AIG Insurance eXile: Hello? Irina? AIG: Yes? eXile: Yes, hello, I was given your number. My name is Michael B-. AIG: Pleased to meet you. eXile: Likewise. I’m calling because I’m interested in acquiring a life insurance policy. AIG: I…

There was an earlier version of this very column that was much better. But it got spiked. Matt didn’t like it, and nowadays, what Matt says, goes. See, I sold him the eXile for a song-or rather, a dirge. And…

Russian prisoners looking to escape may not have to wait much longer for a choice opportunity. The press service of the GenProkuratura announced this week that more than 100 prison guards last year killed themselves, at a rate roughly analogous…

On February 4, at 12 noon, I have visited Mr. Dmitri Runzhe, head of Department of Press and Information in Moscow’s Media, in his office on 19th floor of skyscraper on Novy Arbat. His office was new, comfortable, with modern…

In the old days, back when I worked for a different Moscow newspaper, I used to be visited by a lanky, chainsmoking Azerbaidjani named Fakhrid Tairov. Tairov dressed in cheap ties and sport jackets, which he hid under a huge…

This is the cover of The eXile Issue #2, published in March 1997.

Now that I’m back in print, I’m starting to hear it all over again: Ames, are you some kind of anti-Russian? The short answer is, if I didn’t like it here, I’d leave. The long answer goes something like this:…