Everyone who truly supports democracy and freedom will want to congratulate S Ossetia and Abkhazia, whose independence was recognised by Russia last week.
There is no reason for these countries - both of whom have held independently-monitored democratic votes on this matter - to be subject to a Government which has only their worst interests at heart, and recently attacked them with rocket-fire. (Sponsored, ehem, by the CIA).
Russia Experience hopes to be offering travel to Abkhazia - one of the most beautiful regions on earth - sometime in the future... it's already an area where discerning visitors are enjoying peaceful, enjoyable and luxurious leisure trips, for extremely affordable prices. Fabulous local cuisine, the famous local wines, cheeses, delicatessen items, beaches, mountains, lakes - no wonder Jason & the Argonauts decided to make landfall here!
The Situation With Georgia (August 2008)
The situation with Georgia has now moved on considerably, so I've decided to update and revise this blog entry to reflect the current situation.
Russian troops went to the defence of civilians attacked in a rocket assault on the city of Tshinvali. The barrage claimed many lives. However, a prompt response in defence of these civilians by the Russian army prevented a recurrence of this incident. The army who attacked them (unprompted) have been disarmed and prevented from repeating the attack. Having done this, the Russian Army has withdrawn to its previous positions (agreed with the OSCE).
I was interviewed on VETTA (a Russian tv-station based in Perm' - I've done programmes for them before) about this case, and I said this (translated from Russian):
"Russia has won the moral victory in defending the people of S Ossetia, but it lost the PR battle".
What I meant by that was the Russia got very bad PR during this incident, which it it did not deserve. Of course, the side which attacked the S Ossetians had the advantage of knowing in advance they were preparing for such an attack, and had their PR spin ready.
However, all has ended peacefully. The people of S Ossetia do not need to fear repeated attack by a CIA-backed military force. It hasn't been an easy situation, but an acceptable end was finally found.
Russian troops went to the defence of civilians attacked in a rocket assault on the city of Tshinvali. The barrage claimed many lives. However, a prompt response in defence of these civilians by the Russian army prevented a recurrence of this incident. The army who attacked them (unprompted) have been disarmed and prevented from repeating the attack. Having done this, the Russian Army has withdrawn to its previous positions (agreed with the OSCE).
I was interviewed on VETTA (a Russian tv-station based in Perm' - I've done programmes for them before) about this case, and I said this (translated from Russian):
"Russia has won the moral victory in defending the people of S Ossetia, but it lost the PR battle".
What I meant by that was the Russia got very bad PR during this incident, which it it did not deserve. Of course, the side which attacked the S Ossetians had the advantage of knowing in advance they were preparing for such an attack, and had their PR spin ready.
However, all has ended peacefully. The people of S Ossetia do not need to fear repeated attack by a CIA-backed military force. It hasn't been an easy situation, but an acceptable end was finally found.
The Man Who Killed Rasputin - St Petersburg, April 2008
This chap up at the top here is Felix Rasputin - the man who killed Rasputin. But Felix wasn't just any man - he was heir to the richest aristocratic position in Russia, the future Count Yusupov (which he indeed became) - richer than the Tsars themselves. They had palaces in both St Petersburg and Moscow - and indeed, all over the country. I am personally linked up with their palace outside Moscow, Archangelskoe, because they have an opera theatre which might - once never-ending renovations are finished - stage a couple of my shows. But these photos above are from the Yusupov Palace in St Petersburg, which I visited whilst up in the "northern capital". As you can see, they liked opera - they had this little chamber opera theatre installed inside their palace. Below that is a waxworks model of Rasputin being given his poisoned supper (there ought to be more guests - there seem to have been around 6-7 of them?). When the poison failed to kill him, they shot him repeatedly with Felix's revolver... and since he was still alive after that, they dragged his body outdoors and threw it into the icy waters of the river. You can visit the Yusupov Palace during any trip to St Petersburg - whether Rasputin really deserved this treatment is a question that goes unanswered there, but the Police Archives photo of his body is on show.
Veteran Car Show in Moscow, March 2008
Russians are deeply, deeply in love with their cars - I guess it must have something to do with the severity of the Russian winter, and the difficulty of getting around in it. But although Russians generally don't like "old things" or "retro", they make an exception for old cars. The "Old-Timer" car exhibition comes round about every 6 months, and always attracts a huge crowd. There are vintage and veteran cars from the famous W European makers - Bentley, De Dion Bouton, Bugatti - and old Russian-made cars. My car-mad friend Marianna dragged me along - I don't even have a car any longer! I sold it last year, when I found I just wasn't ever using it - I live in the centre of the city, and the traffic jams are so terrible it takes hours to get anywhere. Instead I use a combination of bicycle (April-Oct, when the roads aren't under inches of ice), taxi, and the famous Moscow Metro - of which more in a separate posting :)
Mongolian Naadam Festival - August 2007
I'm in the processing of updating this new blog with stuff from a previous defunct one. It seemed a pity to lose some of the good stuff, although I am not going back more than a year.
The Naadam Festival happens annually in August in Mongolia. Before the Communists came to power in the 1920s, there were little Naadam festivals all over Mongolia - but the Communists were worried that it would be hard to patrol spontaneous gatherings that might turn against the Govt in mood - so they centralised the whole thing in the capital, where they could keep an eye on it!
The big national Naadam Festival happens on 11th August every year, and it's become a kind of huge parade, sports-fixture, and "national pride" event. All the previous elements of national dance and Buddhist ceremonies were removed by the Communists, of course. In their place it's been made more "popular" - the guy above in the top-hat on the motorbike is a famous rock performer in Mongolia. However, since the end of Communism in Mongolia (1990s) many more of the smaller, regional, traditional Naadam festivals take place - and not only on 11th August!
The performers in the huge masks are Tsam-Dancers - they represent some of the "protective" deities of Lamaist Buddhism (Mongolia has both Red-Hat and Yellow-Hat Buddhist communities). The whole thing goes on for three days, in displays of the three "Manly Sports" - wrestling, archery, and horse-riding.
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