EDITORIAL
The Russian “Legal” System, Out of Control
2017.
That’s when dissident oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky can expect to leave the Siberian prison cell where he has been held since October 2003. He’ll serve 14 long, brutal years — and indeed may not live to complete his term. Then again, since he has just been sentenced a second time for the same offense he’s already served years for allegedly committing, what is to stop Russian dictator Vladimir Putin from taking a third bite at the apple. Or a fourth?
“The verdict has nothing to do with justice,” said Karinna Moskalenko, Khodorkovsky’s attorney. That’s putting it mildly.
We have long warned about the danger of the “give Russia a chance” advice. We have warned that if you “give Russia a chance” to do the right thing on Khodorkovsky, you play into the Kremlin’s hands, allowing it to consolidate power and present horrific misdeeds as fait accompli. What can be done now to influence Russia’s manifest persecution of a political rival to the Kremlin? Nothing.
And so the Kremlin will continue and persecute more rivals, until there are none. In fact, the so-called Russian “justice system” has been on something of a feeding frenzy of late. And that does not surprise us.
For instance, another patriotic Russian was also facing the music in court, in connection with the assassination of human rights activist Natalia Estemirova. But it wasn’t her accused killer, it was her colleague Oleg Orlov, who had dared to point the finger of blame for her killing at Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin’s hand-picked ruler in Chechnya.
And then just to round things out there was Arkady Gontmakher, an American citizen jailed by the Kremlin on charges of poaching king crab from Russian waters. Gontmakher was acquitted on all charges, then promptly re-arrested as if his trial had never happened.
Russia has never been a country where laws, or individual human lives or rights, mean much. But recently, under Vladimir Putin, the country’s management of its so-called legal system has degenerated to the point of outright barbarism, where nobody is safe. The same situation, in other words, that prevailed under Josef Stalin.
At least under Stalin, though, Russians had the excuse of acting in furtherance of communist ideology, defending its pure innocence from the evils of capitalism. Now, Russia has no such excuse. Now, Russia is just a mafia state, and its court system is merely the capo regime.
It’s ironic that even as Khodorkovsky was being re-convicted on the same charges for which he has already served more than half a decade in a savage Siberian prison colony, the Kremlin was also re-arresting Vladimir Kvachkov for plotting the overthrow of the Russian government.
Unlike Khodorkovsky, who the Kremlin characterizes as a corrupt outsider, Kvachkov is one of the Kremlin’s own. Promoted to colonel in the Russian Military Intelligence Service (known as the GRU, it’s the military’s version of the KGB), Kvachkov is one of Vladimir Putin’s brothers in arms — you know, the folks Putin once said were incapable of any crime against Russia such as blowing up the apartment buildings that were destroyed in Moscow in September 1999.
So it’s clear that it’s not only those on the “left” so reviled by the Kremlin that are shocked and offended by the Putin regime. And let’s not forget the rampaging thousands who rioted recently in Moscow! All across Russia, the Kremlin is forced to resort to neo-Soviet means to control a population that is rejecting the failed policies of the Putin regime as it becomes ever more obvious that they have led the nation to the brink of an abyss. Yet just as in Soviet times, ordinary Russians show no sign of willingness to stand up for people like Khodorkovky, Orlov or Gontmakher either on moral grounds or merely for self preservation. Though seeing the total failure of the their government plainly it appears Russians are content to watch, once again, as if they were helpless while the nation collapses into ruin.
La Russophobe 
This is the way ruling class systems work. Force all citizens to walk through a lifetime minefield of legal liability and selectively toast those that step on the land mines. Securities, tax, environmental, campaign finance laws are (intentionally) legally amorphous minefields for the politically aspirant. The McCain – Feingold Act is one example. Not only is John McCain a member of the Keating Five, he also did his part to make the campaign finance minefield lethal enough to enable the felony prosecution of trial lawyer Geoff Fieger:
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/spences_no_loss_record_stands_with_fieger_acquittal/
Fieger was probably going to Putin-ize the Michigan legal system and the USDOJ under Bush apparently wanted him taken out of action. Problem is, everybody in Michigan knows exactly what Fieger is just like the people in Russia know Khordorkovsky. Political prosecutions are legal gray area popularity contests.
—
The uber-liberal legal system in Angela Merkel’s Germany lets slav-killers roam free.
Apparently this should apply to Russia as well right?…I think not:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monica_Seles
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/30/newsid_2499000/2499161.stm
I’d like to ask Angela Merkel…are all Germans fidgety paranoid backstabbers or does this just happen at tennis tournaments?
—
In a ruling class system all discriminations are corporate and all prosecutions are political. Bill and Hillary Clinton should know this all too well since they’re the worlds most visible advocates for ruling class concepts.
Maybe snafu rootless-cosmo Obama will have more luck with the Cheney “toxic avenger” oil and gas war against Gazprom…the one they’ve been working on for the last 20 years or so…especially since he supported the “Halliburton loophole” in the 2005 energy act. So much for human rights.
Actually it’s not “just” Orlov (facing now 3 years in prison):
Outside court, [Kadyrov’s lawyer] Mr. Krasnenkov said in an interview that a guilty verdict should compel the F.S.B., the main successor to the K.G.B., to close down Memorial. He said he hoped that Mr. Kadyrov’s stance against Memorial would encourage other Russian politicians to not only file civil lawsuits over unjust criticism, but also seek criminal charges. “They should do this for the sake of preserving the reputation of the state,” Mr. Krasnenkov said.
The justice is just only when it leaves the people with the feeling of justice. What was done to Khodorkovsky was definitely appropriate and lawful. But it doesn’t look just unless all the other crooks from the 90s like Voloshin, Yumashev, Abramovitz, Vekselberg, Chubais, Deripaska, Fridman are not handcuffed. Khodorkovsky is simply a victim of the system he created with his own hands (and Yeltsin’s blessing).
Starving Empire,
You missed the crook Nol 1, Mr. Putin he admited he is the richest man in Europe; I wonder if Putin keeps his loot stolen from the starving russians of 40 billion dollars in the same western bank as Voloshin, Yumashev, Abramovicz – sooner or later we will find out…..
Honestly many of us wouldn’t care how much did he steal if anything positive were done in terms of improving ordinary people’s lives. They just steal to steal. And that’s exactly what Khodorkovsky had been doing.
Really? How about, for example, a model orphanage that he run (the best in Russia, and of course most of the others are totally horryfying places of misery and brutality), or the university programs? Or, especially, his attempt to finance the political changes in the country, which was what REALLY he is convicted for? http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/oct/07/russia.nickpatonwalsh – and yeah, he refused to grab the money and emigrate (Berezovsky-style) even when he was immediately threatened with arrest. Instead, he has been investing his money into Russia’s future, literally.
The problem with the Khodorkovsky case is the spin and propaganda. For example this blog was critical of the ruling before the ruling statement was made. Further is still claims that Khodorkovsky was tried twice for the same crime when in actually fact he was not, either this article is inaccurate due to lazy reporting or deliberately so. Khodorkovsky was rightly convicted and sentenced not only in the eyes of the law but also morally. Some like Berezovsky fled and others bowed to reform. This blog has also reported incorrectly that no others where charged for similar offences. Again incorrect LUKOIL was able to settle its tax bill for operating exactly like Yukos. The problem with Khodorkovsky is he took a third option of trying to block tax reform by bribing members of the Duma from all parties including Putins. Setting up an orphanage was for no other reason but to build an image of respectability in the same way Italian mobsters donated to charities. Not a bad business to set up an orphanage for $12 billion.
No he was not. Let me remind you his so called “orphanage” was Skolkovo – the showcase for the Russian oligarchs’ “good intentions”. I’m sure you know what’s going on around Skolkovo now. Mr. Voloshin was Khodorkovsky’s man in the Kremlin, and now he is advising Medvedev. Khodor was investing in politics because he and crooks like him wanted to get full control over the Russian privatization. Honestly I wouldn’t trust the Guardian as a source of information about Khodorkovsky. If you ever visited Nefteyugansk – the former Yukos capital you would know much more about the merits of this Russian Mandela. You’re an outsider so please don’t tell us what was right and wrong in the Yukos case. The only problem the majority of Russians see there is that Khodorkovsky was not accompanied by dozens of other “robber barons”.
What? Dude. The orphanage (callled Podmoskovny) was in Skolkovo. Here’s about it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/23/AR2006052301740.html
I meant NOT in Skolkovo (but in Koralovo).
I should admit I was wrong and you’re right. But does it really change much? I’m not saying Khodorkovsky should be crucified. In fact he got enough. But he is not an angel for sure. His capitalist mindset is similar to the rest of the Russian oligarchs. And this breed is virulent.
Yes, we know, capitalism is a virulent disease. But you should be comforted by a thought that your beloved motherland (or fatherland) does not actually have this disease. Your “oligarchs” are not capitalists, they are thieves.
Most of them just want money and your Paramount Leader for Life magnanimously allowed them to keep what they stole so long as they stay out of politics and keep periodically kissing his ring. But a few, of whom Mr. Khodorkovski is one, wanted more than just money. Those were specially marked and selected for persecution and prosecution and will be tried for the same thing over and over again. And when they die in prison, their corpses will be publicly burned, I suppose.
What a wonderful country your beloved motherland/fatherland is!
@And when they die in prison, their corpses will be publicly burned, I suppose.
When someone dies in a “prison colony”, the body is buried in a numbered grave (with no name on it). Unless it’s “a terrrorist”, whose body is then “legally” destroyed since 2002.
However! According to the official state organ Rossiyskaya Gazeta publishing its sponsored propaganda in The Times, various reforms are allegedly coming to the Gulag: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/russianow/society/7306553/Legislation-signals-the-end-of-the-infamous-Gulag-system-in-Russia.html
The article is insane, in a very Russian way. “Yes, we have still the Gulag, but maybe it’s going to be ended now – isn’t it wonderful, Comrade Englishman?” Geez, they should better just stick to telling people how Stalin wrote romantic poetry and “Georgian bombs rained on us”.
As for the mother/father thing we basically don’t mix up genders as much as you westerners do. Not yet. Though thanks to Khodorkovskys, Gorbachevs and Yeltsins we made a lot of progress. I quite didn’t get your point Sir…are you claiming your capitalists are any better than their Russian counterparts? Could you please bring in the names? Rockafellas or maybe Rotshieldz? Or maybe people like Summers, Greenspan, Bernanke, Soros….or Maddoff? I mean who are those “hands that built America”? Is Lehman Brothers or Bear Stearns given some credit? Your mother/fatherland is in no better position than mine. For that just go check the price tags in your nearest grocery store. Or call NYC MTA and tell them how good and “no bankrupt” they are. Man, the khodorkovskys of the world are sending the whole planet down the tubes.
I am not saying our American capitalists are any better than your own. I am saying you don’t have any real capitalists. Because all you have is a Fascist corporate regime, not unlike that of Mussolini’s, where everybody is assigned their role by the almighty Paramount Leader for Life.
A few were selected to be capitalists and pretend to own some businesses. That is, of course, until they somehow displease the Paramount Leader for Life, in which case they are imprisoned or killed, their assets are confiscated and a new group of “capitalists” is assigned in their place.
What a load of twaddle. Any company or persons that does not pay his taxes can have his assets stripped in most countries across the western world. Some companies like Lukoil are a prime example that paying taxes that you owe in Russia avoids prosecution. Lukoil operated similarly to Yukos the difference one eventually paid its tax and the other didn’t. One was stripped of its assets one was not. One had its owner prosecuted one did not.
Then of course there is your lack of understanding about Italian fascism. Mussolini did not assign everybody a role infact it was the complete opposite. They claimed “As for economic democracy, we favour national syndicalism and reject State intervention whenever it aims at throttling the creation of wealth.”
LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:
Talk about twaddle!! Your suggestion that one can “pay taxes” in a way that clearly satisfies the legal obligation to do so in Russia is the remark of an inebriated cretin. Russian tax “law” changes from day to day, from hour to hour. Your suggestion that LUKOIL or any of the oligarchs friendly to Putin could not be prosecuted on EXACTLY the same grounds as YUKOS is an absolute lie, and you conveniently overlook the utter fraud by which the YUKOS assets were disposed.
Experts around the world have concluded that Khodorkovsky did not receive a fair trial or a just punishment, and that he was tried twice for the same “crime.” You are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.
Here is a link to an article about the crimes from an source independent of Russia a real financial expert who clearly in 2005 exposed the multitude of crimes of which some Khodorkovsky has been convicted off.
http://thekomisarscoop.com/2005/05/yukos-kingpin-on-trial/
Lucy Komisar (multiple awarding winning US financial journalist) – 2005
You have provided no facts never mind evidence, instead you have just regurgitated wild accusations without a shred substance. Then the old Stalin and Fascism terms which have nothing to do with this case, next you will be mentioning Hitler and Martians. You guys are getting real sloppy and any person who really looks into this case will see what you have posted is just completely inaccurate simply because of your Russian fear and paranoia.
LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:
Name one other person in all of Russian history jailed for BOTH stealing something AND not paying taxes on the income resulting from that theft.
Explain what Khodorkovsky did that EACH AND EVERY pro-Kremlin oligarch did not also do.
Explain why Khodorkovsky was only arrested AFTER announcing he would run for president and openly challenging Putin’s authority.
Can you?
By the way, did you know that Lucy Komisar is a THEATER CRITIC, you babbling ape?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Komisar
Maybe John Simon and Roger Ebert think Khodorkovsky is guilty. We don’t care.
lol this clearly show la russophobes ignorance on the case of Khodorkovsky. I have simply summarized the 11 charges against him in 2003 in this thread and I am at a loss maybe you can enlighten me which of the 11 charges where put to in his latest case which was just ruled on?
The Russian tax office is still bring companies not just those in the oil business to book and has been since 2001. Khodorkovsky also did not do something that the other oligarchs did do, settle with the tax man like LUKOIL or flee the country to avoid paying those taxes.
Show me a quote before 2003 where Khodorkovsky said he would run for the presidency?
Its ironic that this blog dismisses an award winning investigative financial journalist independent of the case, who has written multiple books, published papers at Harvard, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations simply because she likes the theater. Its so neo soviet of you.
LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:
Isn’t it also ironic that while you champion a journalist nobody knows or cares about you ignore the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Financial Times, hundreds of other newspapers and the governments of every NATO country, to say nothing of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and every legal group that has ever studied the case, all because one idiot who does not speak Russian, has never lived in the country and knows nothing about it sides with you?
The charges against Khodorkovsky in both indictments involve EXACTLY the same oil. In any civilized country, such multiplicity of indictments cannot be brought legally. It has never happened in the West and will never happen. NOTHING new was discovered after Khodorkovsky’s first conviction, and had these charges been included at first his sentence could not have been as long. EVERYONE who has reviewed the new indictment says it is a mockery of justice.
Your absolute obliviousness of facts indicates that you are in the employ of Vladimir Putin. You pretend to be in the right and pretend to be winning just like your Soviet ancestors did.
And look what happened to them. The future holds the same in store for you, reptile.
lol, ok so you dismiss her now not because she likes theatre but because you don’t care about her. What’s it like living in the neo soviet US.
The problem with the sources you refer to is that first, they did not even mention what Khodorkovsky was charged with, they printed their opinion before the verdict was read out, they don’t even tell you what he was convicted off. Infact not one of them has provided any credible evidence of political interference what so ever. You say I am oblivious to the facts, yet I presented the charges, not you, I presented the details off what without doubt Khodorkovsky did. Its easy for me to be oblivious to your facts because you have presented none.
Believe me your closer to the so called Neo Soviet point of view than I am. Simply I am of the position a man who was convicted on a raft of evidence should go to prison.
Let’s use some healthy logic. If your American capitalists are no better than Russian, that simply means all of them should go to jail. Including the Paramount Leader for Life. Otherwise what you’re trying to say is that it’s better to rot under corporotocracy than rot under autoritarism. It’s like choosing between being robbed and being stabbed.
I would rather be robbed than stabbed :(
:) but would you then criticize those being stabbed for not being robbed? that’s exactly what the anti-Russian rhetoric of this blog reminds me.
Not experts but politicians. Politicians who like you guys delivered their opinion before the verdict was read out. So called experts who claimed that Khodorkovsky was tried twice for the same thing when clearly he was not. Its also ironic that all these opinions are based on the so called findings of Sabine Leutheusser- Schnarrenberger. This past German minister of justice suspended three judges for daring to find Günter Deckert (not a very pleasant fellow) innocent. Infact members of the Baden-Württemberg parliament callled for the impeachment of Judge Orlet in breach of the German constitution. Under intense political and media pressure Orlet was forced to concede his position and retire. Despite the claims of Sabine Leutheusser- Schnarrenberger she has yet to provide any evidence of of political interference in the trail of Khodorkovsky.
Then lets take a look at Enron a US company who like Yukos used offshire shell companies and accounts to defraud the tax man. Like Yukos they where forced in bankruptcy and liquidated by the US legal system. Funny how you don’t complain about Enron CEO Jeff Skilling being sentenced for almost the exact same crime as Khodorkovsky for a massive 24 years and 4 months for defrauding US citizens.
LUKOIL settled a tax bill in 2001 amounting to $200 million for a similar scheme to that of Yukos and Enron. TNK-BP was hit with a $1 billion dollar tax bill as did Vimpel Communications.
All these companies used offshore accounts and shell companies to defraud tax payments. The evidence against Khodorkovsky is strong and clear.
I am entitled to my opinion as are you. I have posted the facts as of yet you have not posted any.
For example you claim Khodorkovsky was charged twice for the same thing, I challenge you to prove that and list the charges against him in both trials. You can goto one of my previous posts they detail just some of them.
http://newsflavor.com/politics/international-relations/the-ulsterman-report-confirmed-russians-play-obama-for-a-fool/
Pardon me… What “experts around the world have concluded Khodorkovsky didn’t receive a fair trial”? Are you talking about the Nevzlin sponsored US congressmen? Or maybe the international Rotshieldzzz gang crew? Come on! We don’t trust that expertise!
LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:
Name ONE respected Western institution that has EVER approved Khodorkovsky’s trial as fair. We DARE you.
Or else you are a scum-sucking liar.
EVERY major human rights organization has condemned it. EVERY leader of EVERY NATO country has decried it. Newspapers ACROSS THE GLOBE have editorialized against the obvious injustice.
WASHINGTON POST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/03/AR2011010304070.html
NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/jan/05/end-medvedev-revolution/
TIME
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2040575,00.html?xid=rss-mostpopular
VOICE OF AMERICA
http://www.voanews.com/policy/editorials/Politically-Motivated-Justice-112941229.html
Your statements are those of a deluded, ignorant child.
Your anti-Semitic slurs are quite disgusting, and in view of your other posts, I am only surprised it took you so long to finally come up with that. How come you forgot a classic anti-Semitic attack on the “international banking magnates.” But your reference to the Rothschild family (yes, that’s how you spell it) is quite revealing.
Well he is a Russian, their racism and anti-Semitic attitudes are well known.
I have to get used to this type of thing, and yet I am disgusted every time. The use of the Rothschilds is particularly symptomatic. This banking family did serve as a symbol of wealth, but it was long time ago; it has now faded somehow.
Nevertheless, anti-Semites of all stripes have traditionally used it to show how the Jews rob the Gentiles of their property and feed off their blood. Mentioning Rothschields in this context has always been a powerful anti-Semitic tool, only second to the blood libel, i.e., the allegations that Jews use blood to bake matzzah, the unleavened bread.
So, I expect the posts about blood libel soon.
Or sure. And we play balalaykas on the street filled with dancing bears.
Pardon me… what was seen as anti-semitic in my post? In case you never heard about it there’s a distinct line between anti-semitism and anti-zionism. None of them are the matter of discussion here. My reference to the Rotshieldtz was only meant to show the ugly capitalist nature of the US constructed world order. But you may ask them to send you a check for advocating their cause.
Obvious injustice, along with every source you reference have yet to even say what crime he was accused of. I again challenge you to do so. How can you claim the trial was unfair , rigged or influenced when you don’t even know what the charges where or what he was convicted of.
It is not necessary to bog down in details. It’s enough to know that your beloved Paramount Leader for Life publicly said Mr. Khodorkovsky must be convicted. The “justice” system of course clicked the heels and said “Yes Sir.”
You can mention Enron or WorldCom or hundreds other examples in your vain attempt to equate Russia with the West but it’s useless. All those crooks in the West were convicted in real courts after fair trials and very vigorous defense. While everybody sees that in the Khodorkovsky case it was a sham. At least I clearly see that.
It’s not whether Khodorkovvsky had committed and crime, he probably had. It’s about whether he received fair treatment afterwards. You may foam at the mouth all you want but Russia will remain a pariah state until she realizes how her actions are perceived.
lol, I am not asking you to get bogged down in details. I am asking you to tell me what he was charged with. How can you say any trial is unjust when you cannot even tell me what he was charged with or what he was convicted off on either occasion.
Well, I know that, I think. Embezzlement and tax evasion, right?
Do you really believe he was charged with something as vague as embezzlement and tax evasion. Why is it you have yet to detail one of the 11 charges brought against him in 2003. These include 1. the illegal privatisation of Apatit. 2. Violation of a court order to return shares in Apatit to o the government of Murmansk. 3 Forcing Apatit to sell below market prices to companies under his control causing loses to other share holders. 4 Similar to count 1 except in the case of the illegal acquisitions of The Scientific Research Institute for Fertilizer and Insecto-Fungicides. 5 Similar to charge 2 except for applying to The Scientific Research Institute for Fertilizer and Insecto-Fungicides. 6 Paying taxes with promissory notes of Yukos inviolation of hte tax code. 7 1) Illegally claiming tax concessions applicable to activity in a ZATO, ii) Overpaying taxes with promissory notes in 1999 and trying to offset them in paying taxes in 2000. 8 Overpaying taxes with promissory notes and then illegally obtained cash refunds from the state. 9 Made bank transfers from the accounts of Yukos, Mitra and Grace totaling $200 million to companies controlled by Vladimir Gusinsky without compensation. 10 Falsely gained special tax status as an individual entrepreneur.11 Falsifying an official document in relation to charge 10.
Now I challenge you to tell me which of these he was charged with twice.
LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:
You are really hilarious! Do you realize you are suggesting that the charges that sent him to prison in Siberia for six years have almost nothing to do with Yukos?
Are you writing from a Russian mental institution, or KGB headquarters (same thing, different address)?
Meanwhile, are you aware that ANYONE in Russia can be charged with these offenses at ANY time, especially the WHOLE group of oligarchs close to Putin, yet Khodorkovsky was singled out? NOBODY can obey the Russian tax law, they can only hope they are not prosecuted. Why is it that only enemies of the Kremlin are prosecuted.
Now WE challenge YOU!! Can YOU name ONE pro-Kremlin oligarch who has been prosecuted since Putin came to power? Can you??? Maybe you think they’re all pure innocence, and only those who oppose the Kremlin are corrupt, in the world’s most corrupt major economy?
Your hilarious neo-Soviet lies fool nobody, and make Russia look like the nation of braying jackasses that, in fact, it is.
3 of the charges 6,7 and 9 all directly refer to Yukos. Its just they where not the only charges.
Sorry no not anyone in Russia can be charged with these offences. Khodorkovvsky was given a chance to pay his tax bill just like the other oligarchs.
Roman Abramovich’s Sibnet was hit with a $500million tax bill in just the same way Khodorkovsky was. The difference he settled and was therefore not prosecuted. LUKOIL’s Vagit Alekperov was another who settled his tax bill with the government.
I have more than met your challenge yet you ignore mine. Though it doesn’t take a genius to know why.
You are so black and white, man. We’re not Putin or Medvedev’s attorneys. We are just telling you what the real Russian people think about Khodorkovsky and alike. As for the WorldCom are you kidding us? Where is Al Greenspan, the creator of the whole derivatives scam? Who invented the CDS, CMOs, CDAs and made the world invest into that pyramid? Where’s Soros? Is he convicted for the LBTM thing? Where’s Goldman Sachs? Is it as far away as Lehman Bros? The biggest crook is the Fed which is cooking money at Amtrak’s pace. Please stop treating people around you (Russians including) like stupid animals.
Oh what a nice idea it is to quote the New York Review of Books! Why should I “name you ONE or whatever Western Institution that approved the trial”? Does that mean if they didn’t approve the trial it is illegitimate? Or it just can’t be legitimate until it’s okayed by NATO? Sounds like the lessons of the British Empire didn’t change your colonial mindset. Quite honestly I don’t think it’s anybody’s business except Russia which, you’re absolutely right, didn’t approve the verdict. But only because the real Russia wants more thieves like Khodorkovsky detained and prosecuted. And…. maybe all the disapproving honorary Western institutions should stop buying oil and liquid gas from Rosneft? That would be a good example of decency and the highest morale.
LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:
You should name one, you lying ignoramus, because you stated that only crazy ones disapproved of the trial and many normal ones said it was just fine. You should name one to prove you were not lying.
The NYRB is one of the most respected scholarly publications on the planet, you witless goon.
All of Europe refers to Russia now as “crooks and bullies”
http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/imported/time-to-get-tough-on-the-kremlin-crooks-and-bullies/69849.aspx
It has totally lost confidence in the Russian court system and condemned it. Even Medvedev admits this.
“The investment climate in our country is bad. It’s very bad.” Those are Medvedev’s words, the President of the Russian Federation.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2040575,00.html#ixzz1AFxUadFi
Are you proud of that?
Oh I see, I see :) Then we should definitely ask what Hallmark thinks about the trial too. Or Disney Books for Kids. They are among the most trusted institutions in the world too. You’d better stop calling me names, because it’s very unlikely you will dare to do so in real life. I never “stated that only crazy ones disapproved of the trial and many normal ones said it was just fine”. I just said that most of the ordinary Russians robbed by the West and its puppet Yeltsin’s government in the 90s would like to see more khodorkovskys under criminal prosecution. As for the business climate – the whole world’s business climate today (except China) is soooo similar you know? You probably know if you read anything except the NY Review of books. The Greatest Depression ever is here. And it’s just beginning. Ask Bernanke or the new people in the House…or your neighbor if you’re not a resident of the Moon. And it’s one big American achievement. You need to open your eyes and realize that the US like capitalism is dead and it is trying to bury the whole world too. So excuse me… we DON’T CARE about business climate as it’s the Russian oil money flowing into the US treasury bonds – the super bubble which will burst into our faces soon. We don’t need your freshly printed dollars as we’re getting enough of them every time you pay your heating bills to Rosneft. We just need to get rid of the Khodorkovskys who are selling our country to international robbers like you. I know you don’t treat Russians as human beings so just disregard. They basically don’t care about your existence too. But just in case you REALLY want to say something serious about the Russian legal system – write about the Kvachkov vs Chubais trial, or about the 282 Criminal Code article, or about the imprisoned and murdered NBP activists. You can always consult me should you have any trouble in that.
@robbed by the West and its puppet Yeltsin’s government
This is what “Good Empire” actually believes.
That’s the truth, Bobby, if not removed out of context.
The United States buys very little of Russian oil and almost nothing of gas. In fact we produce more gas that Russia. So, while we owe money to foreign creditors, we don’t have “heating bills” from Rosneft.
Is the West only limited to the USA for you? Read thoroughly.
Well, since you are talking about “freshly printed dollars,” I thought you meant U.S. dollars, not Canadian or Australian ones.
as I already said try to reread. this will make things clearer for you.
That is what I witnessed. Or maybe Larry Summers wasn’t the Godfather of the Russian privatization? Or maybe Yeltsin could have won the 96 elections with his 2% approval rate were he not assisted by the US advisors? The earliest moment when things in Russia went out of the democratic order was October 1993, when Yeltsin bombarded the democratically elected parliament and was encouraged to do so by Clinton and the US. It’s not the matter of anybody’s beliefs/disbeliefs. These are just hard facts.