itar-tass
St. Petersburg Economic Forum
Titan of the Typecasts
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Medvedev woos investors in northern capital
Russians have highest chance of becoming billionaires
from personal archives
New Money at the Top
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Elya Baskin, a Russian actor in Hollywood P.06
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
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News in Brief
Minorities As an energy company transforms the tundra, the Nenets see an end to their way of life
The Nenets Herders, Last Nomads of the North
Easier Visa System to Launch Following calls by Russia’s leadership to scrap tourist visas altogether with the United States, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Joseph Beyrle announced at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that the two countries would begin issuing 3-year multiple-entry visas within weeks. He also pledged to remove the invitation requirement for obtaining a visa. Similar initiatives to ease travel have been undertaken with EU countries, with limited results so far.
Human Rights Crusader Wins Defamation Suit
ria novosti
anna nemtsova
Russia’s nomadic reindeer hunters now coexist with roads, rail, pipes and drilling towers. ANNA NEMTSOVA
special to rUSSIA NOW
Lena Sarteto’s puffy, roughskinned hands are a flurry of activity. As water boils over the fire in the center of her teepee, Sarteto, a nomad with the Nenets indigenous people of western Siberia, is cooking a feast for her guests and her family of five. She chops up dark red pieces of jerked deer meat, peels a huge silver fish and places pieces of dry
bread and cookies on plates that she stores in a wooden sled. Her floor is the grass beneath her feet; fish bones and scales litter the room around the fire. The fish bones will stay there when they move on. Sarteto is in a hurry. In a few hours, her small nomadic group of about 10 families — still called Brigade No. 5, their official name from Soviet times — will push further north. It is early Polar summer, and taking advantage of the almost continuous light, they herd their 3,000 reindeer to the shores of the Kara Sea, reaching that part of the Arctic
Circle in August. And then they turn around, fleeing the biting frost and returning their reindeer to grass and moss of the warmer tundra. It is an age-old cycle, but one that these families know is increasingly under threat. The Yamal Peninsula is also home to Gazprom, the huge Russian energy company that supplies natural gas to much of Western Europe. And as Gazprom pushes into the peninsula, it has brought the kind of development — road, rail and pipelines — that is transforming the tundra. The Nenets have been
introduced to asphalt highways, rusty metal, wire and drilling towers. Russia’s wealth appears to be cut out of the tundra they once called their own. “The fish tastes dead; we feel sick after drinking water out of the lakes; our reindeers get stuck in wire loops or trip over pipes, break their legs and die,” Sarteto said. She repeats this line as if it is a mantra: “We are the last generation to lead a nomadic life; our children will live in towns, without tundra.” The Yamal Peninsula contains the Bavanenkovo gas field, a vast tract containing about 4.9 tril-
lion cubic meters of natural gas that Gazprom expects to begin pumping next year. Drilling towers have begun to dot the horizon. And to help exploit the gas resource, a new 325-mile long railroad opened last year. Many of the 13,000 nomads left on Yamal Peninsula fear they will be forced into permanent settlements — a lifestyle change the government is encouraging, but which is dreaded by a people who have long forged their identity as travelers across the tundra’s expanse.
The state is making plans to move the families to towns. About 165 families may be removed from the tundra.
continued on page 3
Immigration Largest immigrant population outside the United States faces hostility and opportunity
Moscow’s New Migrant Class From the streets and markets to the steel high-rise, Central Asian immigrants keep Russia’s urban centers whirring, but occasionally face open hostility from locals. Galina Masterova
ria novosti
specIal to russia now
Grab one of Moscow’s ubiquitous gypsy cabs and there is a good chance the driver will be a young Central Asian, maybe a Moldovan, who is completely new to the city and has to be shown the route to Red Square or just about anywhere else. Migrants from former Soviet republics, who do not need visas, have rushed in the millions to find work in Russia, both legal and illegal, and Russian companies have been quick to use the cheap labor. The Federal Migration Service (FMS) estimates that about 1.7 million foreigners will enter Russia to work legally in 2011, and that at least another three or four million working in the country are undocumented.
Foreign workers constructing Moscow’s Federation Tower - to be Europe’s tallest building - before a lunch break.
A Moscow judge ruled that human rights activist Oleg Orlov was not guilty in a slander case involving Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Orlov, the head of the Memorial human rights group, was charged with defamation last July after he publicly accused Kadyrov, formerly a Chechen gunman, of being behind the murder of activist Natalia Estemirova in 2009. Estemirova recorded hundreds of cases of alleged abuse against civilians by the militia under control of Kadyrov. His lawyers said they would appeal the ruling. Orlov called the ruling a victory for all of civil society: “It is a victory for everyone, for journalists and the whole of civil society, because I defended in court the right to freedom of expression,” he said.
Last-minute Polish-ups to Lose Their Shine The Public Chamber, a body that brings together state officials and civil society representatives, has launched a new online project to crack down on Potemkin polish-ups — when regional officials hastily spruce up towns and villages ahead of visits from senior government visits. The project, “Dear Old Potemkin Village,” a reference to the fake Crimean settlements set up to impress Catherine II in 1787, encourages users to send in videos of last-minute makeovers, the Public Chamber said in a statement. The chamber said it would “initiate public investigations into the most blatant cases,” and give “anti-awards” to the best makeovers.
In this issue Reflections It is not difficult to find many of these new immigrants. They are the young men who sweep away the snow and pick up the garbage, and the hard-hats who build the city’s new glass and steel high-rises. They are the young women who sell produce in the markets, clean public toilets and street underpasses, and push strollers in city parks. Bakhyd Asilbekulu, 21, came from Osh, Kyrgyzstan, to work as a cleaner in a Moscow market for 15,000 rubles, or about $540, a month. He shares a room in a hostel near the market with more than a dozen of his compatriots. Bakhyd, who has Russified his name to Borya, plans to return to Kyrgyzstan in December but “if there is no money, I will return [to Moscow].” Emigration is driven by poverty at home and the attraction of a booming Russia where the population is declining and the demand for cheap labor, particularly in major cities, is robust. Continued on page 3
The Reset Ambassador Key strategist gets political appointment to Moscow page 5
Opinion
Keeping the ‘R’ BRICs daddy says Russia deserves its place in the group of emerging markets page 4
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St. Petersburg Forum Despite putting off a major China gas deal, Medvedev left foreign investors feeling optimistic
Medvedev Speech Inspires Investors
The president also told his audience, which included scores of governors, that his sacking of long-serving regional bosses often resulted in improved local business climates. He picked Moscow as an example, saying that under Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, the amount of documents necessary to start construction projects decreased. Afterward, forum participants said without hesitation that Medvedev’s remarks bordered on a campaign speech. “A pretty presidential speech,” said Andrew Somers, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia. Medvedev was trying to win the support of “his colleagues in power and the Russian elite” ahead of the election, said Dar-
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Vyacheslav Nikonov
Arkady Dvorkovich
Klaus Kleinfeld
HEAD OF POLITIKA FOUNDATION
MEDVEDEV’S TOP ECONOMIC AIDE
CEO OF U.S. ALUMINUM GIANT ALCOA
FROM PERSONAL ARCHIVES
Participants said without hesitation that Medvedev’s remarks bordered on a campaign speech.
Medvedev touted modernization, but did not confirm he would seek re-election next year.
ITAR-TASS
THE MOSCOW TIMES
After the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum proceeded from highlight to highlight, Medvedev was forced to admit at the very end of Saturday’s closing session that he still could not promise to stand for re-election. “Can I ask one puckish question? … Are you going to run for president next year?” asked an awkwardly chortling Wall Street Journal editor, Robert Thomson, adding that this might be “the perfect moment” for Medvedev to make his thoughts public. The president, however, jovially crushed all hopes that he would solve the country’s most pressing political puzzle. “When I believe the moment is right to say directly whether I will or will not run, I will do so,” he said. “But this forum is not the best venue for that.” Medvedev fueled talk of a rift in the tandem that has governed the country since 2008 when he lit a blaze of liberal policies in his keynote speech Friday. As a central theme, he touted an end to government intervention in the economy, which he described both as state capitalism and “manual control” — a definition closely associated with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s habit of personally intervening in industry decision making. The president’s repudiation of what is seen as Putin’s style
rell Stanaford, managing director of real estate agency CB Richard Ellis in Russia. Stanaford said both foreign and Russian business agree that the government should not dictate from above but rather provide conditions for them to thrive. Others noted Medvedev’s frequent use of the word “choice,” which in Russian is the same as the word for election. By reiterating “my choice,” Medvedev has indicated that he personally backs his promises, said Klaus Kleinfeld, CEO of U.S. aluminum giant Alcoa. But in another twist, Medvedev made it clear that his modernization policy would be followed even if he weren’t in the Kremlin. “The project will go ahead no matter who holds office in this country over the coming years,” he declared. “I guarantee this personally as the president of this country.” However, participants were buoyant about the prospect of the country’s accession to the World Trade Organization by the end of the year. Medvedev provided one of his strongest arguments for accession so far by saying the economy could not function without free trade. “Markets are like parachutes — they work only when open,” he said in his speech. “Without an open economy, we will fall very badly.” He said admission was realistic by year-end, but warned of “political games” that could hamper the process. He also stressed that Moscow would join only under acceptable terms. Five U.S. business leaders on Friday handed Medvedev a letter in which 35 CEOs from both
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NIKOLAUS VON TWICKEL
was perhaps the most striking moment in his 35-minute address. “This is not my choice — my choice is something else,” he said slowly, adding that private entrepreneurs and investors should play the dominant role, while the state should protect them. Medvedev also suggested harsher punishment for corrupt officials, saying they could be fired for “loss of confidence” when evidence of bribery does not allow pressing criminal charges. Medvedev fired Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov after 18 years for “loss of confidence” last September and has never elaborated on the reason.
RIA NOVOSTI
President Dmitry Medvedev, bullish with investors, still refused to say whether he would address the forum as president again next year.
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the United States and Russia offered their help to facilitate the admission process, which has been ongoing for 18 years. Kleinfeld said the meeting with Medvedev was very encouraging. “It’s a clear sign that the modernization is going forward,” he said. Also at the meeting were James Turley of Ernst & Young, Cisco’s John Chambers, John
Faraci of International Paper and Louis Chenevert of United Technologies Corporation. Meanwhile, an alternative forum held by opposition activists passed without incident after its organizer was briefly detained en route to St. Petersburg. Police stopped the car of Eduard Limonov, a leader of the Other Russia movement, late
Friday near the border between the Tver and Leningrad regions, Limonov told Ekho Moskvy radio. He was released after several hours without explanation for the delay, he said. At the forum, Limonov denounced the official forum as a “vanity fair and feast in a time of plague,” according to his movement’s Web site.
The president’s speech cannot be viewed as a ‘weathercock’ for 2012. There’s a more appropriate forum for that than an auditorium packed with foreign businessmen.”
[Dmitry Medvedev’s policies] must be brought into life regardless of who will be Russia’s president and prime minister and who will occupy other government positions.”
It is the same language that a U.S. president would use. It was an excellent speech and I haven’t heard a single criticism ... a clear sign that modernization is going forward.”
Personal Finance Russia is only second to the U.S. in the number of billionaires, but lacks hard-working millionaires
Counting by Millions and Billions Russia may be the best place to live if you want to be a billionaire. For those with more typical ambitions, the picture is less promising.
In Russia, the Chances of Becoming a Billionaire
COMBINED REPORTS RUSSIA NOW
The number of millionaire households in Russia is rather modest for a country with record numbers of billionaires, according to a new report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a global management consulting firm. In BCG’s Global Wealth 2011 report on global financial flows and the world’s richest households, Russia ranks among the top five countries by the number of super-rich families: 561 households have assets in excess of $100 million. The United States tops the list with 2,692 such households, followed by Germany, Saudi Arabia and Britain. On the other hand, Russia failed to make it into the top 15 countries when the group studied per capita wealth. Moreover, the report revealed a shortage of “common” millionaires in Russia — defined as those with $1 million or more in investible assets. Counting in millions and billions At 5.2 million, the United States tops the list of countries with most millionaire house-
holds, while Singapore has the highest proportion of millionaires, at 15.5 percent of the population. Russia is not in the top 15 in either of those rankings. “Russia is unique because 2 percent to 2.5 percent of the population control 70 percent to 80 percent of all assets,” said Alexander Rubinstein, director of the Institute for Social Economy at the Russian Academy of Sciences. He said he does not think this should threaten po-
litical stability unless “billionaires parade their wealth and annoy people.” Predictably, most of the wealth is concentrated in Moscow. It appears that this dearth of millionaires strips Russia of the benefits a rich country would normally enjoy — well-developed markets and technology. Vyacheslav Bobkov, head of the National Living Standards Center, said Russian millionaires are probably those who have
built up a successful business in a competitive environment, while billionaires are mostly living off the country’s mineral resources, rental incomes or monopolies. The BCG report also concentrates on international millionaires’ preferences in using offshore financial centers. It appears that Russian capital accounts for less than 5 percent of “external” assets in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Britain, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Caribbean Islands. The only low tax haven where the Russian contingent rose to 8 percent in 2010 was Dubai. Curiously, this is not confirmed by any official reports. Investment in property, the main asset in Dubai, may even be more popular with Russian billionaires than is officially documented. One reason for this discrepancy may be the corrupt origin of the funds invested in UAE development projects. According to BCG, Cyprus remains a “transit” zone for Russian capital; the island has not grown into an important global wealthaccumulation center. The Bank of Russia’s inventory of the destinations for Russian capital outflow broadly confirms BCG’s estimates: Most financial transactions performed by corporations controlled by super-rich Russians involve Britain and Switzerland, followed by Luxembourg and Germany.
Moscow Still Churning Out Billionaires The chances of becoming a billionaire in Russia are better than in either developing or developed markets, a study finds. BEN ARIS
BUSINESS NEW EUROPE
Russia may not be the richest large economy, or the fastest growing large economy, or Europe’s largest economy, or even the economy that hosts the world’s largest financial center, but it is pretty clearly the best place to be if you want to become a billionaire during your lifetime. The rate of return on investment in Russia is among the highest in the world — for the well-connected or the aggressive risk-taker, that is.0 It has been the largest economy in which the chance of becoming a billionaire has been the highest over the last 15 years. “After all, there certainly weren’t any billionaires in Russia in 1991 when the Soviet Union was dissolved, and probably none until 1994 when the first businessmen began to secure control over privatized
property,” said Jacob Nell, an analyst with Morgan Stanley in Moscow. “But since then, Russia has been churning out billionaires by the dozen every year. Today, there are 101, according to Forbes Magazine, and no sign of the [trend] slowing down anytime soon.” In 2008, prior to the global economic crisis, Russia was second only to the U.S. in its total number of billionaires. Between 2004 and 2011, Russia produced one billionaire for every 1.87 million people, compared with the United States, the next best place to be, where one billionaire was created for every 2.29 million people. In the United Kingdom there is one billionaire for every 4.13 million people. China, the darling of the emerging markets, doesn’t do half as well, producing one billionaire for every 11.7 million people in the last 15 years, while in Germany, any given man in the street has no chance of becoming a billionaire at all, as the overall number of billionaires has remained at 52 since 2004.
BUSINESS IN BRIEF Moscow Plans a Major Move President Dmitry Medvedev is planning a major overhaul to move government offices and possibly Moscow’s financial center out to the edge of town. Moscow faces all the usual problems of a big city with modernization plans, and legislative changes would be required for the forced move of the financial center. The city’s new look hinges on the removal of government agencies and perhaps industrial areas from the beating heart of the metropolis. It’s an idea that has already been adopted by other capital cities. Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said that the costs would be negligible, and a raft of government loyalists have jumped on board to support the idea, but there are skeptics. Natalya Zubaryevich, director of the Independent Institute for Social Policy, said she thinks the plan is a plot to diffuse disputes between Moscow City and Moscow Region, “I see the idea as a vertical burp,” she told Kommersant. “It came up because they couldn’t get the city and region authorities to agree on anything.”
France Signs Up to Invest in Caucasus The conflict-weary North Caucasus region is about to receive an injection of cash and international glamour. At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russia and France inked a deal under which France would invest $1.2 billion, mostly in ski lift equipment, into new resorts in the troubled region. This marks the first major foreign participation in the $16 billion North Caucasus investment drive President Dmitry Medvedev announced in January, just days after an explosion rocked Moscow’s busiest airport. The infrastructure work, and a certain je ne sais quoi, will be delivered by French investors, while the Russian state adds some financial security to the package. Two French firms have signed up to the project — but the threat of a terrorist attack means the Kremlin was asked to provide funding guarantees if force majeure wrecks the project.
Russia Returns to International Grain Market
PHOTOXPRESS
As of July 1, Russia will lift its nearly year-long ban on grain exports. The ban was imposed in August 2010 following widespread wildfires and drought that caused a substantial decrease in the country’s grain yield and threatened a shortfall in Russian agricultural production. The return of Russian wheat to the international market has, however, become a cause for concern in some circles. Within Russia, there are worries about domestic shortages of grain. Sergei Ignatiev, the chairman of the Central Bank, proposed solving this problem in part by introducing export duties on grain. Foreign producers and consumers are also concerned about the return of Russian grain to the international market. Since Russia announced the lifting of the embargo, European wheat futures have steadily gone down.
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Politics & Society
03
Last Nomads of the North A Nenets woman prepares her reindeer for travel.
Each nomadic family travels with 300 reindeer across the developing tundra. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
No one knows exactly how many hundreds of years the Nenets have kept the same yearly rhythm herding the reindeer one step ahead of the biting frost. “Our research shows that the biggest fear nomads have is not global climate change, but the fear of being pushed out of the tundra,” said Vladimir Tchouprov, a spokesman for Greenpeace Russia. During a recent camp break, men exercised by lassoing deer while women put up the teepees, or mya, as the Nenets call their homes. The reindeer provide the skins for the teepees, fabric for clothes and food. Energy extraction and development is not the first assault on their way of life. The Soviet Union attempted to force the Nenets into a form of collective farming. They split various Nenets tribes into “kolkhoz” brigades, and obliged them to pay reindeer meat as taxes. Thousands moved into towns in Siberia, and the indigenous people struggled to maintain their traditions. Today, Nenet activists see government efforts encouraging them to move into towns as a renewed assault. “We are little people,” said Yezingi Hatyako, a 61-year-old elder. “We have no deputies to speak out for us in parliament, no oli-
garchs to give us money for our legal defense.” As Lena Sarteto’s Brigade No. 5 moved north, they had to cross two paved highways, a struggle for the reindeer — 300 per family — and young families with nearly 100 wooden sleds. A team of Gazprom workers had covered the tarmac with a slippery insulation material, a goodwill
gesture to ease the migration route to pasture. Traditionally, different Nenets groups moved across the Yamal Peninsula along defined corridors. But Sarteto’s normal route leads into the heart of the gas field. A frustrated spokesman for Gazprom said the company is attempting to share the land with the tribes and act as a benevo-
ANNA NEMTSOVA (3)
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Lena Sarteto bundles her toddler for the journey ahead.
Gazprom’s Yamal operation. Indeed, there is a long list of Gazprom efforts that could be read as improvements for the nomads in what is called the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area. The company pays salaries directly to the Nenets tribesmen for herding or to Nenets women for their caregiving. Lena and her husband, for instance, receive about
lent neighbor, but gets little thanks. “No matter how hard we try to help them — provide them with transportation, pay them salaries for what they historically did for free, build bridges over the pipes, or build schools and kindergartens for their children, Nenets still complain,” said Andrei Teplyakov, a spokesman for
$2,500 a month, a very decent income in this part of Russia. Every summer, Gazprom helicopters fly to the nomads’ camps to pick up over 2,000 Nenets children and take them to boarding schools in Yar-sale, the tundra people’s capital. But Lena Sarteto, her family around her, said she would live without the cash in return for an
untouched tundra. She turns to the family’s wooden idol, resting on a piece of fur; she places the statue outside; the divinity it represents is not supposed to share the house with strangers, a promise increasingly difficult to fulfill. Sarteto repeats her prayer, as futile as it seems: “Let Gazprom leave soon, and Yamal become only ours again.”
pletely. The doctors try to keep women in the hospital until the baby is at least a month old. It costs around 80,000 rubles ($2,900) to keep the helicopter in the air for one hour. In this case, it took nearly three hours to transport the Nenets child with suspected bronchitis to the hospital. Maintaining the traditional way of life for minority populations in Northern Russia is costly. Those living in other parts of the country even resent it. Some observers counter human rights activists and say that the authorities romanticize life in the tundra and create a culture of dependency among indigenous peoples. Dr. Ivanov offered an example: “We collect a mother-to-be, and we fly her over to the ma-
ternity unit at Salekhard. But she makes a fuss. She wants to go to Aksarka. She starts shouting at us, saying that she is going to complain to the chairman of the Legislative Assembly of YaNAO (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug). We tell her that the air ambulance is not a taxi, and we advise her to write to UNESCO straight away. In the end, we take her to the maternity unit, but she refuses be hospitalized and walks off. Ten days later we get another call to go to the same place. The same thing happens. And then it happens again.” I’ll admit that what I am saying is somewhat subversive,” Dr. Ivanov said. “I understand that Nenets people have their own particular mentality. ... But there is no future for this way of life.”
The Cost of Extreme Assistance The government has pledged to protect native peoples, bringing air ambulances and doctors to the most remote areas of the country. ÍGOR NAIDENOV
RUSSKI REPORTER
A helicopter soars over the smooth, empty tundra. The old, Soviet-era engine rattles like a bucket of nails. Dr. Andrei Ivanov takes a navigating device out of his pocket, then a map. He has to figure out the location of the nomad camp where he has been called to examine a young child who caught a cold. On the ground, two large dots and numerous small ones appear out of the blue. As the helicopter gets closer, the dots turn into tents, reindeer and sleighs. It is as if a picture of a Native American set-
tlement has been brought to life. The craft neatly touches down on the snow. It lands on a bare patch, where the snow has not piled up as much as it has elsewhere. The worldly possessions of the families here consist of a herd of 300 reindeer, a small refrigerator for storing reindeer meat — literally a storage chest on skis — and a cart for firewood. When this is loaded with fuel for campfires, the Nenets have to take it with them wherever they go: For miles in all directions there is nothing but snow — not a single tree, not so much as a bush. Irina, the air ambulance paramedic, greets the hosts, throws back the tent curtains and squeezes herself in sideways. The
spirits — they usually attack from behind. At last, the helicopter takes off. The Nenets mother does not engage in conversation. She does not want to answer any questions. She may have a valid reason for distrusting the doctors. It is traditional for Yamal women to give birth to many children: the average is between five and seven. Usually, Yamal women do not go to hospital until the very last minute, and then after giving birth they hurry back to the tundra, where they have other children and a household waiting for them. Out of concern for the mother and her new baby, doctors devised a strategy to discharge women from the maternity unit to a regional hospital, rather than discharge them com-
interior of the tent is just like the ones in photographs in anthropological journals: There is a collapsible floor made of wood, a metal stove with a long chimney and in a bowl on the side, there is a traditional Yamal delicacy, stroganina (sliced fish). Quilts are laid out around the inner perimeter of the tent. Irina expertly examines the child and gives him an injection. She does this in almost complete darkness. It is decided that the child will be taken to hospital because he has a fever. It is not serious, but it is better to err on the side of caution. His mother will go with him. She is wearing a thick yagushka, a Yamal fur coat. There are multi-colored shreds of ribbon sewn on to the back. They look like decorations, but they are actually there to ward off evil
A New Class of Migrants Flocks to Moscow CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
IN FIGURES
12 million immigrants live in Russia permanently, a total second only to the United States. Most are lowskilled workers from neighboring countries, with 40 percent lacking a higher education.
66% ITAR-TASS
SERGEY KISELYOV_KOMMERSANT
By 2030, the growing Russian economy will need another 30 million immigrants, according to Vyacheslav Postavnin, a former deputy director of the Federal Migration Service and chairman of the Migration XXI Century Fund, an advocacy group. “If there were no migrants, then a square meter [of real estate] would cost three times more, roads twice as much,” Postavnin said at a press conference in May. “Ten percent of GDP is [generated by] migrants.” The FMS announced earlier this year that it plans to ease the immigration process, increase the number of legal residents it allows and clear the path to citizenship for those who want to make their home in Russia. Konstantin Romodanovsky, head of the migration agency, also said that he wants to root out corruption, which often forces immigrants to pay bribes as they attempt to navigate the bureaucracy and legalize their status. “It is difficult to move up each step without needing to pay a bribe,” said Lidia Grafova, a human rights activist who advises a government commission on migration. One measure under consideration is the opening of a passport-visa service at Moscow’s Kazansky station where trains
Passengers arriving from BIshkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, at Moscow’s Kazan railway station.
“If there were no migrants...roads [would cost] twice as much,” Vyacheslav Postavnin said. arrive from Central Asia. In a hassle-free environment, immigrants could immediately get the permits they need, Grafova said. President Dmitry Medvedev changed the country’s visa regulations last year to allow highly qualified specialists and their families to come to Russia more
easily. Even with that measure, which is still in process, officials estimate that the country will attract only about half of the skilled immigrants it needs from abroad. Backlash Toward Immigrants Grafova said the government’s current push for a more liberal immigration policy has in part been sparked by inter-ethnic strife and a desire to counter a growing and sometimes murderous xenophobia that has been directed at immigrants. Despite the country’s demo-
graphic crisis, there is widespread ambivalence about a more liberal immigration policy, largely due to local wariness of immigration. For instance, 86 percent of Muscovites said the state should institute strict controls on immigration, but at the same time 57 percent of respondents said the city needs workers from abroad, according to a survey by the Politex agency. Olga Kirsanova, a 52-yearold cleaner in a Moscow hotel, espouses a fairly typical hostility. “Crime goes up and they take all the jobs,” she said. “You
A migrant worker moving cargo outside a shopping mall.
can’t really close [the borders], but you need to restrict.” According to migration experts and human rights activists, Russia does little in the way of public education to foster tolerance. Nor does the state provide enough programs to help immigrants to integrate. Recent recommendations include free language classes as well as instruction focusing on Russia’s culture and laws. “There are a few efforts, but they are very weak,” said Alexander Verkhovsky, who studies assaults on migrant work-
ers at the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis, a non-governmental organization based in Moscow. Attacks on immigrants are still common, Verkhovsky said, but the number of killings has been reduced after the police secured murder convictions against the members of a number of racist gangs. Verkhovsky and others said that new immigrants are often exploited by employers; they need to be educated on their rights without fear of retribution from the authorities. Abror, from Uzbekistan, de-
of Russians favor limiting immigration, while 26 percent favor easing rules for immigration. The main reasons for negative attitudes are a fear of crime and lack of jobs for native workers.
clined to give his full name since his current work status is unclear. He worked in construction in Moscow for three years and saved to buy a car. He said he was cheated out of his wages a few times, however. He wised up, he added, and now drives an unlicensed taxi, or gypsy cab, in Moscow. He recalled his earliest days: “When I first started, I only knew ‘left,’ ‘right’ and ‘straight’ in Russian.” Abror is now almost fluent in Russian. He recalled proudly, “I learned to speak Russian from all the people I drive.”
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.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and U.S. Rep. James McGovern (DMass.) have composed a list as a response to the ongoing controversy over the death of Sergei Magnitsky. Magnitsky, a lawyer for Hermitage Capital Management, was seriously ill during his imprisonment at the Butyrka prison in Moscow; Magnitsky died in November 2009 as a result of negligence on the part of the prison administration. Reacting to Magnitsky’s death, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev fired 20 senior prison officials, including the deputy head of the Federal Penitentiary Service. This, however, didn’t satisfy Sen. Cardin and Rep. McGovern. Frustrated with the fact that no single individual was charged with Magnitsky’s death, they introduced a bill in the U.S. Congress that froze financial assets and blocked U.S. entry visas for 63 Russian officials. Two things puzzle me about their reaction. First, the number of people allegedly responsible for the death of a single individual. Even in cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the number of culprits is usually smaller. (For example, the historic Nuremberg
Trial featured only 24 defendants.) Second, people die every day in prisons around the world, including, unfortunately, in cases of criminal negligence by the prison administrations. Why did Sen. Cardin and Rep. McGovern single out this particular case, which even the Washington Post recently characterized as “an example of mid-level Russian corruption”? Shouldn’t Sen. Cardin and Rep. McGovern also be investigating the cases in which innocent prisoners are languishing on death row in the United States? The mid-level corruption that led to the “Magnitsky List,” as it has come to be called, got me thinking about the highest levels of corruption in the aftermath of September, 11, 2001. After his death, we learned that for the past six years, Osama bin Laden wasn’t hiding in a stone cave in the mountains at the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, as was widely believed, but rather was living a comfortable life in the upper-middle-class city of Abbottabad, Pakistan. It’s inconcievable that Osama’s whereabouts were a secret kept from all Pakistani authorities. The only intrigue is whether they simply “knew” about his presence or provided an active operational “cover.” It also remains to be seen whether
dmitry divin
IMAGINE THE BIN LADEN LIST
If the Senators are so interested in weeding out corruption, why didn’t they create a “bin Laden List”?
this knowledge rested with a bunch of middle-level military and ISI officers or went all the way to the top of the Pakistani military and intelligence leadership. If Sen. Cardin, Rep. McGovern and their colleagues in
the u.s. can no longer shoulder nato Edward Lozansky
special to russia now
R
etiring U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made what appeared to be a farewell speech last week. In it, he castigated the military leaders of NATO and its European member states: He admonished military leaders for their inability to conduct effective military operations in Afghanistan and Libya; he had words for European members because of their reluctance to invest substantial human and financial resources in NATO, expecting the United States to go on bearing most of the burden. The United States increasingly resents this kind of attitude on the part of its allies, particularly now that the country is facing enormous economic and financial problems. Gates is leaving office and so does not feel the need to mince
words. He has plainly warned Europe that it had better revise its policy of obtaining security at other people’s expense. Otherwise, future U.S. political leaders, those for whom the Cold War is not the same kind of formative experience that it was for Gates’s generation, may decide that U.S. investment in NATO is just not worth it. NATO was originally set up to guard against the military expansion of the Soviet Union and other communist nations. The alliance did this quite effectively, and once the Soviet Union had disintegrated and the Warsaw Pact dissolved, many sensible politicians and experts proposed disbanding NATO and creating a new global security system, with Russia’s participation, to cover the planet from Vancouver to Vladivostok. Lamentably, these ideas are yet to be implemented. NATO has continued to swell and become ever more unwieldy and
inefficient. In Gates’s words, NATO has degenerated into an alliance made up of those who will pay the price and bear the burden of membership, and those who enjoy the advantages of being NATO members. The proportion of U.S. partici-
European members of NATO still expect the United States to bear most of the financial burden. pation in NATO spending has risen to 75 percent, which is vastly more than at the peak of the Cold War, when Washington kept hundreds of thousands of servicemen all over Europe. Recent events in Libya proved the last straw for Gates. He has complained bitterly that the most powerful alliance in his-
tory is performing poorly against a medieval regime in a sparsely populated country. The alliance operation in Libya is already short of ammunition and yet again wants the United States to make up the shortage. In March, all 28 NATO members voted to move ahead with the mission in Libya, but fewer than half of them took part in it; just under a third declared their willingness to participate in assault operations. While the Soviet threat was a reality, the United States had no alternative but to bear the financial responsibility for the alliance, but today such generosity is simply beyond the country’s means. The world has not become any safer since the collapse of communism. New threats have emerged, possibly even more perilous. Cold War-era opponents frequently find themselves on the same side of the barricades. The most obvious solu-
Congress are so attentive to international crimes and weeding out corruption, why didn’t they create a “bin Laden List” of the top Pakistani military and intelligence officials who should be held responsible for harboring the al-Qaeda leader, wheth-
tion, despite all the ideological and value differences, could be NATO’s rapprochement with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The main threats to world security are currently coming from the Middle East where Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other extremist organizations are having a field day. Iran and Pakistan are also causing huge problems, but they are included in SCO meetings as observers and make no secret of their desire for full membership. On the whole, this might result in greater peace in the region, since Russia, China and possibly NATO would have a better chance to hold in check radical and unstable regimes. Some steps have already been taken. In mid-March, Robert Blake, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, met with SCO officials. Russia and the United States should display their leadership qualities and convince their SCO and NATO allies that rapprochement and cooperation between these entities, commonly seen as rivals, would help assure the most mutually beneficial future. Edward Lozansky is the president of the American University in Moscow.
unhappy in its own way Sergei Guriev
The Moscow Times
T
he St. Petersburg International Economic Forum took place as the global economy is facing new challenges. These challenges are certainly less troublesome than those in fall 2008 when the global financial system seemed to be falling apart, or in 2009 when the global economy declined for the first time in a decade. For the first time in peacetime history, U.S. debt is about to reach 100 percent of its gross domestic product. The largest European economies — France and Germany — are also way past the 60 percent of GDP threshold set in the Maastricht criteria and are approaching even more threatening levels of debt. Rating agencies are now talking about downgrading U.S. and French debt. This would have been unthinkable in 2008. The situation is yet far worse in Greece and several other smaller European economies. In the United States, a sizable fiscal consolidation, either through a massive reduction in government spending or through a tax increase, cannot
happen before the 2012 presidential election. But even if the newly elected president manages to push through such a package, it will substantially slow down the economic growth in the United States — and therefore globally. Another new challenge is the fact that the U.S. monetary policy cannot get out of the “zero lower bound” trap for such a
Russia is different from both developed and developing markets — “unhappy in its own way.” long period of time. Despite massive monetary expansion — also known as “quantitative easing 2,” or QE2 — the Federal Reserve cannot generate positive nominal interest rates that would help break the vicious circle and provide incentives to invest the liquidity in the United States. The free cash printed by the Federal Reserve is now being invested all around the world, most importantly in the emerging markets. Once again, this is a new challenge. The textbooks do not
tell the policymakers what to do when emerging markets become the hope for global economic growth, while the developed economies continue to be a drag on this growth. If emerging markets were certain to keep growing, this would possibly justify the convictions of the global optimists — who believe that whatever happens in the developed world, the global economy would keep growing at strong rates. Indeed, the “law of conditional convergence” implies that — all other things equal — the developing countries have a very high growth potential. But “other things equal” are not assured. The economic history is full with examples of economic miracles running out of steam at a very unexpected moment. Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” starts with the famous “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” As long as emerging markets are growing, they are all parts of BRIC (or BRICS, BRICKS, BRICSAM or N11). Each emerging market, however, may stumble and falter in its own way. China will have to somehow meet the challenge of the newly emerging middle
class requesting political liberalization. India will have to mobilize resources to invest in modern infrastructure, not an easy feat for a democratic country with a large poor population. Brazil will have to address the issue of inequality. All these risks are low probability events at every given moment, but they are somewhat unavoidable in the long run.
The economic history is full with examples of economic miracles running out of steam unexpectedly. On top of the idiosyncratic risks, the emerging markets also share a problem caused by the Federal Reserve’s QE2. The hot money printed by the Fed is being invested around the world, and this may create bubbles in developing countries’ asset markets. Like the bubble in the U.S. subprime markets, these bubbles may burst unexpectedly with very painful implications for the whole world. Interestingly, Russia is very dif-
ferent from both developed and developing markets — or as Tolstoy would say, “unhappy in its own way.” It is not a developing country in terms of per capita GDP and thus does have a very high growth potential. It is also not facing a sovereign debt crisis, as its current debt level is spectacularly low — about 10 percent of GDP. It is still very dependent on the oil price and therefore should be doing very well given the oil price is above $100 per barrel. Yet what is most puzzling is that Russia is actually not attracting investment. Starting September 2010, Russia’s capital account became negative rather than positive. It looks like that both Russian and foreign investors prefer not to invest in Russia, and instead pick the United States, despite zero interest rates. President Dmitry Medvedev gave the only plausible explanation of this puzzle when he said Russia is suffering from chronic and comprehensive corruption and has a very bad investment climate. Sergei Guriev is dean of the New Economic School in Moscow.
er willingly or by an outrageous dereliction of professional duty. Those individuals should be denied entry into the United States — and their banks accounts frozen — until the Pakinstani government provides a comprehensive report on bin
Laden’s multi-year sojourn in the Abbottabad villa. The United States should demand to know who protected the world’s most wanted terrorist responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people. No chance. No such list is going to be composed any time soon. Instead, U.S. lawmakers continue the lavish stream of military and economic aid (around $2.6 billion in 2010) that we shovel at Pakistan every single year. A paradox? Not quite. Money talks in Washington. As the Huffington Post recently reported: “Pakistan’s Washington lobbyists have launched an intense campaign on Capitol Hill to counter accusations that Islamabad was complicit in giving refuge to Osama bin Laden.” A representative of lobbying firm Locke Lord Strategies — paid $900,000 a year by the Pakistani government — told the Post: “Since bin Laden’s death ... he has been on Capitol Hill every day to promote Pakistan’s position on the bin Laden killing, talking to congressmen, senators and their aides.” Apparently, they listen. A functional pro-Russian lobby would ensure that the “Magnitsky list” shared the same fate with the “bin Laden list”: It would have never appeared. Eugene Ivanov is a Massachusetts-based political analyst and regular contributor to Russia Beyond the Headlines. This piece originally appeared on his blog, The Ivanov Report.
keeping the “r” in BRIC Jim O’Neill
the moscow times
A
nother St. Petersburg International Economic Forum has passed, and I find myself reflecting back on the 2008 forum. At that meeting, I had been asked to lead the Russia discussions and provide a view as to how the country might look by 2020. With oil prices approaching $150 per barrel, people were surprised that I wasn’t optimistic. We all know what happened to the global economy soon after. Russia, in particular, had an extremely challenging 2009, and it is rather fashionable to regard Russia’s future as bleak. These days, I find myself being regarded as somewhat optimistic for Russia. It seems that I receive at least one e-mail every other day asking when I am going to finally take the “R” out of BRIC. I tend to stick to what I said in 2008. [Editors’ note: O’Neill created the BRIC concept.] The key is to learn from the crisis. In this context, I wonder more whether the global credit crisis, as bad as it was, might have been a good thing for many countries in the big picture. I think this is true for China, the United States and possibly even Russia. By demonstrating so clearly just how vulnerable Russia is to a large and quick decline in oil prices, the country’s policymakers have moved to introduce policies to reduce dependency on oil and gas. In addition, there appear to be signs that policies to reverse the negative trend in the nation’s demographic decline are yielding some fruit.
Of course, Russia is not without challenges, and the business environment remains unwelcome for many foreign investors and businesspeople. They struggle to understand the manner of doing business and have little confidence in the legal system. Even here, however, it looks as though some policymakers are trying to change the environment. On top of this, Russia will host the World Cup in 2018. For Russia, it is an excellent opportunity to improve its infrastructure and the ease of travel. This would be a lasting legacy and a good opportunity for boosting the country’s productivity. I follow the Growth Environ-
Russia’s policymakers have moved to introduce policies to reduce dependency on oil and gas. ment Score, or GES — an index of 13 different variables that I believe are key to sustainable growth and productivity. Among the BRIC countries, India has the lowest GES score, not Russia. South Korea has a very high score. Russian policymakers should study South Korea’s productivity performance and see what they might learn to help them further progress. I am more convinced that Russia is showing important positive developments. Let’s hope they continue. Jim O’Neill is chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
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Reset Ambassador Peter Cheremushkin
Special to RN
S
McFaul is the theoretician who turned out to be a good practitioner. His deep knowledge of Russia led to a clear understanding of areas of common interest.
The new resident of Spaso House will have plenty to work to make sure the reset sticks. But McFaul, the architect of Obama’s reset policy, is a good match for Moscow.
port for anti-Russian movements and voices in the former Soviet sphere, particularly in Georgia. The United States is seriously trying to support Russian accession to the World Trade Organization. And the United States and Russia have found areas of agreement in the United Nations on Iran and Libya. As a result of the reset, Russia and the United States were able to coordinate policy in Kyrgyzstan after the violent revolt that took place in the Central Asian country in the summer of 2010. The United States and NATO were granted an alternative transportation route to Afghanistan through Russia that made the Pentagon less dependent on a volatile and unreliable route through Pakistan. And Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev signed a Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START) in Prague, a significant foreign policy achievement for both leaders. Obama also used
some of his political capital to push the treaty through a somewhat reluctant U.S. Senate, a fact that did not go unnoticed in Moscow. The approval of the U.S.-Russian Agreement for Cooperation in the Field of Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy, also known as a 123 Agreement, was yet another measure of renewed relations. At home in Washington, McFaul was criticized for ignoring the human rights situation in Russia — the lack of rule of law; violations of freedom of speech and assembly; and corruption and abuse of power by Russian authorities. McFaul has said in response that the Obama administration has a dual track policy toward Russia, which means cooperation with the government of Russia, when it is in U.S. national interests, and work with human rights and opposition groups to foster greater democracy. The most difficult issue for
McFaul will be the creation of an American missile defense system in Europe. In private conversations, U.S. officials see it as essential, and while they are willing to mitigate some of Moscow’s concerns, they are not prepared to sacrifice the system for better bilateral relations. Many in Moscow still hold to the view that the alleged threat from Iran and North Korea is exaggerated, and that any U.S. missile system close to Russia’s borders is actually designed to peer deep into Russia and is, therefore, a threat to the country’s national security. The new resident of Spaso House — the home of the U.S. ambassador in Moscow — will still have plenty of work to make sure the reset sticks. But McFaul seems like a very good match for Moscow. Peter Cheremushkin is the Interfax News correspondent in Washington, D.C.
Getting to know You Vsevolod Pulya
niyaz karim
L
Russia Now
ast month, I spent two weeks driving through the western United States. Although I visited some major cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, I learned more about the American mentality during short stops in small towns, snacking in numerous diners and paying for gas. Everyone I talked to — waiters, cashiers, mechanics — all wanted to know where I was from. I was proud to tell them that I traveled all the way from Russia to visit the United States, and I felt they should be a little surprised at this fact, seeing as I flew 13 hours with only two meals and severely limited foot space. Nobody was shocked. Instead, every person mentioned some connection they had to Russia — even though it seemed that some of them weren’t quite sure that Russia was a country. Someone’s nephew has just married a Russian girl — “from San Diego, and she’s a keeper, I must tell ya.” Somebody’s Russian greatgrandfather traveled across Siberia all the way to Alaska, met Rothschild and ended up as a carpenter somewhere near Seattle, “so I’m 15 percent Russian, for sure.” I met a Latvian guy who spoke Russian with barely any accent and a Russian guy who moved to America so long ago he could not remember a word of his native language. The Russian colleague I met in New York, who had already spent a few years in the United States, had adopted an in-
Bibliophile
Nora FitzGerald
niyaz karim
I
05
RECALLING THE night witches
Special TO rn
f he is approved by the U.S. Senate, Michael McFaul, a chief architect of President Barack Obama’s reset policy with the Kremlin, will become the fourth U.S. ambassador to Russia in the 21st century after his predecessors Alexander Vershbow, William Burns and John Beyrle. For a political scientist who just a relatively short time ago was laboring in the academic fields of Stanford University, it is something of a meteoric rise from professor to “Mr. Ambassador.” Russia has traditionally been a posting for career diplomats, and while some eyebrows were raised in Foggy Bottom, home to the State Department in Washington D.C., McFaul’s nomination makes eminent good sense. As the key official on Russia in Obama’s National Security Council, McFaul oversaw the “reset” — a hard-nosed view that the United States and Russia share interests that should not be derailed by disagreements over political and human rights, although those differences remain. McFaul is the theoretician who turned out to be a good practitioner of the art of the possible. His deep knowledge of Russia led to a clear understanding of where the areas of common interest are, and what the Kremlin is prepared to do. Russians view him as someone without any ingrained prejudice toward Moscow and close enough to President Obama to have real heft — a potent set of attributes for an incoming American ambassador. McFaul, as special assistant to the president and senior director of Russian and Eurasian affairs at the National Security Council, first repaired badly damaged relations after the Russian-Georgian war of 2008, which came in the last days of the Bush administration. McFaul viewed Russia not as a hostile power, too often a default position in Washington, but as a problematic, evolving giant that can be a U.S. partner on important issues. With McFaul at the helm, the Obama administration dramatically tempered American sup-
Reflections
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Every person I met in the United States mentioned some connection they had to Russia. terest Americans seem to have about people’s origins. “That’s a nice accent you’ve got!” she said to a waiter in a restaurant. “Where are you from? South Africa? Amazing!” His accent even made her tear herself away from the delicious oysters in front of us.
Asking “how are you” on any possible occasion can be viewed within the same psychological paradigm. Russians generally feel that a stranger asking about your business is insincere: Don’t you dare ask a Russian how his or her things are. You’ll find yourself at some café a few hours later with a strong feeling that you can easily become his or her biographer. Of course, in America nobody wants to hear the story of your life when asking how you are doing. But it’s a sign of pleasure, hospitality and mild interest. This curiosity and desire to
find connections between people, to find mutual roots, has been important in shaping American society. While boiling in a melting pot, you need a hand from others more than in other places. But creating this American “soup” has helped Americans get through challenges in their history — such as the craziness of the Wild West, the Great Depression, Civil Rights and even the latest economic downturn. With low-cost airlines and Facebook, our Russian world is gradually but inevitably turning into a melting pot not unlike the United States. There
are no boundaries, and the key to living in this new society is to be curious about one another. Curiosity also helps people overcome stereotypes, which are still strong in many places, and frequently irritating. “You don’t look like Russians, guys,” a museum worker in Death Valley said to my friend and me. “You look like you’re from here. I’ve been to Portland once and met real Russians there … with beards and stuff.” Vsevolod Pulya is the online editor at Russia Beyond the Headlines.
eventy years ago, on June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. On that day, most of the Soviet warplanes were crowded together on a small number of airfields.Many of those planes were destroyed by German bombers, according to historians, and most of the fighter pilots waiting in the wings were not very experienced. The Soviet Union was in desperate need of talented pilots. In the coming months, Radio Moscow broadcast an announcement that was probably the first of its kind: A call for women who wanted to be “combat pilots just like the men.” The response was overwhelming. Bruce Myles writes in his compelling book, “Night Witches: The Amazing Story of Russia’s Women Pilots in World War II” (1990, Academy Chicago Publishers): “As the winter of 1941 continued into the dark days of 1942 and the Soviet counter-offensive around Moscow started, women from the unoccupied territories of the Soviet Union — from as far away as Central Asia — arrived in the capital.” They were schoolgirls and factory workers who had won wings in their local flying clubs, and now they wanted to fly fighter planes in the Great Patriotic War against the Germans. It is a chapter of World War II history completely unknown to most Americans. Women poured onto Pushkin Square. Within a year, entire regiments of Soviet women pilots fought against the Germans, and many
of them became known as the “Night Witches,” for their precision, valor and, let’s face it, sex appeal. In Washington, D.C., in 2011, the conventional wisdom is that the first women to see combat were American women in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many writers find themselves pulled toward Lilia Litvyak, a talented and beautiful Soviet fighter pilot in World War II who faced enormous challenges during her heroic tours of duty. She was such a fast learner that she flew solo on the PO-2 biplane after four hours of instruction, but still faced a great deal of chauvinism. Like most of the women fighter pilots, Litvyak needed a cushion on the plane seat to see out the windshield. Yet her sorties against the German have become the stuff of legend. Her plane was shot down in 1943 in Ukraine when she was 21. M.G. Crisci, an American businessman and writer, has more recently made Litvyak his life’s work. He collaborated with Yelena Sivolap and Valentina Vaschenko, founder of the Lilia Litvyak museum, on a book called “Call Sign, White Lily” (2011). The self-published work is a journey through Litvyak’s life, romance, rebellion, heroism and death. He has created the Lilia Litvyak Fund to help keep the corner-store museum Vaschenko has nurtured alive. Crisci said it was clear that “Lilia’s worst nightmare was that she could be shot down, and die as an unknown soldier.” But writers are drawn to her, from Myles’ “Night Witches,” to Reina Pennington’s “Wings, Women and War “ (Modern War Stories, 2007). Her success in combat is unrefuted and sheds new light on women’s role in the military today.
EXPAT files
Face Time with the ipad Jennifer Eremeeva
Special to RN
I
taped a New Yorker cartoon to my Handsome Russian Husband’s (HRH) side of the mirror the other day. The cartoon depicted a couple seated in a well-appointed living room. The caption read, “You’d know that about me if you followed me on Twitter.” This was my somewhat desperate attempt to send two subtle messages his way: 1.) I’d like him to read my blog (even though I plant things that would enrage him if he did) and 2.) I’d like to see more of him since he works from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. at his Big Important Job at the Difficult Start-Up in An Important Industry. Twitter has been on HRH’s mind lately. He doesn’t follow anyone on Twitter, he has no friends on Facebook and he deeply regrets his one foray on to the Russian version of classmates.com — odnoklassniki.ru, which is responsible for one in four marriages breaking up in Russia — since it clogs up his e-mail and he gets inundated with requests for jobs at The Difficult Start-Up from people he hasn’t seen since fifth grade. “You have to teach me to Tveeter,” he remarked one evening. “Tweet,” I corrected. “What?” he asked. “I tweet, you tweet, he/she tweets,” I conjugated. “I don’t Tveeter,” he said, ignoring me. “You have to teach me.” “Why do you want to tweet?” I asked. “I’m getting an iPad,” HRH explained. “So I have to Tveeter, right?” “What will you do with an iPad?” I said, losing my cool. “You don’t even know how to Google!”
“I am Russian,” said HRH haughtily. “I Yandex.” “But you don’t need to tweet,” I argued. “I think I do,” said HRH, “Dmitry Medvedev has an iPad … and he tweets.” President Dmitry Medvedev has been pictured at powwows caressing his tablet while all the Soviet-era ministers scribbled in their cheesy leatherette A5 notebooks. “Yes,” I said, “But an iPad is one thing, and Twitter is completely different.” “Are you sure?” asked HRH. “What is Tveeter anyway?” I explained: “You condense something you want to say into 140 characters and you send it out to your followers.” “I still don’t get it,” said HRH “Can’t I just send an e mail?” We continued in this vein for some time, covering trending, re-tweets and other salient aspects of Twitter. “Darling,” I finally said, exasperated, “I don’t think you are a natural born tweeter. Your primary method of communication is to yell at people on your mobile phone. Where are you going to get followers, anyway?” “I have subordinates,” he argued. “Would they follow you?” I asked. “They’d better!” he said. “So you don’t need to tweet,” I finished with a flourish, “but if you got me an iPad as well, we could Face Time while you are at work.” “I told you,” HRH said angrily, “I’m not going on that site again. It’s responsible for one in four break up of marriages in Russia.” “Yes,” I said, “but there’s an app for that.” Jennifer Eremeeva is a longtime resident of Moscow; she blogs at www.rbth.ru/blogs and www.dividingmytime. typepad.com. She is currently working on her first book.
06
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Hollywood Since he came to the United States in the 1970s, Elya Baskin has never stopped working
Elya Baskin: Titan of the Typecasts From “The World’s Greatest Lover” to “Transformers 3,” Elya Baskin has made a career of being a Russian in Hollywood.
to pursue it. It is hard enough for Americans to break through in Hollywood. For foreigners, the challenges are immense. “Every actor has to support himself with a side job until he gets steady acting work.” Baskin worked at an insurance agency and a clothing factory until his acting career took off. He even was a part owner of a Russian newspaper in the United States called “Panorama.” For Baskin, the real challenge was the language barrier. His Moscow State Circus and Verity Arts College degree and work as a theater actor in Russia were of little help on a movie set with a synchronous voiceover, which requires a native command of the English language. When auditioning for the leading role of Gene Wilder’s “The World’s Greatest Lover,” (1977) Baskin had a strong accent that prevented him from getting the role. However, the actor’s talent was obvious and the director gave him a supporting role instead. Another challenge was joining a union — actors can’t work without a membership card. The actor describes the process of joining the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) as a catch-22: “If you are not a union member, it is hard to book jobs, find an agent, etc. At the same time, membership is predicated on your work as an actor.” Getting into SAG was a career-launching event, Baskin recalled: “When I first got to Los Angeles, I was introduced to Mike Fenton, who was casting Wilder’s movie ‘The World’s Greatest Lover.’ Since Wilder was a big fan of Stanislavsky — the Russian acting theorist re-
ANNA REDYUKHINA
Elya Baskin has become a familiar face in Hollywood’s parade of Russian characters: American audiences might not know his name but they recognize his face. The Russian actor first burst onto the American big screen in the 1980s opposite Robin Williams in the movie “Moscow on the Hudson.” Since then, the actor has appeared in such box-office hits as “Air Force One,” “SpiderMan” and will appear in one of the most anticipated releases of the summer, opening this month: “Transformers 3.” For most American actors, being typecast limits their career. For Moscow-trained Elya Baskin, it helped carve out a niche in Hollywood and made him a successful working actor. Baskin came to Hollywood in 1976 when America was in the middle of a Cold War with the Soviet Union. “It was a huge well-oiled military machine,” said the actor. “When [Soviet leader] Brezhnev loosened strict policies, the big prison opened its doors and the emigration wave swept the country.” Baskin, now 61, seized the opportunity to go overseas in the search of a better future. “I thought I would never forgive myself for not trying,” Baskin recalled. So the actor traveled to Los Angeles to try his luck in Hollywood. “I couldn’t live without acting,” he said, and confessed he gave up all
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sponsible for “The Method”— he liked me and gave me a small part in the movie. This small part made me eligible for SAG.” The real breakthrough moment came with his role in the 1984 movie “Moscow on the Hudson.” The film was not entirely a critical success — critics thought it was too lighthearted for a subject as weighty as defection, but it does contain one of the most memorable scenes of all time. Though Baskin’s character threatens to defect, it is Robin Williams’ character
After success in “Moscow on the Hudson,” major producers welcomed the actor. For Baskin, success meant providing for his family while doing the thing he loves the most. who does it, in the middle of Bloomingdales. He succeeds as FSB agents, New York City police and store security all manage to work at cross purposes. For Baskin, the film represented the beginning of his high-profile career. It is also touching that he played a Moscow circus clown, after working as a clown himself. The director of the movie, Paul Mazursky, recalled that working with Baskin was a great pleasure. “Baskin is a consummate actor with a true comedic talent,” the director said. Paul Maslansky, the wellknown producer of the “Police Academy” series, said he ob-
served Baskin’s career in Hollywood from day one. After success in “Moscow on the Hudson,” major producers welcomed the actor. Baskin suddenly found himself on David Letterman, Jonny Carson and all the talk shows of the era. “Baskin became one of the few Russian actors in town that most of the casting directors knew about,” Maslansky said. Many actors recoil at the idea of being typecast. But it enabled Baskin to find a niche in Hollywood that provided steady work. “At the time when Russia was considered an enemy, Russian and Eastern European actors were in demand.” However, Russian “bad guys” didn’t last forever. “Nowadays, there are many more jobs for Muslim-looking actors,” said Baskin. In “Transformers 3,” the actor plays a Russian character — a former cosmonaut who possesses valuable secret information. In “Spider-Man 2” and “SpiderMan 3,” Baskin plays the role of Peter Parker’s landlord, Mr. Ditkovich, who is Slavic. The characters Baskin plays are totally different. “Anatoly in ‘Moscow on the Hudson’ has very little in common (if anything at all) with, let’s say, Mr. Ditkovich,” Baskin said. Baskin sees typecasting as an advantage rather than a setback: “As far as playing mostly foreigners — well … I consider it to be my niche. Why should I complain about it? It would be like an African American actor would be complaining for being cast only as a black man. “I have played a big variety of characters: good guys, villains, funny people, even some famous people. … As to how much do I have command of a role, it all depends on the director. Some demand that you
Movies MOSCOW ON THE HUDSON
Anatoly, 1984 In this breakout film and warm-hearted performance, Baskin plays the best friend of Robin Williams, a clown with the Moscow Circus who talks about defecting during their tour but can’t go through with it. Williams’ character (Vladimir) defects instead, at Bloomingdales.
SPIDER-MAN 2 AND 3
Mr. Ditkovich, 2004, 2007 Baskin plays Peter Parker’s landlord In these box-office blockbusters with Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker and Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson, Baskin plays a vaguely Slavic super/ apartment manager trying in vain to get Peter to pay his rent. KINOPOISK.RU (2)
do only as they see it and follow the script by the letter, others are much more liberal and let you try things.” Another famous Baskin scene occurs in the film, “Heartbreakers,” with Sigourney Weaver and Gene Hackman. Baskin plays the waiter who discovers that Weaver, who is pretending to be a fading Russian beauty, cannot speak Russian at all. He keeps her secret, and then she finds herself singing the only “Russian” song she knows: “Back in the U.S.S.R.” Between movie roles, Baskin returns to his roots of theater acting. He has one of the pivotal roles in the play “Room Service” by the Open Fist Theater
Company. The Los Angeles Times called the play a “superb revival of the 1937 John Murray-Allen Boretz manic backstage farce.” For Baskin, success means providing for his family while doing what he loves. He regards his 13-year-old daughter as his greatest accomplishment. Baskin’s contentment is considered a colossal feat in Hollywood. But he does have a few dreams left that don’t involve a Russian accent. Baskin’s most cherished dream is to direct a remake of Fellini’s 1954 drama “La Strada.” The actor said he expects one day soon to transition into the director’s chair.
Public Art A sculptor funds his own vision of Joseph Brodsky in Moscow
The statue pays tribute to the Nobel-Prize winning poet who was sent into permanent exile, only to become America’s darling and U.S. poet laureate. GALINA MASTEROVA
SPECIAL TO RUSSIA NOW
In a courtyard off a boulevard that hums with traffic is a giant new statue of a poet who never asked to leave and never returned when he had the chance. The vast figure of Nobel-Prize winning laureate Joseph Brodsky stands on a granite base looking up to the sky just off Novinsky Boulevard, yet his eyes appear to be closed. Nearby are sculpted silhouettes of twelve people in two groups, but Brodsky seems unaware, lost in his thoughts, clothes somewhat crumpled, hands in his pocket.
Brodsky was one of Russia’s greatest poets of the 20th century, mentored as a young man by the grand dame of poetry, Anna Akhmatova. Yet he chose his own restless path early on. It was for this individualistic choice, anathema in the Soviet Union, that he was first put on trial in 1964 for “parasitism” and charged with being a “pseudopoet in velveteen trousers.” At one point in the trial, the judge told Brodsky to “forget the big words” after he tried to explain that there was such a thing as “spiritual” rather than “physical” labor. In 1972, he was expelled from the Soviet Union, settling in the United States, where he became poet laureate. He died of a heart attack in 1996. He never saw his parents again after his exile, and he did not return
GETTY IMAGES/FOTOBANK
Finally, Moscow pays tribute to Russian poet Joseph Brodsky.
to Russia, even as it transformed into a different country from the one that had rejected him. Cut off from his beloved home city of St. Petersburg, Brodsky lived in Ann Arbor, Mich., had a flat in New York, is buried in Venice and now has a grandiose monument in Moscow. “It is a repentance to those who were ejected from the country during that time,” said sculptor Georgy Frangulyan, who toiled for the last seven years to get his sculpture unveiled. Talking about the form of the sculpture, Frangulyan said it shows how a poet is alone but with a circle of followers. “Some people go through life like a shadow and some become individuals,” he said. The statue was not paid for by the state or by the city, but by Frangulyan, whose statue of bard Bulat Okudzhava stands close by on the Old Arbat Street. As a link to Brodsky’s hometown, the granite used in the base of the sculpture is the same as that used in the embankments in St. Petersburg. The statue, located just across from the United States embassy, was unveiled at the end of May. Getting there was not a simple journey. Moscow has close to a thousand monuments, celebrating many, from Nehru Gandhi to
Sherlock Holmes. Many were commissioned under the previous mayor Yuri Luzhkov, whose love for monster-sized statues and his court sculptor Zurab Tseretell were the subject of bitter complaint. Tsereteli had actually planned a monument to Brodsky under Luzhkov, but the idea was shelved following an Internet uproar against the idea. Frangulyan created the design for a competition to put a statue up in St. Petersburg. He didn’t win. Frangulyan liked his own design so much he went ahead with it anyway and four years ago, the city, under Luzhkov, agreed to take it. It was the city’s idea that it should face the embassy. “We looked for a place for a long time,” said Alexander Kuzmin, Moscow chief architect, in 2007. “We looked to see where the relatives of the poet lived. Then we asked ourselves a question: What most of all links Brodsky and Moscow? And we understood — the American embassy, from there he left the U.S.S.R.” Brodsky actually left for Vienna, initially, but he did become an American citizen and poet laureate in 1991. Reaction to the statue has been mixed with positive comments in the media, but grumbling by locals, still allergic to the gigantism of the Luzhkov era.
“In St. Pete, in Brighton Beach or in Venice is more apt than in Moscow,” wrote one user on LiveJournal, with another adding, “If I was his relative, I would sue.” Others asked why it was in Moscow. “There was some questions [about that] but [French writer Honore de] Balzac was not born in Paris and there is a statue of him there,” said Frangulyan. “It is my own personal monument,” said Frangulyan. “I didn’t have a choice, as there was a crisis and all those who had promised money withdrew.” Frangulyan wouldn’t say exactly how much it cost, but said it was a few million dollars. It is not the first time that somebody has brought Brodsky back to his homeland. Alexander Krzhanovsky’s much acclaimed 2009 film “One and a Half Rooms” imagines the poet returning to St. Petersburg in a nostalgia-filled drama. There is talk again now of a statue in St. Petersburg, but Frangulyan feels that paying tribute in Moscow is important. “The fact that we have put up a statue to Brodsky is a step forward in relation to the attitude to people and the country,” said Frangulyan. “If Moscow is to be a world capital, it has to have such a monument.”
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RIA NOVOSTI
Sculpture of Exiled Poet Brodsky Graces U.S. Embassy
VITAE
Joseph Brodsky Joseph Brodsky was 24 years old in 1964 when he was sentenced to five years of hard labor in exile for “social parasitism.” He served a year in Arkhangelsk region of Northern Russia. Afterward, he was published mostly in the West, and he was sentenced to permanent involuntary exile in 1972.
First he went to Vienna, then London, settling in the United States, where he later became poet laureate. In 1986, “Less Than One,” a collection of Brodsky’s essays, was published. In 1987, he won the the Nobel Prize “for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity.”
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