CANADA MILITARY NEWS: SOCHI- Dec 10 -we are told 2 get with the fact- it's about global team spirit of global athletes who have worked 4 years 2 compete with world's best - NOT POLITICS OR INTERVENTIONS- Canada loves lost in beautiful translations... SOCHI, SOCHI, SOCHI- won't apologize 4 Ukraine love but will focus on Athletes- which had been doing mostly.... this is such an exciting time... especially 4 the old Canadians who may NOT get 2 watch another Winter Olympics/Paralympics- updates

 


Flag of Canada







Flag of Russia

• 

--------------------

CANADA MILITARY NEWS:  SOCHI- Dec 10 -we are told 2 get with the fact- it's about global  team spirit of global athletes who have worked 4 years 2 compete with world's best - NOT POLITICS OR INTERVENTIONS- Canada loves  lost in beautiful translations...  SOCHI, SOCHI, SOCHI- won't apologize 4 Ukraine love but will focus on Athletes- which had been doing mostly.... this is such an exciting time... especially 4 the old Canadians who may NOT get 2 watch another Winter Olympics/Paralympics.




Sochi athletes told to shun protest 


STEPHEN WILSON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND — The IOC is finalizing a letter to Olympic athletes reminding them to refrain from demonstrations or political gestures during the Winter Games in Sochi, including any protests against Russia’s law banning gay “propaganda."

The International Olympic Committee executive board is expected to approve the instruc­tions at its meeting in Lausanne today. The letter will then be sent to the national Olympic commit­tees that are sending athletes to the Sochi Games, which run from Feb. 7-23.

The memo will fo cus on Ru le 50 in the Olympic Charter, which states: “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas."

“We will give the background of the Rule 50, explaining the inter­pretation of the Rule 50 to make the athletes aware and to assure them that the athletes will be protected," IOC President Thomas Bach said in an interview with The Associated Press.

“I know from my own experi­ence, this is key," added Bach, a former Olympic fencer who won a team gold medal for West Ger­many in 1976. “As an athlete you do not want to be confronted in the Olympic Village or the Olympic Stadium with any kind of political controversies."

The IOC letter comes amid continuing Western criticism of Russia’s human rights record and the recently enacted law which bans promotion of “nontraditional sexual relations" to minors. The issue has raised questions over what would happen to athletes who wear a pin or patch or carry a rainbow flag to show their support for gay rights.

The charter says the IOC can take action against — even expel — athletes who violate Rule 50, but the committee has said the rule would be “interpreted and applied sensibly and proportion­ately."

“This is about the principles," Bach said. “The principle is to protect the Olympic athletes to be drawn into political controversies. Then, you always have to decide on a case-by-case basis."

Bach, who was elected IOC president three months ago, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi in October. He said Putin assured him there would be no discrimination against any athletes or spectators at the games.

“With regard to the law, he was as clear as he could be," Bach told the AP.

The IOC leader met a week ago in Paris with Russian gay rights activists.

“This meeting for us was to listen but also to explain where our resp onsibility is on the one hand and, on the other hand, where our influence ends," Bach said. “They understood the posi­tion now even better and they appreciated having this conversa­tion ."

----------------------------






---------------------




PREVIOUS BLOGS ON SOCHI WINTER OLYMPICS/PARALYMPICS- 2014 Feb :
CANADA MUST STEP AWAY FROM WINTER OLYMPICS/PARALYMPICS 2014- SOCHI RUSSIA-we must stand with everyday people of beloved Ukrainepeople-basic human rights identifies Canada
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2013/12/canada-must-step-away-from-winter.html

AND..

SOCHI WINTER OLYMPICS/PARALYMPICS - 2014- thrill, excitement 4 global atheletes globally- Russia's ancient history- from Canada with love-SOCHI JEUX OLYMPIQUES D'HIVER / Jeux Paralympiques - 2014-frisson, excitation 4 atheletes globaux(mondiaux) globalement(à l'échelle mondiale) - l'histoire antique de la Russie - du Canada avec amour
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2013/10/sochi-winter-olympicsparalympics-2014.html


AND..

CANADA MILITARY NEWS: UPDATED AUG 23- luv u gay bros and sistas-but DO NOT HIJACK winter olympics/paralympics- we'll NEV'A 4give ya/Nova Scotia News/AGAHANISTAN UP2DATE NEWS/BULLYCIDE N BULLYS GET LAW NOVA SCOTIA STYLE
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2013/08/canada-military-news-aug-89-luv-u-gay.html

AND..

STEPHEN FRY- is right- this is a civilized world- take away Sochi Winter Olympics- move them 2 Vancouver, Utah- where free actually means free- where colour blind, gender illiterate, and religious comfort lives prominently and with dignity- it's just not right- nor is FIFA's choices
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2013/08/stephen-fry-is-right-this-is-civilized.html


AND...


WINTER PARALYMPIC 2014 SOCHI MASCOTS

Ray of Light and Snowflake (“Luchik” and “Snezhinka”)

Sports[edit]

The sports scheduled to be competed in Sochi include:

• Alpine skiing
• Biathlon
• Cross-country skiing
• Ice sledge hockey
• Wheelchair curling

Calendar[edit]

OC

Opening ceremony

●

Event competitions

#

Event finals

CC

Closing ceremony

March		7th Fri	8th Sat	9th Sun	10th Mon	11th Tue	12th Wed	13th Thu	14th Fri	15th Sat	16th Sun	Events
Ceremonies			OC								CC
Alpine skiing			6	3	3	6		3	3	3	3	30
Biathlon			6			6			6			18
Cross-country skiing				2	4		6			2	6	20
Ice sledge hockey			●	●		●	●	●	●	1		1
Wheelchair curling			●	●	●	●	●	●	●	1		1
Total events			12	5	7	12	6	3	9	7	9	70
Cumulative total			12	17	24	36	42	45	54	61	70
March		7th Fri	8th Sat	9th Sun	10th Mon	11th Tue	12th Wed	13th Thu	14th Fri	15th Sat	16th Sun

--------------




Presentation of the Sochi 2014 Olympic mascots

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TExYCtowUhk
Выбор Талисмана СОЧИ-2014
Белый Медведь (Polar Bear),
Человечек и Снежинка (Man and Snowflake),
Дельфин (Dolphin),
Солнце (Sun),
Дед Мороз (Ded Moroz),
Бурый Медведь (Brown Bear),
Матрёшки (Matryoshki),
Снегирь (Bullfinch),
Леопард (Leopard),
Заяц (Hare).






AND..

beautiful...beautiful..beautiful.... OMG... COUNTRY MUSIC'S GONNA LOVE THESE GUYS...OMG

Sochi 2014 Theme Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKy5KrTg1Io

The theme song for the 2014 Winter Olympics which are being held in Sochi, Russia. The video features artist such as Dima Bilan and Julia Savicheva.


----------------------------------

Feb 7- 23- Winter Olympics Sochi Russia 2014
Mar  7-16 -Winter Paralympics Sochi Russia 2014

------------------------------


 Sochi Winter Olympics/Paralympics Sochi February 2014

Postage stamps commemorating the three mascots of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games issued by the Russian Post

 

Counterdown in Sochi

 

Electric multiple-units 'Lastochka' serves the Tuapse - Sochi route

 
Torch Relay in Moscow

Participating National Olympic Committees

Australia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Brazil Bulgaria Canada China Chinese Taipei Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Great Britain Hong Kong Hungary Israel Italy Japan Kazakhstan Latvia Lithuania Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Philippines Poland Portugal Romania Russia Serbia Slovakia Slovenia South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United States Uzbekistan Zimbabwe[61]

Sports[edit]

Fifteen winter sport disciplines, organized as seven olympic sports, were included in the 2014 Winter Olympics. The three skating sports disciplines were: figure skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. The six skiing sport disciplines were: alpine, cross-country skiing, freestyle, Nordic combined, ski jumping and snowboarding. The two bobsleigh sports disciplines are: bobsleigh and skeleton. The other four sports were: biathlon, curling, hockey, and luge. A total of twelve new events will be contested to make it the largest Winter Olympics to date.^[63]
Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events contested in each sports discipline

Alpine skiing (10) (details) Biathlon (11) (details) Bobsleigh (3) (details) Cross-country skiing (12) (details) Curling (2) (details)

Figure skating (5) (details) Freestyle skiing (10) (details) Ice hockey (2) (details) Luge (4) (details) Nordic combined (3) (details)

Short track speed skating (8) (details) Skeleton (2) (details) Ski jumping (4) (details) Snowboarding (10) (details) Speed skating (12) (details)

On 6 April 2011, the IOC accepted a number of events that were submitted by their respective sports federations to be considered for inclusion into the official program of these Olympic Games.^[64] The events include:

• Figure skating team event
• Women's ski jumping
• Mixed relay biathlon
• Ski half-pipe
• Team relay luge

Other events that were also considered to be included had their decision postponed for further study, however on 4 July 2011 the IOC announced that these events would be added to the program.^[65] These events were officially declared by Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge on 5 July 2011.^[63]

• Ski slopestyle
• Snowboard slopestyle
• Snowboard parallel special slalom

Team alpine skiing was presented as a candidate for inclusion in the Olympic program but the Executive board of the IOC rejected this proposal. The International Ski Federation persisted with the nomination and this was considered.^[66] There were reports of Bandy potentially being added to the sports program,^[67][68][69] but the IOC rejected this request.^{[citation needed]}
On 28 November 2006, the Executive Board of the IOC decided not to include the following sports in the review process of the program.^[70]

• Ski mountaineering^[71]
• Ski-orienteering^[72]
• Winter triathlon^[70]

Calendar[edit]

All dates are MSK (UTC+4)

OC

Opening ceremony

●

Event competitions

1

Event finals

EG

Exhibition gala

CC

Closing ceremony

February		6th Thu	7th Fri	8th Sat	9th Sun	10th Mon	11th Tue	12th Wed	13th Thu	14th Fri	15th Sat	16th Sun	17th Mon	18th Tue	19th Wed	20th Thu	21st Fri	22nd Sat	23rd Sun	Events
Ceremonies			OC																CC
Alpine skiing					1	1		1		1	1	1		1	1		1	1		10
Biathlon				1	1	1	1		1	1		1	1		1		1	1		11
Bobsleigh												●	1	●	1			●	1	3
Cross country skiing				1	1		2		1	1	1	1			2			1	1	12
Curling						●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	1	1			2
Figure skating		●		●	1		●	1	●	1		●	1		●	1		EG		5
Freestyle skiing		●		1		1	1		1	1			1	1		2	1			10
Ice Hockey				●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	1	●	●	1	2
Luge				●	1	●	1	1	1											4
Nordic combined								1						1		1				3
Short track speed skating						1			1		2			1			3			8
Skeleton									●	1	1									2
Ski jumping				●	1		1			●	1		1							4
Snowboarding		●		1	1		1	1				1	1		2			2		10
Speed skating				1	1	1	1	1	1		1	1		1	1		●	2		12
Total events				5	8	5	8	6	6	6	7	5	6	5	8	6	7	7	3	98
Cumulative total				5	13	18	26	32	38	44	51	56	62	67	75	81	88	95	98
February		6th Thu	7th Fri	8th Sat	9th Sun	10th Mon	11th Tue	12th Wed	13th Thu	14th Fri	15th Sat	16th Sun	17th Mon	18th Tue	19th Wed	20th Thu	21st Fri	22nd Sat	23rd Sun

The 2014 Olympic Winter Games will be the first time that the Russian Federation will have hosted the Winter Games; the Soviet Union hosted the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow. The host city Sochi has a population of 400,000 people and is situated in Krasnodar, which is the third largest region in Russia.
The Games will be organised in two clusters: a coastal cluster for ice events in Sochi, and a mountain cluster located in the Krasnaya Polyana Mountains. This will make it one of the most compact Games ever, with around 30 minutes travel time from the coastal to mountain cluster.

The Sochi Olympic Park will be built along the Black Sea coast in the Imeretinskaya Valley, where all the ice venues such as the Bolshoi Ice Palace, the Maly Ice Palace, the Olympic Oval, the Sochi Olympic Skating Centre, the Olympic Curling Centre, the Central Stadium, the Main Olympic Village and the International Broadcast Centre and Main Press Centre, will be built anew for the 2014 Games. The Park will ensure a very compact concept with an average distance of 6km between the Olympic Village and the other coastal venues.
The mountain cluster in Krasnaya Polyana will be home to all the skiing and sliding sports. The mountain concept is again a very compact one with only an average distance of 4km between the mountain sub-village and the venues. There will also be a sub-media centre in the mountain cluster.

• 

• 

It’s all in the details
The medals also contain a number of unique details. For example, the front of the medals features the Olympic rings, while the reverse contains the name of the competition in English and the logo of the Sochi Games, with the official name of the Games engraved in Russian, English and French on the rim. The Olympic medals will weigh between 460 and 531 grams depending on the metal used – gold, silver or bronze - and will be 10mm thick and 100mm in diameter. In total, about 1,300 medals will be manufactured for the Sochi 2014 Games.

-----------------------------------

This sketch shows the Olympic Park concept with all venues gathered around the Medals Plaza

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Sochi.

------------------

• 

• 

-------------


Sochi athletes told to shun protest 


STEPHEN WILSON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND — The IOC is finalizing a letter to Olympic athletes reminding them to refrain from demonstrations or political gestures during the Winter Games in Sochi, including any protests against Russia’s law banning gay “propaganda."

The International Olympic Committee executive board is expected to approve the instruc­tions at its meeting in Lausanne today. The letter will then be sent to the national Olympic commit­tees that are sending athletes to the Sochi Games, which run from Feb. 7-23.

The memo will fo cus on Ru le 50 in the Olympic Charter, which states: “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas."

“We will give the background of the Rule 50, explaining the inter­pretation of the Rule 50 to make the athletes aware and to assure them that the athletes will be protected," IOC President Thomas Bach said in an interview with The Associated Press.

“I know from my own experi­ence, this is key," added Bach, a former Olympic fencer who won a team gold medal for West Ger­many in 1976. “As an athlete you do not want to be confronted in the Olympic Village or the Olympic Stadium with any kind of political controversies."

The IOC letter comes amid continuing Western criticism o f Russia’s human rights record and the recently enacted law which bans promotion of “nontraditional sexual relations" to minors. The issue has raised questions over what would happen to athletes who wear a pin or patch or carry a rainbow flag to show their support for gay rights.

The charter says the IOC can take action against — even expel — athletes who violate Rule 50, but the committee has said the rule would be “interpreted and applied sensibly and proportion­ately."

“This is about the principles," Bach said. “The principle is to protect the Olympic athletes to be drawn into political controversies. Then, you always have to decide on a case-by-case basis."

Bach, who was elected IOC president three months ago, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi in October. He said Putin assured him there would be no discrimination against any athletes or spectators at the games.

“With regard to the law, he was as clear as he could be," Bach told the AP.

The IOC leader met a week ago in Paris with Russian gay rights activists.

“This meeting for us was to listen but also to explain where our resp onsibility is on the one hand and, on the other hand, where our influence ends," Bach said. “They understood the posi­tion now even better and they appreciated having this conversa­tion ."




--------------------
 


http://www.paralympic.org/sochi-2014

---------------

Sochi 2014 announces 25,000 volunteers for Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games 
Thursday, 05 December 2013


 
December 5 -  Sochi 2014 today announced it has recruited 25,000 volunteers who will work across the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games next year.

The Sochi 2014 Volunteer Team is comprised of 23,000 Russians, drawn from 26 volunteer centres based at educational institutions across the country, with another 2,000 coming from outside the country.

The United States will provide the largest contingent of foreign volunteers with 10 per cent, followed by nine per cent from neighbouring Ukraine, with Canada, the United Kingdom and Kazakhstan providing eight per cent.

The average age of the volunteers is 25 with 60 per cent male and 40 per cent female.

Around 928 of the volunteers are classed as being in the "silver-age group", say organisers, with an average age of 62, with 16 per cent of these being from foreign countries.

Sochi provides 24 per cent of the volunteers, mostly drawn from the Krosnador region that surrounds the city, while large numbers of volunteers have also been drawn from Moscow, St Petersburg and the Rostov region.

Officials revealed around 60 per cent of the volunteers will be located at the Coastal Cluster which is based in Sochi while 40 per cent will be based at the Mountain Cluster venues 50 kilometres away.

The campaign to recruit volunteers was launched in February 2012, exactly two years out from the Games and the deadline for applications was in March this year with organisers claiming that over 160,000 applications were received.




Volunteers for Sochi 2014 have been recruited from 26 centres based at educational institutions across Russia ©Sochi 2014















Most of the volunteers are due to begin arriving in Sochi from January 21 and they will make-up approximately 30 per cent of the entire staff who will be working during both the Games.

Organisers predict over 7,000 will be involved in events servicing, 2,400 in servicing of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, more than 1,000 will be responsible for looking after the National Olympic Committee (NOC) and National Paralympic Committee (NPC) delegations, while another 1,100 will cater for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

The rest of the volunteer team will be responsible for accreditation, arrivals and departures and language services.

"I would like to thank all the volunteers for their hard work, said Turin 2006 ice dancing gold medallist Tatiana Navka, a Sochi 2014 ambassador.

"Volunteers should be diligent, committed, and knowledgeable of the area, but most importantly, willing to make every guest, spectator, and athlete feel welcome.

"Of course, volunteers not only help run the Games, but also cheer up the athletes and spectators with their energetic attitude.

"I have repeatedly pointed out that volunteers of all ages are vital to [a] successful Games.

"I hope that in Sochi they will all work together as a friendly and professional team."

Contact the writer of this story at \n This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. "gary.anderson@insidethegames.biz

Contact the writer of this story at \n <!-- document.write('<span style=\'display: none;\'>'); //-->This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. <!-- document.write('</'); document.write('span>'); //-->"HYPERLINK "mailto:gary.anderson@insidethegames.biz"gary.anderson@insidethegames.biz


Related Stories
October 2013: Volunteer recruitment underway for Sochi 2014 Opening and Closing Ceremonies
February 2013: More than 160,000 sign up to volunteer for Sochi 2014 as deadline approaches
August 2012: Sochi 2014 volunteers learn from London 2012 experience
June 2012: Sochi 2014 starts interview process for volunteers
February 2012: Sochi 2014 launches recruitment scheme to find 25,000 Games time volunteers

  http://www.insidethegames.biz/olympics/winter-olympics/2014/1017313-sochi-2014-announces-25-000-volunteers-for-winter-olympic-and-paralympic-games

-------------------------

• 

Sochi 2014 64 days to go

http://www.sochi2014.com/en/

http://www.sochi2014.com/fr/
See you in Sochi 2014!

---------------




Discover Sochi Russia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMY7y1nLwJo

The International Olympic Committee has chosen Sochi to be the host city of the 2014 Winter Games; the first time Russia has hosted the Winter Games. With a population 329,481, Sochi is one of the smallest cities to ever host the Winter Games. Sochi is 930 miles south of Moscow in Krasnodarsky Krai, just north of the Russia's southern border. It stretches along the shore of the Black Sea against the backdrop of the snow-capped peaks of the Caucasus Mountains, where Mount Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe, stands 18,500 feet high. France's Mont Blanc is a mere 15,700 feet.

We invite you to submit your tourism, travel or destination site for publication, its free, at http://www.Travelindex.com - Publish and distribute your Travel News and Press Releases at http://www.TravelCommunication.Net

More travel and tourism information and travel videos at:
http://www.RussiaTravelGuide.net
http://www.Travelindex.com/ru
http://www.BestDestination.com
http://www.TourismFoundation.org
and more
-----------------------

Sochi 2014 Brand and Look of the Games

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gDFJh5ClEM




TV host, professor and Sochi 2014 Ambassador Yuri Vyazemskiy will tell us about Sochi 2014 Brand and Look of the Games




---------------

Guess we are back 2 'DO NOT SPOIL SOCHI GAMES 4 A COUPLE BILLION KIDS'


WINTER OLYMPICS 2014- don't spoil this world 4 our global 4yr hardworking athletes and the billions that watch.... seriously... AND WE LOVE OUR RUSSIAN BEAR-



Sochi 2014 - "Gateway To The Future"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXdJaZZPqgo

---------------------
THE BEST- CHECK OUT ALL BEING DONE 4 PARALYMPICS FOLKS.... OH GLORY....




Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, Russia - Venue Preview - Unravel Travel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S5R8hNUKtk


Sochi 2014 staged in Russia will be the most compact Winter Games in the history of the Olympic Movement. It will be possible to get from one venue to another in just a matter of minutes and all Olympic and Paralympic competition will take place in the same venues. It is for this reason that all athletic facilities for the Sochi 2014 Games are being built with the needs of disabled people in mind. Eleven athletic venues will be built for the Sochi 2014 Games, which will be divided into two clusters - mountain and coastal. The clusters will be located within 48km of each other, which is less than a 30 minute ride along a new railway.

Each cluster will contain an Olympic Village. The travel time from the Olympic Village to a competition venue in the coastal cluster will be no more than five minutes. Additionally, travel time from the Olympic Village to a competition venue in the mountain cluster is less than 15 minutes. The central focus of the coastal cluster will be the Olympic Park. It will connect up all competition venues, the parking zone and the infrastructure elements. For the first time in the history of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, all ice arenas will be within walking distance of one other. The Olympic Park will be able to accommodate about 70,000 visitors when full. The Mountain Cluster will include Biathlon and Ski Complexes, a Bobsleigh Track, a Ski Center, a Ski Jump Complex, as well as a Snowboard Park and Freestyle Center.

5,500 Olympic athletes, 1,350 Paralympic athletes, 25,000 volunteers, and 13,000 members of the press will come to the Games in Sochi. Sports venues in the Olympic Park will be visited daily by more than 75,000 people, and the Games' television audience will be approximately 3 billion viewers! In addition, residents of Russia's major cities will be able to watch a live television broadcast of the Olympic events at specially equipped Olympic sites called Live Sites. The Live Sites will be traditional celebration sites in city centers which will be equipped with big screens, sound, light, and a stage for people to watch the Games together, experience the atmosphere, and celebrate the victories of Russian athletes. It is expected that a total of up to 30 million people will visit the Live Sites, so almost every family in Russia will be able to be part of the Games in Sochi.

Sochi 2014 http://www.sochi2014.com/en

Live broadcast Unravel Travel TV http://www.unraveltraveltv.com
Unravel Travel TV Twitter http://www.twitter.com/UnravelTravelTV?
Unravel Travel TV on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/UnravelTravelTV
Unravel Travel TV http://www.unraveltravel.eu


BEST COMMENT:

No one is going to boycott the Olympics especially the USA, its not fair to the majority of the Olympians who have been training their whole lives for a chance to win a gold metal for their country. You can't hate a country just because they don't have they same morals or ideals? as you. Sorry if you don't like Russia's policy then don't be a flamboyant faggot! Win a gold for your country to embarrass them! Just like when Jesse Owens beat the nazi's during the 1936 summer Olympics!

---------------

CLASSIFIED-   OH CANADA- ya wanna talk cold... try this one...

Last weekend I had a cool opportunity to work with Dj IV covering the action on the set of the new Classified video for "Oh Canada". IV worked double duty that day - hosting the behind the scenes footage for Haligonia.ca, and as Classified's DJ, he had a starring role in the video as well.

 HERE'S CANADA'S CLASSIFIED- WITH THE YOUTH VERSION OF O CANADA...


http://compelling.typepad.com/.a/6a00e3982052098833012876d7e39a970c-750wi

Classified - "Oh... Canada" [Official Video]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjiwBwBL4Qo


Uploaded on Jan 22, 2010
Official video for "Oh Canada", from Classified's 2009 album 'Self Explanatory'. Directed by Cazhmere in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

--------------




 Mother Russia


 Russia facts:

Fast Facts
Population:
143,025,000
Capital:
Moscow; 10,672,000
Area:
17,075,400 square kilometers (6,592,850 square miles)
Language:
Russian
Religion:
Russian Orthodox, Muslim, other
Currency:
Russian ruble
Life Expectancy:
65
GDP per Capita:
U.S. $9,700
Literacy Percent:
100





History of Russia




W ith the dissolution of the Soviet Union there has been an enormous resurgence of interest in Russia's pre-Soviet past, as well as a great deal of debate and reconsideration of the Soviet era itself. This shift has not resulted in a simple vilification of everything Soviet or a naive embrace of all that preceded it, but it has spurred an unprecedented effort to regain the ancient Russian national heritage. Churches are being restored all across the country, great Russian writers and artists whose works were banned are once again being honored, and the individual character of ancient cities and communities is once again becoming established. Next year, the city of Moscow is celebrating its 850th Anniversary, a celebration that will mark the recovery, as well as the commemoration, of its glorious past.
For most western visitors, the bulk of Russia's history is nothing more than a compendium of hazy legends and sensationalist rumors--from scurrilous stories about Catherine the Great to tabloid television reports of the miraculous survival of the children of Nicholas II. However, the factual history of the country is no less compelling than its fabulous history, and even a brief introduction to the great and not-so-great figures of its past make a visit far more rewarding.
Ancient Russia | The Mongols & the Emergence of Moscow | The Romanovs |
Napoleon's Invasion | The Path to Revolution | The Soviet Era


http://www.geographia.com/russia/rushis01.htm






ANCIENT RUSSIA
The early history of Russia, like those of many countries, is one of migrating peoples and ancient kingdoms. In fact, early Russia was not exactly "Russia," but a collection of cities that gradually coalesced into an empire. I n the early part of the ninth century, as part of the same great movement that brough the Danes to England and the Norsemen to Western Europe, a Scandanavian people known as the Varangians crossed the Baltic Sea and landed in Eastern Europe. The leader of the Varangians was the semilegendary warrior Rurik, who led his people in 862 to the city of Novgorod on the Volkhov River. Whether Rurik took the city by force or was invited to rule there, he certainly invested the city. From Novgorod, Rurik's successor Oleg extended the power of the city southward. In 882, he gained control of Kiev, a Slavic city that had arisen along the Dnepr River around the 5th century. Oleg's attainment of rule over Kiev marked the first establishment of a unified, dynastic state in the region. Kiev became the center of a trade route between Scandinavia and Constantinople, and Kievan Rus', as the empire came to be known, flourished for the next three hundred years.

By 989, Oleg's great-grandson Vladimir I was ruler of a kingdom that extended to as far south as the Black Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, and the lower reaches of the Volga River. Having decided to establish a state religion, Vladimir carefully considered a number of available faiths and decided upon Greek Orthodoxy, thus allying himself with Constantinople and the West. It is said that Vladimir decided against Islam partly because of his belief that his people could not live under a religion that prohibits hard liquor. Vladimir was succeeded by Yaroslav the Wise, whose reign marked the apogee of Kievan Rus'. Yaroslav codified laws, made shrewd alliances with other states, encouraged the arts, and all the other sorts of things that wise kings do. Unfortunately, he decided in the end to act like Lear, dividing his kingdom among his children and bidding them to cooperate and flourish. Of course, they did nothing of the sort.

Within a few decades of Yaroslav's death (in 1054), Kievan Rus' was rife with internecine strife and had broken up into regional power centers. Internal divisions were made worse by the depradations of the invading Cumans (better known as the Kipchaks). It was during this time (in 1147 to be exact) that Yuri Dolgorukiy, one of the regional princes, held a feast at his hunting lodge atop a hill overlooking the confluence of the Moskva and Neglina Rivers. A chronicler recorded the party, thus providing us with the earliest mention of Moscow, the small settlement that would soon become the pre-eminent city in Russia.


The Mongols and the Emergence of Moscow


Kievan Rus' struggled on into the 13th century, but was decisively destroyed by the arrival of a new invader--the Mongols. In 1237 Batu Khan, a grandson of Jenghiz Khan, launched an invasion into Kievan Rus' from his capital on the lower Volga (at present-day Kazan). Over the next three years the Mongols (or Tatars) destroyed all of the major cities of Kievan Rus' with the exceptions of Novgorod and Pskov. The regional princes were not deposed, but they were forced to send regular tribute to the Tatar state, which became known as the Empire of the Golden Horde. Invasions of Russia were attempted during this period from the west as well, first by the Swedes (1240) and then by the Livonian Brothers of the Sword (1242), a regional branch of the fearsome Teutonic Knights. In the best news of the era for Russia, both were decisively defeated by the great warrior Alexander Nevsky, a prince of Novgorod who earned his surname from his victory over the Swedes on the Neva River.

For the next century or so, very little seems to have happened in Russia. In fact, given the tribute demanded by the Tatars, there wasn't much money available for building, campaigns, or anything else of that sort. With the Tatars off to the southwest, the northeastern cities gradually gained more influence--first Tver, and then, around the turn of the 14th century, Moscow. As a sign of the city's importance, the patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church was transferred to the city, making it the spiritual capital of Russia. By the latter part of the century, Moscow felt strong enough to challenge the Tatars directly, and in 1380 a Muscovite prince named Dmitri Donskoy had the audacity to attack them. His decisive victory at Kulikovo Field immediately made him a popular hero, though the Tatar retaliation two years later maintained their rule over the city. It wasn't until 1480, after another century had passed, that Moscow was strong enough to throw off Tatar rule for good. Its ruler at that time was Grand Duke Ivan III, better known as Ivan the Great. Ivan began by subjugating most of Moscow's rival cities, and by the time he tore up the charter binding it to Tatar tribute he was effectively in control of the entire country. However, it wasn't until the reign of his grandson, Ivan IV (the Terrible), that Russia became a unified state.

Ivan the Terrible succeeded his father Vasily III as Grand Duke of Moscow in 1533 at the age of three. His mother served as regent until she too died, when Ivan was eight. For the next eight years, the young Grand Duke endured a series of regents chosen from among the boyars (the nobility). Finally in 1547, he adopted the title of tsar and set about crushing the power of the boyars, reorganizing the military, and preparing to smite the Tatars. In 1552 he conquered and sacked Kazan, and in 1556 Astrakhan, having thus destroyed the lingering power of the Golden Horde. Ivan's Tatar campaigns opened vast new areas for Russian expansion, and it was during his reign that the conquest and colonization of Siberia began.

Believe it or not, Ivan was not supposed to have been very terrible at all during the early years of his reign. However, as he grew older his temper worsened, and by the 1560s he carried out a pretty horrific campaign against the boyars, confiscating their land and executing or exiling those who displeased him. In 1581, in a rage, he struck his son and heir Ivan with an iron rod, killing him.

When Ivan the Terrible died in 1584, he was succeeded by his son Fyodor, who was not exactly up to filling the shoes of an autocratic legend. Fyodor left most of the management of the kingdom to his brother-in-law, Boris Godunov, and it was not long before Godunov began to work to secure the succession for himself. In 1591, he murdered Fyodor's younger brother Dmitri in the ancient town of Uglich, a spot now marked by the magnificent Church of St. Demetrius on the Blood. When Fyodor died in 1598, Godunov was made tsar, but his rule was never accepted as entirely legitimate. Within a few years a pretender arose in Poland, claiming to be Dmitri, and in 1604 he invaded Russia. Godunov died suddenly the next year, and the "Time of Troubles" began. For the next eight years both the first and a second false Dmitri laid claims to the throne, both supported by invading Polish armies. Finally, in 1613, the Poles were ousted from Moscow, and the boyars unanimously elected Michael Romanov as Tsar. The Romanov dynasty was to rule Russia for the next 304 years, until the Russian Revolution brought an end to the Tsarist state.



The Romanovs


For the first few generations, the Romanovs were happy to maintain the statusquo in Russia. They continued to centralize power, but they did very little to bring Russia up to speed with the rapid changes in economic and political life that were taking place elsewhere in Europe. Peter the Great decided to change all of that.

Peter the Great
Peter was his father's youngest son and the child of his second wife, neither of which promised great things. Tsar Alexis also had three children by his first wife: Feodor, an invalid; Sophia; and Ivan, a semi-imbecile. When Alexis died in 1676 Feodor became Tsar, but his poor constitution brought an early death in 1682. The family of Peter's mother succeeded in having him chosen over Ivan to be Tsar, and the ten year-old boy was brought from his childhood home at the country estate of Kolomenskoe to the Kremlin. No sooner was he established, however, than the Ivan's family struck back. Gaining the support of the Kremlin Guard, they launched a coup d'etat, and Peter was forced to endure the horrible sight of his supporters and family members being thrown from the top of the grand Red Stair of the Faceted Palace onto the raised pikes of the Guard. The outcome of the coup was a joint Tsar-ship, with both Peter and Ivan placed under the regency of Ivan's elder and not exactly impartial sister Sophia. Peter had not enjoyed his stay in Moscow, a city he would dislike for the rest of his life.

With Sophia in control, Peter was sent back to Kolomenskoe. It was soon noticed that he possessed a penchant for war games, including especially military drill and siegecraft. He became acquainted with a small community of European soldiers, from whom he learned Western European tactics and strategy. Remarkably, neither Sophia nor the Kremlin Guard found this suggestive. In 1689, just as Peter was to come of age, Sophia attempted another coup--this time, however, she was defeated and confined to Novodevichiy Convent. Six years later Ivan died, leaving Peter in sole possession of the throne. Rather than taking up residence and rule in Moscow, his response was to embark on a Grand Tour of Europe. He spent about two years there, not only meeting monarchs and conducting diplomacy but also travelling incognito and even working as a ship's carpenter in Holland. He amassed a considerable body of knowledge on western European industrial techniques and state administration, and became determined to modernize the Russian state and to westernize its society.

In 1698, still on tour, Peter received news of yet another rebellion by the Kremlin Guard, instigated by Sophia despite her confinement to Novodevichiy. He returned without any sense of humor, decisively defeating the guard with his own European-drilled units, ordering a mass execution of the surviving rebels, and then hanging the bodies outside Sophia's convent window. She apparently went mad. The following day Peter began his program to recreate Russia in the image of Western Europe by personally clipping off the beards of his nobles.

Peter's return to Russia and assumption of personal rule hit the country like a hurricane. He banned traditional Muscovite dress for all men, introduced military conscription, established technical schools, replaced the church patriarchy with a holy synod answerable to himself, simplified the alphabet, tried to improve the manners of the court, changed the calendar, changed his title from Tsar to Emperor, and introduced a hundred other reforms, restrictions, and novelties (all of which convinced the conservative clergy that he was the antichrist). In 1703 he embarked on the most dramatic of his reforms--the decision to transfer the capital from Moscow to a new city to be built from scratch on the Gulf of Finland. Over the next nine years, at tremendous human and material cost, St. Petersburg was created.

Peter generated considerable opposition during his reign, not only from the conservative clergy but also from the nobility, who were understandably rather attached to the status quo. One of the most notable critics of his policies was his own son Alexis, who naturally enough became the focus of oppositional intrigue. In fact, Alexis seemed to desire no such position, and in 1716 he fled to Vienna after renouncing his right to the succession. Having never had much occasion to trust in others, Peter suspected that Alexis had in fact fled in order to rally foreign backing. After persuading him to return, Peter had his son arrested and tried for treason. In 1718 he was sentenced to death, but died before the execution from wounds sustained during torture.

Peter himself died in 1725, and he remains one of the most controversial figures in Russian history. Although he was deeply committed to making Russia a powerful new member of modern Europe, it is questionable whether his reforms resulted in significant improvements to the lives of his subjects. Certainly he modernized Russia's military and its administrative structure, but both of these reforms were financed at the expense of the peasantry, who were increasingly forced into serfdom. After Peter's death Russia went through a great number of rulers in a distressingly short time, none of whom had much of an opportunity to leave a lasting impression. Many of Peter's reforms failed to take root in Russia, and it was not until the reign of Catherine the Great that his desire to make Russia into a great European power was in fact achieved.

Catherine the Great
On December 25, 1761, Peter III, a grandson of Peter the Great, was crowned Tsar. Peter was thirty-four, dissolute, and imperceptive. He was not accompanied by his wife Catherine, a year younger but far more mature, not dissolute but also no puritan. The couple had been married for eighteen years. Both had been newcomers to the Russian court as teens, and for a few years after their marriage they had been on friendly terms. By 1762, however, their relationship had long since been in name only. Peter had grown into a fool, while Catherine had become a complete success, respected as much for her intellect as for her winning personality. Although the court atmosphere in which they lived was much more cosmopolitan than that inhabited by their royal predecessors, politics was as always a deadly serious pursuit--and everyone knew that Catherine was the more capable politician.

By the following summer the conflict between Peter and Catherine had become quite serious. In only six months of rule, he had managed to offend and outrage virtually the entire court by diplomatic bumblings and large segments of the population through his hostility to the church and his evident disdain for Russia. Support for Catherine was widespread, and Peter was suspicious. Early on the morning of June 28, Catherine left her estate at Peterhof, outside of St. Petersburg, and departed for the city. Everything had been prepared in advance, and when she arrived she was greeted with cheers by both the troops of her factional supporters and the populace. By the next morning, Peter was confronted with a fait accompli--and a prepared declaration of his abdication. A week later, he was dead.

Catherine went on to become the most powerful sovereign in Europe. She continued Peter the Great's reforms of the Russian state, further increasing central control over the provinces. Her skill as a diplomat, in an era that produced many extraordinary diplomats, was remarkable. Russia's influence in European affairs, as well as its territory in Eastern and Central Europe, were increased and expanded. Catherine was also an enthusiastic patron of the arts. She built and founded the Hermitage Museum, commissioned buildings all over Russia, founded academies, journals, and libraries, and corresponded with the French Encyclopedists, including Voltaire, Diderot, and d'Alembert. Although Catherine did in fact have many lovers, some of them trusted advisors and confidants, stories alleging her to have had an excessive sexual appetite are unfounded.

With the onset of the French Revolution, Catherine became strikingly conservative and increasingly hostile to criticism of her policies. From 1789 until her death, she reversed many of the liberal reforms of her early reign. One notable effect of this reversal was that, like Peter the Great, Catherine ultimately contributed to the increasingly distressing state of the peasantry in Russia.

When Catherine the Great died in 1796, she was succeeded by her son Paul I. Catherine never really liked Paul, and her feelings were reciprocated by her son. Paul's reign lasted only five years and was by all accounts a complete disaster. His most notable legacy is the remarkable and tragic Engineer's Castle in St. Petersburg. Paul was succeeded by his son Alexander I, who is remembered mostly for having been the ruler of Russia during Napoleon Bonaparte's epic Russian Campaign.




The Romanovs

For the first few generations, the Romanovs were happy to maintain the statusquo in Russia. They continued to centralize power, but they did very little to bring Russia up to speed with the rapid changes in economic and political life that were taking place elsewhere in Europe. Peter the Great decided to change all of that.

Peter the Great
Peter was his father's youngest son and the child of his second wife, neither of which promised great things. Tsar Alexis also had three children by his first wife: Feodor, an invalid; Sophia; and Ivan, a semi-imbecile. When Alexis died in 1676 Feodor became Tsar, but his poor constitution brought an early death in 1682. The family of Peter's mother succeeded in having him chosen over Ivan to be Tsar, and the ten year-old boy was brought from his childhood home at the country estate of Kolomenskoe to the Kremlin. No sooner was he established, however, than the Ivan's family struck back. Gaining the support of the Kremlin Guard, they launched a coup d'etat, and Peter was forced to endure the horrible sight of his supporters and family members being thrown from the top of the grand Red Stair of the Faceted Palace onto the raised pikes of the Guard. The outcome of the coup was a joint Tsar-ship, with both Peter and Ivan placed under the regency of Ivan's elder and not exactly impartial sister Sophia. Peter had not enjoyed his stay in Moscow, a city he would dislike for the rest of his life.

With Sophia in control, Peter was sent back to Kolomenskoe. It was soon noticed that he possessed a penchant for war games, including especially military drill and siegecraft. He became acquainted with a small community of European soldiers, from whom he learned Western European tactics and strategy. Remarkably, neither Sophia nor the Kremlin Guard found this suggestive. In 1689, just as Peter was to come of age, Sophia attempted another coup--this time, however, she was defeated and confined to Novodevichiy Convent. Six years later Ivan died, leaving Peter in sole possession of the throne. Rather than taking up residence and rule in Moscow, his response was to embark on a Grand Tour of Europe. He spent about two years there, not only meeting monarchs and conducting diplomacy but also travelling incognito and even working as a ship's carpenter in Holland. He amassed a considerable body of knowledge on western European industrial techniques and state administration, and became determined to modernize the Russian state and to westernize its society.

In 1698, still on tour, Peter received news of yet another rebellion by the Kremlin Guard, instigated by Sophia despite her confinement to Novodevichiy. He returned without any sense of humor, decisively defeating the guard with his own European-drilled units, ordering a mass execution of the surviving rebels, and then hanging the bodies outside Sophia's convent window. She apparently went mad. The following day Peter began his program to recreate Russia in the image of Western Europe by personally clipping off the beards of his nobles.

Peter's return to Russia and assumption of personal rule hit the country like a hurricane. He banned traditional Muscovite dress for all men, introduced military conscription, established technical schools, replaced the church patriarchy with a holy synod answerable to himself, simplified the alphabet, tried to improve the manners of the court, changed the calendar, changed his title from Tsar to Emperor, and introduced a hundred other reforms, restrictions, and novelties (all of which convinced the conservative clergy that he was the antichrist). In 1703 he embarked on the most dramatic of his reforms--the decision to transfer the capital from Moscow to a new city to be built from scratch on the Gulf of Finland. Over the next nine years, at tremendous human and material cost, St. Petersburg was created.

Peter generated considerable opposition during his reign, not only from the conservative clergy but also from the nobility, who were understandably rather attached to the status quo. One of the most notable critics of his policies was his own son Alexis, who naturally enough became the focus of oppositional intrigue. In fact, Alexis seemed to desire no such position, and in 1716 he fled to Vienna after renouncing his right to the succession. Having never had much occasion to trust in others, Peter suspected that Alexis had in fact fled in order to rally foreign backing. After persuading him to return, Peter had his son arrested and tried for treason. In 1718 he was sentenced to death, but died before the execution from wounds sustained during torture.

Peter himself died in 1725, and he remains one of the most controversial figures in Russian history. Although he was deeply committed to making Russia a powerful new member of modern Europe, it is questionable whether his reforms resulted in significant improvements to the lives of his subjects. Certainly he modernized Russia's military and its administrative structure, but both of these reforms were financed at the expense of the peasantry, who were increasingly forced into serfdom. After Peter's death Russia went through a great number of rulers in a distressingly short time, none of whom had much of an opportunity to leave a lasting impression. Many of Peter's reforms failed to take root in Russia, and it was not until the reign of Catherine the Great that his desire to make Russia into a great European power was in fact achieved.

Catherine the Great
On December 25, 1761, Peter III, a grandson of Peter the Great, was crowned Tsar. Peter was thirty-four, dissolute, and imperceptive. He was not accompanied by his wife Catherine, a year younger but far more mature, not dissolute but also no puritan. The couple had been married for eighteen years. Both had been newcomers to the Russian court as teens, and for a few years after their marriage they had been on friendly terms. By 1762, however, their relationship had long since been in name only. Peter had grown into a fool, while Catherine had become a complete success, respected as much for her intellect as for her winning personality. Although the court atmosphere in which they lived was much more cosmopolitan than that inhabited by their royal predecessors, politics was as always a deadly serious pursuit--and everyone knew that Catherine was the more capable politician.

By the following summer the conflict between Peter and Catherine had become quite serious. In only six months of rule, he had managed to offend and outrage virtually the entire court by diplomatic bumblings and large segments of the population through his hostility to the church and his evident disdain for Russia. Support for Catherine was widespread, and Peter was suspicious. Early on the morning of June 28, Catherine left her estate at Peterhof, outside of St. Petersburg, and departed for the city. Everything had been prepared in advance, and when she arrived she was greeted with cheers by both the troops of her factional supporters and the populace. By the next morning, Peter was confronted with a fait accompli--and a prepared declaration of his abdication. A week later, he was dead.

Catherine went on to become the most powerful sovereign in Europe. She continued Peter the Great's reforms of the Russian state, further increasing central control over the provinces. Her skill as a diplomat, in an era that produced many extraordinary diplomats, was remarkable. Russia's influence in European affairs, as well as its territory in Eastern and Central Europe, were increased and expanded. Catherine was also an enthusiastic patron of the arts. She built and founded the Hermitage Museum, commissioned buildings all over Russia, founded academies, journals, and libraries, and corresponded with the French Encyclopedists, including Voltaire, Diderot, and d'Alembert. Although Catherine did in fact have many lovers, some of them trusted advisors and confidants, stories alleging her to have had an excessive sexual appetite are unfounded.

With the onset of the French Revolution, Catherine became strikingly conservative and increasingly hostile to criticism of her policies. From 1789 until her death, she reversed many of the liberal reforms of her early reign. One notable effect of this reversal was that, like Peter the Great, Catherine ultimately contributed to the increasingly distressing state of the peasantry in Russia.

When Catherine the Great died in 1796, she was succeeded by her son Paul I. Catherine never really liked Paul, and her feelings were reciprocated by her son. Paul's reign lasted only five years and was by all accounts a complete disaster. His most notable legacy is the remarkable and tragic Engineer's Castle in St. Petersburg. Paul was succeeded by his son Alexander I, who is remembered mostly for having been the ruler of Russia during Napoleon Bonaparte's epic Russian Campaign.



Napoleon's Invasion of Russia

In June of 1812, Napoleon began his fatal Russian campaign, a landmark in the history of the destructive potential of warfare. Virtually all of continental Europe was under his control, and the invasion of Russia was an attempt to force Tsar Alexander I to submit once again to the terms of a treaty that Napoleon had imposed upon him four years earlier. Having gathered nearly half a million soldiers, from France as well as all of the vassal states of Europe, Napoleon entered Russia at the head of the largest army ever seen. The Russians, under Marshal Kutuzov, could not realistically hope to defeat him in a direct confrontation. Instead, they begin a defensive campaign of strategic retreat, devastating the land as they fell back and harassing the flanks of the French. As the summer wore on, Napoleon's massive supply lines were stretched ever thinner, and his force began to decline. By September, without having engaged in a single pitched battle, the French Army had been reduced by more than two thirds from fatigue, hunger, desertion, and raids by Russian forces.

Nonetheless, it was clear that unless the Russians engaged the French Army in a major battle, Moscow would be Napoleon's in a matter of weeks. The Tsar insisted upon an engagement, and on September 7, with winter closing in and the French army only 70 miles (110 km) from the city, the two armies met at Borodino Field. By the end of the day, 108,000 men had died--but neither side had gained a decisive victory. Kutuzov realized that any further defense of the city would be senseless, and he withdrew his forces, prompting the citizens of Moscow to began a massive and panicked exodus. When Napoleon's army arrived on September 14, they found a city depopulated and bereft of supplies, a meagre comfort in the face of the oncoming winter. To make matters much, much worse, fires broke out in the city that night, and by the next day the French were lacking shelter as well.

After waiting in vain for Alexander to offer to negotiate, Napoleon ordered his troops to begin the march home. Because the route south was blocked by Kutuzov's forces (and the French were in no shape for a battle) the retreat retraced the long, devastated route of the invasion. Having waited until mid-October to depart, the exhausted French army soon found itself in the midst of winter--in fact, in the midst of an unusually early and especially cold winter. Temperatures soon dropped well below freezing, cossacks attacked stragglers and isolated units, food was almost non-existent, and the march was five hundred miles. Ten thousand men survived. The campaign ensured Napoleon's downfall and Russia's status as a leading power in post-Napoleonic Europe. Yet even as Russia emerged more powerful than ever from the Napoleonic era, its internal tensions began to increase.




The Path to Revolution
Since the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the Russian Tsars had followed a fairly consistent policy of drawing more political power away from the nobility and into their own hands. This centralization of authority in the Russian state had usually been accomplished in one of two ways--either by simply taking power from the nobles and braving their opposition (Ivan the Terrible was very good at this), or by compensating the nobles for decreased power in government by giving them greater power over their land and its occupants. Serfdom, as this latter system was known, had increased steadily in Russia from the time of Ivan the Terrible, its inventor. By the time of Catherine the Great, the Russian Tsars enjoyed virtually autocratic rule over their nobles. However, they had in a sense purchased this power by granting those nobles virtually autocratic power over the serfs, who by this time had been reduced to a state closer to slavery than to peasantry.

By the nineteenth century, both of these relationships were under attack. In the Decembrist revolt in 1825, a group of young, reformist military officers attempted to force the adoption of a constitutional monarchy in Russia by preventing the accession of Nicholas I. They failed utterly, and Nicholas became the most reactionary leader in Europe. Nicholas' successor, Alexander II, seemed by contrast to be amenable to reform. In 1861, he abolished serfdom, though the emancipation didn't in fact bring on any significant change in the condition of the peasants. As the country became more industrialized, its political system experienced even greater strain. Attempts by the lower classes to gain more freedom provoked fears of anarchy, and the government remained extremely conservative. As Russia became more industrialized, larger, and far more complicated, the inadequacies of autocratic Tsarist rule became increasingly apparent. By the twentieth century conditions were ripe for a serious convulsion.

At the same time, Russia had expanded its territory and its power considerably over the nineteenth century. Its borders extended to Afghanistan and China, and it had acquired extensive territory on the Pacific coast. The foundation of the port cities of Vladivostok and Port Arthur there had opened up profitable avenues for commerce, and the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway (constructed from 1891-1905) linked the European Russia with its new eastern territories.

In 1894 Nicholas II acceded to the throne. He was not the most competent of political leaders, and his ministers were almost uniformly reactionaries. To make matters worse, the increasing Russian presence in the far east provoked the hostility of Japan. In January of 1905, the Japanese attacked, and Russia experienced a series of defeats that dissolved the tenuous support held by Nicholas' already unpopular government. Nicholas was forced to grant concessions to the reformers, including most notably a constitution and a parliament, or Duma. The power of the reform movement was founded on a new and powerful force entered Russian politics. The industrialization of the major western cities and the development of the Batu oil fields had brought together large concentrations of Russian workers, and they soon began to organize into local political councils, or soviets. It was in large part the power of the soviets, united under the Social Democratic party, that had forced Nicholas to accept reforms in 1905.

After the war with Japan was brought to a close, Nicholas attempted to reverse the new freedoms, and his government became more reactionary than ever. Popular discontent gained strength, and Nicholas countered it with increased repression, maintaining control but worsening relations with the population. In 1912, the Social Democrats split into two camps--the radical Bolsheviks and the comparatively moderate Menshiviks. In 1914, another disastrous war once again brought on a crisis. If the Russo-Japanese war had been costly and unpopular, it was at least remote. The First World War, however, took place right on Russia's western doorstep. Unprepared militarily or industrially, the country suffered demoralizing defeats, suffered severe food shortages, and soon suffered an economic collapse. By February of 1917, the workers and soldiers had had enough. Riots broke out in St. Petersburg, then called Petrograd, and the garrison there mutinied. Workers soviets were set up, and the Duma approved the establishment of a Provisional Government to attempt to restore order in the capital. It was soon clear that Nicholas possessed no support, and on March 2 he abdicated the throne in favor of his brother Michael. No fool, Michael renounced his claim the next day.

The Provisional Government set up by the Duma attempted to pursue a moderate policy, calling for a return to order and promising reform of worker's rights. However, it was unwilling to endorse the most pressing demand of the soviets--an immediate end to the war. For the next 9 months, the Provisional Government, first under Prince Lvov and then under Alexandr Kerensky, unsuccessfully attempted to establish its authority. In the meanwhile, the Bolsheviks gained increasing support from the ever more frustrated soviets. On October 25, led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, they stormed the Winter Palace and deposed the Kerensky government.

Although the Bolsheviks enjoyed substantial support in St. Petersburg and Moscow, they were by no means in control of the country as a whole. They succeeded in taking Russia out of the war (though on very unfavorable terms), but within months civil war broke out throughout Russia. For the next three years the country was devastated by civil strife, until by 1920 the Bolsheviks had finally emerged victorious.


The Soviet Era

The first few years of Soviet rule were marked by an extraordinary outburst of social and cultural change. Although the Bolsheviks had maintained complete control of the economy during the civil war, Lenin decided at its end that a partial return to a market economy would help the country recover from the destruction of the previous three years. His New Economic Policy, or NEP, brought about a period of relative prosperity, allowing the young Soviet government to consolidate its political position and rebuild the country's infrastructure. This was also the period during which the Russian Avant-Garde reached its height, developing the radical new styles of Constructivism, Futurism, and Suprematism. Although the country still faced enormous challenges, there was a widespread sense of optimism and opportunity.

Lenin's death in 1924 was followed by an extended and extremely divisive struggle for power in the Communist Party. By the latter part of the decade, Joseph Stalin had emerged as the victor, and he immediately set the country on a much different course. The NEP was scrapped, to be replaced by an economic plan dictated from the top. Agricultural lands were collectivized, creating large, state-run farms. Industrial development was pushed along at breakneck speed, and production was almost entirely diverted from consumer products to capital equipment. Art and literature were placed under much tighter control, and the radical energy of the Russian Avant-Garde was replaced by the solemn grandeur of Soviet realism. Religion was violently repressed, as churches were closed, destroyed, or converted to other uses. Stalin purged all opposition to himself within the party as well as all opposition to party policy in the country. By the end of the 1930s, the Soviet Union had become a country in which life was more strictly regulated than ever before. Experimentation had ended, and discipline was the rule of the day.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, the Soviet Union found itself unprepared for the conflict. Political purges had stripped the military of much of its experienced leadership, and industrial production was slow in converting from civil to military production. Although its non-aggression pact with Germany (1939) served for a while to forestall an attack by Hitler, the Soviets were caught by surprise by the invasion of June 1941. By the end of the year, the Germans had seized most of the Soviet territory in the west, surrounded St. Petersburg (having been renamed once again as Leningrad), and advanced to within a few hundred miles of Moscow. With tremendous effort, a Russian counter-offensive pushed back the advance on the capital, but in the summer of 1942 the Germans launched a new invasion against the southern front in an attempt to gain control of the rail center of Stalingrad on the Volga and the vital Caucasus oil fields. Despite an overwhelming disadvantage in numbers and inferior weaponry, the Russian army succeeded in holding out against the enormous German army. In November, a relieving force managed to encircle the attackers and compel the surrender of the entire force, marking a decisive turning point in the war. From that point onward, the Russian army remained on the attack. By 1944 they had driven the Germans back to Poland, and on May 2, 1945, Berlin fell.

As was the case with the Napoleonic Wars, the Soviet Union emerged from World War II considerably stronger than it had been before the war. Although the country suffered enormous devastation and lost more than twenty million lives, it had gained considerable territory and now ranked as one of the two great world powers along with the United States. Nonetheless, life in the country continued to suffer. Industrial production was once again concentrated on heavy industry, agricultural failures produced widespread famine, political freedoms were restricted even further, and another huge wave of purges was carried out. As the Cold War got underway, an increasing proportion of the Soviet Union's resources were funneled into military projects, further exacerbating the quality of life. Stalin remained in power until 1953, when he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Almost immediately after the death of Stalin, many of the repressive policies that he had instituted were dismantled. Under the leadership of Nikita Khruschev, political controls were to some degree relaxed, and cultural life experienced a brief period of revival. However, opposition to Khruschev gradually gained strength within the party, and in 1964 he was ousted. In a notable break with historical traditions, Khruschev was permitted to quietly retire. By the 1970s, Leonid Brezhnev, as general secretary of the Communist party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), had become the next prominent Soviet leader. His tenure was marked by a determined emphasis on domestic stability and an aggressive foreign policy. The country entered a decade-long period of stagnation, its rigid economy slowly deteriorating and its political climate becoming increasingly pessimistic. When Breshnev died in 1982 he was succeeded as general secretary first by Yuri Andropov, head of the KGB, and then by Konstantin Chernenko, neither of whom managed to survive long enough to effect significant changes. In March of 1985, when Mikhail Gorbachev became general secretary, the need for reforms was pressing.

Gorbachev's platform for a new Soviet Union was founded on two now-famous terms--glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). Like Khruschev, Gorbachev intended to revitalize the Soviet economy by loosening up a bit on social control, opening some room for new ideas, relaxing control of the economy, and generally allowing for a little fresh air. Restructuring began in earnest, with a vigorous housecleaning of the bureaucracy and a significant investigation into corruption. Glasnost, however, lost some credibility right at the outset when it was discovered in April 1986 that the government had waited several days before admitting to the infamous nuclear disaster at Chernobyl--a reactor explosion that had thrown radioactive material over a wide area of the country. Backed into a corner on Chernobyl, Gorbachev countered with the dramatic removal of all controls on reporting--and at that point the fresh air really began to howl.

For the first time in decades, the problems of the country became subjects for open public discussion. Poverty, corruption, the enormous mismanagement of the country's resources, the unpopularity of the Afghan war, and a host of other problems and grievances were raised. Radical reform leaders emerged, including the new Moscow Party chief Boris Yeltsin, and prominent dissidents like Andrei Sakharov were able to voice their views for the first time. For some peculiar reason, the government found that it was the target of most of the criticism, but it also found that it wasn't any longer in much a position to do anything but try to move with the flow of events. Early in 1989, Soviet troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan. In the spring of 1989, the first open elections since 1917 were held, allowing voters a novel choice of more than one candidate for seats in the Congress of People's Deputies. The governments of the Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe, subjected to the same rising tide of public criticism, fell one after the other in a rapid series of revolutions culminating in the fall of the Berlin wall.

In 1990, the Soviet Union itself began to unravel. Its own constituent republics began to issue declarations of independence. In the Russian Republic, Yeltsin was elected chairman of the Parliament, taking a lead in the independence movement. Large scale strikes shattered the Communist Party's traditional claim to be the representative of workers' rights. Demonstrations against the government and the party intensified. The economy worsened, food shortages became a problem, and the crime rate began to skyrocket. Gorbachev, caught between popular demands for more radical reform and party demands for the re-imposition of strict control, failed to satisfy either side.

The following summer, the radical reform movements became strong enough to openly defy the government. In the press, criticism of Gorbachev intensified. Yeltsin, on the other hand, was the overwhelming victor in June elections for the Russian presidency. On August 18, party conservatives made a desparate bid for power. A group led by Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov and Vice President Gennady Yanayev detained Gorbachev at his country retreat in the Crimea. After he refused to support the imposition of military law, the head of state was placed under house arrest. The next morning the coup leaders issued the announcement that Gorbachev had resigned and that a state of emergency had been declared. Military units were dispatched to enforce the authority of the new government, but they were met with overwhelming popular protest led by Yeltsin and the other presidents of the republics. After three days the attempted coup had collapsed. Gorbachev was reinstated, only to realize that his position had become completely obsolete. By the end of the year the Soviet Union had been voted out of existence, to be replaced by a Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). On December 25, Gorbachev resigned, and on midnight of December 31, the Soviet flag atop the Kremlin was replaced by the Russian tricolour.
http://www.geographia.com/russia/rushis07.htm
-------------------


Be4 and After the Sochi Winter Olympics/Paralympics

Boycott Putin, Not the Sochi Olympics


By Garry Kasparov
August 15th 20134:45 am
More Stories by Garry Kasparov
The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi are meant to be one of Putin’s crowning achievements, but with corruption and horrible discrimination and violence against gays on the rise, Garry Kasparov calls for a boycott by corporate sponsors and world leaders. But let the athletes still play and Putin be embarrassed by the publicity.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/15/boycott-putin-not-the-sochi-olympics.html

---------------------


Russia's Anti-Gay Law Tests Olympic Tenets 2013-08-17 
Voa News David Byrd The Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, are less than six month months away. But a controversy over a Russian law that bans propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations could cast a shadow over the competition and negatively impact the Olympic movement. The text of the Olympic charter is rather straightforward. Article 4 reads: ...

-------------------


UKRAINE- Opposition party targeted
December 9, 2013 - 4:56pm By Jim Heintz and Yuras Karmanau THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Riot police seize servers as protests continue

A young man stands on barricades defended by Pro-European Union activists next to the Ukrainian Government buildings in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday.
KYIV, Ukraine — Heavily armed riot troops broke into an opposition party office in central Kyiv on Monday and seized its servers, the party said, as Ukraine’s anti-government protests crippled the capital for yet another day.
Hundreds of police moved into Kyiv early in the day and some began to dismantle a few of the protest barriers and tents that had been blocking city offices.
Fatherland Party member Ostap Semerak told The Associated Press that troops broke into the party’s offices on Monday evening, some even climbing in through its windows.
“They are storming us. The images are insane,” he said, speaking by telephone.
The troops left after confiscating some computer equipment, he said.
Party member Marina Soroka also said the troops surrounded and blockaded several opposition-minded Ukrainian media outlets, making their and other media websites inaccessible.
President Viktor Yanukovych has faced three weeks of protests after shelving a treaty with the 28-nation European Union to focus on ties with Moscow. The protests were galvanized after police violently dispersed some of the demonstrators. On Sunday, a demonstration by hundreds of thousands in Kyiv was the largest since the 2004 pro-democracy Orange Revolution protests that annulled Yanukovych’s presidential victory.
In a surprise move, Yanukovych announced he would sit down with three former Ukrainian presidents on Tuesday to discuss a way out of the crisis that has paralyzed the country. The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, was also heading to Ukraine to help defuse the tensions.
Ukraine’s political standoff has been aggravated by its rapidly deteriorating finances. The economy has been in recession for more than a year, and the government is in desperate need of foreign funding to avoid a default. As talks stalled with the International Monetary Fund, Yanukovych has sought a bailout loan from Russia.
This former Soviet republic of 46 million people is sharply divided over the prospects of drawing closer to its powerful neighbour, Russia. Yanukovych’s stronghold is dominated by Russian speakers who want closer ties to Russia, in contrast to Kyiv’s students and residents in the west who see better EU ties as the way forward.
Opinion polls, however, show that the EU is more popular among Ukrainians than Russia.
Wearing helmets and holding shields, Ukrainian police surrounded three tent encampments outside the government and presidential offices in central Kyiv on Monday night. Riot police also began removing barricades on the approach to the government building. Most protesters remained standing.
World boxing champion and opposition leader Vitali Klitschko warned the authorities against any further escalation in tensions.
“We are calling upon law enforcement to restrain from using force against peaceful demonstrators,” he said.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/world/1172793-opposition-party-targeted


AND..


Putin dissolves state news agency, tightens grip on Russia media 
09/12 18:20 CET
President Vladimir Putin tightened his control over Russia’s media on Monday by dissolving the main state news agency and replacing it with an organisation that is to promote Moscow’s image abroad.
The move to abolish RIA Novosti and create a news agency to be known as Rossiya Segodnya is the second in two weeks strengthening Putin’s hold on the media as he tries to reassert his authority after protests against his rule.
Most Russian media outlets are already loyal to Putin, and opponents get little air time, but the shake-up underlined their importance to Putin keeping power and the Kremlin’s concern about the president’s ratings and image.
Independent political analyst Pavel Salin said the move was likely a result of a turf wars at the Kremlin and a victory for the hawks as it also sidelines the current RIA Novosti head, Svetlana Mironyuk, who is seen as more liberally-minded. “I expect a sharp ideological turn now towards much more hawkish reporting under the even closer eye of the Kremlin and directed at the West,” Salin said.
The head of the new agency, to be built from the ashes of RIA Novosti, is a conservative news anchor, Dmitry Kiselyov, who once caused outrage by saying the organs of homosexuals should not be used in transplants.
“The main focus of … Rossiya Segodnya (Russia Today) is to highlight abroad the state policy and public life of the Russian Federation,” said a decree signed by Putin.
Sergei Ivanov, the head of the presidential administration, told reporters that the changes were intended to save money and improve the state media. But the new organisation has strong similarities to APN, a Soviet-era news agency whose role included writing articles about “the social-economic and cultural life of the Soviet people and items reflecting Soviet society’s point of view on important internal and international events”.
RIA said in an English-language article about Putin’s step: “The move is the latest in a series of shifts in Russia’s news landscape which appear to point towards a tightening of state control in the already heavily regulated media sector.”
Rossiya Segodnya’s focus on building up Russia abroad could solidify Putin’s grip on information by further limiting sources of news for Russians whose TV screens are dominated by state-controlled channels. Putin’s decree appeared to have little effect on the two other major Russian news agencies, state-run Itar-Tass and private Interfax, but it could benefit both by making RIA’s replacement less of a competitor domestically.
Itar-Tass is the successor of the Soviet official Tass agency, while Interfax has more leeway as a private agency but is restricted by the Kremlin’s dominance.
Controversial new boss
A prominent member of parliament, Alexei Mitrofanov, described Kiselyov as a “powerful propagandist” but said this was a good thing and that he was suitable for the job.
In his third term, after weathering protests led by urban liberals, the 61-year-old Putin has often appealed to conservatives and championed the Russian Orthodox Church as a moral guide for society.
Kiselyov has proved a loyal Putin supporter as a television presenter, at times making provocative remarks. In 2010 he said homosexuals should be banned from donating blood or sperm and last year said they should also be banned from donating organs.
The Kremlin extended its grip over radio and television broadcasting on Nov. 26 when the media arm of state-controlled Gazprom bought mining tycoon Vladimir Potanin’s Profmedia.
Through the deal, the ex-Soviet gas ministry – now Russia’s largest firm by revenue – will add TV and radio stations, cinemas and film production and distribution assets to a sprawling portfolio built up around commercial channel NTV.
The Kremlin already funds an English-language TV channel called RT which was initially known as Russia Today. It is not clear whether the two will operate separately and RT’s head, Margarita Simonyan, said she had been unaware of the move.
The new organisation will be created in RIA Novosti’s headquarters in central Moscow. The fate of its journalists and other employees was not immediately clear.
RIA Novosti was created as the Soviet Information Bureau in 1941, after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, and issues reports in Russian and foreign languages.
http://www.euronews.com/2013/12/09/putin-dissolves-state-news-agency-tightens-grip-on-russia-media/

--------------------
IOC Latest News


IOC President holds minute of silence for Nelson Mandela 


10/12/2013
At the start of today’s joint International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board meeting with the Executive Council of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC), IOC President Thomas Bach today called for a minute of silence to coincide with the memorial service for Nelson Mandela in South Africa this morning.
“While we have assembled here, the world is gathering in Johannesburg to honour Mr Mandela,” said President Bach. “President Mandela was a hero of humanity and a great friend of the Olympic Movement.”
Yesterday, President Bach called on all 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to honour Mr Mandela by flying their flags at half-mast on the day of his funeral, Sunday 15 December.
During the meeting, the President encouraged the NOCs to actively participate in the ongoing dialogue regarding the future of the Olympic Movement, known as the Olympic Agenda 2020.
The IOC EB will begin its first meeting chaired by President Bach later this morning

http://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-president-holds-minute-of-silence-for-nelson-mandela/218346
------------------------  






Oh... I see... Russia thinks Europe's 'Girly'.... not free... girly... oh dear... more here than thought...this is a europe - russias fight.... am praying 4 Ukraine though and our brothers and sisters- freedom is the only cloak that fits 2 wear in 2days world- wonder if the United Nations will ever remember that's why they were even formed.... ooops.... SOCHI, SOCHI, SOCHI.... our kids of Canada and the world.... this is their glory... NOT ours...


Provoking the Euromaidan 
Anton Shekhovtsov 3 December 2013
Subjects:
Politics
Foreign
Conflict
Ukraine
Far-right agents provocateurs have been infiltrating the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine, and provoking the police and protesters to violence. Anton Shekhovtsov reports
The U-turn on the Association Agreement with the EU by the Ukrainian government has sparked the most massive social protests since the ‘Orange Revolution’ in 2004. Unlike the ‘Orange revolution,’ however, the new protests, named ‘the Euromaidan,’ are marked by the government’s disproportionate use of violence against the non-violent protests. The authorities have been making use of paid instigators who infiltrate the protests and then start attacking the police to provoke a ‘retaliatory’ suppression of the ‘violent protestors.’
December 1st
December 1st was another day of blood and violence. The Ukrainian opposition had planned a peaceful protest against the brutal beating of several hundreds of protestors, the day before, by 1,000-2,000 members of the ‘Berkut’ special police unit. However, the gathering of hundreds of thousands of people was overshadowed by the clashes on Bankova Street, leading to the building of the Presidential Administration, where the Berkut held the line against an extremely violent, 200- strong crowd.
They threw flares, smoke bombs, Molotov cocktails and stones at the police.
Media reports at first referred to this hardcore group – many of them masked – as ‘unknown activists;’ unknown because nobody knew if their actions were, in fact, sanctioned by the opposition. Since the opposition had specifically renounced any use of violence, the media soon started to refer to these men as ‘provocateurs.’ They threw flares, smoke bombs, Molotov cocktails and stones at the police, beat them with chains, fired tear gas, and brought up an excavator to break through the police cordon.

Contrary to pro-Maidan media reports, the hardcore of the crowd that attacked the police was not composed of paid hooligans but elements of Ukraine's far-right.
The police did not respond, stood their ground and used megaphones, urging the troublemakers to stop. Some other protesters, later joined by businessman and politician Petro Poroshenko, understanding the deliberately provocative nature of what was happening, tried to calm things down, which only resulted in fights between the protesters. Eventually, the violent crowd again started attacking the police. This time, the police were replaced by the Berkut troops, which dispersed the crowd and severely beat dozens of people including 40 Ukrainian and foreign journalists. Guilty or non-guilty, everybody who was in the wrong place in the wrong time was beaten up. The opposition’s leaders, Vitali Klitschko (UDAR) and Oleh Tyahnybok (far right Svoboda), themselves went to Bankova Street, to urge the troublemakers to join the peaceful protests on Maidan (Independence Square).
‘Titushki’
Who were those troublemakers? The pro-democratic media and the opposition were quick to denounce them as provocateurs, ‘titushki’ – a term that has entered the Ukrainian political dictionary, after the May 2013 disturbances in Kyiv, when a group of young sportsmen – among them Vadym Titushko – were hired by the authorities to attack the opposition and journalists.
The story on December 1st was more complicated. Video footage uploaded on YouTube later that day, revealed two white minivans owned by the State Security Administration, which had brought a few dozen unknown people in civilian clothes to the yard close by the police cordon on Bankova Street. These might have been titushki, but it is not clear whether they actually took part in the attacks on the police.
Almost all of them wore masks and yellow armbands with the wolf’s hook symbol; and were clearly battle-equipped.
What is clear is that the hardcore of the violent crowd was not the titushki, but right-wing extremists and far right football hooligans. Almost all of them wore masks and yellow armbands with the wolf’s hook symbol; and were clearly battle-equipped.

Titushki take their name from Vadym Titushko, a professional fighter hired as 'security' for a rally by the Party of the Regions.
The black wolf’s hook
The black wolf’s hook on yellow armbands revealed their political affiliation: the Social-National Assembly (SNA), a largely Kyiv-based neo-Nazi organisation, which hoped to register as a political party in 2011 but failed. Its leaders and ideologues are currently jailed on dubious charges.
There were also activists from other right-wing extremist organisations. The call to arms came via the social networking website VKontakte where they formed a group - ‘The Maidan Action Right-Wing Sector,’ and it was this particular group that attacked the police on Bankova Street. In addition to the SNA, the ‘Right-Wing Sector’ also includes ‘Tryzub’ (Trident) and ‘Bily Molot’ (White Hammer). Tryzub was originally formed in 1993 as a paramilitary unit of the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, but then became an independent organisation. In September 2009, Tryzub activists took part in attacks on gay people; and cut off the head of the Stalin monument in Zaporizhzhya in December 2010. Bily Molot is a relatively new group, which attracted some publicity by smashing a number of illegal casinos in Kyiv and the regions.
It appears that the troublemakers were not provocateurs, but rather an independent group of right-wing extremists.
The confrontation on Bankova Street was not the first action of the Right-Wing Sector. At the beginning of the Euromaidan protests, they attacked peaceful left-wing activists; and then were filmed training how to handle attacks. Before they attacked the police close to the Presidential Administration building, no one had called them ‘provocateurs,’ although their violent nature was evident from the very outset, and it was clear that they did not support Ukraine’s European integration.
There is no hard evidence to show that the Svoboda parliamentary party was involved in the attacks – Oleh Tyahnybok was one of the leaders of the opposition urging the violent crowd to stop – but the possibility cannot be ruled out that some individual members of Svoboda, especially from its neo-Nazi wing C14, took part in the confrontation with the police.

Masked and armed, the individuals who attacked the police nearly all had armbands with the neo-Nazi wolf's hook symbol, linking them to the far-right Social-National Assembly. Photo via Drugoi.
It appears that the troublemakers were not provocateurs, but rather an independent group of right-wing extremists who did not want to conform to the orders of the opposition, and decided to act on their own, driven by anti-establishment sentiments. But, among the Right-Wing Sector troublemakers, there was one person whose presence puts the whole event in a different, albeit still obscure, perspective.
Bratstvo (Brotherhood)
This person is Dmytro Korchyns’ky, the leader of the far-right Bratstvo (Brotherhood) party, and a former leader of the paramilitary party UNA-UNSO. In Ukraine, Korchyns’ky is widely considered an agent provocateur even among the extreme right, and his Bratstvo have already taken part in several actions that were meant to provoke a police suppression of peaceful protests.
Hromadske TV reported that Korchyns’ky was ‘giving instructions’ to the members of the ‘Right-Wing Sector’ on Bankova Street on the December 1st. Although the true nature of Korchyns’ky’s relationship with the SNA, Tryzub and Bily Molot is still unclear, and his influence on the Ukrainian extreme right is still very limited, he does have friends in high places.
Korchyns’ky is closely linked to Russia. He taught a course at the explicitly pro-Putin ‘Seliger’ summer camp in Russia, in 2005. This camp was organised with the help of the Russian Presidential Administration, and was meant to train pro-Putin youngsters to counter a potential ‘Orange Revolution’ in Russia. Earlier that year, Korchyns’ky took part in the conference ‘Europe: Results of the Year of Changes’ where he said, in particular, that Russian ‘social organisations, foundations and institutions should oppose various orange efforts in its own country, as well as on the whole post-Soviet space.’ It was at this conference that Korchyns’ky first met Vladislav Surkov, the chief ideologue of Putinism, who returned in September 2013 to the Russian Presidential Administration as an ‘Overseer of Russian-Ukrainian relations.’
The godfather
Korchyns’ky has also been on friendly terms with Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian businessman and stridently pro-Russian politician, who rabidly opposes the signing of the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine, and, instead, supports the Russia-led Customs Union. Medvedchuk’s has close personal relations with Vladimir Putin who is the godfather of Medvedchuk’s daughter.
However provoked, the Euromaidan is right to fear the godfather.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/anton-shekhovtsov/provoking-euromaidan?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+opendemocracy+(openDemocracy)


COMMENT:
what will a closer relationship with Europe mean for Ukraine
1.Worsening of the impending ukraine recession, great difficulties for the economy as russian investment is reduced and russia retaliate to protect it's market.
2. Easier visa controls for emigrants,(closer association with europe means european countries less comcerned about issuing visas to ukrainian citizens) which means another increase in the number of beautiful women who leave ukraine. Women are granted visas far more easily than men throughout europe.
3. There is not a single product that would compete in the european marketplace, ukraine would be flooded with more expensive european goods.
4. As a result of 1. and 3. above, the cost of living will increase.
5. The hryvnia will fall in value as your economists can no longer fix the rates from within, they will have to be accountable to the european banks. This will further deepen a ukrainian recession
6. Students will suddenly realise how worthless their education is because ukrainian universities will not be able to compete with the european standard of teaching.
7. A huge increase in rules and regulations, and laws that have to actually be obeyed. No bribing will be allowed. See how hard life can be when you cannot buy your way out of trouble.
8. An erosion of family life and relationships because this is what always happens when a country moves from a socialist/communist system to a fully democratic capitalist society.
9. you think you will like the european style of capitalism? look at france, italy and greece. See how Europe helped them!
Still want to join the EU association agreement and replace your president with a man who earnt his money from fighting!?
He will need some of these skills when the ukrainian people actually see what he caused ukraine to become under his leadership.
Be proud of your country, be patriotic. You do not need the European illuminati to destroy it for you.
что будет более тесные отношения с Европой означает для Украины
1.Worsening о надвигающейся Украины рецессии, большие трудности для экономики в России инвестиции уменьшается и россия мстить, чтобы защитить это рынок.
2. Легче управления визы для эмигрантов, (сближения с Европой означает европейские страны менее comcerned о выдаче виз украинским гражданам), что означает еще увеличение числа красивых женщин, которые выезжают из Украины. Женщины предоставляются визы гораздо легче, чем мужчин по всей Европе.
3. Существует не один продукт, который будет конкурировать в европейском рынке, Украина будет залита более дорогих европейских товаров.
4. В результате 1. и 3. выше, стоимость жизни будет увеличиваться.
5. Гривна будет падать в цене, как ваши экономисты больше не может исправить ставки изнутри, они должны будут отчитываться перед европейскими банками. Это будет способствовать дальнейшему углублению украинский рецессии
6. Студенты будут вдруг поймут, насколько ничтожна их образование происходит потому, что украинские университеты не смогут конкурировать с европейскими стандартами обучения.
7. Огромное увеличение норм и правил, а также законы, которые должны на самом деле быть повиновался. Нет подкуп не будет позволено. Посмотрите, как трудно может быть жизнь, когда вы не можете купить свой путь от неприятностей.
8. Эрозия семейной жизни и отношений, потому что это то, что всегда происходит, когда страна переходит от социалистической / коммунистической системы к полностью демократического капиталистического общества.
9. вы думаете, что будет, как Европейский стиль капитализма? посмотреть на Франции, Италии и Греции. Посмотрите, как Европа помогла им!
Все еще хотите, чтобы присоединиться соглашение об ассоциации с ЕС и заменить президента с человеком, который зарабатывал свои деньги от борьбы!?
Он понадобится некоторые из этих навыков, когда украинский народ на самом деле посмотреть, что он вызвал Украины стать под его руководством.
Гордитесь вашей стране, быть патриотами. Вам не нужно европейским иллюминатов уничтожить его для вас.



----------------------

Canadian speedskaters third seed for Olympics




December 8, 2013 - 11:32pm

BERLIN (CP) — Canada will be the third seed in women’s team pursuit at the upcoming Winter Olympics after a fifth-place finish on Sunday at a long-track speedskating World Cup event.
Winnipeg’s Brittany Schussler, Ottawa’s Ivanie Blondin and Regina’s Kali Christ posted a six-lap time of three minutes 2.81 seconds, missing out on a bronze medal by 0.77 seconds.
The Netherlands won the event in 2:58.19, ahead of Poland and South Korea.
Canada’s roster for the team pursuit at the Sochi Olympics in February will be decided after the speed-skating trials in Calgary in late December and early January.
Christine Nesbitt, from London, Ont., is usually the fourth skater for the Canadian women’s team pursuit. However, the 2010 Olympic 1,000-metre champion was not in Berlin this week.
The Canadian women were fifth at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and won silver in 2006 in Turin, Italy. Canada’s men secured a spot in the pursuit event on Saturday.
Individually, Heather Richardson led a 1-2 for the United States for her third win from four races in the women’s 1,000. Richardson finished in 1:14.51 to beat compatriot Brittany Bowe by 0.91 seconds, with Russia’s Olga Fatkulina 0.98 off the pace in third.
Calgary’s Kaylin Irvine recorded her first World Cup top 10 with a 1:16.07.
Regina’s Marsha Hudey was 16th in women’s B 1,000 metres.
In men’s competition, Olympic champion Mo Tae-bum of South Korea edged Japan’s Joji Kato by two thousandths of a second to win the 500-metre event for the first time this season.
William Dutton of Humboldt, Sask., placed 20th in the A 500 metres
------------------




Brad Jacobs grabs Olympic curling berth



December 8, 2013 - 8:32pm By SCOTT EDMONDS The Canadian Press  

Brad Jacobs, Ryan Fry, E.J. Harnden and Ryan Harnden celebrate after defeating John Morris 7-4 in the men's final at the 2013 Roar of the Rings Canadian Olympic Curling Trials in Winnipeg on Sunday. (JOHN WOODS / The Canadian Press)
WINNIPEG — It was fitting that Brad Jacobs sealed his right to represent Canada at the Olympics with one more big-weight double Sunday afternoon, and he never even considered a less risky shot.
“You’re throwing that double to win the game,” he said after beating John Morris 7-4.
He said his third, Ryan Fry, told him it was coming.
“Fry said it to me, ‘You’re going to have a double either way here and we’re playing it.’ So my mind was already wrapped around some big weight shot before I even threw it.”
Jacob joins Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones, who defeated Sherry Middaugh 8-4 Saturday night to win the women’s slot, the one prize that has eluded her in a championship-filled career.
Jacobs went into the game as the favourite, after earning his final spot by sweeping the round robin seven straight with a hard-hitting, muscular, fist-pumping brand of curling that delighted the crowd.
It’s also clean and near perfect when it counts.
“That’s our style,” he said.
With no hometown heroes left to root for Sunday at Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings (Jeff Stoughton and Mike McEwen were knocked out before the semifinals), the crowd switched it’s allegiance to the Jacobs rink.
It doesn’t hurt that Winnipeg-born Ryan Fry — the son of Manitoba curling legend and Brier winner Barry Fry — now plays third. E.J. Harnden is at second and brother Ryan Harnden at lead for the rink based out of Sault Ste Marie, Ont.
Just like Jones, Fry said it was especially sweet winning in his home town.
“It hasn’t even sunk in yet,” he said right after the win.
“It’s just an honour to be able to play in front of my home town and my friends and family and for us to be able to pull this out. We had a great week.”
Morris was also born in Winnipeg and is the son of curler and curling coach Earle Morris, although he grew up in Ontario and has spent most of his curling life there or Alberta.
From 2006 to early this year he was Kevin Martin’s third and part of the 2010 gold medal winning team in Vancouver. He came from behind to beat Martin in the semifinal to earn the right to play Jacobs.
Morris signed on to skip Jim Cotter’s B.C. rink this year with Cotter moving to third but throwing fourth, Tyrel Griffith at second and Rick Sawatzky at lead.
Morris said they had their chances.
“Especially after five, being tied up at five, if we could have blanked the sixth end I think it would have real tight coming home,” he said.
“We’re going to take a nice long break here over Christmas, regroup and refresh and come out the last half of the season real strong again.”
He said they couldn’t get Jacobs away from the hitting game that served him so well all week.
“The Jacobs team are real good hitters and you want to try to make them draw and we weren’t able to do that.”
Morris said both teams showed any doubters out there that they have what it takes to win, but losing still hurts.
“You can’t say we’re not going to have a great rep at the Olympics, it’s just a tough one to swallow right now because it’s real fresh,” he said.
Like the semi, Sunday’s final didn’t go his way at the start. But, also like the semi, Jacobs made enough mistakes that let him at least stay in the game, if not move ahead.
Jacobs took an early 2-0 lead in the first end when Morris second Griffith flashed. Over the last four years, Curling Zone reports Jacobs has a record of 31-4 when he scores a deuce in the first end.
Morris had to draw for a single in two facing a pair of Jacobs stones but Jacobs was in the same boat and had to draw for a single in three when he failed to get the roll off a hit on his first skip rock.
They blanked four but Morris was able to grab a deuce in five with the hammer, after Jacobs misjudged a hit and removed his own counter from the button, to tie at 3-3.
Jacobs was able to grab a deuce in six and go up 5-3 after Cotter, facing a possible three, went for a hit, short roll and freeze, but left Jacobs a makeable double.
They blanked seven and Cotter was forced to draw for a single in eight and surrender the hammer. Jacobs didn’t play safe in nine and facing two, made that final double that gave him two to go up 7-4. The 10th end was a formality.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/sports/1172672-brad-jacobs-grabs-olympic-curling-berth  

-----------------------

Olympic gold medal won by Jesse Owens sells for record $1.4M
December 8, 2013 - 4:20pm By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. — An Olympic gold medal won by Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Games has sold for a record $1.4 million in an online auction.
SCP Auctions said Pittsburgh Penguins co-owner Ron Burkle paid $1,466,574, the highest price for a piece of Olympic memorabilia. The online auction ended Sunday.
“We just hope that it’s purchased by an institution where the public could have access to it, a museum or something like that,” Owens’ daughter, Marlene Owens Rankin of Chicago, told The Associated Press before the sale.
The auction house said Burkle, who also owns William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize for literature, has plans for an educational tour of the historic pieces. He wasn’t available for comment Sunday.
The Los Angeles billionaire investor’s holdings include retail, food and entertainment companies.
Owens won gold in the 100- and 200-meters, 400 relay and long jump at the games attended by Adolph Hitler, who used the Olympics to showcase his ideas of Aryan supremacy.
According to the auction house based in Laguna Niguel, Calif., the medal is unidentifiable to a specific event. It said Owens gave the medal to his friend, dancer and movie star Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, as thanks for helping Owens find work in entertainment after he returned from Berlin.
The medal was sold by the estate of Robinson’s late widow, Elaine Plaines-Robinson. SCP Auctions Vice-President Dan Imler said the Owens family confirmed the medal is original; the whereabouts of the other three is unknown.
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the medal will be donated to the Jesse Owens Foundation. The Robinson family had declined to comment on the auction, but Imler said they also plan to use the proceeds to pay college tuition.
Last month, IOC President Thomas Bach told the AP that the Owens medal is “a part of world heritage.”
“(It has) an importance far beyond the sporting achievements of Jesse Owens, which is part of world history,” Bach said. “To put this up for an auction is for me a very difficult decision (to accept).”
The record price for the Owens medal surpassed that of a silver cup awarded to the winner of the first modern-day Olympic marathon in 1896 that sold for $865,000 in April 2012. It also topped the highest price paid for a U.S. Olympic item — the “Miracle on Ice” jersey worn by team captain Mike Eruzione in 1980 that sold for $657,250 last February.
“We are honoured to have handled what we consider to be among the most inspiring sports artifacts ever offered at auction,” Imler said. “The worldwide attention garnered by the auction of Jesse Owens’ 1936 gold medal and the extraordinary auction result proves that Owens’ triumphant legacy continues to endure.”
The auction, including more than 1,000 sports memorabilia items, brought in a total of nearly $4.5 million.
Other top lots included Jackie Robinson’s game-used bats from his historic 1949 National League Most Valuable Player season and the 1955 World Series, which sold for $183,500 and $128,617, respectively; and a Jackie Robinson single-signed baseball attracted a record bid of $104,765.
 Courtesy of SCP AuctionsSeen here is the Jesse Owens 1936 gold medal, one of his four Olympic golds, that will be auctioned on SCP Auctions' website on Dec. 7.


http://thechronicleherald.ca/sports/1172631-olympic-gold-medal-won-by-jesse-owens-sells-for-record-14m



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvYmL5KsvYA&feature=player_detailpage

Jesse Owens' gold medal won at the Berlin Olympics is sold for $1.46m

• Highest ever price for Olympic medal at auction
• Memorabilia will form part of an educational tour

Mr Bojangles Sammy Davis Jr 1989

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvYmL5KsvYA


   
-------------------------------------------


Jennifer Jones wins Olympic curling trials
December 8, 2013 - 6:46am JUDY OWEN and SCOTT EDMONDS The Canadian Press
 
Skip Jennifer Jones, Kaitlyn Lawes, Jill Officer and Dawn McEwen celebrate after putting on their Canada jerseys after defeating Sherry Middaugh in the women's final at the 2013 Roar of the Rings Canadian Olympic curling trials in Winnipeg on Saturday. (THE CANADIAN PRESS)
WINNIPEG — Jennifer Jones zipped up her red jacket with the word Canada on the front of it and couldn’t stop smiling.
The veteran Winnipeg skip finally earned the right to represent Canada at the Olympics in Sochi, Russia next year with an 8-4 victory over Sherry Middaugh in the Canadian Curling Trials final Saturday night.
“It’s pretty cool,” Jones said with a laugh when asked what it was like to wear the jacket.
“Love it. Yup, yup, can’t wait for more.”
The 39-year-old has curled for 28 years, winning four Canadian championships and gold at the 2008 worlds and bronze in 2010, but never came close to wearing the maple leaf at the biggest sporting event.
This was her third Trials event, and the first time she even made the playoffs.
“This is one of the best, if not the best, moments of our curling careers,” Jones told the partisan crowd of 8,565 at MTS Centre during the medal presentation.
Jones is supported by third Kaitlyn Lawes, long-time second Jill Officer, Dawn McEwen and alternate Kirsten Wall.
“We worked so hard for three years and it’s one game and it comes down to a couple of shots here and there and today we made them,” Jones later told reporters.
“It’s hard to believe. But my team played outstanding.”
Officer and Jones began curling together in 1992, with Officer taking a four-year break to go to school and move to Brandon.
“It’s pushing 20 years,” a teary-eyed Officer, who curled 99 per cent, said. “Absolutely, we’re totally like sisters. ”
“It’s just so amazing to share it with her and to share it with Kaitlyn and Dawn, too. We just have such great dynamics on this team. We just love playing with each other.”
McEwen joined the rink in 2008 and Lawes in 2010.
Middaugh, 47, who curls out of Coldwater, Ont., hasn’t finished higher than third at a Scotties Tournament of Hearts national championship, but did win one of five Canada Cup events.
Her rink includes third Jo-Ann Rizzo, second Lee Merklinger, lead Leigh Armstrong and alternate Lori Eddy.
Jones had defeated Middaugh 9-7 in this week’s Roar of the Rings round-robin play.
While Jones ended the round robin 6-1 and earned a bye into the final, Middaugh opened 1-3 and then finished 4-3, beating Winnipeg’s Chelsea Carey in a tie-breaker and then reigning Canadian champion Rachel Homan of Ottawa 10-4 in the semifinal.
“The final itself isn’t a highlight, obviously, but the week itself was, considering that we weren’t considered one of the favourites,” Middaugh said.
In the final clash of veterans, Jones scored two three-enders.
For her first triple points, Jones capitalized on a Middaugh mistake in the second end.
Middaugh was heavy on a draw and went through the house. Jones then used her last rock to make a double takeout.
“We put it in a good spot and Jennifer’s probably forced to take one and then it could be a totally different game,” Middaugh said of the end.
Middaugh made a hit and roll for two in the sixth, needing a measurement for the second point to close the gap 4-3.
But in the seventh end, with Middaugh’s last rock sitting on the button, Jones used the hammer for a hit for three to go up 7-4.
Jones curled 91 per cent, while Middaugh was 78 per cent.
The long-time curlers are also connected off the ice.
Jones is a lawyer for National Bank Financial and her partner, Brent Laing, is second for Glenn Howard’s rink. She and Laing are parents to a one-year-old daughter, Isabella.
Middaugh is a bookkeeper and married to Wayne Middaugh, the third for Howard’s rink.
Jones started to choke up when she talked about her mother, Carol, looking after Isabella all week as the little one was sick.
Laing said they’ll get the logistics figured out so he can support Jones in Russia.
“It’s super exciting,” Laing said. “Nobody deserves it more than these four girls. And nobody works harder than they do and nobody has prepared better than they have.
“I’ve been a part of it for the last two years and I can honestly say that I’ve never met a curling team that worked so hard at the game on and off the ice.
“Sometimes you get what you deserve and that’s always fun to see. And these girls got today what they deserved.”
Cheryl Bernard represented Canada at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, winning a silver after a loss to Sweden.
On the men’s side of the Trials, an Olympic dream moved a step closer to reality for John Morris, as he handed his former skip a ticket home. And Kevin Martin said he had no one to blame but himself.
Morris and Brad Jacobs will square off in the men’s final Sunday.
“Either my first or second one in six, that was the game-breaker,” said Martin. “We force them to one there, we’ve got all the momentum going into seven.”
Instead, Martin lost 7-5, letting Morris score a deuce in six and another in eight, then losing the hammer in nine when he failed to blank on an open hit.
It was a sweet win for Morris, who took over as skip this year on Jim Cotter’s B.C. rink with the Olympics in his sights. Cotter moved to third, although he still throws fourth rocks.
“It feels great, it’s been a real grind of a year . . . We seem to be playing our best curling right now and I’m just real proud of the guys,” he said.
He gave full marks to Cotter. Martin said he was surprised at the shots Cotter made.
As the strategist, Morris watched his former skip all week and put a rock in the one spot in nine where Martin had nosed one earlier in the round robin.
Martin, who was trying for his fourth trip to the Olympics, kept his composure but said this will be his last trials.
A frustrated Marc Kennedy, Martin’s second, couldn’t hide his feelings as he smashed his broom into shards in the hallway after he left the ice.
Lead Ben Hebert said Martin kept them in the hunt all week (they lost only once to Jacobs).
“Kevin was the best player here all week, standing on his head just to keep us in it, that’s the reason we were 6-1, and he didn’t play good today,” he said, adding that he isn’t giving up on a return trip to the Olympics, after winning gold with Martin in 2010.
“The game should have been over after five or six and we let them off the hook.”
Morris, who was also part of that 2010 gold-medal team, said they knew they weren’t favoured to win.
“We didn’t mind the underdog tag and we knew what we were capable of.”
As for the future of the team if they don’t beat Jacobs Sunday, Cotter said that remains up in the air.
“We’ve talked about the future and who knows,” he said. “We’re focusing on this moment here and now and what our game plan is going to be tomorrow. We’re just going to go out and try and play our best game.”
Their best game will be needed against Brier winner Jacobs, who swept the field in the round robin, handing Martin his only loss, to move directly to the final.
“We just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing,” said Jacobs, who practised Saturday.
“Everyone is throwing the rock great on this team . . . We just need to come out and perform like we’ve performed all week and let the chips fall where they may.”

http://thechronicleherald.ca/sports/1172578-jennifer-jones-wins-olympic-curling-trials

--------------


BLOG- CHRISTMAS COMEDY.... CANADA STYLE-  BLOG - CHRISTMAS- CANADA STYLE


CANADA MILITARY NEWS UPDATES- LOVE U...


BLOG- COMEDY AND VIDEOS... OF CHRISTAMS- HEY... WE' RE ... CANADIAN...

CANADA MILITARY NEWS: Let's have some Christmas cheer troops- Videos and jokes and honour 2da 4 South Pole - Walking With The Wounded Allied Challenge- South Pole-here they come December 2013

http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2013/12/canada-military-news-lets-have-some.html

---------------







Prince Harry with UK Flag

Our men and women - Walking With The Wounded (Facebook a hi please) have changed their competition 2 walking as one team instead of racing their arses off - and here'a a very sensible reason why.... please support our Walking With The Wounded Allied Challange-Canada, USA,UK,Australia- they are amazing and they are on 10th day of the journey from Antarctic 2 South Pole
VIDEO

Antarctica Sets -95C Record Low Temperature
Newly analysed Nasa satellite data reveals sub-zero conditions "like you'd see on Mars" have been recorded in East Antarctica.

The coldest ever recorded temperature on Earth has been reported by scientists in East Antarctica.
Newly analysed data showed the temperature plunged to -94.7C (-135.8F) in August 2010.
The review of Nasa satellite data also revealed it came close again in July this year, with -92.9C (-135.3F).
Both beat the previous record of -89.2C (-128.6F).
Ice scientist Ted Scambos at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre announced the record at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco on Monday.
"It's more like you'd see on Mars on a nice summer day in the Poles," he said.
The news comes as the US shivers in record temperatures as low as -41C
"I'm confident that these pockets are the coldest places on Earth."
However, Mr Scambos said the temperatures would not be in the Guinness Book of World Records because they were measured by satellite, not thermometers.
"Thank God, I don't know how exactly it feels," he said, of the record temperature.
He added that scientists routinely made naked dashes in the South Pole during temperatures of 73C below zero (-100F) as a stunt, so people can survive such extreme cold for about three minutes.
Mr Scambos said researchers needed to breathe through a snorkel that brings air into the coat through a sleeve and warms it up "so you don't inhale (the cold air) by accident".
Waleed Abdalati, an ice scientist at the University of Colorado and Nasa's former chief scientist, said the new record was likely to be an unusual random reading in a place that has not been measured much before.
He added that it may have been colder or hotter in the past, but that we would not know.
"It does speak to the range of conditions on this Earth, some of which we haven't been able to observe," he said.


----------------


Antarctica Sets -95C Record Low Temperature
Newly analysed Nasa satellite data reveals sub-zero conditions "like you'd see on Mars" have been recorded in East Antarctica.

Video: The data was collected by satellite from East Antarctica

http://news.sky.com/story/1180088/antarctica-sets-95c-record-low-temperature







-------------

World becoming more unstable, volatile: Canadian general


Lt.-Gen. Stuart Beare, Commander of Canadian Expeditionary Force Command, talks to Canadian soldiers at Camp Alamo, Kabul, Afghanistan.


Lt.-Gen. Stuart Beare, Commander of Canadian Expeditionary Force Command, talks to Canadian soldiers at Camp Alamo, Kabul, Afghanistan.

Photo: Supplied: Master-Cpl. Chris Ward/Canadian Forces/File


 Lee Berthiaume
Published: December 6, 2013, 4:22 pm


OTTAWA — The military’s senior general responsible for directing all Canadian Forces missions at home and abroad says the world is becoming increasingly unstable, unpredictable and violent.

In an exclusive interview Friday, only a few months before the last Canadian troops leave Afghanistan, Lt.-Gen. Stuart Beare said the number of men and women in uniform deployed on missions around the world is set to decline.

Canada has about 1,500 soldiers, sailors and air personnel deployed around the world, but that number is expected to fall to about 400 when the military mission in Afghanistan concludes at the end of March.

But Beare says Canadian Forces are deployed in as many parts of the world as before, or even more, including countries in Central America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, which will remain largely unchanged even after Afghanistan.

“The question is ‘Why?’” he said.

“In simple terms, because the environment within which we’re operating today and could be operating in the future is changing. And if you look at the trends in stability terms, they’re not in the positive. They’re in the negative.”

The Arab Spring in North Africa and the Middle East; religious conflicts in Mali and the Central African Republic, where French troops have just been deployed; the threat of transnational crime groups in Central America and the Caribbean: Beare cited all of these as examples.

“The level of volatility within that instability is on the rise,” he said. “And then the unpredictability that comes with that is on the rise.

“It’s not something people should be fretting about at home,” Beare added. “But if you’re in the defence and security business and you’ve got people committed to those regions, you need to be paying attention. And you need to be enhancing your understanding.”

He doesn’t say whether that raises the possibility of more missions like Afghanistan or Libya, as any military intervention is ultimately a political decision.

Nor does he directly address what billions of dollars in Defence Department budget cuts mean for the military’s ability to respond should it be called on to do so.

Rather, Beare highlights both the Canadian Forces’ evolution into an experienced military force during a decade of high-profile missions, as well as a focus on partnerships with both traditional and non-traditional allies to understand what is happening in the world.

“Not every problem requires a military solution,” he said. “And not every military intervention internationally requires Canadian forces or will demand Canadian forces. But understanding that is work.

“We’re well-postured and prepared for contingencies that could come tomorrow, including having relationships with mission partners before we need to be there.”

Beare commands the Canadian Joint Operations Command, which is responsible for directing all Canadian military missions both in Canada and abroad. CJOC, as it’s called, was established last year by combining three separate commands — one responsible for missions in Canada, another for operations overseas, and as well as the military’s support arm — under one roof.

Beare has previously said the move could save up to $18 million a year by reducing staff and infrastructure, though he said Friday the move has also increased efficiency by cutting red tape and bureaucracy.

lberthiaume(at)postmedia.com

Twitter:/leeberthiaume
http://o.canada.com/news/world-becoming-more-unstable-volatile-canadian-general/

-----------------
Canada is not doing enough to treat soldiers with PTSD
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Pat Stogran served in the military for more than 30 yrs and is an advocate for disabled soldiers regardless of physical or psychological injuries. He became Canada's veterans affairs ombudsman from 2007-2010 and is now being treated for PTSD. Pat Strogan blames the shock he felt over Ottawa's treatment of disabled soldiers. (CP Archive/Stephen Thorne)
For too many Canadian soldiers, the longest journey is not the flight home from Afghanistan but the tangled path back into a regular life. With 4 deaths - what appear to be suicides - in the Canadian Forces this week, we're asking other Canadians home from the Afghan war about their own PTSD and their efforts to get help.


Defence officials at CFB Valcartier in Quebec are investigating what appears to be the fourth suicide in the forces in a week. It's again thrown the spotlight on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder -- and the soldiers who can't find peace after leaving the battlefield.

Major-General Romeo Dallaire, 1994.
(CP/ Ryan Remiorz)
"You enter then a sort of catch 22 you can't sleep because you're troubled but if you don't sleep you are going to get more troubled. And that's what creates that spiral. When I was attempting suicide you go into this spiral of increasing hurt and inability to handle it. And unless something pulls you out of it, you just fall into wanting to get rid of the pain and trauma and you take yourself out."
Retired General Romeo Dallaire
Liberal senator and retired General Romeo Dallaire occasionally wrestles unsuccessfully with post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. On Tuesday morning, he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed his car. He says the memories of Rwanda still disturb his sleep; memories triggered by the upcoming twentieth anniversary of the genocide.
But also by what appear to be four suicides in the Canadian forces in the past week. These events have reignited criticism of the military's approach to mental illness and whether there is enough support for soldiers with PTSD.
Chris Dupee is a Canadian soldier and the founder of the non-profit organization, Military Minds, an organization that aims to raise awareness about PTSD in the Canadian military. He was in Toronto.
Gerry Cordin served with the Canadian Forces for 28 years, and now volunteers with Veterans UN-NATO Canada, which supports Canadian veterans. He was in Montreal.
Tim Garthside is a former soldier who was deployed to Afghanistan in 2006. He now works with the Veterans Transition Network, helping Canadian veterans adjust to civilian life. He was in Vancouver.
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2013/12/05/canada-is-not-doing-enough-to-treat-soldiers-with-ptsd/
---------------

Canada has improved the lives of Afghan children, general says
http://www.theprovince.com/news/Canada+improved+lives+millions+Afghan+children+general+says/9251899/story.html

-----------------

Asian Pacific Post
Canadian soldiers help in disaster relief
published by asingh on Sun, 12/08/2013 - 11:33



Canada’s Disaster Assistance Relief Team (DART) member Major Jay Manimtim, a Canadian Armed Forces personnel of Filipino descent and a Health Care Administrator from Canadian Forces Base (Edmonton), speaks with a policeman in Jamidan, Philippines. Manimtim is one of ten Canadian Armed Forces personnel of Filipino descent who are currently deployed in the Philippines to support local disaster response management committees, residents, and international aid partners such as Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and our own DART. They are more than translators but rather serve as cultural awareness advisors and they take part in the coordination of humanitarian assistance delivery. Many of them live in the communities we are active in and they are able to provide advice on humanitarian conditions and requirements that arise. DART is deployed in the Philippines as part of Canada’s contribution to humanitarian efforts to the Philippines in response to the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan.
Photo by Cpl Ariane Montambeault

http://www.asianpacificpost.com/article/5920-canadian-soldiers-help-disaster-relief.html
-------------

Not many people realize that a contingent of our service personnel have quietly finished serving their country at the very bottom of the South Pacific.
In true Canadian fashion they went about their business with a minimum of fuss but maximum professionalism.

Canadians help make world a safer place 

By Simon Kent ,Toronto Sun
http://www.torontosun.com/2013/12/06/canadians-help-make-world-a-safer-place



Canadian naval ships sail in a close arrowhead formation with United States ships in this 2002 file photo.


So the Canadian Navy sailor walked into the bar and ...
OK. We’ll finish the story in a minute.
Not many people realize that a contingent of our service personnel have quietly finished serving their country at the very bottom of the South Pacific.
In true Canadian fashion they went about their business with a minimum of fuss but maximum professionalism.
Ten explosives experts of the Canadian military joined Operation Render Safe 2013 in the distant Solomon Islands alongside more than 200 combined service personnel from Australia, New Zealand, the U.S. and the Solomon Island Constabulary.
We sent four clearance divers from the Royal Canadian Navy, two combat engineers from the Canadian Army, two specialists from the Royal Canadian Air Force along with a liaison officer and a staff officer who served as the task force commander.
Their job was to dispose of deadly Second World War munitions that remain across the scattered archipelago and continue to impact the lives of the local people, often with deadly consequences.
Did we have to be there? That’s arguable. Canadians did serve in Asia between 1941 and 1945.
They were mostly in Hong Kong but hardly near the major South-West Pacific area of operations.
Our forces just never made it as far as the Solomons, a theatre of the war that saw bloody jungle fighting and sea battles between the Japanese and (mostly) U.S. and Australian forces.
Still, it says something about Canada’s commitment to making the world a better place that our servicemen and women could be found diving for live Second World War weaponry in coral-fringed lagoons.
In 1993 Canadians were doing much the same thing in Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge.
During seven years of military technical support to mine removal in Cambodia, more than 60 Canadian Forces field engineers and logisticians served 12-month tours leading local mine-removal teams. It was tough, dirty, lonely and incredibly dangerous work.
I met the Canadian sailor mentioned in the opening sentence when I was a correspondent in Phnom Penh in 1993.
He had strolled into the downstairs bar of the Hotel Le Royal, a favourite of the foreign press stationed in the capital and used as the backdrop for much of the Hollywood film The Killing Fields.
The Canadian had spent the day on the Mekong River clearing mines and took his seat.
He ordered a drink and reached for his wallet in his jungle greens.
As he did a small, round plastic object fell to the floor.
“It’s an anti-personnel mine,” someone yelped before 50-60 people dived under their tables upending drinks, snacks, other people, a small pet monkey and dozens of wicker chairs to ready for the blast. Five seconds passed …
10 seconds ... nothing happened. The only upright person was the Canadian matelot still calmly sipping his beer.
“Yes, it’s an anti-personnel mine,” he drawled between sips. “A training anti-personnel mine.”
Talk about laugh. We didn’t.
The Canadian eventually made it back out to the street but not before he was stripped, marched to the rear of the hotel and made to dive for his clothes and effects after they were tossed into the green, fetid waters of the abandoned hotel swimming pool.
The small Czech-made anti-personnel mine went on the shelf behind the bartender.
For all I know it is still there to this day.


http://www.torontosun.com/2013/12/06/canadians-help-make-world-a-safer-place

-------------

UNITED NATIONS AND USA WHO REFUSES 2 SIGN SIGNATORY QUALIFYING WOMEN EQUAL MEN??? That UN complaining about Afghanistan???

UN decries "slow, uneven" use of law protecting Afghan women
Source: Reuters - Sun, 8 Dec 2013 09:39 AM Author: Reuters

http://www.trust.org/item/20131208092525-sgr0q/?source=dpagehead

--------------------


WALKING WITH THE WOUNDED- FROM ANTARCTIC 2 THE SOUTH POLE-  Teams keep walking as one.... Canada, Australia, USA, UK
The Virgin money Teams Keep Walking As One
After an enforced medical stop, the Virgin Money South Pole Allied Challenge got back underway as the three allied teams continued their trek to the South Pole with a renewed energy and purpose to their challenge.
With the three teams now all skiing and camping together, spirits are exceptionally high and everyone is determined to finish what they had set out to do.

Teams ski 16 km to the South Pole & their united goal
- The Virgin Money South Pole Allied Challenge hopes to reach the South Pole by the end of the week, says Expedition Director, Ed Parker.

- Team spirits are high as Team Glenfiddich, Team Noom Coach and Team Soldier On combine as one allied team to ski to the South Pole together
The teams all hope to arrive at the South Pole by the end of the week and hope that, with the race element of the challenge now behind them, they can focus on supporting each other as one team.
After the first day back on the ice, Expedition Manager, Victoria Nicholson commented on the boost in morale in the Virgin Money South Pole Allied Challenge camp:
"Things have changed dramatically since we took the decision to just suspend the race element of this expedition.
The morale in camp is totally different. People have the energy to look after themselves in the evenings, now that all the teams are camping together. It’s totally changed the atmosphere of the whole expedition. We have definitely made the right decision and we are delighted that we took the decision when we did.
The ramifications of continuing with the race element were quite serious. Safety has always been the core principle of the Walking With The Wounded expeditions and it remains that way. People were pushing themselves just too hard. It was always a healthy sense of competition between the teams. Once we got on to the ice and people started pushing themselves too hard, the pressure on the expedition and the medical teams and the individuals themselves was just getting too strong.
We’ve always said that our aim of this expedition was to get 12 wounded team members to the South Pole and we are determined to do that.”
- Victoria Nicholson, Expedition Manager
On Saturday, Ed Parker, one of the Co-Founders of Walking With The Wounded, took the difficult but necessary decision to suspend the race element of the challenge based on safety concerns.
Going forward, the combined allied teams hope to support to each other and raise the morale of the camp. The Antarctic has proved to be a very challenging environment for the team members, which has pushed them to their limits, as they each have to adapt to caring for themselves in such harsh conditions.
“Isolation is a huge part of what goes on out here because there are not a lot of people around, not a lot of things for people to see and not much to do, especially when we are skiing. We are skiing in a line, so you just can’t communicate with anyone else, so you do feel very isolated.
I am very lucky with my team. Whenever we have breaks, we talk to each other and seeing how everyone is doing and if someone is having a bad time - like I have been the first leg of this race – then they just make sure that I feel supported and that is really important to me.
It’s really easy to feel isolated out here. Some people may want that but you need to be in a healthier mind set than I found myself in when I first got here, due to all the physical exertion and the climate that I’ve never even thought about being in before, which is very hard on me emotionally, so I am lucky that my friends on my team are there for me to help me not feel isolated.”
-Therese Frentz, Team Noom Coach Member
The Virgin Money South Pole Allied Challenge has been a true test of human endurance and team spirit for all the team members. Walking With The Wounded undertake these inspirational expeditions to demonstrate the fortitude and bravery of wounded servicemen and women. Not only does the Virgin Money South Pole Allied Challenge show how extraordinary each team member is by taking part but it also hopes to inspire others who face injury, disability and daily challenges.
Check out Virgin Money's South Pole Allied Challenge hub and help them raise their £100,000 target to support Walking With The Wounded.
http://walkingwiththewounded.createsend1.com/t/ViewEmail/y/A812724A1E359CFB/35A25ECBC94E3C905281BC0AA5ABFD98

----------------
Get Your Boots On Boot Campaign Canada is dedicated to honoring our military and first-responders (EMS, Fire & Police) by supporting those who are injured and assisting families who have lost a loved-one in the line of duty. We do this by inviting all Canadians to get their boots on to show support and appreciation for these who defend our freedom, provide protection, and lend a hand when our homes and lives are threatened. When you put your boots on in support of these men and women, your purchase and direct donations help fund programs meeting their long-term needs through our assistance programs of scholarships, home renovations and wellness initiatives.Learn more - See more at: http://www.bootcampaign.ca/#sthash.EaYb98NJ.dpuf
Why We Do This Donate Buy Boots


http://www.bootcampaign.ca/

--------------------


Canadian Armed Forces emblem
Photo courtesy of: Canadian Armed Forces
Canada’s top soldier makes plea to brothers and sisters at arms
Ian Campbell Dec 5, 2013 12:26:18 PM
It’s a plea to the men and women within his ranks as General Tom Lawson tries to curb a disturbing trend within his ranks.
He’s posted a two minute video on the Canadian Forces website informing soldiers they all have a role to play when it comes to mental health.
The speech comes after four soldiers who served in Afghanistan took their own lives last week and a fifth attempted suicide.
“The loss of any soldier is painful and heartbreaking to our men, women and families,” he says, standing in front of a blue screen. “Although suicide is an international public health concern, for an organization like ours built on leadership, built on camaraderie and strength, it hits us especially hard.”
“We have an expert healthcare system to support us, but in order for us to help each other it’s essential that all military personnel, like all Canadians, recognize mental health issues as they develop,” says Lawson.
He says you should never underestimate the direct positive impact you can have on someone else.
“Just as you would expect to be helped by your colleagues on the battlefield if you were physically injured, your brothers and sisters at arms are with you in the fight against mental illness,” Canada’s top-soldier says.
Lawson says anyone with suicidal thoughts should call 9-1-1 or rely on the extra help available at bases and the member assistance program.
Critics however feel the Canadian Forces hasn’t done enough.
Mike Cole is a veteran from Trenton, Ontario. He says soldiers are telling him that when they call, they get put on hold, or are simply told to go to the hospital.

http://www.660news.com/2013/12/05/canadas-top-soldier-makes-plea-to-brothers-and-sisters-at-arms/
http://www.660news.com/2013/12/05/canadas-top-soldier-makes-plea-to-brothers-and-sisters-at-arms/
----------------------


Native Americans Christmas share
https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=10152023477495139&set=a.10150909805445139.437398.67895825138&type=1&theater
---------------
Support the Troops, but don't ignore the veterans- Homeless Vets
https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=10152048066505465&set=a.10150182911185465.340984.190386180464&type=1&theater
----------