The British Ambassador to Moscow, Deborah Bronnert, arrived at the Foreign Ministry on Thursday afternoon, where she was called a day earlier because of the incident with the entry of a Royal Navy destroyer into Russian territorial waters in the Black Sea.
According to TASS, the diplomat proceeded to the building of the diplomatic department without comment to the press.
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said earlier that during the conversation in the department, the ambassador will be made a tough demarche.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that the British destroyer violated the state border near the Crimea, without responding to attempts to contact the crew from the Russian border guards. The ship changed course only after the warning firing was opened.
“In general, indeed, vaccination remains voluntary,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters in response to a request to comment on the decision of the Moscow City Hall on the employer’s obligation to suspend an employee who refused to be vaccinated.
According to him, if a Muscovite working in the service sector or in transport has decided not to get vaccinated, he should stop working in the service sector and look for a job elsewhere that is not related to servicing people.
“This is voluntary, since you can change jobs,” he stressed. Peskov noted that the emergency measures taken by the Moscow authorities are due to the current moment and the difficult epidemiological situation. “There are special powers of the head of the region,” he recalled.
The Times assessed the incident with the British destroyer Defender, which invaded the territorial waters of Russia. They released a material about the ship, in which they blamed Russia for the incident.
Western journalists believe that what is happening was a warning for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Journalists note that during the incident, the Russian ship fired warning shots “at the bow of the British destroyer”, and the Russian Su-24 military aircraft dropped bombs on the course of its movement. The West concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin is still seeking to escalate tensions in relations with NATO.
They called the very actions of the British ship ” protection of freedom” waterways. The destroyer decided to pass through the Black Sea, since the UK does not consider Crimea to be part of Russia. At the same time, it is from the Black Sea, according to journalists, that a new war can begin.
Earlier, BBC journalist Jonathan Beale reported that the British destroyer Defender specifically violated the Russian borders near the Crimea. At the same time, representatives of the British Embassy and the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom denied this.
On Wednesday, a Russian patrol ship opened warning fire, and a Russian Su-24M bomber dropped several bombs near the ship to warn it. Before that, the border services contacted the crew of the ship and reported on the approach to the Russian border.
The Ministry of Defense has published a video of the escort of the destroyer Defender near the Crimea
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the European Union should look for its own negotiation formats with Russia. In addition, according to her, it is necessary to create unified mechanisms for responding to Moscow’s policy.
At the same time, Merkel stressed that Berlin should look for a direct exit to Russian President Vladimir Putin. She stated this during her speech in the German Parliament.
Earlier, Germany opposed the sanction of the relative “Nord Stream 2”. At the same time, it participates in the settlement of the conflict in the Donbas as a mediator.
Before, the GDP has never met with all the deputies who have completed the convocation
Vladimir Putin said goodbye to the deputies of the State Duma of the seventh convocation, who have completed their legislative activities. According to the President, all the parliamentarians worked effectively and showed dedication in the face of the pandemic. Among the main achievements of the deputy corps are amendments to the Constitution,support for the initiatives of the messages and a more constructive dialogue with the government than in previous years. Putin told what he expects from the upcoming election campaign and what parties should pay attention to when forming lists of candidates.
Photo: kremlin.ru
Vladimir Putin has never met with the full composition of the Duma before after the completion of its powers. Usually, the send-off was held in a more intimate atmosphere with the participation of only the leaders of the factions.
Explaining why they decided to change the format this year, Dmitry Peskov said that it is necessary to expand communication. “After all, we have passed through a pandemic year, when there was a shortage of direct communication, and in this case, such face — to-face performances are of particular importance,” he explained.
Indeed, over the past year and a half, ordinary deputies have personally seen the head of state only once — at the address to the Federal Assembly. Even a recent meeting with the leaders of parliamentary parties was held in an online format.
It is not surprising that, once in the Kremlin, the deputies were seriously carried away by photo shoots. (After all, many people risk never getting into the main halls anymore!) And Gennady Zyuganov, hoping to immediately attract attention to his person, came to the meeting in a red “sickle-hammer” mask. However, in relation to the president, this trick did not make much sense, since the scenario of the event was initially limited to speeches by Putin himself and the speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin.
GDP, as befits a hospitable host, did not dwell on the shortcomings and bad qualities of its guests. The words addressed to the deputies gave the impression that this is the best Duma in history and the Russians should be grateful to the parliamentarians for their selfless work and care.
Unlike other countries, where parliaments stopped their work in the face of a pandemic, in Russia the legislative process continued even in the most difficult and incomprehensible situation, which, according to Putin’s estimates, was observed in the spring and summer of 2020.
“If this had not been done, then – in a simple way, so that it was clear to everyone-the money would have simply hung up and would not have come to people, nor to economic sectors, nor to enterprises in a timely manner, “the president noted, recalling that 3 out of 10 sessions of deputies had to”work in extraordinary conditions of a dangerous epidemic.” And “although an ordinary citizen might not have noticed this,” the organization of legislative activity ” required certain efforts.” “The work of the parliament of the seventh convocation was unusual: in terms of the significance of the decisions taken during this period and in terms of quality. Thank you very much, ” the president said with feeling.
In addition to a package of draft laws aimed at supporting citizens in the conditions of a pandemic, Vladimir Putin highlighted the work of the State Duma on the initiatives listed in the messages to the Federal Assembly. Although only two months have passed since the last appeal, the Duma has already managed to put the most important proposals into the letter of the law.
So, from July 1, the norms on monthly benefits for children growing up in single-parent families with a low income level and for pregnant women in difficult life situations will come into force. “The parliament stops working, and the decisions you have made continue to work,” the president decided to encourage the deputies.
However, the main” non-man-made monument ” to the seventh convocation will obviously be amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. “The parliamentarians were among the co-chairs of the working group, helped people become full — fledged co-authors of the Constitution, tried to give legally impeccable formulations of the new provisions of the Basic Law of Russia,” the GDP noted. Recall that the deputy of the State Duma Valentina Tereshkova became the author of an amendment providing for the zeroing of the previous terms of the current president, which will allow Vladimir Putin to take part in the elections of 2024.
Speaking about the upcoming election campaign, which will result in the formation of the Duma of the eighth convocation, the President stressed that the most important thing is the legitimacy of the election results, which should be held “honestly, transparently and openly”. Future competitors are strongly advised to do without ” mutual accusations, offensive attacks and empty, essentially unfulfillable promises.” “I really hope that this stage in the life of the country has passed and remained in the nineties,” the GDP stressed.
Putin noted that not only updates, but also continuity are important for the new composition of the parliament. Fresh, bold ideas should be combined with experience and political maturity. “I hope that the parliamentary parties and political forces that will go to the elections will form their lists of candidates taking into account this balance,” Putin said.
In response, Vyacheslav Volodin expressed his gratitude, noting that the Russian parliament is largely obliged to the president himself for the productive and well-coordinated work. It was Putin who recommended that United Russia include representatives of other factions in the governing bodies, which had a beneficial effect on the atmosphere. He also has the initiative to approve members of the Cabinet of Ministers at a meeting of the Duma. “Thus, you have transferred part of your powers to our citizens, who now approve the government through deputies,” Volodin revealed the meaning of the innovation, which is still not obvious to Russians.
According to Putin, qualitative changes have yet to take place in terms of interaction between the executive and legislative authorities. The corresponding amendment is “not some kind of “wrapper”, but a “meaningful thing” that will contribute to making better decisions and achieving national goals, he said. But in any case, the new Duma will have to achieve this, and the current composition — “success”, “health” and “all the best”!
On Thursday, June 24, the government of the Russian Federation will discuss the allocation of funds for the payment of monthly allowances for children aged 8 to 17 years and women who have registered with a medical organization in the early stages of pregnancy.
It is noted that the development of this order is due to the need for financial support for the payment of benefits to pregnant women and benefits for children. This was told in the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers.
So little is known about what happens deep in the oceans that for 25 years after the discovery of hydrothermal vents, an average of two new vent species are discovered every month. These include the Yeti crab, a ghostly white crustacean with silky bristles on its claws.Others discovered over the past 20 years include the beaked whale and the Greenland shark, which dives to a depth of about 1200 meters and has a life expectancy of about 400 years, making it one of the longest-lived organisms in the world.
“Every time you dive into the depths, you see something incredible and often new,” says Diva Amon, a deep-sea biologist and employee of the Natural History Museum in London, who has made 15 deep-sea expeditions.
“There is a bone worm named Osedax, which lives on the bones of dead whales in the depths.” Another special one was the anemone, whose tentacles were 8 feet long.”
Every time you dive into the depths, you see something incredible and often new, ” says Diva Amon, a deep-sea biologist and employee of the Natural History Museum in London, who has made 15 deep-sea expeditions. “There is a bone worm named Osedax, which lives on the bones of dead whales in the depths.” Another special one was the anemone, whose tentacles were 8 feet long.” The Greenland shark, whose life expectancy is about 400 years.
A professor of oceanography at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, recalls how she first went to the deep sea in the waters near the Bahamas. “The most exciting part of this dive was the bioluminescence. Since it gets dark at 1000 m, they all glow, all blink. I was in an underwater vehicle with a plexiglass sphere, it was likeflight in space”. New frontiers of the mining industry Ninety percent of the ocean – and 50% of the Earth’s surface-is considered a deep sea (areas deeper than 200 meters). Only 0.0001% of the sea floor has been studied. This is dangerous, technically difficult and expensive. But despite these obstacles, companies have set their sights on the seabed as a new frontier for mining.
Since 1982, the International Seabed Agency (ISA), which is charged with regulating human activities on the deep seabed, has issued 30 contracts for mineral exploration over an area of more than 1.4 million square kilometers. Most of these sites are located in the Pacific Ocean, in the Clarion-Clipperton Fault Zone (CCZ).
In particular, companies pay attention to polymetallic nodules – bundles of ore resembling potatoes, which cover the surface of the sea depths and are rich in manganese, nickel, cobalt and rare earth metals. The nodules are up to 10 cm in diameter and are thought to form at a staggeringly slow rate – just a few centimeters every million years.
“The battery in the rock” is how DeepGreen, one of the major players in the emerging industry, describes polymetallic nodules. He touts deep-sea mining as a less environmentally and socially harmful alternative to onshore mining and says it is crucial to influence the transition to a greener economy with nodules containing minerals needed for batteries used in electric vehicles.
“Society is experiencing an acute growing need for metal batteries to ensure a complete transition to clean energy and electric vehicles. We believe that polymetallic nodules are the purest source of these metals with the lightest planetary impact, ” the company said in a statement on its website.
His proposal is to send ships to the ZCC and suck up nodules through long pipes stretching to the seabed. The nodules will be processed on the ship, and the excess sediment will be pumped back into the sea.
So far, licenses in international waters have been issued only for exploration, not for production, but the ISA is working on a regulatory framework for the development of sea depths, and DeepGreen says that it will be ready to start work by 2024.
There are concerns about the environmental impact of deep-sea mining on marine ecosystems, especially given how little is known about them and the very slow rate of reproduction and growth at these depths.
A 1978 experiment involving the extraction of nodules from the seabed in the ZCC showed how long the damage can be. The area was re-visited in 2004, and researchers found that the traces left by mining machines 26 years ago were still clearly visible on the seabed.The diversity of organisms in the disturbed area has also decreased.Fiji and Vanuatu have called for a moratorium on the deep-sea subsurface of the Pacific Ocean.
“You are talking about the destruction of the habitat on the seabed. Any territory that you develop will be destroyed, ” says Duncan Curry, an international lawyer who has worked in the field of ocean law for 30 years.He represents the Coalition for the Preservation of the Deep Sea, which calls for a moratorium on the development of deep-sea mining.
Amon was part of a project that conducted basic research in the CCZ area, for which the UK has a license to explore for potential production.
“As part of the work we did, we found that of the megafauna, larger animals, more than half of them were completely new to science, and more than half of them relied on nodules as the surface to which they attached themselves. . Things like corals, sponges, anemones – they really need nodules.So potentially mining in this area can have quite serious consequences.
“It’s also our largest ecosystem, so it provides about 96% of all habitable space on Earth,” says Amon. “I think most people still believe that this space is just empty or something is wrong.But in fact, this is far from the truth, the deep ocean is a huge reservoir of biodiversity.
Former US President Donald Trump on the air of the American TV channel Fox News expressed the opinion that the Chinese authorities destroyed the alleged evidence of the spread of a new coronavirus from a laboratory in Wuhan.
“I think it was probably an accident. There are those who believe that this was not an accident, ” Trump said, stressing that he is convinced that the infection spread from a Chinese laboratory.
He also doubts the success of the international proceedings to clarify the circumstances of the origin of COVID-19.
” China has probably already got rid of a lot of evidence. It’s very late now. As I believe, the evidence was seriously damaged, ” the former head of the White House explained.
A member of the Federation Council, Alexey Pushkov, wittily commented on the statements of the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, on the exit of the Ukrainian football team to the 1/8 finals of Euro 2020 in his Telegram channel.
Recall that Zelensky, joking, called the impressive results of the national team “football magic”.
& quot;A good joke by Zelensky…. When he is joking, and not engaged in politics, he is much better at it”, – Pushkov quipped.
According to The Wall Street Journal, sources in the US government, relying on intelligence data, do not exclude that after the completion of the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, the government of this country may lose power.
There are reasons to believe that the government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani against the background of an increase in the number of clashes between government troops and detachments of the radical movement “Taliban” (banned in the Russian Federation) may fall in six months, after the withdrawal of US troops, ” the forecast published by the newspaper says.
Moreover, a number of sources are confident that this period will be even shorter, and without the support of US troops, the Ghani regime will not last even three months.
Recall that US President Joe Biden plans to complete the withdrawal of the American contingent from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021.
