Pronunciation
 

I ran across this working on a page:

What's the proper pronunciation for Baikal, as in the Baikal IJ-70? If it's the same Baikal as Lake Baikal, I thought it was Bye-KAL. Is that correct?

I think it is more like by-col. It is kind of like "Michael" if you replace the M with a B.

The British show I'm working on now has someone pronouncing it BAY-cull.

I asked a Russian lady I work with, it's Bye-KAL.

A Russian I used to shoot clays with told me that it isn't a hard "A" sound like in "California" or "caliber", but more like "call" if pronounced with a Southern US accent. The sound is the same as the start of "collar" or "collect".

But either way, BAY-cull or BAY-kell is wrong.

Sergei, my Russian friend at work, pronounces it bye-KAL as well.

He also used to be a Police chief in Cechnya, and I'm pretty sure he's a war criminal. Nice guy though!

Eh, in Cechyna, I think everyone could be considered a war criminal regardless of the uniform, or lack there of, that they wore.

Oh yeah, that's pretty much WHY I'm making that assumption. I don't really hold it against him, after 9 months in Afghanistan meeting with former Mujahideen, he's hardly the first one I've ever met.

He. I'm not sure if it was the language barrier or just the culture, but there was an ANA guy who we worked with that was very proud of having killed Russians, Pakis, other Afghans.