Nikas safronov biography of mahatma

  • A detail of Nikas Safronov's Putin portrait (russieinfo.com).
  • A most typical example of these official renderings of Mr. Yanukovych was that painted, it would seem, by the contemporary Russian artist Nikas.
  • This overview shows the selected player's opponents and his performance record against them.

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    Say It’s Your Birthday: Vladimir Putin on the ice with teammates, including Valery Kamensky and Alexander Mogilny. (Photo: kremlin.ru)

    He said he would — at least, his spokesman said he would — and he did it: Russian President Vladimir Putin played hockey in Sochi on Wednesday on his 63rd birthday. The game was broadcast live on Russian TV; as the teams of former professional stars and oligarchs and politicians (including Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu) put to ice, Russian naval vessels in the Caspian Sea began a missile bombardment of targets in Syria.

    TASS.ru reports that Putin’s team won, 15-10 in a game in which International Ice Hockey Federation president René Fasel served as referee. I guess the victors could gave done without Pavel Bure’s hattrick, but Putin’s seven goals were obviously vital to the effort. After the game, Russian Ice Hockey Federation president Vladislav Tretiak awarded the Putin a medal for gall. That, or else it was the nation’s highest hockey award, recognizing loyalty to and love for the game.

    A detail of Nikas Safronov’s Putin portrait (russieinfo.com)

    None of that’s surprising. I am puzzled that they didn’t let Putin score all the goals, but he seems to have to been satisfied with just th

  • nikas safronov biography of mahatma

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    ART
    UKRAINE

    Curatorial text for the “Codex of Mezhyhirya” exhibition at National Art Museum of Ukraine

    The history of the “Codex of Mezhyhirya” project dates, certainly, from February 22nd – the day of the Fall of Mezhihirya.  It was on that day that the eventual co-curators of the exhibition met on Maidan, and it was there that we got a call from a well-known Kyiv journalist with the news: crowds had overwhelmed the Presidential residence bringing to light a “dictatorial treasure house whose value was incalculable”.  The caller indicated some urgency in getting the hoard turned over to museum professionals.  Managing to get to Mezhihirya by that evening, we were packed into a mini-bus with some Newfoundlands and their handlers, (the latter responsible for the feeding of the Central Asian Shepherd dogs from the presidential kennels), and driven along the Dnieper through darkened alleys to a garage.  Inside stood an impressive collection of soviet-era automobiles – from pre-war “Yomky” pickups to the GAZ model 21.  Every model Viktor Yanukovych could quite possibly have dreamt of in his troubled boyhood, including, here and there, a German make that he’d likely seen in a war

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