The Vice-Admiral Kulakov gets to go back to Protecting Russia!

Picture is of the Admiral Vinogradov also a Udaloy Destroyer – Could not find a picture of the Vice-Admiral Kulakov!

The Vice-Admiral Kulakov is an Udaloy class destroyer of the Russian Navy. The Admiral Kulakov was commissioned in 1982 and was on combat duty with the Northern Fleet until March 1991, when it retired for repairs that lasted more than 18 years. The destroyer is to rejoin the Northern Fleet in the first half of 2010. (Link)

Yes 18 years…
It seems that the Vice-Admiral was almost permanent history several times while in storage because of a lack of funding. But it seems that Lady Luck was with the old warship and they found the money to get her some new clothes! 🙂
The Vice-Admiral Kulakov has a displacement of 6,200 tons, a length of 162.99 m, a speed of 35 knots, a range of 19,400 km, and a crew of 300.
It is now armed with AK-100 artillery systems, Rastrub-B and RBU-6000 antisubmarine complexes, Kinzhal antiaircraft missile systems, and anti-submarine torpedoes. It also carries two Ka-27 Helix-series helicopters.
I have always found that destroyers (any) are my favorite warships…
Windows to Russia!

Russia Today Interviews William Engdahl…

Engdahl is the son of F. William Engdahl, Sr., and Ruth Aalund (b. Rishoff) and he grew up in Texas. After a degree in engineering and jurisprudence from Princeton University in 1966 (BA) and graduate study in comparative economics at the University of Stockholm from 1969 to 1970, he worked as an economist and free-lance journalist in New York and in Europe.
Engdahl began writing about oil politics with the first oil shock in the early 1970s.
His first book was called “A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order”, and discusses the role of Zbigniew Brzezinski and George Ball and of the USA in the 1979 overthrow of the Shah of Iran, which was meant to manipulate oil prices and to stop Soviet expansion. Engdahl claims that Brzezinski and Ball used the Islamic Balkanization model proposed by Dr Bernard Lewis. In 2007, he completed “Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of GMO”.
Engdahl is also a frequent contributor to globalresearch.ca, the main website of the Centre for Research on Globalization.
William Engdahl has been married since 1987 and has been living near Frankfurt am Main for more than two decades, Germany.[Link]
He just tells it like it is…
Windows to Russia!

Happy Easter From Windows to Russia!

We wish everyone a Happy Easter from Russia. This year Easter is on the same day in both halves of the world. That is cool…

Happy Easter From Windows to Russia!
Kyle and Svet

Yup – There is Life After a Russian Winter and We Have a 13th Floor!

The last week as the snow has been thawing, I have been watching the ground for signs of life anew. The trees have not acknowledge Spring yet, so I figured my next best bet would be the forest floor…

Above – Looks really barren at this point and still snow.
Below – take a closer look at the floor under the trees. Eureka!

Below – Then I found what I was looking for New shoots with leaves… 🙂

Above – Funny how these plants (seeds) survive 30 below zero and act like nothing is wrong!
Below – Then Boza and I found the elevators broke in our building and we decided to walk to the 12th floor (We live on the 2nd floor.) and see what’s up…

The next building is starting to have the foundation layer poured and you can see the parking garage that costs 1,000,000 rubles per parking place, nestled between the buildings…

Above – Now the elevator will only go to the 12th floor and if you are on the 12th floor staircase you will discover that there is a 13th floor. They will not let me up there to see what is going on. Now this drives someone like me crazy and I already counted floors from the outside and saw that we have a secrete floor. If you look up the stairway you can see that it goes to a balcony and an open floor with no flats built. One day I will get up there to see what is so important that we have to live without a 13th floor.

That is it for today, after I kicked and pulled on the door of the 13th floor. I decided that maybe I should be good because they might just keep me behind those bars. 🙂

Windows to Russia!

Mondays Terror Bombings Really Only Illustrates Lack Of Abilities!


“Suicide bombers and the ones who train them, are not prone to desires of altering the policy of their opponent. They are only stimulated by the destruction of said opponent.” Kyle Keeton

Two thoughts on Monday’s Moscow Metro Bombings:
First: Medvedev and Putin have both expressed that a successful counter-terrorist strategy will not only destroy terrorists but ensure that other terrorists will have no incentive to replace them.
Hummmm…
I do not totally agree, because the terrorist has no incentive to live in the first place. They have only a mission to accomplish and that mission is a means to a different world and or life. That is why he/she does, what he/she does. More death actually stimulates the desire of the terrorists end results. A terrorist has tremendous patience and an act of terrorism could take 10 years or more before being executed to avenge past incites…
Instead of over reacting to what has happened, the authorities (Kremlin) need to think outside of the box. That thinking needs to include expertise of technique and or skills from outside the country and include the judgement of people from the localized areas. Then instead of the Kremlin acting as a pillar of power that crushes all in its way. It needs to spread its power over a wider path that encompasses the sharing of information between those who have it and those who need it.
Second: Lets look at the terrorist group that enacted these bombings:
“For lack of a better way to express it: The abilities of a terrorist does not lay within the confinement of the terrorized but within the trainings compounds so its people perform their job efficiently and without question.” Kyle Keeton

Other words even though 40 people died and scores were injured in two attacks. The efficiency of these attacks was amateurish and not well thought out. You have to look at what the terrorists wanted to accomplish and in that they failed…

These bombings were what I always have referred to as a quick emotional revenge bombing. The fact that they have started to pinpoint that the girls involved are wives of militants and now it is said that one of the Metro bombers could be 17-year-old Djennet Abdurakhmanova, a widow of Umalat Magomedov – the leader of radical Islamists in the South Russian Republic of Dagestan, who was killed in December last year by the FSB. The other bomber could be 20-year-old Markha Ustarkhanova, also a widow of a militant from Dagestan.
Hummm…

I witnessed an attack many years ago from about a 100 meters. A little boy standing in the open in a crowd of people, maximized his attack by holding his explosive device above his head! The resulting explosion was much more devastating (he killed 20 but injured 400 to 500) than a full grown woman who stood in a metro car, with the metro car absorbing literally 100% of the blast. Same amount of plastic was used by the boy. He was a pro, trained by the pros and it made an impression that every kid with a sack in his hands is a issue. Many men from war will tell you (Or really not want to tell you) of the child that had to be shot because he was carrying something suspicious…

Myself, I am glad that the terrorists were ill trained. Because with the lack of observant security (I did not say lack of security!) and masses of multiples of thousands of people in a small confined area that is present in the Metro. It could have been 1000 dead instead of 39! Or more effective a 1000 injured, because the memories of the injured are not allowed to go away with time, like the memories of the dead…
Something to think about.
Windows to Russia!
PS: The bombing in Dagestan showed a much more to skill and expertise. If the two women had performed the same way in Moscow the death toll would have been much higher:

Twin blasts rocked Russia’s North Caucasus region of Dagestan on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people, just two days after two metro suicide bombings in Moscow.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at a government session on Wednesday he did not rule out that a single terrorist group may be behind the bombings. President Dmitry Medvedev also said there may be a link.

Wednesday’s attacks took place in the town of Kizlyar, near Dagestan’s border with Chechnya, and also left 29 people injured.

The first blast went off at 08:45 Moscow time (04:45 GMT), when a car bomb was detonated by a suicide bomber some 300 meters from the buildings of the Interior Ministry, Federal Security Service and a school. It had a force of up to 200 kg of TNT. (This was a primer bomb to draw the victims together! – Kyle)

Two police officers were killed in the explosion, which also injured several bystanders.

The second explosion came 20 minutes later when a suicide bomber dressed in a police officer’s uniform blew himself up as a crowd gathered. (This was the real bomb to kill the police – Kyle)

The suicide bomber, who had the equivalent of 1.5 kg of TNT strapped to his body, has been identified as Daud Jabrailov, a citizen of Kizlyar, Dagestan’s Interior Ministry said.

“Around 20 minutes later a suicide bomber, dressed in a police officer’s uniform, arrived at the scene where an investigation group was working, and activated an explosive device he had on his body,” the statement added.

A total of nine policemen were killed in the blasts, including the city’s police chief, Vitaly Vedernikov.

These bombers were pros and worked as a team…

Moscow Metro Bombing Survival Story!


Sim Eih-Xing from Malaysia was in the 5th carriage of the train that stopped at the Park Kultury metro station on Monday morning. As usual, the medical student was on his way to university at that time…

Good Video!
Windows to Russia!

Blame Russia First!

I like Peter Lavelle and 75% of the time agree with his thoughts…

Well Peter has a good article that he just printed-
Blame Russia First | Untimely Thoughts: “This week’s twin suicide bombings on Moscow’s busy metro system shocked all of Russia. Is this a return to the bad old days of the 1990s and early 2000s, which witnessed one terrorist attack after another? Has the Kremlin miscalculated in its own domestic “war on terror” against regional separatists?

Some in Western media appear almost gleeful that the March 29 metro attack occurred. It is as if Russia deserved to be punished for its domestic anti-terror policies initiated by former-President Vladimir Putin, and carried on by his successor Dmitri Medvedev.”
Read More >>>

Moscow metro suicide bomber identified!

Moscow metro suicide bomber identified: “The female suicide bomber who set off a bomb at Park Kultury metro station on March 29 has been identified, a source of the Russian security service in the North Caucasus Federal District said.

On Monday, March 29 twin blasts at the Lubyanka and Park Kultury stations occurred during the morning rush hour, leaving at least 39 people dead and dozens injured.
‘At the moment only the suicide bomber who set off a bomb at the Park Kultury metro station has been identified. She is a resident of Dagestan’, the source said, adding that, in the interests of the investigation, her name could not be revealed.
Dagestan is an impoverished region of Russia’s volatile North Caucasus.”

Windows to Russia!

Medvedev On the Latest Terror Attacks and Military Reform!


A helicopter with Dmitry Medvedev on board landed at the central square of Makhachkala, Dagestan in front of the Government headquarters. The head of the Russian state arrived to hold a meeting with the heads of regions of the North Caucasus federal district. The meeting was also attended by presidential envoy in SKFO, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Khloponin, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev and head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov. The head of the FSB Bortnikov said that the bomber is already known and that acts are underway to eradicate.

Medvedev said in the meeting that there are five areas of combating terrorism in the North Caucasus:
First – strengthen law enforcement.
Second – “It is necessary to cause sharp dagger blows to the terrorists, to destroy them and their shelters.
Third – Help and protect those who decided to break with the militias.
Fourth – Economic development, education and culture in the region is very important.
Fifth – In addition, Medvedev mentioned the strengthening of moral and spiritual components. “We have more, we are stronger, for us the fate of people, and most importantly – for us the truth,” – said the president.
Medvedev went on to say, “In the Caucasus there is a specificity, and therefore the decisions to be made in the Caucasus, should be treated with special care not to alienate people who are risking their lives,”

He also said, that the reform of the Interior Ministry “should get stronger professional ministry, with other professional staff, other money, the other outfit. “

Then the Military reform in general was discussed. The reforms include:

– Transfer of the military structure with chetyrehzvennoy management system (Military District – Army – Division – Regiment) on a three-tier (district – Operational Command – Brigade);

– Reorganization of the central military command, including the Defense Ministry and General Staff;

– Reduction of the officers, the elimination of the institution of ensigns and warrant officers;

– Creation of a rapid reaction group.

In addition, the reform will to dismantled several military units and institutions. By 2012, the armed forces will be reduced from 1.13 million to 1 million troops, the central office of the Defense Ministry – two and a half times – up to 8 , 5 thousand, and the number of officer positions in the Army and Navy – from the current 355 thousand to 150 thousand.

With regards to the terrorist attacks in Moscow and Dagestan, FSB director Alexander Bortnikov said that the version of the commission of their gangs associated with the North Caucasus, was confirmed. “Personally known to the organizers of recent terrorist attacks, carried out investigative activity, – said Bortnikov. – Obtain certain materials, a number of detained persons are being interrogated, obtained evidence, examination is being conducted…

Windows to Russia!

Doku Umarov Now Claims The Moscow Metro Bombings!


Doku (Dokka) Khamatovich Umarov (Chechen: Iумар КIант Доккa; Russian: Доку Хаматович Умаров; he also uses the Arabized name of “Dokka Abu Usman”) (born April 13, 1964) is the leading Islamist rebel leader in Russia.

Umarov is the former underground President of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI) between 2006 and 2007 and currently the self-proclaimed Emir of the Russian North Caucasus (as the virtual and unrecognized Islamic state of Caucasus Emirate) since 2007. He is currently wanted in Russia for the alleged crimes of terrorism, kidnapping, murder and treason.

On March 31, 2010 Umarov claimed responsibility for personally ordering the Moscow Metro bombings which took the lives of 39 civilians and injured over 60 more.

Doku Umarov appeared in a released video that they say was recorded March 29 – immediately after the attacks.

What he said (in a nutshell) is that the explosions in the Moscow subway on March 29 were carried out by his personal orders and done to avenge what the special operation forces of the FSB did on February 11, 2010 in the villages of Arshty and Datyh Sunzha district of Ingushetia. At that time frame according to official records, the FSB killed 18 militants, injured five civilians, four of whom died later. The Russian military at that time had said that the gunmen used civilians as “human shields”.

Also according to Umarov, terrorist attacks on Russian territory will continue “Because peaceful Russians, who see the war only on television, need to feel what war is….”

Windows to Russia!
PS: A little know fact is that his first response was that he did not do the attacks but it seems now that he is claiming these attacks. The Russian government can not verify that this is really him and if you look at other pictures of him you may find some doubt.