Rest in peace, amazing, talented, loving, giving man, Paul Newman. I cried yesterday for the first time in a while.

Assassinations continue...

Ruslan Yamadaev who fought alongside the Chechen rebels before switching sides and fighting on the Russian side, was awarded hero of Russia medal ( same as Medal of honor) and is a former Parliament member, was killed in Moscow, in broad daylight and almost right outside Putin's new residence as prime minister-the 'white house'.
He received 10 bullets and died on the spot. The killer, allegedly with his face covered, miraculously was not captured on any of the CCTV cameras, of which there are many in central Moscow, especially in close proximity to government buildings. In all likelihood Yamadaev was killed by Ramzan Kadyrov, President of Chechnya, but with possible involvement of the FSB and one of the Kremlin groups.

Если Народ позволяет власти относиться к себе, как к быдло, значит он, народ, быдло и есть.

Another slice of reality

This is not cold statistics. This is information I get directly from people.
In Russia factories are closing, production is down and people are losing jobs. In Mozdok the fabric factory that had 3,500 employees 5 years ago now has only 350. And they are about to fire more people. There are 48 universities and 519 higher education institutions in Russia. There is no point, however, for young people in the provinces to go for higher eduction as there in no chance for them to find employment that will fit their qualification in the regions. The only place with work places is Moscow and they are all taken. Young lawyers are painting walls. It is a dire situation the government channels never cover. They stick to empty words, and these days use more and more of the Soviet rhetoric.

The only way anything can change in Russia and the only way it will change its current self-destructive and immoral route is to find something to replace its main driving force-materialism. The genuine replacement of values, even if possible, takes generations.

Email address for Karpov family

Here is the email address to send transaction details to for those who were kind enough to express desire to help Karpov family.

nickolayk@yandex.ru

Thank you so much!

Plane Crash in Perm-a tech problem, issue of old planes still in exploitation or something else?

The plane crash in Russia's town of Perm might be an accident but a few facts seem a bit odd. According to the air traffic controller, the pilots' behavior in the last 20 minutes of the flight was erratic and illogical which might signify that there was a third party in the cockpit. The Perm residents say that some of the larger institutions in the city were alerted to a possibility of a terrorist attack a few days before this happened. If one is to believe Sulim Yamadaev, a commander of the elite pro-federal forces 'East' battalion, formed of the former Chechen militants, now at odds with some of the FSB figures, around 20 young women 'went into the mountains' which means joined forces of the North Caucasus Islamic mujahadeen. We all know that women are mainly used a suicide bombers (only in Tamil Tigers are women equal fighters with the men).

This, of course, is only a suggestion. But if people's lives mean anything to the government it should not keep in jail a man who is able to prevent the loss of innocent human lives. Just a thought.

It is very hard when a person close to you is in jail. It is a trying time. Not knowing how it will turn out is very difficult.

BESLAN

It is 4 years since Beslan. Spoke on the phone with one of the mothers. As they have done every year since the tragedy, they have spent the last 3 days in the charcoaled walls of what used to be the school gym, without food or water, as they and their children did in 2004. Back then she was there, in the school, with her two sons. One of the sons died. He was 4 years old. Her other son survived, was wounded and now needs yet another operation. His eardrums burst during the explosion and there is now a lump that needs to be removed. The authorities, who are suppose to pay for it, asked for a ridiculous amount of paperwork and now that she provided it there is no response. She told me today something we have already discussed before. She wants to leave Russia. For the sake of her boy, her only son left.