The achievements of the three Baltic countries with respect to EU and NATO membership make the pro-Western governments of Ukraine and Georgia regard them as role models, both in politics and economics. In many ways Victor Yushchenko’s and Mikhail Saakashvili’s desire to follow the Baltic states is caused by the fact that these states are the strongest in Europe supporters of both internal and external policy of the Ukrainian and Georgian governments

To this day, All-Russia Exhibition Center (former VDNKh) is one of the largest Moscow attractions. This year the Center celebrates its 70^th anniversary. The exhibition was established by Stalin’s decree on February 17, 1935 as the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition.  The original design of the complex resembled the solar system. According to the architect’s plan, a huge statue of Lenin was to be placed in the center of the square

In the beginning of 2009, Gazprom suspended gas supply to Ukraine. According to the Russian company, transit fuel for European consumers was supplied to the Ukraine’s Gas Transmission Network but was not delivered to the consumers. This caused the gas giant to suspend the transit of gas through Ukraine. Ukraine’s state debt is rapidly growing. According to Yushchenko’s front office, the state debt has increased by 2.6 times since last year, and as of July 31, 2009 was $23 billion

Sasha Pekhtelev, a 13-year-old boy weighing 180 kilos (396.8 lbs), was delivered to a hospital in the city of Volgograd on Friday afternoon. The boy began to suffocate and had swollen legs: he could not get up from his bed for seven days. Paramedics had to call a rescue squad to help them take the boy out of the apartment building. Sasha was hospitalized to the intensive care unit of the city’s children’s hospital

Vegetarianism became popular in Russia years ago. However, a majority of Russian nutritionists and gynecologists believe that this diet is not suitable for Russians and absolutely contraindicated for pregnant women. This is caused by the lack of protein-rich vegetables growing in Russian climate conditions. Would pregnant vegetarians have to start eating meat?

Tragically in many societies, we often frequently find oscillatory behavior between extremes where e.g. in Russia, the Tsar ruled a highly feudalistic society comprising a small percentage of wealthy "elites" who subjugated a vast majority of uneducated impoverished, and overworked serfs. Then came communism in which property was forcibly redistributed to the masses (really to the government), little incentive was given for hard work, and competition was killed (literally)

The police of Russia’s Perm region solved the brutal murder of a homeless man, slaughtered by three of his own friends. The criminals ate a part of the corpse and sold the rest to a kebab kiosk. Forensic experts have taken samples of the suspicious meat to find out if the kiosk was selling kebabs made of human meat

Russia lost to Slovenia on Wednesday night in Maribor and will therefore miss the 2010 World Cup finals. The match saw Russia, with star player Andrei Arshavin having a disappointing evening, reduced to nine men by the 90th minute as they threw men forward in an attempt to level the score on the night