This article was first published on November 21, 2007 in The eXile. It was just after 1 a.m. on Monday morning when I pulled my rental car up to my apartment building. I’d just spent the last 48 hours working as…

To: President Vladimir Putin From: The Moscow Foreign Press Corps We, the Moscow Foreign Press Corps, wish to directly address you, the esteemed Russian President, concerning an affront you committed against our profession, and against our careers. Last week, you…

Just when we thought we could forget about Guardian Moscow correspondent Luke Harding’s hackburgling habit, along comes the following juxtaposition from a reader in London. Is Harding unaware that his stuff sounds like everyone else’s, or does he just not care?…

They get in your mind… They make you do things! – General Owen referring to the Brain Bug in Starship Troopers. This isn’t a movie, kids. The Brain Bug is real. It doesn’t look anything like those big fat brain worms…

I started hearing about OMON before I ever saw them. I’d only been in Moscow a few weeks when a bar debate erupted over the authenticity of a YouTube clip purporting to capture an OMON deathblow. During an arrest an…

OMON’s first ever meet-the-press event, organized to change the special force’s image from brutal and incompetent to professional and deadly.

I boarded my platzkart wagon heading out of Izhevsk feeling like I could die. And that was BEFORE entering platzkart–the infamous Russian third-class railway carriage. The train car, packed to the brim with foul-smelling Izhevsk hicks, was like one giant…