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B EAST founder, Vijai and the eXile go way way back, to the summer of 1997, and those gonzo days when whoring, smacking drugs, being obnoxious, slanderous, mean—and chasing slutty Russian dyevushki—seemed a literary pursuit. Hunter Thompson was still fresh in our minds, and the high-minded English daily, the Moscow Times, spurred vyked expat writers to reject the mainstream news feeds and go groping the belly of the Russian beast.
Having fallen out with eXile founder Mark Ames over girls and dirty underclothes (lol), the Moscow rag slandered me endlessly, printing club reviews under my name even when I had moved on to edit Russian Playboy in 1999. Given the country’s weak libel laws at the time, there was little that I could do. I just hoped that the loser, misogynistic writing that defined the rag would sink it eventually, and the magazine would go under, leaving sweaty, shy, frustrated Mark Ames without a job. Brave behind the computer screen, he’s actually shy in person, with an inferiority complex towards extroverted partyers. However, the eXile kept going and going … Until this week, that is.

Eleven years later, the eXile seems to be finally going bust. Hurrah. Moscow has moved on, to a more sophisticated nightlife scene, and a young generation that’s bored of endless talk about sluts and speed and hookers and dyevs and all the rest of the loserish 90s zeitgeist. Plus, Russia doesn’t want to be seen anymore as another country to be gleefully exploited by drugged-up Yanks.
However, we do feel a slight pang of regret that Moscow’s only alternative is out of vodka, and might have to go into exile. So, in a spirit of comraderie, with the old skool un-PC beast we also ask our readers to contribute to save the eXile. Click on the link above to donate.

Eastern Europe has seen it all before: EasyJet lager louts stampeding through the streets of their quaint cities in a violent search for sex, booze and high-volume hedonism. So pervasive has the Anglo-Saxon male invasion been that cities set up campaigns against ‘Sex Tourism’, bars banned Stags from entering, and entire swathes of the local population who once revered the English turned hostile to Blightey and closed themselves off to foreigners in general.

But Moscow, the growling petro beast of the East, is still a virgin when it comes to stags. It’s gorgeous women imagine English people wearing bowler hats and pinstrip suits while puffing on a pipe and sipping some Darjeeling. They haven’t heard of hooligans or chavs or sex tourists and are more excited than worried by this week’s invasion of over 40,000 beery fans for the Champions League final on Wednesday, May 21st. Will it turn into another Manchester from last week, with riots spilling out between Chelsea fans (all Russians) and Man. United. Will this week finally shatter the illusions of Russian women who think British men are soft and intellectual.

Noone knows for now. But the cops are getting ready are so are the local English-language rags that have been there and done that and know what to expect. Stay tuned for more.

B EAST #9 celebrates the beastly, sexy, bloody, lovey-dubby, color through this RED issue, our meatiest and bloodiest so far. It includes portraits of sassy redheads from the region, red-tainted Triple Six interviews, an adventure along St. Petersburg’s Red Metro Line, an early warning about the death of Amsterdam’s party scene—and numerous fashion stories themed along the buzzwords of the Cold War. This issue also comes with a CD for the first time, a compilation of various Czech electronic sounds.

INSIDE

Redheads
Six, sexy, beastly redheads from the East
Is Red Light Amsterdam Dead?
As energy flows east, the infamous city bunkers down into neo-conservatism, shutting down parts of the Red Light district, banning mushrooms and harassing coffeeshops. Has the Shaman that was Amsterdam sold out?

Read more…