Gazprom against Ukraine

12:57 AM / Posted by Jason Woodgate / comments (0)

Ukrainian debts for Russian gas caused Gazprom to reduce gas supplies to the Ukraine. On Tuesday 8:00 p.m. (Moscow time) the supplies were cut by 25% in addition to another 25%-reduction which took place on Monday which currently totals 50%.
The spokesman of “Naphtogaz” Valentin Zemliansky confirmed this information and said that for several hours the Ukrainian gas-transport system will operate with decreased pressure.
The official representative of “Gazprom” Sergey Kuprijanov said that by Tuesday evening the negotiations had not been started. The only reaction of “Naphtogaz” was the statement with the threat to use its wide experience and to start unauthorized extraction of gas intended for European consumers.
The Ukraine thanks to its position of transit country supplied itself with the gas for account of consumers in Europe and exceeded not only its own limits but also extracted additional supplies of Russian gas to Europe. As of 25th of January the excess of gas consumption by the Ukraine was 80 million cubic meters per day.
However “Naphtogaz” informed about the prospects to take “appropriate and dissymmetric actions”. One of them can be the reduction of Russian gas transit to Europe.
“Gasprom” noted that after double reduction of gas supply there were no unauthorized gas extractions by the Ukraine. “European consumers receive gas as usually”, said Kuprijanov. The continuity of transit supplies through the Ukraine is controlled in the territory of Russia, Romania and Slovakia, thus gas volume is checked as on the entrance so on the exit from the Ukrainian gas-transport system. At the same time Kuprijanov said that independent inspectors still do not have access to gas-measuring units in the Ukraine.
Brussels is keeping silence as well and until now no EC country informed about the reduction of supplied gas volumes. Nevertheless “to make coordinated response concerning current situation” EC decided to convene an extraordinary meeting of European Union coordination group.
The confrontation between the Ukraine and Russia is going on and nobody knows what the end of it will be.

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THE THIRD PRESIDENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

10:11 PM / Posted by Linda McGregory / comments (0)

On the 2nd of March, 2008 the elections of the new Russian President took place. There were four candidates: Dmitry Medvedev (the Prime Minister of Russia), Gennady Zuganov (the leader of the Communist party), Vladimir Zhirinovsky (the leader of the Liberal and democratic party) and Andrey Bogdanov (the leader of the Democratic party). However even before the election day nobody doubted in the final results of these elections. According to Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation as of 7:50 a. m. (Moscow time) Dmitry Medvedev is winning with 70,21% of votes. By this time the Commission processed 98,4% of minutes of local election committees. Gennady Zuganov is the second with 17,78%, the third is Vladimir Zhirinovsky (9,38%) and the last one is Andrey Bogdanov (1,29%).
According to the total number of votes given for Dmitry Medvedev in the President elections, his results are even better than those of Vladimir Putin four years ago. In 2004 Putin got 49 558 328 voters and Medvedev already has 49 675 000 citizens and these are not final results yet.
Anyway now Russia has its new President – Dmitry Medvedev who, we hope, will live up to the expectations and hopes of all Russian people.

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Russia tests vacuum bomb

1:05 AM / Posted by Linda McGregory / comments (1)

The military authorities declared that a new kind of weapon – a vacuum bomb – has been successfully tested.

The bomb was tested in September 11, Tuesday. “Effectiveness and potential of the bomb can be compared with those of nuclear armaments”, says Alexander Rukshin, the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. One more advantage – the vacuum bomb doesn’t pollute the environment. In 2003 the USA tested the analogue of the air bomb, and later it entered the service of the USAF. But, the vacuum bomb, created in Russia, exceeds the American analogue in 20 times. America called their invention “mother of all bombs”. Russia echoes – we got “the father of all bombs”.

A new kind of aircraft bombs, as the military authorities state, will replace low-powered nuclear armaments and it will help to solve the problems of national safety more productively. Moreover, the invention of the bomb doesn’t break any international agreements.

The main charge of this kind of weapon is high-calorie fluid fuel (ethylene oxide). When a bomb meets a barrier, it explodes and the fuel is sprayed and turns into gas, which forms aerosol cloud. As soon as the cloud reaches the particular size, it is blown up by the special grenades, shooting up from the bottom of the bomb. The pressure of the cloud is high enough to hit the objects, vulnerable to air-blast. Gas-masks cannot help, even isolating ones.

First the vacuum bomb was used by the Germans in 1943, when they sank a battleship “Roma” in the Mediterranean Sea. Later it was used by the Americans in Vietnam and by the Russians in the Caucasus.

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The First Open Championship for cabbage throwing

1:14 AM / Posted by Linda McGregory / comments (0)

Last weekend in Yekaterinburg was marked with the First Open Championship for cabbage throwing which took place in the Central park of recreation and entertainment. More than 800 people participated in it.
The Championship lasted about 2 hours during which the participants threw heads of cabbage to find the strongest sportsman.
The most adroit and strong was Michael Dolgikh, a 22-years old mounter from Yekaterinburg, who threw a cabbage 39 meters. He won a prize of 300$.
«Besides, Michael Dolgikh became an absolute record-holder of Russia for cabbage throwing। The previous record was settled on the 18th of February in Chelyabinsk। It amounted to 31,2 meters and it is 7,8 meters shorter», - the sponsors of the Championship say.



And in the Kirov park in Pyatigorsk the Third Open Championship for valenki* throwing took place. The local newspaper reported that the number of persons wishing to throw valenki grew up day by day. And results are getting better. However, sometimes valenki flow up in the wrong direction. The difficult point is a special aerodynamic peculiarity of these shoes, because of which the valenki do not keep to the trajectory. Besides, this year there was a heavy snowfall which prevented the valenki from smooth flying.
The strongest valenki-thrower was Gennady Kapustyansky. He threw the valenki 42 meters।


Syktyvkar is a city in which valenki-throwing is also popular. This year there were more than 300 participants. Every person wishing to throw valenki could participate, choosing a suitable valenok** for throwing. The citizens of Syktyvkar passed through the accuracy test. They aimed to hit the mark with a thrown valenok. Next year the participants will try to throw valenki at a distance.

*valenki - an old Russian hand-made winter footwear, together with lapti it were the first shoes which appeared in Slavian Russia.
**valenok - singular from valenki

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