It seems that Russia will buy a Mistral class amphibious assault ship from France with the complete set of navigational equipment and technical documentation. Then Russia will equip the ship with its own weaponry and helicopters a Moscow news source stated today.
This is a subject that Windows to Russia has been following from the beginning and it looks as though by the end of this year is when the deal will be finalized. It seems from what is being said on the Russian news sources that Russia will purchase one ship then build two more Mistral class amphibious assault ships with the help of the French naval shipbuilder DCNS within shipyards of Russia. France has confirmed the desire to sell said ship and Russia has said today that the details are almost worked out.
Now that balance of technology seems to make sense and should not upset the Western worlds sense of balance. The only issue that I see going on in Russia as of today with this purchase is about the helicopters. It seems that there is talks of Russia also wanting to purchasing 100 Ka-class helicopters, including some 70 Ka-27Ms, to equip the Mistral ships. They say that they have to raise the decks of the ship to use Russian helicopters…
Russia has also said that since they will be using this ship in the North area that they will have to reinforce the hull to with stand ice as it makes its way through the Northern Latitudes. Russia also said that the Mistral Class ship is capable of transporting and deploying 16 helicopters, four landing barges, up to 70 armored vehicles including 13 battle tanks, and 450 personnel.
Hummm using it up North! Do you think they will go after Santa Claus? 🙂
So we will keep you updated as we discover more information about this interesting transaction…
I remember clearly Russia talking and explaining about no sanctions that affect the Iranian people and make life terrible for them. In fact I remember Russia being explicit about those stipulations. I remember Russian news saying that the people of Iran do not deserve to have sanctions that impose upon their rights as humans.
My understanding is that Iranians have it bad enough in the human rights department. So why do we as human right supporters make their life even more miserable?
Now remember this is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak and only one issue. As the sanctions become more pronounced. Then expanded further against what Russia voted for at the UN meeting, then the people of Iran will suffer more and more…
“Since last week, after the passing of the unilateral law by America and the sanctions against Iran, airports in England, Germany, the UAE have refused to give fuel to Iranian passenger planes.”Iranian Airlines, said. This was according to Russian TV…
Well Russia, this does not equate into sanctions that leave the Iranian people alone. Sanctions that only target the nuclear program. Sanctions that make it hard for the nuclear program to continue to develop. This for your information is targeting the people of Iran and curtailing the freedom of movement of said people…
Passenger jets are not full of nuclear product but they carry passengers as the name implies. What they do carry as excess cargo can be regulated and should be regulated. But to deny an Iranian passenger jet fuel because of a set of sanctions that were suppose to not target the Iranian people is asinine…
Then to top it all off, the world economy is in such bad shape that no one especially Europe and America can not afford to deny sales of any type. This seems like the West shoots their own foot in the process by these sanctions. Now Russia has stuck their foot in mouth, so to say…
Is this what you voted for Russia? Is this what you thought you were getting in the deal Medvedev? Did you mess up on this one Russia?
Windows to Russia wishes everyone in America a Happy Fourth of July! We hope everyone has a safe and fun fourth. The video is a Patriotic movie trailer shown in theaters prior to the 4th of July in 1940. We found the video interesting…
Happy Safe Fourth To All our Readers. By the way, if you need something to read. Try The Declaration Of Independence…
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America:
“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
— That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
— That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpation’s, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
— Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such….
…. is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpation’s, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.
To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of….
…large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolution’s, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
Independence Hall before photography
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
Declaration of Independence
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpation’s, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.
They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare,
That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.
— And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton”
Look like Russia has had a lot of fun with this one. The Progress M-06M freighter is a Russian throwaway freighter spacecraft. The spacecraft is an unmanned resupply spacecraft during its flight but upon docking with a space station it allows astronauts inside, hence it is classified manned by the manufacturer. Other words it runs on auto pilot and control from outside sources. It was built from the Soyuz spacecraft, and is launched with the Soyuz rocket. It is currently used to supply the International Space Station, but was originally used to supply Sovietspace stations for many years. This craft is the only way to resupply the ISS and since the American Shuttle is grounded it becomes even more of a asset to space. They say the reliability factor has been superber but this time around something messed up…
It seems the first attempt failed to dock the Progress M-06M freighter with the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday due to a failure in its automated docking system, a NASA spokesman from America said.
I just heard on the news that the second attempt to dock the Progress M-06M freighter with the International Space Station (ISS) will be tried on July 4. The Russian Space Agency told Rossiya 24 channel.
“The first docking was aborted at the distance of two kilometers from the station. The docking was then delayed until Sunday,” they said. So that experts can make an analysis. The freighter and the ISS “are operational and stay in contact with each other.” they said.
This looks like they must have gotten everything back under control. At one point it was said that the Russian craft was spinning out of control, but Russia never acknowledged that there was ever a problem.
So far according to the news, Russia is positive that all is OK and that the second attempt will be the charm…
A few months ago Windows to Russia passed the three year mark. She has way over 2000 posts to her credit but is hovering still at 2000 due to the loss of several hundred plus posts due to Blogger Blogspot destruction and GoDaddy virus issues…
You will see old posts popping up everyday as we attempt to regain lost posts and reprint them. It seems that Windows to Russia has been averaging 2 posts a day for 3 years and we consider that no small feat…
It all started with this post: Life in Russia! It is a mess of an article and you can tell that I was not sure what we were about to embark on…
The one thing for sure is that Svet and I have a special relationship that has grown in strength and I am knocking on the door of 4 years in Russia and the blog has grown as I have…
We still struggle to create that perfect blog and most likely will never get there. As once again Windows to Russia fights the odds and gets knocked down by Google. (Page rank went South) The last template that we had was not made by a nice person and Google was not happy with it. It had hidden links by the maker of said template and they were in a special code that I did not see. We have learned one thing about WordPress, It is wonderful but everyone tries to game the system and you are the prey…
We have also learned a lot about what to look for and now we have taken a basic template and redesigned it ourself from the beginning. We are still new to WordPress and learning…
1,839,000 hits is what Windows to Russia has had since day one. (That is an average of 1679 hits a day) We have always kept a hit counter running even if it never shows. We do not track stats anymore like we use too, because even though they are very interesting, there are just too many hits to deal with. If we have issues with a commenter or such. We have stats on the self-hosting if need be, that keeps us up to date…
One last thing before I finish today. A lot of people and quite a few Russian websites belittled Windows to Russia for the first year. Then several so called big boys and girls decided to degrade the site in the second year. We have ignored them and kept plucking away.
Now they ignore us because we are still here and they would have to eat crow, if they acknowledged that we are still around…
I was drinking my morning cup of coffee & thinking about a farmer in Siberia that says that a rocket fell in his yard and killed 4 of his horses. (It also scared him and his family almost to death.)
I have followed this story from the beginning & think that how neat to have a rocket fall in your yard. How cool can it be to have real rocket parts to play with!
Russia would be suing me because I would try to keep the rocket! 🙂
But instead of trying to have fun with the “Rocket” this man lost the lawsuit and does not even have a rocket to play with.
18/03/2008 12:40 NOVOSIBIRSK, March 18 (RIA Novosti) – Scientists in Siberia rejected on Tuesday a farmer’s claim that four of his horses were killed by toxic pollution from part of a carrier rocket that fell nearby.
In early March, Sergei Kazantsev told district authorities in southwest Siberia’s Altai Republic that in the year since a fragment of a rocket launched from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan fell near his herd of horses, four of the horses had died.
However, the deputy head of the regional Institute for Water and Ecological Problems, Alexander Puzanov, said: “The deaths of the animals cannot be associated with the falling of rocket fragments. We have to look elsewhere for the cause.”
He said that according to research carried out by the institute, which regularly measures levels of toxic heptyl rocket fuel in the region’s soil and water, neither heptyl nor its derivatives had been found in the area.
Puzanov also said that researchers from his institute had not yet encountered animal deaths that could be attributed to rocket fuel pollution.
The Altai Republic has been used as a “cemetery” for the fallen fragments of carrier rockets launched from the Baikonur space center for more than 40 years. Experts estimate that about 2.5 metric tons of “space waste” have fallen in unpopulated areas of the republic during this period.
On February 5, shortly after the launch of a Proton-M carrier rocket from the Baikonur space center, a three-and-a-half-meter (11 foot) long rocket fragment landed outside the designated area for rocket debris, a few meters from the house of an Altai shepherd.
The man, who was uninjured in the incident, said he and his children had been extremely frightened and demanded compensation of 500,000 rubles ($21,000).
A few years ago another resident of the region sought damage from Federal Space Agency Roscosmos in similar circumstances. A court awarded him a mere $400 in compensation.
18/03/2008 16:34 MOSCOW, March 18 (RIA Novosti) – A total of six rocket fragments that fell near villages in southwest Siberia after lift off from Kazakhstan on Saturday have been removed, local officials said on Tuesday.
“The wreckage has been collected and evacuated on a helicopter,” a spokesman for the local administration said.
The incident occurred after the launch of a Proton-M carrier rocket from the Baikonur space center leased by Russia from nearby Kazakhstan on March 15.
The wreckage landed in three villages of the Ust-Kansky Region some 60 kilometers (37 miles) outside the designated area for rocket debris.
The smallest fragment with a weight of 60 grams landed in the yard of a village in the Altai Republic destroying the shed roof. Other wreckage landed close to houses, but no casualties have been reported. The largest fragment measured five meters (16 foot) long.
“Although no one was hurt by the fragments, people are unhappy that space waste is falling next to their houses,” the spokesman said.
The Altai Republic has been used as a “cemetery” for fallen fragments of carrier rockets launched from the Baikonur space center for more than 40 years. Experts estimate that about 2.5 metric tons of “space waste” has fallen in unpopulated areas of the republic during this period.
On February 5, shortly after the launch of a Proton-M carrier rocket from the Baikonur space center, a three-and-a-half-meter (11 foot) long rocket fragment landed outside the designated area for rocket debris, a few meters from the house of an Altai shepherd.
The man, who was uninjured in the incident, said he and his children had been extremely frightened and demanded compensation of 500,000 rubles ($21,000).
Another Siberian farmer claimed that in the year since a fragment of a rocket fell near his herd of horses, four of the horses had died. However, scientists rejected his claims saying he should “look elsewhere for the cause.”
A few years ago another resident of the region sought damage from Federal Space Agency Roscosmos in similar circumstances. A court awarded him a mere $400 in compensation.
In Russia the renown math reclusive and genius Grigory Perelman, has officially rejected a $1 million prize for solving a problem that has puzzled scientists for over a century, the Clay Mathematics Institute said on its website on Thursday. This has been international interest for many many months now…
Everyone including Russian’s are like, “What is his problem?”
So while we are all foaming at the mouth and wishing we had that money. Perelman, who lives in a small apartment in St. Petersburg with his elderly mother, is unemployed and their neighbors say they live in poverty. He has rejected several job offers at top U.S.A. universities.
Well he doesn’t want the damn money, so now everyone needs to leave him alone… 🙂
Another think tank from America, talking about Russia! Seems that the USA Government has nothing better to do than sit around spending billions on deciding that Russia is Bad!
No wonder Russia really does not care what Americans think or if Americans travel here or not, the press from America is all bad about Russia!
That is why I have this blog to put a different light on Russia!
Russia Is Cool!
08/02/2008 22:47 MOSCOW. (Andrei Fedyashin for RIA Novosti) – Gas, oil, pipelines and investments in Europe or Asia have become Russia’s main sins that without absolution or strict control may do damage to U.S. national security, both taken singly or as a package.
Michael McConnell, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, has listed all of them in his Annual Threat Assessment to Congress. He mentions the military component of the potential Russian threat but not without some embarrassment because of the permanent U.S. military build-up as compared to the weakened Russian potential. McConnell notes that the Russian army is overcoming “a long, deep deterioration in its capabilities that started before the collapse of the Soviet Union”. The intelligence tsar, as the U.S. Director of National Intelligence is called, suggests that Moscow’s mounting economic might should be viewed as a source of concern.
The report does not even mention Russia as a threat to the United States. Its detailed analysis is neither scary nor sensational. Nor does it contain anything new as regards Moscow. The previous report a year ago criticized Russia a lot more.
The Kremlin’s response to the report was absolutely right. When Russian journalists asked officials to comment on it, they were told that the report should not be overdramatized, although it raised some questions. After all, Americans have long been accusing Russia of “positioning to control an energy supply and transportation network spanning from Europe to East Asia,” and talking about Russian energy policy: “Aggressive Russian efforts to control, restrict or block the transit of hydrocarbons from the Caspian to the West-and to ensure that East-West energy corridors remain subject to Russian control-underscore the potential power and influence of Russia’s energy policy.”
Moscow can hardly perceive as a challenge McConnell’s “concerns about the financial capabilities of Russia, China and OPEC countries and the potential use of their market access to exert financial leverage to political ends.” The same applies to his concern about the growth of Russian investment abroad. He means mostly investment in energy sectors in Europe and China. But this is nothing new, and the United States has been doing the same for years.
Not a single country has so many divisions as the United States – from the State Department and the Pentagon to the Department of Agriculture – that are responsible for promoting abroad American goods and services, credits, financial instruments, culture, way of life, Coke, cars and washing machines. In any country, be it tiny or very powerful, American Ambassadors and other diplomats will not be embarrassed if they have to flex their muscles or throw America’s rivals off the bridge. This is almost an axiom in the diplomatic service. But the very fact that Russia is mentioned in the report together with Iran, Iraq, Pyongyang, Beijing, and even the notorious Al Qaeda does not at all mean that they can be equated. Exaggerations are typical of such documents. It was produced by intelligence and as one wise Englishman said, secrecy is a prelude to deception. But every trade has its own temptations.
This assessment is special only because it was made in the year of two presidential elections – in the United States and Russia. Vice Admiral McConnel (Ret.) had to do an uphill job. His department was set up in the wake of the shocking 9/11 attacks, and is responsible for coordinating intelligence operations of about 15 departments – from the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency, Air Force, Navy and Army to the Coast Guard and the Department of Energy, to name but a few. He had to exert a titanic effort in order to reduce to a common denominator the opinions of mismatched departments that hate one another.
His predecessor John Negroponte, the first Director of National Intelligence since its formation in 2005 was not very successful. He occupied this position for less than two years, and was sent back to the State Department by President Bush.
It is clear that the report mostly deals with political issues, and has nothing to do with secrets. It would be naive to expect any secrets to be revealed during the hearings. American propaganda has never been too elegant but this report is more exquisite than others.
In general, such reports are just another foreign policy instrument couched in a veil of an almost solved mystery. In real fact, all ideas, concerns, and alarms are not the revelations of intelligence but a direct reminder of what the United States accepts and what it does not want to tolerate. As a guide, they are quite useful.
It seems that Russia will buy a Mistral class amphibious assault ship from France with the complete set of navigational equipment and technical documentation. Then Russia will equip the ship with its own weaponry and helicopters a Moscow news source stated today.![Human Rights](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3338/3291979569_47b730e178_m.jpg" "Human Rights")
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