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Is this the thread for Moscow press reports and such?

Russia & CIS

16:32 GMT, Aug 08, 2006

Jewish group warns Madonna concert organizers, say Russia is an Orthodoxcountry

MOSCOW. Aug 8 (Interfax) - The Federation of Jewish Communities of

Russia (FJC) said Madonna's stage performances were amoral and urged all religious-minded people to abstain from attending her Moscow concert due on September 11.

"It is obvious to me, whether or not she uses religious symbols, a

person with religious and moral values should not attend her concert

because even without the use of religious symbols this is a very

frivolous and amoral show," head of the press department of the FJC

Boruch Gorin said Tuesday.

As for the use by Madonna of crucifixes in her shows, he said, "It

is even more outrageous precisely considering the image associated with

this singer."

"Various Christian confessions" have expressed their attitude

toward such a use of religious symbols, and "this leaves no doubt that

it is insulting to the feelings of believers," he said.

In her show, Madonna uses Jewish and Muslim religious symbols and

this for "me as a Jew, is shocking," Gorin said, adding that the fact

that she uses in her songs Jewish terminology was "rather illiterate and

inconsiderate."

Gorin stressed that the organizers of such concerts in Moscow,

which he said is "the capital of Orthodoxy," ought to "be more tactful

toward the innermost in human moral; that is faith." Gorin reminded the

audience about the reaction of the Muslim world to the publication in

the Western media of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

mg md

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http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060810/52466905.html

A third of Madonna Moscow concert tickets sold in 2 days

11:03 | 10/ 08/ 2006

MOSCOW, August 10 (RIA Novosti) - More than a third of the tickets for U.S. pop star Madonna's sole Moscow concert had been sold by the end of the second day of sales, organizers said Thursday.

Some 16,000 tickets for the September 11 show, part of the diva's world tour to promote her 'Confessions on a Dance Floor' albums had been sold by the end of August 9. Ildar Bakiyev, responsible for ticket sales, said the most expensive tickets would be distributed by order and members of the Madonna fan club would be able to buy tickets to the dance floor in front of the stage.

"We agreed that they would write an official letter with a list of all the fan club members, so that I was sure that the tickets would not go to touts," he said.

A total of 10,500 tickets were sold Wednesday and 6,000 for the dance floor were sold for 1,500 rubles ($56), well under the European-low of $90, on Tuesday when sales began. Tickets for Madonna's concert in Moscow are the cheapest in the world.

The 40,000 tickets for the show fall into six price categories, from 3,000 rubles ($110) to 25,000 rubles ($935).

Anton Artashkin, Russia's PR manager of Madonna's tour, said Web sites selling tickets experienced many technical failures as many people were willing to order tickets online.

Religious leaders, however, have been less enthusiastic about the 47-year-old's controversial show, which features a song in which she is apparently crucified during her concerts on a giant cross studded with small mirrors.

Vsevolod Chaplin, head of the Moscow Patriarchy's department for external relations, said Tuesday, "For an Orthodox believer there is no point of attending her [Madonna's] concerts or helping her propagate her spiritual problems via self-advertisement."

Damir Gizatullin, deputy head of Russia's Council of Muftis, echoed him, saying, "I believe Islam believers in Russia will not support Madonna's show, and she will not be a success here contrary to her expectations," he said.

A total of 200 metric tons of Madonna's stage equipment will arrive in Moscow in 57 trucks after her September 6 concert in Prague. The singer will be accompanied by a staff of 200 and will perform onstage with a team of 27 people.

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Russian organisation is a real disaster.

Tickets went on sale this monday but they offered only expensive seats online and their server was down anyway.

Tickets are not sold out yet but online sales won't start before next monday or tuesday and they will probably have only those for $300 - $900 :sour:

Oh, well that won't stop me, already booked an airplane ticket and found a hotel there :boxing:

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http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20060810/52469385.html

Opinion & analysis

Clergy vs. Madonna

11:51 | 10/ 08/ 2006

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Vladimir Simonov) -Tuesday August 8 was yet another triumph for Madonna. The star will have her first-ever concert in Russia on September 11, and tickets went on sale yesterday. Young Muscovites started queuing as early as Monday night, and four thousand tickets were sold within a few hours.

Madonna will sing at Vorobyevy Hills, one of the city's most picturesque spots, known to all sightseers who come to Moscow. The event will require 250 metric tons of sophisticated equipment, which will come by 57 huge trucks.

The upcoming pop spectacle has come up against fierce resistance from the Church, and religion unexpectedly proved to have none of the formidable public impact ascribed to it-or else the concert would be banned.

The Church's leaders have been busy for the last several weeks shouting invectives more embittered than those they might use against the Antichrist. Calls on the flock to boycott the concert descended from the pulpits. Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, second in command of the Moscow Patriarchate external church relations department, came down on the singer for the Christian symbolism which abounds in her shows. Father Vsevolod says she uses it to quench her sinful passions, and says that Madonna would be better off giving her confession to a priest.

All Christian denominations, and other religions for that matter, bear grudges against the star. Cardinal Ersilio Tonini, for one, accuses her of blasphemy, while a group of distinguished rabbis fulminate against her cabbalistic hobby. The Russian Mufti Council went even farther, saying a woman ought not to appear on stage in outrageous attire-meaning her trademark black tights plus crown of thorns. While wearing all that, Madonna was raised high on a crucifix at each of her European concerts to advertise Confessions on a Dance Floor, her latest CD. Muscovites will certainly see the sacrilegious stunt on September 11.

Meanwhile, boys and girls in Russia and Western Europe joyfully extol their idol, never mind the clergy, showing that something is wrong with the Church's attitudes towards the younger flock. Madonna's triumphs indicate that the piety sweeping the Old and New Worlds alike is not so profound as theologians may assume.

The latter point is especially true of Russia. Religion went through several appalling decades of Communist rule here, with houses of prayer turned into stables and pigsties. Now is the time of religious renaissance-yet that turns out to lie only on the surface. Churches may be chock-full of worshippers on Sundays, and Christmas may have become a national red-letter day, with the president and other VIPs in the congregation. Statistics may be right when they say the number of people who consider themselves religious has grown more than threefold since the late 1980s: 16% of the population in 1986 did so, as opposed to the 50-80% offered by the latest opinion polls.

Be all that as it may, the percentage of true practicing Christians-people who regularly go to confession and communion-remains the same scanty 1.5-2% it was before Mikhail Gorbachev launched his perestroika. In fact, the rediscovered Christianity of an overwhelming majority is no more than a social whim compensating for our recent godless past.

Church attacks on Madonna come to us Russians as deja vu. Communist reprisals against cultural figures and events are fresh in our memory-suffice it to recall an avant-garde art show bulldozed in Moscow, or a cruel campaign against Boris Pasternak after he dared to publish his Doctor Zhivago abroad. Paradoxically, the Church has now adopted secular authorities' ways to strangle free artistic expression. Many see the Madonna story as an alarming sign that the clergy is trying to rule the public mind in a country whose Constitution has freedom of conscience among its pivotal guarantees.

The crazy laser effects in Madonna's concerts spotlight the weak points of current religious life. The generation raised on mobile phones and the World Wide Web regards the Church as something archaic. Rock, pop and rap are far closer to the young soul than sermons. Many Russian Orthodox Church leaders are aware of that. For instance, Metropolitan Cyril often has lively discussions with rock-music crowd.

Meanwhile, clerical wrath will only serve to give Madonna some free advertising.

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Guest boytoyville
Online sales started today and show is almost sold out :D

I got mine front raw ticket :D

Yay, bring on the second Moscow date already!

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Guest boytoyville

I'm so jealous of you. I have always wanted to go to Moscow and to see Madonna perform there would be such a bonus. I hate all who are going! lol

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Guest Moskovit

Pera what are you interested in? Moscow is a huge city, the best way to have fun is to find all the info that can be interesting to you personally in Google, cause you know tastes are differ. :wacko:

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Guest bedtimestorynyc

I agree with Moskovit! When i went to Paris, i bought everything necessary (all the guides and stuff) beforehand and studied them. I had no problem getting around Paris and i got to see all the places I wanted to visit.

Do your homework Pera. Moscow is an exciting city. You have to learn about it first.

I have been there a lot during the 90's. But I was a teenager, so i didn't go out to hip places. However I did see Red Square (of course you will visit that) with all its buildings, churches and stuff. There are other things of course - just check out your local guide.

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Privet vsem! :)

Moskovit, rad tebya zdes' videt'. Ya sam is Nizhnego i na etom forume uzhe 6 let.

Kazhetsya mne uzhe kupili bilet na 11-e. Kak sam- uzhe obilechen?

Misha, kak dela? :)

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Guest bedtimestorynyc

everything's good valerus. you'll enjoy the show very much!!!! which section did you get the ticket for?

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http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?N...5&PageNum=0

Tickets to Madonna's show in Moscow sold out

11.08.2006, 18.15

news_img_10700465_0006.jpg

MOSCOW, August 11 (Itar-Tass) -- Tickets to Madonna's concert in Moscow have been sold out a month before the scheduled concert in Moscow, PR manager of the US singer in Russia Anton Atrashkin told Tass.

A total of 34,000 people will be present at the Confessions show that will be held in Vorobyovy Hills in Moscow on September 11.

Thousands of tickets to the show were booked by the singer’s Fan Club on the Internet, so that people from many countries will arrive in Moscow to enjoy Madonna’s show. Most of the singers' foreign fans are from the Baltic and Scandinavian countries.

Russia will watch the show of the US pop star after the Czech Republic, where Madonna will perform on September 6.

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Guest Moskovit

ValeRus, privet, I was in NNovgorod last year, lot's of new buildings, it's interesting that even with this new postmodern architecture in NN, the city is still individual.

It's great that you'll go to the concert, but I can't :gross::manson::gross::manson::gross::manson::gross: , have to go to bussiness trip.

But I can't say it's a tragedy for me. Madonna was always a legend from another universe for me, and now, when many forign stars visit Moscow, when they come here, they seem so little and so ordinary against a background of the Kremlin walls. So let it will be as it will. :flirt:

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Pera what are you interested in? Moscow is a huge city, the best way to have fun is to find all the info that can be interesting to you personally in Google, cause you know tastes are differ. :wacko:

I will only have one day to see the city, so just wanna see best known tourist attractions. I know it's to short for that to ...

Do you know what's the fastest way to go from Sheremetyevo 2 airport to Проспект Вернадского metro station, other then taxi ? And how long can that take ? Also are there any supermarkets in that area ? At what time are stores closed there ?

I know I can probably look for this info on web but I thought it's better to ask someone who's from there ...

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http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/08/14/044.html

Monday, August 14, 2006. Issue 3474. Page 7.

Madonna Sold Out in Record of 4 Days

By Conor Humphries

Staff Writer

All 30,000 tickets for Madonna's debut show in Moscow sold out in four days, a record for Russian rock concerts, according to the company that organized the show.

For her Prague concert, the same company sold all 36,000 tickets a bit quicker -- in nine minutes.

The disparity was a result of the old technology used to sell tickets in Russia, said Serge Grimaux, founder of Czech company Ticketpro, which distributed tickets for both concerts. He promised to close the gap by the end of the year and bring the latest technology, a move that could revolutionize the local market.

Ticketpro sold its tickets though local partner 19-00.ru, with most delivered to sales points or directly to consumers by couriers, who collect payment from those who file requests by phone on online. In Prague, tickets payment is taken directly over the phone, on the Internet or in shops with direct links to a centralized computer system.

"Currently, there is a lot of human processing in Russia, which slows the process down," he said.

19-00.ru president Ildar Bakeyev said the Madonna sales marked a record for the Russian market in terms of speed and the value of tickets sold, although neither Ticketpro nor 19-00.ru would say how much all sales were worth.

Bakeyev said the fastest concert his company had previously sold out was Ramstein, which sold out in 20 days. He said the landmark Paul McCartney concert on Red Square in 2003 took about four weeks to sell out.

If Russia had 300 outlets linked to a central server, plus proper Internet sales, there is no doubt that tickets would sell out as fast as they do in other markets, Grimaux said. "Within a year, we will be able to do this."

The vast majority of Internet and phone ticket sales in Russia today merely register bookings for couriers who deliver the tickets and collect the payment. Other tickets are printed and then resold to ticket offices for resale.

The technological and legal problems that have prevented direct ticket sales in Russia have been overcome, but credit card penetration remains an issue, Grimaux said.

Experience in other markets has shown that one major concert can prove the tipping point for credit card sales, Grimaux said. In Greece, a Rolling Stones concert led to average credit card sales surging from about 5 percent to 30 percent. In Russia, 3 percent to 4 percent of pop concert tickets are booked -- but not paid for -- via the Internet.

Grimaux said he would try to avoid direct conflict with established local players in Ticketpro's move into the Russian market.

"To make strategic alliances with already established people and bring them my international network, technology and expertise is something I would much prefer to get into instead of getting into fierce competition," he said. "I'm a believer in peace."

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Guest Moskovit

For Pera

I've made some research for you, from Smeremetyevo 2 airport to the area near Prospect Vernadskogo metro station it's best of all to go by taxi, not cheap though (about $30-$50). But also you can go from airport by bus to nearest metro stations, and then by metro to Prospect Vernadskogo station.

From Sheremetyevo 2 airport to Rechnoy Vokzal metro station you can go by bus № Щ 851с, but it works only from 7:00 A.M. till 21:00 P.M.

You can use other buses: № 851 to Rechnoy Vokzal (Речной вокзал) metro station or № 817 to Planernaya (Планерная) metro station, or you can use "marshrutka" (little uncomfortable bus) to the same metro stations.

So if you are at Rechnoy vokzal metro station go underground, buy a metro ticket/card first (take a card for 10 or 20 rides, you'll be able to use it the next day for your trips). Rechnoy vokzal is an end station on a green line of Moscow metro (watch the metro maps, there are everywere in the trains) go by train to Teatralynaya (Театральная) station, there change to Ochotniy Ryad (Охотный Ряд) station (on the red line), you'll have to go out from your train on Teatralynaya station, then I don't remember, check it by the info on the displays, but I think you'll have to go downstairs, then go by сorridor and upstares to the hall of Ohotniy Ryad station, it's a station on the red line, take a train that goes from the center of the city and go till Prospekt Vernadskogo, the station, you need.

If you are at Planernaya metro station (it's an end station of purple line) go to Kuznetskiy Most (Кузнецкий мост) station, there change to Lubyanka station on the red line, and from it go to Prospekt Vernadskogo station.

On Prospect Vernadskogo you will go up to the street, but you should now what exit you'll have to use to get to your hotel, and then go to hotel, or take marshrutka to get there, if it's not near the metro.

Whether you go by bus and then by metro or by taxi it'll take you about an 1,5 - 2 hours to get to your hotel, if not more, I'm afraid.

I guess there are several little shops near exits of any metro station in Moscow, some of them work 24 hours, but usually shops are open from 8-10 A.M. till 20-21 P.M., it depends upon what is the kind of a shop. :asian:

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For Pera

I've made some research for you, from Smeremetyevo 2 airport to the area near Prospect Vernadskogo metro station it's best of all to go by taxi, not cheap though (about $30-$50). But also you can go from airport by bus to nearest metro stations, and then by metro to Prospect Vernadskogo station.

From Sheremetyevo 2 airport to Rechnoy Vokzal metro station you can go by bus № Щ 851с, but it works only from 7:00 A.M. till 21:00 P.M.

You can use other buses: № 851 to Rechnoy Vokzal (Речной вокзал) metro station or № 817 to Planernaya (Планерная) metro station, or you can use "marshrutka" (little uncomfortable bus) to the same metro stations.

So if you are at Rechnoy vokzal metro station go underground, buy a metro ticket/card first (take a card for 10 or 20 rides, you'll be able to use it the next day for your trips). Rechnoy vokzal is an end station on a green line of Moscow metro (watch the metro maps, there are everywere in the trains) go by train to Teatralynaya (Театральная) station, there change to Ochotniy Ryad (Охотный Ряд) station (on the red line), you'll have to go out from your train on Teatralynaya station, then I don't remember, check it by the info on the displays, but I think you'll have to go downstairs, then go by сorridor and upstares to the hall of Ohotniy Ryad station, it's a station on the red line, take a train that goes from the center of the city and go till Prospekt Vernadskogo, the station, you need.

If you are at Planernaya metro station (it's an end station of purple line) go to Kuznetskiy Most (Кузнецкий мост) station, there change to Lubyanka station on the red line, and from it go to Prospekt Vernadskogo station.

On Prospect Vernadskogo you will go up to the street, but you should now what exit you'll have to use to get to your hotel, and then go to hotel, or take marshrutka to get there, if it's not near the metro.

Whether you go by bus and then by metro or by taxi it'll take you about an 1,5 - 2 hours to get to your hotel, if not more, I'm afraid.

I guess there are several little shops near exits of any metro station in Moscow, some of them work 24 hours, but usually shops are open from 8-10 A.M. till 20-21 P.M., it depends upon what is the kind of a shop. :asian:

Thanks !!! That was great info :D

Think I'll wait for a bus and then switch trains, wouldn't be any fun to just go by taxi :)

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Guest Moskovit

You're welcome Pera, to get to the Red Square and see the Kremlin, you'll just have to go by metro to Ohotniy Ryad / Teatralynaya station, go up to the street and here you're. If you're going to buy smth. you can go to underground posh TC on Manezhnaya sqare, it's in the same area, there is fustfood on one of the levels there with russian kitchen, some kind of. There all kind of restaraunts in the center, but the prices there are way to high.

To move faster in Moscow you better use metro, because of the heavy traffic, but also remember that your hotel is situated in the suburbus of the city, where the population is often very conservative, it's not a cosmopolitant center, so be careful, you now what I mean. :bruise:

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You're welcome Pera, to get to the Red Square and see the Kremlin, you'll just have to go by metro to Ohotniy Ryad / Teatralynaya station, go up to the street and here you're. If you're going to buy smth. you can go to underground posh TC on Manezhnaya sqare, it's in the same area, there is fustfood on one of the levels there with russian kitchen, some kind of. There all kind of restaraunts in the center, but the prices there are way to high.

I think I have all the info I need now. :thumbsup:

I'll buy a set of tickets and go around by metro, seems like the fastest and cheapest transport.

To move faster in Moscow you better use metro, because of the heavy traffic, but also remember that your hotel is situated in the suburbus of the city, where the population is often very conservative, it's not a cosmopolitant center, so be careful, you now what I mean. :bruise:

I know, I'm from Serbia and there still a lot of conservative nutcases here to. :zombie:

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Guest boytoyville

From Madonnalicious...

Second Moscow date to be announced soon

Posted: 14 August 2006 - Thanks to Ruslan

As all the tickets for the first Madonna concert in Moscow on Monday 11 September are now sold out, the tour promotion company is due to announce a second date very soon for a show on Tuesday 12 September.

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Guest bedtimestorynyc

Pera... Moskovit gave you a great advice..... remember (!) by NO means take a taxi from the airport, unless you want to be charged 3 times the standard amount. Buses are safer too!

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Guest moccem

Can we buy any tour merchandise before the show started?

The wine?the shirt?and the tour book?etc.

And why donot we meet together to go into the concert if we have the same “front of stage ticket”?

That’s will be fun!

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mlcious

Confessions Tour Moscow posters

Posted: 15 August 2006 - Thanks to Frozzymad

Here are two posters that can be seen on the streets of Moscow - including this unusual one featuring a picture of Madonna performing Future Lovers and the text saying Sorry, Moscow!!!

ct_moscow_poster1news.jpg

ct_moscow_poster2news.jpg

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