Practically Speaking

Vol. 4, No. 2, Spring 1996, Covering the Former Soviet Union and East Central Europe

Practically Speaking

Rise in Computer Thefts in Airports
Laptop computers have become a premium target for theft throughout Europe. Every international traveler who is anticipating on carrying a laptop computer with them must remain on constant alert as they traverse through all airports. One method [of theft] has involved the use of security x-ray machines. The first thief would precede the traveler through the security check point and then loiter around the area where the carry-on luggage had already been examined. When the traveler places his laptop computer onto the conveyer belt of the x-ray machine, the second thief would step in front of the traveler and set off the metal detector. While the traveler was being delayed, the first thief would remove the traveler's laptop computer from the conveyer belt just after it had gone through the x-ray machine and quickly disappear.

Source: U.S. Army Material Command, posted by Spanish Forum, a missionary Internet clearinghouse of information.

Moscow-based travel agency, Galateya, has five years of experience in providing assistance for Western missionaries. In addition to typical accommodations and logistical services, Galateya assists in making contacts with Russian Christians and with the distribution of Christian literature. Contact: Andrei Filipov, director, Galateya, Profsoyuznaya ul. 124/58, Moscow 117321, Russia; tel: 7-095-3096; tel/fax: 7-095-420-2290.

"You Can Get There From Here," Russian Life (October 1995), 14-15, gives high ratings to four travel agencies in Russia.

1. American Express books domestic and international flights and hotel reservations in major cities: ul. Sadovo-Kudrinskaya 21a, Moscow; tel: 956-9000; Grand Hotel Europe, ul. Mikhailovskaya 1/7, St. Petersburg; tel: 119-6009.

2. Time Travel books domestic and international flights, with free delivery of tickets within Moscow city limits. It also arranges hotel bookings, ground transportation, excursions, and visa support: ul. Pistsovaya 12, Moscow; tel: 257-9220.

3. IRO Travel is affiliated with Moscow's only youth hostel, the American-run Traveller's Guest House. In addition to air, train, and hotel arrangements to most Russian cities, IRO specializes in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Trans-Siberian rail travel: ul. B. Pereyaslavskaya 50, 10th floor, Moscow; tel: 971-4059.

4. Destination Services Russia, a Swedish run agency based in St. Petersburg, in addition to typical flight and hotel services, delivers rail tickets within St. Petersburg city limits: Solyanoy per. 8; tel: 273-1353.

The former Soviet travel monopoly, Intourist, is still the only alternative in many provincial locations: ul. Mokhovaya 13, Moscow, tel: 292-2791; Boytsova per. 7, St. Petersburg; tel: 274-2580.

Russian Life also gives high marks to Transaero Airlines, "widely considered to be the safest and most service-oriented domestic courier": Okhotny Ryad 2, Moscow; tel: 578-05-37, 38, 39, 80, 81; Liteyny prospekt 48, St. Petersburg; tel: 279-8042.

As with Intourist, Aeroflot Airlines is the only choice to many smaller and more remote destinations: Leningradskiy prospekt 37, Moscow; tel: 155-6648; Pulkovo I Airport, St. Petersburg; tel: 104-3822.

Alaska Airlines has added a second weekly round-trip flight between Anchorage and the Russian Far East. The original flight operates from Anchorage through Petropavlovsk to Khabarovsk and Vladivostok; the new flight operates from Anchorage through Magadan to Khabarovsk and Vladivostock. Contact: Alaska Airlines, Box 68900, Seattle, WA 98168; tel: 800-426-0333. In Russia: Petrovalovsk (9011-872-140-6110; fax: 9011-872-140-6111); Vladivostok (4232-2276-45; fax: 9-10333-011-7509-851-3552; Khabarovsk (378804).

Source: New York Times, 7 February 1996, C7; and Alaska Airlines.

A coalition of Evangelical ministries based in Moscow established a National Research Committee and a National Research and Information Center in the fall of 1995. Research and survey materials collected to date include "Theological Institutions in the CIS" and "Briansk Oblast Chruch/Demographic Study" from Peter Deyneka Russian Ministries; "Russian Christian Youth Survey" and "Russian Youth Ministers' Survey" from Youth for Christ; and "Unreached Peoples in Russia" from Operation Mobilization. Contact: Leonid Makharinsky, Peter Deyneka Russian Ministires, tel: 7-095-930-3697; or Ron Brunson, Alliance for Saturation Church-Planting, tel/fax: 7-095-335-9976; e-mail: 100410.3300@compuserve.com.

Practically Speaking, East-West Church & Ministry Report, 4 (Spring 1996), 12.

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