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Tuesday, December 16, 2014

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Politics & Society

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Where are the protests?

Price of a weak rouble Economic squeeze threatens living standards in Russia

IFULIN VALERY SHAR

Street politics in decline as reform agenda loses appeal

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MOSCOW CHANGES COURSE Turkey the winner as cancellation of South Stream gas route signals end of Euro pipe dream, says Ben Aris Running on empty: the construction site of the South Stream pipeline at Anapa, Russia, in 2012. South Stream was planned to run from the Siberian gas fields through Bulgaria to Austria

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he announcement came out of the blue. President Vladimir Putin had just arrived in Turkey when he told reporters Moscow was scrapping plans to build the $40bn (£25.5bn) South Stream pipeline that cuts Ukraine out of Russia’s gas delivery infrastructure to Europe. A new pipeline to Turkey would be built instead.

Alexei Miller, CEO of the Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom, added that South Stream was dead and would not be reactivated.

The controversial pipeline has been a point of conflict between Moscow and Brussels for the past two years. The EU in effect blocked its construction by ruling that it contravenes European competition laws.

It was also unhappy to see Russia increase its influence in south-east Europe by offering cheap energy deals. The EU says South Stream does not comply with its Third Energy Package on giving competitors third-party access to gas. Gazprom deals usually ban customers from reselling their gas.

“If Europe does not want to carry out the project, then it will not be carried out,” Mr Putin said during his working visit to Turkey to meet his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “We are now going to focus our energy resources in other directions, including the [liquefied natural gas] projects.”

Mr Putin also pointed the finger at Bulgaria’s lack of enthusiasm, which failed to get the necessary permissions from the EU, adding Sofia would forgo €400m (£320m) in transit fees as a result. Bulgaria is caught between a rock and a hard place: EU membership and its wish for more cheap Russian gas. It froze the implementation of the project on its territory in early June after the European Commission opened pro-

ceedings against it for failing to comply with EU rules on procurement and construction. Sofia insists the project can go ahead, but according to EU law.

Speaking on Russian television after Mr Putin’s December 1 meeting in Ankara, Mr Miller said Bulgaria, not the EU, was to blame for the cancellation.

Delays and blockages In the western media, some commentators said money was the main reason Gazprom left the project. Speaking exclusively to RBTH, a company spokesman said: “If that were the case, Gazprom would have abandoned the idea of any new gas corridor to Europe; instead we have ditched South Stream and are going ahead with an alternative project.”

Reports that the project had been cancelled because it failed to meet EU anti-competition demands in the Third Energy Package were “nonsense”.

“The project was closed due to unexplained delays and a lack of permission from the Bulgarians for Gazprom to build onshore and offshore sections of the pipeline,”the spokesman added, quoting comments made earlier by Mr Miller.

“To continue the project without any civilised discussion on the application of EU law and, frankly, sabotage at this stage, is impossible. Constant delays, blockages and pressure on the EU member states involved, make it impossible.”

However, Gazprom clearly suffers from western restrictions. The initial price tag was $14bn (£9bn) but estimates soared as Gazprom’s bank was put on the sanctions list and cut off from international capital markets.

Construction of the initial Russian section of the pipeline has been completed, but the underwater section through the Black Sea has not.“There’s no point

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The Turkish connection

If Europe does not want to carry out the project then it will not be carried out. We are now going to focus in other directions

South Stream, with a projected annual capacity of 63 billion cubic metres (bcm), was supposed to run from the Siberian gas fields under the Black Sea to Bulgaria, and continue to the Baumgarten gas hub in Austria. The key to the route is that it bypasses Ukraine, which accounts for 52pc of Russia’s gas deliveries to western Europe. Once the new pipeline to Turkey becomes operational, the role of Ukraine as a transit country “will be reduced to zero,” Mr Miller said. Russia will, however, continue to provide enough gas for domestic consumption in Ukraine.

A Turkish route would supply the energy-hungry country directly with 14bcm of gas, replacing supplies from Ukraine, and enable it to transit another 50bcm for export to the rest of Europe via a new gas

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in us building a pipeline to the coast of Bulgaria only for it to stop there because work is blocked in Bulgaria,” Mr Putin said.

Countries on the route – Serbia, Hungary and Austria – are unhappy with the Russian president’s decision. The project would have brought cheaper gas, improved energy security and large transit fees.

Serbia, which is heavily dependent on Russian gas, had hoped cheaper energy and the $4bn investment in construction would revive its flagging economy.

Serbia’s Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said the cancellation was “bad news” for Serbia.

“Serbia has been investing in this project for seven years, but now it has to pay the price of a clash between the great (powers),” Mr Vucic said.

But south-east Europe’s loss is Turkey’s gain. Turkey is one of Moscow’s biggest trade partners and a leading direct investor in Russia. Mr Putin hopes the new route will enhance a strong partnership.

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hub on the Turkey-Greece border. Relations between Russia and Ukraine were fraught even before the political crisis began at the end of 2013 and Russia is looking for a way to cut the Ukrainian leg out of its gas deliveries because Kiev cannot afford to pay its bills. Ukraine’s economy has been in a dire state for years. It is one of only two countries in the region where incomes have not recovered to the levels of 1991 and the end of the Soviet Union.

Showdowns with Russia Its economics minister Aivaras Abromavicius admitted on December 12 that the country was“bankrupt”.

Its inability to pay for gas had led to several showdowns with Russia. In the winter of 2006, the Kremlin turned off supplies when Ukraine failed to pay its bill; it has built up $5bn of debt since.

In the past, the government in Kiev simply siphoned off gas even when it couldn’t pay for it. South Stream is widely regarded politically as anti-Ukrainian in the West, but the Kremlin says it simply wants to send its gas to customers who will pay for it.

The Turkish route makes sense on many levels. Importing enough energy to fuel Turkey’s rapid growth has been a major headache for Ankara, which is running a significant current account deficit; cheap Russian gas is appealing. The deal is good for the Kremlin too – the Turkish pipeline is likely to cost half as much to build as South Stream.

But it is far from a done deal. Turkey has raised the stakes by announcing it will go ahead with an alternative 20bcm pipeline to import gas fom Iraq.

The collapse of the South Stream project has also put the cat among the pigeons in Europe. While Brussels doesn’t like the politics of the pipeline, Europe still needs the gas to power its economies.

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Is the protest movement dead?

NEWS IN BRIEF

Life may have come from meteorites, tests show

Street politics Reform agenda loses appeal as pressure on the economy grows

Russian scientists say they have proved that life on Earth may have come from life forms on meteorites.

Alexander Slobodkin, a researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) Institute of Microbiology, said that tests conducted aboard Russia’s returning Photon-M No 4 satellite confirmed the theory.

The experiment found that some forms of thermophilic bacteria can survive on a meteorite’s surface if it travels through compact atmospheric layers. The RAS Medical Biological Institute says the bacteria live in hot environments similar to Kamchatka’s thermal springs. An active sludge develops in temperatures above 100C. Bacteria on three out of 24 cells in space survived the test.

YEVGENY LEVKOVICH, ILYA KROL SPECIAL TO RBTH

Three years ago, Russia witnessed its largest anti-government protests since the early Nineties, with four mass demonstrations in a month, the largest of which drew an estimated 150,000 people to the streets of Moscow. Today, opposition rallies struggle to attract 10,000. President Vladimir Putin enjoys ratings as high as 88pc, nearly double those of December 2011.

The leaders of the 2011 protests have largely left the scene: some are in prison, others abroad, a few have joined the regime. Does it mean that Russia’s protest movement is dead? Or is it merely dormant, ready to be revived when conditions are right?

A fatal typo

NASA

$5m food grant for Ukraine YURI KOZYREV / NOOR

The spark that ignited the protest movement came late on December 4, 2011, when state television, reporting early results from parliamentary elections to the State Duma, indicated that United Russia had polled 146pc of the votes. It was a simple mistake in an on-screen graphic, but for many it was confirmation the elections were rigged. In Chechnya, according to the Central Electoral Commission, United Russia polled 98.6pc of votes; in Caucasian regions, Kabardino-Balkaria 98.2pc and Karachay-Cherkessia 93.2pc, and in Moscow 46.6pc. Opposition activists said this was impossible; many, particularly in Moscow, felt it insulted their intelligence.

Kasparov joins demonstration The next day, 15,000 people turned out on the streets for a demonstration staged by the Solidarnost movement, then headed by former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, chess champion Garry Kasparov and activist Ilya Yashin. Alexei Navalny, lawyer and initiator of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, was also present. The last time Moscow had witnessed such public unrest was in 1993, when President BorisYeltsin’s clash with opponents ended with the shelling of Moscow’s White House.

Independent polsters Levada Centre says participants were “actively recruited via social media sites. The demonstrators were activists, intellectuals, young people, ie Moscow Facebook users.”

Looking back at the protests, Mr Nemtsov says: “There were many reasons to take to the streets. Not a single opposition party had been permitted to take part in the elections. We did not expect so many people to turn out. We were quite unprepared for that.”

Sergei Udaltsov head of Left Front, another of the opposition leaders, was not there – he was briefly behind bars under administrative detention – but was also incredulous. “All of the protests we’d organised that year, regardless of their importance, had only ever attracted the same small crowd of activists.”

Birth of opposition The December 5 protest marked the birth of a new opposition coalition that included liberals, left-wingers and nationalists. It concluded with an improvised attempt to walk to the Kremlin, which was swiftly broken up by the police. There were more than 300 arrests.

Alexei Navalny and Ilya Yashin were held for 15 days, and the next day, Interior Ministry troops were drafted into Moscow. It was seen as aggressive, provoking even more discontent among Muscovites.

A demonstration held on December 10, drew 100,000 people, according to Novaya Gazeta, to the city’s Bolotnaya Square. Demonstrators adopted a resolution calling for the resignation of the central election commission head,

Where are they now?

Former opposition leaders have had widely different fates over the past three years.

Alexei Navalny rode the crest of a wave until July last year, when he was found guilty of fraud and put under house arrest. He was allowed to run for mayor of Moscow against the United Russia candidate Sergei Sobyanin, finishing second.

Sergei Udaltsov is also under house arrest on charges of inciting public unrest during the Bolotnaya protest of May 6, 2012, even though he agrees with Kremlin policy on Ukraine, including the annexation of Crimea.

Boris Nemtsov took a seat in the Yaroslavl Regional Duma 150 miles from Moscow.

Ilya Yashin is often seen in Moscow cafes, his current political activities are not clear.

Garry Kasparov spends most of his time in the USA. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, pardoned last year, now lives in Switzerland.

Vladimir Churov, annulment of the results and a new election, with opposition parties on the ballot. There were demands for the release of political prisoners, including the jailed billionaire Yukos founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Bolotnaya had become a symbol of the protest.

But the first divisions within the protest movement leaders were already emerging. There was no common vision on the next steps. “Democrats had tried to unite before, in 2003, but it did not work. There’s long been division within the nationalists; half their leaders are suspected of working with the FSB or presidential administration,” says former Kommersant journalist Andrei Kozenko. Mr Kozenko now writes for Meduza.io, the Riga-based news site set up by journalists who left the Russian news service, Lenta.ru, after its chief editor Galina Timchenko was sacked earlier this year.

Close to the opposition leaders at the time, Mr Kozenko recalls that the people who came to Bolotnaya held a wide range of political beliefs. “Each had a different understanding of what the protests meant,” he says.

After Bolotnaya, Eduard Limonov’s Other Russia party left the coalition. Radical nationalists soon followed because they had been denied a voice. Sergei Udaltsov was also unhappy, although he remained in the coalition, which would later call itself the Co-ordination Council of the Opposition (CCO).

The opposition increased the pace of its activities and began calling protests several times a month, organising concerts and excursions along Moscow’s leafy Boulevard Ring or arranging anti-Putin car races on the city’s inner Garden Ring road. It even formed its own independent proto-parliament, all agreed with the authorities.

The biggest demonstration, which according to the National News Agency, attracted 150,000 people was held on December 24, 2011 on Moscow’s Sakharov Prospect, but the opposition had peaked. Most ordinary Muscovites were tired of hearing the same old slogans: “Putin out!” and “Party of crooks and thieves”. They wanted not just criticism, but constructive ideas for improving the country.

Whether the opposition actually had such plans is unclear, but nothing was ever made public. The Levada Centre says “a lack of action programmes worried most activists and leaders of the protest movement”.

The point was not lost on those Russians who initially supported the protests.“We realised that going on these marches was actually useless, even unfashionable,”says Nikita Denisov, 33, who took part in protests in St Petersburg in December 2011.

“People became disillusioned with the very form of the protests,” recalls Yelena Bobrova, 29, a Muscovite who took part in the Bolotnaya protest and other actions at the time.

“We took to the streets thinking that we could make a difference, but only met with indifference not only from those in power, but our friends and relatives, too.”

The turning point came on May 6, 2012, on the eve of Mr Putin’s inauguration for a third term when, again at Bolotnaya, the opposition marshalled just 20,000 people. A hard core tried to set up a permanent camp, complete with tents and banners. The Kremlin was prepared.

Dissenting voices: opposition leaders at an anti-Putin protest. From left, Boris Nemtsov, Sergei Udaltsov and Alexei Navalny

The Kremlin has approved a $5m (£3.2m) special contribution to the UN World Food Programme’s humanitarian relief effort in Ukraine.

“It has been decided to allocate up to $5m from the federal budget in 2014 as the Russian Federation’s one-time voluntary special contribution to the budget of the UN World Food Programme to finance expenditures related to the

provision of humanitarian aid to the population of Ukraine via the UN World Food Programme channels,” it said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has been told to agree a money transfer with the Russian Finance Ministry, which will take it from its 2014 federal budget appropriations.

Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, approved the contribution on December 4.

Football gold for Russia Russia won the Amputee Football World Cup in Mexico, beating Angola 3-1. Turkey beat Poland to take home the bronze medal.

“From the bottom of our hearts, the Russian Football Union congratulates our team on its victory and thanks the players for showing skill, supreme courage, and brilliant moments as a gift to fans on the football pitch,” the Russian Football Union said.

The Amputee Football World Cup is held once

Heroic status lost Criminal charges of organising mass disorder were brought against Left Front leaders Sergei Udaltsov and Leonid Razvozzhayev, who were both sentenced to four and a half years’ detention.

Three years later, they have lost their status as heroes and Russian society’s concerns are less political and more economic. Some believe that recession may spark discontent. But would it be possible to repeat Bolotnaya today?

“We could see mass protests in the next two years, inspired not by political, but social and economic factors,” says Vladimir Ryzhkov, cochair of liberal-leaning party RPR-Parnas.

Georgy Chizhov, of Moscow’s Centre for Political Technologies, doubts major unrest is on the cards.“It’s difficult to imagine a repetition of Bolotnaya. Kremlin rhetoric has changed.

Russians are now divided between ‘us’ and ‘national traitors’. Liberals cannot protest; they would be going against most of society.”

every two years. The last was in Kaliningrad, when Uzbekistan took gold, followed by Russia in second place and Turkey in third.

Russia, with a core of players who have been together for 10-15 years, were second favourite to win this year’s competition. The young Angolan team were the tournament’s surprise package.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, there are more than 12 million amputees in Russia.

Discount card for tourists A “cultural passport” offering big savings on visits to Moscow museums and exhibitions has been introduced. The discount card, which is available from city airports and tourist information centres, is a season ticket valid between one and five days that gives a discount of 40 to 80pc at 74 museums and more than 100 events in Moscow. There are three levels: Tourist, three visits for a total of 590-990 roubles (£6-£11); Traveller, six visits (£11-£18); and Discoverer, 12 visits (£18-£40).

Civic duty Websites providing a direct link to officials help close hazardous incinerator and save orphanage address the government, they had to write to newspapers, petition official institutions, send letters by post and wait for a response.

Things started looking up between 2010 and 2012, when Russia saw a peak in civil political activity. In 2010, opposition activist Alexei Navalny launched an internet service called RosYama, where users could upload photographs of potholes and other problems with poorly maintained roads. The website would automatically fill out a form and send it to the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate. If nothing happened, RosYama would redirect it to the general prosecutor’s office. Officials were forced to respond and take action.

How people power went online to challenge bureaucracy PAVEL SMERTIN / TASS

GALIYA IBRAGIMOVA SPECIAL TO RBTH

Civil activity in Russia appears to have found a new electronic format of expression.

Russians are now petitioning the authorities via the internet, using special public platforms to address their concerns.

Thanks to various websites aimed at gathering petitions, complaints and comments, people power has stopped the dismantling of a historic television transmitter, Moscow’s Shukhov Tower built in the Twenties; succeeded in getting a hazardous waste incinerator plant closed and kept a threatened orphanage in central Russia’s Saratov region open.

These are just the most widely publicised cases. Every day, thousands of ordinary Russians solve minor problems through online communication, according to statistics collected from the Yopolis and Angry Citizen civil e-platforms.

Even the Moscow Metro disaster of July 15 came within a whisker of being averted, due to the vigilance of regular passenger Sergei Molostvov, who a month

Click to change: the civil-action platform is becoming more popular as internet access grows

before had raised safety fears with transport bosses. The Moscow businessman noticed cars on the dark-blue line of the network shook badly when travelling along a certain section of track.

“Every day I travelled through the same stations where the crash later happened. It was uncomfortable for the passengers – it shook them, they fell, they dropped their phones, but no one said anything,” Mr Molostvov told RBTH. On July 8, responding to his complaint, Metro officials wrote explaining that the rails at that point were curved in some places but within normal specifications.

A week later 24 people were killed when a train was derailed at the spot.

Electronic thaw Civil activists say there are two key problems restricting civil activity on the internet: only 60pc of Russians have regular access to it; and many who do simply do not believe that their comments will be read.

Red tape has also been an obstacle to public initiatives. In the past, if Russians wanted to

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Monitoring corruption The success of RosYama inspired Mr Navalny and his team to create similar websites. Several internet services became popular: RosZKH (solves housing and utilities issues); RosPil (monitors public procurement corruption); RosVybory (detects electoral violations) and Dobraya Mashina Pravdy (which means “The Good Machine of Truth”and publishes information about misconduct by officials and government organisations).

Now the Kremlin has started taking advantage of the potential of such sites.

In 2013, the Russian Civil Initiative was launched. President Vladimir Putin said that any civil initiative to gather 100,000 votes on the website would win parliamentary review. A Moscow version has opened and similar platforms are now emerging across the country.

Artyom Gerasimenko, a leader of the SocioBeg movement, said it did not matter which internet platform was used so long as it worked. “State platforms achieve results more quickly because they are an administrative resource. Private sites are dynamic and attractive,” he said.

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Equities ‘Costly’ British stock exchange loses its appeal

decision was taken by the Russian bank FK Otkrytie. According to experts, this is part of a long-term trend, as many Russian issuers switch from European to Asian markets.

ALEXEI LOSSAN RBTH

Cost-cutting moves

Russian construction company Rose Group, which operates in the upmarket sector of Moscow’s property market, has decided to delist its shares from the London Stock Exchange. In the seven years since its initial public offering (IPO), the company’s capitalisation has dropped from £895m to £174m.

David Wood, its financial director, told the Russian news agency RBK: “An LSE listing cannot bring any liquidity or additional investment to a company, although it does impose certain restrictions and quite substantial costs”.The company has been trading just 9pc of its stock in London.

On November 21, another Russian construction company, Gals-Development, announced its decision to delist from the London exchange, while in September, a similar

“Given a decline in western investors’ interest in Russian equities, some companies prefer to delist from the LSE,” says Alexei Kozlov, chief analyst with UFS IC. “A large number of Russian equities were not particularly liquid in the best of times, whereas in this difficult time of crisis, companies have to cut costs.”

Mr Kozlov points out that delisting increases the distance between an investor and an issuer, thus reducing liquidity, which makes the shares less attractive. That means that the shareholders of a company that is delisted from the LSE will incur losses since delisting will have a negative effect on the company’s valuation.

“The main reasons behind a delisting decision are external factors. First, at the mo-

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Russia’s London exodus as companies look east

Russian companies will opt for the Moscow stock exchange and possibly the Far East, as part of Russia’s declared ‘switch to Asia’

Taking stock: over recent months, several Russian companies have delisted in London

ment share prices are under considerable pressure because of the depreciation of the rouble,” says Maxim Klyagin, analyst with Finam Management. Second, country risks are high and have a negative impact on liquidity, restricting growth prospects.

“In this situation, the costs of a listing on foreign exchanges, including high service costs, more rigorous disclosure and corporate governance requirements, may seriously outweigh potential advantages,” he adds.

Eastern approaches According to Mr Klyagin, instead of IPOs on western trading platforms, Russian companies will opt for the Moscow stock exchange and, quite possibly, as part of Russia’s declared “switch to Asia”, on trading platforms in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Some issuers are moving to Asian platforms, while others are putting off their IPOs until better times. The decision depends on

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the goals and tasks a company faces,” says Mr Kozlov.

Andrei Kostin, chairman of the Russian bank VTB, recently said it was considering delisting its shares from the London Stock Exchange. At the same time he announced that VTB intends to list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Better understanding “The Asian region has turned into a huge capital market, which is of major interest for Russian business when the dialogue with the West is being conducted in the language of sanctions. It is also worth noting that Russia and Russian business are enjoying a better understanding in Asia,” Mr Kozlov adds.

Speaking at the Apec summit on November 10, Alexei Ulyukayev, the Russian economic development minister, announced that Russian oil and gas giants Gazprom, Rosneft and Lukoil were planning to list their shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In particular, Lukoil plans to raise £639m in a secondary public offering (SPO) in Hong Kong in 2015.

In June this year, Gazprom placed its global depository receipts (GDRs) on the Singapore Exchange. The company also plans a listing in Hong Kong in order to expand its existing investor base.

The first Russian company to place its shares in Hong Kong was the aluminium giant Rusal. During the placement in 2010, the company sold a total of 10.6pc of its shares, raising £1.4bn.

Soaring prices threaten living standards Giant of the sea: chef Vladimir Mukhin with a Kamchatka crab, on the menu at the White Rabbit

sufficiently deep pockets. “After the sanctions were announced, it took a while until it really affected the availability on the market,”he says.

“Almost everything is available, albeit at a high price. Unfortunately many companies have increased their prices even for local products.

The drop in value of the rouble is also having a significant impact on our costs.”

Like many in Moscow, this manager is now looking at South America and, above all, Russia to supply the hotel’s signature restaurant.

THE NUMBERS

Poor will be worst hit

17 pc increase in price of meat in Russia since August 2014

4.3 billion pounds: value of meat imported by Russia in 2013

20 PRESS PHOTO

Economic sanctions Food prices up 17pc after Moscow embargo on western produce JAMES LAWRENCE SPECIAL TO RBTH

Russia's ban on imports of meat, fruit, vegetables and other fresh food from the EU and other countries involved in anti-Russian sanctions, was to meant to answer fire with fire.

But four months after Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev's ban on European, Australian, U.S and Canadian foodstuffs was introduced, despite promises it would stimulate domestic production, food prices have risen sharply across the board in Russia, affecting all levesl of society.

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), over the past four months, the price of meat and meat products has increased by almost 17pc in Russia compared with the same period last year. The ban is potentially

a problem for Russia’s hospitality industry, which has grown rapidly in the past decade.

Many prestigious EU brands and products, such as parmigiano-reggiano cheese from Italy and premium Charolais beef and Bresse chicken from France, had become regular ingredients in restaurant menus across Moscow and beyond.

The top end of the hospitality market seems to be weathering the storm with quintessential Russian resilience. Indeed, some even view the ban as an opportunity as much as a financial and logistical headache. Martin Repetto, chef at the Radisson Royal Hotel in Moscow, takes a sanguine view. “I think the ban is a good opportunity for local suppliers to grab some market share,” he says.

In recent months, finding new supplies of essential items has been a top official priority

pc of meat imported from countries now on Russian blacklist

ity products from Latin America, which produces the best beef in the world.”

Vladimir Mukhin, owner and head chef of Moscow’s trendy White Rabbit restaurant, says the ban has not significantly affected business, though he concedes prices have risen.“We started working with local producers long before the sanctions, so I cannot talk of any tremendous damage.

Priced out of market The country must now brace itself for a potentially dramatic fall in living standards, with the danger that some consumers will be priced out of the market for certain goods. However, if the combination of domestic Russian producers and other non-embargoed countries can manage to appreciably increase supply as the authorities claim, then prices may stabilise in the mid to longer term. “The simple reality is that food prices will continue to rise for everyone, and that will contribute to a decline in real incomes,” Mr Nice concludes.

There are also concerns in some quarters that the ban could be extended to alcoholic beverages. Such a move would be disastrous for the country’s nascent food and drink industry, as importers and retailers in Russia have started making a lucrative trade in distributing and selling premium international wine and spirit brands.

Moroccan vegetables “Of course, we have lost French cheese and beef, but found substitutes for most other products: fish, which was imported from France, now comes from Turkey, Tunisia and Morocco; vegetables, fruits and greens are local, and in the winter, we will be buying them from Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, South Africa, and China.”

Outside Moscow, the sector appears to be more reserved in its assessment of the embargo’s effect. One management executive of a plush St Petersburg hotel, who does not wish to be named, says that although European products are still available in Russia, they are only for those with

The world’s best beef “Russia produces a diverse variety of great foodstuffs, the industry just over-relied on Europe because it was easier. In terms of using meat products, I actually welcomed the ban, as we can now focus on importing high-qual-

Buyers wary over consuming passions Prices Weak rouble, EU sanctions and western import ban knocks economic confidence from Moscow to Vladivostok BRYAN MACDONALD SPECIAL TO RBTH

Too much media coverage of Russia is focused on Moscow, despite the fact that the capital accounts for only about 12pc of the country’s population. To learn how Russians are really affected by international sanctions, RBTH talked to people around the country.

Far from Europe, you might think that Vladivostok, which lies on the Sea of Japan, would suffer less than Russia’s western regions. However, the economic boom of the past decade opened up the remote market to EU food products and many have become used to, if not reliant, on them.

Sergei Kostin, a 33-year-old computer programmer, says it is annoying “not being able to buy certain cheeses and other European food in the shops. The Chinese, or it could have been our local

middlemen, have wised up very quickly and pushed up prices.”

Travel and wages have also been affected, he adds. “I visited Ireland recently for English language lessons and it was much more expensive than the last time I was there a year ago. That’s because the rouble has fallen a lot against the euro.

“There is a feeling that wages are being hurt. In an international field like IT, you are always comparing your salary to those in other countries. I was already behind an equivalent specialist in Dublin or Berlin. It makes emigration more attractive and I’ve had some offers,” he says.

Fiscal wreckage In St Petersburg, on the other side of the country, Christina Zakharova, 24, has had a similar experience. The customs clearance manager has a privileged vantage point

‘All this has increased costs at the restaurant. It’s a small battle every day… but that’s good, it keeps me young’

from which to survey the fiscal wreckage.

“Imports and exports have fallen significantly. Some companies are going bankrupt. I can also say that many traders are holding off right now waiting to see if the situation changes.”

Ms Zakharova has also amended her shopping habits. “I cannot afford to buy many goods in foreign online stores because of the weak rouble. Other products that I was used to have now disappeared from the shelves and air travel is too expensive now.”

Ludmilla Popova, a 28-year-old entrepreneur from the city, has an entirely different perspective. She feels that people are fretting too much about the economy.

“I never pay attention to prices,” she claims.

“Just because bread costs 100 roubles and not 98 I am not going to stop eating it; I just buy it and that’s that. To be honest, I don’t even know the price of fuel for my car!”

Nevertheless, in her professional life things are a little different. “I pay for my stock in euros and I need to transfer roubles so, yes, that is now more expensive. Luckily, I did a lot of transfers almost a year ago. I foresaw

In recent months, finding new supplies of essential items has been a top official priority. In August, Sergei Dankvert, head of the government agricultural agency Rosselkhoznadzor, held meetings with diplomats from several Latin American countries to discuss replacing European imports of chicken, beef and other foodstuffs. Nonetheless, some commentators aren’t convinced that simply making deals with new trading partners is a sustainable solution.

In 2013, Russia imported $6.7bn (£4.3bn) worth of meat and meat products in total, with more than 20pc purchased from countries now on the blacklist. The sheer volume involved raises the question of whether Russia can realistically plug such a massive supply gap.

“There is the potential to source products from other parts of the world in addition to domestic suppliers. In August, the Brazilian government authorised 90 new meat plants to begin exporting to Russia,” says EIU analyst Alex Nice.“All of these options are likely to be pricey and the costs for the hospitality industry have risen significantly."

The embargo is likely to have more impact on consumers and businesses catering to the lower income segments of Russian society, Mr Nice adds. Premium restaurants and their clientele may have the resources to cope more easily with the price rises; many Russians and Russian businesses do not.

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this situation when Ukraine first hit the headlines, so I am OK.”

Too expensive Moscow’s Christina Ermakova, 29, sees the negative impact of sanctions in her work as an analyst. “It’s very obvious that our clients have cut their marketing budgets,” she says.

“Marketing and advertising are usually the first things to be reduced in a recession so I think it’s a sign. It has influenced my new year plans. I wanted to go to Europe but it’s too expensive. I am looking at more reasonably priced locations now. Maybe Turkey or somewhere in Asia.”

Walter Bisoffi, 45, an executive chef at Probka, a high-end Italian restaurant in Moscow, says: “The embargo has led to an increase in the price of products made in Russia and a considerable increase in the price of imported goods.”

It has, he adds, created challenges in the kitchen. “All this has increased the cost of dishes at the restaurant. It’s a small battle every day… but that’s good – it keeps me young,” he jokes.

The country has largely avoided the worst of the punishment endured by most of Europe since the 2008 crash. However, if the rouble doesn’t recover soon and if sanctions are made permanent, there may be even more serious costs for the Russian people.

Year of Culture P4_Tuesday, December 16, 2014_www.rbth.co.uk_This supplement is sponsored by Rossiyskaya Gazeta

Turbulent history of the Hermitage revealed on film Cinema release Museum that survived revolution, regicide and wartime siege gives exclusive access to documentary team over two years “It’s a unique situation,”documentary director Margy Kinmonth says.“There’s nothing like it anywhere in the world.”

The documentary marks the first time that an international filmmaker has been allowed inside the Hermitage, which is housed in the wedding cake Winter Palace on the bank of the Neva River.

Kinmonth, whose previous work includes a documentary about the Mariinsky Theatre, came at the invitation of museum director Mikhail Piotrovsky. She was given complete access to the museum’s 2,000 rooms, including ones that

joy neumeyer

special to RBTH

The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg survived the Romanovs, the Revolution and the siege in the Second World War to become one of the world’s greatest art collections.

A new feature-length documentary film, Hermitage Revealed, currently showing in cinemas across the UK, immerses viewers in the Hermitage’s dramatic 250-year history and in the dynasties of curators who have dedicated their lives to preserving it.

most visitors never see, such as the costume department, where imperial gowns and liveries are repaired, and vast storage areas containing, according to the film director“millions and millions more objects”.

Filming took more than two years.“It’s such an enormous place, and there’s so much choice in how you show the story,” Kinmonth adds.

Profile

Margy Kinmonth

Until the end

Imperial pistols

The Hermitage collection began under Catherine the Great, who competed with all the European monarchs to assemble the world’s best art collection. She brought thousands of Old Masters to Russia, including works by Rembrandt, Rubens and Velazquez, as well as more personal purchases, including engraved gemstones and a porcelain dinner service for her lover Prince Potemkin.

Catherine acquired“not only the best names, but also the best things from the best names,” Mr Piotrovsky says in the film.

Mr Piotrovsky’s father Boris served as the Hermitage’s director from 1964 to 1990, and the young Piotrovsky spent much of his childhood there, taking his first steps in the museum. The film recreates how he would wander through the halls at night, going up to the roof and playing in the armoury.

The film’s editor, Gordon Mason, says these night-time meanderings through the halls are some of his favourite moments in the film. Kinmonth “always tries to approach the subject from a different point of view,”he says.“It would have been easy to make a staid documentary about the museum, but I think we managed to create something more dynamic.”

The film crew became familiar with the ins and outs of daily life at the museum. Every Monday, when the Hermitage is closed, artists come to copy and take inspiration from its masterpieces.“With some people, we would go back and after a year they were copying the same Rubens,” Kinmonth says.

Margy Kinmonth is an award-winning British film and television director. Her credits include Mariinsky Theatre and Nutcracker Story for ITV about Russian opera and ballet; Outback Art – The Goldrush for C4 and Rubens – A Master in the Making. Her series Naked Hollywood with Arnold Schwarzenegger won a Bafta for best documentary series.

In 1917, during the October Revolution, the Hermitage came under attack: viewers see slashed portraits of the tsars and smashed golden carriages that are now relegated to the storage area. In the Thirties, despite the bitter protests of the museum’s director, Stalin sold off some of the Hermitage’s most priceless treasures, including Raphael’s Madonna, to fund the Soviet industrialisation drive. The crew travelled to the United States to film the artworks where they are now kept, in Washington DC’s National Gallery.

“We wanted people to fall in love with the artwork,” Mason says. “You have to luxuriate in them and feel an emotional attachment to understand the loss that occurred when they were sold.”

The fate of the Hermitage’s staff has always been tied up with the museum: at the height of Stalin’s terror, 45 employees were sent to the Gulag, and more than 100 died during the siege of Leningrad (the art, meanwhile, was evacuated to the Urals). Today, this tradition of dedication continues. “There are so many women working there who carry on working there literally until their death,”Kinmonth says.

“They don’t retire, they just carry on. They have such knowledge of the collection.”

Art and politics: fighting for the director’s cut in Soviet kinopoisk.ru

Cinema There were no firm rules, but the work of many eminent directors was suppressed or edited when it offended official sensibilities Ekaterina Sivkova special to RBTH

Andrei Zvyagintsev’s movie Leviathan, which made headlines when it was selected as Russia’s nominee for this year’s foreign language Oscar, is due to be released in Russian cinemas next February. But audiences will not see the director’s cut. Leviathan is the first film to be released since Russia adopted a new law last summer that bans swearing in the arts and media.

The new law gives officials the right to curb distribution of a film that breaks the rules.

The version of Leviathan that will be released in Russia includes dubbing over dialogue that contravenes the law.

The film’s difficulties were signalled even before the law was passed. When it premiered in May at the Cannes Film Festival – where it won a best screenplay award – Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s culture minister, said that although he respected the director, he did not like the film.

Some critics and directors have argued that the new law is a step towards the kind of censorship artists faced in Soviet times. Although the new measures differ from Soviet censorship rules, the battles fought by directors then are a cautionary tale.

The God taboo

Andrei Tarkovsky only managed to produce five films even though he was technically able to shoot a film every year. The famous arthouse director spent 16 years of his career unemployed, facing constant difficulties from the authorities. His first film, Ivan’s Childhood (1962), which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, was mocked in the Soviet Union. Even though it was marketed as a children’s film and only shown at matinees, it proved immensely popular and more than 16 million tickets were sold.

But Soviet officials were angered that the film was regarded in the West as a pacifist

“When the film The Cranes Are Flying (1957) won an award at the Cannes Film Festival, nobody in the Soviet Union was in a hurry to honour the director, Mikhail Kalatozov. In a short note about the event published in the newspaper Izvestia, not even his name was mentioned, and there was no photograph.

Why? They say then-Soviet leader Khrushchev had an extremely negative reaction to the film’s storyline – the part where the heroine takes a new lover after her man leaves for the front.”

Class consciousness

Bare bones: the Oscar-nominated Leviathan, which has fallen foul of no-swearing laws

statement, which at a time of Cold War tensions went against Soviet foreign policy.

Each of Tarkovsky’s films was a masterpiece of world cinematography; each was subject to strict censorship. Soviet censors were unhappy with what they regarded as an excess of religious symbolism in Andrei Rublev (1966): as a result, the film was cut by 25 minutes. Tarkovsky was not allowed to make a film for six years following its release.

The Mirror (1975) and Stalker (1979) had limited releases because of their complex language, and the press either gave them negative reviews or kept silent. Solaris (1972) was Tarkovsky’s only more or less successful film.

Even though Soviet officials were irritated by its philosophical line and its arguments about God and awareness – and despite the fact that they demanded more than 40 changes – the film’s power ensured it became well known in the Soviet Union and abroad.

Andrei Smirnov, who directed Byelorussia Station (1970), a cult Soviet film about war veterans, remembers the process of working with censors.“There were no clearly formu-

lated rules. Everything depended on the particular official who said ‘Yes’ or ‘No,’”he says.

“The Soviet State Committee for Cinematography (Goskino, which approved finished films) was just the final stage; censorship started on the first day of film production. At Mosfilm studios, local editors proofread the scripts, after which they were discussed by the arts council – a team of filmmakers, screenwriters and directors. And this wasn’t done without the Party Committee, the local body of the Communist Party. And of course, they closely observed the films during filming.”

Shifting sands

Film critic Viktor Matizen recalls the process differently.“Despite the lack of censorship instructions, you could easily determine the reasons behind the censors’ displeasure in each particular case. Let’s say the heroine of a film needed to represent all Soviet women. If, for example, she divorced her husband, the censor would ask, ‘What do you want to say with this? That all Soviet women swap husbands?’” he says.

More than anything, Goskino feared criticism of the Soviet regime

Among the most important requirements for Soviet films was that of “class struggle”.

Andrei Konchalovsky’s Siberiade (1978), which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, was an attempt to reduce the complexity of life into ideological clichés. In one of the scenes, geologists sinking an oil well next to a village cemetery strike black gold. But gas released from the well starts a fire that gradually spreads to the cemetery.

The villagers rush to the graves of their loved ones, but are held back by fear of another explosion.

A subtle vision appears on the screen – a farewell embrace between the dead and the living. Soviet officials had this to say about the poignant shots: “The symbolic fraternisation between the living and the dead shall not acquire the character of a class reconciliation.”

Film graveyard

More than anything, Goskino feared movies that criticised the Soviet regime. For this reason, no type of film – from a fairy tale to a sci-fi epic – would escape the eye of the censors. Filmmakers were asked to make changes “to clarify class character” and “to clarify the socio-class aspect” .

Such was the case with a sci-fi film proposed by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky called The Fighting Cat Returns to Hell. Here, the censors saw the earthlings’ interference in aliens’ internal affairs as promotion of the false concept of “exporting revolution”.

Although the Strugatsky brothers responded to the critiques, the script never won pro-

Year of Culture THIS SUPPLEMENT IS SPONSORED BY ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA_www.rbth.co.uk_Tuesday, December 16, 2014_P5

Man with a mission uncovers treasure ‘buried’ for decades

CALENDAR UK EVENTS

Archives Historic footage from Russian State Archives to be released worldwide JOHN NAUGHTON

Skilled negotiator ALEKSANDR PETROSIAN

She notes that there is a “dynastic quality” to the Hermitage. Most curators are the descendants of previous generations of staff; when they die, their funerals are held in the museum. The crew witnessed one such funeral during filming of the documentary.

Lighting challenge

While the Winter Palace’s massive rooms, antique chandeliers and windows overlooking the river are beloved by visitors, they create some difficulties for filming. According to director of photography Maxim Tarasyugin, the main technical challenge of working in the Hermitage is the mixed light.

“The light coming through the window has one colour temperature, while that of the lamps in the Hermitage varies from room to room and even within the same hall, where there are different chandeliers,” he says. “It’s a bit of a struggle.”

While the film’s primary focus is historical, viewers get close to some of the finest artworks in the Hermitage’s three million-piece collection. Using LED light that causes no harm to centuries-old surfaces, the camera pans over everything from Rembrandt’s Prodigal Son to Scythian gold from the 7th century BC, acquired by Peter the Great.

“I think what’s amazing about film,” Kinmonth says, “is that you can take things that don’t leave Russia, and show them to the entire world.”

Palace square in St Petersburg now almost surrounded by the Hermitage buildings, seen from the General Stuff building, now a new area for exhibitions of contemporary art

Check www.hermitagerevealed.com for your local screenings. Hermitage Revealed is available to order now on DVD at www.foxtrotfilms.com

Challenging bureaucracy

“I thought, ‘I’ve got to find a way to get this material out there,’” he recalls. “Knowing all the right people as I did, I thought this shouldn’t be too difficult. Well, eight years and £600,000 of legal fees later, I signed the contract in June 2010.”

Dealing with the complex bureaucracy in Russia surrounding the archive was a challenge, but so too was raising the necessary finance in the UK. Initially, Mr Gould was looking for £14m which, before the economic downturn of 2008, two leading banks were willing to lend. When both banks pulled out, he was forced to scale down his plans, which had originally included a separate construction adjacent to

t times duction approval.“It can be said that Soviet film fell under the scalpel of censorship.Yes, there was a scalpel, but there was also an axe,” film critic Valery Fomin says.“Censorship left an enormous graveyard of films and unfinished projects in its wake. It wasn’t enough to ban or cut; they had to punish as well. This acquired monstrous forms of public execution.”

Director harassed

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Personal touch: Anthony Gould has negotiated a deal for international rights to a wealth of remarkable material

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the archive. His new business model required a more modest £3m, which, through a combination of high net worth individuals and small investors, he has largely raised.

The deal he struck involved paying a small annual fee plus an agreement to use archive material at a rate per minute. He’s already embarked on his first commercial venture: buying the rights to 11 ballets performed by the Bolshoi and Kirov (now Mariinsky) companies, which have been remastered for international distribution. Sky Arts bought the first five of these, and in August 2013 broadcast the first, a 1976 performance of Swan Lake featuring the Bolshoi’s legendary dancer Maya Plisetskaya. Sky is currently showing them in its Unseen Bolshoi series.

The ballets are also being released as five DVDs and a five-disc Gift Box set, The Russian Ballet Collection: Volume I. “We have to walk before we can run,” Mr Gould acknowledges, although the commercial value of ballet is considerable.

“It’s not just TV. I have cinemas in this country and across the world eager to buy these films. They are absolutely unique.”

The untapped potential of the archive is vast. Mindful of the ever-present threat of piracy, Mr Gould takes me into his office and shows me a taster menu of the archive’s riches in short clips. It’s simply mouthwatering.

RUSSIAN AVANT-GARDE THEATRE: WAR REVOLUTION AND DESIGN, 1913-1933 THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, CROMWELL ROAD, LONDON SW7 2RL

The creative ingenuity of Russian artists and the ideological shifts over two turbulent decades are highlighted in this exhibition. In collaboration with the AA Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, the V&A presents more than 150 designs for theatrical production by celebrated artists such as Kazimir Malevich, Alexander Rodchenko, Lyubov Popova, Alexandra Exter and Sergei Eisenstein. Their work represents transformations across a vast spectrum of artistic principles resulting in an amalgamation of artists, musicians, directors and performers. ukrussia2014.co.uk/article/627

|JAN 15-APRIL 6, 2015

ADVENTURES OF THE BLACK SQUARE

WHITECHAPEL GALLERY, 77–82 WHITECHAPEL HIGH STREET, LONDON E1 7QX

Romanovs at play

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There is pre-revolutionary footage of Tsar Nicholas II and family playing tennis on a wooden court and a swimming expedition which shows the young, Tsarevich, Alexei, unable to participate because of his haemophilia and looking upset on the sidelines.“It looks like home movie footage,” says Mr Gould.“There are hardly any scratches on the film. It’s been shown perhaps once or twice and then stored away.”

There’s footage of Gulag prison camps from the Thirties, the wartime siege of Leningrad and Hitler’s Berlin bunker.“The Imperial War Museum has got a lot from the Second World War,” he explains.“But it hasn’t got a fraction of the amazing Soviet archive.”

Film of unknown extinct creatures such as a bison-like animal, rarely seen footage of the Chernobyl disaster and Russia’s space programme, can be found alongside numerous operas, plays, children’s animation and drama, all of it carefully indexed with handwritten annotations. There’s already intense interest from leading historians and filmmakers around the world, about which Mr Gould must remain, uncharacteristically, tight-lipped.

He believes many of the 47 full-time Russian archivists, most of whom have worked there all their lives, know where all the treasures lie. When this material surfaces, the effect will not be unlike the discovery of an ancient sarcophagus. Fresh light is about to be shed on aspects of a rich, intriguing culture previously hidden for decades from most of the world.

Malevich’s geometric compositions come to London. Adventures of the Black Square: Abstract Art and Society 1915–2015 is international in its scope, following the rise of Constructivism from its revolutionary beginnings among the avant garde. The exhibition gathers more than 100 works by modern masters and contemporary artists, including Alexander Rodchenko and László Moholy-Nagy. ukrussia2014.co.uk/article/812

|UNTIL JANUARY 31, 2015 DANCING AWAY WITH MIKHAIL BARYSHNIKOV

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Ballet dancer, actor and now accomplished photographer Mikhail Baryshnikov presents a vision of movement on the stage through the lens of his camera. Having spent almost his whole lifetime dancing before audiences, this world renowned master is now turning the tables. In a photo exhibition opening during London’s Russian Art Week, Baryshnikov presents an insider’s interpretation of an art to which he has dedicated his life. ukrussia2014.co.uk/article/798

|UNTIL APRIL, 2015

SCREENINGS OF SEVEN BALLETS BY THE BOLSHOI

CINEMAS ACROSS THE UK

If you are a ballet lover, this should make your day. Once again, audiences around the world will be able to enjoy performances of the Bolshoi principals, soloists and corps de ballet, in cinemas only. The all-time favourites Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker (December 21) and Swan Lake (January 25) broadcast live direct from Moscow to cinemas, mark the 175th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

It is bound to be an enchanting festive season for all lovers of classical dance. ukrussia2014.co.uk/article/795

To buy The Russian Ballet Collection: Volume I, please visit www.russianballetcollection.com For more information on RTRWorldwide and the Russian State Archive, go to www.rtrworldwide.com

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PRESS PHOTO

When the acclaimed director Sergei Eisenstein took on the film Bezhin Meadow in 1935, the well-known story of a boy, Pavlik Morozov, who denounced his father as an enemy of the Soviet authorities, it was expected that Eisenstein would simply fulfil a government order.

However, the director took a different route and refrained from political commentary. The final product was far from a shining example of Soviet rhetoric. As a result, the Soviet filmmaking community harassed Eisenstein almost to the brink of suicide.

Mr Gould, effervescent boss of RussiaTeleRadio Worldwide (RTRW), is a great believer in the personal touch, a throwback to a time when business relied more on personal relations than email communication. Having started at the bottom as a 16-year-old trainee with Kodak, rising to become its head of operations in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), including Russia, Mr Gould, 72, is a skilled networker who has a fund of stories from the great and good including film directors as diverse as Stanley Kubrick and Michael Winner, all of whom used his company’s product. Indeed, his time spent behind the Iron Curtain might have the makings of a film itself, as he claims he was asked to spy by five different countries and rubbed shoulders with the political elite of the region’s countries.

“When you meet a leader or president in his dressing-gown,” he says,“you have a totally different relationship than if you are unfortunate enough to meet him surrounded by his apparatchiks.”

Kodak supplied the Kremlin’s clinic with X-ray film and blood analysis equipment, which led to Mr Gould meeting every Soviet leader from Brezhnev to Gorbachev. Mr Brezhnev’s grandson even visited him in England. It’s these close connections along with a multitude of others forged over almost 40 years of commercial activity in the region, allied to a deep understanding of the Russian business psyche, that have helped RTRW secure the international distribution rights to the archive.

After leaving Kodak in 1994, Mr Gould set about helping western companies such as Tesco and Zara set up shop in the former Communist countries of CEE, but his mind kept returning to the possibilities of this enormous archive, which he’d first come across when invited to install a film laboratory within the complex.

PRESS PHOTO

The home movies of the last of the Romanov emperors, shot before revolution changed Russia forever; footage recording the Gulag prison camps of the Thirties; the Nazi siege of Leningrad; scenes from Gagarin’s epic space flight; unseen Bolshoi Ballet performances; rarely seen images of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster; and thousands of other priceless items of film and radio footage are housed and cared for by the Russian State Archive.

Located in a guarded nondescript industrial building on the outskirts of Moscow, the archive is an immense treasure trove of film and video documenting the history and culture of the country from the time of the tsars to the break-up of the Soviet Union. Scarcely any of this vast quantity of more than two million items, including 138,000 documentaries, has ever been seen in the West, but that’s about to change thanks to the dynamism and determination of one man: Anthony Gould.

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SLAVA’S SNOWSHOW: A clown troupe on tour across the UK

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SWAN LAKE: Tchaikovsky’s ballet at the English National Opera

Restoration drama: RTRW’s digital artist Adam Hawkes uses bespoke, cutting– edge technology to remaster the films

UNTIL FEBRUARY 23

POST POP: East Meets West at Saatchi Gallery

Analysis P6_Tuesday, December 16, 2014_www.rbth.co.uk_THIS SUPPLEMENT IS SPONSORED BY ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA

SOUTH STREAM CANCELLATION OPENS NEW FRONT IN GAS WAR Bryan MacDonald

Russia and Britain: a relationship in context

VOX POP

INTERNATIONAL ANALYST

President Vladimir Putin announced last week that the South Stream gas pipeline would no longer run to south-eastern Europe. Since then, the reasons for the Russian about-turn have been discussed all over the comment pages.

However, what all the commentators have missed is one salient fact – if the pipeline was going to Germany, or another major European Union country, the outcome would almost certainly have been different.

It seems that there is one set of rules for Germany and France and another set of rules for others in the 28-member union. It’s a classic case of: “Do as I say, not as I do”. This time, though, the European giants may have managed to shoot themselves in the foot.

In 2004, the“EU constitution”was signed in Rome. The treaty would have massively expanded the power of Brussels and was controversial from the beginning. French voters thought they had put paid to it a year later when they rejected it in a referendum, though many other members had already signalled their assent.

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

David Bullock on Crimea joining Russia What would be better is to send the OSCE into Crimea to handle an investigation to deem whether the Crimean people chose their current path volunteerily or were forced.

"

O’Neil Brooke on the cancelling of the Eye of Sauron installation on a Moscow skyscraper Good thing you cancelled it.

Western media would have used this to demonise Russia.

"

Fly in the ointment

Deborah Armstrong on language barriers Let’s not wait for our leaders to come around. Let’s establish dialogue ourselves!

Make friends with people whose first language is different from your own. Learn to understand the world through the eyes of people in different cultures.

"

NATALIA MIKHAYLENKO

Brussels Eurocrats had another go with the German-driven Lisbon Treaty in 2007, this time without any plebiscites. There was one fly in the ointment: Ireland’s laws demanded a referendum to implement it. Ireland voted no.

Was the idea scrapped? Of course not. The Irish public was forced to vote again until the big powers in Brussels got the result they actually wanted.

The lesson was simple. France is big and important, so its opinion matters; Ireland is small and peripheral, so the concerns of its citizens (and politicians) matter less.

Something similar has happened in recent months to some European Union members in eastern Europe as the vital South Stream pipeline was cast to the wind, apparently largely because of Brussels-imposed obstacles. The weak have been ordered to “take one for the team” while the powerful are unaffected.

If South Stream had been going to France or Germany, it would have been built – just like the northern pipeline, Nord Stream. Completed in 2012 Nord Stream basically secures Berlin’s energy needs. If the southern route, through the Black Sea to Bulgaria and through Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia to Austria, had been built before then, would Angela Merkel have abandoned Nord Stream? Pigs might fly.

When Mr Putin announced last week that South Stream was a non-runner and that Russia had an alternative plan to initiate a pipeline to Turkey, the blame game began.

It’s obvious that the big winner is Ankara and that, for now at least, Moscow feels that it can take or leave the Balkans. The largest losers are Bulgaria and Serbia, which would have guaranteed their gas supplies and pocketed significant transit fees.

Hungary, Slovakia and Austria are consigned to the mercy of shifting political winds in Ukraine, which remains the transit point. That could make them stakeholders in guarantee-

ART OF DIPLOMACY

Eurocrats understand they depend on Russian gas but want European companies operating in Russia to deliver it

ing Ukraine’s viability as a stable state, but it’s equally valid to speculate that this matter is almost entirely out of their hands anyway.

Last week’s events are either the latest or the final step in a never-ending EU-Gazprom conflict. It looks as if Berlin has ensured its own supply before feeling confident enough to use events in Ukraine this year as an excuse to wind up the feud.

Mumbo jumbo Brussels resents being beholden to Gazprom because it’s a monopoly and one it doesn’t control. Its latest ploy is the Third Energy Package, a barely concealed attempt to undermine Gazprom disguised in the mumbo jumbo of “competition laws”. It is the same sort of approach that is stringently enforced – in other industries – in Slovenia and Estonia, but widely ignored in France and Germany.

Eurocrats understand they depend on Russian gas but want European companies operating in Russia to deliver it, without any Russian state company dictating terms. The Kremlin has said nyet and Europe has been wrong-footed.

Brussels apparatchiks insist on believing that Moscow needs Europe more than they need Moscow. Mr Putin might have sucker-punched them with his unanticipated pivot to Turkey,

but was it a knockout blow? Some Europeans think Mr Putin is bluffing. But the Kremlin chief is a judo master, not a poker player. It looks like EU officials have fallen for their own fantasies. Don’t be fooled; the Kremlin appears to be deadly serious.

Diplomatic genius Call it diplomatic genius, but Mr Putin has also managed to further drag Turkey out of the western orbit and checkmated the EU on a much-speculated alternative supply route from Qatar. This hypothetical route would have gone through Turkey, which now no longer needs it.

The move has opened up a new front in geopolitics. Turkey, which appears to have given up on any hope of being accepted into the EU, is pulled towards Eurasia. The West’s Syrian “regime change”programme – a continuing nightmare for Ankara and Moscow – is weakened. Meanwhile, central and south-eastern Europe is hung out to dry.

The Russia-Turkey energy deal is more than a simple gas trade: it has the potential to change a multitude of geopolitical certainties.The “battle” between the West and Eurasia might just have intensified.

Bryan MacDonald is an Irish journalist who focuses on Russia and international geopolitics.

UK-RUSSIA CROSSVIEWS Journalists see their countries through the eyes of the other’s media

Moscow skyline's ill omen Aliya Sayakhova RUSSIAN ANALYST

Christmas is upon us and, having booked my holidays in Russia a few days ago, I am now wondering whether I should be worried about the prospects for my stay in the capital. The Russian Orthodox Church has warned of bad tidings for the city, all thanks to a symbol borrowed from a series of English books that is due to be put up on the 21st floor of a skyscraper this week.

The rooftop light installation that scared church officials so much is a giant flaming Eye of Sauron. A property company plans to build this arcane edifice to celebrate the release of the final part of Peter Jackson’s movie adaptation of The Hobbit, according to The Guardian. At the centre of Tolkien’s fantasy novels, the Eye of Sauron is controlled by a “dark lord” that gives him the power to watch over anyone wearing a magical ring of power.

The large sphere uses back projection to create a 3D effect in light, which sounds pretty harmless to me. But the church is condemning it as a satanic symbol and warning listeners of Govorit Moskva radio station of dire consequences if the plans go ahead.

Keeping abreast of naked news

Orthodox church head of public affairs, Vsevolod Chaplin, not a man known for his diffidence, said: “Such a symbol of the triumph of evil is rising up over the city, becoming practically the highest object in the city. Is that good or bad? I’m afraid it’s more likely bad. Just don’t be surprised later if something goes wrong with the city.”

The designers of the eye, a design group called Svecheniye, which means “radiance”, say they mean no harm; they don’t even have an eye for profit. They are simply keen followers of Tolkien who approached the property company with the idea, according to a spokeswoman for the building’s owners, Hals Development.

It was the second time this week that the Russian Orthodox Church and “demonic” forces became strange bedfellows in British press reports. A photo captioned “A priest casting out demons from the servers of the Central Bank responsible for maintaining the course of the rouble,”went viral on Twitter. The UK edition of US business and politics news site The Business Insider did a bit of probing and posted a story explaining that the photo does indeed show a priest sprinkling holy water on banking hardware, but one taken in 2001. It had nothing to do with the current vicissitudes of the Russian currency. The picture actually showed the priest blessing the payment systems for a company called Rapida.

Nick Holdsworth BRITISH ANALYST

A reclining male nude that long ago lost its head, but not the power to turn heads, made waves last week. The British Museum’s loan to the Hermitage in St Petersburg of the headless Greek god, thought to personify the river Ilissos, which until the early 19th century graced a frieze on the top of the Parthenon in Athens, prompted a storm of headlines in Russia.

Part of the Elgin Marbles, which were shipped off to England 200 years ago before being acquired by the British Museum in 1816, the loan sparked a political storm.

Radio station Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) caught the diplomatic zeitgeist in its story headlined: “Hermitage director dubs British Museum’s decision to send Parthenon marble to St Petersburg a most important artistic and political gesture.”

But it swiftly plunged into the controversy, noting that the loan of figure, which will be on display until January 18, 2015 had long been contested by the Greeks.

“Transporting the statue is opposed by Athens, where the monument is considered to be cultural heritage plundered from Greece,” said the station.

Stripping the Parthenon bare is an issue that has long soured diplomatic relations between the Greeks and the British. That does not seem to bother the directors of the two museums, who back in October cooked up the deal to ship the massive marble to St Petersburg before its dramatic unveiling last week.

For Hermitage head, Mikhail Piotrovsky and British Museum director Neil MacGregor, it was smugness all round.

“The Hermitage director will not comment on his attitude towards the Greeks, something he has already announced at a meeting of the Union of Russian Museums,” the station said, quoting Interfax news agency.

Mr MacGregor said: “No loan could more fittingly mark the long friendship of our two houses, or the period of their founding, than a sculpture from the Parthenon.”

Antonis Samaras, the Greek prime minister, was infuriated, Ekho Moskvy reported, arguing that the loan torpedoed the British Museum’s old argument that it could not return the marbles to Greece because they must not be moved.

Things could still go wrong. What if Russia returned the marble to Athens, rather than London? Armless as well as headless, Ilissos can’t stick two fingers up to Lord Elgin, but like Mr Putin, the Greek statue certainly has what the Spanish call cojones.

Alexander Yakovenko AMBASSADOR

T

his year has not been particularly successful for our bilateral relations, to put it mildly. Indeed, it’s a challenge to profess optimism in the face of official ties almost frozen at all levels.

The way out of the doom and gloom mood seems to be to have a look at a broader picture. After all, the Euro-Atlantic and global context explains the origins of the present state of affairs between Russia and the West. What comes to mind?

First, it’s difficult to extract this conflict from a global environment defined by economic and financial crisis. The latter reflects another systemic crisis of western society. The previous such crisis required two world wars and the geopolitical imperatives of the Cold War to accomplish societal change. This time, hopefully, nobody is talking war but the lunatic nationalist fringe in Ukraine.

Second, it looks like an endgame of the deeper and complex processes on both sides of the Cold War divide. The Soviet Union reached its impasse first. Now is the turn of the West. This analysis is supported by the latest research by Francis Fukuyama and Martin Wolf.

Russia’s relationship with the West is held hostage to crises for which Russia bears no blame. In such watershed times, some leaders look for the usual suspects to round up. This accounts for the utter artificiality of the Ukraine crisis. It was also a display of unilateral action, contrary to the multilateralism espoused by the EU. The latter’s foray into geopolitics is a sign of something amiss in the European project.

Naturally our bilateral ties flourish where life remains, ie, in business, so far as sanctions permit, and most of all in culture.

We have been through similar periods, when these two pillars helped support the entire edifice of our bilateral relationship.

Sometimes it helps to change the topic.

As to business, there is no need to explain here, in the land of Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes, that sanctions, while a poor substitute for real war, run counter to the basic principles of market economy and undermine the confidence financial markets need. Our trade goes on, although the figures are smaller: $5.5bn for the first nine months of the year, $24.6bn for the previous year.

Britain and Russia are particularly lucky to possess cultures of universal value. Everything in humanity ultimately boils down to culture.

It was not by chance that this year was declared by our governments the UK-Russia Year of Culture. Though official presence and scope were scaled back on the part of the British Government, we have succeeded in many ways, including exchanges between museums. The embassy has been presenting Ushakov medals to British veterans of Arctic convoys (1,500 have already received it). Their unique contribution to the war effort was also recognised in Britain.

Hard times are conducive to reflection and philosophy. Shakespeare, a genius and a unique product of the European Renaissance, will always justify Britain’s being in the world. At least, this is the view of our philosopher Nicolai Berdyaev on Dostoevsky and Russia. Our two nations have always been challenged by the universalism of our literatures.

Geoff Dyer’s Zona, inspired by Tarkovsky’s film Stalker, examines silence, the last word and finitude. As an observer of America’s political scene for the Financial Times, he can judge for himself that those categories also apply to the body politic. Russia keeps channels of communication open. Mr Putin and Mr Cameron still meet to debate our differences. Whatever the appearance, we may be much better off than meets the eye.

I have no doubt that we shall overcome.

Keep in touch with the Russian Embassy in London on these social networks: www.twitter.com/Amb_Yakovenko www.twitter.com/RussianEmbassy www.twitter.com/RussianEmbassyR (Russian version) www.facebook.com/RussianEmbassy www.youtube.com/RussianEmbassy www.slideshare.net/rusemblon www.flickr.com/photos/rusembassylondon russianembassy.livejournal.com

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Travel THIS SUPPLEMENT IS SPONSORED BY ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA_www.rbth.co.uk_Tuesday, December 16, 2014_P7

Economic chill makes Russia a hot tourist destination

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Winter wonderland From the mysterious Urals to the icy extremes of Siberia, there are holiday bargains galore DARIA GONZALEZ RBTH

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CAUCASUS AVERAGE COST IN DECEMBER 2013: £1,130 AVERAGE COST IN DECEMBER 2014: £730 GETTING THERE: sochicityguide.com

The Golden Ring around Moscow, consisting of dozens of ancient cities, two of which are on Unesco’s World Heritage list, is a perfect tourist destination at any time of the year.

Winter offers some special seasonal treats. In Kostroma and Uglich, a five-hour bus ride from Moscow, Russia’s answer to Santa Claus, Ded Moroz (Father Frost) and his snow-maiden granddaughter Snegurochka have their homes. If you are travelling with children, a visit to Ded Moroz is a real treat – but you must remember not to let them lick Snegurochka’s ice house. There are also a wide range of traditional Russian winter activities: riding a troika – three-horse sleigh – through snow-covered forests, royal toboggans and many other novelties for visitors unfamiliar with Russian history and culture.

The Urals form the border between Europe and Asia, and are among the oldest mountains in the world. The region is home to countless nature reserves and ski slopes and boasts tales of UFOs and strange phenomena, such as the Dyatlov Pass incident. The story of the unexplained deaths of a group of young Soviet hikers in 1959, this event draws many people keen to retrace their steps. In the Urals you can visit abandoned metallurgical plants, have the chance to spend the night in a former Gulag prison camp, and see one of the deepest caves in the world, as well as relax and enjoy the stunning scenery. The best way to reach the mountains is by flying to Yekaterinburg and picking up a local tour there.

URALS AVERAGE COST IN DECEMBER 2013: AVERAGE COST IN DECEMBER 2014: GETTING THERE: uralterra.com

£940 £620

Finding winter warmth The warmest winter spot in Russia is the Caucasus. After Sochi became famous earlier this year as the venue for the winter Olympics,

Midwinter marvels: clockwise from top, a reindeer race in Yakutia; the Olympic torch in Sochi; falconry in Altai; an Orthodox church service in Kostroma; and a remote log cabin in the Urals

£4,300 £2,965

Deepest and cleanest

Don’t trip up on your Russian visit Russia has become much easier for tourists to visit in recent years.

However, a few things remain potentially puzzling for foreigners and can add complications to your Russian holiday.

Many Russians might not even be aware of these things, but for the foreign tourist they can be a real surprise. To help you to avoid such issues, RBTH has drawn up a list of tips to help with either brief visits or longer holidays. For more information, go to travel.rbth.com/1747

LAKE BAIKAL AVERAGE COST IN DECEMBER 2013: AVERAGE COST IN DECEMBER 2014: GETTING THERE: waytorussia.net or lakebaikal.org

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TIPS

The deepest and cleanest freshwater lake in the world – Lake Baikal – is located in the heart of Siberia. For the past 10 years, it has hosted an international ice marathon, where participants run a 26-mile route on its frozen surface. There are none of the usual tourist activities such as mountain trails or trips to Siberian snow banks, but the waters of the lake are so pure that frozen algae and scattered air bubbles can be seen through the thick transparent ice on its surface. The lake attracts many photographers, who come to capture the stark beauty of the frozen scenes.You can skate, take a course in Siberian herbal medicine and improve your health – the healing properties of Baikal water are increased by freezing. To get there, you can fly to the lakeside city of Irkutsk and book a tour there. £1,470 £970

Memorable mountains The Altai, a spectacular mountain range in southern Siberia, is a storehouse of winter entertainment.You can go horse riding or skiing, ride a snowmobile, take part in ice fishing on Lake Teletskoye, hunt, go for a Russian banya steam bath and, of course, try snowboarding. Winter is the only time of the year when you can see the highest-altitude ice caves and bathe in the hot geyser-fed Blue Lake that never freezes. The best hub for visiting the little-known region is via Novosibirsk.

Several tour companies takes travellers into the mountain range by jeep from the city.

THE ALTAI AVERAGE COST IN DECEMBER 2013: AVERAGE COST IN DECEMBER 2014: GETTING THERE: waytorussia.net

£1,320 £860

SERGEY MAKURIN

The ancient mountains

YAKUTIA DECEMBER 2013 PRICE: DECEMBER 2014 PRICE: GETTING THERE: visityakutia.com

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rbth.co.uk/travel

In some parts of Russia, -40C is a normal winter temperature. Siberia’s remote region of Yakutia boasts the coldest permanently inhabited settlement on Earth and has one of the biggest ranges of year-round temperatures.

The region has recorded winter lows of -77C, while in summer they can be up to 30C. Winter cold generates some amazing phenomena, such as what the Yakuts call “star whisper” – the soft rustle of instantly frozen breath heard as people breath in and out in the frigid air.

Adventure tours to Oymyakon, known as “the Pole of Cold”, are available from December 2014 until March 2015. The coldest period is December to January.

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Extremes of Siberia

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Eternal Russia by bus

KOSTROMA (BY BUS FROM MOSCOW) AVERAGE COST IN DECEMBER 2013: £230 AVERAGE COST IN DECEMBER 2014: £140 GETTING THERE: waytorussia.net

ALYONA REPKINA

Three months ago, £1 would buy you 60 roubles: now it’s worth 90. In the 12 months since December 2013, sterling has increased in value against the Russian currency by 62pc. Moscow blames the rouble’s weakness on the worldwide collapse in the price of oil and the effect of international sanctions. The upside is that there has never been a better time than this winter for those with pounds in their pockets to visit Russia.

Some prices have increased in the past year.

Flight tickets are up by 12pc, food (excluding European imports that are now under embargo) by 17pc and hotel room rates have hardly changed. But with the pound so strong, most British visitors will barely notice the difference.

With these attractive figures in mind, RBTH offers its own guide to fabulous Russian winter destinations British visitors can now easily afford. We’ve done the sums for you: prices – for a couple – are for round-trip flights from Moscow, two days at the destination, including the cost of food, excursions, transport and accommodation.

the region is now a major tourist destination. However, even on the Black Sea coast, there can be quite a lot of snow, although visitors to the Olympic town can stroll among palm trees before heading for Krasnaya Polyana, high in the mountains, for exciting skiing and snowboarding. The Caucasus is also home to the highest mountain in Europe and one of the most famous ski resorts in Russia – Mt Elbrus (5,642m).

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P8_Tuesday, December 16, 2014_www.rbth.co.uk

FINAL THIRD

Beautiful game gets harder for club and country

Royal court: Tsar Nicholas II and family take a break from a game of tennis

James Ellingworth RGAKFD

SPECIAL TO RBTH

Next move: Lenin, right, playing chess in 1908 with Gorky, centre, and Alexander Bogdanov

Pole position: Experts say sporting all-rounder Vladimir Putin skis on the level of a ‘confident professional’

AFP/EASTNEWS

Russia’s Champions League dream is over for another year after reigning Russian champions CSKA Moscow lost 3-0 to Bayern Munich, snuffing out Russia’s last chance to take part in the knockout stages.

The day before, Russian league leaders Zenit St Petersburg were eliminated after losing 2-0 to Monaco.

It was meek end to a disappointing year for Russian football, despite the good form both CSKA and Zenit showed as they battled to get out of their groups.

The same cannot be said of the Russian national team at this summer’s World Cup. It was supposed to be a chance for Russia to flex its muscles ahead of hosting the tournament in 2018, but to national shame, the team failed to win against Belgium, Algeria or South Korea, none exactly football superpowers.

After the tournament, the team dissolved into recriminations. Russian politicians piled the blame on former England manager Fabio Capello, suggesting that his results were hardly in keeping with his reported annual $11m (£7m) pay deal, making him the world’s highest-paid national team coach. Mr Capello, for his part, focused his anger on a laser pointer aimed at Russia goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev by an Algerian fan, rather than admitting any tactical mistakes.

Worse was to come after Russia’s poor show in qualifying rounds for the 2016 European championship, losing to Austria and failing to beat tiny Moldova. Russia are now third in their group – outside the automatic qualifying places.

Russia finish the year with just one win in their last eight competitive matches – and that against lowly Liechtenstein, just about the closest thing there is to a guaranteed win in world football.

Worse, the Russian national team is becoming famous not for its exploits on the pitch, but its problems in the boardroom. Capello has not been paid since June amid financial problems at the Russian Football Union. The reasons are many and complex, partly the result of factional infighting at the Football Union and the Sports Ministry, but one thing is clear – hiring a famous foreign coach and then not paying him does not sit well with Russia’s ambitions to become a major football nation.

“After all, people are talking about the image of a country that will be hosting the World Cup in 2018,” Capello told Tass. “Believe me, it’s that which hurts me most in this situation, and not the financial discomfort at all.”

Capello has a lot on his plate right now.

Assuming that he stays in his post (the Russian Sports Minister has promised that he will be paid), he will have to start building a team for the 2018 World Cup. That won’t be easy. Many of Russia’s current key players will be too old in 2018, and there’s a lack of young talent coming through – partly the delayed impact of the turbulence and poverty of Russian society in the Nineties, a time when youngsters dreaming of playing for their country had few decent facilities.

The national team may be suffering from a litany of problems but at club level things are healthier. CSKA may not have qualified from their Champions League group but the standard of football they played, including a famous win over Manchester City, was high in a tough group that also contained Roma and Bayern Munich. In fact, had CSKA been given the much easier group that Zenit played in, with Bayer Leverkusen, Monaco and Benfica, there could easily have been a Russian team in the last 16.

Zenit’s Russian Premier League fortunes have been rather better. The runaway league leaders since the start of the season, they went into the three-month winter break seven points clear of second-placed CSKA. Both teams have suffered mixed form in recent weeks. The St Petersburg club will also remember what happened last season, when CSKA were 10 points off the top of the table before a remarkable run of wins allowed them to retain the title at Zenit’s expense.

Public service: Tennis was Boris Yeltsin’s passion and the sport flourished under his leadership

© MIKHAIL KLIMENTIEV / RIA NOVOSTI

Political power games Playing to win From Lenin to Putin, the nation has been inspired to victory in its leader’s favourite sport ALEXEI DENISOV SPECIAL TO RBTH

From judo and karate to ice hockey, Vladimir Putin’s love of sport has been well documented. But what were the sporting interests of the country’s previous leaders? And how did their patronage affect the national standing of those disciplines?

Lenin was an avid chess player; Stalin preferred the Russian folk game gorodki; Brezhnev was a first-rate swimmer; and Putin, who recently took up skating, has also tried his hand at ice hockey. Recent history reveals a pattern: as soon as the country’s leader takes up a sport, it becomes popular and often the nation goes on to achieve success in the sport at an international level.

Photographs taken in Italy in 1908 show Lenin playing an intense game of chess with another Bolshevik, Alexander Bogdanov, while the celebrated Russia author Maxim Gorky looks on. During his exile in Europe, Lenin took up cycling, which in those days required considerable courage, since bicycles were not easy to ride and some streets, particularly those in Paris, were dangerous.

In 1910 Lenin was involved in a cycle accident in the French capital. In a letter to his mother, Maria Alexandrovna, he described the incident: “I was riding from Juvisy and the automobile flattened my bicycle (I had managed to get off). The crowd helped me write down the licence number and acted as witnesses.

I discovered the owner of the automobile (a viscount, darn it) and am now suing him…

Hope to win.”

A sporting history Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia, was a keen sportsman. But early Soviet leaders preferred to play intellectual games, such as chess, or less strenuous pursuits, such as gorodkin (Russian skittles).

In the post-war years, Kremlin chiefs loved to hunt, but the Eighties is generally regarded as the least sporty decade in modern Russian history.

Sport is again, in post-Soviet Russia, closely linked to the preferences of powerful men.

Lenin’s victory over a viscount

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Lenin won the lawsuit, received from the viscount the amount due, bought a new bicycle and continued his risky rides.

After the October Revolution the first sports to be encouraged were cycling and chess. The first big bicycle competition took place in 1918, with the first RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) chess championship in 1920. Alexander Alekhine, the future champion, was the winner.

“The government understood that chess is a part of the education system, that it can contribute to elevating the nation’s culture and to battling illiteracy in a poor country,”says world chess champion Anatoly Karpov in the documentary Three Giants of Soviet Sport.

Other sports also received government support at the time (though not tennis, which was considered a “bourgeois pastime”) and became more popular than ever.

Joseph Stalin’s contemporaries recall that he enjoyed playing gorodki, a game in which players attempt to knock down wooden “cit-

ies” by flinging batons down a court.

The aircraft designer Sergei Ilyushin wrote in his memoirs: “Stalin listened, not uttering a word. For almost an hour. Having understood that a solution was nowhere to be found, he finally stopped the discussion and proposed to “go and play gorodki instead”.Everyone agreed willingly and for four hours there was an enormous fuss on the gorodki court. Stalin was a keen player. He skilfully knocked down the pieces, and bantered with the losers...’’

But the major sports remained undeveloped during Stalin’s time: Soviet athletes usually competed with working-class people from other countries, not with the cream of the crop. This was for political reasons and because sports officials had a pathological fear of losing.

Nikolai Romanov, who headed the department of sport after the Second World War, wrote: “Having decided to participate in competitions abroad, we were obliged to bring back victory, otherwise the ‘free’ bourgeois press would throw muck not only at the Soviet athletes but also at our entire nation... It had already happened on several occasions.

“In order to receive permission to go abroad and participate in international competitions, I had to send Stalin a special note promising a victory…” This is why the USSR made its Olympic debut only in 1952, despite Soviet athletes having been invited to take part in the Games much earlier.

Golden age for football Stalin’s son Vasily, a former fighter pilot and guardsman, contributed much to Soviet sport.

During the post-war years he created and managed a series of teams assigned to the air force.

The most famous were the football and hockey clubs VVS (Vataga Vasiliya Stalina – “Vasily Stalin’s Crew”,as it was called), which produced stars of world renown.

After Stalin’s death, new Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who was not a keen sports fan, had a mixed effect on Soviet sport. He approved the trial for rape of the Olympic champion Eduard Streltsov, erasing eight years from the career of the legendary football player.

However, Khrushchev’s committees organised the first USSR Spartakiad, a domestic version of the Olympics.

Khrushchev’s successor Leonid Brezhnev was a first-rate swimmer and racing car driver, and loved to watch hockey and figure skating.

It was during his era that these two sports entered their golden age. Brezhnev was a CSKA (Central Sports Army Club) fan, which is why army ice hockey players and figure skaters were the best in the country and sometimes the world.

Brezhnev wrote in his diary:“1978, March 9.

Presided over the Politburo. Hosted [Palestinian leader Yasser] Arafat. Saw a hockey

WHAT DOES A RUSSIAN WINTER REALLY LOOK LIKE? FIND OUT IN OUR INTERACTIVE PHOTO ALBUM

match… May 1. Went to Red Square, saw a demonstration. In the evening watched a hockey match between the USSR and Finland – 10:2.”

Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin said of his schooldays: “I was immediately captivated by volleyball, and I could play for days on end.

I liked that the ball listened to me, that I could jump up and take even the most hopeless ball...

My left hand is missing two fingers, that’s why I had difficulties receiving the ball, so I devised a special way of receiving it, a special way of holding the left hand, and now I have my own, unconventional way of receiving the ball...”

Yeltsin serves an ace But tennis was Yeltsin’s true passion. Thanks to the president’s interest, the sport received substantial funding and television coverage.

The men’s national team won the Davis Cup, the world’s most prestigious team tennis tournament, in 2002 and 2006.

“Yeltsin greatly contributed to the evolution of Russian tennis,” the former Nineties USSR team trainer and presidential physical education adviser Shamil Tarpischev recalls.“Members of our government had always played tennis. Even Molotov and Beria occasionally took to the court. And whenYeltsin appeared in front of everyone in shorts and with a racket, it was as if he had rediscovered the sport anew.”

In more recent times, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president, enjoyed weightlifting and canoeing in his youth; and during his presidential tenure he did everything possible to promote badminton. His efforts, as it turned out, were not in vain: at the London 2012 Olympics, Nina Vislova and Valeria Sorokina won Russia its first Olympic medal, a bronze in the women’s doubles.

Vladimir Putin, the current Russian president, is master of judo and the Russian martial art sambo (in which he was frequently a champion of Leningrad), and a black-belt holder in karate, judo and taekwondo. Mr Putin also has an interest in Alpine skiing.

“He skis on the level of a confident professional – technically very well, fast. But he does make mistakes which, when we ski together, I try to correct,”Svetlana Gladysheva, president of the Federation of Alpine Skiing and Snowboarding, said in an interview.

She added: “You can even see by the way he walks that one arm moves too far out, which is noticeable when he skis.”

Mr Putin’s latest enthusiasm is ice hockey.

He started skating in 2011 and now regularly plays in exhibition matches between veterans of the national USSR team. The best example of his love of sport in action was the recent Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.Winning the contest to host the Games was a matter of principle for the Russian leader.

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