Category: Russia

Some News From Russia… (9/29/2010)

Russian News From Russia...

The Russian government may allocate RUB 24.5bn (approx. USD 800m) to Gazprom in the form of subsidies in 2011-2013 to cover the difference between the gas purchase price from the operator of the Sakhlain-2 project and the price set for gas supplies to energy companies in the Far East via the Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok gas transporting system. The figure was included in the supplement to the federal budget draft law for the next three years.

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Syktyvkar Yuri Luzhkov should have taken timely steps to improve his relations with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told a press briefing today. According to Putin, Luzhkov did a great deal for Moscow’s development and is a prominent figure in modern Russia. “However, it is quite obvious that his rapport with the president was poor, and the mayor is the president’s subordinate, after all, and not vice versa. Considering this, he should have been the one to make a move to normalize the situation,” the PM said. Putin also stated that Luzhkov’s dismissal was carried out in accordance with the law. He went on to indicate that Medvedev had already discussed potential candidates with United Russia, noting that he himself would probably have a say on the matter.

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Acting President of Moldova and speaker of the Moldovan parliament Mihai Ghimpu has signed a decree on the dismissal of the parliament. The dismissal became effective today, and the next parliamentary elections have been scheduled for November 28, 2010. The decree was signed in the presence of journalists who were invited to the press briefing.

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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is confident that the presidential election in Belarus will be held in accordance with the law. He made this statement during his trip to Shanghai. “I am sure that Belarusians will make a choice and it will be done within the rule of law,” he stated. In response to a question about his expectations regarding the outcome of the elections, he said, “I do not expect anything good. Just kidding, of course.” The Russian leader stressed that Russians in general and he personally “cared about the fate of Belarus and its citizens.”

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Lukoil and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) signed an agreement on the expansion of strategic cooperation in Beijing on Monday, the Russian energy giant indicated in a press release today.

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Ukraine’s Fuel and Energy Ministry has denied information distributed by a number of the country’s media sources stating that Kiev was posing hurdles for natural gas supplies to Poland. According to the ministry’s press office, the full volume of gas delivered to Ukraine’s eastern border is being transited in full to European consumers in accordance with existing transit agreements. The ministry specified that Naftogaz of Ukraine had not received any proposals from Poland’s PGNiG or Germany’s E.ON Ruhrgas on the transit of additional gas supplies. The company is currently providing services involving Gazprom’s gas transit in accordance with the long-term agreement dated January 19, 2009. Yesterday, some Ukrainian publications, citing a source from the ministry, announced that Naftogaz, upon Gazprom’s request, had refused to transport the natural gas to E.ON Ruhrgas in Poland. Media sources insist that this is the Russian energy monopoly’s way of forcing Poland to consent to the Russian company’s control over the management of Ymal-Europe gas pipeline.

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Synergy, a Russian producer of distilled spirits, has announced the placement of 2.9m ordinary shares, or 15 percent of all issued and outstanding shares, as part of the Secondary Public Offering (SPO), the company announced in a statement today.

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The Bank of Russia’s board of directors has passed a decision to keep the discount rate at its current level of 7.75 percent per annum, the Central Bank announced in a statement today. The last time the regulator cut the interest rate was on June 30, and the rate has so far been reduced four times this year. At the beginning of the year, the discount rate stood at 8.75 percent.

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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree on the dismissal of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, the Kremlin’s press office announced this morning. According to the document, the decision was passed due to the Russian leader’s “loss of trust” in the mayor. First Deputy Mayor Vladimir Resin has been appointed acting mayor until a new person takes office. Luzhkov has been Moscow’s mayor for over 18 years, since June 6, 1992. Rumors of his potential dismissal have been circulating for quite a while, but he always managed to keep his post. The official date for the expiration of Luzhkov’s powers is July 2011.

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Russia and Kyrgyzstan have settled all the unresolved issues surrounding the deployment of Russia’s military facilities in the country, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of Russia Valery Gerasimov said. As reported earlier, rumor was rife just a few weeks ago that Kyrgyzstan’s authorities were willing to reconsider the terms of stay for Russian troops. Now, however, the matter has been closed. It could still involve a higher lease payment for Russia, which is currently being negotiated by the parties. Russia’s armed forces control 4 facilities in Kyrgyzstan: an airbase in the town of Kant, a communications center of the Russian Navy in the village of Chaldovar, a torpedo testing facility on the Issyk Kul lake, and a seismograph station in the town of Maili-Suu. All of these facilities will now be subordinated to a single command. As reported earlier, on September 20, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that the Russian military base issue had been discussed with Kyrgyzstan’s government under former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. “Discussions were spearheaded by Kyrgyzstan, but then died out due to a lack of enthusiasm on Kyrgyzstan’s side. The issue of regulating and streamlining our military presence in Kyrgyzstan based on intergovernmental agreements has been discussed, on and off, for several years now,” Lavrov explained.

That is all for now…

Windows to Russia!

Thoughts by Coffee in Russia…

A photo of a cup of coffee.
Image via Wikipedia

I was drinking my wonderful cup of delicious coffee this morning. The thinking’s going through my head had to do with several other Americans here in Russia…

Over the last few months, a few Americans that I have knowledge of are committing “Stupidisms”…

It has struck my attention that if I live in a country, that I am not a native of then I would try real hard to not destroy any form of friendship that I could use as a positive help in that country! I would keep in mind that I may need an American in Russia to get my butt out of a sling one day. Especially a American with contacts…

I have also discovered that sometimes we become Lackadaisical after we have been somewhere long enough to call it home…

One such person has signed his “severance papers” with more than just me and this person really needs all the help they can get in the world. Another one has never learned that what is on the internet is visible to the world and possibly the whole Universe. 🙂

So while I do not take the contemptuous statements to heart it did allow me some thinking’s that gave me a new aspect on living in another country…

I really hate to see people “hang themselves out to dry“…

Windows to Russia!

Are Russia and USA the same?


Hello,

Is Russia and the USA the same?

Now before the world starts jumping up and down and saying that there is no way that they are the same!
Just read first:

I have done a lot of thinking about this. If you go back 50 years in America. You will find that the American Government then was not that much different than the Russian Government now. The Russian Government is in a growing stage now, that will take it through many trials and tribulations. The Russian Government is just like the American Government (a power struggle for the control of the country). The two governments are just at different growth stages. The American Government is a much more mature capitalist system. The Russian system is a fledgling capitalist system. I see total similarity between the Governments. They both control the elections, they control who is in office, they try to control the people, and they try to control the natural resources, plus the land that is connected. In America we have a saying “you can not sue the government” You can try but you will lose, If in America they want to widen a road and your house is in the way, they can just condemn it and take it from you. Government rules in America, The people do not rule, The same in Russia. Enough said about the governments, They are the same except for maturity differences. I say Russia needs to develop a better government than the USA, because Russia does not want to end up like America. (In debt, broke, power hungry, and could care less about the people who live their)

Now to the people who live their lives in these countries!
The people have very few differences. The only true differences are the cultural differences. I have lived both in Russia and the USA. The person that Americans would call The Middle Class, supports both counties. This person just wants peace, food, housing, time to vacation, be comfortable, and raise a family in a safe world. They do not want the government always changing faces. They do not want war, drugs, alcohol, and people interfering in their lives. They want to raise a family according to their society rules.

The people are no different in either country, This same extends to the rest of the world. I have friends the world over. They all confirm that people want peace not war!! Governments want war not peace!!

The day Governments really listen to their people will be a day to remember. The problem is that the man who runs for President of a country, is a man who wants to be King or Dictator. He wants to be the Boss. So he already has his mind made up, on how the country will be.

I do not want to run a country!! Do you?

The Russian and American people are the same in all the ways that count! (Love, loyalty, caring, needs, desires, wants and comforts)

Even the flags of Russia and USA are the same colors. Red, White and Blue!!

Kyle

comments welcome and now you can jump up and down and yell about, Why we are not the same!!

Windows to Russia!

I love these old articles. They show me either how stupid I was or how naive I am…

Kyle 🙂

First Russia and Now China Giving the US Chicken Woes…

Chicken portrait
Chicken…

Interesting: Russia and America just came to grips on the fat, antibiotic and chlorinated chickens from America and now we have these huge chickens the size of small Turkeys all over the place again…

Then,  China slams the USA chicken market with a new tariff on imported chickens…

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of the nation’s chicken producers could tumble on Monday after China said it will slap a hefty tariff on U.S. chicken imports to combat what it says are unfairly low prices.The Chinese government said Sunday that its investigation found that U.S. chicken products are being sold at low prices which undermine the local market. New import duties ranging from 50.3 percent to as much as 105.4 percent will take effect Monday and last for five years.

I would say that the chicken farmers in America are taking a beating in the world markets…

Those stocks tumbled…

Windows to Russia!

Moscow Mayor Terminated by Medvedev…

Yury Luzhkov and Patriarch Alexius II.
Mayor Yury and the Patriarch…

Moscow‘s mayor to resign from the strong language about the loss of confidence by Medvedev.

After the holidays, Yuri Luzhkov has stayed on the job one day. And although the day before he claimed that is not going to resign on Tuesday became aware of the presidential decree on the resignation of the capital’s mayor. Instead, he is temporarily appointed first deputy Vladimir Resin. Him and requested to conduct a regular meeting of the Moscow government. The details – the correspondent of “Vesti FM Nikolai Osipov.

He managed to stay on the job one day. More on Monday’s press service reported on the mayor, Yuri Luzhkov plans for October: meeting, meetings, business trips. Though there was no signal of the impending dismissal. The mayor until recently did not submit the form, but on Tuesday thundered the press service of the Kremlin. “Renounce Yuri Mikhailovich Luzhkov from the post of Mayor in connection with the loss of confidence in Russian President” – The decree was signed and take effect immediately. In part, this was predictable, although there still is that the review, commented the president of the fund “Petersburg politician Mikhail Vinogradov.

“Formally, this language is consistent with the law. In the entire history for 4 th time with the wording of the governor dismissed. Interestingly, that was no explanation that the accused Luzhkov – political behavior, actions during the heat, the family business or something else? It seems that the decision was made very quickly – this can be seen on the appointment of an interim figure as Acting Mayor Vladimir Resin, which is six months older than Luzhkov “- says Vinogradov.

A little later, presidential spokeswoman Natalia Timakova made some comments about this loud dismissal. It turns out that Yuri Luzhkov offered to leave voluntarily. And on his decision depended on which scenario events will unfold. For this, in general, mayor and went on vacation. Luzhkov refused to compromise, that is, the script came out very hard. Political analysts say that it is the fault of the mayor, who did not want to negotiate, knowing the inevitability of retirement. Pavel Danilin, the political scientist, Effective Policy Foundation, said something like the star of the disease.

“Mikhail had forgotten that he – an official appointed by the Head of State, and he decided to put himself above the other officers and was naturally down with the loss of confidence. He offered to go a very long time for an amicable, but he would not “- says Danilin.

Sam, Yuri Luzhkov met the news of his dismissal in the workplace. Despite the early hour, according to reports from the city administration, the mayor was already at work. He brought a decree of the president, who threw into confusion all the subordinate Luzhkov. The confusion probably is not due to the fact of dismissal, and deadlines. Few expected it to happen so quickly. The experts gave Luzhkov for another month or two. Acuity and adds information about what the president is not planning any meetings with the retired mayor. That is to say farewell to a pension will not be nice.

But now, when all is done, political scientists transferred the attention on other matters – like the mayor leaves his office. Do leave, slamming the door, or will keep at least formal propriety – it is the most important, argues CEO of the Center for Political Information Alexei Mukhin.

“If the correct delivery of affairs will not, and will whims, then the situation will be even more tense and Luzhkov, and his family, big and rich. The consequences can be unpredictable, “- says Mukhin.

Decree of the President’s history with the dismissal of the mayor had not yet finished, the expert continues, dividing this epic stages. Just now finished the first stage, but right behind him comes next, maybe even more stringent, “says Alexei Mukhin. After retirement affects a large number of persons – the team Luzhkov, the Moscow business with his interests.

“The situation in the city quite poorly controlled by the mayor. Not the mayor’s office and the mayor. Acting appointed Resin – is also very symptomatic, but the fight for the seat of mayor is now entering a stage superrigidity “- says Mukhin.

On Tuesday, the first zamu Luzhkov, Vladimir Resin directed to meeting the city government. Duties of the Mayor fell to him. Sam, Yuri Luzhkov on Tuesday became an ordinary citizen, non-working Moscow pensioner.

I feel that the Moscow Mayor may become a thorn in the political side of Medvedev. The mayor was well loved by many for much that he has done…

Like Sveta said after she heard this, “The pensioners love him!” She then expressed that he may become a pillar in the opposition party now…

Is his (Medvedev) a political mistake made out of anger or a tactical move?

I guess we will wait and see…

Windows to Russia!
  • Russian President Dmitry Medvedev fires Moscow’s mayor, Yuri Luzhkov – Reuters (nytimes.com)
  • Moscow’s Mayor Luzhkov dismissed (bbc.co.uk)
  • Moscow Mayor Sacked Over ‘Trust Issues’ (news.sky.com)
  • Medvedev Fires Moscow Mayor After Feud (foxnews.com)
  • Medvedev Fires Moscow Mayor Luzhkov After Conflict (businessweek.com)
  • Kremlin fires iconic Moscow mayor after 18 years (sfgate.com)
  • Dmitry Medvedev fires Moscow mayor after public spat (telegraph.co.uk)
  • Russian president sacks Moscow mayor (guardian.co.uk)
  • Medvedev Fires Moscow Mayor Luzhkov After 18 Years in Power (businessweek.com)
  • President Medvedev fires Moscow mayor Luzhkov (marketwatch.com)
  • Russian president fires defiant Moscow mayor (msnbc.msn.com)

Canada admits letting in 2,000 Ukrainian SS troopers, February 7, 1997 by Tom Tugend…

Canada admits letting in 2,000 Ukrainian SS troopers

February 7, 1997 by Tom Tugend

https://jweekly.com/1997/02/07/canada-admits-letting-in-2-000-ukrainian-ss-troopers/

LOS ANGELES — The Canadian government, with British complicity, admitted more than 2,000 members of a notorious Ukrainian Waffen-SS division in 1950, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has charged.
In a related case, the CBS news program “60 Minutes” reported that about 1,000 SS men and Nazi collaborators, mainly from the Baltic states, moved to Canada about the same time.

And the German public broadcasting network reported that 50,000 war criminals receive “victim pensions” from the German government. German sources say 1,882 are Canadian residents.

Almost all the suspected war criminals and collaborators have lived openly under their own names in Canada for 47 years.

The Wiesenthal Center’s dean, Rabbi Marvin Hier, and its Canadian representative, Sol Littman, addressed a news conference Monday after meeting with Canadian Solicitor General Herb Gray, who is in charge of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Gray “seemed genuinely disturbed by the material we presented and promised to investigate the charges,” Hier said.

Littman, who has been researching Nazis in Canada since 1980, said the 14th Volunteer Waffen-SS Grenadier Division, aka the Galicia Division, largely comprised Ukrainians who served with Nazi police battalions and death squads.

The surviving 9,000 division members surrendered to the British at war’s end, and were taken to England.

In 1950, Britain appealed to Commonwealth countries to admit them. Canada agreed to take 2,000, after being assured that their backgrounds had been checked and that they were cleared of complicity in war crimes.

But according to recently released British documents and interviews with officials who conducted the investigations, they were not screened, partly because none of the interrogators spoke their language, Littman said.

The 2,000 settled in major Canadian cities. About half are still alive.

One way of getting into postwar Canada “was by showing the SS tattoo,” Canadian historian Irving Abella told “60 Minutes” interviewer Mike Wallace. “This proved that you were an anti-Communist.”

He said that longtime Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau once told him his government did not pursue war criminals “because they were afraid of exacerbating relationships between Jews and Eastern European ethnic communities.”

But John Sims, the Canadian official in charge of prosecuting war criminals, told “60 Minutes” that this “is going to be an important year, in which…considerable progress will be made in ridding this country of Nazis.”

Recent reports of suspected war criminals living openly in Canada follow a November Jerusalem Post series calling Canada a “near-blissful refuge” for Nazis.

Steven Rambam, a New York private detective working with two Post reporters, located about 150 suspected war criminals in Canada, often by looking them up in phone books.

Masquerading as a professor from a fictitious American university, Rambam, a former member of the Jewish Defense League, secretly taped interviews with a former Lithuanian police chief who described in chilling detail his part in the execution of 5,000 Jews.

Meanwhile, the German TV program “Panorama” reported last week that 50,000 war criminals and members of army units who participated in atrocities were receiving monthly bonus pensions, ranging from hundreds to thousands.

The so-called “victim pensions” are added to the pensions of those who suffered World War II-linked disabilities, or to their dependents.

Although a 1950 German law excludes war criminals living abroad from getting such pensions, the law is apparently not enforced in Canada or the United States.

Elan Steinberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress, has charged that some 3,300 Germans living in the United States receive the pensions.

***

Interesting fact: Auschwits camp in Poland was liberated by the soviet red army. Weird, is it not? How come that never gets mentioned, by the west?

WtR

Russia You Goofed Up…

S-300 systems similar to those sold to Cyprus.
Russian S-300 missile system…

DM: Russia’s Creditability Undermined by Ban on S-300 Delivery to Iran

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi cautioned that Moscow‘s decision to annul the contract for the delivery of the sophisticated anti-aircraft S-300 missile to Iran undermined credibility of Russia as an arms supplier.

“They showed through this act that they are not reliable and trustworthy, which of course, we already knew,” Vahidi said at a ceremony held here on Sunday to commemorate the Week of Sacred Defense, marking the country’s resistance against the 8-year-long Iraqi invasion in 1980.

“This was a big scandal for them as they showed that they are not able to maintain their independence even when dealing with a simple issue,” Vahidi stated.

The minister further said Tehran plans to manufacture a similar defense system “but some of our experts do not believe in (manufacturing) the Russian S-300 missile system”.

“We will not build (an Iranian version of) S-300 air defense but will manufacture a long-range defense system similar to the S-300 in range,” he explained.

The remarks by Vahidi came after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev issued a decree on the ban, which also prohibited exports of tanks, aircraft and sea vessels to Iran.

There are many Russians that I know that will find this a serious flaw in Medvedev…

This truly is a defense weapon that really means very little to the overall issue. Iran does not really need these missiles. But the issue of trust is extended to the whole world…

Russia broke that trust when failing to supply the defense missiles that were contracted many years ago…

Iran is correct…

Windows to Russia!
  • Iran Criticizes Russia Over S-300 Missile Deal Ban (nytimes.com)
  • Iran criticizes Russia over S-300 missile deal ban (dailycaller.com)
  • You: Iran regrets Russia’s decision to cancel arms deal (earthtimes.org)
  • Iran claims to have developed long-range artillery (israelmatzav.blogspot.com)
  • Iran criticizes Russia over decision to ban sales to Tehran of S-300 missile systems (foxnews.com)
  • “Iran has obtained S-300 air defense systems” (rt.com)
  • Iran criticizes Russia over S-300 missile deal ban (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
  • Russia against sanctions to Iran despite missiles ban (reuters.com)
  • Iran criticizes Russia over S-300 missile deal ban (sfgate.com)

Russia: The Ruble is Smiling Again!

Hello,Windows to Russia!

While drinking my morning cup of coffee in Russia. I was doing some research into the Ruble and the Dollar. It seems that after the beating the Ruble took and the Western media acted like the Ruble was a doomed and dying currency. We are seeing a stabilization of the Ruble in Russia.

The dollar is dropping daily now and is back to what the rate was when I came to Russia. So that did not last long.

I kept my money in Rubles and kept my trust in the bank I use. As the doomsday reports rolled out of the Russian press like Chicken Little screaming about the sky is falling. I just kept my money in Rubles.

Normal Russians did not get very excited about all the hoopla because from what Svetlana says, Nothing could be as bad as the collapse in 1998. I do not know, I was not here but Svet was and she and her Mom lost a l0t during that time.

If people would support the currency where they are then I really think that money would be much more stable but what I see is that people who are rich make money from betting against money. (Hedging I think it is called?) Sad group of people…

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Russia Scaling Down the Government…

Alexei Kudrin, a Russian politician.
Alexei Kudrin…

Russia plans to slash 100,000 bureaucrat jobs by 2013, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Monday, in a drive to reduce costs and modernize the country’s bloated bureaucracy.

“We expect that in the three years more than 100,000 federal civil servant jobs will be cut,” Kudrin was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying.

“The overall savings from this by the third year will amount to 43 billion rubles (1.4 billion dollars),” he added…

I find this interesting from a stand point of the fact that America is scaling her government up at a fast pace and Russia is scaling down her government to make it more effective and leaner…

Windows to Russia!

Our Village in Russia is a Wonderful Dream…

We Rebuilt The Fallen Outhouse...

Sveta and I have just returned from a wonderful two weeks in our village.  In the village, life comes to a screeching halt and all the pressures of the city are gone. You simply do what feels right and breath deeply…

One of 10 main projects this time was to try to bring the old outhouse back to life. It had collapsed into the hole dug beneath it and was in a serious situation, that included falling down on our fence…

So after doing some investigation into the total shape of said building. Sveta and I decided to become carpenters for a day…

Once again we have a solid and ugly outhouse that does its job that is intended… 🙂

Sveta was the painter...

Sveta applied a coat of paint to the essential part of the outhouse and now we are “uptown” as they say…

We had multiple of other projects and I will be bringing them up as the week goes by…

Sveta and I had a rough time coming home and we wanted to stay in wonderland a few more weeks or maybe for the rest of our lives. But the call of the city and responsibilities won out and we decided to come back to Moscow…

It is strange how stepping back to a simpler existence makes everything have a better perspective. Water comes from a well that we draw up in buckets. Electricity is unstable as a strong wind and you must be able to create from scratch all necessary repairs on things…

That is what makes it feel like home to me…

Windows to Russia