Vladivostok is a window into wartime Russia

Europe | Everyday Putinism Vladivostok is a window into wartime Russia Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is transforming the far eastern city I n Russia the day begins not in the capital, but in the far east. “If earlier we spoke of Vladivostok as the country’s outpost in the far east, now we say it is our ‘window to Asia’,” says Vasily Avchenko, one of Vladivostok’s most prominent authors. “And it’s the gateway to China.” Rising in the east Shipping container loads*, by selected port, ’000 4.5 4.0 3.5 Vladivostok 3.0 St Petersburg 2.5 2.0 1.5 Novorossiysk 1.0 0.5 0 F M A M J J A S O N D 2022 Source: Kiel Trade Indicator *Ten-day moving average Rising in the east Shipping container loads*, by selected Russian port, ’000 4.5 4.0 3.5 Vladivostok 3.0 2.5 St Petersburg 2.0 1.5 Novorossiysk 1.0 0.5 0 Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2022 Source: Kiel Trade Indicator *Ten-day moving average The port of Vladivostok has been the centre of life along the Golden Horn Bay ever since 1859, when Nikolay Muravyov, the governor of Tsarist-era eastern Siberia, arrived to survey the region aboard a corvette built in New York and dubbed the Amerika. The following year the Russian imperial flag went up above a settlement that Muravyov’s team called Vladivostok, meaning “Rule the East”. “Current events didn’t start this process, they accelerated it,” says Artyom Lukin of the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok.