Category: Russia

Hello,

As I was drinking a wonderful cup of coffee, I came across the facts that Ukraine once again is refusing to pay its debts. Gazprom has to fight with Ukraine every time to get any money for past due bills.

Russian Prime Minister Putin and Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko just had in the beginning of October a discussion and settling of issues over past due bills. This seems to not have helped the situation.

Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev has given an order to Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller to collect gas debt from Ukraine, Interfax reported.

Medvedev also said: “I’ve paid attention that our Ukrainian partners owe us more than $2.4 billion. It is big money for any state and for any company, including Gazprom,” Medvedev specified, adding that they had agreed with Ukraine that the money would be paid back as established by law. The respective agreement had been reached during the Moscow visit of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. (Link)

This is not a new situation and I have written several times about Ukraine and the Gas issues. Ukraine always plays games and makes Russia look bad to Europe. You see all Gas for Europe goes through Ukraine so if Gazprom cuts the supply just for Ukraine’s usage: Ukraine will compensate by illegally cutting Europe’s supply by taking Europe’s Gas for their own use.
(Link) (Link)

I understand that Ukraine is having money issues just like the rest of the world but this is not a new issue and looks like as we approach winters full force, Ukraine is going to play games to make Europe worry again. That is why the Nord Stream Gas line is important. (Link) To by pass a Ukraine that causes problems….

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Russia’s financial reserves will prevent a spike in inflation and sharp fluctuations in the ruble, chairman of the United Russia Party and Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin stated today at the party’s tenth congress. The financial crisis is turning into an economic crisis, he said. “It will test every country’s preparedness and their ability to protect their citizens, economies and currencies,” he predicted. “Russia is facing that challenge as well.”
Putin compared the crisis to a natural disaster. “It was impossible to stop, but we should foresee such a development of events and take measures in advance so that it passes painlessly,” he said, adding that it is still possible for Russia to avoid negative consequences from the crisis. He noted that Russia’s financial reserves allow it to ensure the stability of the budget syste, which mean stable payment of government workers, pensions and social benefits.

According to Rosstat, the state statistics service, the total debt for wages on November 1 had grown 33.4 percent since October 1 to 4.024 billion rubles. Wages are falling at the same time. Moscow city authorities say that wages have fallen 10 percent in the capital, and layoffs are beginning as well. Putin stated that unemployment benefits will be raised by 1500 rubles per month on January 1, 2009. That will be in addition to the raise in benefits calculated in the federal budget. Thus, the benefit payment will be 4900 rubles per month.
www.kommersant.com

Hello,

Once again Russia is on the bad list of another organization that tells the world who is good and who is bad. (Freedom of Association Under Threat report)

Right defenders from Freedom House have released a special report – Freedom of Association Under Threat – that is dedicated to the right and freedom condition in 12 states of the world. Together with Iran, Zimbabwe, Algeria, China, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Pakistan, Egypt, Malaysia, Kazakhstan and Columbia, Russia is in the list of nations where the associational rights are particularly threatened. (Link)

But we see no reason to believe what the Freedom House says until they start telling the truth about all countries! Seems that the Freedom House group is controlled by the Western world and until it gets the Western politics out of its pockets then its reports hold no water. (Freedom House, being 80% funded from the USA budget)

We see that the USA should be in those same countries as Russia…..

The International Space Station(ISS) which is a research facility currently being assembled in space. The on-orbit assembly of ISS began in 1998. The space station is in a low Earth orbit and can be seen from Earth with the naked eye: it has an altitude of 350-460 km (189-248 statute miles) above the surface of the Earth, and travels at an average speed of 27,700 km (17,210 statute miles) per hour, completing 15.77 orbits per day. The ISS is a joint project among the space agencies of the United States (NASA), Russia (RKA), Japan (JAXA), Canada (CSA) and several European countries (ESA).

The ISS is a continuation of what began as the U.S. Space Station Freedom, the funding for which was cut back severely. It represents a merger of Freedom with several other previously planned space stations: Russia’s Mir 2, the planned European Columbus and Kibo, the Japanese Experiment Module. The projected completion date is 2010, with the station remaining in operation until around 2016. As of 2008, the ISS is already larger than any previous space station.

The International Space Station has a role to play as NASA moves forward with a new focus for the manned space program, which is to go out beyond Earth orbit for purposes of human exploration and scientific discovery. “The International Space Station is now a stepping stone on the way,” says Griffin, “rather than being the end of the line”. He says ISS crews not only will continue to learn how to live and work in space but also will learn how to build hardware that can survive and function for the years required to make the round-trip voyage from Earth to Mars.

I find it wonderful that the world can work together and build this Space Station! It is really something to be proud of, but it makes me wonder why: Even in Soviet Union times, that world scientific groups could work together to achieve great goals, but Governments of Countries have to play games?

Think about it: If governments would get along like the Scientific Community does in the World, We would probably have a lot less problems! Scientist from all over the world work together many times, they respect intellect! Knowledge is Power! (Link)

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome

Hello,

I posted the other day about Belarus was going to buy all oil and gas from Russia in Rubles, no Dollars. Today The CIS countries (Russian Federation, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Tajikistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan) are getting the formalities out of the way to start making the Russian Ruble a International currency.

Heads of national banks and finance ministers from the CIS countries will discuss the use of the ruble to settle accounts with Russia for energy deliveries. Currently, payments are made in dollars, which are then converted into rubles in Russia. The extra expense of converting currency is reflected in the oil and gas prices, so the change would be beneficial to the importers. The change would also give the ruble a big boost as a regional currency, since the majority of the countries of the former USSR are consumers of Russian energy sources. (Link)

The Dollar has become such a burden to the stability of the Global financial system, that countries such as Russia, China, Japan and of the European Union are looking at alternatives.

Interesting….

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

“Commenting on amendments to the Constitution under which the government will have to report to parliament, the president said: “This will not turn us into a parliamentary republic, and honestly speaking, I think Russia must never become a parliamentary republic, which would be the death of us.”

Medvedev said, however, that the constitutional amendments would strengthen the powers of the lower house of parliament, giving the State Duma additional levers to oversee ministerial decision-making.

Medvedev said the inviolability of people’s rights and freedoms was more important than the potential reform of the country’s political system.

“The Constitution must guard the stability of people’s rights, the protection of their rights and freedoms, the fundamentals of the system, property rights and justice – these things must not be altered,” Medvedev said.” (Link)

ANKARA, November 18 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian defense minister warned on Tuesday that Georgia’s military buildup and drive to join NATO could cause a conflict worse than the five-day war over South Ossetia in August. (Rest of Article: Link)

BERLIN, November 18 (RIA Novosti) – Russia has returned six fourteenth-century stained glass windows that were among objects seized by Soviet troops during WWII to a church in Germany.

In 2002, Russia returned 111 stained glass windows to St. Mary’s Church, Marienkirche, in Frankfurt-upon-Oder. They had earlier been stored in the Hermitage museum in Russia’s St. Petersburg. Authorities later discovered that Moscow’s Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts had a further six panes from the church in their storehouse. (Link)