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Post by Admin on May 10, 2015 21:01:32 GMT
Russia is celebrating its victory over Nazi Germany 70 years ago with a massive military parade in Moscow. Many Western leaders have snubbed the festivities amid tensions over Russia's role in eastern Ukraine. The Victory Day parade marking 70 years since the end of World War Two in Europe began in Moscow's Red Square at 10 a.m. local time (0700 UTC) on Saturday. Russia's latest military hardware and more than 16,000 troops were to take part in the extravagant show, slated to be the biggest parade of its kind since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In his address, Russian President Vladimir Putin paid tribute to the Red Army and thanked wartime allies France, Britain and the United States for helping to defeat Nazi Germany. He added, however, that there had been "attempts to create a unipolar world" in recent decades, apparently refering to the US which Moscow has criticized for seeking to dominate global affairs. A highly-anticipated feature of the parade is Russia's latest generation of T-14 Armata battle tanks, equipped with a remote-controlled gun turret capable of firing missiles. A series of new robotic armored vehicles and artillery systems were also expected to be among the new weapons on show. More than 100 military planes, including long range nuclear bombers, are scheduled to swoop over Moscow in a fly-by. More than 26 million Soviet citizens lost their lives in the Second World War, eight million of which were troops. After Saturday's parade, some 165,000 people are expected to march through central Moscow with portraits of relatives who fought in the war. Smaller parades are scheduled to take place in 25 other Russian cities. Pilot groups Vityaz and Strizh demonstrated their famous diamond-shaped formation. They piloted five Su-27s and four MiG-29s flying them in a tight pack and shooting flares. Next in the air was the number 70 formed of 15 MiG-29s and Su-25s followed by six Yak training planes in a pyramid formation.
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Post by Admin on May 14, 2015 20:52:45 GMT
Russia celebrated the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe with a parade. Held in Moscow's Red Square, it memorialized the destruction of the Axis powers and the end of a war that claimed 60 million lives. It also, inadvertently, commemorated a more ignominious moment: the beginning of the divisions of the Cold War. President Vladimir Putin pulled out the stops to make the parade itself a historic event. Sixteen thousand troops, hundreds of armored vehicles, and more than a hundred aircraft passed in review of world leaders from across the globe. Despite the significance of the event, few of the war's major participants actually attended. The anniversary was overshadowed by recent tensions between the West and Russia. The parade was boycotted by the leaders of almost every democratic country, and was a testament to Russia's decreasing popularity and increasing pariah status. Twenty-five years after the end of the Cold War, it appears the world is being split into opposing sides again, and we may have seen the fissures Saturday in Moscow. In the wake of World War II the world divided into opposing blocs — the free and democratic West on one side, and the communist Soviet Union and China on the other. This set the stage for the Cold War, an ideological struggle that never turned into full-blown war, but was fought by proxy around the world and with an extended military buildup. Among the war's major victors, only Russia and China were present at the Moscow parade. The two countries are united by common interests and goals: Both chafe at the United States' status as the lone superpower and aspire to a multipolar world where America is merely one of several competing powers. Russia, having briefly flirted with democracy, is now firmly in the grip of President Vladimir Putin. Under Putin, Russia's human rights record has tumbled and the country resembles the repressive USSR more with each passing day. Russia remains unrepentant about aggression in Crimea and the Ukraine, and even paraded Buk missiles — the same ones that allegedly downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine, killing nearly 300 civilians. China, after decades of adhering to former leader Deng Xiaoping's wishes of a "peaceful rise," has begun aggressively asserting itself. China's territorial claims in the East and South China Seas have alienated its neighbors and undone years of diplomacy. China's one party rule and poor human rights record also set it apart from the West. Russia and China are both strongly authoritarian states. Xi and Putin have heaped adulation upon Mao and Stalin, both of whom killed at least as many of their own citizens as any foreign invader. In the second row are other states that attended the parade, chiefly Vietnam, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, and Egypt. The list reads like a who's who of repressive, unpopular countries — which is exactly what it is. These are countries that side with Russia and China because they are shunned by everyone else. Loosely, we might think of this new bloc as challenging the order imposed by the United States on the rest of the world. Yet how serious a threat is it? The answer is not much of one. The bloc more resembles more of a protest rally — a lot of individuals with the same complaint but without the means to do much about it — than the Warsaw Pact. Although united by a common goal, there is no unifying political structure, no common ideology, no leadership, and no overarching strategy for putting America in its place. China is not the anointed leader and North Korea has not been assigned the role of invading Washington State. The relationship between Russia and China, which would be the bedrock of an anti-U.S. coalition, should not be considered an alliance by any means. It is a stretch to call the countries friends. Neither will go to war for the other — or even sacrifice very much. It's unlikely that the world will see a second Cold War. Russia and China are too intertwined with the global economic system to risk punishing sanctions from the West. Even North Korea, one of the most isolated countries on Earth relies on trade with the outside world to survive. The two are also too weak to confront the West — even with forces joined — a problem that won't be solved for at least another two decades. Despite surges in defense spending by both countries, they are still weak militarily weak compared to the United States. Still, the emerging bloc is worth keeping an eye on. A miscalculation by either could trigger a crisis that any state, particularly an authoritarian one, could find difficult to climb down from. And both nations are armed with nuclear weapons. Years from now, historians may look back on the Victory Day Parade in Moscow and consider it the moment when the great power struggle of the early 21st century was so clear and well defined. And we should be glad, at least for now, that it won't be much of one.
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Post by Admin on May 17, 2015 20:55:48 GMT
Russian President Vladimir Putin has played in an exhibition hockey game and scored one goal after another on assists from retired NHL players. Putin’s team won 18 to 6, with eight of those goals made by the 62-year-old president, most of them on assists from NHL stars Pavel Bure and Valeri Kamensky. Three of the remaining goals were scored by Russia’s defence minister. The game was played Saturday in Sochi, the city that hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics, and concluded shortly before Russia played the U.S. in a semifinal of the ice hockey world championships. During his 15 years as Russia’s leader, Putin has frequently displayed his athletic skills, most notably in judo and swimming. He took up hockey only in recent years to promote the sport. he Sochi match, held to celebrate 70 years since Victory in World War Two, coincided with Russia's national hockey team winning the semi-final in the ice hockey world championship against the US 4-0. It will play Canada in the final on Sunday. In March, questions were raised about the health of Mr Putin, who plunged the world into uncertainty last year by annexing Crimea from Ukraine, when he disappeared from public view for 10 days before re-emerging without explanation.His athletic, action man image has long been cultivated by the Kremlin with the three-term president doing everything from riding bare-chested to boarding a fighter jet. Mr Putin's semi-official personality cult took yet another turn on Saturday when a Cossack group near the northern city of St Petersburg unveiled a bust of the Russian president, depicted like a Roman emperor.
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Post by Admin on Jun 17, 2015 3:47:30 GMT
Epic Second World War war movie Battle For Sevastopol, now in post-production, is to be given a massive release in Russia on 2,000 screens in the first week in April. It will be released at the same time in Ukraine. The film will be shown in the Ukrainian language in Ukraine and in Russian in Russia. Battle For Sevastopol, directed by Sergei Mokritsky, is notable as the first big co-production between Russia and Ukraine in many years. Its production has continued in spite of the ongoing political tensions between the two countries. The film has been made in association Fox International Productions. It has now been confirmed that Fox will be handling distribution in the CIS territories. Fox is also in negotiation to take further major territories on the film, which tells the story of female sniper, Lyudmila Pavlichenko,. The film, now in late post production, was made as a Russian/Ukranian coproduction. It received support from countries. The producers have also recently signed a deal with Japanese distributor New Select Co. and talks on other territories are under way. The production companies are: Kinorob (Ukraine, Egor Olesov) and New People (Russia, Natasha Mokritskaya, Mila Rozanova and Uliana Savelieva). At the EFM, the producers will have a promo of the film.
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Post by Admin on Oct 30, 2016 20:53:32 GMT
Kochetov Alexander Great-grandfather of Adelina Sotnikova The hero of the Soviet Union, fighter pilot. On a personal account he downed 34 enemy planes and shot down 8 aircraft in the group and made more than 488 sorties, conducted more than 120 air battles. Gavrichenko Yefim Dem'yanovich Great-grandfather of Elena Radionova Born in the year 19O3. He intended to finish school, and then immediately went to war in the Regimental Reconnaissance 3rd Byelorussian Front in the Second World War. Perished in Berlin. Awarded a medal for the capture of Berlin, For the capture of Koenigsberg, the Order of the Red Star. Reznichenko Tikhon E. and Daria Zakharovna Great-grandmother and great-grandfather of Elena Radionova In 1941, E. Tikhon led the conservation of mines in the Donbas. Then, together with his wife went to the occupied territory, which fought as a partisan, near Kiev.
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