Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

Fountains at the Park Kultury, close to the scene of the second explosion. In today's Belfast Telegraph I provide analysis of the week's events in Russia. Last Tuesday, just 24 hours after suicide bombers killed 39 people on the Moscow metro, a pair of explosions claimed 12 more lives in Dagestan, a republic near Chechnya, in Russia's troubled south. Wednesday saw two further fatalities, as another bomb went off in the same region. It was a bloody week in Russia and there is apprehension that terrorist violence, linked to Islamist separatists in the Caucasus, could escalate yet further. Life has remained cheap in Chechnya and Dagestan, but the carnage on Moscow's metro demonstrated that insurgents are willing and able to wreak havoc right at the centre of Russian power. I highlight the role of 'The Black Widows' and the leader who recruited them. Under the tutelage of Chechen terror chief Doku Umarov, it is feared that 30 new members have been trained to commit...

Tragic news from Moscow of a type which the city hasn‘t experienced for six years. This morning two suicide bombers killed at least 37 rush hour commuters at the Lubyanka and Park Kultury metro stations. A strike at the Lubyanka station, which stands close to the former KGB headquarters, and still houses the current Russian security apparatus, the FSB, is likely to be symbolic. The square is just a brief walk from the Kremlin. Park Kultury is better known as Gorky Park. It lies a little up the Moscow River, but it is also at the heart of the city. The metro is notoriously busy and, no doubt, at 8am local time, was crammed with people attempting to get to work. It is believed that two female suicide bombers carried out the attacks. Whether they were Chechen, as reports suggest, or part of the wider Islamist insurgency in the Caucasus, time will tell. Certainly it is a reminder that Russia is struggling with a fanatical and lethal foe operating within its borders. In November t...

A locomotive trundles out of Yaroslavsky Station, Moscow. This is the Trans Siberian and it’s bound for Vladivostok, more than 9,000 kilometres distant. It is a journey which will take more than 150 hours to complete. And now you can take the trip without a Russia Visa, without negotiating Komsomolskaya Square, its dubious cast of characters or its pervading smell of urea and without the risk of sharing your carriage with a pair of alcoholic migrant workers. Google have introduced the ‘virtual’ Trans Siberian , courtesy of Google maps and an awful lot of Youtube footage. Listen to Gogol’s Dead Souls, stare out the window and enjoy. But whatever happens, you’re not going to be able to get off at any of the stations and you‘ll have to visit your own kettle, rather than the communal samovar, for a cup of tea. My advice is definitely to jump to the interesting bits.

It is impossible, as a first time visitor to Moscow, not to be impressed by the city’s Metro system. It was conceived that the stations should be ‘people’s palaces’ representing their putative shared ownership by Soviet workers. Exploring underground for just an hour or two, a passenger can discover facilities which are sumptuous, ornate, resonant with symbolism, and comprise, in themselves, popular tourist attractions. Construction of Lazar Kaganavich’s plan for Moscow, of which the metro was an integral part, was begun in the 1930s, with the first line opening to the public in 1935. The underground railway and its stations are, largely, achievements of Stalin’s regime. It is hardly surprising that the troublesome dialogue which Russia periodically engages in with its Soviet past has once again arisen in relation to the Metro . Renovation of Kurskaya Station, returned to its original glory, has proved a little too thorough for some observers . A verse from the 1944 Soviet natio...

In the wake of Natalia Estemirova’s murder in Chechnya, Dmitry Medvedev has rubbished suggestions that Ramzan Kadyrov, the region’s president, sanctioned her killing. Although, ostensibly, it is possible that the Memorial activist was abducted by a group which was not linked to the Chechen authorities, the incident will raise more questions about the methods by which Kadyrov has stabilised the Russian republic. After the last campaign in Chechnya the Kremlin’s pressing priority was to restore order without expending needlessly the lives of more Russian soldiers. Clearly Kadyrov, with his rapid ascent through government posts and his strong arm tactics, has succeeded in pacifying the republic. There is scarcely any doubt, however, that the thirty two year old is a highly unsavoury character, given to autocratic and violent methods. Knowingly, Vladimir Putin entered into a Faustian pact when he allowed Kadyrov free rein to subdue separatism in Chechnya. The former rebel, who fought ...

Today is Victory Day in Russia. The celebration marks the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War 2. The Great Patriotic War, as it is known in Russia, has played a defining role in shaping national consciousness. The Russian sacrifice in that conflict was extraordinary in its scale. Russia will celebrate Nazi surrender with parades, concerts, fireworks and military events, throughout the country. Although, with ironic untimeliness, the BBC reports that the huge Motherland statue in Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) which commemorates the city’s pivotal role in the war, is suffering serious subsidence. According to the Moscow Times , spectators in Russia’s capital will watch events drenched in sun and enjoying temperatures of 22C. Which, looking outside, makes me a little jealous. The photograph shows the eternal flame memorial which sits at the wall of the Kremlin in Moscow.

Comment is Free carries an article by James Marson examining perceived discontent fomented by the economic crisis, in Russia. It is a more thoughtful piece than the brand of ‘perfidious Kremlin’ geopolitical waffle which most commentators are producing . Whilst the Federation is by no means the oppressive totalitarian state which is frequently depicted by western media, undeniably a more open, accountable approach would afford Russian democracy more air to breathe. Medvedev is by no means a lost cause in terms of steering his country towards that outcome. I have previously insisted that Putinite notions of a ‘power vertical’ and ‘sovereign democracy’ are by no means as insidious as they have often been portrayed. In many respects they simply represent Russian solutions to Russian problems, drawing on a political tradition which differs dramatically from the experience in western Europe and the US. Against the backdrop of a huge, diverse state, Putinism has attempted to strengthen...

Half past midnight, the early hours of Monday morning, and the motorway from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport into the city is gridlocked. Five lanes of traffic occasionally judder forward a few yards in chaotic peristalsis. There are ancient, lumbering trucks, motorcycles with over-laden sidecars and a ubiquitous collection of Soviet era Volgas and Ladas. Of course there are also gleaming new Mercedes and Audis with blacked out windows, but the humid night air is choked with fumes, to which the catalytic converter is uncharted territory. We are in the back of an early 90s Lada Riva, driven by a youngish woman who sits beside her mother, neither of whom speak more than a word or two of English. Still, they had been waiting in the arrivals hall of the airport with a large sign bearing my name and my girlfriend and I had been very grateful to see them. Now I am simply hoping that the pervasive smell of overheating engine is emitting from an ancient Latvian truck which sits stationary to ...