Russia: Another Attempt to Bury Lenin

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October 3, 2005: The government is again trying to bury Lenin. Although the communists lost control in 1991, the embalmed body of Russian communist pioneer Vladimir Lenin, is still a major tourist attraction in central Moscow. Millions of Russians still see Lenin as something of a secular saint, and the atmosphere in the facility where the body is on display, is quite solemn and reverent. Previous attempts to bury Lenin's body were called off because the government feared civil unrest. Russia would like to bury the whole communist period of their history, which killed tens of millions of Russians, and left millions still around, trying to wash the blood off their hands. Burying Lenin is seen as part of that process.

September 30, 2005: In the Kamchatka Peninsula, at the main naval base of the Pacific Fleet, a fire broke out in an ammo depot. This is yet another such incident at Cold War era ammo depots that contain large quantities of very old ammunition. In this case, thousands of shells were stacked in the open, in preparation of destroying them. Somehow a fire broke out, and hundreds of these shells have exploded. Some 4,000 local civilians were evacuated.

September 29, 2005: Arms sales to China, which have averaged over two billion dollars a year since 2000, continue, and may increase a bit next year. Along with this has come greater military cooperation between the two countries, including joint planning and troop exercises.

September 25, 2005: The head of the Lithuanian air force was dismissed, because of the Russian fighter that recently wandered from it's flight path over the Baltic and flew into Lithuania before crashing. The Russian warplane was not spotted by the Lithuanian air defense system, and was only noticed after it had crashed near the border with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. The Russians are still trying to get the pilot back, and are publicly making fun of NATO's air defense system.

 

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