Kazan — summer 2014

It's now official: both ASU and our Kazan side partner IEML have signed the contracts for our summer program, which means yours truly is heading back to Russia this summer. I'm very excited. This is the blog where I'll keep everyone updated on current events for the summer program as well as on my personal travels just before summer.

I have come to really love Kazan. In fact, I like it better than Moscow and Petersburg for a first introduction to Russia for several reasons:

1. There seems to be less alcohol abuse in Kazan than in the other two ‘capitals’ of Russia.
2. The population is about 1.2 million people, so you get big city life without the frenetic craziness of Moscow.
3. The population is about half Russian and half Tatar. The Tatars are the second biggest ethnic group in Russia, so you get a feel for not only the Russians, but also for the most important non-Russian group of Russia.
4. City-born Tatars speak Russian natively with Russian accents. They even make the same mistakes Russians make, so the language environment is excellent.
5. It's a city full of universities. Great intellectual atmosphere.
6. It's a sports-oriented city as well. In summer 2013 Kazan hosted the Universiade, which is kind of like a college-level Olympics.

In short, I can't wait to get back. More later.

I'm sure our participants and their families are concerned about the political situation involving Ukraine. Kazan is over 500 miles from the nearest corner of Ukraine, and it’s about 1000 miles away from the Russian naval base on the Crimean Peninsula. I expect there will be no particular military activity anywhere near Kazan this summer.

But two pieces of news today do make one concerned. First off, the Russian Federation Council (the upper house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, which is the parliament of the Russian Federation) has authorized troop movement into Ukraine. Once again, because of the distances involved, that particular aspect doesn't, as far as I can tell, threaten our program.

The Federation Council also recommended recalling the Russian ambassador from the US. It's political events like that that could actually jeopardize a program. That could happen one of two ways: Russia could refuse to issue our students invitations or visas for the academic program, or the US could issue a travel warning or travel alert regarding Russia. I imagine either one of those events would put the kibosh on our summer plans.

Now I have a thought about the daily news: one has to be very careful about overinterpreting news at times like this. I remember that less than 24 hours after the Chernobyl disaster there were reports of 20,000 people having died, which was blatantly false; the total number of deaths during the accident itself was 31. Early news is sometimes radically incorrect.

Despite the dismaying news in the Ukraine I expect that the program will continue as planned. I'll delay making my plane reservations until we receive the student invitations to Russia, but once that happens, I'll feel pretty good about doing so. In the meantime, I will use this blog for program updates, pictures, info and stories, and I will use another blog to track the political situation.

that our summer program will take place in Kazan.

that our summer program will take place in Kazan.

I'm cautiously optimistic...