Yep, Igor, like some Yanks around here, lives in an alternate reality. LOL

Cheers.

The reverse gear seems to hang up for continuing disarmament of nuclear weapons in the Arctic. Barents Observer has made a comprehensive review of satellite images from naval base-level storage facilities that confirms heavy construction works.
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/content/satellite-images-show-expansion-nuclear-weapons-sites-kola
Too close to comfort:(

215 over New START Treaty limit
Latest exchange and verification numbers from the same bureau dated April 1, 2017 shows that Russia now has 1,765 versus the United State’s 1,411. In other words; Russia has 215 warheads more than the maximum set to be achieved nine months ahead. The questions is whether Moscow is likely to dismantle over 200 warheads in less than a year.

Meanwhile Putin celebrates the 90th birthday of his former KGB boss in East Germany, Lazar Matveyev.

Cold war?
Well in Moscow today it was very cold.
After the May snowfall, Moscow had the most powerful rainfall since 1922.
http://www.mk.ru/mosobl/2017/05/08/posle-mayskogo-snegopada-na-moskvu-idet-moshhneyshiy-s-1922-goda-liven.html

Cold war?
Well in Moscow today it was very cold.
After the May snowfall, Moscow had the most powerful rainfall since 1922.
http://www.mk.ru/mosobl/2017/05/08/posle-mayskogo-snegopada-na-moskvu-idet-moshhneyshiy-s-1922-goda-liven.html

Janneseti,

Heh. "Cold War"... ANOTHER one of the phrases that George Orwell popularized.

In his essay "You and the Atom Bomb", written 19 October 1945, he used it thus:

...

For forty or fifty years past, Mr. H. G. Wells and others have been warning us that man is in danger of destroying himself with his own weapons, leaving the ants or some other gregarious species to take over. Anyone who has seen the ruined cities of Germany will find this notion at least thinkable. Nevertheless, looking at the world as a whole, the drift for many decades has been not towards anarchy but towards the reimposition of slavery. We may be heading not for general breakdown but for an epoch as horribly stable as the slave empires of antiquity. James Burnham’s theory has been much discussed, but few people have yet considered its ideological implications – that is, the kind of world-view, the kind of beliefs, and the social structure that would probably prevail in a state which was at once unconquerable and in a permanent state of “cold war” with its neighbours.

Had the atomic bomb turned out to be something as cheap and easily manufactured as a bicycle or an alarm clock, it might well have plunged us back into barbarism, but it might, on the other hand, have meant the end of national sovereignty and of the highly-centralised police State. If, as seems to be the case, it is a rare and costly object as difficult to produce as a battleship, it is likelier to put an end to large-scale wars at the cost of prolonging indefinitely a “peace that is no peace”.

https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-prize/orwell/essays-and-other-works/you-and-the-atom-bomb/

Yes, I know Orwell was not the first person to use the phrase, but he WAS the first person to apply it to the post-WWII situation.

Back in post 1866154, I made the following statement:

I find it very interesting that Blair/Orwell, although himself a socialist, seemed to think that socialism has the inevitable result of winding up a totalitarian/authoritarian government.

This is how governments stay in power:

They contrive a permanent state of war (threat or actual) (cold war/peace that is no peace), using that to justify the totalitarian/authoritarian methods they need to deprive the People of their freedoms and liberties thereby putting them back into the chains of slavery, thereby staying in power themselves.

I am not pointing fingers. Left... Right... It does not matter. They ALL act the same. I firmly believe that the only way out of the mess is to keep Government as small, as local, as inefficient, as limited, and as powerless as is possible. Keep the power in the hands of all individuals and NOT in the collective of Government. Nasty people WILL obtain the power in Government, and will NOT let it go. This is why I am a Libertarian Minarchist. A powerful Government WILL reduce the People into the Slaves.

---

https://youtu.be/iY57ErBkFFE

#Texit

Don't blame me, I voted for Johnson(L) in 2016.

Truth is dangerous... especially when it challenges those in power.

This year's guest list at Victory Day parade on Red Square: President of Moldova, Duma deputies, veterans checking their phones

New this year in the Moscow Victory Day parade: Arctic variants of the Tor and Pantsir air defense systems
But the "Immortal Regiment" march was very nice though.
The streets in Moscow are packed with people.
In 2016, over 700,000 people took part in the "Immortal Regiment"
It is reported that Putin was carrying a portrait of his father who fought in the Nevsky Pyatachok (Neva Bridgehead) campaign, a critical part of the Siege of Leningrad.

How to Neutralize the Enemy Without a Single Shot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI4uS307ydk
Don't worry. It's a fake.
It's based on a parody spread to the Western mainstream
https://medium.com/dfrlab/russias-fake-electronic-bomb-4ce9dbbc57f8

A Russian fighter jet came within about 20 feet of a U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft over the Black Sea earlier this week, an American official said.
The Su-27 approached the P-8A Poseidon while it was "conducting routine operations in international airspace" on Tuesday, according to Capt. Pamela Kunze, a spokeswoman for U.S. Naval Forces Europe.
20 feet is extremely close and other encounters at much greater distances have been deemed unsafe and unprofessional by the U.S. military.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/another-close-call-russian-fighter-jet-comes-within-20-feet-n758091

A Russian fighter jet came within about 20 feet of a U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft over the Black Sea earlier this week, an American official said.
The Su-27 approached the P-8A Poseidon while it was "conducting routine operations in international airspace" on Tuesday, according to Capt. Pamela Kunze, a spokeswoman for U.S. Naval Forces Europe.
20 feet is extremely close and other encounters at much greater distances have been deemed unsafe and unprofessional by the U.S. military.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/another-close-call-russian-fighter-jet-comes-within-20-feet-n758091

Russia has always considered the Black Sea: Our Sea.

Especially now when Russia annexed Crimea, the biggest aircraft carrier in the world.

Russia's Victory Day Parade 2017 Without Military Aviation?
The Russian aviation was not participating in the military parade in Moscow this year due to weather conditions.
On May 9, it was cloudy and only 3°C.
From the rehearsal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64Y8SofmWR8

Russian President Vladimir Putin staged an impromptu grand piano performance as he was waiting for a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
https://youtu.be/I5Af_Ka0auw
The Russian leader played two songs, Moscow Windows and The City on the Free Neva River – the unofficial anthems of Moscow and St. Petersburg respectively.
https://sputniknews.com/art_living/201705141053602261-president-grand-piano-performance/

Russian President Vladimir Putin staged an impromptu grand piano performance as he was waiting for a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
https://youtu.be/I5Af_Ka0auw
The Russian leader played two songs, Moscow Windows and The City on the Free Neva River – the unofficial anthems of Moscow and St. Petersburg respectively.
https://sputniknews.com/art_living/201705141053602261-president-grand-piano-performance/

President Truman plays the piano. About the same skill level as Putin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRZu0RFkHkc
President Nixon plays the piano. Start at 1:10. Not the best. But... I'm impressed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCsGSMze_6Q
President Clinton playing the Saxophone. More impressed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sPfygLD1JA

As a kid I liked this when staying at my grandparents.
78 rpms played in what looks like a suitcase.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q9PPvUMYGIo/maxresdefault.jpg
No batteries included.
Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto 1 - B Flat Minor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWerj8FcprM

DON'T SLEEP
Russia’s ‘Killer Satellites’ Re-Awaken
The trio of mysterious spacecraft were idle for at least a year. Now they’re zooming toward foreign satellites again—and no one really knows why.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/05/19/russias-killer-satellites-re-awaken
Just saying.
Probably nothing to worry about.

CHOD Gen Terras inspected over 9 hrs 9000 size force participating #SpringStorm17 yesterday.
Amazing to hear commands in French, British, American, Estonian, Litvian and Lithuan in the Estonian woods.

Why are so many politicians in the US playing Russian Cards?
Who Illegally Accepted $35 Million From Russia?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es0IZyD9nSk

Russian journalist, Mikhail Zygar, revealed Mr Putin sits his ministers down and makes them watch all the seasons of House of Cards, and secretly wants to work with the show’s fictional president, Frank Underwood.

It seems that Vlad lives in an "alternate reality" as well.

Cheers.

Russian journalist, Mikhail Zygar, revealed Mr Putin sits his ministers down and makes them watch all the seasons of House of Cards, and secretly wants to work with the show’s fictional president, Frank Underwood.
It seems that Vlad lives in an "alternate reality" as well.
Cheers.

Putin's real nickname is Vova.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVs8RnVc31c
Tsar Vova Putin!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2jrZOfBT6o
And it's about of his 200 advisers that lives in an "alternative reality".
Well there are some that don't.
FM Lavrov for instance.

Russian journalist, Mikhail Zygar, revealed Mr Putin sits his ministers down and makes them watch all the seasons of House of Cards, and secretly wants to work with the show’s fictional president, Frank Underwood.
It seems that Vlad lives in an "alternate reality" as well.
Cheers.

Putin's real nickname is Vova.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVs8RnVc31c
Tsar Vova Putin!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2jrZOfBT6o
And it's about of his 200 advisers that lives in an "alternative reality".
Well there are some that don't.
FM Lavrov for instance.

But Vova are very different to Trump:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhZOi2y75SM

Sunday in Russia.

It is remarkable to think that back in Soviet times President Putin worked for an organisation - the KGB - which tried to suppress religion and which persecuted the religious. And yet, today, the Kremlin leader very openly embraces Russian Orthodoxy. He is said to have his own spiritual adviser, Father Tikhon.
What's more, under Vladimir Putin's rule, the Orthodox Church in Russia has grown in power and influence. That's partly because the loyal Church has helped to strengthen the Russian state and those in power. And, partly, because the Kremlin knows that people need something in which to believe. For a time, that was communism and socialism, but those ideas proved shortlived.

So Putin believes in Santa:)

Saint Nicholas the Wonder Worker was a Greek bishop in Asia Minor in the 4th Century. He was famous for his kindness to children and would later inspire the legend of Santa Claus.
For more than 900 years, his bones have lain in a crypt in the Italian city of Bari. But now, after an historic agreement between the Catholic Pope and the Orthodox Patriarch, one of St Nicholas' ribs is on loan to Russia.

Peaceful and not provokative?
Russia’s Strategic Missile Force operates 99% combat-ready launchers
http://tass.com/defense/948608

KUBINKA, May 31. /TASS/. Russia’s Strategic Missile Force has 96% of its launchers constantly ready for an immediate launch while 99% of launchers are in a combat-ready state, Defense Minister Army General Sergei Shoigu said on Wednesday.
"Today, the Strategic Missile Force is maintained at the level allowing for reliably solving nuclear containment tasks. A total of 99% of launchers are in a combat-ready state and 96% of them are constantly ready for an immediate launch," Shoigu said at a visiting session of the Defense Ministry’s board at the Patriot congress and exhibition center.

Russia's Zhirinovsky toasts Trump victory with champagne.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhI2Cd-ykOw
Champagne in Russia is also called vodka. LOL