Windows to Russia

I am sitting at a place called McFoxy! The name should give you a hint. It is owned by McDonalds here in Ukraine…

The coffee is exactly the same as McDs and the menu is centered around chicken and more chicken. I have become a McFoxy fan because McDonalds is always so busy that you can not even get in. They seem to be building a McFoxy where ever you find a McDonalds…

So I am sitting here typing a post out on the phone. I am waiting for Sveta to show up from Moscow Russia. I will be glad when she gets here. She made it through the borders ok and that is always a relief…

The Kiev train station is busy 24 hours a day and I just love the hustle and bustle of the station…

Time to go and hopefully when I have time to write more I will be able to find internet to allow me to write. But for now I will finsh my coffee before it gets too cold…

Windows to Russia!

Posted from mobile…

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev moved to beef up his image as an anti-corruption crusader on Wednesday as he signed off a bill to raise fines for bribery.

The bill, approved by Russia’s parliament earlier this month, raises fines for giving or taking bribes up to 100 times the amount of the bribe. The maximum fine is 500 million rubles ($18.3 million).

“I hope this law helps fight corruption, the scale of which is horrifying,” Medvedev said in a meeting with Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika.

“It is an absolutely new punishment,” the president said. “The spike of state responsibility will be directed at a person’s assets. For some, this will be more important.”

He added however that a jail term remains the “main type of punishment” for palm-greasing.

“There should be no doubt: imprisonment… will continue to be used by courts.”

The number of corruption-related crimes involving top government officials and large bribes increased 100% in 2010 year-on-year, Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said in January.

Russia is ranked 154th out of 178 countries by Transparency International, while the United States is 19th in the anti-corruption group’s latest Corruption Perception Index.

GORKI, May 4 (RIA Novosti)

Russian military will carry out on Thursday the third night rehearsal of the May 9 parade on Moscow’s Red Square, the Defense Ministry said.

“The first rehearsal was carried out on Red Square on April 26, the second took place on May 3, and we still have the third on May 5 and the final rehearsal on May 7,” spokesman Lt. Col. Sergei Vlasov said on Wednesday.

Vlasov said the rehearsal was scheduled to start at 10.00 pm Moscow time (18:00 GMT).

This year’s parade will involve 20,000 servicemen and over 100 pieces of military hardware, including Topol-M ballistic missile launchers, S-400 Triumph air defense systems, Pantsyr-S1

Air defense systems, Iskander-M missile launchers, Smerch multiple rocket launchers, BTR-80 armored personnel carriers, and T-90 main battle tanks.

The event will culminate with a flyover by a group of Mi-8 multirole helicopters carrying Russian state and military flags.

The Moscow authorities have allocated about 102 million rubles ($3.7 mln) on preparations for the Victory Day parade on Red Square.

MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti)

I found this article interesting because I can tell you that being from America that this is a worthless report that should be abolished. It is American based and American backed…

Russian media experts disputed on Tuesday the accuracy of the 2011 Freedom of the Press report which ranks Russia 173rd out of 196 countries.

Russia jumped two positions in the report by the Washington-based Freedom House think tank, from 175th in 2010, but is still ranked on par with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe.

“I strongly disagree with those estimates, because, even if we do have negative factors, we are not at the level of Venezuela or certain African states,” said Pavel Gusev, the chairman of the Russian Public Chamber’s committee for media issues.

“Positive trends, media development and the fact that almost every Russian region has its own free media – free both in terms of their financial sources and in terms of expression – were ignored by Freedom House,” said Gusev, who is also the editor-in-chief of the popular Moskovsky Komsomolets daily.

Russia has only a handful of independent newspapers and just one independent TV channel. There have been several murders and beatings of journalists critical of the authorities in recent years.

The Internet has remained mostly free of censorship, turning it into a forum for public discussion and dissent. President Dmitry Medvedev dismissed rumors last week that the government planned to impose Chinese-style restrictions on the Internet.

I can tell you from experience that this is a political tool and is used to wage political war on countries that America deems not agree with their point of view. So Russia just needs to ignore this report and tell America to stick it where the sun does not shine…

I still say that Russia is just as free if not freer than America and these reports are the same every time. But when you control the end results of the reports. The reports become what ever you want them to be and say…

Windows to Russia!

A former Russian intelligence officer who helped the U.S. authorities uncover a Russian spy ring last summer has been charged with high treason and desertion, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Tuesday.

Ten Russians, including media star Anna Chapman, were arrested in the United States in June 2010 on suspicion of espionage. They plead guilty to conspiring to act as unregistered foreign agents and were returned to Russia in exchange for four men accused by the Kremlin of spying for Britain’s MI6 and the CIA.

“The FSB investigation department has completed an investigation into the case to charge Russian national Alexander Poteyev with committing high treason by divulging state secrets,” the FSB said in a statement.

It said the indictment against Poteyev was sent to Moscow’s main military court on April 21.

Poteyev fled to the United States with his family shortly before the arrest of the sleeper agents was made public. His case will be heard in absentia.

Windows to Russia!

The daughter of an executive at Russia’s second largest oil producer has been found dead in the Moscow region, a police source said on Tuesday.

He said the body of Viktoria Teslyuk, daughter of Robert Teslyuk, was found by the roadside near the town of Taldom, about 100 km north of Moscow “when the snow melted.”

The source was unable to offer an explanation for the death of the 16-year-old girl, who was reported missing on March 26.

The report was confirmed by a source within Robert Teslyuk’s inner circle but there has been no official comment from police or Lukoil.

Robert Teslyuk is general director of the Arman oil producing company, a joint venture of Lukoil, Shell and Sinopec, based in Kazakhstan.

The kidnapping of the son of Russian software tycoon Yevgeny Kaspersky made world headlines last month. The 20-year-old heir to Kaspersky’s estimated $800 million wealth was released safely in a police sting operation after being held for ransom for a week.

Windows to Russia!

I sat in my room this morning sipping that cup of coffee and realized that in the last week TV here in Kiev, Ukraine has really sucked. I mean really…

First literally every station that I can get in the hotel room had nothing but 24 hours a day “Royal Wedding”, then when the wedding was over they reran the wedding for those that missed it the first 1000 times it was shown. We got to see the royal couple kiss each other about 10,000 times in front of the world. Then just as the fervor over the wedding calmed down. America had to go and kill Osama bin Laden…

Now 24 hours a day all I get to see is Osama bin Laden and Presidents Obama face plastered on the TV. That is followed always by the scene of millions of Americans dancing in the streets like a bunch of drunk monkeys in celebration of a special holiday… (This morning I turn on the TV and the first person that I get to see was Obama claiming for the 1000th time that he gave the orders to kill Osama bin Laden…)

So as several people from America in New York told BBC…

Britain had their Royal Wedding to celebrate, but we have our death of Osama bin Laden celebration…

Something just was not proper about what I saw on TV over the killing of one man. looks like we have elevated Osama bin Laden to a lofty status and that can do nothing but be a bad omen. I see the Eastern world expressing “This make him a martyr?” While the Western world says, “No way! — Ummm — We hope!”

I can tell you that we already have made him larger than life. He took 10 years almost to kill and the Western world (USA) is dancing to his demise. His followers will most likely use that huge energy of his death, to propagate further issues…

Nothing good will come out of this…

Windows to Russia!

Posted from mobile phone…

Update: Osama bin Laden was not armed… Osama bin Laden was dumped at sea as a so called burial… Osama bin Laden was shot in the head execution style… Osama bin Laden is now much larger than life…

Hummm – sounds a little fishy to me…

A criminal case has been opened into the beating of a Russian journalist in Moscow, police reported.

Dmitry Andryushchenko, a journalist working for  Russian business radio station Kommersant FM, was attacked and beaten in northern Moscow late on Saturday following an argument with one of the attackers.

Andryushchenko said the attacker, who was drunk, first smashed his car, forcing the journalist to call the police. The man also called his friends, who arrived at the scene before police and beat the reporter.

Andryushchenko said he suffered a mild brain concussion and multiple bruises as a result, but refused to be hospitalized.

Police detained one of the attackers.

Preliminarily, the incident was not connected with the journalist’s professional activity.

MOSCOW, May 2 (RIA Novosti)

Russia celebrates a national holiday, Spring and Labor Day, on May 1, with trade unions and political parties set to hold rallies across the country.

In Soviet times May 1 was celebrated in Russia as International Workers’ Day and saw massive Communist Party rallies. In 1992, the name was changed to Spring and Labor Day but it still remains a national holiday.

More than 2 million people are expected to take part in holiday events across the country, including demonstrations by the ruling United Russia party, the Communists and trade unions, the ultranationalist LDPR Party and the opposition Solidarity movement.

Many Russians use this public holiday to relax. Some may go on a retreat to their called dachas to work in their garden and spend time with their families. It is also common for families to have picnics or barbecues…

This is kinda the true start of spring in Russia…

In Ukraine they celebrate the same holiday and everyone is running around with flowers for the women… 🙂

Windows to Russia!

Moscow is aware of the coalition’s plans about the ground military campaign in Libya, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday.

“The information shows that both NATO and EU work on the similar plans. EU develops these plans to secure humanitarian convoys, though it is being stressed that it would take place after the UN gave the green light,” Lavrov said in an interview with Russian Center TV channel.

He said the possible ground military campaign should be sanctioned with the UN Security Council.

“If anybody wants to ask for this mandate [on carrying out ground campaign], welcome to the UN Security Council. We will discuss, try to understand what is planned, because the digressions from the mandate that we are watching now, are enough to learn lessons,” Lavrov said.

The UN Security Council adopted a resolution imposing a no-fly zone over Libya on March 17, paving the way for a military operation against Gaddafi which began two days later. The command of the operation was shifted from a U.S.-led international coalition to NATO in late March.

A total of 14 of the 28 NATO countries are taking part in the operation Unified Protector in Libya, which includes airstrikes, a no-fly zone and naval enforcement of an arms embargo.

MOSCOW, April 30 (RIA Novosti)