Russia plans ceremony to sway sceptical world

Russia plans ceremony to sway sceptical world

 

Sochi (Russia) (AFP)

 

Russia on Friday officially opens in Sochi its first ever Winter Olympics with the ceremony attended by many of heads of state and aimed at impressing a sceptical world with an unforgettable spectacle.

 

With a hard act to follow after show-stopping Summer Olympics opening ceremonies 2012 in London, Russia is expected to pull out all the stops to give the world an evening to remember.

 

The ceremony starts, with symbolic timing, at 2014 local time (1614 GMT) in the spectacular new Fisht Stadium on the shores of the Black Sea and will mark the beginning of one of the most controversial Olympics in recent history.

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has spearheaded the Sochi Games from the bid in 2007, will be at the ceremony along with over 40 other heads of state and leaders.

 

These will include Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and embattled Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych who is facing a protest uprising at home.

 

Their appearance will also pave the way for several days of behind-the-scenes diplomacy at the Olympics where the Kremlin hopes to strengthen ties with key allies in an informal setting.

 

Russia is expected to spare little expense in the ceremony, details of which have been kept under wraps but which is expected to show the world a history of Russian culture and power.

 

"The ceremony will be one of the most exciting and visual ever," the head of the Sochi Organising Committee Dmitry Chernyshenko told reporters.

 

"This is a theatre with a 40,000 seat capacity" he said of the Fisht stadium.

 

"It can allow the realisation of any creative thought."

 

Some of Russia’s most decorated cosmonauts -– including Sergei Krikalev who was famously stranded in space on the Mir station when the USSR collapsed -- will raise the Russian flag to the top of the stadium.

 

However, who will light the Olympic cauldron is a closely-guarded secret, with Putin insisting it is the choice of the organising committee and not for him to interfere.

 

Russia’s team will be led out by flag-bearer Alexander Zubkov, a bobsleigh pilot and one of the most respected sportsmen in the country who has represented Russia at every Winter Olympics since Salt Lake City in 2002.

 

There have been persistent rumours that the Russian female pop duo Tatu –- hugely popular a decade ago -- will be involved in the ceremony in some form.

 

Although heterosexual in real life, the two girls made heavy use of lesbian schoolgirl imagery in pop videos and their name can translate as “This girl loves that girl.”

 

Their involvement could be seen as a riposte -– albeit somewhat warped –- to Western allegations that Russia is intolerant of homosexuality.

 

'We answered the question'

 

For many elder Russians, the ceremony may bring a pang of nostalgia for the 1980 Moscow Summer Games which are still remembered fondly in particular for the cute mascot Misha the bear.

 

But it remains to be seen whether the Sochi opening ceremony will shift the cloud of controversy which is still hanging over the Games.

 

However Russian officials insist the country is ready to hold a great show and has every right to be the host of the 22nd Winter Games.

 

"The main question people asked was whether we would manage it," said Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak.

 

"The answer is clear -- we have implemented the biggest investment project in recent Olympic history."

 

(Agence France -Presse, 7 Friday February 2014 The Roman)

 

Russia economy chief says dire 2013 was 'low point'

Russia economy chief says dire 2013 was 'low point'

 

Moscow (AFP)

 

Russia's economy chief said on Friday that the country had survived the worst of its sharp growth slowdown and was now on the path toward a cautious recovery.

 

But new data revision showed the $1.9-trillion (1.4-trillion-euro) economy expanding by an even worse than expected 1.3 percent in 2013 -- the second-worst performance of Vladimir Putin's 14 years in power and just a quarter of the Kremlin's target.

 

And a precipitous ruble selloff that has sliced seven percent off the currency's value this month and showed few signs of halting on Friday put Putin under still further pressure despite the upbeat forecast.

 

Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev rallied to Putin's relief by proclaiming the worst phase of Russia's growth slump over now that agriculture and industry were both picking up steam.

 

"It seems to me that we passed the low point somewhere around the third quarter of 2013," Ulyukayev told a ministerial meeting.

 

Russia's economy grew by 3.4 percent in 2012 and had been clipping along at a seven-percent pace during Putin's first two terms as Kremlin chief between 2000 and 2008.

 

Fitch Ratings on Friday attributed the downshift to a "decline in investment and the inventory cycle" and forecast an expansion rate of 2.0 percent this year -- below the world average and lagging most other big emerging market states.

 

Investor mistrust of Russia's economic reform efforts contributed to the ruble being swept up in a selloff of emerging market currencies at the end of last week.

 

The Russian currency -- subject of two devastating post-Soviet devaluations that forced many to question the wisdom of market economics -- was trading down 0.3 percent against the euro at 47.60 rubles and not far off its historic low.

 

The dollar was worth 35.25 rubles -- up 0.7 percent and once again approaching a five-year high it had set on Wednesday.

 

Russia's Central Bank this year reduced its market interventions as it proceeds with the planned introduction of a fully-convertible ruble exchange rate by the start of 2015.

 

Its First Deputy Chairwoman Ksenia Yudayeva gave the Moscow market a further fright on Wednesday by telling The Wall Street Journal that stress tests showed Russian banks being able handle a 30-percent ruble decline.

 

"Politically, devaluation is an understandable move," said Moscow's Higher School of Economics professor Nikolai Petrov.

 

"We have a large budget deficit (of 0.5 percent of gross domestic product) and there are not enough funds to fulfil Putin's election promises of 2012," Petrov told AFP.

 

"The government consciously took this step."

 

Capital flight risk

 

But economists attribute at least some of the ruble's troubles to a deteriorating current account balance that is being hurt by a steady outflow of foreign investor cash.

 

Capital flight reached $63 billion (46.5 billion euros) in 2013 and the government had hoped to see the figure shrink to $25 billion this year.

 

Yet First Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Klepach said that investors' recent turn against emerging markets could result in up to $35 billion leaving Russia in the first three months of the year alone.

 

He added that recent ruble weakness may translate into more expensive imports that push inflation above its annual target rate of 4.8 percent.

 

The delicate balancing act between a loosening of ruble controls and the fight against nagging inflation prompted the Central Bank Chairwoman Elvira Nabiullina to stress on Thursday that the ruble free-float plan "did not provide for a complete end to intervention."

 

The comment suggests that some authorities are alarmed by the pace of the ruble's deterioration and are now prepared to pursue currency support measures for longer than planned.

 

"The Central Bank appears to be increasingly concerned about the extent of the recent fall," Capital Economics said in a research note.

 

The London-based consultancy estimated that the Central Bank had bought about $5 billion (3.7 billion euros) worth of rubles on the Moscow Exchange in January -- a fraction of the $40 billion a month it was selling during the worst of Russia's 2008-2009 financial crisis.

 

"With some $500 billion in (gold and hard currency) reserves, it can stomach intervention on this scale for some time," Capital Economics said.

 

(Agence France-Presse, 31 Friday January 2014 The Roman)

 

News: Figure Skating

News: Figure Skating

 

[caption id="attachment_10213" align="alignnone" width="400"] (Photo AFP - Yuri Kadobnov)[/caption]

 

In a spin

 

American Mirai Nagasu performs during her ladies free skating at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating tournament in Moscow on November 23, 2013.

 

(AFP - Yuri Kadobnov)

 

(Agence France-Presse, 24 Sunday November 2013 The Roman)

(Edited: R.S.F. toshiki speed news press, Agence France-Presse, 25 Monday November 2013 The Roman)

 

 

News: Pigeons

News: Pigeons

 

[caption id="attachment_10186" align="alignnone" width="400"] (Photo AFP - Kirill Kudryavtsev)[/caption]

 

Hungrig

 

Noch im Flug schnappen sich Tauben Brotkrumen, die eine Frau in einem Park in Moskau an die Tiere verfüttert.

 

Hungry

 

Still in flight to catch pigeons bread crumbs, which fed a woman in a park in Moscow to the animals.

 

(AFP - Kirill Kudryavtsev)

 

(Agence France-Presse, 21 Thursday November 2013 The Roman)

(Edited and Translated: R.S.F. toshiki speed news press, Agence France-Presse, 22 Friday November 2013 The Roman)