Annals of Rabid Russian Xenophobia
Filed under: Russia
The Russian people, via Internet voting, have chosen the "seven wonders of Russia."
Well, "Russian people" is an overstatement, since the vast majority of Russians have no regular access to the Internet (and how could they, when the average salary is $4/hour while the cost of Internet access is similar to that in the West).
And wonders is a relative term, too. Most outside of Russia would never have heard of more than one or two items on the Russian list, if any, much less visited them (or even thought of doing so). Indeed, as even state-owned propaganda outfit Russia Today admits, the whole point of having the "seven wonders" voting was to convince Russians themselves, who otherwise ignore their ho-hum national treasures, to pay them more attention.
One of Russia's top seven choices, from a list of 50, was "The Valley of the Geysers" (shown above in happier times, and even then to me it looks more like a wasteland than a natural wonder, much less a tourist attraction) in the remote Siberian peninsula of Kamchatka, which would be Russia's version of America's famous Yellowstone National Park. Good luck if you want to visit. Even before last year, the place was virtually inaccessible -- meaning the vast majority of Russians had never seen it. Then last year it was totally wiped out by a massive landslide. Perhaps state-owned Russian TV forgot to mention it.
And even more good luck visiting another of the top seven, Mt. Elbrus, the Russian Everest. It's practically in Georgia and surrounded by a seething cauldron of terrorism and Russian imperialism. Wikipedia notes: "It is said to be home to the 'world's nastiest' outhouse which is close to being the highest privy in Europe. The title was conferred by Outside Magazine following a 1993 search and article. The outhouse is surrounded by and covered in ice, perched off the end of a rock, and with a pipe pouring effluvia onto the mountain."
Then there's the Motherland Statue, Russia's version of the Statute of Liberty (except that it carries a sword instead of torch, pretty apropos for Russia), located in the city formerly named after mass murderer Josef Stalin that was totally wiped out in World War II. In essence, it's a monument to the Soviet Union's "victory" over Nazi Germany. The only thing is, the Soviet government murdered millions of its own citizens, more than the Nazis, and then imploded spectacularly. An argument could be made that Russia would have been better of losing World War II (France did, and today it's a prosperous world leader).
Even if Russia had world-leading attractions that were physically accessible, that wouldn't mean foreign tourists could safely glimpse them. In its 2007 report on travel and tourism competitiveness, Booz Allen rated Russia #119 in the world out of 124 countries under review in terms of how inclined to welcome tourists the national population is (page 443).
Russia miserably failed basic criteria like whether you're likely to get out alive after your trip. Only 31 countries in the world, out of 124 reviewed, had a higher incidence of AIDS than Russia (p. 437). Only 40 countries had a higher incidence of tuberculosis (p. 439). Only 35 had a lower life expectancy (p. 440). In terms of national wonders, Russia doesn't rank in the top 50 nations of the world in share of national territory protected from development (the U.S. ranks #10 with over 25% protected; Russia is #53 with just 8%, see page 448) and it ranked #113 in terms of business concern for the ecology (p. 449).
Russia ranked #114 in terms of respecting tourist property rights (p. 313) and #106 in terms of the burdensomeness of its visa regime. It ranked #105 in terms of the reliability of police protection and #108 in terms of health and hygiene. It was #103 in terms of road infrastructure quality.
Only four governments on the planet placed lower emphasis on travel and tourism than the regime of Vladimir Putin.
So, welcome to Russia! And if you wouldn't mind too terribly much, would you please get the hell out!
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