Russia:Cultural Topics

[Barbara]

"This week, from February 16 to 22, 2026, Russia celebrates #Maslenitsa
A traditional festival marking the farewell to winter and the welcome of spring, it brings families and friends together around blinis , symbols of the sun.

At the heart of the celebrations: the burning of a straw effigy, a sign of renewal.

Joy, forgiveness, and warmth await "

https://x.com/Lena___masHa/status/2024042338608120172
*
Leave off the Catella, however :

https://x.com/kanyadabrian/status/2024138206334058935

[Barbara]

"Maslenitsa, day six. We keep going"

https://x.com/sashatimofeevax/status/20 ... 8374349085

[Barbara]

EXCELLENT IDEA !
Note, the MP has an icon of a Saint, perhaps St Agnes, and a print of a golden-domed Russian Church on the wall.

Where would you find THIS kind of uplifting bacground when ANY American political figure is interviewed ?

"Conservative Russian MP Vitaly Milonov (best known for the "homosexual propaganda" law) has proposed sending escorts returning from Dubai to a six-month quarantine in Siberia, where they would "cleanse themselves of filth:"

MILONOV: (my translation) "Along with our dear compatriots coming back home, or at least sort of home, we might also get the prostitutes returning. Those ragged sluts who’ve been hanging around Dubai’s bars and restaurants for years, selling their bodies in hotels and dorms all over that miserable desert place. Obviously a lifestyle like that comes with its own risks, including some pretty nasty diseases.

"So the prostitutes, and these bar tarts, should probably be processed separately and sent to some kind of special quarantine zone. You could set it up somewhere near the resorts of Krasnoyarsk region, or maybe on one of the islands in the Novosibirsk archipelago [both in Siberia].

"There, over the course of half a year, these ladies, and some gentlemen too, could engage in active physical labour, constructive physical labour, while being tested and cleansed of the filth they picked up in those camel-friendly corners of Dubai."

"Then they can return to society and join the rest of us as normal human beings again.""

https://x.com/BrianMcDonaldIE/status/20 ... 7028714760

[Barbara]

I didn't understand all of this explanation [probably the translation from Russian wasn't perfect] but it is illuminating to see how the Russian system works.

Also the incredible amount of money [assuming that's in US dollars] awarded by the state to women who have children

"At the latest meeting of the Chief with the heads of RT and Sputnik channels, besides me, two other girls were representing. Among the three of us, we have eight children. That's the norm on our channel. I told the President about it.

And now I'll explain how that's possible.

A female employee who has given birth is ALWAYS offered remote work. With full salary retention. And not like what the state mandates—when a woman was earning decently and suddenly has to drop to a completely different income level just because she decided to give birth to the state that's begging us all to have children. It's beyond comprehension why the state still sets these idiotic limits above which a woman on maternity leave simply CANNOT earn. And do those fighting for demographics even know about this?

Our new mothers are paid a one-time benefit (not from state funds, but from commercial ones!). We started at 100,000, now it's 500,000.

RT has a children's room. There's a nanny there. You can leave your little one there for the whole day (not everyone can work remotely). Feed them there, visit, know that the kid is nearby and in good hands.

I introduced this system many years ago. Because I couldn't understand how else you could even have children. It was heartbreaking for the girls, in short.

Dear state, what's stopping you from making this mandatory at enterprises? At least at those—there are legions of them—where top management earns like Croesus, while rank-and-file new mothers have to survive on the pitiful state minimums—or not give birth at all.

Which is exactly what they do. They don't give birth.

And I wouldn't on their behalf either."

https://x.com/M_Simonyan/status/2037120867461652875