The star of Mikhail Cherny is slowly but surely setting. In all countries where he would rush ‘to do business.’ In all projects which he would start. Possessing a huge fortune, he becomes friends with the ‘wrong people,’ gets mixed in economic and political shady enterprises. His associatesand ‘apprentices’ went in other directions, but those who succeeded, I should note, didn’t take his path. Only Iskander Makhmudov, ‘my most faithful friend,’ as Mikhail Semyonovich himself described him, is still holding Cherny’s hand.

Policemen of various countries know his photo by heart. He is prohibited to enter civilised countries. He can’t manage to win it back, as it was done in his favourite sport football. ‘Back to the USSR’ is impossible already, just as it is impossible to return to the age of TWG. And deprivation of citizenship in his historical native land is also at hand.

‘Sic transit Gloria mundi’* (That’s how worldly glory passes), – said Thomas à Kempis in the 15th century. It is the beginning of the 21st century now, but this aphorism is still true.

As the final word, here is a phrase from the American report about Mikhail Cherny, which started this chapter: ‘However smart, opportunistic and ruthless they are, most of them has lost almost everything in terms of political influence, wealth, credibility and power.’

The recent years of Mikhail Cherny’s life and his unsuccessful projects prove that quite well. There will be no battle of Moscow 2008.