America's Turning Its Alliances Into a Protection Racket
While living in Moscow in the 1990s, the one unchallenged certainty in a time of chaos was that no business could operate for long without a Krisha, or roof, right down to the little English language bookstore my wife ran for while. This was the Russian euphemism for a protection racket, and Ukraine and Europe are now finding out what it can mean.
A Krisha didn't necessarily have to look or behave like a mafia boss from The Godfather. Once the publishing company I worked for as the editor of a Moscow newspaper started making money, for example, it sold a 10% stake to a Russian conglomerate that was trying to clean up its image in the West. The arrangement was civilized, except when it wasn't, but the purpose was clear.
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