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Drinking Cocktails With Ian Bremmer Part I: On Being Sanctioned By Russia (And Finding A Body In The Backyard)

Ian Bremmer
Thought Leader: Ian Bremmer
June 15, 2023
Source: Forbes

He’s mingled with Presidents and Prime Ministers, discussing global politics and top risks to the free world, but Ian Bremmer’s one encounter worth naming a drink after — a deceased woman with uncertain identity that came with a house. As founder of the Eurasia Group and a best-selling author, Bremmer can usually be found commenting on current events on all the major news networks. I met up with him at The Flatiron Room in New York City where they created the ‘Mary L’ cocktail in honor of a most unusual tale.

Tell me about your first drink.

I went to the former Soviet Union my freshman year at Tulane. I’d never really traveled outside the United States before and we were in Soviet Georgia. It was late, we were walking to our hotel and a group of young people were playing chess and drinking something called ‘Chacha.’

Georgian brandy.

Maybe it’s brandy but it feels more like Everclear. And it knocked me off my ass. I was 16. I had skipped two grades and started college when I was 15. I don’t remember how I got back to the hotel. That was definitely my most unusual early experience.

How did the trip go after that?

In Moscow we checked into the Rossiya Hotel which at the time was the largest hotel in the world. It was massive, iconic, crazy, scary. I’m jet-lagged, my room is dark and there’s no overhead light. I reach behind the headboard to turn on this little lamp which breaks rule number one in the Soviet Union: never put your hand anywhere you can’t see. The plug casing had been eaten though, my hand goes directly on the wires. I get electrocuted and pass out.

Did you sense then how much traveling and global politics would be a part of your life?

Little of it then. This was the ‘Evil Empire.’ I had heard all these things about how they wanted to kill us. Then you go there and meet the kids and they’re just like you. They’re massively curious about your life. I was fascinated by how otherworldly it was. I was also fascinated how different it was from the news I was consuming.

The cocktail we’re having tonight was created for us by The Flatiron Room in honor of ‘Mary L.’ Tell us who she was.

I bought a house in the West Village and only afterwards did I see the full plans. There was some septic pipe in the backyard but it wasn’t straight. It went out at an angle and then kind of had a jog. I thought that doesn’t make a lot of sense. So as I start the renovation my contractors call me up. They said “we found an anomaly in the backyard.”

And the anomaly was?

(Laughs) They said “well, we think it’s a grave.” It turned out under the top soil in the backyard was a headstone. It was inscribed ‘Mary L’ with her years of birth and death. And next to that was this long rectangle underground which was the anomaly.

They asked “do you want to remove it?” I’m like, no, no, you don’t touch a dead body. And they said “are you superstitious?” And I said no I’m not but I don’t want to become superstitious. And I think that’s a very fast way to become superstitious

Were you able to find out more about her?

My educated guess is that she is the mother of Joe Lash who once owned the house. During the Great Depression he won a Pulitzer Prize for writing the biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. And when his mom died I suspect they didn’t have the money to bury her properly.

Real estate agents don’t usually mention that: high ceilings, lots of light, dead body in back.

Yeah, I suspect they knew. But if they had told me I don’t think it would’ve affected things. This was the place I wanted to move to. We brushed the headstone off and planted some bushes. Now it’s a little more appropriate.

Any interesting cocktail moments with a world leader?

Kevin Rudd, the former Australian Prime Minister. We were in Munich together right after he finished his term. We skipped this gala and sat at a bar and I ordered a Manhattan. He’d never had a Manhattan before. He’s not a cocktail guy. So he had his first with me. Loved it. We ended up staying out for hours and he’s become one of my best friends. Now he’s a cocktail guy.

Any drinks with other people you’ve admired?

Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated right outside the Kremlin a few years ago. A lot of people thought he might be the leader post-Yeltsin. He was enormously charismatic and a superstar in Russia. Anywhere he’d go he was mobbed by young people. We used to go out for drinks in Moscow all the time and I’d see him in New York as well.

The first piece I ever wrote in New York Times I wrote with him. Putin had just come into power and even though we had our reservations we should bet on him given the choices. It makes me so sad looking back on that piece now. He was assassinated in the kleptocratic system that Putin ended up revisiting upon the Russian people. I was sanctioned by Russia just a few months ago.

How does someone find out they’ve been sanctioned by Russia? Is it like being knighted?

It’s a little bit like that. The Russian Foreign Ministry made an announcement. I probably knew 50 people on that list.

You probably don’t want to kneel for this one.

Probably best not to. I was very surprised. I think they’ve run out of people to sanction. But it’s like a badge of honor because it means you’re telling the truth. I wasn’t happy about it. I care about these people and spend a fair amount of my life traveling to this part of the world and hoping that they would be able to integrate into the West. To see just how badly it’s all gone I think is a horrible thing.

For the ‘Mary L’ cocktail The Flatiron Room started with Bremmer’s suggestion of a bourbon drink with an absinthe wash, then mixed in Bénédictine, Luxardo and sweet vermouth along with some Peychaud’s and Angostura bitters. Bremmer liked the drink, calling it “a little bit Manhattan and a little bit Sazerac, which is a nice connection since I went to Tulane.”

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