Has the Crisis killed the Gazprom Phallus?
In our Red Issue (B EAST 9), we wrote about the struggle of the people of St. Petersburg against plans to erect a giant phallic-shaped skyscraper that would devastate the iconic city’s skyline.
The powerful Kremlin-controlled energy company Gazprom was forging ahead with plans to construct its new headquarters, Gazprom City (later changed to Ohkta City) on the banks of the Neva River. The design was a hideous twisting tower nearly 400 meters high, defying the city’s building code which for centuries had forbidden any construction taller than The Hermitage.
As our St. Petersburg beast Valeria Gold wrote, the tower showed “the worst elements of both Russian business practices and the global corporation mentality.” The plan inspired a rare showing of anti-government sentiment, with around 400 protesters taking to the streets in a march to voice their opinions in September 2007. “We don’t know if our weak attempts to struggle can help. But if the victim is still squirming, perhaps it will be a little harder for the rapist to orgasm?” Gold wrote.
Now it looks as if the global financial crisis might put an end to the corporate rape of St. Petersburg. Gazprom has suffered from the crisis, with its stock price falling by about 70 per cent since May. It defaulted on promises to build a stadium for St. Petersburg, and as a result the city government has decided to delay its hefty financial contribution to the Gazprom City project.
The delay hasn’t officially killed off the tower, but it seems more and more unlikely that the project will ever be constructed.
Read more here: International Herald Tribune repot
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