“They said that the ruble was made of wood, but it was made of rubber.” This, if someone does not understand, is a joke about the crisis. One of many that are now entertaining not yet fired middle managers and analysts of recently flourishing financial companies. As has always been characteristic of Russian people, they escape from difficult life circumstances with the help of anecdotes about these very circumstances. We offer some of them to the attention of The New Times readers.

Vladimir Mirzoev – The New Times Artists love to talk about themselves and their work. But with director Vladimir Mirzoev, whose play “Betrayal” was released at the Moscow Drama Theater. Stanislavsky, the conversation immediately turned to politics. For the famous director and theater teacher, the turning point, apparently, was the case of Svetlana Bakhmina.

A great man has great mysteries Mysteries of a genius. Gogol's contemporaries were often surprised and sometimes shocked by his unusual, sometimes paradoxical actions. After the death of the writer, they became the object of close study - literary scholars have been trying to unravel the secrets of the writer’s personality for one and a half hundred years. Writer Vladislav Otroshenko presented his interpretation of the strange actions of Nikolai Gogol to The New Times.

The recognition of Valeria Novodvorskaya I get up in the morning, and suddenly it comes to me: after all, I have been married to Putin for 9 years, and what is happening between us is a classic Russian family life. He does not bring me a salary, but I do not cook lunch and do not wash his linen. We live like Steve Oblonsky with Dolly, do not greet, do not talk. And the house is common: 1/8 part of the world. Or darkness.

Investigation of Shenderovich and Co. Against the backdrop of Putin ... An unexpected continuation gets a high-profile story with a picture taken by Ronald Reagan's personal photographer on Red Square in May 1988. The New Times has new unique photo documents at its disposal Let us recall the background of the question. Reagan's personal photographer, Pete Souza, found a 20-year-old photograph in his archives (see photo 1).

10 years ago, NATO aircraft began to bomb Yugoslavia Balkan tragedy. Ten years have passed since the start of the NATO military campaign against Yugoslavia, an event unprecedented in many respects For the first time since the Second World War, aviation bombed the capital of a European state. For the first time in its history, the North Atlantic Alliance used military force.

Union is no help March in Russian cinema is the time of summing up the results of the last season and the gradual transition to the new one. The season ends with the Nika ceremony, where the favorites of 2008 are awarded, and at that time the selection of new films for the Sochi Kinotavr, which is shaping the cinema landscape of 2009, is already in full swing.

"By mutual correspondence ..." Since 2004, when the first article of Mikhail Khodorkovsky appeared in the press, written in imprisonment, the Russian public was waiting for an hour when his opponents joined the public dialogue.

Yo-ho-ho! The gloomy pirate anthem made the “bottle of rum” a symbol of cruel debauchery. However, the cheap and potent sailor's drink of the filibuster era eventually turned into a refined drink. The New Times tasted rum and studied its history on Martinique, one of the Caribbean islands We worked until dusk. Then we washed and changed clothes. Lenz looked greedily at the line of bottles: “ Will one of them break our neck? ” “Let Robbie decide,” said Kester.

It just so happened this week that on April 1, US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will meet face to face for the first time ahead of the G-20 summit in London (more on pp. 32-37). And the day before, on March 31, open hearings on the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev will begin in the Khamovniki Court. On the first day, the plot of the indictment will be read out (about the trial, see p. 14).

Original: A.S. Pushkin, Letter from Tatyana to Onegin. The novel in verse "Eugene Onegin" Pushkin began to write during his southern exile in Chisinau in 1823 I am writing to you - what more?

The film by the famous screenwriter and director Tony Gilroy, “Duplicity,” is being released in Russia under the title “Nothing Personal.” Starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. Their characters are former intelligence agents, American and British, working for warring pharmaceutical corporations, who decide to fool their bosses. Of course, love breaks out between them.

Strobe Talbott — The New Times **Russia-USA: partners or enemies? On April 1, the presidents of Russia and the United States will meet for the first time.

Day, as it was said. The Russian economy has hit rock bottom. And bounced off. Everyone immediately started talking about slowing down the industrial recession, returning optimism to the markets and, in general, that everything will be fine. But still interesting: where will the economy land after the rebound?