I'll stick with Primakov as merely Deputy Director of IMEMO. He might have puffed his own past at some point which could have easily gotten picked up and widely repeated. There are rumors that he may have some Jewish ancestry. That is hardly the same thing as "Primakov is Jewish." He is known for his polished Georgian manners.
Menshikov is not nearly as "burned bridges" out as you say, even though he is in the Netherlands. He regularly visits and I understand has maintained his friendship with Primakov. His son works at IMEMO. If Primakov did not get all his references to Roosevelt from Menshikov/Galbraith, where did he get them from?
Along with Brad De Long I see little good about hyperinflation. I grant that an economy with 5% unemployment and 5000% inflation is preferable to one with 5% inflation and 50% unemployment. But that is not what we are talking about here.
Hyperinflation may lead to the repudiation of or default on sovereign foreign debt, but it does not eliminate or make it easier to pay, in contrast to a domestic debt in one's own currency. One can default on any debt without the mechanism of hyperinflation leading one to do so. Barkley Rosser On Mon, 14 Sep 1998 21:25:36 +0100 Mark Jones <Jones_M at netcomuk.co.uk> wrote:
> Rosser Jr, John Barkley wrote:
>
> > 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.
>
>
-- Rosser Jr, John Barkley rosserjb at jmu.edu