It has become something else, too: the leading model of a new Russian capitalism that has emerged since President Vladimir V. Putin came to power in 2000.
State Gas Monopoly Sets Russia's Economic Stage Russia's state gas monopoly, Gazprom, is a vast and powerful energy giant, the fifth-largest corporation in the world and the leading model of a new Russian capitalism that has emerged since President Vladimir V. Putin came to power in 2000.
Rosneft, which was also held up as a model of resurgent Russian pride and defiance of the West as it was cobbled together from Yukos assets once partly owned by foreign investors, was compelled to meet a margin call on Western bank debt in October.
He also remained a model of the Russian nauchno-tekhnicheskaya intelligentsia, the term applied to scientists and engineers with broad interests and intellectual curiosity beyond their profession, deep trust in the power of rational knowledge, and a modest and unassuming lifestyle.
"Something for everyone," a store buyer trilled, as a finale of models, in the hues of a Russian tapestry, circled a field of synthetic snow and ice sculpture under the main tent in the park.
But it raises questions about the reliability of this model of Russian rocket, a similar model of which is used for manned launchings.
Mr. Di Prima tightened its 80-inch wings into place and checked the two-cycle glow engine on the 12-pound scale model of the Russian aerobatic airplane he built from a kit, adding a mix of methanol and castor oil through a thin plastic tube.
He added that Chinese engineers had been trying to develop an engine, the WS-10, a copy of a Russian model, but had been having problems.
In another room, a bizarre papier-mache model of Vladimir Putin as a Russian doll, complete with a Nazi tie, stands in a cage next to a model of one of the "little green men" – soldiers involved in the Russian seizure of Crimea.
Stepan Pachikov, founder of Evernote, is a fascinating individual and very much the model of the Russian intellectual who was driven by sheer curiosity to create the concepts behind Evernote and thus one of today's most successful startups.
