Moscow news
Moscow prepares to host Eurovision
his week, the symbolic key to the Eurovision Song Contest was handed to Yuri Luzhkov, the mayor of Moscow, which will host the event next year for the first time. And although the contest is still six months away, the Russian capital is already making preparations for what is likely to become one of Russia's biggest international show business spectacles.
It doesn't happen every day that Russia is involved in a show business event of this caliber. So when native child and rising pop star Dima Bilan won at this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade, automatically giving Russia hosting privileges for the next contest, it shook the world of Russian entertainment to its very core. And even though critics of the contest play down its importance, stressing that most of its winners never go on to become European stars, the event never fails to attract a lot of publicity. This is arguably good for both the winners and the hosting nation alike.
After a brief dispute over which city should host next year's contest, Moscow or St. Petersburg, often dubbed as Russia's "cultural capital," the choice was made in favor of the former.
But Russia's road to hosting the contest turned out to be far from rosy. Last August, following the military conflict between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway republic of South Ossetia, culture officials in Estonia spoke about boycotting the Eurovision contest out of protest against Moscow's actions in the Caucasus. Later, Latvia discussed a similar step. Eventually all that talk amounted to nothing, raising just discussions whether it is necessary to mix politics with cultural events.
Read moreBolshoi Theater opening “delayed to 2011”
AFP - The reopening of Russia's famed Bolshoi Theatre has been pushed back to 2011 due to delays in a costly renovation project, a spokeswoman for Russia's culture ministry said.
Repairs of the Bolshoi's 19th-century main stage "will take longer than expected and might not be finished until the beginning of 2011," spokeswoman Natalya Uvarova told AFP.
Located near Red Square, the theater closed in 2005 for a 700-million-dollar renovation project that was originally expected to be finished this year, but the end date was later pushed back to 2009.
The latest delay "is explained mainly by the ground quality, which made it necessary to reinforce the foundations further," Uvarova said.
In an interview with the Izvestia daily on Monday, Russian Culture Minister Alexander Avdeyev blamed the delays on poor management and the complexity of the project, which he said involves dozens of subcontractors and 700 workers.
The Bolshoi's main stage, built between 1821 and 1825, had long been in need of major repairs when it closed three years ago, with visible cracks on the facade and performers hampered by a lack of backstage space.
The renovations are to create a vast underground space for dressing rooms, modernise the stage and repair the acoustics which were damaged during the construction of the Moscow metro in the 1930s.
The Moscow News
Hidden homeless
While visiting Paris this summer I tried to imagine the soul of the city. In fact, I imagined the taste of the city long before my arrival. I dreamed how I would stroll along its famous boulevards, how I would lean over the Seine's embankments, how I would spend time reading a book in one of the most beautiful gardens in the world... I was ready to sink into the marvels of the city with all my heart.
Soon after I unpacked my luggage I left my small apartment near the Place de la Bastille. The first thing that attracted my attention in this historic city was a tent under the Victory Arch. There, in the very heart of this fabled city, I stumbled upon some homeless person's makeshift camp.
This is something that I haven't noticed in Moscow for a long time.
Although the Russian capital is regarded as a beautiful city, it also has a reputation for being dirty. Garbage, when it's not burning, spills from rubbish bins, dust blows along the sidewalks, while plastic bags, greasy pigeons, dejected animals and homeless people dot the urban landscape. Moscow is oftentimes described so unattractively, but the fact is, these problems exist in every developed country.
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