SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1661 (23), Friday, June 17, 2011
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TITLE: City Plays Host to Half Of Music Competition
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: “Awaiting miracles rather than flexing muscles” is how Valery Gergiev would like the spirit of the 14th International Tchaikovsky Competition to be perceived.
For the first time in its history, the competition, which saw its local opening Thursday, is being held in two cities at once — pianists and cellists are competing in Moscow, while St. Petersburg is hosting the contests for violinists and vocalists. This innovation comes from Gergiev, the artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater, who is presiding over the competition’s organizing committee and is chairman of the event’s jury.
St. Petersburg has prepared several host venues for the event, including the St. Petersburg Conservatory, the State Academic Cappella, the Mariinsky Theater Concert Hall and the Shostakovich Philharmonic Grand Hall.
The names of the jurors for the prestigious event, which is held once every four years, is impressive, with Gergiev having managed to attract classical musicians of living legend status to the contest.
The vocalists’ performances will be judged by Renata Scotto, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Olga Borodina, Yelena Obraztsova and Vladimir Atlantov, while the jury for the violinists’ competition includes Anne-Sophie Mutter, Nikolaj Znaider, Yury Bashmet and Maxim Vengerov.
Many of the jury members themselves received a kick-start to their careers at a Tchaikovsky competition. The jury’s honorary president is the world-renowned pianist Van Cliburn, the sensational winner of the first Tchaikovsky competition in 1958.
In addition to prestigious prizes, winners of the competition will also embark on a global tour, with concerts on some of the most venerable stages in Europe, Asia and the U.S.
The Tchaikovsky competition was first held in 1958 and featured two sections — piano and violin. Four years later, the cello section was added, followed by vocalists during the third competition in 1966.
“The Tchaikovsky competition has always been a key event,” Gergiev said.
In recent decades, the competition began to lose its reputation as a result of speculation about the alleged bias of jury members and thriving favoritism.
This time round, the objectivity of the jury has been guaranteed by a special judging system, titled “Harmony Score” by its creator Richard Rodzinsky, a prominent U.S. arts manager and the competition’s general director. The system features a four-stage judging technique that minimizes the risk of a jury conspiring for or against a candidate.
“I genuinely hope that the contest’s participants will be able to demonstrate the full scale of their potential,” Gergiev said. “A 20-something aspiring musician can transform into a mature performer within an hour. This can happen at such a competition. I remember that almost magical feeling from my own youth.”
The competition will run through the end of June.
TITLE: New Tower Attracts Criticism
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The political opposition, preservationists and ecologists have voiced objection to the second incarnation of the planned Gazprom Tower even after the controversial skyscraper project was moved from the Okhta district near the city’s historic center to a remote site in Lakhta on the northwestern outskirts of St. Petersburg.
The planned skyscraper could be disastrous for migratory birds while still affecting the city’s historic skyline, opponents say. Because of the birds’ migration route, the local law forbids the construction of buildings higher than 27 meters in the area in which the site bought by Gazprom in March is located.
Last month, the Okhta Public Business Center, Gazprom’s subsidiary that is in charge of the project, announced the planned skyscraper would be even higher than the 403-meter one designed for Okhta, reaching 500 meters. The plans are to have the British architectural bureau RMJM’s original project of a spiraling glass tower reworked and extended.
On Wednesday, Okhta Public Business Center announced a public hearing on the issue of obtaining exemption from the height restrictions in the area, due on June 24.
Earlier this month, the Yabloko Democratic Party wrote a letter to St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko and Gazprom’s head Alexei Miller asking them not to violate the law and to discuss the project with the public and preservationists.
Speaking on Thursday, Yabloko’s local chair Maxim Reznik said the main objection is the planned 500-meter height.
“The height will violate the historic views, it’s obvious that it will be visible [from the city center]; there are absolutely no grounds to ask for such a height,” Reznik said.
Pyotr Zabirokhin, a coordinator with the preservationist pressure group Living City, said that the skyscraper would impinge on the city’s historic views, such as the view of the Peter and Paul Fortress when seen from Palace Embankment.
“There are no grounds given for why such a height is necessary, except for economic practicality from the point of view of Gazprom,” Zabirokhin said Thursday.
“It can be said for certain that Gazprom has once again decided to act illegally, asking for an exemption, even if it’s obvious that there can’t be an exemption from 27 meters to 500 on principle.”
Zabirokhin also stressed that independent research is needed to understand the influence of the skyscraper on the city’s historic skyline.
The Okhta Center commissioned two research institutes to assess the building’s visibility from the center. Both came to the conclusion that the planned skyscraper will not affect the city’s protected skyline, the company’s press officer Tatyana Yuryeva said in an email.
“Research has shown that the shape of a tall building can be seen from some panoramas, but due to the distance of more than 9 kilometers, the silhouette of the building will not stand out among the steeples of the city’s recognized landmarks that make up the city panorama,” Yuryeva wrote on Thursday.
Unlike the Okhta site, Lakhta is on a bird migration route, and environmentalists say the planned skyscraper could prove disastrous for birds.
Sergei Rezvy, a senior lecturer with the Biology and Soil Science Faculty of St. Petersburg State University and an ornithology expert with the Baltic Fund for Nature of the St. Petersburg Naturalists Society, said that the issue is complex and requires thorough examination.
Migrating birds fly at a height of several dozens of meters to seven or eight kilometers, but most fly at a range of between 100 and 400 meters, Rezvy said.
“On the one hand, there are thousands of such structures built around the world, but, on the other hand, in this corner of the Gulf of Finland, the migration stream is quite intensive, which makes this place different from others,” he said.
Rezvy said research needs to be conducted to estimate possible harm.
“There are certain weather situations, such as low cloud, when hundreds and thousands of birds could fly into the tower in just one day.”
Rezvy said that the danger is aggravated by the fact that the building is planned to be glass-plated.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Bank Robbed
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — About 1.3 million rubles ($46,000) was stolen from Otkrytie bank in the Admiralteisky district Wednesday.
Four men in masks entered the bank and demanded that staff hand over the cash while threatening them with a knife and what appeared to be a gun, Interfax reported.
The criminals took 1 million rubles and $10,000 before disappearing. There were no security staff present in the bank at the time, and surveillance cameras were only operational after the robbery took place, Interfax reported.
Professor Found Dead
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Authorities have begun an investigation after the presumed suicide of a former lecturer at St. Petersburg Interior Ministry University, Interfax reported. The body of the senior professor was found Thursday in an apartment on Saratovskaya Ulitsa. The cause of death was a gunshot wound.
The professor quit his job at the university one week ago, Interfax reported. According to preliminary evidence, the man shot himself with a Saiga shotgun.
Superjet at Pulkovo
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The new Sukhoi Superjet 100 arrived in St. Petersburg from Moscow on Thursday. It was the first of Aeroflot’s regular flights on the new Russian-made jet.
Among the passengers were Vitaly Saveliev, CEO of Aeroflot, and Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov. So far, Aeroflot has one Superjet, but by the end of the year there will be 10 new SSJ-100 jets flying five regional flight paths. In total, Aeroflot has ordered 40 new passenger SSJ-100 jets, Interfax reported.
“These planes will help us implement our strategy of building a global airline network,” said Saveliev.
New Medical Plant
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Novartis company launched the construction of a new pharmaceutical plant in the city’s Primorsky district Thursday.
The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by City Governor Valentina Matviyenko, Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina and Novartis CEO Joseph Jimenez. Construction is due to be completed by 2014 and the factory will produce about 1.5 billion units per year, gradually increasing to 3 billion.
The company plans to invest $500 million in the plant, which will employ 350 highly qualified local specialists, Fontanka.ru reported.
Infant Tragedy
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — An 18-month-old boy died at a center for children with special needs in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.
The boy’s body was found in Children’s Home No. 1 on Ulitsa Ziny Portnovoi, Interfax reported.
The center’s incident logbook reportedly showed that on June 14, the child had twice sustained injuries to the head — first by banging his forehead on a table, and secondly after falling from a height.
The next day, the child was put to bed during the day and was found dead several hours later, Fontanka.ru reported.
TITLE: Mini-City Unveiled Near Gorkovskaya
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A model of St. Petersburg was unveiled in the city’s Alexandrovsky Park near Gorkovskaya metro station Wednesday.
The miniature St. Petersburg features scale models of St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the Winter Palace, the Peter and Paul Fortress, Church on the Spilled Blood and other city landmarks.
The idea for the mini-city came from Alexei Miller, head of the state gas and oil giant Gazprom and a native of St. Petersburg. Miller had the idea when he visited Amsterdam and saw the sculpture “Night Watch” based on Rembrandt’s painting, made by Russian sculptor Alexander Taratynov, Fontanka reported.
Miller said he discussed the idea with Taratynov but decided to make a sculpture based on the city’s historic sights rather than on artwork.
Mini-St. Petersburg is funded by Gazprom.
St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko said at the opening ceremony that a monument to Miller should be erected in the same park. Miller did not comment on the suggestion, but appeared slightly embarrassed, Fontanka reported.
The city administration actively supported Miller’s idea.
“Previously, the area boasted tennis courts and later a theme park,” said Andrei Podobed, head of the city’s Committee for the Provision of Public Amenities at a press conference dedicated to the project.
“The park had suffered damage; its lawns and trees were in bad condition,” he added. The restoration work in the park coincided with Gazprom’s initiative for constructing a mini-city,” Fontanka reported.
Some of the city’s architects have criticized the project, claiming the sculptures are not in a “high art” style. Some local architects have labeled it “fast art” — the artistic equivalent of “fast food,” Fontanka reported. Architects also expressed disappointment with the chosen location.
Taratynov said other locations were suggested, but that he selected the Alexandrovsky Park due to its location in the center of the city.
TITLE: Finns Relax Rules For Ingrians
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Finland expects up to 1,500 Ingrians to move to Finland from St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast in the next five years after it retracts some of the stricter requirements of its policy of repatriating Russia’s Ingrian Finns on July 1 this year.
Ingrian Finns will be able to move to Finland after a five-year transition period by July 1 2016, the Finnish immigration service said last week.
Upon completing the transition term, Ingrians will be able to request permission to stay in Finland.
The conditions for entry remain the same: Candidates must be of Finnish origin, pass exams in either Finnish or Swedish and own a residence in Finland.
Repatriates are not required to have a job or income, which distinguishes them from regular immigrants to Finland.
The Finnish government wants to speed up the process of repatriation. As such, people can join purpose-designed language courses for repatriates and eventually sit the language exams. If they pass and can prove they own a residence in Finland, they can register for permission to live in Finland, the Consulate General of Finland said.
Ingrian Finns previously living on Soviet territory had the opportunity to move to Finland during the last 20 years under certain conditions. Under the previous system, about 30,000 Ingrian Finns emigrated to Finland with their families.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Nanotechnology Fund
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Russia, Korea and Singapore are to set up a joint nanotechnology fund worth a total of $100 million.
Russia’s Rusnano, the Korean Technology Development Institute (KIAT), investment company 360ip and Samho Green Investment Venture Capital (SGIVC) will instigate the merger. The agreement on the creation of the new fund was signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Thursday, Interfax reported.
The combined capital of the fund will be up to $100 million. At least $50 million will be financed by Rusnano Capital Fund.
KIAT will invest about $18 million, while the Singapore Agency of Economic Development will provide $20 million.
The Russian branch will be located in St. Petersburg. The fund is aimed at spearheading the development of nanotechnology both in Russia and Asia.
Drunk Driving
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The investigation into the fatal car accident involving Marina Malafeyeva, the wife of FC Zenit’s goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeyev, has been closed.
A criminal case into the incident was dropped because it was found that Malafeyeva, who was killed in the accident, had not caused severe harm or death to another party.
The investigation revealed that Malafeyeva violated three traffic rules: She was driving under the influence of alcohol, exceeding the speed limit and failed to keep a safe distance from other vehicles.
Malafeyeva died when her Bently flew off the road and crashed into a billboard on the city’s Primorsky Prospekt on March 17. She was killed instantly. Her passenger, musician Dmitry Rybakov, was hospitalized with serious injuries.
TITLE: VOX POP
TEXT: Yulia Yakusheva,
25, babysitter.
“There is some inconvenience when roads are closed or places are off bounds. But the district does become much cleaner.”
Yevdokia Sotova,
85, pensioner.
“I don’t often go outside, so I don’t feel the impact of the forum. But there are too many cars parked in the yards.”
Dmitry Lebedev,
29, painter and decorator.
“There are more police, and all the local alcoholics and homeless people are moved out of the area.”
Tatyana Nashchyo-kina,
62, doctor.
“I don’t notice any inconvenience. Every year they clean the streets and plant flowers.”
Alya Ryazankina,
37, store assistant.
“On the one hand, the forum is a very good thing. At the shop where I work, people buy expensive bags, and anything with images of St. Petersburg on it is being sold. On the other hand, you always have to have documents to get to this district. I tell my son to take his passport with him everywhere as the police may stop him and check his documents. And there are problems with transport. Most streets are closed. Last year I was trying to get here from Palace Square by trolleybus. It took me about two hours.”
Igor, 62, a pensioner who declined to have his photograph taken.
“We can’t walk where we want to; to get to the store, we had to make a major detour because of the closed streets. During the early years of the forum being held here, when everything was just being built, Nalichnaya Ulitsa was fully repaired before the visit by the authorities. But nowadays they just quickly patch it up.”
Yelena Popova,
41, store assistant.
“We always need to have documents with us. To go to the post office, for example, on Nalichnaya Ulitsa, you have to pass through a checkpoint and show your passport. The police are on the lookout. It’s a good sign; there is order.”
Andrei, 29,
sales manager.
“The district is in good shape. An excellent park has been laid out near our building, the streets are well looked-after, everything is clean and attractive. I think the effects of the forum are mostly positive.”
Vladimir Vasilyev,
56, security guard.
“The roads are completely closed and it’s necessary to carry your passport. The good point lies in the deals signed during the forum.”
TITLE: Behind the Scenes at the City’s Biggest Annual Event
AUTHOR: By Olga Kalashnikova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Hundreds of people are involved in the practical organization of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum to ensure its smooth running. More than 5,000 guests attend the forum, which is expected to provide participants with high quality services — not least security.
While work at such a large-scale event does not differ in essence from other security work, demand is high at the forum due to the concentration of high-profile guests. To ensure the necessary level of professionalism, all security staff are required to complete a training course based on the specific rules of working at the Economic Forum. Top of the list, say representatives of security firms working at the forum, is appearance. Security staff must look smart and professional from head to toe.
To avoid the outbreak of any unfortunate diplomatic incidents at the Economic Forum, it’s vital that security personnel are polite and calm, even when under pressure. Potential staff undergo psychological testing to ensure they have the qualities desirable to work with VIPs from all over the world.
Employers who work at the forum should be able to deal with stress, and should react to everything in a cultured, polite way, said the representative of one security firm working at the forum.
No less capable of inadvertently causing a diplomatic spat are those responsible for making sure that all the participants of the forum understand each other properly.
Translation is a key factor in the forum’s organization. The translation process requires both interpreters, who perform simultaneous interpretation during the speeches, and translators who produce written translations. The translators work around the clock to provide quality translations in time, but first, a transcript of every speech made at the forum is expected to appear on the forum’s web site within three days of it being presented. The first stage of the translation process is therefore to listen to a recording of the speech and transcribe it.
“Here we face the first danger: The speaker, for example, a French person, might speak in English with a strong accent, causing difficulties for the transcriber. So the second stage is the work of the editor, who also listens to the speech, double-checks, and corrects things,” said William Hackett-Jones, one of the shareholders of Eclectic Translations, which is providing transcription and translation services for the Economic Forum for the third year running.
According to Eclectic Translations, a one-hour speech requires six hours to transcribe, four to five hours of editing and two hours of proof reading. Work on all of the translations takes an entire month after the Economic Forum.
“For three days, we transcribe all the audio files,” said Hackett-Jones. “Then it takes two to three weeks to do the translation. Almost all the speeches and reports are in Russian or English, so we translate them from English to Russian and vice-versa,” he said.
“In the event that a speech is made in another language, we may use the interpretation that was given simultaneously at the forum, but we try to avoid this wherever possible. The precision of written translation is about 98 percent, while the accuracy of interpretation is 70 percent, as many things are forgiven in spoken language. Using an interpretation only exacerbates errors in the resulting written translation.
“We try to hire only language specialists with whom we have already worked, as not everyone can manage this responsible job,” said Hackett-Jones. “We are ready to forgive some shortcomings, but in this job, quality is of the utmost importance.”
The organizers of the forum also spend time, money and effort on decorating the territory of Lenexpo, where the forum is held, and the neighboring district in order to make a good impression on the guests, who this year include Finnish President Tarja Halonen, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Chinese President Hu Jintao.
All the roads around the forum such as Nalichnaya Ulitsa, Bolshoi Prospekt, the nearby embankments of the Neva and Ulitsa Korablestroitelei and Hotel Pribaltiiskaya are all spruced up and planted with flowers and greenery to create the impression of a well-kept city.
“Everything should be attractive, contemporary, diverse and colorful,” said Alexandra Pelt, head of the Vasileostrovets park and garden enterprise. “Every year, we devise a plan for the floral decoration of these areas and think up new compositions.”
This year, the focus is on geraniums, with red and white colors dominating.
“The timing of the forum coincides with the beginning of the summer, so everything that we do for the forum, we do for local residents too, and all the flowers and decorations stay here and bring happiness to people for the next few months,” said Pelt.
“Guests who come to the Economic Forum see our district, and we hope they will appreciate our efforts,” she said.
The decoration inside Lenexpo is no less carefully thought out. Every year the decorators dream up something new to entertain participants. This year the compositions are inspired by the theme of “ceremonial St. Petersburg.”
“The decoration is reminiscent of the style of the parks and palaces of St. Petersburg’s imperial estates,” said Yelena Shikova, head of the architecture department of Neskuchny Sad company that has been responsible for the decoration of the forum for more than five years. “The weather in the city is changeable; it might be rainy, windy or cloudy, and we were afraid that guests might perceive St. Petersburg as an unfriendly city, so we have put the emphasis on the flowers.”
Some of the floral decorations are based on those in the city’s historic gardens, but the organizers have added modern elements in order to jazz up the designs a little.
“The idea of modern concepts executed in a traditional way also corresponds to the false-facades erected around Lenexpo,” said Shikova. “The old pavilions in Lenexpo are covered up by false-facades depicting various city sights, and every year they are different.”
This year the flowers inside the Lenexpo complex are predominantly white, in an attempt to offset the grey weather and potential for heavy rain.
“We have added some bright purple, yellow and pink for variety, but the preference is for white as this color can brighten up even our bad weather,” said Shikova.
“After all, we wanted the guests of the forum to see St. Petersburg at its brightest, as the most beautiful city in the world.”
TITLE: A Working Summer Starts at City’s Forum
AUTHOR: By Olga Kalashnikova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Working at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) is just the beginning of a range of temporary vacancies for those seeking summer jobs, but recruitment professionals advise job hunters to insist on a contract before getting down to work.
The forum’s organizers recruit temporary staff both to prepare for the event, and during the three days of the forum itself to help deal with the large number of participants attending the forum and ensure that the event runs smoothly.
“We receive about 1,000 applications to work at the forum,” said Yana Gordeyeva, head of the temporary staff project at the SPIEF. “This year, we have about 700 people working at the forum. These are people who have completed a training course that began in the spring, and then passed an exam in the taught material.”
“As a rule, they are students of major universities and institutes of St. Petersburg who have a good knowledge of foreign languages, are well-educated, active, responsible and who care about St. Petersburg,” she said.
“Work at the forum is paid,” she added.
“In general, administrative staff are required,” said Maria Margulis, general director of the 1000 Kadrov agency. “These are delegate managers, people who meet and register guests, staff on the forum’s information desks and guides for the cultural program.”
“As well as specialists to coordinate management functions, drivers and translators are also needed,” said Svetlana Yakovleva, head of Ancor recruitment agency for northwest Russia.
Typically, those involved in working at the forum are young, and often students. One of the main qualifications in demand is knowledge of at least one foreign language, particularly English.
“Students applying for a temporary job at the economic forum should also possess excellent communication skills, good speech, and be polite and client-orientated,” said Margulis.
Additional staff are required not only at the forum itself, but also at companies whose work is related to the forum. For example, Eclectic Translations, which is responsible for the translation of speeches made by forum participants during the event, hires more staff during this period.
“We work on the translations during the month following the forum. For this period of time, we increase our staff of four by up to 40 freelancers,” said William Hackett-Jones, one of the shareholders of Eclectic Translations.
“There are strict requirements for the employees hired for the forum translations. They should be native speakers and specialists in a certain field,” he said.
It is not only the forum that offers additional jobs. The summer is the holiday season, and temporary staff are in demand to cover staff on vacation.
“When the company can’t afford to stop or slow down, it has to recruit additional temporary personnel,” said Yakovleva. “The summertime is a hot season in many retail and manufacturing companies, as the volume of production work increases. The same is true of hotels and tourist agencies,” she said.
Margulis cited increased sales of seasonal products such as drinks and ice-cream as another factor in the need for temporary staff. “Seasonal sales in the stores also often require additional staff,” she added.
Most summer vacancies are for manufacturing and industrial staff, retail personnel, service staff such as waiters and maids, and administrative staff such as receptionists and secretaries. The most active group of summer jobseekers is students, but they are not alone.
“We also encounter jobseekers who due to various reasons do not a permanent job — for example, mothers with small children who cannot have a full-time job,” said Margulis.
HR agencies warn people to exercise caution when selecting a summer job, and to always make sure they have a contract specifying the salary.
“There should always be a contract,” said Margulis. “The employee should know the conditions, and how and when they will be paid for the work.”
Without a contract, the employee risks being left unpaid.
“Without a contract, and with payment in the form of cash in an envelope, temporary employees are in a weak position, as there is nothing to guarantee their rights and interests,” said Margulis.
TITLE: Students working at the 15th St. Petersburg Economic Forum on their role in the event and what it means to the city.
TEXT: Tzelmeg Tzedevin, 22
It’s the third time I’ve worked at the forum, and this year I’m working as a supply manager.
It’s a great way to gain experience in organizing a huge event, interacting with interesting people, developing multitasking and stress resistance skills, and building team spirit. Ultimately, you are taught to work, in the best sense. And the payment is good too.
Events like the forum are certainly important. They help to conduct a dialogue between countries, find solutions, or at least ways to resolve urgent problems, and establish connections between Russian and foreign businesses and the state. There is even a present for St. Petersburg citizens: Sting will sing on the opening day and everybody will be able to come and see it — isn’t that wonderful?
Olga Kuzmina, 22
It’s the second time I’ve worked at the forum, and I’ll be meeting guests, giving them directions and registering them.
The fact that the forum is a global, far-reaching and one-of-a-kind event in St. Petersburg is an advantage. And the experience is huge: Communication skills, exchanging views and an opportunity to be part of a team.
Events like the Economic Forum are very important. If nothing else, the city is transformed and spruced up for the forum, and many events are organized and timed to coincide with it, and this is also important.
Alexei Perevozchikov, 21
This is my second time working at the forum; I’ll be giving out briefcases to participants.
Working at the forum is good language practice.
Are such events important? The government certainly thinks so… Maybe it would be better to spend the money — 200 million rubles ($7 million), if I’m not mistaken, plus the money spent on decorating the city — on increasing pensions... Other bad things can be said about it, for example, the forum contributes to the deterioration of the global environmental situation, as it directly or indirectly encourages endless economic growth. But who cares about that? Rich guys get together, eat gourmet food and discuss business. The city is stuck in traffic and listens to Sting, but hey, it boosts the city’s prestige. And the waiting lists for kindergartens drag on for several years. It’s just funny.
Ksenia Galkina, 22
This is the second year I’ve worked at the forum. This year, I’ll be working in the Congress sector.
In general, the forum teaches people to work in stressful conditions, to react quickly and to solve unusual problems. The event is very serious, and every person working there has a serious responsibility. The greatest thing is that the forum provides the opportunity to have a hand in an event of world importance, even in a very small way — and that’s nice. Also, working in a young team is fun.
I think such events are essential for the city. St. Petersburg is not just a city, it’s Russia’s cultural capital, and it ought to host such high-status events.
TITLE: Emirates Airline to Open Dubai-Petersburg Service
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: St. Petersburg expects to receive more tourists from Asia, Middle East and Africa when Emirates Airline begins daily flights from St. Petersburg to Dubai on November 1.
The all-year-round flights by one of the world’s largest air companies will allow for easy business and tourist trips to the United Arab Emirates, a spokesperson for the Russian Union of Travel Industry said.
In addition, the convenient layover in Dubai airport will give St. Petersburg residents a chance to travel to the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa and Pacific islands, said Sergei Korneyev, vice president of the Russian Tourism Industry Union.
St. Petersburg has developed a “major dependence on European tourists,” he said. The presence of a large airline like Emirates on the St. Petersburg market will allow tourists from China, Vietnam, India, Japan and other Asian countries easy access to the city as well, Korneyev said, Interfax reported.
Work on persuading Emirates Airline to fly to St. Petersburg has been in progress for several years. The airline’s arrival in the city was the result of a program for the development of the city’s airport route network, Yevgeny Ilyin, commercial director for aviation activities at Northern Capital Air Gate, said.
“That’s why we’re very happy to be welcoming the Emirates Airline at Pulkovo airport. Our passengers will have a chance to access the high service level offered by the company,” Ilyin said.
His Majesty Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, leader of the Emirates and Emirates Group, said the company saw major potential in the Russian market and that the success of its flights to Moscow proved the high demand for the company’s service in Russia, Emirates Air Company said.
“St. Petersburg is a good destination because many tourists visit the city to see its magnificent architecture, museums, theaters and breathtaking history,” said Saeed Al Maktoum.
The United Arab Emirates is one of the most popular destinations for Russian tourists and investors, and thousands of Russians live in the country permanently, the company said.
Emirates Airline will operate flights to and from St. Petersburg using the wide-body Airbus-340-300 and Airbus 330-200 aircraft. Both offer three service classes, including first class, business class and economy.
As one of a few airlines operating flights to St. Petersburg on wide-body aircraft, Emirates SkyCargo will be able to offer new opportunities for Russian air cargo transport. It will decrease the need to use overland transport, the company said.
The flights will allow a wide range of goods from Japan, India, Singapore, China, South Africa, Kenya and Australia to be brought to the city. The range of goods will include medicine, car parts, clothes, electronics, flowers and other perishable products, it said.
From St. Petersburg the airline plans to transport spare parts for electric power stations, aircraft and ships, as well as machinery equipment to Japan, Iran, India, China, Vietnam and Angola.
St. Petersburg’s Emirates flight will leave Dubai at 10:35 a.m., landing in the city at 4:15 p.m. The return flight will depart from St. Petersburg at 5:45 p.m., landing in Dubai’s international airport at 12:35 a.m.
Emirates began its flights to Russia in 2003 with flights to Moscow. Currently it operates two flights from Moscow a day.
TITLE: Okhta Seeks More Incentives
AUTHOR: By Alla Tokareva, Yelena Mazneva and Anatoly Tyomkin
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: Gazprom Neft is seeking incentives from the St. Petersburg government to cover the costs of relocating its personnel from Moscow.
The possible savings could be equal to expenditure on the construction of the planned Okhta Center itself.
Gazprom Neft will receive tax benefits from the St. Petersburg administration and will be able to claim compensation for all the expenses involved in relocating the company’s head office from Moscow, the company’s general director, Alexander Dyukov, said at the annual shareholders’ meeting last week. He didn’t give any details and declined to estimate the volume of the moving costs. The costs will be dependent on the number of employees willing to move to St. Petersburg, explained Dyukov.
One Gazprom Neft manager told Vedomosti that the St. Petersburg authorities are preparing a draft law according to which firms investing more than 15 billion rubles ($536 million) in the city’s economy will be able to receive tax benefits for five years. Gazprom Neft officials expect the bill to be approved by the end of the year, he added. The governor’s press office declined to comment. A spokesperson for Deputy Governor Mikhail Oseyevsky neither confirmed nor denied this information. The city’s Legislative Assembly has not yet received any proposals on this matter, said the head of the legislation committee Vitaly Milonov.
The decision to move Gazprom Neft’s corporate center to St. Petersburg was made by the shareholders in 2006, when the company was reregistered in St. Petersburg.
The move to the Quattro Corti business center on Pochtamptskaya Ulitsa is to be completed by 2012. Of 1,500 employees in the head office in Moscow, only 1,000 are expected to move to St. Petersburg.
Of that number, about 500 will return to Moscow during the course of the first year, estimates Boris Rokhin, the head of Ward Howell office in St. Petersburg. A partner at Top-Contact, Artur Kamilov, estimates Gazprom’s expenses on additional compensation for those employees moving to be about $40 million to $50 million.
TITLE: Taming Russia’s Professionals
AUTHOR: By Harley Balzer
TEXT: Large segments of the Russian elite, including advisers to both President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, now say that only a more open, democratic political system can move Russia from its current resource model to a more dynamic, less corrupt economy based on innovation. Unfortunately, history offers few examples of elites willingly surrendering their wealth and power simply because it would benefit broader society.
One possible alternative path for broader participation in policy would be for professional groups to enjoy greater autonomy and greater responsibility in establishing standards and ethical codes. While there are few examples of positive development in recent years, the barriers are enormous.
Most Russian professions remain dominated by specialists trained in the Soviet era who have a direct personal interest in the knowledge base and practices that evolved under communism. The emigration of many talented young people reduces pressure for change. Nationalism and insistence on “Russian practices” underlie successful resistance to becoming more like their peers in the international community.
The combination of Soviet professional norms, group interests and personal financial incentives not only removes an important constituency for political change, but produces badly flawed policies on:
1. Demography. The Russian government is aware of the magnitude of the demographic problem, but its policy response favors advice from amateurs. The most egregious variants assert that an “ethnos” threatened with demographic demise responds by increasing births, while accusing professional demographers of kowtowing to the West. Politicians desperate for good sound bites have endorsed the positive results proclaimed by designers of the “maternity capital” solution, conflating births resulting from a short-term increase in the number of women aged 20 to 29 with a change in the total fertility rate. After 2011, the birth rate will decline for decades without significant policy interventions.
Russia’s professional demographers are well-acquainted with policies that have been relatively successful in France and Sweden. But these programs are complex, expensive and long-term. Throwing money at the problem appears to offer an immediate solution, even if the result is just a temporary increase in the birth rate. One-time cash payments packaged as “maternity capital” are much easier to provide than adequate housing, day-care programs, preschools and extended maternity leave, much less altering the behavior of physicians, midwives and maternity hospital administrators to make the experience of childbirth less unpleasant.
2. Medicine. Soviet medical professionals were convinced that their methods were the best. Sometimes they were correct, but more often than not they weren’t. The legacy is a system with primary care physicians so poorly paid that half the medical school graduates never practice medicine. Medical community leaders reject treatments like substitution therapy for drug addicts or medication rather than institutionalization for tuberculosis patients. The tuberculosis story illustrates the combination of personal, institutional and professional interests. Institutionalization is what they were taught. More than 100 sanatoriums still operate, and they employ tens of thousands of staff.
3. Science. The stunning change in the relative power of Russia and China has no clearer indicator than data on science and technology. In 1990, Russian and Chinese scientists published about the same number of articles in international peer-reviewed journals. In 2010, Russian output remained at the 1990 level, while Chinese scientists published four times that number, overtaking Germany and Japan. The Chinese achieved this by emphasizing internationalization and creating incentives to publish in international journals. Chinese scientists returning from overseas are creating a “virtuous circle,” insisting on international standards of peer review and professional conduct. Many talented Russian scientists have emigrated, while many who remain in the country prefer old patterns of research and publishing that do not require competition. Institute directors disburse money, while journal editors publish articles without peer review.
Near the end of the Brezhnev era, former U.S. economics professor Gertrude Schroeder described the Soviet Union as being on a “treadmill of reform.” Incessant efforts to reform the “economic mechanism” failed because everyone had a stake in the existing, suboptimal system. The major players had learned how to make that system work for them, even if it did not produce economic results benefitting the entire country. Many understood that global competition meant the system was increasingly less capable of maintaining the Soviet Union’s position in the world. Although change was inevitable, self-interest and inertia were more powerful forces.
Russian professionals did take the lead in the country’s one successful political revolution. In 1905, the Union of Unions brought together a broad front of professional and other groups demanding limited political change. More recently, some Russian professional groups have sought a positive role. Air traffic controllers demanded safer working conditions as well as higher pay. The Russian Political Science Association has sought to punish professors who accept bribes. Greater autonomy and more internationalized professional communities would also help reduce the outflow of talent.
The United States and Europe can assist Russian professional communities in establishing stronger identities and standards of behavior. This does not mean that Russians should become just like the West. The legal profession could insist on vetting judges and monitoring their fair administration of Russian law, while excluding corrupt lawyers. Teachers and researchers could insist on peer review and academic standards while rejecting side payments for admission to or decent grades in universities. Medical professionals could insist on accepted “best practices” recognized by international — not U.S. — medical organizations, where Russians participate in the deliberations.
Despite widespread calls for reform, Russia’s coming electoral cycle does not promise to be much different from the past two. Independent and internationalized professional communities could offer an alternative path for change.
Harley Balzer served as executive director of the International Science Foundation and a member of the governing council of the Basic Research and Higher Education Program for Russia. He will participate in the session “Building Russia’s Creative Capital” at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday from 3:45 to 5 p.m.
TITLE: I’ll Take ABBA Over Lady Gaga Any Day
AUTHOR: By Artemy Troitsky
TEXT: It looks like very few, if any, are happy about the state of pop music in the new century.
Their frustrations come from different corners — the formerly almighty captains of the music industry complain about vanishing sales and profits. Pop stars blame Internet users for robbing them. Music purists complain that contemporary music isn’t worth a dime and the last real good music we heard was in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.
This all demonstrates that the whole concept of pop music — one of the most powerful cultural phenomena of the 20th century — is in big trouble.
But is it really so dramatic or even tragic?
If we consider the purely showbiz aspect of the issue, it does look like the Titanic going down. The record industry and its affiliates are headed down the path that steam engine producers or typewriter manufacturers took decades ago.
In my opinion, it’s the record industry strategists themselves who are partly responsible for this collapse. They haven’t invested in real talent and credible artists.
Instead, ever since the Spice Girls boom of the mid-’90s, they have put all their effort in creating myriads of disposable teeny-bop starlets — thus undermining both the quality and the spirit of music.
But the good pop, rock and hip-hop is still there, and there isn’t a major talent drain, no matter what boring old melomaniacs say.
Since I am still an active radio DJ and music television presenter, I can admit without a shadow of doubt that there’s plenty of beautiful new music being made today (and I don’t mean Lady Gaga). But it lives an utterly different life from the one of, say, The Beatles, ABBA or Led Zeppelin.
Television and radio mean fairly little. In fact, all the past century’s musical framework, except for concert activities, is going down the drain. Instead, there’s the World Wide Web, which provides a direct channel between the creators of the music to the grateful listeners, easily avoiding all the go-betweens.
Is this fair? Yes. (I, too, have a record label — even four of them — and I am not complaining.)
Actually, the bottom line of all attacks on so-called Internet piracy (I wonder how something can be labeled “piracy” when there’s no money involved) comes down to the fact that there’s far less profit in the music business today. Well, comrades, my guess is that you’ll have to live with it.
I’m sure that there never will be as much crazy money in the industry as there was in the 1990s. In a way, this will have a purging effect. Those artists and producers who, in the words of Frank Zappa, “are only in it for the money” will think twice before diving into the new musical reality.
Meanwhile, those inspired and not afraid of being pure but poor — well, OK, not that poor — will bring the spark, trust and sincerity back into the exhausted body of pop music.
Artemy Troitsky is a rock journalist and music critic. At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, he will moderate the session “When will a New Beatles Emerge on the Music Scene?” on Friday from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m. and participate in the session “Can IP Be Protected in the Internet Age?” on Saturday from 10 to 11:15 a.m.
TITLE: Doubling of Cigarette Prices by 2014 Could Lead to Fakes
AUTHOR: By Olga Kalashnikova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The retail price of cigarettes will more than double by 2014 compared to this year, after the Ministry of Finance proposed raising excise taxes by 40 to 42 percent per year.
The ministry came up with various proposals, including one that would have seen a 100-percent increase some years. The original aim was to bring Russia into line with the average European level of excise taxes on tobacco production by 2015, but Prime Minister Vladimir Putin did not approve the strategy.
“We cannot take the burden away from businesses and transfer it onto ordinary citizens; a direct, single, rapid increase of excise taxes on tobacco will certainly lead to the rapid increase of prices for this product,” Putin said at a government presidium on March 31.
“Fortunately, of all the proposals, the Ministry of Finance finally stopped at 40 to 42 percent, which in our opinion appears to be much more balanced and realistic than the previous proposals,” said Andrew Newton, manufacturing vice president for the CIS at Japan Tobacco International (JTI) and general director of JTI’s Petro factory in St. Petersburg.
“This is the right decision, as tobacco products are harmful to society,” said Yelena Vylkova, professor of finance at St. Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance. “It is only fair that the government gets revenue from their sales.”
According to JTI representatives, under the new tax regime, the price of the cheapest filter cigarettes that currently retail at 16.50 rubles ($0.59) will be 38.50 rubles ($1.38) by 2014.
Experts warn that growth in the retail prices of cigarettes will increase the risk of the emergence of counterfeit production. The tobacco market is gradually recovering from the economic crisis.
“We cannot yet say there is strong recovery, but we are seeing some kind of recovery,” said Newton. “Consumers who had to turn to cheaper cigarettes are returning to more expensive brands, and we are observing a slowdown in the rate at which sales are decreasing.”
To protect the market and consumers, close collaboration is essential between the relevant institutions and governmental bodies.
“During the past few years, the government has had a strict policy of the gradual, step-by-step increase of excise taxes, which has resulted in a growth of revenue to the state budget from taxes. This gradual growth of excise taxes has made it possible to keep contraband cigarettes at a minimum level,” said Newton.
According to research conducted by Euromonitor International, about 2 percent of cigarettes on the Russian market are illegally imported. In Eastern Europe, the rapid increase of taxes led to negative consequences as the growth of retail prices caused some consumers to turn to cheaper cigarettes or illegal products of dubious quality.
“In Bulgaria, for example, 45 percent of all tobacco products are illegal,” said Newton. “Another example is Romania, where 27 percent of production in 2010 was counterfeit. According to expert data, Romania’s state budget lost out on 700 million to 900 million euros in excise taxes last year due to counterfeiters,” he added.
The best way to protect the market is to have a structured and balanced excise taxes policy, say manufacturers. Italy, Spain and Switzerland took 19 to 25 years to reach the current level of tobacco excise taxes, according to JTI specialists. In these countries, the illegal market accounts for less than 5 percent.
Russia should be cautious when setting excise taxes and should coordinate them with partner countries in order to restrict the emergence of contraband production, said Newton.
“If we take the most popular filter cigarettes on the Russian market, the retail price of these cigarettes is 57 percent higher than in Belarus and 85 percent higher than in Kazakhstan, and these countries are Russia’s partners in the customs union,” he said.
In Romania, according to JTI data, the volume of counterfeit tobacco production has decreased from more than 30 percent of the market to 27 percent.
“They changed the staff at customs significantly, especially those responsible for the border with Ukraine and Moldova, as the main stream of counterfeit and contraband products came from these countries. They have also started to actively prosecute those involved in contraband tobacco,” said Anatoly Vereshchagin, communications and community relations director for JTI in Russia.
“But these policy measures and collaboration with tobacco companies have only made it possible to decrease the share of contraband goods,” he said. “These regulations alone cannot solve the problem.”
TITLE: City’s Historic Hotel Gets GM With Local Connection
AUTHOR: By Olga Kalashnikova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Leon Larkin, the new general manager of the Grand Hotel Europe, may have been born in Germany and grown up in Australia, but he says he doesn’t feel like a foreigner in Russia, understands the Russian soul, enjoys the local food and likes the parties.
According to Larkin, the reason for this is his Russian roots: His father was from Leningrad (as St. Petersburg was called for most of the Soviet era) and his mother is Ukrainian. They met at the end of World War II in Berlin, where their son was born. Soon the family emigrated to Australia, where Larkin began his career — though not in the hospitality industry.
“First I worked as a middle-school teacher, like my mother. Then I graduated in sales and marketing, and moved on to the hotel business. I became the sales director for the Sheraton Hotel in my hometown in Australia,” says Larkin, who is responsible for all the operations of Orient-Express Hotels in Russia.
“You don’t find many sales people becoming general managers — it took me a while to make the transition, but I made it.”
As Larkin’s career grew, he worked and lived in various cities and countries, including Australia and New Zealand, Hong Kong, China, Finland, Singapore and Malaysia, the Czech Republic and Ukraine. This is the second time that he has worked in Russia.
Fully immersed in the hospitality industry, Larkin has always lived in the hotels where he worked. For 35 years, he has used hotel services as if he were a guest himself, in doing so, constantly monitoring the quality of services provided by staff, including cleaning, laundry and catering.
In Larkin’s opinion, people should look for the positive in everything and be enthusiastic about the way things are.
“We are where we are because that is the way we want things to be. That’s what I teach my staff. Nobody is holding a Kalashnikov to your head and saying ‘you have to do this job.’ You do it because you want to do it,” he said.
The best way to motivate and inspire employees is to lead by example, he says.
“It’s very simple. How can I expect my staff to have clean shoes if my shoes are not clean? That’s the way I do it,” said Larkin.
Larkin believes Russian employees are well-educated and good workers.
“Russians place a high value on education; they have good work ethics. But I think they lack Western experience, and aren’t familiar with the Western business way of doing things,” he said.
Russia is rapidly becoming a more cosmopolitan country, and it will take time for the average person to understand how and why companies do things in a certain way, believes Larkin.
He thinks Russian employers should focus on helping their staff to travel more.
“When people travel, they understand more, they learn more. And young people today are like sponges, they take everything in and use it, you can see it in their eyes and in their enthusiasm.”
“The hospitality industry in Russia has come a long long way, and it’s going to go even further. Tourism is going to play a huge part in the future of this city,” he added.
Larkin regards St. Petersburg as the most remarkable city in the world, but laments the obstacles that visitors face in getting here, most notably difficulties related to getting a visa.
“The rules have been relaxed for people arriving by ship, and maybe this will be extended to those arriving by train, but getting a visa is frustrating. I’m not criticizing anybody, I completely understand it all, but the process needs to be streamlined,” he said.
“The tourist dollar is an important part of city revenue. When tourists spend money in the city, it filters down to all sorts of different industries: To hotels, to restaurants, to taxi drivers, to local transport and to local services.”
Larkin believes there should be far more interaction between the government and the hospitality industry, such as in cities such as Las Vegas, New York, London, Paris and Berlin that are marketed as tourist destinations.
“They are the competition, and St. Petersburg is a top contender. More hotels, more restaurants and more taxis mean more jobs, more money being put into the community, and better schools and hospitals as a result of more money generated through taxes. It affects everything, and that’s how the city can develop,” he said.
Tourists can be viewed as the ‘best mobile advert on two legs,” according to Larkin, who says it is essential that guests are provided with a high level of service both around the city and in hotels.
“For both businesses and individuals, reputation is everything,” said Larkin.
Larkin says that most of his values and principles came directly from his family, and believes it is important not to forget where you came from. In keeping with family tradition, Larkin adheres to Russian Orthodoxy and attends church every Sunday.
“My mother is still alive, and she follows Russian traditions, so every time I ring her and I speak in Russian, she corrects me like a good schoolteacher,” he smiles.
“And she cooks the best Napoleon cake in the world!”
TITLE: Life in Sochi Ahead of the Olympic Games
AUTHOR: By Simon Eliasson
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: As the Black Sea city of Sochi prepares to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, the biggest sporting event in Russia since the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics, the whole city is being transformed. The area around Imeretinskaya Bukhta (Bay), south of the center, is the site set for the most radical changes. Even though the arenas are starting to take shape, a couple of hundred houses and their owners remain. But soon the whole area will be completely demolished, only to rise from the rubble in a new form in less than three years time. This is where the Olympics will be inaugurated in February 2014.
“The Olympics will be a huge celebration for Russia, and the modernized infrastructure it brings will have positive effects for the citizens of Sochi for a long time to come,” said Tatyana Strakhova, head of the city’s Information Center 2014.
The citizens of Imeretinskaya Bukhta do not all share her unreserved optimism about the Olympics. In total, about a thousand citizens in Sochi have had their property expropriated by the state to make way for construction. Valentina Selivanova is one of them. She lives with her husband in the area, but they don’t have much time left here. Their house will soon be demolished, though they still haven’t been informed exactly when it will happen.
“We have lived in this house since 1972, and now nothing remains of it,” said Selivanova.
Her son Nikolai is emptying the house he grew up in. Roofing, copper pipes — everything that might be of value is stacked in a pile on the lawn in front of the house. The house itself is empty, except for the one room in which Valentina and her husband still live. The empty windows of the other rooms gape hauntingly, and the roof is partially gone. Nearby the heap of metal scraps lies a mound of grapevines, torn up from the backyard. Selivanovna and her family chose to accept financial compensation for their house rather than move to a new house supplied by Olympstroi, the state corporation in charge of construction for the Olympics.
“The new houses in [the area of] Nekrasovka are being built in a hurry and lack quality,” said Selivanova. “There have been many problems with them, from bad flooring to skewed doorways. That’s the reason we chose compensation instead, rather than take the risk of ending up in a bad quality house.” Currently, the family is looking for an apartment in central Sochi. The compensation they received will be enough to buy about 60 square meters of living space there, compared to the more than 200 square meters they had in the house.
Back at the Information Center, Strakhova proudly shows off the room where Prime Minister Vladimir Putin praised the development in Sochi at a press conference earlier this year. Putin’s enthusiasm is shared by Strakhova, as she describes how wonderful the city is becoming thanks to the Olympic Games. An influx of well educated and skilled workers, international attention and the money being poured into infrastructure and the public sector are just a few of the things that will change the city completely, she says.
“Of course, every city has its problems,” she says. “But the Olympics have given us a chance to improve everything here, and all these changes would have taken many years to accomplish if it wasn’t for the extra funds we’ve received because of the Games.” She explains that it is an impossible task to keep everyone satisfied while working on a project of this scale.
“The people who are negative about the Games just want everything to stay the way it always has been,” said Strakhova. “The people of Bukhta are used to living a quiet life near the sea and living off tourism. Of course they are bitter about losing their homes and land.”
Many of the inhabitants of Bukhta do not have formal documents proving that they own the land. In many cases, they received the land during the Soviet era, and when the Soviet Union collapsed, the ownership was not transferred properly. Now, as the state claims back the land, some residents have had problems in proving their right to compensation or substitute housing.
“The state is working on helping everyone to get proper documentation of their ownership,” said Strakhova. “It is a slow and time-consuming process, but no one will be thrown out on the street.”
Outside the regional court in the neighboring town of Adler, 15 former Bukhta residents are waiting for a court session. Many hold plastic bags full of documents. The reasons they are here differ. Some have received no compensation at all, and others claim that their compensation was too low. What they have in common is despair over their situation — and a hatred of Olympstroi, the Sochi administration, and everything to do with the Olympics.
“Suddenly, one day three years ago, our land was fenced off with barbed wire and we had no access to it anymore,” said Zina Leinchik. “We haven’t received compensation, and now we’ve been fighting for our rights for three years without any success.
“I remember when I first heard that Sochi had been chosen to host the Olympic Games,” Leinchik continued. “I couldn’t sleep all night because I was so happy and excited about what would happen to our city. Even then, my husband said: ‘Just wait until they take our land away.’ But back then I couldn’t imagine that something like this would happen,” she said.
The door to the courtroom is opened an hour and a half after it was due to open. The 15 residents are herded into a small room, where some have to remain standing. The Russian flag hangs limply in a corner, and the federal emblem adorns the wall behind the judge. The air is stuffy, and the only noise that can be heard before the magistrate starts speaking is the frantic scribbling of the clerk. During the roll call, it becomes clear that no representative for either Olympstroi or the city’s administration is present. The hearing is postponed until the next month, and the 15 have to leave the court without results.
“Now it is postponed until next month, the next time it will be until August,” said Leinchik. “They ignore us completely, and until we obtain a ruling from the regional court, we cannot take the case to higher bodies.”
A local lawyer who wished to remain anonymous gave his interpretation of the problem.
“There is probably no money left now in the budget for compensating relocated people. Now they are trying to slow down the process as much as they can, hoping that people will give up.”
A couple of hundred meters from the construction sites in Bukhta, the Black Sea meets the coast. Immense waves pound the dark, rocky beach constantly. A couple of years ago this beach was the scene of everyday life for the residents of Bukhta: A place for fishing, strolling, enjoying the sunset and watching dolphins. Now the beach, too, is a building site. A bulldozer roars while shoveling the remains of an industrial building in front of it. In the neighboring building, fisherman Yevgeny Varnov is packing up his life from an apartment one floor above a fish factory. He has lived here for the past seven years, together with four colleagues and his wife Stella. Rubbish is thrown out of the door while the rest is packed up in bags. His colleagues help. The apartment is in poor condition. The wallpaper hangs loose from the walls, and a solitary light bulb dangles from the ceiling. In one of the bedrooms, the walls are papared with pages from magazines. This is the other side of Bukhta: Run-down accommodation, unstable access to electricity, and a lack of proper plumbing. Many say it’s not a day too soon that places like this are being torn down.
“Olympstroi knocked on the door this morning and told us we have three days to move,” said Varnov. “Now my wife and I have nowhere to go, but it will work itself out some way. It has to. I’m glad we don’t have any children yet,” he added. He looks tired and resigned.
The promised three days turn out to be one. The day after Varnov showed his living quarters to the outside world, the building was demolished, leaving nothing behind but a large pile of rubble. The bulldozer continues its never-ending scraping, and the remnants of the fish factory lie neatly piled up by the road, waiting to be removed. Some scrap-metal scavengers from Tajikistan pick the pile clean of metal, while the fishermen watch silently with cigarettes in the corners of their mouths. In a future where the attention of the world is focused on Bukhta and the Olympics, it seems there is no place for people like Varnov. He has to find a new place in which to live, without the help of Olympstroi.