Windows to Russia

A Pacific Fleet task force led by the Admiral Vinogradov destroyer has completed a friendly visit to Vietnam and is now heading for the Far Eastern port of Vladivostok.

The Admiral Vinogradov destroyer, accompanied by a salvage tug and the Pechenga tanker, has paid a friendly visit to the Vietnamese port city of Da Nang while returning from an anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden.

“The departure ceremony in Da Nang ended at 6 am Moscow time [2:00 GMT] on Wednesday, and the task force, headed home,” a spokesman for the Pacific Fleet said.

During its four-month anti-piracy mission, which ended on April 17, the ship escorted 14 convoys of civil vessels through pirate-infested waters off the Horn of Africa.

The Russian Navy has maintained a presence off the Horn of Africa since October 2008, with warships operating on a rotation basis.

VLADIVOSTOK, May 11 (RIA Novosti)

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a 2009 nuclear cooperation agreement with Turkey that would boost energy projects between the two countries, the Kremlin said on Saturday.

The deal, approved by Russia’s parliament last month, was one of several agreements struck by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on a visit to Ankara in August 2009.

Last year, Russia and Turkey signed $20 billion agreement under which Russia would help build and operate Turkey’s first nuclear power plant.

Speaking on a visit to Moscow in March, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the plant would be an “example for the rest of the world” in terms of safety and transparency in nuclear emergencies.

There have been renewed concerns about the safety of nuclear power generation after the radiation leak crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant that was badly damaged by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

MOSCOW, May 7 (RIA Novosti)

A court in Central Russia has turned down a request to end the compulsory psychiatric treatment of the man, whose doomsday sect that spent more than six months underground waiting for the apocalypse in 2007-2008.

In November 2007, 35 members of a religious sect, led by Pyotr Kuznetsov, went underground to wait for the end of the world, which they initially claimed would come in May 2008. Following the collapse of the dugout’s roof after heavy rain in late March 2008, 24 members of the group came to the surface, the remaining left their shelter on May 16.

“A district court in Penza Region rejected a request by a chief doctor of the Penza psychiatric hospital to replace Kuznetsov’s compulsory psychiatric treatment with out-patient treatment,” the Russian Prosecutor General’s office said in a statement.

Charges of ‘creating a violent organization’ had been brought against Kuznetsov, but were dropped in August 2008, when the court ruled he will not be responsible for the crimes he committed when mentally ill. The court has ordered compulsory treatment for him in a psychiatric ward

PENZA, May 7 (RIA Novosti)

The Russian government will allocate 120 billion rubles ($4 billion) for the modernization of regional schools over the next 2 school years, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Friday.

“We plan to allocate 60 billion rubles ($2 billion) from the federal budget in each of the next two academic school years. The federal funds will be spent to upgrade equipment in sports halls, school canteens, as well to resolve problems of ungraded rural schools and training…for teachers,” Putin said at meeting of the ruling United Russia party in Volgograd.

Possible closedown of several ungraded rural schools is now being urgently discussed in Russia.

“Our territory is vast, and it’s hard to argue that when a school is being closed down [some little] residential areas die,” Putin said, adding that it is necessary to preserve schools in every residential area where possible.

The prime minister emphasized that in little schools it is very difficult to maintain the education on high level. “In schools with two, three, four, five, seven, 10 teachers it is impossible to maintain everything on a qualitative level both in math and in physical culture.”

“We propose that good educational centers are set up with strong branches around them, to reduce expenditure on school maintenance,” Putin said.

The funds from the local budgets saved owing to the federal cash injection will be used to increase the teachers’ salaries.

VOLGOGRAD, May 6 (RIA Novosti) 

That cup of coffee is extra special today. I got my sweetie with me in Ukraine. We are at the Kiev Train Station at this moment…

I really like the Kiev train station. It is like home away from home and I have spent many hours waiting for trains at this station…

Sveta is here with me now and we are waiting for our train to Odessa Ukraine. We decided to take a week and explore the Odessa area…

Sveta and I were stunned. We were able to get train tickets from Kiev to Odessa for less that USD amount of 10 dollars each. That is great…

So we are off to explore and enjoy life. I hope to have access to internet in Odessa but that may not be possible…

You all have a great weekend because I know we will…

Windows to Russia!

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will pay an official visit to Russia on May 11-14, the Kremlin said on Thursday.

The visit will take place on an invitation from President Dmitry Medvedev, the presidential press service said, adding that talks between Medvedev and Zardari will take place on May 12.

The visit was announced just days after world’s most wanted terrorism Osama bin Laden was killed in a U.S. raid on his compound 50 kilometers from the Pakistani capital.

Islamabad has both praised and criticized Monday’s operation by U.S. troops on its territory, which the Pakistani government was not told about until it was over. In a statement on Wednesday, Pakistan expressed “its deep concerns and reservations on the manner in which the government of the United States carried out this operation without prior information or authorization from the government of Pakistan.”

A cradle of the Taliban movement, Pakistan allied with the United States when U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan in a hunt for bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

Russia has expressed its readiness to support Pakistan in its fight against terrorism. Last March, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called for an international assistance to the Pakistani government in combating terrorist activity.

However, the Russian government has reiterated that it will not develop military cooperation with Pakistan, taking into account the concerns of India, a major purchaser of Russia’s military equipment.

MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti)

Media should cover issues concerning health care and especially children’s vaccinations extremely precisely and responsibly, avoiding the dissemination of medieval myths, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday.

“Our media are free, but they should be responsible. They, of course, should not spread grand old Middle Ages [ideas], when saying that vaccinations are a devil-like matter and children get sick from them and sometimes even die from them,” Medvedev said during a visit to a children’s hospital in Moscow.

The issue was raised by one of the doctors of the hospital who took part in the meeting with Medvedev. “I am afraid to switch on the TV in the morning. They say awful and absolutely incorrect things about vaccinations. Elementary control should exist,” the doctor said.

Everybody knows that “incidents and mishaps sometimes occur after inoculations,” the president said. “But of course no one should fan fears and create a psychopathic atmosphere because this would have a negative impact on the interests of the people,” he added.

MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti)

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday instructed the Agriculture and Energy ministries to solve the problem with gasoline shortages in the country to ensure the start of spring cultivation.

The government boosted gasoline export tariffs to nearly 44 percent from May 1 to fight local shortages which started in mid-March in some regions. Russian oil companies prefer to sell gasoline abroad where prices are higher than in Russia, where the state has capped prices.

“I instruct you [Agriculture Ministry] with the Energy Ministry to see what is really happening [with fuel in the regions] and not just on pieces of paper.”

Putin cited a statement from the Volgograd and Saratov regions, suffering from gasoline shortages, which says the lack of gasoline is hampering spring cultivation.

The Russian prime minister promised his support.

The Russian government may take more steps to ensure uninterrupted deliveries of gasoline to the local market, including examining the operation of crude oil trading and gasoline exchanges if it does not see a stable market, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said on Thursday.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service, the government’s competition watchdog, has accused large oil companies of operating a cartel.

The government believes that the introduction of exchange trade in oil products will help regulate the market and has ordered companies to sell 15 percent of their products via exchanges.

Sechin criticized state-run gas giant Gazprom, which owns an oil refinery, for not participating in the exchange market.

“A lack of work through the exchange creates conditions for setting inappropriate prices, which is why officials from oil refineries, which are not part of vertically integrated companies, are participating in the work of the government commission on their failure to participate in exchange markets today,” he said.

MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) 

A Moscow court sentenced ultranationalist Nikita Tikhonov to life in jail on Friday for the murder of human-rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova in 2009.

The court also sentenced Tikhonov’s accomplice and civil partner Yevgeniya Khasis to 18 years in prison.

Markelov and Baburova, who worked for the liberal Novaya Gazeta newspaper, were gunned down in broad daylight in downtown Moscow in January 2009. Investigators said Baburova was killed as a witness to the murder of Markelov, who was an active member of an anti-fascist movement.

A jury found Tikhonov and Khasis guilty of the murders on April 28. Both are linked to the outlawed ultranationalist group, Russky Obraz.

During the hearings, Khasis pleaded not guilty while Tikhonov admitted to a separate arms trading charge but denied involvement in the murder.

Tikhonov and Khasis embraced while the verdict was being announced, apparently oblivious to the judge’s words. When the judge asked whether the sentence was clear, Tikhonov answered, “It’s been clear since March.”

The defendants’ lawyers said they would appeal the ruling.

The court also ordered Tikhonov to pay Baburova’s parents 2 million rubles ($73,000) in moral damages and 40,000 rubles ($1,500) in material damages. They had originally made a claim for 5 million rubles ($182,000.)

A handful of supporters and friends of the defendants, present at the hearing, smiled when the verdict was announced.

“In five years they will get out, and someone will be dead,” one said.

MOSCOW, May 6 (RIA Novosti) 

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!

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