25 November 2016. Our Great Russian Motherland… Sunset Over the Lena River in Yakutiya

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The Lena River is 4,472 kilometres (2,779 miles) long and navigable for about 90 percent of its length. The navigation season lasts 125 to 175 days (longer in the south, shorter in the north). The Lena’s course runs completely through land affected by permafrost. It’s not always winter in Yakutiya…

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Ten Facts About Siberia

Ergaki Nature Reserve (Krasnoyarsk Krai. Siberian Federal District)… the reserve is 3,429 square kilometres (1,324 square miles) in size

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1. Siberia occupies almost 10 percent of the land on the planet.
2. Siberia is over 10 million square kilometres (3.86 million square miles) in area… larger than Canada, the second-largest country in the world after Russia.
3. Siberia’s highest point is Belukha Mountain, at 4,509 metres (14,794 feet) (Altai Mountains).
4. Siberia has the deepest lake on the planet… Lake Baikal.
5. Siberia has the largest amount of freshwater surface area on the planet.
6. Siberia’s Vasyugan Swamp is the largest swamp/wetland in the world… about 53,000 square kilometres (20,464 square miles) in size, larger than such countries as the Netherlands, Switzerland, or Belgium.
7. Siberia has more than 25 percent of all forests on the planet.
8. Siberia has the largest temperature differential in the world… the greatest difference between summer and winter temperature is 106.7 degrees (-70 to + 36.7) (224.06 degrees Fahrenheit, -94 to 98.06), recorded at Verkhoyansk (Yakutiya).
9. Siberia has the largest concentration of natural resources in Russia:
   • 85 percent of lead and platinum
   • 71 percent of nickel
   • 69 percent of copper
   • 44 percent of silver
   • 40 percent of gold
10. Siberia has 24 million inhabitants (16.9 per cent of Russia’s population).

16 November 2016

Красоты России

Beauties of Russia

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23 June 201: Our Great Russian Motherland: Matua Island in the Kuriles

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Matua Island is a smallish island in the Kurile Islands north of Japan. It’s about 11 kilometres (6.8 miles) in length and about 6.5 kilometres (4 miles) in width, with an area of about 50 square kilometres (@20 square miles). It has an active volcano that disrupted air traffic in the Northern Pacific during its last eruption in 2009. Prior to the collapse of the USSR, the island had an airfield and a military base, but they went vacant in the 90s. Today, the Russian forces are returning to the island and reactivating the premises. The bear is back… and he ain’t inclined to hand what’s his to others…

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6 January 2013. They Celebrated the New Year in… Moscow, Part Deux

A little girl greets an unexpected guest, Yakut Eagle, a reindeer, who arrived at Sokolniki Park in Moscow from Oimyakon, one of Russia’s coldest spots, located in Yakutia, in the Russian Far East.

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Whooping it up in Red Square.

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Ded Moroz greets Muscovite kids.

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Illuminated decoration showing Ded Moroz in a troika pulled by three horses on Kutuzovsky Prospekt in front of the Triumfalny Archtroik.

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A light show on the façade of the Manezh exhibition hall.

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Moscow’s not called “The Centre” for nought…

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