Windows to Russia

Seems that Russia can not ever stay out of the news.

Lets look at Israel hopping up and down screaming – Russians helped Iran with nukes – Israel: A list of Russian scientists who allegedly helped Iran to develop a nuclear bomb was handed to the Kremlin by Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, The Sunday Times reports. Now all this is because Israel is blowing a smoke screen to divert attention from the way the UN slamming Israel over the Gaza war…

Lets look at – The Pentagon: joint use of Russian radars possible:
The US is considering jointly using two Russian radars as part of its missile defense system, US Assistant Secretary of Defense Alexander Vershbow said in an interview with a Russian news agency. Now this just gets better all the time. This is exactly what Russia said more than a year ago and at that time answers from America came back not really very nice. Russia is now having the same reaction as then: Is America Going Nuts? (Sometimes!)

Lets look at – Elton John tickles the ivories of his “Red Piano” in Moscow: On October 7th, 2009 not only do you get a wild and full-of-energy Sir Elton John, but you get it all in a truly unique environment also. “The Red Piano”, the spectacular musician’s show, comes to Moscow straight out of Las Vegas. That would be worth seeing but I hear that tickets are all sold out and have been for a long time.

Let stake a peek at – Old Testament to be put behind bars?: A scientist in Russia has sent a statement to the Prosecutor General’s office in Stavropol, Southern Russia, demanding the Old Testament Bible be declared extremist literature. I am going to follow this one because having graduated from a Baptist University I find things like this interesting.

Lets look at an age old problem that seems to rear its head every few months – Moldova’s Transdniester wants independence, accession to Russia: The case of Moldova’s breakaway region is different from that of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, observers believe. Whether it is really different or not I do not know for sure. But what I can tell you is that after being there personally. Transdniester wants to be part of Russia. (Seems a little bit hard with Ukraine between the two though..)

So as always Russia is having fun and stays either in trouble with the world or gets involved in things that cause trouble down the road… (except with Elton John we hope!)

That is what I love about Russia! 🙂

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Sammy the Volga Car!

We had an interesting weekend. Svet and I finally won the battle to get our car tagged. This was not an easy war and we lost many battles in the process. But winning the war is what counts – right?

I have stayed quiet about this because I wanted to concentrate on getting tags not writing about how interesting it was to get them. (I felt like I was dealing with the local governments back in America trying to tag my car after crossing a state line to relocate.) The one thing that Russia has is a lot of governmental red tape and they match America one on one in the red tape department department.

To start with we bought the car out of Moscow. That is number one issue – What works in another region does not mean it will work in Moscow! Lets expound on that statement: We took the car to get the tags and they always check the numbers on the car like they should do. That is the start of our fun.

At he factory (GAZ)they had changed the VIN number. Now the inspector said that he knew this was a common practice for the GAZ plant to do this. But it had to be changed on the paper work and we would have to make a visit to an expert inspector to have official confirmation that the car was not stolen.

As you can see in the second picture that the first number has been X out and then a new number is stamped next to it to the right. They say this has to do with production times and runs. (I say the guy who hand stamped it messed up and had to re stamp the number.)

So poor Svet and I {I drove and waited :)} had to visit a 100 different government offices to get enough information on what we had to do to get car tags. We had to take our own pictures of the VIN numbers. We had to make our own copies of all paper work. We had to endure lots of tea breaks by employees. We had to wait in long lines and listen to many lazy government workers explain how it was not their job and the one who did that job was not there until tomorrow. (Sound familiar?)

To make a long story short: Svet was the most patient car owner in the world and overcame all barriers installed in the way. Also the expert of all car inspectors said all was fine and we never paid one ruble of a bribe and never gave up.

When we had the car reinspected after a month of interesting governmental communication – we got our tags… :-]

How was your weekend? Ours turned out fantastic…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

In the village of Tatar Saiman in central Russia which use to be a collective farm in the Soviet days. They have the “top-top” – You ask they have what? Glad you asked…

“Top-top” – The word comes from the sound that old two-stroke engines make. The hand built cars are mostly used to carry wood and hay, or building materials in a localized area.

When the USSR broke up, it was virtually impossible to get new farm equipment. Also the old farm equipment became personal property to many farmers because the state was no longer in existence. This messed up understanding of ownership has created a whole line of interesting customized vehicles and particular in the village of Tatar Saiman in central Russia we have the famous – “top-top” vehicle.

They take these trucks serious and I think they are great. So watch the video and enjoy.

The old sayings: “You gotta do what you gotta do!” or “Waste not want not!” happens to fit here real well…

“Top-top” 🙂

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Former deputy PM ‘pleased’ to be sued by richest woman in Russia:
Former Russian deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov said on Friday he is “pleased” to be sued by Yelena Baturina, the wife of Moscow’s mayor and the richest woman in Russia.

Serbian foreign minister to visit Moscow October 4-6:
Serbia’s foreign minister will arrive in Moscow on Sunday for a three-day official visit to Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said on Friday.

Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft docks with the ISS:
The Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported from Russia’s Mission Control Center.

Jackson’s autopsy report-Homicide:
Pop star Michael Jackson had a strong heart and was a “fairly healthy” 50-year-old, according to an autopsy report obtained in the US.

Russian monetary base down $950 mln in week to $133.8 bln:
Russia’s Central Bank said Friday the country’s narrowly defined money supply (M1) was 4 trillion 26.8 million rubles ($133.8 million at the current exchange rate) as of September 28, down 28.6 billion rubles ($950 million) in the week since September 21.

Russian customs officers arrest 2 drug mules in Orenburg airport:
Russian customs officials in the southern Urals city of Orenburg on Friday morning arrested two drug mules from Tajikistan with 225 capsules of heroin in their stomachs, a spokeswoman said.

Russian FM Lavrov to discuss Geneva talks in Abkhazia:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is arriving in Abkhazia on a two-day visit Friday to discuss the latest round of Geneva discussions on the situation in the Caucasus and meet with the Russian military.

Medvedev visits Cathedral of the Sign in Kursk:
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited on Thursday the Cathedral of the Sign in the city of Kursk some 300 miles south of Moscow where a miracle-working icon of the Mother of God was recently brought.

Russia says Arctic Sea ship to be released, no secret cargo found:
Inspections of the Arctic Sea ship, which was held captive for several weeks during the summer, have not revealed suspicious cargo, and the vessel will soon be released, Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said.