Is Russia at last facing up to its image problems?

Is Russia at last facing up to its image problems?
To attract foreign investors, the country must try to shake off comparisons with the Wild West. Paul Lashmar, James Mawson and Adrian Gatton report
Independent on Sunday
30 March 2003
On Tuesday morning, as the extravagant Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky makes his first appearance in the oak-panelled dock at Bow Street Magistrates Court in central London, just down the road in Westminster, the Russian Economic Forum will open with great fanfare. These two entirely coincidental events could not more starkly present the two contrasting faces of Russia on the international business stage.

How To Rob a Bank

How To Rob a Bank
Channel 4 Television
17 March 2003

Part-two of the history of organised crime and armed robbery. Includes interviews with retired armed robbers Bernie Kahn, Freddie Foreman, Bob Long, Albert Reading, Jack Murton, Frank Cook, and police and security specialists. The film shows how Chinese puzzles and medieval convents influenced innovations in the design of armoured cash vans. Read here for a detailed description of the programmes. Copies of the programmes are available via RDF Media.

Associate Producers: Adrian Gatton; James Oliver
Consultant: Paul Lashmar
Producer/Director: Jonathan Jones
Executive Producer: Steve Boulton



The angle grinder or 'chainsaw' technique (pictured), a popular technique for robbing armoured vans in the 1970s, bypassing the ever more secure doors.

Spearmint Rhino dances to £1.75m

Spearmint Rhino dances to £1.75m
By Jonathan Prynn and Adrian Gatton
Evening Standard
14th March, 2003
Club makes profits of £3 a minute..read

How To Rob a Bank

How To Rob a Bank
Channel 4 Television
10 March 2003

First part of the history of organised crime and armed robbery. Includes interviews with former armed robbers Albert Reading, Freddie Foreman, Bruce Reynolds, Frank Cook, Jack Murton and Bernie Kahn as well as police and security specialists. Read here for a detailed description of the programmes. Copies of the programmes are available via RDF Media.

Associate Producers: Adrian Gatton; James Oliver
Consultant: Paul Lashmar
Producer/Director: Jonathan Jones
Executive Producer: Steve Boulton



Bernie Kahn (pictured), a former member of the notorious 'chainsaw gang' that staged a series of daring armoured van robberies in the late 1970s.