2013 #12 RBTH for The Daily Telegraph

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

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Identity crisis: pro-European protesters fly the national flag in Kiev

RBTH for iPad For each Moscow traffic jam, there is a magnificent underground station

A DIVIDED UKRAINE: BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE EU The crisis over the country’s future intensifies as protesters backing closer ties with Europe bring the barricades back to Kiev’s Maidan Square, says Gevorg Mirzayan

O

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

Politics & Society The safest Olympics ever?

Forbidden zones, drones and tight security at Sochi P.02

Business & Finance Red caviar: the new black Salmon roe replaces unaffordable ‘black gold’ on the Russian table P.03

pinion in Ukraine has split in two over whether the country should sign an Association Agreement offering trade and political links with the EU or move closer to the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Some, such as Roman Travin, a political scientist from the eastern city of Kharkiv, are already calling it a “cold civil war”.

The barricades are back on Kiev’s Independence Square, known as Maidan Square, where an estimated 200,000 gathered on Sunday at a pro-Europe rally to demand the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych. US Senator John McCain, the former Republican presidential candidate, told them: “We are here to support your just cause, the sovereign right of Ukraine to determine its own destiny freely and independently. And the destiny you seek lies in Europe.”

Supporters of Mr Yanukovych held a rival rally nearby at Mariinsky Park, though far fewer people attended. Speakers insisted that they would win the battle for the country’s future.

Yevhan Magda, a political analyst in Kiev, argued that many of the anti-government protesters“speak not for European integration, but against violations of their civil rights by the authorities and security forces.”

An opinion poll on December 2 by the Gorshenin Institute found a similar picture. Some 56pc of those surveyed were at Maidan to demand the resignation of the president and the government.

Only 28pc were there specifically to support the Association Agreement with the EU. “The signing of the Association Agreement is not a choice between Europe and Russia. This is a question of the viability of the state,” Sergei Kaplin, an MP with the Udar party led by world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko told RBTH.“We are overwhelmed by corruption, our state has a lot of problems. I see the only way to solve them is to adopt the legal standards of European countries.”

A survey by the Ukrainian company Research & Branding Group found that 49pc of respondents supported the Maidan protests while 45pc were hostile. Opinions were divided on a regional

basis. People in western and central Ukraine overwhelmingly supported the demonstrations, by 84pc and 66pc respectively, while the Russian-speaking east and south of the country were equally strongly against, by 81pc and 60pc.

Eastern Ukraine is Mr Yanukovych’s electoral heartland but its residents are not taking to the streets in any great numbers to support him. Mr Travin explains: “Yanukovych greatly disappointed his own electorate. Relations with Russia are poor and the quality of life has fallen.”

The pro-EU protesters cannot ignore their compatriots in the industrialised east, however, not least because that region feeds much of the country: MrYanukovych’s home region of Donetsk alone provides a quarter of all the government’s revenues. The east worries that its heavy industries will collapse if the government signs the Association Agreement, because Russia is the biggest market for its products and has said that it will impose trade tariffs in response.

The first people to feel the consequences will be “the students from Kiev Maidan who haven’t yet earned a penny”, according to Mykola Zagoruiko, the head of the Donetsk branch of Mr Yanukovych’s Party of Regions.

Disruption of economic ties with Russia would lead to the closure of several important projects, including joint production of a new cargo aircraft, the An-70, for the Russian air force. Russian politicians have also said Moscow would not initiate any new projects because of security concerns.

“We will not locate any sensitive technologies on its territory or use them. The reason is simple – it would be not EU technologies, but Nato ones,” said Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s deputy prime minister. “Ukraine has to decide what she wants – a new constitution or marinated sturgeon.”

The“euromaidan”crisis is exacerbating Ukraine’s financial woes. Insurance rates against the risk of default on Ukrainian bonds have risen to the level of world “leaders” such as pre-default Argentina and Venezuela.Yet Mr Yanukovych urgently needs foreign credit to pay debts, including $2bn (£1.2bn) owed to Russia’s Gazprom for gas deliveries.

Ukraine needs to borrow at least $10bn to avoid

Europe encouraged dreams of aid then refused to bail out Ukraine months before the deal was to be signed

a default, First Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzov admitted this month. There are few willing lenders. European politicians were “offended” by Mr Yanukovych’s last-minute refusal to sign the trade deal, while Ukrainian ministers complained that it contained only €610m (£515m) of aid. The International Monetary Fund is demanding drastic welfare cuts in return for support.

For now, only Moscow is offering financial support on the required scale – but on condition that Ukraine rejects the Association Agreement. Mr Yanukovych is to meet President Vladimir Putin in Moscow today and economic aid is expected to be high on the agenda.

But Ukraine’s economic problems are not its greatest challenge. The current state lacks a national idea and its eastern and western parts have a totally different understanding about the country’s future political direction.

The causes of this division lie deep in history.

Independent Ukraine has existed within its present borders only for the past 22 years. The state was formed by the Bolsheviks from different cultural parts. Some had been ruled previously by Russia and others, mostly in the West, had been part of Poland for centuries. The people of these regions have completely different perceptions of national identity and history.

Ukraine’s different leaders understood the dangers of this divide, but could not find any common national idea. So MrYanukovych chose what seemed to him to be the easier option, replacing a national idea with the supranational ambition of integrating Ukraine into the EU. Officials presented the idea to voters as a panacea for all the country’s ills, suggesting that European aid would save Ukraine from financial collapse.

Europe encouraged these dreams, but then it refused to bail out Ukraine a few months before the Association Agreement with the EU was to be signed. MrYanukovych backed away from the deal but immediately faced the consequences of his own policy – many Ukrainians felt cheated and took to the streets in protest.

Instead of a national consensus, the social divide in Ukraine has grown ever more visible.

Politics & Society P2_Tuesday, December 17, 2013_www.rbth.co.uk

NEWS IN BRIEF

Security clampdown aims to make Sochi ‘the safest Olympics ever’

Public vote marks symbolic new era for the rouble

Security Forbidden zones, drones and 30,000 police and troops will be deployed to counter terrorist threats

The Russian rouble has a new symbol, chosen in an online poll organised by the Central Bank among Russian internet users. More than 280,000 votes were cast in the month-long poll, which asked people to choose a symbol, from among five suggestions, to represent the national currency. In the end, the winner received 61pc of the vote.

The symbol will now be used in currency exchange offices and on pricing signs both inside and outside Russia. The rouble, which has a 700-year history, became fully convertible as a currency only in 2006.

China announced in December that the rouble would be allowed to freely circulate in Suifenhe, a city close to the border with Russia, to boost trade.

YAROSLAVA KIRYUKHINA RBTH

Air defence systems Six Pantsir-S short-range air defence systems, which are designed to take out various targets flying at low level, including cruise missiles and aircraft, have been deployed in the region to protect Russian air space along the country’s southern borders.

Dmitry Chernyshenko, the president of the Sochi Organising Committee, promised in an interview with the American NBC TV channel that next year’s Winter Olympics would be “the safest Games ever”. Mr Chernyshenko added:“That’s because we understood from the very beginning of our campaign that safety would be a key priority of the organisers.

Terrorism, it’s a global threat. Take Boston for example. This is an illustration that terrorism has no boundaries.”

Mr Chernyshenko also said that Russian and American officials have collaborated on security plans and that military security staff would not be dressed in standard uniforms but would have a more festive look.

Russia has also reached out to the UK and Georgia to co-operate on security, moves that reflect both Russian and global concern over potential violence at the event.

Some experts have, however, voiced their concerns that security measures are in fact aimed at protesters, while others compared them to the Soviet Union's actions ahead of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, when the KGB simply sent all of those deemed suspicious out of the capital.

Russian authorities have also implemented restrictions on demonstrations in the area from January 7 until March 21. They say however, that this is not targeted at LGBT rights activists who may be planning to protest in

ITAR-TASS

© RIA NOVOSTI/SERGEY VENYAVSKY

The Sochi Winter Olympics next year will have some of most extensive identity checks and sweeping anti-terrorist measures ever seen at an international sports event. The tight security aims to make Sochi the“safest Games ever” despite the threat of Islamist terrorism.

Earlier this year, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltzev announced that more than 30,000 police officers and soldiers would be deployed to protect the city, patrol Olympic facilities, screen incoming vehicles and X-ray construction materials to ensure safety. In comparison, the total military presence at the 2012 London Summer Games with its then unprecedented security was close to 18,000.

According toYuri Deshevikh, the head of the Emergency Ministry Supervisory Activities Department, around 1,500 firefighters and lifeguards will keep watch over athletes and guests at the Games, supported by a total of 100 vehicles and aircraft, including four helicopters and five ships.

The Russian economist Mikhail Delyagin, however, forecasts that the number of foreign tourists to the Sochi Olympics held in the Black Sea resort from February 7-23 will not be more than 15-20,000: five times less than the estimated figure and three times less than the total number of foreign volunteers and members of sports delegation.

But no matter how many Olympic visitors arrive, they will be heavily protected by a combination of security personnel and sophisticated weaponry.

New money: Georgy Luntovsky, first deputy head of the Central Bank, and the symbol Safety first: visitors to Sochi will be protected by a huge security operation

The ring of steel around the Games Controlled zones Olympic venues and infrastructure, including the coastal Olympic Park and mountain skiing facilities; transport hubs, including air, sea and rail.

Forbidden zones Parts of the border area separating Russia from Abkhazia, as well as parts of Sochi National Park.

Sochi against Russia’s “gay propaganda” law.

Rigorous identity checks start at the ticketbuying stage. Anyone wanting to attend the Olympics will have to buy a ticket online from the organisers and obtain a “spectator pass” for access, providing their passport details and contacts so that the authorities can check their identity upon arrival.

Spectators will be asked to wear their security passes while attending sports events for quick identification.

The Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov believes that the measure will be useless for people who already live in the area, which is a little more than 60 miles from the troubled North Caucasus region.

But it seems that the authorities have foreseen this problem. Police in Sochi conducted house-to-house document checks to screen residents and reportedly deported thousands of migrant workers who were recruited to build Olympic facilities, a policy which was attacked by human rights groups.

A special forces brigade of Chechen war veterans will also be deployed to patrol the forested mountains around the Sochi area.

Restrictions on firearms Police and other security agencies have carried out dozens of exercises to prepare for possible emergencies. The head of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov, recently announced that a series of strategic exercises called Olympics-2014 will be held in the Sochi area. The head of the National Anti-terrorism Committee,Vladimir Kuleshov, earlier promised that action would be take during the Olympics to limit the movement of firearms.

Stun guns, handcuffs and pepper spray would be completely forbidden.

Security at the Games was thrown into the spotlight earlier this year, when Russian officials promised measures to ensure safety at international sports events in the country after Islamist movement leader Doku Umarov called on Islamist fighters to target the Olympics in a video dated June 2013.

Umarov is the self-appointed Emir of a“Caucasus Emirate”that Islamist militants want to establish across the North Caucasus region. He

The new face of Russian policing Law & order With three sets of twins leading the fight against crime, and more on the way, Rostov criminals may be forced to think twice IRINA VARLAMOVA ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA

VIKTOR POGONTSEV/RG(3)

The Rostov-on-Don police force is looking for a few good men, hopefully twins. The southern Russian city already has three sets of twins operating as law enforcement officers and is seeking to recruit more. The force is looking at another set of twins who are now being tested for psychological compatibility with other officers.

In fact, Rostov police chiefs are seriously thinking of creating a special division consisting exclusively of twins. A police spokesman said they believed twins working together on the force could be very beneficial for disorientating criminals. Just imagine:

while in pursuit of a suspect, one twin appears at the window, while the second bursts through the door – quite a psychological attack on the target, who must think he is seeing double.

In Rostov, the first twin brothers to join the special forces were Alexander and Nikolay Matsin. The brothers came prepared: both practised kickboxing and had served in the army in a reconnaissance company.

Then the Pokidov and Sevryukov brothers (both sets featuring an Alexander and a Pavel) joined the Rostov forces.

“Initially, there was no such purpose for forming a platoon of twins,” says the deputy personnel commander of the Rostov Omon (special purpose mobile unit), Roman Vashchenko.

“At the stage of training, we began to notice that the twins were working smoothly. They grew up together, and they can understand each other without words, with only a gesture or glance.

Double take: Rostov police said that sets of twins working together on the force could help to disorientate criminals

has claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks on Domodedovo airport, Moscow in 2011 and in the capital’s Metro in 2010.

According to the London-based IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly, the risk of a terrorist attack against the main Olympic venues remains low, with a greater threat being posed to secondary transport hubs and other sites located away from the main security zones.

Matthew Clements, an analyst at Jane’s, revealed in an interview with the Associated Press that the Olympics security zone imposed around Sochi stretches approximately 100km (about 60 miles) along the Black Sea coast and up to 40km inland.

Alexei Lavrishchev, an FSB official dealing with security at Sochi, explained that access to several territories – so-called controlled and forbidden zones – in and around Sochi will be limited ahead of the Games.

Forbidden zones To access the “controlled” zones, guests would require tickets and confirmation of identity, whereas “forbidden” zones (including parts of Sochi National Park) would be accessible only to those with some work-related connection to the area.

All cars outside the Sochi security zone will be banned from entering it for about three months, including one month before the Olympics and one month after they end. Even vehicles involved in providing essential services to the Games but registered elsewhere will require special passes.

But that’s not all the security measures that will be imposed for the event. According to Mr Soldatov and fellow Russian investigative journalist Irina Borogan, internet, telephone and other communications providers involved in communications support during the Olympic Games are obliged to allow the security services to have access to their networks.

The government has also invested in other means of surveillance, installing 5,500 closedcircuit cameras throughout Sochi and buying a fleet of observation drones to monitor events from the sky. Mr Soldatov described these measures as“the most comprehensive surveillance in Olympic history”.

Together, twins are a real war machine.”

Each pair has its own speciality. Stocky Alexander and Pavel Pokidov are the power unit. They joke that, taking advantage of their similarity, they cheated girls and teachers. They will enter the Law Institute together, and will marry the same day.

Short flexible and manoeuvrable, the Matsins are “climbers” – those who can sneak into the room where criminals are hiding and apprehend them. They can also provide cover for the men of the assault team.

When the Ministry of Internal Affairs needs to demonstrate samples of military weapons during regional events, the choice inevitable falls on Sasha and Kolya Matsin.

About the question of whether their identical genetic make-up gives them an invisible connection between each other, the twins shrug and say that they enjoy fraternal relations with all officers in their division.

“But you are more worried for your brother and ready to do everything possible in order not to fail him, because you have the same blood,” says Nikolay Matsin.

Putin on attack over tax President Vladimir Putin announced a renewed campaign against the use of offshore tax havens by Russian companies in his annual State of the Nation address to the Federal Assembly. Mr Putin said that reducing the economy’s reliance on offshore companies was a central government objective.

“The profits of the companies that are registered in offshore havens but belong to Russian owners and beneficiaries must be taxed under our own tax code, and the tax

revenues must be paid to the Russian treasury,” he said. “We must come up with a system for getting hold of that money.”

Around $111bn (£68bn) of Russian money, equivalent to 20pc of the country’s exports, went through offshore companies last year. The president proposed bans on state support and government contracts for companies that were not registered in Russia.

The drive to “de-offshorise” began a year ago, but little progress had been made, Mr Putin admitted.

Floating hotels for Sochi

MULTIMEDIA

Passenger ships temporarily imported into Russia may be used to accommodate participants and spectators at the Sochi Winter Olympics in February. A government resolution has exempted vessels temporarily

imported by stateowned Rosmorport from customs duties if they are to be used as floating hotels.

As many as seven ships could be used as hotels, but they would have to be moved out of Russia after the Games.

Russia scraps Cuban debt Scan this code to read more about preparations for the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi

FIND MORE sochi2014.rbth.ru

Russia has agreed to cancel 90pc of Cuba’s Soviet-era debt in a deal that ends 20 years of disputes over the money. The debt restructuring will write off $29bn (£17.8bn) of Cuba’s $32.2bn debt.

Moscow signed the agreement in October, according to a Reuters report, following negotiations that began in February when Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited Cuba. Cuba must repay the remaining $3.2bn of debt to Russia over a 10-year period. Talks continue on exactly how the impoverished country will repay the money.

RUSSIAN ENTREPRENEURS TELLING YOU THEIR SUCCESS STORIES Don`t miss the chance to meet them at rbth.ru/30under30

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Business & Finance www.rbth.co.uk_Tuesday, December 17, 2013_P3

Red hot: how salmon became the new sturgeon

ITAR-TASS

Food industry Russians acquire a taste for red caviar as prized ‘black gold’ disappears from stores YAROSLAVA KIRYUKHINA RBTH

Black caviar has long been a prized symbol of Russian affluence. The aristocrat’s hors d’oeuvre is the salted roe derived from the sturgeon, one of the most threatened groups of fish on the planet. Worth more than gold and prized by gourmets around the world, the decline in sturgeon numbers means that the genuine tiny, shiny black eggs are rarely available in stores.

Instead, counterfeit caviar is filling the shelves. Caviar from pike looks similar in every way, but bears no comparison with sturgeon eggs when it comes to taste. However, aficionados are increasingly turning to the lowerpriced red caviar, which is produced by salmon and sold in many supermarkets, to satisfy their taste for roe.

New Year treat Even red caviar prices are expected to rocket ahead of the New Year holidays, a time most Russians associate with an open sandwich topped with butter and the sticky red beads.

Last summer, the price of salmon caviar increased by up to 70pc, largely because of a bad start to the salmon season in eastern Russia.

Later, there was a return to more usual market prices – around $50 (about £30) a kilo – thanks to the large-scale imports of frozen red caviar from Alaska.

Between 40 and 60pc of the red caviar in

Russia comes from fisheries in the far east of the country. The annual production of salmon caviar in Russia is estimated at between 11,000 and 13,000 tons.

About 1,500 tons of frozen red caviar had been imported to Russia by August, worth more than $13m, according to the Federal Customs Service. Almost 90pc of the caviar was declared at $7 to $9 per kilo, several times lower than the average price of Russian caviar.

Market experts say that salmon roe shortages and price fluctuations in Russian caviar are largely a result of conflicts between caviar processors on the east coast and those near the Caspian Sea. As salmon catches increased in the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia's Far East and in the Sakhalin region, more caviar processors were established on the east coast – leaving processors near the Caspian Sea with nowhere to obtain fresh salmon roe. According to recent data, about 4,0 0 0 tons of raw caviar were harvested in the Caspian Sea betweeen 2010 and 2011, but the amount dropped to just 1,500 tons last year.

Legal Russian caviar can hardly be found in Asian stores, except in Japan, which imports salmon roe from its western neighbour for its sushi bars. Hong Kong, however, has recently witnessed the first Asian sale of wild sturgeon harvested on the Iranian side of the Caspian.

In China, which aims at becoming a world leader in caviar production, the salted sturgeon’s roe from Russia has better reputation than the domestic delicacy and traders are sometimes forced to obscure its origin.

The price for a kilogram of this precious roe exceeded HK$86,000 (about £6,750) at Hong Kong’s Food Expo. European gourmands with deep pockets rejoiced two years ago, however,

Under threat: overfishing brought sturgeon to the brink of extinction and made black caviar a rarity

THE NUMBERS

19

tons of sturgeon roe is produced legally in Russia each year from around 20 fish farms, according to market studies.

225

tons of sturgeon roe are sold on Russia’s black market annually, earning illegal producers millions of dollars.

90

pc of Russian red caviar is harvested from wild salmon in the Far East, with the rest from farm-grown fish.

when Russia lifted a nine-year ban on the export of sturgeon caviar to Europe – harvested from farmed sturgeon and limited to 150kg a year. At around £4,000 per kilogram, it remained an exclusive taste.

One Moscow restaurant demonstrated Russians’ continuing love affair with the luxury delicacy last year by organising the first speedeating contest for black caviar. Twelve fortunate contestants were chosen randomly in a lottery and given the task of racing each other to be the first to eat half a kilogram of the black pearls. The winner took just 1 minute 23 sec in a contest estimated to have cost organisers £40,000.

Russian wild caviar, that beloved snack of Russian tsars and those who aspired to be princely, is now no more. Older Russians remember eating black caviar as a childhood treat, but rampant overfishing, particularly after the fall of the Soviet Union, led to stocks falling so low that Russia introduced a moratorium 11 years ago on commercial fishing for sturgeon in the Caspian Sea, the historical centre of caviar production. Caviar’s high prices encouraged the overfishing and smuggling.

Catering for expensive tastes If you think black caviar is the most expensive and the tastiest, you would be wrong.

The most expensive roe, which is golden yellow, comes from a rare Caspian Sea fish: the albino Beluga sturgeon.

A small jar of this delicacy could set you back more than £30,000 because it takes the fish at least 20 years to mature before producing eggs.

Beluga sturgeon can live for more than 100 years and the lighter the

colour of the caviar, the older the fish. With age comes a more exquisite flavour and colour, so the older the fish, the more expensive the caviar.

The roe, or “berries” as they are called, are graded in three shades of colour for quality: 0 (darkest), 00 (medium-toned), and 000 (the lightest colour). The 000 grade is the most expensive variety and is referred to as “royal caviar”.

Osetra sturgeon, whose caviar is the second most-prized, ranges in colour from deep brown to golden yellow. Sevruga is the most common sturgeon, and its caviar is black or dark grey and has the strongest taste.

All caviar has a very short shelf life, so must be eaten within a few days if you want to avoid the heartache of having to throw away such valuable food.

tons of the prized Beluga caviar, which is the most desirable form of roe.

Twenty-seven species of sturgeon are now on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list of threatened species and of these, 63pc are listed as critically endangered. The fish, which can grow up to five metres (16ft) long, takes up to 20 years to reach maturity and produce eggs.

A booming black market has emerged to fill the gap between demand and official supplies.

Fish traders in many of Moscow’s indoor markets conspiratorially ask shoppers if they want “black” before pulling out containers of roe, often from illegal poachers in Azerbaijan or from Astrakhan on Russia’s Caspian shore.

Black market tastes Other countries bordering the Caspian, the source of 90pc of the world’s wild caviar – Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan – also agreed to respect the moratorium. In 2006, Cites, the United Nations organisation that controls the trade in endangered species, banned international trade in caviar and other wild sturgeon products.

The ban on sturgeon caviar was eased in 2010 but strict quotas were agreed that barred the export of more than 81 tons from the Caspian that year, including no more than three

Growing nuclear industry becomes a global power Atomic energy Critics expected the sector to stagnate after Fukushima but Russia plans to build plants with the latest safety features all over the world ANDREI REZNICHENKO SPECIAL TO RBTH

Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear corporation, has concluded a record number of transactions this year for the construction of nuclear power plants. Rosatom will build the first nuclear power plants in Bangladesh and Jordan, expand its presence in China and India with the help of new power units, and build the Hanhikivi-1 nuclear power plant (NPP) in north-west Finland. The company is also negotiating an agreement on co-operation with South Africa.

Rosatom also started new construction work in 2013: the Akkuyu NPP in Turkey, a nuclear power plant in Belarus and a plant for the production of nuclear fuel in Ukraine. The Russian company offers its customers new reactors that are innovative in terms of security. For example, passive safety systems in the VVER-1200 reactor used in the NPP-2006 plant can guarantee that the so-called Fukushima scenario in Japan will never happen again.

Rosatom has 19 orders for the installation of similar reactors abroad and is building eight such reactors in Russia.

Package solutions “In my opinion, the most important quality of Russian companies is the package proposal they come with to a potential

customer,” said the independent nuclear expert Alexander Uvarov. This can be demonstrated by the example of South Africa, where a conference of nuclear suppliers, Atomex-Africa, was held last month. According to Mr Uvarov, the Russians have not only invited South African companies into the supply chain for new nuclear projects, but also offered the new partner a huge range of options for development of the entire spectrum of the nuclear fuel cycle.

These range from the establishment of research and education centres and the development of medical isotopes to a reactor and an enterprise for nuclear fuel production. In addition, Russian companies can provide up to 85pc financing for nuclear power plant projects through export credits.

British energy Rosatom’s achievements in 2013 suggest that its confidence for continued success in the future is not misplaced. It is too early to talk about specific technologies, but it is highly likely that Russian nuclear power plants generating electricity will appear in Britain in the coming years. And it is clear that Rosatom will offer Britain the best designs of its power units, with every possible security system.

Moscow can be a reliable partner for

Moscow can be a reliable partner for London in the field of peaceful nuclear energy, just as it been for Washington for decades

PHOTOSHOT/VOSTOCK-PHOTO

Rosatom: an atomic powerhouse Rosatom was set up as a state-owned corporation in 2008 to manage Russia’s civilian and military nuclear assets. It employs 270,000 people across more than 240 subsidiary companies and is the world’s leading constructor of

new nuclear plants.

Rosatom is responsible for building 28 out of the 68 reactors under construction around the globe. By comparison, French competitor Areva, is building four.

Sergei Kirienko, Rosatom’s director

general, said in July that the corporation had increased the value of its foreign contracts by 60pc to $66.5bn (£40.6bn) in the past two years.

Rosatom aims to triple sales by 2030 and has marketing offices in six countries.

Thinking big: Russian nuclear technology is being exported to countries including China, India and Turkey

London in the field of peaceful nuclear energy, just as it has been for Washington for decades. On December 10, 2013, Russia and the United States completed a Megatons to Megawatts agreement on the supply of enriched uranium converted from nuclear warheads for use in American nuclear power plants. Russia has been supplying uranium to the US for 20 years and it is likely that, without this contract, the American nuclear power generation industry would have ceased to exist.

Today no one is surprised that every 10th light bulb in America is burning thanks to electricity generated by fuel from the Russian nuclear industry.

Seasonal special P4_Tuesday, December 17, 2013_www.rbth.co.uk

How to enjoy the Christmas spirit in Russia...

THE DATES

7

January is when Christmas Day is celebrated in the Russian Orthodox Church.

DARIA GONZALEZ RBTH

In Russia, Christmas is marked in January under the Orthodox calendar, rather than December 25, and is not celebrated in such a big way as t is in Europe. But this does not mean that you will be unable to celebrate Christmas fully.

Moscow has everything you need to create a festive atmosphere: Christmas markets, gifts, cards, carols and, of course, snow. Only Santa Claus is missing here, but the Snow Maiden is an attractive alternative.

Anna and Arvid, a couple from Norway, are planning to spend Christmas in Moscow. Anna will cook goose with apples, and in the evenng, they will attend a mass at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Malaya Gruzinskaya Street. Christmas services in the capital can be heard in English, Spanish, Italian, German, Polish, Korean and other languages. They will be held in three Catholic, three Lutheran and two Protestant cathedrals. Mass will be heard two or three times in one evening.

Arvid has worked in Moscow for more than three years; this is Anna’s second Christmas n the Russian capital.“At first I did not know that I wouldn’t be able to find real Christmas cards – only NewYear greetings are everywhere,” she says. “Santa Claus [Ded Moroz – a rough equivalent of the western Father Christmas] wears a blue coat and his granddaughter, the Snow Maiden [Snegurochka], is a blonde in a strange headdress.

“These days, ‘proper’ Christmas cards can be found more often. One should buy them at local fairs; they start on or around December 20.”

8

is the number of days of public holiday for Russians after New Year’s Eve.

13

January is the “old” New Year under the Julian calendar and still celebrated in Orthodox countries.

Festive fairs This year a record number of Christmas fairs will be held in the capital. More than 30 fairs representing European and Russian cities in the Journey to Christmas festival will be staged on streets in the city centre. European cities including Prague, Vienna, Brussels, Riga, Copenhagen, Alsace will be among those with fairs in Moscow. Strasbourg, Europe’s oldest Christmas market, will be in Moscow from December 24 to January 7 in the square in front of the Bolshoi Theatre.

There will also be many tents where you can buy traditional Russian souvenirs – Tula gingerbread, downy shawls from Orenburg and khokhloma painted wooden tableware.

Nearby, you can buy a Christmas tree from while the route to neighbouring fairs can be traced with the help of the invaluable Christmas map of the city.

The popular Seasons of Life magazine will hold its third Seasons festival, a favourite with Muscovites, in the Hermitage Garden, this time in a traditional Russian style. Real carols (a rarity in the Russian capital), a Christmas bazaar, Christmas cave, caviar treats and a fair are all on the festival’s two-day programme.

For lovers of designer items, the Paradise Apples Christmas market will feature the work of more than 200 Russian designers and artists. Here you can buy handmade greeting cards, tree decorations, decorative angels, wooden Santa Clauses, and Christmas wreaths.

For seekers of rarities from the Soviet era, the Lambada market offers vinyl records, Christmas tree ornaments in the shape of rockets, astronauts, red stars, red plastic cones and vintage wooden skates.

Christmas delivery Traditional Russian gifts are absolute musthaves. No one who has spent a couple of years here comes home without a rug, a tray, a pair of lapti (bast shoes), an ushanka (ear flap fur hat) or a T-shirt bearing Lenin’s image.

Patrick is from the UK and has been living in Moscow for two years. Every time he goes home, he brings a suitcase full of gifts. It is riskier and more expensive to send them by mail than to take them yourself or to ask friends to do so, he said. “If you send a gift or a card

by Russian post in early December, it is possible your loved ones will get it in May,” he says. “The Russian post is very similar to the British postal service: they have a habit of delivering your parcel somewhere else, breaking it during delivery, or not delivering it at all.”

Patrick plans to spend this Christmas in Moscow.“My friends and I are going to go to Sokolniki Park to an ice-sculpture masterclass. On December 25 they promised to build a Europe in miniature from ice. We will see what the icy Leeds will look like…”

Many Muscovites and expats prefer to leave Moscow for the holidays. If they don’t go to their home country, they might head for places on the Golden Ring route, such asYaroslavl, Kostroma, Uglich, the historical old Ryazan reserve and resorts offering special Catholic Christmas programmes.

“We are taking a family vacation in Nakhabino for the third year – there are great slopes, plenty of snow, and a forest,” says Alonso, a Spaniard who has lived in Russia for seven years. “Many foreigners who stay in Moscow for Christmas go there for the holidays.

“We celebrate every year together, even if we don’t see each other during the year.”

REUTERS

Festive fun Soviet chic, gingerbread and fairs to spare: making the most of Moscow’s seasonal glitter

Big chill: taking a break from a snowball fight, top; thrills and spills at the ice skating rink in Red Square, Moscow

Where does the gifts budget go?

MULTIMEDIA

Russians spend more on their spouses but less on their children than Europeans

Gifts to themselves

To their children

To other children

To the spouse

To other adults NATALIA MIKHAYLENKO

To Charity

To help usher in 2014, the RBTH My Russian New Year competition invites you to submit photographs showing how to add some “Russian-ness” to your holiday celebrations.

Be as creative and original as you like, and email your pictures to contest@rbth.ru.

Images will be posted on the RBTH Facebook page and websites.

The most “liked” and “shared” photos will win a winter kit for a trip to Russia (includes a flask, iGloves and a Moscow Metro travel card).

The competition ends on December 20, 2013 and the winner will be announced on December 24.

VOX POP

My arrival in Ivanovo was toasted with local vodka and cucumbers

The sea was frozen: a vast white desert stretched to infinity

Richard Peers

Alastair Gill

IN MOSCOW FOR ONE YEAR

IN ST PETERSBURG FOR SIX YEARS

I moved permanently to Moscow to start a British Football School. Christmas Day was a sombre affair; I woke up in the middle of the day after a good evening out. Memories of visiting an Irish pub to sing Yuletide songs, munch on minced pies and play darts with friends before a midnight walk to an empty, festive-themed Red Square (it’s the best time to visit) soon returned.

I escaped Moscow a few days later to spend the weekend with friends in Ivanovo.

It is one of my favourite cities in Russia because of the people I met there when running marathons to raise money for orphaned children in 2009. I was met by my good friend Evgeny. He explained that we had a long night ahead of us and that in Russia the party only starts in the early hours of the morning. After toasting my arrival with a shot of local vodka and succulent dacha-grown cucumbers, we were off to a house party at his friend’s place, where we were greeted with many hugs.

The host had done a great job preparing local meat dishes, fresh salads and traditional cakes, all topped off with more local vodka toasts to ladies, children and international friends. Then the champagne was brought out. I learnt a few lines to some Soviet songs as the group sung in unison around an acoustic guitar. When I thought the night was nearing an end at 3am, I was told we would go to the local nightclubs. What can I say? We had a good night and it finished the next morning! It is always nice to escape Moscow and experience Russian hospitality in the regions.

Christmas Day may be disorientating for westerners – in Russia it is a normal working day – but the rest of December and New Year can be enchanting. Last year, to get a different impression of life in St Petersburg, I moved to a wooden cottage in a village about 20 miles away and just 100 yards from the Gulf of Finland. The snow came early, and by November my housemate and I were digging paths to the door.

An old friend came to visit in December for a pre-Christmas drink. We went down to the sea with my neighbour Natasha to watch the sunset, taking a sledge with us. When we got to the beach, we gasped: the sea was already frozen and a vast white desert stretched to infinity. Intoxicated by the fresh air, the cold and the view, we spent an hour skidding around on the frozen Gulf.

Back at the cottage, after a warming banya, we boiled up a couple of litres of spiced wine and sat outside on the terrace around a table with a 12in covering of snow. Christmas decorations were lit in the windows of houses around us and constellations in the night sky seemed to hang right over the house. It was magical.

The next day we pulled back the curtains to see strange shapes in the snow in the garden. We couldn’t work out what they were – until Natasha knocked on the window. “Don’t you remember?” she asked, “It was so great! Look! Mine’s the best!” It came back to us. Drunk on wine and festive emotion, we’d spent around 20 minutes spread-eagling ourselves on the ground to see who could make the best “snow angel”.

5

PUBS IN MOSCOW WORTH CELEBRATING

JOHN DONNE This popular chain features dark wooden walls and furniture, a lot of customers and noise, televised football and a wide variety of beers.

Bouhessi Khounchef, creator of the menu at the John Donne on Nikitsky Boulevard, used recipes he learnt

in London to create British fare, such as fish and chips, rib-eye steak, shepherd’s pie and chicken tikka masala with mango chutney.

John Donne also sells 14 different types of beer, and the average bill is around 1,200 roubles (£22). www.john-donne.ru

JOHN BULL One of the first pubs in Russia’s capital, John Bull was launched in 1996. Snug, with rugs, pictures on the walls, solid mahogany tables, heavy curtains and leather sofas, it describes itself as a small, cosy corner of England in Moscow.

The original John Bull

Blonde beer is brewed in Bedford, especially for the Moscow John Bull chain. There is an extensive range of food, including a special steak menu and an inexpensive lunch – a good option if you’re hungry. The average bill is 1,400 roubles (£26). www.rmcom.ru

CHURCHILL’S The owners joke that the former British Prime Minister himself prophesied during Soviet times that a pub would be established on this spot.

The pub opened in 1999. Designers used Victorian style elments in its decor, putting traditional English

china in cupboards along the walls and Churchill’s pictures all around. The average bill in the restaurant, which prides itself on its collection of singlemalt whiskies and a wide selection of cigars, is around 1,500-2,000 roubles (£28-£37). www.churchillspub.ru

TEMPLE BAR This Moscow chain with eight pubs around the capital was named after the ceremonial entrance to the City of London and the name is highly symbolic. The pub encourages its visitors to leave modern life behind and plunge into

18th-century London.

Customers are offered a varied menu headed by steak and extending to dorado and bouillabaisse. The beer selection is also extensive, and that, of course, is the main attraction of this venue. The average bill is 1,500 roubles (£28). www.templebar.ru

ROSIE O’GRADY’S Along with fish and chips and steaks with Guinness, Rosie O’Grady’s offers Japanese and IndoChinese dishes. It’s divided into zones: you can pass from an Irish pub to a Scottish pub, and from a banquet hall to an Indo-Chinese room. There is also a

“Back in the USSR” section on the menu, with Russian and Ukrainian dishes such, as sauerkraut soup, Baltic anchovy sandwiches, pickles, dark bread, and salted pork-fat sandwiches. The average bill is 2,000-2,500 roubles (£37-£47). www.rosie.ru

Seasonal special www.rbth.co.uk_Tuesday, December 17, 2013_P5

...and the liveliest Russian New Year here in Britain Countdown to 2014 Expats enjoy river cruises, ice-skating to the latest sounds and a refreshing visit to a bathhouse NIKOLAI GORSHKOV SPECIAL TO RBTH

GETTY IMAGES/FOTOBANK(2)

AP/EASTNEWS

The NewYear celebration is probably the biggest event of the year for Russians, apart perhaps from birthdays. It’s a mix of a family feast and going out with the crowd. Since the advent of the market economy, many Russians prefer to celebrate the New Year in an exotic location. London and Edinburgh may not count as the most exotic places on Earth. But both are among the top 10 New Year destinations for Russians, who come in droves to swell the already impressive numbers of compatriots who live in Britain.

Edinburgh, with its raucous Hogmanay crowd, is a magnet for many younger Russians.

They strive to look and behave like the Scots, or at least the way they think they behave.

They don tartan, swap champagne for whisky and join the swaying crowds, making friends as they follow a torchlight procession or sing along at a street concert.You will be hard pressed to find a Russian who cannot master a few lines of Auld Lang Syne.Vladimir, an air-conditioning systems engineer from the Moscow region, boasts probably the biggest collection of single-malt whiskies in Russia and plans to add more during his customary trip to Edinburgh. He is undaunted by the prospect of a non-stop three-day Hogmanay celebration for one simple reason – NewYear holidays in Russia last for no fewer than eight days.

One truly Russian New Year ritual has been missing in London until now: the chance to visit a banya

Whisky galore

We enjoy everything about the UK, except for the lack of snow

Ivan and Katya Lederov

Kirill Demidov

IN LONDON FOR 8 YEARS

IN LONDON FOR 20 YEARS

We are from Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East and cannot imagine New Year without a Christmas tree. We could not call it a Christmas tree under the communists so it was a New Year tree. Regardless of what it’s called, we absolutely must have a decorated tree to put our New Year presents under.

We used to buy and decorate a tree around mid-December, as soon as they went on sale in London. They are beautiful but expensive for a good-sized one. Then it dawned on us that, come Boxing Day, the remaining trees are sold off at knockdown prices. Who needs them after Christmas? We do!

So we now buy our truly New Year tree on December 27 and it stays until January 14 – the first day of the New Year, according to the old Russian calendar. As for decorations, probably the most beautiful and exquisite ones are sold in Harrods. But the prices are really prohibitive. The trick is to buy them in the last days of the January sale, when they are sold for next to nothing, and keep them for the next New Year. Does it matter that the baubles on our tree are from last season?

But our biggest challenge is to stay more or less cheerful and awake until Big Ben chimes in the New Year. We start celebrating via Skype with our family and friends in Vladivostok, which is 10 hours ahead of London, and raise our first toast at 2pm, while we are still making Russian, or Olivier, salad. Then comes the turn of Khabarovsk, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, Moscow and so on across nine time zones until the New Year reaches London. We have friends in Toronto, too, but we are hardly in a state to drink to their New Year.

What Russian does not like a fast ride? The saying dates back to the days of the troika, a sled drawn by three horses. This image of Russia would be incomplete without snow glistening in the sun.

To a Russian, a New Year without snow is like a troika ride in the sand. My wife and I have lived in the UK for some time and enjoy just about everything, except for the lack of snow. Each autumn, a slight anxiety sets in as we start following weather forecasts in vain hope of a white New Year.

Last year, our friends Lyosha and Tanya suggested going to the Scottish Highlands where the prospects of a white New Year looked a lot better. They knew a Scot who owned a cottage in the village of Arrina, in the far north of the mainland. Surely it would be cold enough for snow? Their Scottish contact could not comment since he only stayed there in the warmer months.

Preparations were long and thorough: warm clothes, snow boots, skis and a sled.

Lyosha’s battered Ford Focus could not accommodate all the stuff, so a roof rack was borrowed to squeeze everything in. Early on December 29, we hit the motorway for a 650-mile journey towards a white New Year.

We reached our destination 14 hours later, including an unplanned stop when the engine overheated, but the only white thing before us was the cottage. It rained non-stop.

Yet we have very fond memories of that New Year, especially of the warmth of the local people with whom we ushered in 2013.

As for the snow – masses of it fell across most of the UK just about in time for the Russian New Year on January 14.

In with the new: top, Big Ben is illuminated by a spectacular fireworks display; bargain hunting on the London high street

Winter steam One truly Russian New Year ritual has been missing in London until now. It is the Russian banya, or bathhouse – not to be confused with a sauna. While the sauna is very hot and dry the Russian banya produces milder temperatures with humid steam, by burning wood in a stove. The super-heated fine and transparent vapour is easy to breathe and is fanned at the body by a bundle of oak or birch twigs (venik) The heat of the steam cabin is followed by a dip in a barrel of cold water at 8C. A traumatic experience, a non-Russian might think But the sudden change of temperature has a highly beneficial effect on the body – toxins are released, and a feeling of relief and lightness follows.You feel like a newborn baby ready for a new life in the New Year.

This was probably the only thing missing from the UK scene to make Russian expats happy on New Year’s Eve. Thankfully, one of them, Andrey Fomin, swapped a career with a British PR consultancy for a banya start-up in Clerkenwell, east London. Banya No 1 brings the ultimate Russian New Year experience to the UK. A word of caution though – be careful not to lose track of time in this blissful place, or you will be late for the chimes of Big Ben when they strike midnight.

What gifts do Russians like to receive most?

Many prefer the flexibility of money but holidays are popular too

Smartphone

* Money was ranked higher in last year’s poll than this year.

Electronic gadgets remain popular as presents with men.

Money

Men

Tablet PC

Holiday

Money

Women

Jewellery or Watch

Money

FIND MORE www.rbth.co.uk/ winter_holidays

NATALIA MIKHAYLENKO

You could not call it a Christmas tree under the communists

Another “must-do” for a Russian in the United Kingdom is a New Year cruise along the Thames from Westminster Pier to Greenwich and back. Not a cheap thrill, but where else can one take in all the famous London landmarks while sipping champagne, and top it all off with a fireworks display over the Thames viewed from a wonderful vantage position? When the cruise finally ends at two in the morning, it is not too late to visit a Russian discotheque nearby. Andrey and Lyuba, who live in Folkestone in Kent, took their first cruise in 2000 to see the River of Fire and although the much-hyped Thames Millennium display did not live up to their expectations, they plan to sail again this New Year.

Good preparation is essential for an enjoyable NewYear. And while more traditional Russian expats sweat in the kitchen preparing a hearty meal, or seek out Russian specialities

such as “herring in a fur coat” in the Russian food shops of north London, others prefer to spend the last hours of the year in more relaxed mood.

Twenty years ago, when the Russian colonisation of London began, there was not much on offer by way of unwinding on New Year’s Eve. These days there is no shortage of venues for a favourite Russian winter pastime – iceskating. The most popular with Russians is Somerset House in the Strand. From midNovember to early January, the elegant rink runs Club Nights. From 8pm to almost midnight, the tempo of the music speeds up and the rink transforms into an ice dancefloor where skaters perform to a live soundtrack provided

by DJs from some of Europe’s leading clubs festivals and labels.

Vera, who is studying at the nearby King’s College, is planning to organise fellow students for a late-night skate on December 31. “We’ll dress to impress,” she says, “skate till we drop and then rush off to Trafalgar Square to join the New Year crowd.”

Russian parents prefer to take their little ones to Winter Wonderland, a bigger but less hectic event in Hyde Park, which has what is said to be the UK’s largest outdoor ice rink. Attractions include a giant wheel in which you can hold hands as you glide around the ice, the Magical Ice Kingdom, Christmas markets and a Cirque Berserk show.

Older generation (55 and above)

Holiday Tablet PC

* Jewellery is third in women’s wishlist of gifts; last year it was cosmetics. A holiday is the dream choice, or perhaps the money to take one.

* A smartphone is the fourth most popular choice (28pc this year against 22pc last year) among the elderly

5

OF LONDON’S MOST RUSSIAN RESTAURANTS MARI VANNA This restaurant offers Russian hospitality in Knightsbridge. Its allegiance is clear from the interior design’s traditional motifs: bears, bookshelves full of Russian literature and other interesting domestic details. In a pleasant, homely atmosphere one can

enjoy borscht, Siberian pelmeni and “herring in a fur coat” as well as sweet blini and vareniki (filled dumplings). A set lunch menu is available at £25. Mari Vanna also has restaurants in Moscow, St Petersburg and New York. The average bill is £35-44. www.marivanna.ru

NOVIKOV The Russian restaurateur Arkady Novikov, who owns more than 50 restaurants in Moscow, opened this restaurant and bar in Berkeley Street, Mayfair.

Novikov offers Chinese, pan-Asian and Italian cuisine in two rooms with

geographically appropriate designs, as well as a cocktail lounge described as having “an eclectic collection of objects from different countries and periods”.

You can lunch here for an average price of £45-54 plus service. www.novikov restaurant.co.uk

MIMINO This place, named after a Soviet movie

by Georgian director Georgy Danelia, offers traditional Georgian food, which is now very popular in Russia, along with other post-Soviet cuisines.

The restaurant in Kensington High Street offers starters such as

lobio (red beans) and suluguni cheese, and main courses such as Khinkali (meat-filled dumplings). You can find several types of khachapuri (traditional cheesefilled bread) and a huge list of Georgian wines. The average bill is £25-34. www.mimino.co.uk

RUSKI’S TAVERN This Russian-themed restaurant on Kensington High Street describes itself as a “Caviar & Vodka Tavern”. Vintage lamps, posters and books decorate the interior in an art deco style. It recalls a restaurant of the same name that opened in

1893 in St Petersburg.

The tavern is holding a Nutcracker’s New Year’s Eve party on December 31. The restaurant menu includes dishes such as Tsar’s ham hock, caviar and chips and a selection of Russianinspired sashimi. The average bill is £35-£44. www.ruskis.com

SOBRANIE Describing itself on its website as “probably, the best Russian restaurant in London”, sobranie means meeting or getting together. Maybe that’s why Sobranie, situated on Fountain Square, Victoria, offers karaoke and live Russian music for diners to enjoy,

alongside home-made vodka and traditional Russian dishes, such as Olivier salad, pirozhki (baked stuffed buns).

Georgian khachapuri, chicken Kiev and Napoleon dessert are also on the menu.

The average bill is £25-£34. www.sobranie restaurant.co.uk

Comment & Analysis P6_Tuesday, December 17, 2013_www.rbth.co.uk

HOW THE SOVIET UNION HELPED MANDELA DEFEAT APARTHEID

ART OF DIPLOMACY

This year shows how much we can achieve by working together

Ajay Kamalakaran JOURNALIST

Trained to fight From the Sixties until the early Nineties, the Soviet Union trained thousands of cadres of MK, the armed wing of the ANC, to fight against the racist regime. According to the website South African History Online: “The Soviets helped the ANC maintain structures that came under enormous pressure, especially through the slump in the Seventies. After that, MK cadres trained in the USSR launched devastating attacks that added to the pressure bringing apartheid leaders to the negotiating table.”

It is easy for critics of Mandela to label him a communist and question the Soviet Union’s motives in seeking to end state-sponsored racism in South Africa. Mandela dismissed these claims in his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. He wrote with a tinge of humour: “There will always be those who say that the communists were using us. But who is to say that we were not using them?”

Mandela maintained a soft spot for Russia

Alexander Yakovenko AMBASSADOR

T

VOX POP

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

NATALIA MIKHAYLENKO

When Nelson Mandela turned 95 in July, President Vladimir Putin gave one of the most glowing tributes to the great leader.“Your name is inseparably linked with an entire epoch of Africa’s modern history that heralded the building of the new and democratic Republic of South Africa.” The Russian leader also praised Mandela’s role in developing ties between Russia and South Africa.

In his message of condolence following Mandela’s death this month, Mr Putin described the former African National Congress (ANC) leader as one of the outstanding political figures of modern times, saying that he had “traversed great hardships and trials, but remained true to the noble ideals of humanism and justice right to the end”.

No discussion about South Africa’s struggle against the tyranny of apartheid can be complete without mentioning the role of the Soviet Union. On April 30, 1999, Mandela, on a state visit to Moscow, was awarded two honorary doctorates from the Russian Academy of Sciences. As he accepted the honours, Mandela said: “I would interpret your action also as a tribute to the intellectuals of our country, of all colours and backgrounds, who have followed their calling to fashion the complex experience and aspirations of our diverse society into a single, realisable vision of a society at peace with itself.”

During the state visit, Mandela expressed gratitude for the“solidarity of the Russian people in the South African fight against apartheid and for freedom”.

Although apartheid formally ended when the Soviet Union had already collapsed, Soviet ideology had been influential in the movement that led to the end of the system. The USSR was at the forefront of the anti-colonial and anti-apartheid movements and the Soviet Union was the ANC’s biggest benefactor.

Mandela was the last person to receive the Lenin International Peace Prize

even after the collapse of the Eastern bloc.

In 1990, the same year that he was released from prison, the Soviet Union awarded Mandela the Lenin International Peace Prize. He was the last person to receive the prize, which was no longer awarded after the fall of the Soviet Union. However, Mandela never received the medal itself.

After his 1999 state visit, Mandela asked his aides to find out what had happened to the medal. In 2002, the Russian ambassador to South Africa, Andrei Kushakov, gave the gold medal to the statesman.

On receiving the prize, Mandela said:“Much has changed in the world since the award was given to us, but the world’s need for the human solidarity which that generous gesture demonstrated remains as much as ever.”

As Mandela wrote in Long Walk to Freedom: “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

Mandela’s state visit in 1999 set the tone for greater co-operation between Russia and South Africa. During that visit, Mandela and Boris Yeltsin, the Russian president at the time, signed a declaration pledging to boost political ties and economic relations in areas such as gold and diamond production.

Stepping up co-operation Since then, the countries have stepped up bilateral and multilateral co-operation. Moscow was the strongest advocate for South Africa to be included in the grouping of the world’s most dynamic emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China. The group’s acronym was changed from Bric to Brics to reflect the addition of the new member.

The increase in ties and growing solidarity between the members of this grouping would surely have been something that Nelson Mandela would have supported.

Ajay Kamalakaran is a journalist based in Mumbai, India. He has been covering political and cultural developments in Russia since 2003.

NOTEBOOK

Bad news for Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s best-known Apple fan.

Russian legislators are considering a ban on iPhones and other foreign-made smartphones for government officials because of fears that they could become targets for espionage. Instead, Medvedev and other officials would be required to use a YotaPhone, according to Izvestia.

The first Russian-made smartphone was launched this month and has two screens, one a full-colour display and the other a black-and-white electronic paper reader.

Medvedev showed off his personal YotaPhone during a TV interview with Russian journalists this month. But he made clear that he would not be throwing away his iPhone, noting that the Russian device still suffered teething problems.

Medvedev was the first Russian to own an iPhone 4 after he was given one by Steve Jobs, Apple’s late CEO, at the company’s California headquarters in 2010.

Mr Medvedev, who was president from 2008-12, is also seen frequently with an iPad. Security has become an issue for many world leaders since it was revealed that America’s National Security Agency is collecting nearly five billion records per day

THIS EIGHT-PAGE PULL-OUT IS PRODUCED BY ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA (RUSSIA) WHICH TAKES SOLE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ITS CONTENTS. ONLINE: WWW.RBTH.CO.UK; E-MAIL: UK@RBTH.RU TEL. +7 495 775 31 14 FAX +7 495 988 9213 ADDRESS: 24 PRAVDY STREET, BLDG 4, SUITE 720, MOSCOW, RUSSIA 125993

Justin Davis on Ukraine and the EU The euro is doomed to fail. If Ukraine joined the EU it would have been worse off than Spain, etc. Its next step should be to remove the corrupt government and start fixing the economic problems plaguing the country.

"

Arnold Bence on travelling by Russian Railways (RZD) As a tourist, I’ve travelled 65,500km (40,700 miles) with RZD, mostly on platzkart [third class], doing Murmansk to Vladivostok twice and so on… Platzkart is not a class, platzkart is a LIFESTYLE! Every platzkart car creates its own society on the go.

"

A lion in mink

on the location of mobile phones around the world. The information came from classified documents released by the US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, who has been given temporary asylum in Russia.

German media recently reported that the US had been spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone since 2002. US President Barack Obama admitted this month that he was banned from having an iPhone for security reasons.

SPECIAL TO RBTH

"

where people often go to great expense to give loved ones a fitting burial.

“Fashion awards should have a funeral nomination. I think that is normal,” she said.

“It is also part of life.”

One bad Apple could spoil Medvedev’s barrel of hi-tech fun Tony Halpin

Youcef Ali on Nelson Mandela He created the true meaning of the struggle for real freedom from racism.

Dogg? Lion? Whatever your breeding, you need a good coat of fur in Moscow’s urban jungle. And the rapper Snoop Lion, formerly known as Snoop Dogg, didn’t disappoint when he came to the capital recently for the premiere of a Russian film in which he has a cameo role. He appeared on the red carpet wearing a crimson jacket made of plucked mink fur, according to RIA Novosti, and was later seen with a matching red scarf and traditional ushanka fur hat. An outfit fit for a lion king.

Fishy tale Dead fashionable

Fashion awards should have a funeral nomination. It’s also part of life

Russians like to look stylish everywhere, even, it seems, when they are going to meet their maker. A recent expo show in Moscow for the funeral industry, called Necropolis, included a fashion parade of “burial wear” for the recently departed.

Designs to die for included flowing black dresses with matching capes; figure-hugging red-and-black lace outfits; and what the Moscow News described as a selection of menswear that had more in common with “costumes for a new Star Trek movie”.

A selection of luxury coffins was also on display for customers who wanted to add a dash of class to their final farewell, including one casket lined with mink fur and covered in crocodile skin.

One coffin-maker told the paper that a client had once asked for his late wife’s coffin to be painted with black and white spots in honour of her love for Dalmatians.

Eliza Rossar, who organised the Immortality catwalk show, believes that funeral wear is a promising untapped market for the fashion industry in Russia,

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

Russians are nothing if not resourceful.

When 101-year-old Alexander Kaptarenko was chosen to become the world’s oldest torchbearer as part of Russia’s Olympic torch relay, he decided he’d better get into training.

So he rehearsed by walking around his neighbourhood carrying a frozen fish. Mr Kaptarenko explained that the humpback salmon was the closest thing he could find in weight and shape to the Olympic torch, which weighs 2.9kg (just over 6lb).

The centenarian, who keeps fit by playing table tennis, told RIA Novosti: “You need to train. But how do you train?

This guy, Ruslan, gave me four small dumbbells, half a kilo each, but they’re hard to hold; while a fish, big and all, can be held by its tail, thank God.” Mr Kaptarenko’s preparation paid off, and he completed his 200-metre run through the Siberian city of Novosibirsk without problems on December 7. The previous oldest torchbearer was Britain’s Dinah Gould, who was 100 when she carried the Olympic flame in London two days before the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics last July.

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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.

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he events of the passing year have confirmed that normalisation of the bilateral political dialogue between Russian and the UK has become a steady trend. Our relationship has been developing in a sustainable way, moving in the right direction to serve our mutual interests.

The political leaders set the right, resultsorientated tone. Over the past year and a half, President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister David Cameron have met six times and had regular telephone conversations.

A new mechanism, the Strategic Dialogue of Foreign and Defence Ministers, has been launched. The first “2+2” meeting was held in March in London, while the second is scheduled for next spring in Moscow.

Russia and the UK have continued an active dialogue at other levels, including consultations between the foreign ministries.

There was agreement on some topics and serious differences on others. But wherever the interests of the international community required and the situation allowed, the differences did not stop us reaching agreement; in particular, on the Iranian nuclear programme and the Syrian crisis.

Our positions are especially close on such pressing international issues as safeguarding stability and security in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of foreign troops and the Middle East peace process.

As permanent members of the UN Security Council, Russia and London pursued an agreed policy on the reform of the UN and the council. Russia’s G20 presidency and the UK presidency of the G8, as well as Russia’s G8 presidency in 2014, have provided another dimension to our co-operation.

There has been dynamic growth in trade and economic co-operation. The UK is one of Russia’s leading trade partners. In three quarters of this year, mutual turnover has been $17.5bn (£10.7bn), with UK cumulative investment in Russia reaching $24bn, and Russia’s investment in the UK $9bn.

Considerable attention has been focused on energy co-operation. The first meeting of the Russian-British High-Level Energy Dialogue led by Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich and the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Davey, was held in London on June 10.

On the agenda is a possible increase in the direct supply of Russian natural gas to the UK, and enhancement of nuclear energy co-operation with the potential entry of Russian advanced technologies into the UK market.

On September 18, Mr Dvorkovich and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Owen Paterson, endorsed our veterinary services’ agreement to lift the temporary ban on the import of UK beef and lamb by-products to Russia. The ban on beef and lamb had been lifted earlier.

Both parties recognise the potential for co-operation in technology and innovation.

A programme of co-operation for the near future was endorsed by the 11th meeting of the bilateral Committee on Scientific and Technical Co-operation held in October in London under the chairmanship of Minister of Education and Science Dmitry Livanov and the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable.

Financial co-operation is another important area. It includes creating an international financial centre in Moscow, as well as the participation of British firms in preparations for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, the Summer Universiade in Kazan and the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Traditional cultural exchanges are to be brought to a higher level. In March, the two foreign ministers issued a joint statement on holding a Russia-UK Year of Culture in 2014.

There are plans for more than 250 events.

The historical and emotional dimension of our relationship is of crucial importance.

Having established the Arctic Star medal, Britain granted permission for its veterans of the Arctic Convoys to be awarded the Russian Ushakov Medal. In 2014 our countries will take part in events to mark the centenary of the First World War, in which we were also allies.

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

Keep in touch with the Russian Embassy in London: www.twitter.com/Amb_Yakovenko www.twitter.com/RussianEmbassy www.facebook.com/RussianEmbassy www.youtube.com/RussianEmbassy www.flickr.com/photos/rusembassylondon russianembassy.livejournal.com

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Culture www.rbth.co.uk_Tuesday, December 17, 2013_P7

English visions of stillness and speed

An artistic, aristocratic love affair 1. In 1570, Ivan the Terrible proposes marriage to Elizabeth I; he’s turned down, but trade between England and Russia is strengthened.

2. Britain sides with Russia in the First World War; heads of state, George V and Nicholas II, are first cousins.

3. In 1779, Catherine the Great employs Londonborn architect Charles Cameron. He becomes her favourite designer.

4. In 1917, Lenin seizes power in St Petersburg.

He is soon being chauffeured in a Rolls-Royce, a make of car assembled on the edge of the Goodwood Estate today.

5. In 2005, St Petersburg-born Leon Max, the fashion entrepreneur, buys Easton Neston, the superb Northamptonshire house.

6. In 2009, Yekaterina Vyazova publishes The Hypnosis of Anglomania, a study of English influence on Russian art and culture of the 19th and 20th centuries.

7. 2014: Nature Translated opens at the Marble Palace in St Petersburg.

Photography An exhibition of stunning tree images by Goodwood heir the Earl of March will be shown in St Petersburg next year JONATHAN GLANCEY

CURRICULUM VITAE

The urban, treeless landscape of London’s Bermondsey and its garageland art galleries seem a long way from St Petersburg and its Marble Palace, a magnificent 18th-century neoclassical house commissioned by Catherine the Great from the Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi for her paramour Count Grigory Orlov. This, though, is the opulent setting for the latest showing of Nature Translated, the first art show to be held in Russia as part of the UK-Russia Year of Culture 2014.

“Charles has found a way of using a small digital camera like a brush,” Edward LucieSmith, curator of Nature Translated, told me when this exhibition of photographs by Charles March first opened in May 2012 at the Bermondsey Project Space in south-east London.

“This new series of large-scale images in black and white and colour”, he wrote at the time, “employs his chosen medium with extreme boldness and originality. Some will be reminded of traditional Chinese ink paintings.

Others of the ‘colour beginnings’ made by the great English landscape painter JMW Turner.

Through this new work, Charles March expresses a profound feeling for nature.”

Bermondsey is just a few minutes’ walk from Deptford where, in 1698, Peter the Great came to work in Thames-side shipyards to study how to build warships as effective as those of the Royal Navy. Peter helped create a channel between the Russian court and nobility and the best of British. Eighty years later, Catherine the Great hired a British architect, Charles Cameron, to work for her at her palace Tsarskoye Selo, where he created an English landscape garden in the style of Capability Brown.

Nature Translated comprises unexpected yet beautiful shots of trees taken by March for the most part at Goodwood, the rolling West Sussex estate he has run, as Earl of March and Kinrara, since the early Nineties.“I’ve been taking photos of trees at Goodwood since I was 12,” he told me.

Leaving Eton“rather hastily” at 16 – “we didn’t much like each other”– the then Charles Settrington worked as a stills photographer for Stanley Kubrick during the filming of Barry Lyndon, a picaresque tale of an 18th–century Irish gambler and soldier of fortune. After a stint as a reportage photographer in East Af-

Charles March

CLARA MOLDEN

SPECIAL TO RBTH

AGE: 58

MULTIMEDIA

JOHN COLLEY

He was a stills photographer on Stanley Kubrick’s 1975 movie Barry Lyndon and worked with leading advertising agencies in the Eighties. In the Nineties, he set up the popular Festival of Speed and the Goodwood Revival.

CHARLES MARCH

OF MARCH

CHARLES MARCH

TITLE: EARL

Picture this: clockwise from top, the hauntingly serene Park Copse; the more vivid colours of Grand Anse; and a vintage Mercedes is put through its paces at the Goodwood Revival

rica, he worked in the Eighties with leading advertising agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi and JWT for clients including Laura Ashley, Levi’s and Silk Cut. In time, duty called Settrington back to Goodwood, where, as Charles March, he set up the popular Festival of Speed in 1993 and, five years later, the Goodwood Revival. These sibling motorsport events are curated with the obsessive eye of a set designer, or photographer.

When March first showed me his “Nature” photographs, the initial comparisons that raced to mind were the electrifying paintings of the

Cinema Johnny O’Reilly’s latest movie is a love poem to his adopted city

The Irish film-maker inspired by the life and soul of Moscow ANASTASIA MARKITAN SPECIAL TO RBTH

Few modern Russian films are as wellknown at home as they are abroad. The forthcoming drama depicting the real lives of Muscovites, Moscow Never Sleeps, by Irish film-maker Johnny O’Reilly, is likely to be one of them.

O’Reilly, who has lived in Moscow for two decades, says the city and its residents are a never-ending source of inspiration for him.

He explains: “The Moscow lifestyle is full of life and soul. People fight and love more than they do in other European capital.

“Relationships in Russia are ruled along vertical power structures. That makes things happen more quickly, more unexpectedly.”

O’Reilly contrasts this way of living with that in the West, where he says people tend

Screen test: O’Reilly during the filming of Moscow Never Sleeps

to make decisions in a more consensual manner. “It makes things happen more strategically, but slower.”

The ambiguous nature of the country is reflected in the film’s plot, which interweaves the lives of several people from various backgrounds: from a troubled businessman to a Soviet film star who has become an abandoned pensioner, and a singer searching for her true self.

The actors are a mix of established stars and promising young talents. Mikhail Efremov, critically acclaimed for his Citizen Poet project, plays an unhealthy 55 year-old with an easy-going work schedule that provides enough money to feed himself and his considerable drink habit. Yuri Stoyanov, known in Russia for a long-running comedy show, plays a character with more depth in the film. Moscow Never Sleeps will also

Italian Futurists Umberto Boccioni and Giacomo Balla. Obsessed by movement and speed, these artists – working at peak revs just before the First World War – conjured dazzling oils that appeared to accelerate the world around them into a blurred frenzy.

Balla’s Abstract Speed of 1913 and his Vortex of the following year were brilliant, vivid evocations of furious movement, while Boccioni’s series, States of Mind: Those Who Leave, painted at the same time, could be – you barely need to squint – forest scenes by March.

A racing car, thundered Filippo Marinetti in

showcase new talents including Rustam Akhmadeyev playing a thug, Yevgenia Brik as a singer and Anastasia Shalonko as a teenager confronting her stepfather.

All the characters live separately, but all the storylines are linked by a theme.

“Even when people are sprinting through their lives, fighting and loving like it’s the last day on Earth, they are sometimes asleep,” says the author. But in his movie the city “never sleeps” because it is “a teeming mass of interconnected humanity that helps to recognise the hidden bonds that connect us all.”

O’Reilly says social drama remains one of the best-loved genres in world cinema and there is a particular fascination in the West with Russia. “People are hugely interested in Russia but very few have actually been here.

Despite the fact that Moscow is the biggest city in Europe, it’s still an exotic, unknown place for most Europeans,” he says.

It is not just his genuine fascination with Moscow that drives the success of Moscow Never Sleeps; there’s a thoughtful business strategy, too. The film, which has a $3.5m (£2.15m) budget, became the first Russian film to receive funding from Eurimages, a cultural support fund run by the Council of Europe. The Irish Film Board has also invested in the project, while most of the

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The film, which has a $3.5m budget, became the first Russian film to receive funding from Eurimages

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his Futurist Manifesto of 1909, is “more beautiful than the Winged Victory of Samothrace”, and, said Marinetti again, in his New Ethical Religion of Speed, “great speed is prayer”.

The Futurists caught the perplexing and intoxicating sensation of experiencing speed and stillness simultaneously. This is what March’s digital photographs do. They recreate the effect experienced looking out from the windscreen of a car moving at speed on a narrow road, or race track: the view seems motionless while, on the periphery, the landscape flashes past in an unalloyed frenzy. “Charles has inserted a little time into his photographs,” says Lucie–Smith. “The camera is normally like a blade that comes down – chop!”

As we looked through his photographs together, on an iPad, March said: “I hadn’t quite made that connection between speed and nature. But it does make sense.”

Lucie–Smith describes March as a“tree–hugger and a petrolhead”and the man himself reveals:“I’ve been trying to capture the idea that nature is changing all the time even in the moment – a tiny fraction of a second – when you press the shutter. I started to try to shake something physically out of the camera.”

He did. Shake the camera, that is, as he pressed the shutter. It is this moving and shaking that has animated the trees in his pictures.

A Russian friend of Lucie-Smith’s recommended Nature Translated to Alexander Borovksy, head of the department of contemporary art at the Russian State Museum, housed in St Petersburg’s Marble Palace. From 1937 to 1992, it was the Museum of Vladimir Lenin, who spent some years in London and had a decidedly non-proletarian passion for Rolls-Royce cars. Borovsky was fascinated by the fact that both March and the Russian Constructivist artist, Alexander Rodchenko, photographed trees in novel ways, although the Russian’s beloved pines are very unlike the cedars and oaks of Goodwood.

“I never had any intention of showing these photos to anyone,” March told me.“I see these trees nearly every day and have watched them change over half a century. I haven’t had to hurry or to convince anyone that what I’ve been doing – on the quiet – is worthwhile.”But, Lucie–Smith adds:“There’s no question Charles has been like a proud father hovering over his great mother of a printing machine, hoping for beautiful offspring in the guise of radical, yet immaculately crafted images.”

A creative fusion of both new and veteran technologies – including digital cameras, computers, handmade English paper and inkjet printing – Nature Translated represents March’s mind’s eye. A man who loves the sights and sounds of blood–red V12 Ferraris screaming their Futurist way around Goodwood, he is rarely happier than when walking in the woods, where the loudest sound is the flutter of birds’ wings, the rustle of leaves and the click of a digital shutter.

And, curiously, Nature Translated brings together a fascinating history of connections between Russian and British sensibilities, and especially perhaps of a Russian love affair with aristocratic England, its country houses and parkland estates. Even Russia’s revolutionary leaders were not immune to these charms, and since the collapse of the Soviet Union, rich Russians seem to desire blue-blooded British culture and property all the more. Nature Translated is a reminder that art from the world of the English country estate has yet to exhaust itself; seen through the lens of Charles March, and newly shown in Russia, it might be said to be undergoing a revolution of its own.

Nature Translated, an exhibition by Charles March. January 23-February 24, 2014, The Marble Palace, The State Russian Museum, St Petersburg. (www.charlesmarch.com)

financing has come from professional film-equity investors.

O’Reilly says that his biggest short-term goal is to show the movie at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. He adds: “We have little doubt that the film will be selected for an A-list competition slot because of the interest from international sales agencies in the project.”

The film’s producers pitched to several leading agencies last year and received commitments from two. O’Reilly says he will choose an agency when the movie’s rough cut is finished. Shooting was completed in October and the picture is now being edited at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin, where U2 recorded their first eight albums. The Russian premiere will be held in autumn 2014.

Meanwhile, O’Reilly’s 2010 movie, The Weather Station, a thriller strong on Hitchcock-style suspense and set in a sinister-looking location in a remote Russian region, has drawn interest from Hollywood film moguls keen to remake it. O’Reilly says he will be involved in the remake as a producer.

Asked why Russia is so attractive to him, the director replies without hesitation: “The amplitude of humanity here is higher… There’s more suffering, but there’s also more soul.”

Annual review P8_Tuesday, December 17, 2013_www.rbth.co.uk

Year of space rocks and ballet shocks In pictures As 2013 draws to a close, RBTH presents images of some of the year’s most memorable moments

JANUARY 3

MARCH 23

FEBRUARY 15

PHOTOSHOT/VOSTOCK-PHOTO(3)

The year began with news that a French film star had become a Russian citizen. Another foreign visitor grabbed the headlines a month later, when a meteor spectacularly exploded over Siberia.

Throughout, 2013 has been rich in drama, from the mysterious London death of a once-powerful Russian tycoon to controversy on and off stage in the ballet world and strange goings-on in Red Square.

With the Sochi Winter Olympics just around the corner, 2014 promises to be an even more exciting 12 months. As New Year approaches, RBTH selects a few of the pictorial highlights of 2013.

To read more, visit the web addresses at the end of each story.

Actor Gérard Depardieu received Russian citizenship. Depardieu gave up his French passport in protest at a new 75pc tax rate. Russia’s income tax is just 13pc. rbth.co.uk/21903

APRIL 5

REX/FOTODOM(2)

A meteor blasted across the skies before exploding over the Chelyabinsk region.

Scientists have since collected more than 100kg of fragments from the site. rbth. co.uk/meteorite_fall

Tycoon Boris Berezovsky, 67, was found dead at his Ascot home. A post-mortem found his death consistent with hanging, though the inquest was opened and adjourned. rbth.co.uk/25897

JULY 6-17 The Universiade Student Games in Kazan, capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, offered the chance for a large-scale rehearsal before Russia hosts the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014. rbth.co.uk/27435

The enfant terrible of ballet Sergei Polunin vanished from rehearsals in London days before the UK premier of Midnight Express. He emerged in Russia a week later. The Ukrainian star’s defection followed his abrupt departure a year earlier from London’s Royal Ballet. rbth.co.uk/26397

The new stage of St Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre, Mariinsky II, opened its doors. The $700m (£430m) brainchild of artistic director Valery Gergiev is situated directly across from Mariinsky’s original 1860 building. rbth.co.uk/25813

© RIA NOVOSTI(2)

MAY 2

AUGUST 10-18

JUNE 23

SEPTEMBER 14 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry reached agreement in Geneva on putting Syria’s chemical weapons under international control. rbth.co.uk/29834

AP/EASTNEWS(2)

OCTOBER 5

NOVEMBER 23

Russia hosted its first World Athletics Championships, topping the medal table. Usain Bolt and Yelena Isinbayeva were star draws. rbth.co.uk/28945

AFP/EASTNEWS(2)

Edward Snowden, the former US National Security Agency contractor, landed at Moscow's Sheremetyevo, planning to go on to Latin America. He remains in Russia. rbth.co.uk/ edward_snowden

DECEMBER 6

During the Olympic flame relay, the torch was not only plunged to the bottom of Lake Baikal but also taken on a space walk for the first time when cosmonauts carried it outside the International Space Station. sochi2014.rbth.ru

Greenpeace activists on the Arctic Sunrise icebreaker were arrested and accused of piracy for trying to stage a protest on an oil rig. rbth.co.uk/greenpeace

The appearance of a Louis Vuitton exhibition pavilion on Red Square in the shape of a giant suitcase just yards from the Kremlin’s walls caused public outrage. The construction was ordered to be removed. rbth.co.uk/32095