Word: russian
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...Getting the Small Things Right Sometimes in diplomacy, the small things matter the most. In early March, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton handed her Russian counterpart a "reset" button intended to symbolize the U.S. desire to "reset our relationship." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov looked at the gift and smiled. "You got it wrong," he said in perfect English. On the button was "peregruzka," which means overcharge or overload. Oops. Just days earlier, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had visited the White House bearing rarefied gifts: a first-edition biography of Winston Churchill and a penholder carved from the timbers...
...Factor At the moment, the world is roiled, leaders are nervous, and everyone wants a piece of the media magnet that is Barack Obama. That means the White House is expecting all kinds of posturing in and around the meetings with Obama for domestic consumption in various nations. Will Russian leader Dmitri Medvedev use the meeting to highlight the U.S. role in the financial collapse? Will Chinese President Hu Jintao bring up the proposal for a new international currency to supplant the U.S. dollar? Will Mirek Topolanek, the recently displaced Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, renew his rhetoric about...
Fewer Bentleys cruise the streets of Moscow these days, sushi sales are down, and construction on Europe's tallest tower has halted for lack of money. For fashionistas at the opening of the 18th annual Russian Fashion Week on Sunday, the most potent sign of the times was the sight of people wearing last year's styles. "Even the very rich aren't just going out and buying anymore," says Tatyana Ageyeva, a buyer who has worked for élite labels like Kenzo and Hugo Boss for nearly a decade. "Before, the wealthy would buy expensive things because they didn...
...avoid conscription, Kuznetsova says she wants Russia to have a professional military. "I want the boys to actually learn proper military training, and also to be paid, it should consist of people that want to be there." At present, however, the military is a nightmare zone. The Russian army is infamous for hazing. One horrific incident in 2005 left a 19-year-old without legs or genitals. But countless beatings are believed to go unreported. The New Times, a weekly magazine, reported that 471 people serving in the armed forces died in 2008, half those deaths being suicides. Says Kuznetsova...
...horrors of service may drive people away but, in the end, demographics may be enough to undermine the Russian draft. This generation is already small compared to past conscription pools; it is also qualitatively of poorer stock. Says Golts: "Already, half the conscripts are not actually healthy enough to serve." Golts worries about the drafts to come. In the next few years, he says, the situation will become worse because of the poor birth rates of the 1990s. "I am not sure what the army will do to maintain the quota...