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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