Word: russian
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...MONGOLIA—It was raining that night. A few flashes of lighting were followed by a steady shower. The droplets scintillated as they passed by the high intensity arc lights. It was a late summer night in a railyard in Sukhbaatar—or Sukhe Batora as the Russians would have it—and it was a lonely, remote place. Nestled delicately somewhere between Siberia and the middle of nowhere, it is a desolate border town astride the Russian-Mongolian frontier and is the main point of crossing for all trains travelling on this particular branch...
...train then lurches forward a few kilometers, and then there is another stop when the officers from the nation just across the border from the first stop repeat the process. To smooth things over, it generally pays to have a bottle of vodka on board for the Russian officers and some Marlboros for the Mongolians...
...Attorney James Comey, who announced the indictment in New York City, alleged that Tokhtakhounov "arranged a classic quid pro quo: 'You'll line up support for the Russian pair; we'll line up support for the French pair; and everybody will go away with the gold, and perhaps there'll be a little gold for me.'" The gold for Tokhtakhounov, Comey said, was to be the renewal of his expired French visa--which he never got. A simpler explanation might be that this tough guy was doing a favor for an even tougher mama...
...quiet gent often surrounded by gorgeous cars and fast women. To the Italian finance police and the American FBI, which have been tailing him for at least a year, he is a suspect in drug dealing, arms trafficking and money laundering--an international sleaze king with influential friends among Russian celebrities and Kremlin politicos...
TIME: You say Russian skepticism and hostility were complicating factors during your tenure. How has Russia's attitude changed? BUTLER: Today the Russians are much more careful about their support of Saddam, especially because of their new relationship with the U.S. Whether it will go to the point where Russia would actually join in a coalition of forces against him I strongly doubt...