US condemns 'political' Russian tycoon verdict

[Joanne98]

Source: ABC

The guilty verdict in the second trial of Russia's best-known prisoner, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, sparked protests outside a Moscow court overnight and drew immediate international condemnation.

Khodorkovsky was once Russia's richest oil tycoon who fell out with Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin when he backed opposition politicians.

He has been in jail for tax evasion since 2003 and has now been found guilty of embezzlement and money laundering.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says the United States is "troubled by the allegations of serious due process violations and what appears to be an abusive use of the legal system for improper ends".



Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/28/3102574.htm?section=world

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The Oligarchs

By Uri Avnery


02 August, 2004
Gush-Shalom

http://www.countercurrents.org/avnery020804.htm

It was really DUMB of the WH to stand up for this criminal! They must think we can't read!

[whosinpower]

1. Shows where their priorities are....nt

[valerief]

2. Oh, that poor, poor vicious, murderous oil tycoon. Poor dear. nt

[DissedByBush]

3. It's a bigger issue than this guy

Putin goes after his political enemies using his influence on law enforcement and the courts.

Khodorkovsky was a known enemy of Putin's, especially through his criticism of the faux democracy they have now in Russia.

Ironically, one of his complaints has been that the courts take their orders from above.

[midnight]

4. What a coincidence, so do our courts....

[Caretha]

5. And.....

A hole in one! Good job.

[Scruffy1]

6. People who live in glass houses...................

[cowcommander]

9. Russia's a whole different level of corrupt though

People who ask too many questions end up dead there. The Soviet Union never really disappeared in Russia.

[Amonester]

12. I guess Assy 'would' end up dead (not too far from here) also...

What's the diff?

[nyy1998]

13. And the ironic thing is, quite a few Russians don't mind it

It appears to them that it was a glorious past for them and a system that works for them.

[DissedByBush]

19. People tend to forget

That Putin served in the Fifth Directorate of the KGB.

That was the branch responsible for quashing political dissent.

[TheMadMonk]

17. And yet, when the president, any number of lesser government mouthpieces...

...announce IN ADVANCE their intent to do EXACTLY what is claimed as being done here, to Julian Assange, half the leading lights here on DU form a bloody cheersquad.

[Solly Mack]

7. ....

"troubled by the allegations of serious due process violations and what appears to be an abusive use of the legal system for improper ends".


lololololololololol


Sorry.

[naaman fletcher]

8. there is a back story here..

Khodorovsky is one of the guys who stole all the assets when Yeltsin was in, he's not a good guy. When Putin came in Putin basically said to the guys who stole everything "I'll leave you alone if you leave me alone". Khodorovsky broke his half of the bargain, and then lost the fight.

There is not really a good or bad side here.

[Downwinder]

10. It would appear that in Russia, power trumps money.

Capitalism did not really take hold. Methinks the same will be true in China.

[daleo]

20. Power and money are pretty much the same thing

But rich people fight between themselves, so sometimes possessing lots of money isn't enough - others have more.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

11. Why on earth would Gibbs and the WH make any comment?

I think Barack picked a hell of a week to give up smoking.

:hi:

[Fool Count]

14. Yeah, sure, god forbid, it might set a precedent for putting billionaire criminals

in jail. But they are fine with hundreds of less rich but truly political prisoners rotting
in Russian jails.

[eridani]

18. Hey, they can't fo handwrining all the dissidents

Just the rich ones :sarcasm:

[LarryNM]

15. One of the Vile Oligarchs

No wonder how the assorted spin crews, sycophants and opportunists come out to defend him.

[caseymoz]

16. Like we have any credibility now to protest?

We have a president who claims the right to order assassinations and to deny habeus corpus indefinitely, and who can throw out cases simply by saying that letting the case go forward will require divulging state secrets. Moreover, a good number of our elected officials called for Julian Assange to be executed while our "independent" press echoed it.

Wasn't it just weeks ago that Putin was joking about us and our outrage over Assange? Maybe that was timed.

[truedelphi]

22. Putin is now in hysterics over the hilarity ensuing when

The Russian Government issued tough sentence to Dick Cheney's old slime ball buddy, and Russian oil baron, for embezzling over 20 billion dollars, and Secretary of State Clinton had her panties in a knot protesting this slap down of our "free market system."

If only you had been smart enough to work at BP, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, you could have stayed a contender!

[JVS]

21. Frankly, I wish we were as fortunate to have such a system of checks and balances between our...

political elite and financial elite. Ours work in concert. We could use more of this discord.

[Rex]

23. I guess he was 'big enough to fail' for the oligarchs of Russia.

Funny how the US has zero credibility around the world now. Sad really.

[social_critic]

24. He didn't fail, he was put in jail

I know the man, he is no oil man. He started out as a banker, used the bank to as a vehicle to steal money from the Russian government. Then he loaned the money he stole back to the government, which secured the loan with oil company shares it owned. Then the government conveniently forgot to pay back the loan, and the oil company fell in his hands. He also paid off gangsters to ruboff anybody who would stand in his way. The guy's a mix of Al Capone and Meyer Lansky.

When he was put in jail, the oil company continued to run. As a matter of fact, most of the professional oil workers in the company (Yukos) hated his guts, and were ecstatic to see him go down. One reason why the British and US like to defend the guy is his moves to please them advocating political parties and policies which would weaken Russia, and allow the USA to eventually dismember it. This move was started under Clinton, and became relentless under Bush.

[fascisthunter]

25. because they too are criminal in nature

so they try to protect those criminals they have interests with.