- The Moscow Times

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Since 1992 No. 5762 July Looking back
7–13
|
2016 WWW.THEMOSCOW TIMES.COM
Looking forward
Looking forward
Rave Off
You’re Fired
Garage Sale
City Hall cracks down on alternative
The Defense Ministry initiates
Pressure is increasing on one of
and safety. → Page 3
command officers → Page 4
he sell up? → Page 5
music scene under pretext of health
unprecedented cull of naval
Russia’s richest oligarchs, but will
Welcome to Moscow
(Just Pray Elsewhere)
→ Pages 12-13
18+
2
Looking Back
“President Putin and the Russian
political elite take a very Hobbesian
view of the world.” Dr Bobo Lo,
Chatham House associate fellow.
The Moscow Times
No. 5762
47,000
troops can be raised by
Russia in 48 hours.
28
The British parliament report, published
July 5, called for EU sanctions to be
renewed in July and for the government
to consider extending travel bans on the
Russian leadership.
independent member
countries make up the
North Atlantic Alliance.
Warning: Russia
By Daria Litvinova [email protected] | Twitter: @dashalitvinovv
Ahead of the NATO Summit, a report by British parliament portrays
Russia as a strategic threat. But will anyone act upon it?
HAZIR REKA / REUTERS
T
he language was stark. No longer was
Russia an ally or partner. Instead it
was to be seen as a “strategic competitor” and military threat. Russia had
boosted military capacity, intensified antiWestern propaganda, and shown readiness
to “maintain a sphere of influence beyond
its own frontiers.”
The conclusions of the 58-page report
published on July 5 by the Defense Committee of the British parliament, were similarly alarmist. “The U.K. and NATO need to
have adequate military capability and the
capacity to deter, and where necessary confront aggressive Russian moves,” it advised.
There were recommendations to increase
the number of experts advising Britain on
Russia, to renew sanctions, to impose fresh
travel bans on Russia’s leadership and to
find ways to deal with Russian propaganda.
All of this would usually be ammunition
to the guns of excitable government officials in Russia. Unlike similar accusations
in recent past, however, they elicited little
righteous indignation from the ruling elite.
Moscow, in fact, seems little worried by the
report.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry mouthpiece Maria Zahkarova was the only prominent official
to label it “the highest mark of villainy.”
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov,
on the other hand, called for seeing the re-
A British parliamentary report has recommended
scaling up military capability vis-a-vis Russia.
port “in a positive light.” “Despite our disagreements, it contains the idea of starting
a much needed dialogue,” Peskov said.
On one level, things make some sense.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been
making overtures to de-escalate the tension between Russia and the West for several months.
The report itself is also not a plan of action — it contains recommendations rather
than policy, and they may not be acted upon at all. According to Keir Giles, an asso-
ciate fellow with Chatham House’s Russia
and Eurasia Program, “the findings serve
mostly to draw attention to the problems.”
The report is unlikely to influence British or EU policy in any significant way,
agrees international affairs expert Vladimir
Frolov.
It is also unlikely that the NATO summit
in Warsaw, scheduled for July 8-9, will be a
game-changer with respect to Russia. Dealing with Russia is on the agenda, but most
important decisions have been announced
already. The main one is to deploy additional four NATO battalions of up to 4,000
people to the Baltic states and Poland. “For
Moscow this is old news,” says Frolov. “It
isn’t seen as a threat.”
The question of how the Kremlin is planning to spin its narrative regarding NATO
remains open. It could portray NATO’s intentions to bolster military presence in the
Baltic region as a dangerous and destabilizing move. On the other hand, it may choose
to play nice — to show it does not constitute a threat that requires an urgent response.
If recent overtures with Turkey, encouraging comments about Brexit and Peskov’s
“positive light” statement are any indication, Russia might be indeed be prioritizing
the carrot over the traditional stick with its
unreliable foreign friends. TMT
The Moscow Times
No. 5762 (26)
July 7 – 13, 2016
—
Editor-in-Chief Mikhail Fishman
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Disorganized Terror: Russia’s
Incoherent ‘Purges’ Mask Policy Void
T
here have been arrests and releases, petty prosecutions and
sensible legal revisions. The overall trend in Russia may be
toward a tougher line on potential dissent, but the path is
an unclear one. Rather than Machiavellian subtlety, this reflects
the very absence of specific policy, generating a competition to
fill the gap and opportunities for personal and institutional gain.
On the debit side of the balance sheet, Kirov region governor
Nikita Belykh and Sergei Fedotov of the music industry’s collecting agency RAO have been arrested on corruption charges. The
‘Yarovaya Laws,’ named after hardline lawmaker Irina Yarovaya,
proposing new powers of surveillance and repression, is currently passing through the legislature.
Meanwhile, in the latest skirmish in Moscow’s war against
disrespectful social media, Vladimir Luzgin from Perm has been
fined 200,000 rubles ($3,100) for reposting an article on VKontakte questioning the official line on the Nazi-Soviet partition of Poland in 1939. And, in what is either a piece of Orwellian over-surveillance or a willful bid to kill off the country’s tourism industry,
the Culture Ministry is proposing that hotels should search their
guests’ luggage and fit cameras into every hallway.
No wonder people are raising the specter of Soviet leader Josef Stalin, but if this is the start of a new round of purges, it is a
strangely incoherent and even hesitant one.
Dmitry Kamenshchik, the owner of Domodedovo Airport, has
been released from what looked like a political-piratical house
arrest. Yarovaya’s laws, far from being rubber-stamped — as
tends to happen with those considered “Kremlin bills” — has in-
stead been diluted and still faces resistance from usually-compliant telecommunications companies. Meanwhile, there is still no
clear sense of the red lines people need to avoid crossing.
This is no way to run a proper purge. There has been no new
directive from the Kremlin. Instead, there are ambiguous signals
of concern about the risks of mass protest and elite disloyalty, to
which individuals and agencies have scrambled to respond as
they think — hope — President Vladimir Putin would want.
To an extent, this is an end in itself, the latest mise-en-scène
in the Kremlin’s theater of terror, a drama intended to cow those
Russians thinking of making trouble, without all the blood and
hassle of actual terror. However, in the usual way, this has also
encouraged a motley and often unpleasant array of individuals,
institutions and factions to leap forward in a flurry of activity.
For some, it is an opportunity to put forward policies in the
hope the Kremlin will adopt them. This is how much of Russian
policy-making works these days: not produced by a secretive cabal so much as shopped around in a marketplace of ideas — in
the media, in the Duma, in action.
For others, sometimes at the same time, it is an opportunity
for more direct advancement, institutional or purely personal.
Yarovaya, proponent of the current piece of repressive legislation,
is a long-term ally of the Federal Security Service (FSB). Her laws
not only serve to expand its powers, they also consolidate its role
as Russia’s foremost eavesdroppers.
This comes, after all, at a time when the FSB’s political security role is being encroached on by the National Guard (how long
By Mark Galeotti
Professor of Global Affairs at New
York University and expert in Russian
security services
before it starts lobbying for its own intelligence arm?) and the
FSO, the Federal Guard Service (which also has a communications intercept capability). Meanwhile, its infamous Economic
Security Service has just suffered a bloodletting that has opened
up lucrative new opportunities for some of its rivals.
The Investigative Committee’s Alexander Bastrykin has called
for the creation of an “ideological policy of the state,” looking to
make himself the high priest of Putinism. The FSO is quietly colonizing senior positions with its veterans. Everyone is using the
Kremlin’s new alarmism for their own advantage.
This is not confined to Moscow. Many of the more petty actions — such as Luzgin’s prosecution for a report only seen by 20
people, or the spate of visa-related harassments of foreigners in
Nizhny Novgorod — smack of local initiative, not central decree.
On the surface, this mood of competitive coercion serves Putin every bit as well as a more coordinated campaign. It keeps
spooks and prosecutors busy, and potential targets fearful and
divided. Meanwhile, any individual case can be closed or reversed
as and when the government wants.
However, there are deeper risks for the Kremlin. It is a good
way to instil fear, a poor one to win loyalty. The structures of the
state become covertly privatized. As “raiding” returns to the fore,
no one wants to set up businesses or leave money in the country.
More to the point, it suggests a moral cowardice and a paucity
of ideas at the heart of government. With the Kremlin as unwilling wholeheartedly to repress as to reform, the slow, debilitating
slide into irrelevance continues. TMT
YEVGENY PARFYONOV
LEGISLATION WATCH
Looking Back
3
July 7 – 13, 2016
12,000
“To stage a concert in those
conditions is impossible and
unsafe.” Andrei Tsybin, head of
Moscow’s southeastern district.
“Complete nonsense.” Outline
organizer Natasha Abelle
in response to accusations of
negligence.
approximate number of
tickets sold.
100M rubles
Possible loss for
organizers, according
to RBc.
Pascal DumOnT
maxIm EmElyanOv
“Many officials
see such
festivals as
‘strange dancing by strange
people,’” says
Ilya Ostrovsky,
founder of the
Kubana rock
festival.
When the Music Stops
By Eva Hartog [email protected] | Twitter: @EvaHartog
The Outline festival was meant to be the party of the year. Instead, its
cancellation has pitted 12,000 ravers against the authorities.
Pascal DumOnT
Outline organizers had
planned to
turn an abandoned factory
site into “an
art object”.
rapper Noize MC and the Leningrad rock band, often amid
accusations of negligent security or extremism.
Meanwhile, City Hall is taking up a prominent role in
organizing events with more innocuous themes such as a
jam festival, spring festival and ice-cream festival, leaving
alternative culture lovers feeling increasingly marginalized.
“What do we need this suspicious electronic music for?!
Let’s have an ice-cream festival, f*ck it!” prominent theater
director Kirill Serebrennikov wrote sarcastically on Facebook following Outline’s closure.
Ostrovsky has since moved his festival to Riga. He says
regulation there is much stricter than in Russia, but the
authorities work with organizers to resolve potential problems.
“Here, many officials see such festivals as ‘strange dancing by strange people,’” he
says. “If the authorities un“They wanted
derstood the value of such
to close down
events for the city’s image
the festival.
and for the country, you
Whatever the
wouldn’t get situations like
reason they
this.”
found, it is
Many now fear that
nothing but a
prominent scandals such
technicality,”
as Outline won’t only push
Outline fesRussian festivals outside the tival Natasha
country’s borders but will
Abelle told
also scare off international
Afisha magazine.
artists from coming to Russia. Dutch artist Willem Besselink worked for 12 days at
Outline on an art installation that will never be seen
by the public.
But Besselink has nothing but praise for the organizers.
“The location, the line-up, but above all, the tremendous
energy in the air to make it happen,” he says, describing the
atmosphere as without rival in Western Europe. The sudden
end to his first trip to Russia, however, has also left a deep
impression.
“It appears to me they used the licensing question as a
stick with which to beat,” he says. “They would’ve found a
stick regardless: this festival was not going to be allowed to
take place.”
Meanwhile, the Outline organizers have promised to
refund all concertgoers. With tickets up to 4,000 rubles
apiece, it could set them back up to 100 million rubles, the
RBC business daily calculated, citing an unidentified source
close to the organizers.
Festivalgoer Puzyryovsky is still unsure whether he will
cash in his 2,500-ruble ticket. Not doing so could help save
the organizers from financial ruin.
The Outline team has been sparse with its public statements. It says it is focusing its energy on organizing next
year’s Outline program. “That would be a mature decision,”
says organizer Abelle. “We don’t want to resort to protest
politics. This festival was set up with exactly the opposite
goal in mind […] Protests won’t lead to anything,” she told
Afisha.
But for many ravers and much of Moscow’s cultural
scene, it is too late to put the genie back in the bottle.
“How do you make a music festival political? By canceling
it,” Afisha deputy editor Philip Mironov tweeted. TMT
Pascal DumOnT
D
mitry Puzyryovsky, 27, was ready to rave. Part of a
group of ten friends, some of whom had traveled
especially for the occasion from St. Petersburg and
Minsk, he had tickets to the Outline 2016 electronic music
festival in Moscow on July 2.
But the party ended before it ever began. Less than four
hours before the official start time, the festival was canceled
“for reasons outside the organizers’ control,” a message on
Outline’s Facebook page read.
It was not the party blowout that the 12,000 people who
had bought tickets had anticipated.
In the days that followed, Moscow split into two camps
over who was to blame for the last-minute letdown. On the
one hand, local authorities have accused the festival organizers of negligence. The Outline team applied for a license
to stage the event only three days before the festival instead
of the required month, they said.
They have also described the event site, MoZAL, an abandoned factory of automated lines and specialty machines, as
a fire hazard waiting to go up in flames.
“To stage a concert in those conditions is impossible and
unsafe. The blame lies entirely with the organizers,” the
head of the capital’s southeastern district, Andrei Tsybin,
told the Interfax news agency.
In the years since its first incarnation in 2014, Outline
has gained a reputation for setting new standards for Russia’s alternative music and art scene. Many of its fans described the event as “non-Russian” — both in terms of its
global line-up as well as its free atmosphere of revelry, reportedly enhanced by the use of drugs among partygoers.
The disgruntled ravers and Moscow’s cultural elite are sure
its canceling had little to do with legal formalities.
“They wanted to close down the festival. Whatever the
reason they found, it is nothing but a technicality,” festival
organizer Natasha Abelle told the Afisha magazine.
Ilya Ostrovsky knows the feeling. Roughly a year ago, his
Kubana rock festival was canceled two months before its
start. The official pretext given by the Kaliningrad regional
authorities was that they could not protect concertgoers
from Orthodox activists who had protested against it. A year
later, “I still don’t know the real reason,” he says.
Far from the hipster crowds of the Russian capital, he
says his festival’s closure did not cause the uproar that has
followed Saturday’s events. “But I warned then, this is coming to your doorstep too,” he says.
In recent years, several musical performances and festivals have experienced pressure from local authorities, including the KaZantip festival in Crimea and concerts by
4
Looking Forward
The Moscow Times
No. 5762
50
Generally speaking, most people
interpreted this as simply to signal who
the real boss is.” Mikhail Barabanov,
Moscow Defense Brief.
Baltic Fleet officers who
have reportedly been fired.
1981
Firing 50 officers means that problems
are widespread and outsiders are
needed to solve the problem, says
Dmitry Gorenburg, a Russian navy
expert at the CNA think tank.
The Soviet Pacific Fleet lost
50 top officers, including an
admiral, in a plane crash.
ViTAly NeVAR / TASS
The ships of
the Baltic
Fleet during
the dress rehearsal naval
parade to
mark the 70th
anniversary
of victory in
World War II,
May 7, 2015.
Chaos in the Baltic Fleet
By Matthew Bodner [email protected] | Twitter: @mattb0401
Biggest officer cull since Stalin undermines claims of Russian naval resurgence.
O
n July 26, 2015, on the annual Navy Day holiday, President Vladimir Putin traveled to Russia’s western outpost
of Kaliningrad to pay tribute to the country’s resurgent
armada.
“The courage of our sailors, the talent of our shipbuilders,
and the spirit of our famous pioneers, explorers and naval commanders have confirmed Russia’s status as a great sea power,”
the president declared. Putin reserved special praise for the Baltic Fleet, which was “carrying the flag with honor in the Baltic …
and in other parts of the world too.”
The confident rhetoric rang loudly in Western capitals, where
scores of experts and officials agreed with his assessment of Russia’s modernized military. U.S. admirals now point to Russian
submarines and defense arrangements as the leading threat to
U.S. ships in European waters, and the Baltic Fleet is a focal point
of those concerns.
But behind Putin’s triumphant words, all was not as it seems
with the Baltic Fleet.
On June 29, the Russian Defense Ministry announced it was
purging the entire senior and mid-level command of the Baltic Fleet. It was a dramatic move that suggested deep structural
problems within the fleet command. In total, 50 officers were
dismissed from their post, including the fleet commander, Vice
Admiral Viktor Kravchuk, and his chief of staff, Vice Admiral Sergei Popov.
Not since Stalin’s purges had so many officers been ousted at
once.
If the decision to remove the entire command staff was unprecedented in the Russian military tradition, the manner in
which the Defense Ministry publicly accused the officers of dereliction of duty was even more surprising. Usually, a disgraced
officer will be quietly shown the door, and a press release will
chalk it all up to health troubles. But they made an example of
Kravchuk.
On June 29, the Defense Ministry issued a statement that
pulled no punches. Kravchuk and his command had, it said,
showed “serious shortcomings in the organization of combat
training, daily activities of their forces, failure to take all necessary measures to improve personnel accommodations, inattention to their subordinates and distorted reports on the real state
of affairs [in the fleet].”
Russia’s military watchers were caught off guard by the announcement, but have since offered several explanations for the
heavy-handed treatment of Kravchuk and his staff.
“This is undoubtedly connected to the departure of Admiral
Viktor Chirkov, the head of the navy, last year” says Mikhail Barabanov, editor-in-chief of Moscow Defense Brief, an analytical
monthly published by the Center for the Analysis of Strategies
and Technologies (CAST). Chirkov left his post in November 2015,
with reports citing health concerns.
“Kravchuk was considered to be one of Chirkov’s guys,” says
Barabanov. Both shared a history at the Baltic Fleet; for some
time Kravchuk was Chirkvov’s deputy commander. When
Chirkov was promoted to Moscow, Kravchuk took the helm. With
Chirkov’s departure from the navy, “Kravchuk lost his patron.”
Others, however, point to evidence of incompetence and corruption in what is seen by the Kremlin as an increasingly important strategic force in the face of heightened tensions with the
NATO alliance since 2014.
The decision to fire the entire command came at the end of a
month-long Defense Ministry inspection, which concluded on
June 10. According to St. Petersburg news outlet Fontanka.ru, the
inquiry had been sparked by an unconfirmed collision of the submarine Krasnodar with another vessel — possibly a Polish patrol
boat — during a training exercise. The Baltic command attempted to cover up the incident, Fontanka.ru reported.
According to Barabanov, the Baltic Fleet remains a secondary naval force. While it has received several new vessels, mod-
Makeup of Baltic Fleet Command Forces
Source: russianships.info
ernization efforts have little to do with the command staff. The
Defense Ministry had a more ambitious vision for the Black Sea
Fleet — that it become the central command authority for a
“Fortress Kaliningrad” unified structure comprised of all Russian
forces in the region.
The Fortress Kaliningrad structure is one of NATO’s biggest
nightmares in the region; Western commanders, already uneasy
by their apparent geographic disadvantage in the Baltic region,
have been sounding the alarm over the past two years. Kravchuk’s task was to unify local air force units, coastal defense batteries, and even Iskander missile systems (when in theater) under the Baltic Fleet command. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s
heavy-handed crackdown on Kravchuk suggests he failed to adequately do this, and the Baltic Fleet is unprepared for a potential war.
This is a very different mission for the Baltic Fleet than its traditional post-Soviet role as a training fleet. “Kravchuk may have
failed to adapt to the new reality quickly enough,” says Dmitry
Gorenburg, a Russian navy expert at the Virginia-based CNA
think tank. “But I am beginning to think corruption was really
the key.”
According to Fontanka.ru, corruption indeed factored heavily
into Shoigu’s decision to liquidate the fleet command structure.
Kravchuk reportedly had a relationship with a local organized
crime boss, Viktor Bogdan, who was stealing diesel fuel from the
fleet. Furthermore, part of the Fortress Kaliningrad project required housing to be constructed for the 11th Army Corps, stationed at the Baltiysk Naval Base. Funds for the barracks reportedly disappeared, and the soldiers were left to live in squalor,
Fontanka.ru reported.
“The Russian leadership is clearly fine with corruption, but I
think this was meant to signal others in the military and the security services that you can go ahead and steal and do what you
want to do, but if you do that to an extent that combat readiness
suffers, there will be consequences,” Gorenburg says.
Shoigu has already appointed new commanders to the Baltic
Fleet, Russian media outlets reported on July 1. The new commander will be Vice Admiral Alexander Nosatov from the Black
Sea Fleet. His chief of staff will be Vice Admiral Igor Mukhametshin, a former commander of the Pacific Fleet’s strategic nuclear
submarine forces.
It is unlikely the Baltic Fleet will languish for long. According
to reports, Nosatov has been given the rest of the year to turn the
fleet around, and make it worthy of Putin’s high praises on Navy
Day, 2017. TMT
Looking Forward
July 7 – 13, 2016
$7.6Bln
“[Onexim] will keep a strategic
interest in investing in our
country.” Dmitry Razumov,
head of Onexim.
Mikhail Prokhorov’s net
worth, according to Forbes.
20%
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry
Peskov called claims of pressure
on Prokhorov “total rubbish.”
5
Onexim’s stake in Uralkali,
currently worth an estimated
$1.6 billion.
An Oligarch Exposed
By Peter Hobson [email protected] | Twitter: @peterhobson15
Is Mikhail Prokhorov Really About to Quit Russia?
R
ussian tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov once said he likes to
completely overhaul his professional life every eight years.
And so things have turned out.
In the 1990s, Prokhorov was a banker, scooping up a business
empire on the cheap in the county’s chaotic privatizations. At the
turn of the millennium, he quit bank boardrooms to became an
industry boss, heading Norilsk Nickel, a city-sized mining corporation in northern Siberia in which he owned a major stake.
Then, in 2007, he reinvented himself once again. The 6-foot
8-inch bachelor launched a reputation as a playboy when French
police briefly arrested him for a supposed romp with prostitutes
at the ski resort of Courchevel. Then he quit Norilsk and split
with his business partner, the tycoon Vladimir Potanin, walking away with some $9.5 billion. The timing of the sale was fortunate, happening just before markets crashed in 2008. It turned
Prokhorov into Russia’s richest man.
Prokhorov used his wealth to create a new business empire,
purchase a New York basketball team and become a public figure. He bought a media company and briefly became a politician,
running for president against Vladimir Putin.
Now, eight years on, rumors are circulating that Prokhorov, 51,
is at it again.
Sell-off?
In early July, Vedomosti, a respected Russian business daily, ran
a banner headline: “Mikhail Prokhorov Is Selling All His Russian
Assets.” The story was based on multiple unidentified sources. It
implied that the Kremlin was pressuring Prokhorov to sell.
If true, it meant that billions of dollars were about to change
hands. Through his investment firm, Onexim, Prokhorov owns
stakes in aluminum giant RusAl, potash producer Uralkali and
power generator Quadra. Onexim owns financial firms Renaissance Credit, Renaissance Capital, IFC Bank and the insurer Soglasie. And it controls RBC, one of the country’s largest media
companies.
Prokhorov’s fortune has dwindled from $19.5 billion in 2008,
but he is still worth $7.6 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
Much of that is wrapped up in Russia.
According to Onexim, however, the Vedomosti report had
got it all wrong. “Our assets are constantly in a state of transition and we are always in the process of negotiations,” Onexim’s
chief, Dmitry Razumov, said in a statement. Onexim has tried
to sell stakes in a number of its companies in recent years. Vedomosti supposedly got wind of some of these talks and mistakenly
joined the dots. The conclusion that a full sell-off was underway
was wrong, Razumov said. “No such decision has been made.”
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed
claims of pressure as “complete rubbish.”
But these denials did little to stop the rumor mill. In recent
months, Onexim has been in very public conflict with the authorities. In April, armed men, some of them in masks, raided
the offices of Onexim and a
number of its subsidiaries.
Russia’s security service, the
FSB, said they were investigating a small lender that Onexim had recently acquired. Few
believed it.
The real reason, say insiders, was that RBC’s investigations into Putin’s money and
family had touched a nerve in
the Kremlin.
Within weeks of the raids,
RBC’s top editorial staff had
quit or been fired. But many thought that the pressure would not stop at that. If
Prokhorov had really antagonized Putin, the logic went, it’s
time to get out.
A source close to Prokhorov
paints a more positive picture. Yes, the Kremlin was unhappy
with RBC’s editorial line, which it saw as unfair and subjective.
But the dismissals have ended the dispute. “Whatever that discontent [with RBC] was — and it was a long-term back and forth
thing — it has been put to bed,” the source said.
There is no imperative from the Kremlin to sell RBC or other
Onexim assets , said the source close to Prokhorov and another
source close to Onexim’s top management.
However, a third source, also close to the top management,
was less sanguine. According to this source, the situation remains unstable. Onexim’s managers “are still figuring out exactly what the situation is and whether the Kremlin is really after
them, which would mean there’s no future for them in Russia,”
the source says. “Everything depends on how deep [the Kremlin’s] resentment goes.”
Nervous Partners
Whatever the truth, headlines that Prokhorov is getting out of
the country do have consequences. Russia is an unpredictable
place where decisions are often made behind closed doors, and
the Vedomosti report spooked Onexim’s partners.
“All of our partners get nervous,” said one of the sources close
to the management. Senior executives have had hundreds of
conversations to calm their colleagues since Vedomosti’s report
went to press.
These partners have been reassured, says the source. But
the broader public and investment community draw their
own conclusions — and as a rule they are negative.
Some say business rivals who are better connected than
Prokhorov are keeping the pressure on to scare him into selling assets cheaply. Others insist the headlines about Prokhorov
leaving Russia are meant to brand him as a deserter and sabotage his chances of returning to politics. One source with close
links to the Kremlin said: “He’s tired … His affairs here aren’t
going well, there is huge pressure, it’s time to close shop.”
Whether true or not, all of that has an effect on the investment climate. “The whole business community gets
very worried when a big businessman loyal to the Kremlin is
forced out or persecuted,” says Anders Aslund, an economist
and Russia specialist at the Atlantic Council in Washington.
Prokhorov wouldn’t be the first to leave. In fact, he and
his erstwhile partner Vladimir Potanin are the last of the
big 1990s oligarchs to remain more or less full-time in Russia. Some, like Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky, were
forced to flee by political pressure. Others, such as Mikhail
AlexAndRA KRASnOvA / ITAR-TASS
SeRgeI KARPUKHIn / ReUTeRS
People
who know
Prokhorov
say he’s calm,
relaxed and
wants to stay
in Russia,
where he
spends 95
percent of his
time.
Presidential
candidate
Mikhail
Prokhorov
(center) during a basketball training
session in
October 2012.
Fridman and Roman Abramovich, have simply diversified
overseas.
People who know Prokhorov say he’s calm, relaxed and wants
to stay in Russia, where he spends 95 percent of his time.
But the mood outside is different. One Russian online newspaper reader left a comment under the report that Prokhorov
was selling. “The spiders in the jar are at each other’s throats,”
the comment read.
Many others are likely to see it in the same way. TMT
Russian Tales
The Moscow Times
No. 5762
2013
“We understand that [hyperloop
projects] are the future” Maxim
Sokolov, Russian transport
minister.
elon Musk comes up with
the concept of Hyperloop.
30Bln rubles
“As the director of a transport
institute, I find Hyperloop humorous.”
Mikhail Blinkin, professor at
Moscow’s Higher School of Economics
The supposed cost of a
70-kilometer Hyperloop
track in Russia’s Far east.
HyPeRlooP one
6
Pipe Dream
By Peter Hobson [email protected] | Twitter: @peterhobson15
Anxious to jump on the innovation bandwagon, Russia may become
the first to trial 700mph Hyperloop technology.
I
n mid June, Shervin Pishevar, co-founder of Hyperloop One,
sat under the high, decorated ceiling of a palace in St. Petersburg.
Men in suits lined the large, rectangular table. “Eighteen
heads of sovereign [wealth] funds and President [Vladimir] Putin.
$10 trillion in the room,” Pishevar wrote alongside a photo posted on Facebook. “Then Putin called on me.”
So Pishevar, a burly, bearded Silicon Valley entrepreneur, began to speak. He talked about the Hyperloop trains his company
plans to build: Transportation pods levitated by magnets inside
an airless tube that could travel at speeds 300 kilometers per
hour faster than a passenger aircraft, thanks to the low air resistance. Pods that could whisk goods through Russia from China to
Europe in the space of hours, or turn St. Petersburg into a suburb
of Moscow.
Putin listened attentively. Then, according to Pishevar,
he said, “Hyperloop will fundamentally change the global
economy.”
By the time Pishevar left Russia, Hyperloop One had signed
its first deal with a foreign government, a partnership with Moscow’s City Hall. It had also been asked by Russia’s transport minister to design a 70-kilometer Hyperloop track in the Russian Far
East.
With that kind of support, perhaps the first Hyperloop won’t
be built in California, but in Russia.
Dreaming of Innovation
At first sight, all that seems strange. Russia, after all, is suffering its deepest economic crisis for nearly two decades. Much of
its infrastructure is hopelessly backward. It is a country in which
passengers in slippers shuffle between bunk beds in overnight
trains that travel at average speeds of just over 50 kilometers an
hour. Freight trains, meanwhile, move at a little over 10 kilometers per hour.
But there are a few things working in Hyperloop’s favor.
First, innovation has once again become a buzzword in government. Officials are, at least in theory, keen to diversify away
from the oil and gas industry on which the country currently
relies. And they are paranoid that Russia could fall so far behind
the technological innovation happening elsewhere that it will
never catch up.
That fear has sprouted strategic plans for major infrastructure
investment and research into the technology of the future. These
plans think big: On the agenda are things like quantum computing, neural interfaces and teleportation. Hyperloop, with its science-fiction-movie tube trains, fits perfectly into that vision.
Second, Hyperloop has a powerful Russian investor lobbying
its interests, a Dagestani tycoon called Ziyavudin Magomedov.
Tall, handsome and worth $900 million, Magomedov is a true
techie. According to Forbes, for his 47th birthday party last year,
he hosted a robot-themed ball and gifted each guest a book about
Elon Musk, the billionaire inventor who in 2013 launched the Hyperloop concept.
Like Putin, he is emphatically excited about the idea. “It will
kill truck and air transportation at a minimum,” he told Forbes.
Magomedov is also supremely well connected. His investment
company, Summa Group, spans businesses from real estate to logistics and has handled orders from state companies worth billions of dollars. He has advised the president and allegedly paid
for Putin’s press secretary to honeymoon last year on a super
yacht in the Mediterranean. One of Russia’s deputy prime minsters, Arkady Dvorkovich, is an old university friend and, conveniently, oversees the country’s policy on transport, innovation
and industry policy, though the two deny any favoritism.
Magomedov invested in Hyperloop One through his $300 million venture capital fund, Caspian VC Partners, and set about
bringing it to Russia. Bill Shor, the Russian-speaking American
who runs Caspian for him, describes him as “very hands on.”
Magomedov has played the role of Hyperloop One’s deal broker. His Summa Group was a co-signatory on the agreement between Hyperloop One and the Moscow Government, which will
create a working group aimed at fitting Hyperloop technology
into Moscow’s transport system.
He likely also played a major role in pushing for a Hyperloop
to span the 70 kilometers between the Chinese industrial center
of Jilin and Zarubino, south of Russia’s Vladivostok, where Summa is investing in port facilities.
Both projects have been billed as revolutionary. In heavily
congested Moscow, which is currently ploughing huge sums
into expanding its transport infrastructure, Hyperloop One says
its technology could potentially “give capital region commuters
weeks of their lives back.”
The link with Jilin, meanwhile, would carry 10 million tons of
cargo a year, zipping containers to port in minutes, says Russian
Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov. He wants Hyperloop One to
present a design for the track at an investment forum in Vladivostok in September.
Tapping Into China
The third thing playing in Hyperloop’s favor in Russia is that it
could unlock vast amounts of Chinese investment.
The Jilin-Zarubino spur is just the beginning. In the longer
term, Hyperloop could create “the heart of the transport infrastructure for the Eurasian landmass,” says Shor. The technology
will likely be used for freight before it begins to transport pas-
Continued on Page 11 →
Weekly round-up of all
that’s new, delicious and
fun in Moscow.
Using the
freshest
ingredients
available, chef
Denis Calmis
prepares dishes that draw
diners’ attention to natural
flavors rather
than culinary
tricks.
AKADEMIA
Out & About
7
July 7 – 13, 2016
Akademiya by Denis Calmiś Does a Star Turn
By Valerie Kipnis [email protected]
A
Russian-Mediterranean-South Asian cuisine packs a flavor punch
kademiya by Denis Calmiś, former headchef of the Garage café, serves up an
innovative take on old favorites.
The hard part is defining what those favorites are. The cuisine is an artful balance of classic Russian flavors with Mediterranean and
Indian sauces and spices. Here you can find a
nonstandard but delicious borscht with white
beans and mushrooms (400 rubles), as well as
juicy ceviche (620 rubles) and baked vegetables
with sea salt and hummus (480 rubles).
There are never more than eight options
in each section of the menu, intentionally
done to guarantee the offerings are always
seasonal. The ingredients are sublimely fresh
and their natural flavors are allowed to shine
through.
Spices or sauces never overwhelm, and by
an infusion of flavor or an unexpected sprinkle
of nuts, the dishes feel healthy, but not selfconsciously virtuous. Portions are generally
medium sized, and you leave the meal feeling
full, but never guilty.
For breakfast — which seems to be very
social-media-friendly among the Instagram
community — the apple pancakes with mascar-
pone, maple syrup and blueberries seem to be a
huge hit, judging by the number of snap-happy
diners.
Among the starters, go for the tandoori
chicken with yogurt and fennel, a crowd-pleaser that also doubles as a main dish if you are
not too ravenous. Salads are also incredibly
simple yet flavorful, like a zucchini salad with
lavender-infused olive oils, fresh peppers, walnuts and blue cheese (480 rubles).
The star of the main dishes is salmon cooked
in coconut (850 rubles). The classic flavors of a
tom yum broth compliment the fresh salmon,
and the hot peppers add a nice kick to the noodles hiding underneath.
The children’s menu is also a nice touch,
with macaroni and cheese (420 rubles) as well
as the traditional Russian cutlets (500 rubles)
and steamed salmon (500 rubles).
The interior is modern and sleek, waiters are
attentive and food is served at a brisk pace. All
in all, this is an excellent addition to the restaurant-rich Patriarch’s Pond neighborhood. TMT
+7 (495) 697 8978
www.academiya.ru
2/6 Bolshaya Bronnaya. Metro Tverskaya
FARSH BURGERS2
CIDERELLA
SHIROKUYU
RINOK I OBSHCHEPIT SHUK
NEWS & OPENINGS
Ciderella
Cider just off Red Square
Shirokuyu na Shirokuyu
Excellent Serbian fast food
Rinok i Obshchepit Shuk
Mediterranean with an Israeli twist
Farsh Burgers2
+7 (985) 077 0318
https://www.facebook.com/ciderellatapas
11 Nikolskaya Ulitsa
Metro Okhotny Ryad, Lubyanka
+7 (499) 408 2827
https://www.facebook.com/shirokayabar
10/5 Krivokolenny Pereulok
Metro Turgenevskaya, Lubyanka
+7 (495) 966 2501
facebook.com/rynokshuk
7 Veskovsky Pereulok. Metro Novoslobodskaya
+7 (499) 251 0029
instagram.com/farsh_burgers2
26 Gruzinsky Val, Bldg.1. Metro Belorusskaya
You can find the largest selection of cider in the
capital at a new place named Ciderella. Co-founded by the Shchedrin company, it always has four
types of Shchedrin ciders on tap, including a rare
ginger cider and a seasonal cider that changes
every other week (250 rubles). There are bottled
ciders from all over the world, including German
apfelwein — non-carbonated cider (300 rubles).
Although the staff is rather slow, the food at this
new Serbian cafe is excellent. It’s semi-fast food
that you order at the bar. Try pleskavitsa, a Serbian burger served with mustard, pickles and other
condiments (350 rubles with cheese). Try the five
kebabs called chevapchichi (350 rubles) or chopsky salad with Serbian cheese (300 rubles). The
coffee, lemonade and infusions are good as well.
Take it and go!
Restaurateur Eugene Katznelson, known for
the Brothers Karavayevy chain, has a new take
on Israeli market food. The menu of Rinok and
Obshchepit Shuk (Jewish Market and Fast Food)
is simple and reasonably-priced. Try the roasted
eggplant with yogurt and salsa (305 rubles) and
roasted cauliflower with green tahini sauce (260
rubles). The restaurant feels like a bustling market.
Portions are huge, so consider sharing.
Burgers at Belorusskaya
Treat yourself to some of Moscow’s best ground
beef at Farsh Burgers2 near the Belorusskaya
metro station. Try their classic cheeseburger (250
rubles), or get adventurous with the bigger and
better signature cheeseburger, the Guy from
Bryansk (350 rubles). Vegetarians can enjoy the
Butcher’s Daughter falafel burger. Garnish with
fries, a beer and good company in this slightly
calmer younger sibling of Farsh Burgers.
Four pages packed with the best places in Moscow to eat, drink, walk, shop, listen, watch, dance and sightsee.
A new walking route and listings every week! Take it, use it, save it!
8
Walking Route
The Moscow Times
No. 5762
6. Keanu
Head back toward Malaya Bronnaya and you will see another
crowd in front of the open windows of Keanu. The food at
this Korean-styled cocktail bar is not the draw. It’s the drinks,
which are truly outstanding. Try the Keanu, a rum-based
cocktail with redcurrant and sake infused with goji berries and
barberries, or the Spice Island, vodka infused with ginseng and
white vermouth. Specialty shots are also popular, especially
the Monk on Rollerblades (1,000 rubles for a set of four shots)
based on Korean soju vodka mixed with gin and orange bitter
liqueur.
28 Ulitsa Malaya Bronnaya
7. Klava
Right next door to Keanu is Klava, the place for dancing in
Patriki. The first thing you notice at the entrance is a cluster
of disco balls shimmering in the dark. The rest of the ceiling is
decorated with chandeliers fit for a ballroom. People dance everywhere, including on top of the speakers. The crowd has the
same people you saw at Uilliam’s and Keanu earlier, the music
is decidedly retro, both Russian and Western pop. If you still
need a drink, try the Bloody Klava, a local version of the classic
cocktail Bloody Mary (550 rubles), or the gin-based Sugar Klava
if you have a sweet tooth. We’ll leave you here to dance the
night away.
26/1 Ulitsa Malaya Bronnaya
6
7
5. Calicano
5
Bolshoi Patriarshy Pereulok
Walk down Malaya Bronnaya Ulitsa to Patriarch’s Pond and
turn left on Bolshoi Patriarshy Pereulok. Just past the pond on
the left is Calicano, conceived as a Mexican-Californian style
restaurant where you get the best of both worlds. Try the taco
with breaded shrimp (230 rubles) or bruschetta with shrimp
ceviche (270 rubles). For the main, go for chicken tikka masala
(590 rubles) or chicken quesadilla (590 rubles). Cocktails here
have a distinctive Mexican flavor, like Old Fashioneds made
with tequila (550 rubles).
4 Bolshoi Patriarshy Pereulok
Pub Crawl in Patriki
A Restaurant Map of
Patriarch’s Ponds (“Patriki”)
By Andrei Muchnik [email protected] | Illustration by Evgeny Tonkonogy
A week’s worth of dining recommendations
in the city’s most restaurant-rich neighborhood
Ulitsa Malaya Bronnaya
4
Patriarch’s Pond At Night
all-night walk
Tryokhprudnyy Pereulok
9
1. AQ Chicken
We start this walk at Pushkin Square. Walk along Tverskaya
Ulitsa away from the Kremlin, turn left on Mamonovsky
Pereulok and walk to the T-intersection. AQ Chicken will be on
your right. You can’t miss it: just look for the pile of huge white
eggs in front. This is the second restaurant by Spanish chef
Adrian Quetglas, and the main ingredient in all the dishes
(except for desserts) is chicken. Try Guinea fowl salad with
apricot, eggplant and hummus (490 rubles) or AQ’s specialty —
chicken liver dressed to look like an egg in a coconut milk shell
(520 rubles). For the main dish, order the AQ cutlet, a new take
on traditional Chicken Kiev (670 rubles), or chicken Stroganoff
with polenta (760 rubles). Wash it all down with something
from the varied wine list, starting from 390 rubles per glass.
11/13 Tryokhprudny Pereulok, Bldg 2
1
Maly Kozikhinsky Pereulok
2. Pinch
After you leave AQ Chicken, turn right and walk down
Tryokhprudny Pereulok until the T-intersection with Bolshoi
Palashyovsky Pereulok. Turn right, and after a block you’ll see
Pinch on the ground floor of a beige building on the left. Pinch
is famous for its impeccably served starters created by the Italian chef Luigi Magni, whose experience in Japan significantly
influenced his cooking. Try the omelet with black truffles and
homemade ricotta (600 rubles) or ravioli soup with octopus
(450 rubles), or perhaps the chicken liver pate with plums
(550 rubles). Pinch is also a great place to try some artisanal
cocktails, like Art of War (a version of the Manhattan cocktail
at 600 rubles). The First Episode (650 rubles) is slightly more
complex, made with a locally produced drink made of Grey
Goose vodka infused with apples and chokeberries.
2 Bolshoi Palashyovsky Pereulok
Bol. Palashevsky Pereulok
2
3
3. Saxon + Parole
4. Uilliam’s
Continue down to Malaya Bronnaya and turn left. Just past the
intersection you’ll see Uilliam’s, or rather the crowd in front,
smoking and sipping their drinks. Good for a quick snack and
a glass of Prosecco (from 600 rubles) or a full dinner, Uilliam’s
was the first joint venture of Italian chef Uilliam Lamberti
and restaurateur Ilya Tutenkov. The restaurant’s absolute hit
is crab bruschetta with slightly mashed avocado (850 rubles).
This season’s specialty is duck confit — a whole leg served with
fried cauliflower (950 rubles). Wash it down with trademark
Aperol spritz (550 rubles) or ginger and cucumber lemonade
(550 for a liter).
20A Ulitsa Malaya Bronnaya
Bolshoi Palashyovsky Pereulok changes its name to Spiridonevsky right after Pinch, so although Saxon + Parole is
located in the next building down the lane, it has a different
address. Saxon + Parole is a sister restaurant of Saxon + Parole
in New York City’s trendy NoHo district that serves contemporary American cuisine. Burgers are great here (750 rubles),
as well as Portobello mushroom pate with whisky jelly (390
rubles). Saxon + Parole organizes occasional P.I.G. nights, allyou-can-eat feasts that you need to book in advance, as well as
cocktail nights, where you can learn how to make one of the
signature cocktails and leave it at the bar in a signed bottle for
future imbibing. There are also visiting bartenders, performing
their magic only for a couple of nights. For instance, on July
7-8 you will be able to catch Eben Freeman from New York’s
Genuine Liquorette.
12/9 Spiridonevsky Pereulok
Out & About
The Moscow Times
No. 5762
Martyn Jones, lawyer
Liga Pap on Bolshaya Lubyanka is definitely the best place to watch sports in Moscow.
They can show a few different matches at the same time and are always accommodating
when we ask them to show the cricket! The food is really good too, especially the fajitas.”
Moscow Riviera
Dreaming of the French Riviera but lacking the funds to jet off into the sunset?
The Shore House Yacht Club could be just
the ticket. This luxurious resort has really
succeeded at bringing a touch of Mediterranean glamor to Moscow. Boasting a
sparkling clean pool, relaxing loungers, a
VIP area and — if you’re feeling particularly regal — outdoor mattresses, the Shore
House Yacht Club is the ideal spot to soak
up the sun, sip on prosecco and experience
a little bit of the high life. Celebrating a
special occasion? Why not go all out and
hire one of their pavilion tents for your
party? A range of bars and restaurants cater to different tastes while each weekend
Chaika
Something for everyone
The Chaika sports complex near the Park
Kultury metro station is the most central
spot in the city to catch some rays and take
a dip in the open air this summer. Four
The Bassein
Hip beach club vibes
Located in Sokolniki Park, the Bassein (the
swimming pool) is one of the most popular places to swim, sunbathe and socialize
on long summer days in the city. The area
is bordered by tall trees —creating a very
natural feel — while a synthetic beach
brings a little bit of the tropics to this vast
Moscow park. The Bassein boasts Wi-Fi,
two heated swimming pools and plenty
of recliners, while a children’s swimming
pool caters to the younger crowds. Those of
a sporty persuasion can try their hand at
volleyball, table tennis, frisbee, aerobics or
perhaps take a jog around the park before
cooling off with a dip in the expansive
pool. As evening approaches, the place fills
up with the partying crowd. People swarm
to the bar, dance as DJs spin discs and then
jump in the pool for a starlit swim. Entry
costs between 400-600 rubles for a session
or 1,400 rubles for the whole day.
Sokolniki Park
park.sokolniki.com/activities/3
1/1 Sokolnichesky Val
Metro Sokolniki
Port at VDNKh
Escape the heat
Now into its second year, Port at VDNKh
offers Muscovites a beach holiday experience in the sprawling grounds of VDNKh.
The recreational center is located between
pavilions eight and nine and operates on
a time-based system — on entry you are
given a smart bracelet and at the end you
pay for the duration of your visit. The complex spans 1.5 hectares and offers a diverse
array of attractions. Four swimming pools,
four beach volleyball courts, a relaxation
area packed with sun loungers and even a
jacuzzi have made the area a hit with locals. At a loose end after your swim? Table
tennis, an exercise area and an illuminated
luzhniKi
dance floor should provide plenty of entertainment. Order a mojito from one of the
three on-site bars and feel the stress of city
life fade away. Entrance costs 700 rubles.
VDNKh
vdnh.ru/en/events/sports/port-at-vdnh
119 prospekt Mira
Metro VDnKh
Luzhniki
Sporty, modern complex
This popular outdoor pool complex opens
every June to the delight of sporty Muscovites across the city. There is a larger
sports pool for laps and a smaller pool
for those simply looking to take a relaxing dip. Plenty of sun loungers border the
pools so you can relax in the sun or enjoy
people watching after you’ve taken a dip.
The whole area is modern, clean and very
trendy. Food trucks, huge comfy bean bags
and even an on-site sports training center
offer plenty of entertainment for those less
interested in swimming. You could easily
spend a whole day exploring the complex
and picnicking with views of the Moscow
River. Fees range from 800 rubles to 5,000
rubles, depending on the perks and length
of stay. You may have to go for the weekend
all-day package (1,500 rubles). Come for a
swim, stay for the atmosphere.
Luzhniki Sports Complex
aqua-luzhniki.ru
24 luzhnetskaya naberezhnaya
Metro Vorobyovyiye Gory,
Sportivnaya
StocKSnap
Shore House Yacht Club
there is a special children’s program with
entertainers and supervised play areas. A
weekday pass including entrance, towels
and a sun lounger will set you back 1,000
rubles. At the weekend — 2,000 rubles. It’s
not cheap, but it’s the closest you’re going
to get to St. Tropez in Moscow.
Shore House Yacht Club
shore-house.ru
66th km MKaD
Metro Myakinino
chaiKa SportS coMplex
Shore houSe Yacht club
Whether you’re looking to get in shape, pining for a cocktail and a sun lounger or desperately seeking ways to keep the kids entertained over the next couple of months, Moscow
has an outdoor pool for you. Dive in to our list of the best spots around the city for exercise,
relaxation and partying — all in the fresh air.
SoKolniKi
Fancy a Dip? Moscow’s Best Open Air Pools
heated swimming pools cater to sporty
and not so sporty sun-seekers, while the
children’s pool is the perfect place for little
ones to practice their front crawl before
taking part in one of the frequent swimming competitions hosted by the complex.
An artificial beach, a mini-golf area and
an exercise zone provide plenty of options
for those looking to make a day of it. If
you’re feeling particularly indulgent, slip
into the sauna afterwards. Chaika also has
a number of English-speaking sports and
swimming instructors. Two hours at the
complex will cost around 1,000 rubles, but
consider investing in a membership card
for a considerable discount.
Chaika Sports Complex
chayka-sport.ru
3 turchaninov pereulok, bldg. 1
Metro park Kultury
VDnKh
luzhniKi
10
Neptune
If you’re serious about swimming
If you live in the northeast of the city or
are a serious swimmer who likes to gulp
in fresh air, the Neptune pool is for you. It
has two outdoor pools, one 50 meters long
with eight lanes and one measuring 25
meters with six lanes. It’s open from very
early in the morning — Mon. to Sat., 6:45
a.m. and Sun. from 7:30 a.m. — and stays
open late enough in the evening (Mon. to
Sat. until 10 p.m. and Sun. until 8:30 p.m.)
for workaholics who need to unwind after
a tough day at the office. And it’s affordable
at 300-350 rubles a session, less if you buy a
package. They conduct a variety of classes
for adults and kids, including water polo,
and have a small fitness center for a preswim workouts and sauna for post-swim
relaxation. The only slight hitch is that you
need a doctor’s certificate of health to be
allowed entry. But otherwise, this is one
of Moscow’s great secrets: an affordable,
Olympic-size, outdoor swimming pool.
Don’t tell anyone.
Neptune
swimcenter.ru/pools/moscow/216
30 ulitsa ibragimova
Metro Semyonovskaya
Russian Tales
“We have the technology, we
know how to do it.” Anatoly
Zaitsev, Russian Hyperloop
engineer.
July 7 – 13, 2016
1,200
kilometers per hour —
supposed Hyperloop speed.
“Hyperloop could catalyze the
development of regional economic
integration.” Ziyavudin Magomedov,
Russian investor in Hyperloop One.
$100M
11
has been raised by U.S.
company Hyperloop One to
develop the technology.
From Moscow to St.Petersburg in 1hr30
Source: Hyperloop One
patricj t. FaLLON / rEUtErS
sengers. And the route between China and Europe is one of the
world’s busiest trade arteries.
The distance between China’s eastern edge and Central Europe is some 7,000 kilometers. Freight currently navigates that
distance by train in around three weeks and by sea in roughly
two months. In theory, a Hyperloop could span it in six hours.
Beijing has committed tens of billions of dollars to its “One
Belt-One Road” plan to create new infrastructure between it
and Europe. Russian authorities have their eyes on some of that
money.
Sokolov says he will discuss the Jilin Hyperloop with China’s
transport minister at a meeting in August and hopes “we’ll take
the next step [in this project] together with our Chinese partners.”
Also, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), a $10 billion state-backed investment vehicle, invested in Hyperloop One
earlier this year. The amount was “very modest,” according to its
chief, Kirill Dmitriev, But the RDIF also happens to run a joint investment fund with China worth $2 billion.
China is already helping to pay for a planned trans-Siberian
high-speed rail line that could cost more than $200 billion. Hyperloop’s advocates say their technology be cheaper. According to
Sokolov, the Jilin-Zarubino line will cost around 30 billion rubles
($450 million) — almost one-third less than a high-speed rail
equivalent. “We must be serious about this idea,” he insists.
Where’s the Money?
But for all the enthusiasm, few in Russia are prepared to put
down real investment just yet.
Hyperloop One is working “very closely” with the Transport
Ministry, as well as local governments and “some of the largest
Russian corporates,” says Shor. These reportedly include Rus-
sian railways and Gazprom, two giant state corporations. But these partners are contributing
expertise and access, not money. All the cash is
coming from Hyperloop One and Magomedov’s
Summa, which Shor says has “invested quite a
bit of resources, financial and otherwise.”
Even Putin, who in St. Petersburg promised support to Hyperloop One, wasn’t talking
about financial support, his spokesman later
clarified.
The problem is that while the Hyperloop
concept is compelling, no one has yet worked
out how to build one. Russia seems content to
wait for the technology to prove itself with other people’s money.
Elon Musk
proposed
the Hyperloop concept
in 2013 as
a mode of
transportation
between Los
Angeles and
San Francisco,
California.
The Local Contender
It might come as a surprise to discover that one of those working
on the technology is Russian. Indeed, it turns out that Russian
scientists were on to Hyperloop long before Elon Musk.
A century ago, before it was derailed by
World War I, scientists in Siberia began working
“It’s like a tube
on a similar scheme, says Sokolov. Now, at St.
with an airPetersburg’s University of Transport and Comhockey table.
munications, the project has been reborn.
It’s just a lowAnatoly Zaitsev is an engineer who was
pressure tube,
briefly transport minister in the 1990s. At his
with a pod in
it that runs on lab on the Baltic coast, his team of around 20
people have equipment that can levitate transair bearings
port containers. He says he could “absolutely”
[…] I swear
build a levitation track to Moscow, 650 kilomeit’s not that
ters away, if you give him $12-13 billion — sighard,” said
nificantly less than the cost of high-speed rail.
Elon Musk in
2015.
The only part of Musk’s plan Zaitsev says
he hasn’t figured out is how to put his levitating pods in a tube. But that’s the simple part,
he insists, “like dressing [the train] in a dinner
jacket.”
Zaitsev thinks his technology is more developed than that of
his rivals, whose plans remain mostly on paper. Both Shor and
Sokolov praise his work. But despite that, Zaitsev is largely ignored by the ministers and local governments now courting Hyperloop One.
The reason why ultimately comes down to money. Hyperloop
One has raised more than $100 million to fund research, pilot
projects and investor outreach.
Another California company, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, is also rubbing shoulders with big investors. One of its
executives has said it is talking with a Russian private investor
and is looking at Hyperloop projects in Russia. Its chief, Dirk Ahlborn, also met Putin in St. Petersburg in June.
HypErLOOp ONE
← Continued from Page 6
These companies can fund relentless global expansion, and
they benefit from Silicon Valley’s sheen of success. Russian officials can engage with them at no cost to themselves. No wonder,
Zaitsev laughs, that “when a foreigner shows up in Russia at the
invitation of a resident billionaire, the music and dances start.”
“The Americans are better at getting money,” he says. “I tip
my hat to Musk and his followers who so boldly and aggressively
offer the world unfinished technology.” By contrast, Zaitsev has
enough money to keep his lab operational, and not much more.
If Hyperloop is eventually built, it is unlikely to be Russian-made.
Revolution?
But if Hyperloop really is the future of transport, and Putin
jumps on board early, it could be a visionary move.
“Russia has a very good chance [of being the first place to develop Hyperloop],” says Shor. If the government acts quickly on
regulation, he says it could happen in the next few years. That
could put the country at the forefront of a transport revolution.
On the other hand, the whole thing could be a pipe dream.
No one knows if the technology can be made cheaply enough to
implement.
Russia, meanwhile, still lacks both money and many basics
of a modern transport system, says Mikhail Blinkin, head of the
transport institute at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics and
an advisor to the Transport Ministry.
Fifteen years discussing high-speed rail has led to a single line
between Moscow and St. Petersburg that travels less than 200
kilometers per hour. The country has only 5,000 kilometers of
modern expressways, says Blinkin — less than tiny South Korea
and not even enough to span Russia from east to west.
The government should focus more on practical improvements to the transport infrastructure and less on visions of
Hyperloop tubes criss-crossing the country, says Blinkin. Otherwise, he adds, the officials cheerleading Hyperloop are just
the latest versions of Marie Antoinette, the aristocrat who saw
French peasants without bread, and supposedly said, “let them
eat cake.” TMT
12
Living Here
“There are enough mosques for
the residents of Moscow.” Sergei
Sobyanin, mayor of Moscow,
in 2013.
The Moscow Times
No. 5762
2M
Muslims in Moscow. There
are 4 Mosques in the city.
“After the Soviet Union fell, Russia
discovered Islam with the Chechen
wars.” Ruslan Volkov, director of a
Islam-support foundation.
Most Muslims fast
between 11 and 16
hours every day
during the month of
Ramadan.
The largest mosque
in Europe
opened in
Moscow in
September
2015. It was
built on the
same territory
as a smaller
mosque
which dated
back to 1904.
Turned Out Onto the Streets
By Ola Cichowlas [email protected], Twitter: @olacicho | Photos by Charlotte Maxwell
Russia’s capital is home to more Muslims than any other European city except Istanbul,
but infrastructure is sorely lacking.
O
n Tuesday, July 5, Ramil Tokobekov awoke at 3 a.m.
so he could travel across Moscow to reach the city’s
Cathedral Mosque in time for 5 a.m. prayers.
Having moved from Kyrgyzstan three months ago, it
would be the first time the 25-year-old metro worker celebrated the end of Ramadan in Moscow, and he wanted
to do it right. The Eid al-Fitr holiday, after all, is one of the
most important dates in the Muslim calendar.
Tokobekov initially searched for a mosque closer to
home. But, as his friends explained, there were few good
options, and of them the central mosque, the largest in Europe, was probably best.
The Russian capital may be home to almost two million
Muslims — a greater number than any European city aside
from Istanbul — but there are only four mosques serving
the population.
Street Prayers
The opening of the 10,000 capacity glittering Cathedral
Mosque on Prospekt Mira last year was welcomed by Moscow’s Muslim community. But many of the city’s Muslims,
who make up the fastest growing and most ethnically diverse group in the city, have made clear they would prefer
to worship in local mosques, rather than travel long distances across the city.
“I have the energy to do that because I am young, but
others do not,” says Tokobekov.
Every effort to persuade Moscow’s authorities to build
more mosques has been rejected. Consequently, Moscow’s
Muslims are forced to pray outside in the streets, no matter the weather, as a result of the lack of space. “We have
up to 30,000 people praying outside, even during our bitter winters,” says Albir Khrganov, an activist who has lobbied for the construction of more mosques in the Russian
capital.
This is most visible during Friday prayers, when hundreds of Muslim men flood Bolshaya Tatarskaya Ulitsa
in Moscow’s historic center carrying prayer mats. Passing through metal detectors guarded by dozens of riot police officers, they line up within security fences. Traffic is
halted and loudspeakers carry an imam’s prayers down
the narrow street. Non-Muslim shop owners watch the
crowd struggling to fit within the designated area in the
heat outside. Only a tiny fraction of the men praying in
the street would be able to fit inside Moscow’s nearby Old
Mosque, which can barely be seen through the crowd.
Electoral Weapon
In the late 2000s, Moscow’s Muslims had more reason for
optimism. In 2009, the city’s mayor Yury Luzhkov supported an idea put forward by Russia’s Muslim Council to
build an additional six mosques in Moscow to cater for the
city’s growing Muslim population. Authorities assumed it
was safer to provide new mosques than allow more underground prayer rooms, which can turn into sources of radicalization, to flourish. “It is a form of control,” agrees Alexei Malashenko, a religion analyst who has long advocated
for the city to start building mosques.
When current mayor Sergei Sobyanin replaced Luzhkov
in 2010, he initially went along with these plans. But none
of these projects ever became a reality. One by one, the
construction of the mosques was dropped following protests of angry residents throughout the city.
In September 2010, locals collected 10,000 signatures
for a petition against building a mosque in southeast
Moscow’s Tekstilshchiki, one of the city’s most affordable
districts and home to a large number of migrants. Five
months later, the project was dropped. In 2012, authorities cancelled the building of mosque in Mitino, a district
in northeast Moscow, following demonstrations attended
by at least 2,000 people. The spontaneity of the demonstrations convinced authorities to back down.
Then came the run up to the Moscow mayor election
of 2013. The city’s economic migrants found themselves at
the center of an electoral campaign. During the economic
boom of the 2000s, Moscow had attracted more Central
Asian migrants than ever before and their arrival was accompanied by rising xenophobia. Muscovites also viewed
migrants from the Caucasus with increasing suspicion,
partly thanks to Putin’s special relationship with Chechnya’s warlord turned leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Rumors of
Kadyrov’s troops being based in Moscow and violent incidents involving Chechens — seen as immune to the law
thanks to their connection with Kadryov — only fueled antipathy toward migrants.
Both Sobyanin and his opponent Alexei Navalny responded to these fears with broadly xenophobic cam-
Living Here
“I wanted to make life easier for
Muslims who come to Moscow.”
Airat Kasimov, founder of the
Halal Group app.
13
July 7 – 13, 2016
14%
of Russia’s population are
Muslim, the second largest
religious group.
10,000
Moscow’s central Mosque was opened
in September 2015. President Vladimir
Putin, Turkish President Recep erdogan
and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas
attended the opening ceremony.
can fit inside Moscow’s
Cathedral Mosque.
← Three
students from
Tajikistan stay
up late on the
last Friday
before Ramadan, known
as the “Night
of Power.”
The word’s worTh
Don’t Mess With
Me, Punk
↓ A Central
Asian man
rests outside
Moscow’s
main mosque
following
afternoon
prayers.
← Women
praying on
the top floor
of Moscow’s
Cathedral
Mosque. The
Muslim community was
divided when
oligarchs from
the Caucasus
financed its
construction.
paigns. Shortly before the election, Sobyanin openly came
out against the construction of the mosques. He claimed
the demand for them did not come from local Muscovites
and that Moscow cannot build them for communities that
only reside in the city temporarily. “This is too much,” he
said, thus putting an end to plans initiated under his predecessor.
An Immigrant Land
Ruslan Volkov, director of Moscow’s Fund to Support Islamic Culture, says Muscovites do not want more mosques
because they see them as “markets” for Central Asian migrants. “It is where people meet, exchange information
and get jobs,” he says. Volkov, who is of Tatar heritage, says
that white Russians generally accept Tatar Muslims but
not those from Central Asia or the Caucasus. “We fought
with the Russians for centuries, we are united by blood,”
he says.
Malashenko thinks the antipathy toward Muslim migrants is only worsening. The latest generation of Central
Asians coming to Moscow is different from those in the
1990s and the early 2000s. “These are not post-Soviet people anymore,” says Malashenko.
Young Central Asians speak worse Russian than their
parents and, having shed their Soviet past more successfully, are instinctively more religious. They are also more
economically ambitious than their parents, he says, making them more of a threat for Muscovites, especially during an economic crisis.
Aisuk, a 49-year-old Tajik who declined to give his last
name, says the climate of acceptance has deteriorated
since he moved to Moscow in 1988. “In the 1990s, Russians
would come to the mosque out of curiosity. Now the riot
police blocks us off so they don’t come anymore,” he says.
Aisuk claims police pick up men outside the mosque at
Islam in Russia
Islam is the second most widespread religion in
Russia after Orthodox Christianity
The majority of Russian Muslims adhere to
the Sunni branch of Islam, with only 5 percent
identifying with Shia Islam
Muslims make up between 12 and 15 percent of
the Russian population
There are currently 8,000 functioning mosques
in Russia today
Moscow is home to only 4 mosques.
T
random and take them back to the police station, asking
for documents and, sometimes, bribes to get out. “There
they go again,” he says, as police cars circle around the
mosque after Friday prayers. “They come with dogs, we already feel like dogs in their cages,” he says, pointing at the
railings installed around the mosque.
Aisuk is also unhappy with the running of Moscow’s
new Cathedral Mosque. “There are more cameras in there
than in the Kremlin,” he jokes, adding that CCTV is in operation even in the toilets. He thinks Russia’s Muslim clerics have not done enough to lobby for the construction of
more mosques in Moscow, saying they often function as a
“business.”
21st-Century Solutions
Since the fight to build new mosques has been lost, Moscow’s Muslims are looking for alternative ways to solve
their lack of worshipping space. One initiative sought to
create outdoor mosques in the city’s parks, but even that
proved too much for the authorities.
Most recently, a Kazan-based entrepreneur crowdfunded a project to introduce mobile mosques in the city.
Airat Kasimov had already created an app called Halal
Guide, which helps Muslims find charities and halal food
in the Russian capital. He has now converted six trucks
into mini-mosques with built-in kitchens. He hopes he
will soon receive permission from Moscow’s authorities for
them to appear on city streets.
Kasimov says he came up with the idea while watching
fellow Muslims pray outside in the cold. He plans for the
mobile mosques to trot around Moscow’s business centers,
so that Muslim employees can find the time to pray without traveling across the city.
“If there are no mosques to go to, we will bring them to
you,” he says. TMT
Breakdown of where Moscow’s Muslims
come from
Tatars: Russia’s Tatars originate from the Volga
Region, Bashkortostan, Siberia and Crimea
Central Asia: Tajiks, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks and Kazakhs
Caucasus: Ingushetia, Dagestan, Azerbaijan
Africa/Middle East: a small minority of students
and expats who reside in the city
By Michele A. Berdy
Moscow-based translator and
interpreter, author of
“The Russian Word’s Worth” (Glas),
a collection of her columns.
How long have Muslims resided in
Moscow?
Moscow has long been a melting pot of cultures
and Muslims have resided in the city for centuries.
Tatars were present in the capital from the early
16th century and the oldest mosque still standing
in the city dates back to 1823. Like other religions,
Islam was suppressed during communist rule.
following the breakup of the U.S.S.R, Moscow
attracted economic migrants from post-Soviet
states in Central Asia and the Caucasus regions.
ime for a pop quiz! What is гаврик? a) a nickname for
Gavriil; b) a sleeping mat for dogs, a conflation of гав
(bark) and коврик (small rug); c) a silly person; d) a
hustler; e) all of the above; f) none of the above; g) some of
the above; h) will you just tell us already?
If you chose (g), you’re right, and very clever not to be
tricked by my fake dog etymology. If you chose (h), your
word is my command.
Гаврик is an odd word. Ask four people what it means
and you’ll get five answers. Гаврик seems to be young
or youngish person, usually male but not always; a kind
of goof-off; maybe not the sharpest knife in the drawer;
someone who isn’t the most honest fellow you ever met;
or someone who is just not serious. Our boy Гаврик might
be just one of those types or be all of them. Figuring out
which гаврик is meant in each situation is the first tricky
bit. The second is figuring out how to translate them.
Sometimes гаврики might be just “boys” with enough
context to indicate that they’re bad boys. Here гаврики are
kind of low-level street punks pushing into the territory of
a local crime boss: Павлик, твои гаврики хапнули винный магазин? Это с твоей стороны хамство, — грустно
вздохнул Александр. (“Pavlik, was it your boys who hit the
wine store? That’s way out of line,” Alexander said with a
sad sigh.) And here they’ll be up to no good: Мои гаврики
здесь по улицам пошустрят (My boys will be hustling on
the streets.) And in this case, the гаврик was caught: Опер
вдруг остремительно побагровел. — Слушай, гаврик! Ты
со мной не шути! (The detective suddenly turned purple
with rage. “Listen, you punk! Don’t play games with me!”)
In other contexts they are just guys, blokes, dudes —
the key word here being “just.” They aren’t anyone special.
Here is the head of a laboratory complaining: Подчиненных у меня — двенадцать гавриков, а за вином отправить некого. (I’ve got 12 blokes working under me and
there’s no one I can send out for wine.)
And then sometimes those gray men whom no one notices are not gray men at all: Дело в том, что те два гаврика, “фотографы”, оказались гэбэшниками (Actually,
those two nobodies — the photographers — turned out to
be KGB.)
The kind of гаврик that is hardest to translate is the
non-serious гаврик — the person who isn’t trying hard, or
doesn’t really care, or who just doesn’t cut it. On a translators’ forum, one participant wrote about serious translators and гаврики — slapdash translators who crank out a
romance novel over a weekend, never double check anything, and make up whatever they don’t understand. But
гаврики can be redeemed: Люди переходят из гавриков
в активные члены форума (Lightweights can turn into
active members of the forum.)
So people work with гаврики: Получил восемьдесят
“годных необученных” гавриков и должен был обучить
их военному искусству (I got 80 “able-bodied but untrained” know-nothings and I had to teach them the art of
war.) And sometimes they have success: Как ни странно,
мои гаврики оказались гораздо лучше, чем я предполагал (Strange as it seems, my twerps turned out to be much
better than I expected.)
So be nice to your local гаврик. He might turn out to be
president some day. TMT
YeVGenY PARfYOnOV
Гавриил: Gabriel
Tips for Life
pixabay
14
culture
What are Russians reading
this summer?
TMT: Beach books? Murder mysteries? Romances to be read on a chaise lounge at the
dacha? Not on your life! The people who
make up the most “readingest” nation on
earth are spending their summer reading
pretty serious stuff. Judging by the Moskva bookstore list of bestsellers this week,
they are reading a lot of fiction, both Russian and in translation. But the taste of the
Moscow reading public varies so wildly,
it’s hard to make any general conclusions.
The top ten list also includes books on history, literary criticism and current events,
broadly and generously defined.
At the top of this list this week is “Zu-
The Moscow Times
No. 5762
Advice, answers and
lifehacks to help you
enjoy Moscow.
lali,” a book of short stories by Narine Abgaryan, a Russian writer of Armenian
background who hit the charts a few years
ago with a trilogy of semi-autobiographical
works. These stories take place in a kind of
magical almost-Armenia.
In second place is the opposite in subject
matter, style, and time period: “Notes from
a Suitcase: the Secret Diaries of the First
Chairman of the KGB, Found 25 Years After
His Death.” That long, exciting title promises a long, exciting book of horrible revelations by Ivan Serov.
Third place is held by fiction again, this
time from the U.S.: Anne Tyler’s “A Spool of
Blue Thread.” But the book in fourth place
boomerangs back to Russia: “Wild Baron”
by the improbably named John Shemyakin,
a blogger who seems to have done everything from sail around the Pacific Ocean
to head up an oil refinery — and managed
to have a bunch of kids and make a pile of
money in his spare time. This is a collection of stories about some of his adventures
and people he met along the way.
There are two more foreign authors in
the top ten: Guy Mettan, a Swiss national
who wrote the book in seventh place: “Russia – the West: A War of a Thousand Years.
Russophobes from Charlemagne to the
Ukrainian Crisis”; and Gregory David Roberts, the Australian author of “Shantaram.”
His story of being a heroin addict and convicted bank robber who escaped prison and
fled to India, is in eighth place.
The tastes of the Russian reading public
are nothing if not eclectic.
The list is rounded off with two more
Russian novels and a volume of literary
criticism and biography, “The Thirteenth
Apostle. Mayakovsky. A Tragedy-Bouffe in
Six Acts” by the astonishingly prolific Dmitry Bykov, who apparently never sleeps and
can write faster than anyone on the planet.
The novels are Yevgeny Vodolaskin’s
“Aviator” and the award-winning “Zuleikha
Opens Her Eyes” by Guzel Yakhina.
No. 10 is Zakhar Prilepin’s account of
the war in the Donbass, “Everything That
Should Be Resolved … A Chronicle of Ongoing War.”
Now that’s some summer reading list.
Classifieds
July 7 – 13, 2016
Advertising. To place an ad, please contact Yulia Bychenkova
Tel.: +7 (495) 232 4774 [email protected]
15
What’s On
PUteSeStVie S OttSOM
16
Miffed Over MIFF
By Andrei Muchnik [email protected]
A couple dozen people crowded at the entrance to the movie hall where the screening of “Marie and the Misfits,” a French
dramedy and one of the competitors in the
official program of the Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF) was about to begin. The heat was stifling and the organizers kept saying that there were not enough
seats for everyone. Some people left, but
others kept waiting and were rewarded
with a chance to sit on one of the steps.
Then a commotion erupted: a French jury
member’s seat was occupied. The person
who took his place didn’t speak English or
French, and the jury member kept grumbling “merde.” After an intervention from
organizers, the jury member reclaimed his
rightful seat, but everyone felt somewhat
unwelcome.
The festival closed last Thursday, and the
main winners were Iranian director Reza
Mirkarimi, who received the top Golden
George award for “The Daughter”; Farhad
Aslani, who played the main role in the
same movie and won the best actor award;
and fifteen-year-old Therese ‘Teri’ Malvar,
The Moscow Times
No. 5762
See www.themoscowtimes.com
for more listings.
who won best actress for her performance
in Ralston Jover’s “Hamog.”
I have to confess that I have not seen these
movies; I gave up on MIFF after two days.
It was just too hard to deal with. Take the
pass system: There were several types of
passes, which gave the holder access to a
certain number of tickets, but they were
almost impossible to redeem because there
was always a line at the press center. Moscow is a big city, but do we really have that
many journalists writing about cinema?
Then there was the schedule, which often
had little to do with reality. I came to see
one movie only to discover that it was
being shown in the Chopard VIP lounge,
decorated in black with massive security guards hovering over tables covered
with caviar hors-d›oeuvres. I was told the
screening was by invitation only. Too bad
the schedule didn’t say that.
As a result, there is very little international
coverage apart from photos from the opening and closing and a list of winners. This
year’s coverage focused on Daniel Radcliffe
of “Harry Potter” fame lying down on the
red carpet in front of Rossiya concert hall,
reprising his most recent role of a corpse.
At this point, MIFF’s concept and agenda
are not clear. There are hardly any world
premieres of foreign films, but the festival
is not trying to promote Russian cinema
to an international audience either. There
are too many special programs with names
like “Sex, Food, Culture, Death” and various retrospectives that eclipse the main
competition.
Once MIFF was attended by stars like Federico Fellini and Elizabeth Taylor and was a
real event in the world of cinema. Now it’s
a minor event even by Russian standards.
Maybe by next year the organizers will
decide what they want the festival to be —
and hire better administrators. TMT
July 7 – 13
CONCERT Evening of Organ Music at
Kuskovo
Performances of Buxtehude, Bach, Handel
and Telemann in a magnificent courtyard on
the Kuskovo estate
Kuskovo Estate Museum
kuskovo.ru
2 Ulitsa Yunosti. Metro Novogireyevo, Vykhino
Fri. July 8 at 7 p.m.
CONCERT
Open Air Jazz
Outdoor jazz concert featuring harp and jazz
played by Anton Kotikov (saxophone, flute,
duduk, harmonica) and Maria Kulakova (harp)
Aptekarsky Ogorod Garden
www.hortus.ru
26 Prospekt Mira. Metro Prospekt Mira
Fri. July 8 at 8 p.m.
CONCERT
Opera. Jazz. Blues
Soprano Khibla Gerzmava and the Daniil
Kramer Trio perform Handel, Mozart,
Puccini, Verdi, Donizetti and Gershwin in the
VDNKh outdoor theater
VDNKh Zelyony Theater
Vdnh.ru
119 Prospekt Mira. Metro VDNKh
Sat. July 9 at 7 p.m.
FILM
Genius
Michael Grandage’s biopic of legendary
Scribner editor Max Perkins and his
relationship with Thomas Wolfe, Ernest
Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others,
starring Colin Firth, Jude Law and Nicole
Kidman. In English; Russian subtitles.
Pioner
pioner-cinema.ru
21 Kutuzovsky Prospekt. Metro Kutuzovskaya
July 7 at 5:15, 9:10 p.m. and 1 a.m.; July 8 at 1:30,
7:25 and 11:30 p.m.; July 9 at 11:40 a.m., 4 and 8
p.m., July 10 at 1:30 and 6 p.m.