[ Upbeat folk music plays ]
[ Laughs ]
What do you think?
This is Apraksin,
one of the largest markets here in St. Petersburg.
I've come here to meet a man called Stas,
who's taking Putin's counter-sanctions
into his own hands -- literally.
[ Up-tempo electronic music plays ]
That is the most incredible "He-Human" I've ever met.
Yo.
♪♪
[ Speaking Russian ]
Gates: Ah!
[ Grunting ]
[ Grunts ] [ Laughs ]
[ Shouts in Russian ]
Aah! [ Laughs ] This is crazy.
This is the craziest thing that's ever happened.
[ Speaking Russian ]
[ Applause ]
I am American. Are you gonna rip me up?
[ Laughing ] No!
Yah! [ Laughing, screaming ]
Gates: Aah!
[ Roars ]
Gates: Oh, my God. [ Laughs ]
[ Laughs ]
♪♪
[ Laughs ]
I'm in St. Petersburg,
and there's never been a more exciting time
to be in Russia.
Putin is dominating the headlines,
whether it's the Middle East, Crimea,
or riding shirtless on a horse. [ Chuckles ]
Oh, yes. This is my favorite pic of Putin,
where he's wearing a bear.
[ Chuckles ]
♪♪
Whether you think he's a petulant teenager
trying to elbow his way onto the world stage
or a legitimate force to be reckoned with,
he is undeniably having an effect on the people here.
And how he's influencing
culture and identity in this new Russia
is something I'm very interested to find out.
Gates: Russia used to be referred to as "The Motherland,"
but Putin is seemingly reshaping it in his image
as "The Fatherland.
With his hard-line right-wing politics
and vigorous foreign policy,
he's determined to steer the country
back to a more authoritarian regime.
Most recently,
Putin has been at war in the Ukraine,
an active supporter of the Assad regime in Syria,
and, back on home soil,
he's presiding over a fast-growing conservatism,
with homosexuality, in particular,
being violently targeted and essentially criminalized.
To try to reign Putin in,
the West has responded by enforcing economic sanctions...
U.S. sanctions on Russia appear to be doing zero
to convince Vladimir Putin to back down.
Gates: ...causing the Russian ruble to collapse
and, in turn, bringing back anti-Western sentiment
reminiscent of the Cold War era.
...with President Putin retaliating for sanctions
by banning American food imports,
including meat, fish, fruits, and vegetables.
It says, "Our answer to the U.S. sanctions."
Strong vibes.
♪♪
I was here to attend
only the fourth year of St. Petersburg Fashion Week.
The city is often called "Russia's window to Europe."
Geographically, it's the closest major city to Western Europe,
and, culturally,
it's regarded as the country's progressive heart.
♪♪
Gates: Ah! Do you see that?
There's a raccoon on that guy's shoulder!
[ Laughs ]
No, no, no, no, no.
[ Monkey chatters ] Just little guys. [ Laughs ]
How relaxed do I look on a scale of 1 to 10?
Gates: The Fashion Week was being held on the other side of town,
and I wanted to travel in style,
so I hitched a ride with the city's safest taxi service.
[ Choir singing in Russian ]
Gates: Whoa.
Kozueb: [ Speaking Russian ]
[ Laughs ]
[ Man rapping in Russian ]
[ Screams ]
♪♪
Gates: The Fashion Week here started
after the fall of the Soviet Union,
when Russia was opened up to the rest of the world.
But I wondered if the Fashion Week
would be impacted by this country's newfound isolation.
[ All shouting in Russian ]
[ All cheering ]
♪♪
Gates: I'm pretty surprised about people's outfits.
Everybody's way more subdued than I was expecting.
I guess I was expecting, like, a "super-lux,"
like, "fur and diamonds" kind of vibe,
but everybody's, like, mellow.
[ Chuckles ]
We tracked down Nikita Kondrushenko,
one of the founders of the Fashion Week,
to ask him about the current state
of the Russian fashion industry.
Kondrushenko: [ Speaking English ]
Oh, thank you.
[ Laughs ]
Well, thank you so much for having me.
Why is it so important
for St. Petersburg to have a fashion week?
[ Speaking Russian ]
Is it a good time to be a Russian designer?
Gates: Since the Soviet Union dissolved 25 years ago,
Russians have been consuming luxury foreign brands.
However, in the current climate of decreased spending power
and restrictions on Western imports,
the tides have turned.
For the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union,
Russia needs Russians to make Russian goods.
[ Speaking Russian ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
Gates: Dimitry Timurshin is an entrepreneur
who runs Freedom Team,
a chain of pop-up boutiques
which promote a new generation of Russian designers.
Is it rare for clothes to be produced in Russia?
[ Speaking Russian ]
Do you ever have to convince Russians
that clothing made in Russia is just as good?
[ All cheering ]
♪♪
Gates: With St. Petersburg being the window to Europe,
it made sense that many of the looks on the runway
were paying homage to iconic European designs,
such as YSL's Mondrian Collection.
♪♪
But there was also a nod
to the country's growing patriotism.
Gates: Do you see what that girl's wearing?
I think it says "Putin" all over her dress.
Hi. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.
I'm Anna. I was adoring your outfit from afar.
[ Both laugh ]
Really? Yeah.
Wow. Yeah, this --
Can you explain it?
Putinversteher. Okay.
Wow. It's amazing.
I love it, yeah.
Yeah. [ Both laugh ]
That's a great shirt. [ Laughs ]
Man: [ Speaking Russian ]
Are you a fan of Putin's?
And how is Putin changing the world?
It's an exciting time to wear that shirt.
♪♪
Gates: With the current climate
limiting access to foreign brands,
these young designers seem to be catering to a clientele
with tastes for Western designers,
which is perhaps why these collections felt familiar to me.
What I couldn't get my head around
was the fashion off the runway.
The brand of choice -- their president.
♪♪
I am on my way to meet Anna from the Fashion Week.
Can I see this part here?
Yeah, that's the brand name.
She has told me to meet her
at the headquarters of a youth group she's a part of
called Network.
The catch is they're pro-Putin...
[Laughs] ...so should be fascinating.
Gates: The Soviet Union fell in the early 1990s,
opening up Russia to the rest of the world.
However, the chaotic post-Communist era
of Boris Yeltsin
is remembered by many with shame.
This has led the young people of Russia
to turn to Putin to restore national pride.
Support for Putin has skyrocketed,
partly owing to him annexing Crimea to Russia
after 60 years of it being under Ukrainian control.
This support has spawned
a number of pro-Putin youth groups across the country.
They are often regarded
as part of the president's propaganda machine.
Knowing all this, I was eager to talk to Anna
about the inspiration behind her collection.
Oh, hi! Hi!
Welcome to the office. Oh, thank you.
[ Men singing in Russian, up-tempo acoustic guitar plays ]
[ All cheering ]
Gates: So, this is part of your collection?
[ Speaking Russian ]
Could you read me your favorite quote?
[ Laughs ]
It's like "The Terminator."
It's like "The Putinator."
Do you find him attractive?
[ People conversing in Russian ]
[ Speaking Russian ]
How does someone become a member of Network?
I know there are other pro-Putin movements
that are a little more thuggish.
How do you feel about the more extreme groups?
Putin is in the headlines every day,
whether it's Crimea or now Syria.
Does it make you proud?
[ Men singing in Russian ]
Gates: Oh, my God. [ Laughs ]
I have very complicated feelings right now,
and it's really hard for me to reconcile the fact
that they are incredibly hospitable
and providing these great opportunities for young people,
but are also homophobes.
[ All singing in Russian ]
Anna's clothing is so interesting
because it's really modern and kind of, like, street wear.
I just can't really imagine,
like, a young girl making slick little jackets
with George Bush's name all over them.
I guess I'm just surprised that this exists.
[ All singing in Russian ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
Gates: However, not all young Russians are fans of Putin,
and many have been vocal in their opposition,
endangering their own lives in the process.
On October 7, 2006,
the journalist Anna Politkovskaya was assassinated.
She was shot in the head on Vladimir Putin's birthday.
She is 1 of 6 journalists from the Novaya Gazeta newspaper
to have been killed under mysterious circumstances
since 2001.
They were all fierce critics of their government.
I met up with Sasha Garmazhapova,
who also writes for the Novaya Gazeta,
to hear a different voice from Russia's young people.
Gates: I guess I've just been really surprised here
that, in the age of the Internet and globalization,
that so many of the young people that I've met here
have been conservative.
[ Speaking Russian ]
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Uh-huh.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
And what is this thing about Putin being "The Father."
[ Laughs ]
[ Laughter ]
♪♪
♪♪
Gates: The Russian fashion industry
may have yet to define its manufacturing identity,
but when it comes to fur,
it has long had the market cornered.
Russia has been exporting furs for over a thousand years
and is famous for its sable.
The Soviet Union saw a decrease in sales
because buying a fur coat became too expensive,
not to mention the fear of being labeled too bourgeois.
Today, while buying a fur coat in the West
can be controversial,
in Russia, it is seen as a rite of passage.
And if you are in the market for a half-a-million-dollar coat,
this is where you go.
[ Bell rings ] [ Laughs ]
[ Speaking Russian ]
Why is fur so popular in Russia?
[ Chuckles ]
Is it important to your clients
that the fur coat is made in Russia?
[ Laughs ]
Uh-huh. [ Laughs ]
Do men come in to buy these as gifts
for their wives or girlfriends?
[ Laughs ]
♪♪
Ah! [ Laughs ]
What's the most expensive coat that you've ever sold?
Who did you sell it to?
Gates: Every high-end fur boutique has its own fridge
to keep their coats and furs in mint condition.
Clients pay a premium to use it, too,
so basically your $100,000 coat
also comes with its own garage.
Gates: Here we go. Boldina: [ Laughs ]
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God. This is like a haunted house.
[ Screams, laughs ] I can't do it.
It's literally like a really busy morgue in here.
It's like wading through cornfields of body bags.
[ Chuckles ] I think the other thing
that's making me feel crazy in here
is that this is the color of American prison uniforms.
[ Laughing ] So I feel like I may not get out of here.
Oh, my God.
Get me out.
[ Laughs ] Oh, my God!
♪♪
Russia is famous for
supplying the world's catwalks with supermodels,
and the majority of the girls on the runway at the Fashion Week
fit that bill.
However, one of the designers
opted for an unusual choice of model --
the contestants of a pageant called Mrs. St. Petersburg --
that's right, Mrs., not Ms. --
and what appeared to be their children.
Gates: I've never heard of a Mrs. pageant before.
Can you explain a little bit more about that?
Rogova: [ Speaking Russian ]
And when you see a woman in a dress, in heels,
looking beautiful with a child,
what does that mean to you?
[ Indistinct conversations ]
Gates: We met up with one of the contestants
to better understand the concept of Mrs. St. Petersburg.
What does it mean for young girls in Russia
to get married?
[ Speaking Russian ]
♪♪
I had never encountered a fashion week
that promoted family life before,
and I was unsure if this bias
towards hetero-normative households in Russia
was just a spectacle for the runway
or reality for the country.
In 2015, while much of the Western world
was celebrating advancements in gay rights,
Russia responded by launching
its very own "straight pride" flag,
under the initiative #RealFamily,
glorifying the traditional family unit.
The most aggressive defender of conventional family values
is also unsurprisingly
the country's most notorious homophobe --
Vitaly Milonov.
In 2012, the fervently Orthodox Milonov
led the passing of a law which banned the publication
of all forms of so-called gay propaganda.
Further laws preventing gay couples from adopting
and allowing police to arrest
tourists suspected of being homosexual
mean that being gay in Russia is essentially a criminal act.
Putin has awarded Milonov
a medal for services to the fatherland.
Hi. I'm Hailey. Hello.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you, too. Cool.
Well, there's a wedding going on inside here, I hear.
Yeah. Who's getting married?
[ Chortles ] Who can marry in Russia?
Of course a nice man and a nice woman --
no -- no animals, no vacuum cleaners,
no gays, no perverts.
Where are you from?
I live in New York.
You still have Barack Obama. Yeah.
This is, I think, the biggest problem for America.
Why is that? He's a destroyer of tradition, you know,
because he's not American.
He is something artificial like a cancer.
He destroys families, you know?
He legalized LGBT marriages.
Right. It's disgusting.
You know, he thinks that he is more than God.
[ Church bells tolling ] [ Man shouts ]
Marriage is a spiritual union.
In the Bible, it says that man and woman becomes the one.
And what is not a real family?
Living in a sin.
It's not a family --
having girlfriends, boyfriends for 10 years,
you know, like, having home partnership
like it's said in the Facebook status.
This society,
it tries to help those who feel themselves single
to have an illusion of happiness.
It's not a happiness.
It's artificial flavor of strawberry.
It's not strawberry.
Real strawberry smells with a tiny smell,
but it's natural.
Interesting.
It's something that I really value,
the natural necessity
for a Russian girl to be a wife... Mm-hmm.
...to be Mother,
to have happiness within family.
But Russia has the highest divorce rate in the world.
Yeah, because people here, they grew up in atmosphere
without being educated what is marriage.
And what does a Russian family mean to you?
Man and woman and the kids... Mm-hmm.
...and harmony.
[ Church bell tolls ]
Gates: Caught between the growing influence
of the Orthodox Church and Putin's #RealFamily campaign,
the pressure to marry here is immense.
However, the stakes are much higher for women
than they are for men, and it's all down to numbers.
During World War II,
Russia lost 20 million lives, most of whom were men.
Two generations later,
the male population still hasn't fully recovered.
Alcoholism, drug abuse, and poor health
seem to be the contributing factors.
To make things worse, Russian men are dying young.
So on an average, a Russian woman
will outlive her male counterpart
by 11.4 years.
The only larger life-span gap
is in war-torn Syria.
What all this means is that, today,
for every 100 women, there are only 86 Russian men.
This gender imbalance has created
one of the most competitive dating scenes in the world.
So I wanted to understand for myself
what women go through here
in order to capture the heart of the rare Russian male.
I'm going to attend an event
called "What Men Are Not Talking About"
that is put on
by a Russian marriage agency called Romantica,
and they are sending over a stylist
to make sure that I am looking...marriable.
-Hello. -[ Speaking Russian ]
Come in. [ Laughs ]
[ Up-tempo Russian folk music plays ]
This is probably the closest to how I dress
of all the things you've showed me.
Mm-hmm.
[ Both chuckle ]
Well, I don't know if you know this,
but this happens to be a picture of me [laughs] by coincidence.
Wow.
[ Both laugh ]
Oh, man.
[ Laughter ]
I'm very un-marriable.
[ Choir vocalizing ]
[ Chuckles ]
What do you think? Good? -Oh. Oh.
[ Laughs ]
[ Laughs ]
Oh, my God. Cool.
[ Chuckles ]
Thank you so much.
Your my fairy godmother.
All right, let's find me a husband.
Five floors in heels?
Ugh!
[ Indistinct talking ]
I don't know where to sit. I'm really nervous.
The seminar has been set up to give a room of single women
the chance to question a group of single men
about what they are looking for and why.
[ Conversing in Russian ]
[ Choir singing in Russian ]
[ Speaking Russian ]
MAN: [ Speaking Russian ]
[ Speaking Russian ]
[ Laughter ]
Gates: If a woman is successful and has a powerful job,
is that a turnoff?
[ Laughter ]
[ Speaking Russian ]
[ Applause ] -Bravo! Bravo!
[ Indistinct conversations ]
[ Speaking Russian ]
Mm-hmm.
[ Speaking English ]
What's wrong with a woman wearing glasses?
[ Speaking Russian ]
[ Speaking English ]
Oh, my God. [ Laughs ]
It's cool.
What? [ Mutters ]
What are you doing? [ Laughing ] What are you doing?
Do you like?
[ Laughing ] No, not really.
[ Speaking Russian ]
'Cause it's a very strange thing to do, just to poke s--
No, thank you.
It -- Where -- Where you from?
I'm from New York City.
Ah. [ Speaking Russian ]
[ Laughs ]
Oh.
Yes? Oh, relax.
Oh, yes. It's, uh...
[ Speaking Russian ]
[ Soft music plays ]
Gates: I've just left the seminar, and it was really eye-opening.
You now have the circumstance of the women trying to fit
the mold that the men have presented to them.
And so women's sense of themself has totally morphed
because they now have to conform based on what a man wants
because there are just less men.
[ Russian hip-hop music plays ]
Gates: After enduring the dating seminar,
it was clear that it would take more than dressing the part
to make a Mrs. St. Petersburg out of me.
In the U.S., we have dating agencies,
but in Russia, they're more like marriage agencies,
training women to become the ideal wife.
And sitting at the top of this lucrative industry is this guy.
Anatoli Altuhov is Russia's foremost marriage expert.
He runs the most successful agency in St. Petersburg,
claiming to set up 20 marriages a month.
I heard he had some pretty radical ideas.
So, why did you choose this picture of me?
[ Speaking Russian ]
Gates: [ Laughs ] Uh-huh.
[ Up-tempo Russian folk music plays ]
The cost for Anatoli's services start at 40,000 rubles,
the equivalent of an average month's salary,
and women have to pay even more than men, like Alexandra,
who we found searching for her future husband.
Because there are less men in Russia,
there's so much pressure on women to please a man.
Do you feel that pressure in your life?
[ Speaking Russian ]
Mm-hmm. Has he taught you anything yet?
Yeah.
[ Laughs ]
[ Laughs ]
It's clearly very competitive amongst the women
who are trying to get husbands.
How do you suggest they go about this?
[ Speaking Russian ]
The woman should allow the man to be more important?
[ Choir vocalizing fades in ]
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
[ Sighs ] Uh, wow. Where to start?
[ Chuckles ] Um, okay, so...
First of all, AIDS is a growing problem here in Russia,
so not using condoms would...
not be so [chucking] great for that.
Okay, since you have this magical power,
and you can tell me what I want [Chuckles] without asking me,
what do I want?
Ideally. [ Chuckles ]
I would definitely like a smart man.
That doesn't really matter to me.
I don't care about... physically fit.
[ Laughs ]
Who are you to say I'm wrong?
Yeah, that's good. I like that.
I don't know what that means.
And a big dick. [ Laughs ]
Woman: I can't believe you just said that.
[ Laughing ] Sorry.
Gates: Confronted by Anatoli's theories,
I found it hard to keep it together.
I'd begun by asking how single Russian women should behave
in order to find a husband, and now we were discussing things
that would make Caligula blush.
Part of Anatoli's method happens in the field,
so he took me out on a date to get down to the essentials.
What do you think a woman's "sell-by date"
is here in Russia?
A god and a giant baby at the same time?
Wow.
Do you have daughters?
Of course he does. [ Laughs ]
What kind of woman would you like your son to date?
When did you get married? How old were you?
And you're still married?
You have a ring on.
How old's your wife now?
[ Scoffs ]
How old are you?
So you like younger women.
Do you think the standards for girls
are at all unfair here in Russia?
Because it seems crazy to me that you have to
change yourself completely in order to appease a man.
But do most of your male clients want a young woman?
Have you ever had a blowjob?
[ Laughing ]
[ Laughing ]
And you loved it!
♪♪
Gates: Back at Fashion Week, it was time to celebrate
the women who appeared to have it all.
The Mrs. St. Petersburg contestants were undergoing
final preparations before they hit the runway.
[ Speaking Russian ]
[ Laughs ]
And were the kids the actual kids
of the Mrs. St. Petersburg contestants?
[ Speaking Russian ]
Do you have a husband?
[ Laughs ]
Did you?
Gates: You are in competition to become
Mrs. St. Petersburg, is that right?
[ Speaking Russian ]
Are you married?
And how old were you when you got married?
Oh, my God! You were a baby!
Da.
I'm 25, and people in Russia have been giving me
a lot of shit for not being married yet. [ Laughs ]
♪♪
Gates: The Mrs. St. Petersburg pageant
was projecting an image of Putin's dream nation,
celebrating his version of the perfect family.
But behind the veil, not only were the kids hired in --
even the organizer and many of the contestants were divorced.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Throughout the 70 years of communism,
men and women were considered equal.
But in Putin's Russia, where Orthodoxy reigns,
women are bearing the brunt
of society's unrealistic expectations.
[ Woman speaking Russian ]
♪♪
[ Kondrushenko speaking Russian ]
Gates: Putin's vision for a new Russia may have flaws,
but the rise in patriotism may provide the call to arms needed
to jump-start homegrown manufacturing.
Put is reestablishing Russia as a superpower, and, for many,
he has restored pride through shows of strength
and a reawakening of dormant Russian traditions.
Milanov: We like to have strong leaders.
We don't like to have drunk President Yeltsin.
We like our leader to say, "We want like this."
Only empire, only great leader --
It's the only way for Russia to live, to survive.
I was surprised to find that even in Russia's
most progressive city, Putin's influence is ubiquitous,
and as the voices of dissenters become fainter and fainter,
it seems that the majority
is in favor of forging this new Russia,
even if it puts them at odds with the rest of the world.
Milanov: It's a hard process for Russia to come back to its roots.
But I think that we're not afraid to be isolated.
[ Bells tolling ]
[ Man rapping in Russian ]
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