Economist.com Cities Guide: Moscow Briefing - July 2005

News this month

Train attack

Thanks, perhaps, to Moscow's omnipresent security during May’s Victory Day celebrations, the day passed without a terrorist attack. But Russia Day on June 12th was marred by the bombing of a train heading to Moscow from Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. The Federal Security Service said the bomb contained the equivalent of five kilograms of TNT. The passenger train derailed 150km south of Moscow, injuring more than 30 of the 304 people on board.

The attack was possibly the work of Chechen rebels, but, unusually, no group has claimed responsibility. Igor Levitin, Russia’s transport minister, claimed that an assistant train engineer had noticed two men running away from the explosion into the surrounding woods. The bombing is now the subject of an investigation, and security on all trains and railway stations has supposedly increased.

The Bolshoi touches up

The Bolshoi Theatre, home to two of Russia’s leading opera and ballet companies, has closed for a three-year renovation that could cost up to £400m. The 180-year-old building has suffered from various maladies in recent years. Acoustics have been problematic since the orchestra pit was renovated in the 1950s; the area beneath the stage needs enlarging; and there are other problems caused by faulty electrics, ageing materials and noisy machinery.

The case for renovation was first made in the 1980s, but it was only after Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, guaranteed government involvement last March that the project began. While the main theatre is closed, performances will continue at the newly built “small stage” next door.

Olympic dreams fade

Moscow’s chances of hosting the Olympics in 2012 seem to be getting slimmer. On June 6th, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) released a report that further confirmed the city’s status as an outside bet. The report, which will be circulated to the 114 voting members of the IOC before the vote in Singapore on July 6th, highlights the somewhat vague nature of Moscow's bid plans. Although the report mentions the city’s experience in hosting large-scale sporting events, and does not dwell on security risks, the attempted assassination of a Russian businessman while the IOC mission was in town cannot have helped.

At a press conference, the city’s deputy mayor played down the criticism, and officials insisted that Moscow was still very much in the running. But Paris and London remain the bookies’ favourites—both were praised in the report for the “very high quality” of their bids.

Getting (slightly) cheaper

Good news for visitors to Moscow: it is now only the fourth most-expensive city in the world (down from third in 2004). According to the results of an annual survey of 144 cities by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, only Tokyo, Osaka and London are pricier; New York is 13th.

The survey ranks the cities based on the cost of housing, transport, food, entertainment, clothing and other items (a “basket” of more than 200 goods altogether). Moscow earns opprobrium for the high price of its coffee (at over $5, the most expensive cup in the world) and CDs ($23 for a shop-bought disc, though much cheaper if bought from a market, as most Muscovites do). But it wins plaudits for its cheap public transport. Critics of the survey’s method claim that those conducting it had an unnecessarily expensive “expatriate” experience, pointing out that for many Muscovites life in the city is less expensive than the survey suggests.

Central rental

While international chains are frantically trying to build more hotels to cash in on Moscow’s mini tourist boom, companies offering serviced flats are filling the gap. Many Muscovites who have lived in the city centre for generations have realised that for the price of a quick paint job they can retire to the country and make a comfortable income out of renting to foreigners.

These small-scale entrepreneurs often lease their apartments to agencies such as Intermark, Pulford or Beatrix, who in turn sublet to visitors. For business travellers who are willing to eschew the convenience of hotel living, a serviced apartment can offer real savings plus the benefits of a central location. A comfortable one-bedroom off Tverskaya, the main drag, costs $100 to $200 per night.

Summer snow

After a series of false starts, summer conclusively arrived in Moscow in June, and with it a disconcerting phenomenon: pukh, or “summer snow”. In a triumph of Soviet planning, Moscow (and many other cities in former Soviet countries) was crammed with Balsam Poplar trees in the mid-20th century. Planting these trees created a great deal of greenery fairly quickly, but city gardeners failed to predict that these trees would shed a white fluffy seed for several weeks a year in summer. The seeds are everywhere, tenaciously clinging to hair, gathering in puddles, flying through windows and eluding street cleaners. They are also terrible for people with allergies, irritating eyes and throats. Not even the thunderstorms that struck in early June have banished the seeds. Pruning the trees supposedly helps, but city authorities say this is far too expensive to do regularly.

Catch if you can

July 2005

Sam Taylor-Wood

Until July 25th 2005

Brit-art arrived in Moscow with a show of photographs and video installations by Sam Taylor-Wood, one of the original Young British Artists (or “YBAs”, along with others such as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin), and a former nominee for the illustrious Turner Prize.

In this mixed-media exhibition, three series of photographs dominate large rooms at the Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art. “Crying Men”—a wall of uncompromising portraits of celebrities in various state of distress—juxtaposes the viewer’s discomfort at observing male sorrow with society’s voyeuristic fascination for anyone in the limelight. “Hysteria”, the best of four video installations, silently portrays a woman veering wildly between laughter and sobs, and leaves the viewer unsure of which is which.

Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art (in collaboration with the British Council), Ermolaevsky Pereulok, 17. Tel: +7 (095) 200-2890.

More from the Moscow cultural calendar