Volgograd is one of the most beautiful ancient cities of Russia. It is located in the south-eastern European part of Russia. The city was built as a fortress on the right bank of the Volga. The date of birth of the city is July 2, 1589. The city is 90 km, and is the longest city in Russia. The total area of the city is 565 sq. km. There is an interesting and rich history in Volgograd with a lot of historical monuments, culture and architecture.. Throughout its history the city has changed names three times.. Tsaritsyn – from 1589 to 1925. Stalingrad – from 1925 to 1961, and from 1961 the city has been known as Volgograd. For more than 400 years, the city has experienced many historical events. Many battles have taken place for control: Stepan Razin captured the city twice in 1670, and in 1708 power passed into the hands of Kondrat Bulavin. In 1774 Yemelyan Pugachev tried to take the city by storm, and in 1918 there was a civil war.The latest and most famous battle, was the ba ttle for Stalingrad during World War II. The Battle of Stalingrad began on the 17th of July 1942, and ended on the 2nd of February 1943.

This battle was very fierce, with about a 1000000 bombs being dropped on the city.It was completely destroyed, and more than 2 million Soviet and German soldiers were killed. This battle marked a turning point in the battle against Nazi Germany, and the city rose up from the ashes.

Now Volgograd is the administrative centre of the Volgograd region. This is the most important industrial, economic and cultural / historical center of Russia. Its population is 1023000 people. Major industries are fuel, chemical, petrochemical, woodworking, light industry, food industry, ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy, machinery, building materials and energy. In Volgograd, there is an airport and railway, and europe’s largest river port. Two federal highways also pass through the city.
Volgograd is a major tourist center. It is a monument-city and a hero-city, visited by hundreds of thousands of Russian and foreign tourists. They are attracted by Volgagrad s nature, mineral springs, spa s and rest-houses, along with the rich and glorious history. There are many museums and monuments, with a vibrant culture and architecture.
The city has a well developed transportation network: buses, trolleybuses, trams, minibuses and taxi, and also Russia’s only underground tram system. There are a large numer of hotels in Volgagrad, with plans to build more to satisfy the needs of tourists.
After visiting our city, you will have an unforgettable impression. The hero-city is waiting for you, to show you all of it’s power and beauty.

What to see:

• The Kremlin Museum Complex. Includes the Armoury Collection of royal clothing and chariots, the Diamond Fund, several churches, the Patriarch Palace and the Bell Tower (open only in the summer). Guided tours fill up fast and should be booked early. Photography is prohibited in many exhibits. RUB350-700.  edit
• Tretyakov Gallery – One of the world’s greatest museums, this is probably the one to choose if you only want to visit one museum in Moscow. In contrast to the worldwide collection of the Pushkin Museum, the Tretyakov is mostly a collection of Russian art. It has the best collection of Russian icons and many of the most famous pieces of modern Russian artists like Ilya Repin. Metro: Tretyakovskaya or Novokuznetskaya.
• Pushkin Museum (ulitsa Volkhonka, 12) is dedicated to Western art and has one of the world’s most significant Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collections, along with some Old Masters. The Impressionists and Post-Impressionists were rather unfortunately relocated to an annex in 2007 across the street from the main building. Metro: Kropotkinskaya.
• Novodevichy Convent – Both a convent and a fortress, Novodevichy was built in the early 1500s and has remained nearly intact since the 17th century, making it one of the best preserved historical complexes in Moscow. The adjacent Novodevichy Cemetery is one of Russia’s most famous cemeteries. Famous people buried there include Anton Chekhov, Nickolai Gogol, Konstantine Stanislavski, Nikita Khrushchev, Raisa Gorbachev (the former President’s wife), and Boris Yeltsin. Metro: Sportivnaya. Open from 9am until 5pm. If you want to locate the graves of famous people, you can try and buy a map (only in Russian) from the booth close to the entrance of the cemetery. However, the lady at the booth is rude to the tourists who don’t speak Russian.

The city was formerly known as Petrograd (Петрогр́ад), and later Leningrad (Ленингр́ад).

This is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful places on earth and virtually any building in the large historic centre, threaded with canals dotted with baroque bridges, can be considered an attraction—and indeed, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. This is a magical city, with a long list of major attractions. Its Hermitage Museum, housed in the Winter Palace of the Romanov Dynasty, is both one of the world’s greatest and oldest collections of art, treasure, and antiquities, and one of its most beautiful buildings.

• They are headquartered in 42 states (plus DC) and 221 congressional districts and you can download the list by supporter list by congressional district here.
• They range from sole proprietors to some of the largest corporations in the world, but about 78% are small businesses with 100 or less employees, and the median number of employees is just 15.
• GSP savings range from as little as $1,000 to millions of dollars per year.
• They import from more than a quarter of GSP-eligible countries, including: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Ecuador, Egypt, Georgia, Ghana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lebanon, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Nepal, Pakistan, Paraguay, Philippines, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Uruguay.

For those comparing to our last update, we’ve added 2 states (New Hampshire and Vermont), a number of new CDs, enough very small businesses to drop the median employees from 17 to 15,  and one new GSP-eligible country (Ukraine).

If you’re not yet on the list, be sure to add your name here.

There were approximately 10,600 country-product combinations imported under GSP in 2012, from Afghani fruits to Zimbabwean wood products and everything in between. As shown by the graph below, for the majority of these country-product combos, the imports come in under GSP or not at all.
For country-product combos worth $2.7 billion in 2012, not a single penny was imported outside of the GSP program!  That accounts for about 43 percent of all country-product combos and is an amazing statistic considering that importers and their customs brokers 1) need to know about the GSP program; 2) specifically claim benefits; 3) meet certain in-country value-added thresholds, and 4) maintain extra  documentation on GSP imports.

Many of these “100 percenters” are raw materials and industrial goods used by American manufacturers, such as ferrosilicon from Russia and Georgia and ceramic laboratory materials from Brazil.

For another $4.4 billion worth of GSP imports in 2012, at least 99 percent of U.S. imports of those products from GSP-eligible countries came in under the program, including tires from Indonesia, aluminum alloy sheets from South Africa, and metal flanges from India.

Even the value of imports on the low end of the spectrum is deceptively high: $628 million of the $852 million worth of imports in the “less than 25 percent” category come from two oil products from Angola – which overwhelmingly receive duty-free access under AGOA.

Vermont companies imported an estimated $29.2 million under GSP in 2011, saving them on average 3.8%. Russia was the most important source of GSP imports, accounting for about 53 percent of the tariff savings. Tires were Vermont’s top import under GSP in 2011 and would have faced average tariffs of 4% without GSP.

Yet GSP is set to expire on July 31, 2013, and companies could face tariffs higher tariffs starting on August 1 if Congress does not pass legislation renewing GSP. When GSP expired at the end of 2010, American companies paid nearly $2 million per day, every day, until Congress finally acted 11 months later!

This graphic shows just some of the negative impacts from the last GSP expiration. It also helps explain why more than 335 companies and associations joined the 2011 GSP Supporter List urging renewal of the program when it last expired.

Are you a Vermont company that would be hurt by GSP expiration? If so, please take 30 seconds to let Congress know by adding your name to our free 2013 GSP Supporter List right now.

North Dakota companies imported an estimated $20.6 million under GSP in 2011, saving them on average 3.8%. Russia was the most important source of GSP imports, accounting for about 69 percent of the tariff savings. Ceramic laboratory equipment were North Dakota’s top import under GSP in 2011 and would have faced average tariffs of 4% without GSP.

Yet GSP is set to expire on July 31, 2013, and companies could face tariffs higher tariffs starting on August 1 if Congress does not pass legislation renewing GSP. When GSP expired at the end of 2010, American companies paid nearly $2 million per day, every day, until Congress finally acted 11 months later!

This graphic shows just some of the negative impacts from the last GSP expiration. It also helps explain why more than 335 companies and associations joined the 2011 GSP Supporter List urging renewal of the program when it last expired.

Are you a North Dakota company that would be hurt by GSP expiration? If so, please take 30 seconds to let Congress know by adding your name to our free 2013 GSP Supporter List right now.

In the first two months of 2011, American companies imported $185 million worth of ferrochromium, ferrosilicon, ferrosilicon manganese, and other alloys.  Imports were up $72.8 million from the same period in 2010, despite a decline in GSP shipments from South Africa, the top supplier country.  Other countries picked up the slack – and then some:  imports from Georgia increased by $38 million and those from Russia by $23 million.  Imports from Kazakhstan, India, Turkey, Albania, and Brazil all increased by $3-10 million.

Of course, when GSP is expired, rising import values aren’t necessarily a good thing:  steel producers paid more than $5.2 million in new tariffs in just two months.

If that wasn’t bad enough, considering that nearly 2 more months have passed, the actual cost could be approaching $10 million.

Unfortunately, we don’t have any ferroalloy importers in our GSP importer database, so we can’t say who exactly is paying these new costs.  If you’re stuck paying higher prices and want to drop us a line, we’ll be happy to update the post.

We import zero expansion glass from Russia for use in telescope and aerospace optics. This glass is only available from Russia, Germany and England. There is no US manufacturer.

We received a shipment in February and were shocked at the taxes we had to pay as we were unaware that the GSP had expired. Needless to say this added cost ate away at our profit.

We are a small business and we will lose business if we have to raise our prices to cover this added expense to our manufactured products. Thanks for your advocacy in this matter.

In a follow up email, the owner said he’d contacted both Senators and his Congressman, but received only generic responses.  Regardless of the response, it’s important to keep those calls/emails going in to Congressional offices.

If you’re hurt by GSP expiration and want your story told, let us know and we’ll do our best to get the word out!