French socialist politician, representative of the moderate wing of the Socialist Party. Since November 1, 2007 - Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. Former Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry (1997-1999), Junior Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade (1991-1993). Former mayor of the city of Sarcelles (1995-1997). Member of the National Assembly, first elected in 1986. Applied for the nomination of the Socialist candidate in the 2007 presidential election, but lost to Segolene Royal.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn was born on April 25, 1949 in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine (Department Hauts-de-Seine, or Upper Seine). In 1955, the Strauss-Kahn family settled in Morocco, but in 1960, after a strong earthquake occurred there, they returned to Europe and settled in Monaco.
Strauss-Kahn studied at the Paris Higher School of Commerce (Hautes etudes commerciales, HEC) and the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Institut d "etudes politiques de Paris, Sciences Po). He received a diploma in public law, a doctorate in economics. He taught economics in higher education institutions: from 1977 to 1980 at the University of Nancy-II (Universite Nancy-II), since 1981 - at the University of Paris X in Nanterre (Universite Paris X Nanterre). Later he also taught at HEC, the National School of Management (Ecole nationale d " administration, ENA), Sciences Po.
In the 1970s, Strauss-Kahn made his political debut as a socialist. Since 1974, he collaborated with the Center for Socialist Studies, Research and Education (Centre d'etudes, de recherche et d'education socialiste, CERES), led by Jean-Pierre Chevenment, Alain Gomez and Georges Sar (Georges Sarre).
In 1982, Strauss-Kahn was appointed Vice Commissioner of the General Planning Commissariat. In the same year, he published L'Epargne et la Retraite (Savings and Retraite), co-authored with Denis Kessler, future vice president of the Mouvement des entreprises de France (MEDEF), and at the time, an ultra-left activist.
In 1986, Strauss-Kahn ran for the National Assembly for the Socialist Party (Parti socialiste, PS) as a candidate for the department of Haute-Savoie. He won, and in 1988 he was elected from another department - Val d'Oise. Subsequently, he was re-elected many times, sat in parliament from 1986 to 1991, in 1997, then from 2001.
From 1988 to 1991, Strauss-Kahn was chairman of the parliamentary commission on finance, and in 1991 he joined the government. Until 1993, he served as Junior Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade under the Minister of Economy, Finance and Budget in the governments of Edith Cresson and Pierre Beregovoy.
After his resignation in 1993, Strauss-Kahn was in private practice at the Paris Bar. In 1994, at the invitation of Renault CEO Raymond Levy, he became Vice President of the Industry Club (Cercle de l'Industrie) in Brussels. Strauss-Kahn married TV presenter Anne Sinclair in 1995 and they have four children. According to some reports, his marriage to Sinclair made Strauss-Kahn a popular character in the publications of the French tabloid press.
Best of the day
Parallel to national politics, Strauss-Kahn has worked in local government since the late 1980s. From 1989 to 1995, he sat on the municipal council of the city of Sarcelles (department of Val-d'Oise), and then from 1995 to 1997 he was the mayor of this city. For the totality of merits in this post in 1996, Strauss-Kahn won the national competition of representatives municipal authorities Marianne d "Or. Later he continued to work in the municipal council (1997-2001), and in 2001 he became vice-mayor of Sarcelles.
The period of work as mayor was the time of the final formation of the views of Strauss-Kahn. He became known as a moderate socialist, an adherent of the French model of "mixed economy", combining the principles of the free market with significant state participation. In 1997, Strauss-Kahn was re-elected to Parliament and in the same year took one of the key positions in the socialist government of Lionel Jospin (Lionel Jospin) - headed the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry.
Strauss-Kahn was considered the architect of France's economic renaissance in the late 1990s. During his work (1997-1999), economic growth accelerated, the gross domestic product increased by 10 percent, and the unemployment rate fell. Thanks to the measures taken by the government, it was possible to create two million jobs without increasing the deficit, and the number of unemployed among the youth decreased by 300,000 people. A staunch supporter of European integration, Strauss-Kahn ensured France's entry into the euro area. The common European currency has been in circulation in the country since January 1, 1999.
Strauss-Kahn cut the value-added tax for the construction sector to 5.5 percent. A number of state-owned enterprises, including telecommunications giant France Telecom, have been privatized. This caused the approval of market participants and criticism from some of Strauss-Kahn's fellow party members. At the same time, the success of Strauss-Kahn's economic program brought him the status of one of the leaders of the PS. In 1998, he successfully led the campaign of the socialists in the elections to regional authorities, became a member of the regional council of Île-de-France.
In November 1999, Strauss-Kahn was forced to leave his ministerial post due to a scandal. He was accused of several episodes of corrupt activities, in particular those that took place during his practice as a lawyer. In one of these cases, the court found that the ex-minister affixed the dates in official documents retroactively, but found no elements of a criminal offense in his actions. In other episodes, the investigation was never brought to trial and was suspended.
In 2001, Strauss-Kahn returned to politics. He won a partial parliamentary election for his old constituency, and in 2002 was re-elected to a new term in the general election. In 2004, Strauss-Kahn returned to the leadership of the PS and began working on preparing the party for the 2007 elections with Martine Aubry and Jack Lang.
In 2003 (according to other sources - in 2005), together with Michel Rocard and Pierre Moscovici, Strauss-Kahn founded the organization "Left for Europe" (A gauche, en Europe), which became one of the European centers social democratic movement. In addition, Strauss-Kahn led the party group "Socialism and Democracy" (Socialisme et democratie) as part of the PS.
As the presidential elections of 2007 approached, a struggle began among the socialists for the nomination as a party candidate. Although Ségolène Royal was generally considered the favourite, Laurent Fabius, Strauss-Kahn, Jacques Lang and veteran socialist Lionel Jospin also claimed to participate in the race. Strauss-Kahn presented the fifteen points of his presidential program on January 17, 2006.
In the party elections, Strauss-Kahn came out as a moderate candidate of the Social Democratic persuasion. Of all the original contenders, Royal, Strauss-Kahn and Fabus met in the election. All three participated in specially organized television debates. In considering Strauss-Kahn's chances, observers believed that he could compete with the Royal due to the significant support of young voters in urban areas.
Party elections were held on November 17, 2006. A convincing victory was won by Royal, who was supported by 60 percent of the socialists. Strauss-Kahn, who scored 22 percent, came in second and narrowly outpaced Fabus. Both losers recognized the victory of Royal, and Strauss-Kahn emphasized that in the fight against the right PS should be represented by a single candidate.
Royal's main rival in the presidential election was the leader of the center-right party "Union for a Popular Movement" (Union pour un mouvement populaire, UMP), Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. As a single UMP candidate, he was confirmed in January 2007. In addition, centrist candidate Francois Bayrou enjoyed significant support from the electorate. Bairrou's rise in popularity sparked a debate among socialists. Representatives of the right, pro-European wing of the party, including Strauss-Kahn, offered to negotiate with the centrist, while the left, led by Fabus, categorically rejected the idea of an alliance with the right-wing politician.
On April 22, 2007, the first round of presidential elections took place, in which the first two places went to Sarkozy and Royal. On the eve of the second round, Royal announced that, in case of victory, she could appoint Strauss-Kahn as head of government. This move was attributed to Royal's intention to enlist the support of the centre-left voters. In the second round, held on May 6, Sarkozy won.
After the defeat of Royal in the socialist camp, new disagreements immediately emerged. Strauss-Kahn said that the left had never been so weak before, and explained this by the fact that the PS was never able to renew itself and adapt to modern conditions. The weakness of the left was again confirmed in the June parliamentary elections, where the PS won only 190 seats out of 577 (the UMP received 318 seats).
At the end of June 2007, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Spaniard Rodrigo Rato, unexpectedly announced that he would resign in October. After that, Sarkozy nominated Strauss-Kahn to replace Rato's successor. Sarkozy himself explained his choice by the fact that he and Strauss-Kahn agree on the vision of the IMF, but some socialists accused the president of seeking to further weaken the left opposition through this appointment. On July 10, 2007, Strauss-Kahn's candidacy was approved by the majority of finance ministers of the EU countries (according to the established procedure, the Europeans elect the head of the IMF, and the USA the president of the World Bank).
On September 28, 2007, the IMF Board of Directors elected Strauss-Kahn to the post of Managing Director. His five-year term in office began on 1 November.
The sexual preoccupation of the French is not surprising. Adultery is already quite a normal phenomenon: Francois Mitterrand had a second secret family, and ordinary people first saw his illegitimate daughter Mazarin Pinjot only at his father's funeral, although journalists were always aware of the matter. The French are tactful, they never mix sex and politics: Jacques Chirac was driven by his own chauffeur to the ladies, and then he nicknamed “Monsieur five minutes, including the shower”; Cecilia Sarkozy once waited for the inauguration of Nicolas Sarkozy and only then left him; Valerie Trierweiler is generally a scandal for the Champs Elysees: neither wife nor mistress, but still the first lady of France. Journalists do not care about who sleeps with whom: the main thing is to avoid corruption, the main thing is not to be a swindler or a thief. The fatal mistake of the brilliant economist Strauss-Kahn is that Nafisatu Diallo met him in an American hotel. The presumption of innocence in the United States, as it turned out, does not exist: photographs of Dominic in handcuffs, behind bars, and even in a prison uniform at Rikers in America were printed on the front pages of newspapers. In France, if not for the Americans, such photographs would hardly have made it to the press. So hopes collapsed in the camp of the socialists, and they hastily had to look for a reserve candidate. It is clear that without the participation of Strauss-Kahn in the socialist primaries, it was not difficult for Francois Hollande to win. Why did it happen that a man who had everything was suddenly left without a job, without a family, and even without a home? In June 2012, Dominique's third wife, Ann Sinclair, after 20 years of marriage, sent the former head of the IMF into another resignation - Strauss-Kahn and Sinclair officially broke up.
Childhood and first love
Dominique Strauss-Kahn spent his childhood in Agadir, in the south of Morocco, his parents moved there when little Domi was three years old. A Jew by religion, Strauss-Kahn received his complex surname from two grandfathers: his grandmother was married twice - first to Gaston Strauss, and then after his death she married a man who had been a close friend of the family all this time - Marius Kahn. It was in memory of the second grandfather that Dominique from Strauss turned into Strauss-Kahn, but this did not happen immediately.
The sunny Moroccan city had to be abandoned after a terrible earthquake in 1960 claimed the lives of 15,000 people. Like all Europeans, the family of Dominique Strauss-Kahn lived in the modern part of the city, which is the only reason they managed to escape. Almost all of the dead were Arabs. Agadir turned into a large refugee camp, hungry and sick people wandered among the ruins, nightmare and chaos, grief and despair - that's what 11-year-old Domi remembered before leaving for France. It was from the moment of the terrible earthquake that Dominique Strauss began to consider himself an adult, and not after the celebration of bar mitzvah two years later.
At the age of 14 in the south of France, in Menton, Dominique Strauss met Helene Dumas, a 16-year-old girl with glasses, dark hair, from a classical Catholic family. Helen then rarely smiled - her father was hit by a car two years ago, and her mother never got out of her depression. Dominic, who looked older than his years, took it upon himself to paint the life of a suffering lyceum student. At first, she did not reciprocate his feelings, but the young man did not give up, and Helen eventually got used to the bespectacled merry fellow. “Helen is the woman of my life,” Dominique told his mother when she asked what was happening to him. The lovers listened to classical music, danced rock and roll, read the same books. As soon as Dominic turned 18, they got married, and none of the Strausses objected - in this family, personal freedom has always been put in the first place. No wedding, and how is it possible: Helen is a Catholic who no longer believes in God, and Dominic is a Jew who never believed. Everything is modest, a quick exchange of cherished "yes", 15 guests and no frills.
Young people remained indifferent to the events of May 1968 in France - when all Parisian students went to demonstrations, Dominique and Helen ran out of town to calmly prepare for exams. He wanted to enter the Higher School of Management, she wanted to enter the Faculty of Law. They both passed their exams successfully. On the first day of classes, young people were asked what they would like to do after graduation. The students answered rather modestly, as usual among the French. But when the turn came to Dominic, he answered without hesitation: “I don’t even know what I want more - to become the Minister of Finance or to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics.” The audience gasped. Strauss added with regret: "One thing is clear, that I cannot get both at the same time." As you know, the first dream of Dominique Strauss-Kahn came true. And today you can already forget about the second one for sure.
two names
After the Graduate School of Management, Dominique Strauss also studied at the Science Po Institute for Political Studies and even defended his doctorate in economics at the Paris X Institute. He was already a serious young man with a beard and horn-rimmed glasses, the father of the family - he and Helen have three children . Dominic drops by at home for lunch, and on Sunday they, like an exemplary family, go to dinner with his parents. Around this time, in the mid-70s, Strauss first signed documents with his full name - Dominique Strauss-Kahn, despite the fact that this name was always on his birth certificate. It was only after the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East that Dominique Strauss-Kahn decided it was time to insist on being Jewish, especially when it seemed to everyone that the State of Israel was about to cease to exist. At the same time Strauss-Kahn joined the Socialist Party in earnest. There he met Jacques Lang, the future Minister of Culture of France. In 1981, the socialist François Mitterrand won the election. During the general rejoicing and grandiose celebrations at Place de la Bastille, Dominique Strauss-Kahn was not yet on stage among the "team" - too young, but he himself then clearly understood that his time had come. The first secretary of the Socialist Party at that time was Lionel Jospin, the future prime minister, in whose office Strauss-Kahn would receive the coveted post of finance minister. Jospin will forever remain a friend of Dominique Strauss-Kahn and will even be the main witness at his last wedding.
New world
Dominique Strauss-Kahn divorced Helene Dumas and married Brigitte Guillemet. She finally changed the image of Strauss-Kahn - he shaved off his beard, took off his heavy glasses, found a decent tailor and forgot about thick sweaters. Brigitte invested money in Strauss-Kahn, financing his election campaigns "a la American", introduced him to the right people. “You will spend ten years in politics, and then you will go into business,” his new wife told Dominic. Dominique lived with Brigitte for only three years. After the star of French TV, an American by birth, Ann Sinclair invited him to her program (and before him there were Mikhail Gorbachev, Madonna, Robert Maxwell ...), Brigitte immediately advised her husband to invite the TV star to dinner as a token of gratitude: this journalists have huge connections and a great fortune. This advice for Brigitte Guillemet became fatal. Ann Sinclair has always been attracted to prominent men of influence, although at the time of her acquaintance with Dominique Strauss-Kahn he was "only" Minister of Industry. The wedding with him took place away from the press, even the guests were not allowed to take pictures. Among those invited were Nobel laureates, ministers, Lionel Jospin, Bernard-Henri Levy and his wife... A new world opened up to Dominic after this wedding – the concentration of the elite of the French bourgeoisie, the so-called caviar left, around him was maximum.
Already six years after the wedding, in 1997, Strauss-Kahn was appointed Minister of Finance of France in the office of Prime Minister Jospin - journalists called this team a dream team, and Dominique also became the most famous Frenchman abroad. American publications nicknamed him DSK, after the initials - in the manner of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK). “Strauss-Kahn will put France back on track,” Business Week wrote a few weeks later. Under the DSC, the euro was introduced in Europe, and he himself was constantly in search of innovation: he would leave for California for half a month (unheard of audacity for a minister!), And then, returning with the latest gadgets, campaigning for the rise of made in France: “I want France was associated not only with strong-smelling cheeses. DSK established ties with Tony Blair, openly admired the British model of social liberalism. Journalist Anne Sinclair, as soon as the DSC received the post of Minister of Finance, left the post of the highest paid TV presenter in France. In 1998, DSK earned the title of "Euro Coach" from The Economist magazine, and German newspapers wrote that if "high intelligence and competence in economics were the only conditions to take the highest post in the Fifth Republic, Dominique Strauss-Kahn would definitely would be president."
Sex, nothing more
In addition to political success, DSK has always had "problems" with women, and they began long before the Sofitel Hotel. The most influential minister often went to lunch and dinner with unknown ladies while his assistant sorted through tons of papers. The women on his team cut their skirts and wore sheer, low-cut shirts. Everyone knew that after five in the evening the minister was no longer to be found in the office.
He explained to his loved ones that sex is not always associated with love, and in this sense, Ann Sinclair was always the first for him. The only thing that resented the DSK entourage was his imprudence in amorous affairs, or perhaps it was a strange love of risk. In 2007, Strauss-Kahn received a new appointment - the head of the International Monetary Fund. “You can just call me the king of the world,” he said, laughing. At that time, only Russia and three Asian countries opposed the election of the DSK to this post. In Washington, Ann Sinclair bought a new apartment ($4 million in cash). Another important stage in DSK's career was passed, but he said that he was not going to leave politics. At least he thought so. In Washington DSC and Ann Sinclair now gathered lobbyists, congressmen, diplomats and members of various international organizations. The IMF has long established itself as an institution that brings down developing countries. But DSC was able to change the discourse and tone of the Fund: “Countries like Brazil, India and South Africa need more respect. The IMF should help people benefit from mondialization, not make them suffer.” France rejoiced - the ideas of equality migrated overseas. DSK is a hero again. However, six months later, in a new post, a new scandal arose: Strauss-Kahn was caught in connection with the Hungarian Piroshka Nagi, who at that moment held the post of head of the Africa department at the Foundation. After a "brief meeting" with her boss, she was promoted, and the head of the IMF was accused of favoritism. But the case was quickly hushed up, and Dominic did not allow himself to be convicted for the last time. Once, answering the question of journalists, for which, in his own opinion, the head of the IMF could be condemned, he replied: "For wealth, love for women and for the fact that I am a Jew."
Fatal mistake
On May 15, 2011, New York Times Flash News subscribers received the following: "IMF chief arrested at airport on rape charges." Twitter users, as usual, learned about the arrest of the DSC before the readers of America's most important newspaper. A French student, a civic activist of then-President Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement party, turned out to be familiar with one of the employees of a hotel in Manhattan. In 140 signs of a microblog, he fit what all the journalists of the world wrote about the next day.
Thus began the story of the fall of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The very next day, Liberation came out with a big headline on the front page, "DSK OUT". Dominique Strauss-Kahn always had "problems" with women, but this was almost never written about in the press so as not to interfere in private life.
The story with Nafisatu Diallo went according to a different scenario. “The girl went into the bathroom and saw a naked man” - with these words, police officer Brown began his report. The man attacked her, locked the door and tried to rape her. DSK was detained on the plane and charged under seven articles at once, the total prison term that threatened the head of the IMF in the United States was 74 years.
If it were not for Ann Sinclair, who immediately came to the defense of her husband, DSK would definitely be in prison by now. A private detective and lawyers, who not only weakened the charge, but actually proved that Diallo's maid lied and acted in collusion with a friend, saved the former head of the IMF from prison in the United States. It was they who, after listening to the telephone conversation of the maid with her friend, who at that moment was serving time in prison for drug trafficking, found out that the story of rape was actually a good production. Nafisatu Diallo let it slip when she told her friend that she hoped to get a large sum of money from Dominique Strauss-Kahn. And no matter how much the maid's lawyer spoke later, telling the press the details of how exactly DSK tore off tights from Nafisatu, pulled up her skirt, pushed her into the bathroom, all in vain. Everyone understood that the maid had lied. The criminal prosecution was dropped and the case was quickly transferred to a civil court. Because of this story, Strauss-Kahn lost the post of head of the IMF, could not run for president in France, and a year later he lost his wife, with whom he lived together for 20 years.
Unfortunately, his troubles didn't end there. Now French prosecutors will take Strauss-Kahn seriously: he must testify in the Carlton case, named after one of the hotels in Lille, where the activities of a serious criminal group that made money on pimping unfolded. Girls from Belgium were brought to the hotel, and in 2010 they were even sent several times to Washington to private parties, the protagonist of which was DSK. During interrogation, he stated that he had no idea that it was about a "specially organized system, and even more so about prostitution." The situation is complicated by the fact that one of the participants in the “friendly parties in Washington” began to testify to the police, stating that Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to use force on her, and his friends even held her hands. If this fact can be proved, then DSK will inevitably turn from a simple client into a rapist again. Since then, the Carlton Hotel in Lille has been the most photographed place, but the number of politicians among the clients has noticeably decreased.
Text by Elena Servettaz/RFI
Wife of Strauss-Kahn: “I do not suffer from the reputation of a lady-lover, which my husband enjoys. I'm even proud of it"
To get her husband out of prison, she paid a million dollars. When that wasn't enough for the court, she posted an additional bail of five million. For the duration of the trial and preparation for it, she rented an apartment for her husband in a fashionable New York area for 50 thousand a month. So that no one would even dare to touch her husband with a finger, she hired two-meter bodyguards for him for $ 200,000. In fact, she says this: “I don’t believe for one second the allegations of sexual abuse against my husband.” Who is this generous, faithful and believing woman? As you probably already guessed, we are talking about the wife of the former head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSC for short).
The ideal wife (without a hint of Oscar Wilde) is Ann Sinclair. She was richer and more famous than DSK when she married him in November 1991. Her brown hair and blue eyes dominated the television screen on the most popular French talk show, 7/7. Over the course of several years, Sinclair interviewed five hundred celebrities. Among them were presidents Mitterrand, Gorbachev, Clinton, as well as Hillary Clinton, Yves Montand, Madonna and many other powerful and popular people of this world. Every Sunday, more than twelve million French people sat in front of television screens to watch her show.
Marriage to DSK was, by all accounts, a love match. Prior to this, DSK had been married twice and had four children. Ann was married once and had two children. People who have such camps behind their backs are connected by the bonds of Hymen only at the behest of the arrows of Cupid.
Ann Sinclair was born in New York, where her family emigrated from France to escape the Nazis. The surname Sinclair Ann took from the code name of her father, who participated in the French Resistance. The wedding of Anne and DSK took place in the Paris City Hall in the hall with a bust of Marianne - a symbol of France, its freedom and republicanism. The model for the sculptor was… Ann Sinclair! That is why her face flashed not only on the television screens of the country, but also in all city halls in France.
They met for the first time in 1989. She as the interviewer, he as the interviewee. “She was captivated by his intelligence and charm,” writes DSK biography author Michelle Tobman. When DSK became France's finance minister in 1997, Anne retired from the screen after 13 years in television to avoid a "conflict of interest." However, she continued to be the deputy director of the TF-1 channel and the CEO of its Internet affiliate. Summing up her 13 years of experience with politicians and politicians, Ann said: "After that, the authorities no longer hypnotize you." But DSC hypnotized. She was the same “cherchet la femme” behind his back, which nourished his political ambitions. And her huge fortune, which she inherited from her grandfather, the famous art dealer Paul Rosenberg, fed them and made the life of the spouses sweet. They owned two "extraordinary" apartments in Paris, according to the New York Times, a $4 million house in Washington, and a villa in Marrakesh.
But all these apartments, houses and villas were only temporary places of residence, because the main goal of the ambitious couple was the Elysee Palace - the residence of the presidents of France. Ann generously paid for political advisers, press agents, Internet sites, preparing her husband's victory in the upcoming presidential election. She was driven not only by love and ambition, but also by principles. As the Parisian newspaper Le Monde wrote, “Sinclair has always tried to prove that after 75 years separating us from Léon Blum, the French are capable of electing a Jew to head France. In her eyes, that would be history's powerful revenge." But her longtime friend Alan Duhamel says Anne was "very afraid" of the presidential campaign, because it would require her to break her way of life. And the DSK itself viewed its religion not as a matter of principle, but as a practical component of the electoral struggle. DSK spoke half-jokingly, half-seriously about his three obstacles to the Elysee Palace: "I'm rich, I'm Jewish, and I love women." Briefly and clearly!
DSK and Ann are the same age. They are both 62 years old. Real name and surname Ann Sinclair Ann-Elise Schwartz. Her father Joseph-Robert Schwartz officially took his military nickname Sinclair as a legal surname in 1949. Anne's mother, Micheline-Nanette Rosenberg, the daughter of an art dealer, posed for Pablo Picasso himself, who affectionately called her Misha. Rosenberg, who supported Picasso from the very beginning of his career, left to his heirs a collection of paintings by the great masters of the brush, the value of which is expressed in hundreds of millions of dollars. (For example, in 2007 they sold a Matisse painting at Christie's for $33.6 million.) Ms. Sinclair is a member of the board of directors of the Picasso Museum in Paris and is currently writing a book about her famous collector uncle. Behind her are the Institute of Political Studies and the University of Paris. She began her journalistic career at the Europa-1 radio station.
The famous chronicler of the Holocaust, Elijah Weisel, was friends with Ann and her first husband, the Hungarian journalist Ivan Levan, who was brought to France by his mother as a child. The mother was deported and then killed by the Nazis. Ivan was hidden by family friends - the French. Ann and Ivan named their first child Elijah after Weisel. According to Weisel, “Anne is charming, smart and famous in the best possible way. She's like a combination of Charlie Rose and Barbara Walters." (Famous American TV talk show hosts. Rose is serious, Walters is social. — M.S.)
But even this "combination" was not prepared for what happened to the DSC in New York. Anne was in Paris, where she was expecting the birth of her first grandchild. According to Pari-Match magazine, DSK called her at 11 p.m., or 5 p.m. New York time, as soon as the police removed him from the Air France flight from New York to Paris. She turned deathly pale when DSK told her that "the problem has become serious."
Since then, Ann's life, the newspapers say, "turned into a living hell." Having made a statement of support for her husband, she immediately flew to New York. There, she launched a frantic activity to get her husband out of jail on Rikers Island on bail. With the help of her grandfather's millions, she succeeded. But with great difficulty. Rather, however, not to pull out, but to attach. Yesterday's strong man of this world has become a pariah. When Ann tried to find an apartment for DSC in one of the luxury buildings on New York's Upper East Side, where the monthly rent went through the roof as much as 15 thousand dollars, she was shown a turn from the gate. The owners of the building did not want to warm the criminal, did not want their sacred property to be soiled by journalistic mosquitoes, and police cars would be parked at its entrance. The residents of this building, called "Bristol Plaza", at 210 East 65th Street, snorted their approval and showed DSC shisha, but not in lenten, but in philistine oil.
Ann wanted to rent two apartments in Bristol Plaza. The building has a rooftop sports club, a 50-foot swimming pool and other large-caliber personal belongings. It didn't work out. The rental of an apartment next to Columbia University did not work either. Lawyers for the university protested to the prosecutor's office, even though DSK was going to stay with her daughter, who studies at Columbia and lives in a hostel on 112th Street. Were these gentlemen afraid that the proximity of the DSC might corrupt the students? The residents of 71 Broadway in lower Manhattan refused to accept the DSC, even temporarily. "We don't want that kind of publicity," the inhabitants said in unison on Broadway.
When Judge Obus signed the DSK bail order, a frustrated Attorney McConnell said that “the whole of lower Manhattan looks 'very problematic' to him because the NYPD will not be able to track the criminal's movements. Then the judge ordered to involve the detectives of the private firm "Stroz Triedber" to the police at the expense of the same ideal wife Ann Sinclair. In addition, the DSC was "ringed". An electronic bracelet-monitor was put on his leg, through which it was possible to follow all the movements of the DSC. He can leave his temporary residence only in case of medical necessity.
Rikers DSK left prison like its other famous inmate, rapper Lee Wayne. The rapper was taken to another prison in an S.U.V. with tinted windows. Another similar S.U.V. drove in the opposite direction to confuse reporters and paparazzi. Now DSK lives in a newly renovated townhouse at 153 Franklin Street. From here he has a direct road to prison ...
It was no secret to Anne that her hubby was a womanizer. But as long as the external decorum was observed, she, at least in public, pretended that this did not bother her at all. Rather the opposite. So, in an interview with Express magazine, she stated: “No, I do not suffer from the reputation of a lady-lover, which my husband enjoys. I'm even proud of it. It is important for a politician to have the art of a seducer. As long as I attract him and he attracts me, that is enough for us.” When Ann's friends told her about DSK's Don Juan adventures, she refused to listen to them. “Her choice was always fiery solidarity with him,” says Duhamel.
When the connection between DSK and Piroshka Nagy, an employee of the IMF he headed, was revealed, Ann wrote in her blog: “Two or three things, as they look from America: everyone knows that such things happen in married life. This one-night adventure is behind us.”
But DSC's adventures were more like a Thousand and One Nights, and many of those nights were not over, but still ahead. "Night", although it happened in the morning in the New York hotel "Sofitel", turned out to be fatal for the DSC. Among other things, she forever deprived Anne Sinclair of the chance to become the first lady of France. This is what she left behind. In his letter of resignation from the post of head of the IMF, DSK recalled, albeit a bit late, his faithful friend of life: “At this time, I think first of all about my wife, whom I love most, about my children, about my family, about my friends." I wonder what he was thinking when he forced a cleaning lady he didn't know to have sex. Although what he was thinking in those moments is quite obvious.
On April 30, Anne Sinclair wrote about the wedding of Prince William of England: “I fully understand those who did not miss even a crumb of this story. We acted like children who want to be told a story before going to bed, a story about a princess and her dream, because real life will catch up with you soon.” And she caught up with Ann Sinclair, although DSK was by no means a fairytale prince.
The wise Jew Weisel, lamenting the misfortune that befell Ann, quoted an even wiser Talmud, which says that “no one is master of his instincts. But to control them is what is called civility.”
You can't argue with this Talmudistics. But the whole trouble is that our modern civilization most of all lacks precisely civilization. It is useless to look for her, that is, shershe, like the love of the cleaner of the Sofitel hotel for a high-ranking rapist.
As a little girl, Anne Sinclair knew Pablo Picasso. This is a translation of an interview with Scott Simon, correspondent for NPR, about how the master wanted to paint her portrait and her new memoirs - the book "Grandfather's Gallery".
Scott Simon, host:
Few people can be asked what Pablo Picasso really was. Ann Sinclair knew him as a child. Her grandfather, Paul Rosenberg, was the most famous art dealer in Paris: his gallery had paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Breguet, Leger and other masters. Many works were stolen and destroyed when the Nazis entered Paris. Grandfather and his family left for the United States to survive after all the upheavals and return to their previous work. Anne Sinclair is one of France's most famous journalists, and she chronicles her grandfather's life in her new book, Grandfather's Gallery: A Family Memoir of Art and War. Ann is joining us from Paris. Thank you for being with us.
Ann Sinclair: Thank you.
Simon: So what was Picasso really like?
Sinclair: Picasso was great, everyone knows that. I was then still quite a teenager. If you have my book, then there you will see one photo where he looks at me with such an incredibly sharp and expressive look.
Simon: But you didn't want him to paint your portrait, did you?
Sinclair: I was 14 years old. He then told my mother that I have beautiful and big eyes all over my face. I was embarrassed by such words, cried and ran into the garden. That's why I don't have a portrait by Pablo Picasso.
Simon: If we were to enter the Paul Rosenberg Gallery in, say, 1938, what might we see there?
Sinclair: My grandfather was a pioneer in modern art. He had paintings by Matisse, Leger and, above all, Picasso. He led people who came to the museum to the second floor, where there were several works by Renoir, Monet and Picasso. It was a kind of excursion into the history of art through art.
Simon: And what happened then, with the arrival of the Germans in 1940?
Sinclair: The Nazis wanted to purge museums and private collections of what they considered degenerate art. Paintings have plummeted in price. Grandfather worked to prevent the sale of paintings and the receipt of money from their sales to the Nazis. So he ended up on the "black list" and was forced to hide in the United States.
Simon: What did he do after the war?
Sinclair: After the war, he decided to find the lost paintings. More than 400 paintings were hidden somewhere in a basement in the south of France. There were many galleries in Paris at that time, there were stolen art objects. Even in a small framing workshop like Real Master, which specializes in framing works of art to order, then you could find real masterpieces. He walked through the galleries and pointed to his former paintings. And no one argued with him. Everyone knew about the unrest of wartime. Not without the help of the Swiss government, he filed a lawsuit against the Swiss galleries. Switzerland was then a convenient place for the resale of stolen paintings.
Simon: What prompted you to search for interesting facts about your grandfather's life despite the fact that he questioned your French origin?
Sinclair: You know, I wanted to live on my own. I wanted to become a journalist. I did not want to become the owner of the inheritance. And when I turned 60, my mother died. I decided that I needed to go back to my roots. Indeed, these were my roots, and I am the granddaughter of my grandfather.
Simon: I didn't mean to mention your ex-husband's name and what happened between you. But at the end of the book, you write that New York fascinated you as a child, and now it has become synonymous with violence and injustice for you and your family. How so?
Sinclair: These are the only pages I have written since what I would call the incident.
Simon: So you were married to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was arrested and charged with rape? And the case was closed?
Sinclair: It was painful for me and my whole family. And I had to face everything that happened head on. But please understand that it's all over now. And I got out of it all. I want to move forward and not look back.
Simon: Ann Sinclair with her new book Grandfather's Gallery: A Family Memoir of Art and War. Thank you for being with us.
Sinclair: Thank you very much.
Was the black maid of the Sofitel hotel a Russian intelligence officer
Dominique Strauss-Kahn
The former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who is under house arrest on charges of raping a maid in an American hotel, suspected before his arrest that a conspiracy involving France and Russia was being prepared against him, writes The Daily Mail.
Claude Bartholon, a French socialist politician, told BFMTV last week that Strauss-Kahn, in a telephone conversation with him on April 29, suggested that Paris and Moscow were intriguing to remove him from his post and prevent his participation in the French presidential race.
Strauss-Kahn suggested that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was behind the conspiracy, writes InoPressa. “He said that if he didn’t leave the IMF “cleanly,” he would no longer be able to put forward his candidacy,” Bartholon added, admitting that he could not recover from the shock of the arrest of the former head of the IMF.
The former head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, suspected before his arrest that a conspiracy was being prepared against him with the participation of France and Russia.
Experts, commenting on the detention of Dominique Strauss-Kahn on May 14, immediately suggested that the incident in the American Sofitel hotel is beneficial to Russia and its allies, who can now push their candidate to this post.
Claude Bartholon, a French socialist politician, told BFMTV last week that Strauss-Kahn, in a telephone conversation with him on April 29, suggested that Paris and Moscow were intriguing to remove him from his post and prevent his participation in the presidential race.
So far, specific candidates have not been nominated, but last week Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said that the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) could nominate their candidate for the post of head of the IMF. Kudrin highly appreciated the candidacy of the head of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, Grigory Marchenko, supported by the CIS Council of Heads of Government.
Consequence: Strauss-Kahn attacked a maid after being rejected by two women
Meanwhile, US law enforcement continues to investigate the incident with Strauss-Kahn. According to the investigation, the former head of the IMF attacked the maid after two refusals on the same day of the hotel staff to spend time with him, reports CNN.
First, the ex-head of the IMF invited the girl who accompanied him to his room to drink champagne in his room, but she refused. Then Strauss-Kahn called the administrator and asked her if she would agree to drink in his room after the end of duty. The woman also rejected the invitation of the former head of the IMF. She described Dominique Strauss-Kahn's behavior as flirting.
Only after two refusals, Strauss-Kahn decided to attack the maid, the investigators found out. He is currently charged with seven counts, including forced oral sex. If found guilty, the former head of the IMF could face up to 25 years in prison.
Lawyers are confident that Strauss-Kahn will be acquitted
Dominique Strauss-Kahn will be found not guilty in court if the trial in his case is impartial, said one of his lawyers, Benjamin Brafman, in an interview with the French television channel TF-1.
Strauss-Kahn suggested that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was behind the conspiracy
According to the lawyer, although while only the initial stage of the trial in the case of his client lasts, the defense has no grounds for pessimism, Interfax reports. “Based on our investigations, we believe that all allegations will be found to be false,” Brafman added.
Recall that last Saturday Dominique Strauss-Kahn was taken to one of the oldest skyscrapers in New York - Empire Building (Empire Building) in Lower Manhattan. Last Thursday, the New York State Supreme Court agreed to release him on $1 million bail and place him under house arrest. Prior to his release, the financier was in New York's Rikers Island temporary detention facility.
In the Strauss-Kahn case, the first evidence appeared - traces of his DNA on the maid's clothes
Strauss-Kahn, 62, was released from prison late last week after bail of $1 million in cash and $5 million in bail and placed under house arrest.
Prostitutes shame ex-IMF chief Strauss-Kahn: he terrified them with “animal” sex
Kristin Davis
Kristin Davis said that Strauss-Kahn was introduced to her by a Bosnian prostitute, Irma Nici. According to Nichi, Strauss-Kahn was one of her Parisian clients. Previously, Nichi stated that she provided intimate services to football player David Beckham, but he denied these reports. Recall that Beckham sued the magazine that published the “slanderous” article and demanded $ 25 million, but in the end he did not receive any money or refutation.
Strauss-Kahn allegedly used Wicked Models in 2006. At that time, he had not yet held the post of Managing Director of the IMF, but he was already preparing to participate in the presidential elections in France.
Davis, known by the nickname "Manhattan Madame", claims that, according to her records, Strauss-Kahn first called her in January 2006 and asked for a fresh "all-American" woman. For two hours spent in a hotel room with her, he paid $2,500 in cash. But the woman told her boss that the client was aggressive and she didn't want to see him again.
In September 2006, when Strauss-Kahn arrived in New York for a conference hosted by former US President Bill Clinton, he again requested an escort service. This time, Davis sent him a woman from Brazil. When she returned, she reproduced the complaints of her predecessor and urged her boss not to send women to him anymore: Strauss-Kahn, according to the Brazilian, was too rude and aggressive.
But at the same time, he still maintained a certain level of decency, since he was dealing not just with some individual prostitute, but with representatives of an escort agency.
“The girls said that he was unceremonious, too rowdy and frantic. He didn't rape anyone. But still, for $1,000 an hour or more, we expect customers to act like gentlemen, not animals,” Davis said. Madame added that she usually did not give the names of her famous clients, but she was not going to defend a man prone to violence.
In 2008, Davis was prosecuted for brothel maintenance. She admitted this accusation and served four months in prison, where Strauss-Kahn himself was imprisoned. After her release, she announced that she had said goodbye to the sex industry and ran for elected office in New York, but lost the election.
The managing director turned out to be a "gorilla", "chimpanzee" and "rabbit"
Dominique Strauss-Kahn is not the first time ranked among our smaller brothers for irrepressible sexual temperament. He received unpleasant nicknames before, according to the media.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his wife Anna Sinclair, September 2006
For his ardent love for women, the married Strauss-Kahn was nicknamed in the press "the great seducer." 31-year-old journalist and writer Tristan Banon may come forward with official charges against the head of the IMF. She is the goddaughter of Strauss-Kahn's second wife and his daughter's best friend.
Banon claims that Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her in 2002 when she interviewed him in a private apartment in Paris, where he arranged a meeting with her without witnesses. This case became known back in 2008, but Banon, on the advice of her mother, who is in the French Socialist Party, decided not to sue.
In previous interviews, Tristana told how he tried to rip off her clothes. “I kicked him, called him a rapist, but he didn’t care. He acted like overexcited chimpanzee' Banon said. Anna Mansoure, Banon's mother, explained that she dissuaded her from the lawsuit only because she was starting a career and could receive unnecessary fame for a lifetime as a woman who was harassed by an influential politician.
Now Tristana Banon intends to report Strauss-Kahn to the police. This was confirmed by her mother and lawyer.
The French media, which succinctly called Dominique Strauss-Kahn simply DSC, are now willingly calling him "The Great Seducer" and " hot rabbit«.
Now he is also accused of molesting young students, having an affair with the widow of an Italian academician, and, in the end, of being " acting like a gorilla“, with a young actress. According to some reports, while teaching economics at the Paris Institute of Political Sciences from 2000 to 2007, Strauss-Kahn repeatedly persuaded his students to have sex, as happened with Banon.
Another young French actress said that in 2008, Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her while visiting her. According to her, he behaved "like a gorilla", or in another translation " like an overexcited monkey". This description is reminiscent of Tristana Banon, who compared Strauss-Kahn to an "overexcited chimpanzee."
In addition, information surfaced about the connection of the ex-head of the IMF with the widow of an Italian academician, writer Carmen Lera. This was written in the book by a man who was part of the inner circle of Strauss-Kahn. Lera herself described these relationships in her books. He also had relationships with other women from literary circles.
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French socialist Aurel Filippetti said that Strauss-Kahn harassed her in 2008 and since then she has never risked being alone in a room with him. Hungarian economist Piroska Nagy told reporters about a short-lived relationship with the former head of the IMF in 2008. According to her, she felt forced into an intimate relationship because of his aggressive behavior.
It must be admitted that there was still a woman who stood up for Strauss-Kahn. It turned out to be his second wife, Brigitte Gilmet. She stated: “The facts that the New York police are talking about do not correlate with the person I know and have lived with for more than ten years. He is gentle. He has no propensity for violence. He makes a lot of mistakes, but not these."
She also had a question to Tristan Banon about why she decided to hang charges on Strauss-Kahn right now, when he already faces a 25-year prison term, and not nine years ago.
