On Fri, 10 Jul 1998, Georgi M. Derluguian cross-posted:
> Good behavior wouldn't earn us a polite invitation into the exclusive
> club of core countries. Positions in the core are taken by working
> with elbows, by crushing the bones of competitors."
>
> Evgeni Starikov from Tula (the homebase of General Lebed)
> "Defenders of the Heartland or Islanders?"
> letter to the editor of Novy Mir, pp. 235-241.
There's hope for Russia after all! Today Jakarta, tomorrow Moscow. I'll
bet Berezovsky is buying his plane tickets (or maybe the entire
plane itself, God knows he has the money) to Geneva as we speak. Looks
like the seven merchant bank/industrial groups are going to have to decide
whether to be an Indonesian-style oligarchy of robbers or a South
Korea-style oligarchy of investors. But is the Russian Left prepared to
help them make up their minds?
-- Dennis