After overseeing a constitutional change that effectively reset the count of how many terms he has served, Russian President Vladimir Putin can now legally run twice more for president. The Russian parliament definitively approved legislation – part of its whirlwind constitutional package – that gives Putin another 12 years of potential presidency after 2024. If he stays in office until 2036, he will be 84.
The State Hermitage in St. Petersburg has initiated a cat labor union that could protect the rights of cats in the city’s museums. Cats of the Hermitage is already a museum brand, and a symbol of the city (and they of course have their own Instagram account: @hermitagecats).
The city is conducting a census of all “cultural cats” to identify those living in other museums and libraries in St. Petersburg, hoping to spread the city’s affinity for cats to the rest of Russia. The census is being co-organized by the Republic of Cats, a beloved “cat cafe” that serves coffee while encouraging visitors to adopt one of its many cats.
The Hermitage last year revealed that a benefactor in France bequeathed part of his inheritance to the Hermitage cats. The museum will use the funds to make repairs to its “cat room,” used as sleeping quarters by some 50 felines, which have been protecting museum exhibits from rats for decades.
News of the cat census can be followed at: vk.com/catsculture
The Chinese artist Ai Weiwei said he is creating a monument to the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. The monument will be placed in Germany, in central Berlin. At press time there was no indication of what it would look like. He is working with Slovene activist Jaka Bizilj’s Cinema for Peace foundation.
“Gorbachev is one of the most important thinkers, visionaries, who helped establish a new possibility for society… Gorbachev is always symbolic for people seeking freedom,” Ai Weiwei told Reuters.
There are no official monuments to Gorbachev, who turned 90 in March, in Russia. He is still a controversial figure in his homeland, seen as somebody who allowed the breakup the Soviet Union and brought an end to stability.
«Мы разве что с вами должны обезьянничать, что ли, обязательно делать так, [как] кто-то где-то делает?... Ну, наверное, нет, ведь если на таком уровне кто-то захочет сфальсифицировать что-то там, надуть кого-то, это же несложно сделать, — добавил он. — Можно показать этот укол, а на самом деле уколоть физраствор, все, что угодно, кефир, какой-нибудь апельсиновый сок. Шучу, конечно, ну просто витамины. Ну это несерьезно, на мой взгляд».
“Do we really have to ape what others are doing and copy what somebody else is doing somewhere?... Certainly not, if somebody wants to fake something at that level, it wouldn’t be too difficult. You can show this jab but in fact only inject saline solution or buttermilk or some orange juice. I’m joking of course, well, some vitamins. That is silly in my opinion.”
Russia’s contestant in this year’s Eurovision, the popular song contest held in May primarily among European countries, has stirred up controversy and sparked conversation about gender, identity and immigration.
Manizha, the 29-year-old woman (born Manizha Dalerovna Sangin) who was chosen to represent Russia with her song, “Russian Woman,” was not to the liking of some nationalist-minded compatriots, because she is ethnically Tajik. The singer, who has half a million followers on Instagram, has been inundated with hate messages, and some “concerned citizens” even penned complaints to the Prosecutor General that her song is extremist.
Manizha is very much a self-made artist who has been shooting and editing her own music videos for some time, and she writes frequently on issues of human rights, body positivity and discrimination. She has a very unique style, with a healthy dose of humor.
In the 1990s, when she was a young girl, she and her family fled the conflict in Tajikistan. She now embraces her heritage and, in her promotional photos, combines ethnic Tajik fabrics with a Russian “kokoshnik” headdress. Women have started sending her scraps of fabric from all across multiethnic Russia, from Yakutia to Ossetia, to be used for her eventual Eurovision costume.
Manizha is also a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency.
Eurovision is being held May 18-22.
instagram.com/manizha
Russian streaming platforms are starting to take off, producing more original series for paying subscribers, sidestepping the traditional (free, and often propaganda-laced) television channels.
After the success of “Chicks” (see Russian Life Sep/Oct 2020), the new hit is Topi, a mystical thriller written by Dmitry Glukhovsky, author of the bestselling novel (and computer game) Metro 2033 (see Russian Life Nov/Dec 2008). The plot features five young people from Moscow, all dealing with their own individual dramas, who travel to an abandoned monastery in the Russian North (filming took place in Belarus) only to become trapped by the village and their own fears. The series is available on Kinopoisk, and some observers say that Topi is a contender to get picked up by Netflix.
Another unusual new series is Vampires of Central Russia. While the genre has a long history in Hollywood (and actually in Russian literature), it’s quite rare for Russian television. In the series, a vampire clan headed by Grandpa Slava has lived in the historic but provincial city of Smolensk for centuries, keeping a low profile. But when two corpses with bite marks are found in a nearby forest, they are forced to investigate and find the culprit to protect their way of life. The series came out on the Start platform in March.
start.ru
hd.kinopoisk.ru
Russia’s women figure skaters swept the podium at March’s World Championships. Newcomer Anna Shcherbakova (only 16) took gold, Yelizaveta Tuktamysheva earned silver, and Alexandra Trusova won bronze.
The sport has been dominated in recent years by teenage Russians, and only Tuktamysheva, 24, has demonstrated longevity – most of the women she competed against six years ago have already retired from professional figure skating. Also, unlike many other Russian figure skaters, she has stayed with her coach, Alexei Mishin, for the entirety of her career, 13 years.
The Court of Arbitration of Sport ruling last year prohibited Russian athletes from competing under the country’s national flag for two years in connection with doping violations, so the women received their medals to the strains of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, instead of the Russian National Anthem.
The pairs’ gold was also won by Russians, Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Galliamov, as was the bronze.
Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery is set to open a new regional branch in Samara next year. The gallery will be in a well-known constructivist building, a “factory kitchen” built in 1932. Its angular shape resembles a hammer and sickle if seen from above (photo, below).
The Maslennikov Weapons Factory that owned the premises went bankrupt in the 1990s, and private businesses have been buying up its vast property holdings. The kitchen’s proletarian glory faded when it was converted into a shopping center.
Constructivism connoisseurs know Samara as an architectural gem on the Volga, with dozens of buildings in the style, and the Tretyakov’s project aims to give the factory-kitchen a respectful face lift saving it from demolition.
The renovated museum will house twentieth-century Russian art, along with an array of cultural and educational facilities, including lecture halls, artist residences, and space for children’s workshops. The surrounding area is also getting a makeover, with a new city park and places to relax.
vk.com/tretyakovgallery_smr
For more on Samara’s constructivism:
drugoigorod.ru/10_konstructivizm
Meanwhile, a new contemporary art gallery has opened in central Moscow, a new headquarters of the RuArts foundation that currently operates in another location. The six-story gallery will house part of the immense collection held by arts patron Marianna Sardarova, including work by Aidan Salakhova, AES+F, Rinat Voligamsi, Anatoly Zverev, and other Russian artists whose work spans from the 1960s to today.
After the gallery’s opening, which was scheduled for April, it was set to exhibit Dmitry Tsvetkov’s work “Soft Motherland,” a textile map of Russia embroidered with pearls and wool. The venue will also boast a library, bookshop and cafe.
6 Trubnikovsky Pereulok
Ruarts.foundation
Moscow’s Narkomfin is a rectangular building designed by Moisei Ginzburg that housed People’s Commissariat of Finance employees back during the Stalin era. One of the finest known examples of Constructivist architecture, it has been meticulously restored following decades of worries that it was beyond saving.
Designed to be something between “bourgeois” and “communal” style housing and located near the US Embassy complex in Moscow, the Narkomfin has, ironically, been converted to luxury flats. Now painted bright white, the building is not as accessible as it was in recent years, when enthusiasts held yoga sessions on its roof while architecture lovers led near-weekly tours through its narrow hallways.
Liga Prav, the real estate company that financed the restoration, has advertised the tiny 35-square-meter apartments (built without full kitchens, since workers were supposed to use the “factory kitchen” next door) for R31 million.
There are just 44 apartments, all of which have already been sold.
narkomfin.ru
Rare tours organized by Moscow Through Engineer’s Eyes tour group (R3990): engineer-history.ru
Yessentuki, a popular resort town in the Caucasus famous for its mineral springs, has restored a hotel once popular with singer Fyodor Shalyapin and described in literature by Ilf and Petrov.
Originally built in 1902, the Novokazyonnaya Hotel on Razumovsky Street is now part of the Moskva Sanatorium, which opened the renovated building for bookings this spring. Moskva says it restored the building while respecting the original design, down to the carved wooden balconies and wrought iron staircase used by Shalyapin, Sergei Rakhmaninov, and other famous guests from the capital. The sanatorium also offers spa treatments and special care for diabetes patients.
Thirsty tourists in St. Petersburg can now use a special Telegram bot to find the nearest place to refill their water bottles for free. Russian cities typically do not have water fountains, and anyone wandering historic streets for hours under blazing sun can find themselves paying exorbitantly for bottled water.
The new bot is created by urban environmental activists Tvoya Voda (Your Water), who lobby for accessible drinking water in public areas. The project offers to put cafes on the map, and they can then be flagged by the Telegram bot if you happen to pass nearby while running low on water.
vk.com/tvojavoda
t.me/refill_water_bottle_bot
17% of rental apartments in Moscow and St. Petersburg are advertised “for Slavs only,” according to a study done by real estate portal The Meters that looked at almost 30,000 ads in Moscow and over 18,000 in St. Petersburg. Xenophobic advertisements are more likely to be connected to cheaper flats , i.e. those rending for R30,000 or less per month. Other demands include “no pets”, “no children,” and “no smokers.” CIAN, another real estate platform, estimated that 90% of owners may say no to a potential renter who has foreign citizenship.
56% of working Russians think their job is useful to society, but a much lower percentage (36%) said it is making them happy. Of those unhappy, 70% said the unhappiness was caused by low salaries, 49% by lack of career prospects, and 45% by lack of professional development.
Russia’s Audit Chamber accused the Roscosmos space agency of misusing some R30 billion in 2020, something that agency chief Dmitry Rogozin argued must be a “typo.”
Yandex received nearly 17,000 requests for user information from law enforcement agencies in the second half of 2020, an increase of 10% versus the first half of the year. Most of the requests were for data about those using Yandex Mail, Yandex Passport, Yandex Taxi, and Yandex Drive services. Yandex only declined 22% of requests. The Russian tech giant began publishing such data last year in a biannual “Transparency Report.”
The most popular messaging apps and internet services in Russia are:
Whatsapp – 50%
VKontakte – 38%
Odnoklassniki (Classmates) – 29%
Instagram – 28%
Telegram – 22%
Tiktok – 15%
Facebook – 14%
Viber – 10%
Twitter – 6%
Not using anything – 31%
67% of Russians believe climate change is happening. 19% say it’s not. 13% couldn’t say.
Russia is planning to allocate R350 billion to support the alternative energy industry through 2035, hoping to develop 6.7 gigawatts worth of energy production infrastructure.
Only 5% of Russians who began to work remotely due to the lockdown were still working from home by April. About 27% had to switch to working from home for at least some of the time over the past year.
SOURCES HAPPINESS: hh.ru, via Kommersant - kommersant.ru/doc/4750468 YANDEX: yandex.ru/company/privacy/transparencyreport MESSAGING: FOM fom.ru/SMI-i-internet/14555 CLIMATE CHANGE: FOM fom.ru/Bezopasnost-i-pravo/14559 REMOTE WORK: RBK rbc.ru/society/22/03/2021/605367709a794785eb1b4552
Russia’s Land of the Leopard National Park, a unique habitat for rare Amur leopards and Amur tigers, is offering photographers a chance to witness and capture on camera these taiga dwellers from a number of elaborate blinds. The blinds offer shelter with all the amenities, and are specially designed to conceal the photographer from the reserve’s abundant wildlife, with luck including some big cats.
The daily fee to rent the blinds – which are mobile and are moved about by park staff on giant sleds in the winter – ranges from R3,000-15,000.
Leopard-land.ru
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