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Anchor Marco Werman introduces us to Tajik Jimmy. A migrant worker from Tajikistan who moves to Russia and sings male/female voices from Bollywood tunes. Tajik Jimmy has become a YouTube sensation. Download MP3
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This week, a look back at the career of the late Sergei Mikhalkov. During World War Two, Mikhalkov wrote the lyrics to the Soviet national anthem. Decades later, he composed the words for Russia’s national anthem– to the same piece of music. Also, a conversation with Keith Spicer on Canada’s 40-year-old language laws. Spicer was the country’s first enforcer of bilingualism. Finally, the British government apologizes for its treatment of Alan Turing, who helped break the Nazis’ war codes.
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“The Stalin Epigram” is offered as a novelist’s homage to Osip Mandelstam, the poet who embodied both a new era in Russian poetry and the martyrdom of Russia’s intelligentsia under Stalinism. But the book turns out to be a crown of thorns, a posthumous offense to a poet who has few defenders at the ready to fence for his honor.
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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attended ceremonies in Poland today marking the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II and rejected claims that Russia had a role in sparking the conflict. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Svetlana Savranskaya director of Russian programs at the National Security Archive at George Washington University. >>>BBC coverage
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Sergei Mikhalkov, the Russian who wrote the words of the Soviet and Russian national anthems, has died at the age of 96. He first wrote the lyrics for the anthem when Stalin was Soviet leader, but later rewrote them to omit references to him. Mikhalkov also wrote the words for the current Russian anthem adopted in 2001. Alex Gallafent took a look at the troubled anthem. >>> BBC coverage
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Download MP3After the death of a prominent Russian poet, The World’s Alex Gallafent reports on the changing shape of Russia’s national anthem.
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You want zombies? Well, we’ve got them this week. Some researchers at the University of Ottawa are using a (theoretical, mind you) zombie attack to study disease vectors. Also, botnets, the Russia and Georgia cyber-spat, and a steam powered car. Plus, a deliciously free concoction of flamenco, hip-hop and creative commons.
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The strange tale of a Russian-owned cargo ship that went missing is getting a little stranger. First the “Arctic Sea” was reported missing somewhere between Finland and its destination Algeria. Then came reports that the boat may have been hijacked not once, but twice. On Friday, the vessel was spotted somewhere off the coast of Cape Verde. Now Russia says it’s arrested eight hijackers. The BBC’s Gabriel Gatehouse has been following the story. >>> More coverage from the BBC
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Last year, an estimated 35,000 people died on Russian roads. Eleven hundred of those people were killed on the streets of the capital, Moscow. So, what is it that makes getting into a car in the former Soviet Union such a gamble? Cell phones? Texting while driving? Drinking? The answer might surprise you. Jessica Golloher reports. >>> What’s the worst place you’ve ever driven? Post a comment.
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We’re looking for one of Russia’s biggest peninsulas for our Geo Quiz today. Peninsulas, by the way, go by all sorts of names. A cape, an island promontory, or even something called a spit qualifies as peninsulas. But it’s an 800 mile long Russian peninsula we’re after and it’s more than 9 time zones away the Kremlin. We speak with Journalist David Quammen, who has just returned from a reporting trip there. ©2009 Randy Olson / National Geographic. >>>See more photos
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Today on The World: gaping holes in the security of one of Afghanistan’s most dangerous cities; a former Soviet space program official recalls the day he heard about Americans landing on the moon; and tensions are rising due to a water shortage throughout the Middle East.
