New Russia: dinner and a cockfight

When the restaurant floor show consists of two farm-yard animals fighting, one might expect diners to examine more closely the food on their plates.

But the Monday evening cock-fights at the chic Beloye Solntse Pustyni (White Sun of the Desert), a venue favored by Russian leaders such as Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, have found a receptive audience, judging by the enthusiastic backing given to the winged combatants in last week's event.

Cockfighting is banned and bitterly opposed by animal rights groups in many Western countries, but Moscow's leading Uzbek restaurant has been able to exploit gaps in Russian legislation to stage regular bouts as a means of boosting trade on slow days.

The fights take place in a small ring bordered by a transparent plastic fence in the restaurant's garden.

In view of the sedate surroundings, management has ruled out the blades and gaffs used in the vicious and usually bloody contests staged illegally in many countries, and the cockerels have to rely on their beaks and legs to wear down their opponents.

Handlers intervene when either bird shows signs of suffering such as might ruin a diner's appetite.

In the latest event, four birds given Asian names were pitted against each other in semifinal pairings followed by a final.

Bout one was over in five minutes. Khattab, a 3.9 kilogram golden rooster with eight previous victories to his credit, rapidly had Abdulla (4.2 kilos, seven victories) in trouble with a series of sharp pecks to the neck, and the handlers moved in.

One of the fight organizers provided a blow-by-blow commentary, sounding for all the world as if he were calling Muhammad Ali and George Foreman's classic "rumble in the jungle."

Bout two, Said versus Khalif, was a non-starter. The two roosters refused to get to grips, studiously ignoring each other, and after some desultory strutting were withdrawn.

Khalif was selected to take on Khattab in the final on the grounds of a better - that is to say, more combative - attitude.

The third bout went the full distance. After 25 minutes of kicking, pecking and flying feathers, with both birds visibly tiring and spots of blood beginning to glisten on Khalif's neck, the fight was halted and Khattab declared the winner.

Restaurant manager Alexei Sobolev said the cockfights, introduced in June, had proved a "successful experiment" and would probably be extended.

"There is no betting at present, but that is something we are thinking about," he said.

Another possible refinement, he said, would be to adopt a suggestion made by one of the restaurant's diners and allow clients to bring their own fighting birds.

Contest organizer Alexander Babkin said the birds were born, raised and trained in Central Asia and flown to Moscow after about a year.

The training and feeding regime was rigorous, and only the best birds, representing about one in 20 of those raised, were chosen, he said.

Babkin said he had received no complaints about the fights, but Yulya Shvedova of the Moscow Animal Defense Group said she would certainly have protested had she heard about them earlier.

"Not that it would do any good, as it's money that decides everything," she said.

Shvedova said cock fighting was illegal, despite Sobolev's statement that he had received the go-ahead from the Moscow authorities.

Operating in a shadowy semi-legality, a Russian national cock-fighting league organizes tournaments over the winter, culminating in April with a national championship staged furtively behind an exhibition hall at the Vdnkh Park in northern Moscow.

These contests are altogether bloodier affairs, often fought to the death and lasting up to two hours as punters stake large sums of money on the outcome.

The National League of Fighting Birds has 750 members and observes "humane" standards compared with its counterpart in Latin America and elsewhere, organizer Yuri Grishakov told the weekly Bolshoi Gorod.

The claims, as much else in the world of Russian cockfighting, were impossible to verify.