Coffee and Kidnapping and Putin and Drugs and Diamonds……

While drinking that delicious morning cup of coffee. I was doing some backtracking on several issues that have been forefront in the news yesterday. So lets see what was happening in Russia.

“Russian Interior Ministry and Moscow police personnel are checking information that unidentified persons abducted in Moscow the son of well-known entrepreneur Yevgeny Kaspersky,” the source said. Russia media report that Ivan Kaspersky, 20, may have been snatched on Tuesday and some reports say he is being held for a 3 million euro ransom. Yevgeny Kaspersky, who is behind the Kaspersky Labs anti-virus software, has a personal fortune of $800 million, according to Forbes magazine, and ranks 125th among Russia’s 200 richest persons…

When I first heard about this I was thinking a young child. But today I heard that this was a 20 year old guy. So I am going to wait out this story before I say a whole lot. This should be big news and is being taken rather strangely by the press…

Next on the list is Putin. Now Putin is always in the news and lately he has been in the news a whole bunch more. But this item is strange:

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday invited Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to visit the United States, Putin’s spokesman said. The invitation came in a telephone conversation, Dmitry Peskov said. Biden told Putin “he and President Barack Obama would be pleased to see the Russian prime minister,” Peskov said. Biden and Putin also discussed “various aspects of Russian-U.S. trade cooperation, including Russia’s admission to the WTO,” Peskov said.

Now I know that Putin can not be bought by the West like Medvedev has been. That is what makes Putin dangerous in the Wests eyes. But this is looking a whole lot like pre Russian election games to me. By America from America. Can anyone say, “Please do not run for Russian President, Mr. Putin…”

Next on the agenda is an item that caught my attention yesterday. Russia is wanting to drug test students in the schools. I normally would say, “Hey that is eroding my freedoms!” But if you saw how much it looks similar to the drug and alcohol problems in America, here in Moscow. Then you would change your mind. (Then maybe you wouldn’t!) I use to take evening walks in America and you could watch the young adults smoking pot and crack all up and down the neighborhood streets. Beer cans would be stacked in pyramid piles on the front porch to display their drinking abilities. I remember steel doors being torn down by cops every week on my street. I really do not want to see that become Russia…

Russian schools will introduce a program of annual drug tests that will be able to detect drug use up to half a year earlier, Marina Myagkova of Moscow Narcology Center said on Thursday. “We will test pupils’ blood for amphetamines, barbiturates and opiate-specific antibodies. The antibodies remain in the blood during five or six months after the last use,” Myagkova said. The first drug tests were carried out in 2005 among 713 university students. “We got shocking results: 72 of the students taking part in the research used drugs. This is 10 percent.” The pupils will be tested with their parents’ permission.

I know that with the Flying J Corporation that I worked for in America at one time. There was mandatory surprise instant drug testing. They could at anytime, test any employee for drugs. It was our policy to have 25% of the work force available, on call to work for the occasions that they tested us. Management was not told when they would be coming. Because a normal unit lost 20% plus of the employees at a drug test. As this program was fully implemented the percent of employees doing drugs dropped because employees realized that they should work at places that do not drug test. Sooner or later you will catch a huge percent of them. I remember one of the main questions asked in an interview by prospective employees was, “Do you test for drugs?” I had a lot get up and leave the interview when told, “Yes, when hired and surprise tests while working! Here is the handbook it explains the policy!” (Flying J by the way was the company that I had been Sexually Harassed with.) So with the drug problem I see in Russia that is seems to be getting worse by the day. Something needs to be done. I have taken a lot of drug tests in my day so they are not worrisome unless you do drugs. But I still want to say that they are an eroding of our freedoms… 🙂

Next I found an interesting tidbit of information that was expensive…

Workers in a Siberian mining company in Yakutia have discovered a large diamond weighing more than 136 carats, a spokesman for the republic’s Industrial Ministry said on Thursday. The diamond has a very rare “honey-yellow” color, measures 33 x 23 millimeters, and is of irregular shape. The diamond’s worth has not yet been determined…

What a diamond! I wonder what it will be cut into as far as size and shape? I guess we will have to wait and see what it is worth…

Well that is it today and I have rattled on enough. Those happen to be the issues that caught my attention… (Except Libya of course!)

I am going to finish my cup of coffee now…

Windows to Russia!

http://windowstorussia.com/russia-have-you-ever-been-sexually_11.html