WHATS up with this?????? I hope we shot them down.
Russia's long-range aircraft fires four missiles during check
18:10 | 29/ 09/ 2006
ENGELS (Saratov Region), September 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russian long-range aircraft fired four cruise missiles during a routine check, the commander of Russia's Long-Range Aviation Command said Friday.
"Cruise missiles fired from the Tu-160 [Blackjack] and Tu-95MS [Bear] successfully hit their targets," Lieutenant General Igor Khvorov said.
He said a total of 18 cruise missiles were fired during the exercise and that 70 aircraft participated, including four Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers. He added that Tu-22M3 Backfires performed up to eight successful bombing runs on practice ranges.
Khvorov said crews demonstrated great skill in reaching missile launch points at the right times.
"The margin of error for the arrival of a strategic aircraft at a launch point is four seconds," he said. "If an aircraft misses this margin by even one second, we launch an investigation."
He said long-range aircraft flew over the North Pole while crossing the Arctic Ocean, and also reached Alaska, the Aleutian Islands and Japan's western coast, without entering any country's airspace.
"All the aircraft involved flew over neutral waters, and none of them came closer than 12 nautical miles (25 kilometers, 16 miles) to the maritime borders of any country," he said.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060929/54383211.html
How funny...
Putin tries a new look, but does it suit him?
Russians aren't quite sure what to make of the president's shift to more casual garb
MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin is not typically a flashy guy. He tends to dress in conservative colors, is spare with emotion and, despite his compact frame, gives off a tough-guy look.
From him, it can be said, one knows what to expect.
Which is why it was unusual, a touch unsettling even, to see the former KGB officer striking a jaunty pose recently in the pages of one of the nation's most popular newspapers, the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda.
There he was, the usually staid and stoic head of state, bereft of his conventional dark suit and predictable tie, exercising a bit of fashion freedom by sporting more casual garb--in daring colors, no less.
"Putin Has Changed His Wardrobe," announced the headline, above a full-page, inside spread that pictured him in four outfits.
In May, in the southern Russian resort town of Sochi, Putin showed up in a light beige suede jacket with black jeans.
In steamy Morocco, Putin appeared in a nearly transparent shirt that showed off his "rippling muscles."
At the G-8 summit in St. Petersburg in July, at an informal dinner with President Bush, Putin went with a suit in a color he had never been photographed in: mustard brown.
And he received members of the East Asia Economic Caucus last month in light-hued pants and jacket. His broad-striped tie was bright blue and red.
Trained in the ways of the secret police, Putin knows how to keep a straight face. His usual dress reflects that sentiment. In a 2002 survey of how the electorate viewed him, one respondent from Voronezh described the president as "buttoned up" and a "black box."
That's why this new attire makes him seem almost wild.
"What is the cause of this obvious `liberalization' of Putin's clothes?" Komsomolskaya Pravda wanted to know.
Perhaps, the newspaper suggested, he is feeling more self-confident and is expressing, through lighter-colored suits and jackets, an "inner freedom."
Russia's most esteemed fashion designer, Vyacheslav Zaitsev, declined to offer his thoughts on the matter, saying through a spokesman it is "immoral" and "taboo" to comment on the way politicians dress.
But Natalya Turkenich, an imagemaker and stylist at the Moscow-based Style Guide agency, which advises well-to-do businessmen and their wives, had a few words on the president's new look.
"When I noticed these changes for the first time, I thought, aha, he must have an imagemaker who whispered into his ear, `It's not correct to wear dark-colored suits all the time,"' she said. Then she noticed some faux pas which confirmed--in her mind, at least--that he was selecting his outfits: a beige shirt that made him look "pale and tired," and a light blue shirt with a red tie, a combination that grated on her eyes.
"It was not becoming for him," Turkenich said. "Seeing him wearing such a shirt, he was associated by many people with middle-level management.
"I was very pleased to see that he's no longer wearing boring dark suits," she allowed. "But he doesn't understand a thing about small details. Nuance in clothes is something he can't comprehend."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0609290153sep29,1,6504127.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true