A Russian Under Every Bed

Ok, I might be biased, given that at Russian Life we're focused 24/7 on things Russian. But lately it seems like Russians are popping up everywhere, even in the most unlikely of places. It's like when I vacation in Maine and the girl scooping my ice cream in some tiny little town off the beaten path turns out to be here from Krasnoyarsk on a student work visa...

So what am I talking about? Well, this for instance, among more recent and semi-recent news items:

• Daniel Radcliffe, the guy who plays Harry Potter, just celebrated his 21st birthday... at a bar in St. Petersburg
• I just finished Stieg Larsson's NY Times Bestseller The Girl Who Played With Fire (second in the series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was the first one) and have started The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest. Spoiler alert: The books (which are great) may have been written by a Swede, but the main baddy is of course a Russian.
• Speaking of baddies: no surprise that it was Russians behind the worst of everything in the final season of 24.
• Ok, I guess I have to mention the Spy Scandal here. Which is kind of hard to call a scandal, since the spies were caught before they did any damage (so we are told) and ended up being swapped for more non-spies.
• Chelsea Clinton just got married. She is now Chelsea Mezvinsky. Her new hubby, Marc, is son of convicted felon and former congressmen Edward Mezvinsky (aka "Fast Talking Eddy"). It is not clear that the family is of Russian extraction, but they are Jewish and that means they likely trace their lineage back to the Pale of Settlement, which was in the Russian empire. And there is this from one online source: "He [Marc] threw Chelsea a 30th birthday party for 70 friends and family at Russian eatery Mari Vanna, one of their favorite restaurants.  Guests dined on caviar, pierogies and vodka-infused cocktails." 
• Tony Hayward, the Golden Parachute clad, embattled ex-CEO of BP Oil has been exiled to Russia.
• Daniel Pirog (his last name means "pie") of Russia just won the world middleweight boxing title.

And that is just a quick perusal. Seems like a rather heavy concentration of late, if you ask me. Maybe it is some kind of cosmic confluence with the Perseid Meteor Showers?

Spies Like That

Thomas Friedman has a take on the spy swap: "The good news is that someone still wants to spy on us. The bad news is that it’s the Russians." The diatribe is funny at times, but sort of misses the point. You spy on those you want to catch up with or keep up with. And how you go about it is sometimes a better reflection of your situation than that of your target.

I find the most interesting aspect of this that it the first time we have swapped Russians for Russians. Swapping 10 spies who did Russia no good for 4 Russians who did Russia no harm.

Notable New Film: The Concert

A new movie opens July 30 starring Mélanie Laurent and Alexei Guskov and it sounds like a fun summer diversion for Russophiles. We're waiting for our review copy to deliver a judgement, but here is a synopsis from the production company's website, with an embed of the trailer below:

Andreï Filipov was a prodigy—the celebrated conductor of the Bolshoi Orchestra, the greatest orchestra in Russia. Today, aged 50, he still works at the Bolshoi, but as a cleaner. 

During the communist era, he was fired at the height of his fame for refusing to get rid of all his Jewish players—Zionists and enemies of the People—including his best friend Sacha Grossman. Andreï sank into booze and depression. 

The Director of the Bolshoi, an old apparatchik, has been promising forever to return Andreï’s orchestra to him “soon”, but he’s mocking him, humiliating him sadistically. For him, Andreï’s a has-been, and he’s doing him a big favor by keeping him on as a cleaner. 

Then Andreï finds a fax inviting the orchestra to play at Pleyel, in Paris, in two weeks’ time, as a last minute replacement for the indisposed Los Angeles Philharmonic. Andreï conceives of a crazy notion: he’ll round up his old musician buddies, a motley bunch now scraping a living in Moscow as cab drivers, removal men, flea market traders, suppliers of porno film sound effects… 

They’ll go to Paris as the Bolshoi.  They’ll defy destiny and take their revenge!  Will they make it?