Windows to Russia

It looks like Medvedev showed a touch of bitterness over the abuse of the UN mandate on Libya. He interprets the mandate as he sees it and expects it to be fulfilled. But there is a problem with that…

As much as Medvedev wants to believe that the West is paved in good intentions and they are good friends and allies, it just isn’t gonna happen…

Loyalty from the West changes like the wind and when opportunity knocks to destroy your friend, be he an opponent or not, then that is priority in life. Morals and ethics aside…

For the first time since this started Medvedev made a statement about the falsification of actions by the West on the UN document. Medvedev said that, “The resolution is normal, but the resolution should be fulfilled, not seeking to abuse its mandate.” Then he added, “We have serious questions to the UN leadership,” he then pointed out. “The situation in Libya and Cote d’Ivoire showed that a dangerous tendency is taking shape.” Hummm…

It is important to understand that Medvedev stuck his neck out against the Russian people thinking’s on the UN mandate and fell hook line and sinker for the Wests tactics… (Medvedev believed in the West and her goals…)

I asked Sveta last night, “Do you think Medvedev has a advisory panel for Western idiosyncrasies?” She said, “I doubt it, he probably just makes the decision himself…”

That made me think and over that cup of coffee this morning, I am contemplating that very thought…

Does Medvedev have an adviser on what the West will do in certain circumstances? Mainly issues of moral, ethics, corruption, vanity, backstabbing, trust, faith, reliability and any other issue that has to do with betrayal…

It seems that he does not…

I learned the hard way in America. America has lots of beliefs in sayings that people in other countries should take to heart…

• “The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be only sustainable competitive advantage.” Arie de Geus
• “A competitor will find a way to win. Competitors take bad breaks and use them to drive themselves just that much harder. Quitters take bad breaks and use them as reasons to give up. It’s all a matter of pride.” Nancy Lopez
• “A competitive world offers two possibilities. You can lose. Or, if you want to win, you can change.” ??
• “You can’t just beat a team, you have to leave a lasting impression in their minds so they never want to see you again” Mia Hamm
• “The essence of competitiveness is liberated when we make people believe that what they think and do is important – and then get out of their way while they do it.” Jack Welch
• “The competition’s tough, and it requires us to be tougher.” Senator John Kerry
• “If any of my competitors were drowning, I’d stick a hose in their mouth” Ray Kroc
• “Agility means that you are faster than your competition. Agile time frames are measured in weeks and months, not years.” Michael Hugos
• “Many Americans are driven from birth to succeed and if we allow that desire to fail to intervene, then we have lost our edge.” Kyle

I could go on a thousand fold on quotes about competition and “When the Going gets Tough, The Tough get Going.” I taught many classes on such things in my past. What look like a betrayal of morals and structure to the world, is just common business procedures in the West. (As the winds change, be the first to catch the wind in your sails. For those who hesitate fail…) What many people in the world do not realize is that we (Americans) are formed from the beginning to feel that we can do what we feel like to accomplish our goals. Even if that means that we step on someone in the process…

So Medvedev learned another lesson about the West. He got stung by the facade of a friends face over top the true intentions. Now we are looking at a strong possibility of ground troops going into Libya…

Yesterday Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy, as well as British Prime Minister David Cameron laid the ground work for the next line of the Libya invasion. They posted a joint article that has been published in leading newspapers in the three countries. This article makes it clear that they will do what ever they have to to get Qaddafi out of power in Libya…

Medvedev really needs an adviser on the Western world. Hindsight is always better than foresight. Now Medvedev has begun to see the folly of the situation and Russia definitely sees that 90% of the information coming out of Libya is a fabricated lie. Hence, a No vote at the UN mandate would have caused a huge attitude adjustment and made it look really bad for the West to play shenanigans…

Windows to Russia!

SANYA (Hainan province, China), April 14 (Itar-Tass) — Russia is strongly concerned over an abused mandate under the UN Security Council resolution on Libya, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told reporters here on Thursday.

Commenting on the current situation in Libya the president noted that “the UN Security Council resolution should be fulfilled in compliance with its letter and spirit and should not be misinterpreted.” “The NATO forces engaged in the operation,” he recalled.

“The resolution is normal, but the resolution should be fulfilled, not seeking to abuse its mandate,” Medvedev noted.

“We have serious questions to the UN leadership,” he pointed out. “The situation in Libya and Cote d’Ivoire showed that a dangerous tendency is taking shape,” the Russian president underlined.

Windows to Russia!

I was sipping that wonderful cup of coffee this morning in Moscow, Russia and doing some thinking’s that involved businesses that fail…

You see in America for 10 years I was a trouble shooter for ServiceMaster Inc. during the era that they had a huge Food Service business that they acquired by buying out American Foods. They were involved in the hospital and college food service contract business…

ServiceMaster no longer has this part of their business and I left ServiceMaster behind when they sold the collegiate food service part to DAKA. It was a French based company that I always said stood for, “Does Anyone Know Anything?” (DAKA)…

The one thing I knew how to do was make money on the corporate level. I was a bottom line person and that is what the corporate demands, a good solid bottom line. That shows profit. How you obtain that bottom line is done in varying ways some legal and some not legal. I know them all…

So lets get on to what this article is about. Now that you have some background in what I am really good at. Making Money…

Today I watched the doors on a business shut forever. It was my favorite store to buy food at. I have been a faithful customer and probably the last customer that they had. It was a thriving business and had huge potential. I also saw that it could be a gold mine. But I watched the under lining issue of a cheat of a owner and that would be the undoing of a good solid business…

In Russia as in America you have lots of thieves in the service and food industry. Thieves from the owners on down to the workers. Everyone wants that quick buck and they want it now. Long term viability is not in the picture. In fact I am not sure that most humans have the business sense to contemplate long term viability…

I use to teach classes on business and I taught how to stop thieves, how to make a profit, how to expand that business and twenty other related topics. My favorite was quantitative management and I have a secondary degree in that particular subject…

I study businesses in Russia and have found that there is no difference from Russia and America in business. The same bribes happen, the same cheating happens, the same failures happen and the same customer dissatisfaction happens…

But after I have done some studying of business in Russia. I have come to the conclusion that the potential in Russia is vastly higher to obtain profit levels than in Western world. The overhead that is demanded of your business is in essence nil in Russia compared to other parts of the world…

It is a shame because Russia is a paradise for ideas and businesses. Many Russians fail at business because they do not have the mind set to think long term or any term for that matter. I see business after business set up for the quick dollar and then they sell as fast as they can. Then they open another business and sell it as fast as they can. That first selling of a business creates a flood of similar businesses and the market becomes saturated in a finite area. Other words Russians all do what the other one does. That goes on whether you are in Moscow or a village…

Now remember that not all Russians are this way and the ones tat are not this way are billionaires and Russia has her fair share of billionaires…

Try this link: You drive through a town and you see a fruit stand that sells pears. Then you look around and see that there are 20 stands that sell pears. Nothing but pears and lots of pears. Then you travel to the next town & they sell potatoes. Then the next town sells home canned goods. The next town sells mushrooms. The next town sells stuffed animals. The next town sells kites….. (I think you get my point!)

So as I stated at the beginning I watched this little grocery store fail. It took off with a bang and then they tried to sell it. It failed to sell and by that time it was stripped of assets and it was too late to save it and make a respectable business out of it. Timing is everything when selling a business. Most likely they did not even know what to do to make it a viable business in the first place…

You gotta love these Russians. They are some of the greatest people on earth but when it comes to capitalistic viciousness they do not hold a candle to Americans…

For that, the average entrepreneur Russian will fail at business. Not because he does not have ample opportunity to succeed…

Windows to Russia!

QUESTION: Mr President, the member states of what has now become the “Five” are all very different, with a mass of mutual contradictions, directly competing for global investment. Is there anything that really unites the BRICS states apart from high growth rates and the aspiration to increase their weight in the world? And the second question: how do you assess Russia’s investment attractiveness compared to the other members of the group?

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: It is obvious that at present our countries are united not only because they are all emerging economies: some have more rapid growth, in others it is slower, some have been affected by the global economic crisis to a greater extent, some less, but there is no doubt whatsoever that our countries are rapidly developing and are attractive markets.

But apart from that, now that the forum has been joined by South Africa, the BRICS states are also united by shared views on development of international affairs, the world economy and political processes. The positions of our countries on key issues are very similar.

Let me remind you that at present the BRICS states are all members of the UN Security Council. China and Russia are its permanent members, as you know, while the others are non-permanent members. Despite some differences in the voting, for example, on the Libyan resolution, on the whole we hold very similar views. This shows that apart from economic factors, there is a bigger similarity between our nations, and that is the fundamental outlook on the future of global development, international cooperation, world economic system, and in general the way life should develop on our planet.

Now about Russia’s investment attractiveness: I would not want my comments today to be at odds with what I recently said about the investment climate. In general, there is no doubt that Russia is a very attractive country, because we have huge opportunities, an immense territory and an equally enormous market, great reserves of mineral resources, a growing economy and economic institutions. But we have also a lot of problems – I do not want to say that we are worse than other countries, that would be absolutely wrong, but our investment climate still requires a cardinal change, it must become a priority for the government, and a number of institutions have to be refined, there is no doubt about that. In this sense, our competitiveness is somewhat low compared to other BRICS countries. We must focus on the investment climate, which is what I did not so long ago.

QUESTION: A question about Libya. Have the BRICS countries agreed a position on Libya that they can present at the UN Security Council? And did you discuss at the bilateral meeting with the President of South Africa the reasons why the African Union’s initiative failed?

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Let me just say that the BRICS states have very close positions: four countries abstained from voting on Resolution 1973, and South Africa voted in favour, but not because its views on this resolution were fundamentally different (we were fully aware what we were voting for and what the resolution signified), but rather out of solidarity, because that was the position of the African Union. I spoke about this issue with President of China Hu Jintao and Indian Prime Minister Singh, as well as with President of South Africa Jacob Zuma, and in addition all of us discussed it with President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff.

Our views are very similar, and they are as follows. We believe that the Security Council resolution must be executed regardless of whether we voted for it, like South Africa, or abstained. It must be executed in accordance with its spirit and the letter, and not in accordance with the arbitrary interpretations which have been made by several states.

Ultimately, what did we concede to or vote for? A resolution imposing a no-fly zone, which would stop the conflict from escalating and break up the warring parties. And what have we got as a result? We have what is in fact a military operation, which is not taking place on the ground but it is happening in the air, an operation in which a number of states are taking part and which was joined by NATO as a military bloc. The resolution has no mention of this. So when I hear that the resolution is at fault, that’s wrong. The resolution is absolutely adequate, but it must be implemented as it is, instead of trying to exceed the mandate that is laid down in it. This is a very dangerous trend in international relations. In fact, what we see is the misuse of powers laid down in Resolution 1973, which is a very broad interpretation of the resolution.

For example, the resolution on the developments in Ivory Coast, Resolution 1975, if I remember correctly, talks about using United Nations agencies, but not about supporting one of the sides in the conflict. The UN generally cannot support any side, but in fact that is what we have in Ivory Coast. To be honest, we have some very serious questions to the leadership of the United Nations because it is a very dangerous trend. The UN certainly should make an effort to separate conflicting parties, but it must never help one of the parties, even if we believe that it is in the right. If we talk about the events in Ivory Coast, we’ve seen atrocities and murders committed by both sides. Therefore, the resolutions must be implemented and enforced in accordance with their content, in accordance with their spirit and letter, and the BRICS states are in absolute agreement about this.

Link to this page: http://eng.news.kremlin.ru/transcripts/2076

www.kremlin.ru

Windows to Russia!

Obviously, the main goal of this decision (reforming of international monetary and financial system by the BRICS countries) is to boost the international importance of the national currencies of the BRICS countries, but basically the greater usage of the national currencies in international settlement and international transactions will clearly increase the demand for these currencies and, possibly, at the expense of the global reserve currency which is the USD.

So I guess one of the targets of this decision is to replace dollar as a settlement currency between these countries. This idea is not new I would say we had similar initiatives on bilateral basis between Russia and China for example or China and other countries.

This decision is a continuation of earlier efforts. Why not? I don’t see any reasons why it shouldn’t be successful, for example the yuan and Russian ruble is already actively used for the international trade between these two countries, Russia and China, and respective currencies of other BRICS can be used in international settlements between other countries as well.

One of the constraining reasons could be that the trade flows between BRICS countries, that happen between China and Brazil or Brazil and India something like that, are not that significant at the moment. I think this decision might, actually, support the extension of international trade between these countries.

WtR

Moscow police have uncovered an “underground town” housing more than 100 illegal migrants from Central Asia in the capital’s east, a Moscow criminal police officer said on Thursday.

Police officers together with security and migration officials have raided a factory near the Mozhaiskoye highway following a report about a large illegal settlement in its territory, Andrei Mishel said.

“A total of 110 men and women were living in an underground bomb shelter behind a 4-meter high concrete fence with a barbed wire,” he said, adding that there were even bathrooms and praying rooms organized in the “underground town.”

Most of the uncovered illegal migrants were employees of the factory involved in producing parts of sewing machines, Mishel said. The majority of them will be extradited from the country, and 16 people suspected to have been involved in criminal activity will be questioned by investigators, the police officer added.

Police are considering opening a criminal case against the factory’s director, he said.

Windows to Russia!

It has been a back and forth issue. One minute the sale of the Mistral is final and the next minute the sale of the Mistral has failed. Then the cycle starts all over again… (Link to our articles on the Mistral)

So today the news is full of the report: France and Russia have agreed that the Mistral-class helicopter carriers France will build for Russia will be fully equipped with the communication and control systems, a senior official in Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. “Russia has reached an agreement with France that meets the Defense Ministry’s demand to provide Mistral with the communications and other systems that would satisfy the requirements of the Navy,” the source said…

It looks like this is official this time and it looks like Russia got what they wanted on these ships: The purchase of two Mistral ships including the delivery of the helicopter carriers with the Zenith 9 communication and control system as well as the spare parts for the ships and technical documentation. The weapon systems will be Russian home grown and made…

It seems that four ships will be built. Two in France and the next two in Russia. That is according to the agreement. France will help build the ones in Russia just as Russia will help build the ones in France…

I know that the Russian Navy is excited, they get new toys to play with… (Link)

I guess we will wait and see if this information changes again… 🙂

Windows to Russia!

The leaders of the BRICS nations – Russia, China, India, Brazil and South Africa – believe the situation in Libya should be resolved through diplomatic means, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday.

“Like the other BRICS nations, Russia is deeply concerned by events in Libya and the civilian deaths there,” Medvedev said after a BRICS summit in the southern China resort of Sanya.

“Our shared opinion is that the problem should be resolved by political and diplomatic efforts, not through the use of force,” he added.

A statement after Thursday’s summit said the BRICS member states were united in the desire for “peace, stability and progress” in the countries of the Middle East and Africa hit by recent violence that “the use of force should be avoided” in resolving the conflicts.

“We intend to continue our cooperation with the UN Security Council on Libya,” the statement went on. It also praised the African Union mission – headed by South African leader Jacob Zuma – to Libya.

Russia and China – the only BRICS nations with permanent seats on the Security Council – also called for a greater UN role for Brazil, India and South Africa.

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 embattled Libyan leader Muammar 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.

Despite dozens of sorties carried out by NATO aircraft against Gaddafi’s forces, the government troops maintain their combat capability and continue to pound poorly-equipped rebels with heavy artillery and rocket fire.

France and the U.K. said on Tuesday that the allies should intensify their efforts to cripple Gaddafi’s war machine.

Gaddafi has accepted an African Union road map to ending the civil war in the North African country, but rebels says they will not back down on their demand that Gaddafi must go.

SANYA (CHINA), April 14 (RIA Novosti)

Windows to Russia!

While it seems that Russia is trying to switch gears away from Libya and get the peoples minds on things like, “Who will run for president.” It is not working. Russian media and news is deluged with the fact that the situation in Libya is exactly what was told would happen and that is unfair to Libya. The people in Russia are not happy campers and it is showing on support for Medvedev.

“Russia’s leading political party United Russia will support Dmitry Medvedev’s possible candidacy in the presidential election, but only if United Russia leader Vladimir Putin is not running.”

Medvedev stands alone on the decision at the UN over Libya. He rode that fence and fence riders never come out ahead. He should have said yes or no and stood by it. He would have the respect for a firm decision. But as he performed the vote he looks really lame trying to support a abstention from vote and then complain about what is happening in Libya…

Remember the Movie Forrest Gump when Forrest said. “Stupid is as stupid does” ?

That is what comes to mind over this whole Libya deal. Libya was about two days from ending the uprising and the West interfered. The West back stabbed Libya. Russia turned her back on Libya and failed Libya at the UN. China failed in the same way that Russia did. So they have as much fault as the rest. In fact the whole world sat back and watched the West “Rail Road” Libya over oil. In fact, the lies were at a magnitude that makes no real sense except for the bases that they are sheer folly to try to cover up more lies on top of more lies…

Lets look at what was going on with the lies:

On March 26, over a week after he ordered the strikes on Libya, hitting tanks, anti-aircraft, radar sites, troops and Gadhafi’s own compound in Tripoli, 600 miles away from Benghazi, Obama told the nation he had acted to prevent a “bloodbath” in Benghazi.

“We knew that if we waited one more day, Benghazi – a city nearly the size of Charlotte – could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world.”

White House Middle East expert Dennis Ross reportedly told foreign policy experts: “We were looking at ‘Srebrenica on steroids’ – the real or imminent possibility that up to 100,000 people could be massacred, and everyone would blame us for it.”

A hundred thousand massacred! And our fault? But that is seven times the body count of Katyn, one of the Stalinist horrors of World War II. Was Benghazi truly about to realize the fate that befell Carthage at the hands of Scipio Africanus, at the close of the Third Punic War?

How did the White House come to believe in such a scenario?

In this low-scale war, the cities of Zwara, Ras Lanuf, Brega, and Ajdabiya have changed hands, some several times. Misrata, the only rebel-held city in the west, has been under siege for seven weeks.

Yet in none of these towns has anything like the massacre in the Ivory Coast taken place, let alone Srebrenica. The Guardian’s Saturday report read, “Fierce fighting in Ajdabiya saw at least eight people killed.”

Yemeni President Saleh’s security forces killed six times that many civilians just to break up one rally in his central square.

Remember that stupid remark about 100,000 could be killed? I do and still can not believe that it was said. But if I take it in context of when we go in and attack. Then I could see 100,000 die. That is about the size of Qaddafi’s forces…

This video tells in just a few minutes what it is the nitty gritty on the Libya situation..

The video from RIA tells it like it is and pulls no punches. Russian media has a tendency to ignore the demands to silence itself about things like Libya. They like to produce videos and lots of them. The talk shows in Russia have had a hey day with this issue…

The statement at the beginning, set the tone of the video, “It is not right, Not that I like this Eccentric Colonel, It just is not right…”

This video also makes it real clear on the back stabbing going on by the West…

Trust in world for the West has dropped out of site after these charades…

The classic point in the video is when he says, “It makes you wonder how much all these guys (West) owe Qaddafi that they want to take him out…”

Now that should make you think about some things…

I heard a good statement the other day and I forgot where it was I heard it, “Anyone with 500 brain cells still functioning can figure out the absurdity of the Libya situation!”

They came, they saw, they… got confused. Operation United Protector – the official name for NATO’s operation in Libya — seems bogged down in the desert, “united” only in name and “protecting” pretty much no one within striking range. Is this perplexing and deadly display of Western firepower a fight for democracy and human dignity? Is it an elaborate, international ruse to foil an eccentric autocrat and “protect” his oil? Taking no sides, at least not seriously, 2-Minute Warning gently lifts the veil of hypocrisy surrounding this Mess in the Maghreb. 

Hummm…

“It is not right, Not that I like this Eccentric Colonel, It just is not right…”

Windows to Russia!