The following letter was written by Sylvia Demarest, a trial lawyer from Dallas, Texas. Sylvia is one of the travelers on CCI’s current AMMR (Americans Meet Mainstream Russians) delegation.
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
Dear Friends:
I wanted to take some time to report a few of my impressions of Moscow and today’s Russia over the last few days. I was in Russia in 1988 as part of a legal group before the collapse of the Soviet Union. I have been looking forward to seeing what has changed in the country over the last 30 years.
Remember, the Russian Federation was established in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Eastern Europe broke free and the Russian economy collapsed into depression under the “shock therapy” the US supported under Yeltsin. The goal was the end of communism and state ownership of business and resources. Over the next 9 years, Russia’s resources and businesses were gobbled/stolen? up by the “Oligarchs”, often with US support. In 1998 a financial crisis resulted in the collapse of the ruble and a default on Russia’s debt. In March of 2000, V.V. Putin became President of the Russian Federation. Eighteen years ago, Russia was flat on it’s back, in debt, poor, demoralized, its economy and infrastructure degraded or destroyed. Life expectancy had collapsed, millions had died, as Russia went through the greatest depression of the 20th Century in a country not at war.
I landed at Domodedovo airport on August 31st at around 2:40 pm. I was traveling alone. I had no idea how hard it would be to get through immigration, find my bags, find a cab and get to my hotel. The whole process turned out to be quick and very simple. A polite, well-dressed, English-speaking representative of a cab company took me under his wing, arranged a cab for me, took my bags and walked me to the cab. He gave instructions to the cab driver, loaded my bags, and shook my hand and said goodbye! You do not get treated like this in New York!!
The airport is about 30-35 miles from my hotel, the Cosmos, which is on the opposite side of Moscow from the airport. The cab ride is about 90 minutes. You take the outer ring road and then wind your way through the northern part of the city to the Cosmos. It gives you the opportunity to see parts of Moscow not normally visited by tourists and to observe ordinary Russians engaged in their daily activities.
Here are a few of my observations: The roadways were in good repair and very clean. The cleanliness and lack of trash has been a common observation. The vehicles are mostly new, and relatively modest. There were very few old cars. Moscow is ringed by green spaces and these spaces were filled with Russians going about their normal business or even out with their families and children. I saw business people, group activities, weddings, and families out just enjoying the day. These Russians were well dressed and most seemed relatively fit. I saw very few obese people. I saw many Russians out jogging or dressed for other athletic events. I did observe several of the older Soviet style apartment blocks, but some of these had been remodeled. There was also new construction including a few single family units. There were no signs of homeless people or beggars. There is no graffiti or trash anywhere. I saw very few police. The cab ride was very entertaining as my “cowboy” cab driver negotiated the Moscow surface traffic, avoided traffic jams and other “cowboy cab drivers”.
When I arrived at my hotel there were hundreds of Chinese tourists!! The hotel staff said that since the World Cup, the hotel had been sold out and now thousands of Chinese were visiting Russia! I handed my cab driver $10 US. He parked and locked the cab, collected my bags and walked me to the reception area of the hotel! After an overnight flight, this relatively small gesture on his part was greatly appreciated by me. We shook hands and departed. My entry into Russia had been much easier and much more pleasant that I could have hoped.
Security throughout Russia is very tight. To enter the hotel you go through a metal detector and your bag is scanned. In order to go up to your room, you have to show a security agent your hotel card. It is advised that you keep your hotel card with you at all times. If you get lost, almost any Russian will help you find your way back to your hotel.
There are few police and the police and uniformed security personnel we saw are not armed with any weapons except for a billy club. There are NO GUNS (I think I have seen one sidearm in three days) and you do not feel a tight police or security presence anywhere in the city.
The next morning our group was taken on a tour of the Moscow subway system. You have to go through security to enter the system. The Metro is a remarkable engineering and technical achievement. Moscow is a city of 15 million people and over 10 million take the Metro every day. There were festivals going on all over Moscow, plus students were returning for school. The subway was crowded. There were literally hundreds of thousands of people—maybe millions going through the system all the time. The Metro reaches all parts of Moscow and a new outer ring is now under construction. The cars come every 45 seconds and the whole system operates with a degree of precision and order that is remarkable to behold. The other remarkable thing is —due to concerns about terrorism–there are no trash receptacles and NO TRASH, no debris, no cigarette butts– any where. There is no graffiti and no beggars or homeless people to be seen. I did not see anyone trying to eat on the Metro. I want to repeat myself—there was NO TRASH anywhere. Finally, I saw something on the floor—when I walked past it I noticed it was a rose pedal. This is how clean the Metro has been, despite all these people, and I have now traveled on this system for several hours.
The Metro also includes historic reception and transfer halls that are works of art. You can probably look these up online—there are frescos, mosaics, stained glass, paintings and bronze statutes– several of these galleries are located in various parts of the older system. They are beautiful and quite remarkable.
Yesterday we visited the Museum of the Russian Revolution and took a tour of the galleries. The horrors of Russia’s past are no longer denied or papered over. Russia is involved in an effort to achieve an honest accounting of the past, which led to so much suffering for so many Russians.
Yesterday, a Crimean historical expert spoke with us about events in 2014. This expert had been in Dallas last April as part of the Russian’s Meet Mainstream America program. Last evening we were hosted at a local restaurant by a local businessman who provided us with his perspective on business and economic conditions. These issues are separate and more complex. I will reserve this discussion for later.
After the meeting with the local businessman, we walked up and down this very nice street. We could have easily been in Zurich or Geneva. There were sidewalk cafes and people were out having dinner or just enjoying the evening. We walked a few blocks, caught the Metro and were at our hotel in less than 10 minutes. The same thing was true around the Red Square. While riding the subway, someone in the group said they had seen a t-shirt that said “Too good to be true”. She said we should take a picture because that would capsulize the feeling of the group about what we have seen so far during our visit to Moscow—a clean, safe city, with no observable police presence, homeless people, beggars, trash, or graffiti. The level of cleanliness is almost Swiss—except perhaps cleaner!!
One final observation—very few Russians seem to have tattoos. I have now had the chance to observe hundreds of thousands of Russians—if they spoke English, they would be indistinguishable from Americans. Because of Russia’s location bordering Asia, there is a different racial and ethnic mix, i.e. there are more Asians and fewer black or Hispanic people.
Stay tuned—if I have time I will do follow-up reports as the trip progresses. We will now get to visit with Vladimir Posner, Vladimir Kozin, Christopher Weafer, Dmitri Babich, and tomorrow we meet with Mikhail Gorbachev. On the 5th, I leave for Crimea.
Your friend in peace,
Sylvia Demarest