How Russian Oligarchs Got Rich
The Corrupt Privatization of Russian State Enterprises — How it Happened
I was there when it was happening, and little did I know the part I was playing…
It was the early ’90s. Over a 2 year period I lived and worked in Russia, starting in St Petersburg. After that I was based mainly in Moscow but getting out to such places as Krasnodar (Cossack Country), Nizhni Novgorod (ex- Gorky and home then of Russia’s avionics industry), Siberia (cold, with a heavily polluting aluminium smelter and low life expectancy) and quite a few other places besides.
It was a fascinating period in my career and I learned a lot about the Russian people and culture — and vodka too. And yes, I even visited a dacha and did the sauna and plunge pool bit. They’re a great bunch of folks in general and it’s sad to see what their country has been brought to by a madman.
When I was first in Moscow, I stayed for a few weeks in the Hotel Metropole (I don’t know how long that link will be alive and no, I have NO affiliation). Okay, it was only an attic room at a special rate, but you know, Thatcher and Mao Tse Tung had stayed there too — but not in the attic! Then I moved to an apartment, still near the city centre. A previous occupant had been found dead, stabbed in the bath. I even saw Yelstin speak…
