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Putin on the spot

The president takes on all-comers in his live chat with the nation

T he televised images of the deserted streets of Boston and Cambridge, two of Ameri-ca’s oldest university centres, were a sad sight for the many former international stu-dents who studied there, myself included.

At the beginning of the Nineties the rebellious Rus-sian region of Chechnya was already making news in the international press, but most of my friends found it hard to fi nd it on the map. Judging by re-cent phone calls to my contacts there, this is no long-er the case. The tragic events surrounding the Bos-ton Marathon have not only taught many of the more outward-looking Americans where Chechnya is, they have also challenged some of their beliefs.

MOTIVE AND MEANS Why did the Tsarnaev brothers – one a promising boxer, successfully married into an affluent Ameri-can family; the other a relatively well-to-do student – do it? The western press is searching for the cul-prits in a predictable direction. One commentator wrote that the Tsarnaev brothers were not die-hard Islamists, but “lone wolves” who are “typically white and equally disenchanted, who have so often shed blood in the US”. (The Oklahoma City bomber Tim-othy McVeigh is, of course, mentioned.)

Another suggested the brothers had simply react-ed to an insult about their ethnic origins or religion. Rather simplistic, as the elder brother Tamerlan was on a Russian security services blacklist from at least 2011. The FBI and the CIA were twice warned about Tamerlan’s extremist leanings by Russia's Federal Se-curity Service.

These people are, however, untroubled by the facts.

Their biggest regret seems to be not the loss of life but that Bos-ton may prove President Vladimir Putin was right. Many liberal-minded people are searching for an antidote to this poisonous “pro-Putin doubt.” Don’t say the president had a point when he kept saying Islamist terrorism, in all its Chechen, Arab or other re-incarnations, was a threat to both the US and Russia. And, heaven forbid, don’t say it’s also a threat to Europe.

The problem is that the view that the Tsarnaevs had no connection to Islamist extrem-ism in their native Russian North Caucasus just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. If Tamerlan was intent on acting alone, why did he watch and spread jihadist videos on the internet, and why did he make a six-month visit to Dagestan – a hotbed of Islamist extremism – in 2012? How could the Russian security services have penetrated his thoughts, sending a signal to the FBI about Tsarnaev’s extremist leanings?

Of course, it is possible to describe Chechen rebels as “nationalist”, even democratic, just intent on shed-ding the yoke of Moscow. Presumably, the long war and subsequent suffering “radicalised” them. This is a good parallel to the widespread view of nationalist Syrian rebels who can be provided with “lethal aid” if only they promise not to pass it on to the Islamist jihadists. The problem is that in the rebel movement in Chechnya of the Nineties, just like in Syria now, the border between nationalist democrats and jihadist ex-tremists is dangerously blurred. A lot of jihadists are

happy to use nationalist sentiment and even talk about free elections – if it helps get them closer to power.

GROZNY, 1995On my return from the Chechen capital after acting as an inter-preter for reporters, I listen as the embattled “president” of the sep-aratist “Chechen Republic of Ichkeria,” Dzhokhar Dudayev, speaks on the radio station Echo of Moscow. Dudayev is angry: the

Russian army pushed his forces out of Grozny, Chechn-ya’s capital, with the West giving only symbolic sup-port to pro-Dudayev Russian human-rights activists. Russia seems to be close to victory in a war that it started rather clumsily in December 1994.

Addressing a handful of mostly western journalists at his hideout, he rages: “Don’t think you can stay out of this in the West. Don’t even dream of your living your rosy-cheeked life while we are dying here.” A few days later Dudayev was killed by a Russian missile. His successor as “Ichkeria’s president”, Aslan Maskhadov, tried to be more diplomatic. But Maskhadov’s "prime minister", Shamil Basayev, believed by Russia to be behind heinous acts of terror, including the Beslan siege of 2004, was more candid when talking about the West. “You ate sweet things and slept nicely while we were killed,” he barked into the microphone of my boss, Pas-cal Verdeau of the French television channel France 3, when I returned to Chechnya as an interpreter in 1997. “Don’t even dream you can sit out our next war with Russia!”

In 1997-99, “Ichkeria” became a dangerous place for foreign journalists. At least two dozen journalists were kidnapped and many were never seen alive again. And in August 1999, Basayev, with a small army of Chechen Islamists, attacked Dagestan, saying he want-ed to help an embattled Islamist minority there.

In the Nineties, the western press praised Basayev, before he took between 1,500 and 2,000 people hos-tage in a hospital at Budyonnovsk in southern Rus-sia, which resulted in the deaths of 147 people. After 1999, the conspiracy theory that he was a “Russian provocateur” who lured Chechnya into another war with Russia, became predominant.

My impression was different. Basayev never stopped trying to be both anti-Russian and nationalist; anti-Western and jihadist. For him, as for Tamerlan Tsar-naev, Russia and the US were parts of the defunct, decadent civilisation he wanted to destroy. So the at-tacks in Russia and Boston are not mutually exclu-sive – they are complementary.

“Anti-western and especially the anti-Semitic el-ement was very strong in the Chechen separatist move-ment even before it became predominantly jihadist,” says Sergei Markedonov, an expert on the North Cau-casus. In the view of Gordon Hahn, an analyst mon-itoring the so-called Caucasus Emirate (the biggest Islamist jihadist movement in the North Caucasus), the modern rebels view Russia and the West as two “Satans” and believe they must fight them in the manner of Ayatollah Khomeini during the Eighties.

This opinion was echoed by Mr Putin, who said, while answering a question about Boston: “We al-ways said that we [Americans and Russians] should

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The border between nationalist democrats and jihadists was dangerously blurred in Chechnya

BOSTONA LESSON

FOR US ALLIn the wake of the marathon bombings,

Dmitry Babich recalls the Chechnya of the Nineties and the outbreak of

Islamist terrorism in the region

Running sore: the

immediate aftermath

of the Boston blasts

and flowers and

sympathy from Russia

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Politics & Society

From Boston bombers to corruption at home: Putin answers the people

Many people believe Russian officials see their future in the West, where they have their bank accounts and holidays

Russia and the US have published lists of 18 officials

barred from each other’s countries on suspicion of

human rights abuses. The US Magnitsky List, named

after Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who

died in pre-trial detention in Russia while facing

tax-fraud charges, includes those suspected by the

US of a role in Magnitsky’s death, and in the murders

of US journalist Paul Klebnikov and Russian journalist

Anna Politkovskaya . Russia’s retaliatory list includes

officials allegedly responsible for mistreatment of

terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay. Meanwhile, a

Moscow court has ordered the arrest of Hermitage

CEO William Browder over alleged misappropriation

of Gazprom shares , and called for the US-born UK

citizen, who has been excluded from Russia since

2005, to be placed on an international wanted list.

President Vladimir Putin

said he “liked” what he

saw in a bare-breasted

protest by activists

from the Femen feminist

group at an industrial fair

in Hanover, Germany.

Four women, with

obscenities daubed on

their breasts and backs,

broke through security

as Mr Putin and German

Chancellor Angela

Merkel were examining

a stand, but were quickly

whisked away by

security guards. “As

far as the action is

concerned, I liked it,’’

Mr Putin told reporters.

“However, debates on

political issues proceed

better when participants

are dressed.”

Opposition blogger

Alexei Navalny has

pleaded not guilty at his

trial on embezzlement

charges. If found guilty,

he could serve up to 10

years in prison. In his

defence statement, he

said the case’s primary

purpose was “pushing

[him] out of the legal

political field”. Two weeks

before the trial , he had

announced his intention

to run in the 2018

presidential election.

He is accused of

involvement in the

misappropriation of

£300,000 from a timber

company. The trial was

adjourned until May 30.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Russia responds in kind

to Magnitsky List

Bare facts of protest

Navalny denies theft

New legislation banning smoking in public places

could save up to 200,000 lives a year in Russia, Prime

Minister Dmitry Medvedev told a government health

commission. The ban will be introduced gradually.

The Moscow city government has approved two parks

as “free speech” sites where citizens will be able to

organise rallies. Opposition activists, however, fear

that the parks will turn into “reservations” for street

protests and pro-Kremlin rallies.

The Gorky and Sokolniki park sites, which can each

hold rallies of up to 2,000 people, will be open for

such events between 7am and 10pm daily. Moscow

officials say there will be no restrictions on the types

of rallies allowed. Everyone from LGBT activists to

nationalists are welcome, provided they comply with

federal and municipal laws, they say.

Ban ‘to save 200,000 lives’

Free speech sites backed

Russia’s anti-corruption campaign looks like an attempt to secure the national loyalty of the state elite by increasing their stakes in Russian institutions. To this end, bureaucrats have been banned from possessing foreign shares, bank accounts and certain other assets. But polls show the public would back even stronger measures.

President Vladimir Putin has taken another step towards what many commentators are referring to as the “nationalisation of the elite”. He has signed decrees introducing procedures for state officials to submit their income and expenditure declarations. By July 1, officials are supposed to get rid of foreign shares, bank accounts and other assets.

Officials are also supposed to report major purchases, worth more than three times their annual salary, registered to themselves, their spouses and children under 18.

Putin instructed his own administration, headed by chief of staff Sergei Ivanov, to ensure state officials comply with the new rules. The president could have chosen the Audit Chamber, Prosecutor’s Office, Investigation Committee or even the Federal Security Service. Apparently, Putin does not trust any of these agencies completely and is unwilling to turn any of them into an

By the end of his annual televised Q&A show with ordinary Russians, aired live for five hours by the country’s two biggest TV channels and three leading radio stations, President Vladimir Putin had received more than three million questions.

His international agenda focused on Rus-sia’s relations with the West, notably with the United States. Mr Putin thanked the US for assisting Russia with WTO accession and re-pealing the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which restored permanent normal trade relations be-tween the two countries after a 40-year break.

At the same time, Mr Putin condemned the US for passing the Magnitsky Act (part of the same bill as the Jackson-Vanik repeal) impos-ing visa and fi nancial restrictions on some Rus-sian officials, calling it “another anti-Russian law. It’s an imperial style of conduct in foreign politics. We warned we’d retaliate.”

Mr Putin criticised western governments and media for describing “extremists who commit-ted atrocious, bloody, abominable crimes in our country” as “insurgents”, underscoring that Rus-sia, itself a victim of international terrorism, has always called for strengthening co-opera-tion on security with the US.

“The Boston tragedy has revealed who is who. It is high time to act,” he said, suggesting that

not limit ourselves to declarations about this [Islamist] common threat. We should act – we should co-operate with each other. And these two criminals confi rmed the rightness of this point of ours.”

The scale of the Boston attack would be less shocking in Chechnya’s neighbours Dag-estan or Ingushetia. In Dagestan especially, there are bombings at events such as parades and football games every three or four months. Just one example of this terrorism has rightly led the US to reassess the Islamist threat at home and abroad.

Russians, Americans and Europeans know their differences and disagreements. But to Is-lamists they are not important. They use Rus-so-western differences for their own ends. And the West frequently falls into the trap. A typi-cal example was coverage given to Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, mother of the two suspects, herself accused of extremist leanings in the FSB’s af-fi davit to the FBI on Tamerlan. She claimed her sons were “set up” by special services and is now treated with healthy scepticism by the Russian and American media.

But after a similar terrorist attack in Mos-cow, western media may well have given cre-dence to her words. We saw it after the Budy-onnovsk hospital outrage; the 1999 apartment bombings which killed 293; the Moscow thea-tre siege in 2002 which left 131 dead; and the Beslan school assault that left 334 dead. In these cases ordinary Britons and Americans were given the impression that the Russian gov-ernment was somehow the main culprit.

We cherish our differences, while Islamist terrorists seek to use them.

events in Boston should “encourage us to work harder to avert mutual threats.

“The United States and Russian security ser-vices regularly exchange information. I hope this tragedy will give fresh impetus to expand this co-operation, which is in the interests of both the American and Russian security ser-vices.” Nevertheless, Mr Putin challenged a statement by John McCain and three other Re-publican senators saying Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev “clearly is a good candidate for enemy combatant status”.

“Are they crazy?” he enquired. “Have they restarted the Civil War there?”

He also touched upon the issue of sexual mi-norities’ rights, which was raised at his recent visits to Germany and the Netherlands. “They have their standards,” he said. “If a court in the Netherlands has allowed activities of an or-ganisation that spreads paedophilia, why should we adopt such standards?”

Twelve minutes was taken up by a good-na-tured debate with former fi nance minister Alex-ei Kudrin, who was fi red by then-President Dmitry Medvedev in September 2011 after crit-icising the government for high levels of de-fence spending. Mr Kudrin challenged Mr Putin over the economy, pointing out that “domestic factors have had more infl uence on the Rus-sian economy than global ones”. Mr Putin had emphasised that the recession in Europe had been a major cause of the slowdown in Rus-sia’s economic growth.

Mr Putin also shared a joke at Mr Kudrin’s expense, over the latter’s refusal to rejoin the government. “I offered – he refused,” the pres-ident said, adding with a smile: “He’s a slack-er and doesn’t want to work.” Both men agreed, however, that it was vitally important for Rus-

sia to get over its oil dependency. The president went live as one of his fi erc-

est critics and would-be presidential candi-date, Alexei Navalny, stood trial in the city of Kirov, 500 miles east of Moscow. Mr Navalny, a celebrated blogger who has exposed misap-propriation of state funds worth £1.3bn , is being charged with embezzling £320,000 of timber while serving as an adviser to Nikita Belykh, the liberal governor of the Kirov region, in 2009.

Mr Navalny has denied any wrongdoing, and has called the charges a political frame-up.

“Those who fi ght corruption should be crys-tal clear themselves,” Mr Putin said, adding that he had urged prosecutors to be objective in the Navalny case.

In answer to a question from Alexei Venedik-tov, the editor of Echo of Moscow radio, who argued that government critics are cracked down on with Stalinist methods, Mr Putin re-plied: “One is condemned not for political views but for violating the law.”

He also reiterated his commitment to fi ght corruption and confi rmed that officials will have to close their accounts abroad if they have any. Otherwise they’ll have to resign. “Let them decide what’s more important to them: to keep money abroad or to serve Russians.”

Mr Putin also fi elded questions about a let-ter that the late Boris Berezovsky, who died in the UK in March, apparently after committing suicide, wrote to him earlier this year. “I didn’t want to broach that, but I can’t dodge it ei-ther,” Mr Putin said. “There were two letters. These letters were of a personal character, even though I had no close relationship with him.”

But would he allow Berezovsky’s body to be buried in Russia ? “Of course,” he replied. “Is my permission required?”

omnipotent “super-agency” responsible for purging the bureaucracy.

Commentators are divided over the new measures. Some point out the loopholes for corrupt officials: personal assets and accounts abroad can still be registered to trust funds; property of companies owned by spouses and children is not subject to control; and some say further weaknesses of the new regulations will be revealed later.

A logical question to ask would be why Putin does not take more resolute action. On the one hand, he is making a move that would only be logical for a politician seeking to stay in sync with the public mood. According to Levada Centre polls, 46pc of Russians believe the struggle against corruption must become Putin’s key mission (it is second only to the demand to promote economic growth, supported by 53pc of respondents).

On the other hand, the president must take into account the limits of his power. More than two-thirds of the population approved measures prohibiting state officials from having foreign property and accounts. There is a popular opinion that many Russian officials see their future and the future of their children in the West – where they have their accounts, where they go for holidays, where their families often live and where their children go to school.

The administration believes the foreign assets of officials make them susceptible to unwanted foreign infl uence and even put them at risk of blackmail, thereby undermining the country’s ability to pursue an independent foreign policy. The president has no plans for mass purges of state officials, however. A harsh crackdown might cause severe political shocks that would take

a long time for the country to forget. It would have great political risks, and there is always a chance the initiator might become the target of a political plot.

Putin has chosen a different way – a seemingly trouble-proof compromise. He has given bureaucrats a clear signal that the rules of the game are changing and the policy of “anything goes” (founded on the tacit deal that there are no sanctions for stealing, in exchange for political loyalty) is now over. Every official will have a chance – and the time – to adapt; those not ready to play by the rules will be dismissed.

Even if the law operates selectively – the way 41pc of respondents in a poll conducted by the Levada Centre believe it will – it will still be a step in the right direction. As soon as the fi rst victims of the new order appear among Russian officials, others will be concerned that, in this new environment, there is nothing to help them get away with it, and that they may well be the next in line to be punished.

In addition, society is being encouraged to pinpoint corrupt officials. The series of high-profi le resignations by Duma deputies and senators following incriminating online publications shows that online exposure is no longer pointless. Ivanov has already said that whistleblowers will enjoy state protection.

Indeed, the best way to fi ght corruption is to engage the public at large. If society believes that the authorities seriously intend to crack down on corruption and offers its support in word and deed, the anti-corruption campaign is bound to succeed.

Georgy Bovt is a prominent Russian columnist and political commentator.

President’s Q&A Relations

with US and co-operation

on terrorism are high on the

agenda in annual show

Putin’s popular campaign

against corrupt officials

demands public engagement

The public can help keep bureaucrats honestCOMMENT

Georgy

BovtANALYST

Facing the nation:

car workers take a

break to watch the

president tackle the

hottest topics

CLEANING UP

The law “On Combating

Corruption” was passed

in 2008. Vladimir Putin

reaffirmed the priority

status of the fight against

corruption after returning

as head of state in 2012.

High-profile cases in-

clude that of Defence

Minister Anatoly Serdyu-

kov, who lost his job and

was questioned as a wit-

ness over illegal sales of

military property, which

resulted in 4bn roubles

(more than £84m) worth

of losses to the state.

Former deputy region-

al development minister

Roman Panov was jailed

over the embezzlement

of funds intended for

the Apec summit in

Vladivostok.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

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Boston: a lesson for us all

HOT TOPIC

Oligarchs escape as crisis hits middle class

Business & Finance

Although Russian savers of all descriptions, from private individuals and small businesses to corporations and institutions, have suffered in the Cypriot fi nancial crisis, the effect is seen most starkly among the thousands of Russians actually living on the Mediterranean island. Here, it’s not oligarchs but middle-class entre-preneurs who have been devastated by the cri-sis, and the EU-imposed “haircut” on deposits of more than €100,000 .

“My business is more dead than alive,” says Anton, the 32-year-old owner of a foodstuffs distribution network in Limassol. “I was rash enough to keep all the company’s money in the Bank of Cyprus.” It’s an all-too-common tale from middle-class Russians living and working in Cyprus, of whom there are 30,000 to 50,000 – mostly businesspeople, executives , and the Russian wives and girlfriends of Cyp-riot nationals.

A €10bn (£8.5bn) bailout was an-nounced last month in return for Cy-prus agreeing to close Laiki Bank, the island’s second largest, levying all uninsured deposits there, and pos-sibly around 40pc of uninsured de-posits in the Bank of Cyprus, many held by wealthy citizens of other coun-tries, including many Russians. In-sured deposits of €100,000 or less are not affected.

The seizure of deposits has hardly touched Russian oligarchs: thanks to the intricate structure of holdings registered in Pacifi c and Caribbean tax havens and in-genious schemes of share distribution, the ol-igarchs’ money accounted for an insignifi cant share of deposits held in Cyprus banks. In-stead, it’s small and medium-sized businesses that were most often caught out .

Georgy, 52, owner of a Russian goods shop in Limassol, says his business hasn’t been doing well since the last fi nancial crisis in 2008. “We were thinking of selling our business because it barely paid its way, and we’ve been running at a loss for the last month.” Like other Rus-sians interviewed, Georgy was reluctant to give his surname, because of suspicions among Rus-sian businesspeople about talking to the media. “I can’t imagine how I will pay the suppliers, the rent and the bills… we have far fewer cus-tomers, and they buy only the bare necessities.”

In this respect, Russians living here have been affected much the same as ordinary Cypriots, and Russian small and medium-size entrepre-neurs mostly provide work for Cypriots. Alex-ander, 40, managing director of a shipping com-pany, says most of its 80 Cypriot employees – operational staff, logistics specialists and ac-countants – will probably be fi red, or have to take deep pay cuts.

“The company is still operating, our ships continue to carry fertiliser, but the company has no capital left,” says Alexander. “Shock, horror and depression prevail.”

The other emotion, naturally, is anger – that the Cypriot and European authorities could conspire to seize depositors’ money in a way that Russian businesspeople would hardly expect of bankers back home. “The seizure of deposits is simply expropriation, which I thought only the Bolsheviks were capable of,” says Anton . “To put it simply, this is daylight robbery, gentlemen.”

The Cypriot economy has for decades de-pended on fi nancial services and tourism. Be-fore the Russians came to Cyprus in the Nine-ties, it was well-heeled expatriates from Beirut, taking refuge from Lebanon’s civil war. And as the Lebanese went home, their place was taken by Russian entrepreneurs seeking a safe haven from the Wild West-style Russian econ-omy of the Nineties, and a more predictable tax regime and business climate.

Since then, Russian business has underpinned the island’s economy, with Russian companies,

Cyprus Russian shopkeepers, small businesses and middle-class expats are among the victims of the island’s financial meltdown

Feeling the squeeze:

many in Cyprus took

to the streets to pro-

test as banks closed

for two weeks and in-

vestors took a ‘hair-

cut’ on their savings

WHAT THEY SAID

" Unjust,

unprofessional and

dangerous.’’

(Describing the EU’s

initial plan to levy a tax

on depositors, rejected

by the Cypriot

parliament) “The more

you squeeze foreign

investors in the financial

institutions of your

countries, the better

for us, because the

affected, offended and

frightened (not all of

them, but many) should,

as we hope, come to our

financial institutions and

keep their money in our

banks. I am even glad,

to some extent, because

these events have shown

how risky and insecure

investments in western

financial institutions

can be.”

VLADIMIR PUTIN

PRESIDENT

" Let us talk about

what’s happening

with Cyprus. The

stealing of the stolen is

continuing there, I think.”

(Reference to a

comment by Vladimir

Lenin after the 1917

Revolution to condone

Bolshevik expropriation

of “capitalist” property)

DMITRY MEDVEDEV

PRIME MINISTER

" What is happening

is a good signal

to those who are

ready to return their

money, under Russian

jurisdiction, into Russian

banks. We have very

stable banks.”

IGOR SHUVALOV

FIRST DEPUTY PRIME

MINISTER

" I have no doubts

about the

reasons for the

EU’s intention to rob

Cypriot depositors. There

is a lot of dirty money

(mostly Russian) in

Cyprus, and European

banks want to have this

money for themselves.

This is not a fight against

dirty money, it’s a fight

for dirty money.”

YULIA LATYNINA

COMMENTATOR,

NOVAYA GAZETA

property owners and tourists becoming indis-pensable. But now all that is under threat as the island faces up to potentially decades of austerity and economic pain.

Companies providing fi nancial services have been a mainstay, due to the low corporate tax rate and British-style legal system. They are now facing the pinch, as Russian and other in-vestors look for other places to keep their money.

Marina, 35, a corporate services executive, says that her clients are curtailing their busi-ness on Cyprus and moving to other jurisdic-tions, such as “Dubai and other offshores. We are advising our clients to leave their compa-nies here, but we tell them to keep their money in other countries, preferably outside the EU.”

She adds that her office has been in a state of panic. “We work late, and often go without lunch breaks,” she says. “Our owner is on the phone day and night, answering calls from cli-ents who ask when they can withdraw their money from local banks. Everyone understands that the fi rst wave of haircuts may be followed by a second one, and so on.”

This view is echoed by Larisa, an account-ant at an investment company. “The possibil-ity of quick direct transactions with Europe and the US was crucial for clients. Cypriot banks are no longer trusted. People will move whatever remains in their deposits to other countries – most probably outside the euro-zone, to the Middle East and Asia.”

She worries that the Cyprus “bail-in”, where depositors’ savings were seized, could become the norm in other European countries. “Who can guarantee that the next ‘patients’ treated at depositors’ expense will not be the banks of Malta, Luxembourg or Holland?” she says.

While the Russian government has expressed outrage at the seizure of Russian depositors’ money, it has not taken the matter further – merely pointing to Russia’s own stable tax re-gime, and asking Russian banks on the island not be affected, in return for Moscow restruc-turing a $2.5bn (£1.62bn) loan to Cyprus.

“We will [restructure the loan] taking into account our interests, and our interests are that [Russian Commercial Bank, a subsidiary of Russian state-controlled bank VTB] should op-erate in normal conditions,” Anton Siluanov, Russia’s Finance Minister, said on the sidelines of a G20 meeting of fi nance officials in Wash-ington. “It does not require any bailout or fi -nancial support. Money of our companies has been frozen there. We would like this money to reach its recipients.”

Not all Russian businesspeople on the island have been affected, as they hold accounts in different locations, but just live in Cyprus.

Vladislav, 47, owner of a pharmaceutical com-pany, says his business is based in Russia. “I moved my family here because it’s safe and warm, and they are happy here. I kept only a few thousand euros in the Bank of Cyprus.”

But he sees the “heavy blow” the crisis is dealing Cyprus. “The shops and cafés are shut-ting down one after another,” he says.

Some Russians are on the point of giving up doing business on the island. “I would hate to leave Cyprus, but perhaps there will be no op-tion,” says Alexander , the shipping exec.

As for Georgy, he’s thinking of shutting his shop. “If the situation doesn’t improve in the next couple of months, we’ll have to abandon the business,” he says. “I’ll have to take any job, just to feed my family.”

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Viniculture

Raise a glass to the world-classwinesof Russia

In less than a decade, Château Le Grand Vostock, a French-managed winery on the hills near Russia’s Black Sea coast, has proved it can produce premium-quality wines from a variety of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Alsace, Georgian and local grapes.

To take the vital next step, the company is seeking a foreign investor in London to provide the finance to help it develop new sales channels and increase output.

The owners of the winery, which was established in 2003 in the Krasnodar region and is now producing more than 700,000 bottles a year, are putting up an equity stake of 49pc in the hope of raising $6.5m (£4.25m) for the expansion of production and sales.

However, because they have decided not to sell a controlling stake, there has been a certain reluctance on the part of Russian investors to come forward.

Yelena Denisova, who chairs the board of directors at Château Le Grand Vostok, says that insufficient working capital is stopping the company achieving its full potential in the premium-quality wine market.

“We are doing this not because we are in any kind of financial trouble or poverty,” says Ms Denisova. “People know about our wines and are eager to buy them, but they often don’t know where they can do so.”

Russia and vodka, yes. But Russia and fine wine? Until recently, the country would never have troubled wine aficionados, due to the poor quality wines produced in Soviet times. But now, happily, that is all changing.

Until the past few years, visitors to Russia offered wine could either expect an imported bottle or Soviet-style sweet and semi-sweet wines of dubious quality. Four-fifths of wines sold in Russia are still poor quality semi-sweet varieties, and use concentrate. But a growing number of Russian wines are home-grown and of excellent quality, produced with French and other imported grapes, along with modern wine technologies.

While most Russian regions are unsuitable for wine cultivation, the warmer climes of the Krasnodar and Rostov regions, near the Black Sea, now produce wines that can hold their head up alongside good European wines.

Wine cultivation to the south of Russia, in the Caucasus region, predates even Ancient Greece. Russia’s wine industry started serious-ly in the late 19th century, when Tsar Alexan-der II and wine-loving nobles imported French winemaking techniques. But this tradition suf-fered a setback in Soviet times, when Russians’ taste for semi-sweet and sparkling wines was largely formed. Many Russians today dislike dry wines, considering them too sour. It was Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, an ethnic Geor-gian, who did most to foster this tradition.

By the middle of the 20th century, the So-viet Union ranked fifth in the world in the area under vines and seventh in wine output. The Soviet wine-making industry found enthusi-astic support from Stalin and from Anastas Mikoyan, his minister for food production. Both Georgia and Armenia, in the fertile, Mediter-ranean-like climate of the South Caucasus, have a rich tradition of winemaking that pre-dates even the ancient wine culture of Greece.

Wine was drunk in Russia only by the aris-tocracy before the 1917 Revolution. But all this changed under Stalin, who believed that wine had to be affordable for every Soviet citizen.

Scientists who were recruited to resolve the problem managed to produce frost-resistant, high-yielding varieties of grape. But the qual-ity suffered: wines made from such grapes were barely palatable because of their high acidity and lack of taste. To remedy this flaw, grape sugar and often ethyl alcohol were added to the wines - practices that are still widely used in the Russian wine industry to this day.

“Plants in Iran or Italy use bad grapes or juice-making waste to produce a concentrate that is essentially poorly refined grape sugar,” says Yelena Denisova, who chairs the board of directors at Chateau le Grand Vostock, one of a dozen good-quality Russian wine producers. “This is an ideal camouflage for swill. This concentrate is added to poor, sour, semi-wine at the fermentation stage or mixed in with ready fermented wine material in an attempt to correct its awful taste. On top of that, arti-ficial flavours and colours are added.”

In Soviet times, workers toasted Stalin with wine that would horrify a native of Bordeaux. In the 1980s, under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, most vineyards were closed or con-verted to other uses. But since the early 2000s, good quality wineries have emerged, such as the Abrau-Durso winery near the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, and Chateau le Grand Vostock. Pavel Titov, Abrau-Durso’s owner, said:

Why keep the jobs of bad winemakers? We should create jobs for good winemakers in Russia’s south

In Soviet times, workers toasted Comrade Stalin at parties with wine that would horrify a native of Bordeaux

Grape expectations Cheap sweet whites dominate the home market but a handful of ambitious producers are raising standards

A grand vision at the château

“A sparkling wine that was once the toast of the Russian Tsars can now be enjoyed across London – from the outset, we wanted to pro-vide Britain’s discerning wine drinkers with something different and original.”

In 2012, a Russian Wine Guide was published for the first time, describing 55 wines from 13 Russian wineries, including other Krasnodar region wineries such as Fangoria, Lefkadia and Chateau du Talus. Russia’s leading sommeliers who took part in writing the guide expressed the hope that the emergence of “great Russian wines” was not too far off.

Makers of quality Russian wines have long been pushing for minimum retail prices. “Why keep the jobs of bad winemakers or Iranian producers of concentrate?” says Ms Denisova. “Why not create jobs for good winemakers in Russia’s south?”

case studies

5of moSCoW’S fIneSt WIne BaRS GaVROcHe

on a friday evening, Gavroche is popular with the fashionable middle classes. Some 25 wines are available by the glass and more than 100 by the bottle. a 150ml glass of Hugel Gentil 2010 is around £5.80, while wines by the bottle are rath-er pricey. most wines

are french, but Italian names are also promi-nent – the Pinot Gri-gio elena Walch 2011 is available for about £30 and a Jaquesson Brut Cuvée for about £92.

timura frunze Ulitsa 11, building 19/8. nearest metro: Park Kultury. tel: +7 (499) 558-08-38www.thewinebar.ru

GRaNd cRuthe Grand Cru chain of wine shops includes two “real wine bars”.the best, which also serves excellent food, is on malaya Bronnaya Ulitsa next to Patri-arch’s Ponds, featured in mikhail Bulgakov’s satire the master and margarita. the wine bar was established

by maxim Kashirin and serves as the retail divi-sion of his Simple Wine importing company. Spanish chef adrian Quetglas supervises the menu at Grand Cru.

malaya Bronnaya Ulitsa, 22. nearest metro: mayakovskaya.tel: +7 (495) 650-01-18www.grandcru.ru

dissideNtone of moscow’s most elite wine bars, Dissi-dent, across Lubyanka Square from the fSB headquarters, it’s more homely wine restaurant with a relaxed atmos-phere than trendy wine bar. Customers tend not to be connoisseurs but people prepared to spend about £13 on a

glass of red argentine terrazas de los andes. Despite some high wine prices, the food is well-priced and good quality.

nautilus business cen-tre, 5th floor, Lubyanka. nearest metro: Lubyanka.tel: +7 (495) 500 2767www.dissident.msk.ru

ViNtaGeIf you’re looking for the best price spread, the Vintage bar, tucked away in a courtyard near mayakovskaya with a modest interior and efficient service, is a good choice. the owners are regulars in the bar, which is a sign of their commitment. to handle its low-priced

range of wines (starting from as low as about £8.50 a bottle) Vintage initially removed the “wine by the glass” op-tion, but it’s now avail-able again.

Ulitsa Krasina 7/3. nearest metro: mayakovskaya.tel: +7 (499) 766-7244 www.barvintage.ru

BONteMPialthough marco Ce-vretti is not in charge of Bontempi’s wine list, he really makes this place work: Bontem-pi always seems to be packed and lively.after 6pm, almost eve-ry wine has two prices – a higher one if you want to drink at your table and a lower one

if you want to leave the bar with the bottle you liked most. You can also bring your own bottle. the florentine steaks are highly rec-ommended.

nikitsky Boulevard 8/1. nearest metro: arbatskaya.tel: +7 (499) 346 4103www.barbontempi.ru

The winery has embraced European wine technologies: replanting and grape quality was overseen by its first French managers, Frank Duseigner and Gael Brulon, and current chief winemaker Laurent Dubreuil. The warm summers and mild winters in the sunny uplands of Krasnodar make it an ideal wine-growing area.

Château Le Grand Vostock, based in the village of Sadovy, 50 miles from the Black Sea coast, owns more than 1,600 hectares of land, including the vineyards, and has the use of an additional large tract of forest, fields and lakes.

Artur Sarkisian, head of the Russian Sommeliers’ Union, is confident that high-quality Russian wines will soon take a more prominent place in wine stores and on restaurant wine lists.

“Now that Russia has started making good wine, it’s only natural for it to be represented in restaurants and retail chains,” says Mr Sarkisian. “But for this to happen, the state should support domestic wines – even by administrative measures.”

The Krasnodar region is already doing just that, requiring restaurants to source at least 50pc of their wine lists in Russia. “For Russia as a whole, this threshold could be set at 20pc, with the same administrative measures taken with regard to retail stores,” Mr Sarkisian says.

He added that a jury of experts should certify the wines qualifying for support.

added sPaRkle

Established by order of Tsar Alexander II in 1870, the Abrau-Durso winery near the Black Sea produced the best sparkling wines for the Communist Party elite in the Soviet era. It had fallen into decay by the beginning of the 2000s, until Boris Titov acquired it and pumped in $20m (£13m). By making French ex-pert Herve Justin pro-duction director and investing heavily in marketing, Mr Titov made Abrau-Durso a leading producer of sparkling wines, though they are not cheap by Russian standards. His son Pavel now runs the company and is preparing it for an IPO on the London Stock Exchange.

competitionWin a case of fine fizzFancy a taste of imperial Russia? enter the competition and you could win a case of delicious abrau-Durso, the last word in Russian 'champagne'. enjoyed over the years by tsars and Stalin alike, visit rbth.ru/wine-prize-draw for the chance to sample this exquisite sparkling wine, brought to you courtesy of Berkmann Wine Cellars.

P4_tuesday, april 30, 2013_www.rbth.ru

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Agriculture

Big volume production in Russia is in the low to medium-priced wines, but there is an ever-growing focus on the premium end. To succeed in this competitive sector, investment was needed to update the wineries, vineyards and working practices. The industry has moved forward, with new wineries, up-to-date equipment, gleaming tanks, sorting tables and new oak. Great improvements have taken place in the vineyard, ensuring that vines are planted in suitable soils, that crop size is limited to improve flavour and that grapes are picked at optimum ripeness.

To support this investment, help was necessary, and many wineries now employ consultants from France, Spain and the UK. The investment is paying off, with the premium wines happily rubbing shoulders with those from the rest of the wine-producing world.

The two main wine regions of Krasnodar and Rostov have a range of international varietals such as sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, riesling and aligoté in white and cabernet sauvignon, merlot, syrah and pinot noir in red. The white styles lean more to Europe with crisp, not over-crunchy sauvignon, greengage and melon chardonnays and fresh-fruited rieslings. The reds too are more European than

When English business executive John Kopiski applied for Russian citizenship in the Nineties, Russian officials scratched their heads, at first suspicious as to why anyone would swap a British passport for a Russian one. “What do you need it for?” they said. “Have you really thought this through?”

But Mr Kopiski, a former executive at a London coal trading company, went ahead anyway. Now he slides around in wellington boots in the fields of a former collective farm near Moscow, talking about the necessity of putting plenty of manure on the fields.

Mr Kopiski says it took him just three days to feel at home in Russia. “I immediately understood I wanted to stay here. It’s so interesting and I had nothing keeping me in London.” He married his Muscovite wife, Nina Kuzmicheva, and they have five children. His wife is a strong Orthodox believer, and he has converted to the Russian Orthodox Church.

Ten years ago, the Kopiskis built a dacha in a village called Krutovo, 70 miles east of Moscow. “I offered my assistance to the Reverend Mother of the local convent,” says Mr Kopiski. “The idea was to build a hermitage for nuns on a broken-down farm. But when we got there, it turned out there were still 100 head of cattle, and the farm was still going. That was when we had the idea of buying cows for the convent. But the Reverend Mother said they wouldn’t be able to manage them, so I decided to buy them myself instead.”

Mr Kopiski threw almost all his savings – several million pounds – into the farming project, in which his religious beliefs play a strong role. After building a church, he expanded the herd to include nearly 5,000 cows, bought machinery and rebuilt the farm, which he renamed Rozhdestvo (Nativity). He also built a farm for rearing steers, called Bogdarnya (God’s Gift).

He also changed the diet of the cows in an attempt to improve the milk yield and called in consultants from Denmark. The yield increased from two to seven gallons per cow a day, he says. “It’s Russian soil and Russian cows, but the yield’s the same as in Germany: 2,500 gallons from each cow a year,” Mr Kopiski says. “You see, you can do real business in Russia too.”

The villagers were even more amazed when Mr Kopiski managed to get his farmhands to lay off the vodka, as drunkenness is still common in rural Russia. He had to sack many farmhands but eventually he managed to recruit a non-drinking workforce.

“If you work hard enough, there’s a good living to be made off these broad lands,” Mr Kopiski says he told the former chairman of the collective farm, who only laughed in

Organic farming is booming in Russia as part of a growing trend towards healthier lifestyles, with people in Moscow and St Petersburg prepared to pay higher prices for eco-friendly fruit and vegetables. The market will be regulated by the state from 2015.

Organic foods, produced without chemical fertilisers, additives or industrial processing, have been grown in Russia for centuries. However, until about five years ago most came from small private plots. Sales were low and there were no distribution networks.

Four years ago, Boris Akimov, founder of organic grocery store Lavka, struggled to find private farmers to provide regular supplies. The situation has since improved, as organic farming has gained popularity. Farms now contact Lavka to offer supplies.

Mr Akimov says 99pc of today’s Russian farmers used to live in cities. Vladimir Lunyashin of Penza Region, for instance, took out a £200,000 loan from Rosselkhozbank to build a house in the countryside, create an apple orchard and plant a vegetable garden.

Premium wines from Russia are now happily rubbing shoulders with those from the rest of the world

The expat farmer Briton rebuilds former collective farm and raises yields from 5,000-strong dairy herd to German levels

Eco-friendly agriculture booms as higher prices fail to deter health-conscious city dwellers

City trader who found a land of milk and honey

Organic farms: a growth areaVariety, spice and a feast of flavoursNew World: the cabernet sauvignons have depth of flavour but are not over heavy, while the merlots are sweet-fruited and full of black plums. Syrahs have more of a red fruit character with the peppery spice typical of the grape. Russia also has a great opportunity with its wealth of indigenous vines. The white rkatsiteli is fresh-fruited yet has a mid richness while the sibirkovy is zesty with hints of citrus and spice. The two best-known reds have lots of character: the saperavi has a basketful of hedgerow fruits and the krasnostop is black-fruited with a lovely chocolate richness.

Sparkling wine production in Russia is massive. Although many are too sweet for our market there are drier wines made by the traditional bottle-fermented method. Like table wine, quality is improving and many wines have style and balance. Russian wines are not readily available in this country because export is not easy and the home market can absorb all that is produced. The sparkling wines from Abrau-Durso, Cuvée Alexandre Brut (a blend of chardonnay, pinot blanc, riesling and pinot noir) and the rosé (100pc pinot noir) are imported by Berkmann (www.berkmann.co.uk) and can be found in a range of wine merchants, delicatessens and restaurants. The price of both is about £20 per bottle (from the merchant).

Derek Smedley is a wine writer, consultant and Master of Wine.

ExpErT viEw

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response. Mr Kopiski now has two Americans working with him, including Lorin Grams, the farm manager. “We couldn’t find anyone local who was able to manage such a modern-style farm,” Mr Kopiski says. “So, finally, we thought we might have to look abroad.”

“Life’s dull in America,” says Mr Grams, who has lived in the village for the last six years with his family. “We’ve got everything we need here, and it’s all simple. But life here can test you.” The second American, cheesemaker Jay Close, moved to Krutovo from the Moscow Region. Mr Close deals with vets, paperwork, sales permits for the cheese and building work.

The Kopiskis last year branched out into eco-tourism, offering visitors the chance to ride horses, take a trip around the farm and try organic food. The heritage site is run by Nina. “We haven’t set up a separate company for the agro-tourism stuff yet, but we’re hoping to do so, and that it will make a profit,” she says. “The farm at the moment isn’t economically viable – especially since Russia became a WTO member last year.”

WTO rules mean that farmers are facing competition from cheap imported milk and meat in local markets.

Fresh start: John, wife Nina and daughter Marfa

Taste test: cheesemaker Jay Close at work

He sells up to £13,000 of vegetables and fruit a month.

According to Igor Gubernsky, director of the Moscow Gastronomic Festival, there are only about 200 organic farmers like Mr Lunyashin. But other potential organic farmers are put off by the lack of widely recognised standards and state support, Mr Gubernsky says.

State support and certification is on the way, however. In February, the Agriculture Ministry submitted a bill on organic agricultural products that envisages the certification of producers and state support for farmers starting in 2015. Farmers also complain about high interest rates of 5-6pc on even subsidised loans, and initial investments in a farm can exceed £300,000. A breeding bull can cost up to £20,000 at auction and treatment of land for cultivation costs about the same per 10,000 sq ft, says Maxim Livsi, founder of Ferma at Home.

Yet there is a strong demand for produce. Lavka and Pryamo s Fermy (Right from the Farm) shops have organic food websites. There are shelves with organic farmers’ produce in all major grocery stores.

Opinion polls show 60pc of the residents of Moscow and St Petersburg will pay more for eco-friendliness. Two pounds of potatoes grown using artificial fertilisers and chemical treatment against potato beetles costs about £1 but organic potatoes cultivated with no chemical agents cost at least twice as much.

Taste and tradition: clockwise from main picture, picking grapes at a rostov festival; Frank Dusei-gneur tastes le Grand vostock; the vine-yards and cellars of abrau Durso

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Comment & Analysis

A funny thing happened on the way to the nuclear bunker

Margaret Thatcher: she came, she saw, she conquered

SECURITY THROUGH INDUSTRY

Russians living in Seoul weren’t that fazed by the fears expressed by President Putin on his recent trip to Germany that North Korea’s nu-clear threats could make Chernobyl “seem like a child’s fairy tale”. We have become used to the sabre-rattling from Pyongyang. Indeed, many had high hopes of Kim Jung-un, due to his west-ern education and infl uences, but fears are now growing that he is simply, well, too young.

“We know that he got a good education in Europe, he likes rock music, fast food and bas-ketball ,” says Artyom Kim, a Russian-Korean who is studying political science and diploma-cy. “I thought that with all these factors, there would fi nally appear some democracy in North

When Baroness Thatcher died, my radio inter-rupted regular programmes to break the news and switch to special programming. This may sound an unusual step for a Russian radio sta-tion. But then the “The Iron Lady” occupied a special place in the hearts of the Russian in-telligentsia. She was probably the only west-ern politician who was ever genuinely respect-ed and admired in my country.

I was a Moscow university student when the Falklands War began in 1982. I remember how quite a few of us rushed to snatch the Com-munist Morning Star from newspaper kiosks (the only British paper we could read at the time) to follow the campaign and root for the British. While the semi-alive Leonid Brezhnev was making the USSR sink deeper into the

Will Russia send its troops to Afghanistan after coalition forces withdraw in 2014? The subject was brought up after media reports cited Rus-sian Defence Ministry representative Sergei Koshelev as saying Russian repair bases may be established in Afghanistan. The Defence Ministry and the Foreign Ministry subsequent-ly denied the reports, however. Foreign Minis-try spokesman Alexander Lukashevich insist-ed: “Moscow’s position, that a return of the Russian military to Afghanistan is impossible, remains unchanged.” He said the speculation was the “fruit of someone’s sick imagination”.

While we know there’s no smoke without fi re, we can be confi dent that Russia isn’t going to send its troops to Afghanistan. So far as I know, there are no such plans within the CIS or the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, either. At the same time, let’s not forget that Moscow and Kabul have a military and tech-nical co-operation agreement, under which, among other things, Russian specialists repair Afghanistan’s Russian-made military equip-ment. It’s possible that the media mistook some of this work in Afghanistan as a preparatory step towards the establishment of Russian bases.

But the pull-out of a considerable portion of the peacekeeping forces from Afghanistan in 2014 is forcing Moscow to re-evaluate the threats that will emerge on the borders of CIS countries. The situation appears even more un-certain given Afghanistan’s presidential elec-tions scheduled for April 2014, in which the two-term president, Hamid Karzai, is consti-tutionally barred from standing. This election could lead to new instability, especially taking into account Mr Karzai’s recent statements about the possibility of letting the Taliban ideologue Mullah Omar take part in the elec-tion process.

Viktor Ivanov, director of Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service, told a recent interna-tional conference in Moscow on Afghanistan’s future beyond 2014 about an alarming increase in heroin and marijuana production in Afghan-istan. He said Afghan narcotics, supplied to 100 countries worldwide, killed about one mil-lion people last year. But the most dangerous thing, Mr Ivanov said, was that the drug traf-fi cking was now fuelling regional tensions. Drug traffickers were actively infl uencing the coun-try’s political development, turning Afghani-stan into a global drugs production centre where the government is forced to serve the interests of criminal cartels.

Western experts see three more or less real-istic scenarios in Afghanistan. Under the fi rst scenario, the Afghan government would cling to power, maintain the status quo, and main-tain the country’s integrity after the presiden-tial election and the international coalition’s pull-out. Under the second scenario, Afghani-stan would split into two parts along ethnic lines. Kabul would keep the northern part under its control, while the armed opposition would come to power in a new state in the south. Brit-ish experts have offered a third scenario, which Russia also recognises as being a distinct pos-sibility. They believe that after the presidential election, a creeping decentralisation will start in Afghanistan. This will result in unlimited autonomy springing up in the country’s south-ern regions densely populated by the Pashtun

Letters from readers, guest columns and cartoons labelled “Comments”, “Viewpoint”

or appearing on the “Opinion” and “Comment & Analysis” pages of this supplement are selected to represent a broad range of views and do not necessarily represent those of the editors of Russia Beyond the Headlines or Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

Please send letters to the editor to [email protected]

THIS EIGHT-PAGE PULL-OUT IS PRODUCED BY ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA (RUSSIA) WHICH TAKES SOLE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ITS CONTENTS.

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Tournament will help rugbykick off as a national passion

I n just under two months’ time, one of the world’s most exciting sporting tournaments, the Rugby World Cup Sevens, will get under way at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, home to the historic 1980 Olympic Games.

Moscow will host some of the world’s most talented athletes for what promises to be an amazing sporting spectacle, drawing fans from across the world and, crucially, introducing many thousands of Russians to the great British game of rugby.

I must applaud the International Rugby Board for its decision to award one of its fl agship events to Moscow. We know that Russia is relatively uncharted territory for the IRB, but this is precisely why they took the bold decision to bring the Rugby World Cup Sevens to Moscow.

Russians have sport in their blood, it is part of our DNA, but as yet, rugby has still to break through into Russia’s wider public consciousness. Moscow 2013 will help to change that. We understand the trust that the IRB has placed in Moscow to deliver a tournament that it can be proud of, and we will not let it down. That is why we are planning a major community ticketing programme that will mean thousands of young people from Moscow and beyond will get to experience the skills and spectacle of world-class rugby at Luzhniki Stadium. It is why we are rolling out a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign for the tournament across Moscow. And it is why we have relaxed tourist visa requirements for the tournament.

It is an exciting time for rugby in Russia. We have 26,000 domestic rugby players, and I am sure that number will grow on the back of this summer’s tournament and the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, where rugby sevens will make its debut. Russia is passionate about Olympic sport. With our women’s sevens team possible medal contenders in Moscow this summer, and our men’s team in the ascendancy, the summer of 2016 could prove to be another major milestone for the development of rugby in Russia.

As part of my own role promoting Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013, last week I was delighted to host a reception for the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce in London. This organisation has existed since 1916 to build trade and co-operation between our two countries, and the reception reminded me that the strong links between Russia and Britain also reach into rugby.

For example, Kingsley Jones, our Russian men’s team head coach, is Welsh. Howard Thomas, deputy managing director of RWC Sevens 2013 and vice-president of the Rugby Union of Russia, is a former CEO of England’s Premier Rugby. Several of Russia’s national squad are now playing professionally in England, including Northampton’s Vasily Artemyev and London Welsh’s Kirill Kulemin. And our men’s team visited England last year as part of its preparations for this summer's tournament and played against a number of teams, including Canada and the USA.

My message to the many British companies that attended the reception was simple: Moscow will stage a fantastic tournament and your organisation should be there, not just to experience an amazing sporting spectacle in one of the world’s most vibrant cities, but to use Moscow 2013 as an opportunity to further develop your own business contacts and commercial opportunities.

As with any growing company with global ambition, a clear vision and a desire to develop new markets, the IRB has chosen Moscow to help grow rugby in what it has termed a “new frontier” – Russia. That is a smart strategy that I am confi dent will reap real dividends in the years ahead.

The nations of Great Britain have played an important role in developing the sport and Russia is now benefi ting from Britain’s long-standing rugby experience. By hosting the World Cup Sevens 2013 in Moscow, the time when Russia can stand tall on the rugby pitch is now closer than it has ever been, thanks to the vision of the IRB.

Moscow cannot wait to welcome the world’s rugby community in June 2013. Whether you want to be part of a great sporting spectacle, experience the delights of Moscow in the height of summer, or develop your Russian business contacts, come and join the party!

Alexander Yakovenko is Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He was previously Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

ART OF DIPLOMACY

Lidia

OkorokovaJOURNALIST

Yevgeny

Shestakov INTERNATIONAL ANALYST

Korea. But, as we see, it’s not happening.” Most of the Russian population in Korea are

Russian-Koreans, as well as exchange students and white-collar employees at multinational companies. Maria, a 20 year-old exchange stu-dent from the Siberian republic of Buryatia, is not worried: the South and its western al-lies will fi nd a way to buy off the North. “It’s not our [people’s] problem, it’s the problem of our governments. Once they fi nd the way to Kim Jong-un’s heart, things will change.”

It’s not quite clear, however, just what is closest to the young dictator’s heart: American movies and fast food, or anti-American nuclear rhetoric and military parades.

In recent days, Seoul seems more preoccupied with climate change than the North’s missile test (the country has had some freak cold weather this spring) – that, and the new song

from Psy, creator of the Gangnam Style dance phenomenon. Still, something approaching fear is bubbling just under the surface. I try to calm myself by watching news reports on South Ko-rean TV, as they blithely inform viewers that Kim Jong-un enjoys using Apple computers. And, just to be on the safe side, I fi nally register with the Russian embassy here, after living in the city for 18 months.

Over dinner, I ask Shin, a Korean friend of mine: “Do you know where the nearest bunker is?” in the hope that at least the Koreans them-selves know what to do in case of war.

“Umm, the nearest one is close to where I live – but I’m not sure it’s working…” Reasonably informed, if not altogether reassuring.

Alexander

YakovenkoAMBASSADOR

people. Some fi eld commanders fi ghting against Kabul have already supported this plan.

In answer to the question about the steps the CIS countries were planning to take to adapt to changes in Afghanistan beyond 2014, Rus-sia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the future of Afghanistan had been discussed at a meeting of CIS foreign ministers on April 5 in Uzbekistan. Mr Lavrov said: “The Collective Security Treaty Organisation has a common strategy vis-à-vis Afghanistan, there are rele-vant plans within the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, and there are joint efforts of spe-cial services at the anti-terrorist centre that exists as part of the CIS.”

He also said all CIS countries agreed it was necessary to secure the borders of Afghani-stan’s neighbours, assist Kabul with its efforts to strengthen its security forces, and help Af-ghanistan resolve its economic problems. Rus-sian experts believe the development of a new economic strategy for Afghanistan will change the course of the country’s development.

Yuri Krupnov, chairman of the Society for Friendship and Co-operation with Afghani-stan, said the country would need $50bn (£32bn) for accelerated industrialisation through 2020,

quagmire of the war in Afghanistan, here was someone who could lead a nation to victory.

Mrs Thatcher was everything the septuage-narian Soviet leaders were not: energetic, de-termined, eloquent and passionate. After Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika started, she conquered the hearts of many Russians. In 1987, she was interviewed on Soviet television by three journalists. It was a slaughter of the not-so-innocent. The British prime minister extolled the virtues of free enterprise, democracy and individual responsibility in such an outspoken, yet elegant way that left the three stooges speechless and defeated. It was the fi rst time the Soviet intelligentsia had seen a democrat-ically-elected politician in action and we were mesmerised. In her own way, Mrs Thatcher’s contribution to the turning of Russian minds away from socialist dogma was not negligible.

Most of those tens, if not hundreds, of thou-sands of former Soviet citizens who now live

Drug traffickers are influencing the country’s development, turning Afghanistan into a global drugs production centre where the government is forced to serve the interests of criminal cartels

Konstantin

von EggertCOMMENTATOR

P6_Tuesday, April 30, 2013_www.rbth.ru

of which Russia’s contribution could reach $7bn. Unesco could be in charge of raising the money.

According to Russian experts, the money is needed to launch pipeline transit projects from Turkmenistan to India and from Iran to Indiavia Afghanistan, as well as for the electrifi ca-tion of the country. But it’s obvious that im-plementing these plans directly depends on the ability of the new Afghan leadership that will come to power in 2014 to maintain stability.

But the situation on the ground looks like a vicious circle where fully-fl edged industri-alisation in Afghanistan is impossible with-out resolving the security issues – and chang-ing the situation with drug trafficking and security is impossible without industrialisa-tion. So long as this vicious circle remains un-broken, countries that may be willing to con-tribute fi nancially to the plight of Afghanistan will be less willing year after year to allocate new aid to Kabul. Currently, the chances that the Afghan government will be able to keep the country under control beyond 2014 are looking slim.

Yevgeny Shestakov is international affairs editor at Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

Lidia Okorokova is a freelance Russian journalist living in Seoul.

Konstantin von Eggert is editor-in-chief of Kommersant FM radio.

and work in the UK could never understand the British left’s visceral hatred of Mrs Thatch-er and Thatcherism. Those who know fi rst-hand what socialist slavery is see the late prime min-ister as an icon – a successful reformer, an ac-complished military leader and a woman who could win in a man’s world. Strength is an ob-session with us Russians, and she was strong.

The end of the Cold War signifi ed the end of leadership as we knew it in the 20th century, at least in the western world. Just look at the politicians today in the EU or the US: none could even remotely be compared with Mrs Thatcher. I suspect that if she was in No 10 today, she would have preferred an honest face-off with someone more authoritarian, like Vladimir Putin, to dealing with the ineffective Obamas and Hollandes of this world.

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CHILDREN OF THE SUN

NATIONAL THEATRE (LYTTELTON)

APRIL 17-JULY 14

Maxim Gorky’s darkly comic play is set

in Russia as the country rolls towards

revolution. It depicts the new middle-

class, foolish yet likeable, as they

flounder about, blind to their impending

annihilation.

› www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/

children-of-the-sun

ILYA AND EMILIA KABAKOV:

TWO MOUNTAINS

SPROVIERI GALLERY

MARCH 27-MAY 11

An exhibition of new paintings by Ilya

and Emilia Kabakov, internationally

recognised as two of the most

influential living artists. The exhibition

coincides with the Kabakovs’ major in-

stallation, The Happiest Man, at Ambi-

ka P3, University of Westminster, jointly

presented by Sprovieri Gallery and

Ambika P3.

› http://www.sprovieri.com/london/ilya-and-

emilia-kabakov_1/

MASTERPIECES FROM THE

HERMITAGE

MAY 17-SEPTEMBER 29

HOUGHTON HALL

The magnificent art collection of Brit-

ain’s first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Wal-

pole, sold to Catherine the Great to

adorn the Hermitage in St Petersburg,

is reassembled in its spectacular

original setting for the first time in more

than 200 years.

› http://www.houghtonrevisited.com/

BEING AND BEINGS: WORKS BY

FELIX LEMBERSKY

APRIL 24-MAY 17

PUSHKIN HOUSE

Pushkin House presents works by Rus-

sian artist Felix Lembersky, his first ex-

hibition in Great Britain. Rooted in the

Soviet avant-garde and academically

trained in Leningrad, Lembersky melded

realist and modernist forms, realigning

them to create emotionally charged and

thought-provoking imagery, expressed

through a masterful technique and

exquisitely complex colour.

› www.pushkinhouse.org/exhibitions

Culture

A fancy dress for an old-fashioned girl

The magazine on a culturalmission

The offices of The Calvert Journal are packed with beautiful young people, ranged cheerful-ly around computers on a conference table. In the adjoining gallery, they are setting out wine glasses for a reception and putting up screens to broadcast images from the new website.

“Some of us may be young, but we all have good, diverse experience in journalism,” says Anastasia Fedorova, commissioning editor of the online magazine, which is based in fash-ionable Shoreditch, east London.

Deputy editor Igor Zinatulin feels the jour-nal’s age profi le is an advantage, meaning ed-itors and contributors are “more fl exible and responsive to different types of ideas”. From underground fashion labels to pioneering feminist curators, Calvert Journal’s themes pre-sent a refreshingly unexpected view of Russian culture.

“Visual content is our strength,” says Fedor-ova. “One of our initial goals was to build a new visual aesthetic for Russia.” The journal is a radical kaleidoscope of colour and form without a matryoshka or onion dome in sight. “It was not our deliberate intention to over-throw stereotypes,” says Zinatulin. “We are cre-ating a platform for open debate about impor-tant cultural issues. We want to show Russia is a complex place inhabited by humans.”

The English-language journal has been op-erating since January this year as part of the Calvert Foundation, and showcases art, design, fashion, fi lm, architecture and photography from around Russia, with a special emphasis on regional projects. Editor-in-chief Ekow Eshun has been director of London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts and editor of Arena and other magazines. He talks about the “rising generation of young artistic talent” that’s chang-ing Russia and says the journal is for anyone who is “curious about the world”. It has fea-tured well-known fi gures such as Moscow ar-chitect Alexander Brodsky, but also quirky, smaller stories like the success of a 21-year-old bow-tie designer in Vladivostok.

Founder and director of the Calvert Foun-dation Nonna Materkova is an economist from St Petersburg . “It’s my baby,” she says, her eyes shining. “I am more and more passionate about it and there is huge interest.”

Alexei Kudrin, until recently Russia’s long-serving fi nance minister, came to Materkova’s gallery during an official visit to London in 2011 and discussed plans for a portal to promote their country’s creative talent. “I sup-port the idea of improving Russia’s image through culture and art,” Mr Kudrin told the journal earlier this year. He is dean of liberal arts at St Petersburg State University but still

Olga Vilshenko, a young Russian fashion designer from the metals engraving centre of Zlatoust, in the Ural Mountains, has made her name with traditional Russian folk-style fabrics on the London fashion scene. Now, in her fi rst show for a home audience at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia in Moscow, she is trying something different by branching out from her usual bucolic motifs.

Dominating Vilshenko’s latest collection are light, translucent fabrics, exquisite combinations of colours and elegant silhouettes that seem ready to fl y away. The collection was inspired by the work of artist Filipp Malyavin – a student of the great Russian realist Ilya Repin – who often focused on traditional costume and ethnic fl avours. This time, the Russian motifs were expressed in feminine silhouettes and fl owing fabrics.

The feminine, sensitive garments created by Vilshenko, whose art was honed at Russia’s Institute of Fashion and Art and supplemented at London’s Istituto Marangoni, have been described as drawing on “the crafty techniques and bucolic prints of her childhood to clean, luxe separates with a timeless feel,” according to Britain’s Elle magazine.

Based in two cities – Moscow and London – Vilshenko’s career started in a different direction. After graduating from the Chelyabinsk Institute of Finance, she continued her education in London, where she decided to take up design. The idea of starting her own label also occurred to her in

Calvert Journal East End-based website with

a sense of style brings a colourful vision of

Russian creativity to the curious

Nonna Materkova and Ekow Eshun, main image; Ekow with team members, and wooden squirrels by Dopludu of St Petersburg, left

We’re creating a platform for open debate and want to show Russia is a complex place inhabited by humans

Ordinary people want to know more. I wanted to show people here in London the Russia that I know

CALENDAR UK EVENTS

FIND MORE

IN THE GLOBAL CALENDAR

at www.rbth.ru

“very involved” as one of Calvert’s trustees. Materkova and Kudrin share a common be-

lief in the “soft power” of cultural exchange. “It was very sad to see how the relationship between Russia and Britain fell apart in the last decade,” Materkova says. “Ordinary peo-ple want to know more. I wanted to show peo-ple here in London the Russia that I know.”

Audience fi gures have “surpassed expecta-tions”, according to Zinatulin. London-based journalist Alexander Smotrov approves whole-heartedly, tweeting that the journal is “bril-liant, futuristic… This is Russia how it should be: creative, innovative, open to the world.”

For more information about the journal, go to:www.calvertjournal.com

Fashion Young designers serve up the style in a tale of two cities

Timur Kim on inspiration and the perfect client

St Petersburg’s Timur Kim, 23, draws on infl uences as diverse as the Soviet avant-garde and decorative ceilings from the Hermitage Museum. In February, the Central Saint Martins graduate, who has worked with lead-ing brands Pringle of Scotland and Ol-iver Sweeney, presented his autumn-winter 2013/14 collection at London Fashion Week.

What inspired your new collection?

I can’t really say that I have any spe-cifi c sources of inspiration. I don't have any particular key ideas. These are just my refl ections on how I see a girl and what I’d want her to wear. At times, I use some particular images – like the ones from a Soviet art exhibition held in London’s Saatchi Gallery. That’s how I came up with the idea of a cav-iar print. Could you describe your perfect

client?

It is a young woman who keeps up with fashion, and wants to dress with style and elegance – but who wants to look cool at the same time. She is happy, full of life and self-assured.Are there any historical fashion

tendencies that appeal to you?

I’d love to work with the Eighties-Nine-ties rave culture. I’m also interested in the Seventies, when contemporary art began to take shape.In your view, what does the Russian

fashion industry lack?

External connections, I think. Today, everything is changing very quickly, so there is a growing need for communi-cation, idea exchanges and borrowing – or, maybe, sharing.

Swish: Vilshenko’s flowing fabrics

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TATYANA MAKAROVASPECIAL TO RBTH

NATALYA SUSLINARBTH

www.rbth.ru_Tuesday, April 30, 2013_P7

London. This idea was supported by fashion stylist Sarah Richardson, who became interested in the notion of revising the concept of Russian folk costume that underlies Vilshenko’s creations. The Vilshenko label appeared in 2009, and her fi rst collection was presented in the summer of 2010.

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Sport

Rock, reggae and rugby: bringing the gentleman’s game to the people

Russia’s campaign to popularise sport by host-ing major international events will see the Rugby World Cup Sevens coming to Moscow for the fi rst time on June 28-30.

The tournament, to be held at the city’s 80,000-seat Luzhniki Stadium, will attract thousands of visiting foreign fans, and could prompt Russians to turn out in bigger num-bers for the sport – which has only taken off in Russia in the past few years.

Organisers say they will also turn on the showbiz razzmatazz, with live music acts, to tempt Russians to come see the games. The viewers will enjoy a good show,” says Vyache-slav Kopyev, president of the Russian Rugby Union. “We are currently in talks with some popular bands, as we mostly wish to attract young people, so you’ll hear rock and reggae at the stadium.”

Dmitry Shmakov, Russian rugby’s director of development, says he is confi dent that at least 15,000-20,000 fans will attend. Prices are reasonable for international events: fi rst-day tickets sell at 150-400 roubles (£3-£8); third-day tickets, when the fi nal game will be played, are on offer at 500-1,800 roubles (£10-£36). Some websites can deliver tickets to the UK within a week.

Special preparations are in place for the tour-nament, as Luzhniki currently has artifi cial turf. Real grass will be brought in from the Tula Region and laid for use at the rugby tour-nament and the 2013 IAAF World Athletics

Championships in August. Workers will start replacing the turf at Luzhniki on May 11. In late summer the stadium will be closed for re-construction ahead of the 2018 Fifa World Cup.

Russian fans hope that the Rugby World Cup Sevens will give a powerful impetus to the de-velopment of rugby in Russia. Despite the im-pressive progress made recently by the nation-al team, the game is not hugely popular and is generally not supported by the authorities and corporations.

“Two or three million euros would make a real difference in any European [rugby] cham-pionship. In Russia, this is the annual salary of some football players,” says banker and phi-lanthropist Alexei Sokolov, whose Zenit Bank is general sponsor of the Sevens World Cup, putting in 500,000 euros (£425,000) .

“Rugby is an excellent sport. It moulds the character and requires insignifi cant investment compared to other sports. When we tell sen-ior executives about rugby, we try to make them understand that this sport can be used to ad-dress important social issues, like how can we involve young people in rural areas.

“Russian state corporations are pouring huge amounts of money into football and hockey,” he continues. “Far less money is required to advance rugby, especially among children. We need government support to do this. Look at Italy, where Silvio Berlusconi turned rugby into an elite sport in just 10 or 15 years.”

Mr Sokolov’s bank finances the Russian national rugby team, and in 2008 he founded the National Charitable Foundation for the Development of Children’s Rugby. This tough struggle to fi nd adequate fi nancing is likely to be mirrored on the fi eld. The Russian side played their fi rst full Rugby World Cup last year, los-ing all their four matches and fi nishing last in their group.

The Russian Beard did leave their mark on the tournament, however. Not only they set a new fashion for winter hats with ear fl aps, they also scored three tries against Australia, de-spite going down 68-22. No other team scored that many points against the Wallabies during the tournament. In all, the Russians scored a total of eight tries, setting a record for tourna-ment newcomers. And, last year, the Russian Rugby Union said it wanted to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

Tickets and travel packages are on sale at www.rwcsevens.com

Rugby World Cup Sevens

Moscow plans to lay on the

razzmatazz for thousands of

fans at the tournament in June

Breaking through: Russia’s Vladimir Ostroushko fends off Italy’s Matteo Pratichetti during their Rugby World Cup match in 2011

The Flying Prince helped game take off

Countdown

to Sochi

283

days to go

Although rugby has only recently become popular in Russia, its first rugby hero dates back to the tsars. In 1916, Prince Alex-ander Obolensky was born in St Petersburg (then Petrograd), capi-tal of the Russian Em-pire. But like many of the Russian nobility at the time of the Bolshe-vik Revolution, Obo-lensky and his parents fled Russia for England, when the boy was just three. He went on to study at Oxford University and played on the wing as a student there. Obolensky quickly became one of Eng-land’s best players. In 1936, the 'Flying

Prince', as fans called him, was granted Brit-ish citizenship and se-lected for the English national team, scoring two tries in an epic vic-tory over New Zealand – the first time England had beaten the Kiwis. Two years ago, a statue of Obolensky

was unveiled in the English town of Ipswich, where he is buried – he was killed in an RAF training accident in 1940. Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abram-ovich made a donation towards the cost of the monument.

The Sochi 2014 torch,

above, resembles a

firebird’s feather, used

in Russian fairy tales to

light the way. Its

designers were asked for

a concept that combined

traditions and contempo-

rary trends. A total

of 14,000 torchbearers

will carry it 40,400

miles in 123 days.

Wrestling with big issues, like men in bikinis

There’s a plot to exterminate the human race and it’s headed by the International Olympic Committee. These nefarious sports bureaucrats are secret gay activists on a mission to turn everyone strictly same-sex and stop them having children. The only way to stop them is by reinstating Olympic wrestling.

These aren’t the ravings of a park-bench conspiracy theorist, but of Vladimir Uruimagov, a top wrestling coach behind two Russian gold medal winners. “If they expel wrestling now, that means that gays will soon run the whole world,” Mr Uruimagov said after the IOC decided to drop wrestling from the Olympics, as of 2020.

“It is necessary for millions around the world who understand that this is a man’s sport and who understand the need to continue the human race to go out and explain their position to the Olympic Committee.” Failing to throw the IOC’s ban to the mat would turn the fl ower of Russian manhood into “men in bikinis”, Mr Uruimagov added.

Uruimagov’s protestations are overblown, but tap into a sense among a minority of men that true masculinity is under attack. Certain sports capture and bottle this “real man” attitude – you see it in American football , in the “hard man” cult of English football and in Olympic wrestling, an ancient sport which takes pride in not being the scripted “professional wrestling” circus of US television.

Uruimagov’s claims also overshadowed the serious impact of the IOC’s decision, which would drop the sport that was once the toast of ancient Olympus. Today, no one writes odes in praise of wrestling champions, but wrestling represents a sense of historical continuity not offered by the would-be events vying to take its place: can you imagine a wakeboarder or rollerskater wearing a laurel wreath? The omission has outraged many Russians, including President Vladimir Putin, himself a judo black belt, who weighed in with his own defence of wrestling: “The removal of traditional sports that have been central from the beginning and were in the programme of the Olympic Games in the times of Ancient Greece... is unjustifi ed,” Mr Putin was quoted as saying by Russian news agency Interfax.

Russia’s disappointment is understandable, since the country won 11 medals on the wrestling mat last year. But countries as diverse as Iran and the US also agree the sport cannot simply disappear. With no official reason given for the decision, wrestling seems easily to satisfy the IOC’s sporting conditions, but falls down on the commercial criteria that hardly represent the Olympic spirit. Claims of corrupt refereeing may also have played a part.

The only reprieve will come if wrestling defeats six other sports vying for the one spare spot at the 2020 Games. That may be easier said than done, since squash, with its fan base among the rich and powerful of the world’s fi nancial centres, is in the mix.

An engaging conspiracy theory holds that the IOC demoted wrestling because the other candidate sports weren’t strong enough. In this scenario, wrestling will promptly kill off the Olympic dreams of wakeboarders and squash players before returning to the fold.

To me, that theory seems far-fetched, but I’d like to see wrestling stay and keep a bit of Olympus in the Olympics.

This is one bout I hope is rigged.

FINAL THIRD

James

Ellingworth

THE MOSCOW NEWS

P8_Tuesday, April 30, 2013_www.rbth.ru

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