Windows to Russia

Hello,

The first day in Israel was a mixture of emotions. First off we were so tired that we had to sleep for about 13 hours. It was that stressful fighting with the airports. To make a long trip short, we flew from Moscow Russia to Zürich Switzerland. Ran (literally) across one of the biggest airports we have ever seen. Then caught our transfer with about 1 min. extra, to Tel Aviv, Israel. Then found a taxi and made it to home for the next few days.

After sleeping forever: We went to the Russian Consulate in Israel and started the visa dance that is so much fun in this world. That is enough stress that you want to scream.

After being told about (the and what) thousands of things that we have to get together for the next visit tomorrow, we went to eat some delicious Israeli food. Yummy!

Then we took a walk and Svet went swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. Svet had a blast!

One thing first noticed is every pole has a bike chained to it!

Not every bike is safe though!

The water was warm and the breeze is cool and gentle.

The beach is lined with every big name Hotel on Earth!

Beach is better than looking at Hotels! 🙂

Found some neat art work at a culture building on our walk! See the fake shadows on the building!

So the first day was interesting and tomorrow we have to go dance the visa waltz again!

Everyone have a good day and we will post again soon….

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

We made it and just got up from 13 hours of sleep. I think that the jet trips are hard on people.

We will have a bigger post tonight about our first day in Israel….

Gotta go get my visa done, then we play.

Kyle & Svet

Around 1500 people gathered in central Moscow on Saturday to commemorate those who died during a confrontation between the Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the Parliament in October 1993.

It’s 15 years since the constitutional crisis almost led to civil war.

Around 150 people died, including civilians as well as servicemen. Many died during clashes with police and when the Ostankino TV center was stormed.

The conflict ended when the then Parliament building – the White House – was shelled by tanks by forces loyal to the president. That forced the legislators who had impeached president Boris Yeltsin to surrender.

The events changed the political face of Russia – a new Constitution adopted after the crisis gave the Russian president increased powers.

Russia’s No.1 tennis tournament – the Kremlin Cup – starts on Saturday, featuring a moderately strong men’s draw and a women’s line-up that’s as strong than as many Grand Slam tournaments and inferior only to the seasons finals, with 16 players from the top 20 of WTA’s ranking participating.

Many of the world’s top players have already arrived in Moscow to have time to prepare for the tournament at the Olympisky Arena. Their number includes Amelie Mauresmo, who got all the way to the final back in 2003 when she lost to home favourite Anastasia Myskina.

Interviewed by Aleksey Leonov, Osetinfo.ru, Ossetia-war.com

The third day of the PACE session was marked by severe criticism of and even insults to Russia. In an interview with Osetinfo.ru, Aleksandr Brod, the chief of the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights comments on the delegates’ speeches and shares his views on the further development of the Russia-Western relationships.

Osetinfo.ru: How strong is the criticism of Russia?

Aleksandr Brod: Some speeches were extremely severe. Russia was accused, sometimes inappropriately. Some statements were like “the Russian Bear should be stopped”, “Russian tanks entered Georgia and Georgia lies in ruins”, “The tanks are not only in Georgia, but in this very hall, and in Europe”. It was said the Russian occupational forces invaded a sovereign state, amid allegations of mass rape and looting by Russian servicemen. Similarities were drawn with the Rwanda tragedy and the topic of the USSR’s invasion of Czechoslovakia was stirred again.

The Kremlin was accused of fearing democracy. Russia was called an “Empire of Evil”, while a Georgian delegate spoke about the low corruption level in his country and about Russia’s attempts to disrupt the peaceful process of democratisation in Georgia.

The question of issuing the passports of a foreign country to local residents was raised again. It was said that the Russian passports thus issued were forged.
Even those who admitted Georgia’s injustice accused Russia of “insufficient actions to prevent the invasion of South Ossetia”.
Some Western officials even made the absurd statement that Russia had sent its ships to South Ossetia’s shores, which meant they were not at all aware where South Ossetia was actually located.

O: Were there any positive statements about Russia?

AB: Oh, yes. For instance the representative from Greece spoke in support of Russia. He said that some delegates were trying to veer from the truth, and he insisted that it was Georgia that started the war, thus violating all the norms of international law. He also said it was now necessary to forget about the Soviet path and to stop identifying modern Russia with the Soviet Union.
One of European delegates made the following statement: “Georgia admits it has done something wrong.” Within the current session this statement is rather positive. It was also said that Russia was becoming a big and powerful state that must be taken into account.

Two statements were made on behalf of Great Britain. One of them was saturated with criticism of Russia, while the second one was aimed at investigating the objective causes of the tragedy. Ukraine’s representative also had good words for Russia. He was rather strict in his support of Russia and appealed for Georgia’s actions to be denounced.

O: Is it possible to convince the European colleagues and change their negative attitude towards Russia?

AB: I think it is, although not so fast. The West shows that the clichés about Russia are so deeply rooted in people’s minds that they are virtually unchangeable. For many, Russia is identified with the “Evil Empire”, the Soviet Union. As to what has happened in the past 20 years, it is terra incognita for many.

I think an unbiased investigation of the situation should be carried out. The investigators’ group must be comprised of representatives from different countries. It is possible that after such an investigation, the PACE delegates could be influenced on their stance.

The G7 group of nations consists of:

– Canada 🇨🇦
– France 🇫🇷
– Germany 🇩🇪
– Italy 🇮🇹
– Japan 🇯🇵
– United Kingdom 🇬🇧
– United States of America 🇺🇲

These countries are the brunt of all the chaos happening in this day and age. Hopefully the rest of the world will get back on track and isolate these countries…

WtR

Hello,

Just a thought today while drinking my morning cup of coffee.

For twelve days Japan has pumped a trillion yen into its financial markets, Europe has pumped billions of pounds and euros into its financial markets, Russia has pumped billions of rubles into its financial markets, Asia has pumped billions of ? (what ever currency they use) into their financial markets and America has pumped billions upon billions (Exceeding a trillion) dollars into its financial system. So the global market has in the last couple of weeks, an injection exceeding trillions of dollars of cash pumped into it and it seems to be just verily holding together.

I am starting to wonder if the patient (Financial System) might die!

What gets me more than these stupid humongous financial numbers that are floating around the world, is the fact that we still talk about aid to the poor in the terms of millions of dollars. We allow people to starve all over the world, they survive on pennies a day. Then we got a corporation and its shareholders crying about its loses. We have people dying everyday from hunger and curable diseases and we have Governments tossing trillions of dollars down the drain to save businesses and banks that have no right to stay in business if they can not manage their money.

I can remember when you never thought in terms of billions of dollars. I remember when a millionaire was rich. I remember. – But somewhere somehow profits became billions of dollars per quarter for companies like General Motors and Ford and now they are broke.

How can you be broke making billions of dollars in profit per quarter?

My Grandma would have said: “You must save money for a rainy day!”

It sure is a stormy rainy day. Did you save your money?

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

Did I mention that Ukraine was doing some extracurricular things with tanks? Oh yes! I did! Once or twice…
http://kylekeeton.com/2008/09/russia-pirate-escapade-is-getting.html
http://kylekeeton.com/2008/09/russia-as-winds-do-change-part-5.html
http://kylekeeton.com/2008/09/russia-stock-markets-crash-new.html

Now the games begin:
The Ukrainian Prime Minister, Yulia Timoshenko, says her government has information that Ukraine is involved in the illegal arms trade. The statement came after conflicting reports about the final destination of ‘Faina’, the cargo ship that was transporting Ukrainian T-72 tanks to either Kenya or Sudan when it was captured by pirates.

“We pass all the information we have to a special investigative commission which was established in the Rada [Ukrainian parliament] in order to probe the illegal arms trade, in which Ukraine is unfortunately involved today,” Timoshenko said. (Link)

Looks like it is going to get real interesting before we get the truth about Ukraine and her T-72 Tank Games.

I see a big storm brewing up over this issue and I think it is going to spread….

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

From Blogger:

Some users are seeing that their custom domains are forwarding to www.google.com. We are working to resolve the issue.

Blogs on custom domains were intermittently unviewable tonight.

So if all you get is Google then Windows to Russia then Google then Windows to Russia…..

Sorry, it is beyond our control! Posting will be suspended for Wednesday Oct. 1st, 2008. It took 1 and a half hours to get this posted.

This is affecting all our blogs on all domains.

Kyle & Svet

PS: All fixed after 12 hours. Cross your fingers! (Yea)