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RUSSIA INDIA REPORT
07
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THE ECONOMIC TIMES WEDNESDAY_JULY 08_2009 Opinion
RUSSIAN HOLIDAY: EXCERPTS
Found in translation
When are you a ‘liberal’ and
FROM AN INDIAN'S TRAVEL DIARY
when are you not...
SOME POLITICAL TERMS MEAN MORE OR LESS THE SAME TO A RUS-
SIAN, AN INDIAN AND AN AMERICAN; OTHERS HAVE DIVERGED SO MUCH
DRAWING BY DMITRY DIVIN THAT USING THEM MAY REQUIRE PRIOR AGREEMENT ABOUT THEIR
MEANING. ONE OF THE LATTER IS “LIBERAL”.
AANCHAL ANAND
RIR
“I think I will leave this behind. I already ten liberalism’.
have one and it’s almost June,” I said to So, the word was a bad one in
Anya as I struggled to stuff the second the eyes of Soviet-era ideo-
sweater in my already over-fl owing back- logues. Ironically, today it
pack. sounds equally bad for quite
“No!!!” she protested. “It will probably a few Americans. They be-
be cold especially on the train.” I eventu- lieve that liberalism is next
ally obliged. door to socialism. As a Rus-
“You took an umbrella, right?” Even be- sian commentator has re-
fore I could answer, the look on my face cently written, the fault lies
betrayed my mistake. with the left-wingers who
“You’re going all over Russia without an revised the ideas of ‘genuine
umbrella?” Anya asked. liberalism’ in the 1960s. Less
“Well, I have no space in my backpack judgmentally, William Sa-
now. And I’m used to heavy monsoon fi re said something similar:
downpours,” I smiled, somewhat uncon- “A liberal is currently one
vinced myself. DRAWING BY DMITRY DIVIN who believes in more gov-
I rushed to say my goodbyes to her and ernment action to meet in-
her family, but instead found myself
PAVEL PALAZCHENKO
dividual needs; originally
talked into sitting down with my feet
RUSSIAN TRANSLATION COMPANY
one who resisted government
slightly lifted off the ground. Anya ex- encroachment on individual
plained that this Russian tradition is fol- When the meaning of a word liberties.”
lowed to ensure that the person leaving becomes entwined in a coun- Which brings us to the orig-
has a safe and successful journey. try’s political and intellectu- inal, ‘good liberalism’. Based
I was about 45 minutes away from Saint- al traditions, translators bet- on the European interpre-
Petersburg’s Moskovskii Vokzal at Plo- ter beware. Whereas some tation of the concept, it em-
schad Vosstaniya from where my train to political terms mean more or phasises human rights and
Nizhnii Novgorod was to leave in just less the same to people from fundamental liberties as
under an hour. different countries, oth- well as rejection of exces-
Nizhnii wasn’t my fi nal destination; it ers have diverged so much sive government interven-
was, in fact, the fi rst stepping stone on my that using them may require tion in the economy and the
10,000 kms long journey to Vladivostok mained wild and poorly-populated land- but about 80kms from Perm is located the on its own would never have attracted so prior agreement about their insistence on free enterprise.
in the far-east of Russia on the Trans-Si- masses, it is also true that without the ominous and only surviving piece of the many tourists (especially foreigners) had meaning. The word ‘conser- In the United States, the lat-
berian Railway (TSR). My tightly-packed TSR, Russia may have lost these well-en- Gulag* Archipelago, Perm-36, which is it not been so conveniently located with vative’ is an example of the ter is part of the conserva-
itinerary would have made it extremely dowed regions to Japan, China or the now a Museum to the victims of Commu- respect to Baikal. Baikal, on the other former; ‘liberal’, of the latter. tive creed, which adds to the
difficult, for me, to get back on track in British through the Indian subcontinent. nist terror. (*Gulags were Soviet forced hand, is just an inspiration and when asked It is of course, true that con- confusion. Most Americans
time. Moreover, this wasn’t Switzerland Thus, if the TSR gave life to Siberia and labour-camps). whether or not it lives up to the hype, it servatives from different would not understand a call
or the Euro-Rail, where if I missed a train the Far-East, it gave an important life- Next on the itinerary was Yekaterinburg. surely does! countries may disagree on ‘liberalizatsiya ekonomiki.’ I
some "Raj" would magically show up and line to Russia as well. Recently in news as the host-city of the Last and fi nal stop – Vladivostok! But be- some issues. Indeed, some- always translate it as ‘dereg-
we’d drive around in a red-convertible The traditional Trans-Siberian route latest BRIC summit in June 2009, it is the tween Irkutsk and Vladivostok, one has to times they may not even un- ulation of the economy'.
cooing, “Ho gaya hai tujhko to pyaar runs 9,288 kms between Moscow and undisputed capital of the Urals and a city brave 73.5 hours on the train i.e. just under derstand the issues that ob- A footnote is sometimes nec-
sajna…” This was Russia and the Ros- Vladivostok, which even if you don’t one should visit even if not on the TSR. half the time taken to complete the entire sess their colleagues in other essary to explain what the
siskaya Zhelezhnaya Doroga (Russian make any stops takes almost a week to This was where Tsar Nicholas II was as- Moscow-Vladivostok leg! If I was going to parts of the world. I think author means when he or she
Railways) and things can get rough complete! The two other sister lines are sassinated with his family in July 1918. lose my sanity anywhere, it was going to be that conservatives in most says, for example, that ‘Rus-
here. the Trans-Mongolian and Trans-Man- The Romanovs are now Martyr-saints here! European countries would sian liberal economists failed
Trains in Russia are almost always fully churian lines, which break off from the and there is a Church of the Saviour at “What can someone do on a train for 3 never question gun control, during the 1990s’. However,
booked and the chances of successfully mainline at Ulan-Ude and Chita to head the site of Ipatiev House, where the Bol- days?” That was the question I asked myself whereas for an American, unlike translators, who can
getting a seat on the next train, especial- to Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) and Beijing sheviks executed their unsuspecting vic- when the metro arrived at Ploschad Vossta- the second amendment to afford an asterisk or two, in-
ly, for a long distance journey are next to (China) respectively. tims.Y ekaterinburg’s bloody history may niya and I ran out to Moskovskii Vokzal. the Constitution – the right terpreters have too little time
nil. Even if such a seat exists, it would not The route I had chalked out for myself have piqued my interest but I was very With about 20 minutes to spare, I managed to bear arms – is sacrosanct. to explain such things. It gets
be in the cheapest class, 'plastkartni', was going to be slightly different. I was happy to discover that the city has a lot to but some food and water for the journey And yet, the defi nition of a even worse when the conver-
which in-turn would lead to a two-fold going to start from Saint-Petersburg and more going for itself! and rushed to Platform 5, where Train conservative given by Ox- sation turns to the so-called
problem. Firstly, the next higher class, head straight to Nizhnii Novgorod, where After Yekaterinburg, my next main stop 059AA gruntled and counted-down to de- ford American Dictionary Liberal Democratic Party of
'kupe', is about twice as expensive and I would join the main-line and continue was going to be Krasnoyarsk in Siberia parture. The ticket-checker matched my (‘someone who dislikes or Vladimir Zhirinovsky, which
secondly, as a woman travelling alone, it’s on the traditional route to Vladivostok; but to avoid a 2 day journey to Krasno- passport number and name to that on my is opposed to great or sud- many believe is neither lib-
much safer and smarter to get a plas- this would total up to 9,967 kms, going yarsk; I decided to break it into two one- ticket and welcomed me aboard. Still short den change’) is something we eral nor democratic. With no
tkartni seat in a sleeper-wagon carrying from being next to Finland to being next day rides by making a short stop at Omsk. of breath, I found my seat and was very would all agree with. It rings time for a political or histor-
54 passengers rather than in a nicer com- to Japan! My motives of stopping at Omsk, proba- happy to see that I would be travelling with a bell, as they say. ical analysis, an experienced
partment with 3 potentially very ques- Just like you can’t know what India is all bly won’t sell it to potential tourists but I a woman and two men in my little plas- Not so with ‘liberal’, it means interpreter would sometimes
tionable characters! The only way to re- about by seeing only Delhi and Mumbai, have to say that this was the city that sur- tkartni ‘open’ compartment. different things in Europe simply give the acronym for
cover would be to take a fl ight (because you can’t taste Russia in Moscow and Pe- prised me the most! “Zdravstvuitye!” I greeted them, breaking and in America, in politics the party’s name – LDPR
those within Russia aren’t always full!) tersburg alone! Therefore, the TSR was Krasnoyarsk, even the locals say, lacks the fi rst rule my friends had set for me – and economics, and in dif- – thus avoiding saying too
but then one must pay an astronomical my gateway to the largest country in the the dynamism of the more traditional “Don’t talk to strangers!” ferent languages. much.
amount and strike certain cities off the world and I was going to stop at 7 cities stop, Novosibirsk, the capital of Siberia. As a woman travelling alone all across In the Soviet Union, the ad- The battle for the soul of lib-
itinerary. over the next 19 days to get a better idea But I picked it over the latter because a Russia, I had every adjective from crazy to jective ‘liberalny’ was cer- eralism is likely to continue
On the metro to Ploschad Vosstaniya, the of what she was all about (Plus, I have friend, who had been to Novosibirsk, said brave thrown at me in the previous few tainly not a word of praise. challenging translators and
enormity of my decision of doing the very little faith in my ability to just sit in there wasn’t much to see there. Krasno- weeks. But I didn’t think of myself as crazy Just look at the defi nition of interpreters to come up with
Trans-Siberian trip had started to sink a train for 7 days and retain my sanity!). yarsk, on the other-hand boasts of an at- or brave. I had already travelled on long- liberalism given in the 1985 creative solutions wherever
in. A few years ago, a friend had men- But how does one pick cities on the Trans- tractive setting on the Yenisei River and distance trains (though not alone) to Vol- edition of the authoritative political, linguistic or cul-
tioned that it’s the longest railroad in the Siberian route? I would say that would be is skirted by forested foothills. Krasno- gograd and Murmansk so I knew exactly dictionary of the Russian tural confusion makes un-
world that covers about 1/4th of the a matter of chance and taste. I decided on yarsk’s biggest attraction is the Stolby how to survive on trains. And Russians are language by S.I.Ozhegov: derstanding difficult. Is ‘lais-
Earth’s circumference. The TSR, con- Nizhnii as my fi rst stop because a friend Nature Reserve, home to giant volcanic extremely friendly and caring, and pre- 1.bourgeois ideological and sez-faire economics’ a good
structed between 1891 and 1913 under had been there and loved the city. Nizhnii rock pillars, located around 20 kilome- cisely such people would become my fam- political tendency whose fol- equivalent for ‘liberalnaya
the orders of Tsar Alexander III and then is on the banks of River Volga and is tres south of the city centre. ily over the next 19 days!
-
lowers include advocates of ekonomika”? I’ve been crit-
Tsar Nicholas II, was Imperial Russia’s adorned by a magnifi cent Kremlin! Next stop was Irkutsk, the nearest big a parliamentary system and icised for this but I still think
attempt to link the rich but neglected My next stop was to be Perm, a city that city to Lake Baikal. Baikal - the pearl of Read this section for more travel tales limited bourgeois-demo- it’s something an educated
lands of Siberia and Far-East to Western in the words of Lonely Planet’s Trans-Si- Siberia; the deepest lake in the world; an cratic freedoms; 2. excessive American would under-
Russia and consolidate the ‘continent’. berian Railway, “most travellers could ocean in the making that over thousands Aanchal has a BSc from the London School tolerance, leniency, or indul- stand. And understanding is
While it’s true that without the TSR, Si- bear to miss”. The truth is that Perm, itself, of years will split the Asian continent! In of Economics. She is currently studying gence. Examples given by key, as both liberals and con-
beria and the Far-East would have re- has perhaps little to offer a curious eye hindsight, I can safely say that Irkutsk, Russian at St Petersburg State University. the dictionary include ‘rot- servatives surely agree.
Reviewing
Questions? Opinions?
the newspapersthe newspapers
PRESS: ALL THE NEWS
Please send your comments property of Rossiyskaya
by email (editor.india@rg.ru) Gazeta, and it reserves the
THAT MATTER
or fax (0870 928 9823), with right to reject, condense or
your name, address and edit for clarity, or when in-
other contact details for ver- formation cannot be sub-
ifi cation. If you do not wish stantiated. We do not pub-
your name or email to be lish anonymous letters, let-
published, please indicate ters advocating extremism
archhitecturi e and called for an end to ag- published price for the MiG-35 changing. Kyrgyz MPs had decided it was inappro- so, clearly. or containing personal at-
ricricultural pru otectionism, for “speeding And manufacturing the fi ghter in Nizh- priate for the Manas base to be in Kyr- Once published, letters and tacks, mass mailings or com-
uup the Doha Round talks within the p ny Novgorod, on the contrary, will reduce gyzstan and had given the Americans half guest columns become the mercial appeals.
frframewa ork of the WTO on radically re- its cost. a year – until 18 August – to leave the coun-
dducing the multibillion subsidies inu try. The decision to expel the Americans
the agricultural sector whicth h are dis- Price check: Putin goes shopping was announced by President Kurmanbek
torto ting the terms of trade and ob- Rossiyskaya Gazeta also tells how Prime Bakiyev in Moscow on the very day that
DRAWING BY DMITRY DIVIN
ststructing the devr elopment of agricul- Minister Vladimir Putin arrived unex- Russia decided to give Kyrgyzstan a loan
tural prtur oduction in the developing pectedly at an ordinary Moscow shop and of $2 bn and a grant of $150 mn. A number
OPINIONS EXPRESSED ON PAGES 6-7 ARE NOT
coucountries”n . saw with his own eyes the prices for food- of experts then said they assumed that
NECESSARILY THOSE
stuffs. Or rather, the size of the mark-ups Moscow had effectively allocated the
OF THE EDITORS OF ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA
SERGEY MERINOV
HHopes for the MiG-35ope that trading networks impose. money to Bishkek in return for closing the
AND RUSSIA INDIA REPORT
RIR
TheThe state-os wned news agency ITAR- “How much are you selling pork for?” the American base.
TASS has reported that over the next two head of government enquired. They an-
years, the Indian air force will take more swered: 335 roubles per kilo, even though Death of the king of pop
The press has given a lot of coverage to than 150 obsolete MiG-21 fi ghters out of the wholesale price is 160–170 roubles Michael Jackson’s death has shocked the
the first summit of the BRIC countries. It service. An order for 126 multi-purpose per kilo. whole world: no one expected that he
also commented the fact that Kyrgyzstan fi ghters is being put out to international “That’s effectively twice as much,” Putin would die on the eve of his planned 50
has gone back on its earlier decision and tender worth $10.4 bn. As one of the six retorted. This made a big impression on concerts, said music observer Artur
kept its US military base, Putin’s unex- parties to the tender, Russia is offering the premier.“W e’re setting a reduction in Gasparyan in an interview with the lib-
pected visit of an ordinary Moscow shop MiG-35 multi-functional fi ghter. people’s incomes, but in the meantime, eral radio station Ekho Moskvy.
and like the whole world it payed tribute to Rossiyskaya Gazeta notes some intrigues the prices for basic foodstuffs are not only Gasparyan added that the accusations
the memory of Michael Jackson. surrounding the tender. The American not falling but for some types of food are made against Michael Jackson had not
magazine Aviation Week has published actually rising. We cannot allow this. It’s been proved, but no one, in the critic’s
This issue has been conceptualised by
an article alleging that it’s planned to an absolute social injustice,” said the dis- opinion, could endure the pressure that
BRIC summit manufacture the MiG-35 at the Sokol gruntled premier. had been brought to bear on the singer for
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA MARKETING,
The business paper RBC Daily says,“The factory in Nizhny Novgorod, which will many years.
RESPONSE
summit was to show the world that coun- increase its cost signifi cantly. Bearing in USA to maintain its military presence in The internet publication Gazeta.ru be-
adqueries@timesgroup.com
tries as different as these, with such dif- mind that the MiG-35 is scoring a lot of Kyrgyzstan lieves that Michael Jackson ended his life
ferent interests, can be united not just on points in the tendering process being car- The well informed newspaper Kommer- as the biggest-selling artist.
paper.” The alliance’s leaders discussed ried out by the Indian air force, this infor- sant says that the air base at Kyrgyzstan’s The state-owned news agency RIA-Nov-
•

Feature Co-ordinator:
the need to increase the representation mation is of course aimed at discrediting Manas airport will now be known as a osti reports that after the news broke of
Mehernosh Gotla
of BRIC in the IMF and called for a re- the aircraft. The impression could be transit centre. The relevant agreement the death of the well known American
(mehernosh.gotla@timesgroup.com)
form of the UN, where, the paper notes, given that Russia is quoting one price, but between Bishkek and Washington has singer Michael Jackson, from the morn-
the admission of India and Brazil to the if it wins the contract the price will im- been approved by the Kyrgyz parliament. ing onwards his fans decorated the fence
Security Council is long overdue. mediately go up. In return for keeping the base, the USA in front of the American Embassy build-
The infl uential Vedomosti notes that the In an interview with RG, MiG represent- will increase its payments from $17.4 mn ing with fl owers, photos of the musician,
BRIC leaders agreed to start developing atives at the Le Bourget 2009 display cat- to $170 mn per year. posters of Jackson and even soft toys, and
the parameters for a new global fi nancial egorically denied the possibility of the Nezavisimaya Gazeta recalls that earlier, lit candles.
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