SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times DATE: Issue #1721 (32), Wednesday, August 8, 2012 ************************************************************************** TITLE: Satellite Town Aims to Maximize Comfort for Value AUTHOR: By Natalya Smolentseva PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: In 15 years St. Petersburg will have a new satellite town known as Yuzhny — a self-sufficient miniature city with its own infrastructure and businesses, and whose residents will likely be labeled “southerners.”  “Housing covering an area of 4.3 million square meters for 134,000 residents will be built there,” said Andrei Nazarov, general director of Start Development Management company, the project’s developer, which signed a joint agreement on the realization of the project with the St. Petersburg city government last month. “The strategic importance of the project is defined by its orientation toward improving the socio-economic, social and cultural life of the population,” said Oleg Lyskov, acting chairman of City Hall’s Committee for Investment and Strategic Projects. “The building of low-rise constructions, which provide a new level of comfort in urban environments, is widespread practice in European cities because of the number of advantages they offer,” he added. The concept of the Yuzhny satellite town was developed by Urban Design Associates, an American architectural bureau, and Gillespies, a British architecture and urban design firm. The companies’ stated aim is to create a project that will combine modern technology with urban development, maximizing the relationship between value and comfort. Yuzhny will cover 2,000 hectares of land in St. Petersburg’s Pushkinsky district, and another 2,000 in the Leningrad Oblast. Various classes of housing including villas, townhouses and apartments will be constructed on the territory. “If we were to start selling [real estate] today, the price of economy class housing would be between 45,000 and 47,000 rubles ($1,400-$1,470) per square meter,” said Nazarov. But who will move to the new town? According to St. Petersburg’s Housing Committee, at the beginning of April this year, 182,000 families in St. Petersburg were registered as wanting to improve their housing conditions. In addition, St. Petersburg is one of the most popular destinations that people move to from all over Russia. The city expects the Yuzhny satellite town to help create a huge number of jobs, both for Yuzhny residents and others. “There will be jobs in the industrial park, as well as those associated with the infrastructure and service sectors of the city,” said Nazarov. “We don’t deny that some people will travel from Yuzhny to St. Petersburg; about 20 percent of the working population will work in the center [St. Petersburg],” he added. Developers also expect Yuzhny to attract workers from the southern suburbs of St. Petersburg such as Kupchino and Kolpino. They hope the satellite town will eventually resemble La Défense business district in Paris, which has 20,000 residents, while a total of 150,000 people work in the district. The satellite town will also house several commercial projects, including the Doni-Verevo industrial park, which will cover 183 hectares in the Leningrad Oblast. Yuzhny will also have 58 kindergartens, 27 schools, ten sports and entertainment centers and 12 medical clinics. Three-hundred-and-fifty hectares have been designated as park, lake and beach areas. Buses and suburban trains will provide transportation between Yuzhny and St. Petersburg. The six-lane Kiev highway and a junction of St. Petersburg’s KAD ring road are both situated in this part of the city. Developers are also planning to launch a high-speed tram and a second ring road — the KAD-2. “The Yuzhny satellite town project includes developing the necessary transportation infrastructure on the territory, which will relieve traffic in the south of the city and in the Pushkinsky [district] in particular,” said Lyskov. The Pushkinsky district territory on which Yuzhy is going to be built is currently classed as agricultural land. In order for investors to build there, the status of this land must first be changed to urban development land. This problem will be resolved when the master plan for St. Petersburg is updated, according to Lyskov. He promised that as the Committee for Urban Development and Architecture is devising the plan for the project, all ecological risks will be minimized. The total volume of investment in the project is estimated at 176 billion rubles ($5.5 billion). City Hall will be in charge of developing transportation and social infrastructure, while construction companies will build residential and commercial buildings. Start Development Management plans to occupy only 20 percent of the territory. The project, whose construction will commence in 2013 and is due to be completed in 2028, has already attracted a significant amount of interest among both Russian and international corporations, according to its investors. TITLE: First Protesters Get Fined Under New Rally Law AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: The court, which resumed after a one-month holiday last week, wrapped up its viewing of the video evidence presented by the prosecution in the trial of the 12 The Other Russia opposition party activists accused of continuing the activities of the banned National Bolshevik Party (NBP). The Other Russia was formed by opposition leader and author Eduard Limonov after his former organization, the NBP, was banned by a Moscow court for being extremist in 2007. The recordings made during the party’s weekly meetings in an apartment equipped with a hidden video camera and microphone were supposed to prove that the activists continued the “extremist activities of a banned organization.” The video footage however showed nothing extremist. The recordings documented people gathering at an empty apartment and discussing current political issues and peaceful protests that they had held or were planning. “The prosecution has resorted to legal casuistry and has not even tried to prove [the presence of] ‘extremism,’” said Andrei Dmitriyev, the local chair of The Other Russia and one of the main defendants. “They think it will be enough to prove that our meetings were held not by the pro-democracy party The Other Russia, but by the scary, horrible, bloodthirsty NBP.” Dmitriyev, Andrei Pesotsky and Alexei Marochkin face up to four years in prison for being “organizers” of the extremist activities of a banned organization while the rest face up to two years as “participants.” The indictment and criminal case abound in mistakes such as calling the Okhta Center [the unpopular Gazprom skyscraper project that the opposition protested against until it was terminated] an “auto center,”and what many believe to be deliberate distortions of the facts. Most of these distortions are based on the video footage of the meetings and the testimonies of two secret witnesses, who are suspected to be undercover police agents. The case was criticized by rights activists and lawyers as “political” and “unlawful,” while Andrei Pesotsky’s lawyer Olga Tseitlina described it as a “gift for the European Court of Human Rights.” Having finished viewing the video evidence, the prosecution is expected to present further evidence, including flyers, posters, buttons, newspapers and books seized during the searches of the activists’ apartments. According to Dmitriyev, the criminal proceedings against the activists were launched in September of 2010 — after a period of covert surveillance in 2009 — in order to curb their Strategy 31 campaign of peaceful rallies in defense of the right of assembly. However, the party’s eight other activists were arrested on July 31 for taking part in the most recent Strategy 31 protest. So far, three of the detained activists have been fined 10,000 rubles ($320), becoming the city’s first protesters to be fined under the new, harsher law on public assemblies, which has been in effect since June 9. Dmitriyev said the fines would be appealed in higher courts and, if necessary, in the European Court of Human Rights. “We won’t pay, because we don’t have that kind of money; let the bailiffs come and seize our property,” Dmitriyev said. TITLE: IN BRIEF TEXT: Boats Collide on Neva ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — A collision between a pleasure boat and a cargo ship on the Neva River last Tuesday night was the result of river traffic safety rules being violated, Russia’s Investigative Committee said. “The crew of the pleasure boat violated the water traffic safety rules. We are not excluding professional errors in the work of the cargo ship either,” the Investigative Committee said on its website last week. The two vessels collided on the stretch of the river near the Summer Garden. As a result of the incident, the motorboat, which had 13 passengers and two crewmembers on board, sank. All those on board were rescued from the water. Finns Bar Entry ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected about 8,000 applications for Schengen visas submitted by Russians last year. The percentage of rejections represented 0.7 percent of the total number of applications, Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s biggest daily newspaper, reported last week. Rejections are usually issued on one of several grounds: Suspicions that the applicant wants to use the visa to remain in the Schengen zone, or to ban certain people from entering a Schengen-zone country, or on national security grounds. Sailor Killed at Sea ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — One sailor died and four others were injured in an accident on board the naval training ship the Perekop in the Gulf of Finland on July 31. According to Fontanka.ru news website, a shell was fired from the ship at a training mine, but instead hit part of the ship. Five sailors were on deck when the shell exploded. According to some reports, they had gone out to take photos of themselves against the background of the ship’s gun being fired. Investigators have opened a criminal case into the violation of weapons handling rules. The ship’s captain is under investigation, Fontanka reported. Store Fails Inspection ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor found a range of health and safety violations at the Narodny supermarket, which is known for its discounted food. The results of an inspection by Rospotrebnadzor and published on the watchdog’s website showed that the Narodny store had violated sanitary and epidemiological requirements. The supermarket sold items that showed signs of spoiling, some of the products lacked documents testifying to their quality and safety standards, the conditions for the sale and storage of dairy products were violated, and temperature and humidity control was lacking, Fontanka reported. TITLE: Poll Shows Petersburgers Too Casual About Safe Sex AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: Seventy percent of St. Petersburgers aged between 16 and 35 do not use any form of contraception when having casual sex, according to the results of a nationwide sociological poll conducted earlier this month by NewsEffector and PN Reader monitoring agencies. The poll of 3,700 individuals between the ages of 16 and 50 was conducted in 36 Russian cities. The percentage of those that fail to use a condom or other forms of protection during casual sex in St. Petersburg is slightly higher than the national average of 63 percent. According to the poll, residents of large Russian cities tend to care less about using contraception than in more provincial areas. The report shows that cities with the highest numbers of those who did not use contraception — more than 70 percent of respondents — were discovered in Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Sochi, Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Volgograd, Krasnoyarsk, Novokuznetsk, Voronezh and Krasnodar. According to Sergei Moroz, the director of NewsEffector, St. Petersburg finds itself in the “medium” group, where between 60 and 70 percent of respondents do not use contraception. A similar situation was found in Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Tula, Ryazan, Kemerovo, Saratov, Ulyanovsk, Barnaul, Orenburg, Penza and Astrakhan. Only around 37 percent of those polled nationwide said they always use some form of contraception. By contrast, 63 percent of Russians said they “did not care” or “forgot about” contraception, with the main reasons being that the encounter was a “spontaneous experience” or that they were under the influence of alcohol. Even in the cities that ranked as some of the safest for contraception, such as Kazan, Irkutsk, Yaroslavl, Tymen, Ufa, Perm, Omsk and Novosibirsk, at least 50 percent of those polled admitted to not using contraception. 33 percent nationwide confessed to having had sex with someone they had just met while under the influence of alcohol. Eighty percent of such cases involved unprotected sex, according to the agency. In St. Petersburg, 43 percent of respondents admitted to having had such an encounter. “Let’s face it: The vast majority of young people in Russia leave sexual safety up to chance,” Moroz said. “Since this attitude is so widespread, the risks for the population are staggering. The potential of spreading HIV, hepatitis C and other highly dangerous sexually transmitted diseases is huge.” Moroz blames much of young people’s ignorance regarding safe sex on the state. “Neither Russian television, nor other media outlets show any social advertisements promoting safe sex. While in Western Europe awareness campaigns complete with free condom distribution programs in bars and clubs frequented by young people are commonplace, in Russia they [campaigns] are hardly heard of. Even installing vending machines selling condoms in public restrooms seems to be a problem.” These unsettling results that show an obvious lack of awareness concerning sexually transmitted diseases among young people were released amidst fierce criticism from Vitaly Milonov, head of the legislative committee of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly and the man behind the city’s controversial gay propaganda law, against the state-funded Yuventa Center. The center offers lessons educating teenagers about safe sex. The lessons are given at Yuventa offices, as well as at schools. Milonov, a member of United Russia, branded such lessons, during which psychologists often demonstrate how to properly use a condom, “immoral.” “When the city parliament reconvenes in September, we should bring up the issue of ending state funding for Yuventa,” Milonov said. “With their lessons they encourage an unhealthy and premature interest in sex in children — they even offer abortions to teenage girls — all at the expense of the state. This is not acceptable.” However, Svetlana Agapitova, the St. Petersburg children’s ombudsman, supported Yuventa and what it does, stressing that “it is a good thing that teenagers have a center where there are competent doctors and psychologists that they can rely on in a crisis.” The controversy concerning Yuventa is all the more surprising considering the fact that the vast majority of young people who contract HIV in Russia are infected as a result of unprotected sex. The leaflets distributed at Yuventa emphasize that “it is high time everyone assumed full responsibility for their own health and well-being, especially concerning things as simple and straight-forward as getting a condom.” According to official statistics, 64 percent of pregnancies in Russia end in abortion. In Western Europe under 25 percent of pregnancies are terminated and in the U. K. this figure is between ten and 15 percent. Official statistics state that there are 400,000 HIV-positive people in Russia, while independent experts say the numbers have already exceeded 1 million. Between 110 and 120 new cases are registered in the country every day. St. Petersburg has some of the highest numbers of HIV-positive people in the country. Since 2002, between 3,000 and 4,500 new cases have been registered in the city annually. According to the St. Petersburg City Center for AIDS Prevention, nearly 47,000 HIV-positive people had registered in St. Petersburg as of January 2012. Over 38,000 HIV-positive people had registered in Moscow. TITLE: 42 Percent of Russians See Selves As Overweight AUTHOR: By Irina Titova PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: Forty-five percent of Russians believe that society is prejudiced against overweight people and does not respect them, according to sociologists from the recruitment portal Superjob.ru, Interfax reported. Women are more often inclined to think that being overweight leads to discrimination: Fifty-six percent of women believe it to be the case, compared to 36 percent of men. However, 32 percent of the people who took part in the survey did not think overweight people faced prejudice, and 23 percent had no strong opinion on the matter. The survey indicated that 35 percent of people think that overweight people are discriminated against during the recruitment process. “Employers prefer to hire tall and slim people, regardless of their gender,” one survey participant said. The sociologists said that at least 36 percent of employers confessed to paying attention to the shape and size of potential employees. “Excess weight is a sign of weakness in 95 percent of cases. Why would we need employees with no willpower?” and “an overweight person has a whole range of complexes, and is therefore a bad worker,” were some of the responses given by employers. Fifty-one percent of employers said that they do not pay any attention to a job candidate’s weight, saying, “We’ve got many nice people who are overweight in our company who work much better than their slim colleagues,” and “professional and personal qualities are much more important.” The survey indicated that 42 percent of Russians believe they are overweight, comprising 45 percent of men and 39 percent of women. At least 19 percent of people said they would like to lose five kilograms, 17 percent said they needed to lose five to 10 kilograms, nine percent confessed to being overweight by 11 to 20 kilos, and six percent had more than 20 kilograms of excess weight. TITLE: Once-Powerful Russia Behind in Gold Medal Race PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: LONDON — After a miserable first week in the gold medal stakes, traditional powerhouse Russia is showing signs of a revival, though not enough to avoid its lowest Summer Olympic finish in 60 years. While some of Russia’s strongest events are still to come, the team is set to wind up outside the top three in golds for the first time since the Soviet Union began competing at the games in 1952. It’s a worrying sign for a country that will host the next Olympics, the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, and follows Russia’s worst-ever performance at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. “Sure, we would like to have more gold medals,” Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov told RIA-Novosti. “But this is sports, and in many sport events we just lack a bit of luck and good fortune.” After lagging in 10th for total gold medals won in London, behind even North Korea and former Soviet republic Kazakhstan, Russia started to come to life this week, picking up four gold medals to move into fifth place. China and the United States are 1-2 in golds with 34 and 30, respectively, and host Britain third with 22 as of Tuesday evening when this paper went to press. Despite the shortage of gold, the Russians have been racking up other medals — 17 silver and 19 bronze for an overall count of 44. They have moved just behind Britain into fourth place in total medals. Russia’s recent decline has coincided with China’s rise as an Olympic superpower and continued dominance by the United States. The Russian daily Sports Express said in a front-page commentary Monday that Russian sports were “frozen” between the Chinese and American systems. It blamed a shortage of state funding and lack of oversight and control over national sports federations. “It’s very far from China, where the watchful Communist Party is eyeing the selection process starting from the kindergarten stage, builds giant sports arenas and finances powerful medical research — and harshly demands results,” the paper said. “We must admit that we stand even further from the American model, and the distance keeps growing. Because it would be deadly if we ended state involvement in sports as they did. Sports industries that will feed themselves are simply absent in our country,” the paper said. There’s room for Russia to bring home plenty more in the final days of the games, which end Sunday. Russia has good medal chances in wrestling, synchronized swimming, gymnastics and boxing, among others. “Historically, we win 80 percent of our gold medals in the last five days,” Mikhail Kusnirovich, deputy head of the Russian team, said. “If we finish with 20 gold medals, it would be great.” Barring an amazing set of circumstances, Russia will not be able to catch Team GB in the gold medal race. The hosts have strong contenders ahead in track cycling, boxing, equestrian, sailing and track and field. Russia finished third in both medal counts at the past two summer Olympics and had been widely predicted to do the same in London. Before that, the Soviet Union or Russia had always been first or second going back to the 1952 Games in Helsinki. Monday’s competition lifted Russia’s mood when gymnast Aliya Mustafina took gold in the uneven bars. “Here it is, the long-awaited gold in gymnastics! I congratulate Aliya, and all the team and the gymnastics federation from the bottom of my heart!” Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said, according to the Itar-Tass agency. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev also sent congratulations, saying her “great achievement has brought a great joy to our fans and proved to the world that Russia holds an honorable place among the leaders in gymnastics.” A few hours later, Alan Khugaev won a gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling and Yuliya Zaripova captured the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase. Tuesday afternoon, Russia continued its streak for gold when Natalya Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina took first in the women’s duets for synchronized swimming. TITLE: Prosecutors Push Three-Year Punishment for Pussy Riot PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: MOSCOW — Prosecutors on Tuesday called for three-year sentences for the members of the feminist punk band that performed an anti-Vladimir Putin stunt in Moscow’s main cathedral, ignoring demands by human rights groups that the three women be set free. Defense lawyers and an influential Russian Orthodox cleric warned that jail time for the women could backfire by severing trust between ordinary Russians and the country’s institutions. Prosecutor Alexander Nikiforov portrayed his request as lenient, saying the recommendation takes into account the fact that two of the defendants are young mothers and that they have good character references. The hooliganism charges the three women of the Pussy Riot band face can carry a sentence of up to 7 years in prison. The three women — Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23; Maria Alekhina, 24; and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29 — have been in custody for five months following the February stunt, in which they took over a church pulpit in Christ the Savior cathedral for less than a minute, singing, high-kicking and dancing. The verdict is expected this week. The defendants have said their goal was to express their resentment over Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill’s support for Putin’s rule. But prosecutors have insisted throughout the trial that there were no political motives behind the performance. “They set themselves off against the Orthodox world and sought to devalue traditions and dogmas that have been formed for centuries,” Nikiforov said Tuesday. Members of the band say they did not mean to hurt anyone’s religious feelings when they performed the “punk prayer.” Larisa Pavlova, a lawyer for the church employees who were described as the injured party in the case told the court on Tuesday that she supports the sentencing recommendation. Pavlova said most hooliganism in Russia is committed when people are drunk and they often regret what they have done — but the defendants “thoroughly planned, rehearsed [their performance] and were fully aware of what they were doing.” “And they had the audacity to say in court that they did the right thing, that it’s OK and that they’re ready to keep on doing such things,” Pavlova said. Mark Feygin, a lawyer for the band, argued that a guilty verdict would “break a bond between the government and people for good” and that “society will never forgive the state for persecuting the innocent.” Archdeacon Andrei Kurayev, an influential Orthodox blogger and Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy, warned in an interview with the RIA Novosti news agency on Tuesday that jail time for the three would “turn them into martyrs” and would only feed hostility toward the Church. Meanwhile, Russian Internet users were fuming over a video of Putin visiting a monastery on Monday where a priest kneeled down to kiss his hand. Though Putin was visibly annoyed by the display of deference, many Russians felt the incident accurately portrayed a too-cozy relationship between the leader and the Orthodox Church. TITLE: Why an American Wants to Be a Russian Spy AUTHOR: By Andrei Soldatov TEXT: The notion that several children of the sleeper spies arrested in 2010 in the United States were groomed by Russian authorities to become foreign spies as adults is more evidence of the absurdity of the whole operation. Tim Foley, 20, is the eldest son of Donald Heathfield and Tracey Foley, whose real names are Andrei Bezrukov and Yelena Vavilova. Tim became a problem for U.S. authorities from the outset of the spy scandal. He had already finished his sophomore year at George Washington University when his parents were arrested by U.S. authorities. Following the deportation of the Russian agents from the United States, Foley informed the university that he still planned to continue his studies there. But since Foley reportedly knew sensitive details about his parents’ activities, Russian authorities have not allowed him to return to the United States. On July 31, The Wall Street Journal reported that the FBI had determined Tim Foley’s desire to serve Russia’s intelligence services after bugging the Foleys’ home. According to FBI officials, Tim’s parents told their son they wanted him to follow in their footsteps, after which Tim stood up and swore allegiance to “Mother Russia,” the Journal said. As a result of this article, many journalists concluded that the Russian spies could have posed a greater threat to U.S. national security than was thought two years ago because their children grew up in that country and could better integrate into American life and one day infiltrate U.S. government agencies. In 2010, the United States and Russia interpreted the spy scandal differently. Washington saw it as proof of the failure and backwardness of Russian intelligence, while Moscow claimed it was a proud achievement that it could infiltrate U.S. society. Russian leaders believed the Foreign Intelligence Service had finally restored the prestigious status that it lost after the end of the Cold War. At the time, I explained to U.S. journalists that Russia’s secret operation was a complete failure. After all, the spies had been working undercover for years and had failed to obtain a single government secret. What’s more, the Russian side considered the operation a success only because the agents had managed to initially fool U.S. authorities with fake passports. But the agents did absolutely nothing of importance while in the United States, so their accomplishment of securing fake passports was negligible at best. This notion that a spy operation is successful by simply establishing a physical presence in a foreign country was inherited by the Foreign Intelligence Service from its predecessor, the KGB. It is worth noting that the Foreign Intelligence Service is the only intelligence agency in Russia that was not subjected to post-Soviet reforms. It was simply spun off into a separate agency after the Soviet collapse. As a result, the agency kept all of the outdated traditions and practices of the KGB without understanding that they have no relevance to today’s environment. One of the largest anachronisms of this Soviet legacy was the practice of sending Russian citizens to live in the West undercover. This emerged in the late 1940s when new secret agents were needed to replace a decreasing supply of Communist sympathizers in the West. In reality, the practice of using Communist sympathizers was never really successful anyway because they did not have professional intelligence backgrounds, nor did they have the social connections needed to secure sensitive government posts. Faced with a shortage of foreign agents, Russian intelligence came up with the idea of sending sleeper agents that Moscow hoped would be able to strike from within Western society at the needed moment — that is, if the Cold War turned hot. Why has this outdated practice continued in Russia when almost every other country gave it up many years ago? One of the biggest problems is that the Foreign Intelligence Service answers directly to President Vladimir Putin, not to the parliament or the public. It was therefore a relatively easy task to convince Putin of the wisdom of continuing the old tradition of supporting sleeper agents in foreign countries. What’s more, the opportunity to plant Russian agents in the United States appealed to Putin’s ongoing desire to outdo Russia’s former Cold War enemy any way he could. Still stuck in the past, Putin views this superpower rivalry much in the same way he wants Russian athletes to get more medals than the Americans at the Olympic Games. Judging by The Wall Street Journal article, the United States has finally understood and accepted Russia’s logic. Only that logic could explain why U.S. authorities are wondering what the naturalized children of the spies could have accomplished in five or six years had they graduated from U.S. universities and their parents’ true identity remained undetected. In fact, the renewed U.S. concern over the spy incident is the best possible gift that the Foreign Intelligence Service, with its wounded pride, could have received. But there is another, more mundane explanation why Tim Foley wanted to continue his studies at George Washington University: When the young man learned that his parents earned so much money for simply living in the United States and doing absolutely nothing, he could not resist the temptation to follow in their footsteps and get the cushiest job on Earth. Andrei Soldatov is an intelligence analyst at Agentura.ru and co-author of “The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia’s Security State” and “The Enduring Legacy of the KGB.” TITLE: inside russia: Milner’s Physics Prize Is Best News in 10 Years AUTHOR: By Yulia Latynina TEXT: Yury Milner, the billionaire business partner of Alisher Usmanov and graduate of the physics department of Moscow State University, made his fortune investing in Facebook and Groupon. He established the Fundamental Physics Prize and has already awarded $3 million to each of the first three of nine winners. This is the best news I have heard in the last 10 years. It so happened that this news came during the Olympics. I must confess that I have never understood the idea of the Olympic Games. What is all the fuss over who swims the fastest? Fish swim much faster, anyway. And does it matter which human jumps the highest? Relative to body size, the flea jumps the highest of all. Why compare feats of physical prowess when animals far outperform humans in every way? Couldn’t we just award an Olympic medal to the flea and be done with it? I have always thought it more fitting to promote and give public recognition to accomplishments peculiar to humans — namely, for intellectual achievements. The Fundamental Physics Prize differs from the Nobel Prize in two important ways. First, it is awarded in the field of theoretical physics, an area in which new findings are rarely proven through physical experiments. Practically speaking, that means the prize is awarded to young researchers at the peak of their careers and not only to aging scientists whose significant work was performed decades earlier. Second, the Nobel committee — like the Russian Orthodox Church, the International Olympic Committee or any other structure created long ago with good intentions — has gradually become a closed bureaucracy over the years, and the decisions made by closed bureaucracies are not always optimal. Because Milner’s organization is new and has not had time to ossify or become irrelevant, the award recipients were chosen by several leading physicists and Milner himself, who, apparently undistracted by other hobbies, has kept current with developments in his former field. What’s more, the Fundamental Physics Prize awards almost three times more money than the Nobel Prize. But the principle involved is even more important than the dollar amount. The only justification for humankind’s existence is our desire to understand the world around us. The structure of society is good only to the extent that it reflects this yearning for knowledge. Milner’s prize reminds us that we live not only to dress better, run faster or even vote better because politicians differ from one another little more than warthogs do. Regardless of how Russia’s Olympic athletes fare in trying to outswim and outjump the fish and fleas of the world, three of the first nine recipients of the Fundamental Physics Prize are Russians who emigrated from Russia. They are Alexei Kitayev of the California Institute of Technology, Maxim Konstevich of the Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies in France and Andrei Linde, who works on cosmic inflation theories at Stanford University. In other words, in the only fitting competition for humans, Russians have received more gold medals than competitors from any other country. The only problem is that our leading geniuses left long ago to play for other teams. Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio. TITLE: Like a punk prayer AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: Pop music fans are not the only ones eagerly anticipating the visit of American music icon Madonna, who is performing in Moscow and St. Petersburg this week as part of her MDNA tour in support of her twelfth studio album of the same name. The imprisoned women of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot, currently on trial in Moscow, and their supporters are hoping for the pop superstar’s backing, while the Russian LGBT community is waiting for her to voice her opinion against the infamous anti-gay propaganda law as she promised to on Facebook earlier this year. But will she? Despite being known for taking a political stance on many issues, a recent television interview with Madonna on a Russian television channel unveiled her ignorance concerning the Pussy Riot case — already a big issue in the international media and music community. Madonna also did not make any statements about Russian LGBT rights after March, when she promised to speak about the issue at her concert in St. Petersburg amid the outrage concerning the law banning the “promotion of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderism to the minors.” The law was signed by city governor Georgy Poltavchenko in early March. Whether Madonna, who has described herself as a “freedom fighter,” will speak on behalf of Pussy Riot and the LGBT community at her Russian concerts was not known when this paper went to print. Her Moscow concert was due to take place on Tuesday, while her St. Petersburg performance is scheduled for Thursday. But both hopes and opposition are high. The mind behind the city’s controversial anti-gay propaganda law is Vitaly Milonov, a St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly deputy, who drafted the law in November 2011. Milonov, a parish council member of a local Orthodox church who described himself as a “church man” in an interview with The St. Petersburg Times earlier this year, voiced his disapproval of Madonna and promised to monitor her August show for signs of “gay propaganda.” The LGBT community then reacted by creating a satiric character, “Milonna,” which combines features of the United Russia deputy and the pop diva. Internet blogs were full of mock announcements and photo collages made from photos of Madonna and Milonov. One blogger, who goes by the moniker of “Alex,” wrote that Milonna would perform instead of Madonna in the city on Aug. 9, presenting a show featuring an Orthodox dance troupe from the Narodny Sobor (People’s Assembly), the nationalist Orthodox group that supported Milonov. In May, the local gay club Malevich held a series of adults-only “Milonna” parties, with an Internet ad showing an iconic image of Madonna with Milonov’s bespectacled face photoshopped into the picture instead of hers. It urged guests to dress up as the character. “We’ll warn those in charge of organizing her concerts that everything should be decent,” Milonov told Interfax Religion in early July. “Otherwise, they will face the strict laws of St. Petersburg. I heard that she pulls off her tights at concerts on this tour — we don’t want that here.” LGBT rights activists reacted by bringing a poster reading “Milonna, pull your tights off” to a gay rights protest near City Hall on July 7. Earlier this week, PMI, the concerts’ organizers, said that there were still no official warnings from Milonov. However, a Milonov supporter, Anatoly Artyukh, the local leader of Narodny Sobor, said that his nationalist Orthodox organization’s activists would monitor Madonna’s show for “decency.” Last week, Milonov told Interfax that the activists would document everything at the concert, “so that nobody can escape punishment.” Despite what some sources may have said, the singer herself had not heard about Pussy Riot until recently. In a recent television interview with the state-run NTV television, Madonna admitted that she did not know about the group, three of whose members are on trial for their anti-Putin “punk prayer,” which they performed in a church, and its high-profile case. “Pussy Riot? No. It’s a cool name,” she replied to a question asking if she knew about Pussy Riot. She was surprised to hear that they were in prison. “Are they in jail? For doing what?” Madonna asked. Broadcasted on July 27, the interview only had her saying that she was “sorry that they’ve been arrested” — after interviewer Anton Volsky briefly informed her about the case. On Monday, Madonna showed more knowledge speaking to Reuters Television in Moscow, calling the case “unfair” and saying that jailing Pussy Riot for seven years would be a “tragedy.” “I think art should be political. Historically speaking, art always reflects what’s going on socially. So for me, it’s hard to separate the idea of being an artist and being political,” she said. So far Pussy Riot has been supported by Faith No More, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Franz Ferdinand, Peter Gabriel, Sting and other artists. The number is continuing to grow. Over the last week, during which the trial has been taking place, dozens of artists have spoken out and petitioned on behalf of Pussy Riot, including musicians Patti Smith, John Lydon, Nina Hagen, Kate Nash, Pete Townshend as well as film directors Terry Gilliam and Agnieszka Holland. Artist Pyotr Verzilov, husband of imprisoned Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, said that since Madonna was interviewed on NTV, the singer has been fully informed about the case. Speaking to The St. Petersburg Times early this week, Verzilov said that the NTV interview was shot in mid-July. “Let’s see what kind of gesture she will finally decide to make during her stay in Russia.” Verzilov said that Madonna’s support would mean something special, keeping in mind the hostile reaction she faced during her early career. “Madonna went through a situation that is somewhat similar to what is happening to Pussy Riot when she started out in America, which was somewhat more conservative in the 1980s than it is now. Her modern-day cult status was, to a certain extent, caused by what she went through then. You can see some similarities between her situation and what is happening to Pussy Riot now.” The Pussy Riot trial sounds like a cause for Madonna for other reasons as well. She has been met with protests from Orthodox radicals and ultranationalists, as well as from the Moscow Patriarchate, which recommended that believers not attend her concert when she first performed in Russia in 2006. According to Verzilov, support from international artists for the imprisoned women cannot be overestimated. “It’s absolutely important,” he said. “They all were extremely happy to get letters from [Red Hot Chili Peppers’] Anthony Kiedis and [Franz Ferdinand’s] Alex Kapranos and everybody else. Nadya [Nadezhda Tolokonnikova] was especially pleased by the words that Nina Hagen said in an interview with [German broadcaster] Deutsche Welle, because she is a very big fan of hers. But everybody’s words of support were very pleasant for the girls.” Apart from Pussy Riot, the LGBT community is also looking forward to Madonna’s concerts in Russia, especially the one in St. Petersburg. In March, Madonna slammed St. Petersburg’s infamous “anti-gay propaganda” law as “a ridiculous atrocity” on her Facebook page and promised to “speak up for the gay community, to support the gay community and to give strength and inspiration to anyone who is or feels oppressed” at her local concert on Aug. 9. The statement came two days after journalist Masha Gessen urged Madonna to boycott St. Petersburg because of the law on her blog on The New York Times’ website, and was seen as an indirect answer, although Gessen’s appeal was not mentioned. Although Madonna has not addressed the issue since then, the local LGBT community believes she has not forgotten about her promise. “Hardly so, because it’s still discussed a lot, I am sure her management team monitors the press, so I hope she has not forgotten about it and will speak about it at the concert,” said Igor Kochetkov, the chair of the Russian LGBT Network. “She has many fans around the globe and, of course, if such a well-known person draws attention to the issue, it’s always important.” However, some in the LGBT community were disappointed with Madonna ignoring the appeal to boycott St. Petersburg and see her promise as “slyness.” Yury Gavrikov, the chair of Ravnopraviye (Equality), a LGBT rights group, said that protests were planned both in Moscow and St. Petersburg on the days of Madonna’s concerts. “It’s a well-known secret that fees received by top stars in Russia are higher than anywhere else in the world; they can’t make this amount of money by playing in Europe,” Gavrikov said. “She made a loud statement that she would be speaking out about human rights and criticizing the law on ‘gay propaganda,’ but in the recent NTV interview — where the issue was addressed — she spoke about it in a very moderate, restrained tone, almost as if in passing.” Even if Madonna does speak about the issue during the concert, the boycott proposed by Gessen would be much more effective, Garvrikov argued. “Cancellations of Russian concerts and a boycott of Russia by top stars on the grounds that human rights are not respected in this country — not only in regard to LGBT people, but on a broader scale, from freedom of speech to freedom of assembly — such a gesture would be stronger politically and more effective. There is a certain slyness in making a statement when you’re paid millions; ‘pay me and I’ll say something.’” “When stars come to make money and, while doing this, speak about human rights, it’s nothing else but slyness.” Gavrikov said that the boycott would be more efficient than any speeches made during concerts because of the effect it would have on the city’s budget. “The cancellations will affect the city’s budget, which is not directed toward social needs anyway,” he said. “It’s well-known that in the days when the governor signed the law into force, he turned down five social programs — from subsidies to large families to medical help for HIV-positive children.” “The reasoning was that there were no funds in the budget, while the homophobic law was signed with the explanation that it would not demand any additional budget expenses. This kind of free law that supposedly protects children...it’s all sheer lies and slyness.” Meanwhile, Orthodox and nationalist activists are also planning to picket Madonna’s St. Petersburg concert on Thursday, Interfax reported. Narodny Sobor activists and other groups said the protests are to be held outside the venue as well as by the nearest metro station, Park Pobedy. Madonna will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 9 at Peterburgsky Sports and Concert Complex (SKK), located at 8 Prospekt Yuriya Gagarina. M. Park Pobedy. Tel. 388 1211. TITLE: Whirlwind art AUTHOR: By Luisa Schulz PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: A small, compact container is currently playing host to a two-week-long art gallery on New Holland island at which the exhibition changes every three days. The Lyuda Express, also known as the Laboratory of Great Creation, opened in the city on Aug. 1 and will host local artists through Aug. 15. The idea of such a dynamic gallery is the project of curator Pyotr Bely, who carried out a similar project two years ago in a small gallery space on Mokhovaya Ulitsa provided by his friend Lyuda. There he held weekly exhibitions over a period of nine months. He has now returned with another, accelerated edition of this exhibition reflecting the mutability of contemporary art and dissolving the fixating, static nature of a gallery into a type of flip-book. “The quickened rhythm of our work in a way destroys the distance between the spectator and the artist,” Bely explains in the exhibition leaflet. The small-scale format of the exhibition requires some sort of artistic minimalism, which serves as the link between the otherwise very different artists. They also share common ground as they are all from St. Petersburg. In the days since its opening, the gallery has already featured artists Alexander Morosov with his cosmograms made out of neon tubes and the Mylo (“Soap”) Group, whose visual formalizations of political jargon as well as installations were on display. From Aug. 8 through Aug. 10, the venue will feature work by young artist Kirill Khrustalev, who uses witty subscriptions to give a new meaning to items often viewed as trash such as beer cans and cigarettes. This will be his third exhibition and will also feature some previously unseen work. The next whirlwind feature (Aug. 11) will be devoted to pieces by Konstantin Simun, an art world veteran best known for his Broken Ring memorial on the Road of Life, the frozen winter transport route and only access to the besieged city of Leningrad between 1941 and 1944, at Lake Ladoga. This exhibition, however, will present items from his recent series, Apocalypse, and includes photographs of plastic canisters that appear to have washed up on the sand with mask-like human faces carved into them. The exhibition finale belongs to Vlad Kulkov, an artist known for creating nests of strings resembling pieces of coral and coiled up snakes, and opens Aug. 14. The series to be seen at the Lyuda Express gallery, however, is marked by more austere, thorn-like forms reminiscent of 20th century Rayonism. Lyuda Express will hold exhibitions through Aug. 15 and is open from noon until 8 p.m. on New Holland island. For more information, visit www.newhollandsp.ru. TITLE: the word’s worth: The Pussy Riot Act AUTHOR: By Michele A. Berdy TEXT: Áîãîõóëüñòâî: blasphemy I have been reluctant to wade into the linguistic morass of the Pussy Riot case mostly because I’m not a specialist in religious or legal terminology. But I finally gave in to my curiosity and decided to read îáâèíèòåëüíîå çàêëþ÷åíèå (indictment). Half a page into it, the legal language was pretty clear, but my desk was covered with reference books on church and religious terminology. If you’re trying to follow the case, it may be helpful to understand a few of the recurring terms. First, where the action took place. In an Orthodox church, the raised platform in front of the iconostasis is ñîëåÿ (solea). The section of the solea in front of the royal doors is called àìâîí (ambon). Then, the cast of witnesses: Êëþ÷àðü (sacristan, ecclesiarch) is the person in charge of caring for the church building and its property. Àëòàðíèê (altar server) is a layperson that helps at the altar during the services. Ñâå÷íèöà is a woman selling candles. And now for the big accusations — the religious ones, I mean. Three words and their derivatives pop out throughout the text: Câÿòîòàòñòâî, áîãîõóëüñòâî and êîùóíñòâî, all of which are translated as sacrilege, blasphemy, profanity or desecration. After cross-checking church translations and dipping into pre-revolutionary law, I think I would translate ñâÿòîòàòñòâî as desecration, which involves some kind of violation of church property. It was the worst of the pre-revolutionary Russian religious crimes and carried the death penalty for centuries. I’d translate áîãîõóëüñòâî as blasphemy and êîùóíñòâî as sacrilege. This is important to know as you read the legal documents because although the accusation is couched in legal terms, the supporting evidence is largely presented in religious terms. The women are accused of committing an act of õóëèãàíñòâî, òî åñòü ãðóáîå íàðóøåíèå îáùåñòâåííîãî ïîðÿäêà, âûðàæàþùåå ÿâíîå íåóâàæåíèå ê îáùåñòâó, ñîâåðø¸ííîå ïî ìîòèâàì ðåëèãèîçíîé íåíàâèñòè èëè âðàæäû ëèáî ïî ìîòèâàì íåíàâèñòè â îòíîøåíèè êàêîé-ëèáî ñîöèàëüíîé ãðóïïû, ãðóïïîé ëèö ïî ïðåäâàðèòåëüíîìó ñãîâîðó (hooliganism, that is, a gross violation of public order expressing a clear disrespect for society, committed on the grounds of religious hatred or enmity or hate against a particular social group by a group of persons by prior agreement). What did they do? According to witness testimony — which is exactly the same, word for word, page after page — their behavior was “íåïîäîáàþùåå, à ôàêòè÷åñêè íàðóøàëî âñå ìûñëèìûå è íåìûñëèìûå îáùåïðèíÿòûå ïðàâèëà ïîâåäåíèÿ â Õðàìå” (unbefitting, and in fact violated all imaginable and unimaginable, commonly accepted rules of behavior in a church). They put on clothing “ÿâíî è î÷åâèäíî ïðîòèâîðå÷àùóþ îáùèì öåðêîâíûì ïðàâèëàì” (that clearly and obviously contradicted church rules). Then they “íà÷àëè áåñîâñêè äðûãàòüñÿ, ïðûãàòü, ñêàêàòü, çàäèðàòü âûñîêî íîãè, ìîòàòü ãîëîâàìè è îäíîâðåìåííî ñ ýòèì âûêðèêèâàëè î÷åíü îñêîðáèòåëüíûå, áîãîõóëüíûå ñëîâà” (started to satanically jerk around, jump, run, kick their legs up, twirl their heads while they shouted very insulting, blasphemous words). According to the indictment, this led to óíèæåíèå ÷óâñòâ è âåðîâàíèé ìíîãî÷èñëåííûõ ïðèâåðæåíöåâ ïðàâîñëàâíîãî õðèñòèàíñêîãî âåðîèñïîâåäàíèÿ è óìàëåíèå äóõîâíîé îñíîâû ãîñóäàðñòâà (a violation of the feelings and faith of many Orthodox Christians and a defilement of the spiritual basis of the state). After reading the indictment and following the trial, I’ve come to the conclusion that the spiritual basis of the state may indeed have been defiled, but not by Pussy Riot. Michele A. Berdy, a Moscow-based translator and interpreter, is author of “The Russian Word’s Worth” (Glas), a collection of her columns. TITLE: in the spotlight: A toast to the Pussy Riot judge AUTHOR: By Anna Malpas TEXT: Lately everyone’s attention has been on the Pussy Riot trial, whether wishing the women freedom or joyfully anticipating a long sentence, like pop singer Yelena Vayenga, who said she has already put champagne on ice. It’s a court case that leaves no one indifferent. Pussy Riot has gathered a pretty impressive cohort of supporters, including British comedian Stephen Fry, who used his massive Twitter following to call people to pressure Vladimir Putin, and quirky musician Jarvis Cocker, who signed a letter to The Times of London. But Vayenga, one of Russia’s most popular singers, said on her site that she would drink a toast to the judge who put the women away. Vayenga sings a type of music known in Russian as “chanson,” although there is nothing French about it. It can be prison-related but also sentimental about religion, big on crosses and guardian angels. She represents a certain section of middle Russia, like it or not. She became popular not through television slots or a powerful producer but by touring constantly and singing simple songs that people like. Vayenga wrote on her website that Pussy Riot had offended her “as an Orthodox Christian to the depths of my soul,” Moskovsky Komsomolets reported last Thursday, publishing a scan and a link. “Seven years is a lot? They’ll manage. Maybe it will put their brains in order,” she wrote in an idiosyncratically punctuated and spelled post. She also claimed the consequences would have been much worse for the women if the protest had been in a mosque (even if she can’t spell mosque). Oddly, this is a popular argument in Russia among people who can’t spell mosque. “Guys, I will personally drink to the health of the judge who hands them a jail term,” she added, quoted by Argumenty i Fakty. Vayenga removed the post after lots of media coverage, and put up a new one saying she only regretted misspelling mosque, which she blamed on “emotion and lack of education.” She told those who sent her “screeds from the Bible” to stop it. “Read that to your children. I don’t want it!” she said, pouring scorn on the idea that Christianity might involve reading. To get an idea of Vayenga’s views: She has vowed to ask Vladimir Putin to shut down the trashy reality show Dom-2 on TNT. That is a view shared by the Pussy Riot victims’ lawyer, Larisa Pavlova, who is a prominent figure in the Parents’ Committee pressure group. Members have gone to court to ban the show from broadcasting in the daytime because of alleged erotic content. Pavlova colorfully compared it to “dogs mating.” What’s really fascinating is how a group of feminist-theory-quoting radical protest artists even entered the orbit of conventional people like Vayenga and her fans. Another opponent of the women is pop diva Alla Pugachyova, who has dismissed the Pussy Riot women on television as “talentless fools.” And another pop singer, Valeriya, told Radio Liberty last week in a milder vein that the “street hooligans” should be punished, but only with administrative measures, not jail. The star, who has a wholesome family image, also brought up the Muslim argument, saying the women “would have been stoned” in a Muslim country. Valeriya seemed most incensed by Western stars supporting Pussy Riot, saying that they should not bite the hand that feeds them after doing lucrative private gigs in Russia. “They all come here for money and at the same time tell us what to do. They’re for democracy… Let them work out their democracy over there,” she ranted. A touch of sour grapes, perhaps, since her bid for pop fame in the West as a “Russian Madonna” has gone off the boil. TITLE: THE DISH: Il Konti AUTHOR: By Elizabeth Rattey PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: Feasting among ruins Il Konti is a bright bite of Italy hidden on a corner of drizzly Petersburg. After bringing his Italian flare to the taste buds of diners in both Moscow and the northern capital and opening several venues in the former, last November Giuseppe Conti finally opened his first eatery in St. Petersburg. Il Konti’s décor leaves no doubt in the mind as to what kind of restaurant this is: The white walls of the two fairly-sized dining rooms are brushed with images of Italian landscapes and seascapes as seen through the arches of a classic villa. The only thing missing is a soft breeze to rustle through the acrylic trees. This elegant view is contrasted — and complimented — by strategically chosen parts of wall that have “crumbled” to reveal patches of red brick. The idea of structures in disrepair is nothing foreign to St. Petersburg itself, and this decorative detail — in addition to singing a very Italian tune of ruins — is fondly reminiscent of neglected buildings that can be found around every street bend. These brick stretches are also exposed on the chiseled square columns that stand throughout the establishment and help to break up the space, making the table-filled rooms feel more intimate and the dining experience a little more private. The plant-laden windowsills and low lighting also help, while the radio-station music playing in the background, quite frankly, does not. A hefty basket of thin, smoky focaccia with basil (60 rubles, $1.85) and an additional sprinkle of Parmesan for 25 rubles ($0.75) gave us something to chew on while sipping a glass of Nero d’Avola Nobili di Trinacria wine for 160 rubles ($5), one of two reds offered by the glass, and mors (70 rubles, $2.15) as we waited for starters. First out was the sliced beef with Mozzarella and a Dijon sauce for 255 rubles ($7.85), which left more to be desired from the next dishes. The three modestly-sized slices of meat lacked flavor, and the sauce failed to cover up the blandness of the unseasoned meat and infamously tasteless cheese. The cream of spinach soup (215 rubles, $6.60) was more flavorful, and satisfyingly rich in spinach. The boiled quail eggs that were halved and bobbing in the soup may be a classic addition to the dish, but made the cream soup a little heavier than necessary. Mixed lettuce, sun-dried tomatoes, red bell pepper, baby potatoes, roast beef and cream cheese came together to make an original and filling house salad for 285 rubles ($8.80). The roast beef suspiciously resembled that from the meat appetizer, but fared much better flavor-wise with the medley of vegetables in a light, tart dressing. The combination of textures from the ingredients, especially the potatoes, which were first boiled and then gently sautéed in oil, was to the salad’s benefit and made the starter feel almost like a sandwich due to all of its hearty components. Il Konti’s entrée menu offers a wide variety of fish, meat, risotto and pasta dishes with prices for fish ranging from 450 to 750 rubles ($13.85 to $23.10). The average price for risotto is around 400 rubles ($12.30), while pasta dishes go from 225 to 430 rubles ($7 to $13.25). Most meat dishes go for about 500 rubles ($15.40) with the T-bone steak topping the price list at 1,420 rubles ($43.75). Spaghetti with shrimps and arugula (430 rubles, $13.25) looked festive and delicious and looks did not deceive. The pasta was al dente with a nice mixture of seafood and vegetables. Although the menu description only mentioned shrimp (of which there was one big one and another baby one hidden among the noodles) and arugula, the dish contained a pleasant surprise in the form of cherry tomatoes and scallops. The pasta Carbonara (285 rubles, $8.80) was perfectly peppered and not too heavy on the sauce, but failed presentation-wise in comparison to the other entrée. The sprig of basil did little to brighten up the nest of pasta with bacon and cream. The overall dining experience was relaxing with attentive and helpful service. The only brief disturbance was caused by another guest, who thought it appropriate to crack out a can of hairspray in the middle of the nearly empty room and pump up her wilting do. TITLE: Cartier Looks East — But Won’t Change Style AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: Russian aristocrats and members of the Romanov dynasty were once some of the most important clients for Cartier, one of the world’s most celebrated jewelry brands. In recent decades, however, high jewelry has become accessible to the new emerging elites far beyond Europe. And while Cartier is looking east, and in particular to the fast-developing Chinese market, Russia remains a key focus of the brand’s attention. Nicolas Roux-Alezais, head of Cartier’s high jewelry division and the Grand Vendeur of the brand — the man who oversees the exclusive individual orders — spoke to The St. Petersburg Times about how emotional creating a piece of jewelry can be, what parallels there are between making a perfume and crafting a necklace, and what the Russian connection means for Cartier today. While clients in some countries, including China, try to talk Cartier into designing special collections that would speak to the particular tastes and demands of local audiences, Roux-Alezais is adamant that this is not the way the company is going to develop its business. “However vast a profit it would involve, we will not change our style, and will not create tailor-made collections to placate, say, Chinese, Middle Eastern or Russian customers,” he said. “If we did so, we would resemble a woman who wants to please everyone, which is a silly thing to do. This way, you are sure to lose yourself, and win nothing.” Cartier designs are recognizable, and the style is carefully preserved. “When we hire a new artist, we give them time to adapt to our needs, and see for themselves whether they can create within the canons of Cartier,” Roux-Alezais said. “We do not promote names, which is a challenge for ambitious designers, but we need artists to be able to expand the range of Cartier without destroying its unique style.” Cartier’s immense archives are seen as the lifeblood of the brand, according to Roux-Alezais. “It is a vital source of inspiration for us,” he said. “At Cartier, we do not look at our history and past as at pages of a book that have been read and therefore we have finished with them. I would say that we achieve our balance by having one foot in the past and the other in the future. We are not in any way overexploiting our past. We remain faithful to our values and to the traditions that allowed Cartier to gain fame.” Cartier currently has more than 300 boutiques worldwide, and the plan is not to expand vigorously through opening more stores but rather through developing the existing ones. “The Russian market, in particular, has not yet reached its limit; we see substantial room for growth here,” Roux-Alezais said. The Russian market remains one of the priorities for the company, though the typical Russian client has changed since the pre-revolutionary era. In Roux-Alezais’ opinion, so-called New Russians often feel like superheroes and nobodies at the same time. On the one hand, rich people feel powerful, and justifiably so, because their wallet can buy them almost anything. On the other hand, the consequences of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution are still tangible in Russian society, in the sense that many traditions that had laid the foundation of the Russian elite have been lost. “The deep trauma inflicted by the 1917 revolution on Russian society is yet to heal,” Roux-Alezais said. “This kind of healing really takes time. In this respect, some Russians are people without a past. The main issue for these people, in my opinion, is to re-embrace the past, to re-appropriate the history of Russia. As a result, you will see yourself as a restored missing link in the many generations of Russian people, and not as a man standing on top of a pyramid but without a clear sense of direction.” When a client approaches the Grand Vendeur about an exclusive order, a good place to start the journey is to find out whether the piece is meant to reflect a particular emotion. If so, this emotion serves as a tuning fork. “Not every customer is willing to build an emotional connection; indeed, if you open your heart, it makes you vulnerable — by making a declaration about a particular feeling we admit we are ready to suffer,” Roux-Alezais said. Creating an exclusive piece, a process that may take up to five years, is a task that is both highly challenging and exciting. “It is about helping a person to get to know themselves deeper and better than they did before. Here, we do not talk in terms of ‘whether I like a particular ring, whether it suits me.’ It is about conceiving a work of art, which is no less a miracle than conceiving a child and giving birth to a human being.” For Roux-Alezais, who used to run Cartier’s perfume department, the links and similarities between creating a new scent and making an item of jewelry are numerous. “A scent carries the most intimate information about a person, and in this respect it is unique,” he said. “In a way, perfume appeals directly to the human soul. The same thing can safely be said about a work of jewelry, as it also makes it possible to tell a story. And, just as with a perfume, the story can be as sophisticated as the owner wants to make it.” On a more material note, Cartier is keen to play up the perfumery connection. In the Cartier 2011 collection, “Sortilege de Cartier,” which saw its world premiere in Rome, the arts of perfumery and jewelry were united in magnificent pendants designed in the shape of a perfume bottle. At the same time, the ironic red bottle for the Delices de Cartier perfume was inspired by the design of a 1920s brooch from the company’s archives. A significant proportion of Cartier’s new customers tend to view high jewelry as primarily a safe investment, as opposed to the core of the customers that the jewelry house had in the first half of the 20th century, when clients sought a particular aesthetic that they appreciated in Cartier.  “At Cartier, we regard jewelry as a work of art, and, quite honestly, we would like for our clients to share that view,” Roux-Alezais said. With that goal in mind, in recent years the jewelry brand has adopted a policy of educating its clients about the aesthetics, traditions and philosophy of Cartier. “Some of the people who obtained their fortunes fast often live in a rather narrow world; they may not possess a developed artistic taste and they feel uncertain about their choices. We feel it is one of our responsibilities to offer them support.” TITLE: Tourism No Gentler on Baikal Than Industry AUTHOR: By Alexandra Poblinkova PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: IRKUTSK — There are many ways to describe Lake Baikal: The world’s oldest and deepest freshwater lake, the Pearl of Siberia, and a perennial headache for Russia’s environmentalists. For five decades, environmentalists have been battling to close a controversial pulp and paper mill on the lake’s southern shore. That battle may finally draw to a close later this month, as the government decides whether to renew the factory’s license to release effluent into the lake. But tourism, the economic alternative to polluting heavy industry proposed by both government and many environmentalists, is bringing its own problems. Two other words that could be used to describe Lake Baikal are ancient and huge. Snaking 636 kilometers — but spanning only 80 kilometers at its widest point — along the rift valley where it formed 25 million years ago, it has a surface area the size of Belgium. It plunges to depths of 1,637 meters, though the average depth is a more pedestrian 740 meters, still making it the deepest lake in the world, holding 20 percent of the world’s fresh water. Its famously clear waters and unique ecosystem earned the lake World Heritage status in 1996. But earlier this year, that title was nearly lost due to the continued operation of the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill. In the end, the lake escaped that ignominy, as experts gathered at UNESCO’s world headquarters decided that Baikal’s significance for the planet should remain recognized despite the problems it faced. But UNESCO still made it clear that it is losing patience, calling for either an end to the release of effluent into the lake or closure of the mill by December. The Mill Opened in 1966 to produce high-quality bleached pulp using the lake’s unusually pure fresh water, the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill is the main employer in the town of Baikalsk, a settlement of 13,600 people built specifically to service the plant. It is also enemy No. 1 for Russia’s environmentalists, who have been trying to close it down almost since it was opened. Environmentalists say toxic dioxins and other harmful by-products released back into the lake cause genetic mutations in fish and other lake life, wipe out large numbers of endemic species near the factory, and even affect the quality of local drinking water. The fight to close the mill in Soviet times was credited with laying the foundations for the civil society movements that emerged during perestroika. Today, locals continue to campaign against the factory. The matter long ago mutated from a social to a political issue, and today the question of whether to close, modernize or modify the mill is one of the most pressing political issues in the Irkutsk region. The current governor of the region, Sergei Yeroshchenko, has said the plant faces a stark choice: Either modernize and reconvert to closed-cycle production, or close. The plant briefly switched to a “closed water cycle” without releasing effluent into the lake after the Federal Environmental Protection Service sued it over discharges in 2007. But that forced it to end production of its most lucrative product, bleached cellulose. As a result, the plant soon ran up massive debts, went bankrupt and was closed in late 2008. Less than a year later, Vladimir Putin, who was prime minister at the time, joined scientists using mini-submarines to survey the lakebed in 2009. When the researchers failed to find any ecologically hazardous substances, he pronounced the lake in good enough condition to allow the plant to reopen under outside administration and return to producing bleached cellulose, to the chagrin of environmentalists. One reason for Putin’s decision was economic. Bleached cellulose production may help the plant’s debtors, which include Alfa Bank and Oleg Deripaska’s Basic Element, recoup some of the tens of millions of dollars they are owed. It also provides crucial jobs. About 1,700 of Baikalsk’s 4,134 workers are employed at the mill, and for the workers laid off in 2008, there were few options for new employment. Official figures estimate that only about 300 people are involved in tourism. Some make a living by leasing apartments to vacationers, and others sell homegrown fruit and vegetables. Defenders of the factory argue that the pollution is relatively localized. Even according to Baikal Environmental Wave, a local environmental group that wants the factory closed, about 20 square kilometers of the lakebed has been polluted, and polluted water is found in an area of about 90 square kilometers — about 0.3 percent of the lake’s total surface area. For its part, Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Plant says it has organized its waste treatment procedures and regularly submits reports on its wastewater. A 2010 report on the health of the lake prepared by the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry found a marked reduction in lignite, chlorides and other pollutants from the mill compared with results from 2004. The mill’s experts argue that those figures show that the factory’s waste is chemically little different from that produced during the natural decay of timber. “The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry’s data match the findings of the mill’s own environmental safety department,” a representative of the mill said. “The environmental protection measures taken by the mill have already made it possible to minimize the wastewater’s impact on adjacent waters. Planned modernization will reduce its impact to practically zero.” Such arguments are not accepted by opponents of the mill, however, who point out that there is a 45-year backlog of waste stored in slurry pits that needs processing. The factory may be shut for good this month. Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill’s permit to discharge into the lake, which is essential to its operation, expires on Aug. 15, and Vedomosti reported in July that workers have been warned of imminent layoffs if the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry does not issue a renewal. Other reports have said plant executives, resigned to closure, are preparing to close up shop on Aug. 16. But this muddled question is unlikely to be settled anytime soon. In June, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich directed the ministry to renew the permit, and some expect that when push comes to shove, the government will decide to keep the plant open. New Section The mill, however, is neither the first nor the last problem of the great lake. Since ancient times, residents of the Baikal region have been exploiting the riches of the lake and the surrounding taiga for fish, fur-bearing animals, nuts and berries, medicinal herbs and timber. By the 20th century, pressure on the local ecosystem forced a whole range of unique local species — including the Barguzin sable, the Baikal sturgeon, and the omul, an endemic whitefish species related to salmon — into decline, while intense deforestation silted up the rivers that feed the lake. Since the 1950s, a building boom has brought new settlements and industrial developments on Baikal’s western shore, and the Baikal-Amur Mainline Railway was built along the southern shore. Use of agricultural chemicals increased, and the deforestation played havoc with fish spawning sites. As the Soviet authorities slowly realized that even Baikal’s bountiful riches needed time to recover from merciless development, several conservation areas and national parks were established around the lake, islands of almost virgin nature where any economic or human activity was restricted. Logging and the practice of floating timber was curtailed, and a 10-year ban on omul fishing in 1969 helped the population make a substantial recovery. Catches now amount to a relatively healthy 2,000 to 3,000 tons a year. Baikal sturgeon, which take years to mature, are not doing as well, and a blanket ban on fishing for them introduced over 50 years ago remains in place. A more serious problem comes from lakeshore settlements with inadequate water treatment. More than 80,000 people live in small towns and villages on the shores of Baikal, flushing approximately 15 million cubic meters of waste into the lake per year, much of it carrying phosphorus, nitrogen compounds and E. coli. But the principal source of pollution comes from somewhere else entirely. The Selenga River, the largest to flow into Baikal, rises in Mongolia and meanders across the Buryat republic before emptying into the lake. On the way, it picks up agricultural chemicals, industrial waste and sewage from large industrial cities such as Ulan-Ude and Selenginsk. Another paper factory — the Selenginsk Pulp and Carton Mill, which was opened in 1973 about 60 kilometers upstream from Baikal — has been using a closed-water cycle since 1991. But the enterprise still emits more than 10,000 cubic meters of waste in atmospheric pollution a year, much of which later seeps into the waters of the Selenga, environmentalists say. A 2006 study found concentrations of heavy metals including zinc, lead and copper at one-and-a-half to two times the normal levels in the Selenga delta, a principal spawning ground for omul. Environmentalists believe that the Selenga is the single largest source of pollution in Baikal, dwarfing the contamination wrought by the Baikalsk paper plant. And the problem is growing. The 2010 study of Baikal found that the Selenga carried 87 percent of suspended matter into the lake, up from 73 percent in 2009. The inflow of oil products has increased by 11 percent, and the proportion of resins and asphaltenes in the hydrocarbon volume had almost doubled. Engineering While agriculture and industry pollute Baikal and its rivers, another Soviet-era engineering triumph presents a different kind of threat. The 1950s-built Irkutsk hydroelectric plant, the first of four dams built astride the Angara River, the lake’s only outflow, raised the level of Baikal by about a meter. Rapid fluctuations produced when sluice gates are opened put extreme stress on both animal and plant life across the entire Baikal ecosystem. They cause massive disturbance and mixing in the water and severe erosion around the shoreline. Especially alarming is the dam’s impact on fish life. When water levels fall, spawning grounds of valuable species are exposed above the waterline, and the eggs are left to perish. As a result, sturgeon and whitefish species are being replaced with Siberian roach, river perch and ruffe. Vacations in the Sun Aware of the economic necessity of the Baikalsk mill and other plants, both environmentalists and local authorities have turned to tourism as a potentially cleaner source of income. Not all those efforts have been successful, however. There is a small ski resort in Baikalsk, but ironically, industry experts say the pungent emissions from the paper mill make tourism in the town a hard sell. Incidentally, the plant’s management insists that its airborne emissions do not exceed the average rate for the Irkutsk region. Nonetheless, the flow of tourists to the area is increasing every year, and with the establishment of special economic zones in Buryatia and the Irkutsk region for tourism development, that growth is likely to continue. But now, some environmentalists are warning that the growing influx of vacationers could be an even greater threat to the Pearl of Siberia. Take a walk through the woods on Olkhon Island, the lake’s largest and one of its most famous beauty spots, and just a few steps off the normal tourist route you will stumble on an unbelievable amount of garbage. Trash dumps in Baikal’s coastal zone are expressly forbidden under Russian law, but because the legislation fails to define responsibilities or allocate funds for clearing any dumps that do appear, the only clean-ups are conducted by volunteers. About 1,500 independent tourists in 700 cars visit Olkhon every day in peak season, and that doesn’t include package tours. Local authorities estimate that 60,000 tourists and 4,000 vehicles have visited the island so far this summer alone, a burden local biologists believe is unsustainable. “The environment of Olkhon has suffered serious losses. Several bird species that used to nest on the island have vanished, and endemic plant numbers are falling,” said Vitaly Ryabtsev, deputy research director of the Baikal national park. “But we easily find spent shells from hunting weapons along the shore. And they were hardly shooting at bottles,” Ryabtsev said. “Close to the village of Elga on Lake Khonkhoy, there is a sandbar separating the lake from the Baikal gulf,” he added. “This sandbar is now crisscrossed by a network of roads. There are tent campsites. This is one of three sites hosting endemic Baikal plants, and it is disappearing before our very eyes.” Some conservationists are pushing for the island to be closed to visitors altogether in a bid to halt the ever-mounting flow of garbage. But tourism is a growing business in the region, and far from imposing a ban, the authorities of the Olkhon district are debating building a new causeway to the island. Few of the environmentalists who have battled tirelessly — and often fruitlessly — against the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill hold out much hope of countering this new threat.