Yelena Gadzhievna Isinbayeva Photoshoot

Yelena Gadzhievna Isinbayeva born 3 June 1982 is a Russian pole vaulter. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist (2004 and 2008), a three-time World Champion (2005, 2007 and 2013) and the current world record holder in the event.

Isinbayeva has been a major champion on nine occasions (Olympic, World outdoor and indoor champion and European outdoor and indoor champion). She was also the jackpot winner of the IAAF Golden League series in 2007 and 2009. After poor performances at the world championships in 2009 and 2010, she took a year-long break from the sport.

She became the first woman to clear the five-meter barrier in 2005. Her current world record is 5.06 m outdoors, set in Zurich in August 2009. Her 5.01 m indoors was the world record for just over a year. The latter was Isinbayeva's twenty-eighth pole vault world record. On 2 March 2013, Jenn Suhr joined Isinbayeva as the only women who have cleared 5 meters. In the process, Suhr took Isinbayeva's indoor world record.

Isinbayeva was named Female Athlete of the Year by the IAAF in 2004, 2005 and 2008, and World Sportswoman of the Year by Laureus in 2007 and 2009. She was given the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports in 2009. She is one of only eight athletes (along with Valerie Adams, Usain Bolt, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Jacques Freitag, Jana Pittman, Dani Samuels, and David Storl) to win world championships at the youth, junior, and senior level of an athletic event. 09 more images after the break...

Russians Used To Build Iron Pterosaurs

This flying-sailing “monster” was built by Russians in the former USSR. At those times Russians seemed to know how to make water planes look like huge iron “pterosaurs”. I wonder how safe this tank-ship-bird must have been. See more images after the break.......

The Flying Tank

Mi-28N “The Night Hunter” has a special system of pilots protection and can “see” an enemy at 35km distance even in darkness. Test pilots call it “fighter-helicopter” and ordinary people know it as “a flying tank”.
Night vision goggles of the helicopter allow a pilot to fight even in the night time. It is equipped with an impressive armoury reserve. An inbuilt movable gun can totally destroy an armored personal carrier in 10 shots. The rockets complex “Igla” is intended for destruction of helicopters and drones. However, the main power of “the Night Hunter” is in its anti-tank missile “Ataka” against which all tanks are powerless. 07 more images after the break...

Medvedev and Putin spend day fishing in Volga river

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev prepares to dive with an underwater camera in the river Volga in Russia's Astrakhan region August 16, 2011.  Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin went for a walk on the river bank in the Astrakhan region in southern Russia, did some spin fishing and then set off for a boat trip to take underwater pictures. Picture taken August 16, 2011. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) More images after the break...

GDP Of Post-Soviet Countries In Decreasing Order

It’s been more then 20 years since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, which was preceded by ethnic conflicts and mutual charges. Baltic republics would say that they provided the whole country with sprats and received no money for it. Uzbeks insisted that they sold their cotton for nothing… and so on and so forth. So, let’s see how truthful those statements were. 15 USSR Countries after the break...

Boxes for Unwanted Children

In Russia, began to establish "boxes for unwanted children," Mother puts baby in a box in the street, close, indoor lights signal, and nurses takes the child, thereby avoiding contact between mother and staff med.chasti. At the moment they are installed in Sochi, Novorossiysk and Armavir. Within three months of use was abandoned a child. 02 more images after the break...

City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia — Russia

Today we have the example of "City of Arts and Sciences' in Valencia's see how hopelessly far behind our architecture. At a time when Moscow was built temples of bad taste - Ryad shopping mall on the Manazhke, TC "Atrium" and dozens of other squalid sheds, the Spanish built the city of Arts and Sciences. The design belongs to the Valencia architect Santiago Calatrava, construction began in 1996. The complex is one of the outstanding examples of modern architecture. In Russia, this will not build another 20 years. 33 more images after the break...

Photo Manipulation — St. Petersburg

Photo manipulation by St. Petersburg artist under the pseudonym of epsilon-delta. I select some Images are full of humor and positive. 29 more images after the break...

Svyato-Spassky Convent in Kostomarovo — Russia

The Svyato-Spassky Convent in Kostomarovo is an ancient cave monastery located about 150 kilometers south of the town of Voronezh, just 3-hours drive away. There are two churches in these caves: a big Spassky temple with columns and a small St. Seraphim Sarovsky church. The Spassky temple burrows deep into the chalky cliff to form a spacious interior that can house up to 2,000 people. 16 more images after the break...

Soviet Army in Afghanistan

The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year war during the Cold War fought by the Soviet Army and the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the Afghan Mujahideen guerrilla movement and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers. The mujahideen received wide military and financial support from Pakistan, also receiving direct and indirect support by the United States and China. The Afghan government fought with the intervention of the Soviet Union as its primary ally. 48 more images after the break...

Crowns of the Russian Emperors

Crowns of Russian Emperors, 11 more images after the break...  

Moscow Roofing

May, 2011. LCD "Continental".

Moscow Roofing. 25 more images after the break...

The Motherland Calls

The Motherland Calls, also called Mother Motherland, Mother Motherland Is Calling, simply The Motherland, or The Mamayev Monument, is a statue in Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, Russia, commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad. It was designed by sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich and structural engineer Nikolai Nikitin. Declared the largest statue in the world in 1967, it is the last non-religious statue to be declared the largest; every record holder since has been a Buddhism-related sculpture. Compared with the later higher statues, The Motherland Calls is significantly more complex from an engineering point of view, due to its characteristic posture with a sword raised high in the right hand and the left hand extended in a calling gesture. The technology behind the statue is based on a combination of prestressed concrete with wire ropes structure, a solution which can be found also in another work of Nikitin's, the super-tall Ostankino Tower in Moscow.

21 more images after the break...