Ouch – We Saw This Coming A Mile Away – START…


Good article from news site: The Voice of Russia. A good English based website for up to date news about Russia…

http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/12/29/38236184.html

Russia insists on offensive/defensive link in START: By Yevgeny Kryshkin

The State Duma (the lower house of the Russian parliament) plans to confirm the link between the reduction of the strategic offensive arms and the restriction of antimissile defense systems’ deployment in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), signed between the US and Russia, Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Duma Committee on International Affairs says.

“During the ratification of START in the US Congress the American lawmakers noted that the link between strategic offensive armed forces and antimissile defense systems is not juridically binding for the parties. They referred to the fact that this link was fixed only in the preamble of the document. Such an approach can be regarded as the US’ attempt to find an option to build up its strategic potential and the Russian lawmakers cannot agree with this,” Kosachev says.

We will deal with these interpretations. The first thing is that our American colleagues do not recognize the legal force of the treaty’s preamble. The preamble sets a link between strategic offensive arms and defensive arms. The second thing is an attempt to interpret certain provisions of the treaty unilaterally.

The Russian lawmakers insist that all the chapters of the treaty including the preamble are legally binding, which is a common norm of international law. It is not lawful to take certain provisions and to give them unilateral interpretations like the American senators do, Alexei Arbatov, a member of the Carnegie Scientific Council, says.

This is our reaction on the US steps, which are not justified because you cannot selectively validate or invalidate certain provisions of the treaty. We are quite consistent here. We said that the entire treaty, the preamble and the articles have the same judicial force. This is logical and this is right.

The Russian lawmakers expect that the work on the respective resolution will be completed in a few days. The State Duma will approve the draft of START’s ratification together with all related statements and reservations by February.

Hummm…

Windows to Russia!

Medvedev Firing Some More…


Russian President Medvedev has terminated two senior officials from the Russian space agency Roscosmos located in Korolev where Sveta and I live. They were terminated for the earlier failed launch of the Proton rocket carrying three Glonass navigation system satellites…

I got to say one thing. Medvedev will fire your butt if you don’t get the job done and done correct. This year heads have rolled all over the country. I expect many more to follow suit… 🙁

Cool…

Windows to Russia!

Coffee and The Spam King Country…


I was drinking my morning cup of coffee and was going through hundreds and hundreds of spam comments. It then struck me that I had read several articles in the last few years about how bad Russia and China were on the spam attacks in the world. They explain that China and Russia were just hotbeds of evil spam machines that terrorized our computers 24 – 7…

Now we all have heard about the Russia Spam King and when he was caught that all world spam fell by 50 billion emails a day! After he was put away. The Western press made a huge deal out of it and you would have thought that spam was a bygone product because this kid was neutered…

The number of spam emails sent globally has fallen by one fifth or fifty billion emails each day after a Russian spamming operation was shut down a month ago. (Link)

Sorry, that is just not the only story. I have been tracking spam since 2007. I have a faithful little invisible pixel that has been in my templates since the beginning of my desires to write a blog. It is attached to a code that tracks all things interesting and vital. Like spam and where you come from? Do you use a proxy? Etc, etc, etc…

So after all these years who is king?

1. United States (It is 4X South Korea)
2. South Korea (2X Brazil)
3. Brazil (Same as India)
4. India (2X Argentina)
5. Argentina (More than all the rest of the world put together…)

The list above is from my data base. This is not official and not from “Gods Gift to Website Statistics” type sites that spout all knowledge about the web as the final word. Russia and China are in the top 10 but near the bottom of the list…

This information is from millions and millions of spam comments based on Email Spam, Comment Spam and Social Networking Spam…

Never was Russia nor China the king of spam. Never even before this young man was caught, was Russia at the top. China was never in the top 5. But the USA is by far the king of spam. The US has been number one since the day I started to track spam and no one is close to the amount of spam that I get from The United States… (Nor death threats and hate comments for that matter…)

Want to know what city is the “King of Spam” in the USA? Glad you asked…

Washington DC…  (They also rule on death threats and hate comments also…)

So while I am sipping that wonderful hot cup of coffee. I have a daunting task ahead to sift through hundreds and hundreds of daily spam to try to catch those few real comments that did not make it through…

By the way it is snowing like crazy here in Moscow… 🙂

Windows to Russia!

Russia Says, “The Western World needs to Mind their own Business, both at Home and on the International Arena”…


In the news:  Russia sees trash talk being made in the US and the EU concerning the ongoing trial of jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev as substandard…

In connection with the statements voiced in Washington and a number of capitals in the European Union regarding the trial of M. Khodorkovsky and P. Lebedev, we would like to underline once again that this issue is under the jurisdiction of the court system of the Russian Federation. Attempts to put pressure on the court are unacceptable,” the Ministry said on Tuesday.

Russia Says, “The Western World needs to Mind their own Business, both at Home and on the International Arena.”

Other words: Get your own house in order. Before you can complain…

Other words: Look in the Mirror!

How is that reset?

Windows to Russia!

Vladimir Putin Orders Russian Government to Switch to Free Software by 2015


Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has signed a government order that lays out the groundwork for the transition of federal bodies and agencies to use free software, including Linux, by 2015.

The 25-point document (available here) outlines specific steps the government must take in order to move off proprietary software and onto free and/or open source alternatives like Linux. The government order was approved on December 17 and affects all federal agencies of the federal budget.

Each point of the document names the specific action that must be taken, the agency responsible for implementing that order, the time frame for implementation, and the expected result. For example, point #5 instructs Russia’s Ministry of Communications to form, “the base package of free software solutions for typical problems of the federal executive bodies,” with the expected result a free package of software that includes operating systems, drivers and application software for servers.

Order #5 calls for, “creating and maintaining a single repository of free software used in the federal bodies of executive power,” while order #20 requires, “the development of departmental plans to move to the use of free software, including plans for transition of subordinate budget institutions.” The final order, to be implemented in Q3 2015, calls for, “preparation of the draft orders of the Government of the Russian Federation on the adoption of a phased introduction of free software for the next planning period.”

Russia has been moving in the direction of free software for the last few years. In 2008, the government ordered schools to implement free software packages in all of its computers. Schools that now want to use proprietary software have to pay for it out of their own pockets.

(Windows to Russia Past Article)

By JimN

{Guest Post – Links by Admin}

Windows to Russia!

Putin Quote – Number 3


“You must obey the law, always, not only when they grab you by your special place.”

Putin

{Guest Post – Admin added links}

Windows to Russia!

So You Really Think That America Ratified The START Treaty?


It looks like the USA faked a passing of the START Treaty just to appease the world and dump it back on Russia. This is the old “balls in your court” move. Lets try to blame the other guy if they back out now…

The problem is that the US Senate sent its resolution to ratify START to Russia with a number of amendments, statements and interpretations which the Russian lawmakers do not accept. These adjustments are in contradiction with the treaty signed by Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama in April…

So what is the biggest issue? As it sits, the straw stressing the camels back is the issue of missile defense. The United States wants to build a global missile defense shield, so it passed an amended resolution (START) saying that the deployment of global missile defense bases cannot serve as a pretext for Russia to pull out of the START-3 Treaty. This just will not happen. Russia will pull out if America continues the games and that is a fact…

There are a lot of these amendments. Oh yes I know that you were told that the USA ratified this Treaty and there were no amendments. Guess what? You were lied too…

If not for the US amendments, the Russian State Duma would have ratified the treaty last week, Foreign Minister Segei Lavrov says. START-3 is a well-balanced, compromise-based agreement and a significant step towards disarmament, stipulating nearly a twofold reduction in US and Russian nuclear arsenals. Under the Treaty, in seven years from now either party will possess 700 intercontinental ballistic missile carriers, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and heavy bombers with no more than 1550 warheads deployed on them.

Well I agree with Lavrov and now I see that I was correct in my last posts…

The START Treaty really has not been ratified by America! But it was heavily amended against Russian wishes and the wishes of the Presidents that signed the document in April and right now Russia says that it will not be attempted to be ratified by Russia until at least January 26th 2011.

Ratify means: To approve and give formal sanction to; confirm. But ratify does not mean to change and amend. Just confirm…

Russia has a lot of thinking to do and they may decide this is not worth the hassle of dealing with America and her lies…

Windows to Russia!

Fresh Vegetables in Russia…


Shopping for fresh veggies in Russia is different than in America. I have become very accustom to it now. Especially after all these years of living in Russia…

I grew up with farmers and Grandpa taught me that all the fruit and veggies had to be clean and washed. You never sold anything that you would not be able to just pick up from the basket and eat. Now he was talking about the items that were sold in the roadside stands that we had. But the truth is that it extended to all aspects of the farm. The milk that we delivered to the dairy had to be safe to drink right from the big tank…

So when I came to Russia. I was glad to see fresh veggies everywhere. But there is a catch in Russia. Good fresh veggies mean that they still have the dirt on them…

In Russia we spend money for a bag of potatoes that weighs 10 pounds and it has a pound of dirt in it. Now maybe that is a slight exaggeration, but it really is not far from the truth…

Example: I just bought some carrots. I had four choices to pick from. Carrots from Israel that were spotless and perfect. Carrots from Europe and they were spotless and perfect. Carrots from from a huge bag right off the local farm. Or carrots packed from the same local farm bag but with 90% of the dirt gone…

Sveta goes automatically for the big bag of carrots and wants the fresh farm carrots. As she will tell you. The dirt means that they are fresh!

I always complain and roll my eyes in disbelief at this point  because I really think that paying for enough dirt to pot all my plants every week is not the best way to buy carrots. I swear every year that Russians buy enough dirt on their veggies to make a state the size of Texas. I told Sveta that it is a way the government gets you all to move dirt from one part of Russia and deposit it in another part of Russia… (Now she rolls her eyes…)

So we compromise. I get the carrots a few rubles higher per kilo. They are packed from the huge 50 kilo bag but as they pack them they leave most of the dirt behind… (I am sure I get the best deal – As the eyes roll again!)

As you see in the picture above. That is how I usually get carrots. This is from a local supermarket this way…

It really does not matter how expensive or cheap of a supermarket that you decide to buy from. It does not matter if it is the local vendor or the huge chain store. You can always find a bin of dirt, full of carrots, potatoes, beets, radishes, etc, etc, etc and more etc. You will also find right next to these dirt filled bins of farm earth, beautiful bags of carrots from the rest of the world…

So we buy like most of the Russians do. Fresh dirt covered carrots. Or for that fact any and all veggies are fresh dirt covered. The clean and perfect are not fresh and in a sense they are correct.

Now it is your turn to stop rolling your eyes…

The clean and perfect are not fresh and in a sense they are correct. The bagged perfect carrots have come from a long way away and were packed weeks ago. The Russian carrots are right off the truck from a burlap bag that was just dragged from the farm a few days ago. Many times the poor worms and other bugs are still hanging around and find themselves in another part of the country. It just does not get fresher than that…

So I just scrub them like I use to when I grew up on the farm and put the extra soil in my potted plants… 🙂

That is why I love Russia…

Windows to Russia!

Coffee and the 5th Christmas…


This morning it was -6 below an according to the weather report it was going to get colder much colder. Moscow also has got an ice storm that has lasted for several days and still going on. The ice is around a half inch thick in many places. Needless to say, this has caused a mess here, as I see it is in Europe also. They announced last night that the trolleys and trams were going to run all night long to keep the electric lines from freezing solid…

So with the ice storm going on, the coffee was really good this morning. But to make it better, I had a new brand of coffee this morning. It was from India. My students gave it to me as a gift and I decided to open it for Christmas. What a treat this coffee is. Smooth and dark. I used some baked milk in it and had a dream cup of coffee…

While drinking that cup of coffee it dawned on me that I have spent 5 (five) Christmases here in Russia. Time just flies and never seems to hesitate.

They have without a doubt been some of the best Christmases that I have ever had. Now nothing matches the Christmases with the kids when they are little. But when the youngest is approaching 30 and they have families all their own to deal with. So that is then and this is now…

So Christmas is now just Sveta and I and of course Boza…

I have finally found that “peace on earth and goodwill to men” stuff that songs talk about…

Unless I stir it up and cause issues…

But I never stir my coffee. The cream just mixes naturally… 🙂

Windows to Russia!

Mikhail Khodorkovsky Guilty…


Former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his partner Platon Lebedev have been found guilty of organizing a criminal group in the oil business, embezzling 218 million tons of oil from Yukos’ subsidiary companies and money laundering.

Hummm…

Windows to Russia!