Russia: May 1st, The Day Of Spring & Labor!

Originally posted 2008-04-30 17:01:00.
Hello,

Russia has another Holiday. 🙂

The Day of Spring and Labor / Праздник Весны и Труда (day off)
May 1, 2008
Formerly International Worker’s Solidarity Day under the old Communist system, it seems that everyone calls this one something different now. “Labor Day,” “The May Holiday,” and “Worker’s Day” all seem to be used, but everyone at least uses the same date. It is celebrated with parades, concerts, food, and drink and traditionally kicks off the dacha season. The holiday will be officially observed from the first to the third of May, with official days off. The fourth of May will be a work day. This year the fourth of May falls on a Sunday.

Grumble! Grumble!

Svet & Kyle

comments always welcome.

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Russia Says the USA Kidnapped a Russian…

America Kidnaps Russian…

First Iran accuses America of kidnapping a nuclear scientist and he finally got home after being smarter than his captors…

Now Russia is accusing America of kidnapping a Russian. Russia is really pissed off. I have watched this for a good week plus and have waited for the Western press to report on this escapade. Less than a day ago the Western press finally acknowledged that this incident has happened…

Talk about trying to ignore the truth!

Russia accused the United States of “kidnapping” a Russian pilot extradited from Liberia in a cocaine smuggling case, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.The detention in May of cargo-plane pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko by US anti-narcotics police from Liberia to be jailed in New York “directly violates the norms of international law“, the ministry said in a statement.

“Effectively, we are talking about the kidnapping of a Russian citizen in a third world country!” it said, complaining that US authorities did not inform the Russian embassy about Yaroshenko’s detention.

Seven people including one Russian were arrested in Liberia on May 28 on drug trafficking and conspiracy charges and deported to the United States after drug enforcement officials caught them with 4,000 kilos (8,800 pounds) of cocaine.

In a telephone interview with Russia’s NTV television on Wednesday, Yaroshenko complained of “torture” and “beatings” in jail in New York and said he was deprived of sleep and necessary medications.

If found guilty, Yaroshenko faces up to 40 years in jail.

Russia has reached a boiling point on this and with the incident that just happened with Iran it looks like America is on a spree of doing what they want when they want…

This is a clear cut example of the rift that has developed between Russia and America. I read article after article about how Russia and America will grow stronger because of the little spy escapade that everyone seemed want to relate to a new cold war era…

It is not the spy bull that is the problem and I have made it clear that the problem is all the American games going on that tend to piss people off…

I also said in some of my articles that I hoped I was proven wrong about the “reset has failed” between America and Russia…

But this is one more log on that burning fire…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Russian Banks Say We Do Not Want Your Money…

ceramic piggy bank
Saving Money…

Russia’s banks are trying to limit new deposits by clients in the short term, as they face up to excess liquidity and a lack of quality borrowers.

Research conducted by Expert Rating Agency and the National Association for Financial Studies, shows total Russian bank deposits in 2009 were up 26.7% year on year to 7.5 trillion rubles. This was mainly due to a general public trend towards saving where possible, against a backdrop of severe economic recession, coupled with rising bank deposit rates, as Russian retail banks found themselves fighting for depositors to ease liquidity concerns, which pushed deposit rates as high as 20%

Deposits are expected to grow by up to 25% in 2010, as Russians save like never before! So – “Banks today have excessive liquidity, but they don’t really see any reliable and quality borrowers to credit. So, they need to make such offers just look attractive enough to retain existing clients, but not attract any new ones.”

I hate to tell the banks this but Russians do not borrow money in the first place like people in the Western world do and they still believe in the old saying, “Save for a rainy day!”

So how can you have too much cash on hand? Why is that a problem? (and if it is) Why did we make it to be a problem?

Now the world is worried about excess liquidity – “Cash held by a bank above the normal requirement for that bank.”

I think that our world has gone “crazy” and “to hell in a hand basket”…

Sorry we don’t want your deposit money!

Windows to Russia!

Adoption Talks Between Russia and America Still Going On…

While some agreement on conditions have been decided in the first three talks a fourth round of talks is being moved up to July instead of September.

This has been a long drawn out process because of trying to lay the ground work for future adoptions. Very few people have little knowledge that there was no controls for any child adopted by America. Russia has requested for years to have these controls enacted but America refused to listen until the escapade of an adopted boy who was sent back to Russia as defective merchandise. This promted Russia to freeze all adoptions by Americans and that freeze is still in effect until the new rules get installed by both parties…

A big issue right now is that America has no system in place to control what happens to the child between the state and federal level. So no one checks up properly after the adoption

Russian Child Ombudsman Pavel Astakhov has said, “…Such a complicated and delicate issue as adopting children and taking them abroad can’t be done without a proper legal base which a bilateral agreement should presuppose.”

I have followed this process from the beginning and have now come to the conclusion that Russia was correct and America has balked at regulations on adoption agencies with Russia. At first I thought why would they do that?

Bribe
Lots Of Money For Adopted Kids…

I now understand after a lot of studying that there was huge money involved in the transactions of American‘s adopting children from Russia.  All Americans hear about is the corruption in Russia. But I am here to tell you that every bribe and corrupt deal in Russia paid there was an equal and opposite transaction in America…

I call that a form of child trafficking. Both countries were into it very deep and Russia realized that it had to stop…

My question is why did America refuse to communicate about this before when asked by Russia?

Why did it take a national scandal by an American woman shipping her adopted Russian child back home to Russia, as a “psychopathic” piece of luggage?

Guess what? That woman will never get in trouble and that is a sad thing…

Windows to Russia!

Russia: Finally Some Pictures of What is Left Of Tskhinvali!

It has been very hard to acquire pictures of the destroyed South Ossetian Capital. Finally some showed up on a Russian Government Website……

Truck with coffins is kinda sad!
Going to be hard to rebuild very fast!

I hope to get pictures of the city as it gets rebuilt, we will see….

Kyle & Svet

Russia’s North Caucasus Believed The Country’s Most Troubled Area…

Number of terrorist incidents for 2009 (Januar...
Terrorist Activity 2009

A group of rejects forced their way into a Russian power station on early Wednesday morning. They murdered two security guards, beat up two turbine room mechanics and planted explosive devices

This is all to common in the world and these kind of actions by idiots does nothing to change the world.  Except to maybe scare the innocent people…

What does something like this prove? What does these actions mean to the the demented mind? Why do we have to have sick people living among us, that only care to kill us?

Everyday I hear about bombings in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and even the latest a car bomb near the American border with Mexico…

It seems to me that the world governments have created conditions that perpetrate the desires of warped individuals to preform these acts of death

Other words we have made our bed and we are being forced to lie in it…

It seems to me that we have begun to reach a boiling point in this world and now we are so numb to the constant death that we do not hear the facts of thousands dying everyday all over the world…

You do know what happens when something boils?

Windows to Russia!

Drugs – A Big Problem in Russia For The Children…

Drugs are a big issue in Russia!

I am a person that misses very little and Svet always is amazed at what I always see. I believe that you should be alert to what is around you. At least a little bit alert…

But to me it does not take someone to be alert, to see what I am seeing all over Russia as I walk and travel…

Svet and I have seen syringes stuck in trees as we travel. We have seen them laying on the sidewalks and in the playgrounds. I have written before about this issue…

Russia: A Hard Core Drug Problem is in Russia!

I see syringes everyday that I walk and today I got upset.  Today after I took Boza back in from his walk,  I removed 9 syringes like this from the playground and that is while the kids are playing…

The needle is still on this syringe in the picture above. It was a picture that I took just a few minutes ago. This syringe was most likely used by a large group of 20 to 30 year old that had a party last night in our playground by our building…

I have written about drug problems before and will most likely write about them again. Drugs are as serious of a problem in Russia as it is in America. In fact as I travel the world I am seeing drugs as a hindrance to the whole world. The whole world and that includes your world also…

So while people can keep their blinders on and ignore the state of the world. I guess I will keep my eyes open because I really do not want to be stuck with a needle like what you see above. I also do not want any children to experience the trials of getting aids and or other diseases, because of stupid people that throw their used needles in a playground for children…

I will also express my dissatisfaction at the ability of the mothers that allow their children to play around these type of dangerous items. But then I see some of these same mothers with a beer in one hand, a cigarette in their mouth and the cell phone between shoulder and ear, while pushing the baby carriage around the block…

Yes there are mothers in Russia just like the mothers you have in your country…

Ignorance is no excuse for the safety of your children!

Fancy That!

Windows to Russia!

Russia Sees Lack Of Future For Steel in America…

Steel Baby Steel…

Russia’s Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) has dropped its plans to build a steel plant in the United States amid doubts about USA political will and over the recovery of the USA demand for steel.  MMK had announced plans in September of 2007  to build a steel plant in the state of Ohio, with an annual capacity of 1.5 million metric tons. It seems that as soon as the plans were announced the bottom fell out from the world financially. This caused a pause in future plans…

The money was there to invest but the demand of a failing economy and political suicide in America has progressed farther to the point that MMK will no longer wait. They will invest in other aspects of steel elsewhere in the world. MMK made a decision after studying the other two Russian steel companies Severstal and Evraz struggle with surviving in the conditions prevalent in the USA…

That conditions go beyond just lack of steel usage in America, it centers around the fact that American steel has created its own death bed, so to speak…

The steel usage by Asian countries has risen exponentially due to huge infrastructure business. There seems to not be enough steel to go around on this side of the world and with a European Union in a cost cutting phase the future of American steel is shaky at best…

I have been reading about the future of steel in America and the Western Big News is expressing that steel is making a comeback. Of course this is in direct contrast to what the Asian and Russian news is expressing. In fact, China really is trying to get more American steel to use in China. So Russia has watched China test the waters in America here in the last few weeks. China has expressed interest to invest in America with their Ansteel. In fact an American company has signed an agreement with the Chinese and that therein leads to what came next…

Let the political games begin:

The US lawmakers told Geithner they were “deeply concerned” that Ansteel’s “direct investment in an American steel company threatens American jobs and our national security“.

“We believe that this investment allows the full force and financing of the Chinese government to exploit the American steel market from American soil,” they wrote.

China has asked America to kindly not make a political issue out of this but that was to no avail. This is the same bull that Russia constantly receives…

That is an important part of what makes or breaks future investments in America…

Windows to Russia!

  • Russia’s Severstal to idle operations at US plant (reuters.com)
  • PREVIEW-Europe steelmakers await healthier Q2 after weak Q1 (reuters.com)
  • Schnitzer Steel Celebrates Success of “Racing to Stop Hunger” (eon.businesswire.com)
  • Vale partners with Posco in Brazil steel plant (reuters.com)
  • UPDATE 2-Steel Dynamics Q2 profit lags view, shares down (reuters.com)
  • US Steel sees industry comeback, costs crimp growth (reuters.com)
  • Canada’s New Steel Industry Key to Industrial Future: New Study (newswire.ca)
  • China’s Ansteel assessing US protest over plant deal: report (alternet.org)
  • Don’t block Angang’s steel deal, China tells U.S. (reuters.com)
  • Angang sees no setback from US steel firms’ objections (reuters.com)

Russia Talks About Gas Hydrates and Lake Baikal…

A map of Baikal
Lake Baikal

Russia’s Mir mini-submarines have discovered new gas hydrate fields on the bed of Lake Baikal this season. The gas hydrate layers were discovered for the first time during the second stage of the Lake Baikal expedition in 2009. Studying gas hydrates is a promising and urgent trend in contemporary science since they can be used as an additional source of energy.

Gas Hydrates are ice-like crystalline solids formed from mixtures of water and natural gas, usually methane. Concerning their importance, Alexander Ermolev, the head of the department for the development and exploration of gas and gas condensate deposits at the Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas, has this to say.

“In 1070, researchers of the department discovered and experimentally proved the existence of underground gas hydrates. The research now underway has significance for industry and is linked with the production of gas from gas hydrate deposits,” Alexander Ermolev says.

It is quite a difficult task to produce gas from gas hydrates because these crystals disintegrate when they are lifted to the surface and gas explodes as the temperature and pressure changes. Last year, Mir submersibles failed to lift the gas hydrates successfully from the bed of Lake Baikal. This year, experts use new equipment specially developed for this purpose. They hope they will be lucky this time. The Russian developments are basically linked to the extraction of gas hydrates from underground deposits, which were discovered by Soviet scientists in the 40s in permafrost in the Russian Far North, says Alexander Ermolev.

“There are several patents but they are linked with the lowering tabular pressure and increasing temperature,” says Alexander Ermolev.

“However, there is need to realize these two processes under tabular conditions,” Alexander Ermolev said.

Gas hydrates are logically described as a fuel of the future because one cubic meter of gas hydrate produces up to 200 cubic meters of methane. Experts have estimated that 25 trillion cubic meters of gas lies on the Black Sea bed in crystalline from.

This means that the Black Sea is capable of producing more gas than the Arctic and most importantly, this gas is cheaper.

Windows to Russia!

Russia: Pastor Phillip Miles Appeal Filed!

Originally posted 2008-06-05 08:38:00.
The written appeal was filed on May 5. The appeal process in Russia takes a minimum of 30 days. So they expect to receive a date for the appeal hearing in the near future.

Kyle

Update: The argument for Pastor Phillip’s appeal has been scheduled. It will take place on June 23 before a panel of three judges of the Moscow City Court. As is true with court dates in the United States, this date is subject to being changed. If a change takes place, we will update this site as soon as possible. In the meantime, please pray that the appeal will be successful and that Pastor Phillip will be released immediately after the argument.