Here at the Winger its no secret that we are really big fans of Daniel Craig as James Bond. With press starting to heat up for Quantum of Solace, we would like to take this time to introduce everyone to Olga Kurylenko. Ukrainian born, and raised by a single mother in Russia, Olga was discovered by a modeling scout while on vacation in Moscow at the age of 13. After a stint of ballet and modeling, she decided to try her hand at acting and that resulted in her being on my radar ever since she starred alongside Timothy Olyphant in last years Hitman. After no doubt killin’ it in QoS, she will share the screen with Marky Mark in Max Payne. I think she may single-handedly change the perception of the name Olga (more…)

DOUBLE UPDATE - Pavel Progebnyak has officially been ruled out after Guus Hiddink admitted the striker left the Russian camp.

UPDATE - Guus Hiddink has just admitted that Zenit striker Pavel Progebnyak suffered a major knee injury during Wednesday’s friendly with Serbia and might miss out on the 2008 Euros.

Could this be the tournament that propels Zenit forward Pavel Pogrebnyak into a different stratosphere?

The Russians are in Group D along with European champions Greece, Spain and Sweden.

Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeyev (CSKA Moscow), Vyacheslav Malafeyev (Zenit St Petersburg), Vladimir Gabulov (Amkar Perm)

Defenders: Sergei Ignashevich (CSKA Moscow), Alexei Berezutsky (CSKA Moscow), Vasily Berezutsky (CSKA Moscow), Alexander Anyukov (Zenit St Petersburg), Denis Kolodin (Dynamo Moscow), Renat Yanbayev (Lokomotiv Moscow)

Midfielders: Diniyar Bilyaletdinov (Lokomotiv Moscow), Yuri Zhirkov (CSKA Moscow), Igor Semshov (Dynamo Moscow), Dmitry Torbinsky (Lokomotiv Moscow), Vladimir Bystrov (Spartak Moscow), Konstantin Zyryanov (Zenit St Petersburg), Roman Shirokov (Zenit St Petersburg), Sergei Semak (Rubin Kazan)

Forwards: Andrei Arshavin (Zenit St Petersburg), Pavel Pogrebnyak (Zenit St Petersburg), Roman Pavlyuchenko (Spartak Moscow), Dmitry Sychev (Lokomotiv Moscow), Roman Adamov (FK Moscow), Ivan Saenko (Nuremberg)

image via Baodatviet

Russian officials have dropped their regular Visa Requirements for the 2008 Champions League Finals that is set for Wednesday, May 21st at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

While tens of thousands of fans are expected to attend as both sets of clubs were allocated 21,000 each, Alexei Sorokin (the Head Russian Official in charge of the event) has announced that only a valid ticket will be required for presentation instead of the normal Visa process, one that was a point of contention since the relationship between England and Russia has been strained since the assassination/murder of Moscow Critic Alexander Litvinenko.

image via The Offside

We are all very aware that there is some seriously long, new money in Russia. Cats like Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich are leading the way of Russian money, and there are a ton of billionaires coming out of the former USSR. To further illustrate that there is a ton of new money in Russia, BMW has put up a 65,000 sq. ft ad in Russia promoting the new M Series. I have no idea how big 65,000 sq. feet actually is, but let’s just say that those cars on the billboard in the picture are real cars. Yep! They did it like that! That is how you get attention!