Notebook

Up in Arms

U.S. report puts Russia at

top of arms exporters

Russia led arms sales to developing countries last year for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to a new U.S. congressional study.

In 2005, Russia sold $7 billion in munitions worldwide, up from $5.4 billion in 2004, The New York Times reported. The United States was third after France, with total sales of $6.2 billion. 

The surge in Russian arms sales has been attributed to the $700-million surface-to-air missile deal with Iran and the sale of eight aerial refueling tankers to China. 

Russian authorities called the study’s findings nonsense and politically motivated.

“Perhaps some groups in the U.S. make use of such methods whenever they resort to anti-Russia rhetoric,” Deputy Head of the Federal Military Technical Cooperation Service Alexander Denisov told Interfax news agency. “We seek to become the leader, there is no denying it. If we ever leave the U.S. behind – excellent! But this is not the case now, unfortunately.”

Russia sells most of its arms to China, India and the Middle East, but recently it has been probing the Latin American market, most notably Venezuela.

 

Not Welcome

Aliens ousted from kiosks, retail;

demographic limits sought

Beginning in January, the Russian government barred foreigners from working in certain retail sectors, including alcohol and pharmaceutical goods. 

Officials also said they plan to reduce the concentration of ethnic minorities in towns across the country. Vyacheslav Postavin, deputy head of the Migration Service, said the number of foreigners in a given town or city should not exceed 20 percent, “especially if they have a different national culture and religious faith. Exceeding this norm creates discomfort for the indigenous population,” he said.

Beginning in April, foreigners will also be banned from working in all outside markets and street kiosks, which are among migrant workers’ most important source of income, the BBC reported.

 

Bribe Scandal

Anti-corruption campaign

heats up

Prosecutors arrested the director of the Federal Medical Insurance Fund, Andrey Taranov, and his deputy, Dmitry Usenko, on November 17, accusing them of taking bribes, RIAN reported. 

The prosecutor general’s office said it had evidence that the two officials took bribes from drug and medical equipment companies. Moscow’s district court issued arrest warrants for five more officials at the insurance fund. 

The Federal Medical Insurance Fund is supported through tax payments by Russians and their employers. The fund oversees the program that distributes free medicine to hospital patients. The bribery scandal broke shortly before the fund was due to place orders for next year‘s supplies with pharmaceutical companies.

The scandal is seen as a first salvo in the brewing anti-corruption campaign to precede upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.  

 

Solzhenitsyn in Toto

Author’s works to publish 

in first complete Russian edition

The first full collection of the works of Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who lived through prison camps and exile, and whose works documented the oppressiveness of the USSR, is being published for the first time in Russia.

Solzhenitsyn’s wife Natalya presented the three initial books of the collection on November 16. The only previous major collection of Solzhenitsyn’s works, in 20 volumes, was published in Paris when the author was living in exile in Vermont.

The writer returned to Russia in 1994 and has made few public appearances since. In recent years, Solzhenitsyn has spoken in support of President Putin, despite the leader’s KGB past. A state-owned bank, VTB, contributed $100,000 for publication of the collection.

Solzhenitsyn, 87, did not attend the presentation himself due to poor health, his wife said. 

In a brief author’s note in the first volume, Solzhenitsyn wrote that the collection “will include everything I have written — in my adult life, after my youth. And its publication will continue after my death.” The last volume is expected to come out around 2010. 

 

Not an HMO

New hospital to cater

to the wealthy elite

Russia’s richest man, Roman Abramovich, is building a posh, $153-million hospital near Moscow for the country’s rich and famous. It will be as upscale as a five-star hotel, the Sunday Times reported.

The Moscow Medical Center will become the most luxurious and technologically advanced hospital in Russia, eliminating the need for an overseas trip to get western standards of medical care.

The hospital will occupy an ..... 8.7-acre park on the southern edge of Moscow, employing a medical staff of 700 to care for 400 patients.

Construction is due to be completed next year.

 

The Big Book

New literary prize fetes

autobiographer

The newly established Big Book (Bolshaya Kniga) literary award disbursed its first set of prizes on November 22. 

With a fund of around $204,000 and patronage from Russia’s richest and most influential people and companies, the Big Book is likely to become a formidable tradition. 

Dmitry Bykov (whose story, “The Year of the Family” was published in the Sep/Oct 2006 issue of Russian Life) was named the Big Book’s first laureate, for a biography he wrote on Boris Pasternak. Alexander Kabakov and Mikhail Shishkin were honored with second and third prizes, respectively. Soviet-era dissident poet Naum Korzhavin was honored with a  special prize for his memoirs Temptations of a Bloody Age (В соблазнах кровавой эпохи).

Pollster Dies at 76

Dissident sociologist

Russia’s chief sociologist and head of the country’s leading independent public opinion center, Yuri Levada, died on November 16. He was 76.

Levada graduated from Moscow State University and upon graduation lectured in philosophy and, later, in sociology at the university’s journalism department. 

In 1969 he lost his post over “ideological discrepancies,“ and was banned from trips abroad for 20 years.  

During perestroika, Levada led the theoretical department at the newly-formed public opinion research center -VTsIOM, and later headed the organization.

The center withstood attempts from the Kremlin to influence its polling in the waning years of the Soviet Union. Under President Boris Yeltsin, the Russian daily Vedomosti wrote, the center’s researchers were not subjected to any political pressures.

Things changed when President Vladimir Putin came to power. In the summer of 2003, shortly before the parliamentary and presidential elections, the center was transformed into a 100 percent state-owned joint stock company and Levada was fired without official explanation. Many of his colleagues resigned in protest and went on to open the independent public opinion think-tank, Levada Center, in 2004.

 

“The Russian soul is special, I agree. The Russian soul is unique and rare, I agree. But mysterious? This confuses me; I don’t know what to expect.”

Boris Nadezhdin, a high ranking member of the SPS party (Itogi)

 

“Yes, we’re pushed to the kitchen again – but this kitchen is so much bigger than the one we used to have.”

Dmitry Furman, 63, an intellectual from the Russian Academy of Sciences’
Institute of Europe (TIME magazine)

 

 

{WTO deal} Russia finally reached an agreement with the U.S. on joining the World Trade Organization, ending nine years of negotiations and achieving one of President Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy goals. Presidents Bush and Putin inked the deal on November 19 during an economic summit in Vietnam. 

 

{BP settles} The oil and gas company TNK-BP, half-owned by British Petroleum, settled a $1.4 billion back-tax bill it owed the Russian government, the second largest ever paid by a Russian firm, the BBC reported. The largest was a $27.5 billion claim levied against Russian oil giant Yukos that splintered the company.

 

{Watchful of parents} Belarus has passed a new law that will allow the state, without a court decision, to take custody of children from negligent parents. According to the new rules, alcoholics, drug addicts and other delinquent parents will have to pay the state for the care of  their children. If they fail to pay, their property, including real estate, may be confiscated.

 

{UN criticizes} United Nations Committee Against Torture urged Russia to investigate cases of alleged torture by Russian and Chechen security forces in the breakaway republic of Chechnya. Human rights groups estimate that 143 persons were abducted by security forces this year, 54 of whom are still missing. The UN report also drew attention to hazing problems in the Russian army. 

 

{Mock opposition} Three Russian political parties – the Party of Life, Motherland (Rodina) and the Russian Party of Pensioners – formally announced their long-planned merger into the Spravedliva [“Just” or “Righteous”] Russia party. “We will follow the course of President Putin and not allow anyone to veer from it after Putin leaves in 2008,” explained Sergei Mironov, head of the Party of Life and speaker of the Russia’s upper chamber of parliament, the Federation Council. Some have called the new party Putin’s “left foot” (while Unified Russia is the right) and condemned it as a prop in a Kremlin-sponsored “imitation democracy.” 

 

{What’s in a name?} Kazakhstan’s central bank misspelled its own name on the new 2,000 tenge notes (worth $15) and the 5,000 notes, but said it would circulate them despite the error.

{Moscow jams} To combat Moscow’s severe traffic jams, Mayor Yuri Luzhkov wants to open the city’s offices at 7 am, two or three hours earlier than currently. Besides pursuing the necessary legislation for civil servants from the Moscow Duma, Luzhkov will pitch the idea to local businesses, Vedomosti reported. Meanwhile, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin favors a more traditional approach: doubling allocations for road construction in Moscow.   

 

{Officials gagged} Russian officials would be banned from making any public or media statements that could damage the image of Russia, according to a new bill recently proposed by the speaker of the Federation Council, Sergei Mironov.

 

{Reinventing Stalin} Arkhangelsk Mayor Alexander Donskoy said he would run for president in 2008, making him the third candidate, after ex-prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov and Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, to announce his intentions. “Democracy means bread, butter and sausages,” Donskoy said, explaining his views to Radio Liberty. He added that Stalin was a better democrat than any in today’s Russia.

 

{Flash this} Only one in seven cars formerly allowed to use emergency flashers on Russian roads retained the privilege after November 1, when new rules took effect. MPs and government officials must give up their flashers, while emergency services can continue to blare their sirens. It is a welcome relief for Russian drivers, especially those in Moscow, who have long reviled the privileged cars using flashing lights and cruising at dangerous speeds.

 

{Leaky pipes} Russia’s oil and gas transport infrastructure is outdated, with most of the nation’s pipelines in a dangerous condition, according to Konstantin Pulkovsky, head of government watchdog agency Rostekhnadzor. More than 40 percent of Russia’s trunk pipelines are over 30 years old. 

 

{Tajiks resettle} Tajik authorities have relocated 56 families from southern Tajikistan to the western part of the country. This comes as part of a larger effort to move 1,000 families for what officials call “development of new lands.” But some local experts have described it as an attempt to overwhelm the primarily Uzbek population of the area with ethnic Tajiks. 

 

 

“It is not an anti-Georgian campaign, but a pro-Russian one. It is simply that they entrusted it to the militia, which really does not know how to fulfill their duties delicately.”

Zaali Tsanava, a Russian citizen of Georgian extraction and deputy director of Russian Standard Vodka, who was detained for six hours in this fall’s
mass arrests of Georgians in Russia. (Vedomosti)

 

“How can we talk about the CIS’ effectiveness, when in this hall, as at previous meetings, we hear the agenda and it says nothing whatsoever about the fact that two CIS countries are on the brink of war?”

Nino Burdzhanadze, speaker of the Georgian Parliament at the parliamentary assembly of the CIS in St. Petersburg (BBC Russian Service)

 

“I congratulated two thousand people [on the November 7
anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution], including members of the government, in order that they not forget their roots.”

Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party (Itogi)

 

“The Russia-Ukraine-EU triangle is like the Bermuda Triangle: there are many initiatives, but they all disappear without
being realized.”

Jacques Sapir, research director at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes
en Sciences Sociales in Paris. (Izvestia)

 

“Through this, the Russian authorities want to transform themselves into a closed joint stock company with unlimited lack of liability.”

Ivan Melnikov, Duma deputy, on the law to
remove minimum levels for elections (Itogi)

 

“Is your constitutional, two-term limit an imitation of the Americans? You criticize the Americans and you imitate what they do. Are you opening the doors or closing them?
You must decide.”

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in a newspaper interview with Vremya Novostey, on what he would say to President Putin about staying on for a third term. (AP)

 

“Several hundred people turned up for the demonstration in memory of Anna Politkovskaya. At the same time, several thousand people showed up for the premiere of [the movie] The Devil Wears Prada. People prefer the ideology of glamour to the ideology of freedom, of people’s rights. Just let someone try to take away the basics of the glamourous life and youth will immediately get involved in politics.

Valery Ostrovsky, St. Petersburg political observer (Vedomosti)

 

“Stalin’s greatness was simply that he was an evil genius.
Evil – repulsively evil, but a genius.”

Gennady Gudkov, Duma deputy (Itogi)

 

Booker Winner

While Dmitry Bykov may have won the Russian book prize with the largest purse (see item at right), Olga Slavnikova won Russia’s most prestigious literary award – the Booker – or her fantasy adventure novel, 2017. Born in Yekaterinburg, Slavnikova was nominated for a Booker in 1998, and 2017 was also in contention for the “Big Book” prize won by Bykov. Her goal in writing 2017, Slavnikova said in a recent interview, was “to reclaim for prose the area captured by trash fiction – after all, that was the original realm of Melville and Shakespeare.“ The other finalist in the Booker competition was Pyotr Aleshkovsky, for his novel, The Fish. 

 

Facts & Figures

Russia spends R230,000 ($8,500) a month on accommodation, transport and guards for the country’s ex-president, Boris Yeltsin. ¶ In the USSR, only the 3 Baltic states used Latin script; the remaining 12 republics used Cyrillic. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, four have switched to Latin letters (Moldova, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan). ¶ Russians have savings of $30 billion in cash, according to the deputy head of Russia’s Central Bank, Alexei Ulyukaev, while the Federal Reserve System estimates the amount at $80 billion. ¶ In 2006, the European Court ordered the Russian government to pay €1,237,322 and R963,095 in compensation to Russian citizens. Russian citizens have sent 46,476 complaints to the European Court since 1998, the year Russia ratified the European Convention on Human Rights. So far, only 1,221 have been accepted for hearings. ¶ The number of officials (chinovniki) in Russia grew by 143,000 last year, to reach 1,462,000. ¶ Russia has 1.5 million teachers, 100,000 less than 10 years ago. This coincides with a decline of 8,000,000 school students over the same period – in the peak year of 1997 there were 22.2 million students. Some 86% of Russia’s teachers are women, compared to 46% in Germany and 32% in Japan. 39.3% of Russian teachers work in rural areas. The average teacher is 43 years old; the average principal is 49. 70% of Russian teachers say they would not encourage their children to follow their career path. ¶ Between 1995 and 2006, 1,802 people died and 20,397 were injured in acts of terrorism on Russian territory. ¶ The acquittal rate in Russian criminal cases in 2005 was 3.6%. ¶ There are 350,000 slot machines in Russia. The gambling business earned over $5 billion in 2005. 65% Russians support putting casinos into special zones outside cities.

 

Russians who:

 

would have preferred to be born in
Russia even if they had had the
option to be born in
another country 81%

would have preferred to be born in 

   the U.S. 2%

   in Germany 2%

   in another CIS country 1%

 

Among the least desired places Russians would have chosen to be born were Asian countries (China, in particular), the Americas (the U.S., in particular), and African countries. Just 4 percent wish they had not been born in Russia.

 

 

watch their weight constantly 23%

know their weight but do not
  pay much attention to it 29%

do not pay any attention 

  to their weight 47%

say they are content with
  their weight 70%

want to lose weight 24%

want to gain weight 3%

diet to lose or gain weight 40%

play sports or try to lead a
  more active lifestyle 22%

 

 

think that “national programs” in housing, education and agriculture, championed by President Putin

   will have an influence on their lives 29%

   will not 58%

 

think that the money allocated for 

these national projects will be 

   spent effectively 13%

   spent ineffectively 47%

   stolen 30%

 

 

think that Russia’s gravest problem is

   alcohol abuse and drug addiction 66%

   inflation 56% 

   terrorism 44%

   fighting crime 36%

   the situation in the
      service/amenities sector 34%

   unemployment 31%

   the demographic situation 29%

(multiple answers allowed)

 

Don’t Cry for Argentina

Marat Safin defeated Argentina’s Jose Acasuso to hand Russia its second Davis Cup and the first win at home after two painful final losses in 1994 and 1995 (to Sweden and the U.S. respectively). Safin was the lowest ranked of the Russian players on the team and has had a difficult year, but this was his match. After a disastrous start – losing his first singles match, he and doubles partner Dmitry Tursunov rallied to defeat the Argentine pair and Safin’s victory in his second singles match clinched the title. “I would say I had a rather good finish for the year,” Safin said.  “It is good motivation to stay in tennis and to continue your career. The victory in the Davis Cup is about one of the best events in one’s career.”

 

Spikers Win Gold

In November, guided by their Italian coach, Giovanni Caprara, Russia’s women’s volleyball squad won the world title in Osaka (Japan), defeating Brazil in the finals. The last time Russia won the gold in women’s volleyball was 1990, when it was a USSR national team.  The Soviets also won in 1952, 1956, 1960 and 1970. “It means a lot to us, as this is the first gold medal for Russia after three bronze medals,’‘ said captain Natalia Safranova. “After we became Russia, we did not win the title, but now we have captured the gold medal again. That is very important for us.’‘ After a slow start, the Russians found their rhythm in the second set. They dropped the fourth set but came back to win the tie-breaker. The 2.02-meter-tall Yekaterina Gamova scored the match winning point after the team rallied from behind, in the process avenging their loss last summer to Brazil in the World Grand Prix final. 

 

Davydenko Soars

It was an amazing year for Russia’s top men’s tennis player, Nikolai Davydenko. He ended the season ranked third in the world after claiming his first Masters title in 2006 with November’s  6-1, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Dominik Hrbaty in Paris. “I don’t want to say anything for the future,” Davydenko said. “Last year I finished in the top five and for me this year it was important to stay in the top 10. But after winning in Paris and reaching the top three… next year I want to play good tennis in order to fight with Federer and Nadal... to be playing in the finals of Masters Series events and winning Grand Slams.” 

Davydenko won his second Kremlin Cup in October, defeating Marat Safin in the finals, and was the only Russian to play in the Masters Cup for the second year running. To top it all off, Davydenko wed Irina Vasina, a former model he met during a Davis Cup match in the Czech Republic in 2003. But a lengthy honeymoon would have to wait. A week later, Russia faced Argentina in the Davis Cup finals in Moscow (see above). 

 

Brazilian Recruits

A hat trick by Brazilian legionnaire Vagner Love helped CSKA Moscow win the Russian soccer title with a 4-0 victory over Luch Energiya. The opening goals were scored by another CSKA Brazilian, Daniel Carvalho, who netted the ball in the 15th minute. Vagner sealed the victory with the next three goals, the final one coming in the 64th minute. CSKA’s Russian goalie Igor Akinfeev commented on the club’s third league championship in the past four seasons: “The first title might be the most satisfying, but the second and third are just as good.” Moscow’s Spartak took second place overall, edging out Rostov, 4-3. 

 

Flush With Victory

Vladimir Kramnik won last fall’s world chess championship match against Bulgarian Veselin Topalov (see Russian Life, Nov/Dec 2006). “It was a special match for me, if we take into account the whole atmosphere around the game,” Kramnik said. “It was a matter of principle for me to beat the Bulgarian Veselin Topalov.” Referring to the infamous “toilet scandal,” Kramnik said it was an attempt to put psychological pressure on him, while he said, in a match like this, all issues should be solved “on the board.” “Far from everyone was wild about my win,” Kramnik said, “but I guess everyone was wild about the actual game.” For his part, Kramnik went on to challenge a computer-based chess program – Deep Fritz, which draws its moves from a database of historical games. He lost the match four games to two.

 

Peter’s Changing Face

The British architectural firm RMJM won a competition to design the new headquarters for Gazprom in downtown St. Petersburg. The “twisting glass needle,” (pictured at left, with Governor Valentina Matviyenko) will be 396 meters tall and cost some $600 million to build. Architects say it will complement the city’s current spires and be the Northern capital’s Eiffel Tower. Meanwhile, a plan is being pitched by architect Oleg Romanov for a “Silicon Gulf” – n IT business park on the site of the Bonch-Bruyevich State Telecommunications University (artist’s rendition, below). Needless to say, such modernistic makeovers are drawing out demonstrators who want to see the city’s historic face preserved.

 

Excerpts from President Vladimir Putin’s “direct line”
call-in program on October 25:

On corruption:

 “You should not start conversations on the street, in the road, by immediately offering the traffic cop money. You should not show up at bureaucrats’ offices and immediately offer money.”

 

On whether Abkhazia should be absorbed into Russia: 

“We do not seek to expand our territory. We have sufficient
territory.”

 

On the media’s reporting his
off-color comments about the
crimes of Israel’s president: 

“Look here, as regards the representatives of the press, I could say what we used to say when I worked in a different organization: they were sent to listen in, but they eavesdropped.”

 

On technology: 

“I have several mobile phones, but I never use them.” 

(BBC Russian Service)