Windows to Russia

Wanna know what wakes up the Western press about Russia? Two things – 1. Russia is evil! or 2. Putin makes a statement of some type!

Lions and Tigers and Putin – (Oh – My) :
Putin hints at return to presidency: Washington Post
RUSSIA Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday gave his strongest signal yet that he plans to return to Russia’s presidency, telling millions of TV viewers that he will consider running in 2012.

ABC, CNN, Washington Post, Drudge, Reuters and at least 100 other major players in the Western news press have run the same headline story about what Putin said. I even tracked it down to the local news stations and it was in many of the International and World news spots.

If the Swine Flu had spread as fast and complete as this story on Putin, then the world would have had a “crises” on its hands…

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comments always welcome.

Reform of the Russian Armed Forces:
By 2012, the military is to be downsized to 1 million personnel, a professional NCO corps is to be created, and its command and control system is to be streamlined.

Indian PM confident of quick return to full economic growth:
The Indian economy will overcome the consequences of the global credit crunch within the next two to three years, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said ahead of his upcoming visit to Russia.

Vietnam could become key importer of Russian weaponry:
Vietnam could become a key importer of Russian weaponry if several contracts on the purchase of diesel submarines and aircraft are signed in the near future, a Russian newspaper said.

Russia to further cut Interior Ministry troops to 170,000 by 2020:
The numerical strength of Russia’s Interior Ministry troops will be reduced by 14,000 to around 170,000 personnel by 2020, the force commander said on Friday.

Transcript of Vladimir Putin’s question and answer session:
The full transcript of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s annual live TV and radio phone-in.

The Obama administration’s ‘reset button’ for Russia:
The interests of the Obama administration in improving ties with Russia, a policy metaphorically first described by Vice President Biden in February 2009 as ‘pressing the reset button,’ are principally driven by three goals.

Arms Treaty Likely to Expire Before New Pact Is Set:
American and Russian negotiators are racing to solve the remaining obstacles to a new arms control treaty that would cut the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals by up to a third and replace a cold-war-era pact that expires Saturday.

A day in the life of a person in a wheelchair:
Moscow wheelchair users have to face enormous challenges in their everyday occupations and activities, including shopping, crossing a street or going to the cinema. Gennady Rodin, a wheelchair-bound Moscow resident, offered a camera crew from RIA Novosti news agency the opportunity to follow him for a day.

The De-Russification of the Baltics Serves a Geopolitical Purpose:
The Baltic States occupy strategic territory along what, for two hundred years, was Russia’s Western coast-line. Their de-Russification now serves a simple geopolitical purpose – that of pushing Russia North and East, out of the European affairs in which she ought to be a natural player. This geopolitical push is a zero-sum game from which only the United States benefits.

Russia: Protecting Citizens Living Abroad:
Russian strategies resemble the policies used by the West for exerting its influence abroad like NATO invasion in Kosovo.

Revitalizing India-Russia ties:
The challenges of dealing with China’s rising power are encouraging India and Russia to reach out to each other. Indian diplomats have noted a perceptible warming towards India in the Kremlin as well. The two countries are rediscovering the values of their traditional friendship in the face of ongoing shifts in global political and economic equations.

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Just in from the Russian Presidents Website!

Dmitry Medvedev signed an executive order On Establishing Diplomatic Relations with the Vatican:

In his order, President Medvedev instructed the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to hold talks with the Vatican on establishing diplomatic relations at the level of a Russian Federation Embassy in the Vatican and Apostolic Nunciature in Russia, transforming the Russian Consulate in the Vatican into an Embassy, and formalizing the agreements reached in relevant documents.

The political move follows decades of non communication between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches.

The Orthodox Church accuses the Vatican of seeking to convert Russians to Catholics, which it denies.

This could be an interesting story to follow over the next year to see what happens…

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comments always welcome.

What is underground, just big enough to hold an object the size of a car and cost (one) 1 million Rubles? (about $34,500 in American dollars!)

If you answered an “underground parking spot” you got it correct!

The photo that you see is the entrance to a underground parking garage at our new flat. There is 96 spots under the ground and they are just hardly big enough to hold a medium size car.

76 out of the 96 have been sold and you better hurry, because they are going fast…

(Now if we can just find room for the other 11,235 cars parked on top of these 96 under the ground.)

Do you see the building in the background? That is where we live. Believe it or not there are exactly 57 parking spaces available for those flats. At night there maybe 250 – 300 cars parked in those 57 spots and we are at best half full of tenants. Cars are parked all over the place. On sidewalks, in the grass and worse in the playground for kids. Every week it is getting worse. As of this post I have our car parked over a block away and I feel lucky that we got it that close.

So if you leave to go somewhere it had better be worth it because you will loose your parking place.

Now you know why people will pay a million Rubles for a tiny spot to park, underground!

Gotta love Russia – Build huge buildings full of flats and forget to allocate parking. (These are new buildings, not old and built during the Soviet era before they had very many cars.)

That is what makes it fun!

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comments always welcome.

“Much has been done to break the back of terrorism, but threat remains” – Putin

03 December, 2009, 15:05

Russia is determined to fight terrorism and do its best for the security of the people, said Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during his live call-in show on Thursday.

“We’ve always said that the threat of terrorism is still great. Throughout the world we are still encountering acts of terrorism. Our country wasn’t an exception, it also suffered from the international terrorism especially in the mid-1990s. We’ve already done a lot to break the back of terrorism, but the threat has not been removed completely. We can act efficiently in combating terrorism. What is necessary for this, we, all society – I’d like to stress that each and every one has to realize the threat, which has been with us for years – has to be vigilant and pursue large-scale preventative work,” Putin said.

“Nonetheless the big question is: can we prevent those acts of terrorism. We have vast territory in Russia and the installations, and infrastructure. We must act efficiently in combating terrorism – the security services realize what I’m talking about here. We must give them credit: the Interior Ministry quite often achieves their objectives in this respect. But the tragedy you mentioned [the derailment of the “Nevsky Express” train] indicates that the work in this particular direction must be upgraded. We must act with firmness and resoluteness against people who attempt to kill people – we have enough of this firmness and resoluteness,” the Prime Minister added.

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Crisis – overcome or not?

“We can say with a great degree of confidence that the peak of the crisis has been overcome, although the turbulent phenomena both in Russian and world economy are still there. And the way out of the crisis will require from us time, effort and massive funds,” Putin said.

“Certain experts expected that the drop of GDP would be 10%, but it happened to be less 8.5-8.7%. That’s still a lot – the drop in industrial output will reach about 13%.”

At the same time he noted that the country “is coping with the problems”. This year there has been growth in several spheres, including the agriculture and space industries:

“But in those branches of industry, which the state considers its direct responsibility, we are observing a more or less acceptable level. In the defense industry the output will rise 3.7%. In certain branches – like the space missile industry – there is a 13% growth, although it has problems, which we are monitoring.”

As for agriculture “which in previous years used to be dubbed, the black hole of economy, today we can observe a 0.5% increase, with the growth in certain areas reaching 10%,” Putin said.

Putin mentioned several positive financial indicators:

“We are restoring our gold and currency reserve, which is the third in the world after the Peoples’ Republic of China and Japan, at $444 billion. We have a positive trade balance. We had the best inflation indicator in 2006, but this year it will be 9%. ”

And an increase in the birth rate (around 3 per cent) shows, according to the Prime Minister, that “people believe in the positive development of the country.”

With regard to the economic crisis, Putin received several questions about the so-called monocities – single-industry towns.

Last summer and autumn were marked by protests in the city of Pikalevo in Russia’s northern Leningrad region. Many of its 22,000 residents, employed at the city’s three main plants, were supposed to be laid off, which resulted in mass rallies. Prime Minister Putin made a visit there, ordering some drastic measures to be taken.

During the Q&A session, Vladimir Putin told Pikalevo residents that he is monitoring the situation and is going to meet the region’s governor to discuss the overall strategy for the development of the city and its industry.
Industry reform

Asked about the structural reform of Russia’s industry Putin said:

“The authors of the reform planned that, after selling some assets, we would have the money to modernize the energy industry. The new owners are burdened with responsibilities. I fully agree that they must honor these obligations. They received certain benefits during this process, and they have taken certain responsibilities. Now the time has come for them to honor these responsibilities, which have been recorded in official papers.

Of course we know that we are living in times of a crisis. The economy is down for objective reasons, and the need for energy has dropped, so it became ineffective to invest in the energy industry as was planned originally, because in this case we will overproduce energy.

However, I think these arguments are not well-founded. I mean the rate of recovery in our and world economy is high and we need to enter the recovery period fully supplied with energy. So we need to carry out these [modernization] plans.

At the same time, when working with the new owners – I need to tell you that – plans to develop energy assets definitely will be carried out. They are significant, they are great. During the previous 10 years we built 13,000 megawatts worth of new facilities. In the following two years we plan to build 10,000 megawatts worth. So the progress is significant,” Putin admitted, adding that the plans would have been implemented already if not for the increased attention to environment protection.
WTO – strategic goal

One of the rather popular questions received via SMS and web regarded Russia’s accession to the WTO.

Putin called it Russia’s strategic goal but noted that:

“It is our strategic goal to enter the WTO, but we have the impression that, for unknown reasons, certain people in the US are obstructing our entry to WTO.”

One of the obstacles for Russia’s joining the organization is the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment to the US Constitution, designed to restrict exports from the Soviet Union and some other countries.

The Prime Minister called the law “an anachronism”:

“The Jackson-Vanik amendment was introduced back in the Soviet time and it was connected to the US bringing in economic sanctions against the Soviet Union, as a reaction to Soviet restrictions on Jewish people moving on permanent residence to Israel.

As we all understand, today there are no restrictions whatsoever, and the Soviet Union doesn’t exist, but the amendment is still there – it is obviously an anachronism, which the representatives of different lobbying groups in US Congress are trying to use in quite selfish economic interests, like those connected with increasing quotas on US poultry meat. […] Such are the realities of today, and we are compelled to live with them.”

At a time when the key priority for the country is closer economic integration with the former Soviet countries rather than the WTO:

“The main priority for us is to integrate with the post-Soviet space. That is why we are happy about the processes that are going on with the formation of the customs union between Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. But after the organizing the customs union, after it is established, there is a new quality we can come up with: we are joining the WTO together with this customs union, coordinating our positions with our partners in the customs union.”
Customs Union with Belarus

In a related, but separate matter Putin stressed that “Russia’s help to Belarus has to be in sync with the integration process within the Union state”.

“We have very warm feelings towards all Belarusian people, the entire country of Belarus. Of course, the Belarusian authorities would like to have more from us. But let me remind you that the year before the last, we gave Belarus a $1.5 billion loan, a $1 billion loan last year, and a $5 billion loan this year. There was also a loan from Gazprom.

Belarus exports its meat to Russia. Dairy exports account for about 80 %, agricultural machinery also. We take a lot of Belarusian exports. Energy carriers get discount for oil. They get the lowest price in the world except for Russia. They get the lowest price in the CIS. In other areas of our cooperation, say social sphere, we treasure them a lot. But I repeat, the Belarusian leadership wants to get more. Perhaps it is possible, but I firmly believe this: it has to be in sync with the integration process in the union state. The deeper the integration is, the more possibilities we’ll have to offer Russian prices for Belarus both for energy carriers and other things as well.

Recently our Belarusian colleagues asked us to keep prices at the same level as this year. Even though we had signed a contract beforehand and it says the price should go up. It’s a slight increase, but still it’s an increase. The same applies to loans; our experts believe the loans we have offered are sufficient. Especially since Belarus receives support from the International Monetary Fund. And it’s the fund that Russia sends its money to. We always emphasize that this money should be used to support our neighbors.”
Yukos case

Answering one of the questions about the fate of the former head of the Yukos oil company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Putin said that the man was serving his sentence in accordance with a court ruling.

In this respect, the prime minister also said that the money gained from selling the company has been used in the creation of a 240 billion ruble fund for communal services.

“Ten million people have already felt the results of this fund’s work, whose houses and flats have been repaired. Another 150,000 will be moved to new houses from slums,” Putin explained.

“If this money was once stolen from people, it must be returned to them directly. Not to some abstract people but some concrete persons who have found themselves in the most difficult situations,” he added.
Police crimes

In recent months Russia has seen several scandals related to corruption in police, and even crimes committed by police officers. One of them took place in April, when Major Denis Yevsyukov went on a shooting massacre in a Moscow supermarket, killing three and injuring six.

When asked about the problems within the Interior Ministry, Putin pointed out that the response to crimes should be tough but “it is unacceptable to paint all policemen black”:

“Our neighbors in Ukraine have had such an experience. They liquidated the road police, but nothing good came out of it. They got more bribery and less order on the roads after the functions of road police were passed on to other departments, who were not ready for the job.”
Continuous battle with corruption will become efficient

The summer closure of Eastern Europe’s largest market was another question that concerned many. It was obvious to many enquirers that such an enterprise would be unable to work without the support of corrupt officials.

Despite the market’s having shut down, the corrupt partnership survived in other places. Another enterprise owned by the Cherkizovsky Market’s proprietor – luxurious Mardan Palace Hotel in Turkey was labeled “a monument to Russia’s corruption” in one of the questions.

“If the illegal partnership lives, we will continue working on this matter. As for the hotel in Turkey – by itself I don’t see anything criminal in building it, so long as the investment is done according to law. However, if there are resources for investment, it would be a good idea to invest them inside Russia, creating more jobs and a wider tax base. For example, nobody prohibited building hotels in Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Regarding all the rest – any suspicions in smuggling or corruption have to be proved in court first,” Putin said, proceeding afterwards to bring about the issue of a lack of efficiency in combating corruption.

“We will continue to combat corruption. Russia’s President has spoken about this many times. Though this is a very deep-routed problem, Russia is not unique in suffering from it, as it affects most countries with transition economies, because there are plenty of grey areas not covered by law. Yes, our battle with corruption is not efficient, but we have certain results, and if we consistently work hard on it, the efficiency will pick up. On the contrary if we do nothing, the problem will persist.”
Lamborghinis no different to gold teeth

A phone call from Tatarstan raised another recent controversy: the road accident near Lake Geneva.

“People who got rich during the turbulent 1990s or later – of course we cannot blame all successful businessmen. But there is a term for it – nouveau riche. People who got rich quickly and cannot use their money properly, they boast of it. During the Soviet period, some people boasted of their richness by putting in golden teeth, especially at the front. Today’s people with Lamborghinis and other expensive fripperies are no different from them,” Putin said notably mispronouncing the name of the car brand.
Personal relations with leaders

The prime minister once again assured that his working relations with President Medvedev are good.

“We’ve known each other very well for many years. We studied at the same university, learning from the same teachers, who not only gave us knowledge, but also similar attitude to life,” he said.

Good personal relations make their working relations more efficient, Putin added.

Another example when personal chemistry helps politics is the relations with George W. Bush, the Russian Prime Minister said. Cordiality and mutual affection helped the two former presidents maneuver through situations of conflict between the two countries.

While Putin doesn’t have contacts with the former American leader, he said he would be pleased to do so if the opportunity arises.

Another leader about whom the Russian prime minister spoke during the Q&A session is his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Timoshenko. Putin denied suggestions of his involvement in the presidential campaign currently underway in Ukraine.

“I don’t support Yulia Timoshenko in the election. We cooperate with her as the prime minister of the Ukrainian government. We have a large sphere of cooperation, a joint work plan, and we are following it,” he said.

He added that Russia also has good partisan relations with the Ukrainian Party of Regions. The party is headed by Timoshenko’s key rival in the campaign, Viktor Yanukovich.
Personal concerns

The prime minister received numerous questions concerning low salaries and pensions, and affordable housing. Most of them dealt with the concrete personal problems of those calling.

However, there some were anxious about other people’s needs and difficulties.

One pensioner was anxious about the fate of an old woman living near the railroad in the Tver region where the “Nevsky Express” derailment occurred.

This old lady greatly helped the rescue team, saving people injured in the incident.

“I saw a lot of men by her falling fence. Now that they have gone, what is going to happen with the old lady, her fence and the house?” the question was put.

Putin assured that the 78-year-old woman will be alright.

“The head of Russian Railroads has already met her,” Putin said. “This woman will get a life pension from the company, in addition to the pension of 4,000 rubles she is getting now.”

Her house will also be restored, the prime minister informed.
Putin’s friend

The Q&A session wasn’t all serious business. Some interactions made the public and even the prime minister smile.

Not everybody can brag about having a president or a prime minister among his friends. Aleksandr Astrakhantsev from Komsomolsk-on-Amur is one of the few.

During a live talk-session with Vladimir Putin, Aleksandr reminded the prime minister of their meeting in May of 2009. Aleksandr was then one of a group of workers who were lucky enough to talk to the head of the Russian government. Putin was visiting the Amur Shipbuilding Plant, which had been renationalized for a token sum and was to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in state aid.

Aleksandr Astrakhantsev said that since former Russian President Vladimir Putin invited him to take part in the conversation he’s been nicknamed “Putin’s friend” among his colleagues.
When will you quit?

Dinar, from the southern Russian city of Kransdonar, surprised the prime minister with a straightforward question about when Vladimir Putin is planning to quit politics, so that Dinar could take over the office.

Vladimir Putin replied laughingly, “Not in your lifetime. But if you have a desire to work together, we can discuss your proposal and offer you a good job to realize your potential.”

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Russians send in about 700,000 questions for Putin’s question-time show:

MOSCOW, December 2 (Itar-Tass) – Russian audiences have sent in about 700,000 questions to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is expected to appear in a major annual question-time show on Russian television and radio Thursday afternoon.

Officials at the Prime Minister’s press service said they have received about 470,000 telephone calls, 150,000 sms messages and 37,000 letters to the program’s Internet site at www.moskva-putinu.ru.

Putin will face the nation on major television and radio channels and also via the Internet December 3 as part of a tradition that has taken shape over the past eight years.

Mobile television units will be placed in different parts of the country for people to be able to ask questions live on the air.

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“Obama will witness lots of coffins heading to America from Afghanistan,” Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahamdi told AFP news agency. He also said: “Their (America’s) hope to control Afghanistan by military means will not become reality.”

The only truth in what Obama has done is to increase military presence in a lost war. The Taliban will now increase their war efforts to match Americas and NATO’s involvement. Also since America seems to be so bent on buying off the Taliban through a financial progam – like they did in Iraq. We will guarantee that they have financial support to continue war against us…

The war to the Taliban is about draining a big, bad, tough and rough countries resources plus finances. For that is how they will try to topple America! (Seems they (Taliban) are winning the war!)

The rest is a bunch of baloney…

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PS: Has anyone figured out that the Taliban are not scared of the US? I added a very good video by the way!

Militants claim responsibility for train blast:

02 December, 2009, 10:25

The leadership of the so-called “Caucasus Mujahideens” has claimed responsibility for the explosion that caused the derailment of the “Nevsky Express” train on November 27.

The statement was published on one of the militants’ websites, Lenta.ru reports.

The online news edition says the terror act was one of a series targeting several strategic objects in Russia. The militants are said to have acted on the order of their leader Doku Umarov.

According to the militants, the blast was organized by a special subversive group. They promised to carry on with such acts of terror until “occupants in the Caucasus stop the policy of killing ordinary Muslims because of their religious beliefs.”

In their statement, the militants claim more victims than the official figures – 30 people killed and at least 80 wounded versus 26 and 100 respectively.

Earlier, investigators said they are now searching for several suspects, including four men of Caucasian origin.

The media have also speculated that a “Russian Wahhabi”, Pavel Kosolapov, could be linked to the explosion. Kosolapov is a Russian serviceman taking the militants’ side.

Kosolapov has been put on a wanted list after he was charged in absentia with a terror explosion that derailed the same train back in 2007. The Prosecutor’s Office believes two years ago the terror act was organized by Doku Umarov. Meanwhile, there has been no official confirmation of Kosolapov’s involvement in the latest blast.

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LONDON – The logo for the 2014 Winter Olympics, to be held in Sochi, Russia, has been unveiled today, becoming the first Olympic emblem to feature a web address – Sochi2014.ru – as organizers target the digital generation.

What do you think is it cool or not? (I think sorta cool!)

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If you have been reading Windows to Russia over the years, then you know that I like parks and amusement areas for children. I have another find to add to our collection, I have found an old Bike and Trike road system designed for kids to have fun and be safe. At least that is what I have surmised after studying it for a few days…

There are straight a ways and circles for the kids to ride on – There are intersections and a playground for when you are tired of riding your bike or trike – It is a really cool park

Above – Boza has to get in at least one picture! The road even goes around the slide!

Below -There is a stage and benches so the Moms can relax .

See how it looks like a road system?

Above – A huge sandbox and the road goes all the way around!

Below – Everything is designed to keep the little ones contained away from the main road to the right.

When I was a kid I would have put some miles on that tiny road system. Look see above – Even a Cul-de-sac or two! 🙂

One thing that is little know by Americans is that the Soviets cared about their children very very much. Parks like this are very common place, in the old parts of town. Many of these parks are starting to crumble and some have just faded to a remnant of there former glory. These parks were built by love not modern technology and usally were made from what ever could be found in abundance to create a park.

This link will take you to my favorite park: The Old Soviet Playground!

Today – I wish that I was 4 years old and had my trike – Boza and I would ride to China on that old Soviet road for bikes and trikes…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…