There were some relatively well-run Russian firms too, ranging from new boutiques to the venerable foreign-risk insurer, Ingostrakh.

ECONOMIST: Russian insurance

As it happens, one of the few foreign companies affected is American International Group, a huge insurer whose boss, Maurice Greenberg, knows how to pull strings in Washington.

ECONOMIST: Dealing for dollars

And no insurer will pay up for a work of art that's been claimed by a foreign government.

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