Barter is Back in Russia

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German Sterligov is building a computer-based barter system. Photo by Alexander Natruskin/Reuters.

Barter is back in Russia, reports [The New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/world/europe/08barter.html?_r=1). Advertisements are beginning to appear in newspapers and online, like one that offered “lumber in Krasnoyarsk for food or medicine”. A crane manufacturer in Yekaterinburg is paying its debtors with excavators.

In the mid-1990s, barter transactions in Russia accounted for an astonishing 50 percent of sales for midsize enterprises and 75 percent for large ones. The practice kept businesses afloat for years but also allowed them to defer some fundamental changes needed to make them more competitive, like layoffs and price reductions. It also hurt tax revenues.

German Sterligov, one of the first Russian capitalists, plans to use a computer database to create chains of six or seven enterprises having difficulty selling their products for cash, in which the last firm on the chain would pay the first in a single cash transaction.

“What was in the past will remain in the past”, Mr. Sterligov said. “We are making a step into the future”.

Mummies at Red Square

Several young people dressed as mummies attempted to hold a protest at Red Square in Moscow. The protesters wrapped from head to toe in white bandages [identified themselves](http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/01/21/Anniversary_of_Lenins_death_sparks_protest/UPI-15521232553443/) as Orthodox monarchists. The group previously held a demonstration in support of burying Lenin near the graves of his mother and sisters in St. Petersburg.

Siberian Exiles

“We live in Novosibirsk”. Every day that phrase can deliver almost 1.5 million. Among them are foreigners, who lives in the city becomes a real challenge. They come here to work, learn and observe the solar eclipse. If they want to stay here forever? Hardly. But each of them, we believe, is trying to get some pleasure from being here.

metkere.com discussed with the three foreigners their lives in the city. Read More

IKEA decorates subway train in Siberia

IKEA

Photos by [Maya Shelkovnikova](http://lubitel.su/) & [Ilia Kabanov](http://metkere.com/en).

Last night a subway train decorated in IKEA style was introduced in Novosibirsk (Russia). Four cars were turned into a mobile showroom of the Swedish design.

The redesigned train, which features a colorful seats and fancy curtains, will carry passengers until June 6, 2009.

IKEA

IKEA

IKEA in subway

IKEA

[More photos here](http://flickr.com/photos/nokato/sets/72157608711068244/).

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