Re: Why?
"It's much, much older - and not Russian. In Latin, "Pecunia non olet" - attributed to emperor Vespasian."
Yes, the phrase was supposedly uttered by Vaspasian when talking about the taxation of urine extracted from public cesspools to be used as a source of ammonia (i.e. the coins he gathered from the tax did not smell of urine, so were as good a source of income as any other.)
I've no idea why, but it seems rather appropriate when discussing an article about Über. Taxation, taking the piss, cesspools...
<Coughs>