Russian dressed herring in shuba-coat or Olivier salads are complex dishes that most Soviet and today Russian families make for special events, like New Year's. Back during the Soviet days, there were also simple recipes that people used for their daily meals and as quick-to-make treats for guests. Fried potatoes Potatoes, some salt and a frying pan — delicious fried potatoes could help out in cases when there was not a very good selection of products in the fridge. It was simply enough to peel potatoes, cut them into cubes or slice them and fry them in vegetable oil under a lid for about ten minutes. Many preferred to add some onions, garlic to the dish and then sprinkle it on top with parsley and dill.

Russian people will be able to learn more about the vehicles used by top officials of the country. A new book titled "First Persons' Cars" is to be released under the auspices of the Federal Guard Service (FSO). According to the author of the foreword, FSO Director, Lieutenant-General Dmitry Kochnev, readers will learn exclusive details not just about cars, but also about most protected vehicles that the Soviet Union and Russia have ever seen. It stands the reason that the vehicles that top officials use for their work play a very important role in the security of the state leader. The cars that are used today for officials taking top positions in the country were developed on the basis of decades of experience. The book is illustrated with pictures taken in the Kremlin, in the Dacha of Joseph Stalin and other prominent locations. The authors wanted to place every vehicle in the entourage for which it was created. However, the FSO director believes, all the cars that one can see in the book have one common feature: they look majestic.

Source: REX/Shutterstock Alexander Rutskoy, Russian Air Force General, was the man who brought Boris Yeltsin to power. Rutskoy has unveiled a few interesting facts from the history of Russia. The general said that Boris Yeltsin was drinking a lot during the coup in 1991 and tried to escape to the US Embassy. Rutskoy also said that after the collapse o the Soviet Union, Yeltsin called George H. Bush to report the news to the USA. When serving as vice president, Rutskoy defended independence and Constitution of the Russian Federation, especially in the days of the State Emergency Committee. Later, however, he changed his opinions. In an interview with the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, Alexander Rutskoy spoke about the days, when the Soviet Union stopped its existence. He said that there was an urgent need to remove Mikhail Gorbachev from power, appoint Nikolai Ryzhkov as acting president of the USSR, prepare a new candidate and then hold popular elections for the President of the USSR and the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR.Rutskoy said that he did not have even a shadow of doubt about whom to support in the situation of those days. "I swore as an 18-year-old boy to serve the Motherland and the people, and I have never showed disloyalty to the oath," he said.Today, Rutskoy does not conceal the fact that he had believed Yeltsin's promises about the defense of Russian interests. The vice president of the RSFSR, unlike those, who signed the Belavezha Accords, virtually had no access to the governance of the country. During the interview, Rutskoy said that Boris Yeltsin had tried to escape to the US Embassy. He also said that Gorbachev was not isolated from the world during the days of the State Emergency Committee. Gorbachev could be contacted via secret communication channels, and he was perfectly aware of what was going on. Rutskoy said that Gorbachev simply escaped prior to the signing of the new Unified Treaty. Gorbachev, Rutskoy stated, was executing the mission to destroy the country. It was Rutskoy, who escorted Yeltsin to Minsk,  only to find out later that the USSR would be dissolved. Rutskoy wrote a notice to terminate his powers of the vice president, but his initiative did not move forward. During the ratification of Belavezha Accords, he voted against it. Rutskoy and Yeltsin went separate ways when the latter appointed Gaidar, Chubais and Nechayev for key economic positions in the country. The three officials eventually made Russia experience an economic collapse. According to Rutskoy, the putsch in 1991 took place because Gorbachev betrayed his homeland and the people who were close to him in his team. The State Emergency Committee made a humble attempt to keep the Union afloat. The putsch in 1993 was a coup, which took place with the support of the United States and Europe. "There was an intelligence report saying that the White House in Moscow would be attacked. Yeltsin suddenly decided to go to the US Embassy. I was trying to stop him, I was telling him that he should not be doing it. I was asking him whether he was aware of the things that he was doing.  When they signed the Belovezha  Accorda, the first person, whom Yeltsin informed that the Soviet Union was no more, was George H. Bush," Rutskoy admitted. "Yeltsin was maintaining a contact with the US leadership to inform the Americans about successes of the unilateral surrender in the Cold War," he added.The book of memoirs by George H.W. Bush titled "A World Transformed" also says that Boris Yeltsin was cooperating with the USA for the collapse of the Soviet Union. "On December 8, 1991, Boris Yeltsin from a hunting lodge near Brest, in Belarus. Only recently elected President of the Russian Republic, Yeltsin had been meeting with Leonid Kravchuk, President of Ukraine, and Stanislav Shushkevich, President of Belarus. "Today, a very important event took place in our country," Yeltsin said. "I wanted to inform you myself before you learned it from the press." Then he told me the news: the Presidents of Russia, Belarus and ukraine had decided to dissolve the Soviet Union," George H.W. Bush wrote. According to George H.W. Bush, Yeltsin's tone changed after he finished reading his text. The signed documents, he continued, formulated the provisions that the USA had been advocating. Bush was unwilling to express either his approval or disapproval, so he simply responded with "I understand." 

Source: REX/Shutterstock Boris Yeltsin lied when he said that he had been looking for a successor in the person of Vladimir Putin for a long time, historian Andrei Fursov told Pravda.Ru.Declassified transcripts of Bill Clinton's phone conversations with Boris Yeltsin in 1999 show that the late Russian president says that it took him long to find the man who would be in charge of Russia in 2000. "I came across him eventually, this is Putin. You will work with him," Yeltsin told Clinton promising that Putin would continue his line of Russia's democratic development and expand Russias contacts. Historian and political scientist Andrei Fursov noted in an interview with Pravda.Ru that Boris Yeltsin was reporting his decisions and ideas to Bill Clinton. "He informed his boss about his choice. It brings up the memory of Yeltsin's call to George H. Bush after the decision to disintegrate the Soviet Union. Bush was the first man whom Yeltsin called. Gorbachev was hurt by that. In another episode, Yeltsin tried to assure US Congress that communism would never be back on the Russian territory. This transcript is another evidence to prove the fact that Russia used to be a semi-colony during Yeltsin's presidency," the expert said. "I think that Yeltsin lied when he said that he had been searching for a successor for a long time. From what I know about the events of the late 1990s, Yeltsin did not intend to quit his job, but there were several aspects that forced American masters to put pressure on him. First, there was a conspiracy in the army led by Rokhlin to remove Yeltsin from power. Rokhlin's murder ruined the plan, and people in Yeltsin's team realised that there was serious discontent brewing in the army. "Secondly, not long before that, the parliament had nearly impeached Yeltsin. In addition, Russia suffered a default in 1998. Those three events drew the line under Yeltsin's rule, and he had to quickly search for a successor. Apparently, he counted on Stepashin at first, but then it turned out that the latter was ready to compromise with the Primakov-Luzhkov team, so a need in another candidate arose. "Today, the Russian leadership should give a moral assessment to Yeltsin's rule. In today's Russia, many tend to despise Gorbachev a lot, but they dislike Yeltsin to a lesser degree. Yeltsin was a product of Gorbachev's rule. Yeltsin was working within the corridor of opportunities set by Gorbachev. Gorbachev is still alive, and the man who destroyed the USSR should be held accountable for that. At the same time, I understand that Putin does not want to criticise Yeltsin because it was Yeltsin who made Putin his successor," the expert told Pravda.Ru. 

The Chernobyl nuclear explosion was undoubtedly one of the biggest tragedies that the Soviet Union had seen. Few in the world know that there were other major disasters in the USSR, the scale of which was just as mortifying. The Kyshtym accidentIt is also known as Chelyabinsk-40 accident. Today, this town is called Ozersk; it used to be a secret settlement during the times of the Soviet Union. It was the first man-made disaster that the USSR had seen. In 1957, an explosion of tanks with radioactive waste occurred at Mayak chemical factory. No one was injured as a result of the explosion. However, there were about 270,000 people living in the affected area. The military were evacuated first - they were attracted to liquidation works. Civilian people were evacuated two weeks later.A reserve called East-Ural Radioactive Trace was created on the site of the accident many years afterwards. The site is still closed to the public - the level of radiation there is still high.Krasnoye SormovoThe radioactive accident in Red Sormovo (Krasnoye Sormovo) occurred 16 years before the Chernobyl disaster - in 1970. The accident took place during hydraulic tests on a new nuclear submarine at the plant in the Nizhny Novgorod region. The reactor started up accidentally, and the Krasnoye Sormovo workshop was filled with radioactive vapors immediately. Twelve people were killed on the spot, about 200 others received a huge dose of radiation. The workshop was isolated from external environment, which made it possible to avoid the danger of radioactive contamination of the area. The work to liquidate the consequences of the accident took four months.Only 200 out of 1,000 employees of the factory had stayed alive by January 2012. All of them became first- and second-degree disabled individuals. Explosion at Baikonur CosmodromeMore than 100 people were killed as a result of the explosion that took place on Baikonur Cosmodrome in 1960.Shortly before the accident, Soviet engineers were developing a new intercontinental ballistic missile at the facility. Marshal Nedelin was supervising the tests as the chief commander of missile forces of the USSR. Many safety rules were violated as the team was in a rush to have the report ready for the anniversary of the October Revolution. At one point, the engine of the missile was launched earlier than expected, which caused fuel to explode. The information about this tragedy has long been classified.Kurenyovskaya tragedyThis tragedy took place in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1961. The causes of the accident started forming ten years earlier. The Kiev authorities decided to build a landfill of liquid waste from nearest factories and plants in Babi Yar. In 1961, the dam, which was holding the dump, burst, sending an avalanche of dirt 14 meters high and 20 meters wide. The avalanche turned as many as 81 buildings into ruins. Sixty-eight of those buildings were residential. About 1,500 people became homeless as a result of the disaster, about 200 were killed. The authorities decided not to distribute the information about the accident. The victims were buried quickly. Kiev disconnected itself from international communication the day when the tragedy occurred not to leak any information. These are just a few disasters that the USSR had seen in its history, but there were more.

It is an open secret that the Russian Empire, holding the position of benevolent neutrality, provided enormous assistance to the United States during the Civil War. What kind of role was it exactly, though?One should recollect here the person, who contributed a lot to Russia's decision to support Abraham Lincoln, rather than his opponents from the Confederation. It goes about Cassius Marcellus Clay. That was an outstanding person indeed. Clay, who owned plantations in Kentucky, liberated his slaves, but allowed them to continue working for money. His act was unprecedented for that time, and Cassius Clay instantly made a huge amount of enemies. They attacked him several times. At one point, Clay had to fight six Turner brothers and he won the fight having killed one of the brothers. Russian Emperor II saved Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln found such an ardent abolitionist to be suitable for the post of US Ambassador to Russia. Clay had not had time to leave when the Civil War broke out. He did not leave Washington, but started forming a group of volunteers to defend the White House. Cassius Clay left for St. Petersburg with his family only after the federal army arrived. The Russian Empire was going through the abolition of serfdom right at that time. One may say that the Russian leadership was sympathetic to what Abraham Lincoln was doing in the United States. Clay was pleased to report to Washington that Russian Foreign Minister Alexander Gorchakov hoped for an early suppression of the "revolt in the south."Russian Emperor Alexander II ordered to send warships to the East and to the West coast of the United States. Their captains received secret instructions in case Britain and France decide to take the side of the Confederation. The Russian fleet was ordered to support the US government.Washington appreciated Russia's move. Upon the arrival of Russian ships in New York's harbor, U.S. Navy Secretary Gideon Wells wrote in his diary: "The Russian fleet has come out of the Baltic and are now in New York, or a large number of the vessels have arrived. They are not to be confined in the Baltic by a northern winter. In sending them to this country at this time there is something significant. What will be its effect on France and the French policy we shall learn in due time. It may moderate; it may exasperate. God bless the Russians."

Mikhail Gorbachev, the first president of the USSR, turned 89 years old on March 2, 2020. Gorbachev is probably the most notorious politician in Russia, and many Russians still have mixed feelings about him. Of course, we all wish him good health to be able to celebrate his 90th anniversary next year. However, as time goes by, he will inevitably become a myth character. When he passes away, he will become the character of the myth about a man, who managed to single-handedly destroy the most powerful empire in history, having accomplished either a heroic feat or a terrible act of betrayal. According to opinion polls, more than 50 percent of Russians share a negative attitude about Gorbachev's role in the history of the USSR. A much smaller amount of Russians - ten percent - are grateful Gorbachev for destroying the Soviet Union that they despised. As many as eight percent of the polled said that they share a neutral attitude towards Mikhail Gorbachev. It was Gorbachev who nailed the USA to the wall It was Gorbachev who reprimanded the West for violating all agreements of his time. It was Gorbachev, who had every right to do so. Not so long ago, Mikhail Gorbachev said: "Crimea is Russia and let someone prove otherwise." When asked whether Putin had "imperialistic ambitions", taking into account the "annexation of the Crimea" and Russia's interference in the Syrian conflict, Gorbachev answered with a strong "no."

During the late 1950s, the Soviet administration decided to design a helicopter with the world's largest carrying capacity. The tests of the new helicopter began ten years later. However, it just so happened that no one wanted to replicate the potential pride of Soviet engineers.The helicopter is known as B-12, and it is unofficially known as Mi-12. Its unsuccessful story has proved that world records may at times be reductive. During the 1960s, the production of helicopters was thriving, and military requirements were getting increasingly demanding. It was during those times when engineers designed the first intercontinental missile. First-generation intercontinental missiles were too heavy to be transported on any means other than trains. A R-7 warhead could only be delivered by plane or train because the warhead without fuel weighed 26 tons. First Lockheed U-2, then B-12 Needless to say that railway transportations could be easily tracked. The USSR found that out after a story with the American reconnaissance aircraft.After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II, the United States took every effort to prevent such attacks in the future. Thus, the Lockheed U-2 appeared in 1955. The aircraft was carrying various modules, including those using ray tracing and ultra-precise lenses.The camera of the US reconnaissance aircraft was so powerful that it was possible to count cows in a photograph of a field, taken from an altitude of 18 km.The aircraft was flying quietly over the USSR for more than five years, until one of them was shot down and its pilot was taken hostage in 1960. However, 24 previous flights helped the Americans find out the whereabouts of Soviet military facilities, including missile ranges.It was easy to track down those facilities on the ground with the help of conspicuous railway tracks. The USSR was convinced that it was about time to develop aerial means of transportation for missiles. By 1963, the largest Mi-6 helicopter could lift 12 tons, but it was not good to carry a 26-ton cargo.  This prompted Soviet engineers to start working on the B-12 helicopter. At first they simply wanted to upscale the Mi-6, but it then became clear that one huge rotor could not be adapted to the laws of physics. Soviet designers decided that it would take them too long to stabilise the new technology. They opted for a different variant, in which they took 35-meter rotors with a total capacity of 26,000 horsepower from the Mi-6 helicopter and arranged them to the sides of the hull.The rotors moved in the opposite direction to balance each other, while the rear wing was stabilizing the swing.We can now see this solution in the design of modern-day drones, but there were no helicopter models with this type of rotors in the past. In terms of the size of the hull, it was larger than the Boeing 737, which can house up to 189 people. The B-12 could carry a record 192 passengers. As for equipment, the new helicopter could fit a nuclear intercontinental missile.

Since 1478, Russia has taken part in 138 wars and suffered defeat in 18 of them. Three of those wars led to most severe territorial and human losses for Russia.  Livonian War (1558 - 1583) The conflict sparked after the Livonian Confederation refused to pay tribute that Russia had imposed  since the previous war in 1481. The Livonians actively obstructed the development of Russian trade in the Baltic Sea and concluded an offensive-defensive treaty with Poland and Lithuania. Having realised that the war with the Baltic would be inevitable, Ivan the Terrible organised a crusade to Livonia. At first, Russia was winning, and both Livonia and Lithuania were completely defeated. However, the European countries joined their forces in the face of the threat from the Russian army. 

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev once had to beg Joseph Stalin for mercy. The episode in Khrushchev's biography took place before he came to power in the USSR. Khrushchev had to kneel in front of Stalin, begging him not to punish his son Leonid, who had shot an officer by accident.  Professor, biophysicist, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Andrei Malenkov, the son of one of Khrushchev's competitors in the struggle for power, Georgy Malenkov, said in an interview with Lenta.ru that Khrushchev came to Stalin and was crawling on his knees in front of him because his son was supposed to be executed for shooting an officer. Moreover, it was the second time when Khrushchev's son committed such a crime (he was forgiven for the first one), Malenkov said.   With this landmark report at the XX Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union "On the cult of the personality and its consequences" Nikita Khrushchev wanted to take revenge on Stalin for his unfortunate son Leonid, the professor also said, adding that Khrushchev was a "very vindictive little man."

The Russians love to win. Unfortunately, other countries often take advantage of our victories, whereas we easily forget about our military prowess. Today, during the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, few people in Russia may remember that it was the Soviet army that put an end to the worst war in the history of mankind - World War II, or the Great Patriotic War, as it is known in Russia. It was on September 3rd, when it happened.  September 3rd is the official date of the end of World War II in the Soviet Union. It used to be celebrated as a non-working day and had been officially called the National Day of Victory over Imperialist Japan until 1947. One can still find posters at history museums in the Far East of Russia that say: Victory Day over Japan - September 3rd. The day of September 3rd was officially approved as the red date of the calendar by the decree from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 2, 1945. USSR's first and, unfortunately, the only parade of victory over Japan took place on September 16, on the territory of Harbin, where the Chinese still take care of Soviet burials.

At the beginning of the last century, the news about the death of Afghan Emir Abdur-Rahman made headlines all over the world. It was reported that his death could lead to most unpleasant consequences for both Russia and England, and, consequently, for the whole world politics. Kabul - Russia - Kabul Everything flows, but nothing changes. The topic of the Afghanistan crisis has become important again, especially for Russia. England is no longer the same, and the successor - the United States - is a far cry from the current rulers of Afghanistan. After Shir Ali Khan's accession to the throne in 1864, Abdur-Rahman participated in the troops of his father, Afzul Khan, and uncle Azim Khan in the fight against his other uncle, the powerful Emir Shir Ali. He conquered Kabul in 1866, where his father established himself.

Thirty years ago, on December 8, 1991, the Belovezha Accords, signed in Belarus, led to the collapse of the USSR. Yuri Voronin, Chairman of the Commission of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR on Budget, Plans, Taxes and Prices, First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation (in 1991) recalls the events of 30 years ago. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the collapse of the USSR was the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century. After the collapse of the USSR, as many as 25 million Russian people found themselves abroad overnight.

According to international experts, the world has returned to the Cold War, but this time, the state of affairs is even more dramatic than it used to be. Airplanes with nuclear warheads on board are on duty again, like 30 years ago. The danger of such flights lies not only in the possible use of nuclear weapons. Nuclear bombs may go missing, as it had repeatedly happened in the past. Atomic bombs for Spain Several years ago, a Canadian diver, while diving into the sea near the Haida Gwaii archipelago, was horrified to find something that looked like an air nuclear bomb. The diver was right. In 1950, an American B-36 bomber was forced to jettison an atomic bomb into the Pacific Ocean due to a fire on board.

Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully in Scotland on September 8. The crown passed to her son, Prince Charles, who took the throne name Charles III. His name is translated into Russian as Karl III, which is due to historic peculiarities of name translations. Elizabeth II and Boris Yeltsin Despite the fact that Elizabeth II ascended the throne back in 1952, the Queen was in no hurry to pay an official visit to the Soviet Union and then Russia. Her historical trip to Russia took place only after the collapse of the USSR. On October 17, 1994, Elizabeth II landed in Moscow. First deputy chairman of the government, Oleg Soskovets, welcomed the Queen. Directly from the airport, they went to the Kremlin in a royal Rolls-Royce, where Russian President Boris Yeltsin was waiting for them.

Russia has a very extensive history of military operations and wars. Russia has been successful in most of its wars, but the price was too high as too many lives had been lost. Therefore, our descendants need to remember the lessons that our ancestors left for us as a legacy. Most of the threats that Russia had to deal with were coming from the south and the southwest. One of those campaigns took place in 1827-1828, when France and England pushed Russia into the flames of another war with Turkey. General Nikolai Yepanchin combined his service in the army ranks with extensive scientific and teaching activities. He was also a member of the Military Historical Commission of the General Staff for compiling a description of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. He repeatedly criticised the military component of the Russian Empire, dwelling in detail on how the Russian army was prepared for military campaigns.

A major crisis broke out in Russia in the beginning of October 1993. It was the most serious crisis in post-Soviet history. Disagreements between President Boris Yeltsin and parliamentary leaders led to bloody massacre on the streets of Moscow.  The number of victims of the Black October crisis remains unknown even 30 years after. According to various departments and commissions, the number of victims varies from 124 to 158 people. Witnesses say, however, that hundreds were killed and thousands of others were injured.  After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the 1978 Constitution of the RSFSR was still in force vesting supreme powers on the Supreme Council and the Congress of People's Deputies.

The future of the International Space Station remains extremely vague. News reports about technical problems on board the ISS became, one might say, traditional. Is it time to decide? The service life of the International Space Station extends till 2024. At the same time, now is the time to decide what should be done to the station afterwards. Late last year, Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said that the future of the ISS would be determined in the first quarter of 2021."The fate of the ISS has not been fully decided yet, it will be determined, probably, in the first quarter of next year," Borisov told TASS. He also added that Roscosmos corporation plans to launch a new segment of the ISS, which is expected to become the basis for the Russian orbital station in the future.It goes about "Nauka" ("Science") module, which will become a space laboratory for Russian cosmonauts. Does Russia want the ISS to last longer? Ivan Moiseev, the scientific director of the Institute of Space Policy, believes that stopping international cooperation was out of the question. "There is an official permit to run the station till 2024 - till 2025, in fact. All the countries participating in the ISS agreement agreed to consider the issue of extending the service life of the station till 2028-2030 - that was six months ago," the expert told Pravda.Ru.However, the situation took a turn due to a series of accidents on board the ISS."Those were insignificant accidents, but they create a relevant information background. The government had to decide. If it was not for those accidents, they would have quietly extended the service life of the ISS until 2028, and it would be beneficial to everyone. But when those accidents started happening, they led the general public to believe that the station was falling apart. There were official statements made about the need to finish its work," Ivan Moiseev said.However, the expert believes that the work of the station should be extended. "Therefore, the government apparently will make a decision on the matter in early 2021," he believes.

After Brazil assessed the effectiveness of CoronaVac vaccine by Chinese company Sinovac on the verge of acceptable - about 50 percent, other countries that chose the same drug started showing signs of discontent as well. The Ukrainian population to be vaccinated with CoronaVac In particular, Ukraine's Minister of Health Maxim Stepanov said that the issue was politicized. "All manufacturers in the world without exception that produce vaccines, those that have provided reports, the companies that have registered vaccines ... we have been negotiating with them since May. Just like with COVAX. Therefore, all this is about manipulations - some politicians are trying to intimidate the Ukrainians," he said.

Political tensions in the world have reached the stage when many start wondering whether the human civilization may survive a nuclear catastrophe. One may hear many expert opinions about post-apocalyptic topics.According to the authors of Telegram channel Mayday. Chronicles of Nose-Diving, pandemics of various deadly infections, abrupt climate change, and disasters at nuclear and chemical facilities remain most important threats to mankind, not to mention the worst scenario of a global nuclear war. As for the issue of reviving human civilization per se, researchers believe that a little more than a hundred people with an equal gender balance would be enough for humans to survive. The set of genes in descendants will allow the new human civilisation to survive and develop (the example of the Maori is indicative here).One should also take into account the offensive of nature. If urban development is not supported by life support systems, nature will take its toll very quickly.Plants will take over all ruins in just a few years, like it happened in Abkhazia. For example, the Tkuarchal regional power plant in Abkhazia used to be a state regional power plant that supplied energy to the industrial city of Tkuarchal and its environs. It was built in the 1950s and was the main consumer of coal mined from Tkuarchal.Later, in the late 1980s, the regional power station switched to natural gas. During the 1992-1993 Georgian-Abkhaz war, it was demolished, and still remains in deplorable condition beyond repairs. People will survive and find something to do. Villagers will find it easier to survive because they will be able to return to farming, agriculture and cattle breeding. They will need primitive agricultural tools to ensure the survival of villages. The main problem will be the preservation and revival of scientific knowledge. Gadgets and appliances, like other technologically complex products that require advanced production, cannot be reproduced from scratch. The people themselves will be busy with completely different problems. Descendants of scientists and professors, forced to engage in hunting and gathering, are unlikely to be able to convey their knowledge about the structure of the solar system to their descendants. One needs to think about such a development of events before the very fact of the end of the world. Otherwise, the world will plunge into another stone age.Analysts of the "Older than Edda" project believe that the possible replenishment of the nuclear club does not seem to be something unprecedented. Technically, a third of UN member states are capable of creating a nuclear bomb. It is more difficult to develop vehicles to deliver nuclear bombs, but there is nothing particularly complicated in the very creation of a nuclear weapon.In fact, the only thing that protects us from the mass production of weapons of the Apocalypse is the dilapidating system of the post-war world order and the hegemony of the United States, which has been rapidly losing its relevance lately.

It is not the melting of permafrost that causes giant gas bubbles to erupt, geophysicists found. This crater in Yamal is the 17th such crater that was found in the region.Vasily Bogoyavlensky, geologist and geophysicist, said that there are many of such "black holes" in the north of Russia. Many of those craters have emerged during the past ten years.The very first crater, which was discovered in 2014, became the famous one. It was a hole about 50 meters deep and 40 meters in diameter. Geologists quickly established that the giant hole in the ground was just a hole, from which methane was bursting out.A cavity is formed in the layers of underground ice as it melts due to the influence of a local anomalous heat flow. This cavity is then filled with gas, and it grows larger, causing the surface on the ground to swell until the frozen rock reaches its ultimate strength and eventually explodes in a pneumatic explosion. Extraterrestrial cryovolcanoes found on Earth Some scientists assumed that the Yamal crater was the first cryovolcano on planet Earth - a volcano that appears in permafrost and spews out jets of gas instead of melted magma. Until recently, such cryovolcanoes were observed only in space - on Neptune's satellite Triton, and on Titan or Enceladus (the moons of Saturn). According to Vasily Bogoyavlensky, the Yamal gas eruptions can be referred to as volcanoes only to a certain degree, although several craters can be defined as such. "I believe that many of these objects can be categorised as ordinary mud volcanoes, but they have their own peculiarities, because the near-surface soil is frozen. It additionally restrains the gas, and the pressure in the cavity can reach high values. As a result, the gas still breaks through the rock," the researcher said.

In 2025, the era of the International Space Station is supposed to end. Russia, China and the United States will switch to their own programs in near space. All space powers have their problems. Who is going to win the race? Russia to flood its section of the ISS in 2024 Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin wrote in Telegram that the Russian Space Agency started working on the construction of the first module of the new Russian orbital station. "The work on the first base module for the new Russian orbital service station is underway. The Energia Rocket and Space Corporation has been tasked to ensure its readiness for launch into orbit in 2025," Rogozin wrote.

Lose weight without spending a cent The story of how I lost 20 kilogrammes (44 lb) in less than three months without going hungry or getting bored and without spending one cent What? Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey writing a non-political article, without bashing someone on the head and claiming about human rights, indigenous rights, women’s rights, without haranging the war lobby, the pharma lobby, the military-industrial complex?

Back to normal. Back to a spike in cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Politics before the People, it’s the economy, stupid! The UK heads for Hades. In the midst of this latest global pandemic, common sense seems to have flown out of the window, however incredible it may seem given all the collective knowledge we have gathered over the years. If we look at the history book, we are practically where we were one century ago with so-called Infuenza A H1N1 (Spanish Flu, which was not from Spain but from the USA) and if we turn back just one page, we see that we are back where we were at this time last year. We are going round and round in circles because policymakers are failing us. Common sense, not conspiracy theories Talking about common sense, forget all the conspiracy theories that this is a master plan to cull those members of society more dependent on the State, such as pensioners. It just so happens that their defences are weaker and so they are more susceptible to the illness. Forget the theories about injecting micro-chips with the vaccine. It just so happens that this is one of the main means we have to control the spread of the virus, not the only one but an important one. Forget the denial theories which say the disease does not exist. Go ask the families of those who have died from it. Mine included.

Russia is making pointless and even strange steps in and around space, and they are all the more sad because they cost the Russian budget a lot of money and deprive the nation of the space power status. Why the United States would like to work with Russia in space, but Russia would not The space race has been getting increasingly intense lately. Different countries declare their claims to the Moon. It appears that China is going to be the first to go there. The exploration or even the colonisation of Mars is next on the list. Space exploration by private corporations is in full swing:

Guided hypersonic weapons have given Russia absolute leadership in the field of the development of strategic weapons. No other country in the world, save for, possibly, China, has hypersonic missiles in service. Military analysts do not have any reliable data about China's new weapons. Russia has at least three types of missiles capable of causing irreparable damage to any potential aggressor.Reference: Avangard hypersonic system is capable of developing the speed of up to Mach 28. The system currently uses the Stilett silo-based intercontinental ballistic missile as a carrier. In the future, the new prospective intercontinental ballistic missile Sarmat is to be used for the purpose. For the time being, Russia has four such systems on alert. A missile like that is capable of flying from Saratov to New York in 18 minutes. The H-47M2 missile of the Kinzhal (Dagger) complex develops a speed of 12,250 km/h, has a combat range of 3,000 kilometers. Its carrier is the MiG 31K high-altitude fighter-interceptor aircraft. To date, Russia has made several hundreds of Kinzhal missiles. The Zircon is the anti-ship missile. It accelerates to Mach 8. Currently, one Russian warship can carry up to 20 Zircon missiles. At the same time, according to open data, at least several hundred units of these missiles have been produced. During naval exercises held in the White Sea this year, the Admiral Gorshkov frigate launched the Zircon missile that successfully struck the target at a distance of over 350 km. As one can see, all types of Russian hypersonic missiles have already proven their combat effectiveness. At the same time, Russia does not stop here: Russian engineers already work on an air defense system to neutralize hypersonic weapons. Russia's Supreme Commander-in-Chief — President Putin that is — intrigued the world with his words that he said in 2020:

The upcoming UN conference on climate change in Glasgow was supposed to show the world the triumph of the United States and the European Union as trendsetters for everything "green". Unfortunately for them, Europe faced an unprecedented energy crisis, which called into question not only the competence of officials from Brussels, but also the feasibility of the strategy to switch to green energy as soon as possible. Russia, which did not want to dive into the whirlpool of decarbonization, found itself in a more advantageous position. Nevertheless, Moscow has something to show in Glasgow on the climate agenda. China, the United States and India altogether account for more CO2 emissions than all other countries combined. Russia accounts for less than five percent, but the anger of Western politicians and journalists, who propagate environmental slogans, is directed primarily at Russia. Such a biased attitude towards Russia is based on the laws of hybrid war: dirty propaganda should keep citizens in good shape, while raising the degree of hatred. EU demonises Russia and wants more Russian gas When European politicians accuse Russia of the gas crisis, their accusations fit into the anti-Russian agenda just as perfectly. Gazprom strictly fulfills all of its contracts, but this argumentation falls on deaf ears in the EU. For example, EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell saw "deep geopolitical roots" in the rise in energy prices. The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, reproached the Russian gas monopoly for "not responding to higher demand" in Europe. Her compatriot from the Green party, claiming the portfolio of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, Annalena Baerbock, stated that Russia was "playing poker" in matters of gas supplies. She has an ironclad argument: after all, European gas storage facilities are comparatively empty.

Regarding my choice for the first part of my titular line, it is what it is: The weather. Nothing more. All else, is buell sheet. Let us leave it at that. Besides, have not we all had enough of the progressive Wokies and Fake News Media the world over waxing on ad hominem about it already? Climate hysteria has been going on for decades now. Even with their newest iteration, ‘The Green New Deal’ this climate hoax still comes up smelling of  well, sulfur. It really stinks. What is the adage again? Right: Lipstick on a pig… It does not hide the fact that a real pig, still resides behind the shiny lip-gloss. Climatologist progressives As of this writing, the dog whistling climatologist progressives are attending their annual gas lighting meeting in Scotland. As usual Sweet Child of Sweden, Great Thunberg is there. No surprise either that the pudgy yute girl, now teenager, is leading the “How dare you!’ vanguard charge. No big surprise either, that the world’s billionaire oligarchs attended. All, without exception arrived in their own private Lear jets; leaving their biggest carbon footprints in their wake. As many of you know, that is the wealth mongers’ signature move.

Colonel-General Vladimir Zarudnitsky, the head of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, published an article in August of this year, in which he casually referred to Russia's state-of-the-art development in the field of hypersonic weapons — the X-95 aircraft missile (also can be spelled as Kh-95). Why would Russia need yet another hypersonic missile given that the country already has Zircon and Kinzhal missiles? According to Vladimir Zarudnitsky, Russia needs to strive to achieve the dominant role of the Russian aviation in the field of aerospace, and it would be impossible to achieve the goal without the effective use of fighter and strike aircraft. Needless to say that the successful destruction of anti-aircraft, aviation and nuclear missile groups of a potential enemy is crucial for victory in any military operation. To achieve military superiority, it is vital for Russia to always be prepared to:

Green New Deal are three words that have acquired great notoriety in recent times and seem to finally be the answer to the increasingly pressing requests coming from the variegated environmental world. The fear that our planet will undergo an ecological collapse that makes it an uninhabitable hell for humanity and the rest of living creatures, be they animals or plants, has prompted a part of Western society to reconsider its priorities and way of living. A part that is not very large, to be honest, but that has received a lot of attention from media, celebrities, no-profit foundations and now also from some governments. Apparently, the new green revolution will guarantee us a bright future. Drastically reduced industrial pollution, zero-emission cars, super-efficient homes and workplaces, heated and powered by the energy of the sun: these are just some of the promises, written with fire on the rock, the realization of which will give us a new Garden of Eden planetary in size. But will it really be like this? Some of the visionary benefactors who are heralds for these fabulous ideas continue to insist that the Earth is overpopulated and that it would be better to return to the situation of the early twentieth century, when the population on our planet was about a quarter of what it is today. The question then arises spontaneously on how to get back to that level quickly, with what methods and with what results.

On January 11, 2022, Russia launched its second serial missile submarine of Project 955 Borei-A. Borei-A submarine: An unpleasant surprise for Washington The submarine cruiser is the brainchild of the Rubin Design Bureau. The vessel was built for seven years. This is a second-to-none submarine, just like its four brothers that are already on combat duty. Prior to this, on December 25 last year, the new submarine was solemnly taken out of the boathouse. The submarine will have to undergo complex trials at all levels before it can be handed over to the navy in 12 months.

Russia has decided to pull out from the International Space Station project after 2024, Yuri Borisov, the chief of Roscosmos state corporation said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The main priority for Roscosmos now is to provide the Russian economy with required space services, such as navigation, communications, data transmission, meteorological and geodetic information, etc. As for manned space exploration, Roscosmos will deal with the creation of the Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS). This project is to replace the ISS for Russia.

This serious medical and social problem is growing exponentially but is not receiving adequate attention Recent studies indicate that babies with some form of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) will constitute as many as one in every 100 births, showing a markedly growing trend. What are the causes? The Autism Center is organising the XI International Annual Conference – Autism. Challenges and Solutions – in Abu Dhabi, UAE (April 28 to 30) which aims to share discoveries and results of investigation carried out over the last decade.  Described as “a serious medical and social problem” by the Autism Centre, this spectrum of disorders does not receive the attention it deserves in many countries around the world, in the words of the Center, “most countries”.

A tsunami of toxic plastic waste looms on the horizon but a revolution is promised. Quite how serious is the situation and what is being done? To set the scene, two thirds of plastic products are short-term, throw-away items containing over 13,000 chemicals, many of them toxic, products like shopping bags, straws, cups and so on. The history The first manufactured plastic was Parkesine, patented in 1862 by its British inventor, Alexander Parkes. It was made from cotton fibres dissolved in nitric and sulphuric acid, and mixed with vegetable oil. It substituted tortoise and turtle shells and ivory. Over the other side of The Pond, John Wesley Hyatt founded the Celluloid Manufacturing Company (USA) and mass produced items such as combs, sunglasses... and cinema film. By 1907 the first fully synthetic plastic had been invented by the Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland, who combined formaldehyde and phenol to produce Bakelite (the material used in the old telephones). By the early twentieth century, the plastics manufacturing giants had already been formed by the alliances of chemical and petroleum industries – ExxonMobil, Dow Chemicals, DuPont, BASF and the British company, ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries), which by 1932 was producing Perspex.

About 4,500 people have been injured as a result of explosions of communication devices that took place in Lebanon. It was Hezbollah members' pager devices that started blowing up first on September 17. The following day, explosions continued, although it was not just pagers, but walkie-talkies, laptops, radios, smartphones, fingerprinting devices and solar-powered units that started exploding. Israel was not the first state to have used remote detonation of communication devices. In fact, a description of such a technology can be found in Pentagon documents from 50 years ago. Israel previously used remotely detonated communication devices in its military operations. For example, one of the leaders of Hamas movement, Yahya Ayyash, received a phone with an explosive planted in it. The devices that exploded in Lebanon were from a new batch These and other cases have one thing in common: the devices that exploded in Lebanon on September 17 and 18 had explosives installed in them in advance.

Chechnya should send volunteers to the zone of the special military operation in Ukraine more frequently, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said. Kadyrov made this announcement after a Ukrainian drone struck the building of the University of Special Forces in Gudermes. "I urge real men to volunteer to fight to defend our land, our state and our people. We need to show that you can't play around with Chechnya and its people," Ramzan Kadyrov said. Airplanes with volunteers should be sent to the front lines every day, not just once a week, as is happening now, he added.

The Americans are using the experience they are currently gaining in Ukraine to be able to go to war with China in the future. The knowledge they have gained will be used to defend Taiwan, The NYT said. "The U. S. Army transforms itself, and its hundreds of thousands of young men and women, for yet another war, this one a potential conflict with China," the newspaper wrote. The upcoming conflict between such major nuclear powers as China and the US will be many times more dangerous. It may therefore lead to huge losses for both sides.

Volodymyr Zelensky may soon be removed by order of the West, the head of Other Ukraine movement Viktor Medvedchuk believes. "Zelensky will soon be shown the door. He thought to outwit the collective West by complaining that it does not support him well, by spreading tales that he would have defeated Russia long ago, but the West does not give him weapons," Medvedchuk, former candidate in Ukrainian presidential elections said. Medvedchuk's remarks may hold water, but his prediction is not going to materialise in the near future. Zelensky may indeed be removed from power when time for Ukraine-Russia peace talks comes.

Volodymyr Zelensky's demand to transfer American Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine gave Washington the jitters, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on the sidelines of the Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security. "We know that his demand for Tomahawks caused bewilderment in Washington," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. The Americans will "slap Zelensky on his hands" to ensure their security if he continues to try to drag them into the war against Russia, Lavrov noted.

Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1985-1991, the first and last president of the USSR, died on Tuesday evening, August 30, 2022. Gorbachev personifies a lot of things for both Russia and other nations of the world: perestroika, glasnost, the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the end of the Cold War, the collapse of the Warsaw Pact Organization, a bloc created as a counterweight to NATO. Gorbachev took a course to improve relations with the West and contributed to the unification of Germany. At the same time, there was a series of bloody conflicts in the USSR during his rule. Many hold Gorbachev accountable for the violent dispersal of the rally in Tbilisi in 1989, when 21 people were killed. The same applies to events in Vilnius in January 1991. The results of Gorbachev's era still raise a lot of questions and debates. Some hold him up for the democratization of the regime, while others blame the politician for the collapse of the USSR. It is worthy of note that all the world leaders, with whom Mikhail Gorbachev had worked are now dead:

Putin's Annual Address to the Federal Assembly is scheduled for September 30. Kremlin sources say it will become even more historic and globally important than the 2014 address for the return of Crimea. Mass media and experts make their own suggestions about the content of Putin's speech that he is going to deliver to the Federal Assembly on September 30. There are a number of versions:

The accession of new territories to Russia is justifiable from the economic point of view and will not have a negative impact on the Russian budget, the Kremlin said. As Russia readies to grow even larger, experts try to calculate how much it will cost the Russian budget to rebuild cities and restore peaceful life in the new territories. Some others try to find out how much profit the new territories will bring. The Washington Post announced the approximate cost of mineral deposits in the new regions — about 12.4 trillion dollars.

On October 19, Putin signed a decree to implement martial law in four regions of Russia. He explained this by the fact that Ukrainian forces continue shelling the new Russian regions and committing acts of sabotage. According to the Russian authorities, the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge was carried out by the special services of Ukraine, he also said. "In this regard, let me remind you that in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Luhansk People's Republic, as well as in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, before they joined Russia, martial law regime was already in effect. Now we need to formalize this regime within the framework of Russian legislation,” Putin said. Martial law shall be introduced starting from October 20 midnight. The government, as well as the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Federal Security Service and the National Guard, must submit proposals on measures that are planned to be applied in the territories where martial law has been declared within three days.

An expanded meeting of the Board of the Ministry of Defenсe was held in Moscow on December 21. During the meeting, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu delivered a keynote speech. President Vladimir Putin also spoke at the meeting. Below are key remarks that Shoigu and Putin made about the army, the special operation and priority tasks for 2023. Russian President Vladimir Putin: Of course, the hostilities and military operations are always associated with tragedy and loss of lives. We understand this very well, we are aware of this. But since this [conflict] is inevitable, better today than tomorrow. I think that everyone present in this auditorium perfectly understands what I am talking about. I still consider the Ukrainian people our brotherly nation. What is happening now is a tragedy, but it does not come as a result of our policy. We need to study NATO's experience and tactics in order to include that in the troops training programme and equipping the army. NATO weapons must be analyzed and used to build the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Russia will continue to develop the nuclear triad. This is the main guarantee of maintaining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. As many as 150,000 of the 300,000 mobilised are now undergoing training at training grounds. The other half is in the zone of hostilities. This is enough for the special operation. The past mobilisation has revealed certain problems. To eliminate them, we need to modernise the system of military commissariats. The hostilities have identified issues that need to be worked on, including communication issues. The Ministry of Defence should be attentive to criticism. The ministry should respond to it in a timely manner. Everything a fighter needs must be modern and reliable. Officers and sergeants who have gained experience in the special operation should be assigned to new positions as a matter of priority. It is necessary to develop and use drones in the army — they must be everywhere. We need to expand the arsenal of modern attack weapons. Sarmat intercontinental missiles will be put on combat duty in the near future. The Admiral Gorshkov frigate with state-of-the-art Zirkon hypersonic missile systems will enter combat service in early 2023. We need to saturate the troops with everything necessary — from modern first-aid kits to sights. Everything is important on the battlefield. There are no restrictions to finance the Russian Armed Forces. The country gives the army everything they ask for. We've got everything. We look forward to constructive and meaningful negotiations with a visible end result that would ensure equal security for all, within a certain timeframe. We will not engage in the militarization of the country and economy. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu:

On January 11, 2023, Army General Valery Gerasimov was appointed Commander of the Russian grouping of troops in the zone of the special military operation in Ukraine. Gerasimov thus replaced General Sergei Surovikin, who became his deputy. Gerasimov has an extensive experience of army service. He fought Chechen militants at the head of the army, organised Russia's special operation in Syria, and chaired the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces in November 2012. Valery Gerasimov was born on September 8, 1955 in Kazan, into a working class family. In 1977 he graduated from the Kazan Higher Tank Command School named after the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (currently the Kazan Higher Tank Command Red Banner School). In 1987, he graduated with honours from the Military Academy of Armoured Forces named after Marshal of the Soviet Union Malinovsky. In 1997 — from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

The West has prepared a "Russia after Putin" plan and already chose its actors in the face of Garry Kasparov* and Mikhail Khodorkovsky*, who suddenly developed an affection for the Russian people. They are waiting for the "window of opportunity" to open. The anti-Russian "Action Committee" published an article in Foreign Affairs magazine under the telling title Don't Fear Putin's Demise. This committee is represented by two good old chaps who were recognised as foreign agents in the Russian Federation. They are Garry Kasparov* and Mikhail Khodorkovsky*. The article in Foreign Affairs says that the West needs to continue to supply Ukraine with modern weapons until Russia's military defeat and the collapse of the Putin regime. The committee also declared its readiness to take the reins of power in its hands afterwards.

Starting from May, Russia may start buying foreign currency for its reserves again. The country's budget has stabilized thanks to the growth of oil and gas export revenues, Bloomberg reports. The growth in revenues from the sale of energy products is already close to the target level. Since February of this year, the Russian Ministry of Finance has been selling reserves in Chinese yuan to cover the budget deficit. In April, sales collapsed by 50 percent compared to the beginning of the year. From May, purchases are likely to begin, Bloomberg notes. Such purchases can be relatively small at first — an equivalent of about $200 million in yuan. For the time being, Russia currently replenishes the National Welfare Fund only by purchasing Chinese currency.

On Tuesday, October 17, the Russian Parliament, the State Duma, gave the first reading to the draft law to revoke the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Commenting on the vote on the bill, Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin wrote that the withdrawal of the ratification should "contribute” to ensuring Russia's security against the backdrop of the US refusal to ratify the CTBT. "Washington should finally understand that hegemony on their part does not lead to anything positive. There is a need for dialogue on the principles of mutual respect, absence of double standards, and non-interference in the affairs of sovereign states. The Russian Federation will do everything to protect its citizens and ensure that global strategic parity is maintained," Vyacheslav Volodin wrote on Telegram.

Kremlin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov gave an interview to the MGIMO 360 news channel, in which he answered questions about the presidential election, Russia's nuclear rhetoric and enemies. According to Peskov, Russia's next president should be "the same as [Vladimir] Putin… or different, but the same." "Putin has not announced his intention to run. But I sincerely want to believe that he will do it. I have no doubt that he will win the election, I have no doubt that he will continue to be our president. We'll see," Peskov said.

In 2023, central banks around the world purchased significant amounts of gold. China's activity in this area was particularly noticeable as the nation's gold reserves increased by 225 tons over the year. An article published on Chinese Internet platform Baijiahao says that Russia actively participated in the gold rush to increase its precious metals reserves. As a result, Russia's gold reserves reached a record 2.36 thousand tons. Russia is thus ranked fifth following the USA, Germany, Italy and France.