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Russian bikie gang go along for the ride with President Vladimir Putin

Winter Games venue has already set a record

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Wednesday, November 13, 2013 there is a smiling babushka serving pelmeni

there is a glass of kvas

there is a Russia of your choice AFP/EASTNEWS

ENCORE A LA RUSSE!

TRADITIONAL RUSSIAN DESIGNS ARE INFLUENCING HIGH FASHION

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News in pictures

MOST READ Olympic torch arrives at the North Pole rbth.ru/31317

FACTES AND NUMBERS

Russian national team qualifies for 2014 World Cup

SOCHI OLYMPICS OLYMPIC TORCH LAUNCHED INTO SPACE While the Olympic torch relay courses through Russia by way of the North Pole, above, ahead of the 2014 Sochi Winter Games in February, this month, a veteran international crew from Russia, the US and Japan launched an unlit torch replica into space for a ceremonial orbital handover.

MIKHAIL SINITSYN

RUSSIAN TEAM GOING TO BRAZIL After it drew 1-1 with Azerbaijan, the Russian national soccer team qualified for next year’s World Cup in Brazil (for the first time since the World Championship in Japan in 2002). Fabio Capello’s side sealed top spot in Group F, ahead of Portugal. Russia went into the match with an impressive four-match winning streak. This is a chance for the most successful generation of Russian soccer players (bronze medal winners from Euro 2008), especially given that the team is managed by one of the world’s most decorated coaches, 67-year-old Capello. In just one year, the Italian has changed the way Russians view the idea of a foreign coach.

123

is the number of days the Olympic torch relay will take. It finishes on February 7, by which time it will have travelled more than 65,000 kilometres.

thousand people will have the opportunity to run with the lit Olympic torch in cities across Russia, and more than 30,000 volunteers will be involved in the event.

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According to Russia's Hydrometeorological Centre, this autumn was one of the top 10 warmest in the northern hemisphere in 123 years. Moscow also had its hottest November day in 100 years.

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The biggest fragment of the Chelyabinsk meteor which hit Russia in February this year was lifted from the bottom of the Chebarkul Lake and is now on display in a museum in Chelyabinsk.

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METEOR PUT ON DISPLAY

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Feature

MOST READ Virtual museum of presidential gifts to go online rbth.ru/29279

Russia's largest bikie club has abandoned anti-establishment rhetoric in favour of patriotic and pro-Putin sentiments

Night Wolves ride alongside Putin Russia's Night Wolves are very different to bikie gangs in Australia and the US. Once perceived as subversive, the club now promotes traditional values.

QUOTES

Vladimir Putin

YAROSLAVA KIRYUKHINA RBTH

DURING A FESTIVAL HELD TO MARK THE CITY OF NOVOROSSIYSK’S LIBERATION IN WWII

Guys and girls, you're great. Not only are you having fun riding your bikes, but you're combining it with patriotic deeds. It's cool that you haven't forgotten our war heroes."

Felix – a club member

President Vladimir Putin rides with the Night Wolves in a publicity stunt which the club enthusiastically welcomed.

DURING AN INTERVIEW AT THE NIGHT WOLVES' SEXTON BIKE CENTRE IN MOSCOW

PHOTOSHOT/VOSTOCK-PHOTO

Headquartered in Moscow but with more than 5000 members nationwide, the Night Wolves is Russia's biggest motorbike club.

HOW TO BECOME A NIGHT WOLF

Aspiring members – only (straight) men need apply – should be adventureseekers, without work or family commitments which might prevent them from spending time with the club.

“The Night Wolves are a phenomenon – bigger than a motorbike club, something that makes presidents come to us and the [Orthodox] Patriarch give us his blessing.” Zaldostanov makes no secret of his warm relations with Putin and praises the president for his patriotic attempts to return Russia to its former greatness. Zaldostanov organised a patriotic motorbike club festival this year in Stalingrad, as part of a wider ceremony commemorating the Nazi bombing of the city on August 23, 1942. He is also increasingly becoming famous for his harsh

You need your own bike, for starters (and they don't always come cheap). Putin's three-wheel Harley, that he rode to a bike show in Sevastopol, for instance, cost more than $US20,000.

anti-American rhetoric and criticisms of what he sees as Western values. The Night Wolves expressed outrage at the controversial punk prayer performed by Russian feminist group Pussy Riot in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral in February, 2012, and in doing so, showed their support for the Russian Orthodox Church. They have taken a very different path from the ideals held at the club’s inception. Following the Pussy Riot controversy, the club later promised to help guard Orthodox cathedrals from any further “hooliganism”, as they described it.

Would-be Wolves need to demonstrate their loyalty and commitment to the club by waiting five years before they become members and can put club emblems on their leather jackets.

Their conservatism runs deep: the Night Wolves are openly homophobic and discriminatory and have said they do not allow gay men to join the club. The Night Wolves’ new progovernment and pro-establishment stances have certainly raised some eyebrows among Russian bikies, particularly middle-class riders who may not share their conservative views.There are still, however, middle-class bikies who bought their Harley-Davidsons and BMWs during Russia’s oil boom of the noughties who are keen to join the club. In 2013 Putin awarded Zal-

dostanov the prestigious Order of Honour for his “active work in patriotic upbringing of the young” and for helping search for the remains of dead World War Two soldiers. Moreover, Zaldostanov’s club does not seem to have attracted bad media coverage after an incident in which a member was killed in a shoot-out with a rival gang last year, allegedly because the latter refused to endorse the Night Wolves’ support of the Kremlin. YevgenyVorobyev, the leader of the Three Roads, a gang involved in the shoot-out, later said that his gang had angered the Night Wolves by ending an alliance with them and establishing ties with the US motorcycle club, the Bandidos, a club which recently edged onto the Russian soil but keeps a low profile. “We just didn’t like the public activity of the Wolves – all that official stuff,” Vorobyev said.“Our ideals are music, bikes, free time and girls.”

We have a closed brotherhood, which has its own rules, with collective responsibility and privacy being the most important among them. Members know that whatever happens to them, whether it be at a police station or in court, that the club will always support him, even if he did something wrong and acted immorally."

Club leader Zaldostanov DURING AN INTERVIEW WITH THE RADIO STATION SVOBODA

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Founded in May 1989, Russia’s motorbike club the Night Wolves sprouted from the anti-Soviet rock culture of the 1980s — a time when the club regarded itself as standing for freedom and against the establishment. For years, this group of bearded, beer-bellied men in black leather and blue jeans was Russia’s only bikie gang. Now, while one of many, it is still the country’s largest motorbike club, with more than 5000 members. The Night Wolves’ manifesto rejects all laws and speaks of the power of the Brotherhood. It has not, however, tarnished its reputation, as the American branch of the club has, with criminal activities. With a few exceptions it generally has a clean reputation. The Russian branch was modelled on the American Hells Angels club and was initially labelled an MG (“motorgang”), not MC (“motorbike club”). But the Night Wolves is very different to bikie clubs and gangs elsewhere. Ideologically, the club has moved close to the Russian authorities and it has connections to PresidentVladimir Putin. The club’s leaders are increasingly becoming known for their espousal of traditional values, nationalist rhetoric and conservative views. Putin first visited the Night Wolves at their Sexton bike club in western Moscow in 2009 – something that sceptics viewed as just another one of the president’s colourful media stunts. Images of Putin on a larger-than-life bike, surrounded by burly Night Wolves members, did the media rounds during his premiership and later presidency. Then, in July, Putin even kept Ukrainian leaderViktor Yanukovich waiting for four hours when he was having a meeting with Alexander Zaldostanov, the tattooed head of the Night Wolves — also known as “The Surgeon”. Putin has embraced and supported Russian patriotism and the strength of the Russian nation since he first became president in 2000, and so have the Night Wolves. “I want us to remain a patriotic club,”says Zaldostanov, "to be an example for the young, to do something for our Fatherland – which we basically lost by buying jeans and chewing gum and selling out for McDonald’s.

It’s no use associating us with politics while we are still in opposition to the authorities. It’s no good to mix patriotism or spirituality with politics. I’m interested in Putin’s personality, and perhaps he and I could have become closer friends if he wasn’t the president."

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Business

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MOST READ Doing business in Russia is now easier than in China rbth.ru/31355

Stereotypes of how Russians do business have little to do with contemporary realities

A different way to get the deal done seven. Working in Russia has made me a better businessman and problem solver. I’ve upped my game to match what’s here.” There are, of course, tricks of the trade that entrepreneurs looking to set up shop in Russia should know.

1. The importance of trust Fentham-Fletcher says Russians are typically wary at the beginning of business negotiations, and that trust is a critical factor, which once earned with Russians will last a lifetime.

2. Russian emotional styles

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Brezhev and Honecker's iconic 1979 kiss has come to symbolise the tendency of Russians towards strong emotional expression.

Misleading stereotypes of Russian business people and negative perceptions about doing business in Russia have abounded since the '90s.

telling you their success stories

ANNA KUCHMA RBTH BUSINESS EDITOR

Common images of Russian business people have been, at worst, of hardened criminals, or, at best, of compromised entrepreneurs, working in an environment where any attempts at running a legitimate business fail because of impenetrable walls of bureaucracy and corruption. While there are elements of truth to these stereotypes, things have changed in Russia since the ’90s, and many foreign entrepreneurs who have gone to Russia to do business have been in no hurry to leave. “It’s not at all like the stereotypes portrayed in Western media,” says Simon Fentham-Fletcher, a British expat in Moscow who works as a portfolio manager at Renaissance Asset Managers. “I originally thought I’d be here for two years,” he said, “and it’s now been

Once trust has been established, Russians are not afraid to show emotion during business negotiations. It is not uncommon for them to be physically animated, to pat their business partners on the back or to have fewer boundaries with regard to personal space in general. Bonding Russian style often involves drinking vodka shots – something non-Russians are usually inexperienced with. Russians also do not smile as much as Western business people in negotiations. Russian-born Polina Lagutina, from PwC Melbourne, says on this subject: “Of course, it depends on the person, but [Russian] traditions dictate that you not reveal happiness or pride, in case someone gets jealous and takes the reason for your happiness and pride away.”

3. Getting straight down to business The more Russians trust their business partner, the less inclined they are to waste time on formalities and exchanges of pleasantries. They get straight to the point – and only then do they resort to small talk. And, as FenthamFletcher has learned, business matters are often discussed outside the office. “Business dinners are the norm, the business day starts slightly later but runs late into the night. Restaurants can be full of business people doing deals at all times of the day, whereas in Lon-

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The pros: 1. Russians are known for being hard workers.

4. As a large country, Russia has an army of well educated and driven young people.

2. Once trust is established, Russians make loyal business partners.

5. Russians have an anythingis-possible mentality.

3. The new 13 per cent tax rate is attractive for investors.

6. A legacy of the Soviet experience – many Russians are innovative problem-solvers.

don or New York the deals are more likely to get done during the day and in the office,” he says. Fentham-Fletcher believes the more Russians trust their business partners, the more likely discussions will take place in more personal and relaxed environments.

4. Assertiveness, creativity and drive These qualities are some of the most distinct traits that stand out in Russians, Fentham-Fletcher says. He says that because there are so many opportunities in Russia, Russians are always on the look out for them, and are often very creative in finding ways to build new businesses. He points out that because of the country's legacy of bureaucratic barriers, Russians are often innovative and lateral-thinking problem solvers.

Soviet-era Russians can have an infuriating tendency towards advicegiving That said, he emphasises that the age of a Russian business person is important. “Those over 50 usually have a Soviet style of doing business. This means they are likely risk averse and tend to gloat over their past achievements. Those in their forties set targets, it’s just that the targets get increased with each new deal. I love their insatiability. The desire to keep pushing for more is something that holds Europeans back. Not in Russia, where there is never enough.”

5. Giving advice In Russian, the word soviet means “council” or “advice”. Soviet-era Russians have an infuriating tendency towards giving advice, even if what they are advising on is well outside their field of expertise. Lagutina says this tendency can drive foreign business people mad. But, she explains, it should be understood as a way of expressing care and a sign of friendship. The cons: 1. Winters are brutally cold. 2. Immigration, visas and work permits are difficult to get. 3. Red tape is harrowing in general. 4. The traffic jams in Moscow are so bad that Russia’s president and prime minister go to work by helicopter.

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Politics

MOST READ Russian opposition abandons street protests rbth.ru/31295

Russia's opposition politicians have long had trouble challenging the dominance of the incumbent party United Russia

Opposition leaders defy the odds to spring poll surprise

In September, municipal authorities were elected in 80 of Russia's 83 regions, with 16 regions also electing local parliaments and 10 (including Moscow and the Moscow region) electing heads of government. According to data released by Russia’s Central Electoral Commission, 109,900 candidates ran for a total of 44,661 seats nationwide. The elections also saw the success of two opposition politicians: Alexey Navalny in Moscow and Yevgeny Roizman in Yekaterinburg While the 37-year-old anti-corruption blogger Navalny did not win Moscow’s mayoral election, he got 27 per cent of the vote (probably not something incumbent mayor Sergei Sobyanin – who got 51 per cent of the vote – expected when he supported Navalny’s candidacy). Roizman, however, did win the mayoral post in Yekaterinburg, gaining 33 per cent of the vote, narrowly beating United Russia’s candidate Yakov Silin, who got 30 per cent. Running on a tough-love anti-drug platform, Roizman is now the highest-placed opposition figure in Russia. Despite the success of these two figures at the local level, opposition politicians in Russia have a hard time getting anywhere because of the dominance of the incumbent ruling party United Russia. And even Roizman is not likely to find it easy working with a United Russia-dominated city council.

The internal versus external opposition After President Vladimir Putin came to power in 1999, Russia’s opposition parties gradually became sidelined. Since 1999, a number of regulations have been introduced which have made it difficult for small parties to survive. One, for example, introduced in 2004, required that the minimum membership for a political party be 50,000 peo-

41.9 per cent of the vote was won by reformist Galina Shirshina in the city of Petrozavodsk

27 per cent of the vote was garnered by opposition leader Alexey Navalny in Moscow

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per cent of the vote went to Yevgeny Roizman in Yekaterinburg elections

Further barriers ahead for opposition leaders A handful of opposition politicians made an impact in Russia's recent September elections (Alexei Navalny, Yevgeny Roizman, Boris Nemtsov and Galina Shirshina). However, just a month after the elections, the State Duma approved a law that will lower the minimum number of representatives in regional and municipal legislatures that must be selected by party lists from 50 per cent to 25 per cent. This means that 75 per cent of deputies will be able to be elected in the winner-takes-all elections, which are more likely to be won by politicians from the ruling party United Russia. As well, a group of senators introduced a bill that would reintroduce the “against all” option to ballots in Duma elections – a move which is likely to take votes away from opposition parties.

However, political analysts describe the internal opposition in Russia's State Duma as merely a 'notional' opposition – politicians without actual influence or power.

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ALEKSANDR KOLESNICHENKO

ple and that party branches have at least 500 people in at least half of Russia’s regions. Not surprisingly, as a result, the number of parties in Russia dropped from more than 60 in the early noughties to seven by the time of the State Duma elections in 2011. In March, 2012, that regulation was amended. A political party can now be registered if it has a minimum of 500 members, and only five members for each regional party branch. Since 2003, United Russia has had a majority in the State Duma, which has allowed it to pass laws at its discretion (and pass laws it has). Also, by 2003, Russia’s opposition movement was being described as being either inside or outside “the system”. The internal opposition consists of parties that have managed to retain their official registration and run in elections, while the external opposition includes unregistered parties and political movements that hold meetings and stage protests without permission from the authorities. However, political analysts describe the internal opposition in Russia’s State Duma as merely a“notional” opposition – politicians without actual influence or power. This notional opposition consists of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), with its leader of 20 years Gennady Zyuganov, who continues to play on elderly Russians’ nostalgia for Soviet times (when their wages were higher than their current pensions and the USSR was a great power). The two other parties are A Just Russia, created by spin doctors in 2006 as a spoiler party to lure voters away from the CPRF, and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. The LDPR is headed by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who is infamous for his outrageous, nonsensical and at times aggressively nationalist rhetoric. Zhirinovsky once promised that if elected he would find a husband for every single Russian woman. It is bamboozling that a man who gets into fist fights in the Duma and gives away cash at politi-

A couple of notable opposition figures made an unexpected impact in the September round of elections in Russia – the largest in the country's post-Soviet history.

Top: Yevgeny Roizman after his mayoral victory; middle: opposition activist Eduard Limonov; bottom: Alexey Navalny, Moscow's contentious opposition leader.

cal rallies gets about 10 per cent of the vote in Russia.

All against Putin Some opposition leaders have no intention of getting their parties registered because they think that they would not be able to win elections anyway. One example is Eduard Limonov, a writer and leader of The Other Russia, previously known as the National-Bolshevik Party, which was banned for being extremist in 2007. Limonov has been convicted and imprisoned on mul-

tiple occasions and spent two years in jail for illegally purchasing weapons in 2003. He advocates seizing power through mass insurrections. “When there are 5000 or 8000 of us taking to the streets, we’re outside the law,”he famously said,“but if there are 500,000 of us, we become the law.” Limonov still laments that in December 2011, during the large-scale protests against alleged electoral fraud which were thought to include at least 100,000 participants, that the government was not overthrown.

Limonov’s support base, however, is limited. He has several dozen participants in his Strategy-31 campaign, named after Article 31 of the Russian Constitution (1993), guaranteeing freedom of assembly. For several years now, on the 31st of each month that has 31 days, Limonov and activists from The Other Russia party gather in Moscow's Triumfalnaya Square, where they are routinely arrested and fined for taking part in unsanctioned protests and for disobeying the police.

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MOST READ Russia goes green using new natural reserves rbth.ru/30531

Forest fires are a common problem in Russia in summer – but last year the country saw its worst fire season in a decade

2012 blazes spark new control efforts Forest fires in Russia last year burned 10.5 million hectares and caused eight deaths. It is estimated it will take 80 to 90 years to recover from the environmental damage.

IN NUMBERS

Alexey Yaroshenko

dollars were spent in 2012 by the Russian authorities in forestfire prevention – more than 10 times less than the US spends.

73 million

head of the forest department at Greenpeace Russia

1.5 million hectares of forest were burned in 2013 – seven times less than in 2012 when average temperatures in Siberia reached 34C.

AFP/EASTNEWS

Smoke from forest-fires near Moscow blanketed the city for a week in August 2010, dramatically affecting air quality.

less areas, compared to the average annual figure observed over the previous 10 years.

yarsk and Baikal territories and in the Republic of Buryatia. European Russia was largely spared, primarily thanks to the abundance of snow last winter and rain last summer. The local authorities had also learned lessons from the destructive forest and peat bog fires that affected the area in 2012. A number of bureaucratic barriers which used to impede the effective use of firefighting resources have been dismantled, and regional administrations have received new fire-fighting equipment.

Nikolay Shmatkov forest policy projects coordinator, WWF Russia

There were no catastrophic forest fires in Russia's most populated regions in 2013. Most of the fires were in the republics of Yakutia and Karelia, in the Komi,Yamal-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi autonomous areas, in the Irkutsk and Amur regions, in Krasno-

Russia does not practice back-burning for fire prevention, and it still remains largely unprepared for fighting forest fires effectively. Some believe the authorities are underestimating human involvement in Russia’s fires. According to the Federal Forestry Agency, only 38 per cent of 2013’s fires were started by people, with the remaining 62 per cent being caused by natural phenomena such as lightning. To manage forest fires better, it’s vital that fires are detected early. Modern satellitebased fire detection systems

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not taken in time for the start of the fire season. Despite this, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Federal Forestry Agency, the Agriculture Ministry, the Emergencies Ministry and the administrations of many Russian regions tightened their control over organisations that oversee fire-prevention strategies at local levels. And this may explain why there were fewer fires this year. In the spring of 2013, the FIRMS satellite-based firemonitoring system registered a 53 per cent drop in the number of fires in natural wood-

REUTERS

Russia’s 2013 fire season proved less destructive than 2012 with preliminary estimates suggesting that about 1.5 million hectares of forest were burned. One outcome of the 2012 fire season was that the authorities disclosed to the community just how serious the scale of fire destruction was – while in previous years they were less than forthcoming. It didn’t happen early enough, however. Fires started in the far east in June but it wasn’t until late July and early August that some regional administrations – Yakutia for example – made public statements about the gravity and extent of the fires. A second outcome of the 2012 fire season was that, after being lax for several years, the authorities realised they needed to take measures to crack down on widespread uncontrolled spring burning of dry grass. There is a tradition in Russia of burning grass because of a belief that it increases soil fertility. This practice has been responsible for starting many forest fires. Sadly, the necessary legislative steps to support a crackdown were

In July this year, the World Bank gave Russia a $US40 million loan to support a project aimed at forest fire prevention.

are effective – however, Russia doesn’t have its own firedetection satellites in orbit, and the information-processing times of current systems are slow, as is the reaction speed of Russia's firefighters. Slow reaction times are due to shortages in personnel and resources. Forest inspectors are often responsible for thousands of hectares of woodlands and they don’t have adequate equipment to manage such extensive areas. A lack of funding, including in the field of forest fire protection, remains a key problem. According to estimates, Russia spends three times less than needed on its forestry sector. It invests 140 times less per hectare of woodland than the US, and 19 times less than Finland. Canada spends at least $US1 billion a year on preventing forest fires and the figure for the US is $US2-2.5 billion. But Russia in 2010 spent just 2.2 billion roubles ($US73 million). While funding levels have increased, they still remain inadequate. One positive initiative is Russia’s new Forest Fire Response Project. The project aims to enhance federal forest management, improve forest fire prevention and suppression, and more generally, to promote favourable conditions for responsible and sustainable use of the nation’s forested areas. The project will be implemented between 2013 and 2018. To accomplish its goals, it will bolster the legal and regulatory framework for forestry management and invest directly in efforts to regenerate and restore forestry that has been affected by industry or fire. In July 2013 the World Bank gave Russia a $US40 million loan to support the project. However, the threat of massive forest fires in European Russia continues to grow. The problem of drained peat bogs has been partially solved only in the Moscow region, by keeping them damp, while in neighbouring regions, thousands of hectares of unmanaged peat bogs pose a serious risk of fire. Peat-bog fires burn underground and can even continue to burn through winter. Another factor which has increased fire risk is the fact that an insect pandemic has destroyed vast areas of spruce forests in the Moscow,Vladimir, Kaluga and Tula regions, leaving behind forests of dry dead wood. In the Moscow region alone, the pandemic is estimated to have destroyed 45,000 hectares of forest. With each of these factors combined, the fire risk in Russia next summer is likely to be significant. first published by RIA Novosti

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MOST READ Russia will not abandon market reforms rbth.ru/31127

Attitudes towards migrants in Russia are overwhelmingly negative in a broader climate of increasing nationalism Construction work is lucrative, although migrant workers are often expected to sleep at the sites they work on.

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Anti-migrant sentiment grows While Moscow residents are a diverse mix of nationalities, not all Russians in the country’s capital are happy about the city's levels of immigration. YAROSLAVA KIRYUKHINA RBTH

Racial riots show growing tension

Tensions between Russians and migrants in Moscow reached crisis point last month, when an incident in Moscow’s low-income outer suburb of Biryulevo led to rioting. The riots were

in response to the death of a man whose murder local residents blamed on an Azeri migrant, Orkhan Zeynalov. Zeynalov was arrested soon after the incident, although some com-

mentators say he was a scapegoat and the arrest was to calm angry crowds. Emil Pain, director of the Russian Centre for Ethnopolitical Studies in Moscow, says this was the fourth major ethnic conflict in Russia this year between ethnic Russians and migrants, with similar incidents having occurred in Saratov, Yekaterinburg and Tatarstan. Following the Biryulevo riot, police stepped up patrols throughout Moscow in an attempt to prevent a repeat of the 2010 riots on Manezhnaya Square, when thousands of nationalists protested over the murder of a Russian during a fight between football fans and migrants from the North Caucasus. Azerbaijan has criticised Russian police for describing Zeynalov as a “killer” rather than a suspect.

the Sova Centre, a Moscowbased NGO which conducts research into racism. Recruited largely from former Soviet republics in Central Asia for construction pro-

total population, which proportionately is much less than in Germany and the US. Not surprisingly, migrants flock to large centres such as Moscow. Despite this, Russia’s capital has little infrastructure and few services to cater to them. The city has just one “migrant-friendly” hostel, which is on the outskirts of the city and costs just $US5 a night. “They (the police) can stop us several times in one day,”says one of the hostel's residents, 20-year-old Maxim from Daghestan. “So we try to keep a low profile.”Maxim works as a cashier in a supermarket and says he earns $US1500 a month (in Russia's peripheral regions, people would be lucky to earn a tenth of that).

He says the police extort more money from those who have legal registration documents (more than $US30 each time), while those who don’t have documents only have to pay a $US3 fine. For this reason, many migrants leave their documents at home. Apart from the fortunate few who stay at the hostel, many migrants live where they work, which could be on the actual construction site they’re building. Or they may be crammed into a tiny flat, with a dozen odd compatriots per room. The head of the Federal Migration Service (FMS), Konstantin Romodanovsky, recently admitted that Russia had failed in terms of its immigration policies. He proposed setting up 81 special

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Migrants in Russia are frequently subject to racism, harassment and scapegoating. They are blamed for stealing jobs from ethnic Russians, doing second-rate work, harassing Russian women and perpetrating violent crimes. The bulk of Russia’s migrants come from two regions: the ethno-republics in the south of Russia (including Chechnya and Daghestan), which are actually within the borders of the Russian Federation, and Central Asian countries, which are part of a loose economic union with Russia called the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). A survey by the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM) in August reported that two-thirds of Russians thought that migrants increased crime rates, and 40 per cent of those polled said migrants weren’t good for the economy. Russians often criticise migrants for not assimilating, not socialising with locals and not learning to speak Russian properly. Migrants in Russia are frequently harassed by the country’s corrupt police force, and they make easy targets in an atmosphere of impunity and rising nationalism. On the pretext of“checking registration papers” police often extract bribes from migrants.

Law enforcement agencies in Moscow have also scapegoated migrants, blaming them for more crimes than statistics would suggest they commit. RIA Novosti reported earlier this year that Moscow's Public Prosecutor’s office declared that migrants were responsible for almost half the city’s crimes, when official statistics put the figure closer to 20 per cent. Among Moscow’s population of 11.5 million, 1 million are migrants, one third of them illegal migrants. A large proportion of this group have low incomes and do jobs that most Moscovites would turn their noses up at: streetsweeping, garbage collection, cleaning, roadworks and construction. President Vladimir Putin himself has made comments criticising migrants for causing problems, and in all likelihood he is responding to popular sentiments. The slogan “Russia for Russians” is appearing more frequently, and nationalists want migrants from other countries (and from other parts of Russia) to be sent back to where they came from (something which is not possible, unless Russia reintroduces restrictions on internal movement which were in force during Soviet times). The “rights” organisation the Moscow Shield says it aims to root out unregistered (illegal) migrant workers. On September 27, its activists, armed with baseball bats, raided a building that housed migrant workers, chasing out those whose registration documents weren’t legitimate. Several groups are targeting illegal migrants, according to

Nationalist activists, armed with baseball bats, raided a building that housed migrant workers jects in the economic boom, Russia's new migrants account for 11 million people. Russia has the second-largest migrant population in the world, behind the US, which has 45.8 million, and ahead of Germany, which has 9.8 million. But migrants account for just 7.7 per cent of the

centres for illegal migrant workers, but did not say whether the centres would help migrants find work and residency permits or they would be deported. Someone who stands for the liberalisation of immigration legislation is Boris Titov, Presidential Ombudsman for Entrepreneurs’ Rights. He has proposed an amnesty for all illegal migrants. “If we suddenly deport all the migrant workers, the economy will crumble,” Titov told RBTH. “Today Russia desperately needs workers. Migrants do one in every 15 jobs. Taking into account the demographic pit into which Russia has fallen, the need for workers will only increase. And who will fill this need?” Russia has an ageing population – by 2030 the number of working-age Russians is predicted to fall from 87.5 million to 77.4 million. According to Titov, about 75 per cent of illegal migrants come from CIS countries, which have visa-free agreements with Russia. But only a fifth of these migrants actually want to settle in Russia and obtain citizenship. Titov also emphasises that the dire state of Russia’s policies towards migrants doesn’t protect them from official corruption and lawlessness. According to Sergey Markedonov, a researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, any attempts to impose visa barriers on migrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia would put an end to the Eurasian Union and integration projects, and would fan anti-Russian sentiment in these countries. It is worth remembering that many Russians still live in CIS countries: Kazakhstan has more than 3 million Russians, Uzbekistan 1 million a n d A z e r b a ij a n a b o u t 120,000.

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WINTER OLYMPICS

Sochi's Fisht Olympic Stadium seats 40,000 and will host the opening and closing ceremonies. It cost $US63 million.

SOCHI'S LIMITED INFRASTRUCTURE AND WARM CLIMATE HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE HIGH COSTS

JEFF VAUGHAN SPECIAL TO RBTH

If hosting London’s 2012 Games on a former industrial waste site seemed challenging, try holding the Winter Olympics in a sub-tropical region. Palm trees adorn Sochi’s Olympic Park, while inland 450,000 cubic metres of snow sit in storage, in case the sun melts what’s on the slopes come February 7, when the Games begin. Sochi had almost no sporting facilities when Russian President Vladimir Putin charmed the International Olympic Committee’s delegates in 2007, winning the Olympics for Russia. Its location, in a relatively undeveloped part of southern Russia where the climate is similar to the south of France, in part explains why the Sochi Games are fast becoming the most expensive Olympics in history. Putin promised to spend $US12 billion to get Sochi ready, but the budget has come in at $US46 billion, mostly funded by the government or state-run companies. This is more than the $US44 billion estimated to have been spent on Beijing 2008, and dwarfs the $US14 million price-tag of London’s Games. Sochi had considerable engineering challenges, which have been overcome at considerable expense. Sochi’s Olympic Park, for example, used to be a swamp. Roads and railways were built to remote locations before construction of the sporting facilities could even begin. A new railway provides a 30-minute link between the two competition zones, the Coastal Cluster and the Mountain Cluster, and organisers say Sochi will be the most compact Winter Games yet staged.

All the arenas in the Coastal Cluster are within walking distance of each other, while athletes will stay just five minutes away in the Olympic Village. A separate OlympicVillage in the Mountain Cluster, which will host ski, snowboard and bobsleigh events, is 15 minutes from competition venues. If the world’s biggest country has the dubious distinction of hosting the world’s most expensive Olympics, then another number gives a nostalgic tinge to the occasion for Russians. The Sochi Games is the 22nd Winter Olympiad, which mirrors the 1980 Olympics in Moscow being the 22nd Summer Olympiad. But the return of the Olympic flame is to a different country, one that sees Sochi as a chance to present to the world Russia’s modern face. However, Russia’s chronic problems with corruption have led to speculation over the amount of construction funds that seem to have been diverted into offshore bank accounts. There has also been controversy over what to do with the 11 competition venues once the Games are over. The biggest arena, the 40,000-seat Fisht Olympic Stadium, will not stage any sporting events, but only the opening and closing ceremonies and medal presentations. Post-Olympics, this $US63 million stadium, named after Mount Fisht which is visible through the arena’s transparent roof, will be the training and match venue for Russia’s national football team. It will also host matches of the 2018 World Cup. One plan to scatter some Olympic stardust around Russia was to dismantle three of Sochi’s arenas after the

GAIA RUSSO

From Sochi’s Olympic Stadium, you can see the Black Sea in one direction and the snow-capped Caucasus mountains in the other.

MIKHAIL MORDASOV

SOCHI SETS A GAMES RECORD AT $46 BILLION

Games and relocate them to other cities. But this plan appears to be foundering, with officials disagreeing on where they should go. It’s likely they will stay in Sochi, and may become part of an elite winter sports academy for children. Whatever decisions are made about the future of the facilities, the Olympics is providing Sochi with a rare opportunity to improve its infrastructure and transform its Soviet-era tourist facilities. Sochi has a long history as both a summer and winter holiday destination. However, in recent years it has lost out to Mediterranean beach and ski resorts. Now the Olympics are a chance for Sochi to attract new tourist markets and to rebrand itself. Sochi and London share an interesting parallel. A Levada poll last month found 65 per cent of Russians thought Sochi was a waste of money, while 64 per cent of Britons surveyed told the BBC before London 2012 that the Olympics were too expensive. But just four months after the Olympics, four-fifths of Britons considered it to have been money well spent – an achievement which Russia may be hard pressed to match, considering Sochi's rocketing costs.

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MOST READ Insider's guide: the best day trips in and around Sochi travel.rbth.ru/1313

Sochi, a favourite getaway for Stalin, was the Soviet leader's main wartime residence

Stalin's relaxing bath led to growth of a tourist hot spot The history of Sochi, a city in southern Russia on the Black Sea and host to the 2014 Winter Olympics, is intricately linked to the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. SVETLANA SINEPOSTOLOVICH

Russian authorities have gone to some effort to ensure that Sochi 2014 is set up with accessible multilingual translation services. SVETLANA SINEPOSTOLOVICH SPECIAL TO RBTH

If you get lost in Sochi and passers-by don’t speak your language, you will be able to call the city's 24-hour information centre (8-800-550-8642), which will have Russian, English, French, German, Chinese, Japanese and Korean speakers on hand. They will also be able to advise about the location of hotels and public transport timetables, as well as call taxis or contact emergency services, if required. Information about hospi-

tals, pharmacies, banks, 24hour ATMs, museums and tour operators will all be on their database. Special telephones with two handsets will be another tool to help visitors communicate with Russians. If two people who speak different languages want to communicate, they can pick up the phones and call the Sochi centre and the conversation will be translated by a third party. These telephones will be at Sochi bus station and Sochi, Adler and Krasnaya Polyana railway stations and at the international airport. The phones are also installed at police and first-aid stations to assist visitors in times of difficulty.

Stalin's dacha (country house) near Sochi is commonly called Zelenaya Rosha (green grove).

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Stalin saw the tourism potential of the Black Sea coast after visiting Sochi’s Matsesta sulphur baths. A longstanding sufferer of rheumatism, he felt immediate relief from the baths and therefore decided to make Sochi his holiday destination. In 1934, Stalin allocated more than 1 billion roubles to improve Sochi’s infrastructure. Health resorts and parks sprang up around the city with special attention being paid to Matsesta, Stalin’s pet project. During his first visits, Stalin stayed at the Mikhaylovskoye estate, situated on the hill between the Matsesta rift and the Agurskiy waterfall. In time, he built a dacha (or country house) which was named Zelenaya Rosha (green grove). The dacha, which today is open to visitors as a museum and small hotel, was designed by a young Soviet architect, Miron Merzhanov, who carefully catered to Stalin’s every whim, down to small details such as creating keyholes which couldn’t be peered through. The furniture of the dacha was also filled with horsehair, which apparently made it close to bullet-proof. The facade of the building was painted emerald green, so that it would blend into the surroundings, and even now it is hard to see the dacha through the trees. But Stalin usually stayed in a separate building within the dacha complex, in part because he liked peace and couldn’t stand the smell of food and the clattering of dishes. By the 1930s, Sochi had become the Soviet Union's most popular holiday resort. Sta-

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SPECIAL TO RBTH

Stalin (left) conducted a lot of his decision-making in Sochi, summoning advisers there such as Lavrentiy Beriya (right).

lin spent a lot of time and conducted a lot of his work from there. During WWII, his family lived there. After the war, Stalin ordered eucalyptus trees to be planted across Sochi, believing they would stave off malaria. Sochi’s sanatoria, used as hospitals during the war, returned to their primary role of coveted holiday resorts. The buildings, constructed on Stalin’s orders and still functional, are impressive. They were intended to remind people of grand palaces with pillars and ornate ceilings.

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Stalin thought that every Soviet person should be given the opportunity to experience luxury on their holidays, so they would work harder when they returned to work. Post-war, Stalin continued to work from Sochi, summoning political advisers from Moscow to visit him there. Stalin usually kept a low profile but once, on September 18, 1947, he made a surprise appearance at the Kavkazskaya Riviera resort, in the centre of Sochi. He asked the holidaymakers how they liked Sochi and gave out lollies to children.

In 1948, Sochi became an independent administrative centre, which, in line with Stalin's increasing madness, imposed certain rules and regulations. Sochi’s main avenue, Prospekt Stalina, was washed three times a day, for example, and cars with dirty tyres were not allowed to drive on it. As well, all Sochi residents and visitors had to abide by a dress code and look“smart”. Merzhanov also designed a sanatorium in Matsesta, where Stalin liked to take sulphur baths. Today, the renovated building has similar clientele to its Soviet days: Russian leaders, foreign dignitaries and wellknown artists and musicians. Stalin is also credited with putting Akhun mountain on the map. He ordered the construction of an 11-kilometre road leading up to the peak near Sochi. The road was built by prisoners to whom Stalin had promised early release if they finished their work in 100 days. One version of history says that all the prisoners ended up being freed, and another says they were all killed for not being able to finish the road on time.

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RUSSIA PASSES ON THE G20 BATON Vladimir Morozov SPECIAL TO RBTH

his year Russia passes the baton of the G20 presidency to Australi a . W h a t a re t h e achievements with which we are approaching this after the G20 Summit that took place September 5 to 6 this year in St Petersburg? Judging by our G20 partners’ reactions and the responses of commentators and the media, we can confidently say the St Petersburg summit was a success. In the five years of its existence the G20 has really become an effective mechanism for elaborating and coordinating common approaches to the global economy and finance among the world’s leading countries. We have managed to achieve stabilisation after the peak of the economic crisis in 2008 and 2009 and consolidate our efforts to ensure balanced and sustainable development of the global economy. It is doing better than it was five years ago. Although economic growth is picking up, the risks are

rbth.asia/48955

We were able to find practical solutions for both the international community and the Russian economy...

still very high. This is why at the start of its G20 presidency, Russia set the task of promoting growth and creating new jobs, primarily by encouraging investment, enacting effective regulations and increasing market confidence. These priorities have allowed

us to ensure continuity in the G20’s activities and to make serious progress in all key areas. The results achieved during Russia’s presidency have been recorded in the St Petersburg G20 Leaders’ Declaration. We were able to find prac-

AUSTRALIA IN THE DRIVING SEAT TO ADVANCE G20'S ACTION PLAN Peter Gerendasi SPECIAL TO RBTH

ustralia will take over from Russia as chair of the G20 on December 1, 2013 for a period of 12 months, culminating in the annual G20 leaders’ meeting in Brisbane in November 2014.The Action Plan agreed at the St Petersburg G20 meeting in September requires members to work closely together if its goals are to be achieved. Australia's role as host in 2014 should not be viewed as simply a chance to showcase the country to other G20 leaders. Based on its membership,

the G20 is well placed to promote and encourage international trade and economic development. Australia has a unique opportunity to take ownership of the St Petersburg Action Plan and drive important new outcomes on a range of issues, such as trade. Priorities that Australia as chair should focus on include:

Alignment around the global growth agenda The St Petersburg Action Plan lists a number of commitments aimed at supporting growth and mitigating risk in each country. However, more needs to be done at a group level. This could, for example, in-

THIS SPECIAL REPORT IS PRODUCED AND PUBLISHED BY ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA (RUSSIA), WHICH TAKES SOLE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CONTENTS. INTERNET ADDRESS WWW.RBTH.ASIA EMAIL EDITORAU@RBTH.RU TEL +7 (495) 775 3114 FAX +7 (495) 988 9213) ADDRESS 24 PRAVDY STR, BLDG 4, FLOOR 12, MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 125 993 EVGENY ABOV EDITOR & PUBLISHER KONSTANTIN FETTS MANAGING EDITOR GLEB FEDOROV EDITOR YAROSLAVA KIRYUKHINA ASSISTANT EDITOR KATHERINE TERS GUEST EDITOR (AUSTRALIA) CLEMSON TEXT & DESIGN PRODUCTION EDITORS (AUSTRALIA) ANDREY SHIMARSKIY ART DIRECTOR ANDREY ZAITSEV HEAD OF PHOTO DEPT MILLA DOMOGATSKAYA HEAD OF PRE-PRINT DEPT MARIA OSHEPKOVA LAYOUT

clude measures aimed at making the interface between G20 leaders and the B20 (Business 20) more transparent.The Australian B20 group includes some of the country's most respected business leaders who need to be given clear terms of reference and goals for the upcoming 12 months. This group needs to be tasked with generating specific recommendations for growth and jobs creation based on what came out of the St Petersburg plan.

Dealing with international tax evasion Due to the increased internationalisation of business, as well as the change in business itself to more electronic glob-

al trade, the tax systems of many countries have not kept pace with the changes in business. There is a strong need for the G20 to deal with this

It is hoped that Vladimir Putin and Tony Abbott also find some common ground via the G20 issue on a collective basis as well as individually.The St Petersburg meeting agreed on a number of important initiatives to combat tax evasion and tax minimisation that require Australia as the new

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tical solutions for both the international community and the Russian economy, and to propose an action plan for finding and encouraging new sources of growth in practically every sphere. Thus, we have reached consensus on the need to combine a policy of maintaining the necessary economic growth rates with medium-term standards and country-specific standards for the fiscal consolidation strategy. The G20 has adopted the St Petersburg Action Plan, a program which sets medium-term goals for reducing budget deficits and conducting comprehensive structural reforms for each country. These include urgent measures to regulate the labour market and taxation, develop human capital, upgrade infrastructure and regulate commodity markets. These measures should strengthen financial markets’ trust in our plans and at the same time encourage investors to co-finance the real sector of the economy and development. We see this as a guarantee for the lasting stabilisation of the global and national economies.Major progress has been made in

stimulating employment. G20 leaders have approved decisions taken at the meetings of labour and employment ministers, and during their joint meeting with finance ministers – the first such meeting in G20 history. We have formulated the task of creating quality jobs with a focus on stimulating employment of vulnerable groups – for example, young people, women, people with special needs. For the first time, we have proposed an integrated approach to formulating labourmarket policy, in particular, by tying the creation of quality jobs to economic development goals, taking into account macroeconomic, financial and social conditions, as well as the connection between the labour market and investments, the budget and the fiscal policy. This approach will enable us to balance supply and demand in the labour market and to create better conditions for the development of business and investment.

chair to quickly table more specific proposals and ultimately legislation that can be adopted in member countries and more widely.This will not be easy, as tax reform often gets sidelined due to political considerations. Australia needs to show by example that reform is possible.

Finally, the passing of the role of chair of the G20 from Russia to Australia should also be used by both countries to foster a better understanding of business and other links between them in areas such as sports, arts and culture. The presence of Australian government officials and business people in St Petersburg was a good sign and a large Russian delegation to Australia in 2014 is also to be expected. There is a strong need to foster better ties between Australia and Russia and the G20 forum is an excellent basis for this. It is hoped that President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Tony Abbott also find some common ground via the G20 as respective leaders of their two nations.

Trade liberalisation G20 leaders agree that trade liberalisation is a critical issue for the world in terms of stimulating growth and employment at an individual country level but the G20 has so far not been able to resolve critical stumbling blocks that stand in the way of this goal. The inability to complete the Doha trade talks is a case in point. Australia as chair has an important role to move trade further up the agenda of the G20 and to address those issues that have so far remained on the table without common agreement.

His Excellency Mr Vladimir Morozov is Russia's Ambassador to Australia.

Peter Gerendasi is a partner at PwC and head of the firm's Australia-Russia desk.

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Fashion

MOST READ Soviet fashion in the '20s rbth.ru/30833

Russian-inspired prints, collars, sleeves and colour schemes are appearing in both high-end and popular fashion worldwide Traditional Russian designs Khokhloma This hand-painted style dates from the 17th century and is one of the best-known expressions of Russian folk art; it is known for its vivid flower patterns in red and gold on a black background.

Pavlovsky Posad These colourful woollen shawls from the Pavlovo Posad factory are known for their flower and vegetablethemed designs, which are of such high artistic quality that they appear three-dimensional. SHUTTERSTOCK/LEGION-MEDIA (3)

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The set — an ice-dusted interior of a Russian mansion — appears like a Doctor Zhivago dreamscape, complete with its own Lara. Interest in Russian culture and fashion in the West has historically gone up and down, but it seems that a few times a decade, designers turn towards Russia, or at least to a Western idea of it, for inspiration. In the ’90s, Valentin Yudashkin had an international impact with his Faberge egg dresses, then in the noughties Denis Simachev brought out a line of frocks inspired by blue-and-white Gzhel porcelain and Russianstyle fur hats. The current international interest in Russian style may be driven, in part, by the visibility of Russian women on the international scene who are known for their sense of style. Examples include Dasha Zhukova, a patron of

Russian style basics include feminine silhouettes, lush long skirts, emphasised waistlines... Paris,”saidVanessa Friedman, international style guru and long-standing fashion editor at the Financial Times.“Their willingness to take risks with their clothes and embrace the high-end is sure to filter down through not only the designers’ imagination but to the consumer one as well.” And there have been other pop-culture influences. Last year’s film Anna Karenina may not have been a big boxoffice hit, but its intense and sumptuous style had a fash-

ion impact on both couture and mass-market designers, such as the Banana Republic’s “Anna Karenina” collection. American Friedman says that“Russian street style”and designer Ulyana Sergeenko are the biggest Russian influences on fashion today. Suzy Menkes in the New York Times’ T magazine has also commented on the Russian style phenomenon: “When fashion mavens like Elena Perminova, Miroslava Duma or Dasha Zhukova get dressed for the evening, the whole world is watching.” At the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, fashion observers were surprised when actress Julia Roberts, known for her love of the colour black, appeared at the premiere of August: Osage County in a red Dolce & Gabbana dress with lace, dolman sleeves and a short hemline. Coupled with Roberts’ vintage hairstyle, the look recalled the film Gorky Park (1983). Last year, Lady Gaga appeared in outfits by Sergeenko that offered a contemporary mix of Anna Karenina and Eugene Onegin’s Tatyana.

Style "a la Russe" Style a la Russe refers to a revival of Russian folk art, designs and materials (mainly silk and fur) and applying them to everything from hats to skirts. Russian style basics include feminine silhouettes, lush long skirts, emphasised waistlines, fur hats (Doctor Zhivago style), scarves, floral prints, lace and embroidery. Elements are also taken from Russian folk art. Popular

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INNA FEDOROVA

the arts and partner of billionaire Roman Abramovich, Elena Perminova, partner of billionaire Alexander Lebedev, and Miroslava Duma, fashion consultant and former editor of the Russian edition of Harper’s Bazaar. “From Dasha Zukhova and Miroslava Duma to Ulyana Sergeenko, Russian fashionistas have become favourite subjects of style chroniclers from New York to Milan and

Julia Roberts at this September's Toronto International Film Festival, in a Dolce & Gabbana frock that tips its hat to traditional Russian styles.

PHOTOSHOT/VOSTOCK-PHOTO

In Vanity Fair's most recent edition, fashion brand Blackglama took out a four-page spread, featuring a striking Julie Christie lookalike.

REUTERS

Once again, the fashion world looks to style a la Russe

Gzhel This blue-andwhite porcelain takes its name from the village of Gzhel, not far from Moscow, where it has been produced since 1802. Gzhel designs come on vases, small animal sculptures, tableware and tea sets.

sources of inspiration include Pavlovsky Posad scarves, which are large with bright floral patterns and fringes, and Khokhloma designs — the red-and-gold painting of flowers and vegetables common on Russian lacquer ware. Historically, Russian culture becomes popular internationally whenever there are upheavals in Russia, whether it is a change of ruler, war, revolution or perestroika. In the 18th century, Peter the Great stirred the imaginations of Europeans and brought European influence into Russian culture, bring-

ing the two closer together. Interest in Russian style returned in 1909, with the arrival of Sergey Diaghilev’s self-exiled Ballets Russes in Paris. Two years later, French fashion designer Paul Poiret introduced Ukrainian embroidery and Cossack boots into Parisian fashion, after a trip to Russia. Then, after 1917, immigration from the former Russian Empire to France, Germany, the US and the UK generated an interest in all things Russian. From this time, the Boyarsky collar, the northern kokoshnik (a traditional Russian

headdress) and shawls with tassels became firmly entrenched in European fashion. In the later 20th century, interest in Russian fashions was revived by Yves Saint Laurent, who created a Russian collection that included fur hats, boots, layered skirts and embroidered blouses. Russian style again became popular in the mid-noughties, when Russian-inspired collections were launched, including Roberto Cavalli,“Paris-Moscow” by Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel and “The Russian Line” by Marras for Kenzo.

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Recycled uranium from Soviet missiles and bombs fuels US nuclear energy

$17bn warheads to watts program nears its end The process begun in the 1990s of reducing the Cold War's stockpile of nuclear arms has had many benefits – one of them providing fuel for US power plants. ALEXANDER YEMELYANENKOV RBTH

The Megatons to Megawatts program, launched in 1993 to recycle Soviet nuclear stockpiles to sell as low-grade uranium to the US as fuel for its nuclear power plants, is approaching its end. The last batch of low-enriched uranium extracted from Soviet warheads will be shipped to the US from St Petersburg in the middle of this month. The 20-year Megatons to Megawatts program was an initiative which grew from the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between the US and the USSR, signed in July 1991. It provided for the irreversible conversion of 500 tonnes of Russian weapons-grade uranium extracted from about 20,000 bombs, artillery shells and nuclear warheads.The US undertook to buy the uranium and use it as fuel in its nuclear power plants (NPPs). The first shipment to the US under the program, operated by the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) and Russia’s TENEX, took place in May 1995. Overall, the program is estimated to have been worth $17 billion to Russia.

In a recent speech at the UN General Assembly First Committee, which deals with disarmament and international security, Rose Gottemoeller, the US Department of State assistant secretary for arms control, verification and compliance, said that low-enriched uranium from Russian nuclear weapons has been used as fuel in America’s NPPs for 15 years.

Nearly every second US nuclear power plant runs on fuel made from Soviet munitions. According to Gottemoeller, the fuel has provided 10 per cent of all power generated in the US and nearly 50 per cent of the power generated by the country’s 104 NPPs. In other words, nearly every second US nuclear power plant runs on fuel made from components of Soviet munitions which were decommissioned and dismantled under the START treaty and START II, which replaced it in 2010. In absolute figures, this amount of fuel translates to more than 7 trillion kilowatt hours of energy, Sergey Kiriyenko, head of Russia’s Rosatom State Nuclear Corporation, said during a recent meeting with US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz. Dr Thomas Neff, a re-

searcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is widely regarded as the father of the project. Neff first proposed what would later become known as the Megatons to Megawatts program in a September 1991 opinion article in The New York Times. In layman’s terms, weapons-grade uranium, or uranium-235, is enriched to 90 per cent or more, while nuclear reactor fuel is normally enriched to between 3.5 and 4 per cent. The high cost of uranium enrichment explains the substantial difference in price of these materials. The process opposite to enrichment is called depletion. It involves very complex technological procedures, nothing like as simple as diluting syrup with tap water. The author interviewed Viktor Mikhaylov, Russia’s minister of atomic energy, in 1992-98. Many of the questions asked concerned the organisation and supervision of the Megatons to Megawatts process, since it was suspected that Russia might try to sell something other than decommissioned warhead materials to the US. “The Americans control the process,” Mikhaylov replied, “Their observers visit our facilities, such as [Russia’s nuclear centre in] Seversk, and make sure that the facilities receive high-grade uranium for processing.”

PRESS PHOTO (3)

Low-enriched uranium is loaded on a Russian ship for export to the US

Soviet-era nuclear warheads were decommissioned and dismantled under the START and START II treaties. The uranium is used to generate 10 per cent of US electricity.

How bombs became nuclear power

Depletion of high-grade uranium under the Megatons to Megawatts program involved a multiple-stage process at several Rosatom facilities.

Asked whether it was possible for the US observers to determine the provenance of the uranium being processed, Mikhaylov said: “We cannot let the Americans in on the development phase and show

The agreement was a breakthrough in relations between Moscow and Washington. them the entire process from start to finish, but we do show them how high-grade uranium is turned into metallic shavings at the Mayak [production association in the town of Ozersk, Chelyabinsk Region].

First, uranium components extracted from munitions were delivered to the Mayak Production Association in Chelyabinsk Region to be turned into metallic shavings, which were then burned in an oxidiser. The uranium oxide was then purified and shipped to other Rosatom facilities for fluoridation and depletion. The first group of US observers visited Mayak in April 1998. During each visit, the observers would spend several days at Mayak verifying a variety of parameters.

“We then turn these shavings into uranium hexafluoride and mix it at [the Ural Electromechanical Integrated Plant in] Novouralsk. “This is where the Americans have a constant presence and make sure that what is coming in is 90 per cent uranium and what is coming out is 1.5 per cent uranium. “They are happy with the process.” Mikhaylov, who did a lot to make the Megatons to Megawatts program work, is no longer around to counter the arguments of those who are now trying to tarnish the program as being unprofitable and even detrimental to Russia. Without going into much detail of this long-standing

debate, let us put it this way: the 1993 agreement certainly was a breakthrough in the relations between Moscow and Washington. Previously, Russian and Soviet uranium had not been allowed onto the US market. “In a sense, this was a political gesture on the part of the Americans,” Mikhaylov told the author in an interview. “The Russian side, for its part, was given a carte blanche from [then Russian President Boris] Yeltsin. “He understood the problem and agreed that in that situation, uranium exports would be the Atomic Energy Ministry’s only chance to compensate for its budget shortages.” Diplomats and independent experts familiar with the Russia-US arms reduction talks mention another important factor. The Megatons to Megawatts agreement provided Moscow with significant economic incentives for withdrawing nuclear arms from Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan and moving them to safe storage areas on Russian territory. By 1996, Russia had taken possession of the entire Soviet nuclear arsenal, in observance of the nuclear nonproliferation principle. According to RBTH sources, the last batch of Megatons to Megawatts low-grade uranium will reach Baltimore in mid-December.

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Dauria seeks to replace imported systems with local manufacturing

First private aerospace company is aiming high In October, the international venture capital firm I2BF Global Ventures invested $US20 million into Dauria Aerospace – Russia's first private space company. ILYA DASHKOVSKY

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Dauria Aerospace is forecasting that its market could be worth up to $US103 billion a year.

don’t require such a high resolution, which means they provide the whole picture.” Kokorich is convinced that “the state is not planning to produce these kind of service systems and will never manufacture them”. Andrey Milovanov, head of the Satellite Transport Monitoring department within the Arkan group, admits that to some degree this is linked to the fact that for a long time, the Russian space industry was just trying to survive. Meanwhile, the rest of the world modernised its satellite production, developing low-budget, small-scale systems. In Milovanov's opinion, as Dauria is a pioneer in the private-satellite market in Russia it has every chance of success, at least in the domestic market.“Today, Russian government agencies use systems for satellite observations which are 95 per cent foreign manufactured. So, a local product would certainly be in demand in a growing Russian market. “It is more difficult to predict the outcome of doing business on the global market. But the company’s innovative approach and its collaboration with experienced partners, like the English company SSTL, makes the project competitive.” American universities are also involved with Dauria and Roscosmos, the Lavochkin Research and Production Association and many other organisations across the world. Dauria has a branch at Skolkovo Innovation Centre, in Moscow, making systems for the internal market, and the company’s headquarters, which house the key service division, are based in Munich. There is also a division in

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The big investment in Russia’s aerospace industry practically went unnoticed by the international media – which is surprising considering the attention given to the launch of SpaceX and Virgin Galactic in the early noughties. In many ways, Dauria is a pioneer because it is developing a sector in Russia which government agencies have long neglected. AlekseyVolostnov, business development director for Frost & Sullivan in Russia, says: “Traditionally Roscosmos [Russia’s federal space agency] focuses on low-margin services, launching, servicing and putting satellites into space, while completely neglecting the high-margin services market, which is what private companies are aiming for.” Dauria director Mikhail Kokorich, former owner of Russia’s largest retail networks, Tekhnosila and Uyuterra, stepped up to fill the gap. (The market is estimated to be worth up to $US103 billion a year.) Dauria’s calculations are based on the fact that it will make cheap satellites that will cost up to $US10 million to build and which can be manufactured in a year. Spacecraft usually costs hundreds of millions of dollars and takes years to produce. According to its founder the company will therefore recoup its set-up costs almost immediately. It plans to launch four satellites over the next few years, two of them next year and another two between 2015 and 2017. According to forecasts, the company’s annual turnover will be more than $US1 billion a year by that time. Kokorich suggests that now is a good time for a project like this: “Our services are unique from the point of view of gathering information and we have our own niche: accurate surveying, forestry, and asset management and monitoring from space,” he said. Kokorich need not fear competition from stateowned companies, as Russia only has a small number of space vehicles.“We only have two civil satellites not counting weather satellites and they require a high resolution,” he says. “Our systems cover the whole Earth, but

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Russia's unprofitable Buran program was shut down in 1993.

NUMBERS

per cent of Dauria Aerospace's revenue is generated by satellite sales, with their biggest buyer being Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos.

3 million dollars is how much it will cost to launch Russia's first private satellite. The launch is scheduled for next year.

4 satellites will be launched by Dauria: two next year and the other two between 2015 and 2017.

Dauria plans to launch four satellites over the next few years, two of them next year

the US developing payload as well as satellite systems for the international market. Dauria’s founders are certain that only a transnational company can achieve success in this business. However, there is another reason why the company’s headquarters are not based in Russia. Kokorich explains: “Unfortunately, due to the idiosyncrasies of the Russian tax system and the complexities of importing and exporting the necessary equipment, it is still difficult to work efficiently on the global market from inside Russia.” Experts add that the state still strictly controls key infrastructure, as well as the delivery vehicles. As Volostnov suggests: “This could mean that this field would be closed to private companies very rapidly if a decision like this is taken at the governmental level. “That said, the market potential is relatively high, which means that private investment in this field can be taken seriously. “Moreover it does not prevent us from being proud of the first private project in Russian cosmonautics, all the more so because there are only a handful of these companies in existence.”

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Culture

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INTERVIEW ANDREW GOODWIN & DANIEL DE BORAH

Australian talents flourish in Russian culture ST PETERSBURG'S MUSICAL RICHES ARE A LASTING INFLUENCE ON TWO AUSTRALIAN PERFORMERS WHO GRADUATED FROM THE CITY'S CONSERVATORY

Why did you decide to study in St Petersburg? Daniel: Russia has an extraordinarily strong music culture. This is a country that has produced many of the world’s best-loved composers, including Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich – all of whom were graduates of the St Petersburg Conservatory. It also has a 150-year-old tradition of virtuoso music performance. Add to that the vibrant musical life of the city: excellent orchestras, a world-class opera and ballet company and beautiful concert halls – and you have an ideal place to study. What was it like when you first arrived in Russia? Andrew: I arrived in 1999, when I was 20. Russia was like a parallel universe, 30 years behind the rest of the world. People were still adjusting to life without the Soviet Union, the rouble had collapsed and Boris Yeltsin was showing up drunk to official visits. My professors were getting salaries of about $US100 a month, while I was paying tuition fees into a Finnish bank account, which was going straight to the Head of the Conservatory. Daniel: I first went to Russia

in 1998; I was 17 and fresh out of high school. I went there to audition at the Conservatory and meet my new teacher. The undergraduate course there goes for five years, and foreign students are encouraged to take an extra preparatory year to get a grasp of the Russian language before starting. So I was there for nearly six years, graduating in 2004. What was it like studying music while learning a new language? Daniel: I arrived with no Russian whatsoever and launched straight into my studies, so it was a case of learning on the fly. During the preparatory year the focus is on learning the language, with one-onone Russian lessons several times a week. My piano teacher spoke no English, so for the first four lessons one of her Russian students sat in and translated for me; then I was on my own. But music is a universal language so we were able to get by. What were the pros of studying in Russia? Daniel: The depth and quality of the education and the dedication, knowledge and boundless energy of my piano teacher, Nina Seryogina. Study aside, I loved wandering the city at night, soaking up the beauty of the architecture and the unique light during white nights. Does the school attract a lot of international students? Daniel: The Conservatory is a big school. There were around 1100 students, of whom about 150 were foreign. Most were from Korea and China, others from Europe, the US and South America. Oh and us: there were three Australians.

Do many Australian musicians study abroad? Daniel:Yes it’s quite common, usually after having already completed a degree in Australia. Apart from studying with some of the world’s greatest musicians at famous institutions ... it’s also an opportunity for students to broaden their horizons by living in another culture. Andrew, I understand you regularly perform at the Bolshoi. Andrew: My chance to audition for the Bolshoi came in 2006 ... I was told I should audition for a part in Eugene Onegin.When I heard I’d been chosen, I was so surprised because Eugene Onegin had only ever been performed by Russians in Russia. I’ve now sung more than 30 performances as Lensky with the Bolshoi, and I travel back there every year. W h at d o yo u l i ke a b o u t performing in Russia? Andrew: I was in Russia for the most formative years of my life,so it’s close to my heart, and the Bolshoi has given me the opportunity to keep that chapter of my life open. After concerts, Russian audiences start applauding, then by some miracle,they start clapping in unison – and, for me, that’s always such a moving experience as a performer.

Would either of you consider living in Russia again? Daniel: I have very fond memories of my years in Russia but it does feel like that chapter of my life is in the past. Andrew: My wife is from Russia, so moving back there wouldn’t be a problem for us, although I think being based in Europe is probably the best position to be in as a musician.

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Pianist Daniel de Borah and tenor Andrew Goodwin met in 1999, when they were students at St Petersburg's Conservatory. The pair, who have colourful memories of their time in Russia’s cultural capital, paired up on home territory last month to perform at Melbourne’s Recital Centre and Sydney’s Government House. They spoke to RBTH about how their time in Russia inspired them and influenced their careers and lives.

VITAE

Daniel de Borah & Andrew Goodwin NATIONALITY: AUSTRALIAN AGES: 32 AND 35

Melbourne-based pianist Daniel de Borah is the 2012 Australian National Piano Award winner and a major prizewinner at the Sydney International Piano Competition. He has played with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra. Tenor Andrew Goodwin, who lives in London, regularly performs at the Bolshoi Theatre and has toured with the St Petersburg Philharmonic. He has also appeared with the Sydney and Adelaide symphony orchestras. Both are graduates of Russia's oldest music academy: the St Petersburg State Conservatory – a school which offers training in performance, composition, conducting and musicology.

Tribute to Russian music The 'Barrel Room' has “one of the greatest acoustics on the planet,” says Richard Tognetti, from the Australian Chamber Orchestra. KATHERINE TERS RBTH

The room, at the Huntington Estate, in Mudgee, New South Wales, is the main venue for the winery’s music festival, which has been held annually since 1989.This year, the event will run from Wednesday, November 20 to Sunday, November 24. Surrounded by thousands of litres of wine in imposing wooden barrels, performers and listeners will have the chance to experience a diverse chamber music program devised by the festival’s artistic director, Australian composer Carl Vine. On his vision for the festival’s program, Vine says: “Every aspect of every performance

must contrast in every way with what precedes and follows it, including genre, period, emotional level, instrumentation and personnel.” A highlight of the program will be the collaboration of tenor Andrew Goodwin and pianist Daniel de Borah, who will pay tribute to Russian composers Nikolai RimskyKorsakov, Cesar Cui and Sergei Rachmaninov by performing a selection of their songs. This concert, on Friday, November 22, will be simulcast live on ABC Classic FM from 7pm. The duo will also perform Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte Op.98 and a selection from Schumann’s Myrthen Op.25 on November 20. Further program details can be found at huntingtonestate.com.au; and at the time of writing, tickets for midweek concerts were still available.

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History

MOST READ The Soviet voice that infuriated Hitler rbth.ru/30677

Our complex relationship with revolutions reveals much about the contemporary world

Revolutionary rhetoric and iconography are flames that still ignite the passions of radical thinkers and artists of all stripes. But how radical are they?

Romancing the revolutionary Even if Lenin is not a revolutionary leader you would want to live under, he is still available for your coffee table.

20TH CENTURY CHRIS FLEMING

Revolutionary landmarks

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Oct/Nov 1917 • Russian leftist revolutionaries, led by Bolshevik Party leader Vladimir Lenin, launched a near-bloodless coup against Alexander Kerensky's provisional government. 1953-59 • The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt led by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement. It successfully overthrew the US-backed Cubandictator Fulgencio Batista. 1966-76 • China's Cultural Revolution aimed to enforce communist ideologies across the country by removing – sometimes violently – traditional cultural and capitalist elements from Chinese society.

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For much of the 20th century Russians celebrated the October 1917 Revolution – the event which brought Lenin and his party to power. (Although the revolution began on October 25, the November 7 celebration date relates to an historical quirk – the shift from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar instigated by the Bolsheviks after they gained power.) Russia no longer officially celebrates the revolution, with Russian President Vladimir Putin reinstating a holiday which had ceased being celebrated in 1917 – National Unity Day. But that celebrations of the revolution are no longer officially sanctioned does not, of course, mean that they don’t occur. One of the signal features of the official histories propagated following the October Revolution was that they produced two symmetrical distortions: one concerning the dramatic violence of the Revolution and the other concerning the peace that followed it. As we now know, the revolution itself was nowhere near as dramatic as later historical and theatrical reconstructions of it suggested. Indeed, much of the violence surrounding the so-called “storming of the Winter Palace” resulted from generalised confusion, looting (especially of liquor stores) and the predictable results of combining alcohol, male bravado and loaded weapons. But neither, as historians continue to count and recount the tens of millions of bodies that fell in the decades that followed, was the Soviet Union the kind of paradise that its PR managers invariably pretended that it was. But as the banality of the revolution and the brutality of its aftermath fade from collective memory, our capacity to romanticise both becomes ever more pronounced. And this is not simply a Russian tendency. Trendy inner-city cafes throughout the west have become billboards for all species of revolution-

ary iconography. The kaleidoscope of images on offer – a red-star shoulder bag, a dashing Che Guevara T-shirt, a peaked cap with the hammer and sickle – suggests a meeting of local members of a now-realised Fifth International. As it turns out, of course, it is no such thing. These are bankers, software developers and university students checking Facebook, flipping through newspapers and “networking.” However one judges this odd revolutionary parade, it is in itself not terribly remarkable – simply one facet of a more general tendency in contemporary culture. Revolutionary iconography has become, like many of the cultural trinkets of the past, mere parades of signs that people use to make profits and construct their identities. Che Guevara was an Argentine Marxist, but he is also a cap, a T-shirt, a mug, a poster, an ice-cream flavour (“Cherry Guevara”), and the basis of high-couture “military wear” – which the relevant website tells us is “the quintessential revolutionary fashion warfare statement.” We might be inclined to see these kinds of gestures as cheap – even cynical – capitalist exploitations of genuine political symbols and fig-

ures, that to associate the hammer and sickle with a brand is a distortion of the worst kind. Or one might argue that communism translates very well into branding because, in a sense, that’s all it ever really was: an advertisement of a utopia to come that never quite existed. Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with the kinds of emotional upswings occasioned by dressing in red and cheering the revolutionary cliche – that exciting statement which demands our assent at the precise moment we become unsure of what it is that we’re shouting. In the late ’60s, French leftists became experts at this species of declamation: “Be Realistic – Demand the Im-

possible!” or “The Dream is Reality!” were among the calls heard around Paris in May 1968; as examples, they fit very well into the history of revolutionary rhetoric. It is equally important, however, to note that they could also just as easily be titles for books by Dr Phil or slogans spruiking the newest Windows operating system. In many respects, revolution represents one of the most successful marketing campaigns of the past 200 years. As such, revolution and the revolutionary are symbols to which artists, a certain kind of politician and even ordinary mortals are continually drawn. And there can indeed be much to celebrate about a revolution – but, in politi-

cal terms at least, this is more often for what a revolution deposes than what it brings in its stead. The danger in this sort of enthusiasm is a muddying of the difference between these two facets of most radical political change: a just deposition of a tyranny on the one hand, and an incomprehensible nostalgia for the corrupt political system that followed, on the other. Of course, not all countries are comfortable with the revolutionary flavours of modern cool, even in its ironic guises. Moscow may still be home to the Red October Chocolate Factory and Aeroflot uniforms continue to carry the hammer and sickle, but in other parts of Eastern

Europe certain communist symbols are banned for their associations with a history of totalitarian horror. This is, in the very least, understandable. But for much of the world, the revolution has become simply a symbol of cool, of tattooed arms raised against imaginary foes for indiscernible reasons – arms then lowered and fists promptly unclenched once the foccacias have arrived. Indeed, surveying trendy cafes,YouTube a la mode and the smattering of communist rallies does little to shake the feeling that – for most of the world – revolution has become so pure, so metaphysical, that either it never ends – or, alternatively, hardly seems to take place at all.

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Some historians argue that more people died in reenactments of the October Revolution than in the revolution itself.

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Sport

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Aussie expat introduces Australian football to Moscow, and interest in the sport is starting to spread

Footy starts to kick on in Moscow Aussie Rules teams have sprung up in Moscow and the cities of Yaroslavl and Novokuznetz, thanks to the efforts of one passionate Australian expat. YAROSLAV KULEMIN

MOSCOW NEWS

On a warm August afternoon this year, at a small stadium in Moscow’s Lefortovo park, a group of well-built guys arrive, carrying an oval ball. The group are led by Australian expat Roger Scott. who has been living in Russia for eight years. Scott has a double-headed eagle tattoo on his right shoulder.“It helps in difficult situations with the police, although I don't have to show it that often these days – Moscow has become more civilised,”he said, with a glint of nostalgia in his voice. Scott, who works in commercial real estate, began learning Russian while still in Australia. On Sundays he teaches all those interested how to play Australian football – a game little known in Russia. "When I was a kid, I didn’t play very well,” Scott says. “But in Russia, I began to miss Australian football. I ordered a ball on the internet and had it sent over from Europe. Then I began to look for people. It might have helped that the Eurosport TV channel in Russia started showing footy. “One of the first to come was Fyodor, who fell in love with the game at first sight. He’s now in charge of the Russian Federation of Australian Football.” Despite the game being associated with a high risk of injury, the training sessions of the Muscovites who love this Australian sport are friendly and relaxed, although from time to time they are inter-

Roger Scott and his teammates use every opportunity to attract new players and encourage the formation of new teams in a country where AFL is little known.

rupted by football lovers from Central Asia, with a more liberal view of the rules. “We want to run, to mess around,” says Sergey from the Space Pirates team, who also plays in an amateur rugby club, Forum. “Compared to rugby, Australian football is more fun,” Sergey says. “We are given a bit more freedom here.” The Russian footy league is in its inception. In addition to the Pirates, there are t w o more adult teams and two youth teams. When recruiting new players, Scott looks for people for whom Australian football could become their main sporting interest: he thinks it is easier to teach somebody from scratch rather than retrain rugby players. Scott says three training sessions are enough to build confidence on the playing field. Newcomers go into the

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“draft” and join one of the existing teams. “We’re not looking for people with extraordinary physical features or a b i l i t i e s ,” Scott says. “Big, small, medium – there’s a place for everybody. We just want to train them in fitness and improve their physical form. We have a 17-year-old guy playing with us and he is doing just fine: getting the ball, dodging opponents, and it’s hard to catch him.” In Moscow, Yaroslavl and Novokuznetsk there are some 100 people playing football. It is not yet possible to unite them, although the idea is there. “I just don't have enough time and money to go to those other places, Russia is too big,”Scott explains. The main events, so far, are local tournaments, the key

ones being the Gagarin Cup and the Concrete and Steel Cup. They involve all five Moscow-based teams. Between competitions, Space Pirates, Shooters and Thrashers hold demonstration games. Two years ago, a Russian national team, the Russian Tsars, was set up, mainly comprised of Moscow players. The name was invented by Scott and the uniforms were ordered from Ireland. The project was sponsored by an English guy who paid for the team to go to the European Championship. After three months training, the Tsars came 10th in the 18-team competition, but since then have not had any big games, since the sponsor has left Russia. They are still planning to take part in Euro 2014 and even hope to finish in the top five. Scott and his teammates use every opportunity to in-

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volve as many people in the game as possible. At a recent training session in Moscow's Sokolniki park there was a festival of Australian culture, with classes in boomerang throwing and country dancing as well as football lessons. After an hour-long training session culminating in a brief but energetic game, Roger Scott invited all those attending to leave their phone numbers. “Do come to our training sessions,” he tells a guy wearing glasses. “It's too far for me, I’m from Sergiyev Posad.” “Are you? Well, why don’t you set up a league there then?” At moments like these, Scott looks very much like a trailblazer. This is what English travellers must have been like when more than 100 years ago they infected the whole world with the virus called football.

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