Zenit St Petersburg Vs Anzhi Makhchkala - A Hostile Affair

In my last post, I said I was going to see Zenit in action finally. The Zenit/Anzhi game is poised as a very important game for the home team as Anzhi are not only a team with a lot of money who are competing for the Russian League; there is also a heated rivalry due to the different cultures of the teams.

For those who don't know Anzhi Makhchkala are based in Dagestan (in the Caucasus). Many people in St Petersburg and the rest of Russia have a resentment towards those from the Caucasus. They also have a dislike of black players which Anzhi have and Zenit don't. Zenit St Petersburg's Ultras have regularly said that they do not want any black players and the transfer of Hulk (or Halk in Russian) from Porto to Zenit last year resulted in racist chants and a fake bomb left in the locker room. However, Zenit fans have seemed to warm to Hulk and his fellow half-cast teammate Axel Witsel in the recent months.

As I mentioned before these two teams have been competing for the Russian League this year (in vain, however, as it looks like CSKA Moscow will be champions), as such, there are some big names in both teams, including: Samuel Eto'O (Самюэль Это’о), Axel Witsel (Аксе́ль Витсе́ль), Hulk (Халк), Yuri Zhirkov (Юрий Жирков), Willian (Виллиан), Lassana Diarra (Лассана Диарра), Bruno Alves (Бруну Алвеш). Both managers have managed in top European leagues Spalletti (Zenit) and Hiddink (Anzhi). Even the Russian (and ex-England) manager, Fabio Capello, was there.

On the way to the Petrovsky Stadium, there were many Zenit fans on the Metro and a few spread out Anzhi fans. There was obviously an expectation of violence and problems because as soon as I reached the top of the Sportivnaya Metro station, there were police with batons, armour and helmets. As soon as I exited the Metro, I realised that was only a small percentage of the police force working the game. The Petrovsky is a relatively small stadium for a big Russian club (a little over 21,000) but there must have been 500-750 riot policemen outside, in and around the stadium.

The road was closed by police with a line of police on both sides

The sheer amount of police was intimidating and I was hoping that no Russians would see me as a "foreigner" fit for a beating. Especially as I decided to go alone to the game. Having been to a fair few football games of various divisions in England, nothing would have prepared me for the process to get into the stadium. Before you are allowed into the stadium, there are not one, not two but three pat downs by police and security and yet Ultras can still get flares in.

It was an absolutely beautiful day in Petersburg. Luckily the sun was out because the Petrovsky has little in terms of cover and recently the weather has been a mix of thunderstorms, 24 degrees Celsius and torrential rain.

The game was played on the 8th of May. While not celebrated in Europe, the next day was Victory in Europe (or, simply, Victory Day in Russian). As such, there was a minutes silence before game with the phrase "Никто не забыт, ничто не забыто..." (No-one forgotten, Nothing forgotten) on the screens. Rather than the sombre affair of 11th November in the UK, Victory Day has a party-like feel, celebrating the fall of Fascism in Europe, remembering the 20 million plus fatalities. It was a moment that made the hairs on your neck stand up. This was followed by the Russian national anthem which was amazing compared to the English national anthem of 'God Saved the Queen'. Everyone in the stadium was stood up, belting it out and those who didn't know the lyrics, the screen had a rolling lyric sheet. 

 
The game was a hostile affair. Racist chants were yelled back and forth from the Ultras of Zenit and Anzhi. I'd be lying if I said I understood all the chants but I think it is better I didn't. Chants of "Nyegri Nyegri Nyegri" rang out whenever a black Anzhi player touched the ball. A few chants aimed at the referee included some vile words that are not fit for repeating.

Anzhi ended up winning the game 1-0 with a Samuel Eto'O goal coming in the second half. It was a great game which Zenit dominated but could never get that vital goal. After the game, all the metro stations are closed for about 15-30 minutes to stop and manage riot problems. Surprising, I didn't witness any violence and have yet to hear anything apart from Hulk kicking down the referee's door after the game. There were a few flares and a cloud of smoke sent from the Zenit Ultras but nothing bad (as seen below).

On the way home I stopped to get something to eat in Subway. I was wearing a Zenit jersey and a girl, probably my age, stopped me and asked what the result was. I told her that Zenit lost 1-0. She looked shocked and I was shocked by her reply; "How could Zenit lose to Anzhi? They are shit, they have black players.". Then came the awkward question "What do you think of black people?". I didn't really reply but another Russian joined in the conversation and it ended with this girl saying "Black people are child murderers and baby rapists." I knew some Russians had racist views but this was unbelievable.

However, I don't want to end on a sour note so here is a collection of photos from the game:

Goodbye Winter/Hello Summer and One of the Weirdest Memorials I've Seen.

I have sick Photoshop skillz!

This might be a distraction tactic from the need to choose my modules for next year. To put it lightly, I'm screwed looking at the choice of modules. So I've taken Oasis's advice to 'Stop crying your heart out' and here is a little bit of creative procrastination...

Well, as the title says, Winter has gone and Spring/Summer has arrived. It may be still classed as Spring here but the weather definitely makes it seem more Summery. It may come as a shock to some but Russia isn't only snow 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In fact, today it is 16 degrees Celsius, which is hotter than The English Riviera (plus less rain, but that's a given).

No longer are people able to write their loved one's name in the snow on top of the iced over river. However, there is an alternative. They now use chalk like children and write it on the pathways by the river.

Anyway, it is the first week of my two week holiday. Whilst many have decided to go travelling to Riga, Helsinki, Volgograd etc. I was a bit lazy and decided to stay here and see some of the sights I missed on my first visit here in 2007 with my school. One that struck out to me was the monument to a little bird. The problem was no-one I spoke to or any website could tell me exactly where it was when I was looking.

So I spent a few hours here and there trying to find this little statue. The only knowledge I had was; 1) It is on the left branch of the Neva. a.k.a. the Fontanka river and 2) It is close to a bridge. Sounds easy to find BUT the Fontanka is roughly 7Kms long and there are over 340 bridges. Now you see why it was so hard to find. But I persevered and managed to find him.

You may be asking why is this monument such a big attraction. Well Chizhik-Pyzhik is a Russian nursery rhyme:

Чижик-пыжик, где ты был?

Chizhik-Pyzhik, where have you been?

Chizhik-Pyzhik, gd^je ty byl?

На Фонтанке водку пил.          

Drank vodka on the Fontanka. 

Na fontank^je vodku pil.

Выпил рюмку, выпил две —    

Took a shot, took another -        

Vypil r^jumku, vypil dv^je -

Зашумело в голове.     

Got a headache.

 Zashum^jelo v golov^je.

There is a belief that if you drop a coin on the ledge and it remains there you are in for some good luck. It is almost a tourist trap and with numerous tourists in the way, it is hard to get an opportunity to drop many coins. I dropped a few coins but none stayed on the ledge. It was my last coin, 10 roubles. As if by magic it dropped and remained on the ledge. Russians were shocked, after all I'd seen people drop around 20 coins each and none stay on the ledge.

You may call me a liar but the only 10 rouble coin on the perch is mine. For those not used to the Russian currency its the far left gold coin. I'm still waiting for my good luck to come in but hopefully I haven't jinxed it.

In other news, I decided to get a Zenit shirt with my name in Russian on the back. One problem I had was translating my name into Russian. Look at your visa, you might say. But I have had 3 visas and 3 different spellings of my surname; Бёртлз (Byortlz), Биртлз (Birtlz) and Бертлз (Byertlz). I asked a member of staff if he could help me. I wrote out the above spellings and he looked at me plain-faced and said they are all the same, you can choose any. So I went for Бёртлз (my host in Petrozavodsk said that's how she had envisioned the spelling of my surname before).

And finally, I am going to go to my first Zenit game on Wednesday night. It's the semi-final of the Cup of Russia against Anzhi Makhachkala. It has been well publicized Russian teams don't like foreigners; my hope is that they are too busy with the fans from Dagestan to vent their anger towards me.

Lets just hope I make it through...

Sister and Parents visit Russia. (Part One; Mainly Pictures, Few words)

As the title suggests, my parents and sister have come out to visit me. I am sure they are happier I ended up in St Peterburg rather than Volgograd as it has given them a reason to finally visit Russia and more precisely 'The Venice of the North'.

They have just left for the airport. After a week of seeing them, matryoshka hunting and sightseeing, I am rather tired. For those of you expecting a long blog post about what we did whilst we were here I will sum it up for you now; What major sights didn't we visit? Answer: None.

Anyway, I thought I would share for you my sister's newest craze of taking most pictures using the newly discovered panoramic mode of several places we visited.

 

Kopek Koshmar! (Kopek Nightmare)

Well, I have been here over a month now and I am still yet to do many cultural things. It is surprising how quickly the time has gone whilst here. In Petrozavodsk, time moved much slower but that could be due to the lack of free weekdays and linear class schedules.

As I have yet to do many cultural things, I thought I would write about a problem with Russia. A rant, if you will. But what will this be a rant on you say? Russian Bureaucracy? Russian Politics? Putin and Medvedev? Actually, none of these. Just a rant on why Russians need to change their attitude to their currency.

The R(o)uble (sometimes pronounced as "rubble") is the currency of Russia. At the moment, £1 would exchange for around 47-48 RUB. For those that don't know the Russian Ruble has a 1 RUB coin, 2 RUB coin, 5 RUB coin, 10 RUB note/coin, 50 RUB note, 100 RUB note, 500 RUB note, 1000 RUB note and a 5000 RUB note.

There are also kopeks. 100 kopeks is 1 RUB. Kopeks come in 1 Kopek coin, 5 Kopek coin, 10 Kopek coin and 50 Kopek coin. 1 Kopek and 5 Kopek coins are relatively rare. In my whole time in Petrozavodsk, I never received any as change. In my opinion, the Kopek needs to be withdrawn. They are so unnecessary.

For those who have not lived in Russia, getting to pay for your goods in a produkti (shop) and being asked for 70 Kopeks and when you say you don't have it, the shop clerk looks disappointed and a bit pissed off. There are arguments I could make for the RUB coin to be withdrawn too but maybe I will save that for another rant.

My useless Kopek/RUB coin collection

Above is pile of coins from the five weeks I have spent here in St Petersburg so far. The columns in order are 5 Kopeks, 10 Kopeks, 50 Kopeks, 1 RUB and 2 RUB. To prove how worthless the Kopeks are the first tower is worth 0.4p (GBP), the second is worth 4.4p and the third is worth 10p. For those who are interested the last two towers are worth 42p and 36p respectively.

All that shrapnel is worth less than a pound. Now the shop clerks can understand why I don't walk into a shop with the right change and would rather hand over notes. But even with notes problems occur...

The problem is their notes are in too big a denomination. Russian shops like 10 RUB - 500 RUB notes. Pay with a 1000 or 5000 RUB and you will be almost asked, do you have smaller change, sir? If I did, surely I would pay for my goods with it. The stigma is much like the stigma of paying for something with a £50 note in England. £50 notes are rarely given out of ATMs in England but 95% of the time, notes will be 1000s or 5000s from Russian ATMs.

Don't try and pay with this....

or this.

 It is illogical to have such high notes if no-one likes to accept them. But then I would rather have one or five notes than 10/50 100 RUB notes (which did happen when I took money out before going to Yekaterinburg in "mixed"notes).

1000 RUB in 100s

A problem also lies in the hassle that is changing money in the bank. Do I really want to change money every time I withdraw some cash? And, yes, you might say "Why not withdraw smaller amounts?" Well, the answer is simple. Banks of England like to charge you a minimal fee and a percentage on top of what you take out so to get your moneys worth withdrawing bigger amounts is much cheaper.

Coming back to the argument of Kopeks, I recently went to SPB (A Russian equivalent of Wetherspoons mainly seen, but not limited to, in St Petersburg. The bill came to around 600 RUB and an odd Ruble. To get rid of some of my Kopeks, I put one 50 and five 10s in. The change came back. And, unfortunately, so did my Kopeks. Nobody, not even businesses, want them.

Top 5 Songs in the Field of Russia

t.A.T.u – All The Things She Said
 

t.A.T.u. are more known for their “lesbianism” than their music and the surrounding controversies with this song’s video and the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest, in which they placed third. With a name that is a short form of “This girl loves that girl” what more can you expect?!

Korobeiniki

What is this Korobeiniki I hear you cry? Well it is a Russian folk song more commonly known as “that song from Tetris”. Whether the Red Army Choir or the 8-Bit version does it for you, there is no doubting this is a Russian classic.

Dschinghis Khan – Moskau

Well, this is the first of the 80’s German disco bands in the list. The song was an underground success. Fifteen seconds of this song was shown on State-run TV leading to immediate dismissal of the network director. However, some countries even used this as their coverage theme for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. 

Prokofiev – Dance of the Knights

To those who aren’t experts in classical music, Prokofiev’s Dance of the Knights is the current theme tune for The Apprentice. Russia has created some wonderful compositions; Shostakovich’s Leningrad symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and The Nutcracker and Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf so why this one? Because it is underappreciated compared to those listed.

Boney M – Rasputin

And finally we come to the other 80’s German disco band. Boney M’s classic; Rasputin. What else is better than mixing Russian Tsarist history and disco? The answer: nothing. But a word of caution to those studying Russian, Boney M is not a reliable source for using in those Russian history essays, unfortunately.