Vladimir Putin: Single-Handedly Ensuring my Future Employment

First of all, I'd like to bring your attention to last week's St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Mostly, this boiled down to a meeting between Russian and American trade representatives, wherein, while the details still need to be hammered out, all parties agreed that Russia should enter the WTO, and the sooner the better.

Fast forward to today, when current Prime Minister and part-time John Wayne impersonator Vladimir Putin decided that he didn't need no stinkin' WTO accession (sorry, too lazy to look for the English):

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=1185505&NodesID=2

BAM! Essentially, for those who can't read it, it says that Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan are going to forget about entering the WTO for right now, and work on going in as a customs union, making everything we did completely and utterly worthless. Nono, thank you, Vladimir Vladimirovich. There are several opinions on the move, most of them negative, and I am not an economist or an expert on the WTO, but suffice it to say, this probably was not the best news for Russian industry. Also, its just generally irritating to see someone flush a ton of work down the toilet. At the same time, it means there will still be plenty to do on bilateral relations in the coming years, so...cha-ching?(!)

But anyway, at least work has been interesting. I've had lots of projects, many of them involving translating, editing, and formatting, but all in all, it's been at least moderately interesting. It looks like I will be working heavily with Public Affairs (PA) in the coming weeks, and will actually be the only American in house at times next month while the Public Affairs Officer (PAO) goes to see some dude named Barry who is visiting Moscow. Whatever. But my work will involve amusing things like preparing the Consul General (CG) for her interview with Ekho Moskvy, attending various public events, and going to the Russian Baseball Championship right here in our very own St. Petersburg! The CG is throwing out the first pitch and has asked me to teach her (and I quote) "not to throw like a girl and embarrass us all". Should be good times.

I have yet to get out into the city too much, as work has been keeping me busy and the weather has been lousy. Last night, however, I did manage to go to a jazz club, which was pretty good, to my surprise (Leningrad Dixieland Jazz Band, anyone? Ellen Chances' class? No? Oh well...). Today I went to a decent Georgian restaurant for lunch, and I think several of us are going to get together to go to a local Ukrainian restaurant sometime in the not too distant future. Should be good, and maybe I can practice a bit of my Ukrainian.

Generally, life is good. I work hard, but not so hard that I feel wiped out by the end of the day, and the work is far from boring or soul-sucking. I would also say that it's a bit relaxing compared to school, as my work mostly has to stay at work, thanks to various rules and regulations. Soon I will start doing things outside of the office and occasionally on "my own time", but I think that will be pretty fun, so I'm not worried about it intruding on my life.

This weekend is a long weekend, thanks to June 12 being Russia's Sovereignty Day (or whatever the official name is now), so hopefully the weather will hold out and I'll go around and take some pictures of this wonderful city for you to enjoy. До свидания!

С