NEEVA TOWERS FKA THE-RENNAISSANCE-MOSCOW TOWERS

 

The Neva Towers, formerly the Renaissance Moscow Towers, is a complex of two skyscrapers located on plots 17 and 18 of the Moscow International Business Center (MIBC) in Moscow, Russia. Tower 1, at 302 991 feet tall with 65 floors, is the ninth-tallest building in Europe. Tower 2, at 1,132 feet tall with 79 floors, is the tallest residential building in Europe and the fourth-tallest building in Europe. The complex was completed in 2020.

NEVA TOWERS

THE IRTYSH RIVER

The Irtysh is a river in Russia, China, and Kazakhstan. It is the chief tributary of the Ob, and at a length of 2,640 miles, it is the longest tributary river in the world.  The Irtysh and the Ob River together constitute the world’s seventh longest river system.  From its origins as the Kara-Irtysh (Black Irtysh) in the Mongolian Altay mountains in Xinjiang, China, the Irtysh flows northwest through Lake Zaysan in Kazakhstan, meeting the Ishim and Tobol rivers before merging with the Ob near Khanty-Mansiysk in western Siberia, Russia.

THE 48TH PARALLEL NORTH

 

The longest continuous east–west distance on land is 6,665 miles along the latitude 48°24'53"N, from the west coast of France (Pointe de Corsen, 48°24′53″N 4°47′44″W) through Central Europe, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China, to a point on the east coast of Russia (48°24′53″N 140°6′3″E).

CRIMEAN BRIDGE

The Crimean Bridge, also called the Kerch Strait Bridge, is a pair of Russian Constructed parallel bridges, spanning the Strait of Kerch between the Taman Peninsula of Krasnodar Krai and the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea. The road bridge was opened for non-truck cars on May 16, 2018 and for trucks on October 1.  The rail bridge was inaugurated on December 23, 2019 and the first scheduled passenger train crossed the bridge on December 25, 2019, while the opening of the bridge for freight trains is scheduled for July 1, 2020. With a length of 11.8 miles, it is the longest bridge Russia has ever built and the longest in Europe.

THE CRIMEAN BRIDGE
By Rosavtodor.ru, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85232127

YURIBEY BRIDGE

The Yuribey Bridge is a 2.4-mile-long railway bridge on the Obskaya-Bovanenkovo Line. It has two main spans of 490 feet. It is the longest bridge above the Arctic Circle.

YURIBEY RIVER BRIDGE, RUSSIA

KARSKAYA STATION

Karskaya station, at the end of the extension of the Obskaya-Bovanenkovo Line, in Russia, is the northernmost railway station in the world.

OBSKAYA-BOVANENKOVO LINE

The Obskaya–Bovanenkovo Line is a railway line in northern Russia, which was built and is owned by Gazprom. The railway is the northernmost railway in the world. It was opened for traffic in 2010 and was built for the gas fields around Bovanenkovo on the Yamal Peninsula. In February 2011, it was extended to the Karskaya station, making it 355 miles long. (Prior to the opening of the Obskaya-Bovanenkovo line, the Kirkenes-Bjørnevatn, a 5.2-mile-long railway in Norway, was the world’s northernmost railway).

Obskaya-Bovanenkovo Railway Line in blue color

NORD STREAM

Nord Stream is an offshore gas pipeline from Vyborg in the Russian Federation to Greifswald in Germany that is owned and operated by Nord Stream AG, whose majority shareholder is the Russian state company Gazprom. The project includes two parallel lines. The first line was laid in May 2011 and was inaugurated on November 8, 2011. The second line was laid in 2011-2012 and was inaugurated on October 8, 2012. At 759 miles in length, it is the longest sub-sea pipeline in the world. It has an annual capacity of 1.9 trillion cubic feet.

WORLD'S LARGEST ICEBREAKERS

In a ceremony held on May 25, 2019 at the Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg, the nuclear-powered icebreaker Ural was launched. The Ural is the third in the class of three Project 22220 icebreakers. The Ural, and her two sister ships, Arktika, and Sibir, are 567 feet long and 111 feet wide, making them the largest icebreakers ever constructed. The ships displace a massive 33,000 tons and are able to break through 3 meters of ice. They each have two RITM-200 reactors of 175MWt each, delivering 60 MW at the propellers via twin turbine-generators and three motors.

"THE MOTHERLAND CALLS" - TALLEST STATUE OF A WOMAN IN THE WORLD

The Motherland Calls is the compositional center of the monument-ensemble "Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad" on Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, Russia. It was designed by sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich and structural engineer Nikolai Nikitin. It is the tallest statue in Europe and the tallest statue (excluding pedestal) of a woman in the world. When the memorial was dedicated in 1967 it was the tallest statue in the world, measuring 279 feet from the tip of its sword to the top of the plinth. The plinth measures another 6.6 feet, and is installed on a concrete foundation with a depth of 52 feet. The figure measures 171 feet, and the sword 108 feet. The monument weighs over 8,000 tons. The sword itself weighs 14 tons. The rigidity of the frame is supported by 99 metal cables constantly in tension.

THE MOTHERLAND CALLS 

THE THUNDER STONE - LARGEST STONE EVER MOVED BY HUMANS

The pedestal upon which stands the Bronze Horseman in Saint Petersburg, Russia is the largest stone ever moved by humans. The Bronze Horseman is an equestrian statue of the Peter the Great in the Senate Square in Saint Petersburg. Commissioned by Catherine the Great, it was created by the French sculptor Étienne Maurice Falconet. The statue’s pedestal is the enormous Thunder Stone. The stone originally weighed about 1,500 tons. The stone was found at Lakhta, 3.7 miles from the Gulf of Finland in 1768. It took 400 men nine months to move the stone, during which time master stonecutters continuously shaped the enormous granite monolith. Upon arrival at sea an enormous barge was constructed exclusively for the Thunder Stone. The vessel had to be supported on either side by two full-size warships. After a short voyage, the stone reached it final destination in 1770, after nearly two years of work.

The Bronze Horseman atop the Thunder Stone in Saint Petersburg, Russia

The Transportation of the Thunder Stone in the Presence of Catherine II; Engraving by I.F. Schley of the drawing by Yury Felton; 1770

THE LAKHTA CENTER, ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

The Lakhta Center is an 87-story skyscraper built in the outskirts of Lakhta in St. Petersburg, Russia. Standing 1,516 feet tall, the Lakhta Center is the tallest building in Russia, the tallest building in Europe and the 13th tallest building in the world. The concrete pouring of the bottom slab of Lakhta’s Center’s foundation was registered by Guinness World Records as the largest continuous concrete pour. 19,624 cubic meters of concrete were used, which is approximately 3,000 cubic meters more than in the previous similar record registered at Wilshire Grand Tower in Los Angeles. Lakhta Center is also the world’s northernmost skyscraper.

LAKHTA CENTER IN JULY 2018

"CAFE GROUND-ZERO" AKA THE PENTAGON HOT DOG STAND

During the Cold War, the Russians always at least 2 missiles aimed at the hot dog stand in the Pentagon’s center courtyard. The Russians thought the hot dog stand was the Pentagon’s most top-secret meeting room, and the entire Pentagon was a large fortress built around the hot dog stand. Reportedly, by using satellite imagery, the Soviets could see groups of U.S. military officers entering and exiting the hot dog stand at about the same time every day. They concluded that the stand was the entrance to an underground bunker where the officers going to get their top-secret briefings in a protected area. The hot dog stand was torn down in 2006, and was replaced with a similar structure. The story of Café Ground Zero is typically told to pentagon tourists by tour guides.

CAFE GROUND ZERO

THE TIME THAT PEPSICO WAS THE SIXTH MOST POWERFUL MILITARY IN THE WORLD

Pepsi was first introduced to the Russian people in the late 1950s.

In 1972, the Soviet Union wanted to strike a deal that would bring Pepsi products to their country permanently. However, there was an issue of how they would pay for it, as their currency was not accepted throughout the world. A solution was eventually reached when vodka* was used as the medium of exchange.

In the late 1980s, Russia’s initial agreement to import Pepsi into the country was set to expire, and vodka wasn’t going to cover the cost of renewing the agreement.

This time the Russians offered to trade Pepsi a fleet of subs and boats in exchange for Pepsi products. The new agreement included; 17 submarines, a cruiser, a frigate and a destroyer. The combined fleet was traded for $3 billion worth of Pepsi products.

The historical exchange caused Pepsi to become the 6th most powerful military in the world.

Shortly after taking ownership of the naval vessels, Pepsi sold the fleet to a Swedish company for scrap recycling.

*Bonus Fact: As a result of the 1922 trade deal, Pepsi became the sole distributor of Stolichnaya Vodka in the U.S. until 1989.

POLES OF COLD

The Poles of Cold are the places in the southern and northern hemispheres where the lowest air temperatures have been recorded.

NORTHERN HEMISPHERE
LOCATION	LAT. (N)	POP.	RECORD	DETAILS
Oymyakon, Russia	63.45	900	-89.9	February 6, 1933 – coldest reliably measured temperature for the northern hemisphere
Delyankir, Russia	63.81	3	-85	Has the lowest average temperature throughout all winter months, as well as a lower yearly average
Verkhoyansk, Russia	67.55	1,311	-89.7	World record for the greatest temperature range on earth – 189 degrees

SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
LOCATION	LAT. (S)	RECORD	DETAILS
Antarctic Vostok Station	78.47	-128.6	July 21, 1983 – lowest naturally occurring temperature ever recorded on earth