At the World Championships in Sweden Belarusian boxer defeated a Thai opponent, who had not lost for consecutive 4 years.
In the Muay Thai Championship final which took place in Sweden, Vital Hurkou has defeated Ekapan Sambaansab from Thailand, who had won all his matches in the last four years.
Hurkou fights in the 75 kg weight category.
Hurkou may have missed this event: the Sports Ministry had no funds
for his trip. Within hours Belarusians collected 68 million Br that
Hurkou rejected. In early May, the Ministry of Sports said that they
found the money.
Today, the victory was also celebrated by another Thai boxer from Belarus – Alena Lyashkevich. Soon Belarusians Dzyanis Hancharonak, Zmitser Valent and Andrei Herasimchuk will fight in their relevant finals. belsat.eu
(UPD) Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko who has been in
custody in Russia since July 2014 till today is arriving in Kyiv; the
presidential aircraft has landed in Borispil Airport.
Nadiya Savchenko has quickly talked to reporters. She
thanked everyone who supported her, the speech was very emotional. The
pilot even asked the crowd of journalists to step back saying she spent
two years in a one-man cell and became disaccustomed to people:
“I am free. I want to apologize to all the mothers
whose children did not return from the war while I am alive. I want to
apologize to all the mothers, their children who are in jail while I am
free. I will do my best to have them freed. I thank you for your fight
for me and everyone. If people did not raise their voices, politicians
would remain silent. And thank you who were indifferent. I have survived
in your despite.”
Nadiya also expressed readiness to resume serving in the Ukrainian army and fight against the enemy.
Then a presidential car has taken her to the Presidential Administration, where the official briefing is to be held.
Nadiya’s mother and sister are waiting for her arrival:
Detained Ukrainian servicewoman Nadiya Savchenko is
on board a plane returning to Ukraine from Russia, Reuters reports with
reference to a source close to a deal to swap the pilot for two Russians
held by Kiev said on Wednesday.
“They are coming back,” the source said, confirming that Savchenko was on the plane.
On Wednesday Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko
sent the presidential aircraft to Rostov-on-Don airport, where the
pilot was waiting, several sources with knowledge of the situation told
Ukrainian news agency Interfax.
The presidential aircraft was allegedly carrying Russian GRU officers Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Alexander Alexandrov seized in the Ukrainian territory in 2015. The exchange was to take place at the Rostov-on-Don airport, the source said.
“Russian law enforcement officials escorting
Savchenko are already in Rostov-on-Don. Based on a bilateral agreement,
Ukrainian authorities will hand over the two Russians detained in
Ukraine at the same place,” another source said.
Meanwhile, Russian media report that neither authorities nor lawyers are aware of Savchenko’s release.
"I thank my mother that
she has lived to see me and my sister for fighting for me," Savchenko
offered formal welcome in Presidential Administration. VIDEO
Ukrainian
pilot Nadiia Savchenko has met with President of Ukraine Petro
Poroshenko in Presidential Administration following her arrival in
Ukraine.
As reported by Censor.NET citing 112 Ukraine TV channel,
the president presented a just reward to Savchenko - she was granted
the title of Hero of Ukraine and awarded with the Gold Star Medal during
the formal ceremony. The meeting was also attended by Savchenko's
mother and sister as well as Nadiia's fellows-in-arms. Source: http://en.censor.net.ua/v390230
Nadiia Savchenko came out to journalists at Boryspil airport.
As reported by Censor.NET citing 112 Ukraine,
Savchenko's appearance was quite unexpected. Most journalists were
putting questions to Iryna Herashchenko at that moment. Savchenko's
speech was very emotional.
Savchenko thanked all her supporters as well as enemies and indifferent people.
"I
want to thank all those who supported me! I've survived because of you.
I want to thank my enemies! I've survived in spite of you. I want to
thank the indifferent ones for not interfering!" she said.
Den mye omtalte ukrainske militærflyveren Nadja Savtjenko (34) er
løslatt i bytte mot to russiske offiserer som har vært fengslet i
Ukraina.
– Jeg overlevde, skrek hun foran et stort presseoppbud i Kiev, barbeint og ikledd t-skjorte og jeans.
Kreml-talsmannen Dmitrij Peskov sier at president Vladimir
Putin har benådet Savtjenko, melder nyhetsbyrået Tass. Ifølge Reuters er
også de to russiske offiserene benådet - av den ukrainske presidenten.
Verken Savtjenko eller de to russerne skal selv ha bedt om benådning, etter som det betyr en innrømmelse av skyld.
Nadja Savtjenko dro i den ukrainske presidentens fly fra
Rostov til Kiev, landet i den ukrainske hovedstaden og ble møtt av sin
mor og søster på flyplassen.
Hun regnes som en krigshelt i Ukraina. I russiske øyne er
hun en forbryter. Hun ble i mars dømt til 22 års fengsel i russisk rett
for medvirkning til drap på to russiske journalister i Øst-Ukraina i
2014.
Seier for presidenten
For den hardt pressede ukrainske presidenten Petro Porosjenko er det en seier at Savtjenko nå er løslatt.
Nadja Savtjenko har vært tiltalt og dømt for både drap, drapsforsøk og ulovlig grensepassering.
Ifølge den russiske avisen Kommersant har flyet med de to
russiske offiserene Jevgenij Jerofeev og Aleksander Aleksandrov landet
på Vnukovo-flyplassen utenfor Moskva. Ukrainske medier hevder at de to
tilhører den russiske elitestyrken Spetsnaz.
Kreml-talsmann Peskov hevder at Putin benådet Savtjenko etter bønn fra en slektning av de to drepte russiske journalistene..
Kommersant skriver at fangebyttet er blitt til ved en
nattlig telefonsamtale med fire deltagere: presidentene i Russland,
Ukraina og Frankrike, samt den tyske bundeskansleren Angela Merkel.
Sitter i parlamentet
Savtjenko har sittet bak lås og slå i Russland siden
sommeren 2014. På denne tiden har hun både blitt innvalgt i det
ukrainske parlamentet og i Europarådets parlamentarikerforsamling.
Les også:Eurovision: Ukraina brøt reglene - slipper straff.
Det hele startet 18. juni 2014:
Nadja Savtjenko blir pågrepet nær landsbyen Metalist av folk i en
prorussisk milits. 19. juni ble en video av henne lagt ut på internett.
Hun var festet til et metallrør med håndjern.
Noen uker senere begynte dramatiske rykter å gå: Nadja ble holdt
fengslet i byen Voronezj i Russland. Den russiske påtalemyndigheten
bekreftet snart nyheten, at hun var i Voronezj og at hun var siktet for
medvirkning til drap på to russiske journalister, som omkom i et
bombekasterangrep mot et opprører-kontrollert sjekkpunkt utenfor byen
Luhansk.
– Ført over grensen
Savtjenkos advokater hevder at hun ble pågrepet av de russisk-støttede separatistene én time før journalistene ble drept. Les også:Russisk avis raser etter Ukrainas Eurovision-seier.
Ukrainerne har hevdet at hun ulovlig ble ført over grensen av russisk
etterretning i samarbeid med prorussiske soldater. Kiev har kalt det
kidnapping av en ukrainsk statsborger, statsterrorisme, og krevd at hun
måtte løslates.
Russerne på sin side har hele tiden sagt at Savtjenko er en
terrorist. Vladimir Markin hos den russiske påtalemyndigheten har hevdet
at det var like stor sjanse for at Savtjenko blir løslatt som at
Ukrainas president Petro Porosjenko skulle erstatte Barack Obama som
USAs president.
Helt siden hun ble pågrepet for snart to år siden har Ukraina drevet
en intens kampanje på sosiale medier og fremstilt henne som en
nasjonalhelt.
I Russland derimot blir hun fremstilt ekstremt negativt av media og er omtalt som en «drapsmaskin i skjørt». Les også: Krever 23 år i straffeleir for kvinnelig militærflyger
Nadja Savtjenko var kjendis i Ukraina allerede før arrestasjonen. Hun
er en av de første kvinner som har fått sjansen som pilot i det
ukrainske luftvåpenet, og hun er fortsatt den eneste som har fløyet
bombeflyet Sukhoi-24.
Høyreekstreme
Da konflikten med Russland eskalerte utover våren 2014, meldte Nadja
Savtjenko seg som frivillig i Aidar-bataljonen, som flere ganger har
blitt beskyldt for å ha bånd til høyreekstreme. De har også blitt
beskyldt for å begå krigsforbrytelser, som bortføringer og henrettelser.
Det var i kamp med Aidar at en norsk leiesoldat skal ha blitt drept sist helg.
Det var den omstridte, ukrainske politikeren Julia Timosjenko som
satte Nadja Savtjenko øverst på sitt partis liste til parlamentsvalget.
Dermed ble hun innvalgt i Verkhovna Rada in absentia.
Derfra ble hun nominert til å være ukrainsk representant til
Europarådets parlamentarikerforsamling (Thorbjørn Jagland-land). Det ga
henne diplomatisk immunitet og muligheten for at Russland kunne løslate
henne uten å miste ansikt.
Savtjenko har gjennomført flere sultestreiker mens hun har vært fengslet.
Hun har kalt Russland et totalitært regime, at landet har en diktator og at de spytter på menneskerettigheter og folkerett.
How much food a Belarusian, a Lithuanian, and an Italian can buy on wage.
If there is a necessity to visit a few countries, the return to Belarus does not look so bright - high prices is the reason.
You
pay 40-60 eurocents for a jar of yogurt in the northern part of Italy
and in Belarus it costs 30 cents. Mozzarella costs 75 cents there and
here the price equals to Br21 thousand (nearly 1 euro). And a cup of
coffee 3-4 times less expensive than in Belarus. There is a question
arise: how do we survive with such prices and our salaries?
To
understand the difference Zautra Tvaye Krainy compared average prices of
certain products this March provided by official statistics of Belarus,
Lithuania, and Italy.
Basket purchase sum of Belarus may look attractive.
Price
analysis of Gooper.ru also confirms it is more profitable to purchase
products in Belarus. For example, the kilogram of chicken breast in
Belarus costs 1.89 euro, in Lithuania – 4.83, in Italy – 18.25. Lunch in
McDonald's, which has become an index of purchasing power in the world,
in Belarus is available at €3.32, in Lithuania and Italy €4.67 and
€4.17 respectively.
However, it is wrong to say that it is cheaper to live in Belarus, economist and project manager Kosht Urada Uladzimir Kavalkin
believes. Many goods in Belarus cost less than in neighboring
countries, especially in the EU's countries. That same kilogram of rice
or meat is more expensive in European countries, but the quality
noticeably differs.
- Rise in Belarus and in Italy is completely
of different quality. It is possible that "our" rice can be prohibited
there or does not fully comply with quality standards of the European
Union," an expert explains.
If quality is also taken into
consideration, the Belarusians find themselves not on the winning side:
we consume the cheapest food. A Belarusian has to work five months to have a salary of a person from Italy
It
is worth looking at average wage. In Belarus it is noticeably lower
than in compared countries. Gooper.ru reports an average wage of the
Belarusians is €313 versus €727 in Lithuania and €1 600 Italy.
It
turns out that it is possible to buy 30 sets of a consumer basket made
up by journalists. Thus a Lithuanian can buy 45 sets and an Italian -
77.
According to statistics, it is cheaper to rent an apartment in
Belarus. An average price of rent of one-room apartment is €158 (Italy -
€553 ones, €183 – Lithuania). But it turns out in Belarus the rent of a
one-room apartment without utility payments takes 50.5% of an average
wage, in Lithuania – 25%, Italy – 34.5%.
An average cost of
utility services for residents of Apennines seem to be enormous
(according to us) and equals to €160 a month: electricity costs
approximately €40-50, gas - €60, central heating - €10, water and
condominium service - €53. However, it makes up 6-10% of their monthly
wage.
According to Belstat, last year housing and utility services
made up 6.1% of total expenditures of a Belarusian. This year figures
have noticeably increased.
Can the Belarusian afford a dinner in a restaurant and a trip to the theater?
It
is not enough to compare only prices in Belarus, Lithuania and
Italians, Uladzimir Kavalkin believes. It is much more important to
compare the amount of spare cash when all vital needs are satisfied,
such as food, rent, and utilities services.
In accordance with
Istata data, the Italian family spends 28% of its salary (around €460 a
month) on food. Italians, according to statistics, spend about €94 a
month on cultural events and a pastime, €27 for hairdresser and beauty
salon services, €77 are spend on food in public places.
Over past
years costs of Belarusians for food were fluctuating within 40-60% of
their income. Domestic statistics does not mention how much money
Belarusians spend for cultural events, food in cafes, or dinners in
restaurants, as well as how many Belarusians can afford food in public
places on regular basis.
Relative ratios for low food prices may
be a plus for the Belarusians. However, if to compare the cost of life
in Belarus and neighboring countries in absolute figures, it will turn
out that the life in Belarus is much more expensive, Uladzimir Kavalkin
sums up.
Belarusian IT project ‘Wake Up NEO…’
intended to save the world from a collision with an asteroid has hit Top
5 best in the People’s choice category of the prestigious Space Apps Challenge.
On April 22-24, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) gathered programmers and UI-designers, physicists,
mathematicians, astronomers, and robotics engineers to find innovative
solutions to the global challenges using an open API. Space Apps
Challenge was hosted by the HTP business incubator and was attended by
over 200 people.
Popular vote which lasted the whole week and ended at
21:00 on Sunday, but was extended for 4 hours, brought ‘Wake Up NEO…’
to the Top 5.
“Billions of asteroids surrounds us every day. We
don’t want to share the fate of dinosaurs <…> Our idea was to help
with classifying unclassified asteroids and identifying lost asteroids.
We investigated 2 different approaches: identifying asteroids using
light curve data and classification by neural network with revealing of
correlation between parameters used in object’s orbit calculation,” the
authors describe their idea.
Among the leading projects are MarsHopper (a plane for investigation of Mars poles and its surroundings), Avis (a
solution that involves a smart wristband and an Android app to help
drone operators control the drone, notify them about weather and near
no-fly zones) and Martian Oasis ( a game that simulates conditions in an off-Earth located permanent or temporary colony).
The Nordic Council of Ministers is bringing its support for the Belarusian university in exile to an end.
On May 10 the Nordic Council of Ministers decided
that it will no longer provide funding to Lithuanian-based European
Humanities University (EHU). The decision is a result of the Council of
Ministers’ budget restructuring to free up funds for co-operation on the
integration of refugees and immigrants this year, their statement reads.
According to the donors, the decision to stop funding
EHU is also based on the outcome of a process in which the role and
strategy of the university has been up for discussion. Repeated internal divisions at EHU have also detracted from its activities in recent years, they stress. Watch our video in English:
The decision might have also stemmed from a number of scandals in the EHU, in particular, the recent appointment of its Rector.
Moreover, the Nordic Council commissioned an audit of its financial
activity of the University which disclosed alleged misconduct by the
current administration, the newspaper Nasha Niva reports.
The issue of the future of the university will be on the agenda at June’s meeting of the Governing Board, Dzyanis Kuchynski, the president of the EHU Student Union, told svaboda.org.
According to him, the decision to stop supporting the university may be
the result of the long-term uncertainty about the university
leadership.
“The question is whether other donors will agree to
provide funding, or whether, for example, the European Commission or
SIDA will increase it,” Kuchynski said.
Founded in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, in 1992,
soon after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the European Humanities
University was one of the few private, nonprofit liberal-arts
institutions in the country.
But in 2004, Belarusian officials shut it down after
it stood up against attempts to undermine its academic freedom. In
response, a small team of faculty members and administrators set up a
“university in exile” across the border in neighboring Lithuania.
The Nordic Council of Ministers has been one of the biggest donors since 2008.
Representatives of the Belarusian Christian Democracy (BCD) held
a symbolic action at the Ministry of Economy and made proposals to
reform the Council of Ministers.
“The most basic things have to be done in Belarus, the entire civilized
world has passed through it: give freedom to small and medium-sized
businesses, ensure the independence of the courts, ensure that they are
not used to pressurize Belarusian business, but for international
investment companies and Belarusian businessmen to appeal. Also, the
economy of Belarus has to be made independent of the state, state
control should be reduced,” co-chairman of the BCD Vital Rymasheuski
commented on the need for changes.
In addition to the action, BCD activists brought to the Council of
Ministers a draft of economic reform, which was developed by independent
Belarusian economists under the direction of Stanislau Bahdankevich.
It is stated on the official "Dynamo" page that the
Belarusian biathlete holds a grade of a senior lieutenant of state
security and serves in the KGB IC.
“So, they have decided to declassify Darya Domracheva’s grade, – the journalist Andrzej Poczobut wrote on his Facebook page. – We
can only guess about the reasons that caused it, because they have been
silent about Domracheva’s relation to the State Security for many
years.”
Now, the background information on the Belarusian
biathlete, placed on her official page on the "Dinamo" website, looks as
follows:
– DOMRACHEVA Darya Vladimirovna (Born: 08.03.1986,
Minsk), Belarusian sportswoman (biathlon). Graduated BSEU. Belarusian
Master of Sports of International level (2007), Honoured Master of
Sports of Belarus (2010). Three-time Olympic champion (2014), Bronze
winner at the XXI Winter Olympic Games (2010). Two-time World Champion
(2012, 2013), silver medal winner at the World Cup 2008, 2011. Champion
of Europe (2007). Repeat winner and prize-winner of the World Cup.
Winner of the Big Crystal Globe trophy in biathlon (2014/2015). She was
awarded the Order of Fatherland, Third Degree and the special prize of
the President of the Republic of Belarus The Belarusian Sports Olympus.
She received the Sport Inspiring Young People award. In 2014 she was
awarded with the Hero of Belarus title. She serves in the KGB IC of the
Republic of Belarus, holds a grade of senior lieutenant. Coaches:
A.V.Musin, A.A.Tsibulsky, K.Zibert.
At the World Championships in Sweden Belarusian boxer defeated a Thai opponent, who had not lost for consecutive 4 years.
