President Medvedev says that the Arrival of Young Friendship Ambassadors from China in Moscow is a Good Sign for Russian-Chinese Relations

President Dmitri Medvedev (1965- ), with young Chinese survivors of the Sichuan earthquake

President Dmitri Medvedev met in the Kremlin with young survivors of the earthquake that hit the Chinese province of Sichuan about two and a half months ago. He said that the arrival of the children from the People’s Republic of China was a good sign for Russian-Chinese relations. The president talked with 45 boys and girls who came to Moscow from the Orlenok (Eaglet) all-Russian children’s centre in Krasnodar krai, where they went for medical rehabilitation. Mr Medvedev recalled that he invited young survivors of the Chinese earthquake to spend some time in Russia when he was visiting China last May on an official visit to confer with Chairman Hu Jintao, the leader of the PRC. No more than two months later, a thousand girls and boys of the quake-hit provinces of Sichuan, Gangsu, and Shenxi left their home country for rest and medical treatment in Russia.

Chairman Hu saw them off before they boarded the plane. He told them that Russia was quick to extend a helping hand to China and that China appreciated the help they received from the leadership and common people of Russia. He said the children’s visit would promote friendship between China and Russia and communication with Russian youngsters would make it possible for this and the next generation of Chinese and Russian people to be friends. He called the children China’s young friendship ambassadors.

Mr Medvedev said, “This is a very good sign. This shows that there are friendly, heartfelt, and warm relations between our countries. I hope that you’ve had time to rest, to recoup your strength, and to make friends with the kids from our country. Looking at you, I see that you’re of different ages and all of you have survived a terrible ordeal. Some of you earned the title ‘Young Hero of China’. I think that such a lesson of courage shall remain forever in your memory”.

It’s not every day, is it, that 8-to-13-year-old children are received by a foreign head of state? It is quite understandable why they felt ill at ease at the beginning of the meeting. But, as soon as President Medvedev started speaking, the children started feeling better. Mr Medvedev welcomed his young guests to the Moscow Kremlin and hoped that their visit to Russia would be interesting and enjoyable. He also wished that the people of China would recover quickly and press on with the task of restoration, and he promised every possible assistance in this from Russia.

President Medvedev told the kids that he thanked China for its excellent preparations for the Olympics and said, “Only yesterday, I met with our Olympic team, which has left for China to compete in the Games. This shall be a great occasion for the athletes of all countries around the world”. After this, the children gave Mr Medvedev a scroll with fancy Chinese calligraphy proclaiming the “centuries-old friendship of Russia and China” and a special photograph of a panda, a symbol of their country. The children were photographed with the president in the Andreyevsky Hall of the Kremlin, and, afterwards, he took them on a tour of other parts of the State Kremlin Palace, the Aleksandrovsk, Georgievsky, and Vladimirsky Halls. At the end, the kids were given plush Cheburashkas, the mascot of the Russian Olympic Team.

Yuri Sentyurin, a deputy minister of public education, said, “Russia is launching a two-year rest and rehabilitation program for the young survivors of the Chinese earthquake. As many as 1,570 kids are expected to visit Russia this and next year. One thousand will be visiting Russia this year, and the others will come next year. According to Mr Sentyurin, 1,020 children from the quake-hit provinces of Sichuan, Shenxi, and Gangsu are now in Russia. They will be holidaying in six different parts of Russia, such as Vladivostok, Omsk, Tuapse, Novosibirsk, and Kemerovo. As many as 207 children have gone to the Black sea coast in Russia’s Krasnodar oblast. Let me point out before I finish that the bill for the children’s stay in Russia is entirely covered by the Russian government”.

30 July 2008

Albert Papoyan

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=78599&cid=19&p=30.07.2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=30321&cid=59&p=30.07.2008

Advertisement

31 July 2008. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words…

Not one picture, but two… does that make it worth two thousand words?

Our Russian Olympians depart for Beijing. May God bless you, and GOOD LUCK. May the 2012 Olympics see a true all-Russia team with Russian, Ukrainian, and Byelorussian athletes all marching behind the tricolour!

Cheburashka, the Russian team mascot (a popular character from a Russian children’s book)

31 July 2008. A Shot of Culture, if you please…

Rock concert in Kiev celebrates 1,020 years of Christianity

Yuri Shevchuk (1957- ), front-man of the rock band DDT

Over 100,000 people attended a concert of Russian and Ukrainian rock-musicians devoted to the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of Kievan Russia on Kreshatka in Kiev last evening. The crowd extended to the Maidan Independence Square, the original planned venue of the concert, but, the stage was moved due to Ukrainian government harassment of the rock musicians. According to the organiser of the concert, Yuri Molchanov, more people gathered for this event, where the music expressed the unbreakable bond between the Russian and Ukrainian people, than for all of the anti-Russian events organised by President Viktor Yushchenko. The concert had a convivial holiday atmosphere without any political rhetoric and it was devoid of any intemperate feeling. The police tried to ban the flying of the Russian flag, but, the people insisted that this was quite appropriate, since Russian and Byelorussian musicians were part of the concert.

27 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=30167&cid=51&p=27.07.2008

Editor’s Note:

Yuri Shevchuk KOs the khokhol Yushchenko, not with force, but, with love and integrity! He pinned that Western marionette to the mat not with violence, but, with the truth that sets us free! The people of the Ukraine have spoken. They want union! Hoo-rah! Ura! There is no hate or bile in the Ukrainian people, save in nationalist circles. Let God see and judge! Real Russians and real Ukrainians clasp their hands in brotherly harmony and eternal unity. As for the others…

Duet from Georgia won the New Wave international song competition

Alla Pugachova (1949- ), Russian pop music star

A duet from Georgia won the New Wave international competition for young singers just over in the Latvian resort of Yurmala. The second and third places were won by Russia’s Iris and Italy’s Alessandro Ristori respectively. The people’s choice prize was won by Mger from Armenia. Russian pop star Alla Pugachova awarded prizes to Omar from Kyrgyzstan and Dyadya Vanya (Uncle Vanya) from Belarus. The New Wave competition replaced the Yurmala all-Union Popular Music Competition of Soviet times. This year, singers from 14 countries took part in the competition.

Here is Iris from Russia… starts out slow and campy… but it gets fun in the end

29 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=30251&cid=51&p=29.07.2008

Two Russian films to screen at Venice film festival

Aleksei German fils (1976- ), Aleksei Alekseyeich is the son of Aleksei Yurevich German (1938- ), another famous Russian film director

Two Russian films will screen at the forthcoming Venice international film festival. One of them is A Paper Soldier directed by Aleksei German fils. This is a story about 6 weeks in the life of a doctor who trains the first Soviet cosmonauts in 1961. The other film is A Wild Field by Mikhail Kalatosizhvili. The festival will run from 27 August until 6 September.

29 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=30272&cid=51&p=29.07.2008

Voice of Russia World Service

Venice film festival program includes 2 Russian films

Two Russian films will be featured at the 65th Venice International Film Festival, the organisers announced Tuesday at the official presentation of the lineup in Rome. The world’s oldest film festival, which is organised by the Venice Biennale, will be held 27 August through 6 September 2008. Russian cinema will be represented in the main competition by a film by Aleksei German fils, Paper Soldier (Bumazhny Soldat), and in the Orizzonti section, which provides an overview of new cinema trends, by Mikhail Kalatozishvili’s Wild Field (Dikoye Pole).

Russia Today piece on “Paper Soldier”

German, 31, one of Russia’s hottest young directors, described the selection of his film as one of the 21 competing for the Golden Lion award as a victory. The selection “means that we have managed to find a cinema language… that proved to be in demand among foreigners, who know little about us”, Mr German said. Artyom Vasilyev, the picture’s producer, said it had huge potential. “On the one hand, the film describes important historical events, and on the other, it is a very human film about love and feelings”, Mr Vasilyev said. The movie is based on a story about events at the Baikonur space centre in 1961. Daniil Pokrovsky, a doctor involved in preparations for the first human spaceflight, is torn between fear for the heroic people and his love for his wife and lover. The film’s budget was 4 million dollars (93.678 million roubles. 2.559 million euros. 2.015 million UK pounds), the bulk of which was provided by the Rossiya TV channel and the Russian culture agency.

Trailer for “Wild Field”

An Andrei Zvyagintsev film, The Return (Vozvrashcheniye), won the Golden Lion award at the 60th Venice film festival in 2003. No Russian film took part in the Cannes film festival in May 2008.

29 July 2008

http://en.rian.ru/culture/20080729/115174225.html

RIA-Novosti

The so-called “Patriarchate of Kiev” Blames the Russian Intelligence Services for the Church Split in the Ukraine

I did NOT gin up the following. It is all too true! In the words of the immortal B. Bunny, “What a maroon!” Reflect on the fact that this is straight news and not a satire or spoof when you read it. Ponder the fact that Ukie nationalists take such vapourings seriously.

The so-called and self-proclaimed “Patriarchate of Kiev” believes that the church split in the Ukraine was provoked by the Russian intelligence services. “The schism in the Orthodox church in the Ukraine does not have a religious cause and was not begun by clergymen. This separation was provoked from without, moreover, it was started by the special services (intelligence services: editor’s note) of the former Soviet Union, which at that time became the special services of Russia”, stated Evstraty Zorya, the press-secretary of the schismatical UOC-KP in an interview published on Thursday on the Ukrainian website “ForUm”. “They attempted to preserve at least something of the old Soviet structure, in particular, the structure of the MP, so that through it they could influence the newly-independent states”, he noted. In his opinion, it was specifically the [Russian] special services “that provoked this dispute, they planned and organised it. The present Ukrainian church division lacks a religious component. There is no separation in the faith, dogmas, or canons. The sole cause for the division is the relation of the church to the Ukrainian state. We desire an independent Ukrainian state, and the MP wishes that the Ukraine would be a part of Russia. This is the spirit of the actions of the MP in the Ukraine”, asserted Mr Zorya.

31 July 2008

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=25833