Alina Segal was the Online Editor for the Summer 2008 issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism. The Russian Enigma
Why Canadian reporters sent to Moscow will never understand the country’s soul
This hostile, icy metropolis is exhausting. Every stereotype—the constant military presence, the babushkas begging in the crowded Metro, real fur, stray dogs, dirty slush, the Christmas trees next to statues of Lenin—overwhelms the senses almost instantly upon arrival. Many Moscow buildings carry plaques: this or that historical figure lived here. This land explodes with stories […]
Letter From Russia
Fluff abounds in a country where the politics is anything but straightforward and journalism is still a dangerous profession
Outside my Soviet-style apartment a rhythmic ghraavk-ghrrraaavk-ghravvvk fills the air: someone is shoveling snow. Inside, some Russian anchor, whose name I’ll never remember, fills a small television screen to announce the results of yesterday’s parliamentary election. President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party won, but the correspondent briefly alludes to complaints about violations at the polling […]
