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

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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