Thousands of people were queueing up along the streets in Murmansk Wednesday evening as the Olympic torch was carried from person to person the 16 kilometer long distance across Murmansk. Police units were guarding the route everywhere in a security attendance seldom seen in Murmansk.
Traffic was closed down in all central streets and comersial billboards were wrapped in strange-looking big plastic bags. When the Olympic flame is in range of attention; all visible commercials should be limited to the offical Olympic sponsors.
And; as in several other places along the route troughout Russia so far - the flame also extinguished a few times during the route though the windy and rainy Murmansk.
One of the torch-bearers was Sergey Kharlamov, the Barents cooperation veteran.
Sergey Kharlamov is the actor at the Murmansk Regional Puppet Theatre that for many years has been participating in the Barents cooperation.
“It is very precious to be chosen for such event, to know you are a part of it,” says Sergey Kharlamov to BarentsObserver.
Sergey Kharlamov came to Murmansk many years ago and now takes pride in being a Barents citizen. ” I am absolutely in love with the region. I came to Murmanks back in 1975. When in 1974 the Kurgan Puppet Theatre (the theatre I worked in that time) was touring around Northern territories of Tyumen, I realized that northern people are a different nation. The northernes are so friendly and warm-hearted, they are always ready to give you a hand. One can easily talk to a stranger on a bus. It’s very different from the rest of the country. So, I said to myself - “I want to live in the North”. I wrote several letters to different puppet theatres in Northern cities of Russia asking for a job and luckily got a positive response from Murmansk. That is how I ended up here.”
For many years Sergey has been involved in different cultural projects across the Barents region.
“I remember well the first contacts our puppet theatre had with Barents countries. These were the Festivals of the North Calotte. Back then it was so different, in 1989 we had to go to Moscow in order to get our visas for Luleå in Sweden. And nobody thought of Finland, which was in between the USSR and Sweden… That time there was neither EU, nor Schengen area. So, we had to go to Moscow again, to obtain a visa to Finland,” explains Sergey Kharlamov.
“Over the years our cooperation was growing bigger and stronger, we were visiting many cities and countries in the Barents region. The language was never a barrier. When the real puppeteer is on the stage, everything is clear - every emotion, every feeling and even the text”. “The Barents cooperation in culture is vital, it is wonderful when people travel in the Barents region not only for shopping, but go to museums, galleries and concert halls”.
