Word: sakhaliner
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...Sakhalin is a one-way trip." That's what a Russian official once told me, alluding to Sakhalin's nefarious reputation as the penal colony of last resort, whose very name was said to make a man faint from fear. A chrysalis-shaped island at the entrance to the Sea of Okhotsk in the deepest reaches of the Russian Far East, Sakhalin's remoteness, fierce natural conditions and notoriety have made it one of Asia's most foreboding places to visit. But the isolated island is changing?albeit very slowly?from a once closed and alienated enclave into a travel...
...Arguably, the first traveler to willingly visit?and leave?the island was Russian writer Anton Chekhov, who came in 1890 to study life in the penal colony. After finishing his book The Island?a Journey to Sakhalin, Chekhov remarked, "I have seen Ceylon, and it is heaven, and now I have seen Sakhalin, and it is hell." Despite his stinging account, the people of Sakhalin have a lasting affection for the playwright and his introduction of the island to the world. His likeness vies with Lenin's on monuments throughout Sakhalin's capital, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk...
...1960s Russian-built turboprop from Hakodate airport in Japan for the two-hour hop across the Sea of Okhotsk. The two nations are separated by a mere 43 kilometers of water, but the cultural gulf between them is immeasurable. Whereas Hakodate has a fastidious obsession with order and cleanliness, Sakhalin is rough and gritty, reflecting its history. Forgotten by successive Russian governments and weather-beaten by violent winter storms, Yuzhno is a mix of degraded Soviet architecture, dusty, potholed streets and makeshift stalls...
...leading PSA, known as Sakhalin 2, is run by Sakhalin Energy, a consortium led by Royal Dutch/Shell, Europe's largest oil company, with a 55% stake. At $10 billion, it is Russia's largest single foreign investment project. It is also the market's first and only success story to date. It required more than 1,000 permits, but last year Sakhalin Energy's Molikpaq rig produced 1.6 million tons of oil, more than 80,000 bbl. a day, during the ice-free season from June to December...
...decline is to turn around in the near future, Sakhalin is where change will begin. Once a czarist penal colony, then little more than a Soviet air base, Sakhalin is now home to the largest foreign investment projects in Russia. These deals, totaling some $26 billion, are long-term oil and gas Production Sharing Agreements--PSAs, in the argot of the oilmen--that offer the legal framework that Western companies require if they are to make major capital outlays in developing Russia's oil, gas and mineral deposits. The deals grant foreign companies export rights and tax breaks, while Russia...