A new-fledged network of English-writing bloggers ready to answer questions about the Russian Federation, especially those concerning the Urals, Siberia, and the Far East. See the full list of active blogs below in the footer.
Growing shrubs in the Arctic of western Siberia. By B.C. Forbs.
This news about Arctic shrubs’ growing into trees over 2 m is already everywhere. Here is what the TIME magazine website says:
Researchers in Britain and Finland studied an area of 38,600 sq. mi (100,000 sq. km) in what’s known as the northwestern Eurasian tundra, which stretches from western Siberia to Finland. Surveys of vegetation in the region using both satellite data and local observations from reindeer herders showed that in 8 to 15% of the territory willow and alder shrubs had grown into trees over 6.5 ft. (2 m) tall over the past 30 to 40 years. That’s a period of time when temperatures in the Arctic have increased significantly, even faster than other parts of the planet.
BBC published the 6th episode of the “Last Man Standing” tv show on YouTube. This part is dedicated to the long distance race over frozen wastelands in Siberia’s Kamchatka.
Saluting her home town: Maria Sharapova has said it is fun when match announcers actually say she was born in Nyagan, Siberia. Picture: AFP
Maria Sharapova may be the world’s richest sportswoman in the world, but she is proud of her Russian origin. She was born in the small industrial town of Nyagan, West Siberia, Russia.
The girl who left Europe for the United States as a nine-year-old before becoming a Wimbledon champion at 17 and a future world number one, said yesterday that every time she hears her town of Nyagan mentioned, she gets the shivers, reports news.com.au.
“I am really happy and proud of where I come from. It’s fun to hear when they announce me and they don’t just say born in Russia, they actually say I was born in Nyagan, Siberia,” Sharapova said.
“Every time I hear that, you can hear the crowd go ‘whoa’. Like, I don’t think people actually realise that’s where I was born. When they say it I feel so proud.
So, where is Nyagan? See the city info and photographs.
Amazing! I live relatively close to Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia, and I didn’t know that a tourist train runs around Lake Baikal using Trans-Baikal Railway until I read the following press release from Russian Railways.
Not like a big fan of military stuff, but the following news is pretty interesting. Last week, a powerful Voronezh-M radar has been activated in Usolye-Sibirskoye town in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia’s Siberia, RIA Novosti reports.
The Voronezh-M radar installtion in Siberia was done in accordance with government efforts to replace a Soviet-era system.
The radar scans the area between China and the northeast United States. Voronezh-M can identify ballistic missiles at ranges up to 3,730 miles (instead of that Soviet-era Dnepr’s 1,550 miles.
Where is the world’s biggest head of Lenin located? There might be the only answer. In Ulan Ude town, the capital of Buryatia, on the Eastern side of Russia’s Lake Baikal.
Amazing! Today I come across The Independent’s news story “Up and away – how ’7 Up’ went global” saying, As the last episode of Britain’s ’56 Up’ airs, the first episode of ’28 Up’, from the former USSR, starts.
In the beginning, I was wondering what the show “56 Up” was about and why it was compared with the Soviet reality show “7 Up”. When reading the article, I recalled that there had been actually an old documentary done long, long time ago in the USSR time.
When I was a teenager in the 90s, I remember Read more >>
Buranovskiye Babushki were awesome in yesterday’s Grand Final of 2012 Eurovision in Baku. Now just imagine how awesome they are in their own little village called Buranovo in Russia’s region of Udmurtia.
Buranovo is, indeed, a small village. Its population is 658 people.
Last winter LiveJournal blogger uzoranet managed to visit Buranovskiye Babushki and confirmed that they are very active at their own native place. Cool.
