| Publication |
2010.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
IN ANTICIPATION OF the President's visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Smolensky Square was spruced up fit for a king. The marble was polished until it shone, and all the cars were removed from the parking lot. The pompous conference hall, which has seen more auspicious occasions and guests in its time than one would care to count, removed its crimson red apparel to don a shade of subtle terracotta instead. The ministry's new emblem, approved the previous day by the President, adorned the wall with its heraldic symbol emblazing the center, while each of the eagle's talons clutched a palm branch distinctly reminiscent of goose feathers. The image does not seem complete, however, without the wax-sealed scroll, the prototype of old embassy dispatch...
The atmosphere of intense anticipation was defused by the President's delay; he would not arrive and deliver his speech for another three hours. This gave Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina, Chief of General Staff Nikolai Makarov, Chairman of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin, and Chairman of the Management Board of the Institute of Contemporary Development Igor Yurgens the opportunity to speak at the very beginning of the meeting. They were listened to attentively, just as the audience listens to the overture at the opera while the curtain is still closed before the main performers appear.
|