As Russian-watcher and ex-Nation blogger Matt Bivens detailed in this space last week, despite the spate of media coverage being devoted to Larry Summers' resignation as Harvard University's President, little, if anything, has been said about Summers' role as deputy treasury secretary in the Clinton Administration in aiding and abetting Russian corruption during the Yeltsin era.
That is, until today, when the New York Times reported that a devastating 18,500 word (22,007 with sidebars) expose in Institutional Investor, "How Harvard Lost Russia," may have led to Summers' downfall. The article, written by award winning journalist David McClintick, chronicled financial improprieties by those in charge of Harvard's Russia project, including Andrei Shleifer, a professor of economics who is a friend and protégé of Dr. Summers's, and Jonathan Hay, a Harvard-trained lawyer. Shleifer, who agreed to pay $2 million in a settlement, has not been subjected to any disclipinary action by Harvard. As the Times reports, "Some Harvard watchers attribute that to Dr. Summers' influence, though he formally recused himself from the matter, and they see the entire affair, assiduously detailed by Mr. McClintick, as an indelible stain on Harvard's reputation."
The Nation has been reporting on this for some time. Click here to read Bivens' piece for the details of Summers' role in Russian corruption which didn't make the New York Times.
Katrina vanden Heuvel
As Russian-watcher and ex-Nation blogger Matt Bivens detailed in this space last week, despite the spate of media coverage being devoted to Larry Summers’ resignation as Harvard University’s President, little, if anything, has been said about Summers’ role as deputy treasury secretary in the Clinton Administration in aiding and abetting Russian corruption during the Yeltsin era.
That is, until today, when the New York Times reported that a devastating 18,500 word (22,007 with sidebars) expose in Institutional Investor, “How Harvard Lost Russia,” may have led to Summers’ downfall. The article, written by award winning journalist David McClintick, chronicled financial improprieties by those in charge of Harvard’s Russia project, including Andrei Shleifer, a professor of economics who is a friend and protégé of Dr. Summers’s, and Jonathan Hay, a Harvard-trained lawyer. Shleifer, who agreed to pay $2 million in a settlement, has not been subjected to any disclipinary action by Harvard. As the Times reports, “Some Harvard watchers attribute that to Dr. Summers’ influence, though he formally recused himself from the matter, and they see the entire affair, assiduously detailed by Mr. McClintick, as an indelible stain on Harvard’s reputation.”
The Nation has been reporting on this for some time. Click here to read Bivens’ piece for the details of Summers’ role in Russian corruption which didn’t make the New York Times.
Katrina vanden HeuvelTwitterKatrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture. An expert on international affairs and US politics, she is an award-winning columnist and frequent contributor to The Guardian. Vanden Heuvel is the author of several books, including The Change I Believe In: Fighting for Progress in The Age of Obama, and co-author (with Stephen F. Cohen) of Voices of Glasnost: Interviews with Gorbachev’s Reformers.