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Schwarzenegger, in Russia, Visits a Business School

By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ

SKOLKOVO, Russia — Perhaps frustrated by what at times can seem like his own one-man effort to bring his unwieldy country into the 21st century, President Dmitri A. Medvedev on Monday turned to a seasoned fighter of government bureaucracy and other dark forces.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, terminator, governor and now, it seems, innovator, was here in this near suburb of Moscow with a delegation of entrepreneurial heavyweights from Silicon Valley, vowing to do what he could to help pump up Mr. Medvedev’s efforts to modernize Russia.

Mr. Medvedev, an avid blogger, who sent Mr. Schwarzenegger greetings via Twitter when he arrived in Moscow on Sunday, has spoken often about the need to fight corruption, lessen government interference in business and allow greater political competition. This, he has said, will help improve Russia’s business climate, though the project has been long on eloquent speeches and rather short on action, so far.

Mr. Schwarzenegger, joined by executives from Google, Microsoft and other technology companies, called Russia a “gold mine” for foreign investors and praised the Russian president as “a great visionary” and an “action president,” who is on the road to transforming his country — an effort that, of course, might profit by a little American know-how.

“We want to do what we can as Californians and as Americans because it is in our interest to make Russia successful,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said. “We don’t see Russia as an enemy. We see Russia as our friend.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/world/europe/12russia.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print 

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colossal experience...

Real modernization, critics say, will come when the government loosens its grip on the country’s key economic levers while battling corruption and diminishing bureaucracy.

Embarrassingly, similar criticism of Skolkovo and Mr. Medvedev’s modernization drive was recently leveled in the Russian media by Andre Geim, a Russian-born scientist who fled Russia’s crumbling scientific establishment for the West after the Soviet collapse, and this year won the Nobel Prize in physics for his work at the University of Manchester in England.

Mr. Medvedev acknowledged the critics, but pointed to the country’s highly educated population and tremendous resource wealth as the basis for future improvements to be achieved in part with the aid of Silicon Valley.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/world/europe/12russia.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print 

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Gus: ahhh the dilemma... private or governmental corruption?

May Russia manage its improvements without drama, with inspiration, trust and with peace. I sugested in an earlier blog that Russia should turn a city like Vladivostok into the Shanghai of Russia... Meanwhile :

Just how dangerous is California's budget crisis?

Extremely dangerous, according to two recent evaluations of California's debt by financial industry insiders.

California's debt is seen by investors as riskier than Kazakhstan's, according to Bloomberg News. Five-year credit default swaps tied to California's debt, which are a key measure of the market's belief in the likelihood of default, are actually trading at 100 basis points above those of Kazakhstan. In other words, the market believes a developing country of just 15.7 million people is actually less likely to default on its debt than California, which makes up the eighth-largest economy in the world.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/01/californias-debt-now-risk_n_481058.html

a gold mine in silicon implants...

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called President Dmitry Medvedev "a great visionary" and compared Russia to a "gold mine" of business opportunities in comments to a room full of entrepreneurs and journalists in Moscow on Monday.

The 63-year-old bodybuilder and Hollywood star came to the capital to lead the 2010 Silicon Valley trade mission to Russia, bringing along senior management from 28 U.S. companies — including leading IT and energy companies and venture capital firms — as well as State Department officials.

"President Medvedev is a great visionary. He had this vision to create a Silicon Valley in Skolkovo," Schwarzenegger said.

"I love places where there is an extraordinary potential," Schwarzenegger said of Russia. "It's almost like looking at a gold or diamond mine and saying, 'All you got to do is go in there and get it.'"

The Kremlin has been pushing the development of the Skolkovo innovation city, just outside Moscow, as a way to diversify Russia's economy and encourage foreign investment from high-tech companies.

The project is being developed by billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, who told reporters on Monday that investments in Skolkovo could reach 200 billion rubles ($6.7 billion) over the next three to five years. Under the investment plan, which "still hasn't been approved by anyone," 50 percent of the funding would come from the Russian state and the rest from investors, Vekselberg said, Interfax reported.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/schwarzenegger-lauds-gold-mine/419696.html

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