July 6, 2006: The Right Connections & Memory Lane

Those interested in oil, gas, banking, Russia, Georgia, Kazakhastan, China may be interested in Alexandre "Sasha" Trudeau's series of articles published in Macleans in the fall of 2004 (Was Jean Chretien travelling to the Far East that fall too, just before Paul Martin became PM?). It helps to travel in the right circles ... for information and more. For those who have not already read these posts, the background and related links, including useful search terms, are below this.



Alexandre "Sasha" Trudeau: Rubles to burn -- Moscow's New Russians have gotten rich and they're happy to flaunt it November 15, 2004
www.macleans.ca/topstories/world/article.jsp?content=20041115_92435_92435

After reporting on the Chechens and then the republic of Georgia for Maclean's (Oct. 11 and Oct. 25), Contributing Editor Alexandre Trudeau went to Moscow to assess the state of affairs in the Russian capital 13 years after the fall of the Soviet Union. This week's story is the first of a series. [....]

We sit down for lunch with Dima, his tall blond girlfriend, the rent-a-priests and the bodyguards. Dima is still a young man; in the early nineties, when he was even younger and as the Soviet Union was in its death throes, he made a fortune. How remains unclear, but he had to hastily leave Russia. After a jaunt in Switzerland, he ended up in Canada, buying a huge gated home in Toronto's opulent Bridal Path area.

[....] They hated the fact that I used to hire off-duty Mounties, have them wear their red uniforms and stand guard with Canadian and Russian flags." This spectacle went on for months. Finally, when somebody sloppily opened fire on his home one night, Canadian authorities asked Dima to leave the country. [no reason given ....]

... Bari Alibasov is my host for a few days. [....]

Bari has become passionate about photography: more specifically, fantastic and lewd photography. The walls of his apartment are covered with bizarre, carnal imagery. [....] booking shows for his bands, constantly promoting his artists.

Just before my arrival, Bari -- who is an ethnic Kazakh, in the middle ground between East and West -- returned from a stint in China. Now, he is completely enamoured with the place. [....]

Another of my New Russian friends is Andrei Dellos, a restaurateur extraordinaire of distant French ancestry. [....]

Alexandre (Sacha) Trudeau: The Burden of the Past -- Moscow's legacy weighs heavily here October 25, 2004
www.macleans.ca/topstories/world/article.jsp?content=20041025_90958_90958

[....] Iosef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, a.k.a. Joseph Stalin.

[....] The family story goes something like this: [Joseph] Stalin had a son, Yakov, with his first wife, Ekaterina Svanidze, to whom he was married for just three years until her death in 1907. Yakov died in a Nazi prison camp after Stalin refused to trade him for a captured German general. Yakov's son, Yevgeny, grew up in a military orphanage and went on to become a Red Army colonel. He had two sons: Jacob the painter, and Jacob's older brother Vissarion, a filmmaker. Only in this branch of the family do Stalin's descendants still bear a version of his name, and still live in Georgia. Georgia has a contingent of people proud of Stalin's heritage -- and proud that one of their own once dominated the Soviet Union. But most, and especially those in power now, revile his name. That hasn't been easy for Jacob and his brother. Vissarion found it impossible to find work, and is now doing menial labour in New York City.

[....] The countryside grows poorer, but Tbilisi [....] The man in charge of Georgia's economy is Kakha Bendukidze, an oligarch recently returned from Russia who made his money manufacturing industrial and mechanical equipment. Perhaps because of Russian President Vladimir Putin's manoeuvres against the oligarchs, Bendukidze happily agreed to come back to Georgia to become Saakashvili's minister of economic development.

[....] There will be no quick miracles. [....] Jacob Jugashvili, great-grandson of that wolf among 20th-century wolves, summarizes his fears by saying that "with this kind of primitive free market, I am afraid it is a time of wolves for us all. I loathe the idea of having to tell my kids: be ruthless, and you will triumph." [....]

Memory Lane: Related & Background

Frost Hits the Rhubarb: June 18-24, 06

June 24, 2006: Update to Addax & Oryx Gp, BNP Paribas, AXMIN.inc & Canada
June 22, 2006: Kazakhastan, Silk Road Group, Banks, Shipping, & More [Search or scroll to]

Frost Hits the Rhubarb: posted Aug. 29, 05 -- "Update: PetroKazakstan, Bernard Isautier & Jean Chretien" [spelling Isautier/Isaultier?]
http://
frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/
2005_08_28_frosthitstherhubarb_archive.html

http://
frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2005/08/
update-petrokazakstan-bernard-isautier.html

Frost Hits the Rhubarb Mar. 27, 05 to Apr. 2, 05
http://
frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2005_03_27_
frosthitstherhubarb_archive.html [the week of Mar. 27, 05 to Apr. 2, 05]

April 1, 2005: UN, Frechette, McKenna, Marijuana, PetroKazakhstan, Chretien ... Kazemi [....]

Completing the French Connection ... forged Niger Documents

Silk Road Group
http://
www.caspenergy.com/cibc/member/silkroad_e.html

Addax & Oryx Group

BNP Paribas

Millennium Development Goal initiatives laid out by the United Nations. ***

Canadian International Development Agency

Zahra Kazemi ...... and Saeed Mortazavi.

June 22, 2006: AG: Foundations Hiding Tax $$$ From Public Scrutiny [Check the list: "the following foundations are identified" -- familiar names, names which keep popping up as one reads further]