Russia. It’s not all doom and gloom (we’re not Greece, you know!).
Sure, in their latest dispatches from Vladivostok and Lake Baikal, the BBC’s Reggie Nadelson and the Atlantic’s Nicholas Schmidle didn’t ask the hard questions. Like, where’s all that money earmarked for preparing for the APEC Summit really going? Or, what about the Baikal paper mills and other polluters?
But sometimes it’s also just nice to read some purely personal reflections to understand what makes these places special, even in the minds of those who are trying to exploit them. Well, in the case of Vladivostok, it might be the city’s admirable 38% to 62% male-female ratio. Or that it’s 100 miles from North Korea, and home to the last of the Siberian tigers. As for the Baikal, which contains a fifth of the world’s fresh water, the secret’s in the “sweat, nudity, and beer; and a refreshing dip”.
It’s a little strange that Russia even bothers sending spaceships to Mars when there is still so much unexplored and mysterious within its own borders. Not quite as strange as this particular probe’s name, though (I mean, “Grunt”? Seriously?). I guess we should be thankful it wasn’t a Russo-Nigerian joint venture…
All of which is certainly more relaxing than thinking about the ins and outs of the Nord Stream gas pipeline (which, incidentally, is a win-win-win. Win for Germany, win for Russia, and a win for Poland/Ukraine, which might lose some revenue but will become immune to the annual Christmas time gas bullying).
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