| March 2, 12:00 AM New Film To Combine "Sex And The City," Gross Russian Guys |
Russia already has its share of Sex and the City corollaries. First there was the dubbed U.S. original (translated as "Sex in the Big City"). Then came The Balzac Age [Бальзаковский Возраст], a show about four women who dissect each other's love lives at Moscow's banyas and cafes. And now they're bending the genre with Love in the Big City [Любовь в большом городе], a film about a trio of horny Russian guys living in New York. The trailer kicks off with doppelgängers of Carrie Bradshaw and Co. strolling through Central Park as the three protagonists jog by in silly windbreakers. Cue the pervy voice-over. |
March 4, 12:00 AM Book Review: Murderers In Mausoleums |
An otherwise intriguing account of a train trip through Central Asia is marred by careless, overwrought prose. |
March 4, 12:00 AM Did Medvedev Give Khodorkovsky A Lift To His Trial? |
The meeting sounds like a screenwriter’s dream: incarcerated ex-oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, flying across Siberia to the former’s trial in Moscow — on the latter’s presidential plane. Strange as it seems, eyewitnesses who saw the plane before takeoff believe it really happened. |
March 3, 12:00 AM The Medvedevs: Best In Show, Best In General |
Russian first lady Svetlana Medvedeva has been named the most successful businesswoman in Russia, according to a poll conducted by a shadowy organization called the Institute of Politics and Business. And if that weren't eyebrow-raising enough, now we find out that the "first dogs" — two English setters named Joly and Daniel — just claimed first-place titles at the Eurasia-2009 dog show in Moscow. Meanwhile, Aldu, the Medvedevs' golden retriever, won a silver. Only silver? Aldu, you've let us all down. |
March 3, 12:00 AM “We Don’t Wanna Put In” Won’t Go Away |
When Georgia made a thinly-veiled anti-Putin disco act its official Eurovision candidate last month, we knew there was a cat fight coming. We weren't disappointed. Celebrities and ordinary Russians alike are expressing their outrage over the song "We Don't Wanna Put In," and there's surely more scratching to come. |
March 2, 12:00 AM The Great Kommunalka Extinction |
The fabled communal apartment, or kommunalka, is seeing its dying days in Moscow. Last year alone brought the liquidation of 3,000 communal apartments, with dwellers dispatched to private apartments by government initiative. By 2014, in the midst of the financial crisis, the Russian government promises to fund an additional two-stage breakup of communal apartments in the city center. For comparison, 1997 data showed 151,000 functioning kommunalkas in Moscow; this year that number is 58,000. |
February 28, 12:00 AM Death By Umbrella |
In 1978, Bulgarian dissident and playwright Georgi Markov was leaving the BBC London office where he worked and heading home. Waiting at a crowded bus stop, Markov felt a sudden sharp pain in his thigh and turned to see a large man bending down to pick up a black umbrella. The man apologized in a thick foreign accent and hopped into a taxi. Markov found a growing red pimple where he had felt the sting, and came down with a fever that night. Four days later, he was dead, the victim of one of the most diabolical assassinations in modern history — the Umbrella Incident. |
February 27, 12:00 AM 02/26/09: Russian Hentai From 1906 And Other Distractions |
The Russian blogosphere conveniently, if bafflingly, revolves around LJ. Each week, RUSSIA! scans the chatter and brings you the top five topics. |
February 27, 12:00 AM Tsereteli's Scary Saints Are Watching You |
Lamentably prolific sculptor Zurab Tsereteli has marked his territory all over Moscow, most prominently with the 315-foot statue of Peter the Great protruding from the Moscow River. There’s no hiding from the thing; it’s one of the tallest statues in the world. Less obtrusive but still double take-worthy is his 10-foot bronze monument to Alexy II, the first Russian Patriarch of the post-Soviet period (and an alleged KGB agent!). The 2003 monument drew attention on Monday as members of the Russian Academy of Arts gathered around it to mark the late father's 80th birthday. They dubbed the place their “spiritual courtyard.” We dub the chapel behind it “the crystal saltshaker.” |
February 26, 12:00 AM For Once, We Welcome Your Bulldozers |
I read an architecture story once where a preservationist was asked to comment on the demolition of an old public library in Brooklyn. “It was not a major work,” she said tactfully. Translation: it was ugly, and we have to pick our battles. It was an attitude I wish Moscow’s preservationists had adopted on Tuesday rather than taking to the streets in defense of the Central House of Artists, a museum complex that houses two major galleries. For one thing, these activists should be conserving their negligible political capital for buildings they have a chance of saving. For another, the Central House of Artists is an awful building that deserves to be torn down. |
March 2, 8:00 AM Doubting Putin's Popularity, Oligarch Returns His $600M Gift |
Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov secured the purchase of the world’s most expensive house last summer — a $600 million villa in the south of France. Now, he wants to give it back. If this sounds like another oligarch unable to pay his bills, it isn’t; apparently flush with cash, Prokhorov was planning to buy the villa as a present for Russia’s current leader. He only hesitated because he’s no longer sure who that is. |
February 26, 12:00 AM Putin Goes Newsroom Hopping |
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February 26, 12:00 AM Khodorkovsky’s "Win" Could Cost Him |
It can’t be called good news, but it’s certainly noteworthy. The Russian court has rejected the sexual harassment charge against imprisoned oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The dubious case was filed by Khodorkovsky’s former cellmate, Alexander Kuchma — the same Alexander Kuchma who slashed Khodorkovsky’s face with a knife in 2006. But another of Khodorkovsky’s ex-prisonmates, Denis Yurinsky, rushed to his defense, stating publicly that the allegations were a smear ghostwritten by the authorities. Is this small victory a sign of hope for Khodorkovsky? Not likely. |
February 25, 6:00 AM A Major Breakthrough In Our War On Trees |
We interrupt your blog to briefly note how damn proud we are that not one but two regular Russia! contributors, Daria Vaisman and Boris Kachka, have landed major book deals... within days of each other. Let’s dive under the jump and meet them properly. |
February 25, 12:00 AM We’re On To You, Deep Purple |
Did we call it, or did we call it? Last week, we told you that the Federal Migration Service had plans to make all visiting Western pop stars acquire work visas to do gigs in Russia. In the same breath, we chided Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice for claiming the new law wasn't such a big deal. To which we said, speak for yourself, Deep Purple. Not every over-the-hill classic rock act is lucky enough to be buddy-buddy with the Russian president. Well, guess who’s playing two shows in Moscow this April? That’s right. Get your lighter ready, Mr. Medvedev. |
