Some reflections ...

Next week I begin full time school at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies where I'll be focusing on Russia and Eurasia. I doubt that between getting married, taking classes, and working that I'll have much time to blog. When I have a chance, I'll try, but thank you to all of you for reading. In the last couple days it's become apparent what I do and do not miss about Russia. Here's a sampling:

What I will not miss about Russia:

• Some food: Overpriced Sushi, cucumbers for every meal
• A haze of cigarette smoke everywhere
• A permanent state of sweatiness, usually combined with a general grimy feeling.
• Air conditioning that gets just cool enough to make you think it’s actually cold upon entering a building, but actually its only 2-3 degrees cooler than outside; and now you don’t even have a breeze!
• Cell phone shop employees thinking I’m a Chechen terrorist since I had a cell phone with Arabic lettering. I actually had to get my host family to help me get a phone the first time.
• Being afraid of the police
  
• Smelly water in the showers.
• Not having to lug 8 liters of water back to my apartment for a week’s water supply.

What I will miss about Russia:

• The people
• Keri the dog
  
• The way that you can always find a beer at any street corner
• Cheap food/drink: A pint of beer in a bar for as cheap as $1.75, bananas for 10 cents
  
• Café Stolle's pirogs
  
• Red Caviar on a Bliny, basically bliny's in general - Teremok at Sennaya Ploschad:
  

• The waitresses at Bliny Domnik who took a liking to me (or pity on me) and gave me free juice
  
• Knowing that I drank 8 liters of water in one week (kind of a good feeling for some reason)
• Quickly moving escalators
• The palaces and their grounds:

Россия, страна возможностей

One of my favorite stories growing up was called The Little Engine that Could. If I remember right it was all about this little train that had to try to make it up a bunch of hills and it kept saying “I think I can, I think I can, etc.” Anyway, on my last night in St. Petersburg I went with two of my friends from the English Discussion Club to a little Vareniki place (little assorted sweet cheese variations wrapped in ravioli). On our way back, amidst the construction I noticed a big billboard for the Bank of Russia that I was to see all over Moscow, it said, "Россия, страна возможностей," or literally, “Russia, the country that can” or probably better translated as, "Russia, the land of opportunity."

I think that phrase aptly sums up my impressions of Russia. I’ve complained to no end about the construction going on in St. Petersburg, and on a larger scale in Moscow, so I’m not going to do that again. The biggest frustration I had with Russia was that there is so much potential, but they are unable to capitalize on it. A few examples:

1. Beautiful architecture but off the beaten path, xenophobic graffiti (one said "Achtung Juden").
2. Great food, but parasitic water.
3. Beer on every street corner, but rampant public drunkenness.
4. A wealth of natural resources, but disregard for the environment.
   

I was having a conversation with one of my colleagues at the Embassy about some of these… I wondered, why not just have a fine for littering? Beyond the problem of enforcement, it would seem that the corrupt policemen would welcome new reasons to fine people. Take the beautiful canals, the Neva, 90% of the beaches in the Gulf of Finland—all unswimmable because of the industrial waste. But his point was that it’s ingrained in their mindset. Maybe it’s a Soviet legacy, but I tend to think the country should be smart enough to simply assign a price to clean air, clean water, basically any public good by fining people (or firms). Additionally, most Russian homes I’ve been in have all been immaculately kept, it’s just the public goods (the rivers, the common courtyards, the sidewalks, etc.) that are the problem.

One other thing that bothered me about the country was the public drunkenness. My colleague also mentioned that he’s seen a marked decrease in the amount of alcohol Russians drink now compared to a decade ago. Whereas before an evening would start off with five or more shots of Vodka, now only one (if any) is the norm. The simple availablility of non-alcoholic beer in restaurants in the last decade is another example of this trend, and I think that’s a good sign of progress. In the mean time, with the country's male life expectancy at 59, they are kicking themselves in the economic foot.

Russia has a wealth of natural resources, (and I’m not just talking about oil and natural gas), smart people, and money to spend. As other academics much smarter than I will point out, establishing strong and just institutions that are free and fair ought to be a priority. Also, this week the Economist pointed out that three in four senior officials in the Russian government roots with the KGB, and I am positive that's undermining transparency and media freedom in the country.

From my and Westerners point of view I perceive that as a problem, but the question is: Do Russians? Most economic indicators are no worse or even better than before Putin took office. With oil revenues high and expected to remain that way, with Putin's tight control over who his successor will be, and with no regional governors being appointed by the Kremlin, democracy remains in its infancy. It's therefore easy to understand why, when I asked the older generations (like my host mother) what she thought of Putin, the answers were usually positive.

That said, this rant on Russia should in no way discourage you from visiting the country, appreciating the culture, and savoring the delicious food that's made its way to America. I only hope that someday the country can capitalize on the inherent strengths it has at its disposal.

HOME!

After 36 hours of travel, I'm home! My flight was delayed on Air France out of St. Petersburg, so I missed my connection in Paris. As I weighed the costs and benefitst of Air France putting me up in a hotel in Paris compared to getting home, I chose the latter. There was no way I wanted to spend any more time in St. Petersburg's Pulkovo airport either, that's for sure, since my midnight choices there were either Cmetana (sour cream) flavored potato chips and my favorite Nevskoe beer, or more sweets at a little cafe. I'm just glad to be home and I look forward to posting the rest of my posts I've had time to write while waiting in the airport in the next day or so.

Moscow: 2 Days as a Tourist, 3 days as a Бизнесмен (Biznessman)

After a nice night of sleeping on a futon only to be wakened by my friend’s crying baby (rest of the family, Mike, Katya, and Max are pictured immediately below), I left to go try my luck to see Lenin’s Mausoleum.
There was of course a demonstration going on near the Kremlin, but I got into the line just in time. Lenin was pretty freaky. He’s just lying there, and his hands have been laying for so long on his black straight jacket that they’ve left these little white cloudy imprints on the suit. There were about 6 guards in the room and the security was pretty high. For the first time I was forced to pay the foreigner rate for a bag check since you’re not allowed to bring anything into the Mausoleum with you.

I spent the rest of the afternoon in the three separate buildings of the Pushkin Museum of Art: The Dutch collection, French and other European, and the private collections. I loved the private collections museum of course because it was almost all Russian art. I took some pictures which I’ll post at a link below. I then walked along the Arbat (open-air market) and successfully bargained for two Ohio State Buckeyes (2002 and 2006) Matryushkas, only to realize I didn’t have enough cash to buy them. Sucks to be the people I wanted to buy them for since I didn’t make it back there. You might have to settle for chocolate (or Vodka shots). I had some wonderful Italian Food for dinner and got to bed pretty late.

My days of “work” in this city were not too pleasurable. After a full day of meetings I wrote up my notes and tried to get as much sleep as I could. We accomplished a lot, and I have a wealth of new information and contacts to bring back to work, but let’s just say my suit is a crumpled, dirty, smelly mess. Business meetings in Russia are pretty convivial. Most people we met were very casual, and all had a requisite secretary to offer us Chai (Tea) or Coffee. At the investment banks we of course had Evian (retailing for about 8 dollars at a restaurant). One of them even had a cigar room, but we were unfortunately not invited to partake.

Trying to take the metro in this city is pretty easy. The trains come pretty quickly, but it is just hot. To complicate matters yesterday, there were peat fires in the northern part of the city that created an entire layer of smog and gave people respiration problems. One of their weather agencies actually encouraged people (especially children) to stay inside, and in 2002 about 600 people died over the course of the summer from the smoke. That’s why Russians have their Dachas.

I will post some pictures of mine from Moscow at this link soon.

Here they are.

Trip to Moscow

After a hearty midnight meal of kasha and broiled potatoes, I boarded my overnight train to Moscow. I was in a nice "Coupee" for the overnight train down and I surprisingly slept just fine. We got in at around 10 AM and I went immediately to my friend of a friend's parent's house up near the university. An old man with no shirt on answered. Valentin introduced himself and then took me to meet his wife, a very nice Jewish grandmother-like lady. She promptly fed me, and I couldn't say anything to keep her from serving me a nice, hearty Russian breakfast of sardines, tomatoes, eggs, and cucumbers. Yum! Mike, my friend Dan's friend came to pick me up later in the day after I went all around the Kremlin. In tourist mode, I dutifully stood in long lines, avoided other ones, and tried to see as much of the main sites that I could with the small time I had.

Today (Sunday) after a nice sleep at Mike's house, I saw one corpse (Lenin), two Ferraris, and all three buildings of the Pushkin museum. I also saw the beautiful Synagogue here, and I will post pictures of it all when I finish working. This city is really amazing. It's very much like New York, but with the spansiveness of LA. There are tons of what they call "New Russians" that have endless money to spend on food and luxury items. The reconstruction that's taking place here is similar to what's going on in St. Pete but the size of it all, is just eye-opening.

I don't know how much time I'll have to post over the next couple days but I hope to catch up when I get back home.

The Port of Primorsk

As many of you know I do energy stuff for a living, so today I was in my element when I accompanied the Consul General, the Consul, and some other Consulate employees to the biggest oil port in Russia, and the fourth largest oil port in the world. The port is located about 2 hours north of the city on the Gulf of Finland. We passed many many dachas (summer homes) on the way up, and it was really beautiful.

Most of the 1.5 million barrels per day (bbl/d) of the crude oil Primorsk exports goes to ports in Europe, but only a very small amount (less than 100,000 bbl/d) comes to the US. We had a tour of the port facilities and some of the environmental labs where they test the water conditions. At the end we were given a wonderful lunch with a pike-like fish, red caviar blinies (much better in bliny than on sushi), salmon pelmeni (aka kreplach) in a fish-based soup, more salmon for the main meal, and then fruit and cookies for dessert. It was extremely nice and ochen vkoocni (very tasty). They answered almost all of my questions, but it makes me want to work on my Russian even more since I only understood about 1 in 10 words. I luckily had many people to help translate parts of the briefing, and even the native Russians didn't understand a lot of the oil terminology.

In the next couple days I have a couple other work-related meetings here, which means my spare time is being used up prepping for those and for my trip to Moscow on Friday night. I hope to post more about my activities this past week soon. Unfortunately no pictures of the Port for you all since it's kind of a security risk. Sorry!

Making change

I want to write quickly about something here that drives me nuts. Others have written about it, but I would like to rant. I recently ran out of money on my cell phone. You have to go to these little kiosks and put in small amounts of cash to add money to your account. Let's say however that when you last took out money, all you got out was 1000 roubles, or about $45, and you got it in one single bill. No place will take this 1000 roubles and exchange it for smaller denominations. If you go to a Producktы they look at you like you're crazy and if you try to give it to a bus money collector he takes your last 8 roubles and doesn't worry about the rest. I've tried to think about why this is the case here, and all I can think of is that it's some government or regionally sponsored initiative to control the liquidity of money, or more likely, they don't want to have too many large bills on hand in case the smaller establishments get robbed. Either way, it's annoying.

Russian Cars

Nowhere else in the world can you find the different types of cars you find here in Russia. During communist times, the USSR exported some of their Ladas to Europe, Africa, South America, and even Canada. The cars were often re-exported back to the USSR because there was a demand for what was conventionally thought to be a better made export-ready car. Today, many of these junkers, including the domestic version of the Lada (the Zhigouli) are still spattering around this city, fuming at rates that I am sure exceed even a minimum EPA standard from the 1990 Clean Air Act.
Ownership of a car is a status symbol here. To own a car is a privilege, and it's easy to see why not having to rely on the sometimes sketchy Marschrutki, the slow busses, the cavernous metro, or the non-existent tram system is advantageous. But car ownership here is rising. I wish I had access to some of my resources at work to get actual numbers. Also, a number of big auto deals were signed at this year's Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, and this city is fast becoming the Detroit of Russia. I want to write about a couple other points:

1. On some of these older cars, they have these little metal static protectors that run from the chassis to the ground. (See the slideshow and you'll see what I mean). I guess if enough electricity builds up in the body it can short circuit it? I really don't know.
2. I really think the cars are designed with more sensitive security systems. Anytime a motorcycle goes by at least one car alarm goes off for about 2 minutes and then stops.
3. When locking these cars the security systems make the most awful Bleep-Bleep-Bleep that for some reason people like to do it over and over and over again.
4. Honestly I think that people speed up when they see pedestrians crossing the road where crossings are unmarked
   
5. There are no posted speed limits in this city that I've ever seen.
   
6. You can actually buy 76 octane gasoline here. Simply put, the higher the octane, the higher the temperature (and the more efficiently) your motor can work. When the price of this gasoline is half the price of 85 or 88 octane gasoline, you can imagine what people might be encouraged to buy. I've figured out that 85 octane gasoline here is actually around $2.70 per gallon, but that's still about half of what it costs in the rest of Europe.
   
7. So, with no speed limits, universal construction, few street signs, and your typical New York cabbie driving all the little Marschrutki, you can imagine how this would not be the safest place to be a pedestrian.

Balancing out: What I'm enjoying about St. Petersburg

To balance out what I think have been a couple salty, yet true, posts I want to write about a couple more positive things about this country so I don't scare all of you away from visiting. These past couple days I've explored the nightlife of the city even more, talked to the people in the Productы (insert guttural sound at the end), went on a daytrip to Gatchina, and sampled the sweets.

The last week here has been beautiful every day, with highs around 80, almost no humidity, and then dropping to a comfortable 60 at night. Perfectly blue skies every day have made for a couple postcard-ready pictures. (sans construction, of course). Below, you can see Palace Square in the top left corner.

I've also been frequenting a bar called Dyunie (I believe this means dunes) where some Germans have found an empty courtyard near the Church on Spilled Blood (view from the bar, to the right) and have dumped a big pile of sand, added lawn chairs, and stuck some wood in the ground for bathrooms. They play a mix of euro hip hop, reggae remixes, and 60's motown and soul music. Weird mix, but it actually works and we all keep going back. You can get beer for around $2-3 and you can then add all different kinds of syrups to it. We kick off our shoes and just relax. For me, getting home from this area is a bit of a walk (around 40 mins) after the metro closes, but my feet have gotten used to it and I've enjoyed peeking into all the other little stores that are open late, sampling Moroshenaya (ice cream) and laughing to myself about the people stumbling home.

Dyunie, very early in the evening

My friends from the discussion club have also been eager to show me some of the sites of the city they call home. One of them took me to a little art exhibition with some cool photographs and some promotional materials for what the new city of St. Petersburg will look like. I felt very in-the-know with my own translator by my side. Another friend took me to a little doughnut shop, called Pishki, right off of Nevsky Prospect that serves doughnut-sized funnel cakes, covered in powdered sugar. They were very good, but I actually preferred the candy they sold there, and I plan to bring home a bunch of it to share with all of you (hope it doesn't melt).

She then took me to the edge of one of the canals where if you throw a coin on this little oft-stolen bird (called Chizhik Pyzhik) you're supposed to have good luck. My coin landed on the bird (action shot shown below), but it fell in the river. Oh well. There's a song for the bird too that goes, Chizhik Pyzhik Gde Tы Bыl, Na Fontanke Vodka Pil (meaning "Where have you been? I was on the Fontanka [canal] drinking vodka"). It was named after the group of students at the Chizhik law school who went there often to unwind after classes.
My day trip to Gatchina was kind of spur of the moment, but it turned out to be a nice escape from the city, and I welcomed the fresh air (bus ride home in hot, sweaty-smelling Marshrutka balanced that out nicely). My german friend and I left on an elektritchka (electric commuter train) and the trip took about an hour. I snapped this picture quickly from the train.
It was a beautiful day and some of the art in the Palace was very nice. The park was pretty also but it was so big we didn't get to see all of it. Hands-down, the cafe there made the best cinnabon-like things I've had here. Speaking of food, here's a nice picture of the beautiful, sweet pirog's at Cafe Stolle.
So, there've been many positive things that I've grown to love about St. Pete and this region. Most importantly, I never really could grasp the concept of the "Russian soul", but I think now I'm beginning to understand what that means. Hopefully I can put those thoughts into words when I get back from Moscow next week. I don't think I could ever live here, but I wouldn't turn down an opportunity to come back for a little while someday (provided I have time to buy a jar of peanut butter).

City planning in Russia

I've been waiting to write this post for awhile, and I think I finally have enough examples to make it work. Some of my Russian readers have asked me to note that some of the observations I'm making are really generalizations, so please keep that in mind. Still, I've come to the realization that becoming and being a civil engineer or some contruction planner/worker must be vastly easier than it might be in other parts of the world. Why?

1. Street signs on corners are never required. Sometimes they're midway down the street, hidden behind some other sign. I would not want to try to drive here.
2. Drinking fountains in buildings or in any public place are never required. Then again, drinking the public water here will subject to you parasites. In fact the St. Petersburg Times reported today that 3 million tons of used water is dumped into the Neva. Two-thirds of that amount falls into the river completely untreated.
3. There is no need to mark construction sites. Russians are expected to be on the lookout for random cracks, holes, crags, scrap metal, and especially loose planks. Those nice little yellow and black-striped danger tapes, or normal orange cones are RARELY if ever used here.
4. Let's say you start building something. Let's say in the end things don't end up being very level and you need to throw a little 4 inch step in the middle of the hallway just to make things even out. Perfectly normal, right? Yeah, until you spend your break watching every single person jar their knee as they walk from one end of our building to another. A yellow strip or a "watch your step" sign would work wonders. Plus, it's not just our building, it's my house, and many other restaurants and buildings.
5. A smushed-in spare tire is a perfectly acceptable way to fill a hole in the sidewalk.
6. If you're boring a hole in the sidewalk with a massive saw and creating incredible amounts of dust, there's no need to either contain some of the dust you're making or allow for people to walk around you (without getting hit by the car speeding down the street).
   
7. I think it's worth mentioning yet again that people here actually accept they won't have hot water in the summer for 3 weeks.

Thanks for letting me rant. As my mom points out, I think it also probably has a lot to do with the abundance of personal injury lawyers in the states and probably many statutes concerning negligence and legal stuff about which I am not an expert.