Issue #24/49, October 10 - 22, 1998  

It's been nearly two months since the Russian government first devalued the ruble and defaulted on its ruble-denominated debt, triggering the nation's worst financial crisis of the post-Soviet era. As the political fallout continues to reverberate, senior Russian officials who were in power when the crisis hit-including President Yeltsin and then deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov-have begun to distance themselves from the government's decision in August to give up the ruble.

While Russian politicians are scrambling to avoid blame for the present crisis, senior American policy makers have been embroiled in a similar debate: Who Lost Russia?

From newspaper editorials to senate hearings to academic debates on internet newsgroups, the question of who is to blame for allowing Russia to fall into the abyss may shape the future makeup of the next generation of foreign policymakers.

Many blame the IMF's stringent policy of tight budgets and stable currencies, known as "monetarism," for leading Russia down a path of ruin-a policy that the Clinton Administration staunchly backed even after the collapse. But while the pro-IMF camp, Clinton Administration included, concedes that some mistakes were made, they argue that in the end, America had no choice but to support Yeltsin.

That all changed yesterday, when the FBI and Interpol officials made a startling announcement at a noontime press conference. According to an indictment filed yesterday, both U.S. and international law enforcement officials believe they have found the answer to the burning question of "Who Lost Russia," and his name is James Fullmorningwood Campbell, a fugitive believed to be hiding out on the Navajo Indian reservation. Fullmorningwood Campbell, the nephew of U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, is wanted in Utah on two counts of attempted tapping dating back to 1994. The tapping charges were filed after a tourist complained to federal authorities that Fullmorningwood Campbell, 19, had repeatedly solicited him to purchase a 12-pack of beer from a Save-On store, offering to let the tourist keep the change for his services. Tapping is a capital offense in Utah.

Russians reacted with outrage to the news. A headline in the liberal Izvestiya newspaper proclaimed "Last Mohican Sinks The Motherland", while the popular tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets lead with the headline, "Is Any Race More Stupid Than Ours?"

The highly influential English-language daily Moscow Times ran a blistering editorial of its own, summing up the views of shocked expatriates: "US Must Capture, Prosecute Criminal." Editor Geoff Winestock, who was named in the indictment as an unwitting accomplice of Fullmorningwood Campbell's, admonished "lax security and financial controls" and "failed IMF policies". "While no one can dispute the many grievances that Native Americans have suffered, including the theft of their lands and genocide of their people, this does not give them the right to unilaterally seek justice.

"History shows that when a people fights back against wrongs it has suffered, then the other people suffers. This must not be allowed to happen. US law enforcement agencies must strictly control and monitor the future movements of all Native American peoples who refuse to be fully integrated into the global economy.

"Finally, Jim Fullmorningwood Campbell must be punished with the full force of the law."

The enigmatic teenager surprised many who knew him by the scope of his actions. Fullmorningwood Campbell dropped out of a Las Cruces, New Mexico high school when he was 15 and found work as a roadie for Pantera during the second leg of the group's "Vulgar Display of Power" tour. A spokesman for the group described Fullmorningwood Campbell as a "quiet type" who never asked questions, although he did display a keen interest in global capital flows and emerging markets.

"He was an okay guy, you know," said Pantera spokesman Ricky Nere. "He never bothered anyone, he never nigger-lipped your bone, and he did pretty much most of what he was told. I guess the weird part was that he always like trying to talk to people about the contradictions inherent in the global capital markets. We thought he was nuts, wigging out on all this political-economy stuff. And he always had this thing about the IMF. I guess he equated them with the people who stole his ancestors' land or whatever-he's an Indian and all, so I guess he had this chip on his shoulder. I just figured, hey, he's a kid. Let him work it off, you know?"

Nere said that by the end of the tour, Fullmorningwood Campbell became obsessed with "setting off a world financial crisis and renewing the cold war" to avenge his ancestors, but Nere never believed that the spindly teenager meant what he said. "You know, you see this little Injun kid-and I don't mean that disparagingly or anything, but here he is tuning guitars and lifting tipped mike stands, so it's pretty hard to take it seriously when he shows you these huge binders full of weird math equations and scribblings about how he'll be able to trigger a crisis in the next few years. I mean, to us, he was just Little Woody. We used to tease him about that, about having a little red woody, about how we were cowboys and we were gonna rape his mamma and all. He took it well, I think."

Fullmorningwood Campbell left the Pantera organization in late 1993, and from there he took several odd jobs in roadside diners, service stations, and once, as a page boy for Barney Frank, a job arranged with the help of his uncle after he was elected senator of Colorado.

"Oh, Jimmy was just great," brags the Massachusetts congressman. "He'd do any little chore I asked him to. No task was too small or too big for him." But Frank admits now that there were signs that the troubled youth was brewing nefarious plans. "He used to ask me a lot of questions about hedge funds and Russia's capital markets. He often tried to convince me to lean on the folks at USAID and the IMF to pressure the Russians to open wide their capital markets, to allow foreign money and aid to play a larger and larger role. He was always on the phone with people when I was sleeping. I had no idea what I was getting into, frankly. I actually felt sorry for the kid, and let him sleep on my couch."

Fullmorningwood Campbell soon quit his job working for Frank, spending the last two years temping odd jobs around the Southwest and watching an enormous amount of television. No longer the spindly headbanger, Fullmorning-wood Campbell is said to have put on 65 pounds in the last year alone. A 850-page indictment issued by a secret grand jury detailed how Fullmorningwood Campbell rented an average of three movies a day from a Blockbuster Video outlet near Falstaff, Arizona. Somehow, he was able to parlay that experience into a web of unparalleled influence and intrigue, successfully amending congressional foreign aid bills and bending IMF and World Bank policymakers to his will.

"Fullmorningwood Campbell had people like [former World Bank head for Russia] Charles Blitzer wrapped around his little finger," said Ed Steed, assistant manager of the Falstaff Radio Shack. Steed worked with Fullmorningwood Campbell for over three months before he left. "He had all kinds of people-big names like Michael McFaul and Geoff Winestock-eating out of his hand, spreading crazy rumors about how Russia was on the road to success and all. It was like he hypnotized them. He used to tell me all this stuff when we'd go to the bar for a few beers after work. Woody really dug beer, you know."

By late last year, Fullmorningwood Campbell is reported to have told an acquaintance of his, TCBY shift manager Mike Izumi, that all the elements were in place for completing the destruction of the Russian financial system, and thus, the Clinton Administration's entire Russia policy. When the markets finally collapsed in August, Fullmorningwood apparently was "ecstatic," according to friends, and decided to spend a long weekend in Salt Lake City to celebrate. That's when authorities issued a warrant for his arrest for attempted tapping outside the Save-On at the Polygamy Gardens shopping center, an offense which carries a mandatory sentence of 600 hours of community service work assisting Salt Lake City's burgeoning Christian rock scene.

Further investigation of the fugitive led a consortium of law enforcement officials on a trail straight to the highest echelons of power and finance, and ultimately, to the collapse of the Russian economy.

"We filed documents with a secret grand jury that was convened owing to the sensitive nature of the case," said FBI spokesman Jerry Phaggit. "Our main task now is to find Mr. Fullmorningwood Campbell and bring him to justice." When asked how the fugitive was able to operate with such impunity for so long, Phaggit replied, "Now, of course, the whole operation looks obvious with 20-20 hindsight: a dropout Native American high school kid manipulating world financial markets. But at the time, we couldn't have anticipated it."

An attorney representing Fullmorningwood Campbell issued a statement only hours later, blasting the FBI's handling of the case. "It will be impossible for my client to receive a fair trial in America," said attorney Moe Snideman. "That is why I am asking that his trial be moved to Libya."

According to Interpol deputy liaison officer Jean-Jacques Kleinfeldt, the various law enforcement agencies have been coordinating their efforts and have launched the world's most intensive manhunt ever.

"Records from the Falstaff Blockbuster Video indicate that only yesterday, the suspect rented two films-Porky's 2: The Next Day and Another Stakeout. The films are due back tomorrow, and we hope to apprehend the suspect when he returns them."

Phaggit said that punishment could include extraditing the suspect to Utah where he could be forced to serve a roadie in the upcoming month-long "Apostles Of Rock III" festival in Provo.

When asked by reporters if they really expected the highly elusive young man to return the films, both Kleinfeldt and Phaggit sounded confident. "There's a late charge every day he doesn't return those films. Trust us, he'll return them. And when he does, we'll be there."