Tag Archives: Russia

What is wrong with IMF ?

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IMF has listed the global winners and losers on the economic ladder for 2022 and same time predicted the position of the major players for 2023 and 2024.

But I have a reason to seriously question IMF’s ability, or honesty in such predictions. And yes, the war against Russia has lots to do with it. 

But first, let us check what the report says. It says advanced countries had a growth of 2.7% in 2022, which will fall to 1.2% this year and creep up to 1.4% next year. BRaking that down, it predicts the figures for the US are 2.0, 1.4 & 1.0. I have many reasons to seriously doubt such estimates. Everybody knows US GDP on purchasing power actually shrank last year and did not at all grow 2%. It however predicts an actual shrinkage of the British economy in 2023. But surprisingly, most European economies will continue to rise, though just barely above zero.

Then comes the so called developing nations. Earlier they used to call the rest as backward nations, but the west has learned to be more polite these days. China, considered as the most powerful economy in the world today, outpacing the Americans, are slotted within this developing group.

Check China, the largest economy today. It’s growth is reported to have been 3% last year, but expected to jump to 5.2 this year. Among the large economies, India seems to be the shining example in this report, and much talked about due to its contribution within BRICS+ and the collective clout of this group agaisnt the developped group. Along with them, there are more potential BRICS+ joiners that are also star performers – Saudi Arabia, Middle East & Central Asia.

Note – Russia is missing here.

It has taken me a long time to figure out that rankings, past statistics and future predictions of economic activity of nations around the world, projected by mostly renowned western intitutions, are tainted and in some cases, fraudulent, to give the wrong impression to readers, say about promoting Russophobia.

This is not unlike how Facebook, Google search, YouTube, the US Government, and mostly all media channels also project the news heavily biased to suit agendas of the folks that own or control these institutions.

Of recent – I have spent time and effort to dig into Russia, to figure out how a country, Russia, can not only fight off the collective might of the entire western nations plus a few non-westerns (e.g. Japan), if Russia’s Economy was less than a twentieth of the collective West+. To me, modern warfare is highly dependent on the economic, industrial, resource base & scientific details of the parties engaged.

On paper, the collective west has more than twenty times the economy, and incalculably high amount of financial, legal, social, and industrial capacity. Russia has often been described dismissively as a country that is little more than a gas station, ruled by a despotic dictator.

If the economic forecast, and calculations of industrial base are correct, then, considering the attack on all fronts, military, economic and everything else, directed agaisnt Russia by USA/NATO, then Russia should have been dismembered, sliced and gobbled up within a month of the beginnign of hostilities.

But the way it looks, the collective west is fallling on its face.

To me, this is a very strong indication that the western projection of most all data, economic included, is fradulent and has been misinforming the people about facts and misleading them down the wrong path.

Russian economy, after the Yeltsin induced free fall, was considered to be ranked way below the top ten and somewhere at par with perhaps Spain. I know in my guts thats a lie, because Russia is able to shrug off near total sanction by the entire west, and is able to outproduce the west in military hardware, and able to invesnt, design and produce deadlier weaponry, staying ahead of the west, and its currency is strengthening instead of weaking.

This tells me two things:

1) Russian economy, science and industrial base are far stronger than projected.

2) The economic predictions by the western financial institutions are crap.

I have mulled into the reports, as a marine engineer and not as an economist, which I am not, I have actually placed a lot of data in my own giant spreadsheets to check how they look if I try to projust something taking into account various factors within my own knowledge and hunch.

PricewaterhouseCooper International is an intriguing source. It is a vast network of accountancy firms spread across the globle, that provides assurance, tax and advisory services. They are everywhere, including India. They make their own predictions, and some of it is interesting, and often different in the message they send out, compared to the US Govt, the World Bank or the IMF, or what you might read in Financial Times.

The attached chart is from this network of accountancy firms. If you see their 2016 data, the so called emerging economies already carry more punch than the so called advanced nations (G7 versus E7). You did not know about it because G7 is an established group that meet every year and take collective decisions. E7 did not up to recently. They do not even identify themselves as E7. But much of that is now changing, thanks to BRICS+, and the Ukraine conflict and US hegemony.

Thus, the Ukraine conflict has been a massive game changer that is threatening to shred the existing world order as well as Klaus Schwab’s GEF based plans of a new kind of world order.

By 2050, it looks like game over for the west. Six out of seven top econolies will be non western, the US being the only exception. Indonesia, who nobody hears about, will be the 4th largest economy in the world.

But what about Russia? Well, PWC is also a western network. Somehow, their study is likely based on western projections. Even then, Russia is present, at 6th place in both columns. This too, I suspect, is biased and wrong.

I have heard some Dutch experts comment that Russian Economic and Industrial might is not understood well by the west and they are now highly biased against Russia, hence the projections show them absurdly lower than others. I think he was speaking the truth.

WIthout being an economist (thank heavens), I suspect the Russian industrial/scientific/economic acumen, combined with their near inexhaustible richness in resources like energy, food, and gold, their actual ranking should place them between 3rd and 4th today. I cannot predict 2050 since it is too far away.

Then, considering the top Emerging nations – E7, is already stronger than the G7, and are mostly aligned behind Russia in this Ukraine conflict, I cannot help but suspect that the combined West might be facing a long term sunset scenario. The only direction open for them is sliding downhill. Unfortunately, USA exerts a near iron grip on the groups outlook and activity. So USA is likely to drag the rest of the west along with them.

IF we do not have a nuclear holocaust, or a financial meltdown with GEF initiated digital currency surveillance world, which the non-West are possibly likely to reject sooner or later, once they get their act together – I think it may be game over and a reverse migration era will start. People of the west will try to learn Mandarin, Hindi, and Russian, and hope to get a job away from home, much like many Europeans for two hundred years, took all their belongings and hopped a ship heading for New York.

I am still mulling how to connect these dots. But I am already guessing that Russia is at the fulcrum. It is neither eastern nor western. It is Euratian. It appears close to west, but is anchored in Asia. Russia is, in my thinking, likely to be the largest swing state.

Apart from Russia being at the fulcrum, there are more things to connect the dots. Example:

  1. The coming collapse of not just the US dollar, but the entire banking system, where we are to see out money in baks dsappearing or being inacessible. There ill be bank runs across the planet. A new kind of mandemic is to be declared globally – the cyber pandemic, and everybody will be subject to severe control on expenditure.
  2. Russia will be blamed for the pandemic, although Russia will have nothing to do with it and the crisis was either organic, since the banking was going to collapse on its own weight for creating too much fake money.
  3. BRICS+ is seriously chaning the global balance of power. Ukraine and its importance, along with NATO, are all going to be less important.
  4. US acknowdges defeat in Ukraine and stops funding it, and begins to pour money into Indo-pacific region to bolster AUstralian naval power to challenge, along with the US and UK the new global enemy – China.
  5. Biden is asked to step down due to corruption charges. Kamala Harris becomes the short term president. She has no chance to win any election on her own, so the Democrats will not nominate her to lead the party in the next election, making her a lame duck with nothing to lose. She will, therefore, declare tha the US is pulling out of Ukraine, essentially conceding defeat.
  6. New shift to Indo-Pacific under new alliance called AUKUS (Astralia+UK+US) will also mean US funding for new nuclear.subs and weaponry to be given to Australia will need huge funds, so Europe/NATO/Ukraine will stop receiving funds. This is the death knell for both Ukraine and Europe.
  7. Role of India not properly undestood – this has remained under the radar till now. But world’s focus eventually will turn here. Will India compete with Russia for for the top spot as the Swing State. Indian Govt is tight lipped but appears to be very sane, level headed and not inclined to brag about whats going on. Watch India.

Here is my latest rant on the topic:

CONNECTING THE GLOBAL DOTS

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The world is constantly inching towards the end of the cliff. The Ukraine war has become toe focal point of a very large set of global issues that is tearing the estabished fabric of global systems apart. A new system is poking its head out of the fractured shell of the egg. It is not at all certain if the transition from the US controlled unipolar hegemonic petrodollar linked world economic system to a yet unidentified multipolar system is going to be peaceful or violent. All the tell tale signs are there.

Click on image to read the document

At one end of the Ukraine imbroglio stands Russia. In the eyes of the western propaganda driven, virtual world citizens of the west – Russia is the greatest bully and a rogue and a crimina invader of an innocent, peace loving Ukraine without any provocation. But in the eyes of those that keep their eyes, ears and minds open, Russia is noen of those things and the US is the greatest instigator and architect of this fame narrative. He has out Sovieted the Soviets of the past and out Propaganda-ed the Soviets too. The lies are so blatact, so omniprent, so unbelievably stupid and stifling, that one has to be a near retard to beleive it all. The lies started a long long time ago and continues to this day. So, for the people awake, Russia is being singled out as the villane on one side of the conflict, with a clear intend to bury it permanently, never to emerge again.

But on the other side, unlike the propaganda narrative, is not Ukraine, which is just a proxy tool and an intended sacrificial lamb, too stupid to understand what is good for it, and controlled by the most corrupt regime on the face of this planet. No, Ukraine is most certainly not on the other end of the conflict. It is the US, the agent provocateur par excellence. Along with the US, is all the nations that hang on to the coat tails of USA. That includes Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and all EU/NATO nations of Europe. And, just for variety, you may also add Japan, the only non-white nation into the mix. That is what Russia is facing single handedly, on false charges.

MODI + PUTIN

But then, there is also the non-west nations of the earth, comprising of 85% of the world population. And there is BRICS+. and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. There is China, and then there is India. All of them carry significant amount of geopolitical, economic and demographic punch. It is getting increasingly well understood by the world, that there are more than just one block (the west) on earth. And the emerging nations are not particular fond of the west, reembering well the centuries of direct colonisation and subseqquent hidden colonisation ongois ng till today.

India has been playing a tightrope walk for the last one year. Initially they utright refused to sanction Russia and even said how it is dangerous for their national interest to cut trade links with Russia. However, the things turned around rapidly for India.

In jiffy, India managed to secure discounted assurance of Russian Crude oil that the west sanctioned itself out of. Then India proceeded to refine the oil in India, at a rate higher than India’s own consumption. India started filling up its own strategic reserve on one side, and started selling the refined oil on the other side. USA and Europe started importing the refined oil, originally from Russia but repackaged through India. Strangely, this was acceptable to the western sanction regimes. Net result was, India became the worlds third largest oil importer on one side, and a huge refined oil supplier to the west on the other. For reasons such as this, the US seem to have moved on to a coy mode. Its politicians seem not too keen to scold India any more, for continuing to trade with Russia. A few Indian video content creator such as Amit Sengupta started covering such stories on Youtube. One is tempted to say – politics makes strange bedfellows.

So is things going great for Russia? Well, in my mind, there are still unanswered questions. One of them have been why is it so fard to find a Russia loving Russian that is not afraid to speak with me about his views of how his homeland is being targetted, unfairly, by the entire west. I have been looking for such a person for a year now. And although there are over 150 million Russians, I have found only one so far. Everybody else is commenting on the english medium social media, or on podcasts and video, but I cannot find a single Russian to speak on record with.

Who are the good Russians? Who are the bad ones? Why are most of them reluctant to speak on camera ? WHat are they afraid of? Why are they hesitating? My search continues, but I by now have a few suspicions.

Click image to read full document
Author – Tony Mitra

Dentists and Russia

There used to be a joke in my younger years, about dentists in Soviet Union. The joke was – the hardest profession in Soviet Union was that of a dentist – because nobody wants to open his or her mouth. It was a jpke then. But I am beginning to suspect that this is not a joke any more, in present Russia. And there must be a rather strange or sinister reason.

I have been told that Russia is full of internally implanted sppies, Putin-haters and agent provocateurs, apart from an already exising (illegal) Government in exile. The internal colaborators of the US hegemon are at all layers of Government, and the courts or the banks and on social media. The reason is long and complicaed. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the corrupt Russians came to Boris Yeltsin’s group like flies to a jar of honey.

Boris apparently helped create the class of looters that tried to drain Russian resources dry, and became billionnaires overnight. Yeltsin reaslised the mistake and also got afraid that he was going to end his life being hanged or in jail and that his daughter and son in law too would face the gallows. He tried to right the ship by offering to step down and help elevate the right guy that can steady the floundering Russian ship, but same time spare him and his family. As the story goes, Yestsiin found nobody around him capable enough, except Putin.

To cut a long story, Putin kept his promise, let Yeltsin spend his last years in peace, stopped the national loot and told the instant billionnaires – so far and no further. You can keep your wealth, but the loot stops now.

Thus, the crooks remained. Over the years, most of them have now left Russia and taken their cash with them. The owner of Telegram is one such – Pavel Durov, now reportedly a resident of Dubai, is a good example. He is apparently a highly controvertial person, and suspected to be somewhat anti-Putin. Is that because Putin stopped the instant Billionnaires from continuing to loot Russia, or because he refuses to be bought any more?

Some Russians tell me, this man is not straight and he is not exactly a Russia lover. But a lot of activists and such are on his Telegram channel. I myself have found it hard to find an honest Russian to agree to speak with me on record, through huge list of channels on Telegram that are supposedly frequented by Russians. I even had a few Russian speaking friends to post in Russian language to seek a Russia loving Russian to speak freely and without fear to me on record. I have been disappointed in the result initially, because I was not aware of what was gonig on there. No takers of the offer to speak with me so far, except just one Russian woman about six months ago – Ms Irina Muhina. First part of her interview is below. I could not fathom why I am not getting people ready and happy to speak to me. Language was one problem but I did not believe at all that this was the main problem. It took me some time to understand that there are layers of other issues that are likely making some Russians nervous and who to talk to freely. One of the cause of this nervousness, I suspect, is because there is an internal quiet revolution gonig on in Russia, involving house cleaning. Some believe the globalists are slowly filtering out of Russia and taking their assets with him. The west cutting Russia out of the SWIFT system might have triggered an avalanche. I would love to hear more of it from Russia, but do not get much clear talk from Russians. Many are too shy to speak from within Russia. Many more Russians outside of Russia have divided loyalties and confused notions. Many east Europeans carry historical grudge against Russia and many Russians are aware of that and do not wish to speak up. This is a mine field in itself.

That was a few months ago. By now I have spent more than a year looking for honest Russians that do not hate Russia nor Putin and understands the root causes behind the conflict and willing to speak without fear.

The paucity of available Russians, and the rumour that inside Russia, the agent provocateurs are now on the run, and many are slowly exiting Russia. Some congregating around Georgia while others are gravitating towards greener pasteurs such as Canada. I wonder when we are going to have a Stephan Bendera statue here in Canada. Bandera, long dead now, is the celebrated Nazi of Ukraine and Nazis appear to be the new darlings of the west.

I need further confirmation on why I have a hard time finding people in Russia to speak with me. Many agree at first, and then shy away for one reason or another. Some do a partial interview but find excuse to avoid the others, such as sudden fever and illness or too busy to talk face to face or downright hostile and arrogant. I have a sneaky suspecion that these do not love Russia, nor Putin and somehow are playing for the US to destroy Russia, at which time they plan to somehow benefit from it. I also have a sneaky feeling that the good Russians might be aware of what is going on, but do not fully know who is a good guy and who is not, or something. They are therefore more careful and hesitant about exposing themselves, and would rather wait to see if Putin manages to sweep his house clean, or the old Obama plants and left over crooks in Russia manage to bury Putin as well as Russia, and let the US regain its Unipolar global bully status. This is of course, just a hunch.

Facebook is a lot bigger than just a dot – it is a black hole

Connecting the dots in a major puzzle needs most of the dots to be identified and plotted. I have now come to realise that Facebook, along with some others, are dots that just cannot be ignored. When it comes to passing information and shaping public opinion, it is my view that Facebook represents a gigantic dot. This dot is as large as a black hole. Black holes in space are supergiant masses that have so much grvitational pull that even photons, or particles of light that have a miniscule weight but travelling at the speed of light, cannot escape its pull if they pass too close to these guys. What happpens is light too falls into this giant vacuum cleaner and can never excape. No matter how much explosive activity is going on inside that mega-star, no light  and no nothing from it can escape its unbelievable gravitational pull, hence the name – Black Hole. Even light that passes near it without getting too close, is bent in its path due to the gravitation. This is one way Einstein to explain how the space as we understand it, is a matrix that is curved by the matter around it etc.

Back to our virtual world – you need to identify and plot the dots on the map before you can connect them. And Facebook, in the current human tapetry, is not just an important dot that is far more important, far larger, than just a dot. it is a virtual black hole.

If you are smart, you may indirectly guess its existence by its absence and how it bends space around it and how its extreme gravitational pull does not allow even particles of visible light, called photon, to escape. That is why it is invisible – even light is unable to escape a black hole. Thus the name – black hole. It is neither a hole, nor black.
To be continued ….

Russia-China vetoes Aleppo ceasefire resolution

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Well, the goings on in UNSC is perhaps an indication of geopolitical shift in the issue of regime toppling efforts by western interests.

The issue is the town of Aleppo in Syria. There is a multi-pronged warfare going on in much of the country. A lot of different groups are trying to topple the current government of Assad.

According to the US, the people fighting the government are local Syrians that wish to topple a brutal regime there.

According to other reports, the country is infiltrated by jihadists, ISIS, mercenaries etc, sent there specifically to start the next phase of the middle east war, and to topple the Assad government.

Assad

To complicate matters, there are also Kurdish resistance groups who wish to have a homeland of their own, and currently occupy strips of Turkey, Syria and Iraq, and are treated as second class citizens most everywhere. I am not sure which side of the war they are on, but Turkey, who hates the Kurds (Because the Kurds in Turkey also want independence) would either like a piece of land carved out of Syria so all the Turkish Kurds could perhaps also go there and stop bothering Turkey, or perhaps hoping that all the Turkish Kurds would cross the border and join the fight in Syria, on whichever side, as long as they vacate Turkey.

Obama

These are reasons why the issue may be too complex to fully comprehend, and many folks have opinion based on one or another point of view.

There are other factors about Syria that might be relevant. Assad does not allow western banking and oil interests to benefit from Syria’s land or its assets.

Also, Syria, while Muslim, is largely secular and do not promote a sunni version of lifestyle. Women are not required to cover themselves or stay home.

There is also additional issues of two competing oil pipelines proposed to go through Syria. The US plan leads gulf oil from Qatar to reach the west via Turkey to the Mediterranean.

Putin

There is apparently another Russian plan to help Iran develop a pipeline going through Iraq and Syria and reach the west through a Syrian terminal facing the mediterranean.

Saudi Arabia, Israel and the US do not want Iran to benefit from pipelines, and do not want Syrian ports to benefit from the business, unless Assad regime is toppled and a pro-West, Pro-Saudi, Pro-Israeli group rules Syria.

IN the middle of all this, is the issue of the current legitimate government of Syria inviting Russia to come and help fight the opponents of the regime, who they claim are foreign terrorists being funded by Saudi, Israeli and US interests, and are using US weaponry. Russia accepted the offer.

Jinping

This pits Russian military in direct confrontation with US-Saudi-Israeli interests.

Things have reached a pitch where nothing USA says about Syria, including what comes out specifically from Obama and Hillary (before she lost the election) could be believed.

It was better to look for independent reports emerging from the ground in Syria, such as Canadian reporter Eva Bartlett

Now, the epicentre of the fight is concentrated around the city of Aleppo. It was completely in control of the rebels, and there were reports of horrific treatment of the civilians coming out from there too, including mass graves and using the people as human shields against Syrian forces trying to free the town.

Anyhow, now the rebels are apparently surrounded by the syrian forces who are also being supported (I am not too sure of the details) by Iraqi forces who also want ISIS and jihadists defeated, since they believe these people actually came from Iraq, and if they succeed in Syria, would turn and haunt Iraq again. Anyhow.

Maduro

Now the battle around Aleppo has apparently turned a decisive corner, and much of the town is liberated by the govt forces. The rebels, which are perhaps the concentrated mass of ISIS forces and mercenary soldiers on pay, are surrounded and cannot flee and regroup because their escape route through the desert is blocked by Russian missiles, fighters and bombers.

USA and its supporters have been pushing for a no-fly zone for a long time, specifically in areas where the rebels move around. But since the area is under control of the Russian air force intent on cutting off rebel movement, this pitches the US directly against the Russians. USA has not put their own airforce to enforce a no-fly zone here, presumably because US generals warned Obama that this move would trigger a direct war against Russia.

Hillary herself has spoken often about wanting a no-fly zone there, fully toting the Obama-military-industrial wish. Putin’s intensions are not very clear, but this much is accepted by most – Russia does not have a wish to control the assets of the region. Rather, Russia is more interested in ensuring the region does not become an US stooge and hostile to Russia.

So, now, three countries pressed a resolution in the UNSC to force the security council to adopt a 7 day stopping of bombings around Aleppo, in order to “pass humanitarian aid” to suffering residents of Aleppo.

What has happened today, is that Russia, China and Venezuela voted against it, and 11 other security council members (some non-permanent and some permanent) voted for it. Russia and China are permanent members with veto power.

In essence, this perhaps is the first time China has openly joined Russia in a veto about the war in Syria.

I take that as the beginning of a new phase of China. They are also, slowly, beginning to bring assistance to the Assad regime, in paramilitary and military sphere.

I believe one of the main reason for China to decide to help Syria and defeat the insurgency, even at the cost of openly opposing western commercial and military interests, is because China itself has a lot of boundary provinces with substantial muslim population, and it believes some of the Islamists and Jihadists are fomenting trouble in those Chinese provinces, hoping to start a revolt and turning those areas into an expanding Islamic state. China believes some of the mushrooming or budding terrorists from these regions have already been recruited and are right now being trained first hand in insurgency through the war in Syria.

Therefore, China would like the rebels to be defeated. It considers this mushrooming of Islamic terrorism that spreads from nation to nation, and is apparently supported by Saudi Money, Israeli political support and US weaponry, poses a threat to China’s own security and integrity. In other words, its not a joking matter for them.

Ohh.. well .. we are all living in interesting times..

NATO may be brain dead

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RT Report says NATO is rethinking a scenario where US under Trump might pull out from Europe.

Far as I think, NATO should seriously mull this scenario and Trump should consider de-escalation of warmongering, and also tell Trudeau to stop selling weapons to Saudi Arabia. Everybody should go home and spend that money on local jobs and infrastructure. Russia is not a devil and war mongering should not be the only way to grow an economy and Corporatocracy should not be the only policy for nation states.

Enough already.

The German defence minister says Trump to be firm with Russia as NATO stood by the US after 9/11. Well, with all due respect, I do not know what Germany means by standing by the US after 9/11. US falsely attacked Iraq which had less than zero involvement in 9/11 and ended up killing a million people of Iraq. What is the meaning of Germany standing by the US, please explain – Germany. And Russia is not the bully. You are allowing US missiles to be placed on German soil aimed at Russia – you are the puppet of USA threatening Russia you moron. You deserve to have Russia placing their missiles aimed at you. Are you completely devoid of rational thinking ? Soviet Union had a gripe against you on two counts:
1) It was ideological – communism thought capitalism needed to be defeated, everywhere. But Russia today is not communist.
2) Germany had invaded Russia twice, in WWI and WWII. You were the aggressor each time and cause massive damage and death to Russia. Russia has a historical justification to be suspicious of you. And now you are adding fuel to the fire – you bunch of morons !!

I seriously think NATO and the German political clan under Angela Merkel might be brain dead.

Ukraine, Crimea and Russia – my first impression

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Ukraine has been in the news, for the past few days, but for the wrong reason.

Today I saw a video clip of Pro-Russian Soldiers patting the hand of a Pro-Ukraine counter part in a friendly gesture. This prompted me to write my first impression of the place. I remember visiting parts of Ukraine when I was 20 years old, on a ship, as a junior engineer. The ship was a general cargo vessel of 10,000 ton size and carried a variety of goods from India, to be off loaded in various Soviet Ports. My first port of call was Odessa, a black sea port, not far from the Rumanian border.

Yes, it was part of the Soviet Union at that time.

I remember the intense cold and mounds of snow everywhere. I remember visiting some of their large department stores. I remember the blast of hot air that came through the air ducts and me standing right next to it warming my hands. I was wearing a parka that I had bought just a few weeks before, in Las Palmas, which was a Spanish island at the entrance to the Mediterranean.

I remember visiting the Interclub, a sort of “foreigners club” that the Soviets set up for those that could not speak the local language. The club had an English Language Library, where there were not only English translations of Great Russian authors like Tolstoy, but also books like The Catcher in the Rye.

I had almost no money in my pocket, since the pay for a junior engineer working in an Indian shipping company was really poor those days. I had something like 5 US dollars to spend over the next ten days in Ukraine.

And yet, I had lots of fun. First of all, I got a free bus ride to the Interclub, from the port area. Since I did not know where to go, or how to get there and how much it might cost, I took the free ride.

Next, the women that attended the club, who spoke English, did help me get a booklet of transport tickets. These are actually very similar to the ones in Vancouver these days. The same passes can be used on a bus, a train, or a ferry. What was different for me, is that I got a booklet of a dozen or so tickets (forgot how many where there) without having to pay for it. Apparently, it was a present, from the Soviet Union.

So, armed with that booklet, I was free to take any bus or other transport anywhere, and it cost me absolutely nothing. This was a novel experience for me, since I had never been given a free travel pass in any other country.

I also remember few other incidences of basically meeting up young people that wished to speak with me, on the street, or in a cafe, but we could not manage much of a talk because they spoke Ukrainian, Russian or Romanian, and I spoke only Bengali, Hindi and English. Nonetheless, we smiled at each other a lot, shook hands, and I got patted on my back often.

A young women kissed me on my cheek, which caused quite a bit of embarrassment for me. Coming fresh from India, I was not used to sudden display of affection from strangers on streets. On the whole, I came away with really nice feelings about the people of the Soviet Union.

My next stop was in Kherson, at the mouth of Dnieper River. I was there for only a few days. The place needed a different set of travel tickets. I also managed to see a sort of musical play. It was not quite the Bolshoi ballet, but it was very good, in my untrained eye. How did I afford to buy the ticket? Well, once again, I was gifted by a free pass by the Soviet Union. It was one of the best seats, in the second row from the front.

I was invited to a “chess” game. Russians were champion chess players. But the game was invented in India. So I went to play. I knew the basic rules, but was less than an average player. Consequently, I lost both the games, one as white and the next as black. The opponent was a man about twice my age.

What I remember from the game is – we were sitting on the sidewalk across a small round table with the chess board on it. I had a mug of hot Russian tea (actually the tea came from India), while the opponent had Vodka.

People stopped to watch the game. Some stood around us, and spoke among themselves in whispers – probably discussing the game, and no doubt wondering why I was not making smarter moves. Some looked at me encouragingly and even tried giving me advise, which of course I could not follow.

My last stop was in Crimea itself, a small jetty near the Naval port of Sevastopol. I had learned about the recent Russian history, about Balaclava and the Charge of the Light Brigade. About the Yalta conference between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. But it was while in Sevastopol that I learned that, for most of history, Crimea had been a part of Russia, and that a majority of the population in crimea were ethnic Russian. I knew by then that Russians were not exactly same as the Ukrainians. I had by then also learned a bit more about the links the place had with Tartars, Greeks and even Romans.

I did not know at the time, that I was never to return to those places again. I have had opportunity to visit the northern parts of Russia as well as parts of the former Soviet block nations by the North Sea. I was also to visit neighbouring Rumania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia etc subsequently. But never again did I get a chance to visit Ukraine on the black sea, or Crimea.

On the whole, I only have pleasant memories of the place.