I thought it was a bit unusual when I saw on Wednesday that someone had just read one of my blog posts from last January 14th — titled “Compartments of a Life” — about my narrow escape some 30 years ago from a potential business involvement with a Russian oligarch who later found himself in very hot water, financially and legally. But I realize that sometimes people just stumble across articles while surfing the internet, so I put it out of my mind.

Until later in the evening, that is . . . when the name of the same oligarch, Vladimir Gusinsky, popped up in yet another news article. Of course, it may have been a coincidence in timing; or perhaps someone who had read the news story was searching for other articles on the same subject and just happened across mine. But I’m always a little skeptical about coincidences.

In any event, in the January article, Gusinsky’s name was tied to some other individuals — an American former FBI agent, another Russian oligarch, and a former Russian diplomat — who have been subjects of an FBI investigation and various charges. And it brought back a flood of memories about a job I nearly took that would have had me working closely with Gusinsky, but that I turned down for a wholly unrelated reason.

So I chose to write the January blog post about that 30-year-old incident, and how fortunate I was to have dodged a rather large bullet. And now, six months later, I find myself giving thanks again, as it seems that Gusinsky — who was not actually implicated in the original criminal case against the others — is in the news once more, having himself become of interest to the FBI. It is reported that they have questioned his now estranged wife, as well as employees of the couple’s home in Connecticut, about his ties to the others.

The full story has all the makings of a John Le Carre novel, and can be found in Mike Eckel’s article, “The Diplomat, The Oligarch, The FBI Agent: Russian-American Faces Trial in Deripaska Sanctions Case,” at rferl.org, June 12, 2025.

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In the early ‘90s, when so many Americans and other Westerners were rushing headlong into the new business and professional opportunities in Russia following the fall of the Soviet Union, there was no way of knowing what lay ahead: how many Russian billionaires would rise from the ashes of the newly privatized Soviet industries, or the extent of the corruption that would inevitably follow.

But the fallout of those wild years is still being felt three decades later. And while I thoroughly enjoyed being a small part of that initial excitement, and will always be happy to have had the experience, I am now — in a much quieter, saner stage of my life — quite content to sit back and watch the events from the bleachers.

Still, when each year brings a little less to look forward to, it’s nice to have something interesting to look back on.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/13/25