From July 15th to July 17th, Vladimir Putin will host the G8 summit in the Constantine Palace in Strelnya, in the suburbs of St. Petersburg, Russia.
To make his premier guests more comfortable, his government has decided to close Pulkovo, the international airport, the port, all major roadways, and all the museums -- to the general public. According to radio reports, while the subway will still operate, there will be no above-ground transportation except for your feet. How nice -- the visiting dignitaries won't have to mix with the proles.
All this is gleaned from family and friends in Piter, as the St. Petersburg Times has mostly dropped the ball on this one, except for the business section:
I do not know many businesses that have gained from the G8 summit, but I know that many of them will suffer because of it. For example, companies that serve Russian tourists traveling aboard...As city traffic comes to a standstill, ATM machines will run out of cash, gas stations of fuel and shops of goods. In contrast to the entrepreneurs, almost everything done by city officials is devoted to the G8 summit, especially road works, which seem to be going on everywhere. Certainly it’s time for many city streets to undergo repair, but is has nothing to do with the arrival of such distinguished guests. Are presidents bothered if Moskovsky Prospekt’s pavements are perfectly flat?
Actually many local shops serving the everyman carry little inventory, so quite a number of kiosks will simply shut down, since entrepreneurs cannot ship their goods to the stores, and their employees cannot easily get to work. I gather that the fancy stores will be open for the visiting dignitaries.
Of course the travel industry is mighty angry:
As a centralised economy, the state still wields great power in Russia. For the summit, the city's airport is closed to all flights; the railway to and from Moscow is closed for days before the event, the wonderful palaces are being closed without notice to tourists to allow the G8 leaders and their entourages to visit in peace and safety. Half the port is closed to river traffic.And yet, tour groups have been booked to come to the city for months and even years ahead.
The Scotsman has an excellent, though incomplete, summary:
WHOLE sections of one of Europe's most beautiful cities cordoned off. More than 20,000 police, special forces and troops moving in to set up a security ring of steel. Ports closed and tourist cruise ships banned from a famous waterway, but millions spent on upgrading airports and roads to welcome powerful visitors while any protest is stifled.
All this of course will make it much harder for anti-globalists and other protesters to do much of anything -- not that you would expect mass demonstrations in a politically repressive country, though the anti-G8 folks know that you have to lie on your visa application if you want to get near the summit.
