Sin City
What image do potential tourists have of Moscow? According to Moscow officials, it’s one of corruption, prostitution and the dark side of life. And it’s all the fault of the Lonely Planet Guide - the backpacker’s bible.
Today’s UK Guardian says Lonely Planet has been blasted on Russian TV for slagging Moscow, but hardly springs to its defence. I know my (borrowed) Lonely Planet guide to Moscow has a chapter on ‘Dangers and Annoyances’, but it runs just half a page in a 50 plus page section. If anything, the skinny on Sin City is understated. True, it warns against flatheads and xenophobic drunks but you’ll find these in any English pub.
So I was surprised when the Guardian article puts it all in perspective by adding some ‘Moscow Facts At A Glance’. Here you learn that ‘drive-by killings are common‘.
Really? How common is common? Some lengthy googling found no crime statistics to support this. It was fascinating to discover that more dead bodies turn up in Moscow (95) than missing persons (64). And that public drunks (3,922) outnumber dead bodies - assuming you can tell the difference. I thought I was on to something when Google matched the phrase exactly with: ‘drive-by killings are more common than butter’. Disappointing: this only linked to a detective novel I’d already read.
Finally, though, my patience was rewarded, and the whole rationale for the Guardian’s story came out. One wonders why it wasn’t correctly attributed to Pravda:
Open Season On Crows
Crow-killing as a popular movement of city bird hunters took shape in 2005. A few hundred crow killers shoot the birds in Moscow and vicinities. Most of the hunters are the well-off types who shoot out the windows of their cars. (Drive-by shooting.)
So there you have it. There is no point in ordering a balcony, street-facing room at the Ukraina or the Metropole. The drive-by excitement may fall short of the Guardian’s promise. And if a crow lands on your balcony it could be nasty.
Just for good measure, I ran a last check on Virtual Tourist dot com. No eye-wtiness reports of drive-by killings there either but still a handy tip about prostitutes: Quote:
Moscow is crawling with ‘working girls’ and just because she doesn’t charge don’t mean she ain’t one’
Virtual Tourist doesn’t explain how the visiting American woman came by this deep insight but certainly not from Lonely Planet, which is careful to point out that all prostitutes in Moscow are in Western Hotel lobbies. Of what use this is to backpackers, who can’t afford to sleep in a hotel lobby never mind the trimmings, isn’t clear. Or maybe it does explain why those on the Lonely Planet are lonely.
Quite why Moscow Tourist Officials picked a fight with Lonely Planet is also a mystery. Lonely Planeteers are a loyal clan and there is bound to be Backpacker Backlash. They might just all up and take their nits and thermos flasks to Prague or Kiev. Or was that the idea?
[...] copydude [...]
The ‘Nationmaster’ statistics are a complete nonsense. How do you account for the fact that somewhere like Baghdad, the current home of violent crimes, doesn’t get a mention.
For that matter, Nashville South or Washington South would frighten the butt off more Europeans than Moscow any day. Boston’s Colonnade Hotel - favoured by Gerald Ford - is still the only place I’ve ever stayed where I had to walk past a guy with a rifle to get to my expensive but frightened room.
You’re right about the PR wars of lies. The tourist industry everywhere is hurting and all countries are planting horror stories about competing destinations.
A friend who went to USA recently told me what happened in Baltimore: he was driving a car at highway and wanted to turn into some part of Baltimore but there was a police with big sign something like this:
Baltimore police friendly advices you not to go into this area.
My friend made some questions later and found out that police has no control of that area in Baltimore. Similar is with many cities or parts of cities in USA.
Does that mean that whole country is unsafe? NOT. It is nonsense to make a global view based on several facts. There is crime in Russia as well as in USA or any other country but it is stupid to say Russia is criminal country. After all here in Croatia a day doesn’t pass without a mafia shooting, car burning, fights etc. but I feel more than safe. Safer than I would feel in Britain or USA.
No, drive-by shootings aren’t common in Moscow these days unlike in the early 1990s during the peak of mafia wars. Even then, a common person didn’t feel threatened much — the primary risk was getting shot by chance. Nowadays, most murders happen not in the street but at home — buddies killing each other in a drunk fight and such. Drunks on the underground can be very unpleasant but are hardly dangerous. Skinheads and such might be a problem — people of non-Caucasian ancestry should not travel alone especially at night. There are enough police down in metro stations for the endangered tourist to turn to. But some areas of the city should be avoided at all costs — the guide should include a color map showing the dangerous segments.
I’ve heard about Nashville being in the top five or so for violent crime (or murder?) but it must be a problem in some areas only (public housing projects I guess) — I spent two years there and never ever thought of Nashville as a dangerous place to live.