Articles
The NationalAbkhazia: From Georgia’s Pan Into Russia’s Fire
Aug 26, 2010Russia’s military presence is in plain view here in Abkhazia. Russian navy ships patrol the turquoise waters just a few kilometres off the coast, while Russian army convoys rumble down two-lane highways, weaving deftly between potholes, livestock and oncoming traffic.
TimeWhy Did Moscow Admit the Spy Suspects Are Russian?
Jul 01, 2010When U.S. authorities arrested 10 people accused of spying for Russia, Moscow quickly denied any knowledge of them. But now Russia is claiming the suspects as its own — something it has almost never done in the history of Moscow's spy games.
TimeIs the Russian Army Bullying Its Soldiers to Death?
Jun 22, 2010The death of a young Russian soldier — and the army's insistence that it was a suicide — sparks a wave of national soul-searching over the tradition of brutal hazing in Russia's military.
The Nation
Road Rage Russian-Style
Jun 21, 2010Russian drivers are infuriated by the ruling elite's brazen and reckless domination of the roads. Now they're fighting back.
Foreign PolicyThe Russian Game
May 18, 2010Former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov, whose battles with Garry Kasparov in the 1980s defined the game of kings for an era, is at the epicenter of an escalating political imbroglio spreading through the already fractious world of international chess.
TimeWhy the Bombings Weren't Breaking News in Russia
Mar 31, 2010News of Russia's worst terrorist attack in five years led news broadcasts around the world almost immediately. But in Russia, the country's three main television networks aired shows about cooking and makeovers.
TimeRussia's Erin Brockovich: Taking On Corporate Greed
Mar 09, 2010Alexei Navalny is a unique type of opposition figure in Russia. He believes the most effective way to challenge the ruling class is not through elections, but by acquiring stock.
High TimesChu Know It!
Jan 01, 2010For pot smokers in the Russian-speaking world, there’s no more hallowed ground than the rolling, arid plains of the Chu Valley, a sprawling steppe in Kazakhstan where cannabis grows wild across more than 500 square miles.
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TimeThe Danger of Doing Business in Russia
Dec 19, 2009Russia's business climate is being compromised by reiderstvo , or "raiding," a term that describes the illegal tactics used by criminals to seize businesses and land their owners in jail — or worse.
TimeRussia's Latest YouTube Craze: Exposing Police Corruption
Nov 20, 2009Russia has pledged to clean up its police forces — again — after whistleblowers posted videos online complaining of corruption, low pay and poor working conditions.
Sports IllustratedThe Mysterious Murder of a Russian Hoops Magnate
Nov 06, 2009Of all the strange, colorful and often dangerous characters that traversed Russia's turbulent transition to a market economy, few had a more extraordinary biography than Shabtai von Kalmanovic.
The NationalRussian mob boss laid to rest
Oct 14, 2009It took about five minutes for the brawny thirty-something to sniff out the stranger standing against a back wall in the chapel lined with religious icons.
The NationalIn Russia, an ironclad business
Oct 08, 2009Yury Yavorsky was making the rounds at his factory this summer when he learnt that the president of Russia’s restive republic of Ingushetia was hit by a suicide bomber.
The NationalThe Who's Who of Moscow Mobsters
Aug 04, 2009One Russian website has taken up the task of trying to explain the Byzantine relationships and conflicts permeating the notorious Russian criminal caste known as the "Vory v Zakone."
The NationalChechen blood spilled in Dubai
Apr 04, 2009When a lone gunman entered the car park of Dubai apartment block and shot former Chechen warlord Sulim Yamadayev in the back of the head,it appeared the UAE had become the outpost for a blood feud whose origins lay thousands of miles away in the Northern Caucasus mountains.
The NationalRed tape robs Russian of citizenship
Sep 04, 2008Tatyana Tetyorkina found herself locked in a Kafkaesque bureaucratic ordeal stemming from the peculiar Russian letter “ë”.
The Moscow TimesSerial Killer's Victim Tells of Her Escape
Oct 25, 2007On a gray, snowy February morning, a woman walking in Bittsevsky Park heard a faint cry coming from a concrete well rising about 40 centimeters above the ground.
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The Moscow TimesTragedy Spotlights Reckless Driving
Jan 15, 2007Saturday would have been the first day off from school for 8-year-old Nastya Pak and her 5-year-old brother, Pyotr, since classes resumed after the extended New Year's holiday.
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The Moscow TimesDrunk Tanks Face Money Woes and Bad PR
Dec 14, 2006Russia's network of Soviet-era "vytrezviteli," or sobering-up stations, is facing an uncertain future, plagued with financial woes, legal questions and a public image tainted by times past.
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The Moscow TimesGood Cops, Bad Cops
Dec 01, 2006Russia is getting its own version of the hit U.S. show "Law and Order."
The Moscow TimesBugs the Least of Porn Producers' Problems
Jul 04, 2006Because of a vague pornography law that both moral crusaders and porn peddlers alike deride, Russia's hard-core film producers operate in a strange legal purgatory.
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The Moscow Times$100/Day Vacation in Boot Camp
Jun 28, 2005With hazing and frequent noncombat deaths, serving in the army is no vacation. But one enterprising veteran is banking on a thirst among Russians and foreigners alike to experience the life of a young recruit -- and he is willing to include hazing at no extra cost.
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The Moscow TimesNizhnekamsk's Notorious German
Apr 12, 2005A former German professional hockey player has become a provincial Russia city's most notorious celebrity, being at the center of one of the most bizarre criminal cases ever to hit the local police blotters.
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Battlefield View of the War on Drugs
Mar 05, 2005On the ground with a foot soldier in Russia's war on drugs, an undertaking that has received the vocal backing of President Vladimir Putin but which critics claim has accomplished little more than throwing minor drug offenders into the notoriously overcrowded prison system.
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The Moscow TimesUnearthing the Remains of War in Tver
Aug 19, 2004Outside Tver, local military enthusiasts known as red diggers scour World War II battlefields in search of the remains of fallen Soviet soldiers and pick up Soviet and Nazi weapons along the way.
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The Moscow TimesContract Murders Are on the Rise
Aug 04, 2004Contrary to popular perceptions, little has changed since the Wild West years of Russian capitalism in the early and mid-1990s where contract murders are concerned.
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The Moscow TimesA St. Pete Goblin Doesn't Mix Words
Jul 23, 2003While sex and violence are accepted components of Russian movies, profanity is still a major taboo. But Dmitry "Goblin" Puchkov's unique obscenity-laden translations of English-language movies have made him one of the hottest commodities on Russia's gigantic pirate movie market.
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