Oh, don’t get worked up over this Shvartsman. My whole friends feed is full of him. Everyone’s horrified. I’ve known this character since 1998. Back then he used to walk around with a plastic bag and organize discos for high school seniors, but even then he was already claiming he was the owner of factories, newspapers, and steamships. It’s pretty funny now to read that this gentleman has supposedly been “in venture technology” since 1996. The last time I ran into him was before the 2003 elections. Back then, like all the crooks who make money on election campaigns, he came to our YABLOKO headquarters (YABLOKO, a Russian liberal political party) and pitched some hyper-mega-projects for hyper-mega-money. He also talked up his extensive connections. Just your standard con man, loudmouth, and chancer. And an idiot too, judging by the nonsense he spouted in that interview. Now the guy is apparently serving as the public face of the people from MERT (Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development and Trade) who are skimming venture capital funds. This whole story only shows the caliber of the people who are looting the oil money. It’s a disgraceful stain on Gref’s reputation, and on everyone else’s too. And Civic Force (a Russian political party) made fools of themselves as well. But whatever. With nanotechnology, there’ll be an even bigger circus than this.
People