t want to give potential terror attack masterminds any ideas.

Russian Ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin told Kommersant that the project was conceived several years ago on the Russia-NATO Council’s suggestion. “Standex has grown to become the Council’s key project and benefited from everybody’s unreserved support. At the same time, it was classified, with experts deciding to keep the technology involved confidential,” Russia’s permanent representative to NATO told Kommersant.

Nezavisimaya Gazeta

Church spokesman justifies Gaddafi-style violent crackdown on protesters

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said a government is perfectly entitled and even obliged to use force against rioters, commenting on a blog post by Nashi youth group ideologist Boris Yakemenko.

Yakemenko, who leads the pro-Kremlin group’s Orthodox wing, praised Muammar Gaddafi for bombing his own citizens, writing in his LiveJournal blog on February 21 that Gaddafi “has shown the whole world how to treat provocateurs.”
“He began to destroy them. With missiles and everything he has. And this is the best approach” to ending revolutions, he wrote.
Father Vsevolod, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s external relations department, and member of the Russian Public Chamber, like Yakemenko, was asked to comment on his colleague’s statements on the agency’s website.

“In certain situations the government is entitled to use force, for example to suppress riots, which are different from popular uprisings, or plots instigated from the outside,” he wrote adding that Yakemenko was not at all the blood-thirsty monster some sought to portray him as following his “rather awkward” statements. He also suggested considering the position Russia might have been in today had the government of the day responded “in an appropriate and dignified manner” to the 1917 riots, which were, after all masterminded by individuals who were not popular leaders.
The only other church official to comment on Yakemenko’s statements was Deacon Andrei Kurayev who noted that no opposition leader had openly likened Libya to Russia. “If the Kremlin leaders are ready to use Gaddafi’s crude methods, like missiles and everything they have, then rebelling against them would be the most legitimate and humane course to take,” he said.

Chaplin’s comments may be viewed as an attempt to outline the Moscow Patriarchate’s stance on potential outbreaks of domestic unrest, possibly in the North Caucasus, something Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned about on February 24.

Chaplin has previously mentioned the possibility of the government compromising in order to secure the North Caucasus as part of Russia, even potentially allowing Shariah law to be applied alongside federal legislation. “If people want to abide by religious laws, no one can make them do otherwise, by force or brainwashing,” he wrote. “But the government should be able to use force if it encounters hard-line groups incapable of dialogue and determined to tear the Caucasus away from Russia.”

It looks like the Church spokesman sees the defunct Russian Empire as a model state which combined violent crackdowns on popular uprising with the official recognition of local rules and customs incompatible with the modern concept of civilized society.
Father Vsevolod is known for making shocking statements. In January, he proposed introducing a national dress code because women who wear skimpy dresses and tons of makeup “like a clown” risk provoking sex attackers.

Moskovsky Komsomolets
Charity scandal continues
The scandal surrounding the Federatsiya Foundation, which organized a charity concert involving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and major international stars, is gaining momentum. It turns out that none of the money collected during the event has reached the children for whom it was intended.
Vladimir Kiselev, the concert’s organizer, held a news conference yesterday, where he threatened to sue the journalists for slander and denied any connection to the Federatsiya Charity Foundation.

Before the event, journalists were given copies of a written statement by Kiselev “on behalf of the Federatsiya Charity Foundation”. In it, Kiselev asserted that he had no connection to the foundation and that he had merely been invited to help arrange the concert. He refused to name the foundation’s board members, urging reporters to submit a formal inquiry to the Justice Ministry instead.

Kiselev said no funds had been raised at the December 10 concert in St. Petersburg and the guests did not pay to attend the charity event. The idea behind the concert was to launch the foundation and attract potential sponsors for sick children.

“My role was to arrange the technical aspects, including renting the concert hall, inviting celebrities, etc.,” he said.
While no funds were raised at the concert, there was an envelope on each table containing children’s Christmas wishes. Over 200 of the envelopes were picked up by the guests and the children’s wishes came true.

As for the claims made by one girl’s mother that her child has not received anything, Kiselev said they had never planned to provide financial assistance to individual patients or their families.

He said the foundation managed to achieve a great deal in the short period since it was established. Specifically, they organized celebrity visits to several hospitals in Moscow and St. Petersburg and are running an anti-drug campaign. The hospitals have been provided with the most urgently needed equipment and medicines, as requested by their management.

Kiselev was also asked about an auction the foundation held before New Year. He said initially the auction had been planned as part of the concert, but was cancelled because many celebrities failed to arrive in St. Petersburg due to poor weather. The organizers also thought it would be unethical to hold the auction at an event attended by the prime minister. The auction was held the following day at the concert by the group Zemlyane, but managed to raise just 85,000 rubles, which proved quite a shock for the organizers.

Kiselev also admitted that the celebrities’ travel and accommodation expenses had been covered by the event’s sponsors. He declined to reveal whether he had personally invited Prime Minister Putin to attend the concert and urged the journalists to inquire with the prime minister’s press service.

When asked why he was speaking on behalf of the foundation if he had no relation to it, Kiselev reiterated that he had helped the foundation organize the event using his personal celebrity contacts.

RIA Novosti is not responsible for the content of outside sources.

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