That Time Matt Taibbi Was Detained In A Russian Airport

Rolling Stone's Wall Street reporter, Matt Taibbi is having an AMA (question and answer session) on Reddit right now.

A lot of the people participating are fans of his work, and merely offering their congratulations and support, but there are others who are asking some interesting questions to which Taibbi can respond with interesting answers.

One questioner asked Taibbi about his time in Russia. It's not a country known for its love of reporters, and they were wondering how Taibbi came out unscathed.

Here's Taibbi's response:

Purely by accident. Honestly, there were some close calls. A lot of bad decisions while I was there, many of them under the influence. One very funny story I've never told: I once worked with a Russian paper called "Stringer" to wiretap Alexander Voloshin, Putin's chief of staff. We published a week of his phone calls. I was so afraid of the consequences, I stayed out of the country when we published. Upon my return I was detained at the airport for 10 hours. I thought I was going to jail for life. In fact, the Russians were simply concerned that the lamination on my passport was coming up in one corner. They thought my passport was fake. Once they reached the embassy, they let me go. But that was one scary 10 hours.

Heavy stuff.