Because, Russia

[BansheeOne]

Twelve more years! ✌️

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Putin Signs Law Paving Way to Rule Until 2036

Updated: 2 hours ago

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed legislation formally granting him the right to stay in power until 2036.

Putin’s second consecutive and fourth overall presidential term ends in 2024, the year when Russia’s previous Constitution would have required him to step down.

But an overhauled Constitution that Russians approved in a nationwide vote last year allows Putin to run for two more six-year presidential terms. If elected both times, he would remain president until 2036, surpassing Josef Stalin as the longest-serving leader of Russia since Peter the Great.

The 68-year-old signed a law Monday that resets his number of terms served, allowing him to extend his 20-year rule until he turns 83.

Former President Dmitry Medvedev, who served in 2008-2012 when Putin was constitutionally mandated to step down after his first two consecutive terms, is also granted the right to run two more times. Putin served as prime minister during Medvedev's presidency.

Critics slammed last summer’s vote on the sweeping constitutional reforms — which contained populist economic measures and enshrined conservative values in Russia’s basic law — as a pretext to allow Putin to become “president for life.”

Putin has previously said he hasn’t yet decided whether to run for president again, saying 2024 is still far off.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/04/05/putin-signs-law-paving-way-to-rule-until-2036-a73430

[Ivanhoe]

On a lighter note;

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/09/aramaic-middle-east-language/404434/

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Like many other languages, Aramaic shows that approachability has nothing to do with why a language reigns, despite claims that English has been so successful because it’s relatively easy to learn its basics. After Alexander the Great conquered Persia in the fourth century B.C.E., for instance, Greek, itself an exceptionally complicated language, eventually edged out Aramaic as Eurasia’s lingua franca (though Aramaic held on in places like Judea, meaning it was almost certainly Jesus’s native language). Arabic, again, isn’t easy, and Russian, spoken by countless millions, is so horrifically complex that part of me always wonders whether it is an elaborate hoax.

 

[Adam Peter]

 

[Roman Alymov]

On 4/9/2021 at 11:53 PM, Adam Peter said:

 

It is part of longer video from Nizhnevartovsk - note how some pedastrians just ijnore the bear 

https://youtu.be/k3gfqAA5YMc

As result, nobody was hurt (including the bear, who turned out to be pet from local spa hotel)

https://youtu.be/c9Qh4Tgaw8I

Edited April 11, 2021 by Roman Alymov

[Roman Alymov]

 

[Adam Peter]

Poor Russia, out of 146 million people, there is only one who knows what to do.

[bd1]

russian police colonel´s golden  life

 

https://news.sky.com/story/russian-traffic-officer-with-golden-toilet-is-arrested-after-police-uncover-massive-bribery-scheme-12359123

[DB]

She seems disappointed., and somewhat surprised.

That certain media outlets have to describe themselves as "foreign agents" before broadcasting is a nice touch. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-58395121

 

[sunday]

Well, Putin does not have Facebook, Google, and Twitter at his beck and call. It is fortunate he used non violent means.

[DB]

Yes, comrade. pray he does not become even more polite and invite you for tea.

[sunday]

Despite the unquestionable attractiveness of the country and the cultural scene, I think I am going to die without putting foot in Russia.

[DB]

When the current virus unpleasantness is over, perhaps you will see a tour of something more attractive than little green men.

[sunday]

2 minutes ago, DB said:

When the current virus unpleasantness is over, perhaps you will see a tour of something more attractive than little green men.

Before that in Taiwan, but red-yellow instead of green.

I do not think Russia is going to invade Poland, less the UK in the next ten years, at least. Also, considering the drifting away of the USA from traditional Western values, I wonder if Russia would be a better ally.

[DB]

This is not prompted by a Trump recitation, by the way.

 

[Simon Tan]

Armiya 2022. We can hang with Roman and his buds.

Kubinka as Park Patriot is brilliant.

Edited August 31, 2021 by Simon Tan

[Adam Peter]

Weird news or Because, Russia - is there a difference?

A Soviet submarine nuclear reactor has been found in Russia’s Kara Sea

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Moscow — A container with a Soviet submarine’s nuclear reactor was discovered during survey work in the Kara Sea in northern Russia, authorities there said on Thursday.

Scientists are now due to investigate what was described as a “potentially dangerous object.”

The reactor is said to have come from the Soviet nuclear-powered K-19 submarine.

 

[sunday]

On 8/31/2021 at 5:54 PM, Simon Tan said:

Armiya 2022. We can hang with Roman and his buds.

Kubinka as Park Patriot is brilliant.

That could be interesting, yes.

[JWB]

Paywalled unfortunately:

Russia’s first ‘royal’ wedding in a century evokes imperial memories good and bad.

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Among the crowd was Maria Vladimirovna of Russia, the groom’s mother and the self-proclaimed heir to the imperial throne. The groom’s father, who calls himself Prince Franz Wilhelm of Prussia, is the great-grandson of Wilhelm II, the German emperor infamous for his erratic leadership before World War I.  Polls suggest that Russians have mixed feelings about the end of the empire. In a 2017 report by pollsters Levada, roughly 42 percent said the loss of the imperial status was “very great,” though a slightly greater said it was not. Nicholas II ranked behind Soviet figures such Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin in a ranking of historical figures in the same survey.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/10/01/russia-romanov-wedding-petersburg/

[BansheeOne]

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Russia: 26 dead in mass alcohol poisoning

5h ago

The 26 people are believed to have died from drinking poisonous moonshine. Another 28 are suffering from alcohol poisoning, with some reportedly in a coma.

Russian authorities said Saturday that 26 people died this week after consuming a hazardous home-brewed spirit in the Orenburg region bordering Kazakhstan. 

The regional ministry told the state-owned news agency RIA that the death toll was up from the nine deaths reported on Thursday.

Another 28 people are suffering from symptoms of alcohol poisoning and some are reportedly in a coma. 

[...] 

There have been six arrests so far for allegedly producing and distributing alcohol unfit for human consumption.

Those arrested are believed to have sold the hazardous libation in the city of Orsk in the Orenburg region and other locations.

Deaths from homemade spirits not uncommon in Russia

This latest case of mass alcohol poisoning some 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) southeast of Moscow is one of the largest reported in recent years.

Such cases are not uncommon in Russia, especially in the countryside. Despite regulations on the sale of alcohol, many turn to cheap homemade alternatives.

In 2016, 76 died in Irkutsk after consuming a spirit that had been spiked with a window cleaner.

After that case, the federal government put in place tighter controls on the production and sale of alcohol, medicines, perfumes and other liquids that contain a high percentage of ethanol.

https://m.dw.com/en/russia-26-dead-in-mass-alcohol-poisoning/a-59456272

[DB]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-58859522

The scenery made an overly dramatic entrance, unfortunately.

[Stuart Galbraith]

Judging by recent events at the Bolshoi, including an acid attack on a  director, I wouldnt put money against it being intentional.

[BansheeOne]

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

 

[JWB]

Pandora papers reveal hidden riches of Putin’s inner circle.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/03/pandora-papers-reveal-hidden-wealth-vladimir-putin-inner-circle

[Roman Alymov]

Northern end of nowhere