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| Photo credit: ITU/V. Martin |
| ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré meets Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation |
Global access to the benefits of information and communication
technologies (ICT) was at the centre of
the discussions in Geneva on 15 June 2011, when ITU
Secretary-General Hamadoun I. Touré met Vladimir
Putin, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.
Prime Minister Putin, during a historic visit to
Geneva, held bilateral meetings with a number of Chief
Executives of the United Nations agencies. He reaffirmed the support of his country to ITU and underlined
the important role which the Union plays in fostering
the development of the ICT sector worldwide. Recalling
that ITU is one of the oldest international organizations,
the Prime Minister said that “Russia was one of its cofounders
and intends to be an active member”.
There are many issues on the global agenda that
require international cooperation. Citing the Internet in
particular, Prime Minister Putin said: “If we are going
to talk about the democratization of international relations,
I think a critical sphere is information exchange
and global control over such exchange. This is certainly
a priority on the international agenda.”
Dr Touré said that political and technical support
from the Russian Federation has contributed to the
adoption of many ITU resolutions and decisions, which
in turn have helped deliver social and economic progress
worldwide. He lauded the Russian Federation on
its stellar progress in the ICT sector, pointing out that the
Russian population enjoys 166 per cent mobile cellular
subscriptions — more than twice the global average.
Dr Touré shared his views on the future development
of the Internet and highlighted the importance
of international cooperation on cybersecurity. To enjoy
the many benefits of an interconnected world, people
need to feel confident that the networks, services and
applications they use are secure. With more than 2 billion
Internet users worldwide today, the Internet is a
growing common resource — vastly increasing the opportunities
but also the dangers online, especially for
children.
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| From left to right: Valery Timofeev, former Director of
the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau (2003–2010);
Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Chief of the ITU Strategic
Planning and Membership Department; Houlin
Zhao, ITU Deputy Secretary-General; Dr Hamadoun
I.Touré (fifth from left), ITU Secretary-General;
Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of the Russian
Federation; Valery Lochtchinin (eighth from left),
Ambassador of the Russian Federation; Igor
Shchegolev (ninth from left), Minister of Telecom and
Mass Communications, Russian Federation; and the
Russian delegation during a meeting at the United
Nations Office in Geneva |
| Photo credit: ITU/V. Martin |
Prime Minister Putin emphasized that one of his priorities
is protecting children online, which is also one of
ITU’s key areas of focus. ITU’s Child Online Protection
(COP) initiative brings together partners from all sectors
of the international community with the aim of creating
a safe online experience for children everywhere.
COP’s key objectives are to identify the risks to children
in cyberspace and improve awareness of the dangers, as
well as to develop practical tools to help minimize risks
and share knowledge and experience in applying them.
The meeting took place at the United Nations Office
in Geneva. Dr Touré was accompanied by Houlin Zhao,
ITU Deputy Secretary-General; Doreen Bogdan-Martin,
Chief of the ITU Strategic Planning and Membership
Department; and Valery Timofeev, former Director of
the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau (BR) from 2003 to
2010.
Russia’s scientific contribution to the global community at a glance
Noting that the Russian
Federation joined ITU on 1 January
1866, Dr Touré praised the country
for its long and distinguished
record in telecommunications.
“Russia’s scientific contribution
to the global community, in particular
to space exploration and
radiocommunication, has helped
us meet our objectives to connect
the world”, said Dr Touré, citing
the launching of the first space
satellite and the first manned
space flight by Yuri Gagarin 50
years ago.
Earth’s first artificial satellite
The space age began on 4 October
1957, when the Soviet Union successfully
launched Sputnik-I. The
world’s first artificial satellite was
58 cm in diameter, weighed 83.6
kg, and took 98 minutes to orbit the
Earth. That Sputnik launch changed
the political, technological and scientifi
c landscape throughout the
world.
“Here we go”
In the morning
of 12 April 1961, the 27 year
old Yuri Gagarin was in a space
capsule atop a 30m-high booster
rocket at the Tyuratam test range
in Kazakhstan — now the Baikonur
Cosmodrome. As the rocket blasted
off into space at 0907 local
time, Gagarin said “Poyekhali”
(“here we go”).
Gagarin saw the Sun rise as he
was moving over the South Atlantic,
and was struck by the view through
the capsule’s window, commenting on the Earth’s
“beautiful aura” and the striking shadows cast by clouds
on our planet’s surface.
From his space capsule, he kept mission control updated
on his condition using a high-frequency radio and
a telegraph key. But the spacecraft was controlled from
the ground, because of concerns about the unknown
effects of weightlessness. If control from the ground
was lost, Gagarin was to open a sealed envelope containing
codes that would allow him to use a crude onboard
computer to assume command of the spacecraft.
“I was never nervous during the space flight — there
were no grounds for it”, said Gagarin later.
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| Photo credit: AFP/ Sergey Subbotin / RIA NOVOSTI |
| Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968) inside the capsule of the Vostok-1 spacecraft. Gagarin made the first
manned space flight on 12 April 1961 |
Radio waves and a radio link
A plaque at ITU
headquarters in Geneva commemorates the work of
Russian physicist and radiocommunications pioneer
Alexander Stepanovich Popov. Born in March 1859,
Popov first worked at St Petersburg University, where he
had been a student. In 1883, he became a teacher at the
Russian Navy’s Torpedo School at Kronstadt. Electrical
power was being introduced into ships, and he investigated
the practical applications of high-frequency currents
and the electromagnetic (including radio) waves
they produced. In 1894, he finished making a device
to generate electromagnetic waves, but he could only
detect them over a few metres.
At that time, electromagnetic waves were received
with a “coherer”. Popov improved the coherer’s sensitivity
and invented a mechanism to automatically
re-set the device. He used this equipment to monitor
lightning — a serious danger to lives at sea. By attaching
an antenna to one end of the coherer and grounding
the other, he detected electrical discharges in the
atmosphere many kilometres away. It was the first
time that such an antenna had been used to receive
radio waves.
Popov demonstrated his invention to the Russian
Physical and Chemical Society on 7 May 1895. Then, at
a meeting of the Society in March 1896, Popov showed
how his work could be used in general for sending and
receiving information by radio. By 1899, Popov had
developed a way to send radio signals to and from
ships up to 30 km away. And by January 1900, a 47km radio link had been established between Hogland
Island in the Gulf of Finland and the coastal town of
Kotka.
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