Predicted Power Share?

Mr Medvedev won a landslide election victory this month and will replace Mr Putin, who is expected to become his prime minister, in May.

The president-elect told the Financial Times newspaper that the president and government had clearly defined roles. He praised Mr Putin for adhering to the constitution in serving just two terms.

Mr Medvedev said: "It is the president who decides the main positions in domestic and foreign policy. "He is the supreme commander-in-chief, and he takes the key decisions in forming the executive powers. He is the guarantor of the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens."

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Of course as early polls had predicted Medvedev swept the competition in the elections. Now he is pledging that Russia is on the road to change with the successful and peaceful transition of power. While these are good and possibly could lead to change, I believe we should just hold our breath until Medvedev has been in office for a while.

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US Missles in Europe.....Probably Not

George W. Bush accepted Moscow’s invitation and will come to Russia to meet Vladimir Putin. The US-Russian presidential meeting will take place on April 6 in the city of Sochi, on the Black Sea coast of Russia, after the NATO Summit and after Bush’s visit to Croatia.

“We are glad that President Bush accepted President Putin’s invitation to hold a work meeting and discuss a wide range of questions,” an official spokesman for the Russian presidential administration, Sergei Prikhodko said.

Bush’s national security advisor Steven Hadley said that the forthcoming talks will give an opportunity to estimate the achieved progress and see if the two countries can solve serval other problems.

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So Bush will meet once again with Putin. This time the only real issue the United States is trying to push is the missile defense system. However, this may prove to be another waste of time seeing how Russia doesn't trust the US, and neither does the US trust Russia. With both countries trying to make sure the other won't stab them in the back nothing can be accomplished. So for the sake of truth please no one get there hopes up about a missile defense system, because Russia will not have it.

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Pepsi Gets Juiced In Russia

PepsiCo Inc. and its biggest bottler said Thursday that they are paying $1.4 billion to buy a majority stake in Russia's biggest juice company, JSC Lebedyansky. That price tag that makes it PepsiCo's biggest acquisition since it bought The Quaker Oats Co. in 2001 and its biggest foreign acquisition ever, PepsiCo International chief executive Mike White said. "It's a strategic home run for PepsiCo," White said. White said the deal fits two criteria...

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Pepsi is greatly expanding their business world wide. In Spanish countries pepsi is a monopoly, in no time pepsi will own every big foreign company in the world.

Russia launches German spy satellite

A Russian Cosmos 3M carrier rocket carrying a German SAR-Lupe satellite has been launched from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia, a Russian Space Forces spokesman said Thursday.

Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin said the German satellite would be orbited at 8:43 p.m. Moscow time (17:43 GMT).

The launch was originally scheduled for March 25, but was postponed twice due to bad weather.
The German SAR-Lupe satellite is designed to provide high-resolution radar images to NATO military commanders in Europe. It offers spatial resolution of less than 1 meter, and allows imaging at night and through clouds.

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The way technology has evolved is amazing. Through time we are able to do great things, even our enemies we are able to detect any suspicious activity, through this new technology we have created.

Russia proposes bird flu vaccine cooperation with Southeast Asia

Russia is ready to cooperate with Southeast Asia in producing bird flu vaccines, officials from the country's leading vaccine company said at an international bird flu summit that opened on Bali Thursday. The 6th International Bird Flu Summit aims to gather the world's leading specialists in the field to discuss the latest progress and methods in the fight against...

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It is good that Russia has decided to cooperate with Asia on a vaccine, but it should not have taken this long. While people are dying from the disease the two countries cannot decide if they want a vaccine, that is really sad.

Jobs for Russian's in Iraq

President Vladimir Putin lobbied Iraq's prime minister Monday on behalf of Russian companies trying to get a cut of contracts for rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure, particularly its crucial oil and gas sector.

In a message sent to Nouri al-Maliki, Putin said the huge West Qurna oil field was of particular interest, and he noted Russia was expanding its diplomatic presence in Iraq.

The message came two days after Iraq's Oil Ministry invited local and international oil companies to bid for contracts providing technical support for two major oil fields in the southern and northern regions.

"Our companies are ready to increase their contribution to the restoration and modernization of the economic infrastructure of Iraq, primarily in the energy, oil and gas sectors where we have accumulated rich experience and made good arrangements," Putin said, according to a Kremlin statement.

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Russia has apparently gained an interest in the affairs of Iraq, but rather than wanting to send troops or anything like that they wish to acquire jobs from the rebuilding. Again Russia is expanding as a power in the world and possibly even feeding off of the misfortune of Iraq.

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More Economic Freedom

The lower house of Russia's parliament, the Duma, passed legislation Friday limiting the ability of foreigners to invest in industrial sectors considered as strategic. Colin McCullough reports for VOA from Moscow this came shortly after the Russian government announced the arrest of two Russian-Americans on charges of industrial espionage.

The Duma passed a bill restricting foreign investment in 42 sectors labeled strategic, including the manufacture and sale of military hardware, the nuclear industry, the extraction of mineral resources and mass media.

The bill says that any foreign private investor wanting to buy more than a 50 percent share of a company in any of the designated sectors will need approval from a commission composed of economic and security officials.

Foreign state-controlled companies will have to go through the same procedure if they want to acquire more than a 25-percent stake in a Russian company on the list.

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The law passed to "protect" the Russian economy looks as if it will continue to limit it. The economy already scored low in The Heritage Foundation's ratings posted earlier, and these numbers may continue to go down now that this law is going into effect. By limiting foreign investments into its economy Russia may very well be hindering its growth.

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Egypt Nuclear With Russia

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak heads for Russia on Monday where he is expected to get assurances of Russian assistance to build a nuclear facility.

A bilateral nuclear power deal was outlined last week and is expected to be signed
during the visit.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu Al-Gheit said the pact would enable Egypt to tap into Russia's extensive experience in the field of nuclear energy.

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Egypt is looking for Russia for support in building their own nuclear facilities. They say that Russia has much experience and will be able to offer them much advice. It has yet to be seen as to whether or not it is good that Russia has experience in this field. This pact is also another example of Russia getting more involved in the global community.

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Russia announced last week it was lifting trade restrictions on Abkhazia which then called for recognition of its self-declared independence. EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said there was a "growing pre-occupation and anxiety" that Moscow was planning recognition.

Georgia has accused Russia of encouraging separatism. Ms Ferrero-Waldner said: "Georgia's territorial integrity has always been clearly supported by the EU... this is absolutely clear." She said Sweden and Poland had written to the EU to ask for more to be done to maintain stability in Georgia before parliamentary elections there in May.

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Once again the finger is pointed at Russia. This has been done so rightly though. Russia has been said to be pushing for the splitting up of Jordan. Maybe not as harsh as people make it sound, but Russia spokesmen stated "they just wanted the country to seek the truth." Russia is just trying to cause conflict elsewhere. Really though, what else is new?

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Russia and India Over?

It seems that they are moving further and further apart over a number of issues. Their leaders still visit each other's countries and rarely miss any opportunity to emphasise their decades-old ties. But nagging doubts remain over their ability to redefine their relationship in a fast-changing world.

The Admiral Gorschkov is a good example. From a negotiated price of $700m, the Russians subsequently demanded $1.2bn with delivery delayed till 2013. Around the same time, the Indian navy has refused to accept an upgraded diesel-powered submarine after delays in the installation of a missile system.

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Over the recent years with Russia trying to regain its status among world nations, India has taking a step back. They look at Russia as an unstable and undecided country. With trade between the two being one of the few ways Russia is staying afloat, these conflicts could be decide how Russia will come out in the end. Both sides deny the relationship between the countries is souring, but only acts and time will tell.

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Fake Vodka? (100th Post)

MOSCOW (AFP) — Russian prosecutors have confiscated thousands of bottles of illegal Olympic vodka, six years before the Winter Olympic Games come to Russia, an official said Wednesday.

Close to 14,000 bottles of vodka that used the Olympic name without permission were confiscated last month, according to a statement on the website for the prosecutor's office in the southern province of Krasnodar.

"It's the first such case" involving vodka production in the run-up to the winter Olympics to be held in Sochi in 2014, Yelena Kozyr, a spokesman for the Krasnodar prosecutors said on Wednesday.

The vodka, called Olympic, bore the Olympic symbol of five interlocking rings and the words Sochi 2014. The Black Sea coastal town of Sochi was chosen as the host of the games last year.

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Well clearly they were preparing for the future. By the time the Olympic games rolled around there would definitely have been enough vodka to go around, if it had not been confiscated by the government. Well I guess the importance of this post doesn't lie as much in the vodka as it does Russia being the host for the 2014 Olympic games. The Olympics and the way the games run can create positive relations for country and positive media coverage. Russia can show off what they have to offer and provide a place for people to come and enjoy sports of all kinds, but incidents of this nature (fake vodka or just fake items in general) can create a bad name for Russia. Sure it happens everywhere, a black market and ripped off goods, but its never good media when they are found. But Russia is setting a positive example by confiscating it and seeing that people don't get ripped off.

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Russia’s oldest person dies at age 118

Russia’s oldest person, Varvara Semennikova, died at age 117 on March 9. The woman would have turned 118 in May of this year. A resident of the Republic of Yakutia, the woman was recognized as the oldest of all long-living Russian citizens, Interfax reports.

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It is amazing that people can live this long, I know depending on what area of the world you live in, can determine your life expediency. People in the US do not live very long, mavbe there is a reason why?

One cigarette may kill mankind

World's first anti-tobacco treaty came into force three years ago - the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Russia did not ratify the document.

The countries that ratified the Convention were supposed to reorganize their legislation: to ban the tobacco advertising and smoking in public places, to place clearly visible warnings of health hazard on cigarette packs and try to decrease the number of smokers in their countries within five years.
Russia has not ratified the convention yet, but it still tries to struggle against smoking, albeit not too active. The tobacco advertising is banned on Russian TV, but it does appear in Russian newspapers. Nearly every other character appears in Russian-made films smoking. Smoking in public places is also banned in Russia, but nobody will arrest you for smoking in a cafe.

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We all know that smoking kills in the long turn, it is good that Russia is banning smoking the amount of people dieing will be reduced, but if only the US banned smoking we would be better off.

Russia Upgrades fighter Jets

Russia has made yet another accomplishment for its defense industry as it won a billion-dollar contract from India to upgrade about 70 MiG fighter jets.

An official spokesman for Russia’s MiG design bureau said that the five-year contract stipulates Russia’s participation in the installment of new radars, weapons control systems and the improvement of engines for MiG-29 fighters. Some of the planes to be upgraded date back to the 1980s.

India has long been a leading customer of Russia’s defense industry, but its relationship with Russia soured recently amid a dispute over the refurbishment of a Soviet-built aircraft carrier. A Russian shipyard had fallen far behind schedule and demanded a higher price for its work, prompting protests from the Indians.

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India has recently wanted countries to sign major arms deals with them. Countries such as Russia, Sweden, and other European countries have been offered the arms deals. Russia has taken the most recent one. They will refurbish around 30 fighter jets and sell more than 150 new ones to them. However India may be asking Russia to take some of the planes back because of quality concerns. Either way this is a major step for Russia, it will allow their economy to boom and will help recover the relationship between India and Russia.

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Russia Approves EU Mission to Chad

Russia has approved the deployment of helicopters to bolster an EU peacekeeping force along Chad's border with the Darfur region of Sudan, the Russian defense minister said Tuesday.

The deployment would be the first direct Russian contribution to an EU military mission, an EU official said, though technical and legal details of the plan were still being discussed, and no timeline was announced.


Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, has already approved the mission and government funds have been allocated, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said during a visit to Paris.


The EU force's mission to Chad and neighboring Central African Republic is to help limit possible spillover from the fighting in Sudan's western Darfur region. It is expected to be fully deployed by June with 3,800 troops from at least 14 countries.



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Russia has made its first large contribution to an EU military mission by allocating funds and helicopters for a mission in Chad. The Darfur region is in much turmoil right now, and it says something about Russia's foreign relations to allocate a resource such as that and help in the EU.

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Assessment Complete

Billionares in Russia

Boosted by soaring oil and commodity prices, the ranks of the country's billionaires have swollen to 87, up from 53 a year ago,
according to Forbes' new world rich list, released Thursday. Forbes' richest Russian, Oleg Deripaska, the majority owner of aluminum giant United Company RusAl, stormed up from 40th to 9th on the list with an estimated fortune of $28 billion -- leaving Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich, the former No. 1, trailing in his wake.

With 19 of the global top 100, Russia also now boasts more billionaires than any other country apart from the United States. The 87 Russians on the list have a combined wealth of just over $470 billion -- or more than twice the country's GDP when Putin came to power in 2000. The Russian billionaires are also the youngest from any major economy, with an average age of 46, compared with a global average of 61.


Deripaska broke into the world top 10 for the first time on the strength of his Russian Aluminum merging with two other companies to create the world's top producer of primary aluminum.

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The results of this list show that while Russia economy suffers there are some that are rich beyond imagination. The break between the lower class and higher class is extremely large and there is very little of a middle class. The primary way the billionares have gain their money are by milking the country of its natural resources such as; oil and alluminum. Instead of paying their workers decent or regualar wages, they cut their pay to hold on to their newly gained profit.

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Oil War between Russia and Ukraine

It seems that Ukraine is not going to sit on its hands and watch Russia cutting its gas shipments to the former Soviet nation. Naftogaz, the Ukrainian oil and gas corporation, informed Russia’s Gazprom that it would reduce the amount of transit gas shipments to European countries. A telegram from Naftogaz to Gazprom said that Ukraine was going to cut gas supplies to Western Europe by 60 million cubic meters a day.

"It means that Gazprom will supply this amount of gas to Ukraine, but it won't reach European consumers," a spokesman for the Russian natural gas monopoly, Sergei Kupriyanov said. He said the Naftogaz move will result in supplies of Russian gas to other parts of Europe dropping from some 386 million cubic meters to about 325 million a day.

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Further increasing the tensions between Ukraine and Russia, Russia's company Gazprom is cutting gas supplies. They are cutting supplies to different parts of Europe up to 61 million cubic meters a day. Gazprom is also refusing to pay fee to Ukraine although Gazprom agrues that they have paid all the fees. The butting heads of these two companies will get them nowhere. It is only futhering the tensions between the two countries. With Gazproms supplies shrinking this could begin to hurt Russia's economy even more.

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World’s oldest artist lives in Moscow

Moisei Feigin, who turned 103 in 2007, got in Guinness Book as the oldest working artist in the world. He is the last of living members of the artistic group “Jack Diamonds” founded in 1912.

An application form to Guinness Book was submitted by Feigin’s agents while he was in hospital. However, Guinness Book representative Beatrice Fernandez said that Feidin’s name probably won’t get in paper edition of the book. “Our book has about 3000 new records annually. I can’t guarantee that all of them will get in the book. The final decision is up to the editor”, - she said.

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In th early 20th century artist were renounce for their work, in today's society mot people do not care. This shows a change in history, but also creates history for Russia.

Russia bans blood and death of Happy Tree Friends

Russia’s Federal Service supervising the field of mass communications and the nation’s cultural inheritance issued a formal notice to 2x2 TV channel in connection with the broadcast of cartoon series propagandizing brutality and violence.

It goes about “The Adventures of Big Jeff” and “Happy Tree Friends” cartoon series. Specialists concluded that the series propagandize the cult of violence and brutality, cause damage to health, to the moral and spiritual development of a child and infringe upon public morality. Such violations break Article 4 of the Russian Federation Law “On Mass Media.”

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In today's society people enjoy violence, back in the early days the people hated violence. Today chrildren at a young are being exposed to innapropiate images either by tv or computer, I am glad Russia is taking a stand for the exposure of violence in that country.

Gorbachev's Thoughts

The only president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, wrote an article for The Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper about the recent
presidential election in Russia. In the article Mr. Gorbachev expressed his opinion to alter the nation’s election system. He particularly offered to retrieve the direct gubernatorial elections and return to the mixed voting system during parliamentary elections.

“I took part in the election and urged my relatives, friends and all Russian citizens to go to the polls and use their voting right in spite of the fact that it was a predictable election. The result was predetermined with Vladimir Putin’s popularity. He supported Dmitry Medvedev and agreed to chair the cabinet of ministers in case of his victory. That was a peculiar feature of the recent election. Many treated such a situation rather critically,” Gorbachev wrote.

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I find it interesting that he is still giving input to the Russian government after fifteen years of being out of power. However from what I have read here it seems as if Gorbachev's main focus is poverty. It surprised me that his focus was on poverty instead of how the "democratic" elections were bad, or how he would like to come to power. It seems almost as if this Soviet leader just wants Russia to get back on its feet. However, I do believe that this is the view of everyone in Russia these days. The only want to get back to their prime and become semi-powerful once again.

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Boriska, boy from Mars, says that all humans live eternally

A boy named Boris Kipriyanovich, or Boriska, lives in the town of Zhirinovsk of Russia’s Volgograd region. He was born on January 11, 1996. Since he was four he used to visit a well-known anomalous zone, commonly referred to as Medvedetskaya Gryada – a mountain near the town. It seems that the boy needed to visit the zone regularly to fulfill his needs in energy.

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In the media you hear constly about made up stories and people who try to get noticed. This boys claim is unrealistic and he is only saying these claims in order to get media attention.

Hunger for Speech

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — A Russian opposition leader accused of hitting a policeman has gone on a hunger strike to protest his detainment, which he believes is politically motivated, his lawyer said Wednesday.


Maxim Reznik, leader of the Yabloko party in St. Petersburg, began the hunger strike on Tuesday, when a city court ruled that he should remain in custody for two months while the case is under investigation, attorney Boris Gruzd said.


Reznik was arrested before an anti-Kremlin protest was to take place Monday, led by former chess champion Garry Kasparov. Reznik is a St. Petersburg organizer of the protests held by Kasparov's opposition coalition.



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In the US freedom of speech and peaceful protest are rights that we may sometimes take for granted, but as seen in this article these rights are rare in Russia. A man supposedly having a peaceful protest over Sunday's election was detained for two months. That is another thing that would not happen in the US. He is not being charged, just held until they can "research." Two months is a long time to research over a protest march. Will these violations of rights continue or will Medvedev lead to change.

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To change or not to change? That is the question...

Russia's presidential election this weekend may have been flawed, but it reflected that most Russians are pleased with the nation's strong economy and assertive foreign policy, experts and election observers said Monday.

Such views make it unlikely that President-elect Dmitry Medvedev, at least initially, will embark on a far different course from his predecessor and mentor, Vladimir Putin.

Medvedev (pronounced med-VEHD-ev) vowed to uphold Putin's policies. "We will increase stability, improve the quality of life and move forward on the path we have chosen," he said. "We will be able to preserve the course of President Putin."

Medvedev is "going to have an unreceptive public for any real changes … because a lot of people are satisfied," said Toby Gati, who was a State Department official under President Bill Clinton.

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Change has occurred in the form of a new President, but seeing as how Medvedev was handpicked by Putin, the policy of the country will most likely not change. Putin most likely supported him because he knew that he would be willing to follow his path and not change the path that Russia is going down. Though the article does say that the country is content with the way it is run, so maybe that is the way that they should live.

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Russia...Voter Fraud?...Never!

The two top rivals to the man who appears to have won Russia's presidential election alleged violations Sunday, Russian news agencies reported.

Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov and ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky spoke out after electoral officials and exit polls pointed to an easy victory for Kremlin-backed candidate Dmitry Medvedev, Vladimir Putin's favored successor.

"It seems that we don't have elections but a procedure of confirming the appointed president," Interfax quoted Zhirinovsky as saying. "This disgusts not me but the citizens of Russia."

The remarks were striking for Zhirinovsky, whose presidential bid was widely seen as a Kremlin-supported move to lend legitimacy to the vote, in which Medvedev's victory was a foregone conclusion.

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As predicted Medvedev won with a hefty margin of the votes, but his competitors aren't satisfied. Apparently they feel that they didn't have a chance in the election. One would most likely have to agree with them. Putin did hold a power over his people, and he is passing this on to Medvedev. If a person doesn't know better then of course Russia is a great country, but in actuality it is not quite the democracy that the US is. Zhirinovsky made the comment that the overwhelming win by Medvedev upset the citizens of Russia, and I may not know much but if 70% of them voted for him they can't be too upset. If Russia is to ever get out of the rut they will have to kick it into high gear, but most citizens are content just as they are, avoiding change.

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Assessment Complete