Word: astrakhans
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...when the Soviet regime collapsed, so did governmental control. Today poachers supply some 300 tons of caviar per year, 10 times as much as legal traders. The temptations are great in a region where economic opportunities are scarce. In a typical bust, smugglers in the Russian county of Astrakhan managed to load an air-force cargo plane with almost 350 kilograms of sturgeon roe before it was seized by the Federal Security Service...
...Today poachers supply 10 times as much caviar as legal traders--some 300 tons per year. The temptations are great in a region where economic opportunities are scarce. A single suitcase filled with caviar, exported via courier, can net more than $100,000. In a typical bust, smugglers in Astrakhan managed to load a Russian air force cargo plane with 770 lbs. of sturgeon roe before it was seized by the Federal Security Service...
Muslim political aspirations have found a focus in the Islamic Renaissance Party, which held its founding congress in 1990 in the Russian city of Astrakhan, once the historic capital of a Muslim Tatar fiefdom. "Our party's goals are similar to those of the Iranian revolution," explains Moscow-based spokesman Vali-Akhmet Sadur. "We stand for tradition." Before the union broke apart, the party could operate openly only in Russia, but it now has chapters in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan that have emerged from the underground...
Repulsed by Tucker's methods and motives, Barclay flees from country to country. Through Tucker's persistence, though, Barclay learns more and more about his pursuer. Tucker, an emmisary from Astrakhan College in Nebraska, has been given a special commission by a man named Halliday, a patron of the school, to write Barclay's official biography. Halliday likes Barclay because of an admission in one of his books to "liking sex but having no capacity for love." Barclay, remembering that he wrote the sentence simply to record a stray idea, is confused and disgusted by Tucker's persistence...
...full-cheeked, almost youthful face contrasted dramatically with the skeletal, almost alabaster profile that thousands had glimpsed while filing past his coffin. A sea of red floral wreaths followed, adding a brilliant touch to a procession colored mostly in drab grays and black. Then two officers in tall Astrakhan hats appeared, carrying the late leader's 21 medals, including Orders of Lenin and Orders of the Red Banner of Labor on red satin pillows. It was exactly half the number of medals that had accompanied Brezhnev to his grave...