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Wednesday, April 29, 2015

The Chernobyl Story – 29th Anniversary: Vladimir Putin’s ‘misinformation’ & cold war propaganda tools

Many families in Eastern Europe are still haunted by the disaster. Three years after the blast the Velvet Revolution took place. However, no one could help my nephew, Tomas, who passed away at a young age in his early 20s, and who never recovered from Chernobyl disaster. He was never able to communicate, read, even walk properly ... Tomas was delightful boy who provided lots of joy to the family, however especially, to his grandmother, Maria, despite his disabilities ...

Andrew Leatherbarrow: “At precisely 01:23:40 on the morning of April 26th, 1986, a control room operator named Alexander Akimov made his fateful decision to press the Emergency Shutdown button at Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power station. The reactor exploded, annihilating its containment building and sending a lethal cloud of radioactive particles across Europe. This unprecedented accident caused the permanent evacuation of the nearby city of Pripyat, a desperature struggle to contain Chernobyl’s exposed reactor core, and ultimately cost thousands of lives. So what happened, who really caused it, and what are Chernobyl and Pripyat like now? I had to find out more, so in 2011 I went to see the area for myself. In this book I aim to provide an accessible, but detailed and comprehensive account of the 1986 accident, plus the story of my own journey into the Chernobyl Zone.”

A Russian biker group, famed for their patriotism, have set off from Moscow to Berlin, hoping to recreate the route taken by the Red Army 70 years ago, visiting the graves of Soviet soldiers killed during the war.
However Poland have called the trip a "provocation" and have said they will ban members of the Night Wolves biker club from entering their country.
Putin's 'Hells Angels' set off from Moscow for Berlin

Russia’s sprawling propaganda network may have failed to persuade much of the world that Ukraine is run by Nazis, that Crimea was annexed in a popular uprising and/or that Germany is a failed state. But the barrage of misinformation has convinced some American politicians that the propaganda network is the greatest threat to US security in Europe since the Soviet Union evaporated.
Vladimir Putin’s ‘misinformation’ offensive prompts US to deploy its cold war propaganda tools 


How Technology is Changing the Future of Espionage

 What do Google and Amazon have in common with arms traffickers, terrorists, and North Korean rulers? The answer: All use the same offshore system to circumvent rules that would otherwise constrain them.
Tax havens for despots, criminals and the Fortune 500

How Putin’s comrades washed their money in Switzerland and the UK

Liberland, which sits on 2.7 square-miles of land along the Danube River between Serbia and Croatia, was founded earlier this month and plans to have only voluntary taxes.
Liberland