Economist.com Cities Guide: Moscow Briefing - May 2006

News this month

Remont control

Moscow is getting a facelift. Some of the city’s most famous areas and landmarks are undergoing a remont—“renovation” in Russian, though the word implies foot-dragging and inconvenience. Most prominently, the much-delayed destruction of the Rossiya hotel, an ugly communist behemoth close to Red Square, is finally getting underway, with an army of migrant labourers moving in to dismantle it. Meanwhile, the pediment of the Bolshoi Theatre, which closed in 2005 for a long-awaited refurbishment, has been relieved of its Soviet-era hammer and sickle.
Kremlin officials apparently plan to replace the insignias with tsarist double-headed eagles.

Few of the city’s inhabitants begrudge the Bolshoi its repairs, or lose sleep over the passing of the unloved Rossiya. But other aspects of the makeover, enthusiastically overseen by Yuri Luzhkov, the city’s popular mayor, do not seem to have the needs of the average Muscovite at heart. The mayor reportedly wants to replace the Rossiya with a faux-tsarist neighbourhood of narrow streets and lanes filled, of course, with exclusive designer boutiques.

An ominous trend

Xenophobic violence is a growing problem in Russia. While St Petersburg is Russia’s racist capital, with shootings and stabbings occurring almost daily, Moscow has seen plenty of incidents lately. Foreigners—particularly African students—are most at risk, but Russian Federation citizens, especially those from the troubled north Caucasus, are increasingly being targeted. On April 1st Zaur Tutov, a well-known singer and the culture minister of Kabardino-Balkaria, a north Caucasian region, was beaten up by a group of skinheads chanting racist slogans. They attacked him after he spoke out against their brash behaviour. And on April 16th, an anti-fascist student activist was stabbed to death.

Local authorities seem slow to grasp the problem. The crime against Mr Tutov was originally classified as an act of “hooliganism”—a term human-rights activists have long criticised for obscuring the true nature of such attacks. Following an order from the prosecutor-general’s office, the incident was rebranded as a hate crime.

Go west

Good news for London-Moscow travellers: in addition to the over-subscribed services on the route offered by British Airways (BA) and Aeroflot, British Midland (BMI), another British airline, will operate daily flights from mid-2006, increasing to twice-daily later in the year. BA will also increase its number of flights.

The changes, announced by the Russian transport ministry, are part of a long-negotiated accord between the civil aviation authorities of Britain and Russia. It also includes new BMI routes from Moscow to Birmingham and Liverpool. In exchange, Aeroflot and Transaero (another Russian carrier, which services Gatwick airport) will be able to add flights to their Moscow-London timetables. The changes signal a wider trend in Russian aviation—according to Russian government figures, foreign carriers saw passenger volumes on their Russian routes increase by 20% in 2005.

Leave or remain?

The long-running debate over whether to bury the body of Lenin, embalmed in his Red Square mausoleum, resurfaced in April. The Russian History Institute, in a report commissioned by a small human-rights organisation, concluded that Lenin’s tenure “hampered” Russia’s development, and that taxpayer’s money was being wasted on his corpse's upkeep. Lengthy queues of visitors remain keen to visit the tomb.

The institute’s membership includes some eminent historians. But the issue’s divisive nature is underlined by the fact that the institute’s own parent organisation, the respected Russian Academy of Sciences, disagreed—Yuri Osipov, the Academy’s head, argued that it was unacceptable to “burn out” history. Communists predictably railed against the report, calling it a “provocation against the Communist Party and a whole generation”.

Dirty money

Moscow’s authorities argue that a crackdown on dirty cars entering the city, announced in early April, is vital to ensure (relatively) clean streets. From April 10th to May 10th traffic police will levy fines of 50 roubles ($1.80) on cars with mud covering their licence plates. The police will also have the power to force motorists to visit car washes before they enter the city. But while the law is not against driving a dirty car, just against unreadable license plates, some traffic police officers are reportedly tricking some drivers into paying 1,000 rouble fines for just having a grungy vehicle.

Cynics, naturally, suggest that this is a crude money-making scheme invented by the police for their own enrichment. According to the Moscow Times, a similar crackdown in 2005 netted 3.2m roubles, with about 80,000 cars and trucks found guilty of muddy licence-plate offences.

Catch if you can

May 2006

Symbols of the Soviet Epoch

Until May 22nd 2006

This exhibition, now at the Historical Museum on Red Square, is a rare chance to see part of the collection of the now-defunct Central Lenin Museum. Before closing in 1993 the museum boasted some 100,000 artefacts, displayed in 34 rooms. The current selection fills just one, but the range of items is wide, from a waxwork of Lenin to gifts to Leonid Brezhnev on his 70th birthday in 1976. Banners and epic Soviet paintings adorn the walls.

Unsurprisingly, this exhibit has been contentious. Spectators have divided into the nostalgic and the outraged, with some calling the show propagandistic, complaining that it fails to mention the victims of the gulag.

The Historical Museum, 1/2 Red Square. Metro Ploshad Revolutsi. Tel: +7 (095) 692 4019. Open: Wed-Mon 10am-6pm; closed first Monday of each month. Visit the museum’s website (in Russian).

More from the Moscow cultural calendar