May 03, 2023

From Splash to Hash


From Splash to Hash
Svetlana Varganova sightseeing in 2016. Wikimedia Commons.

Svetlana Varganova, 59, a former member of the USSR swimming team and an Olympic silver medalist, has been arrested in the state of Goa, India, on suspicion of selling drugs.

According to The Indian Express, Varganova was arrested on April 14 in the village of Arambol after being under surveillance for some time by the Indian Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), due to reports of a Russian cartel operating in Arambol and adjacent Goa. Further investigation identified that a local resident, Akash, was also involved. Akash was arrested on April 28. A former Russian policeman named Andre, whom the NCB has described as the "kingpin" of the operation, was arrested the same day.

An official from the NCB reported that Varganova has been living in India for several years. "She supplied narcotics to foreign nationals only. She also had a hookah bar set up at home where foreigners could come and consume drugs," the official said.

The Indian Express described the inventory of seized drugs as "88 blots of LSD, 8.8g of cocaine, 242.5g charas [a strain of cannabis resin popular in India], 1.440kg of [cannabis], 16.49g of hash oil, 410g of hash cake, 2g of methamphetamine and MDMA." Over $7,000 in cash – in a mixture of rupees, US dollars and Thai baht – were also seized, as were fake identity documents.

Meduza reported that the Russian embassy in India is investigating the event.

Varganova represented the USSR in the 1980 Summer Olympics, winning a silver medal in the 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2:29.61. She also held the world record in this event in 1979.

You Might Also Like

We'll Swim After Victory
  • October 15, 2022

We'll Swim After Victory

Our correspondent was offered a business trip to Odesa, Ukraine. He took it and brought this back.
En Garde, Russia and Belarus
  • March 13, 2023

En Garde, Russia and Belarus

The International Fencing Federation greenlit the return of Russian and Belarussian fencers to tournaments — and the Olympics.
What Is Fair in Love and War?
  • February 07, 2023

What Is Fair in Love and War?

The International Olympic Committee is advocating for Russian and Belarusian involvement in the 2024 Olympic Games.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

Murder and the Muse
December 12, 2016

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.

Survival Russian
February 01, 2009

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.

How Russia Got That Way
September 20, 2025

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.

Moscow and Muscovites
November 26, 2013

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 

Driving Down Russia's Spine
June 01, 2016

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka
November 01, 2012

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.

The Latchkey Murders
July 01, 2015

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...

About Us

Russian Life is the 31-year-old publication of an award-winning publishing house that also creates books, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955