I'm guessing that the author, Didier Bizet, is French. These look like typical (though not very consistent) transliterations of Russian into French (the path b

I'm guessing that the author, Didier Bizet, is French. These look like typical (though not very consistent) transliterations of Russian into French (the path by which the composer Чайковский became known as Tchaikovsky, rather than Chaikovskiy). Also, one of the captions mentions a bench from the "Cathedral of Christ-Sauveur". Bien sur? So maybe the article was translated from French? Anyway, I agree that the copy editor was asleep at the switch.