VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Czech President Milos Zeman was admitted to the Central Military Hospital in Prague on Thursday for a planned short-term stay, a hospital spokesperson said on Thursday.

Zeman, 77, has been using wheelchair and spent more than six weeks in hospital last year with an unspecified serious condition that temporarily raised concern over his capability to perform duties.

Zeman is the head of state and has powers including the appointment of prime ministers and central bank leaders, but most executive power is in the hands of the government.

Zeman's final five-year term ends in March next year.

News agency CTK quoted Zeman's spokesperson as saying the president went to hospital for a short stay and had a number of meetings planned for next week. He did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment. (Reuters)

Russia's Foreign Ministry on Thursday dismissed a proposal by United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres to demilitarise the area around the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

During a press briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ivan Nechaev said the proposals were "unacceptable".

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was captured by Russia in March, shortly after it ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in what it calls a "special military operation". The facility remains near the frontlines, and has repeatedly come under fire in recent weeks, sparking fears of a nuclear disaster.

Both Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling the plant. (Reuters)

Russia said on Thursday there was a risk of a man-made disaster at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and accused Kyiv and the West of planning "provocation" there on Friday during a visit to Ukraine by U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

A Ukrainian official dismissed what he depicted as a cynical assertion by Moscow and said Russian forces should leave the plant they captured soon after invading Ukraine nearly six months ago, demine it and remove any munitions stored there.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear reactor complex (ZNPP), the largest in Europe, has come under repeated shelling, with both Moscow and Kyiv trading blame.

Russia says Ukrainian forces are recklessly firing at the plant, but Ukraine says Russia is deliberately using the reactor complex as a base to launch attacks against its population.

Russia's foreign ministry said at a news briefing that a proposal from Guterres to demilitarise the area around the plant was "unacceptable".

Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told reporters Moscow was taking measures to ensure safety at the complex and denied it had deployed heavy weapons in and around the plant.

However, the ministry said a shutdown of the plant might be attempted if shelling continued.

Yevgeny Balitsky, head of the Russian-installed administration in Zaporizhzhia region, said earlier there was a risk that shelling could damage the cooling system of the reactor complex and was quoted as saying the plant was operating with only one unit.

It is not clear how the plant would be shut down, but the ministry said two of the plant's six units may be put into "cold reserve". The plant accounts for one-fifth of Ukraine's annual electricity production.

Ukrainian state nuclear energy company Energoatom said shutting down the plant would increase the risk of "a radiation disaster at the largest nuclear power plant in Europe". Disconnecting the complex's generators from Ukraine's power system would prevent them being used to keep nuclear fuel cool, in the event of a power outage at the plant, it said on the Telegram messaging app.

'PROVOCATION'

The Russian defence ministry accused Ukraine and what it called its "U.S. handlers" of trying to stage a "minor accident" at the plant in southern Ukraine to blame Russia.

It said the "provocation" was timed to coincide with a visit to Ukraine by U.N. chief Guterres, who arrived in Lviv or Wednesday and was due to visit the Black Sea port of Odesa on Friday, and that it may involve a radiation leak.

Reuters could not verify Russia's assertion.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, dismissed the Russian defence ministry's remarks, saying it "laughs cynically".

"There is a solution. You just need to take the (munitions)out of the halls, demine the buildings, release the plant's personnel from cells, stop shelling (the southern city of) Nikopol from (the plant's) territory and leave the station," he wrote on Twitter.

In a briefing, Igor Kirillov, head of Russia's radioactive, chemical and biological defence forces, said the plant's back-up support systems had been damaged as a result of shelling.

Kirillov presented a slide, showing that in the event of an accident at the plant, radioactive material would cover Germany, Poland and Slovakia.

Guterres, who is set to meet Zelenskiy later on Thursday, has called for a halt to all fighting near the plant. (Reuters)

Bank Indonesia (BI) has signaled that it will not raise interest rates in the near future. BI Governor Perry Warjiyo said this was to maintain the recovery of the national economic recovery.

"We don't need to raise interest rates at this time. Because there are subsidies, there is food control, so from a policy perspective, interest rates do not have to be in a hurry to raise interest rates. This is to maintain and support economic recovery," said Perry in a press statement at the National Coordination Meeting (Rakornas) of the Regional Inflation Control Team in Jakarta, Thursday (18/8/2022).

The subsidies in question are energy subsidies to prevent the increase in domestic energy prices. Bank Indonesia recently launched the National Food Inflation Control Movement.

"This is part of the policy synergy between BI and the government, in an effort to control the inflation rate," he said.

From the monetary side, BI's policy direction is to maintain the exchange rate. Meanwhile, prudential macro policies are directed at supporting economic growth, including the payment system, empowering MSMEs, the economy and Islamic finance," Perry added.

Currently, according to Perry, the intervention carried out by BI has proven that the rupiah exchange rate is still maintained. The depreciation of the rupiah to date is around 3.5 percent, still lower than the depreciation of other countries' currencies, such as Malaysia's currency depreciation reaching 6.41 percent, India 7.07 percent and Thailand 8.88 percent.

"The stability of the rupiah exchange rate needs to be maintained so as not to interfere with economic recovery, and prices do not rise due to global turmoil," said Perry.

In addition, BI also controls liquidity, so that it is neither more nor less.

"It's not too much so there's no speculation. No less so that banks can still channel their credit. Alhamdulillah, now the distribution of bank credit is more than 10 percent, and credit distribution for MSMEs is even more than 16 percent," Perry concluded. (RRI)