Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Mother Russia: laughing at them foreign soldiers while selling off national heritage
Just like the "good" old days, that famed paragon on journalism, "Pravda", gleefully reports on how drunken NATO soldiers are being assaulted and robbed on the streets of Lithuania.
For the locals it must make a nice change to drunken Russian soldiers assaulting and robbing on the streets of Lithuania.
Meanwhile, the city of St Petersburg is planning to "privatise" its numerous historic palaces.
"The city's governor, Valentina Matvienko, said it was the only way to save from total ruin decrepit mansions that were once the homes of pre-Revolutionary Russia's most noted families.
"The government can not afford the cost of maintaining or restoring the numerous palaces scattered throughout the city's famous canal-side streets. 'Many businessmen have told me that if leasehold agreements for the rental of palaces provided for property rights they would not be scared to put their own money into restoration projects,' she said."
While there is no doubt that privately supported heritage is better than the publicly owned falling apart heritage, let's hope that this privatisation will be more successful than Russia's previous efforts in this direction.
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For the locals it must make a nice change to drunken Russian soldiers assaulting and robbing on the streets of Lithuania.
Meanwhile, the city of St Petersburg is planning to "privatise" its numerous historic palaces.
"The city's governor, Valentina Matvienko, said it was the only way to save from total ruin decrepit mansions that were once the homes of pre-Revolutionary Russia's most noted families.
"The government can not afford the cost of maintaining or restoring the numerous palaces scattered throughout the city's famous canal-side streets. 'Many businessmen have told me that if leasehold agreements for the rental of palaces provided for property rights they would not be scared to put their own money into restoration projects,' she said."
While there is no doubt that privately supported heritage is better than the publicly owned falling apart heritage, let's hope that this privatisation will be more successful than Russia's previous efforts in this direction.
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