Summer uniforms offer a new look
Despite its generally freezing latitudes, the Russian military has developed a new army uniform that makes its soldiers look a bit like safari tourists. The beige-colored shorts and shirt, finished off with a wide-brimmed hat, will be worn by those serving in extremely hot climates.
The change comes after several soldiers died of heat stroke last summer, and the new get-ups replace uniforms comprised of thick, long-sleeved shirts and pants, with heavy boots. The new uniforms will be used when temperatures exceed 30° Celsius (86&de F) and have already been shipped to Russian regiments in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Chad. They will also be used in southern Astrakhan province.
US and Russia iron out adoption issues
Under a new bilateral agreement signed in Washington in July, it has become harder for Americans to adopt Russian children, and Russians can now adopt American children. Of late, Russia has complained about a string of abuse incidents (including deaths) against adopted Russian children in the U.S. This culminated last year in a moratorium on adoptions by American families.
Going forward, only adoption agencies authorized by the Russian government will be able to operate in Russia and to provide services in adoptions covered by the Agreement, except in the case of children being adopted by his or her relatives. The intent is to eliminate independent adoptions from Russia, while establishing a better framework for inter-country adoptions between the United States and Russia.
Adopting parents will also be required to undergo psychological testing and annual follow-up checks. Adopted Russian children will retain their Russian citizenship until they become of age (which will not impair their U.S. naturalization). According to Kommersant, since 1991, 17 Russian adoptees have died in the U.S. as a result of poor treatment (during the same period, 56 adoptees in Russia have died at the fault of their parents).
Depressed animals on the lam
A plot worthy of a Disney blockbuster gripped Chita when a ferret, a monkey and an Australian parrot fled a local traveling circus. Zoo workers told Komsomolskaya Pravda that the escape was caused by endless rainstorms in the region, which can depress their animals. The monkey was later found sleeping in a dog kennel. But the trained ferret, nicknamed Multik (“Cartoon”), was only discovered a few days later, after Chita residents became concerned about the event. Multik was found scavenging in the city center, near a local hotel, according to chita.ru. The parrot is still at large.
Local protection raises racket
A shootout in the Russian Urals has reopened debate in Russia about the right to bear arms and discredited recent police reforms that were aimed at curbing corruption and regaining public trust.
Residents of the village Sagra (literally, “overgrown swamp”) set off a nationwide debate after they fended off an armed gang while local police looked the other way. The incident in July saw some 30 armed men stopped at the outskirts of Sagra by local men armed with hunting rifles. The interlopers were allegedly summoned by a local drug-dealing gypsy who was in trouble with other residents. One of the outsiders was killed by a local, and what evoked public outcry was that the police began to charge locals rather than investigating what happened. After the incident was highly publicized by anti-drug campaigner Evgeny Roizman (roizman.livejournal.com), who had started his own investigation, locals were left in peace and investigators detained 19 men.
Some 70 percent of Russians polled said they thought the villagers were in the right to use force against the intruders, while 76 percent said the police are incapable of defending them in such cases.
Still, just 13 percent of those polled said they feel Russia should allow gun ownership, which is illegal apart from gas and “traumatic” pistols1 In response, certain internet groups, including those with nationalist leanings, have started posting appeals for people to arm themselves: bit.ly/rl2011sagra
Meanwhile, Vice Chairman of the Russian Duma Vladimir Zhirinovsky weighed in on the side of gun owners: “For every rural villager that wants to own a weapon – give them documents, weapons, and let them shoot at the first sign that their life is threatened. If bandits come, the whole gang should be rounded up and shot.” (Russian News Service radio)
TV series about Avvakum and Nikon
Russian television this fall will launch Raskol (“The Split”), a dramatic series about Protopope Avvakum’s seventeenth century schism from the official Orthodox Church after reforms were initiated by Patriarch Nikon.
The 20-part series, filmed over two years across European Russia – from northern Kandalaksha to the Golden Ring towns of Rostov and Suzdal – had a $10 million budget, and will likely be a black sheep among the TV police dramas and soap operas that dominate Russia’s primetime.
The miniseries was directed by Nikolai Dostal, who cast the project with lesser-known actors from outside of Moscow. Dostal’s previous production was Strafbat, an 11-part series about penal battalions during World War II.
Fate of Taganka theater uncertain
Moscow’s Taganka Theater entered a new era this summer when its legendary director Yury Lyubimov was dethroned by his actors. The latter said they are fed up with the 94-year-old master director’s antics and, more so, not being paid for their work.
The Taganka troupe was traveling in the Czech Republic when the actors accused Lyubimov of not paying them. Lyubimov fired back that the actors think too much about money and engage in debauchery on tour. The actors replied that they have had enough of Lyubimov’s directing style (which is allegedly authoritarian and insulting), and vowed never to work with him again.
The scandal follows close on the heels of directorial coups at the Mayakovsky and Stanislavsky Theaters, where long-serving maîtres have been replaced by the younger directors Mindaugas Karbauskis and Valery Belyakovich, respectively.
Theatre scandals are merely symptoms of a long-term illness, wrote culture critic Marina Davydova on openspace.ru. The authoritarian Soviet-era system of theatrical administration led to directors feeling like they were “Karabas Barabas, overseeing a dominion of wooden puppets that can be used as firewood if needed.” Theater feudalism has outlived itself, Davydova wrote, but it’s not clear how the Taganka actors can survive without Lyubimov, since a new system has yet to be created.
Putin’s front searches for enemies
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin used military language when announcing, prior to this year’s Duma election, the creation of a national people’s “front” – which would include various non-political organizations, unions, and even hobby groups. Russians have yet to grasp the purpose of this artifice, as it has not yet been announced who or what the front will be uniting against.
Meanwhile, analysts have said the front masks the fact that the ruling party has become so unpopular (e.g. the meme “United Russia: party of swindlers and thieves”) that even the country’s leaders no longer want to be associated with it.
In Soviet fashion, the front immediately gathered chapters at factories, unions, and entire branches of Russia’s biggest state companies, like Russian Post. The Communist Party, accepting the war metaphor challenge, proceeded to announce its creation of a “people’s militia.”
Gazprom stays the course on skyscraper
Gas giant Gazprom is holding fast to its plans to build a gigantic skyscraper in St. Petersburg, despite massive public opposition to its controversial Okhta Center project.
The Okhta project was dropped last year after numerous protests claimed that the huge tower would ruin the city’s skyline and get it booted from the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. Gazprom’s Okhta Center, dominated by a “corncob” skyscraper building, was so detested in St. Petersburg that it destroyed the popularity of Regional Governor Valentina Matviyenko, helping lead to her ouster as governor.
Unfazed, Gazprom has now designed an even higher building – 470 meters to Okhta’s 400 – dubbed it Lakhta Center, and relocated it in the city’s northwest district, directly on the Bay of Finland. While preservationists are not as critical of the Lakhta Center, as it is further away from the historic center, they are still unhappy that Gazprom secured permission to exceed the city’s maximum height restriction of 27 meters by over 1700 percent. The project, they said, could serve as a precedent for other skyscrapers littering the St. Petersburg skyline.
“Obviously, Ms. Clinton forgot how she held the “reset button” in her hands before Foreign Minister (Sergei) Lavrov. Exactly in the same way as conquistadors once dangled beads before gullible natives several centuries ago.”
Liberal-Democratic party deputy Sergei Abeltsev, on U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s public affirmation of Japan’s rightto the contested Kuril Islands. (dumainfo.ru)
Traditional favorite Brazil was upset in the World Beach Football (Soccer) Championships in Ravenna this fall, when they were defeated by the Russian squad, which has only been playing for six years.
In beach football, players are barefoot, and the Brazilian team is a 13-time champion. Russia defeated Brazil 12:8, bringing to mind Brazilian soccer legend Pele's quote, "Russia will become world champion in football, when Brazil wins the world title in ice hockey."
Evgenia Kanayeva won the individual all-around finals in the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships held September in Montpellier (France). Russian Daria Kondakova finished second. Aliya Garaeva from Azerbaijan came third.
On October 11, Russia whalloped tiny Andorra in the final match of the Euro-2012 qualifying rounds within Group B. Russia needed just a draw to qualify for Euro-2012, and now the team will head to the finals in Poland and Ukraine.
Hockey team perishes
In early September, a tragic plane crash took the lives of the entire starting lineup of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl hockey team and its Canadian coach, Brad McCrimmon. The team was flying to Minsk for the start of the Continental Hockey League (KHL) championships. Forty-three persons died in the crash and two survived, including plane engineer Alexander Sizov and hockey player Alexander Galimov, who later succumbed to his injuries and burns.
Premier Vladimir Putin flew to Yaroslavl for the funerals, and President Medvedev held a meeting with top hockey managers to discuss the future of Yaroslavl club.
Lokomotiv will skip the 2011/2012 hockey season and resume playing next year. The club was one of the leading hockey clubs in Russia – they were champions in the 1996/7 and 2001/3 seasons.
Suleyman Kerimov, 45, ranked 19th on Russian Forbes 2011 list of the wealthiest Russians (net worth $7.8 billion), has been spending wildly to acquire players for his Makhachakala soccer club, Anzhi.
Kerimov reportedly spent $60 million to acquire Russian footballer Yuri Zhirkov from Chelsea; aging Brazilian superstar Roberto Carlos; and Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto'o from Italy's Inter club. Eto'o's deal – 30 million euros over three years –will make him one of the highest-paid players in world football.
Russia's "triumphal" performance at the World Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea is being compared to the golden era of Soviet track and field. The Russian squad brought home 19 medals, including nine golds – a vast improvement from the previous world event in Berlin (13 medals with only 4 golds). Russia finished second in the overall medal count (after the U.S. and ahead of the third-place Kenya).
"Only Soviet athletes could have achieved such success in Soviet times," said head coach Valentin Maslakov. Among the standouts were Tatiana Chernova in the heptathlon, Maria Abakumova in javelin, and the team's sweep of all three walking events. Olga Kaniskina, 26, who took gold in Beijing in 2008, became the world's first ever three-time world champion in speed-walking (20 km). Maria Savinova took gold in the 800m, Tatiana Lysenko won the hammer throw, and Yulia Zaripova won the women's steeplechase. Meanwhile, Anna Chicherova, 29, who gave birth less than a year ago, won the high jump by clearing 2.03 meters to beat two-time defending champion Blanka Vlasic of Croatia.
For their achievement, according to Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, gold medalists received a $7000 award, and silver medalists $5000. "If this is what they think we are worth and deserve, so be it," said javelin queen Abakumova. "But then it makes no sense to monitor in parallel the monies made by football players, I stopped doing this long ago because it is simply ridiculous."
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