Ivan the Warrior Church in Moscow

There is a church in the Moscow that in accordance with a legend was built to commemorate the Battle of Poltava. It was created by Peter I’s drawing and at his expense in 1709 in the Moscow district which name is Bolshaya Yakimanka. Because of frequent flood of Moscow River the church has fallen into decay soon after consecration. Then Tsar Peter I ordered to build a new church on rising ground. He donated 300 golden rubles and a lot of bricks that then were aloud to be used only for construction of a new Russian capital Sankt Petersburg. This church was not destroyed during Stalin time and now is in a good shape.

President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov called upon Russia “to eliminate” Georgia and Ukraine

Kyiv (UNIAN) Russia should follow an aggressive strategy and pass to the offensive. According to Svoboda radio in review, “Ukraine is a latent disease of Russia”, President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov said this in an interview to western journalists. “Georgia, South Ossetia, Ukraine – all this will last and last. This is some latent disease of Russia. Why do we have to suffer all the time if we can eliminate it once and for all”, he asks. “We are a big state, we have everything – army, military equipment. We should pass to the offensive”, added the President.

http://www.unian.net/eng/news/news-353868.html

The stamp that never been issued.

This stamp depicting Swedes throwing their flags and standards at the Peter I’s feet after the battle of Poltava was almost ready to be issued to mark the 250th anniversary of the Battle in 1959. But Nikita Khrushchev, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union has scheduled his visit to Sweden for the summer 1959, so this stamp has never came into the market and turned into rarity. It is well known that this visit to Sweden, and to Norway and Denmark as well, was cancelled at the last moment. The reason was President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s invitation to visit the USA received by the Soviet leader shortly before his scheduled Scandinavian trip. Later on Khrushchev recalled that “According to the etiquette, we had to visit the countries that had invited us earlier. But America attracted us more. The USA is the key capitalist power”. Khrushchev’s visit to Scandinavia was cancelled under an official pretext that a noisy anti-Soviet campaign had developed in those countries on its eve. Only five years later, on June 16, 1964 - Soviet Premier arrived in Copenhagen on first leg of an official visit to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

Positive and negative impressions of prominent politicians have been published by USAID recently

Kyiv, Ukraine. Not to be outdone by Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine's embattled president, Viktor Yushchenko, has indicated that Ukrainian "Democrats" may consider nomination of a single presidential candidate. As about Yushchenko's support rating, it has slumped to a low 3.5% and a recent survey conducted by U.S.-based International Foundation for Electoral Systems and financed by the United States Agency for International Development lists Yushchenko with the highest negative rating (83%) of all candidates. The report in the media gives rise that Yushchenko, with only 4 weeks remaining, may be seeking an exit plan, a way to pull out of the election before he faces total embarrassment and humiliation by losing in the first round of the election.

Ukraine's main New Year tree has been installed

Kyiv. Ukraine's main New Year tree lighting ceremony has taken place today (Dec 20th 2009) in Independence Square. According to the Main Culture and Art Department of the Kyiv city state administration, the 35-meter New Year tree is made of 500 small fir-trees and decorated with 1,200 flash-lights. The pattern of lights moves all the time. There are also 200 large toys and 40 toy tigers, as 2010 is the Year of Tiger under the eastern calendar. According to the first deputy head of the Kyiv city state administration, the designers have created a new light-emitting diode design of the tree. The Kyiv city state administration has decided to organize the celebration of the New Year on Independence Square from 19:00 of Dec. 31 until 02:00 of Jan. 1.

Ukraine strikes $2.4 billion arms deal with Iraq

Moscow, Dec 10 (RIA Novosti) Ukraine will deliver a variety of military equipment to Iraq under a recent deal worth an estimated $2.4 billion, a Russian newspaper has reported. According to the Nezavisimaya Gazeta (Independent Newspaper) daily, the deal between the state arms exporter UkrSpetsExport and the Iraqi defence ministry is the largest in Ukraine's history and could lift the ex-Soviet republic to the fourth or fifth place among the top arms dealers in the world from the current 14th. The new contract will ensure orders for over 80 Ukrainian firms, including the state-run Progress machine-building plant in Berdichev (Central Ukraine), which produced T-80UD tanks for Pakistan in the 1990s, the paper said in an article published Wednesday. Nezavisimaya Gazeta cited Sergei Zgurets, head of research at the Kiev-based Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies (CACDS) as saying the deal could have been influenced by Washington as the US has allocated up to $3 billion in military aid to ready the Iraqi police and armed forces for the task of policing the country after the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. Sources close to the Ukrainian defence ministry told the newspaper that the deal included the delivery of an unspecified number of armoured vehicles, transport planes Antonov-124 and high-precision weaponry. Ukraine will also provide repair and maintenance services for the sold equipment. Although the Ukrainian sources refused to comment on the political aspect of the deal, the newspaper suggested it could have a negative impact on the relations between Ukrainian and Russian arms manufacturers because Russia was actively seeking arms contracts with Iraq. 'This deal will certainly cause concern in Russia as Ukraine, which has always been one of Russia's main competitors on global arms markets, is now re-establishing its position in this sphere,' Nezavisimaya Gazeta quoted a source in the Ukrainian military as saying. On the photo below you can see President of Ukraine Victor Uschenko seeing round a new Ukrainian armoured vehicle Cossack (photo by UNIAN news agency).

Vegetables and cannon balls

The prices of vegetables (beets, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, etc) continue to remain high in Poltava region during winter time. That is why many families living in Poltava use their rented plots of land for planting vegetables. All yield they store in a numerous cellars. These cannon balls were found not far from the village of Yakovtsy, located in the heart of Poltava Battle field. Now they are preserving in Poltava Regional Museum.