"The Outfit" Defects...to the Eastern Bloc
This week on The Outfit, we are traveling abroad for the first time, to a country I've long been fascinated by: yes my friends, Mother Russia herself! They say Russia is an enigma wrapped in a riddle, but we figured it out fairly quickly--in just around an hour, in fact, not including any midroll/pre-roll advertising.
The subject of today's story is a man illustrative of a larger trend in the Russia of the '90s, in which the hollow victory of the US in the Cold War led to a prolonged victory lap. Pizza Hut...Lenscrafters...yes now that Russia had these, all would be right with the world. The Clintonian effort to bring capitalism to Russia ended up empowering black marketeers and gangsters best positioned in the chaos of the 90s to take over, as the corrupt, authoritarian politicians rotted in place and Americans like Paul Tatum, would-be Conrad Hilton of Moscow, learned he might not be as big a capitalist as Russia's gangsters were.
Well, suffice to say, we've got it all in this episode--Republican cowboys, Chechen crime lords, hotel business center stabbings. Check it out on YouTube as always, and subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts, or wherever podcasts are found! And as always, follow me on Instagram and Bluesky.
Well, until next time..."doss vedania" (not checking spelling or even what it means).
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