New discovery may speed clean-up of nuclear disasters

This supplement is sponsored by Rossiyskaya Gazeta, which takes sole responsibility for its contents and is wholly independent of Fairfax Media. The supplement did not involve Fairfax Media editorial staff in its production.

asia.rbth.com

P 6

Fatal attraction

Accidents associated with selfies are on the rise

P 2

A city that was closed in Soviet times is opening itself up to tourists

Unveiling Vladivostok

Thursday, August 27, 2015

New discovery New discovery may speed may speed clean-up of clean-up of nuclear disastersnuclear disastersA MOSCOW RESEARCH TEAM CLAIMS TO HAVE DISCOVERED

A NEW WAY TO DECONTAMINATE RADIOACTIVE POLLUTION PAGES 4-5AP

YOUR RELIABLE SOURCE FOR NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS IN RUSSIA

83% say they trust rbth.com as a source for opinions from Russian experts

81% say that rbth.com provides information and analysis that goes beyond other media coverage of Russia

77% say our online products are relevant to everyone – not just to readers with a special interest in Russia

a s i a . r b t h . c o mJOIN A GLOBAL ONLINE NETWORK WITH A RUSSIAN FOCUS

This data is f rom the RBTH onl ine audience research study, March 15, 2015

LORI/LEGION MEDIA

Distributed with The Age. Other distribution partners include: The International New York Times, The Daily Telegraph, Le Figaro, El Pais, Mainichi Shimbun. See the full list at page 8.

02

MOST READ ELEANOR PRAY'S LOVE AFFAIR WITH VLADIVOSTOK

travel.rbth.com/1981Far East

VASILY AVCHENKOSPECIAL TO RBTH

Times have changed for

Vladivostok, a city closed

to foreigners during Soviet

times because it was the

main naval base of the

Pacific Fleet.

Vladivostok: harbour city reveals its fascinating underbelly

Tourism The emerging capital of Russia's Far East has a lot more to offer visitors than sea views and new bridges

The Russian government says it wants to turn Vladivostok into “a centre of international cooperation in the Asia Pacif-ic”, and its efforts to date seem to be working: the far-eastern city hosted the APEC summit in 2012, following a major overhaul of the city’s infra-structure, and next month it will host the Russia’s East Eco-nomic Summit.

Most tourist brochures and guides to Vladivostok show-case the city’s port and sea views, its new bridges and its picturesque embankments. But Vladivostok has far more of interest to tourists than nice harbour views.

Military historyThe port city has a long his-tory as a military hub and is today the home of Russia’s Pa-cifi c Fleet and other key mil-itary units. Vestiges of its mil-itary history are scattered throughout the city.

Numerous tunnels, which were used as bunkers and for connecting buildings, remain under the city, dating from tsa-rist and Soviet times. Tours of Vladivostok’s tunnels are con-ducted by local “diggers” – a

term which in Russian refers to people who, usually ille-gally, explore underground tunnels and infrastructure.

On Russky Island, to the south of the city and connect-ed by a bridge, there are ruins from old barracks and rem-nants of Soviet warships, which can be seen rusting on the island’s beaches.

Heritage buildings By Russian standards, Vladi-vostok – a city that was found-ed a little over 150 years ago – isn’t considered to have many historical sites. Howev-er, the city does have a few interesting architectural attractions.

There are, for example, two unusual Stalinist Empire-style buildings on Aleutskaya Street, which are locally known as the Grey Horse (for no known reason).

In one of them, Vladivostok’s most famous poet, Gennady Lysenko, took his own life in 1978.

Inner-city Vladivostok can be a fascinating place to walk. Its inimitable back alleys, par-ticularly those in the Million-ka district, once known for its rookeries, brothels and opium parlours, are atmospheric and suggestive of another era.

The city's underbelly Away from the city centre, in outer-lying districts such as Dalkhimprom, Zmeyinka, Tikhaya and Churkin, the city

vostok, like every other Rus-sian city, has its share of khrushchevkas – fi ve-storey buildings with small fl ats dat-ing from the early 1960s.

One khrushchevka, on Sakhalinskaya Street, is a well-known monument to the city’s gangster culture of the 1990s. Twenty years ago, one of the apartment block’s cor-ners was blown up in an at-tempt on the life of a local mafi a leader.

It has now been restored with panels of mismatching colour.

Not far from Sakhalinskaya lies the Maritime Cemetery, which serves as the resting place of victims of mafi a shoot-outs from the 1990s. The graves of criminal leaders stand out because of their gigantic size.

Russia's most famous car market Vladivostok’s Green Corner Car Market doesn’t usually make it into official tourist guides for the city but the mar-ket, which trades in used Jap-anese cars, is famous within Russia – so famous, in fact, that

has housing developments known as gostinkas. These grey, gloomy rectangular buildings, with tiny flats in them, are home to the city's poor and disenfranchised, drug-users, students and tran-sient and illegal visitors.

These neighbourhoods can be dangerous, and yet they have captured the imagination of writers and artists. For ex-

ample, gostinkas inspired the art-house director Nikolay Khomeriki to shoot his fi lm Tale in the Darkness in Vlad-ivostok.

The city is also seeing the gentrifi cation of some pock-ets of these neighbourhoods, notably Churkin. On the southern coast of Golden Horn bay, it boasts a new opera house.

As well as gostinkas, Vladi-

people from Siberia and other Russian regions have been coming to this market to buy cheap cars for the past 20 years.

Trade in imported vehicles is not just a strong local in-dustry, it is a way of life in Vladivostok, despite red-tape barriers put up by the federal government.

The market is spread across several sоpkas (small moun-tains or hills) on the outskirts of the city. It is packed with cars and small cafes.

It also has a reputation as a spot to buy contraband Jap-anese whisky, brandy and cig-arettes.

Green Corner also includes numerous garage compounds. These simply constructed sin-gle-car garage shells are to the men of Vladivostok what sheds are to men elsewhere.

They are venues for mostly men-only social gatherings and barbecues, and sometimes they are even used for repair-ing cars.

Cheap eatsThe city’s close proximity to

Asian countries is refl ected in its cuisine.

As an alternative to Vlad-ivostok’s many restaurants, where prices are as high as in Moscow, eating out at a chifanka (from the Chinese chi fan, “to eat”) is an excel-lent option.

Vladivostok’s chifankas offer good-quality Chinese food – albeit adapted to Rus-sian tastes – at very low pric-es. While chifankas can be found throughout the city, they are especially common around the Chinese market at Sportivnaya.

Vladivostok also has ex-cellent street food, the most famous option being Kore-an pyan-se (steamed buns filled with meat and cab-bage).

GETTING THERE

From Sydney or Melbourne, the most direct flights to Vladivostok are with Korean

Air via Seoul. Siberia Airlines also has regular flights from Hong Kong.

Aerial imag-es of this rap-idly changing city in Russia's beautiful Far East.

asia.rbth.com/

multimedia/327251

The city's Golden Horn

Bridge, which was built for

the APEC Summit, celebrated

its third birthday this month.

One kruschevka is a well-known monument to the city's gangster culture of the 1990s

Just a few years ago, a visit to Vladivostok gave foreigners a glimpse of some un-

pleasant legacies of the So-viet Union. My last trip there was eight years ago, and I remember that as soon as domestic flights landed in the far-eastern outpost, a police officer boarded the plane and checked everyone's pass-

ports before letting them dis-embark.

Local police also scrutinised the documents of all passen-gers fl ying out of the city to make sure they had registered with internal immigration au-thorities if they had stayed for longer than three days.

Residents of the city used to mock these irritating and intimidating practices, say-ing that they were just fol-lowing laws to the letter.

However, when I took a flight from Hong Kong to Vladivostok recently I real-

FIRST-HAND VIEW

A former intimidating Soviet outpost has transformeditself into a tourist destination with a warm welcome

Ajay

KamalakaranJOURNALIST

ised things had changed. When I asked on board for a migration card – something all foreign visitors have to fi ll in when entering Russia – the Russian airline crew member told me she had no idea what I was talking about.

I braced myself for a long wait at the airport, fi lling in the card and then waiting in a long line for passport con-trol – something I wasn't happy about when my fl ight was landing at 12:40am. But when I arrived, I saw that the airport had a new automat-

ed printing system in place for migration cards.

Later I found out this had been set up in time for the 2012 APEC Summit. Passport control made record time when they took just three minutes and I even scored a smile on the face of the im-migration officer I dealt with. I spotted my suitcase almost as soon as I walked out of immigration, when previous-ly there had been long waits for luggage. The customs of-fi cials were also polite and, dare I say, friendly.

While I was at the airport, I also noticed that local offi-cials were speaking good English to international vis-itors, and I later discovered that street signs in the city centre were also in English – another post-APEC devel-opment.

A major problem with Vladivostok's airport in the past had been the local taxi mafi a.

The city's main airport is in a nearby town called Artem, an hour from the city centre. I remember that pre-viously the airport had no buses after 6pm and that the taxi drivers who waited out-side would ask ridiculous prices, milking weary travel-lers for whatever they could get. Now, though, there are

dedicated prepaid taxi offic-es inside the terminal.

Altogether my airport ex-perience was hassle free and totally different to how it had been in the past.

When I started looking around the city itself, I was more than a little surprised by its transformation: all the heritage and pre-Civil War buildings in the city centre have been tastefully restored and the city's green spaces are beautiful and well main-tained. Vladivostok now looks and feels like a European city rather than a dilap-idated Soviet outpost.

asia.rbth.com/47807

YU

RI S

MIT

YU

K /

TA

SS

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES IS A GLOBAL MEDIA PROJECT, SPONSORED BY ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA (RUSSIA), DISTRIBUTED WITH THE AGE

03

MOST READ Far EastKURIL ISLANDS MAY GET SPECIAL ECONOMIC STATUS

asia.rbth.com/48289

VLADISLAV INOZEMTSEVSPECIAL TO RBTH

On the eve of Vladivostok

becoming a free port,

economic development

expert Vladislav Inozemtsev

discusses the port's

prospects for growth.

Port’s new free status may not deliver much

Trade Vladivostok faces a continuing struggle to catch up to bigger rivals

In the early 20th century, Vladivostok was the largest port in its region, but now its signifi cance is minimal.

In 2014, it processed only 15.3 million tonnes of cargo, compared to the 390 million tonnes at the Chinese port of Dalian, 330 million tonnes at Busan, Korea, and almost 230 million tonnes at Nagoya, Japan.

Due to a sharp decline in Russia’s foreign trade, the gap will be even greater this year.

In an ocean economy era, when the share of maritime transport in international trade turnover amounts to 67-68 per cent and when more than 60 per cent of global gross domestic product is produced in territories sepa-rated from the sea by less than 160 kilometres, this gap requires action. However, se-veral factors are preventing Vladivostok’s port from in-creasing its throughput.

Red tape and weak local economiesOn the one hand, Russia still has an extremely slow bu-reaucracy – one that is re-nowned for being obfusca-tory and unfriendly to business.

The activities of Russian Customs, regulatory and per-mitting authorities, law en-forcement agencies and the tax office create an institu-tional environment in Russia which is basically less appeal-

ing than the environments in the Republic of Korea, China and other south-east Asian countries.

In addition, the total GDP of the Russian Far East and Siberia is $US265-280 billion, less than the GDP of any country in south-east Asia except Laos, Cambodia and Brunei.

If the economy of eastern Russia is weak, what can an entry point offer? Not much – hence the current status of the Primorye Territory, of which Vladivostok is the ad-ministrative centre.

The port's shortcomings Vladivostok is not an ideal location for a free port be-cause it has a major naval base and other military in-stallations, which use many of the city’s harbours.

Another shortcoming is that there are few large stret-ches of free space in the city for the creation of industrial parks.

Vladivostok is also more than 100 kilometres away from the Chinese border.

These three factors make it difficult for the city to com-pete with free zones in neigh-bouring Asian countries.

Looking at a map, it is easy to see the strategic importan-ce of Russia’s Primorye Ter-ritory – and also the fact that it cuts off a huge area of nor-thern China from the sea. (This includes three provin-ces – Heilongjiang, Jilin and Inner Mongolia – which have a combined population of 90 million people and a GDP of $US750 billion.)

Goods produced here should be delivered to the ports of Dalian and Yingkou to be loaded on ships at 1100

to 2300 kilometres away from the places where they were produced, to be sent both abroad and to the ports of southern China.

Ideally, the port should be established at a minimum distance (20 to 25 kilometres) from the Chinese border and connect with the territory of modern China by highway and railway – infrastructure that could also be given ex-traterritorial status.

An area of about 200-250 square kilometres could be set aside around the port, surrounded by a wall, with customs and border check-points set up, as has been done, for example, in Shen-zhen, the Chinese province adjacent to Hong Kong.

Servicing northern ChinaGiven the scale of the econ-

omy of northern China, a new port could easily start pro-cessing 80-100 million tonnes a year as soon as in fi ve or six years’ time. And accord-ing to experts at the Far East-ern Federal University, growth at Vladivostk’s port could increase Primorye’s GDP by 30-35 per cent above current levels, if growth lev-els at other ports, such as Dubai, are anything to go by.

The experience of rapid industrial development in China has shown that so-called greenfi eld projects – projects not developed in the course of “modernisation” of long-obsolete facilities, but set up from scratch – conti-nue to prove to be the most successful.

The most recent example of this is the development of the project of “informational metropolis” in Qianhai near Shenzhen.

Russia has long dreamt of becoming a leader in logis-tics, serving cargo fl ows bet-ween Asia and Europe. But as long as there is the Suez and as long as business lea-ders care about the price and quality of transport on Rus-sian railways, why does Rus-sia not try to cash in on the far shorter and more lucra-tive transshipment routes?

Dr Vladislav Inozemtsev is Director of the Centre for Post-Industrial Studies.

15.3m tonnesIn 2014, Vladivostok processed 15.3 million tonnes of cargo, compared to China's Dalian port, which processed 390 million.

160kmMore than 60 per cent of glob-al GDP is produced in territories which are not further than 160 kilometres from the sea.

100m tonnesGiven the size of the economy of northern China, a new port in Russia's far east could process up to 100 million tonnes.

IN NUMBERS

Read about Russia's Terri-tories of Accel-erated Devel-opment in its Far East.

asia.rbth.com/

multimedia/346961

The far eastern city of Vladivostok will become a free port again in October – a status it hasn't had since tsarist times.

Regional highlights:• Enjoy the heritage town of Kostroma and learn about its mythical past• Journey to Yakutia’s frozen heart and see ancient mammoths• Visit Paris, Berlin and Leipzig... and other Russian villages

City sights:

• See Moscow from a diff erent point of

view – take a tram through the capital

• Feast your eyes on Soviet art on the

Moscow metro

• Get the most out of a winter trip to

the northern capital St Petersburg

Natural wonders:• Discover five unbeatable locations for watching the sun set over Lake Baikal

• See the hot sands and taiga of Siberia’s expansive northern desert

• Visit the most spectacular ski resorts in Russia

Tours and packages:

• Discover five of the

quirkiest tours in

Moscow

• Get the best winter

weekend packages

to Russia

asia.rbth.com/travel

YU

RI S

MIT

YU

K / T

AS

S


04

MOST READ FIRECHAT APP UPGRADES WITH NEW VERSION

asia.rbth.com/48127Special

SVETLANA ARKHANGELSKAYASPECIAL TO RBTH

Some radioactive substances

may be decontaminated in

less than an hour, according

to "accidental" findings of an

experiment by a research

team in Moscow.

DISCOVERY MAY SPEED NUCLEAR CLEAN-UP

A PHYSICS RESEARCH GROUP FROM THE PRESTIGIOUS RUSSIAN

ACADEMY OF SCIENCES CLAIMS IT HAS DISCOVERED A NEW

TECHNOLOGY WHICH QUICKLY DECONTAMINATES RADIOACTIVE WATER

ENVIRONMENT NEW TECHNOLOGY

A research group led by Geor-gy Shafeyev from the Rus-sian Academy of Sciences’s Prokhorov General Physics Institute has announced that it has discovered a new way to rapidly decontaminate cer-tain types of nuclear waste.

The group says that certain radioactive elements can be quickly converted into neu-tral substances if placed in particular chemical solutions and exposed to laser light.

The discovery, the group says, was accidental and hap-pened during nanoparticle experiments this year.

In the experiments, radio-active substances appeared to be literally knocked out of metal when placed in certain aqueous solutions, which prompted the researchers to go on to experiment with a variety of metals and solutions.

When Shafeyev and his

colleagues put gold in a so-lution of radioactive Thori-um 232, for example, they found that the Thorium stopped emitting radiation. The same result was achieved with Uranium-238.

Caesium-137, a major pol-lutant from the nuclear ac-cident at Fukushima, Japan, is a radioactive isotope pro-duced by nuclear fi ssion. This powerful radioactive pollut-ant spreads easily, is highly soluble and normally has a half-life of around 30 years.

However, when the exper-iment was done with Caesi-um-137, the dangerous iso-tope was turned into neutral barium in just one hour, ac-cording to the research group.

“Neither we, nor nuclear scientists, are yet able to pro-vide a scientifi c explanation of this phenomenon,” said Shafeyev, who is head of the Academy of Sciences’ Labo-ratory of Macrokinetics of Nonequilibrium Processes. “Most likely, by placing the solution in these conditions, we’ve been able to change the environment of the nuclei of the atoms – the state of the outer shells of electrons.”

To enable this process,

Shafeyev said, the solution had to contain a refractory metal, such as gold, silver or titanium.

“The rate of decay of a sub-stance depends on the chem-ical environment – the outer electrons of its atoms,” he ex-plained. “We are changing their electron confi guration because the nanoparticles are able to locally enhance the laser electromagnetic fi eld.”

Shafeyev’s team is waiting for the results to be tested by the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) – another Moscow research centre.

For the experiment, JINR scientists will use a sensitive gamma-ray spectrometer based on ultra-pure germa-nium to watch the process in real time.

The experiment will be done with Caesium-137.

Some are sceptical about the claims of the research group and are doubtful that the JINR experiments will work.

“We need to see this pro-cess with our own eyes, and then look for an explanation,” said Sarkis Karamyan, a sen-ior researcher at the Labora-

tory of Nuclear Reactions at JINR.

The researchers who made the discovery, however, are al-ready looking at specifi c ap-plications for their fi ndings. They have said it is unlikely that it could be used for ground contamination, in places like Chernobyl, be-cause the penetrating power of lasers in soil is measured in micrometers. But when dealing with radiation-con-taminated water, it could be useful. “In other words, in Fukushima, where Tritium and Caesium continue to pour out of the [plant’s de-contamination] pool even today, this kind of develop-ment could solve a lot of problems,” Shafeyev said.

Health eff ects of

radiation

Initial effects and Acute Radia-

tion Syndrome:

• Skin burns and changes;• Nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain;• Blood changes, including drop in white cells, reduction in platelets;• Fatigue, dizziness, head-ache, shock;• Death.

Longer-term effects:

• In the year or two follow-ing exposure elevated risk of leukaemia and thyroid cancer;• A decade after exposure, elevated risk of many other cancers, including lung, skin, breast and stomach cancers.

Pre-natal effects:

• Risk of foetal brain damage;• Elevated risk of physical deformities;• Increased risk of childhood cancers, particularly leukaemia.

6 1 In 1942, the Man-hattan Project, a

research and devel-opment initiative that produced the world's first nuclear weapons, began. The project was led by the US, with the support of the UK and Canada.

2 Also in 1942 the world’s first nu-

clear reactor was built under a football field at the University of Chicago. It is thought that this was a cover for the development of technology for nuclear bombs.

3 In July 1945, US scientists con-

ducted the first nucle-ar weapons test in the desert in New Mexico. The explosion, known as the Trinity test, is sometimes described as the beginning of the atomic age.

4 On August 6 and 9, 1945, the US

dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Na-gasaki. The explosions and their aftermath killed at least 129,000 people, most of whom were civilians.

5 As part of the nu-clear arms race,

between 1945 and 1992 the US conducted an estimated 1054 nucle-ar tests. Most of them took place at the Nevada Test Site in the Marshall Islands and off Kiribati Island in the Pacific.

6 Between 1949 and 1990, the

USSR conducted 715 nuclear tests using 969 devices. Most of them took place in Semipal-atinsk, in Kazakhstan and Novaya Zemlya, in northern Russia.

MILESTONES

IN NUCLEAR

ARMS RACE

The researchers hope that the process can be used to decontaminate water at Fukushima.

GE

TT

Y IM

AG

ES


05

MOST READ SpecialSCIENTISTS FIND A WAY TO REPAIR DAMAGED DNA

asia.rbth.com/48061

DARIA STRELAVINARBTH

The world's most radiation-

contaminated sites are in

Japan, Ukraine and

Kazakhstan. RBTH looks at

the impact of the nuclear

disasters in these countries.

Zones with the most contamination

Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant (Japan) The 2011 disaster at the Fukushima 1 Daini Nuclear Power Plant is considered the largest nuclear-energy disas-ter since Chernobyl. It is also the only disaster after Cher-nobyl to be rated at Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES).

The accident resulted from a power failure caused by flooding from a tsunami which hit north-eastern Japan on March 11. Without power, the plant’s cooling equipment did not work and within hours, explosions in four of the plant's reactors allowed large quantities of radioactive material to escape into the atmosphere.

According to Greenpeace, the radiation released is es-timated to be between 10 and 40 per cent of the quantity released by the Chernobyl disaster. Most of the fallout ended up in the ocean, which caused the largest radioac-tive contamination of the Pa-cifi c Ocean to date. Green-peace says about one-fi fth of the radioactive release is es-

timated to have fallen onto the land, and that some af-fected land areas will remain heavily contaminated for many decades.

The Fukushima disaster showed the world how vul-nerable nuclear power plants are to natural and man-made disasters. It has since also shown how difficult it is for governments to manage large nuclear disasters and afford the enormous costs involved in dealing with them and in relocating and compensating people affected.

More than 150,000 people had to leave their homes near Fukushima, and many evac-uees say they have not been properly compensated.

The full environmental and human health impacts of Fukushima, however, are not yet known.

Chernobyl nuclear power plant (Ukraine)The Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine is thought to be the worst nuclear accident in his-tory, in terms of cost and cas-ualties. In 1986, two explo-sions destroyed a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The reactor core burned for 10 days, releasing large volumes of radioactive ma-terial into the atmosphere.

The most heavily contam-inated zone around the plant, which includes 76 towns and villages, is still considered very unsafe.

The impact of this disaster was also far reaching. Con-taminants from Chernobyl fell onto large tracts of land across Europe. According to Greenpeace, an area twice the size of France was contami-nated by Caesium-137 – a dangerous isotope which will stay in the environment for generations.

Hundreds of thousands of residents, clean-up workers and military personnel were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. A Greenpeace report from 2006 said that the accident may have caused 250,000 cancer cases (includ-ing nearly 100,000 fatal can-cers). Some estimates are higher than this. As well, the reactor at Chernobyl is de-caying and will require cost-ly ongoing remediation works to keep it safe.

Semey (Kazakhstan)More than 456 nuclear tests were carried out between 1949 and 1989 in a zone on the Kazakh steppe called the Polygon, near a town called Semey (formerly Semipalat-insk) in northern Kazakhstan (formerly the Kazakh-SSR).

The zone saw the highest number of nuclear explosions of any place on Earth. The tests there were conducted by the Soviet government with-out regard for the health of the area’s 200,000 residents, who were not told about them. Today in Semey many residents are ill, one in every 20 babies is born with de-formities, cancer rates are el-evated and life expectancies are lower than the national average.

The town became an im-portant voice and symbol in the anti-nuclear movement in the Soviet Union. And in the chaos that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, plutonium from weapons pro-duction near Semey was left with inadequate security and was vulnerable to theft.

It was not until 2012 that this dangerous waste was fi -nally securely stored, thanks to the efforts of a secret joint mission between Kazakh, Russian and American nu-clear scientists and engineers – a mission which had taken them 17 years and cost $US150 million.

Fukushima showed us that

"nuclear safety" is a myth.

RUSSIA-RELATED EVENTS THIS AUG-SEPT

MIGHTY IMPERIAL RUSSIA

CONCERT BY BENJAMIN

NORTHEY AND GUY NOBLE

SEP 6

THE QPAC CONCERT HALL, BRISBANE

Guy Noble will host musician and conductor Benjamin North-ey, as part of the series Music on Sundays, in a concert which looks at why music from Russia has such power and universal appeal. Works by Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov will be performed. › qso.com.au/music-sundays-2015/

mighty-imperial-russia

FROM RUSSIA WITH

LOVE – RUSSIAN ART,

ARCHITECTURE AND

CULTURE LECTURE

SEP 13

NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA

Art historian Callum Reid will give a lecture on the cultural history of Russia – Russian art, literature and architecture – against the opulent backdrop of the the Masterpieces from the Hermitage exhibition. › ngv.vic.gov.au

THE RUSSIAN NATIONAL

BALLET'S SWAN LAKE AND

SLEEPING BEAUTY TOUR

SEP 18 – DEC 12

The Russian National Ballet will be touring Australia this spring with Swan Lake and The Sleep-ing Beauty, performing in both Sydney and Melbourne and in other regional centres. › russiannationalballettheatre.com.au/

index.htm

MASTERPIECES FROM

THE HERMITAGE: THE

LEGACY OF CATHERINE

THE GREAT

JUL 31 – NOV 8

NATIONAL GALLERY OF

VICTORIA

This exhibition of master-pieces from Russia's most renowned museum features more than 500 works from the Hermitage in St Pe-tersburg. It includes paint-ings by Rembrandt, Rubens, Velazquez, Titian and Van Dyck. › ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/mas-

terpieces-from-the-hermitage/

'FROM HEART TO HEART'

SYDNEY CHARITY

CONCERTS

AUG 21, RUSSIAN NIGHTS, 140

BONDI

ROAD, BONDI, NSW; AND

SEPT 6, THE RUSSIAN CLUB, 5-7

ALBERT ROAD, STRATHFIELD,

NSW.

Charity concerts are being held to raise money for ci-vilians affected by the civil war in southeastern Ukraine. The concerts will include lo-cal community musical and dance groups and the ven-ues will display an exhibi-tion of children's artwork on the theme "Peace in Ukraine". › trybooking.com/ISVI

THE IMPERIAL RUSSIAN

BALLET'S SWAN LAKE

TOUR

SEP 3 - OCT 31

Forty dancers from Russia's top ballet schools, from Moscow and Perm, will be performing Swan Lake in the Imperial Russian Ballet Company's tour of Australia this spring. The ballet com-pany was started by the ac-

FIND MORE

IN OUR GLOBAL CALENDAR AT

www.rbth.com

Foods that help

detox radiation• Almonds • Walnuts• Beans• Lentils • Oats• Pumpkin• Seaweed (kelp and laminaria) • Black and green tea• Garlic• Onions• Apples• Lemons• Parsley• Beetroot• Ginger• Avocado• Leafy greens, especially kale • Broccoli• Coconut oilSource: meditationexpert.com

France's Canopus nuclear

test, conducted in 1968 on

the Fangataufa atoll in the

South Pacific

GE

TT

Y IM

AG

ES

© A

LE

XA

ND

R K

ON

DR

AT

YU

K / R

IA N

OV

OS

TI

claimed Bolshoi Theatre soloist Gediminas Taranda. › russianballet.com.au/


06

MOST READ RUSSIANS TURN TO THEIR SLAVIC ROOTS

asia.rbth.com/47921Society

IGOR ROZINRBTH

The health and safety risks

associated with taking selfies

have become a concern for

Russia's Interior Ministry,

which this summer launched

a campaign alerting the

public to the dangers.

Warning on selfies' fatal attractionPublic safety A new information campaign aims to raise awareness about the risks associated with smartphone photos

Russia’s Interior Ministry is-sued a leafl et in July titled Safe Selfi es, after a number of accidents in which young people died or were serious-ly injured while trying to take pictures of themselves on smartphones.

The Ministry also pub-lished a report on its web-site which said the Safe Selfi e campaign was primar-ily targeted at young people. “We have tried to illustrate, using icons, the most dan-gerous scenarios for taking selfi es,” the report said. “We want to warn people against taking undue risks for mem-orable shots.”

The two-page leafl et says

that the risks associated with selfi es are that a person can be distracted, not look around, not perceive dangers around them or lose their bal-ance.

The leafl et also spells out that health and safety con-siderations should be given more priority than getting likes on social media.

“Take selfies only after making sure that you are in a safe place and your life is not in danger,” it says. It also recommends against taking selfi es on railway tracks, on water, with animals, on roof-tops, on top of train carriag-es, while holding weapons or while driving.

Each tip is accompanied with an icon in the form of a prohibition sign and caption. With a retro look and feel, the brochure on the new phe-

nomenon looks reminiscent of Soviet-era public informa-tion posters.

The leaflet’s slogans in-clude: “A selfi e on the road – and you’ll have no time to click,” and: “A selfie while

driving can make your trip much shorter.”

According to the Interior Ministry, since the beginning of this year, more than 100

people have been injured and an estimated 10 have died in Russia while trying to take selfi es.

For instance, on May 21 a teenager in the Moscow re-gion was hospitalised having

suffered a head injury and electrocution after he fell and grabbed some power lines while trying to take a selfi e from the top of some concrete blocks he had climbed.

On the same day in Mos-cow, a 21-year-old woman died after accidentally shoot-ing herself while posing for a selfi e with a gun. And on the evening of July 4, anoth-er young woman died after she fell from a 10-metre-high bridge in Moscow while pos-ing for a selfi e.

It is hoped that the cam-paign will make people more aware of the dangers of what might seem to them just an innocuous pastime.

Smartphones on

the rise – and so

are accidents

According to Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs, the coun-try has seen at least 10 deaths and 100 injuries occur this year when people were trying to take selfies. As rates of smartphone owner-ship soar worldwide, accidents associated with their use are also increasing. ABC News reported in July that new research from the UK revealed that one in five young Britons take selfies while driving. The research showed that young men were more like-ly than young women (one in eight versus one in 20) to snap selfies when behind the wheel. The research reported the men as saying that they were more likely to take driving-selfies when they were bored.

More than 100 people have been injured and 10 have died in Russia while trying to take selfies

A 21-year-old woman died after accidentally shooting herself while posing for a selfie with a gun

INSTAGRAM.COM/K177OK/


07

MOST READ NABOKOV VS HEMINGWAY

asia.rbth.com/47439 History

VICTORIA DREYSPECIAL TO RBTH

Fyodor Dostoevsky's life

mirrored his novels: it was

tense and full of

psychological unrest. His

romantic relationships were

likewise, intense and

troubled.

Dostoevsky's love life was as tormented as his novels

Literature Conflict and psychological unrest plagued the most significant romantic relationships of Russia's darkest novelist

Maria Isaeva Fyodor Dostoevsky, who spent four years in a prison camp, was Russia’s only 19th-century writer to be sen-tenced to hard labour. Not long after his release in 1854, while still in exile in Siberia, the sick and exhausted nov-elist, then in his early 30s, met the writer Maria Isaeva.

His relationship with Isaeva was complicated from the out-set. When they met, she was married and had a son. Dos-toevsky waited until her hus-band died, and then he pub-licly offered Isaeva his hand.

But despite his patience, their relationship remained difficult after she became a widow. Isaeva would taunt the writer in letters, telling him of her intention to marry one or other wealthy official.

While Dostoevsky and Isaeva did ultimately marry, they never settled into a har-monious marriage.

The two appeared to be connected by common suffer-ing, rather than fondness for one another. Russian scholar Mark Slonim wrote in his book The Three Loves of Dos-toevsky (1953): “[He] loved her for all the feelings she ex-cited in him – for everything that he gave her, for every-thing that was connected with her and for all the pains from her.”

Dostoevsky himself wrote that the marriage was an un-happy one, as attached as he and Isaeva were to each other. The character of Natasha, in

his novel The Insulted and Humiliated (1861) – a woman who was prone to torment-ing her lovers – was based on Isaeva.

The couple spent most of their married life living apart, and Isaeva died in 1864.

Polina SuslovaDostoevsky met the young Appolinaria (Polina) Suslova in 1861, at one of his public readings. He was in his early 40s and was 20 years older than the young aspiring writ-er. Suslova was attractive and alluring, and shared his lit-erary taste and passionate nature.

Although he was still mar-ried to Isaeva, Dostoevsky began a secret affair with Suslova. She soon tired of the arrangement, took other lov-ers and eventually left him, causing him much distress. She returned two years later, although by that time she was more confident and savvy. After Isaeva died, Dostoevs-ky proposed to Suslova but she refused him.

Suslova was perhaps the woman who hurt Dostoevs-ky most. According to Slonim: “He winced when saying her name… and he always de-picted her in his novels. Until his death he remembered her caress and slaps in the face. He was devoted to this se-ductive, cruel, unfaithful and tragic love.”

Suslova’s impact on Dos-toevsky can be felt in all of his novels. We can see her traits in the sacrifi cial Dunya in Crime and Punishment (1866), in the desperate and passionate Nastassya Filip-povna in The Idiot (1869), and in the proud and nervous Liza from Demons (1872). As well, Polina, the protagonist in The Gambler (1866), was un-doubtedly based on Suslova.

Anna SnitkinaAnna Snitkina, who was 25 years Dostoevsky’s junior, was his stenographer during his work on The Gambler. The process of completing the novel engrossed both of them so much that it seems they could not imagine life without each other. They married in 1867.

This novel was where Dos-toevsky’s three great loves intersected: Suslova formed the basis for its protagonist, it was written as his fi rst wife Isaeva passed away and ste-nographed by his future wife.

At the start, it seemed as though Dostoevsky saw this marriage in practical terms, and he was very much in need of stability and support. However, love grew between the couple over time.

The pair’s extended “hon-

eymoon” abroad, which ended up lasting four years, allowed them to escape Rus-sia’s oppressive atmosphere and enjoy more vibrant en-vironments, like they found in Baden Baden.

The time away began well, with the birth of their daugh-ter Sonya a year after their marriage.Tragedy soon struck, however, and Sonya died when she was just three months old. The pair went on to have three more chil-dren, another of whom also died in childhood.

The two were married for 14 years until Dostoevsky’s death in 1881. During this time Snitkina experienced a great deal of anguish as a result of Dostoevsky’s diffi-cult character and habits, namely his jealousy and anx-iety, his gambling addiction

The three loves: (from top)

Maria Isaeva, Polina Suslova

and Anna Snitkina, with a

young Fyodor Dostoevsky.

and terrible debts and his bouts of abusive behaviour towards her.

Despite his shortcomings, she remained stoically com-mitted to him and did not remarry after his death, even though she was left a widow at only 35.

Snitkina did not attempt to change Dostoevsky, which perhaps made this relation-ship the most harmonious and tender in the writer’s turbulent life.

Read about the role and legacy of the wives of some of Rus-sia's greatest writers.

asia.rbth.com/33367

3FACTS

ABOUT

DOSTOEVSKY

1 Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1868) and The Brothers

Karamazov (1879-1880) are included on The Guardian’s list of the top 100 novels of all time, nominated by writers from around the world.

2 St Petersburg has cele-brated Dostoevsky Day annually since 2010.

3 This month, a board game based on Crime and Punishment, his

most famous work, will be on sale in St Petersburg.

ASIA.RBTH.COM/SCIENCE_AND_TECH

Me AsEc

El PaCh

Bi

InPhAr

MEDICINE

ASTROPHYSICS

ECOLOGY

ELECTRONICS

BIOLOGY

PALEONTOLOGY

CHEMISTRY

ARCHAEOLOGY

INTERNET

PHYSICS

UNLIKELY SOLUTION

POTENTIALLY DISCOVERED TO

CLEAN UP NUCLEAR WASTE

rbth.com/47885

WHY THE RUSSIAN-MADE

TELEGRAM MESSAGING APP

IRRITATES ITS COMPETITORS

rbth.com/48095

MYSTERIOUS CHILD MUMMY

FOUND ON THE SITE OF AN

EXTINCT SIBERIAN CIVILISATION

rbth.com/47913

PP

RS

FINE ART IMAGES/VOSTOCK PHOTO

© R

IA N

OV

OS

TI

© R

IA N

OV

OS

TI

FR

OM

PE

RS

ON

AL

AR

CH

IVE

S


08

MOST READSport RUSSIAN RECORDS IN WORLD FOOTBALL

asia.rbth.com/47799

COMMENTS AND LETTERS FROM

READERS, GUEST COLUMNS

AND CARTOONS LABELLED

“COMMENTS”,“VIEWPOINT” OR

APPEARING ON THE “OPINION” AND

“COMMENT & ANALYSIS” PAGES OF

THIS SUPPLEMENT ARE SELECTED

TO REPRESENT A BROAD RANGE OF

VIEWS AND DO NOT NECESSARILY

REPRESENT THOSE OF THE EDITORS

OF RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES

OR ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA.

PLEASE SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR TO [email protected]

RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES (RBTH) IS PUBLISHED BY RUSSIAN DAILY NEWSPAPER ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA. ITS PRODUCTION DOES NOT INVOLVE THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF FAIRFAX MEDIA. RBTH IS FUNDED THROUGH A COMBINATION OF ADVERTISING AND SPONSORSHIP REVENUES, TOGETHER WITH SUBSIDIES FROM RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. RBTH'S EDITORIAL VOICE IS INDEPENDENT. ITS OBJECTIVE IS TO PRESENT, THROUGH QUALITY CONTENT, A RANGE OF PERSPECTIVES ABOUT RUSSIA AND RUSSIA'S PLACE IN THE WORLD. PUBLISHED SINCE 2007, RBTH IS COMMITTED TO MAINTAINING THE HIGHEST EDITORIAL STANDARDS AND TO SHOWCASING THE BEST OF RUSSIAN JOURNALISM AND THE BEST WRITING ABOUT RUSSIA. IN DOING SO, WE BELIEVE THAT WE ARE FILLING AN IMPORTANT GAP IN INTERNATIONAL MEDIA COVERAGE. PLEASE EMAIL [email protected] IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS ON OUR OWNERSHIP OR EDITORIAL STRUCTURE. RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES EVGENY ABOV PUBLISHER PAVEL GOLUB EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ELENA OSIPOVA EXECUTIVE PRODUCER GLEB FEDOROV EXECUTIVE EDITOR KATHERINE TERS GUEST EDITOR (AUSTRALIA) DARIA STRELAVINA ASSISTANT EDITOR MEDIAXPRESS PRODUCTION EDITORS (AUSTRALIA) ANDREY SHIMARSKIY ART DIRECTOR ANDREY ZAITSEV HEAD OF PHOTO DEPT MILLA DOMOGATSKAYA HEAD OF PRE-PRINT DEPT MARIA OSHEPKOVA LAYOUT

ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA ALEXANDER GORBENKO CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD PAVEL NEGOITSA GENERAL DIRECTOR VLADISLAV FRONIN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SUPPLEMENT CONTACT [email protected] TEL +7 (495) 775 3114 FAX +7 (495) 988 9213

ADDRESS 24 PRAVDY STR, BLDG 4, FLOOR 12, MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 125 993

ANY COPYING, REDISTRIBUTION OR RETRANSMISSION OF ANY OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS PUBLICATION, OTHER THAN FOR PERSONAL USE, WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA IS EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED. TO OBTAIN PERMISSION TO REPRINT OR COPY AN ARTICLE OR PHOTO, PLEASE PHONE +7 (495) 775 3114, OR EMAIL [email protected] WITH YOUR REQUEST. RBTH IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS AND PHOTOS. © COPYRIGHT 2015, FSFI ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

THIS ISSUE WAS SENT INTO PRINT ON AUGUST 24, 2015

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS AND SECTIONS ABOUT RUSSIA ARE PRODUCED AND PUBLISHED BY RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES, A DIVISION OF ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA (RUSSIA), IN THE FOLLOWING NEWSPAPERS: THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, UNITED KINGDOM • THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE INTERNATIONAL NEW YORK TIMES, UNITED STATES • LE SOIR, BELGIUM• LE FIGARO, FRANCE • HANDELSBLATT, GERMANY • LE JEUDI, TAGEBLATT, LUXEMBOURG • LA REPUBBLICA, ITALY • EL PAÍS, SPAIN, CHILE, PERU, MEXICO • LA NACION, ARGENTINA • FOLHA DE SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL • EL OBSERVADOR, URUGUAY• THE ECONOMIC TIMES, INDIA • MAINICHI SHIMBUN, JAPAN • GLOBAL TIMES, CHINA • THE NATION, PHUKET GAZETTE, THAILAND • JOONGANG ILBO, SOUTH KOREA • THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, THE AGE, AUSTRALIA • GEOPOLITICA, NEDELJNIC, SERBIA • NOVA MACEDONIJA, MACEDONIA.

ALEXEY MOSKORBTH

Russia's rising young female

tennis players may soon

challenge the superstar Maria

Sharapova for the much

sought-after title of the

queen of Russian tennis.

Trio set their sights on Sharapova's crown Tennis Rising teenage stars are already attracting attention, and have ambitions to match their outstanding talents

1. Sofya Zhuk Perhaps no talented Russian female tennis player can avoid being compared to Maria Sharapova, though in the case of Sofya Zhuk, the parallels are uncanny.

In winning the Junior Championships at Wimble-don in 2015, 15-year-old Zhuk attracted the attention of commentators not only with her athleticism and dou-ble-handed backhand but also because she looks a lot like Shaparova.

Zhuk also proved herself at a young age, winning her first junior tournament at only nine. When she was 10 she was admitted to the ten-nis academy founded by Bel-gian player Justine Henin.

She then won contracts with IMG, Reebok and Wil-son and also the prestigious American Eddie Herr Cham-pionship. At 13 Zhuk began appearing in adult WTA tour-naments and was included in the world top 1000.

Sharapova won her first Grand Slam tournament at 17, becoming the fi rst Rus-sian in history to win at Wim-bledon. Zhuk still has time to catch up to her compatri-ot’s achievements, especially since she started playing ten-nis later than Sharapova, be-ginning at six, having spent the previous two years doing artistic gymnastics.

“I like to win, but no vic-tory can compare to my fi rst,” Zhuk said in an interview with PROSport magazine. “It was at a tournament in Tver. I had lost the fi rst set, won the second and was leading in the third, but then prob-ably relaxed too much and didn’t even notice how my lead of 5:3 turned into a 6:5 lead for my opponent.

“I'll never forget the fi nal game. It had everything: shouts, tears, falls. When someone asks me why I need tennis, I always remember those emotions.

“Also, thanks to tennis,” she added, “I can travel the world. I’d get bored staying in one place. The quiet life isn’t for me.”

The attacking style, fast ten-nis – this is my tennis,” she said in an interview with championat.com.

Potapova, who trains at the Alexander Ostrovsky Tennis Academy in Khimki near Moscow, is at her best on clay.

However, her coach Irina Doronina thinks that she will develop in a different direc-tion. “Even though Nastya [the shortened form of Ana-stasia] dreams of winning Ro-land Garros, the hard court is more suitable for her game,” Doronina told Sport Express. “The paradox is that up till now Nastya has won most of the important titles on clay, but at the children’s and jun-ior level this is not an indi-cator.”

2. Anna BlinkovaSixteen-year-old Anna Blink-ova, who met Sofya Zhuk in the all-Russian 2015 Junior Wimbledon final, has re-mained in the shadow of her compatriot.

Blinkova, a native of Pav-lovsky Posad near Moscow, had already won eight ITF Junior tournaments by the Wimbledon quarter finals, where she played one of the most spectacular matches of the tournament, defeating American Tornado Alicia Black 12-10 in the third set.

After the tournament, in an interview with Sport Express, Blinkova said that her loss in the final was due to the fact that she had never played on important courts like

Wimbledon: “It was a new ex-perience for me: the roars in the stands, all that space. I just couldn’t feel the length when hitting the ball… and I just lost to Sofya in speed.”

Unlike Zhuk, who lives in Belgium, Blinkova trains in Moscow, on the courts of the Russian State University of Physical Education.

Anna says her idol is Ser-ena Williams. Her short-term plans include participating in the US Open Junior cham-pionship. Perhaps she will be luckier at Flushing Meadows, since the hard court is her preferred surface.

3. Anastasia PotapovaThe list of achievements this 14-year-old has acquired at

her age would impress any tennis fan. The ambitious young athlete from the Volga city of Saratov has already won the Eddie Herr Interna-tional and the Orange Bowl in the under-14 category, as well as one of the most com-petitive junior tournaments, the Les Petits, in the French city of Tarbes.

Potapova is 54th in the ITF Junior rankings. The fact that in the top 100 there is no other girl born in 2001 only highlights her potential.

Unusually confi dent for her age, Potapova is being called the next Shaparova by the Russian media, and she clear-ly doesn’t mind this compar-ison. “I like the way she plays, her style, manner, behaviour.

See Russia's best in Melbourne

While the International Tennis Competition for Juniors has fi-inished for this year, these three young talents from Russia are set to play at the Junior Cham-

pionships in next year's Austral-ian Open, to be held at Melbourne Park in January. Tickets for the highly popular first “Grand Slam” event are already on sale. 1

2

3

NEXT issue

17September

SHARE YOUR OPINIONS /russianow /russiabeyond

THE KURSK SUBMARINE: CHRONICLES OF A TRAGEDY

GE

TT

Y IM

AG

ES

GE

TT

Y IM

AG

ES

PR

ES

S P

HO

TO


Documents

New discovery may speed clean-up of nuclear disasters