Windows to Russia

Hello,

In Moscow, the Honey exhibition is getting ready to start, located at the Manezh’s Central Exhibition Center from Feb. 12 to 27. This is the 19th annual: All-Russia Honey Fest!

The fair is organized by the Russian Union of Beekeepers and is an annual event! This photo from 2006 shows how important the event is to Russian people!

Honey and other beekeeping products have been used in Russia for centuries because of their apparent healing qualities. A whole market has grown up around this form of folk medicine, at the exhibition you will hear all sorts of claims, from back pain relief, headache relief & help grow your hair back.

This is a list of cures possible with Honey……

Honey, especially mixed with cinnamon, can cure a multitude of ailments.

Arthritis: is one disease that may be cured with honey. One part honey to two parts of lukewarm water and a teaspoon of cinnamon will make a paste that will noticeably reduce pain in a matter of a couple of minutes. People suffering from arthritis can take one cup of hot water with two spoons of honey and a teaspoon of cinnamon once in the morning and again in the evening. It’s been said that taken regularly even chronic arthritis can be cured.

Cholesterol: is said to be treatable with honey. Mix two tablespoons of honey and three tablespoons of cinnamon in 16 ounces of tea. This mixture is said to reduce the level of cholesterol by ten percent within a short amount of time. As with arthritis, it is said that pure honey taken with food daily will reduce cholesterol levels. Along the same lines, using cinnamon and honey on bread and eaten at breakfast revitalized the arteries and veins leading to the heart and helpful towards preventing heart attacks.

Hair Loss: A mixture of hot olive oil, one tablespoon of honey and one teaspoon of cinnamon made into a paste may help baldness and hair loss. Apply the paste before your shower and leave it on for approximately five to fifteen minutes then wash the hair.

Relieve Gas: stomachaches and clears stomach ulcers at the root. If honey is taken before eating it helps digest even the heaviest of meals.

Colds: can be treated with honey. One tablespoon honey with ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon taken daily is said to cure most chronic coughs and clear the sinuses. You can also make up a mixture of honey, whiskey and lemon juice. If it doesn’t clear your cough, at least maybe you’ll sleep.

Pimples: can be removed within two weeks if this remedy is applied. Make a paste of three tablespoons of honey and one teaspoon of cinnamon. Put the pimples on before going to bed and wash it off the next morning.

Weight Loss: Twice daily, once at night, and one in the morning ½ hour before breakfast drink a cup of boiled hot water with honey and cinnamon. It’s been said that even the most obese patient can lose weight and drinking this mixture doesn’t allow the fat to accumulate in the body.

Chronic Fatigue: can be helped by honey. One half tablespoon of honey in a glass of water and sprinkled with cinnamon in the morning and in the afternoon will increase your vitality within a week.

Bad Breath: is said to be helpful if gargled in the morning. One teaspoon of honey and cinnamon mixed in hot water is supposed to keep breath fresh all day.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

In this day & age: I would think that people would learn to obey the laws!

These are the facts:
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A Pastor from the USA is being held in a detention cell in Sheremetyevo Airport after trying to bring a box of ammunition into the country. A court will consider Friday whether to charge Phillip Miles, a pastor of the Christ Community Church in Conway, South Carolina, with smuggling.

If charged and convicted, Miles faces a possible fine or prison sentence. Miles, 57, arrived at Sheremetyevo Airport on Jan. 29 with a single box of rifle rounds in his suitcase. Miles was headed for Perm, and the bullets were a gift for a pastor there, who was a hunting enthusiast.

This was Miles 9th trip to Russia…. (I would ask how many more boxes of Ammunition he has brought over?)

Airport officials have accused Miles of failing to declare the ammunition as required by law and confiscated the box, he was then allowed to continue on to Perm on condition he answer further questions when he returned for a flight to the United States. Miles arrived back at Sheremetyevo on Sunday and at that point was detained. He is being kept in a holding cell at the airport & Miles is under investigation by Russian authorities on suspicion of smuggling!
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I would like to express to people traveling, there is a right & wrong way to cross other countries borders! Every country has its laws on what you can & can not bring……

Having a box of undeclared ammunition is not the correct way to enter a new country! Actually having a box of ammunition in your suitcase at all is not showing much in the way of intelligence.

You will be caught sooner or later…..
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(Link to another article about Miles.) This is an update link about Miles. The ammunition was rifle cartridges! Looks like he thought no one would check his things and tried to slip one by the Russians for a friend! I hope that he learned his lesson, lets hope he gets out with out too many problems……
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(Another update about Miles) From the Moscow Times sent by Miles Son in America!

Editor,
My father is Phillip Miles, the pastor being held in the Sheremetyevo Airport detention cell for bringing a gift of bullets to another pastor in Russia.
Our family loves Russia. In addition to my father, my grandfather has worked in Russia to help the country for the past 14 years.
We all come up with crazy ideas for a gift. Please forgive my father for his mistake. Phillip is really a great man and I do respect whatever decision the Russian authorities choose regarding his case.
May God continue to bless Russia and its people.

Justin Miles
Conway, South Carolina
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Kyle & Svet

PS: UPDATE LINK
http://kylekeeton.com/2008/02/russia-update-on-pastor-phillip-miles.html

comments always welcome.

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Hello,

I was drinking my morning cup of coffee and thinking about Putin offering talks over the disputed Islands at the North End of Japan.

Japan has territorial issues with three of its neighbors. Each and every instance seems impossible, and each is a major issue in Japan’s relations with those neighbors. North of Hokkaido, Japan claims the four islands that it calls the ‘Northern Territories’. To Japan’s northwest is Takeshima, claimed by the South Koreans. West of Japan is the Senkakus, which China claims.

The set of Islands I am going to talk about is the “Northern Territories”

How did these islands become Russia’s? (Glad you asked!)

The dispute is a direct result of the Second World War. When Japan surrendered, Soviet troops had island-hopped their way down the Kurils, preparing to invade Hokkaido. Stalin announced that the Kurils and the southern half of Sakhalin Island would be in Soviet hands.

Then at the Treaty of San Francisco of 1951, the document that attempted to tie up the loose ends of Japan’s Greater East Asia War, the islands were incorporated into the USSR. The treaty included: “Japan renounces all right, title and claim to the Kurile Islands, and to that portion of Sakhalin and the islands adjacent to it over which Japan acquired sovereignty as a consequence of the Treaty of Portsmouth of 5 September 1905.”

However, the Soviet Union attended but did not sign the treaty, so their incorporation was subject to dispute. Furthermore, the USSR (or later, Russia) did not sign any formal settlement treaty with Japan so the issue persists.

Now Putin has inquired about meeting to discuss getting this issue solved. Both sides have claims to the Islands:

What are the Claims? (Glad you asked!)

For Russia, the matter is fairly straightforward: Territory. The international system does not take to territorial disputes very well as the status quo is nearly always favored. With the territory, Russia has secured military outposts and fishing villages, as well as a further projection into the Pacific. Alongside this is the issue of pride and prestige, both of which will be hit by a relinquishing of the islands.

For Japan, the stakes are more cultural. They were settled by Japanese families and according to Buddhist tradition, their graves remain there, difficult to reach during times of remembrance, such as O-bon. They offer fishing stocks for the fisherman of Hokkaido and would offer more open passage to the Pacific from the opposite side of Hokkaido. The historical claims blend into the political one, and the continuing occupation of the islands by the Russians is an open wound in Japan’s pride and between their relations. Japan wants its borders to reach Urup, as they used to be.

Seems to what I have read: The islands were Japan’s since the Meiji Restoration and remained so until the Soviets took them by force….

The time has come for the countries to make headway on their peace agreement, and that cannot be done until the dispute is settled!

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

(Read Putin Article: Click Read More!)
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TOKYO (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered new talks to resolve the fate of four rocky islands seized from Japan in the closing days of World War Two, prompting Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to consider a visit to Moscow.

Fukuda said he had received a letter in which Putin had expressed his willingness to end the territorial dispute, which has prevented the two countries signing a peace deal in the six decades since the war ended.

“Resolving the Northern Territories issue and concluding a peace treaty is essential to lift Russo-Japanese ties to higher levels,” Fukuda told a packed hall in Tokyo to mark Northern Territories Day, an annual rally to remember the loss of the islands.

Scores of riot police used buses and gates to block off the Russian embassy in Tokyo on Thursday as dozens of right-wing campaigners cruised the streets in loudspeaker vans blaring nationalist music and chanting slogans calling for the return of the islands.

Despite the long-standing row, the two countries have been trying to expand ties. Russia is keen for funds to develop its far eastern regions, while Japan is eager to tap Russia’s booming oil industry to reduce its reliance on Middle Eastern energy.

The sparsely populated islands in dispute are in the Kuril chain between Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido and Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, with the closest just 15 km (9 miles) from Hokkaido.

They were seized by the Soviet Union after it declared war on Japan on August 8, 1945, just a week before Japan surrendered, sending about 17,000 Japanese fleeing.

Fukuda, who took office in September, is considering visiting Moscow in late April or early May for talks with Putin, Japanese Foreign Ministry sources said.

“I now realize well that the president wants to resolve the territorial issue,” Fukuda told reporters late on Wednesday. “I would like to proactively work on that.”

Japanese Foreign Ministry sources said Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura might visit Moscow in March to prepare the way for a leaders’ summit.

Moscow had unofficially told Tokyo that Putin wanted to meet Fukuda before leaving office in early May, the sources said.

Putin will step down as president in May, after hitting a constitutional limit of two terms in office, but has made clear he intends to keep political influence by becoming prime minister after he leaves the Kremlin.

“Perhaps, one of the main reasons why Putin wants to hold talks with Prime Minister Fukuda is that he wants to demonstrate he will remain a powerful figure,” one source told Reuters.

Although the police presence was heightened in Tokyo on Thursday, dozens of police are stationed around the Russian embassy at all times, poised to block the road with buses and gates at a moment’s notice as nationalist activists regularly seek to drive up to the embassy with loudspeaker vans blaring.
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The stations of Moscow’s subway system have often been called “the people’s palaces”, for their elegant designs and lavish and profuse use of marble, mosaics, sculptures and chandeliers. Built during Stalin’s rule, these metro stations were supposed to display the best of Soviet architecture and design and show how privileged the lifestyle of the Russian people was……(yes there is more)

Although plans proposing the construction of an underground train system in Moscow were drawn up in 1902 and again in 1912, the outbreak of WWI, and later the revolution, delayed the start of the project for many years. The first line, the Sokolnicheskaya Line, was tunneled and built mainly by forced laborers and was finally and ceremoniously inaugurated on 15th May 1935, boasting just 13 stations.

Up until 1955 the metro was named after Lazar Kaganovich, one of Stalin’s most trusted advisors and an instrumental figure in the construction of the metro, but the system was renamed the V. I. Lenin Moscow Metropolitan Railway.

During WWII the city’s metro stations were used as air-raid shelters and many of the larger stations were used for important political and tactical meetings. During the war the Chistiye Prudy station was used as the nerve center for Supreme Command HQ and the Soviet Army General Staff.

Mayakovskaya, one of the largest stations on the Gorkovsk-Zamoskvoretskaya Line, was used as a command post for the city’s anti-aircraft batteries and on 6th November 1941, hosted an underground ceremony to celebrate the 24th anniversary of the October Revolution, for which a podium with a bust of Lenin, surrounded by banners, was set up in its main hall, trains were stopped at its platforms and buffets arranged within them and hundreds of seats brought into the station to accommodate the invited Party members.

Those wanting to glimpse the best interiors that the Moscow Metro has to offer should take a look at some of the stations mentioned below.

Station Kropotkinskaya (known until 1957 as “Palace of Soviets”) stands on the first line to have been inaugurated in 1935 and was designed and decorated by the architect Dushkin. Built to serve visitors to the proposed new Palace of Soviets, the station’s columns and walls are faced with marble taken from the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Savior, for whose nearby site the new Palace was planned. The ends of the station’s supporting columns are carved into five pointed Soviet stars and the station’s interior is more akin to an underground palace than a functioning station.

The Dushkin-designed Ploschad Revolutsii Station was opened on 13th March 1938 and abounds with bronze figures of the creators of the new socialist order, nestled into niches between the station’s broad columns. The sculptor Manizer created a total of 76 magnificent statues of soldiers, workers and collective farm workers, as well as a heroic sculpture of the soldiers and sailors who defended the Young Soviet order, placed at the top of the station escalator.

The next line to be opened was the Gorkovsk-Zamoskvoretskaya Line, in which the Dushkin-designed Mayakovskaya Station is by far the most architecturally impressive. The station features glistening chrome columns and soaring vaults adorned with mosaic panels depicting “A Day in the Land of Soviets”, designed by the artist Deineka. Coming from the escalator commuters first see happy Soviet workers rising with the dawn, combining happily in the fields and toiling in the factories before returning to their beds as the sun sets in the last panel.

In the midst of WWII on 20th November 1943, Novokusnetskaya Station was opened as a show of continued Soviet strength despite the raging armed struggle being fought by the country. The station was designed by Baranov and Bykov and patriotically decorated with heroes from Russian history, including the great Russian military commanders Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, Alexander Suvorov and Prince Kutuzov. The station’s mosaic decorations were designed by Deineka and created during the siege of Leningrad by the craftsman Frolov and later brought to Moscow. The marvelous marble benches that adorn the station platforms were taken from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, just before it was demolished.

In the 1950s probably the most luxurious station on the Circle line was opened – Komsomolskaya, designed by the architect of the Leningradsky Station, Shchusev. A veritable palace to the might of the Russian army, the station’s ceiling is adorned with mosaic panels designed by Korin and depicting the country’s great military leaders from Alexander Nevsky and the 14th century Dmitry Donskoy to the famed Alexander Suvorov and Prince Kutuzov, the great Russian hero of the Napoleonic Wars. The mosaic panels were created using ancient Byzantine techniques and include in them tiny squares of colored glass, marble and even granite. One of the station’s original panels, entitled “Handing over the Guards’ Banner”, featured Stalin holding a banner, while an officer kneels and kisses it. After the 20th Party Congress, in which Krushchev denounced Stalin, the mosaic panel was removed and another featuring “Lenin’s Speech to the Red Guards before Their Journey to the Front” was put in its place.

In January 1952 Novoslobodskaya Station was opened. Designed by the architects Dushkin and Strelkov, the station is perhaps the brightest and most ornate station on the Moscow underground and features beautiful stained-glass windows crafted in Riga and a stunning mosaic panel entitled “Peace Throughout the World” by the famed Korin.

We also recommend you take a peek inside Arbatskaya, Belorusskaya, Kievskaya and Park Kultury to gaze at the mosaics, chandeliers, marble columns and stunning stucco-covered ceilings. ===========================================

So this article that I found summed up the Metro history very good. The Metro has very unique history, One of the busiest Metros in the world. (may be the busiest) & is the most beautiful metro in the world.

Part 3 will show the beauty of the Moscow Metro! There is nothing like it, they are really palaces below ground. 🙂

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

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RBC, LUKoil Group’s daily hydrocarbon production increased 1.7 percent to 2.181m barrels of oil equivalent in 2007 compared to a year earlier, the Russian oil company’s press office reported. Oil output stood at 1.959m barrels per day, a 1.6 percent rise from 2006, with total oil production amounting to 96.464m tonnes in 2007, 1.5 percent above the previous year. LUKoil Group’s saleable natural gas production increased 2.5 percent to 13.955bn cubic meters in 2007. The company attributes the slowdown in its production growth to the sale of a 50-percent stake in Caspian Investments (formerly, Nelson Resources), a company operating in hydrocarbon exploration and production in Kazakhstan, in late April 2007. Moreover, a considerable decline in gas supplies to Gazprom due to an unusually warm winter in 2006-2007 is said to have weighed on the figures as well.

RBC, Commenting on media reports of an alleged merger between Norilsk Nickel and United Company RUSAL, the Russian nickel producer’s General Director Denis Morozov argued today that Norilsk Nickel’s management had not received any offers from UC RUSAL for the two companies to merge. Morozov was unable to estimate the synergetic effect of such a merger, noting that he needed to know UC RUSAL’s value to do so. Meanwhile, Morozov announced that UC RUSAL was projected to close the deal on the purchase of a blocking stake in Norilsk Nickel by the end of the month…..(More News)

RBC, The Russian stock market’s trend will be defined by the US Federal Reserve’s commentaries expected to be released this week, experts told RBC TV, adding that the news background remained intense, with emotions running high on the market. If the Russian market is to regain footing and continue to climb steadily, Norilsk Nickel is said to become one of the highest gainers, since the security is currently at appealing levels. Although the Russian market may appear to be better than other countries’ exchanges, analysts doubt that it can withstand the overall global trend, which is currently looking down. As of 3 p.m., the MICEX index was up 2.39 percent at 1,679.72 points, and the RTS index up 2.11 percent at 2,010.59 points.

RBC, The Moscow City Court has upheld the ruling of the lower Savyolovsky Court of Moscow to sentence Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky in his absence to six years in prison for the embezzlement of the Russian air carrier Aeroflot’s funds. As a result, the court dismissed the defendant’s appeal to recall the Savyolovsky Court’s sentence and stop criminal proceedings against Berezovsky. The state-appointed lawyer for Boris Berezovsky noted that he would not appeal the Moscow Court’s ruling, as he was no longer authorized to do so, adding that he found the decision and the charges to be absurd.

RBC, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin believes that the dollar to ruble rate will be sinking in the coming half a year or even a year, he told Channel One. In a long term perspective of more than a year, the dollar is equally likely to fall and to rise, the Minister said. Kudrin stressed that the dollar’s fall has allowed for a recovery of the US economy in recent years, as the US administration has been consciously letting the dollar weaken to support domestic producers. The US budget deficit has been shrinking recently, Kudrin noted.

RBC, The Central Bank of Russia is raising its discount rate from 10 to 10.25 percent to stem inflation and hold down the dynamics of the money supply. In addition, the Bank of Russia is changing the interest rates on operations it conducts and legal reserve requirements. This is the first time that the Bank of Russia has raised the discount rate since June 1998. The previous cut was made on June 19, 2007, when the rate was reduced from 10.5 to 10 percent.

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