Tours to Russia

The following is a paid review:

New Year's celebration is coming and I was asked to offer you a great way to spend it in Russia. I talk about Baltic travel company's (located in UK) tours to Russia. So what do they have.

First of all it's guiding tours to Moscow, St. Petersburg and some other famous places. For example, choosing "Experience Russia Tour" you'll have one day to see the town where I live, Velikiy Novgorod. Program includes visiting the Kremlin and St. Sophia Cathedral, Yaroslavl Court, open-air museum Vitoslavlitsy and Cathedral of St. George. Tour's prices start at £1000 pp.

Another interesting tour is "Trans-Siberian Express". For 14 days you'll pass all Russia from West to East. You'll see Russian nature, Russian vilages, and still unexplored Eastern part of Russia.

Moscow and St. Petersburg city breaks leave you more freedom for planning your holidays. It would be mainly interesting for experienced travellers or travellers with unusual interests. Anyway, walking without guide, you can better feel the mood of the place, act like native people, make friends, and do things you can't do with a guide =). Russians are friendly to tourists, so you can be free to walk wherever you want . City breaks are much cheaper than guided tours. Prices start at £500 pp.

P.S. Happy New 2009 year =)!

Muddy orange

Ukrainians might well wonder why they bothered. The bright 2004 Orange Revolution has turned a muddy, burnt orange shade now that President Yushchenko has been forced to take his arch-foe into the heart of his Government.

Viktor Yushchenko, the hero of the Orange Revolution and passionate advocate of closer links with the West, has finally picked the pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych as his next Prime Minister.

Today Ukraine’s parliament will vote on the nomination. But the outcome is all but a formality — and for Yushchenko it is a catastrophe.

Originally posted: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2298438,00...

Russian Space Agency Needs 5 Volunteers for Mission to Mars

The "launch" is set for late 2007.

Originally posted: http://mosnews.com/news/2006/08/07/missiontoma...

Russia, Racism and Pushkin

The greatest gift Hannibal gave to Russia was a great grand son named Alexander Pushkin. And the greatest gift that Pushkin gave to white Russian was literature written in Russian. Without Pushkin the black poet of Russia there would have never had been some of the most famous poets of Russian history. The white racists need to remember — that the next time they see a book written in Russian. They should say to themselves we own this to a black man named Alexander Pushkin. Then realize that when they attack a black person in a hate crime they are attacking part of Puskin’s African genetics.

Originally posted: http://www.dellgines.com/?p=614

Russia River Cruises

Today I want to tell you about one more exciting offer in the Russia's travelling field. It's Russian river cruise.

If you're reading this blog then probably Russian culture is something more to you than matryoshkas and the Red Square. And, in my opinion, river cruise in the countryside of Russia is the best opportunity to discover Russian nature and culture. A culture much more ancient and individual than you can find it in Moscow or Saint-Petersburg.

In the numerous cities and towns that you'll visit during your journey, you'll see ancient orthodox monasteries and churches, conserved monuments of Soviet era and native Russians, not touched by globalization trends, yet.

Some words about tour offers that provoke my post:

The first one, Waterways of the Czars, is a cruise between St. Petersburg and Moscow along the Neva and Volga rivers. It is perfect for those who visit Russia for the first time. You'll have enough time to enjoy the beauty of the two Russian capitals, as well as to visit such ancient Russian towns as Yaroslavl, Uglich, etc.

The cruise lasts 13 days. Total costs from 2396$.

Second, Footsteps of the Cossacks, is a tour on Ukraine. Russian and Ukrainian histories were inseparable from each other for a long time. Ukraine's capital - Kyiv was a capital of Kievskaya Rus from 882 to 1132. There you can completely fall into the traditions of Russian and Ukrainian cossacks, visit famous places referred to lives of Vladimir Lenin and Anton Chekhov. Incredible, majestic southland nature also afford you a lot of pleasurable memories.

The cruise lasts 13 days. Total costs from 1930$.

Hope, this information will be useful for those who interested in Russian culture. Fell free to ask your questions in comments.

James Bond girls

In certain quarters of Manhattan these days, it's not unusual to encounter characters that seem to have come right out of a James Bond film: beautiful young Russian girls with revealing outfits and hidden agendas. They're the latest status accessory in New York's power game, the mistresses of the Masters of the Universe. The fact that they're dangerous -- wild, unpredictable, on the lookout for a bigger and better deal -- only seems to increase their appeal. So certain women on the East Side are not seeing their husbands as much as they used to. "How old is your Russian?" one just-abandoned uptown wife asked another not long ago.

Originally posted: http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/nightlife/barsclub...

Nick Paton Walsh: "How I learned to love Vlad"

As it feels like a sin, then this must be a confession. I have been in Moscow for four and a half years, reporting on the presidency of Vladimir Putin - its slow erosion of democratic freedoms, its savage disregard for the individual, its petro-dollar arrogance. I've been reflexively critical, due to the obvious truth that the battered Russian people deserve something better. They have done for centuries. But now my time here has come to an end, I need to confess: I am becoming something of a Putin fan.

The Guardian correspondent in Russia Nick Paton Walsh returning home. Some kind words from he.