Dead Man in the Duma

In an article about the shooting in London of the Russian banker, German Gorbuntsov, the Moscow News yesterday noted:

“London is home to a vast community of wealthy Russians and the hard-handed (sic) settling of business disputes in the city is not uncommon. In the most well-known case is (sic) the 2006 polonium poisoning of former KGB agent and Kremlin critic Andrei Lugovoi.”

     Wow! Three floaters in two sentences! I think they meant “heavy-handed” rather than “hard-handed”, an expression not in conventional use in English these days. The beginning of the second sentence needs proof-reading. But the kicker is at the end: Mr Lugovoi, currently a member of the Duma, would be amazed to learn that he was killed in 2006. Has it all been a dream?
  

This post is published as a public service in the interests of the Moscow Union of Korrektors, Proof-Readers, Copy-Editors and Linguelegance Consultants (MUKPRCELC). They feel they are under-represented on the staff of most media organisations in the city today.