UNESCO, the UN’s science and culture arm, has added Russia’s Assumption Cathedral and Monastery in Sviyazhsk to its list of World Heritage sites. The town was founded by Ivan the Terrible in 1551 at the confluence of the Sviyaga and Shchuka rivers, and frescoes in the cathedral exemplify Eastern Orthodox mural painting.
During the Soviet era, the town housed a labor camp, and, after the creation of the Kuybyshev reservoir on the Volga River, it effectively became an island.
UNESCO also added the Landscapes of Dauria as a natural property on the World Heritage List. The site is a cross-border territory shared by Russia and Mongolia that is a prime example of a steppe ecosystem. It serves as a habitat for many rare birds and a migration path for the Mongolian gazelle.
A new monument commemorating the first face-to-face meeting between US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has been unveiled in Moscow. The white statue of the two leaders, pictured with slightly grotesque head-to-body proportions, stands on the grounds of the Burganov House Museum of Sculpture in the city center. The Gorbachev-Reagan meeting took place in 1985 in Geneva and contributed to a thaw between the two countries in the Soviet Union’s final years.
In August a modern new building to house a “Center of Russian Culture Abroad” is set to open in Moscow. The institution, which bears the name of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, was launched in 1990 and houses historical documents relating to Russian émigré life and culture donated by relatives of notable émigrés. The new building in the city’s Taganka neighborhood will be state of the art and include a concert hall and exhibition space.
South Korean developer Lotte has opened a luxury Lotte Hotel on central St. Petersburg’s St. Isaac’s square. The new address offers 154 rooms, a pool and spa, and various restaurants. According to the Russian website travel.ru, a one-night stay at the hotel will set you back at least R26,900 ($450). The hotel is the brand’s second in the country; Lotte opened a Moscow hotel near Novy Arbat in 2010.
The hotel on St. Isaac’s is housed in a famous building that dates to 1849 and once belonged to St. Petersburg merchant Maria Yakunchikova. Preservationists had decried the project, saying it destroyed most of the historical building.
Ryanair, Ireland’s budget airline, said it has cancelled plans to expand its service to Ukraine, due to Kiev’s main Boryspil airport choosing “to protect high-fare airlines.”
Ryanair had planned to introduce flights to Kiev and Lviv from the UK, Netherlands and other European cities, but now says it “has no choice but to cancel” the four Kiev and seven Lviv routes. The surprising announcement came after many passengers had booked flights and after Ryanair claimed that Boryspil “demonstrated that Ukraine is not yet a sufficiently mature or reliable business location to invest valuable aircraft capacity.”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman appealed to Ryanair to resume talks after the collapse of negotiations caused an uproar on Ukrainian social media.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced that the city will create an open-air museum to display the over 10,000 artifacts that have been unearthed during his large-scale “My Street” project, which has seen many major downtown streets and boulevards ripped up and reorganized to make them more pedestrian friendly. The museum/park is to be located on Khoklovsky Ploshchad, a downtown site previously planned as an entertainment center. The square sits along the boulevard ring.
Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.
Russian Life 73 Main Street, Suite 402 Montpelier VT 05602
802-223-4955
[email protected]
