Saturday, February 8, 2014

Special supplement from Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Moscow, Russia) which takes sole responsibility for the contents.

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Russia goes for Olympic gold

Olympics High hopes for

international recognition as

curtain goes up on record-breaking

Games

The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics

promise world-class ski resorts in

the Caucasus Mountains, futuristic

stadiums beside the sea, and a

vast new Olympic Park framed by

subtropical palm trees.

DOMINIC BASULTOSPECIAL TO RBTH

The development of Sochi as a Winter Olympics host city was an epic undertaking that, if all goes as planned, will formally introduce “the new Russia” to the world as both a great power and a modern economy.

What makes Sochi’s transfor-mation all the more ambitious is that none of this actually existed a few years ago. When Sochi won its Olympic bid in 2007, there was much grumbling that Pyeongchang (which fi nished 2nd) and Salzburg (which finished 3rd) were more worthy choices. Indeed, the fi nish-ing touches on many of Sochi’s Olympic venues - including Fisht

Olympic Stadium, the site of the opening and closing ceremonies - were still being applied as the New Year arrived. As a result, the open-ing ceremony will be a moment of high drama not just for the rest of the world, but also for the Rus-sian Olympic organisers.

While all of the new competi-tion venues in Sochi have now hosted international events, they are nearly as new to the Russian Olympic team as to the arriving foreign athletes. The ski jump area went into service just recently after signifi cant delays and cost over-runs – overruns so outrageous that the head of the project was pub-licly reprimanded on national TV by President Vladimir Putin. This ski season is also the fi rst time the new mountain train – trusted with the job of whisking Olympic vis-itors between the Coastal Cluster and the Mountain Cluster - start-ed making trips back and forth to the mountains.

What Russia did by selecting Sochi as the host city for the 2014 Winter Olympics was to complete-ly turn the traditional model on its head. That model – which had existed as long as the Olympics had taken place in the US, Can-ada and Europe – was to take a proven winter resort area, spruce it up, add a few modern touches, and not worry much about any-thing else – like whether or not it actually snows. What Russia proposed instead was to start from scratch in a city with no alpine ski tradition to speak of, in a city better known to Russians as a summer resort on the “Russian Riviera.” Given Sochi’s subtropi-cal climate, whether or not it will actually snow in Sochi is still a matter of global speculation.

A decade ago, Sochi did not have a single world-class ski resort, and certainly nothing that would have hinted at Sochi becoming a future Olympics host city. That all

changed when President Putin made the mountains of Krasnaya Polyana his personal ski retreat.

To convince wealthy Russians who might have gone abroad to visit Sochi’s ski resorts instead, no expense was spared. Rosa Khutor, the crown jewel, has one of the longest vertical drops in the world and was built with the help of Western European and American ski experts. At the highest elevations, if you blink, you’ll think that you’re in Swit-zerland or Austria. Sleepy moun-tain roads are now lined with Eu-ropean-style ski chalets and pastel-coloured hotels. US Olym-pic skiers who have come back from Sochi say it is surreal, as if Russia has just built a winter Dis-neyland in the mountains.

Critics – and there are many, both in Russia and abroad – would argue that Sochi 2014 is simply Putin's personal prestige project, a grand attempt to put Russia back

SOCHI'S LIMITED

INFRASTRUCTURE AND WARM

CLIMATE HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE HIGH

COSTS

on the map by wildly overspend-ing. Others point to the escalat-ing price tag - $50 billion – which officially makes Sochi the most expensive Olympics in history. Western critics have complained

that the $50 billion price tag has been infl ated by both en-

demic corruption and Rus-sia’s byzantine bureaucra-cy.

There is no doubt that Sochi will be one of the big-

gest, most extravagant Olym-pics in recent memory, perhaps

ever. The 123-day Olympic Torch Relay has already included a space walk aboard the International Space Station, a visit to an active volcano, and a trip underwater to Lake Baikal. And the Olympics themselves promise the highest medal count ever in the history of the Winter Games and the largest number of events ever.

WINTER

OLYMPICS

Cold War bunkers still lie hidden in the Moscow metro.

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The Russian stock market is ready to face new challenges.

Economy

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GULF NEWS_SATURDAY_FEBRUARY_08_2014Politics&Society

ARUN MOHANTYSPECIAL TO RBTH

India and Russia are holding talks

on meeting the defence

requirements of Afghanistan,

where the security situation is

likely to worsen in the aftermath

of the US troop pullout from the

war-torn country this year.

International Delhi and Moscow are working on a deal to supply military hardware to Kabul

Afghan security teams have al-ready visited India with their wish-list and made an assessment of the kind of equipment they need. Kabul has apparently expressed its desire to have battle tanks, fi eld guns, military aircrafts, armoured vehicles and trucks. The Indo-Af-ghan negotiations on these issues are believed to be at an advanced stage. Under the Indo-Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement

signed in 2011, India is already providing some military training to Afghan armed forces.

Afghanistan is keen to have Rus-sian-made military hardware as its armed forces have been well-acquainted with Russian weapon-ry for decades. The USSR and Af-ghanistan had historically close military ties and the Afghan army was trained and equipped by the Soviets for a long time in the past. This explains the preference for Russian weapons and defence sys-tems displayed by Afghanistan's present-day government and mil-itary leadership. Russia and Af-ghanistan are currently develop-ing their defence ties under a bilateral military-technical coop-eration agreement. An idea which is also on the table is to source some weapons from Central Asian

Delhi and Moscow are working to reach a deal under which Russia would supply some military hard-ware to Kabul, the bill for which would be footed by India.

During his last official visit to lndia, Afghan President Hamid Karzai made a request to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the supply of military equip-ment to Kabul in order to improve its defence capabilities to meet se-curity challenges following the planned withdrawal of NATO troops. Kabul wants the transfer of this military equipment for its armed forces under the strategic partnership deal signed with India.

However, India, the world’s larg-est arms importer, has an arsenal largely equipped with weaponry of Soviet and Russian origin. India cannot re-export Russian-made weapons to a third country under an existing bilateral agreement.Therefore Delhi and Moscow are working towards an understand-ing under which Russian-made military hardware would be sup-plied to Kabul, a transaction for which Delhi would foot the bill. Some of the Russian-made arms can be re-exported to Kabul with Moscow's blessing.

Both nations are concerned that

the withdrawal of ISAF troops

will imperil Afghan security.

" The removal of international security forces is justified by the fact that by the end

of next year, the Afghan security forces, and the Afghan army, will be able to take control of law and order in the country – although so far this has not been the trend. The closer the date of withdrawal of foreign troops approaches, the more evi-dence appears that Afghan security forces will not be ready.

THE QUOTE

Sergei LavrovRUSSIAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Arctic 30 promise to continue their campaignDid any of you anticipate that the

protest would result in your vessel

being detained?

Well, in the weeks before, because the expedition was longer than just the moment we were there, they did threaten [us] with board-ing, and at some point they did force us, under the threat of vio-lence, to [let them] board the ship. But we just kept thinking, “Ok, you know, this is just a way to get us out of there, they know we’re harmless and we’re just there to peacefully protest.” That doesn’t mean that we don’t think about all possible scenarios, whether they’re likely or not. For us, and for myself personally, it defi nitely was a possibility ending up in jail;

Greenpeace activist Faiza Oulah-sen insists last year's protest on the Prirazlomnaya oil rig in the Arctic was peaceful and necessary.

Do you consider that Greenpeace’s

action was a peaceful protest?

I don’t think – well, obviously, if we’re being accused of hooligan-ism, it’s a distorted view of what really happened. But so far there has been no proof of anything close to hooliganism or piracy, and it was a peaceful and non-violent protest, and if we do those protests, I mean, it happens with activists that know what they’re doing, and safety is always a priority. You always do that by communicating, by telling the company what you’re here to do.

Faiza Oulahsen: "I will continue to

campaign to save the Arctic,

that’s not going to change."

Russians all over the country were diving into the icy water on Jan. 19.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Alastair Gill

Special to RBTH

LUCIA BELLINELLORBTH

Despite frigid temperatures,

many Russians relish the annual

ritual of dipping in a hole cut into

the ice of a frozen river.

Taking the plunge into icy waters

Society An unusual Orthodox tradition

At 21 degrees below zero Celsius, mobile phones stop working and a thin layer of white frost appears on eyelashes. For many Orthodox Russians, it’s perfect weather for a dip in the Moscow River.

It's the Epiphany, the day Christ was baptised, and standing by the river are the local "morzhi", wal-ruses as they are called in Rus-sian, or those who dive into the river’s icy waters. This year they totalled 100,000.

In Serebryany Bor, the forest to the east of the capital, more than 2,000 believers have taken a dip in just a few hours.

"The fi rst ones arrived last night. Then the ritual continued nonstop the whole morning," says a fi re-fi ghter, explaining one of the most popular and impressive Russian traditions, as men and women re-appear in bathing suits. "This is how Orthodox Christians remi-nisce about the baptising of Jesus Christ: they dig holes in the ice,” he says. On the night of January 19, a priest blesses the water into which the believers dive in the next day. This year 60 cross-shaped holes ("iordany" in Russian) were cut in the ice for the Epiphany.

"The temperature shock can be dangerous. Doctors do not recom-mend diving to people with heart disease. In the past people used to get sick, but today there have been no problems," he says.

Assisted by two safety guards, a woman slowly descends the wooden steps to a iordan, which is the Russian name for Jordan, as in the Jordan River. She makes the sign of the cross, then holds her breath and dips her head three times. “In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

As she comes out of the water, a cloud of steam escapes from her

100,000People in Russia celebrated the Epiphany by diving into the icy water of rivers and lakes despite extremely low temperatures.

THE NUMBERS

The primary concern for both India and Russia remains the possibility of the Taliban staging a comeback.

countries, whose defence forces are equipped with Russian arma-ments and military systems.

This type of tripartite arrange-ment facilitating military supplies to Afghanistan is not the fi rst of its kind. Under a deal between Moscow and Washington, Russia supplied Afghanistan with mili-tary hardware, including military helicopters, while the US picked up the tab. Even NATO forces have used Russian helicopters in Af-ghanistan.

However, some experts cast doubt that any agreement for this kind of arrangement can be signed unless and until Afghanistan com-pletes the process of inking a bi-lateral security arrangement with the US, a deal which seems to be running into difficulties.

Indo-Russian military coopera-tion in the Afghan sphere is not going to be confi ned to military supplies alone. Both countries are reported to have already taken de-cision to renovate a Soviet mili-tary hardware maintenance facil-ity in the suburbs of Kabul.

Having strong stakes in Afghan-istan, both strategic partners are extremely concerned that the se-curity situation in the country might deteriorate in the aftermath of withdrawal of the Internation-al Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and believe that the pullout is being conducted in a hurry.

Though India and Russia share close views on the Afghan issue, they seem to differ in their assess-ment of the planned US military presence in Afghanistan (in the

India and Russia eye tripartite deal on Afghan defence

form of a military base). Russia is completely opposed to the idea of a foreign military presence in Af-ghanistan without a UN mandate.

The primary concern for both Russia and India remains the pos-sibility of the Taliban staging a comeback in the country. The Tal-iban–led Afghanistan of the late 1990s was a breeding ground for international terrorism that caused huge problems for India in Kash-mir and for Russia in Chechnya. Therefore a situation in which the Taliban recaptured power in Af-ghanistan would clearly be against the interests of both nations. In the light of attempts to negotiate with the Taliban abroad, both countries strongly advocate that the peace and reconciliation pro-cess in Afghanistan should be ex-clusively Afghan-led.

however I thought it would be a very unlikely scenario.

Are you aware that the majority of

Russians think that the seizure of

your vessel was legal?

I don’t know if that’s the case, if many Russians think that. I spent two months in prison, and barely had any news, I don’t know. But I do know that many of the Rus-sians I spoke [to] are very support-ive, are ashamed of what's hap-pening to us, know our intentions were noble, that we were doing it in a peaceful, non-violent way.

In the light of this experience, would

you be prepared to participate in

similar protests in the future?

Well, I will continue to campaign to save the Arctic, that’s not going to change. However, I have to admit, I do think tactics in the fu-ture in Russia are going to be slightly different, and we’re going to have to be more creative. But I will continue to campaign, wheth-er it’s protesting against Shell drilling in Alaska, Statoil in Nor-way, or companies like Rosneft and Gazprom in the Russian Arctic.

Of all the environmental risks as-

sociated with drilling in the Arc-

tic, what would you say is the most

serious?

Well, drilling for oil is never with-out risk. So you have a signifi cant difference between onshore oil and offshore. And, well, with offshore the risks are always signifi cantly greater. And there’s always a risk of an oil spill, no matter how small

it is. Nobody in the oil industry would deny it. If you look at Pri-razlomnaya, at where it is in the Pechora Sea, two-thirds of the year it’s covered in thick ice. There’s a lot of darkness, heavy Arctic storms, mists…

There’s a lack of infrastructure, so the chances that something would go wrong are signifi cantly greater, and if it goes wrong, well… if you just make the comparison to Gulf of Mexico BP: So, warm waters – ok, yes, it was deep sea drilling, but warmer waters – quite impressive infrastructure, and it still took two to three months to stop it. So in theory, there is actu-ally a possibility that when you have an oil spill at Prirazlomna-ya, it might go on for a year.

body. She covers herself with a towel and slowly, quietly, moves towards the two heated tents where the faithful get undressed and drink tea.

"Leave your fur coat here. Just go in your swimsuit and cover yourself with a towel," a woman tells a younger girl. There is a boy of about six in a bathrobe, jump-ing and stomping his feet on the ground. This is his first time. "I wonder if he will remember it for the rest of his life," says the woman.

A girl walks in through the en-trance of the tent, shivering and dripping. She has black makeup smudged below her eyes. "I do not dive for religious reasons, but be-cause it is very good for your health,” she explains. “I do not pre-pare myself physically, only psy-chologically."

Two Italians working in Mos-cow have also decided to experi-ence the thrill of Iordan. “I cannot feel my feet,” says Federico Fanti after bathing.

"It really is not as terrible as it sounds," adds Mark Minoretti, rub-bing his hands together to warm them up. “You feel really cold when you are undressed. Then, as you come into the water, the feeling is almost pleasant. In fact, I went in twice. When we came back to the tent, after the swim, the Russians complimented us and offered us tea to warm ourselves up."

As RIA Novosti reports, a total of 116 safety personnel and 2,500 police and security forces were em-ployed to keep an eye on bathers in Moscow during this year's Epiphany celebration.

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GULF NEWS_SATURDAY_FEBRUARY_08_2014 Economy

BEN ARISSPECIAL TO RBTH

Russian equity had one of its

worst years on record in 2013,

especially compared to US and

European markets. Yet analysts

are sanguine about the prospects

for Russian stocks in 2014.

A case for cautious optimismStocks After a fall in 2013, Russian equity analysts expect single-digit returns in 2014

opening at 1,390. That is perhaps not spectacular. But it is no crisis, and it would represent a recovery from the 5.6 per cent loss in 2013.

Russian stocks have frequently outperformed their emerging-mar-ket peers. From 2000 to 2010, Rus-sia-dedicated funds were the best performing in the world of any asset class, taking spots 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 out of the top 10, according to fund rating agency Morning-star. The best-performing profes-sional investor fund was Prosper-ity Capital Management’s Quest

above the break-even line with a full-year gain of 1.9 per cent).

Economists believe 2013 became Russia’s annus horribilis due to a combination of the soggy global recovery with the collapse of con-fi dence inside the country, which hurt investment in particular. However, simply because 2014 is starting from such a low base, many of them expect the new year to be a lot better than the last and for Russian stocks to rise, partly because they are cheap – even by Russia’s historically low standards.

At the end of 2013, Russian shares were trading at a 25 per cent discount to their emerging-market peers, an improvement over the 50 per cent discount shares were marked down to in 2009.

One event that spurred cautious optimism was the reopening of the IPO market in 2013. A total of $7.9 billion was raised via a combina-tion of fi ve IPOs and four Second-ary Public Offerings.

The biggest factor that could af-fect the markets in 2014, say econ-omists, would be a return of con-fidence and the resumption of domestic investment, one of the main economic drivers this year.

“The key to the valuation of the Russian equity market is not in assets but rather in investments,” said Alexei Zabotkin, an analyst with VTB Capital. “Only once the investment pattern changes will the Russian market start to rerate."

Despite the country’s image prob-lems abroad, including concerns over minority shareholders’ rights and state infl uence in the mar-ketplace, Russian equities have frequently been among the best-performing in the world in the years since they came into exis-tence.

After the Russian stock market was founded in 1995, Russian stocks returned at least 8 per cent during 13 out of the past 18 years, and generally returned over 20 per cent in any year where there wasn’t a crisis. The real trouble is that those crises tended to destroy most of the previous gains. In both the crashes of 1998 and 2008, the mar-ket lost some 75 per cent of its value in a matter of months.

With that in mind, investing in Russian equities may be a rela-tively simple process of asking, “Is this a crisis year or not?”

While predicting a crisis accu-rately is impossible, predicting which years will not be crisis years should be easier (Notable excep-tions to this rule of thumb include 2000, when the RTS fell 18.2 per cent, and 2011, when it fell 21.9 per cent).

So what about this year? In 2014, analysts predict the dollar-denom-inated RTS Index will rise to 1,500, according to a poll of 11 analysts conducted by Reuters. That indi-cates an increase of approximate-ly 8 per cent relative to the year’s

Fund, which produced a return of over 3,600 per cent in this period, while the best-performing retail fund was East Capital’s Russia Fund, which rose more than 1,500 per cent over the same period.

The year 2013 was one of Rus-sia’s worst on record in which an outright crisis did not occur. The almost universal prediction for 3.5 per cent growth in 2013 made at the start of the year failed to ma-terialise. Instead, the economy sputtered, eventually ending 2013 with about 1.5 per cent growth.

Analysts forecast that in 2014

Russia’s benchmark RTS Index

will recover from its losses.

1,500The level that the RTS Index is expec-ted to reach in 2014, thus demonstra-ting moderate growth.

$843 billionWas the price of the Russian stock market in 2013.

THE NUMBERS

This poor result affected the value of stocks, which in Russia have historically been driven large-ly by rising earnings and energy prices, and produced one of the rare years in which the RTS Index fell despite the absence of a cri-sis. The RTS’s 5.6 per cent drop was mainly due to the impact of a weakening ruble, which lost 10.4 per cent against the Central Bank’s basket of currencies, said Chris Weafer, senior partner at Macro Advisory (the ruble-denominated MICEX finished the year just

Russian equities have frequently been among the best-performing in the world since they came into existence.

Investment Foreign entrepreneurs talk about the challenges of working in the Russian capital

The realities of doing business in Moscow

goods, which slows down the rate of return on investment.

“Our investors have to invest more and more money,” Gorelik said. Nevertheless, with more than one million customers, his busi-ness is growing, he said.

Despite numerous examples of successful companies set up by foreigners in Moscow, the mayor’s office acknowledges that investor confi dence is a problem.

Moscow officials are now look-ing at the modernisation of infra-structure, in particular engineer-ing structures, as well as the development of transport net-works, energy-saving technologies, and real estate investments as promising areas of cooperation with foreign investors.

YULIA PONOMAREVARBTH

In an effort to find more ways to

attract foreign investors to

Russia’s capital, authorities in

Moscow asked several expat

businessmen to give their

assessment of the pros and cons

of starting a business in the city.

“Other markets do not provide such profi ts as can be earned in Russia,” Trani said, explaining why he decided to start investing in Russia. “Here the yield is 7 per cent to 8 per cent in euros, while in Italy it is 3 per cent to 3.5 per cent, and in Switzerland it’s 1 per cent to 1.5 per cent.”

However, by his own admission, Trani prefers to understate expect-ed rates of return when discuss-ing investments with customers. “Western investors fear high per-centages,” he said. “If you say that the yield will be 5.4 per cent, then, as a result, they will be very happy when they get 7 per cent to 8 per cent.”

An important advantage of doing business in Russia is the at-titude of officials to foreigners, he said. “When they see foreigners, they behave more kindly. You will not fi nd this anywhere else.”

American Teri Lindeberg, found-er of a recruitment fi rm active in the Russian market since 2000, had positive things to say about managing a business in Russia.

“I love being in Russia, I love the business environment, I love the people I know and I even like driving here,” Lindeberg said.

“The talent you can hire here is super-strong.” she said, adding that her accountant, who was recruit-ed in the early 2000s, was a prime

Attracting foreign investors is par-ticularly important for Moscow, which, according to government plans, is aiming to take its place alongside London and New York in the coming years as a global fi -nancial centre.

Foreigners who have success-fully been doing business in Rus-sia for several years shared their experiences at a forum at the Mos-cow Government Mass Media Roadshow, held in Moscow on De-cember 4.

“To open a business in Russia was not difficult, the most impor-tant thing was to fi nd the right employees,” said Vincenzo Trani, a forum member and founder of an investment company, who moved from Italy to Moscow 12 years ago.

At the time, many friends and relatives were convinced that he was crazy, according to Trani. In their opinion, he was heading for the unknown, leaving a success-ful career with the world’s oldest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena.

example of the quality of hires in Russia. “When you’re starting a business in Russia, your chief ac-countant is extremely important.”

In general, Lindeberg advises that if you’re starting a business in Russia from scratch, “you real-ly need to have a plan and inter-view a lot of people.”

Unlike Lindeberg, who special-ises in the recruitment of senior and middle managers, another member of the Moscow forum, Gregory Gorelik, the founder of an online interior luxury goods store, said it takes some time to fi nd “presentable and polite staff.”

In addition, Gorelik was con-fronted with the fact that 95 per cent of Russian customers prefer to pay in cash on delivery of the

Vincenzo Trani opened a business in Russia and says that now profits are much higher than in Italy.

" For the Russian business community, formalities and flashiness are very important

— wearing good watches, driving expensive cars and so forth. There is no European country where you can meet so many people in ties as in Russia."

THE QUOTE

GabrioMarchettiFOUNDER OF AN INDUSTRIAL BUILDING REPAIR COMPANY

GLOBAL RUSSIA BUSINESS CALENDAR

2ND RUSSIA – GCC BUSINESS

FORUM  

11-12 FEBRUARY 2014,ALMAS TOWER, DUBAIWith a focus on promoting trade relations between Russia and the GCC countries, this event provi-des an opportunity for those in-terested in mutual investments. The forum will address Russia – GCC cooperation in implemen-ting infrastructure projects, de-veloping cooperation in gas and oil services, the petrochemical in-dustry, nuclear plants and alter-native energy resources, as well as nanotechnology, communica-tions and telecommunications.The second day will include dis-cussions on the tourism and airli-nes sector in Russia and the GCC countries, and expanding coope-ration in the diamond and gem-stones industry. The forum will also cover trade and economic legislation in the UAE, as well as prospects for cooperation in food manufacturing and agriculture. › www.rbcdubai.org/

FIND MORE

IN THE GLOBAL CALENDAR at www.rbth.ru

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GULF NEWS_SATURDAY_FEBRUARY_08_2014Special Report

JAMES ELLINGWORTHSPECIAL TO RBTH

Breaking from the old model of

total state sponsorship and

control, many of the athletes

preparing for Sochi have worked

with foreign coaches and a wide

range of training methods.

Ivan Drago has a lot to answer for.The ice-cold, thankfully fi ction-

al Soviet rival of Rocky Balboa has shaped Western perceptions of Russian athletes ever since he punched his way onto the silver screen in 1985.

His training regime, especially, stuck in the mind - a sterile lab-oratory using modern technology and steroids to create an artifi cial athlete. To many, Russian sports stars are either Drago-like robots or Anna Kournikova-style blonde bombshells of the tennis court.

Needless to say, Russians aren’t robots - I’d hardly be working as a Moscow sports correspondent if they were. But Russians do pre-pare very differently from their US or British rivals, and with the Sochi Winter Olympics coming up, now’s a good time to break it down.

The biggest difference is the role of the state. Many of the Ameri-cans in Sochi next month will have got there with charity, sponsor-ship cash and fi nancial hardship.

ming and rhythmic gymnastics since 2000, producing a constant

turnover of new champions. Ahead of Sochi, 12 of the last 20 fi gure skating golds have gone to Rus-sians.

The system doesn’t produce Ivan Drago clones, either - there’s plen-ty of room for emotion.

Yelena Isinbayeva, perhaps the greatest Russian track and fi eld athlete of all time, calls her coach her “second father” and they share a unique bond. “Sometimes we don't even need to speak. I under-stand him from syllables, from brief looks,” she told RIA Novos-ti in 2012.

There’s a downside, though.When a coach’s authority is

backed with the power of the state, it creates an environment ripe for abuses of power.

That may explain some of Rus-sian sport’s many doping scandals - a young athlete is unlikely to ask too many questions about their daily “vitamin supplements” if the coach has the power to take away

their place in the SDYuShOR, one of the country’s elite athletes-on-ly schools where the pressure to succeed is intense.

That sort of isolation can turn into a siege mentality. Those young synchronised swimming champi-ons mentioned earlier were speak-ing less than two weeks after win-ning yet another world title, but they detected conspiracies against them everywhere. At August's World Championships in Barce-lona, a delayed bus ride to the training pool was a sign “the Span-ish wanted to put pressure on us right from the start,” according to Svetlana Kolesnichenko, who left Spain with four gold medals.

Russia’s swimmers have a strict no-fraternising policy with com-petitors unless banned doping products “end up in our water or our food, coincidentally, in some way,” she added with enthusiasm. That’s almost unheard of in mod-ern sport - after growing up in an isolated environment, it seems the isolation can become voluntary.

As for the Americans, “they’ve been trying for several years al-ready to push synchronised swim-ming out [of the Olympics],” Kole-snichenko claimed. There is no evidence of any such attempt.

Synchro is the Russian system at its most successful, most disci-plined and most isolated - almost Soviet-style, in fact. But there are signs things are changing.

The system has never worked in some sports - Alpine skiing, say, or cycling - and Russia’s re-cord low medal haul at Vancou-ver 2010 meant there had to be change.

The result has been an infl ux of foreign coaches and athletes into sports as diverse as judo, snowboarding and curling, bring-ing with them new ideas and greater openness, combined with vast state funds to help win in Sochi.

Forget Ivan Drago’s steroids - this new fusion of Russia and the West could turn out to be the win-ning formula.

Gold medals won by Soviet and Russian athletes at Winter Olym-pics since 1952.

115THE NUMBERS

ANNA KOZINASPECIAL TO RBTH

TIMUR GANEYEVSPECIAL TO RBTH

Russia's Olympians will sport a

range of colourful new outfits at

the Sochi Games. The bold

uniforms make use of traditional

materials, marrying comfort and

style with folkloric motifs.

After a public vote, the three

mascots for the Sochi Games – a

snow leopard, a polar bear and a

hare – are hoping to earn their

place amongst the best-loved

symbols of the Winter Olympics.

Athletes dress to impress on the greatest stage of all

Style Designers turn to tradition to create Olympic uniforms

could be recognised by the phoe-nix feather and traditional pat-terns on their jackets. This time around, they will sport a large RU logo. On the one hand, this is a recognised international abbrevi-ation for Russia. On the other, the letters look like the silhouettes of two fairy tale characters, Pegasus and Griffon, which were fi rst un-veiled to Russian fans in 2012. These symbols are supposed to bring good luck.

Another distinctive feature of the Russian Olympic collection is special outfi ts which athletes will wear only at the medal ceremo-

The host nation of the 2014 Win-ter Olympics will try to set a trend through a tasteful combination of local fl avour and individuality. The emphasis is on convenience, com-fort, advanced manufacturing tech-nologies, and… a dash of fairy tale.

At the official presentation of the Russian team’s Olympic uni-forms just before the New Year, many were surprised by the riot of colour. The women wore fur-trimmed down coats in the blue, white and red of the Russian fl ag, decorated with folk patterns. The Russian men, meanwhile, sported double-breasted overcoats with natural sheepskin trim, and tra-ditional Russian hats with earfl aps.

As for the Sochi 2014 sports-wear the athletes will don in the Olympic village and on other in-formal occasions, it will be radi-cally different from previous de-signs. At the last games, Russians

nies. These limited-edition uni-forms will only be available to ath-letes from the national team; the champions’ jackets are not for sale.

Pavel Bure, former Russian ice hockey world champion and Olym-pic medallist, was full of praise for these innovations. "It is when you receive the uniform that it fi -nally hits you: the Games are just around the corner. And when you fi rst put it on, you really start to feel like a part of the team. It brings on this spirit of unity, and you realise that you are an inalien-able part of the country you rep-resent,” said Bure.

The Olympic outfits feature fur-trimmed coats and fairytale symbols.

04

Symbols Choosing an Olympic mascot is no easy task

WELCOMING THE WORLD

RUSSIA HAS BECOME AN OLYMPIC GAMES HOST

NATION FOR THE SECOND TIME IN ITS HISTORY

AND IS DETERMINED TO MAKE IT AN OCCASION

THAT WILL LIVE LONG IN THE MEMORY

THE MAKING OF A RUSSIAN CHAMPION

The Russians are there on the gov-ernment’s account.

President Vladimir Putin’s ideal in government is the “power ver-tical” principle, and most Rus-sian sports (except for per-haps football, hockey and tennis) fi t that template per-fectly - athletes answer to their coaches, coaches to their feder-ations, and the federations to the ministry. Funding goes the other way - if the athletes are obedient and successful.

With no need to waste time on promotional activities to grub up funding, Russians often end up fi t-ter than their rivals, too.

When it works, the success can be spectacular. In Russia’s stron-gest Olympic sports, like rhythmic gymnastics, fi gure skating or syn-chronised swimming, kids are often receiving intense, lavishly funded training by the age of 10, and helped into elite colleges later on.

Many start training when they’re just four years old - “That late!” exclaimed several of the na-tional synchronised swimming team at a press conference when one of their members admitted she had only taken up the sport when she was seven.

The results speak for themselves. Russia has won every Olympic gold medal in synchronised swim-

AT SOCHI RUSSIA

AIMS NOT ONLY TO FULFIL THE ROLE

OF HOST BUT TO TAKE TOP HONOURS

At Moscow 1980 there were two

mascots, now there are three.

Furry trio beat rivals to finish line

Interestingly, a few days before the fi nal vote, Father Frost, Rus-sia’s version of Father Christmas, was excluded from the list of con-tenders. Had he won, this would have meant one of Russia’s nation-al symbols being transferred into the ownership of the Internation-al Olympic Committee for a lengthy period of time.

The fi nal round of voting took place in early 2011, and was shown on national television, with more than 1.5 million people casting their votes. First place went to the leopard, backed by Russia’s cur-rent president, Vladimir Putin. Sec-ond came the polar bear, who had won favour with the president at the time, Dmitriy Medvedev, and the hare grabbed third. Luchik and Snezhinka, a little ray of light and a snowfl ake, were chosen as the mascots for the Paralympics.

Notably, this was the fi rst time ever that Olympics mascot had been chosen through a public vote. In the past, endorsing official mas-cots has been the prerogative of organising committees.

All three of the mascots chosen for Sochi 2014 represent animals which are found in the wild in dif-ferent regions of Russia.

In February 2014, at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, spectators will be entertained by no fewer than three mascots: a snow leopard, a polar bear and a hare. But the host country had a hard time deciding that this trio was the right choice.

Mascot diplomacyIn 2008, Russia held a presiden-

tial election. In Sochi, however, there was another election taking place at the same time, this one to select an Olympic mascot. The peo-ple of the host city for the 2014 Games chose a dolphin on skis, but the city’s views were ignored, and the organisers decided to put the issue to a nationwide vote in-stead. Curiously, for unspecifi ed reasons, the jury choosing the fi -nalists eliminated the two contend-ers who had won the qualifying round: a toad called Zoycha and a pair of winter mittens.

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RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES WWW.RBTH.RU

GULF NEWS_SATURDAY_FEBRUARY_08_2014 Special Report

ANNA KOZINASPECIAL TO RBTH

Paralympic sport is a great

example of man's capacity for

overcoming disabilities through

grit and determination. RBTH tells

the incredible success stories of

several Russian Paralympians.

The Paralympic Games in Sochi 2014 are expected to yield all kinds of achievements. Before the 1,650 Paralympic athletes and team members from over 45 coun-tries have even arrived for the competition, the organisers have already started to set records. The first records are of a national scale: The Russian delegation will consist of 162 athletes - this is the biggest team that Russia has ever sent to the Paralympics. This was followed by a world record: during nine days of competition in Sochi, for the fi rst time in the history of the Paralympic move-ment, 72 separate events will be held in fi ve sports: cross-country skiing, biathlon, ice sledge hock-ey, wheelchair curling and ski-ing. Some of these sports will in-clude new disciplines - biathlon short-track (6 events) and Para-lympic snowboard cross (two events).

Of course, besides the other fi g-ures and achievements, viewers will be interested in the num-ber of medals won in the com-petition. At the last Games, in Vancouver in 2010, the Russian team won 38 medals - 12 gold, 16 silver and 10 bronze, all of these in two sports: cross-country skiing and biathlon. The Russians' gold haul was second only to that of the Germans (13-5-6).

At Vancouver the Russians rightfully earned the title of one of the world's strongest teams. Here are the stories of two Rus-sian champions who know the value not only of winning, but also of life.

Irek ZaripovIrek became the most decorated Russian athlete at the Paralym-pics in Vancouver, winning four golds and one silver in skiing and biathlon. At Sochi, the 30-year-

The Russian Paralympic curling team prepares for So-

chi 2014 on the ice in Yekaterinburg.

when he was unable to fi nd him-self or his place in life. When he was 17, Irek was left without legs after an accident. He had an am-putation, then other operations in various hospitals. And then there were two years of despair and loneliness. Irek remembers that he lived like a plant: just eat-ing, drinking and sleeping. Dur-ing the time he spent confi ned to his bed, he gained almost 100kg, though now he weighs about 65kg. His parents pulled him out of his despair, and helped their son to

pull himself together. Irek took up various sports: He did athlet-ics, went swimming and skiing, and rode for kilometres in a wheelchair alongside biathletes on roller skis. Eventually he was noticed by a coach.

"When I started doing sport, I realised that it was for me," says Zaripov. "Life was no longer dull, I had a goal - to reach the pinna-cle of sport."

He has now achieved this, and not only in sport. "I am absolute-ly happy," says Irek. "I have my parents, wife, chldren, my favou-rite job. What more could I want?"

Anna MileninaAnna Milenina (Burmistrova) suf-fered a pinched nerve at birth, causing partial paralysis of the arm. With such an injury, doctors categorically forbade her to do any sport. But Anna was from an athletic family. Her mother is a master of sport in cross-country skiing, and her father is also a skier. In fact, her parents even met on the piste. Her aunt, meanwhile, is a trainer - and it was her who took on the responsibility of train-ing Anna, contrary to medical ad-vice.

Anna began to do sport at the age of six and joined the national team when she was 14. She im-mediately began to participate at international level, and went to her fi rst Paralympics in Turin when she was 19 years old. She became a champion straight away in ski racing at 10km and a triple silver medallist in cross-country skiing and biathlon.

In Vancouver, Anna reaped the rewards of a responsible and con-scientious performance: two gold, silver and bronze medals. Back home another surprise was wait-ing: Anna’s boyfriend (now hus-band) Viktor Milenin proposed to her. Also a Paralympic athlete, he was a bronze medallist in volley-ball at the Beijing Olympics. A year after the wedding, the couple had a son.

Motherhood brought new per-spectives: "Life is procreation. So I want to be not only a good ath-lete, but also a good mother and wife. I think children should al-ways be in the foreground," said Milenina.

" For daily workouts you need persistence. You shouldn't forget your goals. And on the

road, when you are fighting with your rivals, showing them your character, you can switch on your ambitions."

" Training, training and once again training. You have to force and overcome your-

self, to be stubborn and run until the end."

THE QUOTE

Irek Zaripov Anna Milenina

Lidiya Skoblikova

Alexander Tikhonov

Lyubov Yegorova

SPORT: SPEED SKATING

AGE: 64

SPORT: BIATHLON

AGE: 66

SPORT: CROSS-COUNTRY SKI

AGE: 47

Legendary Soviet speed skater Lidi-ya Skoblikova was born in the Urals town of Zlatoust. Difficult living con-ditions hardened Skoblikova, whose ordinary training included a 40-min-ute warm-up, a cross-country race and 12 acceleration runs of 500m. She joined the USSR national team at the age of 20. The world press dubbed the 1964 Innsbruck Games as “Skoblikova’s Olympics” as the 24-year-old achieved what no one had ever done before. Lidiya took to the ice four times, and every time she came back with a gold medal. Her record still remains unbroken.

Russia's most decorated winter sports champion, biathlete Alexan-der Tikhonov was born with valvu-lar heart disease, and spent a year in hospital with severe burns when he was only five after falling into a pot of boiling water. After picking up the rifle on a trip to Estonia, the young man from the Chelyabinsk Region was to break all biathlon re-cords. In just 15 years he became a four-time Olympic champion, a sil-ver medallist at the Grenoble Win-ter Olympics in 1968, won the world championship eleven times and the USSR championship fifteen times.

At the Albertville Games in France in 1992, skier Lyubov Yegorova won gold in the 5km and 15km ski rac-es. In the skiing relay, the Russian women outran their Norwegian ri-vals by 20 seconds, and an ordinary girl from Siberia became a three-time Olympic champion. At the 1994 Games at Lillehammer in Norway, Yegorova showed her superb skill again by securing victory in the 5km and 10km races, and in the 4 x 5km ski relay. But in 1997 she tested pos-

itive for a forbidden medication at Trondheim, resulting in a two-year disqualification, and that was the end of her skiing career.

Paralympians like Svetlana Konovalova train just like ordinary athletes.

old athlete plans to defend his ti-tles and then retire from sport. "I hope my farewell to sport will be positive, then I plan to start a po-litical career," said Zaripov (con-fi rmed by one of the leaders of the Russian Paralympic Team and re-cently the deputy of the State As-sembly of Bashkortostan). "But

now of course all thoughts are focused on my performance

in [our] home Paralympics." Irek is now confi dent, successful and strong.

But there was a time Sochi's

Fisht Olympic

Stadium seats

40,000 and will

host the opening

and closing cere-

monies.

It cost $US63

million.

THE FACTS

Great champions of the past

05

Society The Paralympics play a vital role in raising the profile of those with disabilities

How they scaled their own personal Mount Olympus

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Read in

Special

issue

- Sochi 2014: Two trials for Russia

- The scale and score of Sochi`s modernization program

- Security threats & policy recomendations

- The Paralympics as a model for success

- Top10 Twitter accounts for #Sochi

Subscribe now and get the report for FREE >> russia-direct.org/subscribe

06RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES WWW.RBTH.RU

GULF NEWS_SATURDAY_FEBRUARY_08_2014Science&Technology

YULIA GUTOVASPECIAL TO RBTH

Several laboratories in Russia are

working hard to develop cancer

treatments. RBTH asks scientists

about the latest advances and the

current situation on the market

for cancer drugs.

Russian lab targets new cancer cure - using tobacco plant

Health New treatments could help more people to survive various kinds of cancer

“Essentially, we synthesise new chemicals," said Anatoly Barysh-nikov, head of the Institute of Ex-perimental Diagnostics and Can-cer Treatment. “We then study their ability to fi ght cancer, and turn them into usable drugs. One of the promising areas at the moment is chemicals derived from plants. They have a different mechanism of anti-cancer activity, and they are less toxic."

This promising new research is conducted at the institute's trans-genic pharmaceuticals laboratory. The special plants grown in the lab produce “human” proteins that can fi ght cancer. This new drug is not expected to become a univer-sal cure - but it does promise sev-eral key advantages over the ex-isting treatments.

“This is our greenhouse,” said

Yekaterina Kosobokova, one of the researchers working at the lab, as we walk into a small room full of plastic pots with little seedlings.

“This is Australian tobacco, which grows in the wild. It is sim-ilar to the tobacco plant which is used to make cigarettes," Kosobo-kova explained. “These are not the genetically modifi ed plants which everyone is so afraid of. But they produce antibodies to the HER2 cancer protein. We are talking about chemicals that fi ght some types of cancer. These antibodies are already used in a cancer drug called Herceptin, which is very ex-pensive. There are no locally-made versions of that drug on the Rus-sian market. We hope that these plants will help us produce a much cheaper version of the same chem-ical, which may also have other important advantages."

Scientists fi rst create specially modifi ed bacteria whose genetic makeup forces the tobacco plant’s leaves to produce the anti-cancer protein. The leaves infi ltrated by these bacteria are no different from all the others. The only distinctive thing about them is the tiny cir-cles left by the jet injector that was used to plant the bacteria. The leaves are then harvested, and the protein they produce is purifi ed from the biomass.

The Russian lab hopes to bring its new drug to clinical trials in two years’ time. Its antibodies have already proved effective against breast and ovarian cancer.

“There are many different kinds of cancer,” says Vyacheslav Koso-rukov, the head of the laboratory. “All the available treatments can do is increase the percentage of people who survive the specific kind of cancer any particular drug is effective against.”

Scientists hope

to bring the

new drug to

clinical trials in

two years’

time.

Russia’s GPS: the myths dispelled

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Alexander Gurko, president of the

non-commercial partnership

GLONASS

Alexander Gurko, president of the non-commercial partnership GLONASS, attempts to clear up some of the myths surrounding the system in an interview with RIA Novosti.

Why do we need GLONASS if the

whole world is using the global po-

sitioning system (GPS)?

A user can solve the same prob-lem — that of fi nding their loca-tion on a map — by using signals from both GLONASS and GPS. There is no motivation for the cus-tomer to simply exchange one sys-tem for another.

The situation changes if equip-ment is used that is able to receive and process signals from both sys-tems. Moreover, the user gains a signifi cant advantage both in terms of the speed at which the coordi-nates are processed and their re-liability.

In this case the operator of the navigation system — for GPS this was and remains the Pentagon—has the option of either switching off the civilian signal for a specif-ic area or of desensitising it arti-fi cially.

The latest generation of GPS satellites also supports this func-tion. This is not even about mili-tary confl ict, as the threat of turn-ing off the navigation switch can in itself be used to achieve politi-cal or economic aims.

The critically important infra-structure that the entire world uses

24Satellites are needed for the GLONASS na-vigation system to function properly.

1982Was the year when the first GLONASS sate-llite was launched in-to orbit.

2007Was the year GLONASS became fully available to civilian users.

THE NUMBERS

and on which a signifi cant por-tion of the national economy is based should not be reliant on one country.

Russia has claimed more than once

that GLONASS is the only alternative

to GPS. How does this correspond

to reality?

This is true today. The situation, though, will change in the next three to four years. The Chinese BeiDou system at the moment op-erates as a regional system (that is to say it supplements GLONASS and GPS) within the limits of the Asia-Pacifi c region.

The EU has begun to deploy the Galileo system. In the absence of some kind of force majeure, both systems will be deployed globally in the next few years.

This, however, is the problem for the pioneers. Both GPS and GLONASS were developed in the 1970s, and do not take into con-sideration all the modern technol-ogy. Galileo, and especially Bei-Dou, were designed decades later, which allowed more modern and more technically advanced systems to be developed.

It is often said that GPS is significant-

ly more accurate than GLONASS. Is

there any truth in this?

GLONASS’ actual user accuracy is currently less on average to GPS. If a GPS receiver can theoretical-ly fi x a position in an exposed lo-cation to within no more than 3 to 4 metres, for GLONASS the fi g-ure is within 7 to 10 metres.

This theoretical difference is not important in practice for two rea-sons. The fi rst is that there are no receivers that support just GLONASS and not GPS, and the second is that the client’s receiver will normally carry out addition-al signal processing, averaging out the result.

First published in Russian inRIA Novosti

GEORGY MANAYEVRBTH

In Moscow, there are many urban

myths about government shelters

and a secret metro system. RBTH

presents an overview of the

military communications located

deep under the Russian capital.

Discovering Moscow's subterranean secretsMysteries The capital's metro system conceals a vast hidden network of tunnels, nuclear bomb shelters and command posts

Specially fortifi ed shelters were built in strict secrecy. To escape the city in case of bombing, the authorities also needed a secure means of transport. The regular metro system offered too little pro-tection, so a “second metro” was built. Linking government shel-ters and underground command centres, and even vast shelters out-side the city, the system was dubbed “Metro-2” by Muscovites.

We’re not disclosing state secrets here, as the evidence proving the existence of these systems is quite public. First, there are ventilation kiosks and capped mining shafts used to construct the metro.

One such shaft can be seen near the Kitay-gorod metro station, and there are several active shafts in suburbs and outside city borders, in areas where there are no metro stations. Despite the shabby ap-pearance of these shafts, they are guarded and impossible to enter.

Evidence can also be seen in-side the Moscow metro. There are

to Stalin since construction was completed only after his death.

Built as a shelter for Long-Range Air Force HQ, the bunker is 200 feet below ground. In the ‘60s, it was equipped with life-sup-port systems and enough food and water to support officers for a long time, but it later deteriorated and in 1995 it was declassifi ed. Its main entrance shaft, with an elevator down to the bunker, is protected by a concrete cap 20 feet thick, hidden inside a fake 19th-century house with blank windows. This cap is nuclear shockwave proof and can withstand a direct hit by an aerial bomb.

The bunker now houses the Cold War Museum, a private enterprise that also organises guided tours, parties and presentations – the world premiere of the popular computer game “Red Alert 3’ was held in the bunker.

Bomb shelters that can withstand a nuclear hit, tunnels from the Kremlin to Stalin’s suburban cot-tage, subterranean airports and tank tunnels – isn’t it all nonsense? Yes, but only partly. Underground shelters and transport links for the Soviet government did – and still do – exist.

The unhidden evidenceAfter World War II, construction began in Moscow of underground shelters meant to protect civilians from nuclear attacks. But the high-est government and military offi-cials – the only ones capable of making key decisions in wartime – needed special protection.

blocked stairways and gates lead-ing “nowhere” in some stations, and a dead-end line that can be seen to the left from trains trav-elling from Sportivnaya station to Universitet station. The line, as amateur explorers report, ends near a massive gate, which is be-lieved to be one of the entrances to Metro-2. An inside source told RBTH that each of the officers with access to Metro-2 is allowed only into one part of the system, meaning that nobody is in posses-sion of the whole plan. This makes the declassifi cation of the whole installation almost impossible.

Stalin bunkers: real or fake?Moscow also has two "Stalin" bun-kers, easily seen on a guided tour. The first of them was allegedly built in the ‘30s but in fact is a former storage area, decorated in the ‘90s as a tourist attraction. The second, Bunker-42, is near Tagan-skaya metro station, and this one is real; however, it also has no link

Many of the stations in Moscow's metro system contain blocked stair-

ways and gates which appear to lead nowhere. Some of these are be-

lieved to be entrances to the city's secret metro, "Metro-2."rbth.ru/24403

More from RBTH's interview with Vy-acheslav Kosorukov, head of the labo-ratory at the Institute of Experimental Diagnostics and Cancer Treatment:

Can you actually cure cancer or can

you only keep the tumour under

control?

People sometimes think that a medi-cine is something you take and get cured right away. But even your regu-lar painkillers are effective in only 90 per cent of patients; for the remain-ing 10 per cent, they make no differ-ence. So, talking about breast cancer,

all we can hope for is to produce an effective treatment for those 30 per cent of patients whose cancer has the HER2 protein marker. The remaining 70 per cent of breast cancer patients don't have that protein, so they need some other drug. And then of course, there are some cases where none of the available drugs are effective.

So you can offer a cure only for

some, but not others?

We are not even talking about a cure. We are talking about remission. Those who have had cancer are at a

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Is there a way of actually curing cancer?

very high risk of developing a tumour once again. So can you please explain to your readers that there is simply no such thing as a ‘cure for cancer’.People need to understand that there are hundreds of different drugs, and each one is effective only against some particular kinds of cancer. There are dozens of research centres in our country that are looking for new can-cer treatments. Foreign companies are spending billions of dollars on such research, in the hope of earning even more from selling these treat-ments.

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THE YEAR CLASSIC DIPLOMACY ROSE FROM THE DEAD

Fyodor

LukyanovPOLITICAL ANALYST

2013 demonstrated that wherever there is a will to solve a problem, there is a way.

The year 2013 may well go down in the history of world politics. Its tumul-tuous and chaotic events

once again brought to the fore the need for negotiations, mutu-ally benefi cial solutions, and sce-narios that suit all parties.

It would appear that these are all indispensable fundamentals of diplomacy. However, diplomats seem to have had to make do without them for the past cou-ple of decades. The end of the Cold War left the world without a structural balance of power to force opponents to appreciate each other's interests.

For a long time afterwards, the winner in the great standoff could do pretty much what it wanted, without any regard for the rest of the world - all the more so as the Cold War had ended peacefully, through the voluntary self-elimination of the opponent. This gave the victor a feeling of moral and ideological superiority, evinced by its sub-sequent approaches to local con-fl icts around the world.

Previously, outsiders with vest-ed interests in one of the con-

that have occurred. Gone are the times when the US and its allies had an overwhelming and indis-putable say in international affairs. Their clout is dissipating, partial-ly due to domestic complications in America and Europe, partially because of China's growing infl u-ence and the revival of Russia's political faculties, and partially as medium-sized players like Turkey, Brazil, Iran, and Indonesia are in-creasingly gaining political weight.

The global system is yearning for a restoration of the erstwhile balance, and time-tested diplo-matic methods are once again in vogue. The most crucial of such methods implies fastidious, open-ended diplomacy that caters to ev-eryone's interests and encourages professional bargaining.

The Syrian drama is far from over; it is still unclear how the agreement on the destruction of Damascus' chemical weapons can be converted into a political set-tlement. But 2013 demonstrated that wherever there is a will to solve a problem, there is a way, no matter how many technical and political obstacles have to be over-come in the process. In spite of the universal scepticism of experts back in September as to the via-bility of Russia's plan for Syria, it is being implemented as you read.

Other important events during the last year proved that change was afoot – or called for change. It suddenly transpired, for exam-ple, that what appeared to be a hopeless clinch over Iran's nucle-ar problem could in fact be solved by a peaceful resolution.

Arguably, that resolution se-cured nothing more than a breath-ing space, but this is already prog-ress in its own right.

Another manifestation of the new trend was the amnesty for ex- Yukos head Mikhail Khodor-kovsky, which became possible thanks to the behind-the-scenes efforts of German diplomacy.

The end of this affair came only after the sides switched from ul-timatums and harsh public speech-es to secret diplomatic talks, re-sulting in a scenario that suited all the major players.

The Ukrainian affair, for its part, is an example of proof by contra-diction. Here, the excitement of rivalry and the desire to gain the coveted prize at all costs were cho-sen over attempts to fi nd a uni-versally acceptable compromise.

It is utterly pointless to try to look even a year ahead. We can assume, however, that the trend described above will persist.

Fyodor Lukyanov is chairman of Presidium of the Russian Council for Foreign and Defence Policy.

WHY I WILL WHOLE-HEARTEDLY BACK RUSSIA AT SOCHI 2014

Ajay

KamalakaranJOURNALIST

It was a cold late-winter night in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in March of 2003. I was excited about a sporting event that captivated

all of India, but in a distant cor-ner of the Russian Far East, a few expats from England and its for-mer colonies were the only people who knew that India was playing in the fi nal of the Cricket World Cup in South Africa. I’d been in Russia for less than a month at that time and stayed up to date on the Indian cricket team’s prog-ress to the fi nal. There were a se-ries of memorable wins, including convincing victories over England and Pakistan. This was our year, or so I thought before Zaheer Khan had a bad day, a really bad day.

A Russian friend with satellite television arranged for a long party, where we’d watch the match and cheer on India. It was obvi-ous after the Australian innings that India did not have even a re-mote chance of winning. An amused group of Russian friends watched the match with me until I threw in the towel. They enthu-siastically cheered on India and tried to console me as my team was trounced by a stronger Aus-tralian side. Being 10 time zones ahead of South Africa, where the match was being played, we were all in a dazed state and our sor-rows were drowned out by the choicest of beverages well into the morning. “It’s okay, we reached the fi nal anyway,” a friend of mine said. He meant the “we.” Russia was not a cricket playing nation and by default my new cricket-loving friends would support India. Amazingly enough, three of the friends who were with me on that night in Sakhalin happened to be in Delhi in April 2011, when India did win the World Cup, and joined complete strangers near India Gate and celebrated the win through-out the night.

A week after the 2003 World Cup fi nal, I was invited to go ice-climb-ing by Sakhalin’s Tikhaya Bay. As someone who had long suffered from a fear of heights, this seemed

like a joke, but my friends who watched the match with me in-sisted that I return the favour and camp by the frozen sea in biting cold and then attempt to scale an ice-covered hill. As soon as we ar-rived by the bay, I knew that this

I was expecting to be laughed at. The reaction was quite the oppo-site. Complete strangers gave me a standing ovation and people walked up to me and praised my courage for coming out there and even attempting the climb. That’s when I saw the Russian sporting spirit for the fi rst time. Over the next few years, whenever I fell while skiing and skating and try-ing various forms of winter sports, there was always a hand to help me up and encourage me.

Eleven years after that camp-ing trip by Tikhaya Bay, I no lon-ger have a fear of heights and more importantly, the city slicker in me, who was raised in New York and Mumbai, has given way to some-one who swears by the Great Out-doors. It was Russia that turned a quintessential urban dweller into both a sportsman and a nature-lover.

When the Olympics get under way in a few weeks, I will natu-rally be rooting for Shiva Kesha-van, Himanshu Thakur, Hira Lal and Nadeem Iqbal, who will be playing under the Olympic flag since the Indian Olympic Associ-ation has been kicked out by the

international governing body. But in the categories that don’t involve these athletes, I will be happily waving another tricolour.

Right since 2006, I have been seeing advertisements on Russian television about the Sochi Games, encouraging children to take up winter sports. These games will be the culmination of years of dedi-cated efforts by young Russian ath-letes to represent the country on such a grand stage. Such is the dedication that young skiers even practise in the summer using skates. This is the most prepared Russia has been for the Winter Olympics since the days of the So-viet Union, and the Olympic fort-night promises to be an exciting period.

I will try and be as enthusiastic about the Russian winter athletes as my Russian cricket-loving friends are in supporting the Men in Blue. Of course, much to their chagrin, I am not making any com-mitments when it comes to the FIFA World Cup coming up later in the year in Brazil.

The author is a a journalist and travel writer based in Mumbai

Theodora Clarke is Director of Russian Art Week in London and Editor of Russian Art & Culture.

Complete strangers gave me a standing ovation. That's when I saw the Russian sporting spirit for the first time.

would not be an easy weekend. Sure, we were dressed for the oc-casion, but even the task of walk-ing on the frozen layer of the sea for a few kilometres with heavy backpacks took every bit of phys-ical and mental strength that I had.

Of course, when it was my turn to climb up, I managed without much of a problem, but climbing down was a problem and I made a mess of the whole situation. This particular area where we set up camp had many sporting enthu-siasts and embarrassed as I was,

IOR

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RUSSIA AND BRITAIN: CAN CULTURE HEAL THE DIVIDE?

Theodora

ClarkeJOURNALIST

It would be an exaggeration to say that the upcoming UK-Rus-sia Year of Culture 2014 marks a “reset” in relations between our

countries, though it is a platform from which to build stronger links.

I spoke at a conference this month in London on the topic of cultural diplomacy in anticipation of the Year of Culture. The ques-tion we considered was whether culture really does make a con-tribution to international relations.

Critic and broadcaster Andrew Graham Dixon, chairing the con-ference, voiced perhaps the most telling statement of the night: that cultural diplomacy is a place where people can meet when they can’t agree on anything else. This statement may well hold true for the UK and Russia. The From Rus-

sia exhibition at the Royal Academy in 2008 took place during a particularly rocky peri-od. Russia was hesitant to lend art to the UK, fearing works could be seized due to their disputed ownership. The impasse was even-

tually resolved by leg-islation protecting the works and the show was exceptionally well received by the British public.

Governments can have a huge impact on cultural relations. A cul-tural co-operation agreement

signed by Cameron and Medve-dev, Russia’s then-president, led to several Russian projects. A re-cent collaboration by Houghton Hall and the Hermitage Museum allowed UK curators to bring works from Catherine the Great’s collection that had not been seen in Britain for generations.

The many organisations I have spoken to are all planning major cultural projects next year and ac-knowledged the importance of building links with their Russian counterparts. The V&A has forged a strong relationship with fellow institutions, and the Science Mu-

seum has negotiated outstand-ing loans from the Russian Space Agency for a forthcom-ing exhibition. These loans would have been difficult, if not

impossible, without the cultur-al year as an impetus and politi-cal will at the highest level. As tense as ordinary relations may be, especially in the shadow of the recent Greenpeace debacle, cul-ture somehow always fi nds a way to break down barriers.

fl icting sides would usually step in as referees and mediators, forc-ing the parties to compromise. This all changed in the 1990s, when the world's leading pow-ers began to defi ne who was right and wrong in foreign wars.

The right party would receive active support in the form of po-litical backing and surgical strikes on its opponent, as in Bos-nia, or by direct armed interven-tion aimed at toppling the in-cumbent regime, such as in Libya.

Consequently, diplomatic talks - the crucial component of any peaceful settlement - stopped being about seeking compromis-es and became entirely focused on negotiating the conditions of the "bad guys'" capitulation.

September 2013 saw the end of this model, when the United States failed to carry through with its previously announced plans to launch strikes on Syria.

There are several reasons for this, but the primary explana-tion lies in structural changes

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RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES WWW.RBTH.RU

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Olympic

visitors can

take a break

from sport and

get out into the

area's picturesque

canyons and valleys

Le Chef is more than just a French restaurant - it's also a pub.

SKY Club's popular DJ sets raise temperatures late into the night.

SVETLANA SINEPOSTOLOVICHSPECIAL TO RBTH

Canyons, waterfalls, caves, natural

springs, mountaintops - a wealth

of spectacular natural beauty is

waiting to be discovered in the

area around Sochi.

Mount Akhun At 663 metres above sea level, densely forested Mount Akhun is the highest coastal point in Sochi. A winding road, built on the orders of Joseph Stalin, leads 11km up to the summit, where an observation tower made of local natural stone was erected in 1936. The Akhun tower is open to tour-ists all year round.

Sochi, Khostinsky District, Mount Akhun

Navalishchenskoe Ravine You can take a break from city life in the famous Navalishchen-skoye ravine, a beautiful mile-long canyon hollowed out by the Hosta River between dramatic cliffs. The small lake here attracts tourists in the summer with its cool water, and in winter with its incredible crystal blue hue.

In the ravine there is a place called “Devil’s Gate,” where the water gushes through a narrow cleft during heavy rains. As the Russians say, "the devil himself would not stick his nose in there."

Navalishchenskoe Ravine: Sochi, Hosta village

Devil's Gate Canyon: Sochi, 5km from Khosta village

Staraya Matsesta At a height of 380 metres, the Eagle Rocks offer great views of the Black Sea and Mount Akhun. Old-timers say eagles once nested here. It is believed that this place was where mythological Greek hero Prometheus was chained to a rock for stealing fi re from the gods. Each day an eagle would fl y to him and peck out his liver. A statue of Prometheus in chains stands on the cliff here.

Below the Eagle Rocks are the

three Agursky falls, which are a beautiful sight even in winter.

Sochi, Khostin-sky district, Staraya Matsesta

Vorontsov CavesNot far from the city is one of Russia's most extensive cave sys-tems – the Vorontsov Caves. Over 11 kilometres in length, the caves were inhabited by prehistoric peo-ple 15-20,000 years ago. The "Pro-metheus" grotto stuns tourists with its size and beauty: 120 me-tres long and 20 metres high, it features limestone blocks, frozen rivers, and stalactites and stalag-mites, as well as a hanging "chan-delier" – a result of composite deposits.

The caves are located 20km from Khosta village

Bear CornerA car journey from Adler

to Krasnaya Polyana along the valley of the Mzymty river

can turn into an unforgettable adventure. Just a few kilometres

from the airport is a well-known local trout farm, where you can buy live fi sh or catch your own. Trout is prepared with various spices and sauces in the Canyon restaurant nearby.

Five kilometres from the vil-lage of Kepsha is a hamlet called Medvezhy Ugol ("Bear Сorner"), well-known for its mineral springs. On the way there are apiaries, where you can try mountain honey. You will fi nd numerous cafes and restaurants with a Caucasian fl a-vour along the route.

Trout farm: Sochi, Adler district., Kazachy Brod, Ul. Forelevaya, 45a Medvezhy Ugol: Sochi, Chvizhepse village, Ul. Narzannaya 5

Renting an apartment in So-chi is as easy as pie, but not during the Olympic Games, when the prices will be 8 or 10 times higher than usual. RBTH has picked 5 main websites which will help you find prop-er accommodation in Sochi for good prices even during the Winter Olympic Games.

This is probably the best online resource for those who want to find a place to stay in and around Sochi quickly and keep their budget down. At present it lists more than 450 proper-ties ready to be leased - you can rent flats, cottages, rooms, beds (as cheap as $15 a night) or de-luxe accommodation ($500 a night). Besides these traditional options, travellers can even stay in an eco-friendly tent with an inbuilt heating system to keep warm on Sochi's coldest nights.https://airbnb.com

A world-famous website giv-ing you the possibility to stay with locals for free. Not only do you have a roof over your head, but also the chance to see Sochi through the eyes of a native and check out the city's most inter-esting spots. If this sounds like your cup of tea, then go ahead and look for couchsurfers in So-chi - there are plenty of them in the area, and they can’t wait to host foreign guests. Just keep in mind that someday they may ask you to return the favour! › https://www.couchsurfing.org

A travel website covering all the CIS states. Not only will it help you find a room or apartment in Russian cities, but it also of-fers information on Ukraine and Belarus. Don't forget that the Ukrainian border is not that far from Sochi. So if you are plan-ning on visiting either of these former Soviet countries be-fore travelling on to the Win-ter Olympics, then it is definite-ly worth spending some time checking out the options avail-able on this website. › http://www.insouz.com

Founded on the idea that "there's more to travel than vis-iting a checklist of tourist at-tractions", this site has received praise from all over the world since it was launched in 2009. On the website you can find a rather short, but nevertheless excellent list of still unoccupied accommodation units in Sochi. The price is a minimum of $30 for a four-person bedroom dur-ing the Winter Olympics. › https://www.roomorama.com

Good value Olympics-oriented accommodation options can be found on this site, run by an Olympic services support com-pany which has been helping tourists and visitors with finding the perfect apartment, cottage or house at Olympic Games since the 2004 event in Ath-ens. They can also order a per-sonal driver and guides both for individuals and groups for the Olympics. You can reach them through the official website. › http://www.sochi2014accommoda-

tion.com/

AIRBNB

COUCHSURFING

IN SOYUZ

ROOMORAMA

TREKKING HOMES

Eat, drink and be merry: tips for the Mountain Cluster

Time out Where to relax in Krasnaya Polyana

1Cosy Trikoni not only serves the best gluhwein in the city, it’s also an iconic après-ski haunt for Krasnaya Polyana's

skiers and snowboarders. Try the delicious borsch, kholodets (aspic) and other traditional dishes from Russia and the CIS. During the Olympics, Trikoni will also host live guitar and saxophone music, and - if you have the energy - gigs by local rock bands.

Opening hours: 11:00 to 23:00. No smoking. Cash/credit cards accepted. Krasnaya Polyana, 1/1В Michurina Street. Phone +7 (918) 001-19-7. Free transfer to/from your hotel!

2At fi rst glance the French restaurant Le Chef might seem like the perfect place for those with a sweet tooth.

However, it's also a real English pub serving some of the world’s fi nest beers, American pies, burg-ers and snacks. The bar screens live sporting events, and you can also play darts and sing karaoke.

Opening hours: 10:00 to 00:00. No smoking. Cash/credit cards accepted. Wi-Fi. Krasnaya Poly-ana, 23 Pchelovodov Street. Phone +7 (8622) 438-168.

3SKY Club & Concert Hall is one of the hottest places in town with the local young crowd. Parties here last until

dawn and attract hundreds of elec-tronic music fans – international DJs play here every weekend. On other days the club puts on retro fi lm nights, karaoke nights, and rock/retro nights.

Opening hours: 12:00 to 06:00. Smoking/No-smoking zone. Cash/credit cards accepted. Wi-Fi. Krasnaya Polyana settlement, Esto- Sadok village. Phone +7 (928) 2-333-222.

SVETLANA SINEPOSTOLOVICHSPECIAL TO RBTH

Krasnaya Polyana has a host of

bars, cafes and restaurants to suit

all tastes and budgets. RBTH

brings you a guide to seven of the

best spots to turn to when there's

a break in the sporting action.

Darya Gonzalez

RBTH

4 Located in the Tulip Inn Rosa Khutor hotel, in the heart of Krasnaya Polyana, the Amsterdam Restaurant

features a broad and varied menu of European dishes put together by chef Nicholas van Riemsdyk. The stunning view of the Mzymta river and the Aybga ridge will leave an unforgettable impression!

Opening hours: 07:00 to 23:00. No-smoking zone. Cash/credit cards accepted. Wi-Fi. Krasnaya Polyana, Tulip Inn Rosa Khutor.

5Natur focuses on Italian and French cuisine. The highlight of the menu is, without doubt, the various

dishes and desserts prepared by the head chef. It’s a great place to bring a group of friends and you can even bring your own bev-erages, though there is a corkage fee.

Opening hours: Mon - Sat: 12:00 to 01:00, Sun: 14:00 to 01:00. No smoking. Cash/Credit cards ac-cepted. Wi-Fi. Krasnaya Polyana, 30, GES Street.

6 The drinks menu at Genis will surprise even those with the most refi ned tastes. Here you can try all kinds

of beverages from all over the world. Make sure to take a tour of the cellar, which stocks the best produce from Russia's southern regions.

Opening hours: 10:00 to 23:00. Cash/credit cards accepted. Smoking/No-smoking zone. Krasnaya Polyana, 10 Esto- Sad-ok village, Chetyre Vershini hotel. Phone +7 (988) 239-888-3.

7Czech Restaurant is famous for its home-made beverag-es, which you can accom-pany with various Europe-

an and Caucasian dishes. We recommend trying everything from the grill.

Opening hours: 10:00 to 00:00. Smoking/No-smoking zone. Cash only. Krasnaya Polyana, 5/1Mi-churina Street, Utomlenniye Solntsem hotel.

08

TTT

5WEBSITES FOR

FINDING CHEAP

ACCOMODATION IN

SOCHI

Travel Alluring day trips just

a stone's throw from the Olympic city

Sochi is

also a popular

resort for

mountain

tourism and

has outdoor

thrills

aplenty

PRES

S PH

OTO

MA

RIN

A K

OR

OB

KOVA

Steal away to Sochi's great outdoors