Windows to Russia

Hello,

This is the news of the day! (Well almost)

This Saturday (5-30-09) in Helsinki, Finland, will be the rematch that will settle the debate all over the world about who is the real champion between these two guys!

Valuev (The Russian Giant) is looking for revenge after a disappointing loss in 2007 to a smaller and faster Chagaev!

Valuev who is one foot taller and much more powerful is the slowest of the two. Chagaev seems to have greater boxing skills and definitely speed that may help him take the WBA belt back.

At the weigh-in the Russian Giant tipped the scales at 40.7 kilos heavier (143.1 kg to 102.4 kg) than Chagaev.

Little known fact about Valuev: In May, 2009 Nikolai Valujev killed a Wild Boar with his bare hands when the animal attacked his dog during a hunt in the area of St Petersburg, Russia.

Now that is cool…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Update: Due to so far unofficial reasons: The WBA heavyweight fight between Russian Giant Nikolay Valuev against Uzbek White Tyson Ruslan Chagaev has been called off by Finnish organizers.

Officials said that “Chagaev has been unable to fulfill the Finnish Boxing Federation’s medical requirements.” However, the organizers refused to give more details of Chagaev’s condition as it is against Finnish law.

Finnish media have unofficially stated that Chagaev is suffering from a hepatitis infection. All 11 boxing bouts scheduled for the evening have been canceled.

Hello,

I was drinking my morning cup of wonderful coffee here in Moscow, Russia. I was thinking about some tidbits of information that had come to my attention.

The first thing that hit me this morning was the fact that the ruble had strengthened a lot against the dollar. It now has breached the 31 ruble per dollar mark. That is happening even thought the Kremlin is trying not to let it happen. That means the dollar is slipping badly and it is showing against world currencies. This is not a normal drop it is a drop that is in conjunction with a stock market drop. That means that people are pulling away from American finances. America is more and more becoming just a short term betting place for monetary issues.

The second tidbit that popped up was that Russia is looking for the CSTO to be developed into a counter balance to NATO. I have said before that the CSTO had a long term plan to be a huge security force. But all press releases have countered that until now. Now the glimmer of reality or at least Medvedev’s thoughts are starting to sneak out. Medvedev wants a new security organization that is better than NATO which is a defunct Cold War relic.

The third tidbit that popped up really goes along with the second item. Russia has officially approved a 49-year lease of the Kant airbase in Kyrgyzstan, with an automatic prolongation every 25 years thereafter. The Kant base is intended to provide air cover for possible operations by CSTO joint forces in Central Asia. This is part of the variances in effect in Kyrgyzstan that also lead to the expulsion of the American airbase. The facts that the Western press leaves out is that America lost that base because they had the wrong attitude toward the Kyrgyzstan people.

I just thought I would share what I saw this morning that had to do with Russia, while drinking my coffee.

I saw much more but I thought that we have all had enough of the daily reports of deaths in Iraq, Pakistan and other war zones.

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Russia News Source – RIA: May 29th, 2009!

Italian investors to develop tourism in Russia’s Altai Territory:
Investors from Italy’s South Tirol region have agreed to develop tourism in southwest Siberia’s Altai Territory, the Altai administration said.

Russia wants CSTO to be as strong as NATO:
Russia is planning to build a strong military contingent in Central Asia within the framework of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) comparable to NATO forces in Europe, a Russian business daily said on Friday.

Dollar down 34.16 kopeks, euro up 5.11 kopeks:
The official dollar rate set by the Russian Central Bank for May 30 is 30.9843 rubles, down 34.16 kopeks from Friday, the Central Bank said.

Russia’s richest man to build ‘seven star’ hotel in Turkey:
Metals magnate Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia’s richest man, has received permission to build a ‘seven star’ hotel near Izmir on Turkey’s Aegean Sea coast, national media reported on Friday.

UN chief rejects Georgia’s claim of ‘Russian blackmail’:
The head of the United Nations has dismissed a claim by Georgia that he was forced to amend a report on the UN Caucasus mission due to Russian “blackmail”, and called the allegation “unfortunate.”

Russia opens chemical weapons destruction facility in Siberia:
Russia opened on Friday the first unit of a chemical weapons destruction facility in Siberia’s Kurgan Region, and pledged to destroy 45% of existing stockpiles by the end of 2009.

NASA extends contract with Russia for trips to space station:
NASA has signed a $306 million deal with Russia’s Federal Space Agency Roscosmos extending the current contract for transporting crew to the International Space Station.

Nissan to open car factory in Petersburg on June 2:
Nissan will officially open a car factory in St. Petersburg on June 2, the Japanese car giant said.

Russia’s international reserves surge to $402 bln as of May 25:
Russia’s international reserves, which include foreign exchange and gold, have grown to $402 billion as of May 25, the Central Bank chief said on Thursday.

Hello,

Today I found a couple of videos that I thought were pretty cool. The first one is a step back in time. Lets go for a short ride from the back seat of a Volga GAZ Model 21!

Now lets take a short slide show and have a good picture look at the Volga Gaz Model 21 and then watch it become the next generation Volga GAZ Model 24, then on up the scale to the modern Volga!

As you know I think that the older Volga cars are some of the best cars ever made. My interest has been stirred again because we have a reader (Mark) who loves the Volga GAZ Model 21.

I am getting ready to paint our Volga and will get pictures taken as I proceed. We call our Volga – Nelly – and she is one tough car.

That is all today and I hope that you enjoyed the videos. Even though I think on the second one the music would have been better with the real Russian version and not the English version…

Link To Our Volga GAZ articles!

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Hello,

I was drinking my morning cup of coffee here in Moscow, Russia. I was thinking about the information that I have been following about the Russian company – Digital Sky Technologies (DST) buying a 2% stake in Facebook!

It evidently has become a reality and now Facebook who has never made any money yet but has signed up their 200,000,000 member not long ago, is looking at DST to help them turn a profit.

DST gets a turn at trying to direct Facebook in the correct fiscal direction after Microsoft gave a failed shot at doing just that in 2007, when they bought a 2% share.

I am new to Facebook myself and have several friends that are there also. I also have my son and his wife plus the grand kid on there. That is always a pleasure. 🙂

Quote direct from DST website:

DST has made a $200 million investment in Facebook in exchange for preferred stock at a $10 billion valuation. In addition, DST is also planning to offer to purchase at least $100 million of Facebook common stock from existing shareholders.

Now that is a deal: $200 million for $10 billion in stock?

I always say, “It takes money to make money!”

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Jack Pritchard, a former US ambassador to North Korea and the current President of the Korea Economic Institute. Gives an interview to Russia Today.

He does not feel that a major war will break out but that skirmishes could happen….

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Hello,

Since Summer is here and us Americans think of potato salad. In Russia, the potato salad is a winter favorite and a summer favorite. The Olivier is a must have at the Russian New Years.

That means that there are only 500,000,000 recipes called Olivier, Salad Olivier, Russian Salad or Sour Russian Potato Salad.

Rumor has it that a French Chef named M. Olivier first served it in Moscow around 1860? Hence the name “Olivier Salad”

So today lets make a delicious potato salad that I promise you will find a variation at every special occasion in Russia…

The Olivier:

Ingredients to gather up:
* 5 to 6 average-size potatoes
* 3 nice fat salt cucumbers (Link)
* 1 good size carrot or 2 smaller
* 1 can of green peas or a cup or more of fresh peas (I do not cook the peas but some insist that you must. Your choice)
* 4 hard boiled medium eggs
* 1 fresh medium onion
* 1 big chicken breast or ham
* Salt, pepper, (to taste – but remember the salt cucumbers are salty)
* lots of mayonnaise
* fresh dill (diced and added to top of salad as garnishment when done)

Cooking:
I toss in the same pot full of medium boiling water: the potatoes with skin on, the carrots with the skin on and the eggs with shell on. 🙂

After 10 minutes of boiling remove the eggs carefully with tongs or a slotted spoon. Run cold water over eggs to cool before peeling.

Then test the carrots with a thin knife and if the knife inserts easy into the body of the carrot, then they are done. Remove carrots before they are over cooked.

Let potatoes finish cooking while the eggs and carrots cool. The potatoes are done when by using the same technique as for the carrots. Insert knife and it should easily slide into the potato. Any resistance then the potato needs a few more minutes. Do not over cook.

Set aside and let cooked veggies cool before using.

Next lets prepare the Chicken: (Ham just needs to be diced up) So lets dice the chicken breast up and toss in a lightly oiled skillet at medium temperature. Cook until all pieces have turned white through the middle. The smaller you dice the quicker it cooks. (Let cool before using.)

*Yes you can oven bake, grill, roasted left over cooked chicken for this. What ever suits your fancy. (KFC pulled off the bone and diced is fantastic.)

Preparation:

First peel the potatoes, carrots and eggs! Then dice every ingredient (except peas) into small cubes, (Hint: Dice everything pea size and when dicing salt cucumbers and let the salt cucumbers drain for a few minutes to get rid of excess liquid that will water the salad down.) add pepper, salt (?), and plenty of real mayonnaise. (not salad dressing)

Throw (gently) into a big mixing bowl: The diced potatoes, diced carrots, diced raw onion, diced eggs, green peas, diced drained salt cucumbers, diced chicken breast or diced ham, salt ?, pepper to taste and then dump some mayo – little more – common just a little more.

Mix well. If too dry add more mayo… See I thought it needed more mayo!

Then as a finishing touch sprinkle diced fresh dill or other grasses over top the salad.

Let sit for at least an hour in the icebox before eating.

Lets eat! Yummy…

Notes: This salad is great the next day as a left over. A good smoked ham makes this salad have a whole different meaning. I question the salt because salt pickles are salty. If you use regular dill pickles then you may want to salt the recipe. I like to sprinkle paprika all over the top also.

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Hello,

One of our good readers Blackseabrew brought up in a comment the fact that the world was starting to run short on uranium, for nuclear power plants. He said that the supply was limited.

I started to look around at what Russia had available. Here is what I found:

Russia’s total uranium reserves are significantly more than 1 million tons, the head of the Rosatom nuclear corporation said on Tuesday.

Sergei Kiriyenko said Russia had 575,000 tons of recoverable uranium reserves and 875,000 tons of proven reserves. (Link)

The article explained that Russia has enough uranium to supply the world for 60 years. (That is not very long to me!) They also went on to say that there are several new fields of Uranium that are being developed in the future. Including a field in South Yakutia. <-- This link will give you more information about Russia's uranium future than you really would want to know. 🙂 Now at they same time that I was checking on all this radioactive stuff and along comes a news report about the USA and Russia's uranium:

Russia’s Techsnabexport and three U.S. companies affiliated with the FuelCo Group signed on Tuesday three long-term low-enriched uranium supply contracts. “The contracts are worth $1 billion,” said Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Rosatom state-controlled nuclear corporation. Under the contracts, enriched uranium will be supplied directly to the U.S. companies from 2014 through 2020. (Link)

Looks like we know where a chunk of that million tons of radioactive material will go. Price is $50 per pound at this writing. That is going to be a bunch!

Blackseabrew could be right? So get the price locked in now because what I am reading while researching this article, is that uranium could go off the price scale in the future…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

PS: I need me a Nucliometer! 🙂