Emerging market recovery and growth will not be driven by commodities alone. Fiscal restraint is also required and Russia is taking a leadership role. While the price of oil will be important in determining the country’s economic fate, Moscow has identified a simple, modest plan to spur agricultural production and reduce costs: eliminate snowfall this winter. The mayor, Yir Luzhkov, plans to shell out $6 million to enlist the Russian Air Force to litter the sky with cement powder, dry ice or silver iodide in an effort to reduce precipitation in the city.
“You know how every year on City Day and Victory Day we create the weather?” Luzhkov asked a group of farmers outside Moscow in September, according to Russian media reports. “Well, we should do the same with the snow! Then outside Moscow there will be more moisture, a bigger harvest, while for us it won’t snow as much. It will make financial sense.”
So public funds are being used to pay for a military operation to rid Moscow of a seemingly innocuous presence. Sound familiar Hermitage Capital?
Moscow Mayor Promises a Winter Without Snow [TIME]
An even bigger snow job: Obama and his balloon boys will reign in The Street.
An even bigger snow job: Obama and his balloon boys will rein in The Street…
In Soviet Russia, snow balls spit on you.
Greg, Mr. Putin will personally push a snowball into your rear end.
The snow saved them from Napolean’s army and the German tanks. It will save them again!
I’m no expert, but putting cement in the sky seems like a bad idea…
My wife just told me Donny Deutsch is “ruggedly handsome”. WTF?
@6: yes, and so is putting cement blocks.
This is completely crazy. Concrete powder?? And what will happen outside the city? Massive mountains of snow? Why not try this out on a small area for a couple years first?
In other news… the Fed will keep on spreading bullshit to keep “fertlizing the green shoots” that one day will appear say’s Chairman Bernanke.
@9 “Try”.. “small area”? There are no words in russki for this! Only words like progress and determination have made it into Luzhkov’s dialect. . . and consequently failure and disaster… and i think there’s a word for global trainwreck…you get the idea.
Bring back the serf. Let them clear the snow in bare feet….
@12 = stalin
This is amazing. Go central planning!
@12= all GS employees
@13, believe you mean Alexander I.
“когда вы останавливаете умерщвление миллионами, люди начинают получать придумки” -L. Beria
“For just a few million dollars, the mayor’s office will hire the Russian Air Force to spray a fine chemical mist over the clouds before they reach the capital, forcing them to dump their snow outside the city. …and quality of life — will undoubtedly improve.”
Then come spring, the snow will melt, poisoning the ground, food and water supply and 20 years from now, mutant rural offspring take revenge on the capital city turning residents into zombies.
Just say the word bitches and it shall be done!
~Junior Russian Snowmaker
making russian snow is the new killing it
I spent so much time playing Command & Conquer: Red Alert that I can’t see Red Square without wanting to blow it up with my tanks…
what’ll they do next? stop making it rain?~!?!?!?!11
Russia is pro-global warming, no joke. Hell, I don’t give a damn either – must be my semi-Russian blood.