Kommersant (Moscow), 8 September 2003

RBC TV arranges a circus show

Business television

A ceremony of launching the business television channel RBC TV by the RosBusinessConsulting information agency was held in the Zurab Tseretelli Art Gallery.

Over 1,000 weighty businessmen and politicians attended the event, in order to watch TV, eat caviar and sushi, drink wine and spend time with people of a similar social status. Observer Alena Antonova provided the details of the event.

Chief Executive Officer of RBC Yury Rovensky and an elephant with RBC TV's slogans painted all over him were greeting grand guests at the entrance to the Art Gallery. Some guests were worried that the paint would irritate the animal's skin. Specialists of a circus that leased the elephant to RBC TV explained: in India these nosey monsters get painted for holidays all the time - elephants like to look good for 2-3 hours from time to time.

Meanwhile, Vice President of MDM Group Andrey Shtorkh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Wimm-Bill-Dann David Yakobashvili, President of the Troika Dialog investment company Ruben Vardanyan, President of ATON Capital Yevgheny Yuryev, Russian Presidential Representative in the Constitutional, Supreme and High Arbitration Courts Mikhail Barshchevsky, General Director of Aeroflot Airlines Valery Okulov, General Director of Transaero Airlines Olga Pleshakova, Vice President of Alfa Bank Alexander Ghafin, Deputy General Director of NTV Alexander Gerasimov and Deputy Finance Minister Mikhail Motorin passed by the live advertisement towards the gallery.

There was a huge bronze egg made by Zurab Tseretelli decorated with 50 images of coition acts in the center of the hall. Plasma TV screens showing RBC TV's news blocks were attached to the egg. Live broadcasting was arranged right from the hall. One by one guests were invited to deliver a speech: Board Member of MNVK Igor Shabdurasulov, leader of the Revival of Russia party Gennady Seleznyov, Moscow Vice Mayor Valery Shantsev, LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, State Duma's deputies Vladimir Ryzhkov and Alexey Mitrofanov, Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Yakovenko and Dean of the Journalism Faculty of the Moscow State University Yasen Zasursky. VIP persons commented on business and political events in Russia and worldwide for RBC TV's viewers.

Great attention was also paid to food set up on tables around the hall. Fish prevailed. The observer counted at least 20 kinds of sushi and sashimi. Many guests didn't feel like using wooden sticks and were just dipping the food in sauces with forks, which made sushi and sashimi fall apart. This didn't worry the guests and they used forks to gather rice, shrimp and crab. Quite a problem was with a side dish to sturgeon, which was fresh red caviar laying on large plates. The guests ran out of bread quite quickly, but waiters kept bringing more and more caviar. Consequently, people had to eat the side dish with forks, as it was too confusing to leave caviar on the plate.

A good thing was that 80 percent of the audience at RBC TV's event were men. It would be more confusing to go through all these troubles with food before beautiful ladies. All men were in formal suits (at least $800 each) and white shirts. Ties were the only bright spots, with animals, berries and other funny pictures on them, which was natural for summer time. Guests moved in small groups around the above-mentioned egg. The following well-known people could be noticed wondering around in the hall: General Director of the Europa Plus radio Alexander Polesitsky together with a TV program host Petr Fadeyev, Editor-in-Chief of the Izvestia newspaper Mikhail Kozhokin and former Vice President of Sibneft Vladimir Ruga (on October 1, Mr. Ruga will assume the office of Vice President of TNK-BP). Social butterflies such as ballet dancer Anastasiya Volochkova and President of the World Class fitness company Olga Slutsker could be noticed among the men. Of course, everyone wanted to pay his/her respect to Yury Rovensky who managed to gather all these people at the same time in the same place. Mr. Rovensky could hardly find time to take away bunches of flowers and didn't eat anything.

At the end of the day it began to rain. Slogans painted on the elephant began vanishing, the animal started scratching himself very loud and turning grouchy. The elephant was quickly put in a van and transported away. As the live billboard left, guests began leaving too with bottles of Chili wine in paper bags (a present from RBC) in the trunks of their luxury cars.