Windows to Russia

When school starts in Russia as it did the beginning of September. Moscow changes from a summer city with whispers of children’s voices to a winter city that is full of the squeals and delights of children’s voices. In Moscow any parent that can get their child to a dacha or village and keep them there for the summer, they do it. It is considered good for the child and always there is at least one parent staying with the child. It is not a dump the kid program so that mom and dad can have fun. It is really a serious thing in Russia to get your kids to spend time in the country. Kids need to plant flowers and vegetables. They need to care for chicken, goats and cows. It is part of growing up in Russia…

So the start of summer is called Last Bell and the end of summer is First Bell. That is what I hear all the time around Moscow. If you hear someone proclaim first bell, then you realize that summer is almost over. Same for last bell, it means summer starts…

This is my Que as to what the roads will be like in Moscow. Summer is definitely a whole bunch easier to get around and find parking in Moscow. As compared to now after the first bell, the city is a blanket of cars on every sidewalk and grass spot… 🙂

It is also nice to see that all kids have a dress code. School in Russia is not the place to wear jeans and t-shirt. The boys have a dark colored suit, many times and or at least dress pants and a white shirt and tie. The girls wear dark dresses and or sometimes they are a grey/brown plaid type dress material with a white blouse. It is nice to see kids not walking home from school with their pants dragging the ground and t-shirts that say derogatory remarks about someone or something…

When I grew up we use to call it the same thing (First Bell/Last Bell) out in the country. I remember one day when I was little, I realized that it just made sense, because all day long you hear school bells going off at school. Bell for school to start, to end a class and end the day. So Fist Bell and Last Bell just made sense…

My favorite was the real bell that the teacher would ring by pulling a rope on the bell mounted on a pole…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia!

Stock-holders of the South Stream gas pipeline project will sign an agreement on the 16th of September, 2011. The project stipulates laying a gas pipeline across the Black Sea from Russia to the countries of Central and South Europe. The first stage is to be put into operation in December 2015, and running the South Stream pipeline at full capacity is expected in 2018…

The South Stream project is part of the bypass of Transit countries for gas to Europe. The Nord Stream gas pipeline which travels under the Baltic Sea flowed gas this Tuesday, in a trial run to check out technical issues. The Nord Stream just like the South Stream when finished, will provide deliveries of Russian gas to the EU bypassing all other former transit countries…

I have a saying: “When the going gets tough, the tough get going!” well actually Joseph P. Kennedy had that saying also. But I heard it from my football couch a hundred times or more…

Russia decided to bypass, pain in the ass transit countries for gas. Lets hope Europe can finally get some Winter peace and not freeze because a transit country decides to play political Russian Roulette…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia!

Putin said the launch of the Nord Stream would deprive Ukraine of its exclusive gas transit rights.

“Ukraine is our old and traditional partner. As any transit country it has the temptation to benefit from its transit position. Now this exclusive right is disappearing. Our relations will become more civilized,” Putin told journalists.

That kinda brought to mind a civilized, such as in dueling with pistols in the past?

Ouch says, Windows to Russia!

Kommersant reports that “CSTO is turning to face NATO”. This article addresses the reform of the Collective Security Treaty Organization that Russia is working on.According to a source of the newspaper, the basis for this transformation may be developed by the Russian Institute of Contemporary Development (INSOR), the board of guardians of which is chaired by Dmitry Medvedev himself…
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Windows to Russia!

Windows to Russia!

In our little village we have about 6 people who stay all Winter. Most of those 6 are babushkas. (4 out of 6) If I remember correctly our goat lady next door who supplies us with goat milk. Is about 86 years old. It is with this lady that I saw a wonderful blending of the ancient ways and modern technology…

Sveta a few days ago had come to me and said that the next door babushka’s computer was broke. They (family was down to harvest veggies) had been trying to get it to work but no one could get it fixed. Well Sveta had volunteered me to fix it. She knew that if anyone could, I could. Wives are great aren’t they? 🙂

Well I was very busy and it took a day for me to get around and find time that I could look at their computer system. It was intriguing me that a babushka in the middle of nowhere would have a computer in her house. In fact we are so far from nowhere that these people never go to a nearby village and get groceries. They live entirely off of what they produce and what family from the cities brings a couple times a year and those family members come by train…

I have to side step the computer for a second: This 86 year old babushka is an old bootlegger. She grows a huge field of potatoes every year and 90 percent of those potatoes become vodka. Home grown and home brewed. She is the vodka supplier for many many kilometers. Those potatoes are being harvested right now and they will soon make the basis for a new batch of Russian Vodka. This is her money in this unsure world and with her kind of money she will never starve or lack a person to do work for her… 🙂

Now back to the computer: Sveta and I went and over to see what was up with this computer. The first thing I noticed when entering the ancient abode of of the babushka was a huge flat screen TV, a new Samsung cell phone and a whole desk with a scarf covered computer. It reminded me of a shrine and was decorated with various items and things of importance. I could tell that this computer held a high position in this household along with the flat screen TV!

I then looked around the home and realized that I was in a Russian home of a hundred years ago. With a mixing of modern existence. The imprint of children was seen on the carpet in the room. It was a carpet of endless roads for a child to drive their little car all over it. The typical Russian carpets hanging on the walls everywhere. They were of beautiful colors in wool and gorgeous to bare. I was impressed with the feeling of the home and it was pleasant to visit…

After looking over the computer and realizing that trying to explain what I was doing was not necessary. It was not understood and never would be. They just wanted to play games and look at pictures and videos. So I gave it (computer) another go at life and think that they will get several more years out of it. They had one of their cd drives crash and burn (they had two). I just took it off line. The computer was happy and they all smiled and we got two huge pumpkins and two gigantic squash for saving their computer… 🙂

I looked at Sveta and said, “Imagine a babushka with a computer!” I then started to wonder if I could somehow get internet to the whole village? I believe that we could get more people to move back if we could get a few modern conveniences implemented…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia!

Russia’s Gazprom started filling the Nord Stream pipeline (first phase) with technological gas on Tuesday in a testing process that is expected to be finished by October 6, 2011. The 1,000-km-plus pipe, Nord Stream is designed to directly deliver Russian gas to Europe under the Baltic Sea. The first phase with deliver around 27.5 billion cubic meters per year. Phase 2 done in 2012 will up that to 55 billion cubic meters per year. In particular, the fuel will be transported to the Czech Republic and Slovakia via Germany bypassing Ukraine…

The part of that little paragraph above that you should be interested in is: “the fuel will be transported to the Czech Republic and Slovakia via Germany bypassing Ukraine” This is very important and as South Stream comes closer and closer to being done Ukraine will be taken out of the picture as a energy transit country. Remember that Belarus has turned Beltransgas almost completely over to Gazprom…

As with the issues at hand right now with Ukraine over gas contracts. That is the driving force to bypass Ukraine. After listening to years of this conflict, I realize that Ukraine is getting its back up against the wall and does not really know what to do about loosing billions upon billions of dollars in transit money. But Ukraine only has itself to blame. It seems that Ukraine has its own gas deposits but that they are really only capable of supplying Ukraine if developed…

For all the love I have for Ukraine, I have to say that Ukraine has been a terrible gas transit country and has caused huge problems in the past. Just as they are waffling around right now about gas and stirring the pot so to speak…

The latest rhetoric from the Ukraine president, has definitely made the case for South Stream much stronger. One day Ukraine will be taken out of the gas picture and then you will see what is what for reality. The screaming about gas price is only one small part of the whole picture…

As we close in on cold weather we see the desire by Ukraine to cause issues but with a new pipeline called Nord Stream going online in full by October 6th. Ukraine will have much less maneuvering room to rile the sentiments of Europe over gas…

Moscow: Russia Today – Today Russia is not as dependent on the Ukrainian gas transportation system as it was in 2009, or in previous years. Moscow has practically bought out the gas transportation system of Belarus (Beltransgas). On Tuesday Gazprom starts supplying technological gas via the first leg of the freshly built Nord Stream gas pipeline (27.5 billion cubic meters per year), with the second leg to be finished in 2012, increasing gas supplies to Europe via Nord Stream to 55 billion cubic meters per year.

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia!

Two weeks ago, western journalists swept into Tripoli on a wave of euphoria as the city welcomed the NATO/TNC with open arms. Not a shot was fired as the city where just a few weeks previously, millions of people had turned out to support Muammar al-Qathafi, came out to celebrate. Then why is the NATO/TNC leadership still holed up in Benghazi?

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Sveta and I (and Boza of course) are getting things together on this last day in the village. It makes me kinda sad and I really do not want to leave. But we have things to get caught upon at home in Moscow and since it is a new school year in Russia. I have to get ready to start teaching my students again…

We are coming back in a few weeks to finish the fence. We have to gather supplies to build a new complete fence across the back of our village home. It will be the last 60 meters and the hardest to get done. We are also trying to see if we can fence off more land than what is now fenced. Sveta will work on that while I get the supplies together. Sveta says that we can almost double our land legally according to the old regulations. She is going to see what is what and if we can. I would love to have a whole bunch of new land to work on with the village home…

I have to work on the car and make sure all is running good before we travel the 400+ kilometers back home. With school back in session we will have an easy trip until we get into Moscow. In the summer everyone leaves Moscow and when school starts everyone comes pouring back. The city swells like a big fat balloon… 🙂

It is getting cold already. The trees are turning yellow and red already. Last night it dipped into the single digits and frost will be right around the corner. As I have said many times in posts. Winter is 7+ months long and it does not wait for autumn to play around. It (Winter) just comes on full force. So in a few weeks we either get the back fence done or hold our peace until Winters over. Several villagers have packed up and left for the city for the Winter already. That surprised me but as I stepped out this morning and shivered. I realized that they are responding to the change in weather…

It looks like next year that I will spend 3 to 4 months in the village. There is just too much to be done and if it does not get done we will have serious issues with the village home. Sveta will come down on weekends and such. Boza of course will stay with me and enjoy the life of a village dog. Chasing birds, cats, goats away from the yard and running through the woods…

So I thought I would post a picture that Sveta found of the village. It was created by a student of the school that use to be located here where the Monastery is and was. It is accurate to a degree and is beautiful. Several of the structures in the foreground of the Monastery are still there and used as homes by villagers. The picture above is one that stirred my soul. It is of the huge church that was located at the Monastery and it was blown up by a real scumbag type person many many years ago. What a crying shame for it was a beautiful church. As you can tell from the picture…

Kyle and Sveta
Windows to Russia!

Moscow is celebrating its 864th birthday. Historians assume that the city is actually much older, but the first recorded mention of Moscow dates back to 1147.

Despite floods, fires and invasions, the city grew and developed.

During the next few years, Moscow will more than double its territory to 251,000 hectares and may soon emerge as a major global financial center.

Mass outdoor festivities are being held across the capital on Sunday.

Dozens of concerts will take place in various parts of the city.

In the evening, there will be fireworks and a fantastic laser show at Vorobyovy Hills, which may enter the Guinness Book of Records.

Windows to Russia!