Periscope No. 29

Opposition | Maximum Democracy

The anti-Putin “Other Russia” split exactly a year after the unification conference, where Eduard Limonov embraced Mikhail Kasyanov, who then finally admitted that during his tenure as prime minister he “partially” deserved a public egg-beating from the Limonovites. Kasyanov did not come to the second conference - he announced that he was parting ways with Limonov and Garry Kasparov and let them now have "another" Other Russia "". They were never able to agree on how to nominate a single presidential candidate. Kasyanov's option was beneficial to him: only organizations propose candidates, and the participants of some narrow political meeting choose from among them. "Individuals should not participate," he said. Kasparov was against it. As a result, both organizations (from one - one candidate) and individuals (one candidate from each region) will nominate; the lists are open - "non-members" of the "Other Russia" can also get into them. “If a candidate in 10–20% of the regions gains 50% + 1 vote, he will be on the voting list at the final congress [it should be held in Moscow at the end of September. - Newsweek ]. A democratic candidate is not a candidate with democratic views, but one who is nominated according to the democratic procedure,” moralizes Kasparov's ally Alexander Osovtsov, who presented the procedure at the conference. “The procedure is 100% mine, I wrote it - free nomination, maximum democracy,” says State Duma deputy Vladimir Ryzhkov. But he also boycotted the conference, although, unlike Kasyanov, he has not yet withdrawn his Republican Party from the coalition. “Harry made a mistake. The conference was needed to demonstrate strength, but it turned out to be weakness, - Ryzhkov worries. - I warned: it is better to postpone until September, to agree on controversial issues - the procedure, the composition of the coalition. After all, he has changed a lot in the direction of the left radicals. [Sergei] Gulyaev appeared with the nationalist movement “People” [from St. Petersburg]. The discomfort increased, and without Kasyanov it went the wrong way.” Kasparov quipped: they say, Ryzhkov will not go anywhere when his negotiations on entering the SPS electoral list come to nothing. Yes, and Ryzhkov himself does not exclude that he may be the only candidate for The Other Russia: “I have a normal rating, but Kasyanov has a huge anti-rating, he has a shitty reputation. For the population, he is associated with corruption and with the 90s, and for many democrats, because for five years he was Putin's right hand and, together with him, crushed the gains of the same 90s. And he is afraid to lose and wants to come up with his own scheme - in order to win. “Kasparov's goal is the opposite of Kasyanov's,” hints Georgy Satarov, co-chairman of the Civil Congress, who also took part in the creation of the Other Russia. He and two other co-chairs also boycotted the conference, reproaching Kasyanov and Kasparov for the fact that each is seeking his own: "We have pledged to support everyone, and not someone individually." “Politics is an ambitious business, and ambitions sometimes lead to the wrong things,” Osovtsov reassures. He and Kasparov are ready to accept Kasyanov again - if the congress delegates prefer him as a single candidate, then unity will come again. “With competent PR, all this drama can be used the other way around - even more so for promotion,” Satarov hopes, and Ryzhkov also suggests “not to dramatize.” And Limonov stayed with Kasparov and also radiates optimism: “Yes, I still think that Kasyanov has more chances, but I said from the very beginning that we should not focus only on choosing a single candidate. We need political soldiers, not generals." ARTEM VERNIDUB

free kick | Criminal strike

Businessman Boris Berezovsky was accused of money laundering through MSI, a Brazilian football business. He is not the only one: Sao Paulo judge Fausto de Sanctis issued an arrest warrant for two other co-owners of MSI - Kia Jurabchian and CFO Noyan Bedru. "There was enough material on them to issue a warrant," de Sanctis told Newsweek. MSI's first major deal took place two years ago when the company's face, Kia Joorabchian, acquired a controlling stake in the Brazilian club Corinthians. Later, two of the most talented young Argentines at that time were bought into it - forward Carlos Tevez and midfielder Javier Mascherano. For all this, MSI spent about $50 million - with the expectation of later reselling the players to European clubs. Last fall, Tevez and Mascherano moved to the modest English club West Ham. This was supposed to happen along with the purchase of Joorabchian and the club itself, but the deal did not take place. In the winter, Mascherano moved to Liverpool, and Tevez should soon be transferred to Manchester United for £ 30 million. But the English Premier League is unhappy with the ambiguity of their status: playing for clubs, the players actually remained the “property” of MSI. A day after the accusations from Brazil, Jurabchian, without mentioning, however, the name "West Ham", said that this was "raiding": allegedly, by the hands of the judges, MSI was simply trying to take away business in Brazil. Berezovsky told Newsweek that he had not been approached by any of the Brazilian authorities. He also issued a statement denying his involvement in money laundering and dealings with Tevez. The football business, according to the oligarch, was only a modest part of his plans in Brazil. In the spring, the head of the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency, Juan Quirosa, promised the local economy almost $2 billion in investment from Berezovsky, and last week he was unexpectedly fired. “It is unlikely that he will want to remember Berezovsky now,” says Anna Claudia, head of the ASEI press service. According to her, all Berezovsky's projects in Brazil have been curtailed. On the other hand, the problems of another "project" - the import of Brazilian meat to Russia - should be solved in Moscow in the fall. CHERMEN DZGOEV, ELENA CHERNENKO

History | Churchill take them

Britain is just like Russia. The "imperturbable" British demonstrate the ability to stir up heated political debates with accusatory ideological overtones from scratch. This time - because of the new curriculum for secondary schools, which has been introduced since September 2008. Several leading British newspapers immediately expressed their indignation at the fact that now, according to history, schoolchildren allegedly will not go through the activities of Winston Churchill. The Conservatives have already submitted the topic to Parliament. “This is nonsense and just crazy. History is one of the most important subjects, - Churchill's grandson parliamentarian Nicholas Soams categorically stated. - If you are surprised that our people do not really care about the country in which they live, then I can tell you the reason. They just don't know anything about her." The Committee on the Quality of Education under the British government is literally discouraged. The previous version of the curriculum did explicitly mention the names of specific historical figures in the context of certain events, and the paragraph on World War II featured Churchill, Joseph Stalin, and Adolf Hitler, among others. “In the new version of the document, the names were simply not mentioned, but the war remained. And how do they see themselves studying it without Churchill and the others?! a department spokeswoman told Newsweek. - The media and the parliament simply amazed us. Cancel Churchill in school history is impossible! You can't imagine 20th-century Britain without it." According to BBC polls, the British still consider Churchill "the greatest compatriot of all time." ELENA MUHAMETSHINA

Rise in price | Sochi - in black

At the 2014 Olympics began to earn a day after the decision of the IOC

Literally immediately after the proclamation of the capital of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, prices for real estate and land began to rise. Over the past week, they have grown by 10-15%. Some experts predict a multiple rise in price. But it probably won't happen right away. “Some ceiling has already been reached. Prices went up more than two years ago, when the talks about the Games only started,” says Oleg Repchenko, head of the Real Estate Market Indicators analytical center. It was a kind of advance. “Those who saw the potential of Sochi in advance have already skimmed off their cream, but investors were taking a big risk,” Repchenko told Newsweek. “There was a high risk of a 30% to 50% rollback of inflated prices.” Over the past five years, land prices in prestigious areas of Sochi have increased by 4-5 times, and for apartments - by 3-4 times. The city has almost caught up with Moscow in terms of comparable facilities. According to IRN, more than 70% of homebuyers are people from the same Moscow and St. Petersburg, the rest from the raw materials regions of Russia and foreigners. There are almost no Sochi residents themselves on the market. Dmitry Shmelev, commercial director of ST Group Region, which is building several elite residential complexes in Sochi, is sincerely happy: on the first day after the IOC decision, he exceeded the company's monthly sales plan and already raised prices by 10%. And according to Repchenko's forecasts, now housing in the city will rise in price by 20% per year. ELENA KRAPIVENTSEVA