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 more…

Location: Yakutsk, Siberia/Russia.
Dates: Jun. 11-13, 2010.
Off-roading contests: sprint, GPS-orienteering, trophy.
Participants competed on 4×4s, ATVs, motorcycles, bicycles, trekkers.

More texts are coming. Meanwhile, see 64 photos of the real Siberian challenge. Read more…

Vyacheslav Shtyrov with his ex team in Yakutia, Siberia. Photo by Alexander Nazarov.

Last weekend, Vyacheslav Shtyrov gave an interview to the republic’s mass media. He talked about why he left the office of the President of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), what he is going to do, and what he achieved for his 8 years of presidency, and what the next president should do.

Read more…

A trivia question! Who were the first passengers of the first 3-hours Lena River journey on the cruise ship “Demyan Bednyj” on June 1st, 2010, the first day of official navigation? Read more…

In the picture: Ed Clarke, mayor Yury Zabolev, interpreter Nadya Noeva

Today two mayors of sister-cities, Yakutsk (Russia) and Fairbanks (USA), had teleconferencing. It was the first time, when Yury Zabolev (biography) talked live to his colleague of Fairbanks, Luke Hopkins (his bio). They talked about how they could reanimate the relations between sister-cities in the near future. Read more…

Vyacheslav Shtyrov. Photo by A. Nazarov

President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday accepted the resignation of the President of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Vyacheslav Shtyrov, RIA-Novosti reported.

Shtyrov quit “for personal reasons,” said Vyacheslav Surkov, Medvedev’s deputy chief of staff, adding that the Kremlin approved of Shtyrov’s work and expected to use his managerial talents in some other capacity in the future.

Yegor Borisov, Yakutia’s Prime Minister, was appointed acting president.

Shtyrov’s deputy, Yevgenia Mikhailova, resigned in May after Medvedev appointed her as rector of North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk.

Shtyrov, 56, was director of Alrosa, the state-run diamond miner, from 1996 to 2002, when he became Yakutia’s President.

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Location: Yakutsk river port

Two days prior to the start of navigation on the Lena River, at the height of preparation for summer cruises to Lena Pillars, I went on a visit to the Demian Bednyj cruise ship captain Oleg Borisov. A very hospitable man.

When he saw me with a camera, he got perplexed, “My god, I am not in uniform. Not in full dress. Otherwise…” Yeah, indeed, why is the captain not uniformed daily, but only on a voyage?! “Now we are intensively preparing the vessel for navigation. Going through check-ups by sanitary-and-epidemiologic service, fire safety service, and others…” That way he was trying to explain, why he was not dressed up. Whatever it might be, I took a photo of him. He was in a casual checked shirt and slippers…

Frankly saying, it’s blogger’s habit to bring a camera along. Pictures may come to my help, when especially I have no wish or time to write… But in this case it is my great pleasure to type a few good lines about people, who love their work and live for it.

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It is 11.63 light minutes from Earth and called 2607 Yakutia minor planet. Click the image to enlarge.

Discovered by: N. Chernykh
Discovery site: Nauchnyj, Crimea, Ukraine
Discovery date: July 14, 1977 (33 years ago)

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On the way to Namzy. The Lena River's flood. Photo by Ajar Varlamov.

Ajar Varlamov is awesome as usual. When the Lena River flood started [it was on May 20, 2010], he travelled from Yakutsk north to Namzy. He didn’t make it to the final destination. He was stopped in the village of Tulagino. The rest part of the so-called Namzy highway, the 2nd existing asphalt road near Yakutsk, was totally flooded by high waters of the Lena River.

An unpleasant accident happened to Ajar. When he stood on the brink of the asphalt road in the area of the flooding, suddently the ground under his feet disappeared and he fell in cold ice snow water. Fortunately, he was saved. Praise god. So… take a look at his photos of the current flooding… Btw, two his Nikon cameras got broken

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More new photographs of the Lena River flooding in Yakutsk are upcoming with every update. Stay tuned. Check the last set.

The part of Yakutsk - Pokrovsk road between villages of Oktemzy and Tekhtyur is overflooded. May 19, 2010. Photo by 777.

2010 Spring Lena River Flooding. That’s a big event in Siberia’s Yakutia, indeed. We, all locals, follow the last flood information. Emergency and other services are on alert. The flood is already here. The river flows fast.

Yesterday, May 19, the part of the Yakutsk-Pokrovsk road between Oktemzy and Tekhtyur has been already flooded. It means the town of Pokrovsk is totally disconnected from Yakutsk for next two weeks.

Further, watch, how the Lena River flows through a live webcam. Check river pictures and the river map. In the course of the work day I will try to update this post with more flood information on the Lena River, the longest river in Siberia. Stay tuned. Read more…