Notebook

Obscene Opera?

Controversial production
raises critics’ ire

A controversial opera, Rosenthal’s Children, which was condemned by the pro-Kremlin youth movement  Marching Together (see below, page 8) as pornographic, premiered at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre on March 23 to sold out crowds. 

The opera’s libretto was penned by the post-modernist writer Vladimir Sorokin, with music by Leonid Desyatnikov. Among other things, it features Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky cloned back to life by a mad scientist, but abandoned by the State and forced to make a living begging in a post-Soviet Moscow train station.

State Duma deputies attended an opera dress rehearsal to assess whether the opera should be banned, and while they did not outlaw it, their reviews were very critical (perhaps one reason for a boom in early ticket sales). Irina Savelyeva, deputy head of the Duma Committee for Culture, said the opera was “sheer devilry on stage.” She called the opera “russophobic,” saying that its main idea was that “as soon as something of genius is born in this rotten, moronic, poor Russia, everything dies out.” 

Marching Together has a long-standing battle with author Sorokin, which began in the summer of 2002, when the movement claimed that his 1999 novel, Goluboye Salo (“Blue Lard”) was pornographic. Their protest led to a criminal court case against Sorokin, who was acquitted of all charges in April 2003.

 

Loyal Opposition

Ex-PM may take on Putin in 2008

Former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov told a Moscow news conference on February 24 that he does not rule out running for president in 2008. “Everything is possible,” Kasyanov replied to a reporter’s question, which had followed on Kasyanov’s remark that “Russia is not moving in any sort of democratic direction. The vector has changed. This vector is wrong and has a negative impact on the country’s social and economic development. Many mistakes have been made.” Kasyanov said consolidation of the opposition was needed in order to reverse the trend, that he was “ready to promote such consolidation” and would “work to improve the situation in the country.” Kasyanov said that, after 25 years of government service, he expected his further career to be connected with business and public activities. In fact, at the press conference, Kasyanov announced he was creating a consulting company, MK Analitika. 

The statement led some experts to compare Kasyanov to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who headed that country’s opposition movement after a period of service in the government. Nezavisimaya Gazeta speculated, however, that Kasyanov’s role as oppositionist could be tainted by decisions made while he was in office, and the paper opined that Kasyanov’s political career could be “Kremlin-inspired,” with a Kremlin-controlled “liberal” party to be manufactured for him at a later date. 

 

Joining Forces 

Russian opposition leader aids Ukrainian president

In February, Boris Nemtsov, of Russia’s oppositionist Union of Rightist Forces, was appointed an advisor to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. “My objectives are clearly outlined in the appointment decree,” Nemtsov said. “I am to attract Russian investments into the Ukrainian economy and thus help improve Ukraine’s overall investment climate.” Yushchenko spokeswoman Irina Gerashchenko said that, since Nemtsov is not Ukrainian, he would act only as an external advisor and would not be paid for his work. Ukrainian law prohibits the president from hiring non-Ukrainian staff members. Gerashchenko said Nemtsov would also seek to improve ties between Moscow and Kiev. During the Orange Revolution, Nemtsov traveled to Kiev on several occasions to voice his support for Yushchenko. 

 

Kremlin Youth

Government shuffles support 

for youth groups

A new youth movement, which Kommersant reported is alleged to be sponsored by the Kremlin, emerged in Russia this spring. The pro-government Nashi (“Ours”) was allegedly created to replace the now notorious Marching Together. Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Vladislav Surkov, who is said to be the curator of the Kremlin’s new project, met with the leaders of the new movement in St. Petersburg and promised that, by 2008, Nashi would emerge as a major political force, one that could eventually replace the Party of Power. Vasily Yakemenko, the ideological mastermind behind Marching Together, has reportedly also taken charge of Nashi. Organizers are aiming to recruit some 250,000 young people into the movement, one of whose aims is to prevent a Ukrainian-style Orange Revolution from happening in Russia. In recent months, Kommersant said, Marching Together has done more to discredit Putin at home and abroad than it has to advance his agenda, thus the need to put the old wine into a new wineskin.

 

The Rule of 42

New Public Chamber to 

ponder or pander? 

As expected, on March 23 the Russian State Duma passed the Kremlin-backed bill, On the Public Chamber, with 346 deputies voting in favor and just 50 against. The 126-representative Public Chamber will oversee the work of the government and gather proposals from the public to be considered by the president. Yet this is not intended to be a independent ombudsman: 42 members of the chamber will be appointed by the president; the second 42 candidates will be recommended by national public organizations and approved by the first 42 members; the final 42 members will be recommended by regional public organizations and approved by the first 84 members. 

Human rights activists have voiced doubts that such an institution would really foster civil society in Russia, as its members will be largely appointed by and loyal to the Kremlin. “The Public Chamber is nothing but a wax dummy of civil society, of the society’s relations and cooperation with the Powers That Be, something that is needed by the authorities, not by the people,” said Lyudmila Alekseyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, in an interview with polit.ru.

 

 

Military Channel

24-hour TV channel sponsored 

by Defense Ministry

The Defense Ministry began test broadcasts of its new television channel, Zvezda (“Star”), on February 20. Zvezda will initially be broadcast in Moscow and the Moscow region. Later, Zvezda is expected to begin operating in other regions. 

“This will be a strictly patriotic channel, I would say a State-Patriotic one,” said Ivan Kononov, a Zvezda journalist, at the channel’s launch ceremony. “And patriotism is a round-the-clock notion. And this is not pathos, but a firm conviction that our Motherland is the most beautiful in the world and that our history is the most heroic.” At this issue went to press, Zvezda was still conducting trial broadcasting and its programming consisted largely of old, Soviet-era films and animated cartoons. 

 

Doh!

Bart and Homer receive their 

day in Moscow court 

On 1 April, a Moscow court rejected a lawsuit requesting that the U.S. animated series, The Simpsons, be moved to a later time slot, Ekho Moskvy radio reported. The suit was filed by lawyer Igor Smykov, who claimed that The Simpsons promote “violence, cruelty, drug addiction, and homosexuality.” The Simpsons are presently broadcast by Ren TV channel at 7 pm Moscow time. 

Smykov told Ekho Moskvy that he decided to file the suit after his young son spouted profanity after watching The Simpsons. Ren TV president Irina Lesnevskaya told the station that the broadcast of fights in the State Duma actually did more harm to public morale than The Simpsons and it would have been ridiculous to ban a show that had won so many prizes across the world.

The State Duma has hardly stood above the fray on this burning question of morals and the insidious nature of foreign cartoons. In March, the Duma recommended that the Culture and Mass Communications Ministry examine the suitability of certain animated films shown on Russian TV. Deputy Yelena Afanasyeva said some such films “inspire antagonism between children and parents,” which could “impact demographic control.” 

 

Democracy, Yes

Study bucks popular wisdom: 

democracy has taken root

There are no signs of potentially violent unrest in Russia, Vremya Novostey newspaper reported in March, citing a nationwide survey by ROMIR-Monitoring. Russian society, the paper said, has largely adapted to the new way of life over the last two decades.

“The main conclusion of our study,” said the head of the Institute of Social Forecasting (ISF), Valery Fadeyev, “is that all groups in society have embraced democratic values, contrary to the widespread opinion that Russia is in principle an undemocratic country. All social groups except for pensioners have a positive attitude towards the main institutions of democracy and the free market.”

Fadeyev admitted that ISF’s study had a specific intent: to shift elite opinions about what is going on in Russia away from the “apocalyptic,” and towards more realism. “The Soviet and Russian intelligentsia,” Fadeyev commented, “is traditionally inclined towards masochism and loves to lament for the people.” 

Needless to say, ISF’s psychoanalysis of the collective Russian psyche concluded that Russians are not suffering from “socio-psychological depression,” that the general public mood could best be described as “restrained social optimism.” 

 

Suits in Spades

Literary heirs defend

famous ancestors 

Izvestiya reported that a descendant of the writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky (to be joined, it is anticipated, by descendants of the mathematician Nikolai Lobachevsky) is suing a Russian lottery company for defaming his ancestor through use of his image on lottery tickets. A spokeswoman for the lottery company said the images actually helped Russians become more familiar with the famous historical figures and said, with what one can only interpret as sarcasm, that Dostoyevsky’s great-grandson’s action was drawing “unnecessary attention” to the writer’s well-documented addiction to gambling. 

 

Crouching Mongol...

Russian director seeks to vault off  foreign film success

Director Sergei Bodrov (Prisoner of the Mountains) will this summer begin filming Mongol, the first film in an epic trilogy about the life of Genghis Khan, to be released in 2006. Seeking to replicate the international success of Chinese films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero, Bodrov has hired producer Philip Lee, who was involved in both those hit films. 

“I am what you would call a storyteller,” Bodrov said in an interview with the Moscow Times in March. “And in this case we’ve found an extraordinary story... It’s a story about love, about Genghis Khan, about a boy who was an orphan and then went on to conquer half the world, more than Alexander and all the other conquerors.”

 

Russia Grabs 3 Golds

Team dominates in pairs, but

loses men’s title

Repeating its success of 2004 at the World Figure Skating Championships in Dortmund, Russia won three gold medals at the Worlds held in Moscow’s Luzhniki Sports Palace on March 14-20. 

In pairs, Tatyana Totmyanina and Maxim Marinin took the gold and Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov won the silver. In ice dancing, Tatyana Navka and Roman Kostomarov successfully defended their world title, defeating two-time U.S. champions Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto (who won the silver – the first U.S. medal in ice dancing since 1985). 

The surprise of the competition was in men’s singles (see Russian Life Jan/Feb 2005), when an injured Yevgeny Plushenko, the odds-on favorite, withdrew from the competition after the short program. Many sports observers noted that the level of competitiveness in the men’s event was below normal. Nevertheless, Swiss skater Stéphane Lambiel took home the gold – a first ever for Switzerland, and the silver and bronze medals went to two surprise newcomers: Canadian Jeffrey Buttle (who fell twice during his free program) and American Evan Lysacek (for whom this was his first World event).

The toughest competition turned out to be in the women’s event, where Russia’s Irina Slutskaya fought off a very difficult challenge by Russian-born American Sasha Cohen. “I can’t believe I could win right when I needed it most,” Slutskaya said after winning her second World title, which she dubbed “the most precious in my collection.” Slutskaya has been battling vasculosis and missed the last season of competition. “I am glad I could come back after what I have been through,” she said, “and serve as a role model to those who lost faith.” The bronze medal went to Karolina Kostner, the first Italian to win a medal in the women’s event since 1978. 

 

Adios, Chile

Russia advances in

Davis Cup competition

Russia beat Chile (4-1) in the opening round of the Davis Cup, held  March 4-6 in Moscow. Chile has visited Russia twice before in Davis Cup competitions – in 1963 and 1967. Both times, the Soviet squad won. Then, in 1976, the Davis Cup semifinals were to be held in Santiago, but were called off when the Soviet leadership barred the Soviet team from visiting Pinochet’s Chile. 

This was Chile’s first entry back into the top tier of Davis Cup competition since 1985, and they played without their Olympic gold medalist Nicholas Massu, who was injured. But even without Massu, the Chilean team was quite formidable, but far from enough to defeat Russia’s Safin-led squad.

Next, Russia will host France in the Davis Cup quarterfinals on July 16-17. This will be a rematch many in France have been waiting for, since the French team lost to Russia in 2002, in the Davis Cup finals at Paris’ Bercy stadium.

 

Exit Kasparov

Chess master bows out;

will enter politics

Garry Kasparov, the world’s top ranked Grandmaster since 1984, made a stunning move in March, shortly after winning a prestigious tournament in Linares, Spain. He announced that he was retiring from the game that has been his life, is retiring from professional play and... going into politics.

“Before this tournament,” Kasparov said, “I made a conscious decision that Linares 2005 would be my last professional [tournament], and today I played my last professional game,’’ Kasparov said at a news conference. He said his last games were “very difficult for me to play under such pressure, because I knew it was the end of a career which I could be proud of.’’ Kasparov, 41, became the youngest-ever world champion at age 22, in 1984. He said that part of the reason he was retiring was because he saw no more goals left to accomplish in professional chess. 

Of late, Kasparov has emerged as one of the more outspoken critics of President Vladimir Putin and is playing a leading role in Committee 2008: Free Choice, a group formed by prominent liberal oppositionists. “As a chess player, I did everything I could, even more,” Kasparov said. “Now I want to use my intellect and strategic thinking in Russian politics.”

 

 

“What I love about Russia is that the fantasy level here is higher than anywhere else.”

– Architect Rem Koolhaas, who is working on 

reconstruction of the Hermitage Museum (The New Yorker)

 

“If you allow me, I would rather not comment on the actions of the present Powers That Be. I do not have a sufficient supply of polite words.”

– Yegor Gaydar, director of 

the Institute for Economy in Transition (Itogi)

 

“We are in the first stage of capitalism, where things are the most bestial.” 

– Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of 

the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (Itogi)

 

“From the point of view of management style, present-day Russia is a large, Chekist company. And Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] is its leader. That is my answer to the question, ‘Who is Mr Putin?’”

– Sergei Kredov, columnist (Kommersant Vlast)

 

“While we are strong, no one will touch us. But once they pull out the nuclear tooth, they will butcher us like a dead lion.”

– Gennady Zyuganov, 

leader of Communist Party of Russian Federation (Itogi)

 

“We should not whine, but instead understand that tomorrow will be better than yesterday.” 

– Andrei Fursenko, 

Education and Science Minister (Itogi)

 

“You know, there is sometimes this prejudice. If a Tatar has stolen something, it is a Tatar. If a Jew has stolen something, it is a Jew. If a Russian has stolen something, it is a thief. 

– Vladimir Lukin, human rights ombudsman (Itogi)

 

“If you are simultaneously pressuring business, killing its desire to invest, while lowering taxes, the effect is about the same as with Mikhail Zhvanetsky’s [satire], when you are taking sleeping pills and a laxative at the same time.”

 – Yevgeny Yasin, academic head of 

the Higher School of Economics (Itogi)

 

“There is no more pornography in our opera than in the fairy tale about the wolf and seven goat cubs. Although one can even find it there if one is determined to. 

– Composer Leonid Desyatnikov 

(Vremya Novostey)

 

Some 62% of housing in Russia is more than 30 years old. More than 14.3 million families live in housing that does not include hot water or sewage disposal.

 

There are about 2,000 foreign companies with representative offices and branches in Russia.

 

The US issued 5,865 immigrant visas to Russian orphans in 2004 (656 more than 2003). Some 700,000 children under 16 and eligible for adoption live in Russia; 15,000 are adopted each year, about half by foreigners.

 

Some 20,000 journalists may be dismissed over the next few months by regional branches of the All-Russia State Television and Radio Company.

 

The richest 10% of Russians earned 14.8 times more than the poorest 10% in 2004. That is up from a 13.9 times gap in 2000. Those serving in the army are among the poorest Russians – 34% of commissioned and warrant officers in the Russian Armed Forces live below the poverty line.

 

Russians’ real cash income dropped 9.6% in 2004, while housing and public-utilities costs rose 23.5% and gasoline by an average of 40%.

 

As of March 10, some 20 million cubic meters of snow were removed from Moscow streets this winter. 

 

Over 306,000 women work in the Russian Interior Ministry. 

 

As of February 1, 2005, Russia’s Stabilization Fund contained R647.2 billion. In January 2004, the fund was at R106.33 billion. 

 

The budget to run the State Duma is R3.6 billion this year, versus R2.8 billion in 2004. 

 

In 2004, the U.S. government spent $45.4 million on development of democracy in Russia, and $51 million on economic and social reforms.

 

Russian pirating of software, film and music cost U.S. firms $1.7 billion in damage during 2004 

 

The European Union is to allocate €870,000 for human rights projects in Russia. 

 

1,000 people were kidnapped in Chechnya in 2004. 

 

In Moscow, there are some 30,000 stray dogs, while about 1.5 million hounds have homes. 

 

As of March 1, there were an estimated 80 million cell phone subscribers in Russia. 

 

30-40% of Russia’s municipal water supplies are lost in the process of distribution and piping. 

 

The spring draft seeks to conscript 155,000 young men. Of these, 186 men have so far requested alternative civilian service, versus 318 in last fall’s draft. 

 

{Snow Record} 208 centimeters of snow – an eight-year high – fell in Moscow this winter, Alexei Lyakhov, director general of the Moscow and Moscow Region Hydrometeorological Bureau said. Normally, Lyakov said, Moscow gets about 150-160 cm of snow (60-65 inches). In early April, there were still snow drifts in Moscow.

 

{Weathermen Beware} Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said that the Moscow Weather Service should be held financially responsible for unreliable forecasts that disrupt the work of municipal services, Russian news agencies reported. Speaking at a Moscow government meeting, Luzhkov said the city had suspended funding for the Weather Service until an agreement is signed with the service that introduces financial responsibility for inaccurate forecasting. “We are paying and should be receiving a quality product,” the mayor said. “Instead, you [meteorologists] are giving us, forgive me for using a non-parliamentary expression, tufta [b——t],” gazeta.ru reported.

 

{New Magazine} BusinessWeek will be published in Russian beginning in September of this year, said Alexei Volin, head of the Rodionov Publishing House, which will publish the magazine. Rodionov said that, initially, 40,000 copies of Russian BusinessWeek will be printed each week, for distribution in Russia and Ukraine. The magazine, Interfax reported, will contain articles from international editions of BusinessWeek, as well pieces written especially for Russia.

 

{Traveling Cat} Marusya the cat walked some 600 km to return to the home of its owners, Interfax reported. The cat’s owner, a conductor on long-distance trains, took Marusya for a walk out on the train platform in Ulyanovsk some two years ago, and the two got separated. This spring, Marusya miraculously returned to her owner in Ufa, her feline identity confirmed by a mole on her front paw. 

 

{What’s in a name?} The first volume of a 40-volume encyclopedia, The Chronicle of Russian Names (Letopis Rossiyskikh Imyon) has been published, Ekho Moskvy reported. The encyclopedia will tell Russian history through the names of people who were key players in important historical events. The first volume is devoted to the name Tatyana. The next volumes, to be published in 2005, will cover the names Alexei, Mikhail, Yekaterina, Yelena and Yuri. 

 

Stalin Redux

A monument that includes the three Allied wartime leaders – Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt – will be unveiled in Volgograd on or before May 9, according to that city’s mayor, Yevgeny Ishchenko. Ishchenko also announced that two-thirds of Volgograd’s residents had rejected a proposal to rename the city with its wartime name, Stalingrad. The work was created by Zurab Tsereteli, who is pictured above with the sculpture, as well as with a replica of his sculpture of Peter the Great.

 

Lenin Won’t You Come Home?

Ulyanovsk Region Governor Sergei Morozov has offered his fellow governors a way to get rid of their unwanted statues of Lenin. “Send them to me!” he said. The governor, Izvestiya reported, wants to establish an open-air museum devoted to Lenin, who was born in Ulyanovsk (then called Simbirsk) in 1870. The President of Chuvashiya, Nikolai Fyodorov, said he would gladly say goodbye to his republic’s Lenins, but no region has reported any plans to send their collection. An official with the administration of Kaliningrad Region, which boasts a large collection of Lenins, concentrated in a reserve named after the leader of the world proletariat, said local government had “no plans whatsoever” to send its Lenins to Ulyanovsk. It is not clear who would pay the significant transport costs of moving large stone and metal monuments across the country. The largest Lenin statue in Russia is located in Dubna, Moscow Region. It is 25 meters high and weighs 540 tons, Izvestiya said. Above, a massive monument to Lenin was pulled down last December in Kaliningrad.

 

Russians who:

 

Said Bush-Putin summits benefit Russia

a great deal 13%

only a little 36%

not at all 37%

 

are satisfied with public transport 49%

 

have a cell phone 32%

   vs. Muscovites 51%

 

would rather a draft-age relative got a chronic disease than get drafted 44%

 

feel Russia’s most important task is

economic development 45%

reducing unemployment 21%

combating corruption 14%

restraining oligarchs 11%

eliminating wage/pension arrears 11%

ending the Chechen conflict 10%

strengthening democracy 3%

      (multiple answers possible)

 

feel it is important to have a higher education 77%

 

have a home computer 41%

 

favor renaming Volgograd Stalingrad 25%

do not favor this 32%

do not care 42%

 

said that, if they had to defend their human rights, they would do so by

doing nothing 31%

initiating a strike or road block 30%

using the courts 20%

appealing to the president 20%

appealing to their Duma deputy 18%

going on a hunger strike 7%

  (multiple answers allowed)

 

feel “sexual minorities” should be 

isolated from the rest of society 31%

left alone 49%

 

number who felt the former in 1990 48%

 

approve of homosexual marriage 14%

number who approved in 1995 18%

 

consider March 8 a holiday 90%

 

“My wife already makes more money than me. And this does not make me nervous at all. I am a politician, she 
is a businesswoman. That’s why she makes money,
while I spend it.” 

– Duma deputy Gennady Gudkov (Komsomolskaya Pravda)