2013 #10 RBTH for The Daily Telegraph

Politics & Society Counting the days behind bars How women live and work in a Russian prison – a view from the inside

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Culture Along the pipeline Russian film director brings Siberian stories to London

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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

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TENSIONS OVER MIGRANTS TEST POLITICIANS

PHOTOSHOT/VOSTOCK-PHOTO

The government is urgently reviewing immigration policy. It follows rioting after a murder in a Moscow district popular with immigrants, says Yulia Ponomareva

O

n October 13, Russian TV channels broadcast live footage of thousands of people sweeping across Moscow’s southern residential district of Biryulevo, wrecking a local hypermarket and breaking into a vegetable warehouse. The rioters overturned parked cars and kiosks that they suspected might be owned by immigrants.

The angry crowd were mostly nationalist youth from across Moscow. They had come to support 40 Biryulevo residents who had assembled outside the local police station earlier that day, demanding police find the killer of Yegor Shcherbakov. Shcherbakov, 25, an ethnic Russian, was stabbed on the night of October 10, in the presence of his fiancée, while attempting to defend a female passer-by from the sexual advances of a stranger.

Warehouse ‘a nest of crime’ The murder came after years of pent-up discontent among Biryulevo dwellers with what they saw as indifference and inaction on the part of the local police and district administration. This was not the first time local residents had taken to the streets demanding stricter immigration controls and the closure of the nearby vegetable warehouse, which employs thousands of immigrants from the Caucasus and is widely viewed by local people as a nest of crime. The face of Shcherbakov’s suspected murderer, which was captured on CCTV cameras, strongly resembled those of a native of the Caucasus.

About 400 arrests were made after the riot. However, within two days, the protesters’ demands were met in full. The best detectives were involved in investigating Shcherbakov’s murder and the suspect-

ed perpetrator was tracked down and delivered personally to the Russian interior minister.The warehouse, the largest such facility in Europe, was closed, officially for breaches of sanitation regulations.

New call for visas The Biryulevo events gave a new impetus to public discussions of whether visas should be introduced for citizens of Transcaucasian and Central Asian countries. According to a survey conducted by the Levada Centre, a sociological research organisation, in June this year, 84pc of Russians support the idea.

However, President Vladimir Putin has spoken against such a move, saying that it would prompt members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries to turn away from Russia.

Just as in Britain, where there has been a debate for years about the impact of immigration on jobs and public services, unchecked immigration is beginning to worry ordinary Russians. Although polls suggest that the problem ranks only eighth on the list of the population’s greatest concerns, the proportion of those viewing immigrants as the cause of the country’s greatest problems has increased from 7pc to 27pc over the past eight years.

In Moscow, immigration is already seen as the greatest problem, not least because cracking down on illegal immigrants was among the key points in the electoral manifestos of all the candidates during this summer’s mayoral election campaign.

Xenophobia on the rise The rise in the level of household xenophobia in Russia first became noticeable in the second half of the Nineties, sociologists note. Lev Gudkov, director of

the Levada Centre, says: “After the beginning of the [economic] reforms, following the frustration caused by the destruction of the [Soviet] social system, came the time of negative self-assertion and searches for a national identity.

“Since there was not much left to be proud of [in post-Soviet Russia], this self-assertion mostly took the form of people projecting their personal complexes and antipathies on to all ‘aliens’. The process became aggravated during the 2000s, when the government set a course towards reviving national traditions, conservatism, and stability.”

Demographic analysts point out that Russia would benefit from inviting more immigrants, who would make up for the continuing decline in the country’s own population. “We have observed a negative demographic trend since 1992,”says Anatoly Vishnevsky, director of Moscow’s Institute of Demography at the National Research University – Higher School of Economics. “Natural attrition over the past 20 years amounted to 13.4 million people. In other words, the population of Russia should have decreased by 13.4 million by now, but in reality it has only declined by 5.3 million people. This difference is down to immigration.”

Dr Gudkov believes that inter-ethnic tensions result from an illegal inflow of cheap labour from abroad.

One factor behind the thriving black market in labour in Russia is that quotas for hiring immigrant workers are significantly lower than the market demands. This year, the quota stands at 1.7 million people, whereas Dr Gudkov estimates that Russia’s economy needs 4.5 to five million a year.

Criminals dodging prosecution

The inter-ethnic tensions result from an illegal inflow of cheap labour from abroad

Russia’s Minister for the Interior Vladimir Kolokoltsev said in September that he believed criminals were using visa-free travel between different CIS countries to avoid prosecution.

According to the Russian Investigative Committee, nearly one in six murders and one in three rapes recorded in Moscow in the first nine months of 2013 were committed by foreigners. This is despite Mayor Sergey Sobyanin’s statement that immigrants account

for only around 5pc of the population in Russia’s capital. All this adds fuel to anti-immigrant sentiment, particularly in socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods like Biryulevo. The district, on the southern outskirts of Moscow, is isolated from the rest of the city because there is no Metro underground line.

The result is the lowest housing prices in Moscow, which makes Biryulevo especially popular with immigrants working at the local vegetable warehouse, the district’s main employer.

“Biryulevo is where people with low incomes choose to live; xenophobia is higher there because of the people’s overall proneness to conflicts and readiness to vent their aggression at foreigners,” Dr Gudkov says.“Such a social environment is common to other neighbourhoods, so the Biryulevo protests and riots will most likely be replicated [elsewhere in Moscow] in the next several months.

He added: “These will not be mass riots but rather pockets of violence in those areas where a critical level of tension has been reached and is likely to be be set off at the slightest touch, most possibly by a criminal incident.”

Integration on the agenda The disturbances in Moscow were nowhere near the scale witnessed in London and other English cities in 2011, which began after police shot dead a man in Tottenham. But the localised riots have prompted the Russian government to review its immigration policy. Parliament is discussing amendments to tighten immigration laws and compel foreigners to integrate into Russian society.

Various measures are being discussed, from fingerprinting foreign workers to setting up a special force to fight ethnic crime. A bill has also been submitted to parliament that would make it compulsory for immigrants to learn Russian.

In the meantime, the flow of people to Russia shows no signs of abating. According to a United Nations report released in September, Russia ranks second in the world after the United States for the number of immigrants, with 11 million foreigners compared to 143.5 million Russian nationals.

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Politics & Society P2_Tuesday, October 29, 2013_www.rbth.co.uk

NEWS IN BRIEF

From piracy to hooliganism: Greenpeace row goes global

Russia and UK strengthen scientific co-operation

ITAR-TASS

Troubled waters: all 30 people on the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise were initially charged with piracy after two Greenpeace activists tried to board the Prirazlomnaya oil platform

Russia and the United Kingdom are to strengthen co-operation in space exploration and expand their activities in education and science, RIA Novosti reports. The 11th session of the Russian-British Joint Committee on Scientific and Technological Co-operation agreed in London on October 17 to develop agreements on co-operation in the peaceful use of outer space, and on mutual recognition of educational qualifications and academic degrees.

Debut for underwater rifle Russian arms producers have presented the world’s first assault rifle capable of firing standard cartridges underwater, according to Russia Today. Designed for Russian special forces units by the Tula Instrument Design Bureau, the ADS rifle is also equipped with a 40mm grenade launcher. Until now, troops engaged in underwater combat have had to carry separate weapons for land

and water, says Nikolay Komarov, head of foreign economic relations at the manufacturer.

Now they only need to change the magazine.

Developers say that the weapon is at least as accurate as the legendary Kalashnikov AK-47M, and it has been tested successfully in Russia’s North, Far East and Black Sea regions. Rosoboronexport is now promoting the weapon for export.

AP

International law Arrested activists await their fate as international court considers legality of charges TATYANA LISINA SPECIAL TO RBTH

Courts in Murmansk and Hamburg continue to debate the fate of Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise crew, while global protests call for Russia to release the activists.

Thirty people from 16 countries – including Britons Phil Ball, Alexandra Harris, Frank Hewetson, Anthony Perrett, Iain Rogers and freelance journalist Kieron Bryan – sit in pretrial detention in Murmansk. Meanwhile, lawyers for the Russian and Dutch governments are facing off at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany.

On September 18, two environmental activists on board the ship attempted to climb on

to the Prirazlomnaya oil platform in the Pechora Sea. The platform is owned by Gazpromneft, the oil-producing branch of Russian energy giant Gazprom, and is the first commercial offshore oil platform in the Arctic. The Russian coastguard intervened, took control of the ship, and sailed it to the northern port of Murmansk, where all on board were taken into custody.

By October 3, they had been charged with piracy committed by an organised group and faced a possible 15 years in jail. Because the Arctic Sunrise was registered in the Netherlands, the Dutch filed a complaint in the Hamburg court the next day, saying that Russia had wrongfully seized the ship.

Russia’s Investigative Committee dropped the piracy charges on October 23 and accused the group of “hooliganism”, which can still be punishable with up to seven years in prison.

Greenpeace said the charges remained “wildly disproportionate”.

The reaction of Russian leaders to the charges and the Netherlands’ legal steps was mixed.

President Putin said that the environmentalists were not pirates, although they had bro-

The Russian side has repeatedly demanded that the Netherlands put an end to the illegal acts of this ship

ken international law. Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister, condemned the actions, saying: “Concerns about the environment cannot justify illegal acts, however high the motives of the people taking part”.

Moscow stands firm in its claims against the Greenpeace activists. “Over the past year and a half, the Russian side has repeatedly demanded that the Netherlands, as the flag state of the Arctic Sunrise, put an end to the illegal acts by this ship,”said Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov said. “Unfortunately, this has not been done, so we have far more questions for the Dutch side than they might have for us,” he added, describing the activists’ actions as “a provocation”.

Gazpromneft agreed. Chief Executive Alexander Dyukov said: “Law enforcement agencies should take into account that Greenpeace’s actions might not only have entailed a breach of industrial and environmental safety, but also have seriously jeopardised the lives of people working underwater at the time.”

Meanwhile, protests have been held in at least 45 countries in support of the activists.

Doing time, one stitch at a time

Syrian conference ‘blocked’

MULTIMEDIA

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Inside job: from top, prisoners at Ivanovo wear headscarves and work in the sewing shop; reporting for work duty; speaking to friends and family

Penal system Pussy Riot girl’s hunger strike against ‘slave labour’ has put the spotlight on conditions in women’s jails MARINA OBRAZKOVA RBTH

MULTIMEDIA

PHOTOSHOT/VOSTOCK-PHOTO (3)

Life for women in Russia’s prisons is dreary, but activists say that conditions may not be as bad as portrayed by punk band Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. The recent hunger strike of the imprisoned musician, performance artist and political activist, lasted from September 25 to October 2. It made life for women behind bars a hot topic in the Russian press, just as Piper Kerman’s memoir Orange is the New Black did in the American media and for viewers of the TV series on the Netflix subscription service.

There are about 57,200 female prisoners in Russia out of a population of 142.5 million, according to the Interregional Charitable Foundation for the Aid of Prisoners (Icfap).

By comparison, there were 3,853 women in prisons in June this year in England and Wales, the lowest number in 12 years, out of a population of 56.6 million.

Despite cultural differences – Russian female inmates are often employed in handiwork and are required to wear headscarves – many aspects of life in a Russian prison camp would ring true for readers of Kerman’s book.

At a prison camp in the Ivanovo Region in central Russia, three Alsatian dogs bark at prisoners lining up behind a tall iron fence.

The fence separates the barracks where the women sleep from the sewing workshop.

A guard orders the women to open their bags before entering the facility. The plastic bags hold a change of shoes and the women’s

sewing shop uniforms. Another guard examines each prisoner and bag. The women go through this procedure twice a day: when they go to work and when they leave.

“This is to ensure they do not take anything out of the sewing shop,” said the guard, who declined to be identified.“Women are more violent than men; they could carry something into their room and then attack a cellmate.”

All the women at the Ivanovo camp work in the sewing shop. They use scissors in the shop, which is one of the reasons the prisoners must be checked so thoroughly on their way to work and at the end of the shift.

Only a third of Russian jails offer inmates the opportunity to work, and prison camps compete for government tenders, according to Icfap president Maria Kannabikh.

Tolokonnikova says inmates in her sewing shop at a prison camp in the Republic of Mordovia had to work 16 to 17 hours a day for pennies; this may be true, given the reputation of Mordovia’s prisons as some of Russia’s harshest. She has now been moved to another jail “for her personal security”.

But Ms Kannabikh said it was more common for prisoners to work 10 to 11 hours. “Of course, Nadezhda is correct that the penitentiary system should be improved, to become more humane,” Ms Kannabikh said. “But I have talked to [prisoners] – they get about 7,000 roubles (£140), about the sum paid to [non-inmate] canteen workers.”

In addition to sewing, other forms of prison employment include weaving, crocheting and painting the Russian nesting dolls known as matryoshki.

Scan this code to view a photo chronicle of the Russian Alcatraz: Vladimirsky Central prison

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Alexei Pushkov, head of the State Duma international affairs committee, says foreign patrons of the Syrian opposition are undermining prospects for an international conference on the conflict, Interfax reports. Nineteen Syrian rebel groups rejected an offer to take part in Ge-

neva II in a statement by Ahmed Eissa al-Sheikh, leader of the Islamist Suqour al-Sham brigade.

The statement describes the conference as “another conspiracy aimed at putting an end to the revolution” and threatens punishment for anyone going to Geneva in November to take part.

Online video boom The audience for online streaming of video in Russia is the largest in Europe, with nearly 60 million unique users, according to a report by East-West Digital News and other partners. The potential for growth is also huge, with the audience expected to increase by 18pc a year over the next five years.

The calf-length blue skirts, shapeless jackets and broad white headscarves that are the uniform of prisoners at Ivanovo are a different look for Alina, 20, a self-described “restless party girl” whose headscarf barely covers her blonde dreadlocks.

“I never dreamt of finding myself here; it really is like a bad dream,” Alina said.

“It is cold in the dorms, but the worst thing here is that the girls create their own cliques, and you’d better be ready to stand up for yourself.”

Before she went to prison, Alina was a student studying chemistry. She was a regular at discos and sold drugs at the clubs on the side. She is serving three years for distribution of narcotics.

“I lived with a lot of stress and tension for the first six months,” Alina said. “But now I am more or less able to express myself.”

There is a limited system of halfway houses for prisoners who are nervous about re-entering society or at risk of reoffending. Alexander Yegorov manages the oldest of these centres, in St Petersburg.

He said his centre had stopped working with female prisoners.

“They practically do not need our assistance,” Mr Yegorov said. “They make up only about 5pc of released prisoners and very rarely reoffend.” At a conference on prisoner rehabilitation last year, Mr Yegorov said programmes available to help prisoners reintegrate into society were in short supply.

Of the 200 prisoners his facility processes every year, only 10 to 12 receive housing and papers that will allow them to work.

In addition to state-run facilities, private non-profit and religious organisations also run halfway houses for former prisoners.

Yuri Kalinin, former head of the Federal Penitentiary Service, told the conference that new laws on the rehabilitation of prisoners were needed along with more facilities to help released prisoners make the transition.

“It is necessary to carry out more extensive preventive work and elsewhere to create similar rehabilitation centres,” Mr Kalinin said, noting that such centres provide psychological, moral and social support for released prisoners and help them find housing and work. Mr Kalinin said that in regions with such centres, recidivism rates are considerably lower.

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A call to arms: battlefield blueprints in big demand Technology Russian hi-tech weaponry and defence designs are being ordered – and widely imitated – on a global scale DMITRY LITOVKIN SPECIAL TO RBTH

A quarrel between two US companies over Russian-made RD-180 rocket engines has triggered a large-scale investigation by the United States anti-trust authorities. The dispute, between United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Orbital Sciences Corp, is over the purchasing rights for the engines, which power the Antares rockets that fly missions as part of Nasa programmes from Russia.

ULA is suspected of illegally blocking its rival’s access to mission-critical components from RD Amross, a joint venture between the Russian company NPO Energomash and the American company Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.

The former manufactures the RD-180s and the latter supplies them to ULA for use in their Atlas rocket carriers.

– by almost six times – in comparison with western-designed missiles, which need their launchers turned in the target’s direction. It also eliminates any“dead zones”through which enemy missiles could penetrate.

Playing catch up Neither the US-made PAC-3 Patriot antiaircraft missile system, nor the future Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (Thaad) tactical missile defence system have such capabilities for now. The US is only just developing a hi-tech medium-range surface-to-air missile — in co-operation with Italy and Germany — that is similar to the Russian one: the Medium Extended Air Defence Missile Systems (Meads).

South Korea, on the other hand, went to Russia directly and has already created its own Cheongung MSAM anti-aircraft missile system featuring vertical missile launch.

A Slavic workhorse in the sky

Rapid defence Flattered by imitation There are other examples where aviation companies have borrowed Russian technology.

Moscow and Kiev have been unable to sort out the fate of their joint military cargo plane project (An-70), for 15 years. Its uniqueness stems from its D-27 two-shaft propfan engines that let aircraft use shorter runways.

However, the never-implemented RussianUkrainian technology, dating back to the Eighties, subsequently formed a basis for the European programme of the future large aircraft (FLA), which subsequently transformed into the Airbus А-400М Atlas military cargo plane that is identical to the An-70.

There was a similar story with the Italian Alenia Aermacchi М-346 Master combat training plane produced by Alenia Aermacchi. The Italians obtained its design documentation from the Yakovlev Design Bureau in the early Nineties as part of a debt settlement. So now there are two similar machines: the Russian

REUTERS

Although Russia sold $12 billion (£7.4bn) worth of weapons in the international market last year, it is often accused of supplying products that are supposedly low-technology or dated.

However, this dispute between two major US aerospace firms for access to Russian space technology shows that such suppositions should be taken with a pinch of salt.

It is obvious that interest in Russian technology comes not only from developing countries. France, for one, has expressed interest in Russian rocket technology. The French were among the first to order a vertical launch system for their ship-mounted anti-aircraft missile system Crotale Naval from the Russian PD Grushin Machine-building Design Bureau.

Russian know-how means that the S-300/400 missiles that serve as a basis for the French system can launch vertically from their containers and, once airborne, are guided towards the targets using radio signals. This sharply reduces the time needed to respond to threats

The Antonov An-70 is a medium-range military transport capable of delivering 300 troops or 47 tons of equipment.

It has a range of up to 3,500 miles and a maximum speed of 485mph.

The four-engined plane is the first large aircraft to be powered by propfan engines, permitting short

Biggest fan: German crew admire the propfan propellers of an Antonov An-70 at Cologne airport

take-offs and landings.

An upgraded version of the plane, a RussiaUkraine joint project, carried out its first test flight in September 2012 after two years of modernisation work that allowed the flight crew to be reduced from five to four members. The craft was shown off at the Paris Air Show in June.

The plane, which began as a Soviet design project in the mid-Seventies, had its maiden flight in 1994.

Russia’s military has said it plans to buy at least 60 An-70s by 2020.

Assembly takes place in Kiev, Ukraine, and Kazan, Russia and each plane costs £42m.

technology from us. The Chinese already have a fifth-generation fighter.”

Whatever the case, these examples demonstrate that the military and technical potential of Russian firms is not so far behind the US or Europe.There are areas where Russia is ready to borrow technology (such as optics or electronics), but also areas where it is prepared to export its expertise to foreign shores.

trainerYak-130 and its Italian clone, the М-346 Master.“Russian science and industry exist in a single global space these days,” says Professor Vadim Kozyulin of the Academy of Military Sciences.“That’s why reinventing the wheel is silly, when it’s easier to just buy it, copy it and use it as a basis for your own design.

“China advanced its aviation industry by 25 years by purchasing the Sukhoi-27 production

Space Dauria Aerospace forges links with international partners to target high-margin services market ‘neglected’ by the state

First private space firm to launch four satellites High technology: Dauria’s DX 1 satellite being prepared for its first flight

transport monitoring department at the Arkan Group, argues that this is partly because the Russian space industry was just trying to survive for a long time.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world modernised its satellite production, developing low-budget, small-scale systems.

In his opinion, Dauria has a good chance of success in the domestic market as a pioneer in private satellites. “Even now, government bodies in Russia use 95pc foreign systems for satellite observation. A local product would certainly be in demand,” he said. “It is more difficult to predict the outcome on the global market. However, the company’s innovative approach and its collaboration with such an experienced partner as the English company SSTL makes this project highly competitive.”

A global industry PRESS PHOTO

ILYA DASHKOVSKY SPECIAL TO RBTH

This month, I2BF Global Ventures invested $20m (£12.4m) in Dauria Aerospace, the first Russian private space company. This went practically unnoticed by the world’s media, despite the euphoria surrounding the launch of SpaceX and Virgin Galactic at the beginning of the 2000s. This new company is a pioneer in a field that the state has neglected. Aleksey Volostnov, business development director for consultants Frost & Sullivan in Russia, noted: “Traditionally, Roscosmos focuses on low-margin services, launching, servicing and putting satellites in space, completely neglecting the highmargin services market, which is what private companies are aiming for.”

Mikhail Kokorich, former owner of large retail networks such as Technosila and Uyuterra, stepped into this breach. After leaving his business, he in effect turned his hobby into his work – though in a market worth an estimated $103bn per year.

Dauria’s calculations are based on the fact that it will produce cheap satellites that cost up to $10m and can be manufactured in a year. Spacecraft usually cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take years to make.

So the company will recoup its set-up costs “almost immediately”, according to its founder. It plans to launch four satellites over the next few years: Sagitta and Perseus are scheduled for next year while Pyxis and Auriga are due for take-off between 2015 and 2017. The company’s annual turnover is forecast to exceed $1bn by then.

Pioneering approach Mr Kokorich suggests that now is a good time for such a project. He explains: “Our services are unique from the point of view of gathering information and we have our own niche: accurate surveying, forestry, and asset management and monitoring from space.”

He need not fear competition from state-owned companies in Russia, since they have only a small number of space vehicles.

“We only have two civil satellites, not counting weather satellites, and they require a high resolution. Our systems cover the entire Earth, but they do not require such a high resolution, which means that they can provide the whole picture.’’

The businessman is also convinced that “the state is not planning to produce these kind of service systems and will never manufacture them”.

Andrey Milovanov, head of the satellite

Dauria’s founders are convinced that only a transnational company can achieve success in this business

FIND MORE at www.rbth.co.uk/ space1

American universities are also involved in Dauria projects as well as Roscosmos, the Russian Lavochkin Research and Production Association and many other organisations around the world. The company has a branch at Skolkovo in Moscow making systems for the internal

THE QUOTE

"

The space market is global by nature.

The Russian market is not rich enough to fuel the group’s ambitions.

Dauria Aerospace is one of the pioneers of the private sector in space.

DMITRY PAYSON DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT, SKOLKOVO SPACE TECHNOLOGIES AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS

market: the company’s headquarters, which house the key service division, are based in Munich. A division in the United States develops payload as well as satellite systems for the international market. Dauria’s founders are convinced that only a transnational company can achieve success in this business.

There is another reason why the company’s headquarters are not in Russia. Mr Kokorich explains: “Unfortunately, due to the idiosyncrasies of the Russian tax system and the complexities of importing and exporting the necessary equipment, it is still difficult to work efficiently on the global market from inside Russia.”

Experts point out that the state controls key infrastructure and the delivery vehicles.

Mr Volostnov said: “This field could be closed to private companies very rapidly if a decision was taken at governmental level.

“That said, market potential is relatively high, which means that private investment can be taken seriously. Moreover, it does not prevent us being proud of the first private project in Russian cosmonautics, all the more so as there are still only a handful of these companies in existence.”

Comment & Analysis P4_Tuesday, October 29, 2013_www.rbth.co.uk

ART OF DIPLOMACY

CAN UKRAINE AFFORD A DIVORCE FROM RUSSIA?

Russia and the UK – potential partners in innovation?

Fyodor Lukyanov INTERNATIONAL ANALYST

Alexander Yakovenko AMBASSADOR

T IORSH

Relations between Russia and Ukraine are about to cross the Rubicon. That is how many interpret the Association Agreement Kiev intends to sign next month with Brussels. The deal will establish a comprehensive free-trade zone between the former Soviet republic and the EU. The escalation of rhetoric and the entrenchment of positions took place a couple of months ago. First, the EU gave Kiev a stark choice.

Brussels told Ukraine that it cannot participate in several integration projects at the same time; it must make its choice. Moscow adopted a softer stance: the Kremlin said the eventual goal of the Customs Union, a Russian-led economic integration project, was to establish a common economic area stretching from Lisbon to the Russian Pacific coast. Joining it would be the first step on the way to that greater project for Kiev. Russia and Ukraine would then bargain with the EU about the terms of further integration as members of the same trading bloc, the Kremlin said.

But politics has outweighed rational economic thinking, and the debate in Ukraine has focused on the political aspects of Kiev’s decision. The choice, according to the Ukrainian proponents of the agreement, should not be made on the basis of short-term economic pros and cons; that choice will determine which civilisation Ukraine will belong to in the long run. Moscow and Ukrainian supporters of economic integration with the Customs Union have pointed to the economic benefits for Kiev.

But their opponents portray those benefits as the “30 pieces of silver” Ukraine will get for abandoning its “European identity”.

Emotions are running so high that the routine gathering scheduled for November 28-29 in Vilnius is being portrayed as a “geopolitical Stalingrad”. In such a climate, it is important to understand what will happen after Vilnius.

There are two sides to this situation: rational economics and emotional politics.

The practical Russian response to the signing of the Association Agreement has been outlined by officials all the way up to President Putin. After Vilnius, Moscow will have no reason to give Ukraine preferential treatment in trade and economic relations. Kiev was given such treatment in the expectation that it would become a full member of Russian-led integration projects. Now Russian experts predict that once Ukraine opens up to exports from the EU, local Ukrainian producers will lose a large share of their domestic market to more competitive European rivals.

Without a home market, Ukrainian goods will flood into Russia. There is also the danger of European exports being mislabelled as Ukrainian to gain entry to the Russian market in cir-

The Russian response to the signing of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU will be almost instant

cumvention of the trade barriers between Russia and the EU. As a result, bilateral trade between Russia and Ukraine will undergo a radical shift. That will enable Russia to invoke Annex 6 to the Free Trade Agreement between CIS countries, which allows trade protection measures to be applied in such circumstances. These measures will not be in breach of the WTO rules. Exports from Ukraine will merely be treated in the same way as exports from the rest of the WTO members, whereas now Ukraine has favoured-nation status. It will be difficult for Kiev to challenge these measures at the WTO. The Russian response to the signing of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU will be almost instant. Moscow will not wait for the agreement to be ratified. Article 486 of the proposed agreement allows for a provisional application of some of its parts once the EU has completed the necessary procedures, and once the deal has been ratified by Kiev. Ukrainian and European representatives have said the free-trade section will come into effect almost immediately upon its signature.

The Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU goes much further than the standard free-trade arrangements outlined in Article XXIV of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. It is also more ambitious than similar EU deals with other countries. Brussels’ main political objective, which Kiev appears ready to play along with, is to create an institutional framework that will bind Ukraine to the European project in the long run but without imposing any commitments on the EU.

As far as the emotional political component is concerned, the scale, speed and ruthlessness of the Russian response will probably be proportional to the degree of geopolitical gloating in the EU and Ukraine at Moscow’s apparent “defeat”. In addition to the trade and economic steps, Moscow could take even more painful measures, such as scaling down cross-border and regional co-operation. It could even restrict the influx of Ukrainian labour migrants.

But most experts consider this to be practically useless. The introduction of visas for visitors from Ukraine, however, does not seem to be on the agenda for the time being.

But once Ukraine has taken its relations with the EU to a new level, there will be no point trying to preserve existing relations between Ukraine and Russia, which are based on the feeling of the countries being not quite foreign to each other. That sentiment has been a tangible element of Russian-Ukrainian ties since Ukraine gained independence. In a sense, withdrawing preferential treatment will be Russia’s ultimate and final recognition of Ukraine’s independence. To Russia, Ukraine will become just another foreign country.

That will hurt, but independence has its price.

It is important to make sure such decisions are taken on the basis of sober and rational calculations, as opposed to political slogans. Looking at the debate in Ukraine, there is no certainty that the rational approach will prevail.

Fyodor Lukyanov is a political scientist and editor-in-chief of the journal Russia in Global Affairs.

How a constitutional crisis turned to tragedy Grigory Nekhoroshev CORRESPONDENT

Twenty years ago, I was sitting on the floor of a corridor in Moscow’s White House, home of the Russian parliament, waiting for fate to take its course.Young people in their twenties wearing camouflage and holding Kalashnikovs were at both ends of the corridor at makeshift military posts a hundred steps from me.

They were soldiers of Alexander Barkashov’s ultra-nationalist paramilitary and political movement,“Russian National Unity” (RNU), which fought President Boris Yeltsin’s forces and lives on today.

I had been captured at about 2am when I was leaving the White House go to the BBC bureau to hand in my report on the fourth day of the confrontation between the Supreme Soviet, as the parliament was then known, and President Yeltsin.

Mobile phones were rare and land lines in the building had been cut off. I had to leave the building and go to the nearest phone booth or to the bureau if I needed to send a transcript of an interview with someone from the rebellious parliament to London.

There were no problems for the first four days. But on the evening of September 25, hundreds of RNU armed fighters appeared in the corridors of parliament and began to enforce new rules.“Hey, a BBC correspondent,” said one of the fighters, looking at my accreditation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.“We’ll have to shoot him.You are an enemy and, moreover, a dangerous one.”

No one listened to my explanations, I was searched, they seized my bag with a voice recorder and documents, and ordered me to sit against the wall within sight of the two soldiers. I sat there for about an hour and a

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At 4am a soldier told me, you’re lucky, you can go in the morning and you will live a little while longer

half, under the dim light of the emergency lights. The electricity had also been turned off.

They cut off the water too, so a strong smell was coming from the lavatories.

At about 4am a soldier came back and said, “Rutskoy [Alexander Rutskoy, who had assumed the powers of acting president] told us to let you go in the morning. Lucky, you will live a while longer.” He led me to an office where two soldiers were sleeping on tables among scattered papers with parliament logos. I didn’t feel like sleeping. He asked why a Russian would work for the British.

“The Americans and the British are the main enemies of Russia. They have been trying for many years to break the age-old communal way of life in Russia, because they are afraid of her great Orthodox mission in the world. They are trying to pervert us with porn and permissiveness.” I was scared and didn’t want to argue, so I said I was just a reporter and don’t ask philosophical questions.

My job was to write about what I see.

As the tragic outcome came closer, the aggression towards journalists escalated: representatives of both sides saw us not as observers, but as active participants. Even the ordinary onlookers milling around outside the White House were aggressive towards us.

On the evening of October 3, the main action moved to the Ostankino television centre, which armed supporters of the Supreme Soviet tried to capture. More than 100 journalists were among the crowd of attackers. Special forces units began to fire from the roof of the TV centre.

Reuters stringer Zurab Kodalashvili and AFP correspondent Stephen Bentura tried to help AFP correspondent Pierre Célérier to his feet. I couldn’t get to them through the crowd.

Then I learnt Célérier had been wounded – a bullet went under his body armour and into his back. Among the dead were Rory Peck, German stringer from ARD, and Yvan Skopan, cameraman for France’s TF1 television station. Peck was a sociable guy, everyone knew him. He travelled to almost all of the “hot spots” of the former Soviet Union.

EUGENE ABOV PUBLISHER, PAVEL GOLUB CHIEF EXECUTIVE EDITOR, MARIA AFONINA EXECUTIVE EDITOR OF WESTERN EUROPE, ILYA KROL EDITOR, UK EDITION, ALEXANDRA GUZEVA ASSISTANT EDITOR, TONY HALPIN GUEST EDITOR, OLGA DMITRIEVA ASSOCIATE EDITOR (UK), PAUL CARROLL SUBEDITOR, SEAN HUGGINS SUBEDITOR, ANDREY SHIMARSKY ART DIRECTOR, MILLA DOMOGATSKAYA HEAD OF PRE-PRINT DEPARTMENT, ANDREI ZAITSEV PHOTO EDITOR, SHAUNA MASSEY PROOFREADER

After a sleepless night, most journalists returned to the White House because we had heard there would be an assault at dawn. At six o’clock a column of tanks began to come from the direction of Kutuzovsky Prospekt.

The shelling began. Around noon, after filing dozens of reports from phone booths, I thought I would collapse from exhaustion.

I remembered an American friend had a one-room apartment on the top floor of one of the high-rise buildings on Novy Arbat. I found Paul Klebnikov, a reporter for Forbes, in my friend’s apartment sitting by the window. We sat by the window for a few hours in silence, as if watching a play. Klebnikov occasionally wrote something in a notebook, I went to the kitchen every half hour to call in my reports.

The White House was in full view. At about 3pm Novy Arbat was filled with armoured vehicles. People appeared on the roofs with rifles and machine guns. The armoured vehicles opened fire.

Suddenly, we heard retaliatory gunfire ring out from the roof of our building. We ran out of the apartment into the hallway, and threw ourselves to the floor. Just then, a bullet flew through the corridor window, ricocheted off the ceiling to the tile floor, and tile fragments broke the frontal bone in my skull. Blood began to gush out of my forehead.

The door of the next apartment opened and the neighbours told us to come inside. A man, woman and child of about seven were sitting in the hall, the safest part of the flat. We sat there huddled together, and the boy saw the blood and shouted,“They killed this guy, mum, they killed him!” Somehow I just said automatically,“They didn’t kill me, I was just drunk, and I slipped and fell.” The boy smiled.

Klebnikov said: “Here is the end of Soviet power.” This son of a Russian emigrant and descendant of the Decembrist Ivan Pushchin returned to Russia a few years later to be editor of Forbes. He was later killed in the new, non-Soviet Russia.

Grigory Nekhoroshev was Moscow correspondent for the BBC (1988-1995).

E-PAPER VERSION OF THIS SUPPLEMENT IS AVAILABLE AT WWW.RBTH.RU TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SUPPLEMENT CONTACT SALES@RBTH.RU © COPYRIGHT 2013, ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALEXANDER GORBENKO CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, PAVEL NEGOITSA GENERAL DIRECTOR, VLADISLAV FRONIN CHIEF EDITOR.

VOX POP

What RBTH readers think about the hot topics. From facebook.com/russianow

Ali Ko on Edward Snowden: He looks a very “typical” Russian.

Maybe he is an agent himself and it all was a long-term special operation? Will we ever know?

"

Kris Tina on Russia’s economy: Russian economic policy is an interesting case of capitalism controlled by the government for the sake of a strategic vision and a greater good of the economy for all – rather than the government being controlled by a vision of a few entities looking to squeeze maximum profit out of the economy.

"

Alla Mudzhigaeva on the intelligentsia: I wonder whether the word itself, “intelligentsia”, will survive? Speaking of reality, what does the intelligentsia think of business people, who also create an enormous value for society? If there is a strong resentment between these two, then there will not be any balance in society.

"

Letters from readers, guest columns and cartoons labelled “Comments”, “Viewpoint” or appearing on the “Opinion” and “Comment & Analysis” pages 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 UK@rbth.ru

he world today is constantly changing. The global economy is still in a state of flux, with some developed economies enjoying a surge in business activity and employment, and others – for example, on the European continent – just trying to fend off the lingering consequences of the financial crisis. A shift of growth potential to the east and the emerging markets is becoming an increasingly important factor for securing growth on a global scale through international co-operation and trade.

In these circumstances all nations are searching for reliable sources of sustainable and healthy growth to support the livelihoods of their citizens and the success of their companies. Many countries share specific strategies and interests, which can be used for competition and collaboration between governments and corporations.

Take Russia and the UK, for example.

Export of its natural resources, notably hydrocarbons, has been an important part of Russian growth policy for generations. It has driven foreign investment, infrastructure development, legal reforms, employment and many other domestic developments.

In the UK, the equivalent “natural resources” are financial services, a key element of the British growth agenda that has boosted many areas of economic activity in the UK. Russia and the UK have been criticised for their over-reliance on hydrocarbons and financial services respectively. No country can afford to continue relying on age-old traditions and priorities to support national growth and achieve prosperity. Both countries are actively developing high technology, innovations and venture financing. Both governments agree this is a potential Klondike for entrepreneurs, investors, companies and governments alike, a source of employment, investment and development of the SME sector. I do not mean all such projects have to lead to household names as dominant as Facebook or Twitter – this is not the main point.

The British Government is creating favourable conditions for such companies and institutions. Apart from the well-advertised Shoreditch project, I am aware of certain investment support instruments and channels offered to hi-tech firms and new venture capital funds spring into life every month.

Russia has also made innovative development a key priority. Government policies are being implemented though big, well-financed institutions, including Rusnano, RVC (Russian Venture Company), the Skolkovo Foundation, as well as Vnesheconombank development bank. They are backed by Russian universities and corporations.

If it is to succeed, this work cannot be constrained by national boundaries. Helping SMEs and venture capitalists talk to their colleagues in other countries is just as important for their success as providing financing guarantees or new infrastructure.

British companies are very active globally and so are Russian institutions. Skolkovo, Rusnano, RVC, private firms and individual entrepreneurs are building relationships and constantly looking for partners, including in the UK, with some interesting projects in the pipeline.

The trend is backed by the two governments – prospects of co-operation in innovation were first discussed by the Russian president and the British Prime Minister in 2011. Efforts in this area will be touched on at the forthcoming session of the bilateral Intergovernmental Steering Committee to be held in Moscow in mid-November with the Russian first deputy prime minister, Igor Shuvalov, and UK Business Secretary Vince Cable presiding.

There is a plan to create a dedicated networking platform for Russian and British innovators and venture investors to share thoughts and discuss working together.

The world is constantly changing.

The ability to innovate and support new technologies not only provides us with a potential source of growth, but also gives us a wonderful opportunity to co-operate more closely. The dividends of such work can easily be shared.

AlexanderYakovenko is Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He was previously Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

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Comment & Analysis www.rbth.co.uk_Tuesday, October 29, 2013_P5

ENERGY REVOLUTION COULD LEAVE RUSSIA OUT IN THE COLD Natalia Lebedeva FINANCIAL ANALYST

The shale revolution in the United States may change the global oil market and Russia’s ambition to become the leading energy power.

More and more experts have begun to wonder how long Russia can remain one of the world’s leading global exporters of raw hydrocarbons. The latest trends in the petrochemical sector indicate that competitors are emerging where they were least expected.

The biggest importers are declaring that they are prepared, at least partly, to turn away from imports of oil and gas.

The so-called shale revolution could become a threat to the Russian market. The US began to invest in developing shale oil and gas extraction technology 15 years ago, and today it has partly succeeded in replacing imports and reducing prices on the domestic market.

The development of shale oil extraction was a response to a decade of high oil prices, beginning in 2004. America, as the largest consumer of hydrocarbons, was forced to look for alternative ways to become self-sufficient. With

oil prices at $100 per barrel or higher, it became profitable to invest in “indigenous extraction”. The initial cost of shale oil extraction is between $70 and $90 per barrel, which is significantly higher than for traditional oil; yet it still makes sense, when global oil prices are at $100 per barrel.

Russian companies saw no sense in investing in such unprofitable projects, since there are a large number of untapped deposits with an initial extraction cost of only $20 per barrel. In the end, America, having invested in new technology, has achieved a breakthrough and is now on its way to being self-sufficient in energy.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs are certain that, by 2017, the US will become the world’s largest oil producing country. Production could rise from 8.3 million barrels of oil per day to 10.9 million and overtake production in Russia and Saudi Arabia.

What does this mean for Russia? Any increase in production means that the price will go down on the global energy market. This means a sharp reduction in income for the state budget.

The petrochemical sector cannot be competitive without modernisation and the development of production and infrastructure. Competiveness has to be maintained, so as not to lose established markets.

MOSCOW BLOG

Thus, Western Europe is Russia’s “favourite consumer”.It has infrastructure in place to transport oil and tankers can be used to conveniently deliver oil products via the Black Sea. A great deal of production is concentrated in Germany, Italy and France, which ensures stable consumption. But there is one small problem: environmental requirements are increasing all the time in Western Europe.

The introduction of the Euro 5 ecological standard intended to reduce harmful emissions into the atmosphere is forcing Russian companies to invest in modernising production. It is possible, while oil prices are higher than $100 per barrel, to invest in technological processes and creating pipeline systems.

However, it is a completely different situation if global prices fall as a result of an increase in production. Russian petroleum experts are proceeding on the basis that, if America is close to achieving self-sufficiency in oil, Western Europe will require supplies from Russia for a long time to come. Opportunities for shale extraction are limited in Western Europe by a lack of space and ecological risks.

For confirmation of the European orientation of Russian producers, one need only recall the Yug pipeline. This Rosneft project will create a pipeline network to export Russian light petroleum products from the Black Sea coastal region and have a capacity of 8.7 million tons per year. Eastern European countries also maintain their faith in Russian oil since, historically, delivery infrastructure was linked to supplies from the former Soviet Union.

China and Japan are in constant need of large quantities of energy. They are also trying to reduce their dependence on imported energy, including from Russia, and are starting pilot projects to develop shale deposits. Thus, the development of shale technology around the world risks leaving Russian exporters, in the long term, with just their European markets.

Russian companies will continue to be profitable, Still, the era of high oil earnings will come to an end.

History repeats itself, this time as a computer game Dmitry Babich ANALYST

The biggest importers are declaring that they are prepared, at least partly, to turn away from imports of oil and gas

Natalia Lebedeva is a financial analyst and general director of consultants Miravil Group.

There are many similarities between Edward Snowden and the Russian dissident writer, Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Both were condemned as traitors by their own governments. One wrote novels about the Soviet prison system, the other leaked information on US surveillance operations.

In the Fifties and Sixties, when Solzhenitsyn wrote his best books, people still read epistolary novels. In Snowden’s time, people prefer the real thing – genuine email messages leaked on the internet.

The Soviet authorities in the Seventies and the American authorities in 2013 denied that the revelations of the two men were true. They just said that they were presenting untypical phenomena as typical. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev could not deny the existence of Stalin’s concentration camps, which Solzhenitsyn described. Instead, he just said they were “individual mistakes.”The KGB was just protecting us from the foreign spies.

The NSA’s defenders in the US said that its Prism programme was targeting terrorists.

They were sorry if some peaceful citizens were sometimes eavesdropped on. Even if the “individual mistakes” could be counted in millions, just like in Solzhenitsyn’s exposure of the whole “archipelago” of labour camps.

Both dissidents found support and understanding abroad (support at home was evident, but ineffective – the story of the two men shows that the chances of an average American to influence political decisions in his country are not much bigger than were those of a Soviet citizen). Here the similarities between Brezhnev and President Barack Obama end – and not in Obama’s favour.

Brezhnev could have sent Solzhenitsyn to the camps, which still functioned in the 1970s, though on a smaller scale. But he preferred to avoid the public relations disaster for the Soviet Union of a trial, and so Solzhenitsyn was expelled to West Germany (FRG). Obama already had his Solzhenitsyn inside the modern FRG (Hong Kong and later Russia), but wants him back to the US for a “fair trial”.

There is little doubt that Snowden would end up in the modern American version of the gulag. It is sad that history in the case of the two men has repeated itself not as farce, but as a wicked Orwellian computer game.

LONDON BLOG

Power, politics and central heating Nikolai Gorshkov JOURNALIST, WRITER IORSH

NOTEBOOK issue as an urgent public health problem. As many as 400,000 people in Russia are estimated to die from smoking-related diseases each year.

Sniffing out a £60,000 truffle and rivers of champagne Tony Halpin RBTH

Rich Russians enjoying the high life always attract attention abroad and billionaireVladimir Potanin hasn’t disappointed.

The mining oligarch has paid a New York restaurant owner $95,000 (about £60,000) for a white truffle weighing an impressive 1.8kg (4lb), according to the New York Post.

The truffle, found in woods in Piedmont and other parts of Italy, is nicknamed “white gold” because it is so rare and costly. In fact, at nearly $53 a gram, Potanin’s fungal extravagance worked out at about 25pc more expensive than the current market price for 24-carat gold.

Russia’s seventh richest man, worth an estimated $14.3bn, can easily afford his tasty treat. Potanin is also known in Russia for supporting charitable projects in education and culture.

He was a model of thrift compared to the two unnamed Russians who splashed out a whacking £131,000 in just three hours on their drinks bills at the opening of a new London bar.

Witnesses told newspapers that the pair, aged in their Thirties, went head to head in a contest of competitive champagne consumption to see who could rack up the biggest tab, helped by groups of beautiful

women who quickly surrounded their tables.

The “winner” paid £66,778.91 for a bill that included 30 magnums of Cristal champagne, 20 bottles of Dom Perignon and seven bottles of vintage 1998 Krug. His losing rival spent £64,279.70 to settle a bill containing more than 120 bottles of champagne.

The club’s waitresses must have been thrilled with their night's work – the bills included £17,000 in service charges.

Hopefully, the men woke next morning to equally enormous hangovers.

Smokers feel the heat Meanwhile, times are getting tougher for Russia’s smokers, who make up about 40pc of the adult population. Fines of up to £60 are being introduced next month for smoking in public places as part of sweeping measures aimed at persuading them to kick the habit.

Smoking in children’s playgrounds will attract the biggest penalty, while schools, hospitals, government buildings, public transport and sports stadiums are also covered. It will be even harder to light up next year, when a total ban comes into force in restaurants and cafés, hotels and trains. Considering that some train journeys in Russia take days, that’s not an appealing prospect for travelling nicotine addicts to ponder.

The law also limits the display of tobacco in stores and imposes minimum prices in a country where a pack of 20 cigarettes can cost as little as 70p. Similar bans have been imposed throughout Europe in recent years, but Russia has one of the highest smoking rates in the world and officials regard the

Has anyone got a light?

The club’s waitresses must have been thrilled with the £17,000 in service charges

Lighting up also seems to be a problem for the torch relay in the Winter Olympics.

Relay runners in Moscow have had to stop at least four times after the flame on the sleek red-and-silver torches went out. Embarrassed officials have resorted to using cigarette lighters to reignite the gas-fuelled torches.

More seriously, a torch erupted in metre-long flames during one handover between relay runners in the town of Kostroma, before it was quickly taken away.

The mishaps have led to hard questions being fired at the Siberian factory that made the devices, at an estimated cost of more than £4m. Worryingly, perhaps, it is more usually engaged in producing ballistic missiles for submarines.

A total of 16,000 torches will be carried during the journey, which stretches for 44,000 miles around Russia, making it the longest Olympic relay in history. One will even go to the International Space Station before being returned for use at the opening ceremony in Sochi’s Olympic Stadium in February.

Calendar girls for peace The world’s trouble spots have seen football diplomacy and pop concerts for peace.

Now, strippers for Syria? A Moscow strip club has produced a calendar of its dancers in appreciation of President Vladimir Putin’s diplomatic efforts to avert military action by the United States against the Syrian regime over its alleged use of chemical weapons.

Each photograph of the scantily clad women on its “Make Love, Not War” calendar carries a slogan opposing the use of force in Syria. Platinum blonde Anna, Miss November, even makes a direct appeal to President Obama, declaring: “Barack, you’ll change your mind after two of my private dances.”

I have a dilemma that keeps me awake as the nights grow longer and colder. We need to upgrade the antiquated central heating in our London home to keep it warm through the expected harsh winter. The builders suggest heated floors. Cool idea, but then things get more complicated. Should we go for the “wet” system, ie, hot water pipes, or electric? The “wet” system is gas-fired and should be cheaper to run, but the initial outlay is much higher.

On the other hand, does it really make any difference when gas and electricity prices are going up by almost 10pc? Britain’s big six energy companies say they need to cover the rising cost of delivering power to our homes, but somehow cannot guarantee an uninterrupted supply. We are being warned that the impending decommissioning of outdated power stations means Britain may experience blackouts within two years.

Some people predicted such an eventuality.

In a BBC2 futuristic docu-drama If... the Lights Go Out which was shown in 2004, the south-east of England is plunged into darkness in 2010 after a Russian gas pipeline, the main source of energy, is sabotaged. Now we are in late 2013 and Russian gas is nowhere near being the primary source of UK energy.Yet blackouts creep closer.

It’s not that there were no willing investors.

Russia’s Gazprom tried unsuccessfully to buy into Centrica and the nuclear energy giant Rosatom has been courting British partners for some time with a view to building modern reactors in the UK. Both were viewed with suspicion by British politicians and the media.

Business and energy considerations took a back seat to worries about Moscow’s political influence and Russian corporate governance.

No such worries apparently about Chinese influence. The deal to attract Chinese investment into the first new nuclear power plant in the UK for a generation has been hailed as a new dawn. Quite a change from recent western worries about China snapping up natural resources across Africa and Latin America, while showing little interest in human rights, the environment or corporate governance.

The plant will take 10 years to build.

Meanwhile, the choice facing many Britons may not be between gas and electric but between heating and eating, to paraphrase Sir John Major.

Gastronomy P6_Tuesday, October 29, 2013_www.rbth.co.uk

City food revolution creates a new world of taste Food Next month’s Taste of Moscow event will reveal how a delicious culinary transformation has brought fine dining to Russian tables There are now many places in Moscow where you can find delicacies from all over the world. Traditional Russian cusine is not prominent on the menu at many the city’s top-class restaurants, although some top chefs are pioneering a new approach to tempt diners to revisit the country’s heritage

JAMES LAWRENCE

It is incredible how in such a short space of time the dining culture has been transformed into a dynamic industry

MULTIMEDIA

Scan this code to find out more about Russian cuisine and for a selection of recipes

FIND MORE at www.rbth.co.uk/ arts/cuisine

If one chef embodies the exciting new face of Moscow’s gastronomic community, then it is Anatoly Komm.

Since his flagship restaurant, Varvary, entered The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Guide in 2011, the waiting list has become seemingly endless as Russia’s wealthy elite clamour to sample Komm’s remarkable take on traditional Russian cuisine.

Saying Komm is Russia’s answer to the renowned Spanish chef Ferran Adrià is not hyperbole. Like the founder of El Bulli, Komm is a pioneer of experimental “molecular” cuisine – investigating the science of food preparation – and has updated many Russian classics to critical acclaim.

PRESS SERVICE

Culinary star who reinvents tradition

Interactive workshops From November 22-24, the inaugural Taste of Moscow food festival will take place in venues across the city, uniting Moscow’s diners and industry stakeholders with some of the most renowned international and Russian chefs working today. Big headline names, including Alyn Williams, will participate in cooking demonstrations, masterclasses and most importantly, engage directly with Muscovites keen to expand their knowledge and palates.

Highlights include the opportunity to take part in three interactive workshops and sample the signatures dishes of Moscow’s leading chefs at nominal prices.Where else could a Muscovite hope to enjoy 10 dishes from restaurants of the quality of Nobu and Hugo in one setting?

There is also the added bonus of a guest representation from Croatia, whose top chefs are travelling to Moscow to share secrets of their renowned gastronomic heritage.

The festival first took place in London 10 years ago, and has received widespread endorsement from such famous chefs as Gordon Ramsay and Michel Roux Jr. Although some might question the wisdom of bringing the Taste Festival to a city without a proven gastronomic he-

TASTE FESTIVALS

White Rabbit in Moscow is one example of how Muscovite dining habits have evolved over the past decade

WHITE RABBIT

In little more than 25 years, Moscow has transformed itself from a city that barely had any privately owned restaurants into an increasingly attractive destination for both Russians and visiting gastronomes searching for top-flight international and Russian cuisine. An explosion of younger culinary talent in recent years, combined with a burgeoning interest across Russian society in good food and fine dining, has encouraged the proliferation of many successful new restaurants.

The rise in disposable income across the Russian urban classes has helped fuel this demand, as Russians become far more demanding and discerning in their food choices. The picture today is a far cry from the Moscow of the Seventies and Eighties, when the only eateries available were dire, government-run cafés and the occasionally badly run restaurant, visited by senior party officials.Visitors would sooner starve than dine at these venues, Muscovite officials were fond of saying.

Of course, Russia’s capital still has a long journey to take before it can offer real competition to the likes of London, Paris or New York. But, crucially, a new “middle-tier” class of restaurant has emerged over the past five years, where diners come for the food rather than just to be noticed. Restaurateurs such as Alexei Zimin, who co-founded the excellent and affordable French brasserie Ragout in 2010, have helped to narrow the gap between fast-food outlets and ludicrously expensive, lavish dining experiences. It is in recognition of this fledgling interest in gastronomy that the Taste Festival organisation will invest in the Russian capital for the first time in 2013.

TASTE FESTIVALS

SPECIAL TO RBTH

There are few venues in Moscow where diners can enjoy classic Russian dishes such as selyodka pod shuboy (“herring under a fur coat”) which is slices of pickled herring, mixed with mayonnaise, and topped with beetroot and carrots, reinvigorated for the 21st century.

Komm is one of few leading chefs who have

invested in understanding Russia’s culinary past and attempted to bring it up-to-date to satisfy modern tastes.

His path to culinary greatness did not start in the kitchen. Born in Moscow in 1967, he studied geophysics before moving into the fashion world and travelling around Europe, sourcing the finest materials

ritage, managing director of Taste Festivals Justin Clarke is confident that the decision will be vindicated.“When I was approached to organise a Taste Festival in Moscow, my initial reaction was perhaps one of caution, as well as excitement. Food is arguably still relatively virgin territory in Russia and the nation does not have an established heritage of a dining culture and inherent appreciation of good food.,”he explains.

“However, one of the key aspects of Moscow’s food revolution that convinced us to organise a festival here is the attitude of openness to other food cultures. This is one of the most attractive things about the culture here; there is a discernible appetite now to be experimental and adventurous with food.”

His claims are borne out by the guest list for the Taste of Moscow Festival. Local participants include such culinary stars asVladimir Mukhin of Moscow’s White Rabbit restaurant; Dmitry Zotov, brand chef of Restaurant Syndicate, a major holding company uniting a range of premium restaurants; and representatives from the successful Novikov chain of restaurants.

White Rabbit in Moscow is one example of how Muscovite dining habits have evolved. Its internationally seasoned menu offers a panoply of options, including smoked salmon on spinach, risottos, pasta dishes, plus veal steak and rack of lamb – flown in from Italy and New Zealand respectively. It would have been unthinkable 10 years ago for Muscovites to be able to enjoy such a wide variety of flavours and styles of cuisine under one (very glamorous) roof; today it is commonplace.

Vladimir Mukhin, like many of his contemporaries, has travelled and fallen in love with the diverse flavours of Europe and beyond. He claims his restaurant specialises in Russian cuisine, though it’s hard to see many obviously Russian influences in his pan-Italian dishes.

This is perhaps what Moscow still lacks: a core of restaurants that put the emphasis on updating Russian cuisine for the 21st century.

The White Rabbit has plenty of similarly trendy and popular competition – Aist, Bon and Carré Blanc to name a few – but it would be difficult to find many Russian classics in their pan-European menus. Restaurants such asVarvary, with its avant-garde take on Russian cuisine do exist, but they are few and far between.

“Haute cuisine is still a very novel concept for Russians,” Varvary founder Anatoly Komm says. “The market for refined, modern Russian cuisine in Moscow is small but growing. However, for a significant majority style rather than substance is the top priority."

Which is why Arkady Novikov has enjoyed such success. Since opening his first venue in 1991, Novikov has become a name synonymous with the local food industry, opening more than 50 restaurants ranging from the lavishly decadent to the buffet chain Yolki Palki.

Novikov understood from the beginning that professional and wealthy Russians wanted to enjoy the hitherto unavailable delights of the world’s finest cuisines in suitable surroundings, rather than hark back to Soviet functionalism.

“During the years of the USSR, food was simply about sustenance rather than delighting,” emphasises Mr Clarke. “This is precisely why Moscow has until now largely regarded highclass cuisine as a foreign import, with some notable exceptions,” he adds.

Peasant origins for his fashion company Koty. During his travels, Komm developed an intense passion for food and haute cuisine, and opened his first restaurant, Green, in 2001.

Today, Komm is the head chef of five restaurants and was the first Russian to have an establishment – his venue in Geneva – listed in the Michelin guide.

Komm is not a man to rest on his laurels: he has spent the past 18 months touring the world and promoting the virtues of new-wave, molecular Russian gastronomy. From Hong Kong to Munich and beyond, Komm has taken temporary control of the world’s finest kitchens to bring residents a taste of his signature dishes at Varvary.

His comments remind us that Russia’s food foundations were laid firmly by the peasant community, living in often harsh conditions. Poultry, game, fish, rye, barley, millet, berries, beer and vodka were their key staples. If Russian cuisine stands a chance of appealing to both a wider international audience and Moscow’s wealthy elite, then the city clearly needs more chefs like Komm to continue refining and reinventing its gastronomic heritage.

Yet Jeff Tyler, head chef at Novikov’s flagship London restaurant, is convinced that Russian cuisine will eventually enjoy more far-reaching appeal: “Other cuisines – Thai, Italian, etc – are more mainstream and therefore diners are more familiar with them. However, we are seeing cuisines from around the world grow in prominence, for example Korean, which we now offer on the menu at Novikov.”

Mr Clarke is confident that the best is yet to come. “Moscow is still trying to get a sense of what it really stands for, just as London did 20 years ago,” he underlines. “And like our great capital, I’m sure Russia’s dynamic first city will find its feet and gain the confidence to promote and update its gastronomic traditions in time.”

Whatever direction Moscow takes, one thing is guaranteed: residents and visitors alike can no longer complain that their options are limited to the number of fingers on one hand. Today, the dilemma in the capital is where to start.

Sparkling chefs on the wine list Haute cuisine Abrau-Durso sets up gastronomic centre of excellence to boost Russia’s culinary image JAMES LAWRENCE SPECIAL TO RBTH

In the past seven years, the wine-maker Abrau-Durso, founded in 1870, has become a shining example of the successful reawakening of an almost forgotten wine brand. Now it aims to do for nation’s gastronomic reputation what it did for its sparkling wines by training a new generation of chefs.

The school was the brainchild of Pavel Titov, company chairman and son of the man who revived the brand’s fortunes, Boris. “We had planned for years to open a centre of gastronomic excellence,” says Mr Titov. “We wanted to lead by example in educating the next generation of Russian chefs.”

He added: “Historically, Russia has not possessed one single specialised gastronomic institution that could rival the best schools in Europe.

With this project, we now have an opportunity to change Russia’s poor global image for hospitality

and gastronomy that has endured for decades.”

Situated in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia, the estate’s gastronomic centre was officially opened in November last year and welcomed its first cohort of students earlier this year. The project is estimated to have required an investment of many millions of pounds, although Mr Titov refuses to divulge the exact costs. Classes are held at new teaching facilities in areas based in the winery’s existing hotel and restaurant complex.

The new institution is reaching out far and wide in the culinary world to ensure that its students receive a well-rounded and international education. Mr Titov says that students will be taught by leading French and Russian chefs, including Philippe Mille and George Tashker. There will also be an opportunity to study at the two Michelin-starred Les Crayères restaurant in Reims, in collaboration

with the French city’s food academy.

The sparkling wine house was founded when Emperor Alexander II decreed that a wine estate be built in the village of Abrau-Durso. After the Russian revolution in 1917, the estate became a favourite of Stalin, who was convinced that champagne should be the people’s drink and set Abrau-Durso on a mission to bring champagne-style sparking wine to the masses. After the Soviet Union’s collapse, the winery was left to rot and production stopped.

Enter Boris Titov. The former petrochemicals trader fell in love with the beauty of Abrau’s lakeside location and purchased the property in 2006. He set himself the task of reviving the estate’s fortunes and instigated a major investment in the restoration of the vineyards: 200 hectares of new vines from France and Austria were planted and more than $20m (£12.4m) was spent on renovating the winery’s equipment.

Today, it is a symbol of pride for urban Russians, who enjoy many million bottles each year of Abrau-Durso’s champagne-style sparkling wines in restaurants and in the home.

Culture www.rbth.co.uk_Tuesday, October 29, 2013_P7

Worlds apart: life along the pipeline

A celebration of contemporary film

PRESS SERVICE

Cinema An economic link becomes a symbol of the cultural division between Russia and Europe YAN SHENKMAN RBTH

The documentary film Pipeline has collected a number of prestigious awards in recent months, bringing the world’s attention to people who live alongside a giant natural gas pipeline that links Western Siberia to Western Europe. The film reaches London next month as a competition entry at the Seventh Russian Film Festival, which runs from November 7-17.

Thirty years ago, a “pipes in exchange for gas”agreement was signed between the Soviet Union and Germany, and Soviet natural gas started flowing to the West.

The film crew travelled the entire length of the pipeline in 104 days – from Urengoi to Cologne. Some things they found were funny, but more were rather sad. The Northern Urals: a priest enters wooden sheds and mobile homes near the pipeline. He offers to baptise a newborn baby, but nobody is interested; they are

not sure God even exists. What do those people need? A convenience store nearby and electricity. They have neither.

At the other end of the pipeline, store shelves are full and streets and houses glitter with electric lights. But there’s no happiness there either, just joyless, mundane fun. Glazed eyes, ignorance and a lack of awareness. “A night away, closer to death by a day,” says a Siberian babushka. Perhaps the same goes for Cologne.

At times, it seems that director Vitaly Mansky shot this film 30 years ago. The promises of officials that the“gas will make you warm too... in the future”, have not changed. An eternal flame goes out in a provincial town; workers try to get it going again with a cigarette lighter, but there’s no gas. There’s drunkenness, misery and, above all, a sense of resignation.

The closer the camera gets to the West, the better-looking the landscape and apartments become – and the better-fed the cows and goats.

The people are calmer and more self-assured.

Different values: director Vitaly Mansky in Russkinskie, Siberia. His film exposes contrasting attitudes to life and death

Russian Art Week Lecturer sets up website as guide to key cultural event

The creative force who helps collectors see the big picture ILYA KROL, TONY HALPIN RBTH

PRESS SERVICE

Next month’s Russian Art Week will mark the one-year anniversary of Theodora Clarke’s online initiative to promote awareness of Russian art sales and cultural events in London.

The Russian Art Week website grew from her successful arts site, Russian Art & Culture, which she developed originally as a blog after organising a conference for curators and academics. Within a very short time, 50,000 people were reading the site to learn more about Russian cultural events.

Russian Art Week, she says, was conceived as a way “to bring together commercial and academic organisations in a co-ordinated series of events twice a year.

“Every year in June and November the major auction houses host sales of Russian

art in London. However, I realised that if you are a collector coming from Russia, there was no central place to find all the information on what was going on,” she explained.

“We list all the sales, events and exhibitions going on with a focus solely on Russian art and culture. Last year, we published our first guide to the event and it was so popular that we plan to make it a bi-annual publication.”

Demand for Russian art is booming and Britain has become the centre of that market. The last event in June realised more than £50m in sales in just a few days at auctions held at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and MacDougall’s, says Ms Clarke.

“The range of works presented included paintings, icons, Fabergé jewellery and other pieces. Art is being seen by high net worth individuals as a good alternative

Theodora Clarke: fell in love with Russian art as a 16 year-old

“Russia is special in that it doesn’t consider European values to be values at all,”the director says.“One of the most chilling scenes shows a funeral in the Vologda Region where local men cut through the frozen ground with axes to put a coffin into it.

“For us this is quite natural. Perhaps this is the only right way to express sympathy and compassion for the deceased. But Russians watch funerals in Europe with astonishment too. Burying a person in a cardboard box for economic and ecological reasons is unthinkable for a Russian. A Russian will give away his last shirt to pay his last respects properly.

“It’s not like in Europe, where you come to the crematorium, listen to Ave Maria for five minutes, and don’t even say goodbye to the dear departed, who you can’t see anyway because a closed casket is wheeled in on a gurney and then wheeled out. We are different in birth, in death, in the entire life cycle. The pipeline doesn’t unite us like politicians and economists would like it to, it divides us instead.”

Some have seen Pipeline as an accusation thrown at the current political regime: a source of billion-dollar profits is a backdrop

investment given the current eurozone crisis.”

A number of exhibitions featuring Russian art coincide with next month’s event, from November 22-29, including one curated by Ms Clarke herself, the first UK retrospective of Boris Chetkov, a contemporary painter from St Petersburg.

“The whole week is also a warm up event for the 2014 Russia-UK Year of Culture. The growth of the Russian art market in London and huge population of Russian émigrés in the country means that the year is sure to be a great success,” she says.

Ms Clarke holds an MA in Russian Art and lectures widely on the subject. She fell in love with Russian art when she visited Moscow’s State Tretyakov Gallery as a 16 year-old on holiday.

“Most people find it rather bizarre that I am British but that I set up and run a Russian project. I noticed that many people in the West are well acquainted with Russian music, ballet and literature,” she says.

“However, I found that Russian art is simply not as well known here, apart from the great avant-garde painters, such as Kandinsky, Chagall or Goncharova.

“One of my aims with Russian Art Week and the Russian Art & Culture website is to bring this unique culture to a wider audience both here in London and to international audiences around the world.”

Pipeline, which was praised at the recent BFI London Film Festival, will be shown at the Empire Cinema in Leicester Square on November 14 as part of the Seventh Russian Film Festival, which also includes a retrospective of documentaries by its director Vitaly Mansky, including Virginity and Broadway. Black Sea.

There are no unhappy people in his film. Nobody is going to change anything, they’re happy with the way things are

The festival brings together award-winning directors, producers and actors in a celebration of contemporary Russian film.

The opening night will see the UK premiere of Bite the Dust by Taisia Igumentseva, an apocalyptic black comedy that mixes fantasy, Russian still life and an exploration of apocalyptic

obsessions. It was nominated for the main prize at Kinotavr 2013, the most significant Russian annual film festival.

Other highlights of the festival include Citizen Poet, about a satirical show that captured the mood of political protest in Russia, and The Land of the Deaf, starring the acclaimed Chulpan Khamatova.

to extreme misery and deprivation.

So who’s to blame? Mansky isn’t out to point fingers. Neither does he treat his characters as victims. There are no unhappy people in his documentary. Nobody is going to change anything – everybody is happy with the way things are.“In order to change something, there must be desire at the grassroots. And there’s no desire. Had it been there, this would have happened three centuries ago. Russia doesn’t want to change at the physiological level.

“For a European, this situation appears hopeless. For a European-oriented Russian, it does too. But for the rest, it’s not a problem at all.

Russians don’t suffer, their lives are organic.

There’s an expression in Russian that translates as ‘to burn through life’. We are all burning through our respective lives, Russians and Europeans. Only we do it differently. And each side is miserable in the eyes of the other. But in this misery lies our happiness.”

CALENDAR UK EVENTS

from the iconic borscht to the kindergarten favourite sweet milk bowls. russianrevels.co.uk

RUSSIA FOR BRITS UNTIL MAY 1, 2014

FLIGHT BY DMITRY SHORIN ERARTA GALLERIES LONDON UNTIL NOVEMBER 16

An exhibition that brings together Shorin’s acclaimed paintings with an ambitious new sculptural project realised in collaboration with Erarta Galleries. A sculpture from his renowned I Believe in Angels series will make its London debut after a world tour.

London-based Russia Local Ltd, in a partnership with a number of British and Russian cultural, educational and business organisations, has launched a new project called Russia4Brits to promote a positive image of Russia among British schoolchildren. The partnership has also launched a competition aimed at 15- to 19-year-old students across the UK. russialocal.co.uk/en/russia4brits

erartagalleries.com

MOSCOW STATE CIRCUS RUSSIAN REVELS COOKING MASTERCLASSES PADDINGTON STATION AND KENSINGTON HIGH STREET NOVEMBER 7, 10

Russian Revels invites everybody to experience the playfulness and deliciousness of Cuisine Soviétique in their masterclass, Mastering the art of Soviet Dining. On November 10 in Kensington High Street you can take a voyage to beautiful Slavic soups,

UNTIL JANUARY 19, 2014

The Moscow State Circus returns to the UK with its latest programme, Park Gorkogo, set in the mystical centre of Moscow’s Gorky Park. moscowstatecircus.com

FIND MORE IN THE CULTURE CALENDAR

at www.rbth.co.uk

Sport P8_Tuesday, October 29, 2013_www.rbth.co.uk

FINAL THIRD

Soccer in the sand: Russia’s beach boys conquer the world James Ellingworth SPECIAL TO RBTH

Russia wins the World Cup, crushing Spain 5-1 in the final. If that sounds odd, how about host nation Tahiti’s gallant charge to the semi-finals, with a 6-1 pasting of Argentina on the way?

Welcome to the topsy-turvy world of beach football, where Russia has won the world’s biggest prize, just as temperatures in Moscow dipped towards zero and the country prepared for another freezing winter. Strange as it may seem, Russia has emerged as the predominant power in

beach football, winning the last two World Cups, as the sport rapidly becomes more professional. They’re simply unstoppable.

“If you’re not counting on victory, then why take part at all?” defender Alexei Makarov told RIA Novosti, adding that the achievement would take a long time to sink in. “Of course, we understand that we’re two-time world champions, but a complete comprehension of what’s happened will only come later, maybe even not in a year or two.”

Fittingly for a game born in Brazil, beach football has a carnival air about it. Back in the middle ages, carnival signified a time when the world was turned upside down, a concept that dates back to the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia, when slaves and masters switched places.

Still hampered by its image as the sort

of sport you find on TV at four in the morning sandwiched between motorbike speedway and curling, beach football is quietly attracting a large and growing following worldwide, largely thanks to the array of tricks involved.

The small sand pitch all but rules out dribbling and makes it hard to escape markers, forcing players to rely on the sort of close control, tricks and flicks that would be seen as showboating in full-size football.

The five-a-side format guarantees crowd-pleasing goalfests – indeed 2-0 is the record low World Cup score.

Much like traditional football in the Sixties and Seventies, the increasing popularity of beach football in a wider range of countries is ensuring that the most egregiously one-sided results are a thing of the past. Tahiti’s five-goal margin of victory over Argentina this year seems a lot, but it’s nothing compared to the 14-2 and 12-1 humiliations at earlier World Cups.

Still, beach football remains a long way from the $30bn-plus (£18.5bn-plus) revenues of traditional football, and is even in the commercial shadow of another Brazilianborn variant of the game, futsal, which has had Fifa recognition for a lot longer.

As well as showcasing beach football’s development to date, last month’s World Cup highlighted just how far it has still to go.

Russia’s winning squad received just $7,000 (£4,300) each for their efforts, less than a day’s pay for many Premier League players, and the fact that the tournament was held in two tiny Tahitian stadiums speaks volumes about the crowds it can attract.

Why is Russia so strong? First, there’s Russia’s general attitude to sport, best characterised by an insatiable thirst for medals. In a highly centralised system, sports bosses are skilled at recognising niche sports where a more professional approach can bring win after win against largely amateur opponents. At the Olympics, that’s brought crushing Russian dominance in synchronised swimming and rhythmic gymnastics – hardly big-name events, but between them they offer almost as many gold medals as sprinting.

Second, Russia has a huge talent pool of frustrated footballers. With a population of 143 million but only a few more professional clubs than Scotland, most aspiring Russian players face a choice between eking out a far-from-glamorous existence in provincial backwaters and giving up the game

altogether. That means perfect recruits for the fledgling professional futsal and beach football leagues, each of which gets reasonable TV time – appealing for many players who would otherwise be turning out for Dynamo Nowheregrad in the Second Division East.

Third, it’s a simple question of respect.

There are exceptions, but generally beach football is treated as a real sport rather than a joke, and success brings rewards. A former coach of the national beach team, Nikolai Pisarev, has since been put in charge of the country’s under-21 side in traditional football. He’s even spoken of as a successor to Russia’s manager Fabio Capello. A beach coach turned national team manager – in most countries, that seems about as probable as a World Cup in Tahiti.

It’s football, but not as we know it – Russia reigning supreme, Tahiti triumphant – although there are signs that this anarchic beach spirit could be seeping into the traditional game. Tahiti reached the Confederations Cup this summer and played the likes of world champions Spain. And Russia are going to their first World Cup in 12 years next year – in Brazil, no less – by qualifying ahead of Portugal. Viva Carnival!

Kicking out the troublemakers Football Law that aims to stamp out hooliganism with tougher fines and stadium bans divides the fans

Influx of riches fails to change culture culture of fans; Russian supporters continued to scream racist chants, throw bananas at black players and set off fireworks. On November 17, 2012 at the Premier League match between Dynamo Moscow and Zenit St Petersburg, Dynamo’s goalkeeper Anton Shunin was injured by a firecracker, prompting the referee to abandon the game.

Zenit were later deemed to have lost. This was the last straw and legislation to tackle the problem of hooliganism was introduced.

TIMUR GANEEV

faces, shouted nationalist slogans and burnt flares. Hundreds were arrested after three hours of fierce battles with the police. Aslan Cherkesov, from the North Caucasus, was sentenced to 20 years in jail for Mr Sviridov’s murder.

Russian fans have also been involved in several racist incidents in recent years. Last week, Uefa opened disciplinary proceedings against CSKA Moscow after Manchester City midfielderYaya Toure complained he faced racist chanting during a Champions League match in the Russian capital. CSKA deny the claims.

Evgeny Selemenev, 20, a Spartak Moscow fan, says the new law will not make Russian stadiums more secure.“Innocent people are very often arrested by the police at matches. On the other hand, all stadiums should be equipped with video cameras and those, for example, who burn flares should be visible on the recordings. But the police just grab whoever is nearby and accuse them, saying: ‘You reek of alcohol.’ Once they arrested me because I stood in the front row and smiled. They claimed I was smiling defiantly.”

Prof Serzhan believes new infrastructure for the World Cup in 2018 and the trust of club leaders in their fans will improve the situation.

On the beat: hardcore Zenit St Petersburg fans, or ‘ultras’, take their fervent support to the streets

“If good football stadiums are built in Russia, then normal fans and families will want to attend the games. Clubs must also carry out correct marketing policies, such as contests and social initiatives. As a good example, the Cameroonian defender for Anzhi, Benoît Angbwa, recently taught a geography class at a Makhachkala school.

“Club leaders must build a dialogue with fans. For instance, Zenit fans understand that they should never set off flares in the stadium during League Championship matches because this brings the club losses in the form of fines.

If anyone among the fans lights a firework, then other fans will take it from him and put it out. This is the result of work with the fans.”

Sergei Altukhin, a fan of Kuban Krasnodar – which had the highest attendances in Russia in 2012, an average of 21,000 – believes the restrictions will only make fanatics more inventive. “A complete ban on fireworks is not the most logical solution to the problem: matches will lose their colour. It is much more important to establish co-operation between the clubs’ security services and the police.

“We often create a great banner and get the approval of club management only to find that

transfers of German Kevin Kurányi, Brazilian Roberto Carlos, Cameroonian Samuel Eto’o and Brazilian Hulk, as well as the relative success of the Russian national team at Euro 2008, seemed to have had little effect on the

gets confiscated by police at the entrance.”

Dan Darby, an English fan who supports Russian clubs in European competitions, considers Russian supporters to be no different from those of other countries and thinks their behaviour is generally good. “I lived in Russia for a little while. I speak Russian and even once covered Russian football for the Press Association. Moreover, I still do predictions on Russian Football Premier League (RFPL) matches for a bookmaker and watch a few games every weekend.

Russian fans are really nice people.

“They support their teams well and cheer for football with all their heart. I don’t understand why people are trying to paint them in a bad light. Believe me, fans from England are much more aggressive than Russian ones.”

But Alexander Meytin, security director for the RFPL, backs the law.“The responsibilities of both parties – those who watch and those who are in charge of their security – are clearly defined. The police will start securing the territory adjacent to the stadium and stewards will look after fan behaviour. I do not exclude the possibility that other countries may find it necessary to learn from our experience.”

New amendments to the law could be added in the near future. One of the most important changes might be that Russian fans will have to present their internal passports, a form of ID card, when buying tickets. The officials believe that this would make information available on every football fan, which will make it possible to clamp down more effectively on those who interfere with true football lovers’ enjoyment of the game. There is no such law in any other country.

COUNTDOWN TO SOCHI

101 days to go

© RIA NOVOSTI

Thanks to an injection of cash into Russian football in recent years, more foreign stars have been attracted to the league and foreign trainers have been recruited to manage the national team. However, the multimillion-pound

ITAR-TASS

This summer, President Vladimir Putin signed a law that increases the penalty for public order offences by football fans to 15,000 roubles (£290), imposes up to 160 hours of community service, and bans offenders from attending matches for up to seven years. The police must also create a blacklist of unruly fans and stadium owners have to install video surveillance systems.

The law has divided Russian society into three groups. One believes that the new legislation will ensure peace in grounds; the second considers it as just another move by the authorities to tighten the screws; and the third worries that such policies will create new conflicts in the stadiums.

At a match against Terek Grozny from Chechnya on September 14, 2013, Zenit fans burnt the Chechen flag and a video of the insult was posted on YouTube. Zenit had to pay a steep fine and Fifa and Uefa officials again noted the disgraceful behaviour of Russian fans.

However, the full story is more complicated.

“The burning of the Chechen flag was in response to provocation by Anzhi fans,”says Edward Serzhan, a journalism professor and Zenit fan. “Two years ago, fans from Anzhi Makhachkala hung the Ichkerian flag in the stadium in St Petersburg [Ichkeria is an unrecognised state that existed after the collapse of the USSR on parts of the North Caucasus territory of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, the apparatus of which Russian authorities put on its list of terrorist organisations].

“Officials did not respond to the incident at that time, but fans took to social networks in force. In Russia, people are accustomed to respond to provocations with a provocation.

“The flag-burning episode does not mean there is violence in our arenas,”notes Prof Serzhan.“Fanatics’ levels of aggression match the aggression level of our society. It is a powerful social structure through which the political mood manifests itself.”

Many fans of Moscow clubs and Zenit St Petersburg are nationalists with radical rightwing ideas.They were involved in a 2,000-strong protest at central Moscow’s Manezh Square in December 2010 over the fatal shooting of Spartak Moscow fan Egor Sviridov following a clash between two groups of youths, one composed of migrants from the North Caucasus.

The Spartak fans, many of whom covered their

ITAR-TASS

SPECIAL TO RBTH

The Olympic torch is making its relay around the country. On October 20, the flame arrived at the North Pole. Later it was delivered to Baikonur Cosmodrome and next month it will be launched to the International Space Station.

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES – GENERAL INFORMATION PARTNER

Sochi Forum: a driver of economic modernisation XII INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT FORUM SOCHI, 2013

Pre-Olympic Sochi hosted the XII International Investment Forum from September 26-29, with results that pleased organisers and business leaders. A total of 83 agreements were signed, including 27 for investments worth a combined 86.11 billion roubles (£1.67bn). More than 9,000 participants were registered at the forum, including 325 foreign guests from a total of 42 countries.

The plenary session attended by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev – Economic

Development and Quality of Life: Challenges and Prospects – became the pivotal event of the forum. The business programme comprised 18 round-table and 26 panel discussions.

There was first-class entertainment too, from stars of the international music scene including the Scorpions, the Kuban Cossack Choir and other popular Russian and foreign bands. The event also featured a Formula 1 demonstration race, Formula Sochi 2013.

Guests were also offered visits to the Olympic venues in the Imeretin Valley.