Bibliophile Feature
Poet Vera Paper
Pavlova Architecture
Poems Soviet Architects
That Caress Dreamed
and Burn on Paper
PERSONAL ARCHIVES
P.05
P.06
WWW.AVVAKUMOV.COM
Distributed with Wednesday, February 24, 2010
This pull-out is produced and published by Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russia) and did not involve the news or editorial departments of The Washington Post
Energy
Olympics The next Winter Games will take place in the subtropics
In Brief
Russian Billionaires Return:
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Number Jumps From 49 to 77
Vladimir Lisin, owner of the Russian steel giant
Novolipetsk Steel, was named Russia’s rich-
est person with an estimated wealth of $18.8
billion by Finans magazine. He was followed
by Mikhail Prokhorov, the president of Onexim
Group who topped last year’s rankings ($17.85
billion) and Roman Abramovich, the former
governor of Chukotka and the owner of Chel-
sea Football Club ($17 billion). Russia’s num-
ber of billionaires jumped from 49 to 77 in a
sign of economic recovery. In 2008, it was sec-
ond only to America, with over 100 billionaires.
SERGEY KUKSIN_RG
A Homegrown Solution to Poultry
Products
Sure of Shale
Russia has ceased importing poultry from the
Technology
United States since a new safety measure
came into force, which bans the use of chlorine
overtakes politics
in food products from January 1, 2010.
While talks with U.S. negotiators over the ban
have stalled, the Russian government is hoping
to boost domestic production to meet 85 per-
Western Europe remains insecure cent of the country’s meat demand as part of
about its dependence on Russian gas exports a food security doctrine adopted by President
to stay warm in the winter, but a new technol- Dmitry Medvedev earlier this month.
ogy that involves horizontal drilling and hydrau-
lic fracturing has rendered previously inacces-
sible shale gas deposits within reach.
RT Launches Broadcasts in
This marks the global energy market’s “quiet URY MARTIANOV_KOMMERSANT
Washington, D.C. Area
revolution,” in the words of Tony Hayward, Sochi is a classic example of a provincial town being transformed by an Olympic dream, from the ground up.
chief executive of BP, and potentially places RT Channel began broadcasting from its
the United States into a gas self-sufficient Washington, D.C. studios on Jan. 14. RT edi-
country category.
Sochi: An Olympic Makeover
tor in chief, Margarita Simonyan, explains the
Gazprom’s officials, however, are quick to point channel's allure: “We show U.S. viewers news
out the technology’s unproven reliability and they cannot see elsewhere.” Hopeful in the
potential environmental hazards. new market, she adds: “Now that we have
started broadcasting from Washington, there is
Sochi is a construction site of the first Winter Games to take marked for Sochi to transform nition of Russia’s achievements no doubt our audience will increase dramati-
chaos and disruption as the place in a subtropical climate— this provincial Russian town with in sports, it is, there is no doubt, cally.” RT broadcasts can be seen in major
Opinion city prepares for the yes, it’s true—an environment a decrepit infrastructure into a an assessment of our coun- markets and online at www.rt.com.
Olympics, but still many hope where you can see the snow- metropolis fit for gods. try.”
START Treaty
the Games can boost tourism capped mountains from the With private companies reluc- Nearly all of the sports facili- Based on materials from RIA Novosti
and upgrade decaying beach. It will also be the first tant to invest, the Russian gov- ties have to be built from
Moving the nuclear
infrastructure, as long as Olympic Games in Russia since ernment and state-friendly com- scratch. There are too few roads,
graft does not get in the way. the Moscow Summer Olympic panies are digging deep to fund too much traffic and inadequate
pawns gets tough: all
Games in 1980, when a U.S.- the Games, a prestige project public transportation. The sup-
High-Speed Rail
GALINA MASTEROVA
led boycott, protesting the So- that is seen as vital to Prime Min- ply of electricity is unreliable and
talk and no gain?
SPECIAL TO RUSSIA NOW viet invasion of Afghanistan, ister Vladimir Putin and President there are not enough hotel
kept 24 countries from partici- Dmitry Medvedev, who often rooms.
As the Winter Olympic Games pating. spend their vacations in Sochi Although the city is fast be-
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in Vancouver come to a close, Most significantly for Russia, at government residences. coming one large construction
the world will begin to look the games are the catalyst for After Sochi won the right to site, many residents, despite all
more closely at the city of Sochi, one of the most comprehen- host the games, Putin, who per- inconvenience, are looking for-
the Black Sea resort that will host sive makeovers of an Olympic sonally lobbied the Internation- ward to the pay-off.
Reflections the Games in 2014. city in recent history. More than al Olympic Committee, said the
The 2014 Sochi Olympics is $6 billion of investment is ear- honor was not “only a recog-
CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
Russian Studies
in the U.S.
VISUAL.RZD.RU
New Route to Link Two Capitals
Russian language
Society A Soviet relic is finally dismantled
ivists will be separated from first-
time offenders—40 percent of State-owned Russian Railways launched its
enjoys Renaissance
The End of the Gulag
the population in a system hold- first high-speed train service in December
ing 900,000 inmates. Small 2009, linking Moscow with St. Petersburg, the
crimes will result in home arrest northern capital. The new train, known as Sap-
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or probation. Squads of inmates san, will cut the journey to three hours and 45
who assist prison management, minutes at a cost of $105 for a second class
President Dmitry Medvedev edged in barbed wire. The iar to Alexander Solzhenitsyn as but are infamous for violent ticket.
announced the prison reform building appears to be a mon- he described them in “The abuse of their power, are being Russian Railways is investing heavily to im-
Feature
in response to the death of astery, but since 1924, it has Gulag Archipelago.” abolished. prove transport links and hopes to launch a
Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer housed the Kineshma Wom- No system, not even the no- The event that finally got the high-speed link between Moscow and Nizhny
Russia’s New
who entered pretrial en’s Correction Colony No. 3, torious Russian Gulag, stays the reform rolling was the notori- Novgorod in June.
detention healthy and died in a prison about 200 miles north- same. Relics of the Stalin-era, ous death of Sergei Magnitsky,
Cultural Attache
pain 11 months later. east of Moscow. 755 Russian hard-labor correc- a 37-year-old lawyer who en- Read more at
Life changes little for the pris- tion colonies are slated to dis- tered a Moscow pretrial deten- www.rbth.ru
ANNA NEMTSOVA
oners here, regardless of the de- appear, stated Alexander Reim- tion center healthy and in 11
Culture is the heart of the
SPECIAL TO RUSSIA NOW cade. As in hundreds of other er, head of the Russian Federal months, on November 16,
Russian prisons in the most re- Prison Service, in a recent inter- 2009, after days in pain, died
reset The bus drags along a bumpy mote corners of Russia, mur- view with the radio station Echo being denied medical help.
Sukhoi Takes Off
road past endless frozen fields, derers live shoulder to shoulder of Moscow. Magnitsky was one of 386
VYACHESLAV MOSHKALO sleepy woods and occasional with petty thieves and first-time The government will scale suspects in Russia who died in
crooked houses, finally parking prisoners, all in conditions that back the second-largest prison 2009 during pretrial detention
CULTURAL ATTACHE
outside a large white wall would not have been unfamil- population in the world. Recid- alone. Hundreds more died in
colonies because of violent treat-
ment, torture and lack of med-
ical care.
FROM PERSONAL ARCHIVES President Dmitry Medvedev
announced a reform of the pris-
Russia Now would like to introduce Vy- on system in response to Mag-
acheslav Moshkalo, the new cultural attache nitsky’s death. Medvedev first
at the Russian Embassy in Washington, ordered a purge of the 20 top
D.C. Moshkalo will be a strong advocate for officials in the Federal Prison WWW.SUKHOI.ORG
cultural diplomacy, and is heartened by the Service. But he also demanded
Arms Exports Boom
recent uptick in Russian studies at American a new approach to corrections. Russia’s state-owned Sukhoi aviation holding
universities. “I believe that cultural exchange Already, the worst offenders are test-flew the new fifth generation fighter jet, the
is the most important part of the reset, and being separated from other PAK FA, at the end of January. The plane in-
has the most potential for cementing our bilat- parts of the prison population corporates stealth technology and is slated to
eral relations,” he said in an interview at the in prison colonies all over Rus- enter service in 2015.
embassy. “Today we have the most remark- sia. While Russia is still far from challenging
able dancers, painters, writers and musicians Alexander Vorobyev, director America’s unassailable lead in world arms
in Russia. But we don't believe that Russian of the women’s colony here, sales, Anatoly Isaikin, CEO of Russian arms
art belongs only to Russians. We believe it moved 62 recidivist women to exporter Rosoboronexport, said that Russia’s
belongs to everyone. Cultural exchanges are “more severe conditions” last contract portfolio rose to $32 billion from $22
the best way for us to understand each other,” November. The hardening of billion over the year in 2009. The state hopes to
the cultural attache said. punishment, he said, will scare use the arms industry as a hub, around which
repeat offenders from commit- it can build up a competitive high tech industry.
Please see ting more crime.
the Russian cultural calendar online at DMITRY BELIAKOV Read more at
www.rbth.ru Kineshma Women’s Colony No. 3 is located in the Ivanovo Region, 200 miles northeast of Moscow. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 www.rbth.ru
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