The crisis led to inflation, and frightened employees so much that they had either ceased to raise wages altogether or reduced allowances.

For comparison: in 2007, the increase rate of salaries in G-20 countries averaged 4.7%, while in 2008, it fell to 1.4%. This year, there is no increase rate to speak of. On the contrary, the ILO reports wage reductions.

Some companies were forced to transition to a shortened work week. In Russia, the new schedule had been adopted in the auto industry: AvtoVAZ, KAMAZ, GAZ. The shortened work schedule had also been administered in the metallurgical and consumer industries.

The reduction of working hours led to a reduction of wages. Thus, after AvtoVAZ transitioned to a new work schedule, its average wage fell from 17,000 to 7,000 rubles.

“Salaries did decrease. The rate of the decline varies from industry to industry. But, generally, it has been from 10% to 15%,” said Alexandr Shershukov, secretary of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR).

He notes that in some economic sectors (those that have been most affected by the crisis) wages fell by 25-30%. These sectors include: metal processing, automotive and mechanical engineering. In these industries, employers have tried various ways to save, including by reducing payroll. Staff were sent on unpaid leaves or transferred to a shortened work week schedule.

The broken down ruble

“When companies shortened the work week, or production was shut down, employees received lower wages than they did before the crisis,” notes Olga Gorbacheva, head of quantitative research practice at AXES Management. Another reason for wage reduction could have been the fact that laid-off employees accepted lower-paying jobs. After all, due to increased labor-market competition, employers have been offering their new recruits lower wages than they were offered before.

At year-end, inflation in Russia will settle at 9%, currently it is at 8%. Accordingly, the average wage of about 20,000 rubles equals to about 17,400 rubles after taxes; another 1,500 rubles is lost due to inflation.

Because salaries practically have not been indexed this year, every working Russian will receive less in December than he did in January. Before, this has not been felt as severely; currently, however, financial losses will be more tangible with each passing month.

“Despite the signs that signal a possible economic recovery, we are expecting a reduced growth of monthly wages in 2009. This is a result of the difficulties that we had experienced in 2008, when the economic crisis had a painful impact on wages,” says Patrick Belzer, senior economist at the ILO.

Statistics

2,394 million people are officially unemployed in Russia
266,000 people have suffered salary reductions
4.890 billion rubles – back payments on salaries for October 1
19,043 rubles – average salary in Russia in 2009

Source: Federal Service of State Statistics (Rosstat)

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What the treaty guarantees

The treaty allows adopted children to have dual citizenship. It also obliges prospective adoptive parents to undergo appropriate training in raising orphaned children, as well as in the religion, culture, family and societal concerns of the country from which the child is being adopted. Moreover, those wishing to adopt a child must submit a socio-psychological report prepared by the appropriate agencies.

The agreement further offers the possibility of reporting on the life and upbringing of the adopted children. And, if the child’s stay in the adoptive family does not meet their expectations, the host country shall ensure the child’s transfer to another family. The country also allows for the child to return to his native country, if it is in his interest to do so.

According to the chairman of the State Duma Committee for Family, Women and Children, Elena Mizulina, the agreement is important for children in the case of international marriages, in particular, if one parent becomes imprisoned.

In Italy, 10 organizations are hoping for the right to assist in adoptions: one state and nine non-profit organizations. Valentina Oknyanskaya, representative of the Italian organization, Bambini dell’Arcobaleno-Bambarco Onlus, told Trud-7 that the agreement will help solve legal problems that often arise in the adoption process and after the child has settled with an adoptive family. “In the coming days, a Russo-Italian seminar will be held for agencies that have been authorized to assist in adoptions,” she said, “during which the implementation of this agreement will be discussed, as well as how future adoptive parents can be prepared, and problems that arise during the adoption process.”

The list will expand

Seven more countries have shown interest in similar agreements. Already this year, talks will be held with Britain, Israel, France and Spain. According to the State Secretary – Ministry of Education and Science, Yuri Sentyurin, the adoption treaty was discussed between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. For many years, America has had the highest number of adoptions from Russia. That is still true, despite the fact that, in recent years, slightly fewer Russian children have left for the United States.

“What’s important is not what will change for foreign or Russian adoptive parents, but what will change for our children,” State Duma deputy Elena Afanasyeva, who took part in authoring the agreement, explained to Trud. “If, previously, the Russian state could no longer intervene in the life of an adopted child then, with the ratification of this document, we will be able to have some control over our children.”

Today, one of the main problems in international adoptions is the abuse of children, which often leads to death. According to the U.S. National Council for Adoption, from 1996 to 2008, 15 Russian children who had been adopted by U.S. citizens were killed. In 14 cases the adoptive parents were brought to justice. In the case of two-year-old Dima Yakovlev, whose adoptive father left him in a car when temperatures reached 30 degrees Celsius, the American justice system sided with the adoptive father, 50-year-old Miles Harrison. Despite protests from Russia, he was acquitted.

Approving, but not adopting

A survey, conducted this year by the ROMIR research center showed that Russian families are not in a rush to adopt. Almost half of respondents have a positive attitude toward adoption, but only 3% are ready to bring an adopted child into their family. According to Ministry of Education statistics, in the last year Russian citizens have adopted 142,000 children; at the same time, foreign nationals adopted 42,000. Meanwhile, 670,000 children in the country remain without parental care.

STATISTICS:

Russian communities that foreigners most often adopt from (number of children), 2007

St. Petersburg 407
Kemerovo Oblast 355
Moscow 310
Moscow Oblast 282
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast 197
Novosibirsk Oblast 194
Leningrad Oblast 187

Source: Ministry of Education and Science

TOP-10

Who is adopting Russian children (number of children), 2008

USA 1,773
Spain 904
Italy 496
France 325
Germany 188
Ireland 113
Israel 92
Finland 36
United Kingdom 24
Belgium 21

Source: Ministry of Education and Science

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On the night of November 2, special forces stormed a five-story building located on Shchorsa Street in the Dagestani town of Khasavyurt. According to special forces officers, three gunmen were located in the building. Federal Security Service (FSB) officers asked the militants to surrender. In response, the gunmen opened fire – and were destroyed. One of the dead was identified as Arslan Egizbayev, leader of the Khasavyurt gang. The other was his accomplice, Amir Salimgereyev. The third member of the gang was a young woman, 20-year-old Ashura Magomedova, whose name has not previously appeared in any operational reports. She was found clutching a grenade. She had wanted to blow herself up, but did not have enough time. Trud learned that Magomedova had been training to be a suicide bomber for a large-scale terrorist attack that was to take place in Dagestan.

In search for women

The last time a terrorist attack involving a woman took place in the republic was in October 2007, when a female suicide bomber blew herself up in a minibus near Kazbekovsky police department. Ten people were seriously injured. In neighboring Chechnya, the number of attacks involving women is continuously growing (this summer alone, there were six explosions, while in 2008, just one). On October 22, 2009 a terrorist base located in a private house in Grozny was destroyed. Two women who were in the house blew themselves up with grenades. A mini suicide belt production workshop was found in the building, along with means of self-detonation, communication and large number of Wahhabi literature. This was one of the branches of the terrorist school, which had been active in the North Caucasus since the summer of this year. Trud learned that Ashura Magomedova underwent training there.

According to Trud’s sources, in June, 2009, 30 suicide bombers graduated the terrorist school, 23 of whom blew themselves up, were killed or detained. According to Trud’s source from the Main Intelligence Directorate, at least 30 new students have been recruited to the school in September. Half of the new recruits are women aged 18-22 years.

“It is easier to recruit women to be suicide bombers than men,” Sergey Goncharov of the Group Alfa Veterans Association told Trud. “In some Muslim families, they are simply sold for $2,000 or $3,000.”

Statistics:

7 female suicide bombers blew themselves up or were destroyed during special operations in Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan in June-November 2009

15 women are currently undergoing training in the terrorist school, branches of which are extended throughout private homes in the North Caucasus

$2,000-$3,000 is a one-time fee militants pay to the relatives of the young women enrolled in the suicide-bomber school.

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Last Friday, the Russian Ministry of Interior displayed the capabilities of the Russian robot cop during exercises at a military aircraft range in the Moscow suburb of New Balashikha. The robot assisted special forces in storming a house where terrorists were allegedly hiding. The machine released a smoke bomb and cleared the way for the policemen by throwing a grenade at a barricade in front of the “militants’ hideout.” The role of “Metalist” is to handle intelligence operations and provide fire support for the special forces.

“A VSK-94 rifle is installed on the machine, and a Yarugin pistol is set on the lifting mechanism,” said Sergey Volkov, the designer of the robot. “There is also a hand grenade launcher.”

A speaker can also be installed (to communicate with the terrorists, for example) or a special system for laying explosives.

The robot cop is controlled with a remote control that is equipped with monitors displaying the machine’s movement. By using two joysticks, one can choose the route, correct the movement, aim and shoot. The maximum distance that is allowed between the robot and the remote control is 200 meters. The battery is designed to last for 2.5 hours.

The Russian “RoboCop” was created in just two years at the Kovrov Electromechanical Plant. The developers accomplished the basic requests of the Interior Ministry: the machine is light-weight and able to use two types of weapons and grenades.

For now, there is only one model of the “Metalist.” The machine is not yet officially being used by the Interior Ministry; first, it must undergo testing in different situations. Special forces officers say that they have been asking for the “RoboCop” for a long time.

“Such a robot is capable of saving many lives, but it will be long before it will be used by our special services. It's simply too expensive,” Sergey Goncharov, president of the Group Alfa Veterans Association, told Trud. “This machine is a few steps more technologically advanced than the robot snipers, which are currently being used by the operatives.”

It cost about $10 million to develop the apparatus.

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The announcement about the innovative methods of fighting with debtors was announced by the Chief Bailiff of Russia, Artur Parfenchikov. According to him, photographs of wanted debtors will soon be displayed on electronic billboards in St. Petersburg. This measure will be applied exclusively toward those not making their alimony payments, because according to the law “On Enforcement Proceedings,” they can be declared wanted. This is based on the fact that the debtors are not only failing to make alimony payments, but are also avoiding bailiffs.

Now these debtors will be searched for by “advertising” the violators around the entire city. A similar method has been tested in Nizhny Novgorod, where according to the implementers it was successful. Thus it was decided to extend this experience to the Northern Capital, and if the experiment is proved to be effective, it will later be implemented in other cities.

Today, there are 27,000 people who pay child alimony in St. Petersburg alone.

“For the most part, the effect will be simple: the malicious debtors will begin paying alimony fearing that their face could appear on the electronic billboards,” Vadim Dmitriyev, deputy chief bailiff of St. Petersburg, told Trud.

“We have the authority do this,” said Parfenchikov. If there is a search order, then the person is being sought by any means possible, including by posting “wanted posters.” “Thus, if bailiffs decide to search for a debtor by making information about him, including his photos, public, they will be acting within the law,” said Vitaly Ulyanenko, lawyer of the Justice law firm.

How debt is retrieved

Abroad, authorities are also struggling with debtors. In the US, for example, people failing to pay child support may face from 1.5 to 2 years in jail. Ohio took it a step further: debtors are forbidden from becoming fathers before they make any and all outstanding alimony payments for their first child. And in Canada, driver licenses are revoked, as well as any licenses for fishing and hunting. Also, photos of the debtors are published on the Internet.

Law is Law

Vladimir Yurasov, lawyer of the Knyazev & Partners:

“If a person had been declared wanted, then all search methods will be implemented and they may include publicizing photographs of the person, so as to locate anyone who has any information on the wanted person. Also, actions of bailiffs seeking a debtor for non-payment are legal.”

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In Solgon, time has been much more stable than in other parts of Russia. In accordance with the decree of Boris Melnichenko, director of the local agricultural enterprise, Solgonoskoe, clocks have been steadily moving in the same direction for the past three years. With his “decree”, the head of agriculture forbade switching time in the spring and fall to all of his employees. And, because they all happen to be residents of Solgon, the entire village is operating within its own time zone.

Melnichenko says the refusal to switch time was purely based on economic reasons. ZAO Solgonskoe, which he directs, is a large livestock complex. The state farm owns 1,700 cows. For one cow, the average milk yield is 18.6 kg, whereas in the Krasnoyarsk Krai this figure is 11.9 kg. Recently, the company was granted the status of a livestock breeding plant – breeding red-pied cattle, thanks to which Solgon residents have been living in their own time zone. The time on Boris Melnichenko’s wristwatch and alarm clock stays the same in the spring and in the fall.
Having analyzed the milk yield and power consumption during the time shifts, Melnichenko came to the conclusion that in the first days after the time change, the cows were clearly under stress. Milk yield dropped sharply. The plant was receiving one and a half tons of milk less than the usual daily amount.

“After all, you cannot explain to the cows why their milk maid is waking them up an hour early,” the director of ZAO Solgonskoe told Trud during a phone interview. “Moreover, in villages people wake up at 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. To get up an hour early is especially difficult, you see. I, myself, wake up at 5:00 a.m. and know first-hand how such change of pace could affect one’s health.”

As soon as the time change was cancelled, animals were no longer confused, their normal life cycle was recovered, and the milk yield began to increase, said Melnichenko.

“It’s better to have the same time during the summer and winter. It’s more convenient,” says Aleksandr Burger, manager of the animal husbandry complex. “We also began using less electricity, despite the fact that the time change was initially conceived for this purpose.”

Milk maids are also grateful to the director for an extra morning hour.

“It’s especially nice in the summer. I have extra time to sleep or do things around the house,” says Tatyana Kuklina, farm worker.

After Boris Melnichenko’s order to eliminate time changes, the economic performance of the animal husbandry sharply increased. New funds became available for the construction of a new cultural center, supermarket (which, by the way, is the only one in the Krai) and for road repairs. Recently, ZAO Solgonskoe was visited by the governor of the Krasnoyarsk Krai, Aleksadr Khloponin, who was so impressed with what he saw that he called for all other villagers to follow this example. Delegations from the Tver, Rostov and Amur Oblasts also visited to learn about the new know-how in animal husbandry.

About 700 people live by the new “Solgon time”. For the most part, they are all associated with the agricultural enterprise, Solgonskoe. However, the local administration, post office and schools do switch the time on their clocks – public institutions were unaffected by Melnichenko’s decree. First, there was confusion among the residents of the village, but with time they got accustomed to it. They need to consider time difference when traveling to the district center in Uzhur and Krasnoyarsk. There is another disadvantage – no special television programming has been created for the villagers. Newspapers and television operate according to Moscow Time. Thus, Solgon residents are engaged in mental arithmetic so as not to miss their favorite show.

Boris Melnichenko has a dream - to cancel time changes in the entire Krasnoyarsk Krai. Then, perhaps the rest of Russia will follow. He even proposed this initiative to the regional legislature, of which he is a deputy member. However, his idea has not yet found support among the people’s representatives.

Precedents

Countries cannot synchronize their watches

The British decided to save on electricity by switching time in 1908. Today, their example is followed by 110 countries, including the United States and Europe (with the exception of Iceland, Canada and Australia). Russia joined them in 1991. At first, winter time was introduced in September. But starting in 1996 Russians, like the majority of other people, were told to switch their time on the last Sunday of October. Adjustments were made according to the recommendations of the UN so as not to complicate the daily lives of citizens.

However, there is still plenty of confusion in the world related to the time switch. The date of the switch varies from one country to another. In Namibia, for example, the winter time switch occurs on the first Sunday in September, in Jordan – last Friday of the same month, and in Brazil – on the third Sunday of October.

Sometimes, the lack of time coordination leads to unexpected consequences. The Palestinian Authority, for example, wishing to stress its independence, remains on summer time while the rest of Israel switches to winter time. Several years ago, this played a cruel joke on a group of terrorists. A bomb that was created for them was running on “Palestinian time”. They were planning on detonating the bomb at an Israeli bus stop on the opposite bank of the Jordan River. There was, of course, an hour that was unaccounted for. As a result, the suicide bomber blew himself up at the bus stop before the bus arrived.

There are many of those who oppose annual time shifts both in our country and abroad. Many large countries refused to adopt the system, such as Japan and China. Last year, speaker of the Council of Federation, Sergey Mironov, introduced a bill in the State Duma authorizing the cancellation of seasonal time changes in Russia. It is stated in the executive summary that “in the first two weeks after the seasonal time change the number of emergency calls increased by 12%, suicides increased by 66%, accidents by 29%, and heart attack related deaths by 75%”. Meanwhile, according to the authors of the bill, the amount of energy saved is insignificant. However, deputies rejected the bill.

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What happened

According to Alexander Kynev, head of regional programs for the Foundation for Information Policy Development, events that occurred in the State Duma are a logical response to the government.

“In the summer, the authorities promised to democratize Russia's politics,” he told Trud. “The ruling elite assured that elections will be fair, and their results adequate. However, this apparently has not happened. Thus, with their demarche, the parliamentary opposition asked the authorities whether or not they should take their promises seriously, or they are nothing more than empty words. If they had not acted, they would no longer be the opposition.”

Dmitry Oreshkin, head of the Mercantor Group, is confident that among Russia’s elites, there are those for whom democracy is an empty word.

“Unfortunately, they are not able to coordinate their actions on their own,” he added. In his opinion, at this point Medvedev’s reaction is most important.

“If he wants to run for a second term, then it would be to his benefit to start his election campaign by resolving the situation with the State Duma – this is a way the president can prove his liberal views,” explained the analyst.

Yesterday, the chairman of the Central Election Committee (CEC), Vladimir Churov, shared his version of the events.

“As far as yesterday’s incident in the State Duma is concerned, it’s beyond our control,” said Churov. “These events were politically motivated and timed to the visit of an important foreign guest.”

Russia recently hosted both the US secretary of state and the Sultan of Brunei. Churov did not elaborate on which of the two the Duma deputies were trying to make an impression.

The director of the International Institute for Political Expertise, Evgeny Minchenko, believes that the demarche was most likely pre-planned. According to him, the parties and the government made certain agreements regarding the Moscow City Duma election, agreements that, according to the deputies, were violated.

“I think the opposition has itself to blame; if you act behind the scenes, then expect to be deceived,” Minchenko told Trud.

Stanislav Belkovsky, director of the National Strategy Institute, has a more radical view.

“Our deputies have never been very deviant, and this incident is not likely to have been spontaneous,” he argued. “I think this was a pre-determined spectacle with the involvement of the presidential administration. It needed to create a reason for blaming some regional leaders in order to create new ground for the Kremlin’s party.”

What will happen next

According to Stanislav Belkovsky, the demarche of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), Communist Party and the Fair Russia Party will not have any serious political results.

“If already after their telephone conversation with Medvedev, some of the oppositionists were ready to return to the meeting, then after their personal meeting, everything will return to normal,” said the analyst.

Maksim Dianov, general director of the Institute of Regional Problems, believes that the outcome of the election will not change due to this desperate act of the parties.

“I don’t think this a political crisis per se; it’s very difficult to take what is happening seriously,” he told Trud. “There have been several Dumas where similar situations have occurred, where factions rose in unison and walked out. But they all slowly came back. This is how every parliamentary crisis ends. There have been penalties, criminal cases were opened – but there will not be any consequences.”

According to Arcady Lyubarev, head of the election campaign monitoring programs directorate of the Independent Institute of Elections, authorities will not agree to the opposition’s demands to review the election results.

“This would be a great blow to the prestige of the country’s leadership,” he told Trud. “Medvedev may be willing to make some concessions, though, in the future – in the next election.”

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According to Trud’s sources, late last week President Dmitry Medvedev ordered Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to prepare proposals, within a month, on creating a training center equipped with the latest technology for information-confrontation. A source from the Defense Ministry told Trud that the idea for such a center emerged after the August 2008 war with Georgia in which Russia and the Russian military were covered from an excessively negative angle by the international media. Moreover, experts believe that the Russian army is perceived by Russia's population as being corrupt. For example, critics point to the strong feelings surrounding the two scandals involving the military that happened in St. Petersburg - parties on the cruiser “Aurora”, which were organized by the magazine “Russian Pioneer”, and a performance by the Russian military dressed in rabbit costumes in one of St. Petersburg’s nightclubs.

Experts believe that Russia’s military is experiencing the greatest defeat among all CIS countries in the information fields. For example, on the eve of the September 2009 military exercises that took place in Belarus, “Zapad-81” (West-81), some Belarusian TV channels reported that the military equipment to be used in the exercise would destroy local farmers’ crops. Kazakhstan's media often reports that Russian missiles launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome have harmful effects on the republic’s environment. And the Ukrainian press continues to attack Russia’s Black Sea Fleet based in Sevastopol.

In order to improve the image of the military, as well as to report on its actions in a favorable light, the Ministry of Defense is planning on creating a special information-propaganda center. The center is meant to serve as an information shelter for the Ministry of Defense as well as to divert negative media coverage. It is still not clear in what ways and with what resources this will be created. Trud learned that the center will also carry out hacker attacks against rival media sources.

“Information warfare will be conducted on the Internet and will boil down to hacker attacks on sites which the Defense Ministry is not satisfied with,” said Anatoly Tsyganok, director of the Center of Military Forecasting. “This method has been successfully tested by Hezbollah against the Israeli Defense Ministry.”

Media assets of the Ministry of Defense

Russia's Defense Ministry owns one state newspaper, “Red Star”, and 10 magazines. Some of the well-known titles are: “Warrior of Russia”, “Military Thought”, “International Military Review”, “Weaponry and the Economy”, “Navy Digest”, and “Military History Journal”.

Circulation of the magazines ranges from 1,000 to 5,000 copies. Circulation of “Red Star” is 40,000 copies.

The Defense Ministry also owns a news agency, “Voeninform”, which produces information and advertising materials, and a newsletter entitled “Military Commissariats”. Moreover, the Ministry of Defense is the principal shareholder of the TV channel “Zvezda” (The Star).

- Where did the idea to perform with a Russian orchestra come from?

- I’ve loved classical music since I was a child. My father was a musician with a broad taste, he was interested in jazz and rock; meanwhile, he performed with a dance ensemble. I, myself, graduated from London's Royal College of Music. My first experience integrating rock and symphonic music – “Concerto For Group And Orchestra” – was exactly 40 years ago. It was sort of a message of love to the musical miracle of symphony orchestra. At that time, the idea that classical and rock musicians could be on the same stage and create music together was revolutionary. But, a great composer and conductor, Sir Malcolm Arnold, [Oscar winner for the music in the film “Bridge on the River Kwai”], was a man with a big heart and was open to new ideas.

- They say you were the only one who knew how to read music when Deep Purple was first established.

- Yes, Ritchie [Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord’s colleague, dedicated hard-rocker, and did not share Jon's passion for art-rock] had a vague idea about the notes and could not read a music sheet. But, it was enough that I was able to read music.

- What years of your creative life do you consider to be the most fortunate?

-In early 1970s, after the success of “Concerto For Group And Orchestra”, I wrote a lot of cross-genre music. This success gave me the freedom to experiment in the musical field. These were wonderful times! Unfortunately, as Deep Purple became more popular, we began spending a lot of time on tour. I tried to compose on the road, but that was very difficult to do. It got to the point where I stopped composing altogether. And, this self-neglect, this inability to compose, lasted for quite some time, somewhere until the mid 1990s. You asked a very good question. People need to understand that creativity requires space, silence and time. Today, I live in a wonderful little village 40 miles from London. It’s a place that allows me to escape from everything and everyone. It’s like diving into a burrow. (Laughs)

- What do you have to say about such forms of escape as drugs and alcohol, which are often used by many rock musicians?

- How should I put this…Sometimes, rock-musicians become rich and famous at a very young age. Meanwhile, self-discovery is very important for them. But, not knowing where to turn to, they look for answers in a bottle or a needle. Of course, the fact that such concepts as rock-n-roll, alcohol and drugs have intertwined so much that they nearly became inseparable in the minds of many, is rather embarrassing. However, I know that many of my colleagues are able to drink a glass of wine without losing their minds and becoming dependent on alcohol. Music is better when you’re sober. I, myself, could drink a glass of wine for pleasure, but not to enhance my composing abilities.

- You left Deep Purple a long time ago, but you probably keep in touch with the legendary group.

- Of course. I would like to emphasize that I am not Deep Purple, but a small part of what the group represented at various times. And, I definitely don’t fit the description of “legendary” – I still have two arms and two legs. (Laughs) I know that Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore are no longer friends, but I'm friends with both of them. I think that my closest friends from the group are Ian Paice [drummer] and Roger Glover [bass player, keyboardist, songwriter]. But from time to time I happily communicate with everyone. Together, we have been through so many happy moments and hardships! And, I think we will remain friends until death.

- How about the old quarrels with Ritchie Blackmore? Have they been forgotten?

- Quarrels… They were so foolish! The English have a saying, I am sure something similar exists in the Russian language: one cannot go to bed angry [this is a paraphrase of Apostle Paul’s words: “Be angry but sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath].

- Will you be coming to Moscow with any relatives?

- I’ll be bringing my wife and youngest daughter with me. I have two daughters: they both studied music when they were kids, but later they gave it up – they became more interested in boys. However, now my oldest daughter (she is now over 30) suddenly went back to music. She recently had a baby, and is now taking piano lessons to be able to teach her little one. And my wife, she became interested in rock music not long after we met. With time, she grew to love symphonic music as well – I think, not without my influence.

- What do you see as the best and the worst traits of the Russian character?

- I have very little experience with that; I’ve been to Russia only twice. The most remarkable thing that I had a chance to witness was how friendly the Russian people are. During both of my visits I was greeted with incredible kindness and respect. Our communication was filled with joy. It is this trait of the Russian character that I kept in my heart.

- And the worst trait? Don’t worry, we won’t be offended.

- No, I have not noticed anything negative! I heard that they drink lots of vodka in Russia, and I would like to witness that. I might even assist in the process. (Laughs) You caught my lack of knowledge about the Russian culture. So, I would like to participate in those things that make a Russian person good…and bad. (Laughs)
Dossier

John Lord, rock musician

Born June 9, 1941 in Leicester, United Kingdom. Has been playing piano since the age of five. At 19 years of age he enrolled in an acting school in London, but his enthusiasm for music was stronger. After participating in many groups, in 1968, along with Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Paice, he formed a group called Roundabout, which was soon renamed Deep Purple. After its first successes, the group split, and in 1976 it broke up. The group’s reunion lasted from 1986 to 2002, but due to disagreements with Ritchie Blackmore, Lord left once again to fully devote himself to his solo work. He is married and has two daughters.

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Soccer players fighting with fans

After the recent Manchester United vs. Manchester City match, in which Craig Bellamy scored two goals, he punched a fan in the face after the unsuspecting enthusiast ran out onto the playing field. The police are investigating the incident. The Welsh player may be fined and disqualified.

Similar episodes have occurred in Russia, as well. Spartak’s former defensive player, Radoslav Kovac, kicked a fan in the leg after the supporter ran out onto the playing field. As a result, the player was disqualified.

Playing hide and seek instead of hockey

A curious incident occurred at one of the youth hockey tournaments. The hockey players decided to play a game of hide and seek before their match. After a while, they began taking the game so seriously that even their coach could not find them. The players were late for the umpire’s blow of the whistle, which counted as a technical defeat.

Before a kick-off for the 2008 European Championship qualifying game, Croatian payers Ivica Olic, Darijo Srna and Bosko Balaban were expelled from their national team. A day before the match, the players left their quarters and headed to a nightclub in Zagreb. It was months until the head coach, Slaven Bilic, allowed the players back on the team.

Two years later, Croatia’s rivals, the British, were noted for similar behavior. Not long before a match, the players were celebrating Shaun Wright-Phillips’ birthday and had a little too much to drink. John Terry, team captain, was so drunk that his wife, Toni, had to carry him out of the pub.

One of the most talented players for the Russian Federation, Brazilian Daniel Carvalho, has always had weight problems. In recent years, he rarely makes in to the Professional Football Club -- Central Sports Club of the Army (Moscow) (PFC-CSKA). Nor do the regular fines have any effect on the player. Even when Carvalho played for the International Club, he was rarely found on the field. Brazilian Ronaldo had experienced similar problems. Because he weighed 98 kilograms, the top scoring player in world championships spent most of his time on the bench during the 2006 World Cup Championship.

A half a million fine for a refusal to train

Before the season took-off, Anaheim defense player, Scott Niedermayer, was fined $500,000 by his club. The hockey player missed a training camp.

A German club, Schalke, fined its player Rafinha €700,000 for his taking part in the 2008 Olympics, despite having been banned from leaving the team. Schalke’s management decided that the defensive player violated the terms of his contract and risked injury.

Inter’s Brazilian forward player, Adriano, who did not make the team, left the location of the team and headed home. Leaders of Inter were not able to locate the player and reported him missing. He was later spotted by a journalist in a nightclub, after which he broke his contract with the club.

Speed skaters fought in a locker room

Russian speed skaters Yekaterina Abramova and Yekaterina Lobysheva got into a fight in a locker room during the World Cup Championship in Holland. The fight erupted due to Abramova not wanting to come out to take part in the team race. The conflict between the two women became so heated that it resulted in a physical fight. As a result, they were both penalized; meanwhile Abramova was disqualified for one year.

Many athletes have an article included in their contract that does not allow them to engage in extreme spots. The well-known basketball player, Vladimir Radmonovic, violated this regulation. The player was fined $500,000 for riding his snowboard, which resulted in a shoulder injury.

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In his two-day visit to Switzerland, dedicated to the 210th anniversary of Suvorov’s crossing of the Alps, Medvedev has traveled throughout the entire country, visiting 10 cities. The Russian president has traveled by four different methods of transportation: airplane, car, train and boat. He has been accompanied by a delegation of Russian businessmen headed by the president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), Alexandr Shokhin.

Tourists and disasters

After arriving in Zurich, Medvedev took a train to the Swiss capital, Bern. He shared a cabin with the country’s president, Merz, where they held their first talks.

On the way to the capital, Medvedev and Merz made a stop in Kerzatts, a small town with a population of 3,800 people. There they visited the country residence of the Swiss government in the Loon Castle.

Most of the talks were held in Bern. The presidents signed several agreements, including an agreement on the simplification of the visa regime. Now it will be much cheaper and easier for Russian tourists who wish to travel to the country for no more than three months to obtain a visa. Russian tourists are the eighth most frequent visitors to this mountainous country. Entry was also simplified for Russian businessmen who engage in regular business contacts with local companies.

Medvedev and Merz also signed an agreement on cooperation in time of emergencies and disasters.

However, most of the discussion was focused on economic cooperation between the two countries. This is not surprising, as the volume of Swiss investment in Russia, $3.9 billion, is 10th highest of all foreign investment in Russia. Russia’s largest Swiss partner is Nestle.

Medvedev's trip to Switzerland is the first official visit of a Russian leader in the past 200 years; Emperor Alexandr I was the last one to visit before Medvedev.

The bankers’ support

Today Medvedev will fly to the US in order to attend the UN General Assembly meeting in New York and the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. Experts attributed the Russian president’s decision to visit Switzerland before the two upcoming meetings in the US to Russia’s financial situation.

“A visit to Switzerland is the same as a visit to a bank,” said Mikhail Delyagin, director of the Institute for Problems of Globalization. According to him, the crisis is continuing, and Swiss bankers understand what is happening better than anyone else. He noted that Switzerland will always be a stable place, and its support for Russia will always be timely.

Money: what our compatriots have in Switzerland

Russia's largest investor in Switzerland is the owner of the financial company Renova Group, Viktor Vekselberg. In 2006 and 2007, the businessman bought 31% of the Swiss industrial company Sulzer, as well as about 42% of Oerlikon, a manufacturer of small-caliber anti-aircraft arms. He spent more than $2 billion on the two purchases. Vekselberg is the fourth richest person in Switzerland.

The owner of Eurocement, Filaret Galchev, owns a 6.5% stake in the Swiss company Holcim, the world's largest cement producer. These shares cost him $1.4 billion. Sergei Polonsky, developer and owner of Mirax Group, also has some projects in Switzerland.

Acron, a fertilizer manufacturer, holds a 100% stake in Swiss Agronova Europe AG, the Russian company’s European trader. Businessman Gennady Timchenko, who owns land and properties in Switzerland, annually pays several million euros in taxes, regardless of annual income.

Figures:
$47 billion -- Russia’s 2009 investment in Swiss banks
$12.2 billion -- the 2008 turnover of commodities between Russia and Switzerland
$2.9 billion -- Renova Group’s total investment into the Swiss economy
15,000 -- Russians permanently residing in the Swiss Confederation

Source: expert evaluations, the government of the Russian Federation

The futuristic writer, whose real name is Vladimir Kucherenko, sent his ideas to the president after reading his article titled: “Russia, keep moving!” In the letter, which he published on the Internet, Kalashnikov writes: “Friends! Let’s see how serious Medvedev is about his stated intentions.”

Already the following day, Russia’s president showed the seriousness of his intentions by instructing the chief of the Russian Presidential Administration, Sergey Sobyanin, to listen to the writer’s advice.

“A certain gentleman, named Maxim Kalashnikov, proposed some technological projects,” said Medvedev. He handed the printed letter to Sobyanin and said: “If there is something interesting, we can respond.” The chief of the Presidential Administration promised to carefully study the outlined ideas.

“With this gesture, Medvedev was trying to say that any person in our country may be heard,” Stanislav Belkovsky, director of the National Strategy Institute, told Trud. However, the expert believes that Kalashnikov’s ideas won’t be realized.

“This is another principle that the government adheres to: good ideas are produced only within the government,” said Belkovsky. After Medvedev’s reaction to Kalashnikov’s letter, the writer’s ratings rose by 450 points. Now his electronic journal is among the top 2,000 most-visited blogs among more than 10 million various blogs.

Kalashnikov’s main goal is the implementation of mass production of the many new domestically-produced technologies that today are not well known. In order to achieve this, he proposes to build a futuristic city outside of Moscow, a certain “cluster of innovation,” where all of these new technologies will be implemented.

For example, houses in this city will be built based on “pre-fabricated construction”. Electricity is to be produced by medium-sized atomic stations, while city’s residents will be supplying themselves with food with the help of “ultra-efficient agricultural methods.” The city is to be administered by the civil society. Kalashnikov says that he knows some professors who have created all the necessary projects. The author of the letter believes that if such city is built, then the city innovations being implemented will start being utilized everywhere.

“This will uplift the nation,” writes Kalashnikov.

As the futuristic writer does not trust government officials, he is asking the president to personally oversee the entire process. In order for him to be able to do so, he proposes to set up VISNKh, the Supreme Council of Innovation Economy, which is to be headed by Medvedev. Kalashnikov says that he is not interested in money.

“I need to save the nation,” he writes in the letter.

Nearly 20 million rubles is needed for the implementation of Kalashnikov’s proposal.

Dossier: Maxim Kalashnikov. Futuristic writer.

Real name: Vladimir Kucherenko.

Born in 1966 in Ashgabat. Later, he and his family moved to Odessa.

He served in the army between 1985 and 1987.

In 1991, he graduated from the Department of History of Moscow State University.

At various times worked for such publications as “Vechernyaya Moskva,” “Rossiyskaya Gazeta,” “Megapolis-Express,” and the electronic publication “Forum.msk.”

Author of the books “The Wrath of the Orc,” “Ride the Lightning” and “Towards USSR 2.”

He is married and has three daughters.

Reactions on the Internet:

grenadier18

This is very, very naïve of you! Although, it would be nice to be mistaken.

tangage

Thank you! I am young, and your books and articles really provoke me to contemplate many things, they have helped me to mature both as a person and a patriot.

pfyfxrf

Any sane person understands that this is: a) unrealistic under the current leadership and government structure b) to begin such a project with a letter to the president is completely idiotic.

childofussr

You shouldn’t build it near Moscow. Siberia or the Far East need to be involved. That will create jobs in the region and a better regional infrastructure.

roman_meln

Having read your letter, I remembered the speech made by Ostap Bender to the people of Vasyukov…

nickfilin

Another corruption plot… Money without any guarantees, to mongering officials. One should consider Russia’s experience.

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Medvedev attended the Valdai Club meeting almost immediately after Putin, who was there this past Friday. This is the second time the president has taken part in the discussion group. Last year, he discussed Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia and spoke about Russia’s main economic trends with experts.

“I don’t rule anything out”

The president told political experts that he began formulating a strategic plan for developing the country while he was still running in the election, and his conference speech is just a “piece of the strategy.” He touched upon the recently published story titled “Russia, Keep Moving!” in which he said he sees a large number of shortcomings.

According to Medvedev, “The Russian government underestimated the severity of the crisis,” and should be prepared for a second wave.

“We have underestimated our calculators -- the depth of the fall is a lot more severe,” he said.

When asked to rate the work of the Russian government during the crisis, he said that the ministerial cabinet is ably managing its obligations.

“The government was coping with its duties,” the president said. “It doesn’t mean that there were no mistakes, but one doesn’t make any if they are idle.”

The question about Medvedev’s participation in the upcoming election became the high point of the meeting.

“Some time ago, I was not planning on putting my name on the ballot, but fate has its ways. For this reason, I don’t speculate about anything, nor do I rule anything out,” said Medvedev. “As far as my plans are concerned, you can be assured that I will formulate them -- I am not indifferent to my fate.”

Two candidates of the same blood

Medvedev’s announcement regarding the next election was preceded by a nearly analogous statement made by the prime minister during last Friday’s Valdai Club meeting. Political scientist Nikolai Zlobin asked whether or not Vladimir Putin was planning on competing with Dmitry Medvedev in the 2012 election. The chairman of the Russian government answered by saying that he and Medvedev will decide this among themselves.

“We will come to an agreement,” said the prime minister. “We understand each other. We are two people of the same blood.”

“Medvedev’s recent statements show his strategic intentions,” believes political scientist Aleksey Makarkin. “Although neither the prime minister nor the president are making any direct statements that they will run in the next election.”

An assessment

On the same day, the deputy head of the Kremlin administration, Vladislav Surkov, made an assessment of the recent forum in Yaroslavl, where Medvedev gave his speech.

“We can achieve having representatives of various intellectual international communities and state representatives discuss and define modern democracy on Russian territory,” he said at the “Strategy 2020” conference. According to Surkov, at the Yaroslavl forum Medvedev set a very proper tone and tolerantly invited members to participate in a dialogue. Surkov noted that the speeches made by the participants of the forum confirmed that currently, “sovereignty is a modern idea, nation-state is a modern idea, and it turns out that we cannot get very far without them.”

Abstract:

Vladimir Putin, Chairman of the Government of Russia

Believes that the Russian political system is a multi-party system and corresponds to the elective principle.

Has not excluded the possibility of running in the 2012 presidential election.

Acknowledged the economic growth in Russia, which began in June of this year.

Main objectives for the country’s development: economic diversification and increase in production output.

When speaking about gas pipelines to Europe, he proposed not to divide countries into the categories of those through which Russia can lay out the new pipelines and those through which it cannot.

Abstract:

Dmitry Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation

Says that he does not rule out the possibility of running in the 2012 election.

Believes that the crisis has not been resolved, either in Russia or the rest of the world.

Believes that the Russian government underestimated the severity of the crisis, but that it is ably managing its obligations during the crisis.

Proposes that elections of regional heads will not be reinstated.

Argues that the Russian economy cannot solely rely on oil and gas, and that the main problem in Russia is corrupt government officials.

Read this article on the newspaper's website (in Russian)

The live vaccine, which medics are testing on volunteers, was developed by Microgen, a scientific development and production center, (this company was at one time developing the avian flu vaccine). Healthy 18 – 60 year-olds were exposed to the wine flu virus. And now, these people are suffering from a mild H1N1 flu under the supervision of doctors. Meanwhile, their bodies are producing antibodies, which will protect them from the disease in the future or assure that they get over the flu quickly and without complications – that is the point of the vaccination.

The volunteers will spend a minimum of seven days in the hospital, after which they will undergo a final examination. They are not allowed to communicate with the outside world, so as not to obscure the natural course of the disease with symptoms from other patients. All volunteers are keeping a medical journal, in which they record reactions of the infected organism. They are examined by doctors several times a day. Some of the individuals are already showing symptoms with a high fever.
Doctors refuse to make any comments on the patients and their current condition. Meanwhile, volunteers are suffering from boredom – they have absolutely nothing to do in between their examinations. Moreover, they are consumed with the question of where, in this time of year, all the mosquitoes have come from.

Volunteers are compensated for their work. For testing the H1N1 influenza vaccine the volunteers are paid 10,000 rubles. Their health is insured, and at the end of the experiment, they can count on being treated at the clinic. Then, they will be asked to come for examinations on certain days. The experiment will last for a month, after which the results will be issued to the Institute of Vaccines and Serums named after Mechnikov and Roszdravnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of Public Health and Social Development). If the vaccine is recognized as effective, then it will start being mass-produced. By January, 40 million drug-dosage units will be available to the public.

The Mexican influenza has been raging since the spring. Throughout that time, 271,253 people have been infected by the swine flu, and 3,355 died. Recently, doctors from the World Health Organization (WHO) said that 30% of the world population will be infected with the virus within a month, and stopped collecting statistics on fatalities because it is impossible to trace all those infected with the H1N1.

Good Will
“To be first after a rat – is for the homeless”

Volunteers Sergey and Alla Vorobyev both decided to experience the effects of the swine flu vaccine. Sergey agreed, for the first experiment, to be a special correspondent for Trud and, apart from his medical journal, to also keep one for our readers. Today, we publish the first part of the volunteer’s observations, which he managed to deliver “from his captivity” with the help of a nurse.

10.09.09 – Day One

We arrived at the Influenza Research Institute at 8:30 a.m. The plan was as follows: to draw blood, have breakfast, get examined by an ENT specialist and a neurologist, undergo a general examination, and get a nose swab. After the examinations were completed, three people were let go. Then, we were escorted to our rooms. We were the only married couple and were given a separate four-bed room with a sign that read “Room number 5”. The remaining volunteers (24 people) settled into separate male and female rooms. There are 14 men and 10 women, who clearly disprove the myth that people of only the lowest social strata participate in such experiments. Also, six workers of the Institute participated in the experiment in place of those who were disqualified.

After lunch came the long-awaited vaccine. The emulsion was sprayed into both nostrils. Everyone perceived it differently: for some it was colorless and odorless, for others - sweet, and some compared it to mucus. This shouldn’t be surprising because some of the volunteers were given a placebo.

My first sensations after the vaccination were pain in the eyes and a tickle in my throat. Twenty minutes later, as well as two hours later, we underwent an exam and our temperatures were measured. My wife and I had normal temperatures, for others, their temperature did not rise over 37.3 degrees.

A group of four girls and one man were singled out from the crowd. They were not allowed to remove their flu masks until Wednesday.

Four and six-bed rooms have new sets of linens, clean walls, and windows that open. Mattresses, surprisingly, don’t fall through to the floor. All in all, I must say it’s quite comfortable here. The only items that have been placed in the rooms for our convenience are night stands and a wash basin. After my talk with management, televisions were brought in to the densely populated rooms. I asked about them because there was no other way to pass time, it was extremely boring.
The food was something that surprised me the most on the first day. It was unlike any of the standard hospital food – tasty and plentiful.

11.09.09 – Day Two

In the morning we had breakfast and measured our temperatures. I was at 35.5 degrees and my wife – 37.3. The doctor did not make any comments during the examination. But, friends and family began making comments over the phone after seeing a segment on the television about the experiment. Their negativity was surprising: to be first after a rat – is for the homeless. It was impossible to convince them otherwise. Be that as it may, we have our own point of view.

We came to the management to ask for a two-hour leave in order to take care of personal problems (such possibility was agreed upon earlier). But, the management replied by saying that because we are communicating with the media, we are now not allowed to leave the premises. It looks as though our captivity will be inescapable. But, their being strict is probably for the best. All volunteers are healthy and are feeling well. Evening temperature measurements confirmed that my wife has the highest, and I the lowest temperature of all the volunteers. But, according to the doctor, these extreme readings are the norm.

12.09. 2009 – Day Three

This day did not bring any diversity into the daily boring routine. Just as yesterday, the struggle with idleness, melancholy, and mosquitoes, which continue to bother us despite the chilly weather, continued. In the evening, we all gathered to watch a football match on TV; the smell of beer lingered in the air. Apparently, someone had successfully passed through the blockade.

Commentary: Igor Nikonorov, senior researcher at the laboratory for testing new agents against viral infections at the Influenza Research Institute of RAMS:

“After the A/H1N1 vaccination the often experienced pain in the eyes and a tickling feeling in the throat are a subjective perception of the volunteer. A few years ago, when participating in the trials of the avian flu vaccine, one correspondent later wrote that she felt as if her arm was hit with an ax, she was speechless. I personally participated in the trials of the same vaccine – the injection of the vaccine cannot be felt. In testing, lowering or raising the temperature, up to 37 plus degrees, is allowed. It is permissible, and for that reason the doctor did not react. If it rose to 39 degrees, that would have been an undesirable effect and appropriate measures would have been taken. The building where the volunteers are located was recently renovated: all technological equipment is new, the basements are clean. There are no reasons why there should be any mosquitoes there.

Volunteers are forbidden from having any alcoholic beverages. They are to be immediately disqualified for that. We cannot arrest them. This is clearly a subjective perception of reality. Although, their personal belongings were not examined upon their arrival.”

Dossier: Sergey Vorobyov. Tester for the H1N1 vaccine.

He is 28 years old and a St. Petersburg native. Has a higher legal education and is currently unemployed. He is participating in the experiment along with his wife Alla, who has a rare specialization – zoo-psychology. He made the decision to participate in the experiment because he has some extra free time and wants “to be one of the first to acquire immunity against this dreadful disease”. This is the first time he is taking part in such an experiment.

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Trud’s source from the regional joint headquarters in the North Caucasus said that, currently, law enforcement agencies and special services are working on making a final decision regarding the introduction of the CTO regime in Ingushetia. According to security officials, this is the only way to stop terror in the region.

In just a few days, several militant attacks on policemen have occurred in Ingushetia. On Tuesday, a fight between the police and militia broke out on the streets of Nazran, due to which the CTO regime had to be imposed in some areas of the city. Before both militants were killed, one of them managed to capture a minibus where he detonated a grenade. Several passengers were seriously injured.

On Wednesday, gunmen shot 26-year-old Jambulat Ekazhev, brother of one of the regional OMON staff, in the village of Ekazhevo in the Nazran district. On the same day, on the outskirts of Nazran, militants threw an F-1 grenade into the courtyard of the private security commander of the Magas Department of Internal Affairs.

Earlier, on the evening of September 5, a police post located on the Caucasus highway in Nazran came under mortar fire. And on September 4, four Ingush policemen died in an explosion in the Sunzha District.

The CTO regime may be imposed due to a threat of terrorist attacks. As Trud reported earlier, in the summer of 2009, a suicide-bomber school where 30 militants have already completed their training opened in the North Caucasus. Ten of the militants have since been neutralized, but the whereabouts of the remaining 20 militants remain unknown.

Recently the president of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, warned residents that several suicide bombers arrived in the republic by car. Earlier he, himself, survived an attempt on his life by a suicide bomber.

Ingushetia’s security forces and authorities are reluctant to comment on any information regarding the possible introduction of an intensified security regime.

“There is no need to institute CTO throughout the entire republic, but it will probably be established in some districts,” Magomet Markhiyev, minister of inter-ethnic relations of Ingushetia, told Trud.

“We are not confirming nor are we denying this information,” the operations officer of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation told Trud. However, ordinary residents of Nazran are already preparing themselves for the discomforts related to the CTO.

“People say that security operations will intensify. That is why my wife wants to stockpile some food, but I tell her that’s a bit excessive,” Nazran resident Mogamet tells Trud.

Experts believe that the terrorism problem in Ingushetia should be primarily handled by politicians and economists.

“No regime similar to the CTO will help Ingushetia because, before anything else, regional corruption and unemployment problems must be resolved,” Sergey Markedonov, a political scientist, told Trud.

Who suffers from the CTO regime

Magomet Mutsolgov, human rights activist in Ingushetia said, “A CTO regime implies great discomforts for ordinary people, such as constant mass searches. Security forces could surround an entire village at 6:00 a.m., not allowing anyone out – including those who have to commute to work, school or get to a hospital. Sometimes, a curfew may be imposed when people are not allowed to leave their homes after 10:00 p.m.”

Read this article on the newspaper's website (in Russian)

In just one day in Moscow, owners of two expensive jeeps, each priced at more than 2 million rubles, became victims of these attacks. The first attack took place in Matveyevskoe, on Veyernaya Street. When the owner of the new BMW X6 SUV exited her building and headed towards her car, three Caucasian men ran up to her and grabbed her keys. They pushed the woman into the car, started the engine and took off. They released the car owner at the first stop and quickly drove off. The woman called an operator of the satellite alarm, located in the car, who was able to remotely switch off the engine. When the jeep stopped in the middle of the street, the thieves fled. They hijacked another foreign-made car on the Bolshaya Yakimanka Street the same way. The 25-year-old unemployed owner of the Infiniti FX 35 was abducted and released on Novatorov Street. Despite the best efforts of police, the 2 million 400 thousand ruble jeep is still missing.

In the last month, similar hijackings of expensive jeeps and compact cars have occurred, including models such as Mercedes, Toyota, Land Cruiser, Lexus, BMW and Audi.

According to Criminal Investigation Department detectives, a professional group of thieves from Ingushetia arrived in the capital where they have received orders for prestigious cars. Police do not rule out the possibility that the hijackers may be working for militants who are planning on using the cars for trips around the region and for carrying out terrorist attacks. Remember that, according to Trud’s data, a terrorist school began its operations in the North Caucasus in the beginning of the summer of 2009 and 30 militants have already completed their training. Ten of them blew themselves up or were captured by police, but the whereabouts of the remaining 20 terrorists remain unknown. It is quite possible that they are the ones who ordered the expensive cars.

“The militants realized that prestigious and expensive cars, usually used by senior officials, criminal leaders and businessmen, are rarely stopped and examined at all check points. So it is easy to transport explosives in such vehicles,” an expert of the Interior Ministry told Trud.

The circumstances of the June 22, 2009 attempt on the life of Ingushetia’s president, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, support this assumption when a suicide bomber used a mined Lexus with Moscow license plates. The presidential guards assumed that the Lexus stopped on the road was not a threat.
Recently, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov warned residents of the republic that suicide bombers are planning a series of explosions, for which they will be using foreign-made cars.

Preference ratings of the Ingush hijackers are:

BMW X6
Market price of a new car -- 3 million rubles.

Infiniti FX 35
Market price of a new car -- 2.4 million rubles.

Toyota Land Cruiser
Market price of a new car -- 1.4 million rubles.

Mercedes-Benz GL 320
Market price of a new car -- 4.5 million rubles.

Lexus LS
Market price of a new car -- 3.6 million rubles.

Audi Q7
Market price of a new car -- 2.4 million rubles.

Read this article on the newspaper's website (in Russian)

The inevitable friendship

The chiefs of the armed forces of Belarus and Russia agreed to conduct strategic exercises in April. Since then, however, relations between the two countries have been marred by several events – first the milk war, then Russia's refusal to issue a loan to the fraternal republic. After the events transpired, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko did not appear at the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit in June, which was held in Moscow.

A formal reconciliation took place on August 27 in Sochi, where during three-hour talks, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev discussed all hot-button issues with Lukashenko. The leaders agreed to meet again in Belarus on September 29, on the final day of the “Zapad 2009” military exercises. They will be the first joint military exercises for both parties.

“Our military relations have a long-lasting character and the leaders of Russia and Belarus very well understand that today countries cannot exist without each other,” Aleksey Mukhin, general director of the Center for Political Information, told Trud. “Our economic and political spheres are chaotic; only military cooperation is stable.”

According to Mukhin, if one party refuses to maintain military relations, it will weaken the defense of both countries.

The great obstacle

“Zapad 2009” is the second phase of training exercises of CSTO forces. The first was held in August in Moscow. In Belarus, 12,500 soldiers will participate in the exercises. Russia will be presented by the 20th army unit, air force operational groups and airborne troop divisions.

The units will be working on water crossings and air landings. Combat aircraft will land on a highway. Moreover, an operation will take place that is built on the Russian army’s liberation of Tskhinval in August 2008.

While recognizing the merits of the peace enforcement military operations, Lukashenko is in no hurry to recognize the independence of the new republic. This issue became the biggest obstacle in relations between the two countries.

Belarusian military power

Strategically, Belarusian territory is quite significant for Russia, and not only in ground operations coming from the west, but also in possible missile strikes. Thus, according to partnership agreements, Minsk can use ground forces, air force and anti-aircraft defense – a total of 65,000 thousand soldiers. Armed forces have 294 jets, 80 helicopters, 1,800 tanks, 2,600 armored vehicles and 1,615 artillery mounts. Belarus has two missile brigades armed with C-300B and S-300P.

As far as the missile and asymmetric deterrence threat is concerned, if need be Russia can at no extra cost place nuclear weapons on its ally’s territory. That is possible, according to several sources, because the entire military infrastructure from Warsaw Pact times, including rocket launchers, has been preserved in the republic in pristine condition.

Today there are several Russian military facilities in the country. They include the radar locator “Volga,” which is capable of tracking ballistic missile launches from a range of up to 4,800 kilometers – in other words, from anywhere in Europe. They also include the 43rd naval communications center, which facilitates communication between the General Staff of Russia and nuclear-powered submarines on military watch in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Last Friday, three young men carrying suicide bomber belts were arrested. The oldest of the young men was 18 years old. The unsuccessful suicide-bombers were interrogated by the president of Chechnya himself, Ramzan Kadyrov. The detainees confessed that they were going to blow up the Leninsky District Police Department in Grozny and a mosque in Shali.

On the same day, a gunman was shot by police in the Gudermes district of Chechnya. He was carrying a Makarov pistol, an RGN hand grenade, up to a dozen of electric detonators, a belt with explosives and a ticket from Kizlyar to Moscow. Investigators believe that he was planning on blowing himself up on City Day in Russia’s capital.

Thus, as Trud concluded in an article headlined “Living Bomb” and published on September 2, 2009, a terrorist-school had re-opened after a long break in the North Caucasus. Khamzat Gairbekov, former head of intelligence of the now-disbanded Vostok battalion of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), told Trud that the first terrorist-school was opened in the Vedeno district of Chechnya by an Arab terrorist, Khattab.

In total, two dozen bombers were trained there; they were responsible for aircraft explosions, terrorist attacks in Moscow’s subway and the National Hotel, as well as in 2002-2004 explosions of trains and shuttles in Mindovy, Essentuki and Cherkessk. After Khattab’s liquidation in 2002, his sabotage-tactics school was closed.

But sometime near the end of May 2008, its operations resumed under the leadership of the so-called “Emir of the Caucasus,” Doku Umarov. Originally the school was located in a wooded area in the south of Karachay-Cherkessia; later, school-branches were opened in private homes and small car repair shops in all republics of the Northern Caucasus.

“Last summer, which was especially notable for its high unemployment rate, job ads for private car services suddenly appeared in many cities of the region,” said Khamzat Gairbekov. “It is most likely that youth were recruited to the sabotage-tactics school there: while being taught the skills of a whitesmith, they were simultaneously trained in mine-explosion under the leadership of local militants.”

According to experts, it is possible to determine the presence of a sabotage-tactics school by the sharply increased demand in chocolate bars and non-perishable food items.

“Such items are usually stored by the militia. So, if they are suddenly being sold in stores, this means that a terrorist-school or a gang has appeared somewhere nearby,” added Khamzat Gairbekov.

According to intelligence officers, two groups of professional militants numbering from 40 to 50 people have already finished their training. They already made themselves known in 2008, from late summer into early fall, when they attacked policemen as part of their final examination.

Meanwhile, according to experts, suicide bombers began their training this year after the school was taken over by immigrants from Arab countries. Suicide bombers are being recruited among the unemployed youth or relatives of dead militants; their families are given a one-time payment of $2,000 to $3,000, and after that are given grocery assistance.

“The school has already released two groups of suicide bombers,” a source from the Defense Ministry’s GRU told Trud. “The first group was in the early summer of this year, after which took place the assassination attempt of the president of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, as well as the explosion of the Nazran Regional Department of Internal Affairs (ROVD). The second group was released in early September. Each time, 15 suicide bombers completed their training at the school, while 10 of the graduates died or were liquidated. Thus, it is safe to assume that there are still about 20 terrorists remaining.”

According to intelligence data, the last 4-5 people who completed their training were ordered to commit terrorist acts in Moscow and other Russian metropolises.

“I agree with the assessment of the intelligence officers that the location of the two dozen suicide bombers in Russia is unknown,” Vitaly Shlykov, a member of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, told Trud. “I think that there may be twice as many terrorists, because one can learn about their presence only after attacks have been carried out.”

When the Chechen president, Ramzan Kadyrov, asked a young terrorist what provoked him to want to become a suicide bomber, the answer he received was: “Two Arab instructors told me I would get to heaven."

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Massive departures

“Our expat football league, here in Moscow, consists of 400 people,” said Reese. “I’ve witnessed how they have been disappearing, moving back home. According to the results of our studies, 17% of expats who left Russia did not want to leave! Now they want to come back – and I think they will, in six months or a year.”

The majority of those who were laid off worked for small- to medium-sized companies or were mid-level managers. Top managers and foreigners, working in large companies of 1,000 people of more, were able to hold on to their jobs. In the spring, the situation stabilized, and company owners realized that they could afford to hire foreigners.

Expats who got laid off primarily worked in retail, the banking sector and the real-estate market.

“This is a tough situation. We receive an enormous amount of resumes – from one to two a week – from people wanting to come to Russia, or those who are already here. We have not hired a single person in a year! Whereas before, we used to hire five or six candidates a year – mainly to top-managerial posts,” recalls Christian Lepolyar, Antal Russia recruitment company partner.

“I think this was a sort of a trend – to invite expats to Russia,” explained Reese. “But it is a trend that justified itself. They possessed the type of knowledge that Russians did not have. But Russians learn very quickly. I think that 20% of those who were laid off and forced to leave would have ended up leaving in the same year either way, because their Russian replacements were ready.”

There are two reasons for the massive layoffs of foreign professionals. First, for companies operating in harsh economic conditions, foreign specialists became too costly. For firms, their expenses became unaffordable. Salaries alone are highly expensive -- 30% of expats in Russia earn $250,000 per year or more (according to data from HSBC Bank. In addition there are work permit registration costs, rent payment, childcare and school tuition for private English-language where instruction. Often there is also a private chauffeur or a car for the spouse. And in cases where an employee’s family declined to move to Russia, two to three annual flights back home are also covered by the company. In other words, an expat holding a top-managerial position is a very costly affair.

Second, Russians have reached the level of the visiting “stars,” and have become more adaptable to the crisis. By working under the management of the expats, interning in Europe and receiving MBA degrees, Russians themselves have become specialists no worse than the foreigners. But for far less in salary -- top-level Russian managers are paid $120,000 per year -- they also bring a knowledge of the nuances of Russian business.

“Russians are now on the same level as expats in high-level positions,” said Steven Newman, director of the Q1 Project Management Company. “Meanwhile, it’s cheaper to have a Russian manager: there is no need to register for a work permit, pay for rent, schools, flights, etc.”

“Russians better understand the Russian market during a crisis, adapt faster and offer interesting anti-crisis solutions,” said Natalia Kurantova, sales director for Kelly Services. “Whereas the expats are used to working in a normal, civilized business conditions.”

We are staying here

But not all expats left. According to data compiled by Kelly Services, only 13% of foreign specialists left Russia.

“The situation is not as bad as it was during the crisis of 1998, when expats departed Russia in large numbers,” said Viking Husberg, a senior occupational safety specialist for the International Labor Organization’s sub-regional office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. “There is a small decline in the business sector, but expats whom I happen to know are confident that they will continue to work in Russia.”

Many of those who lost their jobs decided to stay -- they simply don’t want to leave. In the years that they spent in Russia, many of them learned the Russian language, started Russian families, got accustomed to the way of life in Russia, and most importantly, enjoy working in the country.

“They see more possibilities here!” said Christian Lepolyar. “In Europe, companies are reducing their staff, freezing projects, and it will take two to three years for the market to recover. I believe that in Russia, the market will recover faster and, already next year, the economy will begin to rise. Russia is, or at least was prior to the crisis, a good country to work in. Many of my friends wish to stay here to work. You’ll be surprised, but they got accustomed to Russia’s mentality -- they like it here!”

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Maria enrolled in the Moscow State University journalism program three years ago. Her GPA was one point less than what was required to obtain a full scholarship and she decided to take out a loan at a bank – though she left after a year of paying for her education. “There were several students in my major of study who were able to take out loans,” remembers Maria. In total, there were maybe ten “borrowing” first-year students majoring in journalism; many seriously considered taking out a loan but, at the last minute, found sponsors among family members. This year, Maria once again applied to Moscow State University and she was able to get a full-time scholarship. “Among those students who pay for their education, there isn’t a single person who pays for their education with loans,” she said.

Indeed, while the number of paying students in Russia's most prestigious universities did not decrease, only a few of them took out a loan to finance their education. According to the Sberbank Press Service, from June 1 to July 31 there have been 282 student loans issued. For comparison, last year about 1,500 people applied for the most popular educational loan, “Credo”, plus, dozens of students received educational loans from other banks.

They don’t want to take out loans

Last year’s saga with the Soyuz Bank, which issued funds to “Credo”, dampened the enthusiasm of applicants and their parents to study in debt. Recall: the bank, due to the financial crisis, suspended payments and almost 2,500 students were at risk of expulsion from the university. This incident occurred at the peak of the program’s popularity, which until then was only expanding. It was popular because, first, it was not difficult to obtain such a loan - all documents could have been processed at the university. Students were not required to start repaying immediately – they could hold on until the end of their studies. Second, the interest rate was one of the lowest in the market - 10% per annum. This was lower than some of the lowest consumer loan rates of 15-25%.

Today, Soyuz Bank does not issue educational loans; its web page even includes an official notice. Meanwhile, an equivalent credit supply has not yet been established despite the fact that, in March, President Dmitry Medvedev promised that a new loan would be available by September.

Because of this, very few students took out educational loans. Thus, this year, the number of students who took out a loan to study at the Higher School of Economics will be in the single digits, while last year that number was about 200. The Finance Academy is experiencing a similar situation. “All 300 students who were not eligible for a full scholarship paid for their tuition at the bursar’s office,” says Mikhail Eskindarov, rector at the Finance Academy. Last year, there were 30 students enrolled at the Finance Academy who took out loans.

Sergei Myasoedov, rector at the Institute of Business Studies of the Academy of National Economyunder the Government of the RF, believes that, today, educational loans are not very popular because parents of first-year students are conservative people; they received their education when there were no similar programs. They were cautious about loans even before the crisis, and now they have fully rejected them. Sergei Myasoedov believes that educational loans are mainly used by managers who are going for a second master’s degree or an MBA. Today, however, the number of such students has decreased as the market for people with business degrees has decreased by 30-40% compared to last year.

Going back to one’s homeland just to get a loan

A Trud correspondent learned first-hand that it is quite difficult today to complete one’s education while paying for it with a loan. Sberbank has the most favorable rates – 12% per annum. But, this loan may only be obtained depending upon one’s place of residence. Vice-Rector of the Higher School of Economics, Grigory Kantorovich, told Trud that one freshman from Cheboksary was forced to ask for a deferral of payment, take the agreement, and go to his homeland to obtain a loan there.

Educational loans at affordable rates are also issued by Russia's agriculture bank, Rosselkhozbank, at 14% per annum. The money is provided only to those who hold residence permits in villages and only to those who seek to study agriculture, pedagogy, or in a medical school. Also, the loan amount is limited to only 350,000 rubles.

In private banks, lending rates start at 15% and students must pay them while still in school. Monthly payments amount to anywhere from 3,500 to 7,000 rubles a month - depending on the type of loan and tuition fees. Some banks have come to absurdity. Uralsib, for instance, offers loans at 21.9% per annum. In order to get a loan there, the student must be at least 25 years old, and not 14 years old, for example, which is the minimum required age in Sberbank. In addition, the bank works only with those universities with which it has a contract. It is impossible to find out what those universities are over the phone or on their web site.

A year late

And yet, despite the fact that the school year has already begun, students still cannot count on their loans. Both Mikhail Eskindarov from the Finance Academy and Grigory Kantorovich of the Higher School of Economics believe that a loan, similar to that which was issued by the Soyuz Bank, may appear in the near future. Grigory Kantorovich admits that just to be able to wait for the loan, he allowed students to defer payment and divide it into several parts.

The new loan should be easy to obtain. One of the options will be making a triple contract between the university - the bank – and the student. Then the university will guarantee that the bank will transfer the money on time and the student will not have to worry. Furthermore, unlike the Soyuz Bank educational loans which were issued in dollars, this loan will be issued in rubles. Though the percentage rate will be slightly higher - about 11-12%.

The only thing that remains is to convince the bank to pay such a loan. But that too is possible: on Friday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, while speaking about student loans, said that “in case of a loan default, the government will reimburse the possible losses of the banks that participate in the experiment.” He did not elaborate as to when students would be able to obtain this miracle-credit.

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“Garst’s farm? That’s the first time I heard of it. Where is it? In Iowa? No, I don’t know,” an American journalist I happen to know told me. He was accredited by one of the largest newspapers in Moscow.

Today, Roswell Garst’s name, indeed, does not mean much for many people – in the US or in Russia. Meanwhile, from the 1950s to the 1960s, Soviet newspapers were printing articles about his “innovative method”, numerous copies of books devoted to Garst’s corn farming were published; and he was an honored guest in the Kremlin.

On corn and the atomic bomb

Roswell Garst came to the Soviet Union for the first time in 1955 – he visited the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition. Garst, who arrived as a member of an Iowa delegation made up of 12 farmers, which was invited to the Soviet Union by the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Vladimir Matskevich, spent a lot of time talking about the production and processing of corn, land fertilization, and the mechanics of how the American experience could raise the level of Soviet agricultural output. From Moscow, the delegation went to Kiev, Odessa, and from there - to the Crimea to meet with Khrushchev. By that time, the general secretary had been thinking for years about corn.

“Why do you know so little about the American agricultural sector? If you needed no more than three weeks to develop the design of our atomic bomb, then why aren’t you able to steal our corn growing secrets?” Garst asked, beginning negotiations quite provocatively.

“You’re wrong. It was only two weeks,” said Khrushchev, playing along.

It was from this conversation that Khrushchev and Garst’s friendship began (that is how it is reconstructed in a book by an American historian, William Taubman, who received a Pulitzer Prize for his book: Khrushchev: The Man and His Era). Khrushchev’s personal translator, Viktor Sukhodrev, admits that their relationship was not only professional and warm, but friendly.
“I translated several times during Khrushchev and Garst’s meetings,” Sukhodrev told Trud, “and I can say that these were the conversations of two people, one of whom was a true corn specialist, and another – who thought of himself as a specialist.”

It’s no wonder that even when he arrived at Garst’s farm in the US, Khrushchev tried to give the farmer advice.

“We arrived in Iowa and spent the night in Hotel Fort in Des Moines. We were planning on going to see Garst the following morning,” says Viktor Sukhodrev. “That day I, for some reason, woke up early and went downstairs to the lobby to buy some postcards for my relatives in Moscow. All of a sudden, to my surprise, I saw Khrushchev and Garst walking down the stairs. Garst came for Khrushchev earlier than the agreed time and Nikita Sergeyevich said: “Why wait for the escorts? They don’t understand anything anyway.” And we headed to the farm.
Of course, corn crops are taller than a person. But the most interesting thing is that, even while talking to Garst, the best American farmer, the real “king of corn”, Khrushchev, began giving him advice and saying that the corn had been planted too densely. There was another funny episode. A crowd of journalists was pushing forward, trying to get as close as possible, and to Garst it seemed that they were getting in his way of showing Khrushchev the fields. In the end, the farmer lost it; he grabbed cobs of corn and began throwing them at the journalists.
Then we headed to Garst’s main field and had a picnic right there under the blue sky – everything that could possibly be made of corn was there, including meat – after all, the local bulls were also fed on corn.”

Not even a sympathizer

His friendship with Nikita Khruschev cost Roswell Garst a lot.

“Of course, in those days, frequent trips to the Soviet Union, negotiations at the top level, contracts, supplies of seeds to the Soviet farms - all of this prompted astonishment and questions, if not more,” says Liz Garst, the farmer’s granddaughter. “You know, because of this our family’s relations were ruined with many - some of our partners refused to continue working with us.”

Also, the US State Department was initially very much against any kind of partnership with the Soviets. The FBI questioned Roswell Garst, though the content of these conversations remains in the archives of the bureau. The main charge that Garst was faced with was – cooperation with communists.

“No, of course my grandfather wasn’t a communist,” laughs Liz Garst. “He was not even a communist ‘sympathizer’.”

Roswell Garst was definitely not a communist, he was a capitalist. And such a good one that he managed to sell his goods and ideas not only to the USSR, he also worked with Chili, Germany, and France. It was he who was able to convince the ideological rival of every respectable American that there is no other product that’s healthier and more beneficial than corn. A simple culture: if it can grow in Iowa, why can’t it grow in the land of the Soviets? But as practice showed, for some reason corn grew better in Iowa than in Russia’s middle latitudes. It continues to grow on Garst’s farm to this day.

More than just corn

However, today Roswell Garst’s descendants (he died in 1977 from cancer) are not surviving on corn alone. They have recently been trying to push a new trend, and much more profitable by today’s standards,– agricultural tourism. One can spend the night in one of the rooms where Roswell Garst used to live, for a starting price of $105. And the amenities are much better than those that existed half a century ago - Jacuzzi, DVD, Internet access. There are rooms at a more modest price from $55 to $85 per night. But, they don’t include a Jacuzzi. For a separate fee, you could catch fish, swim in a river, look at the stars through a telescope, play golf and hunt for pheasants. And, of course, you will have the chance to attend an excursion where you will be told about Garst’s farm and the family’s most memorable moment of the century, with a display of photographs of Khrushchev in the Iowa corn fields. A film should be produced in the near future, but for now, funds are being raised.

The best entrepreneur among the communists

The nostalgia for those events can be felt in the words of the relatives of the most successful American farmer in the middle of the last century. When explaining the reason why they decided to remember Nikita Khrushchev’s visit, they use words that resemble the conciliatory rhetoric of the “thawing” period.

“My grandfather was ready to share his knowledge at the time when the USSR was trying to raise its agricultural sector. With the help of agriculture, he wanted to overcome ideological differences,” Rachel Garst admitted to Trud. She is one of the initiators of the upcoming event. “We are holding a festival, the Days of Khrushchev in Iowa, for the sake of strengthening friendship and cooperation during a time when relations between these countries are deteriorating.”

In the end of August (the event is scheduled in August between the 27 and 30) Sergei Khrushchev, Russian Ambassador to the US, Sergei Kislyak, and Secretary of Agriculture and a former Governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsac, will arrive in Iowa. The guests are promised to be treated to the same food as the Soviet delegation was treated to exactly 50 years ago – the 1959 corn menu is stored in the family archives.

“Despite anything that anyone might say about Khrushchev, he was an interesting person,” Rachel Garst told Trud, “and, of course, the best entrepreneur among the communists.” After taking a moment she added, “You know, there was actually another reason as to why my grandfather decided to cooperate with the USSR. He often said: ‘Hungry people - are dangerous people’.”

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“Perhaps this method is old, but it always works,” Nurgaliyev said, regarding the practice of sponsorship.

The Ministry of Interior noticed a problem with staff after analyzing the statistics of crimes committed by the same people who were called to protect Russian citizens. Major Evsyukov, who shot store visitors, is also part of the statistics: according to data through the first six months of this year, the police and Federal Migration Service officers committed 2,500 crimes -- that’s 10% more than it was last year.

An expensive truth

Lie-detector tests, or polygraphs, are widely used in commercial structures. Financial companies and retail firms, as well as companies dealing with intellectual property, conduct polygraph tests. Companies reluctantly admit using lie-detectors, and only a few are willing to talk about it. At Euroset, polygraphs were once widely used in the hiring process and in work-related investigations.

“Now, we use it selectively,” Euroset PR manager Ulyana Smolskaya told Trud. “When conducting an investigation, this is one of the tools we use. Polygraph test results are not the final verdict, but a recommendatory procedure based on which further actions are taken.”

It’s expensive to have a full-time polygraph specialist on staff. Therefore, employers often use the services of specialized third-party companies. The cost of service depends on the order. Regular testing as a part of the hiring process or routine personnel checks cost 3,000 rubles. Investigation of a particular suspected person is twice as expensive, says Vasily Gulin, a polygraph examiner for Areopag Center.

“Leaders of large companies are tested, just as managers and delivery drivers are,” said Gulin. “This method will be used as long as legal offenses exist.”

Polygraph testing is effective, but the end result depends on the person conducting the test.

“The most important thing is the interpretation of what is displayed by the devices,” said Timur Sokolov, a managing partner of Club Consulting. “They react to impulses. Correct questions aren’t always asked during a test; sometimes provocative questions are asked as well. So, people’s emotions need to be correctly interpreted, whether it’s fear, anger or something else.”

“A polygraph is essentially just a piece of metal; it can be deceitful,” Sokolov continued. “But a professional polygraph examiner can never be fooled.”

Gulin echoed Sokolov’s sentiments. Any person can get nervous when taking a test because the unknown always causes fear, he explained. But when a person is lying, the body is under stress. An inexperienced polygraph examiner could confuse the former with the latter.

“Methods and tests are set up in such a way that they show where people are simply nervous and where their reactions are associated with deception,” the polygraph examiner explained. According to Gulin, people who are concealing requested information experience rapid heartbeat, an increased blood pressure, change in the rhythm of breathing, voice and physical activity level.

A vain pursuit

The Ministry of Interior has more than once undertaken a fight against corruption within its staff, yet it has not yet yielded any significant results. Public reception rooms were opened, hotlines were set up, structural adjustments were initiated, and police counterintelligence was created. Former prosecutor general Yuri Skuratov is convinced that it is also not likely that the new measures will help prevent crime and corruption among military personnel.

“All of the measures that were voiced by the minister are, of course, necessary, but they are only partial,” Skuratov said. “The Interior Ministry rotted and needs radical solutions. In addition, policemen need to be paid a decent wage and a pension, so they hold on to their positions.”

A polygraph test lasts at least 30 minutes. Specialists are able to distinguish natural nervousness from fear of being caught in a lie.

What a polygraph analyzes

Breathing: chest (top) and diaphragmatic (lower)
Arterial pressure
Tone of peripheral finger vessels
Pulse rate
Derma-galvanic reaction (sweating)

What it tests for

Alcohol abuse
Drug use
Kickbacks, embezzlement, concealment of income
Major financial commitments
Whether or not the employee works for other companies

Source: polygraph examiners’ data

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MAKS 2009, which took place August 18-23, had 100 less participants than in 2007 (the show is held every two years); this time, only 450 companies gathered at the show. Many of them complained about the high prices of the exhibition stands.

The Americans, for whom it seemed too expensive to send their technologies to distant lands during a crisis, did not participate. Nor did the world’s largest passenger aircraft, Airbus A380, arrive in Zhukovsky. Yet for the first time, the public got a chance to witness in action the newest Russian passenger planes, the Sukhoi SuperJet 100 and the AN-148.

Despite the fact that the volume of contracts is almost three times greater than it was at the previous MAKS, the main customers this time around were Russian companies and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. The military administration signed a contract with the Sukhoi Company for 48 Su fighter jets of various modifications in the amount of 80 billion rubles. Also, there are plans to sign another contract by the end of the year for 8 squadrons of MiG-31 (12 jets in each).

Who will be flying what

The Atlant-Soyuz airline company and the leasing company Ilyushin Finance Co. agreed on a lease of 30 AN-148 and 30 Tu-204SM airplanes. Aeroflot entered into contract with VEB-Leasing for financing the lease of the first 10 Sukhoi SuperJet-100 aircraft. The total transaction volume will be $250 million. Several regional airline companies made pre-contract agreements for the supply of new passenger equipment.

“For Russia, MAKS was a success, because never before have so many purchases of aircraft been made for Russia's domestic needs,” says Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies.

Alexander Khramchikhin, head of the Analytical Department of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis, does not see any positive outcomes from the recent MAKS air show.

“The Russian military must obtain such quantities of aircraft equipment a lot more often than once every decade,” said Khramchikhin.

However, the delivery of such an amount of aircraft equipment makes military men somewhat uncomfortable. The commander-in-chief of the Russian Air Force, Aleksandr Zelin, said that Russia does not have enough pilots for the amount of jets purchased, and an enormous amount of financial resources is needed for their preparation.

“Training of first-class pilots for multi-purpose jets may take up to 8 to 10 years, and cost from $5.5 to $6 million,” he told journalists.

He was not the only skeptic. A member of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, Vitaly Shlykov, was puzzled.

“Who will we be combating with aviation?” Shlykov asked. “Modern war consists of guerilla warfare, and to use fifth-generation aircraft against them is senseless.”

It is worth noting that at the opening of MAKS, Putin severely criticized the aircraft industry.

“The state still considers the development of its domestic aircraft and spacecraft industries to be its priority,” he said, while complaining that aircraft builders are hardly managing to pull themselves out of the financial debt pit.

An organizational glitch

MAKS 2009 was primarily memorable for its organizational confusion. The guests who arrived in Zhukovsky at the opening day holding tickets costing 450 rubles quickly learned that the first three days of the exhibition would be open to specialists only. Those who came by car were also out of luck. They already found themselves stuck in traffic when accessing the Moscow Ring Road, and Zhukovsky’s roads were closed off.

Those who arrived during highly visited days had to pass through three security cordons, where at a minimum the screening of bags and clothing took three minutes. Over the weekend alone the exhibition was visited by 400,000 people. They all stood in lines for at least an hour.

3,500 policemen kept order at the “Air Salon.” They stood 20 meters apart on both sides of the “Air Salon,” and the security cordons disappeared into the horizon.

The IL-96-400, the cargo plane AN-124 “Ruslan,” the strategic bombers Tu-160 and Tu-95MS, and miniature helicopters that are the size of a car were especially popular among the visitors

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During yesterday’ s meeting regarding traffic safety issues, between representatives of offices that have interests in this issue, State Duma deputies, and members of The Public Chamber, Medvedev stated that in order to change the situation on the roads, radical decisions need to be made.

According to the Ministry of the Interior, 84,365 traffic accidents occurred in the first half of the year, and there were 10,277 related road deaths. More than 4,700 accidents occurred due to drunk driving and 715 people died.

Deputies of the State Duma and Ministry of Transport gave their proposals on dealing with car accidents. For example, the State Duma Committee on Civil, Criminal, Arbitral and Procedural Legislation proposes to give traffic laws the same status as federal law. The Ministry of Transport has developed amendments to the law on road safety, which require facilitating freight trucks and buses, engaged in intercity transportation, with permanent registration devices of the drivers’ work and rest schedules (known as a tachograph).

The Chairman of the Traffic Committee for the Protection of Motorist Rights Aleksandr Kholodov believes that the initiative of deputies to discuss amendments to the traffic laws will severely complicate the current State Duma system. In his view, a large number of accidents in Russia are related to the fact that some departments and regions are deliberately delaying the implementation of a federal road safety program. “Now the president should monitor the implementation of the program and, perhaps, punish those responsible for its failure,” believes the chairman.

What the president drives

According to the official declaration of income, Dmitry Medvedev does not have any personal transportation. However, his wife owns a 1999 Volkswagen Golf. Also, Svetlana Medvedev owns two 32.5 square meter car spaces on a parking lot. According to public sources, while in his post of vice president and president, Medvedev has not publicly operated any vehicles.

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To lose a job and make a career

The crisis allows people to take a fresh look at their lifestyle, leads to revision of values and provides a push towards career development. “My student, a talented girl who worked in the human resources field, was laid off - the company went bankrupt – and, as a result, she got a position as a director of personnel,” says Ksenia Sukhotina, director of the HR department at the RBS Consulting.
Her friend came into a small company, which did not have its own HR services. Despite the changing market conditions, demand for the company’s products has not fallen – it’s actively being developed. For that reason, the director decided to create a professional staffing service. “For my friend, it is a serious breakthrough - from being a specialist to having a leadership position. While working in a large company, she had fears that she would not be able to handle leadership-level work. The crisis enabled her to re-evaluate herself,” said Sukhotina.

The crisis offers many opportunities for those who know how to readjust and quickly respond to changing external conditions – confirms Valery Oskin, executive director of the Association of Personnel Search Consultants (APSC). He says that, based on the results of studies by a German staffing Internet portal, in 2009, more than a quarter of German companies plan to lure away the most successful staff from competing companies. “And a little less than half of these companies are willing to offer jobs to qualified professionals, who were laid off during the crisis. The situation in Russian companies is similar. In our country, there are plenty of these types of companies, and thus enough places for career development for motivated people,” concluded Valery Oskin.

But one shouldn’t expect that their career will grow rapidly right after being laid off either. As Director of staffing agency Geleon, Olesya Milenina has analyzed – currently it takes an average three months to find a new job. Before the crisis, one could find work in one to two months. Therefore, one should consider their means and endurance.

Boss in a risk zone

It is even more difficult for management to find jobs during the crisis than it is for general employees. The labor market is much narrower for them.

Managers are being dismissed for failing report figures, or simply because companies can no longer afford specialists with such salaries. In addition, they now have higher workloads, which they cannot complete and, as a result, lose their jobs.

It is meaningless for the employer to recruit management from outside the company. Their salary is higher than that of an ordinary employee, and they will need time to adapt to the company. And, in the crisis, there isn’t any extra time, just as there is no extra money.

It is exactly for this reason that the freed positions are being filled by existing employees. They will happily accept the promotion for lower pay, simply because they don’t know what the salary of their former boss was. Moreover, they will work like a Trojan in order to prove their usefulness for the company and justify their promotion. Above all, they don’t need time to adapt.

The road is clear

“Companies are economizing on their employee searches and on the adaptation time for a specialist, which is needed in order to establish communication with the collective and embrace the corporate culture,” said Olesya Milenina, director of Geleon.

Andrei Permyakov, after working as a technologist for half a year, became the chief technologist of the plant. The crisis played a role in this development.

“Before the crisis, I began working for an enterprise which is engaged in the development and production of medical equipment. When the crisis began, plans for production development changed, and the supervisor refused to work under changed conditions. I was offered to lead the production because I had proven myself in the six months of being with the company.”
Now, Andrei is in charge of 100 people, and feels very comfortable in the role of supervisor.

Besides, these people are usually offered lower salaries than those who are lured from other companies. “Normally, when moving from one company to another, salary increases by 25% for the same position. That is how much the candidate demands. If a person is appointed from within the company, the salary is raised according to his new post. So, the company saves around 20%,” calculated Ksenia Sukhotina.

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Last time Medvedev visited Tajikistan was in August of last year. By yesterday he had already managed to discuss a number of issues, not only with Rahmon but also with the President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, and the leader of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari. Today, the Russian president will take part in the opening of the Sangtudinskaya hydroelectric power plant. However, the extensive talks program was, before they had even begun, stained by a spoon of tar.

Language of the guest workers

Last week, Rahmon demanded the immediate adoption of a law that might eliminate the Russian language as being a language of interethnic communication. To this day, the law allows citizens to speak to government authorities in the Tajik and Russian languages. Now, they will be forced to only use the Tajik language.

Political scientist Mikhail Vinogradov believes that Tajikistan was too quick to get a full stack of trumps in their hands on the eve of the visit. “Of course, Tajikistan needs money, it’s a rather poor country,” he said. “It’s clear that Rahmon will try to either get subsidies or a loan from Russia.”

Despite the assurance made by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan that the status of the Russian language won’t be changed, Medvedev’s aide, Sergei Prikhodko, promised that, either way, this issue will be raised during the talks. According to Prikhodko, the Russian language plays an important role in labor migration issues. Currently, there are around one million Tajiks working in Russia. When taking into account illegal immigrants, that number increases to several million. Just in the first half of 2009, they transferred $1.5 billion from Russia to their homeland.

“Countries of Central Asia have felt the European Union and United States’ interest in them, and began to be more disagreeable with Moscow,” notes Alexei Mukhin, Chairman of the Center for Political Information. “Rahmon followed this trend, and I’m sure that he wants to receive money from Russia, in form of a loan, for example.”

Rental fees

During his visit, Dmitri Medvedev will visit the electro-optical center, Nurek, of the Russian Space Troops, which used to monitor space objects. The center was given to Russia as a repayment for Tajikistan’s loans. There is even a Russian military base on Tajikistan’s territory, staffed by 6,800 personnel, and a Border Guard Service of the Federal Security Service of Russia, employing 300 people.

Currently, Russia does not pay a penny for the stationing of military personnel in Tajikistan. However, experts believe that the republic’s authorities could demand rent payments. “Rahmon’s negotiating positions are quite unstable,” notes Mukhin. “The existing agreements between Russia and Tajikistan, as well as limited natural resources, don’t allow Tajikistan to practice a fully sovereign foreign policy.”
How many Tajiks work in Russia.

The economy of Tajikistan is heavily dependent on migration flows to Russia. Now, officially about one million Tajik citizens work in Russia; taking into account the number of illegal immigrants, that number can reach several million. Each year they transfer from $1 to $2 billion to their home country, which is comparable to the country’s budget. In Moscow and Moscow Oblast alone, from 180,000 to 200,000 migrants from Tajikistan live and work throughout the season. They are primarily employed by low-paying jobs such as: porters, general workers, janitors, construction workers, and yard-keepers. To date, more than 10,000 Tajiks are in Russian prisons. This year alone they committed nearly 7,000 crimes. There were 2,000 crimes committed against Tajiks. And every year about 1,500 young people from Tajikistan are killed or disappear without a trace in Russia.
Loans

Who is credited by Russia

Kyrgyzstan

$300 million on concessionary terms for 40 years

Armenia

$500 million for 15 years with a five-year grace period

Ukraine

$15 million for a period of 18 months

Cuba

$150 million for two years. The loan will be used to pay for contracts for Russian exports of technology.

Belarus

$1.5 billion, awarded for 15 years with a delayed start for repayment of 5 years

The idea of making the Russian penal code more humane has been discussed at different levels for a while now. But until recently it has just been talk. At the beginning of this year, President Medvedev said at a State Council session, which took place at one of the correctional facilities in Vologda region, that Russian courts should be more humane towards criminals. “I support the idea of the revival of such punishment as remedial work, as more humane punishment than imprisonment, which at the same time allows us to supervise and socialize people,” he said at the time.

There is a draft of amendments to the Russian Criminal Code published on the official site of the Ministry of Justice. According to the draft, people who commit minor crimes will be punished by community service, instead of incarceration.

The amendment will affect 45 articles of the Penal Code. They are mostly minor articles, which are rarely applied. Among them: illegal receipt of credit, false messages about terror attacks, threat of murder and failure to help the ill, drug possession without a sales objective, destruction or damage of property due to negligence, even robbery. Compulsory labor may also be assigned in accordance to articles that provide for punishment for the violation of occupational safety regulations, illegal adoption, loss of or damage to historical and cultural monuments, cruelty to animals, environmental crimes, and others.

According to the bill, criminals may be assigned up to 180 or 240 hours of labor. Lawbreakers will, for example, be sent to sweep the streets or improve urban areas – paint benches, plant flowers, or trim bushes. The work is not paid and will be performed after work and school hours.

Ministry of Justice officials are confident that these amendments will reduce the number of prisoners in the country. Today, there are almost 900,000 imprisoned people.

According to human rights activist, Valery Borshchev, the punishment should be proportionate to the crime. In the meantime, according to Article 152, for stealing a sack of potatoes, a person could be imprisoned for four years.

Experts say that humanization doesn’t contradict the inevitability of punishment principle.

“Our mentality dictates that a thief must be placed behind bars. But we forget that prison causes up to 40% of recidivism,” said Borshchev. “Also labor of prisoners does not return a profit. For that reason, the state is forced to support them while wasting large amounts of money,” he added.

Law enforcers a cautious about the project at this point.

In Focus

Regular citizens get the following salaries for work that might potentially be done by criminals:
•Yard keeper – 3-12 thousand roubles
•Painter-plasterer – 5-18 thousand roubles
•Gardener – 8-10 thousand roubles
•Mover – 8.5 thousand roubles
•General laborer – 10 thousand rubles

Opinions

Alexandr Petrov, lawyer

“Our Criminal Code assumes really hard punishments for minor crimes. All jails are full of young people looking to spend up to 4 years in prison for stealing a cell phone from a peer. For many of them, this is their first crime and they committed it out of stupidity. It would make more sense to punish them with community service instead of prison.”

Yuri Fedoseev, former chief of the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department

“Indiscriminately abolishing criminal penalties, even for small-scale crimes in the Criminal Code, is very dangerous. The court must issue a sentence while considering every situation separately. A student calling in a bomb threat to cancel classes is one thing. An adult committing the same kind of crime and calling about an airport is quite another.”

Experience

Community service is the most common penalty for Western celebrities who have broken the law.

Top model Naomi Campbell was sentenced to five days of community service for throwing a heavy mobile phone at her housekeeper in anger. The model was forced to clean floors at one New York garbage truck garage.

Another scandalous celebrity, actress Lindsay Lohan, spent 10 days working in a blood transfusion center at the International Committee for the Red Cross, and then spent four days in jail. She was punished for drunk driving.

Actress Winona Ryder stole clothes from an expensive department store in the amount of $5,500. The court sentenced her to three years and 480 hours (80 days) of community work. Meanwhile, Winona did not acknowledge her guilt, saying that she was in training for her role as a thief in an upcoming film.

Number of prisoners per 100,000 citizens in each country
611 Russia
756 USA
148 Great Britain and Northern Ireland
95 Germany
158 Netherlands
62 Japan

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Rosstat recorded the growing number of government officials in Russia, but the figures are based off of October 2008 monitoring data. Sensing the beginning of a crisis, many departments were forced to make cutbacks, and these numbers are not yet reflected in Rosstat’s figures. Yaroslavskaya Oblast reported government staff cutbacks of 16%, Ulyanovskaya Oblast 20% and Nizhny Novgorod 10%. The governor of Saratov, meanwhile has promised by the end of 2009 to reduce the regional government staff by 25% -- that’s 1,000 people.

Multiplying by dividing

1,200,000 people, however, is far from the limit. In 2004, the number of government officials was more than 1,300,000 people. In the past five years, Russian executive and legislative branches “slimmed” down by 50,000 and 60,000 people respectively. On the other hand, legislative branches and apparatus officials increased by 3,000 people. However, the number of those serving on all levels of government is still enormous.

The growing number of government officials has long been a problem for Russia. One of many rounds of bureaucracy began under Putin, and is directly related to the construction of vertical power. In 2000 the newly elected president created plenipotentiary offices that were meant to unite the “spreading” regions. State representative offices appeared in seven districts; each one had 200-500 government officials.

Then a local self-government law passed in 2003 which says that government bodies must be present in any village, even the smallest one. In 2004 administrative reform begun, and it continues to this day. It was assumed that if government authorities were divided between governmental departments, services and agencies, and if a part of their duties was, at the same time, transferred to the local authorities, then that would reduce the number of government officials, simplify the fight against corruption and bring the government closer to the people.

But everything did not go according to plan. Sixteen governmental offices became 18, and they actively increased their staff. Agencies reunited, and their staffs continued to grow.

“In the past three years, our structure changed three or four times,” said Anastasia, a supervisory department specialist in Samara. “Sometimes, we ourselves confuse our name. At first, the Administration for the Protection of Monuments of Culture merged with a media supervising agency, then communication personnel were added. Rossvyazkomnadzor, Roskomnadzor, Rossvyazohrankultury... This spring the Russian Federal Surveillance Service for Mass Communications, Communications and Cultural Heritage Protection was created.”

In August 2008, Putin officially permitted the minister of finance to have seven deputies instead of five. In addition, Dmitri Medvedev added an eighth deputy for the minister of defense. Deputies were added for the minister of telecom and mass communications as well; instead of four, he now has six deputies. Even the prime minister was given two new vice-premiers; he now has seven. And in April, the Ministry of Finance grew even more: three more departments were created, to a total of 16. Then in July, one of them was divided into two parts.

Government employee salaries

Contrary to the popular belief, while government employee salaries are stable, they are not so high.

“It’s better to be a government employee on the oblast level rather than federal level,” said Senior Specialist Yevgeny.

“Federal employee salary isn’t high – about 3,400 rubles. But it automatically doubles and 90% of the total salary is added for civil service allowance. Then there are various increases for irregular working hours (although not many civil servants can complain about such schedules) and responsibility. People choose to work for the government for stability and benefits, and not for the income. Government employees get more vacation days: for each year of service, a day is added to the 30 vacation days; five more days may be added for successful performance. Special medical clinics with high level of medical service exist for oblast-level officials. Those with 10 years of service receive 60% of their salary as pension, and those with 15 years of service 100%.”

“None the less, we have a high turnover rate,” said Valentina, an employee at the former Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Communication (Roskomnadzor) in Novosibirskaya Oblast. “A great number of lawyers leave because, for them, 20,000 a month is not serious.”

According to Valentina, there is a lot of work, and it keeps increasing – but the majority of it is meaningless,

“I don’t see the point of the instructions coming from Moscow,” she said. “For example, in 10 days, monitor radio stations for compliance with the law. With the help from communication personnel I can verify what frequency they are broadcasting from. I can easily hear who their network partner is – “Chanson” or “Russian Radio”, for example. But I cannot figure out how long their broadcast is and how long the purchased airtime is, because under this type of inspection, I cannot request their playlist. The only other choice is to listen to the radio 24 hours a day. But how could I listen to 30 radio stations a week?”

And yet government jobs are becoming more and more popular in Russia. According to a survey by the Public Opinion Foundation, 16% of young people see themselves as future government officials. Competition for the faculty of Public Administration at the Moscow State University positions is one of the highest.

“Girls aged 21 to 23 years are more inclined to work for municipal and state offices,” said Larissa Pautova, leader of the Public Opinion Foundation’s Generation XXI Project.

Stable salary and growth opportunities remain the principal advantages of a civil service career.

Russians who are creating families now believe that to have love is the most important thing. In 2005, these people constituted 54% of the population, and in 2009 – it has reached 65%. Today, love reached first place in the rating of most important factors for marriage. In 2005, in its place was income level, which allowed newlyweds to live separately from parents. 62% of those living in Russia said that income was the most important factor in creating a family. In four years, the percentage of these pragmatics fell to 46%. And, the younger they are, the more value they place on love. For those who are 60-years-old and older, the percentage of those who put love in first place is lower – 59%, and for those who are younger than 60 years – 75%.

It’s amazing that during the time of the economic crisis, the importance of financial security fell. “Despite the crisis, the socio-economic situation is better now than it was in 2005,” says Valery Fedorov, general director of the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM). “During this time, income levels have grown, we have experienced a consumer boom, bought ourselves refrigerators, microwave ovens, and other things that we needed.” In addition, according to Fedorov, a generation that was not exposed to the shocks of the 1990s had grown up. They did not experience the shock of the systems breaking apart; this is why their attitudes are more normal: money is money, but a family - is first and, for most, love.

However, financial problems still bedevil spouses. “According to the data from our standard yearly surveys, the issue of financial security, when creating a family, is always at first place”, says Natalia Zorkaya, lead researcher at the Department of Social and Political Studies’ Levada Center. For this reason, young people often postpone marriage.

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This harmful moth became more prevalent in Transamur in the early summer. In the first ten days of June, the number of these insects exceeded the so-called safety threshold. To date, the winged pests "mastered" more than 450,000 hectares of land. On 98,300 of those hectares grow canola, buckwheat and soybeans, special favorites of the voracious caterpillars that later become the moths. Last year, for example, in the neighboring Jewish Autonomous Oblast, these creatures have destroyed more than 10% of the crop. The damage amounted to nearly 150 million rubles.

The offspring of this harmful butterfly is capable of destroying everything in its path: potatoes, legumes, cereals, fruits and vegetables. It doesn’t even refuse roadside grass, shrubs and trees. The massive appearance of the meadow moth caterpillars is expected by mid-July. But the local Ministry of Agriculture said that most of the caterpillars did not survive the heavy rains in the recent weeks and the amount of insects had noticeably decreased.

Nevertheless, local authorities decided to stay alert.

“By the order of Governor Oleg Kozhemyako, 15 districts of the Amur Oblast have been declared to be in a state of emergency,” Amur Oblast administration’s press service told Trud. Treatment of dangerous territories with special chemicals is expected ahead. There is a sufficient stock of the chemicals.

A threat for the fields

Meadow moth (Loxostege sticticalis - Latin)

A moth from the Pyraloidea family with grayish-brown wings with a 2–2.5 cm. wingspan. One of the most dangerous pests. Caterpillars feed on plants from 35 families. In two to three hours each caterpillar is able to eat almost any grassy plant. It especially severely damages sugar beets, sunflowers, soybeans, hemp, corn, legumes, vegetables and melons. It eats young trees and shrubs.

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Recruiters assume that the main reason for job-searching is a habit that stuck from the times before the crisis. Less than a year ago, it was the job searcher’s market, and employees could dictate any conditions to their employers. Today, the roles have changed, but employees are still not able to come to terms with that fact.

“Today, people are searching for jobs as usual”, says the Managing Director of Kelly Services, Natalia Matusova, “They are behaving exactly the same as they have before the crisis.”

Relationships matter

As the crisis began, employees’ interest in their relationship with management and their colleagues sharply increased. Before the crisis, 1 out of 50 employees were ready to switch jobs for reasons related to those relationships, today, that number is 1 out of every 15. Head of Business Development for the Imperia Kadrov staffing agency Yulia Piskunova says that “the majority of voluntary leaves are due to irritation with management, colleagues, and the company that had been collected in the past few months.”

Many employees got to know another side to their employers. “I left because my boss was scandalous and hysterical,” says Mikhail, a former employee of a capital’s leasing agency. “At the end of last year, the company had encountered hardships and the manager began taking them out on her employees. The situation escalated; it became impossible to work. And, then I left,” remembers Mikhail. He was without a job for only one month. At his current job, “the pay is the same – 50,000 rubles,” he says, “but my co-workers are much better. They’re all guys.” According to him, the amount of work is the same, but he doesn’t lose as many nerves at his new job.

Mutual mistrust

Russians are also searching for a new employer because they do not trust their former one. A consultant of recruiting agency AVANTA Personnel, Mikhail Goryanksy, says that people are looking for new jobs mainly because of the unstable situation of the employing companies. The employee is afraid that his company will soon cease operations, and he will end up on the street. That is why he is looking for a safe solution.

Other recruiters have noticed this as well. According to staff holding agency Ankor, 41% of employees are ready to change jobs due to the instability of their present company. Last year, only 27% of people shared this view. “The crisis is pushing job candidates to look for stability, at times at the cost of their pay or career,” noted Ankor’s Recruiting Manager Anastasia Sveshnikova. Last year, the candidates were hoping for a 20% to 30% salary increase with a change of employment. Now, 1 out of every 5 is ready to consider pay decreases.

Tiresome workload

Kelly Services estimates that, because of the crisis, work volume has changed in 72% of all office jobs. 44% of people have a greater work load, while 38% a lesser load. Both of these extremes cause the desire to change jobs. Unit’s Human Resources Specialist, Ekaterina Krasnikova, says, “[The] majority of the candidates are looking for a new workplace, because the volume of work has increased, and the pay was cut.” She noted that this is especially typical in banks, insurance and metallurgy fields.

This dissatisfaction, at times, significantly changes employees’ lives. Alexei worked in the technical department of Russian Railways for three years, he fixed computers and provided web-support. His pay was 15,000 rubles. “I worked for this kind of money only because I was still attending a university,” he explained. During the crisis, the work load increased, because two of every ten employees were laid off or left. In June, Alexei received his diploma and without a second thought gave his notice. Now, he will be an engineer for a construction company which builds “smart houses”. His pay increased nearly threefold, to 40,000 rubles.

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