by Tatiana SIZIKOVA14 March—Kazan students

passionate about preserving Ka‑zan’s historic architecture have formed Krasny Shchit, an advo‑cacy group to champion their cause.

Krasny Shchit—or “Red Shield” in English—was formed in 2011 by a coalition of students from Kazan Federal University and Ka‑zan State University of Architec‑ture and Engineering. The group’s name and emblem are inspired by a blue shield against a white background created during the 1954 Hague World Conference on cultural heritage protection to

mark buildings of historical im‑portance in the event of war, as a measure to prevent unnecessary damage to the buildings.

Krasny Shchit activists worry about the future of Kazan’s his‑toric buildings, many of which don’t have legal landmark status. The group is currently actively working to attach this status to building at 26 ulitsa Gorkogo. Built in 1913, this eclectic build‑ing was where prominent Ta‑tarstan architect Yegerev lived. Krasny Shchit has poured hours into the paperwork required to petition for this buildings land‑mark status.

The group, which has a page on Vkontakte (vk.com/redshield), is not only interested in preserving Kazan’s architecture, but also keen on raising awareness of and inter‑est in the city’s history. It organized an exhibition series entitled “Gorod bez proshlogo — gorod bez budu‑shchego” (A city without a past has no future) in April and May of 2011. The exhibition, one of the groups first success stories, brought to‑gether archival photographs and documentation about more than 50 historic buildings of Kazan, and was hailed by local newspaper Vechernyaya Kazan as the first ever compilation of its kind.

In May 2011, the group mo‑bilized against a proposal to build an underground parking lot on the site of Chyornoye Oze‑ro park (Black Lake). The peti‑tion the group put together was sent to the Tatarstan Ministry of Culture, and helped lead to the cancellation of the project, a victory that has done much to boost the group’s morale.

In Autumn 2011, the group began conducting walking tours of Kazan, choosing routes that cut through places of historical importance, such as the Krem‑lin and its surroundings, the Old Tatar Settlement, and oth‑

er streets in the city center. These free tours, led by young, passionate guides, were en‑thusiastically received by the public.

Just a year old, the group has already seen a substantial change in the city’s approach to its his‑torical heritage. In October, after himself going on several walking tours of Kazan, President of Ta‑tarstan Rustam Minnikhanov ap‑pointed his tour guide Olesya Baltusova as a personal aide to help his administration tackle this issue.

by Robert MAy18 March— On 10 March, Ser‑

gei Nazarov, 52, died in Kazan City Hospital No. 18, apparently after having been beaten and sodomized with a champagne bottle by police officers of Kazan’s Dalny police station.

Nine police officers at Dalny police station were immediately fired following Nazarov’s death, including the five officers that al‑legedly sodomized and beat him: Ramil Akhmetzyanov (24), Ilshat Garifullin (25), Ilnar Ibatullin (23), Fail Sabirzyanov (25), and Almaz Vasilov (24).

Akhmetzyanov, Ibatullin, Sabirzyanov, and Vasilov—all of whom deny responsibility for Naz‑arov’s death—have been placed in a pretrial detention center. Gari‑fullin, who pleaded guilty to abuse of power and forgery, was placed under house arrest.

The circumstances surround‑ing Nazarov’s death have sparked a public outcry that has resonat‑ed across Russia, especially as more details of the case became known. In turn, both the Russian and Tatarstan Ministry of Interior have been proactive in denounc‑ing the actions of the police force at Dalny police station, firing the police station’s leadership and promising to review protocols and procedures that allowed for such callous abuse to take place.

According to a Tatarstan Min‑istry of Interior press release on 12 March, Sergei Nazarov was taken into police custody on 9 March for public intoxication. While in custody at Dalny police station, Nazarov—who, as the press release made a point of noting, had six prior convictions—complained of stomach pains. An ambulance was called and doc‑tors examined Nazarov and gave him a painkiller injection, but did

not hospitalize him. The next day, still complaining about stomach pains, Nazarov was brought into Kazan City Hospital No. 18, where he was diagnosed as having a “ruptured rectum.” Nazarov un‑derwent an operation for his in‑juries, but he fell into a coma fol‑lowing the operation and died shortly afterwards.

The next day, the Tatarstan branch of the Russia Investiga‑tive Committee opened a criminal investigation into the events that lead to Nazarov’s death. Head of Dalny police station Sergei Efre‑mov and his underlings Fail Sabirzyanov and Aynur Ra‑khmatullin were sacked.

Several media outlets have reported that, before being oper‑ated on, Nazarov told hospital doctors that he had been sodom‑ized with a champagne bottle.

A 12 March autopsy report concluded that Nazarov’s injury’s could not have been self‑inflicted, meaning that police officers were responsible for his death. Still, in spite of this finding, those ac‑cused continue to maintain their innocence. “My only mistake was that I let Nazarov go to the bath‑room, where he was for seven to 10 minutes,” insisted accused police officer Almaz Vasilov, Kom‑somolskaya Pravda reported. “He inflicted the injuries on himself. He didn’t know his own strength. He didn’t have a bottle with him, but their could have been a vod‑ka bottle in the garbage. Perhaps there was a mop in the bath‑room.”

An article in Kazanskie Vede‑mosti tells a harrowing story based on an interview with Nazarov’s relative, Shamil.

According to Shamil, Nazarov ran out to the store for groceries

Continued on page 2

March 20, 2012 No. 3 (21)The Kazan Herald

Tatarstan’s first and only English newspaper

www.kazanherald.com

Continued on page 2

Former President of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiev and his wife casting their votes.

by Rustem yUNUSOV8 March—On Sunday, 4

March, current Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin was elected President of Russia, winning 63.6 per cent of the vote. Communist party candidate Gennady Zyu‑ganov came in second with 17.18 per cent, oligarch Mikhail Prokho‑rov in third with 7.98 per cent, Vladimir Zhirinovsky of the Lib‑eral Democratic Party in fourth with 6.22 per cent, and Sergei Mironov of A Just Russia in last place with 3.85 per cent.

Putin’s performance was es‑pecially strong in the Republic of Tatarstan, where he won 82.70 per cent of the vote, in a contest that showed a high voter turnout of 83 per cent. The second‑high‑est scoring candidate in Tatarstan was Zyuganov with 9.66 per cent, followed by Prokhorov (2.93 per cent), Zhirinovsky (2.23 per cent), and Mironov (1.76 per cent).

Support for Putin was weak in Nizhnekamsk, at just 66.44 per cent. Kazan’s Moskovskaya dis‑trict also did not throw strong sup‑port behind the Prime Minister, with only 61.38 per cent. But these two areas were the exception rather than the rule: of Tatarstan’s 65 districts, 41 saw more than 90

Putin Wins Election, 83 Percent of Tatarstan Vote

per cent of the vote go to Putin, with Nurlatsky district’s 99.19 per cent taking the cake. The City of Almetyevsk saw 81.31 per cent of the vote behind Putin, the City of Bugulma 77.64 per cent, and 77.32 per cent in the City of Chis‑topol.

Former President of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiev and his wife casting their votes. Photograph courtesy of Tatarstan Presidential Press Service.

Perennial rival to United Rus‑sia and Putin, Communist Party candidate Zyuganov disappoint‑ed in the recent election. Even

the City of Naberezhnye Chelny, a traditional Communist strong‑hold, yielded him only 16.87 per cent of the vote, with Putin taking a strong 74.94 per cent. Putin won 75.1 per cent of the across the City of Kazan’s seven districts.

When asked on 6 March to comment on rumors that Tatarstan election figures were inflated, President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov retorted: “I can also say anything I’d like…for example, that Obama was unfairly elected.” Further pressed to explain Ta‑tarstan’s high percentage for Pu‑tin, Minnikhanov asked, “What is large and what is small? Chech‑nya’s 99 per cent, that is large! In comparison, our result is small!”

During the same press con‑ference, which gathered Ta‑tarstan’s female journalists in commemoration of upcoming In‑ternational Women’s Day, Min‑nikhanov spoke about only one of Putin’s rival candidates, third‑place finisher Mikhail Prokhorov. “At the moment, Prokhorov is a talented manager. He’s a manager.” Minnikhanov explained. “Managing a compa‑ny and running a country are two different things.”

President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov and his casting their votes in the 2012 Russian Presidential Elections.

Sodomy & Death At Hands of Kazan Police Sets Off National Outcry

Students Group Mobilizes To Preserve Kazan Landmarks

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“In 2011, we had to go through many institutions looking for support, even turning to political parties for assistance, but we weren’t taken se‑riously,” explained Albina Khairullina, one of Krasny Shchit’s coordinators. “A year later, the President’s atten‑tion to this problem has changed the

situation: now, taking care of histor‑ical monuments is fashionable. We are increasing our contact with the administration, especially with the Ministry of Culture, and the authori‑ties are ready to engage with us.”

Krasny Shchit is now preparing for an international conference en‑titled “Cultural Heritage in the 21st Century: Preservation, Exploitation,

and Popularization,” which will be held in April of this year. The confer‑ence organizers would like the con‑ference to feature both Russian and foreign experts (including historians, lawyers, photographers, artists, mu‑seum and media representatives) to participate in presentations, round tables, workshops, and other forms of dialogue.

on 9 March and never returned. His wife made repeated calls to his mo‑bile, eventually finding out that Naz‑arov was being held in the Dalny po‑lice station.

Nazarov’s relatives explained that they visited the police station, where they were informed that he had been detained for being pub‑licly intoxicated and disorderly con‑duct. They tried to pay the fine for disorderly conduct so that he could be released, but the police refused, saying he would be released only in the morning.

The next day, Nazarov’s relatives were called from Hospital No. 18 and told that he had undergone a surgi‑cal operation. When they arrived at the hospital, they were not allowed to see Nazarov because of his poor condition.

The Moscow Times reported that Nazarov was brought into Dalny po‑lice station suspected of theft, but when there wasn’t enough evidence to hold him, arrested for disorderly conduct. A surveillance video from the store that Nazarov visited before being taken into custody shows him apparently lifting a cell phone from a cashier, who later said that she had called the police.

Following Nazarov’s death, oth‑er accusations of police brutality at Dalny police station have surfaced. 20‑year‑old Alia Sadykova has come forward to say that, in January, of‑ficers at Dalny station had threat‑ened to violate her with a cham‑pagne bottle during an interroga‑tion, The Moscow Times reported.

Dalny station had nine official com‑plaints in 2011.

On Thursday, 15 March, Deputy Minister of Interior Sergei Gerasimov promised sweeping reforms. One of the proposed reforms would be scrap‑ping an evaluation system that awards meeting or surpassing arrest statis‑tics from the previous year.

A special collegium of the Minis‑try of Interior Affairs of the Russian Federation was held on Thursday, with the participation of Russian Min‑ister of Interior Rashid Nurgaliev, State Duma representatives, Prime Minis‑ter of Tatarstan Ildar Khalikov, Ta‑tarstan Minister of Interior Asgat Sa‑farov, and others.

That same say, more than 100 people gathered to protest outside the Tatarstan Ministry of Interior main building, RIA Novosti reported. Ac‑cording to Komsomolskaya Pravda, the protesters blocked the main en‑trance to the building. Many protest participants came with bottles of champagne in hand, which they opened mockingly, as if to toast the authorities. The protesters demand‑ed an audience with Tatarstan Min‑ister of Interior Asgat Safarov.

On Friday, 16 March, Tatarstan Ministry of Interior Press Service an‑nounced that the employment status of all 81 officers of Dalny police sta‑tion would be reviewed, and that the station’s new police chief would come from a different station. A special commission will administer a poly‑graph, psychological examination, and detailed review of each officer’s service record.

Head of the City of Kazan’s Min‑istry of Interior Department Rustem

Kadyrov publicly apologized on Fri‑day. “I would like to ask forgiveness from all citizens of the city for this crime, which is inexcusable,” he said. “This has been a brutal lesson, from which we will draw some serious con‑clusions.”

Nazarov’s death has received at‑tention not only in Tatarstan, but across the Russian Federation. The incident was the focus of Friday’s in‑stallment of “Pust Govoryat” (Let Them Talk), a popular prime time Russian talk show. State Duma Dep‑uty from Tatarstan Airat Khairullin and Aliya Sadykova were among the guests that appeared on the show to discuss the incident and the state of Russia’s police force.

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(Continued from page 1)

Editor‑in‑Chief Rustem Yunusov

Deputy Editor Wyatt Ford

Art Director Sergei Saakyan

Opinion Editor Maxim Edwards

Columnists Joseluis Gomez‑Rodriguez

Alexander Tedeschi

Contributors Nadezhda Podoprigora, Leyla Yakupova

Alina Khalimova, Olga Lyubina Olga Potapova, Tatiana Sizikova Simone Peek, Katriina Myllymaki Edward Crabtree, Artur Kulikov

Photographer Kira Maslova

Dilyara Mukminova

illustrator Ines Cerro

Advertising Director Ekaterina Nuzhdova

(Continued from page 1)

News

Sodomy & Death At Hands of KazanPolice Sets Off National Outcry

Students Group Mobilizes To Preserve Kazan Landmarks

by Wyatt FORD7 March—Mayor of Kazan Ilsur

Metshin met with a delegation from the City of Verona, Italy in the Kazan‑sky Ratusha yesterday, City of Kazan Press Service reported. The Italian delegation was headed by Mayor of Verona Flavio Tosi.

The declared purpose of the meeting was to continue discussions of possible avenues of partnership between the two cities. In April 2011, Metshin and Tosi signed an agree‑ment to develop the relationship be‑tween the Italian city and the Ta‑tarstan capital. Both cities are mem‑bers of United Cities and Local Gov‑ernments (UCLG), a worldwide ad‑vocacy organization for local gov‑ernments.

Among the Italian participants in the meeting was Paolo Arena, Presi‑dent of Verona Airport.

While in Kazan, the Italian delega‑tion also met with Rector of Kazan Federal University Ilshat Gafurov and with representatives of Tatarstan’s Chamber of Industry and Trade.

Metshin had nothing but praise for his Italian compatriots when speaking about his visit to Verona last year. “I’ve been to Italy several times,” he explained, “but I must say, I was in Verona for the first time, and I was blown away by the beauty and com‑fort of the city, as well as by the hos‑pitality of its citizens.”

Verona is the latest in a growing list of international cities with which the City of Kazan is partnering. In No‑vember 2011, Metshin and Abdenbi Senusi‑Bereksi, Mayor of Tlemcen, Algeria, signed an agreement making the two municipalities sister cities. One month later, Metshin and Muchadeyi Masunda, Mayor of Ha‑

rare, Zimbabwe, signed a sister‑city agreement while in Florence, Italy for a meeting of the World Council of Unit‑ed Cities and Local Governments.

The Kazan City Duma report on 2011 argued that such international partnerships are important for Kazan as it prepares to host major interna‑tional sporting events such as the 2013 Summer Universiade, the 2015 World Acquatics Championship, and the 2018 World Cup.

Mayor of Verona since 2007, Tosi is a member of the Northern League, a conservative Italian political party that has drawn scrutiny in English‑lan‑gauge media for its immigration pol‑icy, which critics accuse of being xe‑nophobic and racist. In 2009, Tosi himself was found to have violated of hate speech laws by Italy’s Court of Cassation and barred from participat‑ing in public rallies for three years.

Mayor of Verona Visits Kazan

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�March 20, 2012 No. 3 (21)The Kazan Herald BusiNess

by NadezhdaPODOPRIGORA10tracks, an online music ser‑

vice developed by a team of five Kazan designers and program‑mers, went live in January 2012.

The project was started by own and company head Vladislav Vernigora in 2009. “Our webiste, www.10tracks.ru, give users the opportunity to upload mp3 files and store them in your account storage,” Vernigora explained in an interview with The Kazan Her‑ald. “Consequently, the music will be available from any device.”

In December 2011, the proj‑ect—which is based out of Ka‑zan’s IT Park—received funding from the Tatarstan Investment and Venture Fund, after becom‑ing one of the winners of the fund’s competition, “50 Best Innovative Ideas for Tatarstan.”

Officials from the Tatarstan Investment and Venture Fund were not able to provide com‑mentary in time for this publica‑tion, after repeated telephone calls and emails.

To date, 10tracks has 7,000 registered users, a figure it hopes

Kazan Programmers LaunchOnline Music Service

‘your music is always with you.’ A screenshot of the home page of 10track’s website, 10tracks.ru.

to increase, having recently be‑gun marketing the site globally. Currently, there is an English and Russian version of the site.

10tracks’ special algorithms make it possible to upload 10 gigabytes of content in 10 min‑utes. The service, free of charge

for up to 3 gigabytes of storage space, offers unlimited access for all its registered users and supports use on Android and IOS platforms. “You can even listen to music offline—just select the tracks you want,” added Vernig‑ora.

by Rustem yUNUSOVRR Donnelley, an internation‑

al printing company, officially re‑ceived resident status in the Al‑abuga Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in early March of this year. The company, which is consid‑ered a world leader in printing, originally announced its inten‑tions to enter Alabuga SEZ in De‑cember of last year.

The company will invest 500 million rubles into their operations in the SEZ and employ up to 170 people, according to the Alabuga SEZ Press Service.

RR Donnelley Alabuga, LLC, will focus on offering state‑of‑the‑art print products for Russian and regional markets. The company considers its competitive advan‑tage to be nearly 150 years of ex‑perience in graphic arts and the introduction of web offset print‑ing to the Volga Region.

RR Donnelley hopes to offer quality, well‑priced service par‑ticularly for Russia’s glossy mag‑azines.

Currently, Idel‑Press, a filial of TatMedia (Tatarstan’s mass com‑munications agency) is the larg‑est printing house in the Volga

region. In an article in Tatarstan business newspaper «Gde Dengi» (Where is the Money), TatMedia deputy Farit Shagiakhmetov as‑sured that RR Donnelly would not directly compete with Idel‑Press, whose strength lies in other areas besides glossy magazines.

RR Donnelley’s Alabuga out‑fit is part of RR Donnelley Europe, which in turn is a part of interna‑tional corporation RR Donnelley & Sons [NASDAQ: RRD], a com‑pany that owns and operates state‑of‑the‑art printing facilities in the United Kingdom and Po‑land, as well as databases, digital printing and direct mail in Hun‑gary, France, and the Nether‑lands. The company has a design and pre‑press studio in Warsaw, and had a sales office in Moscow before entering Alabuga.

RR Donnelley’s decision to open a production facility in Al‑abuga SEZ is an important vic‑tory for Tatarstan and the eco‑nomic zone. According to the ar‑ticle in «Gde Dengi,» the compa‑ny had been considering Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other loca‑tions for opening operations over the past five years.

rr Donelly Becomes resident of Alabuga SEZ

by Wyatt FORDThe Tatarstan Investment De‑

velopment Agency (TIDA) held its first‑ever collegium on 1 March in Grand Hotel Kazan during the context of Kazan Invest, an inter‑national investment forum billed as a precursor to Kazan Summit of May 2012.

Presided over by TIDA Chief Executive Linar Yakupov and Pres‑ident of Tatarstan Rustam Min‑nikhanov, the TIDA collegium, which was held in the afternoon, served a sort of final act to a day chock full of discussion, both practical and theoretical, about how to increase foreign direct in‑vestment (FDI) into Tatarstan.

Kazan Invest was co‑hosted by the World Association of In‑vestment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA), a Swiss‑based agency that TIDA joined in 2011. WAIPA Chief Executive Officer Carlos Bronzatto participated in the Ka‑zan Invest forum, praising TIDA for its efforts to integrate itself with international FDI agencies.

Kazan Invest began with re‑marks from Prime Minister of Ta‑tarstan Ildar Khalikov. Speaking of Tatarstan’s history with FDI,

Khalikov declared that, although there were successes, the repub‑lic would like to see more prog‑ress in this area. According to Khalikov, Tatarstan has seen 856 million rubles of foreign invest‑ment.

Kazan Invest’s program in‑cluded numerous speakers, hail‑ing from Tatarstan, Moscow, and even international centers.

Andrew Cranston, Senior Part‑ner of KPMG in Russia and the CIS, outlined the tremendous po‑tential of FDI in the Russian mar‑ket, simultaneously noting draw‑backs of doing business in Russia which are being addressed.

Artem Avetisyan, director of new bus iness pro jects at Vnesheconombank, focused his remarks on ways to improve the investment climate of Russia.

TiDA Collegium Held During Kazan invest forum

Sergey Paseko, Senior Man‑ager of the Eurasian Development Bank, underscored the important for regional economies to con‑sider FDI as a one necessary source of investment.

Alabuga Special Economic Zone (SEZ) director Timur Sha‑givaleev gave a presentation on the current status of the econom‑ic zone and discussed future plans to enlarge the zone’s area.

Malaysian Professor and Di‑rector of Asia Capital Venture Su‑din Bin Harun discussed the im‑portance of small and medium enterprises (SME) and FDI to the Malaysian economy as a model that Tatarstan could emulate.

Robert Ksiazkiewicz, Architect and Managing Director of Vertigo, a Dubai‑based architecture firm, presented his conception for

Smart City, a TIDA‑led initiative to build a state‑of‑the‑art exhibi‑tion and business center near Kazan International Airport.

Vice President of Parigi Eq‑uity Partners Reshit Aydin Harun and AECOM operations manager Anthony Young were also among the speakers who spoke in the first part of the Kazan Invest fo‑rum.

After lunch, the forum broke down into a roundtable discus‑sion about new business lead by Aventisyan and a discussion ses‑sion about FDI and investment development agencies lead by WAIPA CEO Bronzatto.

Following this, President Min‑nikhanov arrived. Before begin‑ning the collegium, Minnikhanov took a look a the exhibition area of Kazan Invest, which featured

display cases of various Tatarstan projects currently looking for in‑vestment, as well as general in‑formation about the republic’s business and economic infra‑structure.

The ensuing collegium laid out all that TIDA has accom‑plished since it was established by Minnikhanov on 1 June 2011. Yakupov informed the president that TIDA had raised some 1 tril‑lion rubles of federal money to invest in Tatarstan’s small and medium enterprises (SME), whose support is a key focus of TIDA’s activity.

The collegium was not all ac‑colades, however. During the col‑legium, TIDA invited representa‑tives of Tatarstan SME to bring up issues and complaints with bureaucratic procedures. TIDA Chief Executive Yakupov and Pres‑ident Minnikhanov promised to look into the issues raised by small business.

The 6th Kazan Summit, which will focus on economic coopera‑tion between Russia and Organ‑istion of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries, will be held on 17 and 18 May 2012.

Director of Asia Capital Venture Sudin Bin Harun.

President of Tatarstan rustam Minnikhanov, left, and Tatarstan investment Development Agency Chief Executive Linar yakupov, right.

Linar yakupov.

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� March 20, 2012 No. 3 (21) The Kazan Heraldsports

by Marius HUBERrUBiN KAZAN 1,SPArTAK MOSCOW 17 March, TSENTRALNY STA‑

DION, KAZAN—On Monday, 5 March, in their first game after winter break and their 33rd game in the Russian Championship League, Rubin Kazan played to a 1‑1 draw with Spartak Moscow.

The game started off with Ru‑bin attacking over the left wing, where Bibras Natcho had an op‑portunity with a free kick. Before the Israeli could launch the ball into Spartak’s box, however, the game had to be paused for sev‑eral minutes: some of the clever Spartak supporters, who were surprisingly very numerous, had lit petards and thrown them onto the pitch, forcing referee Vilkov to wait until the smoke had cleared. The following cross sent in by Na‑tcho did not affect the score.

A few minutes later, it was Ru‑bin’s midfielder Eremenko who sent the ball to Gökdeniz Karad‑eniz, who was left unguarded by the Spartak defenders. The Turk‑ish winger’s good first attempt

was caught by Moscow’s goal‑keeper Dikan.

Five minutes later, it was the Spartak supporters who had the word “Goal!” on their lips, when a sharply kicked corner flew through Rubin’s box past players on boths sides, only to be wrapped up by Rubin’s keeper Sergey Ry‑zhikov.

In the 22nd minute the active Karadeniz missed a goal only by a few centimeters, after a quick‑ly played free kick. This was the last highlight of the first half of a game that took place on a pitch in such poor condition that it hard‑ly deserved this name.

In the second half the Rubin side quarreled with referee Vilkov, who denied Nelson Valdez’s goal due to an offside call. A few min‑utes later, however, Bibras Na‑tcho launched a corner kick into Spartak’s box where Rubin’s de‑fender Roman Sharonov jumped higher than Spartak’s Marek Suchý and headed the ball into the opponent’s goal.

After this goal, the Rubin side continued aggressively seeking

a second goal. Nelson Valdez and Obafemi Martins both had great opportunities to score the crucial goal, but both of them could not bring the ball past Dikan in a one‑on‑one situation. There is an unwritten rule that failing to con‑nect offensively eventually ends in conceding a goal, and indeed, in the 80th minute Spartak’s Irish substitute winger Aiden McGeady sent a gentle cross straight onto Emmanuel Emenike’s head, who had no problems scoring the equalizer.

“We should have won today,” commented Rubin’s only goal scorer Roman Sharonov after the match. Considering the two great opportunities that Valdez and Martins missed, one could agree with him. Spartak midfielder Di‑lyar Bilyaletdinov identified Val‑dez’s miss as “the key moment” in their game. “After that, we at‑tacked with more and more pow‑er,” he said.

All in all, it is Rubin’s own fault that they didn’t collect three points, which would have been important in their struggle to qual‑

rubin Plays To Draw Against Spartak Moscow

by Artur KUlIKOVAK BArS 1TrAKTOr 315 March—Winning yester‑

day’s match should have been as easy as falling off a log for Ak Bars. The Kazan side was ex‑pected to polish off Traktor eas‑ily, especially after its stunning triumph against ex‑champions Salavat Ulayev. The only diffi‑culty for Ak Bars was that they would play without team leader Aleksei Morozov, but even so they were, by all accounts, a clear favorite.

Instead, Traktor fought back last night, proving to be a hard nut to crack for Ak Bars, who end‑ed up losing, 1‑3.

The match was literally a hock‑ey fiesta in Chelyabinsk, thanks to the enthusiastic support of fans for both teams. The first period did not see matched enthusiasm from the offenses of both teams, leaving the audience goalless and with only one highlight—a shot by Stanislav Chistov before the game was eight minutes old.

In the second period, Ak Bars showed just how costly the tini‑

est defensive mistake can bee for their opponents, with Evgeny Skachkov scoring and taking a 1‑0 lead. Unfortunately, the Ta‑tarstan side couldn’t hold on, with Traktor’s Andrei Popov equalizing the score at one a piece.

Both teams were tied 1‑1 go‑ing into the third period, which made the dif ference in the match. Traktor managed to score on a power play created when Ak Bars’s Oleg Petrov was sent off. Ak Bars didn’t give up, try‑ing desperately to tie the game up. However, after trading off

their goalkeeper for a sixth at‑tacker, Ak Bars left their net empty, making it easy for Kon‑stantin Panov to score a third goal for Traktor.

The 1‑3 loss to Traktor is up‑setting for Ak Bars fans, but all is not bad. Even though they lost, Ak Bars was not completely out‑played. Furthermore, the Kazan side still has several opportuni‑ties to avenge the painful loss, especially when the series returns to Kazan. The next match will be played in Chilyabinsk on 16 March.

false Start for Ak Bars On Path To Semifinals

by Artur KUlIKOVAK BArS 1TrAKTOr 217 March—Practically every‑

one in the hockey community thought Ak Bars would strike back, answering a 1‑3 loss to Traktor in the first match of the series with a win. As it turns out, everyone can sometimes be wrong. Trak‑tor defeated Ak Bars 2‑1 last night, showing that the have no doubts or reservations in their ability to take on and beat their redoubt‑able opponent.

From the start, the Kazan side came out aggressively, literally fretting and fuming, forcing Trak‑tor to defend devilishly. Only thanks to their goal keeper, Trak‑tor was able to keep Ak Bars scoreless in the first period. Trak‑tor’s own counterattacks were harmless, clearly showing their strategy was to stay even and fend off Ak Bars’ offense as best they could.

The second period portended to be a joyous herald for Kazan fans. Current leader of Ak Bars Danis Zaripov instilled hope in heats across Tatarstan, capital‑izing on an opportunity made when two Chelyabinsk players were sent off with a goal. At this point, it seemed that Traktor would need a miracle to save the match, and to their credit, the team proved that miracles do happen. Andrei Popov scored an equalizer for the Chelyabinsk side just before the end of the second period, provid‑ing fans of both teams with food for thought during the break.

Unfortunately for Ak Bars, the third period demonstrated just how cruel destiny can be. Just as they began to increase pressure, a silly mistake by a defender cost Ak Bars, as Evgeny Kuznetsov capitalized, sending the puck into the back of the net. The Kazan side was now in the unenviable position of being down 1‑2 with

only fifteen minutes to go. Cred‑it must be given to the Traktor defense, which didn’t let Ak Bars create any dangerous moments for the next 10 minutes. Ak Bars tried desperately to score, and in the last five minutes of the match they had several opportunities that they couldn’t connect on.

Once again, Ak Bars has lost, on a night when nothing seemed to go right, putting them down two matches to none in the se‑ries. Even so, the Tatarstan team still has a home series coming up, where they will hopefully pull things together.

18 March update: AK BARS 2TRAKTOR 1Ak Bars won in overtime off a

goal by Niko Kapanen tonight at home in Tatneft Arena, bringing the best of seven series to 1-2. The Kazan side hopes to contin-ue their comback on 20 March at 7.30 p.m. in Kazan.

Ak Bars Tripped Up yet Again By Traktor

ify for a place to participate in the Euro League next season.

Next Sunday, the will have the opportunity to rectify this error when they face Lokomotiv Mos‑cow in Tsentralnyj Stadion (Cen‑tral Stadium).

MATCH STATISTICSrubin Kazan — Spartak

Moscow 1:1 (0:0)Tsentralnyj Stadion Kazan,

16,150 spectators

Goals: 58’ Sharonov 1:0, 80’ Emenike 1:1

Rubin: Ryzhikov; Kuzmin, Sharonov, Navas, Kaleshin; Karadeniz, Natcho, Eremenko, Ryazantsev (82’ Nemov); Davy‑dov (61’ Martins), Valdez (73’ Dyadyun)

Spartak: Dikan; Parshivlyuk, Rodríguez, Suchý, Makeev; Bily‑aletdinov; K. Kombarov (86’ Ari), D. Kombarov; Dzyuba (65’ Mc‑Geady); Welliton, Emenike

rubin Kazan’s Gökdeniz Karadeniz. P

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�March 20, 2012 No. 3 (21)The Kazan Herald tourism

Tatarstan Needs you!To better understand and serve the needs of foreign visitors to Kazan, the Tatarstan Ministry of youth Affairs, Sports and Tourism has commissioned us to carry out market research.

Please complete our tourism survey,which can be found:

• Online, at kazanherald.com/tourist‑survey

• At the reception of all Hotels in Kazan

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The Kazan Herald

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free walking tours.

Every Saturday,12 pm.

Historic Kazan,Old TatarSettlement,and muchmore.

Write to us to sign up for our next tour, or for more information, at:thekazanherald@inbox.ru.

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by Simone PEEKPetropavlovsky Sobor (Peter

and Paul Cathedral) is just one minute away from the beaten trail of ulitsa Baumana, at a comfort‑able walking distance from both the Kazan Kremlin and Kazan Fed‑eral University’s main building. Despite this central locale, the cathedral is tucked away on a hill between ulitsa Profsoyuznaya and ulitsa Kremlyevsakaya, almost as if it is hiding from tourists. Do not let this coyness fool you, though: Petropavlovsky Sobor is gor‑geous, an essential stop on any visit to Kazan.

The exterior of this 52‑meter high, two‑story cathedral is a pleasant mix of Muscovite Baroque and Florentine, improvised style, executed in blooming pastel col‑ors. Originally built from 1723 to 1726 to commemorate Tsar Peter the Great’s visit to Kazan, the ca‑thedral has since suffered from looting and Soviet rule. Since be‑ing reconsecrated in 1989, how‑ever, Petropavlovsky Sobor has seen a great deal of restoration work, and its frescos and icons are now in quite good shape.

Entering the cathedral’s low‑er‑level temple, you could be for‑

given for the impression that you have accidently entered an old basement. Nevertheless, con‑tinue forward, and you will even‑tually enter the lower temple’s cozy, first area, where there are plenty of beautifully painted scrip‑tures finished in 2002 to admire, in addition to a nice but simple wooden iconostasis.

For Orthodox visitors, the ca‑thedral’s main attraction is the miracle‑working icon of the Virgin Feodorskaya. For non‑religious tourists, a visit to the cathedral has it’s own appeal: the staircase to the upper temple opens to a breathtaking view over Kazan’s city center, even allowing one to see as far as the Volga river.

The upper temple has a de‑cidedly more majestic impression than its lower counterpart. Gold‑plated, golden‑framed icons correspond to the mental image that the word cathedral conjures up. This visual ambience, com‑bined with the light sound of snor‑ing from a local elderly woman, leaves a visitor with the feeling of a trip well spend.

The cathedral’s freestanding bell tower deserves special no‑tice. Built at the same time as the

Petropavlovsky Sobor

cathedral, it now falls under the semi‑autonomous command of Andrei (last name unknown), a local artist with a preference for fluorescent paint in works with Aztec, Orthodox, and other reli‑gious influences. At one point a security guard for the church, Andrei has converted one of the upper chambers of the bell tow‑er into his own studio, where he comes every day to paint. Brave tourists who want to take a look at Andrei’s collection and take in the even more spectacular view from the top of the bell tow‑

er are encouraged to knock on the wooden door of the bell tow‑er, but be forewarned that the staircase and top of the tower have not been made tour‑ist‑friendly.

Entrance to Petropavlovsky Sobor is free. Church personnel are friendly to foreigners, and photographs of the church’s in‑terior are allowed without extra charge.

The Church welcomes visitors daily from 9:00 a.m. until 18:00 p.m. Services are held every day at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., except on

Sundays, when there are two morning liturgies, at 6:30 a.m. and at 8:30 a.m.

How To Get TherePetropavlovsky Sobor. 21 ulit‑

sa Musy Dzhalilya. +7 (843) 292 0841, 292 1358.

It’s best to visit the cathedral on foot when exploring central Kazan. To get there, you can take the metro to Kremlevskaya stop. From there, walk away from the Kremlin on ulitsa Profsoyuznaya ulitsa. Take the second street to the left, and you will find the ca‑thedral on your left.

Petropavlovsky Sobor, pictured about, is an essential stop on any visit to Kazan.

Narthex of upper chamber, with the famous Virgin feodorskaya icon second from left.

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evening, sometimes for free to get work experience, sometimes to pay for their stud‑ies, sometimes both, which means they do not have weekends at all. Some of my col‑leagues and teachers work all day long, teaching private lessons or working a sec‑ond job because their salaries as teachers in the university is not high enough.

Most retired women have to work any‑ways, since pensions are about 6,000 ru‑bles per month (both for men and women). And all of them get home and cook, clean, and do everything they are expected to do as women in their houses. In some cases, these women have to take care of their parents or their children on their own, just on one salary.

Even so, I never hear them complain. The only thing I hear them complaining about is Russian men, who try to control them, do not help them in the house, or are disrespectful (all of which can poten‑tially lead to a situation of domestic abuse). But they never complain about their work situation and they do nothing about their personal situation. I admire the strength and the patience of Russian women.

I understand that the ideal of many women of being a housewife married to a rich man can be the best solution to their problems. I do not share this dream, but I know that, in other countries, some wom‑en want that too. Some say that all these problems happen everywhere. But just because something happens everywhere doesn’t mean we should stop fighting it.

opiNioN

Putin inspires MeTo the Editor:Re “March 2012 Presidential Election:

The Candidates” (8 March):The world system is like a troubled sea

that all the nations are in. In this system, few nations have managed themselves on the only lifeboat, while other nations swim around in the water, desperately try‑ing to get on this lifeboat. But if they allow all of the nations on the lifeboat, it will sink and go under. Therefore they have to keep some nations off. Realistically, this is the only humane thing in order to ensure the survival of a few (wealthy) nations. Rus‑sia was forced to abandon the lifeboat with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Pu‑tin reinvigorated Russia and brought it back on the lifeboat, and now the estab‑lished nations on the lifeboat are sputter‑ing in frustration. They are angst and par‑simonious when it comes to sharing space with Russia. Their target is Captain Putin, who lead Russia back onto the lifeboat. They are driven by the desire to replace the strong man with a weak captain. When Russian history is rewritten, the legacy of Putin will mirror the legacy of Bismarck, who crafted policies to achieve important goals as best he could given finite re‑sources. Putin’s rise is an ongoing essay that has grown a life of its own. He con‑tinues to inspire me.

S.D. VIPULMumbai, India6 March 2012

Tatar LegacyTo the Editor:I would like to applaud Yusha for a job

well done in his reflective personal article, “On the Trail of a Tatar Legacy” (28 Febru‑ary). All throughout the West, very little is known about the Tartars and the immense impact they have had on world history. To my astonishment, I recently discovered that the Tartars had existed as a major force all throughout medieval Russia which served as a catalyst that would form the backbone of the modern day Russian Federation. The cultural, linguistic, and humanitarian con‑tributions that have been put forth by the Tartars deserves every little shred of inter‑national attention and recognition. I only hope that the rest of the world can discov‑

er the richness of the Tartar people, their culture, and ancestral homeland.

OMAR ALANSARI‑KREGER29 February 2012

Volga GermansTo the Editor:“Fragments of Heimat: In Search of

Volga Germans” (7 February) is a very good article, but very disconcerting for me to read because all my grandparents were Volga Germans who emigrated to Kansas in the United States in the late 1800s. Al‑though they became Americans, the ori‑gins my grandparents claimed were always the Volga German villages where they lived. Even today their descendants maintain many Volga German cultural traditions and foodways and a few still speak the Volga German dialect. To have Russians deny their contributions to the development of the Saratov area and their unjust treatment is very painful.

SAMUEL BRUNGARDT7 February 2012

Time is MoneyTo the Editor:Obviously powerful men want to dis‑

play their prowess for attaining high po‑litical and economic positions (“Idel‑Ural — Time is Money,” 31 January) . They can drive Mercedes, BMWs and Bentley cars and they can dress their wives in jewels, but in a tight portrait photo, all they can fit into the frame is their wristwatch, tie, and suit. However, spending all those rubles on a wristwatch doesn’t really help in a photo because, other than seeing it’s not a cheap digital watch, its really hard to see the brand! However, the “suit makes the man,” and in your photos, we see a prob‑lem: President Minnikhanov’s business suit is very shiny and wrinkled. Compare that to the expensive cut and tone of Min‑ister Akhmetov’s business suit. Each suit might well have cost 30,000 rubles–but only one looks worth it!

JOHN NEWCOMB1 February 2012

“letters to the Editor” is a compilation of commentary on Kazan Herald articles, submitted either in writing or as a com-ment on the website. To submit a letter for consideration, post a comment or write us a letter at thekazanhearld@inbox.ru.

Letters to the Editor

by Edward CRABTREEThe hiker who inadvertently took the

three second long shot wishes to remain anonymous. This video footage, first shown on a Russian television documentary three years ago, appears to show an upright, hairy man‑like ape lurking in the wood‑lands of Siberia. Yeti hunters across the world, long weary of hoaxes, have found it credible. Thus we have another addition to the enduring legend of the Russian snowman, the “snyeshny chelovek.”

This phenomenon has already been dubbed the “Kuzbass Bigfoot” after an‑other name for Kemerovo Oblast in Sibe‑ria, where sightings have been frequent. In the Southern part of the region, Gor‑naya Shorya, there have been 15 testimo‑nies, no less, about the presence of an unusual ape‑like beast there, complete with claims that it is making off with their livestock.

The American magazine Outdoor Life was being inundated with so many tales of this kind about the Siberian taiga that, when they secured a written interview with Mr. Putin on 19 May 2011, they asked: “Are there any yetis or wood‑goblins there?” Mr Putin’s response was as cryp‑

tic as it was diplomatic: “Anything is pos‑sible. I recommend you to come and search.”

Another Russian celebrity seems to have taken up Putin’s gauntlet. The half‑Ta‑tar boxing champion Nikolai Valuyev flew to the Kemerovo region last summer to search himself. “Proof that the yeti exists appeared before the Russian revolution,” he intriguingly told The Independent last year on 17 September .

Nor is this focus on Russia as a home for unknown hominids a new one. Back in 1983, following a field trip to Mongolia, Dr. Myra Shackley, a British lecturer in Archaeological Science, devoted a book–entitled “Wildmen: Yeti, Sasquatch and Neanderthal Enigma”–to detailed reports of such creatures from Mongolia, the Pamirs, the Caucasus, and Siberia. Her conclusion: “there appears to be a prima facie case for the existence of a yeti type primate…in Western Siberia….Many of the sightings reported by reindeer herd‑ers and fishermen appear to be authen‑tic, but there is undoubtedly a gloss of folktale.”

But does this only apply to Siberia? In The Kazan Herald on February 3rd, I pro‑

posed that the “Shurale” figure of Tatar and Bashkir mythology might be a distort‑ed folk‑memory of real interactions with relict hominids. Let us look at how Shura‑le is depicted–as a hairy, man‑like forest dweller. His name is said to refer to his trademark deep laugh; bigfoot and yeti encounters also involve the creature mak‑ing a howling or shrieking noise. Shurale has a horn on the top of his head; the ye‑ti’s is thought to be cone‑shaped. Shura‑le lives in birds’ nests; once again, Sas‑quatch investigators have stumbled across “nests” of twigs, which they ascribe to the Sasquatch’s activity.

Lastly, the stories of Shurale involve him poaching farm animals, and such is the case with the modern yeti, as the peo‑ple of Gornaya Shoria can testify. It is also to be admitted that Shurale has the power of speech and a predilection for tickling people to death. Consider, however, the local snow‑leopard–the Ak Bars. Is this not a catalogued, familiar animal? Stylized Ta‑tar folk‑art, however, shows it in some cases even having wings.

Established science does not com‑pletely jeer at the idea of the existence of the yeti–the iconic British naturalist

David Attenborough made waves in 2009 when he said, live on a television talk show, that yeti footprints found 19,000 feet up were, by dint of this very fact, not likely to be the work of tricksters. Never‑theless, harder evidence is demanded. Why, ask the skeptics, in this intercon‑nected and increasingly globalized era, are credible sightings not more frequent? Professor Valentin Sapunov, the St Pe‑tersburg based author of “The Secrets of the Snowmen: Between Man and Beast,” has a ready answer: we do not see them so often because they don’t wish to be seen!

I am not qualified to say as to whether the contemporary flora and fauna of Ta‑tarstan is of the kind where a snowman, yeti or Shurale could be hiding and thriv‑ing. What is needed is for some educated Tatar speakers to go out into the more re‑mote villages and see what stories there are from both past and present. While they are about it, they should take a video cam‑era with them. You never know…! Snow‑man? Snowjoke!

The author, a British citizen, has been living and working in Kazan for more than two years.

russian Snowman riddle Continues

by Ines CERROThe Eighth of March is International

Working Women’s Day, a holiday created at the beginning of the 20th century to keep fighting for gender equality, after years of demonstrations for women’s rights. In many countries, it is still a day on which demon‑strations are held. But not in Russia—here, the day is just a celebration when you show your affection to women around you.

Russian women have more rights than many women all over the world, including those that live in some of the most devel‑oped Occidental countries. Abortion is le‑gal for up to 14 weeks—and in some cas‑es even up to 22 weeks. Divorce is allowed. Women can work in any sphere they want, maternity leave is on full salary for up to 140 days. The retirement age for women is 50. Most of these rights were granted during Soviet times, meaning that they have been in the legal system for many decades.

Some think that this is why modern Russian women take their rights for grant‑ed—they didn’t have to fight for them. This is also why Women’s Day here is just a day when women receive flowers and choco‑lates, without any demonstrations. There used to be demonstrations in Soviet times, but the revolutionary spirit of Soviet femi‑nists disappeared as communism died. Being a feminist in Russia is now consid‑ered old fashioned and decidedly unfem‑inine. Women don’t see the point of fight‑ing for their rights, and why should they? They already have them.

But is this really the case? Domestic violence is a commonplace. According to some statistics, every 40 minutes a woman is killed by her husband in Russia. There are also few women in politics—only three ministers are women—or in upper manage‑ment in many firms. On average, a woman’s salary is 35 per cent less than her male counterpart. More than two thirds of wom‑en bear the double burden of family and work, a situation that has caused an increase in divorce in recent years. And in 2003, a Gender Equality Law accepted in the Duma was blocked by the government.

My doubts continue as I think of all wom‑en I have met here. My friends are students, studying in the morning and working in the

Being A Woman in russia

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idel‑ural

Искәндәр ТедескИ

Татарча беләсезме?Президент сайлаулaры Prezident sailaularý Presidential electionsСез сайлауларда катнаштыгызмы?

Sez sailaurdá katnashtýgyzmу?

Did you participate in the elections?

Нигә? Nigéh Why (not)?Гадел(‑сез) Gadel(‑sez) Fair (unfair)Сез кемне сайладыгыз? Sez kemné sailadigíz? Who did you vote for?Путин сезгә ошыймы ? Putin sezgé oshymý ? Do you like Putin?Хәзерге хакимиятне сез ничек бәялисез?

Khazergé khakimiyatné sez nishek beyalísez?

What do you think about the current leadership?

Илебезгә булыша Ilebezgéh bulisháh It is helping the countryТапталанып тора Taptalanýp toráh There is a stagnationСатылып беткән Satylýp betkén It has been bought

by Maxim EDWARDS The world’s largest Koran was present‑

ed to President of Tatarstan Rustam Min‑nikhanov in 2011, just one example of the subtlety with which the republic is pleased to show, after years of Soviet atheism, that the minarets of Islam are back on the ho‑rizon. Quite a number of them, in fact. Re‑cent proposals for the new, ambitious Al‑Kabir Mosque complex in Kazan’s neigh‑borhood of Azino were announced with article headlines such as “Will Kul Sharif have a big brother?” With capacity for 2,000 worshipers and a design reminiscent of an engorged Kul Sharif, controversy seems to be expected: the article comes prepared with a poll under the question “Does Ka‑zan really need another mosque?”

Given the portrayals of the region and its Islamic heritage in foreign literature—especially guidebook descriptions as “Is‑tanbul on the Volga”—one would be for‑given for expecting quite a different, more religious Kazan than the city that a first‑time visitor is actually confronted with. At best, foreign views of Kazan—in many ways sup‑ported by the Republic of Tatarstan’s tour‑ism campaigns—show Kazan as a model for inter‑religious peace and harmony worldwide, and at worst, as another Is‑lamic region of Russia teetering on the brink of sectarian violence. Both views are to a certain degree disingenuous, as they both appear to overlook the component of Islam in Tatar nationality.

The strong political identity Tatar Islam gives does not necessarily translate into a strong religious adherence. Polls show that, although 80 per cent of Tatar youth consid‑

er themselves to be Muslims, just two per cent attend mosque every week, four per cent every month. Hijabs are rare. Gold cres‑cents are worn in much the same manner as a Christian would wear a crucifix, whilst the “tisbә” (a name given to Islamic religious kitsch hanging from the rear‑view mirror) serves primarily as an ethnic and linguistic marker. As some unfortunates who have taken a private taxi in the small hours in Ka‑zan may know, “tisbә” hanging from the car mirror is not going to detract from a small “one for the road.” (“Only the most religious Muslims don’t drink alcohol…the fanatics,” was how one Tatar explained it.)

Culturally relevant furry dice aside, the question remains whether the near con‑stant portrayals of Kazan as a city of open‑mindedness, an “Istanbul on the Volga,” should be chalked down to good relations between ethnicities or good re‑lations between faiths. Tatarstan’s Islam is political—deeply so—yet politicized in a highly localized way given the conflation of Islam with Tatar identity, Islam being a key way of manifesting non‑Russianness in a city of conflicting identities. In any re‑spect, Kazan is certainly a tolerant city by all counts, perhaps due in part to the vis‑ibility of various religious identities if not so much their actual practice.

For whom, therefore, are the 2,000 plac‑es in the Al‑Kabir Mosque planned to be? “Everything depends on funding,” says the leader of the project, Akhmad‑Rashid Dusti‑yev, before stating that the land hasn’t even been bought yet. Dustiyev hopes that the mosque will be open by 2018 for Muslim visitors when Kazan hosts the World Cup.

If completed, the Al‑Kabir mosque will likely be one of, if not the, largest mosque in Russia. But despite its ostentatious size and the number of “biznes” connections which will be needed to realize it, it is an embryo of an idea. Whilst the name of the Kul Sharif mosque could not have been a more politicized choice (in honor of the Imam who died defending its 16th centu‑ry predecessor against Russian forces), “Al‑Kabir” simply translates as “Great.” Whilst Kul Sharif was constructed in the ancient Kazan Kremlin, a location where even the discovery of a small number of bones led to a nationalist outcry over their identity, the Al‑Kabir will be built over a motorway, on what is now a disused car park near to the decidedly un‑controversial and secular landmarks of Kazan’s IKEA and the Soviet prospekt Pobedy (Victory Prospect), a largely residential area. Great. The tourism potential for such a complex could be a useful argument, but given the location it could also be an unconvincing one, with few other touristic landmarks nearby and a location incomparable to the setting of the Kremlin.

Many may lose sleep over this project, not least because of the cost involved, since Tatarstan has less economic free‑dom for indulgences such as these as it had during the last decade. It puts the proj‑ect in perspective—or more properly, the superlative—to point out that if it surpass‑es the Kul Sharif in size, it will in fact be the largest Mosque in Europe outside Istan‑bul. If it is constructed, there will probably be something more substantial to the Al‑Kabir than just its foundations, its over‑

by Katriina MyllyMAKIBureaucracy, police, corruption, and

the legal system are four institutions in Russia that most foreigners are rather keen on avoiding. Russian police are something that we are mistrustful—if not scared—of. Laws are not always adhered to, even by the authorities themselves—in part be‑cause Russian legislation is complicated, in part because of severe problems of cor‑ruption within the police force and legal system.

The most common encounter with Rus‑sian police officers takes place on the street, when you are asked to show identification documents. In this situation, it is common for foreigners to get nervous and scared, because of their lack of legal knowledge and because of the negative image they have of Russian police—everyone has heard stories of people bribing the police simply out of fear, or of getting robbed by con artists posing as police.

Russian police are underpaid and no‑torious for trying to supplement their low incomes with bribes. (The official salary for a street official in the Republic of Ta‑tarstan is roughly 11,000 rubles per month, while in Moscow it is around 20,000 rubles per month.) For this reason, it is crucial for foreigners to know their rights so as to pro‑tect themselves against illegal activity.

The Police (Politsiya) was established in May 2011 under the Law of Police (Fed‑eralny Zakon RF “O Politsii”), replacing the Militsiya. Under Article 13 of the law, the police are authorized to check the per‑sonal identity documents of citizens, in‑cluding non‑Russian citizens.

Know your rights in russia

all design said to be reminiscent of an “el‑egant white ship in flight, crowned with blue domes.” Flying ships, as anybody with knowledge of Russian tales will know, are often associated with fools—not just of Tatarstan, but of the world—and the met‑aphor may be a very apt one in compari‑son to the Kul Sharif, firmly anchored to the Kremlin and its troubled past.

With Putin’s open letter on the subject of Russia’s multicultural and multiconfes‑sional population (originally for Nezavisi‑maya Gazeta) written shortly before his Presidential campaign, it will be interest‑ing to find out to what port this ship, Tatar identity with its unique form of Islam, is heading.

“Idel-Ural” is a column about the Volga region and its melting pot of peoples.

According to Article 5, “While address‑ing a citizen, a police officer:

Shall announce his position, rank and surname, show his service identity docu‑ment if requested by the citizen, and there‑after announce the reason and purpose of the address.

If measures are applied to the citizen whereby his rights and freedoms are re‑stricted, a police officer must explain to the citizen the reasons and grounds for the use of such measures and also the rights and duties of the citizen in connec‑tion thereto.”

The police have no right to take your passport, nor are you obliged to give it to them: your passport is the property of your home country. It is recommended to car‑

ry a photocopy of your passport, visa, and registration to show when you are stopped, instead of the original documents. As long as you have all valid documents, you should feel safe. If Russian police find that you have committed an immigration violation, they cannot detain you for more than three hours. Unless you have committed a crime, they cannot touch you or use force, detain you, hurt you, or extract money. Even if they find out that you haven’t registered your visa in a timely fashion, you cannot be fined for it, since, according to current legislation, the person or institution that granted your visa invitation is responsible for registration.

If you have a run in with the police, the best thing to do is to stay calm, show your knowledge of the law, and demon‑strate that you are willing to call your em‑bassy should you have any problems. The problem of corruption has been the subject of a lot of attention recently, both in Russia and abroad, as foreign embas‑sies and consulates in Russia have been pro‑active in providing amble informa‑tion and advice about how to avoid un‑necessary problems with the local au‑thorities. For more detailed information in your native language, it is recommend‑ed to visit the website of your embassy to the Russian Federation.

Kul Sharif’s Big Brother

Plans for the proposed Al‑Kabir Mosque.

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March 20, 2012 No. 3 (21)

www.kazanherald.comEdition: 999 copies.Published in Branch of JSC “TATMEDIA” “PPC “Idel‑Press”. Order 6419 The editorial board is not responsible for the accuracy of the information published in advertisements. The editorial board does not give background information. All products and services subject to certification and licensing are certified and licensed. Advertisements are published on the rights of advertising.

To place an advertisement, call +7‑987‑407‑73‑86.

Published in Idel‑Press printing‑office.Signed for publication 19.03.2012Given for press by schedule 18.00, in fact 18.00Address of press‑office: City of Kazan, Dekabristov street, 2Telephone/fax: 292‑01‑63, 543‑44‑20, 543‑44‑45e‑mail: thekazanherald@inbox.ru

The publication is distributed free of charge.

The Kazan Herald

Cit y Guide

20–31 marCh

CINEMAKINOTEATR “MIR” (MIR CINEMA)future Shorts, Spring 2012. The popu‑lar pop‑up film festival’s spring program comes to Kazan. The 70‑minute program includes: Bear (Australia), Love You More (Great Britain), Mourir aupres de toi (France), Quadrangle (USA), Hand (USA), Venera (Denmark). located at 30 ulitsa Dostoevskogo. +7 (843) 238 0950, kinote-atr-mir.ru. 7 p.m.

CONCERTSfri, 23 MarchPelegia. This remarkable girl sings Rus‑sian fold and ancient Slavic ritual chants, accompanied by sweeping rock guitar. Pi-ramida. 7 p.m.SUN, 25 MarchKorol i Shut. Legendary Russian punt band comes to Zheltaya Kofta. 6 p.m.TUES, 27 MarchCecilia Bartoli. Italian mezzo soprano comes to dazzle and wow with her colura‑tura. Bolshoi Kontsertny Zal, 6.30 p.m.

DANCE6th iNTErNATiONAL fESTiVAL Of CHO‑rEOGrAPHy SCHOOLSFounded in 2001 as part of a UNESCO pro‑gram entitled “The Language of Ballet is the Language of Peace,” the two‑day fes‑tival features concerts and master classes with participants from more than 14 cho‑reography schools across Belarus, Rus‑sia, and Turkey. SAT, 17 March: opening ceremony, 6 p.m. SUN, 18 March: perfor‑mance at 12 p.m, closing ceremony at 6 p.m. MON, 19 March: roundtable discus‑sion of choreography education at Kazan Choreography Uchilishche. All perfor-mances at Musa Jalil Opera and Ballet Theatre.TUES, 20 MarchSwan Lake. Timeless ballet in four acts by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, with choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. Musa Jalil Opera and Ballet Theatre. 6 p.m.WED, 21 MarchSwan Lake. See 20 March listing. 6 p.m.SAT, 24 MarchSkazanie o Yusufe (Tales of Joseph). This ballet in three acts tells the Biblical story of Joseph, sold into slavery by his brothers only to go on to become the Pha‑raoh’s right‑hand man. Music by Kazan’s own Leonid Lyubovsky, whose 75th birth‑day will celebrated this evening. Musa Jalil Opera and Ballet Theatre. 6 p.m.TUES, 27 MarchPeter Gynt. Ballet in two acts, music by Edward Greig, choreographed by George Kovtun based on a play by Henrik Ibsen. Musa Jalil Opera and Ballet Theatre. 6 p.m.

International Women’s Day, from 7 March to 6 April. located at 23 ulitsa Gorkogo. Open Mon to Fri, 2 to 5 p.m. AKSENOV HOMEExhibition in memory of Vladimir Ko-chunov (1929‑2011). Landscapes, still life, and photographs by his son Oleg. lo-cated at 55/31 ulitsa Karla Marksa.

NIGHTLIFEfri, 23 MarchBeatlord 21. DJ MaloFF, M.O.O.N Pro. 4 komnaty. 11 p.m. ivanushki int. Russian disco legend per‑forming a live set. Rai. 11 p.m.Serebro. Russian female trio famous from Eurovision 2007 finals. Maximilian’s Brau-erei. 9 p.m.SAT, 24 MarchArabian Dreams. Oriental‑themed par‑ty. Rai. 11 p.m.Danko. Reknowned romance singer Alek‑sander Fadeev live at T.E.A.T.R.O. 9 p.m.THUrS, 29 MarchMaksim. Evening of instrumental music at Maximilian’s Brauerei. 20 p.m. fri, 30 MarchNew Reality One Year. All trance: Max Pirat, Bulat AX1S, Roman Yarzev, Faruk Maloff, Kostya Veter, Igor Quartz (Mos‑cow). 4 komnay. 11 p.m.Mitya fomin. Hi‑Fi leader live at Rai. 11 p.m.Kasta. Presentation of their solo album Vladi. Ermitazh. 8 p.m.

VENUES4 komnaty. 17 ulitsa Astronomicheskaya. +7 (843) 260 5704.Bolshoi Kontsertny Zal. 38 ploshchad Svobody. +7 (843) 292 1717.Cinema Cafe. 1b prospekt Amirkhana. +7 (843) 526 5656.Ermitazh. 1 prospekt Amirkhana. +7 (843) 526 5626.Galiaskar Kamal Theatre. 1 ulitsa Ta‑tarstan. Box Office: +7 (843) 293 0374. kamalteatr.ru.Kachalov Theatre. 48 ulitsa Baumana. Box Office: +7 (843) 292 3483, 292 5481. teatrkachalov.ru.Luxor Night Club. 29a ulitsa Pushkina. +7 (843) 297 3161.Martini. 85a ulitsa Dekabristov. +7 (843) 296 2627.Maximilian’s Brauerei. 6 ulitsa Sparta‑kovskaya. +7 (843) 526 5526.Musa Jalil Opera and Ballet Theatre. 2 ploshchad Svobody. Box Office: +7 (843) 231 5710. kazan-opera.ru.Piramida. 3 ulitsa Moskovskaya. +7 (843) 570 0700.rai. 26 ulitsa Parizhskoi. raiclub-kazan.ru.T.E.A.T.r.O. 9a ulitsa Chistopolskaya.+7 (843) 517 6555.

THUrS, 29 MarchLa Fille mal gardee. Вallet in two acts hailed as “the grandmother of contempo‑rary ballet” with music by Louis Herold, performed here with Oleg Vinogradov’s 1973 choreography. Musa Jalil Opera and Ballet Theatre. 6 p.m.SAT, 31 MarchA Thousand and One Nights. Ballet in two acts based on the renowned collec‑tion of Arabic folk tales. Music by Azerbai‑jani composer Fikret Amirov. Production by Nailya Nazirova. Musa Jalil Opera and Ballet Theatre. 1 p.m.

THEATRETUES, 20 MarchSkripach na Kryshe (Fiddle on the Roof). Musical in 2 acts. Kachalov Theatre. 6 p.m. WED, 21 MarchBaba Chanel. Comedy in 2 acts. Kacha-lov Theatre. 6 p.m. THUrS, 22 MarchTartuffe (The Impostor). A Tatar‑language verion of Jean Baptiste Molière’s 17th cen‑tury comedy. Galiaskar Kamal Theatre. 7 p.m. fri, 23 MarchVishnevy Sad (The Cherry Orchard). Comedy in 2 acts. Kachalov Theatre. 6 p.m. SAT, 24 MarchPikovaya Dama (The Queen of Spades). Theatrical fantasia. Kachalov Theatre. 6 p.m. SUN, 25 MarchZenger Shel (The Blue Shawl). A tradi‑tional Tatar folk‑comedy by Karim Tinchurin. Galiaskar Kamal Theatre. 6 p.m. WED, 28 MarchThe Chandelier. Romantic comedy in

two parts by Ilgiz Zainiev. Galiaskar Kamal Theatre. 7 p.m. THUrS, 29 MarchThe Summer Season. Comedy in two parts by Salawat Yuzeyev. Galiaskar Kamal Theatre. 7 p.m. fri, 30 MarchSix Brides, One Groom. Romantic com‑edy in two parts by Tufan Minullin. Galias-kar Kamal Theatre. 7 p.m. SAT, 31 MarchThe Black Cloak. Ossetian dramatists Gyor Khugayev’s haunting musical drama, a cousin to the Tatar “Zenger Shel.” Galias-kar Kamal Theatre. 6 p.m.

EXHIBITSHErMiTAGE CENTErSpanish Art From the Hermitage. Ex‑hibition of 19th and 20th century Spanish art, with 235 pieces on display, including engraving plates, silverware, bronze, and ceramics. Until 5 August. 3rd Floor of Her-mitage Center, Kazan Kremlin. Open Tues to Sun, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.LENiN HOME AND MUSEUMPhotography of Anna Busygina. lo-cated at 58 ulitsa Ulyanova-lenina. Open Tues to Sat, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.rEPUBLiC Of TATArSTAN NATiONAL MUSEUMThat Same Doll. More than 150 dolls on loan from the Museum of Unique Dolls. Impressive range, including porcelain and wax dolls by French masters, British and German toy doll houses, and famous So‑viet dolls. Until 22 April. located at 2 ulitsa Kremlyevskaya. Open Tues to Sun, 10 a.m. to 5.30 p.m.TUrKiSH CONSULATEKazanskaya Krasavitsa (Beauty of Ka‑zan). Photograph exhibition in honor of

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Musa Jalil Opera and Ballet Theatre.