Windows to Russia

Ignore the power lines they are everywhere…

These Churches are so Cool…

This is the tiny church at the Village… (It needs to grow up and get big!)

Russia News Source – RIA: June 19th, 2009!

Police officer injured in blast in Russia’s Caucasus:
A police officer was injured in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Kabardino Balkaria when an illegal arms cache he discovered exploded, local police said on Friday.

Russian monetary base up 2.4% in week to $127.1 billion:
Russia’s Central Bank said Friday the country’s narrowly defined money supply (M1) was 3 trillion 975.8 million rubles ($127.1 billion at the current exchange rate) as of June 15, up 2.4% in the week since June 8.

Russian Pacific Fleet warships dock at Vietnam port:
A naval task force from Russia’s Pacific Fleet docked in Vietnam on Friday on an official visit, a spokesman for the fleet said.

Russian president to visit Netherlands:
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will arrive in the Netherlands on Friday on a two-day visit, on the invitation of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, a Kremlin official said.

EU expects stable, long-term deal between Gazprom and Naftogaz:
The European Union on Thursday called on Russian energy giant Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz to reach a long-term agreement on secure natural gas supplies.

Georgian ex-army officer asks for political asylum in Russia:
A Georgian military officer who crossed into Abkhazia in May has asked Russia for political asylum, the Federal Migration Service said Thursday.

Russian students’ deportation from Egypt delayed by missed flight:
Four Russian students were deported from Egypt on Thursday, but two others had some extra time in the country after missing the flight, a Russian Embassy official said.

Ukrainian population falls below 46 million:
The population of Ukraine is steadily declining, losing another 229,000 in 2008 to fall below the psychological figure of 46 million, official statisticians said.

I was drinking my morning cup of coffee and reading an article in the local newspaper about the upcoming UN report on the Georgia – Russian war back in August 7, 2008.

Svet and I have been a supporter of Russia in this war and have not varied from our thinking. We watched a Western slandering media, slam Russia and her actions and then watched that same media support a murderous regime run by Saakashvili, the insane tie eating president of Georgia.

Russia was caught very off guard by all this American press that lied like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar and crumbs all over their mouth. It was so lopsided that you would have swore that Georgia was just giving early Christmas gifts to South Ossetia and Russia decided to take over Georgia for no reason but shear evilness!

That is about to end: According to DER SPIEGEL a very well known German publication and read all over the world. Der Spiegel has been a very neutral party in reporting this war. They at one point had their finger pointed at Russia but always kept their mind open and listened…

It seems that Der Spiegel has information about the UN report that is getting ready to be released. I always wonder how Der Spiegel gets this information all the time, but then I realize that allowing a major news source to leak information is a way to buffer the shock of the findings.

The experts found no evidence to support claims by the Georgian president, which he also mentioned in an interview with SPIEGEL, that a Russian column of 150 tanks had advanced into South Ossetia on the evening of Aug. 7. According to the commission’s findings, the Russian army didn’t enter South Ossetia until August 8.

Commission members note, on the other hand, that Saakashvili had already amassed 12,000 troops and 75 tanks on the border with South Ossetia on the morning of Aug. 7. In their research, they uncovered remarks by the Georgian president that demonstrate that he had long flirted with a military solution to the South Ossetian problem. “If you ask any Georgian soldier why he is serving in the armed forces, each of them will respond: ‘To reestablish Georgia’s territorial integrity,'” Saakashvili said in a television address on May 25, 2004.

They also go on to say that South Ossetia and Russia committed issues and crimes also. South Ossetia was pissed about what Georgia did and retaliated. Russia had too much fun and they should have been a little more caring in there duties.

I will always say that Georgia is very lucky that Russia kept her cool, because Russia could have mopped the ground up all the way to the next border and turned Georgia into an annexed addition to Russia. No one would have stopped them or could have stopped them, they stopped themselves. Remember that it was five quick days and Russian President Medvedev pulled the Army back just before they were getting ready to take out the Georgian Capital Tilbillis… (Georgia was lucky)

Why just a couple of weeks ago Saakashvili still flapping his never ending mouth, proclaimed Georgia’s innocence in this war and that Georgia was still at war with the evil Russian Empire.

A final word about American involvement:

Nevertheless, a number of commission members are curious to know what John Tefft, the US ambassador in Tbilisi and a former advisor at the National War College in Washington, knew about Saakashvili’s marching orders. One question they would like to ask is why no one at the US State Department took a call from Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin when the war broke out in the early morning hours of August 8 — when it was afternoon in Washington.

Other commission members would be interested in talking to Daniel Fried, the assistant secretary of state responsible for Georgia at the time. Fried recently told a German foreign policy expert privately that Saakashvili “went out of control” in August.

But Tagliavini’s team won’t be questioning any Americans. According to one member of the commission, “our director and the EU apparently lack the courage” to take that step.

Maybe the UN needs some help to ask why, who, where and what?

We deserve to know what the USA was doing there spending our money that we do not have…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Here is a shot of the front of the village as I walk toward it from the lake… (Below)

Here is an old combine that has been picked to death and is all over the village as little pieces here and there… (Below)

All Villages that we have seen in Russia have this phone now. This was not available two years ago and it has a antenna for reception. Emergency calls are free .. (Below)

A Village home (Below)- This was our goat lady and she died of cancer… 🙁

A view from the village at the countryside… (Below)

Our Village home, a great place… (Below)

Boza is wore out and snoozing… (Below)

Another Village Home… (Below)

On a clear day you can see forever… (Below)

Another Village Home… (Below)

The Church, I mean a village home, no I mean the church – See it has a Cross… (Below)

The ancient Bell Tower – It is so cool! (Below)

Beautiful and endearing… (Below)

Our fence and road at our place… (Below)

BRIC – Brazil, Russia, India and China have taken over the name and they came together in Yekaterinburg, Russia to confront the failures of the Western lead global financial system. They have come up with sound and concrete ideas that will help them become stronger with out the Western world dragging them down like this last time when America collapsed. The one thing that the Eastern world has learned is to get out from the dollar and diversify the international currencies…

http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/text/speeches/2009/06/16/2300_type82915type84779_217967.shtml

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Hello,

This mornings cup of coffee was back in Moscow, Russia. I was contemplating about the tornado that hit the village this weekend! (Did I say tornado?)

We will just jump into the nitty gritty…

I had just fired up the shashlik grill and threading the meat and veggies on to the metal sticks. This was around 2 pm on Saturday. We had a great meal planned…

The day was sunny and cool, it was the perfect summer day. I had just finished loading the grill with food and out of nowhere in about 60 second time period. Mother Nature turned the world upside down.

I heard a very familiar noise and for 10 seconds, I just listened and tried to place where that roar of a freight train noise was coming from and we do not have railroad tracks nearby. I stood up from working on the fire and realized that all hell was going to break loose in about 10 seconds. I yelled “Oh My God” real loud and Svet ran toward me. I said get in the doorway of the cabin and hang on. As Svet and Boza went into the door frame area. It hit hard.

You see: When I said “Oh My God” I had the pleasure of seeing a new tornado come out of the only cloud in the sky and hit the lake at our village. (I call that a water spout at that point.) I hollered again at Svet to stay down and Boza of course was crawling in the grass by my feet and Svet came running to me. (Other words like chickens with heads cut off…)

Then for the next 20 seconds it looked like we were going to meet the maker! Trees snapped like gun shots all over the place and all we could do was lean at a 45 degree angle into the wind and prey. The birch trees at our village house bowed almost 90 degrees to the ground and they are about 30 feet tall. We did not lose any trees, but I watched the tornado rip the tops out of several trees and toss 20 food sections like tooth picks.

I looked up and saw the tornado split into two tornadoes and it passed on either side of our house..

I looked at the neighbor house about 200 meters away. The owner was hanging on to a big fence post and looking at the sky. I turned away from him and saw that our grill had turned bright cherry red from the wind and coals, The fire was streaming out from the grill in a straight line for 20 to 30 feet. Svet was watching the fire also. (It had to be at least 100+ km wind speed)

The tornadoes had passed and the wind started to dropped. Svet came with water buckets to stop any fires and I paused us all and we stood not moving while the freight train (tornado) disappeared over the hill…

The man in the house near us was very lucky: He was in the yard and was hanging on for dear life and watched his car raise about 5 feet in the air and float for a few feet toward his house. The car then was gently lowered on his fence and it tilted on its side and was gently lowered to the ground. His house was not touched and he was next to the car and was not harmed. He was hanging on that corner post that you see with the brace on it. He had just drove the car up there from work. He works at the fishery that owns all the ponds…

This picture is of a tree across the road from us that had a huge section of trunk snapped half way down and tossed over a hundred meters in to a field between our places.

Svet was so excited about seeing a tornado. She was not happy about damage that was done but that was her first tornado (We spent all day Sunday repairing the house and fence from the wind damage. We were lucky many others were not as lucky…) and she had caught a site of the one that traveled over the neighbors house.

After it was all over and calmed down, I remembered to checked on the grill. I found out that the meat was done to perfection and veggies were tender. We sat at our picnic table and ate the best meal that we ever had. A meal cooked by a tornado…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

PS: We wondered about all the baby fish that got sucked up from the lake. This is a hatching pond for the young babies… (did not rain fish on us… :))

Russia News Source – RIA: June 16th, 2009!

Moscow and Beijing to talk about Pyongyang and Obama:
It is hard to find two other top leaders who would meet more often than those of Russia and China. They attend at least two summits per year, plus the inevitable G8 summer meeting (Russia is a member of the club and China is always invited), and plus the summits of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), where the two countries discuss their common policy in Central Asia. There are also regular telephone conversations.

Gazprom to produce 507 bln cu m of gas in 2010:
Gazprom plans to produce 507 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2010 but could boost output to 600 billion cu m if necessary, a deputy board chairman said on Tuesday.

Russian president orders military talks with Abkhazia, S. Ossetia:
Russia’s president has issued instructions for military cooperation deals to be negotiated with the former Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

UN and Georgia:
Russia exercised its veto power in the United Nations Security Council on Monday and brought an end to the nearly 16-year-old observer mission monitoring a cease-fire between Georgia and its breakaway Abkhazia region.

Medvedev calls for rules to admit new SCO members:
Russia’s president urged on Tuesday for documents to be drawn up, setting out rules for admitting new members to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Russia says Iran’s election is its own business, welcomes president:
Russia, which is hosting a regional summit on Tuesday attended by Iran’s leader, believes that the country’s recent election is no business of other states, a senior diplomat said.

Vintage trams roll down Moscow streets:
In an event celebrating the 110th anniversary of Moscow’s first tram, a line of vintage streetcars rolled out onto the city’s tracks for local residents to ride and photograph. Some trams are celebrities having starred in popular Russian movies.