Announcing the launch of new air-conditioned trains (on the circle line, to start with), the head of Moscow’s Metro, Dmitry Gayev, rejected proposals to introduce VIP carriages. Gayev is reported by RIA-Novosti as saying:
“The metro is an open system of transportation where all people are equal, just like they are in a banya”
He needn’t have worried. Moscow’s upwardly mobile wouldn’t be seen dead on the Metro, air-conditioned or not, VIP carriages or not. Moscow is one of the most status-orientated cities on earth, and status requires sitting in three hour traffic jams on the daily commute to and from work.
4 July 2009 Moscow No Comments
The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. Then the soul-erosion caused by high gambling — a compost of greed and fear and nervous tension — becomes unbearable and the senses awake and revolt from it.
— Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming would have loved Moscow in the nineties - a classic late night city of high stakes gambling, beautiful women and an underlying sense of danger and excitement lurking in the shadows. One part of this great story is now coming to an end with the closure of Moscow’s casinos. The nightlife will never be the same. Snowsquare visited Metelitsa casino on Saturday for old times sake. What now? Well, there’s always Minsk (Belarus).
The photograph above shows the famous green palm-tree of the Shangri-La casino on Pushkin Square being dismantled this evening.
1 July 2009 Moscow No Comments
image: hauptpostamt.liveournal.com
Well,
Liberian Girl, perhaps. Snowsquare wonders how many million people around the world are listening to the music of Michael Jackson tonight.
The first international advertisement on Soviet television was aired in 1988, featuring one Michael Jackson advertising Pepsi.
They must have wondered what hit them. Twenty-one years later, Moscow’s still dancing.
As reported in the New York Times, 5 May 1988
Pepsico Inc., which says that Pepsi-Cola was the first Western consumer product offered in the Soviet Union (in 1974), now claims to be the first American company to have bought commercial time on Soviet television.
Five 60-second commercials produced by the BBDO advertising agency - two starring Michael Jackson - will be broadcast during a five-day series entitled ”Posner in America,” starring Vladimir Posner, who has appeared on American television as a Soviet spokesman.
The show will be aired May 17 through May 21, and Pepsi will have a spot on each, reaching an audience of 150 million.
Pepsico is not disclosing the cost of the air time.
26 June 2009 Moscow No Comments
Traffic jam in the rain, 10pm, Tverskaya ulitsa
25 June 2009 Moscow No Comments
Government press service
Russia’s Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, yesterday swept through the aisles of one of Moscow’s supermarkets. It was not
quite Dale Winton.
Interrupting a meeting with retailers at the White House, Putin decided to take them on a tour of a neighbouring Perekrestok supermarket. According to London’s Daily Telegraph,
Rounding on Yuri Kobaladze, the chain’s head of corporate relations, Mr Putin demanded: “Why do your sausages cost 240 roubles? Is that normal?”
“But these are high quality sausages,” Mr Kobaladze replied, looking crestfallen.
With a look of relief crossing his face, the executive spotted some cheaper sausages.
“Look, these ones are just 49 roubles,” he said.
But the prime minister was not to be deterred. “Too expensive,” he muttered, before conjuring up a price list from his pocket. “I can show you your mark up. Look at this kind of sausage. You’ve marked it up by 52 per cent.”
Having primed his victim, Mr Putin moved in for the kill. Consulting his crib sheet, he pointed towards a packet of pork fillets.
“This is double the (cost) price,” he said to Mr Kobaladze. “Is this normal?”
“Is 120 per cent a high mark up?” Mr Kobaladze responded timidly.
“Very high,” the prime minister said.
“It will be lowered tomorrow,” the executive replied.
25 June 2009 Moscow No Comments
