Eurovision 2016

So, how was Eurovision 2016 for you? A fun-filled evening of cheesy pop (evenings, if you also caught the semi-finals). Here, for one half of the household, specifically the white-blue-red striped half, it was too much too bear...

source

BBC Panorama; "Putin's Secret Riches"

I caught up with the recent edition of BBC's Panorama called "Putin's Secret Riches" (available on i-player until Jan 2017).

It left me with mixed feelings...

The good news

The good news is that the Moscow Times reports that the suicide rate is the Russian capital is falling.

 The bad news is that...

Russia bans transgender drivers

It has been widely reported that the Russian government has decided to ban transgender people from driving (BBC, Guardian). They have added many conditions which they deem to be "mental disorders", including transgenderism, fetishism, exhibitionism and voyeurism, as well as kleptomaniacs and those with a gambling addiction.

Of course, Russia's absurdly high road accident (mortality) rate (30,000 deaths and 250,000 injuries annually) has nothing to do with alcohol, macho driving stupidity or poorly-maintained vehicles. If you want a laugh, watch (some of) this collection of videos from Russian dashcams.

With homosexuality sometimes viewed as an 'illness' in Russia, you can't help but wonder which direction such a law change might go next.

Now, cue the piss-take...

It almost brings a tear to my eye...

... well, not quite. The Guardian reports that the tumbling Rouble saw the owners of two English football clubs take big hits.

Alisher Usmanov, Arsenal owner, lost £517million over 48 hours. I don't know who to feel sorrier for; him, down to his last £8.5bn, or the Arsenal fans who may have to continue complaining about the club's reluctance to spend freely in the transfer market.

Usmanov

Meanwhile...

the evil eye...

It's been in the news that, in honour of the final Hobbit film having its Russian premier, an art group, Svechenie, had wanted to place a holographic Eye of Sauron on a Moscow skyscraper to mark the occasion.

The proposed design.

However...

Russia: A Victim of Bad Press?

It's fair to say that Russia has something of an image problem. Despite the opportunity offered by this year's Winter Olympics to win new friends, Russia is in fact doing the opposite. In addition to the obvious, major candidate of Crimea and Ukraine, there is a steady stream of minor news stories relating to issues such as racism, freedom of speech and homophobia.

Screenshot of the Guardian website today

Documentary review: Storyville. Russia's Toughest Prison: The Condemned

This is Russia's prison for its most dangerous men; 260 inmates convicted of 800 murders collectively. The documentary, shown as a part of the BBC4 Storyville series, was as interesting as it was depressing. It focused on half a dozen prisoners, the governor and, briefly, a handful of family members and takes us through how they came to be in prison, their guilt, prison hierarchy, family and their future, giving an insight into thoughts and lives, or rather existences, of some of its prisoners and, to a lesser extent, of others involved. Welcome to a world of thin faces, sunken eyes and missing teeth in mouths offering few smiles. a place where hope and hopelessness vie for supremacy in the minds of people who have much to fear on both sides of the walls.

All along the watchtower

Racism in Russia

Football-related incidents bring issues of racism in Russia to the attention of more people. But that sadly is not the limit of the problem's scope: according to the Levada Center, 28% of Russians feel hostility towards other ethnicities, 34% think that non-Russians hold varying degrees of responsible for Russia's problems, 45% have negative feelings towards people from 'southern republics' and 56% agree with fully or partially implementing policies of 'Russia for Russians'.

No to Halloween

With the end of October fast approaching and the accompanying annual festival, it is only appropriate that Russian politicians come up with some of their own appropriately creepy ideas. Russia Today reports on one such suggestion from the Public Chamber.

Animals in the streets

If you saw a cat or a dog in the street in the UK, you'd bet that it had a home to go to, even if it didn't have a collar. Not so in Russia.

No collar, no home

Squirrels, metaphorically speaking

Lily and I are trying to declutter. We'd been acquiring stuff in the way typical of many new-weds, for whom money isn't free-flowing and life plans change with the seasons. 'We'll take it' and 'we'll keep it, just in case' saw us become overwhelmed by possessions... two washing machines, three Christmas trees (yes, seriously), a printer for which we have no cables or adapter. Insane! Now... ebay if it's worth something, recycling if it's beyond repair in the damp cellar and charity for things that we can't be arsed to deal with any other way. All this got me thinking about stuff and the British and Russian attitudes.

A Siberian squirrel.

The Dacha

Many Russians have a dacha, a country house. If a Brit mentions going to spend the weekend at the country house, you think of the landed gentry and large country estates. In Russia, it could mean many things.

Picking potatoes.

Is Going to Work in Siberia (or Russia) Right for You?

I went over to Russia for the first time in 2004 to teach English; not just Russia, but to Surgut - a smallish town in the frozen wastes of Siberia. The time was right for me and it was just what I needed. That, however, isn't the case for everyone.

Siberia... snow and apartment blocks... get used to it.

Blood Pressure and the North of Russia

In Siberia, there is a common belief relating to the effects of living in such a cold, northerly environment on people's blood pressure.

Nine months of this can't be good for you, can it?

Book review: Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum

Given as a present to take on my first trip (to inform or to put the fear of god up me?), ten years later I finally finished this impressive work.

Alcohol

Ask most people to name things associated with Russia then vodka and/ or alcohol are going to be high up on that list. This isn’t helped by those who remember Boris Yeltsin ‘leading by example’ as president, which included him standing outside the White House in his underwear trying to hail a cab to go for a pizza! So, I thought I’d take a look at whether this stereotype was fair or not.

refreshing...