Posts Tagged ‘Russia’
Posted on February 3, 2011 - by Venik
Baltic Pirates – the Mystery Revealed
Some of you may still remember the strange hijacking on the Russian cargo vessel “Arctic Sea” in the Baltic in late July of 2009. The ship was boarded by masked men wearing police-like uniforms and armed with automatic weapons. The captain and the crew were forced to sail the ship to Africa. Inexplicably, the 4.4-ton [...]
Posted on February 3, 2011 - by Venik
Cézanne and Stem Cells
The New York Times ran an interesting story on an unlikely diplomatic dispute between the US and Russia over fine art and inter-museum exchange. Apparently in July of last year a federal judge in DC ruled that Russia was supposed to hand over a collection of books and religious documents to a sect of Hasidic [...]
Posted on July 20, 2010 - by Venik
The Water Boys
The best way to keep a secret is not to concede its existence. Indeed, it would be difficult for your neighbor to poison your dog, if he doesn’t know you have one. Should, nevertheless, the facts escape, your next best defense is wordiness. You shall contribute to the spectacle at every opportunity in the hope [...]
Posted on February 18, 2010 - by Venik
Mistral for Russia
France’s decision to sell four Mistral-class helicopter carriers to Russia was met with heavy criticism in the US, Georgia and the Baltic States. Interestingly enough, Russia’s decision to buy the four vessels for more than $2 billion was met with a lot of criticism within Russia as well. This is really the first time in [...]
Posted on October 1, 2009 - by Venik
War in Georgia: Reviewing EU Findings
As some of you may have heard, the international fact-finding mission (IIFFMCG) organized by the EU to investigate the 2008 war between Georgia and Russia has finally released its final report. As was expected, most of the blame for starting the war went to Georgia. Russia’s “fault”, according to the investigators, for the most part [...]
Posted on August 7, 2009 - by Venik
Happy Anniversary, Misha
Tweeter celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Georgian-Russian war by setting it’s Web servers on fire. (For those of you with long-term memory problem, here is a brief recap of the events.) The Unix gurus at Tweeter’s datacenter blamed the downtime on unspecified hackers unleashing a DDoS attack. According to some networking experts interviewed by [...]
Posted on July 29, 2009 - by Venik
Celtic stand in the way as Dynamo search for an answer to Russia’s European conundrum
The weight of history – both on and off the pitch – stands between Dynamo Moscow and Champions League success It was at Highbury in December 2003 that an eastern European side last made it through to the second phase of the Champions League. Lokomotiv Moscow didn’t exactly do it in a blaze of glory, [...]
Posted on July 17, 2009 - by Venik
Chechen leader to sue over murder allegations
Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya’s strongman leader, says he will sue a human rights organisation for claiming he was behind the murder of one of its activists. Natalya Estemirova, of the group Memorial, had exposed dozens of rights abuses in Chechnya. Her bullet-ridden body was found on Wednesday, hours after she had been kidnapped by four men [...]
Posted on June 15, 2009 - by Venik
Russian mini-subs continue to examine world’s deepest lake
Multimedia Photo: Russian mini-subs dive to the bottom of Lake Baikal Photo: Photo tour with RIA Novosti: Lake Baikal Video: The bottom of Baikal. Unique footage from “Mir” mini-submarines Video: Divers discover sunken ship on the bottom of Lake Baikal Video: Earthquake hits Lake Baikal Video: Russians dive to the bottom of Lake Baikal Video: [...]
Posted on June 15, 2009 - by Venik
Medvedev to attend Shanghai group summit
Multimedia Photo: Shanghai Cooperation Organization Video: Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit opens in Dushanbe Infographics: Shanghai Cooperation Organization MOSCOW, June 15 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will participate in a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on Monday, before a meeting with the presidents of Brazil, India and China. The SCO summit is being [...]
Posted on June 15, 2009 - by Venik
Russia to raise oil export duty to $212.6 per ton from July 1
MOSCOW, June 15 (RIA Novosti) – Russia will increase oil export duty from the current $152.8 to $212.6 per metric ton from July 1, following trends on global oil markets, a senior official of the Finance Ministry said on Monday. The average price of oil totaled $63.66 per barrel from May 15 to June 14, [...]
Posted on June 15, 2009 - by Venik
Two police officers injured in drive-by shooting in S.Russia
Multimedia Video: Blast at a court bailiffs’ office in Ingushetia Video: New president of Ingushetia ROSTOV-ON-DON, June 15 (RIA Novosti) – A drive-by shooting involving militants in Russia’s volatile Caucuses republic of Ingushetia has left two police officers injured, local police said on Monday. The police officers returned fire and shot out one of the [...]
Posted on June 15, 2009 - by Venik
Palestinians furious over Israeli PM’s conditions for peace
Multimedia Video: Obama’s overture to Muslims Video: Obama assures Abbas on statehood Video: Jewish Catastrophe Museum opens in Palestinian Autonomy Video: Palestinian Israeli musical mix Video: Bin Laden’s battle cry for Palestine Video: Palestine might make up with Israel in Russia TEL-AVIV, June 15 (RIA Novosti) – The Palestinian leadership has issued a resounding rejection [...]
Posted on June 15, 2009 - by Venik
Russia says N.Korea has reduced activity at nuclear facilities
Multimedia Photo: North Korea Celebrates Sun’d Day – Kim Il Sung’s Birthday Photo: Photo tour: North Korea for foreigners Video: North Korea ups the stakes with arrests Video: Korea’s DMZ popular with tourists Video: U.S. ‘opposes’ nuclear North Korea Video: N. Korea tests Obama MOSCOW, June 15 (RIA Novosti) – North Korea has scaled down [...]
