Replies to post #4178 on Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Russia is ready to start a preventive war against other countries to avert terrorist threats and the possible placement of NATO military bases on the territory of the Baltic countries will be considered the military threat not only to Russia, but to a number of CIS states.
#msg-6635214

I was trying to remember an article I read regarding China investing in St. Petersburg and finally found it. This is interesting.

NATO, even without the placement of military bases in the Baltics, has to already be crawling all over the Baltics although in a less official manner.

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are NATO members.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer claims that NATO countries will duly guard Lithuania's air space, right after the country joins this alliance.
http://newsfromrussia.com/world/2004/03/10/52716.html

Russian newspapers have published suspicions that the Baltic-wide radar system will be used to spy on Russia, and that the Lithuanian naval officers are seriously well informed about Russian vessels and their combat capabilities.

Baltic airspace is now monitored by Belgian F-16 fighter jets. http://www.helsinginsanomat.fi/english/article/print/1076152461827

This Chinatown I was trying to recall will be built right on the Baltic Sea, a very strategic location with great military potential, in NATO’s face. This thing is huge and it is China’s first such endeavor. There is going to be a little more than meets the eye going on in the Krasnoselsky district of St. Petersburg.

-Am




Chinese to Build Chinatown in St. Petersburg
12.20.2004 18:00
The Chinese have planned a sweeping $1.25 billion project for St. Petersburg. Shanghai Industrial Investment will build a Chinatown on 206 hectares in the Krasnoselsky district of St. Petersburg, four kilometers from President Putin's residence, Constantine Palace. This is China's first massive investment project abroad. Today, architectural plans for the megacomplex will be submitted to the city administration, reported Finansoviye Izvestia.

"It is going to be a modern high-tech European megacomplex," said Sergei Nikitin, the head Russian architect for the project. Artist's renditions of the project include concrete and glass high-rise buildings, green lawns, cozy cottages, giant space-age metal structures, and elite hotels on the Gulf of Finland.

The complex includes a 35,000 person residential neighborhood, a commercial and trade zone with hypermarkets, boutiques and restaurants, a hotel office center, and a commercial park. Fifty percent of the park will be covered in greenery and the other 50% will be devoted to entertainment and commerce. The area will feature exhibition halls, clubs, sports fields, a water park and outdoor stages.

The Chinese megacomplex is essentially a city within a city. It will have 4 general education schools, 5 nursery schools, 6 libraries, a hobby center for children, an art school, 2 clinics, and even a first aid station. The Chinese call their project the Baltic City or the Baltic Pearl. They are prepared to begin the first stage of construction in the summer of next year in order to finish the project in five years.

An official in the Krasnoselsky administration told the paper that local residents are upset and St. Petersburg deputies "do not clearly see the economic, demographic or commercial aspects of the project."
http://petersburgcity.com/news/city/2004/12/20/baltic2/