Viz Top Tip advice for FSB

Reading about the inquiry into the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, which began yesterday, I am reminded of a Viz Top Tip of many years ago:

"INTERNATIONAL master criminals. Tell your guards to shoot James Bond in the head at the first opportunity. Under no circumstances give him a guided tour of your base, or leave him in the custody of attractive women in bikinis."

Similar advice could be given to would-be FSB assassins:

"shoot your renegade operatives in the head at the first opportunity rather than try three times to poison them with a cup of tea laced with expensive radioactive material which can be traced back to you door"

Alexander Litvinenko, a former officer of the FSB (the Russian security service) died from radiation poisoning in 2006.  He had left the FSB, where he specialised in organised crime, and fled to the UK where he became a fierce critic of the Kremlin and worked for security service MI6.  His wife's lawyer has described his murder as "an act of state-sponsored nuclear terrorism on the streets of London" and the blame for his murder being placed directly at the Russian state. 

It is beyond my capacity to comment on the murky world of espionage, organised crime and the nefarious activities of Russian oligarchs, but I reckon it was Boris Berezovsky.

Happy Christmas - c Rozhdyestvom -Russian Orthodox Christmas

Merry Christmas from Dave's Russia page and blog.

The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates religious holidays according to the Julian calendar. Russia uses the Gregorian calendar for secular purposes since 1918, so today is Christmas day in Russia.

https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/russia/christmas-day

25 Years Ago - First Soviet McDonalds opens in Moscow

http://englishrussia.com/2015/01/30/first-mcdonalds-in-soviet-union-biggest-launch-event-in-the-world/

http://blog.therussiahouse.net/2014/10/ten-mcdonalds-restaurants-closed-in.html

Happy Christmas - c Rozhdyestvom

Merry Christmas from Dave's Russia page and blog. ok so it's a few days early for the Russian Orthodox date for Christmas. This is a Russian themed chistmas decoration I painted it 14 years ago and dug out the loft for the fist time in about 10 years. 

Russian Financial Crisis: Keep Calm & Carry On

"Russia is never as strong as it seems, but at the same time, it's never as weak as it seems"
Thane Gustafson, Capitalism Russian-Style.

I think it is worth remembering this quote when considering the turmoil currently affecting the economy and financial markets in Russia.

In his 1999 book "Capitalism Russian-Style", tells how the Soviet system was dismantled and the new market society was born, and examines the prospects for a Russian economic miracle in the twenty-first century.  He describes Russian achievements in building private banks, companies, stock exchanges, new laws and law courts; and looks at the role of the mafia, the new financial empires, entrepreneurs, business tycoons, and the shrinking Russian state. 

Following the hyperinflation, economic dislocation and infrastructure collapse of the post-Soviet period in the early nineties, the Russian economy then survived the 1998 crisis, and again in 2008 following the global financial crisis.

Given the "windfall" oil receipts its has enjoyed over the last 14 years, I m sure Russia is better prepared than before to weather the current storm.

Life is bitter without Sakharov

It is 25 years since the death of Andrei Sakharov - human rights activist, nuclear physicist and father of the Soviet H Bomb. Following his work on developing is work on the hydrogen bomb, he became increasingly concerned over the use of nuclear weapons.  His famous 1968 essay "Progress, Peaceful Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom" was distributed underground "samizdat" in the USSR and smuggled out to the west.   This propelled him into the public sphere (in Russia and abroad) and set him on a course which would set him against the Soviet authorities.  Having become convinced that the goals of peace, progress and human rights were inextricably linked, he became an active campaigner and defender of human rights in the USSR.  

His international recognition and status as Hero of Socialist Labour, afforded him some protection from the full repressive force of the authorities , suffered by other "dissidents", nevertheless he was exiled in 1980 to the closed city of Gorky (off-limits to foreigners), now Nizhny Novgorod, following his vocal opposition to the 1979 invasion of Afganistan.

Gorbachev allowed him to return to Moscow in 1986, as a consequence of the policies of perestroika and glasnost, 

In March 1989, Sakharov was elected to the new parliament, the All-Union Congress of People's Deputies and co-led the democratic opposition, the Inter-Regional Deputies Group. He remained a thorn in the side of the authorities - at the December session of the twice-yearly congress, Gorbachev berated nuclear physicist and human rights campaigner Andrei Sakharov in a televised debate in which Sakharov was demanding a true multi-party system.  Andrei Sakharov died the next day of a heart attack aged 68.

Since Soviet times, Russia has made real progress in the development and protection of human rights. However, the increasingly authoritarian nature of the Russian state, curbs on freedom, closure of non-governmental organisations, harassment of the independent press, and attacks on protesters raise concerns over human rights and suggests that much work is still to be done in this area.  

Russia still needs a Sakharov.

A mourner at his funeral held a banner stating "life without Sakharov is bitter!" which is a play on the Russian saying  "life without sugar is bitter" (sakharov being the genitive plural for sakhar - sugar). Ironically, the word "bitter" in Russian is "gorky".

MIG Design Bureau - 75 years old

The Mikoyan and Gurevich Design Bureau, now known as the Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG, was founded on December 8, 1939. Aircraft designed by the bureau became the mainstay of the Soviet and Russian air forces, and have been widely used by armed forces all across the world.

http://sputniknews.com/photo/20141208/1015625521.html

NEWSFLASH - COLD WAR OFFICIALLY ENDED 25 YEARS AGO!

On 2 December 1989, the official end to the Cold War was declared at a summit between President George H. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev in Malta on 2 December 1989.  Has anyone told the Western media?

McDonald’s Moscow Restaurant Reopens After 3-Month Shutdown | Johnson's Russia List

McDonald’s Moscow Restaurant Reopens After 3-Month Shutdown | Johnson's Russia List

Historian discovers Cold War-era Russian spy map of Sunderland

http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/local/all-news/historian-discovers-cold-war-era-russian-spy-map-of-sunderland-1-6956843

Russian Language Notes: Костёр

Костёр = Bonfire

I love it when you find out something about your own language when you are studying another language.  I'm sure I knew that the word bonfire was originally a fire in which bones were burned, coming from came from Middle English banefire (late 15c.), but I must have forgotten this fact long ago.  So when I came across the Russian word for a bonfire, kostyor, noticing "kost" - the Russian the word for bone, I got that Eureka moment spotting the cognate.

http://bouncermangel.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/latin-primer.html

http://blog.therussiahouse.net/2013/03/russian-language-notes-hot-dogs.html
http://blog.therussiahouse.net/2013/07/its-better-to-see-once-than-hear.html

Ukraine PM: Evidence of Russian Interference in Ukraine Elections

Evil Empire interfering in Ukraine's Parliamentary Elections

Prize tit, Arseny Yatsenyuk - Ukraine's Prime Minister, is already blaming Russia for interfering in this Sunday's parliamentary elections, not sure how thought, unless he is thinking of the wrong Evil Empire.

Pushkin Square buskers 1993

One way Muscovites keep warm in mid-Winter is to dance in the street.  Although it was January when I took this picture, it was unseasonably warm - about null gradusov (zero degrees) but the damp weather still chilled to the bone.  What better way to stave off the chill than to dance along to a jazz quintet!

Me - too miserable to take part in the dancing

Ten McDonald’s Restaurants Closed in Russia

As a result of the mass unscheduled inspections by Russia's public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, the work of 10 McDonald's restaurants in Russia has been temporarily suspended. On the face of it, the restaurants have been closed because they failed these hygiene inspections, but it is suspected that it is part of Russia's response to Western sanctions that have been imposed.

McDonald's has 451 restaurants in Russia. Since August, Russian consumer protection officials have carried out over 200 safety inspections at various McDonald's premises throughout the country. Even the flagship McDonald's on Pushkin Square in Moscow has fallen victim to these failed inspections.  

Moscow’s first McDonald’s, the first one in Russia or the Soviet Union, was the largest McDonald’s in the world when it opened on Pushkin Square, 31st January 1990.   On that opening day, there was a line of customers of snaking around Pushkin Square. 30,000 customers were served during the restaurant's first day of business, a record for the opening day of a McDonald's restaurant.  The queues to get in would exist for quite some time after the opening, because at the time, it was one of the few places in Moscow where you could dine informally, in comfort, relatively cheaply, and where you would be served quickly by friendly staff. Oh, and it had the best toilets in Moscow!

I went in 1993, and while there weren't any queues to get it, it was still very busy.

View of Pushkin Square from inside McDonald's

Pushkin Autumn

Following my recent post about National Poetry Day  http://blog.therussiahouse.net/2014/10/national-poetry-day-think-of-poem.html, her are some more passages from Pushkin's Autumn courtesy of the Moscow Times. Quote for the day, or #ЦитатаДня from The Moscow Times

Every autumn I blossom anew; the Russian cold is good for my health.

Alexsandr Pushkin

October has come. The grove is already shaking the last leave from its naked branches.

Alexsandr Pushkin

ComicCon Russia

The Exhibition "ComicCon Russia" was held in Moscow last week, at the exhibition complexCrocus Expo.  Should it not have been held here instead . . .or am I living in the past?

Old COMECON building, Novy Arbat, Moscow

National Poetry Day - Think of A Poem

Today, in the UK, it is National Poetry Day.  This year’s theme is "Remember", so if you remember a poem, however short, you are encouraged to pass it on with hashtag #thinkofapoem. 

I caught the end of an article on the radio this morning where someone was extolling the virtues of memorising poetry - in terms of improving memory skills and helping those with dementia. Listeners of the show were encouraged to get involved and post some lines of of poetry they are able to recite from memory. 

Apparently, once you have commited something to memory, a poem for example, it is likely that you will remember it for years - even when the rest of your faculties have diminished.  There is something to be said for rote learning, but it has been out of faviour in the education system for 40 odd years now, because it is said that it doesn't promote critical learning and true understanding.  Supporters of rote learning would claim, however, if you know something off by heart, you are able to devote more mental resources to the critical thinking.

I don't know, but I did feel slightly ashamed that I am not able to recite a single poem.  I can, however, cite a couple of lines from Pushkin's poem Autumn - in Russian as well.

Here is the lines from the poem which I have transliterated and translated.

lyeko i radostno igrayet v sertstye krov

- lightly and joyfully the blood in my heart plays 

zhelaniya keepyat - ya snova schastliv, molod,

- desire seethes, I am again happy, youthful

ya snova zhizni poln - takov ma-ee arganeezm

- I am again full of life - such is my nature (organism)

I'm no translator, so I apologise if I have got that wrong.  This is just a few lines from a long peom by Pushkin which is an ode to the autumn season.

First General Richards, now Paddy Pantsdown

What's going on?  First we have General Richards, former UK army chief, calling for a rapprochement with Russia and expressing pro-Russian views, now Paddy Pantsdown is at it!  Sorry Lord Ashdown, but you will be forever known by your classic Sun-headline-based moniker (well, by me, at least).

Former marine, Lord Ashdown, states in the Times today, Tuesday 30th September 2014, that "Russia is an essential ally in the fight against jihadism. The alternative is a global religious war".  He acknowledges that "Sunni jihadism is roaring away in the Russian Islamic republics of Dagestan and Chechnya, almost as much as in Iraq and Syria. We in Europe may be concerned about jihadis returning from the battlefield. But Russia is one of the battlefields." 

Putin has been saying this for years - since the first war in Chechnya in 1994 - and long before 9/11.  It's about time the west, especially Obama and the US administration, acknowledged this and stopped with their ridiculous policy of sanctions and ostracism against Russia.

Former General supports Russian position over Crimea

Last week's Sunday Times, 28 September 2014, contains an interview with one of Britain’s former top soldiers, General David Richards, who retired last year.  The article was essentially discussing the crisis in Iraq and Syria, and Friday's vote in the House of Commons to commit the UK's armed forces to airstrikes against the terrorist group ISIL in Iraq, but in it he expresses some refreshingly honest, and accurate views on Russia, which run counter to the prevailing Russophobia in the western press.

General Richards outlines his solution to the crisis, which includes, among many other things, some kind of arrangement with Russia - their assistance in tackling Islamic terrorism is crucial.  But he does on to express some pro-Russian views in respect of the events in the Ukraine and Russia's annexation of Crimea.  In respect of Crimea, he refers to the annexation as Putin's "cleverly executed plan".   

“I don’t want to sound an apologist for Russia, but think Falklands, think Cuba, and you begin to understand what Russia feels about Ukraine.....it’s been a part of their country for hundreds of years." In respect of Crimea, he refers to the annexation as Putin's "cleverly executed plan" 

I do tend to think that you are on dodgy ground when you try to establish borders and rights to territory on the basis of a arbitrarily selected point in time (or a point in time chosen to support your case), especially in the case of historically contested territory and fluctuating borders of nation states, kingdoms, princedoms, tribes.  However, General Richards goes on to state:

"Crimea is Russian. The Russians, British and French went to war over Crimea 170 years ago. The idea that Crimea was ever going to be allowed by Russians to be part of Ukraine, or a Ukraine that was hostile, was cloud-cuckoo-land. And from a purely military sense, it was a rather cleverly executed plan."

On the events Ukraine, he expresses a more honest opinion than you usually read in the western press; he asks:

"are we really certain those protesters in the early days were properly representative of the majority of Ukraine? There were certainly some dodgy elements, and a president who was democratically elected was kicked out, however much you don’t like him."

He goes on to express his worry, which I believe is quite an honest assessment of western actions in Ukraine, Georgia, Syria and elsewhere: we get involved, we give encouragement, moral support, but we don't follow through; we keep encouraging people to get to the top of the hill but don't do enough to get them there. Perhaps like Sisyphus in Greek mythology: as a punishment for chronic deceitfulness, Sysyphus is compelled to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this action forever.

Russia's opposition to action against Syria

Up until a few months ago I thought that ISIS was just a pub along Silksworth Row in Sunderland.  It turns out that an Islamic extremist group of that name has emerged which is more barbaric than Al Quaeda.  It is a well-armed, well-organised and well-funded terrorist organisations intent on creating an Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and has variously been called ISIS, IS and now ISIL.  Whatever it is, it's not a state and it's not Islamic.  

Russia has been warning the west for years - long before 9/11 - about the rise of Islamic extremism, having experienced it on its own soil.  The Russian position has consistently been to ask who would govern Syria if Assad is deposed, and to point out that by arming the rebels, you fuel Islamic extremist groups, making matters worse. Whatever Russia's motivation and allegiance are in this, it is nevertheless a reasonable question to ask.

I have previously viewed Russia's support for Assad, and both Russia and China's opposition to intervention and the military action against Assad's murderous regime, to be morally reprehensible, self-serving, obstructionist and realpolitik at its worst; but, given the rapid rise of this radical terrorist organisation, comprising circa 30,000 fighters from Syrian rebel groups, the Russian position seems remarkably prescient and sensible.  

There is now talk in some western circles about engaging in dialogue with Assad with a view to assisting him crush these rebels.  There was the meeting of foreign ministers this week, which included Russia's Sergei Lavrov, on the pressing need to do something about the ISIS/IS/ISIL. On the news this morning, I heard that the US was taking military action to protect Syria's border.  

What's going on?  Its just like the shifting alliances in the perpetual war depicted in Orwell's novel "1984".