Telman Ismailov update. According to someone I spoke to, he's keen to reclaim $800,000 he invested in a film project, but the money has already gone into the production.
Press round-up:
I knew there would be an art-connection: Telman Ismailov has a collection of 2,000 watches.
The machinations surrounding his main source of income, Cherkizov market, may stem from a dispute with one Zarakh Itsiev, who is a friend of a friend of Prime Minister Putin; or from Putin's displeasure at Ismailov's extravagant hotel-building in Turkey; or from a battle to diminish the power of Ismailov's ally, Moscow mayor, Yuri Luzhkov (Radio Svoboda, in Russian).
Abbas Abbasov, vice-president of Ismailov's firm AST, is moving his assets out of Russia. A court case has been opened against Ismailov for contraband, but he has managed to escape to Turkey (news.az, in Russian).
The Cherkizov market [or, as the Tajik traders call it, Cherkiz-bozor] has been temporarily closed; Chinese media sources put the value of seized contraband goods at $5 billion and say several Chinese businessmen have been bankrupted and/or committed suicide. The market had become "a state within a state, an underground town with hostels connected to Stalin's former bunker, with its own system of bribes, its own guardians of the law and brothels" (Segodnya, in Russian). One problem after closure: how to cope now with the 20,000 illegal migrants who worked at the market (Novaya Gazeta, in Russian).
Mountain Jews have come out in Ismailov's defence, saying he should be able to spend his honestly-earned money where he likes (NIRA, in Russian). Ismailov's brother has been removed from the post of Prefect (i.e., I believe, chief cop) of Moscow's Northern Administrative Area (Polit.ru, in Russian).
Other so-called "thing markets" (вещевые рынки) continue to operate as normal in Moscow. Their main function is to supply cheap goods to the "shuttle-traders" (челноки) from Russia's regions (gzt.ru, in Russian).
My video-narrative from a couple of weeks ago (IZO). Arkady Mamontov's film Cherkizon looks at the Cherkizov Market; my connection was bad and I was able to watch only up to the point where an inspector is considering some claimed "poison slippers", part of the claimed contraband at the market (Vesti, in Russian).
