Windows to Russia

When You have very little as many Russians have and then that is taken from you,  It gets sad…

Watch the video as the whole village burns and believe me they have no way to stop the fire in Rural Russia…

Wildfires raging in central Russia due to abnormally hot weather have claimed 30 lives, left 2,210 people homeless and caused damages worth over 4.6 billion rubles ($150 million), the Ministry for Regional Development said on Sunday.

The wildfires have affected 14 Russian regions, destroyed a total of 1,875 homes, with the largest destructions observed in the Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh and Ryazan regions, the ministry said, citing data as of late July 31.

As many as 771 wildfires were registered in the European part of Russia as of early Sunday, including peat bog fires, the ministry said.

Temperatures across much of western and central Russia have topped 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) in the past five weeks, causing peat bog and forest fires and creating what is thought to be the worst drought in the country since 1972.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who visited the fire-damaged Vyksa district in Nizhny Novgorod on Friday, severely criticized local administrations for their poor handling of the fire crisis and said local government chiefs who had failed to cope with the deadly wildfires must resign.

Many residents in the Nizhny Novgorod region, whose houses had been burnt down in the fires, complained to Putin, at the scene to assess the situation, that the actions taken by local authorities were chaotic and uncoordinated.

Putin has ordered a total of 5 billion rubles ($165 million) to be disbursed from the federal budget to the central Russian areas affected by the wildfires.

He said the families of those who died in wildfires would receive 1 million rubles ($33,000) in compensation each. He also said the government would allocate around 3 million rubles ($100,000) for the reconstruction of each burnt house.

The government will also allocate funds to compensate for the loss of personal property.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for the immediate construction of housing for those left homeless by the fires.

Windows to Russia!

• Wildfires spread in western Russia, kill 28 (reuters.com)
• Five killed as wildfires sweep central Russia (reuters.com)
• Raging Wildfires Kill At Least 29 In Russia (news.sky.com)
• Russia And California Battle Deadly Wildfires (news.sky.com)
• Russia battles hundreds of wildfires (theglobeandmail.com)
• Russian army to battle wildfires that have killed 28 (ctv.ca)
• Russia sends army to battle deadly wildfires (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Russia On Fire… (windowstorussia.com)
• Wildfires spread in western Russia, kill 28 (reuters.com)

Did you know that Moscow celebrated its 862nd birthday on September 5-6 2009?

Did you know that 66 percent of Russians, think of Moscow residents as a separate category of Russian people? They imagine a Muscovite as a person having a good job, a high income, and fine business qualities. However, when speaking about personal qualities of Muscovite’s, most Russians have negative things to say. 6 percent consider Muscovite’s rude, crude and socially unacceptable.

Did you know that Native Muscovite’s make up only two percent of the population of Moscow about 180,000 people? (Svetlana is a native Muscovite.)

Did you know that Moscow is a densely populated city? There are about 120 people living on each hectare of land in the city limits. For comparison, the density is 40 people in New York, 62 in London, 88 in Paris.

Just some tidbits of information so that you learn more about Moscow and Russia…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

(Link to Article) Facts from Pradva!

Unsanctioned Moscow Rally...

An estimated 200 protesters turned out for the rally in downtown Moscow with 35 hauled away in police vehicles. But that number of protesters paled in comparison to the some 300 reporters who were on hand to cover the event…

Lets get this straight – more reporters than protesters…

Hummmmm…

Windows to Russia!

• Russian police arrest Kremlin opponent at rally (sfgate.com)
• Russian police arrest Kremlin opponent, several others, at freedom-of-assembly demonstration (foxnews.com)
• Russian police arrest Kremlin opponent at rally (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

• Russia launches criminal probe of corrupt spending at Vancouver Winter Games (theprovince.com)
• WADA Head Says Russia Must Do More Against Doping (nytimes.com)
• Russia to increase security for Sochi Olympics (sportingnews.com)
• Russian Banks Say We Do Not Want Your Money… (windowstorussia.com)
• Russia: No You Can Not Keep The Rocket! (windowstorussia.com)
• The FSB Has More Power Now and Other Thoughts… (windowstorussia.com)

The situation with wildfires in the Russian regions remains difficult, though some stability has been noticed, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said during a meeting at the Emergencies Ministry’s Situation Room on Saturday.

According to the Emergencies Ministry’s figures on Saturday morning, some 121,500 hectares of forest are burning. There are also 18 peat bog fires, 9 of which are in the Central Federal District.

“The situation we have with wildfires remains difficult, [and] the night before last and yesterday morning we ran into some heavy consequences in some regions [but this] has stabilized a bit; however, on the whole, [the situation] remains quite intense,” Putin said.

Over the last 24 hours, over 1,000 homes have been destroyed and entire villages burned to the ground in the largest wildfire ever to hit the European part of Russia.

An emergency situation has been announced in 14 regions in Russia. Thousands of people have been left homeless.

Temperatures across much of western and central Russia have topped 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) during the past five weeks, causing peat bog and forest fires and creating what is thought to be the worst drought since 1972.

“You all know what the weather forecast is: there’s nothing to be happy about,” Putin said.

Windows to Russia!

• Raging Wildfires Kill At Least 29 In Russia (news.sky.com)
• Five killed as wildfires sweep central Russia (reuters.com)
• Russia And California Battle Deadly Wildfires (news.sky.com)
• 15 dead as forest fires rage south, east of Moscow (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Russia On Fire… (windowstorussia.com)
• Wildfires sweeping Russia kill at least 25 (reuters.com)
• Fires and Storms Kill at Least 28 in Russia (nytimes.com)
• Russian wildfires leave 25 dead, thousands homeless (cnn.com)
• Russia’s Putin visits village destroyed by forest fires that have killed at least 7 (foxnews.com)
• 20 dead as forest fires rage across Russia (msnbc.msn.com)

Medvedev just started a video area on YouTube and then this pops up last week. I find it interesting that countries are having internet issues such as America shutting down 73,000 blogs on a site last week (They deny it though! :)) China and Google go round and round. Now this, Russia and YouTube…

The Central District Court of Russia’s Far East city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur has ordered a local Internet provider to block access to five websites, including Youtube, for spreading extremist materials, a court spokesman told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.

“The court ordered the Rosnet provider to block access to Youtube, as well as to lib.rus.ec, thelib.ru, zhurnal.ru and web.archive.org, which contain open materials included in the federal list of extremist literature,” he said.

With the exception of Youtube, all the remaining sites are electronic libraries. “In particular, Adolf Hitler‘s Mein Kampf could be found in the electronic libraries’ websites,” the spokesman said.

The Komsomolsk-on-Amur Prosecutor’s Office filed a lawsuit after investigating the website content.

Rosnet on Wednesday appealed the decision.

“Representatives of our company have repeatedly offered… representatives of the Prosecutor General‘s office… ways of blocking extremist content by turning to the hosting providers and owners of websites or the authors of the [extremist] issues. But our proposals were neglected,” Rosnet’s press release said.

Several countries attempt to impose censorship on the world’s largest websites. Pakistan blocked Youtube in February 2008 over “sacrilegious content.” Last year, China blocked Youtube on its territory. (RIA Novosti)

Makes me go Hummmm…

Windows to Russia!

• Russian city blocks YouTube (go.theregister.com)
• “Russia: YouTube, Archive.org and Other Sites Banned by a Far East Court” and related posts (resourceshelf.com)
• Russian Court Bans YouTube Over Extremist Video (newteevee.com)
• Russian court blocks YouTube (telegraph.co.uk)
• Russian court bans YouTube for hosting extremist content (newstatesman.com)
• YouTube banned by Russian court (guardian.co.uk)
• YouTube Banned in Russia Over Racist Video (mashable.com)
• Russian regional court orders YouTube, other sites blocked because of extremist material (foxnews.com)
• Russian regional court orders YouTube blocked (theglobeandmail.com)
• Russian City Bans YouTube; ISP Doesn’t Comply [Voices] (voices.allthingsd.com)

Hello,

I was drinking my morning cup of delicious coffee here in Moscow, Russia. I was doing some thinking about a faded black older BMW car that I had seen the other day with a license plate with the number of the devil on it! It went by at a very high rate of speed, as Svet and I stood near the theater taking pictures of horses, in which that we had just seen a movie. I could not and can not understand why someone would put the sign of the devil on their license plate. (registration plate)

I remember shaking my head and mumbled something under my breath, because I thought to myself, that person has issues.

Well today an interesting accident has happened:

MOSCOW, May 7 (RIA Novosti) – A driver had to be cut out of his BMW after a tram rammed into his vehicle, which was displaying the number 666 on the registration plate, a police source said on Thursday.

The accident occurred near a church in east Moscow and the significance of the number 666 on the vehicle’s registration plate made some emergency workers nervous. (Link)

I understand the workers being nervous. I do not believe in many superstitions but one that I take to heart is the number of the devil and even the numbers 999 raises caution with me, which is number of the devil upside down.

I checked some more news sources and I am 99% positive that this is the same car. The driver was young and had no respect for people, horses or other cars. He ran one actually two of the lights that was at the intersection as we waited for a bus. I remember him because I was trying to get pictures of people who were riding horses across this same intersections. I did not get the car on a picture but I got the horses. Not a very good picture but you can still see the horses and they were being ridden through Moscow, late at night. It was this intersection that he weaved around cars at a high rate of speed and tore into the night. I remember his plate and the number of the devil!

If it is not him then there is another BMW with number of the devil on its license plate running around Moscow, Russia.

So now this guy is in serious condition and his car totaled. The people on the tram were not hurt according to reports. It seems that many people in Moscow like to drive on the tram tracks and block the trams all the time. Or try to out run them and get across the intersection before them.

Just like playing chicken with a train at a train crossing. The train wins sometimes…

Windows to Russia!
Kyle and Svet

comments always welcome.

I doubt China and Russia will ever be much help to the EU and the USA in sanctions against Iran again, or for that matter any other country that America targets with sanctions..

China has joined Russia in denying support to the latest batch of European Union sanctions against Iran.

In a statement from its Foreign Ministry Friday, it argues that nuclear disagreements with the Iranians must be resolved through diplomacy, rather than new unilateral punitive measures.

The sanctions in question were announced last Monday, after a Brussels meeting of EU Foreign Ministers.

The sanctions in it target Iran’s oil and gas, banking and transportation sectors.

Russia says they compromise efforts by the Security Council’s Permanent Five plus Germany to establish a productive dialogue with Iran.

Gee and I have said from the beginning that games are being played by America and before it is over Russia and China will be pulling out of the sanctions all together. I have heard Medvedev state a dozen times here in Russia, “That is not what the council agreed upon…”

Sanctions that are based on lies and deceits to get them accomplished are worse than what the country that they are against has done…

Windows to Russia!

• China says it opposes EU sanctions against Iran (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• China says it opposes EU sanctions against Iran over nuclear issue (foxnews.com)
• EU and USA hammer down on Iran (nowpublic.com)
• How New U.S. And EU Sanctions Are Turning Russia Towards Iran (businessinsider.com)

Russia On Fire...

Russia on Fire...

This from (Itar-Tass) — Forest fires resulting from record-high and long heatwave and drought quickly spread in central Russia because of strong wind on Thursday and destroyed nearly 500 wooden houses forcing rescuers to launch mass evacuation of people.

The emergency department of Nizhni Novgorod region said fires swept away the village of Upper Vereya in less than an hour destroying all the 341 wooden buildings. All the 580 residents of Upper Vereya were evacuated.

“There are no victims and all the people have been accommodated in two school buildings in the town of Vyksha,” a spokesman of the emergency service said.

Houses were also on fire in the village of Tamboles with 308 residents and 205 buildings. Evacuation is underway.

Twelve out of 34 houses were also on fire in the village of Borkovka and residents were evacuated.

The emergency service said additional firefighting teams from neighboring regions have been dispatched.

In Voronezh region raging fires killed a fireman raising the death toll to two, spokeswoman of the Russian Emergency ministry Irina Andiranova said.

Authorities had to bloc traffic on a 100-kilometer section of the Don highway in Voronezh region as surrounding forests were on fire and the smoke reduced visibility to 50 meters.

Fires have surrounded Voronezh outskirts from the north, west and south. Rescuers evacuated over 600 children from summer camps and patients of a hospital. Twenty wooden residential houses were burnt down.

Local emergency service said over 600 hectares of forests were on fire in the past week and close to 50 houses were destroyed.

In Volgograd region forest fires rage on a territory of 200 hectares, however the threat to four residential settlements with 500 residents was eliminated, local emergency service spokeswoman Yelena Rodionova said.

Strong wind aggravated the situation with peat fires in three eastern/southeast districts around Moscow – Yegoryevsk, Kolomna and Shatura, Viktor Klimkin, deputy chief of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry’s Moscow branch said on Thursday night.

“Because of the wind these blazes are moving to the category of crown fires from ground fires,” he said.

Klimkin said the fires do not pose an immediate threat for Moscow.

In the meantime, the Russian Railways Company (RZD) warned raging forest fires may bloc rail traffic to the southeast.

RZD said it may find it necessary to introduce changes in the schedules “to ensure the security of traffic and safety of passengers.”

Russian Video: Heat and Smoke Disaster in Moscow!

Windows to Russia!

• 15 dead as forest fires rage south, east of Moscow (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Russia’s Putin visits village destroyed by forest fires that have killed at least 7 (foxnews.com)
• Russian forest fires spread, at least 7 dead (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Five killed as wildfires sweep central Russia (reuters.com)
• Raging Russian fires destroy homes, people flee (sfgate.com)
• Medvedev wants army help to tackle wildfires (cnn.com)
• Moscow sweats as second heat record set (msnbc.msn.com)
• Fires from heatwave scorch Russia (bbc.co.uk)
• Homes destroyed by Russian wildfire (channel4.com)
• Moscow shrouded in polluting smog as city swelters in record heat wave (foxnews.com)
• Russia’s “Cold Pole” Getting Heated Up… (windowstorussia.com)

Even with the heat and humidity in Kiev, Ukraine you could sense the change in the core feelings of the city. Gone was the deep depression that has been prevalent over the last few years and money could be seen exchanging hands as people purchased goods…

I have written several times about the deep seated depression that overtook Ukraine as they struggled with the financial crises. This was a serious thing to me because I really love Ukraine as a wonderful place to visit and communicate with the people…

I also expressed about the past president and prime minister of Ukraine and how they seemed to be getting rich off the people through various escapades. But the people became more depressed because nothing ever seemed to be there to help these people…

That has changed in Ukraine at least in Kiev. I saw construction projects that had been left abandoned for years. Suddenly they have sprang back to life and are on there way to being completed. I saw new railroad tracks being laid into revived industrial park areas that have so long been abandoned in the past. I saw couples walking hand n hand and the girls even had flowers… 🙂

This is a wonderful thing that has happened to Kiev and I was very happy myself as I walked the streets of Kiev this time. I have seen the transformation slowly take effect and I have a thought on why everything has changed.

I really believe that Ukraine was intentionally set up for destruction by the Orange revolution that was driven by America and America has no qualms about it. In fact after my last communicate with special interests people in America I have come to the realization that there will be another buildup to the same situation again. The fact that Ukraine has thumbed her nose at NATO and hugged the Russian Bear again has caused deep concern in America for the special interests groups…

Ukraine now has a president (Viktor Yanukovych) that seems to really care and definitely not stealing all the funds from the country.  It seems they have a prime minister now that has much less interests in the absconding of profits from the gas proceeds as the past prime minister did…

Ukraine has a ways to go but I see that it is on the correct path or at least a path that is better than the past.  Ukraine did what was needed and that was to get the Western backed scum out of office…

Lets hope that Ukraine can keep their heads up and keep on the correct path…

Windows to Russia!

• The Next Visa To Russia… (windowstorussia.com)
• IMF approves $15bn loan to Ukraine (ft.com)
• Ukraine and Russia sign border demarcation law (bnonews.com)
• Factbox: IMF lending to Ukraine (reuters.com)
• In Russia a Lack of Smile is Decieving… (windowstorussia.com)
• Last Night The Wail of the Train Could Be Heard… (windowstorussia.com)
• It Is Our Tax Money America and Saakashvili Loves It… (windowstorussia.com)
• Ukraine Getting Jitters About South Stream… (windowstorussia.com)