January 12, 2022

Worth a Pretty Kitty


Worth a Pretty Kitty
There's more than one way to sell a cat. Avito

On January 5, the website for the Tula Press reported on an advertisement for a rather expensive, rather grumpy-looking black-and-white cat with green slitted eyes on Avito, the Russian equivalent of Craigslist. The feline was going for 6.5 million rubles (approximately $862,900 USD).

The draw? The cat was supposedly once held by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

What one wouldn’t do for some Putin swag! The advertiser was apparently also willing to trade his pet in exchange for a Mercedes-Benz E 200, a Kawasaki Ninja 600, or a house.

Although it seems as though the advertisement for the Oreo-colored beast has since gone down, there is a grey cat advertised as “Putin’s” on Avito by user Zahar Gribov, posted on January 3. This little furball is going for a slight uptick in price – one hundred billion rubles (approximately $1,327,555,000 USD).

Greyface is, however, advertised as a “bablkwaser,” a term that apparently originates with the video game “Brawl Stars” and refers to a gamer who is too young or inexperienced.

Could the salesperson be implying that anyone going in for this kind of a scam is a bit of a noob?

 

You Might Also Like

Great Cats! Should She Be Canned?
  • December 11, 2021

Great Cats! Should She Be Canned?

One brave Russian journalist has done great service for the world’s population of domestic cats by taste-testing their vittles.
Vaccination is the Cat's Meow
  • November 02, 2021

Vaccination is the Cat's Meow

The Moscow Regional Coronavirus Headquarters are using all the available weapons at their disposal to fight the spread of COVID-19, and they've pulled out their biggest gun yet: cat memes. 
The Cat's Out of the Suitcase
  • October 26, 2021

The Cat's Out of the Suitcase

A new statue in Kurgan is decidedly not the cat's pajamas, and after less than a week on display is being taken down due to public outcry.  
Akhmatova's Cat Goes Missing
  • October 20, 2021

Akhmatova's Cat Goes Missing

After a brief scare, the oldest cat at the poet Anna Akhmatova's museum in St. Petersburg has returned safely back home. 
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
Marooned in Moscow

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.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

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. 
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

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.

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