A new wave of the rail war in Russia

An improvised explosive device caused the express train Moscow-St. Petersburg to derail on November 29, killing at least 26 people and injuring about 100. A total of 681 people -- 20 of them employees -- were on the Nevsky Express as it traveled from Moscow to St. Petersburg on Friday night. The Nevsky Express is Russia's fastest train, equivalent to a bullet train. The crash happened at 9:25 p.m. (1825 GMT) when the train was 280 kilometers (174 miles) from St. Petersburg, Russian state radio said. At least three carriages carrying more than 130 people derailed and turned on their sides. Emergency workers freed people who were trapped inside. In August 2007, an explosion on the tracks derailed the Nevsky Express, injuring 60 people in what authorities called a terrorist act. About 27,000 passengers on 60 trains were facing delays Saturday as a result of the accident, Russian state TV reported.
Another explosion hit a railway in Russia’s Caucasian region of Dagestan on 30 November. "A railway was hit by an explosion before a train travelling from Tyumen to (Azerbaijan’s capital) Baku passed. The train did not derail, although the locomotive pulled the carriages about 150 meters along the damaged rails," a local police official was quoted as saying. “The incident took place at about 06:00, Moscow time on the 2354 kilometre of the Moscow-Baku railway not far from the Inchkhe station,” police official added. The train was stopped by law enforcement officers, and rescue workers were involved. There are no casualties

Read more and see more pictures at http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/11/29/russia.train.crash/
http://en.trend.az/capital/transport/1589509.html

On the site of the fortress of Nynskans

Nyenskans was a Swedish fortress built in 1611 at the mouth of the Neva river in Swedish Ingria on the site of the present day St. Petersburg in Russia. On May 1, 1703, during the Ingrian campaign of the Great Northern War, the fortress of Nyenskans was taken by Peter the Great and renamed Schlotburg, "Neck-town", after the long narrow section of the Neva river where it was located. The last Swedish commandant of Nyenskans was Colonel Johan Apolloff, preceded by Colonel Alexander Pereswetoff-Morath (the son of Russian noblemen, who had entered Swedish service in the first decades of the seventeenth century). Having fallen into Russian hands the fortress functioned only for some weeks, and very soon the tsar founded the fortress and city of Saint Petersburg near the site. Nothing remains of Nyen above ground (as the land has been used for industrial development), but a few years ago a monument was opened on the site of the fortress, at the mouth of the Okhta river to a design by V. A. Reppo. In the early winter of 2007 remains of the fortress bastions were identified during archaeological excavations, which were necessitated by the threat of irrecoverable exploitation of the entire site.

Ukrainian Army Women:Figures and Picture

In 2008, about 70 thousand women were serving and working in the Ukrainian army system. Today’s stats are 50,000. Most positions are, of course, “peaceful”. Medical service, liaison, accounting are top 3 vectors. Many women are in technical operation & maintenance, administrative and paperwork, civil connections, translation, supplies, transportation, cynology.
119 girls are studying at military institutions of Ukraine. Under the Soviet Union, civil universities, in addition to professional education, gave basic military training and reserve ranks to the youth of both sexes. Many secondary schools still have defense lessons, both for boys and girls.
18,000 women are in the actual service (80% on contract, 12.6% warrant officers, 6.4% officers, among them 4 colonels). All branches are represented; prevalently, land troups (7,000 women) and air forces (6,500 women). Every day 300 Ukrainian ladies are on duty in air defense. In many divisions, instructors for operating / shooting / driving all sorts of equipment are female.

Moscow, Kiev agree to reduce gas supplies to Ukraine 35% in 2010

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) -- Russia’s Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz agreed on Tuesday to reduce Russian national gas deliveries by 35% in 2010, from the previously contracted 52 billion cubic meters to 33.75 bcm.
The agreement was reached during a meeting between Gazprom’s chief Alexei Miller and Naftogaz’s Oleh Dubyna. Gazprom also agreed not to use sanctions under a “take or pay” provision in the contract, whereby the buyer has to pay for the entire contracted volume. Instead of 40 billion cubic meters of gas, Ukraine will buy less than 25 billion in 2009. But Russia has said it will not fine Kiev for falling short of contracted volumes due to the ex-Soviet state’s difficult economic situation. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who met on November 19 in the Ukrainian city of Yalta with his counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko, reiterated that no sanctions will be used against Ukraine. Russia, which supplies around one quarter of Europe’s gas, briefly shut down supplies via Ukraine’s pipeline system at the start of the year amid a dispute unpaid bills and new prices. The conflict was resolved in January, when Putin and Tymoshenko reached a deal on imports and transit for 2009. Ukraine transits around 80% of Russia’s Europe-bound gas.

A unique exhibition in Moscow Kremlin is open now

This exhibition, placed in the Assumption Belfry and One-Pillar Chamber of the Patriarch's Palace, is dedicated to the 300th Anniversary of the greatest event in the Russian history of the XVIIIth century - the Battle of Poltava. About 160 unique items from the Kremlin collections, relating to themes of the battle and Russian glory, are on display. The project participants are the world-known museums, among which are the State Hermitage Museum, State Tretyakov Gallery, State Russian Museum, Swedish Nationalmuseum and the Royal Armoury collection in Stockholm, Dresden State Art Collections. On the pfoto you can see one of exhibits delivered from Sweden, 18th century iron cavalryman's cuirass (No 4906) from Norrkoping. Terms of display: November, 10, 2009 – March, 10, 2010

Some of exhibits you can browse by clicking at following link:

http://www.kreml.ru/en/main/exhibition/?ID=290

Ukrainian diplomas to be recognized in Europe

Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science is introducing the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) and the European-style diploma supplement. This will simplify the recognition of Ukrainian higher-education diplomas in Europe and is expected to promote student mobility, the ministry’s press service reports. The innovation is being introduced to meet the requirements of the ECTS Users’ Guide approved by the European Commission on February 6, 2009. ECTS and the European-style diploma supplement are instruments to evaluate student’s academic achievements. They are of common use in all the European higher education space countries (Bologna Process countries) and make it possible to adequately recognize periods of study and higher education diplomas both inside and outside the country. http://www.day.kiev.ua/

One more blast killed eight servicemen in Ulyanovsk

MOSCOW, November 23 (Itar-Tass) One more blast that went off at an ammunition depot in Ulyanovsk killed eight servicemen and wounded another two on Monday.
“A shell exploded at 2.50 p.m. Moscow time when loading the ammunition found after the November 13 fire on an Ural truck at the technical premises of the 31st Navy ammunition depot in Ulyanovsk. Subsequently, the ammunition loaded on the truck to be delivered for further destruction exploded,” spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry Col. Alexei Kuznetsov told Itar-Tass on Monday.
According to the preliminary reports, eight servicemen from the ammunition disposal team were killed in the blast, another two servicemen were hospitalized. The truck loaded with the ammunition burnt down. “The Defence Ministry’s committee is working at the blast site,” the spokesman said.
On November 13, the major fire sparked up at the foresaid ammunition depot as a result of a breach of technology. About 120 tonnes of artillery shells burnt down at the ammunition depot. Two servicemen died in the fire-fighting efforts. A criminal case was instituted over the incident.

http://www.itar-tass.com/