A good reader of "Windows to Russia" sent this link today: Georgia hopes France won’t sell Mistral to Russia. They know how much that I love it when Georgia jumps up and down, all upset over what Russia is doing.I have written several articles about this sale of the French Warship to Russia. Now that Medvedev is in France, it seems that the whole world has restarted jumping up and down about how bad it is to sell a French Warship to Russia...Well for all you Doom Sayers, it is not just... Full Story

Gorki, Moscow Region (recorded on February 18, 2010) Interview to the French Magazine Paris MatchOLIVIER ROYANT: Mr. President, thank you very much for receiving us today at your residence. In a few days you will celebrate the second anniversary of your election to the post of the President, and you will actually be in Paris. This year is the year of Russia in France, and it is a very important moment.Could you give any symbolic examples of cooperation between our countries, and what do you... Full Story

I have been posting about the fact that Russia wanted to buy a French made Mistral-class amphibious assault ship! I have posted about the fact that the French agreed to sell said ship to Russia! Now we get to post about France having to defend her decision on why she sold the ship to Russia: French President - Sarkozy told U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates at a brief meeting on Monday that in his opinion the sale did not pose a military problem because Russia should be treated as a real... Full Story

France OKs carrier sale to Russia:08 February, 2010 France has agreed to sell the Mistral helicopter carrier to Russia. The Russian Navy also has its eyes on three more similar vessels in the future. The approval of the defense deal was announced Monday by Jacques de Lajugie, the international development director of France’s armaments board Delegation Generale pour l’Armement (DGA). He added the possible addition of three more helicopter carriers has only been discussed on the... Full Story

It is fun to watch the Western world get their faces all twisted up in a tissy when Russia does things that are considered bad and evil by Western standards. Even when it is the West that helps do these evil things... What am I talking about? The proposed sale of the French navy's 23,700-ton Mistral-class amphibious assault ship to Russia by a NATO country, France! This seems to me to be more of a chess game tactic by Putin to obtain a vessel. The actuality is Russia does needs the ship to... Full Story

Paris, France In a move that the USA is too cowardice to perform, the UK has announced plans for a one-off tax on bank bonuses to employees paid in 2009.  This move is being widely seen as a means to appease the public, whose hard earned tax money is being used for these bonuses.    France is in favor of matching the U.K.'s planned one-off tax on bank bonuses, and is likely to slap such a levy on bonuses to be paid out in 2010 for the past year, a senior French government official told... Full Story

Hamster hotels, you might think, are hotels for real hamsters. In this case, however, they are hotels for people, but designed as though a hamster might live in it.For 99 euros ($147) a night, visitors to the hotel in Nantes, France can eat hamster chow, run in a giant wheel and sleep in hay. They even dress up like hamsters. It's known as the "Hamster Villa".Why would anyone want to live like a hamster, particularly at this price? Owner Yann Falquerho told Reuters, "The Hamster in the world... Full Story

With the dollar falling over the past several years, many analysts predict that it is an inevitability that the dollar will eventually collapse.  This process seems to have been set in motion recently with Russia and China, but now the Arab States as well as France have come on board. In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a... Full Story

One can hardly imagine a fundamemtalist Muslim woman being able to swim at all, because how could one do so in a burqa? One woman tried, however, wearing a head-to-toe "burquini," but was summarily shown the exit when she did so.The burquini (shown, but not with the woman involved), is an obviously particularly modest swimsuit, but does not, according to French officials, meet France's unusually strict pool hygiene standards. Under the policy, swimmers are prevented from wearing any... Full Story

Paris, France French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that Buraq (or Niqab) are not welcome in any France as they are a "debasement" of women. “The burqa is not a religious sign, it’s a sign of servitude,” Sarkozy said today in a speech to both houses of parliament at the Versailles Palace on the outskirts of Paris. Calling it a violation of women’s “dignity and freedom,” Sarkozy said the burqa “will not be welcome on French... Full Story