7 February 2015. Greetings from Slovakia! Even the Animals Celebrated Silvester Night

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“I’m never going to drink that much EVER again!” …. famous last words…

BMD

RIA-Novosti Presents… Photos of the Week, 21-27 December 2013: Olympic Fire, Ded Moroz, Kobzon the Terrible, and Others…

A cop on duty during the Olympic torch relay in Ufa.

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Policeman salutes a driver dressed as Ded Moroz, who brought the New Year’s tree to the Moscow Kremlin.

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Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former CEO of YUKOS, at a press conference at the Museum of the Berlin Wall {the place is a crapitalist rip-off, the admission is 12.50 Euros (564 Roubles. 17 USD. 18 CAD. 19 AUD. 10.40 UK Pounds) per person! An appropriate venue for a scammer, isn’t it?: editor}.

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Demonstrator at pro-EU rally on the Maidan in Kiev from the Narodnoye Veche  group.

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Dynamo-Kazan goalkeeper Anders Svensson with Yevgeni Ivanushkin (Dynamo-Moscow) and Aleksei Bushuev (Dynamo Kazan) (left to right) in the Russian Super Cup for Bandy.

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Iosif Kobzon, First Deputy Chairman of the RF Gosduma Committee on Culture, and Valentina Tereshkova, Deputy Chairman of the RF Gosduma Committee for International Affairs, at a plenary meeting.

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Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova leaving the correctional colony after her amnesty.

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President Vladimir Putin, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev (right to left) before the beginning of the session of the Supreme Council of the Eurasian Economic Community in the Kremlin.

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Yevgeni Plyushchenko competing in men’s single figure skating short programme at the Russian Cup figure skating championship in Sochi.

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The view from the top of the main New Year’s tree in Cathedral Square in the Moscow Kremlin.

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Opera singer Yelena Obraztsova and Vladimir Urin, the Director of the Bolshoi Theatre, at a press conference devoted to the 50th anniversary of Obraztsova’s début on the stage.

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A scene from Tchaikovsky‘s ballet The Nutcracker staged by Igor Zelensky on the stage of the Novosibirsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre.

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Ded Moroz made a lap around the Garden Ring.

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Actors wearing deer antlers play with children at the Moscow Zoopark during a presentation featuring Ded Moroz.

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Lying in state of the coffin of small arms designer Lieutenant General Mikhail Kalashnikov at the Cathedral of the Holy Archangel Michael in Izhevsk.

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27 December 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://ria.ru/photolents/20131227/986810952_986799180.html

RIA-Novosti Presents… It’s New Year in Russia!

Traditionally, Red Square is the centre of New Year festivities in Moscow.

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More than 50,000 people jammed Red Square to welcome in the New Year.

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This year is the first time that the Winter Olympics will be in Sochi.

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New Year fireworks in the main square of the Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort in Krasnaya Polyana in Greater Sochi.

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New Year’s revellers in the main square of the Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort in Krasnaya Polyana in Greater Sochi.

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In Novosibirsk, members of a healthy living society celebrated the New Year by jumping into an icy lake.

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Fireworks during the New Year celebrations in Grozny in Chechnya.

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Muscovites and tourists alike toasted the New Year at Red Square.

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Ded Moroz with Snegurochka in a car in front of an apartment house in Tara (Omsk Oblast) before going in to bring gifts to the children there.

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Vladivostok residents rang in the New Year in the central square of the city, where there was a winter village with ice slides and other attractions, as well as highlighting an entertainment programme “Marathon of New Year’s Stories”.

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1 January 2014

RIA-Novosti

http://ria.ru/photolents/20140101/987588102.html

Click here for more on the theme

13 October 2013. Our Great Russian Motherland… Buddhist New Year in Chita

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Did you know that Buddhism is one of the Big Four traditional religions in Russia (the others are Orthodox Christianity, Islam, and Judaism)? It’s strongest in Kalmykiya, Tyva, and Buryatiya, but there are also large communities in the Altai Republic, Trans-Baikal Krai, and Irkutsk Oblast. The above image is of Buddhist Lunar New Year in Chita, in Siberia. Estimates vary as to numbers, ranging from 700,000 to 2 million (the total, including the non-observant, is probably closer to the higher figure). It’s all Russian! It’s all ours, or none of it’s ours. Think on it.

BMD