We all have them, if we live long enough: those compartmented times of our lives that stand out separately and distinctly in memory, like little soap operas in our minds.

And sometimes a single compartment will contain multiple spaces, each a memory of its own. As in the case of my Russia Years.

Yesterday morning, as I began my customary wandering through the daily news reports, one of those compartmented spaces came flashing back before my eyes, in the person of former Russian oligarch Vladimir Gusinsky.

As I read the rather lengthy and convoluted tale — now the subject of an FBI investigation — of Gusinsky’s past and recent machinations, involving a former diplomat, other oligarchs, a dead Russian press minister, an estranged wife, a retired FBI agent, and a mountain of debt, I thought — not for the first time in the last 30 years — how lucky I was that some unseen guardian angel had been looking over my shoulder back in 1992, keeping me from becoming even marginally involved with Gusinsky’s vipers’ nest.

His tale, excellently set forth by Mike Eckel and Todd Prince of RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty (RFE/RL) (January 13, 2025), makes fascinating reading, worthy of a John Le Carre novel. What makes it so meaningful to me, however, is how close I came back then . . .

*. *. *

February, 1992. It was my first solo trip to Russia, for a week of meetings with officials — arranged by the Russian Embassy in Washington — to seek out potential partners for an educational program I was preparing to undertake in Moscow. Those were the days immediately following the breakup of the Soviet Union, when private businesses were being established and the need for well-trained office personnel had become glaringly obvious. It was my plan to establish a business school to provide that training.

On one cold, snowy morning, I was enjoying breakfast in the coffee shop of the Slavyanskaya Radisson Hotel before my first meeting of the day, when I happened to look up in time to see a familiar face from home: an attorney from Washington, Randy Bregman, who at the time was a member of the prominent law firm of Arnold & Porter (A&P) — one of the first U.S. firms to jump into the promising new Russian market on behalf of their clients.

I called out to him, taking him completely by surprise; I was probably the last person he would have expected to see in Moscow. After talking for a while about my reason for being there, he told me that Arnold & Porter had established a consulting/public relations company — separate from the law firm — called APCO. And then he had an apparent revelation.

APCO was in need of an American manager for its new Moscow office, and I was just the person for the job . . . if I might be interested.

“If”??!!! There was no “if” — it was the answer to my prayers. A job with an American firm, in the very place where I was trying to create a business school . . . the perfect opportunity had just fallen into my lap.

Randy had one caution that he felt compelled to mention. APCO’s Russian partner, a man he referred to simply as “Vlad,” could be difficult to get along with. But knowing my background of working with challenging people, he was sure I could handle it . . . if anyone could.

And so we agreed that he would notify the A&P partner in Washington in charge of hiring for APCO to expect a call from me when I returned. We shook hands on it, and parted company.

I could barely contain my excitement when I returned home at the end of the week and made the phone call to the A&P partner, whose name I believe was Sarah. Our meeting a few days later was so disastrous, I believe I intentionally blocked her name from my mind.

Never mind her officious, off-putting manner. More importantly, she had no idea of the challenges of working in Moscow. She wanted to hire one person to fill two distinctly different — and mutually exclusive — jobs, and at a salary that was ludicrous for even one of those jobs. The skill sets required for an office manager are very specific . . . and very different from those of an IT specialist. Yet she was looking for someone who could do both, and for compensation that was an insult.

The bottom line, obviously, is that I thanked her for her time and left her office downcast, my dream of an overseas job crushed by someone who was under-qualified for her own job. It was one of the biggest disappointments of my life.

Until about eight years later.

I was reading a book about one of Russia’s earliest and wealthiest oligarchs, Boris Berezovsky, and the notorious manner in which he and his fellow multi-millionaires had made their fortunes during the wild years of transition in Russia throughout the early ‘90s. In it was a mention of one Vladimir Gusinsky, who had prospered through his association with various ventures . . . including the American company known as APCO.

And suddenly I knew just how lucky I had been when I walked out of that interview with Sarah (or whatever her name was). Because Vladimir Gusinsky was the “Vlad” of whom Randy Bregman had spoken all those years before . . . the Russian partner who was “difficult to get along with” . . . and who was, eight years later, on the wrong side of Russia’s new president, Vladimir Putin.

The same “Vlad” who has ever since been living in exile; has been “dogged by debts, disputes, and divorce”; and is now under scrutiny by the FBI for his association with a number of interesting characters, including a retired FBI agent, Charles McGonigal, who was arrested in 2023 and charged with conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions and money laundering. [RFE/RL, id.]

*. *. *

Those years that I fondly call my “Russia Years” were exciting, sometimes nerve-wracking, often frustrating, and supremely educational. So many people — large corporations, law firms, accounting firms, and individuals such as myself — saw a huge opportunity there, and gave it our best shot. Some succeeded (at least until Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022); a lot more didn’t. But I think it’s safe to say, we all had fun.

I wonder, though . . . If I had had any inkling then as to how it would all turn out — the criminal activities of the Russian oligarchs, the downslide of the Putin regime into totalitarianism, and the return to a Cold War atmosphere — what I would have done differently.

But I do know one thing for certain: I owe that unseen guardian angel a huge debt of gratitude for keeping me safe through it all, so that I can view today’s events from the secure perspective of an outsider and take comfort in having dodged that bullet.

Thanks, Angel.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/14/25