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P.06

Opinion

Even without war, no certain way forward

Russia can’t escape a sticky situation in Ukraine

P.07

Culture

American folk music finds fans in Moscow

Where to hear country and bluegrass in the capital

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

NEWS IN BRIEF

Gazprom has become the world’s biggest public company in terms of Ebitda (earnings before in-terest, taxes, depreciation and amortization); its Ebitda grew by 22 percent in 2013 to reach 2.01 billion rubles ($61.4 billion). The energy major rose two places from last year’s rankings. It is fol-lowed by Petrochina ($57.78 billion), ExxonMo-bil ($57.48 billion), and Apple ($55.76 billion).

Experts attribute Gazprom’s rise to record-high demand for gas supplies in Europe.

The Bolshoi Theater has announced its 2014–2015 season, which will include stops in New York. The Bolshoi ballet will perform “Swan Lake,” “Don Quixote” and “Spartacus” in New York from July 12 to 27.

The Bolshoi season in Moscow, which will open in late September, will include fi ve full-length operas and and three ballets. A new staging of “Carmen” will be directed by the head director of the Russian Youth Theater, Alexei Borodin, and a ballet based on “Hamlet” will be choreographed-by Radu Poklitaru, who choreographed the Open-ing Ceremony of the 2014 Olympics. This is the fi rst full season for general director Vladimir Urin.

Gazprom beats Apple to top

global ranking

Bolshoi announces new

season and tour schedule

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has announced that work on 19 ground stations for the G.P.S. system on Russian territory will be suspended from June 1. These stations will be shut down completely if negotiations on the placement of signal calibration stations for Russia’s Glonass navigation system in the United States are not completed by May 31. In a post on his Twitter ac-count, however, Rogozin assured G.P.S. users that the suspension of G.P.S. stations in Russia will not affect the quality of the signal received.

G.P.S. suspended in Russia

Economy International business leaders torn about attending this year’s St. Petersburg Economic Forum

ANNA KUCHMARBTH

Russian experts admit the

boycott of the St. Petersburg

Economic Forum is a damaging

blow, but will it affect real

cooperation?

sending regional representatives instead of higher-ranking busi-ness leaders to the forum are Pep-siCo, the Coca-Cola Company, Alcoa, ConocoPhilips, Bain & Co. and Goldman Sachs. Others, in-cluding Caterpillar, Boeing and Boston Consulting Group will de-cide about their participation in the forum at the last minute, de-pending on on developments.

Many interna-

tional compa-

nies that can-

celed visits by

C.E.O.s com-

rpomised by

sending lower-

ranking repre-

sentatives.

ticipate in this year’s event amid the ongoing confl ict over Ukraine. U.S. government officials report-edly personally asked C.E.O.s of U.S. fi rms to withdraw from the meeting, which Russia had for several years been building up as a summer version of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

In an interview with the Ros-siya 24 television channel, Dep-uty Economic Minister Sergei Be-lyakov said that forum organizers

had received numerous cancel-lations from previously confi rmed participants. “For us, this is cer-tainly a loss, an unpleasant sur-prise,” Belyakov said. “But we were prepared for this.”

The number of attendees at the 2014 forum is expected to be ap-proximately 40 percent lower than at last year’s forum. Amer-ican attendance is expected to drop by more than 50 percent.

Among the companies that are

Forum to Open Amid Sanctions and Boycotts

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Winds of Change Leave Opposition Out in the Cold

A Home in the Sky: Moscow’s Top 12 Residential Buildings

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The annual St. Petersbug Inter-national Economic Forum will open tomorrow despite the deci-sion by many chief executives of major multinationals not to par- CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

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iPhones in Russia are the cheapest in Europe

“The Amur Waves “: Life in Russia through an American eye

The life and philosophy of Leo Tolstoy in 15 photos

Society Life for people with disabilities in Russia is getting better, but challenges remain

Improving the quality of life for

Russians with disabilities was a

focus for the government leading

up to the Paralympic Games. Will

the initiatives continue?

The success of the Russian Para-lympic team in the recent Winter Paralympic Games and the state-of-the-art facilities built for the Games in Sochi could give the impression that today’s Russia is doing a lot to integrate disabled people into society. Appearances, however, can be deceiving. Now that the fanfare over Sochi has abated, people with special needs and their advocates fear that the progress made leading up to the Games will stagnate, and improv-ing life for Russians with disabil-ities will slip from the agenda of government officials.

Integration a Work in Progress

MAXIM KIREYEV SPECIAL TO RBTH

than being integrated into soci-ety, recipients could be deliber-ately isolated,” the study authors wrote.

During the Soviet era, many people with disabilities wereinstitutionalized, permanentlyexcluding them from society. At the same time, the authoritiesregarded self-organization among the disabled as borderline dissi-dence. In 1978, after a workaccident left Valery Fefelovconfined to a wheelchair, he founded the Soviet Union’s fi rst association championing the rights of people with disabilities. This resulted in years of harass-ment by the intelligence services, searches and a smear campaign in the press, until Fefelov fi nally emigrated under K.G.B. pressure to West Germany.

CONTINUED ON PAGES 4-5

A nationwide study conducted by Human Rights Watch of Rus-sians with a range of disabilities revealed legitimate concerns and frustrations with both state and society. The infrastructure in Rus-sian cities poses an insurmount-able obstacle for many people with physical impairments, and it is especially hard for disabled people to fi nd work. When they do, they tend to be employed in specially created jobs that often only enhance their isolation, ac-cording to the study. Moreover, medical facilities and doctors are insufficiently prepared to treat special needs.

According to Human Rights Watch experts, most of the prob-lems Russia faces today in car-ing for people with disabilities are rooted in the Soviet past. “At that time, the state guaranteed material assistance, but rather

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Prosecutor General Launches New Wave of N.G.O.

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Foreigners While Western expats have expressed concern over a new language law for work permits, Central Asians are the likely target

A new law that will go into effect

in January requires immigrants

applying for work or residency

permit to prove they know

Russian language and culture.

Last month President Vladimir Putin signed a law requiring for-eigners who apply for work visas or residency permits in Russia to prove working knowledge of Rus-sian language, culture and polit-ical processes by submitting a special educational certificate. The new law will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2015.

The law applies to all foreign nationals applying for a resi-dence permit, a temporary resi-dence permit or a work permit, with the exception of a special category of highly skilled pro-fessionals whose qualifi cations are defi ned by law. Foreign stu-dents currently enrolled at ac-

Immigrants Face Language Test

A new law will require all applicants for work permits in Russia to pass a language exam.

IVAN CHERNOVVZGLYAD

Some facts about Russia’s immigrants

The vast majority of immigrants to Russia are from former Sovietrepublics, primarily the countries of Central Asia. Last year, only 2.5 million of Russia’s approximately 11 million foreign residents came from countries that had not been part of the Soviet Union.Most of these immigrants are em-ployed in low-skilled labor: 29 per-

cent work in construction and 19 percent work for Russia’s housing services agency, doing jobs such as street sweeping.More than 80 percent of them live on salaries of less than 30,000 ru-bles ($857) per month. Only 6 per-cent of immigrants have some kind of higher education, and 25 percent did not finish high school.

credited Russian universities will also be exempt along with peo-ple under 18 or over 60 or any-one who graduated from a high school in the Soviet Union be-fore 1991; Russian language was a compulsory subject in Soviet high schools.

The bill is intended to “facili-tate the cultural and linguistic adaptation of foreign citizens in Russia,” according to Lyudmila Bokova, a member of the Feder-ation Council, Russia’s equivalent of the Senate.

The educational certificate, which can be obtained only from an official institution included on

a list of organizations authorized to conduct exams in the subjects, will be good for fi ve years. Im-migrants who have already been issued residence permits will be required to meet the educational requirements when applying for the permit’s renewal.

The exemptions to the bill sug-gest that it is aimed at immigrants from Central Asia, who perform much of the manual labor in major Russian cities. Prime Min-ister Dmitry Medvedev said as much in his annual report to the State Duma on the work of the government.

“Foreign citizens who come to work in such unskilled workplac-es, they are necessary to us, but they have to be adapted for life in Russia. They have to speak Rus-sian. And this is not the problem of the Federal Migration Service. It is task of other government in-stitutions to deal with these is-sues,” Medvedev said when an-

swering questions from Duma deputies.

However, any foreigner who does not qualify for the exemp-tion, including language teach-ers or freelancers, will also have to provide the certifi cate.

The new law is in some ways an upgrade of a law that went into effect on Dec. 1, 2012. That law required all foreigners em-ployed in the housing, commerce and service sectors to prove a basic working knowledge of Rus-sian. By January 2014, more than 18,000 workers had obtained the language certificates required under that law.

There are currently 190 testing centers in Russia and abroad that are approved to issue the required Russian language certifi cates.

As of November 2013, 253 lan-guage courses for migrants were available in Russia. Seventy-nine of these — 67 operated by the migration service and 12 run by

the Russian Orthodox Church — offer classes for free.

Immigrants in RussiaAccording to a September 2013 report from the United Nations Department of Economic and So-cial Affairs, more people immi-grate to Russia ever year than to any other country in the world except the United States. At the time of the report, the U.N. count-ed 11 million immigrants living in Russia. Out of these, 23 per-cent were citizens of Uzbekistan and 10 percent were citizens of Tajikistan. According to the Fed-eral Migration Service, only 1.5 million of them are working le-gally. This does not mean that the other 9.5 million people are liv-ing in the country illegally. Many come on tourist or business visas, which do not allow holders to work, and then work anyway.

According to the Federal Mi-gration Service, 38 percent of for-eigners who move to Russia are between 18–29 and do not intend to stay in the country in the long term. The vast majority are men. Approximately 20 percent know very little or no Russian.

Muhammadnazar Mirzoda, the chairman of the Somonien Asso-ciation of Friendship between the Russian and Tajik Peoples and honorary consul of Tajikistan in St. Petersburg, said that he sup-ports the law since the isolation of some immigrants is bad for the Tajik community as a whole.

“There really are a lot of im-migrants who do not speak Rus-sian. We run into problems when we need to draw up and sign doc-uments for them,” Mirzoda said. He added that Tajikistan still uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which should make learning Russian easier for Tajik immigrants.

Mirzoda supports the creation of a large network of language education centers in Russia that would function with support from consulates of former Soviet re-publics, as well the establishment of cultural centers, which could provide a support system for im-migrants struggling in Russia.

Reporting from RIA Novosti and Kommersant was used in this report.

IN FIGURES

67% of those immi-grating to Rus-sia move to the

central administrative region, which is the region around Moscow. Twen-ty-two percent move to the Urals or Siberia.

86% of immigrants to Russia are men. According

to the Federal Migration Service, 20 percent of them speak little or no Russian.

2.7 million people moved to Russia from Uzbeki-stan last year, the larg-

est number from any single coun-try. Only 1.1 million people moved to Russia from the entire E.U.

Any foreigner who does not qualify for an exemption will have to provide the educational certificate.

Journalism Russian media outlets find themselves in the crosshairs after list is published

During President Vladimir Pu-tin’s annual televised call-in show, in which he takes questions sub-mitted by people across the coun-try, the Russian leader promised that authorities will stop pres-suring the liberal TV channel Dozhd. Dozhd, whose name in Russian means “Rain” is now hop-ing to get picked up again by the cable providers that dropped it at the beginning of the year after it aired a controversial poll about the Siege of Leningrad. But the future remains uncertain for Rus-sian media outlets that don’t take the Kremlin line.

Over the last fi ve months, sev-eral major Russian media outlets with views ranging from moder-ately liberal to open opposition to the government have been threatened with closure or reor-ganized.

The fi rst to fall was news agen-cy RIA Novosti, which had been known in recent years for its rel-atively balanced coverage despite being a state agency. In Decem-ber 2013, Putin signed a decree dismissing former executive di-rector Svetlana Mironyuk, who had led the agency for 10 years. A similar thing happened at two other independent media outlets

A comment from President Putin

may give Dozhd TV a new lease

on life, but other media outlets

feel targeted after appearing on a

list calling them “anti-Russian.”

feels a lot of uncertainty about the future, even for a publication such as his that is not associated with the opposition, but has an audience that generally fi ts the opposition’s demographic. “I don’t think that something bad will happen to Snob.ru, but really ... anything can happen,” Uskov said. He admits to engaging in self-censorship, which could provide some protection, but he added that writers will not be forbid-den to express their opinions.

Armed with a mouseIn size, the liberal media, which is mainly concentrated on the In-ternet, can hardly compete with the state. According to a poll con-ducted by the All-Russian Cen-ter for Researching the Mass Media in 2013, the main source of information for Russians re-mains TV. About 60 percent of people get their news from TV channels, most of which are con-trolled by state agencies. Only 23 percent of Russians get their in-formation online.

The liberal media in Russia takes pride in the quality of its audience.

“These are cosmopolitan Rus-sians... and the humanitarian-minded intelligentsia,” said media analyst Ivan Zasursky, a profes-sor at the Moscow State Univer-sity School of Journalism, when describing the readership of in-dependent Russian media. Ac-cording to him, these people trav-el frequently, making them a signifi cant factor in the political life of the country.

Those who read media that support the opposition in Russia in any case are not going away, no matter how serious their prob-lems are, and will most likely fi nd a replacement if their usual sourc-es are censored or disappear, say analysts from the media indus-try.

“The needs of niche groups will remain,” said Uskov, “and they must be met.”

Independent Media Fill an Important Niche, but Worry About the Future

ALEXEI EREMENKO SPECIAL TO RBTH

— radio station Ekho Moskvy and Russia’s largest online news por-tal, Lenta.ru.

In February 2014 the manage-ment of Gazprom-Media, which owns Ekho Moskvy, decided to dismiss executive director Yury Fedutinov, and the next month, businessman Alexander Mamut, co-owner of the media giant Ram-bler, which includes Lenta.ru, fi red the chief editor of the site, Galina Timchenko. After Tim-chenko’s ousting, most of the ed-itorial staff chose to leave in sol-idarity with her.

In late March, the pro-Krem-lin website Politonline.ru com-piled a list of 20 media outlets that are threatened with closure

because of their supposed anti-Russian stances. The list was cre-ated by assessing how many times the outlets used keywords asso-ciated with opposition positions, such as calling Russia’s actions regarding Crimea an “annexa-tion.”

Representatives from publica-tions on the Politonline list are nervous about the future of their work. Nadezhda Prusenkova, a spokesperson for the opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, said: “It’s not possible that everyone is feeling the pressure but us; it is suspicious and even a bit awk-ward.”

Nikolai Uskov, the editor of the website of Snob.Ru said that he

Russians on mass media objectivity

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

For each frantic metropolis,

there is a peaceful village

For each Siberian winter,

there is a Black Sea summer

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Which Foreign Brands Have Captured the Hearts of

Russians?

rbth.com/36499 Business

David

Gray PWC RUSSIA

Strong economic ties and trade connections between global play-ers bring many benefits. The greater economic integration of Europe over the last 70 years has certainly been a critical factor in overcoming a history of confl ict across the continent.

I think business has a role to play in shaping the agenda around regional and global po-litical developments, helping to ensure the stable economic and political relations between coun-tries that allow all parties to ben-efi t from higher levels of invest-ment, economic activity and, ultimately, greater prosperity for their citizens. Encouraging deep-er economic ties is clearly a crit-ical part of the mission statement for the forum, and a very worthy one.

Although not officially on the agenda, Ukraine will inevitably be widely discussed. Hopefully we in the business community can be part of the process of mov-ing toward a more positive future for that country. I do not believe that Russia has any interest in Ukraine being economically un-successful. If a more stable and prosperous Ukraine emerges from the current difficulties, one with better governance and stronger prospects for sustained econom-ic growth, that will not only be great news for Ukrainians, but is also likely to have direct positive economic benefi ts for Russia as one of the country’s closest trad-ing partners.

David Gray is managing partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers Rus-sia.

The opening line from Charles Dickens’s “Tale of Two Cities” may be an un-usual tagline for this year’s

St. Petersburg International Eco-nomic Forum (Spief), but it does capture something of the uncer-tainty of the times in which we fi nd ourselves. The forum comes at a moment when Russia’s place in the international economic community has rarely been sub-ject to wider scrutiny.

The geopolitical developments around the on-going crisis in Ukraine will, at the very least, color many of the conversations and debates at the forum, mak-ing it both a challenging time to host the event, but also an ex-ceptionally interesting one.

Over the last few years, Spief has established itself as a major platform at which Russia engag-es with the international busi-ness community. The scale and sophistication of the forum has developed signifi cantly, with the content improving in terms of the quality and breadth of the topics covered and the stature of speakers attracted.

As the Russian economy has grown, and Russia’s integration with the global economy in-creased, the level of interest in Russia as a market and as a mar-ket player have both expanded. Even though the forum is not ex-clusively about Russia, it is clear-ly designed to help put the coun-try on the global economic map by providing it with a platform to both tell its story and seek to engage with and benefit from global thought leadership.

VIEWPOINT

Spief 2014: The Best of Times and the Worst of Times

Earlier, citing anonymous sourc-es, Bloomberg reported that U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and senior adviser to President Barack Obama Valerie Jarrett made personal phone calls to those expected to attend the forum and informed them that their going to St. Petersburg “would not provide a very good signal.”

Lack of participation a blowRussian experts concede that the large-scale boycott will damage the image of the forum and threatens to undermine the im-portance of the event.

Vladimir Klimanov, an expert at the Russian Presidential Acad-emy of National Economy and Public Administration, said that the St. Petersburg Forum was de-signed as a meeting place for high-level participants and that in recent years has become a landmark platform for deal-mak-ing and discussion. Billions of dollars worth of deals have been signed on the sidelines of the meeting, and ideas and state-ments voiced at the forum have provided an impetus for domes-tic initiatives.

“Certainly, this boycott of the forum by the heads of the larg-est companies truly deprives the forum of its original raison d’etre,” said Klimanov. “There will not be any discussions and ex-changes of views at the highest levels. This is likely to have an impact on investment decisions.”

Maxim Shein, chief strategist at the BCS Financial Group, also noted that the absence of C.E.O.s from foreign companies would make the forum less effective.

“Certainly there will be fewer contacts and agreements. This is

Forum Opens in Petersburg

not close its economy for those who refused to attend the forum.” Nevertheless, he stressed that, “to a greater extent, we will be de-veloping cooperation with those companies that do come, those with whom we will have direct contact.”

Forum watchers, including Shein, are betting on more con-tracts to be signed with Asian partners, something Maxim Shein does not exclude. “It is possible that this year at the forum, Gaz-prom will sign a major agree-ment with China,” Shein said in an interview.

Done deals still doneMeanwhile, the Russian branch of accounting fi rm Ernst & Young does not believe that the refusal by many chief executives to par-ticipate in the forum will lead to the collapse of agreements that have already been concluded.

“We must bear in mind that all major deals are prepared well

in advance of the forum, and the forum itself serves only as a place of fi nal execution,” said Alexan-der Ivlev, managing partner at Ernst & Young Russia. “I would not say that these refusals that have been announced will sig-nifi cantly affect the operation of the forum. In some cases, there are replacements — representa-tives on the level of members of boards of directors will be com-ing. Therefore, contracts that or-ganizations planned to sign will likely be signed.”

Ivlev also said that the inte-gration of Russia into the glob-al economy makes it difficult to imagine that major multination-als will pull out of Russia alto-gether. “We are confident that these temporary problems will not have any signifi cant impact on the development of partner-ships with overseas counterparts. International investors are not leaving the Russian market,” Ivlev said.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

A brief history of the forum

The first St. Petersburg International Economic Forum was held in 1997 under the auspices of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of C.I.S. Member States. It remained primarily a regional gathering un-til the early 2000s, when its ad-ministration shifted to Russian gov-ernmental structures. Since 2006, Russia’s minister for economic de-velopment has been the chair of the forum’s organizing committee.The first forum had 1,500 attendees from 50 countries, and the govern-ments of Russia and Belarus signed a series of agreements worth 500 billion rubles. By comparison, the 2013 forum, the biggest to date,

had 7,190 delegates from 87 coun-tries. More than 100 contracts with a total value of 9.6 trillion rubles were signed at the event.Today, participation is by invitation only, but those who would like to attend can apply for an invitation online.Despite the lower attendance pro-jected for this year’s forum, orga-nizers are planning an extensive program, including such topics as “Smart Immigration Strategies for Global Development,” “Nurtur-ing Growth Clusters in Russian Re-gions,” and “The Private Sector’s Role in Russia’s Evolving Health Care Future.”

" I would not say that these refusals that have been an-nounced will significantly af-

fect the operation of the forum. Fur-thermore, we must bear in mind that all major deals are prepared well in advance, and the forum itself serves only as a place of final execution. We are confident that these tempo-rary problems will not have any sig-nificant impact on the development of partnerships with our European and overseas counterparts.

IN HIS OWN WORDS

Alexander IvlevMANAGING PARTNER, ERNST & YOUNG RUSSIA

something that the U.S. govern-ment needs to think about, be-cause business will be the fi rst to suffer. The Russian side will also lose a lot, seeing that the Americans are our chief partners in many areas,” said Shein. “How-

ever, that which is happening now does not mean that economic ties will be completely severed. This needs to be looked at as a new stage, as a push for the develop-ment of business relations at an-other level.”

In his interview with Rossiya 24, Deputy Economic Minister Belyakov’s comments echoed Shein’s words. The official as-sured people that Russia “would

Several leading foreign automak-ers, including Ford, Renault and Fiat, have made the decision in recent weeks to roll back their production in Russia. One of the main reasons cited for the move is the falling ruble, which has lost 10 percent of its value against the dollar, leading to higher costs for foreign parts. The action by car manufacturers is symptomatic of a growing tendency toward fi s-cal caution among both business-es and individuals in Russia, with many taking steps to shield their assets from risk as the Russian economy continues to suffer from the geopolitical crisis in Ukraine.

Costs going upStanislav Savinov, a research an-alyst with the investment com-pany UFS, said that the decline of the ruble has affected the de-

Manufacturing Firms pull back on production

The falling ruble has caused

imports to increase, leading

foreign car firms to suspend or

back off operations involving

Russian partners.

cisions not only of investors but also companies. “Interest in the dollar has really grown, not only among the population, but also for businesses,” Savinov said. “The outflow of capital for the first quarter of 2014, according to the Central Bank, is estimated at $50 billion, which is comparable to the fi gure for all of 2013.”

According to the analyst, a weakened ruble has made imports more expensive. In particular, rel-ative prices for components for factories, machinery and equip-ment have increased.

In April 2014, the Ford Sollers factory near St. Petersburg, a joint venture between Ford and Rus-sia’s Sollers car company, made the decision to suspend produc-tion until June, when the plant will switch to a single-shift op-eration for the summer; the com-pany also plans to cut about 700 employees. The management cited depreciation of the ruble along with the slowing of consumer de-mand as reasons for the move.

A deal for France’s Renault LCV and Italy’s Fiat to assemble commercial vehicles at the Mo-

Automakers Rethink Joint Ventures in Russia

In April, the Ford Sollers factory near St. Petersburg suspended production until June, when it will reopen on a reduced schedule.

ALEXEI LOSSAN RBTH

savtoZiLa plant in Moscow is also on the rocks. Renault has already suspended negotiations, citing the depreciation of the ruble against the euro, and although Fiat re-mains at the table, discussions are moving very slowly.

Buy local?The depreciation of the ruble is creating subsidies for domestic producers. However, as Vasily Ya-kimkin, associate professor at the School of Finance and Banking of the Russian Academy of Na-tional Economy and Public Ad-ministration, pointed out, this is a double-edged sword since in today’s globalized economy, major international companies also cre-ate additional production for Rus-sian fi rms.

“If the components are supplied by foreign partners, the depreci-ation of the ruble increases the cost of production. In Russia, im-ported materials and components products are widely used in pro-duction,” Yakimkin said. Given that Russian plants are usually buying new technology in foreign currencies, the depreciation of the ruble also makes it difficult for them to upgrade their machin-ery and equipment.

“In particular, this is what hap-pened with a line of supply of components to the automotive in-dustry from abroad. Therefore, some assembly was suspended, and the workers were sent on un-paid leave,” Yakimkin said.

Despite this, the depreciation of the ruble has helped domestic

industry, according to the Feder-al State Statistics Service. In March, Russian industry grew by 1.4 percent.

Anton Soroko, an analyst for the investment holding company Finam, said that these results were in line with projections. “These data agreed with our expectations that in March and April this in-dicator will grow by supporting exporters from the perspective of a weakened ruble,” Soroko said. Additionally, according to Soro-ko, in March retail trade in the country rose by 4 percent, despite international sanctions.

Neverthless, a recent report from the Finance Ministry said that the Russian economy went into recession in the second quar-ter of the year.

Russian experts concede the boycott is a blow to the forum’s image and may undermine this year’s event.

is how much the ruble has depreci-ated against the dollar since the be-ginning of the year. A weakened ru-ble has increased production costs.

was how much retail trade grew in Russia in the spring, despite inter-national sanctions and the compli-cated political situation.

10%

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IN FIGURES

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Alpine Ski School Gives Children With Disabilities New Dreams

rbth.com/35207Special Report

The situation has changed dra-matically for Russians with dis-abilities since that time. Russia has ratifi ed the United Nations 2012 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and also launched a $5.5 billion proj-ect for its implementation. By 2015, funds will be disbursed for renovation of public buildings and redesign of sidewalks and for new buses and trains. Addition-ally, websites for government agencies will be updated to pro-vide information on programs for people with disabilities.

With more than 16,000 wheel-chair users, Moscow should be leading the way in developing infrastructure for Russians who have mobility challenges. Ac-cording to official data, howev-er, only half of the capital’s buses have modern, low-floored de-

signs; only two-thirds of public buildings are accessible for wheelchair users; and only a handful of subway stations are equipped with elevators.

A plan for development calls for all public buildings to be fi t-ted with ramps and all traffic lights equipped with sound sig-nals for blind pedestrians by 2015, but while these initiatives sound promising, Russia has long had issues following through with such programs. Former chef Maxim Okolov, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and has been wheelchair-bound for fi ve years, has taken it upon himself to hold the city government accountable. “I was just sick and tired of all the talk about how much was being done for the disabled,” said Okolov. “Most of it was a facade that achieved little.”

Armed with his own camera, he regularly fi lms himself testing municipal facilities or new ramps and walkways in a wheelchair and then posts the videos online. Okolov rarely manages to get out of his neigborhood in the south of the city because he cannot use his electric wheelchair in most of the subway stations — only the newer stations have lifts. “The most I could do was ride from one end of the line to the other,” he said.

Equally absurd, noted Okolov, is the fact that while many build-ings have ramps at the entrance, there are often steps from the en-trance to the elevators, and many

Integration Integration Into Into Society a Society a Work in Work in Progress Progress

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

4 1 There are 12.85 million people with physical

disabilities in Russia out of a population of 143.5 mil-lion. Only 32 percent of the 2.5 million Russians with physical disabilities who are of working age are em-ployed.

2 Russians with disabili-ties are categorized

according to a three-tier system based on their abil-ity to work. The categories determine the level of fed-eral benefits people with disabilities are able to re-ceive.

3 This year, 122.6 mil-lion rubles will be allo-

cated to help Russians with disabiliites find jobs as part of the Accessible Environ-ment program. The money will be distributed via non-profit organizations that work with the disabled.

4 According to a recent study by the online

job site HeadHunter.ru, 50 percent of Russian compa-nies have staff with disabili-ties, however it was unclear if the survey was based on objective methodology or self-reporting.

FACTS ABOUT

PEOPLE WITH

DISABILITIES

Fashion Interest grows in creating clothing specifically for people with limited mobility

A growing number of Russian de-signers are working on collections for people with disabilities. So far, their creations have included everyday outfi ts, children’s ap-parel and evening gowns for peo-ple in wheelchairs.

The development is a signifi -cant change from the Soviet era, when people with disabilities were mostly institutionalized or kept at home. Today Russians with disabilities are more visible, thanks to changes in urban in-frastructure and the work of N.G.O.s that advocate integration.

Oksana Liventsova, a designer who has created a clothing col-lection for people with cerebral palsy, said that there is a real de-mand for clothing designed es-pecially for people with disabil-ities, and that more and more designers are interested in get-ting into this growing market. She noted, however, that designers should be sensitive to their cli-ents. “What is important is to fi nd a balance between the need to provide special conditions for sale and reasonable prices for prod-ucts,” Liventsova said.

Getting a head startMany of the designers currently creating collections for people with disabilities were encouraged

The niche market of fashion for

people with disabilities is growing

in Russia thanks to increased

visability and the work of

enterprising N.G.O.s.

Russian Designers Take on a New Challenge

INNA FEDOROVASPECIAL TO RBTH

elevators are too small for wheel-chairs.

Maria Gendeleva, a universal design expert working for Pers-pektiva, an N.G.O. that advocates for people with disabilities, also criticizes the implementation of many projects. According to Gen-deleva, too little attention is paid during construction to how peo-ple will actually use the items being planned. “People with dis-abilities should be involved in the planning. Otherwise, many of these things will go unused,” Gen-deleva said.

Yanina Urusova from the or-ganization Without Borders be-lieves that only initiatives from the private sector will bring change. Founded in 2008 by Ger-man businessman Tobias Reisner, Without Borders seeks to provide a new perspective on disability issues among Russians.

“Disabled people in Russia are still more likely to be treated with pity and perceived of as a social problem,” said Urusova. “Through its long-established policies, over the years the state raised many disabled people to play the role of supplicants.” She added that for the state, it is much easier to dole out money than to make the changes required to integrate peo-ple with disabilities into society, but her organization and others like it have a different perspec-tive. “We want to convey a differ-ent, equally legitimate image,” she said, “and change the mindsets of people in both camps.”

Without Borders was created to help professionals with disabili-ties such as lawyers, translators and programmers fi nd good jobs. Since then, however, the organi-zation has expanded and now also runs projects in fashion and art.

“We created a fashion design competition that creates clothes that not only make life easier for people with various disabilities but look good too,” said Urusova.

A particular source of pride is the “Acropolis” art project, which actively celebrates the beauty of a disabled person’s body.

Said Urusova, “We want to change perceptions of these peo-ple, move away from pity and guilt and towards the recognition of them as complete and beauti-ful individuals.”

Hosting the Paralympics in Sochi provided an opportunity for Russia to really show that it is willing to create the infrastruc-ture needed to integrate people with disablities into society at large, said Denise Roza, director of Perspektiva. Apart from the adaptation of sports venues re-quired for Paralympic events, uni-versally friendly measures were extended to the broader city, in-cluding a number of walking paths and ramps. “We could go around Sochi easily, but other Russian cities should become ac-cessible in the same way. There is still a lot to be done for Rus-sians with disabilities across the country,” Roza said.

to give the idea a try by the N.G.O. Without Borders, which in 2010 introduced a project called Cou-ture Without Borders. The proj-ect, launched by Russian entre-preneur Yanina Urusova and the German founder of Without Bor-ders, Tobias Reisner, helps pro-fessional fashion designers craft clothing for people whose phys-ical challenges limit their ability to feel good in the kind of cloth-ing available in regular stores.

The fi rst Couture Without Bor-ders international design compe-tition took place in 2011 and in-volved about 60 designers. Two years later, 80 designers partici-pated in the event. This year, the project got an important boost; the Couture Without Borders fashion show took place as part of Mercedes-Benz Russian Fash-ion Week. In Moscow’s Manezh exhibition hall right outside the Kremlin, designers Daria Razu-mikhina, Masha Sharoyeva, Sa-bina Gorelik, Oksana Liventsova, Dima Neu, Svetlana Sarychev, Al-

bina Bikbulatova, Christina Wolf and Miguel Carval showed off their work.

Razumikhina, whose collection featured striped sailor vests, brightly colored cardigans and spectacular ornamental skirts made of thick fabric that lays well and does not get caught in the wheels of wheelchairs noted that all people want to look good. “People with limited physical abilities want to dress up,” Razu-mikhina said.

The designing duo of Dima Neu and Svetlana Sarycheva showed a line of sportswear for people with prosthetic arms and legs. One special feature of this col-lection is a voluminous bag that — in addition to functioning as a place to stash items — compen-sates for the absence of a sym-metrical load on the spine due to the loss of an arm.

Oksana Liventsova’s collection, called Odyssey, was created es-pecially for people with cerebral palsy who have difficulties coor-dinating their movements. Her transformer models, in which some elements fi t tightly and sup-port the body while others cre-ate volume, come with comfort-able easy-to-use zip fasteners and hooded collars.

“To create industrial produc-tion-ready collections, we need entire experimental laboratories engaged in researching special-ized techniques for fitting and various ways of using different

stiffeners to support the spine and other parts of the body. This re-quires an approach completely different to the normal one used when designing conventional clothes,” Liventsova said.

Creating fashion and jobsAnother Russian organization that works on adapting fashion for people with disabilities is Ort-moda. Ortomoda staffers not only create fashion for people on dis-abilities, but also provide jobs for them. Maxim Katush, who is hearing-impaired, is responsible for the organization’s website. He recently started modeling mod-ern menswear for young people designed by the Ortomoda team.

Katush didn’t have the bene-fi ts of the models who graduate from Special Fashion, a model-ing school for people with dis-abilities. The school held its fi rst fashion show in the Siberian city of Tyumen in 2005. Today, in ad-dition to training models, the Spe-cial Fashion project holds design contests for clothing adapted for people in wheelchairs and peo-ple with limited mobility who need the help of special walking aids such as canes and walkers.

While these programs are small steps in the bigger picture of in-tegrating Russians with disabil-ities into society, their existence is a positive sign for the future. The Couture Without Borders show is expecting to add more designers in 2015.

What Russians think about people with disabilities

Models show off the latest fashions designed especially for people with limited mobility.

By 2015, money will be disbursed for the renovation of public buildings and for new buses and trains.

Only half of the Russian capital’s buses have modern, low-floored designs and few train stations have elevators.

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The First Step Is the Hardest for Visually Impaired Russians

rbth.com/31383 Special Report

For more than 15 years, an N.G.O. called Perspektiva has helped Russian schoolchildren learn to related to people with disabili-ties through a program of dis-ability awareness training called Lessons of Kindness. Perspektiva employees and volunteers have developed programs for students at every grade level consisting of a series of three lessons held on consecutive weeks. The lessons are taught for free in any school that requests them. Since the be-ginning of the current school year, more than 2,000 students have attended kindness lessons.

What is a kindness lesson?In a recent series of lessons at Metropolitan State Gymnasium (Branch No. 3) in Moscow, a group of second-grade students met Alexander Zaykin, who is visually impaired, and Julia Kuleshova, who has problems with her speech and hands. The students listenened attentively while the pair spoke.

One girl asked Zaykin: “What do you see with your eyes? Some-thing black?” He replied, “No, on the contrary, something bright, a light fog. Did you ever watch the fi lm ‘The Hedgehog in the Fog?’”, referring to a famous Rus-sian cartoon in an attempt to give the girl a reference point.

Zaykin and Kuleshova then ex-plained to the children how to correctly refer to people with dis-abilities, using terms such as — “a person with a visual impair-ment” instead of “blind”, and “people with disabilities” instead of “invalids.” The students then played a game called Imitation, in which volunteers from the class had to do a series of tasks, in-cluding walking around the class-room wearing a blindfold and fi nding a toy following only the instructions of a classmate; hop-ping around on one leg; and fas-tening and unfastening buttons using only one hand. The tasks are not easy. When one boy was struggling with a difficult task, he blurted out: “It is easier to die.” The Perspektiva specialists hope that through these experiences, children will begin to understand the barriers that people with dis-abilities face in their daily lives.

The second session began with the game called Get a Job. Chil-dren were divided into three teams and asked to make a list of professions that persons with disabilities can have. The first team made a list for a person with a speech or hearing impairment and included the professions of racecar driver, acrobat and pilot. The second team listed profes-sions for a person without no arms. They wrote down manag-er, teacher and fi gure skater. The third team selected professions for a person with a visual im-pairment, naming massage ther-apist, psychologist and machine operator. During the subsequent discussions, these lists were ad-justed as Zaykin and Kuleshova explained to the children the cases where the professions they listed were suitable and where they were not.

Zaykin then demonstrated his “talking phone” and explained how people who are visually im-paired can read, write and use a telephone and computer. He also explained how he writes in Braille and a special map he uses. When at the beginning of the lesson they were asked whether people with disabilities could work, the students’ opinions were divided. By the end of the class, however, they agreed that every-one should be able to fi nd a suit-able job and live a full life.

Education An N.G.O. helps schoolchildren learn how to relate to people with disabilities through Lessons of Kindness

Activists Work to Change Attitudes Through EducationFor more than 15 years, a local

nonprofit has given Moscow

schoolchildren the opportunity to

communicate with people with

disabilities and understand more

about their lives.

ANNA FEFELOVASPECIAL TO RBTH

Inclusive education

in Russia

According to Perspektiva’s direc-tor Denise Roza, inclusive education is mutual process. Her organiza-tion works to change attitudes on a personal level. By introducing suc-cessful people with disabilities to others, Perspektiva hopes to make people without disabilities comfort-able working and going to school with those who do. Perspektiva al-so hopes that other Russians with disabilities will be inspired through their efforts. Training sessions on disability awareness, called “lessons of kindness,” have been part of Per-spektiva’s program for more than 15 years. “I remember teachers tell-ing me how kids were so excited to meet our trainers who are wheel-chair users in front of the school and help them up the flight of steps because there were no ramps then,” Roza said.”

Changing Attitudes to Change Lives

INTERVIEW DENISE ROZA

When did you first visit Russia?

I came here in 1984 to study Rus-sian. But then I didn’t stay. I did a kind of semester abroad for four months in the Pushkin In-stitute of Foreign Languages. It was a very exciting time and I loved being here. I didn’t spend much time in the dorm and was always out meeting my new friends. As soon as left, I set a goal to come back. I returned in 1986-1987 when I came to study as a graduate student, writing my thesis on social linguistics.

What led you to establish the Per-

spektiva organization?

I later came back to the U.S., continued my studies in Texas, and in May 1989 I got a call from the same program I studied through [American Councils of Teachers of Russian] and they asked me if I would like to be-come a resident director for stu-dents coming to Russia.

In 1994, after working some time in business, I realized that I wanted to do something in the non-profi t sector, which was just beginning to develop here. The World Institute on Disability (W.I.D). was looking for someone to set up and be in charge of their office in Moscow and, I suppose it was destined to be. Two days after contacting them, I had an interview and they hired me. At that time I didn’t have much ex-perience working with people with disabilities. My disabled col-leagues from W.I.D often traveled to Russia to share their experi-ences with Russians with disabil-ities, and I learned a lot from them.

In 1997, the funding for our pro-

Can you say that your proposals

are met now with more under-

standing from the government,

society, business?

I see an openness and curiosity that didn’t exist fi ve or six years ago. More employers contact us to hire disabled people; more vol-unteers would like to take part in our activities. We provided rec-ommendations for the legislation on inclusive education, which went into force in September 2013. Even media coverage of dis-abilities issues and terminology has changed over 15 past years from negative to correct.

What events do you have planned

for the rest of the year?

We are holding our 7th annual disability fi lm festival in Novem-ber, which we hold every two years; we usually show 80 fi lms from 25 countries. In the fall we will hold a competition for the best inclusive school in Russia.

Interview prepared by Elena Bobrova

" This is something that is needed not just by us, but by the schools. It shows children

that people with disabilities are the same as all people, and they can communicate and make friends with them.”

" We are trying to free children from hate and anger. Will we succeed? I do not know, but

I do hope that at least we plant the first seeds.”

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

Alexander Zaykin

Zhanna Shinkarkina

PERSPEKTIVA TEACHER, FORMER SECONDARY

SCHOOL HISTORY TEACHER

DIRECTOR OF THE METROPOLITAN STATE

GYMNASIUM (BRANCH NO. 3)

NATIONALITY: AMERICAN

LIVED IN RUSSIA: SINCE 1989

STUDIED: FRENCH AND RUSSIAN

A native of Chicago, Roza is a grad-uate of Knox College and the Uni-versity of Texas at Austin. During her years in Russia, Roza has been an advocate for people with dis-abilities, focusing not only on insti-tutions, but on making people-to-people connections.

HER STORY

Julia Kuleshova and Alexander Zaykin oversee a kindess lesson at Moscow’s Metropolitan State Gymnasium (Branch No. 3).

a man who has both a vision and hearing impairment became a distinguished professor at one of Moscow’s leading universities. After the lesson, the children said they had learned about “courte-sy” and “helping each other,” and one student said she realized “you can be friends with anyone.”

A long-term projectPerspektiva has been fighting stereotypes and working for the inclusion of people with disabil-ities in all aspects of Russian so-ciety for more than 17 years and has been teaching Lessons of Kindness for more than 15, but Zaykin and Kulesova are fairly recent additions to the program. Kulesova is a psychologist and sees her work with Perspektiva as an outgrowth of her profes-sion. Zaykin taught history in secondary schools for 15 years and is glad to continue working with children. “This is some-thing that is needed not just by us, but by the schools. It shows children that people with dis-abilities are the same as all peo-ple, and they can communicate and make friends with them,” Zaykin said.

This year, 20 schools in Mos-cow are participating in the pro-gram, and other organizations are teaching similar classes across Russia, including in the Khabarovsk Territory in the Far East and in the North Caucasus Republics of Chechnya and North Ossetia.

This is the fi fth year Perspe-ktiva has worked with Metro-politan State Gymnasium (Branch No. 3). The school’s so-cial worker, Irina Zakharova, said that the results of the les-sons are noticaeable. After the lessons, Zakharova said, stu-dents’ attitudes change; they be-come kinder, more tolerant and have learned to have compassion for others. School principal Zhanna Shinkarkina said she didn’t know how effective the lessons were in the long term, but she was hopeful: “We are try-ing to free children from hate and anger. Will we succeed? I do not know, but I do hope that at least we plant the fi rst seeds.”

years is how long the N.G.O. Pers-pektiva has been operating in Rus-sia fighting against stereotypes and seeking the inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of society.

17IN FIGURES

By the third lesson, the chil-dren were more prepared for Za-ykin and Kuleshova’s questions about the obstacles people with disabilities face and how they might be overcome. After a dis-cussion, the students played a game called We Are Different. Going to the blackboard in pairs, they listed the differences among their fellow classmates, such as different hair or eye color or per-sonality traits. The goal of the game is to show the children that although everyone is different, these differences do not prevent them from working together or being friends. The lesson ended with a series of short videos, in-cluding the story of how a Kore-an musician, who has no hands, achieved great success, and how

grams [for the W.I.D office] was ending. We knew about it in ad-vance, and together with my Rus-sian colleagues, I decided to set up a non-profit organization called Perspektiva. It was Febru-ary 1997.

Has the attitude toward people

with disabilities changed dramati-

cally during the past 17 years?

Yes, of course it has changed. One of our goals was getting youth involved, giving them a strong education and good jobs.

Attitudes can’t change until people are part of the commu-nity. Until a person communi-cates with someone who is dis-abled, he/she 1) knows nothing about them 2) and feels uncom-fortable because of the stereo-types that he/she lives with.

We try to bring this message all the time — that disabled peo-ple live interesting lives or can potentially once there is accessi-bility. If they have opportunities, the environment is right, they can live a life like everyone else.

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In Ukraine, Yanukovich Opened Pandora’s box

rbth.com/36583Opinion

LETTERS FROM READERS, GUEST COLUMNS AND CARTOONS LABELED

“COMMENTS” OR “VIEWPOINT,” OR APPEARING ON THE “OPINION” PAGE OF THIS SUPPLEMENT, ARE SELECTED TO REPRESENT A BROAD RANGE OF

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PLEASE SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR TO [email protected]

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Vasily

Kashin VEDOMOSTI

All the signs are that a mil-i t a r y i nv a s i o n o f Ukraine’s restive eastern provinces by Russian

forces is not in the cards. The like-liest scenario is that Moscow will allow Kiev to gradually claw back control of the east, though a pro-longed crisis in relations with the West remains unavoidable.

The armed clashes of the past several weeks have made it clear that the pro-Russian rebels have only a very small core of people with real combat training. An im-portant role in that core group, it would appear, belongs to Rus-sian nationalists with real com-bat experience behind them, but their attitude to the Russian state is ambiguous, to say the least.

The man leading the armed mi-litia in Slavyansk, Igor Girkin-Strelkov, judging by data avail-able so far and by his own statements on Internet forums, adheres to rather radical nation-alist views. He likes the current ruling regime in Russia no more than do the participants in op-position protests in Moscow’s Bo-lotnaya Square.

His image is further enhanced by the richness of biographical details he himself has made pub-lic, including information on where he did his military service and his involvement with the his-torical re-enactment movement.

Strelkov is, most likely, a re-tired low-rank officer with a spe-cial-purpose F.S.B. unit with some aspirations and ideas on “how to rebuild Russia.” This is not such an uncommon type among for-mer security officers in Russia. People like this often choose to be in the center of events, but of-fi cial bureaucracy does not like dealing with them.

There is nobody in southeast Ukraine who looks anything like the well-trained and impressive-

A RESOUNDING DEFEAT FOR THE ARMCHAIR EXPERTS

Georgy

Bovt GAZETA.RU

The immense gulf of mutu-al distrust and suspicion that has characterized re-lations between Russia and

the U.S. in recent years has been laid bare by the degree of misun-derstanding acknowledged experts from both sides have shown in their attitudes toward the other during the Ukrainian crisis. Why do we appear to know each other less well than during the Cold War?

One of the most foolish views that has been voiced recently in discussions of U.S.-Russianrelations is a judgement that we are alike. Almost comparable in its foolishness is the contraposi-tion of our supposed spirituality and their supposed lack of spir-ituality.

In light of today’s fl ashes of mu-tual hatred, it seems that it is only by coincidence that we have thus far not had cause to fi ght each other directly. For decades, rela-tions between the two countries were friendly, except during the Cold War.

Taking this into consideration, the following words, spoken in the mid-19th century, are even more surprising: “There are today two great nations in the world which, having started from dif-ferent points, seem to be advanc-ing toward the same goal: These are the Russians and the Anglo-Americans. To attain their aims, America relies on personal inter-

May 2014

Quarterly report

After the fall of the Soviet Union,

Russia became a net exporter of

brainpower. This RD Quarterly

examines the leading factors

behind the “brain drain” and

looks at Moscow’s strategy for a

future “brain gain.” It also gives

10 specific recommendations on

how Russia can become more

attractive to top talent.

May 2014

Monthly memo

As relations between Russia

and the U.S. worsen, the

potential for a new space race is

becoming more realistic. Read

this monthly memo to find out

which areas are key in U.S.-

Russia space cooperation and

which of these might be strong

enough to withstand the current

atmosphere of mistrust.

Access all Russia Direct reports with one click!Go >> russia-direct.org/archive

Re: How Crimea’s Past Compli-

cates its Future

I actually care a lot about Rus-sian culture, and have studied the language, history and liter-ature.

I’ve studied its place and role in the evolution of ancient be-ginnings of modern civilization. Ukraine is indeed where it start-ed. But cultures don’t ever own property …

Cultures are living relation-ships between people, and may or may not seem to take respon-sibility for themselves, or be re-sponsive to the rest of world so-ciety. It’s entirely up to them individually what they them-selves choose to do.

The problem is that to most people, probably even you, false stories don’t earn respect.

JESSIE ROSENEW YORK

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Re: A New Yorker’s Guide to Mos-

cow on the Hudson

I was so excited to see the beau-tiful article in the New York Times about Russia and Russian cul-ture. I think it’s great that you have a paper because it gives us a chance to really read and see how beautiful Russian culture is. HAVA ARIFINEW YORK

Re: More Flowers, Little Power

I loved the article about Int’l Women’s Day, a holiday dear to my heart, celebration of which I try to propagate in the U.S. In-teresting to learn the most com-mon viewpoint toward feminism there — nice journalistic contrast.

I picked up the paper to try to get more insight into the Crime-an situation.

ANN SCHNEIDER

Readers respond to March supplement

ly equipped men in uniforms without insignia who were de-ployed to Crimea ahead of the referendum there. The small com-bat core of the rebels have rath-er modest armaments. Moreover,

there is nothing solid to indicate that these armaments came from post-Soviet Russia.

The shoulder-fi red air defense system that was used in the fi rst days of fi ghting was most prob-ably seized by the rebels when they disarmed units of Ukraine’s

25th Airborne Brigade. In Soviet times, each airborne company was supposed to have four portable air defense systems, and it is at least possible that today’s regu-lations in the Ukrainian armed forces are not that different.

The fact that since the fi rst day of heavy fi ghting the system has not been used again confi rms that it was booty, most probably the sole such system seized, with few munitions.

The role the Russian secret ser-vices play in the drama unfold-ing in southeast Ukraine consists of no more than watching the sit-uation and, perhaps, maintain-ing contacts with individual mi-litia leaders. Russia intends to sit and watch Kiev suppress the re-bellion in the southeast.

There are probably two reasons for this. The first is the fear of

economic sanctions that the U.S. and Germany have threatened to impose in the event of any mili-tary intervention. The second is that Moscow does not want to get involved in a conflict that

could be potentially destructive for its economy over large terri-tories with large economic prob-lems and a predominantly Ukrai-nian population whose sentiments are far from uniform, in which Russia has never been particu-larly interested.

At the moment, it appears that Ukrainian government forces, de-spite their poor organization, low morale and poor training, are slowly, with setbacks and losses, but surely closing the circle around the rebels. They will most probably regain control over those territories in time to make it pos-sible to conduct a presidential election on May 25 with at least a semblance of legality.

It would however be erroneous to interpret this as a sign that an end to the Ukrainian crisis is in sight. A military operation, con-ducted by poorly trained troops and with support of paramilitary nationalist groups, cannot but cause anger among the popula-tion.

The tragic events in Odessa will only make this anger worse. This is a powerful time bomb planted

under Ukrainian statehood for generations to come, and the pros-pects of that statehood were un-clear as it was.

After Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown, Ukraine reaped all the possible evils of a revolution without its only possible benefi t: a change of political elite. All the visible presidential candidates, including Yulia Tymoshenko, have a long history in Ukrainian power. At different times, all of them have been perceived as an epit-ome of local corruption. Ukraine is doomed to a long political cri-sis with a further radicalization of politics, with the factors of eth-nicity, language and religion com-ing to the fore.

Russia, the E.U. and the U.S. will inevitably be drawn into all new domestic Ukrainian upheav-als. Given the mutual distrust their leaders have displayed, con-frontation between them is set to continue.

Furthermore, after Russia’s in-corporation of Crimea, the U.S. has the important task of restor-ing its strongly undermined clout by punishing Russia, turning it into a rogue state. By refusing to intervene militarily in Ukraine’s southeast, Russia has not avert-ed more severe sanctions, but has just bought some time to prepare for them by re-orienting econom-ic, science, technology and other ties towards Asia and by putting import-replacement programs in place.

It is for the sake of this that, for the next several weeks, Rus-sian TV channels will be show-ing us how “the other side” in east-ern Ukraine are gradually killing “ours” with the wholehearted ap-proval of the U.S. president and the German chancellor. This spec-tacle will change Russian society, predetermining Russia’s political history for decades to come.

Vasily Kashin is an expert with the Center for Analysis of Strate-gies and Technologies.

est and gives free scope to the unguided strength and common sense of individuals.”

This was written in the 1830s by Alexis de Tocqueville, the au-thor of the canonical work De-mocracy in America. “Russia in a sense concentrates the whole power of the society in one man,” wrote de Tocqueville. “America has freedom as the principal means of action; Russia has ser-vitude. Their points of departure are different and their paths are diverse; nevertheless, each seems called by some secret desire of Providence one day to hold in its hands the destinies of half the world.”

I am citing de Tocqueville be-cause the present-day complete failure of all post-Cold War de-velopments is paradoxically tak-ing place when globalization, it appears, has already irreversibly turned the world into a space open to all informational, fi nan-cial and other winds. It seemed that this interdependence would become a guarantee that politi-cians would abstain from rash conduct in the international arena. But the civilizational abyss between us is now much deeper than it was even during the Cold War. This has been accompanied by the total helplessness of ex-perts on both sides to understand each other.

During the Soviet era, country-by-country studies of “the poten-tial enemy” were widely repre-sented at the university level in the United States. The choice of

topics available for those study-ing the Soviet Union was im-mensely broad, and students will-ingly signed up for such courses, which were generously funded. Most importantly, the U.S. admin-istration listened to its experts. The breakup of the Soviet state meant the collapse of Russians studies as well. The money, stu-

dents and university positions have gone. Why engage in the study of a country that “lost” the Cold War? The fashion for Sovi-etology was at fi rst replaced with Sinology, and now with Arabic and Islamic studies.

All of this can be said about American studies at Russian uni-versities as well.

No newspaper column would be long enough to list the vast array of American myths about Russia and vice versa.

When it comes to the misun-derstanding of U.S. politics by Russian politicians, the toughest nut to crack is the powerful ide-alistic missionary component in U.S. politics. And that the sup-

port of N.G.O.s from the U.S. side is not always for the sake of for-menting revolutions.

There is just as much misun-derstanding among the Ameri-can political class, for example, as to what Ukraine means for Russia.

There are only three or four people among Russia’s political newsmakers who have at least a fair idea of the role of Congress is (and how it works), as well as the role of the judiciary and the press in U.S. politics.

In the U.S. establishment, about the same number of people have at least an approximate under-standing of the power of people’s sentiments in Russia, which can-not be gauged by the number of people who attend mass protests.

We know each other less well than we did before, and in fact we have no desire to know each other better. However, it is not worth taking this to the point where history will force us into mutual understanding when we are already in the trenches of a nuclear war.

It is time to stop, to look close-ly at each other, and to come to our senses.

Georgy Bovt is a columnist and political analyst.

Moscow does not want to get involved in a conflict that could be potentially destructive for its economy.

The civilizational abyss between Russia and the U.S. is now much deeper than it was even during the Cold War.

Russia, the E.U. and the U.S. will inevitably be drawn into all new domestic Ukrainian upheavals.

Read the full text at

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The new generation of desktop computers were simply given the name of komps.

Iron — A signifi cant part of the computer lexicon in Russian has been directly borrowed from English, such as the word “user.” However, there are exceptions. Russians call software soft, but for hardware they use the word zhelezo (iron).

The motherboard in Russian becomes mat (mother) and the keyboard (klaviatura in Russian) was given the female name Klava. If the computer has a glitch, Russians call it a glyuk, slang derived from the word for hallucination.

Teapots — People who are un-familiar with computer terms and life online are called tea-pots (chainiki). In one popular joke from the 1990s, an old lady complains, “These new rich peo-ple have really gone crazy. Yes-terday in the store, one even bought a carpet for his mouse.”

If a computer mouse lives on a carpet, a computer dog lives inside e-mail. Russians call the @ sign a dog (sobaka). And the word “email” itself sounds to a Russian like the word for soap (mylo). The phrase “throw it to me on the soap” means “send me the information by e-mail.”

But the newest generation of electronic devices is no longer generating new names. The words notebook, iPhone and iPad have made their way into Rus-sian virtually unchanged. How-ever, tablet computers are called “planshet” from the French planchette.

the pages of “The Zhivago Af-fair,” from his formative Moscow years to the tear-jerking defi ance of his unexpectedly crowded fu-neral. The narrative has an ad-mirable pace and lightness, of-fering economical snapshots of Stalin’s “lupine malice” or the “drum beat of condemnation” that sounded against Pasternak in official journals and meetings.

In 1956, Pasternak was one of Russia’s best-known poets and gave the manuscript of his fi rst novel to an Italian journalist to pass on to publisher Giangia-como Feltrinelli, who helped “Zhivago” travel around the world. Feltrinelli’s 1957 edition was followed by versions of the novel in many languages, but it was banned in the Soviet Union.

Pasternak’s relationship with the Soviet authorities was com-plicated. Stalin famously dis-missed him as a “cloud dweller” but he survived the purges al-though his novel had been pub-lished abroad, which was enough to condemn other writers. Even after Stalin’s death, Pasternak was forced to refuse the Nobel Prize in Literature and forbid-den to receive foreigners at his home.

“The Zhivago Affair” joins a growing crowd of books illumi-nating the making of well-loved texts. From “Shakespeare in Love” to “Saving Mr Banks,” these meta-stories make great movies. With its cast of schem-ing Soviet bureaucrats, C.I.A. agents and doomed, warring poets, it is easy to imagine “The Zhivago Affair” as a Hollywood blockbuster, too.

This book is a tribute to the power of stories in any society. The tales that nations construct about their own past, and the intervention of the state into lit-erature and the media, are as topical now as ever.

Over the past 60 years, the emergence of new communication devic-es has added to Rus-

sians’ everyday vocabulary, making slang out of ordinary words.

Plate — In the early 1940s, every Soviet apartment was equipped with a “radiotochka,” which was basically a cross be-tween a public loudspeaker and a radio. This radio broad-cast just one government sta-tion, and during the war it was used to issue warnings. The ra-diotochka was a big black speaker, similar to a plate, and so Russians began to call it a “plate” (tarelka). The black plate became a defi ning sym-bol of the totalitarian era.

Box — Today it is considered trendy to say “I don’t watch TV,” and it isn’t just intellec-tuals who call it simply a “box” (yashik), although those who use this dismissive term are usually up to date on the lat-est poular shows. Additionally, since the television is also a means for presenting the gov-ernment’s view on current events, sometimes it is called a “zombie box” (zomboyashik).

In the 1990s, another kind of box was introduced into Russian homes — the comput-er. The early Soviet-era com-puters, which occupied entire rooms in scientifi c research in-stitutions, were called E.V.M.s, an abbreviation of electronic calculating machine (elektron-naya vichislitelnaya mashina), but this name is out of date.

Boris Pasternak’s novel “Doctor Zhivago” was a cultural battleground in the Cold War, and

“The Zhivago Affair,” by Peter Finn and Petra Couvee, tells the story of this battle. The authors combine elements of a politi-cal thriller with an elegant sum-mary of the cultural context. They have had unprecedented access to C.I.A. fi les, which show that the agency was involved in publishing a Russian edition of “Doctor Zhivago” and dis-tributing it at the 1958 Inter-national Exposition in Brussels. One memo from the C.I.A.’s So-viet Russia Division chief out-lines the propaganda value of “Pasternak’s humanistic mes-sage” expressed in the novel.

“Doctor Zhivago,” for those who haven’t read Pasternak’s classic tale of love, war and art, offers a panoramic sweep of early 20th century Russian his-tory. The eponymous hero is a doctor and a poet who falls in love with a married nurse. The soullessness of post-revolution-ary society contrasts with Zhivago’s romantic affair and poetic legacy. The book’s focus on individualism and religion was at odds with the official doctrine of socialist realism. The Bolshevik revolution is not shown as “the cake with the cream on top,” as Pasternak wrote when he finished the manuscript.

Pasternak’s life and times are freshly and vividly revisited in

BEHIND THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

BIBLIOPHILE

From plate to iPhone: Russian slang for personal electronics

The C.I.A. and the Meta-Story Behind “Doctor Zhivago”

TITLE: THE ZHIVAGO AFFAIR

AUTHOR: PETER FINN, PETRA

COUVÉE

PUBLISHER: PANTHEON

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Over the past two years, the Northern Kentucky Brotherhood Singers, R. Carlos Nakai, the Poor Mountain Boys, the Quebe Sis-ters Band and Modern Blues Mas-ters all went on extensive tours of Russia. The tours — which were set up by the U.S.-Russia Bilat-eral Presidential Commission to introduce such traditional Amer-ican music styles as Country-Western, acapella, Native Amer-ican fl ute, and bluegrass — didn’t just create new fans of these styles. The performers often found Russians who were intimately fa-miliar with traditional American music. Unlike jazz, which was banned in the Soviet Union, American country and folk music was available in Russia, and some songs in these styles are even fea-tured in the soundtracks to chil-dren’s cartoons.

Larissa Grigorieva, the produc-er and director of the Country Bridge Festival, said that while the fan bases may not be large, this kind of music is easy to like.

Music The number of American folk and country bands playing Moscow is growing

Traditional American music

wasn’t banned in the Soviet era,

which allowed a local fanbase to

grow. Today, Russian bands are

making this music their own.

“People have always perceived it vividly because rhythm and mood are very clear to all people around the world,” Grigorieva said. “Today, there are about 30 bands playing different variants of coun-try music in Russia.”

Local colorThe Moscow-based Red Brick Boys Music Band, formed in 2009, is the heart of the Russian capi-tal’s community of bluegrass fans. In addition to giving concerts, the band members also give lectures on the history and development of traditional music of the Unit-ed States. Their presentations in-clude stories about the origins of traditional American music and live performances of old and new bluegrass music, sea chanties and folk melodies.

William McGuinness, a native of Yonkers, N.Y., who lives in Mos-cow for 3 years, is a Red Brick Boys fan. “I’ve been to concerts other than Red Brick Boys here, but they’ve mostly been popular music. I really love concerts in Moscow, but I wish more of my favorite bands came here!”

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow is active in bringing folk, country and bluegrass groups to Moscow. Commenting on the Embassy’s cultural activities, Minister-Coun-

selor for Public Affairs Jeffrey Sex-ton said that the Embassy was bringing seven musical groups from New Orleans to participate in Moscow’s annual Usadba Jazz Festival in June. “This music will cover a wide range of styles, from jazz an blues, to Zydeco and gos-pel,” Sexton said.

The Moscow group RawCats’88, which plays rock ’n’ roll, boogie-woogie, rockabilly and swing, will celebrate its 10th anniversary this

year. The RawCats repertoire in-cludes covers of classic American hits of the 1950s through the 1970s, as well as their own com-positions, stylized after that pe-riod of time. Organizer and lead singer Valery “Injun” Setkin said that he has played rhythm and blues since childhood. “My father brought vinyl records from abroad and I grew up with Amer-ican music,” Setkin said.

Daniel Taylor of the Far Cities band said that the infl uence of the blues can be heard in a lot of

DARYANA ANTIPOVASPECIAL TO RBTH

Russian rock bands and that there is a lot of similarity between the storytelling of traditional Amer-ican music and Russian bard sing-ers. “I love folk music, but it’s more about the stories and I think Russia already has a very rich cul-ture with bard music,” Taylor said.

Few Moscow clubs consistent-ly offer bands that play Ameri-can-style music, although fans can seek out their favorite groups at a variety of venues in the cap-ital. Members of local bands named at least seven clubs in Moscow where they play.

The role of historyMusic journalist Guru Ken said that country and American folk music didn’t suffer the same fate as jazz or rock because its fan base remained small. Ken noted that in the Soviet Union, the fi rst folk music artist included in of-fi cial airwaves playlists was Pete Seeger, whose politics were “ideo-logically close” to communism. Ken also pointed out that the most popular country music group in the Soviet Union was Mashina Vremini (Time Machine), which worked within the state musical organizations, so there was no need for the authorities to ban this kind of music. “But even Mashina Vremeni’s country hits did not help popularity of country music in the Soviet and Russia. So far, it is quite an un-obtrusive segment of Russian show business.”

Russian folk songs, like all folk songs, were never new and never get old. Their origins are un-known, and yet their words are familiar to everyone. They are at their most beautiful when sung in harmony, as they traditionally were, thereby allowing the sing-ers to bond through this shared expression. It was the communal aspect of this music that fi rst drew Irina Zagornova, director of the New York–based Russian chil-dren’s folk group the Golden Rooster, to this genre.

“I love Russian folk because even the sad songs have this life-affirming energy. Back in the day, women used to gather together at night and sing, and that was their way of healing one another, of showing that they all had the same problems and no one was alone. And then men tilling the fi eld would sing to pass the time and unburden their troubles and

Ensembles New York’s Russian community shows off its heritage in folk music groups

show they were all in it together, as well,” Zagornova said. “These songs have been around for cen-turies, but because they’re about such universal, human issues, they’re still so relevant today.”

Zagornova graduated from the prestigious Mussorsky Conserva-tory of Music in St. Petersburg, and when she immigrated to New York in 1994 with her husband Leonid, a bass balalaika player, she founded the Golden Rooster in order to pass these ancestral songs on to a new generation of

Russian-Americans. The ensem-ble performs a wide repertoire, including themed programs that illustrate traditional celebrations like weddings and Christmas.

Another folk ensemble, Bary-na, showcases a stunning display of Russian dances. In the group’s multicultural, live-music perfor-mances, peasants seemingly defy gravity while pirouetting through the air; Cossacks show off some truly impressive leg work; and bears become agile ballerinas. There’s a fair number of melan-

choly tunes as well, but director Mikhail Smirnov focuses mostly on the mirth: “Ninety-fi ve per-cent of Russian folk songs are very depressing; the other 5 percent is the best party music, and it makes everybody have a drink.”

The third Russian folk ensem-ble in New York, Russian Carni-val, is largely orchestral, and its music enables listeners to truly appreciate the nuanced wonders of Russian folk instruments: the balalaika, the bayan, the bass bal-alaika and the domra. Led by domra player Tamara Volskaya, Russian Carnival often brings an innovative twist to familiar tunes.

Despite the skill required to sing and play these tunes, Irina Zagornova said that feeling the music is just as important. “Rus-sian folk music is very deeply emotional. That’s why, when per-forming, you really have to con-nect with the audience and con-vey every single thing that you’re feeling. It’s kind of like being in love: If you’re going to do it right, then you can’t hold anything back.”

Past Meets Present in Folk Music

Golden Rooster performs traditional folk harmonies in New York.

DIANA BRUKSPECIAL TO RBTH

Russian-American folk groups in

New York turn to songs, dances

and instruments to pass their rich

heritage down to the next

generation and keep the

traditions alive.

Country Music Finds Fans in the Big City

The Moscow band Red Brick Boys gives concerts and lectures on the history of traditional American music.

The Quebe Sisters Band

performed at Moscow’s

second festival of tradi-

tional American music.

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watch videos of the groups

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Nine Popular Soviet Children’s Games

rbth.com/36415 Feature

It’s nearly summer, and like many American children, a

growing number of Russian kids go to camp. Would you

like to try going to a Russian summer camp? Your

parents can find out more in our story just above.

DISCOVER RUSSIA TOGETHER

HAVE AN IDEA FOR RBTH FOR KIDS? WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE

TO BE A KID IN RUSSIA?

WRITE TO US AT [email protected]!

Learn Russian!Children’s camp - детский лагерь (det-skee la-gehr)

Friends - друзья (druz-yah)

Disco – дискотека (dis-koh-tek-ah)

Lake – озеро (o-zehr-ah)

Bonfire – кoстёр (kahs-tyor)

Guitar – гитара (geeh-tah-rah)

Counselor – воспитатель (vohs-pee-tah-tehl)

Crossword

Can you find the following words? Words are hidden

backwards, forwards and diagonally.

Camp, counselor, disco, friends, games, guitar, nature, playground, pool, sea, soccer, swim.

Person of the MonthSamantha Smith (1972-1985). In 1982, at the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, 10-year-old Samantha Smith, a girl from Maine, wrote a letter to Soviet leader Yury Andropov asking if he intended to go to war with the United States. Andropov wrote back, telling her that the Soviet Union wanted peace, and invited her to visit his country. In the summer of 1983, Smith took Andropov up on his offer. She visited Moscow and Leningrad, and spent time at the most famous Soviet children’s camp, Artek.

For kids who live in cities, the best part of camp is getting to spend time outdoors.

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camp traditions at

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In the Soviet era, as now, sum-mer camps for children existed to give kids something to do dur-ing school holidays. The first camps were established in the 1920s by the initiative of the Rus-sian division of the Red Cross. Under this initial program, stu-dents from the city traveled to camps in the country where mem-bers of the Pioneers — a sort of Communist scout program — of-

fered help to local residents and taught classes for rural children. The fi rst and most famous camp of this type was the Artek camp, which opened in 1925 in Crimea, and is still in operation today.

By the end of the Soviet era, there were more than 40,000 chil-dren’s camps, which welcomed up to 10 million children every year. These camps mostly func-tioned under the sponsorship of major factories and enterprises and provided summer programs for children of factory workers. In the 1990s, however, most of these companies were on the verge of bankruptcy, and the camps were closed.

In recent years, a new kind of children’s camp has opened to ap-peal to the rising Russian middle class, who can afford to send their kids on a two-week adventure where they will receive in-depth training on a variety of topics and a Michelin star chef will prepare their meals.

More Than Songs Around a Campfirepick up English,” Alissa said. “The atmosphere is so vibrant and full of fun. You get to have vocabu-lary games that involve running around outdoors, tearing cards from trees; you get to go for im-provised hikes, getting kids to scribble ‘pinecone’ in their note-pads as you come across one in the shade of the pine forests. And even though the English lessons were always the ‘boring part’ of the day (the kids get to go swim-ming, play volleyball and enact TV quizzes the rest of the time!), I think everybody had fun and loved the experience.”

One signifi cant obstacle to the development of camps in Russia is the complexity of the legisla-tive regulation, said Galina Dekhtyar, a professor at theRussian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. In particular, there are laws regulating how many teachers should be in the camps, where camps can be built and even the type of leaseagreement.

Despite this, Finam analyst Maxim Klyagin said that the in-terest of investors in this segment in recent years has grown signif-icantly. “A new factor of attrac-tiveness is now, fi rst of all, the emergence of a strong demand from consumers,” Klyagin said. “A relatively low price for com-parable quality makes such trips quite attractive.” He especially sees room for growth in camps that cater to expat children and are aimed at helping them adapt to Russian language and culture.

The main driver of growth in this market is the willingness of parents to spend money on their children. According to the Juve-nile Products Manufacturer’s As-sociation, Russian parents gen-erally spend $1,000 per child per year. This is half what American parents spend, but the gap is rap-idly shrinking. Last year, Russia became the largest market in Eu-rope for children’s goods.

This July, a new camp for chil-dren is set to open in the town of Borodino outside Moscow. Called The Village, the project was cre-ated by prominent public fi gures, bloggers and journalists, includ-ing Philip Bakhtin, the former editor of the Russian edition of Esquire magazine. Every day, the program in the camp is dedicat-ed to a specifi c form of art such as film, music or painting. The children will be fed by Anatoly Komm, the only Russian restau-rateur to earn a Michelin star. The cost of a two-week trip to this camp for children is around 37,000 (about $1,000), and with-in days of opening its registra-tion period, the camp received 3,000 applications.

The financial backers of the project intend to open 25 more camps across Russia by 2018. They are planning to invest around 3.7 billion rubles (about $100 mil-lion) into each camp.

According to investment fi rm Finam Holding, the number of children’s camps in Russia is growing by 10–15 percent per year. There is even a special search engine for camps based on the popular travel search website booking.com — incamp.ru. The website contains information on more than 800 programs and al-lows parents to fi lter results by price, age, rating and theme.

Themed camps are one of the hottest trends in the market. One camp, on the shore of the White Sea in Karelia, is dedicated to the study of nature of the Rus-sian North. A camp with a spe-cial dance curriculum is located at Lake Seliger, about a four-hour drive from Moscow in the Tver Region.

Room to growAccording to Roman Grinchen-ko, an analyst with InvestCafe, this kind of camp has the great-est possibility of return on invest-ment because there is so little competition. These projects could

potentially also attract children from other countries. “Given the fact that at the moment the num-ber of foreign customers is min-imal, if we execute this project competently, we can expect to at-tract students from other coun-tries,” Grinchenko said. Current-ly, most of the foreigners at Russian children’s camps are teachers, especially given that lan-guage camps — particularly those that focus on English — are ex-tremely popular among Russian parents. The Orange children’s camp outside St. Petersburg of-fers English teaching jobs to young foreigners who want to spend a summer in Russia. The jobs pay only $700 for two weeks, but room and board are covered.

London native Houssam Alis-sa taught English at a similar camp in 2013. “Language camps are a fantastic way for kids to

Children Although summer camps have been an institution since Soviet times, today’s programs bear little resemblance to Pioneer training

Investors find that summer camps

are big business in a country

where members of the growing

middle class are willing to spend

more on their kids.

ALEXEI LOSSANRBTH

Hanging out with friends is as

much a part of summer camp to-

day (above) as it was during the

Soviet era (side).

8. 5 millionkids are expected to attend summer camp this year, up dramati-cally from 5.2 million last year.

53,000summer camps will operate in Russia this year, including both sleepaway and day camps.

18,000rubles (500$) is the av-erage price of a sum-mer camp session. Pric-es for language camps are higher.

IN FIGURES

The incamp.ru website contains information on more than 800 summer programs of all types across Russia.

After school ends in late May, many Russian children head to summer camp.

Camps are usually located outside of cities, in the countryside or by the sea.

The Black Sea is a popular location for sum-mer camps, where children can swim, play

games and do crafts with other kids from all over Russia. Many camps offer a wide range of activities,

while others offer specialized programs for kids who want extra time practicing a particular sport or want to learn how to draw or cook.Language camps, particularly ones that teach Eng-

lish, are also popular.

One of the most

memorable experienc-es of a Russian summer camp is the disco. Every night (or less fre-quently in some camps) every-

one heads to the dance floor, where D.J.s are ready to play the most popu-lar songs. For girls, one of the best parts

of disco night is dressing up, some-times borrowing their roommates’

clothes. For guys, it’s showing off the latest moves and trying to

be the coolest guy at camp.

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