Obama Meets With Russian Rights Activists After G20 in Show of Support

Obama Meets With Russian Rights Activists After G20 in Show of Support

http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=37977

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — Before leaving for home after the Group of 20 summit, President Barack Obama sat down with Russian civil society activists on Friday evening to assure them that he would keep pressing Moscow to respect human rights, some of the activists said. But Obama also explained to them why this wasn't always possible.

"He was telling us how difficult it is for him to raise these issues, especially in relations with Russia and China," said Pavel Chikov, who heads Agors, a legal aid nongovernmental organization.

 During the meeting that lasted an hour and a half, Obama spoke of his past as a community organizer and said he enjoys doing these events in each country he visits.

 "I got elected as president by engaging people at a grassroots level," he said.

 Obama said the leaders gathered with him at the event all "contribute in one way or another to continue to strengthen Russian society and helping to make progress on behalf of all people."

 "The kinds of activities that are represented here are critically important to Russia's development and I'm very proud of their work," Obama said. "I think it's important to remember that in every country, here in Russia, in the United States, around the globe, that part of good government is making sure that we're creating space for civil society to function."

Yana Yakovleva, head of business advocacy group Business Solidarity, described the meeting with Obama as "open and sincere." Obama told them that the U.S. administration has to think carefully before poking the Russians, she said.

"His main message was that there's a lot of differences between the two great powers, and that while deciding which issue to raise they have to weigh carefully the impact it may have on relations on the whole," Yakovleva said.

The meeting was held several hours after two dozen of gay activists rallied in St. Petersburg to protest Russia's new law banning gay propaganda, which prompted some activists to call for the boycott of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.

Igor Kochetkov, the head of LGBT Network, who took part in the protest and also attended the meeting with Obama, said the activists pushed him to be more outspoken in his criticism of the rights situation in Russia.

 "We asked him to be more open while assessing the human rights situation in other countries, including Russia," Kochetkov said.

He praised Obama for sending a "clear signal" that it's impossible to discuss the human rights situation without discussing the problems faced by LGBT. "The rise of xenophobia, homophobia and anti-Western sentiments in Russia are inter-connected," Kochetkov said.

Kochetkov added that the participants appreciated Obama's candor, his acknowledgement that "he's not a superman who can come and fix everything."

Nevsky Prospekt’s Rock and Roll Salon

A new club on the city’s main drag reinvents the traditions of the arts salons of the 19th and 20th centuries.

http://www.sptimes.ru/index_bp.php?action_id=2&story_id=37861&section=4

Art Salon Nevsky 24 — a new name on the local scene — is not your typical music club. Occupying a large apartment located directly on Nevsky Prospekt, it also holds poetry readings, drama performances, art exhibitions, film screenings and city tours.

A five-story ride up a creepy old lift reveals windows that look out over the pedestrian Malaya Konyushchennaya Ulitsa and, if you stick your head far enough out of the window, you can see the Kazan Cathedral. Two of the apartment’s five rooms are open to the public: One large room hosts concerts and all kinds of performances, while the other serves as a bar.

 Despite the prominent location, the music repertoire frequently features underground and alternative rock, although bands tend to perform smaller-scale, mostly unplugged concerts. This past weekend saw concerts by FPG, Soyuz Sozidayushchikh and a solo performance by Electric Guerillas’ frontman Vadim Kurylyov.

 The decoration and bric-a-brac lying around reflect the interests of a person who lived in Leningrad during the 1970s and 1980s. There is a record by the late 1980s rock musician Mikhail “Mike” Naumenko on the bar wall, but also albums by Soviet singer Klavdiya Shulzhenko and comedian Arkady Raikin complete with a pair of Beatles portraits and a selection of books ranging from novels by Fyodor Dostoyevsky to “Who’s Who in Russian Rock.” A calico cat named Lili Marleen lives on the premises.

For its artistic director Nikita Kruglov, Art Salon Nevsky 24 epitomizes the St. Petersburg spirit. He tells a story about Leonid Fyodorov, the frontman of the legendary band Auctyon and a local favorite, arriving at the door one day.

 “It’s a real St. Petersburg’s legend. One day the doorbell rang and our bartender Lena opened the door to Leonid Fyodorov, who said, ‘Do you have any pliers so I can fix my shower?’ Kruglov said.

 It turned out that the now-Moscow-based Fyodorov lived upstairs at a friend’s apartment when visiting the city. After a chat and a look around, Fyodorov brought by double-bass player Vladimir Volkov the following day, with whom he occasionally performs as a duo, to set up a concert for April 2014.

 “It was absolutely clear to them that this is not a 1,000-capacity venue, that it is not about profits,” Kruglov said. “They simply wanted to perform at a good place.”

 “This is ultimately what we are trying to achieve.”

 Art Salon Nevsky 24 is run by a large collective called Beryozovaya Reka (Birch River), according to Kruglov. “The name comes from a poem by Sergei Vaganov, one of our major founders,” he said.

“When [the late rock musician] Svyatoslav Zadery heard it, he suggested we should use the name for our idea to bring together different interests and diverse forms of creativity — musicians, artists and poets — into a single whole, to create what we have today.”

 With its cozy, domestic atmosphere and intimacy with musicians, Art Salon Nevsky 24 brings to mind the concerts held in apartments during the 1980s, when rock musicians barred from concert venues resorted to playing downsized acoustic concerts in people’s homes, sometimes ending up at a police station when neighbors complained about the noise or suspicious activities.

 But Kruglov prefers to see it as inspired by the art, music and literary salons held in St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 20th century.

 “Last summer we spoke about the numerous European-style clubs and bars that emerged in St. Petersburg, including the bars on Dumskaya Ulitsa and the Pushkinskaya 10 art center on Ligovsky Prospekt. Because we owned such an apartment in the center, we found ourselves thinking about trying to resurrect the tradition of St. Petersburg apartment salons in the center, but with state-of-the-art sound and lighting.”

 The original team included Anatoly “George” Gunitsky, a poet, music critic and co-founder of the legendary St. Petersburg rock band Akvarium, who introduced artists before their performances, but later departed.

 According to Kruglov, work began in October 2012, with a private housewarming event taking place in November 2012. The opening of the venue was celebrated with a party at the larger Zal Ozhidaniya venue in January.

 “This not just another concert venue in St. Petersburg; this is a special place, where any band performing in any genre can present something that is unusual, even for themselves,” he said.

 “The concerts turn out to be distinctive and historic. People find themselves not at an average gig by some band, but at a unique event.”

 Memorable events held at Art Salon Nevsky 24 include a one-off concert by the original lineup of Alisa, the 1980s Leningrad New Wave band, as it was before it was joined by Moscow singer Konstantin Kinchev who eventually took the group to Moscow and turned into a heavy-metal arena band.

Guitarist Andrei Shatalin, keyboard player Pavel Kondratenko and drummer Mikhail Nefyodov were joined by a young singer, who replaced the late Zadery, to perform a 30-minute set to the audience’s great delight. The event marked the second anniversary of Zadery’s death on May 6, 2011. “Alisa was there on stage just as it was in 1983, thirty years ago,” Kruglov said.

 As the concert hall is capable of holding only 80 people, Art Salon has to limit the number of viewers for more popular concerts, such as those by Pilot frontman Ilya Chyort, FPG’s Anton Pukh, Bakhyt Kompot’s Vadim Stepantsov from Moscow or Swedish-born, U.S.-based blues guitarist Robert Lighthouse, who have all performed at the venue, Kruglov said.

 Kruglov, who comes from Almaty, Kazakhstan, previously worked at Kamchatka, an underground club that was located in a former boiler room where some of the best-known Russian rock musicians, including Kino’s late frontman Viktor Tsoy, used to have their official jobs in the 1980s.

 “I lived at Kamchatka, literally, for 10 years,” he said.

 “I happened to show up there for [the boiler room’s] last heating season, when the building was still heated by coal in 2000 and 2001. [Punk musician] Andrei Mashnin was the boss then. It was a distinctive scene that featured many Petrograd Side punk musicians such as [Narodnoye Opolcheniye’s late frontman] Alex Ogoltely. I had just come from Almaty and it was sheer luck that I found myself among the people who quickly and quite intelligibly explained to me what Leningrad rock was all about.”

 As a musician, Kruglov, who plays guitar, piano and the domra, a stringed Russian folk instrument, is busy working on a project setting poetry from Russia’s Silver Age of the early 20th century to song, including the work of Nikolai Gumilyov, Boris Pasternak, Vladimir Mayakovsky and Sergei Yesenin.

 To be presented at Art Salon Nevsky 24 in autumn, the as-yet-unnamed project will comprise a band of professional musicians and a number of guest vocalists who often perform at the club, including Alexander Chernetsky, Branimir, FPG’ Anton Pukh and the Gypsy violin trio Loyko.

 According to Kruglov, who said he was raised on classical and Russian folk music, the songs of Soviet singer-songwriter Vladimir Vysotsky as well as Western and Russian rock, the club does not exclude any genres if the performers are good, no regardless of whether they perform underground rock, folk or classical.

The club also offers city tours, including the bus and walking tour “Dostoyevsky’s St. Petersburg,” which — unlike typical Dostoyevsky tours — takes in Vasilyevsky Island and the Petrograd Side in addition to Sennaya Ploshchad. They also operate the “Unofficial St. Petersburg” tour devoted to 20th century subcultures — from the futurism and symbolism of the early 20th century Brodyachaya Sobaka (Stray Dog) poetry cafe to the 1980s Leningrad Rock Club and the 1990s Pushkinskaya 10 art center.

 The daytime events that the club hosts include classes, quests and role-play games.

 Performances and concerts are held on an almost daily basis, although there are days when there are no events due to the quiet summer period, Kruglov pointed out. Some events are free, while others can cost up to 1,000 rubles ($30). When an event is scheduled, doors open at 6 p.m.

 “We want to show here an alternative to the dominant culture. What we call an ‘underground’ is parallel to this culture and is not necessarily [located in] a dirty basement. We want to destroy this stereotype,” Kruglov said.

 “This is the Russian culture that foreigners do not see because they have to consume what is shown to them officially in Russia.”

 Art Salon Nevsky 24’s photocopied zine — distributed via the Bukvoyed chain of bookshops, the Castle Rock music shop and the Coffee in the Kitchen cafe — is edited by veteran rock historian Andrei Burlaka, who is also the club’s administrator and presenter.

 “I joined the project because I liked the concept. It’s at the very center of [the city], with Dom Knigi on one side, the Hermitage on the other and the Russian Museum on the third,” said Burlaka, who published the Samizdat rock magazine RIO in the 1980s and authored a three-volume encyclopedia of Leningrad and St. Petersburg rock music in 2000s.

 “I feel I am in the center of cultural developments, and that it is possible to try to change things; you stand as if on a captain’s bridge, looking down on Nevsky from above and seeing how everything moves.

 “More seriously, it’s important for me to try and introduce new kinds of communication between people. Salons are a long-forgotten concept, something like Anna Pavlovna Scherer’s salon in Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ on one hand. On the other hand, it’s a new form of what we always did; it’s heartfelt conversations in the kitchen, with some strumming of guitars and some recitation of poetry. The only change is that the kitchen is bigger and better, as Henry Kuttner’s character would say.”

 Art Salon Nevsky 24 is located at 24 Nevsky Prospekt, apartment 154, on the fifth floor. Enter from Malaya Konyushchennaya Ulitsa via the courtyard.