nytimes.com — The days of their cold war may have passed, but Russia and the United States are in the midst of another battle — this one a technological fight over the United States monopoly on satellite navigation. The Russian space agency plans to launch eight navigation satellites to nearly complete a network that will compete with the GPS operated by US.
Apr 4, 2007 View in Crawl 4
haggieApr 4, 2007
I tried to use Russian GPS once. I ended up in a vodka bar in Minsk with a new wife named Natasha who was dressed alot like a hooker...
wpi97Apr 4, 2007
@CoreOverrideThe problem is not with calling a Jew a Jew, it is with saying that Russian Jews are not "real Russians". The reason most Russian Jews have left Russia and the rest of the former USSR is that they were never accepted as "real Russians". This is precisely the antisemitism that GalaxyJob is talking about. It had different manifestations from derogatory comments, to denying Jews promotions, to bloody pogroms. The main issue is that in Russia, a muli-ethnic country, the Jews have always been regarded as an alien presence, despite having lived there for centuries. Ask your Russian Jewish friends about that. This sentiment is evident in raskalz's comment. He is basically saying: "You are not a real Russian, and therefore you have nothing to say about Russian affairs." It is like saying that an african-american is not a "real" American, but an American Black, and therefore he should not be talking about US politics.
wpi97Apr 4, 2007
@raskalzLet's see, how many wars did Russia start? Do the wars started by the USSR count?1979 - invasion of Afghanistan1968 - invasion of Chechoslovakia1956 - invasion of Hungary1939 - invasion of Finland
blueberriesApr 4, 2007
If you are going to toss around lofty terms like imperialism, which seems to be one of the only words rabid anti Americans can spit out nowadays, has absolutely NOTHING to do with our territories overseas. Virtually every country associated with America has had numerous ballots and propositions related to freeing itself from American involvement, all roundly rejected by the people, in their own economic and security interests. It is a far cry from the rape and pillaging of the lesser developed countries by the old world superpowers when actual imperialism was the de facto foreign policy of every powerful European nation. And furthermore, the comparison of suppressive, murderous regimes such as Putin's to the Bush administration would be laughable if they weren't so completely and utterly ignorant. I'm no fan of the Bush administration, but find me one Bush opposition leader, or even follower, who has been murdered by the administration. Anyone familiar with the modern politics of Russia can point to dozens of members of the opposition killed in the most suspicious manners, unprovable, due to immense corruption, but clearly orchestrated by the Putin administration. And China, are you kidding me? One of the world's worse abusers of human rights, an oppressive government, and a people stricken by poverty, disease, and repression, directly caused by it's own government. Furthermore, their direct blockage of the effort to help Sudan, via the UNSC, is an affront to the goodwill of all humanity. Please know your facts before you try to compare China and Russia to the truly democratic United States.
raskalzApr 4, 2007
IDIOTwikipedia:The plan for developing GLONASS was accepted on December 1976 by a Decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU and of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, that was entitled "On Deployment of the Unified Space Navigation System GLONASS". I think your silly talk is 30 years late
wpi97Apr 5, 2007
@raskalz"i do not expect a jewish russian to be all patriotic, for example i do not expect some indian immigrant in Canada to be nationalistic in Canada."Right. This is why if you look at the number of the recipients of the highest honor of the USSR (the hero of the Soviet Union), the Jews hold the fifth place among over 110 ethnic groups. Not patriotic at all. <a class="user" href="http://motlc.learningcenter.wiesenthal.org/pages/t034/t03498.html">http://motlc.learningcenter.wiesenthal.org/pages/t034/t03498.html</a>A lesser problem with your antisemitic statement is that Jews in Russia were not immigrants. They lived there in significant numbers since at least the reign of Catherine the Great, when she "acquired" most of Poland (so much for not starting any wars, eh?). This was in the 1790s. As I mentioned before, it is more like saying that you would not expect an african-american to be patriotic of the US. You should try telling that to an african-american and see what happens.
sunkeyApr 5, 2007
China's should be Beidou, not Baidu, Baidu is just a search site like google.
arxyashMay 5, 2008
Rusia is become the world tech leader in next few years, no.. it just a dream.. <a class="user" href="http://handheld-gps-units.info">http://handheld-gps-units.info</a>