Pete du Pont, a former member of Congress, ex-governor of Delaware, and one-time presidential hopeful, was in Russia today flogging the Russian-language version of his political-policy Web site, IntellectualCapital.com. Set to launch 25 September, the site will rely on content picked and processed from its American edition.
Du Pont's interest in the country as a location for publishing was spurred by the high number of Russian visitors that were hitting the American site. England and the Pacific Rim were also supplying heavy traffic, spokeswoman Carolyn Davenport noted, and du Pont may have some future interest in expanding into those regions as well.
Samovar Internet Consulting, also an American company, is providing the Moscow host servers, as well as translating the heavy-duty policy prose from English to Russian.
A press release announcing the launch quoted du Pont as saying, "IntellectualCapital.ru's mission is to involve Russian citizens in a global public-policy network." Soon they may even be involved in the editorial: Du Pont is, Davenport said, searching for actual Russian contributors for later editions, which will be published quarterly.
