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#10 | June 19 - July 2, 1997  smlogo.gif

Knock-Knock!

In This Issue
Feature Story
Limonov
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Who's there?

"High Time to Regulate Prostitution"! blared the headline of the editorial on page 10 of the June 17 issue of the Moscow Times- just 9 pages away from its own ads for prostitutes, euphemistically entitled "Introductions," on page 19. The editorial itself wasn't so bad- the usual blather you expect from an aspiring-to-be-stuffy, paper-of-record type of publication: prostitution should be better regulated because prostitutes are "seriously at risk both from sexually transmitted diseases and from the involvement of [sic] petty and organized crime." The editorial also somehow transformed vulgar and noisy Tverskaya street into "one of Moscow's most elegant" that shouldn't be "converted into an outdoor brother at sundown." The oddest passage was one which said that "legislation should not be attempted to criminalize a trade that is widely accepted among Russian men and a source of income for many women [see eXile editorial, p. 5]."

The latter passage prompts the question: if prostitution is widely accepted among Russian men in particular (one can be sure the word "Russian" was inserted intentionally, so as not to accuse Moscow Times readers of whoring), why are there so many ads in the MT's own classifieds that are obviously aimed at Western men? Furthermore, if the MT is so concerned about disease and crime, why does it advertise prostitutes in its own paper? Our inquiries have satisfied us that the MT itself doesn't provide checkups for the girls who advertise in its pages- therefore it's doubtful they're any healthier than the girls walking Tverskaya.

The attentive reader should ask himself one more question: does Kulikov's plan to remove prostitutes from Tverskaya boost the revenues of telephone prostitutes like the ones in the MT and, indirectly, raise the MT's advertising revenues? We decided to "introduce" ourselves to the MT advertisers themselves and ask them if the Moscow Times might indeed have had an ulterior motive. We also asked girls how they felt about the editorial calling for restrictions on their profession-and whether they'd be willing to protest in a "march" against its publication:























































Q: Do you think that removing prostitutes from the streets will help your business?
- Well, in principle, yes.
-Girl, what are you talking about? It's a completely different continent. They don't bother us, and we don't bother them.







Q. How do you feel about the Moscow Times writing an article supporting Kulikov's decision to move prostitutes off the streets?
- Taking them off the streets is wrong.
-Why?
-What was, should be.













Q. The other girls advertising in the introduction section are planning a big protest. They're going to march up Tverskaya with flags and pickets right to the doors of the Moscow Times on Ulitsa Pravdi. Are you going to participate?
-What, are they going to march up the streets right to the door there, or what? Well, why not?
I don't know. I think it's completely ridiculous. I don't see how the Moscow Times can have an influence on anything. They're just a newspaper.
-Yeah, sure I'll go, check it out, see what the circus is all about.

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