The 7th of April is “World Good Health Day” and it will be marked in Moscow, at 14.00 in the “Capitol” TV Centre, when VITA celebrates the opening of the first vegan restaurant, the Moscow franchise of the international brand “Loving Hut”.

The ceremony will consist of: a concert featuring Russian stars who are vegetarian, a “Vegan Lady” fashion show (exclusive gowns made of fruit and vegetables!), a master-class in the art of carving figures in fruit and vegetables, a performance by the studio of Indian classical dance, a show of films about animal rights, and a festival of vegan cuisine. The event will be given wide coverage in the mass-media.

Honoured guests of the celebratory show will include famous Russian vegetarians and vegans: Olga Shelest, Aleksei Martynov, Marina Devyatova, Nikolai Drozdov, Dakota, Olga Zarubina, Grigorii Gladkov, Elena Kamburova, Maria Kalinina, Svyatoslav Eshchenko, Anna Starshenbaum and others, as well as sportsmen and women who are vegetarian: Rustam Gelmanov (2009 rock-climbing champion, four-times winner of his world cup group, one of the five best rock-climbers in the world), Aleksandr Pyanik (karate, yoga) and others. In the course of the celebration VITA will also present its new books, Vegan Cuisine – 333 recipes of vegan dishes – and The Unknown Tolstoy, a collection of works by and letters from the renowned Russian writer and humanitarian Lev Tolstoy, thanks to whom vegetarianism gained unprecedented popularity in pre-revolutionary Russia.

This event will mark a new era in Russia, where the animal rights movement is accelerating by the day. However, despite the growing popularity of this ethical and health-giving way of life, Russian vegetarians have great difficulty in finding the right food and mainly have to be content with cooking for themselves. The assortment of vegetarian and vegan products is extremely limited; so various types of pate and ready-made dishes, tofu and soya products are hard to find in the shops; they are rare in Russia generally and not easy to find even in Moscow. This is largely due to the myth which has been disseminated in this country in recent years about the harmful effects of GM soya.

The first Russian vegetarian restaurant was opened in central Moscow in 2001; there are also several vegetarian cafes. The opening of the first vegan restaurant will be welcome news to Russian animal rights supporters and those seeking a healthy way of life.

For further information please telephone 007-926-229-13-84.
Or e-mail: vita-russia@yandex.ru

VITA Animal Rights Center
www.vita.org.ru
vita@vita.org.ru