Front companies; a rigged auction; a swanky government dacha; a kickback to a friendly oligarch: the allegations that emerged last week involving a former prime minister had all the usual Russian ingredients. In most places, the potential exposure of crooked, powerful men in a woefully corrupt country might be seen as good news. But in Russia, where most people assume that all powerful men are crooked, the question is not "How did he get away with it?" but "Why him?" Mikhail Kasyanov was Russia's prime minister for four years, until he was sacked by President Vladimir Putin in February 2004. He is one of those plausible, English-speaking Russian politicians who is better liked abroad than at home. In Russia he is remembered partly as a friend of the "oligarchs", partly also for his time as a foreign-debt negotiator and finance minister under Boris Yeltsin, Mr Putin's predecessor. In that period he acquired the derogatory sobriquet "Misha 2%".
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