Cadet Schools in Russia

Cadet schools in present-day Russia began to re-appear 15 years ago, in the early 1990s. The first such school was set up in the city of Novocherkassk in Russia’s south which is believed to be the capital of Cossacks on the River Don. Later, the first cadet school appeared in Moscow. At present there are over 100 cadet schools in the country, and an ever greater number of children dream of becoming cadets. A prototype of the cadet schools was the Mathematics and Navigation School opened by Russian Tsar Pyotr I in the 18th century. The tsar, when he founded the Russian navy, realised it needed well-trained engineers and experts in navigation. That school gave rise to specialised engineer and artillery educational establishments. Those were the beginning of the cadet system of Russian education.

After the 1917 October Revolution, all cadet schools were closed down, and many of their students and graduates, who were mostly opposed to Soviet rule, emigrated abroad. In 1922, the number of cadets residing abroad was some 2,000. The president of the Russian Cadet Foundation, Boris Iordan, whose father was a cadet, believed that the cadets of the old school were guided by their instinct in their wish to return home without losing their traditions; the most important being honour and dignity in service to the Motherland. Finally, their dream came true.

Mr Iordan said, “At present, there are more than 100 cadet schools in Russia, more than in 1917. More children attend such schools, so, this undertaking is supported by the Federal authorities, by the president and governors. Earlier, we thought that cadet schools are an insignificant movement. Yet, it grew into a full-blooded independent part of the Russian system of education, part of the Russian culture, and part of the up-bringing of the younger generation”.

According to Mr Iordan, today, the Russian system of cadet education is one of the best in the world. Young people receive an excellent education. This summer, the best students from the Russian cadet schools made a trip to the city of Belaya Tserkov in Serbia. The cadets gathered here after the 1917 Revolution and the advent to power of the Bolsheviks. It is thought that a majority of the cadets emigrated there. Together with Serb teenagers, Russian cadets contributed to the restoration of the Russian cadet cemetery and made improvements to the Russian Cadets Square. This was not a one-time action.

Colonel-General Valery Manilov, the chairman of the Russian Cadet Society, said, “We maintain close relations with cadet organisations in 7 countries, including Byelorussia, the United States, France, and Israel. We cooperate with all serious cadet organisations everywhere; we take part in congresses and various cultural events”. With every passing year, the prestige of cadet schools in Russia is growing. At present the competition ratio is very high for cadet schools in Moscow, there are 25 applicants for every open slot.

22 July 2008

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29927&cid=59&p=21.07.2008

Moscow is Ripe Enough to be a Global Financial Centre

The Russia Tower, one of the building projects currently underway in Moscow

The right sorts of preconditions exist for the transformation of Moscow into a centre of the global financial system. But, some things remain to be done for the creation of the proper infrastructure and the development of financial instruments. Moscow is quite capable of turning into a marketplace where sellers of money meet with their customers, those who need money and sell securities. The level of the infrastructure is advancing faster than ever, new business centres are being built, the quality of services is improving, and business is brisk when it comes to hotels. Capital investors will flock to Moscow once the Russian rouble starta to play a bigger role in international financial operations.

Sergei Vasiliyev, a board member of the Russian bank for foreign trade, the Vneshekonombank, sees some progress in this field. “The rouble is now a highly-trusted currency unit; it is about to turn into an international currency unit. It became convertible about two years ago, and, although it was unable to turn into a reserve currency unit immediately, it became an internationally-accepted currency. It is used in international trade. If a Russian bank gets a Euro or dollar loan abroad, a western bank can easily convert it into roubles. This is what happens now, but, could never happen before. In other words, western banks keep their books in roubles, meaning that the rouble is turning into an instrument of the global financial system”.

As a centre of the global financial system, Moscow will start attracting foreign, as well as domestic, business companies. There will be no need for the domestic companies to trade at foreign stock exchanges, and foreigners will appreciate its offer of money, not Russian money, but, money that comes from the world marketplace. Mr Vasiliyev said that the sale of Russian securities in London does not mean that Russian businesses buy British money. It is money from the world marketplace. The same holds true with regard to Moscow.

If this city turns into an international centre, it will play host to those who buy foreign currency. For a city to be a centre of the global financial system, it has to broker business deals. Foreign investors and emitters alike come here. If this is where they meet, the brokering fees would be pocketed by Moscow. This is what it is all about, the acquisition of money. But, image-making makes an equally important aspect of this venture. A centre of the global financial system raises confidence in the financial system, and it puts the limelight on its prowess and potential.

22 July 2008

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29987&cid=57&p=22.07.2008

SCO Ministers to Meet in Dushanbe

The foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation will meet in Dushanbe on 25 July ahead of an SCO summit, due in August at the same venue. Briefing reporters on the Dushanbe meeting’s agenda, Andrei Nesterennko, the Foreign Ministry’s official spokesman, said the ministers would discuss international contacts and the expansion of the SCO, proceeding from its openness to broad and mutually profitable cooperation with other countries and international structures. The Afghan issue will receive special attention since Afghanistan remains the main source of drug and terrorist threats to the SCO member-states. Also, the ministers will exchange views on various aspects of the situation in the region and in the world.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is a multi-functional non-bloc regional association comprising Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. It’s not a military alliance and doesn’t threaten anyone. The SCO is open to cooperation with all international structures that share its goals, namely maintaining regional peace and stability; expanding mutual trade, economic, humanitarian, and cultural ties; the mutual enrichment of national cultures and traditions; and coordinated efforts in answering new challenges and threats such as international terrorism, religious fanaticism, ethnic separatism, drug trafficking, and arms smuggling… goals that are worthy of respect and have earned the SCO worldwide recognition. It has observer status in the United Nations and established close business contacts with the ASEAN, the European Union, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, and other international organizations. Mongolia, India, Iran, and Pakistan are associate members in the SCO. Accession criteria are currently being reviewed to provide for the admission of new members.

23 July 2008

Albert Papoyan

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=30044&cid=56&p=23.07.2008

Editor’s Note:

Russian scuttlebutt has it that Russia wishes to give full-member status to Iran, then, Russia and the PRC can give overt security guarantees to prevent threatened US and Israeli strikes there. Such military action is foolhardy in the extreme and pointless, and proposed strikes have been criticised by such responsible US figures as former UN Ambassador John Bolton and Admiral Michael Mullen (the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff). Neither one of these men is a rad-lib wussy (for their bravery in speaking out, they deserve to be called MEN, in all-caps).

Bush and Rice must be restrained from juvenile bomb-tossing here. The consequences are too horrific to contemplate…

BMD

Moscow Accuses Hague Tribunal of Double Standards

Former President of Srpska Bosna, Radovan Karadžić (1945- ), Christian hero against the Bosnian terrorists

Moscow again urged the International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia to renounce its double standards and bias. The call came in a statement released by the Foreign Ministry following the arrest in Serbia of the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić. 13 years ago, the tribunal indicted him in absentia for “war crimes” during the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the early 90s. It is no secret that neither Serbs, nor Bosniaks (Muslims), nor Croats spared each other during that war. Nevertheless, despite the evidence of crimes committed by all of the sides, there is only one defendant, Radovan Karadžić. The tribunal is notorious for its bias against Serbs. Over more than a decade, about 100 Serbs and just 25 Croatians, 9 Bosnian Muslims, and 8 Albanians have stood trial on charges of war crimes in an obvious attempt to hold the Serbs responsible for the events in the Balkans.

While the Serbian government is receiving congratulations from Washington and European capitals on Mr Karadžić’s arrest, the majority of Serbs, most of whom treat Mr Karadžić as a hero, suspect Belgrade of political bargaining. Borislav Milosevich, the brother of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who died in prison during a trial in the Hague, said, “For a large part of the Serbian population, Radovan Karadžić is a national hero and the Hague tribunal is an anti-Serb court convicting Serbs only. As the Russian Foreign Ministry said recently, this tribunal must be abolished. It’s used as a tool to exert pressure on Belgrade and our people”.

The tribunal’s former chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, in her book entitled The Hunt: Me and My War Criminals, published after her resignation, acknowledged that evidence of severe crimes was often ignored if those crimes were committed by Bosnian Muslims, Croats, or Kosovo Albanians. For one, the tribunal turned a blind eye to the abduction and killing of more than 300 Serbs by Albanian militants in Kosovo and the subsequent sale of their organs for transplant surgery. No investigation into these facts was launched.

23 July 2008

Vyacheslav Solovyov

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=30041&cid=56&p=23.07.2008

Editor’s Note:

The truest words on this were spoken by Russia’s permanent representative in NATO, Dmitri Rogozin. He said, “If the Karadžić case deserves to be considered in the Hague, then those people who took the decision to bomb innocent civilians, who were dying by the hundreds during the ‘democratisation’ of the Balkans by the West, should be sitting in the dock next to him”.

Amen, Mr Rogozin. William Jefferson Clinton, Tony Blair, Madeleine Albright, Wesley Clarke, and Strobe Talbot all deserve to be put into prison jumpsuits to stand trial at The Hague. They brought Muslim terrorists into the heart of Europe and they bombed Belgrade on Holy Easter, but, had a smarmy “PC” bombing halt in Iraq at the start of Ramadan. Have you had your democracy today? If not, America shall be glad to provide it… it comes on the bomb-racks of a Buff, and don’t you forget it!

To think that America once brought good to others… I fervently hope that those more humble (and better!) days can return.

BMD

Why can’t the US and Russia Cooperate?

President Vladimir Putin (1952- ), with US President George Bush the younger (1946- )

Dana Perino, the press secretary at the White House, reacting to news about possibility of Russian long-range bombers returning to Cuba in response to US plans to build elements of its ABM defence system in Poland and Czech Republic, said that America wants to work with Russia in that regard and is anxious to have strategic partnership with Moscow. Ms Perino is correct in calling the news hypothetical and that no Kremlin official made such a statement. She is also correct in saying that US president Bush repeatedly assured first, Vladimir Putin and, now, Dmitri Medvedev about his desire to work with the Russian leadership. The Kremlin shares those sentiments.

However, she failed to disclose what has hindered the establishment of a strategic partnership between Russia and the United States. Long before the current incumbent sat in the White House, President George Bush Sr and late Russian President Boris Yeltsin also spoke about a strategic partnership. But, establishing a strategic partnership between both countries has not gone beyond words; what’s more, American attitude toward the new democratic Russia remains unchanged, even after Moscow had offered a helping hand to Washington in the war on terror after the frightening attacks on America in 2001.

The US and NATO embarked on an eastwards enlargement of the military alliance, coming ever closer to Russian border, reneging on earlier promises not to do so. Moscow’s opposition was crudely brushed aside; now, America plans to build a radar base in the Czech Republic and site ten silos for ABM interceptors in Poland, again, contemptuous of Russian protests. Every alternative proposed by Russia in this matter was rejected out of hand.

Russia is not infallible. But, what has it done wrong to preclude a genuine strategic tie with America? Nothing prevents both nations from becoming real collaborators internationally, but, there is simple reason why all the good intentions of the US have not borne fruit. A few days ago, an American political scientist, Harvard University professor Stephen Cowen, put his finger on the reason. In an interview for C-Span, he said that America regards itself the winner of the cold war and pursues a high-hat imperial policy toward Russia. It’s hard to disagree with Professor Cowen’s conclusions. If it is to have a normal dialogue with Moscow, America should change its tone and talk to Russia as an equal and as the great power that it is, halt NATO enlargement, and work out an agreement on a common ABM defence system. Some people abroad might not like the professor’s words, but, such people should understand that strategic cooperation between Russia and America cannot be possible without mutual trust and taking into account each other’s national interests.

23 July 2008

Viktor Yenikeyev

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=30031&cid=56&p=23.07.2008

Editor’s Note:

The US is near the end of its rope, both militarily and financially, due to the inane adventurism of George Bush. Ironically, the policy being followed is straight out of the playbook of Woodrow Wilson, with an interventionist and paternal attitude towards all foreign states.

Sadly, if the US forces were to meet a peer-force on the ground (i.e., Russia, China, or India) in a large-scale action on a continental scale, they would be defeated because they lack the training and the numbers necessary for such an operation (there are not enough “boots on the ground” to pacify Afghanistan, let alone a larger theatre). The US has not fought a large-scale war against a peer since 1945. It had best watch itself. The US Navy can only influence so much. I fervently hope that it shall not require a bloody defeat for the US to learn good-sense. No American boy deserves to die for “a bridge too far”.

BMD

The Russian Olympic Team

The 29th Olympic Games start in Beijing shortly. They will be held from 8 to 24 August. Russia plans to confirm that it remains a leading nation in sports. In an interview with our correspondent, Russian Olympic Committee spokesman Gennady Shvets expressed the hope that the Russian team would win about 30 gold medals and altogether 80 medals. Reportedly, the US, Russia, and China will be the main contenders for first place in the unofficial team count of Olympic medals. Experts say that Russia has every reason not to lose. “Russia is traditionally strong in boxing, free-style and Greco-Roman wrestling, rhythmic gymnastics, synchronous swimming, athletics, shooting sports, and diving. There are chances in trampoline tumbling and cycling”.

Russian sportsmen have had the necessary conditioning to prepare for the games. The head of the federal agency for culture and sport, Vyacheslav Fetisov, said that a working group of the Russian sports agency has controlled the preparations for the Olympics over the past two years. Moreover, the success achieved by Russian sportsmen in recent competitions could stimulate the national team. Mr Fetisov emphasised that successful performances at the Olympic Games will be highly honoured by the state. Currently, the Russian President and the government pay special attention to sport. The success of the sportsmen will be marked by both federal and local authorities. Russia’s Olympic delegation, headed by the president of the national Olympic Committee, Leonid Tyagachev will leave for Beijing on 3 August.

Concerning the possible place that Russia could win, Mr Shvets said, “Unquestionably, the US is in the first place, since it won 45 gold medals in world championships last year. China is in second place. Russia surpasses China in the number of medals, but, China has more gold medals. In short, the three countries will fight for the first three places”.

According to Mr Tyagachev, “The role of sports has significantly grown over the past years in uniting nations and creating a favourable image of Russia in the eyes of the international community”. “Russia’s national team shall compete in 28 out of 32 events. Experts of the Olympic committee forecast that Russian sportsmen will lag behind in the first half of the games, but, display their potential in the next half and achieve results no worse than that of the Athens Olympics”, Mr Shvets said.

23 July 2008

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=30040&cid=63&p=23.07.2008