- The Moscow Times

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Since 1992 No. 5754 May looking back
12–18
|
2016 WWW.THEMOSCOW TIMES.COM
looking forward
living here
The Sole Victor
Enemy at the Gates
Aftermath of Defeat
The Kremlin has come up with
NATO’s new commander will be
The Bolotnoye prisoners are trying
Russia is the only winner → Page 3
and hostile Russia → Page 4
ordeal isn’t over → Pages 12-13
a new World War II narrative —
tasked with deterring a resurgent
to get back to normal life, but the
Trump is
running for
U.S. president.
Should we
all be scared?
→ Page 5
18+
The Decline
Of Russia’s
Goodfellas
Europe begins a
crackdown on moneylaundering and shady
business → Pages 6, 11
2
Looking Back
In April, Russians spent more than half of
their monthly income on food products,
for the first time since 2008.
The Moscow Times
No. 5754
3.1M
“It is impossible to develop further today, the entire industry is now
talking about one thing: no matter what we produce, we have no
consumer. The consumption decreases. This is the biggest problem.”
Olga Golodets, deputy prime minister.
Russians fell below the
poverty line in 2015.
Searching for a Solution
By Anastasia Bazenkova a.bazenkova@imedia.ru | Twitter: @a_bazenkova
S
tuck in a second year of recession and facing a long period of economic stagnation,
Russian officials are searching hard for
ways to stimulate growth.
On May 25, a presidential economic council will convene for the first time in three years.
According to presidential aide Andrei Belousov,
it aims to achieve stable 4 percent annual
growth before the end of the decade.
If that target is missed, Belousov warned,
Russia’s tax base will stagnate and its infrastructure will degrade. Moreover, he told the
Vedomosti newspaper, “without new investment, social infrastructure will degenerate and
social dissatisfaction will grow.”
Russia’s economy has suffered from the
collapse of oil prices in 2014. Analysts say the
country needs deep structural reform to avoid a
lengthy period of stagnation. The council meeting will discuss a cocktail of measures to locate
new sources of growth. Putin will listen to Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev
and hear a report by the Center for Strategic Research, a think tank recently headed by respected former finance minister Alexei Kudrin.
“All participants agree that the growth target can be hit after 2018, and some even say
sooner,” Belousov told Vedomosti.
One proposal to be heard at the council a tax
break on capital investment, which was proposed by Putin last year. Increased state funding for infrastructure projects and exports is
MAXIM STULOV / VEDOMOSTI
A presidential economic council aims to help
the nation climb out of crippling stagnation.
Presidential aide Andrei Belousov thinks Russia is
capable of 4 percent economic growth after 2018.
also on the list of options, as well as programs to
subsidized lending to business.
Another measure is wage restraint. A new
economic outlook written by the Economic Development Ministry and obtained by Kommersant, a newspaper, proposes to hold down salaries for the next two years to stimulate growth.
Any government move to limit public sector
pay would be echoed by private employers, said
Valery Mironov, an economist at Moscow’s
Higher School of Economics.
This would potentially increase company
profits, improve the competitiveness of Russian exports and allow the government to save
money. But would come at a price. Real incomes
have been shrinking more than a year. The
ministry said its move would see wages fall a
The Moscow Times
No. 5754 (18)
further 2.8 percent this year and 0.3 percent in
2017 in real terms. It said the value of pensions
would decrease by 4.8 percent this year and by 2
percent in 2017.
That would raise poverty levels, already their
highest in nearly a decade. It may also worsen a
slump in consumer spending that could nullify
any positive effect on growth. “Such measures
are not humane and even harmful to the economy,” Sergei Afontsev, economist at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.
Meanwhile, small business, which are the
engine of many Western economies, are having
a tough time. Last year saw criminal investigations into businesses rise to their highest level
in half a decade, according to a report prepared
by Russia’s business ombudsmen, Boris Titov
and seen by the RBC news agency.
Such investigations are often a sham used to
dismantle and redistribute businesses. The report said the number of tax probes increased 62
percent least year, while the conviction rate fell
15 percent.
Sergei Afontsev, an economist at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations,
says the flurry of ideas around the presidential
council meeting has much to do with conjuring
faster growth in time for presidential elections
in 2018, when Putin could seek a fourth term.
Four percent growth should be possible, he
says, but “the methods offered so far don’t offer
any cause for enthusiasm.” TMT
May 12 – 18, 2016
—
Editor-in-Chief Mikhail Fishman
Production Manager Igor Grishin
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m.kamenskaya@imedia.ru
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Cover illustration by Galina Gubchenko
Armenia’s Diplomatic Brinkmanship
Over Nagorno-Karabakh
I
n the early hours of April 2, the long dormant Nagorno-Karabakh conflict erupted as Azeri forces launched a military offensive. The brief, but intense, four-day war revealed the volatility
of this so-called “frozen” Karabakh conflict.
From a military perspective, the scale of the Azeri offensive
was as unexpected as it was unprecedented. In a well-coordinated attack, Azeri units targeted three different areas along an entrenched and deeply fortified front line separating the Armenian
forces of Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan.
The most serious since the 1994 cease-fire, the clashes demonstrated a new Azeri military strategy, aimed to seize and secure territory by attacking and altering the status quo of an entrenched Armenian defensive perimeter.
Despite a serious counterattack by Armenian defenders,
which retook nearly all positions lost in the initial assault, the
Azeri side successfully demonstrated an enhanced combat capacity and initially out-gunned the Karabakh defenders. With
the purchase and procurement of modern offensive weapon systems, largely from Russia, the recent combat was markedly different than the 1990s war. The conflict’s new diplomatic context
holds the widest and most serious implications. The Azeri side
has reached a tipping point, losing patience for diplomacy and
peace talks — preferring the force of arms to resolve the conflict.
The Russian-brokered cessation of recent hostilities reaffirmed the death of the fragile 1994 cease-fire. The oral agreement, reached in Moscow on the fourth and final day of fighting,
was an agreement to cease firing, but not a cease-fire agreement.
Looking ahead, the real challenge stems from the imperative
to return to basic diplomacy, focusing not on conflict resolution,
but on diplomatic engagement to restore calm and rebuild an effective cease-fire.
Such diplomacy is now driven by Russia and backed by its
influence. The cessation of hostilities agreement was both announced in Moscow and attained by Moscow. However, as primary arms supplier to both Armenia and Azerbaijan, Russia’s
role as mediator will be neither easy nor unchallenged.
The challenge for Russia stems not from Western opposition,
but from its strategic partner Armenia. Amid a deep and widening crisis in Armenian-Russian relations, Moscow will have to
steer carefully and tread delicately. For Yerevan, the crisis represents deepening dissatisfaction — not with the relationship itself, but over the unequal terms of the strategic partnership.
For many Armenians, this crisis marked a culmination in
frustration with an asymmetrical and disrespectful alliance,
further exacerbated by the sense of betrayal by Russia, which
sold the weapons used by Azerbaijan against Karabakh. Russian
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev only inflamed tensions when,
during a visit to Armenia only days after the fighting, reaffirmed
Russian plans to continue selling arms to Azerbaijan. Medvedev
stressed that this was no longer a simple business transaction,
but representative of a new policy of Cold War-style deterrence
by seeking to balance both sides with Russian weapons.
This has triggered a new display of diplomatic brinkmanship by Armenia, marked by two distinct demonstrations. The
By Richard Giragosian
Director of the Regional Studies
Center (RSC), an independent think
tank in Yerevan, Armenia
first was of Armenian independence, with the dispatch of senior
Armenian military officials to a meeting with NATO, aimed at
reminding Moscow that Yerevan has options beyond an institutionalized role as a supplicant state for Russia.
The second Armenian display of diplomatic brinkmanship
was far more innovative: the threat to recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh. On May 5 the Armenian Cabinet adopted a motion, calling on Armenia to formally extend diplomatic recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent republic.
This was a bid to garner leverage and wield diplomatic pressure on mediators as well as Azerbaijan, especially as any such
recognition would irrevocably collapse the peace process. Yet,
this was also designed to pressure Moscow, which is seen as dangerously shifting away from Yerevan and closer to Baku.
Despite the audacity of this gambit, it remains unlikely that
Armenia will recognize Karabakh. Because diplomatic leverage
rests on the threat of recognition, Armenian policy remains prudently cautious. With few bargaining chips and limited options
in Armenian foreign policy, recognition would only come as a
policy response to further and future Azeri aggression.
Nevertheless, the outlook for the Karabakh conflict remains
bleak, as the absence of real deterrence means that nothing is
preventing Azerbaijan from launching another offensive. This
also suggests that as the Karabakh and Armenian forces are the
only effective deterrent for renewed hostilities, any future Russian arms sales to Azerbaijan will surely do demonstrable damage to the already strained Armenian-Russian relationship. TMT
SOFIA MIROYEDOVA
CEASE-FIRE NEGOTIATIONS
Looking Back
May 12 – 18, 2016
21
“Victory is a formidable warning
to those who would like to
test our endurance.” President
Vladimir Putin.
> 500,000
The brand new military transport air
jet il-76Md was shown for the first
time in this year’s victory day parade.
foreign leaders attended
Russia’s victory day in 2010.
3
took part in the “immortal
Regiment” march across
Moscow, a new record.
‘Yes, We Can Do It Again’
By Mikhail Fishman m.fishman@imedia.ru
T
housands of soldiers marched through Red Square on May
9 to commemorate the 71st anniversary of victory over
Nazi Germany. Though not as ambitious as last year’s 70th
jubilee, this year’s Victory Day parade was designed to showcase
the growing importance of the Soviet victory in World War II —
and that of Russian military force — in Russia’s current global
agenda.
The newly-created Military Space forces, the National Guard
and female soldiers participated in the parade for the first time
this year. Intercontinental ballistic missiles, 135 tanks and military vehicles, including Russia’s newest S-400 anti-aircraft
missile systems rolled through the city’s streets and across the
square. Seventy-one aircraft — including Sukhoi jets recently returned from Syria — flew overhead.
It has been six years since Russia’s World War II allies — the
United States, Britain and France — sent troops to march alongside the Russian military on Red Square and German Chancellor
Angela Merkel stood on the podium with Russian leaders.
This would be hard to imagine today. After Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, Russia was expelled from
the G8 and NATO has been increasing its military presence along
Russian borders in Eastern Europe (see article, page 4), a move to
deter Russia from moving forces into neighboring NATO states.
Western leaders were not invited to Red Square this year. In
his annual address, President Vladimir Putin didn’t mention
Soviet allies, but said that Soviet soldiers were the ones to have
brought freedom to other nations.
According to political analyst Yevgeny Minchenko, Putin’s
message was that the Russian nation could have ended the war
all by itself, without its allies’ help.
The only foreign leader to stand alongside Putin on Red
Square was Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who was
treated as a true ally and special guest at the ceremonial recep-
kReMliN pReSS SeRvice
Russia now sees itself as the only conqueror of Nazi Germany and
uses this vision as a source of guidance and energy.
Cadets of the
Baltic Naval
Institute
march during
the Victory
Day parade
through Red
Square on
May 9, 2016.
tion in the Kremlin, following the parade. At the same reception,
Putin said: “Victory is a formidable warning to those who would
like to test our endurance. Victory in World War II demonstrated
Russia’s pride and readiness to defend the country’s interests.”
As if in accordance with such statements, Russian weapons
were paraded through territories which have recently seen an intensified Russian military presence. The Russian Black Sea Fleet
lined up in Sevastopol Bay, with dozens of armored vehicles and
hardware joining nearby on Crimean territory. A smaller version
of Moscow’s parade took place on Russia’s Khmeimim air base in
Latakia, Syria, together with members of Syrian President Bashar
Assad’s army.
It was the first time in recent history that Russia’s Victory Day
parade expanded beyond its national borders. This was to demonstrate that, despite the economic crisis, Russia is more militarily competent than before, says Minchenko.
Victory Day remains the main national holiday, and, under the influence of state propaganda, its importance has only
grown. Over the last two years, Russian propaganda has widely
applied the World War II narrative to military developments in
Ukraine. The new Ukrainian government has been compared to
Nazi hit squads and portrayed as the direct political heirs of the
Nazis’ wartime cohorts in Ukraine.
Now, following such direction, Russians increasingly treat
Victory Day as a source of glory, energy and guidance. The increasingly popular slogan “We can do it again,” often seen plastered across car windows, refers back to soviet victory in World
War II, and forward to new tensions with the West.
However, when it comes to officially defining the enemy, the
war narrative falls apart. In his speech on May 9, Putin said — in
a somewhat contradictory manner, according to Minchenko —
the new enemy, or “new Nazism,” is not the West, but the global
threat of terror.
In order to fight terrorism, Putin said, Russia is ready to unite
efforts with all nations to “form a modern, non-aligned system
of global security.”
In fact, rhetorically, the Kremlin is not pushing forward, but
retreating from its recent aggressive anti-Western stance, says
political analyst Vladimir Frolov. The West has been invited to
cooperate, but the offer is so vague that it will most certainly
fail to garner a response. “Though areas of real cooperation do
exist, the Kremlin doesn’t give a hint — as if intentionally —
what form this new security system could take in practice,” says
Frolov.
But the message — which looks ambiguous and amorphous
to Western onlookers and policy-makers — is understood clearly within Russia: Russia is ready to use force against its enemy,
wherever such an enemy may be. “We protected our country
against Nazism before. Now we will protect it against extremism,” reads a banner on a Moscow bus, as though there is hardly
any difference between the two. The banner does not state that
under Russian law, almost any controversial or remonstrative
observation can be treated as extremism. That’s understood. TMT
4
Looking Forward
The Moscow Times
No. 5754
38
“[Scaparrotti is] unhappy because
Russia has dared to revive itself.”
Konstantin Kosachyov, foreign
affairs chair, Federation Council.
Years of army service by
Curtis Scaparrotti
“One of the key takeaways is that he is an army general. There
is a danger if you pick someone else, the Russians think you are
only concerned with air or sea war.” Ilan Berman, vice president
of The American Foreign Policy Council.
Changing of the Guard
By Matthew Bodner m.bodner@imedia.ru | Twitter: @mattb0401
New NATO Commander Curtis Scaparrotti signifies final step in combat readiness.
GeerT VANdeN WijNGAerT / AP
C
urtis Scaparrotti, a U.S. Army General, is no stranger to tension. For the past three years, he has been the Pentagon’s
senior officer on the Korean Peninsula. There, Scaparrotti
was responsible for commanding U.S. forces deployed along the
world’s most notorious flashpoint, the demilitarized zone separating a flourishing South Korea from its unpredictable and potentially hostile neighbor to the north.
Now the head of NATO forces in Europe, he will face a growing military divide between east and west. Attempts by Russia
and NATO to reestablish dialogue have failed, close encounters
between military forces occur on an almost weekly basis, and
distrust is driving military buildup along borders.
Scaparrotti replaces U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove,
who, over the past two years, has worked to reinvigorate the alliance in the face of what is seen as a resurgent Russian threat
to NATO’s eastern members. A career infantryman, he will be
tasked with completing his predecessor’s efforts to restore NATO
to war-capable footing.
“A resurgent Russia [is] striving to project itself as a world
power,” Scaparrotti said after being sworn in on May 4. NATO also faces threats from the migrant crisis and international terrorism. “To address these challenges, we must continue to maintain
and enhance our levels of readiness and our agility in the spirit
of being able to fight tonight if deterrence fails.”
The message rang loud in Moscow, where officials have spent
the past two years bickering in the media with Breedlove, a proponent of greater military deterrence against Russia. Russian
media outlets frequently held the bombastic Breedlove responsible for tensions between Russia and the West.
Russian officials began immediately painting Scaparrotti
in the same light. State Duma foreign affairs chairman Alexei
Pushkov said the new NATO commander had already surpassed
Breedlove in warmongering, and other officials said he is simply
upset that Russia has the audacity to stand up for its interests.
While this rhetoric has been rehashed ad nauseum over the
Curtis M. Scaparrotti, commander of NATO’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
past two years, Scaparrotti’s arrival coincides with the final stages of NATO’s efforts to reinvigorate itself, with an eye on protecting its members to the east from potential attack by Russia. This
has been a common theme on the NATO side since March 2014,
and efforts are expected to crescendo at the NATO summit in
Warsaw this summer.
The Ukraine crisis has already seen the command authority
of the NATO supreme commander increase, giving the official
greater room to maneuver during the early moments of any conceivable conflict with Russia. This was an initiative pushed by
Breedlove as part of the alliance’s efforts to present a stronger deterrence to any potential Russian moves on a NATO member.
“Scaparrotti’s biggest challenge will be how to respond to
Russia, and Russian subversion, short of military force,” says Ilan
Berman, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council,
a Washington think tank. “Its not something that NATO has a
clear strategy to address, and as a result there is a fragmentation
of political opinion within the alliance.”
Meanwhile, the alliance has bolstered the size of forces available to its supreme commander if fighting breaks out. Already,
the United States has deployed around 4,000 troops and an armored brigade to eastern Europe, and proposals to double that
force — at the insistence of nations like Poland — will be on the
agenda in Warsaw in July. The Pentagon is also planning to add
an additional permanent battalion in Europe to augment Washington’s forces in Germany and Italy.
In the weeks leading up to Scaparrotti’s arrival in Europe,
the U.S. military has been debating sending an additional 4,000
troops to Eastern Europe to deter Russia. “But the underlying
weaknesses have not really changed,” Berman said. “No one is
throwing more money at NATO, and there are a lot of uncertainties — like the Brexit threat.”
In recent weeks, Russian warplanes have flown what the
United States has characterized as highly provocative maneuvers
near U.S. ships and aircraft patrolling the Black Sea. Scaparrotti
said at his induction ceremony that he wants to reopen lines
of communication with Russia to prevent these incidents from
sparking unintended conflict, but efforts last month to reinvigorate communication between Russia and NATO failed.
Russia has instead responded to NATO’s troop movements in
Eastern Europe with promises to deploy 30,000 men to its western flank. Moscow’s acts of resolve will likely only intensify if
Scaparrotti makes good on his proposals to arm Ukraine with
heavier weapons to defend itself from Russian aggression. Such
moves would be seen by the Kremlin as yet another instance of
the West meddling in its historic backyard.
While he is not expected to begin launching a series of new
initiatives right off the bat, he is ensuring continuity in NATO’s
reform efforts in the wake of Breedlove’s departure. As both sides
continue to dig in and the rhetoric continues to sizzle, Scaparrotti’s experience in Korea may become increasingly relevant. TMT
The Baltic Balance of Power
$54 Bln*
Russia
Budget
$253 Bln
(spending in
Europe in 2015)
NATO
8
320
April 18: A Sukhoi Su-27 intercepted
and performed a barrel roll over a
U.S. surveillance aircraft in international airspace over the Baltic Sea.
Aircraft
Russia
Latvia
Sweden
14,450
65,000
0
55
April 11: A pair of Sukhoi Su-24 fighter-bombers
buzzed U.S. destroyer the Donald Cook at extremely
close range about 70 kilometers off of Kaliningrad,
not far from the Polish port of Gdynia.
Soldiers
3**
750
Tanks
April 12: A pair of Ka-27 helicopters approached and
flew circles around U.S. destroyer the Donald Cook,
allegedly taking photos and conducting simulated
attacks.
Lithuania
Ships
Russia
Belarus
Poland
* Russia’s overall 2015 defense budget (3.3 trillion rubles), converted at the average 2015 exchange rate
** United States is planning to deploy 250 armored vehicles to Eastern Europe
*** Seven Northern Fleet submarines could be summoned in the event of conflict
NATO force figures apply to permanently stationed troops as of 2015. The actual number of NATO forces in the Baltic
fluctuates as member states rotate planes, ships, and other hardware in and out of the region for patrols and exercises.
Increases to NATO strength in the region will be discussed at the alliance summit in Warsaw in July.
Sources: International Institute of Strategic Studies, NATO
2***
Submarines
0
Looking Forward
$25M
Campaign donations raised
by Donald Trump
“I know that [Putin]’s someone that
you must continually stand up to,
like many bullies.” Hillary Rodham
Clinton, democratic candidate
May 3
5
When an election between
Donald Trump and Hillary
Clinton was all but certain.
MARIA ZAIKINA
“[Trump] says he wants to proceed
to other level of relationship with
Russia. Of course, we welcome it.”
President Vladimir Putin
May 12 – 18, 2016
Breaking Democracy’s Morals
The Trump phenomenon makes U.S. politics look more like those of Europe.
Op-Ed by Maria Lipman
Editor-in-chief, Counterpoint journal,
published by George Washington University
A
s Donald Trump has risen from a remote contender to the
presumptive Republican presidential nominee, the U.S.
media commentary has been an unending flow of dismay,
despair, anxiety and anger. Some commentators rather desperately discussed possible ways to prevent Trump from winning
the nomination, but this proved meaningless when Trump won
the Indiana primaries on May 3, and his remaining competitors
withdrew from the race. Now the focus of the media analysis is
shifting toward “Can he win?” the presidency.
While some of those who abhor a possible Trump victory try
not to give in to fear, and claim that the Democratic party is built
to defeat Trump or even forecast that 2016 will be a year of “Democratic routs,” others find at least several reasons why November
might bring on a “Trumpocalypse.”
Since hardly anyone predicted Trump’s current triumph, nobody can rule out another surprise — Trump becoming president
of the United States.
What does it mean for Russia? Politically, not too much. U.S.
foreign policy has more constants than variables, and whoever
wins the presidency will not have much freedom of maneuver
— he or she will have to honor the existing alliances and obligations and will be unable to ignore powerful domestic interests or
dominant ideas about the U.S. preeminence in the world.
As for Russia, U.S.-Russian relations are defined, in the words
of Andrej Krickovic and Yuval Weber, by a “fundamental disagreement about the genesis of the current world order.” The
United States regards Russia as “a revisionist power bent on
overturning the established order and challenging the U.S. global
leadership.” While in Russia anything short of tough anti-Americanism is regarded as unacceptable concession, in the United
States, a softer Russia policy is seen as inadmissible appease-
ment. In Russia, the United States of President Barack Obama is
perceived as our main enemy, but at home Obama is often criticized for being too soft on Russia. Any future administration,
Krickovic and Weber write, will face strong pressure from both
political parties to harden its Russia line.
Hillary Clinton will hardly resist this pressure. Although she
served as Secretary of State during the bygone era of the Obama
“reset” of relations with Russia, she is anything but an appeaser.
Rather, she is a hawk, not averse to using military interventions
as a foreign-policy means. It is true that Trump has made occasional overtures to President Vladimir Putin, and indeed mentioned that he would improve relations with Russia — “from a
position of strength” — which can hardly be music to Putin’s
ears. But one should not take these statements any more seriously than Trump’s declared intention to build a wall on the U.S.Mexican border or make U.S. allies pay for the U.S. military presence in their countries.
But if this year’s presidential race in the United States does
not matter too much for Russia in practical political terms,
Trump’s unexpected success is certainly important for us from a
political-cultural standpoint.
Only eight years ago, the United States was celebrating an
amazing national accomplishment: The election of an AfricanAmerican for president seemed to prove that the nation — if not
fully, then at least in a very significant way — had overcome the
legacy of slavery, followed by formal and then informal racial discrimination.
Despite setbacks along the way, U.S. history could be seen as
a progressive advance from Abraham Lincoln’s mid-19th-century line about a “government of the people, by the people, for
the people” to the abolition of the poll tax about 100 years later
which finally granted voting rights to all adult citizens.
Theoretically speaking, in a universal democracy all the citizens are involved in making decisions about their country’s affairs. In practice, however, decision-making is delegated to a
small minority — the political elite that speaks and acts on people’s behalf, but does not reflect the broad diversity of voters.
Campaigning, the art of attracting and accommodating various
constituencies, has evolved as a highly sophisticated, complex
and costly industry. It helps promising political contenders reach
out to their potential supporters and persuade them that he or
she is the best person to serve the public, but also marginalize
unwanted influences and politically unwelcome views.
The competition between parties and candidates is fierce,
and, especially in recent years, U.S. society has grown more polarized. Still, this competition has remained within the established
framework of moral propriety — so anybody appealing to ugly,
xenophobic sentiments, whether racist, sexist, homophobic or
otherwise would be defeated at early stages.
In retrospect it looks almost inevitable that one day somebody
would break the unspoken ban and reach out to those constituencies which had never subscribed to the language and values of
the establishment, and had been skillfully marginalized by professional campaign specialists.
This year, it happened. Donald Trump tapped into the unappealing sentiments of those who felt excluded, disenfranchised
and resentful. His success is due in large part to offensive language: opting for openly nativist rhetoric, aggressively attacking
“non-Americans,” Mexicans, Muslims, as well as women.
In the Russia of the 1990s, when we still had competitive politics, Vladimir Zhirinovsky played a similar trick. With his unabashedly nationalistic, aggressive language he won the support
of those who felt deeply disappointed and disenfranchised by the
new, democratic government. On the televised election night
a shocked liberal intellectual Yury Karyakin exclaimed “Russia,
come to your senses! You’re out of your mind!”
Despite the long history of institutionalized democracy in the
United States, these days many progressive, liberal Americans
seem to feel the same way as they realize that their democracy
no longer has a bulwark against nativist, xenophobic politics.
The Trump phenomenon makes U.S. democracy look more like
that of Europe where nativist politicians have gained considerable success in recent years. It is also a disturbing realization to
those Russian liberals who tend to blame ugly public sentiments
and loathsome politics on state dominance and aggressive government propaganda. TMT
6
Russian Tales
“The criminal organization headed by
Petrov managed to achieve a clear
penetration of the state structures of
his country,” say Spanish prosecutors.
The Moscow Times
No. 5754
12
Russians wanted by
Spanish authorities.
$30M
“This criminalized elite wanted to enjoy
the opportunities of being Europeans
while stealing with impunity back
within Russia.” Mark Galeotti.
spent by Russian tax
fraudsters in London,
according to Bill Browder.
Closing the Gangster
Playground
By Peter Hobson p.hobson@imedia.ru, Twitter: @peterhobson15 | Illustration by Galina Gubchenko
A series of high-profile cases against Russian organized crime in Europe
suggest that authorities might at last be cracking down.
I
n early May, the moves came thick and fast. In Portugal, police swooped on a Russian criminal network that
bought control of struggling lower-league football clubs
and used them to launder millions of euros.
Meanwhile, in London, hedge fund boss turned campaigner Bill Browder presented evidence to British members
of parliament that $30 million stolen in one of Russia’s most
high profile frauds had passed through the country’s banks.
The money was from a tax scam uncovered by Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who was imprisoned and died in jail in
2009. It was spent, Browder said, on private jets, elite school
fees, lavish houses and designer dresses in Britain.
As Browder laid out his story, it was revealed that a Spanish judge had issued arrest orders for 12 Russians, including
several current and former government officials. The warrant was part of Europe’s biggest probe into Russian organized crime. Investigators say Gennady Petrov, a gangster
from St. Petersburg, plowed money into Spanish real estate
that came from contract killings, arms and drug trafficking,
extortion and kidnapping. They claim Petrov was the center
of a money-laundering cabal that reached the top levels of
Russian officialdom.
The events revealed the extent to which Russian organized crime has penetrated Europe. They also suggest that
European authorities might be mobilizing against it.
Expansion
Gennady Petrov fled Russia two decades ago. A heavyset
bruiser who had climbed to the top of the criminal ladder
in St. Petersburg while Vladimir Putin was a deputy mayor, he moved to Spain after losing ground to a rival gang.
He was not alone. Spain in the 1990s and early 2000s
was “a kind of playground for organized crime figures …
nice climate, and weak law enforcement,” says Mark Galeotti, an expert in Russian organized crime and security
services.
Crime figures also spread to Israel, Cyprus and Germany.
In the French Riviera, Russian criminals laundered suitcases full of cash through the property sector while bribing
local politicians and judges to look the other way. By the
2000s, Europe’s police agency, Europol, was calling the Baltic States the “northeast criminal hub.”
London attracted a different crowd. These were the
businessmen and political figures whose wealth could
withstand at least a cursory probing of its sources. Euan
Grant, an expert on transnational crime, calls these people
“politically-protected looters.”
Organized crime had blossomed in Russia in the 1990s
as state authority broke down. Under Putin, who became
president at the end of the decade, the melding of the state
and criminal networks was institutionalized, says Galeotti.
No state employee lives off their salary alone. Instead, a
culture of cronyism developed where personal connections
were used to dole out favors and no one is truly clean.
Even Defense Minster Sergei Shoigu, a career official regarded as one of the less corrupt members of the government, was found by anti-corruption activists last year to
have a lavish, pagoda-style mansion near Moscow allegedly worth $18 million.
Spanish Mafia
When Russian businessmen and gangsters moved overseas,
they took their personal connections with them. The Spanish investigation into Gennady Petrov appears to provide a
snapshot into the system’s workings.
Continued on Page 11 →
7
Weekly round-up of all
that’s new, delicious and
fun in Moscow.
“We forget
what our
ancestors
actually ate
just 150-200
years ago,”
says Sergei
Morozov. He
and his wife
Anna own
both the food
stall and new
café.
NIKOLA-LENIVETS
Out & About
May 12 – 18, 2016
Ferma Nikola-Lenivets
By Andrei Muchnik artsreporter@imedia.ru
T
he latest addition to Danilovsky market’s
expanding food court is Ferma NikolaLenivets (Nikola-Lenivets farm). Last fall it
started life as a humble vegetable stall, but this
spring sees it blossom into a full-blown café.
The café operates on a farm-to-table philosophy, promoting organic products and a seasonal, healthy menu. The actual farm is located
near Nikola-Lenivets, a pastoral retreat where the
bohemian Archstoyanie Land Art Festival has taken place for the last decade. This rustic ethos has
also influenced the design — long wooden benches jostle for space with several artistic structures
From farm to table at Danilovsky market
crafted at the settlement’s creative workshops.
Owners Sergei and Anna Morozov say that
they “only feed people what we grow ourselves.”
Sergei is a former rock musician while Anna studied public relations. They decided to explore their
roots and moved to a village near Nikola-Lenivets
where they owned a plot of land. In many ways, a
labor of love became a profession.
When Archstoyanie began gaining popularity,
the Morozovs opened a salad bar at their farm to
offer hungry festival-goers a healthy food alternative. The farming community in Nikola-Lenivets
is close-knit, and the Morozovs source their meat
and cheese from neighboring Grant’s Farm.
The Morozovs profess an interest in historic
Russian cuisine and pre-revolutionary recipes,
such as “telnoye” — pike cutlet — (400 rubles) or
the millet breakfast porridge with prunes and garlic (100 rubles). Another rediscovered dish is the
delicious chicken pate (350 rubles), a fresh take on
a recipe published by the tsar’s family in 1853.
Other noteworthy menu choices include the
one-minute steak (500 rubles) which is complimented by traditional fried potatoes with onions
and mushrooms (200 rubles). Lighter options
include purple carrot and baked pumpkin salad
(150 rubles) or croutons with sun dried tomatoes
and homemade cheese (150 rubles). Accompany
your meal with their speciality cranberry drink
(100 rubles) or Ivan Chai herbal tea (50 rubles).
The menu changes regularly as the focus is
on fresh, seasonal dishes. If you live in Moscow
but yearn for a taste of the countryside, you’ll
enjoy this eatery and its earthy, lovingly-sourced
fare. TMT
+7 (966) 014 1664
facebook.com/KafeFermaNikola
74 Ulitsa Mytnaya
Metro Tulskaya
LETO
BARKAS
CUTFISH
MS. DONAIR
NEWS & OPENINGS
Cutfish
Upscale sushi at Patriarch’s Ponds
Ms. Donair
Shwarma in the center
Barkas
Flavorsome food on a boat
Leto
+ 7 (926) 936 7876
facebook.com/cutfishbistro
17 Bolshoi Kozikhinsky Pereulok
Metro Tverskaya
+7 (495) 625 4221
facebook.com/MsDonair-592912714217934
1 Ulitsa Sretenka
Metro Turgenevskaya, Trubnaya
+7 (499) 243 3672
facebook.com/barkasmoscow
Ukraine Hotel Pier, Naberezhnaya Tarasa
Shevchenko
Metro Kievskaya
+7 (495) 621 0756
facebook.com/cafeleto
119 Prospekt Mira, Bldg. 461
Metro VDNKh
Japanese eatery Cutfish offers sushi (from 320
rubles), various soups and a range of grill options
(from 490 rubles). The beautifully crafted tuna
and salmon rolls are addictive, but leave room for
the grilled duck breast. The open kitchen and oriental dragon murals create a lively atmosphere
for diners. Everything is high quality, but note that
portions are on the smaller and pricier side.
Ms. Donair now has two locations in Moscow.
Unsurprisingly, both are located in areas with
buzzing nightlife. The 24/7 eatery offers a variety
of doners with the type of meat and its accompaniments reflected in the nation after which
the doner is named. There’s a kebab for everyone
— including vegetarians. At just 200 rubles they
make the perfect portable snack late-night nibble.
Take it and go!
Moored behind Hotel Ukraina, Barkas (barge) was
founded by television chef Lara Katsova. It specializes in the Ashkenazi cuisine of her hometown
Odessa. Try the gefilte fish with horseradish (520
rubles), or fried barabulka (a type of mullet) 570
rubles. There’s also hatzilim (eggplant dip), forshmak (herring salad) and, of course, matzo.
Lunch by the water
Leto is quite a walk from the VDNKh park
entrance, but the view is worth it. Leto (summer) belongs to the restaurant company that
owns the cafes Luch and Moloko and serves
seasonal fare like shashlik (from 500 to 600
rubles) or traditional svekolnik (cold beet soup)
for 300 rubles. The terrace is the perfect place
to enjoy a glass of wine on a sunny day.
Four pages packed with the best places in Moscow to eat, drink, walk, shop, listen, watch, dance and sightsee.
A new walking route and listings every week! Take it, use it, save it!
8
Walking Route
The Moscow Times
No. 5754
6. New Opera
After being refreshed by greenery or perhaps a bite to eat,
head over to the largest building within the garden walls,
the New Opera. In 1910 the art nouveau Mirror Theater was
built for open-air performances. In 1991, it was transferred
to the New Opera group, which built a new theater using
some elements of the old one. It opened in 1997, and is one of
Moscow’s best and most interesting opera venues. It performs classical operas as well as 20th and 21st-century works,
hosts festivals, and holds musical events in the magnificent
Mirrored Foyer. Stop in for tickets, or to gawk at the beautiful
architecture. Then head back out into Moscow’s finest little
garden.
3 Karetny Ryad, Bldg. 1
6
5
Ulitsa Karetny Ryad
4
5. Hermitage Garden
Keep walking along the street. Where the Moscow Interior
Ministry ends, so ends Ulitsa Petrovka. From that point on
the street becomes Karetny Ryad (Carriage Row) — named for
the carriage and cart repairmen who once plied their trade
here. Cross the street and enter a little bit of heaven on earth,
the Hermitage Garden. Founded here in 1894, an abandoned property was transformed into a flowering garden
and opened in 1895. Here the first “moving pictures” of the
Brothers Lumiere were shown in 1896. And here, a few years
later, Anton Chekhov’s “Seagull” premiered in the Hermitage Theater — to lackluster reviews, it must be said. Fyodor
Chaliapin sang and Sarah Bernhardt performed here. Now it
has just about everything you’d want in a city park: outdoor
movies, festivals, three theaters, cafes, classes, jazz festivals
and skating rinks. Oh, and green lawns, flower gardens and
sweet-smelling trees. Stop in and be revived.
3 Karetny Ryad
3
Ulitsa Petrovka
From the Old Circus to the New Opera
Peaceful Pleasures, Food and Fun
On the Boulevards
By Michele A. Berdy m.berdy@imedia.ru | Illustration by Justyna Holubowska
A walk along and around the city center boulevards that begins
at a place of fun and ends in a garden of beauty and culture
Around the Boulevards
4. Petrovka 38
Turn left on 2nd Kolobovsky Pereulok and walk to Ulitsa
Petrovka. Turn right and gaze upon what is officially called
the Headquarters of the Moscow Interior Ministry, but usually referred to by its address: Petrovka 38. It’s hard to imagine that this was once a pretty two-story urban manor house
owned by the Shcherbatov family. It was gendarme barracks
for most of the 19th century, and then the home of the Moscow militia after the 1917 Revolution. Now the address doesn’t
just mean the place, it means “Moscow Cops” in general.
Note, as you stroll by, the reinstated bust of Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Soviet secret police, in the courtyard.
9
4-hour walk
1
1. Nikulin Circus
Take the metro to Tsvetnoi Bulvar, and when you come out
on street level turn right onto the boulevard. With nose held
high, walk past the glass and cement shopping mall abomination that replaced the beloved, smelly, delicious old Central
Market until you see an oddly dressed bronze man by an old
car on the sidewalk. This is a statue of the great clown, actor
and writer Yury Nikulin, standing in front of the circus he led
and starred in for many years. Officially called the Nikulin
Circus, it is also just called the “old circus,” which opened in
1880 and for more than a half-century was the only circus in
the city. The nicely old-fashioned building introduces new
acts and shows every season. Stop in for tickets.
13 Tsvetnoi Bulvar
3rd Kolobovsky Pereulok
Tsvetnoi Bulvar
3. Church of the Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign
Turn right and walk up Petrovsky Bulvar, a stretch of the
boulevard ring, then turn right on 3rd Kolobovsky Pereulok
and left on 1st Kolobovsky Pereulok. All these Kolobovsky
Pereuloks are named after one of the leaders of the Kremlin guardsmen (streltsy) who lived here in the 17th century,
Nikifor Kolobov. Enjoy the mix of architecture on these quiet
little streets. On your right you’ll come upon the pretty white
Church of the Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign, built in
the late 17th century in what is called the “fiery style,” with
rows of kokoshniki like tongues of flame that represent the
angels, seraphim and other heavenly beings. This church was
closed in 1930, restored in the 1970s and 1980s and re-consecrated in the late 1990s.
1 1st Kolobovsky Pereulok, Bldg. 2
2. School of Contemporary Drama
Continue down the boulevard to the intersection with
another boulevard, Petrovsky Bulvar, and stop to look across
the street. On the far corner is a pale blue building with
white decorative trim. This is the building of the School for
Contemporary Drama, which opened during the heady days
of perestroika in 1989 (now under reconstruction after a fire).
It is a drama landmark: Here many of the era’s greatest plays
have premiered, and events, such as the 70th birthday celebration of writer, singer and songwriter Bulat Okudzhava,
have gone down in Russia’s cultural history. But the building
is perhaps even more famous for its pre-Revolutionary past as
the Hermitage Restaurant, a popular eatery where a French
chef named Lucien Olivier invented a salad and named it
after himself — his salad Olivier has gone down in Russian
cultural and culinary history.
29/14 Neglinnaya Ulitsa
Petrovsky Bulvar
2
The Moscow Times
No. 5754
Yoga 108
Stretch yourself: 5 places to practice yoga in Moscow
Ashtanga Yoga School Moscow
Prepare for the burn
If you think yoga is all calming relaxation,
Ashtanga practice will come as a bit of a
shock. A modern form of classical Indian yoga,
Ashtanga involves swift, aerobic transitions between yoga positions. You’ll find yourself longing for the final pose “Shavasana” or “corpse
pose,” where you lie flat on your back, relax into
the floor and feel like you might never have the
strength to get up again. Moscow’s Ashtanga
school has two studios in prime locations near
Mayakovskaya and Teatralnaya. Drop-in classes
are 700 rubles or an eight-class pass for the
month is 4,100 rubles. Some teachers speak
English so inquire when you book.
ashtangamoscow.com
Various locations
PrAnA YogA
AshtAngA YogA school
A combination of physical exercise and meditative thinking with a focus on emotional
well-being, yoga is a unique way to calibrate your mind, body and soul. Whether you are
a seasoned yogi or an utter newbie, here is a selection of the best places to practice your
chakras in Moscow.
Prana Yoga
Options galore
Prana Yoga gathers the best teachers from different yoga practices under one roof and lets
you choose your preferred style. The organization’s 55 daily yoga classes across two studios
mean you’re spoiled for choice. With a one-off
lesson costing just 400 rubles or a “first steps
in yoga course” offering 3 lessons for just 1,000
rubles, there’s no better place for beginners
to test the waters. If you’re more experienced,
you can opt for a subscription. Eight morning
lessons over one month will cost 2,700 rubles. A
massive bonus at the Timiryazevskoye branch
is the on-site sauna, the perfect guilt-free way
to treat yourself after working up a sweat.
pranayoga.ru
Various locations
Professional, friendly and reasonably-priced
Yoga 108 focuses on developing the strength
and stamina of its students through Hatha
yoga practice — otherwise known as standard
yoga. Classes are intense and will certainly
push you, but the expert teachers are used to
working with yogis of all levels so you needn’t
feel embarrassed about the state of your downward dog. Classes are held in Russian, but if you
let the center know your language preferences
when you book your lesson, they can ensure
you attend a class where the teacher can speak
at least some English. Eight lessons over 30
days costs just 3,600 rubles or a one-off class for
you and a group costs 3,000 rubles. There’s no
excuse not to grab some friends, squeeze into
those yoga pants and limber up.
yoga108.com
6/12 starosadsky Pereulok
Metro Kitai-gorod
Energy Yoga
Stress-free stretching
Energy Yoga is another studio specializing
in Bikram yoga practice. Their stylish — if
rather orange — studio is specially equipped to
ensure the right levels of oxygen for optimum
yoga practice. The center is equipped out with
modern, convenient facilities, and on Fridays
they hold a special “happy Friday class” for
the bargain price of 350 rubles. It’s not quite
as fun as a conventional happy hour of course,
but it’s certainly a lot healthier for you. Alternatively, if you want to take things a bit more
seriously, unlimited classes for one month
cost 4,050 rubles for the first month. This goes
up to 4,500 rubles after the introductory offer.
energyoga.ru
118 Varshavskoye shosse
Varshavka sky Business center
Metro chertanovskaya, Yuzhnaya
BiKrAM YogA MsK
YogA 108
Aisyah Jamil, medical student at MGMU
“I’ve been to White Rabbit four times and most recently, I tried the tasting menu.
It was a remarkable combination of flavors and so beautifully crafted. The view and
atmosphere overlooking the city were also spectacular.”
EnErgY YogA
Out & About
frEEPiK.coM
10
Bikram Yoga MSK
Get hot and steamy
As the name would suggest, Bikram Yoga
MSK specializes in Bikram yoga. That is to
say, 90 minute classes where you repeat the
same series of 26 postures in a room heated
to a steamy 40 degrees Celsius. If that sounds
— quite literally — like your idea of hell, just
think of the health benefits. Sweating rids your
body of toxins while the heat gives you a more
intense workout and can aid chronic pains like
arthritis and backache. Bikram Yoga MSK offers
a number of packages, including unlimited sessions from 7,000 rubles per month or a one-off
session for 900 rubles. While classes are taught
in Russian, many of the teachers either speak
some English or are patient enough to break
things down for you if you get your asanas in a
muddle.
bikramyogamsk.ru
19 Pechatnikov Pereulok, Metro trubnaya
Russian Tales
May 12 – 18, 2016
$1.5Bln
“It’s beyond the realm of reason.”
Dmitry Peskov on claims that
Russian gangsters discussed a house
in Spain allegedly owned by Putin.
enters Britain unrecorded
monthly. Half from Russia.
“Without help from Russian law
enforcement the Spanish will
never prove anything.” Roman
Shleinov, Russian journalist.
← Continued from Page 6
Threats
DEniS GRiSHkin / VEDomoSTi
Russian cash has certainly padded many pockets. Flows of
illicit money are difficult to measure. They are also various
in nature, ranging from direct proceeds of drug and people
trafficking to kickbacks and sweetheart deals. But analysts say tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars have
left Russia over the last two decades in criminal schemes.
Deutsche Bank last year said $1.5 billion enters Britain
each month without being recorded by official statistics.
Half of that cash comes from Russia.
Russian money has been a boon for real estate agents,
lawyers and purveyors of luxury services. But it has also
cultivated an extensive network of former government officials and intelligence figures now working at private advisory firms. One such was Conservative Friends of Russia,
a lobby group founded in London in 2012 and chaired by Sir
Malcolm Rifkind, a former foreign minister. Rifkind was
luxury cars were seized in a
Spanish raid on the Russian
mafia in 2008.
Gennady
Petrov arrives
at Palma’s
court on June
14, 2008, accompanied
by police
officers on the
Spanish island
of Majorca.
Spanish prosecutors say
Petrov headed
an organized
criminal group
that penetrated deep
into Russia’s political
elite. He later
absconded
to Russia and
lives in St.
Petersburg.
Dani CaRDona / REUTERS
In the 1990s, St. Petersburg was practically run by criminals, and Petrov was a big figure. “Everyone knew him,” says
Roman Shleinov, a Russian investigative journalist. He had
cash to invest and could pull strings in different spheres of
government and business. Petrov’s connections extended
to Putin’s closest associates. In the late 1990s, Petrov was a
shareholder in Bank Rossiya, later described by U.S. officials
as the “personal bank for senior [Russian] officials.”
But Spanish prosecutors were on to him. They launched
an investigation called “Operation Troika” in the late 2000s.
Prosecutors tapped hundreds of telephone conversations
and examined bank transfers and property transactions.
Their report, issued last year, revealed connections between
Petrov’s crime group and a wide circle of Russian officials
and politicians. Among the senior figures mentioned were
former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, former Prime
Minister Viktor Zubkov and current Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak. Even Putin got a mention in one of the
tapped conversations discussing his reported ownership of a
house in Spain.
The 12 names on the Spanish arrest warrant revealed this
month are only slightly less senior. They include Vladislav
Reznik, a senior member of parliament, Igor Sobolevsky, a
former deputy head of the Investigative Committee, Russia’s equivalent to the FBI, and General Nikolai Aulov, deputy
head of the narcotics police. Among the accusations, prosecutors say Reznik helped Petrov get clients appointed to
key posts in Russia in exchange for assets in Spain. Aulov,
they said, was used to intimidate potential threats to Petrov’s group.
The accused have dismissed the claims. Aulov branded
them “political.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the
allegations against Putin were “beyond the realm of reason.”
But the investigation’s chief prosecutor, Jose Grinda, was
convinced he had uncovered the true nature of Russian
crime syndicates. According to a U.S. diplomatic cable leaked
to WikiLeaks, Grinda told U.S. officials in 2010 that Russian
criminal groups operated “hand-in-hand” with the state,
whose tactic was to use “organized crime groups to do whatever the government of Russia cannot acceptably do.” These
tasks included running guns to clients such as Kurdish militia, he said. In return, the Russian state gives criminal
groups support and protection.
23
11
later filmed by Britain’s Channel 4 television boasting he
could provide access to “every British ambassador in the
world” and offering to use his political connections on behalf of a fake Chinese company for £5,000 a day.
“No one wants to kill the golden goose,” says Browder.
That is a key reason for lackluster policing. Another is
that much of the money looks superficially clean. It has
been smuggled through multiple countries and often
comes with the stamp of a clever corporate lawyer. Western law enforcement isn’t set up to deal with this, says
Grant. “It’s looking for the smoking gun” — something
Russian fraudsters are too clever to provide.
Crackdown
Attitudes may now be changing. Following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and support for Ukrainian separatists,
many Western capitals now see Russia as a security threat.
More people are worried at the effect of Russian money on
Western politics.
Grant warns that the penetration of organized crime in
the Baltic countries could be catastrophic in a potential national security crisis provoked by Russia. He says Russians
connected to state-sanctioned organized crime form a massive quasi-intelligence agency for Russia. They are “political
trojan horses,” he says. By spreading their money, they can
“undermine morale, compromise officials and weaken Western resolve.”
Scandals around the Spanish investigation into Petrov
and the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006
have also shifted public opinion. An enquiry
in Litvinenko’s death published this year said
Spanish
the former Russian spy had given evidence
prosecutors
to Spanish prosecutors investigating Russian
say Vladislav
organized crime. Shortly afterward, he was
Reznik, a sefed radioactive polonium in an apparently
nior member
state-sanctioned murder. Outrage over the
of the Russian
Panama Papers leaks this year is also forcing
Duma, helped
governments to consider tighter measures
Gennady
against offshore companies and financial
Petrov apcrime.
point allies
Shifting attitudes to Russia could help into senior
vestigators access extra resources, says Galepositions in
the Russian
otti. More significantly, it means that Westbureaucracy
ern security services are now refocusing on
in return
Russia. These play a major role in monitoring
for assets in
and action on organized crime.
Spain.
Few think that a full fledged attack on
Russian money is feasible. More likely is
“a partial and creeping lockdown,” says
Browder. As in Spain and Portugal, individual
prosecutors in different countries will investigate and seize
Russian property, he says. “The more they do, the more empowered some of the timid ones will get, and this will become
a much more wide ranging problem for the Putin regime.”
Effect
The process will be difficult and slow, says Grant. Russian
organized crime networks have had time to deeply embed.
Meanwhile, Moscow does not extradite its citizens. And its
law enforcement agencies often refuse to aid foreign investigations. Petrov, now 68 and living in St. Petersburg, is unlikely to ever again appear before a Spanish court.
That doesn’t mean there are no consequences. Spain has
seized property worth tens of millions of euros. Those on
Spain’s arrest warrant cannot travel to Spain or any country
with which Spain has an extradition treaty.
“What this does is bit by bit begins to lock down the outside world to this criminal elite,” says Galeotti. This sort of
action goes to the heart of the Putin regime. “This elite regarded globalization as a buffet — that they can enjoy all the
opportunities of being Europeans while at the same time
maintaining their capacity to steal with impunity back
within Russia,” he says. “Now they are finding that this is
becoming harder and harder.”
When Spanish police raided his properties in 2008, Petrov
was living in a 20-million-euro villa in Calvia, a village on
the Mediterranean island of Majorca. He had a painting by
Salvador Dalí on the wall. Among his neighbors was the sister of King Juan Carlos.
A crackdown on criminal groups also raises questions.
The omnipresence of crime in Russia means it is often difficult to differentiate between legitimate and illegitimate
business. Meanwhile, the entanglement of crime and state
also means that every clampdown on a “businessman” or
their cash is an attack on the foundations of Russia’s political system, which risks provoking Moscow.
However, the drip feed of actions against Russian organized crime continues. In early May, the European Central
Bank said it would phase out 500-euro bills, a favorite of
gangsters. A week after the Portuguese raids and Spanish arrest warrants, police in London said they had seized $22 million and arrested two men suspected of laundering money
for a Russian gang.
To be truly effective, however, action has to be coordinated, with tighter regulation and information shared across
jurisdictions. If not, it will amount to “squeezing the balloon,” says Galeotti — where pressure in Spain and Portugal
merely moves the money to France and Greece. Despite encouraging signs, such continent wide measures seem a long
way off. TMT
12
Living Here
The Moscow Times
No. 5754
35
People are still being charged in connection
with the Bolotnoye protest. The last person
to be detained was Maxim Panfilov in
April. He has been charged with snatching a
helmet off a policeman’s head four years ago.
have been charged to date as
part of the “Bolotnoye case.”
49%
“He has a more hopeless view on [the
situation in Russia] — Life in Russia
is a prison.” Tatyana Barabanova,
mother of Andrei Barabanov.
of votes were won in 2011
by the United Russia Party,
accused of vote-rigging.
Life After Bolotnaya
By Eva Hartog e.hartog@imedia.ru | Twitter: @EvaHartog
Ilya Gushchin
National Democratic Party member, Psychology
student, Sports analyst at Moskva football club
Detained Feb. 7, 2013. Released Aug. 5, 2015. Sentenced
to 2 1/2 years in prison for participating in mass riots and
employing force against law enforcement by lifting up
an OMON officer by the vest and helmet.
“This has meant something for our generation.”
T
Vladimir Akimenkov
Left Front activist
Andrei Barabanov
Math graduate
Detained on June 10, 2012. Released on a Kremlin amnesty
on Dec. 19, 2013. Spent 557 days in detention on charges of
participating in mass riots.
“The others forbade me from rejecting the amnesty. But
the fact that it was a partial amnesty, that they made innocent people feel guilty, is harsh.”
Detained on May 28, 2012. Released Dec. 25, 2015. Sentenced to three years and seven months in prison for
participating in mass riots and employing force against
law enforcement by kicking and punching police.
“The clashes that day were provoked and pre-planned by
the authorities.”
sentences, often for vaguely defined crimes. The string of
35 cases (to date) has collectively become known as the Bolotnoye case.
By now, most of the Bolotnoye defendants have served
their terms. But there can be no return to normal, three
of the Bolotniki, as they call themselves, told The Moscow
Times.
“There is life before May 6, before my head-on encounter with the system. And life after,” says Barabanov, 25,
speaking on the fourth anniversary of the Bolotnaya protest. “They’re completely different.”
Not everyone had the benefit of such foresight. Nine
months after Bolotnaya, police showed up at Ilya Gushchin’s door in the early hours of the morning. They asked
him to come to the Investigative Committee’s office as a
witness. He would be back by nightfall, investigators said.
But once Gushchin had confirmed his identity in footage
of the clashes, he became a suspect. He never did return
home that night.
Knock Knock
Barabanov and two other protesters were among the “first
wave,” detained shortly after the Bolotnaya rally. Vladimir
Akimenkov was detained a month later. As a member of
the far-left organization Left Front, he had been actively
involved in protests. He had also been detained by police
before. So he wasn’t surprised when they showed up at his
home. “Any person engaged in politics in an authoritarian
country should be prepared to go to prison,” he says stoically, sitting in a Moscow cafe. “When they came for me, I
was ready.”
BOLOTNOEDELO.INFO
he lights went out without so much as a flicker in
the Moscow apartment shared by Andrei Barabanov,
his mother and girlfriend one evening in late May
four years ago. Thinking the fuse box must have blown,
Barabanov’s mother Tatyana unlocked the front door to
step out into the corridor.
At that point, a team of eight officers of Russia’s OMON
riot police and a heavyset investigator stormed into their
home. “It was like a scene from the movies,” says Tatyana.
“As if they were arresting a high-profile criminal.”
Andrei Barabanov was dragged out of the apartment
barefoot, then thrown into the back of a police van. An
OMON officer’s foot pressed his head down onto the floor.
He remembers thinking to himself: “Andrei, you won’t see
your home for another four years.” His calculation wasn’t
far off: It would be three years and seven months before he
would return to his own bed.
His crime had been to participate in a protest rally several weeks earlier on central Moscow’s Bolotnaya Ploshchad. The rally was the culmination of an anti-Kremlin
protest movement that had gained momentum in late 2011
following disputed parliamentary elections. It spilled over
into 2012, when Vladimir Putin secured a third term as
president.
Sunday May 6 was the day before Putin’s inauguration.
Tens of thousands of mostly middle-class protesters joined
the “March of Millions” toward Bolotnaya square, across
the river from the Kremlin. When they arrived, they were
met by a phalanx of riot police, blocking further passage.
The crowd that built up had nowhere to go but forward,
toward the officers. Violent clashes followed, with rocks
and other objects being hurled at police. The officers responded with unprecedented force, using tear gas, tasers
and lashing out with batons.
Hundreds of protesters were detained and shortly afterward released. It looked briefly as if that was the end of the
story, but Russian authorities returned with a vengeance.
Some of the Bolotnaya protesters were re-detained and
charged with participating in mass riots and using force
against law enforcement. Many received year-long prison
YEVGENY BIYATOV / RIA NOVOSTI
ALBINA SHAIMURATOVA
SERGEI KARPUKHIN / REUTERS
Four years after mass anti-Kremlin movement, convicted protesters reflect on the event.
State Revenge
Gushchin does not deny he used force against an OMON
officer that Sunday. “He was beating a person who was lying on the ground, and I pulled him up by his vest and his
helmet,” says Gushchin, who looks like a stockier, Russian
version of James Dean. He says he was acting on instinct.
Like other Bolotnoye suspects, however, Gushchin says the
charges against him were deliberately exaggerated. The
OMON officer claimed he suffered neck damage as a result
of Gushchin’s actions. Gushchin is skeptical.
Barabanov received his more than three-year sentence
for hitting and kicking officers, actions that appear to be
confirmed by video footage. Other accusations against him
included “insulting the government” and biting an OMON
officer in his bulletproof vest when he was
detained.
Vladimir AkiBut Akimenkov, who marched in a suit
menkov being
jacket and tie, says his case was entirely fabdetained by
ricated. He reportedly hurled a flag pole,
police on
hitting an OMON guard in the chest. AkiMay 6, 2012. “I
menkov, who is visually impaired, says he is
was horri“not exactly an athlete” and nowhere near
fied that they
physically strong enough for such a feat. He
were beating
thinks his prior political activism made him
people up. I
a target for prosecutors.
wanted to tell
In general, the defendants feel the court
them to stop
proceedings against them were more fiction
using force.
But as soon
than truth. None of the law enforcement ofas I walked
ficers on duty that day were investigated for
over, they
poor crowd management or using excessive
grabbed me.”
force against unarmed civilians.
“An injured riot police officer should
be avenged by smashing protesters’
livers on the asphalt,” Dmitry Peskov
was cited as saying by an opposition
parliamentarian.
13
May 12 – 18, 2016
4 1/2 years
Prison sentence given
to Bolotnoye organizers
Udaltsov and Razvozzhayev.
“There were serious individual clashes and violations — by
citizens who threw asphalt and by law enforcement who
did not give people enough time to get out of the situation.”
Vladimir Lukin, then-human rights ombudsman.
The word’s worTh
For some Bolotnoye defendants, the authorities’ clear bias
makes it easier to accept what followed. “I never took it personally,” says Gushchin. “I always understood that they took
a random sample, and I happened to be included in it.” But
for Barabanov, the seemingly arbitrary nature of the case is
also cause for torment. “I could’ve not gone to the protest. I
could’ve left earlier. I could’ve not been detained that day,”
he says. He’s been over the probabilities “hundreds of times”
in his head.
Locked Up
By the time Gushchin received his 2 1/2-year sentence, he
had already spent almost two years in a detention center
and had only eight months left to serve. At that moment,
the verdict felt like a windfall. “We celebrated in court,”
says his mother Olga.
Gushchin, who has now been out of jail for nine
months, can see the humor in his time behind bars. He
points to the “culture shock” of being locked in a 9-squaremeter cell with two other inmates with completely different backgrounds and tastes. The detention centers and
prisons were filled with mostly drug dealers, thieves and people jailed on embezzleThe Bolotment charges — not his usual crowd.
noye protest
Stuck in the tiny cell for 23 hours a day,
followed
his companions would scour their horodisputed
scopes in magazines, looking for predicparliamentions of what the future might bring.
tary elections
“New acquaintances, new loves,” Gushchin
that saw the
laughs. He describes as “a nightmare” their
ruling United
love for cheap entertainment programs.
Russia secure
“The television was always blaring,” he
a narrow
says. He later convinced them to switch to
parliamentary
the culture channel.
majority and
Putin return
But behind the anecdotes, the Bolotniki
to the presialso describe a sense of claustrophobia and
dency.
societal alienation. “Russian jail is a postgulag system,” says Barabanov, his speech
soft and thoughtful. “The entire purpose is
to subjugate a person,” he says.
Letters written by relatives and strangers, illegally smuggled music and books provided lifelines
and some refuge from their spartan surroundings.
And Now?
Barabanov was released from jail in December 2015. A little
over a month after his release, he started working at Rus
Sidyashchaya (Russia behind bars), a charity group for prisoners. He has returned to his mother’s apartment. And
yet sitting in the small office, cluttered with books and
packages ready to be sent off, he looks on his guard. He is
sure his phone and online communication is still being
watched by the authorities.
“They say you need to spend one month in freedom for
every year spent in prison,” he says. “But I feel that you
need at least six months.” He takes the days as they come.
Planning ahead is still difficult, he says.
Speaking to The Moscow Times, Barabanov’s mother
Tatyana said the years spent in prison had aged her son
beyond his years. Aside from his interest in politics, at the
time of his arrest Barabanov had also been a normal young
man who loved airbrush painting and snowboarding. That
lightness is now gone, she says. “I don’t see him taking any
real pleasure in life, even though he’s very
young,” she says.
Gushchin, who also works for Rus Sidyashchaya, says his life is now about the
small things. Following his release, he met
a girl and fell in love. He’s looking for a new
apartment. But some traces remain. Jail
has made him more aggressive, he says.
“Prisoners’ favorite pastime is to chew each
other up,” he says. “You’re always anticipating the worst outcome. I try to tell myself:
You’re now in a normal world, everything
is okay.”
Akimenkov, who was released early on
a Kremlin amnesty, appears to have come
through his trial empowered. He now runs
a one-man operation coordinating help
and raising funds for about 40 prisoners
behind bars on politically motivated charges. “An icy calm has come over me that
even scares the cops away,” he says. He demonstrates his
intimidating glare.
As well as new work, Bolotnaya has brought the group
new friends. Barabanov, Gushchin and Akimenkov form
part of a close-knit Bolotniki group. Despite their different
political views, they now share a common history that has
outlasted their prison terms.
Bug Off! The
Russian Way
Клеиться: to hit on someone
By Michele A. Berdy
Moscow-based translator and
interpreter, author of
“The Russian Word’s Worth” (Glas),
a collection of her columns.
A
No Ideas
Four years after Bolotnaya, the era of prosperity under Putin has come to a standstill. More people have fallen below
the poverty line. Some predict economic hardships could
breathe new life into the protest movement.
But on May 6 this year, Bolotnaya Ploshchad looks
largely empty. Only several dozen activists have shown up
for a rally on the four-year anniversary. All three Bolotniki
say they were struck by the change in atmosphere in Russian society upon their release from prison.
“There is a total lack of new, inspired ideas,” says Gushchin. “If people are going to take to the streets, it will have
to be for something. Not just against the current regime.”
Alexei KUdenKo / RiA novosTi
AlBinA shAiMURATovA
Ilya Gushchin
at the Rus
Sidyashchaya
office where
he and Barabanov now
work. “In 20112012, there
was a shared
idea and the
illusion that
you could
protest safely.
Now, there’s
a sense of
danger.”
Their own experience has dampened any hopes of
peaceful protest leading to reform. In fact, Akimenkov’s
anarchist views have been strengthened by the Bolotnoye
experience and what he sees as the opposition’s readiness
to put their egos first, and true reform second. He predicts
a violent revolution sometime in the future. “It will be a
bloody porridge,” he says.
Meanwhile, the Russian authorities are not relaxing
their grip. When a girl holds up a handmade cardboard
sign reading: “The Bolotnoye case is a state crime,” on the
square on May 6 this year, she is bundled into a police van
by a team of six OMON officers. In total, eight people are
detained on the evening of the anniversary for holding
an unsanctioned protest, according to the Interfax news
agency.
Barabanov decided against attending the anniversary
this year. He was sure he would be detained. What about
if another mass protest movement arose in the future.
Would he go then?
“I don’t know,” he laughs nervously. “Only if I knew the
outcome beforehand. I don’t have another three years and
seven months to spare.” TMT
s one of those people who responds to хамство (obnoxious behavior, rudeness) with either astonished
silence or lame rejoinders like Как вы смеете?! (How
dare you?), I’m always very impressed with people who
have a clever comeback.
For example, when a young man butts to the head of
the line in a bank or store, one of my friends asks: Молодой человек! Объясните, пожалуйста, чем вы лучше
нас! (Young man! Why don’t you tell us how you’re better
than the rest of us?)
Another acquaintance standing in a long line once
managed to shut up a cranky older person who kept complaining about everyone and everything, clearly looking to
pick a fight. In a moment of silence, my friend said: Жаль,
что коммуналок больше нет. Не с кем ругаться! (Too bad
there aren’t any more communal apartments. There’s no
one to fight with.) Everyone laughed, and that, of course,
silenced the serial complainer.
A sub-set of this problem is how to respond to the person in the bar or in the park who keeps hitting on you. In
Russian this is usually described by the verb приставать.
Sometimes this just means to pester someone: Шеф пристаёт с вопросами об отчёте. (My boss keeps bugging me
about the report.) But usually it’s clear what kind of pestering is meant: Шеф ко мне постоянно пристаёт (My boss
keeps hitting on me.)
If the person just won’t leave you alone, you can use the
verb клеиться (to glue together), which in slang describes
someone who sticks to you like white on rice. This can apply to men or women: Что делать? К мужу клеится девушка с работы (What should I do? A woman from work
won’t leave my husband alone.)
Or you can use another slang term: кадрить (to put the
moves on someone). This also can refer to men or women:
Она давно кадрит меня (She’s been putting the moves on
me for a long time.) Кадрить sometimes, but not always,
implies success: Сегодня я расскажу вам, как правильно кадрить девчонок (Today I’ll tell you how to score with
the ladies.)
So regardless of your gender or orientation, you might find
yourself being hit on and not know how to get rid of the unwanted attention. In Russian, this is отшить (to give someone
the brush-off, to tell someone where to get off). If you get the
relatively polite pick-up line: Можно с вами познакомиться?
(Let me introduce myself), you can reply equally politely: Я не
хочу знакомиться (I don’t want to get to know you.) If that
doesn’t work, you can explain why: Я замужем (I’m married.)
Я спешу (I’m in a rush.) Я болею (I’m sick.) Here the illness remains undefined and therefore ominous.
If the person just doesn’t get the message and starts
grabbing, Russian advice columns suggest trying to keep
things as calm as possible. Say: Извините, меня нельзя
трогать (Sorry — but don’t touch me.)
But if that doesn’t work, you can try a great put-down.
These are best to try when you are surrounded by friends
who will protect you or when you are sure you can run
faster than the pest who won’t leave you alone. My favorite is for the guy who sidles up and asks: Девушка, скучаете? (Hey, are you bored?) Response: Не настолько (Not that
bored!)
Ouch. TMT
YevGenY PARfYonov
Living Here
14
Tips for Life
culture
What’s the deal with
tipping?
TMT: Tipping abroad can be a bit of a minefield. The process is often confusing, awkward
and uncomfortable — even when you know
the rules by which you’re playing. Add to that
Russian currency, different service standards,
complicated math problems after a long night
of beers with friends and even a tipping professional can be a little flummoxed.
To be clear, yes, in Russia there is now a tipping culture, and if you round up your bill after receiving a service of some kind and leave
without the change you won’t be seen as offering a bribe. Unless it’s to a government worker
of course.
In restaurants, gratuity is rarely added automatically to the bill — it is, after all, a point of
personal preference. Note that you are usually
unable to add the tip manually when you pay
by card, so bring cash. A standard tip at a restaurant is between 10-15 percent, while for coffee and cake or other small amounts feel free to
simply round up the check.
With taxis, due to the plethora of apps that
connect directly to your bank account or PayPal,
tipping culture has somewhat diminished. But
if you do book a cab, are paying in cash and feel
like you’ve had good service, 10 percent will be
appreciated. Also note that when paying that
cab drivers rarely want your change. They’ll
either round the amount down or up to the
nearest 50 or 100. Other services like haircuts,
manicures, massages and concierge should also
receive a tip.
And last but not least — while tipping may
seem an obligation masquerading as a choice,
you should never tip if you don’t want to, and
there is no legal requirement either.
rePAIrS
Where can I find a
handyman?
TMT: To be politically correct, it’s a handyperson you’re after. We’ve all experienced the frustration and ensuing panic that comes when
guests are on the brink of arrival and all the
bathroom lights simultaneously blow, the
kitchen sink springs a leak or your front door
decides it no longer wants to shut. If you’re really unlucky, all three of these things might happen at once.
For those who lack the time, knowledge or
inclination to handle these domestic tribulations, help is at hand. “Muzh na chas” (Husband
The Moscow Times
No. 5754
Advice, answers and
lifehacks to help you
enjoy Moscow.
for an hour) may sound like an escort agency for
desperate singles, but don’t be fooled. It’s a Moscow-based handyman agency that specializes
in quick, convenient handyman repairs. While
admittedly rather sexist from a branding perspective, the company can supply you with people willing to fix your toilet, put together that
flat-pack from IKEA and lend a hand with the
myriad of other odd jobs that require technical
expertise — for a small price.
How does it work? An online form allows
you to request a handyman any time between 7
a.m. and 12 p.m., including at the weekend. One
hour of assistance costs 990 rubles, with subsequent hours charged the same rate. If you have
a very specific problem or require someone with
particular technical expertise, you can hire a
“master” for a set price. You can confirm prices
beforehand by calling an operator.
For more information see muzhna-chas.ru
Fun StuFF
How do I book a private
banya?
TMT: One of Russian life’s greatest joys has
to be the banya. An oasis of tranquility, indulgence and relaxation in an otherwise — let’s
face it — stressful city like Moscow, there’s
nothing like a good steam and soak in an traditional bathhouse to ease that hangover or cure
those aches and pains. While purists would argue that you need to head to one of the city’s
public bathhouses like Sanduny to benefit from
the full banya experience, getting naked in
front of complete strangers isn’t everyone’s cup
of tea.
If so, head to sauna.ru. The handy encyclopedic website allows you to search for a banya
according to criteria like price, location and capacity. You can see photos of the interior, a map
location and both a phone number and online
booking form to reserve your venue of choice.
It’s worth noting that the price displayed per
hour is for rental of the entire banya, not the
price per individual. 2,000 rubles an hour might
seem a lot, but split between 15 you’re looking
at a bargain. Prices are cheaper in the daytime
and on weekdays and it’s worth looking into
additional costs if you bring your own food and
drinks with you.
Frankly, even if you’re not in the market for
a private steam session, the website is a lot of
fun to browse. With many extravagant banyas
boasting banqueting tables, slightly seedy looking “relaxation rooms” and pool tables as standard, hunting for your banya is half the fun. All
you need to do is remember to request a stylish
felt hat to protect your hair and the veniki (birch
branches) with which to beat your poor tired
body. Better yet, ask your friend to do it. After
all, banya bonding is the best type of bonding.
For more information see sauna.ru
Classifieds
May 12 – 18, 2016
Advertising. To place an ad, please contact Yulia Bychenkova
Tel.: +7 (495) 232 4774 bychenkova@imedia.ru
15
What’s On
STage eNTeRTaINMeNT
16
Last Chance to Catch Singing in the Rain
By Ruth Moore artsreporter@imedia.ru
A chorus donning black tuxedos and bowler
hats twirl multicolored umbrellas as rain
pours down on them from the stage rafters.
Shrieks of delight from spectators in the
front rows — caught by the deluge — mingle
with exuberant applause. It seems that
“Singing in the Rain” has made a splash in
more ways than one on the Moscow stage.
When the curtain falls at the Rossiya Theater
in Pushkin Square on May 28, “Singing in
the Rain” will have been performed more
than 300 times to the delight of thousands
of musical-loving Muscovites. “We can now
confidently say that “Singing in the Rain”
has been a complete breakthrough produc-
tion,” said Dmitry Bogachyov, head of the
Stage Entertainment theater company, in a
written statement to The Moscow Times.
Based on the 1952 musical comedy of the
same name, “Singing in the Rain” satirizes
and parodies the panic of Hollywood actors
and filmmakers when the “talkies” arrive
and a new era of cinema dawns. Much of the
musical’s hilarity comes from the glamorous but vocally challenged screen diva Lina
Lamont (played by Anastasia Stotskaya) who
believes herself to be in a romantic relationship with her on-screen partner Don Lockwood (Stanislav Chunikhin). Lina’s shrill and
squawky voice means her attempts at sound
The Moscow Times
No. 5754
See www.themoscowtimes.com
for more listings.
recording fall flat, until Kathy Selden (Yulia
Iva) dubs her own rich, beautiful voice over
the top. Add to the setup a classic romance,
some slapstick, an infectiously upbeat score
and, of course, some umbrellas, and you’ve
got yourself an all singing, all dancing, all
raining hit.
The success of the show rides on its sheer
vitality. Three hours fly by in a whirl of
sequins, high-kicks and 1920s glamor. The
eponymous song “Singing in the Rain,” performed just before the break to allow stage
hands to mop away the swimming pool on
the floor, is an obvious highlight. It’s a physically grueling routine — imagine vigorously
tap dancing in a sodden three-piece suit. But
Chunikhin pulls it off with nonchalant ease,
capturing a hint of the Gene Kelly charisma
that dazzled audiences in the original film.
The Rossiya Theater’s performers have done
an admirable job emanating the fleet feet
of their overseas counterparts. Particularly
when you consider that much of the show’s
choreography was completely unfamiliar
to them. “During casting it became apparent that almost no Russian performers were
trained in tap dance. But that did not stop us,
it strengthened our resolve. The performers
took no mercy on themselves and mastered
the material through hours of grueling training sessions and rehearsals,” said Bogachyov.
While the finesse isn’t quite of Broadway
standards, you’d have to be a cold, hard
miser for “Singing in the Rain” to not leave
you skipping out of the theater onto Pushkin Square with a spring in your step and a
happy refrain in your heart. Some advice —
remember to ask for a rain poncho if you’re
planning to sit in the front row. TMT
Rossiya Theater
rain-musical.ru
2 Pushkin Square
Metro Tverskaya, Pushkinskaya, Chekhovskaya
Through May 28
May 12 – 18
THEATER
Remote Moscow
Wear a special headset and embark on an
interactive theater quest through the streets
of Moscow
remote-moscow.ru
May 14 through May 31
CONCERT
Denis Matsuyev
Acclaimed Russian classical pianist Matsuyev
performs Beethoven, Ravel and Rachmaninov
Conservatory Great Hall
meloman.ru
13 Bolshaya Nikitskaya Ulitsa
Metro Pushkinskaya, Biblioteka Imeni Lenina
May 18 at 7 p.m.
NATURE
Spring Festival of Flowers
See Moscow come into bloom this spring in
the tranquil gardens of Moscow University
Aptekarsky Ogorod at
the Moscow University Botanic Garden
Through May 29
CONCERT
Postmodern Jukebox
A live band performs songs from artists like
Beyonce, Snoop Dogg and Madonna in a
1930’s Jazz style
Yota Space
glavclub.com/msk
11 Ulitsa Ordzhonikidze.
Metro Leninsky Prospekt
May 14 at 8 p.m.
EXHIBITION The Congo River.
Central African Art
New exhibition of African Art from the
Musee du Quai Branly collection in Paris
Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts
newpaintart.ru
14 Ulitsa Volkhonka.
Metro Kropotkinskaya
May 17 through Sept. 4