Windows to Russia

Hello,

We were drinking our morning cup of coffee & tea and thinking about the Moscow “House of Fairy Tales!”

It is a children’s museum {“The House of Fairy-tales “Zhili-Byli” (“Once upon a time”) works in Moscow since 1995.} The House of Fairy-tales has two branches: The Russian Fairy-tales museum and The Pinokkio Museum.

The Russian Fairy-tales is an interactive museum where children can learn a lot of interesting things about Russian folk-tales and about the tale writers, about historical roots of fairy-tales and so on. The main goal while creating this museum was to tell children through the fairy-tale about Russian national traditions and customs, to remind them of national roots, of the importance of reading books. In The Museum the children meet fairy-tale characters who take them on a journey through a Russian fairy-tale. Kids put on theater costumes and turn themselves into fairy-tale characters too. There are more than 20 different programs devoted to the Russian, ancient and temporal fairy -tales. There are special programs for disable children: blind, weak sighted, deaf . The museum collection consists of age-old utensils, clothes, furniture, books, pictures, puppets. The collection numbers over 400 items . Practically all objects are available for touching and manipulating. .

The Pinokkio Museum concentrates on the fairytales written by people from different (other) cultures and also local writers, which includes the works of Gianni Radarim, Carlo Kollodi and Alexei Tolstoy. Here visitors will find ten different programs that also allow children to dress up and role play, singing, dancing and discovering the more than three hundred items in the museum’s collection. Over and above guided tours and creative learning sessions, the museum often invites writers and artists to be guests of the museum, as well as arranging festivals for children.

No matter which branch the children and their parents visit, they are guaranteed to find magic, fun, exploration, culture and education at the “House of Fairy tales”.

Svet just adores Fairy Tales!

We think we want to go……

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

official web site www.domskazok.ru

While investigating the genocide and mass killings of Russian citizens in South Ossetia in August 2008, it has appeared that the Ukraine was participating in the massacre, Russia’s Investigative Committee says. Yup – We knew that already, but now they have a pile of proof…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

It looks like things have settled down on Windows to Russia. I was hosted on Go Daddy and that was a nightmare in itself. Coupled with virus attacks coming from the server side on Go Daddy and the South Korean “Lets a kill “Windows to Russia” attack, I wondered if it was all worth it…

We lost around 200 posts on Windows to Russia out of over 2000 posts. But I saved the brunt of them and we are now back around 1851 posts as of this writing. So also in the last few months I lost 500 posts off of my Coffee Talk Blog due to Blogger and 200 posts out of 800, off of my Russian News Blog, plus another 50 posts off of all the others. I lost more posts in a few months than most people ever write in their whole blogging career… 🙂

I want to thank Andy at Siberian Light for the heads up on a host and I want him to know that he was very much appreciated in dropping an e-mail to tell me about a good host. Which by the way, Siberian Light is a great read if you get the time.

So I hope that everyone is having a good week and it seems that this week, “Windows to Russia” has finally settled down.

“Knock on Wood” as they say…

Windows to Russia!

That wonderful cup of coffee almost got cold this morning as I became absorbed in some interesting news scattered all over the net. Russia it seems has been steadily buying gold non stop since February of this year. From what I see, Russia is going to exponentially grow their gold supply to buffer against another US crises that seems to be looming on the horizon…

The IMF has announced its gold reserves were sold down to 2,966.4 in April from 2,981.5 tons in March, a 15.1 ton decline. Russia was standing in the first of the line and once again took advantage of such sale prices, stacking up its gold holdings by 5 tons, which increased from 663.7 to 668.7. Smart move on Russia part…

Russia has now been adding gold every month since February. “Central banks and governments added 425.4 tons last year to 30,116.9 tons, the most since 1964 and the first expansion since 1988.

Keep your eyes on Russia: “Russia’s central bank bought 142.9 tons of gold last year, raising its holdings of the metal by 29%, RIA Novosti reported last month, citing Bank Rossii’s annual report submitted to the Russian parliament.

Hummmm… Do they know something that we don’t? Na! The world is in perfect shape… 🙂

Windows to Russia!

I have watched the press between Vietnam and Russia lately. There was rumors about submarine sales in the works. Looks like they were more than just rumors…

Nothing ever became fact on information from Putin’s visit to Vietnam last year in December. The information just became fact. Looks like Vietnam is buying six (6) Kilo class diesel submarines. We have talked about these submarines before and they are nicknamed The Black Holes, because of their ability to just disappear in the seas…

Looks like this is the largest sale of Navel Military hardware in Russia’s history. In fact Russia seems to be expressing that they will sell around 40 of these subs to various countries by the year 2015.

From reports coming from various sources at least 29 Kilo class subs have been exported to China, India, Iran, Poland, Romania and Algeria. Over the last number of years…

Interesting…

Windows to Russia!

Hello,

Medvedev made it clear about what he thinks about the world situation…..

Dmitry Medvedev revealed more about his philosophy and approach to governing this week, in a series of speeches in Berlin and in St. Petersburg. He says Globalization is here to stay; the U.S. has misplaced economic ambitions; and Russia is playing a key leadership role in the world.

President Medvedev also said: “It is an illusion that one country, even the most powerful, can act as a global government,” Medvedev said. “No matter how large the American market may be, and no matter how reliable the American financial system is, there is no substitute for global goods and financial markets.” He also said: “Today, we don’t have a choice – whether to live in a global world or not. The modern world is global. This means any political mistakes made by certain countries, as well as national selfishness, have an immediate effect on the whole global economy.”

As for the role of Russia, Medvedev says it will be one of the world’s leading countries. Russia has “come back from the cold”, he said, quoting John Le Carre.

“It returned after more than 100 years of isolation and self-isolation”, he said. “And now it’s making its way back into global politics and the world economy – with all its natural, financial and intellectual resources,” the President said.
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I think that we are starting to see what Medvedev is about. Medvedev is like everything that Putin is not. Whereas Putin is everything that Medvedev is not. Together they seem to be able to cover a very wide spectrum of the country and the world. They just may be on to something…..

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

A broom in Russia is a work of art and a talent that is handed down over the years. For a broom to last it must be put together correctly and Russians have a knack for making some awesome brooms out of twigs and string.

The gentleman above makes his brooms for his usage to clean the streets and playgrounds around our flats. I have seen him make several brooms and he will sometimes spend a whole day making brooms for all the guys to use in sweeping.

He makes two types of brooms one from tree branches and the other from dried grasses.

I was always amazed in this world of modern technology that they do not use regular brooms but after a few years here and seeing how good of a job they do. Why buy a broom when you can just make it.

In America we ran business on the pretense that ‘time is money’. I see that in Russia there is more time than money…

Now you know a little more about Russia!

Windows to Russia!

Svet and I instead of hanging around Moscow with the Victory Day Parade and such. We decided to hit the road and travel to our village (Sunrise to Freedom) and spend a weekend seeing what is happening in our favorite spot on earth.

Part of the news was sad at the village. Another member of the village has passed away and that leaves 4 full time people living there now. Still lots of summertime people but the people who are the soul of the village are almost gone.

You have to pardon the quality of the pictures they were taken from around half a mile away from a hill side. I did not want to upset any apple carts and stayed a great distance away.

They carried the coffin from her house to the grave site which had to be around one kilometer away. From what I understand that is the tradition. They also dropped spruce limbs all along the path that they took.

The village was alive this weekend with lots of people who came for the funeral. So we kept a low profile and worked on our car and the village house.

The last picture is our village house! So that is what we did that weekend!

Windows to Russia!

A round cookie that is dry and almost crumbly if miss handled. I made these for years in America and just discovered that Russians love these little cookies or cake as some people call them. I always referred to them as wedding cookies. So it seems that everyone has their own recipe for these cookies, but this one is full-proof and will make a delicious delight while drinking your favorite hot beverage…

Lets make Russian Tea Cookies:

1 cup of butter (make sure at room temperature – not straight out of the refrigerator)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sifted (powdered sugar) confectioner’s sugar (plus extra for rolling cookies in later)
2 cups sifted flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup finely chopped walnuts (or nut of your choice)

Put butter, sugar, vanilla, flour, salt and nuts into a mixing bowl. Mix very well. I do it by hand but this is a tough to mix recipe so maybe using a low speed mixer would make sense. Once mixed thoroughly form chunks into dime to nickle size balls. Place on a greased baking sheet. (Some people like to flatten them with a fork at this point) Bake at 325 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. While still warm, roll in or sprinkle with some powdered sugar. Approximate yield: 8 to 9 dozen.

These are great with hot tea or coffee and if you desire a flavor change. Just add a different extract in stead of vanilla. I like to use a banana extract or a cherry extract. Yummy…

Windows to Russia!

PS: Make a diet version by using a sweet-n-low type sweetener in place of the powdered sugar and they still go great with your hot beverage…

Hello,

I was drinking my morning cup of coffee & thinking about why Georgia is so confident about all its whining and crying? I had an article not long ago that brought this issue up.

http://windowstorussia.com/2008/05/russia-georgias-provocative-actions.html

In this article I said that, “I will say what Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is implying:
I think that the the USA is behind this turmoil in Georgia, seems that the USA policy right now is one of interference in Eastern Foreign Countries as its number one priority……”

Now we have three USA Senators flapping their jaws!
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“It’s time for the international community to re-examine the composition of the peacekeeping forces in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia is not a neutral party or an honest broker in this arrangement – shooting down unarmed aircraft and acting to assert ownership of the territories entrusted to them are totally inconsistent with the spirit of peacekeeping,” Biden said

Senator Lugar called Georgia an “important friend to the United States.” He added that “Georgians have made welcome military contributions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The country hosts a large segment of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline carrying oil from the Caspian Sea to markets in the West.”

While senator Martinez said: “The Georgian people deserve to know the United States Congress stands with them.”
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Georgia has the USA playing around in its backyard,

Now I will take one more step: The Georgia issue is instigated and expounded by the USA & pertains to OIL!

Georgia has the USA playing Sugar Daddy…..

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.