Writes Anne Williamson:

Lew, though Oleg Deripaska’s suggestion of the possibility of Russia reconstructing the Trans-Siberian Railroad as an Asia-Europe goods transport alternative to the Suez Canal and even China’s Silk Road is most welcome, he should not be credited with the idea. 

  My old friend, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, laid it all out for me in 1992!  He was passionate about the possibilities; a project that would work as a grand national effort that would unify the people and employ them in desperate times, and engage the former Soviet republics all the while delivering infrastructure that would transform Russia’s international profile and economic position.  Of course, the American-selected drunkard Yeltsin was not the man for the job, his ‘advisors’ focused instead on the US scheme of a wonky and sordid privatization the Americans planned to exploit.

  A pity that…think how different Russia’s situation would be today had the project moved forward and quite possibly been completed before China gained WTO admission.  They’d be the catbird seat!  -A.