Moskovsky Komsomolets
Vladivostok seaport to decontaminate radioactive Japanese cars
Russia’s chief sanitary official Gennady Onishchenko on Thursday said that Vladivostok seaport authorities have to decontaminate cars imported from Japan. Port and customs officials, however, do not believe this is workable.
Customs officials in Russia’s Far East have seized 49 used cars that were shipped from Japan for showing radiation levels up to six times above normal, while some vehicles had traces of the radioactive isotopes caesium-127 and uranium-238.
“Radioactive particles can affect your system. They can be inhaled or swallowed while eating or smoking,” said Roman Fanin, who heads the regional customs' radiation monitoring department.
Vladivostok customs said decontaminating radioactive cars is expensive and they don’t have the technology to do it. Even if the costs are charged to the importers, as Onishchenko suggested, or covered willingly by the cars’ new owners, this still cannot be done in the port area, because the ensuing nuclear waste would contaminate the soil and water. This means they would have to be transported to a special site, which is also impossible because they have not been given customs clearance and therefore cannot be moved away from the port without special permits from the customs and the local consumer rights authority.
To complicate matters, radioactive cars cannot be stopped from entering the port in the first place.
Neither can they be utilized because for that, they have to be recognized as nuclear waste, and in any case, nuclear waste utilization is prohibited in Russia, said Alexander Pomykanov, head of the Vladivostok customs’ radiation department.
The contaminated cars will most likely be shipped back to Japan, or else recognized as usable in Russia, if the local consumer rights authority gives them the green light.
Russia’s Far East has always been a major hub for the supply of Japanese used cars, although the business was hit by a recent tax hike. The Vladivostok port receives about 300 cars every day, and if all contaminated cars end up stuck there, the port will soon be filled with radioactive vehicles.
The port has already complained to the regional legal authorities about the inaction of the local consumer rights watchdog which remains undecided about the contaminated vehicles’ fate.
Vedomosti
Hermitage: Russian official in tax rebate real estate scam
Hermitage investment fund lawyer Jamison Firestone has written to Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Russian Investigation Committee, requesting that a criminal case be opened against Olga Stepanova, former director of Moscow’s No. 28 tax inspectorate, to investigate allegations that she was involved in embezzling public funds and unjust enrichment. Hermitage claims that Stepanova approved the repayment of 5.4 billion rubles ($191.4 million) from the budget on December 24, 2007.
This reimbursement amount was apparently profit tax Hermitage fund companies “overpaid.” It was Hermitage fund lawyer Sergei Magnitsky who exposed her, alleging that Stepanova was involved in fraud. Magnitsky was subsequently arrested and died in prison. Firestone also claims that substantial assets then began to accumulate in Stepanova’s husband’s offshore accounts: the couple spent them on foreign trips and purchasing real estate in Russia and abroad.
The Stepanovs own two apartments worth a total of $4 million in Dubai, a $3 million villa in the United Arab Emirates on the Persian Gulf coast, a villa worth at least $471,000 in Montenegro, and a $12 million land plot near Arkhangelskoye Estate not far from the prestigious Rublyovo-Uspenskoye Highway outside Moscow. An $8 million villa was later built on this plot using a design of great architectural value. The plot is registered to Mr. Stepanov’s 85-year-old mother.
Firestone claims that the Stepanov family bought assets worth at least $39 million (1.1 billion rubles) after this illegal VAT refund. Stepanova currently works at the Federal Agency for the Procurement of Armaments, Military and Special Equipment and Logistical Resources (Rosoboronpostavka). She is one of the 60 Russian officials whose assets have been frozen and who are currently subject to a travel ban by the EU and the United States due to their involvement in embezzling federal funds and the persecution of lawyer Magnitsky, who exposed the crime.
Izvestia
Ice hockey fever grips Russia’s top officials
Ice hockey will soon oust tennis, downhill skiing and judo as high-placed officials’ favorite pastime. Last weekend, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin followed suit and donned his ice-hockey skates.
A couple of months ago, Putin held a video conference on preparations for the World Student Games in Kazan. The Russian junior ice-hockey team, having won gold against the Canadians in Turkey, also spoke with the prime minister and promised that in a couple of years they would “wipe the floor with” all their rivals.
“I for my part undertake to learn to skate,” Putin responded.
And he kept his word. Just two months later, he skated onto the ice at the Lesser Arena in Luzhniki, wearing the national team jersey. Putin had honed his stick-handling and skating skills with the White Bears from Chelyabinsk and Forward from Penza. Putin, with his No. 11 jersey, was always among the foremost attackers. Three of his approaches scored goals. The kids encouraged him by pounding their sticks on the ice approvingly.
“Aren’t you going to give up?” someone asked the prime minister.
“It is not smoking, why should anyone give it up? It should be taken further,” he replied, adding that he had been training for two months already.
He did not get time to practice that often, only once every week or two, and mainly trained at night.
The ever-increasing number of VIP ice-hockey enthusiasts tends to practice after midnight and on the weekends. Bosses encourage their subordinates to get involved: forming teams and holding tournaments.
So, where do these elite teams practice and how much does it all cost? VIP ice-hockey players often visit the Katok.ru facility in the village of Gorki-2 on the prestigious Rublevo-Uspenskoye Highway. Well-known Russian ice-hockey players – Alexander Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk and Kirill Knyazev – were all spotted on this skating rink during the off season last summer. But its management insists admission is open to everybody.
Different sports (such as figure skating and ice hockey) have a schedule for using the rink. Few people visit it during weekday mornings and afternoons, so they can all skate together. There is also the option of taking individual classes, for 4,000 rubles per hour. You can hire the ice for team games in the evenings and overnight, with games even running all the way through until mid-morning the following day. One hour costs 55,000 rubles, but with a season pass, this comes down to 18,000 rubles weekdays and 24,000 rubles on the weekends.
RIA Novosti is not responsible for the content of outside sources.
