SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1690 (1), Wednesday, January 11, 2012
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TITLE: Voina Claims Arson Attack
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: St. Petersburg law enforcers have filed a new criminal case against award-winning Voina art group for burning down an armored police truck on New Year’s Eve. They also addressed the group, whose activists are in hiding, via news web site Fontanka.ru late last week.
Late on Dec. 31, a Voina activist climbed over a fence surrounding Police Precinct No. 71 on the Petrograd Side and set fire to a massive Ural truck using Molotov cocktails as an art stunt called “Cop’s Auto-Da-Fe, or Fucking Prometheus,” Voina spokesman and chronicler Alexei Plutser-Sarno said on his Livejournal.com blog.
The statement said the armored Ural police truck was targeted because it was a prison-on-wheels used for holding and transporting detainees.
“This is our modest New Year present to political prisoners from a group of artists,” Voina’s Oleg Vorotnikov said in an email interview this week.
“It’s undisputable that political prisoners are forgotten by Russian society — because they remain locked up in prisons. Political prisoners have become the norm in Russia, and this norm is a despicable crime of the state and its cowardly and indifferent citizens.”
According to Vorotnikov, the group came up with the idea of “giving the gift of a burning prisoner truck” when activist Filipp Kostenko, who spent 15 days in custody after being arrested at the Dec. 6 protest against electoral fraud, was arrested right in the detention center as soon as his term had finished on Dec. 21 and was sentenced for another 15 days on what he called fake charges.
Vorotnikov believes that “Cop’s Auto-Da-Fe” had an immediate effect: The court declined to put Kostenko in a pre-trial detention center at the end of his second prison term on Jan. 4 until his next court hearing due on Jan. 29, despite the investigators’ request for it to do so. Kostenko was released on Jan. 5 after spending 30 days in custody.
“There are characters who act arrogantly and pretend to be kings, annoying everybody and interfering with everyone’s life — but only until the first hurdle,” Vorotnikov said.
“Once they are given a rap on their forehead, such characters quiet down and start behaving respectfully and politely. Such are the cops from the political police in Russia.
“Let them talk now about what methods are more efficient; peaceful dances in condoms at rallies [a reference to music critic Artyom Troitsky, who spoke at a Moscow anti-fraud rally in December wearing a condom costume] or the smell of fresh napalm at night.”
Published on Jan. 2, Plutser-Sarno’s posting included photos and a video of the arson. As the news made headlines, later on Jan. 2 the police issued a statement saying that the damage was “minor” and that an investigation into the cause of the fire was underway. The police pointed out that a similar blaze in a police car last year originally reported to be arson was in reality caused by a short circuit.
On Friday, however, the police said that a criminal case into “hooliganism” or criminal mischief (Article 213 of the Russian penal code) had been filed over the incident, and addressed Voina via Fontanka.ru, a local news web site that has police ties.
According to the site, the police suggested that the artists should come to a Petrograd Side police precinct, get in touch with the investigator in charge of the case and “present their artistic views.” “In turn, the police officers promise to pass the results of these conversations to journalists in full,” Fontanka.ru continued, sarcastically.
“We are not interested in the cops’ proposal,” Vorotnikov said in an email Monday.
“We don’t feel that we have any lack of communication with journalists. We can always arrange a press conference if we need to make a direct statement.”
Vorotnikov reminded police that his wife Natalya “Kozlyonok” Sokol and their two-year-old son Kasper had been beaten by plainclothes policemen after a Voina press conference in March.
Meanwhile, the group said that a criminal case against its members for the Palace Revolution art stunt, which involved overturning a parked police car in St. Petersburg in September 2010, had been closed for the second time.
The case, which charged Vorotnikov and Leonid Nikolayev with hooliganism motivated by hatred toward a social group, was originally closed in mid-October after Herzen Pedagogical University experts came to the conclusion that the police is not a “social group.”
However, the case was reopened two weeks later after the prosecutor’s office repealed the investigators’ decision. Voina reported that it had found out Sunday that investigator Vadim Rud closed the case for a second time as early as Dec. 1.
Vorotnikov and Nikolayev spent three-and-a-half months in pre-trial detention after they were arrested in Moscow in November 2010, but were released on bail — 300,000 rubles ($9,455) each — paid from a donation made by British street artist Banksy, who learned about the legal charges facing the group via the BBC.
In April, two separate criminal cases against Voina activists — Vorotnikov and his wife Sokol — were filed after the activists were detained during a protest march to City Hall held on March 31. They were charged with disorderly conduct, using violence against a police officer and insulting a police officer. Later, international arrest warrants were issued for the two.
Voina’s lawyer Dmitry Dinze said Tuesday that investigators had not been in touch with the art group, two members of which have been issued with international arrest warrants over the new criminal case, Interfax reported. Dinze added that they lacked any evidence on the case besides the activists’ claims.
On Tuesday, the human rights association Agora said in a press release that Dinze had found himself under surveillance. “I have been constantly and closely watched by two men over the past three days,” he was quoted as saying. “As soon as I come to the city — I go to a café, they go there too. I go to a movie theater, they follow me there.”
TITLE: Russia’s Tallest Man Dies, Forgotten by the Public
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Alexander Sizonenko, Russia’s tallest man, who once appeared in the Guinness Book of World Records as the tallest basketball player in history, died on Jan. 5. He was 52.
The life story of the sportsman, who in the 1980s was ranked one of the U.S.S.R.’s top four central cornermen players, along with Arvidas Sabonis, Alexander Belostenny and Vladimir Tkachenko, is one of the most dramatic in the history of the Russian sport.
Upon retiring in 1986 owing to a string of health issues, from acromegaly to circulatory diseases, the star sportsman immediately fell into oblivion. He lived on his own in a tiny room in a communal apartment in central St. Petersburg, teetering on the brink of poverty — in 2011 his monthly pension totaled around 7,000 rubles ($220) — as his health deteriorated and he developed diabetes and osteoporosis. His room was so small that the former basketball player could not straighten his back when he stood up.
Sizonenko’s plight received sudden media attention in the summer of 2011, when local reporters discovered that after suffering a fall at home, the former sportsman had spent almost a week without medical attendance: Because of his height — two meters 45 centimeters — and weight (200 kilograms) he was denied a place in local clinics, and was not getting adequate treatment. For weeks, while the sick man laid in bed in his room developing bedsores, officials refused requests for a caregiver or nurse to look after the man who was once the pride of the country’s sport.
Sizonenko’s drama touched hundreds of locals, who brought money, medicine and food to the former sportsman. They also signed a petition asking City Hall to stop turning a blind eye to the situation and offer help to the man who was going through an ordeal: Because of his syndrome, his body continued to grow, destroying his internal organs, which could not cope with the body’s enormous size. Eventually, one of the bureaucrats took pity on the ill man, and help did arrive.
The former sportsman was provided with a nurse, an individually designed orthopedic mattress, and medicines — all free of charge.
Sizonenko is survived by his 17-year-old son, Alexander, who supported his father during the last days of his life, when Sizonenko’s condition was so bad that he could not even eat.
The basketball player’s friends had to collect money for his burial and even for the specially designed coffin. His friends managed to collect around 50,000 rubles ($1,569) by campaigning among locals.
Several dozen St. Petersburgers attended a burial service at the Vladimirsky Cathedral on Jan. 9 to bid farewell to the former sports star. During the last months of his life, Sizonenko made new friends, who admired his courage, stamina, sense of humor and ability to enjoy life, despite the hardships he faced.
Sizonenko was buried at the Severnoye cemetery on Monday. He was laid to rest close to his former basketball coach, Vladimir Kondrashin.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Murder in the Park
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Police have detained two teenagers suspected of the murder of a 14-year-old schoolboy who was killed in the city’s Tavrichesky Garden on Jan. 6.
The detained are 14 and 17 years old, respectively. They reportedly knew the murdered boy as they lived in the same area.
Investigators believe the conflict arose after the victim insulted the mother of the 17-year-old. The 17-year-old then decided to confront the other in Tavrichesky Garden, Fontanka reported.
The murdered boy’s body was found by police in Tavrichesky Garden. He had been stabbed ten times.
The teenager was reportedly walking in the garden with a female friend and her two-year-old brother when two unidentified people, both masked, caught up with them and called the teenager by his name. They then asked the girl to step aside. The young men then had a conversation followed by a fight. When the girl ran up to her friend after the fight the attackers had already fled. However, before his death the teenager managed to say, “It might have been Alex,” Fontanka reported.
Air Fares to Increase
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Prices for plane tickets may increase by up to three percent due to new European rules.
The European Union has included air companies under new rules regarding the emission of greenhouse gases. This will cost the air transportation industry almost 4.5 billion euros more a year which could lead to a rise in the price of plane tickets, experts say, Interfax reported.
Due to the new EU law, which came into effect this month, all planes flying to or from EU countries must pay the ecology tax on emissions.
The introduction of the tax has already increased the prices of American air company Delta Airlines’ flights to Europe by six dollars. The ticket prices of German carrierLufthansa are also expected to increase in the near future.
Specialists In Demand
MOSCOW (SPT) — Russian employers have the highest demand for qualified workers and sales managers, experts from Superjob.ru Internet recruitment portal said, Interfax reported.
Demand for qualified workers comprises 14 percent of all requests made by potential employers.
The other four most required specialists include sales managers (10.7 percent), salesmen (7.2 percent), engineers (7.2 percent) and drivers (3.7 percent).
Snowy Week Forecast
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The first work week after the holidays will bring both snow and cold temperatures, Interfax reported Tuesday.
In the next few days, storms are expected, resulting in significant precipitation. Snow, at times heavy, will fall throughout the Leningrad Oblast, including St. Petersburg.
On Tuesday night, temperatures were expected to drop to as low as negative 15 degrees Celsius.
According to Interfax, temperatures in the northern capital are expected to warm up a little in the coming days to around zero degrees Celsius; snow will however continue to fall.
By the weekend, temperatures will drop again to about negative six degrees.
TITLE: Patriarch Chimes In on Political Crisis
AUTHOR: By Alexander Bratersky
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The head of the Russian Orthodox Church weighed in on the ongoing political crisis, urging the Kremlin in a Christmas sermon to cooperate with anti-government protesters who rallied in Moscow in tens of thousands last month.
But Patriarch Kirill, a staunch Kremlin supporter, also echoed the government’s own rhetoric by warning that exerting too much pressure on the authorities can result in a bloody revolution, like in 1917.
Still, the statement appears to be the latest confirmation that the ruling elite is seeking to talk with the protesters rather than suppress them ahead of the presidential vote in March.
“If something is going on, society must have the right to express its discontent,” Kirill said in televised comments to the state-run Rossia-1 television channel, aired on Saturday, when Orthodox Christians celebrated Christmas.
“If the powers that be remain insensitive to expressions of protest, it’s a bad sign, a sign that they are incapable of adapting. The authorities must adjust, including to signals from outside … and correct the course,” Kirill said.
But he also compared the current crisis to the Russian Revolution when he said, “We destroyed our country … because rightful popular protest was cleverly used by political forces vying for power.” He named no names.
Protests have swept the capital and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the country, following the State Duma elections on Dec. 4, in which Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s United Russia clinched a narrow majority. Critics insist that the victory was secured through vote fraud and electoral violations, hundreds of instances of which were reported by observers.
The biggest street protests in the country since 1993 have taken place on Moscow’s Bolotnaya Ploshchad, where between 30,000 and 60,000 gathered, and Prospekt Akademika Sakharova, where the crowd was estimated at between 45,000 and 100,000.
Protesters demanded repeat elections and the sacking of Vladimir Churov, head of the Central Elections Commission. The authorities have rejected both demands, but proposed instead to radically soften draconian legislation for registering political parties and presidential candidates — though only after the Kremlin vote on March 4, which Putin is expected to win.
Things quieted down during the holiday week at the beginning of January, but this is largely seen as the calm before the storm. A new protest rally is scheduled in Moscow for Feb. 4, one month before the presidential election, with some 14,000 having already signed up for the event on its Facebook page as of late Monday.
It was the first time that the charismatic Kirill, who combines conservative views with active proselytism, openly spoke on the protests. However, he warned last month against the dangers of social networking sites, which were instrumental in staging the protests.
In a throwback to the church’s more expected rhetoric, church spokesman Vsevolod Chaplin also spoke in favor of the protests in comments to Rusnovosti.ru last week, but said they should focus on promoting Russian nationalism. He also dismissed liberal opposition activists Boris Nemtsov and Garry Kasparov, who were actively involved in the December protests, as “Russophobes.”
Kirill’s word carries a lot of weight in a country where three-quarters of the populace are self-proclaimed Orthodox Christians, even though most of them lack any religious ardor.
“The Patriarch is an influential figure in society, he has made clear his position on the matter, and the authorities should take it into account,” said Viktor Aksyutich, an expert on the Russian Orthodox Church.
“His words might sound harsh, but they fit the situation, which is quite grave,” Aksyutich told The St. Petersburg Times by telephone Monday.
He added that the church actually has the authority to urge its flock to go against the authorities, if it deems officials harmful to the people.
But Kirill avoided a direct attack on the Kremlin, instead pinning the blame on low-ranking bureaucrats.
“Do people deal with the president or the ministers? They deal with police officers, with utility companies. … It’s authorities on this level that harass the simple man,” he said.
Kirill also called on the protesters to purge their personal lives of all lies before demanding the same from the authorities.
He ended by saying the church is not taking sides in the conflict because it counts among members “both those who were on the streets and those against whom the protests were directed.”
Indeed, the Christmas Mass that Kirill served in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral on Saturday night was attended by President Dmitry Medvedev. Putin, also an open Orthodox believer, went to a different mass in his native St. Petersburg.
TITLE: U.S. Visa Deal Hits Snag In Duma
AUTHOR: By Lukas I. Alpert
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The timeline for final ratification of the much-anticipated visa agreement with the United States has been put into doubt by political realities in the State Duma, with the signing likely postponed for months, a senior legislator said.
“We now have another consideration in the parliament, as we have many more Communists and other leftist politicians who are not very close friends of the United States,” said Andrei Klimov, deputy chairman of the Duma’s foreign relations committee.
Officials at the Russian Foreign Ministry and the U.S. State Department were hopeful that a deal to loosen visa restrictions would be quickly passed by both the Duma and the Federation Council before the end of 2011.
But the results of the contested Duma vote on Dec. 4 — which left the ruling United Russia party with far fewer seats in parliament and boosted the standing of several opposition parties — have greatly complicated matters.
“We have to organize our special committees, which may take a month, so we will only be able to begin discussing our agenda after the end of January at the earliest,” Klimov said. “Maybe the visa question will be included, but at this point I cannot say what will happen.”
The agreement on the table would grant both Russians and Americans standard three-year, multiple-entry visas with far less paperwork than is currently required for tourist and business visas.
TITLE: Prokhorov Poaches GQ Editor for Snob
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — With less than two months to go before the presidential election, contender Mikhail Prokhorov has strengthened his campaign team by tapping editor-in-chief of the Russian GQ for his own media empire.
Nikolai Uskov, a darling of the hipster crowd, will start as the head of the ZhV! media group on Feb. 1, Snob.ru social networking and news web site reported Sunday.
Uskov, 41, will also be editing Snob, one of ZhV!’s most well-known projects, which, however, has failed to turn any profit since its inception in 2008.
ZhV! — a convoluted bilingual play on the Russian verb meaning “to live” — is owned by Prokhorov’s Onexim Group, which also owns RBC media holding.
ZhV! also includes Russian Pioneer magazine, edited by Andrei Kolesnikov, a prominent Kommersant reporter, F5.ru web site and ZhV! television channel.
Appointing Uskov is Prokhorov’s attempt to “show intellectual youth … that he is one of them,” Yelena Zelinskaya, vice president of MediaUnion, a nongovernmental organization, told The St. Petersburg Times on Monday.
Uskov’s nomination also signals that Prokhorov’s campaign may “bear an unexpected character” and “bring surprises,” Zelinskaya said.
The 46-year-old Prokhorov, whose fortune was listed by Forbes at $18 billion, turned to politics at the start of the election season last year.
But despite his outspoken rhetoric, he has largely failed to shake the suspicion of being a Kremlin protege who has joined the race to sweep the protest vote, which is made up of the same educated youth that Uskov’s appointment is presumably targeting.
The suspicions were recently fueled by Prokhorov’s growing ties to NTV, a television channel known for its pro-Kremlin stance.
Last month, he appeared on the show “NTVshniki,” promoting his presidential bid. He later picked the show’s host Anton Krasovsky to head his campaign staff.
Uskov has also often criticized the government on his blog, but did not completely escape censorship allegations at GQ.
In 2009, he refused to run a story in the magazine linking the Federal Security Service to the series of deadly blasts in Moscow and Buinaksk in the late 1990s, dismissing it as “nothing sensational,” Kommersant reported at the time.
Uskov will replace Vladimir Yakovlev, 51, the founder of Kommersant, who quit as the head of ZhV! in October amid allegations about the media group’s unsuccessful financial performance.
Uskov’s old job, in turn, will go to Russian GQ columnist Mikhail Idov, who has also contributed to New York Magazine and The New Republic, socialite Ksenia Sobchak, also a GQ contributor, reported on her Twitter blog Saturday.
Uskov had been editor-in-chief of GQ since 2003. Before landing a job in media, he researched monastery life in Western Europe in the early Middle Ages at Moscow State University.
TITLE: New Rules Predict Easier Car Certificate
AUTHOR: By Roland Oliphant
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — It is traditional to give up bad habits at the beginning of the year, and in seasonal spirit, the Interior Ministry has promised that traffic cops will stop asking motorists to produce technical inspection certificates.
“Whether or not a car has passed technical inspection will now be checked by insurers,” Vladimir Shvetsov, first deputy head of the Interior Ministry’s road safety division, told RIA-Novosti just before the New Year.
The article prohibiting driving without a certificate has been struck from the Civil Code as part of a package of reforms to traffic regulations that came into force Jan. 1.
Russian law requires cars more than 3 years old to undergo an inspection for road-worthiness once every two years. Cars more than 7 years old are obliged to take annual tests.
Responsibility for periodic vehicle inspections has been transferred from the Interior Ministry to the Russian Union of Automobile Insurers. Instead of being enforced by police on the street, an inspection certificate will be required to obtain obligatory automobile insurance.
Apart from taking some of the fear out of driving — previously, a driver caught by a cop without an inspection certificate faced a 2,500 ruble ($78) fine, a driving ban and the impounding of his or her vehicle — the reform is hoped to mean the end of huge lines at service centers licensed to do the tests.
Under the old arrangement there were 3,000 places run by the Interior Ministry or approved contractors, which made periodic checkups on cars.
But drivers groups have complained that long lines for a test makes corruption an attractive way out for both sides. Dron.ru, a motorists’ web site, has estimated that more than 50 percent of Russian motorists bought their inspection certificates with a bribe to circumvent the wait.
To create more capacity, any service center with a mechanic approved by the Car Insurers Union will now be able to issue certificates. The procedure itself has been cut from 41 to 30 minutes, largely by scrapping checks of the first aid kit, airbags and brake pads.
Repeated calls to the union went unanswered Monday, but a spokesman told Gazeta.ru at the end of December that 1,621 operators running a total of 2,249 different service centers had registered by the beginning of the New Year holidays, and another 1,200 more were expected to sign up “soon.”
It is unclear whether the measures will be enough to eliminate the notorious lines during the annual rush for inspections in the spring. A booming auto market of recent years means an ever-increasing burden of 3-year-old vehicles coming up for their first inspection. Three million new cars were sold in 2008 — the peak of the pre-crisis auto market — and 1.5 million in 2009.
TITLE: Social Network Proposes Solutions
AUTHOR: By Roman Shishov
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Personal computer manufacturer Lenovo has launched a new social network in Russia that focuses on proposing solutions to real-life problems and building communities to help implement them.
Called the Do Network, the project is being rolled out simultaneously in India and Indonesia. The company is funding a quarterly $25,000 prize for each region to be awarded to the best projects.
“We want to support young enthusiasts in different fields of activity so that their inventions can take shape,” said Lenovo spokeswoman Tatyana Timofeyeva.
The network encourages all kinds of projects, primarily new technical inventions or solutions to social problems by technical means. Participants have to include a description of how their idea could be implemented and what resources are necessary.
Participants can register on the site, or just login using a Facebook account.
The first round of project proposals began in early December with 70 projects in the works on the Russian site at the end of the month. For example, one of the projects is “Cars Can Touch.” It proposes the installation of pressure plates at intersections. Depending on the number of cars detected, the system automatically regulates the duration of traffic lights.
Contestants are offered four challenges and related questions — created by Lenovo marketing experts and the independent mentors they have included as project judges — that address issues that are not unique to any one particular region. One challenge, for example, is to design “a classroom in a box” that can be sent to remote places where education infrastructure is lacking.
The other three challenge areas are: “Traffic Jam,” “Products = Progress: Invent a consumer product designed to make a positive impact on the world around you” and an unlimited category to allow for any type of proposal.
Projects will be evaluated based on number of votes received via the network, response to challenges and questions, and judgment by the contest’s mentors.
Arkady Moreynis, one of the mentors of Do Network for Russia and general director of Glavstart — a company that specializes in investing in startups — sees the project not only as a marketing opportunity for its sponsor, but as a place to identify worthy potential entrepreneurial opportunities.
The first round of submissions ends Jan. 25, and the winner will be announced Feb. 29.
TITLE: U.S. Nixes Planned Loan With Severstal
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: DEARBORN, Michigan — The U.S. Energy Department won’t follow through on a planned $730 million loan to the North American arm of one of Russia’s largest steel companies to modernize its Detroit-area plant.
The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press reported Friday that the conditional loan for the Severstal North America project in Dearborn wouldn’t be finalized.
Steel company spokeswoman Katya Pruett said Severstal was “deeply disappointed” by the decision. She said the company would review other financing options to move forward with its plans.
About 60 percent of the project has been completed, but the company was waiting on final loan approval to finish it.
The Energy Department didn’t specify reasons for not giving final approval for the loan. Department spokesman Damien LaVera said the project has “merit” but not all projects that receive conditional commitments get green-lighted.
Some Republican lawmakers criticized the conditional approval. California Rep. Darrell Issa compared the loan to the government’s $528 million loan to solar panel maker Solyndra, which filed for bankruptcy court protection last year.
The planned loan to modernize the plant was announced in July. The project was expected to employ about 2,500 construction workers and create 260 factory jobs.
TITLE: Alexei Kudrin Calls For Repeat Duma Elections
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — A former Cabinet member close to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has called for a rerun of the country’s fraud-tinged parliamentary elections, in an apparent bid to soothe public outrage as Putin seeks to reclaim the presidency.
Former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on his blog on Friday that the government must open a dialogue with the opposition on holding a repeat ballot under revised electoral rules.
The statement appears aimed at stealing the opposition’s thunder to prevent a challenge to Putin in March’s presidential election.
Tens of thousands of protesters have rallied in Moscow to demand a rerun of the Dec. 4 parliamentary vote and urge an end to Putin’s 12-year rule. It has been the largest outpouring of public anger since the Soviet collapse two decades ago.
While Putin faces no serious rivals in the presidential election, the protests signaled a sharp drop in popularity that may make it hard for him to gain more than 50 percent of the vote and avoid a runoff.
Kudrin said authorities must acknowledge the Dec. 4 parliamentary elections were flawed, or risk undermining the legitimacy of the presidential vote.
Kudrin said the government and the opposition must conduct a dialogue on changing the electoral rules and laws on political parties. But, he added, a push to unseat Putin could end in turmoil.
“An attempt to simultaneously reform two branches of power ... would entail too big risks for the country,” he said.
Many in the opposition have warned Putin would try to defuse the protests by luring their leaders into talks or offer them government jobs and other perks.
“I’m convinced the main strategy of the Kremlin in the coming months would be to neutralize protests by the usual deceit and bribes,” Alexei Navalny, who has become a leading figure in the protest movement, said on his blog.
Navalny has pledged to take up to 1 million protesters to the streets before the presidential election, calling it illegitimate because Putin has kept challengers away. Kudrin, meanwhile, said it would take the opposition between 18 months and two years to field a candidate capable of competing with Putin.
Kudrin was forced out of the Cabinet in September after 10 years following a public spat with President Medvedev.
He has been widely credited for helping soften the blow of the 2008-09 global downturn in Russia. Putin hailed Kudrin’s expertise, and they have remained friends.
TITLE: Asylum for Tymoshenko Spouse
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — The husband of jailed former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has been granted political asylum in the Czech Republic following the launch of a criminal investigation against him, her lawyer said.
The Czech Republic angered Ukraine last year by granting asylum to another ally of Yulia Tymoshenko, and Friday’s decision to do the same for her husband, Oleksandr Tymoshenko, is likely to further strain relations.
Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s top opposition leader and a former presidential candidate, was sentenced to seven years in jail in October in a trial widely condemned as politically motivated.
In December, the European Union balked at signing a landmark cooperation agreement with Ukraine over the jailing of Tymoshenko.
Her lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko, said in remarks broadcast Friday on Russia’s NTV television that Oleksandr Tymoshenko asked for asylum because he is being targeted in an ongoing probe into his wife’s activities when she owned a top Ukrainian energy company.
Vlasenko said the criminal investigation into Oleksandr Tymoshenko was an attempt to increase pressure on his jailed wife.
A year ago, the republic granted political asylum to Ukraine’s former Economic Minister Bohdan Danylyshin, one of Tymoshenko’s allies, who was charged with abuse of office.
The move strained relations between the two countries. In May, Ukraine expelled two employees at the military section of the Czech Republic’s Embassy in Kiev, accusing them of espionage.
Czech officials said that was probably prompted by Danylyshin’s case. However, Czech Interior Minister Jan Kubice said Friday that he doesn’t believe the decision granting Oleksandr Tymoshenko asylum will harm his country’s relations with Ukraine. Kubice said Tymoshenko applied for asylum several months ago.
Jakub Kulhanek, an analyst at Prague’s Association of International Affairs, said the decision is in line with Czech foreign policy, which supports opposition movements in Cuba, Belarus, Myanmar and elsewhere.
But he also said Tymoshenko, a businessman, “can hardly be called a typical political dissident.”
Kulhanek said he doesn’t expect serious retaliation from Ukraine, which has been trying to consolidate its relations with the European Union. At the same time, Kulhanek said, it is in the EU’s interest that Ukraine is a stable country and the bloc is trying to avoid steps that would push Kiev back into Russia’s orbit.
Tymoshenko’s husband had attended her trial in October and may also have sought asylum in the Czech Republic for personal reasons, including the ability to publicize her case.
Earlier Friday, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg confirmed Tymoshenko’s husband had applied for asylum. The ministry said in a statement that it wants to maintain good relations with Ukraine.
TITLE: ‘Pilot Case’ Ends in Release
AUTHOR: By Jonathan Earle
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The son of a high-ranking Tajik official, whose conviction in Russia on drug-smuggling charges in 2010 sparked a spat between the two countries that is believed to have led to politically motivated arrests on both sides, has been cleared of wrongdoing.
A Moscow region court ruled on Dec. 28 that prosecutors did not present enough evidence to convict Rustam Khukumov, the BBC Russian Service reported Saturday.
Khukumov’s father, Amonullo Khukumov, is head of Tajikistan’s national railroad and a close ally of President Emomali Rakhmon.
Rustam Khukumov’s 2008 arrest and subsequent sentencing to 9 1/2 years in prison became public knowledge only after Tajik authorities detained a Russian pilot and his Estonian counterpart in March 2011 when they stopped to refuel in Tajikistan after a NATO supply mission in Afghanistan.
The pilots received an 8 1/2-year prison sentence for smuggling and illegal border-crossing, sparking an outcry from the Russian government, which called the sentence “harsh” and “politically motivated.”
At the time, observers speculated that the arrest was an attempt by President Rakhmon to pressure Russia to release Khukumov, who is a dual Russian-Tajik citizen, or to possibly boost his nationalist credentials at home.
The situation reached a boiling point in November, when police in Moscow and others launched an undeclared campaign against Tajik migrants, rounding up hundreds for deportation.
The Kremlin denied the connection between the roundups and the case, but insiders confirmed the link in numerous comments to the media. Both pilots were freed later that month.
TITLE: Illegal Turnover Equal to 10% of GDP Last Year
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Central Bank and the Interior Ministry have calculated the total illegal turnover in the financial sector during 2011 to be 5 trillion rubles ($158 billion), about 10 percent of Russia’s annual gross domestic product.
According to research carried out by the Interior Ministry, there were 56,700 crimes committed between January and November 2011 that had an impact on the financial or credit industries.
The figures were confirmed last week by police colonel Oleg Borisov, head of the Interior Ministry department responsible for financial sector economic crime, Interfax reported.
A total of 653 cases of money laundering were registered in the first 11 months of 2011 with the amount of illegally-earned money caught in the process of being legalized amounting to 1.2 billion rubles between January and September as a result of fraud, drug trafficking and sales, illegal credit and smuggling.
Borisov also highlighted the growing problem of bankruptcies precipitated by criminal elements seeking to make a profit on the collapse of a business. More than 500 such crimes were detected in 2011.
He gave the example of one individual accused of criminally bankrupting an oil and chemical company in the Omsk region. The suspect, “intentionally transferred assets to firms under his control that led to the bankruptcy [of the original company],” Borisov said.
TITLE: From Despair to Hope
AUTHOR: By Peter Oppenheimer
TEXT: To many investors, 2011 has been a “year of fear” with markets being hit by a series of shocks ranging from the Japanese tsunami, concerns over the U.S. debt ceiling and sovereign downgrade and mounting fears over a double-dip recession, to name just a few. But above all, it has been a year of fear over Europe. Its many twists and turns and high political drama have raised uncertainty substantially. Concerns about the possibility of some kind of disorderly collapse of the euro have sapped confidence and pushed up the premium investors demand for taking risk.
From an equity market perspective, there have been bursts of optimism as occasional hopes of a breakthrough on a political agreement have surfaced. The rally in October, for example, was one of the strongest for many years as the European Central Bank started to buy bonds of countries like Italy. But like so many others, it didn’t last long and the trend in equity markets has been lower, particularly in Europe. Many emerging markets have also weakened as investors have questioned those countries’ abilities to sustain high-growth rates and cope with the impact of tighter credit conditions. As a result, the valuation of many equity markets has fallen. The dividend yield, or income, that is being offered on shares, has continued to rise sharply, just as the yield available on cash deposits and government bonds has fallen.
But in many ways, this rising gap between the income paid on government bonds and company shares is counterintuitive. After all, many investors cite high levels of government debt as one of their greatest concerns while, at the same time, the balance sheets in the corporate sector, in aggregate, are as strong as they have been for decades. The credit crunch has encouraged companies to hoard cash and delay investments. Despite these differences, investors seem prepared to lend money to many governments — by buying government bonds — at falling levels of interest, while shunning the much more attractive yields available on shares.
There are two reasons for this. First, investors perceive equity as increasingly risky, given the prospect of a renewed recession. Second, investors are facing a shrinking choice of assets that are considered to be risk-free. Countries that are no longer thought to be inherently safe have seen their yields rise dramatically, just like shares. The few that are perceived as safe meet the enthusiastic demands of investors starved of available “safe” returns in a hostile investment world.
Is there any room for hope? For the euro zone — and to a large extent Britain — the answer lies in two important, related issues. First, the economy. How deep and prolonged will the economic downturn be and how will it impact corporate profits? Second, politics and policy. Will the euro-zone governments finally agree a way forward that protects the euro and reduces the risks of a disorderly collapse, thereby rejuvenating the much-needed confidence that will drive investment and growth?
The economic outlook over the near term is not promising. The euro-zone economy looks like it is already in recession, and it is expected to contract next year by 0.8 percent, with only a moderate recovery of 0.7 percent in 2013, leaving it below the levels of output achieved in 2008. The combination of fiscal austerity and significant deleveraging of banks’ balance sheets is likely to depress economic activity, particularly for the so-called periphery countries, for some time to come, and these forecasts are based on the assumption that the euro survives and that conditions stabilize. Britain will not be immune from this, and it is expected to slip back into a mild recession this quarter. Some offset is likely as a result of continued, albeit weaker, growth in the United States and in the growth markets of the BRICs. But even with this global support, corporate profits across Europe are expected to contract by about 10 percent in 2012, before recovering in 2013.
On the political and policy front, euro-zone governments have yet to reach an overarching solution to the debt problems. The treaty changes that may be required to reshape the euro-zone economy and place it on a secure footing are likely to take a long time. Nevertheless, clear progress is being made and the cost of the euro breaking up remains higher, both politically and economically, than the costs of holding it together. Slowly, more backstops are being put in place to stabilize markets and provide the breathing space for the more substantial reforms and framework-building that is required.
Meanwhile, the European Central Bank’s available tools to maintain the system are substantial. Despite a reluctance to be more assertive, for fear of distorting the incentives for politicians to forge credible agreements, the bank’s willingness to deploy these resources is gradually increasing as more political progress is made. While closure on the European sovereign debt problem is not imminent, the “tail risks” of a euro breakup are likely to fade over time, as investors become more convinced that there is sufficient commitment and firepower to hold it together. Given how much risk is priced into markets, this would likely prompt a sharp rebound in share prices. But when?
The bad news is that such a market recovery is likely to start from a lower level than today, since the prospect of recession and contracting profitability may drag prices down further in the near term as investor uncertainty continues. The good news is that equity markets typically start to recover while corporate profits are falling and when the economy is still in recession. If this happens late in the first half of next year, which is possible, and it coincides with convincing progress on fiscal union in the euro zone, it is likely that there will be a powerful rebound in share prices. In addition, for those who can take a medium-term view, the reward being offered to take risk is probably the highest it has been since the early 1980s, just before the start of a strong bull market in share prices. From this increasing despair, therefore, hope is likely to emerge after all.
Peter Oppenheimer is chief global equity strategist of Goldman Sachs.
TITLE: THE RUSSIAN FRONT: Putin’s 3 Choices
AUTHOR: By Richard Lourie
TEXT: For all the recent tumult in Russia, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is still the most powerful man in the country. The choices he makes now and in the near future will have a significant, even decisive, influence on the fate of the country.
His first choice is to take the suggestion of the protesters who flooded Moscow’s streets in December: retire. Unlikely as a real possibility, there are, however, some advantages to early retirement. The term Putin will no doubt win handily in March will be a long, tough six years that could make him old before his time and also make him go down in history as a failure instead of a mixed success. We can assume that he’s got sufficient funds stashed away to ensure himself a luxurious retirement and, who knows, maybe there’s something else he’s always wanted to do.
But Putin is only 59 — and a vigorous 59 at that. And the trouble with the game he’s in is that once you lose the position of national leader, there’s little else you can do except write your memoirs or run high-minded foundations. And that’s clearly not for him.
Another choice is to rise to the challenge of his moment in time and become a true hero of history. Russia is undergoing an interconnected series of crises that, if unresolved, could bring the country to its third collapse after those of 1917 and 1991. Americans worry about decline, Russians about fall.
Many of Russia’s problems can begin to be resolved if state control over television is relaxed enough to allow for at least one public broadcasting network, as already promised by President Dmitry Medvedev. In fact, that should be the No. 1 demand of the protesters. It is both more valuable and more attainable than new State Duma elections.
What’s more, it could help greatly with two of Russia’s other main problems — the lack of genuine opposition parties and a dependent judiciary. New politicians, ideas and platforms could emerge on public television, and the most egregious violations of the law could be subjected to investigative reporting. Other critical issues like the undiversified economy and the failure to create a new national identity can also be addressed. This might be a slow process, but the opposition insists that it wants evolution, not revolution.
Independent television should be not only the opposition’s No. 1 priority. It should be the top gauge of Putin’s seriousness about reform.
If Putin deals with the country’s problems head-on without denying they exist or blaming foreigners for them, he will go down in history as more than long-serving and self-serving. The chances are, however, that he will opt for an approach like that of a statesman he admires — Pyotr Stolypin, Tsar Nicholas II’s prime minister, who mixed strict discipline with intelligent reforms, helping the economy steam ahead in the first decade of the 20th century.
But Stolypin was assassinated in 1911, and six years later the Russia he tried to reform no longer existed. In any case, his combination of repression and reform, even if updated, is unlikely to fly at the beginning of the 21st century.
It’s also unlikely that Putin’s Russia would come to such a spectacularly tragic finale as Nicholas II’s. A rising death rate, capital flight, brain drain and computer anarchists would be enough to bring the country to a level of stagnation that would make the Leonid Brezhnev era look peppy by comparison. And in the ever swifter-moving 21st century, that would be an inertia impossible to overcome.
Richard Lourie is author of “The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin” and “Sakharov: A Biography.”
TITLE: Tales of a mad man
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Director Vasily Barkhatov’s fondness for Mariinsky Theater tenor Sergei Semishkur is manifested in two ways. One is that the singer tends to appear in lead roles in most productions Barkhatov stages at the Mariinsky, and the other one is a little more unusual — Semishkur’s characters inevitably have a strong drunken streak. Take, for instance, the gambler Nozdryov in Rodion Shchedrin’s “Dead Souls,” who is depicted as a typical Russian nouveau riche at a drunken sauna party that gets out of hand, complete with female models in towels, grabbing their lingerie in a hurry as they desert the place. Then there is his role as the constantly boozing peasant Steva in Leos Janacek’s “Jenufa.” With the arrival of the new staging of Jacques Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” (The Tales of Hoffmann), which premiered at the Mariinsky Theater on Dec. 26 and 27, audiences were treated to an alcohol-fuelled rendition of Hoffmann — performed by Semishkur.
“The Tales of Hoffmann” — unfinished at the time of Offenbach’s death and completed by Ernest Guiraud — first saw the stage at the Opera-Comique in Paris in 1881.
Since then, the piece — a romantic, magical tale of a poet caught in the eternal dilemma of choosing between his muse and a romantic relationship — has enjoyed much attention from opera directors around the world.
In Barkhatov’s show, Hoffmann suffers from severe schizophrenia. The director’s main goal was to visualize the parallel realities co-existing in the tormented man’s mind. The audience witnesses the many scenes taking place in Hoffmann’s disorganized and delusional mind.
In Act II, a video played at the back of the stage shows a young slim beauty dancing in a summer field. This is an image of Hoffmann’s beloved, the doll Olympia, portrayed by actress Polina Tolstun. At the same time, Mariinsky soprano Larisa Yudina was on stage as Olympia. Her performance was limited to standing in the far right corner and singing an aria. Finally, in the center of the stage we see the poor mental patient, Hoffmann, dressed in a white robe, dancing with a nurse and wearing bizarrely-shaped goggle-like glasses. At this point, the audience may well be overwhelmed with sympathy for almost everyone, including the singers, the composer, the poor lunatic himself, the mentally disturbed and a rather large number of fellow spectators forced into joining Hoffmann in this ordeal.
In the beginning, viewers may suspect that Hoffmann’s three loves — the doll Olympia, the singer Antonia and the courtesan Giulietta — are nothing but incarnations of one woman, Stella. But there is barely a hint in the director’s work linking the three, and nothing in the production prompts viewers to sense a possible connection — either in the characters’ outlooks or in their stage personalities — although this may be what those familiar with the libretto wanted to see.
Barkhatov’s production certainly contrasts with the Mariinsky’s previous version of the opera, staged by Martha Domingo in 2000.
Domingo broke no new ground, yet managed to create a most enchanting staging — a co-production with the Washington Opera and the Los Angeles Opera, where her husband served at the time as artistic director — with only some slight touches of the occult, making for fine opera entertainment with no excessive mystification and more of an illustrative twist, rather than a philosophical approach. The scenery — designed by Giovanni Agostinucci — was elaborate and ornamental, and was well-suited to Domingo’s artistic goals.
In Barkhatov’s staging, both vocally and musically, the Mariinsky soloists and the company’s symphony orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev demonstrated their most inspired best. Semishkur brought rage and charisma to one of the most vocally-challenging tenor roles ever, turning Hoffmann into a ravishing madman. Soprano Oksana Shilova convincingly played the dying singer Antonia, turning her heroine into something of a neoclassical Italian film character. Soprano Yekaterina Solovyova triumphed as the epitome of glamour and manipulation as Giulietta, who goads Hoffmann into granting her his shadow. Bass-baritone Ildar Abdrazakov excelled in the roles of evil characters — Lindorf, Coppelius, Doctor Miracle and Dappertutto — bringing some gorgeous ghastly charm to the stage that partly justified the director’s treatment of Offenbach, which was in other respects pitiless.
The most puzzling part of Barkhatov’s approach to the opera is his surprising lack of sensitivity to what is one of the most delicate and mesmerizingly magical scores in the history of opera. Treating intricate magic as laugh-out-loud comedy sketches straight from a college party leaves viewers perplexed. It is like bringing luxurious flowing silk to a tailor and asking them to make you a dress, only to discover upon trying it on that it has been cut and fashioned as if it were sackcloth, not silk.
Comedy sketches can work wonders in opera, and they often do so, even in Barkhatov’s production of “Dead Souls.” Offenbach’s operatic fairy tale was however clearly a mismatch for this kind of treatment. Perhaps it was wise of the Mariinsky not to show the premiere again over the lengthy New Year holidays or immediately afterwards: The induced hangover effects could be damaging. The delirious staging looks more likely to provide a sobering effect in the spring.
“The Tales of Hoffmann” next plays on Jan. 24 and Feb. 23 at the Mariinsky Theater, 1 Teatralnaya Ploshchad. Tel. 326 41 41. M. Sennaya Ploshchad / Sadovaya. www.mariinsky.ru
TITLE: word’s worth: The most-liked words of 2011
AUTHOR: By Michel Berdy
TEXT: Ñëîâà ãîäà 2011: Words of the Year 2011
Every year since 2007, the Expert Council of the Center for the Development of the Russian Language — a group made up of linguists, writers, philosophers, cultural specialists and other smart folks — vote for ñëîâà ãîäà (words of the year). Their list, divided into several categories, is a kind of snapshot of the year gone by. Aptly, their selection for 2011 is pretty much all politics with a few techie and social-networking loan words from English. With their list and a bit of Googling, any journalist could come up with a decent Year in Review.
The top three individual words are ïîëèöèÿ (police), ðîêèðîâêà (castling, job swap at the top) and àëüôà-ñàìåö (alpha male). These three words could produce a lazy journalist’s year-end wrap up: “In 2011, the ruling tandem agreed to change places, and the year ended with a dramatic battle for power among the country’s alpha males. Troops from the Interior Ministry, formerly called the militia and now renamed the police, were at the ready, but did not interfere.”
Battle plans are announced via Òâèòòåð (Twitter) and Ôåéñáóê (Facebook), which hold first and second place in the category of loan words. Foot soldiers indicate their preferences with the verb ëàéêàòü (to like, in the Facebook sense) on their àéôîí (iPhone), àéïàä (iPad) or other ãàäæåò (gadget).
Other forms of public discontent are registered in the category of jargon. At the top of the list is ÐîñÏèë, the name of the web site run by alpha male, anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny. Ïèëèòü is to saw, but in slang, money is sawed off from the state budget and then conveniently falls into a bureaucrat’s pocket or bank account. Ðîñ here is an abbreviation of Ðîññèÿ and indicates that this is a national pastime among bureaucrats.
Second in the category of jargon is çäðàâîõîðîíåíèå, a mix of çäðàâîîõðàíåíèå (health care) and õîðîíèòü (to bury) or ïîõîðîíû (burial) — which gives you a good idea about the state of the health care system and the poor souls who pass through it.
Third in this category is a response to massive state corruption and a dying health care system: âàëèòü. In slang, this means “to get out, to leave a place,” as in Ïîðà âàëèòü! (Time to get the heck out of here!). People who do this are called another bit of award-winning jargon: ïîíàóåõàâøèå. This is a play on ïîíàåõàâøèå (invaders, people who have overrun us) and means “people who left in droves.” Apparently they looked around and thought: Íå ëàéêàëè (We didn’t “like” it).
Other things on the list that might not be to the liking of folks with packed suitcases: Áðåæíåâèçàöèÿ (Brezhevization) and the unique post of ïðåìüåðçèäåíò (premiersident), presumably a temporary position that will end in March.
The top three word combinations for 2011 are Ïàðòèÿ æóëèêîâ è âîðîâ (party of crooks and thieves), Àðàáñêàÿ âåñíà (Arab Spring), and Íàðîäíûé ôðîíò (Popular Front). I think the third is supposed to help the first avoid the second. First place in the category of phrases is Íàø äóðäîì ãîëîñóåò çà Ïóòèíà (Our nuthouse votes for Putin). This is either the title of a viral video or a prediction for March.
But I’d like to close with another of the top phrases: Ëåò ìè ñïèê ôðîì ìàé õàðò! 2011 was a wild year. I can’t wait to see what happens this year. Ñ Íîâûì ãîäîì!
Michele A. Berdy, a Moscow-based translator and interpreter, is author of “The Russian Word’s Worth” (Glas), a collection of her columns.
TITLE: A band of many talents
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Markscheider Kunst has managed to keep its sense of humor and have fun at its concerts, while its peers have grown deadly serious, the veteran St. Petersburg band’s singer and guitarist Sergei “Yefr” Yefremenko says.
“Leningrad had a great sense of humor in the beginning, but now it’s somehow gone,” he said, sipping a Heineken in a downtown café.
“Or take my favorite band Auktyon — everything has become so serious that I don’t understand — are we performing Stravinsky or playing on Stradivarius instruments? I can’t understand where this seriousness comes from, why everyone has become such a big shot.
“I’m not a big shot, I’m just having a laugh: Look at me — it’s all a circus. If you don’t like it, we won’t see you tomorrow, but if you like it, come again. But this ‘profound inner meaning’ that [Russian rock music station] Nashe Radio is full of makes me laugh. Because there’s no meaning in it, there’s no music in it, there’s no humor in it — so what are we doing, guys?”
While acknowledging DDT frontman Yury Shevchuk’s independent civic stance and dissident politics, Yefremenko said that he could not listen to more than half of the opening song on the band’s most recent album.
“I became so depressed that I had to watch a couple of Woody Allen films to recover,” he said.
However, Yefremenko singles out Akvarium’s Boris Grebenshchikov from other Russian veteran rock musicians.
“The only one who brings me joy in this sense is our dear Boris Borisovich, who keeps performing his songs even if some people laugh at them,” he says.
“But at least these are songs. With my late friend Pavel Litvinov, we once defined a song as something you can either hum while cooking scrambled eggs at home or perform in concert with an orchestra.”
As far as newer acts are concerned, he cites Chyo Morale, a band that fuses gypsy songs, Soviet pop and Balkan folk, both for its musicianship and sense of humor.
“Western musicians tend to do what they can do best and stay in their niche, but [Russian musicians] have been reinventing the wheel since the era of Russian rock [in the late 1980s],” Yefremenko says.
“Everything has already been invented and you don’t need to hide from that. If you’re a rock band, play rock in its accepted state; you don’t need to say things like ‘rock is when everything is bad’ or ‘rock is protest.’
“Rock and roll was invented by boys in order to get girls to like them. Its main message is that boys want to be liked by girls, while girls want to dance. When it works, it’s a good concert: When girls dance and like the boys who are standing on stage.”
Yefremenko did not attend the anti-electoral fraud rallies that brought together thousands in St. Petersburg and tens of thousands in Moscow, but says that he supported them.
“I sent my angel to them,” he says.
“I am with these people. I don’t like ‘rubbing out in an outhouse’ (a reference to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s infamous quote) or think that the Jews are to blame for everything. I am strictly against that. I think nobody is to blame.
“I believe that you have to start with yourself and to work on yourself. And don’t be ashamed of what you’re doing. If you do your job honestly, nobody will say a word to you.”
Markscheider Kunst’s own highly danceable music blend includes ska, funk, reggae, Brazilian rhythms and salsa, although it started out as a rhythm and blues trio in 1992.
“We like Latin music, so we play it,” Yefremenko says.
“We had a period when we were playing African music with [African singer] Selengi Makangila. We played it and did so well, natives of this culture used to tell us. We’re not ashamed of that. Now we like Latin music, and we may like something else later. There’s no need to worry; since the Mongol invasion, anything can be absorbed in Russia.”
Since 2000, Yefremenko has also been the frontman of Tres Muchachos y Companieros, Markscheider Kunst’s spin-off band that performs an early-to-mid-20th-century Cuban repertoire. With Tres Muchachos y Companieros he plays the tres, a three-stringed Cuban guitar.
Yefremenko is especially proud that a track from Tres Muchachos y Companieros (a cover of Jimmy Bosch’s “Pa’ Mantener Tradicion”) was featured on the celebrated U.S. world music label Putumayo’s compilation “Rumba, Mambo, Cha Cha Cha” in April 2011, making it, perhaps, the first East European band to find itself in a Putumayo Latin series.
“We were pretty surprised when they called me,” he says.
“I said ‘Putumayo? Aren’t you that label whose records I have at home?’ Take everything for free!”
The entire lineup of Markscheider Kunst is also part of the St. Petersburg Ska-Jazz Review, the band formed by former Spitfire drummer Denis Kuptsov.
According to Yefremenko, the band has just finished auditioning female singers for the St. Petersburg Ska-Jazz Review to replace Yulia Kogan, originally from stadium rock band Leningrad. He says Leningrad’s frontman Sergei Shnurov banned her from performing with any other band besides Leningrad.
On Dec. 10, Markscheider Kunst released a two-track CD single called “Soldiers G.”
“We did it for our concert at Kosmonavt, to have a reason to perform, because we had played a huge number of concerts like it,” Yefremenko says.
“These two songs [‘Soldiers G’ and ‘Forever’] last for about 13 minutes; there’s no radio format at all and we play for as long as we want — that was the idea. Because all the guys in the band have their say in the band’s matters, and if a song turns out to be fun, we play it from the heart.”
Markscheider Kunst and Tres Muchachos y Companieros will perform this week at the underground bunker club Griboyedov, celebrating Old New Year’s Eve (under the Julian calendar), the unofficial holiday that traditionally concludes the two-week New Year holidays in Russia.
“We ended last year with a gig at Griboyedov and we are starting our new year there too,” Yefremenko says.
“During the New Year holidays, people are at home, drunk and with no money, so a small club will be sufficient for the people who want to come to the show.”
On Friday, Markscheider Kunst will be performing with its trombone player Anton Vishnyakov, who has been away lately touring with stadium rockers DDT.
Yefremenko said the band is planning to follow up its 2010 album “Utopia” with a new album tentatively called “Euphoria” later this year.
“Euphoria is the name of the yacht that we sail on when we’re in Finland, across channels and lakes, and it’s also an internal state; it’s not like euphoria from some kinds of victories, but about enjoying life, rather than constantly thinking about your daily bread,” Yefremenko says.
Markscheider Kunst performs at 9 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 13 at Griboyedov, 2A Voronezhskaya Ulitsa. Tel. 764 4355, 973 7273. Tres Muchachos y Companieros performs at the same venue on Saturday, Jan. 14.
TITLE: THE DISH: Dans Le Noir?
AUTHOR: By Ciara Bartlam
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Dining in the dark
How does one begin to describe a restaurant that is virtually invisible to the eye? A restaurant in which there is simply no interior to speak of, where you cannot see the food that you are eating — and where you cannot even be absolutely sure what it is that you are putting in your mouth — a place where you have to be led by hand to your chair and orient yourself by fumbling for your glass with your left hand and for your cutlery with your right.
This is Dans Le Noir?, an international chain of intimate restaurants (the local branch is the newest, following in the footsteps of Paris, London, Barcelona and New York) that embody a new dining experience based on the idea that we eat with our eyes, with all other senses being lost in a culture of artless eating and mindless feeding. There is one simple aim in the creation of these establishments: To bring food back to basics. How is this achieved? By taking away the primary sense of sight.
Dans le Noir? is located inside Sokos Hotel Palace Bridge, a ten-minute walk from Palace Bridge. The restaurant waiting area is situated on the first floor beneath the hotel’s reception area. The restaurant itself is much higher, draped in total darkness and staffed by blind wait staff to ensure that the experience is as authentic as possible.
Guests are asked to come 15 minutes before their booking time to choose a menu from four options: White Chef’s Surprise, Green Vegetarian, Blue Fish and Red Meat. The next step is to choose the number of courses: An appetizer and a main or main plus dessert for 1,800 rubles ($57), an appetizer, a main and a dessert for 2,200 rubles ($69) or Chef’s Surprise, an appetizer, main and dessert for 2,600 rubles ($82). It would defy the object of the experience if guests knew the contents of the menu before trying it, and it would also be giving the game away to reveal them here. What can be said is that the ingredients are well-chosen, incredibly fresh and with such an abundance of flavors that any guest’s taste buds will be in perpetual anticipation of the next unexpected addition to their plate.
There is no need for alarm when entering the restaurant: This is no Survivor and guests can rest assured that there are no kangaroo testicles in sight, or out of it. Guests are taken upstairs to the restaurant and introduced to their blind waiter or waitress, who leads them to their seats and is always within hearing. The staff are exceptionally helpful and guests are assured that if they want to leave, they need only holler.
Once inside, guests walk through a maze of turns and curtains with each person clutching the one in front. The waiters know every inch of the restaurant by heart, which is reassuring since first impressions are so bewildering. After everyone is seated, the dining experience commences. First comes the “surprise” wine (1,500 rubles, $47): Guests may feel impressed by their own ability to pour wine into an unseen glass, but do make sure you know how tall your glass is before pouring. Next comes a careful toast in the dark and the somewhat precarious clinking of glasses.
With every new course, new guessing games inspire conversation and draw attention to the food in a way that no regular restaurant can. Every faculty anticipates the next stage until the end of the meal, when they are completely exhausted by the effort. The effect of the loss of sight is really incredible: Sounds are amplified to such an extent that they become more real and almost visible, aromas become incomparably richer, and dark shadows dance among the even darker surroundings. Every portion feels gargantuan because of the desire to taste every single bite, although nothing about the meal is revealed until after it is finished. Dans le Noir? combines two essential aspects of daily life — the necessity of food and our reliance on sight — and shows just how far these two needs are taken for granted.
The restaurant is open from 6 p.m. with sittings every hour until the last one at 9 p.m. The menu changes every three months and also incorporates seasonal holidays such as Halloween as and when they arise.
TITLE: CHERNOV’S CHOICE
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
TEXT: Kremlin PR says that Russia is ruled by sophisticated rock music fans — but the Kremlin’s New Year party revealed once again how lame their music tastes are.
The repertoire sheet that was leaked onto the web features such fabulous acts as the British 1970s pop band Smokie, Italian 1970s pop band Ricchi e Poveri, Italian soft-rock musician Zucchero (which means “sugar”) and French eurodisco duo Ottawan.
The lineup also featured some Russian acts that are just too horrible to name here.
Smokie, which advertises itself as a “great band still playing great music” on its web site, is reputed to be Putin’s favorite band since it played to him at the same kind of party in 2004.
Hailing from Bradford, the semi-forgotten band, which had success in the 1970s and was memorable for such ditties as “Don’t Play Your Rock and Roll to Me” and its former singer Chris Norman’s coarse vocals, has only one original member left — the 60-year-old bassist Terry Uttley.
In the wake of massive electoral fraud in Russia, Paul McCartney wisely did not meet with Kremlin leaders during his visit to Moscow in December and recorded a video for his fans instead.
Smokie, however, are bragging about being accepted at the Kremlin.
“Performing in Moscow and at the Kremlin was an extravaganza of a night with President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin in attendance along with Russia’s most senior government and business leaders,” the band wrote on its web site, adding, “We were looked after extremely well as usual in Russia.”
Speaking to The Guardian, Uttley said he was honored to take part. “I think Medvedev and Putin were at the first table in front of the guitar player, although I can’t be certain,” he said. “It was very highbrow. There wasn’t any dancing in the aisles.”
Smokie’s manager John Wagstaff said they were Putin’s favorite band in an interview with Bradford Telegraph & Argus.
“Smokie’s song ‘What Can I Do’ was the biggest-selling single in Russia, and Putin saw them perform at the President of Khazakstan’s [sic] birthday party,” he was quoted as saying.
“I got a phone call from the Russian Embassy inviting the band to play at this year’s President’s Reception in the palace at the Kremlin.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity for the band, playing for 1,500 of Russia’s top state, military and church leaders.”
Whether or not the band is Putin’s favorite, it looks like the promoter went for the cheapest possible acts available. Oligarch Roman Abramovich outdid the Kremlin by bringing the Red Hot Chilli Peppers to his lavish New Year party held on the Caribbean island of St. Barts.
There was no immediate comment from the band concerning whether they were proud of this or not.
TITLE: Russian Immigrant Steams Things Up in Canada
AUTHOR: By Lena Smirnova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Well-muscled and menacing at first glance, former Soviet soldier Pavel Dukhin might be the last person you’d want to have beat you with tree branches, although that is exactly what his job is.
A resourceful immigrant to Canada, he now works as a manager at a landfill. In his spare time, Pavel bulldozes gravel and chops down trees on his multi-hectare property in Langley, a Vancouver suburb. Even with his biceps covered and the chainsaw turned off, “Pasha,” as his customers call him, does not create the impression of being a pushover.
What keeps drawing the much less burly Vancouverites to visit Pasha is the Russian banya he has built in his yard.
Among ex-Soviet immigrants in North America, Dukhin is a member of the fortunate minority who own their own banya, while others can only pine for steam and curse common shower stalls for their inadequacy. But things are looking up. As more and more emigre entrepreneurs open commercial banyas across the continent, Russians and locals alike are lining up to revel in the ancient tradition.
Dukhin did his military service on a top-secret missile test range in Kazakhstan and later became a tenacious businessman in the Moscow region, plowing his way through post-Soviet crime and corruption. When he first came to Vancouver eight years ago, a Russian friend invited him to go to a sauna on the top floor of a high-rise apartment.
“There were probably other Russians living in this building because someone had ripped out the thermostat,” Dukhin said. “Usually you’re not supposed to have temperatures of more than 80 degrees [Celsius]. We went to 100.”
The banya tradition dates back to the 11th century in Russia. A small room — traditionally a wooden log shed, but brick structures and even modified closets will do in a pinch — is heated by an electric or wood-burning stove to well over 80 degrees. Copious amounts of water poured on the heat source bring the humidity up to about the same level. A visit to a banya begins with several rotations in and out of the steamy room to allow the body to warm up. This cycle culminates with banya aficionados beating each other with bunches of birch or pine branches, called veniki, as a form of massage. Depending on the bravado of the participant, the event could wrap up with a plunge in cold water or a roll in the snow.
This ritual is meant to stimulate sweating, cleanse skin, heal wounds, relax muscles, relieve stress, promote metabolism and improve one’s mood.
Dukhin decided to build his own banya when he moved to a large land plot in 2007. His budget was tight, but he managed to get some free deals online. His friends also helped out for the noble cause. They carted in furniture and one friend even supplied the flooring.
A half-year after moving to the property, Dukhin was steaming in his own banya. He started inviting friends over as soon as he had the roof up. Gradually the banya turned into a side business. A visit is priced at $150 for three hours regardless of how many people participate. The price includes a veniki beating for two, and you get to take the bunched branches home with you as a souvenir.
This banya in Langley is one of the many commercial banyas that are now open in Canada and the United States.
The Russian bathhouse on Gravesend Neck Road was built in 1979 and is the oldest in Brooklyn, New York. On average, about 250 guests stew there for three to four hours on the weekends. During the week, there are banya sessions for young people. Students can be seen doing schoolwork in between stints in the heat.
“The idea was right,” said owner Israel Odessky, of his decision to open a communal banya. “Russian people love the banya. … It means relaxation. It is something for the soul.”
The Tradition Goes South
Anatoly Goldshmid started going to banyas in Ukraine when he was 3 years old, and continued the routine even after he immigrated to the United States. Each Saturday for 25 years he drove for several hours to get to one of the New York City banyas to keep his date with a twig bouquet.
The move to Dallas left Goldshmid feeling unsettled. There were no banyas around.
Working with urgency, Goldshmid set out to build his own banya and within weeks had a reasonable facsimile operating in his house. Five years ago, Goldshmid put up a banya complex in a Dallas suburb, which remains the only communal Russian banya in the American Southwest.
The banya business is also spreading in other directions. Alexander Orlov, a Kiev native who now lives in New Jersey, sells veniki across the East Coast as well as to Texas and Canada. He has built a cedar banya in his house and takes orders to build banyas for expatriates from the former Soviet Union who have settled in North America.
“I can’t live without a banya,” Orlov said.
The Melting Pot of Clients
Dukhin sent letters to two Vancouver Russian-language papers when he opened up his banya to outside visitors. One of the papers replied with just one word: “cool.” Then it published the ads.
But the advertisements didn’t bring in as many people as Dukhin expected. The most effective strategy for him has been word-of-mouth.
Most commercial banyas still rely on this tactic.
“It is very hard to write on paper what a Russian banya is,” said Goldshmid, who advertised his Dallas-area banya on the Internet and in local papers.
It can also be hard to prove what the Russian banya is not. James Schoenfeld, a regular customer at the Russian & Turkish Baths in downtown New York City said that a ‘bathhouse’ can easily be linked to illicit behavior.
“If they say ‘we’re going to a bathhouse,’ someone will raise an eyebrow,” Schoenfeld said, adding that word-of-mouth exchanges can prevent such misunderstandings.
Schoenfeld went to his first banya with a friend and enthusiastically dived into all steps of the process, including a 30-minute oak-leaf venik lashing. Shortly after jumping out of the ice pool, Schoenfeld went to the banya’s front counter and bought a card for 15 more visits. He now goes to the Manhattan banya twice a year and has even convinced his girlfriend to join him.
“It was a nice test,” Schoenfeld said. “Any girl who is willing to try this has to be pretty cool.”
Westerners with a thirst for exploring other cultures are displacing the Russians as the top customers in many banyas. In fact, 90 percent of the clientele at the Wall Street Bath in the financial district of Manhattan are not native Russian. Its selling points include two steam rooms, Russian-language posters and a restaurant that sells borsch and solyanka.
“We taught the Americans how to steam,” manager Dmitry Lerner said. “They steam now better than the Russians.”
Legions of hockey fans flooded Odessky’s bathhouse in Brooklyn in 2000 when Sergei Nemchinov brought the Stanley Cup trophy in for a day.
Odessky has a photo of himself kissing the cup and is only too happy to give a guided tour of the signed hockey jerseys that hang on the walls: Kovalyov, Morozov, Ovechkin, Semin, Fyodorov and other high-profile athletes who had come in to be warmed and lashed.
Even in his small banya, Dukhin maintains a steady stream of customers.
To increase authenticity, Dukhin undergoes a costume change before he serves his clients. He puts on a Soviet-style hat with a star on the front and claps two flower-embroidered kitchen mittens together to hustle his client, Igor Zemtsov, into the heated room. Dukhin follows him in with a wooden bucket of hot water in which two veniki soak in preparation.
A few minutes later the only sound that can be heard is the whipping of the twigs as they hit Zemtsov’s body.
“The most important thing is that you don’t get cold,” Dukhin teases as the beating intensifies.
Zemtsov emerges from the room with steam rising from his body and a relieved smile on his face. He embraces Dukhin as they say goodbye and thanks him for ridding his body of its aches.
“Tomorrow he’ll tell me that he is thinking about me,” Dukhin chuckles as he watches Zemtsov drive away. He is sure this won’t be Zemtsov’s last visit.