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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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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