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I've visited Moscow a couple of times with work.
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My old firm had a decent expenses policy that meant, within reason, we could eat pretty much where we wanted in the evenings. In the early days this involved eating in high-end, themed restaurants populated largely by Mafiosi, their bodyguards and their emaciated molls. This isn’t my kind of scene and eventually I took to dragging my coworker to the Starlite Diner on Mayakovskaya for dinner whenever possible.
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The Starlite is one of the strangest sights in Moscow. A completely authentic 1950's style extruded aluminium, diner caravan, shipped over from the US complete with fittings. Frequently cute waitresses kitted out in short skirts, starched shirts and bobby socks complete the ambience. The menu matches the décor and you can munch away on hamburgers, meatloaf and $8 milkshakes, safe in the knowledge that you're eating in environment largely free of sadistic gangland killers. Moderately priced by Western standards it would take the average Russian a fortnight to pay for a meal there.
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Whilst chomping on my waffles and fruit sundaes I got into the habit of reading the local US expat newspaper, The Exile. Written by a team of extremely broad minded and outspoken expat Americans it makes a most interesting read. Naturally, most of the news relates to Russia and the FSU but they occasionally drift onto wider topics. Even as a piece of sheer entertainment, rather than a source of relevant news items, I recommend it strongly. The night-club reviews alone are worth the price of admission.
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Anyway, The Exile has an on-line version which, even though I haven’t visited Russia for a couple of years now, I still read regularly.
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This month's edition is a blinder and I thought I'd post a couple of links here.
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The first recommended article is entitled 'The eXile solution to Middle America'
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It's long and deranged. The thrust is that the rational response to the Bush re-election is to obliterate much of what currently lies between the East and West coasts of the United States. I'm all for a free speech and thinking but even I paused midway through and thought to myself 'hey, that's a bit strong'
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The second recommended article is written by a fat geek in Fresno who writes under the name 'War Nerd' in which he discusses the current quagmire in Iraq, why the Americans are failing and what they should do about it
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This piece is marginally less demented and comes recommended because it offers an intelligent insight into why the current American approach in Iraq is so flawed. Given that our media is so totally controlled by the power groups behind the war, fringe publications like the eXile, oh and my blog, are the only places where you're going to find the counter view as to what's really happening.
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