Dark times in western markets. The financial press at the moment reads like a particularly gloomy prophesy from the Middle Ages. This from Euroweek: Undreamt...
Jules Evans
Jules Evans is a freelance journalist and writer, who covers two main areas: philosophy and psychology (for publications including The Times, Psychologies, New Statesman and his website, Philosophy for Life), and emerging markets (for publications including The Spectator, Economist, Times, Euromoney and Financial News).
Don’t underestimate Medvedev
Am back in Moscow for a week, working on a story. The impression I get from my meetings so far is that the West has underestimated the extent to which a new...
Rocks for brains?
'Clueless'. That's how the financial press is summing up our politicians' understanding of financial markets. The ignorance of most politicians about the...
Oh the transhumanity!
The best way to understand the present is to read science fiction. Only sci-fi writers are dreaming far enough into the future to tell us where we are in the...
Another political assasination in London?
Looks like another mate of Boris Berezovsky's might have been assassinated in London...This time it's Arkadi Patarkatsishvili, or Badri as he was more...
Why oh why didn’t the financial markets listen to me
As the unshakeable solidity of the world's financial markets turns out to be a castle in the sky, we all wish someone had warned us about collateralized debt...
Russia’s new president (probably)
For a oil-glutted, stagnant dictatorship, Russian politics has more twists and turns than a bad Jackie Collins novel. When it looked like Putin was going to make himself prime minister and some old crony the president, as of today it looks very likely that his young deputy prime-minister, Dmitri Medvedev, will be handed the heavy burden of the presidency. Attached is an exclusive interview that Medvedev gave to me and a few other hundred journalists last year, and my impressions of the man about to stride onto the world stage.
Quote of the week
Last week actually, but still top of the charts: DER SPIEGEL: Mr President, former Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called you a 'pure democrat'. Do you...
The EU’s clueless central Asia policy
Last week, the Kremlin signed a deal with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan that apparently stymies the mooted Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline, which the EU was hoping...
Young Russia’s Choice
The generation of Russians who are now in their twenties have a choice, a really defining choice for their country. They can either go up the cul-de-sac of...
Horrendous quote of the week
"We have given the Iraqi people the chance to have freedom, to have their own country. It is up to them to decide whether or not they're going to take that...
Yeltsin’s wake
This evening I went to see Yeltsin's body lying in state at the Church of the Saviour in central Moscow. At first, I thought there wasn't any queue at all,...
Putin bans his government from going to London forum
The latest news here in Moscow is that Putin has decreed the country's elite should not go to this weekend's Russian Economic Forum in London. The Forum...
Kiev and the paradox of the civilizing process
I’m in Kiev on a business trip. Kiev is great, actually. It’s sunny, it’s green, it’s full of beautiful women. It may actually have more beautiful women here than Moscow, and Moscow has a lot of beautiful women.
Yesterday I went to a conference by Concorde Capital, a local brokerage. In the day-time, fund managers ran around from meeting to meeting with local managers who want their capital.
Then in the night-time we were all taken to a club called Tsar, where we were greeted by ten women wearing only body-paint and a few feathers. They winked and gave us shots of evil-smelling liquor. Then we went into the main room, where more scantily-clad women were dancing on podiums.
This is usual fare for investment conferences in this part of the world. There are various reasons given to western investors to invest in the former Soviet Union: large populations, close to Europe, lots of oil. But one of the main reasons, which you’ll never find on any brochure, is the girls!
Democracy, Russian-style
As I write this, insipid pop music is being blared out from speakers about 100 metres from my flat. There’s a big stage being constructed there, with...
The sentimentalization of the armed forces
I'm glad the government is finally realizing how badly it has played the Iran hostage crisis. It reacted in a typical New Labour way, just like Tony Blair...
Social networks and social anxiety
I’m writing a book at the moment about social anxiety. It’s an emotional disorder that makes you terrified of being negatively judged or humiliated by others....
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