Russian Craftsmen to Recreate Parts of Lost Amber Room

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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

Putin Sez Gay Rights Not Violated in Russia… Femen Strikes Again in Hannover

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On Monday, President Vladimir Putin denied that Russia violates the rights of sexual minorities, saying at a news conference after talks with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, “Sexual minority rights aren’t violated in Russia”, adding that they enjoy the same rights and freedoms as other Russians. He went on to say, “I consider it necessary to defend the rights of sexual minorities, but… children aren’t born in same-sex marriages. Both Europe and Russia face problems of demographic nature”. Putin noted that although one might solve demographic problems by encouraging migration, he’d like the Russian population to grow because of a demographic boom “in the so-called titular ethnic groups… Russians, Tatars, Chechens, Bashkirs, Dagestanis, and so on”.

Speaking about gay marriages, Putin mentioned the mentality of the Russian people and said that we should deal with such issues should in accordance with the tendencies prevailing in the public mood, stating, “Could you imagine an organisation promoting paedophilia in Russia? I think people in many Russian regions would take up arms. The same is true for sexual minorities… I could hardly imagine them allowing same-sex marriages in Chechnya. Can you imagine it? It would’ve resulted in human casualties”.

Putin reiterated that the gay propaganda rules recently adopted by several Russian regions, which are fiercely criticised by many Western public figures and rights groups, ban homosexual propaganda among minors. Promotion of LGBT values and lifestyle to minors is punishable in St Petersburg with fines of between 5,000 and 500,000 roubles (160 to 16,000 USD. 122 to 12,240 Euros. 105 to 10,480 UK Pounds). Several other Russian regions have similar bans in place. Putin observed, “I’d like to draw your attention to the fact that these laws were adopted on the regional level, and, thus, reflect the stance of the whole Russian society. They aren’t being encouraged by the federal authorities in any way. We need to reach a consensus with this community, to agree on working together. We shouldn’t bicker with each other, we should come to an agreement, to reach understanding, and lay down a certain set of civilised rules. I think this is possible”.

When asked about another trademark topless protest by activists from the feminist group Femen that targeted him as he opened an industrial fair in Hanover, Germany, Putin said, “Thank God, it wasn’t homosexuals who undressed there”. German media said that four women, with obscenities in English and Russian daubed on their breasts, broke through security as Putin and German Bundeskanzlerin Angela Dorothea Merkel were examining a stand at the fair.

8 April 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130409/180521813/Gay-Rights-Not-Violated-in-Russia—Putin.html

Editor’s Note:

Putin, the KPRF, the Church, and Belarus are on the same page. As HH said, “We respect all human choices, including those of sexual orientation, but we reserve the right to call sin a sin”. That is, homosexuality isn’t going to be recriminalised any time soon (or any time later either). On the other hand, although adult homosexuals won’t be harassed legally (societal attitudes are a different story… one can’t change those by legislative fiat), they’re prohibited from “recruiting” amongst minors. In short, a real compromise is in force. Homosexuals are free from imprisonment, but they must be discreet in their doings. Compared to twenty years ago, it’s an advance, and a major one. In the terms of Russian society, it’s probably the best deal realistically out there.

That’s why American rightwing Orthodox are wrong in their witch-hunts of supposed “homosexuals” (note well that they don’t go after entrenched modernist homosexual elements, though… fancy that… nor do they notice them, either. Methinks that their “gaydar” is busted). The Church is clear… it doesn’t fancy homosexual clergy, but it shows oikonomia to lay homosexuals (especially, if they follow the Church’s teachings). The state is clear… relations between consenting adults are legal, but no “recruiting” of minors is kosher. That’s were Russian society is… it can’t go any further for quite some time. That’s the way it is…

BMD

2 February 2013. Sergei Yolkin’s World. So, You’re Really Going to Believe in an Animal!

So, You’re Really Going to Believe in an Animal!

Sergei Yolkin

2013

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I guess that you can deduce Yolkin’s “take” on Groundhog Day… he doesn’t “believe”. I think that Punxsutawney Phil has to make a house-call in Moscow… oh, yes… the octopus tentacle is a reference to Paul the Octopus (a resident of the Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen in Germany), who “chose” the winners in the 2010 FIFA World Cup matches. Fie on the RIA translator… they distorted Yolkin’s intent, yet again. There’s none of the disdain of the original Russian in their English rendering (changing it into an innocuous wistfulness). They’re namby-pamby… they fuck up Yolkin’s plays on words and make no attempt to carry over the “atmosphere” of the original into the translation. What a buncha maroons…

BMD

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Today, people believe that some animals have supernatural abilities allowing them the ability to predict the weather or the outcome of a football match, because in an age of modern technology, there’s a lack of the miraculous, and there’s not enough connection with the natural world. Psychologists told RIA-Novosti ahead of Groundhog Day that people are inclined to believe in animal oracles such as Punxsutawney Phil and Paul the Octopus because they bring magic into everyday life.

1 February 2013

Sergei Yolkin

RIA-Novosti

http://ria.ru/caricature/20130201/920864987.html

http://en.rian.ru/cartoons/20130201/179172721/We-Want-to-Believe-Them.html

16 January 2013. Say “Thank You” Before It’s Too Late…

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Recently, one of the Cabinet told me about the passing of a relative who’d fought in the VOV with the RKKF. His ship was torpedoed and he spent 24 hours clinging to wreckage in the sea until another Red warship picked him out of the water. This wasn’t an untypical story… it was repeated thousands of times… on many fields, on many seas, in the sky over many lands. Literally, we owe our comfortable lives to those who fought in the Anti-Hitler Coalition. Whether it was in the British, American, Soviet, Chinese, or other Allied forces, they fought objective and demonstrative evil. Thank them before it’s too late to do so… they made our world possible.

To the living victors… вечная слава!

To the victors who’ve passed… вечная память!

Not one of them is forgotten… nothing of their deeds is forgotten. 

Thank you…

BMD