“… Comigration [is] … a small collective of comedians … [who] have left Russia since Putin’s [2022] invasion of Ukraine … and now ply their trade in Georgia. The contrast in their material is striking [compared with comedians still back in Russia]. According to one …, Ilya Ovechkin, any reference to Putin in a joke boosts laughs by 70%. In […]
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(Voice of America – voanews.com – Jamie Dettmer – Nov. 29, 2019) Everyone overlooks them as they scurry about in their luminescent orange uniforms at all hours of the day and night, armed only with small brushes and the the type of long-handled lobby dustpans a concierge might use in New York or London to tidy up an entrance. Moscow’s […]
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“Told that rap and hip-hop have grown wildly popular among Russian youth, and that … lyrics are rebellious, mention drugs and include many swear words … Putin mused about banning the music outright … then suggested … he might try to control it. ‘If it is impossible to stop, then we need to lead, and in an appropriate way, direct’ […]
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“Before he was president of Russia, Vladimir Putin was an intelligence officer in Dresden, East Germany. His job there was to recruit ‘illegals,’ USSR spies who would embed in everyday life and report back to the KGB. If you’ve ever watched the FX show The Americans, then you’re familiar with how this all worked: The focal characters of that show […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – March 16, 2018) Vitaly Shkliarov was tired. But with just two days to go until Russia’s presidential election, Ksenia Sobchak’s campaign strategist could see the finish line – and sleep – in sight. Sobchak, however, was only getting started. On Thursday afternoon, the clock was counting down until the former reality television star was due […]
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(Article ©2017 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – Tom Balmforth – MOSCOW, October 17, 2017 – also appeared at rferl.org/a/russia-director-vows-to-quit-cinema-after-tv-spy-thriller/28800376.html) Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agents battle fifth columnists and CIA “sleeper” cells bent on sowing chaos and torpedoing a gas deal with China. Americans seeking a “colored revolution” try to frame Russia for the assassination of an […]
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While Russian officials lost no time in lashing out over Ukraine’s Eurovision victory with a song about the Stalinist deportations of the Crimean Tatars, the results of the public vote suggest that Russia-Ukrainian enmity doesn’t extend to the general public. But the overtly political nature of the winning song may mark a watershed for the competition. (Russia Beyond the Headlines […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Nick Allen in Warsaw – September 18, 2015) If you can right hook or roundhouse with the best of them, or rattle off 100 uses for a giant nose, then the door to Russia and the Kremlin may be wide open to you. What is it with international martial arts, boxing and wrestling stars […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 3, 2015) Here at The Moscow Times culture desk, we like to think of ourselves as highbrows. We like opera. We spend our evenings reading the “Great Authors.” We think we understand the “Black Square.” But even we like to kick back on a hot summer weekend with a can of beer and a […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Lena Smirnova – November 11, 2013) Miss Venezuela, Maria Gabriela Isler, swept aside 85 contestants to give her country its seventh Miss Universe crown during the competition final in Moscow’s Crocus City Hall on Saturday night. Although Russia’s beauty queen failed to make it into the top 16, the event left Russian organizers and celebrities […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Lena Smirnova – November 7, 2013) Miss Universe pageant’s arrival in Moscow, the first time the contest has been hosted here in its 62-year history, brought out all the glitter and sequins that the 87 contestants could pack in their suitcases. Matching the contest’s galactic theme, the local organizers said that they plan to “impress […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 25, 2013) Tennis star Maria Sharapova has regained first place on a list of the most popular and richest Russian celebrities published by the Russian edition of Forbes magazine Thursday. The Forbes rating of Russia’s top 50 celebrities is compliled according to a combination of factors including annual income, print media coverage and hits […]
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(RIA Novosti – WASHINGTON, June 26, 2013) NBC has debuted the first episode of its horror-reality TV show “Siberia” online, TV.com reports. The series, a faux-reality show which is in fact a scripted horror series, features a group of Americans arriving in Russia to shoot a “Survivor”-type program, in which they must survive the harsh Russian winter. Little do the […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, June 10, 2013) A total of 87 percent of Russian Internet users are playing computer games monthly, most of them are women and the average age of a gamer is 34 years, a survey conducted by Mail.Ru Group said. According to the survey, computers remain the most popular device to play games with 87 percent of […]
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Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 28, 2012 Federal investigators will return the almost $2 million in cash they seized from the apartment of it-girl-turned-political activist Ksenia Sobchak in June, the Investigative Committee said late Thursday. “Checks conducted by investigators revealed no tax evasion by Sobchak,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement posted on its website. The money will […]
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