Moscow in Perspective
By Sean at 29 November, 2009, 11:51 am
Moscow. Being in Russia’s capital provides a perspective impossible to acquire through the news. Contrary to popular belief, the Internet doesn’t bring us closer together. Instead, via the Internet Russia exists as mystified, mediated through the ghastly stories that both the Russian and Western media are obsessed with. It is only after being here a few days do the images of the culture industry, pounded so forcefully into an observer’s consciousness begin to disperse like a fog. Granted, Russia still doesn’t appear in total focus–that is impossible for any one individual to achieve. The mediations conjured in the Internet’s ether are nevertheless replaced with those recorded by one’s senses. Having the soil under your feet, those familiar, yet uncanny smells–the dry, hot bursts of metallic air from the entrance to the Metro or the moldy scent of apartment vestibules, along with rubbing shoulders with others on the screeching metro cars, gives a vantage no journalist, no matter how talented, can portray. The two dimensional flicker of the computer screen littered with the foreboding text of tragedy after tragedy can never replace the human senses even with all their limitations.
The power of place also gives simple reminders, if not lessons, that a dead lawyer, a murdered priest (though 2000 people did show up to his funeral), and certainly a slain antifa activist, are far from most Moscovites’ daily concerns. Talking with Russians about their lives makes events in the news sound like reports from an alien planet.
I realized how much most issues the Russian and Western press miss daily life when I happened to walk past the infamous Anti-Sovetskii cafe last week with A., the woman from the university that registered Maya and I. As we walked past chatting, I happened to notice the Hotel Sovetskii across the street. “Isn’t that cafe Anti-Sovetskii somewhere around here?” I asked. She didn’t know what I was talking about. “I read about it in the news about a month ago. The restaurant was named Anti-Sovetskii but the district head made them take their sign down.” Then I noticed the red awning draping above the entrance to a restaurant a few meters in front of us. “I think that is it,” I said, pointing ahead. It was difficult to be sure at first glance because the eatery’s name was conspicuously missing save a few nails which made no discernible outline. It was only after examining the display in front on entrance was I able to confirm that it was indeed Anti-Sovetskii. After I explained the scandal to A., she repeated that she had never heard of it.
And why the hell would she have? After all, when she enters work everyday, she doesn’t see Stalin, but large photos of Petr Stolypin and Sergei Witte on one end, and Gorbachev, George Bush I, and Yeltsin on the other. All the stories the media pounds about the rehabilitation of Stalin has nothing to do with daily life. His image is mostly where it belongs–in museums.
Several minutes later we’re talking about her position at the university. She just started working there a few months before. The last company she worked for went belly up. She says the work in the university is fine but the pay is low. She tells us that the average salary in Moscow is about $1000 a month and she is making well below that. “Is it hard to find work?” Maya asks. It is, she reports, especially work that pays enough to afford life in Moscow.
There has been one word I have heard repeatedly since I’ve been here: Krizis. (The only word I’ve heard more is probka, or traffic jam, and indeed Moscow’s streets are a traffic nightmare.) Usually “crisis” is proceeded with “after” or “since.” Its impact on people and their families seems to vary. “None of my friends or myself have felt any crisis,” says I., our driver from Domodedovo airport. I.’s part-time gig is transporting foreign academics to and from the airport. The job is through a friend of a friend who helps get foreign scholars visas and apartments in Moscow. “Look,” I. says pointing at one of the many construction sites outside Moscow. “Where is the crisis?” He tells me that his work hasn’t suffered in the last several months. Apparently shuttling academics is steady work. “Most of my friends aren’t officially employed,” he explains. I. discards all official unemployment statistics as worthless. “They (i.e. the powers that be) don’t know how we live.” This ignorance on the part of the state does have some advantages. “Neither I or any of my friends pay taxes,” he tells me.
The conversation then turns to race relations in Russia and the US. “Aren’t almost all African-Americans Muslim?” I. asks. Very, very few, I tell him. “What about Michael Jackson?” “I think he converted,” I say. “But you could never really know about Jackson. I’m not sure he was even human” “Mike Tyson?” he interjects. “I think he converted in prison, but I’m not sure,” I tell him. I. seemed to think that naming two potentially black Muslims proved his point. The reason why I. was so curious about American blacks and Islam was he was convinced by TV reports that Muslims were encircling Russia–from America and Europe in the West, the Caucasus, the Stans, and the Middle East to the south. He probably thinks that the Uyghurs were on the verge of taking over China, but I didn’t think to ask.
I. then entertained us with his views on Russian domestic politics. “Russians need a dictatorship,” he explained. “It’s part of our mentality.” He then went on to equate democracy with chaos and praise Putin as a wise mafia don. When I mention Medvedev and how the media likes to make like there is a conflict between he and Putin, he assures me that they are part of one “team.”
“It used to be a team, but now it’s just Putin,” says our rental agent, M. Clearly more liberal than I., which wasn’t too difficult, M. lamented Putin’s grip on power. Yet despite his more amicable political views, M., like I. asked us strange questions about the United States. “Is it true that Americans are using different currencies instead of the dollar?” No way, I tell him. Most Americans don’t even know that there are other currencies. The fact that we were paying him in dollars for his services didn’t seem to strike him as ironic. Apparently, Russian TV is reporting some wild things. If not, then someone is.
Work has been sporadic for M. since the crisis. Apartment rentals aren’t what they used to be, though it appears that rents haven’t fallen. No matter how bad things are in Moscow, he says, they aren’t even close to what they are in the provinces. He has the impression (as does our landlords) that there are whole regions where almost everyone is unemployed.
Of all the things that I’ve heard so far, it is I.’s statement that “They don’t know how we live.” that haunts me. I don’t know how most Russians live in this city either. Prices are high. Rents are high. Pay for the vast majority is low. Granted, most Moscovites don’t pay rent–they are lucky enough to own their apartments. Still, daily life here is not cheap. The metro is up to 19 rubles. I’ve see more and more people jumping fare as a result. Newspapers have gone up. Four years ago, Kommersant was 5 rubles, now it is 15, even 20 if you buy it from a kiosk instead of the newspaper machines in the Metro. A loaf a black bread I bought two days ago was 19 rubles. Restaurants are mostly out of reach for many Russians like I., who claims he never goes to them.
The difference from four years ago is quite palatable. A Saturday night stroll through the center of the city was like walking through a ghost town. Four years ago the clubs, bars, and restaurants were buzzing. Now the city’s nightlife seems asleep. Most restaurants and clubs appear empty. There are more shops closed early or simply closed down. Many boutiques have more workers than shoppers The places I have seen people, and especially young people are the street, McDonald’s, and Starbucks (I’ve counted at least 5 so far). Places that are cheap enough and they won’t throw you out.
Yet, some are doing well. Really well. Just who they are exactly, I don’t know. I imagine they are people like Telman Ismailov, whose son sliced a Volkswagen in half severely injuring its 70-year old driver with his Lamborghini Murcielago last week in Geneva. You might also see some of them shopping at the new shopping center at the Letto hotel near Smolenskaya. There you can buy shoes for $500. Or visit TsUM, near Kuznetsky Most where shoes are $1000 and children’s pants are $200. Even the local children’s clothing store around the corner from my apartment has outrageous prices. Moscow is shrouded in a veneer of excess only comparable to Beverly Hills. The Rolls-Royce dealer down the street from the Lenin Library mocks passersby as do the Bentley, Ferrari, and Lamborghini dealers down the street from Lubyanka. The glistening windows of Catier, Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Bosco Family serve as Lenin’s nightlight.
Perhaps this is why when I read editorials in Novaya gazeta like “Russian Business: Either in a suitcase or in prison,” I can’t help but shake my head in disgust. It makes me want to stop reading the newspaper completely. It is no wonder that most Russians don’t care about the death of Magnitsky or believe that a jailed or exiled oligarch is simply just desserts. After all, in the public consciousness few have made an honest living in the first place. So I can’t really imagine many average Russians on the daily hustle and bustle, having to navigate through the packed roads or metro cars to get to and from work getting too emotional about a dead lawyer tied up in an alleged $3.25 million in tax evasion scheme which ran afoul with MVD officers who allegedly skimmed $230 million from the state budget. They probably think that you reap what you sow when mixing that kind of money with those kinds of people. Is it right? No. Is it tragic? Yes. But that is the reality the perspective of being in Russia gives you.
Mutilated Volkswagen photo is from Novaya gazeta.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Sean, one of your more excellent pieces. Thanks.
Thanks Sean. Great piece. This is a blog worth blogging.
Good to hear/read that you’re back in Moscow for some on-the-ground coverage. Looking forward to the new tales, photos, and observations.
Also, especially happy to read about vocabulary updates. This, for me, was one of the things I enjoyed keeping track of during my visits. In 1997, ‘perekhod’ was the word on the tip of everybody’s tongue. In 2007, I was also introduced, in many ways, to ‘probka.’ ‘Skidka’ was also new to me, but that may have been around in 1997, but on a lower frequency (at least for me). I hope to hear of more new ones!
Lastly, a more cautionary note that you can take or leave. The specter of “most Russians” and the “average Russian” haunted this post. But like Average Joe and Main Street, I find these ideas/tropes slippery and less interesting than the actual details of what you report from your conversations. Maybe this is just my historian’s caution when it comes to extrapolating from data.
Anyway, again, looking forward to more news from the streets, from the Metro, and hopefully from the archives (whence all the best stories originate).
well done, sean. thank you. gorgeous.
Wow Sean, moving up in the world! You’re gorgeous now! Enjoy it while it lasts!
Very interesting post, has some parallels to conversations with my in-laws about rising prices in Russia and their constant questions about the crisis here in the US. Katja and I have seen very few signs of a ‘crisis’ here in New England, other the collapse of the real estate development market (home prices haven’t slide that much, however) and the tight job market. We’re always amazed at the crowded stores, theaters, malls and restaurants. “Aren’t we supposed to be in an economic crisis this past year?”
I know it is more severe out west, where you were located (or at least I am told so by west-coast friends, family and newspapers.)
Regarding rumors of Americans using other currencies – I had heard similar things from Russian-speaking friends visiting or studying in the US in the past 6 months. Along those lines, one was particularly shocked at how difficult it was to exchange currency – she had to go to several banks to get the transaction completed here. My in-laws often come up with other similar questions about what is going on here. I get the impression it is less the news than gossip or rumor-mills that spread these ideas.
I’m not sure I totally understand your point, Sean. You dislike Novaya Gazeta because it’s out of touch with the mainstream, but you acknowledge that the average Russian is basically uninterested in politics because of a tragic myopia that envelopes Russian society.
So is Novaya Gazeta wrong for covering what it does? Or should their people be writing about something else? What’s got you so peeved, exactly?
Sean,
Thanks for the post. But regarding Magnitsky, you really have to take a look at the details of that $230 million scam to realize what a naked swindle it was. And not money from rich businessmen, but from Russian tax payers. (The fact that many Russian tax payers don’t seem to fully comprehend that they pay the salaries of the government (and the traffic cop who’s extorting them) is a different issue altogether).
So yes, daily life here is exhausting, and many people don’t have time or energy for politics. But I would think that you would be in favor of media outlets explaining as best they can how corrupt officials stole $230 million from the public. Certainly you would want an attentive media if it were your U.S. tax dollars being pocketed. Why should Russians deserve anything less?
I’m trying to get a $1,000 tax refund for interest paid on my mortgage here in Moscow. It’s taken me six weeks, endless spravki and tense telephone conversations with the tax lady to line up the refund. And there’s still no end in site. You know how long it took for those fraudsters to get approval from the Moscow tax inspectorates to cash out $230 million? Three days.
Drop me an email if you want to meet up sometime here in Moscow. I’ll show you the case materials. They’re awesome in a Dr. Evil kinda way.
Cheers,
Carl
@Kevin and Carl
FYI the Novaya Gazeta article Sean mentioned is NOT an expose about the Magnitsky case. It opens as follows:
Businesspeople receive tougher sentences than murders. Thousands of innocent businessleaders are burried alive in the penetentiary system.
And thereafter adds little …..
And its defence though: it’s not written by a journalist but by a representative of the business community.
@Kevin and Carl
FYI the Novaya Gazeta article Sean mentioned is NOT an expose about the Magnitsky case. It opens as follows:
Businesspeople receive tougher sentences than murderers. Thousands of innocent businessleaders are burried alive in the penetentiary system.
And thereafter adds little …..
In its defence though: it’s not written by a journalist but by a representative of the business community.
Gotcha, Joera. Haven’t read the piece, but I heard the author on the radio last night.
I was referring less to the Novaya piece and more to the following:
“So I can’t really imagine many average Russians on the daily hustle and bustle, having to navigate through the packed roads or metro cars to get to and from work getting too emotional about a dead lawyer tied up in an alleged $3.25 million in tax evasion scheme which ran afoul with MVD officers who allegedly skimmed $230 million from the state budget. They probably think that you reap what you sow when mixing that kind of money with those kinds of people.”
Regarding the topic of the Novaya piece, while public antipathy toward the monied class is understandable given the massive thefts of state assets over the past 20 years, it does not change the fact that the harassment and extortion of businessmen by law enforcement authorities is extremely destructive for society.
Basically you have people in epaulettes freeloading of the labors of others and sticking them behind bars to make sure they don’t raise a stink about it. So people who could be productive members of society, creating jobs and paying taxes, are left to rot so that some mid-level law enforcement official can buy a couple of extra dachas.
An acquaintance of mine is currently setting up a business around here, and he’s going to have to pay a bribe to a local official to get the paperwork done. Mind you, this officials is by no means what you would consider a big wig. My acquaintance asked if the money could be transferred to an offshore account. You know what the official said? “No, I only take offshore transfers if the sum is $1 million or more.” Dude’s got cojones, I must say.
Aside from the ruinous affect stuff like this has on businesses already operating, it’s a complete deterrent for anyone thinking of going into business. Several talented friends of mine would love to go into business but say it’s just not worth it to deal with the corruption. They’d rather just move West and start their projects there.
Thanks so much for this – been waiting for it for a while. Nothing terribly surprising, mostly confirming what others who are there have said.
FYI, RT does pretty frequent stories about “alternative currencies.” These are usually benign neighborhood co-ops depicted as subverting the American economy. Obviously, both the US and Russian media are fond of taking what locals would consider non-stories and blowing them all out of proportion or obsessing about them to make a point, sometimes valid, sometimes not…
Hi Carl,
While I will not dispute the image of severe corruptness of the business climate you describe, I can get irritated with Russian journalists and social/political activists who pretend it its 1938 all over again, to be able to get their points across. IMHO they’re often doing their cause a disservice, when painting alarmist images, rather than sticking to facts and coopting the reform oriented parts of the bureaucracy and people.
In my view many groups bare responsibility for the current situation. ‘Independent’ journalism is not an exception.
I do understand that critisizing ‘independent’ newspapers or ‘opposition’ leaders for that matter is easily perceived as a pro authoritarian stance. So be it. It would of course be questionable when one would defend the state in any case and blame the journo’s for all they do.
Joera,
We both agree that it’s not 1938, and that those who pretend it is are naive at best and cynical at worst.
You allude to the famous opposition/pro-authoritarian false dichotomy. The case of Magnitsky and the $230 million stolen from Russian tax payers, as I see it, actually has little to do with this this model. And it isn’t even really about hysteric claims that it’s 1938 again. Because this really has nothing to do with political repression as such. It is, in fact, merely a giant racket in which those with the power to imprison those with money (however honestly earned or ill-gotten) do so in order to steal their shit.
This is a case where an independent press is absolutely necessary not just because some limp-dick liberals say a free media is important, but rather because it’s a crucial mechanism to catch the crooks stealing our money (I pay Russian taxes too!).
When officials nakedly steal tax payers’ money (not Browder’s, not Magnitsky’s) money on such a scale, I have little use for staid, polite discussion merely to avoid being called “hysterical.” People should be extremely pissed off and calling for heads to (figuratively) roll. And I support anything the press can do to speed that process along.
Recommended reading for today: this week’s issue of The New Times. Yes, the piece was co-written by Albats. But it’s hardcore investigative work. And they name names.
Ah yes, how many times have I heard Russians say they need a dictator due to their mentality. Another commenter above warned you not to extrapolate what the “average Russian” thinks from your specific interactions, but I can certainly confirm that the dictator belief is thoroughly prevalent amongst the “common Russian taxi driver.”
Here’s the link to the New Times piece, by the way: http://newtimes.ru/articles/detail/11454
I am always surprised by the nature of the comments from many so-called Russophiles. I am a New Zealander and have worked and lived in Russia since 1988, not just in Moscow but as far flung as Sakhalin Island, 5 years EXILE there. Just get over it, if you don’t like get out, stop whingeing about everything that happens in Russia , just because it does not measure up to your standards or whatever you measure it by. I have made my living for over 20 years working in Russia and still do.
Ribka.
Regarding the topic of the Novaya piece, while public antipathy toward the monied class is understandable given the massive thefts of state assets over the past 20 years, it does not change the fact that the harassment and extortion of businessmen by law enforcement authorities is extremely destructive for society.
Agreed absolutely. The barriers to entry for a business in Russia are not only high, but also subject to change on a whim. Unless you’re pulling in about 20% net margin as a minimum, it’s not worth the risk.
Thanks for the link, Carl. I didn’t know that 1/ the taxpayer eventually paid Browder’s FSB protection racket. I thought the money came out of Heritage. 2/ Magnitsky died within 3 days after being transfered to Butirskaya.
Well, it wasn’t exactly “Browder’s FSB protection racket”, at least according to the case materials and the verdict of the sawmill foreman convicted of defrauding taxpayers of $230 million (the money has never been returned). It was the sawmill foreman and “unknown persons” that Magnitsky identified as high-ranking MVD officers.
What’s interesting is that Hermitage is claiming (I’ve seen less evidence of this, though there is some evidence in a report Hermitage sent to Stepashin) that this same group of siloviki pulled the same stunt with Renaissance Capital to get a comparable amount of taxpayer money. The implication is that Renaissance figured: “Well, it’s not our money being stolen, so let’s not make a stink.”
Unfortunately, as angry as this kind of graft makes me, I can’t help thinking maybe Renaissance had it right. Just them steal massive public funds and let your associates avoid jail/death. It’s a depressing conclusion, of course.
This and this somehow seem on-topic given the direction the discussion has taken. Can shareholder activism take the corruption out of Russian business? Doubtful, but perhaps Mr. Navalny is headed in the right direction.
Enjoy your time in Moscow, Sean. I’ll let you know if I’m in town.
Oh, man, Lyndon, Navalny жжет!
Nice article. Puts things in perspective for people like me who spend too much time reading news and arguing about politics online.
“Moscow is shrouded in a veneer of excess only comparable to Beverly Hills.”
I beg to differ.
Comparing to Moscow, Beverly Hills is workers’ paradise. A regular Joe can like totally afford eat, drink and shop in the BH once in a while. The prices in the BH are less than half of Moscow. Even Sax 5th Ave has affordable stuff on sale. The very concept of “sale” seems to be unknow in Moscow. In Moscow they seem to only do “mark ups”.