Should it come at any surprise that Russia’s most wealthy woman, Yelena Baturina, the wife of former Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, should wake up to the news today that the offices of her company Inteko were being raided by dozens of machine-gun wielding security officers?  Why on earth the Russian authorities always seem to insist on conducting these raids armed to the teeth, implying violence, is beyond me.

The rapid collapse of Baturina’s real estate empire has been in the works for the past year, helped in no small part by the ouster of her husband and protector, and may in fact be rooted in the over-leveraging financial bubble of 2008.  Last September we indicated that Alexander Bastrykin of the Investigative Committee would likely oversee the the destruction and corporate raiding of Inteko, and perhaps the delay could perhaps be explained by some disputes over who would reap the spoils. 

[Also as a sidenote, Baturina successfully sued Forbes magazine in a libel case for 136,000 rubles.  Forbes had apparently written two objectionable words in the magazine, which claimed that Inteko may have benefited from undue influence from state organs.  If Bastrykin’s case against Baturina goes forward, will the magazine get its money refunded?]