Archive - August 2005

According to RIA Novosti, from tomorrow Chinese tourists will no longer need visas when they visit Russia on an organised tour. According to Shengeliya, 1.7 million Russians visited China in 2004, while 800,000 Chinese...

I’m embarrassed to say that I took the test, and I most definitely do not have a Big Russian Soul. Your so-called "soul" earned 0 out of five troika matreshki. You are utterly devoid of Russian soul. You...

According to this Moscow Times report, the Russian government has decided that it should no longer supply gas and oil to Former Soviet states at a discounted rate. "As market reforms proceed in our countries, we...

News is beginning to break that Mikhail Khodorkovsky is on a dry hunger strike – he is refusing all food and water – in support of his jailed colleague Platon Lebedev.  Lebedev, who is thought to be...

On Friday I wrote briefly about a brewing conflict between Chechens and Kalmyks in the Buddhist Russian Republic of Kalmykia, promising to update when I got back from my weekend away.  Well, judging by the lack of...

Russia and the European Space Agency (ESA) could be working together to develop the Kliper (Clipper) space shuttle. It’s all but official�Russia and Europe will soon embark on a cooperative effort to build a next...

A couple of bloggers write about their negative experiences – mostly with scams – in Moscow: Aaron, at 110 Lines of Longitude encountered the "wad of bills" scam first hand: Then the really bad...

President Putin has been playing at being a fly-boy: President Vladimir Putin, sitting in the pilot’s seat, broke the sound barrier Tuesday as he flew in a long-range bomber to a Northern Fleet outpost to attend a...

A joint Chinese-Russian military exercise is underway in the Russian Far East, the first between the two countries.  10,000 personnel are involved in an operation that is said to be one of humanitarian assistance:...

Via Laurence Jarvik I found this article by Sam Vaknin.  He wants Russia to abandon the cyrillic alphabet and switch to a latin one because, he argues, holding on to an archaic and over-complicated alphabet is...