Biography of Boris Johnson - career, family, photos, achievements, and facts from his personal life

A border country located at the confluence of the EU and Russia, a former Soviet republic with a population of 46 million, independent since 1991, known abroad by stereotypes such as the "granary of the former USSR", the "Chernobyl catastrophe", "Gas crisis" or "orange revolution", Ukraine is trying to build an identity.

The difficulty in finding this identity stems from the fact that Ukraine has long been fragmented between the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires, the current borders being drawn by Joseph Stalin. It is true that nationalist ideas took their place here in the nineteenth century, but it was only after the disintegration of the USSR that Ukraine became independent, except for a short period between 1917 and 1920.

You can read more interesting facts below.

1. If Russia, which is not entirely in Europe, is not taken into account, Ukraine is the state with the largest area on the "Old Continent". Ukraine has an area of ​​603,628 square kilometers;

2. Ukrainians celebrate National Day on August 24;

3. Arsenal in Kyiv is the deepest subway station in the world. It is located at a depth of 105 meters and was built in 1960 for military purposes. The reason? Threatening powerful states with nuclear bombs

4. Traditional Ukrainian food includes chicken, pork, beef, eggs, fish and mushrooms. Ukrainians also tend to eat a lot of fresh, pickled potatoes, cereals and vegetables. 

5. The most famous Ukrainian dish is borscht. While many Russians claim to be from their homeland, many Ukrainians are passionate about believing that they are the founders of this dish.

6. Ukraine was at the center of one of the greatest catastrophes of the 20th century. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded in April 1986. The blast was considered the worst accident in the history of nuclear power.

7. Unlike many civilized states in Ukraine, wedding rings are worn on the ring finger of the right hand.

8. The "Love Tunnel" also exists in Ukraine. Near the town of Klevan in Ukraine there is a railway line that is covered with vaults formed by the branches of the nearby trees. It has become a favorite destination for thousands of lovers.

9. The geographical center of Europe is located in Ukraine. In 1886, the geographers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, using the technology of the time, established the geographical center of Europe in the village of Dilove.

10. The city of Druzhkivka in the Donetsk region is one of the few places in the world where fossilized trees are kept. The trees are almost 250 million years old and create an entire fossilized forest that covers an area of ​​1 hectare.

11. The first gas lamp in history was invented in the Ukrainian city of Lviv.

12. The Ukrainians, namely the Antonov Design Bureau, have developed an aircraft with the highest payload capacity in the world - the An-225 Mechta. At first it was designed to transport spacecraft. Now "Dream" carries out commercial cargo transportation.

13. The author of one of the first constitutions in the world is Ukrainian political and public figure Pylyp Orlyk. On April 5, 1710, he was elected hetman of the Zaporizhian army. On the same day, Pylyp Orlyk announced the "Constitution of the rights and freedoms of the Zaporizhian army." In the United States, the Constitution was adopted in 1787, in France and the Commonwealth - only in 1791. An interesting fact is that Pylyp Orlik was born on the territory of Belarus - in the village of Kosuta, Oshmyany Povet.

14. In recent years, Ukraine has confidently retained its place in the top three world leaders in honey production. Being several times ahead of European countries in terms of honey production, Ukraine is at the same time the first state in the world in honey production per capita (1.5 kg).

15. Ukraine has the world's largest reserves of manganese ore - 2.3 billion tons, or about 11% of the world's total reserves.

16. Only six monasteries in the world have the status of Lavra. Three of them are in Ukraine. These are the Holy Assumption Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in Kyiv, which received this status back in 1598, the Holy Assumption Lavra in the city of Pochaev and the Svyatogorsk Holy Assumption Lavra in the Donetsk region.

17. Ostroh Academy is the first higher educational institution in Eastern Europe, the oldest Ukrainian scientific and educational institution. In 1576, Prince Konstantin-Vasily of Ostrog founded the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy in Ostrog.

18. The first kerosene lamp was invented in Lvov by Ignaty Lukasiewicz and Jan Zekh in 1853, under the Golden Star pharmacy workers.In the same year, the first surgical operation was performed in the Lviv hospital under the illumination of a kerosene lamp. Subsequently, the kerosene lamp was presented at the international exhibition in Munich, the invention was awarded a special diploma there.

19. Monuments to the famous Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko have been erected in 1200 cities around the world.

20. The Ukrainian wind instrument trembita is the longest wind musical instrument in the world.

21. The shortest main street of all the capitals of the world, but at the same time one of the widest and most beautiful - Khreshchatyk in Kyiv. Its length is only 1225 m.

22. The oldest map known to scientists, as well as the oldest settlement of Homo Sapiens, were found in Ukraine: in the village. Mesopotamia of the Rivne region. They are about 14.5-15 thousand years old. The map is engraved on a mammoth bone.

23. The longest cave in Ukraine is called "Optimistic" and is located in Podolia. This is a gypsum cave at a depth of 20 m with a length of 216 km. The longest gypsum cave in the world and the second longest in general, it is second only to Mammoth Cave in the United States.

24. The geographical center of Europe (well, yes, we also have it :)). In Ukraine, near the town of Rakhiv, surrounded by the picturesque Carpathians, is the geographical center of Europe.

25. The oldest tree in Ukraine is considered to be a 1300-year-old oak in the Yuzefin tract, Rivne region.

26. The third most visited McDonald's in the world is located in Kyiv near the railway station. This establishment consistently ranks among the top five busiest McDonald's in the world.

27. One of the largest historical transport routes ran through the territory of Ukraine (as well as through the territory of Belarus) - “the path from the Varangians to the Greeks” - a system of river routes and portages between them 3 thousand km long, connecting the northern lands of Ancient Russia with the southern Russian lands and the Baltic sea ​​with Black. Throughout ancient history, Ukraine has acted as a bridge between the worlds of Eastern Europe and the Ancient East, Antique, Byzantine and Latin Europe.

28. Ukraine ranks fourth in the world in terms of the number of citizens with higher education. The population of Ukraine is among the most educated, and the number of people with higher education per capita is higher than the average European level.

 

29. Ukraine, on its own initiative, abandoned the world's third largest arsenal of nuclear weapons. At the time of declaration of independence, more than a thousand nuclear warheads and missiles were located on the territory of Ukraine, the third largest nuclear potential after Russia and America. The warheads and missiles were handed over to Russia, the bunkers were destroyed. In response, Ukraine received money for disarmament, as well as security guarantees from nuclear powers (as we can see, these guarantees are not respected today).

30. The international Ukrainian anthem consists of only six lines (four in verse and two in the chorus). The remaining lines of the anthem are considered politically incorrect. (for example, "Stand, brother, in a crooked way from Xiang to Don" implies Ukraine's claims to the territory of Russia and Poland). The anthem was born in 1863, and adopted as a state anthem in 2003.

31.At the language beauty contest in Paris in 1934, the Ukrainian language took third place after French and Persian in terms of phonetics, vocabulary, phraseology, and sentence structure. And in terms of melodiousness, the Ukrainian language took second place after Italian.

32. Until the almost complete destruction in 1240 by the Mongol-Tatars, Kyiv was one of the largest cities in Europe, fifty times larger than London, ten times larger than Paris. It reached its peak under Yaroslav the Wise (1010 - 1054), who became related to the royal families of France, Norway, Romania and Poland. The population of today's capital of Ukraine was about 50,000 inhabitants. It took about 600 years to reach such demographic indicators again. Quite possibly, if it were not for the destruction of that time, Kyiv could have been the most developed largest city in Europe for many years.

33. Pablo Picasso was delighted with the works of the Ukrainian artist Kateryna Bilokur (1900-1961). When in 1954 he saw her works at an exhibition, he said that they were brilliant and compared Catherine with the world-famous artist Serafin Louis.

35. One of the most famous Christmas songs in the world is Shchedryk, a folk song recorded by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych. The world knows her as Carol of the Bells or Ring Christmas Bells. On Youtube, various performances of "Shchedryk" are gaining millions of views.

36. During the Anglo-Boer War (South Africa) in 1899 - 1902. the commander of one of the detachments of the Boers, Ukrainian Yuriy Budyak, saved a young English journalist from execution. Subsequently, the latter helped Budyak enter Oxford University. In 1917, Yuriy worked in the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic. In 1943 Yuri Budyak died in a Soviet concentration camp. The English journalist's name was Winston Churchill…

37. At the time of independence, there were 19.4 million pigs in Ukraine. Today, there are half as many of them - 8.3 million. Despite the reputation of a salo-eater, the average Ukrainian eats only 18 kg of pork per year. This is three times less than an ordinary German.

38. In Ukraine, near Nikopol, on a spit near the river. Lapinki, on one of the branches of the Dnieper, you can see, or rather hear a phenomenon that is rare in the world - singing sands. The "singing" of these, perhaps, the strangest sands appears after rain, when the top layer sticks together and forms a fragile crust. Walking along it, you can hear sounds similar to the whistling of air released from a car chamber.

39. In the town of Berdychiv (Zhytomyr region) in the church of St. Barbara on March 14, 1850, the local beauty Evelina Ganskaya was married to Honore de Balzac. Frederic Chopin lived in the same town for a long time, who, in addition to writing music, also supervised the restoration of the local organ.

40. It would be possible to collect a dictionary of Ukrainian surnames, distorted in the course of Russification by Russian officials. So, the Ukrainian clan Chekhov in the 19th century became Chekhov for some reason. Chekhov's grandfather was still a Czech. Anton Pavlovich himself wrote that his grandfather was a Ukrainian. Quite funny, the Deineks turned into Denikins. Cossacks Rozuma became Razumovsky, Chaikas become Tchaikovsky. The grandfather of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, the great composer - Pyotr Chaika - graduated from the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, and as a physician, the Russian government sent him as a head physician to Vyatka. 

41. Probably, the Ukrainian atmosphere in the Tchaikovsky family was preserved much better than that of the Chekhovs, because from the age of 24, the future composer lived in Ukraine almost every year for several months, where he wrote more than 30 works, including the opera Blacksmith Vakula (Cherevichki ”), “Mazepa”, song-romance “Cherry Garden of Haiti”, duet “On the Novgorod near the Ford” to the words of T. Shevchenko. In the cruel times of the empire's offensive against the Ukrainian language, he sought the production of "Taras Bulba" by N. Lysenko (the famous Ukrainian composer), used many Ukrainian folk songs in his works.

42. The great writer Fyodor Dostoevsky was Ukrainian by origin, because the Dostoevsky family came from the village of Dostoev near Pinsk (Ukrainian-Belarusian border), so Belarusians can also consider him their fellow countryman. One of the Dostoevskys becomes a hieromonk of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and in 1647 takes part in the election of the next metropolitan. It is interesting that among the Dostoevskys who lived in Podolia, most of all were representatives of the clergy. Andrei Dostoevsky was a priest of the Ukrainian Uniate Church. 

43. He was the grandfather of the writer F. Dostoevsky. Andrei's son quarreled with his father and brother and went to Moscow. His name was Mikhail, and as a memory of his family and Ukraine, he took with him, preserved and passed on to his sons his own Ukrainian poems. The daughter of Fyodor Mikhailovich recalls: "... poetic abilities were already in the Ukrainian family of my father, and were not given only through my Muscovite mother, as Dostoevsky's literary friends suggest." It is a pity that F. Dostoevsky did not join the defense of Ukraine.

44. This, in principle, cannot be said about V. Mayakovsky. The poet sharply criticized the “Muscovites”: “Comrade Muscovite, don’t joke about Ukraine.” He also reminded that Russians from the history of Ukraine know only Shevchenko, Taras Bulba, borscht and lard (“Russians have a shallow thickness of knowledge”). 

45. By the way, he wrote about himself: "I am a Cossack from my grandfather, on the other - a Sich." Researchers point out that the Ukrainian clans of Mayakovsky went, probably, from those Cossacks who stood guard over the barrows, at the lighthouses that were set on fire during the Tatar attacks.

46. Unfortunately, the Ukrainians of Ripa turned into Repins. Although Ilya Repin, who was born in the Kharkiv region, still retained his sense of belonging to the Ukrainians and painted himself as a Cossack leaning on a cannon. “It's time to think about the Ukrainian style in art,” the artist noted. But he not only spoke, but also created many works on Ukrainian themes, for example, “The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan” - he wrote two versions of this picture.

47. In 1931, there were more Ukrainians in the USSR than Russians. In six years, 55 million disappeared ... This figure is indicated in the book "At the Great Construction Site", published in 1931 in Leningrad. The same data are presented in the first Soviet encyclopedia of 1926. Neither this encyclopedia nor the book is available in any library in Ukraine. We managed to find "At the Great Construction Site" in Moscow. 

48. The figures of 81 million are clearly visible in these copies. It should be noted that the population of Ukrainian Galicia, which was part of Poland, was not taken into account here. Already the next census of 1937 indicates that only 26 million Ukrainians remained in the USSR. Where did all the rest go? Knowing such figures, the repressions of the 1930s seem even more terrible.

49. Freedom Square in Kharkov is the largest square in Europe.

50. The longest embankment in Europe is located in Dnepropetrovsk. Its length is 30 km.

Ukraine's eighth day of war has been difficult but optimistic, said President Zelensky's adviser Aleksey Arestovich last night. Near Nikolaev, the invaders were bombed from Grads facilities. In Kherson, the Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed about 1,000 assailants, 20 helicopters, 200 cars. In Gostomel, two street fights took place, Ukrainian defenders destroyed a concentration of troops.

 

Bemorepanda collected 10 videos that are showing the reality behind the situation in Ukraine.

 

Russian troops arrived in the center of the Ukrainian port of Kherson on Thursday, the first major accomplishment of the invasion launched last Thursday, and in the capital Kyiv and other big cities, the occupation forces continued the destructive bombing, without significant troop movements, probably due to logistical problems. . A Ukrainian delegation has left for a second round of talks with Russian ceasefire officials. A fire broke out on Friday morning at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest of its kind in Europe, after a bombardment by Russian troops, causing concern around the world.

 

 

 

The United Nations says one million people have fled their homes in Ukraine to Poland and other neighboring countries.

 

The United Nations has overwhelmingly voted in favor of a resolution condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine and calling for the immediate withdrawal of its forces, in a global expression of outrage that has highlighted Russia's growing isolation.

 

At an emergency session of the UN General Assembly, 141 of the 193 member states voted in favor of the resolution, 35 abstained and five voted against.

 

 

 

The only countries that voted in favor of Moscow were Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea and Syria.

 

Russia's longtime allies, Cuba and Venezuela have joined China in refraining.

 

It is the first time in the last 40 years that the Security Council has sent the General Assembly to discuss a crisis and the 11th emergency session since 1950 and so far, writes The Guardian.

 

The General Assembly was convened after the Security Council, due to the lack of unanimity of the permanent members, failed to exercise its main function of acting appropriately for the maintenance of international peace and security.

 

 

 

"It will not stop the Russian forces in their tracks, but it is a big diplomatic victory for the Ukrainians and the United States and for all those who supported them," said Richard Gowan, UN director at the International Crisis Group.

 

The Russians have captured the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, while the International Court of Justice has opened an investigation into the allegations of genocide and will hold public hearings starting next week. Kyiv resists the siege of Russian troops, and the city of Mariupol is surrounded. One million Ukrainians have left the country since the beginning of the invasion, and Russia has changed its military strategy and is pursuing the slow annihilation of the Ukrainian army.

 

 About 150 public radio stations in Europe will broadcast the song "Give Peace a Chance" on Friday at 07:45 GMT, the European Radio and Television Union (EBU) announced.

 

 

The famous song, composed by John Lennon, will be heard in more than 25 countries, including Ukraine, and private radio stations can join the initiative, according to EBU.

 

Ukrainian authorities say Russian bombings in the city of Toretsk (Donetsk region) have hit a gas pipeline, leaving more than 15,000 people without heat. 400 homes, 8 schools, 9 kindergartens and 10 hospitals are affected, according to the Emergency Service

 

 

women, a lot of children, people who want to escape the horror of war. In the city, since 4 in the morning, anti-aircraft sirens sounded, a sound that is heard more and more often in the city. Many people have nowhere to flee and are trying to find a safe place.

 

Inside the Odessa train station, the images are even more dramatic, with thousands of children fleeing the horrors of war. I don't know when they will return and if they will have a place to return.

 

 

 

Many Ukrainians who are at the station on Friday at noon say they want to go to Poland and look for accommodation there.

 

To find their loved ones alive is the greatest wish of the Ukrainians who are now fleeing, hoping that they will escape the war. It is extremely difficult for them, because they leave behind their house, their fortune, their grandparents and they pray to survive until they manage to buy a ticket back, with which to return home, to their relatives, to their homes.

 

 

Images from the Odessa train station are painful and difficult to describe in words. It is an atmosphere of deep pain and emotion. People say that they do not know what is happening to them and why they have to witness this conflict that they do not understand and they wonder when this nightmare that they are living will end.

 

There are a lot of simple people in Odessa who say they can't go to other cities because they don't have enough money to get safely elsewhere.

 

 

They end up playing a lottery, where the price is their own life and they pray to God to survive.

 

In Odessa there are also tourists, but also foreign students who came to study at the Maritime University, a prestigious university, and who want to save their lives, it is very difficult for them to keep in touch with relatives, parents, because the phone signal is very weak and frequently falls in the area.

 

There are a lot of armed soldiers on the streets, ready to open fire if they don't understand clearly who you are and why you are in the area. There are soldiers who want to protect their families. There are a lot of volunteers in the army, defense groups of the city, made up of simple people, who went out on the street at night with hunting weapons and who say they are not ready to give up, do not want to give up and will defend their country and each centimeter of territory.

 

 

NATO is the organization that has dominated military relations in the 28 member states on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean for more than six decades. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is one of the world's leading international institutions. It is a political and military alliance of 28 member states in Europe and North America. 

 

The alliance makes all decisions by consensus. Each Member State, no matter how large or small, is on an equal footing in the discussions and decisions taken. Member States are committed to respecting and promoting individual freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. These values are NATO's main transatlantic bonds.

 

You can read the 50 interesting facts about NATO below:

 

 

1. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is one of the most important institutions in the world. NATO is a military alliance of 28 member states in Europe and North America. All decisions of the alliance are taken by consensus.

 

2. Each Member State has an equal position in every discussion and decision that is taken. Member States are committed to respecting individual freedoms, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. These values ​​are extremely important in NATO's transatlantic relationship.

 

3. The alliance's primary responsibility is to protect and defend the territories of the Member States. Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty provides for a commitment to collective defense, and an attack on a Member State is an attack on the organization. 

 

4. However, Article 5 was invoked only once in NATO's 67-year history on September 12, 2001, a day after the World Trade Center terrorist attacks.

 

5. NATO has a permanent and integrated command structure, with military personnel from all member states. The Alliance has two Strategic Leaderships, Allied Command Operations in Mons, Belgium, and Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk, USA. 

 

6. Subordinate to these two strategic leadership are two joint command forces, based in Brunssum, the Netherlands, and in Naples, Italy, which are responsible for conducting and managing military operations.

 

 

7. The Command Structure also includes an Air Force Command Center (Ramstein, Germany), a Center for Land Forces (Izmir, Turkey) and a Navy (Northwood, UK).

 

8. NATO has a number of active permanent forces, which contribute to the collective defense of the Western military bloc on a permanent basis.

 

9. These standing forces include four navies, ready to act on the first signal. NATO also has an integrated air defense system, which maintains contact with the national air force and includes the missile shield.

 

10. NATO is taking part in several air missions in which Alliance fighter jets fly over the airspace of member states that do not have a military air force. NATO permanently defends the airspace of Albania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia.

 

11. NATO benefits from military expertise from the 28 member states. This expertise includes tanks, submarines and fighter jets. When the alliance collectively decides to conduct a military operation, member states are called upon to place their troops and equipment under NATO command.

 

12. Soldiers taking part in NATO operations are collectively treated as "NATO forces", even if they represent multinational forces from bloc member states, and in some cases from partner countries or contributing troops.

 

 

13. The only military equipment that is owned by NATO is the AWACS air fleet. From 2013. NATO will operate five Global Hawk monitoring drones. The procedure for requesting troops and military equipment is called "force generation".

 

14. The 28 member states contribute directly and indirectly to covering the costs of NATO operations and the implementation of Alliance policies and activities.

 

15. But most of the contributions are indirect, through the participation of allies in NATO military operations. Member States shall cover the costs of operations whenever they agree to participate in such activities.

 

16. Direct contributions to NATO's common budget are made by member states according to a cost-sharing formula that takes into account national GDP. These contributions finance the costs of integrated structures, common equipment and NATO facilities.

 

17. In the five decades since World War II, the military alliance has successfully prevented an open conflict between the United States and Russia. 

 

 

18. Under the security umbrella offered by NATO, people in European states, the United States and Canada were able to enjoy the benefits of democratic elections, the rule of law and substantial economic growth.

 

19. NATO relies on a combination of conventional and nuclear military capabilities to deter the aggressiveness of third countries, and these remain a key element of the Alliance's strategy. 

 

20. Member States are also committed to controlling firearms, supporting the disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear warheads.

 

21. NATO has often acted to maintain international security and peace. In 1995, the Western military alliance contributed to the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the implementation of the peace agreement.

 

22. In 1999, NATO put an end to the massacre and expulsion of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. NATO troops continue to operate in Kosovo under a UN mandate.

 

23. Since 2003, the NATO presence under the UN mandate has assured the world that Afghanistan will never be a safe haven for terrorists again.

 

24. In 2011, NATO acted on a UN mandate to ensure the security of Libyan citizens. Alliance ships are fighting piracy off the Somali coast and conducting counterterrorism operations in the Mediterranean. 

 

 

25. Since February 2016, NATO has provided assistance to European authorities, who have had to deal with a large number of migrants.

 

26. NATO vessels are taking part in surveillance, monitoring and intelligence gathering operations to support international efforts to reduce illegal migration from the Aegean Sea. 

 

27. NATO forces have repeatedly delivered humanitarian aid, including to the United States, following the devastating Hurricane Katrina and the 2005 earthquake that hit Pakistan hard.

 

28. It faces threats such as terrorism, piracy, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and cyber warfare, which knows no borders. 

 

29. For this reason NATO has developed a global network of security partners, which includes 40 states around the world and international organizations: the United Nations, the European Union, the OSCE and the African Union.

 

30. NATO's mission in Afghanistan includes 13 partner states. Kosovo's operations are supported by eight partner states. In addition to partners involved in NATO missions and operations, the Western military bloc has developed a wide network of partnerships, including the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, the Mediterranean Dialogue Forum, the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, and other partners around the world, including Australia, Japan and South Korea.

 

 

31. Any European state that can contribute to the security and principles of the Alliance is invited to join. However, accession depends on the decision of that state. 

 

32. Six times, between 1952 and 2009, a number of 16 European states chose to join the alliance and became member states. This process has helped to maintain peace and stability in Europe.

 

33. On 19 May 2016, Member States' foreign ministers signed a protocol inviting Montenegro to join NATO. Following the signing of the protocol, Montenegrin representatives may attend allied meetings as observers.

 

34. After the Allies ratify the protocol, Montenegro can become a full member of NATO. Currently, three states aspire to join NATO, namely Georgia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia.

 

35. The allies evaluate each candidate state according to its own merits. A wide range of political, economic and security reforms must be implemented before a state can join NATO.

 

36. Member States consult and make decisions on a daily basis on security issues at all levels and in a variety of areas.

 

 

37. A "NATO decision" is the expression of the collective will of all 30 Member States, as all decisions are taken by consensus.

 

38. Hundreds of officials, as well as civilian and military experts, come daily to NATO Headquarters to exchange information, share ideas and help prepare decisions when needed, in cooperation with national delegations and NATO headquarters staff.

 

39. 40 non-member states work with NATO on a variety of political and security issues. These states pursue dialogue and practical cooperation with the Alliance, and many contribute to NATO-led operations and missions. NATO also cooperates with a wide network of international organizations.

 

40. Partner States do not have the same decision-making authority as Member States.

 

41. NATO has always innovated and adapted to ensure that its policies, capabilities and structures take into account current and future threats, including the collective defense of its members.

 

42. NATO is committed to respecting the principle that an attack on one or more of its members is considered an attack on all. This is the principle of collective defense, enshrined in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty.

 

43. So far, Article 5 has been invoked only once, in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11 in the United States of America in 2001.

 

 

44. NATO is an alliance of states in Europe and North America. The alliance represents a unique link between these two continents, giving them the opportunity to consult and cooperate in the field of defense and security and to carry out multinational crisis management operations together.

 

45. The strategic concepts specify the Alliance's core tasks and principles, its values, the evolving security environment, and the Alliance's strategic objectives for the next decade. The 2010 strategic concept defines NATO's core tasks, such as collective defense, crisis management and cooperation-based security.

 

46. Membership of NATO is open to "any other European State capable of developing the principles of this Treaty and contributing to the security of the North Atlantic area."

 

47. NATO has what the Treaty calls the Accession Action Plan. It helps aspiring members prepare for membership and meet key requirements by providing practical advice and personalized assistance.

 

 

48. NATO benefits from the capabilities and expertise of its members. This includes tanks, submarines and fighter jets. When the Alliance collectively decides to carry out an operation, it calls on the Allies to place troops and equipment under NATO command. 

 

49. Personnel involved in a NATO operation are often collectively referred to as "NATO forces", these are strictly speaking the multinational forces of NATO member countries, and in some cases, it is the partner countries or other countries that contribute troops to these operations. 

 

50. The only military equipment that NATO has is a fleet, AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control) aircraft. Starting in 2018, NATO will also operate five surveillance drones, called the Global Hawk. The procedure for requesting forces and equipment for an operation is often called "force generation".

 

 

Lukashenko has already sat out Brezhnev, the longest-serving of the Soviet general secretaries, at the leading post.

The Belarusian president has already said more than once that he is "full of power”. 

President Lukashenko likes to emphasize that he is called Europe's last dictator.

In one of the many - and very frank at times - interviews, he himself called himself Old Man. 

 

Batka in Belarusian means father.

And parents, as you know, are not chosen…

 

 

1. Political scientist Valery Karbalevich, author of the book "Alexander Lukashenko. A Political Portrait", states: "Lukashenko's greatest achievement is that he managed to create a special social model - a Belarusian social model, an alternative to those transformation projects that were demonstrated by the post-Soviet countries" .

 

2. Despite pessimistic forecasts and statements by critics about the incapacity of such a management system in the center of modern Europe, this model has been operating for 28 years and is still working very fruitfully, Karbala Vich notes, specifying: if we evaluate not economic, but sociological indicators, the level of support for the president.

 

3. “However, Lukashenka’s main weakness is precisely in the model he created. It helps Lukashenka to retain power, but does not allow the Belarusian society to develop. This is a dead-end model of conservation, Belarusians have yet to pay for the fact that we have been existing outside of development for so many years,” he says.

 

4. The union with Russia and participation in the integration formations initiated by the Kremlin are called by experts a beneficial project for Lukashenka. Aggregate support for the Belarusian business model has cost Moscow about $100 billion over 20 years, analysts say. Meanwhile, Lukashenko did not allow Russian business to privatize large Belarusian enterprises and periodically demonstrated intractability - as when signing an agreement on the creation of the EAEU, declaring the protection of national interests.

5. The 1996 referendum, which officially approved Lukashenka's proposed changes to the country's Constitution, allows the president to be elected an unlimited number of times. The referendum, which ex-speaker of parliament Mieczysław Hryb called a constitutional coup, expanded the rights of the president and limited the powers of parliament.

6. Agro-towns are a large-scale residential construction in the countryside, which started with the adoption of the "State Program for the Revival and Development of the Village for 2005-2010". By the end of the deadlines indicated by the state program, almost 1,500 agro-towns were erected and landscaped in Belarus, and about 8,000 residential buildings were built. 

7. Critics note the high cost of the project (the state program approved 69.7 trillion Belarusian rubles for this purpose in mid-2000s prices, but, according to officials, more was spent) with the low quality of construction work, the virtual impossibility for new settlers to privatize the housing they received, and the lack of new settlers themselves - youth from 

8. Belarusian villages massively rushed to the cities 15-20 years before the start of the project. Despite the rows of brand new streets pleasing to the eye of a visiting traveler, agro-towns have not brought Belarusian agriculture closer to self-sufficiency and profitability; the industry is still subsidized by the state.

9. In 2004, four high-ranking Belarusian security officials suspected of organizing the disappearances of Lukashenka's political opponents were denied entry to the EU, the US and Canada. In 2006, President Lukashenko was also included in the sanctions list.

 

10. The sudden death in 1999 of the opposition politician Gennady Karpenko, who, according to studies of that time, was able to compete with Lukashenka in the struggle for the presidency, is also called by a number of researchers a "removal operation." Karpenko suddenly felt ill after drinking a cup of coffee during a business conversation.

 

11. President Lukashenko swore only once to avenge a "political" death - when in October 1997, a friend and ally of the president, Yevgeny Mikolutsky, head of the state control committee in the Mogilev region, was killed by an explosion in the entrance of the house. The deceased was awarded the title of Hero of Belarus.

 

12. The press and analysts connected the arrests of Vasily Starovoitov, the famous collective farm chairman from Soviet times, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, and the Minister of Agriculture, Vasily Leonov, with the progress of the investigation. But officially, the customers, perpetrators and motives for the murder have not yet been named.

 

 

13. Lukashenka's personal losses include the death of Health Minister Lyudmila Postoyalka - she is considered the unofficial mother-in-law of the Belarusian president, Kolya Lukashenko's grandmother. Alexander Lukashenko patronized the minister, but sent only a wreath to the funeral at the Palace of the Republic, and the responsible officials, appreciating the sign given by the president, tried to leave the mourning ceremony as soon as possible.

 

14. The execution of Dmitry Konovalov and Vladislav Kovalev, accused of blowing up the Minsk metro, is still considered hasty by many in Belarus, and the circumstances of the tragedy are unclear. The explosion thundered at the Oktyabrskaya station at rush hour on April 11, 2011, claimed the lives of 15 people, hundreds of people were recognized as victims. Even before the court verdict was passed, Alexander Lukashenko presented investigators with state awards who, a day after the terrorist attack, reported on the disclosure of the crime.

 

15. The list of political protesters against the Lukashenka regime who went through prisons is in the hundreds. Several dozen high-ranking officials ended up in cells in the course of the fight against corruption - a problem at the forefront of the relevance of which, in fact, the once little-known director of one of the Belarusian state farms was promoted to the presidency.

 

 

16. "In order to maintain the status quo and stability, the authoritarian regime needs fear dispelled in different sectors of society. Hence the regular replenishment of cells - both for corruption and "for politics." In foreign policy terms, these arrests cut Belarus off from the European community: Europe is sensitive to the presence of political prisoners , every time such arrests turn on the red light, slow down the development of relations with official Minsk," human rights activist Lyudmila Gryaznova notes.

 

17. Tamara Vinnikova, the head of the National Bank and a showy woman whom Lukashenka called "our orchid," was arrested in mid-January 1997, immediately after a meeting with the president. Until November, she was kept in the KGB pre-trial detention center on suspicion of committing an official crime and causing damage to the state on an especially large scale. Due to health problems, she was transferred under house arrest (although there was no such measure of restraint in Belarusian criminal law at that time), then - on April 7, 1999 - she suddenly disappeared. In December, Vinnikova showed up in London, where she stated that she was in the UK in the status of a political refugee. How she managed to escape from around the clock strict security is still not clear. In one of her interviews, Tamara Vinnikova said that she took advantage of the opportunity when she was "transferred from the security group to the group of physical destruction." Until the summer of 2011, the Interpol website posted information about the international search for Tamara Vinnikova, then this information disappeared.

18. Professor Yury Bandazhevsky, one of the leading experts in the field of medical radiology, was accused of accepting bribes for the post of rector of the Gomel Medical Institute and arrested in July 1999. Human rights activists note that the accusations and arrest followed after Bandazhevsky's research on the detrimental effects of small doses of radiation on the human body became known in the West, and then in Belarus: the scientist's conclusions contradicted Lukashenka's setting for a shock revival of the lands affected by the Chernobyl accident. In June 2001, Professor Bandazhevsky was sentenced by the military board of the Supreme Court to eight years in prison. He was recognized as a prisoner of conscience by the international human rights community. Released on August 5, 2005, emigrated from Belarus.

19. Politician Nikolai Statkevich, former candidate for the presidency of Belarus in the 2010 elections, is still in prison. Arrested on the evening after the elections, on December 19, after a forceful dispersal of a protest rally against fraud. Accused of organizing mass riots, in May 2011 sentenced to six years in a penal colony. Five more opposition politicians who fought with Alexander Lukashenko for the presidency also went through the KGB pre-trial detention center, prisons, house arrest, but to this day they are at large (ex-presidential candidates Andrei Sannikov and Ales Mikhalevich were forced to leave Belarus). According to political analysts, President Lukashenko cannot forgive Mikalai Statkevich for his disobedience and harsh speeches in the media during the election campaign. Statkevich appealed to Lukashenka: "Give back the elections to the people!", accusing the authorities of falsifying election campaigns.

20. Human rights activist Ales Bialiatskiwas released in 2014, after 1,050 days of imprisonment. He was accused of non-payment of taxes on funds accumulated in foreign accounts. He pleaded not guilty, saying that the accounts in Lithuania and Poland were used for the needs of human rights activities. Even before the verdict was passed, the damage that the state demanded compensation was repaid by voluntary donations from citizens. Over the past three years, Ales Belyatsky, head of the Viasna human rights center deregistered by the Belarusian authorities and vice-president of the International Federation of Human Rights, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

21. Student Anton Suryapin became known to the world after his arrest for a photo: Surya Pin posted on the Internet a photo of teddy bears dropped with calls to respect human rights by a Swedish light aircraft illegally entering Belarusian airspace. In August 2012, Surya Pin and realtor Basharimov, who somehow helped the Swedes rent housing in Belarus, were accused of illegally crossing the border, although initially they were only suspected of complicity in such actions. After a short stay in the KGB pre-trial detention center, student Suryapin was released and returned to his studies. The "plush landing" of the Swedish bears cost several high-ranking military posts and turned into a diplomatic conflict: the Belarusian authorities forced the Swedish ambassador Stefan Erickson to leave Minsk.

22. The American lawyer Emanuel Zeltser and his assistant Vladlena Funk in the Minsk KGB pre-trial detention center, popularly referred to as the "American", turned out to be almost according to the plot of a Hollywood detective. Zeltser and Funk, who spent more than a year in Belarusian places of detention, said after their release that they woke up at the Minsk airport after meeting Boris Berezovsky in London. In Minsk, they were accused of using forged documents and commercial espionage. The Belarusian press claimed that the arrest of Zeltser and his assistant was connected with the case of a dispute over the inheritance of businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili, who died in London, and Boris Berezovsky, who was put on the wanted list by allied Russia, repeatedly flew to the Minsk “American”, demanding that the arrested lawyer issue “Belarusian assets” "Patarkatsishvili. Later, Zeltser and Funk confirmed this information, also reporting that Berezovsky was present in Minsk at a closed court session. Emmanuil Zeltser, sentenced in Belarus to three years in prison, was pardoned by President Lukashenko in early July 2009. Vladlena Funk served a one-year term in a women's colony appointed by the court.

23. At the end of August 2013, the Investigative Committee of Belarus announced the arrest and detention of the general director of the Russian company Uralkali, Vladislav Baumgertner. Later, President Lukashenko confirmed that the Russian top manager was arrested after a meeting initiated by Belarusian Prime Minister Myasnikovich. "He (Baumgertner - ed.) arrived, a jerk, he was invited by the prime minister. He sat down cross-legged and said: this will not happen, this will not happen. He went out, spat on the Government House and laughed at the airport," Lukashenka said about the circumstances of the arrest. Minsk also threatened a number of other Russian managers and the Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov with bringing to justice for causing significant harm to the state and public interests of Belarus. A month before Baumgertner's arrest in Minsk, Uralkali announced the termination of sales through the Belarusian Potash Company, a structure created in December 2005 on a parity basis with the Belarusian side (before the break in relations, the company provided 43% of world potassium chloride exports). The participating parties of the BPC accused each other of failing to fulfill contractual obligations to use the common commodity distribution network. The fate of Baumgertner arrested in Minsk, judging by press reports, was dealt with by the top leadership of Russia. Baumgertner was extradited to Russia on November 21, 2013, in Russia a criminal case was initiated against him, including on the basis of materials collected and handed over to the Russian side by Belarusian investigators.

24. Belarusian businessman Nikolai Autukhovich, who was recently released from prison after his second term, spent a total of more than seven and a half years behind bars and was recognized by human rights activists as a political prisoner as a victim for criticizing the authorities and active citizenship. The once successful business of Autukhovich (he created a network of private taxis and cafes in the city of Volkovysk) is ruined, the health of the released Afghan veteran is undermined.

25. Ex-president of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiyev is often called a “Belarusian prisoner” in Minsk, although the leader who fled from his country was received personally by President Lukashenko and Bakiyev, who arrived in Belarus in 2010, long ago received Belarusian citizenship. In Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev was sentenced to 25 years in prison, his brother Zhanybek, who was once discovered by Minsk photographers on the streets of the Belarusian capital, was sentenced to life imprisonment. Bishkek periodically demands the extradition of the Bakiyevs. The ex-president and his relatives have cut off communication with the press, the place of residence of the Bakiyevs is kept secret, although the non-state press in Belarus periodically reports on mansions allegedly built by the family in prestigious cottage settlements.

26. "Prisoner of the West" is Zianon Paznyak, one of the founders of the Belarusian Popular Front, the head of the Conservative Christian Party of the Belarusian Popular Front. He was the first to tell the world about Kurapaty - a tract near Minsk, where hundreds of thousands of inhabitants were shot during the years of Stalinist repressions. The organizer of protest mass actions and a sharp critic of Lukashenka, Paznyak, was forced to flee the country in 1996, according to a number of researchers in the modern history of Belarus, due to the threat of physical destruction. In the same year he received political asylum in the United States. In exile, he continues to be actively involved in politics, regularly and sharply criticizes the "imperial aspirations of Russia" and the Belarusian leadership.

Most popular sayings of President Lukashenko

"If you don't have money for a restaurant, talk to a girl in a student dormitory. Buy kefir and a bun"

"He took the eggs - the milk was gone!" - President Lukashenko once talked about attempts to overcome the food shortage. He promised: "Our people will live badly, but not for long." 

“Belarusians are the same Russians, only with a quality mark,” he once said as a compliment.

Such phrases of President Lukashenko have long become proverbial jokes, but in almost every public speech the Belarusian leader adds a couple of figurative expressions to the popular dictionary of phraseological units.

Vladimir Podgol, Ph.D. in Philosophy, author of a number of books, including "Fundamentals of Political Psychology", explains: Lukashenka is moving away from diplomatic language, because his mentality is a scientific phenomenon. "A person has the genetic ability to awaken the archetype with further mental inflation," Vladimir Podgol tries to explain. 

Archetype is a term introduced by Carl Jung and used in his theory to denote the deepest foundation of personality, which is a set of basic ideas inherited by a person from his ancestors and defining his modern psychology and behavior. Inflation is not only an economic word, but also a term of social psychology. This is the expansion of the human psyche to the awakened archetype. At certain stressful moments, these processes are activated in the personality, and the person reveals himself to others not even by himself, but by the carrier of the "base" of ancestors. “This is such a psychotype, it was also characteristic of Hitler, to a certain extent, Stalin,” says Vladimir Podgol.

The Belarusian philosopher paid for the parallels between Lukashenka and Hitler 18 years ago. A fragment of Vladimir Podgol's doctoral dissertation was a comparative analysis of the mentality of the Germans in the 30s of the last century and Belarusians who suddenly gained sovereignty. The scientist also analyzed the mentality of the leaders of these states, and Lukashenka used quotes as material for research.

“I collected quotes that contained archetypes. My dissertation was taken to the presidential administration, then to the KGB, and from that moment I stopped being a doctoral student and I can’t get a job anywhere in our state,” says Vladimir Podgol.

Vladimir Podgol continues his collection of statements by the Belarusian President - however, anyone can record what was impressive in the speeches and interviews of Alexander Lukashenko.

The Belarusian president tried to disown this quote, spread by the German newspaper Handelsblatt, by telling the NTV program that the statement was "a fake, fabricated in Poland by the CIA." But German journalists insist that at the dawn of his presidency, in 1995, in an interview with the Handelsblatt newspaper, Lukashenka stated the following: “The history of Germany is, to some extent, a mold of the history of Belarus at certain stages. At one time, Germany was raised from the ruins, thanks to the very tough power known by Adolf Hitler... Not everything that was bad in Germany was associated with Adolf Hitler.The German order was formed over the centuries, under Hitler this formation reached its highest point.This is what corresponds to our understanding of the presidential republic and the role of the president in it ...".

However, it is much more interesting to listen to how the father teaches the Belarusians order.

"Every Belarusian will have a cup and crackling on the table!" (1994).

"They bought sugar, they got to the point where they started buying up vinegar. They turned everything into warehouses ... Now drink vinegar and eat sugar!" (2011).

"Why do you eat potatoes with meat at night? How will you sleep? Do not eat with meat - eat with herring!" (year 2014).

“It is necessary that there is hot water in the agricultural town, so that every milkmaid and pig-herd goes to bed with a peasant in the evening.” (2011).

"If you don't have money for a restaurant, talk to a girl in a student dormitory. Buy kefir and a bun." (2004).

"They reached the point of absurdity: what to do if a married woman loves someone on the side. We are not going to hang chastity belts on the corresponding parts of the body for anyone. You dispose of yourself as you see fit." (2005 year).

“Two boys? That’s good. And where is the girl? If you get pregnant, God forbid, and want to give birth, come to Belarus, we will arrange everything for you. From a Belarusian, from a Jew, from a Pole, we have Ukrainians, good Russians. Choose." (year 2013).

"I had a meeting in a women's team, at work. I tell them: the first child is yours, the second is also yours. The third child is mine and a little bit yours. One hundred percent the fifth and next is mine ... They are silent. Well , here, give birth. I can't do it for you." (2011).

"They showed me the outfit, to which I replied that I would not wear it. They brought green pants. How will the president of the country walk in green pants? It's good that they are not blue, honestly." (year 2014).

"If you want to say that your president should walk or ride a bike, that's fine too. I won't get rusty - I can sit on a bike and ride. It'll just be embarrassing for you." (year 2013).

Donald Trump is an American billionaire businessman, known in society for his frank communication style and extravagant lifestyle, which do not particularly spoil the image of a successful and purposeful person. Today he is known as the 45th President of the United States, who broke the age record of Ronald Reagan, coming to office at the age of 70 and having previously held no state or military post.

 

Donald Trump, as a student, began to participate in business projects under the patronage of his father. The first deal allowed the future construction tycoon to earn $ 6 million without investments, which strengthened the guy's faith in himself and a brighter future.

 

The first grandiose construction projects that Donald oversaw were the construction of the Grand Hyatt Hotel and a 58-story skyscraper with an 80-foot waterfall called the Trump Tower. The Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino was later rebuilt.

 

In 2015, the American billionaire expressed his intention to run for the presidency of the United States. He paid for the election campaign from his own funds, which distinguished him from other candidates lobbying for the interests of sponsors. Trump made loud statements that he could become the best American president and make every inhabitant of the country rich.

 

The election campaign of Trump, who gained fame in society as an eccentric "truth-seeker", was full of continuous scandalous statements. But the billionaire always showed himself as a true patriot, and many of his judgments about the greatness and determination of Americans became quotations.

 

Donald planned to tighten laws in relation to migrants in the country. Regarding US domestic policy, Trump took a position that was contrary to the current one. This also applied to the notorious medical reform initiated by Barack Obama, and the return of manufacturing bases to the United States.

 

The US Congress, by law, approved the results of the vote on January 6, 2017, and the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, took up his direct duties on January 20. The businessman became the richest head of state, whose fortune at the time of taking office was estimated at $4.1 billion.

 

Bemorepanda collected some interesting facts about Donald Trump career.

 

 

1. Companies owned by Donald Trump have declared bankruptcy several times. In 1991, the Taj Mahal entertainment complex filed for bankruptcy. In 1992, two other Atlantic City casinos filed for bankruptcy. Some of his went through bankruptcy in 2004 and 2008.

 

2. In his 1997 book The Art of Returning, Trump wrote: “One of the curses of American society is the simple act of shaking hands. And the more successful and famous someone becomes, the more terrible, apparently, this tradition becomes. Trump called himself a "clean-hands freak." However, during the presidency, Trump had to reconsider his views, and even the coronavirus pandemic did not stop him from shaking hands.

 

3. In an interview with Forbes, Trump revealed that he and his brother collected soda bottles at their first job. But his father gave him the first million for the business. Now, according to Forbes, his net worth is estimated at $2.5 billion. In addition to real estate, the ex-president owns 17 golf clubs, five of them are located abroad.

 

 

4. At one of the press conferences, Trump said that he never drank alcohol: "I never drank alcohol for various reasons." One of them is the death of his older brother Fred, who suffered from alcoholism. Trump is known for his addiction to Diet Coke. He loves her so much that in the Oval Office of the White House there was a special red button for ordering soda.

 

5. In 1990, long before the presidential term, Trump spoke out about the legalization of drugs in the United States. “You have to legalize drugs to win this war. You have to take income from the drug lords, ”the Chicago Tribune reported him. He also said that taxes collected from drugs should be spent on informing people about the dangers of using illegal substances.

 

6. During the protest movement on the streets of the United States and the demolition of monuments to historical figures who were slave owners and fought on the side of the Confederacy in the Civil War, Trump spoke out in defense of the monuments. On his Twitter account, Trump wrote that he would veto any bill that would attempt to rename military bases named after General Robert E. Lee and other Confederates.

 

 

7. For a long time, Trump was a follower of the Presbyterian doctrine, but he changed his views. “Although I was a member of the Presbyterian church as a child, I consider myself now a non-denominational Christian,” he said. At the same time, the ex-president did not explain the reason for the drastic change. Trump has been ill with coronavirus. He attributes his quick recovery to his faith.

 

8. From 1987 to 2009, Donald Trump was registered as a voter of the Democratic Party, from 2011 to 2012 - as a non-partisan. After that, he registered as a voter of the Republican Party, from which he was elected president in 2016.

 

9. In 2007, Trump received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles for producing the American reality show The Apprentice. However, the star of the incumbent president has been spoiled by vandals more than once. The last time this happened was during the protests of the Black Lives Matter movement.

 

10. Donald Trump has been married three times. The first wife was an emigrant from Czechoslovakia, model and businesswoman Ivana Trump. The marriage lasted from 1977 to 1992. Two sons (Donald and Eric) and a daughter Ivanka were born in it. Trump entered into a second marriage in 1993 with actress Marla Maples. In this marriage, daughter Ariana Trump was born. The marriage lasted until 1999. The third wife and first lady of the United States was Melania Trump, the marriage was concluded in 2005. An emigrant from Slovenia, a model and actress, gave birth to Trump's fifth child in this marriage - his son Barron. The president has eight grandchildren.

 

 

11. The surname Trump is related to "trump card". Donald likes this circumstance, and he often jokes to himself about this.

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12. Currently, Donald is the owner of a conglomerate of construction companies, as well as an extensive hotel and gambling business. For almost 20 years, Trump was the owner of the most prestigious Miss Universe beauty pageant and only resigned from this position in 2015.

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13. In his youth, Trump wanted to connect his fate with cinema, but chose business. Donald managed to achieve success in show business, on his account a number of performed roles and experience as a TV presenter. 

 

14. For 14 years, Trump was the producer and host of the popular American show The Apprentice. Trump's success is largely due to the fact that a huge number of Americans are very familiar with him as a well-known media personality.

 

 

15. Donald Trump had the opportunity to become President of America back in 1999. He publicly announced his intention to run for high office and received strong public support. But due to conflicts in the Reform Party, from which he was nominated, he refused the elections.

 

16. The famous politician has a rather rare disease - mysophobia. A person suffering from this disease experiences an obsessive fear of pollution or infection with something. Donald Trump hates shaking hands with strangers, because at the moment of contact, microbes can get on his skin.

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17. Donald has two brothers and two sisters, each of whom has achieved great success in life, except for Fred Trump, who drank heavily and died in the early 80s. Trump is a vocal opponent of alcohol, claiming he has never tasted it and demanding sobriety from all members of his family. In addition, the politician claims that he has never smoked and is not going to try tobacco or marijuana.

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18. Trump plays golf and occasionally competes. Donald is a dedicated wrestling fan.

 

19. He can be seen at fights as a spectator, and in the past he often became the host of such sporting events. Among the close friends of the politician is Vince McMahon, who is the founder of the WWE wrestling federation.

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20. Trump has not changed his hairstyle since high school - this is his trick. Now he only trusts his wife to cut his hair.

 

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21. Trump's original and main profession is trading and real estate management. He is a brilliant salesperson. That is why Trump is successful in political debates and speeches. He knows how to control the thoughts of the interlocutor.

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22. For many years, Trump sleeps 4 hours a day, and this is enough for him. At his age, he does not complain about health, weighs 100 kg with a height of 192 cm and is full of energy.

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23. Donald Trump is the author of 17 business books, some of which are co-authored with Robert Kiyosaki.

 

24. Trump's campaign slogan is "Make America Great Again!"

 

25. Donald likes to marry beautiful models much younger than himself. Sin, in general, is understandable and forgivable. Here are his wives in descending order. Tellingly, the first and third wives are Slavic: Czech and Slovene.

 

 

26. Trump is talking to kids. Such a conclusion was made at Carnegie Mellon University during a study that studied the vocabulary and stylistic devices used by the last ten presidents in their campaign speeches. All presidents talked to their voters, so to speak, squatting down. Speechwriters and image makers carefully process texts so that they can be understood by the widest possible audience. 

 

27. To no incomprehensible words, complex logical constructions and other horrors of higher education. But if the Bushes, Obamas and other Clintons usually used a vocabulary corresponding to the norm of a schoolboy in grades 7-8, then Trump addresses a maximum of fifth graders. For example, he tries as little as possible to use words longer than two syllables. The only three-syllable word that often appears in his speeches is "America". But there's nothing to be done, it's quite difficult to avoid this word.

 

28. One of Trump's most noisy statements is his proposal to execute and torture the families of terrorists. Information about this phrase spread all over the world, but the phrase itself, upon closer examination, turned out to be pulled out of context and far from being so unambiguous. The words “execute” and “torture” could also refer to the terrorists themselves, while Trump definitely promised only “prosecute” their relatives. 

 

29. When reminded that such prosecution would be contrary to international law, as it would introduce a prohibited norm of collective responsibility, Trump thought and said that the law, including international law, is above all, and therefore, as president, he will not order the army to persecute relatives terrorists. Unless he achieves a revision of this law in advance.

 

 

30. Under the torture of terrorists, it is not necessary to understand the rack with red-hot tongs for any criminal. Trump's readiness to torture people was expressed by him in a conversation on the topic of whether it is ethical to use force methods if it is highly likely that a terrorist has information that can prevent deaths at the hands of his accomplices. it turned out that half of our liberal free-thinking journalists fully approve of Trump on this issue. And the second one still believes that the state should not be given the right to torture people under any circumstances.

 

31. Trump's success is largely due to the fact that a huge number of Americans are very familiar with him. And it’s not even about Trump’s ubiquitous commercial empire, but about the fact that for many years he has been one of the most popular showmen on American television.

 

 

32. He hosted many popularly beloved programs, and in contemplation of his face on the screen, a great many Americans grew up, to whom he, consider, is a native person.

 

33. One of the biggest scandals of the Trump campaign happened on March 1st in Kentucky. Then the politician's guards - healthy white men in uniform - beat a black Protestant who came to the rally with a poster accusing Trump of racism.

 

34. One should not think that the black citizens of America are all, as one, opponents of Trump. He has his fans among them. This audience believes that the ill-wishers of the beautiful Donald Masa are deliberately inflating the racial theme. And, by the way, most likely, they are not so wrong.

 

35. Trump, disapproving of formal political correctness, has reliable black friends, wrote books about business in collaboration with Japanese-American Robert Kiyosaki, and for vice president during his last election race was going to nominate Oprah Winfrey, who, as we know, is far from being Snow White. In general, the Ku Klux Klan hat does not look very convincing on Trump.

 

 

36. But who can really have a big, big grudge against Trump is the Muslims. Donald, without hesitation, put forward a proposal for the mandatory registration of all Muslim Americans in order to control them more extensively. Well, he also considers it necessary to prohibit persons professing Islam from entering the United States in general.

 

37. Immigrants and Hispanics will also not be a loyal audience for Trump. One of his brilliant plans is to build a giant wall on the border with Mexico and throw out all illegal immigrants with their offspring behind it, regardless of where and when these children were born and whether they have citizenship.

 

38. Trump's original and main profession is trading and real estate management. He is a brilliant salesperson. That is why Trump is so successful in political debates and speeches. He really knows how to control the thoughts of the interlocutor, unless the interlocutor is too smart, critical and independent for this. But this part of the buyers can always be neglected, because they are always and everywhere very few.

 

39. At the moment, Trump's fortune totals $4.1 billion (plus another half a billion distributed among his five children). The lion's share of this money is in a huge amount of real estate around the world. Many of these buildings are proudly referred to as Trump Centers, Trump Hotels, Trump Towers, etc. Trump has long wanted to put one of his towers in Moscow. In 2013, he even came here partly on this occasion, but so far the process has been sluggish.

 

40. Americans value successful people. But even more they appreciate those who know how to fall and rise. Trump fell into a financial hole twice - in the early nineties and at the height of the mortgage crisis of the 2000s. It came to partial bankruptcy, but both times he managed to turn around again and win back the lost positions, even returning some money to the people who suffered from his mistakes.

 

41. Trump is not a formalist, the rules for him are the rules of the game, but when he controls the game, he can easily change them. For example, Trump is the owner of the Miss USA pageant (who would doubt it!). The winner of the competition receives a very decent remuneration under the terms of the contract, during the year she is engaged in promotional and charity events. But in return, it is required to comply with a number of conditions. 

 

42. For example, to be a "real American young lady", that is, to behave extremely decently. In 2006, the actual "Miss USA" Tara Conner was disgraced: the paparazzi photographed her in several bars, where an underage model of American youth, drunk in the trash (and not only alcohol), dishonored his high title in every conceivable way. Trump was demanded to deprive Miss Conner of the crown, to which the billionaire said that young people should always be given a second chance, and retained the title for the beauty.

 

43. Some critics are cautiously hinting that half a century of chronic sleep deprivation has led to some, umm ... problems with Donald's mentality and this explains his extravagance. But in general, Donald, at 69 years old, is as healthy as a bull: he almost never gets sick, weighs 100 kg with a height of 192 cm and simply bursts with energy.

 

44. According to the book, Stilson is a former salesman, an absolutely unscrupulous bastard who uses his talent as a salesman in the election race and is preparing to lead the world to a nuclear catastrophe. Indeed, the similarities are great, especially in the description of what Stilson says, what kind of security he surrounds himself with and how he conducts rallies. But let's not forget that outwardly politics in the US really does look a lot like a good salesman when it comes to public speaking. Nevertheless, the parallel, of course, looks frightening.

 

45. He often hosted wrestling shows and is friends with WWE owner Vince McMahon. However, Trump himself is now, thank God, not participating in battles, preferring to relax with a golf club. For business, this sport is more useful, since it is on the golf courses that the powers that be meet and chirp.

 

 

46. Reducing social benefits, employer obligations, taxes for the middle class, simplifying business, minimizing government intervention in business, eliminating a lot of benefits for minorities of all kinds, especially when it comes to the advantage in access to education, government positions, etc. 

 

47. From Trump's point of view, it is necessary to help the elderly, the disabled and the real poor, and the rest of the population is able to take care of itself if it is not interfered with and not limited in business activity. In addition, Trump believes that it is necessary to put pressure on American entrepreneurs with import duties, forcing them to return jobs to the country and stop giving work to the Chinese, Indians and residents of other Bangladeshis. 

 

48. And enough of this nonsense with help to developing countries and partner countries, except when help is really needed and does not corrupt the population. Then it must be done quickly, decisively and, it is possible, with the help of the army. All these speeches are received very, very well by the middle class and workers. Especially the promise of abolition of taxes on many types of property and a reduction in the maximum income tax rate to 25% makes the voter smile fondly, looking at the politician's face.

 

 

49. Donald Trump is regularly accused and suspected of not being very smart. In fact, the 45th American president has three prestigious diplomas. First, he graduated from the New York Military Academy, where it is difficult to qualify. After graduating from it, Trump planned to continue his journey in the acting field and enroll in film school. 

 

50. However, he changed his mind, because he did not want to be dependent on others, and the acting profession implies this. He ended up studying economics at Fordham University and then enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania Business School.

 

51. Trump loves the beautiful life. He has super-expensive planes and mansions, but the apotheosis of his love of luxury was a three-story apartment in New York's signature skyscraper Trump Tower. All rooms of the apartment are decorated with gold and marble, and it is not surprising that this accommodation is one of the most expensive in the city for its cost.

 

52. The ex-head of the White House is satisfied with four hours of sleep, he does not need more - he himself says so, and his butler confirms this. Surprisingly, despite the chronic lack of sleep, the president is always energetic and has never been ill.

 

 

53. Donald Trump's handshakes are no less famous than his sayings or hairstyle - he shakes hands often, with everyone and very firmly. But it turns out that he does it for the image - in fact, the billionaire does not like to touch strangers because of his extreme disgust. For this reason, his assistants are always ready to provide him with fresh wet wipes.

 

54. Trump, although he chose the business as a youth, has retained his love of acting. He enjoyed acting in episodic roles, and as a result, he has about 100 films in his track record, including Home Alone, Celebrity, Model Male, and even the series Sex and the City.

 

55. The world might have known a new candidate for American leadership under the surname Drumpf if Donald's grandfather, a German immigrant, had not changed his surname to a more sonorous one.

 

56. The Trump (Drumpf) family has been living in the States since 1885. Donald graduated from military school and then from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Then, with a bachelor of science degree in economics and a major in finance, he had some fun with the idea of ​​becoming a Hollywood star, but realized that this was too unreliable a source of income, and went to work for his father's company, which was a leader in real estate.

 

 

47. Donald, who loves to teach people about making money, is often reproached by critics for having a strong starting position that would make it impossible to get rich. Until recently, Trump led all sorts of master classes for those who want to achieve material success. Detractors like to point out that his launchpad was paved with ten million dollars (the value of his father's company in the late 1960s, a lot of money for the time).

 

48. Trump says he is worth $10 billion. However, financial experts have big doubts about this. His companies have filed for bankruptcy four times in the past decade. Donald was especially battered by the global crisis of 2008. Nevertheless, the new presidential candidate uses his wealth as one of the trump cards of his election campaign: “I did it, so you can,” “I am really very rich,” Trump assures the electorate.

 

49. The Grammar Nazis chuckled heartily when Donald used the word bigly instead of the adjective big in his recent fiery foreign relations speech. “Does he really think there is such a word?” snorted the detractors.

 

50. Donald is a big fan of various alternative theories of the world order. For example, he believes that vaccinating children can cause them to develop autism.