Windows to Russia

I was drinking my morning cup of coffee here in Moscow, Russia. I was doing some thinking about the Russia – Ukraine – Europe gas situation. While Obama is trying to build bridges in the Middle East and the Western news can only concentrate on that event. Russia is and has been for years now, trying to figure out how to build a bridge to the European Union and keep Ukraine from pulling the pilings out from under the bridge.

The Western press nor the Western Governments – have hardly acknowledge the problem that Russia has been trying to be very front and center about. Then – when Ukraine does not pay her bills, the Western press will start in spouting about “Bad Russia!”

How serious is it going to get?

Watch the Russia Today interview and let Vitaly Ermakov, from the Cambridge Energy Research Associates, gave his verdict on the possible complications of Ukraine’s suspending gas payments.

Now lets touch on what Putin says:

“No one in Russia is intending to rejoice or gloat over Ukraine’s difficulties in paying for the product it receives from us,” Putin said in Helsinki. “But we cannot pay for this either.”

Putin also said: “I want to stress that without pumping gas into its underground storage facilities, Ukraine won’t be able to survive and will be forced to tap gas from its export pipelines. It will be forced to do this, you can’t even blame them for it.”

Putin also stated: “We have appealed to Barroso, the president of the European Commission, as well as the president of the Czech Republic, the prime minister of Sweden and Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on coordinating these efforts.”

Putin also expressed: “We have intensified monitoring over the transit of Russian gas to Europe,” he said. “This monitoring shows that, unfortunately, Ukraine has so far not begun pumping gas into underground storage facilities. This may create problems with gas deliveries during the wintertime.”

This is not something to take with a grain of salt. Putin is trying to let the world know that Winter is coming and Ukraine has no gas in her storage. That is about 5 billion dollars of gas that has been sold and lost.

I have already posted about this up and coming issue. Russia: The Murmurings of a Ukraine Gas Row are Beginning!

Europe knows that this is a problem and looking the other way will not make Ukraine a good transit partner.

I hope that the people in Ukraine who have taken the gas money and squirreled it away in hidden bank accounts are happy. The citizen of Ukraine has paid their gas bills and they know who takes their money.

Ukrainians deserve an honest government to take care of them…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Boza and I took a very long walk today. I decided that walking was more important than writing an article this morning and even more important than my morning cup of coffee!

Lets take a walk and see how the path becomes more narrow and wild. Boza loves this type of walks…

We go from asphalt, to gravel, to dirt and the the path is almost gone. Then back again…

Well as you see we finally discovered part of the city buried in the woods. You never seem to get away from utility companies. The shelter looking building is a place that Boza and I stop to take a small break. The woods are so beautiful…

Boza just loves this covered path full of lilacs and other sweet smelling bushes. Just watch out for the bees. As we come out in to the open again we come upon the largest lilac bush I have ever seen…

Almost Home…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Russia News Source – RIA: June 2nd, 2009!

Russian Navy to commission Nerpa submarine in fall:
A nuclear attack submarine involved in a fatal accident during sea trials last year will be commissioned by the Russian Navy in the fall and then leased to the Indian Navy, a source said on Tuesday.

North Korea prepares for medium-range missile launch:
North Korea’s military appears to be making preparations for a medium-range missile launch from the country’s east coast, the Yonhap news agency cited a South Korean lawmaker as saying.

Russian UN envoy backs ‘strong’ response to N.Korea nuclear test:
The international community should give a “strong” response to North Korea’s nuclear test, Russia’s UN envoy said in an interview with a Russian government daily on Tuesday.

Search continues for missing Air France plane in Atlantic:
French and Brazilian planes and warships are continuing to search the area of the Atlantic Ocean where an Air France passenger plane is believed to have crashed with 228 passengers and crew on board.

Washington refuses to recognize S.Ossetian elections:
Washington said it would not recognize last weekend’s parliamentary polls in the former Georgian republic of South Ossetia, the U.S. State Department said in a statement.

Post-war life in Abkhazia:
According to the Abkhaz Government’s rough estimations, the restoration of the Abkhaz capital will take over ten years. 60% of real estate in Sukhumi requires major repairs.

Russian car maker GAZ could launch Opel production in 9 months:
The Russian carmaker GAZ could start producing Opel cars within nine months if a consortium of investors taking over the German auto producer give their backing, GAZ said on Monday.

Tourism in Russia: A business with a promise:
Domestic and foreign travel may become a key way to diversify Russia’s economy.

Hello,

This was a very good interview from a North Korea expert, Aleksandr Vorontsov who just came back from a trip to Pyongyang, North Korea.As international concern has grown to the talk of war, stimulated by the USA and South Korea increase in Alert levels…He talks about North Korea and her people. He also says that the issue of nuclear weapons is not a hot topic with the North Koreans and they have lots of other things that are more important.

North Korea is getting ready to fire another missile that the USA says is able to possibly reach America. Looks like another scare the Americans by American Government time.

On the one side the international community must react to North Korea’s nuclear ambitions but on the other, history shows that pressure does not work in regard to North Korea, says expert Aleksandr Vorontsov.

North Korea has sure stirred up a big tough country like America…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Hello,

I was drinking my morning cup of coffee here in Moscow, Russia and just thinking about the weekend.

On Saturday morning we decided that I had to do something about a molar tooth that seemed to have issues. It had been filled almost twenty years ago and a piece of the filling had cracked out a few months ago. It started to hurt a month ago and finally was keeping me up at night.

We have a dentist near us with in walking distance. So Svet and I took a walk on Saturday morning and checked out the Dentist office. The idea was to just get an appointment to have a consultation about what was wrong. I had no intention of having the work done since dentist are always busy. 🙂

Well we got to the building and found a beautiful, clean, tidy and professionally run office. They (The receptionist and Dentist) told us that there is no charge for consultation. The consultation consisted of three x rays and lots of hums and haw’s!

After about 15 minutes it was decided between my expert translator of a Russian wife and the dentist, that I needed to have the old filling removed and refilled after fixing all issues. This exchange of communication was done very fast and the only thing that I really picked up on was something about men and they can not handle pain, you know!

By the way this was an all women dentist group, just like most doctors and dentist in Russia they are women. So as my wife, the receptionist and the dentist laughed at their jokes about men and ignored me. For I was just a man! 🙂

So at this point feeling like a bird caught in a cage, I then proceeded to have my tooth issue fixed.

I will say, the Lady Dentist was very good and she took meticulous care in her work. The office was of the highest standards of any American dentist and all the equipment was new and modern.

So out came the old Amalgam Filling from America that had lasted twenty years. They then found that there was a huge hole under the filling that came out and it was cracked badly. This turned into alot more drilling and cleaning up the bad tooth – hidden by the old filling.

Then in went a new Composite filling that matches the color of the tooth perfectly due to the dentist way of staining the filling with iodine as she layered the filling in. I have never had a Composite filling done before and this was a new experience for me. They use a ultraviolet light gun to set and harden the composite. Cool!

It was explained to me that American dentists like the Amalgam material and that is so old fashion. That the Russian way is to use the pretty new Composite materials and produce works of art to repair your teeth. I always smile inside when I hear words like this. Russian doctors and dentists are very proud of their occupations and they want me as an American to know that they are going to take care of me better than I would be taken care of in America. 🙂

Well the lady Dentist did take care of me and now I am pain free in my tooth.

Oh, lets talk about the cost?

The total procedure from beginning to end was 3000 rubles. That included consultation, 3 – x rays and all work done by the dentist. Around $90 American dollars. I thought that was pretty good since it was a weekend and no appointment.

Also I could have done it much cheaper (half cost) by insisting on a Amalgam filling. But since the ladies (Wife, receptionist and Dentist) were in control of my destiny at that point. I just went along for the ride and ended up a happy American.

I am always glad I keep my mouth shut, because my wife does always know better!

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.