Greetings from Syktyvkar, Russian Federation.

Syktyvkar is located on the Sysola River and is the capital city of the Komi Republic as well as its largest city and administrative centre.  Syktyvkar is a moderate sized city with a population around 200,000 located some 1,200km NE of Moscow.  Founded in 1586, it was granted city status by Catherine the Great in 1780.

We (Speedbox family) came here in summer to catch up with assorted relatives of Mrs Speedbox.  Summer is the best time to visit as the local climate is classified as subarctic with long, cold winters and short, warm summers.  Typical winter temperatures are in the -15 to -20C range with +20 to +25C in summer.  

The district mostly serves the wood industry with gigantic forests throughout the region and the consequent timber mills.  There are a handful of museums within the city in addition to other sights nearby but generally, Syktyvkar hums along to its own beat and is generally quiet. 

A few points:

Travelling here from Doha, the aircraft tracked north across Iranian airspace and then flew up the centre of the Caspian Sea to Samara before straightening up to head for Syktyvkar.  Whilst an obvious flight path, we flew mostly at 41,000 feet and hit 41,500 at one point (at 920 kms/hr) which must be getting very close to the operational limit of an A330.  I don’t know whether these flight characteristics are routine, or not, but it was a curiosity.

On the ground, we visited a local supermarket (equivalent to a large IGA), and the store was very well stocked including a strong selection of local fruit/veg and bakery products.  Elsewhere in the store, local products dominated but there was also an abundance of imported products.

It seems not everyone got the memo about sanctions.  Brand names immediately recognisable to us, and in plentiful supply, included Nestle, Mission, Colgate-Palmolive, Lays, Ferrero, Barilla, Heinz and Mars. 

I took the following photo.  It probably sums up the reality and effectiveness of the sanctions.

There were also dozens of red/white wines from countries around the globe although none from Australia.   Popular spirits such as Johnny Walker et al were also absent. 

There are many new cars on the roads and again, whilst some were local manufacture and others imported (Japanese, European and Chinese), older vehicles are a rarity and represent a tiny percentage – everything else seems <5 years old.   This was somewhat shocking as Russia has (had?) a reputation for the relative commonality of older vehicles.

The abundance of new and near new cars is probably linked to the low unemployment rate.  In this city, and after five days, I have not yet seen one person that could be obviously classified as purposeless.  Over the years at various towns/cities across Russia and Ukraine, it was relatively common to observe someone who appeared drunk at all hours of the day.  They weren’t hard to spot as they sat on a park bench or wandered about, usually talking to themselves, clutching a bottle of cheap vodka.  Well, in Syktyvkar, they are nowhere to be seen.   

There are a handful of new apartment buildings under construction.  I saw a bank advertisement on tv offering a 5% interest rate for the purchase of new residential property.  The same cannot be said for loans on existing property where interest rates are 15%! 

Near the centre of the city is the war memorial area that contains the names of over 300,000 military from the Komi Republic who died during WWII.  Other memorials list the names of local war dead from other conflicts such as Afghanistan.  A new memorial has been added that contains the names and photographs of eleven recent war dead. 

Although the memorial is poignant, It is fair to say that Syktyvkar outwardly appears untroubled by the Ukraine conflict insomuch as the shops are well stocked, the people seem happy and are purposefully going about their business. 

I am gathering commentary about the attitude to the Ukraine conflict and in order to give the broadest possible collection of opinions, will report back after I have also visited Kislovodsk and Moscow.