Andrey Grebenshikov

Twenty-seven-year-old Andrey Grebenshikov flashes a warm grin as he tells a classic American immigrant’s story. Leaving behind his own business in Russia, he arrived to take a grueling, minimum-wage construction job in Spokane. He didn’t speak English, he had left behind his sweetheart, and his first monthly phone bill for calls back home was $500.

But since then, he’s started his own wood flooring business, a Web site and now a Russian newspaper, that after 10 months has begun to show a small profit.

A quick study, Grebenshikov speaks English well these days, and he’s delighted the Russian community by bringing it news stories from the former Soviet republics where they used to live, such as Russia, Ukraine and Kazakstan, as well as columns on immigration issues, features and lots of advertising. Everyone from insurance companies, banks and Realtors seek Russian-speaking customers on its pages. Other companies advertise jobs for recent immigrants. And the classified ads include houses, apartments and cars.

Reading a Russian-language newspaper is a habit for older immigrants, Grebenshikov said. They’re used to turning to classified ads to buy everything from a cow to a wedding gown. But he tries to include content that appeals to all age groups.

An energetic man with gray eyes and a shock of blond hair, he spins out endless ideas. He’d like to add food coupons to his newspaper, print a Russian version of the yellow pages and one day even publish a magazine.

“I have a lot of ideas, but I don’t have enough hands,” he chuckles.

Grebenshikov has a staff member who designs the paper and handles the technical end, but he selects stories from Russian newspaper Web sites, edits local columnists and sells the ads. Each issue costs about $2,000 to produce and is printed by Griffin Publishing. “If you want to have your own (foreign-language) newspaper, it shouldn’t be for money,” Grebenshikov says. “It should be like a hobby.”

Fortunately, he supports his Russian sweetheart now his wife, two children and his mother primarily with his flooring business. And he has learned ways to streamline the production of the paper.

His Russian readers stop by his new store, Euroworld on East Sprague, which rents Russian videos and sells Russian souvenirs, to thank him. And just as American newspaper editors occasionally hear from retired English teachers with grammar advice to share, he’s already heard from a Russian language teacher.

Grebenshikov knows an opportunity when he sees one: He signed the teacher up as a volunteer proofreader.