Tuesday 25 March 2025
07:45
Michael Calvey
Odyssey Moscow: An American's Journey from Russia Optimist to Prisoner of the State
Odyssey Moscow is the story not just of Michael Calvey, but of how Russia’s era of hope and aspiration finally died, and of how light can be found in the strangest of places.

Michael was a Founder and Co-Senior Partner of Baring Vostok, a private equity firm recognized for its early investments in several innovative and highly successful companies, including Yandex, Tinkoff, and Kaspi. Living in Moscow for almost three decades, he learned the language, married a Russian woman and forged an unmatched network of personal and business contacts. Today, he is Chairman of Baring Ventures, which sold all its Russian assets after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and now focuses on other international markets. He is a US citizen who splits his time between Switzerland and the UK.
"Michael's harrowing experience in recent years – an innocent man caught and punished in the Russian criminal justice system – is told with clinical and chilling detail.”
Chairman of Baring Ventures
Michael was a Founder and Co-Senior Partner of Baring Vostok, a private equity firm recognized for its early investments in several innovative and highly successful companies, including Yandex, Tinkoff, and Kaspi. Living in Moscow for almost three decades, he learned the language, married a Russian woman and forged an unmatched network of personal and business contacts. Today, he is Chairman of Baring Ventures, which sold all its Russian assets after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and now focuses on other international markets. He is a US citizen who splits his time between Switzerland and the UK.