PRIOZERSK—From the roof of his abandoned hotel, Alexei Vereshchagin remained certain that tourists would one day sip cocktails up there as they enjoyed the lakeside view of Priozersk—a former secret city in central Kazakhstan.
Due to a lack of investment, Vereshchagin has been renovating the hotel alone—including putting in new windows in each of the 150 rooms, one by one. This mammoth task is likely to take years.
The hotel’s former Cyrillic-lettered sign saying “Hotel Russia” has been removed and is now gathering dust on the roof alongside a rusty portrait of Vladimir Lenin.
“I want there to be a beautiful hotel in the center of the city, like in the Soviet era. So I am restoring it, little by little,” recounted Vereshchagin, a Soviet Army veteran.
Once the hotel is renovated, ordinary tourists will be able to stay near Lake Balkhash’s shores with its “magnificent views”, Vereshchagin said.
The development of a thriving tourism sector in Priozersk would mark a dramatic change of fortune for the once-closed city, long unmarked on maps because of secretive military sites. AFP
