Beautiful Glories of Russia

Well, one more good reason — or, formally, three beautiful reasons! — to be a proud Russian!

Here is what I call a perfect (well, as close to as possible) free skating:

A Sacral Question

Russia has become a sanctionized, castaway country, and the whole 'civilized world' hates Russia to this or that extent.

Does it mean that God has reelected His beloved people, and since now on the Russians are those chosen by God?

One More Tall Widescreen Tale

Coming soon to movie theaters, based on the best-selling novel...

Look, Avatar is undoubtedly a great film. It is evidently, apparently fictional, characters being placed into some invented reality. They do not even look as humans (well, at least some of them). So in this case "any coincidence with any real person or event is entirely unintentional" in the purest possible way.

Not the case with the "Child 44". And for me this trailer shows it perfectly.

And the Fascists Remained

Children and grandchildren of executioners want to make the children and grandchildren of their victims repent of their crimes. This is the very reason of the fight with today's Russia. To make people that came many times through the hell repent to Satan of being able to survive and save themselves.

Hypothetical exclamations — "Oh, were our army not win, you maybe wouldn't be alive" — do not make any effect on those who use Auschwitz today as a political small coin. For they know perfectly well whose army won. Personally for them the danger has passed by. They have dozens airbags.

Exactly so they understand that there is no GULAG. No SMERSH, no NKVD. Do you really think these people consider Putin to be kind of light-style-Stalin indeed? Leave it, this stuff is for hamsters.

They are fascists, yet this definition is to be redefined today. They don't keep "Mein Kampf" under their pillows. This is not the fascism of Mussolini. This is not the national socialism of Hitler, but a new type ideology based on the old leaven.

These misters can calmly cry "Stop the fascist" chasing after stupid youth subcultures, which they feed up themselves. Young boneheads make tattoos of the swastika, rise their right hands in Nazi salutation and celebrate the "granddad's" birthdays. A rag-doll. A scarecrow.

No. The modern fascists are clean and cultured... And now they are quite international. And use little nationalist yells to their benefit. They do not persecute gays, but foster them. Many things have changed.

Yet the theory of superiority is still the same. They like talking about benignant genes and inferior peoples. About evolution and biology. The Russians are inferior, on this account our liberals have talked enough for a separate tribunal.

Just Published: Who Opened Gate of Auschwitz

Today, on January 27, 2015, the the Central Archive of the Russian Ministry of Defence has disclosed the report of January 7, 1945 on the numerical strength by demography of the 60th Army that as a part of the 1st Ukrainian Front 70 years ago deliberated the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Here it is.

It is well worth studying in general, including demography by education and years of birth on the front side, but what is of the biggest interest for me is the reverse side of the document. Here we see the Army's strength by ethnicities. And the matter of ethnicity and nationality has quite a special meaning in Russia and former USSR, as I wrote previously.

Meanwhile in Russia: A Proud Father...

I am!

On Sunday authorities presented the name of Stanislav Zhuk, the legendary Soviet figure skating (well, I promised I would touch this theme as well) coach, to the Figure Skating Specialized Children and Youth School of the Olympic Reserve at CSKA in Moscow.

My younger son Alexander has been attending this school for about 10 years (and practising figure skating since 4 in general) with a certain success — anyhow, he has been in the Wikipedia for years already, and I am not :-), — so the news is kind of special for me as well.

Here is my photo from the official ceremony.

From left to right: Alexander Zaytsev, unknown woman, Irina Rodnina, unknown girl, Nina Zhuk, unknown woman (behind), Elena Vodorezova; all supervised from the banner behind by my son Alexander (name signed in Cyrillic).
Photo © Vladimir Samarin

Discovering the Soviet Past

A short preface.

The Soviet Government made huge efforts trying to elevate cultural level of people. Though, surely, workers and peasants were seldom guests in theaters (and the very number of theaters was not big enough to cover all population satisfactory), cinema was much wider accessible and popular.

Many remember that Lenin supposedly said "Cinema is the most important art for us". In the times when there were no TV and Internet it was definitely so.

Here is one of so called 'Cine-Concerts' created by the Lenfilm, that is Leningrad (now and before, St. Petersburg) Cinema Studio, to "bring good art to masses".

Poroshenko: the President or a Bullshitter?

Well, in my opinion he is definitely a bullshitter, albeit at the same time a puppet of some powerful (and evidently foreign) master.

Here is his tweet from his offcial Twitter account.

As Seen by a Forensic Psychiatrist

I'd like to tell everybody who speaks about "deceived, zombified Ukrainian military and inhabitants of Ukraine"; who believes they "need time to get it", "to be able to sort through the political situation" and so on; I'd like to tell you that all you are indirectly guilty of the bloodshed in Donbass. You excuse the Ukrainian murderers and their accomplices referring to their mental disability they have not. You say the boy (being 20 or 40 years of age) was under a misapprehension and killed a woman with a baby in hands in their own home. And the mother of this boy was also under a misapprehension blessing him to kill... So was the military comissar... So was the driver who got him to the scene of crime...

You give a pardon to all these people, and doing so you prepare other Donbass mothers with babies in arms to be victims.

As a psychiatrist with 40 years of experience who have conducted tens thousands labour, military and forensic examinations I state that the references of the Ukrainian examinees to "being zombified, deceived" are apparent lie, malingering. It is believed that only people with heavy mental disorders, those who are found insane and incapable in court, are unable to sort through the political situation in their country. (Though some of these people are sorting through Ukrainian and world politics perfectly.) All the rest are not only able, but obliged to sort good from evil. This is their duty. Especially when there are rivers of blood in the country. A delusion, whether true or imaginary, does not grant a discharge.

Circus of Idiots

There are two useful words in the Ukrainian language: peremoha (перемога, victory) and zrada (зрада, betrayal). When a peremoha becomes a zrada, there happens the third essence: han'ba (ганьба) — shame. Such is the vicious circle of the Ukrainian daily life since the peremoha of Maidan over unbearably cruel tyrant and greedy thief Yanukovich.

After this brief preface, just two ridiculously connected news of the last day to illustrate.

1. PRESS SERVICE OF THE DNIPRO-1 REGIMENT* INFORMS

This night a guerrilla part coordinated by the Dnipro-1 regiment blew up a freight train used by terrorists to transport coal to the Russian federation.
Two cars and a part of the railway are totally destroyed at Krasnaya Mogila station close to the town of Sverdlovsk, Luhansk region.
Thus, the railway connection between the southern part of the Luhansk region and the Russian Federation is disrupted.
Dnipro-1 regiment expresses support to guerrillas and thanks them for the fruitful cooperation in favour of the Ukrainian state.
Glory to Ukraine!


However, next day Gennady (Hennadiy) Moskal**, Lugansk region governor (for the Kiev/Kyiv regime) made the following statement:

Awards from Master

Quite a nice piece from a Ukrainian TV channel.

Allied Land Command commander, Lieutenant General Ben Hodges of the US Army visited wounded Ukrainian soldiers at a hospital and presented them some tokens for "courageous service".

Could Hitler, or Churchill, or Truman, or Reagan ever imagine that those invincible Russians would fight Russians on the Russian land?

However, the good old political approach divide et impera gave rich fruits. The USSR was successfully divided, and now its parts skillfully conducted by the USA and supported by the EU are trying to further weaken Russia.

Does Mr. General or his bosses really care of the Ukrainian wounded soldiers?

In fact, that's absolutely possible. A good master should care of his puppets so that they would serve his purposes as long as possible.

Whose Heir is Latvia?

Valsts valodas centrs (Center of the State Language) states on January 16:

Since now on use of foreign languages is unaceptable. The Russians, talking to each other in Russian, are threatening the Latvian language and show irrespect to the Latvians. It is cannot be tolerated when employers doing their service and professional duties are communicating in a foreign language.

According to the newly establishe requirement, if some employers' communication is heard by other people (e.g. in public transport, shops or offices), they are allowed to speak the one and only state language of Latvia, i.e. Latvian.

Here it should be metioned that according to the census of 2011 there are 26,9% Russians in the total population of Latvia, and 33,75% of Latvian population speak Russian at home.

A question arise: why is there only one state language in the country? At the same time there is no question why this Center is called by locals the "Language Gestapo".

For those who think Latvia is a European country duly presiding the EU I propose to check (at least in Wikipedia) the positions of Sweden in Finland and, say, German in Belgium. Have you noticed these language are spoken by considerably lesser part of population than Russian in Latvia? Do you know how long the territory now known as the Republic of Latvia was a part of Russia (whether the Russian Empire or the USSR)?

Well, taking into account the aforesaid, there is nothing to be surprised in the following info:

Poster of the exhibition that won't open in Paris....

Latvia blocked an exhibition in UNESCO devoted to the history of Holocaust. The title of the exhibition reads "The Hijacked Childhood: Holocaust Victims as Seen by Children Prisoners of the Nazi CC Salaspils"; all the materials for the exhibitions were delivered to Paris, yet the Riga officials decided the exhibition would spoil "the image of Latvia" during its presidency in the EU.

Salaspils was not a regular Konzentrationslager. One of its specialties was blood collecting from children for wounded Wehrmacht soldiers; witnesses reported, up to 500 ml at a time on a daily basis, till unavoidable and quick death. The report of investigating commission signed on May 5, 1945, read, in particular:

Having explored 2500 sq.m of territory at Salaspils camp and excavated just one fifth thereof, the commission found 632 child corpses supposedly from 5 to 9 years of age; the corpses were situated in layers...
At the distance of 150 m from this grave in the direction to the railway the commission discovered a place 25x27 m in size with the ground impregnated with an oily substance and mixed with ashes containing unburnt remains of bones of children from 5 to 9 years of age: teeth, articular heads of femoral and humeral bones, ribs, etc.

History of WW2, Ed. 2, Revised & Rewritten

In fact, it is not published yet, however, there are chances we will see it pretty soon.

Today the Polish Minister of Foregn Affairs Grzegorz Schetyna gave an interview to a Polish radio.

... Prezydent Rosji jest spadkobiercą tak na dobrą sprawę kraju, który nazywał się Związek Radziecki, a to Armia Czerwona, było nie było, otworzyła bramy do Auschwitz.
G.S.: A może lepiej powiedzieć, panie redaktorze, że to front ukraiński, pierwszy front ukraiński i Ukraińcy wyzwalali, bo tam żołnierze ukraińscy byli wtedy w ten dzień styczniowy i oni otwierali bramy obozu i oni wyzwalali obóz. Tak jak powiedziałem...

In fact, the President of Russia is an heir to the country that was called the Soviet Union, and finally it was the Red Army that opened the gate of Auschwitz.
G.S.: Maybe, Mr. editor, it would be better to tell that it was a Ukrainian front, the 3rd Ukrainian front and the Ukrainians who liberated, there were Ukrainian soldiers then, at that January day, they opened the camp's gate, and they liberated the camp. So I say...

The 3rd Ukrainian Front banner.

So you say, Mr. Minister, a totally ignorant bullshit. Though you are definitely to be forgiven, you are just a good pupil of some good lecturers.

Let us remember that the story of the "Ukrainian army liberating Europe" did not start today. On September 18, 2014 the US ambassador to Serbia Michael Kirby told to a local newspaper:

It is not yet confirmed that Putin will come, but if he does – why is he coming? To attend the celebration of the liberation of Belgrade? Belgrade was liberated also by the Third Ukrainian Army, as a part of the Red Army.
If Putin is invited, are all others who participated in the liberation [of Belgrade] also invited?

Well, for a political figure it is forgiveable to mix armies and fronts. In fact, in the Red Army during the WW2 a front was the largest military formation, roughly equal to a group of armies. And it was the 3rd Ukrainian Front under Marshal Tolbukhin, which liberated Belgrade.The Front in fact existed since October, 1942, albeit till October 1943 it was called the Southwestern Front.

The 1st Ukrainian Front banner.

However, the concentration camp Auschwitz was in reality liberated by the 1st Ukrainian Front (cheers, Mr. Schetyna!) under Marshal Konev. By the way, before October, 1943 it was called Voronezhsky Front, and surely included not only dwellers of Voronezh, just like it consisted not only of Bryansk people when it was called the Bryansky Front before that.

False Friends Spoil Communication

As you may know, there are so called 'false friends of interpreters'. That is formally similar words in different languages, which meanings differ.

Sometimes this difference is well known to everybody speaking this or that language. Just some samples for you to understand or remember better.

Russian 'students' do learn, but in colleges and universities only. Russian 'spectacle' is a theatrical performance of a play only. Russian 'sinus' is the mathematical sine only (except for the Russian medics, maybe), etc., etc.

But sometimes it's not the case and diversity of meanings is not that great or evident. And these 'hidden' discrepancies of meanings can be really misleading in communication.

Here, a popular Russian joke:

On the Russian-Latvian border, during passport check a Latvian officer asks a Russian tourist in English:
— Nationality?
— Russian.
— Occupation?
— No-no-no, just traveling!

In fact, it's not that fun. In Russian language the word 'оккупация' — occupation — has only a negative connotation, it is often illegal and made by states using military power. Germany and allied troops occupied a huge part of Soviet territory during the WW2. After the WW2 the allied powers occupied Germany. This is the only meaning of the word in Russian, we absolutely cannot have something like "Occupy Wall Street" or an "occupied seat" in a restaurant.

This is one of the reasons why we Russians (well, most of us) do not accept talks about the Soviet occupation of the Baltic countries in 1939—1940. Formally, all the democratic proceedings required by the intrernational law of the time were done in these countries, and they became Soviet republics, were incorporated in the USSR in a peaceful way. In fact, for an English speaking person they were occupied (albeit in a formally legal way and without any military actions); but for Russian speakers they were not at all, just because the USSR did not conquer these territories using its military power and losing lives of its soldiers.

A similar thing happens with annexation (e.g., of the Crimea). In Russian, 'аннексия' is a violent, 'forced attachment' of some other country's territory. However, in English annexation is "the incorporation of new territory into the domain of a city, country, or state" — neutral definition without any negative connotation. Thus, in Russian using the Russian word 'аннексия' to describe the reincorporation of the Crimea into Russia is kind of a clear sign marking, say, anti-Putin political position of a person.

Unfortunately, plenty of inadequately educated translators and interpreters seldom know and feel these differences. And it's not just a job; it's a hard and very responsible work — to make peoples clearly understand each other across state and language borders.

Hopefully this helps a bit.

Auschwitz 1945--2015

Some thoughts on the coming 70th anniversary of the Konzentrationslager Auschwitz liberation by the Red Army on January 27. By the way, in 2005 the UN designated the date to be the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Just imagine.

Some Jews come there. They see there some Germans, some Ukrainians, some Latvians, some Lithuanians...

Just like then.

What makes the difference is that there are no Russians coming on January 27.

Well, entities must not be multiplied beyond the necessity, but...


Thanks to zubkoff for the idea and kukufffka for the image.

The Land of the Free & Tolerant

Well, I am talking about my beloved Mother Russia now.

She is a great country where within one and the same day there happen:

1. Our Russian Minictry of the Interior informed yesteday, about 800,000 people gathered in the city of Grozny for a rally to say "No to Prophet Mohammad caricatures" and declare that Islam is a peaceful and creative religion.

Thousands of faithful from the North Caucasus gathered in Chechnya’s capital Grozny early Monday for a rally in defense of Islamic values.
© TASS/Valeriy Matytsin. Source

The local Caucasian hierarchs of the Orthodox church, including Varlaam, bishop of Makhachkala and Grozny, also took part in the rally. Varlaam said: "Today we stand together with you to say 'No' to the evil West is trying to spread in attempts to sow dissent between our religions."

2. On the very same day millions of Orthodox people still using the Julian calendar celebrated Epiphany. There is a tradition of bathing on this day, as all water in all rivers and lakes considered to be holy. This day, as our Ministry of Emergency Situations informed, about 1.5 million enjoyed the Epiphany bathings across Russia.

Russian Orthodox believers take a dip in the icy waters of Amur Bay, Vladivostok.
© Yuri Smityuk/TASS. Source

By the way, the holes cut for those bathings in the ice covering water reservoirs are usually made in the form of the holy cross.

The both events were widely (and positively) covered by virtually all Russian media, including TV channels.

Madhouse News: Phone Calls Ban & Ukrainian Voodoo

1. A wonderful yesterday's piece from Tatiana Rychkova, Dnipropetrovsk, an activist-volunteer of the Ukrainian army support movement.

I state officially. I won't publish reports on the wounded and killed in action. Call morale officers of the brigades, it's their job. I am ready to inform relatives of [the soldiers of] the brigades under my care, that in fact I do all the time. But after I announced there had been some wounded*, there started endless telephone calls of the relatives to soldiers, taking their minds away. And instead of performing their military missions they calmed down their wives and moms. The war is on and, unfortunately, there will be more wounded. Yet to stop this nightmare as soon as possible, it is necessary to let the soldiers perform their duty. Phone talks should be prohibited, and there will be less casualties (this is my opinion, maybe I am wrong).

For me, it's a great pity that the very simplest idea to stop the war "to stop this nightmare" does not strike her head at all. Let there be the life-saving cell-phone talks prohibition.

2. Also yesterday there was an explosion in Kharkiv/Kharkov. The image below depicts a, let's say, an artifact found on site.

From the news report on a radical pro-Ukraine media.

The investigators described the thing as "a plastic wrapped knitted toy-looking subject in colours of the Russian state flag and St. George's ribbon"** and evidently spent hours finding more traces of the Russia's accompliceship.

The answer came in Facebook.

Merkel on Anti-Semitism

Though the year has just started, that Angela Merkel said at the Bundestag on January 15 has all chances to be the slip of the tongue of the year No.1.

Antisemitismus ist unsere staatliche und bürgerliche Pflicht.

Yes, it means exactly the following:

Anti-Semitism is our national and civic duty.

Nothing more, nothing less

No one doubts it was a mere slip of the tongue. Everyone can make one from time to time.

The only question is: was it a Freud-style slip?

Does Pork Hurt the World?

Just a week has passed since that bloody terroristic attack at the Charlie Hebdo editorial office in Paris — and in no time this attack was kind of universally considered as a dreadful attack on one of the holy cows of the Western civilization, namely the freedom of speech — and quite an interesting piece of news has come from the UK.

Media say the Oxford Unversity Press banned the words 'pig', 'sausages' and 'pork' from children's books to avoid offence. Wise heads of the OUP have seemingly decided these words can somehow offend Muslims (and Jews, for the matter).

Some questions arise.

Well, what about the Hindus? AFAIK, there are plenty of them in the UK, let alone the rest of the world. Why not to ban 'beef'?

To the best of my knowledge, it is eating pork that is prohibited to the Muslims and the Jews. This is the exact point that reminded a Jewish Leadership spokesman in the Daily Mail:

Jewish law prohibits eating pork, not the mention of the word, or the animal from which it derives.

And it's just logic. There are many of various things in the world.Some people enjoy surströmming, some hate even the idea of seeing a tin of it, let alone smelling it. Some people find insects to be a delicious food; the French eat frogs' legs — for me as a Russian both kinds of stuff are no delicacy at all. By the way, some historians suppose that we Russians just never had that big lack of food that would make us find 'unconventional' meals. Well, in fact, being in Thailand I tasted some fried bamboo maggots (or something of the like), just to tick a checkbox of my life's agenda. Nothing special; it turned out I didn't lose anything by not eaing it.

Yet am I somehow hurted that people around eat strangely looking, smelling and cooked food? No. Am I hurted that people sometimes worship strange gods and prophets, which I cannot call 'mine'? Absolutely no.

As for people, the one and only thing that really hurts me, that I consider a sign of the coming doomsday — is when people say something like "We Ukrainians are better than Russians". You can invent many more possible combinations; as for the post-USSR territory, one of the most severe conflicts was between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. "We are way beter than those pigs", one can hear on the both sides. Yet is there a tiny grain of truth in these statements?

Well, get back to old Europe. It looks like the left hand (freedom of speech fighters) does not know at all what the right hand does (those 'political correctness brigades'), both hands acting erratically and chaotically. I am not a medic to make diagnoses, yet from my personal Russian viewpoint it looks like split-mindedness. Dissociative identity disorder, if you wish it doublespeakfully.

Or, to give things names, schizophrenia. Isn't it?


Post scriptum: Oh, no, uneffingbelievable! How can such a web site exist in the UK today? Ban it! Clean the world of those quite conveniently associated English pigs so that none could be offended!

Je Suis Volnovakha?

There are some places that can undoubtedly be called hell on Earth. One of such places is Ukraine, mostly its Eastern part, including two self-proclaimed repubics of Donetsk and Lugansk that call themselves Novorossiya.

Yesterday there was another tragedy there: explosion of something rpoduced plenty of splinters that killed, as per actual information, 12 people and wounded 17.

In no time (and it's not just a figure of speech — it really was done immediately — the Ukrainian side blamed "Russian terrorists" in this attack. No wonder: for the Ukrainian collective unconsious feeling Russia is guilty in every and all Ukrainian troubles, Russia in general and Putin personally.

A picture from a pro-Kiev, pro-maidan Facebook public account. They always know who's to blame.

Yet more surprising was the press briefing of Marie Harf that also took place almost immediately after the killing. She said, in particular:

... we condemn continued attacks by separatists as they attempt to control additional territory in violation of the Minsk agreements. Today’s vicious and repeated attacks on the Donetsk Airport and the shelling of a bus that killed 10 people and wounded 13 are just the latest egregious violations of the commitments made by the Russia-backed separatists...

The bold font is mine.

Well, there is a long story behind the very word "separatists"; it was the new Kiev regime who made separatists of people, who just wanted Ukraine to become a federal state, by its stupid internal policies and started a civil war, desperately trying to convince the world of a Russian aggression.

During this civil war the Donetsk airport became one of the hottest spots. But how on Earth could Marie Harf know, just a couple hours later, that "Russian-backed separatists" were to blame in this cruel killing? The exact number of victims was not known yet; but it looks like there was no necessity in knowing exact information having a strong unquestionable prejudice of Russian guilt.

No investigation was conducted at all, evidences were mixed und unreliable, yet the one to blame was found immediately (maybe, in advance?). Isn't it a bit strange looking?

I know that warfare in general is always accompanied by more or less cruelty and atrocities and war crimes. Various sad accidents are possible at war, including "friendly fire", unintended deaths, etc.

However, as for investigation, so far I remember since the times when the Roman law was really Roman, one of the most important tasks was to discover cui prodest, that is for whom the deed is profitable.

And thinking about this tragedy from this point of view you inevitavly come to a conclusion it brought absolutely no profit to Novorossiya from any possible viewpoint; and it was absolutely profitable for Kiev regime — and for those who backed and supported the Ukrainian coup d'état or maidan (hypocritically called Revolution of Dignity), and encouraged Kiev to unleash a campaign of true, real state terrorism over those who were brave enough to oppose the regime.

If you want to stop war in Donbass effectively, stop Poroshenko now and forever, do not let Ukraine turn into a medieval state with radically nationalistic (Nazi) Bandera ideology. A huge part of Ukraine is already kind of Syria in Europe; is the next stage Libya?

Cui prodest?


#яВаня #IamVanya #ichbinWanja #jesuisVania #ikbenWanja

So, Finally, Happy New Year!

This is the informal end of a pretty long New Year holidays in Russia.

Well, in fact, days off were over on Monday, January 12, however this night we celebrate (not exactly celebrate, yet informally observe) the Old New Year.

Source

This evident oxymoron has a pretty long history in Russia (and not only here).

Our Russian story began back in 1918, when the next day after January 31 there was February 14. Thus by a Lenin's decree the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic adopted the Gregorian calendar ("new style") instead of the Julian one ("old style").

By the way and however, the Bolsheviks had no power over our Orthodox Church; it has still been keeping the Julian calendar, so we celebrate Christmas on January, 7. As a result, Orthodox people are led into temptation of celebratimg the "official" New Year during the Native Fast.

Anyhow, now the season's holiday are finally totally over in Russia. 2015 has fully come, and my congratulations go to all those for whom it matters!

Mother Russia, now it's high time to get back to business!

There Is Hell on Earth

It is brought to the land of Ukraine by those who supported the coup d'état in Kiev; and now Kiev delivers it to the Eastern part of the country, to people who do not want to live together with Banderist neoNazi's.

They killed Vanya's stepfather and youner brother Timofey of 5. The rest of splinters destroyed Vanya's both feet, right hand, and one eye (the sight ability of the second one is doubtful now).

Last summer of Vanya being healthy and with his younger brother alive.

Millions were out on the street, declaring "Je suis Charlie" in remembrance of Charlie Hebdo caricaturists killed in Paris. It was a terrific terrorist attack, indeed. There were big figures walking in Paris, including Poroshenko.

Yet who cares of Dnobass people? Who is disturbed by sufferings of Vanya and many of his compatriots of all ages?

It looks like people are selectively caring. It looks like some lives matter more than other lives. I hate this bullshit.

#яВаня #IamVanya #ichbinWanja #jesuisVania #ikbenWanja

A Good Question...

Phil Butler asks a good question: "When will "We the people" stop killing in Donbass?"

Please visit his site under the link above and read his article. I am not going to copy-paste it; it well deserves being read on the author's web site. And comments as well; there are some quite cognitive ones.

In my opinion, it's a nice sample of ability to think different, looking out from the mainstream media frames and that partial or even deviated truth they abundantly deliver to people.

Thank you so much, Phil! And many thanks to Graham Phillips who advised this article and bravely goes on reporting from Novorossiya, unrecognized, yet trying to make it through shellings, blood, sweat and tears.

I am absolutely sure, so far there are such people, thinking and caring, able not to follow masses but to go in a direction they choose themselves — our world has chances to improve and be a better place to live in.

Yatsenyuk: More Fun Than Expected

Here I'd like to add a kopeck (or a penny, if you wish) to my recent post about Yatsenyuk invented "Soviet invassion in the Ukraine and in Germany".

The German ARD TV published full raw video of the interview, that is with journalist asking questions in German, and Yatsenyuk replying in Ukrainian. Well, mostly Ukrainian.

Unfortunately, I am not an expert in Ukainian language, albeit have quite an experience of learning languages.

He speaks Ukrainian, yet for some reason he uses a couple of English words.

At 0:30, he says about cyber-attacks on some German official web-sites that took place just before his visit to Berlin. I just do not understand why he says 'cyber' in English manner, that is [sai-ber]; whether in Russian or Ukrainian he should say 'кибер' (кiбер for Ukrainian), that is pronounced with [ki-], like in 'kee'.

And further, when talking about this very invasion, — at 1:23 — he literally says 'invasion', pronouncing the word in English (using it grammatically as if it was feminine gender, which shows adjective 'Soviet' in the genitive fem. form, 'радянську').

As if he suddenly forgot his native Ukrainian word 'вторгнення' (by the way, grammatically it is neutral gender and would require the word 'Soviet' in the corresponding form — 'радянськo'), which is quite a strange supposition taking into account that they have been speaking about mythic Russian invasion for more than half a year.

I think the world remembers he speaks pretty fluent English by his countless interview he gave during 'maidan' to the Western media. But what does this 'invasion' in his head mean for Ukraine, Russia and Europe, I don't know. I'm afraid, nothing good.

In Memoriam to My Father

Yesterday it was 6 years since that mournful day when my beloved father Vladimir T. Samarin had passed away.

Vladimir T. Samarin (13.08.1945—11.01.2009) in 1980

He was born in London, as his father, my grandad, worked there as a Red Army officer in the Soviet military mission during the WW2 and after. Maybe, the very first childish experiences made him to devote his life to English language. For many years he worked as a translator and interpreter for the former Soviet Ministry of Foreign Trade. He visited maybe 70, maybe 80 countries of the world.

A biography personally signed by Armand Hammer (in Russian) to my father.

He helped people and countries to understand each other better, and to do better business together. It was dozens times with his assistance, that our Soviet political and economy figures talked to Margaret Thatcher (even before she became that 'Iron Lady'), Rockfellers, Armand Hammer, William Verity Jr. and many, many other from (and in) many countries of the world.

Left: My father helps the Soviet power to talk with William Verity Jr. (left), about 1982;

Right: the top of his career as an interpreter was achieved on October 13, 1980: he assisted to Brezhnev.

I am sure it was thanks to him that I started mastering foreign languages myself. My English is definitely not that perfect. Yet I hope my writings here are serving the same purpose: helping people to understand each other better.

It does matter if we want to leave green Earth, clean water and clear blue sky to our children, grandchildren, etc.

All images from my family archive are taken supposedly by official photographers for either the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR, or the TASS or APN news agencies.

Khodorkovsky Is Dead

Well, not literally. However, he is definitely dead as a political figure of (or for) Russia.

Quite a while ago Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former Communist Youth Union functionary, was one of the reachest post-Soviet nouveau-riches in our country. Then he tried his luck as a politician, and finally got a 10-year sentence; many thought (and said) his trial was totally biased, and it was a Putin's triumph over his political opponent and possible competitor in running for presidency of Russia.

Many people (and I personally know some) — absolutely seriously — considered him as a potential future President of Russia, and were happy when he, having emigrated to Switzerland, turned back to politics, using mostly modern media and social networks.

However, yesterday, after the terroristic attack in Paris, he stated in his Twitter:

If journalists are a respectable community, no media publication should appear tomorrow without a caricature of the prophet [i.e., Muhammad].

Just for your information: in Russia, Islam is professed by 15 to 20+ million people.

So in Russia the real political game is over for Khodorkovsky forever.

I just cannot understand why did he say this BS; he surely isn't an idiot.

"Soviet Invasion in the Ukraine and Germany"

Yesterday Arseny Yatsenyuk, pirme minister of the Ukrainian government, gave a short interview to the German TV channel ARD, program "Tagesthemen" (Issues of the Day). He came to Germany to meet Angela Merkel and, apparently, ask her for any possible, first of all financial assistance to withstand "the Russian aggression" and go on with the civil war.

Here it is, on the web site: www.tagesschau.de/ausland/ukraine-jazenjuk-101.html. Unfortunately, they have their own player, and on Youtube there is only full program. So, to start watching Yatsenyuk please go to approximately 20:29.

Among slightly less than 6.5 minutes of big and small lies and pure anti-Russian propaganda there (if you don't understand fluent German, you have to believe me; I am not going to translate the full set of BS he delivered to German ears) was one shocking phrase that caught me immediately (at about 21:42, or about 01:07 on the German site).

At first I just could not believe my ears, yet it was like that; the Germans, to their utmost surprise, heard the same words. Mr. Yatsenyuk said to the German interviewer:

Wir können uns alle sehr gut an den sowjetischen Einmarsch in die Ukraine und in Deutschland erinnern. Das muss man vermeiden. Keiner hat das Recht die Ergebnisse des 2. Weltkrieges neu zu schreiben.
We all can remember very good the Soviet invasion in the Ukraine and Germany. This is to be avoided. No one has the right to write the results of the WW2 anew.

How do you like it? Sapienti sat, or would you prefer me to add hereto some explanatory note?

Hierarchy of Deaths

Today there were two terroristic attack.

One, in Paris, made the world move. 12 people were killed, 4 heavily wounded, as far as I know.

From BBC, link to the left.

The second one in Sanaa, Yemen. A blast took away about 40 lives and left close to 70 wounded. It was the second attack in Yemen within three days; the one on January 5 killed six.

Yes, definitely, world media wrote about this, and horrific images were published.

Yet the social response to the two terroristic attacks thst took place within one day in different parts of the world is just incomparable. Doesn't it look like 12 French lives are more important for the world community than 40 of Yemenians?

In fact, nothing new happens.

Prague, 1968. From Wiki.

Europe often recalls 1968, when units of the Warsaw Pact countries (except for Romania) invaded Czechoslovakia to oppress the so called Prague Spring. During the invasion 108 Chechoslovaks were killed and more than 500 wounded, mostly civilians protesting the invasion. On the opposite side there were killed 96 Soviet Army men (mostly in accidents), 10 Poles, 4 Hungarians and 2 Bulgarians.

It was definitely a tragedy; and Europe feels deeply sympathetic towards Czechs and Slovaks who suffered during these events, and blames Soviet Unipon which was behind this invasion. However, I was a bit surprised to read somewhere (maybe, in the EU documents) that it was the world greatest tragedy of 1968.

Well, what about the Tet Offensive? Is it forgotten?

US Marines in Dai Do, Vietnam, 1968. From Wiki.

What makes big difference, that it was in Vietnam. Far, far away from the happy and wealthy Europe. The North Vietnam army lost 45,267 men KIA, 61,267 WIA and 5,070 MIA. To the USA, South Vietnam and their allies it cost at least 9,078 lives, 35,212+ were wounded and about 1,530 missing.
As for civilians, Wiki says 14,000 were killed and 24,000 wounded. Statistics is a tricky thing; when you see so many zeroes in figures, it means one thing: nobody counted losses accurately.

And the both sides' deathcount of the Vietnam War was far, far from end.

108 Czechoslovaks mean definitely more tahn those countless thousands of Vietnamese; they were Europeans. May be you think I am too cynic? Is it I who is cynic about deaths?

The attempts to bring Western style democracy to Afghanistan or Iraq could be called ridiculous, if they were not the reasons of mass bloodshed among civilians, resulting anarchy, riots, clashes and even civil wars. And here comes the ISIL...

Definitely, my condolences go to France as well as to Yemen, to all those who lost their close and beloved ones.

I just hope Europe will wake up until it's too late to preserve the Western civilization for future generations. To preserve it in the world where ir is not the one and only existing civilization, where all lives matter.

There are things that should not be tolerated in any case, and things to be defended by all possible means. Hopefully, people choose right side.

Who Is to Blame For Terrorist Attack in Paris?

Terrorist war has bloody reached Paris.

President Hollande said wise words about "exceptional barbarity", Europe, democracy, tolerance...

Yet everything has its limits. So should have even those sacred cows, I mean democracy and tolerance. Europe has pretty a long history of playing dirty games alone and more often under the guidance of the USA. Libya, Iraq, Syria... Air strikes, destruction of states, deaths, deaths, deaths...

May those killed in Paris rest in peace, yet it looks like Europe has brought up its horror with its own hands.

Come on listening to Obama further. Biggest threats to the world are Ebola and Putin?

So who is to blame for this particular wave of terror and blood?

Putin? Will there be more sanctions against Russia?

Bashar Assad? Will Syria be bombed again?

What does European sense of democracy and tolerance say?

... and Hades followed Europe...

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all Orthodox Christians who celebrate it today!

С Рождеством Христовым!

Whether you belong to the Church or not, it's just majestic!

Christmas mass in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, conducted by Patriarch Kirill.

What Are the Torchlights About?

On January, 1 there was a torchlight procession in Kiev (or Kyiv, if you wish to pretend Ukrainian speaking) officially devoted to 106th birtday of Stepan Bandera.

I have studied the post-New Year European news on CNN, but there's nothing about it (however, they devoted enough air time to Navalny's sentence and a totally failed attempt of protest in Moscow). There is one report on BBC, though. They say "Ukrainian nationalists have marched through Kiev to honour the World War Two anti-Soviet leader Stepan Bandera".

First of all, two misconceptions are in the very beginning of the report. Neither Bandera was just a WW2 leader, nor he was just anti-Soviet. Being a total political loser personally, he was a Polish by nationality (while Ukrainian by ethnicity) terrorist well before the WW2, one who agressively revived the OUN, having created its radical wing OUN-B ('B' for Bandera), which in turn established the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army).

These armed formations were ideologically were 100 per cent Nazi; the only difference with much more powerful German Nazi's was that OUN/UPA were Ukrainian Nazi's. And the little brother acted just like the big one, making genocidal ethnical cleansings. Jews and Slavs were main enemies of German Nazi's; Poles and Moskals (read Russians) were main enemies of Ukrainian Nazi's.

Only during Volhynia Massacre OUN/UPA cleansed the land from up to 60,000 Poles (and many Armenians who compactly lived there since medieval times, many Russians and Ukrainians who were guilty in not supporting radical Ukrainian nationalism). By the way, the first and only Polish cosmonaut (or astronaut, for the matter) Mirosław Hermaszewski is one of lucky survivors of this massacre.

Well, let's go back to Kiev. Here is a short 3.5 minutes video from the procession. What are they chanting?

— To whom does Ukraine belong?
— To Ukrainians! *

— To whom does Kyiv belong?
— To us!

— Glory to Ukraine!
— Glory to heroes! **

— Ukraine [is]...
— Above all! ***

— Bandera, Shukhevich are
          heroes of people,
                    they fought
                              for our freedom!

— Glory to the nation!
— Death to the enemies!

Sapienti sat.

____________________
* The word 'Ukrainian' just like 'Russian' is often intentionally or unintentionally misconcepted. Please read one of my previous posts on the matter.
** Official formal salute of the OUN/UPA, a Nazi slogan as it is.
*** Just a tranlsation of their iconic formula "Deutschland über alles".

Will a New TV Channel Defend the World from Russian Propaganda?

Ben Smith of BuzzFeed reports "The EU is plotting a new TV channel to counter Russian propaganda".

European Union leaders are considering creating a new Russian-language television channel aimed at combating Russian propaganda, an EU foreign minister said in an interview with BuzzFeed News.

“Russian TV, particularly for the last couple of years, has been very aggressive in what can no longer be considered normal news or normal journalism, but is more information warfare and propaganda,” the foreign minister of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, said.

Wake up and look, people! For decades the Voice of America, Freedom/Free Europe, Die Deutsche Welle fought against the Soviet propaganda. The socialist system of the world collapsed, the very Soviet Union disintegrated, yet the information war was not ceased even for a little while.

It goes on and on. For most people it has become evident that in fact it has never been anti-Soviet; it has always been and remains anti-Russian. As it was way before the October Revolution, so it was during the USSR epoch, so it is now. The states of the golden billion just hate Russia for its being great, huge, wealthy and, that is absolutely intolerable, self-standing again.

However, it seems as well that many consumers of the information flood are just sick and tired of that consistent and traditional russophobic, anti-Russian wave of information skillfully mixed with disinformation. Whether they call it "normal journalism" or not.

I wonder if big guys sometimes recognize that is the reason of overwhelming increase of RT popularity round the world. People just would like to know other opinions and think different. They are overfed with boring tales of evil Russia, vodka, bears and Putin's tyranny threatening the free world.

Western world has succeeded in bringing up a society of consumerism; well, now well trained, skillful consumers are eager to consume various information from different sources. No new TV channel will change this.

Meanwhile in Russia - 2: They Are Surfing!

What a nice weather in Vladivostok!

Air temperature is about -15 centigrade (5°F), water is 0 to -2 centigrade (32—28°F); being salty, it freezes below zero. Evidently, it's high time to surf.

This astonishing video was taken on December 20 and 24 on Russky island, Chernyshev bay.

The island is situated just off Vladivostok at 9300+ kilometres from Moscow (yeah, Mother Russia is great, and even greater than that!).

As Alexander Suvorov once said, "We are Russians! What a delight!"
Nothing to add, isn't it? ;-)

They Say - 6 (Jack Matlock)

A pretty interesting and cognitive interview Jack Matlock, ex-USA ambassador to the USSR (1987—1991) gave about 4 months ago to German newspaper Die Tageszeitung.

Here is the original publication in German, and its full translation into Russian. Unfortunately, the only English translation I have found so far looks like being done via some translation software, yet for those who do not understand German and Russian it is better than nothing.

Anyhow, here are some important points from this former high ranked diplomate.

By the way, the title says "Das ist ein Familienstreit", that is "This is a Family Quarrel".

Aber Rumänien und Bulgarien waren es nicht mehr. Keines dieser Länder war von Russland bedroht. Und dann begann die Eröffnung von Militärbasen, unter anderem in Polen – gegen nicht existierende Raketen aus Iran – Für die Russen war das eine Provokation. 2008 entschied die Nato, die Ukraine auf eine Spur zur Mitgliedschaft zu setzen. Ein in seinem Inneren tief gespaltenes Land, direkt vor Russlands Türe. Das alles waren sehr dumme Schachzüge des Westens. Heute haben wir die Reaktion darauf.
However, Romania and Bulgaria were beyond the permissible limit. None of these countries was threatened by Russia. And then opening of military bases began, particularly in Poland, against non-existent Iranian missiles — for the Russians it was a provocation. In 2008 the NATO decided that Ukraine started its way to membership. Internally a deeply divided country, located directly at the gates of Russia. These were very stupid chess moves of the West. Today we have the reaction to them.

Wie würden die USA reagieren, wenn sich vor ihrer Türe ein vergleichbares Szenario entfaltete?
Wenn China anfangen würde, eine Militärallianz mit Kanada und Mexiko zu organisieren, würden die USA das nicht tolerieren. Wir würden uns auch nicht auf abstrakte Prinzipien von internationalem Recht beschränken lassen. Wir würden das verhindern. Mit jedem Mittel, das wir haben. Jedes Land, das die Macht dazu hat, würde das tun.
How would the USA react if such a scenario was played at their doorstep?
If China started to create a military alliance with Canada and Mexico, the USA would not tolerate this. Besides, we would not also limit our actions by the abstract principles of international law. We would prevent this, with all the means at our disposal. Any country that has enough power would do the same.

Wie definieren Sie das, was jetzt in der Ukraine passiert?
Das ist im Wesentlichen ein Familienstreit. Außenseiter sollten sich da raus halten. Die gegenwärtige Situation ist von vitaler Bedeutung für Russland und die Ukraine, für niemanden sonst. Es war ein Fehler des Westens, sich da einzumischen.
How do you define what is happening in Ukraine?
It is, essentially, a family quarrel. Outsiders should not interfere with it. These present situation is vital for Russia and Ukraine — and for nobody else. The Western intervention in the conflict was a mistake.

Wollen Sie bestreiten, dass Russland internationale Regeln verletzt?
Natürlich nicht. Aber es war der Westen, der damit begonnen hat, dieselben internationalen Regeln zu brechen, als die Nato wegen Kosovo Serbien bombardiert hat. Unsere zweite Verletzung der Schlussakte von Helsinki – wonach Grenzen nur veränderbar sind, wenn beide Seiten zustimmen – war, als wir die Unabhängigkeit von Kosovo akzeptiert haben. Putin sagt: Ihr habt den Präzedenzfall geschaffen. Jetzt verletze ich die Regeln. Das müssen wir berücksichtigen, wenn wir über Legalität reden. So zu tun, als ob Russland etwas Einzigartiges täte und Russland zu einem besonderen Ausgestoßenen zu machen, ist unfair.
Do you deny that Russia violated international law?
Of course not. But it was the West that began to violate these international rules, when the NATO forces bombed Serbia for Kosovo. Our second violation of the Helsinki Final Act, according to which a state border can be changed only if both parties agree, was when we recognized the independence of Kosovo. Putin said: You have set a precedent. And now I'm breaking the rules. We must take this into account when talking about legality. It is unfair to behave as if Russia has made something unique, and for this reason should become an outcast.

Why do you think all these ex- and former politicians become so overtly wise and sober minded only having been retired?

Failure of Maidan in Moscow

Just before the New Year, on December 30, there was a sudden attempt to arrange something like 'EuroMaidan' in Moscow. Initially, the organizers of anti-Putin movement planned their activity to January 15, when the announcement of sentence to fraudster Alexey Navalny (for some unknown to me reasons chosen by some powers as one of "opposition" leaders in Moscow) was expected.

However, the great master of political games Vladimir Putin seems to overplay again his adversaries. The announcement was moved to December 30, and "oppo's" had to act quickly.

Playing bad games in a hostile surrounding (do not forget, Putin enjoys close to 85% support from our people) can seldom be successful, and our "opposition" failed epically! I do not exactly now how many people did they succeed to conscript for participating in their meeting (in social networks the activity can be traced under hash-tag #Манежка, that is Manezhnaya Square in the centre of Moscow), maybe 3,000, maybe even 5,000 — it just doesn't matter in our multi-million city. What does, however, that is a perfect job done by our police, which quickly and effectively terminated the unauthorized meeting, having arrested some most aggressive participants.

What a pleasure it is to read tweets of the kind for us, pro-Russian Russians :)

Here what it says:

#Navalny #Manezhka, need [video] taking at Ritz! The OMON has humiliated citizens, turning them out by kicks of special boots. Not only me alone. My ass hurts as hell. I will sue

Ritz is a hotel situated quite close to Manezhnaya Square in the very beginning of Tverskaya, former Gorky Street, on the place of previous Intourist hotel; the OMON is a police special team that perfectly acted as a punishing sword boot of democracy.

"My ass hurts as hell" — this is more or less what expects all those stupid idiots who think Russia needs some Ukrainian style maidan. Whoever is the US ambassador to Russia, whoever they choose as oppo-leaders in Russia, they have failed now, and will do in the future.

We won't let anybody to destroy our country.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

С НОВЫМ ГОДОМ!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!