Category: Russia

1994 to 2011 – Terror Attacks Against Russia…


1994-1996 – Tens of thousands of people are killed in the first Chechen war.

June 1995 – Chechen rebels seize hundreds of hostages in a hospital in the southern Russian town of Budennovsk. More than 100 people are killed during the rebel assault and a botched Russian commando raid.

Jan. 1996 – Chechen fighters take hundreds hostage in a hospital at Kizlyar in Dagestan, then move them by bus to Pervomaiskoye on the Chechen border. After being pounded by Russian military, most rebels escape but hostages are killed.

June 1996 – A bomb kills four and injures at least 10 in the Moscow metro system, in what officials said was the work of Chechen separatists though no one claims responsibility.

Nov. 1996 – A bomb explodes in an apartment block where many Russian servicemen and their families live in the Dagestani city of Kaspiysk, killing 64.

March 19, 1999 – A bomb kills 50 in an outdoor market in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, one of two Christian-dominated regions in the troubled North Caucasus.

Aug. 31, 1999 – A bomb explodes in an underground shopping centre near the Kremlin in Moscow, injuring 20.

Aug./Sept. 1999 – Hundreds of Russian soldiers are killed battling Chechen militants in the mountains of Dagestan. The second Chechen war begins. Tens of thousands are killed in the war. Russia re-establishes direct rule in 2000.

Sept. 1999 – Bombs destroy apartment blocks in Moscow, Buynaksk and Volgodonsk. More than 200 people are killed. Moscow blames Chechens who in turn blame Russian secret services.

June 2-3, 2000 – Five suicide bomb attacks, carried out by Chechen rebels, on police stations and Russian army bases in Chechnya kill at least 54 people.

Aug. 8, 2000 – A bomb kills 13 and wounds 90 in a crowded Moscow underpass.

March 24, 2001 – Three car bombs explode in the southern Russian cities of Mineralnye Vody, Yessentuki and in the North Caucasus region of Karachay-Cherkessia, killing 28.

May 9, 2002 – Forty-one people are killed by a bomb in the Dagestani city of Kaspiysk during a military parade.

Oct. 23-26, 2002 – 129 hostages and 41 Chechen guerrillas are killed when Russian troops storm a Moscow theatre where rebels had taken 700 people captive three days earlier. Most of the hostages are killed by gas used to knock out the Chechens.

Dec. 27, 2002 – A suicide bomber drives a truck packed with explosives into a government building in Grozny, killing 60.

May 12, 2003 – Two drivers ram trucks full of explosives into a government building in Znamenskoye in northern Chechnya, killing 59 and injuring dozens.
July 5, 2003 – Two women suicide bombers kill 15 other people when they blow themselves up at an open-air rock festival at Moscow’s Tushino airfield. Sixty are injured.

Aug. 1, 2003 – A suicide bomber driving a truck blows up a military hospital at Mozdok in North Ossetia bordering Chechnya, killing at least 50.

Dec. 5, 2003 – An explosion tears through a morning commuter train just outside Yessentuki station in Russia’s southern fringe. Forty-six people are killed and 160 injured.

Dec. 9, 2003 – A suicide bomber kills five other people near the Kremlin. At least 13 people are wounded.

Feb. 6, 2004 – A suicide bombing kills at least 39 people and wounds more than 100 on an underground train in Moscow, in what police attribute to the work of Chechen separatists.

May 9, 2004 – Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov, the father of present Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov, is killed by a bomb in Grozny along with six others. Fifty more are wounded.

June 22, 2004 – Rebels seize an interior ministry building in Ingushetia, near Chechnya, and attack other points in lightning attacks. At least 92 people are killed including the acting regional interior minister, Abukar Kostoyev.

Aug. 24, 2004 – Two Russian passenger planes are blown up almost simultaneously, killing 90 people. One Tu-134, flying to Volgograd, goes down south of Moscow. Moments later a Tu-154 bound for Sochi crashes near Rostov-on-Don.

Aug. 31, 2004 – A female suicide bomber blows herself up in central Moscow, killing 10 people and injures 51.

Sept. 1-3, 2004 – 331 hostages — half of them children — die in a chaotic storming of School No.1 in Beslan, after it is seized by rebels demanding Chechen independence and an immediate end to the war.

Feb. 6, 2004 – A bomb kills at least 30 and injures 70 on the Moscow metro during rush hour.

Aug. 21, 2006 – A bomb kills 10 people and injures 50 in a Moscow suburban market.

Aug. 13, 2007 – A bomb derails the Nevsky Express between Moscow and St Petersburg, injuring 30 people.

Aug. 17, 2009 – A suicide bomber drives a truck into the gates of the main police station in Nazran, the largest city in Ingushetia, killing 24 people and wounding at least 130 others.

Nov. 27, 2009 – A bomb blast derails the Nevsky Express with about 700 people on board. At least 26 people are killed and 100 injured. Chechen rebels claim responsibility.

Jan. 6, 2010 – At least seven policemen are killed in Dagestan when a suicide bomber detonates a car packed with explosives at a traffic police depot.

March 29, 2010 – At least two blasts strike Moscow metro stations during rush hour, killing 40 people.

March 31, 2010 – Two blasts rock Kizlyar in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan, killing nine people.

May 26, 2010 – A blast in the southern city of Stavropol kills eight people just before the start of a concert by a dance company linked with Kremlin-backed Ramzan Kadyrov.

Sept. 9, 2010 – A suicide bomber kills 18 people in North Ossetia, a mostly Christian province in the North Caucasus.

Jan. 24, 2011 – At least 31 people are killed and more than 100 injured in a suicide bombing at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport, Russia’s biggest.

Windows to Russia!

Dioxin in German Pork: Imports to Russia Banned as of Today…


It seems that Russia, China, Ukraine, Belarus and South Korea to name a few, have all banned pork and pork products from Germany. They all gave Germany time to prove that dioxin was not present in German pork products. But as Germany has been unable or unwilling to supply such documentation. The importation has stopped, of all German pork products…

The so-called dioxin scandal flared up in early January because of the German Harles und Jentzsch Company, which used cheap inedible feeds instead of expensive edible fats. Some 5,000+  farms were closed down in Germany after dioxin was found in food fats. Dioxin is a poisonous substance that accumulates in the human body and may cause a number of grave illnesses to humans…

This is a big issue in Russia with the people. Sveta’s mother has worried because we like pork products. She stresses that we must make sure that it is not from Germany. The news for a few weeks now has been lit up with this scandal and it looks like it has come to roost, back on Germany…

What about the Western world, are you eating German Pork?

This should give a boost internally to Russian pork…

Windows to Russia!

The START Treaty that has Become the Amended Treaty…


Well Russia is almost done changing the START Treaty to counter act the amendments that America did to the treaty when she ratified it last December…

It looks like the “START Treaty” has become the “Amended Treaty” and at this point it seems to be closer to a “Non Treaty” than a “Useful Treaty”…

This is a case of Treaty in and Trash came out. What the presidents signed many months ago is not the same document that is being ratified by Russia and America…

Do not be surprised if Russia leaves START in the future. The ground work has been laid for that escape from the START Treaty:

The head of the State Duma’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Konstantin Kosachov says the risk of failure always exists.“This time I believe this risk is quite obvious on the US side – that they will proceed with strategic, not regional, but strategic anti-missile defense systems – maybe not the current president, maybe not the current government, but probably the next president, the next government, which [could] have a completely different strategy on this issue,” he said. “And in case it happens, the treaty may be damaged and there may arise conditions for Russia to pull out of this treaty, but we are not there yet, and we still have time to make better agreements and to avoid any misunderstandings, and that will be our ambition.”

On this side of the world the understanding of the Treaty failing is common place and almost expected. The word is that this whole process needs to be reinitialized and begun again. Hence the statement above about “make better agreements and to avoid any misunderstandings” because this Treaty was a big misunderstanding between two countries… (At least from a Russian view point…)

The amendments that America instilled upon the document set the START Treaty back to the beginning. So a Russia, who was ready to ratify the original Treaty as it stood, now has serious reservations about the necessity and validity of the START Treaty…

Parliament approves terms of Russia’s quitting New START

Windows to Russia!

Ilyas Akhmadov Aide for the International Terrorist (Shamil) Basayev…


Back in April of 2004, Ilyas Akhmadov was granted political asylum in the US where he currently resides. Ilyas Akhmadov has now recently published a book and it seems to be with the support of the US Federal Budget. That means it is supported by the Federal Government of the USA and that is where Russia gets perturbed…

The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that Ilyas Akhmadov “passing himself off as the Foreign Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria is in fact a former militant who served as an aide for the international terrorist [Shamil] Basayev.” The Ministry also said that Akhmadov “is a criminal put on an international wanted list who is trying to redeem post factum the criminal regime of Dzhokhar Dudayev and Aslan Maskhadov” – the leaders of Chechen militants.

“Nevertheless, he [Akhmadov] is being provided with a platform in organizations such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) which are financed from the US Federal budget,” the Foreign Ministry added. “We expect that the US authorities draw respective conclusions and take measures to clamp down on such ambiguous events which virtually play into the hands of terrorists’ accomplices.”

Hummm, Does that sound like a good way for America’s tax money to be spent?

Windows to Russia!

Is Russia One of the last Islands of Freedom in the World?


WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, has been granted a Russian visa and plans to visit Russia as soon as he gets his name cleared up. Which he hopes is soon. The trip may happen in a couple of weeks, reports the Russian News Service citing WikiLeaks supporter and friend of Assange, Israel Shamir. No details of the agenda and schedule have been disclosed. However, by that time a RuLeaks currently being established is likely to get its official registration… (It is starting to look as though RuLeaks may get some backing? Is that is why the site is so WikiLeaks clone like?)

It is already clear that Putin and Medvedev have voiced support for Julian Assange. Looks like Russia has open arms for Julian and maybe he needs to relocate. He would beable to continue his escapades very unhindered here in Russia. I know I live here…

Everything balances on what Britain is going to do. Because we know that America wants his dead head on a platter and Sweden has trumped up sex charges against him…

We will wait and see…

Windows to Russia!

A Russian Adoption Abuse in America – Again…


Russia gets control over child abuse case in US:

Russian Consulate General’s Office in Seattle, Washington, has taken control of the situation concerning another case of abusing adopted Russian children in the United States. This case attracted wide publicity after a video was found in the Internet, featuring barbaric upbringing methods used by a mother towards her 7-year-old son adopted in Russia. She forced him to take cold shower and eat hot sauce.

Why?

Windows to Russia!

Russian version of WikiLeaks…


A reader gave me a link to a site about the Russian WikiLeaks. So it seems that we need to at least take a look at the site. (I have known about this site for some time because I follow what the Pirate Party is doing.)  When you go there you will notice the colors of the WikiLeak site. They even stole the header picture from the real WikiLeaks site!  🙂

The Pirate Party announced last week the creation of “Russian WikiLeaks,” it is called RuLeaks.net. On January 14, with the participation site Ruleaks.net WikiLeaks, Pirate Parties International and the Pirate Party of Russia, began gathering information from anonymous sources for peer review and its further publication.

According to coordinator WikiLeaks the site already has a unique information, which is currently being prepared for publication.

Collection of information through the anonymous network Tor, you access the site posted the files for download. Editorial team Ruleaks.net encourages citizens to submit documents testifying to the facts of corruption, concealment of crime and other important public information.

Site Ruleaks.net appeared online in early December 2010 and until now the site publishes translations mails WikiLeaks, coupled with Russia and other CIS countries. Editorial team reports that the new translations will continue to appear on the site.

They lost a touch of credibility because they insinuated originally that they were attacked by “Putin hackers” because they posted an article that they claim might, could and possibly be “Putin’s Palace”. That attack from Putin did not happen, but yes many sites including ours (Windows to Russia) had issues Tuesday and Wednesday over other types of attacks. That all seems to be calmed down now and the truth has come out that RuLeaks had a viral explosion of hits to the website amoungst the attacks and their server could not keep up. Looks like they have the same issues I have and weak server is at the top of that list…

By the way a spokesperson for Putin said: “Putin had nothing to do with the building in question.”  that was expressed on the site in question…

I really  like what they are trying to do but they need to do their own thing and not copy cat WikiLeaks. RuLeaks is a very good title and they need to play on that angle and leave WikiLeaks out of the picture. I really not sure that Assange has much to do with this site…

Now about the “Pirate Party” they have my support and I have been following what they are doing since they were founded. They really need to be smart and use tremendous desecration in their actions if they want to stand a chance at a future.  I have even found Sveta taking an interest in what they have to say. Link below is from Sveta’s video blog…

http://video.kylekeeton.com/2010/10/russian-video-pirate-party-ru.html

So if they can get their act together they have some good thinking’s going…

This link will take you to a little Wiki article about them and I will then let you take it from there… (Link) or maybe you might like this better if you can read Russian… (Link)…

Lets hope that this article is not false. Because they will suffer from credibility issues after it gets out…

Windows to Russia!

Coffee and Russian Smile Realizations…


I was having a cup of decaf coffee last night while eating dinner with Sveta. With the weather so blistering cold hot coffee is good anytime of the day. I just wish that caffeine would not keep me up all night. So I must live with decaf…

The conversation turned to the Russian people. Sveta is always interested to hear what I am thinking when it comes to Russian’s. I was on the subject of Russian’s and the service industry. You know, customer service and all that bull…

The Russian service industry is a perfect match for my personality. I spent years in America working under the pretense that when a customer walks in, there better be a smile on your face and customer service like they are at your home. I came to Russia and found the opposite and I was in heaven…

Sveta says that I am more Russian than she is on customer service. I am a: “Leave me alone and when I am ready, I will ask for help!” – type person. You smile at me and ask me 10 times, do I need help and I will walk out the door and never come back. For you see I have already studied what I want and the fact that I have entered your doors means that I have one specific item to look at and most likely know much more than the sales persons does about that item…

I realize that this is against the American way of life and process. But it is me. That means to me, Russia is a wonderful place with her quirks on customer service…

Now all this rambling brings me back to what I was talking to Sveta about. The people in the local stores smile at me. This is not a fake smile but a genuine smile. I am well known to them and a regular customer. They even come running to help me get plastic bags for the fresh veggies. They have to because I will destroy half the bags with my big hands trying to get a bag off the roll… 🙂

The point is that they know my habits and try to help without being obtrusive. They really are glad to see me. The smiles are real and not a forced fake smile that I had to pound into my service personnel in America. I despise a fake smile…

I know that in your mind is the thought: “They act that way because you spend money!”…

Het! If you know anything about Russia, then you would know that is not a true statement. Russians could care less if you came into buy something or n0t. In fact the usual look when you walk into a business is “Go away and drop dead please! Can’t you see that I am busy talking to my boyfriend on the phone?”…

So I have learned to give the “Don’t worry but you drop dead also, I know what I want and will get it myself” look. Other words ignore them and when you pay, throw the exact money on the counter and leave. Never say a word and act like they are an idiot…

But this new treatment I was receiving had me puzzled. Then Sveta cleared it all up…

Sveta after listening to me ramble. Explained that they accept you and that you are a part of their life now. They are really glad to see you and that type of inter-reaction takes much time to develop. Sveta said that the forced smiles in America made her feel strange and uneasy. Smiles in Russia are not given out freely. They are earned and are sincere…

It kinda made me feel good inside that I get one of those rare genuine Russian smiles that are very hard to come by…

That is why I love Russia…

In Russia a Lack of Smile is Deceiving…

Windows to Russia!

Results of Medvedev’s visit to the Middle East…


With King Abdullah II of Jordan.

Dmitry Medvedev answered journalists’ questions on the outcome of his visit to Jordan and Palestine.

* * *

QUESTION: Mr President, could you please tell us about the outcome of your visit to the Middle East? Also, perhaps you could outline Russia’s position on the possible convening of the UN Security Council during which Palestine would declare its independence unilaterally? Will Russia hold consultations with Israel on this issue?

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: I am ready to briefly summarize the results of the visit. The main result is that I was able to hold consultations with our close partners: the Palestinian Authority, specifically with Palestinian President and Head of the National Authority Mahmoud Abbas, and here in Jordan, with His Majesty King Abdullah II.

Both of these visits are not just meetings for us; these are our partners in the Middle East. Palestine’s plight is clear. We talk a great deal about ways to return the settlement process to a normal level. We have been holding consultations as part of the Middle East Quartet and other international forums. This was an opportunity to consult with our closest partners, to touch on all these issues directly, firsthand, as they say. It has been very useful, both in order to maintain direct contact with our colleagues, and to give an impetus to the negotiation process. In the near future, the Quartet of mediators will meet for consultation in Munich. I hope that we will be able to submit specific recommendations.

(more…)