Putin Drives Truck Across New Bridge Linking Crimea To Russia......

ndtv ^ | 5/15/2018 | Agence France-Press

[caww]

Russian state television showed Putin dressed in jeans and a casual jacket sit behind the wheel of a construction truck with workers to drive 12 miles across the bridge, which links the Taman peninsula in southern Russian to Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.

..."want to sincerely congratulate you with this remarkable, festive and, in the full sense of the word, historical day," Putin told workers upon arrival on the Crimean side of the bridge...."In different historical eras, even under the tsar, people were dreaming of building this bridge,"...And finally, thanks to your work, your talent, this project, this miracle happened!" Putin told cheering workers.

He was referring to Russia's last tsar, Nicholas II, who first proposed such a bridge, but the outbreak of World War I prevented it going ahead.

Another unsuccessful attempt was made in the 1930s under Joseph Stalin. During World War II the occupying Nazis also began building a bridge but abandoned the project.

[caww]

I’ve been following Russia’s development like China’s it’s pretty stunning how modern their cities are ....

[McGruff]

He should have drove a tank across. :)

[Krosan]

I realized that whether the bridge will work or not (we don’t know yet as you can “grand open” a non working bridge) doesn’t even matter.

It was the “get’s things done” part in your post, that rubbed me the wrong way. Shitty dictatorships can focus resources. North Korea has supposedly managed to build nuclear ICBMs all the while they don’t have electricity and people starve. Saying “get’s thing done” sounds like a praise, but I believe there is no objective reason to praise based on some narrow propaganda stunt where all the resources were concentrated.

[siberianheat]

I've been to Moscow (2011) and can vouch the fact that once you leave a very tight circle around the city center, the place is a dump. What struck me the most was all the holes in the roadways where some construction crew started work years ago and then just left the open hole there. They put a barrel in the street and you drive around it.

I stayed in the "best" hotel for tourists in Moscow, and my guide said never to go out alone or go across the street because it was overrun by packs of wild dogs. We stayed almost next door to the 1980 Olympic village, which was a literal pile of rubble from lack of care. Our bus broke down on the highway at one point near a small patch of woods and we were amazed at all the cars stopping nearby and so the drivers could run into the woods to do their business. This happens because they have no friendly businesses or gas stations where you can stop in an use the facilities.

I came away amazed that I'd visited what was once the #2 superpower in the world and it was like going back to the 1970s, at best. This bridge is ok, but there wasn't one thing on my visit which impressed me about Moscow, or Russia, except one World War II museum with tons of tanks. Even there, tourists had to poop in a concrete hole in the ground because that was the best they could do for bathrooms.

[dfwgator]

Moscow is now every bit of a cosmopolitan city as London or Paris, the difference comes when you venture 50 miles outside of the Moscow city limits.

[bert]

Putin is displaying favorable action. He retook the Crimea that was historically Russian and not Ukranian. In the process, there was no resistance from world leaders of consequence

As a fig leaf, Putin started messinf with eastern Ukraine to provide something for western leaders to bitch about. All is over now and the historic bridge fulfills an age old dream

[Fightin Whitey]

Love him or hate him you’ve got to admit that Putin gets things done.

You are right. But we do have to wait and see if the damned thing stays upright.

[bert]

Hmmm...... does Moscow have any Pakis?

[bert]

Hmmm..... do Moscow ladies haveRussian made panty hose yet?

[dfwgator]

Moscow has plenty of Muzzies who came from the former Soviet Central Asian Republicans.

[Krosan]

I’ve been to Moscow in ‘88, but it doesn’t matter and Moscow doesn’t matter as it is still a dump outside the parade areas and that dump is the best narrow showcase Russia can manage.

Meanwhile look at the real pictures that the regular people take in their hospitals - http://englishrussia.com/2016/08/03/the-hell-of-russian-hospitals/ - I know they’re not that big on claiming to be communist any more (I think they still are), but these hospital pictures (from major cities!) show quite well what a dump it is.

[dfwgator]

Republicans = Republics.

Damn auto-correct.

[treetopsandroofs]

“Even there, tourists had to poop in a concrete hole in the ground because that was the best they could do for bathrooms.”

Have had a few friends post about those in SE Asia, to which their “progressive” friends ooh and aah about the “squatty potty”.

Actually heard a commercial on the radio (in America) a year and a half ago or so advertising them.

[caww]

I think this was pretty grand.....the people in Crimea and Russia will all benefit from this bridge in a big way.

[caww]

.....”the difference comes when you venture 50 miles outside of the Moscow city limits”.....

Well I got to say you can say same for a lot of our cities considering how ‘advanced’ we’re suppose to be.....or the people are moving out of the dumpy cities to the suburbs and they’re building those up.

[Magnum44]

I was in Moscow and area back in the late nineties for about a week. My lungs got so congested from the smog filled air that I could barely breathe. Moscow was clean, but not really...

[MeganC]

Sure Putin’s a dictator. I know that. But unlike our dictators in California, New York, Illinois, and etc. he can actually get something built.

The idiots in California can’t even get a choo-choo train built in over ten years of trying.

[Stingray51]

Ok, thanks to you and the others responding who have actually seen the place.

[Mariner]

This is the Second bridge in the same spot.

The first was destroyed by ice floes.

It’s a significant engineering achievement if it lasts.

[ETCM]

"In California the smaller project of replacing the east end of the SF Bay Bridge..."

This bridge is a toy compared to the SF Bay Bridge. Yes, they got it done quickly, but it's mostly a 4-lane causeway in very shallow water and the short suspension span is only 35 meters tall. It's not comparable at all...