Silver found after 100 years
Construction in a historic St. Petersburg mansion led to the discovery of a massive treasure trove, containing a silver set that, most likely, belonged to the Naryshkin family, one of the most famous dynasties in tsarist Russia.
Workers renovating an eighteenth century residential building at ul. Chaikovskovo 29 once owned by the Naryshkins uncovered a small room that was not shown on any of the building’s architectural plans. It was packed with some 40 sacks of silver dishes and flatware. Several thousand items were uncovered and the settings are amazingly complete, including everything from knives to samovars and soup pots.
The treasures were wrapped in newspapers dating from early 1917. The building had been a residential building since the revolution, until it was purchased about a decade ago by a private firm, which ordered the remodeling. In future, the building will house the offices of the St. Petersburg Cultural Heritage Center, and have a restaurant on the first floor.
Allies with postal service
Paypal, the payment system used by internet shoppers worldwide, will finally enter Russia through a partnership with Russian Post. Under the plan, the postal service will be able to issue a payment card tied to one’s Paypal account. Previously it was impossible for Russians to withdraw money from Paypal unless they had an account with a U.S. bank.
Ironically, it is the Russian Postal Service that frequently causes headaches for internet shoppers in Russia. Due to long delivery delays, shoppers often contest their purchases with western sellers. As a result, many e-stores and Ebay merchants no longer sell to Russian clients.
Arctic plant revived
Russian scientists have successfully germinated and grown a plant from seeds buried over 30,000 years ago. It is the most ancient living thing ever revived.
Geneticists and permafrost specialists teamed up to reincarnate the flora from seeds hoarded by Ice Age squirrels in what was known as the Mammoth Steppe, currently the Kolyma River in Northeastern Siberia.
Previous attempts to grow plants from such seeds, found some 40 meters below the surface alongside mammoth bones, were unsuccessful. The plants died soon after germination. Then Russian scientist David Gilichinsky came up with the idea of using only the placental tissue from the seeds, cultivating it in vitro. The result was a narrow-leafed plant with small white flowers, similar to a modern counterpart growing along the Kolyma today, only it puts down roots more slowly. The discovery caused an international scientific sensation, followed by calls for additional verification of the results.
Piracy by any other name
Only 10 percent of Russian internet users ever watch movies in movie theaters, overwhelmingly preferring to download them from the internet, or stream them online, according to a new poll by Romir Monitoring.
72 percent stream movies through social networks or Russian movie websites such as ivi.ru.
54 percent download films from the internet.
Paid downloading websites are not popular, because films are readily available for free, and because many people don’t understand how to use them, the poll said.
Blessings from above
Russian paratroopers have created turnkey churches that can be air-dropped anywhere, along with personnel and necessary equipment. The complex consists of a tent and virtually indestructible boxes full of essential items.
Several priests undertook training this spring in order to be able to parachute alongside paratroopers and then perform Orthodox rites in paratrooping units.
The paratroopers are also considering developing inflatable churches, as recommended by the Orthodox Church. There are currently 10 paratrooping priests that volunteer in the Russian military.
Clowning and mushroom clouds
Rosatom, the state corporation responsible for nuclear energy, is attempting to polish its image among younger Russians, and has produced the absurdist comedy film Atomic Ivan. Ostensibly a love story between two nuclear power plant employees, it is also a film within a film, in which a visiting film director is hired to make a feature on the power plant in anticipation of its anniversary.
The film was made by up and coming opera director Vasily Barkhatov, and shot on location at real nuclear power plants. One of the more absurd scenes includes a costumed dance of nuclear mushroom clouds. The movie hit theaters in March after premiering at a nuclear conference in London.
Venue to brew new ideas
Moscow’s famous Politechnical Museum, which has been undergoing major changes in recent months, has opened a Polytheater (Polyteatr), a stage meant to reincarnate the tradition of the pre-revolutionary and early Soviet period, when the museum’s auditorium hosted poetry readings by Futurists, debates by avant garde artists, and generally served as a center for debate and the exchange of ideas during a time of great change.
The project, jointly launched by the museum and Praktika Theater, is based on the notion that Russia is once again enduring huge changes, and society is thirsty for cultural and political discussion. The venue opened with the play Waves, adapted from stories by Vladimir Sorokin.
“We want to build a theater of a new generation,” said Polytheater Director Eduard Boyakov, calling it an “alchemist’s concoction of science and art.” [polyteatr.ru]
Striking back at electoral abuse
Hunger strikes were held in two southern cities to protest electoral procedures. In Lermontov, Stavropol region, 14 people occupied a local administration building and refused food after they were prevented from registering to vote in local elections. Several days later, a court rescheduled the election, and a regional prosecutor said the election official should be fired.
In Astrakhan, mayoral candidate Boris Shein declared a hunger strike and demanded a new election, after alleging votes were not properly counted and posting videos on his blog of polling station officials acting suspiciously. As this issue went to press, Shein’s demands had not been met and he was in the 26th day of his hunger strike, having lost 10 kilograms.
Two-time Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva ended her three-year gold medal drought by winning the pole vault competition at the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul, clearing 4.80 meters.
It was Isinbayeva’s fourth indoor world title but her first in four years. She set her absolute world record (5.06 m) in 2009, and a world indoor record (5.01 m) last February in Stockholm.
“I was waiting for this victory like a mother waits to give birth to her child,” Isinbayeva said. It was the Russian team’s only gold medal in Istanbul.
The win sets Isinbayeva up for an historic opportunity in London this summer. She will be seeking her third straight Olympic title. No woman in track and field has ever won three individual Olympic golds in three successive games.
Tennis star Nadia Petrova, 29, has applied for U.S. citizenship. She owns a home in Miami and says that she feels comfortable in South Florida. “I like the lifestyle. I like the weather. It’s just a perfect place for tennis,” she said in March. “Everything’s so easy. You just come, you need to go to the pharmacy, it’s open 24 hours. Everything is here just for the people, you know. I just feel very comfortable here, it’s a relaxed atmosphere, and I don’t have to stress. I don’t have that crazy traffic like in Russia. I don’t have those cold winters.”
In 2005, when Vladimir Putin was president, he signed a law banning beer and beer advertisements at sporting events. Now, six years in advance of 2018, when Russia will host the World Cup, the Russian government has indicated it will suspend the ban.
“There will be no problems about beer at the World Cup,” said Vitaly Mutko, Russia’s Sports, Tourism and Youth Policy minister at a news conference held in Moscow in March.
Why the sudden shift? As the saying goes, “Follow the money.” Belgian brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev in October extended its sponsorship to cover both the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the one four years later in Qatar (the beer giant has a monopoly; Budweiser was the only beer available at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa).
When FIFA boss Sepp Blatter in January urged then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to allow beer sales at the Cup. Putin signaled his compliance with “We’ll see.” It helps that Putin is himself a beer lover, ever since his days as a KGB operative in East Germany.
Tatiana Volosozhar and Maksim Trankov fell just 0.11 points shy of the gold medal at the World Figure Skating Championships in Nice (France), losing to their German rivals Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy.
The Russians faltered at the start of the competition, finding themselves in eighth place after the short program (Trankov fell on the ice during execution of the “death spiral”). But they fought back with a dynamic free skating performance, enough to gain the silver.
Meanwhile, Alena Leonova, 21, ended a seven-year medals drought for Russian women skaters by claiming the silver in the ladies’ singles event. It was her first world championship medal.
Russia earned no medals in ice dancing and, in the absence of Evgeny Plyushchenko (who was recovering from knee surgery), the Russian men turned in an abysmal performance. Last year’s bronze medalist and European runner-up Artur Gachinsky missed both his quadruple toe-loops in the free program and finished in 18th place, just one spot above Sergei Voronov. Because of the men’s low rankings, Russia will be entitled to only one entry in men’s singles at the next world championships.
“After my election, I will have more flexibility.”
“I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.”
The open mic exchange picked up in Seoul between U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, for which both leaders have been criticized and ridiculed at home.
“This is without question our number one geopolitical foe, they fight for every cause for the world’s worst actors.”
Mitt Romney, on CNN, reacting to President Obama’s open mic gaffe and offering his view on Russia’s place in the world.
Мы знаем уже и конкретных людей, которые занимаются этой проблематикой, мы знаем, какие цели они преследуют, а самое главное — мы знаем, на какие средства они существуют.
“In terms of cyber security, we need to safeguard our society from activities of western special services or special services that want to harm us... Our elections, especially presidential elections and the pre-election period, showed the sort of possibilities that are available here from the point of view of the blogosphere. We already know the exact people who are doing this, we know what their goals are, and, most important, we know who is paying them.”
Deputy FSB director Sergei Smirnov, on the cyber propaganda sown in the minds of Russian internet users by western spycraft. (ITAR-TASS)
находить прекрасное в повседневном, быть чутким человеком
“I have a separate request to make of artists and cultural figures: (to teach policemen) to find beauty in everyday life, to be receptive people... We need your suggestions on normalizing our work atmosphere, on relaxing conditions and shifting our attention to more positive emotions. That is very important.”
Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev, on the need for positive thinking among Russian policemen, increasingly implicated in torture and violence against people in their custody. (RIA Novosti)
власти, в определенный момент, придется идти на осознанные уступки.
“I understand very well that, in the political situation that has developed over the last 12 years, my father’s freedom is unlikely as long as Putin is in power. I place great hope in the opposition movement, because the regime, at a certain point, will have to make concessions. One such concession could be the freedom of my father.”
Pavel Khodorkovsky, son of jailed Mikhail Khodorkovsky, to Rain TV.
Marina Salye, a democrat who alleged fraud charges against Vladimir Putin in the early 1990s and who cautioned against his rise to the Kremlin, died of a massive heart attack in March. She was 77.
Salye, a geologist who became a popular St. Petersburg politician during the perestroika era, was tasked with investigating a suspicious barter organized by St. Petersburg City Hall, where Putin worked alongside Mayor Anatoly Sobchak. The city was instructed to trade natural resources like oil and timber for food, which was in short supply during the early 1990s. But no food ever materialized, and Salye’s investigation concluded that Putin, who was Sobchak’s deputy, embezzled over $100 million meant to feed the people of St. Petersburg, and demanded that Sobchak fire Putin. Instead, Sobchak dismissed Salye’s committee.
After Putin ascended to the Kremlin, Salye all but vanished from public life, living in a semi-deserted village in Pskov region. She surfaced in the mid-2000s to give a series of interviews to Radio Svoboda, causing a stir, then disappeared again until 2011, when she re-emerged to support Mikhail Prokhorov in his 2012 presidential bid against Putin, speaking to massive rallies in St. Petersburg. But Putin won his third term, and Marina Salye suffered her fatal heart attack. After her death, her archives were uploaded to her Facebook page: on.fb.me/salyefiles
Leonid Shebarshin, a general who briefly headed the KGB during the Soviet era, committed suicide in March following a long and debilitating illness. After an illustrious career during the Cold War that took him to Iran and Pakistan, Shebarshin left his KGB job soon after the failed 1991 putsch.
Shebarshin was resident in India during the war between India and Pakistan in 1975, and in Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He published several books about his work abroad. Colleagues admired his cool headedness, modesty, and sense of humor. His diary made it clear that he was very ill and had all but lost his eyesight by the time he decided to commit suicide. He shot himself with an honorary pistol he received for his service, leaving behind a note, the contents of which have been classified pending the investigation into his death.
“Considering the volume of information he had, he could have been a millionaire,” wrote New Times editor Evgenia Albats. “He never allowed himself to exploit it.”
Pyotr Ostapenko, one of Russia’s most honored and experienced test pilots, died in early April. He was 83. Ostapenko flew over 5,000 hours and made over 10,000 landings while helping to develop no less than 64 aircraft, including the MiG-21, MiG-23, MiG-25, MiG-27, MiG-29 and MiG-31 fighters and interceptors, and the EPOS (article 105.11) space vehicle prototype. He held eight world aviation records, including absolute altitude and speed records, achieved in the Ye-166 and MiG-25 aircraft. He survived an ejection from a prototype MiG-31 interceptor in 1979, and received the highest awards and honors of the Soviet Union, as well as the De Lavaux international aviation prize in 1963.
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