On a sunny day late in March, Radio Station 5 blared onto a pedestrian mall in St. Petersburg, Russia as a Flagstaff reporter strolled toward Yeliseevskiy Gastronom – the gourmet food hall where locals have shopped for caviar and macaroons since the time of the tsars. According to a Russian-speaking companion, the radio host was predicting that the value of the ruble would either go up, or down, in the coming days. Clear skies and 50 degree weather had lured residents into the streets. There was little evidence in this city – Vladimir Putin’s hometown – of the dangerous tensions in Crimea and Ukraine to the south. Although Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was recently banned from the Russian Federation, the occasion of a media conference provided this reporter an opportunity to check on the local mood and file a report.
St. Petersburg is just less than 1,000 miles from Ukraine. Even so, cancellations of travel plans by Western tourists have been growing steadily. According to The Moscow Times, Germans, Dutch, and British, in particular, have decided to stay away, fearing that the distance is not quite far enough to ensure their safety. A walk around the city, however, demonstrated no shortage of Finnish tourists. Cheaper prices and the relatively short drive to St. Petersburg from the Finnish border make the Russian city a popular shopping destination. A cosmopolitan and easy-going counterpart to Russia’s capital city, Moscow, St. Petersburg is home to the Hermitage, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, which also houses the world’s largest collection of fine paintings. The museum includes the Winter Palace, former part-time residence of the tsars. This and many other historic attractions, an artistic atmosphere, and the celebrated White Nights summer festival (when the sun stays up nearly all night long) typically invite droves of visitors in the high season. More than three million foreign tourists travel to St. Petersburg every year with Americans making up at least 20 percent of that number, according to the Moscow Times report. With the prospect of fewer European and American visitors, hotel and tourism marketing directors are beginning to set their sights on Asian tourists to make up the difference.
Ekaterina Malyushenkova is a doctoral student studying tourism economics at St. Petersburg State Economy University. Her parents, and many of her friends, currently see little effect on daily life as the result of the Crimea crisis. “To tell you the truth,” she said, “Russia produces plenty of oil and gas that other countries need.” She predicts that sanctions will have no lasting effect and would hurt Europe, an important trade partner with Russia. She has seen tensions between Russians and Ukrainians increase in the last several years. Until recently, she spent part of each summer in Crimea to be near the sea. “Everyone was friends,” she said. “No one pointed out that you were Russian or Ukrainian. We all spoke Russian and we just had fun together.” Two years ago, however, she noticed a change. “People would say, ‘why don’t you just go back to St. Petersburg?’ They were really mean. It made me want to never go back there again.” The current situation makes her “sad,” she said.
Malyushenkova has heard reports from Russian friends living in Crimea about harassment and attacks by Ukrainians. Ukrainian hoodlums have targeted some Russians, threatening bodily harm and stealing their possessions. “They just want to move away from there now,” she said.
Despite this news, the situation in Crimea and Ukraine seemed anything but an urgent topic in St Petersburg even while Western media outlets report on Russian troops amassing at the border. Snippets of conversation overheard here and there around town proved that it was not completely absent, however. An elderly gentleman sipping espresso in the British Bakery on Vladimirsky Street spoke proudly about Putin’s record and the fact that he was not backing down to Western powers. A woman at the bus stop on Nevsky Prospekt talked instead about the crazy things “that guy” – meaning Putin – is doing. The Georgian restaurant Tarkhun on Karavannaja Street features performances of traditional ethnic dances at night. On a recent evening, after appreciative applause, a patron said wistfully, “It makes you miss the Soviet days when we were all part of the same country.” FBN
By Constance DeVereaux