Tag: Russia

So long twenty-twenty-three

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Image: cybermind.

The time flies like an arrow. Quite unexpectedly, it’s an upshot moment again!

War in Ukraine

This last year it’s become clear the war is the new normal now. With regular shellings of Ukrainian cities and repressions on the rise inside Russia. We call it the “negative natural selection,” when the meanest, the dumbest are in power, oppressing and punishing any dissent.

To an outsider’s eye it doesn’t make a shred of sense, that what the Russians are doing to Ukraine — or to their own folk for that matter. There’s, however, a strong, sinister feeling there’s a mighty good chance the situation will simply collapse into total chaos at some point.

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So long twenty-twenty-two

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A while ago I was happy 2020 came to an end. Two years on, in the hindsight I must admit I shouldn’t have been complaining at all.

That said, all things eventually come to an end, even those appearing eternal. So it’s time for a traditional upshot post.

There are quite a few pictures under the cut, as a compensation for my lack of activity in this blog throughout the past year.

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History repeatz itself

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History repeats itself once again, this time around having turned in the opposite direction.

Alexander Nevzorov, the renowned Russian war journalist, shows caricatures dating back to the Second World War, which look intimidatingly familiar.

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Mum

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It’s happened. That what everyone was so scared to bring up but nonetheless inevitable. You. Are. Gone.

There was nearly no joy left in your life in the last year and a half. Not after you lost your beloved husband and, unexpectedly, your eldest son.

You have never been outside since. Not that you wanted it anyway. You couldn’t sleep, you lost weight, and you were suffering from pain in the leg you broke almost two years ago.

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Papa

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Yesterday, 28 December 2020, about 21:00 Moscow time, you left us.

Another priceless life taken by COVID-19. We’re still deeply shocked by how fast this tragedy unfolded. Less than a month ago you were perfectly sane and strong, albeit somewhat tired.

Then you were hospitalised into the Nikolayev hospital, whose hotline would repeatedly report a “good and steady progress” on you. Two weeks later you were dismissed from the hospital, but no one cared to explain to us you’d suffered 60% lung damage and still had developing pneumonia.

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Electronic visas for visiting St. Petersburg

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Photo by KiraHundeDog/Pixabay.

Amazing news for anyone planning to visit Saint Petersburg.

As of 1 october 2019 a simplified procedure for obtaining a Russian visa has become available. The so-called e-visa allows for visiting Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad region.

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Russian store experiences

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I’ve recently been to Saint Petersburg, Russia, to help my parents to renovate the apartment they had moved into. Just for your information, Russians recognise Saint Petersburg as the “cultural capital of Russia” due to its rich cultural traditions, heritage and, arguably, population.

But I’d like to touch on another subject now. For the sake of the renovation I had to do a lot of shopping in a big builder’s store. Just because it was big, I preferred to ask staff for directions rather than waste my time looking for the thing I needed.

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