Windows to Russia

According to the Western press:

Russian officials have held “secret meetings” with Arab states, China and France on ending the use of the U.S. dollar in international oil trading, Britain’s Independent newspaper reported on Tuesday. (Link)

Now according to Russian press:

Russia has not considered replacing the dollar as the currency used to buy and sell oil, a top Finance Ministry official said Tuesday.(Link)

Unidentified sources claim that:

Gulf Arab states were in secret talks with Russia, China, Japan and France “to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf.”

Things that make you go Hummmm…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Saving money during crisis:
The WIN Crisis Index is released every three months. The Worldwide Independent Network of Market Research, including the world’s largest independent pollsters, evaluated the perceptions and behavior due to the economic crisis of 21,088 respondents in 22 countries from mid June to the end of July 2009.

Russia to invest $10.6 bln in nanotechnology by 2015 – Medvedev:
Russia will channel 318 billion rubles ($10.6 billion) into development of nanotechnology by 2015, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday.

Moscow court upholds refusal to register same-sex couple:
A Moscow court upheld on Tuesday city authorities’ refusal to allow a lesbian couple to marry saying same-sex marriages are illegal in Russia.

Russia to hold $17.8 bln Eurobond roadshow in November:
Russia will hold a roadshow in early November in London for Eurobonds worth $17.8 billion to be issued early next year to cover the budget deficit, Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin said on Tuesday.

Landmark Soviet statue to return to Moscow:
A giant Soviet-era statue will be put back on its pedestal in northeast Moscow after a long-delayed restoration process on December 5, a city official said on Tuesday.

North Korea says ready to return to six-party nuclear talks:
North Korea’s leader has said his country is willing to return to the six-nation talks on ending its nuclear weapons program, the North’s official news agency said.

U.S. troops pullout from Afghanistan ‘not an option’ — White House:
A pullout of the United States troops from Afghanistan is ‘not a decision that’s on the table to make’.

U.S. lacks troops in Afghanistan to outdo Taliban — Gates:
The radical Islamic Taliban group has advantage in Afghanistan as the United States and its allies need more troops to be sent there.

Russia to start construction of 4th Borey-class sub in December:
Russia’s Sevmash shipyard will start the construction of the fourth Borey class (Project 955) strategic submarine on December 22, a Sevmash press secretary said Monday.

Gazprom had two big goals in the American market. The first (1st) goal was the LPG market in America. They have already accomplished that goal. Once that happened they started to push for the second (2nd) goal. The Russian entry into the the American Natural Gas market. Gazprom as of October 2nd has accomplished the second goal… (Why?)

Because: The USA is the largest consumer of gas in the world: 668 billion cubic meters in 2008 – more than in whole Europe and twice as much as in Russia. The USA makes about 583 billion cubic meters of gas itself, imports 75 billion via pipelines from Canada and imports 10 billion of liquefied gas. (Link)(Link)

Tidbit of information to make you go Hummmm….

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Seems that Russia can not ever stay out of the news.

Lets look at Israel hopping up and down screaming – Russians helped Iran with nukes – Israel: A list of Russian scientists who allegedly helped Iran to develop a nuclear bomb was handed to the Kremlin by Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, The Sunday Times reports. Now all this is because Israel is blowing a smoke screen to divert attention from the way the UN slamming Israel over the Gaza war…

Lets look at – The Pentagon: joint use of Russian radars possible:
The US is considering jointly using two Russian radars as part of its missile defense system, US Assistant Secretary of Defense Alexander Vershbow said in an interview with a Russian news agency. Now this just gets better all the time. This is exactly what Russia said more than a year ago and at that time answers from America came back not really very nice. Russia is now having the same reaction as then: Is America Going Nuts? (Sometimes!)

Lets look at – Elton John tickles the ivories of his “Red Piano” in Moscow: On October 7th, 2009 not only do you get a wild and full-of-energy Sir Elton John, but you get it all in a truly unique environment also. “The Red Piano”, the spectacular musician’s show, comes to Moscow straight out of Las Vegas. That would be worth seeing but I hear that tickets are all sold out and have been for a long time.

Let stake a peek at – Old Testament to be put behind bars?: A scientist in Russia has sent a statement to the Prosecutor General’s office in Stavropol, Southern Russia, demanding the Old Testament Bible be declared extremist literature. I am going to follow this one because having graduated from a Baptist University I find things like this interesting.

Lets look at an age old problem that seems to rear its head every few months – Moldova’s Transdniester wants independence, accession to Russia: The case of Moldova’s breakaway region is different from that of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, observers believe. Whether it is really different or not I do not know for sure. But what I can tell you is that after being there personally. Transdniester wants to be part of Russia. (Seems a little bit hard with Ukraine between the two though..)

So as always Russia is having fun and stays either in trouble with the world or gets involved in things that cause trouble down the road… (except with Elton John we hope!)

That is what I love about Russia! 🙂

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Sammy the Volga Car!

We had an interesting weekend. Svet and I finally won the battle to get our car tagged. This was not an easy war and we lost many battles in the process. But winning the war is what counts – right?

I have stayed quiet about this because I wanted to concentrate on getting tags not writing about how interesting it was to get them. (I felt like I was dealing with the local governments back in America trying to tag my car after crossing a state line to relocate.) The one thing that Russia has is a lot of governmental red tape and they match America one on one in the red tape department department.

To start with we bought the car out of Moscow. That is number one issue – What works in another region does not mean it will work in Moscow! Lets expound on that statement: We took the car to get the tags and they always check the numbers on the car like they should do. That is the start of our fun.

At he factory (GAZ)they had changed the VIN number. Now the inspector said that he knew this was a common practice for the GAZ plant to do this. But it had to be changed on the paper work and we would have to make a visit to an expert inspector to have official confirmation that the car was not stolen.

As you can see in the second picture that the first number has been X out and then a new number is stamped next to it to the right. They say this has to do with production times and runs. (I say the guy who hand stamped it messed up and had to re stamp the number.)

So poor Svet and I {I drove and waited :)} had to visit a 100 different government offices to get enough information on what we had to do to get car tags. We had to take our own pictures of the VIN numbers. We had to make our own copies of all paper work. We had to endure lots of tea breaks by employees. We had to wait in long lines and listen to many lazy government workers explain how it was not their job and the one who did that job was not there until tomorrow. (Sound familiar?)

To make a long story short: Svet was the most patient car owner in the world and overcame all barriers installed in the way. Also the expert of all car inspectors said all was fine and we never paid one ruble of a bribe and never gave up.

When we had the car reinspected after a month of interesting governmental communication – we got our tags… :-]

How was your weekend? Ours turned out fantastic…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

In the village of Tatar Saiman in central Russia which use to be a collective farm in the Soviet days. They have the “top-top” – You ask they have what? Glad you asked…

“Top-top” – The word comes from the sound that old two-stroke engines make. The hand built cars are mostly used to carry wood and hay, or building materials in a localized area.

When the USSR broke up, it was virtually impossible to get new farm equipment. Also the old farm equipment became personal property to many farmers because the state was no longer in existence. This messed up understanding of ownership has created a whole line of interesting customized vehicles and particular in the village of Tatar Saiman in central Russia we have the famous – “top-top” vehicle.

They take these trucks serious and I think they are great. So watch the video and enjoy.

The old sayings: “You gotta do what you gotta do!” or “Waste not want not!” happens to fit here real well…

“Top-top” 🙂

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Former deputy PM ‘pleased’ to be sued by richest woman in Russia:
Former Russian deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov said on Friday he is “pleased” to be sued by Yelena Baturina, the wife of Moscow’s mayor and the richest woman in Russia.

Serbian foreign minister to visit Moscow October 4-6:
Serbia’s foreign minister will arrive in Moscow on Sunday for a three-day official visit to Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said on Friday.

Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft docks with the ISS:
The Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported from Russia’s Mission Control Center.

Jackson’s autopsy report-Homicide:
Pop star Michael Jackson had a strong heart and was a “fairly healthy” 50-year-old, according to an autopsy report obtained in the US.

Russian monetary base down $950 mln in week to $133.8 bln:
Russia’s Central Bank said Friday the country’s narrowly defined money supply (M1) was 4 trillion 26.8 million rubles ($133.8 million at the current exchange rate) as of September 28, down 28.6 billion rubles ($950 million) in the week since September 21.

Russian customs officers arrest 2 drug mules in Orenburg airport:
Russian customs officials in the southern Urals city of Orenburg on Friday morning arrested two drug mules from Tajikistan with 225 capsules of heroin in their stomachs, a spokeswoman said.

Russian FM Lavrov to discuss Geneva talks in Abkhazia:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is arriving in Abkhazia on a two-day visit Friday to discuss the latest round of Geneva discussions on the situation in the Caucasus and meet with the Russian military.

Medvedev visits Cathedral of the Sign in Kursk:
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited on Thursday the Cathedral of the Sign in the city of Kursk some 300 miles south of Moscow where a miracle-working icon of the Mother of God was recently brought.

Russia says Arctic Sea ship to be released, no secret cargo found:
Inspections of the Arctic Sea ship, which was held captive for several weeks during the summer, have not revealed suspicious cargo, and the vessel will soon be released, Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said.

Georgia started South Ossetian war – report:

30 September, 2009, 15:35

Georgia is responsible for unleashing the Five-Day War in the Caucasus last August, says an investigative report carried out by the EU.

An international commission of more than 30 military specialists headed by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini has concluded that it was Georgia who fired the first shot, Itar-Tass reports, with reference to a high-ranking diplomatic source.

The report also says that Russia was preparing for a possible conflict. Russia’s actions have been qualified as a response to the Georgian military operation.

At the same time the commission says that Russia used excessive force, which led to the conflict spreading outside South Ossetia to Georgia.

The diplomat also confirmed that the commission “is satisfied with the level of cooperation with all the sides involved in the conflict.”

We knew that didn’t we?

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

While I was drinking my morning cup of wonderful coffee and looking over e-mails and comments that I got during the night. I came upon an e-mail that threatened my life. This threat was over the fact that I am not smart enough to understand that Iran is a terrible, evil country and that Iran should be destroyed and all her people sent to Hell! I was told that I need to go with them {exact words were, minus cuss words of course, (“Kyle you need to die with the Iranian Scum!”)} – all because I do not condemn Iran…

So in light of this wonderful e-mail, I am going to do another Iran post. This post will have two videos. One by Russia Today and the other one of these videos is by Ron Paul. I put the Ron Paul Video in because as he says: Iran has not done anything that is unlawful. We knew about this Secret Nuclear Plant since 2006. Iran is the ones who told the world about the Secret Nuclear Plant and this was in accordance to the rules by announcing 6 months before start of production of producing nuclear fuel… (Iran is with in the guidelines that they are to follow!) The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has never found Iran at fault with their Nuclear Program…

I have no feelings of love for Iran. I do not want to see any more countries get nuclear weapons because the ones that have them need to get rid of them.

But I will say as I always do: “We reap what we sow!” and America by her sneaky ways has created virtual time bombs all over the word. Now America wants to tell other countries what they should do and should not do.

Example of “Reap what we sow!” – Just look at Israel and many multiples of nukes… (Iran does!)

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

PS: By the way the only story that you will get from Western press is that Iran broke the law! That is not true the law that they are talking about was explained in Ron Pauls video and it is an issue that does not apply to Iran any more. In fact the issue of this law was because America let the ball drop so to speak… (Watch the video with Ron Paul and you will see.)

I would like to say a word about regional issues, particularly the problems related to Iran. As we stated two days ago in New York, we are united in our determination to begin talks on signing an all-encompassing, long-term agreement intended to settle the nuclear issues in Iran as soon as possible.

That said, today’s situation requires particular attention. In their recent letter to the IAEA, Iranian authorities admitted that they are building a new uranium enrichment plant. The fact that Iran has been constructing this enrichment plant over the course of several years without IAEA’s knowledge is a cause of great concern.

The construction of a new uranium enrichment plant contradicts the UN Security Council’s repeated demands for Iran to halt its enrichment activities.

The Russian Side, along with its other partners, feels that the IAEA must immediately examine the situation in the context of the inspections being carried out over Iran’s nuclear program. As part of the obligations that Russia has taken upon itself as an IAEA member, we will assist in this audit through any means we have available. We are calling on Iran to fully cooperate with the Agency as it conducts this investigation.

Russia remains committed to serious dialogue with Iran, with the goal of reaching an agreement on effective measures to alleviate the international community’s concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear program. Indeed, the evidence that has surfaced, which shows that Iran is building a new enrichment plant, only increases our determination to quickly attain concrete, verifiable results.

On October 1, 2009, we are planning a meeting of the so-called Group of Six – of which Russia is a member – together with representatives from Iran. This meeting will give Iran the opportunity to demonstrate that it also intends to seek out a negotiated solution to this problem. This will be possible if Iran arrives at the meeting in Geneva ready to focus on the nuclear issue, take practical steps toward rebuilding trust toward its nuclear program and ensuring its transparency, and demonstrate its willingness to fully cooperate with the IAEA. In light of the newly-revealed evidence that Iran is building a new enrichment plant, we are counting on Iran to present convincing evidence of its intent to develop nuclear energy strictly for peaceful purposes.