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A Russian couple who've made St. John's home say that, despite the big protests, Russia isn't ready for democracy.

Born in the East, the couple came to this province as refugees.

They say they're happy raising their family in St. John's, but life in the old USSR was ideal.

"People lived peaceful life, had jobs, travelled around the country," said Olga Dudko, who came to St. John's 10 years ago. "We had everything."

After the fall of the USSR, there was no security. "Criminal minds, they basically took over the entire country," Sergey Chudinov said.

Dudko and Chudinov left the USSR separately but met in St. John's.

Chudinov is from a fishing community is Northern Russia, a place called the Kola Peninsula.

When he arrived in this province he worked as a fisherman off Newfoundland's shores for 15 years before driving a taxi to spend more time at home. The couple has two boys.

They say when President Vladimir Putin took power in 2000 life in Russia improved. He stayed as on as president until 2008, but that was as much as the constitution allowed at the time.

In the recent election, Putin ran for an unprecedented third term. He won with 64 per cent of the vote, but has been accused of election fraud.

Excerpt from:
Russian expats question democracy in their homeland

Western workers are the civilian mercenaries of Africa. They are easy to spot in the continent's airports. Generally white and casually dressed, they travel in groups of three or four. They often seem to speak with Scottish accents and have little or no hand luggage, except possibly an iPad. And they are such seasoned travellers that they are generally the last to leave the bar when the flight is called.

"You do it for the money and only for a few years,'' said a Scottish welder I met recently at Luanda airport in Angola. All he knew of the country was the international airport and a hotel nearby where he had stayed while waiting for his helicopter transfer to the rig.

He works a 30/30 schedule: non-stop, 12 hours a day for 30 days, followed by a month off for 40,000 per year. That is the favoured work rhythm of employed oil workers who are a long way from home. Others work short stints for different companies as freelance contractors.

The untrained, entry-level staff, with no qualifications can expect to earn about 100 a day, but skilled staff can expect much more: senior construction project managers can pocket as much as 150,000 a year for their work, often much more than they could earn at home. In Nigeria, a project manager can take home 65,000 for helping to build hotels, according to one careers website yesterday.

The welder, a single man, said the best and worst aspect of his work was the monotony: jobs are narrowly defined for safety reasons but there also few surprises: "No bills to pay, no everyday dramas to deal with. They are waiting for me back home,'' he said. He was travelling back to Britain with a pipe fitter, a mechanic and a scaffolder, all working the same shift pattern.

Sites housing hundreds of expat specialists have everything: internet, swimming pool, gym and satellite television. Accommodation is five-star and is kept functioning by an army of housekeepers, plumbers and galley hands.

The downside is that the work takes place in remote and often dangerous regions where they risk being kidnapped or worse, as this week's events showed.

The companies involved are expected to provide security for their workers, but as message boards suggested yesterday, some areas of Africa, particularly Nigeria, remain highly dangerous for expat workers.

"I spent three months in Somalia two years ago and if u [sic] think Iraq is dangerous Somalia is much worse... The Niger Delta isn't much better. Having worked a lot in Africa I would advise u [sic] to think very carefully about going there at all," said one blogger.

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The expats: 'No bills, no everyday dramas' – until the unthinkable happens

A City law firm is warning of an "increasingly aggressive" approach by HMRC to investigations into high-earner contracts, including those awarded to expats in the banking sector

New rules concerning so-called "disguised remuneration" have been introduced to prevent people avoiding tax on income by having money paid into Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs). Law firms now fear that public sentiment towards high-earners is encouraging tax inspectors to take an aggressive stance against disguised remuneration, even on legitimate contract structures.

"Many expats will have benefitted from Employee Benefit Trusts, or other income tax planning arrangements, and assumed that they have no risk of a personal liability. However, in some cases employees will not be insulated from HMRC enquiries and claims, so will be at risk," said Damian Bloom, tax partner at law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP).

The recent investigation into Glasgow Rangers shows that HMRC is taking a much tougher line on the use of Employee Benefit Trusts to pay high earners, a practice that is in widespread use among banks and hedge funds in particular.

BLP believes that nearly 300 similar investigations are currently underway across a broad range of sectors, not just limited to the sporting world. Tax inspectors are using new powers of investigation to crawl through structures set up years ago and accepted at the time as legitimate tax planning.

Rangers used EBTs to pay players' wages into offshore trusts in order to avoid national insurance. HMRC is claiming that because the EBT was written into employees contracts, it is not discretionary and found the club owed 43 million in tax, forcing the club into administration. The potential penalties for banks and funds could be significantly higher.

"There has also been a worrying shift in attitude by HMRC in a number of civil investigations it is using language normally reserved for criminals, which is symptomatic of its increasingly aggressive approach," said Neal Todd, another tax partner at BLP.

The firm is currently working on a case defending a banking client against a charge of disguised remuneration. The outcome of that case will determine whether or not other firms employing expats are at risk of similar sanctions.

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Tax warning to expats in banking sector

By Jeff Ayers Associated Press

The Expats

By Chris Pavone

(Crown)

Chris Pavone channels spy-fiction superstars Robert Ludlum and John le Carre in his amazing first novel, The Expats.

Kate Moore leaves her double life as a wife and mother and a covert operative in the CIA when her husband, Dexter, gets a new job in Luxembourg. She tries to be a stay-at-home mom (her husband had no idea of her job working for the CIA), and although her former bosses aren't concerned, she's worried that her past will come back to haunt her.

Soon her new life as an expat begins to unravel.

Kate meets a friendly pair from America, and the two couples start spending time together. Dexter practically lives at the office and becomes increasingly obsessed with work. Bored and a bit concerned Kate's old instincts kick in, and she begins to investigate her husband and their new friends. It doesn't take long for her to discover that Dexter's job isn't what she thought it is, and that he might be responsible for the theft of a huge sum of money. Kate also discovers evidence that the American couple are assassins and that she and Dexter are their next targets.

The Expats is a skillful and atmospheric descent into paranoia. Kate's journey as her life falls apart is compelling, and the novel is impossible to put down. Pavone invokes memories of the great writers of spy fiction of the past, and he has the chops to be mentioned with the best of them.

Online:

See the original post here:
Review: ‘The Expats’ an excellent spy thriller

"The Expats" (Crown), by Chris Pavone: Chris Pavone channels spy-fiction superstars Robert Ludlum and John le Carre in his amazing first novel, "The Expats."

Kate Moore leaves her double life as a wife and mother and a covert operative in the CIA when her husband, Dexter, gets a new job in Luxembourg. She tries to be a stay-at-home mom (her husband had no idea of her job working for the CIA), and though her former bosses aren't concerned, she's worried that her past will come back to haunt her.

Soon her new life as an expat begins to unravel.

Kate meets a friendly pair from America, and the two couples start spending time together. Dexter practically lives at the office and becomes increasingly obsessed with work. Bored and a bit concerned Kate's old instincts kick in, and she begins to investigate her husband and their new friends. It doesn't take long for her to discover that Dexter's job isn't what she thought it is, and that he might be responsible for the theft of a huge sum of money. Kate also discovers evidence that the American couple are assassins and that she and Dexter are their next targets.

"The Expats" is a skilful and atmospheric descent into paranoia. Kate's journey as her life falls apart is compelling, and the novel is impossible to put down. Pavone invokes memories of the great writers of spy fiction of the past, and he has the chops to be mentioned with the best of them.

___

Online:

http://www.chrispavone.com/

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Review: 'The Expats' by Chris Pavone is skilful and atmospheric descent into paranoia