What's good (and bad ) about Russia?

[facthunter]

Massey Fergusons were always built all over the world but they really lost the plot with DESIGNS about the 90's The thing going for them was the MF system where you could bolt on all sorts of accessories but they weren't very big (35 HP diesel) One more cylinder  took it to 65 but the trans etc was still much the same and the rot starts there... Nev

 

 

[willedoo]

This BMW in Samara came to a really sh*tty end on the weekend. It caught fire and a passing septic pump-out truck pulled up and put it out with liquid poo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[facthunter]

 Perhaps it was only the "excremental" model. ? or had a Piss-tin problem. Nev

 

 

[Methusala]

Need a new emoji to rate this one. It stinks!

 

 

[pmccarthy]

There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me.  She looked at me and made a threatening gesture,  now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate.  I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me.  The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went.  Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threating getsture to my servant when you saw him this morning?  That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise.  I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

 

 

[willedoo]

In this age of GoPro's, why would you bother going to this trouble. One of the parachute minders at a Russian Air Force aircrew bail out and survival class.

 

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[Marty_d]

Maybe the Russian air force's budget doesn't extend to GoPro's...

 

(Funny name, "Go Pro".  Of course you want her to go. )

 

 

[willedoo]

Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, has displayed as a monument the Soyuz MS-10 capsule that successfully ejected from the failed launch in October 2018. Crew members, cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin and U.S. astronaut Nick Hague attended the ceremony. American astronaut Nick Hague was awarded the Russian state honour, the  Order of Courage at the ceremony.

 

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Aleksey Ovchinin and Nick Hague

 

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[willedoo]

The final section of the Crimea bridge has been completed with the official opening of the rail line. It opens up another big train trip for enthusiasts with trains travelling from St. Petersburg to Sevastopol in 43 hours. Only catch might be that entering Crimea that way would prevent people from getting a visa to visit Ukraine, as Ukraine now has laws making it a crime for anyone to enter Crimea via the  Russian mainland.

 

A bit of a bummer for locals on the mainland side as they've lost a good fishing spot. People could drive out on the spit and camp and fish before the bridge swallowed it up.

 

Pre Bridge:

 

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[willedoo]

It's hard to get away from the coronavirus subject which is dominating the press. At this stage, Russia is slightly behind Australia in number of cases and has introduced similar restrictions as we have. Their plans to deal with the economic fallout are similar in some ways, but possibly not quite as generous as ours. Most of the usual stuff, increased social security etc.. One of the bigger measures to increase the revenue is taxing offshore money.

For the individual, Russia has a flat tax rate of 13%, but up until now, money could be sent to overseas entities as dividends and interest and attract a tax rate of only 2%. This now has the 13% added to it to bring the rate up to 15%.

 

As the virus impact plays out, time will tell how their economy goes. One major factor is the slump in oil prices due to decreased global demand over the virus, plus the failure of the OPEC + 1 agreement. With oil revenue down, the recent budget surpluses will be gone and savings will have to be used to help run the country. Ratings agency Moody's has forecast a deficit of less than 1% of GDP and has said that Russia is better placed than the other major exporters to weather the storm. Between their sovereign wealth fund and healthy foreign exchange reserves, they are expected to be able to supplement the budget for a few years. Buying all that physical gold in the last couple of years might have been a good idea. Another factor with the low oil prices is that Russia has a low production cost compared to some other countries.

 

This is where Putin owes some thanks to Obama and Trump. Thanks to the U.S. led sanctions, Russia has had to diversify it's economy and generate more domestic industry. Nowdays, only 30% of GDP is based on exports, with oil exports accounting for about 20%. With the sanctions, they saw the need to be less vulnerable to outside pressures and have moved that way. As with most sanctions, they hurt others more than the ones intended. The sanctions on Russia have had a far bigger impact on their European trading partners than on Russia itself.

 

Meanwhile, the coranavirus has put a hold on the proposed constitutional changes. The changes have passed through parliament and can legally be introduced, but Putin has said all along they would only be finally introduced if a majority of the public vote for it. With the social distancing, that vote is put on hold until later in the year. Under the Russian system, a public vote is not required for the change, but in the interest of politics, they are having one.

 

The new constitution has some very good points and some maybe not so good. One big issue talked about was Presidential terms. The new constitution sets a maximum of two terms like the U.S., and the debate was whether the new constitution would reset so that any former Presidents start with a clean slate and can go on to serve another two terms under the new constitution. In his address to the State Duma, Putin said a reset was unacceptable. Obviously the point was whether Putin would be around for many more years to come. State Duma member and first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, proposed that terms be reset. It was passed through and Putin has said he will accept the will of the legislators (no surprise). So the possibility is that Putin could be President until 2036. That would make him about 83.

[old man emu]

Thanks to the U.S. led sanctions, Russia has had to diversify it's economy and generate more domestic industry. With the sanctions, they saw the need to be less vulnerable to outside pressures and have moved that way. As with most sanctions, they hurt others more than the ones intended. The sanctions on Russia have had a far bigger impact on their European trading partners than on Russia itself

 

That statement echoes what I was saying elsewhere about the need for Australia to put emphasis on self-sufficiency. The sanctions caused Russia to do it. The COVID experience should cause Australia to do it. And a damn good thing, too.

[willedoo]

Yes, ome, I'd agree there. Hopefully some good will come of it and lead to a more secure economy in the future.

[willedoo]

Boris the Siberian Amur Tiger gets around. He's crossed the Amur River into China and has been spotted in the Taipinggou National Nature Reserve. He's well known as Putin helped release him after rehabilitation in 2014. They recognize him mainly because he has a patch on his side with no stripes - it looks like they've been photoshopped out.

 

The governments and conservation groups have been working to establish a green corridor between the two countries to re-establish the tiger habitat with adjoining national parks. Rehabilitated Amur Tigers have been released in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, from where they can hopefully re-establish there and over the border in China. All they have to do is cross the river.

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2020 by Guest

[Jerry_Atrick]

A natural border guard being set up?

[willedoo]

A short clip of the Victory Day flyover today. It seems strange seeing Red Square deserted; the only thing happening on the ground was a small wreath laying ceremony.

 

[willedoo]

If you're bored and have 40 minutes to spare, you can take a virtual walk down Lenin Street in Chita, a city in South Central Siberia on the Trans Siberian Highway.

 

[Marty_d]

Hey Willedoo... saw this and thought of you!

 

Blokes from Aussie hippie town accidentally become a Russian sensation

[willedoo]

Hey Willedoo... saw this and thought of you!

 

Blokes from Aussie hippie town accidentally become a Russian sensation

Thanks Marty, that's an amazing story. I like the way they've renamed Mullumbimby as Mullumgrad.

[Marty_d]

And Dustyesky... pure genius.

[willedoo]

And Dustyesky... pure genius.

I wonder if the Russians get that one.

[Marty_d]

Possibly not, can't see that there'd be much use for them in a Russian winter.

[willedoo]

Dustyesky are getting a fair bit of publicity, They were on Australian Story on the ABC tonight, part of a story on Australian performers getting by in the pandemic.

 

They're actually quite good; I think the Red Army Choir would be smiling down on them from above. There was some talk that the Russians wanted to live stream them at the re-scheduled Victory Day commemoration. I think the new date was set for sometime next month.

Edited May 30, 2020 by Guest

[Marty_d]

One for "what's bad about Russia"...

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-02/anastasia-vasilyeva-doctors-alliance-russia-coronavirus/12276094?nw=0

[willedoo]

One for "what's bad about Russia"...

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-02/anastasia-vasilyeva-doctors-alliance-russia-coronavirus/12276094?nw=0

 

Marty, before you take that ABC news item at face value, it would pay to dig a bit deeper. There's a lot more to this lady than some are mentioning. She has a lot of political background outside the sphere of medicine. Take the arrest for example. Her and her crew were arrested trying to deliver coronavirus gear to a centre outside Moscow. All sounds good and fits the Western press narrative of how nasty the Russian government is. First point is that the medical centre she was going to never requested the gear and medical staff have gone on the record to say they had no shortages. They were not notified this lady and her crew was coming.

 

The second point - her crew. They were detained as well and consisted of, among others, her lawyer and a film crew. Third point, they had the same travel restrictions as us at the time and were detained for breaking the law on restricted travel. The same would have happened to her in this country. Remember, at the same time here in Australia, a bloke was arrested and fined $1,600 for eating a hamburger on a park bench. Three teenagers copped the same fine each for playing computer games in the same house, and that's our land of the free. So during lockdown travel restrictions, she has travelled unannounced outside the allowable zone without permits to a hospital that didn't know she was coming, hadn't requested the gear and had no shortage of it, taking her lawyer and a film crew with her. Go figure that one. You wouldn't have to be too far out there to think the intention was to get arrested for the publicity and political gain.

 

The ABC journalist is just rehashing the same story that's been doing the rounds of the Western press, as I can't see anything new in his story and it's been around for a while now. The part of the story they don't like to mention is her political history and affiliations and backers. She's not squeaky clean.

 

The problem with any Western press coverage of events in Russia is that there will nearly always be two sides to the coin, and our press will always pick the side that suits the anti Kremlin narrative. Very few will engage in balanced, fair, investigative journalism when it comes to Russia. Most will just keep repeating whatever story makes the government look bad. It spreads like a chain letter from one source to another without much further investigation in between. This ABC article is one of those chain letters. The journalist hasn't written one word that you couldn't have read in dozens of news outlets a month ago. It's poor and lazy journalism. It's not revealing anything new, just running an old story for the sensational value. Instead of recycling someone's else's old news, why doesn't the journalist get off his backside and do some research of his own. If he did, and published it, then there would be something worth reading. News outlets keep recycling an old story where this lady makes certain claims. So why don't they do their job and investigate her claims instead of just reprinting the claims week after week. Short answer, they're lazy and go for the low hanging fruit. And we're the mugs.

 

There could very well be some truth in some of her claims, but the thing to bear in mind is that her driving motivation is politics and not health. There's more to her than just being a trade union leader. I'm not saying what she does is bad, but what I am saying is that when it comes to Russian issues, the Western press will only tell you what they want you to hear. And it works because it also happens to be what we want to hear.

Edited June 2, 2020 by willedoo

[willedoo]

Here's a photo of the lady in mention when they got pulled up on the outskirts of Nizhny Novgorod, about 400klm. from their start point in Moscow. The police were about to tow her car away as, strangely enough, she had forgotten to bring the required papers, registration etc.. The photo was taken by Steven Derix, a Dutch journalist she took along for the trip, as well as her lawyer and camera crew. The photo is from Steven Derix's Twitter account.

 

 

So let's forget about her political activist role for a minute, and also her and her group's links to well known opposition activist, Alexi Navalny.

Here's a medical professional and leader of a medical union who supposedly tries to do the right thing and deliver some masks and suits to a couple of hospitals 400 klm away. Against all lockdown laws and virus measures, you gather an entourage of eleven people in three cars, including two cameramen, a lawyer and a foreign journalist. Then you take off without permits and authority, leaving behind all your car's papers as well. You head to hospitals who have no idea of your plan and who have no shortage of the items.

 

When the gear arrives to the bemusement of the hospital authorities, they are unable to provide paperwork and certification of the PPE. As a comparison, here in Australia, if a batch of masks, respirators and suits suddenly arrived at a hospital, unrequested and unannounced, with no paperwork to verify their compliance with standards, would our doctors just say "Bewdy, good one!" and start using them.

 

So then after being arrested and spending the night in the watch house, you return to Moscow and start doing the press rounds. First stop, Associated Press, next, the Moscow Times, a Dutch owned outlet and regular Kremlin critic. Mission accomplished. Next thing, the NYT and the British press pick up the story and two months later, our ABC is still airing it. The issue I have is that's all they are doing, repeating her allegations over and over. The whole thing was fishy from the start. That's the way it goes; she often takes a crew like that with her on her capers. It's politics disguised as a health issue.

 

Marty, to be honest, that ABC article barely rates the effort of a reply, but you probably knew you'd get a bite. Can't help myself.

Edited June 2, 2020 by Guest