As communism turned to right-wing authoritarianism, Moscow became an immense version of Dodge City or Tombstone’s journey from communist to right-wing authoritarianism from a business perspective. Business, after all, played a big role, both positively and negatively, in the path that led from the Gorbachev reforms, through the Yeltsin chaos and the descent into unbridled nationalism of today’s regime. Some, like..
But there were also what Hecker describes as “chancers, even people with criminal records” who came to Russia “hoping at best to wipe the slate clean or, at least, to find refuge”. Most of them lived in an expat bubble in Moscow and St Petersburg. Contact with Russians outside business was rare. Last lord of Malahide Castle at centre of strange tale that reflects an era when being gay was unacceptable Zero Sum: The Arc of International Business in Russia by Charles Hecker – Making money in the Wild East Monasticism in Ireland: AD 900-1250 by Edel Bhreathnach – A valuable contribution to the history of the Irish church Indeterminate Inflorescence by Lee Seong-bok: The record of a craftsman trying to understand their art in real time It wasn’t long before Russian chancers, with burgeoning criminal records, took control. The gun became an essential business tool. Immense wealth fell into the hands of the regime’s cronies and made its laundered way to London. I lived in Russia throughout this period and the descriptions of life given by the author ring absolutely true. This was the Wild East. Moscow was an immense version of Dodge City or Tombstone. The Radisson Slavyanskaya Hotel was the town saloon where its American manager, Paul Tatum, bit the dust in a hail of bullets. But there was money to be made and the theory was that like the Wild West, the Wild East would calm down and the inheritors of ill-gotten gains would become solid citizen