Vitaly Portnikov

I always liked conversations with Vitaly. I'd met him both in Moscow and in Kyiv. He is a journalist who wrote many pieces for many different outlets in the early 90's and he has continued to do so now. He's a good observer, knows that he's good and he does what he knows. It's always refreshing to speak with someone who is so in his groove.

This trip, I didn't meet up with Vitaly, however I did see him smiling at me from more than one billboard. The one here was at the entrance to the Arsenal metro stop in the center of town. It is promoting a newspaper called 'The Left Bank,' (Refers to the left bank of the Dnipro River. Formerly less desirable place to the right bank that has the seat of gov't etc. I wonder if the left bank is repositioning itself to be a hip alternative -- think Brooklyn vis a vis Manhattan.
OR is it a play on the eastern regions of the country, where the majority of the industrialists and oligarchs made their mark,and where Russian is more commonly heard??