The newest face of Kremlin TV
Veteran television host Larry King has joined Russia’s state-funded English language channel RT (formerly known as Russia Today) to host a series of political talk shows. King is the second high-publicity hire by RT in the past two years (Wikileaks founder Julian Assange had a brief stint as a host).
In an RT advertisement, King, wearing his signature suspenders, says that, in his show, Politics with Larry King, he would “rather ask questions to people in positions of power than speak on their behalf.” King previously moderated an RT debate of third-party candidates in the 2012 US presidential election, in order, the station said, to tackle “issues that the mainstream ignores.” The new show, as well as another show King hosts on Hulu, called Larry King Now, was at press time scheduled to begin airing on RT in June.
RT is broadcast on cable networks outside Russia and receives millions every year from the state budget. It is has a reputation for spouting conspiracy theories and hewing toward anti-Americanism.
To be subject of new film
The life of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russia’s most famous twentieth-century dissident, will be the focus of a new biopic, based on D.M. Thomas’ biography, Alexander Solzhenitsyn: A Century in His Life.
Primeridian Entertainment, a company co-owned by Russian and American producers Arkady Golubovich and Tim O’Hair, said the film about the Nobel laureate will be their first project. It will be written and directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh, an American director of Iranian descent. At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Nowrasteh said it was “a privilege” to tell the writer’s life story.
Solzhenitsyn fought in World War II and spent eight years in the Gulag and three in internal exile for criticizing Stalin in a private letter. He rose to literary fame with the 1962 publication (approved by Khrushchev) of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, followed by The Gulag Archipelago, which was smuggled out of the Soviet Union and published in the West. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970 and was forced into exile in 1974. He returned to Russia in 1994, where he lived until his death in 2008, at the age of 89.
Found in America
Older inhabitants of the Alaskan village of Ninilchik speak a peculiar dialect of the Russian language that has evolved in isolation over the last 150 years, mixing with indigenous Eskimo languages and English.
Russian linguists Mira Bergelson and Andrei Kibrik, who visited the remote village in southern Alaska, where salmon fishing is still the main livelihood, have reported that some 20 people still speak the so-called Ninilchik dialect. All are over 75 and are descendants of the original Russian settlers who arrived in the area in the 1840s. About 70 percent of the Ninilchik vocabulary is made up of Russian words, though some are adopted from English, such as “invilop” (envelope) or “ribabutsi” (rubber boots).
Kremlin watchers uncertain why
In May, political observers were stunned when Vladislav Surkov, the man often credited as the brains behind Vladimir Putin’s political system — with its pro-Kremlin youth movements, straw-man political parties, and tightly-controlled television networks — suddenly lost his job in Prime Minister Medvedev’s cabinet.
Surkov, the mastermind who worked behind the scenes during Putin’s first two terms in power, and someone billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov once called the “Kremlin puppeteer,” has apparently fallen out of favor. Presumably this fall from grace began in December 2011, when he left the Kremlin to take a job as Deputy Prime Minister under Premier Dmitry Medvedev at a time of massive public protests.
Some have said that the move signals the Kremlin’s preference for a more heavy-handed approach to the opposition, one involving vigorous prosecution of all dissent rather than Surkov’s more subtle intrigues. Others say Surkov is merely jumping off a sinking ship, that the Medvedev government is under imminent threat of dissolution due to tougher economic times. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, meanwhile, linked Surkov’s departure to the government’s failure to carry out President Putin’s orders. Whatever the cause, it is the end of an era.
Gerard’s latest adventures
After receiving his freshly minted Russian passport and traveling with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, French film star and nouveau Russian citizen Gerard Depardieu has managed to surprise again.
Depardieu has started shooting a new film, Turquoise, with co-star Liz Hurley. Depardieu plays a gangster and Hurley a Russian vixen. In keeping with Depardieu’s newfound love for Chechnya (manifest in the multitude of Instagram photos showing Depardieu partying with Kadyrov’s family), the movie will be set at least partly in Grozny. Furthermore, as Depardieu promised on an earlier visit to Kadyrov, the actor confirmed that he will play Akhmad Kadyrov, Ramzan’s late father, in a future movie, an “action thriller.”
In a rare geological event in May, Moscow felt tremors from a massive earthquake centered eight time zones away in the Russian Far East, leading to localized panic in the capital and some evacuations, as the entire plate of the Eurasian continent shifted. Earthquakes are very rare in Moscow. The last one was felt in 1977, an echo of a large earthquake in Romania.
A white paper released on May 13 on the Kremlin website said foreign athletes, coaches, team leaders, referees and members of official delegations would only need a valid ID to enter and leave Russia without a visa.
President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree, effective immediately, waiving visa requirements for foreign athletes, coaches and other staff attending international sports events in Russia.
An influx of foreign athletes is expected in Russia over the next five years, including next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi and the 2018 football World Cup.
Athletes, coaches and medical staff must have official accreditation by competition organizers to qualify for visa-free status. The government will soon publish regulations on how long those without visas may remain in the country.
In June, the Duma approved controversial legislation that introduces hefty fines and possible prison sentences for offending believers’ feelings. The law is set to come into force in July and affects individuals in both Russia and abroad, RIA-Novosti reported.
The law, assembled in the wake of the Pussy Riot scandal and trial, specifies that publicly expressing clear disrespect to believers, including actions undertaken at places of worship, will be punishable by up to three years in prison, fines of up to R500,000, and compulsory correctional labor.
60% of Russians eat ice cream regularly, and 40 percent eat it occasionally. Per capita consumption of ice cream has fallen from 4 kilograms per person per year (in the post-war years) to 2.5 kilograms per year. (Vedomosti)
Filmmaker Alexei Balabanov, who directed several films that epitomized post-Soviet Russia, passed away from a seizure in May. He was just 54.
Born in the Russian Urals, Balabanov became a filmmaker and moved to St. Petersburg after working as a translator for the Soviet Army in Africa and wartime Afghanistan. His film Брат (Brother) achieved near cult status. Released between Russia’s two Chechen wars in 1997, Brother tells the story of a fresh-faced soldier returning from the war to find his older brother working as a hit man in poverty-stricken and cynical St. Petersburg. Brother became perhaps the most important movie of its decade and transformed the young actor Sergey Bodrov, Jr. into a cultural icon.
Most of Balabanov’s later films were equally dark, full of colorful characters and wry wit, complete with soundtracks featuring St. Petersburg-based rock bands. War was a frequent backdrop for his films, making Balabanov a lightning rod for Russian conservatives, who abhorred his 2002 film, War, about Russia’s second war in Chechnya, as well as his infamously brutal Cargo-200, depicting the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
The nature of Balabanov’s films sometimes earned them the label chernukha (akin to noir, a category used for post-Soviet art showing the dark side of life), though Balabanov (who could be seen sporting a cap and a striped sailor shirt at his rare public appearances) claimed that he was just filming reality, in which everyone played themselves (he often cast amateur actors in roles). His final movie, Я тоже хочу (I Want to As Well, 2012), has yet to be shown on the big screen. The film magazine Seance posthumously published his final screenplay: seance.ru/blog/balabanov-script
One of the last of the so-called “new wave” Soviet directors of the 1960s Thaw, Pyotr Todorovsky, has died at the age of 87. His 1983 movie Wartime Romance was nominated for an Oscar.
Todorovsky was known for subtle, romantic films, largely drawing on his experience as a soldier during World War II, after which he decided to become a filmmaker. Born in Ukraine to Jewish parents, his family was evacuated to Stalingrad during the war. Todorovsky was only 19 when he became commander of an artillery unit in the army after an accelerated course in a military college.
He worked as cinematographer with director Marlen Hutsiyev on several movies before directing a few of his own, black and white movies, including Верность (Loyalty, 1965), which was hailed as that year’s “best debut” at the Venice Film Festival. Todorovsky received wider public recognition with his 1980s films, including Wartime Romance and Intergirl, a perestroika-era drama that shocked the country by taking on the taboo subject of prostitution.
Todorovsky’s movies often focused on the personal dramas of women and launched the careers of several actresses, including Inna Churikova, Yelena Yakovleva and Lyudmila Gurchenko. His last film, Riorita, was about World War II. His son Valery Todorovsky is also an acclaimed filmmaker.
The presentation of the 2014 Sochi Olympic medals was held in May. The medals feature Sochi 2014’s “Patchwork Quilt” — a mosaic of national designs from the various cultures and ethnicities of the Russian Federation.
The medals also depict the landscape of Sochi, with the sun’s golden rays reflecting through a prism of snowy mountaintops onto the sandy beaches of the Black Sea coast. The medals are made from a combination of metal and polycarbonate. In total, about 1,300 medals are being manufactured for the Sochi games.
At the presentation, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak said that St. Petersburg may bid to be the host city of the 2024 Summer Olympics. “The decision to this effect will be made in 2015,” he said.
The US stunned the Russian hockey team (and defending world champion) 8-3 in the May quarterfinals at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships held in Sweden and Finland.
It was the most goals ever allowed by a Russian team in the tournament and the first time the US has scored more than five goals against Russia at either a World Championship or an Olympics, dating to 1956. The US team lost in the semifinals to Switzerland, which in turn lost to Sweden in the finals.
The performance does not augur well for Russia’s upcoming Olympic games. All the more so since the Russian team included NHL superstars like Ilya Kovalchuk and Alex Ovechkin. Russia’s goaltending was particularly weak throughout the championships.
Head coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, a member of the Soviet team that lost to the United States in the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” game, was deemed a hero after leading Russia to a 10-0 record at last year’s World Championships. But this year’s performance brought criticism and suggests a serious reshuffling could be in the offing prior to the Sochi games.
“How would you feel if your girls made a clean sweep?” said Russian head coach Irina Vinner when asked how she felt after May’s individual apparatus finals of the 29th Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships, held in Vienna.
The Russian team far outpaced its nearest competitors (Ukraine and Belarus) to capture overall gold, and three young gymnasts staked their claim as successors to Olympic champion Yevgenia Kanayeva, sweeping the golds in all events: Yana Kudryavtseva (15 years old), Margarita Mamun (17) and Daria Svatkovskaya (16).
In June, Russia’s Central Red Army Club (CSKA, Moscow) clinched a zolotoy dubl (“golden double”) soccer victory in the Russian Cup with a 4-3 penalty shoot-out win against Anzhi (Makhachkala), held in Grozny. Two weeks before this, CSKA clinched the National Championships — the first half of the double.
Key standouts for CSKA were Nigerian-born forward Ahmed Musa and Ivorian Seydou Doumbia (who scored the final penalty kick), reflecting the increasingly international complexion of Russian soccer.
It is the seventh time CSKA has won the Russian Cup since the fall of the Soviet Union and its third golden double.
Людям, которые плохо говорят по-русски, у которых совершенно другая культура, лучше жить в своей стране
“It would be better for people who speak Russian poorly, whose culture is completely different, to live in their own country.”
Mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin, on migrant laborers in the capital. (Moskovskiye Novosti)
ситуация средненькая
“An overall description of what is going on in the economy: in my opinion, the situation is mediocre.”
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at a government meeting.
отказ от разного рода достаточно экстравагантных проектов
“There has been a rejection of various sorts of rather extravagant projects, for example the Pope’s visit to Moscow.”
Russia’s Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, on the positive effects of Pope Benedict XVI’s reign, speaking after the pontiff announced his retirement due to poor health. (Interfax)
со смирением примите это испытание судьбы, постарайтесь извлечь из этого максимум пользы
“If fate has so arranged things that we face yet another string of long holidays, take this ordeal with humility, try to reap the maximum benefit from it... Luckily the weather is cooperating. It’s the right time to commune with nature — both pragmatically, by putting one’s dacha garden in order, and spiritually, by taking a stroll or interacting with children.
Russia’s often philosophical chief public health official Gennady Onishchenko, on the alternatives to spending the May holidays in a drinking frenzy. (Interfax)
это все взаимоувязано
“Yesterday the Russian Duma was considering a bill on a mixed electoral system, and today the pavement on the road built for the APEC summit has sunk again. It is all interconnected.”
Duma deputy Vladimir Ovsyannikov
“Stalinism is connected with a cult of personality, mass violations of law, with repressions and camps, and there is nothing like this in Russia. We simply have a different society, which will never allow this. But that does not mean that there should not be order and discipline.”
President Vladimir Putin (New York Times)
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