There was a protest rally in the Russian capital.

Now that by itself would have been unusual, but Thursday’s demonstration went off without any arrests.

The demonstrators protested at Pushkin square against the detention of activist Sergei Udaltsov.

Anchor Marco Werman talks to The World’s Jessica Golloher to get more details.

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Marco Werman: What happened today in Moscow would have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago. There was a protest rally in the Russian capital. Now, that by itself would have been unusual, but today’s demonstration went off without any arrests. It’s been a heady few weeks in Russia. Here’s what it’s been like in Moscow since Russian parliamentary elections on December 4: There was a mass demonstration on the 10th; an even larger rally was held last Saturday; then today, hundreds of people protested the jailing of a Russian activist. Reporter Jessica Golloher is in Moscow. So, tell me about these protesters today in Pushkin Square. They turned out to demonstrate the arrest of a left-wing activist named Sergei Udaltsov. Who is he?

Jessica Golloher: He is basically a left-wing activist here in Moscow and he’s been jailed several times for protesting against the Kremlin. He was arrested back on December 4, after we held parliamentary elections here in Russia and given a jail sentence. And then, on Sunday that jail sentence was extended. Udaltsov has basically been on a hunger strike. He is not doing well and his supporters think it’s ridiculous that he’s actually being held on an extended jail sentence and they want him freed.

Werman: Now Jessica, a lot of reporters, including ourselves, have said a month ago that such protests like today’s would have been unthinkable and, as you say, that seemed to change on December 4 with these charges of fraud and parliamentary elections. Putin’s own United Russia party was charged with fraud in their victories. Was that really all it took to get Russians in the streets?

Golloher: Really, what happened is people are tired. They want their voice to be heard. Vladimir Putin has basically been ruling the country, even though President Dmitry Medvedev is obviously President for the past 12 years. There was, allegedly, as far as the protesters are concerned, widespread ballot stuffing and vote rigging here in Russia and they’ve had enough. It’s 12 years of enough as far as they are concerned.

Werman: So, there’s a big fed-up factor. I’m wondering too, what about the fear of demonstrating prior to December 4? Were people worried about going into the streets and what are the risks today for Russians going into the streets to protest?

Golloher: You know, as journalists we used to always laugh because on the 31st of every month the opposition would gather to basically demonstrate for the right to protest on the 31st of every month which is basically guaranteed by Russia’s constitution. The way that the authorities would get around that is they would not sanction those protests. You have to ask for permission to demonstrate. So you would see these opposition leaders, about a handful of them, standing around, waving signs or chanting and hundreds of riot police that would slam down on them very forcefully, beat them up and also attack journalists. So there was a lot of fear of demonstrations. I think after the first major rally, people started to think, “Hey, we could actually do this.” People really thought that there were going to be mass arrests and a lot of violence, but after the last demonstration last weekend, people feel comfortable. You know, I think that’s also because the Kremlin has allowed the sanction protest – the two big sanction protests of last week and the weekend before.

Werman: Reporter Jessica Golloher in Moscow.

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Billboard with Bruce Willis for Trust Bank in the middle of Moscow. "Trust it's like me, only a bank." (Photo: Jessica Golloher)

The US and Russia have allegedly hit the “reset” button on their relationship. But there is one bit of America that especially sticks in the Russian craw these days, American movie stars are hawking Russian products, nearly- edging out local talent.

“Do you really think you have a chance against us, Mr. Cowboy? Yippee kai yay, mother … BOOM!”

Does that sound like a man you’d trust your life savings with, a man who knows the ins and outs of banking?

“It’s not a personality you would necessarily associate with banking or someone to whom you’d trust your money,” said Adam Lewis, from the ad agency Jay Walter Thompson, in Moscow.

“Branding in the banking sector is often very conservative because you want someone who is reliable, secure. This idea of taking a character from a Hollywood film from a thriller to many would seem dangerous almost,” said Lewis.

Well, apparently danger is the way to go with your money here because Die Hard renegade Bruce Willis is the face of none other than Trust bank.

The bank’s Vice President, Dmitry Chukseyev, is quoted as saying that the company needed someone “stable” and “understandable” for the job.

Stable and understandable?

“He’s an easy guy to like and a hard man to kill. BOOM. CRASH. Bruce Willis. Die Hard.”

“In the West, we demand a little bit more of a connection between our spokespeople and the products they represent,” said John Rose, owner of Rose Creative Services in Moscow.

And well, Rose says Russians don’t.

Rose and others say Russians just identify with Bruce Willis’ Die Hard personality and think, “Yeah, I believe that tough guy!” Willis’ slogans for the bank include, “When I want money, I just take it.”

These foreign actors, known as “Migrant Workers from Hollywood,” are used constantly here. They include Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and Sylvester Stallone hawking Russian Ice vodka.

Alexei Andreev, president of branding agency Depot WPF isn’t laughing. He addressed the issue on state radio saying that he thinks it’s shameful that Russian stars don’t have the same pull as foreigners and are devalued.

That seems to be a growing sentiment here, but the fact remains that while Hollywood Migrants hawk products all over the globe, in Russia even the B-listers far outnumber local stars as spokespeople for major brands.

Case in point, before Willis, Trust bank used a famous Russian wrestler as their spokesman, but he didn’t have nearly the same cache or results as the Die Hard renegade.

Trust claims that since Willis signed on, the bank has consistently ranked in the top five fastest growing institutions for both credit card and deposit growth.

Yippee kai yay Hollywood!

Mikhail Prokhorov is considered one of Russia’s most eligible bachelors. The fact that he’s reportedly the third wealthiest man in Russia, with an estimated fortune of 18 billion dollars doesn’t hurt.

Nor does his ownership of the New Jersey Nets.

In June, the Renaissance man took the bold step of becoming the head of the fledgling “Right Cause” political party.

Earlier this year, speaking on state TV, Prohkorov said he thought it was his duty to get involved.

“You know, when you achieve personal success and when you know this country well, any normal person in my position would have a desire to do something for other people. There’s a mechanism for that, and it’s called politics. And so, I have made a decision to become a professional politician to help the citizens of this country to live better,” said Prokhorov.

And in order to live better, at least here in Russia, many analysts know that it helps to have ties with the Kremlin.

Prokhorov had those, which he acknowledged.

“You know, you need to have some kind of connections to do business in any country. Everything depends on the measure of these connections: to a greater or minor degree. Big business always has more ties and connections,” said Prokhorov.

It would appear those ties have been severed.

Earlier this week, Prokhorov accused his Right Cause comrades of registering 21 new party members ahead of a vote to oust him from the party’s leadership.

Speaking Thursday, Prokhorov accused the Kremlin of trying to take control of the Right Cause Party.

He said at a news conference, “What can I say? Politics is new to me. It looks very much like the raids and takeovers of the 1990s, while the fight to set up private companies was going on,” said Prokhorov.

Prokhorov then announced that he will create his own political movement that wasn’t what he called a puppet of the Kremlin.

Prokhorov says he’s not afraid of repeating the fate of tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky – who supporters say was arrested in 2003 for daring to challenge the Kremlin.

But many analysts suggest that today’s tempest was little more than a puppet show itself – an orchestrated way for the Kremlin to put a little spice into an otherwise boring political season. Both the President and Prime Minister come from the United Russia Party, which is expected to sweep both parliamentary elections and upcoming presidential elections.

Muscovite Alina, who didn’t want to use her last name, isn’t surprised by the turn of events. She rolls her eyes and says Prokhorov is the perfect patsy for the Kremlin.

“We always say it’s the Kremlin project, this type of political maneuver. It’s the game of politics. Prokhorov has had these connections to all sorts of people, models, he’s been involved in scandals, and he’s a playboy. So he already acts like a politician,” said Alina.

American Ph.D. student Catherine Holt agrees.

“I had coffee today with two Russian women who were saying how they feel like he’s just another wing of Putin essentially. They see no hope in taking part in the voting process. It’s starting to feel calculated,” said Holt.

Calculated or not, Prokhorov maintains he will eventually represent the average Russian, but stopped short of calling himself the opposition.

Russia has long been battling an Islamist insurgency in the country’s Northern Caucasus region, which includes Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan. The Kremlin has fought two separatist wars in Chechnya. There are near-daily attacks on police and government officials there.

And not infrequently, the violence spills over into Russian cities.

“Our teachers tell us that we have to be careful, of course. And our teachers tell us that we have to see the face and try to be so careful,” said student Anastasia Zavyalova.

Zavyalova sits on a bench near a playground in central Moscow. Her pretty blue eyes become as huge as saucers when she describes the type of person she’s learned to steer clear of at all costs.

“Avoid the people of Caucasus. They have black dresses; we can notice it in their eyes. We were very afraid, these people were very bad; they wanted to kill Russian girls and Russian children,” said Zavyalova.

Many analysts and the government opposition blame the situation in the Caucasus – and the resulting violence in Russian cities – on the Kremlin’s oppressive approach to its former republics. The government maintains that a hard hand is needed to keep rebels and insurgents from their main goal of killing innocent people.

Back on the playground bench Zavyalova says she often asks her teachers why Russians should avoid people from the northern Caucasus. She says their response is very well, Soviet – in other words, no explanation is given.

“No history. Really no history. Because we have situation. This is our problem and our teachers say we have to avoid them. They are bad. Not why,” said Zavyalova.

“How we find truth?,” asked 17-year old Maxim Titov. “I read historical books sometimes or in Internet. I do my own opinions about this.”

Titov says you can’t really rely on Russian teachers to explain why these horrible acts of terrorism keep happening here in the former Soviet Union. There’s no historical context at all.

Titov might not be too far off. Many analysts say educators are still using the same teaching methods as during Soviet times when the Kremlin dictated how history was to be interpreted.

Fifteen-year-old John Rose, whose father is American, couldn’t agree more. He says when the country’s largest airport, Domodedova, located just outside of Moscow, was the target of a suicide bombing in January, he was told to suit up and get ready to fight.

“They took us to this subbasement at school. It was probably a bunker at some point. They had us assembling and disassembling Kalashnikov rifles. So apparently Russian junior high school students are the last line of defense against a terrorist threat,” said Rose.

That’s right, a “teachable moment” tossed aside and in its place students learned how to fight back.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has made it no secret that Russian education is the pits. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, teaching standards have fallen due to corruption, a lack of funding, outdated textbooks and an often-uneducated workforce.

Until changes are made, many of the country’s children are left to learn the way their Soviet-era parents did; just do what you’re told and don’t ask too many questions.

Student John Rose says at least he has a good sense of humor about it. When he told his mother about his shooting adventures, his mom said it could have been worse. She explained what she’d been taught as a young girl.

“In the event of an atomic explosion, the first thing you should do is hold rifle away from you so that it doesn’t melt on your government issued boots. If you’re not going to live, at least make sure your boots do,” said Rose.

A Russian firm has unveiled its plans for an orbital hotel within five years and space tours to Mars by 2030. The news comes as Russia has grounded its Soyuz rockets after an unmanned cargo vessel, bound for the International Space Station, failed to launch into orbit.

It sounds like something out of the future.

But Russian space company Orbital Technologies says it has plans to launch an unprecedented space hotel for tourists by 2016.

Company officials say travelers will be shot into space on a Soyuz rocket and will orbit 217 miles above earth. It’ll have four cabins and will be able to hold up to seven passengers and have massive windows for expansive, intergalactic views.

“The main purpose will be space tourism, to house people,” Orbital Technologies Chief Operating Officer Sergei Kostenko said. “It will be designed and built in such a way that will provide the most comfortable conditions possible for the tourist’s space stay.”

The scheme isn’t as far fetched as it sounds. Orbital Technologies is a subsidiary of a partly state-owned company, which sent tourists to the International Space Station until last year.

Kostenko says the hotel will be aimed at wealthy individuals and those working for private companies who want to do space research.

“The initial cost of a trip to the hotel will be about $50- to $60-million, which is about the same cost as a flight to the International Space Station. Hopefully in the future the costs will drop,” said Kostenko.

Kostenko says the price of a five-day stay at the orbital hotel for a space tourist would be about $1 million.

Company officials say the proposed hotel will be more comfortable than the International Space Station, but it won’t be luxurious. Visitors to the hotel will have to use vacuum toilets, take sponge baths and likely eat space food. Though some say the freeze-dried fare may be along the lines of braised veal cheeks with wild mushrooms, white bean puree, potato soup and plum compote.

Many experts are skeptical that the Russian company will reach its goal of opening the orbital hotel by 2016 due to lack funding.

Another problem may be the rocket itself. Russia has grounded its Soyuz fleet after an unmanned cargo vessel headed for the space station failed to reach orbit and crashed in Siberia.

It was the 44th launch of a Progress supply ship to the space station – and the first failure in the nearly 13-year life of the complex.

“I definitely agree that many things could be not what we actually think they are!” Meet 20-something Muscovite Alina Lobzina. She likes the notion of a Soviet spy plane, complete with miniature people whom Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele engineered to scare the pants of Americans. “That would be so cool and a brilliant topic to explore!” said Lobzina.

Now, few Americans would use the word brilliant to describe the idea that a Soviet spy plane sent by Stalin, with mini creatures on board, crashed into the desert but many Russians, including Lobzina, go for conspiracy theories.

“It’s so cultural. It’s like asking why people like hamburgers. People do some strange things because it’s like tradition. It feels so Russian and so deep into the culture. It’s more just like a part of me says you never know. For some reason Russia superstition is a huge part of the culture,” said Lobzina.

That reason may have to do with restrictions on expression and open debate in Russia. Nikolai Petrov is with the Carnegie Center, a think-tank in Moscow.

“The lack of public politics and public discussions is a good environment for any conspiracy theory to be pretty popular. If something is not discussed in public, there are many possibilities to explain this. That is why conspiracy theories are pretty widespread in Russia,” said Petrov.

Indeed they are. Here’s another example, from last year. Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and 94 others were headed to Russia last year to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, in which Stalin’s secret police killed thousands of polish officers.

The Kremlin was set to officially apologize for the massacre but the plane carrying the Polish president crashed, and everyone on board was killed. Many Russians concocted conspiracy theories to explain the crash. The theories gained currency as Russian officials immediately blamed the Poles for the crash and took their own sweet time to share the findings of the investigation with Warsaw.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev addressed the conspiracy theorists during his end-of the year TV interview.

Medvedev said Russians should not politicize the situation. He said it’s important to hear all points of view and accept the conclusions of Russia’s internal investigation of the crash.

During that same interview, Medvedev later acknowledged that many Russians are suspicious for a reason because the country’s totalitarian traditions are so deep that it will take a long time to get rid of them.

Political Analyst Nikolai Petrov says Medvedev’s comments are lip service and that the Kremlin is open about only things that don’t threaten its image.

“There is transparency with regard to those areas and events, which are considered by the Kremlin not to be dangerous for them,” said Petrov.

Alina Lobzina agrees. She says conspiracy theories will flourish, in Russia, as long as official secrecy is the rule.

“You know there are so many things that haven’t been evaluated officially. There are so many things that no one knows much about,” said Lobzina.

As for Stalin’s secret spy plane with its mutant aviators, many Russians say sure that sounds about right.

Girls dressing up as Wendy in front of the new restraurant in Moscow (Photo: Russia Wendy's Facebook page)

Wendy’s has opened its first restaurant in Russia. The burgers, fries and even the frosties make you feel just like you’re in the good ol’ US of A. Unfortunately, Russia’s rendition of the company’s wholesome red-headed icon, Wendy, is raising some eyebrows.

It’s August and that means summer fun, right? Well, not in the former Soviet Union. The month is considered by many to be unlucky because of several catastrophic events and crises that have happened, over the years, including terrorist attacks, raging forest fires and even war.

A forest fire raged out of control near Moscow last year in August. The blazes were caused by the worst drought and highest temperatures the country had ever experienced.

The beginning of the end of the Soviet Union came on August 19, 1991 and the Russian government defaulted on both its domestic and foreign debt in August of 1998.

Given, that it is already August 3, 2011, are Russians on edge? Do they think history will repeat itself?

Some like Natalia Belyaeva, who works at Deutsche Bank here in Moscow, thinks so.

“For me, it’s difficult to explain why. I think that there are different reasons from different aspects, and so maybe it’s only our expectations, superstitions,” Belyaeva said.

“I don’t think so. It seems to me that Russians don’t have the mysterious souls,” said Nikolai Petrov from the Carnegie Center in Moscow. He said he doesn’t think Russians are making things up. Black August is the real deal.

“August is a time of vacations, and, as in Russia, there is a kind of menial management. A lot of decisions should be made by very high-ranking boss. It means that if the boss is absent then decision-making is even more complicated than usual,” Petrov said.

Petrov said it is not that August is cursed; it’s that the system simply doesn’t react well to crises.

And maybe Petrov is right. Remember those deadly forest fires we mentioned?

The heat and smog from those blazes nearly doubled Moscow’s death rate, caused billions of roubles in damage and forced thousands of people to flee the capital.

And where was Moscow’s then mayor during all of the upheaval? Yuri Luzhkov was nowhere to be found. Many media reported that he didn’t want to cut short his August vacation.

“I think August is such a transition point in the economic cycle,” said banker Artem Prigunov. He said he can’t explain the natural disasters that have happened in Russia in August in the past. But he does say that political upheaval is often connected to the economy, and the Russian economy is connected to August.

“A Russian scientist developed the theory of economic cycles, and all economic developments in the world depend on them. And I think August is a transition point from one period to another,” Prigunov said.

Prigunov said when cycles change sometimes bad things can occur.

So is Prigunov expecting a whiz-bang August event?

“It’s superstition,” he said.

Even if August is a bad month, the Russian scientist Prigonov is referring to, predicted that the cycles will come every three, 10 and 40 years. So Russia should be okay this year; at least in August. Some Russians are speculating that a ferryboat accident last month in which 120 people died is this year’s “August event.”

Elena Zlatoustovskaya sits in a popular Moscow restaurant. She looks cool, sleek and sexy holding an ultra-slim cigarette between her fingers.

At least that’s what marketing wizards would have you think. And Zlatoustovskaya should know. She’s a big wig at the Moscow office of public relations firm Edelman.

“Smoking is quite traditional thing in Russia,” Zlatoustovskaya said. “A lot of ladies are smoking in Russia. This is a really big problem for Russia. A lot of people are accustomed to smoking really cheap cigarettes with low quality tobacco. They are just accustomed to smoke.

And accustomed, they are. A World Health Organization study puts Russia among the smokiest nation in the world with more smokers per capita than Indonesia or China.

And, according to Zlatoustovskaya, advertisers are using every weapon in their arsenal to get even more smokers. It’s not unusual to see scantily-clad young women standing on some of the city’s most popular streets, like Tverskaya, offering cigarettes to lure people in.

“Sampling is very popular,” Zlatoustovskaya said. “So you’re just walking around the street and a girl near the metro station comes to you and says we have new cigarettes. They will pay a lot of attention to that kind of action, that kind of promotion.”

That type of street-level promotion seems to be doing the trick. In 2009, Russia was the largest market worldwide for slim/ultra slim cigarettes, which are generally targeted towards young women. These types of cigarettes often feature flowers on their packaging. Aromatic cigarettes are also the latest, greatest thing.

One of Philip Morris’ brands, Virginia Slims Uno, in both black and white is meant to fit a woman’s “mood.” Ads for the cigarette feature hip, sophisticated model-type looking women on the go.

Phillip Morris officials say their slim cigarette sales jumped 91 percent from 2006 to 2009. Those numbers have embarrassed the Kremlin and Russia has pledged to cut the number of its smokers by up to 15 percent by 2050.

The government has also banned cigarette ads on television and has introduced warning labels on cigarette packages that read, “Smoking Kills”. And that smoking can cause heart attacks, strokes, death and impotence, among other things.

The WHO wants Russia to do more, as other countries have done, like put graphic images of smoke-ravaged lungs on cigarette packages.

What does PR Director Zlatoustovskaya think about the possibility of that happening? She rolled her eyes.

“I’m not sure they will do anything like that,” Zlatoustovskaya said. “I don’t think they would change the package. They get very good taxes from that so I don’t think they will decide and say we care about our population we need them to be more healthy. That is why we will do our best; we will do whatever we need to do just to keep them healthy. Now, I don’t believe that.”

Meanwhile, Russia’s health minister, Tatiana Golikova says the country has to do everything possible to combat the country’s high smoking rates, so she’s all for the gloomy pictures.

By Jessica Golloher

Going to the doctor is most likely not on the top of anyone’s list, in any country. But a new Russian study shows that only about 44 percent of Russians actually went to the doctor last year. Perhaps more interesting than that, when people from the former Soviet Union finally do seek help, they usually avail themselves of alternative alternative-medicine.

Meet Marina Belorysova, a college educated 20-something English teacher working at a primary school in Moscow. Her feelings on what doctors do aren’t exactly what an American might see as mainstream.

“They give advice but most of them are about herbs,” said Belorysova. “Most of them use these ladies who cast spells for different sicknesses. They know a lot of recipes of how to use herbs and so on. Those who grew up in the village it’s very popular there. My mom still uses this kind of medicine, like a healing cuff with herbs.”

Herbs and spells? May sound like something out of Harry Potter. But not here. According to the latest government statistics, about 300,000 Muscovites went to alternative healers last year. Overall, Russia has 800,000 of them; more than the number of official doctors.

Clairvoyant healer Daria Minerova’s Moscow office is full of crystal balls, lava lamps, white owls and candles. She says she is often called upon by “regular” doctors to either cast or clear spells for patients.

“They ask me for a consultation when they have a difficult case,” said Minerova. “For example, when the diagnosis and treatment seem to be correct, but they still can’t cure a patient.”

Belorysova, a school teacher, says it’s pretty common among Russians to try western medicine, then go for the alternative.

“I have a friend she has a baby, a daughter of three,” said Belorysova. “When the baby was one; the baby she had some kind of disease. And of course they could treat it with medicine — with pills or something — but they said you have to go to a lady who can cast a spell on it and it will go away. And it did.”

Now, one might think people are seeking out alternative healers because they’re cheap, but health care in Russia is basically free. It’s just not very good.

Belorysova says many people are downright afraid of western medicine in Russia.

“Medicine is very poor in Russia,” said Belorysova. “It is very bad. At least they know when they use alternative medicine nothing really bad will happen. When they go for a surgery they don’t know whether they will live or not. If they do alternative medicine that maybe it won’t help but nothing bad will happen.”

Dr. Malkina, who prefers not to use her first name, works at the European Medical Center, a private clinic here in Moscow. She is a certified neurologist but has integrated alternative medicine into her treatment methods at the clinic. Dr. Malkina agrees with Belorysova that many Russians don’t like to take risks when it comes to their health.

“Russian people like because it is very safe and very comfortable for people,” said Malkina. “The crystal is very clean and make very big and powerful energy. It heals people and gives people energy. Gives people a better feeling.”

Russians are just flocking to alternative therapies in person; some are turning to the Internet, radio and television.

Diamond Indigo is one of several popular healers on Women’s Club TV, a channel devoted to women’s issues. Here he is trying to help a patient who called in complaining of various medical problems.

“You have darkness there; you have an entity inside you, in the form of … a gnome. I’ll clean it! I’ll get rid of it! Do you feel anything?” he asks. The female caller says, “I feel a slight coldness.”

Indigo’s healing partner says, “(t)hat’s good! The clean energy is working. The entity has gone and it is being replaced with clean, cosmic energy. That’s what you are feeling from Diamond!”

In light of the interest in these healers, officials are starting to act.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has admitted that the country’s health care system is a mess. He’s pledged, among other things, to fix outdated equipment and medical supplies.

In the meantime, the government has become increasingly concerned that Russians are being taken for a ride when it comes to alternative healers.

Evgeny Fedorov, head of the State Duma Committee on the Economic Policy and Entrepreneurship told Russian news agencies that Russians are too trustful of the promises made by magicians and wizards; therefore they are more often than not the victims of conmen.

Last year, parliament approved the first reading of a bill that would prohibit users of supernatural powers to promote their services in mass media. These “mystical advertisements,” as they’re called, include solicitations from witches, magicians, psychics, fortune tellers and faith healers.

OLGA: You have foreign bodies (cells) inside you. We’re cleaning your body of them. We’re establishing the program to regenerate your cells, to renew them. Relax… are your legs heavy?

CALLER TAMARA: I don’t know. I’m sitting down.

OLGA: Calm down, calm down, relax. Do you have water nearby?

CALLER TAMARA: Yes

OLGA: Place your hand over the water. Just hold your hand there; you don’t need to pick it up. Ok, cover up the water. Ok, we can regenerate and renew your cells. We can make the body fight to renew your cells, even against the most serious illnesses. I can do it even with the most serious conditions. You can activate your body to get it to start working. And be sure of that! Do you understand that?

CALLER TAMARA: Yes, yes

OLGA: If it’s ok I’ll hand you back to Valentina now. But please call me, please call me, we need to fully clean you and support you, and that is more than one day’s work. Ok, Tamara?

CALLER TAMARA: Yes, I just wanted to ask, would it be possible to open my son’s money channel?

OLGA: Indeed, that is what Valentina is here for. Yes, please just hold on one minute.

VALANTINA – Tamara, Olga is right, there are links by which we can get in touch with those who have passed, and that is something that we need to work with. So I’ll wait for you to send in your photo, and we’ll work on that. Now, please introduce your son. Tell me his name, and I’ll try to open his money channel.

CALLER TAMARA: Alexander.

VALENTINA: How old?

CALLER TAMARA: 41, nearly 42.

VALENTINA: Great, that’s a good age. Yes, I can see the money is locked. And I can see something, almost like debt. Does he have any loans?

CALLER TAMARA: Yes

VALENTINA: Aha. Now we’ll open the money, as much as possible. Listen to your feelings, think about your son. As soon as you sense anything in your spine, tell me. Tamara, do you feel anything?

CALLER TAMARA: No, nothing yet.

VALENTINA: Take a breath in and out. I’m receiving information about your son. Focus on your spine, you should feel something like a light wind running down it.

CALLER TAMARA: I feel something, but it’s not like a wind.

VALENTINA: Ok, you don’t need to do anything else. The information is being transferred to your son. I can will place a shield and wish him the best of luck. And now we’ll go to a commercial break.

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By Jessica Golloher

It’s no secret that millions of people died under the regimes of Soviet Leaders Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin.

But any visitor wandering through Moscow’s so-called Fallen Monument Park would be hard pressed to find any information about their crimes against the Russian people.

First time visitor to the park Elena, who didn’t want to give her last name, looked confused when asked whether she thinks it is strange that there are no explanations about these former Soviet leaders’ horrific actions.

She said Stalin’s contribution during Soviet times was quite considerable. Most of the monuments were built during his reign. “Now they are just here as a testament that such state officials existed,” she said. “We can’t just forget that!”

Dmitry Maksimovich has been a curator for 30 years. He has recently been appointed to oversee the park. He said Elena’s comments are very typical of the Russian people and, quite frankly, it is not the park’s job to – as he put it – “get political.”

“The approach to the park is entirely historical, for the simple reason that the responsibility of any museum is to collect, store, protect and display. There is no politics, and there can’t be. There is only Russia’s history, good or bad, however varied, it is history, and it has to be respected,” he said.

“The signals which are being sent to people are rather mixed,” said Tanya Lokshina, deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Moscow. Lokshina said the curator’s comments were a sad indication that Russia has never dealt with its brutal past under communist regimes.

“To start with, it was actually possible to have a proper de-communization process in the early 90s with the fall of the Soviet Union, but the politicians were very cautious and they didn’t want to antagonize the public. They knew there were still supporters of Stalin and especially some supporters of the just fallen regime, especially among the retirees and the former politicians; so they never did,” she said.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, for example, has never taken back statements he made that the fall of the Soviet Union was a tragedy and that the destruction of the totalitarian state was a big mistake.

And lots of people seem to agree. Russians recently voted Stalin the third most popular person in Russia’s history. Another poll by the Levada Center showed that nearly half of all Russians believe Stalin played a positive role in Russian history through his policies and his actions.

Back at the statue park, curator Maksimovich continued to point out various sculptures of people such as Felix Dzerzhinksy, the first director of the Bolshevik Secret Police and Vyacheslav Molotov, creator of the so-called Molotov cocktail and foreign minister under Stalin. Suddenly he stopped in front of a very large sculpture by Evgenyi Chubarov.

“There you see stone heads, which represent victims of the repressions! So why do we need posters with words such as “killer”? Everyone who needs to know, knows this,” Maksimovich said.

And if they don’t?

“They can look online or read a book; a park is not responsible for telling a fully developed story!” Maksimovich said.

And park frequenter Julia, who’d preferred to not use her last name, was just fine with the way things are.

“It’s good! It’s our history; you can’t get rid of it! They were our leaders, despite the fact that they were murderers or dictators; they were still people of great stature,” she said.

Lokshina said the cavalier attitude coupled with the government’s influence over information, is one of the reasons why Russians aren’t ready to learn from their past.

“I think this all speaks of confusion. You have fallen statues, one of Lenin in the garden and then just in less than half a mile you’ve got a huge monument of Lenin towering over the square. How would anyone feel?” she asked.

Fallen Monument Park, by the ways isn’t just about former Soviet leaders. There are hundreds of statues in a wide variety of styles- and not all of the pieces are in disrepair.

(Photo: Dino)

At a time when most of the former Soviet Union appears resigned to the fact that Russian voters will once again next year choose between two presidential candidates from The United Russia Party; a new era could be emerging.

The United Russia Party – the party of President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin – holds about 65 percent of the seats in the country’s parliament. But the Communist Party believes it’s time to go red or go home.

Someone with ties to the party posted an action-packed video on YouTube. It mockingly shows the country’s leaders, Medvedev and Putin, vying to be the country’s next leader.

[From video]
PUTIN: I am president of the Russian Federation.

MEDVEDEV: I am!

PUTIN: I am!

MEDVEDEV: I am!

PUTIN: I’m not joking!

“I didn’t expect it,” said Christopher Boian, chief of the foreign languages news department at RIA Novosti, a state-run news agency. “I thought it was pretty creative. An original piece of advertising from the Communist party. I didn’t expect to see this.

Boian is not the only person who was surprised by the video. It’s gotten more than one million hits since it went viral on YouTube several days ago.

“Very Hollywood!” said Victoria Hargrave, an advertising account manager at Edelman in Moscow. “It’s fun it’s engaging. I took me a few minutes to realize that it wasn’t a trailer for a movie. I think that’s what’s most catchy. It doesn’t come off immediately like a campaign ad or an advertisement. It’s flashy, there’s lights, there’s bangs, there are explosions! That’s what a really good advertisement does. It gets people talking about you.

And talking about the video they are. Andrei Zolotov is editor in chief of the magazine “Russia Profile.”

“I would never vote for the communist,” Zolotov said. “The communist party has a unique chance to attract creative people who want to come up with an opposition to United Russia.”

[From video]
The battle for power for 2012 elections … there is always a choice

But in the wake of this unexpected burst of communist creativity, will people actual choose the party next year? Not terribly likely, say most analysts?

Translation of the Video

ANCIENT RELIGIONS PREDICTED IT
VO: Repent, the end is near
IT IS INESCAPABLE
VO: The world as we know it will soon come to an end
Putin: The next presidential election in the Russian Federation in 2012…
VO: I thought we would have more time…

TWO CANDIDATES
ONLY ONE CAN REMAIN

Medvedev: Let me start by saying what I think about this as the President…
Putin: I am President of the Russian Federation…
Medvedev: I am…

I am…I am… back and forth

Putin: I’m not joking!

TREACHERY

Computer hacker: What’s going on?
Putin: We have created a very effective tandem with President Medvedev
Medvedev: That’s a lie!
Computer hacker: But I’m concerned about something else.
Putin: Mr Medvedev and I are people of a traditional orientation!
Medvedev: That’s a lie!
Computer hacker: So that’s how it is!

THE PRE-ELECTION RACE

VO: Is starting…
Woman: It’s on all the new channels![shots of Medvedev dancing and Putin singing "Blueberry Hill"]

THERE WILL BE NO HOLDS BARRED

MUDSLINGING

THREATS

Putin: (hard to make out what he says)

HIGHER POWERS

Where is the President, Sally?

He’s praying, Sir. In a situation like this, it’s not such a bad idea…

THE TIME HAS COME

Danny! Look what’s behind us!

Oh my!…

THE BATTLE FOR POWER

Medvedev: Is he up in the air?… Beautiful!

SOON

VO: According to the first unconfirmed reports, large areas of the dessert are under water…
VO: The whole world is going to be destroyed godammit!

2012 ELECTIONS

VO: There is no choice

www.kprf.ru

THERE IS ALWAYS A CHOICE

21 Prime Steakhouse and Bar on Novy Arbat in Moscow

At a popular Italian restaurant near Pushkin Square in Moscow, men and women talk business over margarita pizzas, fettuccine and minestrone soup. It could be a typical business lunch in most any city, except for the beverage that sits chilled on most tables – a bottle of vodka.

Hard alcohol at lunch is de rigueur in Russia, according to Oxana Egorova, a businesswoman. She said vodka gets your blood flowing better.

Popular bar minutes from the Kremlin, All Time Bar. (photo: Jessica Golloher)

And Russians do drink – in public – at any time of the day. Men and women, young and old, buy tiny bottles of hard alcohol at kiosks on their way to work; women push baby carriages with one hand while holding a liter can of beer in the other, and teenagers sit in parks during the middle of the day, drinking vodka straight out of the bottle. It’s not just that people are drinking all the time, everywhere; they want you to drink too, said Becca Dalton, an American expat who teaches English.

“I think it’s pretty difficult not to drink in Russia,” Dalton said. “The first year I was here I had a real problem with it because everyone was offering me alcohol everywhere we went. If you refused, everyone looked at you strangely. I worked at school and they would pull me out of class to go and drink champagne and vodka, and then we’d go back and teach again.”

Dalton said that sometimes it’s just easier to drink up rather than face dirty looks. That’s exactly what American attorney John Sherry says he got when he tried to politely – repeatedly — refuse shots of vodka, glasses of champagne and snifters of cognac during the workday. Sherry said Russians don’t get the American motto, “Just say no.”

“They won’t understand if they’re pouring out shot glasses and they pass you one and you say no thanks, not today,” Sherry said. “Any of the sort of finesse of how you’d say it in the United States doesn’t work here at all.”

Moscow house party on Tverskaya (photo: Jessica Golloher)

“I’ve never lived in a place where there’s no line between what’s right and what’s wrong,” Broncoma said. “There’s no conscience telling you you should or shouldn’t do this, where in other places where I lived there’s more of a cultural norm for what’s right and what’s wrong; there’s more of a subconscious feel of how far you can go and not go.”

Broncoma added that he’s constantly being called on to counsel expats who’ve lost complete control. People who say that they were just social drinkers back in the US are downing five vodka tonics a night, then going home to have a couple more. Why? Because they say it’s expected and accepted. But many are trying to break the habit. Moscow’s chapter of AA is one of the biggest in the world. There are daily meetings for alcoholics and weekly get-togethers for friends and family members.

But John Sherry said staying sober involved more than AA for him. He said he couldn’t just refuse alcohol anymore. He had to actually tell Russians about his very personal struggle so they would leave him alone when it came time for a toast.

“You get to the point where you own up to everyone that I quit drinking, I have a drinking problem. That they understand because that is one thing that people in Russia are familiar with,” Sherry said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has acknowledged that the problem goes well beyond expats. He has called Russia’s rampant alcoholism a “national disaster,” and kicked off a program to combat drinking, including a comprehensive media campaign and strict penalties for selling to minors. The president said he hopes his reforms will slash the nation’s per capita alcohol consumption by 25 percent within the next year.

Russian politicians seem to be on board. For the first time, beer is officially going to be classified as an alcoholic drink rather than as a food.

Ironically, Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev also tried to rein in Russia’s drinking during the mid-1980s with his own fight against alcohol. His campaign used some of the same proposed steps as Medvedev’s, but also included closing many of the country’s vodka distilleries, eradicating vineyards in Moldova and Armenia, and banning the sale of alcohol in restaurants before 2 pm, among other things.

Analysts say the anti-drinking campaign was a partial success. It did ultimately cut alcohol-related deaths but it also caused a dramatic surge in moonshining.