Windows to Russia

Hello,
I was drinking my morning cup of coffee & thinking about an article that has stayed in my mind for several days! This article reminded me of an old bridge in Missouri, USA. The bridge was all steel except the floor, (part you drive on) . That part was made of about, 4 inch thick by 12 inches wide, Oak planks! The State Department replaced the Oak planks one day; The next day all the planks were gone! Seems that bridge theft is not isolated to the USA.
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A steel 11.5- meter (38 feet) long car bridge was stolen in Khabarovsk, Russia’s Far East, local officials said on Saturday.

The bridge was made of four steel pipes half a meter in diameter and covered with steel plates.

The thieves, who stole the bridge most likely to sell it for scrap, worked at night when there was no one around, a spokesman said. That is why they managed to dismantle the heavy construction and to take it away, Kazinform cites, RIA Novosti.

Local workers came to the scene on Saturday morning to discover that the only bridge which was the direct way to a thermal power station disappeared. Now the drivers will have to look for bypass roads, the spokesman added.

“The total loss sustained by the bridge-owner is estimated at 400,000 rubles ($16,000). However, repair works for the energy company will cost over a million rubles ($40,500),” the spokesman said.

The new bridge will be made of reinforced concrete, instead of steel, and repair works will take at least a month, the spokesman added.
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This article tickled me: I have seen in my time a lot of crazy things. The criminals should be caught unless the locals hide them. (That is a lot of bridge for scrap metal!)

Yes the Oak plank criminals were caught: The men who took the planks built a barn,and that could have been the end of the story. But every plank had a State Seal burned into the end and middle of the plank! So being intelligent enough to steal the planks they did not notice that all over their barn was 20 to 25 little pictures of the State of Missouri!

This was a hidden memory until I read this article on stolen Russian Bridge! Strange how memories can be activated?

Did you ever see anything like a bridge that just disappeared?

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

RBC, 15.01.2008, Moscow 15:54:25.West Siberian Resources (WSR) and Alliance Oil Company are poised to sign a final merger agreement in early February, the Russian oil company’s press office stated today. Meanwhile, the merger has yet to be approved by each company’s Board of Directors, as well as by WSR’s shareholders at a general meeting scheduled for late February, the Swedish oil producer indicated in a statement. In addition, approval from antitrust agencies will be needed. The merger is expected to be completed at the beginning of March. WSR and Alliance announced the signing of a memorandum of intent for the creation of a vertically integrated company earlier today. To achieve this, WSR will issue 1,783,540,968 common shares, or 60 percent of the company’s share capital after the issue, in favor of Alliance’s shareholders. Once Alliance becomes WSR’s subsidiary, the Russian company’s shareholders will retain a 60-percent stake in it. The total market capitalization of the joint company is expected to reach some $2.5bn.

RBC, 15.01.2008, Kiev 13:45:33.According to unofficial data, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko’s visit to Russia can take place in the near future, a source close to the republic’s government told RBC today. It is quite possible that Timoshenko will come to Moscow before the end of January. Ukraine’s Embassy in Moscow has confirmed the fact that PM’s visit was being planned, adding that Russian and Ukrainian Foreign Ministries were in talks on the visit time frame.(Click: read more for more news!)

RBC, 15.01.2008, Moscow 13:36:43.Central Banks of Russia and Cyprus have singed a memorandum of understanding on the basis of recommendations made by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision concerning consolidation and cooperation in banking supervisory matters, the Bank of Russia indicated in a statement today. The two banks are planning to exchange information on licencing procedures, combat money laundering and sponsorship of terrorist organizations, supervise the development of the banking sectors in accordance with national laws, among other things.

RBC, 15.01.2008, Moscow 09:44:23.Russian bank accounts frozen by France’s judicial authorities have no funds that belong to the Russian government, the Russian Finance Ministry said in an official statement on Monday. The ministry stressed that the money was attached without a prior notification issued to the Russian government or the holders of the blocked accounts. According to the ministry’s statement, French law enforcement officers froze Russian organizations’ bank accounts at several French banks in Paris on January 2. These included the accounts of the RIA Novosti news agency and several deposits placed by the Central Bank of Russia. According to legal documents sent to French banks, the seizures were in line with a Stockholm arbitration court ruling made in favor of the company Swiss company Noga in 1997.

RBC, 14.01.2008, Chisinau 19:36:39.Moldova’s inflation reached 13.1 percent in 2007, Moldova’s National Bureau of Statistics reported. Specifically, prices for foodstuffs rose 15.4 percent, nonfood prices increased 11.6 percent, and tariffs on services climbed 13 percent. In 2006, the country’s inflation amounted to 14.1 percent. Meanwhile, in December 2007 alone, inflation stood at 0.9 percent, with prices for foods gaining 1.4 percent, those for non-food goods moving up 0.8 percent, and the cost of services inching up 0.2 percent. Moldova’s government proposes to keep inflation within the planned range of 10 percent in 2008.

RBC, 14.01.2008, Moscow 18:29:48.Foreign car sales jumped 61 percent to 1,645,630 cars in Russia in 2007 compared to a year earlier, the automobile manufacturers’ committee of the Association of European Business in Russia indicated in a statement today. In December, foreign car sales rose 50 percent to 178,095 cars against the same month in 2006. The most popular foreign car brand on the Russian market in 2007 was Chevrolet, with sales of 190,553 cars, including GM-AVTOVAZ’s share. Ford was in the second place with 175,793 cars sold, and Hyundai came in third with sales of 147,843 cars.

RBC, 14.01.2008, Moscow 15:24:30.Two hours before the close of today’s special dollar trading session for tomorrow deals, the high on deals remained unchanged at 24.30 RUB/USD, while the low was down RUB 0.04, at 24.45 RUB/USD, dragging the weighted average dollar exchange rate to 24.28 RUB/USD, RUR0.01 below the official rate set by the Bank of Russia for January 15. The dollar’s continued decline on MICEX has been triggered by the dollar’s almost unremitting depreciation against the euro on international exchanges, where the latter is now trading at nearly USD1.4910, up from less than USD1.4870 this morning. Considering the current developments on the domestic and global markets, the ruble can be expected to keep strengthening against the dollar at the next special session.

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Today I want to tell you about Winnie the Pooh! Oh, no! You all know about Winnie the Pooh, I am sure you read the book by Alan Alexander Milne and watched hundreds of series of Winnie the Pooh by Disney! Winnie the Pooh is very popular! You can see him everywhere: on cup of your little son or an application on a dress of your little niece. Even we; have sheets with Winnie the Pooh. They are very good by the way ;).

No, I will not tell you about Winnie the Pooh I’ll tell you about Vinni Puh or even better, I’ll show you a cartoon about Vinni Puh! Who is Vinni Puh? Vinni Puh is Russian version of Winnie the Pooh. Russian writer of children book Boris Zahoder had read the story of Alexander Milne in 1958. He liked this book very much and decided to retell the story for Soviet kids. And soviet cartoon-studia “Souzemulfilm” made 3 cartoons about Vinni Puh. (Part 2: Here)

Today we will watch the fist cartoon: “Vinni Puh gets acquainted with several very strange bees”(1969).

What else I can tell: Cartoons about Vinni Puh were our favorite. People in Russia picked up some phrases from the cartoons and still use them today!

Это “Жжж” не с проста – This Bzzzz could not be without reason (When Vinni sits under the Oak and hear some strange Bzzzz)
Кажется дождь собирается – It seems it will be raining.. (When Vinni tries to pretend he is a cloud, and Piglet/Pyatachok, walks under umbrella near the oak)

If you like this cartoon, we will post the rest? There are three of the series!

Do you want to see the other two?

Best wishes for all!
Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

I have an article on this subject earlier! Now I have found a video that explains the issue better about what Coke has done to upset Russians!

What do I think?

I think that Coke needs to stay with neutral advertising. In Russia, the Red Coke Bottle is enough. Don’t play with cultures that you are not familiar with!

Coke has had its issues in America, you would think that they would learn! Or are they doing this on purpose? (Read this article and you might think that they know what they are doing.)

Kyle & Svet
comments always welcome.

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“Russia’s government has approved the federal bill on the RF joining the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The respective decision was taken at the cabinet’s meeting.
Joining the convention means Russia will introduce a number of restrictions for cigarette producers in the nearest five years, banning the tobacco advertising, sponsorship and sales promotion in part and in whole.

Any state that signed the convention has three years to eliminate any chance for misleading a buyer as to the supposedly lower harm done by the light or superlight cigarettes vs. the ordinary ones. The tobacco producers will have to inform about all components of tobacco smoke and the warning inscription will cover at least 30 percent of each pack.

According to the WHO, smoking tobacco kills each fourth in Russia. Passive smoking is of equal danger, as it increases the risk of lung cancer by 34 percent and the risk of vascular pathology by 50 percent.”(link)
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“Russians die not of disease, but of alcohol, smoking and bad diet. And no proper measures capable of easing the effects of these factors are anywhere in sight,” says the daily.

“Talking about low birth rates in Russia is a habit,” the daily quotes Kirill Danishevsky, a consultant at the Open Institute of Health, as saying. “In the meantime, in this respect we are little different from the European countries. It is a far more complex puzzle why we and our near neighbors – Ukraine and Belarus – are states unique from the standpoint of mortality statistics. On the average Russian men die at the age of 56-58, while many of their counterparts in the West live to 78.

Medics say over-drinking kills 500,000 people with heart problems. Most of them had never complained about bad health. Few know that two bottles of vodka consumed over a period of less than two hours are a lethal dose for most Russians. Analysts say that on holidays and on weekends many of those who drink fall short of the lethal dose by a very narrow margin.

One hundred and sixty thousand of those who die of injuries are victims of hard drinking as well. Alcohol is involved in nearly 80 percent of all murders. These are committed not by maniacs or habitual felons, but by drinking pals.

Tobacco is the second worst killer. According to estimates, 65 percent of Russian men and 30 percent of women are chain smokers. About half of them die of smoking-related diseases.

Kyle

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RBC, 08.01.2008, Tbilisi 13:45:11.Georgian presidential candidate Levan Gachechiladze and the leaders of the united opposition forces of Georgia appeared at the country’s Central Election Commission demanding the dismissal of its chairman Levan Tarkhnishvili today. Gachechiladze called the election chief “a fraud, who has falsified the election on a nationwide scale” and said that the opposition leaders would continue their appearances in the commission building until they’ve achieved victory. In turn, Tarkhnishvili denied the accusations of rigging the vote and claimed that the opposition forces were threatening the commission. He called on those who were displeased with the election to appeal the results in district polling stations, the Central Election Commission, and in court. The election chief explained to journalists that the election was impossible to rig, if only, because practically all opposition parties were represented at all the levels of election administration.

RBC, 08.01.2008, Tbilisi 12:16:58.The Central Election Commission of Georgia has announced the results of the presidential election from 95 percent of the country’s polling stations. According to the results, Mikhail Saakashvili was still leading the race with 52.1 percent. Levan Gachechiladze was in second place with 24.99 percent, while other candidates had gained less than 7 percent of the vote. Therefore, the election authorities have concluded that the early presidential election will be completed in one round. The commission is currently continuing to count the remaining votes. The Central Election Commission has not yet announced the results of a referendum regarding Georgia’s entry to NATO and the date of the next parliamentary election. According to exit polls, some 61 percent of voters cast their ballots in support of Georgia’s NATO membership, and 63.6 percent voted for holding a parliamentary election in the spring. It is expected that the official results of the referendum will be announced within a week….(Click: read more for lots of exciting news!)

RBC, 08.01.2008, Moscow 11:37:34.Armenia’s trade deficit amounted to just shy of $1.81bn, or 22.9 percent of GDP, from January to November 2007, ARMINFO reported. According to the republic’s National Statistics Service, Armenia’s foreign trade grew 39.1 percent in the first 11 months of 2007 and 10.8 percent in November alone, to $3.933bn. Trade with the EU rose 37.3 percent to $1.497bn, with exports amounting to $516.6m and imports $981m. Trade with countries outside the CIS reached $1.147bn, and $1.288bn with the CIS. Armenia’s key trade partners in terms of exports are Russia (17.3 percent of Armenia’s overall exports), Germany (14.5 percent), the Netherlands (13.4 percent), Belgium (8.8 percent), Georgia (7.5 percent), Switzerland (4.6 percent), and the US (4.3 percent). The primary importers to Armenia are Russia (15.6 percent of total imports), Ukraine (7.8 percent), Kazakhstan (7.3 percent), Germany (6.8 percent), China (5.9 percent), and the US (4.6 percent).

RBC, 08.01.2008, Moscow 10:37:27.Moscow is seriously concerned about the continuing turmoil in Palestinian-Israeli relations, Mikhail Kamynin, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, told reporters, commenting on the situation in Palestinian territories. He noted that Russia condemned and considered unacceptable the attacks from the Gaza strip directed at Israeli towns, and referred to them as acts of terrorism that had to be stopped. Kamynin called on Israel and the Palestinians to keep to their obligations under the road map of political settlement in order to achieve peaceful and safe coexistence between Israel and the Palestinian Authority on the western bank of the Jordan river and the Gaza Strip. According to Kamynin, Russia will continue to assist in this both on a bilateral basis and within the framework of the international quartet of Middle East mediators.

RBC, 03.01.2008, Tashkent 15:42:12.The state-owned Uzbekistan Railways has signed an agreement with Transpromresurs (Russia) to upgrade its diesel locomotive fleet for $54m. The project to be financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has been designed for a term of two years. The entire project worth $83m provides for the construction of a locomotive assembly facility with a capacity of 292 locomotive sections a year based on the Uzbekistan Railways’ maintenance subsidiary. The project is to be financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Uzbek company. Experts believe that with a stable growth of 7 percent on average, the total cargo traffic will reach 70m tonnes by 2012.

RBC, 03.01.2008, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus has called on Russia to admit the fact that Lithuania had been occupied by the Soviet Union, and pay damages to the republic, Echo of Moscow radio reported on Monday. Lithuania wants $28 billion in compensation, according to estimates announced by Lithuanian officials and experts a few years ago. This is not the first time that Vilnius has made such demands in connection with the so-called ‘Soviet occupation’. In 1939, the republic’s pro-Communist forces formed an alternative people’s government, which invited the USSR to send in its troops into Lithuania. Later it applied for membership in the Soviet Union.

Kyle

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