This week’s news; illustrated

Moscow puts up unreadable Latin-letter street signs

Moscow authorities have erected new street signs with street names transliterated into Latin letters around the city, but using a very strange transliteration system. Defying the transliteration systems used by Google Maps, The Moscow Times and The Calvert Journal, the new signs, which were presumably erected to make the Russian capital more easily navigable for foreigners, have baffled many tourists visiting the city. Sochi experienced a different sort of problem earlier this year, with a number of streets translated rather than transliterated, causing some street signs to bear names like Shotgun Street and Blue Dali Street.

Russia and China to collaborate for new Russian Discovery Channel

Minister of Communications Alexei Volin announced this week that Russia is teaming up with China to launch a “Russian Discovery Channel”. The new channel will broadcast programmes which focus on science, culture and history, and will be “distinctly unpolitical” according to Volin. As part of the new collaboration, both countries will broadcast three of each other’s television channels in their own territories.

First kindergarten for future engineers in Sverdlovsk

The first kindergarten with an educational programme dedicated to developing future engineers and researchers is to soon to open in Sverdlovsk. The institution, which is being developed to cater for around 350 children, will offer them the possibility to begin studying the natural sciences and do creative work, including studies of the visual arts, music and dance.

Hermitage to open new museum space

St Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum is to open a new museum space in the formerly closed passage between the Palace Square and the Neva River, where visitors can walk around and participate in cultural events. The new space is tipped to open to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the museum in December this year, and will offer visitors a variety of cultural events that will take place even when the museum is closed.

Rumours that Mike Tyson was to become member of Russia’s Union of Writers denied

American boxer Mike Tyson was rumoured to have become the newest member of Russia’s Union of Writers. Rumours in the media circulated that Tyson’s soon-to-be-released memoir Tyson: Undisputed Truth had earned the boxer membership to the union, which he was said to receive in absentia later this month. The Union of Writers later announced that reports were false and that the world boxing champion was never going to be admitted entry into the prestigious writing organisation.

Ministry of Culture announces open competition to solve tourism crisis in Crimea

Russia’s Ministry of Culture has announced the launch of an open contest entitled “the common cultural space of Crimea”, which invites Russians to propose a solution to the problems of tourism in Crimea before the next season starts in May 2015. The winner should come up with detailed strategies to improve tourism in the peninsula with a budget of 23.9m roubles ($572,000).