Windows to Russia

Just some vacation pictures that did not get lost.
1. Tanks
2. The forest floor near the Border at Belgorod.
3. Little Church
4. me
5. A Casino made to look like the Bronx.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Con Artist All Over The World!

Link: http://kylekeeton.com/2008/02/svet-sunday-how-they-tried-to-con-my.html

Hello,

This happens all the time in America it is not something that Elderly People anywhere in the world should have to deal with.
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Moscow pensioner loses life savings in investment scam!

30/04/2008 12:49 MOSCOW, April 30 (RIA Novosti) – An 86-year-old Moscow woman was swindled out of $20,000 by two women who promised to invest the money in high interest government-bonds, a police source said Wednesday.

The two swindlers, who pretended to be social workers, visited the elderly woman’s apartment Monday and persuaded the pensioner to hand over her life savings. With prices continuing to rise in Russia many pensioners struggle to afford basic goods on the average monthly pension of $150.

The elderly often fall victim to scams in the guise of social programs, including offers of cheap household appliances and other goods or the exchange of old bank notes for new ones, allegedly introduced as a result of some ‘fictitious’ money reform or re denomination.

In December 2007, a large pharmaceutical scam was exposed in Russia. Conmen persuaded Russian pensioners to buy a highly-effective anti-arthritis drug for ‘a mere’ 22,000 rubles ($930). The tablets turned out to be nothing more than vitamin pills.
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My wife had an article about her Uncle and someone trying to swindle his money.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Russian Visa: It Is Nice What Politicians Can Do When They Want Too!

Hello,

If you are British and a Soccer Fan you got it made. You still need a visa but it has become easy to get. The excerpt from the article: British fans require visas for Moscow Champions League final!
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However, fans holding valid tickets will not be required to go through the standard process of obtaining a visa invitation.

“Visas will be issued by the Russian Embassy in London on the production of a valid passport, completed application form and a copy of the match ticket,” the ministry said.

Mayor Yury Luzhkov said on Tuesday that fans would only need their passports and tickets to pass Russian border control.
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The reports in Moscow make it clear that this is one big event & all Hotels are reserved. One good thing about Moscow, people rent flat rooms all the time. Looks like a good time for Muscovites to make a little extra money.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.
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Media Freedom!

Media Freedom Around the World
–Findings of a 20 Nation Poll–

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

8:30-9:00am: A light breakfast will be served
9:00-10:30am: Presentation and panel discussion

National Press Club, First Amendment Lounge (top floor)
529 Fourteenth Street, NW, Washington DC (map)

In advance of World Press Freedom Day on May 3, 2008 this event will release and discuss a new poll of 20 countries on media freedom.

The WorldPublicOpinion.org poll measured public attitudes and values on media freedom in the United States, China, India, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, France, Britain, Mexico, Azerbaijan, Argentina, Great Britain, Jordan, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria, the Palestinian territories, Peru, Poland, South Korea, and Ukraine. Topics explored include:

• Internet censorship
• Support for the principle of press freedom
• Government control of information that could be politically destabilizing
• Access to publications from hostile countries
• Public assessments of media freedom in their country
• Prevalence of desire for more media freedom

The panel discussion will explore the implications of the poll’s findings with special emphasis on media freedom issues in China and the Arab world.

Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org will present the findings.

Marvin Kalb, Edward R. Murrow Professor at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, will moderate the panel discussing the implications of the findings.

Panel participants include:

Nadia Bilbassy-Charters, Senior Diplomatic Correspondent, Al Arabiya TV

Cheng Li, Senior Fellow, John L. Thornton China Center, Brookings Institution

Frank Smyth, Washington Representative, the Committee to Protect Journalists

RSVP required. Please email: info@pipa.org or call: 202-232-7500.

WorldPublicOpinion.org is a collaborative research project involving research centers from around the world and managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland.

Russia: Spring Has Sprung!

Hello,

Today while I was drinking my coffee and my wife was drinking Green Jasmine Tea, I was thinking about how beautiful Spring is in Moscow.

The sun is shinning, the temperature is 17 degrees Celsius, (62-63 F) The air is fresh and clear. The trees are leafing out, the daffodils , jonquils & tulips are in full bloom.

It is a beautiful day in Moscow, Russia.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Russia: Big Feet & Broke Hard Drive!

Yes this is a real hard drive!

Hello,

We have been having a rough time with our new pictures from the trip. Last Friday, I was getting ready to remove them from the external drive to the main hard drive, then burn them to Cd’s.

Then My big feet caught the USB line to the external hard drive and threw the drive to the floor. Needless to say it has not worked since I performed that amazing feat! (no pun intended)

Seems that I have crashed the arm thingy in the drive against the discs. We have an appointment with a man who works at IBM and has much knowledge about people with Big Feet and Delicate Hard Drives. 🙂

This really upset me tremendously and I have posted very few articles since it happened. (but I will wake up and post again)

We hope that we can get our pictures off this drive, we took something like 30 gigs of pictures on the trip. Lots of videos included.

Wednesday (tomorrow) we hope that we see some of our pictures.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Russia: Does Georgia Really Want War?

Hello,

Seems that Georgia wants war with Russia. Might be the only way in their mind to get help from NATO.
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Georgia is preparing for war against rebels: Russia
Tue Apr 29, 2008 6:37am EDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Georgia is preparing to invade its breakaway region of Abkhazia, Russia said on Tuesday, days after Moscow warned it would defend its Abkhaz allies if they came under attack.

“Analysis of the structure of the armed forces present in this region leads to the conclusion that a bridgehead is being prepared for the start of military operations against Abkhazia,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It said Georgia had amassed 1,500 soldiers and police in the upper Kodori Gorge, a pocket of breakaway Abkhazia which is controlled by Tbilisi.
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Does Georgia want war or is it just a President (Mikheil SAAKASHVILI) that is trying to convince Georgia that they want War?

Seems like the President of Georgia has some serious issues……….

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Russian News: April 29th, 2008!

RBC, 29.04.2008, Moscow 13:47:20.Sberbank’s net profit under IFRS jumped 28.6 percent to RUB 106.5bn (approx. USD 4.51bn) in 2007 compared to the previous year, the bank indicated in its financial statement. Assets amounted to nearly RUB 4.929 trillion (approx. USD 208.86bn) as of January 1, 2008, which is 42.2 percent greater than the previous showing as of January 1, 2007. The bank’s return on average assets (ROAA) stood at 2.5 percent.

RBC, 29.04.2008, Moscow 13:38:14.LUKoil’s net profit under RAS grew nearly 70 percent to over RUB 13.231bn (approx. USD 561m) in the first quarter of 2008 compared to the same period a year earlier, the Russian oil producer said in a statement. Meanwhile, net profit slid 14.4 percent from just over RUB 15.45bn (approx. USD 655m) in Q4 2007, as gross profit fell, triggered by changes in the company’s sales structure and higher export duties. Moreover, a negative revaluation of LUKoil’s long-term financial investments in terms of stocks traded on the organized securities market has also had an impact on the company’s profit.

RBC, 29.04.2008, Moscow 12:58:06.Raising the Central Bank discount rate by 0.25 percent will not have a considerable macroeconomic effect, head of the Russian Finance Ministry’s financial policy department Alexei Savatyugin told a Standard&Poors’ and VTB Bank seminar today, adding that hiking the rate by a quarter-percentage point was not that significant of an increase, and would play no major macroeconomic role. In the official’s opinion, by upgrading the rate the Central Bank is confirming that it shares the Finance Ministry’s concerns of an overheating economy and that all the monetary authorities have a common view of the macroeconomic situation in the country. Savatyugin also noted that the rate hike would send a signal to the market that the Bank of Russia was changing its trend and policy. He added that the decision would result in commercial banks raising their rates, as well.

RBC, 29.04.2008, Moscow 12:54:25.VTB’s Chairman and CEO Andrei Kostin is wary of the consequences of the recent rise in the Central Bank’s discount rate, he told journalists today. He said that he was disconcerted by the government’s anti-inflation policy focusing only on the banking sector. The government needs to find other means of curbing inflation than putting restrictions on banking activities, Kostin noted. He pointed out that the hike in the discount rate could result in higher interest rates.

RBC, 29.04.2008, Moscow 12:21:59.At the opening of today’s session on the Russian stock market, share prices remained virtually unchanged and showed no defined trend. After the first few minutes of trade on MICEX, LUKoil, RAO UES, and VTB dipped, while Gazprom, Sberbank, and Norilsk Nickel edged up. The RTS index opened in negative territory despite a slight rise in LUKoil, RAO UES, and Norilsk Nickel. Traders believe that the market will be stable today, while trading activity will be below average prior to the May holidays.

RBC, 29.04.2008, Moscow 11:59:22.Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov expects the State Duma to pass a number of draft laws in support of small businesses. Speaking during a meeting of a governmental commission for the development of small and medium businesses in Russia, Zhukov called on the deputies to pass the bills as soon as possible. Specifically, the documents include the terms of participation of small businesses in the privatization of leased state property. Furthermore, Zhukov pointed out that the Economy and Finance Ministries must present bills to the government on improving the taxation legislation for small businesses and facilitating their accounting procedures.

RBC, 29.04.2008, Moscow 10:23:40.At the opening of today’s special dollar trading session for tomorrow deals, the weighted average exchange rate stood at 23.64 RUB/USD, RUB 0.04 higher than the official rate set by the Bank of Russia for April 29. The current developments on MICEX can be traced to the dollar’s appreciation against the euro on international exchanges. The latter is now trading at USD 1.5637, down 0.13 percent from USD 1.5658 at the opening on Monday.

RBC, 29.04.2008, Moscow 09:26:41.Greece’s Prime Minister Konstandinos Karamanlis will embark on a working visit to Moscow today at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He is expected to meet the Russian leader and President-elect Dmitry Medvedev in order to discuss an intergovernmental agreement on Greece’s joining the South Stream gas pipeline project.

RBC, 28.04.2008, Kiev 15:35:21.Ukraine has fully repaid its debt for Russian natural gas, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko said during today’s meeting of the Russia-Ukraine intergovernmental commission’s economic cooperation committee.On April 23, Timoshenko noted that Ukraine had already earmarked the funds for the repayment of its gas debt to Russia and that it would settle the debt as soon as the two countries signed the required documents. According to Naftogaz of Ukraine’s data, the company transferred over USD 1bn for this purpose during the past week.

RBC, 28.04.2008, Moscow 19:57:43.By 2020, Russia could face a staff deficit of between 8m and 22m people, according to various estimates, Deputy Health Minister Alexander Safonov told a round table on Russia’s employment problems. He stressed that even now, the shortage was considerable, and was not only of a quantitative, but also a qualitative nature. The primary and manufacturing sectors are seeing a steep decline in staffing, while the accident rate continues to soar.

RBC, 28.04.2008, Moscow 18:28:04.Ukraine expects to sign a strategic agreement with Russia on natural gas supply and transit for ten years or more, the country’s Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko said following today’s talks with her Russian counterpart Viktor Zubkov. The goal is stated in the minutes of the meeting of the two countries’ economic cooperation committee, Timoshenko noted. Once existing gas problems have been settled, the two countries must develop strategic cooperation, she noted, adding that such an agreement would enable the parties to estimate the openness and transparency of their gas policy.

Russia: Ducks!

April 27, 2008

Hello,

My wife found two neat songs and took some videos of ducks. I put them together & created a video. Svet likes it so much, I decided to put it on Windows To Russia. The original quality is much better and conversion to You-tube hurt the video but it still is very good.

Enjoy…

Music written by Peter Tchaikovsky. Found at LINK:

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

USA Has Rules On Firearms & Ammunition At The Border!

April 25, 2008

Hello,

Have a read about what you have to do to cross American borders with ammunition and firearms.

Firearms
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) regulates and restricts firearms and ammunition; and approves all import transactions involving weapons and ammunition. If you want to import or export weapons or ammunition, you must do so through a licensed importer, dealer, or manufacturer. Also, if the National Firearms Act prohibits certain weapons, ammunition, or similar devices from coming into the country, you will not be able to import them unless the ATF provides you with written authorization to do so.

You do not need an ATF permit if you can demonstrate that you are returning with the same firearms or ammunition that you took out of the United States. To prevent problems when returning, you should register your firearms and related equipment by taking them to any CBP office before you leave the United States. The CBP officer will register them on the same CBP Form-4457 used to register cameras or computers. (See the section on Register Items Before You Leave the United States).

For further information about importing weapons, contact the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC 20226; or call (202) 927-8320; or ( Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ) .

Many countries will not allow you to enter with a firearm even if you are only traveling through the country on the way to your final destination. If you plan to take your firearms or ammunition to another country, you should contact officials at that country’s embassy to learn about its regulations.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.