Windows to Russia

Krypetsky Monastery is located about 23 km from Pskov, Russia. The monastery was originally all wood when it was built in around 1485.  Then in 1547 it was torn down and rebuilt as it stands today, all in stone. Very famous monks lived at this monastery: Basil, St. Nilus, Afanasy Ordin-Nashchokin and Evgeny Bolkhovitinov…

Around 1918, the monastery was closed down by the Bolsheviks who plundered more than 2,600 troy ounces of gold from the monastery and almost tore the bell tower down. The monastery was finally reinstated back into the Russian Orthodox Church in about 1991…

It is even said that it was even revived as a German monastery for a brief while. This happened during World War Two. The monastery has now been repaired and is back in decent shape again. I know this is most likely true because I see a bunch of German references to the monastery in history checks…

Lets hope that this and all the other monastery’s that have had such a rough life surviving in Russia over the years, stay in good shape from now on…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

It was almost ten years ago when, before the House International Relations Committee, I objected to the US Government funding NGOs to meddle in the internal affairs of Ukraine. At the time the “Orange Revolution” had forced a regime change in Ukraine with the help of millions of dollars from Washington.

At that time I told the Committee:

We do not know exactly how many millions—or tens of millions—of dollars the United States government spent on the presidential election in Ukraine. We do know that much of that money was targeted to assist one particular candidate, and that through a series of cut-out non-governmental organizations (NGOs)—both American and Ukrainian—millions of dollars ended up in support of the presidential candidate…

I was worried about millions of dollars that the US government-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and its various related organizations spent to meddle in Ukraine’s internal affairs. But it turns out that was only the tip of the iceberg.

Last December, US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland gave a speech in which she admitted that since 1991 the US government has:

[I]nvested more than 5 billion dollars to help Ukraine…in the development of democratic institutions and skills in promoting civil society and a good form of government.

This is the same State Department official who was caught on tape just recently planning in detail the overthrow of the Ukrainian government.

That five billion dollars appears to have bought a revolution in Ukraine. But what do the US taxpayers get, who were forced to pay for this interventionism? Nothing good. Ukraine is a bankrupt country that will need tens of billions of dollars to survive the year. Already the US-selected prime minister has made a trip to Washington to ask for more money.

And what will the Ukrainians get? Their democracy has been undermined by the US-backed coup in Kiev. In democracies, power is transferred peacefully through elections, not seized by rebels in the streets. At least it used to be.

The IMF will descend on Ukraine to implement yet another of its failed rescue plans, which enrich the well-connected and international bankers at the expense of the local population. The IMF adds debt, organizes sweetheart deals for foreign corporations, and demands that the local population accept “austerity” in exchange for “reform” that never seems to produce the promised results.

The groundwork for this disaster has been laid by NED, USAID, and the army of NGOs they have funded over the years in Ukraine.

Supporters of NED and its related organizations will argue that nothing is wrong with sending US dollars to “promote democracy” overseas. The fact is, however, that NED, USAID, and the others have nothing to do with promoting democracy and everything to do with destroying democracy.

It is not democracy to send in billions of dollars to push regime change overseas. It isn’t democracy to send in the NGOs to re-write laws and the constitution in places like Ukraine. It is none of our business.

How should we promote democracy overseas? First, we should stop the real isolationists — those who seek to impose sanctions and blockades and restrictions that impede our engagement overseas. We can promote democracy with a US private sector that engages overseas. A society that prospers through increased trade ties with the US will be far more likely to adopt practices and policies that continue that prosperity and encourage peace.

In 2005, arguing against funding NED in the US foreign assistance authorization bill, I said:

The National Endowment for Democracy…has very little to do with democracy. It is an organization that uses US tax money to actually subvert democracy, by showering funding on favored political parties or movements overseas. It underwrites color-coded ‘people’s revolutions’ overseas that look more like pages out of Lenin’s writings on stealing power than genuine indigenous democratic movements.

Sadly, matters are even worse now. To promote democracy overseas, NED and all other meddling US government funded NGOs should be disbanded immediately.

http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2014/march/23/us-democracy-promotion-destroys-democracy-overseas.aspx

Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

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This article was posted originally on Sept 30, 2007… (This is the Krim!)

I was drinking my morning cup of coffee and I thought maybe you would like to see a large village. With half unfinished homes. These homes basically have been left unfinished from the Soviet Era…

The Village is located in The Crimea . The Crimea, is the most fantastic place to visit in the World. It was a true treasure of the Soviet union…

Many of these homes have people living in them. Some it is very obvious that no one has worked on them in a long time…

I treasured the chance to go through these homes and my Wife was a good sport, She climbed in and out of windows and crossed ditches and climbed walls with me to have a look at these treasures…

The one picture that has my Wife looking out the window of a half finished home is my favorite: The Village nestled at the foot of the mountains!

One day I will get to live in a Village…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

• Crimea, Part 1: YALTA… (windowstorussia.com)
• Crimea, Part 2: Crimean Mountains… (windowstorussia.com)

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As promised, part two. This article was posted originally on Sept 30, 2007….

Part 1 is here… (Link)

The mountains of Crimea: At the sea level in Yalta it was 70 degrees F. or 20 to 21 degrees C. We got to the mountains and it was below 0 degrees C. I can only continue by saying what I stated yesterday, The Crimea was the most wonderful place I ever visited. You have it all there, beautiful sea to magnificent mountains…

The drive up the mountains was very pleasant, the one thing that shocked me was that there was snow everywhere. The mountains were not just rolling tiny hills. They had some size to them!

Got to the top of the mountains and found a lift station, that came from near Yalta. It was not operating now, but soon to be open. The area around the lift was full of eating places and stores to buy just about anything you would want. In fact one of the best meals that we had on the trip was eaten on this mountain top. In a small place called (something like) Welcome. I had my first shashlyk. BBQ on a stick. Americans call it shish kabob. It was lamb and was delicious. They were so excited, they had an American to eat their food. I ate too much of course!

The one thing that I can say about Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova. The people have always been very nice and always try to help me if I needed help. The people on the mountain top were no exception…

1st picture: The lift!
2nd picture: Yalta
3rd picture: Road to top and lots of snow!
4th picture: Road to the top!
5th picture: The wonderful mountain Village.

As I use to say for expressive words as when I was growing up, The Crimea was really “COOL” and “FAR-OUT MAN!”

I can not wait to go back…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Related articles

• Dniester Region, Transnistria, Pridnestrovie! (windowstorussia.com)
• Interesting happenings in Kiev Ukraine… (windowstorussia.com)

Since these articles are being slammed, I am bringing them forward. This article was posted originally on Sept 29, 2007. Somethings may have changed, but it still is the same for we have been back several times since then…

Today I would like to talk about the Crimea. My wife (Svet) and I went to Yalta located in the Crimea for a vacation. She had told me that it was beautiful. Svet is from Russia and Crimea was part of Russia at one time. The area is full of sanitariums (rest and relaxation hotels) from the Soviet era. She had been there several times. But what she told me did not prepare me for the real beauty. I was stunned!!

The country was the most beautiful and stunning country that I have ever seen. I was mouth hanging open, dumb founded, and stuttering over what I saw.

The Black Sea was magnificent to behold. It was so clear that you could see the bottom, even at the ends of the docks where the large sea going tankers were tied up. The Black Sea was like a living creature, it had a noise that was not like a sandy beach. The beaches that I saw were round pebbles, that chattered when the waves went in and out. It was so unlike any American beach I had ever seen. No trash floating anywhere. No broken bottles. No needles washing up on the beach. Very clean…

Yalta, was an experience. My abilities as a driver were challenged. The roads were very narrow and many one ways. Needless to say an hour drive in Yalta was enough to turn anyone away from driving. But after I found the Yalta McDonald’s, I was a happy camper. The food was just like America but much cheaper. Much cheaper!!! By the way, The whole world loves McDonald’s as much as America. That may not be a good thing though…

Near Yalta we stayed at the Yalta Hotel, a hotel built in Soviet times. I want to go on record as saying, I LOVED THIS HOTEL! It cost 50 American Dollars a night, I felt like a King. The staff was wonderful, the eating establishments, top notch! The rooms clean and well kept. They say it was better during the Soviet era, I would love to have seen it then!!

The pictures, 1. McDonald’s in Yalta, 2. Yalta, 3. The Black Sea, 4. The Sea and its pebble beach, 5. The Hotel Yalta.

So this was just one part of Crimea, I have my favorite part of Crimea to talk about. That’s another day!! A hint: The Mountains!

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

• From Windows to Russia: Ukraine and Her Lies on the Gas Issue! (windowstorussia.com)
• Renovating the Yevpatoria RT-70 Radio Telescope… (windowstorussia.com)
• From Russia: Putin the Artist, Cool! (windowstorussia.com)
• Russia: Have You Ever Been Sexually Harassed at Work! (windowstorussia.com)
• Svet Sunday: Vinni Puh & Day Of Troubles! (windowstorussia.com)
• Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is on its way to the Georgian coastline (windowstorussia.com)
• Are The Russians Going to Get Fat… (windowstorussia.com)

This is the sheeple truth and I was raised to think this way…

I am done being threatened with death, dismemberment and bodily harm. I am done being threatened with what will happen if I dare to step on the USA soil again. I am done with being threatened with what my government will do to me by drones and such. I am done and that means that I am severing all ties with people from the U.S…

I found several so called friends that are reporting to the D.C. in the U.S. of A. and I have been watching how people will sneak and tell behind your back, so that their little asses are clear of the crushing boot, that boot that you all are getting from your government as I write this article. You are not safe and play any game with yourself you want, but you are living in a very bad country and freedom, liberty and rights are nothing but an illusion, an illusion that is painted daily for you. You are saturated so heavily with propaganda that you have lost the ability to see the truth…

The main thing is that you do not want to know the truth…

I told you years ago that we were paying people in Ukraine to riot and cause issues. I told you that I watched the money exchanging hands. I watched personally and no one cares. So you definitely do not care now, anymore than then…

I told you about what I knew about Georgia and the U.S. involvement in 2008. You don’t care now and you definitely did not care then…

I warned you years ago and many times since then, that Russia was changing directions and east was the new west…

I warned you that China and Russia had developed ties that are unprecedented in history and now those tiers have solidified…

I warned you that India and Russia would develop solid connections and turn together from the west…

I have given hints to you about what I have experienced in life and what I know as facts of how we as a country have destroyed other countries. With these facts, people in the west run and hide and never are seen again. They do not want the truth, because truth means responsibility…

I have made it clear that the world is getting tired of the crap and that crap is now starting to come home to roost. America runs the playground and it runs like this: The bully looks around at all the scared kids playing and says, “Am I Right?” The others look at the ground and mumble, “yes,” as they fear what the twice bigger kid will do to their faces if they stand up to him…

I have told you a ton of information within the pages of this website and you ignore that vital information, or you ridicule that information…

The end has been reached for me:

I received an e-mail from Washington D.C. a few days ago. It was one that matches close enough to many that I have received and it was about the fact that I have been targeted. I am targeted if I cross the border and I am targeted because of my terrorist activities! Now that is a good one…

Than I realized that just talking about why the government needs to be changed in America and why we need new leaders is all it takes to be censored, threatened and targeted. I am officially a terrorist in the USA governments eyes. I do not conform and I do not want or expect any relationship or connection with the American government…

Ukraine was the end of my patience and I realize that I am very upset at what happened in Ukraine. I also realized that so many people from America who love Ukraine have slid into the safe zone and forgot what started all the happenings in Ukraine. They simply are scared and can not tell the truth, so the truth becomes what keeps them from being booted upon…

I have been threatened for the last time and I will take the steps to assure that I will not be murdered as I travel and enjoy the world. The U.S. does not have the right to threaten people, be they citizens or not and I have been threatened for the last time…

Time to get divorced…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Events in and concerning Crimea have raised to fever pitch the cacophony in the West over Ukraine. For one observer, there are some fundamental questions that seem to apply from the very beginning of the crisis and which seem important in understanding the broader context.

1. Why did the U.S. and the West cry “unconstitutional foul” on the vote in the Crimean parliament to reunite with Russia, while endorsing and abetting the overthrow of an elected president in Kiev. This was clearly an unconstitutional act since President Viktor Yanukovych, although venal, incompetent and corrupt, was just that — a democratically elected president?

Does anyone in the U.S. administration know history? Do they know that the core of Russian identity was born in Kiev?

2. What is the West’s moral high ground in preaching democracy, rule of law and good governance to Russia and to the rest of the world while supporting a coup? Are these ethical imperatives placed on hold in the case of a regime that the West disapproves of?

3. Why do similar double standards prevail in our approach to self-­determination? Kosovo was historically linked to Serbia, yet we invoked the secessionist right of the Albanian majority. Crimea is historically Russian — a 200-year history dating back to Catherine the Great, which was artificially rewritten in 1954 in the form of an internal transfer to Ukraine within the then-Soviet Union. Do we conclude that the rules of the self-determination game change when the irredentist impulses involve those who would unite with Russia — South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Crimea?

4. How can we possibly welcome the interim government in Kiev as a unifying force when its leaders have exploited the east-west divide in the country by sending loyal governors from the western regions of the country to Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk, thus inflaming the pro-Russia majority? Or by appointing just two eastern figures in the 19 new ministries? Or by including in the government six representatives of ultra-right forces, including the Svoboda movement, denounced in a 2012 European parliament resolution as “xenophobic, racist and anti-Semitic”?

5. Why does the West not understand that threats do not work with Putin’s Russia? Reports from Moscow suggest that there is a widespread conviction — even among those opposed to Putin — that the U.S. and the European Union have gone too far in meddling in the Ukraine crisis. It is certainly true to say that among Russians, Putin has been strengthened by the standoff with the West. This is reinforced by a sense of lese-majeste on the part of the U.S.-led West toward Russia in the post-Soviet era. As one scholar put it, the two decades after the end of the Cold War have offered Russia a deal “closer to Versailles than Bretton Woods” — or certainly the Marshall Plan.

6. Does anyone in the U.S. administration understand history? History might remind us that the very ideal of “Rus” —that is, the core of Russian identity — was born in Kiev centuries before Moscow was founded. Ukraine will never be “just another country” to Russians, or for that matter to the 30 percent of those of Russian origin who live in Ukraine. The U.S.’ own history also takes us back almost 200 years to the Monroe Doctrine, whereby the U.S. reserved the right to resist and turn back any foreign adventurism on the entire American continent — a right Washington has invoked.

7. Why have the U.S. and the West rejected outright the tripartite EU-Russia-Ukraine solution tentatively advanced by Russia that would avoid the zero-sum choice forcing Ukraine into an us-versus- them cul-de-sac? This is basically what was proposed by former defense and foreign ministers of Russia, Poland and Britain three months ago.

8. Why, oh why, does the U.S.’ distinguished former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, think it is in any way helpful to make comparisons between Russia’s actions in Crimea and Hitler’s annexation of Austria? Consider, again, the history of Ukraine and Crimea. This is especially gauche, if not politically cynical, in the context of a country in which many recall pro-Nazi collaboration in western Ukraine in the 1940s.

David C. Speedie is a senior fellow and director of the U.S. Global Engagement Program at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York.

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

I was amazed at the western press and the news yesterday: euronews – The leader of an Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus, Doku Umarov has been declared dead on the group’s website. Described as Russia’s most wanted man, Umarov is believed to have been responsible for several deadly bombings. It is not known how he died but the website said the rebel leader had already been replaced. (Link)

This made me laugh because awhile back I was reading about and watching a video about the fact that Doku Umarov was pinned inside a house and had no way to escape. I suspected that it was released before the Olympics to point out a fact that Russia hunted this guy down in a massive effort and shut him down for good. The word was that since he was invincible, he would cause issues at the Olympics…

This is being brought out now because like the death of Osama bin Laden, the death of Doku Umarov has been used at the time of betterment for public opinion…

They both were dead before they were allowed to be dead in the public eyes…

So why did this just get picked up as news? I do not know! I read about it over a month ago (actually two months ago) and ignored it, because it was old news then. I knew a few months before that, through the local Russians news and grapevine that he had been cornered and killed…

Why even the guy who made the video below figured it out and went on in the video to claim that the Olympics would blown to hell or something like that. As we know that definitely did not happen! Did it? He made this video and posted it January 17th, 2014….

Hmm! He is dead but the fact is that we do not exactly know when he died…

Sounds familiar…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

I call this: “A video to prove to the paymasters in the west that the paid servants are doing their job…”

I hope that the information is finally starting to filter through to people in the West that when Russians call the new Ukrainian government fascists they’re not even exaggerating. It’s actually true – the general prosecutor, the head of defense and security, the education minister and the deputy prime minister are members of a neo-Nazi group (Svoboda). Even Europe’s far right parties are disowning them – Jobbik (in Hungary) and the BNP (in Britain) want nothing to do with them, and are actually supporting Russia in the Crimea dispute. That’s a bizarre state of affairs, when the Ukrainian government is so extremist that they lose the support of European ultra-nationalists, and…

Yet the U.S. State Department continues to support them and offer them money. It’s not just bizarre, it’s criminally insane…

Time to wake up people and quit hiding your head in the sand…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

“I feel happy. I feel happy for my country for the first time since 1989. I feel kinda like revenge. After 23 years on the knee, my country is getting up and that’s great!” Sveta…

I asked Sveta to write down what she said to me at supper last night. The above quote is what she said. Read it again and come back, please. No read it and understand what she is saying to me and to you…

This is what America has stepped in and since they created the feelings that have been hidden in the first place, those feelings are naturally going to come to the surface when we (America) start the same underhanded techniques again. Russians watched carefully at what was happening in Ukraine and when the west played into the Nazi deck of cards and Germany dealt the hand. A transformation happened in Russia and feelings from so many years ago have leaped to the surface and exploded all over the horizon in Russia…

Putin and the Kremlin never could have asked for a better thing to happen and they most likely could never have charged the Russian people into this state, without the west falling “hook line and sinker” into a trap set in Ukraine. Then the west even expressed the finally act of stupidity and they looked like this, “Senator John McCain stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the leader of one of the rising Neo-Nazi parties in the country.”

Yes he (McCain) did and that means, yes we (America) did also…

Sveta is a tried and true Soviet and she like a huge portion of the population in Russia have very strong hidden feelings about what happened years ago and the fact is that everyone is sick and tired of the US and EU trying to shove the western way of life up their ass. This Ukraine intervention has set off a chain reaction…

Crimea is now Russian and according to what I am hearing and seeing, Russians will and are wanting to change and take back what they lost, by the likes of crooked western paid politicians in the first place…

The more that the US and the EU push, the more resistance that Russia will mount in return and will build that wall of defense higher and higher against a financially devastated western world. The Russia people have reached that point of no return, something Americans have not had to deal with, for way to long and have forgotten what it is like to do without. Russians will thrive and survive without and since they do without many times now. They already have the west beat, hands down…

Sveta truly was beaming at the fact that the Krim or Crimea as some call it, was brought back into the Russians arms, for safe keeping. The Krim has a deep place in Russian history and I saw the love for the Krim many times as I listened to people talk about the past as Soviets there…

Why to my surprise and to many Russians surprise, Gorby weighed in to the situation:

Nobel Peace Prize winner Mikhail Gorbachev welcomed the outcome of the referendum in the Crimea. He considers that the conditions for joining the Crimea to Russia has been met. He said, “The majority of the population in the Crimea, hailed the end of the Ukrainian country.” and thus he also said, “The people (on the peninsula) want it, and that means that you have to meet up with them.” and this also, “The people have had the opportunity to say in a referendum their opinion, and that is a good thing!”

Bottom line of all this is simple…

The more the west pushes, lies, cheats, plays games and acts two faced and is immoral. The chances of Ukraine’s eastern and southern half becoming Russian, grow exponentially…

For when the devil is on your door step, it is time to bitch slap him, back across the pond…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…