Yoga in Russia: From ban to boomRead a philosopher and yoga practicioner's story P.08

Remembering the Great VictoryThis May marks the 65th anniversary of end of WWII

P.07

Terror detectors to the rescue What can society and sci-ence do to combat terror? P.02

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BANGALORE ● MuMBAI ● NEW DELhI ● WednesdaY, aPRIL 28, 2010

A Business Report from The Economic Times. In association with Rossiyskaya Gazeta

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...Marching towards a common future

KeVIn O’FLYnnspEcIALLy fOR RIR

a new space race is on as the balance of power shifts. The Us and Russia are competing as well as cooperating as emerging powers like India and China join the fray…

On April 2, the Soyuz TMA-18 lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying two Russians and one American to the International Space Station. Circling the planet, the crew will engage in intense cooperation, blithely indifferent to shifting power play on the ground.

new space race hots upexploration American astronauts are hitching a ride with the soyuz space programme

The leaders of the four top emerging economies, whose share in global economic devel-opment has exceeded 50 pc, in Russian President Dmitry Med-vedev’s words, pushed hard for reforms of the UN and Bretton Woods institutions and af-firmed the centrality of G20 as “the premier economic forum” to navigate the post-crisis re-covery period. Acting in concert

Russian-American space coop-eration has increased recently. But it’s becoming clear that Russia will fuel space explora-tion once again, while the US will increasingly rely on Mos-cow to take its astronauts into space.Nasa has long spent more money on more programmes than Russia’s space agency. But President Barack Obama has dampened Nasa’s dreams of re-turning to the moon. At the same time, the Russian space industry is once more feeling the warm glow of state backing. There has been con-certed investment in recent years, an investment that fits in

well with the Putin doctrine of trying to restore Russian pride through capacity. The Russian government has increased spending on the space industry by 40 pc for each of the past five years, spending just under $2.8 bn in 2009, Euroconsult reported. “It’s like night and day,” said Igor Lissov, editor of Novosti Kosmonavtiki (Cosmonautics News), comparing funding today with funding in the pe-nurious Nineties.Putin launched an initial $10 bn programme for the space in-dustry between 2006 and 2015. When Putin congratulated space industry workers in 2008

over issues of international governance, the summit pitched for including India and Brazil in an expanded UN Security Council.Iceland’s volcanic ash and an earthquake in China’s Qinghai province may have threatened to overshadow the Brasilia summit, but that did not come in the way of a striking conver-gence of views among the lead-ers of fastest-growing emerging economies. Indian Prime Min-ister Manmohan Singh, Rus-sian President Dmitry Medve-dev, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva held wide-ranging talks at Itamar-aty Palace, the imposing seat of the Brazilian foreign ministry.

on Cosmonauts’ Day, he called on them to pursue “really ambi-tious projects”.The US Constellation human-flight programme was designed, according to President George W. Bush, to “establish an ex-tended human presence on the moon” that would then lead to flights to Mars. Obama cut it from the 2011 budget as the fi-nancial crisis snowballed and programme expenditure soared. The government said that though Nasa has already spent $9 bn on it, the pro-gramme is “fundamentally un-executable”.

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ManIsh ChandspEcIALLy fOR RIR

The second BRIC summit ended in Brasilia with a clarion call for “a new international order” to accommodate the aspirations of rising powers in international decision-making structures.

BRICs Keen to strengthen the economic framework of the multipolar world

Rebuilding the world order

Twenty years ago, not many in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia’s fourth largest city famous for Volga car and 900-year-old traditional architecture, had even heard of heroin. If people wanted a little indulgence,

they turned to vodka. Now that period of innocence has ended as Nizhny, just as every other Russian city, has been swamped by the heroin tsunami that streams in from across the bor-der from poppy fields in Af-ghanistan.To get a sense of ravages wrought by heroin addiction, go and look at the staircases in the GAZ factory district, where unemployment is soaring and you will find them covered with syringes.

anna neMTsOVaNEWsWEEK cORREspONDENT

There are tens of thousands of drug-related deaths in Russia each year. Getting on top of the heroin problem means going back to the source in afghanistan.

hot issue us strategy in Afghanistan creates more drug addicts in Russia

Declaring war against Afghan drug

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www2.goldmansachs.com Goldman Sachs websitewww.skolkovo.ru Skolkovo Institute for Emerging Mar-ket Studies en.rian.ru/business RIA Novosti newswire

rebuilding the world order The Indian economist-turned-prime minister also made a vigorous case for a "multipolar, equitable, democratic and just world order" at the day long BRIC summit, which was ad-vanced by a day as Hu Jintao had to cut short his trip due a massive earthquake in China. “Brazil, Russia, India and China have a fundamental role to play in building that new in-ternational order that is fairer, more representative and safer,” said Lula, the host of the sec-ond BRIC summit. Medvedev said the meeting showed that the BRIC format is maturing “and allows us to not only co-ordinate our efforts, but also make concrete decisions".The joint declaration reflected this unanimity of views and stressed the group's intent to see a "multipolar, equitable and democratic world order", a formulation that is set to worry the US as it views group-ings like BRIC, which chal-lenges Western hegemony with suspicion. Seizing the initia-tive, the BRIC declaration called for “a comprehensive re-form of the UN, with a view to making it more effective, effi-cient and representative” and asked the G-20 to be proactive and formulate a coherent strat-egy for the post-crisis period. Reforming the architecture of international financial gover-nance, including the reform of the Bretton Woods institutions,

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Terror detectors to the rescue

what can science do to tackle terror problems? ? I must say, first of all, that tech-nical methods alone will not guarantee safety against terror attacks. A broader approach is needed, with a focus on detect-ing and eliminating the under-lying causes of the terror threat. Our counter-terror efforts will be in vain as long as the breed-ing grounds remain for the “re-production of the dissatisfied” who support national and reli-gious extremism. Another important aspect is to run ahead of time. Our goal was to ensure that under no circum-stances should nuclear and ra-dioactive materials fall into the

hands of terrorists, as well as poisonous substances, chemical and biological weapons. So far, we have been spared in this respect. We can’t do without interna-tional cooperation today as ter-rorists from different countries are sharing methods with each other. We have agreements with

the US National Academy of Sciences and the NATO Scien-tific Committee. We hold joint seminars and conferences with US special services, publishing joint reports. The level of confi-dence in such issues is quite high. I cannot say that every-thing is disclosed; this will never be. Personally, I was per-suaded by American colleagues that identification is one of the most effective means of pro-tecting society against terror. I cannot see anything else close in scale and efficiency. For ex-ample, personal cards with chips are very convenient, al-lowing their holders to board a plane, take a metro, pay in shops. And everything gets reg-istered.

it becomes easier to watch sus-picious people… Exactly. The American author-ities are prepared to produce 300 mn such cards for their cit-izens. In this respect, the US is

doing a huge job, and we are far behind. It is not about interna-tional passports with biometric data, though these are impor-tant, too. What really matters is that each person must have a personal card with an individ-ual chip.

do you support proposals for total fingerprinting of rus-sians? I support it. It does not breach any personal liberties. This is an artificial problem, because at stake is the protection of other people, not you yourself, but your neighbours, countrymen, and those who work beside you.

what about cctV cameras?I think they are not very help-ful. They are needed to capture events and people, but are not instrumental in preventing ter-ror attacks. Much more effec-tive will be a full identification of all movements and actions of

the twin suicide bombings in the moscow metro on march 29 killed 40 commuters and injured 121.

brics have a fundamental role to play in building a new in-ternational order that is fairer, more representative and safer.

the IMF and the World Bank, figured prominently in the dec-laration, a point stressed by Medvedev in an article ahead of the summit. “BRIC countries will be pushing for a success-ful accomplishment of the long overdue reforms of the Bretton Woods system now underway,” wrote Medvedev.The leaders of BRIC countries, which account for 20 pc of global GDP, focused a large part of their discussions on set-ting the pace and direction of global economic recovery.

Manmohan Singh, on his part, cautioned the world against complacency and pitched for closer collaboration in inter-ests of long-term recovery. The four leaders also decided to scale up economic coopera-tion across areas like food and energy security and under-lined the importance of main-taining relative stability of major reserve currencies and sustainability of fiscal policies in order to achieve a strong, long-term balanced economic growth.

Putting developmental aspira-tions of common people at the heart of their quadrilateral en-gagement, the BRIC summit, which was preceded by meet-ings of finance and agriculture ministers, governors of Central Banks and a Business Forum, also decided to scale up coop-eration in areas ranging from science and technology, food and energy security to trade and investment, pharmaceuti-cals and infrastructure. Some Western commentators have tended to decry the BRIC

as just another talk shop, but the first two summits have proved critics wrong with tan-gible achievements in the di-rection of the diffusion of power. The collective approach has helped BRIC to force a re-distribution of 5 pc of voting shares in the IMF and 3 pc in the World Bank in favour of emerging and developing countries at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh last year. While an ambitious plan to re-place the powerful US dollar with IMF’s SDRs, a pet theme

at the Yekaterinburg summit, has been dragging; the BRIC countries have decided to use more of their own currencies in mutual trade and invest-ment transactions. These dec-larations serve as pressure tac-tics on the world’s status quoits powers. The possibility of abandoning the US dollar was an attempt to put pressure on the world's leading powers, says Evgeny Yasin, head of re-search at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.“The four BRIC countries are developing a powerful and compelling critique of the cur-rent world order that reso-nates with people outside of the West, a critique coupled with fresh ideas for a new sys-tem of global economic and political governance,” writes Andrej Krickovic, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley and Adrian Pabst, a lecturer in politics at the Uni-versity of Kent. The two are part of an international proj-ect on BRIC 2025, a study of future scenarios for global politics from the perspective of the BRICs. From New Delhi’s point of view, the endorsement by the BRIC communiqué for a great-er role for India and Brazil in the UN has galvanised the stalled drive for expansion of the UN Security Council and finding permanent seats in the council for the emerging pow-ers. "BRIC countries are uniquely placed to contribute to reforming the architecture of global governance," said Manmohan Singh, encapsu-lating the emergence of BRIC as a formidable bloc in a multi-polar world.

aLexander emeLyanenkoVRoSSIySkAyA GAzEtA

what can society and science do to combat terror? rir spoke to eminent academic nikolai Laverov, for his views on this burning question of our terror-ridden time.

nikolai Laverov, VP of the russian academy of sciences.

people, including ticket pur-chases.

is it true that new “undressing” scanners appear in our airports, and some new detectors that we don’t even know about? You made the correct remark: it is not just unreasonable but simply dangerous to disclose such information. But I will

mention one thing. We ad-dressed the problem of control over the movement of nuclear and radioactive materials and proceeded to see our technical solutions implemented in prac-tice. You can be absolutely cer-tain, for instance, that no radio-active materials will be smuggled through the Shereme-tyevo Airport in Moscow.

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english.ruvr.ru Information from the Voice of Russiawww.mid.ru Russia’s Foreign Ministrywww.memo.ru/eng/memhrc/index.shtml Human Rights Watch Politics

Ask at Moskovskiy railway station, you will be surprised how quickly you can get a shot of heroine for $2.5, a cheaper pleasure than a bottle of vodka. The statistics are in-deed chilling: around 30,000 people in Russia died of heroin overdose last year; the author-ities link another 100,000 deaths to drug-related com-plications. “Afghan drug traffic is like a tsunami wave constantly breaking over Russia - we are sinking in it,” says Victor Ivanov, Director of Russia’s Federal Service for the Control of Narcotics. Little plastic bags with white powder travel across Central Asia in a thou-sand ingenious ways: smug-glers sneak them inside young onions or cabbages and let the vegetable grow around them. Or they come in handbags of passengers, spreading pain, disease and death along the way. To stop Russia from be-coming the world’s biggest consumer of Afghan heroin, Ivanov, the country’s top coun-ter-narcotics official, is deter-mined to root out this curse by attacking it at its root in Af-ghanistan.

Russia’s anti-drug drive in Af-ghanistan has, however, brought it into conflict with the Obama administration, which ended a military drive of destroying poppy crops as they thought it was alienating farmers and driving them to support the Taliban. Ivanov has often accused the Nato of not doing enough to curb the production of heroin in Af-ghanistan. Perceptions may differ, but clearly it is Russia, not the US, that is paying a heavy price. According to Ivanov, at least 120,000 drug users and deal-ers were sentenced to jail last year, filling Russia’s already crowded prisons. “We have beaten Guinness’ records; even in China, they put in jail 60,000 drug criminals. It is useless to fight the problem just on this territory,” he says grimly. In early March, Ivanov, called the Russian Drug Czar in the West, flew to Kabul with a group of journalists on a mis-sion to declare as loudly as pos-sible that Russia is returning to Afghanistan to fight again. This time round, he stressed, it will be against drugs.A Russian role in Afghanistan became important last sum-mer, when Russian President

Dmitry Medvedev and his US counterpart Barack Obama formed a presidential team to cooperate on a number of themes, the anti-drug cam-paign being one of them. Sub-sequently, Ivanov met his American counterpart, Gil Kerlikowske, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and this be-came the channel for Russia's expanded role in Afghanistan. Together, they agreed that con-sidering Russia’s unique expe-rience and knowledge of the country, Russia would help find drug dealers and land-lords growing poppies in Af-ghanistan. Despite initial dissonance on the issue, the two sides have common interests in stamping out poppy production: opium proceeds are funding Islamic insurgency not only in Central Asian countries and in Rus-sia’s North Caucasus, but also in Afghanistan itself.

In Kabul, Ivanov had a flurry of meetings with Afghan Pres-ident Hamid Karzai, Vice-President Karim Halili, and officials of the UN and NATO. In all his meetings, his mes-sage was sharp and clear: Rus-sia was coming back to help Afghanistan reconstruct some of 140 important sites, includ-ing the Naglu power station, Salang tunnel, factories and highways. Russian ambassa-dor in Kabul Andrei Avetisyan confirmed the Russian state’s intention to replace House of Science and Culture, ruined by Taliban’s shrapnel and cur-rently populated with home-less heroin users, with a chil-dren’s surgical hospital on the site. Let children’s hospital be-come the symbol for Russia-Afghanistan relations, the envoy said. The humanitarian reconstruc-tion effort was animated by an urgent mission to shield Rus-sians from the curse of Af-

ghan-origin drugs. “In this re-spect, the information we are going to provide is priceless,” Ivanov said at a meeting of a non-official international an-ti-drug council in Kabul. He suggested that the Interna-tional Security Assistance Force (ISAF) should use chem-icals to eliminate poppy plan-tations in Afghanistan by at least 20 pc, and not by less than 4 pc as it happened last year. But his suggestions were re-sented by the UN and NATO officials who argued errone-ously that it was up to Afghan-istan’s elected leaders to de-cide whether to take jobs away from opium farmers or not. This argument riled Ivanov no end. As he flew back to Mos-cow, he vented out his frustra-tion: “I hear the same cliches again and again. In eight years of the NATO’s presence in Af-ghanistan, the volume of drug production has increased by 40 times.” Ivanov was unspar-ing in his indictment. “And the declared purpose for the NATO presence in Afghani-stan does not come any closer, but on the contrary, is moving further away from stability.”Ivanov, however, pointed out that some NATO countries like Italy, France and Germany

shared Russia’s growing anxi-ety about the perils of un-checked production of poppy. They do treat drug traffic very seriously, Ivanov said.While politicians and military commanders try to thrash out their differences, back in Ni-zhny Novgorod thousands of heroin addicts continue to suf-fer. The scene is harrowing. Meth-adone is not used, and in older clinics, patients are sometimes chained, screaming, to a bed in the first days of withdrawal. About 80 patients came for treatment at the Exit rehab center, a chain of eight resi-dential clinics in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, in the barley fields and birch forests of the Russian countryside.After suffering through the worst days of pain, Exit’s pa-tients help each other learn how to handle daily chores and recover from psychological dependence. They chop fire-wood, cook their own meals and pray together with their priest, a former addict, Denis Zorin. Heroin is the world’s evil, says the priest. “It is com-parable to a chemical weapon, capable of destroying our so-ciety quietly without much noise.”

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declaring war against afghan drug

During the Nato presence in Afghanistan, drug production has increased by 40 times

Some Nato countries share Russia’s anxiety about the perils of unchecked production of poppy

drug addicts smoke hashish in an abandoned building in kandahar. afghan farmers cultivate poppy fields in the country’s kandahar Valley. afghanistan is the major source of heroin and other illegal narcotics flowing into russia.

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bookmarks04 Russia india RepoRtin association with rossiyskaya gazeta, russia tHe economic times wednesday_aPriL 28_2010cooperation

www.russianspaceweb.com News and history of as-tronautics in the USSRwww.esa.in The European Space Agency (ESA) www.isro.org Indian Space Research Organisation

Instead, the US will look to private companies to invest in future spacecraft. In the mean-time, US astronauts will hitch a lift on Russian spacecraft, a move that has Nasa support-ers crying foul.Russian academic Yury Zait-sev told Interfax news agency that he thought the US would be dependent on Russia to transport its astronauts until at least 2020. “In order to bring a craft to the standards of quality and safety for a piloted flight, you need years and years,” he commented.Nasa has signed a $335 mn contract with the Russian Fed-eral Space Agency (Roscos-mos) for US astronauts to fly to the ISS in 2012.The new spirit of cooperation is a far cry from the start of the space race in the Cold War era when space conquests of the USSR pushed the US to greater feats in s p a c e ,

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such as the first man on the moon in 1969.As Russia braces to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ga-garin’s first flight on Cosmo-nauts’ Day on April 12 in 2011, the year of the Russian cosmo-naut, Moscow however, must rethink its priorities, says Val-ery Kabusov, a former deputy head of Energiya, Russia’s rocket and space corpora-tion.And while both countries feel they are the frontrunners, their dominance may well be challenged in the next decade by India and China as they ramp up funding of their own programmes. The Chinese launched for the third time its Shenzhou VII spacecraft and also their first spacewalk in 2008, while India is planning a manned flight by 2014.Some astronauts and cosmo-nauts find nationalist rivalries

distracting.

Wouldn’t it be better if all space-exploring countries got together to send a human-flight to Mars?“I have thought all my life that a flight to Mars is a great op-portunity for humankind to move forward,” says Alexander Serebrov, who flew into space three times for the Soviet Union and once for Russia. “It has to be done through inter-national cooperation.”Meanwhile, the Russian gov-ernment has this year set aside 500m roubles ($17.2 mn) for the development of nuclear-pow-ered spacecraft, which could be used “for long-distance mis-sions to the moon and Mars”, explains Anatoly Perminov, head of Russia’s Space Agency, which is hoping that the new engines will be ready for use “within nine years”.Vitaly Lopota, head of the En-ergiya corporation, added that “the solar system could only be conquered on the basis of nu-clear energy”. Between 1970 and 1988, the Soviet Union sent 32 crafts into orbit that had thermo-electric nuclear-pow-ered engines. But nuclear-pow-ered spacecraft was outlawed by a series of international treaties in the Eighties due to fears of their potential collapse. Russian space officials now hope the treaties can be re-ex-amined amid global plans for more long-distance space mis-sions. Lopota assures that nu-clear spacecraft would not be sent “to orbits from which they could fall to the earth”.

33was Russia’s record number of space launches, achieved in 2009 - 43 pc of all launches carried out in the world. In 2010–2011, Ros-cosmos plans 43 launches.

4thplace occupies Russia in the world’s table of spending on space ($2.8 bn). In 2009, the USA spent $18.8 bn, the European Space Agency - $5.3 bn, china - $3.1 bn.

the numbers

in@rbth.ru in.rbth.ru/lettersTelecommunications in Russia: state and development trends

marching hand in hand in outer space

maxim suraev is the first-ever russian to blog online from orbit. you can read his blog on the roscosmos' website

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After talks between their prime ministers on March 12, Russia and India announced a joint space mission by 2013. “Our In-dian partners have asked us to launch two spaceships with two cosmonauts,” said Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, also in-charge of space affairs. The mission was earlier sched-uled for 2015, but the talks fast-tracked the plan. “Roskosmos said it would walk the extra mile and do the job by 2013,” he said. An agreement is being prepared whereby Russian space corpo-ration Energia will build a manned Soyuz spacecraft with a modified instrument section that can accommodate Indian equipment, a Roskosmos repre-sentative said. A Russian cosmonaut will serve as flight commander and will be accompanied by two Indian cosmonauts. Russia will train the Indian cosmonauts on how

to work inside the spaceship, how to conduct research activ-ities and what to do in an un-scripted situation or in the event of an emergency landing. Roskosmos stressed that there are no plans for the spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station. The second manned flight, scheduled for 2015, is expected to be piloted by an Indian cos-monaut. It will, however, re-quire a separate agreement. “Russia will provide elements of vital systems to be integrated by Indian experts,” Roskosmos officials said. The 2015 mission will not use the Soyuz, but a lighter carrier to be designed and built by Russia. “Talks are underway with the Indians, who are explaining the techni-cal parameters, what kind of spacecraft they need and how they will eventually manage to launch it,” Energia reported. “We will start building as soon

as the talks are completed,” the company said. Besides a joint space mission, Moscow and New Delhi have also inked a slew of pacts on the use of satellite systems. One agreement will create a joint venture for the production of navigation equipment that re-ceives GLONASS signals for civilian users. A working group set up to implement the docu-ment includes Roskosmos rep-resentatives, the company Nav-igation-Information Systems (NIS), which is the GLONASS operator, and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The Russian-Indian JV will de-velop infrastructure and pro-vide navigation services in India, organise joint production of telematic terminals and per-sonal navigation equipment based on GLONASS/GPS/IRNSS.

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www.roscosmos.ru Russian Federal Space Agency www.energia.ru/english OAO Rocket and Space Cor-poration Energia after S.P. Korolev www.khrunichev.ru Russian Khrunichev Space Center cooperation

russia designs a new spaceship that will allow more space tourists to accompany cosmonauts on their missions. Vitaly Lopota, the head of energiya space corporation, talks about its dream ride to mars and moon.

the energiya corporation has announced that it is going to build a spacecraft for six peo-ple. what kind of a spaceship is it going to be? It is going to be slightly heavier due to the bigger volume, but also more spacious. The acceler-ation force will be slightly less, because the light property will be better, perhaps two-fold. At this point the concept of the spacecraft is clear to us, and we are working to refine it. Accord-ing to the Russian Federal Space Agency, the first unmanned test flight will be carried out in 2015. The first manned flight is sched-uled for 2018.

are we going to have more space tourists in the future? If there is anyone who wishes so, we are ready to take tourists, too. As of today, however, the technical and technological ca-pacity we have at the corpora-tion would allow four space-craft with three passengers on each. If there are people ready to pay tens of millions of dollars for a space flight, we will not re-fuse them – instead they will be welcomed. However, outer space is a zone only for profes-sionals to work in, considering the G force at launch and land-ing, and a weightlessness work environment for long periods. All that requires good training – at least five years of constant training.The cost of putting a one-kilogram payload into orbit already exceeds $30,000. Just think of it. It includes the cost of fuel, of the spacecraft structure, spacesuits, life-sup-port systems, heating rates, etc. Before, the cost used to be about $20,000. Now it’s actually one-and-a-half to two times more.

we know that the spaceship is going to be a multi-purpose one, and that it can be used more than once, and we also heard it will be capable of taking people to the moon, is that so?Yes, the new spaceship will be capable of flying to the Moon.

As you mention, soft-landing engines can be used, but what do you do when the fuel is spent. There is none on the Moon. And it would require a lot of effort to find fuel on the Moon.

obama has decided to stop fi-nancing the united states’ moon program. how is russia doing in that respect?This has been discussed in the past several years, in that we have plans that are different from the Americans. The Moon has never been a target for us. In terms of getting more knowl-edge, we are more interested in planets like Mars, or Jupiter for instance. There we could study processes of space substance formation, which would widen our horizon.

what about mars?Yes, we do have plans for Mars. First of all, each human being,

in order to be able to live 24 hours in outer space, needs to spend ten kilograms. It takes eight and a half months to get to Mars. Same duration back. There must be at least four crew members. That means 40 kg a day. Eight and half months one way, eight and a half months back makes 17 months. Add one month to be spent there to work. As a result, the payload amounts to more than 20 tonnes, required to provide life support. Not just a spacecraft, but a whole expedition com-plex.It is easier to fly to the Moon, fly around it and return; this would only require one spacecraft. We can train ourselves on our way to Mars. And we must take into account that it is not all that simple there, Mars has an at-mosphere, too. It is quite differ-ent. And nobody is waiting for us there. We must surface very carefully. As for me, I would not surface at the first stage at all, but would just work in orbit and monitor the atmosphere dynamics and see what the Martian storms are about.Now we have been actively de-veloping the idea of creating a module based on nuclear tech-nology – a nuclear reactor, elec-tric-driven propulsion, which enables effective movement through space.

From what we have heard and read, energiya is now working on a super satellite that can also be used for military purposes. what can you say about that?

I mean that by using nuclear technology, we could create special-purpose craft that would provide life support for Earth. Our Earth and the Solar System is unique for its combi-nation of the planetary scheme in which the Earth is in a pro-tected state, because Jupiter protects Earth with its mass. Our life here on Earth is rela-tively calm. You may have read that from time to time that something has crashed into Earth – space bodies that might seriously damage our planet. So, in order to get ourselves protected and be more efficient, we need such powerful energy systems.However, this is only possible in the far future.

so, this thing will not shoot from space, will it?The news has been exaggerat-ed. Yes, theoretically if one re-ally wants this, this can be done. However, you should bear in mind that nuclear tech-nology placed into a near-earth orbit is a rather dangerous thing. It is perhaps possible to form some weaponry based on nuclear technology. So a weap-on like that would be possible to make, but I think humanity is now learning how to live in comfort.

mr. Lopota, we heard that one well-known space tour agen-cy wanted you to build a special spaceship for tourists. did you accept the offer?We have been constantly nego-tiating this with more than one firm who try to commission such craft specially designed for tourists. Let me tell you that we will not address the ques-tion for several years, because we have the ISS under con-struction. Our US colleagues have succeeded in forming their segment. Russia is sup-posed to form its segment by 2015 and operate it efficiently upto 2020. As for resources for tourists, there are practically none.

does that mean we can start booking tickets for 2018?That's right.

To the Moon and backPlans Imagine heading to Mars for your next holiday. Sounds fantastic?

the first manned flight on the new spacecraft is scheduled for 2018.

4thplace occupies Russia in the world’s table of spending on space ($2.8 bn). In 2009, the USA spent $18.8 bn, the European Space Agency - $5.3 bn, China - $3.1 bn.

$17 mn is the amount allocated by Russia this year to the de-velopment of nuclear-pow-ered spacecraft for long-distance missions to the Moon and Mars.

$335 mnis the value of a contract between Roscosmos and NASA to deliver American astronauts to the Interna-tional Space Station in 2013 and 2014.

“India is a priority market for Russia and a strategic partner in the joint development of nav-igation technologies,” says Al-exander Gurko, director gener-al of NIS. “This is a long-term, mutually beneficial coopera-tion in the navigation sphere,” he said. The project is estimated to cost $1.5 bn. Russia and India continue to co-operate on the Chandrayaan-2 project. Unlike its predecessor, the Chandrayaan-1 satellite, which is now in a 200 kilometre lunar orbit, the new probe will consist of two modules, an orbit-er and a lander, which will de-liver a mobile lab to the lunar surface. Under a bilateral pact, the Russian research and pro-duction company Lavochkin is building the landing module for the future space voyager, a mod-ern version of the famous Soviet Lunokhod (Moonrover). Chandrayaan-2 is expected to be launched towards the Moon in 2012. After reaching orbit, the landing module will be de-

tached and soft land on the lunar surface. The mobile lab will move over the Moon’s sur-face collecting and studying rock samples. The landing site will be determined with the help of pictures recovered by Chandrayaan-1, which in ten months of operation transmit-ted huge amounts of scientific data, which will be used in pre-paring a 3D Moon atlas. India is also cooperating with Roskosmos on its first manned space flight project. A three-seater spacecraft is planned to be launched in 2016 from the national launching site on Sri-harikota Island by an updated Indian GSLV-Mk2 rocket. Russia will also help India launch its GSLV carrier rocket. The last attempt to launch the carrier atop an Indian booster rocket failed, so subsequent launches will use the 12 KRB oxygen-hydrogen block built at the Khrunichev Center under an agreement with ISRO, which are tailored to the GSLV.

alexandra Prokopenko ITAR-TASS

continued From Page 4

Vitaly Lopota, director of the energiya space corporation

This interview was conducted by a Russian TV channel.

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bookmarks06 Russia india RepoRtin association with rossiyskaya gazeta, russia tHe economic times wednesday_aPriL 28_2010opinion

www.cdi.org/russia/johnson Johnson’s Russia List www.russiaprofile.org Analysis of business, economic, political and cultural trends en.fondsk.ru Strategic Culture Foundation online magazine

MODERNIsATIONchAllENgEs

INDIA AND RussIA: sTRAT-EgIEs OF cOOPERATION

andrei Volodin

SpeCiALLy FoR RiR

kanwal sibalFoRmeR FoReign

SeCRetARy oF indiA the international financial crisis has exposed flaws in the Russian economy: its weak diversification

and dependence on the export of raw materials as well as the absence among the elites of clear ideas about the choice of a cor-rect algorithm to solve old and new problems. It has become ex-tremely clear that Russia’s geo-political aspirations are limited by the country’s socio-econom-ic situation and by the lack of any “breakthrough” ideas about how to get out of this protract-ed stagnation. Russia’s political leadership realises the need for urgent, corrective actions to force the country’s modernisation: it evidently understands the con-nection between the “liberal re-forms” conducted over the past two decades and society’s de-industrialisation, threats to Rus-sia’s status as a “great power” and its stabilising role in the in-ternational system, the need for which has dramatically in-creased in what Newsweek’s Fa-reed Zakaria calls the “post-American world”.Russian Prime Minister Vladi-mir Putin has already dissociat-ed himself from the “liberal par-adigm”. He is apparently behind the discussion that has begun in United Russia party on choosing the optimal strategy for Russia’s future. The first signs of this in-tellectual activity are already present. Moscow Mayor Yuri Lu-zhkov, an influential member of United Russia, has published two books with telltale titles: Capitalism and Russia: Drop-ping Out of the Future? and Transcapitalism and Russia. Both books merit attention.In a society of “catch-up devel-opment” such as Russia’s, the state remains the leading agent of modernisation — both in the sense of creating conditions for a “normal” market economy and building a “new” scientific and technological structure of eco-nomics. The “classic” experience of the West, writes Luzhkov, shows that the “plan” and the “market” have a complicated re-lationship, while their juxtapo-sition changes depending on the tasks tackled in the process of modernisation.Privatisation is an important factor, though not a determi-nant one in the strategy of de-velopment. The policy of priva-tisation is effective where and when it is subordinated to ef-

For India, Russia’s resur-gence will create a greater balance in glob-al affairs. Russia’s de-

cline has facilitated China’s rise, which is against India’s strate-gic interests. The consequence of American/European policies to strategically contain Russia through the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Eu-ropean Union expansion into former Soviet space has led to the strengthening of a formi-dable rival to their own power in an increasingly assertive, na-tionalist, militarily stronger and demographically huge China. A potential United States of America-China diarchy would be at the expense of large and autonomous countries like India and Russia.However, Russia’s strategic thinking about China is not quite clear. At one level, it ap-pears that Russia has drawn closer to China strategically in order to counter Western pres-sures. It has been arming China. Russia-China energy deals, while making good commercial sense, have a strategic implica-tion and contrast with Russia’s failure to respond to pressing Indian demands to participate in energy projects beyond Sakhalin-1. Russia’s promotion of the trilateral RIC (Russia, India, China) and the quadri-lateral BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) dialogues suggest efforts to form diverse partner-ships with China to resist West-ern domination. The Russia-China cooperation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organi-sation, coupled with the denial of full membership to India, limits our engagement with Central Asia. India and Russia do not have a common vision of China. It is unlikely that they will be able to develop one on the essentials even as both countries continue to engage China, as they should.Japan’s economic stature has declined; China looms large in its neighbourhood, eroding its self-confidence and reinforcing in practical terms its reliance on the US for its defence even as the developing US-China re-lationship makes that arrange-ment more uncertain. Japan should have a reason to deepen its strategic ties with India; some steps are being taken in this direction, but Japan has to be clearer in its thinking and choices. Russia-Japan differ-ences on the Kurile islands ex-

forts to improve the economy’s effectiveness and competitive-ness. From this point of view, the privatisation that took place in Russia in the 1990s did not an-swer efforts to modernise the country and as a consequence, promoted stagnation and the de-industrialisation of the na-tional economy. A continuation of this line, begun under former President Boris Yeltsin, could lead to Russia’s “dropping out” of the cohort of future leaders of the world economy and threat-en the country’s unity and ter-ritorial integrity. The “stubborn” adherence to principles of monetarism in eco-nomic policy has made the coun-try’s development chaotic and will require the introduction of elements of planning in the state’s overall course. At the same time, at issue here is not di-rective planning of the “com-mand-administrative” type (“planning down to the last nail”), Luzhkov stresses, but in-dicative, strategic planning, the sort of planning that has been adopted not only in India, but also in developed countries in the East and West. (The author

does not mention the Planning Commission of India, but it seems he is familiar with its work.)Luzhkov has great hopes for BRIC, the virtual union of Brazil, Russia, India and China. A con-tinuation of the current “liberal” policy could turn BRIC into BIC, warns Luzhkov. That is, Russia could “drop out of the future”. Luzhkov does not discuss such important aspects for Russia as “development”, “reform” and “modernisation” in the depth and detail they are discussed in Indian social sciences. The ice, however, has undoubtedly been broken and Russia can soon ex-pect a national discussion on the subject of modernisation and a replacement, at long last, for the historically doomed “liberal par-adigm”.

Dr Andrei Volodin is a profes-sor of history with the Institute of World Economy and Inter-national Relations in Moscow.

the experience shows that the “plan” and the “market” have a complicated relationship.

clude any trilateral under-standing involving India on jointly addressing emerging threats.In developing a stronger India-Russia partnership in a multi-polar environment, India’s transformed ties with the US would be a factor. These are bound to deepen economically, even if politically they might be accident-prone, given the US’s uncongenial policies in our neighbourhood. The modern sectors of the Indian economy and its most dynamic players are tied to US/Western markets, whereas India-Russia economic ties remain limited. Their rapid expansion appears unlikely.China is expanding strategical-ly in India’s neighbourhood. It is entrenched in Pakistan; it has penetrated Myanmar; it is ex-panding its profile in Nepal and is well installed in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It is seeking to put an infrastructure in place to expand its presence in the In-dian Ocean. It is the dominant economic player in Central Asia. How does Russia see this reality? If the improved Russia-China ties would prevent Rus-sia, for larger geo-political and strategic considerations, from engaging India on its China problem, India would need to invest more in the potential of the US-China equation souring at some time and throwing up

further common ground for de-veloping some joint India-US-Japan hedging strategies for the future.The latest developments in Af-ghanistan are very disquieting for India. The US electoral cal-endar, its financial crisis, the loss of support for the war do-mestically and from the allies are elements behind the West-ern exit strategy. The policy of reintegration and reconcilia-tion with the Taliban carries the danger of handing over power to the Taliban eventually and rewarding Pakistan with the strategic depth it wants in Af-ghanistan. The latter will be ra-tionalised as a way to stabilise Pakistan and use it as an insur-ance cover against any anti-Western activities by the Tali-ban. India and Russia should be worried at the strategic depth that the Wahabbist ideology will acquire in the region, threatening Central Asia and India.What could be the joint re-sponse of India and Russia? Russia has given additional transit rights to Nato forces through its territory for their operations in Afghanistan, as it sees some advantage to itself in the US combat against ex-tremist forces that could de-stabilise Central Asia and eventually southern Russia. Internationally, Russia is fo-

cusing on drug trafficking and not on the Taliban. The scope for restoring the understand-ing between India, Russia and Iran seems less today than in the past because all three coun-tries support the legitimate government of President Hamid Karzai. The Central Asians are not active in Afghan discussions, despite the danger to them of a Taliban takeover. A Russian initiative is needed to chart a hedging strategy in-volving India, Iran and the Central Asian States. China, though worried by extremist spillover from Afghanistan into Sinkiang, is unlikely to allow any strategy to develop that the Pakistan government is opposed to.Pakistan, in the belief that it is now playing a winning hand in Afghanistan, has stepped up its diplomatic confrontation with India. General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is now publicly offering to mediate between the US/Nato and the Taliban on condi-tion that India’s presence in Af-ghanistan is rolled back and Pakistan’s need for a soft stra-tegic depth in Afghanistan is accepted as an insurance against the Indian threat. Rus-sia has shown reluctance to wade into India-Pakistan is-sues publicly. Its statement after the Mumbai terrorist mayhem, expressing concern about the South Asian nucle-arised environment, was un-helpful. To sum up: India and Russia are well placed to work togeth-er constructively in the emerg-ing multipolar world order. There is no inherent conflict of interest between the two coun-tries. But Russia’s larger stra-tegic needs require an approach towards China that we may not fully subscribe to even as we see the necessity of engaging China ourselves. India’s changed ties with the US and lack of dynamism in India-Russia economic ties are fac-tors that would put limits on a common India-Russia global strategy. Russia should facili-tate greater Indian involve-ment in Central Asia. In Af-ghanistan we have to fashion a common strategy to prevent the return to power of the Tali-ban. Russia needs to be more open with India on Pakistan, which is the source of serious problems for India and, through its disruptive ambitions in Af-ghanistan encouraged by the US, to Russia too.

First published in The Tele-graph.

all articles appearing on page 6 do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of the editors of rossiyskaya gazeta and

russia india report.

07BOOKMARKS RUSSIA INDIA REPORT

IN ASSOCIATION WITH ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA, RUSSIA THE ECONOMIC TIMES WEDNESDAY_APRIL 28_2010

english.pobediteli.ru A multimedia intenet project on the Second World War in Russia. eng.9may.ru Victory day. A RIA Novosti project on the history of the Great Patriotic war. History

The people of the USSR paid a very high price for victory. Accord-ing to official figures, total military losses amounted to 11.9 mn people. There were some 13.7 mn civilian victims, 7.4 mn of whom were deliberately exterminated by the occupying power, 2.2 mn perished performing slave labour in Germany and 4.1 mn starved to death during the occupation. The Soviet Union lost a total of 26.6 mn people. During the war, 1,710 cities, more than 70,000 villages and 32,000 factories were destroyed. The total damage amounted to $128 bn. By comparison, the damage sustained by France during the Second World War amounted to $21 bn, and for Poland, $20 bn.

The war, which lasted for 1,418 days and nights, began on Soviet territory at 4:00 a.m. on June 22, 1941. By November, the German army had seized the Ukrainian Republic, begun its siege of Leningrad, and threatened the security of Moscow itself. By the end of 1941, however, the German forces had lost their mo-mentum. At the same time the Red Army, after recovering from the ini-tial blow, in December launched its � rst counterattacks. The defeat of the Nazi troops near Moscow in the end of 1941 was the first major victory of the Soviet army in the war.

After a lull in active hostilities during the winter of 1941- 42, the German army renewed its offensive, scoring a number of victories in the Ukraine, Crimea, and southern Russia in the � rst half of 1942. Then, in an effort to gain control of the lower Volga River region, the German forces attempted to capture the city of Stalingrad (present-day Volgo-grad). The Stalingrad battle

lasted for 199 days, costing an estimated 1.5 mn lives from both sides. Finally, Soviet forces led by General Georgiy K. Zhukov surrounded the German attack-ers and forced their surrender in February 1943. The Soviet vic-tory at Stalingrad proved deci-sive; after losing this battle, the Germans lacked the strength to sustain their offensive opera-tions against the Soviet Union.

One of the most harrowing epi-sodes of the Great Patriotic War was the siege of Leningrad, which lasted 880 days. The cap-ture of Leningrad, the former capital of Russia and the sym-bolic capital of the Russian Rev-olution, was one of three strate-gic goals in the German plan for the Eastern Front. The siege of Leningrad was one of the lon-gest and most destructive sieges

in history and the most costly in terms of casualties.It claimed more victims than the combined losses of the US and Britain in the whole of the Second World War, according to some esti-mates upto 800,000. During the siege, the daily bread ration for workers was 250 grams, while office workers, dependents and children received half that amount.

In July and August of 1943, major tank battles of the WW2 took place. The battle of Kursk was the greatest tank battle in history. With nearly 6,000 tanks and 4 mn troops involved, the battle was hard fought, reach-ing its climax with the pitched battle on 12 July between 700 German and 850 Soviet tanks. After Stalingrad and the battle of Kursk, the Soviet Union held the initiative for the rest of the war. By the end of 1943, the Red Army had broken through the German siege of Leningrad and recaptured much of the Ukraine. By the end of 1944, the front had moved beyond the 1939 Soviet frontiers into east-ern Europe. With a decisive su-periority in troops and weap-onry, Soviet forces drove into eastern Germany, capturing Berlin in May 1945. The war with Germany thus ended tri-umphantly for the Soviet Union.

1942-43 THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD 1941-44 THE SIEGE OF LENINGRAD

1941-1945: Four years of hardship

This May marks the 65th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germa-ny. The memory of the war, referred to as the Great Patriotic War, is particularly venerated in Russia. In the USSR, the end of the war was considered to be May 9, 1945, when the German surrender took effect. The date has become a national holiday – Victory Day – and is commemorated in a grand military parade on Red Square. This year, the members of the anti-Hitler coalition - the US, Britain and France – will take part in the parade. The Nazi invasion of the USSR in June 1941 heralded the beginning of the most titanic battle in the history of humanity. The war ended in complete defeat for the Nazi Germany less than four years later with the fall of Berlin on May 9, 1945. Over 26 mn Soviet citizens and soldiers died in the struggle to liberate the Motherland from the fascist aggressors.

Remembering the Great Victory 1941 DEFENDING THE CAPITAL

The cost of Victory

Eternal Flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow.

Celebrating victory on the Reichstag's roof in Berlin

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1943 THE BATTLE OF KURSK

BOOKMARKS08 RUSSIA INDIA REPORTIN ASSOCIATION WITH ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA, RUSSIA THE ECONOMIC TIMES WEDNESDAY_APRIL 28_2010Feature

realyoga.ru/eng Find more information about yoga and yoga enthusiasts in Russia www.russianyogafederation.com Russain Yoga fed-eration

EVGENIA LENTSNEW THEME ON RUSSIAN-INDIAN AF-FAIRS

Once outlawed and dismissed in the Soviet era as voodoo and Eastern mysticism, the Indian practice of yoga has struck a new chord in Russia, thanks to the tireless efforts of Vasily Brodov, forging yet another cultural bridge between India and Russia.

Who are yogis? "Indian hermits who can sleep on beds of nails, tie themselves into knots and stand on their heads," -- this is how Russians would have de-scribed yogis twenty years ago. But this exotic portrait of yoga and yogis is now passé. Today, yoga spells chic as more and more Russian youth get hooked on to this unique Indian prac-tice of physical and spiritual self-discipline. No trendy fit-ness club in Moscow or other major cities can do without a yoga instructor and one may even find queues for buying yoga mats at sport shops.Prohibited during the Soviet era, there are at now at least 100,000 people who practice yoga regularly in Moscow and St Petersburg alone, according to the Russian version of Yoga Journal. One of them is the youthful and handsome Presi-dent Dmitry Medvedev! In an interview to Tainy Zvyozd (Se-crets of the Stars) magazine, Medvedev said he can even do a headstand (‘shirshasana’), triggering a surge of enthusi-asm among long-time yoga fans and neophytes.Seeing the popularity of yoga in modern Russia, not many will believe that the practitioners and advocates of yoga were once persecuted and even paid for it with their job. And few will re-member pioneers like Professor Vasily Brodov, the � rst chairman of the Yoga Association of the USSR, who braved the wrath of the authorities and popularised this Indian practice with the zeal of a believer.

Yoga craze catches on in RussiaWellness A renowned philosopher discovered the power of yoga after being wounded in World War II

A native of Moscow (1912), Bro-dov graduated in philosophy at the Moscow Institute of Philos-ophy, Literature and History in 1938, but he never even dreamed that India would become his life-long passion and even ob-session. Being a restless intel-lectual who participated in "dis-sident" gatherings, the young professor of philosophy soon earned the ire of the authorities and was consigned to the infa-mous Gulag prison camps at the start of World War II. Brodov continuously asked to be sent to the front. Subsequently, Brodov, along with other prisoners, was thrown into the front lines in penal battalions. In an artillery unit, Brodov marched from Ukraine to Berlin and miracu-lously survived. Prison and � erce battles behind him, Brodov thought he was heading for a new start in his life, but he was pushed around from one institution of higher learning to another and was deemed "unreliable". The tal-ented exile, however, managed to become a lecturer at the de-partment of dialectical and his-torical materialism of the natu-ral sciences division of Moscow State University (1962-1966). It was here that he came to know India and wrote his doctoral thesis, "Progressive social and philosophical thought in India

in the New Era (1850 - 1917)". It proved to be a breakthrough not only in Soviet Indology, but was also recognised by German Indologist Walther Ruben as the first systematic research into the history of Indian phi-losophy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Since then, there was no looking back. In the sixties, he met two outstanding Indians who � red his passion for Indian philoso-phy and yoga. He met then In-dia’s President S. Radhakrish-nan in 1964 at Moscow State University and presented him a copy of "Ancient Indian Philos-ophy: The Early Period", the � rst in the series "Philosophical Her-itage" comprising translation of the ancient Sanskrit texts of the Upanishads into Russian. In 1966, he helped organise the six-volume "The History of Phi-losophy", which was published in full version in 1965.Around the same time, Brodov met renowned Indian guru Dhirendra Brahmachari, when he was invited to the USSR to give the cosmonauts lectures and practical lessons in closed

sessions. Interacting with the guru, mastering the asanas and pranayama worked miracles on the former frontline soldier's health. Brodov’s bond with the yoga was sealed, and from this point onwards, he tirelessly promoted what he called the "fruit of the creative genius of the Indian people", even in the face of offi-cial disapproval. "Vasily Brodov stood at the epi-centre of the struggle for offi-cial, albeit indirect, opportuni-ties to study and promote yoga in the USSR," says Viktor Boiko, who now heads the School of Classical Yoga in Moscow and boasts of many students in Rus-sia and abroad. Boiko, who established a popu-lar yoga website on the Russian language Internet, recalls the writing of "The Teachings of In-dian Yogis and Human Health in Light of Modern Science" published in "Philosophical Is-sues in Medicine" in 1962, with the approval of the ideological department of the Central Committee of the Soviet Com-munist Party. This became the

� rst official publication on yoga since the death of Stalin and under the Soviet system, in gen-eral, making it unique, says Boiko. This opened the door to a � ood of articles on Indian yogis in authoritative publications. Brodov later co-produced the documentary � lm “Indian Yogis. Who are they?” distributed in the USSR in 1970, which led to an explosion of interest in yoga and in India itself. However, the � lm had not been approved by the authorities and was shelved for years. "The official line was that yoga, from the point of view of philosophy, is idealism, religion, mysticism, and in practice, it is quackery, hoodoo and acrobatics,” wrote Brodov, adding that senior offi-cials called yoga the “propa-ganda of idealism and reli-gion".In the early 1970s, a group of scientists and public � gures, in-cluding Brodov, wrote an open letter to General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev and Chair-man of the Council of Ministers

of the USSR Aleksey Kosygin with a request to legalise yoga and establish a yoga therapy scienti� c research institute. But the initiative did not make any impact."However, not all Soviet people shared the opinion and motives that led to the ban," recalled Brodov, during his tenure as the president of the USSR Yoga As-sociation, which was estab-lished in 1989. "Many people practiced hatha yoga on their own at home and in private. Translations of foreign litera-ture, the so-called samizdat (the secret publication and dis-tribution of government-banned literature ed.) served as instructional aids.” Following the perestroika years, yoga health groups started popping up everywhere. “Among the leaders of the groups, the more enlightened and gifted ones be-came real teachers and gurus."More than any dry thesis, Bro-dov’s narration of his � rst-hand experience converted many sceptics to the cause of yoga. He writes:"Yoga is a system of self-regu-lation and self-improvement of the personality, and here I can refer to my own experience. I returned wounded and ill from the front lines in 1945. The doc-tor who prescribed my medi-cine reassured me, 'You've got another 10 or 15 years to live...' Unfortunately, the medicine helped very little.” “Illnesses became more acute: cardiac insufficiency, radiculi-tis, salt deposits, kidney stones and many others forced me to try hatha yoga. Studying pri-mary sources and consulting with Indian experts helped me master the elements of this physical therapy.” “As a result, all of the ailments that were troubling me disap-peared. They disappeared with-out the aid of doctors or medi-cine. Today, at 78 years old, I give my heartfelt thanks and deepest respect to the great people of India for giving yoga to humanity."Today, millions of proponents of yoga in Russia would con-cur.

Vasily Brodov, the first chair-man of the Yoga Association of the USSR

Prohibited during the Soviet era due to its connection with Hindu religious practices, yoga is be-coming more and more popular in Russia

First published in New Theme on

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