2013 08 mp all

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

SPECIAL REPORT

RUSSIA

BEYOND THE HEADLINES www.rbth.asia

Monthly supplement from Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Moscow, Russia) which takes sole responsibility for the contents

Gay law sparks controversy In search of rare food

Roubles rule

Women are making their mark in politics

Finding authentic cuisine is not easy in the vast country

Tycoons and companies treat soccer clubs like toys

> PAGES 8-9

> PAGE 16

> PAGE 6

RIA NOVOSTI

Tough hurdle

VOSTOCK-PHOTO

REUTERS

Legislation to strengthen ‘traditional family values’ PAGE 3

2 Tuesday, August 27, 2013

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES NATURAL DISASTER

Floods wreak havoc T

EDITORIAL

Name change to satisfy readers

Huge swathes of land are underwater in Russia’s Far East.

Russia and Greater China has made way for Russia Beyond the Headlines (RBTH).

One reason for this rebranding is feedback from our readers. A survey indicates that 57 per cent of our readers prefer the name RBTH. Another reason is our desire to better explain life in Russia. One topic making headlines around the world is the law banning the giving of information about homosexuality to those who are under the age of 18 in Russia. It has been labelled by the international media as an anti-gay law. However, sexual minorities are not persecuted in Russia.

Therefore, gay athletes have nothing to fear at the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Foreign journalists also fail to mention that sodomy is not a crime in Russia. This example shows how distorted interpretations of Russian events can affect the country’s image. Our rebranding does not imply that we will stop covering Sino-Russian ties. Coverage of Russia’s relations with Hong Kong and the mainland will remain an essential part of the supplement. Our focus, however, will shift to Russia. We will strive to bring you more news that is little known in Asia. This will include such things as what books Russians read, how to do business in Russia, and what places to visit. We hope you enjoy the new format.

MILITARY EXERCISES

SPORTS EVENT OF THE MONTH

INFRASTRUCTURE

Mission accomplished

Bolt’s record haul of medals

38.7bn

ens of thousands of people have been evacuated from Russia’s Far East following catastrophic floods. It was the worst flooding in the region for more than 120 years. It came when the Amur River burst its banks after heavy rain.

So far, more than 20,000 people, including over 6,000 children, have been evacuated from flood-stricken areas.

The Amur and Khabarovsk regions, near the Chinese border, are worst affected.

The damage so far has been estimated at about 3 billion roubles (HK$786.5 million).

Flood waters have covered an area bigger than Germany, Austria, France and Spain, inundating over 100 towns and villages. According to Itar-Tass news agency, its length and width can be compared with the length of the Great Wall of China.

On August 18, the water levels of the Amur River in Russia’s far eastern city of Khabarovsk peaked at 642 centimetres, equalling the record levels reached in 1897.

This month, Russian President Vladimir Putin told local governors to get personally involved in managing the unprecedented crisis.

ROUND-UP

TATYANAANDREEVA/RG

Sino-Russian defence ties are close.

nations carried out air strikes against the enemy, followed by a ground assault, then surrounding the “militant” base and finally eliminating the threat.

Russia and China have been conducting antiterrorist drills since 2005.

At the same time, Moscow hosted the ninth round of Russian-Chinese consultations on security issues where President Vladimir Putin said he would hold bilateral talks with President Xi Jinping at the upcoming G20 summit in St Petersburg.

“We have successfully co-operated in defence. This is further confirmed by the exercise that has just been conducted,” Putin told State Council member Yang Jiechi, who headed the Chinese delegation.

HK$

ITAR-TASS

A Russian-Chinese military exercise, “Peace Mission-2013”, has ended. Its main phase was held at the Chebarkul training range in Chelyabinsk region.

During the exercise, a residential settlement was seized by militants. Both

PHOTOSHOT/VOSTOCK-PHOTO

“No one must be forgotten, and no one must be lost,” he ordered. Local authorities rushed to set up 166 temporary shelters and to move in food, water and medical supplies.

Meteorologists say the flood has now passed its peak and will recede next month. However, weather forecasters predict more rain later this month.

The deluge has also caused widespread flooding in China’s provinces, prompting mass evacuations. Last July, at least 141 people died after devastating floods surged through southern Russia’s Krasnodar region.

Sprinter Usain Bolt won three gold medals in Moscow, becoming the most successful athlete in the 30-year history of the World Championships.

The China Development Bank will invest HK$38.7 billion on infrastructure projects in the Far East and southern Siberia, according to an agreement signed by the bank and Russia’s Far East Development Ministry. According to official estimates, about HK$775 billion will be needed to develop the Far East over the next 10 years. The region comprises 45.5 per cent of the country’s territory, but just 7.6 per cent of its population. Meanwhile, trade between Russia and China is growing rapidly, expected this year to surpass the total of HK$678 billion recorded in 2012.

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES’ SUPPLEMENTS AND SECTIONS IN ASIA: GET THE BEST STORIES FROM RUSSIA EACH MONTH IN YOUR FAVOURITE NEWSPAPER In Huanqiu Shibao (China)

In Mainichi Shimbun (Japan)

“POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: REFORMS DRIVING CHANGE FOR THE BETTER”

“JTB CORPORATION LAUNCHES SMALL BUSINESS SUPPORT PROGRAMME IN RUSSIA”

tsrus.cn

In JoongAng Ilbo (South Korea)

In The Economic Times (India)

roshianow.jp

“G20: YES TO INVESTMENT. NO TO TAX EVASION”

“KOREA’S LIBERATION IN AUGUST 1945 - WHAT WAS IT LIKE THEN”

indrus.in

russiafocus.co.kr

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS AND SECTIONS ABOUT RUSSIA ARE ALSO PUBLISHED BY RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES, A DIVISION OF ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA (RUSSIA), IN: THE WASHINGTON POST AND THE NEW YORK TIMES (UNITED STATES), THE DAILY TELEGRAPH (UNITED KINGDOM), LE FIGARO (FRANCE), SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG (GERMANY), EL PAÍS (SPAIN), LA REPUBBLICA (ITALY), LE SOIR (BELGIUM), DUMA (BULGARIA), GEOPOLITICA (SERBIA), EUROPEAN VOICE (EU), LA NATION (ARGENTINA), FOLHA DO SAO PAOLO (BRAZIL), EL OBSERVADOR (URUGUAY).

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Law sparks outrage Legislator says bill protects children, writes Yaroslava Kiryukhina

PHOTOSHOT/VOSTOCK-PHOTO(2)

O

n June 11, the Russian State Duma unanimously voted to adopt a bill that banned the distribution of “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” to minors by Russian citizens, foreigners in Russia and media organisations.

Known as “Russia’s anti-gay law” in the West, the bill has attracted strong international criticism.

Lyudmila Alexeyeva, former Soviet dissident and co-founder of the human rights watchdog, Moscow Helsinki Group, has called the legislation “a step towards the Middle Ages”.

Elena Mizulina, the controversial deputy who co-authored the legislation and heads Russia’s State Duma Committee on Family, Women, and Children, has said that the law aims to protect children from information that rejects “traditional family values”.

The bill prohibits “the spreading of information” that aims to: create non-traditional sexual attitudes among children, make non-traditional sexual relations seem attractive, give “a distorted perception about the social equality between traditional and non-traditional sexual relations”, or enforce information about non-traditional sexual relations that evokes interest in such relations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin supports the new law, but he said that homosexuals are “not being discriminated against”. What exactly does the bill mean by a “non-traditional relationship”? It doesn’t define it, and there’s speculation that it could be interpreted to mean anything from homosexuality to polyamory. Russia’s Human Rights Commissioner, Vladimir Lukin, has said that the “unwise application” of the law could lead to “human tragedies”.

The Russian Orthodox Church has arguably been a force behind the legislation. The head of the church, Patriarch Kirill, is well known for expressing homophobic vitriol.

Kirill told a congregation at Kazan Cathedral in Moscow’s Red Square in July that same-sex marriage is a “sign of the apocalypse”.

The adoption of the anti-propaganda bill followed a wave of similar laws being passed across Russia and in the city of St Petersburg. Its version of the law has already been used in an attempt to prosecute US entertainer Madonna for pro-gay comments she made at one of her Russian concerts.

The law means that individuals promoting “non-traditional relations among minors” may face fines of up to 5,000 roubles (HK$1,177). Officials could be fined up to 200,000 roubles, and individuals who have used the media or Internet for gay propaganda could be fined up to 100,000 roubles.

Homosexuality was decriminalised in Russia in 1993, when its “anti-sodomy law”, which dates back to 1934, was revoked.

The antigay law has sparked outrage inside and outside Russia.

People are not angry with gays, they are annoyed by unsolicited promotion and propaganda.

SOCIETY

Masha, a Russian woman in her 30s, looks happily at her partner Aida. They are lesbians and one of them is married, but not to the other. Aida has been officially married to a man in a sham marriage that actually helps the women

People favour new law, poll says

ELENA MIZULINA, RUSSIA’S HEAD OF THE STATE DUMA’S COMMITTEE ON FAMILY, WOMEN AND CHILDREN

Marriage of convenience Yaroslava Kiryukhina

rbth.asia/48397

to stay together. They knew that if Aida didn’t act, her family, from the federal republic of Dagestan, would have forced her to marry a man of their choice.

In the restive Islamic republic, being gay is equivalent to being an outlaw.

The only gay club in Dagestan’s capital, Makhachkala, was set on fire.

When Masha and Aida applied for a mortgage as a couple, they were refused on the basis that they were both women. However, when Aida applied as a single woman, she was granted the loan. The sham marriages are an effective cover-up, not only for lesbian couples, but also for the grooms – two gay men who are keeping their sexuality private for fear of public condemnation and discrimination.

Being gay in Russia is only accepted in certain professional fields, such as the fashion industry.

ITAR-TASS

The latest polls from the All-Russian Centre for the Study of Public Opinion (VTSIOM) suggest that the vast majority of Russians (88 per cent of respondents) support the country’s new “anti-propaganda law”, and a majority (54 per cent) believe that homosexuality should be criminalised. VTSIOM also reported that 94 per cent of respondents had never encountered “gay propaganda”, even though 84 per cent opposed it.

Russia’s best-known gay-rights campaigner, Nikolay Alexeyev, has filed a hatred incitement suit against conservative MP Elena Mizulina, one of the deputies behind the law.

He has also accused the Russian government of crimes against humanity, fearing the legislation will reinforce a culture of non-acceptance of Russia’s already-marginalised LGBT community.

3

4 Tuesday, August 27, 2013

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

China’s affairs of the art The mainland is a key player in the market, writes Ekaterina Drobinina

PHOTOSHOT/VOSTOCK-PHOTO

T

rade in Asian art, particularly in China, has grown over the past decade to the extent that it now outpaces the Western art market.

China’s booming economy has helped to make Asia the largest fine art market in the world, measured by the auction turnover in 2012. According to Artprice, US$8.5 billion worth of Chinese art auction sales were conducted last year.

“If you are selling something, you must be in China,” says a Russian businessman. The largest consumer market in the world has made China an attractive hub for the most important Western auction houses and galleries.

Exact figures are vague because of the market’s lack of transparency, but the world art trade is estimated to be valued at up to US$70 billion.

With the market generating so much money, few can afford to miss out on the action.

Over the recent years a number of

Russian galleries are headed east thanks to China’s love of art.

INVESTMENT Russian-based galleries have announced they are going east. Russia does not have an art market. It lacks proper legislation, which prevents international auction houses from conducting sales in Moscow.

So it makes sense for a Russian gallery to look towards Asia in order to develop and expand its business. Europe, with its established sales structure and stagnating market, is an after-thought.

“The art market is very much connected with the development of the financial market. It is an investment market,” says Andrei Pichugin, the owner of AP Contemporary gallery in Hong Kong, which promotes artists from emerging markets, including Russia.

The authors of “The ArtMarket in 2012”, a report compiled by Artprice, say: “Buying art as an investment is more prevalent here [in China] than anywhere else in the world, and China has rapidly become the main marketplace for high-end art.”

Pichugin says the belief that the China

market is mainly interested in Chinese art is a myth. “Many people, including professionals, think that the only art that will be in high demand here, in China, is Chinese. Other art will be ignored. I disagree. Gagosian [Gallery] in Hong Kong, for example, is offering Gursky, [and] they are successful,” Pichugin says.

While works by Andreas Gursky or Jean-Michel Basquiat, now being exhibited in the gallery, are placed among the blue chips of art investment for dealers and their clients lesser known names still need to inspire their way into the hearts and lounges of local collectors.

Strategic partnership boosts ties Damian Chunilal CEO Asia for VTB Capital VTB Capital and CITIC Securities, one of China’s leading investment banks, are confident their recent strategic partnership will help Russian and Chinese investors build on existing opportunities across a range of investment banking activities.

The partnership will help with crossborder mergers and acquisitions and other financial advisory services. It underlines the importance of trade and investment relations between the two emerging market giants.

Relations are underscored by trade in energy and other resources between China’s northern provinces and Russia’s east. Russia’s abundant natural resources are helping to meet the substantial demand from China’s industrial base.

Energy links between the two coun-

tries have also grown over the years. The amount of electricity exported to China from Russia increased by 26 per cent last year and investment is being made into hydropower resources for the energy-hungry Chinese economy.

Despite challenges, the IMF predicts China’s economy will grow by 7.75 per cent this year Russia’s energy company EN+ alone is capable of delivering up to 35GW of new capacity in the next 15 years, much of this through hydroelectric power.

Government-owned oil giant Rosneft

also announced a deal last month to increase oil supplies to China in a 25year deal for 300 barrels per day, including a substantial up-front payment of US$70 billion. Rosneft estimates the total value of the deal at US$270 billion.

Bilateral trade between the two nations has more than doubled in the last five years, reaching US$88 billion last year. The Russian Direct Investment Fund and China Investment Corporation established the US$2 billion Russia-China Investment Fund when President Vladimir Putin visited China in June last year.

However, a number of cyclical and structural headwinds do exist that may have an impact on prospects for emerging market growth. The IMF predicts China’s economy will grow by 7.75 per cent this year, slightly lower than earlier growth forecasts.

Meanwhile, VTB Capital has played

an important role in helping to profile investment opportunities in Russia. The bank’s international investment forum series – RUSSIA CALLING, which is held in New York, London and Moscow on an annual basis – is designed to highlight the opportunities for investors in Russia.

Russia’s economy has also performed well in recent years. GDP per capita in Russia is the highest among all the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries, at US$17,698.

This figure in 2000 was 5 per cent that of the GDP per capita in the United States, whereas today it is nearly one third. VTB Capital has carved out a position as a leading emerging market investment bank that can support investors and companies looking to take advantage of cross-border opportunities in Russia. This will only lead to new and exciting opportunities in the future for investors and business people.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

5

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Global stage for scientists Young talent makes most of the congress’ return to the country, writes Yuliya Meshavkina

T

SCIENCE

Difficulties included funding cuts, unpaid salaries, a breakdown of established scientific institutions and a brain drain with some of Russia’s top scientists leaving for the West

Russia’s global biochemical landscape has undergone profound changes over the years.

Skulachev, scientists synthesised the SkQ1 compound – an antioxidant touted as an anti-ageing medicine.

Another is the development of fluorescent protein-production technology, which allows living micro-organisms to be studied on a cellular level. This was developed by Sergey Lukyanov, biologist and academic at the prestigious Russian Academy of Sciences.

Also gaining international attention has been a molecular nano-transporter, a technology capable of delivering medicine into cell nuclei. Developed by scientists at the Russian Institute of Gene Biology, it is hoped the technology will improve the survival rate for cancer.

Russia was awarded the chance to host the FEBS Congress in 2011. It had originally been invited to compete for the event when FEBS representatives

What is the innovation science centre?

Skolkovo is an innovation centre outside Moscow.

First mentioned in one of the president’s annual addresses to the Federal Assembly, its construction began in 2010 under the decree of thenpresident Dmitry Medvedev.

Skolkovo’s mission is to create a favourable environment for the development and commercialisation of

© RIA NOVOSTI/ALEXEY DANICHEV

he return to Russia of a major European biochemical event after 29 years will provide a powerful platform for the country’s young scientists to gain valuable exposure at the international level, says a leading industry figure.

Last month, St Petersburg hosted the 38th Congress of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) – one of the largest international forums on natural sciences.

Alexander Gabibov, president of the Russian Society of Biochemists and molecular biologists and chairman of the FEBS organising committee, says the event offered enormous benefit for Russia’s young scientists, who were able to network with 3,000 delegates from Europe, United States, Canada, China and Japan.

“There were many young scientists at the Congress, and they will be the ones to rebuild Russian science in the future,” Gabibov says. “It’s invaluable for them to have the opportunity evaluate the potential of their work and to gain experience with international scientific discussions at this level.”

According to the chairman of the Russian Fund for Fundamental Research, Vladislav Panchenko, more than 300 young Russian scientists were able to take part in the congress thanks to support from the fund.

The Russian and global biochemical landscape has undergone profound changes since the country first hosted FEBS in Moscow in 1984, with major advances in the cloning of mammals, stem-cell transplants and unlocking the human genome.

In the intervening 30 years, Russia’s scientific sector has faced extreme hardships, which alienated it from cuttingedge research and from colleagues overseas. Difficulties included cuts and shortages in funding, unpaid salaries, the collapse of institutions and a brain drain from Russia to the West.

Despite these setbacks, Russian biologists are once again being internationally recognised for their research and innovation.

One example is the Iona Skulachev Project – biology research in 2004 that attracted interest from the international scientific community. Led by Vladimir

new technology solutions by means of close co-operation between scientists, engineers, businesspeople, and participants in educational projects.

The centre comprises five major clusters, each responsible for its area of work: IT, biomedical technologies, space technologies and telecommunications, energy efficient technologies, and nuclear technologies.

All eyes are on keenly-awaited hi-tech projects Lesnoy Dozor (Forest Watch): Created by Skolkovo resident Ivan Shishalov, this remote surveillance system helps prevent forest fires.

Cameras and other sensors installed on mobile radio towers detect fires within 250 metres. The system could save 1.5 million roubles (HK$351,740) in fire-fighting expenses annually. travelled to the Siberian city of Novosibirsk in 2008 for the Fifth Congress of the Russian Society of Biochemists and Molecular Biologists, where they were impressed with the high standard of presentations. Polish professor and congress consultant says: “You could almost say the organisers managed to accommodate two congress events in one because there were twice as many speakers as in previous forums.”

He adds that, among the participants were Nobel Prize Laureates Sidney Altman, Kurt Wuthrich, Ada Yonath, Roger Kornberg, Jean Marie Lehn, Dr Richard Roberts, Susumu Tonegawa, Jules Hoffman, Robert Huber, Aaron Ciechanover and Jack Szostak. The Skolkovo Innovation Centre was one of the best represented Russian institutions at the Congress. Skolkovo representatives gave an extensive lecture programme and hosted discussions on stem-cell re-

Motorbike helmet with built-in navigation system: Invented by Art Business, the helmet is supplied with a visor-mounted navigation system, enabling the owner to keep to their chosen route without taking their eyes off the road. Voice-operated controls enhance road safety. The helmet will be marketed around the world for US$2,000.

It’s hoped the molecular nanotransporter will improve the survival rate for cancer search, the bill on Russian biomedical cellular products and the latest developments in cancer treatments.

At one of the lectures, Skolkovo’s Professor Vladimir Zelman spoke about the results of a Human Genome programme.

Peter Fedichev, scientific director of Quantum Pharmaceuticals and resident at Skolkovo, says that without the international contacts made at events such as FEBS and the Skolkovo lecture series

Cancer treatment: InsaidErFarm has developed a form of cancer treatment by making chemotherapy less toxic and more effective than what’s available.

The invention has been tested on 36 patients, but a final ruling on its effectiveness will require extensive clinical tests.

and without the support of large scientific centres, it would be harder for Russian scientists to achieve success. “We would most likely not have achieved today’s results without the involvement of the Skolkovo Centre, which funds two of our projects,” he says.

Ada Yonath, Laureate of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2009, says it was primarily scientific interest that brought everyone together at FEBS. Talking about Russian scientists, she said: “They have a complex future ahead of them.”

Read more about how to invest in Russia’s technoparks

rbth.asia/48389

6 Tuesday, August 27, 2013

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Overcoming barriers Strong-minded women are emerging in politics, writes Yaroslava Kiryukhina

R

(1) Valentina Matviyenko, present Federation Council head (2) Olga Golodets, Russian government vicepremier (3) Valentina Tereshkova, first female astronaut, now member of parliament, (4) Alina Kabaeva, former Olympic gymnastics champion, member of parliament

2

3

VOSTOCK-PHOTO

1

ITAR-TASS

OLEG PRASOLOV/RG

© RIA NOVOSTI/ALEXEY DANICHEV

POLITICS

4

ELVIRA NABIULLINA

Elvira Nabiullina is the first woman to become the Head of the Central Bank of Russia. She assumed office on 24 June. Nabiullina graduated in economics from the Moscow State University, where she also went on

to do postgraduate studies. From 1992 to 1994, she worked at the economic policy directorate of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

Her next position was deputy minister of economics. In early 2000, she was appointed deputy minister of economic development and trade.

In 2003, she became president of the Centre for Strategic Development, a non-government think tank. She was then minister of economic development from 2007 to 2012; in May, 2012, she was appointed as a presidential aide.

I don’t know whether the male-female ratio should be defined by the law. It’s important to appoint the most suitable person, based on their personal and professional qualities

be increased, while 33 per cent thought the number should stay the same. Half of the respondents supported the idea of quotas for women politicians, and only 5 per cent strongly opposed the idea.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Women of Russia Party emerged, and initially had some electoral success. The conservative and es-

sentially communist group, which positioned itself as promoting the interests of women and children, won 8.1 per cent of the vote and 23 seats in the 1993 elections. However, the party is no longer a force in Russian politics.

Last year, however, the Russian Justice Ministry registered the new For Women of Russia Party, which positions itself as non-feminist, but promoting

equal gender participation. The party has around 100,000 members and promotes the “restoration of family values”.

The Western feminist movement bypassed Soviet women and, after the fall of communism, feminism earned a negative reputation in Russia.

There have, however, been calls for the implementation of quotas for female politicians.

KOMMERSANT

ussian society is famously patriarchal, but despite considerable barriers, a few talented female leaders have managed to breach the upper levels of the political hierarchy.

Women make up only 13 per cent of deputies in the Russian State Duma (61 seats out of 450, following the 2012 national elections) and, at the federal level, their representation is even lower – at 6 per cent.

Last year, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Russia was ranked 96th in terms of women’s participation in politics and decision-making processes, with 13 women senators out of 163. Along with Somalia and Swaziland, Russia was among the lowerranked countries.

Apart from being weak in numbers, Russia’s women politicians are portrayed as having little influence, and none were listed in Forbes’ ranking of “the world’s most powerful women”.

Olga Kryshtanovskaya, an expert on the Russian political elite and member of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party, says that the patriarchal nature of Russian society is to blame for the dearth of women politicians. She says that some high-profile male politicians have only “let in” women politicians who are devoid of opinions, look good and are essentially puppets.

However, Kryshtanovskaya believes that strong and independent-minded women leaders are starting to emerge in Russia. And one recent example is Elvira Nabiullina, Russia’s former Minister for Economics.

Nabiullina was this year hand-picked

by President Putin to lead Russia’s Central Bank, becoming the first woman to head a Group of Eight monetary authority.

The Russian Federation has never been ruled by a woman prime minister or president, but it’s not out of the question, according to Kryshtanovskaya, who thinks that Valentina Matviyenko may be a contender.

The former governor of Russia’s “second capital” St Petersburg, Matviyenko now chairs the Federation Council – the upper house of the Russian Parliament, having become the third highest-ranking politician in the country, after Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Matviyenko is known for her no-nonsense management style and her loyalty to the Kremlin.

Despite being a prominent supporter of Putin and working in his election campaign last year, Kryshtanovskaya says, albeit with a smile, that Putin has sexist attitudes and “is inclined to think a woman’s place is in the kitchen”.

According to a 2011 poll from VTSIOM (the All-Russian Centre for the Study of Public Opinion), 14 per cent of respondents thought that Russia has too many women politicians, 37 per cent thought that their number should

VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

7

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Meeting of minds Regional summit aims to attract investors, writes Marina Vergezova

PRESS PHOTO

N

izhniy Novgorod is to host the second International Business Summit, “Investing in the Future: Russia”, on September 11 and 12. Experts, economists and businessmen from all over the world will attend the event.

The organiser of the summit is the government of the Nizhniy Novgorod region, while the federal government in Moscow is a co-sponsor.

The agenda includes Russia’s business and investment climate, the potential for investment in young talent, training specialists for an industrial economy, preparations for the 2018 soccer World Cup, and other topics.

One of the topics to be discussed is the cluster approach to the development of territories, which was pioneered in the Nizhniy Novgorod region in recent years.

The government is reporting strong growth in such regional clusters as metallurgy, shipbuilding, car making and the petrochemical industry.

Each of these clusters has attracted foreign investment by creating a favourable climate for setting up new industrial facilities in the region.

In accordance with a decision by the Russian government, Nizhniy Novgorod is one of nine Russian provinces that host IT technoparks.

BUSINESS

Governor Valery Shantsev hopes the summit will lure investors.

It is difficult to imagine a better forum for a meeting between researchers, experts and businessmen; a forum that brings together economic theory and business practice VALERY SHANTSEV, GOVERNOR

The local technopark, Ankudinovka, aims to stimulate growth in hi-tech industries.

The summit will be attended by delegates from Britain, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, China, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates and several Commonwealth of Independent States states.

“It is difficult to imagine a better forum for a meeting between researchers, experts and businessmen; a forum that brings together economic theory and business practice,” says Nizhniy Novgorod’s governor Valery Shantsev.

“Creating a business-friendly climate and attracting investment in the cutting-edge industries of the Russian economy will be the focus of the 2013 International Business Summit.

“I hope that the summit will become

a source of new ideas, an excellent place for networking and an occasion to sign strategic contracts.”

Among the chief concerns for investors are the qualification levels of local engineering and production personnel.

There are 11 resource centres in Nizhniy Novgorod Region offering fast, highquality vocational training in a variety of professions. Higher education is also strongly represented in the region, with up to 50 thousands specialists graduating every year.

The summit organiser will also set up a dedicated networking zone for holding presentations, looking for potential business partners, meeting foreign investors and discussing various issues with government officials.

Several foreign business missions will hold separate events on the sidelines of the summit.

Russia Beyond The Headlines – General Information Partner

Sochi Forum is a driver of economic modernisation NIKOLAY PRYANISHNIKOV, PRESIDENT, MICROSOFT, RUSSIA

XII INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT FORUM SOCHI, 2013 The Sochi International Investment Forum is a platform for dialogue between business and government. Last year, more than 7,300 people took part in the forum, including the heads of government bodies, state institutions, leading Russian and international companies, and diplomatic missions from 55 Russian regions and 40 countries.

SEPTEMBER 26-29

My overall impressions of the forum are positive.

The plenary discussion with Vladimir Putin was the most useful part. I remember his statements on the necessity for reducing the role of the state in the economy. And I think that was a very correct decision.

8 Tuesday, August 27, 2013

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

In search of traditional fare While the country has a rich variety of unique dishes, finding authentic food is not easy, writes Maxim Syrnikov

T

he earliest references to Russia’s national cuisine date back to the 10th century – in the writings of Arabian historian, astronomer and geographer Ahmad Ibn Rustah.

The Eastern Slavs, according to Ibn Rustah, survived entirely on mare’s milk.

At the height of the cold war, a wellknown European food magazine suggested that the Russian cold soup, okroshka, was made from a blend of beer and vodka, while Russian borscht was habitually brought to the table in fetid

condition. When the iron curtain collapsed, the world saw a different picture of pseudo-Russian food – mountains of black caviar, without which not one Russian-style lunch was ever munched.

Russian chefs who went to Europe or America made no attempt to showcase authentic Russian dishes.

They, however, whipped up the kind of food foreigners expected from the scant knowledge they had gained while watching Omar Sharif in the film Doctor Zhivago.

FOOD

The Stove

Shchi cabbage soup and porridge Shchi cabbage soup and porridge are dishes benefiting most from an extended “stewing” time – cooking for several hours at temperatures ranging from 80°C to 200°C. Such dishes have been the fare of Russians for centuries – among the favourites with families, then and now, are varieties of shchi cabbage soup and different kinds of porridges.

A lunch with a peasant family would include one tureen of long-stewed cabbage soup, and another of boiled, crumbly porridge made of buckwheat, wheat, millet or rye.

enough for an adult to fit into. To get the temperature in this cavernous stove up to bread-baking heat, at least a dozen sizeable logs are needed – most of a smallish tree.

However, once the stove is heated, it can bake a number of dishes that need lengthy cooking time, plus it can bake enough bread and pies to feed a big family.

The dishes were left to cool in the stove, which might retain its heat for eight to 12 hours afterwards – and this way of cooking helped create a distinctive kind of national cuisine.

LORI/LEGION MEDIA(5)

Russia’s fierce climate makes agricultural production impossible for a large part of the year.

However, the country has never been short of woodlands.

Deciduous trees in the warmer areas and evergreen coniferous forests provide sufficient firewood to maintain a roaring glow in that most universal item of Russian kitchen appliances – the Russian stove.

In modern terms, the Russian brick stove is sadly inefficient – not more than 30 per cent of the fuel is converted to usable heat.

The chimney space inside is large

Salted pickles Russian vegetables and mushrooms are traditionally salted with the help of natural lactic acid fermentation, and are usually called kvashennie, or sour – a major element of Russian cuisine.

The brine from pickled cucumbers and cabbage once played the same role in Russian cooking that soy sauce plays in Southeast Asian countries today.

There are also special pickled foods that are made from these pickles, as well as cabbage soups.

They include solyanka, rassolnik and kalya.

The medieval German traveller and author, Adam Olearius, mentioned dishes such as roast mutton in cucumber pickle as an effective pick-me-up after excessive drinking.

When the iron curtain collapsed, the world saw a different side to Russian food – mountains of black caviar

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

9

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES Ethnic influence creates delicious variety of dishes

What you often get is an imitation – very possibly a tasty imitation

© RIA NOVOSTI/VLADIMIR ASTAPKOVICH

Russia is a multiethnic country, and the national dishes have sat happily alongside the cuisines of other ethnic groups for centuries.

Many dishes have crept into the Russian repertoire from neighbouring countries, such as the Finno-Ugric pelmeni, a dish similar to ravioli, and the Turkish noodles.

In the same way, recipes of other ethnic groups who live in Russia have been augmented at the expense of authentic Russian dishes.

Regrettably, it’s difficult to track down authentic Russian cuisine on restaurant menus.

What you often get instead is an imitation – still very tasty but quite a long way from the real thing.

This sad state of affairs is, however, gradually improving.

Restaurants in the Russian provinces are installing traditional Russian stoves again, with young chefs becoming more interested in serving authentic dishes than dazzling the clients with the “richness” of the food.

Farmers are also beginning to grow spelt and turnips for dishes that are nearly forgotten.

If prepared with skill, one may find these traditional Russian ingredients even in Moscow.

Provincial restaurants are installing traditional stoves, as chefs are keen to serve authentic dishes.

Fish and black caviar

No list of Russia’s favourite food would be complete without mentioning river fish that are always in plentiful supply.

Domostroy, or Good Husbandry – a manual for household management – mentions more than a dozen ways to salt fish – including air-dried, salt-barrelled and layered.

Then there’s the famous Russian black caviar, which is rare. Yet, just four years ago, there were people in outlying provinces who were using dried, crushed and powdered caviar as a substitute for flour during a food shortage – because it was the cheapest substitute.

The pies made with fish fillings are really only known in Russia – coulibiac (fish pasties) and rasstegai (open-top brioches).

Pies and pancakes Pies and other pastry goods are the calling cards of a Russian kitchen. No number could be put on the variety of stuffings, the assortment of pastry doughs, or the panoply of pies themselves – open pies, sealed-top pies, crimped, curdcheese tartlets, sweet pies, sour pies, dessert pies and savoury pies.

The Shrovetide (Maslennitsa) holiday – Russia’s own carnival festivities that precede Lent – is inextricably linked with offering pancakes to guests. Yet pancakes are cooked at other times of the year too. Christmas is followed by a festive season, also known as Oatcake Days, when special oat pancakes are made from oat flour.

Other holiday dishes are prepared

just once a year, and are served on that holiday alone – such as the Easter Kulich sponge cake, and the pascha, a decorated mound of sweetened curdcheese made for Easter. There are sweet pastries called Spring Larks, and rye “ladders” made for the Feast of St John Of The Blessed Ladder, or the roast Roe

deer served on Christmas Eve near Arkhangelsk.

Of course, we can’t leave out mention of the many different kinds of cold soups, such as okroshka and botvinie, which are made using kvas – a non-alcoholic beer fermented from brown bread.

Learn more about

Delicious Russia and practice preparing dishes with RBTH

rbth.ru/tag/delicious+russia

10 Tuesday, August 27, 2013

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Airport’s dirty secrets E Leonid Kaganov

FICTION

ALEXEY IORSH

dward Snowden, the fugitive US National Security Agency whistle-blower, was finally allowed to leave the transit area of the Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport earlier this month. Leonid Kaganov, a famous Russian science fiction writer, gave his take on a hypothetical scenario in which Snowden reveals the airport’s secrets.

Edward Snowden had spent more than three years living in the transit area of the Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport. During that time, he learned Russian and even became something of a local celebrity.

Always calm, friendly and smiling, he gained the affection of all Sheremetyevo employees working in the transit area. The barmaid kept giving him chocolate bars. The guy at the news stand supplied him with yesterday’s papers. The cleaning lady provided free laundry services.

Security staff often brought him bottles of expensive alcohol, mineral water, scissors and other banned items confiscated from passengers during the security check.

Passengers developed a weird myth to the effect that anyone who touches the sole of a sleeping Snowden is guaranteed good luck: their flights will not be delayed.

One fine day, however, Snowden walked into the airport’s internet centre and asked to use a computer, saying that he needed to send an email to The Guardian, The Washington Post, and several Russian blogs.

He spent about 40 minutes on the computer, turned it off, thanked the staff and then dashed off in the general direction of the toilet. The email he had written became famous, and caused a big stir at Sheremetyevo. This is what he had to say: Dear passengers The Sheremetyevo transit zone has been a big disappointment.

I have become disillusioned with much of what I have seen here. I have thought long and hard about whether I should reveal all the secrets of the transit areas. I wanted to make sure that such a leak would serve legitimate public interest. Finally, I have decided to take action.

It was only very recently that I lived a fairly comfortable life. I had a sleeping bag in a snug corner, right by an air conditioner. There were no draughts in my corner; the air was always fresh, and I had a stunning view of the planes taking off from the runway.

I had decent food, and access to a wash sink.

I even had a good job. I signed autographs for money. On weekends, I read lectures about free societies of the future, and my donation box was never empty. I had a loving family; the former Russian spy Anna Chapman would spend time with me at the transit area.

Recently, Anna and I were properly – if unwittingly – married by Gerard Depardieu, who was flying from Paris to Chechnya via Moscow, and inadvertently sat, with excellent timing, on the sleeping bag, while I and Anna were inside.

That halcyon time, however, is in the past. I have come to realise that from now on, I will

Security staff often brought him bottles of expensive alcohol, mineral water and other banned items confiscated from passengers have to suffer for what I have done. The Sheremetyevo staff will try to hunt me down and exact revenge. But I have no regrets. I will be happy if the depravities going on in my beloved transit zones become public knowledge. I genuinely want this e-mail to spark a heated public debate.

I am ready to sacrifice everything because my conscience will not let me rest if I allow transit zones around the world to violate passengers’ privacy, comfort and freedom. I realise perfectly well that I will have to spend the rest of my life here, in one of the stalls of the gents’ toilet, so as to avoid being torn to bits by Sheremetyevo staff.

I will occupy stall No 1, or the next one when I finish this e-mail. Listen well to what I have to say: 1/ The barmaid sells used sugar to customers. She puts three pieces of sugar on the plate beside the coffee – but if the customer doesn’t use them, she puts those pieces back in the jar, and then gives them to the next customer.

2/ The cleaning lady uses the same rag to wipe the toilet seats and the wash sinks. Exactly the same rag.

LETTERS FROM READERS, GUEST COLUMNS AND CARTOONS LABELLED “COMMENTS” OR “VIEWPOINTS”, OR APPEARING IN THE OPINION PAGE OF THIS SUPPLEMENT, ARE SELECTED TO REPRESENT A BROAD RANGE OF VIEWS AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT THOSE OF THE EDITORS OF RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES OR ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA. PLEASE SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR TO EDITORHK@RBTH.RU

3/ The security staff brazenly violate regulations. When they confiscate banned items from hand luggage, they do not make proper records, and neither do they discard those items at the end of their shifts. They actually drink confiscated bottles with expensive alcohol after work.

They give Swiss Army knives to their friends as gifts. They give manicure set scissors to women and gay men. And they take confiscated Christmas firecrackers home to give their own kids.

4/ The guy who sells newspapers also has maps of Moscow on sale. They are not listed in the news stand’s official price list – I checked.

He buys those maps somewhere else, sells them at a profit, and pockets the money, thereby cheating his own employer and the taxman.

5/ And now, to the biggest outrage. There are CCTV cameras installed all over the airport.

Worse, some of them are hidden. In addition to the cameras hanging from the ceiling in every passenger lounge, there are several hidden ones. They secretly monitor the passengers, who are completely unaware that they are being watched. Some of these CCTV cameras are even disguised as smoke alarms, or as screw heads sticking from the walls. Transit area staff secretly peer at you from the right and from the left, without your knowledge.

This is all I have to say for now. I will be waiting in one of the stalls at the departure area of Sheremetyevo until I am offered asylum in the transit area of some other airport in Ecuador or Honduras. Unless I am offered asylum, I will shout from the stall the location of all the hidden cameras in all passenger lounges.

I do not consider myself a hero. But neither do I want to live in a transit zone where such depravities are committed every day, and where

THIS SPECIAL REPORT IS SPONSORED AND PRODUCED BY ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA (RUSSIA). WEB ADDRESS HTTP://RBTH.ASIA E-MAIL EDITORHK@RBTH.RU TEL. +7 (495) 775 3114 FAX +7 (495) 988 9213 ADDRESS 24 PRAVDY STR., BLDG. 4, FLOOR 7, MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 125 993.

EUGENE ABOV EDITOR & PUBLISHER KONSTANTIN FETS EXECUTIVE EDITOR GLEB FEDOROV EDITOR DAN POTOTSKY, YAROSLAVA KIRYUKHINA ASSISTANT EDITORS DEEN NAWAZ PRODUCTION EDITOR (HONG KONG) ANDREI ZAITSEV HEAD OF PHOTO DEPT MILLA DOMOGATSKAYA HEAD OF PRE-PRINT DEPT ANDREI SHIMARSKY ART DIRECTOR IRINA PAVLOVA LAYOUT. AN E-PAPER VERSION OF THIS SUPPLEMENT IS AVAILABLE AT HTTP://RBTH.ASIA

passengers are secretly watched while they wait for their flight. I hope that this e-mail will be read by air travellers in every corner of the globe.

Sincerely yours, Edward Snowden, July 30, 2017.

Transit zone of the Sheremetyevo Airport, Moscow, Russia In the first three days after the e-mail was sent, CCTV cameras showed that the door of the stall in the gents’ toilet remained closed throughout the whole period. No-one came out, although from time to time, microphones picked up mournful sighs from within.

On the fourth day, a tired but confident voice came out from behind the door of the stall: “Toilet visitors! Toilet stalls have been a big disappointment! I have been left completely disillusioned with the things I have seen here. I cannot keep silent any longer. I actually do have something to lose. The time I have spent here has not been all that bad. It is fairly warm and dry here in the stall. There is something to sit on. I have access to water and paper. But all of this is now in the past. I have no regrets.

“Toilet visitors, there is something you must know: toilet paper never rips cleanly along the perforated line! You are being deceived! Tell

I will be waiting in one of the stalls at the departures area of Sheremetyevo until I am offered asylum in the transit area of some other airport everyone! Farewell!” There was a sound of a toilet being flushed, then silence. When the door of the stall was forced open from the outside, no-one was there. The stall was empty.

No-one has seen Snowden ever since. But people fishing along the banks of the Moscow River insist that saw someone looking like Snowden swimming briskly along the current in the direction of Ecuador. But who believes fishermen’s tales?

Leonid Kaganov is a Russian science fiction writer, who wrote this exclusively for RBTH

TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SUPPLEMENT, CONTACT "ASIA TO GO LIMITED", WHICH REPRESENTS RBTH IN HK, AT SALESHK@RBTH.RU © COPYRIGHT 2013, FSFI ‘ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA’. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALEXANDER GORBENKO CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD. PAVEL NIGOITSA GENERAL DIRECTOR VLADISLAV FRONIN CHIEF EDITOR ANY COPYING, REDISTRIBUTION OR RETRANSMISSION OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS PUBLICATION, OTHER THAN FOR PERSONAL USE, WITHOUT THE WRITTEN CONSENT OF ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA, IS PROHIBITED. TO OBTAIN PERMISSION TO REPRINT OR COPY AN ARTICLE OR PHOTO, PLEASE PHONE +7 (495) 775 3114 OR E-MAIL EDITORHK@RBTH.RU WITH YOUR REQUEST. RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS AND PHOTOS.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

11

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

ENTERTAINMENT

VASILY SHUMOV

ITAR-TASS

Grebenshikov was invited by a producer Dave Stewart, who adapted some of his Russian songs into English

Vasily Shumov is a musician, producer, photo and video artist. Born in Moscow, he was the founder of Moscow’s first New Wave and Electronic band Center (Tsentr) in 1980.

From 1990 to 2008, he lived in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from California Institute of the Arts in 1998. Shumov has numerous solo and group exhibitions of his photo and video art works.

His recent personal photo art exhibition was in April at the Central House of Artists in Moscow. In June, he performed with his band Center (Tsentr) at PAX Festival in Helsinki, Finland.

Shumov writes his column exclusively for RBTH.

Musical secret to success Bands performing self-penned English songs have established new culture, writes Vasily Shumov

A

n increasing number of Russian bands are finding fame at home by composing and performing music songs in English – continuing a trend that started in the 2000s.

What is particularly amazing is that English songs are now almost mainstream in Russia’s pop music scene and that the musicians writing and singing these tracks are Russians who speak, think and dream in the Russian language.

Sometime in the late 1960s, shockwaves from a Western rock-music revolution reverberated around the world, while also sneaking through the holes and cracks in the Soviet iron curtain.

Soviet censorship of global culture had, by this time, been weakened by Western radio stations such as Radio Luxembourg, BBC and Voice of America. Hits from the Western charts which could be heard all over the Soviet Union.

Black markets in Russia were flooded with Western pop and rock vinyl records. Even in official Soviet music recording shops specialising in audio recordings on demand such as voice letters, customers were able to request unofficial recordings of The Beatles, Rolling Stones and other Western superstars.

Russian recording enthusiasts found a way to record Western hits using X-ray medical prints as “vinyl” discs. This technique was called “rock on the bones” because parts of the human skeleton were being shown on X-ray film.

Musicians, mostly students in the major cities, started their own bands and imitated their favourite Western songs and styles, such as The Beatles,

Russian rock bands were the type of cover bands trying to master their music skills to imitate Western rock Beach Boys, Rolling Stones, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and many other American and British bands.

As expected, all the singing was in English. However, not everyone understood what they were singing because they would just repeat pronunciation of the words using Russian letters.

For example: Can’t buy me love by The Beatles for Russians sounded like “Kant bai mi low”. The “She’s got it” line from the song Venus by Shocking Blue was transcribed as “she-is-garra”.

The first generation of Russian rock bands were cover bands trying to master the musicianship of Western greats, such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Jaco Pastorious, John Bonham and others.

Russian cover bands in the late 1960s and mid-1970s tried to mimic their Western heroes in their sound and look, and they took on rock-sounding band names such as Ruby Attack, Flowers, Falcon, Toy Soldiers, Successful Acquisition and The Second Wind, among others.

At the same time, they experimented with their own tunes.

This gave way to the second generation of Russian rock bands who wrote their own songs in the Russian language but maintained the Western rock sounds. In the late 1970’s, Russian rock had firmly taken hold of the country’s music scene and symbolised protest and non-conformity with the Soviet system.

Indeed, some thinkers reasonably credit Russian rock as one of the major

forces that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

When Mikhail Gorbachev’s Perestroika reached its peak at the end of 1980s, and free travel and cultural exchange become a reality, some Western producers and record labels eyed the Soviet music market to identify talent that could be introduced to the Western world.

English bands, playing mostly Western covers, can be found in restaurants and weddings Among the first English-singing Soviet rock exports to the West were Moscow glam-rock band Gorky Park and Boris Grebenshikov, leader of hippiestyle band Aquarium, from Leningrad.

Grebenshikov was invited by a producer Dave Stewart (ex-Eurythmics), who adapted some of his Russian songs into English and composed a new ones.

Aquarium was one of the beloved underground bands in the Soviet Union mostly because they combined acoustic and ballad styles with unique Russian lyrics. Grebenshikov’s solo album, featuring English language songs, Radio Silence, was released in America by major label Columbia in 1989.

To support the release a music video was shown on MTV, a documentary about this album was produced and Grebenshikov appeared in various latenight American TV shows. But it received a cold response in the US, probably because of its inability to convert the Russian-language lyrics and acoustic song writing into American-style rock and roll. Grebenshikov later returned to Leningrad and continued to write and perform his songs in Russian. Glam metal band Gorky Park was formed in Moscow in 1987 playing self-composed English in an attempt to break into the Western market.

Its manager Stas Namin helped Gorky Park network with American superstars, such as Bon Jovi, Frank Zappa and others who visited Moscow during Perestroika. Their first album GP was released in 1989. Because they sought Western audiences, Gorky Park became famous.

12 Tuesday, August 27, 2013

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

1

Major tourism campaign Region where the Romanovs were executed undergoes rebranding, writes Natalia Ruleva of the best in Russia; and gold-mine tours and mineral museums across the region.

The mineral-rich area was home to Russia’s first gold mines, and it’s still renowned for its precious and semi-precious stones, including aquamarine, jasper, rhodonite and malachite.

Another attraction is Perm Oblast, known for the Molebsky Triangle – a cult destination for ufologists and “ghost hunters” – where numerous strange phenomena have been observed and attributed either to extraterrestrials or tectonic faults.

There are also opportunities for ecotourism, with white-water rafting in summer on the numerous rivers that run through the region.

In winter, hot springs are a luxurious attraction, particularly in Tyumen Oblast.

Independent travel in the Urals is possible, although it may come with some linguistic challenges outside of major cities for travellers who don’t speak Russian.

Elmira Tukanova, head of the Sverdlovsk Region Tourism Development Centre, says they have received positive feedback about the branding concept at the ITB-2013 convention hosted by Berlin earlier this year.

Key markets for the branding campaign are countries that have direct flights to Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport: Britain, Germany, China, Turkey and the Czech Republic.

The region, named after Peter the Great’s wife Katherine, is also accessible from Moscow and St Petersburg; flights take about 2.5 hours.

On the Trans-Siberian railway, Yekaterinburg is 24 to 30 hours from Moscow.

Federal regions around the Urals

TRAVEL NATALIA MIKHAYLENKO

Church of Blood and Honour for the country’s last tsar and his imperial family Yaroslava Kiryukhina The man allegedly responsible for the Romanovs’ deaths, Yakov Sverdlov – a Bolshevik party leader and chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee – was, ironically, the person the city and region were named after in 1924. Yekaterinburg received its pre-Soviet name in 1991.

Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, Empress Alexandra (who was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria), their five children and several servants were executed in a tiny basement of Yekaterinburg’s Ipatiev House on July 17, 1918.

The house was demolished half a

© RIA NOVOSTI

O

utside Russia, people might have heard of the Urals because of nearby Yuriatin – Boris Pasternak’s fictional town (thought to be Perm) – where Dr Zhivago had his country house and where his relationship with Lara played out.

They may also know it’s where the imperial Romanov family were exiled, before their execution by firing squad in Yekaterinburg in 1918.

Not satisfied with their international profile, the regions within the Urals are joining forces to create and promote a single tourism brand, the Great Urals, with the aim of increasing travel in the regions that straddle this mountain range running north to south, from the Arctic Ocean coast in the north, to Kazakhstan in the south.

The Sverdlovsk Regional Tourism Development Centre is behind the initiative, which it announced at a convention in Yekaterinburg in April.

Governments and tourism bodies from nine regions plan to sign an agreement that will see them pooling resources to develop a single set of symbols, take part in international conventions and develop special events to attract tourists.

The meteor that fell in February this year in Lake Chebarkul, in the southern Urals (Chelyabinsk Oblast), has already resulted in a tourism boom, attracting visitors from Britain, Germany, China and the United States, giving Chelyabinsk a taste of what might lie ahead.

Tourist attractions in the Urals include monuments along the unofficial border where Europe meets Asia (there are numerous in Yekaterinburg); stargazing at Kourovskaya Observatory, one

century later by order of the late Boris Yeltsin, who was then a communist party official in the city, and who later became Russia’s president.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a church – named the Church on Blood in Honour of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land – was built on the site of the execution and remains a revered pilgrimage destination.

A second memorial to the royal family is in the small village of Koptyako, 15km north of Yekaterinburg.

There, in Ganina Yama (Ganya’s Pit) – an old mining shaft – the bodies of the Romanovs were burned on the night of their execution.

The Orthodox Church has declared the site holy ground, and seven wooden chapels have been constructed there – one for each member of the imperial family.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

13

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

LORI/LEGION MEDIA (3)

2

The Ural region gets its name from one of the world’s oldest mountain ranges, estimated to be 250 to 300 million years old.

The range runs roughly north to south, through western Russia (photos 1 and 3).

Home to many lakes and hot springs, the Urals also have health spas and resorts, which take advantage of the area’s medicinal waters and mud (photo 2).

The Urals are famous for semi-precious stones, and these, known in Russian as samotsvety, are mentioned in Russian fairy tales.

3

MAJOR EVENTS

FIND MORE IN THE GLOBAL CALENDAR

at www.rbth.ru

INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL EURASIA YEKATERINBURG, OCTOBER 4-16

This event, an initiative by the Sverdlovsk State Philharmonic, aims to foster cultural connections between musicians from Asia and Europe. This year, it welcomes orchestras from Amsterdam, Mannheim and Hong Kong. › www.eurasiafestival.ru/en/

WORLD JUDO CHAMPIONSHIP CHELYABINSK, 2014

This is the second time the International Judo Federation has held its world championship in Russia; the last time was in 1983, in Moscow.

3

LITTLEKNOWN SPOTS

1

2

3

The Komi Republic is home to the Seven Brothers, seven, 30-metre-high megalithic formations said to resemble giants.

The Kungur Ice Cave, near Kungur city, in the Perm region, contains underground lakes and more than 120 kinds of ice formations. Each year, it attracts 100,000 visitors.

Bridging the distance

› www.rae2013.ru/en/expo/about/

OLYMPIC FLAME RELAY YEKATERINBURG, PERM AND OTHER CITIES, 2014

In the build-up to the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games, the Olympic torch relay takes 123 days and will involve a record number of torchbearers, about 14,000 people. › www. olympic.org/

FIFA WORLD CUP MATCHES YEKATERINBURG, 2018

› www.ijf.org/

WORLD PROGRAMMING CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL YEKATERINBURG, 2014

The Dyatlov Pass, in the northern Urals, is a backpacking destination because of an unexplained incident in 1959 in which nine students, on a ski trip, were found dead, having torn their way out of their tents and wandered half-dressed in temperatures of minus 30 degrees Celcius. With no external injuries, some had internal trauma, one a missing tongue, and their clothes had radioactive contamination.

will showcase the latest in military equipment, arms and ammunitions from more than 300 Russian and international arms manufacturers from across 50 countries.

This IBM-sponsored event encourages teamwork, innovation and creativity in software development. More than 2,000 programmers from 100 universities worldwide will compete.

Eleven Russian cities will come under the spotlight when Russia hosts the World Cup for the first time, in which 32 national teams will compete. › www.fifa.com/

EUROPEAN SPEED SKATING CHAMPIONSHIP

› www.icpc.baylor.edu/

CHELYABINSK, 2015

RUSSIA ARMS EXPO NIZHNY TAGIL, SEPTEMBER 25-28

Chelyabinsk’s Uralskaya Molniya Ice Palace, with its 400-metre ice track, will host this event.

This military expo, held since 1999,

› www.isu.org/

Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge This vehicle and pedestrian bridge spans the Moskva River near the Kremlin’s main gateway through Borovitskaya Tower. It is considered the principal bridge of the capital. Despite its name, which translates as the Great Stone Bridge, the modern-day bridge is built with reinforced concrete and steel.

Saint Basil’s Cathedral

Bagration Bridge This pedestrian bridge across the Moskva River, which also houses kiosks and cafes, forms a structural part of the Moscow International Business Centre (aka Moscow-City). It links Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment with Taras Shevchenko Embankment.

Kremlin

Patriarshy Bridge

Borodinsky Bridge Kievskaya Cathedral Of Christ the Saviour

Krymsky Bridge

Mo sco w-r iver

Radisson Royal Hotel

Mo sco wriv er

This vehicle and pedestrian bridge across the Moskva is situated near Kievsky Railway Station some 2km away from the Kremlin. The original arched bridge was erected in 1911/12 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Borodino, the decisive battle in the Russo-French war of 1812. The structure has since been rebuilt twice.

This relatively new pedestrian bridge across the Moskva River was built in 2004 to connect the Christ the Saviour Cathedral with downtown Moscow. For four years in a row from 2008 to 2012, Patriarshy Bridge was used as the location for former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev’s New Year addresses to the nation.

Theatre Estrady

This vehicular/pedestrian suspension bridge across the Moskva River links Krymsky Val Street with Krymskaya Square. It was erected in the course of Stalin’s massive campaign to refurbish Moscow ahead of the May 1, 1938 celebrations.

Gorky Park

Novodevichy Convent

Pushkinsky (Andreyevsky) Bridge This pedestrian bridge across the Moskva connects Pushkinskaya and Frunzenskaya embankments. It was built in 1999 with structural elements left over from Andreyevsky Railway Bridge, an architectural and engineering monument built further upstream in 1907 and demolished in 1998.

Frunzenskaya

Neskuchyi Garden

Want to learn more? go to travel2moscow.com

14 Tuesday, August 27, 2013

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Profit ahead of glory Industry slashes spending and focuses on making money instead, writes Andrei Kislyakov

R

SPACE The former Soviet Union was pursuing ‘glorious space achievements’

ITAR-TASS

The space programme’s budget in Russia is being slashed, and the sector is now keen on profit.

THE NUMBERS

Vostochny to be main launch centre

US$115m

of all space launches in 2012 were performed by Russia. All commercial launches were successful.

Vostochny is expected gradually to replace the Baikonur space centre, which Russia rents from Kazakhstan, as the main Russian launch site for heavy space carriers.

The main goal of building the new space centre is to have proper, unrestricted and independent access to space.

Russia already has two space launch centres, Plesetsk in Arkhangelsk Region in the north, and Kapustin Yar in Astrakhan region in the south. But neither is suitable for launching heavy space carriers, such as the Proton or the new Angara, which is still in development.

In addition, Vostochny allows for launch trajectories that do not overfly other countries. Another advan-

and communications. In 1991, the leading US and European market players set up the Global Star international space-based communications consortium, which had its own satellite constellation and offered services to commercial users.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union wallowed in a cash-draining propaganda programme.

Times have changed, of course, and Roscosmos, to its credit, was not always about showing off. It privatised the sector in the early 1990s, setting up a series of joint ventures with EU and US partners.

The START I disarmament treaty of 1991 allowed Russia to convert its Soviet-era SS-19 intercontinental ballistic missiles into Strela and Rockot com-

is Russia’s annual rent for Kazakhstan’s Baikonur space centre, which Russia plans to use until 2050.

US$5.3bn

will be spent on building the Vostochny space centre. The Soyuz-2 carrier is planned for a 2015 launch.

38%

© RIA NOVOSTI

ussia is slashing its sevenyear space budget by around US$19 billion in a bid to ease the cost of renting its key Baikonur launch centre in Kazakhstan, as concerns over profitability and practicality overtake the propaganda-driven excesses of the previous Soviet regime.

The finance ministry said the cuts would cover federal space activity between 2013 and 2020, citing “a recalculation of the dollar exchange rate applied to the rent being paid for the use of the Baikonur [cosmodrome]” by Russia’s space agency Roscosmos.

Baikonur had long been the launch centre during the Soviet era but since the break up of the former communist commonwealth, Russia has been paying Kazakhstan US$115 million a year to use the site.

Next year’s federal spending on space exploration is pegged at US$5.47 billion, but the finance ministry wants to cut this by more than US$220 million to US$5.25 billion.

It also wants Roscosmos’ 2015 budget of US$6.42 billion reduced to US$6.01 billion. For its 2016 allocation, the ministry wants to release US$6 billion, short of Roscosmos’ expected US$7.36 billion.

Critics say Russia’s space activities focus too much on the grandeur of space exploration, unlike the United States, which took into account cost and benefit issues. Russia’s philosophy is an illjudged legacy of the former Soviet Union, says Lieutenant General Georgy Lysenkov, the former first deputy commander of the Soviet Defence Ministry’s Space Units.

The former Soviet Union was pursuing “glorious space achievements”, Lysenkov says.

“Our leadership never spared money on space exploration. With defence projects in particular, any attempt to mention excessive programme costs would easily lose you your job.”

In the history of global space exploration, the Americans and Europeans realised early that profitability, with a measure of practical defence needs, would eventually dictate what goals should and should not be pursued in the space sector.

This was especially evident in the field of space communications and satellitebased navigation.

Nasa was the first to take a step towards commercialising the space sector. The Communications Satellite Act of 1962 made the Federal Communications Commission the sole proprietor of all United States communications satellites, but made sure that commercial users had access to the services offered.

In 1965, the US and its European partners launched the Early Bird, the world’s first commercial communications satellite. When space services emerged as a viable market in the 1970’s, its first two specialities were data digitisation

tage is that used missile components will land in unpopulated areas in the north, and in the seas beyond the Arctic Circle.

Russia inherited the right to use Baikonur as the successor of the former Soviet Union. mercial launch vehicles. Still, the Russian government’s love for flash was not to be diminished so soon. One example is the Glonass satellite-based navigation system, which many feel is essential for the Russian economy.

However, the Glonass programme is organised in such a way that each and every vehicle across the country is mandated to have a Glonass receiver on

board. However, questions remain as to whether civilian users truly benefit from choosing Glonass over the US GPS Navstar system. As a consequence, the Glonass system, which is urgently needed by the Russian Army, emergency relief units and other government agencies, has been failing for years to reach its full operational strength of 24 serviceable satellites in orbit.

It was no surprise when the Finance Ministry, in August last year, froze the Glonass budget at the 2011 level of 19.3 billion roubles (HK$4.53 billion).

Ivan Moiseyev, head of Russia’s Space Policy Institute, says the country’s space ambitions should be measured against its financial capabilities.

“We want too much,” he says. “A new launch vehicle, a new piloted spacecraft, a new spaceport, a lunar base; but the sector’s productivity is appallingly low. It would make more sense if we invested in modernisation and improvements to production effectiveness.”

Colonisation of the moon and Mars, the Holy Grail of the early space age, may happen sooner or later. Today, however, the revival of the Russian space industry rests in the development of new space vehicle designs based on advanced technology – even though, for some, this might signal a serious departure from the grandiose fantasies of the past.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

15

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES Mystery remains over the executioners of Nicholas

GETTY IMAGES/FOTOBANK

Yan Shenkman CULTURE EDITOR

The execution of Tsar Nicholas and his family was first viewed by many in Russia as a warning of severe repression to come under the former Soviet Union. While he was seen as being politically weak during his reign, in recent times, however, Nicholas has been viewed favourably.

Re-imagining the last tsar Nicholas II was once considered politically weak, but is now viewed favourably, writes Alexander Morozov

T

he image of the last emperor, Nicholas II, in post-Soviet Russia has gone through three distinct periods in recent times.

The first, in the early 1990s, followed the “perestroika” philosophy, with the execution of Nicholas, his children and servants being perceived as the harbinger of Soviet repression and subsequent terror, even towards children.

There was no real profound interest in his rule as a whole or in his politics.

Yet his image of being politically weak was not challenged.

But in the first half of the 1990s, under the influence of the offshore Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, a reverence for the last emperor as a saint started to spring up in some places in Russia. Despite this, the Moscow-based church opposed canonisation. There was also a lack of clarity about the remains of the royal family. Those that were excavated in 1971 by the RyabovAvdonin group were challenged by sections of the church and historians.

The perception in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s collapse was that Nicholas was one of many political sacrifices by the communists. However, in the second half of the 1990s, his image began to take on new meaning.

After 1996, the position of the liberals in Russia began to waver. The late Boris Yeltsin’s second presidential term was accompanied by a deep schism in society, and Nicholas II became an important symbol of the conservative op-

position. The royal family was still discussed in the press in the 1990s because in 1993 Yeltsin formed a commission to identify the remains. The commission operated for five years. Numerous arguments and assessments were not silenced by a government ceremonial burial in 1998, with part of the public, to this day, challenging the remains’ authenticity.

For Yeltsin, Nicholas’ fate also had a personal aspect because he was an official in Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg) when the decision was made to destroy the building (Ipatiev House) in which the royal family was shot.

With Vladimir Putin’s accession to office as president, Nicholas’ importance diminished. After 2005, when his regime had strengthened, Putin tried to assemble symbols of Russian greatness. They included Alexander Nevsky, Stalin, Lenin, Yuri Gagarin, Russian saint Seraphim of Sarov and Marshal Zhukov. Nicholas II also ended up in this pantheon.

In a 1994 survey, “Which past leader would you call a true Russian patriot?”

Nicholas II did not even make the top 10. However, this year, the Levada-Center revealed that Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev were viewed positively by 4 and 3 per cent of respondents, respectively.

They were surpassed by Stalin (13 per cent), Leonid Brezhnev (13 per cent) and Nicholas II (14 per cent). rbth.asia/48375

HISTORY Timeline of key events 1894 • In November, Tsar Nicholas II married German princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine. She would later become known as Alexandra Feodorovna.

1901 • Nicholas II became father of four girls: Olga, Tatyana, Maria and Anastasia. Prince Alexei, the longawaited heir to the Russian throne, would be born in July 1904.

1981 • The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia canonised all members of the last emperor’s family; the Russian Orthodox Church would do the same in August 2000.

It has been 95 years since the execution of Russia’s last Tsar, Nicholas II, and it is still not clear precisely how many people were involved in the deadly deed.

One account of the event claims there were eight; another insists there were 11, one for each member of the Russian royal family killed. What is clear, though, is that the execution squad was led by two men – Yakov Yurovsky and Mikhail Medvedev-Kudrin.

Both later penned memoirs describing in great detail the events of the night Nicholas II was killed. Both were proud of their roles in Russian history. And both held important jobs until their death.

Yakov Mikhaylovich Yurovsky (18781938) served as the superintendant of Ipatyev House in Sverdlovsk, where the royal family was held by the Soviet government. He also led the firing squad.

He claims that he personally fired the bullet that killed the tsar.

The participation of Yurovsky, who was a Jew, in the killing of the last Russian monarch later gave nationalists reason to complain that “our father the tsar was murdered by foreigners”. There

were, in fact, only two “foreigners” in the killing squad: Yurovsky and YM Tselms; the latter was of Latvian extraction, and his participation in the killing is questioned by many.

Yurovsky was a jeweller and, on the night of the killing, he was determined to find the tsar’s diamonds. He succeeded, as after the bodies of the tsarinas were searched, about eight kilograms of jewellery was found sewn into their clothes.

Yurovsky later handed it all over to the superintendant of the Kremlin.

Yurovsky later served as chairman of the Urals Regional Emergency Committee (the forerunner of the Soviet NKVD and then KGB), head of the gold directorate at the State Reserve, and head of the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow.

Yurovsky died in the Kremlin hospital and the cause of death was perforation of a duodenal ulcer. Some of the tsar’s killers stayed friends for the rest of their lives. Yurovsky, Filipp Goloshchekin and Medvedev-Kudrin chatted about their deeds over a cup of tea. They especially liked to argue over who fired the first shot that night. rbth.asia/47877

16 Tuesday, August 27, 2013

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Roubles rule the game Tycoons and corporations treat the clubs like their favourite toys, writes Ilya Zubko

SPORT

REUTERS(3)

T

he combined value of players in the Russian Football Premier L eague stands at €1,247,175,000 (HK$12.8 billion), according to football database transfermarkt.de.

When it comes to paying big bucks for new players, Russian clubs are just below the top five European football nations: England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France.

Ironically, only two Russian football teams have ever achieved success in Europe in recent years – PFC CSKA Moscow and FC Zenit St Petersburg won the Uefa Cup in 2005 and 2008, respectively. CSKA’s top achievement to date was reaching the Champions League quarter-finals in 2010, while Zenit only managed to qualify from the group phase this past season – a long way short of the kind of success expected from clubs whose combined annual budgets total at least €200 million.

Indeed, the enormous amount of money being pumped into Russian football over the past few years is eye-popping.

The money has also seeped down to some of the lesser known clubs, two of whom eclipse the wealth of more established clubs, such as FC Spartak Moscow (sponsored by the oil giant, Lukoil), FC Dynamo Moscow (owned by one of Russia’s largest banks, VTB) and FC Lokomotiv Moscow (bankrolled by the state-owned transport monopoly, Russian Railways). The two are FC Zenit of St Petersburg and FC Anzhi Makhachkala, hailing from Russia’s southern republic of Dagestan.

Clockwise from left to right: One of Russia’s richest club is Anzhi. However, the team failed to get past the group stages of the Champions League. World-renowned coach Guus Hiddink left Russia abruptly after spending several years with the Russia national team and Anzhi.

Hiddink goes from hero to zero Guus Hiddink first moved to Russia in 2006, after the Fifa World Cup in Germany where the Australian national team had performed well under his guidance. Moscow then offered him a much more lucrative contract to coach the Russian national team.

He became a national hero after

the 2008 European Championship, where Russia reached the semifinals for the first time. However, things turned sour for the Dutch coach as Russia failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup. Nevertheless, the Anzhi bosses offered him a contract, but last month the Dutchman quit.

Sponsored by the gas giant Gazprom, St Petersburg’s Zenit spent €100 million in just one day on the Brazilian striker Givanildo Vieira de Souza (better known as the Hulk) and the Belgian midfielder Axel Thomas Witsel.

It is believed that the Hulk was paid a bonus of €10 million just to sign with Zenit, and that his salary amounts to €5 million to €7 million a year. Hulk’s

€60 million fee set a transfer record for Russian football. Billionaire Suleyman Kerimov purchased little-known Makhachkala-based FC Anzhi, and he has invested millions of euros in buying star players. He had the football world buzzing by bringing in Spaniard Roberto Carlos da Silva Rocha, first as the team’s captain and then as its caretaker coach, and Cameroonian striker

Samuel Eto’o, who cost £28 million to sign and, reportedly, a further £20 million in annual wages. Last year, the club landed prized Dutch coach Guus Hiddink, who first moved to Russia in 2006.

Hiddink became a national hero in the aftermath of the 2008 European Championship, when Russia reached the semi-finals.

Anzhi’s bosses were keen on signing Hiddink. Speculation was rife that Hiddink demanded £10 million a season as head coach. However, the club, who had dreams of playing in the Champions League, stuttered to third place in the Russian Premier League. Nevertheless, Anzhi renewed Hiddink’s contract and upped his salary to €12 million a year. But Hiddink stepped down last month as the team had by that time scored only one point out of a possible six. Football in this country remains more of a toy for tycoons and major corporations than anything else.

Find news from Russia in your inbox!

3

MOST EXPENSIVE PLAYERS

1 2

Hulk (FC Zenit): €60 million.

The Brazilian striker was a star in Portugal, but then chose Russia.

Axel Witsel (FC Zenit): €40 million. Selling him for an astronomical sum helped Witsel’s previous club, RCS Anderlecht, solve their financial problems for years to come.

3

Willian Borges da Silva (FC Anzhi): €35 million. FC Shakhtar refused to let him go for anything less than the contract sum. Anzhi was the only bidder to meet the challenge.

24 September

rbth.asia/subscribe

Find out the frequencies in your area

SUBSCRIBE to top weekly news

english.ruvr.ru

NEXT issue