Windows to Russia

Russians call it “The Korean Salad” and after I looked around this salad is called “Korean Carrot Salad,” but it is more Russian than Korean. I am amazed at how good this salad is and it took me awhile to find a recipe that would do justice to the amazing salad that you will find made in Russia and Ukraine as you travel…

Lets make a Russian Salad called Korean Carrot Salad…

Ingredients:
Half Kilo of fresh carrots, peeled and shredded. I prefer shredding in strands lengthwise…
2 cloves garlic, minced and smashed
1/4 cup normal Apple vinegar
1 tablespoon white beet sugar (Cane sugar will do in a pinch)
2 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 onion, diced and minced
1 teaspoon finely ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon sweet cayenne pepper

Directions:
1. Place shredded carrots in a large bowl. Sprinkle garlic over carrots…
2. Mix vinegar, sugar, and salt together in a separate small bowl…
3. Heat oil in a non stick skillet over medium heat. Cook onion until soft and translucent, 5 to 7 minutes…
4. Then stir coriander and cayenne pepper into the onion as it cools…
5. Add to carrot mixture once onion mix has cooled and toss and stir. Pour vinegar dressing over carrot mixture – toss to coat everything again very well…
6. Transfer carrot salad to a dish with a tight-fitting lid, cover, and refrigerate 4 to 24 hours, tossing salad several times while it marinates. This is important to get the flavor to settle throughout the whole salad…

A salad like this should be made the day before using as with 90% of salads and food items, a 24 hour waiting period always allows flavors to circulate sufficiently throughout the food. I taught Sveta this trick and she has noticed a difference with food items when they have a resting period before you eat them of about a day…

So toss the salad good just before serving and get your serving first, because by the time it is passed around the dinner table it will disappear when it gets back to you… 🙂

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

I resurrected an passage out of the article that I posted a very long time ago. In fact it was one of the first articles that I ever posted. Here is the article…

When I came to Russia I quit smoking. I had smoked 0ver 30 years. Its a good thing! The price of cigarettes is so cheap in Russia that I would have smoked even more. In the US I was paying 4 to 5 dollars a pack. In Russia I would only have to pay 75 cents. I am thankful to have quit.

I read that in the last 10 years that Russians have increased smoking 100%.

That is sad, When the US is trying to stamp smoking out, Russia is trying to get everyone to smoke.

What do you think? Is Smoking OK?

comments welcomed

Kyle (Source)

It comes to mind because Russia is going through one of her save the people spells and from what I see, Russians need to have someone try to save them. Now don’t get me wrong, I think we should have our own minds to make up and no one should tell us what to do, but Russians sometimes are kinda all over the place when it comes to being on one side of the fence or another…

have said this before, “What one Russian does they all do!”

So we are now on a crusade to stop smoking. The Duma has passed some of the most stringent laws against public smoking I have ever seen. They never build into something slowly and build steam on the subject, they just grab a subject and try to change the world all at once…

That is why I love Russians…

So I have not touched a cigarette for 7 years now and I will not touch one again. I did the quitting thing “cold turkey” as we in America call it. I smoked the last cigarette in America and stopped, but I do every once in a while think about sitting and having a cup of coffee and smoking a cigarette or a cigar…

All I can tell Russians is that they will be better off by quitting and the way to quit is just “Cold Turkey!”

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

This is a subject that I have talked very little about and I am only talking about this subject now out of curiosity. Curiosity that stems from coming from a totally different society and mindset. It simply has to do with people being given their living quarters free and clear, after the fall of the Soviet Union. This is the coffee thinking’s today on this crisp, cold and sunny day…

It seems that in July of 1991, the Russian Federation passed legislation permitting tenants of municipal and departmental housing to acquire their units free of charge. I have over the years listened and studied the Russians I know and I can tell you that most if not all of the 100+ Russians that I have associated with, have at least one if not two or more paid for living quarters. Yes that is correct, they own their home(s), “Lock Stock and Barrel!”

The only real problem I saw with this, was the fact that many people never signed up and got the paper work done. In fact people that I see complaining are too lazy to take care of the paperwork and get their home in their name free and clear…

Putin just stated as a matter of, “It Will Happen!” –

“The president (Putin) believes that taking into consideration social significance of this problem it is necessary to raise the issue of prolonging public housing privatization for all categories of citizens for two more years,” The president’s spokesman, Peskov said.

“Therefore we proceed from the assumption that this issue will be studied in this manner, which will allow those categories of citizens, who failed to do this in time, to privatize their flats free of charge, although to be fair it’s worth noting that there was enough time to complete all privatization procedures,” Peskov said.

He noted that the issue of free public housing privatization “is very sensitive and concerns a great number of citizens.” The expiry date of free privatization is March 1, 2013. This is looming soon…

I have listened to Sveta and her mother. They have accomplished this task many years ago and because of Sveta’s aunt taking care of her side of things. Sveta and I have a place to live that is paid free and clear. We paid the family money and now the new unit we are in has no mortgage at all, zip, zill and no bank involved…

Living house payment free is strange experience for this American. I have paid off a home in the past, but I stupidly loaned on it and started a failing business. So in the end, I went two months with no house payment and then borrowed against it and then ended up loosing the home as collateral on a business venture…

The mind set in Russia is so different than from what I came from. Russians value family, security and most of all no taking out loans. In the end they have more money to spend and yet they make so much less than in the western side of the world…

Since most of these people are not getting the paperwork done, because they have always been supplied a home and it looks to be that nothing has really changed in their lives. So the threat of losing their home over the simple fact that they are lazy, means nothing to them and by what I see. They are correct…

Russia is now extending the deadline for people to get their flat put in their name – FREE!

This has been going on since 1991…

I ask you to stop a second and image the money that you would have available to spend on everyday life and even vacations, if your home was paid for and utilities where around a quarter of what you pay for them now!

No really think! I watch the world in Russia that I live in. I watch people with totally free healthcare, free homes and literally free utilities in comparison to the western world. Food staples are dirt cheap and to top it off many Russians have free or greatly reduced priced public transport…

As a society Russia has much more free spending money than many Americans. I know that my dollar goes much farther here in Russia and “That is That!”

So back to the subject at hand…

Russians have been allowed two more years to get their flats put in their names, free of charge. I know that it happens because all the Russians I know have done it and they all live in a flat that is paid for. The future generations of Russians are in a good way, if they are smart about how they treat their homes they inherit…

Why Sveta’s son Misha will inherit 4 paid for units, with no debt on them when his adult members pass away. Think about the possibilities available to future generations to live without debt strangling them all their life. He can lease these units and live happily forever after…

I bet they extend this deadline at least one more time in the future…

Russians! That is why I love Russia…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

US Asks Russia to Lift Meat Ban: Please take our Tainted Meat, because no one else will…

WASHINGTON, on February 11th 2013 has whined “What did we do!”: The US government on Monday called on Russia to lift a ban on US beef and pork imports containing the livestock feed additive ractopamine, which went into effect earlier in the day…

I have read that the US wants to talk about it, but the US was given a chance and ignored that chance…

Russia says, “We do not want the crap in our meat!” Russia says ractopamine is unsafe and dangerous, that it is imposing the ban on US meat imports containing the food additive, because the US Food Safety and Inspection Service failed to guarantee that beef and pork shipments would be free of ractopamine. Russia has waited for a response and one never came from America, where as Canada and several other countries complied and made concessions…

Once again it is an America that does no wrong and everyone is mean to her as she is so perfect and is the queen of perfection. Just listen to the stupid statement that comes out of several “foot in mouth” diseased individuals: “The United States is very disappointed that Russia has taken action to suspend all imports of US meat, which is produced to the highest safety standards in the world,” said US Trade Representative Ron Kirk and US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a joint statement.”

Seriously? The highest safety standards in the world! Seriously? Then they do not get out much do they?

Now if you knew what I know and what many people know who refuse to eat food produced by American big bussiness. Then you would roll your eyes at such a flagrantly pathetic attempt at trying to convince themselves that America has safe food standards…

Russia has responded to the whining with more banning of tainted food: Russia Bans Turkey Over Ractopamine Residues…

This is interesting: The food safety standards set by the United Nations, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, allows a measurable amount of ractopamine at 10 parts per billion! Now we find out that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows the usage of a standard of 50 parts per billion… (10 parts compared to 50 parts)

That seems to be a whole bunch higher…

Ractopamine, which is used to stimulate livestock growth and make meat leaner, is prohibited in around 160 countries world wide. The drug is just not a good thing to use and most of the world agrees…

In an attempt to politicize this issue, a leading association of US pork producers said the ban is less about food safety concerns and more about reducing competition for the Russian meat industry. “This is not about food safety issues, this is about protecting the domestic product,” said National Pork Producers Council spokesman Dave Warner as he also said, “Pork is a pretty important industry for Russia, so this is about reducing the competition for their domestic pork industry,” Warner said.

The US is worried that a lucrative market is about to be shut forever and last year the US exported just over 80,000 metric tons (88,183 tons) of beef to Russia at a value of $307 million, and more than 99,000 metric tons (109,126 tons) of pork at a value of $282 million…

A country that is as far in debt as America is cannot afford to lose any trade at all…

Please Russia, keep the tainted meat out of our stores in Russia! We have plenty of good meat to eat…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

P.S. – The food Americans are eating is “just plain horse crazy” and that is that…

Hot on the trail…

While I have eaten horsemeat and rat, snake, alligator and variety of insects and other tasty treats in the world. I am against eating horse meat as a staple. I was raised to believe horses are a member of the family and they work the farm just like the humans work the farm…

Not long ago Sveta brought home horsemeat! Now in Russia horse meat is a staple and can be found in most stores. Eating horse is normal in many parts of the world. I just could not eat it and that is my western world upbringing. She eat it and Boza decided that it was the best thing since fried chicken and pork cutlets. I just was raised different…

But I have to laugh at the explosion of the UK society as I read everyday articles about horsemeat. I fact this article is stimulated by the fact that now they say:

Horsemeat found in British supermarkets ‘may be donkey’

That just set me to a laughing fit…

Then I really looked around…

What I thought was just a bunch of Britains running around and worrying about horsemeat, has developed into a European apocalypse

I see America has been blamed for horsemeat to Europe, I see Poland has been blamed. I see that Romania is blamed. I see fingers being pointed at Northern Ireland and to tell the truth, it has gotten way out of hand and it needs to stop. There is a hell of a lot more important things to worry about than whether you got horsemeat in you burger or lasagna. I see a “Next Stop!” and Europe saying, “Damn Russians eat horse meat, they gotta be the culprit…”

In fact I have been stunned that anyone would care enough to keep the media so involved in this story. There must be something going on that Europe is trying to cover up and keep peoples minds from questioning…

Nah they would never try to distract the public. Wish the media would do this same crazy reporting when the west kills thousands of innocent people all over the world. I guess it is all in the importance of the event… 🙁

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

For years I have talked about Russia buying gold and I have even posted several articles to keep an eye on what they are doing. In fact I have made it clear that Russia is preparing for the future when a petrodollar is no longer a feasible unit of measurement.This is what my coffee thinking’s are this morning as I contemplate gold…

Now read what Bloomberg prints…

Not only has Putin made Russia the world’s largest oil producer, he’s also made it the biggest gold buyer. His central bank has added 570 metric tons of the metal in the past decade, a quarter more than runner-up China, according to IMF data compiled by Bloomberg. The added gold is also almost triple the weight of the Statue of Liberty.

This falls in line with what has been happening for years in Russia and what I have seen happening. I find it interesting that everyone ignores the obvious and keeps on rolling in a bed made of worthless paper fiat money that is not valued as much as the cost of producing it…

It is things like this that interest me. I find it strange how we always get the information and that information is verifiable about eastern countries gold and financial dealings, but try to verify the fact if the US has the gold she says she has and try to understand what the real financial issue is in the west and you will hit a garbled wall of trash that means nothing in the least…

I figured it out…

China and Russia are buying gold as fast as they can buy it. Both are mining gold as fast as they can mine it. Both are running a race to see who can purchase the most gold. Both are on the doorstep of the western banks when those banks release gold to suppress the market…

Think about it…

Both countries want to be a world currency and be the petrol-currency of the future. So both are scarfing up gold to back that currency, as that is the way that their currency will be accepted as the number one currency. They know that the west has been selling her gold under the table trying to prop up a failing fiat money system and one day soon, the house of cards that has been built will come tumbling down when the correct breeze makes its way int the glass house that has been built…

Just watch as Russia turns “Black Gold” into “Yellow Gold” – hmm…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The government must take into account the opinions of Russian society when considering introducing a special juvenile justice system, President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday at a congress of the Russian Parents Opposition group.

“The opinion of society, it goes without saying, will be heard and considered. In these issues, there must be no place for secrecy or imposition when taking on these projects,” Putin said.

Russia has been working on the implementation of a special justice system for handling juveniles since it signed the European Social Charter back in 2000. That initiative has been strongly opposed by conservative groups in Russia, including the Russian Orthodox Church, as an alien western practice damaging traditional family values.

Children’s rights ombudsmen offices have been established across the country in the past year, but there is still no separate branch of the courts for dealing with minors.

Putin said over 141,000 citizens had signed a petition expressing concern over introduction of a juvenile justice system, and said he recognized the concerns of those who thought that a series of draft laws on guarantees for the rights of children contained social risks.

“And most importantly, Russian family traditions are not fully taken into account in them,” he said.

Over half (57 percent) of Russians questioned in a survey last week backed the idea of juvenile courts in Russia, but some 71 percent said they were against children’s rights taking priority over those of their parents.

Sixty percent said minors should not be allowed to take action against their parents in the courts, according to the survey conducted by the VTsIOM state-run polling organization.

Windows to Russia…

The Winter Olympics, held for the first time in Russia, are to take place from Feb 7 to 23, 2014 in the Black Sea resort of Sochi…

Russia has begun the one-year countdown until the Black Sea city of Sochi hosts the Winter Olympic Games. President Vladimir Putin attended the event after firing a senior official in the organizing committee.

Cities across Russia began the festivities by unveiling special clocks in their main squares which are to countdown the days, hours and minutes until the Sochi Winter Games open in one year’s time.

The capital, Moscow, unveiled a clock measuring six meters (19.69-feet) in height near Red Square. The mayor, Sergei Sobyanin was joined by Olympic champions Svetlana Zhurova and Ivan Ukhov for the unveiling ceremony.

So I put this widget here so that everyone can come by when they desire and see how long before the next Winter Olympics start…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The Big Mac index is a guide to alignment of world currencies in regard to the US dollar and is based on comparing price for a McDonald’s Big Mac in various countries. In January 2013 a burger in Russia cost $2.43 at market exchange rates, while in the United States the price was $4.37. So the “raw” Big Mac index shows that the ruble was undervalued by 44.5%. This means, the US dollar exchanges to the Russian ruble at 1/30.5 rate, while its actual rate should be 1/16.69, according to the index.

The Big Mac index…

Yes a Big Mac is only $2.08 near us in Russia. I am always amazed how cheap McDonald’s is in Ukraine and Russia, compared to America! In fact a few months ago we bought a Big Mac in the heart of Moscow and it ran 76 rubles. That is around $2.53 per Big Mac and it is located in one of the most expensive cities in the world… (That is what they say! I don’t see it…)

To top it all off, it is the exact same food! I mean exactly…

Hmm, you should be doing some thinking’s…

That is some serious inflation in America, because when I left America years ago. A big Mac was under $3 (My last Big Mac – American made was $2.58 in Covington, Kentucky – seven years ago…) and my first one in Russia was over $2 even then. Basically the price in Russia has stayed dormant and in America it has rocketed..

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

P.S. These are averages for the countries. So your price could be more or less for your Big Mac. Mine is less and I have seen them many times below $2 in Russia…

Over 1.2 million people sign a petition demanding President Mikhail Saakashvili’s resignation! These petition signatures were collected in Georgia, by the representatives of the non-governmental organization “Unanimity for the Rights of Society…”

Now in anyone book that is a major portion of the population! I find it interesting that the West does not even talk about this, except on the back page near the obituaries and recipes…

But let a few thousand people walk around Moscow and scream murder and there is a thousand reporters form the western media trying to blow the story up into a scandal that rivals “Peyton Place” everyday of the year…

In Georgia that is like 27% of the population and that speaks volumes about what the people want!

I don’t see Sassy leaving anytime soon and I suspect he will cause trouble before and after he leaves, unless as we use to say, “They run him out of town on a rail car!”

I have watched this last month at the numbers of signatures growing on this petition and I have to say that Sassy needs to retire and enjoy the Bahamas or somewhere else just like his best buddy the Ex-President of Ukraine is doing. You know you never hear hardly a word out of Yushchenko and he is smart enough to keep it that way…

Interesting…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…