Victor Yanukovych not to take part in television debates with Yulia Tymoshenko

Kyiv (UNIAN news agency) Jan 29, 2010 Lawmaker from the Party of Regions Ganna German says that candidate for the post of President of Ukraine Victor Yanukovych did not change his decision and he will not take part in the television debates with Yulia Tymoshenko. According to an UNIAN correspondent, she said this at the news conference today. At the same time G. German underlined that this is own decision of V. Yanukovych. According to her words, “when I hear that I can influence this, it makes me smile”. G. German said that everybody, who knows V. Yanukovych, understands that it is impossible to have an influence on him.
“If in any country a presidential candidate refused to take part in officially scheduled debates, it would be a scandal that would never allow this candidate to become president. That is why, as a law-abiding person, I will come to debates envisaged by the law and scheduled by the national state television,” Tymoshenko stressed.
“I have a strong conviction that the debates between the two candidates will become the final argument for those Ukrainians who haven’t made their choice yet. I invite Yanukovych to a debate, if he has anything to tell these people,” she added.
Many ordinary Ukrainians hold that Victor Yanukovich simply dreads to show his low intellect to the general public. His inability to hold public debate is well known. He also has a serious problem with speaking Ukrainian language he is still not familiar with.

It seems that we unfortunately will never see this undoubtedly admirable show....

http://unian.net/eng/

New Russian stealth fighter makes first flight

Jan 29, 2010 MOSCOW (Reuters news agency) - Russia test-flew a long-awaited new fighter aircraft on Friday, determined to challenge the United States for technical superiority in the skies and impress weapons buyers.
The "fifth-generation" stealth fighter -- Russia's first all-new warplane since the collapse of the Soviet Union plunged the defense industry into poverty and disarray -- flew for 47 minutes, planemaker Sukhoi said.
"It's a remarkable event," Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told his cabinet, but he suggested the plane still needed work.
"There is very much to be done, in part as regards the engine," Putin said. "But the fact that the plane is already in the air is a big step forward."
Russia's main television networks led news programs with reports of the flight and showed footage of the needle-nosed, camouflage-painted plane taking off from a snow-lined airstrip at a Sukhoi factory in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, in Russia's Far East.
"The plane performed very well. All our expectations for this first flight were met," Sukhoi spokeswoman Olga Kayukova said on Rossiya 24 television. "The premiere was a success."
Foreign journalists were not invited.
Fifth-generation aircraft are invisible to radar, have advanced flight and weapons control systems and can cruise at supersonic speeds. The new plane is Moscow's answer to the U.S.-built F-22 Raptor stealth fighter -- the world's only fifth-generation fighter yet in service -- which first flew in 1997.
Putin said the plane would first be delivered to the Defense Ministry in 2013 and serial production would start in 2015. Analysts have said it would probably be five to seven years before Russia's military gets to fly the new fighter.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/01/29/world/international-us-russia-fighter.html

Video is available at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22fN4fVoFdY

Eyewitnesses of Viking Age in Poltava

Polovetsky stone women (babas) are found on a huge territory from Southwest Asia to Southeast Europe. They are regarded as monuments of the sacral art of tribes of Polovtsy (Kipchaks or Cumans) of 9-13 centuries. Such babas were mostly left on mounds, where they buried. Scientists are not sure whether the sculptures are portraits of the dead, or they are idols of paganish gods (or rather goddesses, as most figures found in Ukraine are female). During the 9th century Vikings penetrated deep into Russia. Their development of trade, particularly down the Dnieper River (a route which becomes known as Austrvegr, or the “Great Waterway”), laid the foundation of the Russian nation. So, probably these babas have been seen by your valiant forefathers going downstream Dnieper River. A few babas shown in the picture are preserving in the back yard of Poltava Regional Museum.

Learn more about Cumans at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumans

New big TV in Poltava.

Not long ago poltavities got a new big TV set in Poltava. It is located close to the City Council. During weekends it shows cartoons for kids, movies and news for adults, but now when we are getting close and close to the second round of Ukrainian Presidential race it operates as a BIG supporter of Yulia Timoshenko. That is why this place is not so crouded now as usially.

Masterpieces created by craftsmen from Poltava region in the mid 19th century were shown to the public in Poltava.

From January 10 to January 20, 2010, at the Poltava Art Gallery, folk art lovers were offered the rare opportunity to view a small portion of the Gallery's extensive collection of Ukrainian handicrafts and folk art mostly dated after mid 19th century, including many fine examples of costumes, embroidery, ceramics, wood carving and weaving. These exhibits of traditional Ukrainian art have been created mostly by skilled craftsmen lived in Poltava region. Because of lack of halls for the temporary exhibitions many unique exhibits are preserving in Gallery’s storerooms and not accessible for the visitors. This exhibition attracted many visitors including foreign tourists.

Steeling popcorn. Can Pavel Lazarenko hurt Yulia Tymoshenko's bid?

Here is a citation taken from Article written on December 3, 2009 by Peter Byrne for the Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper Kyiv Post
http://www.kyivpost.com/news/politics/detail/54350/

“…Behind almost every successful politician and businessperson is a mentor who helped put the person on the path to fame and fortune. Yulia Tymoshenko had one too: Pavlo Lazarenko, convicted U.S. felon. Lazarenko served under ex-President Leonid Kuchma as prime minister from 1996-1997. He is now serving an eight-year prison sentence in America for laundering money, part of the ill-gotten fortune he amassed in the nation that he allegedly ran like a mafia boss. In the early 1990s, Lazarenko helped make Tymoshenko, the current prime minister, a big-time player in the lucrative gas-trading business and also gave the rising star a political boost. Now, as Tymoshenko is one of two front-runners in the Jan. 17 presidential election, the question is: Can the ex-prime minister hurt the current prime minister politically?....”
In 2009, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. awarded Mr. Howden and five other attorneys the Attorney General’s Award for their 2006 prosecution of Pavel Lazarenko, the ex prime minister of Ukraine. Got intrigued?
Now you can see an extremely interesting documentary “Steeling popcorn” about Yulia Timoshenko available in English at
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHLrf652yRk
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNZGrq06PnI
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqaObLs7baA
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKRahM1Frb0

The film web site
http://stealingpopcorn.com/

On the photo by UNIAN news agency (1997) you can see Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s current prime minister, is in the background with then-Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, who is currently serving an eight-year sentence in an American prison for laundering millions of dollars of ill-gotten mon
Be amazed, puzzled, and (probably) enjoy it!!!

Swedish telephone of the Russian Tsar Nakolai II

Lars Magnus Ericsson opened a telephone plant in St Petersburg in 1900. The Russian factory became Lars Magnus Ericsson's baby. At one time, he even considered transferring core operations from Stockholm to St Petersburg. When Czar Nicolas II made an official visit to Moscow, Ericsson supplied a special switch to the Kremlin, to which a number of telephones in the palace were connected. The Czar himself used telephones in the shape of a dachshund with ornamentation in gold and ivory. Ericsson's Russian operations experienced strong growth and were normally profitable, particularly during World War I. During the October Revolution, however, all of Ericsson's Russian assets, which together with accounts receivable were estimated at SEK 20 million, were nationalized. The assets included not only the telephone plant in Petrograd (as St Petersburg was renamed), but also the newly established Telefonbyggnads AB in Moscow. Several attempts by Ericsson to negotiate with the Soviet authorities proved fruitless.

Written by Jan Kruse for http://www.ericssonhistory.com/

Photo 1. Telephone, the 1892 model, specially designed for the Russian Tsar. Here together with a Dialog with keypad. Archive: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson

Photo 2. Ericsson’s plant in St. Petersburg. Early 1900s. Archive: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson