Russian

Kandahar (Кандагар; called The Crew in its English-language release) is a 2010 Russian drama. It takes place in 1995, unsurprisingly in Kandahar, a city in Afghanistan, several years after the withdrawal of Soviet troops after the end of the Soviet–Afghan War. The film is based on true events—the Airstan Incident. The film hewed pretty closely […]

Yulia Rutskaya (Юлия Руцкая) is a Russian-Kyrgyz pop singer, television host, and model who sings in Russian, Belarusian, and Kyrgyz. Originally from Vitebsk, Belarus, her family moved to Kyrgyzstan when she was five. She is a member of the significant Belarusian diaspora in Kyrgyzstan and has embraced her Kyrgyz side, singing in Kyrgyz at least […]

U-Piter (Ю-Питер) is a Russian rock band formed in 2001 by Vyacheslav Butusov (Вячеслав Бутусов), who is best known for the popular Soviet rock band Nautilus Pompilius (Наутилус Помпилиус). The band usually writes their name in the Greek alphabet, to cement their connection to the god Jupiter (… who is Roman, but the point still […]

Venya D’rkin (Веня Д’ркин; originally Aleksandr Litvinov, Александр Литвинов) was a Ukrainian (Russian-speaking) poet, songwriter, musician, artist, and storyteller, and one of the later generation of bards. He had a much more informal, unpolished image than some other recent musicians, showing his truly countercultural ethos. D’rkin grew up in a small mining town near Luhansk. […]

Kirill Komarov (Кирилл Комаров) is a Russian rock and experimental musician, one of the stranger and more interesting of recent times. From St. Petersburg, he studied Turkish philology at the Eastern Department of Leningrad State University, after which he began translating Turkish poetry and also writing his own original verses. He started writing the songs […]

Troeraznykh (Троеразных; the name translates to “three different”) is a Kyrgyz rap collective most of whose songs are in Russian. They originally consisted of two beatmakers and one guitarist—or, as Boorsok, a Kyrgyz magazine, has put it, “three forms who don’t resemble one another even by a drop.” They aim to be a “human” group, […]

Saltanat Ashirova (Салтанат Аширова) is a Kyrgyz rock and pop singer known for her “crystal voice,” according to New Faces (Новые лица). She sings mostly in Russian. In addition to her solo career, she is known for her membership in the now-broken-up band Eles and in her new project, The M.A.P. She sings and plays […]

Timur Rodriguez (Тимур Родригез, also often written as T-moor Rodriguez) is a Russian DJ, singer, actor, and TV personality. Timur is known especially as the host of various popular music television shows, as well as a participant in the show Comedy Club. He often goes by his first name only professionally. Born in Penza, Russia, […]