Russian lady destroys booze aisle in San Francisco supermarket

Russian democracy caught in action

A new video has revealed that most Russian MPs cannot even be bothered to go through the motions of democracy but prefer to bunk off and let the few MPs who do turn up vote in their stead. The footage, shot last week in Russia's Duma, the 450-member lower house of parliament, showed three MPs frantically running from empty seat to seat in order to vote for fellow deputies who were playing truant after lunch.

The vote, which made it illegal for motorists to have any alcohol in their blood, was passed by a crushing 449 votes even though there were only 88 MPs, or just over one fifth of the chamber, present. Western critics say the parliament is little more than a puppet chamber that does the Kremlin's bidding. But Kremlin-backed politicians insist it is a serious institution and on Wednesday rushed to condemn the incident as "shameful" while conceding, rather oddly, that such practices were a regular occurrence.



You cannot call a situation where MPs run all round the chamber pushing buttons for absent colleagues anything other than a disgrace," said Sergei Mironov, leader of the Kremlin-friendly Just Russia party.

"Usually, voting in parliament takes place at the end of a session when the cameras have left and the journalists are not in the chamber." This time was different though and a cameraman from Russian TV channel Ren TV caught the farce on camera in a video. One unidentified MP was caught voting nine times. Critics said the abysmal turnout technically made the vote illegal since the rules of parliament itself stipulated that a majority of MPs needed to be present for its activities to be legitimate.

Russian Lessons. # eight. the first phrases

These simple phrases you can use every day!

Russian Lessons. # seven. How old are you?

Now, when you’ve already known Russian numbers, we can talk about the age. Englishmen say "How old are you?" , Russian say "Skol’ko tebe let"
In replay you usually hear the number only.

Russian Lessons. # six. Numbers 20-100

! Where English say –ty, Russian say tzat' or -disjat.
20 dva-tzat’
30 tri-tzat’
40 sorok ! attention it is exception to the rule
50 pi-disjat
60 shis-disjat
70 sim-disjat
80 vosim-disjat
90 divino-sta ! attention it is exception to the rule
100 sto

Russian Lessons. # five. Numbers 11-20

! Where English put –teen, Russian put na-tzat’
11 odi-na-tzat’
12 dve-na-tzat’
13 tri-na-tzat’
14 chityir-na-tzat’
15 pit-na-tzat’
16 shis-na-tzat’
17 sim’-na-tzat’
18 vasim-na-tzat’
19 divjat-na-tzat’
20 dvatzat’

Russian Lessons. # Four. Numbers

It’s time to count, Russian numbers are not more difficult then English ones!
1 odin
2 dva
3 tri
4 chetyire
5 pjat’
6 shes’t’
7 sem’
8 vosem’
9 devjat’
10 desjat’

Russian Lessons. #Three

The most popular question after saying Hello is
- Kak (u tebja) dela? (How are you?)

The most suitable answer is
- Normal'no/ Vse horosho (Ok/Everything is all right)
- A u tebja? (And you)