Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band, extends from 3–30 MHz. Radio waves in the shortwave band can be reflected or refracted from a layer of electrically charged atoms in the atmosphere called the ionosphere. Therefore, short waves directed at an angle into the sky can be reflected back to Earth at great distances, beyond the horizon; this is called skywave or "skip" propagation. Thus shortwave radio can be used for long distance communication, in contrast to radio waves of higher frequency which travel in straight lines and are limited by the visual horizon, about 64 km. Shortwave radio is used for broadcasting of voice and music to shortwave listeners over large areas, it is used for military over-the-horizon radar, diplomatic communication, two-way international communication by amateur radio enthusiasts for hobby and emergency purposes, as well as for long distance aviation and marine communications.

The name "shortwave" originated during the early days of radio in the early 20th century, when the radio spectrum was considered divided into long wave, medium wave and short wave bands based on the wavelength of the radio waves. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used for radio communications; the broadcast medium wave band now extends above the 200 m / 1,500 kHz limit. Early long distance radio telegraphy used long waves, below 300 kilohertz; the drawbacks to this system included a limited spectrum available for long distance communication, the expensive transmitters and gigantic antennas that were required. It was difficult to beam the radio wave directionally with long wave, resulting in a major loss of power over long distances. Prior to the 1920s, the shortwave frequencies above 1.5 MHz were regarded as useless for long distance communication and were designated in many countries for amateur use.

Guglielmo Marconi, pioneer of radio, commissioned his assistant Charles Samuel Franklin to carry out a large scale study into the transmission characteristics of short wavelength waves and to determine their suitability for long distance transmissions. Franklin rigged up a large antenna at Poldhu Wireless Station, running on 25 kW of power. In June and July 1923, wireless transmissions were completed during nights on 97 meters from Poldhu to Marconi's yacht Elettra in the Cape Verde Islands. In September 1924, Marconi transmitted daytime and nighttime on 32 meters from Poldhu to his yacht in Beirut. Franklin went on to refine the directional transmission, by inventing the curtain array aerial system. In July 1924, Marconi entered into contracts with the British General Post Office to install high speed shortwave telegraphy circuits from London to Australia, South Africa and Canada as the main element of the Imperial Wireless Chain; the UK-to-Canada shortwave "Beam Wireless Service" went into commercial operation on 25 October 1926.

Beam Wireless Services from the UK to Australia, South Africa and India went into service in 1927. Shortwave communications began to grow in the 1920s. By 1928, more than half of long distance communications had moved from transoceanic cables and longwave wireless services to shortwave and the overall volume of transoceanic shortwave communications had vastly increased. Shortwave stations had cost and efficiency advantages over massive longwave wireless installations, however some commercial longwave communications stations remained in use until the 1960s. Long distance radio circuits reduced the need for new cables, although the cables maintained their advantages of high security and a much more reliable and better quality signal than shortwave; the cable companies began to lose large sums of money in 1927, a serious financial crisis threatened the viability of cable companies that were vital to strategic British interests. The British government convened the Imperial Wireless and Cable Conference in 1928 "to examine the situation that had arisen as a result of the competition of Beam Wireless with the Cable Services".

It recommended and received Government approval for all overseas cable and wireless resources of the Empire to be merged into one system controlled by a newly formed company in 1929, Imperial and International Communications Ltd. The name of the company was changed to Cable and Wireless Ltd. in 1934. Long-distance cables had a resurgence beginning in 1956 with the laying of TAT-1 across the Atlantic Ocean, the first voice frequency cable on this route; this provided 36 high quality telephone channels and was soon followed by higher capacity cables all around the world. Competition from these cables soon ended the economic viability of shortwave radio for commercial communication. Amateur radio operators discovered that long-distance communication was possible on shortwave bands. Early long-distance services used surface wave propagation at low frequencies, which are attenuated along the path at wavelengths shorter than 1,000 meters. Longer distances and higher frequencies using this method meant more signal loss.

This, the difficulties of generating and detecting higher frequencies, made discovery of shortwave propagation difficult for commercial services. Radio amateurs may have conducted the first successful transatlantic tests in December 1921, operating in the 200 meter mediumwave band – the

In criminology, state crime is activity or failures to act that break the state's own criminal law or public international law. For these purposes, Ross defines a "state" as the elected and appointed officials, the bureaucracy, the institutions and organisations comprising the apparatus of the government; the state was the agency of deterrence, using the threat of punishment as a utilitarian tool to shape the behaviour of its citizens. It became the mediator, interpreting society's wishes for conflict resolution. Theorists identified the state as the "victim" in victimless crimes. Now, theorists are examining the role of the state as one of the possible perpetrators of crime whether directly or in the context of state-corporate crime. Green & Ward adopt Max Weber's thesis of a sovereign “state” as claiming a monopoly on the legitimate use of force. Thus, the criteria for determining whether a state is "deviant" will draw on international norms and standards of behaviour for achieving the state’s usual operating goals.

One of those standards will be whether the state respects human rights in the exercise of its powers. But, one of the definitional difficulties is that the states themselves define what is criminal within their own territories, as sovereign powers, they are not accountable to the international community unless they submit to international jurisdiction or criminal jurisdiction in particular; as international crimes, a state may engage in state terror and terrorism, war crimes, genocide. Both internationally and nationally, there may be corruption, state-corporate crime, organized crime. Within its territorial borders, some crimes are either the result of situations where the state is not the direct criminal actor, e.g. arising from natural disasters or through the agency of bodies such as the police. More the state is directly involved in excessive secrecy and cover-ups and unaccountability which reflect upper-class and nonpluralistic interests, infringe human rights. One of the key issues is the extent.

State crimes are revealed by an investigative news agency resulting in scandals but among first world democratic states, it is difficult to maintain genuinely independent control over the criminal enforcement mechanisms and few senior officers of the state are held accountable. When the citizens of second and third world countries which may be of a more authoritarian nature, seek to hold their leaders accountable, the problems become more acute. Public opinion, media attention, public protests, whether violent or nonviolent, may all be criminalised as political crimes and suppressed, while critical international comments are of little real value. Barak examines recent history through Reaganism and Thatcherism which led to a decline in the provision of social services and an increase in public security functions. In turn, this created the opportunity for injustices and state crimes involving the suppression of democratic functions within the state; as Johns and Johnson note, "The concern of the U.

S. policy elites is not, with the establishment or protection of democracy. Within the context of state-corporate crime and Ward examine how the debt repayment schemes in developing countries place such a financial burden on states that they collude with corporations offering prospects of capital growth; such collusion entails the softening of environmental and other regulations. The debt service obligation can exacerbate political instability in countries where the legitimacy of state power is questioned; such political volatility leads states to adopt clientelistic or patrimonialist patterns of governance, fostering organized crime and authoritarianism. In some third world countries, this political atmosphere has encouraged repression and the use of torture. Exceptionally, genocide has occurred. Barak, G... Crimes by the capitalist state: An introduction to state criminality. Albany: State University of New York Press. Chambliss, W.. "State-organized crime". Criminology, 27, 183-208 Cohen, S.. "Human Rights and Crimes of the State: The Culture of Denial" in Criminological Perspectives, 2nd Edition..

London: Sage. Doig, A.. "From Lynskey to Nolan: The Corruption of British Politics and Public Service", Journal of Law and Society, Vol.23, No.1, pp36-56. Green, Penny & Ward, Tony. State Crime: Governments and Corruption. London: Pluto Press. Johns, Christina Jacqueline & Johnson, P. Ward. State Crime, The Media, And The Invasion of Panama. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. Kramer, R. C.. "State violence and violent crime". Peace Review, 6, pp171-175 Ross, Jeffrey Ian.. Controlling State Crime, 2nd edition, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishe

Italy–Russia relations are the bilateral foreign relations between the two countries, embodied in the so-called privileged relationship. Russia has an embassy in Rome and consulates in Genoa and Palermo, Italy has an embassy in Moscow, a consulate in Saint Petersburg, two consulte generals, two embassy branches. Both countries are full members of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe; the relationship between Russia and Italy goes back a long way. The governments of Benito Mussolini's Italy and Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union recognized each other as de jure governments of their respective countries and established diplomatic relations on 7 February 1924. A preliminary agreement had been made on 26 December 1921; the two states signed a Treaty on Friendship, Non-Aggression and Neutrality on 2 September 1933, although the treaty formally remained in effect until the Italian declaration of war against the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, relations had degraded with the advent of the Italo-Ethiopian War and the Spanish Civil War.

During World War II, when Italy was on Germany's side fighting against USSR, Italian troops were known for treating Soviet civilians much better than the Germans did. After the Italians signed an act of surrender to the Allied powers of World War II on 29 September 1943, at the Three Powers Conference in Moscow, the Soviets and British adopted the Declaration Regarding Italy, within which they agreed to the overthrow of Fascism in Italy, the barring of Fascists from public life and setting up "democratic organs." The Soviet Union restored full diplomatic relations with Italy on 25 October 1944. A treaty on trade and navigation was signed on 11 December 1948. In the 1960s, Italy's FIAT built a car-assembling plant in the Soviet city of Tolyatti. For a long time Italy had the largest communist party in the Western world, with over 2 million members. In 2006, Russia and Italy signed a protocol of cooperation for fighting crime and defending civil liberties. There are close commercial ties between the two countries.

Italy is Russia's second most important commercial partner in the EU, after Germany, its state-owned energy company, ENI, has signed a large long-term contract with Gazprom to import Russian gas into Italy. In modern times, Russia has continued to have a privileged relationship with Italy; the Silvio Berlusconi Governments strengthened Italy's ties with Russia, due to his personal friendship with President Vladimir Putin. Cooperation extends to the aviation sector, between Italy's Alenia and Russia's Sukhoi, who are jointly developing a new aircraft. Russians have always visited Italy in great numbers. In 2017 United Russia, the party of Vladimir Putin, signed a deal with the Northern League, strengthening their political cooperation. Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, leader of the PD party, suggested that Russian-backed organizations may have been promulgating fake news in Italy in order to influence electoral outcomes, accused the Five Stars Movement to spread information supportive of the Russian government and its foreign policy.

In December 2017, former US Vice President Joe Biden accused Russia of helping the opposition parties Five Stars Movement and Lega Nord. In March 2018, the Italian government led by Paolo Gentiloni expelled 2 Russian diplomats after the Skripal poisoning case in the United KingdomThe parties that won the recent 2018 election and formed a coalition government, the Lega Nord and Five Star Movement, have been giving voice to the Italian industry's discontent with American and European sanctions on Russia, and plan to improve relations between the two states by lifting the sanctions imposed as a consequence of the 2014 Ukrainian crisis. The incumbent Prime Minister of Italy, Giuseppe Conte, has said he "will support an opening towards Russia as sanctions are damaging Italy’s economy." Foreign relations of Italy Foreign relations of Russia Scuola Italiana Italo Calvino Soviet-Italian Agreements at Great Soviet Encyclopedia