Mother of German Citizen Killed in MH17 Crash Sues Ukraine for $1 Bln

Mother of a German victim of MH17 plane crash stated that the Ukrainian government failed to close the country’s airspace because of millions of US dollars received monthly for foreign flights over its airspace.

MOSCOW, November 30 (Sputnik) — Mother of a German national killed in the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine has begun legal proceedings against Kiev at the European court, demanding about $1 billion in compensation for her suffering, the Bild reported on Sunday.

According to the newspaper, the mother of a German victim has submitted her case against Ukraine to the European Court of Human Rights last week.

The woman argued that Kiev must have closed the country’s airspace during the time of a military conflict. She also stated that the Ukrainian government did not close the country’s airspace only because of millions of US dollars received monthly for foreign flights over the country’s airspace.

The woman’s interests will be presented in court by German Lawyer Elmar Giemula, a professor of aviation law, who is also working with other German families affected by the MH17 crash.

On July 17, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board. According to a preliminary report issued by the Dutch Safety Board early in September, the plane most likely broke up in mid-air as a result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from the outside.

Kiev has accused independence supporters in eastern Ukraine of shooting the plane down, but failed to provide any evidence to back this claim. The local militia leaders said that they do not have weapons capable of shooting down a plane flying at 32,000 feet.

Source: Sputnik 30-11-2014

More than 830,000 Ukrainians come to Russia since April 2014 - FMS

The FMS first deputy head said that Russia has created “an unprecedented liberal regime for their stay”

GENEVA, November 29. /TASS/. More than 480,000 residents of Ukraine have arrived in Russia since early April 2014 and more than 240,000 applied for temporary asylum or refugee status, State Secretary - First Deputy Head of the Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS) Yekaterina Yegorova told TASS on Friday.

She said at the 105th annual session of the Council of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) that Russia has created “an unprecedented liberal regime for their stay.” “We extend the period of stay for those who failed to get the status, increased the quota for issuing temporary residence permits, issue work permits without quotas... And also, they certainly have the possibility to give temporary asylum within three days,” he said.

“Maximally broad opportunities for the participation in the state programme for assistance to voluntary resettlement of compatriots” have been created for those who got temporary asylum in Russia. “This opens the shortest way for getting Russian citizenship,” the FMS first deputy head said.

Russia that has an observer status in the IOM takes part in the Council annual sessions. “This venue allows us to exchange experience,” said Yegorova. According to her, the work of the current session has shown that Russia is within “the general migration trend” and in some aspects is ahead of the partners in terms of the use of information technology, in particular, “in the sphere of countering illegal migration.” “We have now considerably broadened possibilities for legal entry and stay in Russia,” the FMS official said.

Russia’s achievements have been positively assessed by IOM. In particular, IOM Director General William Lacy Swing, according to Yegorova who met him, “assessed the possibilities that we now create for labour migrants arriving under a visa-free procedure and appreciated Russia’s work for receiving forced migrants.” IOM “realises that Russia is really doing major work in the migration sphere.”.

Source: ITAR-TASS 29-11-2014

Bulava inter-continental ballistic missile test-launched from nuc submarine in Barents Sea

The nuclear-powered submarine made a single test-launch in the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East

MOSCOW, November 28 /TASS/. Russia has successfully test fired a Bulava inter-continental ballistic missile from the Alexander Nevsky strategic nuclear-powered submarine, the press service of the Russian Defense Ministry information department said on Friday.

The nuclear-powered submarine made a single test-launch in the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East.
“The submarine was test launched from a submerged position. The parameters of Bulava flight trajectory functioned normally. According to confirmed objective control data, the missile’s warheads successfully reached a testing range in the Kamchatka Peninsula,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson General Igor Konashenkov said.

Source: ITAR-TASS 28-11-2014

Pensioners storm banks, sue president as economic blockade enforced on E.Ukraine

Kiev is enforcing an economic blockade on eastern Ukraine, where banks are closed and cash machines and credit cards aren’t working. Disrupted social payments to the elderly have become the most acute issue.

Only a handful of cash machines are still functional in the breakaway parts of the Donetsk and the Lugansk regions, after local banks received an order from Ukraine’s central bank earlier this week to “suspend” operations.
This follows a controversial decree signed by Ukrainian President Petro Porishenko on November 16 that is now coming into effect. Kiev is cutting economic ties with rebel-held areas by freezing bank accounts and stopping social payments, including pensions.

READ MORE: Ukraine scraps human rights treaty for rebel areas, cuts services, freezes banks

“As soon as we regain control [over E. Ukraine], all of the payments will be carried out,” Ukraine’s PM, Arseny Yastenyuk, said on Wednesday. “We would have liked people in the Lugansk and the Donetsk regions to be able to get their payments now, but we can’t send money there, because it gets stolen in banks and in cash delivery vehicles.”

Those willing to withdraw whatever’s left on their accounts have to spend hours standing in queues. And what’s left is not much.

“I was getting my pension via Oshchadbank,” a woman from Makeevka told RIA Novosti. “I have 3,000 hryvnas (around $200) left on my account. But I can’t get them. There has been no money in the banking machine for a week already. How am I supposed to live? I don’t even have money for my medicines.”

The only option left for many in the breakaway areas is to go to nearby towns under Kiev’s control and try to withdraw cash there. Many are trying to reissue their bank accounts in government-held areas, so as not to lose money. Queues at bus stations are huge.

Some pensioners are complaining they haven’t received their social payments for months.
“Ukraine says Donbass is a territory of Ukraine. But it came here with tanks and weapons instead of paying us pensions,” Anatoly Visly from the city of Donetsk told Russia’s Channel One. “I’m a war veteran and I have not received my pension for three months”.

A 72 year-old pensioner from Donetsk, Vladimir Steshchenko has decided that complaining over disrupted payments is not enough and is taking the Ukrainian president to court.

“Our lawsuit has been accepted and registered,” Steschenko’s lawyer, Tatiana Volkova, told the Ukrainski Noviny news agency. “The defendant is Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, whose decree approved the illegal decision by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.”

Volkova believes there will be more similar lawsuits, as the presidential decree “differentiates between Ukrainians living in different territories,” which is contrary to the country’s constitution.

The leaders of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk have slammed the economic isolation decision, saying it was contrary to the September Minsk peace agreements, brokered by the OSCE.
Vladimir Putin reacted to the decree on the economic blockade of eastern Ukraine by saying that the Kiev authorities were “cutting off those territories with their own hands.”

READ MORE: Putin: Economic blockade of E. Ukraine a ‘big mistake’

The Russian president compared Kiev’s confrontation with the Donetsk and Lugansk regions to Russia’s own armed conflict in the Chechen Republic, which officially ended five years ago. He said that even at the worst moments, Moscow did not stop paying pensions and other social benefits to the Chechen people.
Leaders of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk have meanwhile launched their own social payments.

“Some of the social payments are done with the help of aid sent over from Russia,” the Donetsk People’s Republic Security Council secretary, Aleksandr Khodakovsky said on Wednesday, according to RIA Novosti.

Payments to single mothers, large families, orphans, disabled children were launched in November, Khodaskovsky said. Pensions are, he says, high on the agenda, with plans to organize payments within a month.

Source: Russia Today 27-11-2014

Putin: Russia Will Not Be Drawn Into Geopolitical Conflicts

President Putin said that Russia would defend its sovereignty and integrity, while ensuring security of its allies.

MOSCOW, November 26 (Sputnik) — Russia will resist any attempts to draw it in geopolitical games or conflicts, but will do everything to ensure its sovereignty and integrity, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.

"We are not threatening anyone and we have no intentions to get involved into geopolitical games, intrigue let alone conflicts, no matter who tries to draw us into them and how hard they try," Putin said at a meeting with top military brass in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi.

"At the same time, we must safeguard Russia's sovereignty and integrity, while ensuring security of our allies," Putin stressed.

Geopolitical tensions have escalated considerably in the last few months amid the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. Russia has been repeatedly accused of meddling in Ukrainian affairs by Western countries, the claims that Russia denies.

In October, Vladimir Putin stated that the global security system was seriously weakened and the world was going through a very difficult period. The president also accused the United States of taking steps that aggravate the imbalance of power following the Cold War.

Source: Sputnik News 26-11-2014