He had briefly owned a profitable pencil factory but ultimately lost money in the young Soviet Union
Posted in General on 21. Aug, 2010
He had briefly owned a profitable pencil factory, but ultimately lost money in the young Soviet Union.His one remaining concession was to act as agent for selling art treasures now owned by the Soviet state Even that was not quite what it seemed. His first attempted sale was of a supposedly lost Rembrandt painting called The Circumcision of Christ, which turned out to be a recent fake.Hammer returned to Moscow in 1961. Senator Gore Sr arranged semi-official sponsorship of his trip by the US Commerce Department.He met Nikita Khrushchev, then Soviet leader, but it was 10 years later that he really began to do serious business once again in the Soviet Union. His method of cultivating the Soviet hierarchy differed little from his approach to political leaders in the US.
In Moscow he became a friend of Yakaterina Furtseva, the well-connected Minister of Culture, who soon after began to build a luxurious holiday home for herself. She died in Moscow in 1974 after coming under investigation for corruption. A former associate of Hammer later testified in the US that she was paid a bribe of $100,000. During the same period Hammer also arranged for $54,000 in laundered $100 bills to be paid to the Nixon White House to help finance the Watergate cover-up.Despite the corruption of officials, the Soviet Union got more than its money’s worth from Hammer He genuinely wanted to be seen as an architect of détente.
Before he died, aged 92, he poured enormous sums from Occidental’s coffers into hopelessly uneconomic projects in the Soviet Union. A vast and ugly trade centre, built by Hammer, still rises beside the Moskva river in central Moscow.Not surprisingly Soviet and later Russian leaders – often the same people – favour Mr Gore for the presidency as an associate of their favourite capitalist. Andrei Kortunov, president of the Moscow Science Foundation, and an expert on relations with the US, says: “The traditional establishment likes the Gore family.” On meeting Al Gore Jr in Washington in 1985, he recalls being struck by the senator’s knowledge of the Soviet Union.Mr Gore was right in saying he knows a lot about Russia, but he is hardly likely to publicise the reason why.. Hillary Rodham Clinton was rushing yesterday to reassess her campaign for the United States Senate one day after the man she had thought would be her opponent – New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani – dramatically pulled out and a youthful congressman immediately stepped in. Hillary Rodham Clinton was rushing yesterday to reassess her campaign for the United States Senate one day after the man she had thought would be her opponent – New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani – dramatically pulled out and a youthful congressman immediately stepped in.
Rick Lazio, a Republican Congressman from Long Island, declared his intention to stand less than 24 hours after Mr Guiliani quit.Republican Party support for Mr Lazio, 42, came in almost as soon as he made his formal announcement. “Rick Lazio has the ideas, the energy and the vision to beat Hillary Clinton,” said New York Governor George Pataki, titular head of the party in the state.
Benjamin Gilman, the senior Republican in New York state’s congressional delegation, also endorsed him.Last autumn Mr Lazio threatened a primary challenge to Mr Giuliani but backed off as Republican support solidified behind the mayor as the strongest candidate against Mrs Clinton.He needs to be formally anointed as Republican candidate, but his main opposition for the job, Peter King, also of Long Island, has thrown his support behind Mr Lazio.However, a poll on 16 May showed Mrs Clinton would defeat Mr Lazio by 50 per cent to 31 per cent and she will try to hold on to whatever political advantage the Mayor’s departure might give her.It may be a while before the political ground in New York settles from all the tremors. They began three weeks ago, when Mr Giuliani, 55, revealed he had a treatable form of prostate cancer and warned that his campaign was in peril because of it. Shortly afterwards, he began to drop the marital bombshells, first acknowledging that he had a “very good friend”, who was identified as an Upper East Side pharmaceutical consultant, and then, on 10 May, declaring that he would separate from his wife.For the Republican Party in New York state and nationally, the Mayor’s five-act opera has been both shocking and nerve-racking. The stakes are always high when a seat in the Senate is in play, but never more so than with this race. Many are desperate to keep the First Lady out and ensure the Clinton dynasty is truly consigned to the past.
They thought Mr Giuliani was the man to do it.Pressure of time meant he had to decide what to do this weekend. The state party is only 10 days away from its convention at which the candidate for the senate race must formally be crowned. Now, at least, officials have time to dispose of the thousands of Giuliani placards that have been printed and rush out new versions with the Lazio name.Opinions varied widely yesterday on what the change in landscape will mean for Mrs Clinton. After trailing Mr Giuliani for months in the polls, she had begun in recent weeks to pull ahead of him.And there seems little doubt that the First Lady is better off, at least for now But Mr Lazio could yet prove a strong candidate. He has nothing of the star power of Mrs Clinton or the Mayor. Nor does he have anything like the money that she has to run Or not yet. At the same time, however, he is also free of the negative baggage that weighed down Mr Giuliani, like his reputation for obstinacy and his poor track record with minorities.”All things being equal, I don’t think she should be doing cartwheels, but maybe a few handstands,” said Lee Miringhoff, head of Marist’s College Institute for Public Opinion.