Kommersant, September 5, No. 165, page 15 (Moscow) - September 5, 2005

On Friday, in Gostiny Dvor on Ilyinka Street, RBC TV channel celebrated its second anniversary. Guests were entertained by a bear on a leash, a lottery and dancing. The only missing feature was possibly a gypsy group, yet this was successfully substituted by the Samotsvety band. The grand hall of Gostiny Dvor was split into two: guests flowed in from outside and conversed with each other for a while in one half, and later on everyone was invited to the other half where tables had been laid. However, some guests failed to reach the tables. For instance, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, vice-speaker of the State Duma, was first seen to be carefully dipping fruit slices into chocolate syrup, but then he disappeared. Aide to the President, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, lingered with his wife Anastasia for a longer time. He had time enough to discuss the newly opened hunting season with Olga Sviblova, director of the Moscow House of Photography. Ms Sviblova had been hunting in France, and Mr. Yastrzhembsky on the Taimyr Peninsula. The two officials were satisfied, both with their hunting and with each other. Before they left, Mr. Yastrzhembsky devoted some time to extolling the virtues of an Italian restaurant on Bolshaya Kommunisticheskaya Street. "They serve fresh butter there," Mr. Yasterzhembsky's wife noted, "and also some good yet little publicized wines." Thereupon, the Yastrzhembsky couple discussed fresh political jokes with Editor-in-Chief of the Echo of Moscow radio station Alexei Venediktov, and departed. It appears that Mr. Yastrzhembsky never finished his glass of cognac. At about this time the lottery offering a EUR2,000 discount on a Mercedes was drawn. The bear, shown to the guests at a safe distance, was led away. As music critic Svyatoslav Belza explained yesterday, the bear was meant to symbolize gamblers speculating for a fall on the stock exchange. Bulls, which speculate for a rise, were also to be represented, yet the vehicle carrying the animals got stuck in a traffic jam near the city center. Guests moved to the tables, but some remained in the front part of the hall, for instance, Advisor to the Ukrainian President Boris Nemtsov. The screen set up in the hall showed people who were unable to attend the ceremony congratulating the company. "My god, Petka!" exclaimed Nemtsov when Alfa-Bank's head Pyotr Avena appeared on the screen.

Managing Director of Troika Dialog Pavel Teplukhin sat at the same table as the Mayor of Moscow's press secretary Sergei Tsoi and his wife Anita. "We rarely have such an opportunity to relax," Sergei Tsoi explained. "Therefore, we are taking advantage of the opportunity."

The wedding of the co-owner of MDM Group Andrei Milnichenko was among high society gossip discussed by the guests. Melnichenko was rumored to have bought three large plots of land in the vicinity of Antibes on the Cote d'Azur, right by the seaside. To top it all, the Russian financier bargained over one of these, next to Boris Berezovsky's villa, with a rather well-to-do Arab. "The Cote d'Azur has never before witnessed such a wedding," a guest said. "There will be a laser show, lots of service personnel, a stage set up with scenery like at the Olympics." Everyone agreed that Melnichenko, 35, was the most desirable bridegroom in the whole of the Cote d'Azur. However, no one knew his bride: the few things known about her are that she is a native Czech and has known her fianc? for a great many years.

As the dancing started, General Director of Kommersant-Ukraine Andrei Vasilyev arrived. With his hands wide apart, obviously imitating a plane, he flew to his table. Having done a few dances with his lady friend, whom he refused to introduce, he flew out of the hall in the same manner. "This is someone you can learn about life from," General Director of Sputnik Group Dmitry Bakatin said wistfully. The latter, incidentally, came with couturier Valentin Yudashkin. Yudashkin, dressed in a Yudashkin suit, watched the goings-on for some time, and then retired without taking to the dance floor.

Ms Sviblova, on the other hand, was happy to dance. "There are two things that I appreciate above all," she explained. "These are my work and dancing." So, when the improvised disco was over, at around 11 p.m., Ms Sviblova left, presumably for work, taking with her Theodore Dreiser's trilogy Financier, which was being handed out to guests. Some guests were also given a weighty volume of the Zheltye Stranitsy directory, and were so loaded down with literary works that they found it hard to get to their cars. Ivan Zhdakayev