Showing posts with label Dmitry Medvedev. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dmitry Medvedev. Show all posts

Monday, 6 May 2019

RUSSIA:41 Killed After Aeroflot Aircraft Made A Crash Landing And Caught Fire At Sheremetyevo Airport In Moscow

A Russian-made jet was forced to make an emergency landing at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, with images from the scene showing flames and smoke at the end of the aircraft. Dozens of people have died.

Up to 41 people were killed when a passenger airliner made a crash landing and caught fire in Moscow on Sunday.

Russia's Investigative Committee said at least two children were among those who died. The Emergencies Ministry stated that six people had been hospitalized.

The Investigative Committee later said 37 have survived out of the 78 on board.

The Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet belonged to national carrier Aeroflot and was carrying 73 passengers and five crew members.

The passengers were forced to evacuate using emergency slides, with videos showing people staggering away from the burning plane.

The aircraft was set to leave Sheremetyevo for the northern city of Murmansk, which is located inside the Artic Circle and near the border with Finland.

However, an onboard emergency forced the pilots to turn the plane around shortly after taking off.

Shortly after the incident, Aeroflot released a statement saying that the jet was forced to turn back due to technical problems. The airline did not specify exactly what problems the plane was experiencing.

It's not yet clear when the fire broke out on the Aeroflot jet.

The plane reportedly made several attempts to land, with airport officials saying that the plane caught fire when it made a hard emergency landing.

The plane sent out a distress signal after taking off, started emergency landing procedures, failed to land in the first attempt, and in the second it hit landing gear and its nose on the runway and started burning, an unnamed source told Interfax.

Russian media, however, reported that the fire broke out on the plane before it landed. Russian authorities and the airline have yet to comment on the exact reason the jet turned around.

Investigators were at the scene in Sheremetyevo, Russian officials said.

The Sukhoi Superjet 100 made its first commercial flight in 2011. In May 2012, a plane of this type crashed while on a promotional flight in Indonesia with 50 people on board.

The flight recorders from a plane that caught fire during an emergency landing at a Moscow airport have been retrieved. At least 41 people died as a result and it is uncertain if the fire started before or after landing.

Passengers who managed to escape the fireball crash of a Russian Aeroflot passenger plane in which 41 people died have blamed a lightning strike on causing the tragedy.

Survivor Pyotr Egorov said: We took off and then lightning struck the plane.

The plane turned back and there was a hard landing. We were so scared, we almost lost consciousness.

The plane jumped down the landing strip like a grasshopper and then caught fire on the ground.

Passengers were also accused of delaying the evacuation of the burning plane by reaching into the overhead compartments to retrieve their belongings.

The evacuation of the plane had been delayed by some passengers insisting on collecting their hand luggage first.

The plane had only succeeded making an emergency landing on the second attempt and that some of the aircraft's systems had then failed.

Russian officials said today that both flight recorders were recovered from the plane.

Russian Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said investigators are looking into three main possibilities behind the cause of the disaster, insufficient pilot qualifications, equipment failure, and weather.

Video on Russian TV showed the Aeroflot plane's underside bursting into flames and spewing black smoke after making a hard landing at Sheremetyevo Airport on Sunday night.

Those who escaped leapt out of the Sukhoi SSJ100 airliner down inflatable emergency slides and ran across the tarmac.

Storms were passing through the Moscow area when the jet caught fire during the emergency landing, after it turned back for unspecified reasons during an internal flight to Murmansk.

Meanwhile, Russian transport minister Yevgeny Dietrich said 41 bodies have been recovered from the burned wreckage.

He also told reporters in a briefing on Monday that six people who survived the disaster on Sunday night are being treated in hospital.

Shocking footage showed the Sukhoi Superjet 100 crash bouncing along the tarmac at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport before the rear part of the plane suddenly burst into flames.

Russian state TV broadcast mobile phone footage shot by another passenger in which people could be heard screaming.

Passengers on board SU 1492 then escaped via the plane's emergency slides that inflated after the hard landing.

The plane, which had been flying from Moscow to the northern Russian city of Murmansk, had been carrying 73 passengers and five crew members, Russia's aviation watchdog said.

Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for Russia's Investigative Committee, said in a statement that only 37 out of 78 people on board had survived, meaning 41 people had lost their lives.

No official cause has been given for the disaster.

An investigation has been opened and is looking into whether the pilots had breached air safety rules.

President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev expressed their condolences and ordered investigators to establish what had happened.

Russian news agencies reported that injured passengers were being treated in hospitals.

The plane had circled twice over Moscow before making an emergency landing after just under 30 minutes in the air.

The plane's under carriage gave way on impact and its engines caught fire.

The plane had only succeeded making an emergency landing on the second attempt and that some of the aircraft's systems had then failed.

The emergency landing was so hard that debris had found its way into the engines, sparking a fire that swiftly engulfed the rear of the fuselage, the same source said.

Russian investigators said they were looking into various versions.

The plane had been produced in 2017 and had been serviced as recently as April this year.

Aeroflot has long shaken off its troubled post Soviet safety record and now has one of the world's most modern fleets on international routes where it relies on Boeing and Airbus aircraft.

Russian officials are keen for Aeroflot to buy more Sukhoi Superjets, a regional airliner, for domestic flights to support the country's fledgling civil aircraft industry. The plane is built in Russia's Far East.

A Sukhoi Superjet crashed in Indonesia in 2012, killing all 45 people on board in an accident blamed on human error.

The Superjet entered service in 2011 and was the first new passenger jet developed in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

It has been hit, however, by sporadic concerns over safety and reliability, including a December 2016 grounding after a defect was discovered in an aircraft's tail section.

Russian officials said on Sunday it was premature to talk of grounding the Sukhoi Superjet for now. The plane is predominantly used by Russian airlines like Aeroflot, but is also used by a few other foreign operators, including a low-cost Mexican airline.

Terrifying new footage has revealed how a stricken Russian plane bounced down the runway at a Moscow airport before catching fire in an air disaster which killed 41 people.

The struggling Superjet plane came in to land at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport yesterday but flicked off the tarmac and remained airborne before collapsing to the ground seconds later.

The new security footage shows a fireball erupting from the fuselage as the damaged plane careers along the runway with a huge cloud of smoke trailing behind it.

It also emerged today that a hero stewardess kicked open an exit door to help passengers escape the inferno on board the plane, which was returning to Moscow to make an emergency landing.

Tatyana Kasatkina, 34, grabbed passengers by their collars and pushed them to safety - as others said they were slowed down by customers trying to retrieve their luggage.

However another flight attendant, Maxim Moissev, died in the flames as he tried desperately to open a door at the rear of the plane.

Russian officials are still probing the cause of the crash, suggesting three theories: insufficient pilot qualifications, equipment failure, and weather. They do not intend to ground the type of aircraft.

Both flight recorders have today been recovered, which will allow investigators to examine what went wrong aboard a plane which pilot Denis Evdokimov said had been hit by lightning.

Dozens of flights at Sheremetyevo were delayed because of the disaster.


Tourism Observer

Monday, 17 July 2017

CHINA: Medical Tourism Booms In Hainan

Elena Pankova and her friends flew directly from St. Petersburg to Sanya, a tourist city in southern China's tropical island of Hainan, not just to enjoy the sunshine on the beach.

Pankova's holiday also included receiving therapy at a local traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) hospital.

Each day, Pankova receives two hours of therapy at Sanya Hospital of TCM, then spends the rest of the day sunbathing. Her two-month trip, which combines travel with TCM treatment, is part of a growing industry on the island,medical tourism.

Modern Western medicine has little effect on me, so I came to Sanya to try TCM therapy, said Pankova.
Pankova is one of tens of thousands of Russians who flock to Hainan every year. The island province has received 800,000 Russian tourists in the past seven years.

Almost 80 percent of them have tried some form of TCM therapy during their stay,either to treat a particular ailment or simply to improve overall wellness, health authorities said.

The boom is particularly felt in Sanya, where Russian-language advertisements for acupuncture and cupping have popped up across the city.

Sanya Hospital of TCM has treated more than 40,000 patients from Russia and Central Asia since it introduced "TCM tours" in 2002.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev have been treated at our hospital,said Wang Tiansong, president of the hospital.

To meet the rising overseas demand for TCM therapies, the hospital built an international healthcare center in 2016 to provide medical treatment specifically for foreign patients.

An acupuncturist at the hospital, treated his first foreign patient five years ago. Since then he has started to learn Russian to allow him to communicate better with patients.

Besides providing patients with acupuncture, cupping, tuina massage, and herbal medicines, some of the most well-known TCM treatments overseas, Zang often gives TCM lifestyle information on how to keep fit and prevent diseases.

I think Chinese medicine focuses on helping prevent diseases and reduce chances of getting sick,said THE acupuncturist.
Patients from Russia and Central Asia are more open to trying TCM as these countries have had frequent exchanges with China over many years, He says.

TCM is centered around being green and natural, making it compatible with many Russians' passion for nature, said Yana Zhuravleva, a Russian national who is the marketing manager at Sanya Hospital of TCM.

Many Russian patients turn to TCM therapies for help after Western medicine has no effect, said Zhuravleva.
At the hospital, foreign patients are first given a physical health examination, then doctors create a specific treatment plan for them.

When they finish their treatment and prepare to leave Hainan, patients are given a flash drive containing their medical records for future treatment.

The boom in medical tourism also brings some problems.

In 2016, Sanya Hospital of TCM treated 8,000 foreign patients, but that number represented just a small proportion of foreign patients who came to Hainan for medical tourism.

It is the private TCM institutions that received the majority of foreign patients.

However, unregulated private clinics, exaggerated treatment effects, and a lack of qualified TCM practitioners constrain the sound development of the medical tourism market in Hainan, according to the provincial TCM administration.

Hainan has been mulling over new laws to help regulate medical tourism.

In August, the province will unveil two new regulations on TCM services and the construction of a TCM tourism model zone.

The move will ensure order in the industry including therapy costs, safety standards and service quality, which will contribute to better medical care and enhance the experiences of visitors, said Xu Qingning, deputy director of Hainan Administration of TCM.

China put a national law on TCM into effect on July 1, which aims at regulating Chinese medicine as well as the training of medical personnel.

The new law will improve the global influence of TCM and boost international cooperation and exchanges.



Tourism Observer
www.tourismobserver.com

CHINA: Medical Tourism Booms In Hainan

Elena Pankova and her friends flew directly from St. Petersburg to Sanya, a tourist city in southern China's tropical island of Hainan, not just to enjoy the sunshine on the beach.

Pankova's holiday also included receiving therapy at a local traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) hospital.

Each day, Pankova receives two hours of therapy at Sanya Hospital of TCM, then spends the rest of the day sunbathing. Her two-month trip, which combines travel with TCM treatment, is part of a growing industry on the island,medical tourism.

Modern Western medicine has little effect on me, so I came to Sanya to try TCM therapy, said Pankova.
Pankova is one of tens of thousands of Russians who flock to Hainan every year. The island province has received 800,000 Russian tourists in the past seven years.

Almost 80 percent of them have tried some form of TCM therapy during their stay,either to treat a particular ailment or simply to improve overall wellness, health authorities said.

The boom is particularly felt in Sanya, where Russian-language advertisements for acupuncture and cupping have popped up across the city.

Sanya Hospital of TCM has treated more than 40,000 patients from Russia and Central Asia since it introduced "TCM tours" in 2002.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev have been treated at our hospital,said Wang Tiansong, president of the hospital.

To meet the rising overseas demand for TCM therapies, the hospital built an international healthcare center in 2016 to provide medical treatment specifically for foreign patients.

An acupuncturist at the hospital, treated his first foreign patient five years ago. Since then he has started to learn Russian to allow him to communicate better with patients.

Besides providing patients with acupuncture, cupping, tuina massage, and herbal medicines, some of the most well-known TCM treatments overseas, Zang often gives TCM lifestyle information on how to keep fit and prevent diseases.

I think Chinese medicine focuses on helping prevent diseases and reduce chances of getting sick,said THE acupuncturist.
Patients from Russia and Central Asia are more open to trying TCM as these countries have had frequent exchanges with China over many years, He says.

TCM is centered around being green and natural, making it compatible with many Russians' passion for nature, said Yana Zhuravleva, a Russian national who is the marketing manager at Sanya Hospital of TCM.

Many Russian patients turn to TCM therapies for help after Western medicine has no effect, said Zhuravleva.
At the hospital, foreign patients are first given a physical health examination, then doctors create a specific treatment plan for them.

When they finish their treatment and prepare to leave Hainan, patients are given a flash drive containing their medical records for future treatment.

The boom in medical tourism also brings some problems.

In 2016, Sanya Hospital of TCM treated 8,000 foreign patients, but that number represented just a small proportion of foreign patients who came to Hainan for medical tourism.

It is the private TCM institutions that received the majority of foreign patients.

However, unregulated private clinics, exaggerated treatment effects, and a lack of qualified TCM practitioners constrain the sound development of the medical tourism market in Hainan, according to the provincial TCM administration.

Hainan has been mulling over new laws to help regulate medical tourism.

In August, the province will unveil two new regulations on TCM services and the construction of a TCM tourism model zone.

The move will ensure order in the industry including therapy costs, safety standards and service quality, which will contribute to better medical care and enhance the experiences of visitors, said Xu Qingning, deputy director of Hainan Administration of TCM.

China put a national law on TCM into effect on July 1, which aims at regulating Chinese medicine as well as the training of medical personnel.

The new law will improve the global influence of TCM and boost international cooperation and exchanges.



Tourism Observer
www.tourismobserver.com

Tuesday, 9 May 2017

RUSSIA: Prime Minister Dmitry Medcedev Announces Visa Free Countries

On April 17, Russia Beyond the Headlines and some other websites quoted Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as saying that tourists and businessmen from 18 nations including Iran can visit the Russian Far East without visas.

I have recently approved the list of countries, whose nationals can take advantage of the preferential regime. Businessmen and tourists will not need to undergo the traditional procedure of Russian visas receipt, Medvedev said.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin inked a visa-free agreement for tourist groups on March 28, 2017. Based on the agreement tour groups of 5 to 50 people heading to Russia from Iran or vice versa will be granted a visa-free stay of up to 15 days.

According to the official site of the Russian Cabinet, the list of 18 countries comprises Algeria, Bahrain, Brunei, India, Iran, Qatar, China, North Korea, Kuwait, Morocco, Mexico, UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Tunisia, Turkey, and Japan.

The Russian Far East is situated between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean in the extreme east parts of the country.

Iran’s national flag-carrier airline Iran Air signed a contract for purchasing 20 turboprop passenger planes from the French-Italian aircraft manufacturer ATR on April 15 and the first of the kind will be delivered to the country in a week, Mehr news agency reported on Monday quoting Iran Air Managing Director Farhad Parvaresh.

As Parvaresh announced previously, according to the contract, four of the accorded 70-seat ATRs were supposed to be delivered to Iran within a month from the date of the signing agreement and five ones of them were to be received by 2017 yearend. The rest will arrive by the end of 2018.

ATR has reportedly vowed to assist Iran with training pilots and providing technical services, too.

The agreement was signed in Tehran between the Managing Director of Iran Air Farhad Parvaresh and the CEO of ATR Christian Scherer.

Four of the accorded 70-seat ATRs will be delivered to Iran within a month and five ones of them will be received by 2017 yearend, Parvaresh said, the rest will arrive by the end of 2018.

Iran Air plans to purchase 20 other airplanes in future, he added.

As Parvaresh informed, ATR has vowed to assist Iran with training pilots and providing technical services, too.

Jointly owned by Airbus and Italian company Leonardo, ATR said the deal is worth $536 million at list prices.

The contract with ATR follows deals between Iran Air and plane giants Airbus and Boeing for 180 passenger jets.

It is signed after months of talks that required navigating a way through separate U.S. sanctions and regulations still in place.
Few days ago, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued Boeing and Airbus the required permit for selling their accorded 180 airplanes to Iran.

Transport Minister Abbas Akhoundi announced in mid-January that renovation of the fleet of Iran Air has begun, adding that according to the contracts with world major plane makers, Iran Air is to receive 200 new planes, of which 100 will be purchased from Airbus and 80 from Boeing.

The first, second and third planes that Iran has purchased from the European aviation giant Airbus landed in Tehran on January 12, March 11, and March 25, 2017, respectively.

Parvaresh announced in late March that the country will receive four new Airbus planes in 2017 and five other Airbus jets in 2018.

As recently reported, Boeing will deliver the first 777 airplane to Iran within a month.

Iran’s tourism chief and Colombia’s accredited ambassador to Tehran have welcomed further cooperation in the arenas of tourism, cultural heritage, and handicrafts.

Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Organization Director Zahra Ahmadipour hailed active presence of Colombian travelers, experts, and investors in Iran during a meeting with Juan Alfredo Pinto Saavedra at the CHTHO headquarters on Tuesday.

She touched upon Iran’s rich history and civilization as well as unique tourist attractions, saying that very good relations between Iran and Colombia can help broaden ties between the two countries in tourism and hospitality industries.

Saavedra, for his part, described relations of the two courtiers as constructive and developing, adding that Colombian officials are willing to broaden all-out cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Prospects of Iran’s relations with the world are very promising and Iran is against the unreal image depicted by some Western media, Saavedra said.

The official added that Colombia has suffered a lot from such unfounded allegations.

The Iranian government has put in a great deal of effort to revive tourism industry since the incumbent President Hassan Rouhani assumed office in August 2013.

Thursday, 2 March 2017

SOUTH AFRICA: Visa-free Travel For Russian Nationals

The Russian Embassy to South Africa has warned Russian nationals that visa-free travel between the two countries for a period up to 90 days is not yet in effect, and the procedure could take another month.

Department of Home Affairs spokesperson Mayihlome Tshwete says South Africa is still busy with internal processes for visa-free travel between Russian and South Africa.

Tshwete sad an immigration directive will be issued once the DHA is ready for implementation - with no official time-frame confirmed.

Tass.com reports the introduction of visa-free travel between the Russian Federation and the Republic of South Africa was part of an instruction signed by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on January 18.

It is estimated that regulation for mutual abolition of visas for holders of regular international passports "through an exchange of notes" could take up to 30 days.

"We expect that this process may be completed by the end of February 2017," the embassy says In February, the countries will mark 25 years since they established diplomatic relations.

Tuesday, 15 November 2016

RUSSIA: Alexei Ulyukayev Detained Over $2 Million Bribe Allegation

Russian authorities have detained Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev on corruption charges linked to a $US5 billion ($6.6 billion) acquisition by state oil giant Rosneft, in a case that could lay bare the fault lines in President Vladimir Putin's inner circle.

Mr Ulyukayev, a 60-year-old technocrat whose ministry has been overseeing a sell-off of state assets, is the highest-ranking Russian official to be arrested while in office since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The Investigative Committee, the state agency that investigates major crimes, said Mr Ulyukayev received a $2.65 million bribe in exchange for signing off on Rosneft's purchase of a stake in mid-sized oil producer Bashneft.

"The minister is detained," the Committee said in a statement.

"In the near future investigators plan to bring charges against Alexei Ulyukayev."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Mr Putin had been informed about the case when the investigation was launched.

"These are serious allegations," Mr Peskov said.

"Only a court can deliver a verdict."

He said he did not know whether the detention meant that Rosneft's purchase of Bashneft could be reviewed.

Rosneft's acquisition of Bashneft was the focus of a major turf war between rival Kremlin camps, sources close to the deal and in the government have said.

The deal was fiercely opposed by economic liberals in the government, some with ties to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who believed Bashneft should go to private investors.

Mr Ulyukayev initially opposed Rosneft buying Bashneft, one of the most lucrative state assets to be privatised in years, but eventually signed off on the deal.

Mr Medvedev and Mr Putin have spoken about the detention, the Prime Minister's office said.

"The Prime Minister believes that the most painstaking investigation of this case is required," his office said in a statement.