Second Russian plane reportedly linked to Prigozhin had no connection to Wagner group - operator - The Straits Times

MOSCOW - A second plane linked to Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin by some Russian media has no connection to the mercenary group and never has had, the CEO of the aircraft operator company told Reuters.

Russia's aviation authority has said Prigozhin was on board a private Embraer jet which crashed on Wednesday evening northwest of Moscow with no survivors. An investigation has yet to definitively identify the 10 people on board but Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent condolences to their families.

Russian media, mainly associated with the Wagner group's Telegram channel Grey Zone, had linked a second business jet with the tail number RA-02748 with the mercenary group, and had reported that it was also in the air at the time of the crash.

But the jet operator, Russian company Jetica LLC, denied any such link.

"Neither the plane itself nor its passengers are related to Wagner and never have been," Jetica's CEO Sergey Trifonov told Reuters.

This plane had not been rented out, Trifonov said, though he declined to say who its owner was.

The RA-02748 was landing in St. Petersburg on Wednesday evening on a flight from Moscow when the plane believed to be carrying Prigozhin crashed, flight tracking data shows. It then took off back to Moscow about 20 minutes later. REUTERS

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2023-08-25 16:24:45Z
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Japan to release test results after Fukushima release - CNA

Japan's environment ministry said it had collected seawater samples from 11 different locations on Friday, results of which would be released on Sunday.

The Fisheries Agency also pulled a flounder and a Gurnard fish early Friday from designated sampling spots near the pipe that released the Fukushima water.

"By publishing those data every day in a highly transparent fashion, we will demonstrate our actions based on scientific evidence," said Trade and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is in charge of nuclear policies.

IAEA BACKING

TEPCO says that the water - more than 500 Olympic pools' worth - from cooling the remains of three reactors has been filtered of all radioactive elements except for tritium and is safe.

This is backed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which said on Thursday that samples taken from the first batch of diluted water prepared for discharge showed that tritium levels were well within safe limits.

"IAEA experts are there on the ground to serve as the eyes of the international community and ensure that the discharge is being carried out as planned consistent with IAEA safety standards," said the chief of the UN body, Rafael Grossi, in a statement.

Most analysts agree although environmental pressure group Greenpeace has said that the filtration process, known as ALPS, does not work and that a vast amount of radioactivity will be released into the ocean.

Japan's move iinfuriated China, which says the action contaminates the ocean, and widened a ban on aquatic produce in place for 10 Japanese prefectures to cover the whole country.

Nishimura on Friday echoed Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in urging China, Japan's biggest market for seafood, to reverse the ban.

"The Japanese government ... will strongly demand baseless regulations to be immediately terminated," Nishimura said.

South Korea's government, which is trying to improve relations with Japan in order to counter China, has endorsed the water release although some ordinary people are alarmed.

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2023-08-25 06:03:27Z
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Putin offers 'condolences' after Wagner plane crash - CNA

A "COMMON CAUSE"

When Putin broke his silence on Thursday he paid a qualified tribute to the mercenary boss and the paramilitary group he led.

"I knew Prigozhin for a very long time, since the early 90s. He was a man of complicated fate, and he made serious mistakes in his life, but he achieved the right results," Putin said.

In an address to Russians during the Wagner rebellion on Jun 23 to Jun 24 in which he warned against "civil war", Putin had called Prigozhin - once his ally - a "traitor".

But on Thursday, he said the Wagner members who had died in the crash had made a "significant contribution" to Moscow's offensive in Ukraine.

They had shared a common cause, Putin said, adding: "We remember that, we know that, and we will not forget that."

He said the investigation into the crash would take time, but added: "It will be conducted in full and brought to a conclusion."

"REASONABLE DOUBTS"

Some Western leaders expressed doubts that the crash had been an accident.

"There's not much that happens in Russia that Putin's not behind," said US President Joe Biden, after having said he did not know what happened.

France saw "reasonable doubts" about the crash, while Germany said it followed a pattern of "unclarified" fatalities in Russia.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said it was suspicious that "a disgraced former confidant of Putin suddenly, literally falls from the sky two months after he attempted a mutiny".

Even influential pro-Kremlin figures, such as state television personality and Putin ally Margarita Simonyan, seemed to suggest that it could have been an assassination.

"Among the versions that are being discussed (about the crash) is that it was staged. But personally, I'm leaning towards the more obvious one," she said on social media.

Russia's aviation authority published the passenger list for the Embraer private jet late on Wednesday.

It included Prigozhin and his right-hand man, Dmitry Utkin, a shadowy figure who managed Wagner's operations and allegedly served in Russian military intelligence.

Russian police patrolled the crash site near the village of Kuzhenkino, some 350km north of Moscow in the Tver region.

One woman living near Kuzhenkino said her neighbour had heard a roar and saw "sparkling from the plane", accompanied by fire.

"A neighbour ran up to me with shaking hands and when we went to the window I saw only one mushroom (cloud from the explosion), a black cloud," she said in a video published by state-run news agency RIA Novosti.

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2023-08-24 20:26:15Z
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Beijing fishmongers worry as Japan begins Fukushima water release - CNA

Meanwhile, many shoppers responded by rushing to buy large quantities of table salt, prompting the state monopoly to issue a plea for moderation.

Chinese consumers snapped up salt in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster based on groundless rumours that the iodine in it could prevent radiation poisoning.

"Due to the impact of Japan's discharge of nuclear wastewater, some markets in China have seen panic buying of table salt," China Salt said in a statement on Thursday evening.

"Salt reserves and supplies remain abundant," the state-owned firm said, but added that "online retailers as well as some commercial supermarket channels have exhibited temporary shortages".

"We are working overtime to add extra production and deliveries, and doing all we can to guarantee market supply," the company said.

"We urge all sectors of society to consume salt in a managed way and not blindly hoard it."

Elsewhere in the Beijing market, workers said the impact of the water release plan had been significant.

Many recently stopped selling all seafood from Japan.

"The plan to release the water is causing trouble for Japan and all other countries," said Huang Xiaohao, the boss of a store advertising imported products.

"If you look around at what we're selling, you'll find that most of these things are actually domestic products," he said.

Pressure has come from both official customs restrictions, others said, as well as from consumers who worry about the impact of Japanese seafood products on their health.

One merchant who declined to be named told AFP that tuna from places other than Japan - where he usually sourced products - are simply not as good.

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2023-08-24 15:13:33Z
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Fukushima wastewater release: Malaysia to monitor Japan food imports amid rising public concerns - CNA

Following news that treated wastewater will be released from Fukushima into the ocean, Malaysians have expressed concerns over food safety issues, particularly over seafood imported from Japan. 

Several netizens on social media platform X called for the government to ban all seafood imported from the East Asian country. 

“Will sushi be more expensive after this?” asked an X user. 

Another netizen pointed out that although Japan has no choice but to release the treated wastewater to the sea, it is an “unprecedented event”. 

“(This) means we don't really know what exactly will happen,” she said. 

Some netizens also questioned whether the treated wastewater is safe from radiation and expressed worries of falling ill.

“More and more people are quickly getting cancer and other illnesses,” said one netizen. 

The public has been urged to “remain calm”, with Malaysia’s Deputy Agriculture and Food Security Minister Chan Foong Hin sharing in a Facebook post that the country does not currently import live marine fish from Japan. 

He added that for non-live fishery products from Japan, his ministry is working closely with the health ministry and other government agencies to monitor food safety issue levels. 

Among the things being done include checks on health certifications and radiation during post import, said Mr Chan. 

The Vibes had earlier in June reported that there is fear that the release of the wastewater may affect the world’s marine ecosystem.

According to The Vibes, Dr Maizah Abdullah - a lecturer at the Faculty of Marine Science and Environment at the Universiti Malaysia Terengganu - warned that there is a possibility that the nuclear wastewater may drift into Malaysia’s waters. 

“There is no limit to the movement of ocean currents. It is coupled with marine life that constantly migrates, so any animal that reaches an area that is affected or at risk by this radioactive waste will definitely reach our waters, potentially contaminating the food chain of marine life and affecting human health,” she told the online news portal. 

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2023-08-24 10:30:00Z
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Japan begins release of Fukushima water: TEPCO - CNA

"It's like dumping an atomic bomb in the ocean. Japan is the first country that was attacked with an atomic bomb in the world, and the prime minister of the country made this decision," said Kenichi Sato, 68.

China's environment ministry on Thursday blasted Japan's plan as "extremely selfish and irresponsible", saying it would "track and study" the impact on its waters.

MULTIPLE MELTDOWNS

With around 1,000 steel containers holding the water, TEPCO has said it needs to clear space for the removal of highly dangerous radioactive nuclear fuel and rubble from the wrecked reactors.

Three of the reactors at the Fukushima-Daiichi facility in northeastern Japan went into meltdown following a massive earthquake and tsunami that killed around 18,000 people in 2011.

Since then, TEPCO has collected 1.34 million cubic metres of water contaminated as it cooled the wrecked reactors, along with groundwater and rain that has seeped in.

TEPCO will carry out four releases of the treated water from Thursday until March 2024. The first discharge will take about 17 days.

About 5 trillion becquerels - a measure of radioactivity - of tritium will be released this fiscal year, TEPCO added.

Japan insists that all radioactive elements have been filtered out except the tritium, levels of which are harmless and lower than what is discharged by operational nuclear power plants, including in China.

This is backed by most experts.

"When released into the Pacific, the tritium is further diluted into a vast body of water and would quickly get to a radioactivity level which is not discernibly different from normal seawater," said Tom Scott from the University of Bristol in England.

"Hence, it poses very little risk and the risk itself decreases with time due to the relatively short radioactive half-life... meaning that the amount of tritium (and hence the risk) continually reduces."

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2023-08-24 04:34:00Z
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Japan set to release Fukushima water amid criticism, seafood import bans - CNA

According to Tepco test results released on Thursday, that water contains about up to 63 becquerels of tritium per litre, below the World Health Organisation drinking water limit of 10,000 becquerels per litre. A becquerel is a unit of radioactivity.

Tepco expects the process of releasing the wastewater - currently totalling more than 1.3 million metric tons - to take decades.

Civic groups have launched protests in Japan and South Korea, although South Korea's government has said its own assessment found no problems with the scientific and technical aspects of the release.

The Fukushima Daiichi plant was destroyed in March 2011 after a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake off the Japanese coast generated powerful tsunami waves that caused the meltdowns of three of its reactors.

The water release is a key step in a dauntingly long and difficult process of decommissioning the plant, including the removal of molten fuel.

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2023-08-24 03:02:04Z
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