There were no high hopes on the eve of the biathlon championship in Yugorsk in Khanty-Mansiisk (see Novaya Gazeta No.22, 2 March 2011), but reality was worse than the gloomiest forecasts: our squad was lucky to place sixth (the male team...

The new patriotism’s failure is the most salient trend in Russian cinema. Enough has been said about the crisis of ideas, but the crisis of patriotic films is deeper than in any other genre. Shooting of The Star, widely believed to be the...

A documentary by German director Cyril Tuschi about the jailed Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky became a hot ticket at the Berlinale festival. This was bound to happen. First, the world is fully aware of the political motives behind...

St Petersburg Governor Valentina Matvienko asked Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to “co-finance” the construction of a new football stadium on Krestovsky Island to the tune of 10 billion roubles. In this way, the St Petersburg administration...

“I’ll survive it” joked the forward of Omsk Avangard club Alexei Cherepanov when he had his gum cut in a Saturday’s match versus ZSKA. Lyosha had only too days: his heart stopped on 13 October’s night after the match Vityaz vs. Avangard in...

The conflict between the head of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Leonid Tyagachev and the head of Rosssport Vyacheslav Fetisov was doomed to happen. When two structures are engaged in similar activities, the conflict of interests is...

We open our world championship qualifier cycle with the match versus Wales. The Wales that once passed successfully to the Euro 2004, with the help of bean ball and foul language by Vadim Evseev. Before the match with the Welsh we had a...

“Super Cup” sounds a bit funny, don’t you find it so? Looks like the Champions’ Cup, possessed by Mancunians, and the UEFA Cup, residing in the city on Neva now, are just waste vessels? In reality, it is exactly the Super Cup - invented by...

I’d like to clarify it from the beginning. Leonid Vasilyevich Tyagachev is not going to relive the past and to put on his old skiing boots at the Olympiad 2010 in Vancouver. Moreover, I am confident that being a sportsman he never used...

A: 80 medals was our preliminary target. The third place in the team event is no failure. This result may be considered as B. However, arithmetic cannot reflect the essence of what has happened. For example, the gold by Elena Isinbaeva is...

A: I am very happy for her and for our country. Her results and her victories are my happiness! Besides, it seems that we somewhat encouraged our sportsmen for new medals. After Lena’s victory Silnov got the gold medal in height jump while...

At the end of the Olympiad it was clear that only some miracle could help our officials to reach the target of 80 medals. As for our Olympians, they did not wait for miracle, they worked wonders themselves. It’s been for the first time...

After the team competition of the sport gymnasts, where the Russian team took the 6th place, many began to say that there is no team actually. The reason for such saying was rather sharp statement by the gymnast Anton Golotsutskov at the...

One third of the Olympiad has passed. China is in the lead, in terms of gold medals and in terms of unbelievable spirit. The Russian team is in the middle in all parameters. Both these facts are natural and logic. No one has been...

On the Olympiad’s threshold journalists have two favorite questions for coaches, sportsmen and officials. That’s about number of medals to be gained and about change of time zones. Almost in all countries the coaches and athletes share...