I last drove through Mamonovo on a midriff-baring summer day, passing the time in the border queue with a packed Olga lunch of chicken and Georgian wine.
Seasons change but the queue remains the same. I’m sure I recognise some of the Polish cars still here from last year. Obviously beef smugglers. The Polish line [...]

Russia has spoken out against a Caspian pipeline which would bypass Russia. ‘Any gas or oil pipelines across the floor of the Caspian Sea would be environmentally unacceptable’, says the Russian Natural Resources Ministry.
‘Double standards’ says everyone else, as Russia builds a pipeline on the Baltic floor to bypass Poland.
As it happens, the Baltic isn’t [...]

Over at Siberian Light, Andy adds some needed perspective on the Russia-Belarus oil spat by adding some actual numbers.

As in the previous Ukraine gas row, the figures don’t support the media hype at all.
Since Andy has covered oil, let’s recap on the gas. Many European countries do not actually import gas from Russia, and [...]

And the winner is . . . the Kiev funicular railway. (1964)
If you didn’t click through the links on Svetlogorsk, you will have missed a treat of a page for Sovietica buffs: Soviet Funiculars.
It has been my privilege to ride several of these, but how many can claim to be truly Soviet is questionable. [...]

My small handful of readers will have noticed that Copydude has been off the planet for a week or so.

Over the New Year, the server moved from the US to the Netherlands - but not without incident. Some recent posts appear to have been lost in transit. I’ll have to look these out.
The upside is [...]

There’s one problem with being a fat cat in Russia. Even the most expensive suits don’t hang right from bloated, square Russian frames. Here’s a recent picture of Georgy Boos - apparently having just popped a button.

Georgy Boos is the new Governor of Kaliningrad. What happened to the old one? Well, he’s serving seven years. [...]

In the last two weeks, 500,000 German newspapers carried ads with the headline, ‘Comrades, Russia Is Waiting For You‘.
On offer to Russian expats in Germany is: an assisted resettlement package to Kaliningrad, including subsidised bills, free train travel, free phone installation, a chance to collect Russian and German pensions and dual citizenship.
By far [...]

Mamonovo, the border-crossing town outside Kaliningrad, is about to get some pop art: a new sculpture in the form of a giant can of Baltic Sprats. The tin monument will be about the size of a family car and hopefully rustproofed too.

Mamonovo Sprats are as famous as Campbell’s Soups in this part of Russia. Locals [...]

Fresh from a game of blockade with Poland, Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave is taking on Lithuania. It’s another game of siege that’s going to end in tears.
The story so far.
Mazeikiu, the Baltics’ only refinery, is situated in Lithuania. Until recently it was owned by Yukos and Russian receivers expected to acquire the title as a [...]

In May this year, Russia blockaded the Polish Port of Elblag. Elblag’s fairway to the Baltic crosses Russia’s Kaliningrad border in the beautiful Vistula Lagoon, and Russia closed the border. As a result, the town of Elblag is bankrupt.
Poland blames Russia of course but the dispute goes back to 2003, when Poland imposed a visa [...]