July 03, 2023

Espionage on Ice


Espionage on Ice
That's Not How We Play Hockey...
Svetlana Bogomolova.

A Russian hockey player playing for a Polish team has been detained on charges of espionage.

According to the Internal Security Agency of Poland, the player (alleged to be Maxim Sergeev, 20) has been in Poland since October 2021 and has been collecting information "on critical infrastructure facilities in several voivodeships."

Zbigniew Zebro, Poland's Prosecutor General and Minister of Justice, said the suspect is the 14th agent of the Russian spy network to be arrested in the country of late. He was arrested in Silesia on June 11, and will be locked up for three months.

Sergeev was not named in the state's announcement, but according to reports by Gazeta Wyborcza, Radio Liberty, and others, it is the defensive player Maxim Sergeev.

Russian Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Russia does not yet have details on the player's detention, but linked the arrest with the "rabid Russophobic position of Polish authorities." The Russian Foreign Ministry has protested the arrest.

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This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.

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Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.

Life Stories
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Life Stories

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.

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