Martin Smith Cruz covers a lot of central Russia in Stalin's Ghost including Tver, where the Russian's stopped the German advance on Moscow, and Chechnya, site of recent wars. In the book (it's fiction) there was some kind of an incident in Chechnya that just didn't smell right, and so Arkady, our hero, has to keep poking at it until he figures out what happened. What happened was that the villain, a Russian officer, was trading with the enemy. He was buying Chechen Dragon Rugs from the rebels and, like so many illegal transactions, something went sour and a bunch of people ended up dead.
I'm wondering if Chechan dragon rugs are a real thing so I check, and, yes, they are. The one in the picture above is valued somewhere north of $10,000. That's in the USA. In Chechnya with a war going on rug merchants could probably pick one up from a refugee for considerably less.
Here's a story about the rug business written between the first and second Chechen wars. I found it on Guide to Caucasian Rugs.
I am here because I just finished reading the Martin Cruz Smith book you mentioned. I wanted to take a look at the dragon carpets.
ReplyDeleteGracias. I am glad you found what you were looking for.
ReplyDelete