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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Natalya Hmelik</title>
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		<title>The Kremlin Gets Tech Savvy</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/natalya-hmelik/the-kremlin-gets-tech-savvy/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-kremlin-gets-tech-savvy</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/natalya-hmelik/the-kremlin-gets-tech-savvy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 12 Aug 2010 04:01:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Natalya Hmelik]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=68476</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sharing our cutting edge technology with the patrons of terror. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/aaaaruss.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68477" title="aaaaruss" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/aaaaruss.gif" alt="" width="375" height="337" /></a></p>
<p>Late in June, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev came to the United States to present his pet project &#8212; an innovation center in Skolkovo already nicknamed &#8220;Russian Silicon Valley.&#8221; The project is expected to resemble a model Moscow suburb, almost utopian in nature, where local people will live in harmony and mutual trust with the police and state officials.</p>
<p>In California, Medvedev met with executives of Cisco Systems, Apple, and Twitter in an effort to woo foreign investment and brain power. He even received a present from Steve Jobs &#8212; an iPhone 4, officially the first in Russia.</p>
<p>The would-be investors seem enthusiastic about new business opportunities opening in Russia. Several international high-tech giants including Google, Cisco, Siemens, and Nokia have already agreed to invest in Russian modernization and even build their own research centers in Skolkovo. Cisco’s investment is reportedly $1 billion.</p>
<p>At first glance, indeed, the opportunities look quite lucrative &#8212; Russia is a big market with a relatively cheap and skillful labor force and, according to the Kremlin, the recent global recession did not hit it very hard. Looking at the thousands of Russians who work all over Silicon Valley, businesses have every reason to be optimistic about Russian talent in computers. The main Russian investor, pro-Kremlin oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, vows that Skolkovo will produce &#8220;one Google a year.&#8221; Indeed, it has been announced that Skolkovo will develop a Russian national operating system to replace Windows and a Russian national search engine to replace Google. And of course, this new patriotic Russian Google will operate under government control.</p>
<p>Yet, the Kremlin is no dream-builder. It knows as well as we do that the market for such products is shared between Western giants unwilling to let rivals in. Why, then, the push to attract Western high-tech companies?</p>
<p>In the language of Moscow officials, “advanced technology” means only one thing: military hardware to be sold abroad. It is no coincidence that Medvedev sent a Russian battle cruiser ahead of him to California. After docking at San Francisco, the captain said it was a sign of friendship. The message seems to be clear: Western businesses with their knowledge and expertise are to help Moscow to develop military hardware. Westerners should also keep in mind that their main partner in Skolkovo will be Russian Technologies, the parent company of over 150 manufacturers of various defense products and of the official state-run arms exporter, Rosoboronexport. Russian Technologies, which has now signed a memoranda of understanding with Cisco and Siemens, was established a few years ago for the sole purpose of promoting Russian weapons in foreign markets.</p>
<p>Although Russia is among the largest arms exporters in the world, its companies cannot compete with Western manufacturers of defense electronics, communication systems, smart bombs, high-precision weapons, or aircraft engines. At present, Russia is on a shopping spree. They have bought French-made Mistral helicopter carriers, German-made armored fighting vehicles, and Israeli-made unmanned air vehicles.</p>
<p>However, some problems have emerged. Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) had previously agreed to sell 12 UAVs to Russia for $50m, including tactical short-range I-View Mk 150s and multi-task Searcher IIs. Delivery of this sensitive technology was due to start in September, as well as talks on the establishment of a UAV joint venture with Russian Technologies. The joint-venture project is estimated to be $300 million and included the production of IAI&#8217;s medium-altitude Heron MALE and high-altitude Heron TP vehicles. These long-range UAVs are capable of carrying &#8220;air-to-surface&#8221; missiles. Obviously, the Israelis are concerned that UAV technology may find its way into Iran or Syria’s hands, who are regular customers of the Russian military industry.</p>
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		<title>Putin’s War on Israel</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/natalya-hmelik/putin%e2%80%99s-war-on-israel/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=putin%25e2%2580%2599s-war-on-israel</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/natalya-hmelik/putin%e2%80%99s-war-on-israel/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:02:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Natalya Hmelik]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=66764</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How Russia arms Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorists with some of its most deadly weapons.]]></description>
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<p>Now that another Middle East war seems imminent, concerns are growing about the new powerful weapons that are available to Palestinian terrorists. It appears to be virtually unknown that these weapons are being steadily supplied by Putin’s Russia. In the present atmosphere of the everlasting “reset” of relations between the U.S. and Russia, it is not difficult for the Kremlin to camouflage its arming of terrorists. Indeed, the world is willing to turn a blind eye.</p>
<p>This month, for instance, Russia announced it was making another gift to the “Palestinian security forces” on the West Bank: 50 armored vehicles. According to Russia’s Foreign Ministry earlier this month, the gift was already in Jordan and about to be passed on to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). It was President Medvedev who made this decision which, the Kremlin says, will help the development of a Palestinian statehood.</p>
<p>The Russian spokesmen made much of the fact that the actual weapons had been removed from the vehicles. However, this does not make them as harmless as Moscow hoped to suggest. Not long before, Israel saw a wave of so-called &#8220;bulldozer terrorist attacks.&#8221; Palestinians hijacked bulldozers working on Jerusalem construction sites and went to the city streets ramming buses and cars. The terrorists were from the West Bank or East  Jerusalem. Some observers at the time described those attacks as evidence of Israeli success in the war against terrorism. Suicide bombers, they pointed out, couldn&#8217;t penetrate Israel&#8217;s borders and the bulldozers were their last resort. And the &#8220;bulldozer terrorists&#8221; left far less dead and wounded than usual &#8220;martyrs&#8221; &#8212; even though the figures are of little comfort to the victims.</p>
<p>Owing to Russia&#8217;s generosity, the terrorists are getting a new chance for success as now they will be able to hijack armored vehicles. The kill potential of these vehicles is by no means less than of bulldozers; their maneuver capability and speed are better and they can bypass Israeli checkpoints on rolling terrain or simply ram into border crossings &#8212; which are not impenetrable fortresses.</p>
<p>Officially, like the U.S. and many other countries, Russia supports the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank led by <em>Mahmoud Abbas</em>, not Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It&#8217;s difficult to say why anybody would consider Abbas and his Fatah Party, founded by Yasser Arafat, a partner to make business with. Arafat was the <a href="http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=10584">Godfather of Terror</a> and within almost six years after his death, Fatah has never distanced itself from the founding father&#8217;s ideas. However, in line with the custom to look for &#8220;hawks&#8221; and &#8220;doves&#8221; everywhere, while Fatah’s twin brother Hamas is internationally called a &#8220;radical movement,&#8221; Fatah is considered to be “moderate.”</p>
<p>Still, Russia&#8217;s relations with Hamas blossom just as well. The Hamas leaders are received at the highest levels in Moscow and at popular sea resorts like Sochi. In January, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin told the Security Council that the purpose of Moscow’s contacts with Hamas was to persuade its leaders to take steps towards Palestinian reunification. Without unity on the platform of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) it is very difficult to create the Palestinian state, he stressed. Churkin also explained that Moscow worked with all Palestinian sides in order to train officers for the Palestinian security forces, as well as to give Palestinians government scholarships in order to educate them in Russian universities. Admittedly, the education Russia is providing to the Palestinians is certainly working &#8212; as demonstrated, for example, by the recent success of &#8220;Palestinian engineers from Gaza&#8221; who managed to produce home-made rockets of longer range to shell Israeli cities. Russia’s education of Palestinians can truly work wonders.</p>
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		<title>A Troubling “Spy” Swap</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/natalya-hmelik/a-troubling-%e2%80%9cspy%e2%80%9d-swap/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-troubling-%25e2%2580%259cspy%25e2%2580%259d-swap</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/natalya-hmelik/a-troubling-%e2%80%9cspy%e2%80%9d-swap/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 13 Jul 2010 04:02:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Natalya Hmelik]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=65481</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why did the Obama administration send the Russian spies home with such haste -- and for so little in return?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Anna-Chapman.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-65482" title="Anna-Chapman" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Anna-Chapman.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="498" /></a></p>
<p>Just recently, ten Russian spies caught in the US were exchanged for four Russian prisoners convicted for espionage: former army officers, Sergey Skripal, Alexander Zaporozhsky and Gennady Vasilenko and arms control researcher Igor Sutyagin.</p>
<p>Of those four, Sutyagin’s case is by far the best known in Russia &#8212; precisely because Sutyagin was never a spy.</p>
<p>Sutyagin was a political prisoner, a victim of the spy-mania campaign. Unlike the other three Russian prisoners, he never even handled classified information. Nevertheless, in 2004 he was convicted for high treason and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, merely for monitoring Russian newspapers and magazines and sharing publicly available information with foreign colleagues. It was in Sutyagin’s case that the Russian courts accepted the FSB’s magic formula: publicly available information, when put together, may constitute a Russian state secret. What followed was a campaign of prosecutions against Russian academics who dared any collaboration with foreign colleagues. Many of them, such as physicists Valentin Danilov and Igor Reshetin, are still serving their lengthy prison terms.</p>
<p>Sutyagin worked as a researcher for the U.S. and the Canada Institute in Moscow. While visiting London in late 1990s, he was approached by a British consultancy, Alternative Futures, and contracted to write reports on Russian nuclear submarines and missile warning systems.</p>
<p>According to Sutyagin&#8217;s friends, he later got worried about his British job because, while the firm duly paid his money, he never saw his reports published as promised. He sensed a crime might be taking place and decided to share his suspicions with the FSB. Sutyagin was immediately arrested and spent about five years in jail awaiting trial.</p>
<p>The FSB prosecutors claimed that Alternative Futures was a CIA front company and that Sutyagin’s employers, Nadia Locke and Sean Kidd, were intelligence officers well-known to the FSB. The indictment accused Sutyagin of giving them information on such topics as &#8220;The structure of the space-based tier of missile warning,&#8221; &#8220;The structure and deployment of level readiness forces,&#8221; &#8220;The generalised structure of Soviet /Russian defence expenditure in 1989-1998,&#8221; and &#8220;The condition of forces and facilities of Russian air defence.&#8221; Sutyagin pleaded not guilty on the grounds that all the information in his reports had been publicly available anyway. He was only paid for monitoring open publications.</p>
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