Year: 2011

Well Sveta and I got back to Kiev and spent the night in a nice little studio type flat near the train station…

After a good night sleep we got to the Russian consulate at noon exactly and after a 15 minute wait. I was able to pick up my new visa…

I was also able to communicate with the consulate and got some new information on visa issues. Looks like the new bribery regulations are really detrimental to ease of maneuvering through the Russian government system. I see a total lack of incentive now to get any work done by a government employee of Russia. No one wants to get in trouble and the easiest way to stay out of trouble is to do nothing when you work for any governmental system…

Sveta said a good thing today, “Russia makes life rough for civilized countries to come, but wild and uncivilized countries have no problem getting across the border…”

What she said made sense. I realized that countries where the people are raised to obey the rules and laws, the people struggle with the Russian regulations. The countries that are still a wild west situation do not care about visas in the first place. They just cross anywhere into Russia, illicit or not. Just like the Mexicans in America…

OK on to the last subject in the title. We are going home to Russia. So if the “Lord is willing and the creek don’t rise!” we will be back on Saturday to our wonderful home in Moscow Russia…

The picture above is the light at the end of the tunnel. We have finally seen that light with this visa trip…

Windows to Russia!

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A second regiment equipped with advanced S-400 Triumf air defense systems will be put on combat duty near the Russian capital on May 15, the Defense Ministry said.

The first S-400 regiment has been deployed in Electrostal, also near Moscow, as part of the air and missile defense network around the Russian capital.

The S-400 (SA-21 Growler) air defense system is expected to form the cornerstone of Russia’s theater air and missile defenses by 2020.

The S-400 system can engage targets at a maximum range of up to 400 km at an altitude of 40,000-50,000 meters. The system uses a range of missiles, optimized for engaging ballistic and cruise missiles.

An S-400 air defense regiment consists of two or three battalions equipped with four systems each. Russia is planning to arm 56 battalions with S-400 systems by 2020.

MOSCOW, May 13 (RIA Novosti)

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday he does not mind that some people post abusive comments to his Twitter micro blog, saying some users need time to grow up.

“The fact is that Twitter is set up so that no one is banned. It was created in such a way that any person can tell anyone what he thinks about anything using the juiciest expressions. If you want, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and if you want, you can say exactly the same to [U.S. President Barack] Obama,” the president said, answering journalists’ questions about his attitude towards obscenities in Twitter.

He said that using rude words in Internet is a matter of culture. “I guess it [Twitter] was not created for this, but if someone wants to express his emotions, I do not mind.”

The president said he is opposed to repressive measures against his micro blog’s readers since they should grow up on their own.

Medvedev, who styles himself as a technologically savvy leader, officially registered his Twitter account in June 2010 during a visit to Silicon Valley. More than 270,000 people are currently following him at MedvedevRussia on the micro-blogging site, while the English version, MedvedevRussiaE, has almost 100,000 followers.

In his Twitter blog, the president shares his views of events in Russia and abroad, posts photographs that he takes, and responds to questions asked by other Twitter users.

Medvedev’s Twitter and LiveJournal accounts have been named the best blogs in the Russian-language Internet in 2011.

MOSCOW, May 12 (RIA Novosti)

Declaring Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his relatives a legitimate target of NATO attacks is “going overboard,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.

“The coalition is, in effect, openly declaring that its task is regime change [in Libya]. That Gaddafi and his relatives…are a legitimate target. This is over the top,” he said in an interview with the Moskovksie Novosti daily to be published on Thursday.

He reiterated Moscow’s view that the coalition is supporting only one side in the conflict.

“There is only one way out. An immediate ceasefire, as Russia has already proposed at the Security Council. Then a search for a solution through mediation,” he said.

Violence in Libya, which began in mid-February, has already claimed thousands of lives, with Gaddafi’s troops maintaining their combat capabilities despite NATO airstrikes against them.

MOSCOW, May 11 (RIA Novosti) 

The Russian Investigative Committee has failed to file formal tax evasion charges against Hermitage Capital head William Browder because he did not show up for questioning, a spokeswoman said on Thursday.

“If he fails to appear again, action will be taken to establish his whereabouts and enforce his presence,” committee spokeswoman Irina Dudukina said.

U.S.-born Browder, who is a British citizen, is suspected of underpaying more than 2 billion rubles ($72 million) in back taxes.

He was once one of the most successful Western investors in Moscow but was expelled from Russia in 2005 for national security reasons and now lives in Britain.

Dudukina said there were no impediments to Browder’s entry into Russia and he could easily receive a visa if he applied.

According to some media reports Russia will seek Browder’s extradition and prosecute him in absentia if Britain refuses.

Hermitage Capital has been in the focus of a controversial tax evasion case that led to the death in custody of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009.

Magnitsky was jailed in 2008 after being charged with tax evasion linked to his defense of Hermitage Capital.

The lawyer accused Russian tax and Interior Ministry officials of using documents seized form Hermitage’s subsidiaries to register their own people as owners and directors and file a false tax claim to embezzle $230 million.

He died aged 37 from acute heart failure after 11 months in a Moscow pre-trial detention facility.

Magnitsky was kept in appalling conditions and was refused crucial medical treatment in what Hermitage says was an effort to coerce him to admit his role in its alleged tax evasion.

MOSCOW, May 12 (RIA Novosti)

We have been having a great time in Odessa Ukraine. The weather has been just about perfect and the sights we have been seeing are really cool…

We have stayed in a flat near the Black Sea. It was very nice and the price is right due to off season. We could walk to the sea and we found some wonderful French cafe’s…

Odessa is a neat seaport that is a melting pot of a million people. We spent Victory Day at the Odessa Seaport. It was a really interesting day and we got to listen to several concerts that played music from the old days…

I finally found a good WiFi spot and decided to catch the blog up on items. Sorry about the inactivity but sometimes internet is a little hard to come by…

Tonight (Wednesday) we leave on a train bac to Kiev. It is time to get my visa and go hoe to Moscow Russia…

Sveta and I have had a blast in Odessa…

See you soon…

Kyle and Sveta
Windows to Russia!

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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has dismissed another four Interior Ministry generals, the Kremlin press service said on Saturday.

Some 3,000,000 people took part in Victory Day celebrations in Moscow, the Russian capital’s police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said.

Victory Day that Russia celebrates on May 9 marks the final defeat of Nazi Germany by the Soviet Union in World War II, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War. This year, the 66th anniversary of the Soviet victory was marked.

“No serious incidents were registered,” Biryukov said, adding that 20,000 police officers ensured order on city streets. “No one was detained.”

A military parade was held on Red Square in the morning. The event involved 20,000 servicemen and cadets, as well as a march pass of over 100 pieces of military hardware.

The hardware included Topol-M ballistic missile launchers, S-400 Triumph air defense systems, Pantsyr-S1 air defense systems, Iskander-M missile launchers, Smerch multiple rocket launchers, BTR-80 armored personnel carriers, and T-90 main battle tanks.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev addressed the participants and guests at the beginning of the parade.

The day culminated in a grand fireworks display consisting of 30 salvos from 18 guns and 72 launchers.

Over 250,000 people participated in Victory Day celebrations in the Moscow Region that surrounds the Russian capital, regional police spokesman Yevgeny Gildeyev said.

He said no incidents were reported and no one was detained, and added that 6,400 police officers ensured law and order.

Victory Day celebrations also took place in cities across Russia and in former Soviet states.

MOSCOW, May 10 (RIA Novosti)

Our duty is to safeguard peace achieved by the victory in the 1941-45 war against Nazi Germany, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at a military parade in Moscow on Monday.

The military parade dedicated to the 66th anniversary of the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War was launched on Moscow’s Red Square at 10:00 a.m. Moscow time (06:00 GMT) and continued for about an hour.

“The duty of our generation is to safeguard peace achieved by the Victory,” Medvedev said, adding that the modernization and development of the Armed Forces remains a key priority for the Russian leadership.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov also attended the parade.

The parade involved a march pass of about 20,000 servicemen and cadets. The troops wore new-style field uniforms, introduced in the Russian Armed Forces this year.

Two hundred elite officers from Russia’s Space Forces marched on Red Square for the first time in history of the Victory Day parades.

The event also involves a march pass of over 100 pieces of military hardware, including Topol-M ballistic missile launchers, S-400 Triumph air defense systems, Pantsyr-S1 air defense systems, Iskander-M missile launchers, Smerch multiple rocket launchers, BTR-80 armored personnel carriers, and T-90 main battle tanks.

The parade culminated with a flyover by a group of five Mi-8 multirole helicopters carrying Russian state and military flags.

The first Victory Parade was held on Red Square on June 24, 1945 on the order of the then-Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Joseph Stalin.

According to latest studies, the total causalities of the Soviet Union, both soldiers and civilians, were 26.6 million people, of those an estimated 8,668,400 soldiers died.

MOSCOW, May 9 (RIA Novosti)

President Dmitry Medvedev suggested on Tuesday that Russia should consider introducing chemical castration as a punishment for criminals guilty of sexual offences against children.

“Punishments should be as harsh as possible. The state should use all means possible, and a liberal approach here is totally unacceptable,” Medvedev said at a meeting on the development of the legal system.

“I suggest discussion of measures including medical procedures for such individuals, including injections that would block the action of their hormones,” the president said.

Chemical castration of pedophiles is used in a number of countries and consists of a series of regular chemical injections that block the effects of the male hormone testosterone.

Medvedev highlighted the importance of measures to protect children in his annual address to the nation in November 2010, saying that protecting children vital for the future of Russian society.

GORKY, May 10 (RIA Novosti)