Some good news about Russia!
Amid a multiyear, brutal slump in grain prices, Russian agriculture is thriving. The country exported more than 40 million tons of wheat in the year ending June, around 50% more than the previous year, and the highest level for any country in the past quarter-century. Russia overtook the U.S. as the world’s biggest exporter of wheat in 2016, and again beat the U.S. in 2018.
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Russia’s surge of agriculture exports, including grains, fish and meat, is part of an effort to diversify the economy away from crude oil. Oil and natural gas were once the source of half of federal budget revenues. With oil prices still down 25% from their high in 2014—recovering from a swoon of more than 60%—exports now account for around 40% of budget revenues.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/grain-is-our-oil-russia-is-besting-the-u-s-as-a-wheat-powerhouse-1537719747
Sunday, September 23, 2018
Sunday, September 16, 2018
Domino’s Pizza in Russia had announced a promotion that was supposed to run for two months offering lifelong free...
Domino’s Pizza in Russia had announced a promotion that was supposed to run for two months offering lifelong free pizza to anyone who tatted up with the company’s logo. But that morning, it posted on social media that it was ending the promotion—although those who were being inked right then could still make the midday cutoff.
The company, it turned out, had underestimated how much Russians love free food.
“More than a million people would have come to demand pizzas” if the promotion had lasted the full two months, guessed 24-year-old Natalia Koshkina, who got a small Domino’s logo tattooed above her left kneecap, just below a skull embellished with roses and butterflies. “After all, this is Russia,” she said.
Bargains and freebies are powerful draws here. The Soviet period—where foodstuffs were often cheap but in short supply—and the economic hardships of the 1990s have conditioned many Russians to pounce on a good deal. A stagnant economy has left average disposable incomes stuck around $500 a month, and Ms. Koshkina said the free pizza would help her put aside a bit of money from her salary working at a piercing and tattoo parlor. “Who doesn’t want free food?” she said.
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Domino’s announced the launch of its tattoo promotion—named “Domino’s Forever”—on its page on VKontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook , on Aug. 31. The conditions were minimal: Applicants should post a photo on social media of a real tattoo in a visible place with the hashtag #dominosforever. They would receive a certificate allowing them to receive 100 free pizzas a year of any size for 100 years, the company said.
Russians hurried to tattoo parlors. Tattoos in Russia have long been associated with criminals, who have used them to depict status in the underworld. But in recent years, they have become part of a broad assimilation of American hipster culture that includes craft beer, skateboards and boutique barbershops.
Many opted for the simple domino of the company’s logo, which tattoo artist Mr. Gonyshev said he offered for 2,000 rubles, or around $30, and took about 10 minutes to ink.
Others wanted it worked into compositions. Mr. Gonyshev inked a cuffed hand holding the logo with the phrase “Prisoner of Freebie,” riffing on a classic “Prisoner of Love” tattoo design. Others put them on pizza slices, skateboards or pizza boxes carried by a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.
On Sept. 3, as the photos piled up on social media, the company tightened the rules: The first 350 people to post photos of their tattoos, which should be at least 2 centimeters in size, would receive 100 medium-size pizzas a year.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/dominos-offered-free-pizza-for-life-in-exchange-for-a-logo-tattoo-it-found-people-really-like-ink-1537120377?mod=hp_featst_pos3
The company, it turned out, had underestimated how much Russians love free food.
“More than a million people would have come to demand pizzas” if the promotion had lasted the full two months, guessed 24-year-old Natalia Koshkina, who got a small Domino’s logo tattooed above her left kneecap, just below a skull embellished with roses and butterflies. “After all, this is Russia,” she said.
Bargains and freebies are powerful draws here. The Soviet period—where foodstuffs were often cheap but in short supply—and the economic hardships of the 1990s have conditioned many Russians to pounce on a good deal. A stagnant economy has left average disposable incomes stuck around $500 a month, and Ms. Koshkina said the free pizza would help her put aside a bit of money from her salary working at a piercing and tattoo parlor. “Who doesn’t want free food?” she said.
...
Domino’s announced the launch of its tattoo promotion—named “Domino’s Forever”—on its page on VKontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook , on Aug. 31. The conditions were minimal: Applicants should post a photo on social media of a real tattoo in a visible place with the hashtag #dominosforever. They would receive a certificate allowing them to receive 100 free pizzas a year of any size for 100 years, the company said.
Russians hurried to tattoo parlors. Tattoos in Russia have long been associated with criminals, who have used them to depict status in the underworld. But in recent years, they have become part of a broad assimilation of American hipster culture that includes craft beer, skateboards and boutique barbershops.
Many opted for the simple domino of the company’s logo, which tattoo artist Mr. Gonyshev said he offered for 2,000 rubles, or around $30, and took about 10 minutes to ink.
Others wanted it worked into compositions. Mr. Gonyshev inked a cuffed hand holding the logo with the phrase “Prisoner of Freebie,” riffing on a classic “Prisoner of Love” tattoo design. Others put them on pizza slices, skateboards or pizza boxes carried by a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.
On Sept. 3, as the photos piled up on social media, the company tightened the rules: The first 350 people to post photos of their tattoos, which should be at least 2 centimeters in size, would receive 100 medium-size pizzas a year.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/dominos-offered-free-pizza-for-life-in-exchange-for-a-logo-tattoo-it-found-people-really-like-ink-1537120377?mod=hp_featst_pos3
Monday, September 3, 2018
The standard shorthand is to describe Iosif Kobzon as “the Russian Frank Sinatra,” a moniker that encompasses both...
The standard shorthand is to describe Iosif Kobzon as “the Russian Frank Sinatra,” a moniker that encompasses both his career as a popular singer and suggestions that he had connections to the Russian mob.
But what with the hostage-negotiation heroics, the bombing that may or may not have been aimed at him, and the international eyebrow-raising over his political positions, Mr. Kobzon, who died on Thursday at 80, may have outdone even Ol’ Blue Eyes for high drama.
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Mr. Kobzon had a crooning baritone and a taste for patriotic songs, staking out that territory in 1962 with a rendition of “Cuba, My Love,” a paean to Fidel Castro, which he performed in a filmed version dressed as Castro.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/02/obituaries/iosif-kobzon-dies-at-80.html?rref=collection/sectioncollection/obituaries&action=click&contentCollection=obituaries®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront
But what with the hostage-negotiation heroics, the bombing that may or may not have been aimed at him, and the international eyebrow-raising over his political positions, Mr. Kobzon, who died on Thursday at 80, may have outdone even Ol’ Blue Eyes for high drama.
...
Mr. Kobzon had a crooning baritone and a taste for patriotic songs, staking out that territory in 1962 with a rendition of “Cuba, My Love,” a paean to Fidel Castro, which he performed in a filmed version dressed as Castro.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/02/obituaries/iosif-kobzon-dies-at-80.html?rref=collection/sectioncollection/obituaries&action=click&contentCollection=obituaries®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront
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