When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Suriname

DSK's New Life, Between Russian Banks And Serbian Hardliners

Strauss-Kahn in a file photo
Strauss-Kahn in a file photo
Alexandre Lévy

BELGRADE – Clean shaven, impeccably dressed in a dark suit and tie, Dominique Strauss-Kahn is back in business. On Sept. 17, France's former Finance Minister and disgraced head of the International Monetary Fund officially accepted a post as economic adviser to the Serbian government.

DSK's hosts in Belgrade had a hard time hiding how proud they were of recruiting such a hotshot economist — starting with the country's First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic: "We are not ashamed to say that he knows much more about economy than all of us. And that in his address book he has more contacts from the world of finance than all of us together."

The 64-year-old will be assisting Serbia"s new finance minister, Lazar Krstic. The 29-year-old Yale prodigy is in charge of relaunching the country's economy and keeping unemployment in check, while at the same time reassuring international financial institutions.

All in all, Strauss-Kahn's private life is of no interest to the Serbians. A couple of days before the Frenchman was nominated as economic adviser, Vucic dismissed questions about DSK's involvement in alleged sexual scandals — which led to his resignation as IMF chief — stressing that the only thing the country was interested in was his competence in economic issues. Still, France had already warned Serbian authorities that Strauss-Kahn's nefarious reputation could potentially be harmful to Serbia's image.

A few months ago, France's Socialist Party (PS) — of which DSK has been a longtime prominent, yet now rather embarrassing member — had even sent out several emissaries to try and dissuade their "Serbian friends" from hiring him.

"The Serbians listened politely, then acted on their own. They wanted DSK — and they got him," a PS official said on condition of anonymity.

Since 2012, Serbia has been governed by a coalition of socialists — allies of late president Slobodan Milosevic — and the center-right, conservative Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). These two parties, although now declaring a push to integrate European values, have sometimes have a hard time convincing their Western partners of their democratic credentials.

Russian lobby

But this time, said Western partners are worried about more than just Serbia's image and reputation. "Rather than go through Bercy France's Ministry of Finance, Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been selected due to the intervention of various Russian energy lobbies present in the Balkans," said an unnamed source familiar with the Serbian-French relations. "This prompted our concerns about the economic interests that could be driving this choice."

Since July, Strauss-Kahn has been a board member of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which belongs to the Vnesheconombank (VEB) — Russia's powerful state development bank, formerly the Bank for foreign trade of the USSR. He is also a member of the Supervisory Board of the Russian Development Bank regions (BRDR), best known for being a subsidiary of the oil giant Rosneft.

Within the Serbian government, the choice has also prompted doubts. Members of the financial arm of the Ministry of the Interior — controlled by Socialist Prime Minister Ivica Dacic, a rival of Aleksandar Vucic — have voiced their concerns about the connections at work behind this appointment.

But the key figure behind Strauss-Kahn's new Serbian posting was in Belgrade on the day the economist accepted the job, quietly mingling with a crowd of overexcited reporters and officials who knew neither his face nor his name: Vladmir Mollov, a Bulgarian-born banker living in Paris, where he heads the very discreet Arjil investment bank.

Until now, few had ever heard of the elegant gray-haired man, or of his work as a mediator — except perhaps in Bulgaria, where he crossed paths with a few local oligarchs, including energy tycoon Hristo Kovatchki, from whom he tried to buy shares in the Sofia Municipal Bank back in 2010. The deal eventually didn't happen because of Kovatchki's involvment in an investigation for alleged tax evasion.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Future

Life On "Mars": With The Teams Simulating Space Missions Under A Dome

A niche research community plays out what existence might be like on, or en route to, another planet.

Photo of a person in a space suit walking toward the ​Mars Desert Research Station near Hanksville, Utah

At the Mars Desert Research Station near Hanksville, Utah

Sarah Scoles

In November 2022, Tara Sweeney’s plane landed on Thwaites Glacier, a 74,000-square-mile mass of frozen water in West Antarctica. She arrived with an international research team to study the glacier’s geology and ice fabric, and how its ice melt might contribute to sea level rise. But while near Earth’s southernmost point, Sweeney kept thinking about the moon.

“It felt every bit of what I think it will feel like being a space explorer,” said Sweeney, a former Air Force officer who’s now working on a doctorate in lunar geology at the University of Texas at El Paso. “You have all of these resources, and you get to be the one to go out and do the exploring and do the science. And that was really spectacular.”

That similarity is why space scientists study the physiology and psychology of people living in Antarctic and other remote outposts: For around 25 years, people have played out what existence might be like on, or en route to, another world. Polar explorers are, in a way, analogous to astronauts who land on alien planets. And while Sweeney wasn’t technically on an “analog astronaut” mission — her primary objective being the geological exploration of Earth — her days played out much the same as a space explorer’s might.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest