While watching the first US presidential election debate on CNN on Saturday night, I could hardly believe my ears. I was shocked by the overall shallowness of the discussion. I kept asking myself whether the two leaders-to-be of the greatest country in the world were “saving their voices” like singers before a premiere, or what […]
Posts under ‘Society’
Crises in the Caucuses
Who is to blame and what to do? The first of these two classical Russian questions will be answered by historians, but the second needs an urgent reply today. I regret that the world learns the geography of my country, present and/or former, mainly through the names of places where terrible things happen: Nagorny Karabakh, […]
From Georgia with Love
I am writing these notes from Tbilissi, the capital of Georgia. (Sorry, Professor Warner for stepping on your territory). I did not come here to work but to support a charity foundation launched by a friend, a great opera singer, Paata Burchuladze, who became famous winning the Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow in 1982. What I […]
We are the champions!
Euro 2008 is not over, but for us Russians, our national team is certainly the winner. Stereotypes are slow to build and even slower to destroy. And yet, in a short period of barely three weeks, a social miracle happened – the image of Russia did change.
Have you noticed that nobody is talking lately about Putin/Medvedev, oil […]
From Shostakovich to TRASH
The month of May is important to Russians. And I do not mean because of the change of presidents, but because of Victory Day celebrated on the 9th.
Irrespective of the declarations by the newly liberated and enlightened “historians” who try to downgrade the role of the Russian people in the Second World War – I shall […]
Comparative qualities of blinis etc.
To my surprise, somebody – a Mr. M., a Swiss living in Moscow - has actually read my previous text and even left a comment. How very gratifying ! So my first words go to him – yes, blinis in « Troika » are at least as good as in « Margarita » or may […]
'Privet' Geneva
When I walk in the rue du Rhône I sometimes feel like pinching myself: am I really in Geneva? My native language envelopes and lulls me, and not only in the boutiques like Dior or where not only clients but the majority of the personnel master the language of Pushkin, […]
