2009 Review: August

RIAN News Service looks back at the main events of the outgoing year; below the month-by-month review of 2009 continues, with August:

 

August 1

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Kyrgyz counterpart Kurmanbek Bakiyev sign a memorandum on Russian military presence in Kyrgyzstan

 

August 3

* Anders Fog Rasmussen, inaugurated as NATO's new secretary general, starts work in the alliance's headquarters in Brussels

 

August 5

* Former U.S. President Bill Clinton secures the release of two American journalists detained by North Korea in March

 

* Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is sworn in for his second term as Iran's president in a ceremony in the country's parliament

 

August 7

* Typhoon Morakot, the deadliest in history, hits Taiwan leaving 461 people killed

 

August 11

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev holds off sending Russia's new ambassador to Ukraine over Kiev's anti-Russian policies

 

August 14

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel meet for an informal summit in Sochi, the host city for the 2014 Winter Olympics

 

August 16

* One of three pilots rehearsing a flight of two Su-27 fighters ahead of MAKS-2009 air show is killed as the military aircraft collides southeast of Moscow

 

August 17

* A disaster at Russia’s largest hydropower plant, Sayano-Shushenskaya, in south Siberia leaves 75 people killed and destroys a turbine hall

 

August 18

* The Russian frigate Ladny frees the Arctic Sea cargo ship in the Atlantic without firing a single shot with eight suspected hijackers detained

* Iran signals readiness to hold talks with the West on its nuclear program without any preliminary conditions

* Georgia officially ends its membership of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

August 31

* Turkey and Armenia agree at talks mediated by Switzerland to start "internal political consultations" on establishing diplomatic relations