In 1997 Mark Ames founded the now infamous Moscow independent weekly The Exile. Mark and co editor Matt Taibbi quickly became Moscow media celebrities. The paper was known as much for the content, which was a combination of rigorous investigative reporting and scurrilous satire of the Kremlin elite, as it was for the equally outrageous stunts performed by the staff. In 2001 Mark and Taibbi presented then New York Times Moscow bureau chief Michael Wines the Exile's Worst Journalist in Russia award, by arriving unannounced at the Times offices and slamming a strawberry pie infused with five ounces of horse semen in the poor bastard's face.

By 2008 Mark had annoyed many in Vladimir Putin's orbit and was warned by friends that he was risking jail time if he stayed in Russia. He returned to the US. Mark currently lives in Rochester New York with his wife and children. He is the of author of Going Postal: Rage, Murder and Rebellion: From Reagan’s Workplaces to Clinton’s Columbine  and co-author of The eXile: Sex, Drugs & Libel in the New Russia.