Russia in ten years

[The Vagabond]

Originally posted by Roland
It's the "CIA fact book", right ? The connection is not the factbook of the CIA, but the book of "CIA facts".

LOL

About stats: I think Armenia is about equal with Georgia,

Extracts from the CIA book of facts:

Armenia $3,000
Georgia $4,600
Ukraine $3,850

and Russia roughly with Lithuania as far as GDP/capita goes. 7000 $ looks a bit much though....

It's because it's PPP (purchase power parity). It would be lower in dollars at the current exchange rate.

[Roland]

I know, but I think I remember PPPs more in the 4-5000 $ range. But the worldbank has 7000-8000 $ as well... (maybe I just underestimated US inflation? )

[Saras]

Here we go, another Roland Stenish thread...

[Roland]

Maybe I'll check eurostat for the baltic states.

[Saras]

--"You are pretty much right here, Saras. Although some other big cities are not doing bad either."

Novosibirsk and Nizny Novgorod, isn't it?

[Heresson]

CIA's information are silly. They always are.
For example, You can find their info about population of
Yemen, ending with n635 people or so. How did they count them so exactly if there was no measurement in
last 15 years? By satelite?

[Sava]

Originally posted by Heresson
CIA's information are silly. They always are.
For example, You can find their info about population of
Yemen, ending with n635 people or so. How did they count them so exactly if there was no measurement in
last 15 years? By satelite?

They probably were paying people to count Yemenese from satelite photos instead of investigating Al Qaida pre-9-11.

[Saras]

Russia sure has the best selection of lunatics - Victor Alksnis and Anatoly Chehoyev suggested to denounce the returning of Vilnius to Lithuania in 1939 to bully Lithuania into a visa-free regime with Kaliningrad. Makes me wanna beat the living **** out of that 1991 August "putchist" bastard Alksnis, kill him and eat his bones.

[Saras]

I just read an interview of this slimebag (Alksnis) where he says that the deaths of 14 people at the Vilnius TV tower and TV station in January 1991 was a "a political provocation of separatist circles of Latvia and Lithuania, i.e. of Lithuanian Sayudis and People’s Front of Latvia. Namely they were interested in bloody compromising of the Soviet Army and of the Soviet Union’s law-enforcement bodies, while showing that the evil empire (as the West used to call the Soviet Union) was annihilating peaceful people".

He's a member of the Rusian Duma now.

[Az]

So, there are some good people in the Duma, after all

[/troll]

I have no info on that. But the stubbornness of the EU on the oblast is unexplainably stupid. Together with Germany's resettlement fund program of Ethnic Germans in Kaliningrad, this sounds a bit rotten.

[DanS]

The Post is having a human interest series on central Asia.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/centralasiadiary/

About a year ago, one of the authors did an interesting and very popular series on Siberia. Basically they travel through the country on a shoestring and give social commentary.

Of course, this is written for a U.S. audience that is not familiar with Central Asia at all. But U.S. audiences are pretty much always interested in economic and civil conditions...

[Az]

Yeah. "A Handsome Soviet City". I'm beginning to like this newspaper .

[The Vagabond]

Originally posted by Saras
Russia sure has the best selection of lunatics - Victor Alksnis and Anatoly Chehoyev suggested to denounce the returning of Vilnius to Lithuania in 1939 to bully Lithuania into a visa-free regime with Kaliningrad. Makes me wanna beat the living **** out of that 1991 August "putchist" bastard Alksnis, kill him and eat his bones.

So, Saras, would you recognize that Lithuania gained something from being a part of the Soviet Union? And this "something" just happens to be your capital.

Unthankful Lithuanians! We returned them their capital, and yet they only badmouth the poor old Soviet Union.

As for Kaliningrad, Russia should press the EU as tough as necessary. The EU stance on this issue is completely unacceptable.

[Saras]

[QUOTE] Originally posted by The Vagabond


So, Saras, would you recognize that Lithuania gained something from being a part of the Soviet Union? And this "something" just happens to be your capital.

Unthankful Lithuanians! We returned them their capital, and yet they only badmouth the poor old Soviet Union. [QUOTE]

As for Kaliningrad, Russia should press the EU as tough as necessary. The EU stance on this issue is completely unacceptable.

The visa regime? Uncacceptable? Chevo eshche? Kakao s chaem?

[Roland]

"Together with Germany's resettlement fund program of Ethnic Germans in Kaliningrad"

What program is that supposed to be ?

"The EU stance on this issue is completely unacceptable."

Take a ship.