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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

SPECIAL REPORT

RUSSIA

BEYOND THE HEADLINES www.rbth.asia

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

For each majority politician, there is an opposition leader.

For each Siberian winter, there is a tropical Moscow summer.

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For each of you there is a Russia of your choice.

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Spotlight on ‘foreign agents’ The Duma sets legislative record > PAGES 4-5

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Passing the bills

Vicious cycle

Road to recovery

American cyclists take on the country’s tough terrain

Artistic director set to make a comeback after acid attack

> PAGE 12

> PAGE 14

PHOTOSHOT/VOSTOCK-PHOTO

Laws governing NGOs draw flak from rights campaigners PAGE 3

2 Tuesday, September 24, 2013

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES AIRLINES

CHINA

S7 to start HK route

Harbin gets creative

ROUND-UP

S

LORI/LEGION MEDIA

7 Airlines, a member of the oneworld alliance, will launch a new route between Hong Kong and Irkutsk on November 2.

Regular direct flights between the two cities will take off once a week, with departures from Irkutsk at 4.30am on Sundays, and from Hong Kong at 3.35pm on Saturdays.

The company will use Airbus A320 aircraft for this route, with a capacity for 158 passengers in economy class and business class. Tickets are already available for booking.

S7 already offers flights between Hong Kong and three Russian cities: Novosibirsk, Vladivostok and Khabarovsk.

China is one of the key foreign destinations for S7 Airlines.

S7 Airlines is one of the biggest Russian carriers and based in Novosibirsk.

The company also offers flights from Beijing to Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Yekaterinburg, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Omsk, Yakutsk and Ulan-Ude. To learn more about the new route and the company’s other services, or to book tickets, passengers in Hong Kong can call S7 Airlines 24 hours a day.

S7 Airlines offers regular flights to numerous destinations in the Commonwealth of Independent States, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific.

The company’s fleet of aircraft is one of the most advanced and one of the youngest in Russia. The fleet includes

54 Boeing and Airbus aircraft. S7 Airlines is a member of the oneworld global alliance, which includes carriers such as airberlin, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Royal Jordanian and about 30 affiliated airlines.

CULTURAL CONTACTS

NATURAL DISASTER

Strategy for building ties

Flood of trouble

OIL & GAS

REUTERS

The Russian Ministry of Culture hopes to expand direct contacts with China.

On September 11, the Russian Ministry of Culture hosted a meeting, preparing the upcoming Russian-Chinese

PRESS PHOTO

The Ministry of Culture hopes to develop close contacts with China.

cultural forum to be held in November in St Petersburg. The chairwoman of the organisational committee, Deputy Culture Minister Alla Manilova, says the priority is to “discuss with our Chinese colleagues the prospects for pursuing direct contacts. Such contacts [will result in building a] solid foundation for our future relations.”

The head of the Culture Ministry’s department for cinematography, Vyacheslav Telnov, reiterated the need for co-operation with China. “We need to set up educational filmmaking schools. We have had some Chinese students studying at the Institute of Cinematography in Moscow, but there are no Russian students studying at similar schools in China,” Telnov says.

Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province, is called the most Russian city in China for a very good reason and not just because it was founded 115 years ago by Russian engineer Adam Shidlovskiy.

One of the shops in the city’s Central Street uses a large photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin as an advertisment. The smiling president graces the main shop sign at the entrance, visible to every passer-by.

Attracted by the image of their president, Russian journalists decided to have a look inside.

The shop owners seemed very happy with their creative solution. It turns out that the sign on the Putin poster is an advert for Russian chocolate.

For China’s population, Putin is the best symbol of Russia.

It does not matter what exactly is being sold; the poster is a success in itself.

The reverse of the poster displays a picture of the late Leo Tolstoy, who is famous for his novel War and Peace.

The shop’s shelves are crammed with Russian chocolate.

The most recognised brand is Alenka; the Chinese seem to like the cute little girl on the package.

Almost all the sweet shops in Central Street, which is also known as Russian Street, have lots of Russian chocolate bars on display.

10b US$

The floods this year in Russia’s far east were the most severe in history.

Pictured is the underwater football stadium in Khabarovsk.

Chinese oil and gas company Petrochina is looking to invest US$10 billion to develop natural gas deposits in eastern Siberia, according to reports.

The field is controlled by Gazprom and Rosneft. A Petrochina representative says that “Petrochina is ready to co-operate with the Russian oil companies, and hopes to be able to invest in oil and gas exploration and production”.

For the past 10 years, Moscow and Beijing have been discussing a deal to export 68 billion cubic metres of natural gas to China every year.

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Tuesday, September 24, 2013 3

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

New rules draw fire Laws on NGOs are an ‘attack on civil liberties’, writes Yaroslava Kiryukhina

AFP/EASTNEWS

A

series of amendments to laws governing NGOs in Russia are aimed at keeping “foreign agents honest”, say supporters. But critics say they impinge on civil liberties and are undemocratic.

The amended laws were passed by the state Duma last November and included: On Public Associations, 1995; On Non-commercial Organisations, 1996; and On Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism, 2002.

The new rules require foreign-funded NGOs engaged in political activity in Russia to register as “foreign agents”, with the Justice Ministry. Failure to do so could result in fines of up to US$16,000 for organisations and US$11,000 for individuals, and up to two years imprisonment for NGO staff.

“The bill doesn’t ban foreign financing, it just calls for honesty,” says United Russia Deputy Irina Yarovaya, a vocal supporter of the bill.

“We would say our name introducing ourselves to others; NGOs should do the same.”

Human Rights Watch says Russia is using the legislation to “curtail a broad range of work” undertaken by NGOs. “It’s a crazy law,” says Lyudmila Alexeyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group. “It’s an attack on civil society and democracy. They want to make us look like traitors in the eyes of our own citizens.”

The government has maintained that the legislation is necessary to prevent foreign “meddling” in Russian politics and to ensure the transparency of NGO activities in Russia.

The amendments were passed by the state Duma with 374 deputies supporting them, three opposing and one abstaining. The laws are not supposed to affect NGOs working in the areas of religion, science, culture, art or social work.

Instead, they are directed at foreign organisations seeking to influence

A protestor claims that the regulations governing NGOs are the path to a fascist state.

LEGISLATION public opinion and government decision making.

NGOs who meet the criteria for a “foreign agent” must also disclose on any material they distribute that they are “foreign agents”. They also need to periodically inform the authorities of

their activities and finances. The Russian government says the amended laws are modelled on the United States Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) 1938. One of the authors of the bill, Deputy Alexander Sidyakin from the ruling party United Russia, stresses that the amendments allow for better public scrutiny of the activities of those NGOs who qualify as “foreign agents”.

Human rights campaigners say that the term “political activity” is being interpreted broadly and has even come to include organisations involved in wildlife preservation and those working to counter discrimination against gays.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that 650 Russian NGOs received about US$1 billion in foreign funding this year alone. Details have not been released. Putin’s remarks fol-

lowed a nationwide inspection of hundreds of NGOs that began in March.

According to estimates, up to 2,000 organisations have been checked by officials, although only about 1 per cent of them (22) were classified as “foreign agents”. Several groups, including Russian branches of Human Rights Watch and Transparency International, filed complaints, saying that the state prosecutors’ actions were illegal.

These groups are now waiting for their complaints to be heard.

An environmental group working to protect cranes and storks in Siberia was also among those labelled a “foreign agent”.

The first organisation fined for noncompliance was Russia’s only independent election-monitoring organisation, the Golos Association. It was forced to pay about US$10,000.

Public support grows for restrictions Gleb Fedorov Half of Russians support a proposed new bill, dubbed “the law on foreign agents”, which imposes tighter restrictions on NGOs, according to latest opinion polls.

Some 14 per cent of Russians support the proposed amendments, with another 35 per cent generally in favour of them, according to a survey by Levada Centre, released in July. Only 20 per cent of those polled said they op-

posed the crackdown, while 30 per cent were undecided. Still, public support for tighter restrictions on NGOs does not mean that Russians are opposed to NGOs as such. Some 51 per cent of those polled said their assessment of the work of NGOs was generally positive, and only 19 per cent gave a negative assessment.

The overall image of NGOs has declined sharply in Russia over the past year following the adoption of the new law. Last year, only 13 per cent of Russians were negative about NGOs and

15 per cent believed that NGOs were involved in politics. But many Russians believe that NGOs bring real benefits.

They say these organisations focus on charity work (35 per cent of those polled), social problems (31 per cent) and rights activism (20 per cent).

At the same time, it is clear that Russians do not have enough information about NGOs. Only 16 per cent of those polled were clear as to what the term NGO actually means; 52 per cent said they had a general idea; 29 per cent knew nothing about them; and 4 per

cent failed to answer. “A propaganda campaign on television has clearly played a role in the growing negative attitudes to NGOs,” says Aleksey Grazhdankin, deputy head of Levada Centre. “But the actual effects of the campaign have not been that strong because, for most Russians, NGOs remain a rather abstract idea.

“Muscovites tend to know more about their work and they have more positive attitudes to NGOs. In rural areas, people have less information, and their attitudes are more negative.”

4 Tuesday, September 24, 2013

ITAR-TASS

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

AFP/EASTNEWS

PHOTOSHOT/VOSTOCK-PHOTO

Parliament has gone ‘berserk’

Lawmakers have passed deeply flawed legislation, critics say.

Duma passes a record number of laws before the summer recess, writes Aleksandr Kolesnichenko

T

he lower chamber of Russia’s parliament, the Duma, set a new record before this year’s summer recess by passing as many as 261 new bills. Some of them have caused a stir – including the laws banning the spreading of information about homosexuality to minors, making it a criminal offence to insult religious feelings, sharp increases in fines for traffic violations and disbanding the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Critics have dubbed the Russian parliament “a jet printer gone berserk”, and experts insist that many of the bills are deeply flawed. Meanwhile, the Duma’s recent attempt to declare an amnesty for economic crimes has been an utter failure.

The idea was to release 110,000 to 120,000 entrepreneurs jailed for various business shenanigans – but the final version of the bill was so watered down that a mere 300 people will taste early freedom.

The Russian parliament consists of the lower chamber (the Duma) and the upper chamber (the Federation Council). Bills adopted by the Duma are subject to the Federation Council’s vetting. The Duma has 450 members representing various political parties that are elected using a proportional representation system. The Federation Council has two members from each of the 83 Russian provinces.

Once the bill is adopted by the Duma and approved by the Federation Council, it is submitted to the president for signing.

The president can either sign or exercise his right to veto the bill. Once the president has signed the bill, it becomes law immediately after publication in the government’s daily, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, unless the bill itself specifies another date.

As of early this month, there were 1,704 bills awaiting their turn for the Duma hearing; 836 of them were introduced by Duma members, followed by regional legislatures (455 bills); Federation Council members (183); the cabinet (181); the president (34); and the Supreme Court and the High Court of Arbitration (15 bills between the two of them).

There were no bills awaiting a Duma hearing from the Constitutional Court.

During the spring of this year’s parliamentary session, which lasted from January to July, the Duma heard a record 639 bills.

Of these, 261 were approved. That is fewer than the 338 bills approved during the whole of last year, but more than the second convocation of the Duma, elected in 1995 and dissolved in 1999, had approved during the entire four years of its existence (223).

The bills approved this year include such high-profile ones as the ban on information of homosexuality to mi-

POLITICS

Laws of the land

nors and on adoption of children by homosexual couples; criminal responsibility for defiling religious sites and damaging religious texts; and a huge increase in fines for traffic violations.

The largest fine has increased from 5,000 roubles (HK$1,160) to 50,000 roubles. The Duma has also decided that media outlets can be shut down for publishing swear words.

They banned smoking on staircases in apartment blocks and made it compulsory for websites to take down pirated audio and video material.

“The highlight of the spring session of the Russian Duma was an ostentatious crusade for morality in an effort to distract the public’s attention from

oppressive new laws,” argues Pavel Salin, head of the Centre for Political Studies.

“The government now wants to see how the public will react in order to decide whether to risk any new crackdown measures.” Andrey Piontkovskiy, a political analyst, has scathingly described the Duma as “a jet printer gone berserk”. What are the chances of a bill being approved once it has been introduced to the Duma?

That depends to a large degree on who introduced it. The majority in the Duma, 238 seats out of 450, or 53 per cent, is now held by the pro-Vladimir Putin United Russia party.

The Duma, therefore, invariably approves all the bills submitted by President Putin. It also backs most of the bills drafted by the Cabinet. But it rejects more than 90 per cent of the bills proposed by its own members, Federation Council members and regional legislatures.

Mark Urnov, lead researcher at the Applied Political Sciences department of the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, says that law-making has become the prerogative of the Russian cabinet and the President’s office.

“That is where everything is decided even before the proposed bill reaches parliament,” he says. “That is also where all the lobbying is done in Russia.”

Tuesday, September 24, 2013 5

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Laying down the law The cultural and ethnic make-up of the provinces make governing a complex task, writes Lyudmila Nazdracheva

ITAR-TASS

W

Lawmakers from Russia’s 83 provinces often draw up legislation based on ethnic and cultural needs of their constituencies.

PHOTOSHOT/VOSTOCK-PHOTO

hen Russia recently banned giving out information on homosexuality to minors, it caused a major outcry inside and outside the country. What few people outside Russia realised, though, was that the government was following a move taken 18 months previously by lawmakers in the northern capital of St Petersburg.

The regional law was passed by the St Petersburg legislature and signed by the city mayor, a year and a half before Russian President Vladimir Putin put his signature to a national bill banning the promotion of homosexuality.

Not all regional laws are eventually adopted by the central government, but the scenario highlights the legislative tolerance that exists between Moscow and the lawmakers of Russia’s 83 provinces, who often implement their own laws based on the ethnic and cultural needs of their constituencies.

The key compromise made by provincial legislatures is that their laws do not conflict with Russian national laws passed by parliament in Moscow.

“Regional bylaws in Russia differ only in small details, without the large variations that are characteristic of the US system,” says Dmitry Sandakov, a political analyst and former member of the Astrakhan city legislature.

“Even if you come to an ethnic autonomous republic, such as Chechnya, you will not find any local bylaws that go beyond the basic framework of the Russian national legislation. That is mostly because the only real difference between these ethnic autonomous provinces and all the other Russian provinces is that they can introduce their own ethnic language as a second official language in addition to Russian.

But their day-to-day lives are mostly governed by the laws inherited from their ancestors.”

Each Russian province has its own legislature and governor, who have the power to formulate and implement local bylaws. Members of the regional legislatures adopt these bills after three separate hearings, and the governors then sign them into bylaws, which apply only in the relevant province.

The Russian Federation’s 83 provinces are diverse in their ethnic makeup and historical backgrounds. These territories were inherited by Russia from the former Soviet Union along with their distinctive administrative set-ups. The

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev attends a party summit in Yakutia.

The former Soviet Union was, after all, an empire without an emperor former Soviet Union, after all, was essentially an empire without an emperor. “The Russian provinces are all very different,” says Vladimir Kaganskiy of the Institute of Geography in Moscow.

“This creates a lot of difficulties in terms of governance. Governing such a country requires lots of different levers and different strategies.

“In terms of the structure of its territory, modern Russia is essentially an empire. It has a distinct central part, surrounded by a large periphery.”

The finances of the Russian prov-

inces are regulated from Moscow. This is why Russia has always had donor regions and recipient regions; the latter only survive thanks to continuous remittances from Moscow. Last year, only 11 Russian provinces were in the donor category. The figure has since shrunk to 10. In 2007, there were 19.

Experts say the existing system, in which many regions have become recipients of subsidies, is the result of budget reforms that took place in 2004 and 2005. The list of the most financially sound Russian provinces has always included Tatarstan, the cities of Moscow and St Petersburg, Leningrad, Sakhalin, Samara, the Tyumen regions and the Nenetskiy, Khanty-Mansi and YamaloNenetskiy autonomous districts.

“Every large company wants to have its registration address in Moscow,” says Dmitry Oreshkin, a political scientist.

“New companies also want to set up shop in Moscow or St Petersburg, so big Russian businesses pay their taxes in these two cities.”

6 Tuesday, September 24, 2013

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Corruption is common in both countries, but Russians still flock to China, writes Ekaterina Drobinina

I

t’s not easy opening a business in China but, for some Russians, it’s still worth it.

In the 10 years to 2012, the number of foreign-funded enterprises on the mainland rose by almost 70 per cent to 437,000, according to the Chinese State Administration for Industry and Commerce. Among these is a cafe opened by Russian chef Taras Gruzhevskiy. He came to China in the early 2000s after his sister had moved to the country to study Chinese. “I have dreamed of opening my own cafe since I was a child,” he says. “So, when my sister called me to come to China, I packed my stuff and went to Dalian [in Liaoning province].

“Looking back, I would say that setting up business in China is relatively easy.”

Despite Gruzhevskiy’s move to China, a World Bank report says it is easier to open a company in Russia, which it also viewed as a more attrac-

COMMERCE tive market for a business to thrive. According to the Doing Business report, compiled by the Word Bank, China is ranked 91 out of 185 countries. Russia is 112. However, in terms of starting a new business, Russia is viewed as a more attractive place, with a ranking of 101 while China is 151.

It takes less time to open a business in Russia than in China, where setting

ALAMY/LEGION MEDIA

Business as usual despite hurdles China is an easier place to do business than Russia, according to a report. up a company takes twice as long. So, many entrepreneurs hire service agencies to complete the formalities. “But these people will not do everything for you. They will deal with paperwork, but will not look for the premises, and will not correct your mistakes,” says Gruzhevskiy, who owns a candy shop in Dalian.

Overseas experts say that the tough entry regulations do not raise the quality of the products or make you feel safer.

Ironically, the rules fuel corruption.

Doing business in a shady environment would be familiar to many Russian entrepreneurs.

“In Russia, corruption has become an integrated part of the business, no matter what size it is,” says Alexander Maltsev, a consultant for Russian internet companies seeking to enter the Chinese market.

“But in China giving bribes may be more typical for big businesses. In large cities, such as Beijing or Shanghai, a

According to the Word Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ report, China is ranked 91 out of 185 countries foreigner will hardly see any corruption at all. No one will ask him for a bribe and nobody will accept it from him either.” This year, President Xi Jinping pledged to “resolutely fight against corruption and other misconduct”.

Indeed, cases of suspected corruption at high levels have made headlines in the media. Some of those found guilty have been executed. Maltsev recounts a popular joke: “The new road costs the government a few million yuan and a couple of executed mayors.” According

to Gruzhevskiy, the level of corruption in China is “enormous”. In the 2012 Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International Organisation, China is ranked 80 out of 176 countries, while Russia is ranked 133.

In the survey conducted by Transparency International, more than a third of respondents say the measures taken by the government to fight corruption are efficient.

However, almost the same number of people say they are inefficient.

However, when compared with Russia, some things are simply never open to bribery, Gruzhevskiy says.

For example, opening a restaurant is one of the most challenging businesses to start in Russia, because of frequent visits by fire and sanitary inspectors. Without their approval the business will not be able to operate.

However, instead of solving the problem, many businessmen would rather pay bribes.

Moscow eyes investment in the far east Neil MacKinnon, Global Macro Strategist at VTB Capital Moscow is planning to invest no less than 100 billion roubles (HK$23.3 billion) annually in Asia’s far east.

According to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the priorities will be to invest in mining, timber and shipbuilding industries.

The government’s clear intentions, combined with strong underlying fundamentals for Asian economies, make the region a highly important market

for Russian companies and investors.

For VTB Capital, Russia continues to strengthen its presence with high-profile hires that have now extended to the Indian and Indonesian markets.

Increasing investment in Asia has been widely discussed in the Kremlin in recent years.

In 2011, the government established a new fund to look at the development of the region and recently selected 20 new investment projects.

They include railway construction in the Jewish Autonomous Republic, the

development of electricity supplies for iron ore, titanium, coal and other mines, road building and airport infrastructure development.

The government hopes the private sector investment will be willing to complement the fund’s budget of 15.5 billion roubles.

However, with relatively weak returns available on infrastructure investment projects, many experts question whether this will occur.

In 2009, the construction of the Bolshoy Kamen dockyard was initiated

with the help of Korean and Chinese companies.

The project is now being led solely by the United Shipbuilding Company.

The port’s development was strongly supported by Russian energy giants – Gazprom and Rosneft.

The latter had committed to investing up to 1 trillion roubles in the far east within the next five years if the government reduces the tax burden for the oil industry.

This year, the company will invest US$830 million in exploration and pro-

duction, while US$705 million will be used for refinery purposes.

Rosneft has already announced its plans to build an oil refinery and a LNG plant in Sakhalin. The only LNG facility that is now operating in Russia was built by Gazprom, Shell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi. Gazprom also wants to build a second plant in Vladivostok.

Russian exports to China have been growing, helped by the construction of new infrastructure in a process that is set to escalate under current investment plans.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013 7

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Marriage of cultures Chinese and Russian couples are dismantling stereotypes, writes Artem Zhdanov

‘I

THE NUMBERS

10,731 SOCIETY For his part, Qin says that Russian girls are more understanding, are good at housework, support their men, do not only look for rich partners, and are ready to overcome difficulties together.

Zheng Yujun is married to a Russian woman and says that they are different from Chinese girls.

“Women in China are too pragmatic.

True love does not exist for them ... money is more important to them,” he says. However, not all men want to have a Russian bride. “I am not sure if I would want a Russian woman for a wife,” says Yang Shibo, who spent a year studying in Russia. “Chinese women, although more impulsive, are often better brought-up and do not have bad habits. When I was staying in Barnaul, I liked one Russian girl, but I did not risk starting a relationship with her. I thought that my wife should be Chinese. But now that I am back here, I sometimes think of going back and trying my luck with that Russian girl after all.”

While Chinese men look for Russian wives, women in China have developed a taste for foreign husbands as well.

However, according to a Beijing dating agency, men from Russia are not in great demand as Chinese women are more interested in men from the United States and Europe. This is partly due to stereotypes, that men in Russia drink a lot and beat their wives. However, there are Chinese women who feel this is just a myth.

Chen Xingyan, 29, has been living in Kazan since 2006, having married a Russian man four years ago. “There are many stereotypes among the Chinese about Russian men and, unfortunately, almost all are unfavourable,” she says. “For example, that Russian men drink vodka all the time, are unfaithful to their wives and so on. In fact, there are many responsible and decent men in Russia.”

There are no legal barriers for Russian and Chinese nationals to marry each other. For a Chinese national to get married in Russia, they must be over 18 years old, present a letter, verified at the Chinese consulate, that they are not married in China, and have a valid passport with a Russian visa. For a marriage to take place in China, the requirements are about the same.

Marriages between Russians and foreigners in Moscow in 2011 (the last available figures). In 2002, there were only 7,382 such unions.

244

From 2002 to 2011, only 244 marriages, out of 100,000 between Russians and foreigners, were between Russians and Chinese citizens.

35,774

Marriages between Russians and Ukrainians in Moscow during the same period. Second was Moldova (9,784), with Armenia third (8,593).

Chinese women, even after 40 years of marriage, often remain very closed and not particularly sincere WEI YINTANG

There are not many mixed marriages, but Chinese and Russians are gradually breaking down barriers.

PRESS PHOTO

like Russian women for their openness, for not being shy to show their feelings. Chinese women, even after 40 years of marriage, often remain very closed and are not particularly sincere.”

This is according to Wei Yintang, who turned 80 this year. He was born in Harbin but, since 1991, has mainly lived in Vladivostok. He has been a Russian citizen for more than 10 years, and has been married to a Russian woman for 15 years.

This is his second marriage. His first wife died, and he has three sons and a daughter from the first marriage. His children live in China.

When he decided to remarry, his children supported him, but his Chinese friends were not too keen for him to marry a foreigner. They got married in China, but live in Russia because Wei has a business in Russia and his wife has a flat there. Also, his wife does not speak Chinese.

Despite active co-operation between the two countries and their close proximity, there has been no significant increase in the number of Russian-Chinese marriages. Even in border areas, mixed marriages are more of a rarity than the norm. According to the Maritime Territory registry office, in 2009, there were 14 Russian-Chinese weddings in the region; in 2010, 13; and in 2011, just 10.

In Harbin, which is considered to be China’s most “Russian” city and where at the start of the last century there were tens of thousands Russian migrants, there are now hardly more than 200 Russian-Chinese mixed families.

Usually, in these families the husband is Chinese, and the wife is Russian. This is partly owing to demographic factors: in Russia, like in most of the world, there are more women than men, whereas in China the situation is the opposite and men greatly outnumber women.

But there are other reasons that prompt Chinese men to look for their other half among Russian women.

Firstly, it is considered prestigious; secondly, the one-child policy in China does not apply to mixed marriages; and thirdly, it gives Chinese the opportunity to earn Russian citizenship.

Many people also believe that Russian girls marry Chinese men for their money and because they want to move to China. In reality, it is more likely an emotional connection.

Yekaterina Komova, 28, and Qin Jianping, 25, have been living together for nearly two years. They live and work in Beijing. Yekaterina works at a news agency, while her partner is a musician.

She says: “Chinese men are great at fixing things around the house, they care about their family, they treat their wives with respect and as their equals. They make things far more interesting, and one can learn a lot about the language and culture of another country.

Only a small percentage of women wants to marry Putin A poll reveals that 20 per cent of Russian women would like to be President Vladimir Putin’s new wife.

Putin divorced his wife Lyudmila after nearly 30 years of marriage in the summer.

However, 66 per cent of respondents said they would not marry the president.

Twenty-five per cent of women, aged 25-39, with high school education; 24 per cent of low-income women; and 22 per cent of vil-

lage women said they would agree to marry Putin. Least likely to be Putin’s wife were well-off women (86 per cent), those living in small towns (71 per cent) and those aged 55 and older (70 per cent).

Meanwhile, Russians, particularly over the past century, have exhibited a more relaxed attitude towards divorce in general.

Although not practised officially, divorce was common among Russian rulers of the past.

In 1697, Peter the Great remar-

ried after sending his wife to a nunnery in 1697 – the de facto equivalent of divorce at the time.

During the Romanov dynasty, Tsar Alexander II left his wife to start a family with another woman.

The close relationship of equals between the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, was often ridiculed by the Soviet public.

At the time, many women felt uneasy about such a high-profile role for a leader’s spouse.

8 Tuesday, September 24, 2013

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Youthful hipsters in last hurrah

PRESS PHOTO

television show in the last 50 years and someone who has never seen a TV set.

As mad as it seems, it was bound to catch on – and it did.

In Russia, the term stilyagi was used in the Soviet era, particularly in the 1950s, to describe – often in derogatory terms – a youth subculture obsessed with fashion and modern music, especially jazz.

Half a century later, the Russian hipster was born. Is the Russian hipster a copy

She will be listening to early Grizzly Bear and he will be looking like early Grizzly Adams. The hipster appears, in other words, to be somewhere between a person who has watched every television show in the past 50 years and someone who has never seen a TV set DR CHRIS FLEMING SENIOR LECTURER IN HUMANITIES AND COMMUNICATION ARTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN SYDNEY

© RIA NOVOSTI

SOCIETY

or only a cousin of the creature we find in the West? Or is he or she no relation at all, except perhaps by name?

In the late 1980s, some economists and social theorists became enamoured with the term “glocalisation” – an ugly portmanteau of “globalisation” and “localisation”. It referred to the way in which regional cultures domesticate and change global trends. As awkward as the term is, it’s probably the right one to use here. Russian hipsters are undoubtedly half-turned towards the West, although it would be a mistake to see them simply as extensions or dupes of some Western cultural empire.

Not yet embarrassed by the gaudiness of the big brands, the Russian hipster is far more likely to visit Starbucks than his or her Western counterpart. It is not that the Western hipster rejects consumption per se. Indeed, as part of Generation Beard, the only consumption the Western hipster male consistently rejects is the razor blade. It is rather that he or she is more sensitive about the relationship of branding to culture, especially mass culture.

For the Western hipster, Starbucks is to be refused because it exemplifies both corporate capitalism and plebeianism – the gauche neon-lit strip mall of coffee. Russian hipsters are a segment of Russia’s first post-Soviet generation who have grown up with capitalism and have not inherited the esoteric regimes of brand differentiation so dear to their Western counterparts. Presumably, this will come.

Discussing hipsters, Yuri Saprykin, former editorial director at Russia’s ubercool entertainment magazine and website Afisha, says he first came across the word “hipster” in the Russian media in 2003. At first, it pointed to a fashion style that differed little from what might be seen anywhere else in the world. Within a couple of years, however, it also became a derogatory term.

This was the case not just for elements of the media but for hipsters themselves, some of whom had become visible through participation in public demonstrations and actions in support of oppositional figures, including recently convicted blogger Alexei Navalny.

Segments of the Russian media argued that what was at work here was not po-

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I

n 2000, American journalist David Brooks argued that, in the United States at least, it had become very difficult to distinguish between members of the counterculture and the establishment.

Whereas the bohemians used to have dreadlocks and go to arty cafes, and the establishment wore grey and went to church, it seemed like everyone saw themselves as belonging to the counterculture. Bankers and software developers were just as likely to have tattoos and quote Jack Kerouac as anyone else. Ideology, if it still existed at all, no longer wore uniforms.

The change that Brooks identified happened at the same time as the re-emergence of the hipster. Although the word “hip” emerged early in the 20th century, the suffix was only added in 1940s. The term “hipster” applied to mostly white, middle-class youths who attached themselves to the jazz scene.

The 1950s saw a transition in the hipster – or at least the meaning of the word – when they became associated with a sort of drug-fuelled nomadism, typified by writers such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsburg.

And then, suddenly, nothing. Hipsters were put into something like cryogenic storage only to re-emerge in the 1990s, where they assumed an aesthetic form somewhat akin to a mix-tape. Hipsters, in their most recent incarnation, parade a metonymic mish-mash of influence.

They exert enormous effort to combine almost every countercultural movement of the 20th century into a single style, sometimes a single outfit.

The hipster represents time-space compression at its most radical. He or she has stolen Sylvia Plath’s cardigan, is crowned with a Beatles mop-top and parades a 1970s cop-show moustache beneath Bob Dylan’s Wayfarer sunglasses.

Alternatively, the hipster appears in your grandma’s jumper and a Palestinian keffiyeh. He or she will be taking a selfie on an iPhone, smoking Gitanes and stuffing a biography of Che Guevara into a kitsch, gender-neutral Sesame Street handbag. She will be listening to early Grizzly Bear and he will be looking like early Grizzly Adams.

The hipster appears to be somewhere between a person who has watched every

© RIA NOVOSTI

A subculture has evolved into a trend which has no coherent political voice, writes Chris Fleming

litical commitment but the decadent actions of impulsive fashionistas, engaging in political rallies for no other reason than it was cool. More seriously, for some, hipsters were the incarnation of that dreaded figure – the demshiza: people who on their way to liberal democracy had somehow utterly lost their minds.

But if “hipster” had come to be a term of abuse or ridicule in the minds of some Russian journalists, it had become even less acceptable in the minds of hipsters

themselves. And here, Russia and the West find common ground. The name “hipster” is now invariably applied to someone else, usually as a pejorative.

In a recent New Yorker blog, Teju Cole defined “hipster” as a person “who has an irrational hatred of hipsters”. The use of the word has come to indicate someone else – those people over there who think they are cool rather than actually being cool, like me. There are few things more hipster than being antihipster.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

9

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Gorky Park gets new lease of life after major change Irina Kuropatkina

PHOTOSHOT/VOSTOCK-PHOTO

The best place to meet a Russian hipster offline is Gorky Park. Since 2011, this has been one of the most popular venues in Moscow.

Before 2011, the park was a drab spot on the map of the Russian capital; young people preferred to spend their time elsewhere, mostly in crowded clubs.

But after the arrival of the new director, Sergey Kapkov, the park launched a massive programme of improvements.

More than 100 old and decrepit rides were dismantled, new pathways were laid, the ponds were dredged and stocked with fish, and new lawns and trees were planted to give the old park a new lease of life.

Entrance is now free, and much of the territory is covered by a free Wi-fi network.

The park also offers free yoga lessons. It has an open-sky cinema, miles of bike tracks, and various lectures and master classes every day. There is a museum of modern art in Gorky Park, Europe’s largest skating rink in © RIA NOVOSTI

winter time, and an observatory. In other words, if young people are looking for large gatherings in Moscow, the best place to look is Gorky Park, where there are lots of pleasant outdoor spaces, and various entertainment on offer.

Another venue that has been given a new lease of life after a refurbishment project is the Strelka Institute of Media, Architecture and Design in central Moscow, across the river from the Kremlin.

This not-for-profit educational institution was conceived and launched in 2009 as an alternative to traditional universities.

It offers post-graduates additional courses focusing on the theory and practice of urban development – and of changing the world, of course.

Apart from courses for its own students, Strelka also offers open lectures to members of the public.

It also serves as a venue for movie screenings, and has a bar where patrons

Being hip

can engage in intellectual debates. Russian hipsters are not satisfied with merely being contemporary - they want to live in the future. The places where they congregate must serve as lecture halls, offices, galleries and showrooms during daytime, and as cinemas, bars and clubs during the night.

These places encompass entire worlds where people who like to be on the cutting edge can spend days on end, sometimes forgetting the way home.

Such hot spots on the map of Moscow also include the Solyanka nightclub, a symbol of initiation into the hipster culture; Arma17, Moscow’s main techno-club that has made it into the list of the world’s best clubs on three separate occasions; Rodnya, which is part of the ARTPlay Design Center; and Gipsy, a terrace situated near Strelka on Red October, which automatically makes it the preferred place of the fashionable young elite.

Magazine spreads gospel Irina Kuropatkina

The word hipster at first pointed to a fashion style. However, it later evolved into a derogatory term, often criticised by the media.

NATALIA MIKHAYLENKO

Is the Russian hipster a copy or only a cousin of the creature we find in the West?

Afisha magazine is Russia’s hipster bible. In 2008, its then-editorial director Yuri Saprykin used the term “hipster” to describe the people who attended The Afisha Picnic – an annual one-day music festival that attracts about 50,000 people and which is the highlight of the hipster summer calendar in Moscow.

Though the term is common in the West, Saprykin was arguably responsible for bringing it into the mainstream. Five years on, Afisha leads national commentary on developments in cinema, music, literature, art and fashion in Russia.

It publishes three versions fortnightly, one for Moscow, one for St Peters-

burg and another for the other 16 largest cities in Russia. The Afisha website, which has more than 2.7 million visitors a month, is popular because of its huge database of cultural events.

Launched in 2007, the website LookAtMe.ru has also been influential in Russia’s hipster movement. Initially, it covered music, cinema and fashion, but now has shifted its focus towards modern art, science and technology, with the branding: “Experience, Future, Industry, Inspiration”.

The website loooch.com is also popular with hipsters. The people behind it, Ukrainian art critic Anatoliy Ulyanov and photographer Natalya Masharova, say their mission is to enlighten, and their website says its goal is to “liberate thoughts and feelings from conservative captivity”.

10 Tuesday, September 24, 2013

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Force for moderation S ince the very first days of his leadership, Russian President Vladimir Putin has tried to “normalise” relations between Russia and the West. However, for all his efforts, these relations remain fraught.

Putin’s definition of normality was straightforward: that Russia would no longer be treated as a special case, but as another sovereign and independent country. To this end, he wasted little time in paying off the bulk of sovereign debt and ended various dependencies that had built up in the 1990s, such as reliance on the IMF. At the same time, he accelerated the integration dynamics that had languished in the Boris Yeltsin years. This included closer relations with the European Union and, after 9/11, an attempt to create a partnership of equals with the United States.

However, it soon became clear that this “normalisation” strategy was simply not working. Russia was unable to become just another great power.

The political demands placed on Russia were high. This was partly because it accepted these demands, from 1991 onwards, as key to becoming an independent nation and also because of its self-identification as a European state and a core member of the international community of nations.

The systemic and identity contradictions that remain unresolved in Russia mean that these “abnormal” features will remain in its relations with the Western world for the foreseeable future. The threats of boycotts by Western powers and activists only exacerbate the contradictions of the Russian political landscape, rather than resolving them.

OPINION Russia’s acceptance into the transatlantic community was problematic from the beginning, hence the late former president Yeltsin’s talk of a “cold peace” as early as December 1994. One of the features of this cold peace was poor communication. Countries do not normally talk to each other this way, and it is humiliating for all parties that the situation has deteriorated to this level.

These communication dynamics are a measure of how far there is to go until normal relations are established.

It is time for a more mature relationship to be established on both sides. For the West, despite much talk about Russia’s relative marginality and insignificance, a strong relationship with Russia is essential for strategic, economic and diplomatic reasons. Although plenty of American senators and activists seek to drag themselves out of obscurity by Russia bashing, this sort of politics is dangerous.

The tragedy in recent years is that the EU has not been able to develop its own voice, as one of the fundamental representatives of the Europe-

NATALIA MIKHAYLENKO

Richard Sakwa

an nations and as a mediator in transforming the transatlantic community. Its failure to challenge the mistakes of the US over a whole set of issues, including the war in Iraq, has undermined its credibility as a normative power.

Of course, this allows Russia to rise to the occasion, and instead of reinforcing the marginality that its opponents wish to impose on it, the country can intervene in a positive manner to help resolve some of the impasses of the West’s own making. Subservience, of the British variety, to American hegemony helps no one. Thus, Russia can reposition itself from a perceived troublemaker to problem-solver.

Barack Obama and Putin understand that there is no fundamental ideological divide between Russia and the West, hence talk of a new cold war is misplaced. Yet tensions do exist that foster an atmosphere of cold peace.

From Syria to NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, there is no end of issues on which Russia has its own views. Even though a whistle-blower is naturally not to Putin’s taste, Russia was right

to offer him asylum, if only for a year. Equally, Russia’s analysis of the Syrian crisis has been more accurate than that of the Western powers. The fundamental question is whether these are normal differences of opinion or indicate an incompatibility of strategic interests. There is little evidence of the latter. Even the West’s blunt attempts to foster the geopolitical disintegration of Eurasia cannot be taken as a reflection of a fundamental conflict. That is simply what the Western imperial powers have always done, and will continue to do until it can move to a genuine “post-modern” form of international politics.

The dressing up of traditional imperial ambitions in the garb advancing democratic governance convinces few. The main source of Russia’s influence today is to act as a moderating force in international politics. The West has tied itself into quite a few knots and Russia can act as the broker to end conflicts.

Richard Sakwa is a professor of Russian and European politics at the University of Kent.

Country is failing to tackle HIV head on Ivan Varentsov Russia’s HIV epidemic is one of its most pressing public-health problems, with a UNAIDS report saying eastern Europe and central Asia are the only regions in the world where the disease is spreading at an increasing rate.

The highest increases are in Russia, home to 70 per cent of all HIV-positive people in the region. Russia and the Ukraine combined account for 90 per cent of that total.

As of November last year 704,000 cases of HIV infections were registered by the Federal Aids Prevention and Treatment Centre. Estimates suggest the actual number of HIV-positive people in Rus-

sia may be at least twice as many. For more than a decade, intravenous drug use has been the main form of HIV transmission in Russia. This accounted for 57.6 per cent of all new infections last year.

However, since about 2002, the number of infections through sexual transmission has been increasing.

Gennadiy Onishchenko, head of the federal service on customers’ rights protection and wellbeing surveillance (Rospotrebnadzor), says more needs to be done to battle the disease.

“The majority of HIV infection prevention measures in the most vulnerable groups that were being successfully implemented in the previous years have practically been curtailed, and preventative measures among the general popula-

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tion and based exclusively on encouraging a healthy lifestyle have little effect on high-risk groups,” he says. Put simply, Russia doesn’t spend a single rouble to fund HIV-prevention programmes among drug-users. Previously, such programmes were financed by international organisations, most of which have now left Russia because of political trends.

Today, the campaigns to reduce the spread of HIV in Russia are mainly about encouraging a healthy lifestyle. However, these efforts are hampered by a general atmosphere of intolerance to drug-users.

Meanwhile, international accounts show the spread of HIV among drug users can be reduced through scientifically preventive programmes,

such as discouraging needle exchanges and using opioid replacement therapy (ORT).

ORT is successfully used in more than 60 countries. Methadone programmes are being implemented in all the CIS countries with the exception of Russia, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

In Russia, the use of methadone for medicinal purposes is banned and there are no opioid replacement therapy options available.

HIV testing is another problem because Russia spends huge amounts on tests, but these tests don’t focus on vulnerable groups such as drug users and gay men.

Ivan Varentsov is a well-known expert on public health from the Andrey Rylkov Foundation.

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Tuesday, September 24, 2013 11

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Crayfish keep water safe St Petersburg is using the Australian ‘yabby’ to protect supplies, writes Eddie Tsyrlin

T

SCIENCE Vodokanal in St Petersburg supplies potable water to 5 million people in Russia’s second-largest city. It uses crayfish in a bio-monitoring system that checks the River Neva’s water quality.

What’s more, the crayfish need to be resilient enough against the stress of living close to noisy water pumps and being handled by people, not to mention having an optical fibre permanently sticking out of their shell.

In order to make the yabbies comfortable in these unnatural conditions, Vodokanal set up its own yabby farm where their 10-legged co-workers are bred in conditions similar to their future workplace – a noisy environment surrounded by human activity.

This innovative technology, developed at the Research Centre of Ecological Safety at the Russian Academy of Science, has been successfully operating in St Petersburg and its satellite cities since 2005.

This kind of bio-monitoring isn’t unique, however. The behaviour of fish

LORI/LEGION MEDIA

Vodokanal has chosen the river crayfish as its ‘canary’ - one that protects the population

PHOTOSHOT/VOSTOCK-PHOTO

and snails has been analysed for similar purposes but the Russian innovation is the capacity to judge a small animal’s stress level by measuring its heartbeat.

The head of the Laboratory of Bioelectrical Methods for Ecological Monitoring, Sergei Kholodkevich, was behind the innovation: he invented and patented the method of using large and relatively long-living invertebrates to measure air and water quality. Apart from yabbies, he has also used giant African snails to monitor the air-quality coming out of sewage-plant incinerators.

© RIA NOVOSTI

PHOTOXPRESS (2)

he humble “yabby” crayfish, which usually ends up in a child’s aquarium or on Australian dinner plates served with a bottle of beer, is playing an important role as protector of St Petersburg’s water supply.

Water authorities in Russia’s secondlargest city are using the red-clawed crayfish that looks like a large shrimp as the “canaries” of its water system to ensure clean supplies to a population of more than 5 million.

Olga Rublevskaya, director of St Petersburg’s water supply agency Vodokanal, was once quoted as saying: “Live organisms won’t deceive anyone about the danger of pollution.”

In Australian cities, such as Sydney and Melbourne, potable water is drawn from well-protected dams and reservoirs. Many cities in Europe and Russia, however, rely heavily on multistep water-purification processes.

Even then, not all pathogens can be eliminated or detected quickly enough in time to ensure safe drinking water.

Indeed, detecting dangerous substances promptly and preventing them from entering the water supply is the first phase of any treatment process.

Physical and chemical analysis of water quality targets only looks at a limited set of parameters and it is a relatively slow process. This is where biological indicators come into play in early warning systems – similar to the old concept of taking canaries into coal mines.

Vodokanal has chosen the river crayfish as its “canary” – one that can protect the population from unforeseen water contaminants or even, potentially, terrorist acts.

The crayfish are exposed to water at the source, before it reaches the point of purification, and if they display stress (indicated by an increase in heartbeat) the water supply from the source is interrupted and a water sample is automatically taken for chemical and biological investigations.

To measure the yabbies’ heartbeats, optical fibre connected to recording equipment is attached to their hard outer shell. From there, the heart signal is recorded and digitised, much like a hospital ECG machine.

While Vodokanal uses Russian native crayfish during cold weather, in summer, when the water temperature rises above 21 degrees Celsius, heat-loving yabbies from Australia are enlisted to do the job.

To understand how the crayfish (and their heartbeat) behave in normal healthy conditions, the animals were first monitored in clean, pollution-free water. This monitoring led to two conclusions. The first, that only male yabbies in the three- to five-year-old agebracket are suitable. Female yabbies are more likely to have heartbeat fluctuations, particularly during breeding time.

Fluctuations in the crayfish heart rates are used to monitor the water for contaminants. When heartbeats increase, the water is checked.

12 Tuesday, September 24, 2013

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

It was a vicious cycle Levi Bridges writes about his amazing journey with his companion Ellery Althaus

ADVENTURE Cycling through two continents was an incredible experience for Americans Levi Bridges and Ellery Althaus. Bridges and Althaus are journalists and adventure travellers.

ALEXANDR KHITROV

dows on the road, smiling and waving as they passed. “Hello, my American friends!” a car full of young Russians yelled, as they slowed to our pace.

“Zdravstvuite. Hello,” I said, choking through the exhaust as we rode side by side. “Is this part of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi?” asked the driver, a young guy called Ivan. “No,” Ellery said. “Just adventure.”

Someone in the back thrust a pen and notebook out the window. “Can we please have your autograph?” he said.

After we stopped to sign their notebook, Ivan wrote his phone number for us.

“Call me if you need anything,” he said.

And that’s how it went. In cities and small towns across Russia, people often offered to help, they shared meals with us and offered to take us in for the night.

Wherever we went, we made new friends.

While cycling in Siberia, there are many things to worry about: freezing temperatures, poor roads, fearsome bears, Siberian tigers and drunk drivers.

Before we left, National Geographic writer Mark Jenkins, who cycled across Russia in 1989, told us to rethink our trip. The “Westerlies” – headwinds that blow west to east in northern latitudes – would be against us, he said. Riding against the wind was one more difficulty added to an arduous expedition.

The biggest challenge we faced, how-

LORI/LEGION MEDIA

Before starting our trip, we made business cards with our website that read ‘The Idiots’

LEVI BRIDGES

F

or years, I had dreamed about this moment. In those visions, I had imagined beginning the journey on a quiet beach with cool air filling my lungs.

Dreams, however, sometimes only partly come true.

Instead of quiet bliss, it was mayhem.

After seven years of planning, when Ellery and I arrived at a sandy beach near Sportivnaya Harbour, Vladivostok, a pack of Russian journalists pounced on us with questions, pushing microphones in our faces as we mustered replies with chattering teeth.

Through the crowd, we eased our bikes to the sea and dipped the rear tyres in the surf. We had planned to plunge our front tyres into the Atlantic Ocean eight months ago. The media snapped photos. Despite the crowd, I felt like this significant moment was still mine to enjoy – almost.

“Can you put that tyre in the water again?” a photographer yelled, choking the symbolism out of the event. “I want another shot.”

From the mountains outside Vladivostok that day, I took one last glance back at the sea. In front of us lay a journey of roughly 16,000km, across 11 time zones and two continents. We started riding.

Before starting our trip, Ellery and I had made business cards with our website that read “The Idiots”, a reference to Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Idiot – and the admission that cycling across Siberia requires a healthy dose of insanity.

But Russian people didn’t think we were idiots at all. The photographers filming us in Vladivostok filed reports that were beamed into television sets from Moscow to Magadan. The next morning, it seemed that everyone in Russia knew who we were. Car loads of well-wishing locals rolled down win-

We had planned to plunge our front tyres in the Atlantic Ocean eight months ago ever, was caused by vaccines. Western Siberian ticks can carry encephalitis.

So Ellery and I were vaccinated against it in Vladivostok and Khabarovsk.

The vaccination temporarily weakened our immune systems and, in a day’s ride from Khabarovsk, Ellery came down with food poisoning. He was sick for the rest of the trip.

At the time of our trip, the 1,295km length of the Russian federal highway – the main road which connects Vladivostok with Moscow – was unpaved.

On a road map, the dirt road section of the federal highway appeared as a sinuous red line connecting scant dots

representing small towns. It curved around the northern tip of China.

The dirt road was so bad, it often took us 10 hours just to ride 80km. We sometimes had to hitchhike back to nearby cities to see doctors when Ellery was sick. Despite the difficulties, we encountered natural beauty and varied cultures.

The dirt road section took us through the Stanovoy Khrebet Mountains. The road met pavement again outside the city of Chita, and we cycled into Buryatia. This led us through mountains peppered with Buddhist monasteries and ended at Baikal.

From Lake Baikal to Moscow, you start measuring distances in 1,500km chunks, one of which separated Baikal from the city of Krasnoyarsk and another the Siberian cities of Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg, where we battled the fierce headwinds we had been warned about.

On a horizontal plain west of Novosibirsk, Ellery and I pulled over to change our fourth flat tyre of the day

(about the 16th flat tyre of the trip). Ellery’s stomach gurgled with another onset of sickness.

In either direction, there wasn’t so much as a tree or fencepost. I bent over in the summer heat to change the flat, rubbing my 4,500km-sore rear end, when a carload of excited locals pulled over to meet the adventurers they had seen on TV. I tried to distract them from my companion, who was hunched in a nearby ditch, being sick.

Outside Yekaterinburg, we crossed the Ural Mountains and later stopped in Islamic Tatarstan’s capital Kazan.

In mid-September, we arrived in Moscow. Leaves had changed to crimson.

Winter would soon arrive. We cycled quickly, south towards Ukraine. Standing at the Ukrainian border, I glanced back at Russian hills and felt triumph and nostalgia. Ellery and I had accomplished something that had seemed impossible.

We had now joined a handful of others who had cycled across Russia.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013 13

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES Online accounts suggest that foreigners are hitchhiking to explore Russia.

Thumbs up for legacy Hailing cars to get around the vast country is quickly gaining in popularity, writes Georgy Manaev

T

he story goes that the late former leader Nikita Khrushchev introduced the hitchhiking culture to Russia after his 1959 trip to the United States.

More than 50 years later, the most basic mode of travelling is part of the Russian lifestyle, with an increasing number of foreign, English-speaking hitchhikers hitting the roads and then going online to describe their colourful trips around Russia.

However, there are a few things hitchhikers, especially foreigners, should know before hailing a vehicle, says experienced Russian hitchhiker Anton Krotov.

TRAVEL

“Make sure you have plenty of time,” says 37-year-old Krotov, who started the renowned Academy of Free Travel (AFT) in 1995 and has been travelling since he was 14. “Russia is a vast country with huge distances and an extensive road network.”

Russia is the only country in the world with multiple hitchhiking clubs. As well as supporting members in solo trips, AFT has organised hitchhiking expeditions through Russia and other countries, including Iran, India, Africa and China.

Krotov also suggests staying on the federal highways. “They are generally in good condition,” he says.

Start Point: Red Square

Duration: 60 minutes

Frequency: Every 20mins

Ticket duration: 24hrs

Season: All year round

Languages: Russian, English, Spanish and German

“Off the beaten track, they can be rough.” He recommends keeping a map handy and being ready to be upfront with the driver that you’re hitchhiking and don’t have money to pay a fare. Still, he says hitchhiking remains an exchange of sorts, with the driver receiving company and entertainment on their route in exchange for giving someone a ride.

Krotov also urges foreign hitchhikers to learn important words and phrases in the Russian language or at least travel with a Russian-speaking companion.

Krotov says: “Drivers will typically ask: ‘Kuda ti yedesh?’ [where are you going?], to which you should answer:

GETTY IMAGES/FOTOBANK

rbth.ru/28895

‘Ya yedu avtostopom v’ [I’m hitchhiking to ...].”

Krotov says that pairs are more readily picked up than singles, and male-female pairs are more likely to hitch a ride than male-male pairs, who may seem intimidating to some drivers.

Hitchhiking first received official recognition in Russia in 1965 when the Central Council for Tourism introduced a programme called “avtostop”, which

became the name for hitchhiking in Russia.

As part of the programme, every traveller older than 16 was entitled to a set of avtostop tickets, which were to be filled out by drivers who gave them lifts to their destinations, while charging a nominal fee of 1 rouble (HK$0.23) for every 480km. As an incentive to drivers, they could keep the tickets and use them in a lottery to win prizes.

Moscow has 4,350km of streets. Walking non-stop at an average speed of 5km/h, it would take you 36 days to go around the capital. These are the landmarks.

The Udarnik Cinema

Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge

Built in 1931 for the 14th anniversary of the October revolution, the Udarnik is one of the oldest cinemas in Moscow. It is located in the House on the Embankment, an apartment complex that was home to the Soviet elite – scientists, heroes of the civil war, party leaders and prominent writers. The frescoes in the apartments were painted by artists who restored the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.

The famous bridge over the Moskva River, located next to the Kremlin’s Spassky Gate. It was on this spot that West German pilot Mathias Rust landed on May 28, 1987, after flying from Hamburg to Moscow.

Red Square

Red October

Balchug

A Unesco World Heritage Site, Moscow’s main square is located west of the Kremlin. Red Square is home to St Basil’s Cathedral and Lenin’s Mausoleum.

Founded in 1851, Kransy Oktyabr (Red October) is one of Russia’s oldest confectioneries. Kransy Oktyabr is the forerunner to such iconic Soviet confectionery products, such as Alyonka chocolates.

The Balchug is a man-made island that was formed when the Vodootvodny Canal was being laid down along an oxbow lake of the Moskva River.

Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge

The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts One of the most important Russian museums of European and world art, the Pushkin Museum celebrated its centenary in 2012. The collection includes around 300 paintings and over 60 sculptures.

This includes originals by Renoir, Van Gogh, Monet and Picasso.

In the 17th to 19th centuries, Bolotnaya Square was a place for having fun and engaging in fights.

Criminals were punished on the square, including public executions. The last public execution on Bolotnaya Square took place in 1775, when Yemelyan Pugachev, leader of the peasant rebellion of 1773 to 1775, was put to death.

Kropotkinskaya Metro Station

Sivtsev Vrazhek Lane

The station was opened in 1935. The station was renamed in honour of geographer, traveller and theoretician Peter Kropotkin.

Its name came from the ravine (Vrazhek), along the bottom of which flowed a small river Siwiec (or Sivka), which flowed along the White City Chertory creek. River Sivka is named sivomu (grey) because of the colour of its water. The river is 0.8km.

Okhotny Ryad (Hunters’ Row)

Arbat Square One of the oldest squares of Moscow, it is now dominated by the wide avenue of New Arbat street. However, prior to redevelopment of 1960s, the square was located south from this avenue, on the line of Arbat Street and the vestibule of Arbatskaya subway station.

Bolotnaya Square

A steel arch bridge spanning Moskva River at the western end of the Kremlin. The bridge was completed in 1938 by Nikolai Kalmykov.

A historical street close to the Kremlin, it is home of the State Duma (Parliament) and Moskva Hotel, one of the biggest in the city.

Alexander Garden

The Bolshoi Theatre

Moscow’s oldest park was built in the 18th century.

Covering about 10 hectares, the garden is home to historic sites, the Kutafiya Tower and the Italian Cavern.

One of Russia’s biggest – and world renowned – opera and ballet theatres.

The image of the Bolshoi is one of Russia’s most iconic symbols.

14 Tuesday, September 24, 2013

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

AP

Filin set to make comeback CULTURE tinues,” he says. Filin remains upbeat, telling Russian state broadcaster Rossiya 1 that his appearance in London was a huge boost. “The doctors are doing all they can,” Filin says. “I still can’t see with my right eye and my left eye is working at about 10 per cent. If my left eye continues to recover, it is possible that I could return to work and attend the opening of the new season in Moscow in mid-September.”

The 238th Bolshoi Theatre season will premiere three new ballets: Marco Spada by Pierre Lacotte, Lady of the Camellias by John Neumeier, and The Taming of the Shrew by Jean-Christophe Maillot. International tours for 2013/14 include performances in Singapore, France, Norway, the United States and Japan.

PHOTOSHOT/VOSTOCK-PHOTO

at a clinic in Aachen, Germany, since suffering severe burns to his eyes and face following a vicious early-morning acid attack in Moscow on January 17.

The assault revealed bitter infighting at the Bolshoi and led to criminal charges, sackings, walkouts, protest petitions and eventually the dismissal of the gen-

eral director, as the Ministry of Culture moved to safeguard the image of Russia’s flagship ballet company. Dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko, who has played villains, including Ivan the Terrible, allegedly confessed to hiring two hitmen to attack Filin, and all three men now face lengthy prison terms.

However, 300 dancers and staff, led by popular dancer Nikolai Tsiskaridze, signed a petition claiming Dmitrichenko had been forced by police to confess.

British choreographer Wayne McGregor, citing Filin’s absence, postponed his production of The Rite of Spring that was scheduled to open at the theatre in March, leaving his replacement, avant-garde choreographer Tatiana Baganova, just one month to prepare a new production. In June, Tsiskaridze was sacked following reports of a power struggle with general director Anatoly Iksanov, and just weeks later the ministry shocked ballet circles by removing Iksanov after 13 years of being in charge.

“A difficult situation had developed … human strength and ability, even of the most superlative professionals, has its limits,” Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky told a press conference, announcing the appointment of new director Vladimir Urin, a respected administrator seen as a steadying hand.

Urin said that only together could the company solve its problems. “The scandals of the last year have damaged the image of the company a lot because it’s difficult to understand how such cruelty can happen in the world of dance,” Bolshoi spokeswoman Katerina Novikova told RBTH. “But the dancers have pulled together to support each other in the face of harsh press attention and are more united than ever. In terms of artistic quality, this remains one of the best classical companies in the world. Everybody saw it in Australia earlier this year, and again in the recent sold-out season at the Royal Opera House in London.”

Filin made a surprise and rapturously received curtain call on opening night in London after Urin visited him in Aachen to assess his medical progress.

Urin says Filin will be welcomed back to the company but has urged caution.

“He is psychologically ready to return to work and I would love to have him back, but his medical treatment con-

PHOTOSHOT/VOSTOCK-PHOTO

S

ergei Filin is set to return to the Bolshoi Theatre this month, as the scandalplagued Bolshoi Ballet recovers from a year of unprecedented turmoil.

The artistic director has undergone 22 eye operations and tissue transplants

The assault revealed bitter infighting at the Bolshoi Ballet and led to criminal charges, sackings and walkouts.

Sergei Filin (top) and Pavel Dmitrichenko (above)

AFP/EASTNEWS

Bolshoi’s artistic director is recovering from attack, writes Graham Osborne

The dancers have pulled together to support each other in the face of harsh media criticisms.

The doctors are doing all they can.

I still can’t see anything with my right eye

Tuesday, September 24, 2013 15

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

GETTY IMAGES/FOTOBANK (2)

Rise of the Cossacks The feared eastern Slavic tribes played a key role in the nation’s history, writes Ivan Nikolayev

I

t was the Cossacks who discovered Siberia, protected Russia’s borders, served the tsars – and rebelled against them. Europeans were terrified of them, while Napoleon Bonaparte’s marshals marvelled at their prowess in battle. Russia Beyond the Headlines looks at Cossack history.

It’s hard to say exactly when the Cossacks came into existence, but during the 15th century, the term started to appear with regularity in historical texts.

Escaping from feudal oppression, famine, drought, disease, persecution from the “Old Believers” and other misfortunes, active and spirited people from all over the Rus’ region of eastern Europe set off in search of a better slice of “no-man’s land” along the troubled shores on the east European steppe.

This describes the lower reaches of the Dnieper, Don, Terek, Volga and Ural Rivers. It is on the banks of these great rivers that self-governed Cossack communities formed, communities that were frequently at war with neighbouring states and tribes.

The Cossacks fought at one point or another with all of their neighbours – the Grand Duchy of Muscovy, the Crimean Khanate, Turkey and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – and, when the need arose, they forged temporary alliances with erstwhile enemies.

With many trade routes under their control, the Cossacks charged a toll to anyone who wished to pass through their territories – or sometimes simply robbed travellers.

But where exactly do the Cossacks

5

FACTS ABOUT COSSACKS

come from? What is their bloodline?

Researchers today tend to believe that, in addition to the obvious Russian and eastern Slavic elements, there are also Turkish and Caucasian influences; you can often find dark-haired and darkeyed descendent of Cossacks.

Cossacks have always spoken in dialects that, with the exception of the occasional word, are understood by any Russian. While Cossacks have never had a particularly strong national identity as such, they do have a well-developed sense of class and confessional Orthodox identity.

The Cossack territories were governed by their own internal laws – a kind of Cossack democracy. Cossacks would only choose commanders from their own area during times of war and, when at peace, all Cossacks were considered equal.

The Cossacks were under constant pressure from the tsars during the 17th and 18th centuries. They saw the Cossacks as outlaws. Cossack atamans (leaders) staged numerous uprisings against Moscow, inciting thousands of peasants to riot. Stepan Razin led a major uprising against Tsar Alexis from 1670-71, which was followed by Kondraty Bulavin’s rebellion against Peter the Great (1707-08) and Yemelyan Pugachev’s uprising against Catherine the Great (1773-75).

These revolts angered the tsars and, in 1775, Catherine ordered the dissolution of the sich, the administrative and military centre of the Cossacks. It was a bloodless operation, which involved

1

Tsar Pavel I, whose allegiance was with Napoleon Bonaparte, sent Cossack troops to conquer India. However, his death put an end to the mission

the Cossacks being issued with an ultimatum, and them agreeing to move on. They went south to the Kuban, a region around the Kuban River, on the Black Sea. A number of them moved further west to the Danube Delta, to Ottoman territory, and formed the Danubian Sich, which was loyal to the Ottoman Sultan.

Others made it all the way to Vojvodina, where they served the Habsburgs on the border of Austria and Turkey.

After Pugachev’s Rebellion died down, the imperial authorities decided it was in their best interests to avoid conflicts with the Cossacks.

The mighty Cossack warrior-class was

HISTORY

Thanks to their fighting prowess, Cossacks became a warrior class.

2

Napoleon Bonaparte and his marshals marvelled at the Cossacks’ riding skills, and admired the low saddle bow of Cossack riders

3

Terek and Kuban Cossacks took on many traits from their neighbours in the Caucasus, including their style of dress, dance traditions and weapons

4

born and, after this point, people couldn’t simply become Cossacks – they had to be born Cossacks. Their primary duties were to guard the empire’s borders and serve in military campaigns.

They received certain privileges from the tsar for their service: large plots of land, tax-free status and the right to their own government. The Don Cossacks were even given their own autonomous territory: the Province of the Don Cossack Host, or settlement. It was thanks to these concessions that the government won their unconditional support.

The Cossacks were now among the royal family’s most loyal supporters. They were also well-organised, armed, skilled in battle, and always ready to go to war “for the tsar and the Orthodox faith”.

The 19th century was the Golden Age of the Cossacks. The Don Cossacks, under the leadership of Matvei Platov, and alongside the victorious Russian army, routed Napoleon and took Paris.

In doing so, they gave Europe and the world a new image of a fearless and invincible horseman, and the word bistro was adopted into the international vernacular.

Not only did the Cossacks suppress rebellions on Russian soil (in modernday Poland), they also saved the Habsburg Empire from insurgent Hungarians in 1848. There they found themselves fighting alongside Austrian subjects. In 1878, the Cossacks and the Russian army defeated the Ottoman Turks, bringing freedom to the Bulgarians, Serbs and Romanians.

The shah of Persia had his own Cossack brigade, which was modelled on the Russian Cossacks.

It was led by a Russian officer

5

The village of Parizh, in in the Urals, was named in honour of the Ural Cossacks who took part in the storming of Paris in 1814

16 Tuesday, September 24, 2013

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

IMAGO/LEGION MEDIA

GETTY IMAGES/FOTOBANK (3)

Life’s a beach for sandmen Nation rules the world despite only taking up the sport eight years ago, writes Ilya Trisvyatskiy

O

ne would be hard pressed to find a tropical beach on Russia’s coastline where svelte young men and women practise their beach soccer skills. Despite this, Russia goes into the 2013 Beach Soccer World Cup in Tahiti as defending champion, having won the title in 2011 in Italy by beating firm favourite Brazil 18-12 in the final.

Unlike most of the countries where the sport is played, Russia doesn’t have a very good climate for beach soccer.

Even in the southern parts of the country it’s too cold to play during the winter. In the capital Moscow, home of the country’s strongest team Lokomotiv which supplies most of the national players, the beach soccer season lasts three or four months.

The cold climate, inadequate beach soccer infrastructure and lack of tradition would outwardly appear to conspire against any Russian success. So, it is all the more surprising that the sport has progressed in the country in only a few short years.

The Russian Beach Soccer Federation was set up only eight years ago to organise the first national cup in 2005.

The national team was put together in 2007, and immediately won the bronze at the Euro League Cup. During the early years, most of the Russian beach soccer players had a strong background in traditional football. The national team included wellknown players such as Aleksandr Mos-

There isn’t much in common between this sport and traditional soccer ALEKSANDR MOSTOVOY

SOCCER Close co-operation When organising home matches for the European League, the Russian beach soccer authorities work closely with the beach volleyball “Grand Slam” series organisers. These events are held one after another at the same venue. For the past several years they have used an arena with removable grandstands for 4,000 spectators not far from central Moscow.

Russian victories World Cup – 2011 European League - 2009, 2011 European Cup - 2010, 2012 Intercontinental Cup - 2011-12

The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup is under way in Tahiti. tovoy, Sergey Kiryakov, Valeriy Karpin, Yuriy Nikiforov and Nikolay Pisarev. The latter went on to become the national team’s coach, before passing the mantle to Mikhail Likhachev, whose team won gold in Italy. “In my view, the six years that had passed between the birth of Russian beach soccer and our victory at the World Cup is a fairly long period,” says Mostovoy, who had won fame in classic soccer playing for FC Spartak Moscow and Spain’s Celta de Vigo before turning to beach soccer.

“Russia is not famous for its beaches, but we do love soccer, and we have many

Here is how to have an enjoyable, action-packed adventure

soccer players. That is why I am not surprised by the success of our national team at various international events. The people behind Russian beach soccer made some right decisions when the sport was only just beginning to gain popularity in the country.”

While the first wave of players had classic soccer backgrounds, the sport is now dominated by beach soccer specialists. Despite their similarities, the two games are have key differences that require different skill sets. “Yes, I immediately came to realise that there is not much in common between this

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sport and traditional soccer,” Mostovoy says. “Some of the techniques of handling the ball are the same, but there is no dribbling, no ground moves, no long combinations, etc.” The most recognised players in the Russian team are the goalkeeper Andrey Bukhlitskiy (aka Sandman), and captain and midfielder Ilya Leonov, who was named best player of the 2011 World Cup. He is also the captain of Lokomotiv Moscow, Russia’s three-time domestic champions.

“The main strengths of the Russian team are team play, speed, good physical shape and a good psychological training,” Bukhlitskiy says. “At some point we just stopped being afraid of the Brazilians. They thought they would be able to play their sand shows for another few years, but [their dominance] came to an end.”

Almost all the official games played by the Russian national team are shown on the Rossiya 2 national TV network.

The Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup kicks off in Papeete, Tahiti, today. Sixteen teams will compete for the right to play in the final on September 28.

Russia is drawn in Group D.

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