All quiet on the Western Front.....
But everything seems to be boiling hard in the Wild East. I am not sure what this material would be worth if there were armies of people reporting from there daily. Still an impression resulting from three days of being there is the best I can do now.

Falling off the map....
Moscow often sounds exotic enough, but Vladivostok looks really good on the resume of any traveler. According to all legends (no wonder they are legends since up to 1991 even Soviet citizens were not allowed to go there) cold climate shall be a function of the distance from Paris. Therefore Vladivostok must be a much colder place than Moscow. What a kind surprise! There is a well-defined summer there now, while in Moscow one must address the fall fashion trends.

A Ticket to Paradise......
French Riviera is not the only place where clothes are worn just because there is some kind of a law that requires it. The New-York-beer-principle where a paper bag "covering" the beer bottle assures that "nobody" knows what is inside, is widely applied to clothing in Vladivostok. Till recently being stationed in V. was associated with a one-way-ticket. So it was the ambition of every "lucky" guy to bring the most beautiful and kind wife he could, because the perspective of remarrying was dim. By the principle that governs horse breeding the result is spectacular.

The people are kind. Even in a simple restaurant a smile is a frequent phenomenon as if the people had nothing to do with Moscow. Well, they don't. Fortunately V. remains to be a city at the end of a bit forgotten province and is left to lead its own life almost independent from Moscow. It is just too far.

Vladivostok - (rus.) The Master of the East...
The harbor brings hope for the better future and even for making money.

Quite a few people made fortunes in cargo business since the city is not exactly uninhabited by vessels of various types. The proximity of China, Korea and Japan is apparent not only by a number of the representatives of the mentioned nations in the street crowd. Com. Stalin made sure that Koreans were settled in all parts of USSR. It is the steering wheels on the right side of almost every car. Left-hand side traffic was not formally introduced yet (Slavs are not so easy to convert) but Japanese automobile technology definitely won the hearts of the locals.

I would not be surprised if someone started tourist industry there. Beautiful architecture is not the strongest point in V. There are some exceptions in the form of surviving examples of pre revolutionary merchant houses in opulent Russian Imperial style or following the convention of liquid art noveau. Today V. needs some cleaning and a major face-lift like Moscow or St. Petersburg. However the location of the city dwarfs everything I have seen so far. The beautiful steep, hilly terrain is cut into islands and peninsulas. The cliff coasts, combined with greenery, sea and climate make one want to stay there.

Sailor folk live in the area, which is why regattas are quite frequent.

Unfortunately there was not enough time to go to "archipelago" and enjoy the labyrinth of islands and fiords, but if Fata will be kind….

The gloom is gone for long....
Funny, up to 1991 before the city was "opened" a visitor with a foreign passport would in the best case pay for his curiosity with a life sentence in Kulyma. Now is it legal even to take pictures (guys you not fun anymore!!!).
On the other hand I remember hilarious documentaries on V., where the site of rusty ships and underfed sailors in wrinkled uniforms were supposed to be the proof of the death of the naval power that was the domain of the times definitely and irreversibly gone. How sweet it is to look at the "enemy" that was defeated to the end. One can breathe not only with ease, but also with satisfaction. Yes? Well it seems like a production by young people that think about hot stories that may sell fast rather than about decent journalism and who held a camera in their hands for too long and never had a chance to grab a paintbrush or a wrench. The human nature that likes to generalize helps in that process too: " If the soldiers were brought to planting potatoes it means they are not good for anything else…right?"

Time to go Cinderella....
Going back was one of those longest days when the plane travels even with the sun for the entire eight hours. Aeroflot's service was vastly-orientally generous. Georgian and French Cognac, smoked sturgeon in white wine sauce, topped with caviar in all colors of the rainbow. Wild mountain goat stew served in the arrangement of exotic vegetables was served by beautiful stewardesses. "To your health James…"
Even the splendor of Aeroflot did not take away the memory of the exotic adventure that was too short and which called back like a thought of a lost golden slipper.

Out of Heroine, back to reality....
The situation in Russia brings one down from the clouds. The economy is crumbling. One week ago the dollar cost 5, few days ago it went up to 17, now it oscillates around 20 rubles. Banks froze all the accounts (nobody gets paid and that includes salaries). Prices (contrary to salaries) went up a 100%. People started to buy out food to be prepared for the worst. The president is very ill and he started to prepare a retreat (hopefully in such a way that he will not be legally responsible for the current situation and the steps that led to it). It looks like there is no figure on the Russian political scene (sounds familiar) that could count on popular support. Mr. Zuganov and the mayor of Moscow are talked about a lot. Mr. Chernomyrdin being the candidate of the "oligarchy" is not trusted by the people. The loan from the West if not watched will end up in Geneva and not a trace but only a song will remain. It is dangerous to let Russia fall, because being a colossus it may fall on someone, not to mention the fate of the investments made so far and the possible civil war.
Whatever will be, will be, it is just too bad for all the people that live there and suffer having no influence on the flow of events.

Despite all that I still am an optimist (it is not hard because I have a dinner on my table every day). Optimism and pessimism are equally scientifically incorrect points of view due to lack of solid evidence to support either of them. That is why I chose to be an optimist.

Just as long the forces who control the money flow in Russia believe that they can win more by keeping Russia alive, Russia will be swinging around some kind of stability. How ironical….

An Arabic good wish says:
"Let the times you are to live in be interesting…".
Well, the times are interesting indeed. I just do not know why Arabs wish Russia so well.