In this video done on November 14, 2010, my boys are playing with snow outside… As you see, it is already winter and kids are wrapped in many warm clothes. Weather was pretty good. Like -15C. Unwindy. And we allowed them to play outside for about 30 minutes, not many, but we are parents. We always worry about children’s health

Now, when currently we have temperature much below -40C|F, boys stay most time inside buildings. No outdoor activities, no more playing with snow till March of the next year. It’s sad, but… you know… we are parents… and always worry… Will you allow your small kids to play outside in such cold weather conditions? Just wonder.

AB Ellis, the Russian architectural bureau, has developed a very futuristic project called Eco-City 2020. It proposes to build the eco-city inside the crater located on the edge of Mirny, Yakutia, Siberia/Russia.

AB Ellis is offering to construct a gigantic structure inside the man-made crater with a diameter of 1 km and a depth of 550 m. In the very diamond mine crater that is depicted in many photographs of Mirny and considered as one of the world’s largest ones.

As far as you know, Mirny is the city where ALROSA, the Russian diamond mining company, is based, and it is the administrative center of Mirny region famous for Yakutian diamonds.

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Previously we informed about Aubry Francine’s upcoming photo exhibit in Southern France, precisely in the tourisom office showroom of Aix en Provence. Now we have the good news. The exhibit happened on October 4th-17th, 2010, and it was very successful.

Aubry with the help of the Russian club “Datcha Kalina” and the famous explorer-director, Nicolas Vanier, displayed 35 portraits of Yakut children and the frescoes of drawings by kids from Yakutia, France , Belgium, Portugal and Cameroon on the theme of global warming.

Aubry Francine provided us with photos taken during the opening ceremony. They are very impressive. Saying a lot of thanks to her. For her devotion to kids and readiness to help them worlwide, including Yakutia.

Who is Aubry? She is a France-based educator, who helped a lot to a French-Sakha school in the Yakutian village of Khamagatta, 1 hour ride north off Yakutsk. She is a big person.

By the way, dear friends, if you are interested in this exhibit to happen at your place, just let her know. She will be glad to arrange it in your city/town/settlement.

Further, please, find more event photographs.

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Aubry Francine

The last week was full of great Yakutia-related news. Here is another one, but this time from France.

Received a message from Aubry Francine. She is very remarkable, as she visited Yakutia many times. Frankly saying, it’s hard to count all your stays in our Siberian region. Aubry is an France-based educator, who helps a lot to a French-Sakha school in the village of Khamagatta, 1 hour ride north off Yakutsk.

Here is the news. Read the rest of this entry…

The Lena River, Tabaga Cape. It is the very place, where the railroad bridge is going to be constructed.

Last Monday I and my friends, Ekaterina and Artyem, managed to get out of the town for fishing on the Lena River. In the morning weather was pretty sunny, but by 2 pm, the time, when we set out for the settlement of Tabaga, 1 hr ride by a car south off Yakutsk, it got cloudy. When we arrived to the river, it was raining and a gravel road down there became slushy and muddy. It was hard to get through, and the army of hungry bloodsuckers met us happily. We experienced real extremes

On the bank we found many fishermen. We were ready to catch fishes as many as possible, but we appeared to be, damn, unlucky. High waters, you know. Irrespective of that state of being, it was extremely beautiful on the Lena River. Instead, we enjoyed beautiful nature. Why not?

Further, please, see 22 photographs I took in the area of Tabaga Cape. Read the rest of this entry…

Here are my announcements of big international events in Yakutsk for June 2010. Initially published on the Twitter account @yakutia.

- Khabarovsk-based Japanese Centre will hold the seminar on the development of tourism, timber & construction industries in Yakutsk on Jun 2-3UNDP & the Northern Forum will held the seminar on climate changes in Yakutsk on June 2-6, 2010. #climatechange

- UNDP & the Northern Forum will held the seminar on climate changes in Yakutsk on June 2-6, 2010. #climatechange.

- 13th University of the Arctic Council Meeting will take place in #Yakutsk on June 1-5, 2010. #Arctic http://bit.ly/aOZih

- 2010 NORD EXPO International Trade Fair to be in Yakutsk on June 1-4, 2010. http://bit.ly/cGp6Cp

- The 9th International Symposium on Cold Region Development (ISCORD) to be held in Yakutsk, Russia, on June 1-4, 2010 http://bit.ly/bl02kp

- Our Yukagir Mammoth is coming back to Russia from Shanghai. Non EXPO2010-related events, incl. the mammoth exhibition, were canceled by Shanghai City Hall.

- Yakutia-based travel companies & local authority will arrange the East Ring of Russia conference in Yakutsk on June 24-26, 2010. It seems they want to create another Russia’s Gold Ring.

Follow event updates on Twitter.

The view on the Lena River from stone pillars

If by any chance you would be heading toward the Lena Pillars on a river cruise ship, I beg you, do not oversleep the first morning. Otherwise, you won’t see the beauty of the stone pillars on the Lena River in the glory of the rising sun… Let’s see, why I am telling you that. Further, please, find 26 photographs of the best reportage I’ve ever seen. Thanks a lot to InfoFlot’s author and my friends from Adventure.

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Today a local blogger TUTOR shared the photographs of wild animals, fishes and a bird. The pics were taken in South Yakutia. See further major species of the Siberian wildlife. Elks, brown bears, sables, pikes, an owlet, snake, and a funny chipmunk. All of them are pretty awesome. Yeah, let’s protect them and their environment. Why not? Read the rest of this entry…

Take a look at 38 exclusive photographs of how Polar Airlines was rescuing the French Arctic explorer Jean-Louis Etienne in the Arctic tundra of Yakutia’s Siberia after his 5-days North Pole balloon crossing on April 11th, 2010. Read the rest of this entry…

A French balloon explorer Jean-Louis Etienne flying via the North Pole from Norway to the Siberian republic of Yakutia. By Francis Latreille

Jean-Louis Ettienne

YAKUTIA/SIBERIA, April 11, 2010 – Yesterday a 63-years-old French balloon adventurer Jean-Louis Etienne has reached Yakutia’s Arctic Circle and finished his 5-days Generaly Arctic Observer flight expedition done from Norway via the North Pole to Siberia.

In Saturday’s morning he reached the Russian Arctic coast in the area of Yakutia’s Ust-Yansky region. He was expected to land in Tiksi, but the weather (winds and fogs) changed his direction. He was blown eastward to the Ust Yansky region. By that moment he had got pretty tired. The weariness and thick fog on the route to Batagai, the Verkhoyansky region, forced him to land soon in the Northern part of the Yakutian region of Ust Yansky, hundreds kilometers north from the villages of Ust Kujga and Deputatsky.

He spent night in the Arctic nowhere, where temperature at night was below -30 degrees Centigrate.

This morning Jean-Louis Etienne and his balloon equipment was picked up by his support team and brought to Yakutsk by a helicopter.

More info + the video. Read the rest of this entry…