Notebook

QUOTES

 

“I know the topic of birthrates well, all the more so that I have discussed it many times with Valentina Ivanovna Matvienko.” (Vice-premier on social issues)

Premier Mikhail Kasyanov (Argumenty I Fakty).

 

“As far as I can see, you keep getting richer, living like a true landlord or a latifundist, are you?”

Vladimir Putin on the house of film director Nikita Mikhalkov, who hosted a meeting between Putin and US actors Jack Nicholson and Sean Penn (Kommersant daily).

 

“What if Russia today had an alliance like NATO on the Mexican border? What do you think the American reaction would be? I think you get my point.”

Joe Adamov, host of Voice of Russia’s Moscow MailBag Program. (Russia Journal).

 

“One was longing for something: maybe a constitution, maybe some sturgeon with horseradish, or maybe to rip someone off.”

Izvestia, quoting writer Mikhail Saltykov-Schedrin (1826-1889) to portray the general mood at the Russian Duma.

 

“I have an idea: cancel winter in the Primorye region.”

Sergei Darkin, newly-elected governor of the region, which suffered greatly last year from a heating crisis. (Argumenty I Fakty).

 

“When they talk about President Bush they call him ‘George Bush Junior.’ For me, he is not a junior. I was born in 1952, and he, I guess, in 1946. For me he is first of all a colleague.”

President Vladimir Putin on the eve of the Genoa G-8 summit.

 

 

Facts & Figures

The number of Russian bureaucrats grew from 282,000 to 333,329 in the last year, despite the government’s efforts to slash the number of state functionaries. Most of the new functionaries are experts in macroeconomics and tax inspectors. * Over the last two years, over 5,000 young Russian leaders have traveled to the US for management training. Since 1993, some 40,000-45,000 Russians have traveled to the US on state exchange programs—even more when private programs are included. (Departing US Ambassador James Collins in a farewell interview with the Izvestia). * 40% of Russian students work, 60% live off their parents. 70% of working students find jobs via relatives, friends and acquaintances amongst adults; less than 1 % find jobs via the state job search system of job search, 1% found them via the Internet, 13-14% through advertisements; 8,5 % created their own jobs after founding a small businesses (Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences). * Nearly 3 million visitors come to Moscow each day. Current population of the capital city is estimated at between 10-15 million persons. The 1989 census established Moscow’s population as 8.9 million (up from just over 1 million in 1897). (Migration Committee of the Moscow City Government) * There are 68 McDonald’s restaurants in 20 cities throughout Russia. * Less than 10% of Russians hold credit cards, yet 33% more Russians have them this year than last. The majority, 90%, of new cards are called "Salary cards”; wages are deposited directly into the accounts by employers, and over 80% use the cards to withdraw their paychecks in part or full almost immediately. Russians charged 1.4 billion dollars in goods and services in 2000, up 167% from 1999. (Visa International and The Moscow Times) * About 50 million people, or 33% of the population, live below the subsistence level, including most of the country's 800,000 public servants, called the "new poor." * More than 88% of software produced in Russian last year was pirated, resulting in a loss of more than $730 million to the gross domestic product. Russia's software industry is worth $197 billion, but its piracy rate is second only to the Ukraine, where piracy runs at 89%. The piracy rate in Western Europe is only 34%. (Moscow Times) * Private individuals had 498.9 billion rubles, or $17.1 billion on deposit in banks as of April 1, 2001. It is estimated that Russians save between 25 billion and 40 billion dollars in their homes. Russians save only 11% of their disposable income, as opposed to Americans' 50-60% and Germans' 90%. (Moscow Times) * Oil production rose 7%, or 10.7 million metric tons, to 167.75 metric tons in the first half of 2001, compared to the first half of 2002. Oil exports to nations outside the former Soviet Union rose 7.7%. (Interfax) * From January to May of this year, Russia imported 35,600 cars valued at $301.5 million. Russia exported 38,400 cars worth $123.6 million in the same period, of these, 22,800 went beyond the CIS. (Prime-Tass) * 1.16 million adults in Moscow account for 60-70% of all consumer spending in the capital. This is the capital’s new middle class. 85% own a car and 63% eat out frequently at upscale restaurants. Their average monthly income is $500, vs. $100 for Russia’s middle class as a whole. (Moscow Times) * 42% of Russians believe that the Russian people always needs a strong hand in power, according to an opinion poll held by monitoring.ru company, which asked respondents the following questions "Are there periods in the life of the country when the people needs a strong hand?" 30% of those polled said that now is the time when power must be concentrated in one person's hands. 17% disagreed, 11% did not reply. (Argumenty I Fakty weekly) * BMW dealerships in Russia sold 1,174 vehicles in the first half of 2001, compared to 399 in the first half of 2000.There are 21 BMW dealerships in Russia and another four will be operating by the end of 2001. (Interfax) * Russian airlines carried 10.3 million passengers in the first half of 2001, up 12 percent from the same period last year. Passenger trains carried 613 million passengers in the first half of 2001, down 5.5 percent from the same period last year. (Moscow Times ) * Russia exported $100 billion in goods in 2000, up from $73 billion in 1999. More than 70% of export revenues came from the oil and gas sectors, while the metals industry accounted for 19%, the chemicals industry accounted for 4.5% and heavy machinery 3.3%. (Expert RA) * Over 45% of Russian industry, half its agricultural production, and about 40% of its population lives in the Volga basin, an area occupying only eight percent of the country. In addition, more than one half of its fertilizers and poisonous chemicals are used in this region. To meet the staggering industrial and agricultural needs of the area, 20% of the Volga's water is pumped out every year, giving the ecosystem no time to restore itself. * Ranked in 1998 as Europe's most expensive city, Moscow fell to 88th place in 1999. But a stable ruble and 22% inflation since last year has moved Russia's capital No. 34; St. Petersburg has risen from 101 in 2000 to No. 89. Oslo ranks as the most expensive European city, followed by London and Zurich. (Economist Intelligence Unit)

 

Regular briefs

WITH PHOTOS

 

A Mouseful of valenki

A museum of Russian valenki (quilted boots) opened in the town of Myshkin (Yaroslavl region). The museum founders held a valenki festival on the occasion, featuring valenki from leading Russian designers. The small town of Myshkin is already famous for its other unusual museum: the Museum of the Mouse (“Myshka” in Russian means “little mouse”). The Museum of the Mouse has been open for 10 years and features some 1,500 crafted mice of all types and sizes. The museum of valenki boasts all sorts of different boots, from children’s valenki, to valenki for hunters. The Empress Anna Ioanovna wore valenki even under her court dresses, as she suffered from arthritis. Contemporary scientific data has even attributed healing properties to Russian valenki: the electric field formed inside them as a result of the friction between the foot and the nap of the valenki is said to normalize blood circulation. A store adjacent to the museum offers valenki at R100-R225 per pair. (photo by Igor Zotin).

 

Flower clock on Poklonnaya

The world’s largest clock was “assembled” this summer on Moscow’s Poklonnaya Gora hill. The new clock is made entirely of flowers. The time of day can be told through the appearance of the flowers: each type of flower planted opens at a different time of day. There are normal clock hands and a mechanism as well, however. The face of the clock is 10 meters across and the hour and minute hands are 3.5 and 4.5 meters long, respectively. Needless to say, the flower clock is seasonal and will fade by October.

 

St. Basil needs facelift

The internationally recognized St. Basil’s Cathedral will undergo a complex three-year long restoration, said Alexander Shkurko, director of the State Historical Museum of which the cathedral is a part. The cathedral celebrated the 440th anniversary of its consecration on July 12.

According to Igor Mitichkin, deputy director for capital construction, restorers will not only renovate the exterior of the cathedral but will also solve “a number of complex engineering and technical problems.” The restoration will begin with the central part of the church.

Neither the museum in the cathedral, nor the church itself will be closed to visitors and worshippers during the restoration work. The last restoration of St. Basil’s was carried out in 1979, just prior to the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

 

Ulan-Ude, capital of Buryatia, marked its 335th anniversary last summer. In 1666, Cossacks built Verkhneudinsky Fortress at the confluence of the rivers Uda and Selenga. The fortress was part of the chain of Russian fortresses in Eastern Siberia and its construction coincided with the annexation of the Trans-Baikal region to Russia.

Verkhneudinsk was renamed Ulan-Ude in 1934. The city (population 386,100) is located 5532 km east of Moscow, and just 75 km from Lake Baikal. Photo: the opening of the sculpture ensemble “Hospitable Buryatia,” on the occasion of the anniversary. (photo by Zorikto Dagbaev).

 

The Cossack society called “The Great Army of the Don” held festivities to mark the date dear to the heart of all Don Cossacks: the 360th anniversary of the Battle of Azov. In 1641, five thousand Cossacks stormed the Azov Fortress on the Black Sea, then repulsed attacks by Turkish troops and forced the enemy to retreat. Cossacks from the Upper and Lower Don as well as from Kuban, Stavropol and Kalmykia gathered for the celebration; 160 folk groups from all over Russia and the CIS treated the guests to Cossack songs and dances. (Photo by Valery Matitsyn)

 

Central Cathedral on Valaam renovated

The restoration of Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral -- the centerpiece of Valaam Monastery -- is nearing completion. The monastery, located in Karelia, was founded in the early 14th century and is famous for having given refuge to many disabled persons. (photo by Yuri Belinsky)

 

My Home is My World was the topic of a contest for children aged 3-12 held by Marriott Grand Hotel and the monthly magazine Domashny Ochag (the Russian edition of Good Housekeeping). More than 250 works of art were sent to Moscow from throughout Russia, the CIS and the Baltics. The jury of painters, art critics and art teachers chose winners in two age categories and displayed the works at the Marriott Grand Hotel in Moscow. Children from the home for the deaf and blind in Sergiyev Posad were also invited to make their drawings. Misha Volkov (age 4 1/2) from Kuybyshev in Novosibirsk region, won 1st place in the junior group while Yana Kotlyar (8) from Magnitogorsk was judged best in the senior age group (photos by Mikhail Ivanov).

 

 

WITHOUT PHOTOS

 

Eight and Counting

Eight Russians have been included in the prestigious Forbes Magazine list of 538 billionaires. Forbes estimated the richest Russian to be Mikhail Khodorkovsky, head of the Russian oil company Yukos, ranking 194th on the Forbes’ list with an estimated worth of $2.4 billion. The President of Interros Holding, Vladimir Potanin, ranked number 272 at $1.8 billion, and the General Director of Surgutneftegaz, Vladimir Bogdanov, came in at 312th with a worth of $1.6 billion. The other five Russian billionaires included: ex-Gazprom boss Rem Vyakhirev ($1.5 billion, 336th place); Roman Abramovich ($1.4 bn, 363rd place); president of Lukoil company Vagit Alekperov and Alfa Bank head Mikhail Fridman (sharing 387th place at $1.3 billion each); Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Viktor Chernomyrdin came in 452th place with an estimated worth of $1.1 billion. Forbes experts base their estimates on individuals’ known holdings of stock and assets.

 

Feting Piter

UNESCO General Director Koitiru Matsuura is ready to support the proposal from CIS countries to declare St. Petersburg “a world cultural capital,” said St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Yakovlev. Matsuura said UNESCO will debate the issue this fall and encouraged CIS countries to put forward the official proposal in 2003 -- the tercentennial of the city. The governor noted that St. Petersburg has 89 theaters, 260 museums and 48 universities and plays a major role in international cultural exchanges.

 

Old Gold

The State Bank of Russia has put into circulation 6,565,000 gold coins with a face value of R10. The coins were minted in 1975-1982 and are an exact copy of a coin minted by the Soviets in the 1920s. The face of the coin features the RSFSR coat of arms with the inscription “Proletarian of all countries, unite!” On the reverse a peasant is sowing against the background of a plowshare, a rising sun and factories. The coin contains 7.742 grams of pure gold. (TRUE VALUE OF THE GOLD?)

 

Danes Score Big

The Danish internet company Amazing Music World (AMW) has signed a unique contract with the Russian music publishing house Muzyka, Kommersant daily reported. The contract will enable AMW to make available for sale over the internet any of the half a million music scores owned by Muzyka. Experts estimate that the annual sales of the enterprise could top $2.5 billion. Negotiations between Muzyka and AMW began after the Russian company showed the Danish company an archive of musical scores and personal diaries of Russian composers housed in a barn in Moscow region and literally covered with dust. AMW intends to digitize most of the music scores in the next two years.

 

Seeking Purity

The Russian language is scheduled for a "purge." The government has approved an ambitious plan to remove slang and foreign words from Russian speech, and government officials, journalists, and political figures will be required to pass a spelling test. The cabinet has allocated 80 million rubles through 2006 to pay for seminars, conferences, and contests for students at both the elementary and university levels. Also, research will be done in Russian regions and other areas of the former Soviet Union to assess the status of the Russian language and how correctly people speak it. The State Duma has also developed a bill that proposes making use of foul language petty hooliganism.

 

Bolshoi Trouble

Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Artistic Director of the Bolshoi theater, resigned from his post on late June, claiming that he was unable to run the ailing organization due to lack of funding, poor behavior by the performers, and unfair attacks by the press. He also assaulted the Culture Ministry, stating that it is too willing to embrace lighter entertainment at the expense of more serious, traditional music.

In response, Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoy stated that he was disappointed with Rozhdestvensky, and blamed himself for selecting an unqualified person to act as Artistic Director. Rozhdestvensky, said Shvydkoy, failed to revamp the Bolshoi, despite the many powers he had been given. Shvydkoy addressed the ex-Director in a letter to Izvestia, writing, "I hoped the grandiose work of reforming the theater would make you involved and overrun the natural egoism of a lonely genius. But I was wrong."

The deterioration of the theater mirrors the problems Russia has faced over the last ten years, Shvydkoi said, but he is confident that the Bolshoi will recover from this recent setback and reclaim its glory. While a new musical director has been chosen (see page ??), it is not clear if the post of Artistic Director will be continued.

 

Baby Selling

A four-year scheme involving bringing pregnant Russian women over to the United Stases, buying their babies for $1,000, and then sending them back to Russia has been shut down. Nina Sue Broyles, executive director of the licensed, not-for-profit adoption agency Special Delivery Adoption Services Inc., pleaded guilty on May 31 to conspiracy and purjury charges and faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Her partner, Olga Alexeyevna Roquemore, a legal permanent resident of the United States and an interpreter and counselor at Special Delivery, pleaded guilty on April 9 to failure to report a felony, and faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Their facilitator in Russia, Yury Pchevetchersky, has been arrested along with three other Russians and charged with baby selling.

From December 1994 through the end of 1998, Broyles and Roquemore paid Pchevetchersky over $400,000 to recruit thirty-one pregnant Russian women who obtained visas with phony letters of invitation. The women surrendered their infants after giving birth in the US, received $1,000 compensation, and were quickly shipped back to Russia.

The INS discovered the scheme in February 1997 when they interviewed a woman who admitted that her last job had been raising pigs. But her letter of invitation said that she would be staying with Roquemore for a one-week vacation, and Broyles told officials that the woman was going to help establish a casket company in Russia. No sentencing date has been set for Broyles or Roquemore.

 

Phoning Home

Russian inmates have the right to make four, fifteen-minute phone calls each year. They pay for the calls with credits earned from working in the prison. Yet this right (subject to restrictions for behavior), is difficult to exercise, as there is a dearth of payphones in the country’s 700 prisons and 192 pretrial detention centers. So in April the National Payphone Network installed one pay phone in each of three prisons, in a pilot program called Payphones in Prisons. The Open Society Institute is also trying to launch a similar program, and will reportedly spend $1 million to install phones in Russian prisons.

 

Banks Rank

Five Russian banks now rank among the world’s 1000 largest. The ranking is based on core capital, also called Tier 1 capital, which includes equity capital and disclosed reserves. Vneshtorgbank leads Russian banks in these indicators, taking 222nd place on the list, up from 454th place in 1999.

Meanwhile, Sberbank rose from 388th place to 301st. Although its core capital is less than Vneshtorgbank, Sberbank is Russia’s largest bank, with 19.67 billion dollars in assets.

The three other banks are Gazprombank (415), Sobinbank (708) and MDM-Bank (814). 12 Russian banks were in the top 1000 before the 1998 financial crisis.

 

No Foreigners Allowed

The State Duma on July 6th passed a bill limiting foreign ownership of television stations. Foreign individuals or companies may not own more than 50% of a station that broadcasts to over half of Russia's territory or which reaches half of its population. The restriction also applies to persons with dual citizenship, which led Yabloko deputy Sergei Mitrokhin to conclude that “oligarchs” Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky were the real target of the bill. Berezovsky owns 75% percent of TV6 television; Gusinsky recently lost control of NTV television to Gazprom in April. The bill also affects the stations ORT and RTR.

The bill has drawn much controversy since its introduction. The first draft placed limits on foreigners owning any media outlet, including newspapers, radio stations, and magazines. But the final draft of the bill, which must pass the Federation Council and receive President Putin's signature to become law, only limits television stations. Opponents claim there are many constitutional problems with the bill, while advocates say that the intent is to permit foreign companies to conduct business but not politics in Russia.

 

Royal Statue

Zurab Tsereteli, the controversial sculptor who has decorated Moscow under the patronage of Mayor Yury Luzhkov, has created a two-meter high, one-ton statue of Britain’s late Princess Diana.

In the sculpture, Diana wears a floor-length evening gown decorated with frills and ruffles, and holds an enormous bouquet of flowers. Her bronze hair, shaped into a 1985-style bouffant, is topped with a tiara. Tsereteli said he developed the statue from photographs and memories of his two meetings with Diana.

However, the statue has yet to find a home. Tsereteli hopes to send her to Britain as a gift. The committee formed to commemorate the princess, after requests by her family not to employ statues, has decided to build a fountain in Hyde Park. However, the Royal National Rose Society has decided to build a rose garden dedicated to Diana outside London, and has apparently expressed interest in the statue.

Tsereteli is famous for his large-scale works, not all of which have been well-received. His enormous statue of Peter the Great, which stands on the banks of the Moscow River, was panned by the press, and his gift to Miami of a 500-ton monument to Christopher Columbus was refused.

 

Presidential Jams

The State Duma has appealed to President Putin to "abolish the archaic practice of blocking roads for the passage official convoys of any level."

Long roadblocks often  plague the capital so that the president and his entourage may traverse the city swiftly. In one case, described in the appeal by film director Stanislav Govorukhin, tens of thousands of Muscovites had to remain in their cars for hours, waiting for Putin's motorcade to pass the area. No water or toilets were available to the unlucky drivers, who sought to return home from a weekend at their country cottages. Some roads were still blocked 90 minutes after Putin had passed.

During Putin's June visit to St. Petersburg with Austrian president Thomas Klestil, many roadblock victims had to sleep in their cars. The roadblocks were removed only minutes before the bridges over the Neva River, which divides the city, were raised for the night to allow ships to pass. As a result, people were trapped for the night on the wrong side of the city.

 

Red Don? ALEXEI UCHITEL DIRECTED HIS WIFE”S DIARY, NOT LUNGIN, PAUL

Director Pavel Lungin (Taxi Blues, Svadba) is preparing a $5 million film that he hopes will result in a Russian version of The Godfather. The film is based on the novel Bolshaia Paika (The Big Slice), by Yuly Dubov, and Lungin said that the protagonist, Platon, is based on entrepreneur-turned-oligarch extraordinaire, Boris Berezovsky. Lungin is seeking some of the calibre of Al Pacino or Dustin Hoffman to play the role. "Many actors, when they read the script, say that it is an amazing role,” Lungin said, “[but] they refuse it. They're scared that they won't be able to handle it."

Lungin said he wants the film to be more of a symbolic drama than an action thriller. He aims to portray the confusion, betrayal, and pain of a generation struggling to embrace capitalism after the fall of the Soviet Union. "It is a serious question of who we are and what we have become in the last ten years," he said. The film is currently being funded by Russian and Frenchinvestors (Lungin lives and works in France), and is scheduled to be shot next year.

 

Nobel Winner Dies

Physicist Nikolai Basov died at the age of 78 on July 2, 2001. Basov shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1964 with Alexander Prokhorov and Charles Townes for work in quantum physics. Townes developed the first maser, a beam of coherent microwave radiation similar to a laser, in 1953. The following year Basov and Prokhorov produced a related device.

Basov served in World War II and studied at the Moscow Institute of Physical Engineers. Twenty years after joining the Lebedev Physics Institute in 1953, he became leader of the organization. The cause of his death has not been made public.

 

 

Travel briefs

 

Yet another Radisson SAS hotel has opened in Russia. The new hotel is on Nevsky prospekt in St. Petersburg, on the former site of a cafe commonly known amongst the city’s art crowd as Saigon.

Legend has it that, in Soviet times, when the capital of South Vietnam was associated with things capitalist and nefarious, a militiaman sought to shame some long-haired youth who were smoking in front of the café, by saying “What a Saigon you are making here!”

The building at Nevsky 49, on the corner of Vladimirsky and Nevsky prospekts is famous for other reasons as well. It once was a lodging for a young Anton Chekhov. And from 1964-1989 it was a popular venue for such famous cultural figures as the poet Iosif Brodsky or the neo-expressionist artist Boris Koshelokhov. Saigon was also rare in that one could get a very good (for Soviet Russia) expresso for just 26 kopeks.

Now that, as Kommersant daily quipped, the “Americans have taken Saigon,” the new Radisson hotel will feature 164 rooms for around $290 per night. Unlike the Moscow Radisson, the one in St. Petersburg will not pretend to be the center of business activities and will remain as quiet and cozy as the old hotel where Chekhov once slept.

Samouil Lourier, writer and editor of the literary magazine Neva said on the occasion: “The shell abandoned by dead mollusks is being populated by rapacious insects. Yet another piece of our memory has been taken over by the sweeping vulgarity of aliens. Be it for the good or for the bad, it is logical.”

Coffee at the ex-Saigon will cost $3.50.

 

The American Embassy in Moscow has warned American travelers to be cautious about the amount of money and of any valuables they take out of Russia. By Russian law, all travelers must declare all items of value on a declaration form when entering the country, including travelers' checks and foreign currency. The form must be stamped and then presented upon departure from the country (unless you enter and exit through the “Green Channel” which means you can only take in or out $1500. Icons, samovars, rugs, musical instruments, and anything that appears to be an antique is extremely difficult to take out of Russia, and the traveler must present a certificate from the Culture Ministry (Departmetn for the Preservation of Cultural Items, ph. 928-5089) saying that the items have no historical or cultural value. Non residents can take out no more than $1,500 dollars.

Undeclared items and cash can be confiscated, and people charged with trying to export items of cultural value without proper certification can face a prison sentence of three to seven years.

 

A four trillion ruble ($137 billion) plan to overhaul the country's transportation infrastructure is being developed. It will modernize civil aviation, railways, trucking, sea transport, domestic river shipping, electric power distribution, road and metro safety, information networks, and international transport corridors. The plan is ambitious, considering the decrepit situation of the existing infrastructure. For example, more than 50% of the country's rolling train stock will need to be replaced, at a cost of $48 billion. The average Russian ocean freighter is more than 20 years old; 80% of the nation's buses are in such poor condition that they can only be scrapped for parts; cargo airplanes are two to three generations behind their Western counterparts.

However, Transportation Minister Sergei Frank is confident of the bill's necessity to Russia, and feels that it will partially pay for itself. Frank said that implementation of the plan will put $86 billion back into the economy over the next ten years, including $55 billion in tax revenues.

 

Head of the Moscow Metro Dmitry Gaev announced the beginning of construction of the metro line which will help travelers to connect to districts such as Strogino and Mitino. The line will begin with the station “Park Pobedy” (Victory Park) located under the War Memorial on Poklonnaya Gora, and will be launched as early as in 2002.

 

A unique museum has opened in Petrozavodsk, capital of Karelia. The museum features four replicas of old wooden ships: Peter the Great’s ship, the old Russian rook (ladya) Lyubov, the single-masted Pomor and the rook of the Pomor, Saint Nicholas. All the ships were built in the 1980-1990s and have sailed the open seas. The St. Nicholas also offers cruises at R60 per hour. In addition, the museum complex boasts a 70 meter long cargo ship which “harbors” a floating city with towers, chapels and even a tavern.

 

Aeroflot has banned smoking on all summer flights lasting less than four hours. The previous ban was for flights two hours or less. The company reportedly introduced the ban on summer routes because of a growing number of children flying such routes.

 

President Vladimir Putin abolished the transit visa requirement for American travelers after the United States dropped a similar requirement. In April, the US began requiring that Russians passing through the States on their way to a third country to have visas. In response, Moscow said that American travelers passing through must have a visa as well. Now, after two months of diplomatic wrangling, the requirement has been dropped by both sides.

 

You can now order cabs, limousines, minivans, trucks, or even a YAK-40 private jet on the internet at www.taxi.ru. The site services many Russian cities, and features screens in Russian and English. It is simple to use: register, fill in the necessary information like pick-up point and time, and then click on the chosen mode of transportation. The traveler is offered pictures of the cars, specifications, and sometimes hourly prices. Everything from Lada’s to Saabs are on offer. A black Mercedes E-class, complete with air-conditioning and CD player, costs $25 dollars an hour.

 

Aeroflot has signed a five-year agreement with Sabre Holdings Corp. (US). Aeroflot will receive $10 million in software products, to be used for revenue management, pricing, and network management, which should help the airline reduce operating costs.

 

A seven-kilometer long monorail is being planned to span the Moscow metro stations Babushkinskaya and Timiryazevskaya. The project would relieve public transport congestion in northeastern Moscow, particularly in the area between the All-Russian Exhibition Center and Dmitrovskoe Shosse. The monorail will be elevated to over 6 meters from ground level, will carry 4,000 passengers an hour at a speed of 40 km an hour and will be noiseless and environmentally friendly. It will also take less time to construct than a new underground metro line. The line will have thirteen stations between the terminals of Babushkinskaya and Timiryazevskaya, and a trip from one terminus to the other will take 12 to 15 minutes. Construction is scheduled to begin this year and the line will open in 2003.

 

Moscow now has a second large internet cafe. Cafemax, on Pyatnitskaya ulitsa, offers 300 computers (divided into smoking and non-smoking sections), a separate game room, cafe, conference/training room, and a complete business center, complete with scanners, printing, copying, and IP telephony. The new enterprise projects it will service 1,500 to 2,000 customers a day. Cafemax charges 10 rubles (less than 50 cents) for 30 minutes online, and 150 rubles buys the entire time slot between the 11 pm and 9 am, a special called "from dusk till dawn."

 

On October 28, Swissair and Sabena airlines will be taking off and landing from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport. The move will lower the airlines' airport bills by 25 percent. At their new location, the airlines will offer two daily flights to Zurich, one daily flight to Brussels, and six flights a week to Geneva.

Other airlines have also been moving from Sheremetevo to Domodedovo, including Air Malta and Transaero. Lufthansa and Qualiflyer alliance groups like LOT Polish Airlines and Turkish Airlines are also considering a move. Meanwhile, Sheremetevo is building a third terminal and trying to recruit other international carriers.

Domodedovo, located 35 kilometers from downtown Moscow, currently services sixty airlines. The terminal was fully renovated last year, and part of the deal with Swissair and Sabena was a promise of a separate VIP lounge for their customers. The airport runs express trains to Paveletsky Station, and is currently building a parking garage and a railroad terminal.

 

A Tu-154 plane flown by Vladivostokavia carrying 145 passengers and ten crew members crashed on Tuesday July 3, 2001, disappearing from radar screens at 9:10 pm Moscow time.

The plane came down not far from the village of Budyonnovka, about 34 kilometers from Irkutsk, where the plane was to make a refueling stop. It had been on a flight from Yekaterinburg to Vladivostok.

Reportedly, the last words of pilot Valentin Goncharuk were, "I can see the runway." The aircraft was 15 years old, had been overhauled this past spring and was prepared to fly for another five to six years.

The crash has been blamed on pilot error, according to Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who is in charge of a government commission investigating the incident. Co-pilot Sergei Didenko was turning the plane for its landing, and inexplicably raised the nose of the aircraft. This set off an automatic alarm that the plane was on a dangerous course, and, at a height of 800 meters, the plane went into a flat spin from which not even the most highly skilled pilot could have recovered.

 

Sports

 

The 112th session of the International Olympic Committee held in Moscow last July was marked by a number of major events: Beijing was elected host city of the 2008 Olympics, IOC departing president Juan Antonio Samaranch was replaced by Belgian Jacques Rogge and Russia’s Vitaly Smirnov took the post of IOC vice-president.

Observers note that the election of Rogge is symbolic, as it was in Moscow that Rogge met Juan Antonio Samaranch in 1980 (when the latter was Spanish ambassador to the then USSR). Ignoring the boycott, Rogge (a world class sailor) took part in the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Shortly after his election, Rogge said Moscow has a good chance to win a 2012 Olympic bid. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has said repeatedly that Moscow wants to host the games in 2012, but an official bid has yet to be submitted. If Paris had won the 2008 bid, Moscow’s chances would be slim at best. According to the IOC’s unwritten rules, consecutive games should not be held on the same continent.

According to an opinion poll conducted by Sport-Express, 63.4% of Russians think Moscow should bid for the 2012 games, while just 20% think it would be unreasonable to spend money on the Olympics given economic conditions in Russia. Just 14.2 % thought it would be fruitless for Moscow to seek the games.

 

Legendary defender Vyacheslav Fetisov was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. During 24 seasons of play, Fetisov received every imaginable trophy: Olympic gold, World and European championships, the Challenge Cup, the Stanley Cup (with the Detroit Red Wings). Fetisov is the third Russian player to be included in the Hockey Hall of Fame. The first was coach Anatoly Tarasov (1974), followed by the famous goalie Vladislav Tretyak (1989). “Hockey is my life,” said Fetisov, who now works as a coach of the New Jersey Devils, the club where he made his NHL debut. “Over three decades I have been dedicating myself to hockey for 11 months a year. And frankly, I was lucky as almost every time I was among the winners. So I call myself a happy man.”

 

 

Alina Kabaeva grabbed three golds at the 17th European Championship of Rhythmic Gymnastics in Geneva in June. Observers and judges alike were especially marveled by Kabaeva’s tour de grace in the ball exercise (see photo). Meanwhile, new star Irina Tchaschina offered an extremely complicated program that some experts say contains some “circus-like elements.” (photo by Viktor Ganchuk).

 

Moscow’s Lokomotiv won the Cup of Russia in soccer for the second consecutive year, beating Anzhi (Makhachkala) following two scoreless overtimes and a sudden death penalty kick shootout. It is Lokomotiv’s 4th cup win in the last five years, much to the delight of the club’s main and most loyal fan (and financial supporter) Minister of Railway Transportation, Nikolai Aksyonenko.

 

The NHL will get even more young Russian hockey players: 19-year old center forward from Lada (Togliatti) Mikhail Yakubov signed a contract with the Chicago Black Hawks while 18-year old Igor Knyazev from Spartak (Moscow) will play for three years for the Carolina Hurricanes.

 

The dream of Olga Brusnikina (see Russian Life, July-August 2001) finally came true. She won the solo gold medal at the world championship of water sports in Fukuoka (Japan). All in all Russians took home 21 medals (6 golds, 8 silvers and 7 bronzes), thus winning 4th place in the overall medal count, trailing Australia (13,4,6), China (10, 6, 4) and the USA (9,9,8). The mostphenomenal result was showed by Russia’s new Olympic hope Roman Sludnov, who had already broken the world record of US swimmer Ed Moses in the 100 meter breaststroke at the Russian National championship and improved his own record in Fukuoka by (0:03), now set at 59:94. Roman has become the new leader of the national swimming team and will be the subject of a profile in a coming issue of Russian Life.

 

Russia’s Women’s National Tennis Team cruised past Slovakia 3:2, thus reaching the finals of the Federation Cup to be played November in Madrid. Nadezhda Petrova and Yelena Likhovtseva brought Russia the decisive third point in their doubles match, defeating Henrieta Nagyova and Karina Habsudova 6:3, 6:2. But top kudos belong to the leader of the Russian team, Yelena Dementieva (see Russian Life March/April 2001) who won two singles matches on the same day with just two hours of break in between. Dementieva thus forced Slovakia into a fifth, decisive doubles match after Lina Krasnorutskaya and Yelena Likhovtseva lost their single matches.