Business News Russia | Page 45

45

A symbol of Russia's religious renaissance, Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, demolished in the Soviet times and rebuilt from 1990–2000

Modern culture

Since the late Soviet times Russia has experienced another wave of Western cultural influence, which led to the development of many previously unknown phenomena in the Russian culture. Russia easily has adopted a number of cultural techniques, while providing its own content.

The most vivid example, perhaps, is the Russian rock music, which takes its roots both in the Western rock and roll and heavy metal, and in traditions of the Russian bards of Soviet era, like Vladimir Vysotsky and Bulat Okudzhava. Saint-Petersburg (former Leningrad), Yekaterinburg and Omsk became the main centers of development of the rock music. Popular Russian rock groups include Mashina Vremeni, DDT, Aquarium, Alisa, Kino, Nautilus Pompilius, Aria, Grazhdanskaya Oborona, Splean and Korol i Shut.

At the same time Russian pop music developed from what was known in the Soviet times as estrada into full-fledged industry, with some performers gaining international recognition, like t.A.T.u. in the West or Vitas in China. Lubeh is a very popular and unique group, harmoniously combining the elements of Western rock and roll, traditional Russian folk music and military bard music, featuring a number of rock attributes but often performing on the pop scenes.

In the past decades many new sporting activities came into Russia, including cheerleading, auto racing, snowboarding and skateboarding. Many subcultures became popular among Russian youth, like rappers, Goths, Emo, Anime fans and

Live action role-playing gamers. Russian Internet, or Runet, has seen a rapid development in the last years and the rise of a variety of Internet subcultures.

Sports

Russians have been successful at a number of sports and consistently finish in the top rankings at the Olympic Games and in other international competitions. Combining the total medals of Soviet Union and Russia, the country is second among all nations by number of gold medals both at the Summer Olympics and at the Winter Olympics .

During the Soviet era, the national Olympic team placed first in the total number of medals won at 14 of its 18 appearances; with these performances, the USSR was the dominant Olympic power of