RBTH insert in the New York Times, Nov. 25, 2015

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P.04

Special Report

A Safe Place in Outer Space

Russia-U.S. relations still work above the earth

P.06

Opinion

Kabul Asks for Moscow’s Help

Afghan government hedging its bets

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

NEWS IN BRIEF

As a major climate change conference prepares to open in Paris on Nov. 30, Russia has come out in support of an initative to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The country is ready to fi nan-ce the transfer of technologies reducing green-house gas emissions to developing nations, accor-ding to Alexander Bedritsky, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s advisor on climate change. “Developed and developing countries may have different commitments and contributions, but all of them need to be included in a single interna-tional document, to be legally binding,” Bedrits-ky said recently. “We support as the goal of the agreement a temperature growth limited to two degrees and, if we manage to reach this agree-ment, the 50 percent reduction of global emis-sions by 2050.”

Russia has proposed that Ukraine pay off its debt in installments of $1 billion for the next three years, according to a statement Russian President Vladimir Putin made Nov. 17. “We haven’t just agreed to restructure the Ukrainian debt, we have offered better conditions than the International Monetary Fund was asking of us. We were asked to postpone the payment for the next year in the amount of $3 billion. I said that we were ready for a deeper restructuring.”Russia loaned Ukraine $3 billion in the fall of 2013 to prop up the government of former Presi-dent Viktor Yanukovich.

Astro Digital, a startup created by Russian en-treprenur Ekaterina Kotenko-Lengold, won se-cond place in the startup competition at Slush, a major event in northern Europe for developers interested in attracting international investors.Astro Digital is run by an international team of experts from Russia and the U.S., and the startup’s head office is located at NASA’s Ames Research Park in California. The program is a platform for accessing satellite data that provides an easy, quick search and integration of satellite photographs into web and mobile applications. Developers be-lieve there will be a demand for such technology, especially from farmers and forest services.

Moscow ready to support

cutting emissions in Paris

Putin proposes restructuring

of Ukraine’s debt

Russian-American startup

shines at Helsinki tech fair

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Web-Doc: The Memory of the Solovetsky IslandsRBTH.COM/536773

Terrorism Following the tragedies in Egypt, Lebanon and France, an alliance may finally be formed

After two years of worsening

relations, a series of terrorist

attacks may finally bring Russian

and American dlplomats to the

negotiating table.

T he shock and outrage of the at-tacks in Paris that left at least 129 dead, coupled with suicide bombings in Beirut and the down-ing of a Russian passenger air-liner in Egypt, have brought the need for international co-opera-tion to combat terrorism into an urgent new focus.

Relations between Russia and the West have been in a down-ward spiral since the spring of 2014, when civil war erupted in eastern Ukraine and Russia in-corporated Crimea. The past 18 months have seen a raft of sanc-tions against Russian companies and individuals and a retaliatory ban on food imports from West-ern countries, in addition to heightened rhetoric and increased military activity along the bor-der between NATO and Russia. Even as recently as last month, Russian and American politicians were trading barbs over the fi ght against ISIS in Syria, with Wash-ington hawks accusing Russia’s bombing strikes in the country of making matters worse as Mos-cow argued that all rebel groups were terrorists.

But the tone of the rhetoric began to change after a bomb brought down a Russian Metro-jet fl ight traveling from the Egyp-tian resort of Sharm el-Sheik to St. Petersburg on Oct. 31, killing all 224 aboard. U.S. President

ISIS Attacks Break Russia-West Stalemate

SERGEI STROKAN AND VLADIMIR MIKHEEVSPECIAL TO RBTH

tween Russia and the West over the future of Syria. Many in the international community view the departure of Syrian President Bashar al Assad as a precondi-tion for moving forward.

At the Vienna meeting on Syria the day after the Paris attacks, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that “the political process has to be accompanied by a ceasefi re. That will help to end the blood-shed as quickly as possible.”

Kerry added: “This war cannot end so long as Bashar al-Assad is there.”

Russia, in contrast, sees Assad’s government as the only thing keeping Syria from becoming a failed state. In Russia’s view, “Assad’s regime is the true alter-native to the Islamists,” said Alex-ei Malashenko, an analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Center.

Hope for the futureNevertheless, the attacks have provided an impetus to push dip-lomats past their talking points.

Russia has agreed to ally with France on fi ghting against ISIS in Syria. The Russian militaryalready operating in Syria will liaise with the French aircraft car-rier Charles deGaulle. French President François Hollande will visit Moscow tomorrow.

The Americans aren’t quite yet willing to commit, but they are getting closer. “The U.S. and Rus-sia may expand their military co-operation if they overcome their diplomatic differences over Syria,” Obama said on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Manila, his most optimistic statement about the situation to date.

Barack Obama expressed his sympathy to the Russian people, and Russian officials asked the F.B.I. to participate in the inves-tigation into the crash. Then, fol-lowing the attacks in Paris, Amer-ican and Russian diplomats led the 17 nations meeting in Vienna on Nov. 14 to agree to a transi-tion plan for Syria.

In the clearest indication that things had changed, Obama sat down with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Antalya, Turkey, for more than 20 minutes and came away with an agree-ment “on the need for a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition,” according to a state-ment from the White House.

Change we can believe in?While previous attempts to forge a united international front to strike against the terrorist threat in the Middle East have failed, revulsion over the atrocities in Paris, Beirut and Egypt may yet achieve a common purpose, al-though a single coalition against ISIS has not yet emerged.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lav-rov has repeatedly asserted that Russia is open to working with the West on fi ghting terrorism. Speaking to reporters last week, Lavrov said: “For the entire in-ternational community, the ob-jective is to increase the efficien-cy of the war against terrorism and at the same time seek a po-litical solution to the problems in Syria, Yemen and other coun-tries in the region.”

Finally, American officials may be responding.

Vladimir Sotnikov, head of the East-West Strategic Studies Cen-ter, a Moscow think tank, is hope-ful about the possibility of fi nd-ing common ground, in part because the recent spate of at-tacks affected such a broad cross-section of people. “Whenever there are breaches in providing secu-rity — and it looks like there were failures in ensuring the safety of foreign nationals on holiday in Egypt — the threat of terrorism will increase,” Sotnikov said, add-ing that the lack of security af-fected the interests of thousands of people, not only Russians, and “the actions taken by many for-eign governments in the wake of the air crash prove that they un-derstand this. And it has to be dealt with ir respective of any other thorny issues, for instance, the differences Russia has with the American administration and the British government over the crisis in Ukraine.”

Jane Kinninmont, a senior re-search fellow at the British in-ternational affairs think tank Chatham House, agrees with Sot-nikov’s assessment. “Cooperation is often spurred by the percep-tion of having a common enemy — as was seen when the West al-lied with Islamists against Rus-sia in Afghanistan in the 1980s, at a time when communism rath-er than Islamism was seen as the primary threat,” Kinninmont said.

No more agreeing to disagree

But creating an alliance to take on ISIS may be easier said than done, in part because of the dis-agreements that still exist be-

Shared grief:

Russians lay

flowers in

front of the

French embas-

sy in Moscow

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Aviation Local airlines and businesspeople likely to suffer the most from the ban, which could last for several years

Air travel is the latest industry to

fall victim to tensions between

Moscow and Kiev as both

governments prohibit flights

between their countries.

On Oct. 25, direct fl ights between Russia and Ukraine ceased in the world’s largest closure of civilian airspace since the eruption of an Icelandic volcano wreaked havoc across Europe in 2010.

Following Russia’s absorption of Crimea in March 2014, Ukrai-nian aviation authorities banned Russian airlines from landing at the peninsula’s largest airport, in the city of Simferopol. Russian airlines promptly ignored this ban, which led Ukraine to im-pose fi nes on the Russian airlines. These penalties were similarly disregarded.

Eventually the dispute moved from Ukraine’s aviation authori-ties to the country’s political lead-ership, and, on Sept. 25, Ukraine unveiled a list of 20 Russian air-lines that would not be permitted to operate in any Ukrainian air-ports as of Oct. 25. Russia recip-rocated by barring all of Ukraine’s airlines, and, in response, Ukraine barred the few remaining Russian airlines, thus sealing a complete closure of the airspace.

According to independent avi-ation expert Oleg Panteleyev, or-dinary passengers will be the big-gest losers in this geopolitical tit for tat. About two million Rus-sian citizens are of Ukrainian de-scent, and over eight million Ukrainian citizens are ethnic Rus-sians, according to census data. Many Russians have family in Ukraine, and the reverse is true for Ukrainians.

“I’m more than upset about this situation; I’m furious,” said Ivan, a Moscow-based advertis-ing executive who is originally from Ukraine and whose parents still live there. “Why should or-dinary people pay for politicians’ decisions?”

Tatiana, a manager from Kiev who frequently travels to Russia on business, was disappointed but

Winners and losersRussian and Ukrainian airlines will also face considerable loss-es. In the fi rst eight months of 2015, about 800,000 people fl ew between Russia and Ukraine, ac-cording to Russian aviation au-thorities, according to inform agency Regions.ru. Aviation ex-pert Pantaleyev estimated that Russian airlines carried half of them.

Russian airlines used to make about 450 flights a month to Ukraine, and the number of Ukrainian airlines’ flights to Russia was about half of that.

There are also some winners in this situation, however.

“Airlines from Belarus, Mol-

dova and a few other countries are set to benefi t,” said Andrei Kramarenko, an industry expert at the Higher School of Econom-ics in Moscow.

Added Panteleyev, “Belarus airline Belavia has already added direct fl ights between Minsk and [Ukrainian Black Sea resort] Odessa.”

Those traveling between Rus-sia and Ukraine will now have to choose between stopovers in Minsk, Moldova’s capital, Kishinev, Istanbul or a train.

However, none of these solu-tions would be comparable to a direct fl ight.

Currently, the shortest fl ight between Moscow and Kiev with connections is offered by Bela-via, and takes 3 hours and 10 minutes with a connection in Minsk. Other options could be as long as seven or eight hours.

The price starts at about 12,000 rubles for a round trip, compared with about 8,000 for a direct fi ght before the ban. A train ride would be cheaper, with prices starting at 2,800 ru-bles one way for second class, but it takes 13 hours. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of de-mand for this option. A quick check of the website of Russian passenger train monopoly Rus-sian Railways showed plenty of tickets on the six trains leaving Moscow for Kiev the following day.

A precedent?This isn’t the fi rst time air trav-el has been affected by political disputes between Russia and one of its neighbors. The country closed its airspace with Georgia in 2006 following allegations of spying. For 18 months, passen-gers traveling between the two countries had to decide to make a stopover in Azerbaijan, Arme-nia or Ukraine.

Direct fl ights were resumed in early 2008 but interrupted again in August of that year, as a re-sult of the Five-Day War. The two countries eventually reopened their airspaces to direct fl ights between them in 2010.

Russia-Ukraine Flight Ban: A Month In

VLADIMIR KOZLOVSPECIAL TO RBTH

not surprised. “This had to be ex-pected,” she said. “The relations between the two countries are at such a low point, that it could have happened any minute.”

Konstantin Liorek, the C.I.S. regional director for a European spare parts manufacturer who is based in Kiev but spends a lot of time in Russia, tried to find a bright side in the situation. “Okay, it’ll take me a half day or even an entire day [to travel between Russia and Ukraine] as opposed to an hour and a half,” he said. “But I’ll collect more miles on a frequent fl yer program!”

“I don’t see it as a tragedy,” he concluded. “Peace is more impor-tant.”

Some of the more than eight million Ukrainians of Russian

descent will find it harder to visit family because of the ban.

Alternative routes from Moscow to Kiev

Transfer options Destinations Companies

Minsk, Belarus Kiev, Odessa Belavia

Riga, Latvia Kiev AirBaltic

Kishinev, Moldova Kiev, Odessa Air Moldova

Warsaw, Poland Kiev, Odessa, Lviv Lot Polish Arlines

Istanbul, Turkey Kiev Turkish Airlines

Tallinn, Estonia Kiev Estonian Air

Vilnius, Lithuania Kiev Estonian Air

SOURCE: BNE

Sports Russia reacts to decision to suspend participation in international track-and-field events due to doping

Track-and-field officials consider

the best response to a decision to

bar all Russian athletes from

competing in international

competitions.

international competition were not motivated solely by concern for the integrity of the sport.

“Of course it’s possible that Russian athletes might be unable to compete in the Olympics,” the minister told R-Sport. “For some, it’s a good way of getting rid of a rival competitor; for others it’s

a way to damage Russia’s inter-national image.”

Know the audienceThe varied comments coming out of Russia could refl ect a need to balance domestic and interna-tional audiences. There has been a growing trend in recent months

for Russian officials to blame for-eign infl uences for the country’s problems, regardless of whether the issue is related to politics, eco-nomics or sport. The Russian team’s decision to leave the ice before the Canadian anthem played at the World Ice Hockey Championship fi nal was attrib-uted to outside troublemakers.

But officials also seem to un-derstand that the country’s in-ternational sporting image de-pends on its commitment to antidoping policies. The day after the report was released, Vadim Zelichenok, acting head of the Russian Athletics Federation, told journalists that Russia had sub-mitted an official reply to the IAAF. “In our reply to the IAAF, we accepted several of the alle-gations. However, we explained that all these violations occurred under the auspices of the previ-ous regime within the Russian Athletics Federation and hap-pened some time ago.”

The move to draw a clear dis-tinction between past problems and the current antidoping re-gime is an attempt to acknowl-edge problems while salvaging the reputations of athletes com-peting today.

At the World Aquatic Champi-onships in Kazan this summer, Mutko reiterated Russia’s com-mitment to drug-free sport, out-lining newly introduced measures that include criminal liability for involvement in doping, thecreation of the independent RU-SADA antidoping agency and a program of 15,000 drug tests every year.

After the release of the WADA report, Mutko took a similar stance, telling journalists, “We have clear instructions from the president to fi nd common ground with the international organiza-tions and I will do that; I will co-operate with them.”

IAAF Move Could Put SomeOlympic Dreams on Hold

Russian athletes could miss out on next summer’s Olympics in Rio.

ANDY POTTSSPECIAL TO RBTH

report was a mixture of belliger-ence and damage control.

On Nov. 11, after the report was released but before the IAAF meeting, President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with the leaders of Russia’s sports federations and instructed Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko to conduct a complete in-ternal investigation that would cooperate fully with WADA and other international doping bod-ies. Mutko later suggested that foreign doping control experts could be invited to work with the Moscow testing lab.

Grigory Rodchenkov, the head of the Moscow drug-testing lab at the heart of the scandal, pro-duced a detailed defense of his conduct. “Dick Pound alleged that I ordered the destruction of 1,417 bio-samples,” Rodchenkov told Ves Sport. “But we stored every sample that WADA asked us to preserve during the course of the investigation. Many of the facts in this report present a peculiar interpretation of reality.”

However, shortly after loudly protesting his innocence, Rod-chenkov resigned.

Mutko for his part almost per-sonifi ed Russia’s mixed message strategy. At times, he struck a con-ciliatory stance, for example tell-ing a group of international jour-nalists hours before the IAAF meeting that Russia would “do everything necessary” to comply with doping requirements. But he also took a consistently combat-ive view of the allegations, hint-ing that calls to ban Russia from

Late on the night of Nov. 13, Rus-sia’s track-and-field athletes heard the news they had been dreading: the InternationalAssociation of Athletics Federa-tion (IAAF) accepted the recom-mendations of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and temporarily banned the country from competing in international athletics competitions. The deci-sion may mean that no Russian athletes will compete in the track-and-field events at next year’s Summer Olympics in Rio.

In addition to the ban on itsathletes, Russia also lost the rights to stage the World Junior Cham-pionship in Kazan and the World Race-Walking Championship in Cheboksary next year.

The ban was based on a 325-page report compiled by a com-mission headed by former WADA president Dick Pound that alleged a program of doping and con-cealment at the highest levels of Russian sport.

The decision was a bitter blow for Russia, which had argued a blanket ban would equally pe-nalize clean competitors and sus-pected cheats.

Mixed messagesRussia’s response to the WADA

ENGAGING THE WEST

GLOBALLY SPEAKING

GOING EASTWARD

Read, Watch and Listen to

RBTH’s weekly

analytical program,

featuring three of the

most recent high-profile

developments

in international affairs.

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Russia to Launch Trading of New Oil Class in Rubles

rbth.com/539889 Business

When in May Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev tasked the gov-ernment with creating a program of import substitution in the fi eld of pharmaceutical production, foreign companies were worried. Although Russia’s pharmaceuti-cal market — currently worth $19 billion a year — is a fraction of that of the U.S., which is current-ly valued at $377 billion accord-ing to Pharmaceutical Commerce, its loss would have been a blow to Western drug companies at a

Pharmaceuticals A plan to increase local production of drugs has international giants looking for domestic partners

time of global economic crisis. However, the policy may not

have such serious implications as as fi rst appeared, at least in the short term. For one thing, the im-port substitution policies will only affect sales to public health or-ganizations, primarily state-run hospitals and pharmacies. Private health clinics and pharmacies are still able to import foreign drugs without restrictions

Nevertheless, there is still cause for concern here. Today, 60 per-cent of the drugs on the List of Vital and Essential Medicines ap-proved by Russian government bodies for use in public institu-tions are produced domestically. Under the new policy, this share should increase to 90 percent by 2018.

Not a total lossImport substitution could actu-ally be benefi cial for foreign fi rms that already have a manufactur-ing presence in Russia and are working with Russian partners.

“For localized foreigners, this

is an opportunity to quickly re-cover the investments that they have made here,” said Victor Dmi-triyev, C.E.O. of the Association of Russian Pharmaceutical Man-ufacturers (ARPM).

Several international pharma-ceutical giants, including Anglo-Swedish firm AstraZeneca, France’s Sanofi , Swiss Novartis and Danish Novo Nordisk already have production facilities in Rus-sia. Last year, U.S. company Ab-

bott made one of the largest trans-actions in the history ofRussia’s pharmaceutical business by acquiring the country’s sec-ond-largest drug manufacturer, Veropharm, for 16.7 billion ru-

bles ($495 million, at 2014 ex-change rates).

Abbott is still optimistic about its prospects in Russia. “We see our investment in Veropharm as an opportunity to participate in the development of the Russian pharmaceutical industry,” said Irina Gushchina, Abbott’s head of P.R. in Russia.

According to Gushchina, the company plans to expand itsresearch capabilities and further develop Veropharm’s production base in gynecology, neurology, gastroenterology and oncology, where the demand for innovative products is particularly high.

Local partnersSome international firms that own production facilities in

Russia are wary of the govern-ment’s plans because they may require partially transferring pro-duction to a Russian partners’ fa-cilities. But others seem ok with this prospect.

Thibault Crosnier-Leconte, C.E.O. of Sanofi ’s vaccine divi-sion, Sanofi Pasteur, said that the French manufacturer has plans to start production of a popular children’s vaccine at Russian company Nanolek’s fac-tory in St. Petersburg. The plant will produce up to 10 million doses annually, fully satisfying the demand for this vaccine in Russia.

“In the strategy of import sub-stitution, we see additional op-portunities for business expan-sion,” Crosnier-Leconte said.

Sanofi Pasteur plans to start the localization process of itsvaccine production next year with the transfer of know-how for pro-duction technology and quality control systems. The whole pro-cess should be complete by 2019.

Germany’s Bayer is also mov-ing forward working with local partners.

“Bayer is pursuing its localiza-tion strategy through selective partnerships with Russianproducers focused on full-cycle production,” said Niels Hessmann, Bayer’s C.E.O. in Russia.

In 2012, Bayer entered into a partnership with Russian manu-facturer Medsintez. In 2015, the fi rst commercial batch of the an-tibiotic Avelox was produced at Medsintez laboratories.

Foreign pharmaceutical firms are

looking for the bright side in

Russia’s import substitution plan

for the drug manufacturing

sector.

KIRA EGOROVA RBTH

Foreign Pharma Foreign Pharma Faces Tough Faces Tough ChoicesChoices

Selling drugs in

Russia

Russia’s pharmaceutical market is divided into two segments: theprivate sector (commercial com-panies and individuals) — worth $11.2 billion — and the public sec-tor (state hospitals, clinics) — worth $4.9 billion, according to calcula-tions by DSM Group. The state budget is used to pur-chase drugs for state-owned clinics and pharmacies where low-income citizens with chronic diseases re-ceive medicines for free or at dis-counted prices. Drugs for these clin-ics must be purchased from the state-approved List of Vital and Es-sential Medicines.

Sanofi Pasteur plans to start localization of its vaccine production next year with the transfer of know-how.

Last year, U.S. firm Abbott acquired Russia’s second-largest drug manufacturer. Veropharm.

American brands accounted for 64 percent of new stores opened in Russia between the second half of 2014 and the fi rst half of 2015, according to a study carried out by research fi rm Magazin Maga-zinov. Although more stores op-erated by foreign brands closed in the first half of 2015 than opened — 1,024 compared to 991 — this trend did not seem to apply to U.S. chains.

While American fi rms closed 165 outlets during the period measured, they opened 364. And while Carl’s Jr., American Eagle Outfi tters, Diane von Furstenberg and Wendy’s left Russia, they were replaced by new companies, in-cluding Dockers, Forever 21, Charley’s Philly Steaks, Great American Cookies, Magnolia Bakery, Pretzelmaker, Schlotsky’s, Twin Peaks and Crate & Barrel.

Olga Yasko, director of the re-search department at real estate

Retail Low rents drive expansion plans for inexpensive foreign clothes and fast food brands

Despite rising inflation and a

downturn in retail spending,

American fashion retailers and

eateries continue to open outlets

in Russia.

willing to take a chance on Rus-sia. Jeweler Tiffany and Co. opened its fi rst standalone store in the country last year.

It is the middle segment of the market that is feeling the crisis most acutely. According to the Magazin Magazinov study, 90 per-cent of closures were in middle-market segment retailers.

According to Gavrilov, while the crisis has reduced the pur-chasing power of Russian con-sumers — retail turnover was down 7.9 percent during the pe-riod measured by the study — it has also reduced the price of entry for foreign fi rms.

“New players will continue to come and test the Russian mar-ket for interest in their products,” Gavrilov said. “Entrance into the market is quite cheap now, as commercial conditions for ten-ants have improved signifi cantly compared to the pre-crisissituation.”

Retail rental prices dropped from between 20–40 percent, ac-cording to research from Knight Frank. Additionally, there is a lot of high-quality rental space avail-able. According to newspaper RBC, vacancy rates in some Mos-cow shopping centers could ex-ceed 10 percent this year. In ad-dition to space left open by stores that have closed, more than 300 million square feet of new rental space has opened up this year.

Not playing politicsYulia Sitnikova, senior research consultant at Magazin Magazinov, said that economics are likely to trump politics for U.S. retailers.

“It is unlikely that American brands will leave the market com-pletely. The Russian market is a big sales market, pretty well de-veloped, for instance, by restau-rant chains,” Sitnikova said. “Per-haps sanctions and complications in the international situation may affect the mood of retailers and somehow restrain their expan-sion. But they will not by any means exit from the market.”

Given current trends, street food and cheap clothes will re-tain the best positions.

American Still Sells in Russia

Burger King continues to expand across Russia in response to strong demand for American fast food.

PAVEL CHERNYSHOVGAZETA.RU is how much the real income of

Russians declined last year,adversely affecting sales. Retail turnover has decreased by 7.9percent in recent months.

outlets of American food and retail brands opened in Russia between mid-2014 and mid-2015, a bright spot in a market that saw 1,024foreign-branded stores close.

million square feet of new retail rental space has opened in Moscow this year, and retail rental prices are down 20–40 percent.

3%

364

300

THE NUMBERS

consultancy Knight Frank’s Rus-sia and C.I.S. office, said that a total of 14 new American brands entered the Russian market be-tween mid-2014 and mid-2015. The most active sector is fast food, which according to experts is not surprising, considering that peo-ple turn to fast food as a way to save money while still treating themselves during times of eco-nomic crisis. Real incomes of Rus-sians have declined 3 percent in the past year.

“Relatively high activity was seen in the American fast-food players — Dippin’ Dots, Krispy Kreme, Nathan’s Famous,” said Valentin Gavrilov, director of market research at CBRE.

The top fi ve foreign brands that have shown the most activity in Russia are American fast-food chains, according to Gavrilov. KFC, Burger King, McDonald’s, Starbucks and Baskin Robbins were responsible for most of the new outlets.

Burger King and KFC also con-tinued to expand in Russia, mov-ing into seven and fi ve new Rus-sian cities, respectively.

On the other end of the spec-trum, luxury brands also proved

Last month, Goldman Sachs qui-etly closed its BRIC fund, which had been investing in Brazil, Rus-sia, India and China since 2001. The assets from this fund will be transferred to one that invests in a wide range of emerging mar-kets. According to Russian news site RBC Daily, in September, the BRIC Fund’s assets fell to $98 mil-lion, down from a high of $842 million in 2010.

The acronym BRIC, which was coined by then-Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O’Neill, grew from simply an investment fund into a political alliance, which today is active in a number of political and economic spheres. But the economic potential of the countries did not keep pace with their geopolitical ambitions. In 2006, the four countries formed a political alliance, that also in-cludes South Africa.

According to Pyotr Dashkev-ich, analyst at investment com-pany UFS, in recent years inter-est in developing countries has

Finance Emerging markets lose appeal

The investment vehicle that

produced a political alliance has

run its course as low prices for

raw materials fail to attract

interest.

started to decline, due in part to the slowdown of the Chinese economy, the sanctions imposed against Russia and falling com-modity prices. “The very concept of the fund over the past several years has lost relevance in the eyes of investors,” Dashkevich said.

Since the beginning of the year, the emerging markets stock index has decreased by 12 percent, while the S&P 500 rose by 1 percent and the European index EUROS-TOXX 600 gained about 10 per-cent, according to Dmitry Beden-kov, head of the analytical department at investment fi rm Russ-Invest.

Georgy Vashchenko, head ofoperations on the Russian stock market for investment fi rm Free-dom Finance, said that the drop in resource prices has reduced the economic potential and invest-ment attractiveness of emerging markets.

The BRICS countries may yet fi nd ways to invest more in each other. Although trade between Russia and other members of the organization remains low, it is higher than it was. The volume of trade between Russia and BRICS countries is now $105 bil-lion — 50 percent more than in 2008.

BRIC Fund Ends Its Run

Leaders of the BRICS nations at their 2015 summit in Ufa, Russia.

ALEXEI LOSSANRBTH

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Russian Technology Helps NASA in Search

for Life on Mars

rbth.com/49647Special Report

MATTHEW BODNERSPECIAL TO RBTH

Ties between the Russian and

American space agencies,

developed over years of joint

projects, remain strong — even if

some projects are limited by

political posturing.

When NASA Administrator Charles Bolden took the podium at a space science and policy con-ference in Washington on April 3 of last year, the future of U.S.-Russian space cooperation didn’t look very bright. One day earlier, an email leaked from the U.S. space agency’s headquarters or-dered a suspension of contact with the Russian space agency.

As part of the U.S. government’s response to Russia’s incorpora-tion of Crimea, all federal agen-cies were ordered to halt bilat-eral work with Moscow.

There were, however, a few im-portant exceptions: cooperation would continue in nuclear secu-rity and counter-terrorism efforts. NASA, too, received an explicit exception from the order for all work pertaining to the operation of the International Space Sta-tion (I.S.S.). I.S.S. is the corner-stone of U.S.-Russia space coop-eration. A $150 billion outpost in orbit involving a total of 16 na-tions, the station is the largest international joint project ever undertaken during peacetime.

When Bolden spoke, he struck a note of defi ance in the face of an increasingly volatile political situation, criticizing what he saw as an effort by political leaders on both sides to draw science into their terrestrial spat.

“[T]he limitations on what our relationship is with Russia are at the government level, and we need to remember that. And so my in-struction to my team is that un-less I tell you otherwise, don’t stop doing anything that you’re doing,” Bolden said.

No bordersAs relations between Russia and the West hit lows unseen since the Cold War, NASA, Roscosmos and its 14 partner nations were considering the future of the I.S.S. program, which under the origi-nal multilateral agreement estab-lishing the program was set to wrap up in 2020. NASA had al-ready received permission from the White House to extend the lifetime of the program until at least 2024, and was waiting on Roscosmos to receive a similar go-ahead from the Russian gov-ernment.

Although officials such as Dep-

GOING BEYOND GEOPOLITICS ON THE FINAL FRONTIER

ALTHOUGH BILATERAL TIES BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE U.S.

ARE PRACTICALLY SEVERED ON ALL OTHER FRONTS, AWAY

FROM EARTH, COOPERATION CONTINUES

SPACE NASA AND ROSCOSMOS

uty Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin spent much of 2014 say-ing Russia would split from I.S.S. in 2020 and pursue the construc-tion of a new Russian national space station — a sort of spiri-tual successor to the Soviet Mir space station — the rhetoric faded. In July, Roscosmos chief Igor Komarov told reporters gath-ered at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan: “I’ve informed our colleagues that the Russian gov-ernment has approved the oper-ation of I.S.S. until 2024.”

Asked how NASA and Roscos-mos were able to shield their work from the deep politicization of the Ukraine crisis, NASA’s chief official in Russia Sean Fuller told RBTH simply: “We like to say that in space you can’t see borders and we operate that way on the I.S.S..”

Fuller contests that coopera-tion never truly suffered over the past two years, despite the super-charged political atmosphere sur-

rounding the project at the gov-ernment level.

“Over the past year and a half, the level of cooperation on I.S.S. has increased even further, result-ing in unprecedented joint scien-tifi c research,” Fuller said, point-ing to an ambitious medical science program launched earli-er this year. The experiment in-volved sending U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmo-naut Mikhail Kornienko to live aboard I.S.S. for a full year, giv-ing scientists on both sides an op-portunity to study the effects of long-term spacefl ight — such as would be seen on an eventual fl ight to Mars.

Technical difficultiesPolitical concerns have not been the only obstacle to achieving this heightened level of cooperation, however. Over the past year, three different resupply missions launched aboard unmanned Rus-sian and American rockets have failed to reach orbit, stretching resources dangerously thin.

“But, in spite of those setbacks and through the strengths of the partnership, we have been able to overcome those failures while maintaining the full six-crew presence on I.S.S. and continu-ing the research,” Fuller said.

Pushing through the hardship, Roscosmos and NASA were able to pass an important milestone this month: 15 uninterrupted years of work aboard the space station.

This is mainly due to the insti-tutional nature of U.S.-Russia manned space cooperation, which has been built up gradually and periodically since the fi rst joint space mission, the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz test project. The framework for the I.S.S. program was fi rst pioneered during Apollo-Soyuz, and the mechanisms of the part-nership are modeled off lessons learned during the Cold War. It is not by chance that NASA of-ficials in Moscow work in the same offices at Roscosmos head-quarters and at mission control and that their predecessors did for Apollo-Soyuz.

Over time, the two agencies have developed strong ties through recurring and meaning-ful joint work, rather than the on-again-and-off-again style of bilateral efforts that character-ized much of the U.S.-Russia bi-lateral fi eld two years ago.

“I have many colleagues and friends in the Russian space in-dustry, and the different ap-proaches to the same or similar challenges is enlightening and one of the greatest strengths of the I.S.S. partnership,” Fuller said.

Limited partnershipFor the moment, though, the part-nership is essentially limited to I.S.S. Though other projects are being discussed, everything hap-pens under the umbrella of this bilateral program, which was cre-ated through rigorous negotia-tions during the administrations of Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton.

Another part of the problem limiting further cooperationbetween the two sides lies incapabilities. While NASA has a rigorous space science and un-manned space explorationprogram, Roscosmos does not. Science funding in Russia’s space program all but dried up in the 1990s and has not yet been ad-equately restored.

However, there is a deep shared interest between the U.S. and Russia in the field of human spacefl ight, which may tip coop-eration toward manned space-fl ight projects.

A Russian cosmonaut floats free from politics outside the International Space Station.

One of the 12 lunar modules built for Project Apollo. These crafts were meant to be used in low Earth orbit

to test the techniques of separation, rendezvous and docking with the command and service module.

The mechanisms of the I.S.S. program partnership are modeled off lessons learned during the Cold War.

Over time, the two agencies developed strong ties through recurring and meaningful joint work.

Russian space enthusiasts and engineers have raised $27,564 for a new mission to the Moon. They plan to launch a satellite that will photograph Apollo spacecraft landing sites. Many Russians still believe the American manned Moon landings were faked, but the organizers of this project hope to fi nally dispel all doubts.

The project was launched on-line on Oct. 1, and the fundrais-ing campaign ended on Nov. 5. Organizers raised twice as much as originally intended. Over a 1,000 people pledged, with one person giving about $8,000.

The project’s idea is what caught the public’s imagination. Organizers plan to take images of the American landing sites with a ground resolution of 10 cm per pixel, which is three times the quality of NASA’s pictures.

“There is this endless contro-versy about whether the Ameri-cans ever reached the Moon with the Apollo spacecraft,” blogger Vitaly Egorov, one of the project’s founders, told RBTH. “The only way to resolve it once and for all is to actually go to the Moon and check. So far only the Americans have done it; they made photo-graphs of the landing sites and the Soviet moon rovers, and made those available to the public. The problem is that some people don’t

A crowdfunded Moon mission

organized by Russian engineers

to put the Moon mission hoax

theory to rest has raised over

$27,000.

believe those photographs areauthentic.”

Egorov’s project has loftier goals, as well. “I want to show that a group of ordinary people can carry out a space project,” he explained. “Young Russian engi-neers now working for the coun-try’s space industry are not happy with the fact that Roscosmos (Russia’s Space Agency) only has the goal to orbit Earth.”

More than 20 young Russian specialists are involved in the project, and supporters include the Russia Academy of Science’s Commission to Combat Pseudo-science as well as the Museum of Cosmonautics, which provided a site for engineers to discuss their ideas. NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria has also spoke about the Russian project onTwitter.

Although the project seems to have captured the attention of the Russian Internet, several serious problems remain. For one thing, the project doesn’t even have a fi xed budget. Organizers say it will be worked out during the fi rst stage of satellite develop-ment.

There will be fi ve stages in total: development and trajectory cal-culation; fi nalizing the initial out-line; production; launch; and the fl ight itself. So far, organizers are planning to spend most of the money to fi nance the fi rst stage. Since the fundraising goal has been exceeded, the team will be able to begin developing the fi rst designs for the future satellite’s devices, including the crucial on-board computer.

Proving the Moon Landing, One Ruble at a Time

SVETLANA ARKHANGELSKAYASPECIAL TO RBTH

3FACTS ABOUT

RUSSIA-U.S.

SPACE TIES

1 For now, Russia is responsible for delivering heavy cargo to the I.S.S. via its carrier rock-

ets Proton and Soyuz. U.S. private space companies like SpaceX are working to create substitutes, in-cluding as the Falcon 9. However, the most recent launch of the rock-et, on Jun. 28, wasn’t successful.

2 From 2004 to 2014, Rus-sia increased its expendi-tures on developing the

space industry tenfold, to $10 bil-lion, according to business newspa-per RBK. That’s 14 percent of total global expenditures on space-related technology development.

3 American space officials working in Russia still use the same offices at Roscos-

mos headquarters and at mission control that their predecessors did during the Apollo-Soyuz program in the 1970s.

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ARCHAEOLOGY

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BIOLOGY

SCIENTISTS DISCOVER

BIOLOGICAL MARKERS

FOR BIPOLAR DISORDER

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RUSSIAN TECHNOLOGY

HELPS NASA

IN THE SEARCH

FOR LIFE ON MARS

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550 MILLION-YEAR-OLD

CREATURES FOUND IN SIBERIA

ARE THE OLDEST EVER

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www.rbth.com Special ReportSiberian Solar Institute Hopes to Unlock

the Sun’s Mysteries

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A launch pad at the Vostochny spaceport still under construction in October. The first rockets are scheduled to take off from the site in April.

Alina

PoroshinaJOUNALIST

genious Soviet designer Sergei Korolev. These are the people that made Russia’s fi rst space launches happen.

So many of the world’s most important space launches were made at Baikonur. It was from here that Earth’s fi rst man-made satellite was launched. Among the many aircraft sent from here were the manned spacecraft se-ries Vostok, Voskhod and Soyuz; the Salyut space stations; Mir; the reusable Energia–Buran sys-tem; interplanetary spacecrafts; and scientifi c and military sat-ellites. To this day, Baikonur is among the world leaders for launches per year.

My guide, Tatiana, worries about the future. “You know, I am 43,” she said. “And I don’t

know what’s ahead. Everything is here. My whole life is here. I understand that no one will take us there — to Vostochny. I don’t know what will happen to us. Although they have said that they won’t give up on Baikonur until 2050 …” She thinks of re-locating to the distant Amur Re-gion and starting all over at an-other place in the middle of nowhere.

There is an extraordinary pitch-black sky over Baikonur. And there are extraordinary peo-ple working there, people who lit up and still light up the stars of Russia’s space history.

Baikonur was the first cosmodrome in the world and to this day it remains the largest.

It was from here that the fi rst rocket, with the dogs Belka and Strelka aboard, was launched. Yury Gagarin became the fi rst human to journey into space after launching into the cosmos from here.

Embarking on my own trip to Baikonur, I had to write so many letters and send so many requests to so many different government offices to get per-mission that all the joy of the trip nearly evaporated; every step was coordinated. Approv-al had to be obtained for each little detail, and my mobile phone never stopped ringing.

On the way to Baikonur, we fl ew for just over three hours. The view did not change for the final hour of the flight. When we landed on the steppe, an employee from the security service of the cosmodrome was there to greet us. We went through many security check-points. Finally, we reached the entrance to the city. A wistful camel stood at the gate. As soon as we got through the security checkpoint, to the left and to the right, green trees began to fl ash in view, as if we had en-tered a new climate zone.

The city has one foot in the Soviet Union. It is seen in ev-erything — the central market, the signs, the lack of 24-hour cafes. Half the city is dressed in the same uniform. They all work at the cosmodrome.

In Baikonur, everyone tells stories about the fi rst Russian rockets, the cosmonauts. Here at Baikonur there are those who worked alongside the in-

VIEWPOINT

The Space City With One Foot in the Soviet Union

We went through many checkpoints. Finally, we reached the entrance to the city. A wistful camel stood at the gate. As soon as we got through the security checkpoint, green trees began to flash into view.

Russia’s ambitious project to

revive its space might — the

construction of the Vostochny

spaceport in the Far East — has

been plagued by scandals.

Every space launch organized by Russian space agency Roscosmos — from communications satellites to supply ships to the Internation-al Space Station — doesn’t leave the earth’s atmosphere from with-in Russia’s borders. Instead, these objects take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, deep in the steppes of Kazakhstan. Russia pays Ka-zakhstan $115 million per year for the use of the former home of the Soviet space program. In 2004 the presidents of the two countries signed an agreement extending the contract through 2050.

The Vostochny Spaceport, under construction in the Amur Region of Russia’s Far East, was supposed to solve this problem. Construc-tion began with great fanfare in 2011 under President Dmitry Med-vedev, who named space one of the top fi ve priorities in his na-tional modernization program.

Today, however, construction is far behind schedule and President Vladimir Putin has made it clear that the situation is unacceptable. During a visit to the site with a group of senior space officials in October, Putin ordered launches to begin by Cosmonauts Day next April.

“The atmosphere was like they all were visibly shaken since they were not prepared to make the fi rst launch in December as planned,” said one junior member of the del-egation, who spoke on the condi-tion of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. “Even the interior of the building where a meeting with the president took place was not fi n-ished; there were a lot of things here and there.”

Plagued by scandalThe major construction at Vostoch-ny, which involves building 10 pads for both manned and unmanned launches, has also been riven by corruption scandals. Twenty crim-inal cases have been opened into thefts related to the construction ,and more than 220 officials are implicated. Yury Hrizman, the for-mer head of state construction agency Dalspetstroy, is now fac-ing criminal charges for corrup-tion and embezzlement of funds. The cost of the spaceport has bal-looned to $5.8 billion.

Workers have also complained that they have not been paid back wages for up to four months of work. More than 100 workers went on strike to protest. Last summer, thousands of university students were brought to the site to spend their vacations helping with the

construction.On his recent visit to the site,

Putin urged construction workers to stay on, saying that he has no-ticed the “amount of work already being done.”

“Let’s agree on this: you com-plete work on the water supply, electricity and sewage … and get ready for a fi rst launch in 2016,

sometime in the spring,” Putin said.

Angara versus ProtonBut space industry officials still have high hopes for Vostochny — both for its potential to bring back some of the glamour and glory as-sociated with the Soviet launches from Baikonur, and to be a reli-able source of income for modern commercial launches.

Vostochny will become the main launching pad for Russia’s new Angara heavy booster rocket, the replacement for the aging Proton cargo ship. Once a world leader in boosting commercial payloads into space, the Proton has suffered a number of serious accidents in-cluding one explosion broacast live on national TV during a much-hyped launch.

Before the problems with Pro-ton, Russia was one of the leading players in commercial launches, earning almost $759 million in 2013 from those launches, accord-ing to a report by the U.S. Feder-al Aviation Administration report released in 2014. The fi gure was only $218 million in 2014 due to the problems with Proton. With the modern Angara, Russia wants to boost its commercial activity, and the demand is there. Private companies and foreign govern-ments alike are interested in a re-liable partner to send satellites into space.

But even at full capacity, Vostochny will only have two launch pads for Angara rockets, and likely demand will meanthat Russia still needs access to Baikonur.

Charles P. Vick, senior space pol-icy and technology analyst at Glo-

New Spaceport Suffering from Failure to Launch

ALEXANDER BRATERSKYSPECIAL TO RBTH

Cosmodromes in the former Soviet space

The Benefi ts of the

Wild East

The selection of the site for the Vostochny Spaceport was no ac-cident. ”The Far East is still a wild place as far as infrastructure and population so we need it to have an outpost in the Far East,” said Yury Salnikov, a prominent space histori-an and documentary filmmaker.Officials hope that the spaceport might prove an attractive place to work for young scientists and engi-neers who could bring new life to the region. A simple online search for “Vostochny” shows “job vacan-cies” among the first results. Ac-cording to Yury Vlasov, acting head of the United Space and Rocket Corporation, the Russian space in-dustry will need more than 110.000 engineering graduates over the next 10 years, primarily for positions at Vostochny.Salnikov has also noted Vostoch-ny’s proximity to China as one of its main seling points. While China has its own space ambitions, there is plenty of room for cooperation with Russia. The countries have already discussed plans for a moon station to be organized from Vostochny.

balsecurity.org in Washington, said that Vostochny’s potential is still unknown. “Russia will continue to need both space ports for fu-ture requirements for crewed space missions, or they will be limited operating out of Vostochny in spite of what is suggested”, Vick said.

Although the fi rst launches will likely take place as ordered in the spring, Vick said that it would take years to fi nish the development of the launch pad construction: “The pay off is in the future, not yester-day. That construction will be a shot in the arm for the modern-ization of the space industry, but what is also needed is the overall modernization of industry infra-structure and quality control and processes.”

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Who Is Really Throwing Gasoline on U.S.-Russia

Relations?

rbth.com/539753Opinion

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 VIEWS AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT THOSE OF THE EDITORS OF RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES OR ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA.

PLEASE SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR TO [email protected]

THIS SPECIAL ADVERTISING FEATURE IS SPONSORED AND WAS PRODUCED BY ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA (RUSSIA) AND DID NOT INVOLVE THE REPORTING OR EDITING STAFF OF THE NEW YORK TIMES.WEB ADDRESS HTTP://RBTH.COM E-MAIL [email protected] TEL. +7 (495) 775 3114 FAX +7 (495) 988 9213 ADDRESS 24 PRAVDY STR., BLDG. 4, STE 720, MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 125 993. EVGENY ABOV PUBLISHER VSEVOLOD PULYA EDITOR IN CHIEF OLGA VLASOVA EXECUTIVE PRODUCER GLOBAL ENGLISH TEAM LARA MCCOY EDITOR-AT-LARGE, ILYA KROL EDITOR, NEW YORK TIMES EDITION ANNA SERGEEVA REPRESENTATIVE, UNITED STATES ANDREY SHIMARSKIY ART DIRECTOR ANDREY ZAITSEV HEAD OF PHOTO DEPT MILLA DOMOGATSKAYA HEAD OF PRE-PRINT DEPT ILYA OVCHARENKO LAYOUTAN E-PAPER VERSION OF THIS SUPPLEMENT IS AVAILABLE AT RBTH.COM/E-PAPER.TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SUPPLEMENT, CONTACT [email protected].

© COPYRIGHT 2015, FSFI ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.ALEXANDER GORBENKO CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD. PAVEL NEGOITSA GENERAL DIRECTOR VLADISLAV FRONIN CHIEF EDITORANY COPYING, REDISTRIBUTION OR RETRANSMISSION OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS PUBLICATION, OTHER THAN FOR PERSONAL USE, WITHOUT THE WRITTEN CONSENT OF ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA IS PROHIBITED. TO OBTAIN PERMISSION TO REPRINT OR COPY AN ARTICLE OR PHOTO, PLEASE CALL +7 (495) 775 3114 OR E-MAIL [email protected] WITH YOUR REQUEST. RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS AND PHOTOS.

THE ISSUE WAS SENT TO PRESS ON NOV. 23

KABUL SEES MOSCOW AS A TRUMP CARD IN FIGHT AGAINST TALIBAN

DOES RUSSIA WANT TO BE THE WORLD’S POLICEMAN?

Kabul’s request to Moscow for support in its fight against Taliban insurgents raises the intriguing pros-

pect that the balance of power in the region may be changing. For the past 15 years, the country has been considered part of the Amer-ican and NATO sphere of infl u-ence since Kabul is completely dependent on its Western allies’ military and fi nancial assistance. It would be difficult to imagine how the Afghan government could continue the fi ght against the Taliban and other terrorist groups in the region without this aid.

However, recent events have shown that the Afghan army and NATO’s resources are insufficient to maintain the complex balance of power in northern Afghani-stan. In the spring of 2015, the Taliban dramatically strength-ened its positions in the provinc-es of Badakhshan and Kunduz, along the border with Tajikistan, and this fall, the fi ghters conduct-ed a demonstrative military op-eration that led to the occupa-tion of Kunduz for several days. In the end, government and Amer-ican forces were able to drive the militants out of the town with the help of sophisticated aviation, but this temporary success for the Taliban showed that despite the millions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the U.S. and its allies have been unable to completely eradicate the group or solidify the central govern-ment’s hold on the country.

Cause for concern in RussiaThe appearance of large terror-ist forces composed of at least several thousand men close to a former Soviet border could not help but alarm Moscow and its neighbors in the Commonwealth of Independent States (C.I.S.). Many of these countries also be-long to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (C.S.T.O.), and currently these two organi-zations are creating a collective

The Russian campaign in Syria has become another milestone in the constant-ly changing realm of geo-

politics, and its signifi cance re-flects not only on Moscow, Damascus and the Middle East, but also on the entire system of international relations.

For the last 25 years, more or less since Operation Desert Storm, Moscow has been inching toward claiming a right that had been monopolized by the U.S.: the right to use force to create internation-al order. In other words, thefunction of being “the world’spoliceman.”

The unipolar world that exist-ed after the fall of the Soviet Union meant that wars “for the sake of peace,” that is to say, those that are not related to the achieve-ment of a country’s own concrete and clear aims, are waged only by the U.S. and its allies. By start-ing its military operation in Syria, Moscow changed the balance of power and the prospects for solv-ing what is the most crucial con-fl ict in the world today.

Another important consider-ation is that the confl ict in Syria is likely to mark the end of the era of the “humanitarian-ideo-logical” approach to regulating

Nikita

Mendkovich SPECIAL TO RBTH

Fyodor

Lukyanov GAZETA.RU

security force to counter militants in the event they cross the bor-der into Central Asia.

With its recent actions in Syria, Moscow has shown that it is ready to support the fi ght against ter-rorism far from its borders at the request of a local government, and now Kabul has turned to Mos-cow for support.

Obviously, this does not mean that Russia will send in ground forces. At the moment, the Af-ghan army is just asking for he-licopters and fi rearms. At the be-ginning of October, Russian representatives spoke about pro-viding the Afghan government with large supplies of fi rearms, as well as the possibility of open-ing negotiations on the supply of MI-35 attack helicopters.

What is Kabul’s agenda?There are several reasons why Kabul would want to strengthen relations with Moscow. To some extent, the request has to do with the objective demand for Russian arms that is currently growing throughout the world. The AK-47 machine gun is one of the world’s most popular weapons for regu-lar armies and opposition and guerilla movements alike because they do not require the thorough maintenance that their American equivalents do.

In terms of air power, the Rus-sian MI-line helicopters are often better suited for combat inmountainous regions than thehelicopters that NATO has at its disposal. In fact, this is what led the U.S. to buy Russian arms for

local crises. Until recently, the most signifi cant element of dis-cussions concerning civil wars were accusations of war crimes, violent suppressions of protests and so on. A leader tainted by such behavior was placed into the category of those who have lost their legitimacy and for other world leaders, holding dialogue with such a person became un-necessary and even inadmissible.

This shaming approach refl ect-ed the general changes in the in-terpretation of principles of in-ternational conduct that arose after the Cold War and led to the

expansion of the duties of the “world’s policeman.” Besides pun-ishing the aggressor (as happened in Iraq in 1991), the job also re-quired taking revenge on regimes (even changing them if necessary) that violated human rights. This is the approach that the U.S and its allies have taken toward Syr-ian President Bashar al-Assad.Two years ago, the Arab League and a series of European govern-ments recognized the Syrian op-position as the legitimate repre-sentative of the people, thus removing that status from the of-fi cial government.

Now, however, everything has changed. Humanitarian concerns are taking a back seat to the re-alities of the situation. Trying to put pressure on a “criminal gov-ernment” has become costly — maybe even impossible. The rep-resentatives of many of the world’s leading nations who met to discuss the situation in Syria in Vienna on Oct. 30 went in with-out knowing what the outcome of their talks would be, and they left still not knowing what kind of political arrangement there will be in Syria after the war.

Certainly this situation was not only the result of Russia’s in-creased involvement in the region. Mainly it happened because all the approaches already tried had reached a dead end.

So, what to do with these new conditions in the world?

The most rational reply would be to increase Russia’s weight in the upcoming discussions on Syr-ia’s future. But this means that Moscow must at some point dis-tance itself from supporting Assad only and occupy the niche of an infl uential but impartial arbiter. Such a scenario would obvious-ly not meet with Assad or Iran’s approval. While for Assad the issue is one of personal survival, for Tehran it is also vitally im-portant to preserve the current regime. Any change would be fatal to Iranian domination in

Playing politics Most likely, the Afghan govern-ment is simply playing diplomat-ic games. Washington is weary of bailing out Kabul, but Afghani-stan’s federal budget commit-ments cannot be fulfi lled with-out foreign grants and credit.Without these foreign funds, Af-ghanistan would be unable to fi -nance its many infrastructure projects and support the size of its army and police. By turning to Russia, Afghanistn may only be provoking Washington with the hope that the U.S. will in-crease its fi nancial support.

However, there are real differ-ences between how the U.S. and Afghan governments want to deal with the Taliban. Kabul may see Moscow as a partner more likely to share its views.

Unlike the U.S., which had counted on destroying opposition forces and negotiating with sep-arate militant leaders, Russia and China advocate weakening the extremists by breaking down their alliance with Pakistani intelli-gence. Pakistan uses the Taliban in its fi ght with India over infl u-ence in Afghanistan. After India and Pakistan were admitted into the Shanghai Cooperation Orga-nization, a group to which Rus-sia also belongs, talks were held between Afghan and Pakistani officials. Meanwhile, there is in-formation coming from Pakistan’s northern regions that the govern-ment has fi nally started driving the terrorist groups back intoAfghanistan, depriving them of a base.

At the moment, it is impossi-ble to tell how serious and long-term an anti-terrorism alliance between Kabul and Moscow could be. But the attempts to cre-ate the alliance themselves show Russia’s increasing signifi cance in the Middle East and the growth of its direct and indirect infl u-ence on the countries in the great-er region.

Nikita Mendkovich is a political analyst and expert from theRussian Council on Internation-al Affairs and a specialist onAfghanistan and Central Asia.

There are real differences between how the U.S. and Afghan governments want to deal with the Taliban.

Former president Hamid Karzai tried to improve relations with Moscow in the last year of his tenure, in part by approving Russia’s absorption of Crimea.

the Afghan army just a few years ago.

However, the latest statements, with an open request for help made during Afghan Vice Presi-dent Abdul Rashid Dostum’s un-official visit to Russia, clearly go beyond objective military or com-mercial ties.

Afghanistan’s elite has been ob-jectively manifesting pro-Russian sentiments. Vice President Dos-tum has already asked Russia through the press for help in fi ght-ing the Taliban in the country’s north and former President Hamid Karzai tried to improve relations with Moscow in the last year of his tenure, in part by ap-proving Russia’s absorption of Crimea, despite strenuous criti-cism from his Western partners.

Syria. Iran cannot give away this country because of its standoff with Saudi Arabia, which in turn will do anything to prevent Syria from being Iran’s outpost in the Arab world.

Russia must walk a fi ne line in order to solve this threefold prob-lem. It has to:

— guarantee its own geopolit-ical presence in Syria (in simpler terms, its Mediterranean port at Tarsus) in the future, regardless of who is ruling in Damascus;

— not undermine its evolving relationship with Iran, which has the potential to be an important regional partner in the future;

— not morph into a great power that serves Iran’s regionalinterests at the same level that the U.S., for example, has served Saudi Arabia’s interests for quite a while.

Be that as it may, it seems that Russia’s military operation has already produced benefi ts. Now it either needs an impressive mil-itary victory, which currently does not appear likely due to the weak-ness of the ground troops, or a subtle political process and a complicated deal on Syria.

If we look at the situation again from the international perspec-tive, it is difficult to think that the Russian government intends to replace the U.S. and assume the full role and mission of the world’s policeman. But if such an idea does arise, it would be wise to consider the U.S.’s inevitable reply, which it is clearly still too early to dismiss.

Fyodor Lukyanov is chairman of the Presidium of Russia’s Coun-cil on Foreign and Defense Poli-cy. This opinion fi rst appeared in Russian at Gazeta.ru.

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InterviewCyril Zuma: U.S. Actors Have More Freedom to Improvise

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Setting the Standards of Good Taste

Q&A

ANDREI DELLOS

THE RUSSIAN RESTAURANTEUR HAS BROUGHT HIS

PARTICULAR STYLE TO CAFES AROUND THE WORLD

place — but provided that the cafe should be opened by the anniver-sary. As a result, we built what is usually built in three years in just fi ve-and-a-half months. And it was built in such a way that it is the only restaurant in which the inte-rior has not changed since the opening.

Did you come up with the interiors

of the restaurant yourself?

Everything was done according to my sketches. The interiors were recreated by modern masters, but inhabited by a huge number of authentic things from the 19th century.

I hear you collect art yourself.

I am a strange collector — I col-lect parts. That is, pieces of fur-niture and decoration from the past centuries. Sometimes I amuse myself with using them to make something completely new.These can be things from the School of Fontainebleau, the Ital-ian Renaissance, Mannerism. Many elements have been used to create Turandot.

Turandot shocks many with its luxu-

rious interiors. People are not used

to eating in a museum.

It was interesting for me to ex-plain to Muscovites and to the rest of the world what chinoise-rie is, which is present in St. Pe-tersburg but not in Moscow.

A small school of arts is con-stantly working here; the staff was prepared so as to be able to tell visitors all about the interior, if they have questions. This is one of the exams to be passed by ev-eryone who works here.

Why did Cafe Pushkin in New York

close?

There were a number of unfore-seen challenges, including the fact that the restaurant attracted far more nostalgic Russian diners than we anticipated, which affect-ed the way New Yorkers viewed it. The timing was also bad in that Hurricane Sandy struck and there was an economic downturn.

So you decided to open Betony in

its place.

Yes, I met two absolutely brilliant rising stars, Chef Bryce Shuman and General Manager Eamon Rockey, who is also one of the country’s leading cocktail experts. Both worked at New York City’s revered Eleven Madison Park as well as other top restaurants. I saw the opportunity to give these ambitious young men a lot of au-tonomy to create a contemporary American destination restaurant and my trust has been rewarded. The restaurant has garnered a lot of acclaim — Chef Shuman even won a Food & Wine magazine “Best New Chef” award this year — but are determined to keep pushing and make it one of the world’s best restaurants.

But before that, you brought Push-

kin to Paris.

In France, it was a completely dif-ferent game. To open a confec-tionery in France — it was an ex-otic form of suicide. France is a confectionery country. And we went for a serious provocation.But we have been there already for four years and [Russian honey cake] medovik is a hit with the French themselves.There are plans to open cafes under this brand in major cities in the Middle East. And now we will make a second opening in New York.

What is the project there?

A restaurant in the same direc-tion as Betony, but we will do it in a more simplifi ed form.

Do you think there is not enough

Russian cuisine in New York ?

It’s a difficult question to an-swer. New Yorkers are some of the most curious, open-minded din-ers in the world. (If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be living there.) That said, the market is quite fi ck-le. I think if the food is contem-porary Russian-infl uenced, and the décor wholly contemporary, there is a possibility of it being embraced.

You opened the restaurant Cafe

Pushkin in Moscow in six months.

The opening in London was an-

nounced almost two years ago, but

it has not yet happened. Crisis?

We have barely managed to start the construction. This is due to the British system of devel-opment control, which takes loads of time. It cannot be called crisis.

This is Berkeley Street, the heart of London. A lot of permits are needed. We are planning to open

next year, I think most likely in the autumn.

But you have to understand, I do not want to make a copy of the Moscow restaurant, espe-cially in the fi eld of gastronomy. We are actively cooperating with a number of brilliant chefs — French, American, British —

thinking through the menu.

Will restaurants abroad have some

Russian-style items?

It will necessarily be there. There will be always Pozharsky cutlets. Of course, pelmeni (Russian dumplings), which enjoy great success in France.

What would you include in an imag-

inary noble dinner at Cafe Pushkin?

First, of course, you should try borsch! The main dish is, of course, Pozharsky cutlets. And as a hot appetizer – pelmeni. This is a must; this is what they have in Paris; you just can’t avoid it. For the des-sert, there is medovik.

What audience is the most enthu-

siastic about the subtleties of your

Russian cuisine?

If you take Europe, the French and Germans like it most of all.It’s amazing with what delight the Japanese react; they are in love with Russian pirozhki. There is something that corresponds to them. Even at Printemps in Paris, a Japanese girl comes by, tries pirozhki and gapes. She immedi-ately calls her friends, and they buy pirozhki just by the dozens.

Prepared byOleg Krasnov

Restaurateur Andrei Dellos tried on a variety of careers before fi nd-ing the one that made his name. Born in Moscow to a French fa-ther and Russian mother, he stud-ied art and engineering, complet-ed U.N. interpreters’ school and tried to make it as an artist in Paris. When a Russian company acquired several of his paintings in 1991, he volunteered to deliver them to Russia, and never left.Today, he puts the skills he honed as an artist and interpreter to use at his legendary eateries, includ-ing Moscow’s Cafe Pushkin, named on behalf of Russia’s great-est poet Alexander Pushkin, the Turandot restaurant, also in Rus-sia’s capital, and his New York res-taurant Betony, which has a Mi-chelin star. Dellos spoke to RBTH about food, art and Russian cui-sine for different cultures.

How did you come up with the

name Cafe Pushkin?

It existed in my head for 30 years. Because there is a song by Gil-bert Becaud, “Nathalie,” in which he brings a Russian guide, the girl with whom he falls in love in Mos-cow, to drink chocolate at Cafe Pushkin.He wrote it about 60 years ago. But there was no such cafe; it was just a poetic fantasy. All the French who came to Moscow went to look for this cafe from the song.And I realized that this must be corrected. Becaud himself came to the opening. His first words were: “I was sure I would not live long enough to see this moment!” And the brand has begun to live its own life.

Did Yury Luzhkov, then the mayor

of Moscow, help you to find an ap-

propriate location?

Yes, he liked my restaurants. Once he asked me about my plans. I told him about Pushkin, about the song by Becaud. He said, “So let’s do it, we have the 200th anniver-sary of the poet’s birth just around the corner.” I said that it should be opened only near Pushkin Square, but there is no free square centimeter there.The next day he called me at 7 a.m., and said that he found the

A restaurant fi t for a poet

In only 15 years, restaurant Cafe Pushkin has managed to become one of Moscow’s most talked-about restaurants, frequented by inter-national celebrities, wealthy busi-nessmen and tourists alike. Dellos attributes the cafe’s popularity to

the harmony between concept and design. Housed in a reconstructed mansion with a menu in pre-revo-lutionary Russian served by waiters dressed in 19th century style, the atmosphere of the place harkens back to a more sumptious time.

At this free open-air skating rink, the story of Swan Lake is performed on ice

every evening.A merry-go-round.

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Inside the center of a fair shaped like a map of Russia is a 51-foot-high Christmas tree, all aglow with lights.

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During the Christmas and New Year holidays, the center of the Russian capital turns into a huge magical kingdom. From Dec. 18 to Jan. 10, the fun never stops. This winter, visitors to Moscow can take part in the Journey to Christmas festival, which will be held in 36 sites scattered around the capital. Guests will be treated to theatrical performances, gift fairs and unforgettable gastronomic delights.

The main events will unfold on the edge of Red Square, near the Manezh and Revolution Square.

Hotel M

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Okhotny R

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Okhotny Ryad

Manezh Square

Revoluti

on Sqare

Revolution Square

This fair celebrates Russia’s regions

and off ers holiday gi� s, candy and souvenirs from

across the country. T RAV E L 2 MO S COW. COM

A special restaurant

for kids

The rink is surrounded by a restaurant area

— with delicious treats for every

taste.Come inside this giant Christmas ornament and experience a multimedia

show within the walls of the 56-foot-wide

decoration. Take a ride down Russia’s

biggest ice mountain — 21

feet high, 300 feet long.

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New Secrets of Malevich’s Black Square Revealed

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STUDENT SEAMSTRESSES

VECHERNEYE VREMYA, NOV. 9, 1915

Two small rooms in an old wood-en house. Four sewing machines. An ironing device, a small cast-iron stove for an iron. This is the furnishing of a special workshop opened by students yesterday for sewing warm underwear for sol-diers on the front lines.Last year, the students sewed fashionable dresses for ladies. Now they have chosen to earn less and switch to the manufac-ture of underwear for the troops. They study in turns; three sew and two go to lectures on one day — on the next day, vice versa. They live on their combined in-come.

ALCOHOLIC FUEL FOR CARS

VECHERNEYE VREMYA, NOV. 10, 1915

Following the cessation of the sale of alcoholic beverages and alcohol distilling, an enormous amount remains unused; there is a complete stagnation in this trade.Having paid attention to these stocks of alcohol, the Ministry of Finance has found it desir-

result, the distressed patient is left with a whistling tooth.

OUR TELEPHONE OPERATORS

CHERNOZYOM, NOV. 15, 1915

Telephone operators behave un-worthily. To call a number, you have to dial the central switch-board for at least fi ve minutes. At last, you are connected, but ... not with the right party. You hang up.But you have to wait until you are disconnected for another fi ve minutes. Thus, to reach the de-sired number, you need to spend about 10 minutes — and when you reproach the telephone op-erator for this abnormal phe-nomenon, you will hear nothing but rudeness in response.

WOMEN ARCHITECTS

RECH, NOV. 17, 1915

Recently, an exhibition of grad-uation projects and other school works has been set up in the building for “female courses of higher architectural knowledge” to be reviewed by a society of architects and artists. This is the first graduation in the school with its new teachers and direc-

tors. There are nine female grad-uates and the work of one grad-uate has been awarded a trip abroad.It is strange but until now wom-en’s efforts and talents have not been applied in the fi eld of ar-chitecture and we must there-fore wish success to the direc-tor’s wonderful initiative. First and foremost it is necessary that the students’ work is not aca-demic.

RUSSIA’S ECONOMIC

RENAISSANCE

MOSKOVSKY LISTOK, NOV. 20, 1915

On Nov. 19, an emergency meet-ing of the members of the soci-ety Economic Renaissance of Russia took place. The issue of establishing a private factory to produce munitions was dis-cussed.It was unanimously decided to follow through with equipping the factory. A signed statement of shareholders was created. The total value of the shares was de-termined at 25 rubles. A prelim-inary collection of funds raised a substantial amount.

Cars that Run on Alcohol and Women Architectsable to use alcohol for technical needs. The Ministry will use trea-sury funds to organize the man-ufacturing and sale of a special alcohol mixture for use as fuel in car engines.Alcohol motor fuel will consist of 90 parts alcohol, denatured in the usual way, and 10 parts gas-oline. This new type of fuel will fi nd wide application because of its relative cheapness compared to pure gasoline.

DAY AFTER DAY. DENTISTS

CHERNOZYOM, NOV. 14, 1915

If every dentist practicing in our city pulled out at least one tooth a day, we would still be tooth-less. There are streets where den-tists need to be counted in the dozens, and there are houses where several of them live at once.In addition to treatment and ex-traction of teeth, these doctors are also involved in fi lling them. Sometimes, having drilled a tooth, the dentist refuses to com-plete the job — “Your tooth is not worth bothering. The fi lling will fall out soon anyway!” As a

Prepared byTatiana Shilovskaya

PRESS FROM THE PAST

WHAT THE RUSSIAN

PAPERS WROTE

ABOUT IN THE LAST

DAYS OF THE EMPIRE

Newspapers in the early part of the 20th century played as important a role in informing and entertain-ing the population of the Russian empire as they did in the United States. In the fall of 1915, the lo-cal press discussed the difficulties in finding a good dentist, the rude-ness of telephone operatorss and an unusual kind of fuel.

There are few things in this world that provide one degree of sepa-ration between Vladimir Lenin, Led Zeppelin and Gil Kenan’s 2006 animated children’s film “Monster House.” In fact, the ther-emin may be the only one.

The theremin is the world’s only noncontact musical instrument. It was created by Soviet physi-cist Leon Theremin in the years immediately following the Rus-sian Revolution. A theremin play-er manipulates the instrument by moving his or her hands around the instrument’s two metal an-tennae. The right antenna is re-sponsible for pitch, the left for volume. Where traditional instru-ments produce sound through the plucking and stroking of strings, or the blowing and compression of air, the theremin operates pure-ly on the principle that the human body conducts electricity. As one journalist wrote following Ther-emin’s demonstration of his in-vention in London in December 1927, the performance was like “a man testing the heat of a boil-er with his naked hand.”

A sound like nothing elseThe sound of the theremin is in-comparable to anything else or-ganically produced by an instru-

Inventions An early Soviet creation that may be the world’s only noncontact musical instrument is enjoying a renaissance in the 21st century

ment, oscillating somewhere between the high-pitched fragil-ity of a soprano and the rich tex-ture of a cello’s A-string. Early on in the theremin’s development, some proponents believed that the theremin could eventually re-place entire orchestras. Although this ambition was never quite re-alized, listening to the instru-ment’s multiplicity of sounds, it’s easy to imagine how such an idea came to be. As one early review-er enthusiastically proclaimed,“the human voice, the violin, viola, cello, bass and double-bass, the cornet, horn, trombone, saxo-phone, organ, and almost every instrument you can think of, are all beaten at their own game by this one simple little apparatus.”

Despite Theremin’s predictions of worldwide ubiquity for his two-pronged musical marvel, the in-

strument proved to be difficult to master for most laymen and soon fell into obscurity. Its en-during appeal was subsequently relegated to the realms of the hor-ror movie industry, owing to the particularly eerie effect that sus-tained notes can produce. Com-poser Miklós Rózsa pioneered the use of the theremin in several Hol-lywood scores of the 1950s.

The maelstrom of sonic inno-vation that was the 1970s wit-nessed a brief resurgence in the popularity of the theremin, with an unexpected cameo appearing in Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” with the instrument’s notes soaring piercingly above the heavy distortion of the main riff.

Who is Mr. Theremin?Leon Theremin lived through three revolutions, was married

three times and, since his death at the age of 97, has been the sub-ject of three biographies. He in-vented the instrument that formed the major part of his leg-acy when he was only 24. Ther-emin spent most of the 1920s in the fl edgling socialist state before moving to the United States at the request of the Soviet govern-

ment. Nominally, the trip was a propaganda mission to showcase the Soviet Union’s scientifi c as-cendency over the West. But ac-cording to Albert Glinsky, one of Theremin’s trio of biographers, the true purpose of the visit was far more underhanded. As Glin-sky writes, the young scientist-cum-provocateur was “on assign-ment [the whole] time,” tasked with gathering and relaying in-dustrial secrets. The fruits of cap-italist commerce gained from Theremin’s contract with the elec-tronics giant RCA were passed back to Moscow.

Theremin remained in the Unit-ed States for 11 years, juggling his time between high-level in-dustrial espionage and further developing and refi ning his in-vention at a laboratory near his home in New York. While living in the U.S., Theremin met and married his second wife, Lavinia Williams, a member of the Amer-ican Negro Ballet.

One September night in 1938, several Russians arrived at Ther-emin’s New York residence. To Williams’s shock, her husband picked up his packed suitcases and left calmly with the visitors. She never saw him again. Rumors circulated that the scientist was kidnapped in a plot organized by the NKVD, the feared secret po-lice. It was only revealed later that Theremin returned to the Soviet Union on his own accord to es-cape his mounting fi nancial dif-fi culties.

His timing, however, could not have been worse. Theremin re-

turned to Moscow during Stalin’s Great Purge and, tainted by his time in the West, was packed off to the penal colony of Kolyma.

Rehabilitation came only after his services were once again re-quired in the fi eld of espionage. A listening device developed by Theremin and dubbed “The Thing,” hung in the office of the U.S. Ambassador to Moscow for seven years, concealed inside a wooden seal that had been pre-sented to him as a gesture of good-will by Soviet schoolchildren.

A 21st century renaissanceDespite the wealth of useful cre-ations that the Soviet inventor went on make — including the burglar alarm — Theremin re-mains most closely associated in the history of scientifi c discovery with the musical instrument that bears his name. Today there are four official Theremin schools in the world: in Moscow, St. Peters-burg, New York and Tokyo. But a renaissance may be on its way.

In 2012, Masami Takeuchi, founder of the Japanese There-min School, led an orchestra of 272 thereminists into the Guin-ness Book of World Records for “the largest theremin ensemble,” each using Takeuchi’s own brand of theremin, which is, somewhat gawkily, just the original instru-ment inside a Russian doll. It may not be the symphony orchestra that Theremin had originally en-visioned — but given that the in-strument was once a stand-in for a fl ying saucer, it’s certainly a step in the right direction.

Leon Theremin and one of the earliest theremins, 1919

Rob Schwimmer, the best-known modern American theremist.

Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page rocks out on the theremin.

Masami Takeuchi’s theremin ensemble.

The Instrument That Links Nesting Dolls to Led ZeppelinCreated by an early Soviet

inventor and spy, the theremin

makes music by connecting the

electric pulses of the human body

to a pair of metal antenna. Today

it is enjoying a revival.

THOMAS BALL, DARIA STRELAVINASPECIAL TO RBTH

Theremin remained in the United States for 11 years, juggling his time between high-level industrial espionage and further developing and refining his invention at a laboratory near his home in New York.

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RBTH insert in the New York Times, Nov. 25, 2015

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