Windows to Russia

I am going to tell you that I will be staying on this story. What a dream for us here and those coming to Russia. There seems to be a huge push in the Russian government to get this done. No visa visits under 90 days with America and Russia…

Russia and the United States may ease or even cancel visa regime soon, Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the State Duma’s international affairs committee said on Tuesday.Earlier reports said Russia was persuading the US to sign a deal to scrap visas for visits lasting under 90 days. Kosachev said the idea might be implemented in the foreseeable future, at least where it comes to easing visa issuance procedures.Speaking at the World Russian Forum annual conference in Washington Kosachev suggested using the same negotiating practice Russia already has with the EU. (Link)

Russia is not letting this drop and Putin instigated it when VP Biden came to visit Russia. Looks like Russia is trying to get the visa situation changed with almost all countries. Russia is willing to go “tit for tat”…

Windows to Russia!
The Rules of Accreditation and Stay of Correspondents of Foreign Mass Media on the Territory of the Russian Federation…
Breaking Free: I Broke Free to Russia – You can do it – Anywhere in the World…
Get a Visa to Russia… (Update – 2011)
Going To Ukraine and get a Visa to Russia…
Pickpocket: We All Think That It Will Never Happen To Us! (Part 3 – American Embassy Experience)

The Levada Center has done a survey in Russia! The survey was conducted 18-21 March 2011 among 1,600 Russians in 45 regions of the country and published on the anniversary of the explosions in the Moscow subway…

It basically said:

77% of Russians feel that another terrorist attack is eminent…
66% do not think that law enforcement can do anything about it…
Trust in the state as a protector against future terrorist attacks has been steadily declining since 2007…

So today it was announced that on this Monday (March 28, 2011), a high-precision air strike and ground operation destroyed a training base for suicide bombers in Ingushetia. The operations were launched by special services and the Investigative Committee in cooperation with the Defense and Interior Ministries.

Seventeen militants were killed including the leader of the North Caucasus militants Doku Umarov is thought to have also been killed in this operation…

Medvedev has praised highly the action and abilities of the strike…

Looks like to me  it was a good time to wipe out some militants for good public relations…

From what I understand several captured militants rolled over and told of the whereabouts of this particular camp for training suicide bombers. That set in motion the gears to take out this camp and hopefully catch Doku Umarov in the process. It is said that a strong fight was put up by the militants. But all the militants were killed in the operation. With several special services injured and killed…

We will have to wait to see if  Doku Umarov was amongst the dead…

Update: Doku Umarov was not amongst the dead per witnesses who know him? But evidently many of the bodies were in bad shape and they are having to do DNA testing to see if he is one of the dead. So he may be still alive…

Windows to Russia!
Coffee and a Rebel or a Terrorist…
Russian Video From Russia: Check this out on the bombing at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport…
Doku Umarov Now Claims The Moscow Metro Bombings!
The “Caucasus Mujahideens” Claim Responsibility for The Moscow-St. Petersburg Train Crash!

Japanese authorities said that the situation in the nuclear power plant emergency is very serious. Nuclear engineers are trying to pump radioactive water from the first reactor. In the soil at the station found plutonium, and the particles of radioactive iodine were detected in the atmosphere over the U.S., China and Iceland…

Tuesday at the Japanese nuclear power plant  “Fukushima-1, continued work on the pumping radioactive water from the turbine hall of the first reactor. This was reported by the company-operator station, Tokyo Electric Power ( TEPCO). At the same time, experts can not resume pumping in turbine halls of the second and third reactors, as the tanks filled with radioactive liquid, and the radiation level in water exceeds the rate of 100 thousand times, reports the news. Work to restore electricity to the reactor has been suspended.  Previously, three workers to lay cables in the power, got the deadly radioactive dose…

Read More in Russia: http://www.gazeta.ru/subjects/zemletrasenie_v_japonii.shtml

Windows to Russia!
Chernobyl 25 years on: a poisoned landscape
Russian, U.S. experts to conduct joint stress tests at nuclear plants
Gazprom studies ways of delivering more LNG to quake-hit Japan
Earthquake and Tsunami that hit Japan…
Japan declares Nuclear Emergency as Russia Mulls Remembrance of Chernobyl…

Russia’s flagship airline Aeroflot said on Tuesday it will begin regular commercial flights of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 in mid-May.

The company has placed orders for 40 models of the aircraft, which will initially conduct flights between Moscow and the central Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod.

The Super-jet, championed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, is designed to replace the Soviet-era mid-range planes that entered service in the 1960s and 80s.

Sukhoi is seeking to sell at least 800 planes, more than half to foreign airlines. It currently has over 120 confirmed orders, with the first Superjet to be delivered to neighboring Armenia’s air carrier Armavia by the end of April.

Windows to Russia!
Main news of Russia March 23, 2011…
Russia’s Vladimir Putin’s visit to France – 2010…
Russian News From Russia: August 21st, 2009!
Russian News From Russia: August 11th, 2009!
Russian News: 05-20-2008
Russian News: December 7th, 2007!

Russian forces say Chechen militant leader Doku Umarov could have been among those killed during fighting in the volatile North Caucasus region, the Russian daily Kommersant said on Tuesday.

Seventeen rebels were killed on Monday in an attack on a base in Ingushetia used by Islamist insurgents to train suicide bombers, Russia’s anti-terror committee said. The raid involved ground forces and air strikes. Three Russia servicemen were also killed in the violence.

The identities of the militants are not yet known, but law enforcement officials say there is a possibility that Umarov, one of Russia’s most wanted terrorists, could have been killed in the attack.

Umarov, who has styled himself as the Emir of the Caucasus Emirate, claimed responsibility for the March 2010 suicide bombings on the Moscow subway, in which 40 people died. He is also said to have ordered a deadly bomb attack on Moscow’s Domodedovo International Airport in January that claimed 37 lives.

There have been several false reports of the death of Umarov in recent years, including speculation that he had been killed in an airstrike in Chechnya at the turn of the year.

Windows to Russia!

Coffee and a Rebel or a Terrorist…
Russian Video From Russia: Check this out on the bombing at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport…
Doku Umarov Now Claims The Moscow Metro Bombings!
The “Caucasus Mujahideens” Claim Responsibility for The Moscow-St. Petersburg Train Crash!

NATO has agreed to take over all military operations in Libya, taking command away from the Pentagon – or have they? Critics claim America is still in control.

Journalist Pepe Escobar from the Asia Times said although NATO has taken control, America is still in control to an extent.

“This is an enormous enterprise built on lies,” he said.

With the help of coalition air strikes, anti-Gadhafi forces are making sustained progress toward the Libyan capital Tripoli. The Western military intervention appears to have entered a new phase. Instead of just protecting civilians as foreseen under the UN resolution, coalition forces are actively supporting rebel fighters. (Spiegel Online has been posting some good articles about this war. Read More >>>)

So while you sit and eat dinner in front of the TV and listen to the evening news about how wonderful the war is in Libya and that we do not take sides. While you accept that America NATO has taken over the war. The coalition is killing hundreds and hundreds of men women and children who are loyal to Libya in the name of the Rebels who just happen to be  al-Qaeda trained and backed…

The commander of anti Gaddafi rebels forces in Libya has admitted that among the ranks of those fighting against the government are Islamic militants who have fought and killed US troops in Iraq, otherwise known as “al qaeda” fighters. Read More >>>

So when Russia says that the coalition is not following the plan set forth by the UN. They are right. But if I remember correctly, this happened with Iraq and Afghanistan also…

Russia needs to learn about the West!

Give them an inch and they will take a mile…

Windows to Russia!

Two of the 10 Russians deported from the United States in a spy row last July have demanded that some of the property they were forced to leave behind be returned to them.

The claim was lodged by the legal counsel for Vladimir and Lidia Guryev, better known as Richard and Cynthia Murphy.

The members of the ring were swapped for four alleged U.S. spies held in Russia and warned never to return to the United States. Their property was seized by the U.S. government.

Richard Murphy’s property reportedly includes $190,000 on his bank account, three cars, computers, cameras and other equipment.

A document held by the Russian legal information agency shows that the couple is asking for the return of computers, digital photos and video cameras, or at least copies of data recorded on them.

They have no “material value,” but are “dear to the Guryevs,” the document says.

Windows to Russia!
Russia Tried to Stop the Litvinenko Poisioning But Britian said NO!
The Confirmation of Colonel Shcherbakov’s Spy Controversy…
Was There a Turncoat in the Russian Spy Scandal…
Anna Chapman From Russia Will Not Go Away…
Russia May Be Wondering Who Really is in Charge in America…

Two of Moscow’s main airports, Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo, are to be merged and sold as part of the country’s privatization program, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Monday.

“Together with the Moscow mayor, Transport Minister and Finance Ministry officials we have agreed to unify Sheremetyevo airport, in which the Russian government holds a 100% stake and Vnukovo airport, where the Moscow government holds a 75% stake into one system. According to preliminary estimates, this will cost several tens of billions of rubles,” Putin told a government meeting.

“I would like to note that the state has no aim of keeping the assets forever. This is a step aimed at the creation of a unified complex, equipping it and then moving it to the market at an appropriate market price and privatizing it.”

Sheremetyevo is Moscow’s second largest airport. In 2010, it was Europe’s fastest growing airport by number of passengers among airports which service 15 to 25 million passengers a year, with growth of 31%, according to ACI Europe, International Airport Council – European Division.

Earlier in March its CEO said the airport intended to develop its cargo and non-aviation services as well as improve passenger service quality.

Vnukovo has said it is building a terminal which would be Moscow’s largest. It can now handle 35 million people, while last year’s passenger flow was 9.5 million.

Their main rival, Moscow’s top airport Domodedovo, plans to raise up to $1 billion in an initial public offering this year.

Windows to Russia!
Putin finds opportunity in Libya…
Vladimir Putin Orders Russian Government to Switch to Free Software by 2015
Babushkas Will Teach Putin Some Martial Arts…
Has America Taken the Soviet Path to Fail?
New Moscow Mayor a “Shoo-In” for the Job…

As I was sipping that wonderful cup of coffee this morning. I was doing some thinking’s about the bad habits and issues that I have dropped since coming to Russia…

For those that follow the blog from the beginning you know that I use to smoke, I liked my beers, I was taking anti-depressants, I worked 16 hours a day, I drank gallons of diet drinks and so on and so on and so on…

The latest habit dropped is diet soda. I have been three months without any diet soda and I know now that I have kicked the habit. I have been 5 years with out anti-depressants. 5 years no beer. 5 years no cigarettes and 5 years no 16 hour days.  I feel better and am loosing weight while kicking all these terrible habits and issues…

I have one bad vice still left. I also do not feel like dropping that habit. My one cup of coffee every morning is a simple pleasure that makes my life extra good…

Interesting situation came to me about dropping all these bad habits in Russia. They are the cheapest habits to sustain in Russia. With the exception of anti-depressants. Russian doctors really dislike giving out that type of prescriptions. Russia is a smokers and alcohol drinkers paradise and diet drinks are now plentiful everywhere we travel. But coffee…

Now good coffee is non existent in Russia (Matter of my opinion of course!). When you ask for coffee in Russia, be ready for a tiny tiny tiny cup and half of that cup is full of coffee grinds. They take regular coffee and fill a small cup half full and pour in steaming hot water (no filter). Super strong and meaty…

So Sveta and I have learned to ask for a coffee and a milk and an extra tea size cup and extra hot water. Then when I get my coffee I create my own concoction. It is the best way because no one will understand what you want when you tell them I want a big cup of coffee with cream… 🙂

Windows to Russia!
Coffee and March Madness in Russia…
Coffee and Russia and Undertow Intentions to her Society…
Coffee and God and them Medical Tests…
Coffee and My New Therapist…
That Russian Way of Life: Ignore the Rules…
Coffee and a Rebel or a Terrorist…