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Thursday, April 3, 2014

Russia comes under American and European sanctions over absorbing Crimea.

Politics

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Have you ever heard of Tuva - one of Russia’s Buddhist regions?

Travel

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A REPORT ON THE ARMY AND

RISING RUSSIAN EXPORTS

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WWW.RBTH.COMPolitics

NIKOLAI GORSHKOVSPECIAL TO RBTH

Russia faced sanctions from

the US and the European

Union as well as suspension

from the Group of Eight

(G-8) world leaders reacted

to the crisis over Crimea.

Sanctions: Is the West shooting itself in the foot?

Economy Europe and the United States react strongly to the Crimea crisis

The US extended sanctions to include leading Kremlin officials and business fi g-ures alleged to have ties to President Vladimir Putin.

President Barack Obama signed an executive order imposing visa restrictions and freezing any US assets of 20 more top officials and business people as well as Russia’s 17th-largest bank, Bank Rossiya, described as “the personal bank for sen-ior officials of the Russian Federation”.

US officials said that Bank Rossiya would be “frozen out of the dollar” after Obama said the bank provided “material support” for people on the sanctions list. Visa and Mastercard blocked operations for clients of the bank.

A separate executive order also warned of fur-ther US sanctions aimed at key sectors of the Russian economy, including energy, finance, defence and mi-ning.

The EU also added 12 more names to its list of people facing sanctions in protest at Russia’s absorp-tion of Crimea after a refe-rendum vote in the penin-sula to leave Ukraine in favour of unifi cation with Russia. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the EU was ready to impose se-rious economic sanctions against Russia in the third phase of a planned respon-se if there was any further escalation of Russia’s ac-tions in Ukraine.

The seven other G-8 countries – the US, the Uni-ted Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Ca-nada – declared they would not attend a summit to be hosted by Russia in June. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the G-8 was an informal club from

which nobody could be ex-pelled but that “if our Wes-tern partners believe this format has exhausted itself, let it be. We are not clin-ging to it.”

The measures are osten-sibly designed to induce Russia to reverse its poli-cies towards Kiev and Cri-mea, but the jury is out on the effectiveness of sanc-tions. A J Hughes Hallett and Andries S Brandsma argued in 1983, in their ar-ticle “How Effective Could Sanctions Against the So-viet Union Be?” that “an across-the-board trade boycott, which follows the popular view of using sanc-tions as a retaliatory mea-sure, would just reduce the West’s infl uence on the So-viet economy”. When the So-viet Union dissolved in 1991, their view appeared ill-founded. But research by Hufbauer, Schott and Ellio-tt, “Economic Sanctions Re-considered”, found the co-llapse stemmed from internal inefficiencies.

A lot has been said about Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and gas, and, of course, it’s a two-way street. Any cut in Europe’s con-sumption would deplete Moscow’s coffers. But the biggest loser would be Ukraine, which is even more dependent on Russian gas than the EU. Ukraine earns up to US$4 billion in fees for the transit of Rus-sian gas to Europe.

Jack Matlock, US ambas-sador to the USSR from 1987-91, believes sanctions are not in the West’s inter-ests. He wrote in The Wash-ington Post on March 15: “The US and Europe would lose to the extent that a re-sentful Russia would make it even more difficult to ad-dress global and regional issues such as the Iranian nuclear programme, North Korea and the Syrian civil war, to name a few. Russian policy in these areas has not always been all that the US desired, but it has been more helpful than many Americans realise. And en-couraging a more obstruc-tive Russia is not in anyone’s interest.”

NUMBERS

267 billion euros: the trade

between the EU and Russia in 2012.

18 billion euros: the trade between the

United States and Russia.

4 billion dollars a year: the fees Russia pays

Ukraine for the transit of Russian gas through Ukrainian territory to Europe.

NIKOLAI GORSHKOVSPECIAL TO RBTH

A�ddressing the parliament

and explaining why Russia

welcomes Crimea, Vladimir

Putin emphasised that

Russia does not want the

collapse of Ukraine.

Russia ‘backs a stable Ukraine’

Policy No plans for eastern Ukraine

“I want you to listen well, dear friends”, he said, send-ing this message to Ukrain-ians. “Do not believe those who are trying to scare you with Russia, those who are shouting that other regions will follow Crimea. We do not want the division of Ukraine,” the president said.

Many ethnic Russians and Russian-speakers in east Ukraine are not happy with the strong nationalist and anti-Russian overtones in Kiev and the west of the country.

The regions of Kharkov, Lugansk and Donetsk were Russian provinces until they were annexed to his-toric Ukraine by the Bols-heviks in 1918 for political and ideological reasons.

This is not to say that there is an overwhelming desire to reunite with Rus-sia. In the 1991 referendum, a majority of eastern Ukra-inians voted for indepen-dence from the Soviet Union.

The industrial east was allowed a degree of auto-nomy and closer ties with Russia that brought jobs

Crimeans celebrating the reunion with Russia.

and money to Kiev. Russian was eventually recognised as an official language in the region alongside Ukra-inian.

The violent change of guard in Kiev in February breached the status quo.

An immediate attempt to repeal the language law and the replacement of home-grown governors and ma-yors with pro-Western appointees from Kiev led to unrest, a cause for con-cern in Moscow.

President Putin voiced this concern in his address to both houses of the Rus-sian parliament. “Millions of Russian people, Russian-speaking citizens live and will continue to live in Ukraine, and Russia will always defend their inter-ests by political, diploma-tic, and legal means.

However, primarily, Ukraine itself should be in-terested that the rights and interests of these people are secured – this is the gua-rantee for stability of Ukra-inian statehood and the te-rritorial integrity of the country,” Putin said.

Earlier, he had secured the permission of the par-liament to use the Russian military to protect Russians and Russian speakers in Ukraine.

And he is unlikely to use this permission, unless blood is spilled there.

If our Western partners believe the G-8 format has exhausted itself, let it be

US ambassador Samantha Power and Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin at the UN.

HOT TOPIC RBTH.COM/UKRAINEUKRAINE WARNS RUSSIA AGAINST ABSORPTION OF EASTERN LANDSrbth.com/35319

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WWW.RBTH.COM Politics

ALEKSANDR KOROLKOVSPECIAL TO RBTH

Throughout its history,

Crimea was run by many

countries, including the

Mongol and Byzantine

empires, until it became

part of Russia in 1783.

Was Khrushchev’s ‘generous’ act legal?History The leader of the USSR gave Russia’s Crimea away to Ukraine back in 1954 as a ‘gift’

many years been in charge of the Communist Party of Ukraine, decided to make the symbolic gesture to en-sure he enjoyed strong sup-port among the infl uential Ukrainian establishment. He did it in his typical ar-bitrary and headstrong manner, coming up with a proposal to hand Crimea to Ukraine as a gift. Dmitry Shepilov, a future Soviet fo-reign minister who was at that meeting, later wrote: “Khrushchev wanted to present Ukraine with a gift on a golden dish, so that the whole republic knew how generous he was and how he cared about Ukraine’s prosperity.”

The reasons given by Khrushchev were repeated almost word for word at a session of the presidium of the Supreme Council of RSFSR on February 5. The arguments came down to three points: Ukraine was closer to Crimea than Rus-sia; the new confi guration would make it easier to run the region’s economy; what

ticed any difference. Many had no idea a change had occurred until they started seeing street signs in Ukra-inian.

However, 60 years on, de-bate continues about the le-gality of that handover. The question that raises most concern among lawyers and historians is: Who was authorised to agree, on be-half of the RSFSR, to a change of its territory? The need for a formal agreement was stipulated in Article 16 of the 1937 constitution of the RSFSR and in Article 18 of the 1936 constitution of the USSR.

The relevant agreements from both republics came in the form of resolutions of their respective govern-ments. However, Article 33 of the constitution of the RSFSR did not envisage powers to change the bor-ders of the republic, but did grant the power to initiate a referendum.

But no referendum was conducted either in Crimea or in the rest of the RSFSR.

After the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, the Russian Empire was broken down into independent Soviet re-publics and autonomies, in-cluding Crimea. The pen-insula remained part of Russia, which at the time was called the Russian So-viet Federative Socialist Re-public (RSFSR).

The decision to make Cri-mea part of Ukraine, which at the time was called the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and had a formal independence within the Soviet Union, came as a complete surprise to its re-sidents and to the country’s ruling elite at the time.

Immediately after he came to power as general secretary in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev, who had for

difference did it make since Ukraine and Russia were parts of the same country?

In the 1950s, the people of Crimea did not think of opposing the handover, lar-gely for the reasons outli-ned above. Since the chan-ge was taking place in the same country, nobody no-

More than 75 per cent of the Crimean population are Russian and use only the Russian

language for their communication.

Energy transit

routes

For many countries of the region, transit has become a major factor for develop-ment. Competition for in-vestment and construction of pipelines and terminals on one’s territory has made rivalry for leadership among countries of the region more acute. Soon after the breakup of the USSR, Russia’s monop-oly over the transit of ener-gy supplies from the Caspian region and Central Asia was over, as those countries have built new routes to China and the Asia-Pacific region.

VLADIMIR KOLOSSOVSPECIAL TO RBTH

Over the past two decades,

the geopolitical situation in

the Black Sea region has

become considerably more

complicated.

Strategic location a key factor in its importance

Geopolitics Why the Black Sea region is becoming economically and politically significant

coastline, while Russia has only 10.9 per cent. The other new states – Moldova, Ar-menia, Azerbaijan – though technically not bordering the sea, have historically been connected with the countries of the Black Sea region and undoubtedly form part of it.

Second, the geopolitical situation in the Black Sea region has been made more complicated by the new players’ internal weakness and unresolved internatio-

First, the “socialist system” collapsed and then new players have emerged in the region, namely Georgia and Ukraine, one of Europe’s biggest countries. Ukraine and Crimea make up 37.5 per cent of the Black Sea

nal confl icts. The region is the home to all four unre-cognised or partially re-cognised states on the for-mer Soviet Union territory: the Dniester Republic, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno-Karabakh. The effect domestic poli-tical instability has on the geopolitical situation in the Black Sea region is evi-dent in the case of Ukrai-ne, which is living through its most serious political crisis in a decade.

Third, globalisation has expanded the boundaries of the Black Sea region, in-volving non-regional and non-state players, such as transnational corporations, national movements and re-fugee communities. As a re-

The Black Sea region is important in terms of transit.

The status of Sevastopol

After Crimea was handed over to Ukraine, Sevastopol continued to receive fund-ing from both Moscow and Kiev. In 1978, Sevastopol be-

came a separate entity within Ukraine, which its residents were and still are bitterly op-posed to. In 1994, the city even decided to join Russia.

sult, the Black Sea region is becoming a priority from the point of view of the world economy and politics. Objectively, this process goes back to the discovery of rich oil and gas deposits in the Caspian Sea.

LUKASHENKO: CRIMEA IS PART OF RUSSIArbth.com/35308

ON THE REUNIFICATION OF CRIMEA WITH RUSSIA, AND NOT ONLYrbth.com/35287

MILITARY SANCTIONS AGAINST RUSSIA: WHO STANDS TO LOSE MORE?rbth.com/35333

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WWW.RBTH.COMSociety

IN BRIEF

Simplifi ed regulations for the employment of foreign students in Russia came into effect this year. In ac-cordance with amend-ments to the bill on the Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation, foreigners with student visas can now obtain work permits without fi lling out special forms.

Starting this year, the Uni-fi ed State Exam, which is taken by all Russian high school students upon grad-uation, will be different for each of Russia’s eight time zones.

Different versions of the test will be developed in order to prevent students in Vladivostok from relay-ing information about the test to students in Moscow.

New work-visa

regulations

Change in

exam schedule

Most Russians think that Russia’s relations with the United States and the Eu-ropean Union are going through a bad patch now, sociologists of Levada Centre said following a poll held in 130 cities, towns and villages in 45 Russian regions in March. A total of 34 per cent of Russians have a positive attitude towards the US. However, 56 per cent of re-spondents share the oppo-site stance while 10 per cent did not respond.

Worsening ties

with the West

EKATERINA KOLDUNOVASPECIAL TO RBTH

At first glance one might

think that Thai-language

studies in Russia is a very

niche and perhaps even

exotic pursuit.

Forging a linguistic linkEducation Russia has four main centres for Thai-language studies

Overall, every four to fi ve years Russian universities award some 20 bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Thai, whereas the number of Thai students coming to Russia to study the Russian language and get a degree at Russian universities is scores of times as many.

Compared with a cons-tantly growing interest in the Chinese language and a corresponding growth in the opportunity to learn it (language classes, speciali-sed schools, university pro-grammes, Confucius Insti-tutes), pursuing a serious interest in the Thai langua-ge in Russia is not that easy.

Yet, if one were to look at this issue from another angle, the variety of Thai-language programmes offe-red by Russia’s four leading universities presents a far more upbeat picture of Thai studies in Russia.

Currently, at the profes-sional level, Thai is taught at the Moscow State Insti-tute of International Rela-tions (MGIMO), at the Ins-titute of Asian and African Studies under Moscow State University, at St Pe-tersburg State University, and at the Far Eastern Fe-deral University.

MGIMO was the first Russian university to offer a Thai language program-me, with its fi rst Thai group set up in 1954. The author of the first Thai-Russian dictionary, which was pu-blished in 1964, Lev Morev, worked there for many years.

The dictionary has some 26,000 words and continues to be Russia’s only dictio-nary of this kind. A Rus-sian-Thai dictionary com-parable in content and

scope was published in Bangkok only in 2011.

The 1950s-60s was a pe-riod of growing interest in regional studies in the for-mer Soviet Union.

At the time, studying Southeast Asian countries was not unlike venturing on a journey into a terra

incognita for Soviet scho-lars. It was then that the foundations of comprehen-sive academic studies of Thailand were laid at the Institute of Oriental Stu-dies under the Russian Aca-demy of Sciences in Mos-cow.

In 1956, a Thai-language programme was set up in the Institute of Asian and African Studies. The insti-tute, which structurally forms part of Moscow State University, continues the

tradition of Asian studies fi rst established back in the 19th century.

In 1961, a Thai philology section was set up at the Oriental Studies De-partment of St Petersburg State University. It was there that one of Russia’s most prominent scholars in Southeast Asian literature, Yury Osipov, carried out his research. He taught himself Thai, and also the Chine-se, Burmese and Laotian languages. Finally, in 1999 the first Thai-language group was launched at the Far Eastern State (now Fe-deral) University.

Each of the four univer-sities specialises in a par-ticular aspect of Thai lan-guage and regional studies.

At MGIMO, the empha-sis is on political and cu-rrent affairs translation, es-sential for future diplomats. Still, considerable attention is also paid to literary lan-guage, including fiction works by Kukrit Pramoj, Siburapha, as well as mo-dern authors . Many MGIMO graduates work at

Russian diplomatic mis-sions in Thailand or at the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, whose head-quarters is in Bangkok.

At MGIMO, Thai is taught by Lyudmila Lario-nova, who is profi cient in various aspects of the lan-

guage, including the royal vocabulary. During the visit of Her Royal Highness Prin-cess Maha Chakri Sirind-horn to Russia in 1993, it was Lyudmila Larionova who acted as her interpre-ter from the Russian side.

At the Institute of Asian and African Studies, the Thai language forms an in-tegral part of in-depth stu-dies of the history and so-cio-economic development of Thailand. Graduates of this institute often work at

the Russian Foreign Minis-try and in business.

The St Petersburg Uni-versity pays particular at-tention to historical, lin-guistic and cultural studies. Some of its graduates pur-sue academic and teaching careers, others work at the Russian branch of the Tou-rism Authority of Thailand, in business structures in Russia (the CP Group re-presentative office) and in Thailand. St Petersburg is inexorably connected with the history of friendship between Russian Tsar Ni-cholas II and King Rama V, who visited that city in 1897 and left his son there to be trained in the Page Corps.

The launch of a Thai-lan-guage programme in Vladi-vostok came in response to the demands and challen-ges of the modern day. Without having highly-qua-lifi ed experts in the Far East, who have in-depth knowled-ge of Asia-Pacifi c countries and speak the relevant lan-guages, Russia can hardly hope to expand its coope-ration with that region.

Russian universities have partnership programmes with leading Thai universities.

Every five years Russian universities award some 20 degrees in Thai studies

Each of the universities focus on a particular aspect of Thai language

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FACTS ABOUT INTERESTS AND VALUES

DARYA LYUBINSKAYASPECIAL TO RBTH

Students will now need to

complete a programme

comprising Russian

language and literature, as

well as mathematics,

before taking exams.

Foreign students facing new rulesEducation Overseas candidates must study Russian language before they can take university entrance exams

In Russia, 2.5 per cent of tertiary students are foreign.

By the end of 2014, the Rus-sian Education and Scien-ce Ministry is due to adopt a new list of requirements for foreigners who want to get a higher education in Russia. Now international

ANASTASIYA MALTSEVASPECIAL TO RBTH

According to opinion polls,

family is what matters most

to Russians. They are

optimistic about the future

and they value good

friends and honesty.

Russia taking an optimistic view

Public opinion People started the year in a good mood

On the fl ip side, Russians believe they must be vigi-lant and cautious in rela-tions with others. They are also convinced that no-one can protect them from acts of terrorism and they are increasingly wary about the US and Europe.

Polls by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM) reveal that the greatest desire of 93 per cent of those polled was to create a happy “so-cial unit”, while 91 per cent wanted good friends and 90 per cent wanted “to be ho-nest”.

Sixty-five per cent of those polled celebrated the new year in an optimistic mood and 56 per cent were hopeful that everything would work out well for the

Russians value famiy and honesty, but are increasingly mistrusting of the US and EU.

3 1 Pre-Olypmics, on-ly 62 per cent of

Russians said they planned to watch the Games. But the post-Olympics polls showed, that So-chi was watched by around 90 per cent of the population.

2 Surveys show only 17 per cent

of Russians polled were interested in their pension funds (these were primarily afflu-ent people, aged 35-44, living in medium to large towns).

3 Russian soci-ety has been

said to comprise four segments: the Mos-cow and St Peters-burg segment, large industrial cities, rural Russia and the Cau-casus – a clan-based culture.

country in 2014. Only a third of the respondents ex-pected to face problems this year. Year after year, the number of optimists in Rus-sia seems to exceed the number of pessimists.

While optimistic, accor-ding to fi gures from the Pu-blic Opinion Foundation (FOM), Russians are also

fairly distrusting. Only one-fifth say they trust most people.

Three-quarters are con-vinced of the “need to be cautious in relationships with others”, while 60 per cent are prepared to trust only those close to them. The remainder think they must always be vigilant among their acquaintances.

Russians are also not for-giving of those with crimi-

nal records: 61 per cent are opposed to allowing people who have been in prison stand for public office (and women and the elderly are more categorical about this: at 65 per cent and 68 per cent respectively).

Russians also do not feel all that safe, with 63 per cent doubting that their authorities can protect them from acts of terrorism (and of that fi gure, 44 per cent are convinced there is no way to escape terrorism).

Residents in Moscow and St Petersburg, however, feel safer than in other parts of Russia.

When it comes to foreign policy, the Levada Centre found Russians have beco-me more negative about the US and the European Union. Those who perceive the US as “bad” rose from 23 per cent in 2011 to 37 per cent last year. And the fi gure went from 14 per cent to 29 per cent in regard to the European Union.

Closer neighbours, howe-ver, are viewed more posi-

tively, and 64 per cent of those polled would like Russia to restore diploma-tic relations with Georgia.

The Dean of Sociology at Russia’s National Research University Higher School of Economics, Aleksandr Chepurenko, noted that a stark “values gap” can be

seen between Russians born after the collapse of the USSR and the older gene-ration.

“Young people have grown up in a values va-cuum when there has been no political ideology of the kind to which the state is now returning,” he said.

“The young, unlike the older generation, are not nostalgic for the old Soviet machinery of the state.

“Young people are not in-terested in what was good or bad about it. They live in the present and have a good grasp of information technologies.”

Residents in Moscow and St Petersburg feel safer than in other parts of Russia

applicants will have to spend a year learning Rus-sian, mathematics and the key subjects in their cho-sen fi elds in order to qua-lify for entrance exams at the universities of their choice.

Foreign applicants will be divided into groups of faculties: the humanities, the natural sciences, medi-cine; and biology, enginee-ring and economics. Each of these groups will com-prise three mandatory and

one specialist subject. In addition, foreign applicants will need to study general-knowledge subjects, such as Russian language, mathematics or computer science. The list of subjects set will depend on the dis-cipline the applicant will be specialising in. At the end of the foundation pro-gramme, applicants will have to pass exams in their mandatory subjects and achieve a pass in optional ones.

The Russian language course comprises basic knowledge of phonetics, syntax and punctuation. At

the end of it, an applicant must have a vocabulary of at least 2,300 words, ade-quate aural comprehension (a speed of 200–240 words per minute) and be able to read at a speed of 80–100 words per minute.

They will have to be able to write an essay or a sum-mary of a topic in their spe-cialist fi eld. “At the moment, there are no clear require-ments regarding knowled-ge of Russian and, as a re-sult, very basic ones are applied,” vice-chancellor of the Plekhanov Russian Uni-versity of Economics Viktor Grishin explained.

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06 RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINESSECTION PRODUCED BY ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA, RUSSIA

WWW.RBTH.COMBusiness

Pavel

ZolotovBUSINESSMAN

The easiest and saf-est way to start business with a Russian is to get in

touch with one of numer-ous Russian trade agents working in Thailand. How do you know if he or she can be trusted? First, they should have an office and a registered company. Sec-ond, a good agent would always provide initial ad-vice and would offer three to fi ve different options. Since an agent is a guar-antor of relations between a Thai and a Russian com-pany and this is where he or she get their profi t from, they are interested in making sure that business relations get off to a good start.

Incidentally, one of the problems that Thai busi-nesspeople often encoun-ter is the delivery of sam-ples and their clearance by the Russian customs. The main problem there is not so much the com-plexity of the procedure as lack of information and knowledge and the lan-guage barrier. To deliver samples, an ATA Carnet is required, which any ex-perienced agent can get in no time.

In addition to excellent knowledge of the Russian customs regulations, a good agent should have an extensive client base and be able to offer a se-lection of suppliers and partners in different Rus-sian regions. One of the possible partners could be the all-Russia public or-ganisation of small- and medium-size businesses, called Opora Rossii. It unites more than 450,000 businesspeople and has branches in 81 Russian re-gions, as well as represen-tative offices abroad, in-cluding in Thailand.

EXPERT

Starting business

ANNA KUCHMARBTH BUSINESS EDITOR

Misleading perceptions

about Russian business

people and negative

images about doing

business in Russia have

abounded since the 1990s.

Practice Stereotypes of Russian entrepreneurs have little to do with contemporary realities

Common images of Russian business people have been, at worst, of hardened cri-minals, or, at best, of com-promised entrepreneurs, working in an environment where any attempts at run-ning a legitimate business fail because of impenetra-ble walls of bureaucracy and corruption.

While there are elements of truth to these stereoty-pes, things have changed in Russia since the ’90s, and many foreign entrepreneurs who have gone to Russia to do business have been in no hurry to leave.

“It’s not at all like the ste-reotypes portrayed in Wes-tern media,” says Simon Fentham-Fletcher, a British expat in Moscow who works as a portfolio mana-ger at Renaissance Asset Managers.

“I originally thought I’d be here for two years,” he said, “and it’s now been seven. Working in Russia has made me a better bu-sinessman and problem sol-ver. I’ve upped my game to match what’s here.”

There are, of course, tricks of the trade that en-trepreneurs looking to set up shop in Russia should know.

1. The importance of trustFentham-Fletcher says Rus-sians are typically wary at the beginning of business negotiations, and that trust is a critical factor, which once earned with Russians will last a lifetime.

A different way to get the deal done

Russians do have the tendency towards strong emotional expression.

Want to do business in Russia?

The pros:1. Russians are known to be hard workers. 2. Once trust is established, Russians make loyal business partners.3. The 13-per-cent tax rate is attractive for investors.

inexperienced with. Russians also do not

smile as much as other bu-siness people in negotia-tions.

Russian-born Polina La-gutina, from Pricewater-houseCoopers Melbourne, says on this subject: “Of course, it depends on the person, but [Russian] tra-ditions dictate that you not reveal happiness or pride, in case someone gets jea-lous and takes the reason for your happiness and pride away.”

3. Getting straight down to businessThe more Russians trust their business partner, the less inclined they are to waste time on formalities and exchanges of pleasan-tries. They get straight to the point, and only then do they resort to small talk. And, as Fentham-Fletcher has learned, business mat-ters are often discussed out-side the office.

“Business dinners are the norm; the business day starts slightly later but runs

late into the night. Restau-rants can be full of busi-ness people doing deals at all times of the day, whe-reas in London or New York the deals are more likely to get done during the day and in the office,” he says.

Fentham-Fletcher belie-ves the more Russians trust their business partners, the more likely discussions will take place in more perso-nal and relaxed environ-ments.

4. Assertiveness, creativity and driveThese qualities are some of the most distinct traits that stand out in Russians, Fentham-Fletcher says. He says that because there are so many opportunities in Russia, Russians are always on the look out for them, and are often very creative in fi nding ways to build new businesses.

He points out that becau-se of the country’s legacy of bureaucratic barriers, Russians are often innova-tive and lateral-thinking problem-solvers. That said, he emphasises that the age of a Russian business per-son is important.

“Those over 50 usually have a Soviet style of doing business. This means they are likely risk averse and tend to gloat over their past achievements. Those in their forties set targets, it’s just that the targets get in-creased with each new deal. I love their insatiability. The desire to keep pushing for more is something that holds Europeans back. Not in Russia, where there is never enough.”

5. Giving advice In Russian, the word soviet means “council” or “advice”. Soviet-era Russians have an infuriating tendency towards giving advice, even if what they are advising on is well outside their fi eld of expertise.

Lagutina says this ten-dency can frustrate foreign business people. But, she explains, it should be un-derstood as a way of ex-pressing care and a sign of friendship.

4. As a large country, Russia has an army of well-educated and driven young people. 5. Russians have an anything-is-possible mentality.6. A legacy of the Soviet ex-perience – many Russians are innovative problem-solvers.

The cons:1. Winters are brutally cold.2. Immigration, visas and work permits are thought difficult to get.3. Red tape is harrowing in general. 4. The traffic jams in Moscow are so bad that Russia’s pre-sident and prime minister go to work by helicopter.

2. Russian emotional stylesOnce trust has been esta-blished, Russians are not afraid to show emotion du-ring business negotiations. It is not uncommon for them to be physically ani-mated, to pat their business partners on the back or to have fewer boundaries with regard to personal space in general.

Bonding Russian style often involves drinking vodka shots – something non-Russians are usually

For each grumpy russian waiter, For each bottle of vodka, For each of you,

there is a smiling babushka serving pelmeni there is a glass of kvas there is a Russia of your choiceRBTH for iPad

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The Eurasian integration

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

What is goal of the Eurasian

integration project now?

The Eurasian integration project of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan aims at creating a single economic space, which would make it possible to leverage co-operation between individ-ual sectors and boost ben-efits from established cooperation ties as far as mutual trade is concerned, and enhance opportunities for exporters wishing to work on a single market of some 170 million people, as

IN BRIEF

On March 17, the UN Com-mission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf of-fi cially recognised Russia’s right to 52,000 square kil-ometres of continental shelf in the central part of the Sea of Okhotsk.

According to explora-tion fi ndings, 40 per cent of that territory consists of oil and gas reserves. Russia submitted its claim on that territory back in 2001.

The Okhotsk

Sea shelf

The Russian ministry for the development of the far east is planning to set up 23 zones of advanced eco-nomic growth in the re-gion. The strategy envis-ages the introduction of less time-consuming ad-ministrative procedures and a special tax regime. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has described the development of the re-gion as “a national prior-ity”. The region’s develop-m e n t w i l l r e qu i r e considerable funds. To this end, a Far East Develop-ment Fund will be set up.

The headquarters of sev-eral major Russian state companies may move from Moscow and St Petersburg to the country’s Far East. An order to that effect was issued by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medve-dev at the end of 2013. Presidential envoy to the Far East Yuri Trutnev has said that a list of these companies has already been compiled. However, so far only one of them has been made public: the fi rst to relocate east might be the Federal Fisheries Agency (Rosrybolovstvo).

Advanced

economic

growth zones

Going East

Interviewed by Gleb Fedorov, RBTH

In 2014, Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan plan to sign a treaty on the Eura-sian Economic Union (EEU) leveraging the exist-ing regional integration. It will set the region’s strat-egy for the next few years. RBTH spoke to Andrey Slepnev (on the photo above), the minister for trade of the Eurasian Eco-nomic Commission (EEC).

GLEB FEDOROVRBTH

According to Russian-Thai

trade statistics for 2013, the

top five imported goods

from Thailand remained

the same as in 2012.

(up 11 per cent); rubber and goods, $151 million (up 3 per cent); and precious and semi-precious stones, $110 million (up 81 per cent).

Russian exports to Thai-land in 2013 were quite sta-ble, too.

As in 2012, the most ex-ported category of products were oil and petroleum products, $548 million (down nearly 30 per cent); fertilizers, $306 million (up 22 per cent); ferrous met-als, $211 million (down nearly 35 per cent); semi-precious stones, $119 mil-

According to data from the Federal Customs Service, the fi rst place on that list belongs to electric machi-nery and equipment, US$493 million (down 0.3 per cent), followed by land transport vehicles, $427 million (down 3 per cent); machinery for the nuclear energy sector, $328 million

Russians have been to Thai-land, Thai businesses should consider exporting pre-pared components and spic-es and herbs to go into Thai dishes, soups and salads,” he said.

For its part, Russia could offer Thailand not only oil and raw materials, which make up most of the cur-rent exports, but also “water treatment products, R&D in energy saving and solar energy”, Zolotov said.

On the food market, Rus-sia could supply Kamchat-ka crabmeat, caviar, and valuable species of fi sh.

Russia is

mainly

exporting

resources

and import-

ing goods

from

Thailand.

The trade

potential is

huge.

Status quo in trade with Thailand last yearTrade trends Russian businesspeople hope political situation will settle down soon in Thailand

nesses in Thailand, Pavel Zolotov, points out that the Thai SME sector has far from exhausted the poten-tial of agricultural exports to Russia.

“Since a large number of

lion; and aluminium and products made from it, $21 million (up nearly 130 per cent).

The representative of the Opora Rossii association of small and medium busi-

far as foreign trade is con-cerned. The Eurasian Eco-nomic Commission, a supra-national body for the Customs Union, has the fol-lowing competences in reg-ulating the bloc’s foreign trade: tariff and non-tariff regulation, customs admin-istration, technical regula-tion, sanitary, veterinary and phytosanitary measures. The EEC also conducts anti-dumping and safeguard in-vestigations and, when nec-essary, applies the relevant trade defence measures. In addition, the EEC’s remit in-cludes establishing trade re-gimes with third countries and ensuring harmonised approaches at trade nego-

tiations. The year 2014 should become an important one in the history of Eura-sian integration.

What are the Customs Union’s

foreign trade priorities?

The Customs Union adheres to a multi-vector policy. We are developing our cooper-ation with the European Union and the CIS [Com-monwealth of Independent States] , building up pres-ence in the Asia-Pacifi c re-gion. We work both with in-dividual countries in those regions and with blocs as a whole. The Customs Union’s main partners in 2013 were: the EU (52.86 per cent of the Customs Union’s foreign

trade); Apec (26.5 per cent), including China (12.3 per cent) and the USA (3.35 per cent).

The Asia-Pacifi c region is one of the key strategic areas for the Customs Union. With production centres and de-mand shifting to the Asia-Pacifi c region in recent dec-ades, the development of trade and economic coop-eration with the countries of that region is becoming essential for Eurasian coun-tries. Apec [Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation] ac-counted for 26.5 per cent of the Customs Union’s trade in 2013. The countries of the region account for some 20 per cent of the Customs Un-

ion’s exports and 37 per cent of imports, with overall trade in 2013 rising by 4.3 per cent.

Many countries of the re-gion are our major trade partners. In addition to China (second-biggest trade partner in 2013, at 12.3 per cent), these include Japan (in fifth place, with 3.77 per cent), the USA (sixth, with 3.35 per cent), and South Korea (seventh, with 2.88 per cent). In 2013, Thai imports into Customs Union coun-tries went up 4.9 per cent.

How is cooperation with Apec

countries developing?

For many years, the ambi-tious agenda of the WTO Doha Round of negotiations remained unimplemented.

Progress in the discussion on how to further facilitate world trade was made only at the WTO ministerial con-ference in December 2013. It is very important that a network of regional free-trade agreements is devel-oped alongside a search for common rules for all region-al associations. We believe that the WTO, Asean and Apec could take the lead in drawing up template agree-ments on mutual trade that would ensure compatibility between trade legislations used by different regional as-sociations and would thus reduce the risk of emergence of new barriers to trade in goods and services. Focus should be on the technical regulation, and veterinary, sanitary and phytosanitary systems – barriers in these areas are the most cumber-some. And we are ready to actively engage in this work.

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08 RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINESSECTION PRODUCED BY ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA, RUSSIA

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GLEB FEDOROVRBTH

In 2013, Russian

Rosoboronexport (ROE)

had revenues of $13.2

billion, more than 40 per

cent of which came from

Asia-Pacific countries.

RISING RUSSIAN ARMS EXPORTS TO ASIA-PACIFIC

OVER 40 PER CENT OF THE LAST YEAR’S $13.2 BN

ARMS EXPORT REVENUES WERE GENERATED BY

CONTRACTS WITH ASIA-PACIFIC COUNTRIES

STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVES

$13 billionIs the arms exports forecast for 2014-16

35helicoptersWill be exported to the region till 2015

24 Su-35Can be sold to China in 2014

NUMBERS State of arms export

Russia is the world’s second-big-gest arms exporter, after the United States. According to ROE forecasts, in 2013-16 export value will remain

“This is slightly above the target fi gures […]. In 2013 alone, we received and con-sidered 1,902 offers from customers. In the end, 1,202 contracts were signed,” ROE head Anatoly Isaykin told Russian business newspa-per Kommersant, summing up last year’s results.

According to Isaykin, last year there was demand, in particular, for Su-30 and MiG-29 fi ghters as well as Su-35 and Yak-130 trainer aircraft.

Rosoboronexport ac-counts for more than 80 per cent of Russian military ex-ports to more than 70 coun-tries of the world.

The corporation supplies all types of weapons, from fi rearms to air defence sys-tems to submarines.

Interestingly, in 2013 air force-related exports made up 38.3 per cent of all the signed contracts; navy, 17 per cent; ground troops, 14.2 per cent; and air de-fence, 26.2 per cent.

Russia’s main partners in the Asia-Pacifi c region are India, China, Vietnam, Ma-laysia, and Indonesia. So far,

Thailand could not be de-scribed as Russia’s major partner, but both Moscow and Bangkok have already expressed mutual interest.

In November 2013, ahead of the Defence & Security exhibition in Bangkok, ROE expressed a desire to step up military coopera-tion with Thailand.

According to an ROE representative, the fact that Thailand had Russian mul-

ti-purpose Mi-17V-5 heli-copters and Igla-S portable air defence systems could further open up the coun-try’s market to Russia.

In 2008, Thailand ordered three Mi-17V-5 helicopters, which were delivered in 2011. The supply of 36 Igla-S portable air defence sys-tems was completed in 2010.

“Previously, we did not have a strong position here because Thailand tradition-ally gave preference to Western countries. But our recent sales show that now Russia, too, has opportuni-ties to expand its presence in this market,” an ROE rep-resentative said, refusing

however to elaborate on what specifi cally Thailand could purchase.

However, an ROE press release issued ahead of the Defence & Security exhi-bition in Bangkok said that Thailand could be interest-ed in Gepard 3.9 guided-missile frigates (Project 11661), Amur-1650 subma-rines, Podsolnukh-E radars, Yak-130 trainer aircraft, multi-purpose helicopters as well as BTR-80A armoured personnel carri-ers.

In 2013, Russia signed a series of new contracts with Asia-Pacifi c countries and effected deliveries under contracts signed earlier.

In early 2013, there came reports that Bangladesh was using a $1-billion Rus-sian loan to purchase Rus-sian weapons, in particular 24 Yak-130 trainer aircraft.

That aircraft is consid-ered to be one of the most advanced models in the world. It can be used to learn how to pilot fi fth-gen-eration fi ghter jets and to simulate practically any warplane.

In September 2013, Rus-sia completed the delivery of Su-30MK2 aircraft to In-donesia. Overall, that coun-try’s air force now has 16 Su fi ghters.

The Su-30MK2 delivered in 2013 have entered ser-vice with the 11th Squad-

ron of the Indonesian Air Force.

On November 16, 2013, Russia handed over the air-craft carrier Vikramaditya to India. The ship had been converted from a Soviet-project aircraft carrier. Vikramaditya will carry 24 Russian-made MiG-29K/KUB naval fi ghters and six Ka-27 and Ka-31 helicop-ters.

In early 2014, Vietnam re-ceived two of the six Kilo-class non-nuclear subma-rines (Project 636) under a contract signed in 2009. The value of the contract is es-timated at $2 billion.

The submarines entered into service with the Viet-namese Navy under the names of Hanoi and Ho Chi

Minh. The third submarine is due to be delivered in November this year.

In addition to Vietnam, China has 10 submarines of this class.

Nato’s nickname for Kilo submarines is “Black Hole” for their excellent stealth qualities.

In recent years, Russia and Vietnam have signed contracts worth more than $4.5 billion.

In addition to subma-rines, Vietnam is purchas-ing from Russia Su-30MK2 fighters, Molniya-class guided-missile boats, and Gepard patrol boats.

Also in 2014, MiG Cor-poration proposed an up-grade programme for Ma-laysia’s 18 MiG-29 aircraft.

Unlike many other

exporting countries, Russia

is not afraid of transferring

its newest technologies to

partners, even though

many of these technologies

are often superior to

weapons and hardware

used by the Russian armed

forces. Russian Yak-130

trainer aircraft at the

Defence & Security

exhibition (1). The Kilo

submatine, exported to

Vietnam (2) and (3).

1

NATO’s nickname for Kilo submarines is “Black Hole” for their excellent stealth qualities

SCIENCE AND TECH

Deep sea divers: Russia’s pioneering submarinesrbth.com/35337

Hero to zero: The rise and fall of the Titan of Soviet reconnaissancerbth.com/35075

From medieval mace to nuclear missile: The history of the bulavarbth.com/34741

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IN BRIEF

Sukhoi Company has handed over its fi rst fi fth-generation T-50 fi ghter to the Russian Air Force for official trials.

In 2015, the new aircraft is expected to be delivered to pilot training units. By the end of the decade, up to 60 T-50s will come into service with the Russian Air Force. Like the US F-35 aircraft, the T-50 is aimed for the foreign mar-ket, too. A fi fth-generation fi ghter aircraft on the basis of the T-50 is already being developed with India.

T-50 going into

offi cial trials

Russia’s Zelenodolsk Ship-yard will build and hand over to Vietnam two Ge-pard 3.9 frigates by the end of 2017.

The frigates are intend-ed for economic zone pa-trol, search-and-rescue op-erations, anti-piracy and anti-smuggling activities.

The two frigates are now in the fi nal phase of con-struction, with hulls being completed and life support systems assembled.

Over the coming months, communication and navi-gation systems as well as electronic and other equip-ment will be installed. Fol-lowing the installation of technical positioning the engineers will begin trial runs in the Baltic Sea, so that the frigates could be ready for delivery in early 2017.

Vietnam received two fi rst Gepard-class frigates from Russia in 2011.

Vietnam to

get two more

frigates

ts

stable at about $13 billion. One of the company’s new strategy is to expand the geography of its supplies and list of services.

Rakesh Krishnan

SimhaJOUNALIST

Ajay

KamalakaranJOUNALIST

The arrival of the Su-27 and Su-30 in the Asia-Pacifi c has increased the

vulnerability of the Unit-ed States’ nuclear pow-ered aircraft carriers. The American military has wargamed situations where these massive CVNs go into battle against Sukhois armed with anti-ship cruise mis-siles, and the missiles have won every single time.

In the past these nucle-ar powered carriers, pro-tected by a ring of sup-port ships and AWAC aircraft, and of course their own fi ghter jets, were able to sail into any trou-blespot without fear.

What the situ-a t i o n i n Ukraine has proved be-

yond the shadow of a doubt is that America and its NATO allies can no longer act like global bul-lies. The recent events have led to media frenzy and sharp statements from Western politicians drumming up rhetoric. I don’t want to even digni-fy what a former US Sec-retary of State said with a response. The fact is that Russian troops have shown a tremendous de-gree of professionalism and the operation in the Crimea has been blood-less. Not a single shot was fi red over the course of the events and there has been

BEYOND THE FUTURE

Sukhois shift the balance in Asia-Pacific

Why Russia should be strong

That’s history. Today, any American carrier that at-tempts to come close to, say, China’s shores would be targeted by Flankers based on land, and firing their missiles from safe distanc-es.

Basically, the Su-27 and Su-30 may have ended the era of American gunboat diplomacy. There is a rea-son why the India describes the Su-30 MKIs as its “Air Dominance Fighter”. The aircraft is a generation ahead of any other aircraft – bar the stealth types – in the skies. The MKI version is actually superior to the Russian Air Force’s own Flankers, which is a result of Russia’s policy to pro-vide its trusted customers with export versions that are half a generation ahead of its own base models.

a sense of calmness in the peninsula. Russia does not want a destabi l i sed Ukraine, as it against Mos-cow’s best interests, but American interference in the former Soviet republic is part of a long-drawn out policy to weaken its Cold War rival. With Ukraine, the American government is clearly testing the waters to see how far it can pro-voke Russia.

The world needs peace, development and a protect-ed natural environment. World leaders bear the re-sponsibility of working for all of the above. But as long as the West tries to extend American hegemony across the world, the prospects of world peace look very dim. The re-emergence of Rus-sia as a military power will go a long way in ensuring that the world is a much less violent place.

VASILY KASHINVEDOMOSTI

Warming ties between

Russia and China are

reviving the arms trade

between the two countries.

Russia-China arms trade on riseready reached the level of the 1990s and the early 2000s, and may yet beat that record.

However, one difference is how insignificant the arms trade is in the overall structure of cooperation between the two countries. In the 1990s, military-tech-nical cooperation was one of the pillars of mutual trade, and served as the basis for their bilateral partnership.

After Russian arms ex-porters had broken into new markets in the 2000s, China’s share in the total

One theory doing the rounds in the 2000s was that Russian-Chinese mil-itary-technical cooperation was going downhill and would inevitably cease al-together. Now, however, it is obvious that the situa-tion has improved, with Russian military exports to China picking up again. The volume of exports has al-

volume of exported Russian military equipment decrea-sed noticeably. According to published data, Russian arms exports to China peaked during the early years of the last decade.

China is still a major buyer of Russian weapons. But the growing domestic demand, new export mar-kets and diversifi cation into civilian markets has lesse-ned arms manufacturers’ dependence on Chinese contracts, while providing Moscow with a signifi cant degree of freedom in nego-tiating future contracts.

2

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science and tech in Russia at

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7 facts about the MiG-25rbth.com/34903

MiG-31: A fighter ahead of its timerbth.com/34687

Russians hack Instagram to create new servicerbth.com/34679

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IN BRIEF

In early 2014, an aerobat-ics team fl ying Yak-130 air-craft began training at a training base in the town of Borisoglebsk. The group consists of nine pilots: six in the core team and three in the reserve. The pilots are being trained by aces from the Swifts (Rus: Strizhi) aerobatics team fl ying MiG-29s. The new aerobatics group will be-come Russia’s fourth, in addition to the Russian Falcons, the Swifts and the Russian Knights.

Aerobatics on

Yak-130

Penalties for a possible breach of the 2011 con-tract for the supply to Rus-sia of four Mistral-class helicopter carriers may amount to 1.2 billion euros, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has said. Earlier French Foreign Minister announced that France was considering terminating the contact as a sanction against Russia for making Crimea part of the Russian Federation. However, judging by a statement from the French defence minister no deci-sion has been taken yet.

The Russian Defence Min-istry has launched the construction of a nation-al centre for defence man-agement. Its main purpose is coordination between the government and the armed forces. The centre will have a single system of operating the whole of Russia’s multi-level mili-tary structure. It will take decisions on defence, de-ployment of troops and ensuring their everyday operation. It is expected to be built by the end of the year.

Potential

penalties

Defence centre

DMITRIY LITOVKINEXCLUSIVELY FOR RBTH

In 2013, Russian troops

began receiving not just

single pieces of equipment,

as before, but enough for

entire divisions and

regiments.

Su-34, Iskander-M and new subsWeapons Top three new acquisitions of the Russian armed forces in 2013

The share of modern weap-ons in the strategic nuclear forces, in 2013, reached 45 per cent, 62 per cent in aer-ospace defence, 42 per cent, in the air force, 52 per cent in the navy, and 21 per cent in the land forces.

So what is the Russian military buying?

The most important sym-bol of modernising the Rus-sian air force in 2013 was Sukhoi’s fi rst shipment of the new Sukhoi Su-34 bom-bers. This aircraft is consi-dered one of the most uni-que advances in armament made by the Russian air force in recent years.

The Su-34 is a hybrid fi ghter and bomber. With a take-off weight of almost 50 tons, it can perform ae-robatics, act as a fi ghter-in-terceptor, and carry out pre-cision bombing of small targets, all with equal ease. The fi rst two bombers cost the air force Bt1.6 billion.

The bomber can carry 8 tons of precision-guided bombs and missiles at a

time. It can operate in all weather conditions regar-dless of the time of day. The reinforced protection of the cockpit and vital compo-nents of the aircraft allows the Su-34 to withstand da-mage more severe than other aircraft in its class can handle. The fact that the aircraft was built to be

easily updated ensures a li-fespan of 30-35 years. In total, the military plans to acquire at least 120 of these planes in the near future.

In 2013, the Russian army received the fi rst two com-plete missile brigades of the Iskander-M tactical system. Prior to this, only separate divisions of the tactical sys-tem had been introduced into combat duty. In addi-tion, the Russian Defence ministry reported with un-disguised pride that it had taken the necessary steps to counter threats from the US missile defence system

deployed in Eastern Euro-pe and that it had, in fact, deployed the Iskander in the Kaliningrad region.

The missiles are concea-led in a four-axle truck, and have a range of more than 500km and a fl ight speed of 2,000 metres per second.

Each of the missiles can hold a nuclear, conventio-nal, or cluster warhead.

Last year, the Russian navy acquired three next-generation nuclear subma-rines all at once.

Two of them are Borei-class ballistic missile sub-marines of Project 955

equipped with Bulava stra-tegic missiles (Yury Dolgo-rukiy and Alexander Ne-vsky). The third is the Severodvinsk, a Project 885 Yasen-class submarine. This sub will replace several cu-rrent classes of armed sub-marines in the fl eet.

Experts consider Yasen-class subs to be a real in-novation in underwater shi-pbuilding. Their noise profi le is not only superior to Akula-project submari-nes, but they are also quie-ter than the latest Ameri-can nuclear submarines, the Seawolf class.

JNIKOLAI NOVICHKOV, LYUBOV MILOVANOVA VPK

The new trainer aircraft

Yak-130 ensures readiness

of Russian Air Force pilots

and enjoys stable demand

in the market.

Yak-130 can get out of a spin and cruise safely

Air Force Russia is now receiving foreign enquiries about the Yak-130 “from everywhere”

learn. “The designers and engineers did their best and made the aircraft a proper ‘school desk’. It is very easy to fl y, it forgives you many mistakes. Things have rea-lly moved on since the time we were cadets. Back then, if you lost speed, you im-mediately went into a spin, which it was very difficult to get out of,” recalls Rus-sian Air Force commander Lt-Gen Viktor Bondarev.

The Yak-130 is a comple-tely different story. It is very hard to put it into a spin. However, even if, for wha-

This year the Borisoglebsk Higher Military Aviation School for Pilots saw the graduation of its fi rst group of pilots who had trained on the new Russian trainer aircraft, the Yak-130. The cadets have proven that the aircraft is easy to operate and maintain and easy to

tever reason, it goes into a spin, all the pilot has to do is to let go of the yoke and the aircraft will get out of the spin itself and continue safe cruising.

International experts at the La Bourget air show have recognised the Rus-sian Yak-130 as the best model of a trainer aircraft. It has specially designed and manufactured advan-ced navigation, fl ight con-trol and combat avionics systems integrated into a single digital airborne avio-nics system. The latter

allows the Yak-130 to simu-late fl ight control and na-vigation equipment as well as the main fl ight charac-teristics and weapons sys-tem handling of the newest fourth- and fi fth-generation fi ghters.

In addition to the trai-ning role, the Yak-130 is ca-pable of performing light attack duties. The Yak-130 is easy in maintenance, can

be used in adverse weather conditions and can land in an unprepared airfi eld.

All these advantages of the trainer aircraft have been fully appreciated, not just by the Russian Air Force.

Interest in the Yak-130 has been seen in Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Asia-Pacifi c region, and CIS countries.

Su-34 can perform aerobatics, act as a fighter-interceptor, and carry out precision bombing

The Russian air force signed a deal to acquire 32 Su-34 bombers in 2008 and another contract in 2012 to get 92 more

till 2020. In 2013, the first contract was accomplished.

Algeria was the first foreign country to purchase Yak-130.

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EKATERINA TURISHEVARBTH

Before being nominated as

defence minister in the late

2012, Sergey Shoigu was

the minister of emergency

situations since 1991

Much to salute Shoigu for in his first year at the helm

Person The Russian defence minister made series of critical decisions

Analysts and military ex-perts believe that last year was especially symbolic for the Russian army develop-ment because of the deci-sions made on implemen-tation of a complete vital cycle for military equip-ment, the return of military property sold illegally, im-provement in the quality of troop training and devel-opment of military science and education.

Last November marked one year from the date when Vladimir Putin remo-ved Anatoliy Serdyukov as minister of defence and re-placed him with Sergey Shoigu. The most popular and recognisable minister in Russia (based on survey results), Shoigu was assig-ned the job after serving for a short while as acting go-vernor of Moscow Region. Before that he had been the head of the ministry of emergency situations for many years.

Sergey Shoigu was assig-ned to his new position against a background of the reverberating scandal su-rrounding the company Oboronservice. The key pla-yers in this scandal were persons close to the former defence minister and one of the fi rst decisions faced by Shoigu after taking up the post was to recover pro-perty sites, previously sold in breach of the law, back to the ministry of defence.

Experts believe that Shoigu is consistent in his advocacy of liberating the ministry of defence from its non-typical economic functions, including pricing.

“The initiatives of the heads of the ministry of de-fence regarding de-com-mercialisation of the army are, fi rst and foremost, tar-geted against corruption,” believes Pavel Verkhnyats-kiy, lead analyst of the Po-litical Information Centre.

The introduction of a sys-

What does the Russian Black Sea Fleet consist of? Besides the fleet headquarters in Sev-astopol, there are: the 68th Coastal Defense Brigade; Na-vy Arsenal No 17; the 810th Naval Infantry Brigade; the 247th Independent Sub-marine Division; the 854th Coastal Missile Regiment; a separate marine engineering

NOTES FROM THE EXPERTS

Russian fleet in CrimeaViktor

LitovkinMILITARY EXPERT

battalion, a communications hub; the 30th Surface Ship Division, consisting of the guided missile cruiser Mosk-va, guided missile hovercrafts Bora and Samum, a brigade of auxiliary ships, a brigade of assault landing ships, a brigade of missile boats; a naval air assault squadron, a composite air regiment; a radio electronic support bri-gade; arsenals, depots, repair plants and training schools for junior officers.

FACTS

The Crimean armyRussia recognises the military ranks and education of the Ukrainian officers based in Crimea willing to transfer to serve in the Russian Armed Forces.“This will allow for the tak-ing of people into service, at least on a contract basis, until all other formalities are resolved, including those related to obtaining citizen-ship,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

tem of total vital cycle con-tracts for the purchase of weapons and military equi-pment is another achieve-ment of Sergey Shoigu.

This system implies that the enterprise that has sold a certain item to the armed forces, will render conti-nuous support to such a project, from the beginning of construction and till dis-posal.

In accordance with the department’s plans, practi-cally all enterprises of Mi-litary & Industrial Complex must provide a total life cycle of manufactured weapons and military equi-pment over the next two to three years.

Sergey Shoigu, left, is the most popular minister in Russia, according to opinion polls.

RUSSIAN ARMY IN PICTURES...

.. . AND GRAPHICS

With the arrival of Ser-gey Shoigu as defence mi-nister, the department has reinstated the practice of regular inspections of the Russian army.

These inspections help to evaluate objectively the level of military readiness of the armed forces and to set out the best ways to ad-dress current problems.

The first unannounced inspection in the last 20 years was conducted at the central military district midway through February this year, which was fo-llowed by a number of other, similar events of va-rious levels in other mili-tary districts.

Experts suppose that the unannounced inspections of the Russian army help not only to understand the actual military readiness of the armed forces and test the close cooperation bet-ween all their elements but, in addition, they teach the military service personnel of all levels the ability to react instantly to any po-tential threat.

“The cornerstone of the armed forces is their rea-diness to enter battle at any moment. More has been done over the last year in this respect than in the pre-ceding decades,” asserted Victor Zavarzin, fi rst depu-ty head of the State Duma Defence Committee.

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THE 19TH-CENTURY BEHAVIOUR

EUROPE’S REAL MELTING POT

When it comes to the crisis in Ukraine, the discussion on

the principles of the world order has entered a new phase. United States Secre-tary of State John Kerry re-proached Russia for its “19th-century behaviour.” After all, international issues are now resolved differently. We can grant that. But what exactly does “19th-century behaviour” entail?

In a legal sense, the 19th century started with the Vi-enna Congress of 1814-1815. This session of nego-tiations that included monarchs (Russian Emper-or Alexander I, Franz I of Austria and the most emi-nent diplomats and states-

Under the Romanovs, Russia played the same role in East-ern Europe as an-

cient Rome did in the Med-iterranean and the United States in the Americas. It was the melting pot of Eu-rope, bringing together Christians, Muslims and in-digenous peoples. Over the 300 years of its reign, the Romanov dynasty trans-formed Russia from a me-dieval backwater into a Eu-ropean power. At the beginning of the 17th cen-tury, Russia was more Asian than European.

Although Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich began the process, it was his son, Peter the Great, who fi rst opened the “window to Europe”. But the converse was no less important - that Europe gained access to Russia.

Our country would not have achieved the status of empire had hundreds of thousands of Europeans not poured into the country. Eu-rope’s elite came en masse: scientists, officials, musi-cians and engineers.

I’m going to say some-thing subversive: a Russian nation has never really ex-isted in Russia. Those who came and worked for the benefi t of the country, and adopted Russian values – they were Russian. This is a very important point. Russia is fundamentally different from many coun-tries, with the exception of the United States, of course.

It’s possible to speak of a multinational empire, but it would be more correct to use the words “multicultur-

FEDOR

LUKYANOV

POLITOLOGIST

Pavel

KuzenkovHISTORIAN

men of their time – Metter-nich, Talleyrand, the Duke of Wellington and others) set limits on the eve of the Napoleonic Wars. The Vien-na System collapsed in Au-gust 1914, when confl icts among the European gran-dees, their colonial appe-tites and a splash of chau-vinism sparked World War I. At this juncture, the “good old Europe”, along with the golden age of classical di-plomacy, came to an end.

Two hundred years after the Vienna Congress and 100 years after the start of World War I, it turns out that what is lacking now is precisely what distin-guished the 19th century.

After the cataclysms of the fi rst half of the last cen-tury, and the Cold War of its second half, a period of freedom – in every sense of the word – set in: freedom

as the ideological under-standing that is central to the American worldview, and freedom from the in-ternational laws and re-strictions of the past.

At first, it seemed that this second type of freedom

spread only to the winner in the confl ict: the United States and the West. But it gradually became clear that freedom is universal. With the erosion of principles, and then the decency to act according to one’s own dis-cretion, the world stage be-came a free for all.

The Ukrainian crisis is a manifestation of a chaos that has been reigning on the world stage, but it is striking and symptomatic. It is more indicative that what is needed is precisely a genuine professional di-plomacy in the spirit of the 19th century, a diplomacy that is familiar from text-books but whose actual practice has been virtually forgotten. The fl aw of the modern world is a total im-balance in everything: op-portunities, interests, ideas of one another. On the con-trary “19th-century behav-iour” is useful in trying to find diplomatic solutions without the ideological ex-altation inherited from the 20th century, and on the basis of sober calculation and with an adherence to gentlemanly etiquette in re-lations with opponents.

The world needs a glob-al concert of nations, and their directors need a clas-sical score, albeit in a mod-ern orchestration.

al” or “multi-ethnic”. It’s a pure melting pot, and the melting pot is also the basis of American society.

Nonetheless, the melting pot came earlier in Russia. It was the continuation of a tradition founded by the Romans, who created their empire along the same lines.

In America it was much easier to create a multi-eth-nic society, as it was a no-man’s land. In such an environment there were no serious confl icts other than those with the Native Americans, who were quickly sidelined. But Rus-sia was a country that many called home, with local and national cultures and tribes who fought among them-selves.

A particular challenge was the integration of the Muslim population into a Christian state, which was unique in world history. In the Roman Empire, Byzan-tium was not integrated de-spite hopes to the contrary. Such an attempt failed in Spain, and the Muslims were expelled. Only in Rus-sia was integration success-ful , although it was achieved with great diffi-culty. The end of the em-pire was frightening, but the reasons were neither ethnic nor religious.

In 1991 Russia could have disintegrated into separate states, as did the Soviet Union, but this did not hap-pen. Ethnic and religious differences were an order of magnitude less signifi -cant than social and civili-zational issues.

The writer is historian and an associate professor at the Moscow State Univer-sity.

The Ukrainian crisis is a manifestation of a chaos that has been reigning on the world stage

The writer is head of The Council on Foreign and De-fense Policy. First pub-lished in Russian at RG.ru.

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THE UKRAINE STORY THEY MISSED

RUSSIA SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR ALL THESE CONSEQUENCES

As US-Russia ten-sions mount over Ukraine and the Crimea, it is im-

portant to realise that these tensions largely result from the media spin on real and imagined confl icts among the Ukrainian people. The advantage of the Western media over Russian Presi-dent Vladimir Putin is huge, because Putin’s infl uence is confi ned mostly to within the borders of Russia.

The fi rst and most impor-tant spin put on the situa-tion was to portray the sit-uation in Ukraine as a confl ict between Ukraine and Russia, not among cul-turally, ethnically, linguis-tically and religiously di-verse people in Ukraine.

For several weeks I watched on a wide range of TV channels – from Russian channels to EuroNews – how an originally peaceful protest in the Maidan in Kiev gradually turned more and more violent as rocks and Molotov cocktails were thrown at unarmed and constantly retreating police.

Optimism about Russia’s ability to survive Western sanctions with lit-

tle effect may be a bit pre-mature. It is true that broad punitive sanctions against a country that is deeply in-tegrated into the world economy have no precedent.

However, the challenge that Russia has thrown to the geopolitical order that

Vladimir

KolosovPROFESSOR

This division was felt most painfully by the Russian ethnic majority in Crimea

The more concessions Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovich made, includ-ing the suggestion to have Arseniy Yatsenyuk as prime minister, the more violent the Maidan became.

Finally, even after the compromise accord be-tween the Maidan coalition and Yanukovich was signed – in the presence of the for-eign ministers of France, Germany and Poland and Russia’s human rights om-budsman Vladimir Lukin – the violence did not abate, as one would have expected. Instead, the sit-uation got worse.

Yanukovich accepted virtually all the demands of the Maidan, including a return to the 2004 Con-stitution and the calling of presidential elections be-fore his term expired. The protesters in the Maidan had every reason to cele-brate, instead the area be-came very violent and doz-ens were killed.

This turn of events was very difficult to under-stand, until the conversa-tion between the EU For-e i g n A f f a i r s H i g h Representative Catherine Ashton and Estonian For-

eign Minister Urmas Paet surfaced.

The conversation cited opposition fi gure Olga Bo-gomolets saying that the leaders of the Maidan were not interested in discover-ing the source of the snip-ers shooting in the Maid-an because the violence helped the opposition movement.

Thus the opposition, in-stead of trying to unify this nation already divided by ethnic and religious loyal-ties, drove a wedge be-tween western Ukraine, which is mostly Catholic or Eastern Catholic and southern and eastern Ukraine, which is mostly Orthodox. Some of these Ukrainians in the south

and east are ethnic Rus-sians, but most of them identify themselves as Ukrainians who regard Russian as their native lan-guage. This division was felt most painfully by the Russian ethnic majority in Crimea. Because they were afraid of their autonomous status under a new gov-ernment headed by Maid-an leaders, they made the decision to hold the refer-endum that gave them au-tonomy as part of Russia.

Had the opposition hon-oured the February 21 agreement and retained Yanukovich as president until the May 25 special election, Crimea would not have revolted. The grab for power in Kiev triggered re-gional efforts to secure the safety and well-being of their electorate. If outside powers have a role to play, it must be as a mediator and peace-maker between these divided segments of the Ukrainian nation.

of foreign nuclear power plants), will also be affect-ed. Russia should expect Western governments to start putting pressure on their existing and potential Russian partners in these fi elds.

The same is true for large investment projects of lead-ing Western companies: they may have to be aban-doned for a long time.

Changes in visa policy – both bans on officials and changes that will make the procedures far more com-

plicated – would affect not only officials but ordinary Russians, too.

Finally, switching Rus-sia’s focus to Asia will be a difficult and costly thing to pull off. In order to consid-erably expand oil and gas exports to China and other

Asia-Pacifi c countries, in-frastructure must be devel-oped, which would require enormous investment.

has existed since the break-up of the Soviet Union is a critical one, and is certain to become a fac-tor in galvanising the West.

In all likelihood, Russia will not start feeling the consequences of the sanc-tions right away. The most serious measures will take a while and will cost the West a lot. As they did in the 1980s, the United States and its allies will seek to lower global prices for oil, gas and other commodities.

This will be in line with

current trends in developed economies, which are seek-ing to reduced reliance on fossil fuels and diversify en-ergy supplies. The EU will speed up its efforts to fi nd alternative oil and gas sup-pliers and build terminals for receiving LNG tankers from the United States, North Africa and other re-gions.

Additionally, non-ener-gy-related spheres, such as arms exports and science and technology cooperation (including the construction

Vladimir Kolosov is head of the Geopolitical Studies Center at the Russian Academy of Sciences’.

W George Krasnow, based in Washington, runs the R u s s i a n - A m e r i c a n Goodwill Association promoting better relations between the two countries.

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Where to stay As the majority of tourist companies in Tuva do not have an

English-language site first and foremost, it may be best to use the services of a Moscow or St Petersburg tour operator. Negotiations with the local non-English speaking population may be very challenging.

Getting thereThe best option is to take the train from Moscow to

Abakan (76 hours), with one-way fares varying from about Bt5,100 to Bt12,500. Two-way flights from Moscow to Kyzyl via Novosibirsk or Irkutsk will cost around Bt45,000.

DAN POTOTSKYRBTH

The remote Russian

Buddhist region of Tuva

offers vibrant landscapes,

eccentric traditions and

the natural beauty of

south Siberia.

A guide to the remote Buddhist Republic

Siberia The Republic of Tuva - cituated on the border with Mongolia - is one of the Buddhist regions of Russia

The population of the Tuva Republic is 300,000, the majority of whom live in the capital, Kyzyl. The rest are scattered randomly around its territory. A jour-ney from one population centre to another can take up to fi ve hours – this is an uninhabited region com-prised almost completely of nature reserves, the major-ity of which don’t even have roads.

Stock up with plenty of food and water because its unlikely you will fi nd any

a distant memory. There are so many nature reserves in Tuva that they are separa-ted from the rest of the landscape only by signposts, which are hiden by the dense vegetation in some cases.

The weather in Tuva is terribly unpredictable. In a few hours it can climb to 35 degrees Celsius and fall to 5 degrees Celsius. It can be pouring with rain and then suddenly the sun ap-pears.

No sooner have you don-ned a coat to stop yourself from freezing, than you have to take it off to stop yourself from roasting. It rained for the whole three days we were in Tuva, and the sun rarely made an ap-pearance.

In small villages or in camps there is no running

water therefore nature pro-vides all conveniences and a Banya (steam bath) takes the place of washing faci-lities. Almost every house in the village has its own Banya, but there are com-munal ones. In the fi rst lo-cation we went to, the Banya was communal and mixed, so men and women would share. A towel hel-ped to maintain decency.

Tuva was the very last of the republics to come under the Soviet Union. Taiwan still lays claim to Tuvan te-rritory and Tuva remains in a state of war with Ger-many.

The history of Tuva is meandering and complica-ted, so Tuvans relate to ever-yone around them in a uni-que way.

What do they think of Taiwan’s claim on Tuvan te-

rritory, we asked. A repre-sentative of the local admi-nistration told us: ‘We don’t even understand it oursel-ves why they have become obsessed with us. Well, let them lay claim, what is it to us?’.

The situation is also com-plex when it comes to reli-gion for Tuvans.

Russia’s chief shaman lives here to this day, who in his time read fortunes during the election of the first President of Russia Boris Yeltsin.

Buddhism is Lamaist in

Tuva. The Dalai Lama came to Kyzyl once in 1992 and set up a “holy temple” in the centre of the town squa-re. There is a statue of Lenin on that same square – this juxtaposition does not cause anyone any confusion.

Over the shoulder of Lenin’s statue, a peak in the mountain range can be seen, on which a holy ins-cription is set out in stones in the Tibetan language. This marks the spot where in 2015 a 20-metre statue of the Buddha, the biggest in Russia, will be erected.

On the road, you often en-counter trees with branches that have been embellished with multi-coloured rib-bons – these are holy pla-ces.

The idea is that anyone looking for safe passage should hang a ribbon on the tree.

These rudiments of pagan cults can be encountered everywhere: Places of power, with spears driven into them on the tops of the hills, which women are for-bidden to climb and small pagodas in wooden Budd-hist temples. You should scatter small change all around “for luck”. It is best to stock up with small change as there are a great many such places, both on the steppe and in the moun-tains.

Tuva is nothing like the tourist destinations in Rus-sia. Tuvans are free from co-rruption of outside infl uen-ces and are indifferent and unassuming in the nicest possible way.

It seems that the only thing that is truly protec-ting them is the cost of the cheapest one-way airline ticket there from Moscow – around Bt20,000.

3 1 The Republic of Tuva is situated in

the far south of Siberia. Majority of the population are Tuvans. Its capital city, Kyzyl, is located near the geographic “centre of Asia”.

2 There are only about 300,000

people living in Tuva, which puts it on 77th place in terms of population among the other 83 federal subjects of the Russian Federation.

3 Mountains cover over 80 per cent

of the territory. There are also more than 8,000 rivers, including the upper course of the Yenisei River, the 5th-longest river in the world.

FACTS ABOUTTUVA

place to purchase drinking water or even a sandwich on the road. So, if you do find an opportunity you would be wise to take it. The same philosophy should be applied to cash points in the Taiga.

About 90 per cent of the shops found in the republic are simply known as “Shas-hlyk”. Here you can get a big meal for US$30 in 20 minutes.

For the fi rst time it seems that civilisation’s many ad-v a n t a g e s a r e j u s t not enough amid the won-d e r s o f l o c a l natural beauty. Mo-bile phones are avai-lable only in very specifi c locations. At this point the hustle and bustle of the big city feels like

Buddhuism first came to Tuva in the IX century from the Uyghurs.

Top 12 spectacular Reasons to visit Russia travel.rbth.com

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What can be said about a country whose leader is a master in judo. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s public image is one of a strong and competitive in-dividual, and his sport of choice complements this image.

But for Russian tsars, pu-blic image was far less im-portant, since they were so seldom seen by the public. The tsars and empresses did, however, have a real passion for competition, fi t-ness and joy in the various games and sports of their choice.

Ivan the Terrible’s last chess gameBefore Peter the Great, ha-ving an athletic physique wasn’t considered a virtue in Russia. In the 17th cen-tury, every nobleman, inclu-ding the tsar, was ideally a little overweight – eviden-ce of his material abundan-ce and wealth. Probably the only contem-porary game that medieval Russian sovereigns played was chess, which was a fa-vourite of the fi rst Russian Tsar, Ivan the Terrible.

An English diplomat, Jerome Horsey, witnessed Ivan’s last chess game. On

Stalin's preferred pastime

Billiards, skittles and gorodki (a Russian version of bowl-ing) were the games Joseph Stalin enjoyed, according to his daughter, Svetlana Alli-luyeva. Stalin’s country house even had its own gorodki court. As Eugene Katzman, an artist who visited him there, re-called: “Stalin was the best at gorodki. When he aimed, his face became particularly energetic and expressive, as

if he was arguing at a party congress, crushing not pins or skittles, but Trotskyites, Mensheviks ... and other en-emies.” Stalin often played gorodki with guests, show-ing his skills and passion for the game. He was pleased when he won, but if he didn't, he would light his pipe and puff on it contemplatively.

GEORGY MANAEVRBTH

From chess and billiards to

cycling and tennis, the

Russian imperial family had

a genuine passion for sport

and games, going as far

back as Ivan the Terrible.

Royal family's sporting life gives glimpse of healthy competition

Sport Russian tsars favorite hobbies

How to play gorodki?

rbth.com/26091

the evening of the last day of his life, Ivan sat in bed for a game of chess with one of his boyars. Before the game started, the tsar him-self managed to set up all his pieces on the board, ex-cept for the king, which Ivan couldn’t place on the board, and needed help. Mi-nutes later, Ivan fainted and died.

Chess was also popular among the fi rst Romanovs. Tsar Alexis, the father of Peter the Great, ordered numerous beautifully cra-fted chess boards from abroad, so his son could learn the game in his youth. And later it was Peter who really introduced sport as a means of entertainment and exercise to the Russian royal family.

Peter's passion for pool Peter had been familiar with the European way of life since his youth when he frequented Moscow’s German Quarter. In Ger-man taverns, Peter learned to play the game of druc-ktafel – a hybrid of pool and bowling. Later, when he was in the Netherlands, he received a billiards table as a gift from the Dutch king. Peter installed the table in his waiting room to keep his guests busy – and, following the tsar’s example, many noblemen started playing billiards. In 1718, a tsar’s decree esta-blished billiards as a com-pulsory game for the nobility’s evening parties

(meanwhile, playing cards was banned).

Peter’s daughter, Eliza-beth, who ruled Russia for 20 years, was very concer-ned about her appearance, so to stay young-looking, she practised rowing and went horse-riding. The next empress, Catherine the Great, also engaged in hor-se-riding to some extent, but it was her grandson, Ni-cholas I, who grew up to be a true athlete.

The cycling tsarsEmperor Nicholas I, who was 6ft 2in tall and excep-tionally strong, used to take part in chivalrous compe-titions modelled on medie-val knight tournaments. During these, Nicholas wore armour so heavy that, on one occasion, his nose started bleeding because of high blood pressure and the overall tension.

Nicholas understood the importance of sport for the young, so he organised gymnastics areas for his children on the seashore of his estate at Peterhof, near St Petersburg.

Nicholas’s elder son, the next emperor Alexander II, was the fi rst of the royals to take up cycling, and he got his fi rst bicycle in Paris in 1867. For a 50-year-old tsar this was a mere toy, but his teenage sons, princes

Sergey and Pavel, develo-ped a real passion for cy-cling. They even rode their bikes in winter … albeit in the halls of the Winter Pa-lace. Their bikes had solid rubber tyres and made a lot of noise,but nobody could

reproach them while they were having fun. By the end of the century, almost every member of the royal family owned a bicycle, and long fi tness rides became a com-mon royal pastime.

Emperor Alexander III

owned a bike, too, but, be-cause of his giant stature and bulkiness, he preferred a more meditative, static kind of sport – fi shing.

Once, when he was fi shing at his country estate, Foreign Minister Girs approached him for a meeting on Euro-pean affairs, but Alexander dismissed him, saying: “Eu-rope can wait while the Rus-sian tsar fi shes!”

Russia’s last emperor, Ni-cholas II, was the most avid sportsman of all the tsars. He took up cycling at an early age and had many bi-cycles. But Nicholas’s great passion was for tennis. He got his fi rst taste of it du-ring his visits to England in the 1890s, and he soon began playing almost every day.

Five tennis courts were set up at different royal es-tates, and the tsar’s favou-rite game soon became wi-dely popular among the nobility. During the last years of the Russian em-pire, Nicholas continued playing tennis and cycling – maybe it helped him put up with the enormous pres-sure of those times. His last bill to a bicycle repairer was written on May 10, 1917; and his last tennis game was during the same month – even after his re-signation Nicholas, no lon-ger an emperor, remained a keen sportsman.

Billiards were brought to Russia during the reign of Peter the Great (1682-1725)

RUSSIAN HISTORY IN DETAIL A short history of British tourism in Imperial Russia

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brand Blackglama took

out a four-page spread,

featuring a striking Julie

Christie lookalike.

Once again, the fashion world looks to style a la Russe

Style Russian-style prints, collars and colour schemes are appearing in both high-end and popular fashion worldwide

Julia Roberts at this September’s Toronto

International Film Festival, in a Dolce & Gabbana

frock that tips its hat to traditional Russian styles.

The set – an ice-dusted in-terior of a Russian mansion – appears like a Doctor Zhi-vago dreamscape, complete with its own Lara. Interest in Russian culture and fas-hion in the West has histo-rically gone up and down, but it seems that a few times a decade, designers turn towards Russia, or at least to a Western idea of it, for inspiration.

In the ’90s, Valentin Yudas-hkin had an international impact with his Faberge egg dresses, then in the noughties Denis Simachev brought out a line of frocks inspired by blue-and-white Gzhel por-celain and Russian-style fur hats. The current internatio-nal interest in Russian style may be driven, in part, by the visibility of Russian women on the international scene who are known for their sense of style. Exam-ples include Dasha Zhuko-va, a patron of the arts and partner of billionaire Roman Abramovich, Elena Permi-nova, partner of billionaire Alexander Lebedev, and Mi-

short hemline. Coupled with Roberts’s vintage hairstyle, the look reca-lled the fi lm Gorky Park

(1983). Last year, Lady Gaga appeared in outfi ts by Sergeenko that offered a con-temporary mix of Anna Karenina and Eugene Onegin’s Ta-

tyana.

Style “a la Russe” Style a la Russe re-fers to a revival of Russian folk art, de-

signs and materials (mainly silk and fur) and applying them to everything from hats to skirts. Russian style basics include femini-ne silhouettes, lush long skirts, emphasised

waistlines, fur hats (Doctor Zhivago style), scarves, fl o-ral prints, lace and embroi-dery. Elements are also taken from Russian folk art.

Traditional

Russian designs

Khokhloma This hand-pain-ted style dates from the 17th century and is one of the best-known expressions of Russian folk art. It is known for its vivid flower patterns.

Pavlovsky Posad These co-lourful woollen shawls from the Pavlovo Posad factory are known for their flower and vegetable-themed de-signs, which appear three-di-mensional.

Gzhel This blue-and-white porcelain takes its name from the village of Gzhel whe-re it has been produced sin-ce 1802. Gzhel designs come on vases, small animal sculptures, ta-bleware and tea sets.

Sergeenko are the biggest Russian infl uences on fas-hion today.

Suzy Menkes in the New York Times’ T magazine has also commented on the Russian style phe-nomenon: “When fashion mavens like Elena Perminova, Miroslava Duma or Dasha Zhukova get dressed for the eve-ning, the whole world is wat-ching.”

At the 2013 To-ronto Internatio-nal Film Festival, fashion observers were surprised when actress Julia Roberts, known for her love of the colour black, appea-red at the premiere of August: Osage County in a red Dolce & Gab-bana dress with lace, dolman sleeves and a

The Russian style

is becoming more

and more popular

worldwide.

roslava Duma, fashion con-sultant and former editor of the Russian edition of Harper’s Bazaar.

“From Dasha Zukhova and Miroslava Duma to Ul-yana Sergeenko, Russian fashionistas have become fa-vourite subjects of style chroniclers from New York to Milan and Paris,” said Va-nessa Friedman, internatio-nal style guru and long-stan-ding fashion editor at the Financial Times. “Their wi-llingness to take risks with their clothes and embrace

the high-end is sure to fi lter down through not only the designers’ imagination but to the consumers as well.”

And there have been other pop-culture infl uences. Last year’s fi lm Anna Karenina may not have been a big box-office hit, but its intense and sumptuous style had a fas-hion impact on both coutu-re and mass-market desig-ners, such as the Banana Republic’s “Anna Karenina” collection. American Fried-man says that “Russian street style” and designer Ulyana

Russian style basics include feminine silhouettes, lush long skirts and waistlines...

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