Tycoon (or Oligarch)

This 2002 Russian film starring Vladimir Mashkov could have been a great deal worse. Based loosely on the career of Boris Berezovsky, our oligarch has all the right stuff: with his PhD and piercing blue eyes, he bags the truly fine babes, thinks up schemes to defraud everybody and make big money, and drinks and roars. And he himself never orders anybody killed, which would not be comme il faut. The film, which takes its form from Citizen Kane, preserves some nice ambiguity to the end.

Oh sure, there's plenty of good old look at the crazy irrational Russians stuff. Like the time he sinks a boat for no reason at all. But, after all, that's how Russians are. Right?

In other news, lets all give a Russophile shout out to Uncle Kevin for providing me with this fine video tidbit from the German band Dzhingis Khan, a fine reminder to anyone who ever considered Europe more cultured than America that that opinion was never formed on the basis of pop music.