REPORTAGE: Travels in the Former Soviet Union (slate.com)

from: Joshua Kucera - months ago

Posted Monday, May 19, 2008, at 2:56 PM ET

Thanks to Onnik Krikorian for this article .. to find in his blog

"Why Can't We Live Together?"

TSKHINVALI, South Ossetia—The first time I enter Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, the hotel staff immediately calls the police. They tell me that no one can process my journalist accreditation until Wednesday. It is a Sunday afternoon, and the following Tuesday is the May Day holiday, making it a four-day weekend. Can't I just stay until then and see the town as a tourist, I ask? Nope. So about 20 minutes after I arrive, the police drive me back to the border with Georgia proper and tell me to try again later. I come back on Wednesday and find that the accreditation process consists of writing my name in a book and filling out a small piece of paper that I am told to carry with me everywhere I go. It takes about a minute.

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