Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
11
1990s, when residents and business own-
ers were victimized by organized crime.
But recent years have also seen an alarming
rise in racist attacks, largely targeting Cen-
tral Asians or ethnic groups from the
Caucasus Mountains, perceived as threat-
ening Slavic Russians' jobs and identity.
And Putin's security policies failed to solve
the bigger problems of corruption and ter-
rorism. The Russian army continues to
wage a war in Chechnya, where casualty
figures are a secret. Chechen suicide
bombers have targeted Moscow. Car
bombings and other violence plague
southern provinces surrounding Chech-
nya.
Putin handed the presidency to his
chosen successor Dmitry Medvedev in
elections in 2008, which lacked any seri-
ous opponents. Putin moved across town
to the prime minister's office, and contin-
ues to hold the reins of power, even
though Medvedev is officially the nation's
public face. Putin is widely believed to
want the presidency back in the next elec-
tions scheduled for 2012.
Although Russia as a whole is a graying
country with a relatively low standard of
living, Moscow and St. Petersburg are its
glaring exceptions. Both cities, especially the
capital, experienced a genuine economic
boom in the first decade of the 21st century
that brought them in line with some of the
world's richest cities. The worldwide eco-
nomic slump of 2008-09 hit Russia partic-
ularly hard. Banks were squeezed, economic
growth plunged into negative territory, and
wage arrears spiked. But so far the country
has weathered this crisis more deftly than in
the past, and the ruble's exchange rate and
inflation remain under control.
Despite reservations about Putin's poli-
cies, for tourists there's never been a better
time to visit Russia. Russians for centuries
cut off from or suspicious of foreigners are
finally free to reach out to the rest of the
world, and vice versa, which is evident at
the uninhibited pickup scenes in Moscow
and St. Petersburg bars. Visitors are no
longer assigned “minders,” and Russians
no longer need permission to leave their
country. Surly service is giving way to
smiling efficiency, as more and more Rus-
sians travel abroad and bring home higher
expectations of service and options at
home. New restaurants open in Moscow
almost daily, and fashions are as fresh as
in Milan. Cash machines are ubiquitous
and English is increasingly widespread.
Russia has, at last, opened its doors to the
world.
2
2
LOOKING BACK AT RUSSIA
IN THE BEGINNING
Early tribes of nomadic Scythians first
settled what are now Russian lands in the
7th century b.c., but it wasn't until the 6th
century a.d. that Slavic tribes from south-
eastern Europe advanced into the neigh-
borhood. It was not the Slavs, however,
but the Viking Rurik from nearby Scandi-
navia who established the first Russian
state, based in Novgorod, in the 9th cen-
tury a.d. The population remained pri-
marily Slavic, though its leaders claimed
descent from Rurik for the next 700 years.
The young state's power base soon
shifted to Kiev, now the capital of Ukraine.
The era of Kievan Rus, as it was called, saw
the flowering of a major European entity,
whose territories stretched across present-
day Belarus, Ukraine, and much of west-
ern Russia. As Kievan Rus, the country
gained a religion and an official language
and developed the distinctive architectural
styles seen across the region today.
Kievan Rus cast its lot with the Ortho-
dox Christian world in 988, during the
reign of Vladimir. Orthodoxy became the
