Windows to Russia

Hello,

I decided to give plain and simple 10 reasons why I like Russia. This is not in any order of importance.

1. The Russian food is fantastic!
2. The People! (are very friendly)
3. It is Safe!
4. Moscow!
5. The Villages and Countryside!
6. The History!
7. The Orthodox Church!
8. The Government!
9. The technology!
10. Last but not least: My Wife! (Svet)

Kyle

comments always welcome.

How is it that a submarine of a fifth-rate power was able to penetrate a U.S.-South Korean naval exercise and sink a ship that was designed for anti-submarine warfare?

Could be huge lies are going on?

It was reported that an investigation in South Korea has determined the metal and explosive residues from the torpedo that sank their ship Cheonan, are consistent with that used by German manufacturers.

The metallic debris and chemical residue appear to be consistent with a type of torpedo made in Germany, indicating the North may have been trying to disguise its involvement by avoiding arms made by allies China and Russia, Yonhap quoted the official as saying.

Oops – says the little bird! Looks like things are coming unraveled in the North/South Korean issue. Looks like We have a probable German torpedo instead of a North Korean (Chinese) torpedo…

That means that the official report that has been so wonderfully exploited all over the internet becomes very worthless due to lack of any reality of facts!

Now it makes sense why Windows to Russia was attacked so early in the game. They had to keep the lie out long enough without opposition to set everyone’s minds to the fact that North Korea is Super Evil and needs to be destroyed…

Windows to Russia!

I was sent an article from a good reader and it was an article that has a real basis but is written with many falsifications. This kind of article bothers me because if someone reads it – They get the impression that Russia is the worst place in the world to get a visa to…

Upon arrival at the functional, white stone international terminal in this South Russian city, visitors are greeted with signs saying “welcome to Rostov-on-Don” in Russian and English. However, if you’re not Russian, you’re also likely to face lengthy queues to have your visa inspected.

In order to get a visa, you have to go through a time-consuming procedure involving getting an official invitation and possibly handing in a bank statement to prove that you have got enough funds to cover your trip.

Most importantly, this all needs to be set in motion well before the planned travel date.

It is a system so intricate that it sometimes leaves even those who make a living out of it stranded.

Now I do not deny that this is somewhat the way it really is. But the falsifications are what get me upset. When Svet and I fly into Russia we always go in the same line and we wait the same amount of time. Svet is Russian and I am American. So I have never seen a lengthy line that did not extend to Russians as well as other nationalities. Svet and I in Russia always are able to get through the border in a very orderly and reasonable time…

Now yes, getting a visa is a pain in the butt! But – I will tell you that Russia is a “Tip-for-Tap” country when it comes to visa. I am not saying verbatim but I am saying, that if it seems like it is hard to get a visa for an American to Russia. Then you should reverse that and try to be a Russian getting a visa to America. You go through the same crap…

(I find getting a business visa to Russia a two day process at the most. My first visa in America took about a week and most of that was because of delivery time by Fed-ex. I never had to interview and all paper work was done by me and Svet. It was a very straight forward process that went smoothly.)

You want someone who can tell you about getting a visa to America? Svet has and she has had to get tons of paperwork, sit in multiple interviews at the American Embassy etc etc etc etc…

Svet and I travel to countries that only have visa free with Russia because for a Russian to get a visa to all of Europe, America and many other countries is a lengthy and painful process. (Sound familiar?)

Several years ago Svet’s son traveled to Britain. The process of getting a visa for him was nigh impossible. I was even brought into the situation to rewrite all documents in a way that the British Embassy would not be able to reject those documents. Due to grammar errors and other such issues. Her son obtained the visa, but not until the last few days and they started the process months in advance.

Svet and I want to travel to Finland, Sweden and Norway but we have had real stupid issues every time, for her to get a visa. They say no visa needed for the American but for the Russian…? (The rules change constantly.)

So while I agree that the visa situation for foreigners coming to Russia need to change. I think that foreign countries need to look at their visa policies also. Russia has constantly and consistently worked on visa free with any and all countries. Russia works overtime trying to get visa free with Europe. Russia would love to be visa free with America.

Armenia, Azerbaijan. Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, Croatia (Hrvatska), Cuba, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Republic of Mongolia, Serbia and Montenegro, Tajikistan,
Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Venezuela are visa free travel for Svet. This list is growing and I even hear about talks of Vietnam being visa free someday.

The article express that a businessman wanted to fly on short notice to Russia to conduct business and was told that it would take 30 days to get visa. I checked on the rules in his country (Austria) and they are the same if not worse for Russians to enter his country. (Link)

This is one American holiday that I still have strong feelings for, even living in Russia.

My Grandpa was in WWI, My Uncle was in WWII, My Dad was in the Korean War and I spent time in three different zones of conflict around the world. So my family has a history of doing their time in the Military…

Every year on Memorial Day flags are flown for the members of my family who have died and are veterans. The flags are flown every year at the cemeteries that each is buried at.

I give remembrance to all fallen veterans and civilians from needless wars. Yes – war is needless.

Give a moment of silence today while you have your BBQ and go swimming. May they rest in peace. I saw a lot of deaths in vain…

Windows to Russia!

Hello,

I had an article about Grass Carp along time ago! http://kylekeeton.com/2007/08/russia-grass-carp-is-delicacy
I never got around to showing you how they are kept in the big stores. I myself am not a Carp lover but Russians are. You can find fresh Carp all over the city!

Thanks to my wife for the video.

Kyle

comments always welcome.
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Alexander Lukashenko the president of Belarus said in a televised statement on Thursday that his country is ready to give full control of the its pipelines, (which also ship Russian gas to Europe) in return for Russian internal market prices on gas.

Windows to Russia!

Hello,

Every once in a while I venture from the beaten path of Russia! Though really not very far in this case. Africa is not really that far away from Russia. When you live in America it seems to be a long ways off, but it dawned on me the other day that when we were in Israel that we where very close to Africa.

I was asked to give a look at this information and I did. I then decided to post it because Russia and China have been making inroads into Africa because they see the potential that lies in wait.

America needs to get on the band wagon:

The Conversation Behind Closed Doors is a two-part, qualitative survey conducted by Baird’s CMC in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Part one, The Corporate Conversation, is an inside-the-boardroom survey of attitudes toward corporate investment in Africa among leading U.S. corporations. The information was gathered during a series of behind closed door interviews. All interviews took place from January to November 2008 and were conducted in person by senior associates of Baird’s CMC. This document presents the findings of part one.

Part two, The Public Sector Conversation, will be conducted over the next several months. It is is an inside-the-government survey of the responses set forth in part one. (Link)

This is a not an advertisement for any particular organization. It is simply a promotion of an interesting subject by me.

I see the investment into Africa as a positive application that will help the whole world. Africa is part of the global economy albeit a small part but still a part. If developed properly and with care it could become a vital part of the global economy…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Hello,

I kept this article since the 13th of March, I have read and reread this article several times. I am now going to give my opinion about this article called “Let Russians Be Russians!”

I find that Rodric Braithwaite has written the most beautiful wonderfully written article that still degrades & demoralizes the Russian People! A article that at the first reading looks & sounds good, then you reread because something hits you wrong……

1. “Given the chance, the Russians — like the Afghans, the Iraqis, the Pakistanis and others — turn out in large numbers to express their views through the ballot box. That is not enough, of course, to establish a working democracy in any country. But the result may well be a genuine expression of the popular view.” (Interesting comparison choices to third world countries.)

2. “The Russian government manipulated the electoral process — outrageously — to get the right result.”(What Proof?)

3. “Democracy is about throwing the rascals out, and most Russians are reconciled to their current rascals.” (Democracy is about Money!)

4. “This remarkable democratic experiment then went wrong for a number of reasons:” (The Democratic experiment has just started in Russia!)

5. “That does not mean that Russians are “genetically” incapable of democracy.” (What?)

6. “But if the Indians can do it, so can the Russians.” (Does Russia want to be like Indians? Or Americans? Or Britain’s? NO! Russians want to be like Russians!)

7. ” George Kennan, that great Russia-watcher and U.S. diplomat and historian, got it right when he wrote in 1951, at the height of the Cold War: “When Soviet power has run its course … let us not hover nervously over the people who come after, applying litmus papers daily to their political complexions to find out whether they answer to our concept of ‘democrats.’ Give them time; let them be Russians; let them work out their internal problems in their own manner. The ways by which people advance towards dignity and enlightenment in government are things that constitute the deepest and most intimate processes of national life. There is nothing less understandable to foreigners, nothing in which foreign influence can do less good.” (This statement made my Wife see red! I say 1951 was not the era to quote from…Who said that democracy is what anyone should advance toward? )

8. “who, like latter-day Christian missionaries, believe that we have a duty to spread the gospel of democracy — by military force, if necessary. Russians are not the only ones who find that proposition distinctly suspect.” (The only thing that he said that really made sense!)

The whole article is a nice pleasent slam to the Russian people. Slam to the Russian election! Slam to Putin and his government!

Yes, He did it very polite & politically correct. Bless Him.

His comparisions, examples & statements are from a biased ancient(Cold War) veiwpoint! In 1951 America was slapping communist lables on people who liked the color red and “Black Listing” them……….
==========================================
Let Russians Be Russians
By Rodric Braithwaite

Having listened to all the speculation about what kind of president Dmitry Medvedev will become, we should look more closely at a much more contested question: Are the Russians even capable of democracy?

Many people — both in Russia and abroad — argue that Russians have no democratic tradition, that they prefer the iron hand of the autocrat and that the country is too big, too heterogenous and too disorderly to be ruled any other way.

President Vladimir Putin is more subtle. He believes that Russians are not yet ready for democracy, that they need to be brought to it by a managed process, lest everything collapse in chaos. He reminds one of the British, who argued that Indian independence must be postponed until the natives were capable of governing themselves.

Given the chance, the Russians — like the Afghans, the Iraqis, the Pakistanis and others — turn out in large numbers to express their views through the ballot box. That is not enough, of course, to establish a working democracy in any country. But the result may well be a genuine expression of the popular view.

Most ordinary Russians, thoroughly inoculated against the Western model by the chaos, humiliation, poverty and corruption of the Yeltsin years and angered by endless hectoring and ill-conceived advice from the West, are willing to pay a price in democracy for the stability and growing prosperity that have accompanied the Putin years. So in the recent parliamentary and presidential elections, they twice voted heavily for a continuation of the “Putin system.” In the circumstances, that was a rational choice.

The Russian government manipulated the electoral process — outrageously — to get the right result. This is a curious sign of Putin’s weakness, not his strength, since no one doubted that most people would vote the way the government wanted, for their own good reasons. Nevertheless, both elections had a certain legitimacy despite the obvious flaws. The voters were offered a choice on March 2, and many of them took it. One in five voted for veteran Communist Party head Gennady Zyuganov — nearly twice as many as predicted. One in 10 voted for Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky. We may not like these results, but this is very different from what happened in Kazakhstan in 2006, when President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who had been in power for 17 years, was re-elected for another seven by 95 percent of the voters.

Democracy is about throwing the rascals out, and most Russians are reconciled to their current rascals. It was different in March 1989, when Mikhail Gorbachev organized the first contested elections in any Warsaw Pact country, under an electoral system of mind-boggling complexity designed to preserve the Communist Party’s monopoly power. But the voters recognized the rascals all right. They voted tactically and with great sophistication to throw out the bosses of Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev, a quarter of the regional party secretaries, a heap of generals and many other unpleasant people.

This remarkable democratic experiment then went wrong for a number of reasons: the sense of national humiliation that accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union, the ensuing poverty, the inability of the liberal intelligentsia — the self-styled “conscience of the nation” — to agree on any effective course of action, the determination of the hard men in the army and the party to get their own back.

That does not mean that Russians are “genetically” incapable of democracy. Their history and their culture have not been propitious. The country has indeed for most of its history been a closed and imperial autocracy. But here, too, the Indian example is instructive. A country with a far larger population, an even more heterogenous culture and an unbroken history of autocratic and imperial rule has run a remarkably successful democracy for the past 60 years.

Although Russians today do not enjoy a Western kind of democracy, they do enjoy an unprecedented, if precarious, degree of personal prosperity, of access to information, of freedom to travel and even — within limits — to express their views. To argue that they cannot go on to construct their own version of democracy is a kind of racism. It may take decades, even generations; the construction of democracy always does. But if the Indians can do it, so can the Russians.

George Kennan, that great Russia-watcher and U.S. diplomat and historian, got it right when he wrote in 1951, at the height of the Cold War: “When Soviet power has run its course … let us not hover nervously over the people who come after, applying litmus papers daily to their political complexions to find out whether they answer to our concept of ‘democrats.’ Give them time; let them be Russians; let them work out their internal problems in their own manner. The ways by which people advance towards dignity and enlightenment in government are things that constitute the deepest and most intimate processes of national life. There is nothing less understandable to foreigners, nothing in which foreign influence can do less good.”

It is the wisest advice, but it is blissfully ignored by our policymakers who, like latter-day Christian missionaries, believe that we have a duty to spread the gospel of democracy — by military force, if necessary. Russians are not the only ones who find that proposition distinctly suspect.

Sir Rodric Braithwaite, British ambassador to the Soviet Union and Russia from 1988 to 1992, is author of “Moscow 1941: A City and its People at War.” This comment appeared in the Financial Times.
==========================================

The world will disagree with me, but I have studied this article with care, Once again a article that does not uplift Russia. It is an article that covers up the Russian bashing with Flowers & pretty Ribbons……..

Kyle

comments always welcome!

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Crimea is in the middle of the map, in the Black Sea!

Hello,

It gets better everyday around here. I had a comment from a reader (MattMacL) he came up with this suggestion that Russia should stress the issue of the Crimea, before NATO can bring Ukraine into its arms.

——————————————-
MOSCOW, May 26 (RIA Novosti) – Sergei Mironov, speaker of the upper house of Russia’s parliament, said on Monday Russia could claim back Sevastopol, a Russian naval base on Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko recently ruled not to extend lease terms for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine after May 28, 2017.

“Undoubtedly, we must raise the issue ourselves, and if necessary, with the Ukrainian authorities,” Mironov told reporters commenting on Yushchenko’s decision.

“We should study the issue more closely. If Yushchenko is making such statements, we can also start looking into the issue properly,” the senator said, describing Yushchenko’s instructions as “illogical and untimely.”

Mironov pledged to give instructions to a number of Federation Council committees to consider drafting a bill on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

There have been frequent disputes between Russia and Ukraine over the lease of the base. In the latest dispute, Moscow Mayor Yury Lyzhkov was barred from entering the former Soviet republic over similarly provocative statements.

According to Luzhkov, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gave the Crimea to Ukraine in 1954 as “a token of brotherly love,” but under a 1948 decree Sevastopol was assigned special city status “under the governing central authorities,” and, therefore, could not be included in the list of territories transferred to Ukraine.

On Thursday Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that in response to Ukraine’s decision to prohibit Luzhkov from entering Ukraine, Russia announced a number of Ukrainian politicians would not be allowed entry into Russia.

The Crimea, now an autonomous region within Ukraine, is a predominantly Russian-speaking territory. Since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, the Crimea has unsuccessfully sought independence from Ukraine. A 1994 referendum in the Crimea supported demands for a broader autonomy and closer links with Russia.
——————————————–

Well MattMacL looks like Russia may be listening to you…..

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.