#6043
#11
strana.ru
January 25, 2002
“The Department” Makes Fields Less Foreign
Helping hands for a community reborn
By Michael Stedman
Moscow's community of expatriates - in days past an enigmatic bunch numbered in the hundreds - now rates in the thousands, even given the mass executive exodus to manicured lawns back home after the 1998 money melt-down in Russia.
Faint hearts among the gray-suited took to the skies nearly four years ago when the crisis crashed an environment built on what was then judged fools' gold. But now, new testimony emerges of Russia's economic rebound, and the return of international confidence in the country's potential.
It's to be seen on the streets and the offices of the capital - in human guise. And it's been measured in very personal terms in a new survey of the diplomats, journalists and corporate folk assigned to represent foreign organizations in Russia.
The review has been conducted by Russia's Main Department of the Diplomatic Corps Service, tasked to provide support and facilities to foreign personnel.
Vivid imaginations would jump at associating "The Department" with shadowy organizations, which, in less open times, were the stuff of which many a Cold War spy thriller were written.
But today, its officials have a far more catholic clientele to deal with than, "honest men sent abroad to lie for their country" - as diplomats have long been dubbed - or dodgy dealers eyeing dead-letter drops for those running the spies.
The survey indicates that growing numbers of far more ordinary expatriate workers coming to Moscow are making increasing demands on Russian officials tasked to help them in new foreign fields with housing, medical treatment, transport and recreational facilities. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ivan Sergeyev, head of the agency helping the foreigners, has just revealed results of this year's survey. He told a press briefing reported by Russian media that the embassies of 138 countries were now represented in the Russian capital.
Twenty-three "international organizations" were operating, more than 1,000 offices of foreign firms were doing business, and journalists and back-up personnel were working at the bureaux of more than 200 foreign news organizations, the minister was reported as saying. These employed more than 6,000 specialist staff from 35 professions within a community of people numbering more than 15,000 and living in 7,500 apartments, the survey found.
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