Berlin hospital publishes details of Novitchok poisoning

Berlin hospital publishes details of Novitchok poisoning

Health opposition Protest Russia

Berlin hospital publishes details of Novitchok poisoning

"Severe poisoning with a cholineserase inhibitor has been diagnosed at Charity," the scientists explain in this four-page article in The Lancet.

Berlin doctors who treated Alexei Navalny on Wednesday released clinical details of his poisoning at Novitchok, with the Russian opposition welcoming the publication of the medical "evidence" that Moscow had been demanding for months.

"Severe poisoning with a cholineesterase inhibitor has been diagnosed at Charity," the scientists explain in this four-page article in The Lancet, which first traces the symptoms triggered by the Novitchok group's nerve agent developed by the USSR in the 1980s.

Russian doctors' findings contradicted

"The verification of the involvement of an Novitchok agent. was not made until several days after the diagnosis of poisoning ... and did not affect treatment decisions," they continued. According to the article published with the consent of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opponent fell into a coma after the first symptoms appeared, his heart rate slowed sharply and his body temperature dropped to 33.5 degrees Celsius.

"His good health before the poisoning probably helped his recovery," the scientists said, contradicting the findings of Russian doctors who once questioned Navalny's lifestyle and general health.

"Medical data available for the world"

A fierce critic of Vladimir Putin's regime, Alexei Navalny fell seriously ill on 20 August on a plane in Siberia while campaigning for local and regional elections. After being treated in a Siberian hospital, he was transferred to the Berlin Hospital of Charity from where he was discharged a few weeks later.

Since then, he has accused the Russian secret services of having been behind the attempt to assassinate him, allegations deemed "delusional" by Moscow, which had so far denied that he had been poisoned because it had not had access to evidence of intoxication.

Alexei Navalny reacted with irony on his Facebook account on Wednesday: "The most important thing is that Vladimir Putin is relieved. At each press conference, he exclaimed, waving his hands: "When will the Germans provide us with their data?" It doesn't matter anymore, medical data are now published and available to the whole world.

The European Union had demanded an explanation from Moscow and imposed sanctions on which Russia countered on Tuesday with counter-measures.

Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

Farrukh Shah

Vladimir Putin signs law that will offer former Russian presidents lifelong immunity

Vladimir Putin signs law that will offer former Russian presidents lifelong immunity

Europe President Russia

Vladimir Putin signs law that will offer former Russian presidents lifelong immunity

Vladimir Putin signed a law on Tuesday that offers lifelong immunity to former presidents, including for acts carried out before or after their term of office

A litigant like any other? Not in Russia. Vladimir Putin signed a law on Tuesday that will offer former Russian presidents lifelong immunity, not just for acts carried out in the line of duty.

The new text states that a former Russian president "cannot be prosecuted criminally or administratively." He cannot, moreover, be arrested by the police, subjected to questioning or searched.

The law expands immunity

The previous version of the text already offered immunity to former Russian presidents, but specified that it applied only to actions carried out during their time in power.

The new law is part of constitutional amendments approved this summer in a national vote that also gave President Putin the chance to remain in power until 2036.

He may be deprived of his immunity under certain conditions

A former Russian president may still be deprived of his or her immunity in the case of charges of "high treason or other serious crimes", confirmed by the Supreme and Constitutional Courts, and then validated by two-thirds of the members of the lower and upper houses of Parliament. The new text also indicates that former presidents will have a seat in the upper house of Parliament, which also offers them immunity.

Relatives also protected?

These amendments, which deal "with the guarantees of a President of the Russian Federation no longer performing his duties, and members of his family", do not clearly state that relatives of former heads of state will also enjoy the same protection.

Last month, the changes fueled rumours that Vladimir Putin may leave for health reasons, reports denied by the Kremlin.

Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

Farrukh Shah

United States of America victims of massive cyberattack

United States of America victims of massive cyberattack

Cyber Security Cyber-Attack CyberCrime digital leak Russia U S

United States of America victims of massive cyberattack

The U.S. administration and thousands of private companies have been the victims of a cyberattack of unprecedented scale since last March. Washington and the country's press point the finger at Russia.

"This is the nightmare that has been keeping cybersecurity experts awake for years," TechCrunchassures. "Since March, at least, hackers probably acting on behalf of Russian intelligence have infiltrated, incognito, the unclassified networks of several government administrations and thousands of companies,"the site adds.

According to CNBC,the hackers "used the network management software of SolarWinds, a Texas-based computer company, to penetrate government networks." Some 18,000 SolarWinds customers, including the U.S. government, downloaded an update to The Orion software, where hackers installed a "backdoor" to give them access to the networks, the channel said.

The cyberattack, which hit the Departments of Budget and Trade, and the Department of Energy's Nuclear Security Agency, was "much larger than expected," CNBC added.

Months to repair the damage

And "the worst may be yet to come," USA Todaysaid. "The Department of Homeland Security's cybersecurity unit acknowledged that the exact scope of the attack was not yet known and that an unspecified number of local government and private company networks were 'seriously threatened'."

It will take "months" to repair the damage, APnotes. "Experts say there are not enough anti-piracy teams with the skills to identify all pirated systems, whether public or private,"the agency added. 

The Microsoft giant, a victim of hackers with about 40 of its customers, analyzed at length the cyberattack in a blog of its president, Brad Smith, taken up by Cnet. " This is not only an attack on specific targets, but also against the trust and reliability of a critical global infrastructure, to the benefit of the intelligence agency of one nation," Smith said.

Amazing blindness

The Microsoft boss also called for "international agreements to limit the creation of hacking tools, which undermine global cybersecurity," Cnetsaid.

Donald Trump has made no comment on the attack, either to condemn it or to threaten its officials with possible reprisals. But Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday night that it was "pretty clear" that Russia was at the helm.

The Kremlin denied that Vladimir Putin's spokesman called on the United States to stop "blaming the Russians without evidence"and assured that the Russian president himself had "invited the Americans to conclude a cooperation agreement in the field of cybersecurity," the official Tassnews agency said.

The Wall Street Journal notes that the cyberattack, "as shameless as it is,"is more a matter of "traditional digital espionage" than a desire to harm. Apparently, "no data has been altered or destroyed, and no infrastructure or computer systems have been damaged,"the business daily writes.

This makes Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard law professor, say that the United States is "staggeringly blind"in this case.

In the columns of the conservative website The Dispatch, he recalls that the revelations of whistleblower Edward Snowden "clearly demonstrated that the United States regularly enters the computers of foreign governments", often "with the involuntary help of the private sector, for the purposes of espionage". The country is even "very likely the world leader in this practice,"he adds.

Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

Farrukh Shah

Vladimir Putin congratulates Joe Biden and says he is ready for collaboration

Vladimir Putin congratulates Joe Biden and says he is ready for collaboration

Election International Russia U S

Russia: Vladimir Putin congratulates Joe Biden and says he is "ready for collaboration"

Russian President waited for official Electoral College vote to send a message to Joe Biden

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday congratulated Joe Biden on his election as US president and said he wanted to work with him, despite the harmful relations between the two countries.

"I, for one, am ready for collaboration and contact with you," he wrote in a telegram, according to a Kremlin statement. The Russian president is one of the few leaders who has waited for the U.S. Electoral College vote in favor of Joe Biden to congratulate him, explaining the refusal by uncertainty over the outcome of the November 4 election given Donald Trump's refusal to acknowledge his defeat and his multiple legal actions.

Biden stands firm against Russia

"V. Putin wished the President-elect success and expressed his conviction that Russia and the United States despite their disagreements, many problems and challenges" in the world can be solved, the Kremlin added in its statement. Joe Biden has vowed to stand firm against Russia, accused of including meddling in the U.S. electoral system to favor the election of Donald Trump in 2016.

The US billionaire has always denied benefiting from Russian efforts, as has Vladimir Putin, despite the findings of US investigators that led to heavy sanctions against Russia.

Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

Farrukh Shah

Russia Starts Inoculating Vulnerable Workers Against Coronavirus | Flash News

Russia Starts Inoculating Vulnerable Workers Against Coronavirus | Flash News

CoronaVirus Covid Health International Russia vaccine

Russia Starts Inoculating Vulnerable Workers Against Coronavirus

Moscow on Saturday began vaccinating workers at high risk of becoming infected with the coronavirus at newly opened clinics across the city. 

Health officials said they had opened 70 coronavirus vaccine centers in the Russian capital that would initially offer jabs for health, education and social workers. 

"Citizens from the main risk groups who in connection with their professional activities come into contact with a large number of people can get vaccinated," officials said.

Russia was one of the first countries to announce the development of a vaccine, Sputnik V — dubbed after the Soviet-era satellite — in August but before beginning final clinical trials.

It is currently in its third and final stage of clinical trials involving some 40,000 volunteers.

Sputnik V's developers last month said interim results had shown the vaccine was 95 percent effective and would be cheaper and easier to store than some alternatives.

The jab uses two different human adenovirus vectors and is administered in two doses with a 21-day gap. 

The vaccine will be free to all Russian citizens and inoculation will be voluntary. 

Health officials on Saturday said that during the initial rollout in Moscow the jab would not be available to workers over 60, those with chronic diseases, and pregnant or breastfeeding women.

They did not say when the vaccine would be available to the wider public.

Mass vaccinations planned for military 

On Friday Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that 5,000 people had registered to be vaccinated within the first five hours of online registration having opened.

AFP journalists at one of the new centers on Saturday saw queues as people waited their turn.

"I want to be sure that the coronavirus won't infect me and my loved ones," said Sergei Buslayev, a 42-year-old insurance worker.

"I want to be able to go to the gym safely and lead my life normally again," he added. 

The mass vaccination rollout began as Russia set a new daily record for coronavirus infections.

Health officials on Saturday reported 28,782 new infections, bringing the national total to 2,431,731 cases since the beginning of the pandemic — the fourth-highest caseload in the world. 

Despite the surge in cases, Russia has not imposed the kind of nationwide lockdowns seen in some parts of Europe, although restrictions were imposed in some major cities.

Instead, they pinned their hopes on ending the pandemic on vaccines.

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday told health officials to start widespread vaccinations next week, adding that Russia has produced close to two million doses of Sputnik V.

Last month Russia's defense ministry announced that a mass vaccination campaign has been rolled out in the military, aiming to inoculate over 400,000 servicemen, including 80,000 by the end of this year.

Russia's Levada polling agency in a recent survey found that only 36 percent of respondents were prepared to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. 

Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

Farrukh Shah