A father’s brutal murder by his three daughters has rekindled the debate over domestic violence in Russia.
Maria, Angelina, and Krestina Khachaturyan (17, 18, and 19 years old, respectively) are accused of killing their father, Mikhail Khachaturyan, by stabbing him 36 times in the chest. The sisters claim their father terrorized them and their mother their entire lives, keeping them out of school and sexually abusing them.
The case fueled Russia’s national debate about violence against women that has been running in parallel with America’s #MeToo movement, spurred in part by a move last year by Russian authorities to decriminalize some crimes of violence within families.
“Finally, justice is focusing attention on the victims of violence,” wrote women’s rights campaigner Mari Davtyan as the judge in the Khachaturyan case released the sisters from pre-trial detention, confining them to house arrest for the duration of the investigation.
Many Russian women are in prison for defending themselves from abusive men, sometimes after years of violence. “I think 80 percent of women accused of murder in a penal colony are there for killing or maiming an aggressive husband,” said defense lawyer Alexei Parshin, who specializes in such cases and is defending the Khachaturyan sisters.
Zenit, the legendary Soviet camera maker based near Moscow, has partnered with the German company Leica to make a new digital camera, the Zenit M. The M is inspired by the Soviet Zorki rangefinder, which in turn was inspired by an older Leica model.
Zenit’s golden years are long past. Mass production of cameras halted with the end of the Soviet Union, and its factory in Krasnogorsk has survived on orders for sniper rifle scopes and night vision equipment for military helicopters. The new camera will retail for $6,000-7,000 and be based on the mirrorless Leica M240 model ($6,000 new), but with a Russian-made lens.
A rare wave of dismissals of Russian governors followed an equally rare failure of Kremlin-backed regional candidates to secure a number of gubernatorial posts this fall.
Several regions held elections in September, and in Khabarovsk Krai, Primorsky Krai, and Vladimir Oblast, the candidates of the majority party United Russia did not win. The setback precipitated a major reshuffle by the Kremlin, with Putin dismissing governors in Kurgan, Lipetsk, Astrakhan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Sakhalin and, most notably, his home city St. Petersburg – all within days of each other.
Although Russia has reintroduced gubernatorial elections, Putin often removes governors who have low ratings, appointing interim regional heads who may be viewed more neutrally by constituents, presumably so that voters will be more likely to vote for them in the next round of elections.
Meanwhile, state-funded pollster FOM reported at press time that only 31 percent of respondents said they would back United Russia, Putin’s ruling party, if new State Duma elections were held immediately.
A tiny, mysterious hole in the International Space Station has put geopolitical grievances into Earth orbit. When the ISS crew discovered a small hole in the Soyuz spaceship docked to the station, causing a loss of pressure and oxygen, allegations of sabotage followed.
Russian “space industry sources” went so far as to tell state agencies that US astronauts deliberately drilled the hole to expedite their own return to Earth, possibly because they were psychologically unstable.
US astronaut Drew Feustel, who was commander of the ISS before returning to Earth in early October, called such notions “embarrassing.” At press time, a commission was still probing how the hole was made, but Russian space agency head Dmitry Rogozin, an outspoken nationalist politician, said he was convinced that the hole was made deliberately. He predicted that more information would be available in November.
Russia’s World Cup star, goalie Igor Akinfeyev, has stepped down as player and captain of the national team. The 32-year-old, who plays for CSKA Moscow, helped Russia beat Spain in the round of 16 by making incredible saves during a penalty shootout. Akinfeyev instantly gained national hero status.
Days after Akinfeyev’s retirement, CSKA stunned Real Madrid in a Champions League game, winning the match in Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium 1-0.
Excitement about the new iPhone XS models in Moscow prompted huge lines to form days before the release. Yet, indicative of the economic troubles most Russians find themselves in, those camping out in the line on the capital’s Tverskaya Street were not there to actually buy a phone. Instead, they planned to sell their place in line to those desperate for the gadget.
Russian online marketplace websites had posts selling places in line for R250,000. The first person to actually purchase a new iPhone – which in Russia costs about $1,650 – was the 247th person in line.
A curious clash of civilizations occurred when the Italian edition of Vogue went to Russia’s remote and sparsely populated Russian North for a colorful photo shoot.
The village of Chikinskaya, in Pinezh Rayon, Arkhangelsk Oblast, has a population of three. There is no cell phone reception. Nor are there roads: you can access its wind-weathered, non-functioning wooden churches only by boat.
“They asked me to give them a ride, so I did. There was nothing beautiful, one had a moustache,” river ferry operator Alexei Poyarov told Channel 5.
The magazine published the photos of models traipsing through the village, past “Produkty” trucks (the generically marked vehicles that transport groceries), and climbing on top of rickety village ladders in its September issue.
Most of the comments on social media decried the magazine for its tastelessness. Pinezh Rayon initiated its own fashion contest, encouraging local women to take photos in traditional dress and then post them with the hashtag of the village name (#чикинская) to show “what real beauty looks like.”
Mercurial Russian filmmaker Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s plan to build a replica of the Berlin Wall to create an immersive Soviet experience has fallen through. Berlin’s municipal authorities said they could not grant permission.
Khrzhanovsky, a darling of Western film festivals since the release of his 2004 movie 4, has lately been preoccupied by his larger than life project Dau, initially envisioned as a traditional biopic of the Soviet scientist (and Nobel laureate) Lev Landau. As it progressed through development and production in Kharkiv, however, Dau morphed into something more than a movie. The director essentially conducted a social experiment inside the giant set that was a reproduction of Landau’s institute (which, at the end of filming, was destroyed by neo-Nazis he hired). The experiment incorporated authoritarian oversight and actors could be fired for carrying a mobile phone.
The Berlin Wall project was meant to showcase the 13 films Khrzhanovsky made from some 700 hours of footage shot on the set, so that audiences could “experience a totalitarian system.” The project would also have blocked off an area around Berlin’s Unter den Linden boulevard – thus the interest in rebuilding a portion of the wall.
Lack of preparation led the German capital’s authorities to reject the plan on security grounds, even after several celebrities, including Marina Abramovic and Brian Eno, got on board. The project was also rejected by several public figures who denounced it as a gimmick that trivialized the real horrors experienced by those who lived under totalitarianism.
It is now not clear when or whether Khrzhanovsky’s movie will be premiered.
Iosif Kobzon, an institution of Soviet and Russian “estrada” (popular concert singing), has died at the age of 80. The famous baritone was born in eastern Ukraine, and he was long a favorite of Soviet and Russian officialdom, something that earned him disdain in some circles.
Kobzon sang at Soviet megaprojects, traveled with Soviet delegations, regaled Soviet troops in Afghanistan, and served as a lawmaker in the Russian Duma. He also performed for those who risked their lives cleaning up the Chernobyl disaster and helped lead hostages out of the Dubrovka theater in 2002.
Whichever way Russia’s turbulent political winds blew, Kobzon managed to stay in favor with its leaders. A Vladimir Putin loyalist, in recent years, he actively supported pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, for which he was slapped with travel restrictions by European governments. His alleged ties with the mob, together with his smooth voice, earned him the moniker of “the Russian Sinatra.”
Eduard Uspensky, the children’s writer who brought to life some of the most celebrated characters of the last century, has died at the age of 80.
Uspensky created a host of immensely popular characters, the most iconic being Cheburashka, the floppy-eared creature found in a box of tangerines; his sidekick, the melancholy Crocodile Gena; Uncle Fyodor, a dour postman in the village of Prostokvashino; and many others (see page 29).
Of late, Uspensky had been embroiled in a protracted battle with the animation studio Soyuzmultfilm over the rights to the Prostokvashino franchise, alleging that new episodes used his characters without his permission.
Moscow-based theater director Dmitry Brusnikin, who mentored and launched many young actors’ careers, has died at 60.
Brusnikin was born into a Soviet military family stationed in Eastern Germany and was educated as an electrical engineer before embarking on a theatrical career, working as an actor in the Moscow Art Theater and on television for many years.
More recently he managed an actor’s studio that is credited with revolutionizing theater in Moscow. His disciples, “brusnikintsy,” have put on cutting-edge shows at the Meyerhold Center. Just before his death he was appointed art director of Moscow’s Praktika Theater.
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