SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1618 (79), Friday, October 15, 2010
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TITLE: Side By Side Film Festival Focuses On LGBT Issues
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The third international LGBT film festival ‘Bok o Bok’ (Side By Side) focusing on homosexual and gender issues will open in St. Petersburg on Friday and run through Oct. 23.
The festival’s films are united by the topic of homosexuality in the past, present and future, and by tolerance and homophobia in modern societies around the world.
The main message of the movies is the acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people — their relationships, family and way of life.
The films being shown at the festival include both new international film festival winners and cult works from the past. The program consists of 34 movies from Canada, Germany, the U.K., Denmark, Israel, Spain, Turkey, the U.S. and other countries.
The festival has gained the support of key figures in world cinema such as Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, American director Gus Van Sant and British filmmaker Ken Loach.
The films will be shown at the Varshavsky Express movie theater, the Zelyonaya Lampa press club, the Danish Cultural Institute and Efir nightclub.
The festival opens at Varshavsky Express at 7:30 p.m. on Friday with “J’ai tue ma mere” (“I Killed My Mother,”) a semi-biographical film made by the 19-year-old Canadian director, artist and actor and new world cinema star Xavier Dolan about the problems encountered by teenagers in any country — problems between parents and their children. The film depicts the conflict between a talented young man and his mother.
The film got a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival last year.
The festival program also includes documentary, live-action and animation movies. Among the live-action movies, the festival’s organizers recommend a film titled “Prayers for Bobby” that portrays the dramatic relationship between a mother and her gay son. After losing her son to suicide, the woman goes from the complete rejection of homosexuality to actively battling for gay rights.
Among the most interesting documentaries is the high-profile American film “Stonewall Riots,” which covers the events of 1969 in the U.S. when the gay community first came out from the underground and began to fight for its rights.
Swedish animation artist Lasse Lisa Persson, whose cartoons are known around the world, said he liked LGBT film festivals because they give people an opportunity to tell their stories and disclose their views.
“When I was growing up, in mainstream movies such as ‘Dressed To Kill’ or ‘The Silence of the Lambs,’ they portrayed transsexual people as miserable and crazy villains,” Persson said. “Those movies were, of course, scary, but in fact they reflected the fear and prejudice surrounding something unknown.”
A special event at the festival will be the visit of the Turkish transsexual activist Esmeray. Despite coming from a predominantly Muslim country with strong traditional views, she was not afraid to begin the public fight for the rights of transsexual people in her country, the organizers of the festival said in their press release.
In a special part of the program called “Love Behind the Iron Curtain,” rare movies made in former Socialist countries depicting homosexual love under totalitarian regimes will be shown.
The festival’s finale will be the premiere of the Russian movie “Piter-Moscow” by St. Petersburg director Dmitry Gribanov about two girls who fall in love.
Gribanov was one of the first film directors in Russia to raise the topic of same-sex love.
In addition to the film showings, the festival will feature roundtables at which the main social issues of being LGBT in modern Russian society are discussed, such as children in same-sex families, the rights of transgender people, and the acceptance of homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender people by their relatives. All the discussions will take place in the Zelyonaya Lampa press club after the screenings.
As part of the festival, the organizers will present an exhibition of LGBT-themed posters from similar festivals held all over the world. The poster exhibition will be open from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Ligovsky Prospekt 50, building 16, from Oct. 15 though Oct. 23.
The festival has been organized with the support of the city’s Goethe Cultural Center, Danish Cultural Institute, General Consulate of Sweden and other
organizations.
For more information about the festival, see www.bok-o-bok.ru
TITLE: Two-Week National Census Kicks Off
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Odynova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Instead of alarm clocks, some Russians were woken early Thursday by text messages from the State Statistics Service informing them that a nationwide census — the first since 2002 — is starting.
The census will run for two weeks, until Oct. 25. During that time, some 600,000 census takers, many of them students, will be trying to convince every human being in Russia to open the doors of their homes and tell the truth about their nationality, income, language skills, housing facilities and many other personal matters. Citizens’ privacy will not be infringed upon, First Deputy Interior Minister Mikhail Sukhodolsky said Wednesday, promising that the police would guarantee the confidentiality of personal data collected during the census, even deploying guards to offices where the information is stored.
Only the State Statistics Service is permitted to access the forms filled out by census participants, but leaks of personal data collected by authorities are a common occurrence, with various classified databases available for sale on Russia’s computer markets.
Sukhodolsky also warned people to check the documents of census takers knocking on their doors to make sure they were not criminals — who used the last census as a pretext to rob homes.
An authentic census worker will only show up between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. and can be identified by a blue cap and a scarf, a whistle, a flashlight, a blue bag and an official certificate, the State Statistics Service said.
People may decline to answer any question, and their own conscience will serve as a guide against providing false data because census takers will not be allowed to ask for proof of the information they collect, said Grigory Simonovich, a spokesman of the State Statistics Service.
The 2002 census yielded a number of unusual nationalities, including “hobbits,” “Scythians” and “Earth citizens.”
“One can name any nationality he or she considers to belong to and doesn’t have to prove it,” Simonovich said by telephone.
Foreigners staying in Russia during the census will also be asked to participate but will face a different set of questions, such as the aim of their visit and the length of their stay.
If a foreigner does not speak Russian, they should ask friends or relatives for help because only select census takers speak foreign languages, he said.
Even people officially diagnosed with mental disorders will be covered, with census takers accompanied by police officers to the interviews, Simonovich said.
About 350,000 residents of remote areas, such as Altai deer keepers, have already been counted.
The census will cost 16.5 billion rubles ($551 million) — an almost fourfold increase from 2002, Expert magazine reported.
TITLE: Medvedev Meets Musicians, Makes Putin Crack
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: President Dmitry Medvedev made remarks that could be interpreted as swipes at Prime Minister Vladimir Putin while meeting a group of carefully selected Russian rock musicians in Moscow this week.
At one point he referred ironically to Putin’s meeting with the artists who participated in a charity show in St. Petersburg in May, when Putin was confronted over the lack of democracy and civic freedoms in today’s Russia by Yury Shevchuk, the frontman of stadium rockers DDT. Despite the fact that Shevchuk is one of Russia’s best-known rock singers, Putin did not appear to recognize him at their meeting, asking him “What is your name, pardon me?” when addressed by Shevchuk. Shevchuk, who introduced himself simply as “Yura (the diminutive of Yury) Shevchuk, a musician,” later described Putin’s
remark as a “cop’s trick” designed to throw him off course, which he
ignored.
Medvedev appeared to have made an effort to look casual during the meeting, wearing a shirt with no tie and the top few buttons undone, and using slang words when talking to the musicians. He made a point of showing that he was well informed about Shevchuk and his band’s music.
“Unlike my colleagues, I know who he is. I know what he looks like,” Medvedev said with a laugh.
Medvedev also boasted that he had been at one of DDT’s early concerts in Kupchino, a commuter belt in the south of St. Petersburg where he grew up. But Shevchuk was not invited to the meeting, which took place in the presence of selected journalists at Moscow’s Rhythm and Blues Cafe on Monday.
According to Vadim Samoilov of the band Agata Kristi, who handpicked the musicians for the meeting, Shevchuk was not invited on purpose.
“Unfortunately, Yura occupies quite a teenage, non-conformist position, whereas efforts should be made to reach a dialogue at such meetings,” he said of Shevchuk, 53, to Vedomosti newspaper.
Samoilov’s band Agata Kristi once recorded a “friends-only” album to the lyrics of first deputy chairman of the presidential administration Vladislav Surkov, who is reputed to be the Kremlin’s chief ideologist. Surkov held a notorious “secret” meeting with rock musicians in 2005.
The meeting featured only loyal musicians, who had either participated in pro-Kremlin concerts like Andrei Makarevich of the veteran Moscow rock band Mashina Vremeni, or spoken in favor of the Kremlin like Boris Grebenshikov of the St. Petersburg band Akvarium.
Although it was Shevchuk who had been rallying against the controversial, Putin-backed construction of a highway through the Khimki Forest by visiting activists camping on the site and performing at a banned concert in defense of the forest, it was Makarevich who thanked Medvedev for a temporary halt in construction work at Monday’s meeting.
“The authorities should learn a lesson from this story; if there’s a feeling that an issue is burning, one cannot close one’s eyes and say, ‘We took an optimal decision,’” Medvedev said.
“At some point, there should be a meeting and discussion, and only then should a final decision be taken.”
Despite massive protests against the destruction of the Khimki Forest, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in late July that Putin was not planning to reconsider the construction because “all the decisions had already been taken.”
A month later, after more protests, Medvedev put a temporary stop to construction.
Makarevich failed to mention the “Khimki hostages” — activists Alexei Gaskarov and Maxim Solopov — who have been detained since a protest near the Khimki administration building in July, despite international protests.
Answering a question from Grebenshchikov about Gazprom’s controversial Okhta Center skyscraper project, Medvedev questioned the site chosen for the 403-meter-tall building.
“Whether it should be built near Smolny, this is a very big question,” he said. “I can name a dozen other places off the cuff that would be made more beautiful by the tower.”
At the end of the meeting, the musicians picked up their instruments and entertained Medvedev with a string of their own songs and covers.
Mikhail Borzykin of the local rock band Televizor described the artists who took part in the meeting with Medvedev as the “Kremlin pool’s rock musicians.”
“There was nothing new at the meeting, every question asked was put in a very gentle form, so they didn’t require serious answers,” Borzykin said by phone Thursday.
“‘What about Okhta?’ Grebenshchikov asked with such apologetic intonation, adding immediately — for some reason — ‘I only wanted to know.’
“Considering that he was asking this question to the person who chaired Gazprom for several years [before his presidency] and has had direct connections with this project, to show such infantile timidity is perhaps not very appropriate. Playing a concert there for the beloved leader also looked quite ridiculous.”
TITLE: Police Torture Suspect to Death
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A 28-year-old suspect was beaten to death by local police who were torturing the man to get a confession from him.
The identities of the police officers who tortured the man are yet to be established. However, the local branch of the Investigative Committee of the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office has admitted the fact of “intentional grave physical injury leading to death” and said the policemen “exceeded their authority.”
Around 8 p.m. on Oct. 1, the man and his 27-year-old civil spouse — both suspected of fraud — were seized by Moskovsky district police officers and taken to a police station located at 95 Moskovsky Prospekt. Then, according to the report posted on the Investigative Committee web site, the policemen “demanded a confession from the suspect, and hit the woman at least ten times on the head. The man sustained multiple blows — inflicted with the use of both hands and feet — and was tortured by being strung up by his arms. Around 2 a.m. the following morning the man was moved to Police Station No. 12, from where he was sent to Hospital No. 26.”
The victim died at the hospital on Oct. 10 from multiple injuries, which included blood clots, brain edema, broken arms, intoxication and pneumonia.
An investigation into what the prosecutors have described as a case of “involuntary manslaughter” is now in progress.
The statement of the Investigative Committee did not use the word torture, which human rights advocates find alarming.
The definition of the word torture in Russia’s Criminal Code is different from the phrasing used by the UN Committee Against Torture.
In international law, “torture” means “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for obtaining information or a confession, punishing them for an act they have committed or are suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing them.”
By contrast, the Russian penal code defines torture simply as a form of inflicting pain. The UN committee has on several occasions advised Russia to amend its law and introduce a definition consistent with international legal practice as well as incorporate a separate article on the use of torture by law enforcement agencies, but as yet such changes have not been made.
TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: New Charity Store
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — A new charity shop named Khoroshop, which opened in September on 9aya Sovietskaya Ulitsa as part of the organization Nochlezhka that helps the city’s homeless, will hold an auction on Saturday for the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, Nochlezhka said in a press release Thursday.
The money raised at the auction will be used to renovate the heating system of the Nochlezhka shelter. Lots offered by local celebrities will go under the hammer, including the shirt of Aquarium frontman Boris Grebenshchikov, a striped sailor top belonging to Mitki art group member Mitya Shagin and a tie belonging to Russian avant-garde rock band Auktyon member Oleg Garkusha.
The event, which starts at 7 p.m. in PirOGI club at Naberezhnaya Reki Fontanki 40, will also feature concerts and a fashion show.
Colonnade Reopened
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The 18th-century Apollo colonnade in Pavlovsk park was reopened Thursday after the first stage of its restoration was completed, Interfax reported.
Vladimir Yakunin, president of Russian Railways and chairman of the Trans-Soyuz charitable fund which financed the restoration, noted the quality of the work and recalled that President Dmitry Medvedev had asked him to help the Pavlovsk state museum and reserve to restore its historic buildings.
Medical Negligence Case
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — A criminal case has been opened in St. Petersburg against a doctor and nurse accused of negligence and causing serious harm to a 9-year-old boy which resulted in the amputation of his hand, Interfax reports.
The case was opened by the Investigative Committee of the St. Petersburg Prosecutor’s Office against Oleg Yarov, a 36-year-old anesthesiologist and Alexander Maslennikov, a 21-year old nurse. According to the investigation, a 9-year-old boy was admitted to the ENT department of a children’s hospital for the surgical removal of his adenoids on Aug. 4. The next day, in preparation for the operation, anesthesia was introduced not into a vein but into the artery of his right hand, allegedly due to the negligence of the anesthesiologist and nurse.
Within a few hours of the operation his wrist had turned blue and the boy was in severe pain.
On Aug. 6, the boy was diagnosed with blood clots in the arteries of the injured right hand, the investigation committee noted. The child underwent two operations to remove the thrombosis in the artery, after which his hand was amputated.
TITLE: Little Progress Made in Bid To Rebuild Ties With U.K.
AUTHOR: By Nikolaus von Twickel
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Britain and Russia still disagree profoundly on issues like the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, but despite this both governments will work on improving relations, their foreign ministers said Wednesday.
On his first visit to Moscow, British Foreign Minister William Hague said he hoped that cooperation would widen even though controversy remains.
“We are not saying today that we have abolished all the differences,” he told reporters after talks with President Dmitry Medvedev and his counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
Hague’s visit has been called a test of whether the ice is melting between London and Moscow, which saw relations sink to post-Cold War lows after the murder of Litvinenko in London in 2006.
A former Conservative party leader, Hague was appointed foreign secretary in May when David Cameron became the first Conservative prime minister after 13 years of Labour governments.
Both Hague and Lavrov made it clear Wednesday that their governments’ stance on this issue remained unchanged.
“We are not here today to announce any change in that position,” Hague said.
Lavrov said Moscow was ready to cooperate with London in the Litvinenko case but “on the basis of Russian law.” He added that Russia was ready to investigate allegations that the Federal Security Service was involved in the murder if British police handed over evidence.
Britain has sought the extradition of State Duma Deputy Andrei Lugovoi on charges of poisoning Litvinenko, which Russia has staunchly refused because the Constitution forbids the extradition of citizens.
Moscow has demanded in turn that businessman Boris Berezovsky and Chechen separatist Akhmed Zakayev be extradited from London.
Lugovoi reiterated that he would never travel to Britain to stand trial.
“The British press has trampled on my reputation. My family and I have suffered great unpleasantness. I’m not going to compromise. The only trial I’ll accept is one in Russia,” he told Britain’s Guardian newspaper in an interview published Wednesday.
Analysts said that while it was natural for a new government to take a fresh look at relations, improvements would be incremental at best.
“It will be very difficult as long as the Litvinenko affair remains unsolved,” said Fraser Cameron, director of the EU-Russia Center, a Brussels-based think tank.
Vladislav Belov, an analyst with the Moscow State International Relations Institute, said that while “dead-end matters” remain, both governments would have to focus on issues like economic ties.
Hague said London welcomed Russian investors and would support British investors willing to enter Russia. He also stressed that Britain was among the biggest sources of foreign direct investment in the country and that Russian companies had made more than ?30 billion ($47.5 billion) in floats on London’s stock exchange.
Both ministers signed a joint declaration pledging their governments’ cooperation over Afghanistan and helping the government in Kabul in its fight against terrorism and drug trafficking.
“We are two normal countries, two normal governments interested in discussing all issues including those in which our positions do not coincide,” Lavrov said, according to a transcript on the Foreign Ministry’s web site.
Edward McMillan-Scott, a member of the European Parliament’s human rights committee for Britain’s Liberal Democrats, who formed a coalition government with the Conservatives, complained that Hague had only paid lip service to the Litvinenko affair.
“I am surprised that the foreign secretary wrapped his concerns about the Litvinenko case in platitudes about U.K.-Russian relations,” he said by phone from Brussels.
McMillan-Scott, who left the Conservatives last year in a dispute with Hague, then the shadow foreign secretary, over the party’s political positioning in the European Parliament, said it was his “primordial concern that Russia failed to satisfy world opinion that it is not operating KGB-style tactics in the modern age.”
TITLE: Chaika Says Graft War Failing
AUTHOR: By Roland Oliphant
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The size of the average bribe has surged by a third as the government’s war on corruption faltered this year, Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said Wednesday.
Chaika berated senior officials involved in the graft fight, saying their investigators were afflicted by complacency and were failing to build solid cases to prosecute officials suspected of corruption.
“In 2008 and 2009, we saw a significant revival of work in this area, but the results of the activities of law enforcement agencies in the first half of this year confirm complacency and a decrease of effectiveness and quality of work,” Chaika said at a meeting of the heads of the law enforcement agencies.
The government has steadily increased the number of investigators targeting corruption, but the number of cases going to trial has stayed about the same, and the rate of acquittals in the first half of 2010 almost doubled compared with the same period last year, Chaika told the meeting, which was also attended by Kremlin chief of staff Alexander Naryshkin.
Prosecutors opened 2,482 corruption cases in the first six months of this year, down from 3,063 in the same period of 2009, according to a report circulated at the meeting.
Chaika said his own staff shared the blame for the slowdown. “The main reason for this lies in deficiencies at all stages of law enforcement — ineffective operational work, the poor quality of investigations and the absence of a stalwart position by prosecutors,” he said, Interfax reported.
The report circulated at the meeting cited Interior Ministry figures as saying the average bribe has risen to 30,500 rubles ($1,015), up from 23,100 rubles ($770) last year.
The findings deal a blow to President Dmitry Medvedev, who has made fighting corruption a hallmark of his presidency.
Naryshkin struck a more upbeat note at the meeting, praising a Medvedev order that requires civil servants to declare their income and some assets. He promised to expand the declarations.
“This year’s income statement covers nearly all civil servants. Experience shows that presenting information about incomes is quite an effective preventative measure,” Naryshkin said, Interfax reported.
But officials face no penalties for not disclosing their incomes, and several senior politicians have refused
to follow Medvedev’s order. Also, critics say some who have provided income declarations offered false
information.
TITLE: 45 Detained Outside Governor’s Dacha
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Dozens were arrested outside Governor Valentina Matviyenko’s dacha Tuesday in the village of Komarovo near St. Petersburg when they went there to try and give her a letter asking her to meet with them.
The crowd, estimated at between 50 and 80 people, were met by armed guards who pointed firearms at them, Sergei Vesnov, chairman of the Association of Small and Medium Businesses, said Thursday.
The petitioners were unhappy about the planned demolition of trade complexes near Staraya Derevnya metro station and the impending eviction of residents from apartments at 15 Ulitsa Ilyushina that they had rented for years from a company they used to work for.
“The guards rushed out, pointed guns at us and cocked them, even though everybody was standing still and not trying to do anything,” Vesnov said. Video footage shows at least one guard holding a pistol and another with an assault rifle.
“Then a lot of police arrived and said we were violating the law, and ordered us to vacate the traffic area. We moved out of the traffic area. Then they said, ‘Disperse.’ We started to disperse. ‘No, stop. We’re detaining you.’ We tried to leave, they started to stop us. They stopped everyone and put us in a bus.”
According to Vesnov, numerous previous attempts to attract Matviyenko’s attention to the issue had no effect.
“We have appealed many times, we have been to Smolny (Matviyenko’s headquarters); the people from Ulitsa Ilyushina even managed to stage a sit-in the reception room,” he said, adding that they simply received a brush-off in response to their complaints.
“So we decided that since they’re busy with their own stuff during working hours, we’d come to them at home.”
A police spokesman said Tuesday that 45 people had been detained, Interfax reported. He described the situation as an “unauthorized outdoor mass event.”
Vesnov said that he and another person were charged with violating the rules on holding public events, while the rest were charged with violating traffic rules.
TITLE: City Claims Waiting Lists For Kindergartens Getting Smaller
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The problem of lengthy waiting lists for admission to St. Petersburg’s kindergartens is to be solved within the next two years, City Hall announced this week.
Sergei Timofeyev, head of the educational institutions department at St. Petersburg’s Education Committee, said at a roundtable meeting on Monday that in recent years the waiting lists for the city’s kindergartens have been gradually getting shorter, BaltInfo reported.
If a year-and-a-half ago about 7,000 young St. Petersburg residents were standing in line for admission, today that figure is 3,747, Timofeyev said.
Since 2006, St. Petersburg has created another 15,000 places at local nursery schools, including 9,700 new places in 2010. This growth was made possible by the construction of new kindergartens and the reopening of older facilities that had been privatized or hived off to other organizations, he said.
At present, St. Petersburg has 1,105 nursery schools, including 1,020 state establishments and 22 private schools. Another 37 kindergartens operate within secondary schools. A total of about 169,000 children are currently enrolled at the city’s kindergartens.
Nevertheless, according to official statistics, the city’s nursery school facilities are oversubscribed by 8 percent, and average class sizes at the city’s kindergartens are 20 to 25 children.
Yelena, 39, whose four-year-old daughter attends a kindergarten group of 26 children, said the large class sizes lead to children frequently being infected by one another with colds or flu.
“It’s also hard for their teachers and nanny to dress them all to go outside simultaneously and to pay individual attention to each of them during classes,” Yelena said.
For comparison, in neighboring Finland, the law states that no more than four children under the age of three can be supervised by a single teacher. Children can attend playschool four hours a day for free and the monthly salary for nursery school teachers is about 2,000 euros ($2,800).
The average salary for a kindergarten teacher in St. Petersburg is $280-$350 a month.
TITLE: Schwarzenegger Lauds Opportunity ‘Gold Mine’
AUTHOR: By Olga Razumovskaya
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called President Dmitry Medvedev “a great visionary” and compared Russia to a “gold mine” of business opportunities in comments to a room full of entrepreneurs and journalists in Moscow on Monday.
The 63-year-old bodybuilder and Hollywood star came to the capital to lead the 2010 Silicon Valley trade mission to Russia, bringing along senior management from 28 U.S. companies — including leading IT and energy companies and venture capital firms — as well as State Department officials.
“President Medvedev is a great visionary. He had this vision to create a Silicon Valley in Skolkovo,” Schwarzenegger said.
“I love places where there is an extraordinary potential,” Schwarzenegger said of Russia. “It’s almost like looking at a gold or diamond mine and saying, ‘All you got to do is go in there and get it.’”
The Kremlin has been pushing the development of the Skolkovo innovation city, just outside Moscow, as a way to diversify Russia’s economy and encourage foreign investment from high-tech companies.
The project is being developed by billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, who told reporters on Monday that investments in Skolkovo could reach 200 billion rubles ($6.7 billion) over the next three to five years. Under the investment plan, which “still hasn’t been approved by anyone,” 50 percent of the funding would come from the Russian state and the rest from investors, Vekselberg said, Interfax reported.
Schwarzenegger arrived Sunday to follow up Medvedev’s summer tour of California’s famed Silicon Valley, where he first met the governor, started his Twitter account and met with a number of CEOs from IT companies. In February, another group of U.S. tech executives visited Russia to discuss their experience with innovation.
Schwarzenegger’s delegation included senior executives and representatives from technology giants Google, Microsoft, Oracle and Intel as well as management from Asset Management Company, Bloom Energy, Global Technology Symposium, Trident Capital, DFJ and others.
“I know the challenge that you had after communism fell. … Now is the time to diversify,” Schwarzenegger told the members of the American Chamber of Commerce, who laughed and applauded as Schwarzenegger shared tales of his mother smacking him with a ruler when he was a kid.
Medvedev noted that Schwarzenegger arrived in Moscow as the city was waiting for the new mayor. “If you were a Russian citizen, you could work here for us,” Medvedev told the Austrian-born politician, who holds dual citizenship.
Schwarzenegger responded that he almost had to skip the trip because of his state’s budget crisis, which was resolved late last week. California’s economy was worth $1.8 trillion last year, compared with $1.3 trillion for the Russian economy.
In between jokes, the governor was quick to promote his state and praise the potential of his hosts.
“We know that Russian people have extraordinary ingenuity. … So with those minds, with our minds, one and one will become three,” Schwarzenegger said.
“It’s all about bringing back the economy; it’s all about jobs, jobs, jobs,” he said, stressing the fact that by bringing businesses to Russia, U.S. companies will actually be creating new opportunities for American workers.
“Bottom line is that California is a state that has a lot to offer,” the governor said.
Despite occasional skeptical comments from audience members, the visit seemed to be going on a positive note.
“Vekselberg’s team has done a great job. They have prepared a comprehensive presentation for the delegates. It is clear now that it is not just some blah-blah-blah,” Alexander Galitsky, managing partner at Almaz Capital who participated in meetings with the leaders later Monday, told The St. Petersburg Times.
Galitsky’s firm was among the first to bring money to Skolkovo by investing 900 million rubles ($30 million) into a business incubator housed in the planned hub.
Businessmen and delegates said that while Monday’s visit broke some ice, it will take time to generate actual investment.
“It’s too early to speak about concrete deals. And some of these companies already have investments here. So this is the way for these guys to see how things are going right now and to introduce their colleagues to the Russian market,” Andrew Somers, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, which had organized the talk, told The St. Petersburg Times.
“I think the deals will come later. Usually if you’ve got 15 [companies] and you get one deal out of 15 in a year that’s very good,” he said.
Galitsky, too, said venture capitalists take five to six months to close a deal.
Nonetheless, Medvedev’s efforts to promote Russia as a country that is opening up to foreign investment already seem to be paying off, entrepreneurs said. Medvedev is seen by many in California as a “visionary,” Galitsky said.
“You wouldn’t get these guys here unless people in the States really believed that Russia is trying to change and become much more open,” Somers said.
But earlier investors in Russia are often quick to caution their colleagues that the great rewards the country offers also come with risk.
“In general terms it sounds like Schwarzenegger is encouraging American businessmen to play Russian roulette. Out of six investors, five of them will have a positive experience but the sixth will blow his head off,” Bill Browder, founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, told The St. Petersburg Times by phone.
Hermitage Capital was forced to leave Russia amid a legal crackdown after the company accused Interior Ministry officials of stealing from the state budget. Browder was denied entry to the country as a threat to national security in 2006 and Russia asked Interpol to put him on their wanted list last year — moves that he links to his stand against corruption.
“With all due respect, Governor Schwarzenegger has no idea of the risks of investing in Russia, and he is not going to be there when things start going wrong. … He won’t be there to wipe the blood off the floors,” Browder said.
The governor says his relationship with Russia began when he was 15, watching Soviet heavyweight lifters on TV.
“I knew that this is what I wanted to do with my life,” Schwarzenegger said, referring to a bespectacled bodybuilder “who was also an engineer” and an “intellectual.” Several trips followed, including for the 1988 movie “Red Heat” — in which Schwarzenegger played a Russian police officer — and then with the opening of Planet Hollywood in Moscow.
The Terminator star began his news conference on time and had a lengthy to-do list. He managed to squeeze in a metro ride, saw Red Square, and found time for brief photo sessions with multiple fans.
Medvedev and Schwarzenegger, both big fans of social media, exchanged friendly tweets and photographs throughout the day.
“Riding with President Medvedev in his great car. You’re a great driver, Mr. President!” the governor tweeted Monday, referring to a vintage Soviet-era Chaika.
“I discussed with @Schwarzenegger not only investment but also sports,” Medvedev tweeted, linking to a photo of the governor lifting weights.
At one point in the day, the governor explained to reporters that he came to Moscow because he had promised Medvedev: “I’ll be back.”
“So I came back,” Schwarzenegger said.
Schwarzenegger encouraged Russia to follow his state’s example in promoting renewable energy sources and a green economy while speaking Tuesday at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics.
“Moscow’s main challenge is the same as in Los Angeles, Beijing, Johannesburg, Cape Town and all big cities — traffic. … But I am absolutely confident that when I come to Moscow next time there will be no traffic jams at all,” Schwarzenegger said, RIA-Novosti reported.
During the speech, he stated his intention to focus on working on renewable energy issues once he steps down as governor in January.
California currently accounts for 1.4 percent of global and 6.2 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions but, according to Schwarzenegger, it uses 40 percent less energy per person than other U.S. states.
Environmentalists say Russia could benefit from California’s experience.
California-based Bloom Energy, a startup that positions itself as “changing the way the world generates and consumes energy,” was among the 28 firms represented in Schwarzenegger’s delegation.
Though no specific deals have been announced, Rusnano head Anatoly Chubais said Monday that the Silicon Valley delegates were prepared to invest as much as $1 billion into the state corporation and Skolkovo projects.
After speaking to a group of Russian students, Schwarzenegger had lunch with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and toured his museum, then left the country.
The governor was supposed to visit Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, but had to cancel because of schedule limitations, the Tatar Inform news agency reported.
Schwarzenegger clearly cemented his relationship with President Dmitry Medvedev during the visit, as both leaders exchanged messages and photographs on Twitter during the two-day visit.
TITLE: City Prepares to Auction Astoria
AUTHOR: By Nadezhda Zaitseva and Alla Tokareva
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: City Hall will sell the Astoria Hotel building and the Nikolsky Rynok building — both classified as federal monuments — at auction on Nov. 19 with a starting price of 3 billion rubles ($99.3 million).
The starting price for the Astoria property, which comprises a 16,998-square meter edifice and a 3,188-square meter plot of land at Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa 39, was set at 2.5 billion rubles ($82.7 million), the City Property Fund said Monday. The premises are currently rented by the Gostinichny Complex Astoria company, whose leasing agreement runs through 2046. According to the City Property Management Committee, the price of the rent, which has not been paid in advance, was fixed at 4.35 million rubles ($144,185) per month.
The company’s majority shareholder is British firm Rocco Forte and Family, Interfax reported. Rocco Forte representatives declined to comment on the announcement Monday.
If there is no legal way to increase the rent, then the building is only of interest for the lessee, said Zosya Zakharova, head of analytical research at the Agency for Real Estate Development and Research. According to her, paying off the investment in the coming decades is impossible — during the next 36 years, the new owner will only earn 1.5 billion rubles ($49.6 million) from the rent, added Zakharova. The circle of investors able to pay 2.5 billion rubles for the property is very limited, said the expert.
The tenant of the Nikolsky Rynok building, Nikolskye Riady company, is planning to take part in the auction, said Fyodor Lychagin, chairman of the company’s board of directors. According to the City Property Fund, the lessee has paid the rent in advance through 2051. The 28,438-square meter building will be auctioned along with a 1.8-hectare plot of land with a starting price of 420 million rubles ($13.9 million). By 2013, the monument is due to be transformed into a 63,000-square meter multifunctional center comprising a Crown Plaza hotel. The total amount of investment in the project will reach $220 million, 30 million of which has already been spent, said a representative of Nikolskye Riady’s press service.
TITLE: 10 Years Later, Credit Cards Are Mainstream
AUTHOR: By Irina Filatova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russians now hold 7,600 percent more Visa cards than they did 10 years ago, a senior Visa executive said Tuesday, a number that shows an explosive growth of the market.
Visa had issued 70 million cards in Russia as of late June, compared with 924,000 cards as of June 2000, said Steven Parker, Visa’s chief executive for Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States and southeastern Europe.
He said the behavior of Russia’s consumers had changed significantly over the past decade, with more people using plastic cards for everyday payments.
“In the early 2000s, the use of Visa cards was more of an exception than an everyday means of paying for goods and services. That has changed today,” Parker said at a news conference, as Visa celebrated its 10th anniversary in Russia.
“As Russians have become more accustomed to using Visa cards, payment for small items and services that are part of our everyday life is now common,” he said, adding that the sum of an average transaction via a Visa card has halved to $50 this year from $106 in 2000.
The number of payment transactions via Visa cards in Russia has soared by a factor of 178 over the past 10 years, the company said in a statement.
Russia’s plastic cards market is much younger than in most developed countries and has a good potential for growth, said Leonid Slipchenko, a banking analyst at UralSib. He said Russians will get hold of even more cards as the level of banking services penetration increases.
A spokesman for MasterCard, another big player on the Russian market, was out of his office and unavailable for comment Tuesday on the company’s performance.
The annual turnover on Visa cards increased to as much as $61.5 billion in the 12 months ending in June, a 200-fold growth compared with $306 million in 2000, Parker said, citing financial reports by banks.
Visa is considering Russia as one of its priority markets that is crucial for the company’s growth, Elizabeth Buse, a group executive with Visa, said at the same news conference. Visa will invest into expanding acceptance in Russia, including in electronic commerce, and will further develop the electronic payments technology through such channels as mobile communications, she said.
“We’ve seen … a tremendous amount of innovations in this market … payments by cell phone, card-to-card transfers, cash-to-card transfers … and those are just the beginning. There’s more innovation and investment on the horizon,” she said, adding that the company was “committed now more than ever to increasing our investment in this market for the long term.”
TITLE: P&G Accused of Unsafe Working Environment
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Gennady Onishchenko, chief of the Federal Consumer Protection Service, has accused Procter & Gamble of providing unsafe working conditions.
Onishchenko said 51 percent of the company’s employees in Moscow worked in harmful conditions, RIA-Novosti reported Tuesday. The number includes 25 percent of all female employees at the company, or 141 women, Onishchenko said late Monday.
P&G said it complied with Russian sanitary and safety standards.
Onishchenko pointed out that employees at the company’s plants in Novomoskovsk in the Tula region often take long sick leave. “Every worker, you see, was sick for nine days,” he said, apparently referring to a period of time this year that he didn’t specify. He said the rate was 11 percent higher than last year. He said the breeches of safety rules included a noise level in the first half of the year that was 6 percent higher than allowed. He also accused the firm of providing substandard lighting and poor cleaning practices at working premises.
At a Procter & Gamble facility in Dzerzhinsk in the Nizhny Novgorod region, 23 percent of staffers did not undergo medical checks, he said, adding that the company has similar violations at its plant in St. Petersburg.
P&G spokeswoman Yulia Mayorova said the Federal Consumer Protection Service or other agencies conducted no inspections of the company this year. “We are somewhat surprised by this statement,” she said by e-mail. “We are sure that all the company’s plants and offices comply” with state rules.
TITLE: Venezuelan President Chavez Visits To Clinch Deal on Social Housing
AUTHOR: By Olga Razumovskaya
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived Thursday for a two-day visit, during which the close Russian ally is expected to sign agreements on building social housing in Caracas and to establish a binational bank.
The visit is Chavez’s ninth to Russia since taking office in 1999. During his most recent trip, in September of last year, Chavez recognized the breakaway Georgian republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.
Recognizing the Russian-backed regions drew an angry response from Georgia, but Moscow awarded Chavez — a longtime foe of the United States — with a $2 billion loan to purchase tanks and anti-aircraft rocket systems.
But military cooperation will not be the focus of the current visit, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Wednesday in an interview published on his ministry’s web site.
“Ties with this country are also being formed in energy, hydrocarbons extraction and refining, but again — it’s more than just that,” Ryabkov told Golos Rossii radio. “We’re also seeing areas like … agriculture, scientific research and even construction of social housing.”
Chavez will meet President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and sign agreements to further cooperation in several areas including “the foundation of a Russian-Venezuelan bank and a project to build social housing in Caracas,” Itar-Tass reported, citing Venezuelan news agencies.
While the focus will be on federal meetings, City Hall may also get some time with Chavez and potentially shake hands on a construction project in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.
“There is a readiness today to sign bilateral agreements in the presence of [acting Mayor Vladimir] Resin and a team of Moscow government officials,” a source in the Mayor’s Office said Wednesday.
TITLE: Serdyukov: Production At Russia’s Ford Plant To Double in 2010
TEXT: ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Ford Motor Company’s local plant expects to double its production volume in 2010 up to 80,000 cars, Interfax reported Thursday, citing Valery Serdyukov, governor of the Leningrad Oblast.
In 2011, the plant is set to produce 90,000 vehicles, including the fourth Ford Focus and new Mondeo models, Serdyukov said, adding that the factory is currently looking to recruit 500 workers to fill three shifts.
Production at the plant fell by 1.6 times in 2009 compared to the year before down to 41,000 vehicles, in line with a decline in demand for new cars with the onset of the economic crisis. The plant temporarily stopped work several times during 2009 in response to the decline in demand, and the working week was reduced.
Ford opened its local plant in Vsevolozhsk in the Leningrad Oblast in 2002. Its full production capacity is 125,000 vehicles per year, Interfax reported.
TITLE: The Mystical Million-Man Army
AUTHOR: By Alexander Golts
TEXT: Every year in October, as the cold, damp weather sets in, it is time for the fall call-up of new draftees.
The goal is to conscript 278,000 young men by Dec. 31, but this year the army is supposed to institute new humanitarian measures to make the one-year mandatory service more civilized. For example, parents can attend draft board sessions and are allowed to accompany the future soldiers right up to their assigned units — a time in which many violations have traditionally occurred. In addition, conscripts can now have mobile phones to stay in contact with relatives and friends — or to report misconduct — and efforts will be made for them to serve relatively close to home. It is also expected that for the first time ever soldiers will be given weekends off.
The idea is to transform the current prison-like conditions in the military to something similar to a “sports camp,” loosely speaking. That is wonderful news, of course. Unfortunately, it will have little bearing on the combat readiness of the armed forces for two reasons. First, the Defense Ministry has rejected the 21st-century military model of building a compact, highly skilled professional force. Second, since the draft occurs twice a year — fall and spring — and conscript service has been reduced to one year, this means that the most experienced conscripts at any time have a maximum of only six months service under their belt — barely enough time to complete basic training. The result is clear — a woefully low level of combat readiness, particularly when modern battles require advanced training in communications and high-tech weapon systems.
Humanization is a much-needed measure, of course, but the efficiency and battle-readiness of the armed forces will never improve if this is not accompanied by modernization of the armed forces and a fundamental understanding of how 21st-century battles are fought.
I have repeatedly asked those who defend the draft why a conscript army is necessary when the country no longer plans to call up millions of reservists in time of war. It is clear that the huge reserve of low-skilled recruits is kept as cannon fodder in the event of a war.
In any debate about conscription, the defenders of the draft inevitably point to the need to have a million-man army. This number of 1 million has taken on an almost mystical significance. For the past decade, every military and political leader warns that as soon as the army drops down below a million soldiers, Russia’s ability to defend itself will be weakened considerably. The most common — and least convincing — explanation is that Russia has a huge territory that requires a least a million soldiers to defend its borders. In reality, though, only much smaller, high-skilled rapid deployment forces can guarantee Russia’s protection. Heavy-weapon depots should be established in areas where potential military threats are the greatest, and combat-ready forces should be deployed rapidly to those locations if a threat materializes.
Russia’s defense strategies are still stuck in the Napoleon age when “big battalions” decided not only who was right, but who was victorious. Fast-forward 200 years to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. The 400,000-member Iraqi army was destroyed by only three divisions: two U.S. and one British. Those battles were won by the use of advanced surveillance and communication equipment to identify enemy troop movements, coupled with highly accurate weapons for destroying those forces.
Russia’s army is still crippled by the fundamentally flawed and outdated military mindset of its leaders who confuse quality with quantity. This explains why the top brass so desperately wants to have an army numerically equal to that of North Korea’s — a country of 24 million people that has an army of 1.1 million active personnel.
But unlike North Korea, Russia can’t possibly reach the magical 1 million number it is so obsessed with. There are two reasons for this. The first and most important reason is that the acute demographic decline has resulted in a sharp drop in the number of young men reaching 18 years of age — to 800,000. The second reason is that widespread corruption allows thousands of eligible conscripts to receive exemption from service.
As a result of these two factors, the twice-a year call-ups are only able to conscript 564,000 soldiers. Add 150,000 officers and the 100,000 remaining contract soldiers to that number, and you get a little more than 800,000 active military personnel. Nonetheless, Russia’s military leaders still dream day and night of building a million-man army, dooming the armed forces to North Korea’s level of combat readiness.
Alexander Golts is deputy editor of the online newspaper Yezhednevny Zhurnal.
TITLE: Guerilla Warfare Against Cops
AUTHOR: By Yulia Latynina
TEXT: A video titled “Primorye Partisan” has been making the rounds on the Internet. It was made by a gang of self-proclaimed guerrillas in the Primorye region that led an armed attack against policemen. They are suspected of killing two policemen and wounding six others between February and June.
One of their slogans is “Grab a weapon and save your soul” — something that is close to what guerrilla fighters in the Caucasus have said and done. Imagine that these guerrillas surfaced in the United States and started shooting at cops. I think the public would call them the new Manson family.
The reaction in Russia has been mixed. According to a public survey conducted a couple of years ago, only 1 percent of the population trusts the police. In a recent Moscow poll, the figure was even less than 1 percent.
Most of the remaining 99 percent consider the police and other siloviki as an occupation force of sorts — absolute scum who abuse citizens with impunity.
Any encounter with a cop in uniform is like running into a hardened criminal on the street. This is particularly true for the traffic police, who have a license to extort money from drivers. But it also applies to the drunken street cops who openly collect protection money from street vendors.
Each time a traffic officer extorts a bribe, even the most nonviolent citizens drive away muttering, “Those bastards should be taken out and shot.”
They don’t do it, of course. Extorting money from drivers is reprehensible, but does it justify killing traffic policemen? Hardly. Even if we believe that the police as a whole are nothing more than a nationwide crime syndicate, this is no justification for citizens taking matters into their own hands by opening fire at policemen. Regardless of how abusive cops are, due process of the law must be observed. Society cannot be ruled by vigilantism.
Violence against policemen, of course, is not limited to Primorye. Cops are shot in Dagestan and other parts of the North Caucasus on a regular basis. Will this trend lead to a larger guerrilla war against cops in other parts of the country? No, and one reason is that there is a lack of young people in the European parts of Russia and in the regions east of the Urals. The only exception is the North Caucasus, where the birth rates — and unemployment — are high. These regions have a particularly high proportion of youth aged 16 to 20, many of whom will never be able to find work. Religious fundamentalism is the spark that can start the fire. The combustibles are already in place.
If 40 percent of the Russian population were also under 25, then the policies of the current regime would trigger serious social unrest. I don’t know which specific ideology would guide the angry youth — perhaps neo-Nazism, some fringe version of Orthodox Old Believers or an exotic blend of paganism.
In any case, after watching the video of the Primorye guerrillas, three things are clear. First, if Russia had an excess of young males, they would wage a guerrilla war against the cops.
Second, that war would enjoy the support of most people — even educated Russians who don’t share the guerrillas’ radical views.
Last, it would not be a war for democracy.
Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio.
TITLE: Pompidou pieces at the Hermitage
AUTHOR: By Sophie Gaitzsch
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Paris’s Pompidou Center has become the latest guest of honor at the State Hermitage Museum, after an exhibition showing 12 major works of 20th-century French art from the center’s collection opened its doors Wednesday.
Along with a contemporary art festival, the exhibition constitutes “The Pompidou Center in the State Hermitage” project, organized in close cooperation between the two cultural institutions as part of the Year of France in Russia.
The exhibition starts with Marcel Duchamp’s famous “Bottle Rack,” which the Hermitage’s director Mikhail Piotrovsky described as a “symbol of 20th-century creativity.” The piece, an actual bottle rack, is what the artist called “readymades” — found objects that Duchamp, whose work had a great influence on subsequent generations of artists, chose to present as art. Starkly contrasting with the imperial splendor of the Winter Palace building, “Bottle Rack” still seems to surprise visitors, the question “Is this art?” echoing in the room as people pass by — nearly one hundred years after its creation in 1914.
From that point, the exhibition moves through the second half of the 20th century, showing emblematic paintings, sculptures and installations of artists from very diverse artistic movements — Georges Mathieu, Yves Klein, Martial Raysse, Cesar, Robert Filliou, Jean Dubuffet, Roman Opalka, Daniel Buren, Bertrand Lavier and Gerard Garouste — all of which are on display in St. Petersburg for the first time. A model of the iconic Pompidou Center building, an example of constraint-free architecture in the spirit of the 1960s designed by Italy’s Renzo Piano and the U.K.’s Richard Rogers, is also part of the show.
The surprisingly small size of the exhibition is due not to unforeseen circumstances, but is rather a deliberate choice. “The exhibition is part of a larger project,” explains Dmitry Ozerkov, head of the Modern Art section of the State Hermitage, who was in charge of selecting works from the Pompidou Center’s 60,000-strong collection.
“And since the second part of “The Pompidou Center in the Hermitage” project is about contemporary art, we picked works that show what the basis of contemporary art actually is.”
Rather than simply importing paintings and sculptures from the Pompidou Center, the Hermitage tried to seek inspiration in its French cousin’s approach to contemporary art.
“The Hermitage is trying to open itself to 21st-century creativity, and thought of the Pompidou Center as a model, which we are very honored by,” said Bernard Blist?ne, deputy director of the Pompidou Center, at the exhibition’s opening.
The Pompidou Center, described by Piotrovsky as a “dream of a museum,” is indisputably a leader in its field. Opened in 1977 in central Paris, it was the brainchild of President Georges Pompidou, who wanted to create a cultural institution focused on modern and contemporary creativity, where the visual arts would mix with theater, music, cinema, literature and the spoken word. Today, six million visitors every year flock to the center to see the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe, a library, cinema and performance halls and music research institute, as well as educational activity areas.
This interdisciplinary and interactive vocation is reflected in the festival part of the project, which kicked off on Oct. 5. Visitors to the Hermitage can hop next door to the room adjoining the exhibition, where impressive installations by Viennese artist Heimo Zobering and Cuban artist Jorge Prado are on display as part of the festival, or attend one of the roundtables, workshops, experimental dance and theater performances or showings of video-art installations.
Those who are eager to continue the experience and are not afraid of braving the cold can investigate the Contemporary French Art Circuit in St. Petersburg, showcasing contemporary French art at participating centers and galleries around the city through Nov. 14.
“The Pompidou Center in the State Hermitage” runs through Nov. 14 at the State Hermitage Museum, 2 Palace Square. Tel: 710 9625. www.hermitagemuseum.org.
For more information about the Contemporary French Art Circuit in St. Petersburg, visit www.ifspb.com.
TITLE: Diaghilev: The legacy of Russia’s greatest impresario
AUTHOR: By Katharine Helmore
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A year after St. Petersburg’s museums and theaters joined forces to put on the “Diaghilev. P.S.” festival, London’s Victoria and Albert Museum is hosting the largest exhibition to date dedicated to the Russian maestro’s best-known works.
“The V&A is delighted to be showing its unrivalled collection of Diaghilev and Ballet Russes,” said Sir Mark Jones, director of the V&A.
The V&A’s impressive collection of well-preserved costumes, stage-cloths, set designs, and posters from The Ballets Russes forms the basis of “Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes (1909-1929),” which paints a comprehensive picture of the global influence the Russian entrepreneur and impresario held — and still holds — on the art world.
Sergei Diaghilev revolutionized and broadened the world’s perception of 20th-century ballet through his innovative exploration of new material and numerous collaborations with artists, composers, dancers and choreographers including Leon Bakst, Vaslav Nijinsky, Igor Stravinsky and later George Balanchine, Coco Chanel, Pablo Picasso and Giorgio de Chirico.
The first room of the exhibition explores the start of Diaghilev’s working life in St. Petersburg. It also introduces his famous relationship with Vaslav Nijinksy: prot?g?, friend and lover and key soloist in The Ballets Russes, dancing the opening performance of the Saison Russe in 1909. Photographs of his first patrons — the Russian imperial family — (1906) on loan from St. Petersburg’s State Russian Museum, set the scene of an artistically thriving city, prior to the turbulent years that followed.
The exhibition’s introduction reveals just how influential Russia was on Diaghilev, and how despite remaining in Europe after the outbreak of war in 1914, Diaghilev continued to be influenced by Russia in his productions.
Notably, before leaving Russia for good, Diaghilev worked with Nikolai Roerich, who designed the brightly colored costumes for the 1913 production of “The Rite Of Spring,” whose infamous premiere at the Th??tre des Champs-?lys?es in Paris was met by a near-riot among outraged spectators, shocked by Nijinsky’s stomping choreography and Stravinsky’s dissonant, polyrhythmic music. Roerich’s hand-painted designs clearly reference Russian folk dance.
Diaghilev had an insatiable appetite for seeking out successful artists, composers and writers. It was not through vanity or a compulsive obsession, but to “get a feel for the man,” wrote his friend Alexandre Benois in 1930. It is no accident that the young Diaghilev met Johannes Brahms, Giuseppe Verdi, Emile Zola and Emmanuel Chabrier while travelling in the 1890s, and there is no doubt his communications with Leo Tolstoy shaped and influenced his ambitions. Diaghilev later wrote that “such moments and impressions remain in the soul forever, like specks of light.”
His collaborations with celebrated artists are exhibited throughout the show, with different costumes for each of Diaghilev’s productions. One of the most impressive works in the exhibition is the stage cloth designed for the 1926 production of Stravinsky’s “The Firebird” by Russian artist Natalya Goncharova. The backcloth was hand painted for the coronation scene and depicts majestic golden-domed palaces, reflecting the fairy-tale quality of Stravinsky’s celebrated composition. The backcloth is the largest work on display and reveals Diaghilev’s enduring love affair with Russia.
Notoriously bad with money, Diaghilev searched for sponsors abroad. “He never kept a budget, no five-year plan … in those days you could get away with it,” said Jane Pritchard, the exhibition’s curator.
The final rooms of the exhibition span the last decade of the Ballets Russes, revealing the artistic developments of the roaring twenties. Diaghilev started to explore modern themes including sport, beach and film. In one area of the room are costumes hand-painted by Matisse on set for Stravinsky’s “Le Chant du Rossignol,” from which it is evident he was more concerned with the costumes than the stage design. According to Pritchard, it was the first time Matisse used the cut-out technique, which proved “very influential.”
Matisse’s works are contrasted alongside Bakst’s typically Russian gold-threaded costumes and stage designs for “The Sleeping Beauty.” De Chirico’s architecturally inspired costumes for “Le Bal” are displayed opposite Chanel’s intriguingly simple bathing costumes for Diaghilev’s “Le Train Bleu.” In another room hangs the huge sporting themed stage cloth by Picasso designed for the same production, depicting two figures running alongside one another.
Diaghilev’s legacy permeated worldwide, in both a broader context and through individuals. Dame Ninette Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet Company, joined the Ballet Russes in 1923. During the course of three years, she was quickly recognized as a serious talent, and went on to enjoy a most illustrious and successful ballet career. Later in life she credited Diaghilev “with everything she knew about setting up a ballet company.”
Up until his death in Venice in 1929, Diaghilev transformed the expectations and preconceived ideas of ballet. It is his artistic friendships and collaborations that defined his best-known works and remain a lasting legacy.
A famously eccentric and contradictory character, seemingly conservative but with modern ideas, Diaghilev could never understand the attention he received, once commenting “I can personally be of no interest to anyone: It is not my life that is interesting but my work.”
“Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes (1909-1929)” runs through Jan. 9, 2011 at the V&A Museum, Cromwell Road, London.
Tel. +44 (0)20 7942 2000.
TITLE: Ain’t no sunshine
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: As we scanned the vast menu at Krasnoye Solntse (Red Sun), our Chinese meal was looking more and more promising. The long list combined the eternal bestsellers with original dishes from the chef, and clearly catered to both the local Chinese community and the largely uninitiated locals.
Krasnoye Solntse offers a range of several modestly priced, and apparently popular, business lunches, ranging from 168 ($5.80) to 268 ($9.20) rubles for a set menu that includes a three-course meal and a drink.
When we went on to actually explore the fare, the result was, sadly, a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.
The lappi salad (148 rubles, $5) — a mixture of rice noodles and fresh cucumber — arrived in a hearty portion and had an appealing sweet note to it, while the pigs ears with garlic salad (188 rubles, $6.50) was a success as well, combining a distinct and powerful pork aroma with the garlic notes and heady saltiness of the soy sauce. The dish’s only slight disadvantage was that the pork was sliced very finely and almost drowned in the puddle of the sauce, making the pork taste somewhat weaker than it should.
Alas, the futzu and coriander salad (158 rubles, $5.40), which is usually a safe bet in most Chinese eateries — even those that do not pretend to be more than your average local Chinese canteen — failed to meet our very basic expectations. The soy asparagus, its main ingredient, desperately lacked flavor. The dish tasted more akin to paper, and was watery in texture.
The wolffish filet soaked in a hot spicy sauce (248 rubles, $8.50) was definitely the jewel of the meal, and was described by my companion as “magical.” The fresh tender filet literally melted in the mouth, while the expertly made spicy sauce was tangy and rich in taste.
Frog’s legs with bamboo sprouts (398 rubles, $13.70) served sizzling hot were delicately cooked, yet eating them was no relaxing experience, as each of the small pieces of meat contained a bunch of tiny bones. We fared far better with squid slices served with sweet peppers (248 rubles, $8.50), which were soft and full-flavored, unlike most cooked seafood served locally, which typically tastes as if it’s been severely beaten against a wall and then boiled for five days on end.
At some point toward the end of our meal, as I turned to the window to glance outside, I suddenly spotted a roach on its way to the window frame. Disaster, I thought, and promptly took my eyes off the window.
I didn’t have the heart to tell my companion, who failed to note my distress. A big fan of Chinese and Thai food, having traveled in the Far East extensively on several occasions, she was really enjoying our meal, and even asked for a doggie bag later. I knew it would ruin my friend’s appetite and the whole dining experience. Thinking back to my encounter with our dark, fleet-footed little friend, I’m beginning to wonder how I managed to remain so calm and composed, continuing the evening as if nothing had happened. In fact, I still haven’t had the nerve to tell her, so she may find this review a somewhat trying experience.
All in all, however impressive the menu, however cheap the business lunches and however fresh the seafood, if the insect problem is not dealt with in the very near future, the sun will soon set on Krasnoye Solntse.
TITLE: Chile Celebrates Rescue of All 33 Trapped Miners
AUTHOR: By Marc Burleigh
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: SAN JOSE MINE, Chile — Chile has completed its flawless rescue of 33 miners trapped for a record 10 weeks, sparking euphoria at home after a 22-hour drama that captivated hundreds of millions around the world.
The ascent late Wednesday of the last of the miners, grizzled leader Luis Urzua, capped an against-all-odds operation hailed by Chile’s president as an inspiration to the world.
It also spelled the end of a nightmare lived by the men, who had survived more than two months in a dank and dark tunnel 622 meters below the surface of Chile’s northern Atacama desert following an Aug. 5 cave-in.
“They were experiencing a kind of rebirth,” President Sebastian Pinera said in a televised address to the nation from the San Jose gold and copper mine.
Everywhere from the mine to the capital Santiago, tears glistened in eyes and on cheeks as the South American nation joined together in an unsurpassed moment of deep joy. Car horns honked in cities and vuvezela horns blared.
Thirty-three balloons decked out in Chile’s red-white-and-blue colors floated free into the night sky above the mine at the exact moment the last of the 33 trapped miners was brought to the surface.
The depth of feeling electrified the thousands of journalists covering the rescue, who respectfully stood in silence alongside the miners’ families, recording the event, and sharing in it.
Relatives later streamed up a hill where 33 Chilean flags had been planted to give thanks for the “miracle” they had witnessed.
“It’s the end of a nightmare,” said Silvia Segovia, sister of one of the miners, Victor Segovia. “It’s a new life about to begin,” said Belgica Ramirez, the sister-in-law of Mario Gomez, the oldest of the miners saved.
Pinera hailed Urzua for doing his duty and seeing off all his men before “leaving last like a ship’s captain,” saying the operation had been “inspiring... for the whole world.”
The two men, grateful miner and smiling president, led a rendition of Chile’s national anthem that was echoed across the country.
The spectacular rescue was followed by an estimated one billion people around the world, many of them catching live updates on television or the Internet.
Presidents Barack Obama of the United States, Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, as well as Pope Benedict XVI and other dignitaries sent their congratulations during the day.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed the “extraordinary triumph of human ingenuity and the strength of the human spirit.”
The U.S. space agency NASA, which provided advice on how to sustain the 33 men underground, applauded “the courageous miners” and their rescuers.
The operation officially wrapped up at 12:35 am (0335 GMT) Thursday, when the last of six highly trained rescue specialists who had been sent into the mine to prepare the miners for their 15-minute ascent himself returned to the surface.
After initially being given up for dead in the days following the Aug. 5 mine collapse by all except their families, their discovery alive on Aug. 22 sparked riotous celebration — and also head-scratching on how to get them out.
While plans were made for three drills to bore escape shafts to them, sustenance and communications were dropped through probe holes to the men, who had up to then survived in a shelter with meager rations.
Two of the drills veered off course, but the third completed its shaft last weekend, setting the scene for Wednesday’s unprecedented extraction of the men.
First out was 31-year-old Florencio Avalos, a fit and calm man who hugged his young son and wife and thanked Pinera and other officials.
TITLE: Bus In Ukraine Crashes, 43 Dead
AUTHOR: By Olena Ivanovna
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: MARGANETS, Ukraine — A bus packed with rush-hour commuters crashed into a train at a level crossing in Ukraine on Tuesday after jumping a red light, killing 43 people and leaving a scene of carnage.
The bus was crushed and then shunted at high speed further down the track before the train came to a halt near the village of Marganets in the Dnepropetrovsk region of central Ukraine.
Forty-three people were killed and nine remain hospitalized after the disaster, 100 kilometers south of the main regional center of Dnepropetrovsk, the emergencies ministry said, revising an earlier toll of 42 dead.
Anguished relatives struggled to contain their grief at the scene, where the wreckage of the yellow bus was still wrapped round the front of the train.
“Mother, where have you gone!” a young woman around 30 years old yelled between sobs over a body lying on the ground.
The bodies were laid side by side on the bank of the railway as people searched for their loved ones among the dead.
Officials looked through the identification documents on the bodies laid out by the tracks, calling out names, drawing weeping cries of grief.
President Viktor Yanukovych, who was in the region’s main center of Dnepropetrovsk for a meeting on economic reform, declared a day of national mourning Wednesday in honor of the victims.
“When a driver jumps a red light, he must see a psychiatrist,” added Yanukovych, who visited the scene of the tragedy, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
He conveyed his condolences to the relatives of the victims and said a committee headed by Deputy Prime Minister Andriy Kluyev had been set up to investigate the cause of the accident and help the families.
The ministry of interior said in a statement that the train had dragged the bus along the line for 30 meters after impact.
Local police said that the blame lay with the driver of the bus for running a red light although there were no firm conclusions from investigators.
“The driver of the bus broke traffic laws by driving through a red light before colliding with the train,” a spokeswoman for regional traffic police, Lyudmila Bashmakova, said.
She said there were three children among the dead.
Bashmakova said the vehicle was an inter-city passenger bus carrying locals.
TITLE: China: Nobel Prize ‘Encouraging Crime’
AUTHOR: By Marianne Barriaux
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: BEIJING — China on Thursday denounced the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to dissident Liu Xiaobo as tantamount to “encouraging crime,” as state media said the prize was part of a Western “ideological war” against Beijing.
The comments came as China faced fresh pressure, with Norway criticizing Chinese retaliatory steps over the award and Japan’s prime minister saying the jailed peace laureate should be freed.
“Liu Xiaobo is a convicted criminal. Awarding the Nobel Prize to him is equivalent to encouraging crime,” foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told reporters.
Liu, 54, was sentenced last December to 11 years in jail for subversion. He was awarded the peace prize on Friday by Oslo’s Nobel Committee for his advocacy of political reform and human rights in one-party China.
The United States and European Union have called for his release and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan weighed in on Thursday, risking Beijing’s ire just as Japan and China seek to put a damaging diplomatic spat behind them.
“From the viewpoint that universal human rights should be protected across national borders, it is desirable” that Liu be released, Kan told the Japanese parliament.
China broke off contacts with Tokyo last month after Japan detained a Chinese fishing boat captain whose vessel collided with Japanese coastguard ships in waters claimed by both sides in the East China Sea.
However, the two close trading partners have moved recently to patch up the row.
Kan said he would be “watching whether he (Liu Xiaobo) will be able to attend the Nobel Prize award ceremony or whether his wife or family members will attend.”
Liu’s wife, Liu Xia, has been largely confined to her Beijing home since Friday in what she has denounced as “illegal house arrest.” Washington and Brussels have both appealed to China to let her move freely again.
Beijing has directed its fury at Oslo by canceling ministerial meetings and a Norwegian musical scheduled to be staged in the country.
Oslo on Wednesday criticized the cancellations and said Norway hoped to maintain goods relations with China.
“If this decision is the consequence of the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize, we consider this an inappropriate reaction,” Norwegian foreign ministry spokeswoman Ragnhild Imerslund said.
The state-run English-language Global Times newspaper said on Thursday Liu’s award was part of a Western “ideological war” against China.
“They even hope that China will one day collapse under the West’s ideological crusade,” said the editorial, intended for foreign audiences.
Chinese-language state press have remained muted on the subject amid an information blackout on the news in China.
Liu Xiaobo was sentenced in December to 11 years in jail on subversion charges in what was widely seen as retaliation for authoring an appeal for political reform and human rights in 2008.
China’s Communist Party has an iron grip on political power and its human rights record is frequently criticized by foreign governments and activists at home.
Dissidents and activist lawyers have been under close surveillance since the award was announced, and ahead of an annual Communist Party meeting opening Friday.
Liu Xia, meanwhile, has had her telephones cut off by authorities but has issued periodic statements on Twitter.
Twitter is blocked in China by the nation’s censors, but accessible via proxy servers.
“I strongly protest against the government for my illegal house arrest,” Liu Xia said in a tweet on Wednesday, calling her situation “very hard to take”.
TITLE: Greek Riot Police Storm Acropolis
AUTHOR: By Louisa Gouliamaki
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: ATHENS — Riot police on Thursday stormed the Acropolis to break up a blockade of Greece’s top monument by protesting culture ministry staff as the government faced fresh opposition to its austerity policies.
The police broke into the monument perimeter through a side entrance and used tear gas to disperse media covering the demonstration as they tried to corner the protesters and evacuate the site, which was closed to the public for the second day.
The protesters grabbed on to fence railings to prevent their removal from the hilltop site overlooking central Athens as gathered tourists snapped pictures.
At least one protester was detained as the police emptied the site.
But the monument did not reopen to visitors and the protesters’ syndicate pledged to return on Friday.
“The protest will continue,” the head of temporary ministry staff Nikos Hasomeris said after the police operation.
“The authorities must accept their responsibilities. Today they destroyed the archaeological site,” he said.
The union representing temporary culture ministry staff began the protest on Tuesday.