Notebook

Harvard Bells

Copied in Russia, 

originals to return home

Ancient bells from Moscow’s Danilov Monastery, which have been hanging atop Harvard University’s Lowell House since the 1930s, will soon return home. The 18-bell ensemble was cast over a 200-year period, beginning in the 17th century. The last bell was cast in 1904, and the set is one of only five complete bell sets cast in pre-revolutionary Russia that were not destroyed in the 20th century.

When Danilov Monastery was closed in the early 1930s, its bells were to be shattered and melted down, but Chicago industrialist Charles Crane bought them from the Soviet government, and presented them to Harvard as a gift. For the past 70 years, the bells rang every Sunday from atop Lowell House. They were also used to announce the score at Harvard football games.

The idea of returning the bells to Russia emerged when Danilov Monastery reopened 20 years ago. Although Harvard is recognized as the legal owner, the university formally agreed in March to exchange the ensemble for newly cast copies. The copies were made this summer in Voronezh and recently brought to Moscow on a trailer for a blessing by Patriarch Alexei II.

The originals will return to the monastery in August 2008. Russian aluminum magnate Viktor Veksel-berg is financing the transatlantic transportation of the 26 tons of bells, which will take place this September, Interfax reported.

 

Open Archives

Four million documents

now open to researchers

The Defense Ministry has declassified archived documents pertaining to the Great Patriotic War (World War II). These include documents of the Red Army and the Navy that have been marked “State Secret” for the past 70 years. The declassification is a result of Decree #181, signed by Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and approved by the Ministry of Justice. Over four million “closed cases” dated between 1941 and 1945 and archived in Podolsk (Moscow Region), Gatchina, and St. Petersburg are now accessible. 

According to the Defense Ministry, the declassification affects documents regarding management of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the Red Army rear, the People’s Commissariat of the Navy, and the types of forces, fronts, and districts down to single military units. 

It is unclear from the decree exactly which documents are now available, and some historians are unsure whether this action on behalf of the Defense Ministry is real or a mere formality. According to World War II historian Kirill Alexandrov, such declassifying gestures have been done several times since the onset of perestroika, but the most important documents remain inaccessible. “I think another 20 years should pass for the real story to be written about the role of USSR in this war,” he told -newsinfo.ru. “The reality will be so horrifying that people brought up in the Soviet understanding of World War II may not want to know the truth at all.”

Nevertheless, the new information may finally shed light on the exact count of troops and civilians killed, and it may help relatives learn the fate of soldiers reported as “missing in action.”

 

Nano Pork

Billions to be injected 

into Russian nanotechnology 

The Russian government recently approved a R24.9 billion investment into a federal target program, “On the Development of Nanoindustry Infrastructure in the Russian Federation in 2008-2010.” In addition, a newly created state corporation, Rosnanotech, will receive R130 billion from the federal budget over the next two years.

Nanotechnology appears to be a vague concept to most lawmakers, however. “We can’t always articulate what nanotechnology is. And what we can articulate doesn’t interest people,” said Science and Education Minister Andrei Fursenko.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who is heading the industry in the government, the first goal for 2008 is to determine what the nanotechnology sector will produce. Until then, the money will fund “standardization, metrology, and establishment of a national nanotechnology network.” The network will include both research and educational centers.

Critics of the initiative point out that the unprecedented expenditure is being allocated to a vague project with no concrete goals. Irina Dezhina, of the Institute for the Economy in Transition, told Business Week magazine that the nanotech program will receive three times more state funding than the rest of Russian science combined. It is not yet clear who will head the powerful Rosnanotech, but the field is to be managed by a 15-member council headed by Sergei Ivanov.

Fursenko said he fears that the fuzziness of the term and the huge sums of federal money will attract speculators far outside the nanotechnology field. “Now there is a feeling that, if you call something ‘nano,’ surely someone will give you something,” he told RIA news, adding that 15 years ago the buzzword was “business plan.”

 

Casino Spoil

Legalized gambling closing;

Vegas-style zones foreseen

A new federal law to regulate gambling (which we highlighted in this space in January, when the law was first proposed) recently went into effect in most Russian regions. Gambling locales are to be closed unless they have a total area of 800 square meters and a net worth of over R600 million, along with other qualifications. 

This is the first step in a systematic crackdown on gambling in Russia. By July 2009, all gambling activity is to be moved to special “Russian Las Vegas” zones in the Primorsky, Altai, Kaliningrad and Azov sea regions.

In Moscow, 2,300 casinos and gambling arcades have been shut down since the beginning of the year. Twenty-two larger casinos remained open after the ban went into effect on July 1st, but they will have only two years to remain in operation, Prime-TASS reported.

Skeptics expressed doubts that such a stringent law will be respected. Yevgeny Kovtun, of the Gambling Business Association, said in an interview with Radio Svoboda that gambling will likely move underground. “Gambling machines will stay in the same place, operating without -licenses and tax payments, and only local authorities will know about them,” he said. “As long as there is demand, there will be supply, like in any other business.”

According to a VTsIOM study, the majority of gamblers prefer to play legally, however, 25 percent of respondents do not care whether their choice casino operates legally.

 

Opposition Discord

Differing priorities undermine

unity of outsiders

There will apparently be no “unified opposition” to the Kremlin in the upcoming Duma and presidential elections. Mikhail Kasyanov has quit the Other Russia coalition amid disagreements over the choice of a single opposition presidential candidate. The former Prime Minister is heading the political movement “National Democratic Union,” and is planning to register a new political party, Regnum agency reported. “I don’t find it necessary to continue working together,” he told journalists.

In an interview with Radio Free Europe, Other Russia’s leader, and former chess champion, Garry Kasparov said that the real reason for Kasyanov’s parting is that he wanted to be named Other Russia’s unified candidate, while other members preferred a free competition. 

Following Kasyanov’s departure, many Other Russia members failed to participate in the coalition’s events, including a conference called to formulate the group’s future goals. Vladimir Ryzhkov, one of the no-shows, wrote in Izbrannoe newspaper, “As it stands now, the opposition has no chance of withstanding ‘Operation Successor,’” referring to the supposed Kremlin plan to appoint and elect a presidential successor.

The coalition may have been doomed from the start, observers said, because the coalition included politicians with vastly different viewpoints, from the moderate Kasyanov to the radical Eduard Limonov, founder of the banned National Bolshevik Party. “The coalition was created to oppose the Kremlin, which was its only uniting factor,” Nikolai Petrov of the Moscow Carnegie Center told grani.ru. “As it becomes necessary to offer something constructive, the differences of opinion emerge.” 

 

 

Extreme Reaction

Loose loopholes could snag

Kremlin’s opponents

The battle against extremism is in full swing. Novosibirsk resident Taras Zelenyak was recently found guilty of “fueling extremism” for submitting anti-Russian comments to a Ukrainian Internet forum. Zelenyak was sentenced to a fine of R130,000 ($4,000). The court stated that Zelenyak’s statements “form a negative perception of Russians... create a warped representation of the role of the Russian people and Russians in the historical process… he practically accuses all Russian people of fascism.” Webplaneta magazine reported. 

This may be but the first of many new court cases brought under the new Law Against Extremism. The Federation Council recently app-roved numerous amendments to the law, which was first created in 2002. These amendments expand the meaning of “extremism” to include justification of terrorism and distributing certain extremist materials (a list of 14 such items was recently released; besides printed materials, it includes one motion picture and one music recording). The amendments also allow law enforcement officials to wiretap persons who have been accused of any crime, and prohibit journalists from publishing materials on extremist organizations without specifying that they have been banned. Slander of state officials and hampering the work of the authorities would be considered evidence of extremism, RIA Novosti reported.

The draft bill has been criticized by both the media and opposition politicians. “These amendments give the Russian government tools to inhibit independent event coverage, especially in the wake of parliamentary and presidential elections,” said Joel Simon, director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, according to Ekho Moskvy radio station. Critics compared the bill’s usage of “extremism” to the Soviet-era term “enemy of the state,” which was used to exterminate real and imagined foes.

 

 

Ice Wars

Russia plants its flag 

at the bottom of the Arctic Sea

As reported in our previous issue, Russian scientists sailed into the Arctic Ocean in May to search for proof that Russia’s northern continental shelf extends beyond its current 200-mile economic zone.

Not surprisingly, the scientists found that indeed the shelf extends beyond the 200-mile zone, and could add some 1.2 million square kilometers to Russian territory (and, not insignificantly, gazeta.ru reported, help lay claim to an estimated 10 billion cubic meters of hydrocarbons).

In a dashing move which Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov likened to America’s planting of its flag on the moon, divers descended four kilometers under the North Pole and planted a small, titanium Russian flag.

Russia first argued that the under-sea Mendeleyev and Lomo-nosov ridges were a continuation of its continental shelf in 2001, at the UN. But the claim was denied for lack of evidence. Thus the basis for the current Arctic expedition, whose results Russia expects will allow it to put forward a new claim to the UN in 2010. At stake, by one estimate, is access to one-quarter of the world’s remaining oil and gas resources. 

 

think that their political choice
will affect: 

   “hardly anything” 34%

   “some things, but very little” 21%

 

believe that:

   voters decide who will 

   come to power 21%

 

   freedom to elect 

   representatives is important 75%

     ... is not vital 18%

 

believe in clairvoyance 

and telepathy 40.4%

 

were happy when Sochi won the Olympic Games bid 35%

 

think the Sochi Winter Olympics 

will be too expensive 3%

 

think the Olympics will make 

Sochi unaffordable 1%

 

would like to move to a 

foreign country 14%

  ... of those between 

  ages 18 and 35 21%

do not want to emigrate 81%

have relatives who left Russia 36%

   ... among Muscovites 56%

 

are very afraid of becoming 

a victim of terrorism 21%

   ...are certain that 

   they will not be a victim 10%

 

feel Russian special forces will 

protect them from terrorism 47%

   ...do not think so 42%

 

feel OMON (special interior

troops) should be used to 

break up unsanctioned 

meetings 17%

   ...disagree 60%

 

are worried about Russia’s environmental conditions 72%

 ...are not 22% 

 ...feel it is getting worse 60%

  ...blame it on local
     authorities 70%

 

“As soon as people stop thinking they can live in Moscow on $300 a month, the city will become comfortable, green, and attractive.  If you don’t earn several thousand dollars a month, you have nothing to do here. If you don’t want strenuous work, go somewhere else.” 

Leonid Kazinets, president of the Builders Association of Russia (Ogonyok)

 

“Our bitter national experience may help us avoid a repeat of unstable social conditions; it will warn us and deflect us from destructive breakdowns.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, upon receipt of the Russia Award (Interfax) 

 

“Many textbooks are written by people who are funded by foreign grants.  Thus they are performing the polka-babochka ordered by the funding organizations.”

President Vladimir Putin, at a conference with several Russian teachers (Rosbalt)

 

“There are oligarchs and there are oligarchs-light.  There are many people who can help at our level. Who helps us is not the super-elite group of people, but the next echelon of smaller businessmen.”  

Garry Kasparov, on the Other Russia movement (Kommersant)

 

“Even if you hung a portrait of Putin or Kadyrov in a forest, no one would touch them.”

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, arguing that his policies enjoy wide support (Kommersant)

 

“Russian bureaucrats have a tradition: when they come to work, they take the special Kremlin telephone off the hook and listen. If there is a dial tone, everything is okay. But if there is not, they know it’s time to pack their things.”

Andrei Kostin, president of Vneshtorgbank  (Personal Money magazine)

 

“Forget all of those promises, her closest advisors are Americans, who will never let her play on behalf of Russia.”

Vladimir Kamelzon, tennis coach, on Maria Sharapova and the Fed Cup (Izvestia)

 

“When he was asked whether he considered himself a poet, an artist, a performer or a theorist, he always answered: ‘I am a culture worker.’ If someone were to ask me about his profession, I would say, “What do you mean? He is just Prigov.”

Writer Lev Rubinstein on the death of Russian poet and friend, Dmitry Prigov (grani.ru)

 

“They’ll build a new Courchevel here – it wasn’t possible before, but for the Olympics it’s possible to just cut everything for construction. We offered ways of build more compactly, to develop new natural areas to compensate for the impact of the project, but their only goal now is to grab as much land as possible and then transfer it to private hands.”

Environmentalist Andrei Rudomakha, on Audit Chamber Head Sergei Stepashin’s
statement that Olympic venues are likely to be eventually privatized (Yezhednevny Zhurnal)

 

“Leave the red necropolis alone. It’s our history.”

Gennady Zyuganov, on new rumors that Lenin will be moved from his mausoleum
and buried (Ekho Moskvy interview)

 

Coca-Kvas

The Coca-Cola Corporation has recently registered two brands to produce kvas in Russia. The company may start up production independently, or, if it seeks to enter the market quickly, buy a Russian kvas producer, according to Karen Vartanyan of “Borodino” company, a kvas producer. Experts say kvas is the fastest growing segment in the carbonated drinks industry, with sales expected to increase by as much as 50% this year. Coca-Cola owns 13 factories in Russia and has an annual turnover of $1.5 billion in the country, Vedomosti reported.

 

Rubles Only

The new Russian law “On Advertising” requires all businesses to show prices in rubles instead of dollars, euros, and “conventional units.” Henceforth, non-ruble currencies are outlawed in both price tags and advertisements. Smart Money magazine said that the move may cause inflation, as large companies will round up their internal exchange rates, raising product prices by 1-2%.

 

Luzhkov 5.0

Yuri Luzhkov, 70, was sworn in for his fifth term as the mayor of Moscow. He has been the mayor of the Russian capital since Boris Yeltsin appointed him to the post in 1992. He was most recently reelected in 2003, since which time election laws were changed and heads of regions and large cities are now appointed by local parliaments, after a presidential recommendation. The Moscow Duma approved Putin’s nomination of Luzhkov on June 27th.

 

Have a Seat

Some 150 artists from all over the world collaborated to paint the “World bench” in front of the Tretyakov Gallery, which turned 150 this year. Two meter lengths of the wooden bench will be auctioned in the fall to benefit art projects in orphanages. 

 

Open Source

Schools struggling to meet the State’s goal of connecting every Russian school to the Internet are facing a challenge: Microsoft programs are expensive. As reported by Russian Life previously, a principal in Perm region, Alexander Ponosov, was put on trial for using unlicensed software in his institution. Some teachers now advocate a switch to Open Source software to avoid potential licensing issues. OS software, like Linux, is free and freely distributable. The main problem is lack of knowledge about installation and use of OS programs. An estimated 75 percent of Russian schools use unlicensed programs on their computers. Ponosov said he will begin the new school year on a Linux platform.

 

Brooklyn Pirate

A New York District Court ruled on behalf of Mosfilm in a recent piracy trial against the New York company St. Petersburg Publishing House. 

The head of the company, Joseph Berov, is to pay $2.69 million for illegally replicating and selling Russian movies in the United States. Berov distributed 383 predominantly Mosfilm films over three years through his VHS and DVD distributor company and a store located on Brighton Beach and online (ruskniga.com), Kommersant reported. Berov, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was convicted of human trafficking in the late 1990s and in 2003 served 10 months in prison on an earlier charge of pirating bootleg videos. 

 

Luke’s Tour

A relic of Christianity’s St. Luke – the martyred first century evangelist’s head – traveled through Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine this summer. Normally located in a Russian monastery on  Greece’s Mount Athos, St. Luke’s remains visited Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Minsk, Volgograd, and several other Russian cities. Over a million Russians turned out in various cities for worship; in Moscow alone, 300,000 came to  Christ the Savior Cathedral, waiting in line for 5 to 7 hours.

 

Only 21% of Russians know what they are celebrating on June 12 (Russia Day).  53% think the holiday is called Independence Day. 

35,000 Russians die annually in car accidents.  Each day, 100 people die in auto accidents, and another 600 are wounded.  In 55% of cases, people die before the ambulance arrives on the scene. 

Across all of Russia, there are an average 719.9 small businesses for every 100,000 residents. But there is significant disparity regionally: North-West Federal District has 1,183 businesses per 100,000, Central District 940 and the Far East just 679. The South Federal District has the lowest ratio, with just 490.  Russia’s 1,032,800 small businesses generate 15-17% of GDP.

Russia’s favorability rating is falling among Europeans. Poles are the most critical (75% have a negative view of their Eastern neighbor). The biggest Russophiles are Ukrainians: 81% have a “fairly positive” view of Russia, compared with 89% of Russians with such a view of themselves. Russian foreign policy finds greatest approval among Ukrainians (56%), Chinese (58%) and Indians (43%).

43% of Russian men who die between the ages of 25 and 54 die from the consumption of alcohol or counterfeit alcohol. 

Russians spent $17.13 billion on trips abroad in 2006, ranking them 7th in the world. Americans top the list with $101.78 billion, followed by Germans, Brits, Japanese, French, and Chinese. 

There are over 155 million cell phone subscribers (based on number of valid SIM cards) in Russia.  Of these, over 27 million are in Moscow.  The biggest providers in Russia and the CIS are MTS (32.3%), Megafon (19.9%), and Vympelcom (31.2%)

Among the world’s 500 largest companies are 8 Russian giants (up from 6 last year). The largest is Gazprom, which ranks #6 and is worth $245.91 billion. The other seven are Rosneft, Lukoil, Sberbank, RAO EES Russia, Surgutneftgaz, Norilsk Nikel, and Mobilnye Telesistemy. The world’s largest company is oil giant Exxon Mobil.  

A Russian man’s average life expectancy is 58.7 – 16 years less than his American counterpart. In the Ukraine, women live to an average 72.5 years, while men live to 60.5. In Belarus, the numbers are slightly higher (74 and 63), while the highest life expectancy among CIS residents is in Armenia (75 and 68). 

Between 2005 and 2006, the number of millionaires in Russia increased by 15.5%.  That places Russia among the top ten countries with the fastest growth in number of millionaires, along with India and China. Worldwide over this period, the number of millionaires increased 8.3%. 

There were 25.5 million cars in Russia in 2006, a number that is expected to grow to 42 million by 2015. So far in 2007, some 715,000 new foreign cars and 300,000 new Russian cars have been sold.

Yashin Chooses Yaroslavl 

Former New York Islanders captain Alexei Yashin has signed a one-year contract with Lokomotiv (Yaroslavl). The 33-year-old center forward was put out of a job last month after the Islanders bought out the last four years of his $87.5 million, 10-year contract. Since being traded to New York by the Ottawa Senators in 2001, Yashin had been one of Islanders’ top players, but he has slumped in of late, scoring just 18 goals in 58 games last season. Yashin has captained Russia at several world ice hockey championships and also represented his country in the last three Winter Olympics. Yashin is the highest profile player to return to the Superleague since Russia’s refusal to sign a new transfer agreement with the NHL two months ago.

Silver Volley

In July, Russia lost to Brazil 1-3 in the finals of the 2007 World League volleyball title, held in Katowice (Poland). In the semifinal round, Russia disposed of the U.S. team 3-1, winning the match with quick attacks through the middle, which the American team could not answer. But in the finals, the powerful Russian team proved no match for Brazil, which has now won the title five times in a row and seven times since 1990. Russia has been in four World League finals and defeated Brazil in 2002 for the gold. 

School Matches

State Duma Chairman Boris Gryzlov is pledging more government support for chess, proposing introduction of chess courses at secondary schools, as a way to help students improve their grades. “I think many children in Russia will start to play chess in the near future,” said FIDE President (and president of Kalmykia) Kirsan Ilyumzhimov. Chess is far less popular in Russia than it was in its heyday, 10-15 years ago (see Russian Life, Nov/Dec 2005), yet Russian players still rank among the world’s best, and Vladimir Kramnik presently holds the official FIDE title of world champion. 

Rocket Sues

British Airways has officially apologized to former NHL star Pavel Bure, who filed a R20 million ($770,000) lawsuit in a Moscow court, alleging damages to his reputation. Last October, the retired NHL right wing, known as the “Russian Rocket,” was scheduled to fly on BA875 from Moscow to London, when the pilot of the aircraft allegedly mistook Bure for a Russian soccer fan, and refused to allow him on the flight. In a statement, British Airways said it realized how unpleasant the incident was for Bure, saying that the star was removed from the plane for security reasons, following an incident the day before involving Russian soccer fans. 

On October 30, 2006, British police arrested six passengers for being drunk after BA875 from Moscow landed in London. The six were Russian soccer fans going to London for the Arsenal CSKA (Moscow) match. The drunken fans smoked and were rude to other passengers throughout the flight. 

 

Vermont Victory

In July, Russia reached the final of tennis’ Fed Cup for the third time in four years, defeating the U.S. team 3-2 on its home turf, in Stowe, Vermont. Coach Shamil Tarpischev, who was coaching his 100th team tennis match (he also captains the Russian Davis Cup team), struggled with visa problems, barely arriving at the match before it began, but nonetheless set a powerful lineup. The U.S. had Venus Williams (fresh from her Wimbledon victory), but none of the other U.S. players offered serious competition. After Williams won both her singles matches, the semifinal came down to the doubles rubber, where Nadya Petrova and Yelena Vesnina played like a smoothly oiled machine, defeating Venus Williams and Lisa Raymond 7:5, 7:6. Russian will now take on Italy (which defeated France) in Moscow on September 15-16. “We will have a better chance against Italy,” Tarpishchev said, “than we had against the United States.”