They're Turning This into This!

You have to hand it to the Russians! Ever since the fall of communism, they have embraced many of the things that we take for granted in the old west as the norm.

However I do wonder if this so called progress does filter down to the average Russian in the street. What do they think when they see the hordes of tourists, the luxury boutiques and a growing affluent middle class?

In St. Petersburg they are embarking on ambitious new plans to welcome new tourists via the re-development of some of the waterfront. Plans are underway to turn the city of Peter the Great into the Russian equivalent of Fort Lauderdale or Miami.

Currently over 500 hectares of land has been reclaimed and several new terminals around a new basin have been built with construction on the rest of the project due to commence soon.
When Marine Façade is opened, it will be the largest dedicated cruise port of call in the world,” said Mark Ittel, a partner with Bermello Ajamil & Partners, a Miami-based architectural firm that designs cruise ports around the world.

Europe’s new gateway to Russia is to offer bay side hotels with 2,000 rooms, a convention center, apartments for 35,000 people, shopping, entertainment and office complexes, two metro stations, and a high-speed highway to whisk visitors to St. Petersburg’s airports. Like many mega construction projects in contemporary Russia, the completion date has been set for that magic deadline year, 2020.

I can only hazard a guess as to what the occupants of the Soviet era apartment blocks that currently overlook this hive of capitalism will think of their new neighbours?