> A correction and some additions to my earlier posting
> on Yevgeny Primakov, Russia's new Premier.
> He was not the Director of IMEMO but merely its Deputy
> Director in charge of its Middle East Section in the 1970s,
> prior to his becoming Director of the Oriental Studies
> Institute.
You sure? According to Chandler Rosenberger and everyone else I've read/spoken to, Primakov was director of IMEMO (the Institute of World Economy and International Relations).
> Whereas IMEMO worked directly for the Central
> Committee of the CPSU, the Oriental Studies Institute was
> officially "independent," thus widely viewed as essentially
> a KGB front.
This is a distinction without a difference, Barkley. Stanislav Menshikov BTW was superficially a very orthodox, hardline communist, a Brezhnevite and friend of the Gromykos. As with other turncoats, such as Melor Sturua, Menshikov burned his boats as Primakov actually did not. Menshikov abandoned ship; Primakov is still there.
> Primakov's mother came from the Svanneti sub-group of
> the Georgian peoples and Primakov spent much of his youth
> with his maternal grandparents in Georgia. These are the
> closest to being Persian of any of the Georgian subgroups.
> Some groups in Georgia actually are Persian, e.g. the
> Ossetians from whom Stalin was derived (and who are rumored
> to the be the true descendants of the ancient Scythians).
> Primakov's father was a Russian/Ukrainian.
Primakov is actually Jewish.
Mark
PS in another post you say
> hyperinflation will not wipe out the
> sovereign foreign debt of the Russian government.
On the contrary the ruble devaluation and unilaterally altered GKO repayment terms have certainly wiped out (repudiated) sovereign debt. Hyperinflation is just a variant of the same game.
> Gerashchenko does not have a good track record
Why do you say so? It was Chubais the World Bank 'demigod' -- and the crooked Dubinin -- who drove the final stake thru the heart of Russian industry, not Gerashchenko.
You know, you will all have to start rethinking your positions.