There are few advantages to registering as a non-profit in Russia, so we have registered KrioRus as a limited liability company. But we (the founders) don't expect profit from the enterprise. Since our goal was simply to make cryonics available, all future profits, if any, will be reinvested in KrioRus.

Siberian Mammoth was just a publicity stunt by a British PR agency. No company with such name exists and there are no people behind that name. We have learned, however, that another cryonics project is underway in Russia. Professor Igor Vishev, the leading immortalist philosopher in Russia, who has been promoting the ideas of practical human immortality since the 1970s, is involved in that project, as well as a number of professional morticians and forensic experts. We expect more information available about it in the coming months.

The easiest solution is to enlist a doctor to do that for us. We already know some medical professionals who (in principle) can get to the patient on a short notice to pronounce death.

Yes, there are about 50 hospices. We already have some contacts and want to present cryonics there. If some readers have experience with explaining cryonics to hospice workers/patients, we would be very interested to hear about that. (kriorus@mail.ru ).

Yes. Since 1990s there have been a number of pro-life organization, many of them funded from the US. But so far Russians are overwhelmingly in favor of abortion being legal. In a May 2006 survey less than a one percent spoke in favor of making abortion illegal as a way to increase birth rate (and solve the perceived demographic problem). The leading polling house in Russia doesn't have any surveys specific to abortion in its archive, although it has a 2003 survey titled "Americans about abortion"

Yes. That 250-liter dewar holds the brains of our two patients.

Currently we pay about 1 dollar or more. By the end of the year, once we decide on the best logistics option, we expect to have it cheaper.

Your chief scientist is Igor Aryukhov, A while ago THE IMMORTALIST carried a photo of him with Yuri Pichugin.. Do he and Yuri keep in contact?

He is the Executive Director and he is now doing much of the work. He overhauled the storage room, he found the LN2 suppliers, he still oversees the delivery and he did a fair share of interviews. At the moment he is the most active person at KrioRus.

Every journalist asked us "what does the Russian Orthodox Church think about cryonics?" Truth be told, we think it's the least of our problem. Only about 3-5% of people in Russia are strongly religious and despite the fact that religion's influence IS growing, it is still orders of magnitude less than in places like Brazil or the USA. From the few comments about cryonics that we saw it appears that the priests may refuse to perform religious service to a cryonics patient, unless it is known that he repented before death.

It's hard to tell yet. At the moment you are ahead of us with 150+ patients. But many people here react positive to cryonics. We would consider it a failure if we do not overtake you in 10 years.

Do you foresee, or have you had any problems with local or national authorities with offering cryonics services?

We haven't had any problems yet and we don't expect to have major problems in the future. The laws appear favorable, there is a precedent demonstrating the legality of storing a human frozen and there is no negative official reaction. The biggest issue appears to be the transportation - who knows what a random policeman would think about a frozen brain in the trunk...

Danila Medvedev, next to the source of Moscow river (near Zvenigorod city), Summer 2006.

Lack of awareness, and I don't mean just awareness in cryonics. Because of the continuing economic problems after the destruction of the planned economy and the ongoing crisis in scientific research and technological development, the idea of future progress is a hard sell. People just don't seem to realise how much is happening. Commercial media doesn't help either. If we fail to communicate the positive vision of a transhumanist future to the people, it's hard to persuade them to consider cryonics.

Thanks! 5 years at school (1991-1995), but mostly at the "My name is Danila, I have a sister and a dog" level :) , 4 years in the business school (great teachers, great teaching methods, lots of hours). Personally I attribute my good English to gaming ("Your insolence must be punished. Prepare to war!" type of thing) and (since I got online in mid-90s,) reading.

Danila added: We had a meeting on August, 6. 20+ people were present, there was a VERY POSITIVE TV news story on cryonics as a result of that (I mean extremely positive - with me speaking about deathist society, the reporter speaking about molecular robots and cellular repair). Interestingly, it was news for the Domashny ("Home") TV channel, essentially a channel for housewives. :)

York’s response: What an outstanding interview! It is so uplifting and encouraging to read of the efforts of our colleagues in Russia who are laboring under economic conditions that are, no doubt, much more stringent than those of us in the West are facing. The determination and clear thinking of their efforts to push forward the wonderful concept which Robert Ettinger first publicly introduced in the 1960's is quite evident and should serve as a basis for those of us here and elsewhere throughout the world to redouble our efforts to improve each of our organizations and to do a better effort of widening our appeal to the public.

I was particularly encouraged by the determination shown in their belief that they would consider it a failure if they did not overtake us in 10 years. It brought to mind, in a non-hostile way of course, of my growing up in the 1950's and 1960's and the "bad old days" of the Cold War and of Nikita Khrushchev's remarks as Premier of the old Soviet Union, that they would "bury" the West. Now both Mr. Khrushchev and the Soviet Union are gone and what has taken place in Russia, in cryonics at least, is obviously a group of dedicated and determined people who are interested in what all people everywhere of all nationalities are and should be interested in and that is the conquest of disease and death and the extension of the human lifespan to the fullest extent possible consistent with health and happiness. I hope that their prediction comes true in the sense that I hope we are magnificently successful over the coming decade here in the USA and if our dear friends and colleagues in Russia surpass that, well, no one will be better pleased than myself.

I say, "Go KrioRus!" (and their counterparts throughout the world as well!)

Ben’s response: I hope that Danila is correct about the high likelihood of success of cryonics in Russia. Unfortunately, cryonics has suffered greatly from excessive optimism by its proponents - especially in the early stages. I have become cynical enough not to be surprised if the same applies to Russia.

I would be delighted to be wrong and delighted if cryonics could be so successful in Russia that it surpasses cryonics in the USA within ten years. However, I would certainly not count it a failure if cryonics in Russia had half or a quarter of the American patients in ten years. A track record of stability and "staying power" counts for a great deal in cryonics, and this will be an important factor for Europeans trying to decide between cryopreservation in Russia or the USA.

The Russians better get their liquid nitrogen costs to come down -- they are paying seven times what we are paying for it at CI.