He who has not been to Moscow has not seen beautyclinics, schools, universities, theatres. At one...

S T R A T E G I E S F O R B U S I N E S S I N M O S C O W

He who has not been to Moscow has not seen beauty

A PROPOS

“To Moscow, to Moscow, to Moscow!” Like a mantra, this phrase is repeated by the sisters in Anton Chekhov’s famous play “Three Sisters.” The play is about three young women dreaming of escaping their boring small town and coming to the capital. Although the play was written in 1900, people from all over Russia, as well as people from CIS countries, still want to move to Moscow.

Moscow has always been a magnet. At least this is the way things have played out historically – all the best things could be found in the capital: shops, libraries, clinics, schools, universities, theatres. At one point, coming to Moscow from Siberia was like taking a trip to a foreign country.

Of course, people from Western countries have always had a different perspective on Moscow: for a long time, many thought of the Russian capital as an evil empire of sorts. For foreign tourists who traveled to Moscow during the Soviet era, this really did seem to be the case – the grim faces of pedestrians, empty shelves in supermarkets, uncomfortable hotel rooms, bland food and coffee, unsmiling waiters who would often bring the guests soup and desert at the same time.

Luckily, a lot has changed since then. After perestroika, Moscow changed for the better – the Russian capital is almost unrecognizable. The city now has luxury hotels, plenty of restaurants that serve delicious food, malls and supermarkets, entertainment centers for people of all age groups, and even free Wi-Fi in the beautiful Moscow metro.

However, the majority of people who live abroad know nothing about this. Old habits, as they say, die hard. Many foreigners still think that the sun never rises in Moscow, that the city is always cold and that it snows year round. Not to mention the rumors of bears roaming the streets at night. Disappointing as it may be, these myths are still around.

Of course, we are partially responsible for this – we tell the world very little about ourselves. We need to spend more resources on attracting tourists to Moscow by letting them know how convenient and comfortable the city has become. According to official statistics, over 5 million foreigners visited Moscow last year. This is obviously a small number – about 15 million tourists visit places like London and Paris every year. In these countries, both the public and private sectors engage in promoting cities as tourist attractions. Aside from tourist attractions everybody is already aware of – the Red Square, the Kremlin and the Bolshoi Theatre – Moscow has about 400 museums, over 200 theatres, 64 parks, and plenty of architectural monuments from different time periods in history.

But in order to see all of this, potential tourists need to overcome the misconceptions many people have about the Russia capital. People need to give up the Cold War mentality and stop viewing Moscow in a negative light. Today, Moscow is completely different: open, kind and hospitable.

Sergo Kukhianidze

Editor in Chief

2 CAPITAL IDEAS July-September 2015

12–19

Moscow Official

NEWS

Delegation from Dusseldorf visited Moscow Talks with the Mayor of FlorenceAgreement between Moscow and BelgradeSlovenian delegation visitDeveloping cooperation with China in the sphere of tourism

CAPITAL IDEAS

Moscow Official

NEWSNew stage of cooperationThe Moscow Government delegation headed by Mayor Sobyanin made a working visit to Turkey on April. The talks focused on developing cooperation between the Russian capital and Turkey’s largest cities, increasing food deliveries from Turkey to Moscow and attracting investment

6–11

CAPITAL IDEASFounder: Department for External Economicand International Relations of the Government of MoscowAddress: Tverskaya, 13, Moscow, 125032.Ph: +7 (495) 633-68-66Fax: +7 (495) 633-68-65E-mail: [email protected] staff:Editor-in-chief – Sergo KukhianidzeProduction crew of the edition: Elena Egorova (deputy editor-in-chief), Gennady Charodeev, Evgeny Khokhlov, Dmitry Sokolov, Marina Ogorodnikova, Anna Tomkins, Anastassia Paloni, Sergei Levin, Vladimiir Dolmatov

Publisher: Moscow Center for International CooperationCEO: Igor TkachAddress: 105005, 68/8, build.1, Baumanskaya str., Moscow, RussiaPhone: +7 (499) 267-46-56E-mail: [email protected]

General Partner: National Review LtdCEO – Sergei OposhnyanskiyPhone.: +7 (495) 784-69-71E-mail: [email protected] – Sergei Anikanov, Evgeny KhokhlovDesign – Robert SaifulinPhoto editor – Victoriya Oposhnyanskaya Page layout – Alexander SaifulinAssistant – Nadezhda RatanovaDistribution – "Trans-Media" LtdAcknowledgements to: PHOTO www.mos.ru, ITAR TASS Agency, RIA-Novosti, Getty Images Russia, companies and organizations, represented in the issue.If you wish to get new issues of Capital Ideas, please, apply to: [email protected]

The magazine is registered with at the Federal Authority of Legislative Control in Mass Media and Cultural Heritage Protection. Media registration certificate ФС77-53716, issued April 26, 2013. All reproduction permitted only with the Editor’s permission and reference to ‘Capital Ideas’.

Distributed free of chargePublished with support from the Department for External Economicand International Relations of the Government of Moscow

Circulation : 7000

Signed into print 03. 07. 2015

S T R A T E G I E S F O R B U S I N E S S I N M O S C O W

3CAPITAL IDEASJuly-September 2015

Face to Face

Interest in Moscow grows every yearVladimir Chernikov, the Head of the Department for Multicultural Policy, Interregional Cooperation and Tourism of Moscow answered our questions in an exclusive interview.

20-25

City’s graph

Luxury hotels in Moscow33

Moscow in words34-35

Moscow Global

We can’t do without each otherÜmit Yardim, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Turkey to Russia sat down for an exclusive interview with Capital Ideas

36-41

26–27City’s graph

The quality of the Moscow tourist product28-32

Face to Face

Our goal is simple – to achieve as much as possibleAlexey Vorobiev, the Head of Moscow Department of Physical Culture and Sports answered our questions in an exclusive interview


Nothing Ventured

Moscow-Munich:Nothing Catastrophic has HappenedIn spite of political tensions, the business circles in Bavaria are still interested in working with Moscow

42-45

We simulate situation

Technical questionForeign suppliers often do not know that any goods sold in Russia must have a certificate confirming their compliance with national standards and norms. Kseniya Maksyukova, development manager of the certification agency WorldWideGost, writes about the nuances in drawing up technical documentation for importing foreign products

62-63

Our interview

The business tourism industry has a bright futureVladimir Salamatov, the Director General of the World Trade Center answered questions from Capital Ideas

50-54

46-48

Nothing Ventured

The recession is behind us. What's next?Out of all the foreign companies that came to Moscow in the beginning of the 1990s, the Dutch company Danfoss stands out in terms of its stability. While some develop anti-crisis strategies and others wait for the recession to end, Danfoss manages to maintain high profitability and believes in a bright future

56-57

City’s graph

International arrivals in Moscow

58-61

Our interview

We don’t have a shortage of guestsAlexander Bobylov, the General Director of the Baltschug Kempinski Moscow Hotel, talked about how the economic crisis affected the hotel’s operations

64-69

Travel

Kolomenskoye: forward, into the pastThree years ago, the major European tourist website HolidayCheck ranked Moscow as the most hospitable city in Russia. According to feedback from tourists all over the world, Kolomenskoye Museum-Estate was one of the most popular places to visit

70-71

Moscow Vocabulary


Our interview

Russia must take care of its imageVladimir Kantorovich, the First Vice-President of Association of Tour Operators of Russia and President of KMP Group, talked to Capital Ideas about how to increase foreign tourist volumes in Russia

72-74

Life&Culture

Light summer breeze“What is there to do in Moscow in the summer? Leave this stuffy city at the first opportunity and go to the countryside!” pessimists might say. “Well, why would you suggest such a thing?” optimists reply. “It is precisely during the summer in Moscow that one can go to many cultural events and opening nights, to which tickets cannot be found at another time of the year.”

88–93

Between past and future

Hit in the templeEveryone who visits the State Tretyakov Gallery is likely to rush to see Ilya Repin’s famous painting “Ivan The Terrible Killing His Son”. However, the facts suggest that he didn’t kill his son

78-81

76-77

Bookself

Making perfectTeri Lindeberg, founder and CEO of Staffwell, is a remarkable woman. She knows all ins and outs of doing business in Russia. At least she wrote a great book titled Making Perfect, that is about what employees want from their employers. Here’s the extract from Teri’s book

82-85

Life&Culture

Up! And the tigers sat at my feet…”A hundred and thirty-five years ago, a circus opened at Tsvetnoy Bulvar in Moscow that remains one of the most popular places of entertainment today

86–87

This and That

Friendship in RussianEvery language has a word that means “friend,” but the Russian equivalent indicates something slightly different

94–96

Food&Drink

Moscow on the menuOur capital is a giant megapolis that never ceases to amaze its visitors with the diversity of its restaurant scene. But there are some cafes and restaurants that our foreign guests are particularly fond of. We have put together a list of top restaurants that are frequently visited by foreign tourists and expats who live and work in the city

During his meeting with Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek, Mr. Sobyanin pointed out that this year Ankara and Moscow will celebrate the 50th anniversary of their relations as sealed in the relevant agreements be-tween the two capitals.

“We have the potential to promote and deepen our ties. This is why we signed a program of cooperation between our two capitals last year. Our multi-faceted cooperation is determined by the status of our two cit-ies, which are both megalopolises. We are cooperat-ing in urban development, transport, communications, landscaping and the social sphere,” Mr Sobyanin said.

He added that a vast number of Turkish investors and builders work in Moscow. “We have calculated

MOSCOW OFFICIAL

Moscow & Ankara: elivate their dialogueThe Moscow Government delegation headed by Mayor Sobyanin made a working visit to Turkey on April 15-17. The talks focused on developing cooperation between the Russian capital and Turkey’s largest cities, increasing food deliveries from Turkey to Moscow and attracting investment.

Mayor of Ankara M. Gökçek and Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin sign the agreement on mutual cooperation between major trading companies of Moscow and Ankara

that Turkish construction workers built about 24 million square meters of real estate in Moscow. This is a whole city for half a million people,” Mr. Sobya-nin said.

The Moscow Mayor emphasized cooperation in the food sphere. “Turkish supplies of vegetables, fruit and other food products have increased by 50 to 100 percent over the past year. In turn, Russia has also almost doubled its food supplies to Turkey. Tomorrow we will sign cooperation agreements between major retail stores from Moscow and An-kara,” he said.

The Moscow Mayor also noted the upsurge in tour-ism. “The majority of Turkish citizens come to Mos-cow for business or tourism,” he said. “Their number cannot compare with the tourist flow from Russia but it has doubled in the past few years.”

In turn, Mr Gökçek said that the meeting will help strengthen relations between the two capitals. “We can take many important political steps because of our cooperation. We consider the planned meeting on the signing of agreements between our retail stores to be an important one. Our countries are interested in the growth of mutual investment,” he said.

Mayor Sobyanin added that this year Moscow will hold Ankara Days. “I think we will see many interest-ing and successful events and I hope Ankara will re-ciprocate with Moscow Days in 2016,” he said.

Mr. Sobyanin and Mr. Gökçek also visited a photo ex-hibition devoted to the 95th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Russia and Turkey, and toured An-kara’s urban infrastructure facilities.

They visited Ankara’s biggest thematic leisure park — the Ankapark in the Ulus district, which is the city’s reconstructed historic center, and the Moscow Alley in Dikmen Valley, an example of reorganized densely populated urban space.

A meeting between the representatives of large Rus-sian and Turkish retail chain companies. “We see a major trend that illustrates the development of eco-nomic ties in the sphere of food product supply to Russia and Moscow from Turkish enterprises. This is especially true for segments in which Russian equiva-lents are produced in insufficient volumes or are not produced at all,” Sergey Sobyanin said. ■

7CAPITAL IDEASJuly-September 2015Sergey Sobyanin and Melih Gökçek visited the photo exhibition dedicated to the 95th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Russia and Turkey

Ties between Moscow and Istanbul were established in the 1970s, but according to Mr. Sobyanin they were episodic in nature and there were no agreements to support them.

“We are laying good, solid foundations for close coop-eration both between our municipalities and between our economies and businesses in the fields of trade and mutual investment. I am certain that both cities will benefit from it,” Mr. Sobyanin said while drawing attention to the similarities between the two capitals.

“The two cities are similar in terms of population fig-ures and development trends. They have similar victo-ries and difficulties,” the Moscow Mayor said. He added

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas have signed a program of cooperation between the Moscow Government and Municipality of Istanbul for 2015-2017.

MOSCOW OFFICIAL

Program of cooperation signed for 2015-2017

that the development of megacities comes with cer-tain difficulties but also creates opportunities for in-vestment and developing social structures.

Mr. Sobyanin invited his counterpart to Moscow. “It is a pleasure for me to invite you to Moscow to see the city go through a new stage of development, and discuss the issues and challenges that we face. I am sure that the bilateral cooperation between our cities will ben-efit our residents and our countries,” Mr. Sobyanin said.

Mr. Topbas also thanked Mr. Sobyanin, noting: “I, too, plan to go to Moscow on a return visit. I hope our busi-nesses will work together”.

He expressed confidence that the cities’ municipali-ties will succeed in implementing the program. "If our two cities grow together, it will give an impetus to the development of our countries. The signed document opens new horizons for cooperation between our mu-nicipalities. We are prepared and look forward to ex-changing delegations and adopting each other’s best practices, Mr. Topbas said.

Under the cooperation program, Moscow and Istanbul will adopt best practices and implement a joint project in key economic sectors. The program will contribute to the development of:

1. Public transport and road infrastructure, in-cluding parking lots, transport hubs and park-and-ride facilities, the use of transport flow

computer modeling and water transportation development

2. Urban planning, including urban development planning, creating most favorable conditions for improvement and planting, renovating public spaces and building sports infrastruc-ture.

3. Cooperation in culture, cultural heritage, tourism and sports:

— preservation, promotion and state protection of cultural heritage sites;

— raising the quality of tourist and hotel ser-vices;

— participation in exhibitions, conferences and seminars on tourism held by Moscow and Is-tanbul;

— participation of athletes and sports teams from Moscow and Istanbul in joint sporting events;

— exchanging cultural delegations.

Afterwards, Mr. Sobyanin visited the Demonstra-tion Centre of the Municipality of Istanbul where the Mayor learned about projects in transport and urban development. ■

9CAPITAL IDEASJuly-September 2015Sergey Sobyanin and the delegation of the Moscow Government while visiting the Demonstration Center of the Municipality of Istanbul

Economic relations will become dyniamic

MOSCOW OFFICIAL

During its visit to Turkey on 15-17 April 2015, a delega-tion of Moscow Government officials led by Mayor Sergei Sobyanin met with representatives of Turkish business circles.

The talks highlighted prospects for cooperation between Moscow and major Turkish cities, more Turkish food imports to the Russian capital, and fu-ture investments.

A total of five memorandums were signed in Istan-bul between Turkish food exporters and the follow-ing Moscow retail giants: X5 Retail Group, Sedmoi Kontinent, Polmira, Plamya (the managing compa-ny of the Food City agro-food cluster) and Obyedin-yonnye Konditery from Russia, and wholesale food suppliers from Turkey.

Mr. Sobyanin thanked the Turkish side for its willing-ness to develop relations with Russia: “I want to thank

our Turkish colleagues, who, despite the sanctions imposed on Russia, not only have not reduced sup-plies of their goods to Moscow and to Russia but have significantly increased them.”

Commenting on the results of the talks, Mr. Sobya-nin welcomed the documents signed in Istanbul as paving the way for broader cooperation which, aside from benefiting the people of Turkey and Muscovites equally, will also contribute to the development of Russian-Turkish ties in general. “During the past few days, we signed a number of important documents, consisting of agreements on food supplies, signed be-tween trading companies from Moscow and Ankara, agreements between the chambers of commerce, and a program of cooperation between the mayors of Moscow and Istanbul,” he said.

Cengiz Gunay, a board member of the Union of Chambers of Commerce and Commodity Exchang-

Member of the Board of Directors of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey D.Gyunay and Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin

es of Turkey (TOBB), emphasized the significance of the talks held by the Moscow Mayor in Ankara and Istanbul. “These agreements will be a major contri-bution to promoting relations between cities and private companies. Our political and economic rela-tions are getting stronger with every passing day. And we are glad that our organization is actively advancing them,” he noted.

Sergei Cheremin, Moscow Government Minister and Head of the Department for Foreign Economic Activ-ity and International Relations, said that Moscow re-mains an attractive market for Turkish companies. “A number of Turkish companies expressed willingness to build large social facilities, including hospitals,” Mr. Cheremin told reporters.

He added that Turkish companies are also keen to invest in transport projects. “Even the fluctuations of the ruble did not frighten Turkish investors. We agreed with many companies that during their fu-ture business visits to Moscow we will start to discuss concrete projects,” Mr. Cheremin explained.

Alexei Nemeryuk, Head of the Moscow Depart-ment of Trade and Services, said that the above-mentioned agreements will give Turkish producers direct access to the Moscow market. “Often, prod-ucts that are grown by Turkish agricultural produc-ers have a long way to go. Sometimes, they travel to Novorossiisk first and then to Moscow through intermediaries. Consequently, the price share added by the middlemen ranges between 20 and 50 per cent of the cost.”

The visit produced an agreement between the Mos-cow Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) and the Ankara Chamber of Commerce. It was signed by

the chambers’ presidents Mikhail Kuzovlyov of Mos-cow and Gungor Sanal of Ankara. The document will hopefully give a boost to mutually profitable econom-ic, trade and investment cooperation between Mos-cow and Ankara. Below are cooperation priorities:

— promoting the expansion of the existing di-rect business ties and establishing new ones between entrepreneurs of Moscow and Ankara, geared towards reaching mutually profitable deals with special emphasis on cooperation be-tween small and medium-sized businesses as well as individual entrepreneurs

— promoting the development of tourism-re-lated services upon requests from organizations and entrepreneurs of Moscow and Ankara

— exchanging information geared towards creating economically effective logistical “road maps” for all spheres of activity

— assisting in preparing delegations’ visits, bi-lateral meetings and talks between business circles of Moscow and Ankara

— assisting in carrying out and ensuring the ac-tive participation of entrepreneurs from both sides in national and specialized exhibitions, goods presentations, fairs, conferences, sympo-siums, seminars and other advertising events in Moscow and Ankara.

A similar agreement between the Moscow CCI and the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce was signed in Istanbul by Moscow CCI President Mikhail Kuzovlyov and Vice President of the Istanbul Chamber of Com-merce Gokhan Murat Kalsin. ■

Mayor of Istanbul K.Topbaş, Mayor of Moscow S. Sobyanin and the delegation of the Moscow Government 11CAPITAL IDEASJuly-September 2015

A communique on a partner-like cooperation be-tween Moscow and Düsseldorf for 2016-2019 was signed at the meeting. The document sets forth basic aspects of cooperation for the next few years, includ-ing education, healthcare and the social policy, sport, the economy, urban infrastructure development, and culture.

A new cultural cooperation program for 2016-2019 was also signed between the Moscow Department of Culture and the Düsseldorf Culture Directorate.

“We are signing a new three-year agreement be-tween our cities and a program of cultural coopera-tion. I’m confident that the new agreement will make it possible to strengthen our close social, economic, and cultural relations,” Mr Sobyanin noted.

In turn, Mr Geisel said the German delegation had reached an agreement on holding the Days of Düssel-dorf in Moscow, and he called on the Russian capital to hold the Days of Moscow in Düsseldorf.

The sides discussed the subsequent development of bilateral cooperation, including promising aspects for cooperation in the areas of education, healthcare, the modernization of transportation infrastructure, and the organization of cultural and youth exchanges.

“Our cities are linked by close, 20-year-old relations that long ago turned into good and real friendship. Various events have taken place in the past 20 years, but the friendship between our cities continued to grow ever stronger. I’m confident this trend will also continue today,” Mr Sobyanin said.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin met with Lord Mayor of Düsseldorf Thomas Geisel. The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Germany to Russia, Rudiger von Fritsch, also attended the meeting.

MOSCOW OFFICIAL

Moscow and Düsseldorf sign cooperation program

Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin and Lord Mayor of Düsseldorf Thomas Geisel signing communique on a partner-like cooperation between Moscow and Düsseldorf for 2016-2019.

“I’m very happy to note that our cities have main-tained close relations over the past 20 years, that these relations have evolved into a profound and close friendship, and that they encompass the most diverse aspects of our cities’ life, including the economy, cul-ture, sport, education, urban development, traffic flow planning, and, in general, everything that improves the life of our wonderful residents,” he stressed.

Contacts between the residents of the two cities are also important, Mr Geisel said. “This is particularly true of cultural relations. In 2015, we were able to re-ceive the ballet tour of the Stanislavsky Theatre, and this year we will reciprocate. I cordially invite you to watch the performance of our theatre in Moscow,” Mr. Geisel added.

He also said that both cities continued to expand cooperation in sport in the run-up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, due to be hosted by Russia. “I’m already looking forward to the final match between the Rus-sian and German teams in Moscow. And, as has al-

ways been the case in sport, let the strongest win,” Mr. Geisel noted.

Sergei Cheremin, a Moscow Government Minister and the Head of the City Department for Foreign Eco-nomic Activity and International Relations, said that in line with the intercity agreement there were plans for performance groups from both cities to exchange concert programmes. “It should be noted that we will conduct sufficiently intensive youth exchanges and exchanges between schools as this year our countries are holding the Year of Russian Language in Germa-ny and the Year of German Language in Russia,” he added.

The Minister said that the Düsseldorf delegation visit-ed leading Moscow clinics and got an introduction to rehabilitation centers and homes for senior citizens. Heads of the Departments of Culture, Healthcare and Social Support as well as a massive business delega-tion accompanied the Lord Mayor of Düsseldorf on his visit to Moscow. ■

Minister of the Moscow Government and head of the Moscow Department of Culture A.Kibovsky, Moscow Minister and Head of the Department for External Economic and International Relations Sergei Cheremin, Head of Cultural Affairs of the Düsseldorf City Council Hans-Georg Lohe, Lord Mayor of Düsseldorf T.Geisel


Moscow and Düsseldorf sign cooperation program

MOSCOW OFFICIAL

During talks with the Mayor of Florence Dario Nardella, which took place on May 15, Moscow Minister and Head of the Department for External Economic and International Relations Sergei Cheremin announced that Moscow plans to take part in EXPO-2015 events in Milan this October.

Talks between Moscow Minister and Head of the Department for External Economic and International Relations Sergei Cheremin and Mayor of Florence Dario Nardella, May 15th.

Head of the Department for external economic and International relations meets with mayor of Florence

Economic and International Relations holds regular meetings under the auspices of the Ambassador of Italy in Russia Cesare Ragaglini with Italian firms in Moscow for the presentation of urban projects for en-trepreneurs.

Sergei Cheremin expressed hope for the start of co-operation with Florence in the sphere of cultural heritage preservation and restoration of historical monuments.

The meeting was also attended by a Mikhailov & Part-ners consultant Giacomo Agulero and representatives from the Italian embassy. 2014 was an active year in terms of developing Moscow-Italian contacts. In May of last year, Days of Moscow were held in Rome and Milan with participation of the Mayor of Moscow Ser-gey Sobyanin. In November, the Mayor of Milan Gi-uliano Pisapia, who opened the Days of Milan in Mos-cow, came to the Russian capital. Currently, the two sides are actively working to implement the agree-ments reached. ■

The two sides noted the fruitful development of bi-lateral ties between our countries and the quick pace of development of our relations in spite of political tensions.

Sergei Cheremin stressed that Moscow is interested in cooperating with Italian investment companies and companies operating in the sphere of road and transport infrastructure development. As the Minis-ter pointed out, the Moscow Department for External

15CAPITAL IDEASJuly-September 2015 15CAPITAL IDEASJuly-September 2015

Department for external economic and international relations of the Government of Moscow

Address: 13 Tverskaya Street, Moscow, 125032Ph: +7 (495) 633 68 66Fax: +7 (495) 633 68 65E-mail: [email protected]

Department of Science, Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship of the Goverment of Moscow

Address: 22 Voznesensky Pereylok, Moscow, 125009Ph: +7 (495) 957 05 10Fax: +7 (495) 957 05 20E-mail: [email protected]

Department of Economic Policy and Development of the Government of Moscow

Address: 21 Voznesensky Pereylok, Moscow, 125032Ph: +7 (495) 957 72 21Fax: +7 (495) 629 33 42E-mail: [email protected]

Department of City Property of the Government of MoscowAddress: 20 Bakhrushina Street, Moscow, 115054Ph:+7(495) 587 70 87Fax: +7 (495) 959 19 82E-mail: [email protected]

Moscow Exchange Address: Office 1: 125009 Moscow, Bolshoy Kislovsky per, 13 Office 2: 125009 Moscow, Vozdvizhenka Str, 4/7, Bld 1 Phone: +7 (495) 363 32 32, +7 (495) 232 05 55 Fax: +7 (495) 705 9622 www.moex.com

useful info

“I am happy to welcome your delegation in Mos-cow. I assign a lot of significance to cooperation between our cities. I hope that the agreement that we are signing today will help strengthen our re-lations. We will gladly work together across social and economic spheres and strengthen the friend-ship between our cities,” Sergey Sobyanin said.

In turn, Siniša Mali thanked the Government of Mos-cow for their hospitality. “The agreement that we are going to sign today is an agreement regarding

The meeting was attended by the Serbian Ambassador to Moscow Slavenko Terzić and the President of the City Assembly of Belgrade is Nikola Nikodijević.

On June 2, Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin and Mayor of Belgrade Siniša Mali signed an agreement of cooperation between the Government of Moscow and Belgrade for 2015-2017.

MOSCOW OFFICIAL

Agreement between Moscow and Belgrade

close relationship between Russia and Serbia. We will see stronger ties between our two countries. Over the past two days we have learned a lot about your work. We hope that we will be able to apply what we have learned in Belgrade. Of course, our goal is to improve the quality of life for our citizens,” Siniša Mali said. He gave Sergey Sobyanin a letter from Prime Minister of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic, which contained an invitation to visit Belgrade.

According to the program, the main areas of coop-eration between Russia and Serbia will be the ex-change of experience and implementation of joint projects in spheres such as road transport infra-structure development, housing, science and ad-vances technology, trade and services, health and social protection, education, environmental protec-tion, culture and tourism, and sports.

Among other things, the program entails the fol-lowing measures:

• exchange of information between researchand design organizations• professional development of teachers andthe organization of specialized conferences and seminars

• participation of Serbian creative teamsin the Moscow festival "The best city in the world"• invitation of the Serbian director Emir Kus-turica to take part in the Moscow Summer Fes-tival "Cinema in the Park"• holding friendlymatches between teamsofMoscow and Belgrade in various sports.

Bilateral relations between Moscow and Belgrade are based on the Memorandum of Friendship and Cooperation (1994) and the Protocol on trade-eco-nomic, scientific-technical, cultural and sports co-operation (2000).

Trade volumes between Moscow and Serbia amounted to $563.9 million in 2014.

From 2011 to 2014, the number of two-way trav-el trips between Russia and Serbia has doubled. According to the Russian Border Service, 57,600 Serbian citizens came to Russia through Moscow airports in 2014 (in 2011, this number amounted to 39,200). 84,000 people went to Serbia through Moscow airports (in 2011, this number amounted to 35,600). ■


Mayor of Belgrade Siniša Mali and the Head of the Department for External Economic and International Relations Sergei Cheremin after singing the agreement of cooperation between Moscow and Belgrade for 2015-2017

On June 9, the Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin and the Mayor of Ljubljana Zoran Jankovic signed the 2015-2017 cooperation program between Moscow and Ljubljana.

Slovenian delegation visit

MOSCOW OFFICIAL

The meeting was attended by the Moscow Deputy Mayor for Social Development Leonid Pechatnikov, the head of the Department for Foreign Economic Activity and International Relations of Moscow and Minister of the Moscow Government Sergei Cher-emin, and Chairman of the Committee on Architec-ture and Urban Planning Juliana Knyazhevskaya. The document entrails the development of cooperation between the two cities in the field of urban planning and infrastructure development, building and im-proving transport systems, protecting the environ-ment and improving the quality of social services.

Sergei Sobyanin noted that the Moscow Government appreciates the respectful friendly relations estab-lished between Moscow and Ljubljana, and confirmed the readiness to actively increase the cultural and business ties between the cities.

“Our cooperation is actively developing, and I am very happy about this. We have good contacts in the social sphere and are developing tourism. I hope that the


areas connected to trade turnover and the economy will also develop, in spite of the challenges,” the May-or of Moscow said.

The Mayor of Ljubljana also stressed that the imple-mentation of the cooperation program will encourage the development of cooperation between the two countries. According to Z.Yankovich, the visit from the Slovanian delegation is aimed at the exchange of experience between the two countries in the sphere of economics, culture, sports and social development.

One of the joint projects implemented within the scope of cooperation will be the construction of an athletic center with a water park in the Tsarytsino district in Moscow. The protocol of intent to build the center was signed by representatives of the Moscow company "Yuzhnoye Sozvezdiye" and the Slovenian company "Rico" in the presence of the mayor of Lju-bljana and S. Cheremin, Head of the Department for Foreign Economic Activity and International Rela-tions of Moscow. ■

The Moscow Government and the Federal Tourism Agency have signed an agreement within the scope of implementing the visa-free tour group trips agreement between the Russian Federation and the PRC.

Moscow and China promoting tourist ties and trade

the Head of the Department for Foreign Economic Activity and International Relations of Moscow Ser-gei Cheremin, “China remains one of the top trade and economic partners for Moscow.”

The minister said that this year marks the 20th an-niversary since the signing of the memorandum on cooperation between Beijing and the Government of Moscow. “We expect a visit from the mayor of Bei-jing this year and hope that these will be high quality events,” Cheremin noted.

He also recalled the Moscow Government’s initiative on establishing a 72-hour visa-free regime for Chinese citizens arriving in airports in major Russian cities, and expressed his hope that the measure will be imple-mented soon. “I am sure that the scope of our coop-eration with Beijing and China will continue to increase in both the tourism and economic spheres,” Cheremin added.

In 2014, the Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin visited Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. During the visit, the agreement on cooperation for 2014-2016 was signed between Moscow and Beijing. In 2013 and 2014, China ranked first in terms of the number of tourists arriv-ing in Moscow. According to CityMetricIntelligence ratings, the Russian capital was ranked ‘The Moscow Popular European City for Chinese Tourists” in 2014.

The growth in tourist volumes is the result of the agreement on visa-free group tourist trips, which was signed between Russia and the People’s Republic of China. The agreement entails a simplified visa-free entry process for tourist groups comprised of 5-50 people. Russian tourists who are entering China for a period of less than 14 days can also take advantage of this agreement. ■

The document was signed by the head of the Tour-ism Agency Oleg Safonov and the head of the Moscow Department of National Policy, Interregional Relations and Tourism Vladimir Chernikov. The ceremony was also attended by Sergei Cheremin, Head of the Depart-ment for Foreign Economic Activity and International Relations of Moscow and Minister of the Moscow Gov-ernment.

Vladimir Chernikov noted that Moscow authorities plan to continue actively working on strengthening ties between the Russian capital and China. “In the first quarter of 2015, we have seen a significant increase in China’s interest in Moscow. We carefully follow the tastes and preferences of our Chinese guests and try to do everything in our power to make them comfort-able in the capital,” the head of the department said. 17 tour guides from the “Moscow Tourist Routes” series have been translated into Chinese, along with Moscow city and metro maps. The city has also implemented the ChinaFriendly program, which is intended to make hotel stays more comfortable for Chinese tourists.

According to Oleg Safonov, signing the agreement is very important in light of the development of coopera-tion with China. “Over the past few years, Moscow has ranked first in terms of the number of Chinese tourist groups – we are now ahead of Primorsky Krai. Accord-ing to numbers from the first four months of 2015, there has been a 195% growth of in visa-free tourist volumes from China in Moscow,” said the head of the Federal Tourism Agency. According to the organization’s data, 57,000 tourists came to Moscow in 2011. By 2014, this number had gone up to 140,000, and the agency ex-pects this figure to swell to 200,000 tourists in 2015.

“For us, signing this agreement today is another brick the wall of solid economic relations with the PRC,” said


Is Moscow an interesting place for foreigners? Can the Russian capital be considered on the largest tourist capitals in the world?

I think that Moscow can be considered one of the biggest world capitals for business tourism, and a major business center in both Europe and Asia. If we look at statistics, business tourists make up over 50 percent of tourist volumes, and this ratio has not changed much over the past 10 years.

Overall, interest in Moscow grows every year, which isn’t surprising – Moscow is changing rapidly and becoming a more convenient city for tourists. Of course Moscow is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. We have new types of services and are expanding our tourism infrastructure. There are pedestrian zones that stretch for over 20 kilometers in some of the most popular tourist spots, and these areas will be expanded in the future. The street navigation system, which is available in multiple languages, is constantly improving. There are two-level City Sightseeing buses for tourists and visitors can also take boat tours along the Moscow River any time of year, since we have Radisson Royal ice-breaker boats. This year, there are also more bike

The Head of the Department for Multicultural Policy, Interregional Cooperation and Tourism of Moscow answered our questions in an exclusive interview with Capital Ideas

FACE TO FACE

Vladimir Chernikov:

Interestin Moscow grows every year


lanes available for cyclists in Moscow parks, and we expect Moscow to become one of the top cities in the world in this regard as well.

There are also more and more large-scale event tourism projects in Moscow. On the first Saturday of the spring, the capital hosted FIA Formula E Championships – a true battle between electrically-powered racing cars. The global audience for this exciting event amounted to 200 million people. A lot of tourists are increasingly more interested in visiting the “Circle of Light” festival, which takes place in Moscow in the fall. This year, the Moscow River and its embankments will be one of the platforms for the festival. In June, Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve hosted “Times and Epochs,” a historical festival that usually draws people from all over Russia and other countries as well. It would be difficult to list all of the new tourist services and events we have in Moscow in a single interview, but I can assure you that there are plenty of both.

What are foreign tourists most interested in when they come to Moscow – culture, architecture, res-taurants, night life?

Like I said before, a big share of foreign tourists come to Moscow for international conferences, exhibitions and forums. But, as one study has shown, foreign guests often find the time to see the city’s main tourist attractions in spite of hectic program schedules. This is why the majority of business-class hotels are located in the center of Moscow. The younger generations of business tourists have also noted that, unlike most business capitals in the world, has a lot to offer in terms of an active nightlife.

What are some places in Moscow that attract the most tourists?

The list of these key tourist attractions hasn’t really changed much over the years. According to Trip Advisor, the most frequently visited places in the Russian capital are St. Basil's Cathedral, the Museum-Reserve Kolomenskoye, Red Square, Lomonosov Moscow State University, the Kremlin, Novodevichy monastery, Kuskovo, the Bolshoi Theatre, and the Moscow Metro.

According to official data, how many foreigners come to Moscow every year?

FACE TO FACE


According to the FSB Border Service, about 5.8 million people came to Moscow through the Moscow airports last year. Not all of them, of course, are tourists. A tourist is someone who comes to a place (not necessarily from another country) in order to spend money instead of making it. That is, someone who makes money in one place and then spends it in another place. This is the case for the majority of arrivals in Moscow – about 5.4 million people. This number includes everyone who indicates “tourism” as the reason for the visit.

What countries do tourists typically come from?

The top ten countries are China, Germany, Turkey, France, Italy, USA, Israel, Vietnam and South Korea. After the sanctions, tourist volumes from certain European countries decreased, along with tourist flows from Japan – prior to this, Japan was in the top 10. It has now been replaced by South Korea – tourist volumes from this country have increased by 47 percent compared to 2013.

What is the general trend in the tourism sector right now and what is causing it?

We don’t have to play guessing games with trends right now, since the data speaks for itself: there has been an increase in tourist volumes from countries we do not impose visa restrictions on. South Korea is a good example – the visa-free regime for South Korean tourists went into effect in January 2014. There has been an increase in tourist volumes from Israel (14 percent) and Turkey (6 percent) for the same reason. Since we have an intergovernmental agreement on visa-free entry to tourist groups with China, the number of Chinese tourists is also steadily increasing, though not as rapidly.

What are some things that are making foreigners think twice about coming to Moscow? Many peo-ple say, for example, that it is difficult for them to navigate the city because there aren’t a lot of signs in English. What else?

The number of signs in multiple languages in the city amounts to over 1,200. By 2018, this figure will increase to 9,500 street signs. Moreover, it’s important to remember that here in Moscow, unlike in many European and Asian countries, there is really no problem with free Internet access – there


are multiple Wi-Fi hotspots, which allows tourists to use any navigation service they wish. There are English versions available for most cultural tourist attractions in Moscow. Of course, there are also special services – mobile applications and the multilingual website www.travel2moscow.com, which has been translated into major European languages and Chinese. There is also a free 24-hour call center for tourists.

Moreover, let’s not forget the fact that foreigners who wish to visit Russia encounter a lot of difficulties in obtaining visas. Getting a visa is also expensive. I have already brought up how much of positive effect a visa-free regime can have on tourist volumes, and the examples I gave demonstrate how useful signing these types of agreements is.

In your opinion, what should the city do in order to increase tourist volumes and make Moscow a real tourist magnet?

Moscow has a lot to offer its guests, including our foreign guests: about 400 museums, over 200 theatres, multiple architectural monuments of different styles from different eras, 64 parks, a great city infrastructure and a wide selection of events to attend. The city also has a rich history that is reflected in every street in the center of Moscow. Our tourist infrastructure is fairly new, which means that it is quite modern and advanced. The city is developing at an astronomical rate. In the next few years, for example, there are plans to upgrade the embankments of the Moscow River, which stretch for over 200 kilometers. But there is another, more difficult task to accomplish – creating and maintain a positive image of Russia abroad, and promoting Moscow as a tourist center. ■

FACE TO FACE


Assessment procedure

Tourist productComponents of the tourism product and the degree of satisfaction with each one

Comprehensive Assessment of the Moscow Tourist Product

Barriers: price-quality relationship for tours

CITY'S GRAPH

At the order of the Moscow Committee on Tourism and Hotel Industry, an assessment of the quality of the Moscow tourist product was conducted. The source of information was the opinions of tour-ists, who are the target audience.

2093 Russian and foreign tourists from 10 countries were polled (Germany, China, Italy, Spain, France, and others) who visited Moscow as part of cultural and educational group tours. Expert interviews were also conducted with tour guides, interpreters and representatives of tour operators.

The assessment was both comprehensive – for the tourist product as a whole – and differentiated, for each service of the tourist product.

Would you come to Moscow again?

The price corresponds to quality

The price is too high

Would you recommend the trip to your friends?

Transport

88%

9% 3%

Food

Satisfied Unsatisfied Difficulty Answering

83%

12% 5%

Accommodation

86%

8% 6%

Tours

93%

5% 2%

63%

37%

92%

8%

52% 27%

16%5%

Definitely

Most likely

Unlikely

Definitely not

Would recommend Would not recommend


Moscow Committee on Tourism and Hotel Industry


Assessment of the Moscow Tourist Product and Main Factors Influencing Competitiveness

The price corresponds to quality

The price is too high

The capital of Russia has always been an athletic city. Is it still one today? How would you describe the city’s policies when it comes to sports?

Moscow has always been the most athletic city in our country. The number of sports facilities, the number of people who are physically active and the number of sports events we host all serve as testa-ment to this fact. The figures speak for themselves. There were 11,590 athletic facilities in Moscow in 2010. In 2014, this number went up to 14,602. We expect to increase the figure by 14,684 by the end of this year, and to 14,828 by 2018. Today, these facili-ties include 7,896 planar sports facilities, 3,589 gyms, 301 swimming pools, 1,599 skating rinks as well as

The Head of Moscow Department of Physical Culture and Sports answered our questions in an exclusive interview with Capital Ideas

FACE TO FACE

Alexey Vorobiev:

Our goal is simple – to get as much as possible


ski slopes, bike trails and running lanes, climbing walls and racing tracks, along with a multitude of other athletic facilities.

The mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin pays spe-cial attention to the development of physical cul-ture and sports in the capital. Thanks to the state program “Sport of Moscow” (2012-2018), over 3 mil-lion people in the capital take part in athletic ac-tivities today. In 2010, this figure amounted to just 2.13 million people. By 2018, we plan on increasing the number of people who play sports to 4 million. Our policy in the field of sports is quite simple and easy to understand: to move forward and achieve as much as possible. We have every opportunity

to do so. The “Sport of Moscow” state program for 2012-2018 includes two subprograms that focus on the development of physical education and sports, as well as on preparing a sports reserve and devel-oping high performance sports. Both of these tasks are important to us. Moscow has always been and continues to be proud of the accomplishments of the capital’s athletes. Take, for example, the re-sults of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. Out of the 225 Russian athletes who participated in the Olympics, 60 were from Moscow. The capital was represented across 14 different types of sports. The largest number of Muscovites could be found in ice skating (14), curling (9), bobsledding (6) and free-style (5).


FACE TO FACE


Athletes from Moscow ended up with a total of 13 medals: 7 gold, 3 silver, and 3 bronze. This was the best result over the past 20 years of our participation in the Winter Olympic Games. In percentage terms, these numbers account for 39% of all medals and 54% of gold medals.

Muscovites are rightfully proud of their winners and champions: Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov, Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitry Soloviev, Ksenia Stol-bova and Fedor Klimov, Elena Ilinykh and Aleksey Katsalapov. Yulia Lipnitskaya and Adelina Sotniko-vaya (for figure skating), Viktor Anom (short-trek) and many other athletes who take part in interna-tional competitions. We are proud of our coaches and athletic schools who train these phenomenal athletes. Because we have created the right condi-tions for training our athletes, they have been able to attain these significant achievements. We have put together an experimental Moscow team for the next Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and the next Win-ter Games in PyeongChang. The goal of this project is undergo training with minimal losses and ensure great results for our country and, accordingly, for the city the athletes represent.

The development of popular sport is an integral part of life in Moscow. It is very important for us to cre-ate all the conditions necessary for people to get in-volved in physical culture and sports, to promote a healthier nation and active lifestyles. Our task is to help citizens bring this fairly simple, but important, dream to life. The dream of a healthy lifestyle.

How many athletic events are held in Moscow every year? How many of them are international events, and how many have become well-established?

As I have already noted, Moscow is also the leading city in Russia in terms of athletic events. Last year, for

example, we hosted 60 especially significant compe-titions such as world championship for pneumatic gun shooting, the Grand Prix of Figure Skating, and the World Championships in rowing and canoeing. The International Canoe Federation has commend-ed the high quality of the championship, recognizing it as the best. This year there will be just as many events. We have already held the international short track championship and several stages of the Grand Prix in freestyle, acrobatic and snowboard parallel slalom. We also have a fencing championship com-ing up, along with competitions in many other kinds of sports.

We host a number of events that are extremely pop-ular among Muscovites, including a number of youth tournaments such as “Kozhany Myach” (“Leather Ball”) “Zolotaya Shaiba” (“Golden Puck”) and “Led Nashey Nadezhdy” (“Ice of Our Hope”). There is also the Moscow Marathon and the Moscow ski race, traditional athletic events at Luzhniki and festivals at the GTO Center. We see serious, uncompromising competition, participants trying to win and support from fans – this is a very important component of athletic events.

So overall we have a very busy athletic calendar.

In the USSR, we used to have a popular slogan: “Mass participation is the key to success.” This is still the case in practice. How is physical culture developing in the city now? What is your opinion on the return to GTO standards?

Mass participation is most definitely still the key to success today – it paves the way for elite sport. Mass participation is a trampoline of sorts, which helps us identify the best and most talented athletes. In or-der to facilitate this process, we have implemented a program that will be in effect until 2018. The pro-


Elena Ilinykh and Adelina Sotnikovaya Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov

gram helps us to not only introduce more people to physical culture and sports, but also to resolve more complicated problems such as preparing a sports re-serve, developing youth sports, and improving the elite sports system.

Take, for example, the integrated GTO programs that you already asked me to talk about. Why did we de-cide to implement them again? Because they have proven to be a good universal standard so far, and we have yet to find a good alternative. Is it really so bad to have millions of people in our country in good shape because they had to regularly keep to GTO standards? You know perfectly well what hap-pened when we abandoned these standards – some of our school students could not handle even mini-mal amounts of physical activity in gym class. Is this normal? Of course not. So the fact that we are going back to programs that helped us establish a healthy nation is a great thing.

By the way, we never folded the GTO program in Moscow, even when it was absent across the coun-try as a whole. We had our own equivalent called “Moscow Athlete,” which allowed us to return to the previous system quickly. The President decided to personally supervise the program, which means it must be developed, extended and improved in order to have it pay off like it had in the past.

We have a long way to go before the World Cup. Could you tell us about how preparations for this major event are coming along? How many tourists are you expecting?

I have already summarized the athletic calendar for the current year. In the future, this calendar will un-doubtedly be expanded and will include even more significant international events. Next year, Moscow will be hosting the hockey championship. We will try to make it the best championship of the decade. It will take place at the newly constructed Legends Park in Moscow. So far, preparations are going as planned. In May, the Moscow delegation headed by the Deputy Moscow Mayor for Regional Security and Information Policy Alexander Gorbenko travelled to the Czech Republic, where the delegates gave a suc-cessful presentation of Moscow as the hockey capi-tal of 2016.

And in 2018, we will be hosting the World Cup for the first time. The preparations for this important athletic event are going as planned, and the process is monitored regularly by the capital’s mayor Sergey Sobyanin.

am confident that Moscow will be able to execute all set tasks in time and that the championship will be or-ganized and held in the most professional manner. ■

FACE TO FACE


40%

45%

50%

55%

60%

65%

70%

0

4 000

8 000

12 000

16 000

20 000

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

ADR RevPAR

LUXURY HOTELS

IN MOSCOWOperating performance indicators for luxury hotels in Moscow

Operating performance indicators of the luxury hotel segment have been tracked since 2007. Currently, the three most expensive hotels in Moscow are Ritz-Carlton, Park Hyatt and Lotte. The rates for other hotels in the segment are lower. There is also another trend in the city: the best accessible rates are much higher than aver-age rates – the difference can amount to as much as 60%.

The segment dynamics are relatively stable. There have not been any significant changes after the segment recovered from the crisis in 2010. Occupancy rates at some hotels amount to 65% annually, and occupancy rates for the best hotels in Moscow slightly exceeds 70%, which is the highest attainable value for the segment.

RUB

Occupancy


Ulitsya Novy ArbatUlitsya Novy Arbat

Kutuzovsky Prospect

Kutuzovsky Prospect

Nikoloyamskaya Ulitsya

Ritz-Carlton

Lotte

Ulitsya Krasnaya Presnya

Ulitsya Krasnaya Presnya

Moskvoretskaya Naberezhnaya

Ring

Roa

dRi

ng R

oad

Ararat Park Hyatt

МеtropolisFour Seasons

Baltschug KempinskiMoskvoretskaya Naberezhnaya

Ring RoadRing Road

Nikoloyamskaya Ulitsya


“If there is no God, everything is permitted.”Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian novelist,

short story writer, essayist, journalist and

philosopher

“God gives talent. Work transforms talent into genius.”Anna Pavlova, Russian prima ballerina of

the late 19th and the early 20th centuries

“Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian novelist,

historian

MOSCOW IN WORDS


”Say what you know, do what you must, come what may.”Sofia Kovalevskaya, the first major

Russian female mathematician

“When work is a pleasure, life is a joy! When work is a duty, life is slavery.”Maxim Gorky, Russian and Soviet writer

“The spirit, like the body, can be strengthened and developed by frequent exercise. Just as the body, if neglected, grows weaker and finally impotent, so the spirit perishes if untended.”

Wassily Kandinsky, Russian painter and

art theorist

MOSCOW GLOBAL


So what kind of surprises can Muscovites expect this fall? And how are relations developing between the two capitals in general? Are there already some specific plans for the cultural program during the Ankara Days in Moscow?

During his meeting with Sergey Sobyanin, the mayor of our capital Melih Gökçek said that he hopes all of the events that Ankara plans to hold in Moscow this fall will be “beautiful, fun and memorable”. I have no doubt that this will be the case, as Turkish people sim-ply don’t know how to do things any other way.

I can’t tell you anything concrete about the Ankara Days in Moscow yet – we’re on planning stage, of

Ümit Yardim:

We can’t do without each other

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Turkey to Russia answers questions of Capital Ideas in an exclusive interview

Moscow developed strong business, cultural

and social ties with Ankara over 50 years

ago. The mayors of the two cities have not

forgotten about this date. After a meeting

in the Turkish capital, Sergey Sobyanin and

Melih Gökçek have agreed to hold Ankara

Days in Moscow in the fall of this year.


course. Otherwise it wouldn’t be a surprise. I think, there will be performances by Turkish pop stars and a show featuring costumes from the times of the Ot-toman Empire. Representatives from the Turkish aca-demic and cultural communities will also be coming to Moscow – scientists, artists, musicians. We plan to set up an exhibition featuring works by famous Turk-ish photographers in the center of Moscow. But a lot will also depend on the weather, since autumn in the Russian capital can be quite unpredictable.

Ankara promises to send its best chefs as well – all of them are masters of traditional Turkish cuisine. Mus-covites will be treated to the best pide bread, kebab, pilav (Turkish plov), famous Turkish soups and salads. Traditional Turkish treats will be delivered to Moscow, including baklava, tulumba, lokum and halva.

But of course Ankara Days will have a business part as well?

We are currently trying to work out the issue of in-viting small and medium-size business representative to Moscow. By the way, this is the segment largely absent from the overall picture of business coopera-tion between the two capitals, and between Turkey and Russia as well. Without municipal support, it is difficult for these companies to enter foreign markets. At the same time, small and medium-size businesses from any country have interesting ideas and offers. I think they would have a lot to bring to Moscow.

Overall, how would you assess trade and invest-ment cooperation between our countries? Has Tur-key been able to fill a niche that was created with the introduction of sanctions from the West?

Russia is a big country, and filling an entire niche on the Russian market is no easy task. But Turkey does

have a goal – to steadily develop jointly with Russia in the long-term. It is also worth noting that, in spite of the sanctions, trade relations between Russia and Europe continue to develop.

If we compare figures, there has not been a big in-crease in trade turnover between Russia and Turkey compared to last year. Turkey continues to buy Rus-sian gas, and so far this is the foundation of our bilat-eral relations.

The volume of Turkish exports to Russia amounted to about $5 billion last year. I think that we will post a similar figure this year as well. The most recent data on trade turnover has not been made public yet, but if we compare the first 3 months of 2015 to the same period last year, experts have recorded a slight decline. I hope that by the end of December we will at least be able to match last year’s figures. Our countries have a lot of potential here.

For my part, I want to emphasize that Turkish people really want to work and maintain friendly relations with Russia. It is important not to let third parties cre-ate problems in this regard in Moscow or in Ankara.

You didn’t mention Turkish construction compa-nies. Are they still flourishing in Russia?

Over the past 25 years, Turkish builders have erected over $50 billion worth of facilities in Russia. More-over, our construction companies have invested over $10 billion into the Russian economy. For example the biggest Turkish general contractor in Russia – Renais-sance Construction – offers a complete range of ser-vices in the field of construction and design of business centers, mixed-use development, hotels, heavy equip-ment and processing enterprises, residential buildings, as well as energy and infrastructure facilities.

June 13, 2015. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during a meeting in Baku


Some construction companies have been working in Russia since before the collapse of the USSR. In 1988, these Turkish companies participated in several con-struction projects, including the restoration and re-construction of Petrovsky Passage and the construc-tion of a hospital for WWII veterans.

The Turkish side also has proposals regarding the con-struction of the Moscow metro. These proposals were put forward during Sergey Sobyanin’s visit to Ankara. It has been decided to put together a working group that would focus on preparing this project. Still, it’s too early to talk about anything specific.

Nonetheless, the Western press has noticed that there has been a shift in Russia-Turkey relations over the past few months. Do you think this will have any influence on the economic cooperation between Moscow and Ankara, as well as on our co-operation in the energy sector?

Turkey and Russia are both strong, advanced coun-tries that have a lot of potential when it comes to developing cooperation. Of course we have reached mutual understanding in some areas, but there are some aspects we may have different ideas. This is happening now, and will continue to happen in the future. But we discuss the issues we disagree on, in a calm, rational, constructive manner.

Our leaders regularly hold telephone conferences, send each other letters on various matters, and keep in contact with each other. Our countries discuss is-sues with honesty and sincerity, so the dialogue be-tween Ankara and Moscow will continue.

Russia and Turkey have agreed to launch the first stage of the Turkish Stream pipeline along the Black Sea by the end of 2016. Moscow claims that we are

ready to start construction as soon as tomorrow. In the meantime, Ankara has not given permission to start construction. So the question is: “Is Turkish Stream still a priority for you?”

There is a lot of speculation from international media regarding this pipeline, and a lot of claims from those who oppose this project. We were pre-pared for this. By the way, this is the case for all major projects. For us, this means one thing: Turk-ish Stream is a promising project that is of strate-gic importance. Ankara and Moscow are capable of implementing it.

We understand the importance of Turkish Stream perfectly. If this project is implemented, the gas that is currently channeled to us through Western route will be sent through a different pipeline. This alone is enough to make this project a priority for us. I’ll give you an example. Last year, supplies of natural gas that were channeled through the Western route – through Ukraine – were 12 days late. This dealt a big blow to the Turkish economy. If the Turkish Stream project is implemented, Turkey will receive about 25 billion cubic meters of gas without delay, which is very important to us.

At the same time, Russia and Turkey have yet to sign a binding agreement regarding the Turkish Stream. But the desire and intent to implement the project is defi-nitely there, both for Russia and Turkey.

There is a lot of demand for natural gas in Turkey. Our country consumed 15 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2000, and this figure has jumped to 45-50 bil-lion cubic meters since then. We obtain the major-ity of the natural gas we use from Russia – 55% of supplies come from Russia, while Iran and Azerbaijan rank second and third, respectively.


The Turkish Stream project is an alternative to South Stream. We have been already working on the point of entry in Russia. The pipeline will then stretch across the bottom of the Black Sea, stretching all the way to Turkey. We haven’t de-cided where it will end up yet. Turkish Stream will have a total of four threads. As is the case for most large-scale projects like this, simply wanting to implement it is not enough: we have to carry out a feasibility study.

Moreover, there are a lot of issues that have not been resolved: it is unclear who the end consumer would be, and who would purchase the gas. We need to assess the project’s impact on the environment – this is a key issue. Finally, we have to enter into an intergovernmental agreement that would take into account all legal aspects of the project.

As you can see, a series of major steps have to be taken in order to launch the project. There is no agreement yet, so of course it is too early to talk about the construction of the pipeline.

Is it true that the number of Turkish tourists in Moscow and St. Petersburg has doubled over the past couple of years?

The numbers have certainly increased. Over the past year, a total of 280,000-300,000 Turkish citi-zens have come to Russia. This is a record of sorts, but there is definitely room for growth. Turkish people are becoming wealthier, and of course they want to travel and see the world. Thanks to the fact that the Ankara Days will take place in Moscow in 2016 will, of course, attract more Turkish tourists to Russia.

Turkish people love Russia, Russian nature, archi-tecture, and your kind, hospitable people. We have

always been interested in and impressed by Russian culture and Russian literature – all great Russian classics were translated into Turkish a long time ago. Of course this has an influence on tourist vol-umes in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan and other cities. Of course, I personally think that the media should give Russia more coverage, to promote Rus-sian cultural monuments on television more.

How would you assess the service sector in Russia?

I remember Moscow from the Soviet times. A lot has changed here since then, and it’s a great pleasure to talk about it. The service quality for foreign tourists is now on par with European countries. Cafes and restaurants offer the perfect environment for relax-ing and dining. There is only one small interesting point– there is no real Turkish coffee in the restau-rants here. In Turkey, we like to say that a good cup of coffee will wake you up in the morning, improve your day and give you more energy in the evening. In Turkey, you can get this kind of coffee anywhere. I have an idea about this that I want to share with my colleagues in Moscow, but it’s too early to talk about this now.

Is it true that Russians will soon be able to travel to Turkey with just an internal passport?

In 2014, a record number of Russian citizens visited Turkey – 4.3 million. This year, we expect to host no less than 4 million. As you may already guess, this decline is mostly due to the economic crisis. Today, Ankara is making an effort to maintain high volumes of Russian tourists. We have cancelled the visa re-gime and are offering financial support to airlines that transport Russian tourists to Turkey. We are also actively discussing letting Russian tourists come to Turkey with just their internal passports, but we have yet to come to a decision. ■

MOSCOW GLOBAL

November 19, 2014. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Turkey's ambassador to Russia Umit Yardim and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the letters of credence ceremony

NOTHING VENTURED

Mr. Khorokhordin, today, during this crisis period, there are more than 6,000 German companies represented on the Russian market. A third of them are from Bavaria. What are some of the challenges these companies encounter?

Because of disagreements over Ukraine, there are a lot of dif-ficulties between Russian and German political circles. At the same time, there are no restrictions when it comes to business. This also applies to relations between representatives of Bavar-ian economic union representatives and Russian entrepreneurs. And rightly so: business representatives should continue work-ing together no matter what. There are, of course, challenges that have to do with both the difficult economic climate in Rus-sia and the sanctions.

Many Bavarian companies who work with Russian partners have found themselves in challenging situations. Just a cou-ple of years ago, trade turnover between Bavaria and Russia amounted to a record figure of 13.5 billion euros. In the first 9 months of 2014, however, Bavarian exports to Russia dropped by 10.5% compared with the same period in 2013, and imports from Russia decreased by 11.4%. I think that we will see similar decreases in the composite indicator for the year. 2015 will also be a difficult year in this sense.

It’s difficult not to see that the businessmen who already work with Russia and those who were planning to enter the Rus-sian market are plagued by doubts. Many projects have been delayed, and many entrepreneurs want to wait and see how things will develop in the future.

There were some serious problems with BaFa (The Berlin Fed-eral Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control). At first, of-

In spite of political tensions, the business circles in Bavaria are still interested in working with Moscow. Fedor Khorokhordin, the official representative of Bavaria in the Russian Federation, discussed the situation in an interview with Capital Ideas.

Fedor Khorokhordin:

Moscow-Munich:Nothing catastrophic has happened


ficials were very critical of export contracts of German export contracts with Russia. Because of the sanctions, every document that had to be approved had to be checked for banned items as well as “objectionable" Russian individuals and legal entities.

But overall, nothing catastrophic has happened. The majority of Bavarian companies that work with Russia (and German com-panies in general) have not been affected by the sanctions. They are encountering problems because of the weakening ruble. The products that were supplied by German partners to Russian re-gions have become more expensive – many of these regions are no longer willing to pay the same European prices for the goods.

In light of the challenging political climate, what is it like for German companies to operate in Moscow?

I think that, at this point, the sanctions adjustment period is over. Overall, the entrepreneurs have adapted: they have learned to carefully read the relevant and sometimes confusing European Union regulations, create special departments and hire employees to analyze deliveries to Russia, taking into con-sideration sanctions policies and lists.

This is no easy task. A lot of time, businessmen don’t know whether or not the products they ship to Russia are included in the sanctions. For example, technology that can be used for both military and civilian purposes is under a lot of scrutiny. Some of them have had to stop exporting to Russia. German businessmen sometimes joke that it’s easier to sell a whole tractor than separate parts, since they can be used for tanks.

Is Russia still an attractive market for German business, or are German companies leaving Russia?

Europeans, including Germans, have taken note of the fact that there is a lot of competition from Asia on the Russian

market, especially competition from China. They are ready to fill in the niches that will open up if some German com-panies exit Russia. But, so far as I know, only a few Bavarian companies operating in Russia are planning to leave. Overall, German partners are opting to wait it out, since they realize that Russia is a big market with a lot of potential. Crises come and go, but the Russian economy will start to recover and the sanctions will eventually be lifted. By the way, the majority of Bavarian businessmen who work with Russia have a negative attitude toward the sanctions.

Can you think of any recent examples of positive develop-ment for Bavarian companies on the Russian market?

Yes, of course. A new Нorsch Maschinen Gmbh production fa-cility has been launched in Lipetsk region. This company’s in-vestments into Russia have reached 15 million euros. A Schaef-fler auto component plant has opened in Ulyanovsk, and a Schattdecor plant that produces decorative paper is now op-erating in Tyumen. The Russian corporation KRET, jointly with Rohde & Schwarz, has launched a plant for the manufacture of radio equipment. Siemens has signed an agreement on the establishment of a joint plant for the production of railway sig-naling systems with the Bryansk company Termotron JSC. Wolf System Gmbh is planning to launch a prefabricated home pro-duction line in Omsk Region. And these are just some of the highlights.

What about Russian companies in Bavaria? What industries are Russian entrepreneurs investing in?

I frequently hear that the current geopolitical climate and the sanctions close off access to the German market (including the Bavarian market) for Russian investors. I want to put an end to these rumors: there are no restrictions here, in terms of investment or otherwise. There are currently over 350 companies with Russian capital operating in Bavaria, and this number is increasing. Of course, this figure is no match for the 1,700 Bavarian companies in Russia. We welcome Russian business. The most important thing for us is that intentions are serious and that money is made legally. There are many companies in the IT sphere in Bavaria. Ingolstadt, for example, houses the headquarters for Kaspersky Lab: over 150 Bavarian employees work in the sales and marketing department for the Western European market. ABBYY, which is a software company, also operates in Bavaria. Other examples of Rus-sian companies in Bavaria include АirBridge Cargo (a trans-portation company) and Ilim (a St. Petersburg wood process-ing company). A lot of consulting companies work in Bavaria. There are also companies that specialize in hotel, restaurant and health industries.

So the media is correct to point out that relations between Russia and Bavaria have become a shining example of Rus-sian-German regional cooperation?

There are a lot of components when it comes to inter-regional cooperation – culture, sports, tourism and youth exchange pro-grams. So far as economic ties between Moscow and Bavaria

NOTHING VENTURED


are concerned, this relationship has been developing success-fully over the past 8-10 years and has in many ways set an ex-ample for other European regions.

What kind of bureaucratic challenges do Russian entrepre-neurs encounter in Germany? Is it easy for them to obtain visas and open their own companies?

The visa process has become a lot more simple ever since the consular offices in Germany started working with Russian citi-zens through special service centers: the document processing time has been shortened, and there have been fewer interviews scheduled. Organizations such as the Russian-German Cham-ber of Commerce has special arrangements with the consular offices, which makes it easier for them to obtain Schengen visas for many Russian businessmen.

Have the regulations for issuing long-term stay permits for people who plan on doing business in Germany changed?

Not that long ago, Russian entrepreneurs had to create no less than five jobs and invest no less than 250,000 euros into the German economy. On August 2012, this restriction was lifted. The new criterion is whether or not the business benefits that particular region in Germany.

Bavaria has a very efficient system for providing assistance for foreign entrepreneurs interested in investment or estab-lishing companies, which includes Russian entrepreneurs. Our representative office in Moscow is part of this system. So far as I know, there are some difficulties when Russian companies try to obtain loans from certain major German banks.

Mr. Khorokhordin, you have been the official representative of Bavaria in Moscow for over 10 years. What do you think are the main objectives for your office and what are your plans for the future?

We operate under the auspices of the Bavarian State Ministry for Economic Affairs and provide assistance to Bavarian and Russian business associations in matters of cooperation. We are the first stop for Bavarian companies who are interested in entering the Russian market and are looking for partners. We provide Russian companies with detailed information regarding the Bavarian economy, state and public organizations, as well as manufacturers and suppliers. They forward their cooperation proposals to us.

We have an extensive database on commercial entities operat-ing in the Russian federation. Our employees send out propos-als from Bavarian companies and place them on our website. We also help visiting delegations obtain visas.

We work with Russian companies in Bavaria. Our office works in close cooperation with the Bavarian regional marketing agency Invest in Bavaria in order to help Russian investors open companies and successfully establish themselves in Munich, Nuremberg or Augsburg. This agency has very experienced em-ployees, including staff members who speak Russian. ■


A Note from Capital IdeasFedor Khorokhordin was born in Moscow in 1953. After graduating from the MGIMO Faculty of International Law, Mr. Khorokhordin worked in the Foreign Ministry (of the USSR, then Russia) for 34 years. He has held the post of Consul General of Russia in Bonn. He headed up the Bavarian Representative Office in the Russian in September 2010.

energy conservation. Over half of all produced heat is lost on the way from the thermal power plants to the consumer, escaped through poorly insulated walls and poorly-fitted windows and doors. The market economy changes the way people behave and Den-mark, as a country that has a lot of experience in the development of heating systems, could offer a lot of efficient solutions. We understood that this type of technology would be in demand sooner or later, but we had to illustrate the advantages through pilot projects that could show the efficiency of our tech-nology in practice.

How much production capacity and how many subdivisions does the Russian branch of Danfoss have? How many employees do you have, and how many of them are foreigners?

There are over 20 Danfoss regional representative offices operating in Russia. The head office and our main production capacities are located in the Mos-cow region. Moreover, we have production facilities in Nizhny Novgorod and Tula regions and we are con-sidering constructing a plant in Tatarstan. We provide pre-sale and after-sale services all over Russia, includ-ing with the help of distributors and service partners. The company employs over 1,000 people. All of them are Russians – our last expat (who worked on the ERP system) went back home several years ago.

The company report for 2014 contained a pleasant surprise – last year was the best in the company’s history. The CEO, Niels B. Christiansen, expressed satisfaction with the Russian branch, which man-aged to maintain stable sales levels in spite of the economic crisis. How do you manage problems?

How important is the Russian branch for your com-pany today?

For Danfoss, Russia is the fourth largest market after Germany, the US and China. This is a very important market. Since it has a lot of potential and there is a great need here for progressive energy conservation solutions. District heating is the preferred method of heating buildings in Russia, just like it is in Denmark. Since Russia has a lot of energy resources, the author-ities here have only recently started thinking about

NOTHING VENTURED


The recession is behind us. What's next?

Out of all the foreign companies that came to Moscow in the beginning of the 1990s, the Danish company Danfoss stands out in terms of its stability. While some develop anti-crisis strategies and others wait for the recession to end, Danfoss manages to maintain high profitability and believes in a bright future. Why? Mikhail Shapiro, General Director of Danfoss in Russia, believes that the source of this stability is adherence to the traditions established by the company’s founder. Here is what he told us:

Danfoss was founded over 80 years ago. Founder Mads Clausen, who was an engineer, inventor and businessman, used the roots Dan (which means Danish) and foss (stream of water) to make up a name for his first product. The thermostat for temperature control in household and commercial refrigeration units was manufactured in 1932. Soon afterward, the new word was being used as the company name. Mads Clausen continued to invent, and created a similar control valve for heating systems of buildings. These devices started to be mass-produced and gradually became one of the most popular products of the company. Today, Danfoss, which is headquartered in Nordborg (South Denmark), is the largest producer of components for refrigeration and heating systems in the world. As of 2012, the company manages 93 factories in 25 countries, including in Russia – in 1993, the manufacturing company Danfoss Ltd. was established here.

Undoubtedly, this is a difficult time for us. However, difficulties manifest differently in different sectors. For example, the development of the agro-industry as well as increases in food production and the expan-sion of food distribution networks have affected us in a positive way: we see a lot of potential for growth in this segment. The situation in the sphere of construc-tion and the hosing and utilities sector is more chal-lenging. High borrowing rates and budget restrictions also have negative effects. But even in these sectors there are niche markets that allow us to plan on ex-panding production and localization in the future.

I hope that the recession has bottomed out and the market will gradually begin to recover.

How important is Moscow to your business?

Over half of our employees work in the central of-fice and most of our activities are tied to Moscow and the Moscow region. Our first plant was located here, and pilot projects were implemented in Mos-cow. Here, both the authorities and many companies take a responsible approach to energy and resource conservation. Modern systems aren’t limited to new buildings. When the major capital repair project was implemented here in 2008-2009, over 1,000 auto-matic control units were installed.

You obviously have build relationships with organi-zations that represent the interests of the Moscow government. Do you feel like you have an under-standing with the authorities? How comfortable is it for you to work in the Russian capital?

Overall, the conditions for doing business in Moscow are satisfactory. And there is a lot of competition, which is the best incentive for efficiency. Of course we sometimes encounter clients who want to choose the least expensive product without paying attention to quality indicators. Negotiating with these types of customers is difficult for us, since quality is a factor we are not willing to neglect. People don’t always understand how much of an effect good heat distri-bution systems can have on the city’s economy. We try to communicate the importance of energy effi-ciency to managers of companies and ensure that progressive technological solutions are available to end-users. We think that there is one solution to fix the problem – implementing a payment system for each separate apartment, the way that we already do with water and electricity. We have all the technical capabilities for this.

Without going into detail, how much heat would Moscow be able to save with Danfoss technology (adjusted for climate fluctuations, of course)?

The potential for increasing energy efficiency in Mos-cow is truly great. Our experience has shown that just installing a control unit or a substation with a weather-sensitive regulation system reduces heat consumption by 15-20 percent – more in some cases. If we apply an integrated approach – including indi-vidual regulation and metering for each owner – we can reduce heat consumption by 35-40 percent. In Denmark, where such solutions are implemented regularly, the district heating efficiency is significantly higher than in Russia. In spite of population growth and industrial development, energy consumption de-creases every year. ■

NOTHING VENTURED



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From a professional’s point of view, what exactly is business tourism? How important is this sector for the economy?

In accordance with international standards, the sector of business tourism is split up into several components. The first are various corporate events – trips, for ex-ample, aimed at establishing business contacts, hold-ing meetings, training, etc. Corporate events make up about 75-78% of the sector. The second component, which makes up about 12% of the sector is trips related to congresses, conferences, forums, exhibitions, fairs and other events. The third component is award trips for company personnel – so-called “incentive tourism.” These trips account for about 10-15% of the total num-ber of business trips. The two last components are re-ferred to as MICE, which is short for Meetings – Incen-tives – Congresses - Exhibitions & Events.

Business tourism plays a big role in economic de-velopment. According to official data, the resources spent on business trips across the globe amount to over $1 trillion annually. There are about 40 million congress events every year, and the total number of people who attend these events amounts to 2 billion people annually. So, according to international as-sessments, business tourism has stimulated a 30% in the global economy.

It is no secret that the “Eastern vector” is beginning to play a bigger role in Russian foreign trade policy. This goes for both business tourism and conventions. Today, about 65% of events with participation from entrepreneurs take place in Europe. 22% are hosted by Asia. Experts expect that the share of events that take place in Europe will grow exponentially in the near future, which means that the business tourism sector will also expand. This means event companies that organize and hold business and corporate events will have new opportunities for expanding their business. Vladimir Salamatov, Director General of the World Trade Center, spoke with Capital Ideas about this new trend.

OUR INTERVIEW

Vladimir Salamatov:

The business tourism industry has a bright future


The Director General of the World Trade Center answered our questions

Business tourism not only promotes the development of companies and creates new jobs, but also results in ad-ditional budget revenues. Large cities that host a lot of events make tens of millions of dollars. The majority of this revenue is received in the form of indirect revenues that go to the municipal budget. Hotels, restaurants, museums, theatres – all of these things result in addi-tional income when a large-scale international event takes place. These revenues usually end up exceeding expenditures by 5-7 times.

It is quite obvious that business tourism has a positive effect on the economy. On average, if we look at dif-ferent countries, the business tourism industry accounts for 1.5% of the GDP. In Russia, this figure is no more than 0.3%, the figure for congress and exhibition activities is no more than 0.05%. So far, these are very low numbers.

According to data provided by the Association of Tour Operators of Russia, a record number of tour-ists came to Moscow in 2014 in spite of the crisis and Western sanctions – 5 million people. Do you think a lot of these people came here for business?

(World Travel and Tourism Council) Approximately half of the tourists who come to Moscow come here on business. So far as the Russian business tourism market is concerned, some of our experts estimate it to amount to over 10 billion dollars. Prior to the crisis, we had every good forecasts for the future. Accord-ing to the World Travel and Tourism Council and the International Congress and Convention Association, the Russian business tourism industry can reach 18.4 billion dollars by 2020. Russia would be in the top 10 countries in terms of business tourism.

Do you agree with the claim that 75-80% of the busi-ness tourism market in Russia today is concentrated in Moscow and St. Petersburg? If so, is this fair?

Actually, 165 Russian cities are capable of hosting large-scale events, congresses and conferences. The MICE sector is more diversified: 50% of all events take place in Moscow, 14% are hosted by St. Petersburg, and another 36% are held in other Russian cities. Ka-zan, Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk are actively developing up-to-date congress facilities.

OUR INTERVIEW


Note from Capital Ideas

Vladimir Salamatov was born in Moscow in 1958. He graduated with honors from the Moscow Automobile and Road Institute with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and from the Financial University Under the Government of the Russian Federation with a degree in Finance and Credit. He also holds a Masters Degree from the Moscow Automobile and Road Institute and a PhD from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy. Mr. Salamatov is a Doctor of Technical Sciences, a Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor and member-correspondent at the Russian Academy of Missile and Artillery Sciences. From 1983 to 1995, he was engaged in research and teaching. He has worked as a department director, deputy chairman of the board and vice president of commercial banks, including EuroFinance and VTB. He has been the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation since 2008, and the Director General of the WTC since April 2012.

There are a total of 7,000 international professional associations in the world today, and they hold about 20,000 events in different countries and regions. Only 600 of them have held events in Russia. There is a lot of potential here.

It is no secret that the most rapidly-developing type of tourism in the West is congress tourism. How is this sector developing in Moscow?

Foreign companies started choosing Moscow as the location to host events more frequently. After all, the capital has about 30 modern congress venues with high quality service. I would also note that this promotes competition. As we all know, competition drives development and forces people to always be on guard, to care about service quality and upgrading technical capabilities.

The World Trade Center is no exception, in spite of its 35-year history, popularity and membership in several professional international associations – the World Trade Centers Association (WTCA), the In-ternational Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) and the International Association of Conven-tion Centers (AIPC).

Although we are one of the most popular venues in Moscow, we also have to make sure to stay ahead of the competition and provide top-quality service to our clients. We are constantly developing our con-gress (as well as our restaurant, hotel and office) business, which includes upgrades to conference halls, renovations to keep us in line with the demands of the market and modern trends, and expanding our range of services and technological capabilities.

In 2014, multiple parts of the congress center were remodeled and renovated, including the VIP hall, sev-eral conference halls and corridors. We follow global trends: public spaces should be light and conducive to communication. Our clients have pointed out that the congress center has become even more attractive for event participants.

By the way, according to expert assessments, there are no equivalents to the WTC’s capabilities in Russia. The total area of the congress center is 5960 sq.m. It can host up to 4,000 people, and includes 30 halls and meeting rooms. The largest hall is the multifunctional transformable congress hall with capacity of 1,500 people. Our competitive advantage is that we offer an integrated product. Participants from congresses, conferences, symposiums, exhibitions, presentations and shows can stay here, at the five-star Crowne Pla-za Moscow WTC and set-up coffee-breaks and ban-quets without leaving the WTC, at our restaurants.

We host up to 400 business events per year, including about 70 conferences and congresses. For several years in a row, the Presidential Administration has chosen the WTC for Vladimir Putin’s annual press-conference.

I want to point out that the trend of using original venues to host events is growing rapidly, and that we take this into account as well. The WTC has the ca-pacity to organize any unusual, original event – we can set up a castle, a dungeon, a beach, and even snow-covered fields. We can bring just about any cre-ative fantasy to life. We have even established a spe-cial department that is in charge of developing new event formats, setting up turnkey events both in our venue and outside of it.


If we consider the development of the congress and exhibition market in Russia as a whole, this market is worth about $1.3 – 1.5 billion. In developed countries it amounts to double this amount. Unfortunately, Russia’s share on the global market of international congress events adds up to less than 1%. This is a very small figure, especially considering that our share in global trade is about 3%. The US and many Europe-an countries host a lot more events. In 2013, Russia ranked 40th on the international ICCA ratings after hosting 83 international events. The US ranks first, with a total of 829 events, while Germany ranks sec-ond (722 events).

Let’s look at some figures from various studies that illustrate how much congress activity influences the economies of countries and cities. Congresses and conferences that are held in the Leipzig Congress Center, add over 30 million EUR to the city budget every year. In Canada, the congress and conference industry adds another 32 million CAD to the coun-try’s economy and provides employment to 235,000 people. This is the case in every place where a lot of attention is paid to congress activities.

Mr. Salamatov, what are some problems that stand in the way of business tourism development in Russia today?

Let’s look at the assessments of international orga-nizations such as the ICCA, since they have a lot of influence over where large international events will be held. Experts from this reputable organizations say that the factors holding back the development of business tourism in Russia include an underdevel-oped tourism infrastructure, unfavorable visa condi-tions, and the mismatch between service cost and quality. The ICCA ratings list Moscow and St. Peters-burg as the only two cities suitable for hosting inter-national congresses. In 2013, they were ranked 68th and 79th, respectively.

This only confirms what we already know – that we need to develop venues in other Russian cities. These and other problems, including minor details like the need to simplify customs procedures for exhibition items, are outlines in our development plans for the congress and exhibition industry. State authorities are committed to removing barriers for the development of the business tourism market in Russia.

I want to highlight another important task that is also outlined in these documents: it is necessary to sys-tematically improve the image of Russia and all Rus-sian cities. Firstly, event organizers often simply lack information on the capabilities of Russian cities in the sphere of business tourism.

Overcoming stereotypes is also crucial. All of this takes a lot of work and cooperation between state and regional authorities, event organizers and NGOs

working in the business tourism sphere. I want to note that the Moscow Convention Bureau is actively working across all of these areas. This type of work also needs to be done in other Russian cities.

What does the WTC do to promote a positive im-age of Russia as a whole and as a tourist product for business consumers?

It’s safe to say that all of the efforts we put into the development of all our business spheres – congres-sional, hotel, restaurant, office and consulting – work to promote the country as a whole, Moscow and our tourist product for business consumers from any country in the world.

The mission of the Moscow WTC is to create the best conditions for the business community and its inte-gration into the international trade system. In line with this general goal, the WTC is conducting ana-lytical and educational activities in order to help our companies enter the global market and develop their export potential. Our cooperation with World Trade Centers from all over the world (which amounts to 750,000 companies across 332 WTCs located in 92 countries), which are part of the WTCA, gives us ad-ditional opportunities to do so.

This entails a lot more than simply creating hab-itable conditions for companies or searching for trade partners. The WTC also takes part in state and business operations that have to do with creating the right conditions to help our companies enter foreign markets.

Last year we launched the internet project “Russia’s Export Potential” jointly with the Chamber of Com-merce of the Russian federation. In 2012, we estab-lished the special project called “Russia in the WTO,” within the scope of which we offer educational re-sources on WTO regulations and trade dispute reso-lution practices for business representatives and gov-ernment officials.

For several years in a row, we have been conducting our own conferences, forums and roundtables focused in international trade, economic integration and the competitiveness of Russian enterprises. Participation from experts as well as representatives from the busi-ness sector and the government turns these events into a productive dialogue between business and the authorities – conversations that are frequently fol-lowed up on in leading media outlets. As an example, I’d like to bring up two annual conferences: one with the newspaper Kommersant – on the competitive-ness of domestic enterprises, and one with the news-paper Vedomosti – on the analysis of Russia’s acces-sion to the WTO. Within the scope of this format, we develop proposals and tools, including in the sphere of state industrial policy, that help Russian enterprises enter the global market. ■

OUR INTERVIEW


Chamber of commerce and industry of the Russian Federation Address: 109012 Moscow, St. Ilyinka, 6/1, bldg. 1 PH: +7 (495) 620 00 09 Fax: +7 (495) 620 03 60E-mail: [email protected] http://www.tpprf.ru/en/

Department for Work with Foreign Legal Entities and their Representative Offices

Ph: +7 (495) 620 02 62, 620 02 22 Fax: +7 (495) 620 01 70 E-mail: [email protected]

Moscow Chamber of commerce and industryAddress: 38 Sharikopodshipnikovskaya Street, bldg. 1, Moscow, 115088 Ph: +7 (499) 940 33 12 Fax: +7 (495) 675 03 16 E-mail: [email protected]

Main Administration for Service to the Diplomatic Corps (GlavUpDK)

Address: 20 Prechistinka Street, Moscow, 119034 Ph: +7 (495) 637 23 26 Fax: +7 (495) 637 31 71 E-mail: [email protected] http://www.updk.ru

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Number of international arrivals through Moscow airports (mln. Arrivals) in 2003-2013

5,6 mln. people

5,2 mln. people

4,5 mln. people

4 mln. people

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International arrivals in Moscow/mln. people/



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Foreign citizen arrivals in Moscow through the airports in the 1st half of 2014

167142,6

74,773,8

67,861,6

59,544,1

36,630,228,927,5

25,225

24,6

+ 12,07%- 6,26%

- 1,27%+ 8,64%

+ 2,44%- 12,65%

- 1,03%+ 9,38%

- 4,89%+ 41,52%+ 4,72%+ 9,9%

+ 7,04%- 9,31%+ 0,22%

ChinaGermany

FranceTurkey

ItalyUSA

Great BritainIsrael

VietnamKoreaJapan

SerbiaCzech Republic

IndiaNetherlands

International arrivals by country/thou. people, % growth/

*Data from the Russian FSB Border Service

Moscow Committee on Tourism and Hotel Industry

OUR INTERVIEW

Alexander Bobylov:


Kempinski is the preferred brand for German tourists. If it’s not a secret, do Germans still own this popular and expen-sive group of hotels?

This is an old story. The Kempinski brand is almost 120 years old. The company inherited its name from Berthold Kempinski, the founder of the company.

The company that is in place today has nothing to do with the family of the founder. 80% of it is owned by Thailand Crown Property Bureau.

How long has Kempinski been in Russia and how many ho-tels does it have here?

Kempinski came here during perestroika. At the end of the 1980s, the city of Moscow set the goal to have at least one ho-tel that is in line with international standards. The Moscow city association of hotels was put in charge of the task, and started to implements a series of projects that included Balchug. This is what the name of this are of Zamoskvorechye used to be.

The building was first constructed in 1898, and was reconstruct-ed poorly in the 1930s. It was dilapidated and never seriously re-paired. The city made the decision to reconstruct the building. Austrian construction companies took up the project and, thanks to financing from the Austrian Control Bank, construction work was completed. The city then found a management company – Kempinski. This is how the Balchug Kempinski Hotel appeared.

Alexander Bobylev, the General Director of the Baltschug Kempinski Moscow Hotel, talked about how the economic crisis affected the hotel’s operations.

he number of tourists who

prefer upscale hotels is increasing

all over the world, and demand

in the luxury segment is growing.

The Kempinski hotel group falls in

line with the trend: over just the

past few years, tens of hotels have

opened or are under construction

across different continents.

T

We don’t havea shortage of guests


There are currently three Kempinski hotels in Russia: Balchug Kempinski in Moscow, Kempinski Moika 22 in St. Petersburg and Kempinski Grand Hotel in Gelendzhik.

Is it true that you have clients that prefer to only stay at Kempski hotels?

Yes, there are customers who are really loyal to the brand. Al-though Kempinski is not the biggest management company in the world – it’s not as big as Marriott or Accor. Kempinski cur-rently manages 75 hotels.

Mr. Bobylov, what is the profile of your typical regular client?

About 70 percent of our regular clients are business people.

There is an economic crisis in Russia and there are sanctions in place. How has this affected foreign tourist volumes and occupancy rates of Moscow hotels?

We are aware of the general state of affairs when it comes to upscale hotels in the capital. The average rate for rooms in this sector in 2014 stayed the same as the rates in 2013. The occu-pancy rates haven’t changed that much either.

If we look at the situation as a whole, we expected changes in tourist flows as far back as last fall. The volumes of foreign tourists from European countries decreased – and these types of tourists made up the majority of guests in the capital’s hotels. The business flows have decreased, but there are also changes within tourist flows – segments change, and the number of Russian tourists and guests went up.

So far as Balchug is concerned, in spite of the crisis and sanc-tions, we don’t have a shortage of clients. The hotel is about 60% full, which isn’t bad at all.

Experts claim that, as the crisis in Russia intensified, the profitability of five-star hotels fell by at least 10 percent. Is this true?

Many luxury hotels in Moscow are managed by foreign chain companies. Naturally, it makes sense for these companies to keep track of profits in dollars or euros. Given how much the ruble has dropped in value, of course these companies are see-ing a decline in net profit. Moreover, in order to maintain a high quality of service, western management companies are forced to make a large number of purchases abroad and use western products, which of course greatly increases expenses in rubles.

But there are hotels who have dropped prices in order to stay afloat.

It’s easy to cut rates, but it’s difficult to raise them. There could be another scenario in which Moscow hotels encounter the same situation they did in 1998. The rate crisis happened be-cause there was one hotel that drastically cut rates. There was no reason to do this, nobody won in the end and everybody lost – very quickly and in a major way. But the most unpleas-ant and dangerous consequences – the competition switched from service quality to rates for a very long time. It took a long time for the market to recover from a situation generated by exaggerated fears and lack of experience. This can happen to-day as well.

So in terms of business people, have you seen a decline in visitor volumes from particular countries?

There are less people from great Britain and less Scandina-vians. There are a lot fewer guests from Ukraine. But all of these changes are happening as part of a more general trend in the tourist sector. Entrepreneurs from Great Britain still stay in our hotel. Germans, Austrians, and Swiss people still stay with us, along with Chinese people and Indians. The pal-ette is diverse, and Balchug is like a second home for German citizens.

You didn’t say anything about Americans…

They stay here, of course. Disputes happen, but we still have to hold negotiations and the business sector has to continue to develop. But they have their preferences in terms of brands, and in this sense they are patriots, much like everyone else. Some-times it takes a lot to convince them to choose us. We try, of course, but there are obviously more Germans than Americans at Balchug.

There is a good story that ties into this, which took place dur-ing a less stable time in the country’s history. In September 1993, when there was a political stand-off between the Rus-sian President and the Russian parliament and tanks were driving up to the White House, our American guests immedi-ately got together in the lobby and booked tickets out of the country. The German guests, on the other hand, asked us to move them to rooms with a better view of the Kremlin at no additional charge so they could have a chance to watch the historic event unfold.


Does the lack of a national cuisine influence the mood of guests in hotels?

A Moscow hotel always has to have national cuisine, since for-eigners who come here are interested in learning more about Russia and the people who live here. But now, just about ev-ery five-star hotel in Moscow will serve you hamburgers, since Americans have become used to this being a sign of a country’s hospitality. We have an Asian corner at breakfast every day, al-though tourists from Asia mostly come own to try local food. But the main thing, of course, is that everything has to taste good.

Psychological comfort, which a hotel absolutely must provide, has a lot more to do with the mood of the guests. This is why we were a bit more exclusive with the kinds of clientele we wanted to attract to our hotel in the 1990s. We had to take into account the fact that the things we have grown accustomed to may come off as strange to foreign guests. But there was something else that was quite interesting. We see that people who are exposed to other cultures in moderation change their perception of the world, and of course this is wonderful to wit-ness.

We often hear about promises to significantly increase tour-ist volumes. Do you think this will happen?

We are all becoming more experienced, professional and hope-fully wiser. We have to set ambitious goals for ourselves. Of course foreign tourist volumes are important, but they bring additional challenges along with additional funds. Of course we have to develop tourist facilities, build hotels, outline routes, show, delight and surprise. But we shouldn’t be improving our city in order to impress foreign tourists. The people who live in this country are the main tourist attraction. We – much like citizens of the countries we visit – are remarkable and interest-

ing. The main tourist centers in Europe are developed not for foreign tourists (or not just for foreign tourists), but for local residents.

What does the modern human need to lead a comfortable life? Clean air, a comfortable living environment, well-functioning social services. Good sidewalks and transportation hubs, cafes and restaurants, theatres, museums, a booming cultural life, and security. We need all of this in Moscow and then foreign tourists will come here – they will be interested in seeing how Russians have managed to build this wonderful city and what it’s like to live there.

Note from Capital IdeasAlexander Bobylov was born in Moscow in 1964. He graduated from the Faculty of International Journalism at MGIMO. He worked at TASS, in the department of information for foreign tourists. Public relations became the bridge that linked his life with hotel management in Moscow. He came to work at Balchug Kempinski Moscow in 1991. He became the Deputy General Director in 1994 and the General Director in 2010. In 2010, he received the “Hrustalnaya Ladya” award in the “Director – leader of the capital’s hotel industry” nomination category.

Technical questionWE SIMULATE SITUATIONS

Foreign suppliers often do not know that any goods sold in Russia must have a certificate confirming their compliance with national standards and norms. And Russian standards and norms are much stricter than those in other countries. Kseniya Maksyukova, development manager of the certification agency WorldWideGost, writes about the nuances in drawing up technical documentation for importing foreign products.

Situation1 A company from the Netherlands pro-ducing measuring instruments for the oil and gas industry concluded a con-tract for the delivery of its products to Russia. It became apparent in the course of implementing the contract that the instruments must have special Russian certificates.

The Dutch applied for consultation to a private Rus-sian certification agency. With the aid of experts, a programme of technical tests was drawn up tak-ing into account the Russian requirements for the production capacity of the supplier company. As a result of these tests, the company was able to ob-tain the necessary certificates.

Remember: to obtain a Russian certificate for any technical device, special technical tests must be conducted. The results of the tests must also be drawn up to an established standard and in accor-dance with the requirements of the Russian regula-tory authorities.

Exporters must clear up all the details connected with obtaining certificates during the process of preparing to enter the Russian market. Lack of in-formation in this matter can lead to unforeseen ex-penses, delays, and even failure to deliver.

Situation2 A Turkish company distributing finish-ing materials from an American pro-ducer studied the prospects of enter-ing the Russian market. The company received a proposal to conclude a con-tract for the delivery of products to Russia. In the course of the negotia-tions, the question arose of who would undertake to draw up the technical certificates. The Turks applied to Rus-sian specialists for consultations.


They found out in the certification agency that either the supplier or the purchaser of the goods could un-dertake to draw up the certificate. Since this process takes time and money, the expenses are usually un-dertaken by the party with the greatest interest in the deal. However, it must be remembered that the one who draws up the certificate will be the owner of it.

Of course it is more profitable for the supplier to pass the expenses and concerns of certification onto the purchaser. But then these certificates cannot be used in concluding deals with other cli-ents, who may refuse to draw up the certificates at their own expense.

The Russian company’s experts commented that if it is a matter of test batches, one-off deals or conclud-ing a contract with an exclusive distributor, there is no sense in spending money on drawing up Russian certificates. But if the company is going to develop its business in Russia on a large scale, the absence of certificates will limit its development. In this case it is more profitable to obtain one’s own certificate for one’s own product, so that then it can be sent to various purchasers without delay. Furthermore, the presence of a certificate is beneficial from a market-ing point of view, since it demonstrates to the pur-chaser the serious intentions of the supplier.

When concluding a contract to deliver products to Russia, it must be clearly defined which party under-takes to draw up the technical certificates.

Situation3 A company from the UK delivers techni-cal equipment for painting and lacquer-ing to Russia. Difficulties have arisen in connection with the introduction of a technical regulation of the Customs Union (the Eurasian Economic Union) which consists of Russia, Belarus, Ka-zakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia. This regulation established that applications for Russian technical declarations can now only be submitted by legal entities registered on the territory of Russia. A declaration is required to declare that the imported products comply with Rus-sian technical standards and norms. The British brought in a Russian certification agency to solve the problem.

The question then arose of the need to open an of-ficial office in Russia to make it possible to draw up declarations for the company’s products. In the course of consultation with Russian specialists, two variants were discussed. It would be possible for the company to register and maintain its own company on the territory of Russia. It would also be possible to entrust the job of drawing up declarations to a Russian organization.

The British company calculated that it would not be profitable to maintain their own office in Russia just for the sake of drawing up technical declara-tions. Therefore a contract was concluded with the Russian certification agency for it to undertake the responsibility for the quality of the supplied prod-ucts. By this means the agency undertook to supply applications for technical declarations for the Brit-ish manufacturer’s products, and then to hand over the completed documents to it.

Russian customs check that the company named in the declaration as the applicant really does have an appropriate contract with the supplier company. If discrepancies are discovered, the goods will not be permitted to enter Russia.

It should be remembered that the certification ap-plicant has the right to keep the technical declara-tions unless otherwise stipulated by the contract. So to avoid misunderstandings, the foreign suppli-er must establish in the contract that the drawn-up documents will be passed by the applicant to the other party. ■

For Capital Ideas courtesy of BIGMOSCOW

Exporters must clear up all the details connected

with obtaining certificates during the process of

preparing to enter the Russian market.

The one who draws up the certificate will be the

owner of it.

The certification applicant has the right to keep

the technical declarations unless otherwise

stipulated by the contract.


Kolomenskoye: go forward Into the past

It’s a Saturday morning, in the summer. There are large crowds of people by Kashirskaya metro sta-tion: young and old, men and women, parents with strollers and teenagers on scooters and roll-er blades. “Excuse me,” a Chinese tourist asks a

passerby in broken Russian, “are we going the right way to see the mansions of Tsar Alexis?”

Kolomenskoye is a Moscow “city of tsars” of sorts. It was founded by Vasily III, and Ivan the Terrible also fa-vored it as a place of relaxation. Legend has it that the tsar built a sanctuary palace here to enjoy the beauti-ful view of Moscow from the gallery of the Church of the Ascension. He was here, in Kolomenskoye, when he was informed that Astrakhan had been taken. He loved to hunt here.

Three years ago, the major European tourist website HolidayCheck ranked Moscow as the most hospitable city in Russia. According to feedback from tourists all over the world, Kolomenskoye Museum-Estate was one of the most popular places to visit.

So how well is Moscow doing in terms of Russian hospitality today? In order to answer this question, Capital Ideas correspondents went on a tour of the famous museum-estate.

TRAVEL


Kolomenskoye: go forward Into the pastFor a long time, there were rumors of treasures that the tsar supposedly brought from the conquered Novgorod and hid in the caves under the Church of the Ascension. But more importantly, his legendary library was possibly located at Kolomenskoye. There was a legend that Ivan the Terrible put a curse on anybody who dared touch his library – they would go blind.

Still, the flowering of Kolomenskoye was associated with the reign of Alexis of Russia – this area was his favorite residence. His son, Peter the Great, spend his childhood at Kolomenskoye. After conquering Azov in 1696 and the Battle of Poltava in 1709, the tsar stopped at Kolomenskoye before his triumphant re-turn to Moscow.

Now, people from all over Moscow come here on the weekends to have picnics, ride horses at the royal stables, visit the water mill, or go on boat rides. By the way, during the times of Alexis of Russia, the guests used to arrive at the palace by boat. The view of Kolomenskoye from the river is incredible. Visitors can take walks around the beautifully restored wa-terfront, enjoy centuries-old trees and apple orchards, listen to the church bells, or rent a bike. Kolomen-skoye is whole town, spread out on a high bank of the Moscow River.

Muscovites take an active interest in the history of Russia. Crowds of tourists, for example, descend upon the palace of Alexis of Russia, which has recently been recreated in accordance with the miraculously pre-


served "technical documentation" from the royal ar-chives. The 17th century palace impresses with its size, intricate old Moscow style, countless turrets, porches, and fantastic carvings. This is exactly the sort of pal-ace one would imagine when reading Pushkin's "The Tale of Tsar Saltan."

Kolomenskoye has recently put together a new in-teractive program called “The Ambassador’s Feast.” After all, the palace of Alexis of Russia was con-structed specifically to host guests, including foreign guests. Italian and Turkish tourists immediately want to experience the atmosphere of the grand feast, to replicate a real reception of foreign ambassadors of the Russian Tsar. They make their way up the steep wooden steps to the Reception Hall of the Palace. Meanwhile, a small group of Chinese tourists turn around and make their way over to the observational deck by the Moscow River.

Sergey Khudyakov, director of the Museum-Estate, told Capital ideas that over 6 million people per year visit Moscow’s four museum-estates – Kolo-menskoye, Lefortovo, Lyublino and Ismailovo. Over 600,000 people visit exhibitions, and 30 percent of all visitors are foreigners. There are a lot of guests from Western Europe: from Spain, Italy and Germa-ny. There are also a lot of people from India and CIS countries.

Chinese people, however, make up the majority of foreign visitors at Kolomenskoye. The majority of them bypass exhibitions altogether and prefer to en-joy nature and old Russian architecture. But why?

Our new friend Wei Yuan, a student at the Philologi-cal Faculty of Moscow State University from Beijing and a big fan of the museum-estate, offered to help us find the answer. According to him, fresh air isn’t


the only reason Chinese tourists come here. Most of them immediately rush to the voices ravine that splits Kolomenskoye into two parts to hear the "echo of an-cient Rus.”

There are many legends and stories about this place that are popular in China. Some journalists have claimed that when tourists descend into the ravine, they can hear the sound of church bells. Many wit-nesses claim that these sounds don’t come from the nearby church. Chinese healers believe that these di-vine sounds are beneficial to health and help people magically fall in love.

Wei Yuan tells us that every Chinese person dreams of hearing the mysterious echo and finding their true love.

One can only imagine how many stories like this one the employees of the museum have heard – they fig-ured out why Chinese tourists rarely visit the exhibi-tions at Kolomenskoye a long time ago. According to them, the tour operators are the ones to blame for this – for whatever reason, they have cut down on excursion programs for Chinese tourists.

After exiting from the arch of the Tsar’s court, visi-tors suddenly come across the broad floodplain of the Moscow River, fields and orchards that stretch all the way to the horizon. Above all this – unprec-edented in its beauty and unique in its kind – is the Church of the Ascension. There is a distinct possi-bility that the temple was built by the same Italian architect that built the fortress wall of Kitay Gorod in the center of Moscow in the mid-sixteenth cen-

Sergei Khudyakov, head of the Moscow Kolomenskoe Museum


tury. The décor, which is unusual for Russian archi-tecture of that time period, supports this theory, as do the Arabic numerals on the columns that use the Gregorian calendar, which Russia did not use at the time.

A key feature of Kolomenskoye is the ability to keep up with the times. Thanks to the enthusiasm of its employees, the museum-estate always has a packed schedule. A ton of interesting ideas have been implemented here, and just as many initiatives are planned for the future. This summer, there will

be a total of ten exhibition that will feature works by famous artists and designers such as Vasily Beste-renko, Victor Makeev and Vyacheslav Zaitsev. Of course, a lot of the exhibitions will be dedicated to the main themes of the year – the anniversary of the victory in WWII, the Year of Literature, and anni-versary events dedicated to the memory of Vladimir Sviatoslavich the Great, who Christianized the Ki-evan Rus. There is another date that Kolomenskoye cannot pass by – the 370-year anniversary of the reign of Alexis of Russia.

Guided tours of the museum-estate have been at the top of the list for the most popular tours in Moscow, and in Russia in general. Today, there are a total of 50 tours available. This summer, the popular, “Forward, to the past!” route has been supplemented by boat tours, bike tours and a guided tour called "History is alive and continues ... preserved objects and recre-ations of wood constructions in Russia." A lot of these tours are visited by foreigners who are interested in the history of Russia.

While we took a boat ride along the Moscow River, Sergey Khudyakov, director of the Museum-Estate, took the time to tell us more about Kolomenskoye:

– There is no shortage of foreign tourists, although of course there could be more. Foreigners sometimes complain. A few years ago they were unhappy about the fact that there weren’t a lot of comfortable places to eat. It was true – we did have this problem. Now we have a chain of street cafes and restaurants where

TRAVEL


people can get a good meal. In this respect, we have become more European.

According to Sergey Khudyakov, Kolomenskoye host-ed the second annual Folklore festival this year, which was dedicated to the Day of Slavic Culture and Lit-erature. The festival featured monuments of Russian wooden architecture of 17th-18th centuries. In June, there was another interesting festival dedicated to Orthodox music at the Church of the Ascension. The festival was dedicated to the Day of the Family, Love and Commitment. The fact that a festival dedicated to spiritual music is held at the Church of the Ascension is no coincidence. According to legends, on the day of the abdication of Nicholas II, the holy icon Our Lady Derzhavnaya changed color from black to red.

This year, the Kolomenskoye Museum-Estate also hosted the fifth annual festival “Times and Epochs.” This time, the theme of the festival was the Roman Empire and its neighbors. Visitors could marvel at war re-enactments that were put together by re-enac-tors from Italy, Greece, Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, France, Austria, Belarus, and Russia.

The key performers of the Afisha festival, which will take place at Kolomenskoye at the end of the sum-mer, have also been announces. The festival will fea-ture appearances by the Russian stars Zemfira and Ivan Dorn, as well as the British bands HotChip and The Horrors and the Canadian singer Amna. “It will be loud and fun,” the posters claim – definitely not something Alexis of Russia would have expected. ■


MOSCOW VOCABULARYPi

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This section of the magazine – “Moscow Vocabulary” – was created in honor of Ronald Rea-gan, who appeared to be a fan – and collector – of Russian proverbs and sayings. We would like to guide you through the world of Russian idioms, which are just as bright and colorful.

СМОТРЕТЬ СКВОЗЬ РОЗОВЫЕ ОЧКИ – smotret’ skvoz rozovyye ochki

(To look through rose-coloured glasses)

Explanation: Not to see a person’s shortcomings

МАХНУТЬ РУКОЙ – makhnut rukoy.

(To wave one’s hand at something or someone)

Explanation: Not to care what happens, to stop doing something or dealing with someone

ПУСКАТЬ КОЗЛА В ОГОРОД – puskat’ kozla v ogorod.

( To let the goat into the kitchen garden)

Explanation: To give somebody access to a place where he may be dangerous,

or to something from which he wishes to profit

РУКИ НЕ ДОХОДЯТ – ruki ne dokhodat.

(One’s hands don’t reach)

Explanation: One has no time or possibility to undertake something

ПОПАДАТЬСЯ НА ЯЗЫК – popadattsa na yazyk.

(To land on someone’s tongue)

Explanation: To become the subject of criticism or gossip

ХВАТАТЬСЯ ЗА ГОЛОВУ – khavatattsa za golovy.

(To clutch one’s head)

Explanation: To be struck with horror

ХВАТАТЬ ЗВЕЗДЫ С НЕБА – khvatat’ zvezdy s neba.

(To catch the stars from the sky)

Explanation: To be very good at something

СИДЕТЬ НА ЧЕМОДАНАХ – sidet’ na chemodanakh.

(To sit on one’s suitcases)

Explanation: Packed and waiting to go

НАПУСТИТЬ ТУМАНУ – napustit’ tumanu.

(To let the fog in)

Explanation: To try to mislead someone

УХО РЕЖЕТ – ukho rezhet.

(Something cuts one’s ear)

Explanation: It’s painful to listen to

СЛОМАТЬ ЛЁД – slomat’ l’od.

(To break the ice)

Explanation: To start the ball rolling

ПОЛНАЯ ЧАША – polnaya chasha.

(A full cup)

Explanation: One lives in luxury

In order to encourage the development of tourism, Russian authorities have promised to take mea-sures aimed at increasing tourist volumes by 2020 by at least six times. The Kremlin states that a con-crete program would have to be put together, but so far such a program has not been developed. Is the delay caused by the crisis and sanctions, or is there something else holding us back?

If we imagine an ideal scenario, of course the tourism sector in any country cannot develop without state support. Take France, for example, which is Europe’s leading country in terms of foreign tourist volumes and makes a lot of money in this sector. The state invests a lot of money in tourism, but it more than pays off. The whole process is managed by a struc-ture that is based on a public-private partnership. Of course, this structure has a special development pro-gram, and one of the priorities of this program is “…to continue increasing the allure of the French Republic.”

Vladimir Kantorovich, the First Vice-President of Association of Tour Operators of Russia and President of KMP Group, talked to Capital Ideas about how to increase foreign tourist volumes in Russia.

Vladimir Kantorovich:

Russia must take care of its image

OUR INTERVIEW

Note from Capita IdeasVladimir Kantorovich was born in October 1961 in Moscow. In 1985, he graduated from the Mendeleev University of Chemical technology. Mr. Kantorovich holds a PhD in Chemistry. From 1985 until 1989, he was a researcher at the Research Institute. He has been working in the tourism sector since 1988. In 1989, he founded the International Travel Club, and became the president of the organization. He is currently the First Vice-President of Association of Tour Operators of Russia.


Some day, Russia will finally set a strategic course for the development of the tourism sector and will begin working on its public image. But in order to increase a country’s appeal abroad, it will have to invest a great deal into advertising. Right now, there are not enough resources for this in the tourism industry. From my own experience, I know that the state always pro-vides the funding necessary to create a positive image of a country abroad.

Tensions in international relations in general don’t bode well for the development of the tourism sector.

You’re right. In Jun 2014, tourist volumes in Russia dropped by 30 percent due to the events in Ukraine and the sanctions. By September, the figure had dropped by 70 percent. There is no way to get around it – people don’t want to vacation in places where there may be shooting. Try to explain to Americans with no knowledge of basic geography that Ukraine is not a part of Russia. But in Israel, it’s also dangerous to go to the beach, where you can get shot at by ex-tremists from Gaza. After all, who wants to travel to a country that occasionally needs to carry our counter-terrorism operations. But after each crisis, the Israeli Minister of Tourism goes on a tour of all key countries in order to convince people that everything is settled in Israel and that it is completely safe to travel there.

This is not the only example. The Minister of Tourism in Kenya took similar actions after the terrorist attacks in Nairobi: he organized a big advertising campaign in America and Europe. In Argentina, the tourism sector helped the country to get over the consequences of a default – government officials worked closely with the tourism industry in order to ensure this happened. A year later, every hotel in Buenos Aries was com-pletely booked.

Look at the active measures the government of Egypt is taking in order to attract Russian tourists – Egypt is constantly working on this. The results are obvious and immediate. Last year, over 3 million Russians vis-ited the country, which is 700,000 more than in 2013. Profits from Russian tourists amounted to $2.5 billion. In five years, Egypt plans to host over 50 million Rus-sian tourists.

So exactly what actions are the Russian authorities taking in relation to tourism?

In terms of targeted and systematic work, almost nothing. The government is not making an effort to communicate to foreign tourists that Russia is a hos-pitable country that has a lot to offer to people going on vacation.

We are sometimes successful in implementing the ini-tiatives of tour operators in promoting Russia abroad, but we do this in spite of relevant departments rather than because of their support. Of course we try to do

some things independently. For example, we orga-nized a road show in India with the help of the Rus-sian Foreign Ministry. We reaped rewards from this immediately, as interest in Russia among Indian tour-ists increased.

We have implemented similar projects in China and Iran. However, our tourism sector does not have enough resources to promote and entire country. This shouldn’t be our responsibility. We can take part in it, show specific tours in Russia, put together packages, but promoting the country is a state function. In Rus-sia, we run into the inefficiency of our bureaucracy and the fact that their interests do not coincide with ours.

Experts have estimated that foreign tourist vol-umes in 2015 will not increase. Moreover, Europe will continue to supply the most foreign tourists, in spite of the fact that tourist volumes from Asia are increasing. Do you agree with the opinion of Trip-sta experts?

We have figures. In the first half of 2015, the number of tickets to Russia booked by foreigners grew by 60 percent compared to the same period in 2014. March appears to be the most popular month.

However, these numbers to not indicate rapid growth in foreign tourism in the country. Tour operators are also not expecting it, in spite of the ruble devaluation. Moreover, the increase in the number of booked tick-ets indicates that here has been a shift in the period of demand and a decrease in booking depth. Before, bookings for the summer took place in Mart and April, while this year people only started booking tickets for the summer in May.

We will be lucky if we manage to maintain the same number of foreign tourist bookings this year as the


year before. It is unlikely that we will be able to match the numbers posted in 2013, which was a very suc-cessful year for the industry.

Where do foreign tourists usually go and what coun-tries do they primarily come from?

Since the beginning of 2015, the top three cities have been St. Petersburg, Moscow, and, surprisingly, Vladi-vostok. Most of our tourists come from the Czech Re-public, Turkey and Great Britain. Tourists from Asian countries – Korea, Taiwan, India and China – are also taking a greater interest in Russia. There are, how-ever, barriers to significant growth when it comes to tourist volume from Asia. For example, we were de-veloping a project with India, but we have run into a visa issue. While we were trying to resolve it, the season was pretty much over.

Foreign nationals planning to come to Russia for a vacation will now need to both obtain a visa and determine their routes in advance. What effect will this have on tourist flows?

In terms of how strict the visa requirements are, the only countries that outdo Russia are Vietnam and Suriname. Tour operators think that this is one of the factors that is preventing an increase of foreign tourist volumes in Russia. Right now, they aren’t always successful in negotiating even the smallest concessions for travelers. Recently, for example, the Russian Foreign Ministry dropped the requirement to provide letters of invitation for Indian tourists. Russian consulates, however, continue to demand this paperwork.

For those who wish to come to Russia, the ordeal doesn’t end there. The Russian Federal Migration Ser-vice has recently tightened regulations for entry into Russia. From now on, foreign tourists have to outline their route ahead of time – that is, specify every city the tourist plans to visit. This also requires informa-tion from the receiving side, as well as registering the address with the migration service.

During conversations with Capital Ideas, the heads of a number of tourist agencies indicated that the quality of service in Russia is on part with the aver-age service quality in Europe. Do you also think this is the case?

I’m not sure what “average European service qual-ity” is. There is a big difference in service quality if you compare Spain to England, for example. But we don’t have a lot of problems with service quality in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

There are other problems. For example, the majority of tourist routes were developed back when we were still living in the USSR. Back then, 80% of USSR was completely closed off for tourists. Many people who live abroad aren’t aware that we have very few zoned off areas now. The guides that are published for tour-ists in the West don’t contain much information on the wonderful hotels we have in Kazan, for example. I can name at least ten places off the top of my head that foreigners have never heard of.

For example…

Tobolsk, for example. This is an old Russian city fa-mous for impressive architectural moments, the most prominent of which is the Tobolsk Kremlin. Three years after its founding (in 1590), Tobolsk essentially became the center for the Russian colonization of Si-beria. It was frequently referred to the capital of Si-beria The first Russian portraitist, Nikitin, was exiled there. From August 1917 until April 1918, Nicholas II was exiled in Tobolsk with his family.

The great writer Dostoyevsky spent four years in jail there, and many people think that Tobolsk was the city that awakened his inner genius. Considering the fact that Dostoyevsky is famous all over the world, Tobolsk can become a tourist attraction for hundreds of foreign tourists. This is especially true when you consider that the city has all the prerequisites for it. But I’m sure that nobody in the US or France, with the exception of experts, has ever heard of this city.

Mr. Kantorovich, in spite of all of this, are you op-timistic about the future of our tourism industry?

I am hoping for the best.

OUR INTERVIEW


City Government Address: 13 Tverskaya Street, Moscow 125032 Ph: +7 (495) 633-51-90 http://www.mos.ru/en/index/php

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Address: Voznesensky Per., 22, Moscow, Business Center Usadba, Ph: +7 (495) 225-92-52 http://en.inno.msk.ru/

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useful info


This question was designed to tell us everything we would ever want or need to know on this topic.

Chapter 27

What improvements could be made to the way you were inducted/prepared for your role(s)?

BOOKSHELF

FROM MANAGEMENT“None”…This is interesting as we typically promote management from within, and we do not, in fact, have an induction program for management roles in the company – although we should. This is something for me to explore further.

Employees want:• Sometimes nothing - although theymay actually needsomething or find something useful but just do not realize it.

MARKET RESEARCH“Bring back the news reports as she does not have time to do them herself”…

While this has nothing to do with inductions it is something we need to keep current. Our news reports are compilations of dai-ly or weekly news highlights, pertaining specifically to business news from which we glean leads. They are sent to the Director’s team in e-mail form for them to follow up on. We stopped doing them because we had to let our marketing manager go, as part of our down-sizing to reduce overall salary expenses, and she was the last person doing these for us. They are easy enough to do, so either I can help with them, or our reception, or a group of us.

Employees want:• Summariesofthelatestbusinessnews,foruseinchas-ing potential new leads.

MORE“The process and information is great as Diana is experienced and professional, might need more for green people”…”Yes, strong part of

Staffwell, maybe extend the induction period”…”Great induction with Ozzie but could have used more practical experience training in the induction by experienced Consultants”…”Longer training and induction is better”…”It was only one week of theoretical, we need more practical training and follow-up trainings”…

These comments confirm what was mentioned in the previous chapter: that we need training that is more practical, and less theoretical. The team also feels we should have longer induc-tion and training programs. This is something we will also take under review, including follow-up trainings consisting of master classes for all front office staff.

Employees want:• Training and induction programs to consist of morepractical, and less theoretical, trainings;• Longer induction and training periods for new staff;and• Follow-uptrainingsforallstaffthatismostlypractical,such as master classes.

INFO SHARING“With Adam had quarterly meetings and Diana tries but it is not enough for Albert, cannot go as deep as he can with Teri and Adam, Albert also likes to share info with James and appreciates James’s experience”…

Albert is a strong Director for us and he loves the business and loves to discuss the business. Not everyone does to the extent he does. But he does, and we need to appreciate that in him, and give him what he needs individually: discussion.

Our Commercial Director may not have the interest or energy to get into long discussions with Albert about our business and work. However, I certainly do, and that is a role I will gladly take on to keep him feeling fulfilled and loyal to Staffwell.


Employees want:• Attentionanddiscussionattimesfromthetopman-agement and CEO.

TRAINING“Negotiations training”…”More practical training/case studies and master classes needed”…”Listen in on the interviews of others to create a more well-rounded training experience, and sector trainings”…”More trainings, headhunting, highlights writing, communicating with clients, time management, I think that repeating some key trainings would be useful in order to not forget how we were taught to work, communi-cate and deal with clients and candidates”…”More practical trainings in the inductions needed and have mostly master classes ONLY”…

I thought these were great ideas and requests and I made notes on everything mentioned and intend to follow up on it.

I also find it interesting to note here that the experienced pro-fessionals, which are mostly who we have working for us right now, really only desire master class trainings. They do not have the time or patience for simple, theoretical training, in which they are already well aware of most of the material. They want master classes to be led by one of their peers who should be a proven expert in a particular area of their role. This they would find beneficial and a highly effective use of their time.

Employees want:• Masterclassestrainingbypeersthatareexpertsincer-tain areas within their role;• Shadowtrainingforinterviews,toacquirebetterinter-view skills;• Proper business communications, timemanagement,and negotiation skills training; and• Headhuntingtrainingforrecruiters.

IDEAS“It was very professional, Ozzie had one week with her in St. Peters-burg (SPB), thankful competitors do not have as deep, it helped work-ing as a Consultant for the first 6 months”…”Experience in assisting the senior team in top level projects, even as a researcher, would greatly have helped him”…”More professional focus, less theory on stress man-agement, team is mature and experienced – do not need theoretical trainings/inductions”…”As new Consultants sit on experienced team interviews to learn, experienced Consultants should also sit in on new Consultants’ interviews to evaluate them”…”Having a coach or mentor”…”Consultants should be trained by senior Consultants who have work-ing experience”…”English teacher told her the best way to learn is by constant repetition, so we need to re-run trainings frequently”…”Check on the results of the trainings by sitting in on meetings, interviews and notes writing and email writing”…”Angela should prepare an induction for her on who/which accountants do what in the company”…”Training on Director’s and Consultant’s role for back office people and admin”…

There are a few good, new ideas in here as well, such as having new Consultants with no prior recruiting experience, work as a re-searcher for a while in order to ease into the much more demand-ing role of Consultant. I also liked the idea of having an experienced Consultant sit in on the early interviews performed by new Con-sultants to ensure they are conducting proper interviews.

I think having a coach or mentor is also a great idea and it would also make a new hire feel more welcome and supported during their probation period – or, perhaps, beyond. I agree that some hires that do not excel in an area after an initial training should be re-trained again until they are proficient.

I subscribe to the idea that we need to periodically spot check everyone’s work and, when time permits, we should train our back office and administration staff on the roles of our front office team, so that they can better support them. In addition, I think our FD (Finance Director) should prepare a section for our induction program and training for current employees on the function of the accounting department for the company. I made notes to follow up on everything.

Employees want:• For new, inexperienced Consultants to start as Re-searchers or Assistants for a few months until they are comfortable taking on the higher demands of a full-time role as a Recruitment Consultant; • ForexperiencedRecruitmentConsultantstosit inonthe interviews conducted by new Consultants in order to check their performance and skills; • Tobeassignedacoachormentor;• To be re-trained in areas where they continue tostruggle; • Frequent checks tobemadeon theworkof all staffmembers, including outward business correspondence and report writing; and• To be trainedby all departments in the companyonwhat they do for the company.

ALL GOOD“Good system – loved induction, very professional and fun and struc-tured – all was good”…”Angela and Vlada inducted her very well, plus Luda and Snezhana were also great”…”Easy to join the finance team - was very welcoming”…

I am glad that some people were happy and content with the status quo.

Employees want:• Sometimes,nothingatall.

NOT GOOD“All was OK but not structured – things only happened when thought of (getting his pass, etc) – then Lika and Lara showed him around”…

This response was interesting to me as it came from someone in our IT department that did not have a formal induction (we do not have a program for back office staff). However, we should initiate such as I am sure that he would benefit from our front office induction program and very likely help him in his role of supporting all of our employees - the majority of which are front office staff.

Employees want:• Astructuredandwelcominginductiontoacompany,even if they are not front office staff members. ■


BETWEEN PAST AND FUTURE


The impression that the painting produces on the viewer is overwhelming: red colour scheme, warm red blood on his hands, crazed eyes of a killer father… The situation itself is horrific. Tsar Ivan killed his son Ivan, therefore severing the

Rurikovich dynasty that ruled Rus since the 9th century.

There are several theories to explain the cause of the tsar's anger. Papal legate (and, incidentally, the first Jesuit to visit Moscow) Antonio Possevino first told the world about the tragedy in the royal palace of Alexandrovskaya sloboda. He reported that the king suddenly walked in on his pregnant daughter-in-law inappropriately underdressed. This negligence an-gered him, and he severely reprimanded the woman. The young Prince Ivan stood up for his wife, and im-mediately received a hit with a heavy stick almost directly to the temple from the angry father, which cost him his life. Jerome Horsey, a messenger from the Queen of England, who has repeatedly met with Ivan IV, gives a very different explanation for the fatal conflict. The Englishman thinks that was served as the impetus was not the sloppiness of the royal daughters in law, and the issue was much deeper than that — the differences between father and son on the issues of governance and accusations from the younger Ivan of excessive cruelty towards his subjects.

There are also different versions; for instance, Rhe-inold Heidenstein, trusted secretary of the Polish kings Stefan Batory and Sigismund III Vasa, stated that prince Ivan didn’t agree with the concessions towards the Poles of Polotsk, and wanted to lead the Russian army in Livonia himself, thus angering the tsar.

Whatever it was, whatever the was the true mo-tive behind the quarrel, filicide itself has become the

most striking proof of the "blood thirst", "tyranny" and "mental abnormality" of Ivan the Terrible. In his murders the tsar saw only an execution of planned hard work: "to create a great obedience, a submissive state — through blood." The genocide of Novgorod, rampant Oprichnina, fighting against heresies, boyar clans, metropolitans — all done through torture, fire, chopping block.

19th century Russian historian, Sergei Solovyov wrote about Grozny He sowed terrible seeds, and terrible was the harvest — the murder of his own son." This fact seemed indisputable; it was reflected not only in the paintings of Russian artists, and Russian and Western literature, but even in textbooks as one of

Everyone who visits the State Tretyakov Gallery is likely to rush to see Ilya Repin’s famous painting Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581, better known as ‘Ivan the Terrible Killing His Son’. However, the facts suggest that he did not kill his son!

Hit in the temple

Parsuna Ivan the Terrible. Around 1600



the evidences of the special cruelty of the Russian tsar.

Until recently, no one thought about how this fact came to be in the historical literature, while most in-teresting circumstances were to be revealed.

Antonio Possevino, sent to Moscow from the Vatican to persuade Ivan the Terrible to form a union with the Catholics, could not have witnessed the tragic scene

because he arrived to Russia three months after the death of the prince. By his own admission, he only re-corded court rumours… Jerome Horsey wasn’t an eye-witness either and described it from someone else’s words this way: "In a fit of rage, he gave him a slap to the face... the prince took ill, became sick with fe-ver and died three days later." The Catholic chronicler Rheinold Heidenstein has not been to Moscow at all. Is it not strange that all the accusers were not wit-ness to stories they described, didn’t have a single au-thentic document evidencing that this sad event re-ally happened, but a harmonious chorus trumpeted all over the world: the terrible despot, not only is he the tormentor of his country, he killed his own son!

As is known, Possevino’s cunning plan to convert the tsar to Catolicism through territorial concessions failed, Polish King Stefan Batory failed the siege of Pskov, and England also didn’t like the fact that Ivan was fighting its friends.

But isn’t the point that, being unable to undermine strengthening Russia directly, the enemies decided to deliver a more subtle and insidious blow to the tsar, forever nailing him to the pillory of history? Ivan’s per-sonal tragedy — the death of his son (the death that Russian scribes describe as passing, not a murder), this tragedy was used immediately and blasphemously to vilify the undesirable tsar. "Kick in the head", "brutal beating", "slap", "epilepsy"... anything, just not a quiet death in the arms of a grieving father.

Meanwhile, the death of the prince was reported not only foreigners and Russian chronicles. The tsar

BETWEEN PAST AND FUTURE

Bust of Ivan the Terrible Restoration by M. Gerasimov



himself writes about his son’s deadly disease in de-tail from Alexandrovskaya sloboda. The letter is ad-dressed to the boyar Yuriev and deacon Shchelkalov: “The day you left us, son my Ivan took ill and is now terminally ill…” The missive is dated mid-November, the last days of the prince’s life. There is no hint of any disagreements, any familial conflict. It was in his letters, as we know, that the tsar was very emotion-al. And had something terrible truly passed in those days in November, it would have inevitably burst onto the pages in dozens, scores of self-flagellating words, such as those found in the Will and Testament of Ivan the Terrible.

Expert analysis has finally set the story straight. In 1963 the tombs of tsar Ivan and his son Ivan in the Arkhan-gelsky Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin were opened and inspected. Studies have shown that the allowable mercury content in the remains of the prince was exceeded 32 times, same for arsenic and lead. Prince Ivan, as well as Ivan IV’s mother Elena Glinskaya (and possibly the tsar himself) was poisoned by the most "popular" poison in medieval Europe — mercury salts.

We do not attempt to undertake an evaluation of Ivan IV’s actions in this article. Be he a genius he or villain — the dispute has been going on for centuries with-out any advantage for either one of the sides.

Let us just point out that you cannot hold the past centuries accountable by modern standards. People reflect their epoch. If we compare with Europe at the time: in 50 years the reign of Ivan the Terrible executed about 4 thousand people, while just St.

Bartholomew’s Day massacre (according to various estimates) took from 10 to 30 thousand; the Holy Ro-man Emperor Charles V (1520-1558) executed tens of thousands; England’s Henry VIII (1509-1547) — tens of thousands, Elizabeth I (1558-1603) — tens of thou-sands of executed prisoners; Spain, during the sup-pression of uprisings in the Netherlands by Philip II (1556-1598), in two years executed more than one hundred thousand... ■

Opening of the tomb of Ivan the Terrible and his son. 1963

Blessing of Ivan the Terrible before his death. P. Heller, 1887


“Up! And the tigers sat at my feet…”

of the 19th century. Interestingly, in spite of the fact that Salamonsky’s circus project was a big success from day one, he had to take out a loan in order to build it. The businessman didn’t have any money of his own, and the future owner of the circus asked merchant Danilov for a loan. The merchant believed the temperamental foreigner and loaned him mon-ey to build a circus. The circus was to be constructed on Tsvetnaya Square, which had always housed cir-cus stands.

On October 20, 1880, the new circus building, de-signed by the architect August Weber, was already hosting its first guests. The owner put the first ru-ble he received at the ticket booth in a frame and hung it up on the wall. There were five rows of pit stalls, a mezzanine, several lodges and also an in-novation – “second seats” with unmarked seats and a standing gallery. Notably, the audience at Albert Salamonsky’s circus was incredibly diverse –major merchants and aristocrats sat in the same room with poor people.

For the first performances, the circus featured the fol-lowing: “the pretty Henrietta, juggling marvelously while balancing on a tightrope, Ms. Trutsi, who rides a horse with no saddle, rider Freddie Salomonovsky, the Paskali clown-gymnast brothers and Albert Salomon-sky himself, with 14 trained stallions.”

The doll fairy

Surprisingly, you wouldn’t be able to find any children in the audience of a 19th century cir-cle. Back then, circuses were intended solely for adult audiences. Albert Salamonsky decid-ed to correct the injustice, rightfully thinking

that having kids in the audience for morning shows will provide a supplementary income to evening

Replacing buffoons

T he story of the famous circus on Tsvetnoy Bulvar started in the beginning of the 1870s, when Albert Salamonsky came to Moscow. Salamonsky was the owner of a successful circus in Germany who decided that Rus-

sia didn’t have enough quality circus performances. In spite of the fact that national circus stands and street performers have always existed in Russia, there were no stationary circuses until the middle

A hundred and thirty-five years ago, a circus opened at Tsvetnoy Bulvar in Moscow that remains one of the most popular places of entertainment today.

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“Up! And the tigers sat at my feet…”


shows. However, permission had to be obtained from city authorities to let children into the circus. Soon enough, the authorities gave Salamonsky permission to hold weekly shows for children on Sundays. A spe-cial show, called “The Doll Fairy,” was produced for children for the first time in 1895.

Horses and more horses

A s everybody knows, there are three pillars that hold a good circus together – clowns, acrobats and tricks with trained animals. Salamonovsky circus clowns included Anatoly and Vladimir Durov, Max Vysokin-

sky and the legendary Bim-Bom. Foreign artists came to performances from abroad as well, but the main feature of the show were the horses.

At first, the circus owner used to make stage ap-pearances himself. Aside from being an excellent businessman, Albert Salamonsky was also a talented trainer – he delighted the public with waltzing hors-es, which executed the complex, beautiful configu-rations. During the climax of the show, Salamonsky would scream “Off,” at which point all sixteen horses would rear simultaneously. Salamonsky also set a re-cord by riding on horseback on a log, set at a height of five meters. Albert Salamonsky’s adopted son Ezens Merder also put together a phenomenal performance with 35 horses. Merder’s horses walked across tight-ropes or jumped across obstacles with a rider in the saddle. The audience found the show thrilling!

100,000 buckets of water

N ot wanting to bore the public with re-peat circus tricks, Salamonsky periodi-cally put on fabulous new shows and invited the best foreign performers. The advertisement from 1896 reads the

following: “A water show with a ballet. 100,000 buckets of water in two minutes. A sailor ballet. A giant waterfall. An admiral battleship with an or-chestra of 24 people.”

The public was enthralled with the unique shows generated by the owner’s wild imagination. “Ma-levsky’s Magic Show” was a great example – the trick entailed fountains installed in the arena creat-ing magical glowing shapes out of water. In anoth-er show, the audience watched as Miss Paula spent several minutes in a pool with snakes and crocodiles while Margarita danced in a cage with lions. As a kind of tribute to the circus of buffoons, the circus hosted an orchestra comprised solely of peasants who played unforgettable musical compositions on dudas, horns and flutes in 1883.

To the “Yar”!

T he Salamonsky circus soon became so popu-lar that it eclipsed all similar establishments in the Empire with its tricks, shows and for-eign guest performers.

For a while, the Nikitin brothers circus that opened nearby was a serious competitor to Salamonsky. Presenting their establishment as a “Russian Circus of the Nikitin Brothers,” the own-ers managed to get together a collective of pri-marily Russian performers. After several years, the Nikitin circus caught up to Salamonsky in terms of popularity – a success that was largely due to their unique performances featuring elephants. Albert Salamonsky, who didn’t want to deal with competi-tors, simply bought the circus for 35,000 rubles. The bill of sale included a receipt that stated that the Nikitin brothers could never open another circus in Moscow.

After taking care of his competitors, Salamosky started to grow more distant from the circus. He only appeared on stage during premieres or over the holidays. The performers even had a theory that the director came out before the opening of each season in front of the public and then secretly went to the “Yar.” Supposedly, he would hang his coat on the back of his chair in his office in order to make people think that he was still there. Over

LIFE&CULTURE


Albert Salamonsky

well-known Italian master Antonio Dzharola. Today, the circus has modern technical equipment, make-up rooms, animal rooms and a comfortable audito-rium that can host over 2,000 people. As one popu-lar song about the circus goes, the place “is packed yesterday, today and tomorrow!” ■


time, the Salamonsky family sold the circus, which then cycled through several owners before the rev-olution in 1917.

The circus and the revolution

D uring the years following the revolution, circus performers were going through challenging times and had to resort to street performances, like their Russian predecessors had many years ago. In the

winter, the legendary clown and animal trainer Vlad-imir Durov gave people rides on a sled pulled by a camel. Jugglers performed on tram stops.

Everything changed because Vladimir Lenin was of the opinion that the circus is an important form of art. After nationalization in 1919, the circus received the honorable title of State Circus No.1 and continued to perform for the city’s guests and residents during the Soviet years. The most famous clowns in the country performed there: Dmitry Alperov, Karandash, Boris Vyatkin, Oleg Popov and, of course, Yuri Nikulin - one of the most beloved performers in Russia who head-ed up the Circus on Tsvetnoy for 15 years. Today, the establishment is named after the performer – The Nikulin Circus on Tsvetnoy Bulvar. For its 135th an-niversary, the circus is putting together a new pro-gram called “Carnival,” the producer of which will be

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THIS AND THAT

Every language has a word that means “friend,” but the Russian equivalent indicates something slightly different.

Friendship


T he American historian Richard Pipes, who was well-versed in Russian history and culture, once pointed out that Rus-sians are very warm people: “If a Rus-sian person becomes your friend, he will

be your friend forever.” Unlike most foreigners, Pipes really understood the meaning of the word “friend” to a Russian person. “I came to the US when I was sixteen,” Pipes said during a speech in Moscow once, “and was really disappointed in the United States. We have extremely superficial friendships! You may be friends today, but tomor-row one of you will move to a different city and that will be the end of your friendship. In Russia, friendships run deep and are truly personal.”

Richard Pipes is absolutely correct – in Russia, a friend is much more than a friend. A Russian per-son will think hard before deciding to call some-one a friend, since doing so implies a lot of obli-gations. To a Russian person, a friend is someone really close – someone one shares absolutely everything with. For all other people Americans would typically refer to as “friends,” Russians will use the words “acquaintance” or “buddy” (“pri-yatel”). Essentially, the Russian equivalent for the word “friend” does not have an accurate transla-tion in other languages. At the very least, it does not mean the same thing as the word “friend” in English. Alla Sergeeva, who holds a PhD in Phi-lology, says that, in Russian, a friend is not a for-mer classmate, chess partner, an acquaintance

from a bar or a coworker. The Russian word for “friendship” implies a much closer relationship between people: a feeling of kinship, a support system in life. A friend would never let you be lonely, which is why Russians have the popular saying “Without a friend, there is a snowstorm in your heart.”

Russians think of friendship as a round-the-clock obligation. This means that a friend is someone you can call at any time – day or night – to share a moment of joy, sadness, or just chat while knowing that the person on the other end won’t hang up the phone and call you insane. A friend is someone you can visit any time of the day and be sure that they will welcome you warmly and pour you a cup of tea. All of this will be done selflessly and genuinely.

Borrowing money from friends is also some-thing Russians do frequently – and nobody would even think to ask for an interest pay-ment of some sort. A friend will loan you mon-ey even if they’re short on cash themselves.

It is no wonder that Russians say that real friends are closer than your relatives. After all, a friend is someone you choose for yourself. It is no surprise that many Russians consider friend-ships to be tighter bonds than blood ties. In any case, real friends are never jealous of each other in the way that relatives often can be. Pi

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Russians also have a lot of toasts on the sub-ject of friendship. The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was a big fan of one such toast, which he heard during a dinner party from the famous Russian writer Konstantin Simonov: “One night, Ivan didn’t come home. His wife, Tatiana, was obvi-ously worried: what happened to her husband? She decided to send twelve telegrams to twelve of his closest friends to ask them where he was. The next morning, she received twelve tele-grams from all twelve of his friends, and they all said the same thing: ‘Don’t worry, Tatiana. Ivan stayed at my place last night.’”

Let’s raise a glass to real friendships! ■

in RussiaThese types of friendships in Russia are com-mon for both men and women. Like a good psychologist, a close girlfriend is always ready to listen to all of your problems and help you resolve them. If they don’t have time to meet you immediately, they will stay on the phone for hours just to hear you out!

Friendships between Russian men often turn into such solid bonds that Russians have made up proverbs to describe them. Here are some of them: “Die yourself, but save your friend,” “Don’t have a hundred rubles, have a hundred friends,” “He who is a true friend is like a brother,” “Even an axe won’t hack through a true friendship.”


T he Bolshoi Theater con-tinues to surprise with huge events. Critics have not yet managed to finish their rave reviews on the

opera, “Marriage of Figaro”, and now there is a new production. On the historic stage of the Bolshoi Theater, the opening night of “Car-men” is scheduled for July 15. And the details about it are being kept secret for now. And July 22 is the opening night of the ballet, “A Hero of Our Time”. The choreographer of this production is Yury Posokhov, who for ten years was a soloist at the Bolshoi Theater. He danced all of the lead parts – Shchelkuchnik in the ballet of the same name, Duke Albrecht in “Giselle”, Prince Désiré in “Sleeping Beauty”. Yury then put on many ballets on different stag-es. And now he has returned to the Bolshoi Theater.

Here are a few words about the opera, “Marriage of Figaro”, the opening night of which took place in April. This show is certainly sug-gested for viewing in the fall for those, who have not yet managed to see it. Theater director Yevgeny Pisarev was invited for the opera’s production. At the Pushkin Theater, which he manages, he has already put on “Marriage of Figaro”, but with dramatic actors. The show sold out. Pisarev managed to pre-sent himself in a new role – he man-aged to present an elegant show.

LIFE&CULTURE

“What is there to do in Moscow in the summer? Leave this stuffy city at the first opportunity and go to the countryside, to the pond!” pessimists might say. “Well, why would you suggest such a thing?” optimists reply. “It is precisely during the summer in Moscow that one can go to many cultural events and opening nights, to which tickets cannot be found at another time of the year.”

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Light summer breeze


“Light, lively, with humor and un-expected!” wrote critics about the production. The many decorations, which were present at the strictly graphic house and the work of cos-tume designer, Viktoria Sveryuko-vaya, who conducted a bold exper-iment, were especially impressive. She did not use the usual hoops and crinolines. The main characters of the opera looked more like dan-dies, swaggering in striped suits, bright socks and colorful ties. The ladies on stage appeared in typical dresses but with a new look.

O n July 16, at Crocus City Hall, Gregory Leps, a popular Russian singer and record-holder for sold-out shows, is cele-

brating his 53rd birthday. Why is this singer so popular and loved today by the public in Russia? Because his manner of speech is distinguished by colossal dedication, what is called “aortic rupture”, overflowing with emotion. Perhaps, today Leps, who began with performances in restaurants of the resort town of Sochi on the Black Sea coast, has reached the peak in his show ca-reer. Therefore tickets to his per-formances are quite expensive. And VIP places on the parterre for personal banquet tables cost about one thousand euro and more.

F or rock lovers, the sur-prise is at the end of sum-mer – on August 29 at the Olimpisky sports com-plex, Linkin Park will have

a concert. This music group from California that was founded in 1996 is distinguished by its powerful en-ergy. Alternative rock fans from all over the world dream of making to the group's concerts, which are led by charismatic front man Ches-ter Bennington. The rockers have won Grammys and other pres-tigious music awards. And each of their performances is stunning and charged. By the way, the tick-ets to the concert will be cheaper for Linkin Park than the tickets for Grigory Leps, Linkin Park tickets will only between 3,000-14,000 rubles.


T here is also the outstand-ing choir group – Patriar-chal Men's Choir of the St. Danilov Monastery can be heard completely free

of charge. The Patriarchal Men's Choir was founded in 1994. It is made up of 16 professional sing-ers. Their repertoire includes not only prayer chants such as "Heav-enly King, Comforter," "Most Holy Mother of God, Save Us", but also famous ballads, "Shine, Shine My Star", folk songs "Black Crow" or "Love, Brothers, Love". The choir not only sings in concerts at differ-ent locations, but also participates in Saturday and Sunday, as well as holiday liturgy led by His Holi-

ness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill. On August 28, a ma-jor holiday for Orthodox Christians will be marked, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. And the choir will be present at the solemn lit-urgy at St. Danilov Monastery.

O n September 10, at the Tchaikovsky Con-cert Hall, master pia-nist, composer and jazz performer Daniil

Kramer will celebrate his (55th) birthday. Kramer plays jazz in all of its styles. On September 16-17, on this same stage the legendary en-semble of Igor Moiseyev will per-form. The whole world applauds

this group, and not only in coun-tries where the group has toured. Everywhere is sold out. And why? Because at the foundation of the group’s program lie the folk danc-es of the world. And the language of dance is understandable to all, in any country, in any homeland.

D ramatic theaters mean-while return from their holidays. By the autumn season, the new play «Mephisto» by director

Adolph Shapiro, which is based on the novel of Klaus Mann, which was written in 1936, will open in Sep-tember at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater. The project promises to be the event for the Moscow theater scene. And the basis of the topic is sharp and relevant. This is a conflict of the artist and power. This sum-mer viewers are expecting reviews. The main character is Hendrik Höf-gen, who cooperates with the Na-zis, and is played by actor Alexei Kravchenko. It is possible that many will make parallels with the famous film of Istvan Szabo, who received an Oscar in 1982, where the main role was played by actor Klaus Maris Brandauer. Kravchenko also added his own color to this por-trayal – his main character is a self-involved narcissist, full of insatiable ambition which leads to his full spiritual degradation, he is a person, who despite success, is ready to sell his soul to the devil.

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T his theme is continued by Lithuanian director Ri-mas Tuminas, who heads the Vakhtangov Theater, each production of which

is eagerly awaited by Moscow’s theater lovers. Tuminas began rehearsals for the play “Minetti” by Thomas Bernhard, the great Austrian novelist and playwright. The play “Minetti” was specially written in the 1970s for German actor Bernhard Minetti, the tal-ent of whom was highly valued by the writer. In an old hotel on the coast of the Baltic Sea during the New Year holiday, the actor, who happens to be there, sums up his life, which is drawing to an end. He thinks about the vicissitudes of fate, on his profession, on his des-tiny and mission. The premiere at the Vakhtangov Theater is sched-uled for the middle of October.

A t the same time Mos-cow's theater critics are advised not to miss the production of director Kirill Serebrennikov at

Gogol Center. The performance was “M (student)”, “Performance-explosion”, “performance-shock”, “performance-bomb” – such are the epithets awarded to this pro-duction. In the center of the plot is a boy, a teenager, Veniamin Yuzhin. He thinks that he knows everything about moral norms and ethics, and so has every right to denounce his education, physical education class-es, carnal love and the divorce of his parents. The young rascal’s biology teacher responds to him. Where the border lies between morality and intolerance, freedom and permis-siveness – Serebrennikov attempts to address these issues.

A nother opening show touches upon the se-rious and important theme of summing up one's life. The perfor-

mance of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater, “The Jubilee of the Jeweler”, which director Konstan-tin Bogomolov presented at the 80th anniversary of the birth of famous and beloved actor and ar-tistic director of the theater, Oleg


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Pavlovich Tabakov. This play was selected by Tabakov himself. This is the story of a person of advanced age who clearly feels that his life is coming to an end, but looks on the future with dignity and calm. A traditional benefit performance at first glance in essence is an ex-ample of strong and high drama. This is a story about how to die brightly, having lived the dream of one's life, asking for forgive-ness from your close friends and relatives and asking all for a happy smile. It is necessary to talk about death, to think about it, wait for it and it is necessary to prepare for it. And there should be wise and bright attitude towards it. This is the main idea of the performance.

A t the Moscow Interna-tional House of Music on October 8, the very prom-ising young opera singer, 33-year old Anna Aglato-

va, will hold a concert. In 2005, Anna became the youngest soloist at the Bolshoi Theater and since then has been part of some of its most no-table projects. Anna's repertoire in-cludes not only parts from famous operas, but also foreign ballads. Opera star Dmitry Khvorostovsky also values the art of Aglatova, this is not the first year he is inviting the young singer to join him for the tra-ditional program “Khvorostovsky and Friends”, which will take place in Moscow on October 29.

On October 10 at the State Kremlin Palace, there will be a concert by young pop singer Slava. And although

Slava in Russian is a masculine name, a nickname derived from Svyatoslav, Vyacheslav, Rostislav and so on, this female singer has adopted a masculine pseudonym. Incidentally the performer also has a manner of singing that is gruff, not feminine, and which even could be called coarse. “Loneliness is a Bitch” is, for example, a name of one of her hits. It is interesting that with such a repertoire and manner, Slava loves feminine dresses, jewelry and bright makeup. By the way, this will be the first solo concert of the singer.

LIFE&CULTURE


O n October 21 at the Kremlin Palace, events will be held for an evening in memory of the 80th anniversary

of Lyudmila Gurchenko’s birth. This actress passed away four years ago, but she left an indelible mark on Russian cinema. One could rightly call her a super star. Everyone re-members Gurchenko’s bright debut in cinema, the New Year’s com-edy “Carnival Night” is shown every

year on television. The film is loved by viewers, and its main heroine, the happy Lenochka Krylova with her unforgettable song, “Five Min-utes”, was the icon of the 1950s. But after this resounding success, there was nothing for a while. Gurchenko did not film for 10 years. “The best years, I was in the prime of femi-nine beauty, but directors seemed to have forgotten about me!” the actress later said in her interviews. She had to make her living with

endless concerts. But she stood and waited for “her hour”. In the 1970s, Gurchenko returned to cinema. In-deed, she played very bright roles in melodramas, comedies and in musical films. All her life she sang, sewed, wore extravagant outfits. Her personal life was tumultuous, several marriages, romances, many plastic surgeries (about 17), a fierce fight against encroaching old age. Words for the life of this true star are bright and charismatic. ■


FOOD&DRINK

Moscow on the menuOur capital is a giant megapolis that never ceases to amaze its visitors with the diversity of its restaurant scene. But there are some cafes and restaurants that our foreign guests are particularly fond of. Our editorial staff has put together a list of top restaurants that are frequently visited by foreign tourists and expats who live and work in Moscow.

There was a famous bar with the same name on Novy Arbat from the 60s until the early 90s, which was known in Moscow and all over Russia as the center for drinking beer in the Soviet era. This traditional establishment recently celebrated its 45th an-niversary. The bar has been popular for all of these years. You can eat here – the food selection is quite impressive – or just knock back a few beers with a snack. Guests are often curious about cocktails from the Soviet era. And of course, what sort of tourist wouldn’t want to go to a bar that Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev themselves used to frequent?

There are two halls at Zhiguli: a bar that accommodates 100 people and the main room that fits 300 people.

The freshly-brewed Zhiguli beer – light, dark or unfiltered – is particularly popular. Moreover, there are another 5 additional draft beer brands available. Every day, bands that play unforgettable hits from the 70s and 80s perform at Zhiguli.

Zhiguli Bar

This was the first theatrical project with a historical atmosphere. Andrei Dellos is the author of the project, and Andrei Makhov is the head chef. This restaurant offers the best of old Russian aristocratic cuisine. The restaurant’s name – Café Pushkin – came about thanks to the French singer Gilbert Becaud and his song "Natalie," in which he sang about Moscow, Red Square, love and hot chocolate in a place called Café Pouch-kine. Over thirty years after the release of the song, this poetic fantasy about the café came to life.

Every guest can get small elegant souvenirs with the café’s logo when visiting the restaurant. There are magnets painted in the style of Russian lacquer miniatures (300 RUB), small vases with the logo(1,450 RUB), Laguiole knives with the logo (6,500 RUB) and natural assorted honey (850 RUB). Guests can also send letters written in pen and ink (like in the olden days) to anywhere on the planet from the restaurant. The Café Pushkin mail service costs 300 RUB.

The place is always open for young ladies and gentlemen, but many advise to visit the restaurant on Saturdays and Sundays. On Saturdays, there are games starting at noon, a puppet show at 1.00pm, and cooking classes with Café Pushkin chefs at 3.00pm. On Sundays, there are games starting at noon and cooking classes with chefs starting at 3.00pm.

Address: Tverskoy Boulevard 26-A, M. Pushkinskaya, Chekhovskaya, Tverskaya.

Telephone:(495) 739-00-33.Open 24/7.

Address: Novy Arbat 11, bldg.1, M. Arbatskaya.Telephone: (495) 691-35-21, 691-41-44.

Hours of operation: Sun – Thurs, 12.00pm to 2.00am, Fri – Sat, 12.00pm to 4.00am.Kitchen hours of operation: from 11.00am to 2.00am.

Café Pushkin


This restaurant is rightfully considered one of the highest European restaurants – it’s lo-cated on the 62nd floor of the Federation tower in Moscow City, which certainly makes it unique. Sixty combines the ultra-modern urban skyscraper style with 60s nostalgia – trendy, reckless, stylish and a little bit crazy. Bright, rich colors in the style of Andy Warhol and Blow Up create a holiday atmosphere and bring on waves of pleasant emotions.

Sixty has a wide selection of traditional Italian dishes, as well as Mediterranean and European cuisine. The head chef at Sixty is Carlo Greku, whose legendary dishes are famous in Moscow. The guests leave impressed by the unusual combinations of ingre-dients: deserts out of marshmallows and winter cherry, golubtsi with morels, mango soup with elderberry sorbet and so on. The restaurant’s specialty cocktails will help you relax and have a great time with friends.

Sixty provides menus for breakfasts and business lunches, family gatherings, romantic dinners and parties.

This restaurant can easily be considered an object of cultural and historical heritage. It is located in an old mansion that has been restored in the style of a typical noble house of the 19th century.

The restaurant’s menu is an excursion into the history of Russian cuisine during the time of Ilya Oblomov, the main character from Ivan Goncharov’s famous novel. Here you can try all the Russian classics – food, recipes and techniques that have stood the test of time over hundreds of years.

There are three floors for guests. From the hall decorated with columns and a large carved cupboard, visitors walk into a coffee room with an old fireplace where the restau-rant hosts Friday tea ceremonies with home-baked goods and a samovar. Guests have lunch on the second floor, in the rooms “Oblomov” and “Shtolz.” Above them is the “East-ern Room,” where guests can rest on couches after having a meal. When the weather is warm, the restaurant opens the “Summer Garden” – a spacious terrace in a quiet and cozy courtyard surrounded by trees. There is a wood-burning Russian oven here, which is used to make meat, fish, soup and porridge in the summer. Signature dishes include the Oblomov Olivier salad, smoked venison, country pickled treats, jellied veal, soup of white root with smoked goose, and veal pelmeni with butter and sour cream.

One of the best and most impressive Russian cuisine restaurants in Moscow, located in an old tower in Kitay Gorod. The restaurant’s specialties include Russian blinis with different fillings, hand-made pelmeni, fish soup, shi soup, quail, burgers and traditional Russian pastries.

The interior of the banquet restaurant combines ethnic Russian style with a castle-fortress atmosphere.

The first floor of the restaurant looks more like a Russian bar, featuring an oak bar, real cast-iron cannons from imperial Russia, brick arches on the ceiling, old maps of Moscow, wrought iron lamps and a collection of old bottles.

The second floor of the restaurant is set up like a small separate hall that is decorated with decorated with oil canvases illustrating imperial military campaigns for the Motherland.

The third floor has a cozy fireplace with windows in the form of gun ports and oak shutters, with large and comfortable wooden tables and lounge chairs. This room is a favorite meeting place for the city and state government officials.

The fourth floor of the restaurant is unique. There is a tent here that leads to the ve-randa. The chairs here resemble royal thrones and the red dome-ceiling is decorated with authentic emblems of Russian cities and regions. There is a massive chandelier made out of metal and stained glass. The large windows present a magnificent view of the center of Moscow. A small secret from those who are in the know: if you turn off the lights at night, you can see the golden domes of the Zaikonospassky monastery in the night sky through the window at the top of the tent. This hall is used for banquets, special occasions and special guests. Unless you attend such an event, it is unlikely you will get to the top floor of the restaurant unless you make a request.

Address: Presnenskaya Naberezhnaya 12, Federation tower, 62nd floor, M. Vystovochnaya. Tel: (495) 125-28-60.Hours of operation: Mon-Sun, 12.00pm until the last client.

Address: 1st Monetchikovsky pereulok 5, M. Dobryninskaya, Paveletskaya, Serpukhovskata, Polyanka. Tel: (495) 953-68-28Hours of operation: 12.00pm-05.00pm.

Address: Teatralnaya Square 5, Bldg.1, M. teatralnaya, Ploshyad Revolutsii, Okhotny Ryad. Tel: (495) 698-40-08, 980-24-08.Hours of operation: 2.00pm – midnight

Oblomov

Old Tower

Sixty


The north-west of Moscow is a special place where you can enjoy the beauty of small protected islands. Here, Nizhniye Mnevninki Street opens up to an island that is sur-rounded by the Moscow River.

The traditional Russian atmosphere at Ermak makes guests feel peaceful and at ease. The area looks more like a cozy manor house with well-maintained trails and small ponds. The restaurant is built in the old traditions of Russian wooden architecture of the 16th-17th centuries – there is the beautifully carved Ermak building and a spacious summer terrace on the water (with its own kitchen, smokehouse and grill).

The restaurant’s colorful menu is a true testament to Russian cuisine. There is royal fish soup with 4 types of fish (beluga, sturgeon, whitefish, salmon) with a shot of vodka and black caviar on white bread and hunting trophies served on the coals: bear meat and deer meat. There is a selection of traditional Russian drinks that includes kvas and cranberry juice, along with different liqueurs and tinctures: orange, cran-berry, pepper, cherry, and horseradish.

The Radisson Royal Flotilla is ten riverboats with restaurant service on board. The boats do tours of the Moscow River every day, allowing guests to see the city’s key tourist attractions in under 3 hours – the Kremlin, Novodevichy Monastery, the statue of Peter the Great, St. Basil’s Cathedral, the University…

The Radisson restaurant boats is an opportunity to enjoy your time in Moscow, look at the capital from a different angle and be sure that you will have an unforgettable and colorful experience.

The boats are constructed to easily break through ice and ensure that the passen-gers are comfortable even during the coldest winter days: there are all-weather pan-oramic windows, climate control and a reinforced hull. The boats and the pier have been adapted to accommodate people with disabilities as well. The pier is equipped with a special lift, and crew members will gladly assist you with getting on board in a wheelchair.

Ermak

Radisson Royal Flotilla

Among the large residential areas in the south of Moscow, there is one of the most unusual places in the capital – Tsaritsyno State Museum-Reserve.

The land occupied by the Museum-Reserve has a history that dates back to the Vy-atichi. This place is associated with the names of boyars and royal families. Tsaritsyno combines the delightful natural beauty of the landscape with the greatest architec-tural works by the Russian architects V.I. Bazhenov and M.F. Kazakov. After walking around the park and working up an appetite, you can take a break and try traditional Russian cuisine at Usadba, which will take you back to the times of Catherine the Great. The restaurant has been restored in order to bring back the atmosphere of an 18th century Russian manor.

The chef will offer you dishes prepared in accordance with the best traditions of Rus-sian cuisine: Pomeshichiy salad, herring, Petrovsky soup, Royal sturgeon, Bazhenov beef, assorted Russian pickled snacks, General sander, and Robber-style stew.

Address: The restaurant is located at Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve: Dolskaya street 10, Bldg.1,

M. Orekhovo, Tsaritsyno.

Adress: Nizhniye Mnevniki Street 41, Bldg.1.Telephone: (499) 191-25-23,

(499) 728-20-03, (495) 969-50-59.

Hours of operation: 12.00pm – midnight.

Telephone: (495) 343-15-10, 343-15-11.Hours of operation: 12. 00pm – midnight.

Address: UKRAINA hotel pier, Taras Shevchenko embankment, M. Kievskaya.

Gorky Park pier, Gorky Park, Pushkinskaya embankment, M. Oktyabrskaya, Park Kultury.

Telephone: (495) 228-55-55 Hours of operation: 10:00am to 9:00pm.See schedule and order tickets via the website: http://www.radisson-cruise.ru

Usadba Restaurant Center in Tsaritsyno


FOOD&DRINK

He who has not been to Moscow has not seen beautyclinics, schools, universities, theatres. At one...

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