[temujin]

Any of you guys know who Mark Ames is?

He's an American expat who founded The Exile in Moscow, which was a newspaper focused mostly on stories about Slavic pussy, whores, and clueless American expats & their bumbling "reforms" in 1990s to early 2000 Russia.

Here's a sample of the stuff he used to write:

http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?...=35&PAGE=1

And here's a great book detailing what it was like during those days when Moscow/Russia was flowing with easy pussy:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Exile-Drugs-Li...0802136524


You may know him more recently from his Rolling Stones pieces going after banksters, Goldman Sachs, and his general belief that the US is a soulless slave colony filled with people who don't quite realize they're slaves.


I find it interesting that he's now 46, MARRIED no less, to a Russian journalist, and recently moved to New York City.

He's really the last guy I would have thought to be married and living in the states. I wonder what happened.

Old age mellowed him out? Did he run out of money and decide to hustle for cash back in the states? Did Russia get "too expensive" for expats like him and he got depressed seeing his "socioeconomic/sexual value" plummet among Russian women? Or did he simply fall in love and see it as his greater purpose to expose the fraud & corruption inherent in the US financial system?

[Icarus]

(08-07-2012 12:52 PM)temujin Wrote:  

Any of you guys know who Mark Ames is?

There are a few fans of Ames on RVF. I even started a thread last month on Ames' legendary Whore-R Stories.

(08-07-2012 12:52 PM)temujin Wrote:  

You may know him more recently from his Rolling Stones pieces going after banksters, Goldman Sachs, and his general belief that the US is a soulless slave colony filled with people who don't quite realize they're slaves.

I think you're confusing Mark Ames with Matt Taibbi. Ames is now writing at The eXiled, and occasionally showing up on MSNBC. Taibbi is the one writing articles on Rolling Stone attacking Goldman Sachs.

(08-07-2012 12:52 PM)temujin Wrote:  

I find it interesting that he's now 46, MARRIED no less, to a Russian journalist, and recently moved to New York City. He's really the last guy I would have thought to be married and living in the states. I wonder what happened. Old age mellowed him out? Did he run out of money and decide to hustle for cash back in the states? Did Russia get "too expensive" for expats like him and he got depressed seeing his "socioeconomic/sexual value" plummet among Russian women? Or did he simply fall in love and see it as his greater purpose to expose the fraud & corruption inherent in the US financial system?

None of the above. Putin ran out of patience with Ames and finally closed down The eXile in 2008. That is why Ames started The eXiled. He went to Russia in the early 1990s because he did not feel at home in the U.S., he attained fame in Russia, and then got kicked out. He's an American who feels Russian who happens to be in exile since Putin kicked him out of his adoptive country.

[temujin]

Yeah, my bad. I did get those guys confused on the Goldman Sachs stuff.

I had no idea Ames got expelled from Russia. But if he has cash flow, I'm sure he could have gone to any number of neighboring countries (Kazahkstan, Ukraine, Poland, Baltics, Moldova, etc). So why back to the states with a Russian wife?

[Icarus]

(08-07-2012 02:57 PM)temujin Wrote:  

I had no idea Ames got expelled from Russia. But if he has cash flow, I'm sure he could have gone to any number of neighboring countries (Kazahkstan, Ukraine, Poland, Baltics, Moldova, etc). So why back to the states with a Russian wife?

I think Ames exaggerated a lot when he told his version of the story of the end of The eXile. Yes, the Russian government did intervene. Was it Putin? Maybe. I think that after 11 years or so, he was just tired of doing the same thing. Moscow in 2008 was no longer the exciting and dangerous place it was in 1998. And running that newspaper was a constant emotional roller coaster: the sponsors withdrawing their funding due to the scandals Ames & Co created, the death threats, the PC lynch mobs in the U.S. trying to censor them. Living like that is exhausting after a few years. Once the initial excitement has worn off, it becomes a painful routine.

I do not know Ames personally, so I am only speculating here. The following articles on The eXile may provide more answers than my speculations:

The unlikely life and sudden death of The Exile, Russia’s angriest newspaper (2010)

Eleven years of threats: The eXile's incredible journey (2008)

From Russia with malice (2001)

Trenchant Warfare! How a kid from the Silicon Valley suburbs made Moscow squirm (2000)

In Moscow's The eXile, hard news jumps in bed with misogyny and mayhem (2000)

The eXile: from Russia with lust (2000)

Why didn't Ames move to the Baltics? Maybe because he would be lynched over there due to articles like these:

Burn, Baltics, Burn! (2007)

Latvia: more than just Russophobic Nazis (2006)