Hi,
Going to be gone a week. Taking a trip to a Russian Village. About 350 km South from Moscow. I will take pictures of everything. Then I will let everyone know what I saw and found. I love spending time in Villages. So peaceful and quiet. Looking forward to goats milk, YUMMY!
Have a good week.
Kyle Keeton
This article gave me thoughts on the future. I realized that the two most powerful countries in the world have their presidents leaving office next year. Changing of the guard so to speak! What do you think will happen, Will relations get better or worse? Is the cold war going to start back up again? It is thought provoking at the very least.
I think with Bush leaving office, that it will help the relationship between the countries. Bush was one of those Presidents that should have had only one term. (Thats another story) American politics are corrupt! America likes to point fingers at other countries in hopes that no one will look at America. Sorta like crying Wolf!
Kyle keeton
Article Sponsored By
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and DAVID E. SANGER
Published: June 5, 2007
“”PRAGUE, June 4 — At a moment of rising tensions between Washington and Moscow, President Bush and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia appear likely to use a meeting in Germany this week to focus on the one area where they appear to share a common interest: slowing Iran’s ability to produce nuclear fuel.
On virtually everything else — independence for Kosovo, missile defense and a sharp turn toward authoritarianism in Russia — Mr. Bush’s aides say they expect to have little leverage over Mr. Putin. Over the weekend, the Russian president threatened to once again point missiles at European targets if the United States went through with its plan to build a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
“If part of the strategic nuclear potential of the United States finds itself in Europe and, according to our military experts, threatens us, then we will have to take corresponding retaliatory steps,” Mr. Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript of an interview with journalists from Group of 8 countries that took place on Friday. “What are these steps? Of course, we will have to have new targets in Europe.”
Asked about the cold war era of hair-trigger confrontation, Mr. Putin said, “We are, of course, returning to those times.”
In fact, with Mr. Bush headed here to speak at a democracy conference, the countries’ relations are at their lowest point since the end of the cold war, and with fears that the deteriorating relationship could rapidly worsen. Even an invitation to the Bush family compound at Kennebunkport, Me., next month appeared to do little to temper Mr. Putin’s public remarks.
The White House national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, called Mr. Putin’s remarks “not helpful,” a phrase he has used many times in recent weeks in response to remarks from Russia’s leadership.
Last month, Mr. Putin issued a thinly veiled comparison of the foreign policy of the United States and the Third Reich, warning of “new threats” that amount to the “same contempt for human life and the same claims of exceptionality and diktat in the world.”
Meanwhile, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, David Kramer, delivered a blistering assessment of the Kremlin last week, accusing it of bullying its neighbors and silencing political protest at home.
The question at the meeting of the Group of 8 industrialized nations in Heiligendamm, Germany, and the visit to Kennebunkport will be whether the two leaders can get past the verbal sparring to engage in genuine cooperation — and if they cannot, what the United States can do about it.
Similar questions were raised a year ago, as the two men prepared to meet at the last meeting of the Group of 8, on Mr. Putin’s home turf in St. Petersburg, Russia.
“It’s a long way from ‘I looked in his eyes and saw his soul,’ ” one member of the American national security staff said, referring to Mr. Bush’s assessment of Mr. Putin the first time they met, in June 2001. As they stood side by side, Mr. Bush said then, “More than a decade after the cold war ended, it is time to move beyond suspicion and towards straight talk.”
“I think there must have been peals of delirious laughter echoing around the ornate chambers of the Kremlin when the invitation to go to Kennebunkport arrived,” said Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was national security adviser to President Carter. “Putin has been spitting at the United States for the last year, and what is the reaction? An invitation to a family gathering.”
Some experts say the Kennebunkport invitation was meant to defuse any potential blowups during the Heiligendamm meeting by enabling the two leaders to put off their substantive talks until July. Others say that whenever they expect fireworks between Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin, the pair disappoint. Still, there are no guarantees.
“You can’t be sure,” said Stephen Sestanovich, a Russia expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. “Putin is on a tear. Day after day he is ramping up the rhetoric. He is in kind of a snarling frame of mind and it may be that he will pick a fight at the G-8, but that hasn’t been his habit. The G-8 mode is good fellowship and good manners.”
But that has not been the mood this past year. Mr. Putin made his biggest statement at a speech at a European defense forum, an indictment of American practices that brought a mild and humor-filled rebuttal from Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.
“There were a lot of negative parts to the Putin speech, a lot of harsh words,” said Brent Scowcroft, who was national security adviser to Mr. Bush’s father and an early architect of the transition to the new relationship with Russia. “But it’s important to read the whole speech, especially the last part on nuclear issues, where Putin listed a lot of areas for cooperation.”
Indeed, both Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Mr. Hadley, the national security adviser, have pointed in recent days to Russian cooperation on limiting Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Ms. Rice, speaking last week in Potsdam, Germany, described the American-Russian relationship as one of “cooperation and competition, of friendship and friction.”
But the limits of that cooperation have yet to be tested, because the United States has not yet tried to get mandatory sanctions in many parts of Iran’s financial network, as a penalty for Tehran’s continuing efforts to enrich uranium. As to the friction, Mr. Hadley seemed to throw up his hands at efforts to persuade Russia to accept the American missile defense plan.
“I cannot tell you, for the life of me, why they say no,” he said.
Clearly, the harsh words do not make things any easier, and the administration has been trying to tamp things down. Mr. Hadley said senior American officials raised Mr. Putin’s “Third Reich” reference directly with their Russian counterparts, “and they told us that they were not making any comparison between the United States and the Third Reich.”
Critics of the administration, including Mr. Brzezinski, say the decline in American-Russian relations is a byproduct of Mr. Bush’s heavy emphasis on building a personal relationship with Mr. Putin, instead of a strategic one.
Mr. Sestanovich, the Russia expert, said that Mr. Bush had hoped he could overcome the countries’ long-standing tensions, but that this became more difficult as Mr. Putin evolved from a leader who seemed like “a determined modernizer” into “an anti-Western autocrat.”
This will be Mr. Putin’s last G-8 meeting, and it will be Mr. Bush’s next to last. As to whether relations can improve, either between the men or their countries, Mr. Sestanovich responded, “Look to 2009.”
Sheryl Gay Stolberg reported from Prague, and David E. Sanger from Washington. Steven Lee Myers contributed reporting from Moscow.””
Hi World,
I am a Grandpa
Little Jaydan, born in Springfield, Missouri. Just about a little more than a week ago.
I am a happy Grandpa!
Kyle Keeton
The nights this time of the year are very short. I am not use to such long days. I can still see outside at midnight and three thirty in the morning, I can see light again. That is strange to me. I noticed that the days were very short in the winter. That was just as strange to me. I come from much farther South in the world.
The weather has gotten much better and allot more comfortable. The heat was pretty bad here, now they tell me its more normal. 70 degrees F. day and 50 degrees F. nights. Very nice!
The air is very clear today, I can see from my 14Th floor about 4-5 km in the distance.
The birds are singing like crazy today, The doves are everywhere!
The rain is coming, I can feel it in my bones! When I hurt in all my old injuries, I know the rain is coming. I stopped listening to a weather man years ago. My grouchy bones are better at telling the weather. 🙂
The World Just keeps turning!
Kyle
Hi,
Today I was having my morning coffee, I could hear the kids playing, the dogs barking and the Moms discussing the world problems. 🙂 I thought to my self, This is normal. This is nice.
What I mean by saying that is, the world right now is at peace, at least in my neighborhood. I put in pictures that I just took. First one is typical Moscow housing. Called Flats. The second one is flats and the playground that is with the flats for kids to play on and in. The third is what flats look like from a distance, Lots of people living in a small area.
The point to all this is that the living accommodations in Moscow are not bad. The people all live the same. The kids have lots of play area off the streets, They always have forests near the flats. You can take long walks and have peace of mind. You can let your kids run and not worry about cars running over them. The designing of the flats and living areas show much planning and forsite. It shows intelligence. It shows care for people. Their needs and desires. This was all done in the Soviet era, Funny, I as am American and was told that Soviets were a cold, no heart, scourge, and hooligans. That Soviets could care less about the people.
What is bad, is that I have come over here and found a society that is being Raped by Capitalist processes. A society that is growing and doing better. But not because of Capitalism. Because the people and their leaders are working hard to be their own society. Not a dream from America or Britain. I see a country that has a stable money supply, A country that has a strong leader, a balanced budget, and people with desires to be stepping to the future. The one fault I see in Russia sometimes they can be a bit of a Bully!
I don’t see this any more in America. I see Americans with a huge World debt, no future, and sometimes they are a BIG BULLY. That is sad, I am from America and I see this as a problem!
The people here are content and happy.
Can you say the Same ???
Kyle
I went shopping today. To get food for the flat. I left the flat with my sweety and kissed her goodbye. I walked to my favorite store that has lots of food items. I shopped and went to pay. After the girl rang all items up, I asked for two plastic bags. In Russia you do not get free plastic bags. You must buy them.
I asked the girl in my broken Russian, Packet (bag) I pointed and she looked at me. I said English from America. I asked again for packet.
Then she said: Oh, you want a bag! (in English) I just stood there dumb. She gave me 4 bags and I paid.
Sometimes the English language comes from the weirdest places. It surprises me now when I hear English spoken.
I love this country!
Comments
Kyle
When I came to Russia I brought my little dog. She was 18 years old, But she wanted to come. She loved to travel more than anything, and this was to be her last trip. She did it in style and loved the jet trip and she loved Russia.
The hardest part was getting international papers for Sneaky. Had to have a vet sign off on the fact she was ok to travel. She was healthy just very old. got paper signed and put Sneaky in pet carrier. Then carried her as my carry on luggage. Got to Moscow and nobody cared that we had papers or not for her. just carried her through the gates and she was in Russia!!!
Sneaky loved Russia, We got here in October and Sneaky died December 10th 2006. She got to play in snow and she got carried by the best mommy in the world (Svet). She almost made it to Christmas, But she had a stroke and had to be put to sleep. I cried for two days. She was my buddy. She came to Russia with me and when she saw that I was going to have a good life she said goodbye.
18 years old is a long age for a doggy. She was a long red haired dachshund and about 5 pounds. Toy miniature dachshund.
We have a new dog now named Boza the Bear. We found him at a gas station. He is half German Shepard and half wire haired terrier. Svet fell in love with him, now we have a Boza. Sneaky would have liked him. She would have told him who is boss! 🙂
Kyle
Driving home last week, my thoughts at first were on staying alive!
Why? You ask…
Because Russian drivers are so different than American drivers. Russian drivers are very aggressive. They always do the wrong thing at the wrong time, according to my thinking. Yes I said according to my thinking!
It dawned on me yesterday, I was at fault. I was thinking like an American. I was driving like an American. I expected everyone else to drive like an American. Big problem I am in Russia! 🙂
So I figured out that if I drove like them that I would be going with the grain instead of against the grain. Guess what it worked!
So I drove like a Russian. I drove the same way that Russians do. You see they all drive the same way. So how they drive is normal, The way I drove was not…
With this realization came the best drive I have had in Russia. It was 360+ km of really nice enjoyable ride…
I learn more everyday…
Kyle
The picture is typical of pictures from my childhood, They were all meant to make us scared of Russia. Which Russia to America was the Soviet Union.
Once again I was drinking coffee. We have just come back from a trip from a small Russian village, The same that I have talked about in earlier articles. I was on my second cup and a thought came to me. Why did we fear the Soviet Union?
I sit in a country that at one time I was sworn to protect against. A country that I as an American was told would nuke us at any second. A country that I was told would infiltrate our society and corrupt our children.
That is very sad to think that as an American, I was led to believe that only the Devil himself was more evil than the Soviet empire!!
I never believed it! I always doubted it. But my government said it was true. I had to believe, Right! No, I did not! Now I am sitting in Russia with the woman of my dreams and am very happy.
Now I look out the balcony window in Moscow, Very comfortable, and I try to write a blog about one of the most misunderstood countries that I know about.
I have talked with soviets, (most in Russia are from the soviet era). It was not that long ago that the collapse happened. This article is not political so I will not get into why it collapsed. I will just say that the people who live in Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova. (Where I have been personally) All are trying to survive. They simply want to be left alone and want to have a good life. They want the government to do its job and run the country, but not take too many rights away from people. They want to have food to eat and cars to drive. They want to have a roof over their heads and shoes on their feet. They want their kids to have an education and most of all they want Peace! Simply Peace and quiet. The people I have met are not evil or bad. They are humans. You know people that inhabit the earth and destroy much of what they come in contact with. Just like Americans, Humans!!
Funny thing, I see that Russians are just like Americans.
Maybe that is what scares people, how much alike we really are.
Comments welcome.
Windows to Russia!
I was sitting drinking coffee this morning. I was thinking about what it could have been like when the CCCP was still around. I have been on trips to the Ukraine and Moldova. I got to see the remains of the old empire. I have been to several villages in Russia. I have seen what is left of the old ways.
The old ways are dying, I watched the same thing happen in America. Thirty years ago America was like Russia now. The similarities are scary. I watched towns shrivel up and die in America. Now I am watching the same Towns in Russia die.
I can see that when the CCCP went down the life in villages collapsed. The money was gone, the food was gone. The people moved. A few diehards stay. They have no life, They are using equipment from very old days. The water supplies are the same, with the wells now starting to collapse in on themselves. The electric supply is as old as the time the Soviet Union put it in. Now it is on the point of not working. I am talking about Villages not cities, like Moscow. All over the country side are half finished factories. They just became desolate after the CCCP fall.
I saw this same thing is happening in Ukraine and Moldova. The big cites have all new and modern life. The Villages are collapsing. Yet these villages still feed those over grown city’s. I watched fields being planted by hundreds of workers. I saw huge fields being plowed by hand. tilled by hand.
In America the family farm is almost gone, Replaced by a huge Coop farms. In Russia the Coop farm is becoming the new way.
Russia needs to watch their land.
comments please
Kyle
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