SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1584 (45), Friday, June 18, 2010
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TITLE: 400,000 Uprooted By Unrest In Kyrgyzstan
AUTHOR: By Sergei Grits
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: OSH, Kyrgyzstan — Some 400,000 people have been displaced by ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan, the United Nations announced Thursday, dramatically increasing the official estimate of a crisis that has left throngs of desperate, fearful refugees without enough food and water in grim camps along the Uzbek border.
UN Humanitarian Office spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said an estimated 300,000 people have been driven from their homes but remain inside the nation of 5.3 million people. She said there are now also about 100,000 refugees in neighboring Uzbekistan. The last official estimate of refugees who fled the country was 75,000. No number of internally displaced has been available.
Violence erupted last week between the majority Kyrgyz population and minority ethnic Uzbeks. Kyrgyzstan’s government has accused the country’s deposed president of igniting long-standing ethnic tensions by sending gunmen in ski masks to shoot members of both groups. The government, which overthrew President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April, accuses the leader of deep corruption and says that he and his supporters were attempting to shake official control of the south and reassert their control of the Afghan heroin trade in the area.
The deputy chief of the provisional government, Azimbek Beknazarov, said Thursday that authorities had strengthened roadblocks on all entrances into the capital, Bishkek, and tightened security in prisons to prevent Bakiyev’s clan from provoking turmoil in the north.
Beknazarov put the official death toll on both sides at 223, but others said the figure could be significantly higher. Many Kyrgyz were killed but the victims appear to have been predominantly Uzbeks, traditional farmers and traders who speak a separate Turkic language and have traditionally been more prosperous than the Kyrgyz, who come from a nomadic tradition.
Ethnic Uzbeks in camps along the Uzbekistan side of the border told Associated Press reporters Thursday that they were fearful of returning to their homes. Many on the Kyrgyzstan side said they had been prevented from doing so by the authorities, and were awaiting their chance to leave the country for the camps.
A few parts of the south have been all but purged of ethnic Uzbeks. In other areas, hundreds who hadn’t fled have piled up old cars on the streets, barricading themselves into their neighborhoods.
Many of the thousands of refugees to have crossed into Uzbekistan say they are afraid to return to the main regional city of Osh and would have nowhere to live if they did go back.
“My house is not there anymore, it burned down,” said Khafiza Eiganberdiyeva, 87, who is among 20,000 refugees in a camp set up near Yor Kishlok, three miles (five kilometers) from the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border.
In an Uzbek neighborhood of Osh, a baker who had fled to the border with his wife and five children said his family had lost hope after supplies on the border ran out, and returned out of desperation.
“Is there any difference where to die? There is no food, no water, no humanitarian aid,” Melis Kamilov, 36, said against the backdrop of his ruined home.
The Kamilovs fled to the border on Sunday, three days after the rioting began in earnest.
“I am an Uzbek, is that a crime? This is not a Kyrgyz house, this house is mine.”
Uzbeks have few representatives in power and have pushed for broader political and cultural rights. While Uzbeks make up only about 15 percent of the overall population, they rival Kyrgyz in numbers in the southern cities of Osh and the nearby town of Jalal-Abad. Both are predominantly Sunni Muslim.
Kyrgyzstan’s weak military has been gradually regaining control of Osh, a major transit point for Afghan heroin and the epicenter of the recent violence. Some refugees who deserted Jalal-Abad, which also suffered heavy damage in the rioting, have been stopped from returning there by authorities who set up a checkpoint on the road back into the city.
In Britain, media reports said one of Bakiyev’s sons had sought political asylum.
Maxim Bakiyev fled to Britain after Kyrgyz prosecutors put him on a wanted listed for allegedly avoiding almost $80 million in taxes.
The Home Office says the 32-year-old was questioned by officials when he flew into Farnborough Airport near London on a private plane Sunday without the necessary documents to enter the U.K.
Britain’s domestic news agency Press Association reports that Bakiyev is seeking asylum. The Home Office said it cannot comment on an ongoing asylum application.
TITLE: Forum Mood Is Brighter Than Last Year
AUTHOR: By Irina Filatova and Scott Rose
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The climate, as always, was on people’s minds as the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum got underway Thursday, with ministers touting favorable investment conditions and business leaders just happy to see the sun.
Last year’s forum, the 13th by organizers’ count, managed to justify its unlucky number in every way. The global financial storm forced Russia’s economic development to the forum’s sidelines, and even President Dmitry Medvedev was bemoaning the rain and cold as he welcomed participants to his native St. Petersburg.
The one blessing, it seemed, was that investors’ attention was squarely on global problems, rather than domestically induced headaches such as the battle for control at TNK-BP or the bankruptcy of Yukos.
And then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin flew in to the nearby town of Pikalyovo to throw a pen at billionaire Oleg Deripaska and berate fellow factory owners for not paying wages. The timing and theatrics of the dressing down stoked fears among 2009 forum participants that the government would use the economic crisis to tighten its grip on business.
Organizers appeared to have learned their lesson this year, pushing the forum back to mid-June and scheduling Medvedev’s opening speech for Friday — when the 2010 forum begins in earnest. Business, too, said it would take matters into its own hands this year, after initiatives like Russia’s long-running World Trade Organization bid continued to flounder.
“Everyone has noticed the change in mood compared with the talks held during the previous meetings,” said Renova Group billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, whom Medvedev recently tapped to oversee development of an ambitious innovation center in the Moscow region town of Skolkovo.
Last year’s forum saw a lot of criticism from the business community and politicians over legislative barriers, Vekselberg told the EU-Russia forum.
“What I liked very much [about today’s meetings] was that state officials have said they see the clear priority from business. … It’s business that must initiate new political decisions through specific projects, through implementing specific initiatives,” he told The St. Petersburg Times after one of the panel sessions.
“And it’s a crucially important change in the dialogue’s entire format,” he said.
“The atmosphere is definitely more positive than last year — regarding both the weather and business,” Michael Harms, the head of the Russo-German Chamber of Commerce, told The St. Petersburg Times on the sidelines of a Russia-European Union round table.
Reiner Hartmann, president of the Association of European Businesses in Russia, said the tone at the forum had changed now that the hangover of the crisis is lifting.
“Our partners are now more open for dialogue,” he said. “They see themselves more soberly and realistically.”
One noticeable difference this year will be the lack of vodka and other hard alcohol at companies’ stands, Deputy Economic Development Minister Stanislav Voskresenksy told Reuters.
“Beverages no stronger than wine” will be allowed on the grounds of LenExpo this year, he said, as Medvedev has sought to improve Russians’ health and productivity through an anti-alcohol drive. The forum’s press office said Thursday that it was not aware of the ban on booze — once a staple at companies’ promotional stands — but noted that Voskresensky was on the forum’s organizing committee.
But the economic modernization agenda is widely expected to be the focus of Medvedev’s speech Friday, and forum participants said revamping the economy remained as vital to Russia’s continued growth as ever.
“I’d like him to say what he has been saying,” Andrew Somers, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, told The St. Petersburg Times in response to a question about the president’s speech.
He listed Medvedev’s anti-corruption drive, efforts to improve relations with Washington and his promotion of innovation as key priorities going forward.
Like last year, Putin is not on the forum’s list of participants, which includes French President Nicholas Sarkozky, who will make a speech with Medvedev on Saturday afternoon.
The prime minister is scheduled to go to the Yaroslavl region on Friday to inspect a once-struggling engine plant and meet investors from Japan’s Komatsu.
“[Putin] created this event. I don’t think he wants to undermine it,” Somers said, when asked about the reaction to Putin’s opening-day appearance in Pikalyovo last year.
“It’s not in his interest. It used to be a Soviet-style thing before he intervened. Now look at these CEOs,” he said after a round table discussion attended by ConocoPhillips chief James Malva, Severstal CEO Alexei Mordashov, Citigroup head Vikram Pandit and other international business captains.
The forum participants also said it was time for business to push politicians for a final agreement on Russia’s now-17-year-bid to join the World Trade Organization. Last year, trade officials from Moscow, Washington and Brussels again said the bid could finally be finished in the coming year, only to fall short as Russia began to work on a customs union with neighbors Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Participants said “technical issues” remain the only barrier to Moscow’s accession.
“We have turned discussing [the WTO bid] into a bad tradition. As far as I understand, it’s business — Russian and European business — that must speak out on this topic clearly,” Rusnano chief Anatoly Chubais said, adding that no other country in the world had taken “such an endless and senseless path as Russia.”
WTO accession is among the main factors hindering a new framework agreement between Russia and the EU, he said.
Staff writers Nikolaus von Twickel and Anatoly Medetsky contributed to this report.
TITLE: World Bank Cuts GDP Forecast to 4.5%
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The World Bank cut Russia’s 2010 gross domestic product growth forecast to 4.5 percent from a previous 5 percent to 5.5 percent, citing poor first-quarter data and new global risks, and saying recovery is likely to be bumpy, Reuters reported.
The new forecast for 2010 still remains more optimistic than that of Russia’s government, which sees the economy expanding 4 percent, and that of the International Monetary Fund, which said Tuesday that GDP is likely to grow 4.25 percent this year.
“After a disappointing first quarter in 2010, a number of leading indicators for April-May show a pickup in economic activity that is likely to be sustained throughout the rest of the year,” the bank said in its report.
The economy grew 2.9 percent in the first quarter of the year, following its deepest contraction in 15 years in 2009 of 7.9 percent.
At the same time, the bank upgraded its forecast for Russia’s GDP growth in 2011 to 4.8 percent from 3.5 percent in its last quarterly report on Russia in March.
The forecast revision was made in assumption of rising households’ disposable income, an increase in consumption, lower unemployment rate and a revival of lending activity in Russia, the World Bank’s lead economist for Russia, Zeljko Bogetic, said at a briefing.
The bank said Russia’s economy is recovering but not as fast as had been predicted earlier, and further forecast revisions are likely in the near future given “lots of uncertainty” — which was repeatedly emphasized during Wednesday’s briefing.
“There is always a possibility of a bad surprise,” Bogetic said, adding that prudent fiscal policy and a tighter budget deficit are crucial for the economic recovery in Russia.
TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: Scarlet Sails
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Aliye Parusa, the annual St. Petersburg school-leavers’ celebration, will take place in the city center on Saturday night. The large-scale event, which takes its name from Alexander Grin’s short story “Aliye Parusa” (Scarlet Sails), is expected to gather about 35,000 people on the Strelka of Vasilyevsky Island and Palace Square. The program starts at about 11 p.m. with concerts on Palace Square and the Strelka, and continues until 5 a.m. The metro will open early at 4 a.m. to enable revelers to get home.
This year, the celebration program includes a special appearance on Palace Square at 12.20 a.m. by Cirque de Soleil — the troupe’s first performance in St. Petersburg, a week before the opening of its show “Corteo.” The performance will be followed from 1.40 a.m. to 2.10 a.m. by the event’s traditional fireworks and a light show on the Neva River, accompanied by music performed by a live orchestra. The traditional highlight of the festivities is the appearance on the Neva of a ship with scarlet sails.
Concerts will continue through the night with appearances by Dima Bilan, Alexander Rybak and others. The event will be televised on Channel 5.
Hate Crime Arrests
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Ten young men were arrested for hate crimes on Thursday, Interfax reported. Members of a nationalist group, aged from 17 to 23, are accused of several murders and explosions. The most high profile crime of which they are accused is the murder of Gvadjo Avanga, a student from Ghana, on December 26 last year.
“After the appearance of a video of the murder on New Year’s Eve on the Internet, [the case] received a lot of attention, not only in St. Petersburg, but all over Russia,” said a representative of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor’s Office. The nationalist group is accused of being behind a series of similar hate crimes against people from Central Asia and Africa.
Racism and hate crimes are a continuing problem in Russian cities. The murder of judge Eduard Chuvashov in April, four days after he handed out a harsh sentence to the Rino-Skanchevskogo nationalist group, is believed to have been an act of revenge by nationalists.
The human rights organization Sova has reported that 18 people have been killed in racist and xenophobic crimes this year.
British Aid Ends
LONDON (AP) — Britain will stop paying aid money to Russia in a sweeping overhaul of its overseas development work.
International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said Wednesday that it was no longer justified to offer money to major nations, and that aid would cease as soon as “practical and responsible.”
TITLE: Court Gives Immunity To Presidential Staff
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A Moscow court has effectively pronounced the president’s men untouchables by throwing out a lawsuit against a member of the presidential administration on the grounds that such complaints infringe on the president’s immunity from prosecution.
The complaint was filed by the St. Petersburg-based Institute for Information Freedom Development, which had tried to sue a Kremlin official for ignoring its requests, the institute’s director, Yelena Golubeva, told the St. Petersburg Times on Wednesday.
But the Tverskoi District Court dismissed the suit against Mikhail Mikhailovsky, who heads the Kremlin’s department for processing citizens’ complaints.
Suing officials “who are directly subordinate to the president” in court “means a direct or indirect interference in the constitutional and legal … activities of the president who enjoys immunity as the head of state,” the court said in the late April ruling, posted on the institute’s web site, Svobodainfo.org, last Wednesday.
The institute will appeal the ruling in the Moscow City Court within two days, Golubeva said.
She said Judge Marina Salnikova’s decision was “not based on laws, but ... on her personal unwillingness to consider our appeal.”
A spokesman for the Tverskoi Court said Salnikova would not comment on the case.
A spokeswoman for Mikhailovsky redirected a request for comment to the presidential administration’s spokespeople, who were unavailable for comment Wednesday.
Yevgeny Ikhlov, a senior spokesman for the For Human Rights movement, and celebrity lawyer Igor Trunov said the Civil Procedures Code allowed the suing of any state official.
Ikhlov said the president was immune from criminal prosecution but not exempt from civil lawsuits.
Ikhlov called the judge’s arguments “faked” and “artificial,” while Trunov said the ruling was “not based on law.”
“The judicial branch has to be independent from the executive branch, but we have big problems with that,” Trunov said. “To achieve an unambiguous court ruling against an official in Russia is the domain of fiction,” he said.
Ikhlov and Trunov said the Moscow City Court is likely to uphold the ruling in this case, and the appeal will have to proceed to the European Court of Human Rights.
The institute sent a complaint to Mikhailovsky in December, but he had failed to react to it as of Wednesday, Golubeva said. The law requires all officials to reply to formal requests within 30 days.
The complaint concerned actions of another member of the Kremlin staff, who in November redirected the institute’s appeal to President Dmitry Medvedev about alleged “corrupt activities” of Mayor Yury Luzhkov to the Moscow City Court, Golubeva said, adding that she could not remember the official’s name.
The institute accused Luzhkov of using the city’s budget to “solve his personal issues,” such as paying for defamation lawsuits that he filed against various people, Golubeva said.
Trunov called the institute’s appeal to Medvedev about Luzhkov’s alleged corruption “a good PR stunt,” but said Medvedev could do nothing about it because only law enforcement agencies can prosecute for crimes.
Lawsuits concerning the president have not had much luck in courts in recent years.
In 2008, the Tverskoi District Court refused to consider a complaint against Medvedev for ignoring a request to hold a gay pride parade, Moscow’s chief gay rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev said.
TITLE: Rurik Dynasty Claims Kremlin
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Odynova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Descendants of the 1,000-year-old Rurik dynasty, which ruled Russia until the 16th century, have demanded unrestricted access to the Kremlin in the name of “historical justice.”
The Moscow Arbitration Court held a preliminary hearing Wednesday on the lawsuit filed by the Princes foundation, which represents the descendants of Rurik, a legendary Viking considered the founder of Kievan Rus.
The lawsuit contests the current status of the Kremlin, used by President Dmitry Medvedev and largely off-limits to the public, saying the ancient fortress is the property of the Russian people.
“We want to have the right to use the property, not to own it, because we are the descendants of those who built all of it,” Prince Valery Kubarev, president of the Princes foundation, told The St. Petersburg Times in a telephone interview Wednesday.
“We want it to be a spiritual center,” Kubarev said.
Kubarev said he has always been aware of his heritage and several years ago began to organize meetings with other Rurik descendants. He said he was aware of thousands of relatives throughout the world.
The descendants proceeded to establish the Princes foundation, whose full name is the Fund of Assistance to the National and Religious Consent of Princes. It was registered by the Justice Ministry with great reluctance in May 2009, Kubarev said.
The foundation’s goals include peace among various nations and faiths and the spiritual and political improvement of humanity.
Danila Yaroslavtsev, a lawyer for the foundation, said preparing a lawsuit that contested the rights to the Kremlin was hard, but noted that the suit had been accepted by the court.
Defendants in the case are the Culture Ministry and the Federal Property Management Agency, whose spokespeople could not immediately comment on the lawsuit Wednesday.
A representative for the Federal Property Management Agency told Wednesday’s hearing that the agency would not give away any piece of the property, Kubarev said.
“But the court noted that there is no document proving that the Kremlin is someone’s property. There is only the president’s order saying that it is his residence,” Kubarev said.
“Well, I can write a different order myself,” he added.
The Kremlin is state-owned property managed by the Federal Property Management Agency. It is also a World Heritage Site. Medvedev confirmed its status as a presidential residence after taking office in 2008.
The Rurik dynasty reigned from the 9th century to 1598 and was succeeded by the House of Romanov in 1613 after a period of tumult known as the Time of Troubles. The Romanovs, who were related to the Rurik dynasty, ruled Russia until the end of the monarchy in 1917.
Fyodor Uspensky, a historian with the Russian Academy of Sciences, said it would be more logical for the House of Romanov to claim the rights to Kremlin than the Ruriks, since they were the last dynasty in power.
“The approach is a bit naive, although their intention to open the Kremlin to the public is very good,” Uspensky said. “It always takes a lot of effort and time to get a pass to visit my colleagues inside there.”
The Kremlin’s museums and churches are open to the public, but access to numerous other buildings and palaces is limited because they are used by officials.
Alexander Zakatov, a historian and spokesman for the House of Romanov, ridiculed the lawsuit as insane. “Our psychiatric hospitals are working very well in the country. They [the Ruriks] should turn first to those institutions before going to court,” Zakatov said.
He said the House of Romanov has never claimed any rights to state-owned buildings because they belong to the nation, not a single family. “We won’t do it, even if Russia becomes a monarchy again,” he said.
Zakatov said the Romanovs do not contend restrictions on access to the Kremlin because they accept its necessity for security reasons.
“It is important for the country’s prestige to have its president’s residence in such a historic place as the Kremlin,” Zakatov said.
The next hearing on the Rurik lawsuit is scheduled for Aug. 18. The Princes foundation is also planning to claim rights to about 60 other ancient fortresses and historic buildings nationwide, including the Pskov Kremlin, which was partly destroyed in an April fire that started in a privately owned restaurant located on the premises.
The federal government is not opposed to historical restitution in principle. On Wednesday, it introduced a bill in the State Duma proposing the transfer of numerous state-owned buildings confiscated from religious organizations by the Bolsheviks back to the original owners — primarily the Russian Orthodox Church.
TITLE: Russia, U.S. Officials Near Adoption Accord
AUTHOR: By Gary Peach
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russian and U.S. negotiators have agreed to set up licensed adoption agencies and allow monitors to visit the homes of adopted children as part of a new accord, Russia’s children’s rights ombudsman said Thursday.
Adoptions in Russia became a highly emotional issue after an instance in April when a Tennessee adoptive mother put her 7-year-old boy on a plane back to Russia — unaccompanied by an adult. International outrage immediately followed, and new adoptions by U.S. parents of Russian children virtually stopped.
Pavel Astakhov, Russia’s children’s ombudsman and the lawyer representing Russia in talks aimed at renewing adoptions, said a breakthrough occurred after U.S. negotiators gave in to Russia’s demand that the accord be retroactive so that it protects children already adopted.
“For a long time U.S. officials did not want to give their consent to this,” he said in a statement, “but Russia managed to accomplish this decision.”
Astakhov said that the new agreement will set up a number of licensed agencies that will have the right to assist potential adoptive parents in finding a child. All adoptions through unaccredited middlemen will be banned, he said.
Training will also be mandatory for adoptive parents. “They will have to undergo training in a special course, for which they will receive the appropriate certificate,” Astakhov said.
The agreement also calls for monitoring the adopted child in its new environment, going as far as to allow home visits by official monitors.
“This was very difficult for the Americans to agree to, given that their right to privacy is sacred,” Astakhov said.
The Russian ombudsman said talks have proceeded “constructively” and could have already been wrapped up were it not for U.S. negotiators, who need to agree everything “with their bosses.”
Astakhov said U.S. officials needed additional time to coordinate provisions in the new agreement with the laws of several states. He said the agreement was two-sided and would apply to any U.S. children adopted by Russian parents.
Some 1,800 Russian children were adopted in the United States last year, according to the Russian Education and Science Ministry.
U.S. citizens have adopted nearly 50,000 Russian children since the early 1990s, a ministry official said.
TITLE: Russia’s Zone of Responsibility
AUTHOR: By Fyodor Lukyanov
TEXT: Until only recently, the territory of the former Soviet Union appeared to be a vast geopolitical battlefield on which major world powers fought it out for the choicest “trophies.” Today, everything has changed. Almost every major power has run up against its own dire economic and political problems. This has made them too preoccupied with resolving their own problems to pay much attention to what is happening on former Soviet soil. That, in turn, has opened up an opportunity for Russia to demonstrate its leadership potential. But is Russia capable of taking advantage of these newfound opportunities?
It is as if the situation has reverted to what it was in the early 1990s. Then, amid the chaos and confusion of the Soviet breakup, there were few world powers desirous of getting involved in the murky politics of the newly independent states. The major powers only began taking a real interest in the region — and, consequently, began competing with one another — toward the end of the 1990s, when the situation gained some clarity and a degree of stability had spread throughout the region. During the initial and riskiest phase of the early 1990s, Moscow was the only power compelled to participate in events in its neighborhood. This was partly due to inertia from having just functioned as the region’s center, and partly because Moscow was unable to isolate itself from the turbulent events occurring in its former outlying territories.
Russian policy during those years was far from ideal. At the same time, Russia undeniably contributed to the emergence of new states and, in some cases, played a key role as a stabilizing force. Only later did the world’s major players — the United States, the European Union and China — begin to develop plans of their own regarding the former Soviet republics.
That stage appears to have ended now. The United States has reassessed its priorities, focusing more on South and East Asia and the Pacific Rim than on the former Soviet republics. Washington’s days-long silence over the unrest in southern Kyrgyzstan speaks volumes. After all, Central Asia is directly linked to the situation in Afghanistan and the surrounding area. As for the EU, in its current configuration, it does not qualify as a world player. Even EU regional projects such as its Eastern Partnership, which seemed so promising only 18 months ago, have been largely forgotten. China looks to its neighbors as a means for achieving its own economic goals, and Beijing has expressed no interest in taking responsibility for the region.
Now Turkey has shown itself to be a new and ambitious factor in the equation. But Ankara will need time to develop an independent strategy.
New opportunities have opened before Russia, which has long sought recognition for what it calls its zone of “privileged interest” in the region. For example, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s dramatic rapprochement with Russia can be explained not by any deep-seated love for Moscow but because he has nowhere else to turn. After paying his first official visit abroad to Brussels, Yanukovych understood that he could expect nothing substantial from the EU and was left with no alternative but to cut a deal with the Kremlin.
But an even greater lack of alternatives was seen last week in Kyrgyzstan. Just as in the 1990s, there was no world power except Russia that could assume the responsibility for putting out the international fire that had broken out there.
But how prepared is Moscow to take action?
Despite the presence of military bases belonging to Russia and the United States, Central Asia lacks any security institutions. Over the course of many years, the Collective Security Treaty Organization has remained little more than a “club of Russia’s friends” that functioned merely as a symbolic counterweight to NATO. Now, however, there is an urgent need for the CSTO to play a role as a capable military and political alliance. In 2009, Moscow started to undertake measures to transform the organization, but it was too late. Member states Belarus and Armenia have no interest in taking part in events that do not directly concern them. What’s more, the CSTO lacks any clear rules or scenarios to govern its actions, and even more important, there is a high level of mistrust between the member states. Most of those states understand the need to stop the chaos in Kyrgyzstan, but they are terribly afraid to set a precedent of interfering in the internal affairs of a partner state. This is especially true considering that in Bishkek itself, the interim authorities do not have legitimacy, and to respond to their call for bringing in peacekeepers would mean supporting one side of the sectarian conflict.
Russia could act independently, following the example set by France in Africa, especially in the 1960s and 1980s. But it lacks a legal basis for doing so. Paris had concluded bilateral agreements with African countries that stipulated — either officially or secretly — the conditions and forms of French intervention if required. Moscow has no such treaties. For Russia to send peacekeepers to Kyrgyzstan, it would need if not a formal mandate then at the very least the consent of its main neighbors in the region, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Without that, Russian troops could be drawn into not only a civil war but an interstate war.
It is also worth asking whether Russia even has professionally trained units that could play a peacekeeping role in such a delicate and dangerous situation. That role would have to be completely different than the “peace enforcement” role Russian troops carried out in Georgia in 2008.
The post-Soviet world is entering a dangerous new phase. The former Soviet republics have been left to cope with their problems by themselves. The regional efforts that various world powers tried to launch for various reasons in the 2000s did not work. Now it even sounds odd to speak of Russia having a zone of “privileged interests.” If anything, Russia has a “zone of responsibility.” The former Soviet republics have been left to cope with their problems by themselves. If Moscow does not find a way to respond to challenges such as Kyrgyzstan, any later claims it might make to a special role in the region will be unconvincing. It is also unlikely that any other world powers will express a desire to assume the heavy burden of responsibility for the region.
Fyodor Lukyanov is editor of Russia in Global Affairs.
TITLE: All Eyes on Luzhkov and Rakhimov
AUTHOR: By Nikolai Petrov
TEXT: With the reappointment of Nizhny Novgorod Governor Valery Shantsev and the appointment of long-time Sakha Prime Minister Yegor Borisov as governor of that region, President Dmitry Medvedev has now appointed 42 governors, or more than half of Russia’s total. Only a few are new, “Medvedev-style” governors, and of those, almost all were appointed last year. But this year, Medvedev has done something new and unexpected by occasionally selecting lesser-known candidates for gubernatorial posts. Some observers hold that by appointing “underdog” candidates — such as new heads for Komi, Volgograd and Yamal-Nenets — the president ensures greater loyalty from them.
The accepted wisdom is that appointed officials are most loyal to the person who has put them in office. But every governor has multiple loyalties.
So far this year, new governors have been appointed to almost one-fourth of all Russian regions. Of the 20 governors appointed, practically none are “outsiders” in the fullest sense of the word. As a rule, they are members of the local political establishment: deputy governors and mayors.
As the most difficult phase of the economic crisis has ended, so has the practice of appointing “carpet bagger” governors — politicians who were brought into a region without having any prior ties there. Such appointments accounted for two-thirds of all gubernatorial placements made during the height of the crisis. Once the crisis passed into a less critical phase, the Kremlin was free to appoint governors who were more experienced or skillful, and not only loyal. Is there some obvious logic behind changing governors? On the surface, it would seem not. The length of time served has little bearing, and none of the strong regional bosses except, perhaps, Kemerovo Governor Aman Tuleyev, has been reappointed. (Tuleyev’s meritorious actions following the mining accident in Mezhdurechensk in May testify to the wisdom of his reappointment.) But none of the governors appointed during Vladimir Putin’s presidency have been replaced, except for those who clearly fell short of the mark.
This year’s round of appointments has seen the dismissal of the remaining gubernatorial heavyweights. After Sverdlovsk Governor Eduard Rossel left late last year, he was followed by Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaimiyev, Khanty-Mansiisk Governor Alexander Filippenko and Rostov Governor Vladimir Chub. Of those, only Shaimiyev managed to leave a successor behind.
Next in line for possible retirement are the two remaining heavyweights — Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and Bashkortostan President Murtaza Rakhimov. Kalmykia President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov’s term in office expires at the same time this fall, and for that reason he can be grouped with the other two leaders. The fight over all three posts has broken out in earnest, and judging from the intensity of the struggle, as well as by the political calendar, those battles are now in their final phase. Regarding Rakhimov, at stake are probably only his terms of surrender. Now that Bashkortostan’s legislature has said appointing a leader from outside the region would be a humiliating move, precisely that option is likely to be implemented. As for Luzhkov, who is now actively demonstrating his importance and usefulness for all to see, the identity of the new mayor is not especially important because the power and pull traditionally associated with his post has already been substantially reduced. For Ilyumzhinov, who appears likely to lose his duties as chairman of the World Chess Federation, it is probably of only symbolic significance that he will retain his post as Kalmykia’s president.
Nikolai Petrov is a scholar in residence at the Carnegie Moscow Center.
TITLE: To see Picasso and die
AUTHOR: By Kristina Aleksandrova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: With the National Picasso Museum in Paris closed for renovation until 2012, its collection — the largest in the world — is currently on tour. The masterpieces have already created a furor in Moscow, and now it is St. Petersburg’s turn. The exhibition that has set record attendance levels of 3,000 to 4,000 people a day opens in the State Hermitage on Saturday.
The average time spent in line by visitors to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow varied from one to three hours, and the museum’s administration had to decline to participate in the European-wide Museum Night event because of the large number of Picasso aficionados besieging the museum.
The lines at the Hermitage can be expected to be similarly daunting, particularly since they are always epic during the summer tourist season, but many are likely to endure the wait to get inside to see the collection of nearly 250 works.
The eagerly awaited exhibition can expect some of its warmest welcomes in Russia, and not just because it is the Year of France in Russia. Although Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) never visited Russia, the Spanish painter was closely connected to Russian culture. In 1917 he was invited by Sergei Diaghilev to design the decorations and costumes for the great impresario’s ballet “Parade.”
Like Diaghilev, Picasso was not afraid of experimentation, and their joint efforts provoked a major scandal at the ballet’s premi?re in Paris. The well-to-do audience was shocked by the Cubist costumes made out of cardboard, a pantomime horse with an unpleasant grimace and other inventions. Enraged audience members reportedly rushed at the stage screaming: “Death to Russians!” Sketches for “Parade,” along with designs for other ballets including “Tricorn” and “Pulcinella,” can be seen at the Hermitage.
During his period of cooperation with Diaghilev, Picasso fell in love with and married Olga Khokhlova, a ballerina from Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes troupe. Their relationship was ruined by Picasso’s secret affair with 17-year-old Marie-Th?r?se Walter, but Picasso and Khokhlova remained legally married until her death.
Picasso’s “Portrait of Olga in the Armchair” (1917), created before their marriage, is on display to the public as part of the exhibition. Khokhlova was not generally considered to be a beauty, and Picasso was justly accused of prettifying her features. The artist had his own “canon of beauty” and believed that all the teachings on splendor were nothing but lies. He is still remembered for his famous assertion that: “the Parthenon is really only a truss on which a roof has been placed.”
Diaghilev and Khokhlova were not Picasso’s only ties to Russia. The artist was a friend of the writer Ilya Ehrenburg, who helped to organize the first exhibition of Picasso’s work in Moscow. In 1956, the artist’s works were incomprehensible to much of the isolated Soviet public. Some visitors declared he lacked talent, but others were awestruck by “Comrade Picasso’s” paintings.
Because of his thirst for freedom and love of cubism, Picasso was not approved of under Stalin, therefore during Khrushchev’s Thaw, the exhibition was an event of great significance, almost comparable to Khrushchev’s speech denouncing Stalin that same year. An account of Ehrenburg’s organization of the Picasso exhibition constitutes part of the show at the Hermitage.
The collection on display at the Hermitage is far from limited to works reflecting the artist’s connections with Russia. Early monochromatic works from the Blue Period, full of melancholy and tragedy, are also on display. In 1901 Picasso was shaken by the suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas, and the artist chose the color blue to express his pain and sadness. The most remarkable paintings in blue tones — “Death of Casagemas,” and “Celestina” — open the exhibition.
The tones brighten with the start of the Rose Period, which brings with it the arrival of a range of comic creatures, such as acrobats, circus actors and harlequins.
The experimental path trodden by Picasso led him to Cubism, then to Neoclassicism and eventually Surrealism.
One of Picasso’s most famous paintings, “Guernica” — a Spanish national treasure — is housed in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, and does not comprise part of the exhibition at the Hermitage. Instead, visitors will see a reproduction.
“Guernica” was painted in 1937 to commemorate the town of the same name that was bombed by the German fascists during the Spanish Civil War. The large canvas (3.5 meters by 7.8 meters) was created in just one month, and was first exhibited in 1937 at the Paris International Exposition. As usual, reviews varied. One magazine wrote that it was the worst painting ever created by Picasso. But the majority declared “Guernica” to be one of the greatest anti-war works ever made.
“Massacre in Korea,” drawn from Goya’s “The Third of May 1808” is also devoted to the theme of war, and dates back to a time when Picasso was interested in interpreting great artists. He created variations on Delacroix’s “Women of Algiers,” Velazquez’s “Ladies in Waiting” and Monet’s “Breakfast in the Open Air.”
Picasso was extremely prolific, producing about 50,000 works. Once he said: “Give me a museum and I’ll fill it.” He succeeded in filling far more than one museum with his legacy. Last year he was named the best painter of the 20th century, and his works number among the most expensive paintings ever sold.
“Picasso. From the National Picasso Museum in Paris” opens Saturday and runs through Sept. 5 at the State Hermitage Museum, 2 Palace Square.
Tel: 710 9625.
www.hermitagemuseum.org.
TITLE: Word’s worth
AUTHOR: By Michele A. Berdy
TEXT: ×àñòíûé: private, individual, specific, particular.
×àñòíûé is an interesting word. The adjective from the noun ÷àñòü (part of a whole), it describes things that are individual in some way or concern individual people, their money and rights. On my personal complex-o-meter of the Russian language, I give it a five: fairly easy to understand but requiring some thought to determine the best word in English for translation.
×àñòíûé can refer to anything that is personal and private — not part of the government, the public or any other organization. For example, you might step into your boss’s office and say: ß ê âàì ïî ÷àñòíîìó äåëó (I have a personal matter to discuss with you). And your boss might reply: Òîãäà ÿ îòâå÷ó â êà÷åñòâå ÷àñòíîãî ëèöà (Then I’ll reply in a private capacity).
What? You don’t talk like that in your office? You might be more familiar with this kind of notification from the management: Íåëüçÿ èñïîëüçîâàòü êîðïîðàòèâíóþ ýëåêòðîííóþ ïî÷òó äëÿ ÷àñòíîé ïåðåïèñêè (It’s against the rules to use corporate e-mail for personal correspondence).
×àñòíàÿ æèçíü is a person’s private life. Sometimes the phrase is used to distinguish between someone’s public persona and real personality. Íà ýêðàíå îíà èãðàëà ðîëü ñåêñ-áîãèíè, à â ÷àñòíîé æèçíè áûëà îäíîëþáêîé (Although she played a sex goddess on-screen, she was a one-man woman off-screen). Or to distinguish between vocation and avocation: Ïîñëå îòñòàâêè Áîðèñ Åëüöèí óø¸ë â ÷àñòíóþ æèçíü è íå ó÷àñòâîâàë â ïîëèòèêå (After he resigned, Boris Yeltsin retired to private life and didn’t get involved in politics).
Sometimes ÷àñòíàÿ æèçíü can be translated simply as privacy:  Àíãëèè, Åëèçàâåòà II îáåùàåò íàêàçàòü ïàïàðàööè, íàðóøàþùèõ ÷àñòíóþ æèçíü êîðîëåâñêîé ñåìüè (In England, Queen Elizabeth is threatening to punish paparazzi who invade the privacy of the royal family). In Russia, ïðàâî íà íåïðèêîñíîâåííîñòü ÷àñòíîé æèçíè (right to privacy; literally, “the right to the inviolability of private life”) is engrained in the constitution, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t âìåøàòåëüñòâî â ÷àñòíóþ æèçíü (invasion of privacy). For example, neighbors might call the ó÷àñòêîâûé (beat cop, from the word ó÷àñòîê, the local precinct) when the couple in the adjoining apartment go at each other with kitchen knives. But sometimes people don’t get involved in neighbors’ quarrels: Ýòî èõ ÷àñòíîå äåëî (That’s their own business).
In other cases, ÷àñòíûé refers to something privately owned, like ÷àñòíàÿ áèáëèîòåêà or ÷àñòíûé äîì (a private library or house) or anything owned and run by individuals. ×àñòíûé ñåêòîð ýêîíîìèêè is the private sector and èíäèâèäóàëüíîå ÷àñòíîå ïðåäïðèÿòèå is a sole proprietorship, an individually owned business.
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.
TITLE: Best of the festival favorites
AUTHOR: By Kristina Aleksandrova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: St. Petersburg’s annual international film festival will award its griffin statuettes next week during the peak of the White Nights season.
The 18th “Festival of Festivals” opens on Wednesday, promising a wide variety of films from around the world. This year’s program includes 100 feature films by Russian, French, Israeli, Norwegian, Czech and American directors.
As 2010 is officially the Year of France in Russia, the festival kicks off with “Beneath the Rooftops of Paris” by Kurdish director Hiner Saalem. The film portrays the loneliness of an elderly man, Marcel, who lives on the top floor in a building in the suburbs of Paris. Michel Piccolli scored a Best Actor award for this role at the Locarno film festival three years ago. The touching story is accompanied by a powerful, melancholic soundtrack. The opening ceremony is scheduled to take place in Dom Kino.
Two more cinemas, Rodina and Zanevsky, have been added to the festival’s usual venues, and all the traditional sections of the festival’s program remain. The main section, which bears the same name as the event itself, features prize winners from major international festivals and films that have already won acclaim among critics, including a biographical drama about the famous chansonnier “Gainsbourg (Vie h?ro?que),” the Norwegian horror comedy “Dead Snow” and Roman Polansky’s thriller “The Ghost.”
Danny Lerner’s action film “Walls,” starring Bond girl Olga Kurylenko, continues the theme of loneliness and despair. Against her will, the film’s heroine Galya becomes a killer. All she dreams of is returning home and being reunited with her daughter, who has been left back in Ukraine. Then she meets her neighbor, Eleanor, who has a violent husband. Together, the two women set out to fight their enemies. In the complete absence of a positive male character, the film has been accused of being sexist.
Lovers of classic Hollywood cinema would do well to head for the Sergei Kuryokhin Modern Art Center next week, where a retrospective marking a century of filmmaking in Hollywood will give audiences the chance to watch classics such as “The Broadway Melody,” “Circus,” “The Great Ziegfeld,” and the “The Merry Widow” on the big screen.
Another important anniversary has been heeded by the festival’s organizers. Special screenings titled “65 Years Without War” commemorating the end of World War II include films by Soviet director Sergei Mikaelyan, who is best known for “Widows” and “Tell Me About Yourself.” The director will present his “100 Soldiers and 2 Girls” at Dom Kino. The film tells the story of a junior nurse during the war.
The Czech film program comprises many of the best works made by “new wave” directors during the Soviet era. “The Shop on Main Street” by J?n Kad?r and Elmar Klos focuses on the process of Aryanization that took place under the Nazis during World War II. In 1965 it won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
The Festival of Festivals has traditionally featured a Days of Israeli Cinema program, and this year will be no exception. This year’s Israeli films touch upon the issue of a widening generation gap, and on human relationships in general. Samuel Maoz’s “Lebanon” took the top prize at the Venice International Film Festival last year. Maoz dedicated this poignant work to those who experienced the war but managed to return home safely, as he did.
One of the most eagerly awaited sections in the festival is the New Russian Cinema program, in which “Missing Man,” a debut film from director Anna Fenchenko, comes highly recommended. The lead character, a computer programmer from St. Petersburg, finds himself isolated from the rest of the world in a morbid Kafkaesque detective story shot in Vyborg.
Although the Festival of Festivals is a non-competitive event, it does hand out some prizes. There is usually a grand-prix winner, selected by guests and participants of the festival, who receives a Golden Griffin statuette. The Silver Griffin is given to a film chosen by audiences, and a Bronze Griffin to the best experimental film. The winners will be announced during a ceremony at Dom Kino on June 29.
For a full program for the Festival of Festivals, visit www.filmfest.ru
TITLE: Fat fest
AUTHOR: By Shura Collinson
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Nutritionists and dieticians, beware: This review contains scenes of a calorific, waistband-stretching nature that health-conscious readers may find distressing.
It all started so innocently, with a visit to Khayat, a cheap-and-cheerful new Caucasian caf? located on Liteiny Prospekt next door to the entrance to the Anna Akhmatova Museum.
Nothing in the basement caf?’s interior betrayed any sign of the gluttony that was to follow: the innocuous tiled floor, green wooden paneling up to waist-height topped by yellow painted walls, cheery yellow tablecloths and leather chairs and booths, along with a mangal (an open grill commonly used in Caucasian cooking) near a brightly-lit corner bar, shelves bearing the obligatory jars of unidentified pickled objects, and some run-of-the-mill RnB music.
The range of Azerbaijani, Armenian, Georgian and Russian dishes on the menu is not the only potential treat in store at Khayat. The menu itself boasts some masterpieces of the Google Translate genre, including the appetizing “Salad from the Hen,” the tongue-twisting “Mutton and Beef Language with Horse Radish” and the imperiously named “Salmon the Chief Salt.”
The less outlandish-sounding cream of lentil soup (90 rubles, $2.80) — not a dish frequently encountered on the menu at Caucasian eateries — was rich, hearty and very heavy. The fresh lemon with which it arrived added some welcome zest and much-needed buoyancy to a dish that proved to be just the beginning of an exercise in stuffing.
The exception to that rule was the Mangal salad (150 rubles, $4.70), which was an unexpected delight. The combination of onion, eggplant and bell peppers served on a large lettuce leaf in fact bore more resemblance to salsa than to a salad. In keeping with the salad’s name, the vegetables had seemingly been barbequed, giving them a highly unusual smoky flavor.
Khayat passed the real test of every Caucasian restaurant — the khachapuri (240 rubles, $7.50) — with flying colors. On disappointing occasions, the Georgian cheesy dough classic ends up resembling a supermarket-bought pizza, with a covering of dry, crispy cheese. This, however, was the real deal — a moist, press-with-fork-and-watch-rivulets-of-cheese-and-butter-ooze-out WeightWatcher’s b?te noir.
Possibly the only dish more decadent and fattening than khachapuri is another Georgian cheese extravaganza: Fried suluguni cheese (180 rubles, $5.70), a side dish which probably contains twice the recommended daily fat intake levels in just one portion, and which we proceeded to order in a risky, cholesterol-beckoning culinary game. It sadly failed to live up to the high standards set by the khachapuri. It was not just fried; but deep fried, as well as being bland, heavy and chewy, and therefore only really recommended for dedicated actors who need to put on weight for a new role — and fast.
Continuing the trend of hearty, decadent dishes, the mutton soyutma soup (250 rubles, $8) was a rich concoction of fresh meat in fatty, flavorsome bouillon.
The meal’s finale and house specialty, Khayat kebab (280 rubles, $9), in keeping with the rest of the dishes, far surpassed expectations and almost appetites. The veal kebab was served on a bed of dranniki (potato pancakes) under a blanket of more cheese, which at this point seemed almost a little excessive.
If the calmly cool, obliging waiter was impressed by the amount of food devoured, he did not show it. Nor did he open the bottle of dry red Matrasa wine (600 rubles, $19) at the table or offer the opportunity to taste it, which, along with the fact that it was served in an earthenware bottle, gave rise to suspicions that some domashnoye vino had simply been siphoned into the bottle. Even if it had, the Soviet-style wine was pleasant enough, and was certainly sufficient to wash down the cheese orgy and cement the impression that while Khayat may not warrant trekking from far afield to get to, growling stomachs finding themselves in the vicinity could do far worse than enter its den of temptation.
TITLE: The Art of Pietra Dura: Keeping A Tradition Alive
AUTHOR: By Katharine Helmore
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Artistic duo Marina Karpova and Marat Akbarov are a rare find: Two of only a handful of St. Petersburg artists proficient in the ancient craft of pietra dura — the inlaying of highly polished marble and stones to produce bold, eye-catching murals and artifacts.
The technique, which originated in ancient Rome, is largely considered to be a decorative art and constitutes the joining of stones of various sizes to create an image. The literal translation from the Italian “pietre dure” is “hard rocks.” The technique is not confined to Italy and Russia, also being popular in India, where it is known as “Parchin Kari.” The best-known example is the Taj Mahal, completed in 1643.
Renaissance Italy saw a revival of pietra dura production and popularity. By the mid 16th-century, the Medici family had established numerous workshops in Florence, producing some of the floral designs now popular worldwide. Karpova however cites the more contemporary works of 20th-century Italian artist Giovanni Montelatici as an influence.
In St. Petersburg, notable examples of the art of pietra dura include the ornate oeuvres in St. Isaac’s and St. Nicholas’s cathedrals and in the Church of the Spilled Blood.
“They are beautiful in a Russian way, but there is too much stuck on, they are too ornate,” says Karpova, who, while appreciating the context of such works, prefers mosaics “in moderation.” The artist believes the subject matter of her works, which include murals of domestic and rural Russian scenes and still life works, appeals more for its “ascetic” qualities. She also decorates objects from lamps and tabletops to candelabras.
Pietra dura, which in St. Petersburg was originally developed by serfs at the Imperial Academy of Arts in the 18th century, has remained a vital part of Russia’s heritage — in part as a consequence of the harsh winters. In other countries, frescoes were used for large-scale, decorative and religious works, but they cannot withstand subzero temperatures, which cause a rapid deterioration and flaking of the delicate egg tempera. Giotto’s celebrated frescos in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy, require a controlled environment all year round in order to preserve them, and Italy’s winters do not even come close to the subzero temperatures of Russia’s. In the Scrovegni Chapel, visitors are given just 20 minutes to peruse the frescos in an air-conditioned environment named “the artificial lung.”
Catherine the Great and her daughter-in-law, Maria Fyodorovna, were both collectors of decorative pietra dura; impressed by their trips to Europe, they commissioned large-scale pieces for their imperial palaces. Karpova, however, is not enamored with the excesses of imperial taste, and suggests that little has changed on the current buyers’ market, which is dominated by wealthy Russians who can afford to buy art.
Perversely, people with newly acquired fortunes in Russia often fail to snap up the gems on offer among the native talent, favoring the big names in international art markets such as Picasso or Matisse. In 2006, Boris Ivanishvili, a Georgian mining magnate, bought Picasso’s 1941 masterpiece “Dora Maar au Chat” at Sotheby’s in New York for $95.2 million. Emigre oligarchs, many now living in London, attend auctions and frequently bid for the most expensive works. Like their imperial predecessors, oligarchs enjoy showing off their wealth and operate in a tightly knit circle in which individuals are determined to outdo one another. Russia’s history is not conducive to art ownership, and the majority of people who “understand art” cannot afford to buy it; it’s “unfortunate,” laments Karpova.
From afar, Karpova’s murals could be mistaken for paintings. Exquisite detail is captured with the minutest shift in color through hundreds of tiny pieces of stone. The landscape “Winter” shows how Karpova has utilized diagonal lines in the agate to recreate the textures of a winter landscape, such as the branches of a tree amongst the snowy white of the stone.
“Before, artists just used to cut things out; I scan the stones [onto a computer] and play with them on screen to see what works best,” she says. Karpova has pioneered a time-saving technique, which allows her to create the design before giving it to a cutter to complete. “I can do it myself,” she explains, but the work is “so precise; it’s like the work of a jeweler.” Implicitly understanding what she calls the “language of stones” allows Karpova to work fast, and when inspired it can take as little as a month to design a mural. Her excitement was contagious as she clutched a piece of jasper in her hand during a recent interview. “Look at these lines here, they could be for the battens or mast of a sail,” she says.
Karpova is aided in the labor-intensive process, which requires meticulous attention to detail, by Urals-born craftsman Marat Akbarov. Akbarov understands the properties of all of the stones, and works long hours to construct Karpova’s designs using tiny saws, specially designed blades, files and an archaic looking stone-cutting machine. A crafts factory on the Fontanka River gives a fascinating insight into the installation process. Huge pieces of jasper are stacked up in a courtyard against a precarious-looking wall, which strains under the weight. Filthy and unpolished, it’s hard to imagine the transformation this ominous-looking stone undergoes.
Much of the stone used to complete these ambitious works is mined from the Ural Mountains. The vast territories, which run north to south across Russia, marking the border between the European and Asian parts of the country, produce substantial quantities of jasper every year. Malachite was also formerly mined in the Urals, and its distinctive dark green color can be seen throughout St. Petersburg, adorning columns in St. Isaac’s and the enormous urns, vases and tables seen in the imperial palaces. Malachite is now harder to find, and is more often sourced in Africa.
Thomas Greenaway, a visiting U.K.-based pietra dura artist who trained in Florence, understands the creativity and craft involved better than most. On his first trip to a local factory, Greenaway said he was “impressed by the skill and quality of craftsmanship,” adding that in his opinion, the work rivals Florentine work at the present time.”
“Only a couple of my pieces have left Russia,” said Karpova, confirming Greenaway’s observation that only a limited number of works “come up for sale in international auction houses.” Karpova, who is self-taught, says she would like “to find someone to continue the technique.” She has developed course materials to teach, but says there is currently no demand.
Josef Stalin was reportedly also a fan of pietra dura. Recently, a spectacular mural depicting a lifelike rural scene was shown on The Antiques Roadshow TV program in the U.S. together with a barely credible story. The owner’s grandfather, who had helped to deliver tractors for Russian farming, was allegedly given the piece as a gift from Stalin some 60 years earlier. Judging the piece to be Italian from the quality of the craftsmanship, the show’s antiques expert estimated its value accordingly, remarking that if the owner could find proof that the mural was indeed a gift from Stalin, it would add greatly to the value.
Marina Karpova’s work can be seen at the Florentine Mosaic Museum, Apt. 5, Bolshaya Konyushennaya Ulitsa 5.
Tel. 312 2003. M: Nevsky Prospekt
TITLE: Dessay to Find Her Voice at Mariinsky Concert Hall
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Soprano Natalie Dessay, the internationally famed queen of belcanto repertoire, renowned for turning her concert programs into full-scale shows and injecting a heavy dose of drama into her every entrance, is coming to town for just one performance at the Mariinsky Concert Hall on Friday, June 18.
The Dessay gala marks the singer’s first performance in Russia. As her visit to the city approached, the celebrated soprano spoke to The St. Petersburg Times about how it feels not to be heard, her ideal opera, her motives for accepting the Jewish faith, and her newly discovered passion for horses.
Why did you choose the stage?
I came to the theater because I wanted to be heard. In life, as soon as I open my mouth, people interrupt and, in the literal sense of the phrase, don’t let me speak. That’s how it was when I was a child, and that’s the way it still is today. At first that made me depressed, but I gradually got used to it. I don’t know what the problem is, but I can only keep the audience’s attention and force myself to listen if I am singing as opposed to speaking. Moreover, now I am very well paid to do so. In that sense, the fees are my vendetta.
In addition to vocals, you have also studied choreography and acting. Why did you opt for singing?
I didn’t opt for anything. My voice made the decision for me when I was 20 and studying at the Conservatoire in Bordeaux. It happened spontaneously. My fellow students and I were performing a little-known 18th-century play in which I had to sing. I sang Pamina from Mozart’s “Die Zauberfl?te” and the audience’s reaction stunned me. The choice happened of its own accord.
With which opera do you have the greatest affinity, dramatically?
In my opinion, there is a perfect opera in the international repertoire with regard to the music and the drama — Tchaikovsky’s opera “Eugene Onegin.” It is a story of how you can never regain the past. As a person I identify with Tatyana Larina, and would behave exactly the same way as she does if I were in similar circumstances.
Don’t you think her behavior is somewhat old-fashioned?
Not at all. I am an emotional and frank person, but I don’t see anything bad in that. And I could also drive away my own Onegin — and for the same reasons. “Eugene Onegin” will never lose its value: It’s the story of a man who has come back to the woman who loved him but is too late. Alas, such stories will be around for as long as the world exists.
It’s a pity, but I will never sing the role of Tatyana — my voice isn’t suited to the role. It’s a shame that we cannot choose the pitch of our voices.
What don’t you like about your voice?
It’s not about the sound of the voice, of course. I like arias written for softer, more lyrical roles — like Tatyana and Salome. I would be very happy if I could make my long-held dream of singing Violetta in “La Traviata” come true. I’ve spent years wondering about the dilemma that its heroine faces: A woman with a pure soul leading the life of a courtesan. This situation has broken her into pieces from the inside, destroying her essence as a woman. It is ultimately this dilemma, and not tuberculosis, that kills Violetta. In life we often have to deal with the fact that man can be killed by inner conflict, by the impossibility of reconciling the demands of his soul in certain circumstances in life. We all grope our way along, some through religion, others through yoga and yet others through sport. There is no single, universal recipe.
To marry the bass-baritone Laurent Naouri you converted to Judaism. What motivated you to take that decision? How important is religion in your life?
I converted to Judaism out of love for my future husband. Initially, it was purely a gesture of love, but very soon I came to respect and deeply admire the religion itself. As I see it, Judaism is a religion of joy where there are many life-affirming traditions. But the main draw of Judaism for me is that it is a religion of proper questions and not one of ready answers. My husband and I and our children are often at the synagogue, we speak about the Torah and about life. These talks teach tolerance and flexibility toward others. Many people who consider themselves strong believe that flexibility is a sign of weakness. That’s where the trap lies. A person who is flexible in the spiritual sense is stronger than one who carries on regardless.
How does the real Natalie Dessay differ from her onstage image?
You know, unlike many performers I don’t have an image. I am what I am — very vulnerable, not very confident in myself, but at the same time I am courageous and extremely stubborn. I am not the kind of person whose spirits fail. I will always fight to the last bullet.
The program of your St. Petersburg gala features, in addition to an aria from Verdi’s “La Traviata” and a scene from Massenet’s “Manon,” three vocalises — by Ravel, Chaslin and Gliere. What is the concept behind such a challenging selection?
Because the vocalises have no words, they present the perfect opportunity for a singer to show their voice in all its purity. With this program, I want to present myself to a greater degree, and I have included these vocalises — all of them very diverse in style — so that the audiences can hear my voice when I’m not acting or interpreting a certain character. In works of this kind you can’t hide behind the role, and it shows all the qualities of the voice as well as your technical skills. So, in a sense that means greater exposure for the artist, but for me there is also a great deal of humor in all this.
You have had many operations on your vocal chords. How has your attitude to life and your profession changed through all that?
I have a much more relaxed attitude to the stage and I have accepted the fact that work is not the most important thing in life. I’ve also had to learn a more restrained performing technique as I can no longer afford to let myself “tear out my gullet” without thinking of the consequences. That was a tremendous test for me emotionally. Previously, I would go off in hysterics, which really isn’t me. I “flare up” easily. I had to put an end to that, but it is internal calm that I find hardest to achieve.
Having recovered from your operations, you called your cats Polype, Cyst and Nodule...
Yes, when it was already all in the past. I was so happy that everything that had been tormenting me on the inside had, at last, been taken out of me.
How do you prepare for performances?
My approach lies in the following: To appear dramatically convincing when I come on stage, I try to forget that I have to sing, I simply immerse myself completely in the inner world of my heroines and I perform the role like a dramatic actress. In other words, by getting under my characters’ skins I put my vocals on “autopilot” during the performance. Everything about singing must be well-rehearsed beforehand. No vocal passages should pose any difficulties. Unfortunately, on the operatic stage today you can often see that the vocal and the dramatic components are out of balance. Opera singers often neglect the acting, considering it to be of secondary importance, and they concentrate solely on singing the notes. That kind of approach has always made me mad. There are times when I have wanted to start a revolution, an operatic uprising!
Are you revolutionary by nature?
I can’t answer that question with confidence. Organizing rebellions is a tiresome undertaking. And I just want to do what I do and get as much out of it as possible. I expect the same from my colleagues. That’s about it.
You have sung the role of Olympia in eight different productions of Offenbach’s opera “Les Contes d’Hoffmann.” Are there any differences in the eight interpretations of the character of the doll?
There are so many images I have produced on stage in that role — a Barbie doll, a femme fatale, a sadist, a Lolita and even a real disabled girl. Because Olympia is a mechanical doll, one’s imagination has no limits put on it. This is a rare kind of material where an artist can do absolutely anything, and there is room for any and all acting devices and innovations. This is why I have always loved this role. Now I have to take a rest from this opera, but maybe I will return to it soon in a different role. I am going to rehearse all four female roles for a new version of the opera which has been unearthed and reconstructed by the French music historian Jean-Christophe Keck. The premiere will be in 2013, and performances are planned for Barcelona and San Francisco.
What do you listen to for pleasure?
Almost anything by Johann Sebastian Bach. My iPod is full of his music, and I find myself listening to Bach all the time. I don’t know why, but Bach has a very soothing effect on me, and puts me in the right kind of mood.
What are your passions outside of music?
I have recently become really passionate about horses. It all happened very suddenly, last summer, when I was on vacation with my family in Santa Fe. My daughter, who is something of a horsing enthusiast, offered me a ride, and I just gave it a try. It felt so amazing, so wonderful, that I instantly felt that this is something that belongs to me and is part of my life. I don’t have my own horses yet, but I’m thinking about it. I have to learn to ride first!
Natalie Dessay will perform at 6 p.m. Friday at the Mariinsky Theater Concert Hall, 37 Ulitsa Dekabristov. Tel: 326 4141. M: Sennaya Ploshchad.