Commies Are At It Again

By Philip Giraldi • December 28, 2010, 1:21 PM

The US media is reporting critically on the conviction yesterday in Moscow of Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky on charges of embezzlement and money laundering. Khodorovsky had earlier been convicted of fraud and tax evasion in 2005 and has been in jail ever since. The conviction prompted commentary from no less than Hillary Clinton who said it “raises serious questions about selective prosecution” while the White House saw “…due process violations and what appears to be an abusive use of the legal system for improper ends.”

First off, where does the Bush/Obama US get the right to criticize a trial in any country? Guantanamo, Patriot Act, Military Commissions, and state secrets privilege come to mind immediately. Obama and Clinton should be apologizing for what we do…

What this is really all about is the hidden message, conveyed by Clinton’s reference to selective. Khodorovsky is Jewish, as are most of the oligarchs who stripped Russia of its wealth in the 1990s, and he has his own claque of supporters who regard his conviction as anti-Semitism.

The fact is that anyone who has looked into the looting of Russia knows very well that Khodorovsky is guilty as hell on all charges. That he was accused of stealing and exporting $27 billion from Yukos, the company he controlled, is no doubt an exaggeration but he clearly did make off with at least $15 billion. The oligarchs also engaged in assassination and other niceties that their friends tend to overlook. Nearly all of the first generation oligarchs have fled Russia in the past few years as Putin has cracked down on them with widespread popular approval. Most live in Western Europe, where they seem to have a thing for buying soccer teams, and also in Israel.

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17 Responses to Commies Are At It Again

Kyle Kopelovitch says:

December 28, 2010 at 3:55 pm

I’m sorry but comparing the United States to Russia as far as judicial fairness is concerned is just bogus. Are you comparing this oligarch with the people who attacked us on 9/11/2000 and whom we are still at war with? The only thing Obama should apologize for is for half-heartedly fighting the war on terror and prematurely withdrawing our combat forces from Iraq. America is the freest and fairest nation on earth and how dare you compare us with the communist dictator Putin who has no respect for the rule of law or human rights!
tbraton says:

December 28, 2010 at 4:21 pm

“The only thing Obama should apologize for is for half-heartedly fighting the war on terror and prematurely withdrawing our combat forces from Iraq.”

As far as Iraq is concerned, Obama is merely following the schedule negotiated between former President George W. Bush and the Iraqi government. That agreement calls for the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces by the end of 2011. Do you think Obama should disregard that agreement and keep U.S. forces in Iraq after 2011? So much for the wishes of the “democracy” we spent so much money and blood to create in Iraq.

As far as Afghanistan is concerned, we now have triple the number of troops there than we did in the last days of the Bush Administration. Are you saying that Bush was “half-hearted” (or more properly “one-third hearted”) in fighting the “war on terror”? That’s odd. Anyone with half a brain thinks we should withdraw all of our troops from Afghanistan.
JoaoAlfaiate says:

December 28, 2010 at 4:33 pm

Kyle

I’m afraid we lost our status as “freest and fairest” some years ago when we put American financial, political and diplomatic power and influence behind Israeli efforts to complete the dispossession of the Palestinians. Thus we allowed Israel to arrest members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, bomb and starve Gaza, “settle” the West Bank and east Jerusalem, etc., etc. As for 9/11, if you make enemies of a billion Muslims for Israel’s benefit, sooner or later a few of them are going to come together to sucker punch the school yard bully.
Hoagie says:

December 28, 2010 at 5:09 pm

Yeah, Khodorkovsky is not very convincing as a Gandhi of the Steppes. Ironically, if he had stuck to run-of-the-mill assassinations and corruption he probably wouldn’t have run afoul of the Rooski “justice” system.

Greed and ambition emboldened him to stick around for one too many hands, and now he’s going down the meat grinder he helped create. To hell with him.
Adam Rurik says:

December 28, 2010 at 5:19 pm

You watch a lot of Fox News, don’t you, Kyle?
Dennis Dale says:

December 28, 2010 at 8:00 pm

“half-heartedly fighting the war on terror”?
Of course, if John McCain were in the WH with the exact same policies K would be praising him in Soviet tones. Obama would have to turn the sand into glass to please some, and then we’d all be dead anyway. Scary place, that 2011.

Weeping for Khordokovsky is made more obscene by this: http://tinyurl.com/28456ff
Kirt Higdon says:

December 28, 2010 at 8:27 pm

Kyle’s just spoofin’, people. Don’t you recognize his style by now?
Dennis Dale says:

December 28, 2010 at 9:41 pm

Then that’s one hell of a deadpan. Well done Kyle. Got me.
CompassionateFascist says:

December 28, 2010 at 10:05 pm

No, he’s for real. As real as our ruling Zionist oligarchs who are – understandably – outraged that they couldn’t complete their globalist deal by hijacking Russia as well. Putin’s a thug alright; a thug who saved his country from something far, far worse: Khodorkovsky and Co.
Mikhail says:

December 29, 2010 at 1:14 am

Khodorkovsky just a half-jewish, he has a Christian mother
TomB says:

December 29, 2010 at 2:05 am

I don’t know anything about this Khodorkovsky guy but the story of these original oligarchs sure is interesting and under-reported for sure.

I remember reading somewhere back when that of the original 6 or 7 or 8 of these oligarchs that all but one was jewish I think, and that with all or damn near all of same either it seemed they had help getting their initial wherewithal to make their bid to become an oligarch from sources traceable to Israel, or it was a complete mystery where their initial wherewithal came from.

And that just reminded me of the story of some U.S. billionaire—very partisan for Israel, close links there—who just somehow magically got a monopoly from the entire Chinese gov’t to run some gambling operation there. (In Macao?)

Of course dunno if it’s true, but if so very very smart on the part of Israel. Use some money and whatever other things it has to help set up as many truly key, upper upper echelon people in the world that it can. And if those people should ever get cold feet about doing anything in the future, well hell not only will they never rat the secret of their own success out, but then of course they could be blackmailed by that fact too.

Again if true very very smart.
Dennis Dale says:

December 29, 2010 at 10:44 am

Check out Kyle’s link too. Genius.
Erica Brigid says:

December 29, 2010 at 11:18 am

Khodorkovsky, and his London crony Boris Berezovsky, were also serving as proxies for George Soros. In fact, much of the money-laundering was being done for the Open Society project.
Jim Dooley says:

December 29, 2010 at 1:15 pm

Could anybody make this up?
First we blow the end of the cold war by expanding Nato to encircle Russia like we said we wouldn’t.
Then we push for ABM’s for Poland to protect it from its historic enemy ???Iran.
In the meanwhile after a series of excellent extra-border excursions gone wrong and a mere two years after our Wall Street kleptocrats near blow up not only ours, but the World’s financial system, serious judicial review reserved only for one Mr Bernie Madoff (a guilty plea), we decide to take on the Russian judicial system for prosecuting their kleptocrats without knowing a damn thing about any of the facts.
Peter Sellers, wherever you are, come back for one more movie.
VikingLS says:

December 29, 2010 at 11:21 pm

The US media always presumes those in power in Russia are guilty and anyone who opposes them are freedom fighters.

For example, lionizing Other Russia without noticing that the bulk of their support are the National Bolsheviks and the Vangaurd of Red Youth. In another portraying Georgia as the poor defenseless victim of Russian (northern?) agression for a war where it started the shooting.

Having been in Russia at the begining and end of Putin’s tenure as president I’d say I found it less corrupt and far more prosperous Whether credit is due Putin is debatable, but I find it hard to fault Russians for supporting United Russia when they went through so much hell under Yeltsin.
Erica Brigid says:

December 30, 2010 at 12:49 pm

If Putin were really a KGB “thug” we would have immediately heard about it from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn would have refused to shake Putin’s hand, much less accept him as a guest in his home. The fact that Putin visited Solzhenitsyn several times, and took his advice, is the most reliable vetting any Russian leader could ever get.
Lorne Marr says:

December 30, 2010 at 4:09 pm

The problem is that Putin has never managed to strike a balance between his nationalism and democratic principles which often resulted in the clash with the independent media and accusations of discrimination of those not ethnically Russian. But the truth is he deserves respect for giving Russia a sense of order when the country’s economy was completely crashed.