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The value of personal experience
It's rare that I read something about Barack Obama which I had not already seen:
Barack Obama's last visit to Russia,
as a senator in 2005, did not end so well. He was detained by the
security services at an airport near Siberia for three hours, locked in
a lounge, his passport confiscated, like a scene from a John le Carré novel.
The Russians later called it a “misunderstanding.”
Posted by Tyler Cowen on July 5, 2009 at 10:23 AM in Political Science, Travels | Permalink
Comments
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Ran afoul of the ex-KGB mafiya, eh?
Is it too late to nuke them?
.
Posted by: cosanostradamus at Jul 5, 2009 12:02:26 PM
That Larry chap, he who was too odious even for Harvard; didn't he have some connection to one of the looters of Russia? And now he's O's Treasury Secretary. Still, you could argue that he's even-handed, being well connected to the looters of the USA.
Posted by: dearieme at Jul 5, 2009 2:29:13 PM
Similar point made in the Economist:
THE last time Barack Obama was in Russia, he and Senator Dick Lugar were detained by border guards for several hours at an airport in the Urals, where they were looking at how American funds were helping to get rid of stocks of dangerous Soviet-era weapons.
http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=13944748
Posted by: Jeff H. at Jul 5, 2009 3:06:49 PM
Maybe Barack Obama is Chechnyan for Ted Kennedy.
Posted by: Andrew at Jul 5, 2009 3:32:05 PM
Too bad they didn't keep him a few years longer. :-)
Posted by: snark at Jul 5, 2009 4:14:51 PM
Foreign policy based on fits of pique and grudges. Well, at least he's on the right side of this struggle between liberty and tyranny...
Posted by: Vernunft at Jul 5, 2009 4:18:28 PM
An airport NEAR Siberia?
Posted by: Frank at Jul 5, 2009 5:25:26 PM
Perhaps they suspected his birth certificate was fake.
Posted by: Alex Tabarrok at Jul 5, 2009 5:33:14 PM
Ditto Snark
Posted by: BenLurkin at Jul 5, 2009 9:17:16 PM
Double Ditto, Snark
Posted by: Phil at Jul 5, 2009 11:26:24 PM
Personally, I think Juicy Jewelry should be kept in an airport holding facility "near" Siberia.
Posted by: Barkley Rosser at Jul 6, 2009 3:09:08 AM
What is the "value of personal experience"? Obama's personal experience that Russians will often assume a well-dressed foreign black man must be a wealthy criminal?
Being stopped by the police or other officials in Russia for a document check (and sometimes a bribe, or very rarely a brief detention) is an experience many foreigners will have. But it is much more likely if you have darker skin.
Posted by: Karina at Jul 6, 2009 5:19:08 PM
