Сегодня очень хороший день...Что еще скажешь, когда на улице пахнет свежестью и весной, по кромкам проезжей части бегут ручейки талой воды, а серые городские птички вдруг начинают петь...Даже сидя в офисе напротив зашторенного окна, невольно ощущаешь грядущее обновление.

Ну что же, самое время что-то начать. Новое и еще не пройденное.

A survey conducted by the All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion on Social and Economic Questions (VTsIOM) showed that one-third of respondents (33%) believe that Russia should provide South Ossetia with diplomatic support, while avoiding the use of force.

A little over one-quarter (27%) of those polled supported the use of military force against Georgia.

About 30% believe Russia should assist the rebel republic by entering the negotiating process, but at the same time allow Russian volunteers to participate in repulsing any "Georgian aggression" against the republic.

Only 3% of respondents said no assistance should be given to South Ossetia.

The parliament of self-proclaimed republic of Abkhazia has voted to ask Russia to recognise the province as an independent state. The same is likely to happen with South Ossetia's authorities. 
And Russia is unlikely to reject their "bids". 

What can an average Russian think about China? Most likely and unfortunately: huge, dirty and overcrowded Asian country located somewhere in the Far East.

The Chinese are believed to drive bicycles, wear strange similar clothes, eat dry rice and permanently suffer from earthquakes and other disasters.

I had a wonderful opportunity to feel real China during my latest trip to that country.

Below are some stereotypes as regards China and its people, local lifestyle, with my brief comments.

1. The Chinese are all very poor.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that central avenues of Beijing, its suburbs and streets of some neighboring towns are full of brand-new cars built in China under German, French, Japanese and Korean licenses. In contrast to Moscow, the majority of people whom I saw in the streets of the Chinese capital, seem to have a middle-class-size income, they do not look like paupers or “nouveau riche”-s. Of course the situation in rural areas is different, but the prices for household goods and food are low in China, and the locals can afford living comfortably – at least according to local standards.

2. China is a dirty and retrograde country.

The streets of Beijing and other cities are cleaned and washed daily, they are cleaner than in Moscow, London or New-York for example. And it’s not due to the Olympics only, it’s the manifestation of culture.

Beijing and regional centers (Shanghai, Guangzhou and others) have installed the most up-to-date transportation infrastructure – metro, highways, road junctions - and renovated major residential buildings, office towers. Now, Beijing must have more skyscrapers than Moscow.

3. The Chinese do not speak any foreign languages.

Yes, this problem still exists: it’s difficult for a foreigner to talk to local people, primarily because they often don’t understand any other languages expect for Chinese. But in cafes, restaurants, and throughout major cities there are signs in English. And the locals are always ready to help – at least you’ll not be left without assistance if you want to get some food or medicines.

So, if you are looking forward to experiencing China of old days, you should not go there, that’s my main impression. It’s much more modern and open to the world than I could have expected.

I did not know that Russia’s national football team can perform such an outstanding game until it beat Netherlands in quarter-finals.

I did not know that a Russian player can become a national hero only after a single game until Andrei Arshavin became on Saturday night.

I did not know that there is so much patriotism among the Russians until I saw thousands of happy people (not heavily drunken!) in the overcrowded streets waving flags and singing the national anthem after the Euro 2008 quarter-finals victory.

I’ve never been so proud.

One may say: what about Soviet Union’s glorious victories? Don’t you remember, do you?

Frankly speaking, I don’t. Most likely I was too young when the USSR broke apart, or because after it, within the next 17 years, the Russians used to perform poor football (and ice hockey, and everything – except tennis and gymnastics).  

The game against the Dutchmen on Saturday filled me with the hope taking my breath away – what if Spain surrenders...?

But it would be a difficult game…Spain knows they are up against a different Russia this time, not least because playmaker Andrei Arshavin is back in Guus Hiddink’s team.

Hiddink has slight worries, with midfielder Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, forward Ivan Sayenko and Alexander Anyukov all carrying minor injuries from the quarter-finals.

While they may be fit for Thursday’s semifinal match in Vienna, Hiddink will have to pick a team without central defender Denis Kolodin and attacking midfielder Dmitry Torbinski, who are both suspended after picking up their second yellow cards of the tournament against the Netherlands.

Let’s wait and see what will happen. As local fans cry out: Rossiya, vpered! Which means: Go, Russia, go!   

My family keeps memories of the WWII due to my grandfathers who both fought against the Nazi invasion starting from 1941 till 1945, and everything regarding the Great Patriotic War (as the period of the WWII in which the Soviet Union was involved, 1941-1945, is traditionally designated by the Russians) still touches my heart.

On the father’s side, in 1941 my grandfather was a captain of the torpedo boat of the Northern Navy based in Murmansk. During the first day of the German military operation against the Soviets in the Barents Sea, his tiny boat with only two machine guns and torpedo tubes onboard survived attacks of 21 military aircraft and destroyed seven of them. The warship managed to return to its base notwithstanding 48 shell holes.

My grandfather and his crew were awarded for courage.

After the war, as a result of the long and dangerous career he was appointed as rear admiral of the Northern Navy.

Another grandfather, on the mother’s side, was drafted immediately after his prom night at school on 22 June, 1941. He became a signalman in the infantry, took part in the dramatic Kursk campaign in 1943, suffered two injuries and finished the war after the liberation of Prague.

He became a well-known diplomat and in accordance with Stalin’s order was sent to China where he worked for over a dozen years.

The Soviet Union lost about 27 million people (official figure) in that war, and we cannot forget that terrible sacrifice. Not only the Russians, but all the people from former Soviet republics.

The generation of my parents was brought up with the help of pathetic movies, numerous books and songs about the Great Patriotic War, the same but to a lesser extent happened to my equals in age.

It was a perfect tool to keep the country consolidated while confronted with the enemies of the Cold War era, the U.S. and the West - I mean to make the public remember all the terrifying details and consequences of the WWII.

Heroism of the Soviet people in 1941-45 became a core part of the state ideology.

Today, when Russia has practically restored its influence in the world – firstly, thanks to sky-rocketing oil prices – the Great Patriotic War is being made by the government the icon for total worship.

In this respect, good news is that we are recollecting glorious moments of the history of our country, our people, our families in the end.

But bad news is that we cannot build a new modern and effective state using the outdated slogans and ideology.

We should move further and further – for the sake of the people living today in this country. We should invent new technologies, improve the life of the people, upgrade our industries for the sake of ourselves and not because of the non-existent aggression threat.  

The world is changing, and we should change along with it. Our heroic forefathers should be proud of us.

When I learned about the scheduled trip of Vladimir Putin to Libya, suddenly reminiscences of the sparkling childhood came to my mind: together with my parents, I lived in the diplomatic area of Tripoli, Libya’s capital, in the early 1980s. Totally I spent there three years full of unusual for a Soviet kid impressions.  

My farther was working in the embassy as an interpreter, and my mom was sort of an accountant there. In the morning they used to leave our apartment for heavily air conditioned offices located not far from the picturesque sea-front, and I, too sleepy in early hours (the terrific heat made us get up at 6.00 or even 5.00 a.m.!), was making my way to the yard, where we were playing soccer with youngsters from all the Socialist states represented in Libya. There were several Poles, Czechs, two or three Hungarians and a dozen of Soviets (or Russians as we have always been called).  

So, when I hear anything about Libya, I find my heart (and head) full of nearly forgotten but immediately recollected emotions and impressions.

The same happened to me when the Russian President’s office unveiled the news on the Putin's coming visit to Tripoli, during which he and a gigantic team of tycoons and bureaucrats were to discuss the $4.6 billion debt of Libya to Soviet Union. Soviet Union? Yes, Soviet Union, because when the UN sanctions were brought in power, Russia cut off all the ties to Muammar Qaddafi who remained alone with the Western states looking for ways to, firstly, slow down the expansion of the terrorist threat and, secondly, to get wider access to the oil-rich Libyan land.

Commentators have pointed out that unlike Arab sheikhs from the Persian Gulf countries who regard a magnificent palace as one of the marks of prestige, the Bedouin Qaddafi hates and rejects luxury. He is believed to live and work in a special tent installed inside an official residency. 
However, a few of them know about the mammoth complex of secure and comfortable buildings that can give rest to the leader of the Green Revolution whenever he likes.  

The trip’s results seem at first glance, as far as I know from the talks with the insiders in the government, not very successful for the Russian side: negotiations on the purchase of Russian-made armament would proceed, no immediate purchase was sealed. But one should pay more attention to several promising contracts signed by Libya with Russian companies.

One of them (and in my opinion crucial) is a railway contract to build a 500-kilometer railroad between Sirt and Benghazi estimated at 2.2 billion euros. According to Russia’s Finance Ministry the contract will finance 70% of Libya’s purchases of plant and equipment in Russia. And this is the greatest success of the domestic civil machine building industry, which unlike the defense sector, in despair has been looking for any foreign contracts since the late 1980s.

Another important thing is that the two countries, former allies, agreed to continue strengthening friendship and developing cooperation. This means: Russia is catching up with the U.S. and other Western countries in Northern Africa getting back its political, cultural and economic influence.

…Sometimes, when in the evening I’m sitting relaxed in the office chair having turned off my computer, I close my eyes and see the beautiful African sunset and myself standing amazed on the top of the building in Tripoli...
 

George W. Bush has accepted Vladimir Putin’s invitation to meet next week in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, right after the NATO summit in Bucharest.

The two parties would discuss a dispute between the United States and Russia over a proposed new U.S. missile defense system to be based in Central Europe.

Presumably, in Romania the U.S. and its allies will not give green light to Ukraine and Georgia which are looking forward to joining NATO ASAP.

Russia in exchange is expected to approve the creation of the U.S. missile shield close to Russian borders.

For Russia and personally Putin, as well as for the U.S. and Bush that will be a great deal. And, I think, if the dispute is ended, the Republicans and McCain can get a good competitive chance. At least, they can say: guys, we have talked the Russians into a compromise, you should not be afraid of Iran anymore.

And that will be for the sake of both Russia and the U.S...Notwithstanding of the position of the winner of the U.S. presidential race. If McCain beats Obama or Hillary, Russia will have to face a tough period of time...

The question that immediately rises: can Russian soldiers be sent to help the U.S.-led coalition overthrow the remaining Taliban militants? 

Disaster?...Back to the bloody war in Central Asia? And what about terrorists who seem a bit more under control in this country now than they used to, thanx God?

OK, it's surprising but the idea will find some supporters here: we are ready to grab the superpower status again, the government has bulky "stabilization" reserves...Also, under the U.S., Afganistan has increased the illegal opium trade with Russian drug mafia, and most Russians are blaming NATO for that. 

Russia's leading and the most successful aircraft manufacturer, Irkut Corp., says the MS-21 mid-range jetliner is to become one of the main airplanes in the fleet of the country's numerous airlines after it enters mass production. 

Being a part of the Federal Civil Aviation Program till 2015, the MS-21 is promoted as a possible competitor to the A320 (it's to become 15% to 20% more efficient than the Airbus plane, most popular in its niche). 

The MS-21 will be assembled from a lot of composite parts and will have new wings, advanced avionics; it will be powered by efficient engines, consuming 25% less fuel than comparable models and being 15% more environment-friendly than the A320. 

Irkut officials say the jet will be used by Russian carriers and international airlines underlining the fact that MS-21 along with Sukhoi's SuperJet-100 are the only aircraft, which are designed in this country, competitive in the global market. 

However, the MS-21 is a Soviet-era concept of the Myasischev design bureau, and in the 1990s it was fully abandoned. 
Also Irkut guys keep on saying that the MS-21 will be "purely Russian." This "feature" is likely to undermine the jet's future in international markets, as in Russia it is practically impossible to develop new-generation avionics for civil jets - no technologies and engineers, no experience...You should have an international team not only to develop the aircraft, but also to help market it, sell it to customers worldwide...

And the last: when Airbus and Boeing will stop manufacturing today's A320s and 737s, and airlines will start decommissioning aging modifications of those extra-reliable craft with a long history of serial production, the MS-21 would only start the race. 

And that means that we are late again...And nobody will need that MS-21, since newer and better foreign jets would be already available. 

Russian and CIS airlines now prefer ordering second-hand western aircraft: they are much cheaper in operation than any of Russian-built jets, even of "new types," like the Tu-204, for example... 

Russia Pumps Tens of Millions Into Burnishing Image Abroad

By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, March 6, 2008; A01

MOSCOW -- In early 2004, when Svetlana Mironyuk became director general of the Russian news and information agency RIA Novosti, she discovered that the descendant of the Soviet Union's global propaganda machine was dying on its feet.

Some of its writers were still using typewriters from communist days. The agency was publishing just one English-language newspaper, Sputnik, which was supposedly sold in Britain, although Mironyuk said she could find no evidence of that. Travel agents and dentists had moved into RIA's stolid Moscow headquarters building.

"It was a desperate situation," she said.

No more. The agency's newly refurbished offices include a high-tech newsroom, complete with flat screens and a circular news desk, where 300 journalists disseminate a multimedia package of news to an international audience every day.

RIA Novosti is part of a massive effort by Russia to build and project to the world an image of a country where the economy is booming and democracy is developing. The campaign is designed to counter what the government and many people here see as unrelenting and unfair Western criticism of declining political freedoms under President Vladimir Putin, who is preparing to hand over his post, but perhaps little of his power, after the election last Sunday of his handpicked successor, Dmitry Medvedev.

Flush with foreign reserves from oil and natural gas sales, the Kremlin is pumping tens of millions of dollars into various forms of public diplomacy. They include new media ventures to target international audiences; foundations to promote Russian language and culture around the world; conferences to charm Western opinion-makers; and nongovernmental organizations that are setting up shop in Western capitals to scrutinize the failings of Western democracy.

The Kremlin has hired the giant U.S. public relations firm Ketchum Inc. "to help the government tell its story of economic growth and opportunity for its citizens," said Randy DeCleene, an executive at the firm. He declined to further discuss the relationship, which began with the Group of Eight summit that Russia hosted in St. Petersburg in 2006.

The campaign is part of a resurgent self-confidence in Russian government and society and a conviction that the country is a global player with diplomatic, military and economic heft.

"It's all about influence," said Vyacheslav Nikonov, a longtime Kremlin adviser and the head of Russki Mir, a new grant-dispensing organization that gets $20 million a year from the Russian government to champion the Russian language. Russians are studying how U.S. nongovernmental organizations operate globally to project points of view, he said, but added: "We are far, far from what the Americans are doing. . . . We are students, freshmen."

The effort has its skeptics, who argue that no amount of image-buffing can reverse, or even temper, deep-rooted concerns about the centralization of power under Putin and the withering of political competition here.

"If you had the PR account to improve Russia's image in the West, then your first recommendation would be: not to arrest Garry Kasparov, and allow Mikhail Kasyanov to participate in the presidential vote," said Michael A. McFaul, a Russia scholar at Stanford University and the Hoover Institution and the principal adviser on Russia in the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

Kasparov, a former world chess champion, is a fierce opponent of Putin. Kasyanov, a former prime minister, was barred from running in the March 2 presidential election.

"That's just bad, bad PR, and I'd add bad politics . . . for which no Ketchum contract, television network or foundation money can compensate," McFaul said.

Russia Today, a news channel set up in April 2005, is broadcasting in English and Arabic and planning to expand into Spanish. At first glance it looks a lot like CNN, but it can be a breathless cheerleader for the Kremlin.

Nikonov, of the new grant-making group, called the channel "too amateurish" and spoke dismissively of many of the other efforts: "Sometimes people spend a lot of money on nonsense."

The editor in chief of Russia Today would not agree to an interview without the right to approve all of her quotes, the channel's press office said. The Washington Post declined to accept those terms.

But other programs are gaining in nuance and sophistication. The official government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta is using its healthy profits to fund monthly supplements in newspapers in India, Britain, Bulgaria and the United States. "Russia: Beyond the Headlines," as the publication is called, is a paid advertising supplement in The Post.

The publication covers many "soft" subjects, such as Christmas in Russia and Russian tennis stars. Eugene Abov, who oversees the project, said it might be expanded to Asia and other countries of Western Europe, including France and Germany.

Reviewing the first Rossiyskaya Gazeta supplement in The Post last August, Jack Shafer, the media critic for Slate, which is owned by The Post, wrote that "beneath the shattered syntax of these laughable pieces beats the bloody red heart of the tone-deaf Soviet propagandist."

But Sarah Mendelson, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said she actually found herself reading an article in the latest edition. She calls the overall push "remarkable," aimed at general audiences as well as elites.

Many of the Russian ventures aimed at foreigners showcase a diversity of voices often denied to Russia's own residents, notably by state television.

Russiaprofile.org, a news and analysis site funded by RIA Novosti, has been singled out by a number of Western commentators as a smart, engaging operation featuring a range of opinions, including some quite hostile to the Kremlin.

"I think you can learn a lot reading that," said Stephen Sestanovich, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and co-chair of an advisory group on Europe and Asia for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). "It is by far the best."

Andrei Zolotov, Russia Profile's editor in chief, said: "I think we are in a very lucky position. We are small, we are in English, so we are probably below the radar screen of some particularly zealous people" who might try to shut it down.

Each year, RIA Novosti hosts 30 to 40 Russia experts and prominent journalists, mostly from the United States and Western Europe, who are wined and dined in the company of Russian policymakers and political analysts.

Some figures from the Russian opposition, such as former independent member of parliament Vladimir Ryzhkov, are invited to the event, called the Valdai Discussion Club. Ryzhkov, who rarely gets access to state-controlled television, has compared his role in such gatherings to export-quality vodka -- fit for foreign consumption but not a domestic audience.

The club's gathering culminates each year with a marathon question-and-answer session with Putin. That has become the subject of debate among Russia experts in Washington, with some suggesting that a few participants become too smitten with their hosts.

"I have been invited to every Valdai meeting but did not come," Leon Aron, a Russia scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote in an e-mail. "As over the years there were fewer and fewer opportunities for Russians to learn the truth about their own state and government and to voice (and act on) dissent, being a privileged foreigner admitted to the court of the new tsar and surrounded by 'official Russians' . . . was more of an effort for me than I was willing to undertake."

"Official Russians" is a Soviet-era moniker for people allowed to talk to foreigners without fear of reprisal.

McFaul, however, said he was happy to engage with Russians on the issues and described the sessions with Putin as "really smart PR" because the Russian president is such an impressive interlocutor.

"It's an interesting window into how the ruling group is presenting itself to the world. And for those in the business of trying to understand the mind-set of Russia's leaders, it's a great opportunity," said Sestanovich, of the Council on Foreign Relations. But from a distance, the last meeting appeared like a gathering of the "president and his admiring international commentators," he said, adding, "That's unfortunate."

McFaul, who has been sharply critical of the Kremlin, said he is now banned from the gathering and believes his views are the reason.

Sestanovich was director of a Council on Foreign Relations report titled "Russia's Wrong Direction: What the United States Can and Should Do." He has heard he's off the list, too, but said that might be because he had turned down previous invitations because of prior engagements.

Darren Spinck

Global Strategic Communications Group

1101 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Suite 600

Washington, DC 20004

Email: darren@gscgrouppr.com

Mobile: 202-486-2008

Fax: 202-318-2477

Dmitry Medvedev won over 70 percent of the vote in Sunday’s presidential election according to the figures unveiled by the Central Elections Commission paving the way for the liberal successor of Vladimir Putin – in this way practically all Russian media covered today’s news on the counting process.

What comes next?

1. Massive reshuffles in the Cabinet of Ministers, as Mr. Medvedev is likely to bring his team to the President’s Office from the government, and Mr. Putin is likely to take his team to the government from the President’s Office.
2. Two or three months of silent expectations: all the bureaucrats will be waiting for their position either to be kept for the next several years, or to be axed.
3. The West will most likely continue pressing Russian authorities for “the absence of civic freedoms” and return “to the totalitarian state.”

International newswires rushed to report that U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in India to promote aging aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk as part of the deal to deliver 65 Boeing Super Hornet fighters to the Indian Air Force.

Sounds really strange, and U.S. and Indian officials have denied any negotiations on the issue and expressed doubts that the rumored proposal may have any sense.

Just think about it yourself.

- Is India so much interested in U.S. armaments that it will take delivery of the very expensive in maintenance aircraft carrier? The answer is “no” for geopolitical and business reasons. 
- Is the U.S. so much interested in the Indian defense market? The answer is either “no” for political reasons.

Of course, New Delhi has its own reasons for terminating the contract with Russia, which is lagging behind the agreed schedule and has set back the completion date from 2008 to 2012. Russia’s contractor, Sevmash, also demands additional $1 billion from the Indians to accomplish the project...

But India has far more reasons to be still waiting for delivery of Russia’s Admiral Gorshkov with several dozen MiG-29K/KUB naval fighters than to receive USS Kitty Hawk and Super Hornets:

-         it has developed its own navy strategy based on three aircraft carriers of smaller size compared to Kitty Hawk

-         the Russians are ready to share military half-secret technologies (and the Americans are not)

-         Russian MiGs will be in the end cheaper taking into account post-sale service
- the Indian Navy does not need heavy Super Hornets, otherwise they would have been negotiating terms of supplies of similar but Russian-made Sukhoi jets

The Indian government is likely to allocate eventually another $1 billion for the Admiral Gorshkov project saying: “damned Russians…”

P.S.

Russian MiG-29s are among the best jetfighters in the world despite the fact that the basic platform has not changed since the 1980s – except for the introduction of thrust-vectoring engine nozzles which has happened recently.

MiG-29K/MiG-29KUB

Both the MiG-29K (single seat) and MiG-29KUB (double seat) aircraft are the "4++" generation multi-role fighters intended for air-defense missions of naval forces, air superiority gaining, sea & ground targets destruction with the high precision guided weapons day and night and in any weather conditions.

Some info about MiG (http://www.migavia.ru/eng/military_e/index_mil_e.html): 
The MiG-29K/KUB carrier-based fighters are the basic aircraft of a new unified family including also the MiG-29M/M2 and MiG-35/MiG-35D aircraft.

The MiG-29K/KUB aircraft are based on the aircraft-carriers with tonnage from 28,000 tons, equipped with take-off ramp and landing arrestor, as well as at the airfields.

Main technical and technological innovations, applied on the MiG-29K/KUB fighters are the following:
– improved airframe with about 15% composite materials application;
– folding wing with upgraded high-lift devices improving take-off/landing performance;
– fly-by-wire control system with quadruple redundancy;
– significantly reduced signature in radar range;
– increased weapons load, stored at eight external hard points;
– increased internal fuel capacity and in-flight refueling possibility;
– possibility of other aircraft refueling being equipped with "PAZ-1MK" refueling unit.

The MiG-29K/KUB fighters as well as other aircraft of the unified family, have improved operational characteristics and higher reliability of assemblies, systems and units. In comparison with the previous fighters, the MiG-29K/KUB flight hours are increased more than twice, but a flight hour cost is reduced about 2.5 times. The MiG-29K/KUB fighters operate without overhaul.

Not so many people know that Sukhoi SuperJet-100 is the first internationally -designed Russian airplane. It is also the first aircraft in Russia being developed without any paperwork: engineers are using powerful computers. 

I have some friends working with the Sukhoi team, and I can imagine how often they could have asked themselves: am I crazy? Russia cannot design any new jetliners now: highly-qualified designers have left the country, the graduates from aerospace institutes go to work for trade firms, the state is not able to launch an effective revamp of the huge industry...But they've kept on working and working... now they can enjoy the first result of the hard job. 

For a long time, the Russian government has been trying to revive the cash-strapped domestic aircraft industry through various amalgamations and by making local carriers buy Soviet-designed and Russian-built models instead of letting them do whatever they want. That's why Aeroflot, once the  biggest airline in the world, engaged itself in half-legal deals in the late 1990s having imported 27 brand-new Boeing jetliners. That's also why domestic factories and plants fully confident of few orders for old and economically non-efficient aircraft kept on lazily working. 

The result is the following: airlines are buying foreign aircraft despite any taxes and tariffs, the aircraft industry is not competitive in the global market (primarily in the long-range and wide-body segments), practically no new models exist. 

Sukhoi is the only plane maker in Russia that has proposed an absolutely new project that has a good chance within the country (Russia does not need many long-haul machines, primarily the airlines lack short-range jets) and throughout the world. Sukhoi is wise enough to put the money in the future with the help of international partners. 

Bravo.