In Which We Learn New Things About Russia

"Medvedev" (stress on the 2nd syllable) read out close to how it sounds in Russian.
Medved', by the way, means "bear" in Russian.

It is very Russian indeed. Sadly, tragically predictable numb compliance of the masses, combined with readiness to toe a line drawn by The Hand.

One step closer to the Holy Empire of Russia from World War Z.

Putin has endorsed the Russian Orthodox Church as the official religion of Russia.
Is there something inherently suppressive about Russian culture that insists on a unified religious front? You really have to wonder how they went from the Marxist approach of allowing no religions to practice to creating a constitution that touts religious freedom, to persecuting Protestants. I understand that Evangelical Protestantism (an American creation) poses a cultural threat to many groups, especially in Brazil and the Caribbean, and I see how this move, in some ways, preserves Russian identity. However, this is a scary move for the large Slavic land and I believe it will only foster anti-American sentiment worldwide.
Read more about it in the NY Times.
Edwin wrote:

One step closer to the Holy Empire of Russia from World War Z.

Putin has endorsed the Russian Orthodox Church as the official religion of Russia.
Is there something inherently suppressive about Russian culture that insists on a unified religious front? You really have to wonder how they went from the Marxist approach of allowing no religions to practice to creating a constitution that touts religious freedom, to persecuting Protestants. I understand that Evangelical Protestantism (an American creation) poses a cultural threat to many groups, especially in Brazil and the Caribbean, and I see how this move, in some ways, preserves Russian identity. However, this is a scary move for the large Slavic land and I believe it will only foster anti-American sentiment worldwide.
Read more about it in the NY Times.

Any word on the Pope's reaction?

Georgia v. Russia

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Russia's deployment of extra troops in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia has brought the prospect of war "very close," a minister of ex-Soviet Georgia said on Tuesday.

Separately, in comments certain to fan rising tension between Moscow and Tbilisi, the "foreign minister" of the breakaway Black Sea region was quoted as saying it was ready to hand over military control to Russia.

"We literally have to avert war," Temur Iakobashvili, a Georgian State Minister, told reporters in Brussels.

Asked how close to such a war the situation was, he replied: "Very close, because we know Russians very well."

"We know what the signals are when you see propaganda waged against Georgia. We see Russian troops entering our territories on the basis of false information," he said.

At a banking event in Madrid, Vice Finance Minister Dimitri Gvindadze said the Georgian economy was holding up despite the tensions. However ratings agency Fitch said a conflict would likely hit Georgia's ratings but not immediately Russia's.

"Obviously if we have an unfreezing of the conflict that will be extremely negative for the country (Georgia) and would lead to negative ratings action," Fitch's Edward Parker told Reuters in London.

Georgia, a vital energy transit route in the Caucasus region, has angered Russia, its former Soviet master with which it shares a land border, by seeking NATO membership.

Russia has said its troop build-up is needed to counter what it says are Georgian plans to attack Abkhazia, a sliver of land by the Black Sea, and has accused Tbilisi of trying to suck the West into a war -- allegations Georgia rejects.

Tensions have been steadily mounting and escalated after Georgia accused Russia of shooting down one of its drones over Abkhazia in April, a claim Russia denied.

An extra Russian contingent began arriving in Abkhazia last week. Moscow has not said how many troops would be added but said the total would remain within the 3,000 limit allowed under a United Nations-brokered ceasefire agreement signed in 1994. Diplomats expect the reinforcement to be of the order of 1,200.

Why don't they pick on someone their own size (besides us)? Maybe one of the other BRICs? That would be super.

Wee, I love Russian foreign service workers. Their the only people who don't give a f*ck about having to justify "losing" years worth of copies of end user certificates.

Okay, MD, that was seriously funny. How you know that I simply won't ask.

I swear I saw shihonage wristlock and pin people at 1:40!

Was it just me, or was that a lot of clips of smiling, dancing youths with sinister music and commentary playing in the background?

Gorilla.800.lbs wrote:

I swear I saw shihonage wristlock and pin people at 1:40! :D

The whitebelt guy at 1:40 is a noob.

"If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children," the judge ruled.

Thank you, America, for becoming my new motherland.

Oh,man. How bad does the situation have to be when the government not only doesn't hide an execution but makes a public joke about it as well?

In another showcase of Russian subtlety of the manner in which the law and order are administered, an owner of an opposition website critical of the local regime in Ingushetia (an autonomy southern in Russia bordering with Chechnya) was arrested and "accidentally" shot.

Reuters

NAZRAN, Russia (Reuters) - The owner of an opposition Internet news site in Russia's troubled Ingushetia region was shot dead on Sunday after police detained him, his colleagues said.

Magomed Yevloyev, owner of the Ingushetiya.ru Internet site, was a vocal critic of the region's Kremlin-backed administration which is accused by critics of crushing dissent and free speech.

...

Interfax quoted an unnamed law enforcement source as saying Yevloyev was shot by accident.

"While police officers were attempting to transfer M. Yevloyev to an interior ministry office, an incident occurred in which M. Yevloyev received a gunshot wound to the temple area," the agency quoted the source as saying.

I think it was Lobster who said "he fell down a flight of bullets".

Couldn't. Make It Up.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has been feted by Russian media for saving a television crew from an attack by a siberian tiger in the wilds of the country's far east.

Mr Putin, taking a break from lambasting the West over Georgia, apparently saved the crew while on a trip to a national park to see how researchers monitor the tigers in the wild.

Just as he was arriving with a group of wildlife specialists to see a trapped Amur tiger, it escaped and ran towards a nearby camera crew, the country's main television station said.

Mr Putin quickly shot the beast and sedated it with a tranquilliser gun.

"Vladimir Putin not only managed to see the giant predator up close but also saved our television crew too," a presenter on Rossiya television said at the start of the main evening news.

The 55-year-old former KGB spy, who cultivated a macho image during his eight years as the Kremlin chief, was shown striding through the taiga in camouflage and desert boots before grappling with the feline foe.

Do you think people in Russia get Spam e-mails telling them that a certain pill will make their penis as large as Putin's? Or their breasts large and appealing to men like him?

Prederick wrote:

Do you think people in Russia get Spam e-mails telling them that a certain pill will make their penis as large as Putin's?

Dear Russian person:

My name is Funkenpants and I recently found myself in a difficult position. I have received through a business associate more than $2,000,000 which I cannot deposit into my local bank due to U.S. government monitoring of bank accounts. I do not wish to pay the government 40% of the money, but will gladly split it with a partner in a foreign country if only ...."

Funkenpants wrote:
Prederick wrote:

Do you think people in Russia get Spam e-mails telling them that a certain pill will make their penis as large as Putin's?

Dear Russian person:

My name is Funkenpants and I recently found myself in a difficult position. I have received through a business associate more than $2,000,000 which I cannot deposit into my local bank due to U.S. government monitoring of bank accounts. I do not wish to pay the government 40% of the money, but will gladly split it with a partner in a foreign country if only ...."

Дорогая русская персона: Мое имя Funkenpants и я недавно нашел в трудном положении. Я получал через бизнес-партнера больше чем $2.000.000 которое я не могу депозировать в мой местный банк должный к контролю правительства США счетов в банк. Я не желаю оплатить правительству 40% из дег, а радостно разделю ее с соучастником в зарубежной стране если только….

Дорогая русская персона: Мое имя Funkenpants и я недавно нашел в трудном положении. Я получал через бизнес-партнера больше чем $2.000.000 которое я не могу депозировать в мой местный банк должный к контролю правительства США счетов в банк. Я не желаю оплатить правительству 40% из дег, а радостно разделю ее с соучастником в зарубежной стране если только….

That's a very bad translation. Google?

Gorilla.800.lbs wrote:
Дорогая русская персона: Мое имя Funkenpants и я недавно нашел в трудном положении. Я получал через бизнес-партнера больше чем $2.000.000 которое я не могу депозировать в мой местный банк должный к контролю правительства США счетов в банк. Я не желаю оплатить правительству 40% из дег, а радостно разделю ее с соучастником в зарубежной стране если только….

That's a very bad translation. Google?

Babelfish. And that was exactly the point.

Humorous Aside

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Prosecutors in Russia want to ban the award-winning satirical U.S. cartoon "South Park," calling the series "extremist" after receiving viewer complaints, a spokeswoman said on Monday.

"South Park," a cartoon aimed at adults and featuring a group of nine-year olds in a Colorado town, has courted controversy since its 1997 debut, lampooning celebrities, politicians, religion, gay marriage and Saddam Hussein.

But investigators have filed a motion after deciding an episode broadcast on Moscow television station 2x2 in January "bore signs of extremist activity," said regional prosecutors office spokeswoman Valentina Titova.

They banned Borat movie too as offensive to Kazakhs. Russia has friendly relationships with Kazakhstan, is home to a large Kazakh diaspora, and Kazakhstan in turn has a large Russian minority population.

Edit: hey, it turns out they are trying to penalize the TV channel that airs the show following the complaints from Russian Protestant congregations. The complaint lists "covert and overt propaganda of homosexualism and pedophilia, anti-social lifestyle, and numerous other immoralities" as the reasons to ask for the penalties to be implemented against the channel.

Three things to rejoice about here:
* despite the pressure from Russian Orthodox establishment, the Protestantism is still alive and well in Russia
* the powers that be actually listen to the Protestants!
* Russian Protestants are just like American ones!

We're more alike than we realize.

Come on, everyone, join hands. It's time to sing Kumbaya.

Speaking of Russia, what is going on in their financial markets? It's almost like they are taking Malor's stand on letting bad businesses fail.

Remember, Minase, their only means to wield influence in the region is with energy prices. They are falling and falling fast. When they are defaulting on their loans and they have few, if any, friends in the region I understand the need to do anything.

Russian Federation doesn't have any loans. AFAIK they paid off their debt in 2006.

Indeed I was wrong, Gorilla. Seems I mis-heard a comment on the radio. Probably comparing it to ten years ago.

The problem still remains for Russia after acting as if the former high in energy prices gave it carte blanche in the region. Its now finding that its really not that simple. After a few days of falling stock I'm sure they are keen to avoid a similar fate that occurred in 1998.

"In what took him so long" department, Putin is promoting a Judo instruction DVD.