King of Saudi Arabia Ritz Carlton. The delegation of the King of Saudi Arabia gave cash to Moscow hotels. Kings can do anything
MOSCOW, October 3 – RIA Novosti. During the visit of the King of Saudi Arabia to Moscow, his entourage will occupy all the available rooms of five-star hotels around the Kremlin and Red Square, including one of the hotels completely, hotel representatives told RIA Novosti.
According to a source close to the organizers of the visit, in many rooms the furnishings will be changed to something more familiar to guests, in an oriental style. Moreover, for several high-ranking members of the delegation, their favorite carpets will be brought specially from Saudi Arabia.
There are already no vacancies in five-star hotels in the area of Manezhnaya Square, Lubyanka and Kuznetsky Most. The RIA correspondent visited several hotels, including Four Seasons, St. Regis, "National" - those where the delegation from Saudi Arabia will stay. "The most early booking available from October 6,” RIA Novosti was told at the reception of one of the hotels.
In total, the Saudi delegation will number about a thousand people, a source told RIA Novosti. Most of The delegation will be accommodated in hotels in close proximity to the Kremlin.
One of these hotels, with about 200 rooms, will be fully occupied.
It is already impossible to rent a hotel room for any money on the dates of the king’s visit. The reservation department of RIA Novosti explained that the situation of a complete lack of rooms rarely occurs, and it is associated with the “arrival of large groups.” Now all rooms are sold out until October 8, the reservation department offered to check in for later dates.
Price double room the hotel starts from 41 thousand rubles per night. A room with a view of Manezhnaya Square costs 59 thousand, with a view of the Kremlin and Alexander Garden - 137 thousand. The most expensive and spacious rooms (about 500 square meters in area) cost about a million rubles per day (the price depends on the season and the occupancy of the hotel). They are considered the most expensive hotel rooms in Russia.
“The hotel has been completely rented by the king’s entourage,” one of the hotel representatives told RIA Novosti. The hotel management had to cancel several events for these days - private banquets and weddings were planned at the hotel. In addition, pork dishes were excluded from the hotel menu.
Now there is increased security at the entrance to the hotel and around it; people are allowed into the hotel only upon presentation of a guest card.
In addition, a source close to the organizers of the visit said that in some rooms the stop will be changed from European to Oriental, and the Saudi delegation is also bringing its own carpets and furniture.
Michal Szmetz, general manager of one of the hotels in the Asian region, told RIA Novosti that replacing furniture in rooms or even plumbing fixtures is a common practice for wealthy guests, especially from the Middle East. “Carpets and low trestle beds are more comfortable for them. If necessary, we change the furniture at our own expense. The old furniture is sent to the warehouse, and in its place we install new furniture in the oriental style. After the departure of distinguished guests, of course, no one throws out the “oriental” furniture - it is also sent to the warehouse until new guests arrive,” said Shmets.
Also in Moscow, posters appeared with greetings from the “Russian-Saudi Investment Fund” addressed to “the custodian of the two Islamic shrines, His Majesty King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud.” The poster is made in Russian and Arabic and is decorated with a portrait of the king.
Earlier, Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov said that the visit of the King of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, to Moscow will take place on October 5. A RIA Novosti source reported that the king will visit Moscow on October 4-7. According to him, a meeting between Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Russian President Vladimir Putin is planned, and a package of documents is being prepared for signing.
Before the meeting between the President of the Russian Federation and the King of Saudi Arabia, a Russian-Saudi investment forum will be held on October 5, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Kirill Dmitriev, told reporters. In addition, the week of Saudi culture is taking place in Moscow all week.
According to press reports, on the eve of the king's visit to Indonesia in March this year, 459 tons of various equipment were delivered to Jakarta from Saudi Arabia, including two Mercedes S600s and two electric elevators. Saudi delegation numbered 800 people, including 10 ministers and 25 princes. 27 flights were made to deliver people and goods to Jakarta.
On Thursday, October 5, the King of Saudi Arabia was received in the Kremlin. The arrival of Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is significant not only because it is the first visit of the monarch, but also because the negotiations with the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques (al-Haram Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina) were supposed to dot the i’s in issues related to the oil market and military-technical cooperation. Among the Kremlin gilding, the Saudis, accustomed to luxury, were deciding the fate of a package of arms contracts worth over three billion dollars. And the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, who was celebrating his birthday, photographed with interest the place for the throne in St. Andrew's Hall.
Kings can do anything
Muscovites could learn about the king's upcoming visit not only from the news. At the beginning of October, the Russian-Suad Investment Fund placed posters on the highway from Vnukovo airport with greetings to “The Custodian of the Two Islamic Shrines, His Majesty the King of Saudi Arabia.” The delegation, numbering almost a thousand people, rented all the luxury rooms in the most expensive hotels in the Russian capital. In an effort to please guests accustomed to oriental luxury, the furniture in the rooms was changed, carpets were laid and low trestle beds were placed. The king himself stayed at the Four Seasons. The hotel chain is partly owned by his nephew, Prince Alwaleed.
There are legends about how the king and his retinue travel. The amount of luggage carried is especially impressive - hundreds of tons are counted. Airplanes transport equipment, cars, elevators and even an escalator, the length of which when folded is 15 meters. That's where the trouble started with him. The technical specialists who arrived as part of the delegation independently collected this royal know-how. But something went wrong on Russian soil. The 81-year-old monarch stepped onto the escalator, traveled a third of the way, and the ramp jammed. The elderly king, leaning on a stick, barely climbed several steps on his own.
There were no glitches in the Kremlin. Since a state visit - the highest level possible - involves a magnificent welcoming ceremony, taking into account the age of the monarch, it was nevertheless reduced. According to tradition, the delegations of the two countries lined up along St. Andrew's Hall. In this ceremonial room of the Grand Kremlin Palace, restored in the 90s, a place for the throne is also designated. More precisely, a throne with replicas of the royal chairs. It was in this direction that Vladimir Putin led his guest, circling the arches of the hall with his hands and telling something with the help of translators.
When the king and president left the hall, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, approached the throne. He stood out against the general background with his paramilitary attire - a dark green service jacket. Left alone for a few moments, Kadyrov took out his phone and photographed the place for the throne. And then he posed for his Instagram with the leaders of Ingushetia and Tatarstan. All three represented the Muslim part of the Russian Federation.
Arab journalists, meanwhile, warned their Russian colleagues against a mistake: the name of their king should have been pronounced in full and only in full. “In short, no way! Only Salman bin Abdulaziz!” - One of the guests spoke in excellent Russian, raising his voice with respect.
We waited ten years
Relations between Moscow and Riyadh have not always been smooth sailing. The first official visit of Saudi Arabian representatives to Moscow after the collapse of the USSR took place in 2003. For the current king, who took the throne in 2015, this is the first visit in a new capacity, but he has already been to Moscow in 2006, as the ruler of Riyadh.
But Vladimir Putin visited this Arab country only once - ten years ago, but remembers that trip with warmth. He was greeted royally, with a cannon salute and a cavalry escort. The monarch put the entire palace at the guest's disposal and generously invited him to change the schedule of the visit at his discretion. The road in front of Putin was strewn with rose petals, and the dancers spectacularly presented a dagger (one can imagine what the president’s personal security went through at that moment). The outfits of Russian journalists added color - they had to wear hijabs.
Just a few years before that visit, Russia accused Saudi Arabia of financially supporting Chechen terrorists. Riyadh expressed dissatisfaction with Moscow's attitude towards its country's Muslims. But in the name of the joint fight against terrorism, the parties entered into a dialogue. Then Putin left the kingdom with the kingdom's highest award - the Order of Abdul Aziz. Finally, he invited the then King Abdullah, the half-brother of the current ruler, to make a return visit to Moscow. The visit had to wait ten years - Riyadh preferred to look towards Washington.
Kalashnikov and wheat
Before Salman Bin Abdel Aziz's visit, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that the leaders' meeting would be "a turning point in relations and will take cooperation to a new level, ensuring a fruitful contribution to stability in the Middle East and North Africa" Sources working in this area told the Kommersant newspaper that Moscow really has high expectations, especially in terms of military-technical cooperation.
According to the publication’s interlocutors, the Russian side has prepared a package of arms contracts worth over three billion dollars, including for the supply of several divisions of S-400 Triumph anti-aircraft missile systems. For ten years, Moscow has been trying to enter the Riyadh arms market, but it has never reached contracts.
As a result, only an agreement was signed through Rosoboronexport to organize licensed production of AK-103 assault rifles and cartridges for various purposes in the kingdom. Of the 14 documents certified by the delegations, one can highlight an agreement on research and cooperation in outer space and a program in the field of atomic energy use. Moreover, the Ministry of Agriculture agreed on the supply of Russian wheat to Saudi Arabia, although the export of Russian barley already accounts for almost half of the bilateral trade turnover worth more than $200 million.
Salman bin Abdul Al Saud positively assessed Russia's efforts to resolve the situation in Syria. And he did not fail to prick Iran. “We emphasize that the security and stability of the Gulf region and the Middle East will require Iran to renounce interference in the internal affairs of states and renounce activities to destabilize the situation in this region,” the king said slowly, checking the papers covered in large print. Adjusting his gold-rimmed glasses, he noted that relations between Moscow and Riyadh, in his assessment, are “characterized by a coincidence of views on many regional and international problems.”
“It was a friendly, detailed conversation, based on the mutual desire of Moscow and Riyadh to consistently increase mutually beneficial cooperation in all areas,” Lavrov said following the negotiations. His colleague Adel ibn Ahmed al-Jubeir used stronger language. In his opinion, “relations between the two countries are reaching new horizons that we could not even imagine before.”
Finally, King Salman bin Abdulaziz invited Vladimir Putin to visit. The Russian president accepted the invitation and promised to visit Saudi Arabia again. But he did not specify a time frame.
For the King of Saudi Arabia.
During the visit, the delegation of the King of Saudi Arabia will live next to Red Square. Today, rent a room at the National, Four Seasons or St. Regis will not work: in one of the hotels, journalists were told about full occupancy, which, according to employees, happens extremely rarely. Reservations will open again after October 8th.
Some hotels had to cancel planned weddings and banquets; The main task now is to strengthen security: you can enter the building only after presenting your guest card.
Sergei Kolesnikov, vice-president of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers, told Kommersant FM that this is normal practice:
“These events do not take place spontaneously, regardless of who comes: Saudi Arabia, the United States, the President of the Russian Federation or high-ranking officials. A representative of the special services selects not just a hotel, but specific rooms, this happens within a week or two. After the advance group, the day before arrival, special security measures are carried out: the room is checked again so that there are no misunderstandings.”
The organizers of the visit paid special attention to the convenience of the guests. The king of Saudi Arabia is known for his whimsical nature: on his March trip to Indonesia, he took about 500 tons of luggage, two Mercedes-Benz S600 cars and even two electric elevators; Apparently, the Saudis did not come to Moscow lightly. Especially for the delegation, hotels change the furnishings of the rooms: the usual European furniture is sent to the warehouse, and in return they lay out carpets brought from Riyadh; In addition, pork dishes will be excluded from hotel menus.
This is not all that hotels can do for the sake of clients, noted Kirill Ryabkov, marketing director of the Quintessentially Russia concierge club:
“I worked at the Hyatt hotel where Madonna was staying and we did separate room, where she did yoga. The room had to be connected to her presidential suite, this was a requirement. One Australian pop star demanded that there be a certain scent of lilies where she walked."
There are a thousand people in Salman Al Saud's delegation, and they were apparently lucky with their accommodation. Although it happened that wealthy guests bought the best rooms from the guests - the owner of the Helvetia Hotel in St. Petersburg, Yunis Teymurkhanly, told Kommersant FM about this case:
“The delegation, it seems, from the Emirates, was satisfied only with the presidential number: it was sold to someone from Russian oligarchs, and representatives Arab sheikh contacted the Russian with a request to give up this number. He categorically refused, bidding began, and in the end, when it had already reached astronomical figures, the oligarch’s wife could not stand it, saying: “You don’t want it, but I want it, I’ll buy it in France for the difference.”
Prices for the best 500 square meter Four Seasons rooms. m. start from 1 million rubles. per day., but for the delegation this is not a problem: especially, according to some sources, Saudi Prince Al-Walid, the king’s nephew, owns a share of this hotel chain.
Kommersant FM’s interlocutors say that the special conditions in which the king of Saudi Arabia will live cannot be called a whim: this, according to hotel business experts, is a guarantee of their complete safety.
Trouble started upon arrival. The King of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who arrived in Moscow on a state visit, discovered a breakdown of his escalator when getting off the plane at the capital's Vnukovo airport.
The golden escalator recently accompanies the Saudi monarch during his official visits. Thus, on March 1, 2017, Indonesian observers paid special attention to this detail. They noted 1,000 accompanying persons in the king's retinue, and estimated the weight of his luggage at 500 tons. Two weeks later, reporting a luxury trip Saudi king to Japan, the RT television channel noted that the monarch’s visit is served by two golden escalators, 10 airplanes, and 500 limousines. At that time, 1,200 luxury hotel rooms were prepared to accommodate the royal retinue in Japan.
Meeting the Custodian of the Two Islamic Holy Places, as the kings of Saudi Arabia are often called, is, on the one hand, easy, but on the other, difficult. It’s easy because they always bring everything they need with them, including servants, but it’s difficult because Saudi monarchs are not only one of the richest people on the planet, but also the most demanding. Moreover, not so much because of his exclusivity and wealth, but because of his advanced age (Salman is 81 years old) and poor health.
The first visit of the Saudi monarch to Russia was no exception to this, which has already become the rule. According to tradition, we can say that Salman ibn Abdul-Aziz al Saud brought with him a retinue of one and a half thousand people and everything necessary for a four-day visit, from carpets and furniture to servants who know the habits and tastes of their master and replace individual hotel employees. Salman settled a couple of hundred meters from the Kremlin, at the Four Seasons Hotel Hotel Moscow, better known to Muscovites as the Moscow Hotel (demolished and rebuilt in the last decade).
The hotel was closed for four days to other visitors, including even those who live there permanently. The Saudis also rented all 334 rooms at the nearby Ritz-Carlton for 14 million rubles per day, and booked rooms at the nearby National and at the Marriott.
Fans of statistics have calculated that living in Moscow alone will cost Riyadh at least 250 million rubles. For the Saudi monarch this is quite a bit. At least because it summer rest in Moroccan Tangier this year cost his subjects $100 million.
In addition to furniture and carpets, King Salman also brought to Moscow a special gold-plated escalator, with which he travels around the world. The same one in which some kind of malfunction occurred on Wednesday at Vnukovo 2 airport. The escalator stopped halfway, so the monarch had to go down, as they say, under his own power. Naturally, Salman moves around Moscow in his own cars. From the fleet of vehicles that arrived in the Russian capital from Saudi Arabia, you can recognize all the brands of the most expensive and luxurious limousines.
The king and his retinue eat exclusively Saudi products. Every day, a special plane brings 800 kilograms of food and drinks from Riyadh.
It is difficult to name the exact number of Saudi planes that arrived in Moscow on October 4. Obviously there are many of them. It is known, for example, that in March King Salman flew on an official visit to Japan on 10 airliners, which brought almost five thousand tons of luggage.
In a relationship foreign trips Salman is no different from his predecessors. King Fahd (1982-2005), for example, loved to vacation in Marbella, Spain. The number of his retinue sometimes reached two or three thousand people. In 2002 he flew to seaside resort on 7 planes: five carried the royal retinue of four hundred people, and the other two transported exclusively food, armored limousines and luggage. On average, King Fahd left for summer season in Marbella about 100 million dollars. However, in 2002 he set a record and left the Spaniards with almost a third of a billion.
This time, the Saudis will not have time to fork out such a sum in Moscow, but it is already clear that the Russian side made decent money on the king’s visit, even regardless of the business contracts that are discussed during the visit.
WITH oriental luxury The King of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, is stationed in Moscow. MIR 24 correspondent Vladimir Seroukhov visited a fashionable hotel, which was completely purchased by the monarch.
The King of Saudi Arabia at night at the Ritz Carlton Hotel on Tverskaya Street with his large delegation - more than a thousand people. This is the monarch's first visit to Russia, and the luxury with which it is carried out is simply amazing. The delegation will travel around the city in cars of the most prestigious brands - top-end Mercedes, BMW, Jaguars and other luxury cars. The cost of each ranges from 6 to 10 million rubles - one might say, an apartment on wheels. There was even a story that the number of cars in the escort was equal to the number of letters in the king’s name, and it was quite complex - Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud.
The dear guest himself stayed in one of the most prestigious hotels in the capital, the Ritz Carlton, and simply bought up all 334 rooms. The most luxurious of them costs 112 thousand rubles per day. The monarch will most likely feel cramped in one, even a luxury, room. He probably bought the whole floor for himself. By the way, the interiors of the Ritz were remodeled in the Arabic style; many brought their own carpets and furniture with them. The entire hotel per day will cost the king 14 million rubles per day, for 4 days (the length of his visit) - about 60.
However, the Ritz alone, of course, is not enough, so for the duration of the visit, all hotels in the center of Moscow are booked for accompanying persons - the Four Season, the National, and the Marriott.
It is estimated that hosting the retinue will cost an additional 160 million rubles. We add the price of the Ritz and we get that the delegation’s accommodation alone comes out to a quarter of a billion rubles.
Although this amount looks small compared to the multi-billion dollar contracts and investments that will be discussed in the Kremlin, which, by the way, the sheikhs, princes and ministers who will live near Red Square all these days have a wonderful view of.
It is believed that the king of Saudi Arabia descends from the Prophet Muhammad himself. The monarch arrived in Moscow wearing a keffiyeh - a cotton or silk scarf with a colored pattern, traditional for Eastern men.
King Salman's clothing is always the national loose shirt, ankle-length. It's called "tobe". And a long cloak - mishlakh, without which the king never goes out. The king's cloak is most often gold in color, but can be green or brown.
Interestingly, all Saudi Arabian officials are required to wear national dress during visits abroad. This was done in order to emphasize the national identity and introduce the world to the traditions of the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia occupies about 80 percent of the Arabian Peninsula. Due to the fact that its borders are not clearly defined, the exact area of the country is not known. According to various sources, it can range from 1,960,582 km² to 2,240,000 km². Which puts it 13th in size in the world.
Saudi Arabia is often called the land of the “two holy holy places.” There are two main cities for Muslims - Medina. By the way, Saudi Arabia is one of three modern states named after their rulers. In this case we mean the Saudi dynasty.
The Kingdom is a world leader in oil sales and production. Thus, only the largest field in the country, Gavar, can accommodate almost 5 million Olympic swimming pools. The country's oil reserves amount to 260 billion barrels.
It is profitable to take in Saudi Arabia. Banks issue them at only 2% per annum. Since the Koran prohibits usury, the specified percentage goes only to cover the operating expenses of the bank.
In Saudi Arabia, everything that is directly or indirectly related to witchcraft and magic is prohibited. This is considered a serious crime and can be punishable by death. The government takes the magical threat so seriously that it has even banned the Harry Potter books.
Widespread in Saudi Arabia. In 2015, the authorities held them every other day. In most cases, execution is carried out by cutting off the head with a scimitar. Diera Square in the center of Riyadh – famous place public beheadings, known locally as “chop-chop square.”