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October 15, 2004Zdravstvuite Russia! 2004-10-15by Joel Gaines at October 15, 2004 12:37 AM
This Regional Briefing focuses on the enigma that is Russia, via Joel Gaines of No Pundit Intended. Joel is a veteran of the Gulf War with the 3rd Armor Division, where he worked in an intelligence capacity. He speaks Russian, and has worked in several of the former soviet satellites. TOP TOPICS
Other Topics Today Include: arms sales and trade surplus; state run oil profits as YUKOS dies; inflation worries; political opposition uniting against Putin; first woman governor assesses first year; military draft excludes Chechens; Alkhanov inaugurated in secret location; Russia-Iran nuke fuel deal; Putin heads to China as two countries celebrate relations and joint ventures; secret uranium mission a success; introducing the Vodnik *Russia's Economy
International Relations & Security
Tracked: October 15, 2004 2:11 PM
Friday Morning News Briefing from Backcountry Conservative
Excerpt: Feel free to join in by linking/trackbacking any breaking news posts you make this morning to this post. World OTB:U.S. Warplanes Pound Insurgent Stronghold in Fallujah Winds of Change: Iraq: So Much for That Pre-Election Lull WoC: Zdravstvuite Russia!...
Comments
#1 from Warum at 1:26 am on Oct 15, 2004
Naw, the spirit is "Vodyanoy" (adjective) :-). "Vodnik" (noun) doesn't mean anything, it's a made up word vaguely suggestive of something water-related. Submariners are called "podvodniki" (sub-vodniks, sorta; but there's no word "vodnik" -- as far as I know, at least.) A cute little car! Oh, also, what's "field units of KGB"? I dont' think there are such things... I may be wrong here though. Warum, I looked it up. You are correct. Vodnik is described as a slavic, rather than Russian term for Spirit. Russian is as you said it was. Good call! "field units of KGB" was probably something you read in a link somewhere. I remember there were KGB folks in an army type uniform with special piping that often hung out with the GAI and helped extort money from foreign drivers. After a little poking around I found something I should have remembered (and there is a CW4 rolling in his grave I bet) from training. In the 1970s and forward, there were some special KGB units formed for things like counter-terrorism, Chechnya special operations, plus there was a special ops KGB group that were charged with assassinating enemy leadership, etc. Thanks for posting and for correcting my Russian. :)
#3 from Warum at 5:09 pm on Oct 15, 2004
" hung out with the GAI and helped extort money from foreign drivers." I think you're wrong about Russia losing by choosing Kyoto to get in the WTO. As I noted elsewhere, Russia will get in to the WTO, make a bundle selling CO2 credits and then escape when Kyoto threatens to cripple the EU economy. AOG, I don't think they are losing, necessarily. They absolutely will benefit from the WTO. However, Russia has no emissions controls to speak of. In some of the more industrial towns, on a cold and drizzly day, you can cut the air with your hand and watch the polutants separate. Kinda like watching the house dust float around in that one shaft of light coming into the window as a kid - except not nostalgic. :) Anyway! Putin is working overtime to put Russia on the map in an economic sense, since I think he realizes they cannot possibly compete with the US militarily. If you don't have the big army, you have to have cash or you are a little fish in the big pond. Putin continues to conduct business with Georgia. Opening things up in Iran. More in China and consolidating oil power by merging state run oil and killing YUKOS. I doubt Russia has any intentions of squelching emissions, but they also think the Kyoto agreement is garbage and are taking a "gotta play the game" approach. Ah, the emissions controls. This has been a problem for the last few years. The proposal of Euro 2 (a european emissions control standard) has been in the air for a few years now. First it was turned down because of argument that the Russian car industry would be hurt with such high standards. A few years later, in summer of '04 it was turned down again and suspended for a year because of argument that now the oil industry couldn't handle making better fuel. With that said - I think there are some standards: Euro 0 or maybe Euro 1 while Europe is thinking of entering the Euro 4... However in the last years the auto industries have been more careful about their engines. Most of new cars have switched to Euro 2 on their own, but the problem here is that the old production cars are still abailable with horrible 1960's carburator engines. In the economic sense - the country's total profit has increased 4 times in '04 compared to '99 and Russian has paid off most of their foreign debt (only 44 billion $ left to some French club), however inflation is at an all time high and as much as 40% of people consider themselves poor. I don't agree with Joel about the army - yes it has suffered grately from the fall of USSR but it's still one of the best armies in the world. Even though it doesn't have all the new Russian developments - this would change in case of a war with US. Look at WWII - in '30s USSR was not a military nation. After WWII - it was the nation with the best tanks and planes. My point is - if a war were to break out between these two nations, Russia would have a very big chanse of winning. If we are talking about a war on the scale of WWI or WWII, the country could stop worriing about other things and consentrate on military. About the bussiness with Georgia - ever since the Pro US/NATO Saakashvili was elected the ties between 2 countries deteriorated and Georgia can not be considered a Russian ally. Unfotrunatly, the same is happening in Ukraine right now. The damn "Orange Revolution" and "American" election of Uschenko will put a big dent in relations with Russia. Being Ukrainian I just hope he doesn't decide to join EU or NATO because then both countries will be scruded big time. I think the few Russian allies right now are Belorus, Ukraine (but for how long?), and in a way China. Russia and China have had a lot of advancements in the way of relations. In '04-'05 they settled most of the border issues - first in 50 years and plan to have the first ever joined military training this year. However, China can't be considered a "true" ally - it keeps an open mind on things, staying neutral on as many issues as possible - a very clever thing to do. beastiality cartoons http://storiespics.gotdns.org/beastiality-cartoons.html http://storiespics.homeunix.org/free-beastiality-stories.html - free beastiality stories http://storiespics.homeunix.net/free-animal-sex-storyes.html - free animal sex storyes http://storiespics.homelinux.org/erotic-beastiality-stories.html - erotic beastiality stories http://storiespics.homeunix.com/gay-animal-sex.html - gay animal sex http://storiespics.homeftp.org/farm-sex-porno.html - farm sex porno
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