“The Wild Wild East” | topic: Russia, Moscow in the 1990s | a conversation with Matthew Roazen

Matthew Roazen, lawyer, and Russian history & linguistics expert, who lived in Russia for 16 years talks about his time in Moscow during the 1990s and 2000s. This is part one of a 2 part conversation with Matthew about what things are like in the country with the largest landmass in the world. We talk about his time managing a blues band in Moscow, the beginning of the perceived western bonanza there in the 1990s and why business was so keen on the newly “freed” Russian populace. We touch on the beginnings of the oligarchy and how Matthew saw it emerge.

References