Posts Tagged ‘putin’
“A thief should sit in jail…”
The conviction of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former Russian oil tycoon, is a sobering reminder that the Russia of Vladimir Putin is surely a throwback to the bad old days of the totalitarian state. Mr Khodorkovsky has already spent the past seven years in prison for tax evasion and money-laundering; after the new trial (a travesty of justice that has led to public criticism from Hillary Clinton and the EU) more years in prison seem inevitable—enough to keep him in custody well after Russia’s next presidential election, due in 2012.
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The Concealed Battle to Run Russia
The New York Review of Books
by Amy Knight
Despite their professed mutual respect, Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, and his prime minister, Vladimir Putin, apparently cannot agree on one question—which of them will be running for the Russian presidency in March 2012. Over a year ago Putin told foreign journalists that he and Medvedev would at some point “sit down and come to an agreement” about who would be the presidential nominee of United Russia, the overwhelmingly pro-Kremlin party, in the next election. (He repeated the same promise in a recent interview with Larry King on CNN.) But that moment has yet to come, and in the meantime, both men are provoking speculation about their possible candidacies.
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Fighting corruption not priority for Russian leadership
Moscow Times
The gap between Russia’s authorities and citizens has become larger than ever. The country’s kleptocracy has degraded to such a level that criminal gangs and government officials have teamed up to create powerful organized crime syndicates. This was demonstrated in the recent Kushchyovskaya tragedy, but there are hundreds – if not thousands – of Kushchyovskayas across Russia.
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Be critical, not hypocritical – Western leaders should be much readier to criticise Russia
After more than a decade with Vladimir Putin in charge, few can be sanguine about Russia’s direction. Its democracy is a sham. Strong growth may have raised living standards, but its dependence on oil and gas exports often makes its economy resemble that of the Soviet Union. Corruption has become so pervasive that it undermines even the functioning of the state. Above all, the rule of law is absent, as will be seen again on December 15th when a Russian judge is expected to sentence Mikhail Khodorkovsky to another term in prison. The true crime of Mr Khodorkovsky, an unlovely oil oligarch who fell out with Mr Putin in 2003, is that his present jail term is about to expire.
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Mr. Putin’s show trial
SOMETIME IN the next two weeks, a Moscow judge is expected to announce the conviction of and new prison sentences for Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, whose oil company, Yukos, was the largest private company in Russia before it was crushed and confiscated by the regime of Vladimir Putin. If that occurs, the notion that Russia might be moving toward the rule of law under Mr. Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev will no longer deserve serious consideration.
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An American in Exile From Moscow – Browder’s tale is a warning to the West.
Had you asked Stalin about Earl Browder, he would have snorted in derision. Ask Putin about Bill Browder, and the reaction will be the same. The Browder family’s tortured relationship with Russian leaders is worthy of a Ken Follett novel.
Earl Browder was the leader of the Communist Party USA in the 1930s and during World War II. A Stalin worshiper, he wielded immense influence in the trade-union movement, which grew in power as America’s war machine sucked in millions of industrial workers. During the years of the Hitler-Stalin pact, Browder was a class warrior opposing the “imperialist” war between Britain and Germany. With the Soviet and American entry into the war in 1941, he used his communist machine to lash U.S. workers into heroic feats of output. But as the wartime love-in between Stalin and Roosevelt turned into U.S.-Soviet rivalry and the Cold War, Browder was dismissed by Stalin for not understanding quickly enough the change in line. Instead he and his son, Felix, a brilliant mathematician, fell victim to McCarthyism, living shrunken lives in the anticommunist hysteria of the 1950s.
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‘A COUNTRY RUN BY GANGSTERS’
The Daily Express
Along with the crushing disappointment that followed the announcement that Russia and not England will host the 2018 World Cup, it was impossible to silence another sentiment: the Russians bought it. World Cup host Russia has, it’s alleged, a Mafia that controls politics and police, and hitmen ensure there’s a rule of fear.
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A Crackdown on Kleptocrats – The law is catching up with Russia’s corrupt oligarchs
The Spectator
Moscow’s White House is a fairly pleasing pile, at least by the standards of late Soviet architecture. Its colonnaded white stone facade enjoys handsome views over the Moscow River, and its interiors are a symphony in green malachite, light teak and gold ormolu, a mid-1990s decorating style best described as mafia rococo.
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A Year Later, No Charges In Magnitsky Death As EU Mulls Visa Bans
It has been more than a year since Hermitage Capital Management lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in prison, but it will be at least another three months before Russian officials are prepared to make any definitive statements about it.
The investigation into Magnitsky’s Nov. 16, 2009, death in one of Moscow’s most notorious jails has been extended until Feb. 24. Magnitsky, who was awaiting trial on tax evasion charges, alleged before his death that he was tortured and denied adequate medical care—and that Russian authorities were seeking to pressure him into withdrawing allegations of fraud directed at the country’s interior ministries and into implicating Hermitage founder William Browder.
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