Year: 2009

Hello,

Guess who has hot water and heat again. Me! (and Kiev)

Ukraine has gas and it sure is nice. I have spent days with no heat just like Europe and watched the news as Ukraine politicians argued and whined about Russia. The fact is Ukraine had no gas and it was getting cold here in Kiev.

Ukraine resumed transit of Russian gas to Europe at around 10am Moscow time. Gas flow through Ukraine will total 424.8 million cubic meters per day, of which 348.8 million cubic meters are destined for European consumers and 75 million cubic meters for Ukraine.

Under the terms of the latest agreement, Ukraine will pay $US 360 per 1,000 cubic meters. Should they fail to pay on time, Gazprom will switch to 100 per cent prepayment in dealing with Ukraine. (Link)

So while the world has lambasted me with multiples of unprintable comments and other nice thoughts. Russia was correct and Ukraine had to be called to the carpet so to speak.

All this hassle was to the fact that Ukraine had no gas and when Russia cut Ukraine’s gas off (due to non payment and past fees) and just kept the gas to Europe going. Ukraine had to resort to stealing the European gas. Then Ukraine shut the pipelines down and tried to blackmail Russia into giving Ukraine gas.

The last few days have been great in Ukraine. The TV stations have been burning up the airwaves with the gas issue. The biggest issue seems to be: Get rid of the Stealing Ukraine Government and get a new Government!

Things that make you go Hummmm…

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

Today I am still in Kiev, Ukraine. Svetlana is back in Moscow and I have stayed in Kiev to finish up work.

To me running around these countries is a lot like running around America from state to state. It is harder for Svet because she must have a visa for many countries. (Not Ukraine though.)

So I will be posting from the lobby of the hotel and trying to get comments caught up. I have at last count 58 comments to answer and I just answered 20 before that 58.

This does not count the hate you and die comments that are full of cuss words. The Ukraine’s got hold of me and their English only included sweet America words of endearment. 🙂

I posted all that I could and sent the others to the waste can. So If you see that you lost a comment, retype with out the explicits and I will post…

Got to go, battery is going dead and I got 3 posts and 20 comments answered. I will charge the battery and be back tonight to finish some more comments.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

New world math during the gas crises.

Normally the Western World blames Russia 100% on a, Ukraine – Russia dispute…
(The EU would have said we must reconsider our relationship with Russia.)

This time Russia and Ukraine were condemned equally – 50% to 50%…
(Now the EU says they must reconsider our relationship with Ukraine and Russia.)

That means Russia was 100% correct!

Cool Math!

Kyle

On January 7 2009, Ukraine shut all four pipelines that send gas to Europe. Not Russia!

Kyle

Soviet Champagne for a birthday! 🙂

Hello,

My wife and I today had a surprise that was very pleasant. Today the 16th of January is my Birthday. Well earlier the hotel knew by my registration that it was my Birthday. They sent a bottle of Soviet Champagne and a treat to our room for a Birthday gift.

We had an article earlier about Soviet champagne. (Link) Now we get to try the famous Champagne like it was made during the Soviet Era.

So even though things seem to be rough in the world right now we just had a little spot of sunshine that made us smile. Sometimes the simplest things are the greatest things.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

If I get shut out of the Internet while in Ukraine you will know why. Ukraine is doing major anti Russian censorship of its media in all forms. At this point we can not receive any form of YouTube videos, RIA Novosti, Russian Government blog and many many ru sites. BBC is available on line but all articles that have to do with Russia and gas are removed and or blocked. We can not even search the BBC website. Now we have full access to CNN and Time Western News. The gas articles are slanted in Ukraine favor and we get all Western media just fine.

Seems Ukraine is trying to cover the gas issues by keeping the word from spreading by all media means.

Can anyone say “Censorship”?

The article after this one gives some very good information on what is happening in Ukraine with the gas issue.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

Svet and I are in the hotel Slavutich: They have WiFi and it works really good. Three months ago when I was getting my visa to Russia, this hotel did not have WiFi and it was terrible to try to post. We are getting all we need done and hope to be able to wrap it up early here, but we are going to be here for the weekend at least.

Today Svet and I were able to get a lot of pictures of men ice fishing. We watched them as they drilled their holes and use an ice pick to enlarge the hole. More on that later when we get the pictures to go with the story.

We also have listen to the news about the gas issue. It seems that Ukraine will not let the gas go through and Ukraine tells the local news casts that Russia is trying to destroy Ukraine and put the President and Prime Minister out of office. Ukraine tells the local news that Russia will not pump gas to Ukraine and there is nothing that Ukraine can do.

The international news side is a different story and Ukraine is crying about mean Russia and then making any and all excuses to delay the gas. Ukraine says that the Prime Minister of Ukraine will talk this Sunday to Russia and see what can be worked out. Seems Ukraine has thumbed their nose at the EU and Russia. Ukraine tells Europe that the problem is a internal company problem between Gazprom and Ukraine gas companies.

The rumors of gas shortage in the country side of Ukraine seem to be a reality and all gas seems to be concentrated at Kiev. But I see conservative measures everywhere and our Hotel room is getting very little heat and is in reality very cold but Svet and I are use to cold so we just bundle up and walk allot.

The news is very sporadic about the gas issue and Ukraine skims away from Europe has no gas crime…

What I see here in Ukraine is one step from a political melt down. The President of Ukraine has basically a 0% approval rating. (2.4% by Ukraine figures) The country no longer is being run by the President. I really do not know who is running the country right now but my bets are pointing at the Gas Companies!

That is all for now and we are taking lots of pictures. Svet says hi to all the readers!

Kyle & Svet

Hello,

Seems that we have not had enough of Ukraine over this gas issue. So Svet and I will leave Russia and be gone about a week to Kiev, Ukraine on business. If we get everything done quickly maybe Svet & I can do some sight seeing and take lots of pictures. 🙂

I have a new camera phone that takes pictures as good as my regular camera. It is a 3 mega pixel camera phone from Samsung. (Samsung U800) I am so happy with the phone and have started to take pictures with it on our Russian photo Blog.

I am going to try to get the pulse of what is happening first hand in Ukraine. The last time I was there the city seemed so out of touch with reality. It seems to be having a major struggle with the direction that she seems to want to go in the future. (Link) That struggle includes major issue with Russia and that I feel is Ukraine’s downfall. Ukraine needs to remember her roots and Russia is a large part of who and what Ukraine is.

So, who knows what interesting things we will uncover in Kiev. We are planning on taking a train out of Russia because of the weather this time of the year and will leave around 8:00 pm or 20:00 (Moscow Time) Tuesday night. Should be safer than trying to travel Russia’s country roads much less the roads in Ukraine.

We will try to keep the posting up but that counts on the internet that Kiev has and the last time it was not very good.

We can not wait, We love train rides and always have so much fun traveling by train.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/sdocs/vappears.shtml

This above link is to Medvedev’s Video Blog.

Seems that Obama plans on doing the same thing when he gets in office. The wave of the future, “Presidents with Laptops!”

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

English Text:

DMITRY MEDVEDEV:

Dear friends!

I would like to once again wish you all a Happy New Year!

I hope you had good New Year holidays. Holidays which were quite long this year.

And I would like to talk to you about something that I think is very important. It is related to the development of physical culture and sport in our country.

The thing is that recently quite a few different things aimed at the development of physical culture and sports have been done, done with a view to creating normal conditions for recreation for millions of our citizens. But if we talk very frankly then what has been done remains insufficient. And maybe these New Year’s holidays are a good opportunity to reflect a little on how we should develop physical education in Russia, and on how we should develop sports facilities in our country so that millions of our citizens take part in this normal form of recreation.

As you know, in 2014 the Winter Olympics will take place in our country. Now preparations have swung into full gear, as they say. We are constructing new facilities, creating new sports fields and sports venues. And we are doing all this despite the recent financial situation in the world and in our country, a situation which has, of course, deteriorated quite seriously because of the global financial crisis. But I think that is an area where we have no right to pinch pennies. Ultimately, people’s well-being – what we refer to as the nation’s health — depends on this.

And in this regard I believe that we must all learn how to relax. You know, to speak frankly we did not have the opportunities for such holidays or to develop such a culture during the Soviet period. And when each of us went somewhere abroad, for example, we were surprised to see how well our neighbours can relax. We should try to establish that same culture of leisure, that same culture of sports in our country. So that we can have such great New Year holidays and summer vacations in normal human conditions: engaging in physical exercise, relaxing with our families, and receiving great pleasure from this.

You know, the question of relaxation is always a very personal one. Each of us must decide how we are going to do so. This year I went skiing at Krasnaya Polyana in Sochi. I think that that we have now created perfectly decent, acceptable conditions for this sort of sport, the same conditions that exist in many European countries. I can tell you in all honesty that it gave me great joy, great pleasure to exercise in this way. I really liked it.

Hello,

I was drinking my coffee and thinking about the gas issue – Did Ukraine sign yet?

Low and behold: Ukraine has signed the original papers sent to them from Russia and the EU! Now a certified copy is on there way to Russia and then Gazprom can get the gas back on.

What had upset Russia so much about the Ukraine modified version? Two of the points that Ukraine tried to sneak in was,

1. Ukraine had paid all the debts to Gazprom in full.
2. Ukraine had not stolen gas earmarked for Europe.

The flagrant fact is that Ukraine is trying to cover their back side because they have gotten themselves in trouble this time. The addition of these items to an official paper about EU gas was a mockery of the system and Russia has a right to demand that anything to do with who owed what and who stole what, was not the issue at hand.

The issue of who owes who and who stole what, is the issues coming up in the International court systems. That is why you could not have a official document on International level changing the faults and blames.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.