Italian Jewellery on Display in the Kremlin

Yelena Gagarina (1959- ), Director of the Moscow Kremlin Museums, eldest daughter of Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut

A retrospective show of the best works from three generations of the Italian jewellers of the House of Buccellati opened in the Moscow Kremlin on 26 September. The exposition entitled “Art for All Times” features some 150 works of art, carved stone cups with incrustations and virtuoso engravings, filigree lace-like collars and bracelets, rings and pendants with large rubies, emeralds, and tourmaline, the Buccellatis knew how to emphasise the beauty of precious stones. There are also elegant brooches in the form of animal figurines and even silver sculptures, half-metre sculptures of deer, wild boar, and herons; the work is most delicate, allowing visitors to see every fibre and very small plumes.

According to Yelena Gagarina, the director of the Moscow Kremlin Museums, the works of the House of Buccellati are genuine “Art for All Times”. She said, “The name of the project, ‘Art for All Times’ is a considered concept of the House of Buccellati house and the creative activity of its Milanese jewellers. They demonstrate a high level of skill in handiwork and aesthetics that is easily recognised, preserving originality in technique and style. The show is proof of what treasures can be found if a creative approach is taken to the traditions and aesthetics of the old masters. Buccellati features jewellery art based on many centuries of a handiwork culture that can be traced back to the Renaissance and Greco-Rome culture”.

Mario Buccellati began as an apprentice in a jewellery workshop in Milan, but, the business was declining after World War I. In 1919, he revived the business, giving it his name. His filigree work became popular; his pieces of jewellery attracted the attention of the royal family, church hierarchs, and the European creative élite. The continuer of the dynasty, J. Buccellati, believes that the success of the jewellery atelier lies in most delicate work of the jewellers, in their perfected skill. He said, “We never ourselves set the task of creating something that is most costly. As jewellers whose work is based on time-tested traditions, we are rather guided by common-sense and feeling and want to make a genuine piece of art, we do not think of some price making our jewellery. Almost all our art pieces are unique; they are as unique as precious stones, a source of inspiration for our jewellers”.

Exhibits presented at the show arrived in Moscow from prominent museums in Florence, Milan, and Washington, and from private collections. They will be on display in Moscow until 10 January 2009. Only a unique silver bag will remain in the Kremlin as a gift to the Russian museum. This is not the first time that 20th-century jewellery was shown in the Moscow Kremlin Museums. Earlier, masterpieces from the Cartier and Carrera & Carrera jewellery ateliers were on display.

29 September 2008

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=33085&cid=62&p=29.09.2008

Sdelan Ya v SSSR! I Grew Up in the USSR! Oleg Gazmanov, People’s Artist of Russia

Oleg Mikhailovich Gazmanov (1951- ), People’s Artist of Russia, “the bard of the Russian people”. Oleg Mikhailovich is shown here after a concert in Tskhinvali in South Ossetia for the Russian forces and Ossetian militia that successfully and heroically defended the city against the recent Georgian invasion.

This is, perhaps, the “anthem” of the Russian national revival. It was released in 2005, and it is wildly popular throughout Russia with all age groups and all nationalities. It speaks of the entire history of Russia, both Imperial and Soviet, and it illustrates the creative fusion of all that was good of Tsarist Russia and the USSR that occurred during the presidency of Vladimir Putin.

Oleg Mikhailovich is very popular in Russia, not least for the fact that he never bowed his head to the Americans, even in the dark days of the ’90s. He sings unabashedly patriotic songs, and he is, perhaps, the most-recognised pop singer in Russia today. Oh, yes… the pro-American puppets in the Ukraine and the Baltic states ban his music, but, people get it from the internet or DVD copies anyway. Censorship is powerless in the face of the people’s will!

The Ukraine and the Crimea, Byelorussia and Moldova, it’s my country! Sakhalin and Kamchatka, the Ural Mountains, it’s my country! … Ryurik, Romanov, Lenin, and Stalin, it’s my country! Pushkin, Yesenin, Vysotsky, Gagarin, it’s my country!

Illegal Arms Sales Scandal in the Ukraine

Ukrainian-supplied Georgian MLRs firing at Tskhinvali. This means that Yushchenko and his Galician cronies have as much blood on their hands as do Saakashvili, Bush, Cheney, and Rice.

A scandal concerning government-inspired illegal arm supplies to Georgia is gathering strength in the Ukraine. A parliamentary investigative commission has already revealed facts on supplying arms worth a whopping 200 million dollars to the Saakashvili regime, including Buk air-defence missiles, Shkval combat systems, and Grad multiple-rocket-launchers the Georgians used on 8 August in their attempt to raze the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali to the ground. Some of these state of the art weapons such as the Shkval are not even in use by the Ukrainian armed forces. Experts say that Ukrainian technicians not only adapted the Buk air-defence system for use in mountainous terrain, they even fired them during combat. Georgian soldiers were unable to operate the SAMs not only because there was no time to train them; in any case, they were too incompetent to learn the procedures involved. The last consignment of Buk missiles reached Georgia as recently as June.

Many Ukrainian MPs believe that these illegal arms shipments to Georgia give them ample reason to impeach President Viktor Yushchenko. In Moscow, RF Gosduma deputy Konstantin Zatulin does not think this will happen. “All these things started happening right after Yushchenko came to power and have been going on ever since. In a normal political situation, this would have caused an angry uproar with dire consequences for the President. The reason this did not happen is the failure of a coalition attempt between the Yuliya Timoshenko bloc and the Party of Regions, led by Viktor Yanukovich”.

Meanwhile, experts tend to believe that President Yushchenko’s political career is now over anyway. By selling the Buk missiles to Georgia, he dealt a crippling blow to his own country’s defences. The thing is, these systems were taken from a Ukrainian air-defence regiment on stand-by alert, which was effectively rendered useless. There is also another important result of this action. It has also irretrievably marred the Ukraine’s image abroad. Indeed, it appears as thought the Ukraine has become the contraband arms supplier of choice in the world. According to European media reports, the Ukrainian ship now being held by Somali pirates contains contraband arms for South Sudan and it looks like similar scandals could also start popping out soon. Many people in Kiev said that the recent blaze at an arms depot in Kharkov was actually a case of arson meant as a cover-up for illegal arms sales and smuggling abroad.

4 October 2008

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=85407&cid=21&p=04.10.2008

Editor’s Note:

Ukrainian-supplied Georgian T-72 main battle tanks captured intact by Russian forces. The Bear sez ,”Thank you!”

In light of the fact that clandestine CIA prisons (actually, they were torture facilities) were uncovered in Poland and Romania, it is no stretch to imagine that the Ukraine is acting as an arms conduit for the neocons. This is so they can foment trouble in the countries that they wish to invade. Let us call things what they are. During the Cold War, the US did not run clandestine prisons using torture; it did not run Guantanamo-style indefinite-detention facilities. Indeed, such were rightfully condemned as methods of the godless Soviets. So… what does that make the Bushies and all the neocons, both Democrats and Republicans? Well… godless Soviets (Miss Sarah’s Pentecostalist posturing notwithstanding)!

That is why I am not voting in the present election. Both sides are committed to a wicked and evil plan of world domination under the rubric of the “New World Order”. Thank God, there are countries such as Russia barring the way to the realisation of this wicked enterprise. America must be stopped, and, thankfully, the economic crisis just may do it. It shall force Americans to see that they have limits. Of course, the “Marks”, “Texas Freds”, and “jimmyk’s” shall never learn, but, I believe that the rest of America shall be relieved to rid itself of this insane imperial endeavour. It is time to be humble, again….

BMD