Word: russian
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...Jamie Sale and David Pelletier had been robbed of their rightful gold medal. Both pairs were eventually given gold, but by then the scandal had outraged the world - Oh, the shock of it! Dirty dealings in figure skating! Eventually, interest waned, until this week's exciting tidbit emerged: the Russian mob may have been behind the Olympic scandal from the start. So for resurrecting this tale of ignominy, our person of the week is Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov...
...Thursday, Italian officials announced the arrest of Tokhtakhounov, a suspected Russian mobster, on U.S. conspiracy charges filed in Manhattan federal court. It seems that Tokhtahkounov, who denies any wrongdoing, may have been at the heart of the scheme to award figure skating gold to the Russian pair, rather than the Canadians, employing French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne to cast the deciding ballot. A day after the pairs medals were awarded, Le Gougne admitted to buckling under pressure to vote for the Russian pair in exchange for first-place votes for the French ice dancing team. Although she later rescinded...
...Authorities believe Tokhtakhounov may have arranged the fix in favor of the French ice dancing pair in exchange for a visa to return to France. Russian officials call the charges of mafia involvement "fantastic," telling the Associated Press they wouldn't be surprised if the scenario had been manufactured "in Hollywood" to retroactively justify giving two gold medals in the pairs event. Meanwhile, Italian investigators say they nabbed Tokhtakhounov during an organized-crime investigation; they happened to have tapped his phone in February and recorded several conversations with a French man, during which Tokhtakhounov made repeated references to the figure...
...MIKHAIL KHODORKOVSKY Russian Oil Magnate...
...their domestic economies. Russia benefits from low labor costs and vast natural resources. Brad Aham, emerging-market portfolio manager at State Street Global Advisors, owns Russia's two big oil stocks, Lukoil and Yukos, which should benefit as the West looks for oil outside the Middle East. But all Russian industries will benefit as "post-9/11, Russia more clearly aligns with the West," says Aham. The ING Russia fund is a stalwart in this space--up 33% a year for the past three years...