Tag Archives: Russia

Morning News Podcast: Minneapolis Protests, Iran Nuclear Site Explosion

More protests in Minneapolis as details emerge about the killing of yet another black man by a police officer. Iran is promising revenge for an explosion at one of it’s largest nuclear facilities, threatening the future of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal as talks resume.

And, Russia is building up its military presence along the Ukrainian border stoking fears of another invasion.

Artistry: ‘The Lore Of Fabergé Eggs’ (Video)

In the era of the Russian tsars, Peter Carl Fabergé’s jewel-studded objets d’art were a royal riff on a much humbler Easter tradition of ordinary folk giving each other colored hens’ eggs. Correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports on the lore of Fabergé eggs, from opulent originals to sparkling counterfeits.

The celebrated series of 50 Imperial Easter eggs was created for the Russian Imperial family from 1885 to 1916 when the company was run by Peter Carl Fabergé. These creations are inextricably linked to the glory and tragic fate of the last Romanov family. They were the ultimate achievement of the renowned Russian jewellery house and must also be considered the last great commissions of objets d’art . Ten eggs were produced from 1885 to 1893, during the reign of Emperor Alexander III; 40 more were created during the rule of his dutiful son, Nicholas II, two each year, one for his mother, the dowager, the second for his wife.

360° Aerial Views: Kizhi Island – Russia (Video)

Kizhi is an island near the geometrical center of the Lake Onega in the Republic of Karelia (Medvezhyegorsky District), Russia. It is elongated from north to south and is about 6 km long, 1 km wide and is about 68 km away from the capital of Karelia, Petrozavodsk.

Analysis: ‘A New Space Race – USA Vs China Vs Russia’

In the skies above our heads, humanity’s titanic geopolitical superpowers are yet again duking it out for supremacy among the stars. Only this time, unlike the 1960s, there’s three of them. Or is there? It’s complicated. Join us today as we helmet up and examine the new space race unfolding right now between the US, China and Russia.

What you might call the oldschool or ‘classic’ space race started in the 1950s, peaked during the 60s, and petered out by the mid 70s. It was, to be sure, an unofficial race. Nobody waved a novelty green flag to set things off. But the two largest economic and technological powers of the day – the United States of America and the Soviet Union – fought bitterly to be the first to make meaningful headway into the cosmos.

Views: ‘St. Petersburg – Russia’ (4K UHD Video)

St. Petersburg is a Russian port city on the Baltic Sea. It was the imperial capital for 2 centuries, having been founded in 1703 by Peter the Great, subject of the city’s iconic “Bronze Horseman” statue. It remains Russia’s cultural center, with venues such as the Mariinsky Theatre hosting opera and ballet, and the State Russian Museum showcasing Russian art, from Orthodox icon paintings to Kandinsky works. 

Morning News Podcast: Sanctions On Russia, UK Budget & Latest Tech

We unpack Washington’s sanctions on Moscow after the Biden administration accuses Russian intelligence of poisoning Alexei Navalny. Plus: we look at what’s in the latest UK budget for arts and culture, and round up the latest tech news.

Art: ‘After Raphael. 1520 -2020’ – State Hermitage Museum, Russia (Video)

A film about the Exhibition “After Raphael. 1520 – 2020” at the State Hermitage Museum. Director of the film – Manas Sirakanyan. The film was made with the support of the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, U.S. Embassy Moscow and the Hermitage Museum Foundation (USA)

Raphael is the most influential artist of the Modern Era. Over the course of five centuries, exponents of Mannerism and Academicism, Caravaggisti and masters of the Baroque, Romantics and Modernists have invariably compared their own work with Raphael’s legacy. What is the cause of such fame? What did his name represent in this or that historical period, and what does it represent today? What connects the artist’s followers in different centuries? The exhibition in the Hermitage is an attempt to answer those questions and to look at the art of the past 500 years through the lens of Raphael’s influence.

The large-scale display includes more than 300 exhibits – paintings, graphic art, sculpture and applied art from the Hermitage’s own stocks and twelve other collections in Russia and Western Europe. They include both famous masterpieces and previously unknown works. Dozens of paintings and pieces of graphic art are leaving the museum’s storerooms and being presented to the public for the first time, while a whole number of the exhibits are going on show after painstaking restoration in the Hermitage’s workshops.

The display opens with works by the master himself: a painting and drawings from European collections. Without claiming to be a full representation of the artist’s oeuvre, they serve to set the tone, as it were, and after viewers have “tuned themselves in” it will be easier for them to identify echoes of Raphaelesque harmony in the works from later centuries. The choice of graphic art for this purpose reveals another dimension to the main metaphor: it is specifically the beauty of the clear, precise line, so evident in the drawings made by the master’s own hand, that lies at the foundation of the aesthetics of Raphael himself and many of his followers.

Aerial Views: ‘Zyuratkul National Park, Russia’ (4K)

Zyuratkul National Park is a Russian national park established in 1993 in the southern part of Satkinsky Raion (Chelyabinsk Oblast, Urals). The park lies about 30 km south of Satka and 200 km west of Chelyabinsk.

Notable features include Zyuratkul’ Lake, a rare mountainous body of water for the Urals 754 m above sea level, with a surface area of 13,2 km2 and a maximum depth of 8 m. Water is slightly mineralised (≈50 mg/L). Because of its clear water and spectacular landscape around, Zyuratkul’ is often called “Ural Ritsa“.[1]