The Russians have a term for boorish behavior, nyekulturny, uncultured. And the word fits the behavior of the new international Russian oligarchs and friends of Putin.
New York Medicaid, a program for the poor, was used by Russian diplomats from the UN Delegation, the Consulate-General, and the trade delegation to avoid having to pay for prenatal care and delivery of their babies. The NYC Attorney-General is trying to claw back the costs from diplomats who also spent wildly on luxury goods from Prada and Cartier with some of the money they cheated the city out of.
In London meanwhile, Russians took over the Royal Albert Hall. The Cromwell Road was full of Bentleys dropping off gorgeously gowned and bejewelled debs coming to the fete celebrating the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Romanoff dynasty. They were welcomed by a blessing from a Russian Orthodox Archimandrite in gorgeous vestments and by a speech from the Russian ambassador. Then the lovelies and their selected escorts bowed and curtsied before some contendor before dancing the night away and swilling champagne just as if Lenin had never removed the decadent Tsars. Our reporter on the event called it bizarre. I call it nyekulturny.
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*Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), AKA Scotiabank, the last big lender to report on Q4 (to Oct. 31, a traditional close-of-fiscal-year date for Canadian and German banks), said profits rose 12% thanks to its takeover of ING Groep’s Canadian business which led to record earnings in consumer loans to Canadians. It also gained from money management business. Net BNS income for the fiscal climbed to C$1.7 bn (cUS$1.6 bn), or C$1.30 a share, from C$1.52 bn, or C$1.18, a year earlier, missing by a loony penny. However, adjusted earnings, excluding some items, met the C$1.31 average estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
ING, an online bank (bought in Nov. 2012) added about 1.8 mn customers and will now be renamed “Tangerine”, saving money because ING used orange as its identifier color. Earnings from Scotiabank’s wealth-management unit jumped 9.7% from higher mutual-fund and insurance revenue and because rising equity markets increased assets.
