| Author | Message | | Alpha | |  | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 11:39 pm Post subject: Russian Oligarchs in Israel |
| http://www.counterpunch.org/weir02172005.html
February 17, 2005
Do Americans Even Care?
Russia, Israel and Media Omissions
By ALISON WEIR
As is often the case with AP's coverage of news having to do with Israel, there's a serious omission in its reporting on the Russia-Israel connection even when it involves oil and the United States.
The day after the State of the Union Address, two Interpol fugitives attended the "National Prayer Breakfast" held in Washington DC. The day before that, these fugitives from the law were the guests of honor at an hour-long meeting of the International Relations Committee on Capitol Hill, invited by ranking Democrat Tom Lantos (Calif.)
You would think it would be hot news when wanted men being hunted by European police suddenly pop up in the US particularly on Capitol Hill and at events attended by the US president.
Yet, there was not a single AP story in the US on any of this. [1] Not a single national network television or radio news program even mentioned these facts. In fact, Google and LexisNexis searches four days after these events took place turned up only three newspaper articles on them anywhere in the entire country. [2]
Who are these fugitives from the law, wanted by Interpol, who are meeting at the highest levels of the US government? And why didn't we learn of them?
Therein lies the story. These two men, it turns out, are just the tips of a colossal iceberg. And this iceberg doesn't just have 90 percent of its mass hidden under water; this iceberg is almost entirely submerged.
They are Mikhail Brudno and Vladimir Dubov, Israeli-Russian partners in the giant Russian oil company Yukos. They, along with a number of their cronies, are wanted by Interpol for allegedly bilking Russian citizens out of billions of dollars. To elude Russian prosecution, these men have taken up residence in Israel. [3]
As the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz explains: "In recent years Russian authorities began investigating [Yukos], its managers and major stockholders, many of whom are of Jewish origin. The probes caused several of the managers to flee to Israel, and resulted in Khodorkovski's [Yukos CEO] arrest and a Kremlin attack on Yukos."
The fact is that Israel is an important factor in the ongoing, nation-shaking power struggle now going on in Russia. Yet AP virtually never reports this connection. For example, a few months ago in a typical AP story on this power struggle, "Report: Russia again charges Berezovsky," [4] Moscow AP Bureau Chief Judith Ingram makes no mention anywhere that Berezovsky is an Israeli citizen, or of his many connections to Israel.
Such omissions by AP and large swaths of the American media leave Americans seriously disadvantaged in deciphering what is going on in Russia, and its profound significance for the world.
In order to make sense of this Russian power struggle, and to understand its importance to the rest of us, it is necessary to understand the usually omitted Israeli subtext. When this is understood, the friendship of such pro-Israel Congressional leaders as Rep. Lantos to fugitive Russian oil tycoons begins to make sense.
To explore this background it is often useful to turn to the Israeli press. In July a major Israeli publication, the Jerusalem Post, carried an article headlined: "Boris Berezovsky: Putin's Russia dangerous for Israel." Before describing what this contained, let us first go into a little of the background.
The Oligarchs
Boris Berezovsky is one of seven "oligarchs," as they are known both inside and outside Russia: massively rich, powerful manipulators who through violence, theft and corruption acquired a mammoth percentage (reports range from 70 to 85 percent) of Russia's resources, from its oil to the auto industry to mass media outlets.
At the same time, the group steadily gained control over much of the country's political apparatus. Using extraordinary financial resources and insider dealing, the oligarchs handpicked prime ministers and governmental leaders and barely even bothered to do this behind the scenes.
In 1997 Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, one of the group and Russia's sometimes richest man (several of the oligarchs trade the top spot back and forth) told an interviewer before he was arrested and imprisoned by Putin last year:
"If we rank all the fields of man's activity by profitability, politics will be the most lucrative business. When we see a critical situation in the government, we draw lots in order to pick out a person from our milieu for work in power." [5]
Almost all of these oligarchs, it turns out, have significant ties to Israel. In fact, Berezovsky himself has Israeli citizenship a fact that caused a scandal of Watergate proportions in Russia in 1996 when it was exposed by a Russian newspaper. [6]
Do Berezovsky's dual loyalties really matter? Yes. In the realm of global dominance, Israel's interests and Russia's are considerably divergent. It is in Israel's interests to bring to power a regime in Russia friendly to Israel, rather than the current one under Putin, which Israeli leaders feel is supportive of its enemies. Not long ago, for example, Putin met with Syrian leaders an action highly disturbing to Israel.
Having an Israeli citizen at the highest levels of the Russian government is ideal, from Israel's point of view. In Berezovsky they had such a man. The Jerusalem Post article mentioned above is revealing. It describes Berezovsky as "the Godfather of the Oligarchs' and Kingmaker of Russia's Politics'" and reports Berezovsky's statement that "Putin's Russia is dangerous for Israel." Berezovsky goes on to assert that Putin "supports terror" in the Middle East through Russia's previous relations with Iraq and current relations with Iran. [7]
While Israelis may have been delighted at Berezovsky's position in Russia, It is not surprising that Russian citizens were somewhat less so. Finding that a powerful leader and member of the Russian Security Council was an Israeli citizen was disconcerting, at best.
As a result of the media uproar over Berezovsky's Israeli citizenship and other events, the Oligarchs' connections to Israel are widely known in Russia and elsewhere. In Israel they are covered frequently, often with adulation, including a recent hit Israeli TV series called "The Oligarchs."
"Some of its episodes," according to Israeli writer Uri Avnery, "are simply unbelievable or would have been, if they had not come straight from the horses' mouths: the heroes of the story, who gleefully boast about their despicable exploits. The series was produced by Israeli immigrants from Russia."
Avnery writes that the oligarchs used "cheating, bribery and murder," as they "exploited the disintegration of the Soviet system to loot the treasures of the state and to amass plunder amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars. In order to safeguard the perpetuation of their business, they took control of the state. Six out of the seven are Jews." [8]
According to a Washington Post story by David Hoffman, the group bought and controlled Russian governmental officials at the highest levels. After financing Yeltsin's election in 1996, Hoffman writes: "The tycoons met and decided to insert one of their own into government. They debated who and chose [Vladimir] Potanin, who became deputy prime minister. One reason they chose Potanin was that he is not Jewish, and most of the rest of them are, and feared a backlash against the Jewish bankers." [9]
In Russia, the oligarchs are deeply loathed, considered villains who worked to bleed the country dry; during their reign many Russian citizens saw their life savings disappear overnight. A new term was coined for their dominance, "semibankirshchina" (the rule of the seven bankers), and they were widely known to have wielded small, murderous armies. There are rumors that Berezovsky, subject of the respectful AP article, was even responsible for the gunning down of an American journalist, Forbes Moscow editor Paul Klebnikov.
While no one has been charged with the murder of Klebnikov, who had written a book on Berezovsky, many suspect a Berezovsky connection. As a friend of Klebnikov wrote: "Experienced expatriates in Russia shared an essential rule: Don't cross these brutal billionaires, ever, or you're likely to go home in a box." [10]
The Chechnya Connection
There is evidence that Berezovsky's responsibility for death and tragedy may be vastly greater.
"Berezovsky boasts that he caused the war in Chechnya," Avnery reports, "in which tens of thousands have been killed and a whole country devastated. He was interested in the mineral resources and a prospective pipeline there. In order to achieve this he put an end to the peace agreement that gave the country some kind of independence. The oligarchs dismissed and destroyed Alexander Lebed, the popular general who engineered the agreement, and the war has been going on since then.
"In the end," Avnery writes, "there was a reaction: Vladimir Putin, the taciturn and tough ex-KGB operative, assumed power, took control of the media, put one of the oligarchs (Mikhail Khodorkovsky) in prison, caused the others to flee (Berezovsky is in England, Vladimir Gusinsky is in Israel, another, Mikhail Chernoy, is assumed to be hiding here.)"
Yet, apart from the Washington Post, American media report on almost none of this. Instead, US coverage largely portrays Berezovsky and his crowd as American-style entrepreneurs who are being hounded by a Russian government whose actions are, to repeat the media's commonly used phrase, "politically motivated."
US news stories, even when they occasionally do hint at questionable practices, tend to use such phrases as "brash young capitalists" to describe the oligarchs. [11] For example, a long series co-produced by FRONTLINE and the New York Times referred to these men as "shrewd businessmen," and asked "what it's like to be young, Russian and newly affluent?" [12] Massive violence, dual loyalties, and control of resources are rarely, if ever, part of the picture.
When AP Moscow bureau chief Ingram was asked for this article about Berezovsky's Israeli citizenship, she claimed to know nothing about it, a curious contention for someone who has been an AP news editor in Moscow since 1999. When Ingram was queried further, she hung up the phone.
An examination of Ingram's reporting on the Berezovsky story cited above raises serious questions. Though she is located in Moscow, Ingram interviewed only two people for her news story: Berezovsky, who is in London, and Berezovsky associate Alex Goldfarb, in New York. One wonders why she interviewed none of the Russians residing around her.
Similarly, one wonders why not a single AP story has identified Berezovsky's considerable connection to Israel.
Further, nowhere does Ingram's article convey the ruthlessness of the oligarchs' actions, or the significance of their holdings, including control of its media. Unnoted in Ingram's report is the fact that her subject and fellow oligarch Vladimir Gusinsky have been two of Russia's most powerful media tycoons.
Before Putin's crackdown, according to the Washington Post, oligarchs had succeeded in seizing "the reins of Russia's print and broadcast media, vital to the evolution of the country's fledgling democracy and growth of its nascent civil society." Berezovsky crony Gusinsky, who is close friends with Rupert Murdoch and was about the launch a satellite network, fled to Israel when it appeared he would be arrested." [13]
Somehow, AP's bureau chief seems to have missed all this.
Does this matter to Americans?
AP is the major news source for the thousands of news outlets around the country who cannot afford to have their own foreign correspondents. When AP chooses not to cover something, its omission is felt throughout the nation. When national news networks and others leave out the same facts, the cover-up is almost total.
Russia, despite its current turmoil, contains enormous power. Its natural resources are gargantuan: it possesses the world's largest natural gas reserves, the second largest coal reserves, and the eighth largest oil reserves. It is the world's largest exporter of natural gas, the second largest oil exporter, and the third largest energy consumer.[14] Russia's significance on the world stage now, as in the past, is immense.
Similarly, the United States is currently the most powerful nation on earth. It is therefore essential that its citizens be accurately informed on issues of significance. Israeli citizens, Russian citizens, and citizens of nations throughout the world know the information detailed above. It is critical that American citizens be no less well informed.
For years, the neocons' push for war against Iraq was unreported by the US media. For even longer, the neocons' close connections to Israel have gone largely unmentioned in mainstream American news reports. As a result, very few Americans know to what degree many of those responsible for the tragic US invasion and occupation of Iraq have been motivated by Israeli concerns.
The omission in coverage of Iraq has been profoundly disastrous, both for the Middle East and for Americans. In fact, it is quite likely that only history will show the true extent of this disaster. It is deeply troubling to see the same kind of omission occurring on Russia.
Alison Weir is Executive Director of If Americans Knew
[1] Interestingly, an AP report sent out only on its Worldstream wire (i.e. to Europe; Britain; Scandinavia; Middle East; Africa; India; Asia; England, but not to US papers) contained information on this at the end of the report.
[2] Washington Post: "Prayer Breakfast Includes Russian Fugitives" (overall, the Post has been an exception to the general blackout on this subject); the Seattle Times, which ran the Post story, and the New York Times, in a short story on page 12 on Sunday, three days after the event. Interestingly, the NY Times story was filed from Moscow (not Washington) and quotes a "spokesman" for the two men, Charles Krause, who has worked as a correspondent in Israel for the News Hour with Jim Lehrer. In the Times story Russian attempts to prosecute these men are described as "politically motivated."
[3] This is a wise move, since Israel is known for never extraditing Jewish citizens, no matter what their crime. Even requests for such cooperation by the US, which gives Israel over $10 million per day, go unheeded by the Israeli government. Private citizens wanted for committing murder in the US, for example, are not returned for trial.
[4] Associated Press, Sept. 22, 2004
[5] "Tycoons Take the Reins in Russia," By David Hoffman, Washington Post Foreign Service, Friday, August 28, 1998; Page A01
[6] "Media and Politics in Transition: Three Models," Post-Soviet Media Law & Policy Newsletter, Issue 35, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Feb. 27, 1997
[7] "Boris Berezovsky: Putin's Russia dangerous for Israel.', Bret Stephens, The Jerusalem Post, July 5, 2005
[8]" The Oligarchs", Uri Avnery, CounterPunch, Aug. 3, 2004
[9] "Tycoons Take the Reins in Russia," By David Hoffman, Washington Post Foreign Service, Friday, August 28, 1998; Page A01,
[10] "Same Old Ruthless Russia," by Michael R. Caputo, Washingtonpost.com
[11] Washington Post, Aug 28, 1998
[12] October 2003, Sabrina Tavernise,
[13] "Powerful Few Rule Russian Mass Media," David Hoffman, Washington Post, March 31, 1997; Page A01
[14] http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/russia.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/weir02172005.html
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Forwarded:
It's interesting that the only US government official quoted in the BBC report is Holocaust activist Tom Lantos. Here's a letter to the editor of the NY Post from Alison Weir of If Americans Knew on the convictions:
To the Editor:
The Post used to be one of the best sources on Russia’s “Oligarchs,” the men whose insider trading, ostentatious corruption, and ruthless armies led to ordinary Russians’ life savings disappearing in weeks and widespread misery throughout the country. While these men have often been compared to America’s robber barons, this appellation actually gives them more credit than they deserve, since the robber barons at least created companies, while these men only stole them.
It is disturbing, therefore, to see the Post, rather than reporting itself on this topic, instead carrying an Associated Press report,“Russian Oil Tycoon Sentenced to Nine Years," that is so breathtakingly blatant in its bias. The article contains 15 paragraphs on "tycoon" Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s defense and one paragraph on his criminality. While there have been massive demonstrations against Khodorkovsky representing the vast majority of Russians, AP devotes three paragraphs to small “gatherings” in his favor.
It is easy to empathize with journalists’ difficulties in writing about Khodorkovsky – after all, Forbes Moscow editor Paul Klebnikov was killed last summer following his series of exposes on the oligarchs. Nevertheless, it is important for Post readers to be accurately and fully informed on the complex struggle over control of Russia’s oil. Rather than providing some of the many important facts on this struggle – for example, that Henry Kissinger has been a prime lobbyist for Khodorkovsky and that Khodorkovsky’s oil shares are now in the hands of renowned banker Lord Jacob Rothschild – the Post gave us Khodorkovsky’s defense brief. We need more.
Sincerely,
Alison Weir
Executive Director
If Americans Knew
914 Westwood Blvd. #235
----- Original Message -----
Subject: Khodorkovsky gets 9 years
Yukos ex-chief jailed for 9 years
Former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been jailed for nine
years after being found guilty of six charges including tax evasion.
But his ordeal may not be at an end as Russian prosecutors have said
they will soon bring fresh charges against him.
The news came as Mr Khodorkovsky was found guilty of six of the seven
charges of tax evasion, fraud and embezzlement he had faced.
Meanwhile, his lawyers said he would take his appeal to Europe.
As well as appealing against the ruling at Russia's Supreme Court, Mr
Khordokovsky will take the case to the European Court of Human
Rights, they added.
US President George W Bush said that he had expressed concerns to
Moscow that Mr Khodorkovsky was judged guilty before even standing
trial.
He added that the US would watch the case as it continued.
Hard time
Mr Khodorkovsky is actually expected to serve seven-and-a-half years
in jail as the court said his prison term should be reduced because
of the amount of time served on remand since his arrest in 2003.
He will serve his time at a medium security prison camp.
But in a statement read out by his lawyer he pledged to continue his
public activities behind bars.
It added he would set up "charitable foundations" to support Russian
poetry and philosophy and set up a union for Russian inmates.
It seems that this political trial before a kangaroo court has come
to a shameful conclusion
Tom Lantos, US Congressman
During the 11-month trial, the court did drop one charge against Mr
Khodorkovsky - relating to his 1994 acquisition of fertiliser company
Apatit - as it fell outside the Russian justice system's 10-year
statute of limitations.
His business partner Platon Lebedev was also jailed for nine years on
the same charges; a third co-defendant, Andrei Krainov, was given a
five-and-a-half year suspended sentence.
'Harsh' sentence
Mr Khodorkovsky and Mr Lebedev were also ordered to pay 17bn roubles
(£330m; $600m) in taxes and penalties.
"I think [the sentence] is a testament to Basmanny justice," Mr
Khodorkovsky told the court. Basmanny, the name of the court where
the Yukos hearings began, has become a byword among his supporters
for corrupt justice.
MIKHAIL KHODORKOVSKY
1963 - Born in Moscow to factory-working parents
1980s - Sets up computer and software business with fellow students
at Mendeleeva Chemical Technical Institute
1987 - Founds Menatep bank
1994 - Buys fertiliser company Apatit at auction
1995 - Buys oil company Yukos for $300m, with Menatep assuming $2bn
in debt
October 2003 - Arrested on charges of embezzlement, tax evasion and
fraud
June 2004 - Court case begins
May 2005 - Found guilty of six of seven charges and sentenced to nine
years in jail
Commentators said that the sentence - just one year lower than the
maximum that could be imposed - was a harsh one.
Outside the court, US Democrat congressman Tom Lantos said: "It seems
that this political trial before a kangaroo court has come to a
shameful conclusion.
"It is obvious that the conclusion of the trial was pre-determined
politically and Mr Khodorkovsky could have been left at home and the
trial could have been conducted without the prison circus."
Politically motivated
Mr Khodorkovsky's supporters have claimed that the trial was
politically motivated punishment from the Kremlin in response to his
financing of pro-Western opposition political parties.
"The sentence had to be long enough so Khodorkovsky was in jail in
2008, at the next presidential elections," political analyst Marsha
Lipman at the Carnegie Moscow Centre added.
"There will be a lot of criticism in the West, no question about it."
However the Russian prosecutor's office "categorically denied" that
the case was politically motivated.
"Specific serious crimes were committed and have been proved.
Astronomical sums were stolen," spokeswoman Natalia Vishnyakova said.
Countersuit
The charges against him go back to Russia's hasty privatisation
programme in the 1990s under which Mr Khodorkovsky was able to form
Yukos, formerly Russia's largest oil company.
Since Mr Khodorkovsky has been behind bars, Russian authorities have
broken up Yukos after hitting it with a bill for $28bn in back taxes.
Yukos, meanwhile, has sued the Russian government for 324bn roubles,
arguing that it is due compensation for the break-up, which saw its
main production unit sold off to a competitor.
The company says the break-up will eventually ruin it.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/4595289.stm
Last edited by Alpha on Wed Jun 01, 2005 6:54 pm; edited 1 time in total | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 8:14 am Post subject: Re: Russian Oligarchs in Israel |
| See pictures associated with the following article at this URL:
http://www.nationalvanguard.org/story.php?id=4641
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Neo-cons, Israel Lobby Declare War on Putin
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http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2005/02/20/neo-cons-israeli-lobby-declare-war-on-putin.php
| Alpha wrote: | http://www.counterpunch.org/weir02172005.html
February 17, 2005
Do Americans Even Care?
Russia, Israel and Media Omissions
By ALISON WEIR
As is often the case with AP's coverage of news having to do with Israel, there's a serious omission in its reporting on the Russia-Israel connection even when it involves oil and the United States.
The day after the State of the Union Address, two Interpol fugitives attended the "National Prayer Breakfast" held in Washington DC. The day before that, these fugitives from the law were the guests of honor at an hour-long meeting of the International Relations Committee on Capitol Hill, invited by ranking Democrat Tom Lantos (Calif.)
You would think it would be hot news when wanted men being hunted by European police suddenly pop up in the US particularly on Capitol Hill and at events attended by the US president.
Yet, there was not a single AP story in the US on any of this. [1] Not a single national network television or radio news program even mentioned these facts. In fact, Google and LexisNexis searches four days after these events took place turned up only three newspaper articles on them anywhere in the entire country. [2]
Who are these fugitives from the law, wanted by Interpol, who are meeting at the highest levels of the US government? And why didn't we learn of them?
Therein lies the story. These two men, it turns out, are just the tips of a colossal iceberg. And this iceberg doesn't just have 90 percent of its mass hidden under water; this iceberg is almost entirely submerged.
They are Mikhail Brudno and Vladimir Dubov, Israeli-Russian partners in the giant Russian oil company Yukos. They, along with a number of their cronies, are wanted by Interpol for allegedly bilking Russian citizens out of billions of dollars. To elude Russian prosecution, these men have taken up residence in Israel. [3]
As the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz explains: "In recent years Russian authorities began investigating [Yukos], its managers and major stockholders, many of whom are of Jewish origin. The probes caused several of the managers to flee to Israel, and resulted in Khodorkovski's [Yukos CEO] arrest and a Kremlin attack on Yukos."
The fact is that Israel is an important factor in the ongoing, nation-shaking power struggle now going on in Russia. Yet AP virtually never reports this connection. For example, a few months ago in a typical AP story on this power struggle, "Report: Russia again charges Berezovsky," [4] Moscow AP Bureau Chief Judith Ingram makes no mention anywhere that Berezovsky is an Israeli citizen, or of his many connections to Israel.
Such omissions by AP and large swaths of the American media leave Americans seriously disadvantaged in deciphering what is going on in Russia, and its profound significance for the world.
In order to make sense of this Russian power struggle, and to understand its importance to the rest of us, it is necessary to understand the usually omitted Israeli subtext. When this is understood, the friendship of such pro-Israel Congressional leaders as Rep. Lantos to fugitive Russian oil tycoons begins to make sense.
To explore this background it is often useful to turn to the Israeli press. In July a major Israeli publication, the Jerusalem Post, carried an article headlined: "Boris Berezovsky: Putin's Russia dangerous for Israel." Before describing what this contained, let us first go into a little of the background.
The Oligarchs
Boris Berezovsky is one of seven "oligarchs," as they are known both inside and outside Russia: massively rich, powerful manipulators who through violence, theft and corruption acquired a mammoth percentage (reports range from 70 to 85 percent) of Russia's resources, from its oil to the auto industry to mass media outlets.
At the same time, the group steadily gained control over much of the country's political apparatus. Using extraordinary financial resources and insider dealing, the oligarchs handpicked prime ministers and governmental leaders and barely even bothered to do this behind the scenes.
In 1997 Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, one of the group and Russia's sometimes richest man (several of the oligarchs trade the top spot back and forth) told an interviewer before he was arrested and imprisoned by Putin last year:
"If we rank all the fields of man's activity by profitability, politics will be the most lucrative business. When we see a critical situation in the government, we draw lots in order to pick out a person from our milieu for work in power." [5]
Almost all of these oligarchs, it turns out, have significant ties to Israel. In fact, Berezovsky himself has Israeli citizenship a fact that caused a scandal of Watergate proportions in Russia in 1996 when it was exposed by a Russian newspaper. [6]
Do Berezovsky's dual loyalties really matter? Yes. In the realm of global dominance, Israel's interests and Russia's are considerably divergent. It is in Israel's interests to bring to power a regime in Russia friendly to Israel, rather than the current one under Putin, which Israeli leaders feel is supportive of its enemies. Not long ago, for example, Putin met with Syrian leaders an action highly disturbing to Israel.
Having an Israeli citizen at the highest levels of the Russian government is ideal, from Israel's point of view. In Berezovsky they had such a man. The Jerusalem Post article mentioned above is revealing. It describes Berezovsky as "the Godfather of the Oligarchs' and Kingmaker of Russia's Politics'" and reports Berezovsky's statement that "Putin's Russia is dangerous for Israel." Berezovsky goes on to assert that Putin "supports terror" in the Middle East through Russia's previous relations with Iraq and current relations with Iran. [7]
While Israelis may have been delighted at Berezovsky's position in Russia, It is not surprising that Russian citizens were somewhat less so. Finding that a powerful leader and member of the Russian Security Council was an Israeli citizen was disconcerting, at best.
As a result of the media uproar over Berezovsky's Israeli citizenship and other events, the Oligarchs' connections to Israel are widely known in Russia and elsewhere. In Israel they are covered frequently, often with adulation, including a recent hit Israeli TV series called "The Oligarchs."
"Some of its episodes," according to Israeli writer Uri Avnery, "are simply unbelievable or would have been, if they had not come straight from the horses' mouths: the heroes of the story, who gleefully boast about their despicable exploits. The series was produced by Israeli immigrants from Russia."
Avnery writes that the oligarchs used "cheating, bribery and murder," as they "exploited the disintegration of the Soviet system to loot the treasures of the state and to amass plunder amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars. In order to safeguard the perpetuation of their business, they took control of the state. Six out of the seven are Jews." [8]
According to a Washington Post story by David Hoffman, the group bought and controlled Russian governmental officials at the highest levels. After financing Yeltsin's election in 1996, Hoffman writes: "The tycoons met and decided to insert one of their own into government. They debated who and chose [Vladimir] Potanin, who became deputy prime minister. One reason they chose Potanin was that he is not Jewish, and most of the rest of them are, and feared a backlash against the Jewish bankers." [9]
In Russia, the oligarchs are deeply loathed, considered villains who worked to bleed the country dry; during their reign many Russian citizens saw their life savings disappear overnight. A new term was coined for their dominance, "semibankirshchina" (the rule of the seven bankers), and they were widely known to have wielded small, murderous armies. There are rumors that Berezovsky, subject of the respectful AP article, was even responsible for the gunning down of an American journalist, Forbes Moscow editor Paul Klebnikov.
While no one has been charged with the murder of Klebnikov, who had written a book on Berezovsky, many suspect a Berezovsky connection. As a friend of Klebnikov wrote: "Experienced expatriates in Russia shared an essential rule: Don't cross these brutal billionaires, ever, or you're likely to go home in a box." [10]
The Chechnya Connection
There is evidence that Berezovsky's responsibility for death and tragedy may be vastly greater.
"Berezovsky boasts that he caused the war in Chechnya," Avnery reports, "in which tens of thousands have been killed and a whole country devastated. He was interested in the mineral resources and a prospective pipeline there. In order to achieve this he put an end to the peace agreement that gave the country some kind of independence. The oligarchs dismissed and destroyed Alexander Lebed, the popular general who engineered the agreement, and the war has been going on since then.
"In the end," Avnery writes, "there was a reaction: Vladimir Putin, the taciturn and tough ex-KGB operative, assumed power, took control of the media, put one of the oligarchs (Mikhail Khodorkovsky) in prison, caused the others to flee (Berezovsky is in England, Vladimir Gusinsky is in Israel, another, Mikhail Chernoy, is assumed to be hiding here.)"
Yet, apart from the Washington Post, American media report on almost none of this. Instead, US coverage largely portrays Berezovsky and his crowd as American-style entrepreneurs who are being hounded by a Russian government whose actions are, to repeat the media's commonly used phrase, "politically motivated."
US news stories, even when they occasionally do hint at questionable practices, tend to use such phrases as "brash young capitalists" to describe the oligarchs. [11] For example, a long series co-produced by FRONTLINE and the New York Times referred to these men as "shrewd businessmen," and asked "what it's like to be young, Russian and newly affluent?" [12] Massive violence, dual loyalties, and control of resources are rarely, if ever, part of the picture.
When AP Moscow bureau chief Ingram was asked for this article about Berezovsky's Israeli citizenship, she claimed to know nothing about it, a curious contention for someone who has been an AP news editor in Moscow since 1999. When Ingram was queried further, she hung up the phone.
An examination of Ingram's reporting on the Berezovsky story cited above raises serious questions. Though she is located in Moscow, Ingram interviewed only two people for her news story: Berezovsky, who is in London, and Berezovsky associate Alex Goldfarb, in New York. One wonders why she interviewed none of the Russians residing around her.
Similarly, one wonders why not a single AP story has identified Berezovsky's considerable connection to Israel.
Further, nowhere does Ingram's article convey the ruthlessness of the oligarchs' actions, or the significance of their holdings, including control of its media. Unnoted in Ingram's report is the fact that her subject and fellow oligarch Vladimir Gusinsky have been two of Russia's most powerful media tycoons.
Before Putin's crackdown, according to the Washington Post, oligarchs had succeeded in seizing "the reins of Russia's print and broadcast media, vital to the evolution of the country's fledgling democracy and growth of its nascent civil society." Berezovsky crony Gusinsky, who is close friends with Rupert Murdoch and was about the launch a satellite network, fled to Israel when it appeared he would be arrested." [13]
Somehow, AP's bureau chief seems to have missed all this.
Does this matter to Americans?
AP is the major news source for the thousands of news outlets around the country who cannot afford to have their own foreign correspondents. When AP chooses not to cover something, its omission is felt throughout the nation. When national news networks and others leave out the same facts, the cover-up is almost total.
Russia, despite its current turmoil, contains enormous power. Its natural resources are gargantuan: it possesses the world's largest natural gas reserves, the second largest coal reserves, and the eighth largest oil reserves. It is the world's largest exporter of natural gas, the second largest oil exporter, and the third largest energy consumer.[14] Russia's significance on the world stage now, as in the past, is immense.
Similarly, the United States is currently the most powerful nation on earth. It is therefore essential that its citizens be accurately informed on issues of significance. Israeli citizens, Russian citizens, and citizens of nations throughout the world know the information detailed above. It is critical that American citizens be no less well informed.
For years, the neocons' push for war against Iraq was unreported by the US media. For even longer, the neocons' close connections to Israel have gone largely unmentioned in mainstream American news reports. As a result, very few Americans know to what degree many of those responsible for the tragic US invasion and occupation of Iraq have been motivated by Israeli concerns.
The omission in coverage of Iraq has been profoundly disastrous, both for the Middle East and for Americans. In fact, it is quite likely that only history will show the true extent of this disaster. It is deeply troubling to see the same kind of omission occurring on Russia.
Alison Weir is Executive Director of If Americans Knew
[1] Interestingly, an AP report sent out only on its Worldstream wire (i.e. to Europe; Britain; Scandinavia; Middle East; Africa; India; Asia; England, but not to US papers) contained information on this at the end of the report.
[2] Washington Post: "Prayer Breakfast Includes Russian Fugitives" (overall, the Post has been an exception to the general blackout on this subject); the Seattle Times, which ran the Post story, and the New York Times, in a short story on page 12 on Sunday, three days after the event. Interestingly, the NY Times story was filed from Moscow (not Washington) and quotes a "spokesman" for the two men, Charles Krause, who has worked as a correspondent in Israel for the News Hour with Jim Lehrer. In the Times story Russian attempts to prosecute these men are described as "politically motivated."
[3] This is a wise move, since Israel is known for never extraditing Jewish citizens, no matter what their crime. Even requests for such cooperation by the US, which gives Israel over $10 million per day, go unheeded by the Israeli government. Private citizens wanted for committing murder in the US, for example, are not returned for trial.
[4] Associated Press, Sept. 22, 2004
[5] "Tycoons Take the Reins in Russia," By David Hoffman, Washington Post Foreign Service, Friday, August 28, 1998; Page A01
[6] "Media and Politics in Transition: Three Models," Post-Soviet Media Law & Policy Newsletter, Issue 35, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Feb. 27, 1997
[7] "Boris Berezovsky: Putin's Russia dangerous for Israel.', Bret Stephens, The Jerusalem Post, July 5, 2005
[8]" The Oligarchs", Uri Avnery, CounterPunch, Aug. 3, 2004
[9] "Tycoons Take the Reins in Russia," By David Hoffman, Washington Post Foreign Service, Friday, August 28, 1998; Page A01,
[10] "Same Old Ruthless Russia," by Michael R. Caputo, Washingtonpost.com
[11] Washington Post, Aug 28, 1998
[12] October 2003, Sabrina Tavernise,
[13] "Powerful Few Rule Russian Mass Media," David Hoffman, Washington Post, March 31, 1997; Page A01
[14] http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/russia.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/weir02172005.html | | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 6:22 am Post subject: Iran & Syria Armed With Russian S-300 Missiles |
| Iran & Syria Armed With Russian S-300 Missiles
During a visit to Ramallah in Palestine on April 29, 2005, President
Putin commented: "Expecting Mahmoud Abbas to fight terrorism effectively,
we have to realize that a slingshot and a handful of stones won't do
the job." Then Putin paused, before adding, "Which Israel clearly
understands."
http://www.vialls.com/subliminalsuggestion/s_300.html
Copyright Joe Vialls, 5 May 2005
Immediately after his arrival in Palestine on Wednesday April 27, 2005,
Russian President Vladimir Putin lights a candle as he visits the
Christian Church of the Holy Sepulchre, believed to be built on the site of
Jesus' last resting place after his body was removed from the cross in
the old town of Jerusalem.
When Vladimir Putin arrived in Palestine recently, the
western media was curiously muted, perhaps painfully aware of the fact that
the Russian President was one (perhaps the only) head of state, who
would not allow himself to be meekly shepherded around the Jewish State on
one of Ariel Sharon's intentionally demeaning whistle stop tours of the
'Holocaust' Museum and Wailing Wall.
Put bluntly, Putin has no need to be subservient to those he
perceives as vassals of the Wall Street banks - the very same
institutions that brought the Soviet Union to its knees in 1989, with a little
inside help from Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, who was later rewarded
for his treason with matching unrestricted American Express Gold Cards
for he and his wife Raisa. In purely commercial terms then, Gorbachev
was an extraordinarily cheap presidential commodity.
With "their man" Gorbachev at the helm, and with Russia in
total disarray, the Wall Street bankers ordered their oligarchs in
Moscow to start buying up state assets at bargain basement prices, with a
view to adding Russia to their ever growing basket of wholly-owned
subsidiary nation states. Total control of Russia would finally give the
'One World Government' freaks in New York the awsome power they sought -
or so they believed at the time.
Year after miserable year, the oligarchs grabbed bigger and
bigger slices of the Russian State pie, committed willful fraud on a
daily basis, and formed the Moscow Mafia to terrorize Russian residents
into submission. Prominent among these oligarchs were Mikhail
Khodorkovsky, Leonid Nevzlin, Mikhail Brudno, Vladimir Dubov and Vladimir
Gusinsky. All lived high on the hog, right up to the day when Vladimir Putin
became President of Russia.
Most readers already know what happened to Mikhail
Khodorkovsky. Shortly after attempting to illegally transfer ownership of
Russian oil giant Yukos to Exxon Mobil of America, Khodorkovsky was arrested
for fraud and tax evasion. His sentence was due to be handed down on
April 27, the day before Putin was scheduled to arrive in Jerusalem for a
brief visit. This verdict was eagerly awaited in Tel Aviv, where a very
nervous Ariel Sharon badly need a bit of 'leverage' to use against the
Russian President.
Alas, it was not to be. At 10 a.m. Moscow time on April 27,
a small white notice was pinned to the door of the Russian Court. It
read quite simply, "The sentencing of Mikhail Khodorkovsky had been
delayed until May 16, 2005." This judicial decision could not have been
influenced by Vladimir Putin, because of the separation of powers
guaranteed by the new Russian democracy. The decision was, however, a body blow
to Ariel Sharon and to those who lurked in his large shadow.
The indistinct fuzzy faces lurking in Sharon's shadow
include Leonid Nevzlin, Mikhail Brudno, Vladimir Dubov and Vladimir
Gusinsky: all of whom have taken up residence in the Jewish State in recent
years as Russia ordered their arrests. That these felons should seek
sanctuary alongside indicted war criminal Ariel Sharon is no great surprise,
because every thieving oligarch in Russia since 1989 has been Jewish,
and all hold valid 'Israeli' citizenship and passports for use in
emergencies.
Like unquestionaly attracts like, and never more so than
here. During the forties the Jews pillaged sovereign Palestine because
"God said they could", then they went on to pillage sovereign Russia as
well. Clearly not content with these two massive atrocities, they then
ordered puppet George W. Bush to pillage sovereign Iraq as well.
It is a fact that organized crime attracts oligarchs like
flies around a rotting corpse, and last year's intelligence reports show
that the Jewish State nowadays controls some 94% of the global
(Ecstacy) drug trade, thereby providing mind-altering chemicals on demand for
your gullible teenage sons and daughters.
None of this appalling 'One World Government' and
corruption went unnoticed in Moscow, where for more than a decade senior
officials have been quietly organizing the asymmetric destruction of the
monstrous Zionist 'Empire', by carefully placing key strategic and tactical
military assets around the globe, in countries potentially vulnerable
to the oligarchs.
Mostly this Russian (and Chinese) activity went unnoticed
in the west, and where the oligarchs did ctually notice, they sneered
scornfully and failed to respond, because they had come to believe their
own propaganda that Russian and Chinese weapon systems were 'second
rate'.
By mid-2004 it was too late to respond meaningfully,
because it was suddenly announced that Russia, China, India and Brazil had
formally entered into the most powerful coalition on the face of the
earth, literally surrounding both America and the Jewish State with a
lethal ring of sophisticated weapons.
At the same time, smaller informal coalitions were formed
at the boundaries, with the most ominous (for America), being the sub
coalition between Brazil, Venezuela and Cuba. Across in the Eastern
Hemisphere, a second sub coalition was formed between Iran, Syria, India
and China. Within a few months, every main and sub coalition sovereign
nation had been armed with weapons easily capable of destroying the
awesome portable firepower of both America and the Jewish State.
By the time the Zionist oligarchs finally woke up, it was
far too late to strike back in an effective manner. So when Vladimir
Putin calmy arrived in Palestine to announce that he would be providing
the Palestinian security forces with helicopters and a minimum of 50
armoured vehicles to fight "terrorists", it required very little
imagination to work out which terrorists Putin was subtly referring to.
The devil lay in the detail, with Putin artfully making his
intent crystal clear with a blunt statement in Ramallah that, "a
slingshot and a handful of stones won't do the job" [for the Palestinians].
Since the very first illegal invasion and occupation of sovereign
Palestine, the traditional defense used by Palestinians against the Jewish
invaders were slighshots and stones. These puny weapons were never used
against anyone else, making Jewish terrorists the only possible targets
for the new Russian weapons.
As usual, the controlled western media 'shielded' you from
these meaningful remarks, because it would be too embarrassing for Wall
Street to admit that Vladimir Putin had flown into Palestine specifically
to offer military assistance in the final destruction of the illegal
Jewish invasion force; an event that over time will lead to a real Jewish
diaspora.
By western media standards, readers would of course expect
Washington and Tel Aviv to threaten Putin with massive retribution for
his 'insubordination', but they failed to do so. Apart from darkly
muttered comments that the Russian armored vehicles would never be allowed
into Palestine, "because we [The Jews] control the territory", the
subject was allowed to be buried.
The reason for this cowed western response is simple enough.
Washington and Tel Aviv fear President Putin, and rightly so. For this
is the man who provided the Iraqi Republican Guard with a massive
quantity of laser-guided Kornet anti-tank missiles, each of them
man-portable and easily capable of destroying an American Abrams battle tank for
1/2,000th the cost of the latter.
Putin is also the man who helped to direct the rearmament
of Iran and Syria so skillfully, and with such esoteric weaponry, that
only a complete idiot would try to attack either country. So, in the
Eastern Hemisphere, the Jewish invaders of Palestine are now surrounded,
apart from the Mediterranean in the west, which is a convenient back
door through which most will be allowed to flee, when the time comes for
blind panic.
On the left, seventh-grade Judo Black Belt Vladimir Putin throws a a
lesser Japanese adversary to the mat, while on the right a mighty S-300
PMU races off its launcher, to destroy an incoming tactical ballistic
missile. I did consider putting a picture of Ariel Sharon alongside, but
feared the image of the grossly obese indicted war criminal would
destroy the speed and grace of this photographic montage.
To comprehend how it is that most people in America, Britain
and Australia simply cannot appreciate what is happening in the Middle
East at present, we need to go back in history to take a closer look at
the massive western propaganda machine, and the way in which it has
deluded entire nations into believing that America is the most advanced
and powerful single entity on the face of the earth. .
Since the late fifties, every media institution from the New
York Times on down, has played the productive game of hyping up
'Russian inferiority', both in terms of Russia's political processes and its
ability to manufacture and use sophisticated weapon systems. All of this
was grossly untrue, but over the decades that followed, the creative
media propaganda allowed western politicians and officials to literally
'brainwash' Americans and others into thinking that Russia was of no
consequence.
Now then, if you can be made to believe that Russia is
garbage and America is utterly invincible, you will naturally be more
prepared to send your sons and daughters to war, because the western media
has already assured you each of your children will swiftly kill a few
inferior "Gooks" or "Hajis" [depending on which country Wall Street is
illegally invading at the time], then come home beaming and uninjured,
with a load of souvenirs from exotic lands. Just like going on a pleasant
package holiday, you see, but with New York throwing in a free gun and
ammo for good measure.
You may remember the media telling you this quite recently
in fact, when television and the newspapers told you that American
troops 'liberating' Russian-backed sovereign Iraq from its own sovereign
government, would be greeted by delighted Iraqi citizens throwing rose
petals on the road in front of the Abrams battle tanks. Grateful Iraqi
maidens would allegedly bestow delightful sexual favors on their
new-found American GI heroes; beer and wine would flow freely, and so on and so
forth.
What they forgot to tell you is that Saddam Hussein was and
remains a national hero - the man who threw the British and Americans
out of Iraq in 1972, thus giving Iraqi citizens their own country back
and restoring their dignity. Since 2003 these same Iraqi citizens have
sent more than 3,400 of your sons and daughters home in body bags, to
wait in a two-year queue for burial at Arlington Cemetery. The media
will, of course, tell you that the Arlington backlog is due to World War II
Veterans suddenly and very conveniently dying at a vastly increased
rate of more than 1,000 per week. You may believe this Orwellian fantasy
if you wish.
Where did the advanced weapons and tactics that made all this
possible really come from? Surely not from old-fashioned, second-rate,
irrelevant and defeated Russia? Actually, yes they did. You see, ever
since Yuri Gagarin circled the earth in Vostok 1 during April 1961,
Russia has been vastly superior to America in the areas of science and
military design. Predictably, this disturbing reality was deliberately
swamped by western media outlets using pure trickery, with a little
graphics magic thrown in for good measure.
There are countless examples I could use, but we only have
room here for one. So, let us forget the insane "Apollo to the Moon"
scam, which was really only about diverting trillions of taxpayer dollars
to black projects and Swiss bank accounts, and focus instead on the
single comparison of Yuri Gagarin's Vostok 1, and Alan Shepard's Freedom
7, which tried to follow Gagarin into space just 23 days later.
When Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin blasted off in Vostok 1 on April
12, 1961, he was sitting on top of the most powerful launch rocket in
the world. America could not match it then, and still cannot match it
now in 2005. Because of the rocket's ability to lift huge payloads,
Gagarin was lying comfprtably inside an armored capsule so strong, that the
inside pressure was a full 14.7 p.s.i., exactly the same atmospheric
pressure as that found on the surface of the earth. In turn, this meant
that Yuri Gagarin was able to lie there casually with his helmet visor
open, breathing exactly the same air you or I breathe every day.
Beneath the capsule itself was the massive guidance and
support stage, containing full life support, plus thrust and vectoring
rockets. For this first flight, all controls were locked and controlled
from the ground by rudimentary analog computer, but Gagarin had a sealed
envelope containing a key, which would give him complete control of the
spacecraft if contact was lost with the ground. Vostok 1 soared into
full earth orbit at an altitude of 204.4 miles, and stayed aloft for 108
minutes.
After reentry, Gagarin was given the choice of remaining in
the capsule as it parachuted to earth, or ejecting and and landing with
a separate parachute of his own. Yuri Gagarin chose to eject, but the
Russians kept this information secret for many years afterwards. There
was a good reason for this. Operational ejector seats are complex, very
large and very heavy, meaning that if America found out about the seat,
Russia's already awesome space lift capability would have to be
recaluculated and multiplied by a factor of three. Put another way, forty
years ago, Yuri Gagarin was sitting in a fully-equipped and pressurised
capsule larger than the cockpit of a modern F-15 Eagle fighter.
Naturally enough, western spin doctors were outraged at
this 'affront' to America's superior scientific ability (sic), and set up
a massive counter-propaganda campaign. To put the nasty Russian
Commies in their place, America strapped a rather nervous Alan Shepard into
an enlarged Coke can called "Freedom 7", stuck the enlarged coke can on
top of a ballistic missile, and then lit the blue touch paper on May 5,
1961.
Believe me, Alan Shepard was a very brave man. Because the
American ballistic missile had hopelessly inadequate lifting ability,
his tiny thin-skinned Coke can could not be pressurised to full
atmospheric pressure. In turn, this meant that Shepard's life depended on an
all-embracing sealed space suit, and it also meant that he had to breathe
100% oxygen for the duration. Nothing wrong with 100% oxygen (I
sometimes sniff it myself), but it is extremely hazardous in a
partly-pressurised environment in close proximity to possible electric shorts and
sparks. A single spark inside Freedom 7, would have turned Alan Shepard and
his space suit into a blazing roman candle in less than one second.
Needless to say, like the American Space Shuttle crews today, Shepard did
not have the luxury of an ejector seat.
Despite the magnificent American media fanfare following
its launch, the diminutive Freedom 7 was a dismal failure, barely
managing to reach 116 miles altitude in a sub-orbital trajectory, before
coming back to earth after a mere 15 minutes and 28 seconds. The little
eagle had landed with a sullen bump, but the big bear would go on to much
bigger and better things.
Just a few years later in 1965 the Russians started using a
launch rocket called the "Proton", which continues today as the most
reliable heavy lift launcher in history. The Proton can lift up to 22
metric tons into low earth orbit -that's more than one and a half times
the mass of a Greyhound bus. Tacit acknowledgement of this awesome lift
ability and reliability, lies in the fact that America nowadays pays the
Russians to launch its heavy payloads into space, rather than have them
self-destruct in the nose cones of notoriously unreliable converted
American ballistic missiles.
It is obvious from this single documented example, that
where Russia uses hard science to achieve hard results, America largely
uses media propaganda to deflect public opinion away from the hard fact
of Russian superiority. It is a chilling reality, made all the more
menacing with groups of American forces encircled by the Republican Guard
in Iraq, while Iran and Syria calmly wait to repel, and if necessary
destroy, any and all invaders sent by the crazed 'One World Government'
in New York.
While in Palestine, Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a diplomatic
3-minute visit to the Jewish "Wailing Wall", located provocatively
below the Muslim Al-Aqsa Mosque, then went on to spend four times as long
at the tomb of Yasir Arafat. In direct contrast, American President
George W. Bush, who continually called Yasir Arafat a "terrorist", makes a
mockery of his own professed 'Christianity' by paying homage at the
mock shrine of those who murdered Jesus Christ. Now then people, ask
yourselves a simple question: Which religious cult do you think has absolute
and unchallenged control of the United States of America? Go on, take
an inspired guess...
Proton
For many decades, Russia has practiced asymmetric warfare
techniques, meaning that it has developed weapons and techniques
designed to ensure that it (and its allies) can defeat nations with much
larger war chests, in this case principally although not solely the 'One
World Government' folk across in New York.
When America invested billions in the development of the
Abrams battle tank, the Russians started to look for a more economical
way of killing it without bothering to build an opposition tank of their
own. To this end, they duplicated the American armor and tested
different methods of penetrating it with lightweight economical weapons. Long
before America invaded Russian ally Iraq in 2003, they had already
found the answer.
Before America crossed the border from Kuwait into Iraq,
Russia discreetly supplied the Republican Guard with more than 1,000
"Kornet" anti-tank missiles. Each of these and its launcher can easily be
handled by a team of three men, and be fired from a simple hole in the
desert. Kornet is a laser-guided Mach 3 nightmare with a double warhead
guaranteed to finish off at Abrams from 5,000 yards away. In other
words, completely out of sight of the American tank crew until missile
impact. These missiles have already accounted for more than 60 Abrams tanks
in Iraq, and will unquestionably account for a lot more in the future.
When corrupt politicians and military contractors in
America decided to control the world by building monolithic aircraft
carriers, known politely in New York as "Instruments of American Foreign
Policy", Russia did not bother to compete. It could have done so easily,
but chose instead to find more economical ways of destroying this
massive seaborne American menace. This was achieved by the "Sunburn" and
"Onyx" supersonic sea-skimming missiles, which have never been known to
miss their targets.
Note here that both missiles have a range of less than 250
miles at best, proving they are designed for purely defensive use. None
have been fitted to strategic bombers in order to attack American ships
in American waters, but will unquestionably be used to sink any
American aircraft carrier stupid enough to get within 250 miles of Russia or
one of its close allies. Thus these missiles have completely neutered
America's "Instruments of Foreign Policy" at a cost of just one million
dollars per round.
At the tactical level, these weapons are equally useful.
American foreign policy has been getting dangerously close to Iran and
Syria during the last two years, and both sovereign states are now
equipped with either Sunburn or Onyx, both of which are nuclear capable. So
if America is stupid enough to attack Iran, it will almost certainly
lose at least one Carrier battle group in the Persian Gulf to these
unstoppable weapons, making the odds too high.
In like manner, if the Jewish State is stupid enough to
attack Syria, it can expect to lose most of greater Tel Aviv and probably
Haifa as well. The problem is that a desperate Jewish State on the hind
foot, might decide to go nuclear, and direct its 'requisitioned' stock
of American atomic weapons against both Syria and Iran. Clearly,
defensive Sunburns and Onyxs would be of no use at all in such a crazed
doomsday scenario. But never fear, Russia had already thought of the
answer to that little problem as well.
THE FUTURE OF ADVANCED RUSSIAN WEAPONS
American Abrams M1A1 tank (serial # L13170) in Baghdad, after being hit
by an 8-mm speed-of-light man portable gas plasma weapon. Plasma ball
entered through skirt armor covering right track, cut through main hull
armor (right side), then grazed rear of gunner's seat and control panel
before gouging a 2" deep hole in main hull armor (left side). Just like
sliding a hot knife through soft butter. Sadly for America, Los Alamos
hasn't got anything even remotely like it.
Just about everyone with a television set has seen or at
least heard of the fabled American "Patriot" missile, hopefully designed
to intercept and destroy incoming tactical ballistic missiles,
presumably fired by 'Muslim Terrorists', or perhaps any recalcitrant nation
seriously pissed off at Wall Street trying to democratically steal its
sovereign oil reserves. Rather like the earlier comparison between
Vostok 1 and Challenger 7, the Patriot is a shrimp sized version of the
venerable Russian S-300 missile system, and with the same comparative
limitations, i.e. the Russian system works perfectly, while the American
system does not work at all.
The S-300 was originally designed in the late sixties by the
Russian Almaz Scientific Production Association, to shoot down
low-altitude targets, including cruise missiles and aircraft. Even in the early
days its phased-array fire control radar was capable of tracking up to
six targets simultaneously, while its single-state, solid-fuel
propelled missile sported aerodynamic control surfaces and thrust vectoring.
The first S-300 missile, known as 5V55K, had a range of 30 miles and
could successfully engage its incoming targets between 200 and 100,000
feet.
But that was then, and now is now. Both Iran and Syria have
recently been equipped with the very latest version of this missiles,
the S-300PMU-2, which is larger, faster and even more efficient at
hunting down its prey. The range of this upgraded missile is in excess of
125 miles, with the ability to acquire and kill targets flying as low as
30 feet. The Russians routinely shoot down random target drones
travelling at 5,800 feet per second, and further claim the weapon is easily
capable of destroying targets approaching at up to 15,500 feet per
second, or Mach 14. Trust me, the S-300PMU-2 will swiftly take care of
anything America or the Jewish State is reckless enough to fire at Iran or
Syria, and then some. Rumor has it that this big bird of prey is canny
enough to detect and destroy Groom Lake's 'invisible' B2 bomber.
As I prepare to post this report on the Internet, stories
are flying around about a Pentagon employee who has been charged for
'leaking' top-secret plans to invade Iran, to 'pro-Israeli lobbies.' For
crying out loud - it is the 'pro-Israeli lobbies' who are actually
trying to get America to sacrifice its service personnel for the greater
good of the terminally ill Jewish State. No doubt Vladimir Putin will
allow himself a faint smile at this latest news, while quietly issuing
the order to arm the Palestinians.
_________________
"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population." David Ben-Gurion, May 1948.
ISRAELI'S MUST ASSIMILATE FOR WORLD PEACE!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Sat May 14, 2005 9:11 am Post subject: Russian prosecutors plan new charges against oil tycoon Kho |
| Yukos ex-chief jailed for 9 years
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4595289.stm
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/575836.html
Last update - 04:24 14/05/2005
Russian prosecutors plan new charges against oil tycoon Khodorkovsky
By Aluf Benn, Yossi Melman, and Lily Galili, Haaretz Correspondents, and AP
MOSCOW - The Prosecutor-General's office said that it was planning to file new charges against oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, already awaiting a verdict on charges of tax evasion and fraud in a politically charged trial.
Friday's statement that Khodorkovsky would face charges for money-laundering came just three days before the verdict is to be announced in the trial of the former head of the Yukos oil giant and business partner Platon Lebedev. Lawyers for Khodorkovsky said the timing of the announcement was aimed at pressuring the court to find him guilty.
Many observers say the case is the Kremlin's punishment for Khodorkovsky's funding opposition parties and to obstruct the power of the tycoon once ranked as Russia's richest man. Others contend that the parallel carve-up of Khodorkovsky's Yukos empire against a US $28 billion back tax bill was orchestrated by powerful Kremlin clans.
Yukos' main production unit, Yuganskneftegaz, was sold off against the tax debts in a state-ordered auction in December. It was sold to a mysterious shell company that in turn was acquired by state oil company Rosneft. On Friday, a court hearing a suit filed by Rosneft said Yukos must pay US$2.3 billion for oil that Yukos received from Yuganskneftegaz but allegedly didn't pay for in 2005.
The bill comes in addition to a US$11 billion lawsuit filed by Rosneft for lost profits and unpaid taxes at Yuganskneftegaz due to be heard this month and next. Analysts have suggested the claims could lead to Rosneft eventually acquiring Yukos' remaining production assets.
Yury Schmidt, a lawyer for Khodorkovsky, said his client had been told months before that he and Lebedev were being investigated on money laundering claims and the list of charges against his client had been expected to grow.
"The fact that this is done on the eve of the verdict is very strange and in my opinion is a form of pressuring the judge," Schmidt told The Associated Press. "There is no procedural necessity for the prosecutor's office to make this announcement now."
Prosecutors have called for Khodorkovsky, 41, to receive the maximum 10-year sentence. Together with Lebedev, the tycoon is charged with rigging a privatization auction in 1994, stripping profits from a major fertilizer component maker, illegally using onshore tax havens to slash Yukos' tax bills as well as dodging millions in personal income tax.
Khodorkovsky's defense team insists that not only has the prosecution has failed to show their clients broke the law in place at the time, in some cases lawyers argue they weren't even involved in the alleged crimes.
With the trial and the dismantling of Yukos reinforcing wariness about Russia's business climate, a top economic adviser to President Vladimir Putin said the government intended to set clear rules on foreign investment, the Interfax news agency reported.
Seeking to reassure investors after Putin called last month for rules defining strategic sectors where foreign investment would be restricted, adviser Igor Shuvalov said the rules would lead to "the softening of bans and formalization of existing restrictions," Interfax reported.
"The main task here is not to delude potential investors but to establish clear and transparent rules of the game," he said.
Bone of contention in Russia-Israel relations
One of the thorniest topics surrounding Israeli-Russian relations is the issue of the "oligarchs," the wealthy Jewish tycoons who won their riches during the heyday of the breakup of the Soviet Union, now living in Israel.
Israeli officials were fearful Putin would ask for the extradition of three oligarchs to Russia to face charges on various criminal offenses during his historic visit to Israel last month.
The three are a billionaire oil executive, a publishing tycoon and a former Putin ally turned Kremlin critic, who have all taken up residence in Israel in recent years under the Jewish Law of Return as Russia sought their arrests, rankling officials in Moscow.
There were conflicting assessments about whether Putin will seek extradition of those oligarchs living in Israel, but Sharon has made clear he is against any such extradition.
"I do not intend to turn anyone over," Sharon told Yedioth Ahronoth one week prior to Putin's visit. "Since the days of my youth, I have been opposed to turning over Jews. I am saying this in the clearest manner possible."
The three oil executives living in Israel - Leonid Nevzlin, Mikhail Brudno and Vladimir Dubov - are former partners of Khodorkovsky, and all are wanted by Russia on fraud charges. The three men, all of whom appeared on the Forbes list of the world's billionaires in 2004, are now directors of Group Menatep, a holding company that owns 60 percent of what remains of the dismantled Yukos empire.
Also holding Israeli citizenship are Vladimir Gusinsky, a media magnate who fled Russia after he was charged with financial misdeeds in a probe widely seen as punishment for his television station's critical coverage of Putin, and Boris Berezovsky, a one-time Kremlin insider who was charged with fraud after a falling-out with Putin. Both men, however, spend most of their time in Europe.
Last edited by Alpha on Tue May 31, 2005 4:09 pm; edited 1 time in total | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 9:35 pm Post subject: Khodorkovsky, Lebedev Found Guilty of Corporate Tax Evasion |
| http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/05/26/khodorthursday.shtml
Khodorkovsky, Lebedev Found Guilty of Corporate Tax Evasion
Moscow's Meshchansky Court has found former Yukos head Mikhail
Khodorkovsky and his partner, the chief of Menatep Platon Lebedev,
guilty of corporate tax evasion, Itar-Tass reports.
The charge entails a prison term up to seven years in jail with a
subsequent ban on senior state positions and running certain businesses
for up to three years.
The Prosecutor General's Office proved that Mikhail Khodorkovsky
supervised the establishment of the Business Oil, Mitra, Wald-Oil and
Forest-Oil groups on the territory of the Lesnoi administrative complex
in the Sverdlovsk region that has a special regime and offers taxation
privileges to corporate entities. According to the verdict, Khodorkovsky
supervised an illegal deal involving promissory notes worth $189.7
million that was made on behalf of four dummy companies.
The amount of money Khodorkovsky failed to pay in corporate taxes in
1999 and 2000 totalled $623.5 million, the Prosecutor General's Office
said.
The reading of the verdict was adjourned until Friday, May 27.
A Moscow lawyer Igor Smykov has threatened to go on hunger strike if the
court passes a guilty verdict for Khodorkovsky, Lebedev and their
co-defendant Andrey Krainov, and to remain in front of the court
building until the judges change their minds.
Smykov said he knows Khodorkovsky personally and in his opinion, the
tycoon will not cope with imprisonment. Nevertheless, the lawyer admits
that he has “a lot of complaints against Khodorkovsky as oligarch”. | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 9:36 pm Post subject: Moscow's energy crisis leads to significant political conseq |
| Forwarded:
[If Putin moves against Chubias, expect World Jewry and their shabbaz goys to go ballistic.]
http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/88/351/15540_chubais.html
Moscow's energy crisis leads to significant political consequences in Russia - 05/26/2005 17:32
Russian and foreign journalists believe that Putin finally has substantial reasons to get rid of Anatoly Chubais, the head of the Russian energy giant
Russian experts believe that the criminal case that the Office of the Prosecutor General filed against the head of the Russian energy giant, RAO UES of Russia, on account of yesterday's energy crisis in Moscow, has an evident political motive. The case was filed on two clauses of the Russian Penal Code – negligence and power abuse.
”It would be insane to surmise that the administration of the Russian energy corporation caused the blackout in Moscow deliberately. Such an accusation bears resemblance to an intentional political decision, the goal of which is to show pressure on Russian right-liberal circles,” a statement from the movement “For Human Rights” said.
Russian and foreign press believes that President Putin finally has substantial reasons to remove Anatoly Chubais, the head of RAO UES of Russia, from Russia's political life.
A lot of political observers share the opinion about a possible dismissal of Anatoly Chubais in connection with yesterday's blackout in Moscow. Mr. Chubais is reputed in Russia as the last top manager of the national natural monopoly. In addition, Anatoly Chubais cannot be referred to as a person of Putin's team. To crown it all, Mr. Chubais is the ideologist of the notorious Russian privatization, which resulted in the creation of the class of oligarchs.
The reaction of the Russian administration to the highly vulnerable position of its potential political opponent is to become clear in the near future. Anatoly Chubais has not been noticed for making any anti-Putin statements after he left the Union of Rightist Forces party in 2003. Chubais, however, is still regarded as one of the largest shadow personas of the possibly united liberal opposition. It goes without saying that the Kremlin administration has a wish to replace Anatoly Chubais with someone from their team. Such a possibility is quite likely to occur at the forthcoming annual meeting of RAO UES of Russia's shareholders (the meeting is to take place at the end of June). The state owns the control shareholding of the energy giant, which means that it has an absolutely legal possibility to take such a decision.
Anatoly Chubais was supposed to come to the Office of the Prosecutor General for interrogation at 4:00 p.m. Moscow time today. However, the head of the Russian energy giant said that he would be able to arrive only after 7:00 p.m. – Mr. Chubais is too busy working on the liquidation of yesterday's consequences.
Meanwhile, Anatoly Chubais decided to conduct his own investigation of yesterday's energy crisis in Moscow. A workgroup of RAO UES of Russia's specialists is trying to find out the reasons of the blackout, in order to determine the responsibility of the company's officials. The workgroup has only two weeks for this work.
The serious energy crisis, which paralyzed Moscow yesterday, became the second stressful situation that Anatoly Chubais had to experience after the recent attempted assassination in March of the current year. The breakdown in the energy system of the Moscow region has become the most serious crisis in history, Chubais said. It is noteworthy that the supposition saying that the crisis was an act of diversion aimed against Anatoly Chubais surfaced immediately after the blackout hit Moscow, Newsru writes.
Prior to his visit to the Office of the Prosecutor General, Anatoly Chubais told reporters that RAO UES of Russia would pay compensations to those who suffered from the energy crisis yesterday in the event the fact of economic damaged is proved according to the Russian legislation.
On the photo: Anatoly Chubais, the head of RAO United Systems of Russia | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 9:37 pm Post subject: Russian oil executive wounded in assassination bid |
| http://newsfromrussia.com/accidents/2005/05/26/59993.html
Russian oil executive wounded in assassination bid
17:49 2005-05-26
A senior Russian oil executive was seriously wounded on Thursday in an assassination attempt in the Siberian city of Nefteyugansk, local police said.
Unknown gunmen fired several shots at Sergei Burov, deputy director of Yuganskneftegaz, the former core unit of the stricken oil giant Yukos, deputy police chief Sergei Yorbatovsky said.
He underwent surgery for bullet wounds to the stomach and was in a grave but stable condition, the police official told The Associated Press by telephone.
Burov occupied his post prior to the December 2004 forced auction of Yuganskneftegaz, which transferred ownership from oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Yukos empire to a shell company later acquired by state oil firm Rosneft.
Khodorkovsky, whose 11-month trial on fraud and tax evasion is drawing to a close, said in a statement through his lawyers that he wished his former manager a speedy recovery.
"He feels very sorry for a person he knew well, as an honest individual who helped a great deal in difficult times, and he wishes him a swift recovery," Khodorkovsky's lawyer Yelena Liptser said.
Yuganskneftegaz produces around a million barrels of oil a day, the same as OPEC member Indonesia.
AP | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
