I have never taken The eXile very seriously (perhaps arguably, neither do the editors), but it appears that the Kremlin sure does. The English-language cult magazine is currently undergoing an “unplanned audit” of its editorial content as described by founding editor Mark Ames, as government authorities comb over the newspaper’s past articles looking for anything of loosely defined illegality, along the lines of extremism or libel. The harassment of The eXile is quite peculiar for a number of reasons. It isn’t exactly some type of aggressive ideological press organ, and more often than not, their most sharply snarky pieces are focused on lambasting foreign coverage of Russia which the writers feel is unfair to the state. Yes, Eduard Limonov is a columnist, the paper is also a trenchant opponent of Russophobia. In the past, this paper has been an disproportionately hostile critic of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. As far as I can tell, its primary mission had always seem to achieve maximum insult through social and political lampoon. Also, we have all those nice things Medvedev said last week about protecting the practice of journalism from state interference. Strange timing. Ames has published a very amusing and dystopic account of his experience undergoing the “unplanned audit” in Radar. Recommended reading. Welcome to the fringe, Mark.

In all my years I’d never heard of an “unplanned audit” of editorial content. The insiders whom I contacted all said, “It’s … strange.” That’s how my Russian lawyer reacted, it’s how an American official reacted, and it’s even how the head of the Glasnost Defense Fund reacted, even though his NGO focuses on problems between the Russian media and the Kremlin. “As far as I know, there has never been a single Moscow-based media outlet which has been audited like this,” Glasnost’s lawyer told me. “We’ve seen a few of these in the far regions, but never Moscow. But really, don’t worry about it, Mark, I don’t think you’re in any personal danger at this point.” Whenever a Russian tells me, “Don’t worry, Mark,” or, “It’s no problem,” I start to sweat.