Vancouver XXI: Chill Descends Over Russia

While there are medal opportunities left, Russians won only three medals in the first five days; by the same point in the 2006 Winter Olympics, they had had won nine.
The gloom seemed to thicken on Friday as Russians woke up to the news that their superstar figure skater, Yevgeny Plushenko, took only the silver.
Even worse, Russia's powerhouse men's hockey team faltered against Slovakia, falling to the former Soviet satellite, 2-1, in a shootout.
Favored Russians have floundered in the biathlon, and the women’s hockey team was trounced twice by a collective score of 18 to 1.
After Australian aboriginal groups accused a Russian ice dancing pair of mocking aborigines, Valentin Piseev, president of the Russian Figure Skating Federation, suggested that they were the target of an international plot to force them to alter their performance.
“I think that this is a well-executed strategy directed against our athletes,” Mr. Piseev told Russian television from Vancouver.
In Russia, international athletic competitions — particularly the Winter Olympics, in this frozen country — are considered one of the last prominent international arenas to showcase the country’s strength. The anxiety has been heightened because Russia will host the next Winter Games at the Black Sea resort of Sochi in 2014.
The governing United Russia party, led by Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, released a statement on Thursday suggesting that there could be repercussions for athletic officials if Russian athletes continued to fall short in Vancouver.
“Anything under fourth place for our team will certainly be a failure, including for those who oversee athletics in our country,” said Boris Gryzlov, a United Russia leader who is speaker of Parliament.
Russia was ranked 11th in the medal count as of Wednesday morning.

Calling Russians to Join the Army!!

Would you like to join the Russian Army? Well if you are Russian then your answer is most likely some form of "no". In a recent poll done by a state-run VTsIOM 75% of respondents say they do not want to join the Russian Army. Is this a lack of patriotism? Not really. The reason behind this high "no" response is that people fear the hazing that they receive once they join. Half the people (at 51%) said that they feared joining because of the likelihood of being killed, so that still leaves a large percentage of people who don't mind being killed for their country, but do mind the severe hazing that is practiced.


http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/more-russians-dont-want-to-join-army/400252.html

Tweet and Greet

A meeting consisting of representatives of technological entrepreneurs eBay and Twitter are meeting with their Russian rivals and government, civic, and corporate leaders to discuss strategies for "using social media for the public good." It is even reported that the celebrity Ashton Kutcher will be joining the group of 13 U.S. delegates to Moscow.

Some of the two countries most innovative minds are coming together to make the "Innovation Delegation" which will be held at Kremlin, the historic structure holding Russia's presidential administration. Although the details of the meeting are vague, im sure you can find someone tweeting about it.

Billboard Porn Stunt

Imagine driving to work on a normal boring day when you look up and see a billboard.. featuring a porn video? That is what some people experienced in Novorossiisk, Russia recently thanks to an old, 40-year old man decided he wanted to fine-tune his hacking skills while also entertaining people.

The man hacked into an internet server in Chechnya because he believed that the police wouldn't take the effort to investigate it so far away. He meant to make the 2 minute clip appear in a store in Moscow, not a billboard.

Traffic was backed up by 20 minutes as drivers slowed down to watch, and even film with their phones, this.. different billboard. To make this even more interesting, an elderly motorcyclist had a heart attack after watching this scene.

The unemployed man who we have to thank/blame is now facing two-years in prison. One affect that this will have on the people of Russia is that the Moscow Advertising Committee has decided to ban all video billboards. I wonder how the people of Novorossiisk will remember this unique experience.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/hacker-arrested-in-billboard-porn-stunt/399895.html

Bush Bust

You're walking down a street in Russia and you're really craving some Kasha (Russian porridge)so you jog on over to your motorcyle to head to your favorite restaurant. Hopping on your bike you look around cautiously to check for any people around and seeing no one you start up your bike and accidentally make a moving violation when pulling out. All of a sudden two police men jump from out of a near by bush shouting and waving their ticket books charging you for your illegal actions. Looks like your Kasha money is going to have to pay for this ambush ticket instead.

This situation may seem comical and somewhat inprobable, but the Interior Ministry has officially placed a ban on traffic police hiding in bushes and dark places in order to catch these violations. Although the ban prevents the ambushes, I cant help but wonder if people look to their left, their right, and then behind any bushes before starting up their engines.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/traffic-cops-banned-from-bushes/399170.html

Russia Appoints New Leader for the Republic of Dagestan

On Monday, President Dmitri A. Medvedev made one of the most complex decisions of his presidency, nominating Magomedsalam M. Magomedov as the next president.
Magomedov, 45, is a Russian economist and businessman who rose to power because of his father who led Dagestan from 1987-2006.
President Medvedev appointed four new governors on Monday as well. However, the descision to appoint the new president of Dagestan was anxiously awaited, with some people saying that the political competition led to a small increase in Russian violence.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/world/europe/09dagestan.html

The Frozen Homeless

Thanks to the work in City Hall of private charity organizations, the city of Moscow has made an effort to lower the number of homeless who are hospitalized due to frostbites or hypothermia. Patrols of the city are carried out both on foot and in cars to find homeless people before its too late. When someone is found they are given immediate medical assistance if necessary and are transported either to a hospital or a homeless shelter.

In past years, homeless have been able to hide out in stairwells, basements, or manholes. But due to the increase in door codes, locks on basements, or wielding of manholes, the homeless have found themselves locked out of the accesses to warmth (or at least not below freezing temperatures).

Many of the immigrants on the streets are from poor rural Russian areas and came to Moscow with the hope of finding a job and a way out of poverty. These immigrants find themselves in the streets with no job, no way of getting home, and their few important possessions stolen.

The work of these private charity organizations has saved many lives. Now legislation is needed to foster a collaboration between state agencies assigned to help those in the streets.


http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/city-steps-up-efforts-to-protect-homeless-from-cold/399344.html

PS The National Low in temperature in Russia is -97 C which is equivalent to -137 F

Belarius, The Spoiled Child of Russia

An oil conflict between Russia's capitol, Moscow, and Belarus's capitol, Minsk, sets the Belarian regime in danger of collapse as Moscow refused to supply over 5 tons of oil without putting a duty on the sale. The Belarian president, Aliaksandr Lukashenka, made promises of a 11-13% rise in GDP which would be impossible without the Russian preferences to Belarus. This dispute was settled though as a series of compromise on both sides resulted in a fee rise of 11% to oil transfered across Belarus along with other agreements involving a higher volume of duty-free imports toward the end of the year.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/moscow-minsk-settle-oil-dispute/398438.html

Nuclear Weapons: Today and Tomorrow

Countries such as the United State's and Russia are holding on to their nuclear weapons which is causing political, economic, and military turmoil in the world. While they may be holding on to their WMD's out of fear, or even to assert their powerful position to other countries, they don't need to be. It makes no sense for either country to spend billions of dollars on weapons systems of such radically diminishing strategic utility.
While the nuclear weapons are viewed as a mutual threat by nation's like Russia and the U.S., countries such as Poland and Sweden have something to worry about with the large number of these tactical nuclear weapons. Most of the active sub-strategic weapons in our world today seem to be mostly deployed in Eastern Europe in theoretical preparation for conflict in our part of the world.
Such nuclear weapons are dangerous remnants our world's dangerous past, and they should not be used to endanger our prolific future.
While we are still facing security challenges in the European world of today and tomorrow, but from any angle you look at it, there is no place for the use of nuclear weapons in resolving our current social, political, economic and religious quandaries.

Thoughts?

Corruption in the OMON

A common name for the police force in Russia is the OMON. Recently the corruption within these units have been revealed. OMON police officers have taken illegal side jobs, such as serving as a bodygaurd for a gangster, in order to make more money on the side. The commanders of these officers allow these activities to take place by requiring that they receive a percent of the profit. This is not the first time that this activity has been reported; the name Dymvosky may seem familiar because this policeman was fired for reporting similar allegations to the journalist community. Now the five men who reported these allegations are likely to receive the same treatment. Ilya Barabanov reported that when recruits begin, they must sign undated dismissal orders, which are kept in the commanders safe. If this isn't a sign of corruption, what is?

These men also reported that the OMON are falsely arresting many people in Russia. In the Kitai-Gordoi district, there are 12 homeless men in the prison. These police forces arrest so many innocent citizens in order to meet the order of three detentions per shift in order to keep their salaries from being cut from 26,000 rubles ($850) to 10,000 rubles.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/omon-officers-complain-of-corruption-in-their-ranks/398800.html