Nobel Lecture by Svetlana Alexievich

    There will be Svetlana Alexievich Nobel Lecture in Literature at the Swedish Academy today at 17:30 Stockholm time. The live video transmission will be available on www. nobelprize.org, YouTube and “Belsat TV”. Svetlana Alexievich is going to speak about her 40 years work, about the “red person” (Soviet person), about current Belarus. On the 10th of December “Belsat”, broadcasting from Poland, will show the live Nobel Prize ceremony in Belarusian language at 18:30.

 The text of the Lecture in English you can find here:

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2015/alexievich-lecture_en.html

“In order to win in this life, you should be a little bit of idealist” - Svetlana Alexievich about Nadiya Savchenko

      Nobel Prize laureate in Literature, Svetlana Alexievich, wrote a letter, singed and sent her books to the imprisoned Ukrainian pilot, Nadiya Savchenko, in Russia. Svetlana Alexievich called Nadiya Savchenko Ukrainian “Jean of Arc”, adding that “she is actually the person fighting for her motherland, she is the true soldier”.  

Nadiya Savchenko, a deputy of the Ukrainian Parliament and of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Ukrainian pilot, has been taken as a prisoner by pro-Russian separatists in summer 2014 and accused of murdering two Russian journalists in Luhansk region, despite the international condemnation.
Nadiya Savchenko finds the title of the S. Alexievich book “War does not have a woman’s face” ironic: “I am a woman who saw the face of the war” – she says.

Mikheil Saakashvili is still Georgian, even without a citizenship

   Georgia’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili has been stripped of his Georgian citizenship. The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, appointed M. Saakashvili to be governor of the Odessa region in May 2015. Mikheil Saakashvili commented the news from Georgia:

 “By fighting for the Ukrainian statehood, we help Georgia. Striping me of the Georgian citizenship, Russian oligarch, Ivanishvili, is taken the control over my country. But he is not able to change the history of my country”.

   M. Saakashvili was the President of Georgia in 2004-2013. During his presidency Georgia was successfully reformed, in particular in anti-corruption, ease of doing business and privatization areas.

Official Belarus: ashamed to be proud

  Belarusian Television and Radio won’t transmit the ceremony held on the 10th of December in Stockholm, where Svetlana Alexievich will be awarded by Nobel Prize for the Literature. It is the first Nobel Prize being awarded to a Belarusian.

The only channel that will show the Belarusian pride and talent will be “Belsat”, based in Poland and broadcasting news for Belarus in Belarusian language.

Show me your Zoo and I will show you who you are

It is impossible to look at this picture without tears. It was posted by blogger "Lenz Gottfried".
The dramatic situation of human rights in Russia is widely known , however such a horrible attitude toward animals is striking example of the deviation of the core values of the state.
The author of the picture says "the bear in the Kaliningrad Zoo, the symbol of the country, is the best description of the current situation in Russia".

All quite on the Western front

   It seems like NATO woke up after the tension appearance between NATO member and Russia. Recently the negotiations on the accession of Montenegro to NATO started. Montenegro could become the 28^th member of the alliance.

   Meanwhile, NATO is preparing its support the Turkish counter-air defence by the military aircrafts and ships in the Eastern Mediterranean see.

Tomatoes issue

    It seems like Russian government is more concerned, how to prevent Turkish tomatoes coming to the Russian market, than to bring the light to covered in darkness in winter time Crimea, annexed by Russia in March 2014.  On the 28^th of November President V. Putin approved sanctions against Turkey: it concerns food, flights between Russia and Turkey, however not manufactured products. From the 1^st of January the non-visa regime between two countries will be stopped. How fragile a friendship can be.