Windows to Russia

Natalia Kurnikova, (shown next to painting) owner of a Moscow art gallery, seen after the purchase of an oil painting by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, right, sold at a charity auction in St. Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009. The painting was bought for 37 million rubles (US $ 1.1 million). Putin painted the canvas in late December for a charity auction that exhibits works by other Russian politicians and celebrities.

Hello,

Last night I dropped Svet off at the Train Station in Kiev. I have to stay in Kiev a little longer and finish our work here. Svet just sent me this note about a Putin painting…

I don’t know is the news new or old. Putin’s painting was sold 37 millions rubles = 860 thousand EURO.

http://www.zman.com/news/Article.aspx?articleID=33241

Natalia Kurnikova who bought the painting said that is the first and maybe the last painting of the artist.

The money will be used to build a hospital and restore a church in St.Petersburg.

I love you!
Your svet

comments always welcome.

Russian war ships sail for Georgia

Lets look at a video and touch on the subject of history: This history is about “The Winter War” on November 30, 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland. It was a war Russia would rather forget, while Finland wants to keep the memory alive. Finns are commemorating the 70th anniversary of the start of the Winter War against the Soviet Union.

I have read a little bit about this war today and watched the video. Seems the Finns showed that with determination that you can defend against a bigger enemy!

My question is why Finland? (I have read all the reasons but really – Why Finland?)

The Soviet Union seemed big enough in size…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Hello,

Reserves were formerly held only in gold, as official gold reserves. But under the Bretton Woods system, the United States pegged the dollar to gold, and allowed convertibility of dollars to gold. This effectively made dollars appear as good as gold. The U.S. later abandoned the gold standard, but the dollar has remained relatively stable as a flat currency, and it is still the most significant reserve currency. Central banks now typically hold large amounts of multiple currencies in reserve.

Rank	Country/Monetary Authority	Foreign exchange reserves (millions of USD)	Figures as of
—	World (sum of all countries)	$ 7,208,609	—
1	People’s Republic of China (does not include Hong Kong SAR & Macau SAR)	$ 1,589,900	January 2008
2	Japan	$ 1,007,981	February 2008
—	Eurozone (EU member states which have adopted the euro, incl. ECB)	$ 556,965	January 2008
3	Russia	$ 494,500	March 2008
4	India	$ 301,235	February 2008
5	Taiwan	$ 277,840	February 2008
6	South Korea	$ 262,400	February 2008
7	Brazil	$ 193,782	March 2008
8	Singapore	$ 171,735	February 2008
9	Hong Kong	$ 160,300	February 2008
10	Germany	$ 147,255	January 2008
11	France	$ 128,513	January 2008
12	Malaysia	$ 116,300	February 2008
13	Algeria	$ 110,000	December 2007
14	United Kingdom	$ 104,580	February 2008
15	Italy	$ 103,459	January 2008
16	Thailand	$ 100,500	February 2008
17	Mexico	$ 90,380	February 2008
18	Libya	$ 79,000	September 2007
19	Iran	$ 76,100	November 2007
20	Switzerland	$ 75,559	January 2008
21	Turkey	$ 74,900	February 2008
22	United States	$ 73,521	February 2008
23	Poland	$ 68,564	January 2008
—	European Central Bank (ECB, reserves not wholly owned by any single EU member)	$ 64,285	January 2008
24	Norway	$ 58,930	January 2008
25	Indonesia	$ 57,130	February 2008
26	Nigeria	$ 56,800	February 2008
27	Argentina	$ 49,000	February 2008
28	Canada	$ 43,613	February 2008
29	Romania	$ 41,078	January 2008
30	Czech Republic	$ 37,017	February 2008
31	Denmark	$ 36,317	January 2008
32	Philippines	$ 36,100	February 2008
33	Egypt	$ 32,915	February 2008
34	Venezuela	$ 32,723	March 2008
35	South Africa	$ 32,723	February 2008
36	Peru	$ 32,587	March 2008
37	Ukraine	$ 31,842	January 2008
38	Australia	$ 31,832	January 2008
39	Sweden	$ 31,561	January 2008
40	Saudi Arabia	$ 31,320	October 2007
41	United Arab Emirates	$ 29,620	2007 est.
42	Israel	$ 28,662	January 2008
43	Netherlands	$ 27,486	January 2008
44	Morocco	$ 25,690	January 2008
45	Hungary	$ 24,200	January 2008
46	Colombia	$ 21,850	February 2008
47	Iraq	$ 21,260	2007 est.
48	Vietnam	$ 20,000	September 2007
49	Spain	$ 19,999	January 2008
50	Kuwait	$ 19,630	2007 est.
51	Lebanon	$ 19,400	2007 est.
52	Kazakhstan	$ 19,040	February 2008
53	Slovakia	$ 18,964	January 2008
54	Austria	$ 18,831	January 2008
55	Bulgaria	$ 17,367	January 2008
56	New Zealand	$ 17,236	January 2008
57	Chile	$ 16,910	January 2008
58	Belgium	$ 16,717	January 2008
59	Serbia	$ 15,864	February 2008
60	Pakistan	$ 14,063	February 2008
61	Croatia	$ 13,819	January 2008
62	Macau	$ 13,600	January 2008
63	Angola	$ 12,290	2007 est.
64	Portugal	$ 12,530	January 2008
65	Botswana	$ 9,629	2007 est.
66	Finland	$ 8,602	January 2008
67	Jordan	$ 8,005	January 2008
68	Yemen	$ 7,871	2007 est.
69	Tunisia	$ 7,714	February 2008
70	Lithuania	$ 7,053	February 2008
71	Oman	$ 7,004	2007 est.
72	Trinidad and Tobago	$ 6,761	2007 est.
73	Cyprus	$ 6,176	2007 est.
74	Syria	$ 6,039	2007 est.
75	Qatar	$ 6,368	2007 est.
76	Latvia	$ 5,903	January 2008
77	Bangladesh	$ 5,490	January 2008
78	Bosnia and Herzegovina	$ 5,151	January 2008
79	Guatemala	$ 4,559	2007 est.
80	Bolivia	$ 4,917	2007 est.
81	Uruguay	$ 4,429	January 2008
82	Uzbekistan	$ 5,600	2007 est.
83	Cuba	$ 4,247	2007 est.
84	Azerbaijan	$ 4,000	2007 est.
85	Equatorial Guinea	$ 3,928	2007 est.
86	Costa Rica	$ 3,915	2007 est.
87	Belarus	$ 3,788	January 2008
88	Turkmenistan	$ 3,644	2007 est.
89	Ecuador	$ 3,618	2007 est.
90	Estonia	$ 3,581	February 2008
91	Malta	$ 3,522	2007 est.
92	Bahrain	$ 3,474	2007 est.
93	Greece	$ 3,387	January 2008
94	Kenya	$ 3,300	February 2008
95	Sri Lanka	$ 3,252	2007 est.
96	Honduras	$ 2,892	2007 est.
97	Ghana	$ 2,837	2007 est.
98	Iceland	$ 2,792	February 2008
99	Dominican Republic	$ 2,525	2007 est.
100	Côte d’Ivoire	$ 2,500	2007 est.
101	Paraguay	$ 2,463	2007 est.
102	Tanzania	$ 2,441	2007 est.
103	Cameroon	$ 2,341	2007 est.
104	Congo	$ 2,242	2007 est.
105	El Salvador	$ 2,224	January 2008
106	Papua New Guinea	$ 2,193	December 2007
107	Uganda	$ 2,100	2007 est.
108	Burma	$ 2,000	January 2008
109	Republic of Macedonia	$ 1,803	2007 est.
110	Mauritius	$ 1,772	2007 est.
111	Armenia	$ 1,657	December 2007
112	Albania	$ 1,615	December 2007
113	Cambodia	$ 1,600	December 2007
114	Jamaica	$ 1,490	December 2007
115	Mozambique	$ 1,470	November 2007
116	Gabon	$ 1,459	2007 est.
117	Moldova	$ 1,360	February 2008
118	Senegal	$ 1,350	2007 est.
119	Georgia	$ 1,300	2007 est.
120	Panama	$ 1,260	2007 est.
121	Sudan	$ 1,245	2007 est.
122	Kyrgyzstan	$ 1,155	January 2008
123	Zambia	$ 1,100	2007 est.
124	Slovenia	$ 1,076	January 2008
125	Nicaragua	$ 1,075	2007 est.
126	Chad	$ 997	2007 est.
127	Republic of Ireland	$ 930	January 2008
128	Burkina Faso	$ 897	2007 est.
129	Lesotho	$ 889	2007 est.
130	Ethiopia	$ 840	2007 est.
131	Benin	$ 825	2007 est.
132	Namibia	$ 750	2007 est.
133	Madagascar	$ 745	2007 est.
134	Barbados	$ 620	2007 est
135	Laos	$ 514	2007 est.
136	Rwanda	$ 511	2007 est.
137	Swaziland	$ 395	2007 est.
138	Togo	$ 363	2007 est.
139	Cape Verde	$ 344	2007 est.
140	Tajikistan	$ 301	2007 est.
141	Luxembourg	$ 294	January 2008
142	Guyana	$ 292	2007 est.
143	Haiti	$ 221	2007 est.
153	Vanuatu	$ 149	December 2007
144	Malawi	$ 140	2007 est.
145	Zimbabwe	$ 120	2007 est.
146	Gambia	$ 120	2007 est.
147	Guinea	$ 119	2007 est.
148	Burundi	$ 118	2007 est.
149	Seychelles	$ 118	2007 est.
150	Belize	$ 92	2007 est.
151	Samoa	$ 70	2004 est.
152	Tonga	$ 55	February 2008
154	São Tomé and Príncipe	$ 36	December 2007
155	Eritrea	$ 22	2007 est.

The Russian rouble  has a position on the Chinese market. From now on it will be traded equally with Australia`s and Singapore`s dollar, the Japanese yen and South Korea`s won.

The Russian government has been working with China to get the rouble used as a trade currency. So now it has happened the yaun is trading against the rouble…

This is to relieve the use of the dollar and euro as dominant currencies.

Interesting Tidbit of information… (Link)

Windows to Russia!

• Long haul to rouble prominence (rt.com)
• Global Report: U.S. Losing Its Competitive Edge (fastcompany.com)
• That Morning Cup of Coffee… (windowstorussia.com)
• South Ossetia Gives From the Heart to Russia… (windowstorussia.com)

Hello,

Recently I walked to work again:

Kyle has already published a very good article about my walk to work.

But this particular morning, that I am telling you about; I was in just a little bit of a hurry and a little bit lazy. So I decided to take a Tram.

The Tram just pulled up to the metro station and I got in. There was just three stops to ride…; Unfortunately I rode just half of a stop and disaster struck….. (Click: read more for Tram Disaster!)

The Tram stopped & opened the doors and they told everybody to get out! This is what I saw when I left the Tram and had to WALK to work anyway. 🙂

Pictures..

So now as you can see, it was just a little road accident – nothing terrible, no serious victims! Thank God! But nobody could leave the place of the accident, so they were just waiting for road police.

That’s really rather common situation with trams in Moscow. That’s sad! It’s especially sad when you think about all these people who were waiting for a tram! When I think about this, I always remember a mathematical task what we were solving in special mathematical school. That was a task about a bus what is going by schedule every 10 minutes and about poor guy who stands at bus stop already one hour. And the question was what possibility for him to see the bus during next ten minutes. The truth is (I always considered that this is like paradox) that the longer he is waiting the bus the less possibility for him is to see the bus during next 10 minutes. And I remember my Mom tried to explain me how the situation could happened: The more you wait the bus the more likely the bus is broken or something happened.

You’ve seen my pictures. So remember if you are waiting tram or trolleybus too long it might be something happened – think how to get to your place another way.

Never get despair in life, there is always another way!
Best wishes!

Svet

comments always welcome.

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Hello,

Looks like I am not the only one to see that Mass Media has serious problems!
==================================
Give Us a Break
http://mnweekly.rian.ru/columnists/20080214/55310093.html

14/02/2008

Russia has long been respected in global affairs, where it has long played an important role in influencing international politics. For many years its opinion was taken seriously, as it was a powerful empire with a wide sphere of influence. Yet the West, it seems, is always ready to chalk it up as a land of insignificant people. And once its power weakened, the reputation of the Russian people seems to have suffered even worse.

I don’t want to suggest that Russia is an example of unsurpassed innocence and harmlessness, but it seems that it is too often described from the worst possible angle. Today, Russians are believed to set the standards for inappropriate behavior and bad manners, and the West is always ready to blame Russia, no matter what.

I am worried most about the practice of national stereotyping. The Russian people have never been worse or better than any other people, and, like others, they want to be respected. But the way Russians are represented in the foreign media – at least from what I have seen – leads to a total misunderstanding of the Russian mentality (Note: not by every thinking individual, but by the general public and mass media. And mass opinion seems to play a big part in the shaping of the image of this one particular country). What is Russia today? I mean the people, not the nation state. What do others really think about us? I got my answer over the holidays in Rome. One night there was a feature on television about New Year celebrations around the world. Fantastic fireworks and marvelous decorations were shown in the spotless European countries. And then came the broadcast on Russia: shots of the young, the elderly – all age groups – drinking alcohol and falling over in the snow, totally drunk. Great. What image of Russia would people form from this? For how long will the Russian people be associated with vodka?

A popular joke runs as follows:

“A dog breeder sells a litter of puppies abroad. Which one goes to Russia? The one named Vodka.” Yet everywhere I see foreigners drinking alcohol. The Germans, for example, are famous beer lovers and drink it all day at the ski resorts. Why then is it accepted nonchalantly for them? Too many people forget that many Russians have no desire to drink.

Russian females face similar treatment. As one of them, I have the problem of being treated as a “typical Russian girl,” which automatically translates into: “you must want a western man.” Why would this be more true of Russia than of any other nation?

People are different and every family has its black sheep. There shouldn’t be one stereotype to pigeonhole all people. Appreciate a person’s values and not their passport. A nation is represented by the different faces of its citizens, and Russia continues to produce an amazing number of outstanding people and innovations.

I must add, however, that I do appreciate the respect some foreigners feel for Russia and its achievements.

By Daria Chernyshova
==================================

I myself have been saying time and time again: Russia gets a Bum Wrap when it comes to the Press. The old saying “The Pot calling The Kettle Black!” is appropriate for the Media! Look at your own back yard first then see if you have a right to point fingers……..

Has any one heard of: Skeletons in the closet?

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

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Hello,

The other day I was talking with my wife her in Moscow, Russia about how we are getting the illegal drug issue cleared up better in our building that we live in. I said to her, “I do not understand, Life is hard enough. Why destroy it with any drugs that you do not need to take.”

Then I have been just quiet and dumbfounded at the reports that I am seeing from all news sources. This subject is being supported by Mainstream Western News sources full force. The articles started out as “what if” articles and have now become, “Hey we can keep the money in America. Instead of giving it to the drug lords. Hip Hip Hurray!”

Watch this video from Russia Today and get an idea of what the world sees about America…

I can say, with all knowledge of the subject that one day you will be taking drugs to keep your life going. I take 20+ pills a day, everyday, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. The effect of these prescription pills on my body is bad enough. I could not imagine being dumb or stupid enough to take illegal drugs on top of those 20+ pills.

In the last 6 months I have been following the marijuana issue in America. I have watch it spread from the Western press and now it has impermanent the Eastern press. I have watched it spread across America at a steady pace. What issue is this?

The legalization of marijuana in America!

It really looks like it will happen.

Back in the 60’s and 70’s we joked, “We are lucky to be alive , man! With as many drugs as we all do!” The 70’s was a High School nightmare for many. Heroin was rampant and pot was plentiful. Beer was dirt cheap and no laws to control it. (At least laws that were enforced.)

Then along came the 80’s and a massive drug clean up program was done.

Now: all in the name of the almighty $ Dollar we are going to legalize marijuana or also known as aunt mary, boom, chronic, dope ganja, gangster, grass, hash, herb, kif, mary jane, pot, reefer, sinsemilla, skunk, and weed!

I really wish that America would wake up. Seems that all the wasted life from the 70’s is going to come back now, But this time free from the law…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

PS: You do not think this is happening? Then you need to look around… (It Is)

Hello,

My wife found this map of Ukraine and how it grew over the years. It seems that Ukraine was a tiny little country not that long ago.

Ukraine should have thanks for various eras of time especially the Soviet era: 1922, 1939-40 and 1954!

Seems like countries during the Soviet era had all kinds of boundary changes. No wonder there is so many issues around this part of the world.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

• From Windows to Russia: Ukraine and Her Lies on the Gas Issue! (windowstorussia.com)
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Hello,

Update this morning on the gas issue:

Ukraine keeps telling everyone that they have enough gas. Well they just shut the gas off to the Crimea. It seems the Crimea has its own gas supply that the Crimea runs their little area on. Ukraine has now taken Crimea’s gas. Crimea is in an uproar and trying to get their gas turned back on. Seems that Kiev is hurting so bad for fuel that they have resorted to stealing Crimea’s fuel. Other words Crimean gas has been redirected to Kiev!

It also seems that Ukraine can move gas all over Ukraine but will not transport gas to the European Union with out free transport gas from Russia. So it is as Gazprom says, another lie from Ukraine.

According to sources from Moldova and Bulgaria, Ukraine never sent gas to these countries like they promised. The fact is Ukraine does not have any gas and they are robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Our hotel room is running just a few degrees above freezing and it seems to be the fact over the whole hotel except in the lobby where you check in. We sit here in the lobby working on an article in nice warmth and you step on to the elevator and the freeze starts. Seems to be the norm in all businesses we have gone to in Kiev.

One of the big issues in Kiev is the price of gas for cars and on the news gas (propane) is called “Gold” and you must stay in a queue (line) for days to fill up your tank. People use spend 12 hour shifts in the cars just to get gas. many cars in Ukraine run on gas and now the people not able to get it.

Discontent is huge in Kiev and looks like it will get worse everyday. I just told Svet that we need to get down with our business and get home. Ukraine’s government looks to implode at any minute.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

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