A new two-story train is running between Moscow and St. Petersburg. The train departs the capital at 22:50 pm and arrives shortly before 7 am the next day. Because the train can hold more passengers, ticket prices are being held lower – about 2,000 rubles ($30) – at least for the time being. The price is for a regular Russian “coupé,” a four-bunk compartment, though space is more cramped than on a regular train. Russian Railways says the train is also able to accommodate wheelchair-bound passengers.
The company Yandex has launched its latest app to help Muscovites navigate the city. Yandex Transport helps people find the right bus, tram, or trolleybus to get where they are going and shows public transit options on a map. The free application grabs information about transit routes and times from the capital’s transportation system. The app is available for iPhones and Android devices.
Russia’s tourism industry may continue to contract in the months and years ahead. According to the Russian Tourism Association, only 10 million Russians are considering traveling abroad for vacation, down from 18 million in 2014. Favorite destinations in the coming year are beaches in Egypt, Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, the association reports. The decrease in demand is leading many international airlines to cancel service to Russia’s regions.
Moscow’s Stanislavsky Theater has rebranded itself and reopened as “Electrotheater Stanislavsky.” After its 18-month renovation the theater – cramped and all but forgotten by the capital’s haute société – also got a new artistic director: Boris Yukhananov, who won the position in a contest for a new theater concept. The new space opened in late January with a reworking of a tragedy by Euripides, wowing guests with its modern redesign.
The Stanislavsky was founded in the 1940s, before which it was a cinema, hence the name “electrotheater” – an early term used in Russia for films. The pricey overhaul turned the traditional stage into a state of the art “transformer.” Some productions are expected to have no seats for the audience at all, with the action moving from place to place as people watch from an open floor. Amazingly, the radical changes were completed without scandals, and the theater’s troupe has come through them intact.
A new hotel at Krasnaya Polyana, the ski resort above Sochi, is offering rates for backpackers of only R600 ($9) per night.
The Otkritie Hotel has a hostel section and its cheapest option is a bed in a room for ten. Regular private rooms cost R2100. Most rooms come with a picturesque mountain view, and free daily transfers to the ski lifts. There is also a kitchen and a sauna.
hostel.othotel.ru
Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia last March, is becoming increasingly isolated. With a bridge across the Kerch Strait still a long way off, transportation to Ukraine is severely limited, after the government in Kiev decided to halt train service to the disputed territory. Ukrainian trains now only go as far as Novoaleksiyivka in Kherson region, after which passengers are forced to seek other means of reaching the peninsula.
To make matters worse for those living there, Visa and MasterCard have suspended service in the region, making credit card payments impossible.
After the latest US sanctions, Apple announced that it will no longer work with distributors selling in Crimea and closed its Apple Store to Crimean residents. eBay also announced it would no longer operate there, as did the payment systems PayPal and Scrill.
Local authorities have boasted that Crimea is ready for any and all side effects of becoming Russian. Yet it is not clear how much money Moscow will be able to pour into the peninsula, with the ruble and oil crises straining Kremlin coffers.
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