Sochi Watch No. 1: A cynical round-up of Sochi news so far

Charlie Brooker does this better than me but here we go...

In one of the hilarious and un-PC "Youtube Haikus" a bottle of tomato ketchup on wheels sprays a jet of condiment onto a table. The soundtrack to this clip is a rendition of the iconic 20th Century Fox theme played very badly on recorder by the worst primary school orchestra in Truro. Judging by the early reactions to Sochi 2014 this was pretty much what it looked, sounded and felt like to be a journalist witnessing the opening of the games.

It all looked like a proper Eastern European Olympics. First of all the Olympic rings didn't all light up. Secondly the host nation's prime minister was caught napping and, finally, the irony of asking lipstick-lesbian pop prats t.A.T.u to play a special concert was lost on the entire Russian government. It was the perfect gift for the post-Borat world to chortle in superiority and do those dreadful impressions your younger brother still thinks are funny. Twitter exploded with its usual propensity for disguised, viral racism and soon enough pictures of journalists chortling at dirty minibars and weird toilets filled our screens.

Then out came the athletes (but, sadly, not in the gay sense). Years of training and countless currencies have been poured into these bright young things who seemed something of an afterthought against the prevailing narratives of possible terrorism, gay rights and rubbish-hotel selfies. I'd try to defend Russia's hoteliers from the snobbish scoffing of the world press but when you consider the kind of money Russia spent on making these games impress my position loses ground. 

Where am I in all this? I can't really claim moral superiority as I have little interest in Winter sports. I have to put myself among the pro-LGBT rights campaign and watch the games really to see what develops in this debate. I thought I read somewhere that two athletes kissed on a podium but cannot for the life of me find a link anywhere so maybe it was just wishful thinking.

The British media went all out in exploring Russia's gay issues which deserves some level of praise. Taking the direct route via a bizarre interview with a leading anti-gay Russian politician revealed what we had all feared - the existence of a completely immobile mindset where some Duma members actually, genuinely believe that gays are all child abusers. Sigh. I sound like a Russian here but "chto delat'?" (WHAT IS TO BE DONE?!?!) 

In the meantime Kiev still burns, Top Gear make light of it, The One Show interviews a British medal winner and Pussy Riot are arrested again. I guess 2013 didn't end in December after all...

RIP The Moscow News Print Edition

Just a quick one today regarding the closure of the print edition of The Moscow News. For English speakers and expats, papers like The Moscow News and The Moscow Times provide invaluable insight into Russian affairs. They also provide foreign visitors to the Russian capital with much needed local knowledge and advice. The loss of a print edition of one of these papers is sad indeed not just for the readership but for the journalists themselves.

These papers rely on their print edition for keeping reading numbers up and can often be found in cafes, bars and hotels.

Russia is all over the news at the moment and the quality of coverage provided by English-language papers based in Russia is second to none. I only hope that The Moscow Times, which I believe belongs to another media group, can keep it's head above water at the moment.

Speculations as to why the paper has been half-closed will come in thick and fast with many journalists taking to twitter to express their confusion. I'll be following the story very closely as I once interned at one of Moscow's expatriate papers and basically made my start as a Russia-blogger/ journalism intern there.

A statement from The Moscow News can be found here: http://themoscownews.com/oped/20140123/192179170/Print-edition-of-The-Moscow-News-shut-down.html

More to follow.

What does the BBC’s Sochi Winter Olympics Promo tell us about our views on Russia?

Being symptomatic of my generation and its need to react to EVERYTHING I am prone to this level of overthinking, so bear with me...

At first I was pretty sure the BBC were simply screening Lord of the Rings again or possibly the first installment of Peter Jackson’s new Hobbit trilogy. There was a lonely mountain, windswept and dangerous; an epic voiceover spouting gravelly nonsense; a train of brave adventurers armed to the teeth with...skis?

*jaw drop*

“Nature, who will conquer it?”

“The Winter Olympics 07/02/14”

Well, well , well, I thought, here we go again...

What does the BBC’s Sochi Winter Olympics Promo tell us about our views on Russia? Firstly how can we be sure that this isn’t the promo they’d have used for any Winter Olympics? To be honest, we can’t be. A quick re-watch of the Vancouver 2010 BBC promo (here) shows that this older promo would have been equally suitable for Russia if it wasn’t for the depiction of North American native peoples in the opening frames of animation. So why am I making a fuss? I’m not. I simply want to make some interesting observations that come out of decoding a trailer pertaining to one of my favourite subjects. So cool it.

Let’s start with the slogan that the BBC is giving the games – “Nature, who will conquer it?” Few would be surprised at the link being made between Russia and the verb “conquer.” The West has always had the sense of Russia as an invading power and this permeates the way we relate to every facet of Russian culture. Maybe this is unfair but if you cheekily pull apart Vladimir Putin’s full name to reveal its linguistic components you end up with something like “World Ruler, son of World Ruler”  (although the researcher inside of me would also have me point out the dual meaning of ‘mir’ as either ‘world’ or ‘peace’ which sort of ruins the anecdote...) 

Anyway, Russia conquering mountains is a particularly hot topic at the moment with the reemerging security threats to the Sochi games. Both Russian society and the world in general have recently experienced a dreadful reminder of the fragility of the Caucasian mountainous region through the bombings that recently claimed lives in Volgograd. Russia’s 18th century, imperial expansions into the very mountains that the games are being held near is the root cause for the religious and nationalist conflict in the Caucasus area. So are the BBC covertly reminding us of this? Probably not. In fact, I think that the reference to conquering owes more to the mythic, literary interpretation of the Russian character that we constantly recycle in the West - the idea of a harsh and merciless nation whose people are all grizzled warriors travelling great distances and accomplishing great feats with terrible sacrifice. We don't often see it or hear it but Russia can be cute, tender and silly - see Cheburashka (picture 2), a soviet cartoon character, if you don't believe me. Could any of this have made the promo? 

(1) Sochi - a winter wonderland (*)

Another obvious reference point in the video is the weather and climate of Russia. Here we fall into a trap again - not all of Russia is a cold, windswept wasteland. In fact Sochi is the polar opposite of the kind of terrain featured on screen. Instead of resembling The Wall from Game of Thrones the city itself more closely resembles a sunny, sea resort - less of a Siberia and more of a scuzzy, Russian Miami. Let's just think about this in isolation for a second. Russia has an abundance of snow and ice, miles of mountainous terrain, existing infrastructure from previous winter sports events and basically ideal conditions for hosting The Winter Olympics anywhere other than on its Black Sea coast. Yet it still chooses to put them, at great cost, in one of the hottest parts of the country. Here the promo really misses a trick - what's more Russian than a project that sounds as impossible than this? These are the people who built a railway across Siberia! These are the people who sent dogs and monkeys into space! Surely a promo playing off the amazing ambitions and soaring contradictions of Russia would have been a far more interesting watch?

Perhaps the most flattering observation that can be made is the fact that the voiceover speaks in rhyme. Here allusions to Russia's rich literary contributions are woven into the fabric of the games and this makes Russian literature fanatics like me really happy. Although the tone of the poem is pure Tolkien and Tennyson it is pleasing that Russia and epic works of fiction seem to go together in a Western mindset.

(2) Cheburashka - the fluffy underbelly  of Russia

Conclusion? Well it's quite a good promo for building hype but one that shows aged stereoptypes about Russia and Russians. What I would have liked to have seen is something that plays off the clever irony of Winter Olympics in a sub-tropical climate. It would also have been nice to have seen some covert LGBT message although this is waaaay too much for the neutral BBC to be able to stretch to and perhaps that is a good thing.

(1) Image of Sochi taken under creative commons via google images.
(2) Image of Cheburashka taken under creative commons via google images.

New Writing on The Huffington Post Blog

If you enjoy reading Russia stuff here on fromrussiawithrob then have a look at the kinds of things I write for The Huffington Post Blog:

One Law to Rule Them All: Why Is Russia's 'Hooliganism' Law so Controversial?

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/robert-j-lee/russias-hooliganism-law-controversial_b_4336927.html

What's Behind Russia's Recent Race Riots?

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/robert-j-lee/russia-race-riots-reasons_b_4176762.html

Finished Game of Thrones? Then read a Russian classic!

The Dostoevsky Monument outside the Lenin Library, Moscow (1)

The main obstacle to the popularity of Russian literature is public perception. Many people simply find the prospect of reading a Russian classic too daunting to attempt. A simple round of word association throws up prejudices that Russian novels are gloomy, depressing, without a sense of humour, morbid, tedious, too long and too deep. Leaving aside the fact that half of these things are the mark of great literature anyway, how else can someone be convinced to read a great Russian book, indeed, why are Russian novels so great anyway?

As a bit of blog fun here is an attempted rebrand of some of the Russian novels you may have heard of complete, with their own flippant, pulpy blurbs:

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky -  A prostitute enters the battle to save the doomed soul of a megalomaniac murderer.

 Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol – A mysterious confidence trickster purchases the souls of dead peasants as part of a needlessly complex get-rich-quick scheme.

War and Peace by Lev Tolstoy – Napoleon is rude to a Russian fanboy and some Moscow gets burned.

 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov – What links Pontius Pilate, a cat with a gun, a terrible poet and the early days of the Soviet Russia? Ask the guy with no head.

Petersburg  by Andrei Bely – What a BBC4 documentary on the Russian revolution would look like if it was directed by David Lynch. 

If those descriptions haven't wet your page-turning finger then nothing will. 

(1) Pamyatnik dostoevskogo - Adam Baker - Taken from flickr under creative commons

A Quick Update

For anyone wondering why this blog has been a little slow lately, it's because i've started blogging for The Huffington Post.

You can read them here: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/robert-j-lee/

Still about Russia, still current, still as fair as I can be.

This doesn't mean I won't still be writing here, it's just nice to have the chance to reach a different audience!

Rob

Putin, Pictures and (GAY) Protests

Last time we looked at why Alexei Navalny is making headlines across the world for taking chunks out of Putin's legitimacy. Now it seems like everyone is getting in on the act, especially in the wake of the latest affront to the Russian president's manhood...

You may have read or heard about this story (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23861707)  in which a Russian artist has fled the country when his paintings of Putin in drag were seized by authorities. It's all very 19th century isn't it? Someone scribbling something dirty about the Tsar on a blackboard...

The context for this latest Russian oddity is the horrendous "anti-gay law" that has been  on the fringes of the world news agenda over the last few months. The law works by effectively banning all instances of what the Russian state calls"homosexual propaganda" (not a gay, indie, club night) which constitutes anything from open displays of same-sex affection to simply wearing a rainbow flag pin button badge.

(1)

Arguments in favour of the law centre around hackneyed stances on "traditional values and "protecting youth" from being "made gay". It's very sad to see homophobia given legal legitimacy. You can probably tell by all the inverted commas in my text that many of the terms being banded by the lawmakers have no fixed meaning or definition. It is this flexibility that has allowed St Petersburg authorities to raid the artist's collection with, as the BBC article states, "no formal warrant or explanation."

AS ALWAYS with this blog I intend to be respectful to Russian opinion and tradition but this one issue makes this a personal, moral conundrum. I'm really struggling. I want to say that Russia has some kind of right to do this kind of thing - it is not Europe, nor Asia, it really is its own master - but this goes beyond my ability to empathise. Many Russian people themselves are gay and no longer safe in their own country. Instances of anti-gay violence are reported as being on the increase.

Part of the reason why Russia has such a negative view of LGBT issues is to do with religion. This is, in all honesty, something that cannot be surmounted easily. If the bible, according to orthodox readings, calls homosexuality a sin, then this is an enormous obstacle that complicates the issue for many believers. This is not a uniquely Russian problem, Catholics who are gay would reach the same religious/personal crisis, but it's taking the next step to actually arresting people that is so worrying. Once again, it is a mixture of nationalism and religious fervour that has lead to a situation where people grow up to believe gays are some kind of threat. It's a cliche and an offense to call Russia "backwards" and I hate myself for doing it, but the whole affair just reeks of Britain in the mid 20th century.

Nikolay Alexeyev - a prominant Russian lawyer and LGBT activist (2)

The Sochi Winter Olympics offers the best chance for the international community to intervene with this law in a meaningful way. As we have seen with the pro-LGBT performances in St Petersburg of artists like Lady Gaga and Madonna, foreign nationals with a high-profile are able to defeat the Russian government's attempts to curb their expressions of gay freedom. Sports stars are not that different and the media spotlight will be on Russia's cultural and social sides for the first time in years.

An Olympic boycott won't happen but going and being openly gay in Russia is becoming increasingly dangerous. Whatever happens Russia is going to be confronted with something that it didn't want to see, something that will hopefully be very glittery, noisy and fabulous.

(1) wikimedia commons
(2) wikimedia commons

Who on earth is Alexei Navalny and why should I care? (A brief appraisal)

The only middle-aged Russian that most people in the West would recognise on TV used to be Vladimir Putin, yet, thanks to the proliferation of social media, Alexei Navalny is fast superseding the Russian President's place.

"Just who is Alexei Navalny and why should I care?" - a fair question. Russian politics, a lot of the time, seems very far from our own. Defence is a constant issue in their discourse, nationalism is not treated with the same suspicion as it is here and a topless man riding a horse in a stetson and bad sunglasses is not political suicide. Yet Alexei Navalny is a name that has kept cropping up over the last two years of political protest in Russia and is a name that will surely keep cropping up with every passing controversy.

Action Man? (photo taken under creative commons from Jedimentat44)

In the eyes of Russia's new(ish) middle class Alexei Navalny is the figurehead of legitimate, pro-democratic opposition. A lot of factors have worked in his favour. He's neither a member of the aged Communist Party nor of one of the older, mustier, democratic parties like Yabloko from the days of Yeltsin. His understanding of the power of blogging and clever use of language has earned him a popularity with tech-savvy youth that no Western politician short of Obama, Tom Watson or, perhaps, David Lammy could rival.

In the eyes of the state he is a loud-mouthed, serial-tweeter with a very threatening agenda. For many political cynics his recent sentencing to 5 years in prison for embezzlement seems a little too well-timed and out of character for a man who has been looking to uproot the very same kind of self-serving abuse of power. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23348735)

Alexei Navalny (photo taken under creative commons)

I've written many times on this blog about the image problem faced by the Russian state with regard to its legal matters (1). The feeling that Pussy Riot were the first internationally recognised victims of a new series of show trials is one that has been a constant subtext of Western coverage of Navalny's trial. Yet, as always, reality is far too complex to neatly fit a familiar narrative. We should never fully denounce any court case simply because a political motive can be linked in to its proceedings. That kind of support leads to good people being prepared to make hideous denials of crimes like the controversy surrounding Assange not standing up to accusations of rape because it was assumed to be a set-up.

If all these aforementioned things are part of what defines Alexei Navalny and shapes his context in our world then I have still yet to answer why we should care.

Simply put he is a figurehead for change in a country that is once again showing its significance on the world stage. He is a man who has the potential to push Russian democracy in a new direction and to take steps to outlaw the corruption that seems to have seeped into Putin's Russia. Whether or not Alexei Navalny will make a transition to a position of power he is living proof that Russia is establishing a new class of protest citizen for the digital age, that is, at least, in Moscow where free broadband is readily available and Russians live in relative affluence.

(1) http://fromrussiawithrob.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/orthodox-church-in-pr-nightmare-or-how.html and http://fromrussiawithrob.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/punks-not-dead-but-it-might-end-up-in.html

Epic journeys, rivers that flow the wrong way and a certain, budget airline...

From the long, river voyages of the early Rus peoples, who traveled from Scandinavia to Istanbul to flog their wolf pelts, to the infamous Trans-Siberian Railway itself, epic journeys seem to be part of the "Russian character" in our general understanding. A country the size of Russia has always had to deal with extreme logistical issues. Russia's rivers are much to blame as, in the words of my secondary-school teacher, "they do not flow the right way." (e.g. from north to south  as opposed to the more useful horizontal direction they could have taken through to the remotest parts of Siberia)

The dawn of the railway, something recorded spectacularly in some of Russia's best loved literature, was of crucial significance to the way the country was formed. As well as *spoiler alert* killing off one of Russia's most famous heroines, the development of the railroad changed Russia's fortunes and determined her history. In apposition to the new frontier forged by the Wild West railway of legend, Russia's iron roads brought modernity to the sleepy, ancient parts of the country. Trotsky would then use them to brilliant tactical advantage to aid the Red victory in the civil war.

"Russian Mountains/ Российские горы": photo by Timitrius taken from flickr under creative commons

Nowadays in our fast-paced economies these overnight trains seem just a little bit "last century" regardless of how romantic or exciting (or slightly dangerous in that "am-I-going-to-get-bottled?"way) they are. The next technological step, the aircraft, was not the resounding success that Russia had perhaps hoped for. In fact, as air-crash safety goes, Russia performs quite poorly with an appalling record, especially in recent history, of fatal airline disasters. Without wishing to labour the point, one need only think back a few years to the crash that killed Yaroslavl's ice hockey team or just a few weeks to the slide of the runway in Moscow which killed five.

Where does Easy-Jet fit in to this? Well as comments made by a representative of the company in this BBC Russian Service clip indicate - (http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/multimedia/2013/03/130318) - not very far at all. Quite understandably the airline is moving into the Russian market tentatively. For one, Russia is not short of a budget airline or two, particularly on internal flights or flights to CIS countries where many Russians, displaced after the collapse of the Soviet Union are in constant flux to see their relatives. Secondly, Easy-Jet want to make sure a repeat of January's runway overshooting does not happen to them. Air-travel, however much safer it's supposed to be than crossing the road, is something that relies on trust and reputation more than most forms of public transport.

On the whole, however, it is a marvelous thing that the arduous battle for a flight permit is over and that Easy-Jet can operate a fledgling Moscow service. With Sochi 2014 round the corner and the World Cup to be hosted four years after that it is about time that Russia becomes more affordable and accessible. I only wish this had happened sooner as my student loan barely stretched to BA fares last year on my year abroad...

Reviewing VICE's Documentary: "Russia's Deadliest Drug"

Recently I've noticed a lot of reposts of a 2011 VICE documentary on Russia. It's called "Russia's Deadliest Drug" and looks into how Krokodil, a moon-shined heroin substitute made from over-the-counter drugs and household items, is destroying many lives in Russia's east. The documentary is a kind of follow-up to an investigation the magazine launched into the teenage heroin epidemic in general with a reporter, Alison Severs, being sent to Novokuznetsk in Siberia. (Please be aware this documentary is NSFW and could be considered to show disturbing footage. I have reposted it below, but please be advised it depicts scenes of drug abuse.)

VICE does a pretty good job to raise awareness of the shocking epidemic of krokodil and its effects on Russia as a whole. The human angle on the story is touching and bravely shown with the VICE team being unafraid to approach addicts, follow dealers round an out-of-town market, and enter the premises of the evangelical Christian groups who try and resolve the situation. VICE works most effectively when dealing with these kind of stories. Alison Severs was a great choice of host as, unlike the documentaries hosted by VICE co-founder Shane Smith, (which I must add I am also a fan of - they're well-made and humorous) there was less danger of a big, gonzo-journalistic personality getting in the way of the object. She was a good interpreter for a Western audience. Her stylish clothes contrast interestingly with the decrepit tower blocks and discarded syringes of her surroundings and there is a real sense of her being out of place which added a degree of tension.

As a student of the Russian language I especially appreciated the little things like not dubbing over the interviewees in English. The subtitling and translations seemed fine and the camera-work and editing were intelligent. Especially for the online documentary format a good sense of plotting is highly important. The documentary was logically structured and had great pace.

Only at a few points did the documentary become problematic. A scene in which the camera crew, packed into a tiny LADA, were supposedly followed by Kazakh drug dealers was exciting albeit short in actual evidence. I understand how frightening that must have been for all involved, and am pleased it was left in the final cut, but making accusations of drug-trafficking and linking them to a country is pretty serious. This could almost do with another investigation but VICE seemed more concerned with building a mid-documentary set piece to construct for the trailer. This must be the limit of a magazine like VICE. It is able to produce a short documentary aimed at a young audience and keep it engaging and relateable, but it is ultimately unable to raise awareness of an issue in a fully mature manner. This is where a full BBC or Al-Jazeera investigation would be preferable, picking up where VICE left off or over-simplified.

Still, I like the level of risk taking by VICE reporters. It reminded me of the equally brilliant expose of North Korean labour camps in Russia's Far East that saw Shane Smith and crew having to strike deals with local gangsters to get in and out of forbidden sections of Siberia. (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awQDLoOnkdI)

Derelict Building photo: creative commons Denis Defreyne

The conclusions the documentary draws are pretty smart. It shows not only the direct effects of the drugs on users (the famous rotting of the skin that the drug takes its name from) but also on their families and friends. It also shows other social problems that begin to appear around cases of extreme substance abuse. Prostitution, at one point intimated as child prostitution, is supposedly stumbled upon by the filmmakers.

The terrifying reality for many Russians living outside of the relatively privileged "Okrugs" of European Russia is that the government seems to be doing very little to combat this epidemic and these social issues. The Kremlin often seems more wrapped up in pushing bizarre anti-gay laws and hosting competitions and sporting events than improving the lives of its citizens. Russians in the documentary blame corruption but there is a sense of neutrality  and the documentary goes some way to show how hard it is for the Russian authorities. Not only do they have to fight the influx of opiates from an unpoliceable southern border but they also have to vie for power with the myriad of strange religious groups that take in addicts in the guise of rehab clinics. It is sad from both an Athiest or Christian background that the only way out seems to be through a cult.

With times still tough for foreign charities and aid to get into Russia to offer help, this is an often ignored and serious issue that some of our media's mainstream papers and TV stations simply have no time or space on the news agenda to cover.


(thanks to Fiona Potter for bringing this to my attention. Read more of Fiona at her blog: http://thulefiona.blogspot.co.uk/)

All's Quiet on the Eastern Front?

Dear all,

Apologies for not logging in for a while; life has been hectic to say the least. I’m back and studying at Oxford, interning in the media and trying to get my head around how darn cold its getting. You’d have though after a year in Russia I’d be a boss at dealing with this now, but I’m as red-cheeked and blustered as ever…

All has been quiet on the Eastern Front, or at least that’s how it seems in the British Press. In the wake of all the shouting about Pussy Riot the only people still making noise seem to be Anti Flag frontman Justin Sane on twitter (@justinsanesolo) and occasional yelps from NME. My Russian room-mate informs me that things are pretty quiet opposition-wise and pieces about “no show revolutions” are appearing in the papers. With the first of the protests beginning about a year ago today, it’s a wonder where all the rage has gone.

News today that the still-incarcerated Maria Alyokinha faces further punishment for “failing to wake up” reads like bad Russian stereotyping: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/jailed-pussy-riot-rocker-faces-punishment-for-failing-to-wake-up/472541.html. Even sadder are the sporadic and continued reports of the homophobic and disgusting laws against “homosexual propaganda” being brought against people as well-known as Madonna. Just think about it, a law is being manipulated to include talking openly about homosexuality as a criminal offence, all under the guise of patriotism and protecting the next generation.

Campaigns are beginning to attempt to boycott the upcoming Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics because of issues like this. Whether they will succeed or not looks doubtful.

Some positive news from Russia is that Putin has signed a new law to ease Visa processes for foreign workers heading to help out in the games. Russia’s condemnation of North Korea’s missile programme is also a welcome sign that Russian defence policy is not always obsessed with looking westwards.

That’s all for now folks. The blog is still running, although in conjunction with many, many other projects.

Rob

x

 For anyone interested those include a new column writing about horror movies, which, if you like the more creative aspects of my writing, can be read here: http://shockradar.org/2012/11/18/hidden-gems-of-horror-dario-argentos-suspiria-1977/

Orthodox Church in PR Nightmare! or how one priest in a BMW opened a can of worms...

Rob attempts an appraisal of issues surrounding the modern Russian Orthodox Church...

There is something gleefully Father Ted about the story of the intoxicated Russian priest crashing an ambassadorial BMW in Moscow the other day. (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/clergyman-crashes-sports-car-with-maltese-diplomatic-plates/466547.html) While the official story of what happened is pending an internal investigation, there is a sense of supreme irony hanging in the air, especially with the news that Russian deputy Prime Minister, Vladislav Surkov, has just been appointed the Orthodox church’s new PR man.

It’s not been a great year for the Orthodox Church in general. A few months ago Patriarch Kirill, the spiritual head of the church, was caught up in a row involving a disappearing watch from one of his press shots. The watch, a lavish Breguet costing between 28 and 36 thousand euros, was edited off of his holy wrist, but was caught reflecting in the polished surface of a table to the embarrassment of his press department.

(1)Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour - scene of the "Pussy Riot"

A distinctly less funny episode in the church’s recent history is the on-going trial of Pussy Riot – the Russian punk band/ feminist-political art group. Their performance, a warning to the church not to get too comfortably in bed with current government, has been portrayed as a near satanic act. Kremlin spin doctors are attempting to enrage Russia’s huge Christian population and cast the band as enemies of Christianity. The trumped-up charges of religious hatred are an obscenity and can only damage the Church’s reputation under western eyes.

(2)Patriarch Kirill (right)

The appointment of Surkov, to sort out the Church’s dreadful image, is itself indicative that the Russian government is worried about this. The Orthodox Church has always been closely linked to Russian patriotic feeling, after all, it’s a uniquely Russian faith. Thus, chaining it closely to a government is to essentially put Christian voters into a difficult position. Russian Christians are right to be outraged at religious hatred, but with Pussy Riot this is clearly not the case. Russian Christians need to understand that spirituality exists beyond earthly politics and should equally abhor any attempt to lock their faith to a regime. Pussy Riot don’t hate Jesus and aren’t sluts from the pit. Their performance inside the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was pure provocation and probably pretty insulting but it was not an act of arson or vandalism – it should be forgiven and not result in a jail sentence. Surely religion should only be used as a force for good?

Oh dear, well if there is one other religious organisation that knows a lot about bad PR, it’s the Catholic Church. This week, although seeing a scandal involving a Papal butler, sees the current Pope making significant motions towards reforming policy on birth control. Surkov is not facing a particularly easy job, especially in the wake of Father Jack’s drunken joy ride, but the problems he faces are surely not as large as those that the Vatican has been dealing with. The good that needs to come from this should not only be justice for Pussy Riot but also justice for Russia’s Christians who, at the moment, are being cast in the same unfortunately negative light as their church – old fashioned, choking on wealth and at the disposal of a controversial government.  

IMAGES: (1) Courtesy of Argenberg, taken under creative commons (2) Courtesy of acor-cannes, taken under creative commons

Punk's not dead! (But it might end up in prison)

Rob finally weighs in on the Pussy Riot story...

3 years – arguably longer than the punk movement lasted in its entirety. Yet three years is the sentence that prosecutors are pushing for in the case against Russian punk band Pussy Riot who performed an impromptu concert in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour last February. The group shouted political slogans, dressed in masks and generally acted like, well…punks.

A simple case of hooliganism is being given a sinister, religious spin by prosecutors who are attempting to cast the trio as the whores of Babylon. Sadly, such an approach may prove successful in the surge of pro-Orthodox feelings after the fall of the Soviet Union. The bizarre religious edge to the case is obscene with the band being affronted for wearing “definitely colourful dresses*” which seems to be equal to an act of treason in a country where nationalism and religion are so dangerously interwoven.

On top of this, the reduction of the group’s actions from “protest” to “hooliganism” is also an attempt to pull the veil over Russia’s wooly political atmosphere that the band was trying to give an artistic opinion on. In this light, the state can be seen to be using religion as a levering tool to remove an opposition voice – something that should outrage Christians as much as secular Russians.

Pussy Riot in their "garish hell dresses"

If the mix of ultra-conservative religious fervour and politics doesn’t make you sick enough already then you need only pick up the Sex Pistol’s debut to feel really nauseous. “God Save the Queen the fascist regime”, while tongue in cheek, is a work of provocative, political art that raises a serious point of contention in contemporary Britain. This can be proven by how quickly it flared up again as an issue surrounding the grandiose royal wedding a few months ago with graffiti showing up across the UK showing republican discontent.

While rigid conservative types and royalists were bound to be flustered in 1977, a public court case against the Sex Pistols was never opened. The group was never incarcerated. Society didn’t break out in anarchy. Johnny Rotten changed his name and started flogging butter.

Surely, these attempts to lock up Pussy Riot will achieve nothing but the converse of the prosecution’s hopes. Global attention has been drawn to a band that practically no-one outside of Russia would ever have heard about.  Last night, Madonna was the latest celebrity to add her support the band’s bid for freedom. Unfortunately this kind of foreign support will only be turned into anti-Western propaganda and may prove to be even more damning in court.

So it’s to Russians themselves that this article should be re-directed. Orthodox Christians should be outraged at the use of their church as a tool for furthering political goals. Non-believing Russians should be outraged at the harshness of this sentencing. And everyone involved should be gobsmacked that the prosecution is trying to say that the group’s actions were in no way political.

 *quote taken from: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/prosecutor-insisting-case-isnt-political-seeks-3-years-for-pussy-riot/463318.html

Photo: Lorena Cupcake (taken from flickr through creative commons)

Quick Update

Privet vsem!

My summer plans have changed dramatically over the last few weeks. Basically I have decided to stay in the UK and intern at a well-known, national newspaper. (No guesses). So, i'm turning "fromrussiawithrob" into a place to comment on Russian news and culture from my angle. Please comment on what I write as without you i'm just an autocrat with a keyboard. And that would be dreadful!

sbasiba za vnimanie!

Episode 31: Do svidaniya but not goodbye

Ah, number 31. Was it Heraclitus who said that - “of all the numbers in the universe, 31 is the most forlorn”. No it was not. But it’s my forlorn number anyway, as fromrussiawithrob is temporarily saying poka poka to Russia. My year abroad is effectively over and tomorrow I will take my leave of sunny Moscow for the grey, drizzly summers of England.

What can I say comrades and comradettes? It’s been a blast. An emotional, geographical, linguistical adventure. There have been good times, there have been better times, there have been “i’m soooooo sad waaaaaaah” times, but when the smoke settles and the clichés finally stop flowing from my pen, i’ll surely remember, with fondness, every vatrushka s tvorogom and every nonsensical, grammatical mishap that befell me this last 9 months.

Me looking ecstatic about leaving Russia

I could make a greatest hits compilation, but that’s not for this post. All I wish to say is that I deeply loved Russia when I arrived, and I deeply love Russia now that i’m leaving. It is now far more to me than a classroom subject. It’s a country full of new friends and fond memories, and one that I will jump at the chance to return to in the future. I have loved writing this blog, finding new audiences both at home and abroad and will continue to do so again in the future...

...now that the credits are rolling, dear reader, please don’t feel this blog is dead and done for. There will be a special announcement in the next week or so regarding a little adventure I have planned for later in the summer. So stay tuned.

 My ego wishes me to make one more utterance before I leave, something that I said when this whole ball of bears started rolling. “Russia will never be boring” was my philosophy with this trip, and give yourselves a pat on the back rebyata, because you’ve lived up to it.

All the best

Rob

x

Episode 30: Saturday Super Sale

The hot bus was packed and wheezing down the dual carriageway. We were on our way to MEGA - a monolithic shopping complex on the outskirts of Moscow - and, by the looks of things, so was every other person in the city. After taking an hour to cover about 15 minutes of roadway we eventually emptied into the car-park of the huge mall. It was 10:55 pm and in 5 mins the Saturday Night of Super Sales would begin. I think I said this once before in this blog, but no one knows how to spend like Muscovites...

(1) River Island Aztec-like short sleeve shirt

MEGA spans three separate, giant buildings and contains just about every Russian and Western clothing outlet. There is also a massive IKEA inside half of one of those buildings, which I think gives a good idea of just how big we are talking. There is a massive food court where you can eat anything from sushi to mushroom risotto and you are given a map on entry by one of the attractive and strangely uniformed employees. 

This night was bizarre. DJ's played loud euro trance in the main hall and the escalators ran overtime with shopping-burdened consumers. Every couple of seconds someone would bump into someone else or set off the store security systems. The queue inside the New Yorker outlet was 40 minutes long with people trying to bribe those at the front of the queue to buy their items for them and save them the agony of standing in line. (My flatmate and his friend were totally suckered in this way by a trio of girls in club makeup with dyed hair.)

(2) Loud Zara Collection T-shirt 

Over the course of the night, which ran until 4am, we needed three fresh air breaks and several beers to keep us going. Exhausted customers outside the complex turned shopping trolleys onto their sides to create makeshift benches. 

We were exhausted, but overall the experience was worth it. Even the massive chains like Zara, Topshop and River Island offered 20% of nearly everything in store (including current season stock) and Russian clothing firms like Colin's and Sela had nearly 50% off all stock. We never even made it as far as the electronic section where perhaps we could have found ipods, cameras and games consoles with similar savings.

Standing in the midst of the bustle and rustle of shopping bags, I reflected on how unlikely it now seemed that this country ever was communist. This centre is a temple to capitalism. The art of the Super Sale itself is pure economic deception and even with the reduced prices, we were completely savvy to the fact we were still buying the goods at a tremendous mark up. These moral and psychological conundrums aside, what a show it was! I have never been to a superstore of this size in my life and, my clever purchases aside, just the experience of being out and about on a somewhat alternative Saturday night was amazing. Well, it beats clubbing in Torquay anyway... 

Me and what looks to be a brand-new Lenin Statue

Episode 29: Spring time for Moscow

In marked difference to the weather I experienced from January to April, Moscow spring has been lovely. Huge thunderstorms gather occasionally and disperse the gathering heat and mugginess with warm rain and shaken trees. Most days there is a present breeze and a manageable temperature. The has been shining nearly every day and my flat-mate and I have made good use of our balcony, mainly for wine drinking and bitchy conversations with our neighbour Katya.

Our Balcony and the trademark, Russian birch 

In Spring, the dress of Muscovites changes. Gone are the black-leather jackets and flat-caps on the men. Gone are the dreadful, patterned windbreakers on the women. Out come surprising splashes of colour, brave white shoes, plaid, stripes and nonsense print t-shirts. Even the shifty gangs of Caucasians on the metro brave the trends of fashion and whip out a pair of Aviators and some sock-less, purple loafers. In short, the city is transformed.

Roads you used to slip down are now in bloom. The trees are dressed up too and the air is filled with blossom, pollen and all sorts of treats for the hay-fevered. Markets have popped up more frequently along with street vendors selling corn-on-the-cob, fresh kvass and fizzy water. The families are out too. Parents push prams and toddlers sing and scream nursery rhymes on the boulevards.


The parks are open now, the smell of kebabs drifts over them. Businessmen sit on benches trying their best to not drip ice-cream onto their Armani suits and groups of student sit with guitars and textbooks. Two old men, probably rivals of 60 years, sit in front of a chess set and duel.

Someone told me that Moscow was lovely in Spring, they were right.

Episode 28: The one with the naked whipping or Rob goes to the banya

“Put your hands up!” said the large, naked man to my right.

“Good!’ he said and began pummelling me from behind with a birch branch.

I was, of course, in the “banya” or Russian bathhouse - a tradition as old as the hills and a true test for any traveller. Upon paying the chain smoking old man at the door for a two hour time slot, my Russian flatmate instructed me that now was the time for full frontal nudity. You can’t wear swimming shorts in the banya. Well you can but then everyone will paradoxically laugh at you.

It is somewhat similar to a Finnish sauna although far warmer. After toasting yourself for several minutes (I think I managed no more than 7 or 8 at a time) you either leap into a freezing pool of water or roll in the snow. The birch or oak branch beating is optional. I chose to do this partly out of my adventurous spirit and partly out of fear that the burly men around me would call me a coward. My being English was a subject of discussion and much amusement. There was nothing sinister about it; it is simply rare for the banya regulars to meet a foreigner this far off the Moscow tourist trail.

Once I had overcome the conservative attitude towards nudity that we seem to have in Britain I found my time there to be quite enjoyable. As well as the birch beating you get treated to two other Russian sauna oddities – felt hats, used to keep the heat away from your head, and large gulps of a drink called Kvass: a kind of lightly fermented beer that tasted like life itself in my dehydrated state.

You see some pretty grizzly stuff in the banya and end up feeling pretty weak from the constant hot-cold, hot-cold cycle, but you leave the banya feeling completely reborn. My roommate claims that a trip once a week will keep cold and flu away for life and to an extent I believe him.

There is something very Classical about the whole set up. Even in this “working man’s” banya it felt as much a cultural ritual as a medical one.  It was even bordering on being a social event or rite of passage - a man inducted his eight year old son to the tradition while I was there. As he withstood his first minute of blazing heat, knees shaking under the sweaty intensity, a rapturous applause erupted from everyone.

“He’ll be drinking his first beer soon!” a man joked.

I left with the sense that I have at last taken part in something truly Russian and something that I would cautiously recommend any adventurous traveller or slavophile to do. Ideally go with friends and go the whole hog the only thing you need to bring is a pair of flip flops…

Episode 27: Rob gets chased by riot police or an update on Moscow's political climate

The protesters on the other side of the river threw another riot police helmet into the murky water. An enormous cheer rose up from the crowd and I found myself joining in. I covered my mouth immediately. Oh good lord!" I thought, "I, a foreigner, cannot possibly be seen to get involved in this!" This is not directly my fight, but nonetheless, Moscow, my home for the next 3 months, is a bit of a battleground at the moment and I am somewhat in the thick of it.

Communist Party and "Leftist Front" flags as the protest built up

In going to observe the so-called "March of Millions" protest against the inauguration of Vladimir Putin as the country's new president, I had accidentally ended up a part of the protest. I watched from behind the front row as Police dragged Udaltsov and Navalny (two "leaders" of the opposition movement) off of the stage literally seconds into their speeches. Having distanced myself to the other side of the river, where I considered myself to be a safe distance from the actual, political action, I was suddenly aware of the large column of riot police marching facelessly towards the crowd gathered around me.

They rounded the corner and bore down on us. Despite having been given the official go-ahead, this protest, and anyone simply watching from the sidelines, was being broken up forcefully. "The allotted time for this event has passed," a Police announcer spoke, "Kindly leave the streets by the nearest metro." Before I knew it a line of more vehement protesters had began to charge the police, batons were drawn and scraps broke out. A man was hit with a baton. A policeman stumbled over a dustbin. People around me started to run. The crowd was made up of many different people: the middle-aged, the middle-class, the elderly, parents with their children and a lot of youths who really didn't want to see any violence. It was a shame that anyone had to get hurt; protesters or police. The image portrayed by certain television stations of the protesters being violent yobs paid for by NATO is both ridiculous and uninformed. The image portrayed by the protesters of the police being bloodthirsty and mismanaged is equally askew at times.

Riot Police blocking off the Kremlin (St Basil's in the background)

Needless to say there was not bloodshed or rioting on an epic scale. Protesters, including one extremely enraged babushka, drummed and tore up some corrugated-iron scaffolding, but on the whole the conduct of the police and protesters was not disproportionately savage. Eventually the police herded us towards the metro and the crowd broke up. I left the area quickly not wanting to risk accidental arrest. There was an ugly rumour going around all day of the police being given an arrest quota to act as a fear tactic with officers simply picking up anyone they could lay a hand on easily. I hope this is untrue.

The impression I have now is that Moscow, backed by new protest movements from Astrakhan and St Petersburg, is a city given another shot at a Spring-time rebellion. Tonight, all over Moscow, people are desperately trying to occupy squares and boulevards to prolong the action. The warm weather is on their side. As a foreigner, I know better than to get involved directly, and, as always, my opinion on this blog is something to be kept veiled. All I can conclude is that there is a deep and mostly peaceful unrest here, but things are getting more and mores desperate as well, on both sides of the political line.

more soon...

Episode 26: Confessions of a Moscow-holic or Rob isn't funny, just busy.

What a busy boy I have been! Just trying to live in this city is a full-time job and add on top of this my interning as a journalist, tutoring, replacing a stolen wallet and a million other adventures it's not really a surprise that fromrussiawithrob has been a bit quiet of late. Hopefully none of you thought i'd be dragged away to some Siberian prison cell in the wake of my last post. I am nothing but apologies for not having written sooner, but understand it's not just this part of my life that has been neglected.

Me in the window of an office building

My hair is currently dreadful! A kind of moppish flop, tortured by overgrowth and Moscow's biting wind. My wardrobe is looking a little shabby from the winter too. Boots and shoes need a decent scrub, but i've broken two brushes already just trying to get the snow and mud caking off. Alas.

So don't feel too bad, dear reader. Here is what you've been missing out on:

(1) Writing, interviewing, editing. See the Moscow Times for more details.

(2) Getting my wallet pinched. Actually, feel free to miss out on this one.

(3) Eating Uzbek Pasties. Fed up of the proposed Tory pasty taxes? Then come to Moscow and eat a spicy Uzbek pasty! Ideally get someone who knows where the best Uzbek cafes are to show you and order one. They are baked in a stone over called a Tandir or Tanbir (I forget at the moment of writing) and contain a mix of vegetables with lamb and beef mince. Moreish beyond belief...

(4) Interviewing sharp-suited Italian men in swanky hotels. (again, see Moscow Times for more details)

(5) Drinking too much free coffee in the employees kitchen.

(6) Hosting an 80's megamix of youtube videos on my facebook wall. 

(7) Watching Peter Hook recreate Joy Division in a Russian nightclub. Religious experience.

(8) Hitchhiking home with an old guy who tells me to vote communist even when I explain that I'm not actually a citizen of the Russian federation.

Novoslobodskaya Metro Station is neoclassically cool

(9) Drinking a bottle of gin with two guys from Kazakhstan. 

(10) Going to a 50's American diner tucked in near the Kremlin. 

(11) Joining an expensive gym and spending most of my nights in a Jacuzzi full of fat men in their pants. (they refuse to buy swimming shorts, it's awful)

(12) Joining an expensive gym and spending most of my nights in a sauna full of nice, funny people who are really interested why an Englishman has appeared in their neighbourhood (you win some, you lose some)

(13) Watching muscovites spend spend spend in the massive malls.

(14) Buying postcards from art galleries I visit.

(15) Watching video reviews of guitars I own and miss.

(16) Trying to get an internship at Russian wine magazine.

(17) Learning to ride the metro "like a student"

(18) Watching Spring trying to come out only to be put in its place by bizarre snowstorms.

Really nice looking apartment complex with cool balconies. Reminds me a little of Barcelona

(19) Beating a Russian at chess in the coolest cafe ever (more on that soon)

anyway yes. that'll do Rob.

poka!
x