The New York Press 9/7/99 “….If you thought comedy was dead, you obviously haven’t heard of Strobe Talbott, the State Dept.’s factotum where Russian affairs are concerned. The Strobe used to be a Time hack, a man who took, and continues to take, himself extremely seriously. The reason I find him so funny is simple. There is no bigger mess than Russia right now, but the Strobe, who should have resigned in shame five years ago, remains unaffected by the intrusion of fact and continues to bang on endlessly. If the Strobe were a politician, I would understand. Politicians have no shame, no honor and are as likely to fall on their sword as Hillary and Bill Clinton are to tell the truth. But the Strobe is a hack, and he should know better. The great swindle that is Russia took place under his watch, and as William Pfaff wrote in The Los Angeles Times, “Ambition was involved... Strobe Talbott wanted the reputation of an important influence on reform in Russia, a country that always intrigued him.” But let’s not be too beastly with the Strobe. He is only a Clinton-Gore catamite, yet another bald-faced phony working for the most corrupt administration since Huey Long bit the bullet. The real criminals are the Draft Dodger and the Bore. Here’s William Pfaff again: “Bill’s friendship with Boris, and Al’s with Victor Chernomyrdin, served to identify them in the eyes of voters as patrons of the new Russia and as men of state. They used American resources to keep friend Boris Yeltsin in power-itself an inducement to corruption.” I don’t think there has ever been a greater swindle in the history of the world. While visiting the Riviera last year I saw firsthand the scale of it. Sixty percent of all luxury yachts priced at more than $5 million belonged to Russians; 65 percent of luxury villas renting out at more than $100,000 per month were taken by guess who. Fifty percent of the clientele of the most expensive hotels in the area were Russkies. (Ironically, the house I used to rent on Cap d’Antibes, Les Cloches, included by F. Scott Fitzgerald in Tender is the Night, later on Irwin Shaw’s favorite rental on the Riviera, is now owned by, according to some reports, Victor Chernomyrdin, as part of the Chateau de la Garoupe property that he reputedly paid for in cash to the tune of 70 million greenbacks!)
that must have been Taki....I remember him saying disparaging things about Talbot.