Russian teacher blows up ATMs [Video]

So there was this 33-year-old Russian history teacher, who decided to make a little history of his own.

Captured for all the world to see on the CCTV cameras at various banks, the teacher makes a different kind of deposit into the ATMs, then blasts them to make what was probably a sizable withdrawal. It is unknown how much money he actually got away with, unfortunately.

Enjoy the video below....

Russia Finds Brilliant Way to Stop People Illegally Using Disabled Parking Spaces [Video]

In probably every city in the world, certain parking spaces are reserved for disabled people and are clearly marked to that end.

 

However in many countries, drivers, too lazy to drive around looking for a free parking space, illegally use the disabled parking spots.

 

It turns out that over 30 percent of Russian drivers are guilty of taking disabled parking spaces and ignoring the signs on the ground.

A Russian non-profit organization called Dislife has come up with the perfect way to put a stop to the practice. They have installed holographic projections of a real disabled person that pop up every time a driver with no disabled sticker on their car tries to take the spot.

Watch the new holographic deterrent in the video below. This is a great idea to take up worldwide!

Video: Whole load of luxury cars go up in smoke in Moscow

This has really got to hurt. In a scene appropriately dubbed by RT as "carnage," a parking garage, containing a bunch of luxury cars went up in flames early this morning.  

The approximate worth of these beauties, which included Rolls Royces, Mercedes Benz and Bentleys, was $3.3 million and apparently they might all belong to the same person.

Huge flash hits early evening sky in Russia (Video)

UFO, meteor, Superman?  Whatever it was that suddenly lit up the sky close to the city of Yekaterinburg in Russia was captured on a dashcam by someone driving down the road.  

Apparently emergency services refused to comment on what caused that incredible flash in the sky.  Whatever it was the MSM will probably blame it on Putin....

Cat burglar: Caught breaking INTO prison with mobile phones (Video)

Somebody had a brainwave, and tried to sneak two mobile phones into a prison, taped to the body of a cute black and white cat. 

This happened in the Komi Republic on Tuesday this week.  Apparently kitty belonged to a former prisoner, who was trying to get the phones into the jail to his friend, a current inmate.  See the raw video below:

Keep your eyes on the truck ... (Video)

You have to love all these dash cams they have in Russia.  They catch the darndest things. These guys are just driving along behind a cement truck and a car, chatting away, when suddenly, the truck seems to almost disappear.

VIRAL VIDEO: Girl on a motorcycle exacts revenge against those who litter

A girl on a motorcycle in Moscow in Russia has had enough of people dropping litter in the streets from their cars. 

With a GoPro on her helmet she caught it all on the video below, as she got revenge on the nasty litterbugs.

Dragon Cat and Doggie Bee going a tad too far? (Video)

While the animals themselves look completely relaxed and happy, it makes you wonder when you see a cat dyed and trimmed to look like a dragon and a dog styled to resemble a bumblebee at a pet salon in Yekaterinburg, Russia...

Do you think this is taking things just too far?  Let us know in the comments section...

Bentley luxury car gets coated in concrete in Russia (Video)

It is probably a good idea to know if there is construction work happening in the parking garage you use. 

This luxury Bentley car, along with several others, got thoroughly coated in concrete during the process.  Apparently it belongs to a Russian celebrity... bet he or she is not happy ...

Video: Russian road rage driver attacked by SpongeBob SquarePants & Mickey Mouse

An angry driver in Russia got more than he bargained for when, in a fit of road rage, he stopped a van on the highway and ended up being attacked by, among others, a full-size SpongeBob SquarePants.

The whole thing apparently happened in the city of Chelyabinsk at around 2:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. Some guys were driving along when they captured on their dashcam what looks like a vehicle stop, followed by a little road rage, and then the most amazing scene.

As the "road rager" stands shouting at the van, from the other side, out pops SpongeBob SquarePants, Mickey Mouse and what looks like a bear and a giant squirrel. The life-sized cartoon characters then proceed to beat the man up.  The men filming the incident laugh as the victim lies on the road helpless.

It is not sure if this was an actual event, or if it was staged, but it certainly caused a lot of laughter - watch below...

Viral Video: Watch a tornado caught live on a dashcam

This video appears to have been taken back on 03/01/13, but was only uploaded to YouTube on September 1st this year by user Bulat Nazarov.

It is unknown if there was anyone in the car at the time, but the dashboard camera captured the damage caused by the tornado, apparently in Bashkiria (Republic of Bashkortostan) up close and personal.  

It certainly looks like the car did better than the building did ...

Russian meteorite fragment sent for testing

RT is reporting that a fragment of the meteorite that fell in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region in the Urals a week ago was delivered on Friday to Moscow’s Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry. 

The stone will be researched, and an application to include it into an international catalogue will be prepared. The main part of the meteorite fell on February 15 into Chebarkul Lake, and fragments were found nearby. Scientists confirmed their extra-terrestrial origin.

According to Chemical and Engineering News, the meteor that exploded over the Che­lyabinsk region of Russia on Feb. 15 was an ordinary chondrite, with a stony composition common to most of the meteorites that land on Earth, according to an initial chemical analysis by Russian scientists.

Viktor Grokhovsky, a professor at Ural Federal University and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Meteorites, led an expedition to retrieve remnants of the meteor that survived the plunge through Earth’s atmosphere. Grokhovsky says that the fragments his group analyzed at the university contain magnesium-rich chrysolite and sulfite, and are about 10% iron/nickel alloy. His group plans further analyses to fully characterize the meteorites.

The 10,000-ton meteor was 55 feet across and is the largest reported since the 1908 Tunguska meteor strike in Siberia. The recent meteor’s fall to Earth was captured by numerous car dashboard video cameras. Broken windows and debris from its plunge to Earth injured about 1,000 people.

Read more about the meteorite and view videos

Russia rejoins the Space Race with planned unmanned flights to the Moon

According to the Russian space agency, Russia's next unmanned mission to the Moon will launch in 2015, with a total of three lunar exploration missions planned over the next five years.

 

Marking Russia's return to the Moon after a 40-year hiatus, this launch will be the first since the last lunar mission was completed in 1973 during the Soviet era. The missions are to be launched from the Cosmodrome Vostochny, currently under construction in Russia's Far East region.

The first space launch will be lunar mission ‘Luna-Glob-1’ (Lunar sphere), according to Roscosmos head Vladimir Popovkin, who said, “There is every reason to believe that Cosmodrome Vostochny will be operational as scheduled in 2015,” adding that these moon missions will be launched using Soyuz-2 rocket boosters.

Initially the plan was for the Moon exploration program to be launched from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in 2013 and 2014. However, the crash of the ‘Phobos-Grunt’ module in November 2011 forced a revision of both the program’s timetable and the modules’ technical designs.

Revisions include loading the ‘Luna-Glob-1’ module with only 20 kilograms of scientific equipment instead of the previously planned 34 kilograms. To enable this, the 1.2-ton module has been stripped of its drilling device. Its main task now will be testing a new surface landing platform. 

The second launch to the Moon of the orbital scientific module ‘Luna-Glob-2’ is planned for 2016, followed in 2017 by the 3-ton Russian-Indian module ‘Luna-Resurs’ (Lunar resource), which will carry advanced scientific equipment.

Six landing sites have been chosen by Russian scientists for future missions to the Moon, equally distributed between the Moon's north and south poles. The discovery of water ice in those regions sparked scientific interest in the polar areas, which could theoretically be used to produce fuel for future spaceflights and the exploration of the Solar System.

The Voice of Russia reports that the country is planning to create a device that would be able to deliver people to the Moon by 2020. Russian expert in cosmonautics and academician, Alexander Zheleznyakov, said, “However, this doesn’t mean that Russia is planning to send people to the Moon already in 2020.”

“It is only planning to create a device, that would be able to deliver people to the Moon, by 2020.”

“The flight itself will take place after 2020,” he continued. “Until now, the only thing which is already certain about this project is who will finance the creation and the construction of the spaceship. It is not yet certain what type of rocket will take this ship to space. I hope that this will be known when engineers finish working on the creation of the ship.” 

Last month, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev approved a plan to spend 2.1 trillion roubles ($70 billion) on space industry development in the period 2013-2020, including projects to explore the Moon and Mars.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/341379

Russian government approves harsh anti-tobacco ban for 2015

Russia has finally caught up with the rest of the world, and smokers now have a couple of years to give up the habit, before harsh anti-smoking legislation comes into effect during 2015. 

Should this legislation pass, smoking will be prohibited in any public place, including restaurants and cafes. Many efforts have been made in the past to impose smoking bans, without success. 

However, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has been persistent in pushing for this legislation. Addressing ministers after the discussion, he said, “This is a big problem and we are too careless about it.”

“We have to move towards civilization, like the rest of the world. And this will bring in an effect that will be measured in human lives,” he added.

Reasons for pushing the ban are clear - every third person in Russia is a smoker, and according to statistics this makes up some 44 million smokers in the country. 

Russia's Minister of Health, Veronika Skvortsova, says that the health benefits from just 10% of these smokers giving up the habit would bring an additional $3,5 billion into Russia's budget in 2013. According to health officials, around 400,000 are afflicted each year by smoking-related illnesses. 

As stated in the video, it is unsure what will happen to people who ignore the smoking ban. Medvedev says that the legislation is not a governmental war on smokers, but on smoking itself. Government officials are getting ready for what they say will be a “battle” with the powerful tobacco lobby in Russia.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Public Chamber member and former Duma deputy Maxim Mischenko said, “We will face an enormous amount of difficulties, particularly in the State Duma, and people will attempt to emasculate this bill.” 

 British-American Tobacco (BAT), Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco International account for around 90% of the Russian tobacco-related market, which makes this the second largest in the world behind China. According to Health Ministry statistics, Russians spent over 4 billion rubles (about $130 million) on tobacco products in 2011 alone. 

The anti-tobacco ban would stop smoking in state offices, education, medical, sports and cultural facilities, in public transportation, on playgrounds and in public areas in residential buildings, making things a little hard on the tobacco addict. 

Starting from July 2014, there will be no smoking allowed in hotels, markets and stores, and on long distance trains and planes. 

Finally, in 2015, the ban will be brought in for restaurants and cafes. There will also be a prohibition on advertising of tobacco products. 

The draft has now been approved by the government and now goes on for approval by the Russian State Duma and then by the Federation Council.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/335104

Private charged in Russian military range shell blasts

An army conscript has confessed to ignoring the ban on smoking in explosion-risk areas of the military base and has been charged with causing the massive explosions near Orenburg, Russia on Tuesday. 

Digital Journal reported on the explosions in Central Russia's Orenburg region, where 4,000 tons of shells were detonated, causing broken windows in surrounding buildings and the evacuation of nearby towns.

It has now been confirmed that a cigarette was the cause of the blasts. 

Military investigators have brought criminal charges against Private Aleksandr Kasatkin over the explosions at the Donguz range on Tuesday.  

Representatives of the Military Investigative Department of the Russian Investigative Committee told Interfax on Thursday that Kasatkin “surrendered to military detectives in the course of the preliminary inquiry.” 

The report continued that “he and a fellow serviceman ignored the ban on smoking in explosion-risk places” when unloading munitions at the missile artillery depot. Investigators said that “he dropped a cigarette butt on the ground without making sure that it was extinguished. Ten minutes later several crates with munitions caught fire.”  

In the blast on Tuesday, more than 4,000 tons of ammunition exploded at a disposal site in Russia's Orenburg region causing a temporary evacuation of residents in the area. The explosions left two 300m-wide holes in the ground, and apparently blew the missile depot apart. 

The blasts reportedly injured an officer, who suffered bruising. Kasatkin faces three years in prison if convicted.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/334657