My first week in Moscow

So here I am, sitting behind a computer in Moscow! The first week has gone by very quickly indeed! I was picked up from the airport by the driver of the company I work for and as he didn't speak English that was my first opportunity to practice my rusty Russian. I went straight to the office where I was received by my colleagues who are mostly Russian and about my age. The office is a big room where everybody has his or her own desk. The first night I stayed with my co-worker Lena, who was kind enough to offer me a place to sleep.

On Friday I sorted out my accommodation for the first month. I will be staying with a Russian family with two sons (Ilya and Sasha) who are in their early 20s and at uni and their mum. I have my own room and am really close to the metro, which is great. On Friday, I went out with some people from work and met up with Sasha and Ilya later. Got to know some of their friends who were all very friendly and had my first encounter with Russian vodka, hehe.

Didn't do much on Saturday apart from going out for a drink with Ilya and Sasha in the evening. On Sunday, Jeroen (my boss) took me out for breakfast and showed me around Moscow. We had lunch with some of his friends in a really nice Russian restaurant with a huge buffet and plenty of vodka.

My first whole week at work went well. Worked on the project, met with the company we are doing the project for and went out for dinner with Sergey (a colleague) on Monday evening. Didn't do that much in the evening as I am usually pretty knackered by the time I get back home. The change in climate, the busy metro and the long days take some adjusting. But all in all, I am enjoying myself a lot. Unfortunately I picked up something so I felt really ill on Thursday. Have spent the last 36 hours sleeping, but am hoping I get better soon.

Russia

So what kind of country am I travelling to on Thursday? This was a question that come to my mind as I was getting ready to fly to Moscow. Lately, Russia has been receiving a lot of bad press of which the brutal murder of Anna Politkovskaya is a good example. She was shot in front of her apartment this weekend. Anna Politkovskaya was one of the most vocal critics of Putin and she frequently published reports of human rights abuses by the Russian troops in Chechnya. Sadly, this is not the first time a journalist has paid the ultimate price. Russia is the third most dangerous country to work as a journalist, after Iraq and Afghanistan.

Another issue is the state of the relations between Russia and Georgia. The arrest of four alleged Russian spies in Georgia has brought matters to a boiling point with Russia deporting Georgians and imposing a full scale embargo on trade with its neighbour. The shift to the West under the Georgian president Saakashvili has gotten some alarm bells ringing in Russia which still considers Georgia to form part of its sphere of influence. Georgia, on the other hand, is less than happy about the role Russia plays in supporting the break-away regions of Southern Ossetia and Abkhazia. President Saakashvili has vowed he will unite Georgia and bring these regions back into line.

Third and finally, recent developments in the Russian oil and gas industry suggest that the Russian government has decided to target foreign oil and gas companies and increase its influence in this sector even further. In the past years, this sector has been a consolidation of local Russian companies of which the tale of Yukos is a perfect example. The threat of withdrawing the environmental licence for the Sakhalin II project, in which Shell holds a large share, indicates that the Russian government is not afraid of using extreme measures to increase its power in the sector despite the negative effects this might have on future investment decisions by foreign companies.

As one can see, there's a lot going on in Russia at the moment and I count myself very lucky that I have been given the opportunity to follow these developments from closer up.

Avksom

I am curious to find out how long it will take for someone to figure out the meaning of 'avksom'. I doubt it will take long, as it's not that hard!