The State of Affairs in Russia

[The Brain]

Can't Obama just push the correct button and then we can move forward? I'm tired of Russia, let some other fags shine.

[Syt]

http://rt.com/news/210307-russia-national-defence-center/

Russia launches 'wartime government' HQ in major military upgrade


NDCC war room. Computer simulation. Image by Defence Ministy

Russia is launching a new national defense facility, which is meant to monitor threats to national security in peacetime, but would take control of the entire country in case of war.

The new top-secret fortified facility in Moscow includes several large war rooms, a brand new supercomputer in the heart of a state-of-the-art data processing center, underground facilities, secret transport routes for emergency evacuation and a helicopter pad, which was deployed for the first time on Nov. 24 on the Moscow River. The Defense Ministry won't disclose the price tag for the site, but it is estimated at the equivalent of several billion dollars.

The new National Defense Control Center (NDCC) is a major upgrade on what was previously called the Central Command of the General Staff, a unit tasked with round-the-clock monitoring of military threats against Russia, particularly ballistic missile launches, and deployment of strategic nuclear weapons. It was roughly a counterpart to the US National Military Command Center, the Pentagon's principal command and control site.

The NDCC inherits all those functions, but also has plenty of extra roles as well. In peacetime, an additional task is to monitor all of Russia's important military assets, from hardware being produced by defense contractors to the state of oil refineries, to weather conditions and their effect on transportation routes.

And if Russia does get into a war, the center would act as a major communication hub and a form of wartime government, delivering reports to the country's military command and giving orders to all ministries, state-owned companies and other organizations, according to the needs of the armed forces.

"The creation of NDCC was one of the biggest military projects of the past few years. The closest analogy in the past in terms of functions and tasks was the Commander-in-Chief HQ in 1941-1945, which centralized all controls of both the military machine and the economy of the nation in the interests of the war," Lt. General Mikhail Mizintsev, the NDCC chief, told Lenta.ru in an interview.

The military says the upgrade has been long overdue. The national security situation may be very fluid in modern times, and instead of days the leadership may have only an hour to take crucial military decisions. The center's job is to offer the Defense Minister and the President options in case of emergency, which would be based on facts, figures and accurate projections.

Potentially the biggest part of the upgrade was the creation of communication and data processing equipment that would give the military computer power and software needed to factor in hundreds of parameters in their mathematical models. The Defense Ministry had to use only domestically-produced hardware due to security considerations, which limited its options.

According to officials, the result is a very robust computer network with state-of-art data encryption and multiple backup sites spread throughout the country, which would keep the center functional even if its main facility in Moscow is damaged by an enemy attack or sabotage.

The center employs over 1,000 officers working on a rotating watch system. Mizintsev said the armed forces selected their best officer for the posts, many of which are new for the Russian military and require skills not previously taught to officers on a regular basis until recently. They have been operating in trial mode since April.

A thoroughly military facility, the NDCC has an unexpected civilian component to it. Its location in Moscow is close to two major hospitals, including the Pirogov trauma center. Both hospitals are quite old and their original designs didn't provide for dedicated helicopter pads.

The Defense Ministry said the medics can share NDCC's new pad on the Moscow River for emergency patient transportation. The pad can accommodate helicopters weighing up to 15 tons, enough to land a Mil Mi-8, world's most-produced transport helicopter, or a Mil Mi-38, its designated replacement.

[CountDeMoney]

Now all their credit card hacking gigs can be centralized.  MAY I HAFF YOUR WIZA EXPIRATION DATE PLEACE

[CountDeMoney]

The Defense Ministry had to use only domestically-produced hardware due to security considerations, which limited its options.

LOL, I guess so.  Microsoft.ru

[Syt]

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russia-will-never-introduce-sex-education-in-schools-children-s-ombudsman/512222.html

Russia Will Never Introduce Sex Education in Schools – Children's Ombudsman

Russia's children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said sex education will never become part of the curriculum in Russian schools, regardless of what the practice is in Europe, Interfax reported Monday.

"I am often asked: When will you [Russia] introduce sex education? I say: Never," Astakhov said at a meeting in Moscow.

According to Astakhov, sex education is against the moral norms and traditions of Russia.

The children's rights ombudsman will meet with his European counterparts in Brussels next week. He said his colleagues were beginning to consider him an "ideological opponent and enemy," but that they would cooperate.

Last year Astakhov said in a televised interview that Russian literature was the best kind of sex education for teenagers.

Last year he said that "Russian literature is the best sex ed for young people."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/19/russian-literature-sex-education-schools-childrens-ombudsman

Russian literature is best sex education for young people, says ombudsman

Pavel Astakhov opposes introduction of sex education in schools and suggests reading the classics as an alternative

Forget condoms, contraceptive pills and chlamydia, and turn instead to Chekhov, Tolstoy and Gogol. That is the message from Russia's children's ombudsman, Pavel Astakhov, who has opposed the introduction of sex education to schools and says young Russians can learn everything they need to know about love and sex from Russian literature.

"I am against any kind of sex education among children," said Astakhov in a television interview. "It is unacceptable to allow things that could corrupt children."

Despite having one of the world's fastest-growing HIV epidemics, Russia has no sex education in schools, owing to the influence of the Russian Orthodox church and conservative social forces.

Astakhov, a powerful official who reports directly to the president, Vladimir Putin, now wants legislation to ensure sex education does not sneak on to the curriculum. Instead, he suggests reading the classics.

"The best sex education that exists is Russian literature," said Astakhov. "In fact, literature in general. Everything is there, about love and about relationships between sexes. Schools should raise children chastely and with an understanding of family values."

This is not the first time government officials have moved to protect the "innocence" of Russian children.

Over the summer, parliament passed a law to ensure children are not subjected to "gay propaganda", which is defined as any information suggesting homosexuality is normal.

Astakhov was also a vocal advocate of the ban this year on the adoption of Russian children by US citizens.

Rights groups said that rather than banning sex education, the exact opposite is needed, and called on the government to allow children to be educated about sex and sexuality.

"All our surveys show that 90% of Russians are sexually experienced by the age of 17, and the government wants to deny them the right to be properly informed about their choices," said Tanya Evlampieva, of the Russian campaign group Focus-Media.

"Sex education isn't just about the act of sex," she said.

"Children should be able to discuss things like how to choose the right partner, and how to say no. By denying young people access to accurate information, we put them at increased risk of unplanned pregnancies and contracting HIV."

Russia has more than 1 million people living with HIV, and half of new cases are now sexually transmitted.

Astakhov admitted that in the modern world children might find out about sex from outside school, and suggested that parents should watch over their offspring carefully and be ready to answer questions.

Rather than introduce sex education to schools, he suggested it might be worthwhile to reintroduce the Soviet era subject of "ethics and the psychology of family life" for older teenagers.

Sex education from the Russian classics

Eugene Onegin, Alexander Pushkin, 1833

Onegin, a Petersburg dandy, travels to the countryside with his friend Lensky to meet Lensky's fiancee Olga and her sister Tatyana, who declares her love for him in a passionate letter. Onegin rejects Tatyana callously and flirts with Olga from boredom, which leads to a duel with Lensky, whom he kills. Years later, he meets the married Tatyana and professes his love for her. Although it is requited, she refuses to leave her husband, and Onegin is plunged into despair.

Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy, 1877

Anna is trapped in a loveless marriage to the stiff government official Karenin, and begins an affair with the dashing Count Vronsky. Her marriage collapses, and she becomes increasingly depressed and paranoid about her relationship with Vronsky. Angry and upset, Anna commits suicide by throwing herself under a train.

The Abyss, Leonid Andreyev, 1901

A short story that caused huge controversy on its publication, and was part of a decadent, fin-de-siècle school of literature in Russia obsessed with death and sex. A young couple in love go for a romantic walk in the forest at dusk, but get lost and are accosted by a gang of youths. They beat up the man, drag off the woman and rape her. When the man comes to, he finds his wife naked and unconscious but alive. He begins kissing her body passionately, and then "is swallowed by the dark abyss". The story ends.

Novel With Cocaine, M Ageyev, 1934

Set in 1917, the novel deals with the sexual coming of age of a young man in Moscow. "Sporting a face powdered like a clown and eyes lined with vaseline, I would stroll up and down the boulevard and try to catch the eye of every passing woman," writes the protagonist. If they smiled at him, he knew they were a "prostitute or a virgin"; if they looked terrified, he began his seduction routine.

Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov, 1955

Written in English by the Russian emigré writer Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita charts the all-consuming obsession and subsequent sexual relationship between a middle-aged professor, Humbert Humbert, and Dolores Haze, a 12-year-old girl.

[Norgy]

My russophobia meter has been broken due to high workload for the past few years.

And I notice moderately sane people posting "news" from RT to "balance" things on Twitter and Facebook.

Russian sex ed sounds like a brilliant idea. Get some incest porn in as well.

[Martinus]

And I notice moderately sane people posting "news" from RT to "balance" things on Twitter and Facebook.

I guess you are friends with the wrong people. I don't see stuff like that on my Facebook*.

*Admittedly, I blocked Spellus over his Russian retardation.

[Norgy]

Nah, my friends are pretty much apolitical, centrist or moderately right or left-wing, it happens more in public fora for discussions.

[Syt]

And I notice moderately sane people posting "news" from RT to "balance" things on Twitter and Facebook.

See, I post stuff from RT and ITAR-TASS to show how crazy Russians are.

[Norgy]

Sure, like you're not the first to beta play the Soviet Union in HoI IV!!! 

[Syt]

I did a public beta AAR for the USSR for HoI1.

I've never really played/liked the HoI series much, though.

[Sheilbh]

Piece on the situation and Russia suggesting they may be contemplating capital controls:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11266746/Capital-controls-feared-as-Russian-rouble-collapses.html

With this startling paragraph:

The rouble's slide has led to fury in the Duma, where populist politician Evgeny Fedorov has called for a criminal investigation of the central bank. Critics say the institution had been taken over by "feminist liberals" and is a tool of the International Monetary Fund. The office of the Russia general prosecutor said on Monday it was opening a probe.

[Martinus]

Piece on the situation and Russia suggesting they may be contemplating capital controls:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11266746/Capital-controls-feared-as-Russian-rouble-collapses.html

With this startling paragraph:

The rouble's slide has led to fury in the Duma, where populist politician Evgeny Fedorov has called for a criminal investigation of the central bank. Critics say the institution had been taken over by "feminist liberals" and is a tool of the International Monetary Fund. The office of the Russia general prosecutor said on Monday it was opening a probe.

[Martinus]

Wait, oil is $67 a barrel now? Holy shit. Wasn't it already at an all time low at $80-something a barrel few months ago, or was that a different kind?

[Eddie Teach]

Wait, oil is $67 a barrel now? Holy shit. Wasn't it already at an all time low at $80-something a barrel few months ago, or was that a different kind?

All-time low? 

Even adjusted for inflation, it's more expensive now than it was in the 90s.