Windows to Russia

Looks like when Obama snubbed Saakashvili (President of Georgia) in America here recently. By not even acknowledging that he was there. Saakashvili got a little bit upset. But instead of throwing a scene, which would do him no good, he went home seemingly OK with everything.

Now you may ask what and who gives a crud about Saakashvili?

No one normally – but over the last few days – something happened…

What has happened: Tbilisi and Tehran abolishing visa barriers, presenting new opportunities for mutual investments, solving gas issues? Even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – the fiercest critic of US – is planning to pay a visit to Georgia that only recently stopped being considered as a potential base for US blows on Iran? Experts are completely at a loss. It is believed in Georgia that this is Mikheil Saakashvili’s attempt to provoke jealousy of alienating Americans who abandoned Georgia in exchange for sanctions against Tehran. At home Barack Obama is criticized for weakness. In Britain his actions are viewed as steps toward a multipolar world. Russian media suspect that via Georgia Iran is setting up contacts with the USA to spike Russia.

All of a sudden Georgia became a priority item in Iran’s policies as directly stated by Iran’s deputy FM Ramin Mehmand Farasti on his visit to Tbilisi.

Now isn’t life just a bowl of cherries with pits included? Looks like Iran knows how to play chess…

Windows to Russia!

PS: We will be keeping an eye on these developments.

So over 6 months later it seems that the situation has gotten much worse and they have enacted a curtailment on withdrawing funds from the banks. Other words the runs on the banks were getting out of hand and the government has nationalized many banks and put limits on what people can withdraw. I witnessed this running on banks happening all over Kiev and it was a sad thing to see.

The last two times that I was at Kiev it was virtually impossible to get American dollars and I had to go into a special backroom at a bank and get dollars. That was only after I made a few calls and pulled strings, to assure that I could get them. The issue is that many business transactions are made only in dollars because they do not want their own money the grivna!

Russia has its banking problems just like America does and Europe, but Ukraine is at the bottom of the barrel in the banking sector and her normal people are the ones that will suffer the devastating results…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Hello,

Rice is moving her lips again:

Rice, who is flying to Europe on Monday to talk with NATO allies about what message the West should send to Russia, said Russia can’t use “disproportionate force” against its neighbor and still be welcomed into the halls of international institutions.

“It’s not going to happen that way,” she said. “Russia will pay a price.”

——————————————————————————–

When does the USA pay the price for much worse actions?

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

I received an interesting link from a reader. When I first saw the article I realized that name was familiar. I read the article in Wikipedia and could not figure out why that name was so familiar. Then toward the end of the article came the recognition link…

Joseph R. Beyrle is thought to be the only American soldier to have served with both the United States Army and the Soviet Army in World War II. He died in 2004 for the second time? The first time he died was when he was pronounced KIA (Killed In Action) by the USA government. Of course they had no idea that he had escaped from a Germany war prison camp and had jumped on board a Soviet Tank Brigade and became a fighting solider with the Soviet Army.

This is an amazing story and you need to read the Wiki article and get the whole situation.

Near the end of this article is when I discovered what the name meant to me. Joseph R. Beyrle has a son named John Beyrle, who is the United States Ambassador to Russia! Now that is a name that I have seen many times and it seems that John Beyrle has a good relationship with Russia.

Now I know why… 🙂

Windows to Russia!

PS: Keep sending these great links everyone. I receive two or three a night and sometimes wish I had more time in a day to post them all. I promise to try to get to them as soon as I can. If they fit into Windows to Russia, they will get posted…

Hello,

We decided to make a video today called “Peace in the Russian Village”!

Hope You Like It.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

There is no longer any need for UN sanctions? Think America can accept that situation?

Iran, Brazil and Turkey have reached and signed an agreement under which Iran will ship 1,200 kilos of its low enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for 120 kilos of nuclear fuel for a Tehran Research Reactor.

The leaders of the three countries also signed a joint statement:

“We stress commitment to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and related materials, distinguishing without any discrimination the right of all the members, including Iran, to produce and use nuclear energy and enrich uranium for peaceful purposes,” the statement reads. “We believe that the nuclear fuel swap will serve as ground for cooperation in all fields, especially peaceful nuclear cooperation, including the establishment of a nuclear power plant and research reactor.”

Looks like Iran has a few more backers and the playing field just became interesting…

Windows to Russia!

Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and political activist. He is an Institute Professor and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chomsky is well known in the academic and scientific community as one of the fathers of modern linguistics. (Link)

It seems that Israel stopped him at the Jordan border as he was going to give a lecture at Bir Zeit University, and meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad after the lecture. The border patrol it seems held him for hours and interrogated him. They even wanted to know why he did not have a Israel passport because he was Jewish. They also wanted to know why he was not lecturing in Tel Aviv. He replied something like, I have an American passport and I lecture a lot in Tel Aviv…

An official at the border was quoted as reading the following statement: ‘Israel does not like what you say’.

To this, Chomsky replied: “Find one government in the world which does.”

Chomsky who has received many honorary degrees from universities around the world: University of London, University of Chicago, Loyola University of Chicago, Swarthmore College, University of Delhi, Bard College, University of Massachusetts, University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Amherst College, University of Cambridge, University of Buenos Aires, McGill University, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Columbia University, Villanova University, University of Connecticut, University of Maine, Scuola Normale Superiore, University of Western Ontario, University of Toronto, Harvard University, Universidad de Chile, University of Bologna, Universidad de la Frontera, University of Calcutta, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Santo Domingo Institute of Technology, Uppsala University, University of Athens, University of Cyprus, Central Connecticut State University, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) (To name some) Looks like he is more than a little upset…

Now according to news reports Israel has tried to explain that it was a mistake!

Noam Chomsky said, “I find it hard to think of a similar case, in which entry to a person is denied because he is not lecturing in Tel Aviv. Perhaps only in Stalinist regimes!”

Oops……..

Windows to Russia!

After NATO was brought to life in 1949, the Soviet Union then decided to buid up its own military alliance, the Warsaw Pact. The then Soviet Union and seven more European socialist states joined the treaty on May, 14, 1955.

Soviet Union, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania made up the members of the Warsaw Pact. The Warsaw Treaty pledged the mutual defense of any member who is attacked; relations among the treaty signatories were based upon mutual non-interference in the internal affairs of the member countries, respect for national sovereignty, and political independence.

55 years ago the Warsaw Treaty was a huge part of the Cold War. Now The Warsaw Treaty has been history since July 1, 1991. Seems that NATO should have been history with it…

Windows to Russia!

As I walked the dog today. I was thinking of what huge society differences we have from America to Russia. Many of these society differences would not have been a difference 30 to 40 years ago in America. The one difference that stood out today was children and toy guns…

When I was a child having a toy gun was fun and normal. If you did not have a toy gun you used your fingers and made a gun from them. You shot each other and everything…

Strange now to think back and remember 20 to 30 kids all in a Cowboy and Indian fight. Everyone wanted to be Cowboys and no-one wanted to be an Indian!

I watch the children in Russia and little boys will have toy guns. They will carry their toy gun in the mall, at the grocery store and running around the playground. That toy gun is part of life just as it was part of my life in America as I grew up. I watch gun fights between 10 or more kids in Russia and they all fall down and die the same as we did in America. Fast to the ground and back up shooting with an unlimited supply of bullets. We never stayed dead long and the air was full of – I shot you, you are dead! You missed, was the return answer… 🙂

At my era of growing up it was a dream of many little boys to have his first BB gun. At 12 years old I worked hard delivering newspapers on a bicycle everyday, right to everyone’s front door. That money bought me my first Daisy BB gun and that was my pride and joy!

I have read multiple articles following this theme of kids and guns in America. It seems to me as time has gone by we Americans have lost many important parts of our culture and life. Freedom is the word I think of over incidences pertaining to situations exasperated over toy guns. {These are an example of a case like hundreds that you can find surfing the Internet, (Link- Here) (Link-Here).}

So as I watched a group of boys and girls here in Russia today playing the equivalent of Cowboys and Indians in a past America. I was saddened by the change of time that I see in America, which has taken more and more memories and turned them to dust in the wind…

What do you think would happen if a kid carried a fake assault rifle in an American mall? Is the kid psychologically imbalanced? Does society have to be protected from every aspect danger? Is zero tolerance correct?

In Russia no one pays attention… (Yet)

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Kefir is most likely something that if you live in America, you do not drink. In fact being also considered sour milk – Kefir would get a lot of disgusting looks from people in America.

The closets thing in America that I can compare to it is buttermilk…

When I first came to Russia years ago, I was confronted not by vodka as the Western world thinks you would be, but by everyone drinking this terrible milk drink called Kefir!

What is Kefir? – – Kefir is a fermented milk drink that originated with shepherds of the Caucasus region, who discovered that fresh milk carried in leather pouches would occasionally ferment into an effervescent beverage. Kefir grains are a combination of bacteria and yeasts in a matrix of proteins, lipids, and sugars. This symbiotic matrix forms “grains” that resemble cauliflower. (Link)

Sounds just plain terrible and I refused to give into the tradition of drinking this beverage so loved by most Russians. Until about 6 months ago…

I finally after years of prodding by my wife, I decided to drink a whole glass full. Not just sip at it and make faces at the taste like I normally would. I drank that glass full of Kefir and after that found that I really liked the flavor. It was satisfying to the pallet and when I read about how the Russians consider it excellent for your health. I decided to make it part of my regular diet and find out if it helps…

By Golly, I feel better after a few months of drinking this fermented milk and now drink more than my Russian wife. I have lost almost 20 pounds and Kefir has been a part of that weight loss…

Windows to Russia!