Notebook

No Way Out

Oligarch’s retirement

a remote possibility

Chukotka Governor Roman Abramovich, 40, in December asked President Putin to relieve him from his post, but Abramovich is unlikely to lose responsibility for the remote republic easily, Vedomosti reported. The paper said Putin wants Russia’s richest man to continue subsidizing Chukotka. Indeed, at press time, Putin indicated that he was quite satisfied with Abramovich’s performance in Chukotka and indicated that he has no intention of letting the oligarch step down.

Remote, scarcely populated, and for years dependent on federal subsidies, Chukotka credits Abramo-vich with giving it financial stability. During his tenure, Sibneft and its affiliates were responsible for 60% of the republic’s revenues.

The governor’s personal tax payments of R1 billion ($38 million) were a hefty contribution, totaling a ninth of Chukotka’s revenues in 2006. Abramovich promised that, if relieved from governorship, he would continue paying his personal taxes in Chukotka. 

In 2006 Forbes magazine estimated Abramovich’s fortune at $18.2 billion. 

Abramovich’s mandate expires in 2010, and even though Putin will not let him quit now, he may be able to do so after the 2008 presidential elections, Vedomosti said. 

Civil Grammar

Governor takes on

illiterate chinovniki

Competence in written Russian is on the decline, which, according to Ulyanovsk region Governor Sergei Morozov, has at times resulted in laws riddled with grammatical errors.

Morozov has a plan: he is proposing that civil servants be required to pass a Russian language test to be hired. He has started the program in his own region and hopes other provinces will follow suit.

Currently serving officials will be asked to take the test, which is presently being devised by the region’s Education Ministry. If a bureaucrat fails the exam, he will be required to attend a training program. No one will be fired, the governor promised, yet job applicants who fail the test will not be hired.

The move comes within the context of the federal government’s designation of 2007 as Year of the Russian Language, approved by President Vladimir Putin in December. 

Putin himself has a good command of Russian, according to Vitaly Kostomarov, President of the  Russian Language  Institute. 

“He has a nice-sounding ‘Piter’ intonation. His style and manner reveal a large vocabulary, clear thinking and a sense of humor,” Kostomarov wrote in a column for RIA Novosti. “Another thing is that the president lets himself use vivid, sometimes even shocking expressions. They are biting and not very typical, yet I think he uses them consciously and appropriately. I think that all of Putin’s deviations from literary norms are intrinsically motivated.”

In 2007, Russia will put forward a number of programs to promote the Russian language at home and abroad. The Russian Academy of Sciences meanwhile recently -concluded that the significance of the Russian language is declining and fewer people are speaking it each year. Currently, some 288 million people are native speakers of Russian.

 

Troubles Ahead?

Baltic state seeks to 

erase Soviet past

Russian opinions flared after the Estonian parliament passed a law in January that will allow local authorities to remove World War II graves and memorials to Soviet soldiers. The pro-Kremlin Unified Russia party, which holds a firm majority in the Russian parliament, has called for economic sanctions against Estonia if the law is used against such memorials. 

Estonia is expected to use the law for relocation of the Bronze Soldier, a memorial to the Soviet army which stands in central Tallinn. There are 265 mass graves of Soviet soldiers in Estonia. 

The Estonian government has long seen the monument as an eyesore – a stark reminder of the years of “Soviet occupation.” Over the past few months, the Bronze Soldier has been vandalized on several occasions. The monument could be relocated as early as May, said Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip.

Unified Russia said Estonia should be sanctioned under a Russian law passed in December which allows cutting aid, halting or limiting trade and changing taxes in emergency situations. 

If the sanctions are imposed, their effect on Estonia will be limited, since Russia only receives 6.5% of Estonia’s exports. In fact, as recent disputes with states of the “near abroad” have shown, Russia may suffer heavier losses: a worsened reputation for bullying its small neighbor.

 

Russian Roots

Voronezh find gives clues 

to early Europeans

The first modern Europeans may have entered the continent through Russia, American and Russian researchers reported in the January 12 issue of Science. 

Artifacts from the Kostenki site in Voronezh region, 250 kilometers from Moscow, date to 42-45,000 years ago and suggest a new migration trail from Africa to Europe.

Scientists generally agree that modern humans migrated from Africa to colonize Europe, Asia and Australia starting about 50,000 years ago. Until now, the earliest evidence of modern humans in Europe was recorded in southern parts of the continent, like Bulgaria and Greece, which suggested their entry through the eastern shores of the Mediter-ranean about 44,000 years ago. 

Researchers led by John Hoffecker, from the University of Colorado at Boulder, think that the Kostenki site, one of the coldest, driest places in Europe at the time, may have appealed to the early humans due to the absence of competition from Nean-derthals. 

“It was sort of an open door for modern humans to come into Europe,” Hoffecker said.

 

Bull’s Eye

Training target

had a familiar face 

The head of the Vityaz Training Center for security personnel, Sergei Lysyuk, confirmed that the center had used a photograph of former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko as a shooting target, the Associated Press reported on January 30. Litvi-nenko was fatally poisoned with a radioactive substance in London last year, and accused Russian special services of the attack from his deathbed. 

Lysyuk said he was unaware at the time that the photo was of Litvinenko. “The fact that it was Litvinenko, we only found out later, from the press,” Lysyuk said. “We did not shoot at Litvinenko, we shot at a target.”

Several days prior, the Russian media published photographs of a Litvinenko target at the Vityaz Center, taken when the chairman of the Russian parliament’s upper house, Sergei Mironov, was there to present awards in a competition for Interior Ministry special forces. 

A Vityaz promotional video circulating on the Internet, which first appeared on the Polish news website dziennik.pl, also shows trainees in camouflage shooting at a Litvinenko target, but Lysyuk said the video was made in 2002 and that the trainees were men about to enter the military.

 

Mariinsky Annex

Theater open modern new stage

The renowned Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg has added a new concert hall – a state-of-the-art, €20-million venue – which can also be used for semi-staged productions of operas and ballets. 

Wooden acoustic panels, advanced engineering systems and the ability to transform the stage are expected to make this 1,100-seat hall one of the world’s best concert venues.

The new hall (above) is located on the site of the former Mariinsky Set Workshops, which were destroyed by fire in September 2003. Valery Gergiev, head of the Mariinsky Theater, decided to retain the building’s old façade (designed by Viktor Schröter, principal architect of the Board of Imperial Theatres) during re-construction.

President Vladimir Putin, Minister for Economic Development German Gref, Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzh-kov and Governor of St. Petersburg Region Valentina Matviyenko all attended the grand opening on November 29th.

 

 

{Softening on Georgia} In a first step toward rapprochement with Georgia after the 2006 spy battle, the Kremlin in January returned Russian Ambassador Vyacheslav Kovalenko to Tbilisi. Kovalenko had been recalled to Moscow “for consultations” on September 28. He had to fly to Georgia via Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, because Russia canceled direct flights between Moscow and Tbilisi during the spat. Other sanctions included raids of Georgian-owned businesses in Russia, deportation of illegal Georgian immigrants from Russia, and suspension of Russian visas to Georgian citizens.

 

{GorbY syndicate} Former President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev signed a contract with the New York Times Syndicate to write a monthly column, the Gorbachev Fund press service announced. The column will be published in dozens of newspapers around the world starting in January.

 

{ministerIAL trial} A Moscow court began hearings in the case of former Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov. He and two other men are charged with setting up an organized criminal group in 1998-1999 which allegedly stole $168 million from Teksnabexport, a state-owned company within the atomic energy ministry.

 

{Banker arrest} Alexei Frenkel, whose two banks had been closed by the Central Bank for violating money-laundering regulations, was arrested and charged with organizing the September contract killing of Andrei Kozlov, deputy head of the Central Bank. The police also arrested Frenkel’s acquaintance, Liana Askerova, whom he allegedly asked to arrange the killing, several middlemen and three hired Ukrainian killers. Police said a $10,000 fee was paid for the murder. Frenkel declared himself innocent of all charges.  

 

{Believers’ cell} The Tatarstan branch of mobile phone operator Smarts has launched special calling plans targeted at Russian Orthodox and Muslim believers. The new plans, Zvonnitsa (“Belfry” in Russian) and Alan, will allow free calling within the Smarts network on religious holidays, cheap roaming from pilgrimage sites, a church locator and a calendar of religious holidays available via text messaging. Smarts has also pledged to donate 10% of its profit to churches and religious schools. 

 

{Caviar redux} Sturgeon caviar exports were banned during 2006 from all Caspian Sea countries. For 2007, Russia has been given permission to export 23.5 tons of black caviar, according to the office of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). CITES, a UN body which has regulated trade in black caviar since 2001, permitted Russia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to export 96 tons of sturgeon caviar in 2007. Last year, CITES refused to approve quotas because producing countries failed to provide full information on sturgeon populations in their waters.

 

{Space race} Russia led the world with 24 space launches in 2006, according to Federal Space Agency head Anatoly Perminov. The U.S. was second with 18 launches, and Japan and China tied for third place, with six launches each. In 2007 Russia will allocate R26 billion  ($910 million) for its space program, cutting back the number of launches to 20.

 

{Credit leak} A database of three million blacklisted borrowers built by Russia’s 10 biggest banks was leaked to the black market, where it is selling for R2,000, Kommersant reported. The data includes contact information, job details and the reason for being blacklisted, and was likely leaked by a bank’s IT or security departments. In recent years, other databases have made their way onto the local black market, including information on the income of Moscow residents, operations of the Bank of Russia’s outlets and a subscriber directory of Russia’s largest mobile phone operator, MTS.

 

{Uranium theft} Russia is considering an inquiry into the alleged theft of highly enriched uranium from its nuclear sites. In January, Georgia announced that a Russian citizen was arrested and jailed in 2006 for trying to sell 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of highly enriched uranium-235 to Islamic extremists. FSB sources suggested the uranium might have come from Novosibirsk, Reuters reported.

 

{Gray salaries} Russia’s State Duma is drafting a law to fight “gray” wages – a common tax-evasion practice whereby employers declare an artificially low “official” salary, while paying the bulk of an employee’s salary under the table. The new law will make company bookkeepers and management subject to criminal pro-secution if they pay employees off the books. The tax police, meanwhile, are encouraging employees to report if they are paid under the table.

{Demonstrations bill} Duma deputies withdrew a controversial bill that would have banned all public demonstrations in the two weeks prior to elections. The bill is to be revised in consultations with the Public Chamber, the Kremlin-friendly rights watchdog. The bill is the latest governmental attempt to ensure Russia does not experience a Ukrainian-style revolution. The bill, if passed, would also allow the State to ban a previously-approved march or rally if authorities learned that “illegal actions” might take place during the event. Independent rights groups have sharply criticized the legislation.

 

{New rights} After a protracted legal battle with the federal government, Moscow authorities are regaining control of 519 out of some 1,100 disputed city landmarks. These include the Mayor’s office building, Kolomenskoye estate, Manezh, Tsaritsyno preserve, Ostankino and Kuskovo estates, GUM and TSUM department stores.

The settlement was reached in August 2006, and the mayor’s office has been negotiating the list with federal officials, Vedomosti reported.

On December 29, President Vladimir Putin approved amendments to the Law on Heritage Sites, which allows regions and cities to take over control of landmarks on their territory. The new rules will take effect in January 2008. Regions must submit their list of claimed heritage sites to the federal government no later than July. 

St. Petersburg is, after Moscow, the locality most likely to make claims on historic sites. Other regions and cities are less likely to have the funds required for preservation and restoration that assuming responsibility for historic sites entails (see related story, page 30).

 

{OMINOUS SIGNS} Just days before Presi-dent Vladimir Putin’s hawkish speech in Munich on February 10, defense minister and presidential aspirant Sergei Ivanov announced plans to replace 45 percent of the Russian military’s nuclear arsenal and prepare to fight “wars of the future.” The plan includes the purchase of 17 ICBMs and four military spacecraft. That same day, naval commander Admiral Vladimir Masorin indicated that the Russian navy will be focusing resources to develop sea-based nuclear forces and reinforce the country’s deterrent forces. In his February 10 speech, Putin decried the U.S.’s “unilateralist” foreign policy and said U.S. attempts to build a missile shield will be hugely destabilizing to the world order.

 

“Our men drink a lot. More than their bodies can handle. There is this so-called “overunderdrinking” (perenedopitiya) syndrome: it means someone drank more than he should, but less than he wanted.”

Gennady Onishchenko, Senior State Medical Doctor (Itogi)

 

“I was emerging from the waters of Baden-Baden through a cloud of steam and suddenly before me was Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov [head of the Russian Communist Party] and he said with a very serious expression, ‘This is why people love parlamentarianism.’” 

Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the Federation Council
Foreign Affairs Committee (Itogi)

 

“Before in the Soviet Union there was a Politburo, which was not a KGB organization, so there was a brake, a balance on the KGB. …Now there is also a ‘politburo,’ but it is made up exclusively of siloviki, so there is no brake on the hawks.” 

Olga Kryshtanovskaya, director of the Moscow-based Center for the Study of Elites; she has said that 26 percent of Russia’s leading political figures reported serving in the KGB or its successor agencies. (Reuters).

 

“The secret power which the KGB enjoyed in the Soviet Union has been legalized and cashed in. What has been happening is so obvious, yet people just haven’t seen it, because it’s right in front of their faces.” 

Alexei Mukhin, analyst with the Center
for Political Information (Los Angeles Times)

 

“Since the collapse of the bipolar world... an illusion has arisen among some people that the world had became unipolar and that all the world’s problems could be quite easily resolved from one center. It turned out that this was not the case. Such approaches have led to a growing number of crises, while the means to resolve them have become more limited... In these conditions, Russia’s economic, military, and political abilities are clearly growing. A competitor that was nearly written off is emerging in the world...”

President Vladimir Putin (RFE/RL Newsline)

 

Facts & Figures

Russia has dismantled 148 out of 197 decommissioned Soviet-era nuclear submarines and plans to scrap all decommissioned nuclear subs by 2010. ⎠ One night in the Presidential Suite at the Ritz Carlton Moscow costs R430,000 ($16,425). The hotel, constructed on the site of the former Intourist Hotel, will become Moscow’s priciest hotel when it opens for business in March. ⎠ Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom currently supplies about 25% of Europe’s gas needs. In 2006, the company’s export revenues rose 43%, to a record $37.2 billion. ⎠ On December 31, 2006, Russia had 32 registered political parties. On January 1, 2007, that number declined to 17, as a result of new legislation. Representation in parliament now requires attaining a 7% national polling, versus the previous 5%. ⎠ Russian hackers stole nearly $66 million from foreigners’ bank accounts in 2006. Foreigners have been duped out of another $20 million through Russian dating and marriage scams. ⎠ The Moscow metro, built to carry 5 million passengers per day, now transports 9 million. ⎠ Rosoboron-eksport, the state arms trading firm, exported $5.3 billion in arms and military hardware to foreign clients in 2006. Aircraft accounted for 57% of this figure, while naval equipment made up 39%. ⎠ As a result of the new NGO law enacted last year, Russian non-profits will spend R2-6 billion preparing government reports in accordance with the new rules. The government, for its part, will be spending 20-30 times more to “control” NGOs, that it will allocate in grants. The estimated cost to register an NGO in Kalmykia is R45,000-70,000. ⎠ Russia’s popu-lation will shrink by another 700,000 persons in 2007. ⎠ In Ukraine, 92% of the population speaks Russian, versus 86% that speaks Ukrainian, the national language. ⎠ About 50,000 persons died in various accidents across Russia in 2006. ⎠ Moscow needs 600,000 migrant workers per year to fill job openings. ⎠ Russia’s cost of living grew by 15% in 2006. ⎠ Ukraine has an estimated 1.6 million drunkards and 600,000 drug addicts. ⎠ Corruption in Russia has increased seven-fold since 2000. Each year, corrupt bureaucrats take bribes valued at $240 billion, slightly less than the government’s annual revenue. Businesses operating in Russia spend 7% of their budgets on bribes. ⎠ At least 70% of all email traffic in Russia in 2006 was spam. 22% of the spam originated in Russia, 20% in the U.S., and 11% in China.

 

Russians Take London

On January 1, Valery Gergiev started his tenure as the London Symphony Orchestra’s principal conductor, taking over from Sir Colin Davis. Gergiev, who also heads St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater, is a principal conductor at the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and principal guest conductor at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. He made his first conducting appearance with the LSO in 1988. His initial contract with LSO is for three years. Meanwhile, Vladimir Jurowski will take over from Kurt Masur as principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra this fall. Jurowski is Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian National Orchestra and Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

 

 

Russians who:

would prefer to be living 

in Russia today 52%

in the USSR under Leonid Brezhnev 26%

in the USSR under Joseph Stalin 4%

in Russia of the late 19th 

  and early 20th century 4%

in Russia under Boris Yeltsin 1%

at a different time 8%

 

feel a job is primarily a way 

to make a living 69%

find their job interesting and

important regardless of the pay 14%

feel there are things in life 

more important than a job 10%

consider their job an unpleasant duty 3%

 

can afford to save for the future 40%

put money aside for a “rainy day,”

i.e. without a specific purpose 41%

keep their savings at home

in ruble notes 50%

keep them in the bank 33%

think that now is a good time

for saving money 29%

do not think so 55%

 

use banks 62%

of which use them to:

pay for amenities 27%

purchase on credit 19%

receive their salary on a debit card 16%

 

feel Russia should 

seek superpower status 34% 

be content as one of the world’s

10-15 wealthiest and most 

influential states 47%

 

feel Russia is a Great Power 12%

feel it will be in the next 15-20 years 46%

feel the most important factor in determining 

Great Power status is:

a modern economy 55%

higher living standards for citizens 34%

powerful armed forces 24%

 

Ballet Artist

British artist Alan Halliday has become famous for his paintings from life of ballet dancers and of film and actors on location. His work has taken him all over the world, from Australia to Beirut, from Montreal to St. Petersburg.  

Halliday began painting the Bolshoi in 1984, after their first tour in many years to the UK. “When he saw my paintings of his dancers, Yuri Grigorovich, the creator of ballets such as Spartacus and The Golden Age, and then still the Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Ballet, invited me to paint the company on a more regular basis,” Halliday recounts. He first visited Russia in 1989, after painting both the Bolshoi and the Kirov on their international tours.

“Since then,” Halliday continued, “my paintings have continued to increase in size and detail as my experience of the Kirov and the Bolshoi has grown and developed. My intended wish is to capture the spirit of the performances, to suggest the atmosphere created by the stage lighting and the audience in the darkened auditorium, the hand-painted gauzes that make up the stage-settings, the hand-painted, hand-stitched costumers, wigs and makeup, and above all to capture the lightning movement of the dancers on the wing.”

A world premiere showing of Halliday’s paintings of the Bolshoi and Kirov over the past 20 years (a few samples are shown here) will open March 9 at London’s Intercontinental Hotel, Hyde Park Corner. For more information, visit: dadbrookgallery.co.uk.

 

Hot Jump

Ivan Ukhov was the main attraction at the otherwise lackluster athletics tournament “Russian Winter” in January. The first of 2007’s IAAF Indoor Permit Meeting Series events went before a sold out crowd at Moscow’s Vladimir Kutz arena. Ukhov, who took the 2005 European Junior high jump title, set a new Russian indoor high jump record of 2.39 meters at Russian Winter. He then tried 2.41 meters but could not clear it. “I felt at home here,” Ukhov said after the event, “and besides I now know how to beat records. I hope to do it even better at the European Indoor Cham-pionships.” 

Warsaw Fact

Russian skaters brought home two silver medals from January’s European Championships in Warsaw, yet many are calling the event a disaster – in 2005 and 2006, Russia swept up all the gold medals. In the men’s and women’s singles categories, Russia did not medal at all. Russian leader Yelena Sokolova finished only seventh among the women, making it the first time since 1993 that Russia has not medaled in this category. The two silver medals were for pairs (Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov) and ice dancing (Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin). 

Some observers feel the poor showing may actually have a positive impact on Russian figure skating. “This cold shower will do our skaters some good,” said Irena Kurdyumova, a prominent figure skating writer in St. Petersburg . “It will encourage some of those who skipped the event (like Yevgeny Plyushchenko or Roman Kostomarov and Tatyana Navka) to perhaps return to the ice. But, most importantly, it will stimulate Russian coaches to quickly fill the generation gap left after the departure of some of Russia’s most renowned skaters. Russia’s leadership in this sport is not a given, it is something you need to be constantly vying for.”

One young hopeful is Andrei Lutay. It was his debut appearance at Warsaw and he placed fifth in the men’s singles, scoring a personal best (200.54) in the free program. Coached by Alexei Mishin (who also coached Plyushchenko to Olympic gold), he is expected to do well at the worlds in Tokyo this March. 

Sharapova Stumbles

Tennis diva Maria Sharapova was routed by Serena Williams (6:1, 6:2) in the finals of the Australian Open at the end of January. It was one of the most lopsided finals in that tourney’s history. Sharapova said she could not get into the match because Williams was serving and returning so well, shortening the rallies. Despite the loss, Sharapova assumed the No. 1 ranking after leaving Australia, due to her overall performance this season. 

Meanwhile, Anastasia Pavlyu-chenkova won her second straight juniors title at the Australian Open, defeating American Madison Brangle (2:6, 6:3, 6:1). Yelena Likhovtseva also clinched the title in mixed doubles, pairing with Canadian Daniel Nestor  to defeat the Belarusan pair Max Mirny and Viktoria Azarenka.

The Tatar Yoke

The Silver Stone trophy for Europe’s best hockey club will stay in Russia for another year. Russian champions Ak Bars (Kazan, Tatarstan) defeated Finland’s HPK Hameenlinna 6-0 in January’s European Hockey Champions Cup final in St. Petersburg. Russia’s second-largest city hosted the IIHF event for its third year running, and a Russian club has won the tournament each year: Avangard Omsk won in 2005 and Dinamo Moscow won in 2006.