Free wifi is now available throughout the Moscow Metro. Launched by a private company seeking revenue from ads on its wifi portal, the internet connection works in 5,223 metro cars zipping through the capital’s extensive system.
Commuters can take advantage of links to television feeds, movies, and Russian literary classics available for download. Those registering on the connection provider’s website can access some books, movies and magazines for free.
Some 25 percent of Russian travel agencies have gone out of business in recent months due to slowing demand for foreign travel and tighter restrictions on their operations. According to the website Travel.Ru, the official roster of agencies shrunk from over 2000 to about 1560 in 2014.
The crisis began this summer with scandals involving a few large charter companies that left Russian tourists stranded abroad. This led to a tightening of government regulation of travel companies, which led in turn to even more closures, as these companies already operated on very slim margins. To make matters worse, Russia is introducing restrictions on foreign travel for some government employees, such as those working for the mammoth interior ministry.
Now, with the falling ruble making foreign travel almost twice as expensive as a year ago, more Russians are expected to explore “staycations,” stressing travel providers even further.
A new hostel, Uznik (“Prisoner”), has opened in Siberia’s historic Tobolsk, a historic waypoint on the Great Siberian Road where the Romanovs were initially exiled, and site of a notorious transit prison.
In fact, the hostel is the prison. Or the prison is now a hostel. Take your pick.
Bunk beds have been installed in the so-called “prison castle,” built in the mid-nineteenth century, and one of the country’s strictest prisons until its closure in 1989.
Today the facility is run by the Tobolsk Kremlin Museum (which also has a separate hotel on its grounds). Guests can reportedly eat prison grub and request a stint in solitary confinement. Rooms feature 2, 4, and 6 beds.
After the low-cost airline Dobrolyot closed just months after beginning operations (largely as a result of Western economic sanctions), Aeroflot has launched a low-fare subsidiary, Pobeda (Victory). The new carrier began operating in November and advertises flights starting at R999. It flies from Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport to Belgorod, Vladikavkaz, Volgograd, Yekaterinburg, Perm, Samara, Sochi, Surgut and Tyumen.
Russian Life was unable to verify the advertised prices, as all flights for the available destinations were sold out at press time. For most budget carriers, advertised prices do not reflect fees added when booking or checking in, such as for in-flight meals or checked luggage. According to tourism websites, Pobeda charges up to R1200 for the privilege of selecting your own seat, and R2400 to check a bag.
St. Petersburg’s renowned Great Drama Theater, known as BDT, reopened after nearly four years of renovation. After weeks of festivities that included wrapping the historic building on the Fontanka River in newspaper, BDT hosted several premieres on a stage now equipped with state-of-the-art technology.
The remodeling, needed because of the building’s crumbling foundation, uncovered historic frescoes and allowed installation of a moving stage to satisfy the demands of modern theatre.
BDT was launched shortly after the October Revolution in 1919 on the initiative of writer Maxim Gorky. It bore Gorky’s name from 1932 to 1992, when it was renamed for Georgy Tovstonogov, the director who ran the institution for over 30 years, until his death in 1989.
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