cottages), if they have them, relaxing and growing fruits and vegetables
for the winter. In the summer, people Re to gather mushrooms. Cities have
relatively few nightclubs and entertainment usually ends before midnight,
even in Moscow.
The country's favorite sport is soccer. Winter sports such as ice
skating, hockey, and cross-country skiing are also particularly popular.
Most families like to watch television in the evening. Russia has a grand
and abiding heritage in cultural arts. The people highly appreciate
theaters and movies, but these are available only in big cities. Rural
people can watch movies at community recreation centers called dvorets
kultury (palace of culture) or the smaller dom kultury (house of culture)
New Year's Day is the most popular holiday in Russia. Almost everyone
decorates fir trees and has parties to celebrate the new year. Grandfather
Frost leaves presents for children to find on New Year's Day. Easter and
Christmas observances, long interrupted by communism, regained their
prominence in 1990. Christmas is on 7 January, according to the Julian
calendar used by the Russian Orthodox Church. Women's Day is 8 March.
Solidarity Day (I May, also known as May Day) is a day for parades. Victory
Day (9 May) commemorates the end of World War II and is deeply important to
most Russians.
The business week is 40 hours, with Saturdays and Sundays off. Offices
generally are open from 9:00 A.M. to 6:00 p.m. They close at lunchtime
(1:00 P.m.). Prices in stores are not negotiable, but prices are flexible
on the streets, where an increasing number of items is sold. Capitalism is
booming in Russia and a new generation of entrepreneurs is beginning to
thrive. Numerous small businesses and joint ventures with foreign firms are
finding success, and employees are buying state-run factories and working
to make them profitable. Under communism, there were no incentives for
bureaucrats to perform well or even be nice to clients, so the usual answer
to any question was "No." This practice is still found in society, but "no"
is no longer final. One must simply bargain and be persistent to get what
one desires.
Russians prefer having social interaction before discussing business.
Trying to do business on the phone without seeing the prospective business
partner is ineffective. One often spends a lot of time in meetings before
even a small deal can succeed. The business climate is characterized by the
high level of uncertainty in Russia. However, any companies successfully
adapted to the Russian environment. In the Rising Russia the following
industries are of particular interest for foreign investors: gas and oil
refinery and export of oil, pharmaceutical, food and food-processing
industry, aluminum extraction and manufacturing. Leasing and franchising
opportunities exist in agricultural sector where the government established
a policy encouraging farmers to obtain the modern equipment. The number of
contracts were signed with car manufacturing plants such as Vojskiy
Avtomobiliniy zavod and Moskovskiy zavod. Russia welcomes the foreign
investors but has a number of difficulties in it such as corruption and
organized crime, difficult environment in business and tax laws,
unsuitability of local currency and unstable political situation due to the
war in Chechnya. However, the new Russian government took active steps
toward the Chechen populations supporting the international terrorists and
the terrorists who were fighting the Russian troops.
The First Chechen war cost a lot to the Russian government. The second war
was more successful than the first one but still Russians are in the active
process of guerrilla war with Chechen bandits. These challenges can stop
potential investors from using the opportunities of 150 million people
market.
Russia is a federation of autonomous republics and regions. Vladimir
Putin succeeded Boris Yeltsin as a president. The president is strong and
has power to dissolve parliament, set foreign policy, and appoint the Prime
Minister. The Federal Assembly has two houses, a 176-seat Federation
Council and the 450-seat State Duma. The Constitutional Court is Russia's
highest. The voting age is 18. An array of political parties is represented
in the Duma. The actual party names are less important than their
alliances. Communists form the largest block, but not a majority, and
nationalists and liberals form other substantial voting blocks. Recently,
new Russian president implemented the measures for strengthening his power
and ability to react and influence the national economy but many there are
critics.
Russia's natural resources give it great potential for economic growth
and development. Natural gas, coal, gold, oil, diamonds, copper, silver,
and lead are all abundant. Heavy industry dominates the economy, although
the agricultural sector is potentially strong. Russia's economy is weak and
unstable. Liberal reforms designed to attract foreign investment and
privatize the economy led to higher unemployment, high inflation (above I
00 percent), and lower production. Organized crime and corruption weigh
heavily on the economy's ability to perform. Real gross domestic product
per capita is $4,828. Poverty is increasing as fast as wealth. The currency
is the ruble (R). Nearly all transactions are made in cash.
Education is free and mandatory for everyone between ages six and
seventeen. In 1994, new curriculum guidelines were introduced to encourage
choice and innovation over previous approaches to teaching, but many public
schools are unable or unwilling to implement the reforms due to lack of
money and clear local leadership. However, a few are embracing new ideas
and even teaching basic market economics to young children. Students attend
primary, middle, and high school. They can specialize in their last two
years. Private schools offer a high-quality education to the wealthy and
influential. Education is highly valued, and Russia's literacy rate is 99
percent. More than five hundred universities, medical schools, and
technical academies are found throughout the country. Russians have a
distinct advantage of a high-standard education and they are actively using
their intelligence. Russian large intellectual potential and a system of
educating brains even with its drawbacks has produced a number of talented
people who can work at least at the same level as their Western
counterparts. Unfortunately, this educational potential is not fully
utilized by the current condition of the Russian economy. The facts on
Russian immigration to such developed countries as Canada, Australia, New
Zealand or United States confirms this fact.
(http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/newcomer/welcome/index.html). The educational
potential of the nation is probably the most important factor that can
bring the nation to the family of the high-industrialized nations.
Russia with its rich heritage of music, theatre performance, poetry is
a distinct expression of the Russian media history. Currently, together
with the old ways of communications such as cinema, theatre, newspapers and
TV new avenues of the human interaction are rapidly developing. Internet
brought by the introduction of Western communicative abilities is changing
the Russian youth. Russian students are not isolated from rest of the World
due to the Internet. However, the introduction of this powerful source of
information exchange mainly affected the large cities where there are
enough resources. Countryside does not have a full access to the Internet
and can not enjoy the full advantage of Internet using. The scope of media
coverage in very wide in Russia. Russians commented on the Olympic Games,
War in Chechnya or situation in the Near East.
Russian media is the most advanced among the CIS media in terms of the
connections with the foreign media sources. Russians have to create a new
media channels to deliver messages. They do not have such strict censorship
like Republics of the Central Asia or Caucasus. The Russians reformed TASS
and have a closed connection with CNN News, Reuters. MTV, a Musical channel
established a Russian speaking music channel. Russian media played a great
role in covering the news and war operations in Chechnya and was one of the
major reasons why Russians pressured the government to stop the massacre.
Russians receive news from abroad mainly by TV (ORT- Obchestvennoe
Rosiyskoe Televidine), (RTR-Rossiyskoe TeleRadiove Vechyanie), TV-4, TV-6.
Eduard Sagalaev together with CNN, headed by Ted Turner arranged NTV and
NTV+ for broadcasting on Moscow and St. Petersburg. The second source of
Information are the various newspapers in Russia. Most of them were
originated during or after the era of Perestroyka. However, many remained
from the Soviet Era but changed their profile to be more “readable”. Before
the newspapers only printed what they were allowed to print on political or
economic topics. They could touch sports or weather occasionally. Now
newspapers can criticize the government and give their comments on the
economic situation in Russia. Radio is usually listened in the countryside
or where people do not have televisions.
Unlike people in America, many Russians use the public transportation
and do not have cars except in Moscow and St. Petersburg. However, due to
the high traffic, people prefer use subways to get to their work place. As
a result, radio does not enjoy such popularity like here in the States.
The last, but most flourishing, medium is Internet. It enjoys the
relatively lower costs of information exchange. Many newspapers have their
web sites where they place the information, news and current events.
Russian youth are becoming more and more exposed to the Internet. Internet
getting to the colleges and homes. The example of Russia organized search
engines are www.rambler.ru, www.lib.ru. Larger resources are allocated on
the information databases such as www.news.ru, www.omen.ru, which
specializes on music and entertainment. Russians made an advance step in
terms of the amount of servers but they are closely followed by Ukraine and
Kazakhstan.
Despite the rapid development of the Russian media there are still
some challenges and problems the media faces. Russian government was not
pleased with the way Russian reporters disclose the situation in Chechnya,
Kursk, fire in Ostankino and other major events where they government was
not acting at its best. Amnesty International reports on the arrests and
interrogations of the Russian reporters in Chechnya by the Russian
military. The reporters are being killed and the government does not want
to do anything about it.
Russians are facing another dilemma. The society has mixed feelings
about their identity and their role in CIS and the World. This reflects on
the ability of the Russian media to cover the news. They can not figure out
what is more important for the Russian society and what is not. The
difficult relations with West are a special circumstance of the Russian
society. Russians do not want to be portrayed as “losers” to the West. In
fact, in his speech at the West Point conference a chief editor of “Foreign
Policy” Zakartia said that Russians did not lose the cold war. They want to
change their system and life better. They do not think that the West won
it. He argued that thinking in such way and failing to cooperate with
Russia made the United States lose the Russia. This relationship prevents
the Russian media from showing the real attitude of Western democracies on
the events because the media do not want to be portrayed pro-Western. The
Russians are making steps toward democratization of their society and
political system and it has a reflection on the Russian media. The Western
nations should provide the full support to this movement while
understanding the situation in Russia and the challenges Russian go
through.
After the collapse of the Communist regime left Russia with an
inefficient economy, regional conflicts and problems with the neighboring
countries. Russia wants to become a democratic society with a developed
market oriented economy. It has a large potential especially in human
resources. Russians are educated, talented and bright people who are
willing to work hard if they are paid well. Russia has a vast variety of
natural resources that can attract foreign capital. Russians are welcoming
foreign investments. All these conditions will surely have an effect and
lead Russia to the family of the most-developed nations in the world. It
might take long time but it will surely happen.
Works Cited
Brudny, Yitzhak M. Reinventing Russia: Russian nationalism and the Soviet
State, 1953-1991. Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts,
London, England, 1998
Tankred G. Golenpolsky, Johnstone M. Robert and Kashin A. Vladimir Doing
Business in Russia Basic Facts for the Pioneering Entrepreneur. The Oasis
Press, Grants Pass, Oregon, 1995
Dunlop, John B. The Rise of Russian And The Fall Of The Soviet Empire.
Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1993
Finckenauer, James O. and Waring, Elin J. Russian Mafia in America:
Immigration, Culture, and Crime. Northeast University Press, Boston, 1998
Official Site for Immigration to Canada
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/newcomer/welcome/index.html
Alexandr Soljenicin, “Odin deny Ivana Denisovicha” One Day of Ivan
Denisovich Trans. Rustam Tashpulatov.
Biblioteka Moshkova www.lib.ru
Information Database www.rambler.ru
Russian Gazeta www.gazeta.ru
Amnesty International http://www.amnesty.org/
Ferghana on Line www.ferghana.ru
