Windows to Russia

Well for the next few days. Windows to Russia will not be as active as normal. It is that time for a visa run and I will be leaving April 26th, 2011 on a train to Kiev, Ukraine…

There will still be a few posts as I have a new software that will allow some basics posts to happen. I also have my cell phone and I can post from that if I so desire. So there will still be activity…

I should be back by Friday if all goes well. I say that because I always expect the worse then when the best happens it is great… 🙂

So at this time I want to thank the huge numbers of readers to Windows to Russia. Windows to Russia has averaged 25,000 page views a day for almost a year. I was very surprised at that yearly number. That was over 9,000,000 page views during the last year. We also have an average of 12 page views per reader. That means some of you do some serious reading on Windows to Russia! That equates into 2080 unique visitors a day on average (My unique is based on a 24 hour period.). Other words, someone (Readers) is on the Windows to Russia site reading articles literally non stop all day long. I would also like to express a thanks to the Russian readers. They account for 30% of my reader base now. Russia has finally exceeded the USA reader base for the first time this month. In fact in “Alexa” – Windows to Russia ranks 20,000 in Russia for popular sites. This month Russia is number one followed closely by the USA. Then Germany is right behind the USA. In fact if Germany will pick up by 10 to 15 readers a day then it will surpass the USA in readership just like Russia has done…

Bottom line is that without all you readers, Windows to Russia would not be where it is today. One of the number one English based Russian blogs around…

While we have a lot to do to become a big time site. I can see it happening one day. That is what keeps me going and improving Windows to Russia. The loyal reader base…

Thanks everyone…

Windows to Russia!

This is an interview between Voice of Russia and Vyacheslav Matuzov, a Russian veteran diplomat and expert in North Africa and Middle East policies…

Now we are on a new stage of developing events in Libya, when the western forces acknowledged, that they cannot solve the issue with only establishing no-fly zone over Libyan air. I think that ground operation is inevitable to achieve goals, proclaimed by NATO, by the United States administration…

There have been some discussions about ground operations several weeks ago, when some observers were telling me that there are already advisers in Libya, acting on the side of the rebels, does that imply that the ground operation has already started?

When I hear about occurrence here and there in Libya with some forces, some regiments, some French, British, American special forces, I can conclude, that we have in our experience such kind of the example as in Iraq, in Afghanistan. We know they are operating a private army, established by the United States Ministry of Defense. I think that this kind of military non-governmental forces can easily operate in Libya, in any other country of the world without any responsibilities before their parliaments, before their governments, before the people of the western countries. It is a dangerous direction of developing the political situation in the world, not only in Libya…

Do you remember that several weeks ago there were many reports that Gaddafi is using contractors, so, do I get that right, that we are entering a phase where there is a war of contractors, not of regular armies?

It is a big lie to cover other trend, because real non-governmental forces are operating on the side of opposition, and it is only physical presence of French, British and American military forces in Libya, but officially they supply undercover of the humanitarian purposes, which including unknown kind of materials, it may be huge amounts of money to support the American policy in Libya…

What we are witnessing now in Libya, is an escalation of tension, to use a cliché, but then very much was being said about the ultimate goal of the operation, and it does look more and more so, that the ultimate goal of the operation is the removal of Mr Gaddafi. But he is still there. So what’s happening?

The goals of American targets in Libya changed. First of all, it was supporting civil population, which suffered under Muammar Gaddafi’s pressure; it is a declared goal. But now another target was positioned by American policy in Libya – it is changing the government, it is changing all the country; it is absolutely different approach to what is going on in Libya; it contradicts all the resolutions of the Security Council of the UN. It is obvious violation of the Security Council’s work. It is surprising that till now the Security Council is incapable to get a new meeting to listen to NATO organization leadership, what they are doing in Libya and how it corresponds to those restrictions, which they had put upon NATO organization’s work in Libya. This is an obvious pretext to bring to power in Libya certain political forces. But I have a question to NATO, to the United States administration, what kind of political forces they intend to bring to power not only in Libya, but in Algeria, in Syria, in Egypt, in Yemen and in Jordan? When I have a look at all these processes in all these countries, I can make a conclusion that the only one organized force in all these mentioned countries and it is based on the traditional Islamic idea, it is traditional Islamic force – Muslim Brotherhood, or, for example, in Tunisia it is An-Nahda, an Islamic organization, but it is also extremist and fundamentalist in nature. So when the purpose of the United States is to remove all the leaderships in the Arab world: Assad, Gaddafi, Ben Ali, Ali Saleh Mohammed, King Abdullah II, instead of those leaders they would bring a certain Islamic fundamentalist forces in power. What interest they are trying to realize here by pushing ahead all these revolutions? I think, that these revolutions are not a product of local political situations, especially in Libya, because it is a rich country, they had big difficulties between tribes in Libya, and using all these difficulties to change the government and to bring Islamic fundamentalist forces to power is dangerous, and in danger not only local people, but the whole Europe, even the United States. Have administration of the US responsibility for supporting this trend or not – this is the question…

If you remember the expert community has been involved for some time in discussions about whether the situation in Yemen is going to follow the Libyan scenario; and Yemen, at least as western experts were telling me, is home to al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula, which is even more serious than Muslim Brotherhood…

When they are talking about al-Qaeda, when they are talking about Muslim Brotherhood, I can say only one thing: al-Qaeda was established as a political movement by the CIA men, because Bin Laden was the CIA agent in the beginning of fighting, mobilizing of money and Islamic process in Afghanistan against Soviet military presence in this country. After that the Unites States lost their ability to govern that process, and we had September 11, where Al-Qaeda began working against those who created it. The same thing is concerned to the Muslim Brotherhood. I know quite a lot of memoirs of British intelligence service officers, who remember that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was created by the British intelligence service with purpose to make Islamic resistance against spreading communist ideas in the Middle East. And this purpose was working until now, when they were fighting the Russian presence in Syria in 1983-1985, when they were killing Russian officers, who were supporting the Syrian army; they were coming to Syria from Jordan, through those cities on the border of Jordan, made some terroristic acts against Russian officers and came back to Jordan. And when Jordanian authorities were asked, why you are permitting such kind of terroristic organizations to operate on your country, that they are crossing the border to Syria, making some terroristic actions and returning back, the Jordan authorities answered, we cannot control them, because we are prohibited to touch them, because they are undercover of CIA organization; they are not responsible to us. So Muslim Brotherhood through many decades is supported by the CIA, and when nowadays the New York Times printed an article, saying that the CIA one year ago established relations with Muslim Brotherhood, I don’t believe that it was one year ago, I believe it was at least 40 years ago, when these connections were established and pushing Muslim Brotherhood to power in all these traditional Arab societies, it may be the same fault, which occurred in Afghanistan, when they created al-Qaeda and its head – Bin Laden. The history is repeating in this case…

Your point is that those who invented and created and have been supporting Muslim Brotherhood can lose their control over the organization, just as they seemingly lost the control over al-Qaeda?

I think, they are dreaming that they are not; they think, they will continue controlling all these people afterwards, but I am not sure if they would be capable to keep this control after coming to power in Egypt, in Tunisia, in Libya, in Syria, in Jordan, in many other countries and even in Saudi Arabia. The revolutions changed those countries inevitably, brought extremist terroristic forces. I think that need for revolutions is obvious, but alternative political forces are not ready to take their place, except Islamic fundamentalist extremist forces, they are operating under cover of the CIA. I do not think that an American government or the EU are responsible for all that is going on; the political leadership of the west in European Union and the US think three times before they take some political decisions to support fundamentalists coming to power in the Arab world…

Just to illustrate how far the ripples, coming from the situation in Libya and in the Middle East, go…

Even the Washington Post published some materials saying that they made analyses about CIA reduced something about 600 Al-Qaeda fundamentalist elements, coming abroad to Iraq, to fight American army in Iraq; and in the first place it was people from Libya, there are volunteers from Libya coming to Iraq to fight Americans. I do not think that Americans unaware of all these developments, they are aware, but till now they are trying to open an opportunity in Libya for coming to power and to replace Muammar Gaddafi. I think, it is the best choice for the West to think twice and if they want free democratic elections in Libya, they should except African Union proposals for peaceful political solution of the situation in Libya and on this base organize undercover of the Security Council of the UN a peaceful negotiations inside Libya. Military way inevitably will bring other forces to power, which are unfriendly not only to the western culture, but to the American interest as well…

What actually put me on alert is an opinion peace, which I discovered in one of the Chinese newspapers, the Global Times. Its headline says that Russian and Chinese militaries draw conclusions from Libyan war. Does not it a little bit bring to mind the situation with Iran, and if you remember, the US pressing on Iran actually resulted in making it stronger…

That is correct. I heard a lot of words from our military personal, having the same opinion, because they are now make conclusions. Now what forces are playing a leading role in military operations in Libya? They are private army, operating in Libya, Côte d’Ivoire, who knows, where they will appear tomorrow; I do not exclude that even in Yemen, in Syria, in Iran it can be used; new invention of American Ministry of Defense is the subject for thorough thinking by military analytics in Chinese Ministry of Defense and in Russian Ministry of Defense. The world is developing, means of fighting are also changing; all these things should be taken into account for all who are interested in defending their own national interest, including Russia and China…

Just to sum it up, your point is what we are witnessing now in the Middle East and North Africa is some sort of a new time bomb, which is being created by western forces. And the time bomb could blow up the whole world, figuratively speaking…

There are changes in the world policy, because these new politics that were demonstrated by the United States administration, they have established new role for the world order. The new world order in now beginning testing its power in different regions of the world, in Africa, in Côte d’Ivoire, in Arab world, and even it can be spread afterwards to other regions. I think that this new approach to the world policy is demonstrated very clearly in the Middle East, it is a creation of new and big Middle East with new frontiers…

Windows to Russia!

Source: http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/04/25/49438252.html

Hello! Today we celebrate The Easter here in Russia. With Russian traditional Easter Bread – Kulich with dying Easter Eggs and with Happy Easter to all our neighbors here.

Have a very happy Easter!

Христос Воскресе!

A delegation of Russian religious, government and public figures will attend the “coming down” of Holy Fire ceremony in Jerusalem on Saturday and bring the flame to Moscow on Easter’s Eve.

The Holy Fire that is lit every year at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on the day preceding Orthodox Easter is believed by Orthodox Christians to be a miracle.

A special flight is expected to land at 10.30 p.m. Moscow time (20:30 GMT) on Saturday at the Vnukovo airport, where the Holy Fire will be traditionally greeted by hundreds of Russian believers.

From Moscow the sacred flame, which pilgrims say does not burn in the first 33 minutes after it has been lit, will be “distributed” among Russian Orthodox churches in containers similar to those used to transport the Olympic flame.

The Holy Fire is brought to Russia from Israel every year since 2003.

Every Orthodox church in Russia holds Paschal liturgies on the night of Holy Saturday that last well into Easter morning.

JERUSALEM, April 23 (Windows to Russia)

Orthodox Christians are observing Good Friday today in commemoration of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill is holding a divine service at the Cathedral of Christ Our Savior in Moscow. Fasting on Good Friday is particularly strict among Russian Orthodox believers…

Windows to Russia!

I have been watching a huge number of air conditioners going up all around Moscow. Last year the heat wave (By Russian standards) we had, literally sent most Russians into a heatstroke induced coma. It was so bad that even the government changed the rules about what you have to do to get an air conditioner put in now. What use to be an act of god to have done is now easy to do…

I had a good laugh today when I walked by a building and way up high they had two men installing air conditioners. Now the way that flat runs they have put and air conditioner in every room and in fact the one they are working on right now, they are installing two air conditioners in one room. The second set of brackets is being installed right now…

I find it interesting that Russians play chess in -20 degree Celsius weather but if it gets above +20 degrees Celsius, life starts getting rough…

I have watched air conditioners popping up everywhere and it seems to be a mess. The buildings are starting to look like they have growths all over the outside…

Oh by the way! This image to right is an example of why Russian males do not live very long. Just follow this link and you will see what is up…

http://www.mypointless.com/2008/10/installing-air-conditioner-in-russia.html

So while Russian can tolerate cold extremes that make most of the world want to crawl into a cave and hide all winter. It is the summers that make a Russian wish he could crawl into a cave and hide all summer…

Good thing Summer is only about a month long of heat…

Windows to Russia!

While drinking that delicious morning cup of coffee. I was doing some backtracking on several issues that have been forefront in the news yesterday. So lets see what was happening in Russia.

“Russian Interior Ministry and Moscow police personnel are checking information that unidentified persons abducted in Moscow the son of well-known entrepreneur Yevgeny Kaspersky,” the source said. Russia media report that Ivan Kaspersky, 20, may have been snatched on Tuesday and some reports say he is being held for a 3 million euro ransom. Yevgeny Kaspersky, who is behind the Kaspersky Labs anti-virus software, has a personal fortune of $800 million, according to Forbes magazine, and ranks 125th among Russia’s 200 richest persons…

When I first heard about this I was thinking a young child. But today I heard that this was a 20 year old guy. So I am going to wait out this story before I say a whole lot. This should be big news and is being taken rather strangely by the press…

Next on the list is Putin. Now Putin is always in the news and lately he has been in the news a whole bunch more. But this item is strange:

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday invited Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to visit the United States, Putin’s spokesman said. The invitation came in a telephone conversation, Dmitry Peskov said. Biden told Putin “he and President Barack Obama would be pleased to see the Russian prime minister,” Peskov said. Biden and Putin also discussed “various aspects of Russian-U.S. trade cooperation, including Russia’s admission to the WTO,” Peskov said.

Now I know that Putin can not be bought by the West like Medvedev has been. That is what makes Putin dangerous in the Wests eyes. But this is looking a whole lot like pre Russian election games to me. By America from America. Can anyone say, “Please do not run for Russian President, Mr. Putin…”

Next on the agenda is an item that caught my attention yesterday. Russia is wanting to drug test students in the schools. I normally would say, “Hey that is eroding my freedoms!” But if you saw how much it looks similar to the drug and alcohol problems in America, here in Moscow. Then you would change your mind. (Then maybe you wouldn’t!) I use to take evening walks in America and you could watch the young adults smoking pot and crack all up and down the neighborhood streets. Beer cans would be stacked in pyramid piles on the front porch to display their drinking abilities. I remember steel doors being torn down by cops every week on my street. I really do not want to see that become Russia…

Russian schools will introduce a program of annual drug tests that will be able to detect drug use up to half a year earlier, Marina Myagkova of Moscow Narcology Center said on Thursday. “We will test pupils’ blood for amphetamines, barbiturates and opiate-specific antibodies. The antibodies remain in the blood during five or six months after the last use,” Myagkova said. The first drug tests were carried out in 2005 among 713 university students. “We got shocking results: 72 of the students taking part in the research used drugs. This is 10 percent.” The pupils will be tested with their parents’ permission.

I know that with the Flying J Corporation that I worked for in America at one time. There was mandatory surprise instant drug testing. They could at anytime, test any employee for drugs. It was our policy to have 25% of the work force available, on call to work for the occasions that they tested us. Management was not told when they would be coming. Because a normal unit lost 20% plus of the employees at a drug test. As this program was fully implemented the percent of employees doing drugs dropped because employees realized that they should work at places that do not drug test. Sooner or later you will catch a huge percent of them. I remember one of the main questions asked in an interview by prospective employees was, “Do you test for drugs?” I had a lot get up and leave the interview when told, “Yes, when hired and surprise tests while working! Here is the handbook it explains the policy!” (Flying J by the way was the company that I had been Sexually Harassed with.) So with the drug problem I see in Russia that is seems to be getting worse by the day. Something needs to be done. I have taken a lot of drug tests in my day so they are not worrisome unless you do drugs. But I still want to say that they are an eroding of our freedoms… 🙂

Next I found an interesting tidbit of information that was expensive…

Workers in a Siberian mining company in Yakutia have discovered a large diamond weighing more than 136 carats, a spokesman for the republic’s Industrial Ministry said on Thursday. The diamond has a very rare “honey-yellow” color, measures 33 x 23 millimeters, and is of irregular shape. The diamond’s worth has not yet been determined…

What a diamond! I wonder what it will be cut into as far as size and shape? I guess we will have to wait and see what it is worth…

Well that is it today and I have rattled on enough. Those happen to be the issues that caught my attention… (Except Libya of course!)

I am going to finish my cup of coffee now…

Windows to Russia!

http://windowstorussia.com/russia-have-you-ever-been-sexually_11.html

Interesting but over the last few days in Russia it has become official that Libya has armed the civilians in Lybia. This has been done because the West has made it clear that they are getting ready to launch a ground attack…

It seems that according to News Sources in Russia, that a stalemate has developed in Libya. So the next exciting chapter of this story will be for the West to send in ground troops…

Well by golly they (News Sources in Russia) are correct…

1. McCain is in Libya…
2. Obama orders Predator Drones to be used…
3. NATO and the UN are asking politely for Russia to tone down the rhetoric against the Western War – I mean humanitarian help session to save Libyans from Qaddafi…
4. UK says that they are in this humanitarian help session for the long term…
5. France is like a little pug dog with his chest puffed out saying, “Let me at em!”
6. The US, France and UK have all sent military experts to help out the Rebels or are they terrorists? I get confused…
7. The West has taken the rebels side as fact…
8. The UN resolution on Libya is a shambles…
9. We still exaggerate the murder and mayhem by a hundred fold…
10. We have driven the words humanitarian effort into the world until it sounds like a broken record…
12. We could go on but you get my drift…

Now we wait to see if the Russian press is made to shut up about broken UN Libya resolution and tons of other things they say bad about the West right now…

Lets hope not because it is all true…

I would have much more respect for America, Britain and France if we just would not lie about it all and just do it. Other words if you do not like Quaddafi then tell it like it is and admit that we are going to kill him and turn Libya into a puppet state of the West…

Boy Oh Boy – We have got ourselves into a Pickle…

Windows to Russia!

Moscow, Russia celebrates the birthday of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin, if still alive he would be 141 years old. Born on April 22, 1870 and died on January 21st, 1924…

The lasting testament to his affect on the Russia during the Soviet times is the huge number of statues of Lenin that still exist all over Russia. If you ever travel Russia you will see what I mean…

He was 54 years old at time of death…

Windows to Russia!

So as we stated in Part 1. Propane (LPG) is an environmentally good fuel and cheap. Now I am going to show you the parts. The only things that I could not get a good picture of, is the base plate on the carburetor and the switch to tell which fuel you want. I had to drill and install the gas to the base-plate myself and the inside of the car was too dark… (Here is what I mean by base-plate >>>)

The parts are few and very simple. Propane (LPG) does not need a fuel pump of any type. It does not need to be atomized because it is a vapor. But as you see (fourth picture from the left) there is a Propane Heater that is run off of hot water from the car. That is necessary because Propane (LPG) is so cold that it will freeze everything and it is in a liquid state. This device turns the liquid to a vapor. For cold weather operation you definitely need the propane heater…

I said that the tank would be interesting. The first picture above is our fill valve for propane (LPG). The second picture in the row is our tank. It is located where the spare tire is supposed to be. It holds around 55 liters. The picture to the left is a tank before installed. Ours has a rubber inner-tube installed around it for vibration control…

The third picture from the left is a magnetic shut off for the gasoline. When you activate the switch under the dash (below) and turn on propane this is the little devil that stops the gasoline from flowing. Believe me when I say that trying to run on gas (LPG) at the same time as gasoline does not work…

The last picture across the top is a regulator for the propane (LPG). It also shuts off the propane (LPG) flow when there is no electrical flow to the engine. It is mainly as I see it a safety device. Keeps the propane at a constant pressure and stops the flow of gas when you turn the key or switch off…

Now the unseen parts is copper tubing used for the propane (LPG) flow from the tank to the Propane Heater. It is insulated every foot with rubber buffers. You also have to have several meters of heater hose to install the Propane Heater inline with the heater core and such on the car. Of course there is lots of little fittings and such…

The propane goes right from the heater and straight into the bottom of the carburetor. Or in some case I have seen adapters to install on top of the carburetor. When I rebuilt the system I elected to remove the base-plate and drill a new hole to attach the gas (LPG) line. It had an adapter plate that was cumbersome and poorly designed. Gas straight into the intake manifold works much better and power loss is minimal. You have several way to attach the gas (LPG) line and if you manifold is of correct design you can actually tap into the manifold directly. I had to use the carburetor base because of design limitations…

That is about it for parts for running propane (LPG). It is a very simple system and in basic reality you do not even need a carburetor at all. In my case it is for throttle control and starting only. One thing that I do know is that since you do still have a carburetor attached that you must run it once in awhile on gasoline. Gasoline goes bad and varnishes up something terrible. So if you do not use it up or keep the carburetor wet inside you can cause some serious issues down the road…

Stay tuned for Part 3… (Driving on Propane is great…)

Windows to Russia!

PS:
Driving on Propane (LPG) in Russia… (Part 1)

Driving on Propane (LPG) in Russia… (Part 3)