SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1635 (96), Friday, December 17, 2010
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TITLE: Police Make ‘Preventative’ Arrests in Moscow
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Thousands of riot police patrolled downtown Moscow on Wednesday, detaining at least 800 people, conducting pat-downs and closing the Yevropeisky shopping center and access to the nearby Kievskaya metro station to stave off violence in the area.
Police feared that thousands of young people, inflamed over the killing of an ethnic Russian in a brawl with Caucasus natives on Dec. 5 and a subsequent riot by ethnic Russians that targeted Caucasus natives last weekend, would heed online calls to stage a violent rally in front of the Yevropeisky mall at 6 p.m.
Hundreds of young people — Caucasus natives and ethnic Russians — gathered in the vicinity of the mall on Wednesday evening, many of them chanting “Russia for Russians” and “Moscow for Muscovites.”
Police detained anyone whom they considered a potential threat, dragging them to waiting police buses.
“The situation in Moscow is under the control of law enforcement agencies. Residents have no reason to feel threatened,” police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said, Interfax reported.
But the situation remained tense late Wednesday, with many young people itching for a fight. A St. Petersburg Times reporter overheard four boys aged 14 to 15 discussing how to carry out an attack on Caucasus natives as they drank alcoholic cocktails near the Noviye Cheryomushki metro station. “Now we’re going to find a [racial epithet] to beat,” said one. “What’s most important is to make sure that there are no cops around.”
A 20-year-old Caucasus native was hospitalized after he was beaten in a Moscow region commuter train by a group of about 20 young people screaming nationalist slogans, a police source told Interfax.
Shortly before 6 p.m., a fight broke out between ultranationalists and Caucasus youth, some of them armed with baseball bats and metal rods, on Smolenskaya Naberezhnaya, near the Yevropeisky mall. At least five people were injured, Interfax reported.
Riot police were also patrolling Manezh Square, where 5,500 football fans and nationalists angered over the death of football fan Yegor Sviridov, 28, staged an unsanctioned rally that turned violent Saturday when protesters attacked a group of Caucasus natives who passed by.
The Japanese Embassy recommended that its nationals stay off Moscow streets because “riots are possible,” an embassy source told Interfax.
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin promised Tuesday to deal harshly with anyone who attempted a repeat of Saturday’s violence. President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the police to punish those responsible and offered assurances on Twitter that the authorities remained in control.
But in the hours after Saturday’s riot, a message appeared online that called for revenge and was attributed to a Caucasus blogger.
“I call on you to arm yourselves if possible and have no fear and not to hide at home,” said the blogger’s message. “We will decide at the scene about further actions.”
The call, which bloggers said was first posted on the social network VKontakte.ru but was deleted by late Saturday, was reposted more than 3,300 times on LiveJournal by late Wednesday.
Police have downplayed the message as a provocation by ultranationalists, but many young people appear to have heeded the call.
By late Wednesday, police had detained at least 800 people, including 400 near the Yevropeisky mall, police spokesman Biryukov said. Many of those detained were Caucasus natives carrying air guns and other weapons, he said. Other reports said the number of detainees reached 1,200.
About 600 young people chanting nationalist phrases and obscenities marched from Kievsky Station toward nearby Bolshaya Dorogomilovskaya Ulitsa, Interfax reported. Riot police walked beside the crowd, blocking an attempt by several dozen youth to shut off Bolshaya Dorogomilovskaya Ulitsa to traffic, RIA-Novosti reported.
By 6 p.m., the Yevropeisky mall and the exit from the Kievskaya metro station were closed.
The threat of violence hung over other cities as well. About 60 people were detained near Sennaya Ploshchad in St. Petersburg on suspicion of planning a riot, Interfax reported, citing local police. In downtown Samara, about 100 young people were detained on suspicion of planning to hold an unsanctioned gathering, local police told Interfax.
North Caucasus leaders urged young people to refrain from violence. Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov warned at a news conference late Tuesday that “pressure” would be placed on any Chechens who took part in rallies in Moscow.
“If any one of our Chechen young men allows himself to take part in mass protests in Moscow … he will be pressured through his family and friends according to our traditions and customs, which do not tolerate disobedience,” he said.
Said Amirov, mayor of the Dagestani capital, Makhachkala, called on Caucasus natives to opt for “a dialogue on the level of people of authority representing the conflict parties” instead of rallying on Moscow’s streets, RIA-Novosti reported.
TITLE: Dozens Arrested On Sennaya Amid Fears
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Reports are divided over mass arrests that took place on Sennaya Ploshchad in central St. Petersburg on Wednesday, with some media and analysts saying that the police effectively prevented an ethnic conflict between ethnic Russians and migrants from the Caucasus, and others calling the incident a provocation beneficial to the authorities.
A large number of OMON special task force officers encircled the busy market square in the city center after messages circulated in Russian social networking sites Wednesday warning that people from the Caucasus were allegedly planning to attack ethnic Slavs on the site at 6 p.m. in revenge for Saturday’s nationalist marches and attacks.
The far-right Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI) organization warned its supporters not to go to the site, describing the messages as a “provocation.” Those who gathered on the square were mostly young people, some of whom were detained by the police. Officers reportedly targeted non-Russians.
According to a statement on the police web site, “certain groups of citizens, including representatives of radical organizations, were planning to hold unsanctioned public events entailing massive potential violations of public order on Sennaya Ploshchad from 6 p.m. on Dec. 15.”
One hundred and seventy-four people were briefly detained and charged with disorderly behavior — an offence punishable by up to 15 days in prison — on Wednesday, though no fights or attacks were reported. The police described their actions as “investigative and preventative operations” on their web site Thursday.
Despite media reports about a large number of weapons seized, the police web site mentioned no combat arms Thursday, listing instead one tear gas pistol, five pellet guns, two telescopic batons, three hunting knives, 17 pellets, one penknife, one brass knuckle and a Taser.
“It’s clear that the situation is heating up, and anybody can exploit it — for instance, the police themselves,” said Andrei Dmitriyev of The Other Russia political party on Thursday.
“That information could have been planted deliberately to detain more active football fans or representatives of diasporas and carry out some preventative work with them. But that’s just an idea.”
Dmitry, a member of the anarchist organization Autonomous Action who asked to be referred to by his first name only, described the incident as a provocation.
“It was definitely a provocation, because it was distributed on the Internet without referring to any definite source. All of a sudden, everybody started forwarding messages to each other, and it created a kind of panic,” Dmitry said.
“But mostly likely, nothing like that was actually being prepared, because nobody stood to gain anything from it and there are always plenty of people on Sennaya Ploshchad.
“Even if it was not conceived by some governmental body, it was beneficial to the authorities. If on Dec. 11 they showed what could happen if people are allowed to let off steam, then now they demonstrated that they prevented the clashes and made arrests.
“It appears that they detained some migrants from the Caucasus, of whom there are plenty on Sennaya Ploshchad because they work there, and some fools who b ought the provocation.”
Yuly Rybakov, an artist and human rights activist, said the increased ethnic tension stems from years of the Kremlin flirting with nationalism.
“I think they ended up in a bad place by flirting with nationalist movements. It’s more serious than beating old people at Dissenters’ Marches. If you wink at and feed nationalism for years, the little dragon will grow,” Rybakov said.
“It will escalate. It’s clear that there won’t be big fights on the squares; the authorities won’t let it happen. But the wolves on both sides will find another tactic. They’ll start hunting each other in gangs somewhere in dark alleys. It will be difficult to deal with this.”
TITLE: Medvedev Gives Backing to Khimki Forest Road
AUTHOR: By Roland Oliphant
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Construction of the Moscow-St. Petersburg highway is too far advanced to be stopped and will run through the Khimki forest as originally planned, President Dmitry Medvedev said through his spokeswoman on Tuesday.
The announcement comes as a bitter disappointment to environmentalists, who thought they had won a rare victory when Medvedev ordered a halt to road construction in August and set up a commission to consider alternative routes.
But Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who chaired the commission, announced Tuesday that the commission recommended that the $8 billion highway should run through the Khimki forest as originally planned.
“The decision will be fulfilled,” Medvedev’s spokeswoman Natalya Timakova told reporters later in the day.
Emphasizing that the decision could “not be decided by ecological factors alone,” Ivanov told reporters that “from a legal point of view the specified route is completely justified.”
Environmentalists, who say 65 percent of Russians oppose the forest route, refused to accept the news, saying the final decision still lay with President Dmitry Medvedev — not his spokeswoman or Ivanov.
“We still say what we said before: The decision still lies with Medvedev if he is really the president of our country,” said Yaroslav Nikitenko, a spokesman for the defenders of the Khimki forest. “Now we’ll see whether he is on the side of the bureaucrats or the people.”
Nikitenko added that the environmental movement would return to the streets in protest, joining opposition protesters on Triumfalnaya Ploshchad on Dec. 31.
Medvedev won approval from anti-road campaigners when he halted construction and ordered a “public discussion” following a series of high-profile protests this summer. But political analysts said Tuesday that the green movement was doomed to disappointment.
“There was never any chance of an alternative route being chosen. Too much money had already been spent on the original route,” said Alexei Mukhin, head of the Center for Political Information. “All the authorities did was take a timeout to let public opinion cool off. It was a good tactic on their part.”
The government seemed determined to appease opponents by portraying the decision as a difficult choice between two imperfect options — one through the Khimki forest, and the other via the settlement of Vashutino.
Explaining their preference for the route through the forest, ministers said the alternative would be only marginally less expensive, take longer to build, and require the demolition of 50 houses. It would also require the felling of 90 hectares of forest — not much less than the 100 hectares to be cleared on the original route.
“The cost of the current plan is 51 billion rubles [$1.6 billion]; the alternative would cost 48.5 billion [$1.58 billion], not counting compensation for the houses and the land beneath them in Vashutino,” Transportation Minister Igor Levitin told the meeting Tuesday.
The residents who would have to move were deeply opposed to the idea, he said.
Levitin, who forest defenders have accused of corruption in connection with his support for the road, said the eight-kilometer section of road running through the Khimki forest could be finished by 2013, but the alternative would not be ready before 2017.
In an apparent effort to appease environmentalists, Ivanov said 500 hectares of trees would be planted to compensate for the 100 hectares felled to make way for the road.
He also promised that no gas stations or other roadside buildings would be allowed on the section that runs through the forest, and that sound barriers would be erected on the sides of the road to protect local wildlife.
Presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich suggested posting video cameras at “key points that are particularly vulnerable from an environmental point of view” to ensure that builders did not damage the surrounding countryside. The proposal echos a promise made by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin this summer to make sure that builders finished the reconstruction of houses destroyed in forest fires by using video cameras to monitor developments.
Environmentalists were unimpressed. “The extra trees will simply never be planted,” said Alexei Yablokov, head of the environmentalist faction in the opposition Yabloko party.
An independent environmental survey expected to condemn the decision will be released on Dec. 20, Nikitenko said.
Moscow region Governor Boris Gromov called Tuesday’s decision “extremely positive” and said road work would resume on Jan. 15, after the New Year holidays. Gromov is one of the road’s biggest backers, and was singled out by the forest defenders as a key player set to benefit financially from the route.
The federal roads agency agency, Rosavtodor, which contracted the French firm Vinci to build the Khimki section of the highway, told Interfax that it was “delighted” by the decision, but a representative declined to comment further when contacted Tuesday.
Vinci did not respond to several requests to comment.
The highway is to be built on a concessionary basis under which investors will receive the right to levy tolls on the sections of road they build. The Khimki section, which will also serve Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, is the first concession project involving a major foreign firm.
Vinci signed a 30-year concession contract to design, finance, construct and operate the 43-kilometer section in July 2009. The total construction cost was estimated at the time at 1 billion euros ($1.34 billion), and the work was meant to take 36 months.
Finishing the whole road could take “easily 10 years,” said Dmitry Baranov, a transportation analyst with the Finam investment company.
“We simply don’t know when it will be finished,” he said. “Other sections of the road have not even been tendered for yet, and there are immense construction challenges including crossing rivers and marshy ground.”
For similar reasons, he said, it was impossible to estimate the eventual costs of the massive engineering project.
Critics point to a study by Transparency International that identified potential conflicts of interest in the Transportation Ministry in connection with the road.
A series of brutal attacks on journalists have been linked to their coverage of the road. The editor of the Khimkinskaya Pravda newspaper, Mikhail Beketov, was left unable to speak after a savage 2008 beating widely believed to have been linked to his critical reports about the road and Khimki’s mayor. In November, Kommersant reporter Oleg Kashin, who wrote about the road, and forest defender Konstantin Fetisov were brutally beaten in unsolved attacks.
The road has even influenced high politics. In September, then-Mayor Yury Luzhkov backed the forest route soon after Medvedev had called for a halt to construction. Political commentators said his remarks looked like a deliberate slight to Medvedev and might have contributed to his ouster shortly afterward.
TITLE: Krasnodar Governor Sacks Official Over Village Killings
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Krasnodar Governor Alexander Tkachyov on Wednesday fired a senior regional official over the gruesome murder of 12 people, including four children, in the local Kushchyovskaya village.
The dismissal of Valentin Burlachenko, who headed the regional department for cooperation with law enforcement agencies, is a follow-up on President Dmitry Medvedev’s order to find officials responsible for allowing a criminal gang to de-facto take over the village and terrorize residents for years, RIA-Novosti reported.
The family of local farmer Serever Akhmetov was butchered in their house on Nov. 5 along with several neighbors and guests from Rostov-on-Don.
Two suspects, Sergei Ryabtsev and Vladimir Alexeyev, were detained in Ukraine last week and are expected to be extradited once Russian prosecutors file the required paperwork with Kiev. An official in the Prosecutor General’s Office said Wednesday that the paperwork had not been filed yet, Interfax reported.
Nine other suspects are already in Russian custody, including Sergei Tsapok, a village resident suspected of leading the gang.
Several local officials have been fired or demoted over the killings, including Krasnodar region police chief Sergei Kucheruk, who was fired by Medvedev in November. The head of the Kushchyovskaya district police department responsible for anti-extremism, Alexei Khodych, has been arrested for alleged ties to Tsapok’s gang.
TITLE: Verdict Postponed In Khodorkovsy Case
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Odynova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A judge weighing the state’s case against former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev postponed his long-waited verdict Wednesday by two weeks without explanation.
The decision was reminiscent of the first 2005 trial against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, when the verdict was abruptly postponed in the same manner, from late April until May 16. The court also gave no reason for the delay, but analysts speculated that then-President Vladimir Putin did not want to be asked uncomfortable questions during forthcoming Victory Day festivities, when he would host many foreign leaders.
Dozens of journalists and supporters arrived at Moscow’s Khamovnichesky District Court on Wednesday morning to find a brief note on the door stating that the reading of the verdict had been put off until 10 a.m. on Dec. 27.
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, serving eight-year sentences on fraud and tax evasion charges, face up to six more years in prison if found guilty of stealing 218 million tons of oil.
Court spokeswoman Natalya Vasilyeva told reporters outside the courthouse that Judge Viktor Danilkin had passed a note from the deliberations room saying he had decided to delay the verdict. She offered no reasons for the abrupt postponement.
Vasilyeva, reached by telephone late Tuesday afternoon, had confirmed that the reading of the verdict would start Wednesday and recommended coming early because many people were expected.
Relatives of the defendants and defense lawyers said they were not notified about the delay. Khodorkovsky’s mother, Marina, stood outside the door of the court, reading the note about the delay.
“We expected to hear the beginning of the verdict in the morning,” Khodorkovsky’s oldest son, Pavel, said by telephone from the United States, where he lives.
He said he had hoped that the judge’s remarks, if not completed in one day, would at least provide an indication of whether the verdict would be guilty or not guilty.
Lawyers said it was hard to guess the reason behind the decision. “The only legal explanation is that the judge didn’t have enough time to finish writing the verdict,” Yelena Liptser, a lawyer for Lebedev, told The Moscow Times.
Liptser said the delay reminded her of the 2005 postponement by the Meshchansky District Court. In May 2005, the court found both defendants guilty and dealt them nine-year sentences, later reduced to eight, in a case that was widely seen as Putin’s revenge for Khodorkovsky’s political and commercial ambitions.
Putin has called the case nonpolitical and described Khodorkovsky as a thief and a murderer. Khodorkovsky has never been charged with murder.
Pavel Khodorkovsky said he hoped that there were no political intrigues behind the postponement.
“I personally think that the final decision hasn’t been made yet,” he said.
Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a veteran human rights advocate, said she saw the postponement as a “bad sign” and suggested that the authorities might be trying to smooth over anger about a guilty verdict by moving the announcement closer to the New Year’s holidays.
“I remember the Soviet times when the authorities used that trick to make decisions that might spark public discontent,” Alexeyeva said by telephone.
The verdict, which is expected to be read over the course of several days, might be delivered either on New Year’s Eve or after Jan. 10, when the court resumes its work after the holidays.
TITLE: Slow Clearance of Snow Causes Fatalities
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: At least two St. Petersburgers died this week as an indirect result of the heavy recent snowfall and failures to clear the city’s sidewalks of snow.
On Wednesday morning, a two-year-old girl died after being hit by a garbage truck on Prospekt Bolshevikov, local news agencies reported.
The tragedy happened after the girl’s mother started pulling her child on a sledge along the road, because the sidewalk was blocked by snowdrifts and ice. A garbage truck driving along the road skidded on a patch of snow and hit the girl, Interfax reported.
The second victim was an 89-year-old woman who was hit by a snow-clearing vehicle. Irina Ganelina, an eminent cardiologist and mother of St. Petersburg historian Lev Lurie, was walking along a busy road because the sidewalk was blocked by piles of snow when a snow-clearing vehicle that was reversing ran over her, Fontanka reported.
Ganelina had survived the Siege of Leningrad during World War II, working as a nurse. Until recently she had worked as a consultant professor at the city’s Pokrovskaya Hospital.
In 1964, Ganelina founded the first cardio-resuscitation unit in the U.S.S.R.
Huge icicles, some three meters in length, hang from roofs, presenting a constant danger to pedestrians in St. Petersburg.
Failures in clearing sidewalks of snow and ice have forced pedestrians to weave in between traffic on busy roads to get past them, adding to the dangers faced.
TITLE: Centers Opened to Increase Pensioners’ Computer Literacy
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Two new computer centers for elderly people will open in St. Petersburg in December and January with the aim of raising computer literacy among elderly people and enabling them to communicate with their friends via the Internet.
The computer training given at the centers will be free, said Anatoly Vereschagin, director of communications, charity and sponsorship projects at the company JTI in Russia, which sponsored the opening of the centers.
“This project is oriented toward elderly people, many of whom suffer from loneliness — a problem that the Internet can help to solve,” Vereschagin said at a press conference Thursday.
Leonarda Pchelina, head of the Alternativa Internet Club — the first computer club for elderly people opened by JTI in the Moskovsky district of the city in 2007 — said it was “a great opportunity” for older people to start using modern communication means.
“Our generation always experienced a lack of knowledge in that sphere due to our age, but we always wanted to dive into the world of the Internet,” Pchelina said.
Two levels of computer knowledge are taught at the center, Pchelina said. The basic level includes email and other primary Internet functions. At the advanced level, elderly people learn how to use Skype and ICQ.
“The brains of people who use the Internet work more efficiently. The Internet makes people forget about their illnesses and loneliness,” Pchelina said.
Georgy Shalamov, one of the members of Alternativa club, said a number of the club’s advanced students have already learned how to use popular social networking sites such as VKontakte, and have already found friends online and joined various Internet groups. They have also learned how to use Twitter and Live Journal.
Alexander Rzhanenkov, head of the city’s Social Policy Committee, said there are at least 20 social services centers where elderly people can learn computer skills in the city.
“However, the opportunities at those centers are somewhat limited, and far from everyone who would like to learn computer skills can do so there,” Rzhanenkov said.
“So it’s great when we see mutual collaboration in opening such centers between the city authorities and business. We are thankful to JTI for its input into such projects,” he said.
During the first three years of the first Internet center’s existence, at least 3,000 pensioners have taken classes there. The two new centers in the Krasnoselsky district of the city will teach up to 800 people a year.
Rzhanenkov said elderly people account for 23 percent of the city population, meaning there are still plenty of people among them who would love to learn how to use a computer.
TITLE: Soyuz Workhorse Soon to Be Only Lifeline to Space
AUTHOR: By Peter Leonard
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan — As a Soyuz spacecraft slowly rolls to its launch pad on the icy cold steppes of Kazakhstan, even the most seasoned space fan cannot help but be spellbound by the sight.
With NASA finally retiring the shuttle program next year, the venerable Russian workhorse is now set to become the world’s only lifeline to the international space station. That predicament is provoking mixed feelings of concern over excess reliance on Russia’s space program and enduring admiration for the hardiness of the Soviet-designed Soyuz.
“The vehicle is a rugged ‘one trick pony,’ no frills or luxuries, and can take any licking and keep on ticking,” said James Oberg, a veteran of NASA Space Shuttle Mission Control in Houston.
The latest Soyuz mission began on Thursday, when U.S. astronaut Catherine Coleman, cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev and European Space Agency’s Paolo Nespoli of Italy blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan.
In a procedure polished over more than four decades of Soyuz launches, the carrier rocket was horizontally rolled out of its hangar on a flatbed train at 7 a.m. local time Monday and carefully carried to the blastoff site in the winter darkness.
In contrast to NASA’s distinctive winged shuttle, which is reusable, albeit exorbitantly expensive to operate, the Soyuz can only be used once. It is a relatively streamlined craft consisting of a tiny capsule sitting atop powerful booster rockets.
The name, which comes from the Russian word for “union,” was both a tribute to its Soviet design and a reference to the Soyuz’s ability to dock with other modules. That detail was an absolute must even to begin thinking about long-term space missions or possible travel beyond the Earth’s orbit.
Whereas the shuttle’s viability has been hamstrung by countless delays, the last time a Soyuz launch was postponed was as far back as 1971.
Yet for all its trustworthiness, the first Soyuz launch in April 1967 ended in tragedy when Colonel Vladimir Komarov, the sole cosmonaut onboard, died on re-entry.
Soviet authorities had grown alarmed at U.S. strides in the space race and had pushed for hasty deployment of the Soyuz before the United States could get its Apollo rocket off the ground.
That Soyuz disaster led to an immediate postponement of manned flights and injected a new spirit of caution into the Soviet space program. A minute attention to detail, most evident in Russian space officials’ obsession with running operations on a timetable counted in seconds, has earned the Soyuz a well-deserved reputation for safety.
“My biggest dream in life has always been to fly in orbit someday, but I can tell you that I would feel a hell of a lot more at ease in a Soyuz than in a shuttle,” space historian Bert Vis said.
Despite such oft-heard endorsements, a clutch of incidents in recent years has aroused concern. Most notably, problems with the Soyuz capsule’s service module during a landing in April 2008 caused a perilously steep re-entry trajectory, which placed crushing gravitational pressure on its three-person crew.
Ahead of watching the Soyuz being winched into place at the launchpad Monday, NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who traveled onboard that capsule, said the luxuries afforded by the shuttle would indeed be missed.
“The Soyuz is kind of a gentler launch, but I’d much rather land in a shuttle, because it’s much more civilized,” Whitson said.
Critics also complain that by leaving themselves so heavily reliant on the Soyuz, the United States could fall victim to costly price gouging at the hands of Russian space authorities.
“Moscow already uses it for leverage and has raised the price to NASA repeatedly over the years, to $50 million now,” said Brian Harvey, an expert on the history of the Russian space program. “But a shuttle launch costs $550 million a go, so it’s still good value.”
And while the Russian space program is set to enjoy almost a complete monopoly on ferrying people to space for the next few years, things might change. The successful test launch last week of a privately developed rocket from Cape Canaveral is a clear example of how the market could breed viable space competitors.
“If new, commercially developed space transportation systems in the West leapfrog the tried-and-true Russian booster stable in the next decade, Russia will be left with no significant capability of interest to foreign customers,” Oberg said.
The politics and economics of space travel is usually far from astronauts’ minds, however, and while in Baikonur, most relish the pleasure of witnessing the ingenuity that goes into assembling the rockets.
“It was Michelangelo that said the sculpture was always inside the rock, I just have to take away the unnecessary pieces. The Soyuz is one of those sculptures,” said Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who plans to fly to the international space station onboard a Soyuz spacecraft in 2012.
TITLE: Singer Kirkorov Called
To Court in Attack Case
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Pop star Filipp Kirkorov has been summoned to appear in court after he failed to reach an out-of-court settlement with a television producer he first apologized to but later denied assaulting.
The Moscow City Court on Wednesday sent out notices to both Kirkorov and the producer, Marina Yablokova, that a hearing would be held Thursday, said court spokeswoman Anna Usachyova, Interfax reported.
Kirkorov, 43, was reported last week to have reached a settlement with Yablokova, 29, who said he kicked her and dragged her by the hair during the filming of a still-unaired “Golden Gramophone” television show on Dec. 4. But the deal fell through, with each side blaming the other.
Kirkorov has apologized to Yablokova, blaming the incident on “fits” caused by an undiagnosed mental disorder, but he later denied that he had physically assaulted Yablokova. His lawyer Alexander Dubrovinsky said a video of the incident confirmed that no beating took place.
But Yablokova’s lawyer Sergei Zhorin said Kirkorov’s denial amounted to the singer retracting his apology and that the video would support Yablokova’s accusations.
“There is only one video in existence, and it’s the one that shows Kirkorov beating Yablokova. I don’t know what else they might have. Let the court decide,” Zhorin said by telephone Wednesday.
Kirkorov’s lawyer said Yablokova refused to accept a payment of 10 million rubles ($325,000), Interfax reported. He also said Kirkorov might file a defamation lawsuit and had not received formal notice from the court.
Earlier reports said Kirkorov faced charges of minor assault and insult, punishable with a fine and up to several months in jail.
TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: 700,000 Questions
MOSCOW (SPT) — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held his annual live conference call Thursday, with some 700,000 questions submitted by the public by e-mail, phone and text messages as of Wednesday, Interfax reported.
Complaints about housing problems were the most popular, accounting for 21 percent of the whole, RIA-Novosti said. Security matters made up 17.5 percent of the questions submitted, and social welfare 12 percent. The conference call was due to be broadcast by Rossia-1 and Rossia-24 television, and Mayak, Vesti FM and Radio Rossii radio.
No 60-Hour Week
MOSCOW (SPT) — The government will not support an extension of the maximum length of the workweek from 40 to 60 hours, President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday, Interfax reported.
The move is simply “impossible” in a modern state such as Russia, Medvedev said at a meeting with representatives of labor unions.
The proposal was voiced in November in a draft of amendments for the Labor Code penned by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
The bill said the extension of the workweek would be voluntary for employees, but labor unions warned that it might lead to workers being forced into accepting longer hours.
4 Cases Against Cops
MOSCOW (SPT) — Four cases were opened against police officers in the Vladimir region town of Gus-Khrustalny, which is thought to have been controlled by mafia gangs for years, RIA-Novosti reported, citing the local branch of the Investigative Committee.
The investigators did not elaborate or identify the suspects, but earlier reports said local police were collecting bribes from mafia members in exchange for covering up crimes, including murders. The story hit the spotlight after local businessmen, politicians and public figures published an appeal last month, saying criminals had taken over Gus-Khrustalny and even occupied seats in the town’s administration and legislature.
Luzhkov’s Metro Link
MOSCOW (SPT) — An investigation into the Moscow metro’s chief that resulted in prosecutors recommending his dismissal was opened at the request of former Mayor Yury Luzhkov, Kommersant reported Wednesday.
The Prosecutor General’s Office on Tuesday accused Dmitry Gayev, in office since 1995, of embezzling 112 million rubles ($3.6 million) and mismanaging the metro. Gayev has denied wrongdoing, Interfax reported.
Luzhkov sought the investigation after Gayev switched political allegiances, siding with the Kremlin when it began an attack on Luzhkov this summer, a source close to Luzhkov told Kommersant.
‘Spy’ on Bail
MOSCOW (SPT) — Yekaterina Zatuliveter, a Russian aide to a British lawmaker detained on suspicion of spying for Russia, was released on bail, Interfax reported Tuesday.
Zatuliveter, 25, has been barred from contacting her employer, Mike Hancock, for whom she has worked since 2007, or visiting the Parliament until a ruling is passed in her case, which is scheduled for review in February, a Russian Foreign Ministry source told Interfax.
Job for Putin’s Cousin
MOSCOW (SPT) — Igor Putin, a cousin to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, has quit his job at Masterbank, which he took in September, to become CEO of oil and gas pipe company Surguttruboprovodstroi, he told Kommersant.
Igor Putin, 57, told the daily that he had traded a vice president’s seat at Masterbank for his new job because he is familiar with the oil equipment industry, having spent five years at the Volgaburmash company, which produces oil drills.
TITLE: Krupskaya Opens Peterhof Facility
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: St. Petersburg’s Krupskaya Confectionary Factory, a leading producer of chocolate in the northwest region owned by Norwegian company Orkla Brands, opened its new Pekar production line at its Peterhof branch in the Leningrad Oblast on Tuesday.
Philip Way, general director of the plant, said the firm was glad it had been given the opportunity to move Pekar from the city center to a new spacious facility.
“We have now completed another major stage in our development. We have optimized and created a high technology plant for production of our baked confectionary production,” Way said.
Rune Aasheim, Consul General of Norway in St. Petersburg, said it was “the first major Norwegian investment in the Leningrad Oblast in the past two years.”
Way said Pekar would focus on the production of well-known waffle cake brands such as Baltiisky and Peterburzhsky, but at the same time they will also make newer products such as Masha i Medved waffle cake and a new biscuit cake called Ornament.
“We know that the old brands are the most popular here. There are, in fact, some brands that we just cannot touch. And some people worried in vain, thinking that the new Norwegian owners of the plant would change the old and beloved recipes. We don’t want to do that at all,” Way said.
The new Ornament cake developed by the company will be launched on the market early next year. The company is planning the organization of a widespread advertising campaign for the new product, Way said.
“As concerns Pekar, this will be the first time it’s had an advertising campaign for many years,” Way said. “Orkla really knows how to develop brands,” he said.
Way said the company might have to raise the prices for its products by 8 to 10 percent within the next year if the prices for sugar in Russia go up by a similar percentage.
Way said that the other facilities of the Krupskaya factory will also need to be moved out of the city eventually.
“It’s already difficult for our truck drivers to get to the center of the city, but we’re not yet in any great hurry about this,” he said.
Way said the company also plans to develop the logistics and sales facilities for its products across Russia. The products are already popular in many Russian cities, he said.
The company doesn’t have any big plans for the export of Pekar’s products abroad, Way said.
“We already export some of our products to Germany, New York and Israel, but that’s mainly for homesick Russians who live over there. Otherwise, the domestic market is our best option. Our best sales and best customers are in Russia,” he said.
The premises for the Peterhof facility were built in 2008. Currently, it houses production lines for pastries, chocolate paste, and instant porridge and mashed potatoes under the Vkusnyatina, Den Za Dnyom and Akademia Shokolada brands. At present, the Peterhof facility produces 75 to 80 tons of goods a month.
When Pekar’s remaining production lines are moved to the Peterhof facility, the volume of production will increase to a maximum of 170 tons a month, with opportunities for further onsite increases in production.
The volume of investment in the new Pekar project amounts to 192 million rubles ($6.25 million). The total area covered by the new production facilities amounts to 12,000 square meters.
TITLE: Modernization Too Slow for Medvedev
AUTHOR: By Irina Filatova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday that a number of problems are hampering efforts to modernize the economy, including organization and financing.
“We’ve been trying this year to develop our technologies, to lay the foundation of the new economy. It’s probably not us who judge whether we’ve succeeded. We can’t be satisfied for sure with many things that have been going on,” Medvedev said at a meeting of his modernization commission in Skolkovo.
“I suppose there are problems in organizing the work, in financing, but in general … we all tried our best,” Medvedev said.
Representatives of innovation companies taking part in the meeting called for improving intellectual property rights legislation, saying they don’t feel that their projects are properly protected.
Industry players said seed financing for startups needs to be made simpler and more widely available. They complained of obstacles to state financing, which is mired in red tape.
Medvedev said, however, that businesses involved in innovation shouldn’t rely only on government financing and that it is the task of entrepreneurs to finance innovation.
He said government funds should be used only at the beginning to create infrastructure and systems, but the end result should be private companies independent of the state.
If innovation is done only using state funds, “it will be a vicious circle,” Medvedev said.
“We’ll never create normal innovation business,” he said, adding that the government would, however, continue financing the most important research projects.
The president also said the state should react against failures in the risk-laden venture business, which currently faces a merciless environment.
“Any negative result — the failure to reach some goal — is taken not only as an individual defeat … but often as a breach of state discipline resulting in different kinds of consequences, including legal ones,” Medvedev said, adding that the state should demonstrate a more flexible approach to venture startups.
He also called for creating comfortable working conditions in the country in order to prevent brain drain.
The president said he was following bloggers’ reactions to the issues discussed at the commission’s meeting.
He didn’t rule out that branches of the Skolkovo innovation center might be created in a number of regions, after launching the main hub outside Moscow.
“It’s all possible. We just need to launch the main site first,” he said.
Medvedev gave a symbolic start to the Skolkovo Foundation’s efforts on Tuesday by using surveyor’s tools to mark the coordinates where construction will begin.
TITLE: Management Tweak Brings Spy to Rosneft
AUTHOR: By Howard Amos
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The latest restructuring at state-owned oil giant Rosneft took a high-profile twist Monday as a sleeper agent exchanged with the United States in July’s infamous spy swap was appointed to a top position in the company.
Andrei Berzukov, known in the United States by his alias Donald Howard Heathfield, will advise Eduard Khudainatov, Rosneft’s president, and may assume the responsibilities of the company’s vice president for international projects, an unidentified source within the company told Kommersant.
Berzukov’s appointment is the most recent change to be made to Rosneft’s top management since Eduard Khudainatov took over in September from long-serving former president Sergei Bogdanchikov.
“If we want to raise the company’s effectiveness, we have to attract highly qualified specialists and implement staffing changes,” the company said Monday. “It’s impossible to say exactly when this process will be completed.”
TITLE: The Rise and Fall of Putinism
AUTHOR: By Lyudmila Alexeyeva
TEXT: How did Putinism — that distinctively Russian blend of authoritarian politics and dirigiste economics — happen? And, now that it has, how can Russians move beyond it to realize the rights and liberties promised to them in the country’s Constitution?
An active civil society, which seemed to appear out of nowhere in Mikhail Gorbachev’s Soviet Union of 1989-90 after the long Soviet hibernation, receded far too quickly. The astounding difficulty of daily survival following the Soviet collapse trapped most Russians into focusing on their families’ most urgent needs. Civic apathy set in.
So Putin came to power at a very convenient moment for any ruler — when the people are quiescent. Cunningly, Putin then strapped this apathy to the first shoots of post-Soviet economic growth to conclude a new social contract. He would raise living standards in exchange for ordinary Russians’ acceptance of severe limits on their constitutional rights and liberties.
Until recently, both sides adhered to this tacit contract. But with the global financial crisis, the Kremlin stopped meeting its side of the bargain. Thus, a new social contract is needed, especially as a new, post-Soviet generation of Russians has entered political life — a generation that has not been poisoned by the fear that decades of state terror in the Soviet Union implanted in their forebears.
Putin and his entourage tightened the screws on Russians over the past decade and faced almost no resistance to their claims to unchecked power. Now, from the entire spectrum of civil and political rights enumerated in the Constitution, we have only one right remaining: the right to leave and return to the country freely. All other rights have been lost or substantially weakened.
But Russian citizens, especially younger ones, are beginning to realize what they have lost. By the same token, the post-Soviet generation has a very different idea of a decent standard of living than their parents had, and hence their aspirations are much higher.
Many have traveled abroad, and all have seen foreign films, from which they have learned that people of their social status in the West have a far more comfortable life than they do. The majority of Soviets did not have a car or a country house or even a separate apartment. Now the young feel deprived if they can’t have all of that.
At first, people did not think of civil rights as they strove for such previously unknown comforts. They relied on the Kremlin to set the conditions that would give them new opportunities. Now, they are gradually coming to understand that the government has failed them.
A struggle for the restitution of constitutional rights in Russia first became noticeable in 2009. At Triumfalnaya Ploshchad in Moscow, protestors have consistently demanded that Article 31, which guarantees the right to peaceful assembly, be respected. Strategy 31, an umbrella grouping of like-minded protestors, has spread rapidly, staging simultaneous demonstrations in Moscow and 48 other cities two months ago in support of the right to free assembly. There have been simultaneous protests in the past, but usually against increases in rent or utility charges.
One can understand why the demand to comply with Article 31 has gained popular support. For ordinary citizens, who have neither access to the media nor personal contacts with the authorities, protests are the only opportunity to inform officials of their demands, requests and suggestions.
There are also other signs of awakening civic engagement, which are particularly evident in Internet discussions, which the Kremlin cannot control in the same way that it does other Russian media. Citizens have started to use the Internet for self-organization, for example, to generate simultaneous “flash mobs,” as well as protests by automobile owners, in different cities.
Most recently, the Internet has become a means of public control over civil rights violations by the authorities, as images taken with mobile phones become available instantaneously to all. The authorities have to reckon with the fallout, punishing officials who have come into the spotlight this way.
The federal government and regional authorities are clearly alarmed by this rapidly growing civic activism. But despite changed conditions, they respond with the same old methods — suppression, intimidation and misinformation. With elections to the State Duma in December 2011, followed by the presidential election in March 2012, officials are particularly concerned by an upsurge of civic activism.
It is not hard to see why. Over the past decade, the electoral system was manipulated in such a way that no outcome can lead to a change in the federal government. That leaves street demonstrations and other forms of civic activism as the only way to challenge the standard-bearers of Putinism. Indeed, given state control of the mainstream media, such activism may be the only way to learn what citizens really think about their rulers.
Lyudmila Alexeyeva is director of the Moscow Helsinki Group. © Project Syndicate
TITLE: The Relative Cost of Human Life
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
TEXT: Is there a big difference between gangsters killing an entire family — including several children — in one of the Russian regions, and an individual from the Caucasus killing a member of a football fan club? From a legal point of view, there is not much difference, because in both cases people died, and those found guilty should be punished. The big difference between these two cases is the motive. In the first case, it was allegedly established, and has not resulted in any kind of widespread protest among the population, although subsequent reports suggest that regional organized crime is currently quite widespread in Russia.
Judging by the nationalist riots and arrests in Moscow and St. Petersburg, it appears that some percentage of Russia’s population thinks: “A whole family somewhere was killed? Who cares? We’d rather kill people who look like the person who killed one of our friends.”
Here we have a very big problem. And the problem is that this development now resembles the pogroms against Jews in Europe in the 1930s. Just like what is happening now in Russia against different nationalities, with people standing by the Kremlin walls raising their hands in the Hitler salute.
We have to look into the roots of the problem and solve it as soon as possible in order to prevent it from becoming widespread across the country. I see the root of the problem in the 2000 presidential election campaign of Vladimir Putin, who raised the issue of “Great Russia” and continued to do so within his presidency. At that time I had an opinion: In a situation in which quite a large percentage of the Russian population has financial and social problems and the state prefers to invest money not into building well equipped hospitals, but rather to invest in new stadiums, the population will go mad and start looking for an enemy. And the enemy, historically, is your neighbor — and this is exactly what is happening now.
Remember that most of the young men participating in the recent riots in Moscow were 10 to 12 years old when the Great Russia campaign began. While writing this piece, I came across the news that a 19-year-old male got drunk with his teenager friends and killed a person from Kyrgyzstan in Moscow. Why? Because they probably only heard about the “Great State” on TV but haven’t actually seen any proof of it on the streets, nor have they heard anything about multicultural society in their ordinary life.
So they start looking for an enemy. For this reason it is very easy right now for those who want to take the opportunity to play with their feelings and minds. And it seems it is fairly easy now to send a couple of thousand of young people to take violent action against others who don’t look like them.
This problem should be remedied as soon as possible, and it should be done by Putin himself, especially in light of his view on the so-called “Great State” issue. You can’t simply arrest a couple of hundred people by the Kiev Railway Station in Moscow, say that they are not right and bury the problem. It should be explained to Russian people that the country can only declare itself to be one of the most successful if most of its people are socially secure, when you don’t need to discuss the fact that your country is in one of the last places on the list of corrupt states, when people are guaranteed an income if they work, are not under threat from the mafia and have good health services. The absence of these simple things led Germany and Austria to the situation of the 1930s that is repeating itself in Russia right now.
Some might say I should mention the current President Dmitry Medvedev, but I think the mistakes made by his predecessor should be fixed by the predecessor himself, judging by reports that Putin has more influence on the political arena. But right now there is no time to argue who is more important in the ruling tandem. The main issue is to deal with the problem, or it will be too late and we will see more children killed, this time maybe not in a village by criminals, but in the Russian capital or in some other major city, just as happened in St. Petersburg in 2004 when a nine-year-old girl was killed in the city center by neo-nationalists.
Vladimir Kovalev is a journalist and former columnist at The St. Petersburg Times.
TITLE: Getting into character
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Somewhere at home Yekaterina Kondaurova still has her first pointe shoes, soaked in blood. Back in Moscow, where she was born, she joined a dance class as a child. The ballerina remembers the class when the girls stood en pointe for the first time.
“Our teacher simply commanded: “Stand up!” and we put our pointe shoes on our bare feet and started the class,” she remembers. “At the end of the lesson the slippers were covered in blood. I don’t consider them to be relics, but I could never throw those pointes away. They are a very touching reminder of childhood — like my first essays and my first math exercise books, which are covered in scribbles.”
Today, Mariinsky ballet soloist Kondaurova thrives on eccentricity, her most successful heroines being tormented heroines of the likes of Anna Karenina, the vindictive Princess Gamsatti in “La Bayadere” and Alma Schindler in “Glass Heart,” the story of a love triangle between Alma, her husband — the composer Gustav Mahler — and her teacher, composer Alexander Zemlinsky.
In November, the lead role in Alexei Ratmansky’s ballet “Anna Karenina” won the 26-year-old dancer a Golden Sofit, St Petersburg’s most prestigious theater prize, as well as a nomination for a Golden Mask, Russia’s most important theater award.
The dancer feels somewhat torn apart by this heroine: She is both loved, as well as misunderstood.
“Anna appears to be an egocentric person, too trapped in the cycle of her suffering,” Kondaurova said. “Of course, you can and should feel sympathy for her difficult situation, but nevertheless she demanded too much attention from those around her. In taking certain decisions, Anna only ever listened to the emotions that overwhelmed her, considering only herself. ‘How ill I am,’ ‘How unhappy I am’ — she is unable to distance herself from these thoughts that gnaw at her soul. But all of this may be explained by the subtlety of her nature, her extreme sensitivity and emotionality and her very delicate mental makeup. She finds it extremely difficult to overcome her own nature. And, of course, her addiction to morphine played its part...”
Tolstoy’s novel “Anna Karenina” forms part of the national school curriculum, yet Kondaurova scarcely remembers what she felt when she first opened the pages of the book about ten years ago.
It was while working on the ballet that the dancer rediscovered the novel. “The truth is that I can’t even recall what sensations I experienced when I read the book at school,” she recalled. “It was compulsory reading, but somehow it passed me by. When pupils read this work at school, they have insufficient life experience and emotional knowledge to make sense of the tragic story that Tolstoy tells us. Alexei Ratmansky has created an immense and painstaking work that is sensitive toward Tolstoy’s ideas. All of the ballet’s mise en sc?nes have something in common with the protagonists’ monologues and what they say to one another. When you follow the movements that Alexei has crafted, you are almost literally reading Anna Karenina.”
The ballet genuinely gripped the dancer, who was given the opportunity to convey the mass of contradictions that tear Anna to pieces. “Anna is on the threshold of death, utterly powerless and devoid of energy when she realizes, at last, that she has found the true love that she has sought so long,” Kondaurova said.
“Alone with Vronsky, she is unbelievably feminine and vulnerable, but then her inner conflict and the desire to retrieve her position in society begin to destroy her. There are many different shades in my portrait of the heroine. It is very hard to take the performance right to the end without losing the tension and yet at the same time not losing your mind — these incredibly powerful emotions must be conveyed in every mise en sc?ne.
“In this respect, Anna has something in common with my favorite character — Alma, the female protagonist in Kirill Simonov’s ballet ‘Glass Heart’,” the dancer added.
In Kondaurova’s opinion, the two women are united by their eccentricity and their ability to retain their inner selves. The difference, in turn, lies in the fact that in Anna there is an inner struggle. She tries to overcome her dependence on society and fails miserably.
“Alma is very close to me in terms of spirit and she remains my favorite character, despite the fact that this ballet unfortunately hasn’t been in the repertoire for some time,” the ballerina said. “Sometimes I think that in my Anna, you can see Alma.”
With such an emotional connection to the characters that she dances, isn’t the ballerina afraid of burnout?
“I have seen many examples of professional burnout,” she replies thoughtfully, admitting she has given the issue serious consideration. “Giving themselves without stopping is something that people can’t endure, and they suffer breakdowns. But this happens in instances when the person is unable to switch off from thinking about work and immerse themselves in their roles day and night. I believe that I have a more balanced attitude to my profession — I know how to relax and I am not fixated by the stage alone.”
The role that Kondaurova, who has danced a wealth of classical roles, in addition to modern classics, dreams of with bated breath is, somewhat unexpectedly, that of Death in Roland Petit’s ballet “Le jeune homme et la mort.” This has been Kondaurova’s unfulfilled dream for years now. The ballerina has seen the ballet many times, and says it is a production that moves her deeply. “It’s not just the movements that Death makes, it’s the heroine’s unique image. Petit’s Death is a very subtle, remote and inspired woman,” she explains.
Kondaurova admits that she has been starved of contemporary dance and would really like to dance some roles in ballets by modern choreographers — a feeling shared by many of her colleagues in the Mariinsky troupe. In the meantime, Giselle remains one of the few classical roles that Kondaurova has not yet performed. The dancer, known for her voracious professional appetite, admits that she nurtures dreams of one day dancing even two iconic versions of Giselle — those of both Marius Petipa and Mats Ek.
”I would absolutely love the chance to dance both ballets, and one soon after the other so that there would be a chance to demonstrate the contrast. Mats Ek’s Giselle is more corporeal and palpable,” she said. “This is an image of a modern woman who experiences an incredibly devastating nervous breakdown. For her, the man’s treachery coincides with a personal crisis. In Petipa’s ballet, on the other hand, Giselle appears as a girl in love, who has deceived herself in her hope, though not as a person. Mats Ek’s Giselle is very real, while in the traditional production, the heroine is a fairytale image, an ephemeral flower, an archetype, and, moreover, Petipa created his ballet at a time when relationships between men and women were far less open, when they were faced by a mass of conventionality.”
Yekaterina Kondaurova next performs at the Mariinsky Theater on Jan. 5 in “Le Corsaire” (in the role of Medora), and then on Jan. 16 in Spartacus (as Phrygia).
TITLE: Word’s worth
AUTHOR: By Michele A. Berdy
TEXT: Ìóæèê: peasant, husband, worker, rustic, man, guy
Ìóæèê is considered an almost untranslatable Russian word. In fact, in older translations of 19th-century literature, it’s often transliterated as moujik or muzhik. Without a footnote, I wonder what 19th-century English-speaking readers made of it. Perhaps they were used to reading about fellah in Egypt and paesan in Italy, so for them the Russian muzhik was just another (objectified) crude peasant laborer.
When you render ìóæèê into English, you lose some associations and “local color,” but I don’t think it’s impossible to translate. At the same time, you do have to pay attention to context, time period, speaker and tone of voice.
If we go way back in time, ìóæèê referred to an adult man who was a peasant or villager. Äàëåêî âïåðåäè íà òåëåãå âîçâðàùàåòñÿ èç Çíàìåíñêîãî ìóæèê (Far ahead a villager is returning from Znamenskoye on his cart). Êóõîííûé (kitchen) or sometimes áóôåòíûé (dining room) ìóæèê referred to a male servant who did the dirty work in the kitchen.
Later, presumably when urbanization was under way, ìóæèê could refer to a worker or someone of the lower classes. Ìóæèêè óáèðàëè ñíåã, ñëåäèëè çà ÷èñòîòîé äâîðà (Workmen shoveled the snow and made sure the courtyard was clean).
Since ìóæèê has always referred to someone from the lower classes, for some it’s a synonym for someone crude, dirty, uncultured and uneducated. But for other speakers, ìóæèê is the apotheosis of masculinity, strength, resourcefulness and ingenuity. In contrast to effete and useless upper-class twits, he’s the salt of the Russian earth. Here, you can more or less convey the meaning, but you lose a bit of color: Àëåêñåé Êîñûãèí, óâèäåâ Íèæíåâàðòîâñê, ãîðîä íà ìåñòå íåïðîëàçíûõ òîïåé, îáðîíèë âñëóõ: “Òàêîé ãîðîä ìîã ïîñòðîèòü òîëüêî ðóññêèé ìóæèê” (When Alexei Kosygin saw Nizhnevartovsk, a city built on impassable bogs, he remarked: “Only a true Russian man could have built this city”).
Today, Russians understand and use the word ìóæèê in a variety of ways. Some people say they don’t see any difference between ìóæ÷èíà and ìóæèê. Others see a big difference. One person says: Ìóæ÷èíà — áëàãîðîäåí, óì¸í. Ìóæèê — ýòî ÷òî-òî çàìûçãàííîå, ïàõíóùåå. (A man is noble, smart. A muzhik is something filthy and smelly.) Others use ìóæèê positively: Ìóæèê âåä¸ò ñåáÿ ïî-ìóæñêè (A muzhik behaves like a man). Õîðîøèé ìóæèê is what we might call a good guy. Íàñòîÿùèé ìóæèê is what we call a real man — you know, the opposite of a metrosexual.
I think this is the meaning that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had in mind when he called actor Leonardo DiCaprio íàñòîÿùèé ìóæèê after DiCaprio’s long and nerve-racking trip to Russia for the Tiger Forum. And it probably didn’t hurt that DiCaprio turned out to be half-Russian.
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter, whose collection of columns, “The Russian Word’s Worth,” was published by Glas.
TITLE: Making interaction the key to art
AUTHOR: By Kevin O’Flynn
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The 18th-century Mikhailovsky Castle started off a very 21st-century festival when its facade became the backdrop for a spectacular light show that started the country’s first large-scale festival devoted to the audio-visual art.
The building seemed to fold itself up, as if it wanted to put itself in a suitcase for a holiday, during the light show.
The show launched the start earlier this month of the Yota Space International Festival of Audiovisual Arts, which organizers hope to make an annual event. It runs till Sunday in the Frunzensky Univermag.
The idea is to show Russia what audio-visual art is and inspire Russian artists, organizers said.
Many of the works on show are fit to be waved at or played with, as they have an interactivity that still remains rare in Russian galleries and shows. At times the show resembles a visit to a science museum in London or New York as people queue up to play a virtual piano or see how different objects react to their presence.
One display by MSA Visuals, set up by artist Memo, shows the typical mix of art, technology and design with a screen where you move and see yourself covered in gold.
One of the most fun works on show is of a whiteboard covered in different colored stick-it notes. Anyone can grab one, move it and see how the sound changes.
Before the start of the festival, British producer Brian Eno, responsible for the sound of the likes of David Bowie and Coldplay, spoke at a lecture at the St. Petersburg Conservatory on “What is culture, and why do we need it?”
Eno, who once lived in the city, has his installation “77 Million Paintings” on show. The piece, dubbed “visual music” by Eno, uses software to create new images from his own artwork.
“One of the most interesting things about generative art is that the artist doesn’t know exactly what the result is going to be,” Eno has said in interviews. “There will be unique moments for every viewer, and every viewer’s experience will be something different.”
Artist Jason Bruges has created a series of artworks in public places, such as a fake platform in the Sunderland metro where travelers waiting to get on the train see the shadows of virtual travelers on the other side.
His work at Yota Space, “Peasouper,” is named after the smog that used to fill London in the 1950s. Visitors see themselves appear out of the fog. “It’s a work that looks at our digital narcissism,” Bruges said as he flicked away on his iPad to show his other works.
The festival’s opening day ended with an eight-hour concert in the univermag where British electro kings Hot Chip headlined after flying in especially from Colombia.
It was a good concert, Hot Chip multi-instrumentalist Al Doyle said, as it was the band’s last one of the year. He said it slightly marred them being told to get off stage before they could finish their encore.
Yota Space runs through Sunday at the Frunzensky Univermag, 60 Moskovsky Prospekt. http://space.yota.ru.
TITLE: Winter warmers
AUTHOR: By Tobin Auber
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Something of a two-in-one with this week’s restaurant review — we’ve visited the Trattoria Stefano both for a proper meal and to sample the business lunch over the last few weeks, and so a well-considered verdict is in: This new eatery on Malaya Morskaya is unlikely to blow you away, but it’s a welcome addition to the local dining scene, with some excellent dishes at very reasonable prices.
One of its few drawbacks is that it’s located right next door to the controversial building site that is going to be the new Admiralteiskaya metro station, just off Nevsky Prospekt — you’ll find the restaurant tucked round the corner from a forest of scaffolding and blue construction boarding.
Inside, you’ll find a single, low-ceilinged room with about a dozen tables. The decor is warm, toned beige and ochre, with an understated mishmash of tiling, light-colored wooden panels and arches, without screaming “trattoria home-cooking” at you in Italian-accented, broken English — the restaurant is refreshingly free of themed ethnic knickknacks (although they could have possibly switched from the omnipresent Italian pop soundtrack to be found at all restaurants of this kind in Russia). The head chef here, the menu tells us, is half-Italian, half-Swedish, and the decor does manage to blend these two distinct styles.
The zuppa di funghi (mushroom soup, 240 rubles, $8) gets a definite two thumbs up — a vast bowl of rich, thick, filling soup, this is a meal in itself, and the perfect dish for the winter season. On a par with that was the bruschetta — “fried toast with caprese and Parma ham” — which was another starter, priced at 240 rubles ($8) that could have passed as a meal in its own right. A visiting colleague who tried the dish enthused thus: “…the most extravagant bruschetta I have ever had. It was a bruschetta with ambition, eager to climb up from the lower class of starters to firmly place itself amongst the burgeoning middle class of mains.”
Be warned: If you’ve ordered either of the above two dishes and are intending to follow with pasta al pollo (320 rubles, $10.50), you’d best have a serious appetite. The pasta and chicken dish is a truly vast portion in a rich white sauce. Incredibly filling and packed with a rich taste, the dish defeated its recipient and had to be packed in tinfoil and taken home for a rematch. This main course, which could have easily fed three, like all the dishes at Stefano, was well presented in wonderful outsize, snow-white crockery — another nice, understated touch that you wouldn’t normally expect in an eatery with these prices located in the center.
The pizzas, priced from 240 to 390 rubles ($8 to $12.50), were reasonable, without truly excelling, and although there are no vegetarian options in the menu’s pizza section, the waitress was more than happy to do some negotiating in the kitchen to come up with a compromise.
Deserving of special mention is the business lunch — a choice of two salads (go for the cheese and salami, which comes with a healthy dollop of smooth mustard), a soup (the minestrone could be a little thicker), one of a large selection of pizzas or a choice of four reasonable main courses that, as mentioned at the outset, won’t set the world on fire, but in view of the prices (the business lunch is just 285 rubles ($9), make for a decent meal in an excellent location.
TITLE: China, India Appeal for Deeper Ties, Not Tensions
AUTHOR: By Ravi Nessman
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW DELHI — The leaders of India and China called Thursday for a stronger partnership, committed to a huge increase in trade and hailed the creation of an emergency hotline as they stressed a spirit of cooperation — not competition — between Asia’s two rising powers.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s three-day trip to India was aimed at building trust and strengthening economic links. It also appeared to be part of a Chinese effort to blunt U.S. influence in India.
“I hope that my visit will help increase our cooperation in a wide range of fields and raise our friendship and cooperation to an even higher level,” Wen told reporters after a ceremonial welcome at the presidential palace.
Little movement appeared to have been made on the key issues of concern to India — opening Chinese markets, resolving a border dispute and pressuring Pakistan to root out anti-Indian militants. But the two sides said they were satisfied simply to deepen their relationship.
“A strong partnership between India and China will contribute to long-term peace, stability, prosperity and development in Asia and the world,” Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.
At their meeting Thursday, their 11th over the past five years, Wen and Singh agreed to work to increase trade between the two countries from $60 billion a year to $100 billion by 2015, according to a joint communique.
China is India’s largest trading partner, but the flow of goods is weighted heavily toward Chinese imports here. The two sides agreed to work to reduce that trade gap, though India failed to persuade China to lift restrictions on the import of Indian software, agricultural products and pharmaceuticals.
They also discussed India’s tense relations with Pakistan, a close Chinese ally that Wen will visit after leaving New Delhi on Friday, according to Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao.
In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu expressed hopes for improved relations between India and Pakistan, while making no commitment to pressure Pakistan.
“Both India and Pakistan are China’s neighbors. We sincerely hope the two countries can coexist in friendship and contribute to regional peace and development,” Yu said.
Singh and Wen also agreed to push forward with efforts to peacefully resolve their nations’ lingering border disputes — which erupted into a brief war in 1962.
China lays claim to much of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, while India wants China to pull out of the territory it controls in Jammu and Kashmir.
“It will not be easy to completely resolve this question. It requires patience and will take a fairly long period of time. Only with sincerity, mutual trust and perseverance, can we eventually find a fair, reasonable and a mutually acceptable solution,” Wen said in a speech later Thursday.
Wen expressed hopes that increased ties would lead to greater trust between the two countries and said they should “lose no time in expanding and deepening our converging interests,” according to Xinhua, the Chinese news agency.
Wen and Singh announced the inauguration of a telephone hotline between the two premiers, while the leaders agreed to meet more frequently and to have their foreign ministers meet once a year.
A series of agreements were also signed on banking ties, sharing green technology and media exchanges.
While making public expressions of friendship — Singh accepted Wen’s invitation to visit China next year — tensions remain between the two neighbors.
India was annoyed by China’s recent refusal to stamp visas in passports of residents of Indian-held Kashmir, a move seen as questioning New Delhi’s sovereignty over the restive region also claimed by Pakistan.
The issue came up at the meeting Thursday. Wen said he took India’s concerns seriously and offered to hold joint consultations on the issue, Rao said.
China, seeking influence around Asia, has irked India by expanding ties with Indian neighbors, including Sri Lanka, Nepal and archrival Pakistan.
TITLE: Violence Flares At March In Ivory Coast
AUTHOR: By Marco Chown Oved
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Security forces firing tear gas and stun grenades clashed with stone-throwing protesters Thursday, with at least three people shot dead as a tense political showdown between supporters of the two men claiming the nation’s presidency turned violent.
An Associated Press reporter in Abidjan’s downtrodden Abobo neighborhood saw the bodies of three men lying in the street. One had been shot in the head, two others in the chest. Several more were wounded during midmorning clashes elsewhere, according to AP journalists on the scene.
Sporadic bursts of gunfire were audible across the city. The violence brought skyscraper-lined Abidjan to a standstill. Businesses were closed and fearful residents stayed home. City streets were deserted except for soldiers and police.
Longtime opposition leader Alassane Ouattara — whose election victory has been acknowledged by the UN, U.S., France and the African Union — has called on his backers to help him take control of state institutions. They have vowed to march to the national television station Thursday to install a new state television chief.
The two stations broadcast from the building are the only Ivorian broadcasters in the country. They provide a powerful voice for the person controlling them: In the days after the UN said incumbent Laurent Gbagbo lost, people watching Gbagbo-controlled state TV saw only the announcement of his victory.
The TV building is being heavily protected by Gbagbo’s troops, and violent confrontation is likely if the two sides meet. On Thursday, police and soldiers guarded the building, sealing off streets around it and blocking them with makeshift roadblocks made of wooden tables and benches. Two armored personnel carriers filled with helmeted troops were parked nearby.
Across Abidjan, soldiers and police stood guard at nearly every major intersection. Violence broke out in several parts of the city as security forces tried to prevent crowds from gathering.
In the Treichville neighborhood, riot police and soldiers loyal to Gbagbo fired tear gas to disperse one group of around 500 people. Streets filled with hazy clouds of smoke as gas canisters burned. Similar violence broke out in the city’s Koumassi district, as well as Abobo, where police fired several stun grenades to break up a demonstration by 500 to 1,000 Ouattara militants.
TITLE: Court: Irish Abortion Ban Violates Women’s Rights
AUTHOR: By Shawn Pogatchnik
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: DUBLIN — Ireland’s constitutional ban on abortion violates the right of pregnant women to receive proper medical care in life-threatening cases, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday in a judgment that harshly criticized Ireland’s long inaction on the issue.
The judgment from the Strasbourg, France-based court will put Ireland under pressure to draft a law extending limited abortion rights to women whose pregnancies represent a potentially fatal threat to their own health.
Ireland has resisted taking that step despite a 1992 judgment from the Irish Supreme Court declaring that abortions should be considered legal in Ireland in all cases where the woman’s life would be endangered by continued pregnancy — including through threats to commit suicide. The delay has left the abortion rights of thousands of women in legal limbo, obliging many to travel overseas for the procedure.
The Strasbourg judges said Ireland was wrong to keep the legal situation unclear for women who received a doctor’s advice that their pregnancy could complicate their own medical problems.
They ruled in favor of one of three litigants who sued Ireland for allegedly failing to protect their rights to health and well-being under terms of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The successful litigant is a Lithuanian woman living in Ireland who, at the time of her pregnancy, was successfully battling cancer through chemotherapy and feared that her pregnancy would trigger a relapse of the disease. She testified that her doctors agreed, but none was willing to authorize an abortion.
She had to travel to England for an abortion. The European judges ruled she should have received an abortion in Ireland as a matter of medical urgency.
They ruled against two other litigants: one a woman who didn’t want to become a single mother, another who had four other children placed in state care. In both cases, the judges said they had failed to demonstrate that their pregnancies represented a risk to their health.
The Irish Family Planning Association, which brought the case on behalf of the three women, welcomed the verdict as likely to force Ireland to legislate along the lines of the 1992 Supreme Court judgment.
In the 1992 case, a pregnant 14-year-old girl who had been raped by a neighbor successfully sued the government to permit her to travel to England for an abortion. The government tried to stop her, arguing it could not facilitate an illegal act, even though she was threatening to commit suicide.
The Irish Supreme Court ruled that traveling to obtain abortions abroad was legal, and Ireland itself should provide abortions in cases where a continued pregnancy would threaten the life of the woman. Ireland in 1992 passed a law permitting women to travel abroad for abortions but has refused to pass a law spelling out the rules of granting abortions on medical grounds.
When the three women’s lawsuit was heard last year in Strasbourg, experts testifying on behalf of the women said Irish doctors continue to fear having anything to do with women who seek an abortion even on lifesaving medical grounds.
Lawyers for the government countered that several hundred abortions were taking place annually — without public acknowledgment — in Ireland in line with the Supreme Court order, so no new law was required.
TITLE: Judge Grants Bail To WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange
AUTHOR: By Cassandra Vinograd
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LONDON — Julian Assange will be freed on bail and sent to stay at a British country mansion, a U.K. judge ruled Thursday, rejecting prosecutors’ attempts to keep the WikiLeaks founder in prison as he fights extradition to Sweden.
Cheers erupted outside the London court as the verdict by High Court justice Duncan Ouseley was reported.
Prosecutors had argued there was a risk the 39-year-old Australian, who faces sex-crimes allegations in Sweden, would abscond if he was freed. But Ouseley said if Assange fled “he would diminish himself in the eyes of many of his supporters.”
“I don’t accept that Mr. Assange has an incentive not to attend (court),” Ouseley said. “He clearly does have some desire to clear his name.”
Assange smiled and gave a thumb’s up sign to a packed courtroom as he was led from the dock by court guards. It was not immediately clear how long it would take before he was released.