Tag Archives: Russia

Jan 18 2017
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Daily Post, Urban scene

On the Arbat

Wednesday 18th January 2017, 3.45pm (day 1,973)

Arbat chipmunk, 18/1/17

Afternoon off, so I headed for the Arbat, probably the most laid back of the streets in Moscow city centre, and venue for one of the very first Moscow pictures featured on this blog on 24th October 2011. The kids seem very happy to see the guy in the chipmunk suit, what they probably don’t realise is that he’s almost certainly handing out leaflets for some tattoo parlor or e-cigarette vendor. Note the Christmas decorations still up — Russian Orthodoxy does all that stuff two weeks later than we do, so it’s not yet past Twelfth Night here.

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Jan 16 2017
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Moscow campus, January

Monday 16th January 2017, 12.20pm (day 1,971)

Moscow school campus, 16/1/17

How nice it is that I have a job that frequently permits me the chance to get out of cold, damp, dark Britain in the depths of January. Many people would here make a point of going somewhere warm and sunny, like Australia, or the Mediterranean. I am a contrary bugger though, so I’ve come to Moscow.

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May 12 2016
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Taking the scaffolding down, Red Square

Thursday 12th May 2016, 6.20pm (day 1,722)

Scaffolding, St Basils, 12/5/16

It obviously takes a while to get things cleared up after the 9th May Victory Day celebrations: three days later and they’re still at it. But at least it gives me a chance to get a gratuitous shot of St. Basil’s onto the blog again. If you don’t think this is one of the most incredible buildings in the world then I’m sorry, you have no soul and I’m just not your friend any more.

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May 11 2016
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Monument to Corporate Failure, revisited

Wednesday 11th May 2016, 12.45pm (day 1,721)

Monument to Corporate Failure, 11/5/16

A day spent entirely working on campus here in Moscow, so let’s take this opportunity to check in on the slow decay of the Monument to Corporate Failure; a building which fascinates me and has been depicted on here several times before (example). At least fifteen years this has sat here empty, since the Italian company that 90% built it went bust with it uncompleted and no one has subsequently worked out whether they can safely demolish it or not — or perhaps, no one is bothered. Never used, bits of it periodically seem to fall off, but it does have a certain grandeur, in its own pathetic way.

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May 10 2016
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Kremlin Wall

Tuesday 10th May 2016, 5.45pm (day 1,720)

Unknown solder, 10/5/16

Seeing as I missed the Victory Day celebrations yesterday let’s pay homage with this shot. The Russian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier lies below the monumental west wall of the Kremlin, at one end of a row of memorials to various Soviet cities, all decorated since yesterday with garlands of flowers. I think we citizens of elsewhere mostly forget that it was the Soviets who lost the most men (and women) of all the countries who fought in World War Two. They have a right to remember the dead. Perhaps not to celebrate them — but to remember them.

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May 09 2016
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

By the Moscow River

Monday 9th May 2016, 2.40pm (day 1,719)

Moscow river, 9/5/16

So here I am back in Moscow, and the city thus appears on the blog for the first time since 29th October 2014, 558 days ago. The weather that day was glorious, and so it was today too. It was a public holiday here, Victory Day, but only the oligarchs and Putin confidantes get to hang around Red Square watching the tanks roll past these days, so I just worked a bit and wandered out in the early afternoon to take in the rays by the Moscow River, along with several thousand of the locals.

The bridge in the background has two decks, by the way — upper for the road, lower for the Metro red line (line 1).

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Oct 29 2014
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Sunset skyline, Moscow

Wednesday 29th October 2014, 4.30pm (day 1,161)

Moscow sunset, 29/10/14

A landscape, almost. The weather in Moscow today was glorious, totally unseasonal, and here the setting sun catches these blocks that tower around the fringes of central Moscow like the monoliths in Monument Valley, some from the Communist era but many  rather newer than that.

 

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Oct 27 2014
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Scaffolders in front of GUM

Monday 27th October 2014, 5.15pm (day 1,159)

Scaffolders, GUM, 27/10/14

Sometimes the shot just waves at you and cannot be ignored. What this scaffolding was for, heaven knows, but it was being built this evening, on a grand scale, in front of GUM, the huge shopping mall which lines one side of Red Square (it stands for Glavnyi Universalnyi Magazin, or ‘Main Universal Store’).

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Oct 26 2014
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Daily Post, Landscape

Birch avenue

Sunday 26th October 2014, 2.10pm (day 1,158)

Birch avenue, 26/10/14

Third consecutive Sunday spent up in the air on my way somewhere — in this case, like two Sundays ago, Moscow. This shot was taken on the final approach in to Domodedovo airport. Probably I break a few composition rules here but hey, that’s what rules are for, right?

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Oct 13 2014
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

Global Education Futures forum — youngest attendee

Monday 13th October 2014, 12.15pm (day 1,145)

Pavel and child, 13/10/14

Moscow was the destination of yesterday’s flight. I came here to attend this event, a forum involving some of the world’s greatest and most innovative educational thinkers, plus me. And this little darling, in the arm of her father Pavel, one of the organisers. What is she pointing at? The red rectangle which appears to be growing out of his arm? More likely the other delegate’s lunch. Don’t get used to pictures of Moscow — I’m flying home again tomorrow, though I am back here in two weeks.

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