RBTH Thailand August issue

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Th i s s u p p l e m e n t i s s p o n s o re d by Ro s s i ys kaya G a ze t a , w h i c h t a ke s s o l e re s p o n s i b i l i t y fo r i t s co n te n t s a n d i s w h o l l y i n d e p e n d e n t o f Th e N a t i o n .

P8-9

How is Russia helping Africa to deal with the Ebola virus outbreak?

Special

P2-3

What will be the impact of Russia’s ban on import of food products from the West?

Business

Thursday, August 28, 2014

WHAT CITY IS ON THE COVER?

PAGE 14

Six places you didn’t know were in Russia

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02 RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINESA global media project, sponsored by Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russia)

www.rbth.comBusiness

RUSSIA’S TIT-FOR-TAT BAN WILL IMPACT EU THE MOST

GOVERNMENT ACTION

AIMS TO PROMOTE IMPORT

SUBSTITUTION

FOOD EMBARGO

NIKOLAI LITOVKIN, ANNA KUCHMARBTH

Moscow has retaliated to

Western sanctions by

blocking food imports from

the EU, US, Canada,

Australia and Norway.

Countries in the European union are set to experience a potential 12-billion-euro loss due to a one-year food embargo that Russia has imposed in retaliation for sanctions. The ban, an-nounced by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on August 7, affects meat, including all forms of beef and pork, poultry and their subproducts, smoked foods, sausages, fi sh, vegetables, roots, fruits and nuts, as well as milk and all dairy products, including cheese. Besides the EU, the ban also affects products from the US, Canada, Norway and Australia. Japan is not on the blacklist, although it has also introduced sanc-tions against Russia.

Russia’s food sanctions will have the biggest effect on EU countries, which are the biggest exporters of food products to Russia. Accor-ding to data from the Insti-tute for Complex Strategic

Studies (ICSS), Russia buys 31.5 per cent of its meat, 42.6 per cent of its dairy products and 32 per cent of its vege-tables from Europe.

In an interview with radio Govorit Moskva (Moscow Speaks), EU Ambassador to Russia Vigaudas Ushatskas said: “It is presumed that for the EU the loss may reach 12 billion euros, since food products make up about 10 per cent of everything we sell to Russia.” Ushatskas noted. However, these were just estimates made without analysis of any specifi c ban-ned goods. Experts stress that Russia is heavily depen-dent on food imports. Ac-cording to the ICSS, Russia buys 70 per cent of all its fruits and berries and almost 50 per cent of its powdered milk and cheese from abroad. Out of all the EU countries, the ones with the strongest export ties with Russia are Latvia, Lithua-nia, Poland and Finland, which mainly export butter, cheese and curd. For exam-ple, 41 per cent of Finland’s butter exports and 47 per cent of its frozen fi sh exports go to Russia. Latvia and Lithuania, meanwhile, send 43 per cent of their sausage

exports to Russia. Lithua-nia, along with Poland, also sells to Russia a substantial portion of its fruits, vegeta-bles and nuts exports.

As far as Germany, Italy, the UK and Spain are con-cerned, ICSS believes that only their separate, specifi c producers will be affected by Russia’s sanctions. For example, only 9 per cent of

Spain’s and 6 per cent of Italy’s frozen beef exports are shipped to Russia, com-pared with 6 per cent of Germany’s pork and dried fruits exports.

The US, Canada and Aus-tralia will also be affected, as Russia buys their meat, fi sh and vegetables. Howe-ver, the volume of these im-ports is insignificant. For

example, the largest share of Russia’s imports from America is meat, which is only 5 per cent.

Although the aforemen-tioned countries will be de-prived of a sales market as a result of the sanctions, Russians should also brace themselves for some nega-tive consequences. Will Rus-sian store shelves be empty?

The Kommersant newspa-per explains the logic and timeframe of the sanctions. On one hand, the issue con-cerns providing “food secu-rity”. In a few months, Rus-sia may be hit by national food export restrictions im-posed by the “sanctioning countries”. On the other, Moscow hopes to stimulate import substitution.

MARINA OBRAZKOVARBTH

Amid the Western food

embargo on Russia, the

Kingdom has something

to offer.

Thailand can replace Western products

Russia’s Marina Volkova has taken a great interest in the Oriental cuisine and to-gether with her whole fa-mily spends a long time in different countries of the re-gion, primarily, in order to treat herself to the culinary delights. “I myself know how to cook some dishes from the Chinese, Thai and Vietname-se cuisine, but it is difficult

to do this, because the in-gredients can rarely be found in stores. I would like to see them brought to Russia,”she explained. Fo-llowing Marina as an exam-ple, many Russians are ready to try oriental cuisine in their everyday lives.

An RBTH correspondent visited the THAIFEX – World of Food ASIA 2014 exhibition. Russia was not represented at the exhibi-tion; however, the food pre-sented showed that Thai-land has something to offer Russia. For example, Rus-sia is already importing

canned vegetables and fruits. According to Russian restaurateurs, they are going to find it difficult without fruit and vegeta-bles in the winter period. Now the interest is likely to shift from canned food towards fresh food. Russian grocers also lament that it will be difficult for them to get seafood. At the exhibi-tion, the entire range of sea-food can be seen, which has never been more relevant for the Russian buyer. The interesting thing is that the Russian-Thai goods turno-ver does not have the spi-

ces that are popular among Russians on its list.

At the rice factory, we were told that Russia is a strategic partner for them, but there are difficulties.

“In Russia, the customs regulations change fre-quently, and also they have established relations with Vietnam, the world’s largest producer of rice since the Soviet-era,” a CP Intertrade representative told RBTH.

We would like to thank Thailand’s Trade office in

Russia for their assistance in preparing this material.

Some observers believe the move will boost imports from South America and Asia instead of the US and the EU.

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PRESS DIGEST: USE

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BOMBS ON CIVILIANS

BY UKRAINE A ‘FACT’

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THE DOWNING OF

FLIGHT MH17:

WHAT ORDINARY

RUSSIANS THINK

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RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR TO

THE UK: ONLY A COLLECTIVE

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COMMON PROBLEMS

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03RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINESA global media project, sponsored by Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russia)www.rbth.com Business

Imported food

share, (%)

IN BRIEF

On August 26, the “Terri-tory of Business – is the Territory of Life” Forum in Vladivostok hosted a roundtable discussion on the development of busi-ness between entrepre-neurs from Russia, East Asia and Southeast Asia. The main topic on the agenda was the creation of an environment in Vlad-ivostok that would be at-tractive to businesses from Southeast Asian countries, and in particular the Asean countries. In addi-tion, the participants of the roundtable discussed the work of the Russian-Asian business projects forum, the Mayak (Light-house), to be held in May of 2015. Its goal is to cre-ate an international busi-ness accelerator in Vladi-vostok.

Far East

welcomes

ASEAN

International Enterprise (IE) Singapore and the all-Russia public organiza-tion Business Russia (De-lovaya Rossiya) will host yet another Russia-Sin-gapore Business Forum, from September 9-11.

The forum was first launched in 2006, and has since become a signifi cant platform for the establish-ment of business and pol-icy communications be-tween Russ ia and Singapore.

“Singaporean compa-nies have proven them-selves to be reliable part-ners, and have expressed interest in investing in Russia. We believe that these investments can be profi table for both sides,” Alexey Repik, co-chair of Business Russia, told RBTH. IE and Business Russia will sign a coop-eration agreement.

Business

forum in

Singapore

NUMBERS

16 European Union agricultural exports to

Russia were $15.8 billion in 2013. Losses for the EU could amount to $16 billion.

10 According to Eurostat, $16 billion amounts

to 10 per cent of EU food exports.

72 Independent Pollster Levada Centre

says that about 72 per cent of Russians approve of the food embargo.

The US, Canada and Australia will also be affected as Russia buys their products

Ambitious goal to double trade with Thailand in 3 years

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Trade Representative of the Russian Federation to Thai-land Oleg Maslennikovspeaks to RBTH about the state of trade between the two countries, as well as on the recent political events in Thailand and the impact of global events.

How has the deterioration in

relations between Russia and

the West affected Russian-

Thai trade?

It has not been infl uenced as much by the events in the world as by the situa-tion in Thailand itself. The events [political protests] beginning late last year in Bangkok first caused the cancellation of the visit to Russia by former prime minister Yingluck Shi-nawatra, which was sched-uled for mid-December and was put off literally one day before her departure. Later, they also completely “froze” previous agreements indef-initely.

Has trade turnover declined

greatly?

It has declined, but not greatly. According to Thai-land’s statistics, in 2013 trade value between the two countries amounted to about $4.7 billion. This is 10 per cent lower than in the previous year. If we con-sider fi gures from the offi-cial website of Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce, in the first half of this year, trade has grown by 10.5 per cent, and in terms of value, it has already exceeded $2.5 billion. This was made pos-sible largely due to the fact that the country’s leaders have begun to have relative certainty about the future course of Thailand, because

on May 22, the Army com-mander took control of the country into his hands, and so far I do not see anything apart from positive things stemming from the deci-sions taken by the new ad-ministration. The situation has stabilised, and the mil-itary leadership, it seems to me, is taking steps in the right direction.

What projects have enabled

you to minimise the decline

in trade?

We have certain expecta-tions, having won the ten-der for the delivery of two Sukhoi Superjet 100 air-craft in the business jet confi guration. This tender, however, took place in December 2013, under the previous prime minister,. I hope that the re-sults will not be reconsid-ered. In addition, we are de-veloping cooperation in the military’s technical sphere and are planning to deliv-er two Mi-17 helicopters.

To what extent do you hope to

increase bilateral trade in the

next 3 to 5 years?

Denis Manturov, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, who is also chairman of the Rus-sian part of the Joint Rus-sian-Thai Commission on Bilateral Cooperation, at its most recent meeting, set an ambitious goal – to double bilateral trade within the next three years. It is our aim, but we all know that it will be very difficult to implement in the current environment. At least we should maintain the level of bilateral trade, which has been achieved so far when restructuring our trade by means of increasing exports of non-primary goods, in particular by increasing supplies of Russian hi-tech products. Perhaps, it is the present world situation that will have a positive infl u-ence on our economic co-operation. The fact that Thailand’s military have

taken power into their hands and put things in order has angered the Unit-ed States, and accusations of the undemocratic nature of the events taking place in the country and state-ments about breaking off cooperation with Thailand have been heard. At a time when most Western coun-tries have expressed their opposition to the political changes in Thailand, Rus-sia has taken a neutral po-sition, which was positive-ly received by officials in the Kingdom. At that mo-ment, I have told my team that there should not be any vacuum in the relations with our Thai partners, and we can and should offer them our products and ser-vices. As of now, it is too early to anticipate future developments, but I hope that there will be a kind of breakthrough.

Interview byVladislav Kuzmichev

Russia plans to deliver

two Mi-17 helicopters.

HOT TOPIC: rbth.com/sanctions_against_russia

RUSSIAN AGRO-

INDUSTRY STOCKS

SOAR ON BACK OF

FOOD SANCTIONS

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RUSSIA TO MONITOR

PRICES OF REPLACEMENT

FOOD IMPORTS TO STAVE

OFF INFLATION

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US OIL SANCTIONS

MAY COST RUSSIA

TENS OF BILLIONS OF

DOLLARS IN PROFITS

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www.rbth.comBusiness

AJAY KAMALAKARANSPECIAL TO RBTH

The Thai resort town is

home to a thriving Russian

diaspora. A new industry

has come up around

servicing the expatriate

community.

Russian diaspora life thrives in Pattaya

Pattaya Russian business has become a significant part of the resort

The sheer number of Rus-sian-language shop signs and billboards that dot the city of Pattaya can take a casual visitor by surprise. Over the last ten years, the Thai tourist resort city has become one of the most Russian cities in all of Asia, with a Russian expatriate population that numbers around 110,000.

One of the pioneers of the large Diaspora is Mikhail Ilyin, the owner of 8 Hor-seshoes Tavern, a restaurant specialising in Russian and Central Asian food. “Our

clientele includes expats from former Soviet repu-blics as well as Thai and foreign tourists (especially Japanese), who want to get a taste of Russian cuisine,” says the restaurateur, who also runs Ilves Tour, which brings in Russian tourists to the city. Ilyin has been living in Pattaya for the last 20 years and has seen the changes that have taken place in the city. He says there was a time when very people spoke Russian, but now it wasn’t uncommon to hear the language even in the distant outskirts. “l no longer feel that I am li-ving in Thailand.”

Several attempts to run a Russian language paper failed in the city, but there is a popular real estate ma-gazine called Pod Klyuch (a way of saying ready for

sale in Russian), with a monthly circulation of 7000. Along with the magazine, there is an entertainment supplement called Mango, which covers the Russian social scene.

Russian culture and the Russian language are con-sidered ‘vogue’ in the city, and people from different parts of Asia try and get a taste of Russian culture in Pattaya. There are 2 Rus-sian Orthodox churches in the city, one that is attached to a small Russian settle-ment.

Architect Paradorn Bun-yakurloj started learning Russian so that he could work on projects meant for Russian realty investors and vacationers, but has now fallen in love with the cul-ture. “Russian people are so misunderstood here, espe-cially since they don’t smile so easily and take time to know people,” he says. “But the cultural barriers are va-nishing and we see a lot more interaction at the so-cial level,” the architect adds.

In September, the city will play host to the Miss Russia in Thailand contest, which is being organised by Boris Fleydervish. “Around 20 of the most beautiful Russian women in the country will take part in the fi rst contest of its kind,” says Fleydervish, a resident of Pattaya since 2000. The Thai media has also shown quite a bit of enthusiasm for the contest, he adds. Although Thailand is a relatively easy place to come for a holiday, legislation for longer stays can be complicated says Fleydervish, whose main business is in the real esta-te. “Since people are allowed to buy fl ats, they come and stay here for half a year, as tourist visas per-mit them to,” he says. A large number of Russians spend the entire tourist sea-son in the city with their families.

Sochi native Irina No-vikova, director of Seven Flowers Co Ltd, runs Rus-sian-language kindergar-tens in Pattaya and Ban-gkok. Russian expatriates enrol their children in in-ternational schools in Pattaya, since there are no Russian-language schools. Novikova’s kindergarten or-ganises cultural and enter-tainment programs and also employs speech therapists and other experts to make sure that the children get a good base in learning the language. “We try and in-culcate the Russian langua-ge, culture and traditions in children,” she says, adding that she’s happy doing what she enjoys in a distant country.

AJAY KAMALAKARANSPECIAL TO RBTH

Oil and gas exploration

form the backbone of a

renewed drive to develop

economic relations

between the long-term

allies.

New energy in bilateral ties

Oil&gas Russian firms eye Myanmar

Russia’s refusal to back sanctions against Myanmar and the use of its United Nations Security Council veto to help the country when it was still under the tight grip of the military, managed to win Moscow a key trade ally at the cross-roads of India and South-east Asia.

The political ties between the two countries were rein-forced last year when Rus-sian Foreign Minister visi-ted Myanmar’s capital Nay Pyi Taw.

Lavrov had called for the complete removal of sanc-tions on the country and proposed the setting up of a joint inter-governmental commission and a joint bu-siness council, along with an investment protection agreement. The key area for Russian investment in Myanmar is the oil and gas industry.

Russia’s expertise in the oil and gas industry and ex-perience working with Viet-nam were among the main factors considered when Russian companies were in-vited to explore Myanamar’s once vastly underestimated oil and gas reserves.

Bashneft is involved with Myanmar’s state oil and gas company as the operator of the Block EP-4 oil well. Pri-vately held Nobel Oil has been trying its luck in the country since 2008.

The presence of oil com-panies from Russia in Myanmar has created op-portunities for several sub-contractors and support companies from different Russian regions. Dalmor-neftegas, a seismic survey

operator based in the Rus-sian Far East, has an office in the former capital Yan-gon with mainly Russian staff. The company provi-des support services to Viet-sovpetro, a Rosneft joint venture in Vietnam, and two major oil projects in the Russian island of Sakhalin.

The US Energy Informa-tion Administration estima-tes that Myanmar has 10 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves. Analysts be-lieve that the country, which is just opening itself to the world after decades of iso-lation, could have much lar-ger gas reserves, especially in its territorial waters in the Bay of Bengal.

Gazprom is almost a late entrant into the country formerly known as Burma. While there has been talk of the Russian company working in the country since 2003, no project came to fruition, as the European Union slapped sanctions on Myanmar; Gazprom’s in-ternational upstream branch, Gazprom Interna-tional, is registered in the Netherlands.

The EU, in 2012, lifted all sanctions on the country barring an arms embargo, p av i n g t h e way fo r Gazprom’s international unit to enter Myanmar.

Last month, the Russian company said it was inter-ested in setting up a joint venture with Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company to jointly carry out oil and gas exploration.

Gazprom International chief executive Valeriy Gulev proposed Myanmar as one of the main coun-tries where the joint ven-ture could operate.

A sizeable Russian repre-sentation is expected at the Myanmar Offshore Con-gress, which will be held in Yangon in the last week of September.

The Russian Diaspora is believed to number more than a hundred thousand

RBTH for iPadSCAN WITH

LAYARFOR EACH OF YOU, THERE IS A RUSSIA OF YOUR CHOICE

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05RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINESA global media project, sponsored by Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russia)www.rbth.com Education

IRINA VINOKUROVARBTH

Facility to open in the

new academic year;

university to also serve

as a formal testing centre

for Russian language.

Thammasat set to welcome a Russian centre

News Educational institutions join hands to forge closer ties between the people of the two countries

Thammasat University is one of the centres for the study of Russia and the Russian language in Thai-land. It has a Russian Lan-guage Department that boasts of some 400 students. The university has strong ties with Russian educa-tional establishments: Pus-hkin State Russian Lan-guage Institute, Ural State University, the Academy of Labour and Social Rela-tions, St Petersburg State University and Nizhego-rod State Linguistic Uni-versity.

According to Olga Zhili-na, a professor in the Rus-

sian Language Department, at the initiative of the de-partment, a Russian centre will be opening up in the new academic year. In addi-tion, this year Thammasat University will become the fi rst university in Thailand to start doing official tes-ting for Russian.

Zhilina says that Tham-masat University has sig-ned an agreement on the organisation of the testing with the Academy of La-bour and Social Relations in Moscow.

“Representatives from the Academy will be pre-sent at the exam, and in fact they will also take the exams. We only prepare students to ensure that they successfully pass it. We plan to offer the exam in fall and spring, prelimi-narily in October and March,” says Zhilina.

A certifi cate attesting to the knowledge of Russian is necessary as proof of the level of mastery of the lan-guage for entering Russian educational establishments or for working in Russia.

“Not only students at Thammasat University, but any citizen of Thailand or another country can take this exam. But in order to pass the exam, it is fi rst ne-cessary to determine what level a person can claim.

For this purpose, prelimi-nary testing is done that indicates his or her ap-proximate level.”

Preparatory courses with several programmes will be opened at the university: a prolonged course with les-sons once a week and an intensive course with les-sons 5 days a week, 4 hours a day.

“In total, the course must be no less than 20 hours and no more than 50 hours

and its fi nal price will be decided based on this. Na-turally, if someone has sufficient knowledge, he or she can take the exam without additional prepa-ration,” says Zhilina.

Trial testing will cost Bt500 (US$16). The basic level will cost $146, level one $150, level two $164, and levels three and four $175; for the granting of RF citizenship it will cost $150 and for migrant workers

Thammasat University is boosting its Russia-related activities in the new academic year.

There is very little on Russia in Thai mass mediaINTERVIEW ROM PHIRAMONTRI

Rom Phiramontri speaks to RBTH about his Centre for Russian Studies and an-swers a few questions about relations between the two countries.

What kind of opportunities

are there for Russians in Thai-

land?

I lectured in Pattaya quite recently and met with some of my former students there who had studied Russian. Their careers are turning out very well for them and they hold rather high po-sitions in various large companies dealing with

STATUS: PROFESSOR

POSITION: Director of the Centre for Russian Studies of Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

BRIEF BIO

$86. The cost of services for retaking one subtest are: basic level $72, level one $76, level two $82, and le-vels three and four $87; for the granting of RF citizen-ship $76.

In addition, this year Thammasat has signed a contract on cooperation with Nizhegorod State Lin-guistic University, which plans to open a Thai cul-tural centre. “As a result of the negotiations, we deci-ded that our teacher will go to Nizhny Novgorod in late-September or early October in order to begin organising this Thai centre. The rector of Thammasat University has expressed his interest and promised to provide this centre with all the necessary symbo-lism, literature in Thai, and visual aids. And now we are already handling the tech-nical questions on trans-portation; everything is ba-sically already arranged.

“So our young teacher will go to Nizhny Novgo-rod soon, and next year they will send us their young teacher, who will teach Russian here in the department and study the Thai language.”

mation about Russia in the Thai mass media. It is usu-ally very short and not al-ways clear. And, of course, it comes from Western sources.

Is Russian culture alien to

Thai culture?

I don’t have that impres-sion. I think that we are very, very close. Even guides talk about Russian tourists: they are so much like us, simple, unceremo-nial. The only thing that everyone always notices is that Russians don’t smile and they even tell them

Check out our QUIZ : I f you were Russ ian , where would you l ive? >> travel .rbth.com/1427

DEFINE YOUR ‘RUSSIAN HOMELAND’M a ny p e o p l e w i s h t h ey ’d b e e n b o r n i n a d i f fe re n t co u n t r y. Wh a t i f i t wa s R u ss i a?

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good results during this time. Many government employees, attachés, sales representatives, and busi-nessmen, too, who need to travel to Russia in the course of their duties, as well as students who want to study in Russia, receive training at our centre. Many are sent for training by the management of their organisation.

How do you assess the

coverage of the events

related to Russia by the Thai

mass media?

There is very little infor-

that they need to smile in Thailand.

Why do Russia and Thailand

always remember the turn

of the 20th century and rela-

tions between the King and

the tsar?

We have a special relation-ship with everything con-nected to the royal family, and we also continually re-call that the Russians sup-ported us – we remember the good things… I would say that we have an anti-West-ern position like Russia does. America and Europe do not like Thailand and also try to place limits on us. That is why our stances are similar.

Interview byIrina Vinokurova

tourism or doing business with Russia. And, accord-ing to what my former stu-dents say, young special-ists with knowledge of Russian are sorely needed. Moreover, they are needed immediately; there is a

high demand for special-ists with Russian right now.

How many years has the cen-

tre been in operation?

The Centre has been in ex-istence for six years al-ready and we have achieved


www.rbth.comSociety

ANNA TROFIMOVARBTH

Many young couples are

prepared to spend colossal

sums on their weddings

and honeymoons and

August is the big month for

that in Russia.

Weddings à la Russe

Traditions To make the memories last a lifetime, everything needs to be upscale and elegant

The traditional Russian wedding scenario went like this — matchmaking, bride-assessment, hen party and stag night, the wedding journey, the dowry, the wed-ding ceremony, going on a walkabout, and the nuptial feast. Courtship is the tra-dition of putting a girl for-ward for marriage. Special-ly-hired brokers acted as intermediaries, whose job it was not only to talk up the bride’s good features, but also to assist in the courtship and finding a suitable groom.

During the Soviet period, the traditions of courtship were not observed; most young people today look on these traditions as washed-up nonsense, long past its sell-by date. Even so, there are marriage agencies in Russia’s larger cities that will serve as a matchmak-er, for a suitable fee, who promises to fi nd seekers an agreeable bride or groom.

Most of these agencies are quite new, but the popula-rity of the service they offer has increased several-fold in recent years. Olga, a pro-

fessional matchmaker from Vis-a-Vis Marriage Agency, gave RBTH more details on the matchmaking industry.

“Well, first we hold a meeting with the client to make a character as-sessment, find out what makes them tick, and some other related aspects of our work. Of course, there are some who prefer to make their own searches — they choose potential matches, select photos. But others prefer to leave the whole thing in our hands,” says Olga.

“Recently, quite a num-ber of foreigners have begun approaching us. Of course, that’s not surprising, given that Russian girls are more feminine… and ca-ring,” Olga says. She men-tions that clients from Eu-ropean countries make up the bulk of their applicants.

Long-standing tradition requires that the bride and groom should not have seen each other before. Presen-tations of brides or grooms took place strictly in the presence of parents. If the parents declared themsel-ves satisfied with the matchmaker’s choice, they sealed their agreement with a handshake. In early Rus-sia, the engagement would then be announced at the dinner table and declared by the bride’s father. Once the engagement was an-

The most demanding couples begin organizing up to a year beforehand

During the Soviet period, the traditions of courtship were not observed

nounced, the parents would begin to decide on a date and place for the wedding ceremonies and celebra-tions.

On the eve of the wedding, hen parties and stag nights would be held. These would frequently involve visits to Russian baths, accompa-nied with songs and rituals. The wedding itself might

go on for several days. On the first day, the groom would usually bring a bri-de-price to the bride’s home — a kind of ceremonial pa-yment — and then the wedding feast would be or-ganised. The paying of the bride-price might go on for several hours, including a variety of checks and tests on the worth of the groom. Frequently, the groom was asked to pick out the bride from a group of dressed-up girls. Once the bride-price was found to be satisfac-tory, the happy couple pro-ceeded to church separately — each in his or her own wedding carriage, accom-panied by the matchmakers. On the second day of the wedding, the couple would

host the parents on both sides, sing songs together and make a ceremonial pro-cession around the town to celebrate their wedding.

Very few people in Rus-sia observe these old tradi-tions nowadays.

The elements that have survived are the wedding feast, the engagement tra-ditions and the wedding

ceremony itself — although the latter two are less hon-oured in observance. The demands of newly-weds grow with every passing year, with an accompany-ing rise in the price of wed-dings and in the services of wedding agencies.

Particularly costly are weddings that involve ca-rrying out the registration in the countryside, or even abroad.

The price of a wedding in a top restaurant can be exorbitantly high. Alexan-drina Remez, a manager from the wedding agency pozhenimsya.ru (getma-rried.ru) explains: “These days, agencies have to be able to set things up on any budget. I’ve known cases

myself in which the young couple has done the whole thing in Moscow for just 100,000 rubles ($3,035), with 50 guests. Usually, the couple decides what they want to spend. We’ve orga-nised weddings where the couple was ready to spend up to 2–3 million rubles ($607,000–$910,000). Of course, that price includes the very top photographers, videographers and other staff.”

“Today, most couples ex-pect that their wedding will be organised by a designer; they take an interest in what the colour theme will be, and so that the wedding refl ects the history of their relationship,” says Remez.

Generally, weddings can take 2–4 months to organi-se. The most demanding couples begin organising the details of “the most im-portant day of their lives” up to a year beforehand — booking the date, reserving the restaurant, etc.

“A wedding these days,” Remez says, “is like a bet on the individuality of the couple. Just 2 or 3 years ago, couples were organising theme-night weddings in the style of Chicago gangs-ters of the 1920s, or 1980s disco nights, or modelled on Ancient Russian tradi-tions. So tradition can be found converging with the present day.”

The Thai Embassy in

Russia and the

Moscow government

will organise a series

of events next month.

Moscow to host a Thai Festival in September

The Festival of Thai Cultu-re will be held on Septem-ber 13-14, at the Kuznetsky Most street. The ambassa-dor of Thailand has promi-sed that this festival will be-come an annual event. The Thai Festival is also of par-ticular importance, because the last major event within the framework of coopera-tion between the two states’ capitals was held in in 2003 – the Days of Moscow, in Bangkok.

“The history of diploma-tic relations between Rus-sia and Thailand spans more than a hundred years, and the countries enjoy close ties, so it not by chan-ce that the various events in September will be held under the slogan “Thailand – the focus of Russia in 2014”, Thai Ambassador Itty Ditbanjong told jour-nalists.

“We look forward to the success of the Thai Festival in Moscow, and we believe that this can become an an-nual event and expand to other cities in Russia, par-ticularly St Petersburg,” Itty said.

Immediately after the cultural festival, a fl ower festival will open in the cen-tre of Moscow. It will be held from September 15-21, and during this time, the compositions of internatio-nally renowned Thai fl oral artist Sakul Intakul will adorn the famous Central Universal Department Store (TsUM). For this flower festival, they will bring more than 200,000 orchids to Moscow. Along with the fl ower festival, at the Park Hyatt Ararat Hotel, the Thai Food Festi-val will be held from Sep-tember 15-28. In addition, the city will host an exhi-bition dedicated to His Ma-jesty the King of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The Thai events in Mos-cow will also have a busi-ness component, with Thai companies taking part in World Food Moscow.

GLEB FEDOROVRBTH

REU

TERS

07RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINESA global media project, sponsored by Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russia)www.rbth.com Food

RECIPES

How to make borscht

Svekolnik - a cold borscht

Borscht is a variety of soup based on beet, and a tradi-tional dish. It is very popu-lar among many nations of Eastern and Central Europe.

Russians like soup so much that even when it’s 30 degrees Celsius we can’t imagine a meal without them, so we came up with

Ingredients:

For bouillon

• 1kg beef ribs • 1kg chicken and beef bones • 3 carrots • 3 onions • 2 bulbs of garlic For the soup

• 6-7 beetroot • 1/2 head of white cabbage • 2 onions • 1 big carrot • 6-7 potatoes • 40ml lemon juice • 1 tbsp tomato puree • 4-5 cloves of garlic sun-flower oil salt

Facts:

1. Usually the ingredients for Russian borscht do not contain potato, although it is recommended to add it whole or sliced with fresh tomatoes. 2. A mandatory ingredient of

Ingredients:

• 150 grams beetroot• ¼ cup (50 grams) sour cream• 1 tbsp sugar• 10 grams lettuce• 1 egg white (hard boiled and chopped)• ¼-1/3 cup (75 grams) cu-cumbers, diced• 3 spring onions, chopped• 2 tbsp each dill and parsley, chopped• Lemon juice, salt to taste• 1 ¼ cups (300 grams) bee-troot stock• 2 boiled potatoes or apples cut into small cubes can al-so be added, depending on your preferences

Preparation:

1. Wash beetroot and boil it until it is soft. Add lemon

Pyotr

GolavskiySPECIAL TO RBTH

Anna

Kharzeeva SPECIAL TO RBTH

For instance, it is part of the national cuisine of Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Belarus, Romania, Moldavia, and Lithuania.

some cold ones. Svekolnik is among the most popular, since it’s made from beets – just like borscht. It’s cold, fresh, healthy and refreshing.

Ukrainian borscht is, of course, salo (lard), while the Russian recipe does without it. 3. The Russian recipe contains half the amount of cabbage, but more carrots, which in Ukrainian borscht can either be left out or added whole and then removed. 4. Russian borscht contains no added flour.

juice. I add it towards the end so it doesn’t affect the cooking of the beets. 2. Remove the beetroot; cool and strain the stock. Peel and chop up the beetroot. 3. Add sugar, cut up the egg white (I add the whole egg), lettuce and spring onion, cucumber cut up into small pieces and add sour cream. 4. You can also add boiled pota-toes or fresh apples.

History Some of the dishes we eat, date back a few hundred years

MAXIM SYRNIKOVSPECIAL TO RBTH

Soups from beer and

vodka, black caviar and

mare’s milk – what is it

that Russians actually eat

and where can you try

authentic dishes?

Exploring the history of Russia’s national cuisine

The earliest mention of Russia’s national cuisine dates back to the 10th cen-tury – in the writings of Ar-abic historian, astronomer and geographer Ahmad Ibn-Rustah. The Eastern Slavs, according to Ibn-Rustah, subsisted entirely on mare’s milk. At the height of the Cold War, a well-known European food magazine suggested that the Russian cold soup ok-roshka was made from a blend of beer and vodka, while Russian borsch was habitually brought to the table fetid. The Iron Cur-tain collapsed to show the world a different picture of pseudo-Russian food – mountains of black caviar, without which nary a Rus-sian-style lunch was ever munched. Russian chefs who went to Europe or America made no attempt to show authentic Russian dishes, but instead whipped up the food foreigners ex-pected from the scanty knowledge of that distant country they had gained while watching Omar Sha-rif as Doctor Zhivago.

The Stove Russia’s fierce climate makes agriculture unviable for a large portion of the year. However, Russia has never been short of wood-lands. Deciduous woods in the warmer areas, and ev-ergreen taiga coniferous forests provided sufficient fi rewood to keep up a roar-ing glow in that most uni-versal item of Russian kitchen appliances – the stove.

If forced to describe a Russian brick stove in mo-dern technical terms, then it’s sadly inefficient – not more than 30 per cent of the fuel is converted to usa-ble heat. The chimney-spa-ce inside is large enough that a grown adult can

clamber in and even have a wash there if needed. To get the temperature in this cavernous stove up to bread-baking heat, at least a dozen sizeable logs are needed – most of a smallish tree. However, once the stove is heated it can bake a number of dishes that need long cooking, and bake enough bread and pies to feed a big family. The dis-hes were left to cool in the stove, which might retain its heat for up to 8-12 hours afterwards, and this way of cooking helped create a dis-tinctive kind of national cuisine.

Shchi cabbage soup and porridge These are the dishes that benefit most from an ex-tended stewing – prolonged cooking for several hours at temperatures from 200 degrees Celsius to 80°C.

Such dishes have been the beloved fare of Russians for centuries. Amongst the

Once the stove is heated it can bake a number of dishes that need long cooking time.

popular favourites with Russian families both then and now being different kinds of shchi – cabbage soups - and all sorts of di-fferent porridges. A typical hearty lunch in a peasant family would traditionally have included one tureen of long-stewed cabbage soup, and another of boi-led, crumbly porridge.

Salted pickles Russian vegetables and mushrooms are tradition-ally salted with the help of natural lactic acid fermen-tation, and are usually called kvashennie, or sour – a major branch of Rus-sian cuisine. The brine from pickled cucumbers and cabbage once played the same role in Russian cook-ing that soy sauce has today in the countries of Souteast Asia. There are also special so-called pickle foods that are made from these pick-les, as well as cabbage soups – they include solyanka and

rassolnik soups. The medi-eval German traveller, Adam Olearius, who trav-elled across Muscovy, men-tioned dishes such as roast mutton in cucumber pick-le as an effective pick-me-up after excessive boozing.

Fish and black caviar No list of Russia’s favour-ite foods would be complete without mentioning river fi sh of every kind – which were always in plentiful supply. Domostroy, or Good Husbandry – a 17th-centu-ry manual of household management – mentions more than a dozen differ-ent ways to salt fi sh, includ-ing air-dried, salt-barreled, layered, and many more. And well, yes, there’s the fa-mous Russian black caviar too – the caviar, which now-adays we’ve almost lost. The pies made with fi sh fi llings are really only known in Russia – coulibiac, fi sh past-ies, and rasstegai, open-top brioches.

3 1 In the historic centre of St Pe-

tersburg. There you can find authentic Russian dishes on the menu of Russkaya Rumochnaya. In Mos-cow, you can try the Elki-Palki restaurants.

2 Restaurants in the Russian provin-

ces are installing tra-ditional Russian stoves again, with young chefs serving authentic dishes than dazzling the clients with the richness of the food.

3 Farmers are beginning to grow

nearly forgotten items like spelt and turnips. These traditional Russian ingredients can be found in well-known Moscow locations such as the LavkaLavka Cafe.

WHERE TO BUY

TRADITIONAL

FOOD

Watch the video at

rbth.com/24915

SHU

TTER

STO

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/LEG

ION

-MED

IA(2

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FOTOIMEDIA


www.rbth.comSpecial

GLEB FEDOROV RBTH

Despite the fact that the

number of people infected

with Ebola in West Africa

continues to grow and

spread, the tide has turned

for the better.

VACCINE KEY TO WINNING THE BATTLE

THE VIRUS OUTBREAK, WHICH FIRST OCCURRED IN

WESTERN AFRICA, NOW THREATENS THE WORLD.

RUSSIAN SCIENTISTS ARE READY TO HELP.

FIGHTING EBOLA

By the end othan 1,200 pand more thwere infecteinfected liveLiberia and

1,200NUMBERS

In August, Russia sent two of its leading virologists to Guinea to make contact with local authorities, ren-der assistance to profes-sionals, and to discuss the possibility of reopening a Soviet-Guinean research station for monitoring local viruses. The station oper-ated from 1973 until the So-viet Union collapsed.

This RBTH correspond-ent contacted one of the ex-perts and asked him about their mission in Guinea and what they have achieved. The following is based on a conversation with Mikhail Shche lkanov o f the Ivanovsky Institute of Vi-rology.

The situation in GuineaAccording to Shchelkanov, as Ebola can now be easily spotted in Guinea, infec-tions come to the attention of doctors immediately. Therefore, Ebola mortality rates have dropped [the mortality rate was typical-ly 90 per cent, and now is about 60 per cent].

The diagnostic process in Donka Hospital in Cona-kry [the largest public hos-

pital in the country] has been running quite smooth-ly, at least partially due to the fact that its diagnostic laboratory is headed by a graduate of a Russian uni-versity. Dr Magas graduat-ed from the Moscow State Academy of Veterinary Medicine [in the academy they study viral infections, some of which, such as Ebola, are transferred to humans from animals].

To reduce the risk of spreading the virus, the bodies of all those who die at Donka Hospital must be cremated on hospital grounds and are not re-leased to the relatives.

In addition, the govern-ments of West African coun-tries fi nally realised that the number of infected people shouldn’t be kept a secret.

The missionFirstly, Russian virologists have been providing scien-tifi c and methodological as-sistance to local specialists, such as helping improve virus detection. Secondly, the virologists gave advice to local experts on the Ebola virus [the virus was studied in Russia]. Virolo-gists also counselled the doctors on clinical issues and haemorrhagic fevers. It turns out that the clini-cal treatment is much the same for all of these types of fevers. In Russia, for ex-ample, people are familiar

are exacerbated by admin-istrative incompetence in many West African coun-tries and high levels of cor-ruption, which hamper ef-forts to fi ght epidemics. For just US$1.50 an infected person can walk out of the quarantine area.

Another important fac-tor is local beliefs. In par-ticular, at funerals across the country people embrace the body of the dead per-son before it is placed in the grave. None of this helps

Russian scientists

visualized Ebola

virus molecule

See the graph at

rbth.com/38767

with the Crimean haemor-rhagic fever.

In addition, they are dis-cussing using the Russian-Guinean laboratory for monitoring natural sources of infection that was cre-ated in 1977. The laborato-ry operated successfully right up until Perestroika, after which it fell into dis-use. Everything there would essentially have to be start-ed from scratch. T i m e h a s passed, the equipment is now obsolete, a n d n e w methods and approaches h a v e b e e n adopted.

How can the epidemic be stopped?It is difficult to halt an out-break of Ebola for two fun-damental reasons. Firstly, the disease is zoonotic, meaning it spreads from animals to humans. It is practically impossible to control the transmission of viruses in natural outbreak points such as forested Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Secondly, West Af-rica is one of the poorest regions [in the world]. It has almost no epidemiological services in the modern sense.

Unsanitary conditions

to slow down the epidemic.

The nature of the virusThe natural breeding grounds for Ebola are in the North Guinean hilly region in the forest zone.

The virus is transmitted by fruit bats (also known as megabats).

They usually live in the upper levels of the rainfor-est, they do not exhibit any symptoms, but transmit the virus through their faeces and saliva.

They can infect primates. Large apes become seden-tary and sluggish from the disease and are easy prey for hunters, whom they can then infect.

People can become in-fected directly by bats, too. A fully cooked bat poses no danger, but people can be-come infected when they are cut up.

The only way to fi ght the virus is to create a vaccine and regularly monitor the natural transmission points.

Instaweek: Pussy Riot in ‘House of Cards ’

and Crimean Forum Tavrida 2014

OPEN SOURCES

09RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINESA global media project, sponsored by Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russia)www.rbth.com Special

of August, more people had died, han 2,200 people ed. Most of the e in Guinea,

Sierra Leone.

The mortality rate is about 60 per cent, which is much lower than past outbreaks, when it reached rates of 90 per cent.

60%

RUSSKIY REPORTER WEEKLY RUSSIAN MAGAZINE

Vaccines against major

worldwide diseases such

as cholera, plague and

smallpox were developed

by Russian and Soviet

scientists.

Russia’s leading role in the fight against deadly diseases

History Who defeated smallpox?

Humankind has always had to deal with infectious dis-eases, but it has never been particularly good at treat-ing those illnesses. Until the 19th century, bacteria and viruses were the main caus-es of death. But the advent of vaccines and immunol-ogy has transformed the na-ture of the problem from mystical and incomprehen-sible to scientifi c, and then organisational. The major-ity of infectious diseases are now curable and/or pre-ventable. Soviet scientists and doctors made a great contribution to this achieve-ment.

Smallpox Depending on the exact type of the virus, the dis-ease kills 10 per cent to 40 per cent of its victims; the fi gure can sometimes be as high as 70 per cent. So far, smallpox remains the only infectious disease to have been completely eradicat-ed. The eradication plan was drawn up by Soviet medics. It was adopted at a general meeting of the World Health Organisation

Khavkin treating cholera with his vaccine in India in 1894.

(WHO) in 1967, for which the Soviet Union can right-ly take credit.

Plague The fi rst plague vaccine was developed in the late 19th century by Vladimir Khavkin, a scientist from Odessa. Tens of millions of dozes of the vaccine were used all over the world up until the 1940s. Unlike the smallpox vaccine, the vac-cine against plague could not totally eradicate the disease, and it reduced mor-tality by a factor of 10 rath-er than preventing deaths from the plague altogether. Nevertheless, it was widely used for lack of any better alternatives.

Cholera Before the invention of an-tibiotics, there was no ef-fective treatment for chol-era. But in 1892, Vladimir Khavkin, who had previ-ously developed the plague vaccine, developed another vaccine against cholera in his Paris laboratory by heating up the bacteria that caused the disease. Khavkin tested his vaccine using himself and three friends as test subjects. A new gen-eration of vaccine based on his method is still being rec-ommended by the WHO as the main weapon against cholera in the affected areas.

Anna

Popova HEAD OF

Rospotrebnadzor

The current out-break of the Ebola virus shows that the control of in-

fectious diseases develops into a global issue. Infec-tions are causing more and more damage and threaten the world with economic losses in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

Asia, and especially Southeast Asia, are the original centres of the spread of a number of ep-idemic diseases: all 7 chol-era pandemics, a number of new infectious diseas-es such as SARS, avian in-fluenza, and the Nipah virus. China is the source of pandemic influenza, which is transmitted by airborne droplets. Also in Asia dengue fever is wide-spread, as well as HIV/Aids, tuberculosis, and malaria.

Therefore, internation-al cooperation is extreme-ly important in the pre-vention and control of infectious diseases, where state borders become ir-relevant.

Since 2006, the cumu-lative contribution of Rus-sia in the international de-velopment of assistance programmes in the areas of health, including pro-grammes to combat ma-laria, polio, and tropical diseases, totals more than US$700 million. Russian international cooperation and assistance in this area being led by Rospotreb-nadzor have helped to build strong bilateral and multilateral partnerships and implement number of projects to counter infec-tions in partner countries. Rospotrebnadzor is the federal service responsi-ble for supervision of con-sumer rights protection and human well-being in

CALLING FOR COOPERATION

Bangkok and Moscow need to work together

Russia. Southeast Asia is a priority partner for Russia in cooperating in the fi eld of public health and epide-miological welfare of the population. Projects have already been implemented with Vietnam in the agen-da of the Russian-Vietnam-ese Tropical Centre, and there are plans to develop cooperation with Myanmar.

Incidentally, Russia is in-terested in establishing co-operation with Thailand. Cooperation could be car-ried out on both a bilater-al and multilateral basis. Priorities would include: risk management of the emergence and spread of new infectious diseases; re-ducing the spread of epi-demics and the eradication of epidemics which hinder development (HIV/Aids, tu-berculosis, malaria, “forgot-ten” tropical diseases); en-suring the safety of food. Given the ever-increasing tourist fl ow from Russia to Thailand, ensuring public health and disease control in tourist areas also plays an important role. The de-velopment of cooperation would allow for opportu-nities to conduct joint re-search, including the devel-opment of new diagnostics and prevention for infec-tious diseases, education, and training. This partner-ship could be carried out in an inter-agency format, as well as through the im-plementation of the Rus-sian contribution to the WHO and the main UN or-ganisations. Multilaterally we fi nd it promising, pri-marily, to attract Bangkok as a “new donor” in the im-plementation of joint proj-ects in neighbouring coun-tries (Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia). In the medium term, Moscow and Bang-kok could cooperate in the development and imple-mentation of programmes and projects on the region-al level with access to the Asean.

Ebola virus outbrake started last winter in the rain forests

on the border of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

TUNE INTO THE RUSSIAN MOOD WITH OUR NEW VIDEO PODCAST ON CONTEMPORARY MUSIC

NEWS

Mobile laboratory to GuineaThe Russian federal pub-lic health control service (Rospotrebnadzor), together with the Emergencies Minis-try, sent a special plane with a mobile laboratory on board to the Republic of Guinea to deal with the Ebola outbreak.“Russia is capable of assist-ing African countries. Our Rospotrebnadzor has a won-derful and super-modern mo-bile laboratory and our trip has resulted in understanding and a request of the Guinea Health Ministry for a field ex-pedition of our specialists and their assistance to lo-cal and international organ-isations in the most complex part of epidemiological work,

laboratory diagnostics of the fever,” head of the Pasteur Epidemiology and Microbiol-ogy Institute’s Immunology and Virology Laboratory Al-exander Semyonov told me-dia. In his words, Soviet-era cooperation is being restored with Guinea. “We are taking very serious steps towards real medical assistance to lo-cal healthcare bodies. We did a lot in that country in the Soviet period so we are not newcomers, we are restor-ing Russia-Guinea coopera-tion. A task of our trip was to negotiate the reopening of a Russia-Guinea laboratory. The negotiations were suc-cessful.”

AFP/EA

STNEW

S

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINESA global media project, sponsored by Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russia)

www.rbth.comOpinion10

VLADIMIR PUTIN TO SET NEW GOALS

Fifteen years ago, on August 9, 1999, Pres-ident Boris Yeltsin stunned Russia by

appointing Vladimir Putin as prime minister.

After the upheavals of the 1980s and 1990s, Putin was just the kind of leader peo-ple wanted — not brilliant, but dependable, capable of fi nally bringing the endless chaos to an end and ensure the return of hope for the future. Putin, considered only by a few initially as appropriate for politics, consolidated Russian soci-ety around the idea of sta-bility. Stability in the 2000s meant action, not preser-vation. To achieve stability, it was necessary to restore the management of the country, lay a foundation for economic development and give people a sense of purpose — not through a “big project”, but through actively building and im-proving their own lives.

Putin came to power at an uncertain time, against a backdrop of an eroding world order. This contradic-tion between internal goals

FYODOR

LUKYANOV

EXPERT

ing freedom of action. After his return, he promoted an ideology of conservatism. This was probably a neces-sity. The president sensed the vulnerability of his country in the ungoverna-ble global chaos and the ab-sence of an agenda that would support Russia’s na-tional development. That is why he strives to simply maintain the status quo and protect against new up-heavals. But if the stability of the 2000s was a con-scious plan, stability in the current decade is a game of retention and preserva-tion.

The escalating external turbulence has always wor-ried Putin because it ech-oes and compounds inter-nal disorder in Russia. This

After the upheavals of the and 1990s, Putin was just the kind of leader people wanted

Until his third term, Putin was emphatically non-ideological; he was pragmatic

Today the time has come to achieve new goals, ones that have yet to be defined

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and external conditions gradually became more and more apparent. The West sees Russia’s president as an enemy of progress, a symbol of outdated view-points and old-fashioned approaches. He, meanwhile, expresses his astonishment at the policies of leading nations, which seem to be almost intentionally add-ing fuel to the fi re of inter-national confl icts. Faith in the possibility of a “major deal” with the West, and Russia joining the circle of leading nations, has weak-ened, although Putin did see it as possible when he fi rst took office.

After Putin’s return to power in 2012, he saw the West, primarily the US, as the main destabiliding force in the world. This wasn’t due to anti-Russian senti-ment in Washington or Brussels, but to the West’s thoughtless and arrogant interference in one situa-tion after another, destroy-ing the foundations of na-tional governance.

Until his third term, Putin was emphatically non-ideological; he was pragmatic, working to in-crease opportunities when-ever possible while preserv-

year has confirmed those fears; the coup in Ukraine was a greater challenge to Putin than any previous event and led to the end of a paradigm, with as yet un-foreseeable consequences.

Fifteen years ago, his task on the international stage was clear: Restore the coun-try’s former position as a significant global player. This became a recurring theme. By the end of last year, Moscow’s influence had indeed grown. Putin’s realism, his ability to set appropriate goals and achieve them with cold pragmatism, had borne fruit.

The annexation of Crimea in March was a risky, but calculated, move. It was done were to ensure

the presence of the Russian fl eet in the Black Sea and prevent Ukraine from join-ing Nato.

This radical move to pro-tect Russia’s strategic in-terests and strengthen the country’s position doesn’t deviate far from the real-istic spirit of all Putin’s po-litical actions.

However, the March 18 speech he gave in Crimea was defi nitely in the nation-alist/romance genre as op-posed to a work of realism. Putin appealed to Russians as a divided people, empha-sising national values. Bringing ideology into pol-itics, especially romantic nationalism, commits a leader, tying his hands.

Putin’s departure from his usual realistic approach thrust Russia into a serious international crisis. The civil war in eastern Ukraine brought Moscow back from the global level to the local. Russia is now bogged down in an internecine confl ict in a neighbouring country with unclear goals and questionable methods.

What we can take from this situation is that Rus-sia is undergoing a crisis of purpose. The Soviet iden-tity is defi nitively gone, and nothing convincing has emerged to replace it. No large-scale national devel-opment project, demand for which comes from the pop-ulace, has been proposed.

And the fi ght for Ukraine, which began as a geopolit-ical squabble, has turned into a moment of decision about Russia’s future path. Putin has been successful in achieving the goals set 15 years ago. But today the time has come to achieve new goals, ones that have yet to be defi ned.

Fyodor Lukyanov is the chairman of the Russian Council on Foreign and Defence Policy.

VICTOR BOGORAD FOR THE M.T.

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINESA global media project, sponsored by Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russia)www.rbth.com Opinion

11

Prepared byGleb Fedorov

PRESS REVIEW

VIEWS ON UKRAINE FROM THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE PRESS

The Ukrainian crisis has triggered a deep rift between the West and Russia about the principles of the new world order.

CRAFTING A STRATEGY

FOR DETERRING PUTIN

David IgnatiusWASHINGTON POST

VIEW ON RUSSIA’S

UKRAINIAN AID CONVOY

EditorialTHE GUARDIAN

THE ONLY WINNER IN

UKRAINE IS CHINA

Dmitry TreninTHE MOSCOW TIMES

Putin had made three big mistakes [...]. He thought the battle for eastern Ukraine would be a walkover for his covert proxy forces [...]; he thought the pro-Russian sep-aratists could be controlled; and he thought the newly elected [...] President Petro Poro shenko would be weak.

The only questions are: What sort of presence Moscow has in mind; whether a disavow-al of the convoy by the Red Cross [...] will be forthcom-ing, or would it make any dif-ference if it was; and whether this supposedly humanitarian venture could blow up into a full-scale cross-border war.

The sharp reduction of Rus-sia’s economic ties with ad-vanced countries leaves China as the only major economy outside of the US-led sanc-tion regime. This increases China’s significance to Russia, promising to enable the Chi-nese to gain wider access to Russian energy and resources.

END OF A LOVE AFFAIR

The US has for many decades occupied a unique place in the Russian national psy-

che. For Russians, the US is an ideal composite image of an enemy and at the same time an object of desire. In recent months, there has been a hike in anti-Ameri-can sentiments in Russia: Opinion polls by the Levada Center showed that in May, Russians’ dislike of America reached a historic high. Cur-rently, 71 per cent of Rus-sians say that they do not like the US, whereas in the early 1990s, the fi gure was under 10 per cent. This is not surprising: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the USSR was just entering a period of liberal revolu-tion under fi rst Mikhail Gor-bachev and then Boris Yelt-sin. For Russia, the US was an ideal, a model country and an example to follow. Our country was making generous gestures (in disar-mament, in withdrawing troops from Europe, in de-classifying military facilities and technologies) and, in general, was showing signs of being in love: Russia wanted to “return to the family of civilised nations”, ie become part of the West-ern world led by the US.

This ambiguous situation had changed by the late 1990s, when two crises took place one after the other, un-dermining the foundations of the liberal revolution and preparing ground for a

Eduard

PonarinEXPERT

counter-revolution. The fi -nancial crisis of August 1998 shook the belief that liberal reforms would make people more prosperous. The Kos-ovo crisis and the Nato bombing of Belgrade in 1999 showed that Russia’s inter-

national standing had not at all improved. The frustra-tion of the elites had fi nally reached such a degree that it spilled over to the TV screens. As a result, the mes-sage being broadcast by the media changed dramatical-ly, and the anti-American sentiments of the general public began to approach

those of the elite. Any na-tional ideology is based on confrontation: There must always be the other side, somebody alien. America is an ideal alien. In addition, America is an ideal rival in the eyes of several genera-

tions of Russians who, like it or not, carry imperial am-bitions. People born in So-viet times still remember the rivalry between the two superpowers, where-as people who be-came adults in the 2000s were already subject to a new ideol-ogy proposed by Vladimir

Putin, promoting pride in Russian history, including the Soviet period. That proved enough to turn the US into an adversary in Rus-sians’ collective conscious-ness. The new generation of Russian citizens have a stronger feeling of patriot-ism. The fact that at the time when their national feeling was formed it was the US that happened to be “the sig-nifi cant other” in relation to whom Russia’s place in the world was determined has resulted in that anti-Amer-icanism becoming an inte-gral part of that national feeling.

Eduard Ponarin, PhD, is head of the laboratory of

comparative sociologi-cal studies at the Higher School of E c o n o m i c s i n Moscow.

Our country made generous gestures and, in general, was showing signs of being in love

Bombing of Belgrade showed that Russia’s standing had not at all improved

CO N V E R T I N G M O N O LO G U E S I N TO D I A LO G U E

Russia Direct is a forum for experts and senior decision-makers from

Russia and abroad to discuss, debate and understand the issues in

geopolitical relations from a sophisticated vantage point.

russia-direct.org

The Future of Russia’s Innovation

Economy

Asia-Pacifi c Military Buildup: Russia’s

response

Russian innovation develop-ment has been identified as a priority by the Russian gover-nment since the mid-2000s. Now economic growth ba-sed on innovation is gaining new momentum thanks to an unexpected push – US and EU economic sanctions imposed upon Russia over the Ukrainian crisis. The September Report ‘The Future of Russia’s Innova-tion Economy’ will explore two fundamentally different scena-rios for moving forward.

Given its strained relationship with the West over Ukraine, Russia has strong incentives to turn to Asia-Pacific to diversify its political and economic ties. However, long-lasting regio-nal conflicts have led to coun-tries in the region expanding their military capabilities. What steps Russia should take to address them?

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IORSH


www.rbth.comReligion12

GLEB FEDOROVRBTH

The collapse of the Russian

empire and the rise of

Communism was a terrible

disaster for the Buddhist

faith. RBTH gives the

history of this dark period.

The repression of BuddhismCommunism Religions paid a terrible price during the first two decades of Soviet rule

The Soviets sought to build a society free from religion. As the mainstay of the Rus-sian empire was Christian orthodoxy, it was dealt the fi rst blow by Communists. Arrests and executions of the clergy, as well as the na-tionalisation of church property, began immediate-ly after the 1917 revolution. For two reasons, Buddhism had long faced such repres-sion. First, it was profi table for the Communists to play the role of liberators, rep-resenting the Kalmyks, Buryats, and Tuvans, who had been “oppressed minor-ities of the Tsarist regime”. Secondly, the Bolsheviks wanted to win the support of the Dalai Lama and the Buddhists to promote a “world revolution” in the Buddhist East. But as soon as the Bolsheviks realised that they wouldn’t help them reach this goal, the gradual destruction of Bud-dhism began.

The 1920s can be called

When the severe repressions stopped in the 1940s, there were almost no temples left untouched.

INFO

Buddhism exhibition The exhibition “Buddhism, a Victim of Political Repres-sions” is on display at the Museum of GULAG in Mos-cow until October. The exhi-bition tells about the basics of the Buddhist religion and its relationship with the So-viet system. It features photos and videos, which illustrate the lives of the Buryat, Kalmyk and Tuva people in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, the Soviet period of persecution of Buddhism and repression of the clergy, as well as the subsequent government-con-trolled revival of Buddhism in Russia.

the “herbivorous” years, as the Communists tried to in-fluence the Buddhists through persuasion. Howe-ver, the anti-religious pro-paganda failed all through until the 1930s, and the in-fl uence of the Soviet autho-rities in “Buddhist areas” – Kalmykia and Buryatia (Tuva fi nally returned to the

Soviet Union at the end of WWII) – remained weak. The authorities could not long endure the fact that socialism struggled to grow in “the thick of Lamaism and primitive beliefs” and the Buddhist clergy beca-me a “huge sore on the body” of the Soviet popu-lation. Therefore, from the

GLEB FEDOROVRBTH

This year marks 250 years

since Empress Catherine

the Great finally recognised

Buddhism, and the clergy

declared her the White Tara

incarnation.

Buddhism in the Russian empire

History How did the Buddhist faith get to Russia and where is it common?

Buddhism, in its Tibetan form, fi rst appeared in Rus-sia in the 17th century, with the advent of the nomadic Mongol tribes, the Oyrats (later, they came to be called Kalmyks) in the Lower Volga region. In approxi-mately 1616, they built their fi rst permanent monastery near the city of Semipalat-

Buddhism was one of main religions in the Russian empire.

insk, and by 1917 the Kalmyks had 5,270 priests in 105 temples.

Buddhism became most widespread in Buryatia, es-pecially after about 150 Ti-betan and Mongolian monks settled there at the beginning of the 18th cen-tury.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Buryat monasteries already had a complete system of higher theological education in existence, including de-partments of tantra, astro-logy and Tibetan medicine. The infl uence of the Buryat Buddhists is illustrated by

the fact that Pyotr Badma-yev, an expert in Tibetan medicine, became a doctor to the royal family and trea-ted Emperor Nicholas II.

After the Xinhai Revolu-tion in 1911, Tuva (the offi-cial name of the region since 1993 is Tyva) reques-ted accession to Russia,

which took place in 1914. By that time, there were 22 Buddhist monasteries and about 4,000 lamas in Tyva.

By the time of World War I, three Buddhist regions had formed in Rus-sia where Buddhism is still widespread today.

beginning of the 1930s pro-paganda went by the way-side, giving way to harsher measures. In 1931-32, the highest-ranking clergy faced repression, and du-ring 1935-36, the other re-maining members of the middle ranks of the clergy were arrested. However, the census of the USSR in 1937

discouraged the Soviet authorities by showing that even repression could not eradicate religion: A quar-ter of the population of Buryatia and Kalmykia continued to consider themselves believers. Then the Communist Party de-cided to do away with all religions and began its cam-paign of mass terror. Just as with Orthodox priests, Buddhist priests were ac-cused of plotting against the government by spying for Japan and planning direct hostile acts against the So-viet Union. In 1937, it was announced that the lamas were actively involved in subversion and sabotage, including plotting to blow up a series of bridges. Alle-gedly, photographs of these objects were found in the lamas’ possession. In the then-independent Republic of Tuva, the situation was not much better.

In 1930, the seizure of temples and monasteries and pogroms began. Dat-san property was confi sca-ted and destroyed. The most valuable property were xylographs (wooden engra-vings). The Aga datsan alone had up to 100,000 pieces. Most of these engra-vings had no religious con-tent, but ranged from ser-ving as a dictionary, grammar, narrative and

poetic literature, and essays on history, medicine, astro-nomy, and philosophy. No less valuable were original manuscripts, which went missing even in Tibet, as well as thangka – works of Buddhist art. The militia which was engaged in the expropriation of the pro-perty used the pages of the manuscripts to cover their windows and as tissue paper and papier-mâché.

At the end of the “Great Patriotic War” (WWII), Sta-lin softened his stance on religion, which conse-quently also helped Budd-hism. In Buryatia, Budd-hists donated to the Defence Fund of the USSR several hundred thousand rubles, and then Buryat Buddhism was legalised, although it came under the control of the KGB.

Buddhists pledged “to es-teem to make their sacred Buddhist faith on par with workers in the homeland and foster its strengthening and fl ourishing”. Buddhism was under scrutiny of the KGB until Perestroika, when, beginning in 1987-88, the persecution ceased completely.

This article was written based on the materials presented at

the “Buddhism Repressed” exhibition in the GULAG

Museum in Moscow.

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RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINESA global media project, sponsored by Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russia)www.rbth.com Religion

13

IN BRIEF

President Vladimir Putin has suggested demolish-ing a Kremlin administra-tive building and restor-i n g t w o O r t h o d o x monasteries.

Building 14 is a relative-ly recent addition to the Kremlin ensemble. It was built by the architect Ivan Rerberg in 1934 on the site of two monasteries – the Chudov and the Ascension – that were demolished in 1929 and 1930.

Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said he hoped that the efforts of the newly elected Primate of the Ukrainian Ortho-dox Church of the Mos-cow Patriarchate, Metro-politan Onufriy, would help establish and main-tain peace in Ukraine.

The previous head of UOC, Volodymyr, died on July 5.

Restoration in

the Kremlin

Church head to

bring peace

Russian Orthodox philan-thropists are set to fi nance a wide range of Russian-themed Hollywood fi lms, Izvestia reported in Au-gust. Among the first of these fi lms may be a Hol-lywood adaptation about Tamerlane the Great, a Turko-Mongol conqueror. American actor Hugh Jackman is being consid-ered for the role of Tamer-lane, according to Izvestia.

Investing in

HollywoodChurch has no intent to proselytise in Thailand

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

The Russian Diaspora in Thailand is steadily grow-ing, which inevitably cre-ates the need for the pres-ence of the Russian Church. Father Oleg, who has lived in Thailand since 1999, talks to RBTH about his mission and how he deals with his parishioners.

F Oleg

(Cherepanin)

NATIONALITY: RUSSIAN

AGE: 53

RANK: ARCHIMANDRITE

In 1999, F Oleg was sent to the Kingdom of Thailand as the rector of St Nicholas’ Chapel in Bangkok. In De-cember 2001 he was appoint-ed Representative of Russian Orthodox Church in Thailand with the mission to give spiritual guidance to the Orthodox flock in Laos and Cambodia. In November 2011, he was awarded the highest order of the Russian Peace Foundation - a golden medal “For peacemaking and charitable activities”.

BRIEF BIO

What do you consider your

task here?

As a priest and as a Chris-tian, I see the very same task in Thailand as I see in every place, in any country. The thing is that from the Christian point of view, a person is saved for eternity by following Christ.

This does not mean that we want to turn the Thai people to Orthodox Chris-tianity at any cost. Religion is not Coca-Cola; it is not a product that requires ad-vertisements.

This is not what Ortho-doxy uses. We must give an answer to an individual who is truly asking, prepare him. We must baptise him and teach him how to be a Chris-tian. That is why I am here.

Who are your parishioners?

We have a very multina-tional flock. If we talk about the priesthood, then we have priests from Rus-sia, Moldova and New Zea-land; there are also Thais. And, of course, realising that we are located in Thai-land, our Thai priest Fr Daniel has the advantage of honour.

How can you explain the rapid

Of course, this is not about the donations that people put into the box inside the church, but about situa-tions when someone wants to donate a large sum, es-pecially when it is a per-son we do not know. In such a situation, the person writes a receipt indicating what his name is and so on, and he swears on the cross and on the Gospel that this money is honest. Then we accept it. But these were rare occasions that happened in the beginning, because I have been here for 16 years and I know everyone; I know who, and how, and what they earn. There have been instances when we truly refused to accept money. Money is rel-ative for the church, for God. God cannot be bought and donating a lot does not buy you the Kingdom of Heaven.

I have a Ukrainian “den-ezhka” [currency note] of small value. When we were collecting monies with which to help our Russian girls that had ended up in difficult situations here, a little boy came up to me in one of the hotels and asked: Would this help them? He was holding it for a very long time. It’s clear that mama and papa gave it to him for candy or

ice cream. He had taken care of it; it was folded up… It could not be used, of course, but I saved it for the memory and it is kept in the church.

How would you explain why

Russians behave in Thailand

in a way that is not the best?

There are good people and bad people.

For example, policemen were killed during the re-cent protests in Thailand. Families lost breadwinners. They had been doing their job, upholding the law; chil-dren were left behind… It took me a few minutes. I called our congregation to Pattaya and we collected Bt400,000 (US$12,447), giv-ing it to the families of the killed. No one knew those policemen and there was no benefi t to be had. Everyone just understood that they needed help; police salaries are not that high… So peo-ple see things like this and others.

One of the provisos of our activities is rendering aid to the needy without refer-ence to their religious af-fi liation. There is a tradi-tion where we give money to poor students and help orphanages.

Interview byIrina Vinokurova

Russian Orthodox Church was never seen as a colonial religion and only serves its flock.

growth of the Russian Ortho-

dox Church in Thailand?

Theravada is considered to be closer to the original teachings of the Buddha than, say, Tibetan Buddhism. If we speak of convention, then Thai Buddhism is the “orthodoxy” in Buddhism. If someone compares Ca-tholicism, the various cur-rents of Protestantism, and Orthodoxy, then the antiq-uity and nearness of Ortho-doxy to the original source will immediately be evident to him. This is attractive.

Another very important component is that Cathol-icism and Protestantism followed the colonisation of East Asia by the Western European countries. The feeling that Christianity is the religion of the colonis-ers is connected to this.

Orthodoxy does not have this handicap. Even in the most favourable time for the Russian empire, the time of the friendship of King Rama V and Tsar Nicholas II, we never sent our priesthood to Siam and always greatly respected that Buddhism – a culture – was the state religion of Thailand. And we are still very sensitive to this as it belongs to the religious choice of each individual and of whole nations.

Once you said that you do not

take donations “earned by

prostitution, fraud, or in pro-

fessions that do not comply

with Christian values”. How

do you know for sure where

the money comes from?

VOICES OF ‘READ RUSSIA’DOWNLOAD OUR SPECIAL ISSUE NOWAND DISCOVER THE LATEST TRENDS IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE! rbth.com/products/read_russia

Crack that Russian enigma

PRES

S PH

OTO

PRES

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LORI/LEGION MEDIA


www.rbth.comTravel14

DARYA GONZALEZRBTH

Our travel editor Darya

Gonzalez will prove to you

that in Russia alone you

can get a glimpse of

the whole world.

Places you would Places you would never believe never believe were in Russiawere in Russia

Top places The country is so big and unexplored that you can find there many new favourite destinations

From the sandy beaches of the Far East, to Swiss-like villages lost in the middle of South Siberia, from Ger-man villages on the Baltic Sea coast to the bridge across the Bosporus – it is all in Russia.

(1) Italy?Sometimes St Petersburg is called the Venice of the North, but that does not make it an Italian city. This city, originally built on a swamp, is the largest port in Russia and has long been Russia’s “window to Eu-rope.” This tourist capital of Russia is known for its drawbridges, long seafronts, romantic White Nights dur-ing which the sun never fully sets, imperial facades, and its many charming streets, many of which are named after 19th- and 20th-century Russian writers.

(2) The Chinese Stone Forest?No, this is a different Unesco World Heritage Site called the Lena Pillars. The unique stone features began to form 540-560 million years ago, and sit on a bed of Cambrian limestone. The forested red sandstone pil-lars refl ect majestically in the calm waters of the Lena River, which also serves as the main way to access them, typically via a small boat from Yakutsk. Al-

though it takes less time to travel from Europe to the Lena Pillars than to the Stone Forest, it is still an exhausting journey that in-volves fl ying into Yakutsk, taking a bus to the docks, and then spending a few hours on a boat or a ferry. Not all of the Pillars can be ascended, but there are several observation plat-forms about 100 metres (330 feet) above the ground from which one can take in the natural beauty of the Siberian landscape and the mighty river traversing it.

(3) Switzerland?Almost, but 6,500km (4,000 miles) farther east, these are actually the Altai Moun-tains, located in Southern Siberia on the border with Mongolia. Due to a lack of roads and other infrastruc-ture in the remote moun-tainous area, the breath-ta-king Altai Mountains remain one of the most in-

accessible places in Russia. The only urban area is the regional capital of Gorno-Altaysk, which has a popu-lation of 60,000. The rest of the region’s inhabitants live in villages. Locals say the mythical kingdom of Sham-bhala is located somewhe-re in the “Russian Tibet”.

(4) Istanbul?Although Vladivostok is far away from Istanbul, there is also a bay here called the

Golden Horn. A cable-stayed bridge was built across it in 2012, ahead of the Asia Pacifi c Economic Cooperation summit. How-ever, Vladivostok is more often compared to San Francisco than Istanbul. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev even decided to build a cable railway net-work in the hilly city in order to transform it into “another San Francisco”. However, all efforts to do

so ceased after the con-struction of the cable rail-way, and Vladivostok was able to retain its unique Si-no-Russian culture.

(5) Ho Long Bay?Could be, but this is actu-ally the Avacha Bay, locat-ed on the Kamchatka Pen-insula. At 24km long, it is the second-largest bay in the world after Port Jack-son in Australia. The bay is so large that all the ships in the world could fi t into it. The Koryaksky, Avachin-sky, and Vilyuchinsky vol-canoes can be seen from the waters of the bay. At the entrance to the bay, one can fi nd the Tri Brata, or “Three Brothers”, a rock formation consisting of three adjacent rocks jutting out of the sea. This landmark is consid-ered a natural treasure and is a symbol of the Avacha

Bay and the nearby city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The Bay is also the main gateway for people and goods arriving on the pen-insula, while the rocky cliffs around it contain several enchanting grottos, which can only be accessed by sea kayaks.

(6) A German village?Almost. The town of Zele-nogradsk is located in the Russian Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, originally known as Konigsberg. Founded in 1255 by knights of the Teutonic Order, Konigsberg was home to many German colonists and Teutonic knights, and even-tually became the capital of the Duchy of Prussia. Ka-liningrad was part of the Third Reich and was taken over by the Soviet Union after World War II. Today, the exclave is home to eth-nic Germans, Greeks, Ar-menians, Poles, Russians and Lithuanians. People ex-pelled from the region after it came under Soviet con-trol often return to wander among the old houses, cem-eteries, and German castles. Many landmarks and towns had different names back then, for example Zeleno-gradsk was called Cranz.

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LORI/LEGION MEDIA(3); GEOPHOTO (2); ASYA ORLOVA

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINESA global media project, sponsored by Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russia)www.rbth.com Travel

15

ANDREI KHIMIKSPECIAL TO RBTH

Deep-water dives in the icy,

Siberian depths of Yakutia’s

Lake Labynkyr have

sparked “Loch Ness Fever”

in every watery corner of

Russia.

Searching for Russia’s ‘Loch Ness’Paranormal Not only cultural sites may be a good travel spot in the country. Try your luck to be 1st to spot Nessie

The dive by Dmitry Schil-ler’s team into the frigid waters of Lake Labynkyr on February 1, 2013, could qualify for the Guinness World Records. The team members dived to the bot-tom of the polar lake at the coldest time of year, in Rus-sia’s coldest region. The dive has already prompted a blaze of publicity in the Russian media, not to men-tion the repercussions. Ru-mours abound that parts of the skeleton and jaws of a huge animal were found on the lakebed, with the help of camera technology. The members of the Russian Ge-ographical Society team have since denied this claim, but “Nessie Fever” was unstoppable. Both sci-entifi c and pseudo-scientif-ic exploration teams have set off in pursuit of a Rus-sian Loch Ness Monster all over the country. Fans of paranormal events from RBTH’s editorial team have tracked the movements of different expeditions and compiled a list of Russia’s

more obscure lakes that might yet earn the title of “The Second Loch Ness.”

Lake LabynkyrThe lake is located at an altitude of 1,020 metres above sea level, and its depth is 52.6 metres. The lakebed has an anomalous fi ssure, with a depth that reaches 75-80 metres. Lo-

cals only ever refer to the lake as “The Second Loch Ness”. Viktor Tverdokhlebov, local lead researcher of a team from the East-Sibe-rian Section of the Soviet Academy of Science, re-corded in his notes a sight-ing of an unidentifi ed ani-mal fl oating on the lake’s surface and resembling a giant fi sh.

“It was moving in an arc, at fi rst along the lake, and

then it came towards us... a dark-grey, oval-shaped body moved across the water. Against this back-ground could be made out two symmetrical white spots, which could be eyes, and standing up on its body was something like a stick — perhaps a fin. We only saw a small part of this ani-mal, but we could imagine there was a massive body in the water. It was undou-btedly a predator — one of the most powerful preda-tors in the world,” wrote Tverdokhlebov.

Quite possibly, this report by a respected scientist has made the Lake Labynkyr Monster one of the more se-rious contenders for the role of a Second Nessie, even though the Russian Geo-graphical Society (RGS) has rejected media reports of an alleged large animal jawbone found in the lake.

The giant bull-pike of Lake Khaiyr (Pestsovoye) With its own “Valley Of Death” and fl ying saucers, Yakutia is a paradise for fans of the paranormal.

Yakutia has not just one alleged Loch Ness Monster, but two. According to wit-nesses, Lake Khaiyr, which is located above the Arctic Circle, is home to an unk-

nown animal of monstrous proportions. The animal’s description corresponds c lose ly to the Lake Labynkyr monster. A 1964 expedition from Lomono-s o v M o s c o w S t a t e University’s North-Eastern Research Department re-corded that a mysterious animal with a long snake-like neck lives in Khaiyr. A member of a biological ex-pedition team from the Yakutsk Division of the Russian Academy of Scien-ces, Nikolai Gladikh, left a written record.

“At 7am, I went to the lake to get water, with a

bucket. I couldn’t have gone more than 15 or 20 metres when I heard some kind of splash and saw a huge ani-mal crawling out of the water. It was probably 4 to 4.5 metres long, 1.5 to 2 me-tres tall, with a long neck, maybe 1.5 metres. It had a small, flat head, like a snake,” reads Gladikh’s re-cord. After talking with lo-cals, a team of researchers was able to gauge that the beast at the centre of these stories is generally called the “Bull-Pike”. Despite the fact that the animal’s des-cribed appearance is car-toonish, it has not deterred

scientifi c researchers from looking into the case.

The Brosno Dragon The Russian Ogopogo — a mythical animal known only from reported sight-ings — lives in Lake Bro-sno, located in Tver Region.

There have been no con-firmed sightings of the beast, but legend would have us believe this is an-other Nessie.

As the story goes, the Brosno Dragon is a lizard-like plesiosaur — an object of fascination for many crypto-zoologists all over the world.

The Brosno Dragon is a lizard-like plesiosaur, living in Lake Brosno, in Tver Region

With its own “Valley Of Death” and flying saucers, Yakutia is a paradise for fans of the paranormal

Locals refer to the Lake

Labynkyr as “The Second

Loch Ness”.

MINERALOGICAL MUSEUM

The Fersman Mineralogical Museum is a must-see for inquisitive children, and not only

because there are fuzzy stones to touch. The mu-seum features chunks of meteorite, including one that was added to the collection of the Russian Academy

of Sciences in 1749. But the most important part of the exhibit is its collection of minerals of all shapes, colors, and sizes: quartz that looks like a sea urchin, sprigs of bluestone

covered in dew, fuzzy natrolite, and purple elbaite.Address: 18/2 Leninsky Prospekt, Moscow. Telephone:

+7 (495) 954-39-00, +7 (495) 954-18-59; Hours of operation: Everyday from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, except

for Monday, Tuesday, and the last Thursday of the month.

Adults, 2 euro; Children, 1 euro (entrance is free on Wednesdays). Best for ages

3 and up.

DARWIN MUSEUMVisitors to the State Darwin

Museum can see animatronic dinosaurs; measure their weight in mice, bears and

elephants or watch fi lms on giant screens. In the “Living Planet” multimedia show, guests can take a trip to a unique underwater world and see the cabin

of Charles Darwin’s ship The Beagle as well as a timeline of life from prehistory to today. The museum features an enormous collection of taxidermied animals, including 718 birds. The Darwin museum is a perfect destination for kids

interested in the natural sciences.Address: 57 Vavilov Street, Moscow. Telephone: +7

(499) 783-22-53; Hours of operation: Everyday from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, except for Monday and

the last Friday of the month. Adults, 7 euros;

Students, 2 euros; children under 6, free

3+

7+ 4+

4+

7+

EXPERIMENTARIUMScientists in training will enjoy

the Experimentarium, a center that lets children not only look at exhibits, but also

participate in real experiments. At this giant complex, visitors can see over 200 unusual exhi-

bits, ranging from the cab of American 18-wheeler to the layout of the human eye. Through exploring the

exhibits, children can learn about the basics of anatomy, mechanics, optics, acoustics, and electromagnetism.Address: 46/2 Butyrskaya, Moscow. Telephone: +7

(495) 989-73-94; Hours of operation: Mon-day through Friday from 9:30 am to 7:00 pm, Sa-

turday, Sunday, and holidays from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm.

For individual ticket and membership prices, call or visit the website.

Best for ages 7 and up.

MUSEUM OF PALEONTOLOGY

Dinosaur lovers of all ages can easily spend an afternoon here among

the skeletons of animals that died millions of years ago, including plesiosaurs with sad

eyes, and giant mammoths. Address: 123 Profsoyuznaya Street, Moscow.

Telephone: +7 (495) 339-15-00, +7 (495) 339-45-44; Hours of operation: Everyday from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm, except for Monday and Tues-

day. Last ticket sales at 5:15 pm.Adults, 3 euro; Students, 1.5 euro;

children under 6, free. Best for ages 4 and up.

MUSEUM OF ASTRONAUTICS

Kids who dream of interplanetary travel will be thrilled with a visit to the Memorial

Museum of Astronautics. This museum has a real Mission Control Center – a giant screen that shows where the International Space Station is currently

located and how the astronauts there live. The museum also features a ride that simulates a space fl ight. At this museum guests can stop in the Mir space station and wander among dozens of space suits, containers for

growing orchids in space and ejection seats.Address: 111 Prospekt Mira, Moscow. Telephone:

+7 (495) 683-79-14; Hours of operation: Monday through Sunday from 11:00 am to

7:00 pm. Tickets, 3 euro. Best for ages 4

and up.

PLANNING A TRIP FOR ADULTS TO MOSCOW IS EASY. FIRST, COMES THE KREMLIN, THEN RED SQUARE, AND THEN OTHER SITES BASED ON INTERESTS AND

PREFERENCES. FINDING CREATIVE WAYS TO SHOW THE RUSSIAN CAPITAL TO A CHILD, HOWEVER, IS A MORE DIFFICULT TASK. HOWEVER, THERE ARE PLENTY OF

UNIQUE ADVENTURES FOR KIDS TO BE FOUND OFF THE BEATEN PATH.

TRAVEL2MOSCOW.COM

SERGEY KARPUKHIN


www.rbth.comCulture16

MAXIM DESYATNIKOVRUSSKAYA SEMYORKA

Why did Russians in earlier

times tear the front of their

shirts, throw their hats on

the ground, and show each

other the ‘fig’ sign? And

do they still do this?

The world of Russian folk gestures Body language These signs are rarely used nowadays, but are still referred to in language and idioms

Beating one’s chest This gesture evolved from a nomad military tradition and was brought to Russia by the Tatars, who used this gesture to make an oath of allegiance to a military commander. Hitting oneself in the chest was a demon-stration of loyalty.

Like many other Russian gestures, beating one’s chest almost disappeared after the introduction of rules of etiquette in Russian culture in the 18th cen-tury. Beating one’s chest became a phra-seological expres-sion meaning to “by way of an oath, vociferous-ly tell someone something”.

Showing somebody the “koza” This gesture is often wrongly confused with the criminal “sign of the horns” or the sign made by heavy metal fans. But the Rus-sian version, the “koza”, is thousands of years old. It was associated with pro-tection from black magic and evil spirits during the Middle Ages. The older generations probably still remember the short tale that starts with “a goat with horns is coming for little children…” The adult shows the child a butting goat by imitating the goat’s horns with the little fi nger and the index fi nger of the right hand. This isn’t just a game; it is how our an-cestors warded off the evil

eye. It is curious to note that some Orthodox icons feature the Saviour and saints who are showing off an extended pinky and index fi nger.

Showing somebody the “fig” According to legend, this gesture relates to East Slav-ic traditions, in which it was a universal talisman capable of warding off dan-ger, especially the evil eye and evil spirits. Yet the Rus-sians most likely picked it up from German travellers, who used it as a vulgar ges-ture in an attempt to se-duce Russian ladies. There is even a theory that the gesture’s alternative name, “fi ga”, came from the Ger-man phrase “fick-fick machen”, meaning to engage

in sexual intercourse. In Russian tradition, the ges-ture was transformed into a symbol of absolute and fi nal refusal. These days, the gesture is not necessarily a manifestation of aggression; it can even be a joke. Rus-sians even do not have to make this gesture nowa-days, it is enough to say “fi g tebe!” (fi g to you!).

Scratching the back of the head A Russian person scratch-es the back of his head when he is concerned about something. But why? Prob-ably not to stimulate cir-culation in the brain. One theory says that the gesture comes from folk magic: Their ancestors scratched the backs of their heads in order to summon the help

of a primogenitor, a genius of mankind.

Tearing the front of a shirt Originally, this gesture was supposed to be the improv-isation of an oath. There is a hypothesis that in times gone by, Russians used this expressive gesture to dem-onstrate their loyalty to the Orthodox faith, displaying a cross on the chest.

It is well known that du-ring capital punishment, the executioners tore the tops of the person’s shirt. Therefore, voluntarily tea-ring your clothes indicated a willingness to ascend the scaffold in the name of truth. Today, the gesture has been replaced by the use of a proverb in cases when people show their emotions

too vigorously, and the ex-pression “to tear one’s shirt” is rooted in Russian slang speech.

Throwing one’s hat on the ground This gesture was used to ar-ticulate some kind of des-perate decision. A head-dress (along with a beard) was a symbol of honour and integration into society for Russian men. Taking off one’s hat in public was con-sidered to be shameful – a civil penalty of sorts. Usu-ally, debtors were subject to taking off their hats. When a person took off his hat and threw it on the ground voluntarily, he was demonstrating a willing-ness to take an insane risk in which the price for fail-ure would have been expul-sion from society.

Flicking a finger on the neck This Russian drinking ges-ture comes from the idiom “to put [a drink] down under the necktie”, which was popular in the 19th and earlier 20th centuries. The expression originated in of-fi cer culture and was sup-posedly thought up by Colonel Rayevsky, who was “a talker and a joker.” Ac-cording to the legend, he came up with another drinking term – a little bit “podchauffé,” which means tipsy [the expression ap-pears to be a combination of the Russian prefi x ‘pod’ and the French ‘chauffé’, meaning ‘heated’ – it could perhaps be translated as “heated up” ]. It is interest-ing to note that the gesture was adopted by illicit sell-ers of alcohol during the “dry law” established in 1914.

Russians do not have to make this gesture nowadays, it is enough to say “fig tebe!”

A headdress (along with a beard) was a symbol of honour and integration into society.

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