Russia Scaling Down the Government…

Alexei Kudrin, a Russian politician.
Alexei Kudrin…

Russia plans to slash 100,000 bureaucrat jobs by 2013, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Monday, in a drive to reduce costs and modernize the country’s bloated bureaucracy.

“We expect that in the three years more than 100,000 federal civil servant jobs will be cut,” Kudrin was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying.

“The overall savings from this by the third year will amount to 43 billion rubles (1.4 billion dollars),” he added…

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!

Our Village in Russia is a Wonderful Dream…

We Rebuilt The Fallen Outhouse...

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 was the painter...

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

Sveta and I are in our Russian Village for Two Weeks… :)

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!

Teaching English in Russia…

A domestic goat feeding in a field of capeweed...
Goat…

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 ;).

From Russia: Western and Eastern Media – The Opposites of the Stories!

“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,
Windows to Russia!
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:

“Any story can be another story altogether!”
How very true…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

How Russia Is About to Dramatically Change the World!


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.)

This article was sent by Jim a good reader of our blog “Windows to Russia!” The article has merit and will make you think.
Oil and Gas runs the world and no one has it in abundance like Russia…
Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Russian News: July 11th, 2008!

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.

Russia: Wrong for the West but Right for the East OR Wrong for the East but Right for the West?

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.

Western lifestyle is shown in Blue – Eastern in Red!
Western example is USA or UK! Eastern Example Is China or Russia!

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.

Russian 18th Century Ship To Be Raised!

Hello,

A Russian ship which sank in 1771 off the coast of Finland is to be raised out of the water. It is said to be carrying works of art bought by the Russian empress, Catherine the Great, in Amsterdam.

The ship’s cargo contained around 300 works of art, including paintings by Rembrandt, as well as jewelry, silverware, etchings and porcelain. The cargo hold which lays at a depth of 41 meters, was undamaged as it is wrapped in buckskin and kept in lead containers filled with wax.

Years ago the ship was discovered by Finnish explorers and the cargo was proclaimed the property of Finland, in line with international maritime law.

This has created an issue in Russian-Finnish relations.

This makes you wonder how many valuables are just laying at the bottom of the ocean.

Do you think there is a lot of Gold at the bottom of the ocean?

Kyle

comments always welcome.

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Pickpocket: We All Think That It Will Never Happen To Us! (Part 3 – American Embassy Experience)

Hey Everyone,

I was drinking my morning cup of wonderful coffee here in Russia and thinking about Part 3 of my Visa Trip to Ukraine.

As you know Part 2 left me less than enchanted with the police of Ukraine and at that point I had decided to get some rest and start the new day at the American Embassy. So that is what I did…

Now this visit to the Embassy was exceptionally fun and fruitful. This was the turning point of the trip from hell – into the trip with the light at the end of the tunnel. I have no complaints about the service that I got from the American Embassy and the day spent with them was a good reminder of American Bureaucracy. (Can anyone say Headache Time!) I got to converse with multiples of Americans and meet some new friends for future adventures. One friend in particular was an 80 year old professor that was a shear joy to talk with and exchange information…

The American Embassy in Ukraine was a whole different world than the American Embassy in Russia. I wrote an article about the American Embassy in Russia. (Article)

Can we say Night and Day? There is a huge difference between the Embassies. In the American Embassy in Ukraine we (America) have gone all out to make sure that Ukraine knows that America has money and is a heavy fortified Embassy. We have lots of money spending, show and tell in the American Embassy in Ukraine.

In Russia the American Embassy is 180 degrees the opposite direction. Give me the Russian Embassy any time. Low profile and less flash is an attribute. The same job is accomplished with a whole lot less overhead.

One thing that stood out to me was the political undertones from the American Embassy in Ukraine that infiltrated into the Ukraine Governmental section. America is and has been buying the Ukraine government for some time now. Biden just bought and paid for Ukraine’s help to rearm Georgia. That is a No – No and should be stopped. American politics need to stay out of Ukraine or any other country for that matter…

The American Embassy was very nice and in the usual governmental grind of gears, they accomplished all that I needed to have accomplished and all that they in their power could accomplish. I got a new passport, so at least I could get a visa and get home to Russia.

I had two choices of what I could do.

1. I could apply for a new passport from America and wait at least 10 days before I would get it. (Cost $100.00)
(Or)
2. I could get an Emergency Passport and make my way back to Russia and deal with the new passport with the Moscow American Embassy. (Cost $100.00 and no fee in Moscow for another new passport)

Lets put it this way: If I had chosen choice one (1), I would still be in Ukraine, twiddling my thumbs.

So my second day in Ukraine was winding down as I left the American Embassy in Ukraine with another passport that made it a little easier to transverse the streets of Kiev…

Note: Remember – When you apply for a new passport the old passport is null and void even if you find it later. Next article Part 4 – I get a phone call from the Ukraine Embassy…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.