In November 2013, as a phogorhapherI accompanied the Olympic Torch relay.

I shot en route capturing cities and their atmosphere, as well as people and their mood. I saw Russia from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean – 17 cities are situated between Kaliningrad and Vladivostok. I noticed how little has the country changed since the Soviet Union time — peeling paint, a snow till windows, and Lenin statue on the main square. Static nature and wait state. The Soviet Union has’t collapsed yet, it continues to rust quietly.

People wait for something new, as they waited for the Messiah or the upbuilding of communism.

A standby regime is a special condition. A person who is unable to go ahead, can spend many years in such a state. A feeling of the return to the past did not leave me during my trip. Fragments of reminiscences from the distant childhood, May-Day demonstrations and November parade. Sometimes it seems that the past did not go anywhere, it is soaked to the walls of houses, to pedestals of monuments, and even to the grey northern clouds.