Russians head to the polls on Sunday to vote in presidential elections most expect Vladimir Putin to win handily. If Putin wins, he was previously president from 2000-2008, he will return to the Kremlin after a four-year stint as prime minister. But, support for Putin’s return is not universal – a vocal opposition has been protesting the election for months.
NBC’s Jim Maceda, who has covered Russia since the days of the Soviet Union, is in Moscow following the elections. He answered reader questions about the elections, Putin’s hold on power, the opposition, etc.
By Yonatan Pomrenze, NBC News Producer MOSCOW – For some teenagers, the idea of spending part of the summer indoors and in class would be a punishment. For 16 young American ballerinas, though, it is a privilege. Chosen to take part in a State Department funded six-week trip to Moscow, the group is spending their days in intensive ballet training at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy while also learning Russian language and culture.
The academy is one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious for classical ballet, and the opportunity is not lost on the participants. “I’m ecstatic,” said Precious Adams, a 17-year-old from Canton, Mich. Adams reapplied this year after a broken hip kept her from going last summer.
It’s definitely no lazy summer vacation. First the girls spent three weeks in intensive training by Bolshoi teachers in New York, sponsored by the Russian American Foundation. In Moscow, they live at the academy and spend each weekday doing three hours of ballet and two and a half hours of Russian class. There is no better way to learn a language than immersion, and the group is clearly immersed – when I entered their studio to film them, the first thing they all said when I spoke to them was “English! He speaks English!”
Meals are taken in the regular academy dining room. “Borsht, cabbage salad, cabbage bun, rice and then this beef nugget of happiness,” said 16-year-old Laurie Nielsen, as she ticked off what she just ate for lunch.
Nielsen, from Hudson, Ohio, said the food is an adjustment, but “it was a good adjustment. Something new, something to experience…it’s really good.”
Weekends are spent with host families, so they can get a taste of real Russian life, and cultural programs like museums. It’s a full schedule in a busy summer, but one which all the participants know is worth it.
“Just being able to say that I trained with the Bolshoi teachers is a big deal,” said 17-year-old Taylor Fikes, from Bowie, Md. She has been dancing since she was 4-years-old and sees the Bolshoi experience as a stepping stone to being a professional dancer in a major company.
Lenin supporters gather in Moscow's Red Square on Friday, the 87th anniversary of the leader's death.
By Yonatan Pomrenze, NBC News
Red Square without Lenin? Hard to imagine. Like Trafalgar Square without Nelson. Or Times Square without the Naked Cowboy. But it’s an idea that’s floated every couple years – and it was proposed again yesterday, on the eve of the anniversary of Lenin’s death.
The fighting words to Russia’s Communist Party didn’t keep a few hundred Lenin supporters from braving 10-degree weather to gather on Red Square today to lay flowers at the mausoleum.
“They want to falsify history,” said 63 year-old Lidiya Petrovna, when told of Mendinski’s comments. “They want to bury not just his body, but his ideas. We are here as Soviet citizens!” I reminded her that we are in Russia now, but she dismissed me. “I am Soviet. This isn’t my country.”
Anatoly Turenko, a 36-year-old Moscow Communist official, made it clear that his party was opposed to moving the body: “This is a decision for all Soviet nations to make together.”
For now, there is nothing for them to worry about: Media reports quoted the Kremlin press office saying they had no plans to move Lenin’s body. But it remains to be seen how much longer Lenin supporters can present a solid opposition. The average age of those gathered at Red Square today couldn’t have been under 65, and polls show a continuing decline of support amongst Russians to keeping Lenin in the mausoleum.
'It's the building that's so iconic' Seeing Lenin’s body (or what is left of it – Mendinski claims that only 10 percent of what is left can actually be called Lenin’s body) is also a big draw for tourists. Five days a week, tourists line up to silently shuffle through the mausoleum and get a quick look at Lenin. Today’s anniversary events kept tourists from even getting near the mausoleum, but they still weighed in on the controversy.
“As long as the mausoleum stays, they can take the body,” said Simon Gay, a singer from the Westminster Abbey Choir, taking in Red Square before a performance. “It’s the building that’s so iconic.” As for how to settle the debate, Gay had a unique suggestion: “Maybe they can rotate a different body in there every week.”
MOSCOW – If you want an air conditioner in Moscow, you’re too late.
Russia’s heat wave is almost one month old, and is showing no signs of letting up. Having lived extensively in New York and the Middle East, temperatures hovering around 90 degrees Fahrenheit are nothing strange for me, but it’s a different experience in Moscow.
The toughest part may be the scarcity of air-conditioning here, especially in residential homes. Maybe I should count myself lucky that the heat wave has coincided with the annual two-week hot water shut-off in my building (so that the utility company can do repairs on the pipes), as a freezing cold bath seems to be the only way to cool down at the end of the day.
Air conditioner suppliers caught by surprise by the high temperatures have run out of stock, and home appliance stores have back-orders of up to three weeks (two companies declined our request to film people looking for air-conditioners in their stores because they didn’t want us to show empty shelves).
Even though most of my friends back in the U.S. are knowledgeable enough not to ask me anymore if it snows in Moscow in the summer, the heat wave has still taken some tourists by surprise.
"We knew it was hot, but we didn’t expect it to be this miserably hot," said Doak Simpson, a 48-year-old Motorola employee from Miami visiting Moscow with his family. "We’re from the land of air-conditioning. You can get out of it, and here there’s just no escaping it."
Swimming – for better or worse Muscovites still do a pretty good job of escaping it, though. Any part of Moscow that has water – fountains, the river, even barge canals – has been full of people swimming and sunbathing.
But the Russian Emergency Ministry’s web site shows perhaps the harshest measure of the heat wave: the death toll. Over 2,000 people have drowned in Russia since June 1. And this past Monday broke an unfortunate record: 71 people drowned in a 24-hour period.
According to Vadim Seryogin, a ministry official, many of the cases are due to people swimming while drunk.
"Of course, it’s good to swim during such hot days," said Kseniya Kurus, a 19-year-old international law student, when told about the grim statistics. "But we shouldn’t drink alcohol during the summer. It’s dangerous."
EPA/Yuri Kochetkov
Young Muscovites find some relief from the sweltering heat in a fountain at the All-Russian Exhibition Center in Moscow, Russia, on Friday.
And there’s no relief in sight. Forecasts predict the coming week to potentially break Moscow’s record of 98 degrees Fahrenheit.
And the heat goes beyond Moscow – it has also slammed Russia’s farmland with a crippling drought. Twenty-three grain-producing regions have declared a state of emergency and the Russian Grain Union reported that the drought has destroyed over 22 million acres of crops. Some forecasts see agricultural and farming losses by year-end topping $1 billion.
Lying on a grassy bank after a swim in a canal, a group of students told me they’d had enough.
"It’s been good, but we don’t need a whole month of this," said 20-year-old Igor Alexeyev. "It would be better to have two weeks on, two weeks off. Or even just hot weather every other day."
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