Florida Russian Lifestyle Magazine,  (Русский журнал: Стиль жизни во Флориде) published it’s first issue this week, July 20, 2010. The magazine is written completely in Russian and is designed for Russian speakers living in Florida. As an online magazine, Florida Russian will offer content, both in blog and magazine format to inform and capture the essence of what life is like for Russian speakers who call Florida home. The articles are all original material written by local Russian speakers who have relocated from several FSU countries.

The project began in April of this year, as part of a larger media project that will eventually include online dating,  radio and TV programming. “Interest in the Florida Lifestyle is an easy topic to quantify when you see 60 million tourists visit our state each year.”, said Jef Gray, director of the Orlando Russian Culture Society. ” There are three tourists for each local resident of Florida, so we clearly can capitalize on the worldwide appeal of Florida by presenting information and content in Russian, especially when the focus is on how Russian speakers live and work here.”

The media project is a new venture offered by American Experience LLC, the company that manages the Russian Culture Society. “It’s definitely a new direction for us, shifting from mostly service oriented products like interpreters and tours, to a range of media channels”, said Gray. “But we’re reaching a point where information about Russian activities and opportunities needs to be amplified so the community can grow and attract more Russians to the area.”

The Russian community in Orlando has seen a dramatic increase in organization and activity in 2010. The media project began just as the Russian-American Community Center of Florida was formed. Meanwhile, students from Former Soviet Union countries began to arrive on work and travel programs. The combination of events has been a catalyst of energy that has shifted the focus from social events to more defined purposes like language classes and a library.

Similar events occurred in the mid 1990′s in the Miami area, and in New York’s Brighton beach area before that. It will be interesting to see how the events of this year will affect future populations of Russian speakers in Florida.  ”Orlando is beginning to see Russian speaking  social groups connect with a common purpose and interest, a Russian newspaper, more restaurants opening, a community center and now an internet based  magazine to share those events with the world.” added Gray.

Florida Russian Magazine can be viewed at www.FloridaRussian.com.