EU lifts flight ban of 4 RI cargo airlines

Erwida Maulia, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Fri, 04/22/2011

Four Indonesian cargo airlines have been removed from the list of airlines banned from entering the European fly zone, after a meeting of the European Union (EU)’s Air Safety Committee on Apr. 5-7.

The ban removal was outlined in the Official Journal of the European Union as the EU released its latest update of the “List of airlines banned within the EU” on Thursday.

“This update removes the previous ban on the operations of four Indonesian all cargo air carriers – Cardig Air, Republic Express, Asia Link and Air Maleo,” the European Commission says in a press statement published on its website, http://ec.europa.eu.

“This is due to solid enforcement action taken by the Indonesian authorities to ensure that their operations are safe,” it adds.

The commission further explained in the official journal that the removal of the ban came after its video conference with the Indonesian authorities on March 11, during which the latter informed that all air carriers in Indonesia, with the exception of Wing Air, had undergone re-certification.

The Indonesian directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) also informed the commission that only 9% of the aircraft operating in Indonesia had yet to be fitted with the required International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) equipment.

“The DGCA [also informed that it] had issued an exemption permitting operations until the end of 2011 and that aircraft not fitted after this date would be grounded.

“The Air Safety Committee takes note of these developments and encourages the competent authorities of Indonesia to continue their efforts to enhance the oversight of air carriers under their regulatory responsibility,” the journal says.

A total of 10 Indonesian airlines have thus far been removed from the EU flight ban list, including Garuda Indonesia, Airfast Indonesia, Mandala Airlines, Ekspres Transportasi Antarbenua, Indonesia Air Asia and Metro Batavia.

Arms exports show hypocrisy of German foreign policy

Deutsche Welle, Apr 21, 2011

Gadhafi's soldiers fight with weapons
made in Germany

Out of principle, the German goverment refused to take part in military action against Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. But selling arms to both sides of international conflicts has never been a problem for Berlin.

At the end of February, a shaky video appeared on Youtube showing Moammar Gadhafi's son Saif al-Islam addressing a raucous crowd in Tripoli. Struggling to keep the regime supporters quiet long enough to speak, Saif promises that weapons will be handed out to fight the opposition forces. As if to show what kind of weapons he means, Saif waves a large machine gun.

This gun has been identified as a Heckler and Koch G36, manufactured in Germany. It's the standard weapon of the German army, is used by police forces around the world, and is considered one of the deadliest assault rifles there is.

Big trade in small arms

Saif promised to arm his supporters
to fight the opposition movement

No-one knows exactly how Saif got his hands on one of these. Heckler and Koch, a world-leading gun manufacturer based in the leafy town of Oberndorf in southern Germany, were not allowed to sell the weapon to Libya, and they say this one is either a dummy, or was bought illegally. This is not unlikely - anti-arms activists believe nearly every terrorist group in the world is equipped with Heckler and Koch guns.

Jürgen Grässlin is a veteran activist and chairman of the Armaments Information Bureau (RIB), which seeks out the details of Germany's weapons exports - both legal and illegal. He has received a lot more requests ever since popular uprisings began in the Middle East and North Africa earlier this year. Many journalists and politicians have been calling to find out precisely which German weapons are being used to suppress which opposition movements in which countries.

On Deutsche Welle's request, Grässlin discovered that in 2009 Heckler and Koch legally sold 13,000 rounds of ammunition for its G3 and MP5 machine guns to the Bahraini government.

"Now we see that in the last few weeks, the Bahraini police has used weapons, including these machine guns, against the democracy movement," Grässlin told Deutsche Welle. "We Germans are once again participating in killing around the world, in this case in Bahrain."

Over the counter

While Gadhafi was not allowed to buy any Heckler and Koch guns officially, he obtained plenty of other German weapons legally. For instance, the German-French owned EADS supplied Gadhafi with 168-million euros ($240 million) worth of anti-tank missiles, plus a number of tank transporters and other military vehicles.

It was inevitable that when the weapons embargo against Libya was lifted in 2004, respected German brands like Daimler and EADS would move in. In some cases literally - EADS even opened an office in Tripoli. Mark Bromley, a researcher with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), confirms that this was part of a general move.

"There was certainly quite a broad push by a number of defense companies, often with the support of their own national governments, to try to access a potentially lucrative arms market in Libya," he told Deutsche Welle.

But Bromley is not convinced Germany is a worse offender than any other European country. "If you look at the German export reports, Germany has granted licenses to export military equipment to Libya, but it was also denying quite a lot of licenses in the last couple of years, particularly ones for small arms and light weapons ammunition," he says.

"Italy, in contrast, recently granted quite a large license for the export of small arms to Libya, and Belgium granted a more limited one a couple of years ago."

The Heckler & Koch G36 is one of the deadliest assault rifles in the world

Supplying both sides of the front

Any kind of armed conflict is good for weapons makers, but it's ideal when the customers are on both sides of the front. Since EADS also helps to build the Eurofighter Typhoon jet currently being flown by NATO, that is exactly the situation in Libya.

"If, as in the case of Libya, the EADS has supplied weapons to both sides, then management can really crack open the champagne, because then the war profits are higher," says Grässlin. "Then the shareholders get more dividends and the managers get a raise."

Most of Germany's major weapons manufacturers declined to talk to Deutsche Welle for this report, but Heckler and Koch did answer some questions in writing. The company argued that the defense industry is part of a worldwide security infrastructure.

On top of that, the written statement said, "A national defense industry permits control, the independence of political decisions, and underlines the sovereignty of the state. For example, for the fighting troops in Afghanistan it is vitally important that their demand for high-quality and reliable manufacturers is covered."

"Every weapons export goes through a very tight vetting and authorization process, which is tied to a political evaluation of the reliability of the destination country," it went on. "The German weapons export law is among the strictest in the world."

Booming business

SIPRI researcher Bromley agrees that Germany has relatively tight export control laws, but it's undeniable that the German government has done much to keep its arms industry happy. Over the past decade, it has approved more than double the amount of German weapons exports. As a result, the country is now the third-biggest weapons exporter in the world, behind the USA and Russia, with a market share up from 6 percent to 11 percent.

Grässlin is a leading
anti-weapons activist

Germany now supplies 20 percent of the weapons in the developing world, where the vast majority of the world's wars are currently being fought. According an annual report for 2010 from the independent peace organization Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC), Germany provided weapons to 40 countries whose human rights record was described as "questionable" - mostly in the Middle East, Latin America and South East Asia. Bromley says this is a new trend.

"Germany has had a reputation in the past for being a bit more restrictive with regards to certain destinations, particularly in the Middle East," he said. "That was probably more true in the past than it is now. I think Germany is now a bit more in line with other European states."

Hypocrisy

Grässlin says that what makes German weapons exports unique is the hypocrisy involved. While the two biggest weapons' exporters, the US and Russia, have a history of military intervention since the Second World War, Germany has always made a show - understandably - of being pacifist. It was apparent in the opposition to the Iraq war, the reluctance to send troops to Afghanistan, and it was made clear again in March, when Merkel refused to vote for the United Nations resolution on military action in Libya.

By the same token, the German government signed up to a political principle to not sell weapons to countries that abuse human rights. But clearly, in the cases of Libya and Bahrain and many others, this principle does not count for much.

It's the gap between the human rights rhetoric and the active encouragement of the arms trade that Grässlin finds most sickening.

"In Germany the contradiction is really extreme," he said. "They say on the one hand they don't deliver weapons to countries that abuse human rights, but then every year you can read in the weapons exports reports which human rights-abusing countries have been supplied with German weapons. There is no area of German foreign and economic policy that is so dishonest and which has so many consequences in terms of the number of victims than the arms industry."

Author: Ben Knight

Editor: Rob Mudge

Related Article:

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Barcelona and Real Madrid players get over $7m a year

BBC News, 20 April 2011

Barcelona versus Real Madrid in the
Copa del Rey: Barca's players have
the edge when it comes to salaries

Top Spanish football clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid pay their players more than $7m (£4.3m) a year, on average.

The two, who are regularly in the top three richest football clubs worldwide, have overtaken the New York Yankees as the best paid global sports teams.

The review, by Sporting Intelligence, found first team players' average pay for the last season was $7.9m for Barcelona and $7.4m for Real Madrid.

The Yankees pay their players an average of $6.8m.

The highest paid UK football players play for Chelsea, in fifth place in the pay scale.

The National Baseball Association's (NBA) Los Angeles Lakers and Orlando Magic occupy fourth and fifth spots.

Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal were also among the 30 best-paid teams, making the Premier League the best-paying football league in the world.

This year's report has been compiled in association with ESPN The Magazine in the US. Further details including pay for players in other sporting fields will be published later.

Stop spending

Nick Harris, the report's author, said: "We've know for years that the biggest bucks have been in American basketball and baseball but the rise and rise in wages among the elite of European football continues, closing that gap."

That, however, could change with new regulations from European football's governing body, Uefa.

It plans to force clubs to stop spending more than they earn from next season.

Mr Harris said: "Financial fair play regulations may act as a brake on this inflation in football pay in a few years' time but for now the big guns in Europe are still splashing out."

Real Madrid are at the top of the league table of the world's 20 richest football clubs for the sixth straight year, according to an annual study by the accountants Deloitte, which was published earlier this year.

Barcelona was second on the list, with Manchester United third, but the Deloitte review concentrates solely on day-to-day income from football business, and does not include debt, something that a number of top British clubs are financed by.

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Dutch want to block EU budget

RNW, 20 April 2011

The Dutch government wants to join forces with other European Union countries to block the European Commission’s plan to raise the EU’s budget by 4.9 percent.

Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager made the announcement in response to the commission’s proposal to increase the budget by six billion euros to a total of 133 billion. He called the raise “totally unacceptable” and “out of proportion”.

Last month, Prime Minister Mark Rutte called a possible six-billion euro hike excessive, but then the plan was still up for discussion. EU Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski defends the increase, saying the commission is committed to paying a number of bills in the near future. “We’re still nine billion below the limit agreed earlier,” he explained.

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Radioactive spills and breakdown revealed at British nuclear plants

Leaked report details incidents at three plants during February that were serious enough to be reported to ministers

Guardian.co.uk, Rob Edwards, Wednesday 20 April 2011

A puddle containing plutonium five times the legal safety limit leaked from
Sellafield nuclear complex in Cumbria, the report says. Photograph:
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

There have been two spillages of radioactive waste and a breakdown in an emergency cooling system at Britain's nuclear plants in the past three months, according to a report to ministers leaked to the Guardian.

A brown puddle containing plutonium five times the legal safety limit leaked from an old ventilation duct at the Sellafield nuclear complex in Cumbria. This exposed "a number of shortfalls in the design", says the report.

Groundwater at the Torness nuclear power station near Edinburgh was contaminated with radioactive tritium (a form of hydrogen) leaking from two pipelines. At Hartlepool nuclear station on the north-east coast of England, the back-up cooling system was put out of action by a faulty valve.

All three incidents occurred in February this year and are still under investigation by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), the government's newly created nuclear safety watchdog. They were sufficiently serious to be reported to ministers under safety guidelines agreed in the wake of the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine 25 years ago.

Disclosure of the incidents could further delay the government's plans for a new programme of nuclear power stations, already being held up by a safety review prompted by the Fukushima accident in Japan. Critics will press for the incidents to be included in the review, being led by the executive head of the ONR, Mike Weightman.

The Guardian has been provided with a copy of a report on the incidents sent to ministers on 18 April by Weightman. It was circulated to the energy secretary, Chris Huhne; the business secretary, Vince Cable; the environment secretary, Caroline Spelman; the employment minister, Chris Grayling; the Scottish secretary, Michael Moore; and the Scottish first minister, Alex Salmond.

In a covering letter, Weightman says that a fourth incident involving contaminated ground at an unnamed nuclear site is still under investigation, and may be reported to ministers in the future. The criteria for reporting nuclear incidents, which takes place every three months, include leakages, breaches of safety limits and events where "safe operation may be significantly affected".

According to the ONR, the response to the incidents from the companies that run the three plants was "appropriate". The plutonium spillage at Sellafield has been cleaned up, use of the leaking pipelines at Torness was suspended, and the faulty valve at Hartlepool was fixed.

But the ONR is continuing to quiz the operators and monitor the plants, to try and make sure that similar mishaps do not occur again. A spokesman for the ONR told the Guardian that the report to ministers on the incidents is due to be posted online later today.

George Regan, the chair of the local government voice on nuclear issues, Nuclear Free Local Authorities, said that it was unusual for three incidents to be reported to ministers in one three-month period. There was only one incident in each quarter of 2010, three at Sellafield and one at Dungeness nuclear station in Kent.

"With Fukushima very much in the public's mind, we are particularly concerned to hear of a coolant incident at Hartlepool," Regan said. "We will be urgently seeking clarification from the ONR on why these incidents occurred and whether they are of any relevance to the current safety review."

Wind industry sees big potential for little turbines

Deutsche Welle, 19.04.2011

Small wind turbines hold
unrealized potential

Wind turbines are getting bigger and bolder, but bigger isn't always better. Some say turbines small enough for a backyard or rooftop offer the most unrealized potential to slash emissions, especially in remote areas.

As the roll-out of renewable energies gathers pace, large-scale wind parks are cropping up around the world.

Whereas some 30 years ago a standard wind turbine might have had the capacity to generate between 10 and 100 kilowatt hours kWh of electricity, today turbines in Europe, China, and the United States typically generate 5000 kWhs of electricity.

And designs are getting even bigger.

The EU-backed upwind project is shooting for a 20 000 kWh turbine that can supply enough power for between 15,000 to 20,000 households.

Many of these beasts are destined for offshore wind parks, where their size is less likely to impact local communities.

Yet such installations still require immense feats of engineering – especially at sea.

So some engineers are trying to solve the problem of harnessing energy sustainably by tacking in the opposite direction: They're thinking small.

Emerging markets

Large wind turbines present technological,
political and investment challenges

The benefit of this kind of micro generation is that it can be deployed in so many places and – in certain situations – can be the cheapest energy in town.

Small turbines of around 10-100 KW can be attached to houses, schools, industrial facilities and even boats and they have enjoyed their most success to date in developing countries.

"By far the largest share of small wind power is located in China at this point," Gsänger told Deutsche Welle.

China is the world's leader when it comes to building and installing small wind turbines. So far some 1.75 million Chinese have been connected to electricity this way.

China has eight million people living without electricity, and the wind power market is rushing to fill the gap, according to Chen Dechang, a spokesperson for a Chinese wind industry association.

Some 130,000 small wind turbines were built in China last year, he said.

In remote, windy regions far from centralized power plants, small wind turbines can offer the least expensive form of power.

Indeed, the technology offers the possibility of reducing poverty without growing greenhouse gas emissions.

Some 1.5 billion humans live without electricity worldwide and many can be found in remote rural communities where access to a national grid is prohibitively expensive.

So far, China has enjoyed an edge in the manufacturing small turbines because of its combination of low manufacturing costs and relatively large share of remote customers seeking local energy solutions.

Yet China isn't the only nation to take an interest in this technology.

Offshore wind parks are particularly expensive

Interest in the West

Even in industrialized countries, where developed grid infrastructure means small wind turbines are less able to compete with their larger cousins let alone fossil fuels, rising energy costs and a push for energy independence is spurring the industry.

The US is currently home to the largest producers of small wind turbines, and they both export their products and sell them domestically.

According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), the number of installed micro wind turbines has doubled during the last three years. The organization expects they will have quadrupled by 2015.

That amount of capacity would be the equivalent of one nuclear plant's energy output.

Varying EU tariffs

Although several European countries, most notably Germany, have been pioneering feed-in tariffs to drive investment in clean energies, 'small wind' has typically been at a disadvantage compared to 'big wind' to date, and has been unable to secure its own separate tariffs.

Yet that's changing.

The UK became one of the first major industrialized countries to promote energy from small wind turbines with a feed-in tariff last year.

Since then, electricity from a certified facility in Great Britain has been compensated with 17 to 38 euro cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) for the electricity it feeds back into the grid with small wind power - a lucrative prospect in this windswept region of Europe.

Elsewhere the mood is changing too. An investment in a small wind turbine in Denmark can net a homeowner 28 cents per kWh.

Meanwhile, wind power associations in Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Germany are lobbying their governments to establish similar rates for feed-in tariffs. The German Wind Energy Association is hoping for 15 to 22 cents per kWh.

'Small wind' still has to become
more efficient in industrialised countries

Boom conditions

Experts say that once tariffs make investment in small wind power lucrative, conditions will be right for another boom in renewable energies.

Of course, challenges remain.

The industry is still small and fragmented compared to its larger cousin.

There are hundreds of manufacturers around the world and most are unable to churn out units on an industrial scale.

Standards are also scarce, suggesting the industry will still need to go through a period of consolidation before it really begins to get noticed on the renewable energy scene.

Another problem also lies in measuring wind conditions accurately.

Because customers for small turbines cannot typically field an army of specialists to measure wind conditions, overestimation of local conditions has led to disappointment among many small wind turbine owners.

That's something national and international wind power associations say they hope to change though improved quality controls and better information for the public.

Autor: Gero Rueter (gps)

Editor: Nathan Witkop

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France wants more proof for Bulgaria's Schengen readiness: minister

English.news.cn   2011-04-19

SOFIA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Bulgaria would join the Schengen area, but France needs more time to be convinced of its readiness, French Interior Minister Claude Gueant said here on Monday.

"Accession to Schengen requires a number of conditions to be completed -- from technical preparedness and general behavior, to tackling crime and corruption," Gueant told a joint press conference with his Bulgarian counterpart Tsvetan Tsvetanov and Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.

The officials would try to talk about these conditions in the coming weeks, Gueant said.

France was confident that the technical assessment for Bulgaria would be positive, but a political assessment would take place as well, Gueant added.

He said France believed that Bulgaria was called upon to join the Schengen area and had to do it.

Last December France and Germany decided to block Romania and Bulgaria from joining Europe's border-free Schengen area in the first half of 2011, claiming that the two eastern countries failed to fulfill some of the objectives undertaken as part of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism regarding corruption, justice and the fight against organized crime.

Editor: yan

Russian human rights chief set to gain greater powers

RT.com, 18 April, 2011

Vladimir Lukin (RIA Novosti
/ Alexandr Vilf)

Russia’s Justice Ministry has drafted a package of bills which would enable the official human rights commissioner to defend not only the rights of individuals but of the Russian people as a whole.

Under the amendments, the ombudsmen – the position currently held by Vladimir Lukin – would be able to file complaints on behalf of “an undefined group of people” to represent in court their lawful rights, freedoms and interests.

Ironically enough, according to the existing law, the right to file such suits presently applies to almost everyone except the human rights commissioner. It includes the federal and local government bodies, organizations and citizens themselves. However, people are not used to defending their rights in court, feeling general distrust towards the court system as a whole.

The new law would see citizens who have somehow suffered from the authorities being able to delegate interaction with official bodies to the human rights commissioner. The ombudsman himself will also have the right to turn to court if he gets to know about “mass or severe violations of citizens’ rights and freedoms in cases of particular public importance”, the draft bill says.

In addition, the ombudsman would be allowed to file demands to recognize any legal act issued by a government body of any level as partially or fully contradicting the law. He would not have to legally substantiate the complaint. His statement that he has registered a case of mass violation of human rights would be enough to launch a civil case.

The ombudsman would continue work on cases of individual human rights violations and in this domain he would see his powers extended too. For example, he would be able to intervene in a case in court in the first instance giving his opinion on the matter which should be taken as weighty evidence by the judge.

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Ireland has taken the bold step of banning the cultivation of all GM crops

Treehugger, by Andrea Donsky and Randy Boyer, Naturally Savvy.com, Apr 16, 2011

Photo by ellievanhoutte via Flickr.

Prince Charles has called it the "biggest environmental disaster of all time," while Monsanto and others maintain it's safe for humans and the environment. Genetically modified foods are a contentious issue, but Ireland is erring on the side of caution, placing a ban on growing any genetically modified crops.

Ireland will ban growing of GM crops, and a voluntary GM-free label can be placed on all animal products--such as meat, poultry, eggs, fish, crustaceans, and dairy--that are raised with GM-free feed, according to a GM-Free Ireland press release. Ireland joins Japan and Egypt as one of the few but growing number of countries that have banned the cultivation of GM crops.

Smart Move for Irish Farmers

The agreement, signed by the government's two coalition partners, declares Ireland a "GM-free Zone."

The move will help Irish farmers who can't compete with subsidized agriculture powerhouses, says GM-Free Ireland Co-ordinator, Michael O'Callaghan:

• The WTO's economic globalization agenda has forced most Irish farmers to enter an unwinnable race to the bottom for low quality GM-fed meat and dairy produce, in competition with countries like the USA, Argentina and Brazil which can easily out-compete us with their highly subsidized GM crop monocultures, cheap fossil fuel, extensive use of toxic agrochemicals that are not up to EU standards, and underpaid migrant farm labor.

But the move is smart not just for the benefit of Irish farmers and consumers; it will make Ireland's agriculture even more green, raising the country's environmental status on the world stage, says O'Callaghan:

• The Irish Government plan to ban GM crops and to provide a voluntary GM-free label for qualifying animal produce makes obvious business sense for our agri-food and eco-tourism sectors. Everyone knows that US and EU consumers, food brands and retailers want safe GM-free food, and Ireland is ideally positioned to deliver the safest, most credible GM-free food brand in Europe, if not the world.

GM-Free Ireland Means More GM-Free in the U.S.

The U.S. imports large amounts of Irish diary products, including casein for cheese production, so the move will mean more Americans are getting GM-free foods.

Ireland's move will also provide a significant source of GM-free agricultural products for North American food product manufacturers, says Megan Thompson, executive director of the Non-GMO Project, a non-profit group that works to ensure GM-free foods are available to consumers who want them.

Ireland has taken a truly inspiring step to ensuring consumers' right to choose non-GMO products... As more and more companies in the USA and Canada are looking for non-GMO ingredients, this is a very timely move and we look forward to developing sourcing opportunities with GM-free producers in Ireland.

Bleak News for Monsanto

So far, Monsanto has been mum on Ireland's move, but odds are they're going to have a corporate version of a hissy fit--they'll sue.

It wouldn't be the first time Monsanto took on a nation. In April the agro-engineering giant filed suit against Germany for the country's ban on GM corn, but the courts sided with Germany, upholding the ban.

But with a country placing a sweeping ban, Ireland might be in for a bigger fight. It does, after all, set a precedent in Europe.

More on Genetically Modified Crops

• Genetically Modified Foods "Biggest Environmental Disaster of All Time": Prince Charles
• Saying No To Genetically Modified Foods In Japan
• Genetically Modified Food: Why We Need More Information

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US Ambassador Douglas Kmiec quits Malta post

BBC News, 17 April 2011

Related Stories

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The US ambassador to Malta has said he will resign after being criticised for spending too much time writing and speaking about his Catholic faith.

Kmiec had been a key supporter
of Obama

The US state department had said Douglas Kmiec devoted several hours a day to his unofficial writings.

Mr Kmiec, a former dean at the Catholic University of America, was appointed to head the US mission in Malta in 2009.

In a letter to US President Barack Obama, he said he would quit his job on 15 August, the feast of the Assumption.

A well-known conservative law professor and commentator, Mr Kmiec had been a key Catholic supporter of Obama.

Malta is the European Union's closest member state to Libya, and reports say the profile of the US embassy there has been raised during the ongoing crisis in the North African country.

UFOs’ new track over Sochi Winter Olympics sites

RT.com, 16 April, 2011

ET seems to feel at home in southern Russia. Recent unexplained lights in the sky, which have been caught on camera, are among the increasing sightings that are baffling the locals.

“The shape of these projectors made us believe that this was a flying saucer, or whatever it was it was rather large,” says Sergey Kolpikov, who has witnessed the lights in his home village in Russia’s Krasnodar region, which is preparing to host the Winter Olympics in 2014.

The Kolpikovs were the only people to film the lights and have become overnight celebrities.

The UFO tape was immediately aired on local television. The local channel TVK ran a feature story about the sighting, and posted the video on the internet.

Local reporter Aleksandr Kulik broke the story, which made a complete change from his usual fare of milk yields and regional politics. Now he is ready to take on the X-Files.

“When we shared the video on our website, people started copy-pasting it, so we got responses from at least five other eyewitnesses all over the Krasnodar region, who also spotted this particular UFO,” says Kulik.

Ufologists say the area in Russia's south is similar to that around Roswell in New Mexico – a UFO highway filled, apparently, with alien visitors.

But some experts like Vadim Chernobrov from “Cosmosearch”, an international research group that studies UFOs, are not totally convinced about the sighting. Many can be explained, although not all of them.

“Besides the Chinese lanterns, or hot air balloons, or fakes, or atmosphere phenomena, Krasnodar region has a very high frequency of real extraterrestrial activity, almost the highest in the whole country. And in places like Sochi, which is a big city that stretches along the coast, there is of course a better chance to spot something unusual,” says Chernobrov.

So why all this interstellar traffic in the Russian South? Maybe they are getting a sneak preview of the Sochi Olympics, or maybe they just like the place. Whatever it is, the truth is out there – somewhere.