Russian-Americans discuss the American elections in a Russian newspaper

I translated this and then realized that it is not really current or relevant enough for me to even want to put it on Johnson's Russia List. So I figured, why not share it with you, my dear readers? Enjoy.

_____________________________________
The Russian Voice of America
By Olga Zharenova, @ktsiia, Nov. 2004, page 2
[supposedly this publication is available on www.akzia.ru, but I couldn't get the site to open]

On November 2nd the US elected the old president anew. Our former compatriots, Russian emigrants are now American citizens, also went to the polling stations. We got in touch with some of them to find out how they voted and why.

Quite a few of them voted for George Bush, choosing the lesser of two evils and preferring not to change from an elephant to a donkey in midstream. Alexander V., computer programmer, Brooklyn, NY: "Bush is at least a known quantity, and I don't know what to expect from Kerry. Maxim K., partner in a business, Staten Island, NY: "Kerry is a dark horse who could turn out to be unpredictable."

When casting their votes for Bush, Russian-Americans based their decision more on Kerry's shortcomings than on Bush's merits. Roman K., health care worker, Staten Island, NY: "Kerry doesn't have a clear position on any of the issues, and his position on drug legalization is too liberal." Mikhail K., chess coach, Brooklyn, NY: "Kerry has no charisma, he is a weak politician and a strange personality who repels even like-minded Democrats."

The views of those who spoke positively of Bush's policies were all very similar. They were expressed precisely by Grigoriy Z., an engineer from Boston: "Bush's pluses are his security policy and his support for Israel."

For their part, Kerry's supporters explained that their position was based on a desire to be rid of Bush as soon as possible and a negative attitude toward the current president. Dmitrii P., entrepreneur, Waltham, MA: "Bush is someone who didn't play enough war games when he was a kid. He has a strong cabinet, but he's a weak leader." Andrei R., recruiter, Boston: "Bush thinks more about foreign policy than about the country's economy." Pavel K., construction worker, Chicago: "High inflation, unemployment, unjustifiable spending on the war on terrorism, which has put the country in a ridiculous situation: complications even on domestic flights, long lines, humiliating security checks.

When choosing a candidate, foreign policy toward Russia was not a priority issue: Russian-Americans are US citizens, so they are most concerned about domestic policy issues and economic stability. But many of them still have relatives in Russia, so they declared open borders and a friendly attitude toward Russia to be essential. This point was made especially forcefully by the elderly.

Young people in the Russian-speaking community often voted just like their older relatives - the majority of them voted for Bush, although their American peers preferred Kerry. Alexander L., student, Staten Island, NY: "I voted like everyone else in the Russian-speaking community. Kerry is not the right candidate for America, he talked too much in his speeches about gay marriage and other unnecessary things, without making a single proposal to actually improve things. My American friends for the most part voted for Kerry; among young people supporting Bush is considered indecent, and he is unpopular."

We weren't able to find out in greater detail about the votes of our respondents' American acquaintances for one simple reason: asking native-born Americans who they voted for is considered as impolite as asking about their income. That information is confidential. The people we surveyed were also surprised at our interest in their assessment of the fairness of the elections. Regardless of the numerous statements made by international observers, they were of one mind, "Of course they were fair - after all, this isn't Russia!"

Advisory

Does the State Department know something the rest of us don't? I guess a little caution goes a long way when the situation is so "fluid."

From: Moscow-Consular Warden [mailto:MoscowWarden/@/state.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 5:07 PM
Subject: Warden Message - Public Announcement

November 30, 2004
[...]

This Public Announcement is being issued to alert U.S. citizens to the potential for civil unrest and disturbances, with resultant traffic disruptions in Ukraine, following Ukraine's November 21, 2004, disputed presidential elections. This Public Announcement expires on December 7, 2004.
The American Embassy in Kiev has urged American citizens resident in Ukraine to remain alert to the possibility of election-related rallies, demonstrations, and disturbances following Ukraine's presidential election held Sunday, November 21, 2004. The election results are in dispute and a large number of police forces have assembled around the rallies in Kiev. Expectations of counterdemonstrations make the potential for disorder even greater.

American citizens resident in Ukraine have therefore been urged to avoid areas affected by demonstrations and political rallies and to exercise caution if within the vicinity of any demonstrations. Citizens have also been urged to assess the impact of these demonstrations might have on personal traffic and transportation needs. There are reports that certain inter-city travel in Ukraine is now restricted, and that buses and trains to Kiev have been canceled. Tickets are not being sold for certain scheduled departures. The Department reminds American citizens that even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and possibly escalate into violence. Given the fluidity of the situation in Ukraine at this time, and the difficulties reported with inter-city travel, the Department urges American citizens both within Ukraine and without to defer all discretionary travel plans, particularly to and within Kiev. The U.S. Embassy in Kiev will continue to monitor developments and will, as appropriate, provide for the resident American citizen community in Ukraine periodic updates on the situation on its website.

You can monitor travel advisories (if you pay attention to them) on State's travel website.

Timiryazevskaya represent!

Near Timiryazevskaya Metro Station
Around 4pm, Nov 21, 2004

Russian hip-hop fans already have their own websites - like this one and this one (the breakdance theme is truly old-school), located in Rambler's music pages right alongside pages devoted to Deep Purple, Rammstein, Nirvana, the Beatles, Metallica, even jazz, and lots of other non-Russian music that has fans here. This is in addition, of course, to the pages devoted to numerous Russian artists from weak - e.g., TATU, Valeriya, Filipp Kirkorov - to excellent - e.g., Leningrad, Zemfira, the late, great Vladimir Vysotsky - and lots and lots of pages where you can download musical ringtones for your mobile phone).

So why shouldn't they have clothing stores where they can get suitable gear (this is far from the only such store in Moscow - I saw another one the same day at VDNKh)? Note the strands of pennants strung under the eaves - in the US you would only see those at a used-car dealership - and the sandwich board advertising "GHETTO" clothing.

Putin's Russia - an elephant in a china shop

I heard this commentary on the radio last Friday morning (rebroadcast from Thursday night) and felt it was worth finding the text on-line (on the excellent Echo of Moscow website, of course) and translating it for general consumption. It's a little bit stale now but still interesting. In the course of translating this piece, I found another interesting website - the Ukrainian Central Election Commission.
___________________________________________
"Replika Buntmana" ("Buntman’s Report")
November 25th, 2004, Echo of Moscow radio station.
By Echo of Moscow Deputy Editor Sergei Buntman

And so Putin congratulated Yanukovych a second time, and declared a second time that the Ukrainian people have chosen stability and all the rest. This was the second time that the Russian president had to congratulate his Ukrainian favorite son from foreign soil, this time from Holland, in quite a Petrine manner. Just like the tsar-carpenter, Putin traveled to the Hague to hammer together the Russo-European house. But what he's being asked to do there -- to patch up the footstools that he's broken in Ukraine -- is really more like joinery. That's why it is very convenient right now for the Russian head of state to take a formalistic position and refuse to acknowledge any reality other than the declarations of the Ukrainian Central Election Commission. In so doing he is able to say that the West is interfering, and Russia is not.

Of course the West is interfering. How can one not interfere when half of the country, backed up by half the world, is shouting about violations and falsifications, when people have come out into the streets and it's not even clear anymore what is keeping them orderly. The West is interfering now, because a way out of the current situation (the real situation) must be found. And Moscow thinks that it can sit around and complain about this, because the situation in Ukraine is wonderful, the mission was accomplished: they've beat it into their heads that Russia can't live without President Yanukovych, and they accomplished the mission by pulling him through in the elections. Unfortunately, though, this is very far from reality.

Russia, as though in a police interrogation room, is doing the devil knows what, but that's not a mirror on the wall but a two-way mirror, on the other side of which the world is sitting and wondering. President Putin very much wants to be respected and even feared, he wants to be listened to attentively and taken along to play with the adults, to be seated at the grown-ups' political table. And they've taken him along, and seated him at the table; after all, only Gorbachev, perhaps, in his time, was favored with so many overtures from the West.

But to desire respect and serious partnership while behaving like a clever teenager is at the very least naive and short-sighted. So here's the interim finish to the Ukrainian operation: Russia is sitting in it's own virtual reality, and it's not Russia that is being invited to patch up footstools and glue back together broken china, it's Poland and Lithuania -- the [here the author uses a derogatory slang term - ляхи - for Poles, I think, although I had to figure that out using context clues from the few times I found that term in internet posts; I couldn't find it in any dictionary] are being invited. And the elephant rarely gets let into the china shop a second time.

File under: Things that make you wonder

Pushkin Square Bus Stop
Between 4 and 5 pm, Nov. 14, 2004

Another photo from that seemingly long-ago rainy day. In case the cell-phone camera shot is too low-res (as with all the photos on this blog, you should click on them to enlarge and fully appreciate them), I will help you figure this one out - someone forgot their jeans when they boarded the bus, apparently. Yet another true scrap of Moscow.

Seasons change

Blagoveshchensky Pereulok in the rain
Afternoon of Nov. 14, 2004

It seems like it's been snowing for two weeks straight now. Lest Muscovites should consider getting sick of the white fluffiness that turns so quickly into brown, chemical-infused, shoe-destroying muck, it's worth looking back to a simpler yet no less unpleasant time a couple weeks ago, when all we had to complain about was the rain.

If you live in Moscow and need something to complain about, go to RBC's Moscow weather forecast - snow 4 out of the next 5 days (obviously this will change with time - that's what it says as I post this). You won't hear me complaining, though - I just hope the snowiness lasts until New Year's.

New Hat

I guess I look as happy as someone with a new, warm, furry hat should look in a snowstorm. In the background is the "Mir Obuvi" ("Shoe World") store by the Voikovskaya metro station where my new hat and I found each other. Thanks to Lorina for not only bankrolling the purchase but authorizing it during a shopping trip that was ostensibly to look for a winter coat for her.

Coincidence?

How ironic that NTV started airing the movie "Executive Decision" a few minutes ago just after a special news bulletin about the meeting of Yushchenko and Yanukovych with Kuchma, where apparently no final decision on who will be the executive was reached. Not because of the theme (you'll remember that this is the acting tour de force where Kurt Russell and Halle Berry battle terrorists who have hijacked an airplane), just because of the title.

Bad Eglish

This recruiting ad for the Orlyonok Hotel (careful, the intro has sound) has run in Bolshoi Gorod two weeks in a row. I guess it's not really that funny, given the much funnier butchering of English which is prevalent in many Moscow restaurant menus. It is interesting, though, that their Ispectors are not expected to speak English or Eglish.

Advertising in the big city

This ubiquitous (on hot-dog stands, anyway, of which Moscow boasts quite a few) ad for the “Volcanobull” hot dog (sold by «Стардог!s» - “Stardogs” - formerly known as «Стоп Топ»), is captioned, “The temptation of the big city.” Uh-huh.

A word to the wise

Some of my loyal readers have complained that there was a drought of updates in the last week or so. True. However, sometimes there may be updates which are not immediately apparent because I’ve back-dated them (due to my obsessiveness about things being in proper chronological order), such as this one.

Also, note that today I have added a list of links, which is rather modest for the time being, off to the right.

Moscowist?

The Gothamist empire has spread within the States (I learned about this by finding DCist) and now to London.

Moscowist doesn't have quite the same ring to it, but www.moscowist.com does appear to still be available.

The Revolution will be blogged*

Fearless Ukrainians bring you the story direct from Maidan Nezavisimosti!

In case their blogging in Russian makes you wonder about their political preferences, the following leaves no doubt they're pro-Yushchenko:

Президентом у нас хотят сделать бывшего зека - насильника и казнокрада. Это все ребята. Во-первых это большой позор для страны. Во-вторых, в-третьих и так далее скоро наступят. Хочу Вам сообщить, что я голосовал не за него. Еще интересная инфа: я спрашивал у всех своих знакомых - НЕ ОДИН (!) не один из них не голосовал за этого подонка. Не один мой сотрудник, родственник, сосед, друг не голосовал за него. Не один однокласник, одногрупник из тех с кем я общался не голосовал за него! Я горжусь этим. Еще я горжусь тем, что в моем городе Киеве за Ющенка проголосовало больше 75% населения, в области почти 77%!

*I was already aware of the unoriginality of this phrase, and if I hadn't been, a quick googling of it would have set me straight.

Sunday morning snow

From the podzemelka (underground pedestrian crossing) going across Tverskaya to catch a gypsy cab to the banya. If I had taken this photo 20 seconds later, it would contain 3 young women, one of them in the midst of a dramatic slip-and-fall down the steps. Timing is everything.


Rambler News's take on the snowfall - including a nice photo.

Potty humor

You know how sometimes you see website URL's in the most incongruous places? Well, here's one which I finally visited after seeing it so many times in...important places: www.toitoi.ru

Trust me, you will find a visit to this site to be entertaining, especially if you scroll down and click on the little devil-looking fella with a "T" on his chest. This will link you to a fun although rather pointless (maybe I just couldn't figure it out because the instructions were in German) game.

A major competitor's website and mascot are quite lame in comparison.

First real snowfall of the year

Walked out of the office to find Gasheka street looking unexpectedly like this:


Triumfal'naya Square was similarly snowy:


And, using one of the mirrored windows of the Impex-Bank branch in our building, I was able to take a self-portrait showing how much snow can get stuck to one on a 10-minute walk when it's coming down nearly horizontally:

I love the box

Sometimes people ask me why we don't have cable or satellite TV here. Well, we had the basic cable package from Kosmos-TV for awhile when we first moved here and we practically never watched it. The reason is that Russian broadcast TV can be (although it is not always) so damn good for entertainment purposes. Of course, if there's a world crisis of some kind, it would be nice to have CNN (even the inferior CNN International, which is what you get here, with "Diplomatic License" instead of "Crossfire"), but that alone is not worth the monthly fee.

OK, so tonight we went to the theater ("Стакан Воды" - I'm not sure of the original name - by the French playwright Eugene Scribe at the Stanislavsky dramatic theater, which is just 1/2 block from our front door), therefore I can try to be ironic about my penchant for watching Hollywood movies here and just maybe sound credible. Before we left the apartment, '80's classic "Back to the Future" was on STS, and when we got back the viewer's tough choice was between "Minority Report" on Channel 1, "The Nutty Professor" on Rossiya, and "The Living Daylights" on NTV.

With all of those entertaining options, I don't know how I find time to maintain this blog...

Somewhat funny found item

This has probably been all over the internet, but I just saw it for the first time and it is rather amusing, though in a scary way.

An unfavorable comparison

From a Thomas Friedman column in the International Herald Tribune that I picked up boarding the plane back to Moscow:

...if you have societies held together by a voluntary social contract among its constituent populations, and by institutions, you don't need one-man rule. You don't need to mobilize the whole society around resistance to outsiders. And you don't need the suppression of every group in the society, other than the tribe of the one-man ruler - with all the violence and extremism that such suppression brings.

Friedman was writing about the legacy of Arafat, but it seems to me that these thoughts are at least indirectly relevant to the direction Russia is going under Putin.

Ukraine campaign

The time between the general election and the run-off was supposed to be an agitation-free period, from what I understood, but even being in the country for less than 72 hours we noticed several instances in which that was not the case. Predictably, each candidate appeared to still be using those avenues open to him. Yanukovich's people (presumably) were behind a series of TV ads which we saw repeatedly, which, without naming either candidate, had what appeared to be the Ukrainian equivalents of Joe and Jane Sixpack (Bohdan Horylka and Oleksandra Salo?) - a war veteran and a milkmaid, for example - talking about the direction they wanted to see the country go in, with the tag line, "А ты за що?" ("What do you support?"). The slant was anti-Yushchenko.

Yushchenko's campaign may or may not have been behind a concert/rally which we saw on Independence Square Saturday night, but they were almost certainly behind the dozens of campaign books piled (for free access, apparently) on one of the windowsills at Boryspil airport - I grabbed one on the way out:



The cover identifies Yushchenko as the "leader of the nascent Ukrainian political nation."

And they were probably also behind this slightly more opposition-like sticker:



I peeled this off a curbstone next to Bulgakov's house-museum on Andreevsky Uzviz. The large text reads, "Election 2004 / Are you ready to go to Chechnya?" And the bottom line is a Yanukovich quote: "Dual citizenship [with Russia] is just a matter of time."

We felt like natural Yushchenko supporters (politics aside) because of Lorina's orange scarf, although it only elicited one comment (from a friendly flower vendor on Independence Square).

A brief escape to Kiev...

Lorina and me at St. Andrew's Church (Andriivska Tserkva) - a Rastrelli-designed confection that looks somewhat out of place amidst the many more "orthodox" churches of Kiev.

Fancy Kiev bus ticket

Sunset over Trinity Gate Church (Troitska Nadbramna Tserkva) at the Caves Monastery

View of the Dnepr across the Dormition Cathedral (Uspensky Sobor) from the Caves Monastery belltower.

Ticket to climb the bell-tower at the Caves Monastery. Cost: 5 griven = roughly $1.

Leaving for Kiev

After nearly 2 hours of choking on exhaust fumes (generated by the taxi we were in and the traffic jam surrounding us) we made it to Sh-2 and met up with our friends, checked in uneventfully and then were treated to a diversion as we waited to board our flight: 2 airport police manhandling a seriously intoxicated and very tall foreigner (perhaps a Scandinavian) who didn't agree that he should not be allowed to board his flight. The cops got a few licks in and didn't seem to mind the exercise.

Getting the news in London

It took me so long (3 weeks) to post this photo, and I'm back-dating it so unfortunately the blog won't even appear updated (though it's being updated all the time!).

Procrastination mixes just as badly with blogging as with everything else in life that requires even a bit of productivity. But wait a minute - blogging IS procrastination (just ask Google).