Moscow expatriates arrived by the truckload at the Brasserie du Soleil restaurant last Wednesday for a dinner and wine-tasting party to raise funds for Operation Smile. The U.S.-based charity, which was established in Russia in 1995, provides life-saving surgery to children with cleft lip and other facial defects.
The 170 guests, all dressed to the nines, paid $50 a head for the evening's entertainment.
Among the diners was Alexis Fridlund, vice president of the moving division VinLund. "What I like about Operation Smile is that it's very simple," she said. "They concentrate on one type of operation, which transforms children from monsters into smiling faces. Unlike a lot of charitable organizations, the results are tangible."
Meanwhile her father Norman Fridlund, on vacation here for a week to visit two of his children, was lining up for more chicken couscous, mussels provencale and the restaurant's famed salade nicoise. Preston Haskell, owner of Brasserie du Soleil, generously sponsored all the costs of the evening.
Gary Kinsey, a stockbroker at Brunswick, said, "I think it's great that people like Operation Smile sacrifice their time to help Russian kids."
He paused to pour another glass of wine for Julie Chubais, niece of First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais, who was sitting next to him.
Did Kinsey sponsor other charity events? "Oh yes," he said. "Later in the month I am going on the Downside Up bike ride for children with Down's Syndrome. So I suppose I had better start training."
Zhirinovsky Picks Miss Jamaica
It was an historic episode. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, not best known for his congenial attitude toward people with dark skin tones, seized the Jamaican ambassador's hand, pumped it up and down for a good two minutes and whispered warmly into his left ear. But the goodwill didn't last. Herschel Anderson, the Jamaican ambassador to Moscow, was shuffled aside by the organizers mid-speech as Zhirinovsky planted himself on a plastic chair and held forth to anyone who would listen at Chesterfield's bar last Thursday.
The star-studded event marked both Jamaican Independence Day and the opening of the back terrace at Chesterfield's Bar. The patio, now open every day for outdoor dining, was recast as a mock-oasis, complete with palm trees, reggae music and six-foot blondes.
"Let's have some women around me," Zhirinovsky said, motioning toward a gaggle of young women in hot-pants, all waiting to pounce at the given signal.
Other guests at the event included Beverly Hills Club owner Nikolai Visokovsky, Logovaz Director Yuly Dubov, President of Estee Lauder Elizabeth Susskind, editor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' newsletter, Boris Pyadyshev, and Tanya Zaitsev, sister of fashion designer Vyacheslav Zaitsev. Rajid Sethi, golf director at the Moscow Country Club, was spotted quaffing cocktails in a corner.
Security at the event was so strict, Mexican Ambassador Abelardo Trevino was stopped at the door and asked for his documents.
"But that's my car out there with the Mexican flag on it," he protested, pointing to the last in a long line of embassy limousines.
"Show us your invitation," said the surly bouncer.
When the zakuski, or hors d'oeuvres, ran out, the party moved indoors for the Miss Jamaica Moscow contest. Californian reggae band Big Soul struck up a tune and scores of girls filed along the stage in little more than their underwear. In a reckless bid to win, a girl with an orange headband stretched over her breasts, perched herself on Zhirinovsky's knee. But he had set his sights on the black-haired schoolgirl at the end of the line.
"I can't believe I have won the competition," said Aline Asifi, 14, who walked into the Mademoiselle model agency for the first time that morning. "I feel proud to be the first ever Miss Jamaica Moscow."
She wasn't everybody's cup of tea.
"I thought she was a bit young," said Patrick O'Dolan, managing director of Moscom Paging. "But Zhirinovsky had the final word."
Dietz's Pals Throw Birthday Bash
Rich Dietz, head of fixed-income trading at Renaissance Capital, had had a hard day at the office. It was Friday night, and all he wanted to do was let his hair down, put his feet up and chill out.
But when he came home to find his closest friends and the cream of Moscow's banking world piled into his sitting room, he was bowled over.
"I thought something was afoot when my driver asked me for my house keys during lunch break," Dietz said.
Marina Nacheva, who works for Searle Pharmaceuticals, organized the surprise party for Dietz's 32nd birthday. "I just telephoned some friends and we came up with the idea," said Nacheva, offering chips to her guests in carved rose-wood bowls.
They sat on giant cream cushions in Dietz's apartment, talking bonds, shares and where in Moscow to find a half-decent pizza.
"Does everyone in Moscow have such an incredible view?" said Tanya Kiskanyan, a trader at the New York branch of Solomon Bros., who was on a three-day business trip to Russia. Dietz's rented apartment on the 15th floor of the Stalin skyscraper on the Yauza River has a panorama over the city most people would sell their grandmothers to own.
He has recently refurbished his flat with Moroccan carpets and wall-hangings from Southeast Asia. "That one comes from Burma," said Dietz, who has vacationed often in Burma, Laos and Cambodia.
Even businessmen get the blues. "If I could retire today I would write the biography of Aung San Suu Kyi," said Dietz, referring to the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who won world recognition when she was placed under house arrest in 1989.
"She is one of my two all-time heroes," Dietz said. "The other one is Michael Jordan."
Russians Compete for Adventure
The setting was straight out of Mad Max. Renowned first and foremost for its presidential hunting lodge, the town of Zavidov, 200 kilometers northwest of Moscow, heaved with would-be sportsmen from all over Russia last week.
They didn't come for the rabbits. The 30 contestants from as far afield as Archangel, Chelyabinsk and the Black Sea came to demonstrate their skills at various outdoor sports.
The Adventure Team competition, launched early last year by Marlboro in 22 countries worldwide, secured more than 300,000 applications from Russians, hoping to win one of six adventure-of-a-lifetime trips to Colorado. The event was a thinly veiled attempt to promote smoking as healthy, yet, not surprisingly, none of the six winners smoke.
The 30 semi-finalists invited to Zavidov were put to tasks even Hercules would have been hard-pressed to complete.
First was the rope-ladder. Contestants were pitted against each other to climb the perilous device, higher than a three-story house, without gloves.
"It was tough," said Sergei Molchanov, a student from Kaliningrad, whose hands were raw and bleeding after the attempt. "But white-water rafting will be more difficult."
A stint on a 400-horsepower motorbike followed for those with driver's licenses. Others were handed giant mountain bikes and shown the lethal rally track. Over the four days, competitors tried rock climbing, horseback riding, cross-country jeep driving and white-water rafting.
The winners could hardly contain themselves. "I have never been to the States," said Alexander Morozov of St. Petersburg. "I have no idea what to expect."
Morozov and Molchanov will join Dmitry Moskvitin of Saratov, Konstantin Gromov andSergei Sukhanov both from Moscow, and Alexei Segal of Yekaterinburg on the 11-day trip to America next month.
The 170 guests, all dressed to the nines, paid $50 a head for the evening's entertainment.
Among the diners was Alexis Fridlund, vice president of the moving division VinLund. "What I like about Operation Smile is that it's very simple," she said. "They concentrate on one type of operation, which transforms children from monsters into smiling faces. Unlike a lot of charitable organizations, the results are tangible."
Meanwhile her father Norman Fridlund, on vacation here for a week to visit two of his children, was lining up for more chicken couscous, mussels provencale and the restaurant's famed salade nicoise. Preston Haskell, owner of Brasserie du Soleil, generously sponsored all the costs of the evening.
Gary Kinsey, a stockbroker at Brunswick, said, "I think it's great that people like Operation Smile sacrifice their time to help Russian kids."
He paused to pour another glass of wine for Julie Chubais, niece of First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais, who was sitting next to him.
Did Kinsey sponsor other charity events? "Oh yes," he said. "Later in the month I am going on the Downside Up bike ride for children with Down's Syndrome. So I suppose I had better start training."
Zhirinovsky Picks Miss Jamaica
It was an historic episode. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, not best known for his congenial attitude toward people with dark skin tones, seized the Jamaican ambassador's hand, pumped it up and down for a good two minutes and whispered warmly into his left ear. But the goodwill didn't last. Herschel Anderson, the Jamaican ambassador to Moscow, was shuffled aside by the organizers mid-speech as Zhirinovsky planted himself on a plastic chair and held forth to anyone who would listen at Chesterfield's bar last Thursday.
The star-studded event marked both Jamaican Independence Day and the opening of the back terrace at Chesterfield's Bar. The patio, now open every day for outdoor dining, was recast as a mock-oasis, complete with palm trees, reggae music and six-foot blondes.
"Let's have some women around me," Zhirinovsky said, motioning toward a gaggle of young women in hot-pants, all waiting to pounce at the given signal.
Other guests at the event included Beverly Hills Club owner Nikolai Visokovsky, Logovaz Director Yuly Dubov, President of Estee Lauder Elizabeth Susskind, editor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' newsletter, Boris Pyadyshev, and Tanya Zaitsev, sister of fashion designer Vyacheslav Zaitsev. Rajid Sethi, golf director at the Moscow Country Club, was spotted quaffing cocktails in a corner.
Security at the event was so strict, Mexican Ambassador Abelardo Trevino was stopped at the door and asked for his documents.
"But that's my car out there with the Mexican flag on it," he protested, pointing to the last in a long line of embassy limousines.
"Show us your invitation," said the surly bouncer.
When the zakuski, or hors d'oeuvres, ran out, the party moved indoors for the Miss Jamaica Moscow contest. Californian reggae band Big Soul struck up a tune and scores of girls filed along the stage in little more than their underwear. In a reckless bid to win, a girl with an orange headband stretched over her breasts, perched herself on Zhirinovsky's knee. But he had set his sights on the black-haired schoolgirl at the end of the line.
"I can't believe I have won the competition," said Aline Asifi, 14, who walked into the Mademoiselle model agency for the first time that morning. "I feel proud to be the first ever Miss Jamaica Moscow."
She wasn't everybody's cup of tea.
"I thought she was a bit young," said Patrick O'Dolan, managing director of Moscom Paging. "But Zhirinovsky had the final word."
Dietz's Pals Throw Birthday Bash
Rich Dietz, head of fixed-income trading at Renaissance Capital, had had a hard day at the office. It was Friday night, and all he wanted to do was let his hair down, put his feet up and chill out.
But when he came home to find his closest friends and the cream of Moscow's banking world piled into his sitting room, he was bowled over.
"I thought something was afoot when my driver asked me for my house keys during lunch break," Dietz said.
Marina Nacheva, who works for Searle Pharmaceuticals, organized the surprise party for Dietz's 32nd birthday. "I just telephoned some friends and we came up with the idea," said Nacheva, offering chips to her guests in carved rose-wood bowls.
They sat on giant cream cushions in Dietz's apartment, talking bonds, shares and where in Moscow to find a half-decent pizza.
"Does everyone in Moscow have such an incredible view?" said Tanya Kiskanyan, a trader at the New York branch of Solomon Bros., who was on a three-day business trip to Russia. Dietz's rented apartment on the 15th floor of the Stalin skyscraper on the Yauza River has a panorama over the city most people would sell their grandmothers to own.
He has recently refurbished his flat with Moroccan carpets and wall-hangings from Southeast Asia. "That one comes from Burma," said Dietz, who has vacationed often in Burma, Laos and Cambodia.
Even businessmen get the blues. "If I could retire today I would write the biography of Aung San Suu Kyi," said Dietz, referring to the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who won world recognition when she was placed under house arrest in 1989.
"She is one of my two all-time heroes," Dietz said. "The other one is Michael Jordan."
Russians Compete for Adventure
The setting was straight out of Mad Max. Renowned first and foremost for its presidential hunting lodge, the town of Zavidov, 200 kilometers northwest of Moscow, heaved with would-be sportsmen from all over Russia last week.
They didn't come for the rabbits. The 30 contestants from as far afield as Archangel, Chelyabinsk and the Black Sea came to demonstrate their skills at various outdoor sports.
The Adventure Team competition, launched early last year by Marlboro in 22 countries worldwide, secured more than 300,000 applications from Russians, hoping to win one of six adventure-of-a-lifetime trips to Colorado. The event was a thinly veiled attempt to promote smoking as healthy, yet, not surprisingly, none of the six winners smoke.
The 30 semi-finalists invited to Zavidov were put to tasks even Hercules would have been hard-pressed to complete.
First was the rope-ladder. Contestants were pitted against each other to climb the perilous device, higher than a three-story house, without gloves.
"It was tough," said Sergei Molchanov, a student from Kaliningrad, whose hands were raw and bleeding after the attempt. "But white-water rafting will be more difficult."
A stint on a 400-horsepower motorbike followed for those with driver's licenses. Others were handed giant mountain bikes and shown the lethal rally track. Over the four days, competitors tried rock climbing, horseback riding, cross-country jeep driving and white-water rafting.
The winners could hardly contain themselves. "I have never been to the States," said Alexander Morozov of St. Petersburg. "I have no idea what to expect."
Morozov and Molchanov will join Dmitry Moskvitin of Saratov, Konstantin Gromov andSergei Sukhanov both from Moscow, and Alexei Segal of Yekaterinburg on the 11-day trip to America next month.
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