Year: 2008

Hello,

Seems that Georgia is up to its usual: “It was a planned terrorist act aimed at escalating tensions in the region, and there is no doubt that the date was specifically chosen to coincide with Independence Day celebrated in South Ossetia today,” Eduard Kokoity said.

“Georgia continues its policies of state-level terrorism,” Kokoity said.

South Ossetia and the other Georgian breakaway region, Abkhazia, are a sensitive issue in relations between Georgia and Russia. Georgia, which has moved to join NATO under pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili, is seeking to regain control of the republics and accuses Moscow of encouraging separatism.

A group of international peacekeepers and observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) headed to Tskhinvali to monitor the situation.

Meanwhile, police in the southern Znauri district of the self-proclaimed republic reported another incident allegedly linked to Georgia.

A car with several South Ossetia residents came under fire early Thursday. Three people were reportedly injured in the incident.

“The car, presumably, came under mortar fire from Georgian territory,” a spokesperson for South Ossetia’s Interior Ministry said.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

I have the same thoughts running my through my head…..
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ILULISSAT (Greenland), May 28 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that third parties could be behind Georgia’s provocative actions against Russia.

Relations between Russia and Georgia have been consistently strained since President Mikheil Saakashvili came to power in Georgia four years ago, with both sides being involved in numerous disputes, most recently over Russia’s moves to develop closer ties with Georgia’s two breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

“I do not understand what they [the Georgian authorities] want; unless they are being used [by someone else] to constantly provoke Russia,” Lavrov said at a ministerial meeting of the five states bordering the Arctic Ocean, held in Ilulissat, western Greenland.

“I doubt they would come up with these provocative actions on their own,” he added.
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I will say what Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is implying:
I think that the the USA is behind this turmoil in Georgia, seems that the USA policy right now is one of interference in Eastern Foreign Countries as its number one priority……

Just look at the International news sources!

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

Remember a while back when Russia upset the world by planting a flag under the North Pole at the Seabed? No! Well to refresh your memory here are my articles on the subject….
http://kylekeeton.com/2007/07/russia-north-pole-ice-station-zebra.html
http://windowstorussia.com/2007/08/russians-claim-to-north-pole.html
http://windowstorussia.com/2007/08/russia-plants-flag-under-santas-home.html
http://kylekeeton.com/2007/09/russians-have-made-their-claim-and-they.html
http://kylekeeton.com/2007/09/russia-here-we-go-again.html
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Officials from the five nations with Arctic coastlines are meeting in Greenland for talks on the territorial status of the polar region. According to geologists, up to 25 % of the world’s oil and gas reserves could be buried under the ice. The controversy over exploration rights intensified last year after a Russian research vessel planted a flag on the sea-bed at the North Pole. (Link)

Russia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and the U.S. all claim rights over the Arctic. All own a part of the region, but each is vying for the area that lies beyond.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea has the ultimate say over issues concerning continental shelf borders. It says a country’s shoreline can be extended if the sea bed is a continuous part of the continent.

Last year Russia became the first country to plant its flag at the bottom of the Arctic Sea at the geographical North Pole. However, Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, said on Monday in Denmark that this doesn’t mean Moscow is about to claim the area as its own.
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Looks like Russia was on to something & made sure that they caused a little stink over it……

That is another reason why I like Russia.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

While I was drinking my morning cup of coffee I was thinking that Gazprom had to have its sights on the number 1 spot in the world. For the last few weeks there has been article after article about how fast Gazprom is growing and that they have their sights on Exxon.
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MOSCOW, May 27 (RIA Novosti) – Russian energy giant Gazprom is seeking to become the world’s number one company, CEO Alexei Miller said during a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday.

“…Very important steps will be taken, including making Gazprom the world’s number one company,” Miller said, adding that his company had experience, resources and over 300,000 employees to achieve the goal.

Miller said Gazprom was now ranked the world’s third-largest company for market capitalization, which currently stands at $362 billion.

Financial statements say Gazprom produced 548.6 billion cubic meters of gas last year, excluding output by its subsidiaries, up 1.3% against 556 billion cubic meters in 2006.
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I guess we will see what happens. This is apples to apples comparison. Exxon and Gazprom are both energy related businesses.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

Today a blog by the name of Rotus tried to scoop a news story before Windows to Russia posts it. (Which is not hard to do by the way!) So I took this as a challenge & here are our articles that have to do with Medvedev and corruption in officials!

http://kylekeeton.com/2008/05/russian-news-05-20-2008.html
http://kylekeeton.com/2008/05/russian-news-may-27th-2008.html
http://kylekeeton.com/2008/05/russia-what-is-president-medvedev-doing.html

Rotus scooped??? me on the Judicial aspect but the judicial end of it is just a small part of the whole process. Medvedev is reforming the whole system of the Government.
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“The judicial system is completely corrupt, and to reverse this, what is necessary is a change of the ruling elite and not just the judges,” Belkovsky said.

He predicted that the reform would “contribute to the consolidation of power in Medvedev’s hands,” as the winnowing-out and replacement of judges, and the appearance of new high-profile cases or review of past decisions could reinforce the president’s authority with the people.

Tuesday’s meeting appears to be part of a larger message from the Kremlin concentrating on the need to battle corruption. In one of his first major steps as president, Medvedev said Monday that he would head a new federal council to fight against graft, giving a group of senior Kremlin, government and law enforcement officials a month to draw up a “national plan” to deal with the issue. (Link)
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So thank you Rotus, this is a very good thing for Russia. Like all over the world Government has a tendency to be corrupt at times. Medvedev is very serious about this & I think that he will succeed. Now Government Officials have two Big Bosses to deal with. Makes for good little kids (I mean officials.) when they all play…….
http://rotus.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/medvedev-spurs-judicial-reform-in-russia/

Kyle & Svet

PS: Now we have an article on the Judicial reform 🙂

comments always welcome.

Hello,

Do you need a job? Russia has openings:

Perceived prestige of being a government worker is not enough, the personnel shortage in the central state system exceeds 15 percent, according to a report published yesterday by Rosstat. Even though top state jobs pay twice the national average, the government is unable to compete with the private sector on the labor market. As a result, government service has become woman’s work. In the first quarter of 2008, women made up 71 percent of federal officials, 58 percent in Moscow. (Link)

Kyle & Svet

RBC, 27.05.2008, Moscow 14:45:29.Russia’s government has filed a lawsuit in France against Swiss company Noga requesting the payment of significant damages caused by Noga’s unlawful arrest of Russia’s assets in France, the Finance Ministry reported today.

RBC, 27.05.2008, Moscow 14:39:48.Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered his government to curb inflation, stressing that this is a key task for the time being, the Mayak radio station quoted the President as saying at a meeting with Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. In turn, Kudrin noted that the government had been able to bring the growth rate of the money supply in the economy into line with the plans that had been endorsed by the State Duma and the government’s monetary policy guidelines. The Deputy PM promised that the measures taken by the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank of Russia will permit to not only reduce further consumer price growth, but also quash inflation within the next half a year. The Finance Ministry is monitoring the major monetary policy parameters, and, according to Kudrin, at the moment they look much better than they did a year ago.

RBC, 27.05.2008, Moscow 13:50:48.A meeting of the Working Party on Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) will begin on June 16, 2008, the Russian Economy Ministry’s press office reported. The Working Party will meet for a week to review the latest version of the consolidated report on Russia’s entry to the WTO, which was adopted at the previous meeting.

RBC, 27.05.2008, Moscow 13:28:56.A transition to equal profitability of natural gas supplies on the domestic market and abroad will be completed in 2014-2015, Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Klepach said during today’s meeting of a trilateral commission for the regulation of social and economic relations. The government decided to stick to its plan providing for bringing the prices of domestic gas supplies to the level of export prices excluding duties and transportation costs. However, the fulfillment of the plan was postponed by several years, so equal profitability of gas supplies will not be attained in 2011, as originally planned, Klepach said.

RBC, 27.05.2008, Moscow 12:42:54.Foreign Ministers Eduard Nalbandian of Armenia and Sergei Lavrov of Russia will discuss cooperation between the two countries as part of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Russian ministry’s representative Andrei Nesterenko reported. He indicated that the Armenian Foreign Minister would pay a working visit to Moscow on May 29-June 1 to touch base on Russia and Armenia’s approaches to international issues of primary importance and to further coordinate Moscow and Yerevan’s foreign policies, particularly as part of continuing their joint work as part of the CIS and the CSTO, international organizations, such as the UN, the Council of Europe, and the OSCE, and multilateral forums.

RBC, 26.05.2008, Moscow 18:56:18.Russia has written off a $20bn debt of Africa’s poorest countries, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today. He added that Russia was doing a lot to ease the debt burden of poor countries owing large debts to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Development Association (IDA). Lavrov indicated that Russia had cancelled roughly half of the sum over the last two years.

RBC, 26.05.2008, Moscow 17:57:09.The Russian Defense Ministry has refuted the claims of the UN mission in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict that the Georgian unmanned aircraft was shot down by the Russian air force on April 20, the head of the ministry’s press office, Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky told RBC. He reiterated that Russian military airplanes had not violated Georgia’s state border either on April 20 or on any other day, nor had they shoot down Georgian unmanned aircraft.

RBC, 26.05.2008, Moscow 14:32:31.The US Department of Commerce has set a zero import duty on carbamide supplied by EuroChem, the Russian mineral and chemical company said in a statement today.

RBC, 26.05.2008, Moscow 13:45:19.Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has requested that a bill on trade regulation is introduced in the government before Friday, the government’s press officer reported today. The decision was made on the basis of a meeting on improving Russia’s agricultural policy that was held in Yessentuki on May 19. Putin also commissioned several ministries and government bodies to take steps to carry out the federal program on the development of agriculture and regulation of agricultural products markets for 2008-2012.

RBC, 26.05.2008, Moscow 13:49:25.Fighting corruption is a top priority for Russia’s new President Dmitry Medvedev. The anti-corruption council could be transformed into a new powerful body to keep a close eye on officials and their families. Medvedev seems to have received carte blanche from Putin to root out corruption, experts say. At the same time, the campaign will allow Medvedev to strengthen his grip on power, making new appointments. Yesterday Medvedev discussed anti-corruption methods with officials and members of the public. In the absence of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the government was represented by his deputy and government chief-of-staff Sergei Sobyanin. After the meeting, reporters were told that Medvedev would chair an anti-corruption council, and an interdepartmental group would be heated by Sergei Naryshkin, chief-of-staff to President Medvedev.

Hello,

Now it is getting good, Georgia wants Russia to pay for drone?
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Georgia calls on Russia to pay for downed drone Georgia says Moscow should apologize and pay it compensation for a drone that according to a UN report was shot down by a Russian jet over Abkhazia. Georgia’s breakaway republic of Abkhazia said it shot down the spy plane in late spring. Tbilisi has released a video claiming to show a Russian plane attacking the drone. Moscow strongly denies the allegations saying the tape was questionable. But on Monday the United Nations observer mission to Georgia issued a statement saying it believes Tbilisi’s version of the events. Russia’s ambassador to Georgia Vyacheslav Kovalenko says he does not “question the professionalism of the UN officials, but the evidence given to them was questionable”.
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Georgia seems to have nothing better to do than irritate Russia…..

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

I have come across this article in several forms in the last few days. I get a chuckle out of it when I see it. In Russia you always have to build something better or first. It seems to be a Russian trait. It is a trait that I saw all my life in the USA & a trait that is very strong in Russia. I did an article months ago about the “Father Of All Bombs” it is a Russian bomb that is more powerful than the “Mother Of All Bombs” that the USA built. Like I said this is an important trait that Russians have……… (Link)
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MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) – Russia started developing tactical laser weapons before the United States and has several prototypes of high-precision combat chemical lasers in its arsenal, a defense industry source said on Tuesday.

The Boeing Company said recently it had test-fired a high-energy chemical laser fitted aboard a C-130H aircraft for the first time. The successful ground tests, “a key milestone for the Advanced Tactical Laser Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration program,” took place on May 13 at the Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico.

Commenting on the announcement, the Russian expert said: “We tested a similar system back in 1972. Even then our ‘laser cannon was capable of hitting targets with high precision.”
“We have moved far ahead since then, and the U.S. has to keep pace with our research and development,” he added.
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This is something that the USA & Russia have in common, they always want to be the best. That is another reason why I like Russia.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

This is an article about the UN findings about the downed drone in Georgia. Articles have sprung up all over the Western presses about that the UN had said without a doubt the drone was shot down by a Russian Jet! The fact is that the UN failed to reach a positive conclusion…..Now the UN says that it was a Russian Jet…… Cool!
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Russia’s Jet Might Have Downed Georgia’s Drone
The UN mission in Georgia has released a report on April 20 accident, when a spy drone of Georgia’s Interior Ministry was hit in the air of Abkhazia. It appears the experts failed to reach a final conclusion.
It emerged that the UN experts based their investigation on the tape allegedly made aboard the drone by Georgia’s military in online mode. The experts were even provided with the 12-second portion that hadn’t been released at first.

The expert conclusion appears at least vague, as there are no evidences explicitly proving that the drone was hit by Russia’s jet. The nine-page report of the UN representatives gives no idea what jet was shown on the video tape.

What’s more, the international experts were unable to find an airport from which the jet could have taken off. It might have been Krasnodar, but then, the jet would have to fly 366km in one direction and another 366km back to the airport. But its maximum flying range is just 700km.

The experts were probing into the events of April 20, which anew aggravated the relations of Moscow and Tbilisi. In Georgia, they claimed that Russia’s jet hit the drone of Georgia that day, violating the cease-fire agreement. Moscow rebuffed by saying that the same document banned Georgian aircraft from flying in Abkhazia’s air.
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UN Got On Russia’s Back
UN mission in Georgia blamed on Russia the destruction of Georgia’s spy drone in Abkhazia’s air April 20. Based on that conclusion, Tbilisi again referred to Russia as to the conflict party rather than its intermediary and called for the urgent replacement of Russia’s peacekeepers in Abkhazia. Official Moscow denies the involvement, but some members of the State Duma leave room for such possibility.
The yesterday’s statement of the UN experts advanced the dispute around the destruction of Georgia’s spy drone to a new level. The conclusion says the tape provided by Georgia shows either MiG-29 or Su-27. The radars first spotted the jet at roughly 12 kilometers from Gudauta airport, Abkhazia, at the altitude of 2,800 meters, i.e. it could have taken off exactly from that airport. Having hit the drone, the jet flew back to Russia’s air space and headed for the Maikop-Krasnodar line, the experts specified.

Once the conclusion was ready, the UN lashed out at Russia blaming on it violation of cease-fire agreement coupled with the recent strengthening of peacekeepers contingent in Abkhazia.

Russia’s Defense Ministry bluntly denied the involvement. “Any violation of Georgia’s state border, the more so hitting its drone is completely out of the question,” said Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky, who heads the press service of Defense Ministry.

In the RF parliament, however, they don’t completely cross out the possibility of Russia’s involvement. “More likely than not, it was Russia’s jet,” Gennady Gudkov said yesterday, calling on the authorities “not to react to the UN conclusions.” Gudkov is the deputy head at State Duma’s Security Committee.

But it appears that Moscow will have to explain in the end, at least Slovenia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Dimitri Rupel voiced exactly that demand Monday on behalf of EU, where Slovenia presides nowadays.
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The story changes by the day…….

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.