Russia’s Far East

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Russia’s Far East | Snow Job; Russia’s much-ballyhooed turn towards China is less than it seems. Economist, Jan 2, 2016.
http://www.economist.com/news/eu ... s-it-seems-snow-job
("although China is now Russia’s largest trading partner, Russia does not crack China’s top five—a fact not lost on Chinese businessmen")

Note:
(a) "DOWN a bumpy two-lane road through the hills north-west of Vladivostok, the Pogranichny border crossing is where Russia meets China. Bilateral relations are blossoming, and trade should be booming. Yet lorries loaded with timber idle on the roadside * * * With oil prices low and the rouble weak, bilateral trade shrank by around 30% in the first half of 2015."
(i) What the British call a "lorry" (Wiktionary.com says "origin obscure"), Americans call a truck.
(ii) name origin and meaning:
(A) Irina Filatova, Vladivostok. The Moscow Times (1992- ; private; written in English), Oct 30 2011
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/beyond_moscow/vladivostok.html

Quote:

"Vladivostok * * * was founded in 1860 as a military post on Zolotoi Rog Bay * * * The city's name apparently originates from the Russian expression 'vladei vostokom,' which means 'rule the east.'

"The name of Vladivostok’s only sister city in Russia — Vladikavkaz — has a similar origin and comes from the Russian phrase 'vladei Kavkazom,' which means 'rule the Caucasus.'

* The Slavic male given name Vladimir means “rule peace” where “mir” is the noun for peace.
(B) Khabarovsk was first "built by the Cossacks of Yerofey Khabarov [c 1603 - 1671] in September 1651 after they had sailed to the area from the upper Amur."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khabarovsk

中文称 伯力: "來源於部落名博和哩。據《滿洲源流考》卷11《疆域》載： '博和哩，滿洲語，豌豆也。' "  zh.wikipedia.org
(C) Pogranichny, Primorsky Krai
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogranichny,_Primorsky_Krai
(The settlement was given its present name – which means "border (town)" – in 1958)

Opposite Suifenhe (黑龙江省牡丹江市) 绥芬河(市) across the border.

choi

(b) " 'The turn to the east is happening, but in a characteristically Russian way: slowly, foolishly and with unrealistically high expectations,” says Alexander Gabuev, the chairman of the Russia in the Asia-Pacific programme at the Moscow Carnegie Centre, a think-tank."

About the Moscow Carnegie Center
carnegie.ru/about/?lang=en
("The Carnegie Moscow Center was established as a subdivision of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Washington, DC[; 1911- ]) and started its activities in 1994. Beyond the Moscow center, the Carnegie Endowment maintains offices in Beijing, Beirut, and Brussels, making it the world’s first global think tank")
(c) "Gorbachev was calling Vladivostok a 'window to the East' and declaring the Soviet Union 'an Asian and Pacific country.' "

Peter I or the Great founded Saint Petersburg in 1703, as his window to or on the West.
(d) "En+ Group, an energy holding company controlled by Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch, has signed a deal with China’s Huawei to build data centres in Siberia."

Oleg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleg
("It derives from the Old Norse Helgi (Helge), meaning 'holy,'  'sacred,' or 'blessed.' The feminine equivalent is Olga [which is derived from Old Norse Helga]")
(e) "Victor Larin of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Vladivostok"

Russian Academy of Sciences
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Academy_of_Sciences
(Established 1724; Headquartered in Moscow)
(f) "In November CAI Shangjun 蔡尚君, an internationally acclaimed Chinese film director, brought more than 50 cast and crew to Khabarovsk to shoot a new movie, but customs officials held his camera equipment at the border. The frustrated cinéaste was left cooling his heels in his hotel for over a week. * * * His film 'Under the Ice 冰之下,' about two Chinese lovers who meet in Russia, has since resumed production."

cineaste (n; French: etymology): "a filmmaker"
www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/de ... an_english/cineaste