August in Tomsk

Not every morning I watch the news.

I try to know what’s going on in Russia, near the frontline and in the world. I usually watch YouTube bloggers. America lives in a different time zone, so many things happened by the time I wake up.

But today (Sunday) the TV was on all morning.

It was an interview with Roger Cohen*. And it was interesting. Here is the link to read it that I don’t need to repeat.

He spent some time in Russia, and shared his experience. The main thing that caught my attention: the Russian government goal “the war must be invisible”.

And local officials succeed with it.

It’s not that difficult. Many-many Russians stopped watching the news. My friends ask me why I continue to watch it?

The problem is (my problem of course) I constantly worry about my family and friends in Russia, about friends from Ukraine.

It’s such a pity that I cannot enjoy life now, when my life has become much better.

After that interview I decided to take a look at what is happening in Tomsk.

As I said above, people are busy with their lives.

-The "Axe’s festival" has ended in Tomsk. This is an international festival of folk crafts, which usually lasts about 5 days. The first one was in 2008. My friend Marina, as usual, sent me photos. Marina calls that festival international, because the wooden sculptures were not only from Russia, but from Mongolia, China, Iran as well. I mean, the people who carved the sculptures came from these countries.

-The other Tomsk news was the finishing up of fixing the main bridge across Tom river.

While repairs were going on, people could spend as long as an hour in traffic.

The bridge connects the left and right banks of the Tom River. The main part of Tomsk is located on the right bank. Previously, there were just a few settlements (types of villages) on the left bank.

In 2021, the city administration intended to build a student campus for 20 thousand students on the left bank (Levoberezhye). The campus has implied the construction of a road to bypass the bridge.

The state allocated money and construction of the road began in 2009. By 2017, the money had run out (read ended up in someone's pockets). The construction of the road has stopped. Developers however continue to build high-rise buildings. So the amount of Levoberezhye residents grows (Left part), and there is only one bridge. Therefore, its repair is essential and commensurate with the repair of the New Bedford-Fairhaven Bridge.

Not Tomsk news.

-Visa-free trips across the Amur (River in Far East Russia) to Fuyuan (China) have been resumed in Khabarovsk Krai (county). This was reported by TASS with reference to the regional Ministry of Tourism. It is assumed that a trip to the territory of a neighboring state along the river will take from an hour to a little over three hours, depending on the ship.

The first vessel was to sail on August 18. Groups for visa-free entry are formed from 5 to 50 people. Residents of the region will be able to stay in China for up to 15 days without a visa.

What is that? Is this an opportunity to hide from mobilization? Or a simple substitution for European vacations?

-Talking about China and Fuyuan, Russian Doctor Alexander Solovyov (I have never heard of him), a leading expert of the National Medical Association for the development of expert activities in the field of laboratory diagnostics "Medlabexpert" warns of a new wave of coronavirus. He estimates the situation with the new strain according to data from ... the United States. The article says, the number of cases has increased by 14% in the last week in the US.

I guess I need to start looking into it.

-Financial expert Veniamin Stepanenko told RT (russian.rt.com) how to save money correctly.

He said that you need to make a list of your income and expenses to figure out how much you can save monthly, and continued with really stupid advice about how much money someone should keep for a rainy day.

However, the same news website (dzen.ru/news, I think it used to be called Yandex news) published an article that said “In the near future, Russia is expected to raise food prices at the level of 10-20%”.

Gasoline has already risen in price, and utilities are constantly getting more expensive.

I don’t remember a single year when citizens could save any money in Russia.

I wonder who actually reads all these articles, well, except me, of course.

I think that’s for now, unfortunately nothing exciting.

*Roger Cohen published a book “An Affirming Flame”. I put it on hold via SAILS. We will see.