Thursday, 15 October 2015
Tuesday, 13 October 2015
The Russia House - Another location "bagged"
As the Russian saying goes "It's better to see once than hear about a hundred times" - Лучше один раз увидеть, чем сто раз услышать (http://blog.therussiahouse.net/2013/07/its-better-to-see-once-than-hear.html), so with that in mind, I set off to bag another location used in the film The Russia House.
In the opening scene of the film, Michelle Pfeiffer's character, Katya Orlova, is seen walking across Red Square then onwards to the Hotel National opposite where she is attending an audio book fare. The scene showing the exterior of the hotel then its foyer and staircase were filmed on location in Moscow - at the Hotel National; but the book fair scene was actually filmed in St Ermin's hotel in London.
Last week, I was on a course in London and was staying in a hotel nearby in Victoria, and I thought: what an execellent opportunity to visit that hotel and see if I can get into that room. So, I checked in to my hotel, unpacked my bags, then headed off to find St Ermin's hotel, which was a short walk away and close to St James's tube station.
When I got to the hotel, I wasn't sure where exactly the room would be, but on the hotel's website, it appears to be a dining room. With that in mind, I headed for the hotel's dining room / bar / restaurant in the wing to the right of the entrance. It was clear that I was in the wrong location, so I headed back to the foyer. I then spotted a corridoor, leading to some bedrooms, but along which I noticed that there were some large doors leading to a darkened room, so I decided to investigate.
This was it. Smaller than it appeared in the film, and set up for a business presentation, nevertheless I was in the room where the book fair scene took place. In the semi-darkness, I stood between the columns where the Abercrombie & Blair stand would have been, shut my eyes, caressed the columns and just breathed in the scene- bringing it to life in my imagination, and immersed myself in the scene.-do you know Mr Bartholomew Scott Blair?
- Barley, sure I know Barley. The old house of Abercrombie & Blair, publishers - drink or sober, a gent, one of the best.
http://therussiahousescenes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/hotel-national-audio-fair.html
Friday, 2 October 2015
I LOVE Ladas, Me!
From my collection of Soviet Postcards: a set produced by the Togliatti Car Plant.
Bridge from Russia to Crimea now complete
Russia is building a 19 kilometre long bridge from mainland Russia to the Crimean Peninsula which will bypass Ukraine altogether - peninsula’s only land border is with Ukraine - and will connect Kerch in the Crimea to the mainland.
Workers are building temporary bridges that will carry construction machinery and deliver materials to the Kerch bridge site - complete with its own concrete plant and a temporary village of worker's accommodation. Eventually there will be three bridges, but the "technical" bridge has now been completed and is in operation.
A suspension bridge is expected to open to the public in December 2018.
Thursday, 1 October 2015
Monday, 28 September 2015
Putin's Speech to the UN: Transcript of Key Points
We all know that after the end of the Cold War the world was left with one center of dominance, and those who found themselves at the top of the pyramid were tempted to think that, since they are so powerful and exceptional, they know best what needs to be done and thus they don’t need to reckon with the UN, which, instead of rubber-stamping the decisions they need, often stands in their way.
We should all remember the lessons of the past. For example, we remember examples from our Soviet past, when the Soviet Union exported social experiments, pushing for changes in other countries for ideological reasons, and this often led to tragic consequences and caused degradation instead of progress.
It seems, however, that instead of learning from other people’s mistakes, some prefer to repeat them and continue to export revolutions, only now these are “democratic” revolutions. Just look at the situation in the Middle East and Northern Africa already mentioned by the previous speaker. Of course, political and social problems have been piling up for a long time in this region, and people there wanted change. But what was the actual outcome? Instead of bringing about reforms, aggressive intervention rashly destroyed government institutions and the local way of life. Instead of democracy and progress, there is now violence, poverty, social disasters and total disregard for human rights, including even the right to life.
I’m urged to ask those who created this situation: do you at least realize now what you’ve done? But I’m afraid that this question will remain unanswered, because they have never abandoned their policy, which is based on arrogance, exceptionalism and impunity.
Power vacuum in some countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa obviously resulted in the emergence of areas of anarchy, which were quickly filled with extremists and terrorists. The so-called Islamic State has tens of thousands of militants fighting for it, including former Iraqi soldiers who were left on the street after the 2003 invasion. Many recruits come from Libya whose statehood was destroyed as a result of a gross violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1973. And now radical groups are joined by members of the so-called “moderate” Syrian opposition backed by the West. They get weapons and training, and then they defect and join the so-called Islamic State.
In fact, the Islamic State itself did not come out of nowhere. It was initially developed as a weapon against undesirable secular regimes. Having established control over parts of Syria and Iraq, Islamic State now aggressively expands into other regions. It seeks dominance in the Muslim world and beyond. Their plans go further.
The situation is extremely dangerous. In these circumstances, it is hypocritical and irresponsible to make declarations about the threat of terrorism and at the same time turn a blind eye to the channels used to finance and support terrorists, including revenues from drug trafficking, the illegal oil trade and the arms trade.
It is equally irresponsible to manipulate extremist groups and use them to achieve your political goals, hoping that later you’ll find a way to get rid of them or somehow eliminate them.
We consider that any attempts to flirt with terrorists, let alone arm them, are short-sighted and extremely dangerous. This may make the global terrorist threat much worse, spreading it to new regions around the globe, especially since there are fighters from many different countries, including European ones, gaining combat experience with Islamic State. Unfortunately, Russia is no exception.
Friday, 18 September 2015
Thursday, 17 September 2015
Monday, 14 September 2015
Skateboarding on the roof of Moscow's Soviet era buildings
I would love to do this. This photo is from a collection called "Ride the Roof - The secret skateboarding paradise on top of Moscow's Soviet-era buildings" from the website of The Calvert Journal http://calvertjournal.com/features/show/4593/rooftop-skaters-moscow-vdnkh
"Post-privatisation, it feels like the only way to access the centre of Moscow is with money. For youngsters like us, climbing roofs, walking the tunnels of the Metro by dark, skateboarding restricted areas – they’re all ways of taking back the city. It’s our idea of freedom. "
The Calvert Journal is a guide to the contemporary culture of the new east: the post-Soviet world, the Balkans and the former socialist states of central and eastern Europe.
Wednesday, 9 September 2015
Wednesday, 2 September 2015
KGB Poison found at Alnwick Gardens
When the KGB are not poisoning dissidents with green tea laced with Polonium-210 or Ricin coated pellets fired from umbrellas (OK, I know that was the Bulgarians - but they were helped by the KGB), their tipple of choice is Gelsemium Elegans - according to the guide showing me around the deadly plants growing in the Poison Garden - this is a fenced-off section of Northumberland's Alnwick Garden containing many intoxicating and poisonous plants.
I was at the Alnwick Garden on Saturday when the guide presented this information as if it were a well known, frequent and, more importantly, current practice of the Russian "KGB" when wishing to rid themselves of troublesome "dissidents". Now there was much to take issue with here, but my mind was struggling to make sense of what the guide was actually referring to; e.g. was this poison used by the KGB in Soviet times or did he mean the current Russian security service - the FSB; and against whom was / is the poison used? Did he mean Soviet dissidents who had emigrated from the Soviet Union or those Soviet dissidents who had not emigrated and were not incarcerated in labour-camps or psychiatric hospitals? Or was he referring to some other, more recent events?
I am not trying to be flippant here or suggesting that none of it was true, rather, I am offering an excuse as to why I didn't ask the guide to clarify what he meant. Anyway, we moved on to the star attraction in the garden - cannabis - before I had a chance to form a coherent question, so I thought I would just look it up on the internet on my return home.
It turns out that Gelsemium Elegans had recently been in the news (August 2015) at a pre-inquest hearing into the death of Alexander Perepilichny, an exile living in the UK. There was a suggestion that this poison had been used to kill the Russian businessman, and "whistleblower" into a massive tax fraud in Russia, who died in 2012 after collapsing when out running.
Nevertheless, it was a very interesting but brief tour of the deadliest plants in Alnwick Garden, I was taken aback by the fact that many of the plants in the garden were not necessarily rare or exotic plants, but some very mundane and common varieties found in the UK. For example, Rhubarb leaves can induce a particularly horrible death if ingested.
http://www.alnwickgarden.com/
I am not trying to be flippant here or suggesting that none of it was true, rather, I am offering an excuse as to why I didn't ask the guide to clarify what he meant. Anyway, we moved on to the star attraction in the garden - cannabis - before I had a chance to form a coherent question, so I thought I would just look it up on the internet on my return home.
It turns out that Gelsemium Elegans had recently been in the news (August 2015) at a pre-inquest hearing into the death of Alexander Perepilichny, an exile living in the UK. There was a suggestion that this poison had been used to kill the Russian businessman, and "whistleblower" into a massive tax fraud in Russia, who died in 2012 after collapsing when out running.
Nevertheless, it was a very interesting but brief tour of the deadliest plants in Alnwick Garden, I was taken aback by the fact that many of the plants in the garden were not necessarily rare or exotic plants, but some very mundane and common varieties found in the UK. For example, Rhubarb leaves can induce a particularly horrible death if ingested.
http://www.alnwickgarden.com/
Tuesday, 25 August 2015
Ukraine, Russophobia & The Death of Neutrality
I recently came across an interesting article by security and organised crime
expert (and Moscow Times Columnist), Mark Galeotti, on his blog https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/. In this article, he talks about, among other things, the death of
neutrality. The heightening of tensions
in relations between East and West, US,
NATO vs Russia, an apparent return to Cold War footing and rhetoric, has made it more difficult for objective analysts such to present
themselves, or be accepted as truly disinterested parties. In particular, when considering the events in Ukraine - the article struck a chord with me.
"The death of neutrality. It is increasingly difficult not to be on one side or the other. We’ve already seen this over Ukraine (I’ve been castigated as a Kremlin stooge for not using the word “terrorist” to describe the rebels, and a Western shill for claiming that Russian troops are present, all for the same article!), but I think it’s also happening with Russia. Not to regard Putin as a murderous mafioso-fascist-tyrant-kleptocrat who kills for the hell of it is to be an apologist. To refuse to believe the State Department is actively trying to install Navalny in the Kremlin makes you a tool of Western “colour revolution.” Analysis increasingly, I’m sorry to say, takes second place to assertion of the world as the observer “knows” it to be." Mark Galeotti
I'm no apologist for the Putin regime, and have been supportive of UK and US policy, perhaps in the naive belief that Western democracies, led by the US, have generally been a benign, positive force in the world, but I have been astounded at the outcomes we have managed to achieve over the last decade or so foreign policy adventures. I think this echoes the sentiments of British Journalist and Author, Peter Hitchens, who said this recently in his Sunday Mail blog:
But those that assert this or question what what the mainstream media is presenting, are branded a "useful idiots", deluded pro-Putin members of the awkward squad, Russian internet trolls, or RT propagandists.
The rampant Russophobia, the anti-Putin and anti-Russian sentiment in the mainstream media of the West has crowded out any kind of objective and measured analyses of the situation or, for that matter, alternative viewpoints. As a consequence of this, the tragedy unfolding on Europe's doorstep, in the Donbass, and the Ukraine regime's substantial role in this, has largely been ignored by the mainstream media.
I have no axe to grind on this matter, but what we are being told about Ukraine and Russia is a crock of shit. The US and EU stirred things up in Ukraine, encouraged the opposition movement towards a 'color revolution', and played some kind of shadowy role in the overthrow of Yanukovich's regime in Ukraine - an apparent masterclass in "hybrid" warfare. The result - a failed state, a collapsing economy, political turmoil and civil war - right on the borders of a nuclear state, Russia."Perhaps, after years in which I genuinely believed that our Government and the Americans were a pretty straightforward force for good, I now find it harder to accept, having seen the wrong and foolish things we do in the Middle East and now also in Ukraine."
But those that assert this or question what what the mainstream media is presenting, are branded a "useful idiots", deluded pro-Putin members of the awkward squad, Russian internet trolls, or RT propagandists.
The rampant Russophobia, the anti-Putin and anti-Russian sentiment in the mainstream media of the West has crowded out any kind of objective and measured analyses of the situation or, for that matter, alternative viewpoints. As a consequence of this, the tragedy unfolding on Europe's doorstep, in the Donbass, and the Ukraine regime's substantial role in this, has largely been ignored by the mainstream media.
Friday, 10 July 2015
Omar Sharif: Dr Zhivago dies aged 83
Egypt-born Omar Sharif who played the title role in David Lean's 1965 epic epic Doctor Zhivago, has died of a heart attack. Based on Boris Pasternak's book of the same name, Sharif played the part of Yuri Zhivago - a married physician who falls in love with another woman, Lara. Their lives are disrupted in the turmoil and upheaval of the Russian Revolution.
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| Yuri Dolgoruky watches over Yuri Zhivago in the laboratory |
For the part of Yuri Zhivago, a Siberian, the actor had to disguise his Egyptian looks with a regime of hair straightening and skin waxing, as well as having to wear a wig to hide a band which pulled back the skin around his eyes to make them look more Slavic. Sharif won a Golden Globe for this performance, as he did 3 years earlier in David Lean's 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia.
Friday, 29 May 2015
Your own home - by your own hands!
I'm not sure of the exact translation of this poster is, or what exactly the viewer is being exhorted to do "GIVE (help) MZhK! Moskovski Zhilikh Kvartali (Moscow Apartments) Your own home by your own hands".
I bought this poster back in 1989 from the huge book shop - Dom Knigi - on Kalinin Prospekt (now Novy Arbat) in Moscow. I had it on my bedroom wall for while when I lived at my parents, but probably chucked it out when I moved into my own place.
I had a few other Soviet propaganda posters as well, but this was my favourite. I had forgotten about it for 26 years until last month when my mate Steve, with whom I went to Russia in 1988 and '89, was having a clear out at his house and found this very poster. He was going to throw it out, but fortunately he asked me if I would like it. Well, I refuse nowt! So it is now hanging in my kitchen. For how long - I don't know - but I'm sure it'll be gone soon if wor lass gets her way!
Thursday, 28 May 2015
Thursday, 21 May 2015
Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov at Science Museum London
Alexei Leonov, is in London Today at the Science Museum. The 80 year old retired Cosmonaut, most famous for being the first man to walk in space, was at the museum's announcement of a forthcoming exhibition on Soviet / Russian space travel "Cosmonauts". This year marked the 50th anniversary of his pioneering space walk: http://blog.therussiahouse.net/2015/03/1st-space-walk-50-years-ago.html
Leonov also took part in another famous space expedition - 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission – Soyuz 19 – the first joint space mission between the Soviet Union and the United States.
The Science Museum's exhibition "Cosmonauts" opens in London on 18th September 2015. This is the blurb from their website:
In 1957 Russia launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into space and just four years later sent the first ever human – Yuri Gagarin. Discover the dramatic story of how Russia turned the dream of space travel into a reality and became the first nation to explore space in this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition.
Cosmonauts will reveal the most significant collection of Russian spacecraft and artefacts ever to be shown in the UK. Come face-to-face with Vostok-6, the capsule flown by Valentina Tereshkova, the first ever woman in space, and examine the fascinating gadgets cosmonauts need to live in space, including a shower, toilet, medical instruments and survival kits for crash landings.
Explore the historical, cultural and spiritual context of Russian space travel, shaped especially by the turbulent early decades of the twentieth century. See poignant testimonies and memorabilia belonging to some of the biggest names in spaceflight and discover the deeply personal stories of the pioneers who kick-started the space age.
Opens 18 September 2015
Exhibition will be open until 22.00 every Friday
Friday, 15 May 2015
McDonald's sanction busting restaurant opening
McDonald's has opened its 500th restaurant in Russia, 25 years after the company opened its first fast food restaurant in the Soviet Union. The restaurant in Russia's 4th largest city, Yekaterinburg, takes the number of McDonalds to 12 in city close to the Ural mountains.
Obviously if you are a big enough US company, you can be exempt from the sanctions your country is imposing on Russia.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/520702.html
Its probably a good job, given the hard time McDonald's has been having in Russia of late.
http://blog.therussiahouse.net/2014/10/ten-mcdonalds-restaurants-closed-in.html
Following the closure (temporary or otherwise) of a number of McDonald's in Russia, arising from failed hygiene inspections, the company has permanently closed a restaurant for the first time in its 25-year history in Russia.
TASS reported in April 2015 that a McDonald's restaurant in the Belgorod region to the south of Moscow, was closed after they were unable to agree on rental payments with the property's owner.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/520702.html
Its probably a good job, given the hard time McDonald's has been having in Russia of late.
http://blog.therussiahouse.net/2014/10/ten-mcdonalds-restaurants-closed-in.html
Following the closure (temporary or otherwise) of a number of McDonald's in Russia, arising from failed hygiene inspections, the company has permanently closed a restaurant for the first time in its 25-year history in Russia.
TASS reported in April 2015 that a McDonald's restaurant in the Belgorod region to the south of Moscow, was closed after they were unable to agree on rental payments with the property's owner.
Saturday, 9 May 2015
Happy 70 Years Victory Day - s Praznikom Pobyedi
This year is the 70th anniversary of the Victory against Nazism and Fascism in Europe. The Soviet Union and the Allies defeated Nazi Germany and a formal surrender was signed on 8th May 1945 (9th of May Moscow Time).
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| Race for Berlin - a Soviet Soldier raises the Hammer & Sickle over the Reichstag |
To mark the occasion in my own small way, I bought a St George Ribbon from eBay.
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