Windows to Russia

Some of you have meet Sammy before (above). She was a stubborn girl when we had to get tags for her after we bought her. Sammy was the second Volga that we have owned. The first was a model 2410 Volga which had a abrupt end to her life by being stolen, stripped and burned.

We called the first Volga, Nelly! She was a fantastic machine that never failed us when the going got tough. The going got tough allot because we traveled about 50,000 km in Nelly. She took us to many CIS countries and back safely. Nelly went places that maybe we should not have gone, but she went without complaints and got us back home.

But as great as Nelly the Volga was, she pales in comparison to Sammy the 310221 Volga. The station wagon that we have now is a whole other world above the model 24 we had.

The model 2410 could sometimes reach 150 km per hour if you had a tailwind and going downhill. The 310221 cruises at that speed all day. We do not need any tailwind anymore. The model 2410 had drum brakes all the way around but Sammy has disc front and that is a different world in stopping power. The 2410 also had a 4 speed manual transmission and we now have a 5 speed manual in the 310221.

There are dozens of reasons that Sammy is better than Nelly except in one area. Sammy has not traveled all over Russia with us like Nelly did. But we are getting ready to solve that problem this summer and do so with several trips planned of many interesting kilometers.

We think Sammy will do just fine for after all she is a Volga…

Windows to Russia!

I was reminded by a reader of ours about the icons that seem to be in most if not all Russian cars. I have grown use to them and have them in our car as well. It just seems to be correct and who am I too upset any apple cart…

Because of an icons connection to the divine figures they present, they were seen as powerful protectors that help keep away bad fortune. So Icons are used in automobiles as a guardian angle type of situation.

I consider them a comfort and could not imagine my car without them now. This reader expressed that he has them in his car in America and I think that is really cool. Because no matter where you are in the world a little help in surviving, is not out of the question when it comes to driving the roads of today’s byways!

We even have a little extra in the lower right part of the windshield and to top it off if that is not enough we have an extra icon by the ashtray that insures safety on the road…

So believe in it or not, you now have a little more knowledge about Russia…

Windows to Russia!

One thing that seems to be normal for Russia is that she takes her time and thinks about issues before spouting out all over the news. Then the news that is put out, has to be carefully examined…

This time the Russian news is abuzz with this information: Konstantin Pulikovsky, is a rare person who has spent time with North Korea’s secretive leader and has traveled extensively with Kim Jong Il. This leading Russian expert on North Korea said on Thursday, that he had serious doubts about Pyongyang’s involvement into the sinking of South Korea’s Cheonan warship.

Konstantin Pulikovsky who maintains official contacts with Pyongyang, because he was presidential envoy to Russia’s Far East in 2000-2005. Has broken the Russian silence, he said,

“I personally have serous doubts that it was North Korea that sank the ship. Why do this? For what purpose?… I don’t see any logic.”

This is the start of the summation of what Russia is thinking…

Windows to Russia!

This is stirring up a issue in Moscow, Russia today and some people are having issues with a new billboard…

Billboards with the face of Communist leader Joseph Stalin have appeared on the streets of the city of Voronezh in Central Russia.

The dictator’s return is due to the Communist Party, who bought ten advertisement panels throughout the city, paying 8,000 roubles (around $260) for each one, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reports.

The campaign was launched on June 22, the day Russia commemorated the victims of the Great Patriotic War. On that day, the German Nazi forces suddenly invaded the Soviet Union without a declaration of war.

The Communists say it is dedicated to the 130th birthday of Stalin, celebrated this year on December 6 2009.

The dictator’s image appears in front of a red flag and accompanied by a slogan: “The victory will be ours”. (Link)

I found this interesting and wondered what others think of this advertisement ploy by the Communist Party?

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Hello,

Russia’s envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin gives a good interview with Russia Today. He gives a much different side than what is being played out in the Western press. I really like the way he kinda gets the newscaster confused at times. I guess I have been around Russians to long because Rogozin’s broken English sounds normal to me.

I have already seen CNN in a bold face lie about troops being sent by other countries in NATO. But if I was America, I would lie also because it would not help the home front much to find out that Europe is really tired of this Afghanistan War.

They have arrested hundreds of people and most likely will arrest hundreds more before it is over at the NATO party time.

I know – they just do not mention much about the arrests. 🙂

Russia is making it clear that while it is fun that NATO loves Russia so much at this moment. Russia has no plans on getting married! Nor is Russia giving up its new kids, Abkhazia and South Ossetia…

NATO – equals SAD!

Kyle and Svet

comments always welcome.

I had an article that got destroyed by South Korea because I asked questions about the North/South ship sinking incident. Windows to Russia went under a DOS attack and a SQL attack because of that article. For some reason that article was never able to be recovered even from cache in any of the search engines. This article did not go without notice and it had thousands of hits from my fan group in Washington, DC. (I always know when I hit a sore spot by DC hits on the site…) This particular article had even hundreds of hits from Moscow. So I know that attention was being paid to the questions that I asked in that article. I will not go into the same detail as I did in that article but will say that all is not what it seems…

“Medvedev believes it is crucial to establish the true cause of the loss of the vessel and to establish beyond all doubt who bears personal responsibility for what happened,” the Kremlin press service said in a special statement.

Looks like Russia does not really believe the whole story just like I did not take the story at face value. South Korea has invited Russia, at Medvedev’s insistence, to look over the evidence.

READ THE REPORT IN FULL

PDF download Investigation result on the sinking of Cheonan _[72KB]

I will say again that you need to read the report linked above. The only real evidence in that whole report is that it is without a doubt a North Korea torpedo. (But that torpedo is sold all over the world by North Korea. ) This report has no evidence that would hold up in a court of law.There has been two men who are defectors from the North Korean Army and they say that we can not prove it but they (North) did it…

It is he-say, she-say and they-say issue that has become a political mess…

Windows to Russia!

PS: With this logic I would say that if you hit someone over the head with a Craftsman wrench then it is Sears fault because they made the damn Wrench…

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.

I posted an article about the banks in Ukraine. They were dropping like dead flies and seemed to be spiraling on a downward path. (Link to article!)

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…