Ismayilova Addresses Repression, Russian Media Influence At Capitol Hill Azerbaijan Hearing

Khadija Ismayilova

Witnesses testifying at a U.S. congressional hearing on September 15 voiced deep concern about rising Russian influence and instability in Azerbaijan, as well as the continued forced closure of RFE/RL’s bureau in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku.

The hearing, entitled “Azerbaijan: Do Human Rights Matter?” was organized by the bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, chaired by U.S. Representative James McGovern (D-MA), and took place just two weeks before a planned constitutional referendum that panelists and human rights groups have criticized for being held in the absence of independent media, opposing campaigning, and international monitors.

Investigative journalist, former political prisoner, and RFE/RL contributor Khadija Ismayilova told the hearing of the harsh conditions faced by journalists like herself who report on high-level corruption, pointing out that “no [Azerbaijani] laws say that journalism is a crime…But where critical journalism is concerned, it is really difficult to enforce the rule of law in Azerbaijan.” Ismayilova addressed the hearing by video conference from her home in Baku, as she is currently barred by the government from traveling outside Azerbaijan.

In response to a question from Rep. McGovern about how the international community can help Azerbaijanis access accurate and factual news, Ismayilova noted that “Radio Free Europe is the best America has done in Azerbaijan.”

Ismayilova, who said 138 political prisoners are currently being held in Azerbaijani prisons, testified that repression inside the country has targeted pro-Western journalists, bloggers, politicians and civil society activists, as well as religious moderates. At the same time, she said, “Russian media has its bureaus in Baku, while RFE/RL's Baku bureau is closed and its equipment has been confiscated illegally.” Ismayilova also noted in her testimony that RFE/RL has been banned by the government from Azerbaijan’s domestic airwaves since 2009 -- a restriction that is not shared by Russia’s Sputnik radio station.

Richard Kauzlarich, who served as U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan in the 1990s, declared that "quiet diplomacy has not worked” as a means of persuading the government to tolerate greater freedoms. He urged Washington to consider recalling its ambassador in Baku, and imposing asset freezes and visa bans for officials involved in repressing journalists and activists.

Ismayilova was released from prison in May this year after being arrested in December, 2014 on charges that are widely believed to have been brought in retaliation for her reporting about corruption linked to family members and friends of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. That same month, RFE/RL’s Baku bureau was raided and sealed by government agents in connection with tax-related claims that RFE/RL has called “baseless.”

Dictator Putin's Waffen SS - RUSSIAN AGGRESSION ON FOREIGN SOIL

The Crimean Prime Minister said Saturday that Russian troops are operating on the Ukrainian peninsula and made a personal appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin for more assistance.

 

The Kremlin said in a subsequent statement that it would not ignore the request for help.

 

Sergei Aksyonov, who was appointed prime minister after a parliamentary vote Thursday, said that an agreement was in place with Russia’s Black Sea Fleet for Russian soldiers to perform guard duties at strategic locations.

 

“We have established cooperation with the Black Sea Fleet to protect vitally important sites,” Aksyonov said during a Cabinet meeting.

 

There have been widespread reports of significant Russian military activity, including the movement of tanks, troops and helicopters, across the Crimea in recent days. But Russia has insisted that all the movements are allowed within the framework of a 1997 agreement with Ukraine about the use of naval bases.

 

“I am turning to Russian President Vladimir Putin to request assistance to preserve peace and calm,” said Aksyonov, who is the leader of Ukraine’s Russian Unity Party.

 

Aksyonov also announced that a referendum on the status of Crimea within Ukraine will be brought forward by almost two months, to March 30, and said that local security forces including the police and the army - which are usually commanded from Kiev - will be brought under his control.

 

The developments in Crimea appear to bring closer a possible partition of the former Soviet nation where a new government is struggling to control the country after the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych last week.  

 

Putin has made no public comment on the current Ukrainian crisis since the opposition swept to power after months of street protests ended in a violent crackdown in which 82 people died.

 

Armed men in balaclavas have occupied key public buildings in Crimea in recent days and appeared to have taken control of the region’s two main airports. The Crimean parliament was seized Thursday by armed men who raised the Russian flag.

 

One of Ukraine’s largest telecommunications companies said in a statement Friday that telephone and internet links between Crimea and the rest of the country had been severed.

 

The incoming authorities in Kiev have described developments in Crimea as an invasion, and interim president Oleksandr Turchynov told reporters late Friday that Russia was seeking to provoke conflict.

Russia has recently moved about 6,000 additional troops into Crimea, Ukraine's defense minister said Saturday, according to report by Reuters news agency.

 

Crimea was transferred to the Ukrainian Republic by the Soviet leadership in 1954. Since the fall of Communism it has enjoyed a large degree of political autonomy within Ukraine, including its own prime minister.

 

About 60 percent of the population in Crimea identifies itself as ethnic Russian, with the remainder being Ukrainian or Crimean Tatar.

 

Pro-Russian groups and Tatars, who mostly support the new regime in Kiev, clashed outside the Crimean parliament Thursday during a confrontation in which at least two people died.

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Russia to offer fighter sales and development to Brazil

Russia is to offer Brazil joint development of the Sukhoi T-50 (PAK-FA) fifth-generation fighter in a bid to secure an order for its Su-35S 'Flanker-E' combat aircraft, Russian media disclosed on 14 October.

 

A military delegation is expected to make the offer when it visits the South American country in the coming days, according to RIA Novosti .

 

"During the talks in Brazil, we are ready to offer deliveries of ready-for-sale advanced aircraft like the Su-35, but also joint development of a next-generation [combat] aircraft of the T-50 type," the publication quoted a delegation source as saying.

 

The Brazilian Air Force's (Força Aérea Brasileira - FAB) is in the middle of its F-X2 fighter competition to find a replacement for its ageing Dassault Mirage 2000 aircraft. Along with the Eurofighter Typhoon and Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon, the Sukhoi Su-35 has already been axed from the proceedings, leaving the Saab JAS 39 Gripen E, Dassault Rafale, and Boeing FA-18E/F Super Hornet to battle it out for the 36-jet tender.

 

Although the Brazilian government has delayed its announcement of a winning platform until after the 2014 general election, it has made it clear that it will not be reopening the competition to admit new offerings. As such, any Russian bid would need to be outside the scope of the F-X2 programme.

 

Brazil's National Defence Strategy (NDS) approved in 2008 is inextricably tied to the National Strategy of Development (NSD), and development of the country's indigenous aerospace industry is as important to the government as fielding a new fighter aircraft. "If we want to have a strong defence strategy, it has to be with a strong development strategy to strengthen our defence industrial base.

 

The focus is national technological independence," General Aprígio Eduardo de Moura Azevedo, FAB Chief of Staff, said during the IQPC International Fighter conference in late 2012.

 

While the Su-35S is a highly capable 4+ Generation platform that employs fifth-generation systems such as the NIIP Irbis-E passive electronically scanned array (PESA) radar, any Brazilian interest in the Russian proposals will likely hinge on the co-development work being offered on the PAK-FA.

 

India is already onboard with the Russian programme, which it designates the Fifth-Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA), or Future Prospective Fighter (FPF), and with the project in its prototype stage, there is still plenty of scope for Russia to offer development opportunities to Brazil.

 

Putin Urges Better Protection of Russian Arms Copyright

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday called for increased protection for Russian weapons manufacturers’ intellectual property rights on the global arms market.

 

“The world arms market is rife with examples of illegal copying of others’ designs, and we have encountered these problems on past occasions,” Putin said at a meeting of the Russian Commission for Military-Technological Cooperation with Foreign States.

 

“Our task is to ensure a high level of protection for our science-intensive goods and intellectual property, and defend the rights of Russian producers, companies and inventions’ creators,” Putin said.

The president also urged that the protection of intellectual property rights is strengthened in the manufacturing of Russian armaments in foreign countries under licenses in line with international laws.

 

Putin stressed that this “concerns not only the goods manufactured on the basis of contracts signed during the Soviet period,” particularly regarding Eastern Europe, but also the “legal protection of our latest arms models.”

 

Experts estimate that exports of illegally produced Russian arms cost the country up to $6 billion a year and also damage Russia's image.

 

The most notorious example is the illegal production of the famed Kalashnikov assault rifles in at least 15 countries, which is a particular problem in Eastern Europe.

 

China, despite a 2008 bilateral agreement on intellectual property protection with Russia, has allegedly produced copycat copies of Su-27 and Su-33 fighter jets, as well as S-300 air defense systems, the Smerch multiple rocket launcher and the Msta self-propelled howitzer.

 

Putin Attends Nuclear Sub Ceremony

Russian President Vladimir Putin participated on Monday in a ceremony to launch construction of Russia’s fourth Borei-class (Project 955A) ballistic missile submarine.

“By 2020, we should have eight Borei-class submarines,” he said. “Two of them - the Alexander Nevsky and one other - are in trials. I am sure the entire project will be implemented.”

The ceremony for the boat, the Knyaz Vladimir, was held at Sevmash, Russia’s largest shipyard and sole nuclear submarine maker located in the port city of Severodvinsk on the White Sea.

More new-generation warships - both surface ships and submarines - should be built for Russia’s “new-look Navy,” complete with advanced weapons, command and control, and communication systems, Putin said.

The Borei class is expected to become the mainstay of the Russian Navy's strategic nuclear deterrent, replacing the aging Project 941 (Typhoon class) and Project 667 class (Delta-3 and Delta-4) boats.

Three other Borei class boats are at various stages of development at Sevmash. The Yury Dolgoruky is currently undergoing sea trials, while the Alexander Nevsky and the Vladimir Monomakh are under construction.

The Borei class will be armed with the Bulava ballistic missile, which is also in the final stage of development and due to enter service on the lead vessel in the class, the Yury Dolgoruky, later this year.

The New Russian Twin-Turboprop

The Russian Air Force ordered another six An-140-100 transports. These twin turboprop aircraft were designed in Ukraine and are built in Russia. Since introduced in 2007, the 19 ton An-140 has been used mainly as a civilian aircraft (it can carry 52 passengers). The An-140s sold to Russia are modified for military use. The civilian version sells for about $9 million each, but the militarized version (sturdier landing gear, more electronics, configured to carry five tons of cargo) increases the price to about $12 million. This is about half the price of a similar Western aircraft. That economy comes at a cost, as five of the 35 An-140s delivered so far have crashed. However, two of those were An-140s built under license in Iran.

The 19 ton An-140 has a range of 1,300 kilometers and a cruise speed of 460 kilometers an hour. The military version will probably be able to carry about five tons of cargo. There are 30 An-140s on order from several countries. Russia is buying them, in part, to improve diplomatic and economic relations with Ukraine. But the Russian Air Force also wants to rebuild its air transport fleet and replace existing An-24s and An-26s. The An-140 is a radical upgrade of the 21 ton An-24.

While first developed in the late 1950s, the An-24 design was upgraded in the 1960s to the An-26 and the latest version is the An-32. The original An-24 transport entered service in the early 1960s. Over 1,100 AN-24s were built, and over 500 are still in use. About ten percent of An-24s were lost in accidents.

Before the end of the 60s, some 600 of an improved version, the An-26, were built and over 200 are still flying. In the 1970s, even more powerful versions (An-30, An-32) entered service but only about 360 of these were made. The crew consists of two pilots and a loadmaster. The An-140 also carries a loadmaster when in all-cargo mode.

Antonov built the original An-24 series to be simple, rugged, and easy to use and maintain. They succeeded. Fifty years later it should not be surprising that nearly a thousand An-24/26 series aircraft are still working. That's not the first time this has happened, as after 70 years there are still several hundred DC-3 transports working in odd (and often remote) parts of the world. One problem with the An-24/26 is that since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 spare parts have been difficult to get. Some Western and Indian firms eventually got into that business, but by the late 1990s, lots of the An-24/26s were grounded because parts were not available.

With age comes other problems. Engines, and other parts of these aging aircraft, are prone to fail at bad moments. There is still a problem with spare parts, or at least the quality of those parts. The network of factories producing the spares fell apart when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The parts supply network has been slowly rebuilt, with many factories outside of Russia now producing needed components. Quality of these parts varies, which adds to the sense of adventure one has when flying in these aircraft.

Russia Looking at 2020 for New Generation Long-Range Bomber

“We have everything today to develop the plane on time and put it into operation together with Tu-95MS Bear and Tu-160 Blackjack,” deputy Air Force commander said.

The Russian Air Force may receive its first PAK DA next generation long-range bomber about 2020 instead of 2025 as initially planned, Russia’s acting deputy Air Force commander, Major General Alexander Chernyayev, has said.

“I think the first models of the Prospective Air Complex for Long Range Aviation (PAK DA) will be supplied to the Air Force approximately by 2020,” Chernyayev said in an interview published on the Russian Defense Ministry website late last week.

Russia's Long Range Aviation commander, Major General Anatoly Zhikharev, has said the Air Force could receive the new strategic bomber in 2025.

The general look of the new strategic bomber has already been worked out, and engineers are currently finishing work on aircraft specific operational requirements, Chernyayev said.

“We have everything today to develop the plane on time and put it into operation together with [Tupolev] Tu-95MS Bear, Tu-160 Blackjack and Tu-22M3 Backfire [strategic bombers], which have proven their high reliability,” he added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered development of the new long-range strategic bomber to be sped up in mid-June.

“I know how expensive and complex this is,” Putin said during a conference on defense orders. “The task is not easy from a scientific-technical standpoint, but we need to start work,” he said, adding that otherwise, Russia could miss the boat.

Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov has said previously that a new aircraft assembly line in Russia's Kazan plant (KAPO) would build PAK DA and the new Antonov An-70 propfan transport aircraft. The same plant previously built the Tu-95MS and Tu-160.

Currently, only Russia and the United States operate intercontinental range bombers. Most other nuclear-capable nations rely solely on intercontinental ballistic missiles, based on submarines or in land-based silos, or cruise missiles. The United States has expressed an interest in successor systems to its B-1, B-2 and B-52H long-range bombers.

Chernyayev also said in his interview the Russian Air Force was planning to modernize its Tu-95MS, Tu-160 and Tu-22MS bombers, as well as Ilyushin Il-78 Midas air-to-air refueling tanker aircraft.

Russia’s strategic air forces operate a total of 63 Tu-95MS and 13 Tu-160 bombers. Altogether, they are capable of carrying 850 long-range cruise missiles.