Monthly Archives: November 2009
Follow the money
Vladimir Putin is from St. Petersburg. Most of Putin’s best freinds — the so-called “siloviki” — are from St. Petersburg. And so it makes sense, right?, that he loves the city so much that he would want to expand its … Continue reading
I'm back; here's why I was away
Hello, dear readers. I am back! Apologies for not posting recently. I’ve been snowed under with several longer-form stories, two of which are out. First, an analysis of President Dmitry Medvedev’s state of the union-type of address last Thursday to … Continue reading
Medvedev: It's just a matter of time zones
I am watching President Dmitry Medvedev’s state of the country address in an accoustically unfriendly marble hall and was amazed to hear the following proposal: reduce the number of time zones in Russia. Russians, he said, are proud of the … Continue reading
James Bond, Arrested in Moscow
Not really, but a Halloween snafu results in some good old Cold War hilarity. via RUSSIA!
Happy Day of National Somethingorother!
Today is the fourth annual Day of National Unity, which marks the 397th anniversary of the great Prince Pozharsky expelling the Polish-Lithuanian invaders in 1612, an event that marked the end of the Time of Troubles. Anecdotally, however, most Russians … Continue reading
Russian press <3 blood-n-guts
Last night, at 5:00pm, a car with no plates strafed the life-force out of Shabtai von Kalmanovic, a former KGB spy turned shady (basketball) businessman. Whatever the man’s associations, the more interesting aspect of the story to me is the … Continue reading
Back to the USSR-Imperial Russia Amalgamate
I once promised myself I would never use a clichéd headline such as the one I just used, but, people, the day has come when there’s finally reason to. Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, has announced that it’s … Continue reading
A last-minute costume purchase for $300,000
On Saturday, Moscow saw its first snowfall of the year. It also saw the season’s first major fur-coat heist in the northeastern part of the city when, at around 8:00pm local time, three men broke into a parked van holding … Continue reading
