PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
October 2015
759
“
R
ussia has its cultural
origins in Kyivan Rus, the
kingdom located in what
is today
and
. From
here the Slavs expanded into modern
European Russia. The birth of the
Russian state is usually identified with
the founding of
in AD 862,
although until 1480 Russia was overrun
by the Mongols. It was not until the
Romanov dynasty (1613–1917) that
Russia became the vast nation it is today
– territorial expansion from the 17
th
to
19
th
centuries saw the country increase
in size exponentially to include
,
the Arctic, the
, Central
Asia and the Caucasus. Peter the Great
dragged the country kicking and screaming out
of the Dark Ages, setting up a navy and building
a new capital,
in 1703. Catherine
the Great continued Peter’s progressive policies to
create a world power by the mid-18
th
century.
“The 19
th
century saw feverish capitalist development
undermined by successively autocratic and backwards tsars.
The most prominent example was Nicholas II, whose refusal to
countenance serious change precipitated the 1917 revolution.
What began as a liberal revolution was hijacked later the
same year in a coup led by the Bolsheviks under Lenin, which
resulted in the setting up of the world’s first communist state.
“The Communist Party held power from 1917 until 1991,
during which time Russia became a superpower, having created
the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and absorbing
some 14 neighboring states between 1922 and 1945. The terror
of Stalin, the reforms of Khrushchev and the stagnation during
the Brezhnev era finally led to Mikhail Gorbachev’s period of
reform known as perestroika in 1985. Within six years the
USSR had collapsed alongside communism and reformer Boris
Yeltsin led Russia into a new world of cutthroat capitalism”
(Lonely Planet, 2015).
“A U.S. telecommunications engineer arrested and charged
with espionage in Russia will be allowed to leave under
an agreement with the Russian security service, the U.S.
State Department said Tuesday. State Department deputy
spokesman James Foley said Richard Bliss’ employer, the
telecommunications company Qualcomm, and Russian security
officials reached an agreement that would allow Bliss to depart
for the United States possibly as early as Tuesday. “We
welcome his release,” Foley said. Bliss, 29, a field technician,
was arrested Nov. 25 in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-
Don while installing a wireless telecommunications system for
the Russian company Rostovelektrosvyaz. Interfax, quoting
unidentified federal security officials, confirmed that Bliss
would be allowed to go home for the holidays but could be called
back to Russia if necessary. There were no other details. One
of Bliss’ local attorneys said the technician was due to leave
Russia late Tuesday night. “He’s flying out at 2300 hours,”
Valery Petrayev said by telephone from Rostov, where Bliss
has been held since his arrest. Petrayev said Bliss had been
allowed home until Jan. 10, but might not be recalled then. He
said the release was a sign that the Federal Security Service,
or FSB, would not bring formal spying charges. “They let him
go for Christmas, New Year, until Jan. 10 for the moment,
Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing
Vol. 81, No. 10, October 2015, pp. 759–761.
0099-1112/15/759–761
© 2015 American Society for Photogrammetry
and Remote Sensing
doi: 10.14358/PERS.81.10.759
