The Accidental Russophile

Royal Academy of Arts, From Russia Exhibit

2008-01-29T12:52:00.000-05:00

The exhibit that almost wasn't.

The Royal Academy of Arts exhibit titled From Russia: French and Russian Master Paintings 1870–1925 from Moscow and St Petersburg opened last weekend and runs through April 18th. Demand for tickets has been very high, and many of the planned events are already sold out. Despite the recent controveries between the UK and Russian Federation, the unprecedented exhibit opened with few complications, and has outstanding reviews, as it brings together some of the great paintings of the late 19th and early 20th century. From the RA website:

This landmark exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts presents modern masterpieces drawn from Russia’s principal collections: the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Art and the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and the State Hermitage Museum and the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. For the first time, works from these museums have been gathered for a single exhibition.

Over 120 paintings by Russian and French artists working between 1870 and 1925 will be displayed together in an exhibition which surveys the main directions of modern art from Realism and Impressionism to Non-Objective painting. Works will include paintings by Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin and Matisse together with those by Kandinsky, Tatlin and Malevich.

The exhibit will also included various events, including evening lectures, lunch-time lectures, and workshops. There is even a contest to win a FREE trip for two to St. Petersburg (open to residents of UK and Northern Ireland only - I checked). Entries for the contest are accepted until April 18th and the winners will be contacted on April 21st.

For those of you unaware of some of the complications with making the exhibit possible, the Russian government wanted assurances that the paintings would not be siezed and possibly returned to heirs of the former owners. Many of the paintings had been in the private collections of Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov prior to the Russian Revolution. However, as explained in the Time's Online article by Mark Stephens:

The Russian Government took no good title to the pictures, leaving the legitimate owners, and now their heirs, every right to claim what should have been theirs. That right to have stolen cultural property returned is embodied in our domestic law as well as being a modern cultural and civilised norm that has crystallised into international law.

Perversely, Russian law prevents reclamation of looted art in government hands. This means that the only opportunity to recover stolen artworks is when they travel abroad — hence the controversy about whether the works would actually be sent for exhibition.

The Russians could have lawfully “nationalised” the cultural objects taken during the revolution. The difference between the thieving State and the legitimate compulsory purchase is not a fine one. The State must pay compensation to anyone from whom it takes assets — a bit like the compulsory purchase powers exercised by local authorities. The absence of compensation makes the acquisitions by Russia illegal.

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Russia bombers in exercises near France

2008-01-23T15:56:00.000-05:00

Russia bombers in exercises near France; France Surrenders.
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From the Mail-Order Bride Files - Russian Universal Wife

2008-01-21T19:59:00.001-05:00

I thought this was a bit amusing, thought I would pass it along to the masses.

Universal Wife by ICQ. Made in Russia. Cooks. Washes Laundry. Dishwasher.

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Lenin at the South Pole

2008-01-05T16:11:00.000-05:00

Michael Field of Fairfax Media in Australia/New Zealand has the story of a group of scientists traversing Antarctica that were surprised to discover a Soviet artifact left behind at the most remote location on the most remote continent - A large plastic bust of Lenin.

In the middle of no-where – literally the point on Antarctica furthest from the sea – an imposing bust of revolutionary Bolshevik Vladimir Lenin peers out onto the polar emptiness.

The Inaccessibility Pole marks the point on Antarctica that is furthest from the ocean. At 3,718 metres above sea-level it is in the Australian zone and seldom visited.

The (Norwegian-US) Scientific Traverse this week made it to the Inaccessibility Pole for New Year's Day and found a one time Soviet Union base buried under the ice. The group's website says Soviet scientists first visited the Pole in December 1958 and built a small cabin there. After several weeks they left, putting the bust of Lenin on top of the chimney facing Moscow.

"Today the bust is clearly visible from many kilometres away, and remains as they left it on the chimney, although the cabin itself is buried under the snow," the explorers say.

The current expedition plans to leave something more substantial in the form of an automatic weather station. They will also drill a 90 metre ice core.

One of the drillers, Lou Albershardt, told an US website that they took six weeks to reach the pole, noticing Lenin from a long way out.

They all speculated on what the bust might have been made out of; marble or concrete.
“You wouldn’t believe it. He’s plastic.”

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Nigerian Energy Security, Russian-Style

2008-01-05T12:47:00.000-05:00

It appears that Gazprom truly have it in their hearts and minds to be more than just the Russian national natural gas company, and to strengthen their own "energy security" as much as possible with every year. According to the Financial Times (and via the Associated Press) Gazprom is making an all-out effort to secure Nigerian gas deposits.

Russia's state-owned gas giant Gazprom is reportedly eyeing a "mindboggling" stake in Nigeria's energy reserves in a bid to trump US, Chinese and Indian interests.

In a dispatch from Abuja and Moscow, the Financial Times quoted a senior Nigerian oil industry official as saying Gazprom was offering to invest in energy infrastructure in return for access to the country's vast gas deposits.

"What Gazprom is proposing is mind-boggling," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"They're talking tough and saying the west has taken advantage of us in the last 50 years and they're offering a better deal... they are ready to beat the Chinese, the Indians and the Americans."

Actually, what they are apparently intent upon is to secure all available sources of imported natural gas for Europe, which is far more reliant upon natural gas imports than the United States (at least at this time.)

On the heels of Putin's infamous New Years gambit of 2006, where natural gas to Ukraine (and by extension, Europe) was shut off with much television drama, Europe had decided to not be quite so heavily reliant upon Russian natural gas. Their imports of Russian gas have fallen a few percentage points each year and alternative sources have been weighed and sought out, where available.

Since that time, access to and transport of central Asian gas via pipelines has initially fallen in Russia's (meaning Gazprom's) favor, with new agreements with Kazakhstan to build new pipelines across Russian territory and the Caspian Sea.

And now we are seeing a Russian gover ... I mean Gazprom strategy to secure Nigerian gas resources as well. Yes, it is hard to see where the Russian government ends and Gazprom begins, even more so with Gazprom Chairman of the Board Medvedev the likely successor to the Russian presidency.

In many ways, this Nigerian move makes sense for Gazprom/Russia's long-term energy and business strategy. Most estimate that at current high levels of production, Russian petroleum will be largely gone in 10 to 20 years. However, their natural gas resources are immense and securing all possible alternative sources of natural gas could certainly place Gazprom in a long-term position of setting the market for generations.

And that is apparently what Vladimir Putin meant by Энергетическая безопасность (energy security).

Secure all the energy you can and sell only to the highest bidder.

Post-Script: Sean Guillory hit this topic hard as well. Lionel Beehner of the Huffington Post and his recent "Why Russia Matters Less Than We Think" column now has the unfortunate distinction of providing bad analysis at the most inopportune time. Yeah, Nigeria is more important than Russia. Who could end up owning who?

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Pauper or Oligarch - The Strange Case of Putin's Wealth

2008-01-04T12:55:00.000-05:00

As Putin seeks to move from the role of President to Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, we've witnessed a possible inside look into the financial windfall he may have amassed during his time as President.

According to the Central Election Committee, President Putin declares the following assets:

77.7 square meter apartment in St. Petersburg
150 square meter land parcel in the Moscow region
2 Volgas registered in his name (1960 and 1965 vintage)
230 Shares of St. Petersburg Bank Stock
R3,700,300 ($151,409) in total savings (3 bank accounts)
R2,011,611 2006 annual earnings of ($82,311)

It was widely reported at the time of a European Union summit in October that this declared income and assets would make Vladimir Putin among the poorest of the developed world's leaders. There was also some casual debate among bloggers and commentators that this didn't include assets in his wife's name, which may be substantial.

Since that time, we have been treated to the declarations of Stanislav Belkovsky, supposed Russian analyst, and his assessment that Vladimir Putin is worth over $40 billion and among the richest men in the world.

Belkovsky lists as Putin assets, owned secretly through various other parties and nefarious private means:

37% of Surgutneftegaz (estimated worth of $18 billion)
4.5% of Gazprom (estimated worth of $13 billion)
over 50% of Gunvor (estimated worth of $10 billion)

Small wonder that he can afford all those expensive tailored suits.

Today via Forum.MSK and Johnson's Russia List, we are treated to the long-winded and rambling observations of Julia Latynina, who sees the scandal of these two disparate assessments of Putin's wealth growing.

It is amazing that Belkovskiy already said this a couple of weeks or three weeks ago, and everything was somehow kept quiet in the beginning, but now the scandal keeps spreading and spreading and spreading."

"I can tell you from my own experience, that a colossal number of correspondents from Western publications started calling me just in the last week to ask me what I think of this."

Belkovskiy stated "that Putin controls 37 percent of the stock in Surgutneftegaz, 4.5 percent of the Gazprom stock, and 75 percent of the stock in the Gunvor company," the writer went on to say. "I should remind you that the Gunvor company, with capitalization estimated at $15-20 billion, now sells a huge amount of Russian oil, including the oil belonging to Yuganskneftegaz.

"I should also remind you that Khodorkovskiy was once accused of minimizing his taxes by selling oil from a company he owned through offshore firms also owned by him. This was called a crime.

"Obviously, if you calculate the price at which the Rosneft state company must have been selling oil to the non-state Gunvor offshore company for it to amass capitalization of $15-20 billion -- and I have never heard that any of Khodorkovskiy's offshore firms had capitalization approaching this figure -- you have to wonder: If what Khodorkovskiy was doing, moving money from one of his own pockets into another of his pockets, is a crime, then what would you call what people are doing when they move money from the state's pocket, namely the Rosneft company, to a private pocket, namely the Gunvor company?

"Gennadiy Timchenko is believed to own 50 percent of the stock in the Gunvor company. This elderly man has been in the oil business for a long time and has been a close friend of President Putin for a long time. In view of how many points Putin lost in the international arena because of the YuKOS affair, we have to conclude either that Putin is an extremely bighearted man, giving presents of this type to his friends, or that these friends are just the front men for someone else.

"Going back to Belkovskiy's statements, I certainly cannot imagine how he could prove them, and I seriously doubt that anyone ever will be able to prove that the figure of $40 billion is correct. In general, Vladimir Vladimirovich is a cautious man, and we saw, for example, that when the transfer of the controlling interest in AO (Joint-Stock Company) Rossiya to another president became inevitable, President Putin did not go against the Constitution and he did make General Director Dmitriy Anatolyevich Medvedev the titular owner of AO Rossiya.

"I think it would also be impossible to prove that Putin is the actual beneficiary of the Gunvor company or any other company, just as it would be impossible to prove that Putin is the actual beneficiary of AO Rossiya, whose titular owner will be President Dmitriy Anatolyevich Medvedev. It is difficult to believe that after being so excessively scrupulous in the constitutional matter, Putin would be less scrupulous in matters connected with property rights.

"And there is something else, or actually two things, that should be borne in mind. The first is that Putin, as I already said, apparently is an extremely generous man if he gives presents like these to his friends even though they create foreign policy problems for him. The second is that the issue of property ownership was not raised just before 2008 by accident, because it plays an extremely important role in politics, after all: When President Putin was deciding what he should do after 2008, whether he should go or stay, or when the Kremlin was deciding this, the following consideration must have been taken into account.

"If he had stayed on after 2008, there was a chance that the regime would have been illegitimate because it would have violated the Constitution, and the West does not like this, so it might have taken an interest in the Gunvor company at the very least. If he had not stayed -- i.e., if he had left -- another problem would have come up, because the people who are the official owners of various companies and who amassed considerable wealth during the Putin years, might say: 'Yes, we are the real owners, no one helped us, and we are not serving as a front for anyone else,' and there would be no way of proving the opposite.

Latynina goes on from there for a while, spinning sort of dark theories about how the US had to know about Putin's ill-gotten gains. Sure. Like we knew about WMDs.

No matter how you slice it, something doesn't match up with Putin's lifestyle and is declared wealth. There was some speculation a couple of years ago that with so many lesser mortals accumulating vast sums in the private sector, that Putin may seek to leave office for a high-paying role in Gazprom or heading some other lucrative gas or oil project (such as Nord Stream AG).

Putin once said, "Надо исполнять закон всегда, а не только тогда, когда схватили за одно место" ("You must obey the law, always, not only when they grab you by your special place"). Some Russians have taken a small measure of pride in judging their President as being a tough and, in their perception, honest man. He was bringing the oligarchs to heel, after all and making them pay for their thefts from the Russian people. Could it be that Putin is the biggest thief of all?

We are left wondering what will happen when that inevitable day comes when Putin is no longer in power and the law potentially grabs him by his special place. It would certainly prove an incentive to retain political power in Russia at the highest level possible, for the greatest length of time available.

We are also left wondering about how these clues and details have been planted in the news media, along with other small revealed scandals such as velvet re-privatization.
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Bishkek Press Club Annual Awards

2007-12-27T10:35:00.000-05:00

The Bishkek Press Club is holding their annual awards ceremony on January 4, 2008. Among the award-winners is photojournalist/blogger Elena Skochilo, who will receive an award for "Most Interesting Perspective" for her photojournalism work in 2007.

Congratulations to Elena for her award and here's hoping for more achievements in 2008!
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Putin Announced as Time Magazine's "Man of the Year"

2007-12-19T09:10:00.000-05:00

Perhaps not-so-surprising announcement regarding Time Magazine naming Vladimir Putin as their "Man of the Year" for 2007. Reuters has the story of one of the more negative sounding pronouncements of "Man of the Year" in recent memory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was named Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2007 on Wednesday for bringing his country "roaring back to the table of world power."

"He's not a good guy, but he's done extraordinary things," said Time managing editor Richard Stengel, who announced Putin's selection on NBC's "Today Show."

"He's a new tsar of Russia and he's dangerous in the sense that he doesn't care about civil liberties; he doesn't care about free speech; he cares about stability. But stability is what Russia needed and that's why Russians adore him."

Not a good guy? What, like he beats up old ladies and kicks dogs? I find the statement that he "doesn't care about civil liberties" a bit odd also - I think Putin's perspective is likely quite different, more of a first-things first approach. As much as our press would like to hand-wring about it, I think most Russians aren't feeling their civil liberties being squashed any more than Americans do.

Personally, these aren't the items or policies for which I would first criticize Putin. Then again, I also think that he gets too much credit for an economic recovery that actually started at the end of Boris Yeltsin's time.

There is always something to be said for being in the right place at the right time. Putin deserves the most credit for simply having clear ideas on asserting Russia's influence on the international stage, now that the nation has resurgent economic prowess.

To commemerate the occasion, I'm sharing the following Putin cut-out figure. Now you too can have a little Putin, Man of the Year, watching over your desk!

When completed, the figure will look like this:

Variations on the theme can be found here.

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Putin Ready to Be Medvedev's Prime Minister

2007-12-17T09:52:00.000-05:00

Like Batman and Robin, Bush and Cheney, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Sancho Panza and Don Quixote, Festus and Marshal Dillon, Burns and Allen, chocolate and peanut butter, and, well you get the idea. Medvedev and Putin are part of a team.
"If Russian citizens express their confidence in Dmitry Medvedev and elect him as the country's president, I will be ready to head the government," Putin told a congress of his United Russia party held near Moscow's Red Square.

"(We) shouldn't be ashamed or afraid of transferring the key powers of the country, the destiny of Russia to the hands of such a man," he added.
Of course, the real reason that Putin nominated Medvedev has nothing to do with all the speculated political intrigues and loyalties.

The real reason is Medvedev is the only man in the Kremlin shorter than Putin.
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Hey - Doesn't Bush Have a Beer Named After Him?

2007-12-17T09:35:00.000-05:00

Seems to be a really successful President of the Russian Federation, you need a vodka named after you!

I can hear the slogan now - "It takes a big man to make a pure vodka..."

Interesting side bar: whenever I see Putin walk, I can't help but think of George Jefferson. Really more like a one-armed George Jefferson - he only swings his left arm.
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Preved, Medved!

2007-12-10T10:33:00.000-05:00

Well ... ain't that a kick in the pants. Turns out the man Putin wants to succeed him is the guy we were all talking about a year ago. All these machinations, promotions of Ivanov, analysts timing the minutes Medvedev and Ivanov appear on television, and other speculations were merely to throw us off the scent.

Dmitry Medvedev is the man.

So what does this mean? I very much doubt it will affect any change in the direction of Russia, Inc. In fact, Medvedev's strong business experience and persona lend itself to Russia as the emerging corporate state, a nation that is run like a business. Most analysts tend to cast Medvedev as a liberal - I think this is a mistake. He simply isn't the sort of Russian man who shoots his mouth off to show what a real man he truly is. He's another sort. I also disagree with analysts such as Yevgeny Volk of the Heritage Foundation, who says

"The choice of Medvedev...reflects Putin's desire to have the most obedient figure. Putin views Medvedev as a subordinate on whose loyalty he can count."

Putin has no need for a trained dog. Subordinate seems like an inappropriate word here. Trust in politics is a fleeting thing. It seems unlikely that Medvedev will conduct his business any differently now than he has in the past. And business would seem to be the most appropriate word - this will be business as usual for Russia, Inc.

But, alas, I am afraid the days of juicy quotes like they should keep their booger-noses out of our business or You must obey the law, always, not only when they grab you by your special place or He raped 10 women. I never expected it from him. He surprised all of us. We envy him or We’ll follow terrorists everywhere. We will corner the bandits in the toilet and wipe them out. Medvedev won't lend himself to the easy, knee-jerk, "He's a fascist" kind of blogging. He doesn't appear to be so vain as to appear shirtless for photos while fishing with some prince. He is unlikely to kiss children on the belly.

In short, the man is a professional.

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Reluctant Democracy?

2007-12-02T12:56:00.000-05:00

Spiegel Online has an long and interesting article titled Portrait of a Reluctant Democracy. On the eve of the carefully orchestrated Duma elections, Spiegel provides a sort of cross-section of opinions and the political times in Russia. Their case study involves a series of cities across Russia, and by god, for once it doesn't include Moscow. Ivanovo, Magnitogorsk, Tyumen, Bedime, and Vladivostok are chosen as representative of the successes and failures of Putin's tenure as President of the Russian Federation.

Some of the more interesting tidbits from the article:

Vladimir Ryzhkov (whose Republican Party was dissolved in May by the Russian Supreme Court and after 14 years will no longer be part of the Russian Duma): "This is not an election, it's a farce." Ryzhkov states that the controlled multi-party system that is being formed in Russia reminds him of the former East Germany.

Boris Nemzov, a leading candidate of the "pro-business" SPS (but that protesters characterize as "Party of the Oligarchs") is asked by a reporter if he could imagine cooperating with the dominant United Russia party.

"If you mix a kilo of cranberries with a kilo of shit," Nemzov replies, "you get two kilos of shit."

There's the spirit of pragmatism and compromise upon which successful democracy's are built! Nemzov's SPS party is deemed unlikely to meet the minimum 7% for inclusion in the new Duma.

Another telling moment:

Nemzov says, to an audience at Ivonovo's "Silver City" shopping center: "Do you want me to tell you what the cleanest spot in the country is? The ass of the president! That's because someone is kissing it from morning to night."

Three female students giggle. A furious-looking soldier turns red in the face. Putin is his idol. An agitated pensioner calls out: "You stole our pensions in the '90s, you thieves!"

Nemzov is prepared for these accusations. He pats the angry pensioner on the back and responds to the attack with numbers: "When I was the energy minister, the price of oil was only $17. Nevertheless, Boris Yeltsin spent 7.5% of the national budget on pensions. The Putin administration spends only 4.2% on pensions."

And didn't Gazprom, the state-controlled energy giant, pay $13 billion for Abramovich's shares in the oil company Sibneft? Thirteen billion dollars, says Nemzov, is more than the government spends on its "national projects," much-touted programs devoted to healthcare and building low-income housing. "In other words," says Nemzov, "the most important national project for Mr. Putin is the oligarch Abramovich."

Ever since the arrest of oil billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2003, Nemzov tells his guests, everyone who hopes to do business in peace knows "where they have to leave their money" -- with United Russia.

In Magnitogorsk, almost 90% of the city's tax revenues are derived from the steel mill Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine (MMK) owned by Viktor Rashnikov and operated by Andrei Morozov. Morozov and MMK have somewhat reluctantly decided to support United Russia. This support is not without its detractors among the workers in the city.

When it came out that the mill's managers would support United Russia, critics in Magnitogorsk began parodying the party's Russian name, Yedinaya Rossiya, calling it "Yedim Rossiyu," or "We eat Russia."

"They have learned nothing from history," complains Gennady Grabaryev, a local opposition politician. [..] He sees a group of aging MMK veterans demonstrating on the square behind the city hall. Mariya Lyssenko holds a placard: "United Russia's members of parliament have cheated the MMK pensioners." She and her husband worked at the MMK for a combined 106 years, only to be pressured by management, following the privatization of the combine, to sell their shares at rock-bottom prices. Lyssenko and her husband were told it was their duty to save the plant from an outside takeover.

Lyssenko, whose shares would be worth €120,000 today, must now make ends meet on a monthly pension of about €100. According to a Russian proverb -- "Nye poyman, nye vor" -- those who are not caught are not thieves.

And yet in other regions of Russia, such as the booming city of Tyumen, travel agency entrepeneur Natalya Mironova, flatly remarks regarding United Russia:

"Why should we vote for anything else? We're doing very well here."

[..] Born during the Soviet era in the city of Asbest, {W. Shedd notes: Russian for asbestos, which should give you a clue what they mine there} an industrial hell west of Tyumen, Mironova worked as an English teacher in the 1980s and moonlighted as a tour guide for Intourist, the state-owned travel agency. The economy stagnated, while private business ownership was forbidden. "Not in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I would establish my own company one day," says Mironova.

Update: Reuters reports that early results show that United Russia is winning approximately 63% of the voting.
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Apology

2007-11-29T12:49:00.000-05:00

I apologize for doing so little serious writing lately on this blog. Since my 2-week+ case of pneumonia, I've been playing catch-up at work.

I have three large articles that I'm trying to clean up and post to the blog. I promise something more interesting in the next few days and that momentum should carry into next week and through the holidays.
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Putin: Mein Plan

2007-11-26T14:10:00.000-05:00

I have some larger articles in the works for this week, but wanted to pass along this image from volodymir_k, via a conversation with Megan Case.

Along this line, there is something weirdly insecure about a President who enjoys 60% to 70% approval ratings in his country, pointing the finger at other nation's ghostly support of political fringe candidates in Russia.

Is he really so out of touch with reality as to suggest that a "color revolution" might be in the works in Russia?

The Presidentially election isn't until March, but Dr. Case (inside joke) observes that Russians are already suffering election fatigue from Plan Putina.
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American Pizza Success in Siberia

2007-11-07T21:20:00.000-05:00

Nice little Reuters story about American mini-garch Eric Shogren, owner of the New York Pizza chain (30 restaurants, $15 million in sales in 2005, and going strong) and various other business interests in Novosibirsk. Eric Shogren went into business in 1996 in Novosibirsk, with a modest investment of $150,000. Shogren tells a story of great success in the face of skeptics and the economic crash of the late 90s. These days his biggest headache seems to be a shortage of cheese - he needs over 20 metric tons of cheese a month for his pizza chain.

"I'm out here selling Russians pizza left and right. I've got people packed in my bar every night dancing to Chuck Berry music, and there's people going 'Do you think this'll work?'," said Shogren, grinning. "Some people see things that work in reality and wonder if they would work in theory."

Shogren says you should never underestimate Russian's dislike of spicy foods and their love of potatoes. Since arriving in 1996, Shogren has also opened a live music bar, a fine dining restaurant, a diner and a bakery, and he now employs 1,500 people in Russia's third largest city, 3,200 kilometers (2,000 miles) east of Moscow.

"We should have known that people here are the same as they are anywhere else. They just want good, normal stuff," he said. "When I first started in '96, I had to bring almost all the ingredients I used from the West," he said. "Now almost everything I use is from Novosibirsk or from Russia. My cheese supplier just called me and said 'My God, we're not going to have any cheese for the next six months, Moscow's got all the cheese."'

To provide an adequate supply of pizza cheese he now plans the most ambitious of his commercial ventures by building a 3,200-head dairy operation on the outskirts of Novosibirsk.

"At the very moment when the Russian economy is so hot, and the consumer class – the middle class as everyone calls it – is so vibrant, the internal industries are still kind of crumbling, and some of them haven't been reformed yet," he said.

For the cheese, Shogren will grow his own feed, import Dutch cattle, install equipment from Wisconsin and count on continued Russian economic growth.

"It's happening, the processes are working. What I always tell people here is that it's working maybe faster than we expected it to."

Never underestimate Russians dislike of spicy foods - I couldn't have said it better myself. I would add, never dislike their disdain for vinegar either.

Reportedly, Shogren's proposed 3,200-head dairy will be the largest modern dairy in Russia. Difficult to tell what success he is having with this dairy, as Fortune magazine reports that he broke ground on the project in 2004, with a planned opening in 2006. However, this 2007 story implies the project hasn't yet been completed.

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Of Gorbachev, Louis Vuitton, and Litvinenko

2007-11-06T09:14:00.000-05:00

Some rumors started circulating among a few blogs several days ago, regarding a hidden message in Gorbachev's photo sessions with Annie Liebovitz, used as advertising for Louis Vuitton. In the images, Gorbachev is passing some remaining portion of the Berlin Wall while riding in a limosine with a Louis Vuitton bag.

It seems some sharp-eyed individual took a closer look at the magazines that Gorbachev is carrying in his Louis Vuitton bag. The New York Times and a few other newspapers picked up on it yesterday, calling it "subversive text."

And lo and behold, what did their wondering eyes see? Perhaps a secret message?

The headline on the magazine says (approximately) in Russian: "Litvinenko's murder: They wanted to give up the suspect for $7,000." Was it some secret message being passed from Gorbachev to the Western world? What information did he know and why was it in the Louis Vuitton images?

Alas - it turns out to be all quite ordinary. It seems that Miss Liebovitz just purchased some magazines to fill the bag from some local store. At the time of the photo shoot, the Litvinenko murder was still making headlines. The Guardian Unlimited reports that the issue in question is simply the May 28 edition of New Times. The New Times article alleges that its reporters were approached by Russian secret agents offering to give them the location of Andrei Lugovoi in exchange for $7,000.

So, unfortunately, a possibly juicy tidbit turns out to be just a dead-end. However, given the location of the bag and magazine, you might have thought that Gorbachev would notice the headline and shuffle the magazines for something else to be in the image. Then again, he might not have even known how much of the bag or the magazine might be revealed in the final photos.
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"We're against everything. We're patriots"

2007-11-05T11:36:00.000-05:00

Spiegel Online has a story today about the neo-Nazi National Unity Day march in Moscow at Kutosovsky Prospect yesterday. An estimated 2,000 people participated in the march and rally. The Spiegel article attempts to capture the stupidity and shallowness of the Russian neo-Nazi movement, and to explain the Kremlin and other government officials apparent tolerance of far-right nationalism, as contrasted with complete intolerance of the liberal left.

This was the 3rd annual such march in Moscow. While last years march resulted in many arrests, this year Moscow police issued a march permit for a relatively low-traffic area of the city.

The march included the cowboy hat wearing Preston Wiginton, a white supremacist from Texas. Wiginton spoke to the crowd, cheering "Glory to Russia," with the audience responding "white power" back to him in English.

Hey, so there is something we Americans and Russians have in common. Racist bigots. Hurray.

"Russia for Russians!" the demonstrators shouted in unison, followed by slogans such as "For a Slavic, Russian nation!" or "Slavic, Russian, Powerful!" The demonstrators stretched out their arms in the Hitler salute between slogans. Their loud shouts of "Slavic Russia!" were followed by the sound of drum rolls.

"We are opposed to the immigration of Caucasians and Asians to Russia. Our people must remain pure. Russia belongs to us," 32-year-old Andrey Bukov explains. The trained media expert says he has been "serving" in the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI) for four years. He waves its white, yellow and black flag, which features a symbol resembling a swastika.

Nineteen-year-old Sergei carries the red flag of his group -- the "Slavic Union" -- tied around his shoulders. "We Russians are part of the white race," he says. "The blacks -- the Caucasians, the Chechens, the Dagestani -- should stay away," says the Muscovite, a student at the Finance Academy.

If the use of the word Caucasians in the negative sounds unfamiliar to the less traveled American readers, it is because while we use the word Caucasian to indicate anyone of white race, Russians (and many Europeans) use the word to indicate people from the Caucasus Mountains. Again, for the unfamiliar - many Russians perceive such people to be non-white.

The utter brilliance of the marchers is demonstrated further into the Spiegel article, by a short interview with Olga and Darya:

Pensioner Monika Nikolayeva [says] "When it comes to our children, there is not even enough money to send them to university in Russia." That is why she believes it is good that young people take to the streets and protest. "Young girls in particular only get limited education!"

The young girls she means are technical university students like Olga and Darya, who are marching beneath the flags. "We're against everything. We're patriots," rants 18-year-old Olga. She and her 19-year-old friend have traveled to Moscow from Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia to attend the demonstration. Asked what they are demonstrating against, she is at a loss for a moment. Then she stutters: "Against the anti-Russian policy in the world -- I can't say it any more clearly."

Further analysis in the article is provided by Andreas Umland, "an expert in comparative fascism studies who specializes in Russia." Mr. Umland believes that these neo-nazi's are welcome bogeymen by the Kremlin, that their existence justifies strong-armed tactics by the government, with the increased use of extremism laws and other crack-downs on civil liberties. Of course, the Kremlin and law enforcement officials seem loathe to use those laws and measures against the ultra-nationalist bogeymen, preferring instead to crack the heads and knuckles of any organized liberal parties and individuals who dare fault or make a joke about Putin.

From the Associated Press article on the event: "This is just an outbreak of national identity feelings, which is noticeable worldwide, and it has affected Russia too," said Vyacheslav Postavnin, deputy director of the Federal Migration Service, the Interfax news agency reported.

In the first Russian March in 2005, thousands marched through central Moscow, some shouting "Heil Hitler." The march horrified many Muscovites, and the following year it was blocked by police.

"The first Russian March was unexpected good luck, the second one was about overcoming the resistance of the authorities, and the third one is already a new Russian tradition," said Konstantin Krylov of the nationalist Russian Social Movement.
I encourage you to read the rest of the article for additional details and observations by Simone Schlindwein.

Other marches on National Unity Day included the Yabloko party rally against fascism and xenophobia. The pro-Kremlin Nashi youth group assembled a "peace quilt" from the contributions of thousands of young people across Russia.

Sean's Russia Blog discusses how National Unity Day has actually served to highlight Russia's fractured and disunited nature. Neo-Nazi marches certainly add an exclamation point to his discussion.

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Most Beautiful Bottom in the World Competition

2007-11-02T08:53:00.000-04:00

What you goin' do with all that junk?
All that junk inside your trunk?
I'ma get, get, get, get, you drunk,
Get you love drunk off my hump.

Sloggi International, makers of fine, fine underwear recently sponsored a "Most Beautiful Bottom in the World" or World Backside Championships competition. And yes, my writing and commenting on it is pandering to the masses.

Probably sexist too.

Hell, it isn't even a Russia or former Soviet Union topic.

But it's fun, so I'm rolling with it.

Approximately 15,000 people entered photos of themselves for the competition on Sloggi's website, which drew over five million people (aka perverts). 130,000 people registered to vote for their favorites. From that bottomless field, 42 finalists from 26 countries were selected for the final competition in Munich, Germany. It was a Bum-Off!

The winner's original entry is posted to the right. Clever how she works the laptop in there as a nod to the obsessive computer geeks who will be drooling over her image and click, click, clicking to vote for her. Marketing saavy, we call that.

The winners were 19-year old Kristina Dimitrova of Bulgaria and 24-year old Andrei Andrei of Romania. They each recieve a 10,000 euro 1st prize, a modeling contract with Sloggi, and insurance for their prized possession.
Katja and I evaluated the finalists photos last night. We're wishing she had entered (as a Russian, of course). We think she could have took her. Dimitrova would be going down, y'all!

No, I'm not going to submit photographic evidence to support my claim. I'll just say - men follow her around in the supermarket, and leave it at that.

For the record, neither of us were that impressed with Andrei Andrei. Not that I was checking him out (ahem).

Reuters Video of the Event.

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Putin Grows a Heart?

2007-11-01T09:26:00.000-04:00

Well, in Whoville they say that the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day.

Earlier this week, Vladimir Putin did something even more unexpected than kissing a boy on the belly. Even more daring than fishing without a shirt. Even more sensitive than remarks about the Israeli President.

He honored those murdered during Stalin's purges.

Reuters has the story of his appearance and comments at Butovo, a facility near Moscow where tens of thousands were murdered under Stalin's Operational Order No. 00447.

The victims included priests and royalists but also huge numbers of people who were simply caught up in an indiscriminate spiral of killing. This year Russia marks the 70th anniversary of the bloodiest period of the purges.

Putin attended a memorial service with Patriarch Alexiy II, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, after passing a field criss-crossed with mass graves.

"We know very well that 1937 was the peak of the purges but this year was well prepared by years of cruelty," Putin said beside a mass grave after laying flowers at a memorial.

Putin said such tragedies "happen when ostensibly attractive but empty ideas are put above fundamental values, values of human life, of rights and freedom."

"Hundreds of thousands, millions of people were killed and sent to camps, shot and tortured," he said. "These were people with their own ideas which they were unafraid of speaking out about. They were the cream of the nation."

In an appeal for national unity, Putin said: "To develop the country and choose the right path, we need political debates and even battles but to make this process creative they should not be conducted outside the cultural framework," Putin said

When I read such quotes, I can't help but wonder - does Putin see those who speak out in opposition of his own government and corruption of police and public officials, as the "cream of the nation"?

Would he say that Kirill Formanchuk is the "cream of the nation"?

Would he say that Anna Politkovskaya is a member of this "cream of the nation?"

And what exactly is meant by - to make this process creative they should not be conducted outside the cultural framework? Who defines the cultural framework - the government, or the people of the nation? Is Putin suggesting that if Russians culturally prefer to discuss politics around the kitchen table, that is where such discussions should remain?

Of course, nothing is happening now in Russia on the scale of the murders under Stalin. But, when it suits the government or public officials, citizens are still oppressed, beaten, or even murdered when they speak in opposition. The devices of suppression are still the same, even if they are not resulting in the murder of tens of millions. Perhaps this is the cultural framework he references. Speak out in Russia if you wish, but be prepared to have your ass kicked if someone doesn't like what you have to say.

And despite his successes for Russia, I don't see Putin or his government doing a damn thing to change that.
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FYI

2007-10-20T11:44:00.000-04:00

I haven't been wimping out on writing - just caught a nasty case of pneumonia while on my Texas trip. Sleep and antibiotics are all I have time for right now.

Hope to be making a recovery in the next few days.

PS ~ You would be right to wonder if my pneumonia was a result of crazed drunken debauchery while in Texas for the Patriots vs. Cowboys football game. After all, you get four Shedd men together in one place and all sorts of wild things might happen.

Alas, no. I, as well as my brothers, were well behaved throughout the weekend. We had a few beers and likely ate too much, but generally behaved in a civilized fashion. So I can't blame my pneumonia on a weakened immune system due to drunken binge drinking.
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Hey, Where You Been?

2007-10-11T10:11:00.000-04:00

Seems I was quiet the last two plus weeks - just goes to show that time flies when you're having fun.

Work and home have been hectic recently and I've not had much of a chance to post on the blog. Never fear, I'll soon be back in the swing of things.

We drove Sergei and Natalia to JFK airport on Saturday October 6th for their return flight home. Their month long vacation went rather well, they seemed impressed with our region of the United States. Without a doubt, we gave them the full cultural program (although, sadly we were unable to attend a Boston Red Sox game and had to settle for televised version). There will be more postings on that topic. At least, I hope there will be. Надежда умирает последней. I know that Odnoetazhnaya Amerika has been silent since the first posting. That was largely a result of us doing so many things, Natalia's nervousness about writing, and sorting through what pictures and events were worth discussing. We've been discussing Katja taking over that blog, allowing her to talk about her parents trips and life in general in the U.S. from a Russian perspective. I may also provide some commentary, but I'm hoping to mostly leave it in their hands.

I'll say this - a big part of their trip was spent on shopping. Yes, my Capitalist Pig Bretheren, we have excellent shopping in the United States. Prices, selection, and quality were impressive and Sergei and Natalia deliberately arrived with empty suitcases. Well, at least they were empty after they distributed their gifts. Thank you again for the bottles of vodka (milk-filtered) and the stainless steel shashlyk skewer set. They returned home with two full suitcases and a very large duffle bag stuffed to the maximum. Items purchased varied widely from wet suits, jeans, purses, target air pistols, coats, and cooking gadgets. Everything purchased with $100 bills, of course.

This weekend I am flying to Dallas, Texas for the Patriots vs. Cowboys game. If it isn't clear, I'm cheering for the Patriots. It will be the first time in 15 years that all three of my brothers and I will be together in one place. (Yep, 4 sons. No daughters. I'll offer your condolences to my mother.) It took a football game to make this happen. We're hoping next year we might be able to do the same in Foxboro, Massachusetts. Time will tell.

I'll provide some more posts tonight and tomorrow morning before I leave. I'm bringing along my laptop and if I can get a decent internet connection I'll do some posting on the road as well. I depart on Friday and return on Monday, so likely I'll have some free time at the airport on both days.
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The Puff Pastry Opposition

2007-09-24T22:48:00.000-04:00

David Remnick of The New Yorker has a god-awful lengthy 12-page article on Garry Kasparov titled "The Tsar's Opponent". Apparently it isn't cool to compare Putin to Stalin anymore - he's a Tsar. I've seen a steady increase in these references in the past month or so.

Anyway, the article is pretty much standard issue diatribe against Putin, with plenty of no-brainer references to the K.G.B/F.S.B., siloviki, oligarchs, and perceived thievery by the government. How strange is it for American capitalists to now be accusing the Russian government of exploitation and thievery of profits? There are also references to how, due to the chaos of the 90's, the word demokratia is now dermokratia or “shit-ocracy.”

It bothers me with all the substantive criticism that could be aimed at Putin and his government, the best most Western news columnists can come up with is the lame K.G.B./spy angle and equating him to a dictator. I suppose it won't be anytime soon that Western writers will begin to simple take a measure of the man as a politician and count his successes and failures.

This article, thankfully, doesn't make a realistic case for Kasparov's chances. Not so thankfully, they attribute this to the Kremlin control of the news media and squashing of all opposition. Obligatory references to Kasparov as being half Armenian and half Jewish not exactly an ideal ethnic mix for a politician in a country with deep currents of anti-Caucasian and anti-Semitic feeling.Kasparov is made out to be some sort of idealistic hero or perhaps a Don Quixote figure, who just happens to be 44 years old and living with his mom. Imagine how that would play for a presidential candidate in the U.S.

He also doesn't demonstrate a single political idea in this article. He's just presented in some vague way as being pro-democracy.

The part of the article I found most truthful was the conclusion, where Remnick decides to talk with - you know, an actual Russian with no political agenda. Someone who might vote. Someone who isn't involved with Russian politics and either an opponent of Putin or friend of Kasparov. What an interesting article this could have been if Remnick had chosen to do that all along.

From Alexander Pachulia, deputy director of the October Chess Club Moscow:

"Usually, chess people are not very attached to their regular careers. They are almost uninterested in anything other than chess. If we didn’t close up at ten, people would play until ten in the morning and die of hunger right in their chair."

Like several other denizens of the club, Pachulia acknowledged Kasparov’s genius as a player but was cool to him as a person and as a politician. "I rooted for Kasparov against Karpov in the eighties because of Kasparov’s anti-Communism and Karpov stood for Soviet power," Pachulia went on. "But now we live in a different world. We need to be more assertive in the world. If NATO includes Ukraine and Georgia and other states on our border developing so-called democracy, that tells us that you" — the United States — "are putting arms on our borders. Democracy! Nonsense!"

Pachulia, like the majority of Russians, would prefer to see Putin remain President for at least another four years. To elect anyone else, he said, even one of Putin’s handpicked protégés, would be a risk that the country could ill afford. "Russia is gigantic and needs a strong hand," he said. Kasparov’s politics and language were too foreign, and it made the players at the club dubious not only about his capacities as a politician but even about his loyalty to the Russian state. "The West needs someone to run Russia for them, someone to order around as their instrument, and they want to do that with Garry Kasparov," Pachulia said. "The West is worried about the strength of Vladimir Putin."

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The Italian

2007-09-22T22:14:00.000-04:00

The Italian (Итальянец) by director Andrei Kravchuk (Андрей Кравчук) is one of the best and most overlooked Russian films of recent years. Overshadowed by other Russian films of 2005, such as the heavily advertised 9th Company (9 РОТА), this modest movie accomplishes great things through its understated drama, unexpected turns, and sincerity. The film is cited as having been insprired by true events, and Kravchuk takes these factual details and spins a modern-day Dickensian tale. Combined with a brilliant performance by young Kolya Spiridonov (Коля Спиридонов) as Vanya Solntsev, he's crafted a real gem of a film.

The official website describes the movie as follows:

A childless, affluent couple from Italy comes to a provincial Russian children’s home to find a child for adoption. The orphanage is a harsh place, run by two rival internal factions. Alongside the official, adult administration, Alongside the official, adult administration, run by a corrupt headmaster (played by Yuri Itskov) with the help of greedy adoption broker Madam (Maria Kuznetsova), there is a shadow children’s gang operating out of the institution’s boiler room.

When the Italian couple singles out six-year-old ragamuffin Vanya Solntsev (Kolya Spiridonov) as their prospective choice, the other orphans give Vanya a new nickname: The Italian. They envy Vanya, imagining that he is destined for a life of ease in sunny Italy. But seeing that the older children must resort to stealing or prostitution in order to survive, plucky little Vanya has other plans. He decides to track down his birth mother, teaching himself to read in order to learn her address from his personal file locked in the home’s office. After stealing his records, Vanya sneaks out of the orphanage and boards a commuter train headed for the city, with the orphanage staff and police in close pursuit. Fearing that Vanya will make them lose a very lucrative adoption deal, the orphanage headmaster joins forces with Madam to find the runaway child by any means necessary.

Untold is this synopsis is what I consider one of the films most important moments - why young Vanya decides to find his mother. Perhaps it is every orphans secret hope, that they may be returned to their family, as if their time in an orphanage were all just a bad dream. What raises this possibility in Vanya's mind is the return of the mother of one of the most recently adopted orphans.

After the young woman is pushed out the door of the orphanage, Vanya walks over to talk with her on a bench while she waits for a bus. She is crying and has questions about her son, the baby she gave up some years before. She says that she knows now that he is all that she had in this life and she never should have given him up, that she made a terrible mistake.

The next day we learn that she was hit by a train, an apparent suicide. This idea, that Vanya's mother made a mistake, and that she actually might need him changes his course and sets him on determined journey to find her. Along his journey, he faces many obstacles and unexpected help from those who recognize his dream can not be dismissed.

In a sense, The Italian is a patriotic film. It doesn't depict life in Russia as being easy. In fact, it is dirty, cold, and cruel and the orphans grow up at a remarkably young age. However, it suggests that Russians should take care of their own and that no one can love you more than your own flesh and blood.

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Suzy Sells Spaceships by the Seashore

2007-09-20T12:02:00.000-04:00

Suzy's Russian Space Blog has posted an entry on the Russian Space Program's Mars-500 simulation. The simulation is designed to test problems and long-term crowded space/deprivation conditions for a period of over 500 days, such as what would be undertaken by cosmonauts on a real Mars Mission. Spiegel likens it to a "Big Brother" experiment.

Today the North Pole! Tomorrow, Mars!

Suzy provides all the interesting details in a fashion that I simply couldn't, including the involvement of Russian cosmonaut Sergei Ryazanskii, who is divorced as a result of the experiment. I get the impression he's a well-known Russki hunk from Suzy's reaction.

The most interesting Russian-touch to the living environment is the wooden paneled living quarters, to provide a homey-feel. Rather like living in a banya, without the steam. Suzy is quick to point out wood would not be viable in a space capsule due to fire in the high oxygen environment.

Actually, they have Supercritical Wet Oxidation, so maybe steam is a possibility after all ....
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Tasty Mango

2007-09-20T10:59:00.000-04:00

If you're interested in learning Russian or some other language, Mango might be worth a try.

Advantages? It's free.

And it's also free.

Mango is in beta version currently and the sign-up is very easy. There are 100 Russian lessons with literally thousands of slides and sound files.

Languages include Mandarin Chinese, Greek, and even Pig Latin. Troductioninay otay Igpay Atinlay. See how it just rolls off the tongue?

Even the language-challenged should be able to master that.
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