Russians give Putin record approval rating as Americans, Europeans continue to lose ground

By Vladimir V. Sytin
The Ukrainian Times

According to recent opinion polls, Russians give President Vladimir Putin the record approving rating of 88%, compared with 85.9% a year ago. In addition, 88% of citizens of the Russian Federation say they do not want to emigrate from the country.

The unemployment rate accounts for about 5.3% in Russia today, compared with 7.8% at the start of 2011. Last year Russia harvested the record 104 million tons of grain. Natural growth of the Russian population amounted to 37,100.

By comparison, Americans have continued to lose ground since the 18-month recession ended in June 2009. U.S. Census Bureau data show that a median household income fell by 3.9% to $51,939 in 2013, compared with 2009 when Obama took office. The poorest fifth fared even worse, with incomes dropping 5.9% to $20,900.

At present, the U.S. federal debt exceeds $212 trillion. Moreover, Western observers say the Fed’s ultra-low lending rates often lure capital into unstable and dangerous investments such as shale oil.

In 2000 the U.S. had a bubble in tech stocks, while in 2007 it had bubbles in finance and housing. Now the American evil empire has bubbles in corporate bonds ($14 trillion), auto loans ($905 billion) and student loans ($1.2 trillion outstanding). Pop, pop, pop – that is what will happen to these bubbles.

Measured by the price of companies’ stocks to their earnings (P/E), this indicates that Russia (P/E 6.7), Italy (8.5), China (10.1) and Greece (8.1) are cheapest while Spain (22.3), Portugal (20.6), Canada (20.6), Switzerland (20.6) and the U.S. (20.3) are most expensive. Using dividend yields, the bargains appear to be Russia (5.7%), Brazil (4.8%), Spain (4.6%) and Portugal (4.3%), whereas the worst yields are available in Greece (0.7%), Japan (1.7%) and the U.S. (1.8%).

Who is the winner? Russia. It is cheap on all measures and gives investors the most value they can get. Only the American evil empire is expensive
on all measures. So, a simple investment formula: sell the U.S., buy Russia.

Japan limps along after 25 years of stimulation with the economy that is not a yen larger than it was two decades ago. Its government debt/GDP ratio is estimated at a crushing 235%. Government deficits are still running at 8% of GDP.

According to experts’ estimates, Japan’s debts have grown so large that 43% of tax receipts are required just to service past debt, to say nothing of the amounts needed for current and future deficits. Try living on 57% of what you earn (the rest goes to pay your creditors), while still spending more than your income. Japan’s public finances are doomed.

The euro has depreciated 30% of late. In France government spending rose to 57% of GDP.

Greece’s national debt is up to 177% of GDP, one of the biggest debt burdens in the developed world. Youth unemployment is about 50%, the figure, which would be even worse, were it not for the fact that so many have fled the country in search for work.

Some analysts think that going into a soft Russian ruble could be great for Greece and tourists would once again flock to the country. True, Turkey has stolen so much of Greek tourist bucks because Turkey is outside the expensive euro currency regime.

With a more suitable currency, Greece would quickly get back on its feet. Youth unemployment magically disappears. Of course Greece should leave the stifling eurozone.

To crown it all, many critics believe that sanctions against Russia and saber rattling by the West will only make matters worse. Russia provides a third of the EU’s oil and nearly 40% of its natural gas. Accepting that the blame for a neo-Nazi coup in Kiev and civil war in the Russian-speaking Donbas region lies with the faulty West would be a sensible approach.

Consummate politicians in the West could achieve a much more peaceful world by encouraging Russia to move closer to the European Union. NATO saber rattling has perverse results as did the potential offer of NATO membership to the Ukrainian neo-Nazi junta.

Institute of Gas develops up-to-date technologies in the field of energy resources

By Svetlana Sytina
The Ukrainian Times

According to scientists of the Institute of Gas under the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, use of alternative energy should be combined with the introduction of the energy saving technologies that do not envisage the replacement of natural gas by biofuel. Today the Institute conducts research in the field of the applied theory of combustion, thermodynamics, interphase heat and mass exchange whereby it projects new thermotechnological processes and designs novel equipment.

The greater part of Institute’s engineering developments is designed for use in industrial production and the metal industry in particular. Given that the energy intensity is one of the vulnerable spots of Ukraine’s metallurgy, scientists of the Institute are developing the technologies of recirculation of gas.

A switchover to alternative fuel is connected with the problem of technical re-equipment. That is why natural-gas production in Ukraine, from scientists’ point of view, will remain a strategic priority for a long, long time.

Specialists of the Institute of Gas are studying the possibility for production, storage and transportation of the hydrates of methane, which are sea crystal compounds formed by the chemical combination of water and gas. In prospect the hydrates of methane could become an alternative to liquefied natural gas. Currently, the scientists are simulating the techniques of production of the hydrates of methane through their displacement by carbon dioxide.

Dnepr rocket puts Korean satellite into orbit, thanks to Russian launching center

Recently, the Ukrainian carrier rocket Dnepr blasted off from the Russian launching center Yasny in the Orenburg region and put the South Korean satellite CompSat-3A into orbit. CompSat-3A established communication with a ground station in the Korean city of Taejon.

Overall, three launches of Dnepr rockets are scheduled for this year.

Heroic defenders of Novorossia win victory over Ukrainian neo-Nazi junta, says Putin

By Vladimir V. Sytin
The Ukrainian Times

According to Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured), militiamen from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics who are former coal miners and tractor drivers win a convincing victory over a neo-Nazi junta in Kiev. He told the press that although weapons shipments from the West including the United States to the puppet regime in this country took place, nothing would result from these efforts.

Mr. Putin is sure that most Ukrainian servicemen do not want to take part in a fratricidal war, whereas the Donbas militiamen are highly motivated to defend their families on their native land.

In fact, Anatoliy Matios, chief military prosecutor of Ukraine, revealed that 10,000 Ukrainian servicemen were suspected of desertion. Besides, thousands of Ukrainian servicemen are prosecuted for evasion of military service. In the Kherson region alone 2,813 reservists evade service. More than 15,000 former Ukrainian servicemen have decided to go over to the Russian army after the reunification of Crimea with Russia.

Recently, Vladimir Putin stated that the foreign NATO legion made a criminal war against heroic defenders of the Donbas region, or Novorossia (New Russia). Together with the Ukrainian neo-Nazi military, the foreign legion acts in the interests of the hostile Western alliance. Observers say mercenaries have been captured in the east Ukraine with the thick London accent.

However, few in the West seem to recognize that it is the NATO rather than Russia, which has been spreading expansionary tentacles beyond traditional boundaries. Since the early 1990s, Western aims have been to draw countries out of the Soviet sphere of influence and into the aggressive NATO. Ukraine has always been seen as the ultimate test as to where the balance lies.

According to Mr. Putin, the civil war in Donbas serves the geopolitical purposes of deterring Russia, whereas that does not respond to the basic interests of citizens of Ukraine. He promised to grant political asylum to all Ukrainians who do not want to be summoned to the criminal war.

Data from the sociological group Rating show that 77% of citizens of Ukraine fear greatly the fratricidal war. Importantly, only 7% of respondents are concerned about secession of the Russian-speaking Donbas from this country.

Lithuanian tourist business people seek partners in Ukraine

The State Department of Tourism under the Ministry of Economy of Lithuania organized a business meeting in Kiev on March 24 to present tourist resources of the Baltic state. In addition, Lithuanian guests staged the exhibition of various products made from amber.

Representatives of more than 20 Ukrainian companies participated in the event. During the Contacts Exchange that took place at the Lithuanian Embassy in Kiev they were establishing business relations with Baltic partners.

Data from the State Department of Tourism show that the inflow of Ukrainian travelers into Lithuania increased by 65.2% last year, compared with 2013. At the same time, a rise in the influx of tourists from Israel accounted for 100% and this also holds true for Italian travelers.

It is important to note that Russia leads by the number of her tourists visiting Lithuania, followed by Byelorussia, Germany, Latvia and Poland.

Jurgita Kazlauskiene, director of the State Department of Tourism, told The Ukrainian Times that the share of the tourist industry made up 4.5% of Lithuania’s GDP. “Lithuania attracted over two million tourists last year,” she said.

43 investment projects implemented in Vinnitsa region

Last year 43 investment projects totaling more than one billion grivnas were implemented in the Vinnitsa region that helped create 1,200 jobs.

In particular, the construction of a large dairy was completed in the city of Vinnitsa. A Spanish-Ukrainian pharmaceutical enterprise expanded its production capacities. Reportedly, a kaolin plant was put into operation in the town of Kazatin.

Incidentally, the news and investor relations agency Ukrainian Times is ready to help investors find promising partners in any industry in Ukraine. This country has viable investment projects in the sphere of high technologies, nanotechnologies and the pharmaceutical industry.

To give an order for a search for a partner, email ukrtimes@yandex.ru.

The agency has been established on the basis of the English-language business publication Ukrainian Times, which was founded by Vladimir V. Sytin and Svetlana Sytina in Kiev in 1993.

P.S. Here are the basic lessons in investing:

1. Being in the right place at the right time is the most important thing. Hard work pays off too. So do the other important virtues – patience, self-discipline and humility.

2. Investing is very different from other parts of life. Usually, it is best to think a lot, but to trade very little. Inaction is more productive than action.

3. Always be humble. Have a thick margin of safety.

Ukrainian scientists innovate water purification technology

By Svetlana Sytina
The Ukrainian Times

Today various sorbents, which collect contamination, are used for purifying water. However, sorbents often take up so much dirt that they turn into dangerous sources of environmental pollution.

That is why scientists tackle the alternative technologies of water purification, which are based on a physical effect on liquid and do not require costly materials, filters and sorbents. One of these technologies has been developed by scientists of the Institute of Geochemistry of the Environment under the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Based on the use of electric current, the technology enables not only purification of water but also its disinfection. At the heart of it there is the powerful discharge of electricity akin to lightning, which is passed through water in a chamber.

Despite its large size, a purification plant designed by Ukrainian specialists is easily transportable. Therefore, it is capable of purifying liquid wherever there is need.

According to the inventors, their plant can purify liquid from any substances, even from radionuclides. It was oftentimes used for purifying waters at uranium mines and urban agglomerations, as well as for desalinating water. The high temperature and pressure, which are caused by the powerful discharge of electricity, destroy all microorganisms while water is automatically decontaminated.

The plant has a capacity to purify one ton of liquid per hour and its efficiency can be increased to 10 tons/hour. Importantly, the scientists point out energy efficiency of the plant as the purification of one cubic meter of water requires no more than two kilowatts of electric power.

The water, which has been purified by electric current, is suited for industrial use only. Additional purification with the help of standard techniques can make it drinkable. No other method can disinfect water at such a high level as the above technology, to say nothing of decontamination from radioactive products.

Additional information: zabulonov@mail.ru

Germany must pay Greece reparations for Nazi war crimes

By Vladimir V. Sytin
The Ukrainian Times

A Greek parliamentary commission on the study of Nazi crimes committed by Germany during the World War II is going to resume work. Established in 2012, the commission has made out a report 80 pages long.

According to calculations done by the parliamentary commission, Germany must pay Greece reparations in the amount of 182 billion euros, otherwise the property of German firms and organizations operating in the Balkan country will be confiscated.

Incidentally, what is a super safe German bond with a yield of only 0.2% if not an invitation to trouble? Western observers say some investors are going to lose money as a result of this ultra-low bond yield.

Russian ships plying Northern Sea Route to use aluminum as fuel

Scientists of the Institute of Thermophysics under the Russian Academy of Sciences have developed a new kind of power units for the ships that ply the Northern Sea Route. Believe it or not, the units operate by aluminum, which burns in reactors with supercritical water.

The efficiency of aluminum as a fuel is similar to that of liquid hydrocarbons. Importantly, density of environmentally friendly aluminum is thrice density of the hydrocarbons, therefore its reserves take up less space in a ship.

Budget bill proposes 37% rise in tax revenues but…

Bowing to heavy pressure from the International Monetary Fund, the puppet government of Ukraine has revised a national budget for this year. In particular, a budget deficit and Ukraine’s national debt increased to 76 billion and 218 billion grivnas respectively.

The budget bill proposes a 37% rise in tax revenues. Huh? According to experts, the expected growth in tax revenues bears no relation to economic growth
but it is the result of the sharp devaluation of the grivna.

Analysts say the real budget deficit will exceed 10% of GDP. Given a continuing economic recession, civil war in the Russian-speaking Donbas region and investors’ non-confidence in a neo-Nazi junta in Kiev, it is impossible to collect the planned revenues.