Russia to prepare intelligence officers for CIS, Ukraine announces large-scale privatization, Britain may tax sugar, Russia investigates comics as 'propaganda of violence', Germany asks top US intelligence official to leave country, Obama names next U.S. ambassador to Russia.
July 10 Russia’s President Vladimir Putin hosted a meeting with representative of security agencies of CIS nations, Izvestia writes. The president outlined current and future menaces the Commonwealth is facing and voiced plans to ensure security cooperation. Izvestia reports that the meeting was held on the backdrop of the ongoing civil strife in Ukraine and the looming withdrawal of allied coalition of armed forces from Afghanistan, leaving the Asian country and its neighbors to fend for themselves in troubled times. The daily suggests that the main threat the region is facing is the Taliban. The article reminds that after over a decade of American and other allied forces being deployed in Afghanistan the terrorist group did not lose its role of the leading military force, leaving the possibility of overthrowing the government after troops withdrawal. Putin said that while the situation is unlikely to improve the CIS should prepare for any scenario. Russia’s president also highlighted that the country is willing to continue training intelligence officers and operatives for its allies’ security agencies. Other discussed issues included regional anti-air defense with the possibility of forming a united AA system.
Ukraine’s government has announced a new wave of privatization – the largest one in history of the country, Moskovskiy Komsomolets reports, noting that the Cabinet of Ministers believes the private sector should be economy’s driving force. By privatizing industries previously owned by the government Kiev hopes to curb widespread corruption. The main culprit according to Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsentyuk is presumably Ukrspirt – the country’s monopoly on production of ethanol, the article notes. The spokesman named the company as one of the first ones to be privatized, saying that other state-owned enterprises will be reviewed and put on the privatization list as early as next week. The newspaper reminds that in the last few months representatives of various Ukrainian governmental bodies voiced plans for upcoming privatization of entities they managed. For instance, deputy head of the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry Yuri Zyukov said that his agency was preparing 38 mines for privatization. On the other hand, representatives of the Ukrainian railroad operator have refuted rumors of looming privatization, the article notes.
Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports that the Sugar Reduction Summit, uniting British experts and activists against sugar, has proposed that the government introduces a sugar tax as means to combat child obesity. According to experts which participate in the movement, one in five British Children aged 10 to 11 is obese; one in three is overweight. Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health, has asked scientists to draw a roadmap for the British government to resolve the situation. Proposal include reducing sugar content by 40% and saturated fats by 15% in foods produced over the next five years. Apart from cutting down on sugar consumption, activists demand a sweeping ban on advertisement of all over-processed foods – foods and drinks harmful for health. They also proposed prohibiting producers of unhealthy foods from sponsoring athletic events. The newspaper talked with Tatyana Strokova M.D., who admitted that child obesity is a growing concern in Russia as well, although the figures are not as drastic. According to the expert, 20% of Russian children are overweight and 7% are obese.
A Russian state company that distributes printed publications has asked the federal media watchdog to investigate Marvel comic books for degrading Soviet symbols and amounting to "propaganda of a cult of violence," The Moscow Times reports. The comics in particular, which show American superheroes The Avengers battling Soviet-symbol-laden self-described "servants of the Russian Federation", promote "violence and cruelty", distributor Rospechat says. The daily notes that despite the story having a peaceful ending, media watchdog Roskomnadzor has agreed to investigate the books and is considering giving the publisher an official warning, two of which within a year is grounds for revocation of its license. The publisher Egmont, operating under an agreement with Marvel's parent company Walt Disney, still intends to release the comics next month, but most likely with the Soviet symbols removed. The daily reminds that The Avengers comic book series, first published in the United States in 1963, has spawned several Hollywood blockbusters, including an eponymous 2012 hit that grossed $1.5 billion at the box office.
The Guardian reports that diplomatic relations between Germany and the US plunged to a new low after Angela Merkel's government asked the top representative of America's secret services in Germany to leave the country. The daily suggests that this move sends a dramatic signal: after a year-long dispute triggered by the revelations of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the county’s Chancellor seems to have finally run out of patience with Washington's failure to explain itself. Apart from the year-long spat over reported NSA spying in the country, including claims that Merkel's phone was tapped, the move follows two reported cases of suspected US espionage in Germany. The daily reports that the US embassy staffer who has been asked to leave is a CIA "chief of station" who coordinates secret service activity in Germany, and who emerged as the key contact for two German officials recently arrested for allegedly spying for the US.According to German media reports, such drastic action had previously only been thinkable when dealing with "pariah states like North Korea or Iran".
U.S. President Barack Obama has announced that he is naming John Tefft for the high-profile diplomatic post of ambassador to Russia. Senate confirmation is required for the position. The Washington Post writes that this decision comes amid a crucial period in U.S.-Russia relations, which have been severely tested over the Ukraine crisis, among other issues. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has been without an ambassador since February, the daily reminds. The previous ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, stepped down in February after a turbulent two years in Moscow, the daily writes. Tefft served as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine in Obama’s first term. Immediately before that, he was the U.S. ambassador to Georgia during the administration of George W. Bush. Since 2013, he has been executive director of the Rand Business Leaders Forum at the Rand Corporation, a nonprofit that analyzes public policy.
