Windows to Russia

I have several articles about the fiasco that GM made in Germany over the sale of its division Opel. Now GM is trying to continue the fiasco and play games with Germany. This is months after saying that GM will keep Opel and can make it better.

This is the same deal being drug into the mud after GM refused to sell Opel to a Canadian/Russian group called Magna/Sberbank. Germany had approved the Magna/Sberbank for buying and saving the Opel company with the least amount of disruption of the German country.

I have watched over the last few years, a slow but noticeable censorship of videos and websites coming out of America. I try to watch videos from local news stations all over America and half the time get a well worn message: “sorry the content is unavailable in your country.” This applies to websites and videos!

I can get around this issue by using a proxy that tells everyone that I am from the USA. “But doesn’t that seem like censorship?”

I find it interesting how American press has just gone crazy on the snow in East Coast America. As I sit here in Russia and watch it snow again and again! I would say out of the last 60 days it has snowed 55 of those days. The multiples of feet of snow is packed down to about a foot and a half. It is like a solid sheet of ice now. All areas can virtually be transversed safely (pertains to not sinking out of sight) because the surface is like rock. The sidewalks are sometimes two feet higher than in the summer and stepping off the side walk can be a very dangerous proposition. The work crews have big metal rods with a strong steel blade on the end and they chop for hours trying to clear a path for people to walk. My favorite thing is when they chop a set of stairs from the road surface to the sidewalk. Sometimes it can be several stairs high…

I have been posting about the fact that Russia wanted to buy a French made Mistral-class amphibious assault ship! I have posted about the fact that the French agreed to sell said ship to Russia! Now we get to post about France having to defend her decision on why she sold the ship to Russia:

French President – Sarkozy told U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates at a brief meeting on Monday that in his opinion the sale did not pose a military problem because Russia should be treated as a real partner. “One cannot expect Russia to behave as a partner if we don’t treat it as one,” Sarkozy said.

NATO is in Moscow right now and this subject is sure to cause a few rumbles. NATO wants Russian help but wants it on NATO terms. So just days after NATO and Russian officials clashed at the Munich Security Conference, a group of prominent experts from the NATO alliance is to arrive in Moscow on Tuesday. (Feb. 9th 2010)

Hot off Russia’s Interfax news:

“Yulia Tymoshenko’s bloc has said it will contest in court the conduct of the Ukrainian presidential election she appears to have narrowly lost.

Deputy leader Elena Shustik said the bloc would contest results at some polling stations and ask for a recount, Russia’s Interfax news agency reports.
Another bloc official accused Viktor Yanukovych’s party of falsification.”

Russian Doughnuts (Ponchiki) is a wonderful treat and easy to make. Very likely you have all these ingredients available in the household and on a snowy winter day or night these doughnuts are a great treat for kids young and old! So when you can not drive to the store to get your favorite doughnut, try these Russian doughnuts – They may become your new favorite…

Lets gather the Ingredients:
2 eggs
4 tbsp sugar
quarter stick softened margarine or 25 grams (butter is better)
1/2 cup milk (I like to use sourcream)
2 cups self raising flour (or 2 cups plain flour and heaping 1 tsp baking powder)
1/2 tsp powdered cinnamon (no sugar in it)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (for the skillet to fry the doughnuts)

Lets Mix them there doughnuts:

Melt the margarine or butter. Pour into a mixing bowl with the eggs and sugar until creamy smooth.

Then add the milk and mix another 30 seconds.

Add 1 1/2 cups flour and the cinnamon into another mixing bowl and make sure mixed into a blended product. Then gradually stir in the liquid from the first mixing bowl until you make a bread like dough.

Continue to knead the mix to make a smooth elastic dough, while adding half the remaining flour and then add the rest as needed to create a dough that does not stick to the sides of the bowl. (This mixing should be done by hand.)

Roll the dough out to around quarter inch thick. Cut out rings of dough using two concentric cutting circles. Two different cookie cutters are great as long as there is about a half inch difference in circumference.

Lets cook them there doughnuts:

Heat a skillet with the vegetable oil on medium – not too hot.

Drop the dough rings into the oil when oil is hot and cook until lightly golden. Flipping doughnuts over as one side browns and get the other side.

Temperature is important because the doughnuts will puff up and cook only on the outside. (Better to cook more slowly then fast!)

Remove the cooked doughnuts from the skillet and set aside onto a plate covered with paper towels.

Lets eat them there doughnuts:

Eat them while still warm, sprinkled with powdered sugar, or cinnamon sugar and dip in your favorite icing.

Yummy……….

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

France OKs carrier sale to Russia:
08 February, 2010

France has agreed to sell the Mistral helicopter carrier to Russia. The Russian Navy also has its eyes on three more similar vessels in the future.

The approval of the defense deal was announced Monday by Jacques de Lajugie, the international development director of France’s armaments board Delegation Generale pour l’Armement (DGA). He added the possible addition of three more helicopter carriers has only been discussed on the technical level, not on the political.

Russia’s Navy voiced its intention to buy a helicopter carrier last year. The goal is to study the technology and tactical advantages of such a ship.

The French warship Mistral is the main candidate for the purchase, and she even paid a three-day visit to St. Petersburg in November so that top brass could examine it personally. However, the final decision has not yet been made and Russia is considering alternatives.

France currently has two vessels of this class deployed, which means additional warships will have to be commissioned if Russia wants an extra three. Some Russian Navy officials also speculated that the Mistral can go with a license to build similar vessels in Russian shipyards.

NATO Wants Russia to believe:

“NATO is not an enemy of Russia,” NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in an interview on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich.

Russia does not believe NATO:

President Dmitry Medvedev signed into approval his country’s new military doctrine Friday. The doctrine identifies one of the “main external threats of war” as NATO’s expansion east to Russia’s borders, and it sees U.S. plans to create an anti-missile shield in Europe as a concern for national security. It also reaffirms Russia’s right to use nuclear weapons if the country’s existence is threatened.

Why is this? Because the lies run deep! Russia has learned what my Grandma always said, “Only believe half of what you are told, the other half is a lie!”

For Russia it will be a long time until she will believe anything the Wests says…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Putin talking to the United Russia leaders on taking care of the masses, this last Friday!

Putin said, “You mustn’t become ‘promise makers,’ who just make these promises to throw dust in peoples’ eyes so that you can get into power and start settling your own personal problems.” This is according to a statement on the government web site.

One thing that I have discovered about the modern Russian people is that they truly believe in discussion as a first resort. There is none of this “strike now and talk later” issues.

I learned this from the Georgian war and saw that Russia tried to contact the UN and such about the Georgia strike against South Ossetia… (Don’t remember that do you? That is because the Western press refused to print it.) Russia tried to get some attention before they ripped Georgia apart! When their issues was vetoed by America at the UN in an emergency meeting over the situation – Russia went it alone.

Now in tradition that I see befitting of the Russians:

For the first time since 2007 the political leader of Hamas is due in Moscow for talks on how to unite Palestinians and resume talks with Israel.

The talks come just two weeks after Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas visited Russia.

The two factions split in 2006 with Hamas seizing the Gaza strip following violence a year later.

According to a Hamas representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, who is among the delegation members, the “visit of the Hamas delegation to Russia is paid at the invitation of Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov.”

“The visit is held within the framework of permanent consultations of the Islamic Resistance Movement with the Russian authorities. We intend to maintain this dialogue,” the Hamas representative said.

Russia remains the only member of the Middle East Quartet to openly talk with Hamas.

Interesting how the world turns their back on the real Russia. I just ask when will the world open their eyes and see the Russia that is always trying to keep the Middle East together and not bomb it into submission.

I had someone say how can you say Russia wants peace when they did the same to Afghanistan?