The Moscow Times Awards
The Moscow Times Awards were held at the Metropol Hotel on December 10. The event brought together members of Moscow’s business and cultural elite.
An expert council chose winners in 12 categories for their contribution to improving life in the Russian capital. The council was composed of representatives of foreign chambers of commerce and international journalists from leading foreign media with representation in Russia, including The Financial Times, Voice of America, The Magazine, De Volkskrant, DPA, Moscow FM and others. Newspaper readers voted online to select the Person of the Year.
“The city has changed a great deal,” said The Moscow Times publisher Ekaterina Movsumova. “For 21 years, our newspaper has been the only independent English-language source of information in Moscow, and it has gained enough experience to make an objective analysis of the positive changes in this city.”
The event began with a video remake of the song Winds of Change featuring The Moscow Times editors and reporters. Vladimir Posner, renowned television reporter and member of the expert council, gave a warm welcome to award nominees and guests in the hall where the awards ceremony was staged. Participants took note of the event’s unique theme and expressed their appreciation to The Moscow Times for bringing together the capital’s international community for the awards ceremony.
“I hope that The Moscow Times Awards not only single out successful people, companies and events but also help the entire international community find new ways to achieve success in Russia,” said The Moscow Times editor-in-chief Andrew McChesney.
“Business plays an increasingly important role in the development of civil society,” said Roca managing director in Russia Antonio Linares. “We are grateful to The Moscow Times newspaper for the initiative that brought together the guests of today’s ceremony.”
Guests of the event included executives and top managers of such major Russian and international companies as Siemens, Nestle, Philips, Raiffeisenbank, L’Oreal, Pfizer, 3M, Bank of Moscow, Sberbank, Gazprombank and others; ambassadors and advisors from Spain, Canada, France, Germany, the United States, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Poland and Belgium, as well as the award nominees themselves, eminent cultural and business figures Kirill Serebrennikov, Irina Antonova, Andrei Sharonov, Mark Kurtser, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Vladimir May, Elizaveta Glinka and others.
The ceremony included a short video presentation of Moscow’s most outstanding cultural events and a special prize was awarded to businessman Andrei Filatov for supporting chess in Russia and first television channel devoted exclusively to chess – Chess TV.
Roca Russia acted as strategic partner to the event. Other partners to the awards included the Regus, Coca-Cola and Lladro companies, the Franco–Russian Chamber of Commerce, the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce, the Russian-German Chamber of Commerce as well as the Chess TV channel created by the Digicast company.
The winners of The Moscow Times Awards are:
Person of the Year: Irina Antonova, the legendary Pushkin Museum director, was voted Person of the Year by readers of The Moscow Times.
Person of the Year in Culture: theater and film director Kirill Serebrennikov.
Best City Improvement: Sergei Velmyaikin, Deputy Labor and Social Protection Minister and a co-author of the anti-smoking law.
Foreign Investment: the French company Renault, accepted by vice president of public affairs for Eurasia Igor Titov;
Country of the Year: The Netherlands, accepted by Dutch Ambassador in Russia Ron van Dartel.
Best Business Event: the Gaidar Forum. Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration rector Vladimir Mau said that the Gaidar Forum would pursue its efforts to make Moscow an attractive destination for capital and investment.
Best Business Hotel: Hotel Metropol Moscow, accepted by managing director Dominique Nicolas Godat.
Best Corporate Citizen: MasterCard, accepted by MasterCard vice president in Russia Mikhail Fedoseyev.
Best Cultural Event: the Golden Mask theater festival, held this year at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre in April, accepted by director Maria Revyakina.
Humanitarian of the Year: The Humanitarian of the year award went to Dr. Yelizaveta Glinka, founder of the Just Aid Foundation. Every Wednesday, “Dr. Liza's” volunteers head to Moscow's Paveletsky Station to distribute food, clothing and medicine to the homeless.
Best Cultural Center: Gorky Park director Olga Zakharova.
Best Business Center: Belaya Ploshchad (White Square) office center, accepted by O1 Properties chairman Dmitry Mints.
Details are available on the site .
