Bits and Bites from Around the World > Mom throws daughter in bear enclosure; Teen sentenced to 100 years; Stunning Images of our Galaxy; Moscow best city in the World

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Woman throws daughter into enclosure with live bear

Disturbing incident filmed at an Uzbek zoo shows the animal and the staff rushing to the toddler

Zuzu the bear. © Facebook / Tazhkent Zoo

In a blood-curdling incident captured on camera at a zoo in Uzbekistan’s capital city Tashkent on Friday, a young woman threw her three-year-old daughter into the enclosure of a massive brown bear.

CCTV footage from the scene showed the woman lifting the child into the air, putting her onto the fence of the enclosure and then pushing her into its five-meter-deep moat.

Zuzu the bear was visibly startled by the sudden invasion, rushing to check on the child as soon as she plunged into the moat. The animal approached the girl, sniffed her, and then walked away.

The predator was then promptly led away by the zoo’s staff, who hurried to extract the girl from the enclosure. While the infant was not harmed by the bear, she was hospitalized with injuries she suffered from her fall.

Uzbekistan’s prosecutors have launched a criminal probe into the incident, with the woman suspected of an attempted murder of a helpless person. If found guilty, she may face up to 15 years behind bars.

The woman, identified only as Z.T., had been known to the authorities, the country’s family ministry revealed Sunday. The 30-year-old had been receiving support over her crumbling marriage and suffered from depression, the ministry added. The woman’s husband is said to have been away, working in Russia.

Teen sentenced to 100 years over siblings’ deaths

Indiana teenager receives heavy sentence for murders of baby sister and brother

A teenager in the US state of Indiana has been sentenced to serve two consecutive 50-year prison terms for suffocating his baby stepbrother and half-sister to death in 2017, when he was just 13 years old. The judge who announced the sentence on Tuesday had insisted that the case against Nickalas Kedrowitz be tried in an adult court.

While the teen’s attorney had insisted his client had untreated mental health problems, Ripley County Prosecutor Richard Hertel pointed out that Kedrowitz had committed the crimes months apart, dismissing the notion that he had murdered his siblings in the “heat of passion.”

What kind of passion could we possibly be talking about?

Kedrowitz was convicted in August of murdering 11-month-old Nathaniel Ritz and 23-month-old Desiree McCartney in July 2017 and May 2017 respectively, at the family’s home in Osgood, Indiana. He was arrested in August 2018 and reportedly told detectives he was “freeing his siblings from hell and the chains of fire,” confessing to using a towel to suffocate his half-sister and a blanket to smother his stepbrother.

So, it was not mental illness, it was pure and simple demonic possession!

Questioned by investigators about what exactly the “hell” in question was, Kedrowitz answered “chores,” urging the authorities to look at the list of daily chores he was expected to complete. It’s not clear if they ever saw the list.

The teen’s uncle apparently told investigators that Ritz’s father had attacked Kedrowitz the day before he suffocated the infant boy, leaving the 13-year-old with a bloody nose. Shortly before killing his half-sister, the teen reportedly squeezed a kitten to death for allegedly scratching him.

According to an affidavit from Indiana state police, Kedrowitz told investigators he had “had a conversation with God about [his siblings’ deaths] but he could not talk about it because he had promised God he wouldn’t tell anyone.”

He, of course, wasn't God!

Kedrowitz’s own father is in prison on unrelated charges, while his mother cooperated with the investigation into her infant children’s deaths.

‘Remarkable’ images of our galaxy’s center revealed

A supermassive black hole lurking in the center of the Milky Way is the brightest spot

© Heywood, SARAO

A new MeerKAT telescope image of the galactic center reveals the “complex heart” of the Milky Way, with astronomers saying they now have “the best insight yet into the population of mysterious ‘radio filaments’ found nowhere else.”

Released by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, the “remarkable” image is based on a mosaic of 20 separate observations, which took a total of 200 hours of MeerKAT telescope time to acquire. 

A rare, almost-perfect spherical supernova remnant that has been discovered at the edge of the MeerKAT mosaic.

A tailed radio source visible on the right of the image could be an object in our galaxy moving at high speed,

leaving a trailing wake. ©  Heywood, SARAO

The super-sensitive radio telescope consists of 64 antennas spread over a diameter of eight kilometers in the South African desert. It has allowed humanity to look into the center of the Milky Way, which, despite its relative closeness – it is just about 25,000 light-years away – is obscured by dust and gas and is very hard to penetrate.

The picture is dominated by the emission from the galactic center “super bubble,” which is traversed by many parallel radio-emitting magnetized threads astronomers call filaments. 

The complex, cirrus-like emission from the Galactic centre super bubble dominates this image. 

This is traversed by the Radio Arc, a complex of many parallel radio filaments. 

The bright dot near the centre of this region is Sagittarius A, a 4 million solar mass black hole. 

©  Heywood, SARAO

One of the strands has been lovingly nicknamed “Mouse” by the scientists; another feature is being called “Snake.” The supermassive black hole Sagittarius A can be seen as the brightest spot. 

The clarity and depth of the image give it significant scientific potential, the astronomers say.

In the centre of the image is the supernova remnant G359.1-0.5. To the left is ‘the Mouse’, a runaway pulsar 

possibly formed and ejected by the supernova event. To the upper right is one of the longest

and most famous radio filaments, known as ‘the Snake’. ©  Heywood, SARAO

“Up to 100 light-years long, these unique structures have defied a conclusive explanation for their origin since discovery over 35 years ago. MeerKAT has discovered many more such filaments than were previously known, and the new data release will allow astronomers to study these objects as a population for the first time,” the report reads.

The astronomers admit their own fascination over the discoveries, with SARAO chief scientist Dr. Fernando Camilo saying that “the best telescopes expand our horizons in unexpected ways.” The lead author of the study, Dr. Ian Heywood, confessed that he never gets tired of looking at the picture.

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UN names Moscow Best world city to live in

The Russian capital beat out major European and North American rivals

to claim the top spot

© Getty Images / ArtMarie

The UN has published its global cities ranking for 2022, and has awarded Moscow the top spot among large cities for quality of life and infrastructure, commending the metropolis for its transportation and its citizens’ well-being.

A draft of the report, the full version of which will be released in March, was made available online on Wednesday. Experts analyzed the 50 largest cities globally and ranked 29 “world cities” according to six metrics: productivity, infrastructure development, quality of life, equity and social inclusion, environmental sustainability, and urban governance and legislation.

The Russian capital came out first in terms of “quality of life” and “infrastructure development,” and was third overall in the “City Prosperity Index,” which considered all the categories together. The first and second spots were taken by Singapore and Toronto respectively, and the fourth and fifth by Sydney and London.

The report defines quality of life as “how an individual’s life or society’s condition is in comparison to another person or society, i.e. how good (or bad) someone’s life is compared to other individuals’ lives. Therefore, this is the measurement of a city’s average achievements for ensuring general well-being and satisfaction of its citizens.”

Infrastructure development is defined as “the set of basic physical systems, organizational structures, facilities, and installations needed for the functioning of a society, or economy. The prosperity of a city largely depends on the development of infrastructure, including transportation, communication, or provision of [basic] services, among others.”

Among the 29 cities, Moscow was ranked 12th for productivity, 13th for equity and social inclusion, 17th for environmental sustainability, and 10th for urban governance and legislation.

Around 20 million people officially live in the Russian capital and its surrounding region, though measurements of the population vary according to methodology. Some estimates suggest the real figure is substantially higher.

By any accepted measure, with at least 13 million inhabitants, Moscow city proper is the largest wholly within Europe, beating out London, St. Petersburg, Paris and Berlin.

'We are New Russians': How a Hard-Drinking Nation Curbed its Alcohol Use

While Canada legalizes marijuana and getting stoned increases sharply, Russia is moving in the opposite direction, and God bless them.

Russia now ranks 14th in terms of alcohol consumption globally,

and is comparable to France and Germany

Chris Brown · CBC News · Moscow Correspondent

Sober Russia volunteer Eduard Grigoriev shows off a pre-mixed, homemade bottle of energy drink and vodka

during a vigilante raid on an after-hours liquor store in Moscow. (Corinne Seminoff/CBC)

Once the holder of the dubious title of one of the world's hardest-drinking nations, Russia has fallen steadily down the list — and Eduard Grigoriev likes to think his group can claim some of the credit.

Chris Brown's use of the word 'fallen' here is very interesting. More on that at the bottom of this page.

A volunteer with the group Sober Russia, the 21-year-old is a self-proclaimed liquor vigilante. Since his teens, Grigoriev has been helping police crack down on businesses that break Russia's ever-stricter liquor laws.

"Four years ago, when we started, eight out of 10 stores in Moscow were selling illegal alcohol. Right now, it's three out of 10," said Grigoriev of the role that his band of helpers have played in ensuring liquor violators are brought to the attention of police.

Illegal alcohol sales usually take the form of homemade distilled spirits or legally made products sold after hours. Russian law prohibits any off-licence sales in corner stores or grocery stores past 11 p.m. at night.

The restrictions on availability have been part of a sweeping series of measures enacted by the Russian government since 2005, aimed at curbing widespread alcohol abuse in the country.

In its latest report, the World Health Organization acknowledges the efforts have paid off with significantly lower rates of consumption.

Sweeping restrictions

Grigoriev's group has affiliations with the governing United Russia party and Vladimir Putin's administration, but Grigoriev said Sober Russia isn't political, and everyone who joins is a volunteer.

The group's tactics involve sending volunteers into corner stores after Russia's 11 p.m. curfew and entrapping staff who sell booze.

Grigoriev, left, and another Sober Russia member report back on the outcome of their sting operation with

a Moscow police officer. (Pascal Dumont/CBC)

A crew from CBC's Moscow bureau was with Grigoriev's team recently when they visited the city's southern suburbs and documented several of their ensnarement stings.

"We're doing this because we think we can make Russia a better place to live in," Grigoriev explained. "This is our future."

Grigoriev said that if fewer stores sell illegal alcohol, "the better the alcohol will be in legal stores, and the less people will have health problems."

Sales of illegally distilled spirits in Russia have been a deadly health problem. In one of the worst cases in recent times, 78 people died in the Siberian city of Irkutsk in 2016 after drinking tainted moonshine.

Last week, police released a video of a police raid in a factory that was manufacturing illegal vodka just outside Moscow. It resulted in the seizure of more than 77,000 bottles. Not long before that, a bust at a factory in the central Russian city of Nefteyugansk netted about 30,000 bottles. Police claim the booze would have made people badly sick.

A nurse walks through the emergency ward at a Russian alcohol rehabilitation clinic. While Russians continue to be heavy drinkers, the World Health Organization considers their fight against alcoholism to be a success story. (Pascal Dumont/CBC)

In one of the Sober Russia stings the CBC crew witnessed, a shopkeeper sold several bottles of beer to a volunteer after the 11 p.m. curfew. Then, with our cameras rolling, other members entered the store and confronted the employee, who quickly denied doing anything improper.

Grigoriev's team then found several large plastic bottles behind the cash register that contained a mixture of alcohol and an energy drink.

"It's like Red Bull, but with alcohol," he said. "This is forbidden."

Less boozy

Twelve years ago, Russians consumed roughly 15 litres of alcohol per person a year, which put them in fourth in the world rankings of the hardest-drinking countries. Now, in Russia, the per capita average is closer to 10 litres. (By comparison, Canada drinks eight litres per capita per year.)

Russia now ranks 14th in terms of alcohol consumption globally, and is comparable to France and Germany.

Notably, the proportion of strong liquor, such as vodka, in the overall mix of Russian alcohol consumption is down substantially, by 31 per cent.    

"Alcohol consumption has decreased a lot," said professor Yevgeny Yakovlev of Moscow's New Economic School, where he tracks Russia's consumption habits.  

"We see that everywhere. Mortality from alcohol poisoning has decreased by 30 per cent," he said. Yakovlev noted that suicides where alcohol is believed to have played a role have fallen by roughly the same amount in the past 12 years.

"In all of these measures, we see progress," said Yakovlev.

Yakovlev credits aggressive government measures to restrict alcohol sales and to discourage use, such as increased taxation. 

Drinking in public is still in common in Russia. (Mikhail Metzel/Associated Press)

While taxes on alcohol are politically unpopular, the World Health Organization notes that automatic yearly tax increases on booze have contributed to better health outcomes.

Earlier this month, Russia's health ministry announced it was drafting legislation that could raise the country's drinking age from 18 to 21. The Moscow Times newspaper cited a poll suggesting strong public support for the higher drinking age.

Healthier choices

Many Russians are making healthier lifestyle choices more generally, which are contributing to the significant decline in alcohol use.

At a gym in eastern Moscow, Yuri Sysoev and Alexei Forsenco have gone further than most Russians in promoting an alcohol-free lifestyle, both in their own choices and with their outreach.

"If I look back, well, basically, I had child alcoholism," said Sysoev during a break from sparring with a partner in the boxing ring.

Now an actor and filmmaker in Moscow, the 31-year-old Sysoev said the 1990s were a difficult time in Russia. In the post-Soviet economic and political chaos, he said drinking was a means of escape for many.

"I was a little kid in the theatre playing [roles] of gnomes and hobbits, and I got pulled into [binge-drinking culture]," Sysoev said. About nine years ago, an epiphany about the destructive effect alcohol was having on his life prompted him to give it up entirely, he said.

Moscow film producers Yuri Sysoev, left, and Alexei Forsenco gave up drinking and took up fitness.

Then they made a movie about why young people should follow their example. (Pascal Dumont/CBC)

Forsenco, his 37-year-old friend and business partner, said his story is quite similar, except it took him longer to come to the same realization.

"It wasn't until I had kids of my own, about five years ago, that I understood alcohol could not be part of my family."

Forsenco said the decision to abstain from booze often catches the foreigners they meet off guard. But he said no one should be surprised.

"We are new Russians. We don't drink alcohol."

The pair have made a short film that they are showing at Russian high schools. They are sharing their experiences with students in the hope of dissuading teenagers from repeating their mistakes.

Entitled The Outcast, the film features a teen walking through an apartment complex who is being taunted by his friends for not drinking after school. Instead of yielding to peer pressure, he stays the course and chooses the healthy option of a good workout.

"I don't want to brag, but we are the first in Russia to be making a film like this," said Sysoev.

At a recent showing, students peppered Sysoev and Forsenco with questions about their experience with alcohol and its destructive impact.

"We have to fight this," Sysoev told the students. "Not with banners and meetings, but [you must] change yourself first, and then the world around you will change."

While the film has been well received by students, the pair said they have also run into resistance from nervous school administrators, who are afraid The Outcast might portray Russia in a bad light.

Truth is often a 'bad light'!

While more Russians are opting for healthy lifestyles, Sysoev said there are still too many instances of people walking in their neighbourhoods and seeing what he calls an "alcohol apocalypse" — like drunks sleeping on benches or just staggering around.

"That's why we wanted to make this film and send a message that a healthy lifestyle and healthy sport is right."

The comparison between Russia and Canada has some ironic colourtones. Russia is a very conservative country, Canada, under Justin Trudeau is a very progressive country. He thinks that's a good thing and so does most Canadian media, like the CBC. That's why I found it interesting that the reporter would use the term 'fallen' to describe the increasing sobriety in Russia. That wasn't exactly his intention, of course, but that's how it struck me.

The word 'fallen' is often used to describe someone who has died in combat, or someone who has 'fallen' into sin. 'Fallen from grace' is a Biblical phrase. If you are a reader of my other blog you will have found the sentence 'Sin is Progressive' mentioned several times. The irony that appeals to me is that someone from a country that is frantically 'progressing' into extreme liberalism should call a country that is 'progressing' toward a healthier, more sane lifestyle - fallen!

Russians Accepted $27M in Bribes Between Jan. and Oct., Prosecutor Says

Corruption is Everywhere - and most definitely in Russia

Russia's annual corruption joke

By Sommer Brokaw

A Russian flag flies near the Kremlin tower in Moscow on March 16.

Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI | License Photo

(UPI) -- The general prosecutor's office in Russia said Tuesday Moscow officials accepted $27 million in bribes over the first nine months of 2018.

Spokesman Alexander Kurennoy said Russian officials took the bribes between January and September, while aired by the office's new interactive video service Efir Tuesday.

Kurrennoy said bribery cases in Russia rose by 3 percent to nearly 10,200 this year -- including the giving and taking of bribes, and prosecutions for facilitating bribery increased by 16 percent.

The amount of the average bribe was $9,140, officials said.

Nearly 200 large-scale bribes amounted to $22.5 million, an average of $121,000.

Bribe-giving was most common in Moscow and the Krasnodar region over the nine months. Moscow and regions of Rostov, Moscow and Chelyabinsk also led in a rating for bribe taking over the same period.

Anti-corruption activists said the official figure of $27 million may be an underestimate, given the country's low ranking in transparency and high-ranking in corruption.

May be an underestimate? This is only what was caught! $27m is certainly but a small fraction of what actually occurs. 

Moscow Imam Under House Arrest over Allegations of Publicly Justifying Terrorism

Mahmoud Velitov. © Марат Ибатуллин / YouTube

An imam of one of Moscow's mosques, Mahmoud Velitov, has been put under house arrest by a court decision following his detention by Russian law enforcement. The Islamic worship leader allegedly justified terrorism during a public speech at his mosque.

The imam was detained in the Russian capital in connection with a criminal case against him, Russia's Investigative Committee announced on Tuesday. The head of one of Moscow's Muslim communities is being accused of "public justification of terrorism," which is a crime in Russia, the official statement said.

Is this a crime in any western country? If not, why not? Is it because we are too politically correct to stop shooting ourselves in the foot?

If found guilty, the imam faces up to five years in prison.

According to investigators, in September 2013 Velitov, while being a council head and imam of a religious organization, delivered a public speech during prayers at the mosque in north-eastern Moscow, which can accommodate some 2,000 worshipers. In his speech, the imam allegedly justified activities of a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami (Islamic Party of Liberation) group, which is considered a terrorist organization and banned in Russia.

The multinational radical group has presence in a number of countries, but is particularly active in Central Asia, where it seeks creation of an Islamic caliphate. - Don't they all?

While investigation continues, the court has decided to put the imam under house arrest until late August, Interfax reported. He has been forbidden to use any means of electronic communication, including internet, mobile and landline phones.

Velitov's lawyer, Dagir Khasavov, said the arrest endangered the imam's life, as he had recently had a "serious surgery." Writing on Facebook, the lawyer said both Velitov's home and mosque have been searched and Islamic literature seized. There have been reports some extremist literature was found among the imam's belongings.

The arrest endangers Velitov's life - I wonder how many lives he has endangered with his promoting terrorism?

Illegal Muslim prayer hall blown up in Russia

after police find explosives inside

© FSB

Explosives found in an illegal Muslim prayer hall near the Russian city of Samara was eliminated right inside the building. Bomb disposal team deemed it too dangerous to take the explosives out.

The video of the controlled explosion shows a considerable part of the building being destroyed in the blast.

A police dog helped to find a cache with more than a kilogram of explosives of unknown origin. A bomb-disposal expert said extracting the explosives would be definitely unsafe and bomb technicians rolled in a water cannon, a source within Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) told RT.

The federal highway M5 passing right in front of the house was blocked in both directions and people were evacuated from all nearby buildings.

The house was used for gatherings of Salafis, followers of an ultra-conservative movement within Sunni Islam, and it was not registered with the regional Muslim community as an official house of worship.

Inside the house, the FSB’s special forces detained 53 young men, at least one of whom was promoting the Islamic State terror group online.

According to an FSB source, the arrests made at the illegal prayer hall triggered a series of house raids, which helped uncover more explosives, handguns, grenades and ammo.


The same source said other known members of that particular Salafi community are currently fighting in Syria for the jihadists.

Nemtsov Murder Mastermind Named

The site of the murder of politician Boris Nemtsov, who was killed on Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge in downtown Moscow
© Vladimir Astapkovich / Sputnik

Russia’s Investigative Committee has pressed final charges against the suspected murderers of prominent opposition figure Boris Nemtsov, including the hit’s suspected organizer Ruslan Mukhutdinov, currently at large and on the international wanted list.

The committee also said in the Tuesday statement that it plans to start a separate criminal probe against Mukhutdinov and a number of yet unidentified persons who could also have been involved in Nemtsov’s assassination.

Also on Tuesday, investigators pressed final charges of a contract murder by an organized group and illegal purchase, possession and carrying of firearms against the four detained suspects. They said that the suspects’ complicity in the killing had been confirmed by over 70 forensic experiments, testimonies of witnesses, CCTV records and many documents seized at the suspects’ places of residence.

The law enforcers added that the lawyers representing the prosecution and the defense would receive all case materials in January.

Earlier, Russian mass media revealed Mukhutdinov as the primary suspect in Nemtsov’s killing on these grounds he had been put on the Russian federal and international wanted lists. One of the suspected killers, Zaur Dadaev, reportedly told investigators that the murder was revenge for Nemtsov’s “negative comments on Muslims and Islam,” in particular, the public condemnation of Islamists who killed the journalists from the Charlie Hebdo magazine in France. However, a short time later Dadaev retracted his testimony. The other suspects denied any involvement in the case.

In comments on the Investigative Committee’s statement, the lawyer representing Nemtsov’s family said he disagreed with the main conclusion.

“Mukhutdinov is just one of the organizers and he is one on the lowest rank. He only used to work as a driver for [one of the suspects] Ruslan Geremeyev,” he told RIA Novosti.

A defense lawyer representing Zaur Dadaev told Kommersant radio that the charges against Mukhutdinov were “unfounded” and added that he and his client intended to demand a trial by jury. Russia allows jury trials in cases where the maximum punishment is 10 years or more. The final verdict is still made by the judge, but it cannot be harsher than the one passed by the jury.

Boris Nemtsov was a regional governor and a deputy PM under President Boris Yeltsin. In recent years he had turned into an opposition politician occupying a seat in the legislature of central Russia’s Yaroslavl Region.

In February this year Nemtsov was shot dead while crossing the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge, near the Moscow Kremlin. The assassination prompted a thousands-strong march in the Russian capital, with demands to find and punish the killers.

President Putin personally promised in a public address that everything would be done to punish those responsible for the organization and execution of the murder.

VE-Day Tarnished by New War of Words Between Russia, the West

Once joint celebration has become new high-water mark in 

Cold War II

What if you had a parade and nobody came?

Russian soldiers march in a rehearsal for the Victory Day Parade on May 9,
a national holiday to commemorate the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany

By Brian Stewart,
CBC News 
Only a few years ago it was still possible to imagine Russia and the West coming together to celebrate a shared moment of history — the end of the Second World War in Europe 70 years ago.

That was then. Now we're in a much harsher world in which this week's normal celebratory sentiments have been swept aside by bickering and official snubs as the U.S. and most European leaders make it clear they want nothing to do with Russia's massive military "victory parade" in Red Square on May 9.

There's a stark sadness to such infighting in this of all weeks, which, after all, commemorates the greatest combined achievement of Russia and its war-time allies: their destruction of the genocidal Nazi regime at such enormous sacrifice.

The official surrender took effect late on May 8, but it was already the 9th in Moscow, which explains the later VE-Day there, a national holiday of almost spiritual importance for Russians.

This difference always made it possible for Western leaders to celebrate both anniversaries, first at home and later in Russia. But not this year.

To get a sense of how far relations have soured, consider that a decade ago then U.S. president George W Bush made a point of flying to Moscow to stand with "my friend" Vladimir Putin during the victory parade in order to thank the Russian people directly "for their sacrifice."

Such niceties already seem quaint, part of a brief interregnum before this new Cold War II that we seem to be entering.

Regrets only

In the wake of the Crimea and Ukraine crises and resulting Western sanctions, Europe's leaders certainly don't want to be in Moscow, to be pictured lined up in the shadow of the Kremlin applauding impressive displays of Russian military might and Putin's muscular brand of nationalist fervour.

Almost all European leaders have spurned his invite outright, though German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced she will travel to Russia a day later for a relatively modest wreath-laying, which hardly appeases Russian anger.

Russia's Vladimir Putin has lashed out at the
West for not sending high-level delegations
to his VE-Day commemorations this year.
Even North Korea backed out,
for reasons of its own. (Associated Press)

This cascade of snubs has Russia seething, and Putin has responded by stirring up more anti-EU and anti-U.S. sentiment in the Russian media, which is not difficult given how much VE-Day means in that country.

He accused Washington of orchestrating the European attempt to besmirch even "this day of pride for our entire nation, a day of supreme veneration of the victorious generation."

"Their goal is obvious: to undermine Russia's power and moral authority," he said, "to divide peoples and set them against each other and use historical speculation in their geopolitical games."

Putin gave no example of this "historical speculation," though it seems to refer to Western attempts to downplay the Soviet Union's pre-eminent role in Nazi Germany's destruction.

There is little evidence for this charge, however, for few in the West and no serious historian would deny the Soviet Union's crucial part in winning that war.

The mighty Red Army

Russians bore the brunt of fighting Germany's massive ground forces, and best estimates are that 25 million Russian soldiers and civilians died in that conflict.

Without Soviet endurance and fighting power it's hard to see how the Western allies, including Canada, could have forced Germany's unconditional surrender.

Fully 80 per cent of all German soldiers killed in the Second World War died fighting the Soviets, causing even British leader Winston Churchill to remark, "It was the Red Army that tore the guts out of the Wehrmacht."

A profound ceremony on all sides.
A member of Germany's armed forces lays a
cardboard coffin containing the remains of
recently discovered World War II
German war dead last week. (Getty Images)

Today, it is certainly not denial of Russia's war sacrifices that is behind the boycott of the Moscow parade.

Rather it is the growing concern that Putin's aggressive foreign policy may again threaten large parts of Eastern Europe and is primarily responsible for the nervous Cold War-like distrust settling over the continent.

What's more, combative rhetoric on both sides of the divide has stirred up the kinds of dark WW2 emotions that divide rather than unite.

In recent months, Moscow has accused the Ukrainian government of being dominated by Fascists and neo-Nazis, and Putin has pushed overstatement to the point of comparing the Ukrainian army's campaign in the eastern breakaway belt to the Nazi siege of Leningrad — which killed over 700,000 civilians.

For their part, the leaders of those Eastern European nations that were occupied by the Soviets after Germany's defeat have been unnerved by this new hostility and some are firing back in kind.

The Polish government infuriated Russia by pointing out Germany started the war by invading Poland in 1939 only after Hitler and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact in order to brutally split Eastern Europe between them.

It has also reminded neighbours that the entry of Soviet troops in 1944-45 essentially replaced German tyranny with an oppressive Soviet one that lasted decades.

'Revision is provocation'

Moscow's full sensitivity was on display last week when its foreign ministry denounced, as "sacrilegious," Warsaw's refusal to allow a small pro-Putin motorcycle club to enter Poland on the way to VE-Day events in Berlin.  

Some nations, including China and India, will still send leaders or their representatives to the Kremlin parade. But Moscow's anger is undiminished.

Alexander Zaldostanov (front) also known as "Khirurg" (The Surgeon),
leader of the pro-Kremlin Night Wolves bikers' club, heads to a press conference
 in Brest on April 28. Ten of the pro-Kremlin bikers, on a controversial ride
to Berlin for VE-Day, were denied entry into Poland. (AFP/Getty Images)

When Latvia, one of the three Baltic states once occupied by the Soviets, suggested recently it might even remove Soviet-era war memorials from its territory, Moscow roared an ominous warning: "Revision of history is a provocation, and Russia cannot tolerate this."

Given the current poor climate of East-West antagonism, this infighting over VE-Day is a very worrying development.  

Soon after the end of the Cold War, VE-Day became one of the key occasions to bring Russia and the West together.

If it is now to become a week simply to recharge and unleash old historical feuds, we're in even more trouble than we realize. 

Brian Stewart

One of Canada's most experienced journalists and foreign correspondents, Brian Stewart is currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Munk School for Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. He also sits on the advisory board of Human Rights Watch Canada. In almost four decades of reporting, he has covered many of the world's conflicts and reported from 10 war zones, from El Salvador to Beirut and Afghanistan.

Nemtsov Murder: Putin Urges End to Political Killings

Nemtsov funeral attracted 50,000 mourners

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has called for an end to "shameful" political killings in Russia, after the shooting of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov just outside the Kremlin walls.

He said the most serious attention should be paid to high-profile crimes.

The former deputy prime minister, 55, was murdered on Friday night and buried in Moscow on Tuesday.

The motive is unknown, but Mr Putin's aides have rejected suggestions that he had any involvement. Could they possibly have done otherwise?

Mr Nemtsov, who had been planning a march against the conflict in eastern Ukraine, said recently that he feared the president would have him killed because of his opposition to the war.

He was shot four times in the back while walking with his Ukrainian girlfriend, Anna Duritskaya, on Great Moskvoretsky Bridge.

At least 50,000 people turned out on Sunday to march in tribute to him.

Vladimir Putin at an interior ministry board meeting in Moscow (4 March)
The Russian president has vowed to bring the killers to justice

Marchers, some chanting "Russia without Putin", blamed the assassination on a climate of hatred fostered by the Kremlin and its supporters towards opponents of its Ukraine policy.

'Suspects'
"It is necessary to finally rid Russia of the shame and tragedies like the one that we lived through and saw quite recently. I mean the murder, the brazen murder of Boris Nemtsov right in the centre of the capital," Mr Putin said in televised comments to the interior ministry.

After the shooting, which the Kremlin described as a "provocation" aimed at discrediting the president, Mr Putin said he would do all he could to ensure the killers were brought to justice but little progress appears to have been made in the investigation.

Of course, it would help if you could actually believe anything Mr Putin says, but he is, in my mind, in a class with Goodluck Jonathon, the Nigerian President, whom I doubt ever spoke a truthful word in his life.

When asked by reporters on Tuesday if there were any suspects in the murder, the head of Russia's FSB security service, Alexander Bortnikov, said: "There are always suspects."

After three days of questioning by Russian authorities, Nemtsov's girlfriend,
the lovely but clearly shaken Anna Duritskaya flew home to Kyiv yesterday

Several theories have emerged for who was the behind the murder of a man who was putting together a report on Russia's involvement in eastern Ukraine:

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny said it was either a government or pro-government organisation. Rogue elements in the security services or fighters returning from eastern Ukraine may have wanted to silence his anti-war stance.

Or it may have been unrelated to Ukraine: Mr Navalny said it could have been ordered by officials in Yaroslavl, where Mr Nemtsov had been investigating corruption.

Obviously, Mr Putin doesn't think this is likely or he wouldn't have used the word "political" in describing the murder.

Boris Nemtsov's last known movements

'Fake'
Russia's finance ministry became part of the story on Tuesday when it was asked about reports that a light-coloured car used by the ministry had been seen in the area at the time of the shooting.

The ministry's press service said the Ford car belonged to an in-house security service, but not the ministry itself, Tass news agency reported.

And Lifenews website, which has close links to the security services, quoted the driver, Dmitry Karmaza, as saying he had driven past the scene a few minutes after the shooting, when a patrol car was already there.

Separately, a video purportedly showing a far-right Russian group active in eastern Ukraine claiming it carried out the killing was dismissed by the group's leader, Alexei Milchakov, as a fake.

"We would have liked to bump him off but we wouldn't even have the money for the car," he wrote earlier on social media. Now why couldn't everyone be that honest?