Travel Notes

New Kremlin Jewel?

Vladimir Kozhin, presidential chief-of-staff, announced that Building No. 5 (photo, left), located directly on Red Square, facing Savior’s Tower and St. Basil’s Cathedral, will be the future home a super-elite hotel, The Kremlin Yard. The hotel complex will also include: (1) a museum featuring displays from various storerooms of Russian museums, (2) a Sotheby’s-style auction house, selling antiques and jewelry, and (3) a Precious Metals and Stones Center. Kozhin said the project will get underway sometime next year, and have an estimated cost of $300 million. Yet apparently Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov was not informed of the Kremlin’s plans beforehand, which may be a sticking point: Moscow City Hall has jurisdiction over all buildings in Moscow outside the Kremlin walls. 

In 1985, for every Russian traveling abroad, 15 Russians took vacation trips within the country. Today, for every ten Russians taking vacations abroad, only one travels domestically. In 1991 Russia had 300 million domestic tourists; in 1997, that number had dropped to 15 million. Tourist conditions are considered to be favorable if one tourist travels abroad for every four traveling within the country. The negative effects are clear: domestic tourism today accounts for less than one percent of the domestic national product; in some countries this figure is as high as 49%. 

The main Russian airline company, Aeroflot, announced that it would be adding additional flights to destinations it already services, e.g. Zurich, London, Milan, Brussels, Zurich, Paris, Amster-dam and Ljubljana (Slovenia), while it will halt flights to Lisbon and Goteburg. Flights to Paris will increase to 16 times per week and to London and Berlin 14 times per week. Flights will be resumed to Skopje, Macedonia and Thess-aloniki, Greece. Aeroflot hopes to raise the company’s profits by $32 million through these moves, and to further increase profits by $24 million by adding over 500 charter flights. 

Valery Shataev, administrator of the Department of Passenger Information, MPS Russia, said that fares for suburban trains (elektrichki) will not rise until the end of the year 2000. There was on October 1, however, a 20% increase in fares for sleeping wagons and business class wagons on express trains. Fares for platskart (the least expensive seats on trains) and business class riders on other trains will not change.

Starting in February, Moscow will implement a test run of turnstiles on buses and trams, in an effort to crack down on “hares” (ticketless passengers). The far-flung district of Zelenograd will serve as the first testing ground for the plan. The problem is that the turnstiles will be only at the front door, and other doors will be blocked, sure to create huge bottlenecks during rush hours.

The second largest airport in Moscow, Domodedovo, has finished $90 million in repairs and renovations to “westernize” its passenger terminal. The airport can now reportedly handle up to 4 million passengers a year and could service up to 50% of passenger traffic in Russia and 70% of air freight traffic. The East Line company, which is overseeing the renovation, plans to spend another $286 million on the project, which will include a hotel to be completed by 2003. The airport is already servicing international traffic to some destinations and its new look is a welcome change from the dark and shabby halls of Sheremetevo. Officials have even reached an agreement with the Ministry of Railways to provide special commuter train connections between the far flung airport and Paveletsky rail station.

Beginning December 5, all Georgians traveling to Russia needed visas. The move came as a heavy blow to the struggling Georgian economy: about half a million Georgians work in Russia and send back home an estimated $1.5 bn in earnings. The visa costs between $10 and $50 and is being seen by analysts as a Russian sanction for Georgia’s loose border regime and its unofficial assistance to Chechen rebels.

On December 3, the high-speed railway between Moscow and St. Petersburg opened to the public (see Russian Life, Nov/Dec 2000). It takes just four and a half hours to make the one-way journey and runs on Monday, Tuesday, Thurs-day, Friday and Saturday. On week-days, trains  depart twice each day from both St. Petersburg and Moscow, once in the early morning and once in the evening. Ticket prices vary from 190 rubles ($6.80) to 65 rubles for a one-way ticket. The time it takes to fly between the capitals, including check in, flight time and transportation for departure and arrival is about the same as riding the high-speed rail, but costs considerably more: 1,500 rubles (about $50) each way. The government is subsidizing about 50 percent of the project. 

On January 1, the Central Bank of Russia put a new R1000 into circulation. In addition to the logo of the Russian Central Bank, the front of the note features the Yaroslavl coat of arms and a depiction of the monument to Yaroslav Mudry (Yaroslavl-the-Wise, the city’s founder). On the reverse side is a picture of the Church of Ioann the Precursor in Yaroslavl.