Our plan for Kazan was to do a story about a young veteran who had recently come back from Chechnya. We wanted to hear firsthand about his experiences and how he was coping with his return to civilian life.

Heavy snow followed by rain, turned the streets to a slushy swamp as we trudged to and fro researching our story. Lisa made countless phone calls to army officials who were always unavailable and never returned our calls. We tried to get an interview by going to the army offices in person, but again nobody would speak with us.

We met with several local journalists, none of whom could put us directly in touch with a soldier. Natasha, a young woman who writes for "Izvestia Tartarstana," practically wore out her rolodex trying to help us, but everywhere she turned she came up empty.