Do I Feel Sorry For President Putin?
You spent all this money on bringing the Winter Olympic Games to Sochi, so you can laud it over the world and especially when your beloved Russia, win the gold medal in your favourite sport; ice hockey.
But then your team gets knocked out in the quarter finals by the Finns.
I think we should all remember that the Russians don’t have a good record against the Finns in the winter.
I used to play real tennis with a Finn. He was very proud of the part his father had played in halting the Russians. He still had the white cotton ski suit his father had worn, stuffed with straw for warmth. This sentence from the Wikipedia article describes the Finnish resistance.
The Finns used effective guerrilla tactics, taking special advantage of superior skiing skills and snow-white layered clothing and executing many surprise ambushes and raids. By the end of December, the Soviets decided to retreat and transfer resources to more critical fronts.
I suspect there was a lot of celebration in Finland after the ice hockey victory.
Russia’s Biggest Problem
A few years ago, I read a book called PeopleQuake, which talked about how some countries like Russia have a birthrate that is not enough to sustain the population. Apparently, in Russia, the women didn’t want to have children, as the men might not be there to be a good father.
This article illustrates the problem with Russian men and their drinking and other bad habits. Here’s the first paragraph.
The high number of early deaths in Russia is mainly due to people drinking too much alcohol, particularly vodka, research suggests.
PeopleQuake reckoned that putting the drunk; Boris Yeltsin in charge, was the real problem, as he reversed all of the previous reforms, that were aimed at cutting down on cheap vodka.
The BBC article says this.
In 1985, the then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev drastically cut vodka production and did not allow it to be sold before lunch-time.
Researchers say alcohol consumption fell by around a quarter when the restrictions came in, and so did overall death rates. Then, when communism collapsed, people started drinking more again and the death rates also rose.
So what is Putin doing about improving Russian society? Spending billions on the Sochi games and clamping down on those, who don’t fit the Russian stereotype!
You could also argue, that he doesn’t have a good grasp of foreign policy!
Twin Toilets
This story from the BBC is summed up by a related tweet.
Two toilets – 28,000 roubles, Olympic media centre – 1.5bn roubles. Global embarrassment – priceless.
If this is the standard of humour for Sochi 2014, then we’re in for a treat.
An Unusual Cold War Story
I’ve just read this story on the BBC, about the personal relationship between Nikita Krushchev and John F. Kennedy and especially about a puppy given to the Kennedys by Krushchev.
You can draw a lot of interesting conclusions.
Berlusconi And Putin
This story in the IBTimes is also in The Times and is almost unbelievable. Here’s the first three paragraphs.
Vladimir Putin has met Pope Francis in Rome, amid rumours in the Italian media that he is set to appoint the disgraced former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi as Russia’s Ambassador to the Vatican.
Berlusconi is to face a period of community service after his conviction for tax fraud, but could be offered an escape route by his long-term Russian friend.
As ambassador to the Vatican, Berlusconi, who is also appealing a conviction for sex with an underage prostitute and facing new allegations of a £2.5m bribe to a senator, would receive diplomatic immunity from any custodial sentence and be free to maintain his lavish lifestyle.
At least the one thing you can say about Berlusconi, is that he isn’t gay, which is probably why he appeals to the Russian, who Peter Tatchell called the Czar of Homophobia. I hope the Pope is sensible and brave enough to give the dwarf Italian lecher, the Papal Order of the Boot.
Remember that Berlusconi and Putin at 1.65 m and 1.70m are both shorter than my 1.71.
Thieves Target Sochi 2014
I found this story in the Moscow Times after being pointed to the thefts by the headline in The Times of Thieves Try To Scrap Winter Olympics. here’s the first paragraph of the story.
With less than three months left until the Winter Olympic Games, city authorities in Sochi are embroiled in a battle with an unexpected vice: the theft of manhole covers by metal scavengers.
Some 800 manhole covers were stolen in the last couple of weeks, most of them sold as scrap metal to any one of 20 recycling companies, city officials said.
I suppose President Putin is blaming gay thieves.
Bank Customers To Share Pain Of Cyprus Bail-Out
The Eurozone and the IMF have agreed a deal to bail out Cyprus to the tune of €10 billion, as is reported here on the BBC.
What is different though in this bail-out, is that bank depositors will also have to take some of the pain. The comment from the BBC correspondent; Andrew Walker is as follows.
It has been a long and difficult negotiation, partly because of the reluctance of other Eurozone countries to use taxpayers’ money to help foreign customers of Cypriot banks. Many of them are wealthy Russians.
There are concerns around Europe about whether all that money was legitimately acquired and also about how effective Cyprus is in dealing with money laundering.
The deal involves a levy on bank deposits intended to ensure those investors contribute to the bailout. But it will apply to all deposits – at a higher rate on amounts above 100,000 euros.
I’m personally not that sorry, that laundered money will be effectively taxed, but it does strike me, that this crisis could get a lot bigger, if the Russians get annoyed.
How Many Russians Will Fail Dope Tests In Gothenburg?
I’m watching the athletics from Gothenburg at the moment. You do wonder with their record of the previous years, as detailed in this article on the BBC, how many Russians will be caught cheating?
Where’s The Plaque Gone?
Although, I can’t ever remember seeing it, it may have cropped up in conversations at home.
But I’ve finally found proof on this page of the British Listed Buildings web site, that there was a plaque at Oakwood station, indicating that the first land you’d hit if you travelled east was the Urals. This is the paragraph from the web site.
The booking hall originally had a plaque claiming that the station occupied ‘the highest point in Europe in a direct line west of the Ural Mountains of Russia’, a reference to the site being 300 feet above sea level.
I would like to see the plaque restored.
Gerard Depardieu May Become Russian
Who’d have thought Russia would be a tax haven, but this story says that it only has a personal income tax of 13%.
Putin seems to be welcoming Gerard Depardieu with open arms, but then I don’t think the French actor is a man, to whom a lot of the principles that guide most of us apply. He certainly seems very selfish and looking at his personal life, women are just toys in his life.
Incidentally, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in a film.
The Anonymous Widower 