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[Graknorke]

Biden recalled visiting Putin at the Kremlin in 2011: “I had an interpreter, and when he was showing me his office I said, ‘It’s amazing what capitalism will do, won’t it? A magnificent office!’ And he laughed. As I turned, I was this close to him.” Biden held his hand a few inches from his nose. “I said, ‘Mr. Prime Minister, I’m looking into your eyes, and I don’t think you have a soul.’ ”

“You said that?” I asked. It sounded like a movie line.

“Absolutely, positively,” Biden said, and continued, “And he looked back at me, and he smiled, and he said, ‘We understand one another.’ ” Biden sat back, and said, “This is who this guy is!”

Putin confirmed for super villain.

All of those American films with over the top villainous Russians were actually right all along.

[smjjames]

The black boxes (more like orange boxes) were handed over to Malaysia some time ago, whether they were tampered with remains to be seen.

[Guardian G.I.]

The black boxes (more like orange boxes) were handed over to Malaysia some time ago, whether they were tampered with remains to be seen.

Is it even possible to tamper with them?
The flight recorders of Korean Air Lines 007 weren't tampered with, even though they were in the hands of the Soviet military for a few years.

[GrizzlyAdamz]

My guess would be that, "With the right equipment & the right know-how, anything can be tampered with."

Found this googling it (no citation):

Yes. Black boxes aren't designed to be tamper-resistant.

The hard part is not the physical act of tampering with a black box, it's constructing a coherent false narrative of what happened during the time period. The FDR records 80+ channels of data, which an investigator can correlate against each other, against data in the quick access recorder, against ACARS reports, and against the physical condition of the airplane itself.

For example, say you want to "prove" that an airplane's engines were shut down mid-flight, leading to a crash. You could modify the FDR's record to show a throttle setting of "closed" and an engine RPM of 0, but the exhaust temperature would still be high, the fuel tank levels would still be dropping, and analysis of damage to the turbine blades would show a mix of axial and circumferential bending around the entire circumference of the blade disk, rather than the pure axial bending on a single side that would be expected if the engines had stopped spinning.

[XXSockXX]

Yeah, I guess with modern technology that could be easier than it was back in Soviet times.

Reports indicate that the boxes were in good condition though, so nothing seems to indicate so far that anybody tried to tamper with them.

[mainiac]

Yeah, I guess with modern technology that could be easier than it was back in Soviet times.

Reports indicate that the boxes were in good condition though, so nothing seems to indicate so far that anybody tried to tamper with them.

Why would physical condition tell you if they'd been tampered with?

[palsch]

British government to open an inquiry into the death Alexander Litvinenko.

A public inquiry will now look at where responsibility lies for the death although it does not look as if it will look at whether his relationship with MI6 means that more should be done to have protected him.

Lawyers for Mrs Litvinenko had claimed that the issue of state responsibility was being closed down precisely to try to improve relations with Russia.

If so, then changing times may explain a government's change of heart. And so we may get one step closer to finding out who was behind a radioactive murder on the streets of London.

Ironically, a public inquiry actually makes hearing secret information in closed hearings easier.


Also, from today's BBC liveblog of the MH17 news;

13:15: A piece of wreckage from the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 which crashed in eastern Ukraine last week "bears telltale marks of small pieces of high-velocity shrapnel that apparently crippled the jet in flight", the New York Times reports.

[Guardian G.I.]

British government to open an inquiry into the death Alexander Litvinenko.

A public inquiry will now look at where responsibility lies for the death although it does not look as if it will look at whether his relationship with MI6 means that more should be done to have protected him.

Lawyers for Mrs Litvinenko had claimed that the issue of state responsibility was being closed down precisely to try to improve relations with Russia.

If so, then changing times may explain a government's change of heart. And so we may get one step closer to finding out who was behind a radioactive murder on the streets of London.

Ironically, a public inquiry actually makes hearing secret information in closed hearings easier.

There was a very memorable moment during the diplomatic conflict between the UK and Russia over Litvinenko's death: Russia refused to hand over Andrei Lugovoi to Britain, citing the 61st Article of the Russian Constitution, which bans the extradition of Russian citizens abroad. In response, British Foreign Minister Ed Milibant, like a XIX century British ambassador ordering some primitive nation to submit to the British Empire, demanded Russia to amend its Constitution.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

Funny thing but the only result of MH17 for Russia - It makes more money from all that passenger jets that now avoid Ukrainian airspace. That's all

[mainiac]

I don't think they get paid for flyovers.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

IASTA allows each member country to charge foreign airlines "reasonable" fees for using its airports (which is applicable, presumably, only to the second freedom) and "facilities";[8] according to IATA, such fees should not be higher than those charged to domestic airlines engaged in similar international services.[8] Such fees indeed are commonly charged merely for the privilege of the overflight of a country's national territory, when no airport usage is involved.[11] (Although it should be noted that overflights might still be using services of a country's Air Traffic Control Centers). For example, the Federal Aviation Administration of the U.S., an IASTA signatory, as of 2009 charges the so-called enroute fees, of US$33.72 per 100 nautical miles (190 km), of great circle distance from point of entry of an aircraft into the U.S.-controlled airspace to the point of its exit from this airspace.[12] In addition, a lower fee (a so-called oceanic fee) of $15.94 per 100 nautical miles (190 km) is charged for flying over the international waters where air traffic is controlled by the U.S., which includes sections of Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic Oceans.[12] Countries that are not signatories of the IASTA charge overflight fees as well; among them, Russia, is known for charging high fees

[10ebbor10]

Yeah, I guess with modern technology that could be easier than it was back in Soviet times.

Reports indicate that the boxes were in good condition though, so nothing seems to indicate so far that anybody tried to tamper with them.

Well, the earlier boxes(some still in use) inscribed the data on a metal band rather than digital information. Hard to tamper with that.

[palsch]

I don't think they get paid for flyovers.

Russia is one of the few countries that charges flyover fees. There were a lot of stories from 2008-10 talking about them. That said, an agreement was signed in 2011 that would cancel fees from this year. I've not seen anything about it recently, so it's not clear if they are still charging them or not.

Bloomberg story is the most detailed I can find now.

[Owlbread]

British Foreign Minister Ed Milibant, like a XIX century British ambassador ordering some primitive nation to submit to the British Empire, demanded Russia to amend its Constitution[/url].

Or indeed a XIX century Russian ambassador ordering some primitive nation to submit to the Russian Empire?

[MarcAFK]

Not adding anything specific to the discussion, but I've seen the brest fortress and it was quite good.
Oh actually, I heard that a Iranian defence analyst said that the shot down jet was being escorted by Ukranian SU-27's, and it was possible that the SAM operators assumed the jet was someone important, like a general or something..
Of course anything said by Iran should be taken with a grain of salt but has anyone got a more reputable source for the possibility that the government was either escorting jets over the area, or a refutation of the claim?
Of course this doesn't excuse the SAM operators for their actions...

Edit: I'm happy things calmed down here, I would hate this thread to be killed by another round of "post soviet' angst, and was worried for a minute that we might have lost LW to the dreaded moderation log :p