Articles
Vanity Fair
The Moscow scene makes every other city’s look tame, as an indescribably wealthy few—Kremlin power brokers, star athletes, aluminum tycoons in sniper-tint glasses—drop $10,000 for a table, ignore the dawn on Stalin’s yacht, and indulge a bottomless appetite for the heartachingly beautiful women, many of whose hearts seem set only on those with bankrolls. With the tsars of the hot spots where status and souls are bartered, from the party that’s hard to crack to the one you’ll never even know about.
mp3Interview: СИТИ-FM Moscow, (3748 kb)
Vanity Fair
Hunting weapons, women, and Uncle Joe Stalin in Transdniester, the oh-so-Soviet tinderbox.
Vanity Fair
Roustam Tariko's knack for predicting what Russians want—namely, their own luxury vodka and revolving credit—launched him past his fellow post-Soviet entrepreneurs and into the highest echelons of global wealth. Riding shotgun in Tariko's custom jet and million-dollar car finds the billionaire setting his course for the West.
Vanity Fair
Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis are the twin geek stars of “disruptive technology.” First their file-sharing program, Kazaa, soared from Napster’s ashes. For their second act, the Scandinavian team has plans to rewire the planet—wirelessly—with their Internet phone service, Skype. And it's free. No wonder Yahoo, Google, and the other heavy guns want their number. Traveling from an industry conference in Cannes to Skype's tech headquarters in Tallinn, Estonia, meet the elusive entrepreneurs who are transforming the way the world communicates.
Vanity Fair
Our man in Moscow samples 11 premium brands in one wild night.
New York Times Magazine/Key
At the center of Moscow's building boom is a 33-year-old adventure-seeking multimillionaire with a pet boa constrictor.
TIME
Hollywood studios and Russian tycoons are teaming up to make films in Moscow. Is it worth the trouble?
Travel + Leisure
In the wake of the Orange Revolution, Ukraine’s capital is embracing Western ways—and investment dollars. A city in transition, with a burgeoning nightlife and an anything-goes mentality.
Fortune
A tech boom is giving life to Novosibirsk, Russia's third-largest city and a former Soviet center for science. IBM, Intel—even Oprah—are paying attention.
Wired
He withheld pay from his employees, boasted of his sexual adventures, enraged government officials, and flooded Russia with 25 million emails a day. Then one morning, Vardan Kushnir's mother found his bloodied body on the bathroom floor, skull bashed in.
mp3Interview: BBC/NPR, “The World,” (1197 kb)
fortune
As Caspian crude begins to flow through a new $4-billion pipeline, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is consolidating his grip on power. The U.S. wants both oil and democracy—but can it have both? November’s elections suggest not.
ESPN
They tried to hold Darko Milicic down in Europe. It didn't work there—and it's not going to work here.
Fortune
A year after a popular uprising in Ukraine, hopes have soured and old rivals are at it again.
TIME
With enough glitz, kitch and corporate sponsorships to make Las Vegas blush, welcome to the new and weird (yet weirdly underwhelming) epicenter of world boxing.
Complex
In the lawless corners of the former Soviet Union, a dangerous Russian car thief has turned his life story into one of the hottest shows on television—the real reality TV. Say "Do Svidaniya," Hollywood.
Russian Life
Fifty percent of the world's top models issue from the former Soviet Union. Anton Alfer has to choose which girls will make it and which won't. Scouring the taiga for supermodels.
Salon
Outside, the crowd resembled an endless copulation of confused ants. Inside, a woman attached herself to the Doggfather and squirmed in the light of temporary stardom.
ESPN
The final game at the Vet was an apocalyptic downer.
Unlimited
Bouncer Mark Ehr is the six-foot-seven-inch reason you don’t ever want to step out of line at the toughest bar in Texas.
Killed
In no time, Skinner was teased up on cheap hooch, and he gripped the bottle all night like it was his boarding pass to the first moonshot. He had the wrath up at full blast. "I never liked you," he hissed at some poor unfortunate who got too close to the center. “I never liked you.”
Вестник Аналитики
Насколько я себе представляю, у России два выхода: быть исключительно хорошей или совершенно плохой. Либо попросту вообще позабыть, что Америка думает, а лишь усесться поудобнее и получить удовольствие от кино.
THE NEW YORK OBSERVER
The tent goes up. The cash comes in.
