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Alexander Garden in Moscow

13 September 2019 | Author/Destination: Russia / Russland | Rubric: General, Living, Working, Building Reading Time:  6 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Alexander Gardens was one of the first urban public parks in Moscow, Russia. The park comprises three separate gardens, which stretch along all the length of the western Kremlin wall for 865 metres (2,838 ft) between the building of the Moscow Manege and the Kremlin.   read more…

Tverskaya Street in Moscow

10 August 2018 | Author/Destination: Russia / Russland | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Tverskaya Street, known between 1935 and 1990 as Gorky Street, is the main radial street in Moscow. The street runs Northwest from the central Manege Square in the direction of Saint Petersburg and terminates at the Garden Ring, giving the name to Tverskoy District. The route continues further as First Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street, Leningradsky Avenue and Leningradskoye Highway.   read more…

Transatlantic relations

2 June 2018 | Author/Destination: Knut Wingsch | Rubric: General, Editorial, EU blog post series, European Union Reading Time:  633 minutes

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(Latest update: 23 August 2022) Transatlantic relations refer to the historic, cultural, political, economic and social relations between countries on both side of the Atlantic Ocean. Sometimes specifically those between the United States, Canada and the countries in Europe, although other meanings are possible. There are a number of issues over which the United States and Europe generally disagree. Some of these are cultural, such as the U.S. use of the death penalty, some are international issues such as the Middle East peace process where the United States is often seen as pro-Israel and where Europe is often seen as pro-Arab (Arab–Israeli conflict), and many others are trade related. The current U.S. policies are often described as being unilateral in nature, whereas the European Union and Canada are often said to take a more multilateral approach, relying more on the United Nations and other international institutions to help solve issues. There are many other issues upon which they agree. This article refers to the relations between the EU (Culture of Europe, Economy of the European Union, History of Europe, and Politics of the European Union) and the USA (Culture of the United States, Economy of the United States, History of the United States, and Politics of the United States).   read more…

2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia: The venues

7 May 2018 | Author/Destination: Russia / Russland | Rubric: General, Sport Reading Time:  28 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be the 21st FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament contested by the men’s national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It is scheduled to take place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting rights on 2 December 2010. All but one of the stadium venues are in European Russia, west of the Ural Mountains to keep travel time manageable. The Lushniki Olympic Stadium in Moscow shall be the venue of the opening match and the final. Of the 12 venues used, the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow and the Saint Petersburg Stadium (the two largest stadiums in Russia) will be used most, with 7 matches being played at each of these stadiums. In March 2018, the German Federal Criminal Police Office issued a clear warning about “high threats of terrorism” during the World Cup, so that it is recommended to visit the venues only after the World Cup (additionally: U.S. Department of State – Russia Travel Advisory). All other Western security services have issued similar warnings. The venues are similar to those of the FIFA Confederations Cup 2017, which was considered a dress rehearsal for the World Cup. Russia has had to reduce the overall budget for the World Cup several times due to the country’s persistent economic problems, so that the original planning for the World Cup, with the approval of the FIFA, can no longer be met. The venues are:   read more…

Arab–Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflict

6 January 2018 | Author/Destination: Knut Wingsch | Rubric: General, Editorial, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  1987 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post (Latest update: 23 August 2022) The Arab–Israeli conflict is the political tension, military conflicts and disputes between a number of Arab countries and Israel. The roots (European colonial period, Ottoman Empire, widespread Antisemitism in Europe, Jews in the Russian Empire, Baron Edmond James de Rothschild (Jewish land purchase in Palestine), Theodor Herzl, Jewish National Fund (Israel Bonds), timeline of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, World War I, Sykes–Picot Agreement (San Remo conference, Mandate for Palestine, UN Charter, Chapter XII – International Trusteeship System, Article 80 (commonly known as the “Palestine Article” used by both conflict parties, Israel and Palestine, to create the wildest interpretations, speculations and conspiracy theories to assert the respective alleged right to the total land area), McMahon–Hussein Correspondence), Balfour Declaration, World War II, The Holocaust (International Holocaust Remembrance Day), Évian Conference, Mandatory Palestine, Forced displacement, and United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine) of the modern Arab–Israeli conflict (or the history of collective failure) are bound in the rise of Zionism and Arab nationalism towards the end of the 19th century. Territory regarded by the Jewish people as their historical homeland is also regarded by the Pan-Arab movement as historically and currently belonging to the Palestinians, and in the Pan-Islamic context, as Muslim lands. The sectarian conflict between Palestinian Jews and Arabs emerged in the early 20th century, peaking into a full-scale civil war in 1947 and transforming into the First Arab–Israeli War in May 1948 following the Israeli Declaration of Independence (Nakba and the assassination of UN mediator Folke Bernadotte by the terror organization Lehi/Stern gang. Among them, the later Israeli PM Yitzhak Shamir). Large-scale hostilities mostly ended with the cease-fire agreements after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War, or October War. Peace agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt in 1979, resulting in Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula and abolishment of the military governance system in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in favor of Israeli Civil Administration and consequent unilateral, internationally not recognized, annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights and East Jerusalem. Even when the text is about 556 pages long, it is just a summary. The multitude of links point out that there is a lot more to learn in detail. At first, it is a timeline of the major developments in the region and it leads to today’s challenges. The starting point is the view of the international community, especially the European Union and North America, on the conflict, enriched with excursions into the ideas, convictions, believes, and thoughts of the direct and indirect involved parties to the conflict.   read more…

2017 FIFA Confederations Cup

17 June 2017 | Author/Destination: Russia / Russland | Rubric: General, Sport Reading Time:  9 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post The 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup will be the 10th FIFA Confederations Cup, a quadrennial international men’s football tournament organised by FIFA. It will be held in Russia, from 17 June to 2 July 2017, as a prelude to the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Russia was announced as the host on 2 December 2010 after the country was awarded the hosting rights of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The matches will be played in four different stadiums across four cities: Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan, and Sochi. It will be the first time Russia hosts the tournament, and the third time the Confederations Cup is held in the European continent. As hosts, Russia qualified automatically for the tournament; they will be joined by the six winners of the FIFA confederation championships and the 2014 FIFA World Cup champions, Germany. The final tournament will be played in two stages: a group stage and a latter knockout stage. In the group stage, each team will play three games in a group of four, with the winners and runners-up from each group advancing to the knockout stage. In the knockout stage, the four teams will compete in single-elimination matches, beginning with the semi-finals and ending with the final match of the tournament. A third-place match will also be played between the two losing semi-finalist teams. The following teams have qualified for the tournament: Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup hosts, Germany 2014 FIFA World Cup winners, Australia 2015 AFC Asian Cup winners, Chile 2015 Copa América winners, Mexico 2015 CONCACAF Cup winners, New Zealand 2016 OFC Nations Cup winners, Portugal UEFA Euro 2016 winners and Cameroon 2017 Africa Cup of Nations winners.   read more…

Stolobny Island in Lake Seliger

22 January 2016 | Author/Destination: Russia / Russland | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Stolobny Island is an island on Lake Seliger in the Tver Oblast of Russia, about 10 km (6.2 mi) north of the town of Ostashkov. The island is the home of Nilov Monastery, which was founded by Saint Nilus in 1594, and previously welcomed up to 40,000 pilgrims each year. Most of the buildings of the monastery were built in the 18th and 19th Centuries in a neoclassical style. Today the monastery complex remains one of the most impressive ensembles of Neoclassical architecture in Eastern Europe. Some of its churches date back to the 17th century. A graceful embankment was completed by 1812, and a large cathedral was built in 1821-25. The construction of the causeway to the island was completed in 1812. The Nilow Monastery was one of the largest and wealthiest monasteries in the Russian Empire.   read more…

Theme Week Moscow – Red October

15 January 2016 | Author/Destination: Russia / Russland | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post The Red October is a Russian manufacturer of confectionery and the name of the same factory in Moscow. In 1851 the Brandenburg confectioner Theodor Ferdinand von Einem (1826-1876) from Belzig opened up a small pastry shop on the Arbat Street. In the shop “Einem”, chocolate and candy were produced. He employed five staff. In 1857 he met his future business partner, the German businessman Julius Heuss (1832-1907) from Walddorf in the Black Forest. In the same year they jointly opened a pastry shop at the Theater Square in Moscow.   read more…

The Moscow Manege

31 October 2015 | Author/Destination: Russia / Russland | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  6 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post The Moscow Manege is a large oblong building which gives its name to the vast Manege Square, which was cleared in the 1930s and lies adjacent to the more famous Red Square. A manège is an indoor riding academy.   read more…