Matviyenko Sez Cuba and Russia Ties on the Upswing

THIS is what HH thinks of El Comandante… any questions? He’s certainly not buying the lying rightwing twaddle that Potapov and Paffhausesn are peddling…

______________________________

During her official visit to Cuba, Valentina Matviyenko, chairman of the RF Federation Council, met with Cuban President Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz and Juan Esteban Lazo Hernández, the President of the Cuban National Assembly of the People’s Power, and said that relations between Russia and Cuba are having a renaissance. Matviyenko praised the expansion of bilateral partnership, trade, economic, scientific, and humanitarian cooperation between the countries. She told reporters on the flight back to Moscow, “Our delegation came to Havana to upgrade and boost parliamentary cooperation between our two countries. We discussed a number of issues during a two-hour talk, including Fidel Castro’s health. The Comandante is feeling OK; he’s following a strict régime under tight medical supervision”.

Matviyenko also said that apart from being an important strategic partner, Cuba’s also a good and reliable friend, noting, “Our countries have special bonds of fraternity and mutual respect; Russia has very warm and sincere feelings for Cubans. We love our Cuban friends and are ready for cooperation. Havana and Moscow became close allies under Fidel Castro… 2013 marks 50 years since his first visit to the USSR… Moscow and some other Russian cities noted the event. Now, bilateral cooperation is on the rise, mainly focused on trade and economy. Although last year’s trade turnover accounted for only some 220 million dollars (6.93 billion Roubles. 172 million Euros. 145 million UK Pounds), there’s a great potential for expansion”.

The streets of Havana have many signs of long-lasting friendship, such as Soviet-made cars. Despite Cuba’s turn to foreign investors, the USA doesn’t want to lift its sanctions, so, Havana eyes working with Russia. Lazo, the president of the Cuban National Assembly of the People’s Power, spoke about the prospects of bilateral energy cooperation, thinking that Russia could help in constructing new units and supplying equipment for Cuban power plants built with Soviet aid. Havana also expects Moscow’s help in exploring oil in its Gulf of Mexico wells and further construction of refineries. Russian investment in Cuba’s oil sector is important; at present, only Zarubezhneft does so, but other Russian companies shall also join in. Cuba also eyes cooperation with Russia in nickel production, tourism, and agriculture as well as seeking help to refurbish and upgrade the Mariel and Santa Cruz del Norte power plants.

Russia and Cuba are long-term partners. For instance, Cubana de Aviación uses Russian Tupolev Tu-204 planes. Cuba has imported some worth 12 million USD (378 million Roubles. 9.4 million Euros. 7.9 million UK Pounds) worth of power plant equipment from Russia in the last three years and has recently resumed purchase of Russian tractors. Russian tourists are also contributing to Cuba’s economic revival… some 90,000 holidaymakers from Russia visited the Island of Freedom last year.

19 May 2013

Aleksei Lyakhov

Lada Korotun

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_05_19/Russia-Cuba-ties-are-seeing-renaissance-official/

 

Russian Craftsmen to Recreate Parts of Lost Amber Room

______________________________

Russian craftsmen in Kaliningrad shall recreate parts of the legendary Amber Room, a Tsarist-era antiquity looted by Nazi Germany during World War II. The restoration plan by the Kaliningrad Oblast government is part of a campaign to stop illegal mining in amber-rich areas near the Baltic coast. The region has the world’s largest-known amber deposits. Experts estimate that criminals mine 60-100 tons of amber illegally every year in Kaliningrad Oblast, which holds more than 90 percent of the world’s total known amber reserves and is home to the world’s only natural amber strip-mine.

King Friedrich I invited German craftsmen to decorate the main hall of his palace with amber panels shortly after his accession to the Prussian throne in 1701. However, after the king’s death in 1713, his son Friedrich Wilhelm I put an end to the expensive work, and put the amber panels on the walls of a small room of the Stadtschloss (City Palace) in Berlin. Three years later, he gave the panels as a present to Tsar Pyotr Veliki, who stored them in his Summer Palace, at Petergof. It was only in 1743 that Tsaritsa Yelizaveta Petrovna decided to use the amber panels to decorate one of her main chambers in the Winter Palace. Craftsmen expanded on the original decorations, eventually turning them into the legendary Amber Room, often referred to as the “eighth wonder of the world”.

The Wehrmacht looted the decorations during World War II, and took them to Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), where they were lost in the fierce fighting and air raids at the end of the war in 1945. Eventually, the Russians only rediscovered two small parts of the room’s decoration and returned them to Russia. According to the Kaliningrad Oblast Culture Minister Svetlana Kondratyeva, the Amber Room replica will be in the 1899 building of the Königsberg State Amber Factory, which, following its renovation, will then house the Kaliningrad Amber Museum. Museum visitors will be able to watch the craftsmen at work replicating the room through glass panels.

14 May 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/art_living/20130514/181145479/Russian-Craftsmen-to-Recreate-Parts-of-Lost-Amber-Room.html

Moscow Promotes Patriotism with Street Names

______________________________

The Moscow municipal government decided to name a new street in the southwest of the city “Battle of Stalingrad Street”, to mark a key victory over Nazi Germany during the VOV. The authorities made their decision on 24 April, following a proposal by Irina Yarovaya, head of the RF Gosduma Security and Anticorruption Committee. Russia commemorated the 70th anniversary of the end of the epic 200-day Battle of Stalingrad on 2 February. The battle began on 17 July 1942 and ended on 2 February 1943 with the surrender of the Axis forces. Around two million people died in the battle on both sides; it became one of the key symbols of victory in Russia.

In the past few years, the Russian leadership has increased its emphasis on patriotism as a national idea capable of consolidating Russian society and inspiring future generations, after Russia suffered a serious blow to its national identity with the collapse of the USSR. In the most recent move, in March, President Vladimir Putin reinstated the Soviet-era Hero of Labour title, scrapped almost two decades ago. The award, established by Iosif Stalin, was widely used to praise civilian workers for their labour achievements and to boost output.

13 May 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20130513/181121620/Moscow-Promotes-Patriotism-With-Street-Names.html

Editor’s Note:

Every day, Russia moves farther and farther away from the liberal (libertarian) lunacy of the Capitalist West, with increasing emphasis on both its Tsarist and Soviet past. That is, Orthodox people should ignore the hate-filled vapourings of such people as Victor Potapov and James Paffhausen… after all, Potapov’s a bought n’ paid for minion of the US government and Paffhausen’s a slobberin’ lickspittle of such Hard Right stink-tanks as the American Enterprise Institute. You can have Christ or you can have Ayn Rand… one of these things is NOT like the other!

BMD

12 May 2013. A Word on Certain Loud Republican Circles Amongst Us

Birds of a feather flock together… and they’re GOOD birds, not shitbirds.

______________________________

I say the following… so, don’t instigate a witch-hunt of those who hate the immoral and pernicious pabulum dispensed by the Republican Party. It’s time for Christ’s Church to disassociate itself publicly from the American Religious Right, the US Republican Party, and the so-called Pro-Life Movement (one can oppose abortion, yet, oppose this rightwing construct). After all, HH is/was friends with Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz, Gennady Zyuganov, Pyotr Simonenko, and Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías. Birds of a feather flock together! HH doesn’t associate with godless laissez-faire liberals such as Wet Willy Romney, Paul Ryan, the American Enterprise Institute, or Mikhail Prokhorov… he doesn’t hang around braying libertarian shitbirds.

The MP is well-aware of the vitriolic Whites (“nobility”) that dominate some parts of the ROCOR. Such people got the boot in Russia, but their Western sugar daddies protect them here in the diaspora (yet, such sorts caterwaul about their “traditional” stance and love of Russia). The MP is “fed up” (as one put it) with the boorish anti-Soviet rhetoric found in certain ROCOR circles. Of course, it respects valid criticism, but the slurs, defamation, and hatred deployed by well-known parties isn’t welcome, needed, or truthful (especially, as some of the loudest Whites are on the US government payroll). They’re tired of the Whites strutting about and bad-mouthing the USSR. After all, the USSR WAS Russia.

At present, loud Republicans have appointed themselves “commissars” of opinion in our Church. It’s time to oppose them! They’re not telling the truth. Christ’s Church doesn’t stand for raping the working folk to benefit the Affluent Effluent, and that’s that. HH believes that the “Free Market” is a fraud, and has said so explicitly. That tells you much about the ROCOR loudmouths in the District, doesn’t it? Do note that the Centre won’t take in James Paffhausen… by the way, it hasn’t been for the lack of trying on the part of the Republican faction in the ROCOR. Sanity still reigns at the Centre. We should get with the programme… but shall we? Time will tell us…

BMD