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Category: Olga Malik

  • Foreign NGOs in Kyrgyzstan seek monopoly for perinatal health services in Kyrgyzstan amidst the election campaign

    Foreign NGOs in Kyrgyzstan seek monopoly for perinatal health services in Kyrgyzstan amidst the election campaign

    Kyrgyzstan
    Photo credit: SUN

    Kyrgyzstan still remains the country with the highest maternal mortality rate. According to WHO, there were 79 deaths per 100 000 live births in 2015. 

    Since then, international organizations based in the country, have been trying to improve this situation. And some of them have even reached positive outcomes. For example, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in Bishkek that has been operating in the country since the 1990s, has implemented a number of social projects, including the training of doctors and nurses, employment promotion and other. Yet, the death rate among new-born babies is still at dangerously high level.

    To improve the situation, in 2019 a delegation of Kyrgyz doctors visited Russia’s Yekaterinburg, where the world-famous enterprise specializing in production and exporting perinatal equipment and innovative incubators is located. The visited has resulted in the launch of a new project named The Regional Obstetric Monitoring.  The system that provides an A-Z support from the first contact with a doctor to controlling the birth process and first months of a newly-born, has proved to be more efficient than the previous projects, designed by European countries.

    However, the next visit to Yekaterinburg aimed at learning and implementing new levels of the system was blocked. The cancellation of the visit was supported by GIZ that referred to efficiency of the German health projects and higher wages for doctors that passed the training.

    Ironically it may seem, the German initiative came just amidst the parliamentary elections campaign that is currently going on in Bishkek. Some experts believe it was done on purpose, to prevent current President Zhaparov’s activity to promote Russian technologies among its supporters that would by no doubts increased the number of his female electorate.

  • Ukraine’s Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility: a well-calculated project or an unwarranted risk?

    Ukraine’s Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility: a well-calculated project or an unwarranted risk?

    2006 Chernobyl NB 3
    Photo credit: Bellona

    Concerns have been raising among environmentalists and nuclear power engineers as Ukraine continues the loading of used fuel into the into the containerized dry storage systems of the new Chernobyl Interim Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility (ISF-2).

    Designed by Holtec International, the project poses dangerous risks to the global environment, and here is why.

    According to the official website of Holtec International and John Heaton’s presentation at the “ELEA – Holtec International” Congress, the U.S. company claims to have some competences and expertise in storing the nuclear energy waste. Among them are: technologies for the construction of dry storage facilities of the CISF type for the temporary storage of containers with spent nuclear fuel and radioactive wastes; the reliability of the storage facilities that is ensured by a dry climate system, which prevents corrosion of structural materials and excludes the ingress of water into the waste tanks. Finally, the company already has its own functioning storage.

    However, the Holtec International has no expertise in building large, capacious storage facilities for long-term (more than 50 years) storage of spent nuclear fuel in a humid and cold climate, with a pronounced change of seasons.

    For 6 years of work on the territory of Ukraine, “Holtec International” has so far the only one achievement concerning the loading of the two double-walled tanks with spent nuclear fuel from the RBMK reactor in the Interim Storage Facility (ISF-2) at the Chernobyl NPP site. It is shown that containers with nuclear waste are placed in the ISF-2 building that is already under operation, and not in a dry storage facility of the CISF type. In addition, the arrangement of tanks in the ISF-2 storage facility is horizontal, not vertical (i.e., it does not correspond to the American technology of storage of tanks), and it is not known what risks and consequences this may lead to. For this reason, the launch of ISF-2 by “Holtec International” specialists was delayed, since it was not known in advance whether it would be possible to safely place the canister in the storage facility.

    According to the study by Ukrainian experts, Ukraine’s 15 reactors – all of which were built while the country was still a republic of the Soviet Union – supply more than half of the domestic electricity supply. This means that reactors built during the Soviet era in Ukraine has more trust among nuclear power engineers rather than an ambitious U.S. project.

    Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky, during the negotiations over the project last year, said Ukraine would embrace nuclear power as a national priority.

    “In the coming years, many countries will work against nuclear power generation,” he said. “We, on the other hand, will defend it. We must do this because today we have every opportunity to be among the first [in nuclear energy], both in Europe and in the world.”

    But at the same time the Ukrainian government is creating an extremely dangerous situation for the global environment and its border neighbors.

    By entrusting the project to a company with no experience in building large nuclear storage facilities and limited scientific and technological base for the elimination of nuclear accidents and the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel planned for accumulation, the Ukrainian authorities might yet but provoke an uncontrolled environmental disaster that might dramatically change the Eurasia’s landscape.

  • Russia’s Chelyabinsk hosted the II Forum of the Heads of Regions of the SCO Member States

    chelyabinsk

    On Septemper 29, Chelyabinsk, a Russian city in the South Urals has become a platform for hosting the II Forum of the Heads of Regions of the SCO Member States. The decision was made after the Declaration at the XX Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Dushanbe was signed.

    The Forum’s Plenary session was moderated by Alexander Kalinin, President of OPORA Of RUSSIA. The participants of the event discussed the mechanisms for implementing the Program for the Development of Interregional Cooperation of the SCO Member States.

    According to Alexander Kalinin, the Forum is gaining its momentum and is becoming an increasingly popular platform.

    “The importance of the Forum was noted in the final declaration of the SCO summit, which was recently held in Dushanbe and was dedicated to the twentieth anniversary of the organization. Today, it is very important to develop interregional cooperation between the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. After all, these are direct contacts between various regional authorities and businesses of the SCO member states. This makes it easy to build joint projects, removing all sorts of barriers to economic development. The key to success is the joint work of the government, business and citizens of our countries. The Forum contributes to this in every way, ”said Alexander Kalinin.

    Delegations from China (Chongqing city, Shandong province and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region) and Pakistan (Sindh, Baluchistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Punjab) took part in the forum via videoconference.

    Representatives of Uzbekistan (Navoi region), Kazakhstan (Turkestan, North Kazakhstan and Akmola regions), the Kyrgyz Republic (Issyk-Kul region), Tajikistan (Sughd region) and India joined the event in online and offline formats.

    The participants of the Plenary session discussed the ways to increase the efficiency of cooperation within the Forum and projects of the regions of the SCO countries. They also shared their experience in the development of foreign economic activities in their regions. The result of the Forum was an agreement to consolidate efforts in fighting the pandemic consequences and to increase cooperation in such spheres as agriculture, international security as well as culture, education and international diplomacy.

  • Kiev Cross Procession unites thousands of supporters of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine

    Kiev Cross Procession unites thousands of supporters of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine

    1031936660
    Photo: RIA Novosti

    The Procession of the parishioners and priests of the Ukraine Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) held on July 27 in Kiev to mark the 1033th anniversary of Christianization of Rus’ gathered about 100 thousand of participants.

    According to journalists covering the event, there were actually a lot more people. This only shows that most Ukrainians support and recognize the Moscow Patriarchate Orthodox Church of Ukraine, not the Kiev Patriarchate Church, which many experts consider as self-proclaimed.

    Meanwhile, the journalists also reported that some Procession participants carried posters criticizing Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who founded the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, causing the schism in the Orthdox Church Institution in Ukraine.

    Earlier, during the briefing, Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk, the Secretary for Inter-Orthodox Relations of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, said that this year the procession would be dedicated to the “idea of ​​loyalty to the Church”. According to him, for the Ukraine Orthox Church “this is a very important issue today,” since the canonical Church in Ukraine “is being discriminated by the authorities and attacks of extremists who are trying to tear away parishes from it and seize churches.”

    The Christianization of Russia took place in 988. Today, it is celebrated among Russian Orthodox believers on July 28. In the Orthodox church calendar, this is the day of remembrance of the Great Prince Vladimir (960-1015), who initiated the Christianization of Russia.

  • Assad has won 4th term, what’s next?

    Assad has won 4th term, what’s next?

    assad banner 2021 afp
    People walk by an image of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on 10 May 2021 (AFP)

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was re-elected for the 4th term in office with 95.1% of the votes. According to Assad’s government, the election results proved Syria is functioning normally.

    This will extend his rule over a country despite harsh criticism from the United States, Germany, Italy, France and Turkey as well as Assad’s opponents in the country said the vote was illegitimate.

    Despite their condemnation of his brutal and authoritative regime during the decade-long Syrian civil war, imposing economic sanctions and militarily backing his opponents, the Syrian leader was able to remain in power and save the country from the territorial divide. Like a true captain of the wrecked ship, Bashar Al-Assad did not leave the war-torn country and, what’s important, did not let it collapse despite West’s multiple efforts to intervene.

    With Russia’s support, Assad arranged constant humanitarian help flows to the country and save the sovereignty of secular state despite endless clashes and civil war in the country. Moreover, Assad assured his supporters get access to education and healthcare while his government provided jobs to workers.

    Prior to the elections, the White House have warned Syrian President that it would not recognize the result of upcoming presidential election unless the voting is free, fair, and supervised by the United Nations while Biden administration said it had no plans to restart the dialogue “any time soon” claiming the Assad government failed to restore legitimacy in the country. With no doubts such open statements mean the West will continue its pressure to the Assad’s regime and will try to remove him from his post demonstrating a double standard “legitimacy” at its best.

  • Could the SPIEF boost the TurkStream flows?

    Could the SPIEF boost the TurkStream flows?

    TurkStream
    Putin and Erdogan open TurkStream gas pipeline

    The Saint Petersburg Economic Forum to be held in Russia on June 2-5 is the first post pandemic global event that is focused to gather international delegations from the U.S., Germany, Italy, China, South Asia and the Middle East.

    With the Forum’s main focus on energy and sustainable development, Russia aims to boost international trade ties and attract investments to its economy. And Turkey could be among most prospective partners for Russia following the SPIEF ambitions. Today Ankara’s major interest is to provide permanent gas flows through the Turkish Stream. On the other side, Turkey, a NATO’s member, has been manipulated by the United States for years following Washington’ efforts to sign a deal with Ankara on U.S. natural compress gas (GNC).

    However, the recent tensions between Biden and Erdogan on Ankara’s recognition of the atrocities committed against the Armenian people in 1915 as genocide as well as the recent criticism of Erdogan towards the U.S. on the Gaza-Israeli conflict have been a sore spot between the countries placing their further economic and political cooperation in question.

    This explains why Turkey has been seeking a closer cooperation with Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to support the Turkish Stream supplies. The pipeline, which transits the Black Sea, took five years to complete and is one of two major new natural-gas export routes totaling nearly $20 billion. Russia on its parts also expects to go on line this year and the SPIEF is likely to become a platform for developing further economic cooperation and trade ties between Turkey and Russia.