September 29, 2016

Tanker, toddler, marketer, spy


Tanker, toddler, marketer, spy

How to spy at the table and park a tank

1. If you’re in a tight spot, blame the tableware. Dmitry Zakharchenko, an official in the Russian Interior Ministry, accused a “spy plate” of eavesdropping on him at a restaurant. Zakharchenko was arrested earlier this month for taking bribes, but denies the charges, claiming that the conversation in question – recorded by that handy microphone-equipped plate – was bribe-free. Watch for the tactic in the next James Bond movie: The Spy Who Served Borshch to Me.

2. A controversial commercial for an Israeli parking app features a puppet Putin – shirtless, piloting a tank, and steamrolling cars around the Kremlin to smash out a parking place for his daughter. The company claims, “We can handle your needs just as well as Putin.” Hilarious? Offensive? The only true solution to parking problems? You decide.

themoscowtimes.com

3. It took three days and over 100 people to find a toddler who toddled into a Siberian forest. Armed with only a bar of chocolate, the three-year-old faced the threat of bears, wolves, and night frosts during his time alone in the wild. The whole village is planning a party to celebrate the survival of Siberia’s Mowgli, but the young explorer’s biggest concern after being rescued was the fate of his toy car. Toddlers have priorities, too.

In Odder News

  • One way to protest transportation corruption: spell out the word “Help” using buses.
lenta.ru
  • Icelandic officials claimed that Russian bombers engaged in risky business on the Norwegian Sea. Russia’s response: “It’s a figment of their imagination.”
  • Russian adventurer Fyodor Konyukhov has set the world record for the fastest hot-air balloon trip around the globe. His advice to all: keep exploring.

Quote of the Week

"I was 10 years old when Yury Gagarin flew [into space], and soon after that the first men walked on the moon….I was convinced that by the 21st century we would already have scientific stations on Mars and settlements on the Moon. But the 21st century came and all we do is wage war, make money, and stuff ourselves."

—Fyodor Konyukhov, who recently completed the fastest round-the-world hot-air balloon trip, on the lost sense of adventure characterizing the 21st century.

Want more where this comes from? Give your inbox the gift of TWERF, our Thursday newsletter on the quirkiest, obscurest, and Russianest of Russian happenings of the week.

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas
October 01, 2013

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.

 
Jews in Service to the Tsar
October 09, 2011

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.

93 Untranslatable Russian Words
December 01, 2008

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.

The Moscow Eccentric
December 01, 2016

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.

Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

White Magic
June 01, 2021

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

Driving Down Russia's Spine
June 01, 2016

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 

Fish
February 01, 2010

Fish

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955