Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 14:27:36 -0400 From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> Subject: RE:Russia: Opium
Chris Doss wrote:
>PLEASE be highly sceptical about any Western (esp. anglophone) reporting on
>Russia.
Also sprach Doug: What in English is good on Russia? And what's your take on the eXile boys?
Doug
Und so spreche ich:
The good stuff is mostly done, not surprisingly, by Russians. I would recommend Boris Kagarlitsky's "Restoration in Russia: Why Capitalism Failed." Also "Market Bolshevism," which has a Russian co-author. Cohen's book "Failed Crusade" I haven't read, but it has been spoken highly of. Though Cohen takes the "the US tried to do good work in Russia, but failed" attitude. I am personally a lot more cynical.
The Exile writers are very amusing and in general pretty good journalists, but they tend to try to fit everything into a Manichean pattern that, in my opinion, tends to distort events and sees conspiracies everywhere -- there is no such thing as an "accident" in the Exile worldview -- not to mention that their "we are snotty nihilists" shtick gets real old real quick. Actually, if you want to read similar material without having to wade through pages of photos of decapitated babies, I would recommend the (poorly-translated) English version of the Exile's Russian sister publication Stringer (www.stringer.ru), which is financed I believe by the former head of Yeltsin's bodyguard and the author of a tell-all book on good old Boris.
Most Russian news services have English-language versions; oreanda.ru, interfax.ru, lenta.ru, strana.ru (strana is actually the Kremlin's mouthpiece).