Russia Today and Mass Animal Deaths Sweep Globe…

Russia Today has a very good video about the deaths of millions and millions of animals, all over the world. This is not an isolated problem and looks to be getting worse instead of better…

Authorities in northern Italy say more than a thousand turtle doves have dropped dead over the past 5 days. It’s the latest in a series of unexplained sudden death incidents affecting creatures in the sky and underwater. The events have sparked a media frenzy, with doomsday speculators saying it hails the end of the world. But is there really something fishy going on or is it being overhyped? RT’s Katerina Azarova reports…

Is this the “Ends of Days”? As Many bloggers are starting to report…

Windows to Russia!

Americans Are Getting to Adopt From Russia Again…

For the couple from Tennessee, Derek and Kathleen Hunter, this New Year was very special.  They finally brought two Russian children who were adopted by the couple.  They were waiting for this moment for much longer than planned.

In April last year, Russia imposed a moratorium on adoptions of Russian children by American citizens, after an American woman who adopted a Russian boy, sent the child back to his home with a note where it was stated that she no longer wants to be with him.

The Hunters could not hold back their emotions when they were finally united with their one year old daughter and a two-year son whom has finally arrived in Nashville.

KATHLEEN HUNTER, foster mother: For all the difficulties with us at every turn was God.

DEREK HUNTER, adoptive father:children who need love and parents who are going to love these children. And when it all together – it’s just wonderful.

Also, it has become a reunion for children, since they are brother and sister and were in different orphanages.

The translation is done InoTV .

The terrible act that Torry Hansen did by sending Artyom back to Russia like a sack of potatoes has really hurt many loving families trying to adopt…

Here is a video on our Russian Video Blog of Artyom at this New Years Holidays. He is a great kid and really is not the Monster that Torry Hansen portrayed him to be. Funny (not, Ha Ha) that Hansen never was in trouble for what she did…

I am glad to see that movement is finally being made in the right direction. But the situation is still being discussed by Russia and America. Lets hope those talks do not collapse again…

Related articles

Coffee and WikiLeaks on Russia…

I have received a number of e-mails regarding the Wikileaks menu item that I have. They ask do I understand how to get around and see what was posted on Wikileaks. They also express that pulling information out about the Cable’s is almost impossible…

I have done a lot of thinking the last few days. So while sipping that cup of coffee this morning.  I decided that to start a regular posting about the “Cable Leaks” that pertain to Russia…

As I find an interesting “Leak” that tells things that have more interest than a “babushka kicking a tin can down the road”, I will post it.

I do not promise that they are exciting items to read with lots of drama. They are more likely to be mundane,  but I will give a general gist of what is in the “Cable” and I also will not be cutting sections of the original cable as so many of the news places are doing. I really think that is stupid…

The cable below is about Russian prison systems and the horrid state that they are and in. It made me wonder about Burns who wrote it because he obviously has not dealt with a Georgian prison in America. I spent years feeding the inmates in a large prison in Georgia, USA. So I smile as I see similarities between America and Russian prisons…

I also see that Georgian, USA prisons are in the news again. Not a surprise to me…

I can see how these “Cable Leaks” will destroy the state of affairs between other countries and America. Don’t say it behind someones back if you can’t keep it secrete…

I see a new thought in the way Russia acts with America now. They seem to be expressing this now, “We are not even gonna get pissed or care. We are just going to learn to expect the lowest from the country that we thought the highest of…”

Click” More” below to read the rest of the article unless you came directly to the page. It is just too long to have in full on the front page…

Lets see what this Cable is about: (Click More…)

Continue reading “Coffee and WikiLeaks on Russia…”

Svet Sunday: Stories from Soviet Childhood!

Hello,

Today we want to introduce: Stories from Soviet Childhood! (This became a blog by the way.)

Childhood is the most important period in the life for everybody. Most of our beliefs we get from childhood. We learn what is good and bad when we are kids. And these beliefs are very difficult to change later in life… So we [my generation] are like we were brought up in our Soviet childhood.

So in these series we’ll try to tell what was the cultural ground where we grew up. Another reason to make this series – we think that is just interesting to read and watch – and if you have your children maybe you would like to show or to read it for them? Believe The Stories from Soviet Childhood would not teach your kids something bad!

We plan to have this series on Wednesdays. But we’ll start today! Nikolay Nosov (Николай Николаевич Носов) wrote his stories about Mishka in 1945. Today we’ll read one of them:

ZIS

When Mishka and I were little we wanted very badly to go for a ride in a motor car, but we couldn’t get anyone to take us. We begged all the drivers we knew but they were always too busy to bother with us. One day, as we were playing in the back yard, a car drove up. The driver got out and went off somewhere. We ran over to look at the car.

“It’s a ZIS,” I said. (ZIS is a car)

“No, it isn’t, it’s a Pobeda,” said Mishka. (Pobeda is a car)

“It’s a ZIS, I tell you.”

“And I say it’s a Pobeda. I can tell by the front.”

“In the first place it’s not the front, but the bonnet. Look at the back. See that luggage rack? Did you ever see a Pobeda with a thing like that?”

Mishka looked and said: “Let’s get on it and have a ride.”

“No,” I said. “I don’t want to.”

“You needn’t be afraid. We’ll go just a little way and then we’ll jump off.”

Just then the driver came back and got into the car. Mishka ran to the back, climbed on the luggage rack and whispered to me: “Come on! Hurry up!”

“No, I’m not going to.”

“Come on. Don’t be a coward.”

I ran up and hopped on beside him. The car started and before we knew it we were racing down the street. Mishka got frightened.

“I’m going to jump off!” he shouted.

“Don’t you dare!” I said. “You’ll get hurt.”

But he kept on shouting: “I’m going to jump! I’m going to jump!” And he already put one leg down. I glanced back and saw another car coming behind us. “Stop!” I shouted. “You’ll get run over.”

Passers-by stopped to stare at us. A militiaman (militiaman is policeman) at the intersection blew his whistle. Mishka jumped off, but he didn’t let go of the rack and his legs dragged along the ground. I leaned down and started pulling him up by the coat collar. I tugged and tugged until at last I got him safely back on the luggage rack.

“Now hold on tight, you silly,” I shouted. Just then I heard a laugh and looked up to see that the car had stopped and a crowd had gathered. I jumped down.

“All right,” I said to Mishka, “you can get off now.”

But he was too scared to move. I had to pull him off. The militiaman came running up and took the driver’s number. The driver got out and everyone jumped on him.

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself, letting children hang on behind like that!”
There was quite an argument and Mishka and I were forgotten.

“Let’s clear out,” I whispered to Mishka. When nobody was looking we dived into a side street and ran home. We were all out of breath when we arrived.

We did look a sight! Mishka’s trousers were torn at the knees and his knees were scratched and bleeding. He got a proper scolding from his mother!

“I don’t care about my trousers, and my knees will soon heal up too, but I’m sorry for that poor driver,” said Mishka. “He’ll get into trouble through us. Did you see the militiaman taking down his number?”

“Yes, we ought to have stayed behind and told them the driver wasn’t to blame.”

“I tell you what,” said Mishka. “Let’s write the militiaman a letter and tell him what happened.”
I agreed and we sat down to write a letter. We wasted a lot of paper before we got it done. Here’s what we wrote:

Dear Comrade Militiaman,

You took down the number of a car, and it isn’t right. That is, the number is right, but it wasn’t right to take it down because the driver wasn’t to blame. Mishka and me are to blame. He didn’t know we were riding behind. So please don’t punish him because he is a good driver and it was all our fault.

We addressed the envelope as follows: “To the Militiaman at the corner of Gorky Street and Bolshaya Gruzinskaya.”

We sealed the envelope and dropped it into the letter-box.

We do hope he got it!

Click the picture to read
the next story: “CUCUMBERS”. ———–>

Svet

comments always welcome

Windows to Russia!

Viktor Bout and RIA Interview… (01/03/11)

RIA Novosti was able to interview Viktor Bout. The suspected Russian arms dealer who was extradited from Thailand to the United States in mid-November. As Bout is kept in a New York detention center so only lawyers and officials from the Russian Consulate can visit him. RIA Novosti correspondent Dmitry Gornostayev was given an oportunity to get a list of questions to Bout and received answers via Russian Vice Consul Alexander Otchainov…

The text of the interview is below: (Click “More” below the article to see the whole interview.)

Q: Viktor, when did you realize that you would be extradited to the United States from Thailand and the extradition is irreversible?

A: This occurred on November 16, 17:30 local time. I was taken out of my cell on the pretext of being transferred to a new cell. I saw many police cars in the jail’s yard, though cars never drove in there earlier. I saw many DEA [U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration] officers in jackets with badges. That’s when I got it that my extradition will happen now.

The Thais brought me to the airport and changed my clothes in a separate room. Then I was handed over to U.S. agents.

Q: In September you had a similar situation when you were nearly transferred to the United States. What was the difference between these two situations?

A: In September the jail chief refused to extradite me without a warrant. A scandal triggered by the fact that an aide to the Thai prime minister had visited me unfolded in the Thai parliament. The scandal drew public attention to my case and my lawyers managed to prove that extradition was illegal at the time, which the Prosecutor’s Office also announced then.

Continue reading “Viktor Bout and RIA Interview… (01/03/11)”

Russia Christmas is Here Soon in 2011…

Russia Christmas is here soon for 2011. On January 7th 2011. Orthodox Christmas will happen. I was sipping my cup of coffee this morning and thinking about that very happening and happening’s…

It has always been strange to me that the country (Russia) literally shuts down this time of the year. Everyone in Russia is on a break. Now some work (Sveta has to spend a few days working at her IBM Servers  in Gazprombank.) and some play but the play is by far the predominant. You still have to have cops, border patrols, food and etc to function. But the government, major corporations, many markets and most stores are simply closed from basically the first of January to around the 11th of January…

Now we are not done yet: The 14th of January is the Orthodox New Year. Yes another New Year holiday. Russians love their holidays and January is a month of holidays for them…

So for half a month. Russia just does very little. I love it and enjoy the down time. Sveta always says to make sure that we stock up on groceries, because everything is closed. We have found a real problem with bread. The bakers are closed. So we have found little shops that bake their own bread and enjoy fresh home made. You have to be fast though because, all Russians know the spots also and will beat us to the bread. Yesterday, I found one last loaf left in our favorite little store. We grabbed it as three more people came in looking for bread… (That was good bread! Yummy…)

We have a saying in the Western world, that I apply to Russia: “When in Rome do as the Romans do!” other words, It is polite, and possibly also beneficial, to follow the customs of a society when one is a visitor to that society…

Also it means grab the bread if you find it first…

You will not hear me argue… 🙂

Windows to Russia!

Ice and Wind Just Too Much…

This is why Moscow area is having issues. The ice and heavy winds are just too much for the infrastructure. Ice Storms are not that common here, from what I understand. Snow is very common but ice storms are not…

These are not tiny little telephone poles. These are some big towers. I see them all over the Moscow area and we use to live near some. They are fun to walk under. Well they use to be, but now I may not walk under them in an ice storm… 🙂

Windows to Russia!

“Bunker 42” Museum in Moscow…

I love videos and information like this…

“Bunker 42” museum in Moscow. is a place that Sveta and I have to go see. It brings back memories of the old days. OK, so maybe not memories that we want to live again, but memories that molded a future of the world…

It seems that RT has an abundance of bomb shelter stories. One in particular that I had posted (Link), took off like an explosion… (No pun intended)

I have long studied the Moscow Metro and seen the bomb blast doors on all the stations. Now that is one huge bomb shelter.

The biggest shelter in the world is the Moscow Metro system,” said Victor Baranov. “Each station is constructed as a bunker and it can save lives of people who are inside in the time of a nuclear strike.” (Link)

If you watch the video you will see another huge bomb shelter. This shelter is a museum and it really looks exciting. Believe me, you will know if we get to go see it…

Windows to Russia!

Medvedev Quote – Number 1

“We need a single technological chain to implement national projects throughout the entire power vertical, from the government and federal bodies of power to the municipalities.”

Medvedev

Since someone likes Putin quotes. I just had to have Medvedev quotes! Hope that is OK?

WB

{Guest Post – Links added by admin}

Windows to Russia!

Russia Orders Halt to Tu-154B Flights After Fire

{Guest Post – Links added by Admin} MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s transport oversight agency on Sunday ordered the country’s airlines to stop using Tu-154B planes until the cause of a passenger jet fire and explosion that killed three people is determined.

A spokesman for the agency, Sergei Romanchev, said airlines must obey the order. The state news agency RIA Novosti said there are 14 Tu-154Bs in service in Russia.

The Tu-154B is one variant of the Tu-154 model, which has been in service since the early 1970s and has been in wide use on Russian internal flights and extensively in other countries, including Iran and former Soviet republics.

No cause has been determined for Saturday’s fire, which also injured 43 people. The fire began as the plane carrying 124 people taxied for takeoff at the airport in Surgut in western Siberia, about 2,100 kilometers (1,350 miles) east of Moscow. Frightened passengers clawed their way through the smoke-filled cabin and most managed to escape before the explosion.

Investigators have found the plane’s flight recorders and taken fuel samples and documents from the regional airline, Kogalymavia, that used the plane.

The Tu-154, similar to the Boeing 727, has three engines mounted on the rear of the plane. The mid-range plane is noted for its ability to operate on gravel and unpaved airfields. However, noise regulations eventually stopped Tu-154s from flying to most of Europe. Russian flag carrier Aeroflot took the plane out of service in December 2009.

There have been more than 30 fatal incidents involving Tu-154s over their long history, but many of them were attributed to pilot error, poor maintenance or irresponsible operation.

In December, a Tu-154 operated by Russia’s Dagestan Airlines, made an emergency landing in Moscow after two of its three engines failed. The third engine cut out just before the landing and the plane skidded off the snowy runway at Domodedovo Airport, killing two people.

Also Sunday, the Kogalymavia announced that it would pay the affected passengers in Saturday’s accident 20,000 rubles ($650) each in compensation.

Added by JimN

{Guest Post – Links and read more added by Admin}

Windows to Russia!