Results of the week. East is a delicate matter
Part I. "We have long arms"
Tremble, slanderer! ..
Friday the thirteenth. It was on this day that the State Duma, elected, as we all remember, not without complaints from a decent percentage of Russians, closed its first session, the ending of which also turned out to be ambiguous, to say the least. Not that the approaching date correlated with the hell dozen, not the proximity of the long-awaited vacation, or perhaps the Moscow heat, which was transformed into heavy rainfall and real flood, forced the deputies to work in an emergency mode and enforce such laws, from which some they jumped in joyous euphoria, others began to pick the tabletop with their fingernails, and others, shouting “mind you!”, were closing in their opposition cellars.
In addition to the law on NGOs, a bill on the return of an article on libel from the Administrative Code to the Russian Criminal Code provoked a mixed reaction, with the possibility of punishing slanderers in the form of serious (million) fines. Many deputies who voted against this bill declared that a new era of “tightening the screws”, an era of “hello, authoritarianism”, etc., is coming.
It is not entirely clear, whether a certain percentage of our legislators themselves sinner with weakness, excuse me, or slander at their closest opponents, or is it just such a trend - to disagree.
According to the established tradition of recent times, our old acquaintance Lyudmila Alekseeva again declared herself in her entire voice. At first, she expressed herself in the spirit of saying that the quotation “United Russia is cowardly and ridiculous,” and then decided to organize her own opposition demarche in the form of statements that her honorable Moscow Helsinki group decided to reject foreign grants altogether. So that’s the case ... Now Ludmila Mikhailovna will probably remain at the dinner table: if there is bread, then no butter, if tea is sugarless, if the legs are, then without ... Bush.
It is obvious that after such words of the honored opposition actress of Russia with an American passport, United Russia, if they were cowardly and ridiculous, then they became courageous and even self-confident. Like, if our bills helped twist the great-grandmother of the national protest Lyudmila Alekseev to the steering wheel, then we are now in general hoo ...
In general, they coped with the great-grandmother, but they could, as befits younger people, translate it in a Timur way across the road (across the Atlantic) and help bring her string bag (good, overworked to those foreign grants for not too much). human rights activities).
Now it is worth expecting that the domestic courts will be, as in the times of these, overwhelmed with cases of slander, because even the opposition has a real opportunity to avenge the United Russia army for the adopted laws. Now some Boris Nemtsov will come to his home, and his neighbor, United Russia: Boris, you have a white back. Haha ... Well, let 1 be in the yard in the courtyard ... And Boris will be silent, he will not even laugh at all, and then he will go to his apartment and roll a statement saying that he is slander using his official position. And bang, the United Russia joker is already counting a million rubles into the 2 state budget, since Boris Nemtsov’s back could not be just white, but also fluffy ...
Service is not a burden
In Russia, there continues the race of ideas on how to eradicate hazing in the ranks of the Armed Forces. It seems that the service life has already been reduced to twelve months, and the military prosecutor’s office seems to have obliged the adepts of non-commissioning in the Russian army to punish harder, but, you see, dedovshchina as a tireless weed, continues to rustle in the Russian army. Of course, not so eagles anymore, as it was even 15-20 years ago, but nonetheless.
In the search for methods of fighting hazing in the army, even the people who are directly related to the army decided to check in. These people turned out to be Ural businessmen, namely the collective of the Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant, who decided to send conscripts to the army (factory workers), as the journalist “Izvestia” put it, “turnkey”.
They collect, it means, recruits, factory workers at the assembly point, put on shoes, put on, put in passenger transport, take to the gate of the nearest military unit, where officers, ready to forge new military personnel for the country, are already waiting for new recruits.
Judging by the plans that Chelyabinsk businessmen announced, the factory workers will feel at home in this military unit. On weekends, if they are not too busy in defense of the Fatherland, they can go home, after dinner they can take their mobile phones and talk about the charms of military life. And at the same time, employers-workers watch how the recruits in the military unit include: feed, water, blow off dust particles from their ironed out over the weekend with the help of caring mothers uniforms, wash outsourcing for them and stuff like that.
It seems to be happy for such an approach to the organization of the army service. But, excuse me for my modest opinion, this approach painfully reminds me not of serving in the Russian army, but as a kind of greenhouse, from where good, good-quality vegetables will come.
I want to believe that the author has gone far in his delusions, but still the worm of some doubt about the greenhouse conditions of military service does not leave the apple of emotion from the proposed method.
Due to the fact that today many people want to find an option to fight hazing (from the Minister of Defense to the directorate of the tube rolling mills), it’s worthwhile to offer your own version.
This option is as follows: you do not need to take a recruit anywhere from home. The unit commander himself must come to him, solemnly take the oath and hand a machine gun to the young soldier, which the mother of the fighter, brushing away tears of tenderness from his eyes from pride in his son, should carefully wrap in a terry towel and put on the bottom shelf of the linen closet, inscribing a white paint on the door "ShHO", I mean the storage cabinet weapons. Once a week, a soldier himself must attend a bath (you can have a sauna, you can have a VIP-sauna) and every day must wait for a car delivering soldiers' breakfasts, lunches and dinners (sushi, rolls) straight to the house in order to somehow survive all the military service . Well, if the Russians come to the Russian land, then the soldier must get an automatic from the cabinet, take a hidden position under the bed and clasp his head with his hands, lie quietly without moving - perhaps they will pass by ... During this time, the mother and father of the fighter should prepare their child the demobilized album and parade uniform, so that at the end of the 100-dnevka the fighter could walk along the streets of the city and, looking at his stripes, remember which troops he served in. All - demobilization! The education of the man and husband took place! And no hazing to you.
Were there any gifts? ..
This week Vladimir Putin’s working visit to Ukraine took place. It was planned that Putin and Yanukovych will discuss the notorious gas issues, as well as the possibility of Ukraine joining the Customs Union, which already includes, besides Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
Many viewed Putin’s trip as a kind of support for the policy of Viktor Yanukovych by the Russian president. During the working meetings, it was possible to agree on reciprocal state visits of the leaders of the two countries in the current and next years.
It would seem a trip like a trip. We met, talked, discussed well-known issues, but it didn’t work without nuances. After the Putin-Yanukovich meeting in Yalta, the media wanted (especially, of course, oppositional) immediately declared that the Russian president gave Ukraine almost the entire Kerch Strait. Like, oh, he is so-and-so-yielded to the pressure of the Ukrainians and decided to give Kiev a whole Tuzla from the master's shoulder.
The Russian opposition managed to be noted, to put it mildly, with original headlines in newspapers and online publications. Here are some of them: “Putin gave Ukraine the entire Kerch Strait,” “Putin gives Tuzla to Ukraine today, and tomorrow the Kuriles of Japan.” In general, literally everyone who had time to inform about the “gift” of Putin.
However, when official information reached the readers, it turned out that there was no delimitation of borders, no documents were signed in Yalta, no generous gifts to Kiev (such as the Kerch Strait or gas for 100 dollars per thousand cubic meters), too and did not fix.
After such information, violent oppositionists, including the Kiev ambassador, needed another sensation. And it was quickly found by the head of the Emergencies Ministry of Ukraine, Mr. Baloga. He criticized the Russian president for the fact that he was late for a meeting with the Ukrainian leader, drove first to the biker camp, and then to a handshake with Viktor Yanukovych. Viktor Baloga said that this “shook the hospitable Ukrainians.” Apparently, Mr. Minister himself waited so much for Vladimir Putin's arrival that he ate all the bread and salt, smoked a single pack of cigarettes, sketched cigarette butts on the red carpet, burned it in seventeen places, which caused an emergency situation all over Ukraine.
It is not known for certain whether the Ukrainian authorities have decided to take revenge on Vladimir Vladimirovich for being late, or the refusal of an invitation to join the Customs Union, the Ukrainian leader did prepare in advance. In general, the presidents' press service reported that no agreement was reached on this issue either.
Apparently, being completely disappointed with the result of Putin’s visit to Ukraine, the active Minister of Emergency Situations called the meeting between the presidents “degreased.” This formulation gives food for thought about the fact that Baloga himself expected at least 3,2% fat content from Putin's agreements with Yanukovych, but he ended up getting zero-sum ... Indeed, the situation is more than an emergency for the minister ...
Saakashvili will arrest satellite dishes
While the Russian State Duma is trying to fight bad information from the Internet and armies of slanderers in the territory of the Russian Federation, the Georgian authorities have decided far to go. The parliament of one of the most successfully democratized countries of the United States decided to arrest ... satellite dishes, which recently, according to lawmakers, have appeared too much on the homes of ordinary Georgian citizens. The deputies decided that a normal Georgian citizen does not need to use satellite antennas, because the good words of Mikhail Saakashvili can be heard, as well as to see the most blissful, with the help of the main Georgian TV channels.
It is worth saying that satellite antennas in Georgia began to be arrested, and fines were imposed on their owners after the prosecutor's office saw that these antennas were handed out to ordinary Georgians, the main enemy of Mikhail Nikolozovich, literally from their worn hands. Where are Ivanishvili, according to the developed Georgian authorities, there is the long arm of Russia, the paws of the FSB, the Putin-Medvedev threat and all in the same spirit ...
You can imagine how the bailiffs, who noticed the satellite antenna hiding behind the owner’s drying underwear, knock on the house of an ordinary Georgian citizen and say: your antenna is arrested. This is how freedom of speech is in Georgian ... And we still say something to our legislators ...
If everything in Georgia continues further along the same path, then arrests of toilet bowls and Russian-made boilers may begin soon, and the authorities will impose a non-synchronous translation from Mikhail Saakashvili himself on the First Channel with commentaries on the events taking place in the “aggressor” country.
Now the average Georgian citizen wants to eat lobio or chakhokhbili from his favorite plate, and what he proves is that it is not a satellite ... Therefore, one should expect that in the near future the riders of the Apocalypse from Mikhail Saakashvili will dart around the basements of Georgian houses to find radio receivers tuned on the Russian frequencies (on Radio Dacha, for example). And if they find it, they will arrange a fire on the central square of Tbilisi from plates, receivers and boilers, which were fingerprinted by Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Part II. Equality to America!
Trio from the east
The imminent withdrawal of the main US forces from Afghanistan gave rise to some financial expectations in three former Soviet republics at once: Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. To diplomatically indicate readiness for friendship with America, these three countries in a subtle oriental style hinted to Russia that its time was gone. Three capitals gave Moscow to understand that it is about to lose in a strategic struggle.
Tajiks decided tothat staying on their territory of the 201 of the Russian military base should annually bring to the treasury a tidy sum of 250 million dollars. And not just 250 millions, but "no less than." (Now Russia uses the base in exchange for the supply of military equipment to Tajikistan). Dushanbe also believes that the 49 years of renting a base for Russia is a lot. Enough and 10, but we'll see.
The Tajiks seem to have put the question squarely: either the Americans settle down on their territory (after all, Tajikistan borders on Afghanistan), or Russia will start to pay exorbitant money for the deployment of the 201 base. Yes, exorbitant: after all, for renting a larger and more high-tech base in Sevastopol, Ukraine receives from Russia 89 million dollars.
Dushanbe, however, is not sure on 100% and even on 10% that Americans are going to master undeveloped Tajikistan. The fact is that the Americans themselves have not yet decided. That is why Dushanbe’s negotiations with Moscow on the lease of the base, which were supposed to end in the first quarter of 2012, have not ended. The Eastern side of the negotiations pulls time, waiting for the transit decision of America.
In early June, 2012, it became known that NATO freight transit would go through the countries of Central Asia. The North Atlantic Alliance has concluded agreements with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan on the use of their territories for the export of equipment and military equipment from Afghanistan. About it said NATO Secretary General himself. Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that the alliance will receive "new opportunities and reliable transport network."
Tajikistan was not on this transit list, but there were Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
Unlike thinking Tajikistan, which the States do not really value, Uzbekistan acts more openly. The geopolitical swings "back and forth" have long since become familiar to the local pendulum of power and can be predictable: closer to America and the West, farther from Russia.
As soon as it became clear that the Pentagon would need bases in Central Asia for the foreseeable future, democracy in Uzbekistan was rapidly beginning to improve and human rights began to gain momentum.
28 June Tashkent sent a note to the CSTO Secretariat to suspend its participation in the activities in the organization. This is the second exit of the Uzbeks from the CSTO, which could have been predicted even in the autumn of 2011, when Hillary Clinton, meeting Eler Ganiev, the Uzbek foreign minister, was unequivocally saidthat Uzbekistan now "shows signs of improving human rights and expanding political freedoms," and the US Senate Appropriations Committee approved a law that allowed America to give Uzbekistan money to buy military equipment.
In such a position, when you lure from America and are listed in its democratic friends, Russia is already of little interest.
This week the media reported that the eastern bargaining with Russia was opened by the Kirghiz. The lease term of the test base of anti-submarine armaments of the Russian Navy, the 338 th communications center of the Russian Navy and the seismic point of service of the special control of the Russian Defense Ministry expires in 2014. Not tomorrow, of course, but in anticipation of the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, which will happen at the end of the same 2014 of the year, it is already possible to dictate new conditions to Russia.
These new conditions outlined the other day, the head of the Ministry of Defense of Kyrgyzstan Taalaibek Omuraliev: “Inflation in the yard is growing by leaps and bounds, everything is going up. Proceeding from this, we asked the Russian side to raise the rent in the order of allocation in cash. ”
The position is simple and clear: you have to pay a lot, and in cash.
Under the old arrangements of 1993-1994, Moscow was not obligated to pay for the agreement with “live” money. Instead of rent, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation undertook to train military specialists for Kyrgyzstan and provide the Kyrgyz army with equipment. However, since 2008, these obligations by the Russian side not performed. However, in March 2012, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported on the repayment before Kyrgyzstan of debt in 15,5 million dollars.
Kyrgyzstan, like Tajikistan, still pulls. “Cash” - this sounds proudly, but Bishkek, like a lazy, bad student, standing at the blackboard and afraid of the teacher, wants to hear a hint all the time. But America is not in a hurry to tell, wanting to defeat Losers.
That is why Omuraliev did not say how much Russia will have to pay for the rent of military facilities. “Manas” is “Manas”, and in the case of the recent transit through Pakistan, the Americans have, from which (or rather, from whom) they choose.
All three allies of Russia in the CSTO have forgotten that if they have chosen America as their allies and breadwinners, then she, my dear, will choose someone. For example, Tajikistan may remain with nothing. If Washington needs Dushanbe, it is unlikely that the US would welcome Tajik masons of the 2 category and lawn mowers in the same way as hospitable mother Russia does.
"And we call ourselves the human race?"
3-4 minutes - and half the world will cover the nuclear fungi. It is only the formidable American president to give the order. Moreover, the president will not be allowed to think long for a “button”: a deadline for thinking about the fate of humanity - 13 minutes. A few minutes after the head of the American state issues an order, the nuclear-armed missiles on alert are rushing towards their targets.
The newly elected presidents, informed about the “rule of 13 minutes”, were surprised and horrified. It seemed to them that this was simply unthinkable. "And we call ourselves the human race?" - so commented at one time "thirteen minutes" by john kennedy.
Proponent of world nuclear disarmament, Barack Obama, having come to power, did not change the apocalyptic rule. AT Washington Post They write: what if some rocket flew by chance? And if it was started by intruders? What if - a bad connection with the satellite?
Imagine how Leon Panetta or Martin Dempsey whispered to a worried president, Nobel Peace Prize winner 2009 of the year: “Mr. Obama, you have three minutes ... One and a half minutes ... Forty-five seconds ... Think faster, buddy Barak! Press this damn button !! Destroy Moscow! Beijing! Damascus! California! California? .. Damn, the lieutenant again introduced the contour map into the computer! ”
Today, two decades after the end of the Cold War, third US strategic forces, including almost all land-based missiles and some sea-based, are on alert.
Why would America with a peace-loving president lead such an aggressive rule? Here is the retired General James Cartwright, the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, She urged to rethink this rule. For example, it would be possible to extend the time for making a decision on the launch of nuclear missiles. The general offered and the interval: 24-72 hours.
But Obama, who as president of the country will have to sign a military instruction with the “13 minutes rule” in the coming weeks, is not likely to change anything. General Robert Koehler, Commander of US Strategic Forces, believesthat it is impossible to remove missiles from combat duty.
В Washington Post, of course, they know why America will not change its main terrible rule and will not remove the rocket from combat duty: after all, Russia is doing the same. Although China does not keep missiles on alert ... But America and Russia, who still see each other as strategic opponents, are keeping on combat duty over 1.800 nuclear missile warheads.
As for Barack Obama, he will save and sign the instruction simply because in the fall there is an election in the USA. The change in the “13 minutes rule” will cause a surge of discontent with the president and another loud statement by Mitt Romney and the entire Republican party that Russia is the geopolitical enemy number one and that Obama is secretly cooperating with the Kremlin: perhaps in his closet at home even the form of the KGB agent is. Mr. President will lose rating, and Mitt Romney will come to power in America. And this last one will shorten 13 minutes to 1 minutes.
So do not think that Comrade Obama is not a peace-loving president ...
Made in China
In America, buying an American product is not so easy. Only 15% of things sold in the United States are made in this very United States, and 85% done somewhere else. Because of this state of affairs, an open economy, which in a democratic and cosmopolitan state, burning with hatred of the “iron curtains”, has always been celebrated.
However, this week, the gentlemen from the Congress for some reason did not like that the dress uniform for the national Olympic team was sewn in China. “The National Olympic Committee should be ashamed. I think they should collect all this form, put it into one big pile, burn it and start all over again ", - said Democratic senator Gary Reid reporters.
Mr. G. Reed would have thought before speaking. Fold the form into a pile, burn it, and then order the Chinese again? Certainly, the leader of the democratic majority of the Senate is bad with both logic and rhetoric. It's bad for him and with knowledge of the basics of the world economy. It seems that he is also not aware of the fact that the Olympic uniform for American athletes, developed by the same design company Ralph Lauren, was sewn in China before. Orders were placed in the PRC because sewing there half the price. Do not hesitate, for example, Australian Department of Defense order shoes for their army in China. And it's nothing that the front boots of the military are unstuck and fall apart.
Obviously, suspecting that there were only designers, fashion designers and politicians in the USA, and the domestic clothing industry was close to collapse, Mr. Reed, in order to save at the same time the honor of the national team and the textile industry in the country, proposed: “Let them perform at least in some T-shirts, but made in the USA.” On these T-shirts, athletes could according to reed, make a handwritten inscription: USA.
Undoubtedly, such man-made clothing will highlight American athletes from the general crowd of athletes dressed in Chinese clothes. Although, most likely, the beggars in T-shirts painted with felt-tip pens will not be allowed either to the opening ceremony or to the competitions.
And where to find American clothing in America? This senator did not clarify. I would have looked at the house with tags on my shorts, socks or T-shirts. Surely they are identical to the tags on the ceremonial dress of the Olympic team. Also, Mr. Reed should take care of the question of where the markers are made, which athletes will display on the shirtshieroglyph cherished abbreviation: USA
Tremble, slanderer! ..
Friday the thirteenth. It was on this day that the State Duma, elected, as we all remember, not without complaints from a decent percentage of Russians, closed its first session, the ending of which also turned out to be ambiguous, to say the least. Not that the approaching date correlated with the hell dozen, not the proximity of the long-awaited vacation, or perhaps the Moscow heat, which was transformed into heavy rainfall and real flood, forced the deputies to work in an emergency mode and enforce such laws, from which some they jumped in joyous euphoria, others began to pick the tabletop with their fingernails, and others, shouting “mind you!”, were closing in their opposition cellars.
In addition to the law on NGOs, a bill on the return of an article on libel from the Administrative Code to the Russian Criminal Code provoked a mixed reaction, with the possibility of punishing slanderers in the form of serious (million) fines. Many deputies who voted against this bill declared that a new era of “tightening the screws”, an era of “hello, authoritarianism”, etc., is coming.
It is not entirely clear, whether a certain percentage of our legislators themselves sinner with weakness, excuse me, or slander at their closest opponents, or is it just such a trend - to disagree.
According to the established tradition of recent times, our old acquaintance Lyudmila Alekseeva again declared herself in her entire voice. At first, she expressed herself in the spirit of saying that the quotation “United Russia is cowardly and ridiculous,” and then decided to organize her own opposition demarche in the form of statements that her honorable Moscow Helsinki group decided to reject foreign grants altogether. So that’s the case ... Now Ludmila Mikhailovna will probably remain at the dinner table: if there is bread, then no butter, if tea is sugarless, if the legs are, then without ... Bush.
It is obvious that after such words of the honored opposition actress of Russia with an American passport, United Russia, if they were cowardly and ridiculous, then they became courageous and even self-confident. Like, if our bills helped twist the great-grandmother of the national protest Lyudmila Alekseev to the steering wheel, then we are now in general hoo ...
In general, they coped with the great-grandmother, but they could, as befits younger people, translate it in a Timur way across the road (across the Atlantic) and help bring her string bag (good, overworked to those foreign grants for not too much). human rights activities).
Now it is worth expecting that the domestic courts will be, as in the times of these, overwhelmed with cases of slander, because even the opposition has a real opportunity to avenge the United Russia army for the adopted laws. Now some Boris Nemtsov will come to his home, and his neighbor, United Russia: Boris, you have a white back. Haha ... Well, let 1 be in the yard in the courtyard ... And Boris will be silent, he will not even laugh at all, and then he will go to his apartment and roll a statement saying that he is slander using his official position. And bang, the United Russia joker is already counting a million rubles into the 2 state budget, since Boris Nemtsov’s back could not be just white, but also fluffy ...
Service is not a burden
In Russia, there continues the race of ideas on how to eradicate hazing in the ranks of the Armed Forces. It seems that the service life has already been reduced to twelve months, and the military prosecutor’s office seems to have obliged the adepts of non-commissioning in the Russian army to punish harder, but, you see, dedovshchina as a tireless weed, continues to rustle in the Russian army. Of course, not so eagles anymore, as it was even 15-20 years ago, but nonetheless.
In the search for methods of fighting hazing in the army, even the people who are directly related to the army decided to check in. These people turned out to be Ural businessmen, namely the collective of the Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant, who decided to send conscripts to the army (factory workers), as the journalist “Izvestia” put it, “turnkey”.
They collect, it means, recruits, factory workers at the assembly point, put on shoes, put on, put in passenger transport, take to the gate of the nearest military unit, where officers, ready to forge new military personnel for the country, are already waiting for new recruits.
Judging by the plans that Chelyabinsk businessmen announced, the factory workers will feel at home in this military unit. On weekends, if they are not too busy in defense of the Fatherland, they can go home, after dinner they can take their mobile phones and talk about the charms of military life. And at the same time, employers-workers watch how the recruits in the military unit include: feed, water, blow off dust particles from their ironed out over the weekend with the help of caring mothers uniforms, wash outsourcing for them and stuff like that.
It seems to be happy for such an approach to the organization of the army service. But, excuse me for my modest opinion, this approach painfully reminds me not of serving in the Russian army, but as a kind of greenhouse, from where good, good-quality vegetables will come.
I want to believe that the author has gone far in his delusions, but still the worm of some doubt about the greenhouse conditions of military service does not leave the apple of emotion from the proposed method.
Due to the fact that today many people want to find an option to fight hazing (from the Minister of Defense to the directorate of the tube rolling mills), it’s worthwhile to offer your own version.
This option is as follows: you do not need to take a recruit anywhere from home. The unit commander himself must come to him, solemnly take the oath and hand a machine gun to the young soldier, which the mother of the fighter, brushing away tears of tenderness from his eyes from pride in his son, should carefully wrap in a terry towel and put on the bottom shelf of the linen closet, inscribing a white paint on the door "ShHO", I mean the storage cabinet weapons. Once a week, a soldier himself must attend a bath (you can have a sauna, you can have a VIP-sauna) and every day must wait for a car delivering soldiers' breakfasts, lunches and dinners (sushi, rolls) straight to the house in order to somehow survive all the military service . Well, if the Russians come to the Russian land, then the soldier must get an automatic from the cabinet, take a hidden position under the bed and clasp his head with his hands, lie quietly without moving - perhaps they will pass by ... During this time, the mother and father of the fighter should prepare their child the demobilized album and parade uniform, so that at the end of the 100-dnevka the fighter could walk along the streets of the city and, looking at his stripes, remember which troops he served in. All - demobilization! The education of the man and husband took place! And no hazing to you.
Were there any gifts? ..
This week Vladimir Putin’s working visit to Ukraine took place. It was planned that Putin and Yanukovych will discuss the notorious gas issues, as well as the possibility of Ukraine joining the Customs Union, which already includes, besides Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
Many viewed Putin’s trip as a kind of support for the policy of Viktor Yanukovych by the Russian president. During the working meetings, it was possible to agree on reciprocal state visits of the leaders of the two countries in the current and next years.
It would seem a trip like a trip. We met, talked, discussed well-known issues, but it didn’t work without nuances. After the Putin-Yanukovich meeting in Yalta, the media wanted (especially, of course, oppositional) immediately declared that the Russian president gave Ukraine almost the entire Kerch Strait. Like, oh, he is so-and-so-yielded to the pressure of the Ukrainians and decided to give Kiev a whole Tuzla from the master's shoulder.
The Russian opposition managed to be noted, to put it mildly, with original headlines in newspapers and online publications. Here are some of them: “Putin gave Ukraine the entire Kerch Strait,” “Putin gives Tuzla to Ukraine today, and tomorrow the Kuriles of Japan.” In general, literally everyone who had time to inform about the “gift” of Putin.
However, when official information reached the readers, it turned out that there was no delimitation of borders, no documents were signed in Yalta, no generous gifts to Kiev (such as the Kerch Strait or gas for 100 dollars per thousand cubic meters), too and did not fix.
After such information, violent oppositionists, including the Kiev ambassador, needed another sensation. And it was quickly found by the head of the Emergencies Ministry of Ukraine, Mr. Baloga. He criticized the Russian president for the fact that he was late for a meeting with the Ukrainian leader, drove first to the biker camp, and then to a handshake with Viktor Yanukovych. Viktor Baloga said that this “shook the hospitable Ukrainians.” Apparently, Mr. Minister himself waited so much for Vladimir Putin's arrival that he ate all the bread and salt, smoked a single pack of cigarettes, sketched cigarette butts on the red carpet, burned it in seventeen places, which caused an emergency situation all over Ukraine.
It is not known for certain whether the Ukrainian authorities have decided to take revenge on Vladimir Vladimirovich for being late, or the refusal of an invitation to join the Customs Union, the Ukrainian leader did prepare in advance. In general, the presidents' press service reported that no agreement was reached on this issue either.
Apparently, being completely disappointed with the result of Putin’s visit to Ukraine, the active Minister of Emergency Situations called the meeting between the presidents “degreased.” This formulation gives food for thought about the fact that Baloga himself expected at least 3,2% fat content from Putin's agreements with Yanukovych, but he ended up getting zero-sum ... Indeed, the situation is more than an emergency for the minister ...
Saakashvili will arrest satellite dishes
While the Russian State Duma is trying to fight bad information from the Internet and armies of slanderers in the territory of the Russian Federation, the Georgian authorities have decided far to go. The parliament of one of the most successfully democratized countries of the United States decided to arrest ... satellite dishes, which recently, according to lawmakers, have appeared too much on the homes of ordinary Georgian citizens. The deputies decided that a normal Georgian citizen does not need to use satellite antennas, because the good words of Mikhail Saakashvili can be heard, as well as to see the most blissful, with the help of the main Georgian TV channels.
It is worth saying that satellite antennas in Georgia began to be arrested, and fines were imposed on their owners after the prosecutor's office saw that these antennas were handed out to ordinary Georgians, the main enemy of Mikhail Nikolozovich, literally from their worn hands. Where are Ivanishvili, according to the developed Georgian authorities, there is the long arm of Russia, the paws of the FSB, the Putin-Medvedev threat and all in the same spirit ...
You can imagine how the bailiffs, who noticed the satellite antenna hiding behind the owner’s drying underwear, knock on the house of an ordinary Georgian citizen and say: your antenna is arrested. This is how freedom of speech is in Georgian ... And we still say something to our legislators ...
If everything in Georgia continues further along the same path, then arrests of toilet bowls and Russian-made boilers may begin soon, and the authorities will impose a non-synchronous translation from Mikhail Saakashvili himself on the First Channel with commentaries on the events taking place in the “aggressor” country.
Now the average Georgian citizen wants to eat lobio or chakhokhbili from his favorite plate, and what he proves is that it is not a satellite ... Therefore, one should expect that in the near future the riders of the Apocalypse from Mikhail Saakashvili will dart around the basements of Georgian houses to find radio receivers tuned on the Russian frequencies (on Radio Dacha, for example). And if they find it, they will arrange a fire on the central square of Tbilisi from plates, receivers and boilers, which were fingerprinted by Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Part II. Equality to America!
Trio from the east
The imminent withdrawal of the main US forces from Afghanistan gave rise to some financial expectations in three former Soviet republics at once: Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. To diplomatically indicate readiness for friendship with America, these three countries in a subtle oriental style hinted to Russia that its time was gone. Three capitals gave Moscow to understand that it is about to lose in a strategic struggle.
Tajiks decided tothat staying on their territory of the 201 of the Russian military base should annually bring to the treasury a tidy sum of 250 million dollars. And not just 250 millions, but "no less than." (Now Russia uses the base in exchange for the supply of military equipment to Tajikistan). Dushanbe also believes that the 49 years of renting a base for Russia is a lot. Enough and 10, but we'll see.
The Tajiks seem to have put the question squarely: either the Americans settle down on their territory (after all, Tajikistan borders on Afghanistan), or Russia will start to pay exorbitant money for the deployment of the 201 base. Yes, exorbitant: after all, for renting a larger and more high-tech base in Sevastopol, Ukraine receives from Russia 89 million dollars.
Dushanbe, however, is not sure on 100% and even on 10% that Americans are going to master undeveloped Tajikistan. The fact is that the Americans themselves have not yet decided. That is why Dushanbe’s negotiations with Moscow on the lease of the base, which were supposed to end in the first quarter of 2012, have not ended. The Eastern side of the negotiations pulls time, waiting for the transit decision of America.
In early June, 2012, it became known that NATO freight transit would go through the countries of Central Asia. The North Atlantic Alliance has concluded agreements with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan on the use of their territories for the export of equipment and military equipment from Afghanistan. About it said NATO Secretary General himself. Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that the alliance will receive "new opportunities and reliable transport network."
Tajikistan was not on this transit list, but there were Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
Unlike thinking Tajikistan, which the States do not really value, Uzbekistan acts more openly. The geopolitical swings "back and forth" have long since become familiar to the local pendulum of power and can be predictable: closer to America and the West, farther from Russia.
As soon as it became clear that the Pentagon would need bases in Central Asia for the foreseeable future, democracy in Uzbekistan was rapidly beginning to improve and human rights began to gain momentum.
28 June Tashkent sent a note to the CSTO Secretariat to suspend its participation in the activities in the organization. This is the second exit of the Uzbeks from the CSTO, which could have been predicted even in the autumn of 2011, when Hillary Clinton, meeting Eler Ganiev, the Uzbek foreign minister, was unequivocally saidthat Uzbekistan now "shows signs of improving human rights and expanding political freedoms," and the US Senate Appropriations Committee approved a law that allowed America to give Uzbekistan money to buy military equipment.
In such a position, when you lure from America and are listed in its democratic friends, Russia is already of little interest.
This week the media reported that the eastern bargaining with Russia was opened by the Kirghiz. The lease term of the test base of anti-submarine armaments of the Russian Navy, the 338 th communications center of the Russian Navy and the seismic point of service of the special control of the Russian Defense Ministry expires in 2014. Not tomorrow, of course, but in anticipation of the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, which will happen at the end of the same 2014 of the year, it is already possible to dictate new conditions to Russia.
These new conditions outlined the other day, the head of the Ministry of Defense of Kyrgyzstan Taalaibek Omuraliev: “Inflation in the yard is growing by leaps and bounds, everything is going up. Proceeding from this, we asked the Russian side to raise the rent in the order of allocation in cash. ”
The position is simple and clear: you have to pay a lot, and in cash.
Under the old arrangements of 1993-1994, Moscow was not obligated to pay for the agreement with “live” money. Instead of rent, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation undertook to train military specialists for Kyrgyzstan and provide the Kyrgyz army with equipment. However, since 2008, these obligations by the Russian side not performed. However, in March 2012, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported on the repayment before Kyrgyzstan of debt in 15,5 million dollars.
Kyrgyzstan, like Tajikistan, still pulls. “Cash” - this sounds proudly, but Bishkek, like a lazy, bad student, standing at the blackboard and afraid of the teacher, wants to hear a hint all the time. But America is not in a hurry to tell, wanting to defeat Losers.
That is why Omuraliev did not say how much Russia will have to pay for the rent of military facilities. “Manas” is “Manas”, and in the case of the recent transit through Pakistan, the Americans have, from which (or rather, from whom) they choose.
All three allies of Russia in the CSTO have forgotten that if they have chosen America as their allies and breadwinners, then she, my dear, will choose someone. For example, Tajikistan may remain with nothing. If Washington needs Dushanbe, it is unlikely that the US would welcome Tajik masons of the 2 category and lawn mowers in the same way as hospitable mother Russia does.
"And we call ourselves the human race?"
3-4 minutes - and half the world will cover the nuclear fungi. It is only the formidable American president to give the order. Moreover, the president will not be allowed to think long for a “button”: a deadline for thinking about the fate of humanity - 13 minutes. A few minutes after the head of the American state issues an order, the nuclear-armed missiles on alert are rushing towards their targets.
The newly elected presidents, informed about the “rule of 13 minutes”, were surprised and horrified. It seemed to them that this was simply unthinkable. "And we call ourselves the human race?" - so commented at one time "thirteen minutes" by john kennedy.
Proponent of world nuclear disarmament, Barack Obama, having come to power, did not change the apocalyptic rule. AT Washington Post They write: what if some rocket flew by chance? And if it was started by intruders? What if - a bad connection with the satellite?
Imagine how Leon Panetta or Martin Dempsey whispered to a worried president, Nobel Peace Prize winner 2009 of the year: “Mr. Obama, you have three minutes ... One and a half minutes ... Forty-five seconds ... Think faster, buddy Barak! Press this damn button !! Destroy Moscow! Beijing! Damascus! California! California? .. Damn, the lieutenant again introduced the contour map into the computer! ”
Today, two decades after the end of the Cold War, third US strategic forces, including almost all land-based missiles and some sea-based, are on alert.
Why would America with a peace-loving president lead such an aggressive rule? Here is the retired General James Cartwright, the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, She urged to rethink this rule. For example, it would be possible to extend the time for making a decision on the launch of nuclear missiles. The general offered and the interval: 24-72 hours.
But Obama, who as president of the country will have to sign a military instruction with the “13 minutes rule” in the coming weeks, is not likely to change anything. General Robert Koehler, Commander of US Strategic Forces, believesthat it is impossible to remove missiles from combat duty.
В Washington Post, of course, they know why America will not change its main terrible rule and will not remove the rocket from combat duty: after all, Russia is doing the same. Although China does not keep missiles on alert ... But America and Russia, who still see each other as strategic opponents, are keeping on combat duty over 1.800 nuclear missile warheads.
As for Barack Obama, he will save and sign the instruction simply because in the fall there is an election in the USA. The change in the “13 minutes rule” will cause a surge of discontent with the president and another loud statement by Mitt Romney and the entire Republican party that Russia is the geopolitical enemy number one and that Obama is secretly cooperating with the Kremlin: perhaps in his closet at home even the form of the KGB agent is. Mr. President will lose rating, and Mitt Romney will come to power in America. And this last one will shorten 13 minutes to 1 minutes.
So do not think that Comrade Obama is not a peace-loving president ...
Made in China
In America, buying an American product is not so easy. Only 15% of things sold in the United States are made in this very United States, and 85% done somewhere else. Because of this state of affairs, an open economy, which in a democratic and cosmopolitan state, burning with hatred of the “iron curtains”, has always been celebrated.
However, this week, the gentlemen from the Congress for some reason did not like that the dress uniform for the national Olympic team was sewn in China. “The National Olympic Committee should be ashamed. I think they should collect all this form, put it into one big pile, burn it and start all over again ", - said Democratic senator Gary Reid reporters.
Mr. G. Reed would have thought before speaking. Fold the form into a pile, burn it, and then order the Chinese again? Certainly, the leader of the democratic majority of the Senate is bad with both logic and rhetoric. It's bad for him and with knowledge of the basics of the world economy. It seems that he is also not aware of the fact that the Olympic uniform for American athletes, developed by the same design company Ralph Lauren, was sewn in China before. Orders were placed in the PRC because sewing there half the price. Do not hesitate, for example, Australian Department of Defense order shoes for their army in China. And it's nothing that the front boots of the military are unstuck and fall apart.
Obviously, suspecting that there were only designers, fashion designers and politicians in the USA, and the domestic clothing industry was close to collapse, Mr. Reed, in order to save at the same time the honor of the national team and the textile industry in the country, proposed: “Let them perform at least in some T-shirts, but made in the USA.” On these T-shirts, athletes could according to reed, make a handwritten inscription: USA.
Undoubtedly, such man-made clothing will highlight American athletes from the general crowd of athletes dressed in Chinese clothes. Although, most likely, the beggars in T-shirts painted with felt-tip pens will not be allowed either to the opening ceremony or to the competitions.
And where to find American clothing in America? This senator did not clarify. I would have looked at the house with tags on my shorts, socks or T-shirts. Surely they are identical to the tags on the ceremonial dress of the Olympic team. Also, Mr. Reed should take care of the question of where the markers are made, which athletes will display on the shirts
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