Windows to Russia

Hello,

Just a tidbit of info for this cold Monday.

A poll held by a TV station (Rossiya) was done to find the greatest Russian of all time.

Alexander Nevsky who fought off Swedish and Germanic invasions to preserve medieval Russia, came in first in the poll!

In second place was reformist Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin, who was assassinated in 1911.

Then Joseph Stalin came third, remembered for his winning of the Second World War instead of the many murders committed under his reign.

50 million people voted by phone, the Internet or via text messages in the poll held by Rossiya, one of Russia’s biggest television stations. The voting took place over six months as 500 original candidates were whittled down to a final 12.

It seems that Stalin was winning at one point for several months and the producer of the TV station asked people to vote for someone else?

Just another tidbit of information about Russia….

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

The tallest New Years Tree in Russia prize goes to: The city of Krasnoyarsk, a 46 meter high tree in the city’s main square. It has a all metal frame and 15,000 artificial tree branches, decorated with 5,000+ lights, which change color every 30 minutes, and over 2,000 decorations in the theme of Pushkin’s stories.

Russia has its type of Christmas coming and on New Years eve the Russians will celebrate bringing in the New Year with Ded Moroz (Santa) stopping by and giving children gifts.

Kyle & Svet

Hello,

While drinking that second cup of coffee and thinking about countries fighting each other. I felt we had to look at Israel and the Gaza.

Since the launch of massive air strikes on Gaza by Israel in response to rocket and mortar fire by Hamas militants, more than 270 Palestinians are reported to have been killed and 500 wounded. It also looks like Israel is going to increase its Huge air campaign against the Gaza.

So Russia has decided to try to pull the Russian Nationals out of the Gaza. The conditions are very drastic and deadly. Most Russian nationals in the Gaza Strip are Russian women with their children, married to Palestinians. Russia is gathering a list, then Russia will do all it can to extract the people and families to safety. Russia is also pulling their Diplomat people out as soon as they can.

Seems that Israel is planning much more massive strikes and Russia is trying to get Israel to let Russia have enough time to remove Russian people.

So while Pakistan and India are getting ready to blow themselves up by New Years!

Israel is blowing up the Gaza before new Years. Of course it is OK for Israel to use a “disproportionate response” to rocket and mortar fire by Hamas militants, but then war is about winning not who you kill!

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

PS: (Update) The Israeli defense Ministry has called up thousands of reserve forces to increase troop numbers for a ground offensive in Gaza. Israeli air strikes against Hamas targets in the territory are continuing for the second day. The death toll among Palestinians has reached almost 300 with more than 700 injured – most are civilians.

Israel says the offensive is at an early stage and will continue for some length of time. Senior military officials say the Gaza air strikes and future ground war is in response to recent mortar attacks on southern Israel carried out by Hamas militants.

Russia is afraid that Israel is not going to let Russia get Russians out of the Gaza…..

Hello,

I was drinking my morning cup of coffee and thinking about the India / Pakistan development! What was a war of words, is escalating into a war of tanks and troops, that could lead to a war of Nukes!

The border between Pakistan and India now has a massive troop buildup on both sides. The verbal exchange since the terrorist acts in Mumbai, has reached almost a dead end. With accusations flying off the cuff from both sides, What is next “War?”

The Kremlin has been issuing statements through the Foreign Ministry. What has Russia worried is that “There are disturbing reports that New Delhi and Islamabad do not rule out the possibility of using force against each other. These are nuclear armed countries!”

The impression that Russia is getting from all her contacts is that at any second, anything could trigger war. Russia has been saying from the start sit down and communicate. Get everything out on the table. Russia also says that the only people who benefit from the two countries going head to head are International Terrorists.

Looks like to me that the world is bound to blow up something before the end of 2008. I guess that a financial crises and 100’s of millions of starving people in the world is not important enough to worry about. We have to start wars….

Something to think about.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

I was drinking my second cup of coffee after walking the dog:

Boza and I decided to take a walk into the woods. The sun was shining for the first time in a while and I happened to have my camera and took some pictures of the sun.

Now remember the sun is not setting, it is around noon and as high in the sky as it will get. I think it is great…..

Sun at Noon just verily over the trees!
Path to the woods! Boza and his nose stuck to the ground.

Surprise visitor and Boza ready to Rumble! (With my help of course!)

Getting to the woods!

Natural Gas Station Guard Dog! (He went woof woof woof a few times)

Then because it is so cold out the camera froze. With the temperature at -10 to -12 degrees the batteries do not last long and the camera just freezes up real fast. Once the shutter window quits working from subzero weather it is all over!

Now Boza and I are back in the Flat all warm and cozy. Svet stayed home today because she is running a fever and I am making her stay in bed.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas!

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

RBC, 26.12.2008, Moscow 15:37:48.Russia and China will set up two working groups for integrated water management and the monitoring of the quality of transboundary waters and their protection, the Russian Natural Resources and Ecology Ministry’s press office reported today. A joint Russian-Chinese commission for the rational use and protection of transboundary waters will hold a meeting in Khabarovsk on December 26-28, with a protocol establishing the working groups to be signed following the meeting.

RBC, 26.12.2008, Moscow 15:24:19.Rosneft is planning to refinance or pay back roughly $9bn of its debt, the Russian oil company’s President Sergei Bogdanchikov said in an interview today. He pointed out that the company’s total debt currently amounted to $23bn. Bogdanchikov reiterated that Rosneft paid back $16bn in 2008, including $7bn from its own funds. The company is also planning to repay another $250m before the year-end.

RBC, 26.12.2008, Moscow 14:59:43.The Russian State Duma has finished its fall 2008 session today. When closing the session, Speaker Boris Gryzlov declared that the deputies had managed to ensure a fast and efficient legislative process. They adopted 162 federal laws and approved three constitutional laws and two amendments to the Russian Constitution during the session, the official said.

RBC, 26.12.2008, Moscow 12:46:02.The Russian Air Force will receive more than 100 military and training helicopters in the next four years, Colonel General and Air Force Commander Alexander Zelin told a government commission today. He pointed out that this step would greatly improve Russian aviation military potential and carry out operations during the day or at night, in simple or complex weather conditions, and in hilly or mountainous regions.

RBC, 26.12.2008, Moscow 10:50:22.The Bank of Russia has widened the ruble’s trading band against the basket of two currencies – the euro and the dollar – again today, for the third time this week, a source in the bank said, without giving any exact figures.

RBC, 26.12.2008, Moscow 09:57:55.Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev has signed amendments to the employment law passed by the State Duma on December 19, 2008, and approved by the Federation Council on December 22. Amid the global financial crisis that has battered the Russian economy, metallurgical and machine-building companies, producers of consumer goods and retailers, real estate and telecommunications companies and others could be forced to lay off staff. The amendments grant the Russian government the authority to work out and implement additional steps to ease the growing stress in troubled regions, which could imply retraining personnel at risk of layoffs in advance, relocating them to other areas, offering them public or temporary jobs etc.

RBC, 25.12.2008, Moscow 19:37:32.Moscow is greatly concerned over the escalation of the conflict in the Gaza Strip and around it into an open confrontation, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s information and press department reported today. The ministry views the missile bombardments of Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip as unacceptable, stressing that such bombardments, as well as Israel’s military operations affecting Palestinian civilians, must be stopped. Military attacks cannot bring peace and security to the region or its residents, the document says.

RBC, 25.12.2008, Moscow 19:13:30.A Proton-M carrier rocket was launched from the Baikonur space center at 1:43 p.m. today, and it placed three Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) satellites into their target orbit at 5:15 p.m., the information and public relations department of the Russian Defense Ministry’s space force reported today. The satellites have separated from the carrier rocket as planned, and their onboard systems are functioning normally, the report said.

RBC, 25.12.2008, Moscow 18:25:00.Russia has completed talks on investment agreements protecting and promoting mutual investments with Iran, Namibia and Turkmenistan, Maxim Medvedkov, head of the Economy Ministry’s trade negotiations department, told journalists today. He also noted that Russia had signed similar agreements with EurAsEC countries, as well as Libya and Venezuela in 2008, thus bringing their total number up to 61. Medvedkov stressed that Russian businesses had demonstrated higher interest in investments in the countries with which Russia had signed such an agreement.

RBC, 25.12.2008, Moscow 15:27:33.Gazprom and the Turkmen government have agreed on the technical requirements for the Caspian gas pipeline’s Turkmen stretch, as well as a gas transit facility to be built at the South Iolotan field, the Russian gas monopoly’s press office reported today. The decisions were made during today’s meeting between Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister Tacberdi Tagyyew.

Hello,

It seems that Russia is up to her usual antics:

Russia said on TV that with out a doubt the evidence points to Ukrainian, U.S., Turkish and Czech mercenaries, were involved in fighting in Georgia’s breakaway republic of South Ossetia in early August. (The next day the USA said: No Way!)

So while the US and Russia have a He said – I said issue:

Evander Holyfield is jumping up and down, crying and filing lawsuits about the big bully Russian Heavyweight Boxer Nikolai Valuev. It seems that Holyfield thinks he won the fight and the judges ripped him off. I hate to tell Holyfield this but I watched the fight and he did not win. Unless you win for running in circles around someone for 12 rounds. I would not say that Valuev won by much but the champion always gets the close calls not the challenger. So even if the fight was even Valuev wins!

So while Holyfield is filing lawsuits:

Siberian republic of Yakutia has tough cops and crooks! You would think that -50 degrees weather would put a curtailment on most activities including harvesting cannabis (pot). It seems that not even cold weather deters bad guys so despite minus 52 degrees Celsius [minus 62 degrees Fahrenheit] two men managed to harvest several bags of cannabis with a total weight of nearly three kg [6.6 lbs], from under the snow cover. While they were collecting their prize the local police were hanging out nearby waiting to arrest them.

While the Yakutia people are collecting awards for the toughest people on earth in a sub zero environment:

Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko is doing a Holyfield and crying about the big bad Russians. It seems that Yushchenko had a on-line session with the world and got lambasted. It seems that he had to pull the plug early after the questions hurt his feelings. Now he makes a press statement that Russia is mean and they ruined his on-line poll. I did not know that only Ukraine’s were allowed to play. 🙁

So while the Russians have hurts someone else’s feelings again:

The age old tradition of dog sledding lives on in Russia. A small group of enthusiasts is trying to revive the tradition of dog sledding in the ever-green forests of Siberia, where sometimes husky sledding is the best way to get around. The Khanty-Mansi autonomous region in Western Siberia provides ideal conditions for biathlon – cross-country skiing and shooting – and is the centre of the sport in Russia. (Link) A Siberian husky dog can withstand temperatures of -60C but it seems so can cops and robbers in Yakutia!

Last but not least Putin and Obama are being compared shirtless now. The hot news from Russia today is:

LOL 🙂

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

I am drinking my morning cup of coffee and warming up after a 1 hour walk with the dog. It is -5 degrees here and the snow has stopped falling.

Boza and I earlier dropped Svet off at the Bus stop! Like I have said Russia does not have a 25th of December Christmas so all is normal here.

Boza and I decided to take pictures today of our walk. I kept the best pictures as Boza seems to want to pull on the leash as I take every picture. (It is like he knows the perfect time to pull the leash!)

This is our favorite sidewalk! Boza does his business along this outer edge sidewalk.

While Boza does his business, I take a picture of the Bus station!

We can still see our building in the trees!

That ugly black oval is our flat on the 14th floor.

The weather is wonderful with the exception of never seeing the sun. (That is why the pictures are so blue) If you do see the sun it is so low on the horizon that it looks like it is setting even when it is middle of the day. We at least get light and if you go much father North you will find that they only get a few hours of light if any. The shortest day of the year has passed (21 Dec. 2008). Which means right now in Moscow the sunrises at 9 am and sets at 4 pm.

I am going to finish that cup of coffee and start another article! 🙂

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

We put together the slideshow for Christmas. We used Russian postcards both old and modern and American tune “Deck the Halls” played in a modern way. Hope you enjoy it!

Windows to Russia,
Svet and Kyle