Category: Russia

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin test-drove Russia’s new Yo-mobile hybrid car on the ten kilometer route from his residence to President Medvedev’s country house outside Moscow on Friday.

Yo-mobile, a project by Russia’s Yo-Auto, a joint venture between truck maker Yarovit and billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov’s Onexim group, will start production of Yo-Mobile hybrid cars in St. Petersburg in the second half of 2012.

“I am not ready to make any conclusions,” Putin told a high-tech commission meeting. “I want to drive this Yo-mobile of yours to Dmitry Anatolyevich [Medvedev] and show it to him.”

In December, Prokhorov presented three prototypes of the hybrid car, including a hatchback, van and cross-coupe vehicle models. New production cars will cost 350,000-450,000 rubles ($12,000-$15,000).

Putin drove the sports cross-coupe version, accompanied by Yo-auto Director General Andrei Biryukov. Prokhorov drove a microvan.

Biryukov said the complete version of the car would be four-wheel drive and equipped with cruise control, GPS/Glonass navigation and climate control. He said the car was attractively priced because it was based on cheaper new materials.

Yo-mobile is not the first car that Putin has test-driven. In August, he tested a Russian-made Lada Kalina. He drove it for four days from Khabarovsk in the Far East to Chita in Siberia, covering a distance of over 2,000 km (about 1,000 miles).

In November, he drove a Formula one car at a speed of 240 km an hour (150 miles an hour).

Putin’s passion for cars also became prominent when he drove French President Nicholas Sarkozy in a black Mercedes in 2007.

According to his tax declaration, the premier and former president owns two Russian Volga cars, a Russian four-wheel-drive Niva and a trailer car.

Windows to Russia!

It was -10 below zero this morning and seemed to be a far cry from the Spring that is suppose to be in effect. So that cup of coffee was extra good this cold morning…

My thoughts today are centered around our News Blog and other subsidiaries.  Russian News From Russia – It has in the last two weeks caught Windows to Russia in traffic and that is no small feat…

So as I watched the increase in traffic happening. I was perplexed as to how to handle the development of the windowstorussia.com domain. Windows to Russia has been the top dog for so long that it feels strange to have created another blog that has challenged it…

I decided to coordinate the sites better from data exchange to template appearance. It seems to be working. I am going to shift things this month and bring another blog into the limelight. Thoughts of Moscow will start developing as a Moscow based blog. At that point the windowstorussia.com domain will comprise of Windows to Russia, Russian News From Russia, Coffee Talk and Thoughts of Moscow. All blogs will be on the same template and the feel. The news site is still a work in progress that will take me most of this month to fine tune the software that makes the magic happen and create 200 plus posts a day. I also have in mind for the news site to have a better post layout on the front page. But I can not get Internet Explorer to play right…

So be looking forward a better data structure on windowstorussia.com. It has taken awhile but people are starting to realize that Windows to Russia is my personal blog, Russian News From Russia is based off of multiples of Russian news sources that are congregated into one spot, Coffee Talk is American (based issues with an occasional attitude about a piss poor American government, type of) news and Thoughts of Moscow is ( Well – we gotta wait to see. :))…

And last but not least we have our Russian Photo Blog, Russian Video Blog and Soviet Stories. They are all top of their categories in Google. They are all based from kylekeeton.com which is called Windows to Russia Portal now…

So if you think it should be posted on Windows to Russia. Most likely it has been. You just have to venture to one of the other sources that is part of Windows to Russia…

Windows to Russia!

It really was not as bad as what I expected from all the doomsayers of life. Final results will be out and done by December 31st, 2012…

Windows to Russia!

The UN International Court of Justice has refused to entertain Georgia’s action against Russia over the events in South Ossetia in August 2008, says the RIA-Novosti news agency in a report from The Hague. The court has ruled that the case is beyond its competence. Read More >>>
Source: Voice of Russia.

Windows to Russia!

Just what Sveta and I have waited for. Now Sveta can travel to Turkey visa free. It was just officially announced that Russians will be able to travel to Turkey visa-free as of the 16th of April, 2011…

This is according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. It seems that a new Russian-Turkish agreement is due to come into force this month…

So we add another country to the list of visa free for Russians… 🙂

Windows to Russia!

Russia has raised social pensions in Russia by 10% as of today (April/01/2011).  They will now be reconfigured  once a year in Russia, rather than every two years, as it was in the past. The amendment to the pension law was approved by Russia’s parliament and signed into law by the Russian President on the 29^th of March, 2011. Some more than 4 million Russians are entitled to social pensions…

Rough figures that vary where you live in Russia: The average social pension in Russia by the end of 2009 was 4,176 robules. The labor pension in Russia was increase by around 1,113 roubles to 5,749 roubles during 2010, and the average old-age pension in Russia will be expected to reach 6,091 roubles by 2011…

That equates into around $200 per month to survive on, in Russia…

That may not seem like much but when I came to Russia 5 years ago they were getting about $100 per month so it is better…

Windows to Russia!

Windows to Russia!

Everywhere I go in Russia. I see a Soviet past that is missed by more than just a few people..

That is what I was thinking this morning over coffee. That thought came from when Sveta and I the other night visited some friends. It was a typical visit to a Russian and that means more food, drinks and desserts than you could consume. If you don’t eat it is an insult to the host. Now contrary to popular belief Sveta and I never (repeat never) have any problems with not drinking alcohol. In fact if we do not drink alcohol, then I have found that everyone else will not drink either and life is just as good or better because of it… (But you better drink hot tea and you better have an appetite!)

During this visit I was pleasantly surprised. I had remarked about a photo hanging on the wall. That triggered the past thinking and out came the photo albums from the Soviet era. Spanning the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s. The photos went from the Crimea to Siberia in a tale of a families life…

The interesting things that came out of all these pictures are:

The people in the Soviet Union during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s looked just we did in America. From hair styles, clothing and material items. I had to laugh at the polyester suits in the 70’s and the poofed women’s hair in the 80’s. The transistor radios, bell bottom jeans and so on and so on…

Remember these people were not some rich elite type people. They were simple people that lived the same life that we did in America. They worked in kitchens all their life as cooks. They may have had a lack of just a few items like cars and such, but their life was no less endowed in substance than mine or yours in America…

Another interesting thing that came out of these pictures is that everyone was happy, content and free from restraints to pursue happiness…

Sveta tells me all the time of when she was a young adult and traveled the Soviet Union by thumb (hitching free rides). She said that life was unbelievably free and fantastic. You never had to worry about if you would eat or sleep because every village was full of people that were glad to have you for the night. Sveta has talked of her travels in territories of Russia, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine plus others as a young wondering adult…

As I saw in America, time and time again the longing for the quieter times of the past. I also see people in Russia that look back on the Soviet Times as the “good ol’ days…”

Windows to Russia!

Gorby 80: Mikhail Gorbachev’s 80th birthday gala in London… (In London?)

The star-studded charity concert at Royal Albert Hall for the last leader of the Soviet Union – Gorby! Given for his 80th birthday, where guests included Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lech Walesa, Kevin Spacey, Sharon Stone and many many more famous…

Gorbachev, the so-called “architect of perestroika and glasnost in Russia,” is still worshiped by some Russians for bringing freedom and democracy to the country, while many others consider him a weak politician, who ruined the Soviet empire…

His controversial image in Russia could be one of the reasons why the main celebrations of his birthday, which was on March 2, are taking place in the West, where he is seen as a symbol of the liberalization of Soviet life and the ending of the Cold War…

I found this very interesting to see the political maneuvers by the West associated with this event. I mean they (West) went all out for their friend who was an intricate part in destroying the Soviet Union…

In fact look carefully at the hoopla that was associated with his birthday. You would think he was a monarch of England…

As I have said in the past and will say again in the future. Gorbachev was “bought and paid for” by the West and they are still buying and still paying even to this day…

This article will give a few basic insights to Gorby:  Coffee and Russia and Undertow Intentions to her Society…

So Happy Birthday to Gorby…

The West appreciates all you have done…

Windows to Russia!