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Nice photos!
The leaves are only showing the first signs of color here in DC.
Was in Savannah, Ga, at Thanksgiving a couple of years ago, and the leaves were still not at full color.
I've wandered the hills of PA this time of year and it was really beautiful. The only thing special about Russia by comparison is the old architecture and the sheer vastness of the forests. They do seem to go on forever.
In US, ( at least here in the Northern part) "fall" and "spring" last two weeks only it seems)))
You go straight from summer clothes to the winter jackets.
*Note to those who travel to Russia;
over there you actually need the semi-seasonal clothing, unlike here.
I never liked the "false starts". A 3 day blizzard promptly followed by 70f for a week in October followed by the Rasputitsa in full force, mud everywhere. Then an abrupt frost down to -10 freezing everything solid. Sometimes totally unpredictable. I have went to work in a light jacket with sunlight on me and 8 hours later it's a full on blizzard with a foot of snow on the ground. The weather fronts move fast.
I didn't know they got one of these ISU-152s working. My ex wifes father was a driver and mechanic in one of these. These were used to reduce the bunkers at the siege of Koenigsburg in the winter of 1945.
A Soviet sargeant pinned down by Germans in a square calls up for support from one of these. The sergeant walks up to the machine and the commander leans out his hatch and asks "Which building offended you?".
Putin is pointing here that someone somewhere in Europe decided to refuse from the long term contracts and to go with gambling with the "market price" instead.
At 1:24 he is addressing 4 points, why the gas price is skyrocketing in Europe;
1. Post-covid revival of economy ( hence more demands for energy supply.)
2. Last cold winter brought the depletion of gas in the underground gas storages in some European countries.
3. Because of the hot weather and dying winds the supply of "green energy" significantly went down last summer.
4. "We talked ( with the EU commission) and their intention was to refuse from the long term contracts, switching to the "market price" instead. Which was unwise, since the energy market doesn't like the sudden jumps, it brings the disbalance, and as the result of it the price of gas hit the historic heights."
( Those that signed long-term contracts with Russia recently ( Hungary and Serbia?) are getting gas at fixed price ( lower than $300 per cubic meter?)
I think Merkel made some speech here before Putin, confirming that Russia fulfills all the obligations according to the signed contracts. ( So it's not "Russia-Russia-Russia" as some like to scream as usual. )
And of course the big elephant in the room - the NS 2 that is already fully operable, but someone is trying to throw the wrench at it the last moment, preventing it from going ahead.
"The certification" and stuff, that ( supposedly) will take another few months. Meanwhile, this "someone" hopes that Russia will start pumping gas through Ukraine.
Yeah right.
It looks like Zelensky ( who is really cornered at this point) is considering the referendum on whether Ukraine should start buying gas from Russia directly.
Otherwise they'll simply freeze to death - they don't have enough in storage and they don't have funds to buy anything at this "market price."
But I'll listen/read on that some more ( what's going on there.)
P.S. What I don't understand in this whole story, is why Great Britain for example so concerned with "Putin's gas"?
I thought that Western Europe was never receiving its gas supply from Russia?
(Just Germany and "Central European countries.")
So why France/Italy or Spain for this matter are affected by this crisis?
See that woman sitting timidly in the corner, the interpreter, during Putin/Trump negotiations?
That's right, that was Putin's secret weapon to distract Trump, according to former Trump's secretary Stephany Grisham who came up with a new book recently, (and Fiona Hill, who was going on and on god knows about what, while testifying against Trump during the "Ukrainegate.")
I hope the Europeans are happy with their brand of capitalism and speculation (which is not capitalism). Somebody is making a hell of a lot of money at the expense of the people.
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