The State of Affairs in Russia

[The Brain]

WWE

[Syt]

Meanwhile, in the loonier parts of Russia ....

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/news/article/russian-city-bans-indecent-dance-moves-cake-cutting-at-weddings/537466.html

Russian City Bans Indecent Dance Moves, Cake-Cutting at Weddings

Shooting, cake-cutting and indecent dance moves have been outlawed at "traditional weddings" in Grozny, the capital of Russia's Chechen republic, as part of efforts to safeguard the spiritual and moral development of the republic's young people.

A list of acts that will henceforth be banned at "traditional Chechen weddings" was published by Grozny City Hall's culture department this week.

It dictates that guests will no longer be able to show up drunk or dressed "in a way that does not conform with the Chechen mentality."

"Indecent" or "acrobatic" moves on the dance floor are prohibited, and dance partners are forbidden from moving closer than an arm's length away from one another. Guests can only dance at the invitation of the master of ceremonies, while the bride is banned from dancing at all.

It was not immediately clear who would decide when weddings are "traditional" or whether the new rules would simply apply to all weddings in Grozny.

"Shooting from any kind of weapon" — a popular tradition at weddings in the Caucasus —is not tolerated. Less explicable is a ban on cutting the wedding cake.

According to the document, wedding hosts must "severely suppress" any violations of the rules, and if things nonetheless get out of hand, organizers are required to summon the police — though it was not immediately clear what action police would take, since many of the new rules contradict Russian law.

The moves are designed to safeguard traditional culture in the majority-Muslim North Caucasus republic — particularly for the younger generation, according to the list. Its publication comes after Chechnya's notoriously outspoken leader Ramzan Kadyrov last week called on wedding dress shops to stop selling too-revealing, "European" dresses that he said had become fashionable and were undermining the republic's traditions.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/news/article/north-korean-leaders-honored-in-siberia/537581.html

North Korean Leaders Honored in Siberia

The visits of two North Korean leaders to Russia have been immortalized with memorial plaques in the city of Novosibirsk, the West Siberian branch of Russian Railways announced Wednesday.

The plaques were put up on the wall of the Siberian city's train station to mark respective visits by the late leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in 1984 and 2001, in a ceremony attended by the North Korean ambassador to Russia.

"Our nations share not only the past, but the present as well," the West Siberian railway's deputy head Alexander Gritsai was quoted as saying at the ceremony, citing as an example the ongoing project to link up the Trans-Korean and Trans-Siberian railways.

The ceremony was one of many events planned as part of the Year of Russian and North Korean Friendship, said Nikolai Afonasov, a representative of Russia's Foreign Ministry in Siberia, who attended the ceremony.

Kim Il Sung's favorite train, which he preferred to all other types of transport, is now displayed at his mausoleum, Kumsusan.

His son Kim Jong Il was known for his fear of flying, and traveled around the country and abroad exclusively by train.

[Liep]

Russia is to blame says Dutch report about the MH17 incident. It was shot down by pro-Russian rebels with a pre-2011 BUK missile with assistance from Russian soldiers "on holiday", presumably.

Unpossible says BUK, Russia only uses our new missiles from after 2011 ergo it was the Ukrainians with their outdated military hardware. Logically.

[Syt]

https://www.rt.com/politics/318368-we-need-world-of-tanks/

'We need World of Tanks gamers to operate robot tanks' – Russia's weapons chief

After a Russian defense firm revealed its plans to make a remotely-controlled tank in the near future, Deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin announced that the military would soon need people experienced in the computer game "World of Tanks."

"We need no tankers now, we need World of Tanks players" Rogozin wrote in a Monday tweet.

The comment came after Russian mass media distributed the release of the Uralvagonzavod company which claimed that in the nearest future it would make the T-90 tank remotely controllable from distances of 3 to 5 kilometers.

This was not the first time Rogozin voiced his preferences in drone technologies. In early September he wrote that very soon we all would witness the situation in which an army manned with "bespectacled nerds" would completely destroy the forces of "handsome athletes who fight on a lower technological level."

T-90 is the previous model of the main battle tank produced by Uralvagonzavod, now the enterprise switches the production to more modern Armata tank. However, the export variants of the vehicle are still being offered and the experimental remotely operated machines are being developed.

World of Tanks is a free online multiplayer computer game released by Belarus company Wargaming in 2010. In 2014 Forbes magazine estimated the number of registered WOT users at over 50 million.

The mouse and keyboard are mightier than the sword!

[Syt]

https://www.rt.com/politics/318638-negative-attitude-of-russians-to/

Negative attitude of Russians to US policies hits new record high

Over 70 percent of Russians have a negative view of the role played by the US in international politics, while only a mere 4 percent view Washington's current course positively.

According to the results of the latest research conducted by the independent polling organization the Levada Center, 71 percent of the Russian public think that the United States currently plays a negative role in the world. The researchers noted this was the highest figure ever since it started to carry out this poll eight years ago.

The previous peak in negativity towards the US was in 2008, after a brief war that erupted after Georgia, backed by Washington, attacked the self-proclaimed republic of South Ossetia, which was protected by Russian peacekeepers under an international agreement.

Back then 53 percent of Russians said that they were against the United States' international politics and 12 percent assessed it in positive way.

According to the Levada Center, 29 percent of responders think relations between the United States and Russia could be described as hostile, while a further 45 percent think relations are tense.

Only 4 percent said the relations were "calm and normal," while under one percent described them as "neighborly and good."

In addition, 75 percent of pollsters said that all major industrialized nations were hostile to Russia and wanted to solve their domestic problems at Moscow's expense. Seventeen percent admitted that countries like the United States, Britain, Germany and Japan had common goals with Russia, in countering terrorism, crime and environmental challenges, as well as in humanitarian and cultural spheres.

Over the summer, the Levada Center conducted a similar poll, which showed the attitude of Russians towards the US, the EU and Ukraine had slightly improved, but was still at a very low level, mainly due to the various anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the West.

In mid-May another Russian polling center, the VTSIOM released the results of its research, which showed that the US and President Barack Obama are seen as enemies of Russia by the Russian public. Other entries onto the list were the EU, the Kiev government and Islamic terrorists.

Speaking to RBC, the Levada Center's deputy director Aleksey Grazhdankin said the Ukraine crisis was one of the main reasons for negative attitude of Russians towards the US.

"The negative sentiments towards America are caused by several factors, like Donbass, armed clashes and bloodshed, which has become possible due to Kiev's operations, which have been supported by the US. This is what the public thinks," the researcher told reporters.

[Valmy]

Huh. What did we do this time? Because last I checked the US has not really done anything outside of sign that treaty with Iran in years.

Oh the Ukraine thing? Well we did issue strongly worded letters.

[Syt]

I find it astonishing, though, that 75% of the people think all other industrialized nations are scheming against them. That's some serious siege mentality there.

[Valmy]

I find it astonishing, though, that 75% of the people think all other industrialized nations are scheming against them. That's some serious siege mentality there.

We are super threatened by Russia, and spend all of our waking moments try to keep Russia down. For reasons.

[Liep]

I find it astonishing, though, that 75% of the people think all other industrialized nations are scheming against them. That's some serious siege mentality there.

How many people in the industrialized nations think Russia is scheming against them (or one of them)?

I just watched the first episode of the Norwegian tv series "Okkupert" and that is some top quality paranoia on expense of the Russkies.

[Berkut]

I find it astonishing, though, that 75% of the people think all other industrialized nations are scheming against them. That's some serious siege mentality there.

We are super threatened by Russia, and spend all of our waking moments try to keep Russia down. For reasons.

You have to admit that it is working though.

[Valmy]

How many people in the industrialized nations think Russia is scheming against them (or one of them)?

I think Russia is a bad joke and the only people being schemed against are the Russian citizens. The only people paranoid about Russia have the misfortune to live nearby...hey like Norway.

[DGuller]

Huh. What did we do this time? Because last I checked the US has not really done anything outside of sign that treaty with Iran in years.

Oh the Ukraine thing? Well we did issue strongly worded letters.

It doesn't matter what we do, what matters is what the Russian TV says we do.  I'm telling you, it's downright scary.  That's not just propaganda there, that's wartime propaganda.

[alfred russel]

I find it astonishing, though, that 75% of the people think all other industrialized nations are scheming against them. That's some serious siege mentality there.

We kind of are though. We have (sort of) coordinated sanctions against them.

[DGuller]

I find it astonishing, though, that 75% of the people think all other industrialized nations are scheming against them. That's some serious siege mentality there.

We kind of are though. We have (sort of) coordinated sanctions against them.

The "sanctions" bullshit is a pretext.  We're doing what we were planning to do anyway once we realized that Russia was getting off its knees.

[Eddie Teach]

The "sanctions" bullshit is a pretext.  We're doing what we were planning to do anyway once we realized that Russia was getting off its knees.

Ok, FSB.