As governor of the appallingly run Primorsky Krai (Maritime Territory) of Russia's Far East, he is a living symbol of the problems facing foreign companies in Russia.

ECONOMIST: Russia and America try to make up | The

In Mr Yeltsin's time, attempts to bring under control the far-eastern Maritime Territory foundered when the local armed forces turned out to be under the thumb of the fearsomely idiosyncratic provincial governor.

ECONOMIST: The chaos at the door

Traffic at the Kwai Chung terminal, for instance, was up by 12.8% in the first quarter compared with the same period in 2002, according to the territory's Port and Maritime Board.

ECONOMIST: On a roll