Ignorance Perpetuates the Chechen War
by Masha Gessen
"That's right," I said. "I guess you weren't reading the papers seven or eight years ago." They laughed — of course not. They were 11 years old when the war in Chechnya started.

I did a little search for Masha Gessen, and found some pretty interesting stuff to read. here's a selection:

-Looking Back
"Back in Moscow, I stuff my boots and clothes in plastic bags and jump into the shower and rinse out my mouth, my eyes, my head, making myself back into a radiation-free properly chaste lesbian. And I wash my Geiger counter, and that breaks it."
-What Became of the Soviet Dissidents?
(an interesting correspondence between M. and her brother, Keith. I haven't had a chance to read it all yet.)
-Moscow Dispatch: Masha Gessen on why Russia can't cope with AIDS

There are a bunch of articles at The New Republic Online. again, I haven't had a chance to read most of them yet, but here are a few:
-Putin Himself First, 01.17.00
("Masha Gessen discovers that Boris Yeltsin isn't Y2K compliant.")
-Domino, 05.22.00, "about how Putin's Chechnya policy has pushed the Caucasus to the brink of explosion."

and she's the author of at least three books:
Half a Revolution: Contemporary Fiction by Russian Women
The Rights of Lesbians and Gay Men in the Russian Republic
Dead Again: The Russian Intelligentsia After Communism