Word: russianness
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. But the events of the last several weeks showed us that relations between the two nations are far from warm and fuzzy. The arrest of an U.S. State Department worker in Moscow quickly followed by the FBI's arrest of a Russian embassy employee seemed, to us, to be timed to coincide with the release of the latest movie in the James Bond series, "The World Is Not Enough." Cheri Leberknight, the alleged American spy, was apparently carrying several gadgets that could have been designed by Q himself. She allegedly carried several...
These actions epitomize the sense of insecurity that Russia feels in the Western-dominated post Cold War world. Russia is frightened, almost mortally terrified. On a recent trip to China, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin responded to President Clinton's criticism of the war in Chechnya by touting the power of Russia's nuclear arsenal. To Dartboard, it brought to mind our own experience as a scared teenager. When we felt threatened, we too ran off to find our six foot, 250-pound football-playing buddy to back...
...guide for this trip (and I do mean trip) through history and literature is the eminent 19th-century translator of Russian literature Constance Garnett, whose unrelenting Englishness (read: priggishness) has been a scourge to modern translators from Nabokov on. Fashioned by Durang as a kind of Charles Kinbote for the entire Western cannon, Garnett is as much a mangler of Russian literature as a scholar of it. (The Russian word for frustrated homosexual is Peter Tchaikovsky, she says). Played with unrelenting and downright hysterical formality by Thomas Derrah, Garnett becomes as loveable as she is overbearing. Listening to her roll...
...latest round of Western hand-wringing looks unlikely to stop Russia's Chechnya campaign - particularly since it's not backed up by any credible threat. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warned Friday that the U.S. was "reviewing" loans to Russia as she joined G7 foreign ministers and her Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, in Berlin for talks on the crisis. But President Clinton last week emphasized Washington's belief that sanctions are an inappropriate response to the Chechnya situation, and Moscow isn't likely to lose any sleep over the latest warnings. Having reportedly lost an armored column...
...capture of Grozny may put a symbolic seal on Russia?s victory, but that victory remains partial. After all, guerrilla wars aren?t won by capturing territory, and the Chechen forces have retreated mostly intact from the Russian advance. They're already making life difficult for Russian forces by night in many of the areas under Moscow's control, and a protracted guerrilla war against fighters based in the mountains of the south will mean mounting Russian casualties in exchange for few tangible gains. That gives Russia an incentive to try and divide the Chechen resistance with concessions...