Dimitri, I've just read your Odessa post. Never been there, but heard that in the past it was considered sort of Russian Singapore or Hong Kong for its cosmopolitan lifestyle.
Is that still true today?

The names you've mentioned looks unfamiliar, except Oystrakh, famous Russian violinist. Let me add another name to your list, the name of guy, whose personality along with Raoul Wallenberg's, gave birth to James Bond's character - Sidney Reilly. He was born in Odessa as far as I know.

hi all

Gozno, Dimitri - agree with you on the point that russians do not have an exit strategy. Farthermore, i also agree that they not sure how to finish it. I do not think that political solution is possible at that moment. The only person they can talk to is Mashkadov (sp??) but judging by western and russian media he is not in control and i do not belive Khatab and Basaev are willing or able for that matter (depending to much on arabs money) to negotiate.
Nevertheless, I believe that economical solution must be found first. Some jobs and better living should be offered to chechen people (read people who lived/live in chechnya). I believe that than person have income and some material things and can see a better future in given political environment, she/he would less likely try to change this political environment

thanks

People, please Jake B is not a mainstream jew, he/she maybe a jew but far, far from mainstream. I would say more like way to the right, so much to the right, that you cannot even see him/her until you make until 100 degree right turn.
So, please, leave the jews alone, just talk about Jake (Hey Jake, I believe you are very specail, because you mom said it so, could she be wrong?)

Gonzo:
After i read your comparison of US and NK i remembered old (USSR anegdot). Here it is, enjoy:

Once american and ussr citizen argued which country is more free. American said, "Look, I can go to the White House and start shouting - 'Reagan is an idiot', and nothing would happen to me." Ussr guy said, "so that, i also can go to the Red Squar and also can start shouting - 'Reagan is an idiot', and nothing would happen to me as well." :))))))))

By L'menexe ( - 152.163.207.182) on Friday, July 7, 2000 - 11:35 am:
thx:

thanks for answering my question.

it's not as if i completely disagree with
you....guess it's the harshness with which you
stand by your 'principles'.

makes me think you are younger than many here.

Thanks to kavkaz.org here is a pictures of shamil, it seems that Mashkadov is not member of the congress, strange i thought that he is in charge.
picutres
source
I am wondering that is he using as a leg? Suggestions??

Mask,
right on comparrison. Combine "everyday is a party-day"lifestyle of New Orleans, glamour of Singapore/Macau/Hong Kong, "I am proud" attitude of New York, architectual beauty of St.Peterburg or even Paris(First architect was French, De Ribass), "bad-ass suburbs" reputation of..ehh..again Hong Kong and that is as close as I can picture it.
Today..last time I was there was last Febuary..well..glamour is still there. That specific Odessa air you breath, seaport with views of mini Monte-Carlo, tourists all over the place, numerous casinos, maple trees, gorgeous buildings that has been vandalized which city government is too cheap or too poor to restore and fix. Discothèques in the parks (much better desined than most of the Clubs in the US, BTW, if you don't pay attention to the cheezy, so "5 years ago" Euro Pop)..what else..steel-made entry doors in the appartments, instead of wooden ones of my time - crime rate is still rising...beautiful and vandalized city. You know, sometime in the 19th century this city experienced a Golden Age - it had an official status of Porto-Franco for a few decades...beautiful.

And yes, you are so right - Reilly!! Real Name - Georgi Rosenblum, Odessit and a Jew. An intelligent who could speak seven languages, Rosenblum was recruited by MI6 and given the name Sidney Reilly. Before the First World War Reilly spied on Germany and was considered to be Britain's most important secret agent. Right on, Mask 😉

Drake,
Regarding Maschadov..looks like Basayev replaced him. Check the article on:
http://www.gazeta.ru/

Dimitri

Thank you. Got it
lenta.ru also conforms it.

Drake,

jew welcome 😉

Have good weekend, everybody.

thx:
my conjecture is that you're a college student, or within a few years of having been one, to be so principled....[grin]
===

Russia prepares missile reply to 'Star Wars' test

BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR



RUSSIA is believed to be preparing to test launch its new mobile SS27 intercontinental ballistic missile.
American intelligence agencies are understood to be monitoring activities at a base on the Kamchatka peninsula.

The Japanese are also involved in keeping a watch on a possible missile test, according to Paul Beaver of Jane's Information Group. The Kamchatka peninsula, in eastern Russia, is about 500 miles from Japan.

Any test of a Russian ICBM would be seen as a deliberately timed move by Moscow to coincide with America's test flight of its prototype anti-missile defence system. The latest test of the so-called "son of Star Wars" programme, involving a Minuteman ICBM with a dummy warhead, which would be targeted by a guided interceptor more than 120 miles over the Pacific, was set for early today.

President Putin has warned the Americans that if they go ahead with the deployment of a national missile defence system to counter the perceived threat posed by North Korea, he could retaliate by abrogating the Start II treaty, recently ratified by the Duma, the Russian parliament.

The implied threat is that Russia would add more warheads to the SS27 which at present is a single-warhead ICBM. Under Start II, all land-based strategic missiles with multiple independently targeted warheads are to be scrapped. When the Duma voted to ratify Start II this year, Russia reserved the right to renege on the treaty if the US went ahead with its national missile defence system in breach of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

According to Jane's Information Group, Russian reports about the SS27 have emphasised the invulnerability of the new missile to anti-ballistic missile defences. "It has a more energetic first-stage engine and incorporates a new warhead and re-entry vehicle with reduced vulnerability to interceptors," a Jane's spokesman said.

The US has tried to reassure Russia that the proposed national missile defence system will not affect the credibility of Russian strategic weapons.

The SS27 Topol-M can be road-mobile or silo-based. It is believed to carry a warhead with a 550-kiloton yield

Testing...

International Criminal Court ...
* Heh. It looks like the black list of the "money-laundering" facilitating states. I'm cynical about it. What's the point of including the Kayman Islands, for instance, on this list? Just because some "experts" stated that their banking system facilitates "laundering" of monies of "dubious" origin"? Nay. Huge tax-free, hassle-free, BS-free, insult-free, abuse-free transactions go there, and ab-so-lute-ly not necessarily of those "dubious" sums. And those transactions and sums bypass the G7 and US banks - a huge tasty bit missing their mouths. A plain corporate (in a wide sence of it - corporations+governments) greed for total control over every and all (including this) is behind that black list. (Micro$oft is the brightest example - only when the US Govt. itself got cornered then only the anti-trust was flown!)
Why should one file an explanation when he/she deposits a sum in excess of $10.000? To prove it's clean origin as some govt. smart asses explain. Nay. It's the prosecution to indict one and the court to issue cleanliness/uncleanliness verdict - not those asses. It's the criminal prosecution to prove one a drug-pushing, illegal firearms-dealing and otherwise criminal mugshot. (I, actually, don't trust even courts on this issue - for any government a question of money and taxes means more than a question of murder.)
And here this "International Criminal Court" comes handy to punish nations wholesale - not some person or bank or other financial entity - but to twist some sovereign nation into financial submission and secure this submission later with trojan loans. What was the best method of "ethnic cleansing" of indians? Guns, liquid fire? Nay. Encouraging them into debt under someone elses' legislation!
Anyways, if you kill one - you're a murderer, if you kill thousands - you're a commander-in-chief ... .
Go figure ...