World Leader Symposium: Russia and the Black Sea
August 30, 2010 - September 15, 2010
17 Days / 16 Nights
Ship Size: 149 suites (Co-Sponsored)
Starting from $23,990
World Leader Symposium: Russia and the Black Sea; Global Challenges in a Post Perestroika World on Silver Wind
This year's symposium will take place August 30 – September 15, 2010, beginning in Moscow and ending in Istanbul, in turn visiting various sites in Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. During this unparalleled cruise symposium aboard the privately chartered Silver Wind, one of the highest-rated small luxury ships afloat, participants will have an opportunity to engage in dialogues, group sessions, and conversations with distinguished leaders whose decisions affected the course of history, and with prominent academics who provide insight and perspective.
Trip Highlights
- Keynote Speakers include Mikhail Gorbachev, during the Moscow segment, and Condoleezza Rice from September 2-6, as well as William Perry
- Lecture series by Harvard study leader Marvin Kalb, Edward R. Murrow Professor of Practice, Emeritus, and Senior Fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press
- Meet with prominent current and former leaders of government and business in Russia and the Black Sea region to hear their perspectives on recent changes and predictions on what the future may hold for these nations.
- Enjoy a rich series of excursions, with a balance between traditional sightseeing and in-depth policy programs.
Destination Information
Russia
There is no more appropriate starting point for examining the global challenges of a post-perestroika world than Moscow. Experience a Moscow rarely seen by visitors during private visits to the Grand Kremlin Palace and Armory and to Russia’s military research and cosmonaut training facility, and at a gala dinner among the unique canvasses of Muscovite Vladimir Mochalov, an Andy Warhol-like artist whose portraits capture some of the world’s most famous and controversial citizens. Examine the Cold War from a different angle as you descend 18 stories underground into a secret communication bunker, shelter, and missile control center built in 1956 to withstand a nuclear attack from the United States, and hear personal accounts from a former KGB agent. Or enjoy Moscow’s world-renowned art collections at the State Tretyakov Gallery and Pushkin Fine Arts Museum, and travel aboard the Moscow Metro, which carries more than 9 million people daily and whose stations are impressive works of art. Later in the program, cruise the Black Sea to Sochi, the city that in 2014 will bring the Olympic Games back to Russia for the first time since the 1980 Moscow Games that were boycotted by the U.S.
Georgia
The current climate of peace is characteristic of Georgia’s history of encouraging people of different cultures, religions, and ethnicities to live side by side in relative harmony. However, as recently as 2008 the states of South Ossetia and Abkhazia were the scenes of a full-scale war between Georgia and Russia, which supported the breakaway provinces’ independence. As you admire the dramatic hilltop castles and ancient watchtowers dotting the Caucasus mountains, which have been described as “higher and wilder than the Alps,” and savor the country’s delicious and unique cuisine, learn more about this recent conflict and its repercussions in Georgia and throughout the region from historians, peacekeepers, and aid workers. Destinations From left: Kremlin, Moscow; Ukrainian woman; Ananauri, Georgia From Batumi, once the chief Russian oil port in the Black Sea, visit the Gelati Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Kutaisi that for a long time was one of the main cultural and intellectual centers in Georgia, or travel to Georgia’s charming capital, Tbilisi. As a terminal of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline that pushes crude oil from the Caspian Sea 1,099 miles to the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, Tbilisi has recaptured its historically strategic importance along a major transportation route. From its diverse houses of worship (including mosques, synagogues, churches) and the Religious Treasury of the National Museum to the blue-tiled Orbeliani Baths, there is much to see here. Nearby is Gori, birthplace of Stalin and home of one of the few monuments to the former Soviet leader to survive Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization program; the castle complex of Ananauri, approached through mountainous scenery along the Georgian Military Highway; the walled city of Signaghi, reminiscent of an Italian hill town, where a local enologist will explain the ancient tradition of Georgian wine and winemaking; and UNESCO World Heritage site Mtskheta, the country’s most religious city.
Azerbaijan
Since the 8th century, oil has been extracted in Azerbaijan for limited local purposes; commercial exploitation began in the late 1800s and by the 20th century the oil fields of Baku, the capital, were the largest in the world. By the end of the 20th century drilling extended offshore in the Caspian Sea. After two major oil booms, Baku is enjoying a resurgence with the development of new oil and natural gas fields, the expansion of the Sangachal Terminal — an industrial complex with natural gas processing and oil production plants, and the completion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in 2005. Visits to Baku’s Oil Boom Mansions, built for oil barons such as the Nobel brothers; British Petroleum’s Sangachal Terminal, the starting point of several pipelines; and the Caspian Energy Center, all underscore the geopolitical importance of the region, as do discussions about the Caspian’s other “black gold”—caviar. Baku is also rich in Azeri cultural and religious traditions. A private Muğam jazz performance, a demonstration of the art of textile weaving, and a stroll through the walled old city’s 15th-century courtyards, mosques and mausoleums all help explain why this industrial city inspired the beautiful love tale that unfolds in Azerbaijan’s national novel,
Ali and Nino.
Ukraine
The historically strained relationship between Ukraine and Russia continues to widen, as Ukraine leans more toward Europe and the EU and less toward Russia. Visits to Pervomaysk, Odessa, Yalta, and Sevastopol illuminate a number of current and historic issues in that relationship. After the breakup of the U.S.S.R., Ukraine inherited 2,000 nuclear warheads, the third-largest cache in the world. The transformation of one stockpile from a cluster of silos to a field of sunflowers is dramatically described during an optional visit to Pervomaysk with former Secretary of Defense William Perry, whose participation was vital to the process (see story on back cover). In Odessa, a major Black Sea port, climb the famous Potemkin Steps, which became the international icon of the 1905 Odessa workers’ uprising immortalized in the 1925 film
The Battleship Potemkin. Observe the Italian baroquestyle Opera House, a beautiful venue for Ukraine’s strongly rooted theatrical culture, or descend into the catacombs that once sheltered World War II partisans during one of the most somber periods in the nation’s history. Yalta’s place in history was firmly established in 1945 as the site of the Yalta Conference. Enjoy a private champagne reception at Livadia Palace, built with white Crimean granite in the Neo-Renaissance style. Here, Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt met to determine the configuration and governance of Germany and the reorganization of Europe following World War II. From Once the home of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet, Sevastopol is now a Ukrainian naval base mutually, if somewhat uneasily, shared by the Ukrainian and Russian navies. Here explore sites of the Crimean War, a pivotal event in the historic clash between East and West, and see where Russia destroyed its entire Black Sea fleet in order to prevent it from falling into Western hands. Or for a more recent look at the area’s international significance, enter Balaklava’s once-secret Soviet military base, which remained operational until 1993 and hid nuclear submarines throughout the Cold War.
Turkey
In the spring of 1992, the Turkish prime minister proposed that the oil pipeline now known as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline run through Turkey, thereby making the country an integral part of the East-West energy corridor and increasing its geopolitical importance. In addition to the lucrative transit fees that Turkey receives, construction of the pipeline has resulted in a reduction of oil tanker traffic on the Bosphorus and greater security in Istanbul. The pipeline itself, however, is in constant peril, as it skirts the volatile Kurdish region of Turkey that is the scene of an ongoing sectarian conflict between the Kurdistan Workers Party and the Turkish government. Learn of the increased strategic significance of Turkey and its new role in natural gas politics. Byzantium’s Constantinople, now Istanbul, has long been regarded as a crossroads at the intersection of East and West. It is the only metropolis in the world that straddles two continents — Europe and Asia — a characteristic that is immediately apparent in the architecture and culture of the city. Istanbul has a wealth of beautiful churches, synagogues, mosques, palaces, and museums to explore. They include the Hagia Sofia, Abrida Synagogue, and Blue Mosque; the Muslim Topkapi Palace; the Europeanstyle Dolmabahçe Palace and Yildiz Palace; the spectacular Çinili (Tiled) Mosque and Beylerbeyi Palace, a 19th-century Baroque summer residence; and the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts and the Great Palace Mosaics Museum.
Schedule by Day
- DAY 1 Depart USA for Moscow
- DAY 2 Moscow
- DAY 3 Moscow
- DAY 4 Moscow
- DAY 5 Charter flight to Istanbul / Embark Silver Wind
- DAY 6 At Sea / Lectures from Keynote Speakers and/or study leaders on board the Silver Wind
- DAY 7 At Sea / Lectures from Keynote Speakers and/or study leaders on board the Silver Wind
- DAY 8 Batumi or Tbilisi
- DAY 9 At Sea / Lectures from Keynote Speakers and/or study leaders on board the Silver Wind
- DAY 10 Sochi or Baku (by charter flight)
- DAY 11 At Sea / Lectures from Keynote Speakers and/or study leaders on board the Silver Wind / Yalta
- DAY 12 Sevastopol
- DAY 13 Odessa or Pervomaysk
- DAY 14 At Sea / Lectures from Keynote Speakers and/or study leaders on board the Silver Wind
- DAY 15 Disembark Istanbul
- DAY 16 Istanbul
- DAY 17 Istanbul / Depart for USA
Pricing
(Per person, double occupancy)
- Vista Suite $23,990 / $39,990 (single)
- Veranda Suite $27,990 / $45,990 (single)
- Midship Veranda $28,690
- Medallion Suite $30,990
- Silver Suite $32,990
- Owner's Suite $37.990
- Royal Suite $38,990
- Grand Suite $39,990
e for 'Greater Israel'?"
an ornament super-imposing President Obama onto Mt. Rushmore:
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About 2200 years ago my people were conquered by Alexander. A group of guerrillas, the Maccabees, led by members of the priesthood, overthrew the Greeks, tossed their gods out of our temple and reinstated the Jewish state.
The legend says that there was only enough oil for one night’s lighting of the Temples’s eternal light, the menorah. BUT, somehow the light lasted eight days. That Menorah, by the way, was stolen by the Romans and is featured today on the arch of Hadrian in Rome. Rome later a Christian State never returned the Menorah. It was last reported in Constantinople.
So Hanukkah is more like the 4th of July than it is like Christmas or Solstice.
There is, however, a sad connection to Christmas. When the Romans came, the descendants of the Maccabees were the Priesthood and these folks supported Roman rule in return for keeping their priestly power. The priests were opposed by a non violent movement of Jews .. the Pharisees people denigrated by the Christian bible. The Pharisees, probably the first teachers of non violent resistance, were brutally repressed by the Hasmoneans,
So who was Jesus? Jesus was not a Rabbi but was a lay leader of the Pharisees. We know this because he was crucified for preaching resistance to Rome and many of the words attributed to Jesus are from the teachings of the greatest Pharisee, Hillel.
So this is the sad irony of Hanukkah for the Christian church. As loyal Romans, the founders of the Church had to denigrate the teachings of their own messiah. Worse. the Christian Church went on to become the most intolerant religion of all, like the Romans and the Hasmoneans, imposing their God not only on the descendants of the Pharisees but on millions of other innocent people, all in the name of a minor Pharisaic teacher who himself taught non violent resistance.
Rather than being bitter, it seems to me that there is a lesson to be shared here. America was founded by people fleeing later versions of the Hasmoneans. In many ways the founding fathers and mothers were Pharisees, peacefully resisting there Christian State Religions by escaping to a new place. Their cause was later taken up not by Americas new churchly establishment but by Dr. King, Saul Alinsky, Bernie Whitebear, and others who were very much the heirs of the Pharisees.
The need to stand up to our oppressors and reject efforts to impose religion seems to me to be a great American tradition ... that somehow has roots in the long struggle of the Jews against the impositions of our Islamic and Christian conquerors. These two religions, the heirs of the lands ruled by the Roman State and the Roman Church are unique in their use of the sword for conversion. ,Jews, Buddhists, Egyptians, Aztecs, Buddhists, pretty much understood that the state was .. well, the state. Their gods might well choose sides and usually did, but the idea of giving one's power in the form of one's god to the folks uou conquered was a gift the Romans left to the world.
The lesson of Hanukkah, moving from the heropism of Maccabees to the collusion of the priests who the Macabees brought to power, seems to me to be that the principles of humanism, the principles taught by Jefferson, Alinsky, Obama, Hillel, Chavez, John Paul XXIII, the principles of freedom of belief transcend any religion.
Happy Hannukah, indeed.