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The Moscow Times Moscow Guide – Winter 2008

Since the middle of autumn one of the most important topics of discussion, could only be … no, not the financial crisis… New Year! The winter issue of The Moscow Times Moscow Guide is entirely devoted to New Years celebrations. Seven great ideas for celebrating the “Night of Nights” will help readers finalise their plans and choose how and where to party, give fresh ideas and lots of practical advice.

And don’t forget – problems will come by themselves, but happiness and luck need an invitation. That why the more cheerful and light-hearted your celebration of the coming holiday is, the happier and more successful 2009 will be for you.

The Crisis: Signs of a Kremlin Fearful Of Unrest
Sociologist Yevgeny Gontmakher has painted a disturbing picture of what might emerge from the financial crisis, forecasting continued unemployment, huge protests and spreading violence.

Market Matters: Huge Grain Harvest No Boon for Farmers
This year Russia is enjoying the biggest grain harvest it has ever seen -- and farmers couldn't be more worried.



Tuesday, January 06, 2009 Updated at 31 December 2008 22:36 Moscow Time.

The Moscow Times » Issue 4000 » News

Mikhail Voskresensky / Reuters

A tank rolling through central Sukhumi during a military parade on Tuesday.

Grateful Abkhazia Thanks Russia on Its National Day

01 October 2008SUKHUMI, Georgia — Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia proclaimed President Dmitry Medvedev a hero Tuesday as the region celebrated its first national day since Moscow recognized it as an independent state.

Russian and Abkhaz flags fluttered over the capital Sukhumi to mark the 15th anniversary of the Black Sea region's victory over Georgian forces in a separatist war.

Among the smiling crowds milling around war memorials on Tuesday, a few individuals sadly hunted out the names of sons or husbands killed in the 1992-1993 war that drove Tbilisi's forces from Abkhaz territory.

"We celebrate and we cry all together," said Feniya Leiba-Khagush, 62, as she stroked the engraved name of her only son Robert, who died in the battle to retake Sukhumi.

Her sister, Galina, comforted her as they walked around to show the names of two cousins whose names are also among the 1,667 engraved on the memorial in the town center.

"The pain will never leave us, but we are grateful that we are understood now. Thanks to Medvedev, we are safe. He saved us; he is a true hero of Abkhazia," she said.

Abkhaz had rushed to clean up Sukhumi for the occasion, repairing pavement and resurfacing roads.

The Hotel Abkhazia, once the town's centerpiece but now a gutted shell, has been shrouded in hoardings to hide the worst of the damage.

Abkhaz officials said they would forever remain vigilant in case Tbilisi again tried to take back the territory.

"Georgia remains an aggressive neighbor. … I do not know when it will start down a civilized path, but I am convinced of one thing: It will long employ terrorism as the main instrument in its policies toward Abkhazia and South Ossetia," separatist leader Sergei Bagapsh said at a meeting of war veterans and visiting delegations on the eve of the holiday.