Windows to Russia

DM: Russia’s Creditability Undermined by Ban on S-300 Delivery to Iran

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi cautioned that Moscow‘s decision to annul the contract for the delivery of the sophisticated anti-aircraft S-300 missile to Iran undermined credibility of Russia as an arms supplier.

“They showed through this act that they are not reliable and trustworthy, which of course, we already knew,” Vahidi said at a ceremony held here on Sunday to commemorate the Week of Sacred Defense, marking the country’s resistance against the 8-year-long Iraqi invasion in 1980.

“This was a big scandal for them as they showed that they are not able to maintain their independence even when dealing with a simple issue,” Vahidi stated.

The minister further said Tehran plans to manufacture a similar defense system “but some of our experts do not believe in (manufacturing) the Russian S-300 missile system”.

“We will not build (an Iranian version of) S-300 air defense but will manufacture a long-range defense system similar to the S-300 in range,” he explained.

The remarks by Vahidi came after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev issued a decree on the ban, which also prohibited exports of tanks, aircraft and sea vessels to Iran.

There are many Russians that I know that will find this a serious flaw in Medvedev…

This truly is a defense weapon that really means very little to the overall issue. Iran does not really need these missiles. But the issue of trust is extended to the whole world…

Russia broke that trust when failing to supply the defense missiles that were contracted many years ago…

Iran is correct…

Windows to Russia!

• Iran Criticizes Russia Over S-300 Missile Deal Ban (nytimes.com)
• Iran criticizes Russia over S-300 missile deal ban (dailycaller.com)
• You: Iran regrets Russia’s decision to cancel arms deal (earthtimes.org)
• Iran claims to have developed long-range artillery (israelmatzav.blogspot.com)
• Iran criticizes Russia over decision to ban sales to Tehran of S-300 missile systems (foxnews.com)
• “Iran has obtained S-300 air defense systems” (rt.com)
• Iran criticizes Russia over S-300 missile deal ban (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Russia against sanctions to Iran despite missiles ban (reuters.com)
• Iran criticizes Russia over S-300 missile deal ban (sfgate.com)

Hello,

While drinking my morning cup of coffee in Russia. I was doing some research into the Ruble and the Dollar. It seems that after the beating the Ruble took and the Western media acted like the Ruble was a doomed and dying currency. We are seeing a stabilization of the Ruble in Russia.

The dollar is dropping daily now and is back to what the rate was when I came to Russia. So that did not last long.

I kept my money in Rubles and kept my trust in the bank I use. As the doomsday reports rolled out of the Russian press like Chicken Little screaming about the sky is falling. I just kept my money in Rubles.

Normal Russians did not get very excited about all the hoopla because from what Svetlana says, Nothing could be as bad as the collapse in 1998. I do not know, I was not here but Svet was and she and her Mom lost a l0t during that time.

If people would support the currency where they are then I really think that money would be much more stable but what I see is that people who are rich make money from betting against money. (Hedging I think it is called?) Sad group of people…

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

I find this interesting from a stand point of the fact that America is scaling her government up at a fast pace and Russia is scaling down her government to make it more effective and leaner…

Windows to Russia!

• Russia to abolish 100,000 civil service jobs – minister (globalnation.inquirer.net)
• Russian News: July 11th, 2008! (windowstorussia.com)

Sveta and I have just returned from a wonderful two weeks in our village.  In the village, life comes to a screeching halt and all the pressures of the city are gone. You simply do what feels right and breath deeply…

One of 10 main projects this time was to try to bring the old outhouse back to life. It had collapsed into the hole dug beneath it and was in a serious situation, that included falling down on our fence…

So after doing some investigation into the total shape of said building. Sveta and I decided to become carpenters for a day…

Once again we have a solid and ugly outhouse that does its job that is intended… 🙂

Sveta applied a coat of paint to the essential part of the outhouse and now we are “uptown” as they say…

We had multiple of other projects and I will be bringing them up as the week goes by…

Sveta and I had a rough time coming home and we wanted to stay in wonderland a few more weeks or maybe for the rest of our lives. But the call of the city and responsibilities won out and we decided to come back to Moscow…

It is strange how stepping back to a simpler existence makes everything have a better perspective. Water comes from a well that we draw up in buckets. Electricity is unstable as a strong wind and you must be able to create from scratch all necessary repairs on things…

That is what makes it feel like home to me…

Windows to Russia

• Cup of Coffee Today Was Delicious and Other Thoughts… (windowstorussia.com)
• Sveta and I are in our Russian Village for Two Weeks… 🙂 (windowstorussia.com)
• Internet in our Russian Village… (windowstorussia.com)
• Our Village in Russia Survived the Fires…… (windowstorussia.com)
• Fires are Dwindling – Our Village Here We Come… (windowstorussia.com)
• That Morning Cup of Coffee… (windowstorussia.com)
• Russia: Sunrise to Freedom, leaving us one person at a time! (windowstorussia.com)
• Police Instead of Militia in Russia… (windowstorussia.com)
• Never Ask A Russian is Everything OK… (windowstorussia.com)
• Booming Babies in Russia… (windowstorussia.com)

Sveta and I decided we need a break from the world. We have decided to spend two weeks in our village. I am writing this from the village house and using a cell phone as a modem. It works terrific and we will post a couple of articles in the next few days…

I have to apologize for comments getting behind. I have 159 comments to approve and it looks like I will not be able to for a while…

So we have been mending fences, rebuilding sheds, trimming trees and getting the village house ready for winter…

So stay tuned and there will be a few posts in the next few days with pictures. In the meantime the system automatically posts old posts and updates them. So you can always come back to see what is being randomly posted by the system. Sometimes it surprises me what it brings up…

Remember we really want the comments and will get to them. So don’t think that we have run away… 🙂

Kyle and Sveta
Windows to Russia!

• Sveta and I are in our Russian Village for Two Weeks… 🙂 (windowstorussia.com)
• Our Village in Russia is a Wonderful Dream… (windowstorussia.com)
• Internet in our Russian Village… (windowstorussia.com)
• Cup of Coffee Today Was Delicious and Other Thoughts… (windowstorussia.com)
• Police Instead of Militia in Russia… (windowstorussia.com)
• Are The Russians Going to Get Fat… (windowstorussia.com)
• Our Village in Russia Survived the Fires…… (windowstorussia.com)

I am getting ready to start teaching English to Russians. Not sure how that will work, They can not teach me Russian! But I am pretty good at English. 🙂

I am going to do private lessons, and keep it one on one until I get a feel for communicating with the Russians better.

I have a goal, to convert everyone to English. Then I will understand more of whats going on!  🙂

It is fun though when a young child who knows some English catches me and talks to me. They are so proud to be able to actually speak English to an American.

People in Russia find Americans to be curiosities. They have no ill will toward you and will do anything to help.

In a small village, One lady was so proud, she had an American who wanted to drink her goats milk. Being raised a farm boy, I was not going to pass up on a chance for real milk! I was glad to make her day. (It was really good)

Windows to Russia!

PS Now that I am teaching English  to Russian kids. Sveta so loves these lessons that she now has a new blog called “English 4 kids (Английский детям)“. She says it’s her favorite blog now ;).

• Russia: The Visa Terror Continues! (windowstorussia.com)
• ESL Lesson Plans: Cardinal Numbers in English (brighthub.com)
• Thomas Middle principal embraces team effort in large classes (chron.com)
• English teaching pre-made curriculum (ask.metafilter.com)
• You: Pork-barrel English teaching funds (search.japantimes.co.jp)

“Mr. Gates is, as they say in American politics, on a fishing expedition – how far they can push the Russian side,” Lavelle explained, “and it is a disappointment they have become public. This kind of negotiation should stay behind closed doors till there is some kind of agreement. It is a little bit of a dance right now but I remain pragmatically optimistic.” (Once again America plays Checkers and Russia Plays Chess!)

Hello,

Looks like the Western press is up to their games again. They are rolling out the Russia is starting to come around act, then they will whine and cry when Russia says “Stick It!”

Well Russia is learning about this press game and now they already have responded with their issues at the very same time that America is swarming the news with fallacies of Robert Gates simple imagination…

“Yesterday Gates said that the US is considering a possibility to deploy AMD in Russia. We have paid attention that a lot was formulated in the way the American side would like to see it, but not in the way it is in reality,” Nesterenko said.

According to the spokesman, Russia-US cooperation must be built step by step on a mutually equal basis.

“It presupposes a joint analysis of threats, creating a monitoring system and developing a collective response mechanism,” Nesterenko said. “Only if the US drops its plans to create the so-called third missile area [in Europe], a full-scale Russia-US dialogue on reacting to possible missile threats can start,” Nesterenko added.

Yet this is precisely the issue of which Gates has an opposite point of view, the Foreign Ministry spokesman stressed. (Link)

Looks like Gates was not listening to Russia and her words, but was listening only to what he himself was saying. The article with what Gates said also quotes “English version of Kommersant newspaper“. (Oops that was worthless as a quote!)

On thing that you have to remember is that if you want to know what the Kremlin is playing around with, you have to study the Russian side of RIA which is the back bone of the English Russia Today the Kremlin Western media link (Tool). I do not say that what they are saying is good or bad. I just say, that you must follow them to see what the Kremlin is up to. If you have a good command of the Russian language, then many of the Russian news sources are also perfect to use. This blog is an English only blog and so sources must be legible to the target base of English!

Once again I see the East and West news sources many kilometers apart and it does not look like they are getting any closer.

Russia Today makes me smile with their slogan:

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

• Some Simple News From Russia (8/31/2010)… (windowstorussia.com)
• Russians Are Really beginning To Question American Adoptions… (windowstorussia.com)
• Never Ask A Russian is Everything OK… (windowstorussia.com)
• Adoption Talks Between Russia and America Still Going On… (windowstorussia.com)
• Police Instead of Militia in Russia… (windowstorussia.com)
• Yes, Russia’s Backing of Iran Sanctions Starting to Collapse… (windowstorussia.com)
• You All Thought Things Were So Good Between Russia and America… (windowstorussia.com)
• Russia Today in Spanish in DC… (windowstorussia.com)
• Russian News: July 11th, 2008! (windowstorussia.com)

How Russia Is About to Dramatically Change the World | Columns | theTrumpet.com by the Philadelphia Church of God: “Over the next few days, Russia will change the world. It has completed a new oil pipeline and port complex that sets Russia up to become a more powerful oil exporter than Saudi Arabia. The ramifications for Europe and Asia are profound: The shape of the global economy—and the global balance of power—will be altered forever.” (Read More of Article at Source.)

RBC, 11.07.2008, Moscow 14:24:02.Russia is still positive that Iranian threats are not credible and are a mere excuse for US missile shield plans despite Iran test firing missiles in the Persian Gulf, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists today. The tests organized by Iran have confirmed that it only possesses missiles with a range of up to 2,000 kilometers. This bears out Russia’s stance that the missile defense shield the US is currently seeking to build in Eastern Europe is not needed to intercept this type of missiles, Lavrov added.

RBC, 11.07.2008, Moscow 15:59:15.The Russian government is discussing the possibility of acquiring Oman’s stake in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), Igor Sechin told journalists today. He added that Russia had already made a proposal and that the matter was currently under discussion.

RBC, 11.07.2008, Moscow 15:17:05.Russia’s Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov approves of the idea of holding a special G8 session, the so-called grain summit, as well as a meeting of G8 countries’ Agricultural Ministers, he told a press conference organized by RBC today. The food crisis is now increasingly gripping the world, while a third of globally cultivated areas are used to produce biofuel instead of food crops, Mironov said. He also mentioned other factors causing the food crisis, such as spiraling global food prices. Mironov pointed out that Russia is the only country in the world which has an opportunity to increase its cultivated area, adding that it is an important reserve that could help alleviate the crisis.

RBC, 11.07.2008, Moscow 14:45:58.The timeframe for holding an international conference on the Middle East in Moscow will be determined in September 2008, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists after a meeting with his Jordanian counterpart Salah Eddin Bashir. Lavrov pointed out that Moscow wished to use the conference to promote cooperation in carrying out agreements that were reached in Annapolis, USA during the previous conference.

RBC, 11.07.2008, Moscow 13:19:50.The budget deficit of Russia’s constituent entities fell several times in the first half of 2008, Russian Deputy PM and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told the Federation Council today. He specified that he was speaking about those regions and republics of Russia where a budget deficit had been planned. Kudrin stressed that the debt of Russia’s constituent entities was also decreasing. This enabled the government to reallocate federal budget funds. For instance, RUB 6bn (approx. USD 256m) will be earmarked from the federal budget to cover the expenditures of Russia’s constituent entities. The reallocation of another RUB 19bn (approx. USD 810m) from the federal budget will be discussed at a meeting of a trilateral working group, Kudrin said.

RBC, 11.07.2008, Moscow 12:23:51.The Bank of Russia is set to upgrade its discount rate from 10.75 to 11 percent on Monday, the Russian monetary regulator’s external and public relations department said today.

RBC, 11.07.2008, Moscow 09:35:36.Gazprom predicts that by 2020 gas consumption in Russia’s Primorsky region will increase tenfold. By that time, the holding expects its production in Sakhalin and Yakutia to run up to 57.5bn cubic meters of gas a year, according to the preliminary documents prepared by Russia’s gas monopoly for the Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok pipeline project. The pipeline will carry 8bn cubic meters of the Sakhalin gas, while Gazprom’s annual exports to Asia Pacific countries will rise from 800m cubic meters in 2015 to 30.1bn cubic meters in 2020.

RBC, 11.07.2008, Moscow 11:41:10.The Federation Council has ratified a Russian-Kazakh intergovernmental agreement signed on October 3, 2006, which provides for cooperation in the creation of a joint venture between Gazprom and KazMunayGas. The new company is to be established on the basis of the Orenburg gas processing plant. The joint venture is expected to buy raw gas produced in Kazakhstan’s Karachaganak gas condensate field, process it at the Orenburg plant, and sell it on the Kazakh market, as well as export it through Gazprom.

Hello,

I am drinking my cup of coffee & thinking about how the West has different ways to look at issues than East does. This is a slide show thanks to Liu Yung.

I found that I understood the whole slide show. I think that it makes sense….
I only saw one picture that confused me. The one with plate and silverware, seems that it was backwards.

What about you?

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.