Travel Notes

“Domodedovo is a decent airport, but it is far away. And Sheremetyevo is an indecent airport.”

– Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, on the advantages of Vnukovo Airport, which has been given to the Moscow government. (Itogi) 

GOT VNUKOVO?

At the end of 2003, President Vladimir Putin decreed that the majority of shares (60.88%, to be exact) in Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport (previously owned by the federal government and pictured above) would be ceded to the Moscow government. The value of the shares ceded is estimated at R1.7 billion. The shares were transferred by way of a federal subsidy to Moscow to offset its costs serving as the capital of Russia. (gazeta.ru)

Train Security

119 railway stations across Russia have introduced passenger and luggage screening for arms and explosives. 80 railway stations have been equipped with video cameras. The Railways Ministry currently pays for some 5,000 policemen to patrol 2000 suburban and long-distance trains. (ITAR-TASS)

Elite Street

Moscow’s Manezh Square is the tenth most expensive shopping locale in Europe. The ranking, which is based on annual rents, is led by Paris’ Champs Elysee, with average annual rents of 6,287€ m2, followed by London’s Oxford Street at 4,405€ m2. The ranking found the average rent on the Manezh to be 2,612€ m2. (ITAR-TASS)

Capital Shuttle

A third express train between Moscow and St. Petersburg began operations in November. Unlike the other two express trains (which travel in the evening), the new Öê-200 will be a morning express. The southbound train will leave St. Petersburg at 7:08 am, arriving in Moscow at 11:40 am; the northbound train will leave Moscow at 7:23 am and arrive at 12:10. The express service will run three times each week. 

Into Africa

Talks are underway between the Mikhailovskoye Pushkin Museum Reserve (Pskov region) and diplomats from Eritrea to open a branch of the museum in the East African nation. Plans are also in the works to unveil a monument to Ibrahim Hannibal, Alexander Pushkin’s great-grandfather, in Eritrea. Mikhailovskoye management said Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli has agreed to work on the monument. Eritrea reportedly is also interested in naming a square in its capital of Asmara after Pushkin.

Hannibal was born in Abyssinia, a territory which is now divided between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Eritrean scholars recently announced that they had discovered the village where Hannibal was born. (ITAR-TASS)

Terror Tourism

A museum of Stalinist repressions has been opened in the former KGB headquarters in Alma-Aty, Kazakhstan. The museum, created on the initiative of the Kazakh Association for Victims of Repression, occupies one floor of the building where political prisoners were kept and tortured. The Alma-Aty museum is not the first of its kind, however. In 1992, the KGB building in Vilnius, Lithuania was turned into the Lithuanian Genocide and Resistance Research Center. In 1991, Uzbekistan opened a Museum for Victims of Repression. Meanwhile, Moscow’s Lubyanka continues to serve its long-standing purpose as a headquarters for internal and external security services. It does have a museum, but it is only open to special tours.

Multilingual Moscow

Multilingual billboard maps of Moscow, highlighting places of interest, will soon appear on Moscow streets. The first 500 maps (in four languages) will appear near metro stations.