Sunday 3 June 2007

English Russia

I haven't been back to English Russia much lately. Here are some highlights of my last visit:

Pictures of President Putin's boat, even more vulgar than you might expect. It looks like a cross-Channel ferry. Links to his limo and plane, too, all equally kitsch.

Photos of a Russian graduation day, complete with short-short skirts, knee-socks, French maid uniforms and all. It was never like that in my schooldays, though admittedly I did go to an all-boys school. Still, ulp!

I'm not quite sure which of the military virtues this postage stamp is supposed to be commemorating. I've decided to adopt a policy of don't ask, frankly.

This CCTV video is almost too unbearable to watch. A man falls out of the ambulance. Cars speed by. Finally some stop, but then decide to drive round the guy slowly instead of helping. Finally, after an excruciating three minutes ... well, I won't give away the ending.

Mikhail Sholokov is most famous internationally for his novel And Quiet Flows the Don, which took fourteen years to write and won him the Nobel Prize in 1965. This is the monument he couldn't refuse in Moscow, or perhaps the horses are meant to be swimming in some deep water. Either way, pretty creepy.

That's all for now. Why not visit English Russia for yourself? It's Russian, but it's in English!