Crossword Genius

Ring included in goods left by old Russian writer (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

gogol

'russian writer' is the definition.
(novelist Nikolai Gogol)

'ring included in goods left by' is the wordplay.
'ring' becomes 'o' (letter resembling a ring).
'included in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'goods' becomes 'gog' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'left by' becomes 'l' (I've seen this in other clues).
'gog'+'l'='gogl'
'o' inserted into 'gogl' is 'GOGOL'.

'old' acts as a link.
This may not be right. It may be part of another bit of the clue.

(Other definitions for gogol that I've seen before include "Russian novelist" , "Nineteenth century Russian author" , "Nikolai ---, Gov't Inspector author" , "The Government Inspector author" , "Nikolai -, Russian author (Dead Souls)" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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