The conversation was about Venice: its population, the organisation of city life, its history, and the interlocutor's personal relationship with the city. Belkovsky said he began visiting Venice in 2000, and has lived and worked there intensively since 2005, residing on the island of Lido.
The city and its inhabitants
According to Belkovsky, Venice is "mentally and atmospherically" not quite Italy and in spirit is closer to the north, to Austria. He cited figures on the decline of the local population: after the Second World War there were 175,000, 25 years ago 60,000, now 48,000. He attributes the decline to a small labour market and to the fact that the municipality includes the mainland Mestre and Marghera, where the population is larger than in the historic centre.
Belkovsky said that in Venice urban planning decisions take a very long time, and he considers this a blessing, since the city is maintained in the form that has evolved over centuries. Attitudes towards Russians here, he said, have always been positive and "in connection with the big war nothing has particularly changed".
A refuge city
Belkovsky explained his attachment to Venice by the fact that it is a "classic refuge city": according to the official version of history, the city was born as a place of salvation. He said that as he became disillusioned with the pull towards Russian imperial models, he defined Venice for himself as a refuge "from the unsettled nature of his relationship with his own country".
There is no imperial legacy in the city, in his estimation: Venice was always a republic, and attempts to usurp power here were punished harshly.
Carnival and death
About the carnival, Belkovsky said that he had taken part in it and that it is a vivid spectacle that "is enough to do once in a lifetime". According to him, the carnival historically developed as a "format of escape from reality" preceding Lent.
Responding to his interlocutor's remark about the sense of death's presence in Venice, Belkovsky spoke of the city as a place where this theme has been resolved. The title of the conversation is "Death is simply a participant in the carnival".
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