Posted on 08/01/2004 11:47:28 AM PDT by wagglebee
Russia under President Vladimir Putin has become Murder Inc.
The cold-blooded assassination of Paul Klebnikov, editor of Forbes Russian edition, on June 10 in Moscow proves this claim. Western media appeared shocked by the killing of one of their own; though of Russian descent, Klebnikov, 41, was an American working for one of the West’s most influential business publications. There had long been the view that Westerners working in Russia were protected and that Russian crimes were largely fratricidal.
No longer.
Now that Klebnikov has joined the list of 15 journalists who have been murdered since 2000 (none of the murders has ever been solved), the regime and oligarchs may have even less restraint in the future in dealing with their enemies, foreign and domestic.
After the Klebnikov killing, I reviewed the pro-government Moscow media for their handling of the case.
Most of the major media, especially the broadcast media, are controlled by the government. NTV, the last independent TV network, is now effectively under government control.
All of the establishment media played down Klebnikov’s murder. Business as usual.
But there is a small but vibrant opposition media, fractured and less well known.
This opposition media expressed shock and disgust at Klebnikov’s assassination.
Putin Regime Tied to Criminal Activity
The most prominent opposition organ, Zavtra weekly, published an editorial about Klebnikov by its editor in chief, Alexandr Prokhanov.
Prokhanov says he had close ties to Klebnikov.
He blames Klebnikov’s death on Russia’s criminal enterprises – which he argues are all tied to Putin’s regime.
He writes: “Large Russian business is merely a bloody ball of mucus, oil, hexogen, torn-away heads and limbs. ... Now they murdered Paul Klebnikov, the enterprising and meticulous editor of Russia’s Forbes. He came to Moscow for economic reconnaissance, to find out the enormity of criminal business activities in Russia. He named all of Russia’s criminal billionaires. Particularly, he had to explain to world readers why Luzhkov, the ‘poor and disinterested’ mayor of Moscow, has no home of his own but has a billionaire wife, Yelena Baturina, owner of many prosperous enterprises. Klebnikov had also questioned why Moscow terminated the criminal case against the governor of the Saratov region, Ayatskov, who has been engaged in many dirty affairs. Klebnikov’s curiosity has now been satisfied by a shot in the head.
“Almost simultaneously to Klebnikov’s murder, these criminals tried to kill by hand grenade Viktor Cherepkov, who was favored to become the new mayor of Vladivostok city, the capital of the ‘Maritime criminal region.’
“In this Far Eastern city, huge gangs control the fishing, timber and gold business, as well as drug trafficking. They also help to settle Chinese on Russian territory. Brave Viktor Cherepkov is known as a crime fighter.
“Russian large business – that is, that controlled by the oligarchs – is behind all outstanding crimes and all terrible laws adopted by the state Duma. They are closely related to Putin and supported by him. … The forthcoming revolution will destroy the present unnatural Russian world, including both the oligarchs and politicians.”
The same issue of Zavtra commented on Klebnikov’s death, in a survey of outstanding news:
“The murder of Russian Forbes editor Paul Klebnikov became a black mark on the reputation of President Putin and his entire regime. High-level friends of the position of Klebnikov in the American media elite won’t allow the Russian authorities to ‘sink’ this case.
“This tragedy will be intensively discussed by world media in the framework of an emerging anti-Putin campaign. The danger to Putin’s image and reputation is so high that Putin gave unprecedented orders to the Russian Foreign Ministry and its 130 ambassadors abroad, and to his secret services that they should undertake actions that will promote a positive image of Russia in the foreign mass media.
“According to the most probable versions, the murder of Paul Klebnikov was ordered by several Moscow oligarchs, who were taken ‘out of the shadow’ by the publication in Forbes of the ‘100 richest people of Russia’ list. It seems that an investigation of this crime will fail, because the murder’s accomplices and organizers were killed within a day of Klebnikov’s death. This information came from circles close to the Russian Interior Ministry. …”
‘Total criminalization of Russia’
The article “Mafia pays in bullets,” published by the newspaper Sovetskaya Rossiya on July 13, is also of real interest. The brief version of this article follows:
“The Klebnikov murder is a new bold step in the total criminalization of Russia. In the background of this murder was the simultaneous attempt to murder Viktor Cherepkov in Vladivostok, made to look like an ordinary death.
“Paul Klebnikov was shot on the evening of Friday, June 9, near the Russian Forbes building by two killers, who approached a Zhiguli car. Klebnikov took several bullets to the chest and stomach, and died on the way to hospital.
“The 41-year old Klebnikov had gotten an excellent education, spoke fluent Russian and had written several books related to Russian/Soviet history of the 20th century. And Klebnikov’s last book, ‘Godfather of the Kremlin,’ describing the role of Boris Berezovsky, solidified his international reputation.
“Recently Klebnikov, engaged in serious investigations, was becoming a weighty figure in Russia’s economic and political life and a frequent participant on Moscow TV shows. Russia’s Forbes enjoyed a growing number of subscribers. The recent publishing by Forbes of Russia’s 100 richest people and the amount of their wealth became a major sensation.
“This report was like thunder out of a blue sky. Russian oligarchs perfectly understand the criminal nature of their fortunes and prefer not to reveal their wealth. Klebnikov’s investigation exposed the following fact, extremely unpleasant for the present Russian ‘elite’: A tiny group controls a formidable part of Russia’s GDP, while the government routinely claims a lack of money for the most essential needs.
“Many criminal oligarchs, who used to enjoy a safety life in the shadows, suddenly appeared inside a bright circle of light. The consequences of Klebnikov’s list are very understandable. The contract killer has become a routine factor of Russia’s economic and political life.
’Bandit Capitalism’
“In America a journalist, exposing the dirty tricks of top corporate executives or even the president himself, would get honor and glory, while his victim is doomed for impeachment, firing or even jail. Russian ‘bandit capitalism’ works in quite the opposite way.
“In Russia, there is a de facto prohibition by police and the legal system to investigate large-scale economic crimes. Their activity is limited to ‘small thieves’ only as well as to prosecuting political opponents. That’s because the criminal oligarchs make up the core of Putin’s regime.
“By the way, Klebnikov’s murder shows perfectly that so-called “media freedom” has become a non-existing phenomena in Russia – if it ever existed here after 1991. In reality, the only remaining freedom here is the freedom for oligarchs and their ‘media lap dogs’ to cheat people.
“In addition, during the last several months, the Kremlin has limited the oligarchs’ access to the microphone and TV cameras. The mass media are presently de facto controlled by bureaucrats, who are smashing the smallest signs of opposition.
“At the same time, Russian oligarchs solved their media problems, to some degree, by eliminating this nasty American journalist. In just a short time, the remnants of media freedom have been suffocated by two forces: by bureaucrats who have used economic and administrative pressure, and by the shadow world of criminal oligarchs, who used contract killers. And this took place immediately after the recent ‘controlled elections’ of the state Duma and the Russian president. The claims about Russian democracy ‘entering the civilized world’ are now laughed at even in the West.
“It is possible to expect now that Putin himself, based on concerns for his reputation, will take Klebnikov’s investigation under his own ‘supreme’ control.
“However, there are no doubts that Klebnikov’s murderers and the direct organizers of his murder won’t be found. That’s because the entire Russian government system, including the police and judiciary, are irreversibly rotten and paralyzed.
“And, of course, nobody will dare to touch the real ‘murder customers’ from Russia’s “Golden 100,” who considered Klebnikov as their mortal enemy after publishing his list in Russia’s Forbes. Simply, Russia’s ‘bandit capitalism’ killed his critic.”
’Fascist’ Russia No Friend of U.S.
Here is one more item of import from Sovetskaya Rossiya, published on July 20, entitled “Execution in gangster style: The murder of Paul Klebnikov”:
“In April 2004, Paul Klebnikov became the editor in chief of Russian Forbes, which received extreme notoriety from Russia’s economic and political elite after publishing the list of the 100 richest Russians.
“Several Russian oligarchs asked Klebnikov not to publish their names and the amount of their wealth. Some of them, reportedly, even offered Klebnikov huge bribes for this purpose. In any case, the murder of Klebnikov frustrated the world media. Many American, British and German papers and magazines are publishing comments extremely unpleasant for Moscow. Their major conclusion is ‘Paul Klebnikov showed the real face of Russian bandit capitalism and was murdered for this.’
“One more conclusion of the foreign media: ‘The word freedom and media freedom are dead in Russia.’ This is correct: Only those journalists in Russia who obey the government and are the members of the ‘Kremlin media pool’ have the freedom to glorify Putin and the government.
“Klebnikov wrote in the first issue of Russia’s Forbes that Russia was now entering a new and better epoch. And he really hoped for this. However, his death proved the opposite. Remarkably, Klebnikov intended to publish a list of Russia’s 500 richest people.”
The Klebnikov death should not be viewed in a vacuum but rather as part of the growing authoritarian takeover in Russia.
As the New York-based Russian-language TV channel RTV recently reported, the Klebnikov killing came as the Kremlin is taking the final steps of seizing Yukos, one of Russia’s largest oil companies.
At about the same time, Putin signed the decree expanding FSB (KGB) powers to an unprecedented level.
And RTV notes that the last "semi-independent" Moscow TV channel, NTV, had fired its last independent-minded journalists.
Russia is being transformed into a fascist state ruled by its secret police and the organized criminal mafias the state secretly controls.
Be warned: Russia is no friend of the United States.
What is particularly alarming is that the FSB has recently established a special division – with huge financing and great authority – to control and influence Russians who live in the U.S., Israel and elsewhere. Reportedly, a large network of FSB agents already "works" on American territory for this purpose.
Back in 2002, I wrote that Russia had turned the corner and was fast becoming a Nazi-style regime. At that time the view was not popularly held. Today in Russia it is.
This is all complete ignorance and bs. Amazing how stupid some people can be.
What do you mean?
Putin came out in strong support of Bush recently and Russia today is far more conservative than we are. So why you think Kerry would have anything to do with Putin is beyond me.
Only by the liberals and Soros supporters that Russia is booting out of the country. The gays that can't get married, the communists, the crime moguls, etc. Yep, they all think Russia is becoming a Nazi-style regime.
Cry me a river.
If, on the other hand, what you say is correct about Kerry not having anything to do with Putin, that means Kerry only wants the support of Germany and France. This simply doesn't make sense, even for Kerry. Are you saying that if Russia was in agreement with the US on a major issue and France wasn't, that the left would still talk about French support?
Who cares what Kerry wants?
So the corruption in Russia is someone else's fault? Journalists and business leaders who are critical of Putin are murdered and jailed. I could care less about Kerry, but Russia is a mess and an economic collapse in Russia will have major negative consequences on the American economy. I just think that Putin has created or at least ignored many major problems since taking office.
No. The Forbes editor was killed for exposing the crime moguls. Putin is going after the crime moguls. You seem to be confused on this issue.
He sure as hell doesn't want to do it with domestic drilling. He wants us to buy more from Russia.
Okay, so Putin is the lone person of integrity in the Russian sea of corruption. So why was he so opposed to the Iraq war?
Nonetheless, a full-fledged assault on the so called “ robber capitalists “ is now underway in Russia. Their private conduits to the Kremlin are drying up. Officials, like Alexei Kudrin, the Finance Minister, were once the oligarchs' favourites for implementing a wide range of cash out and tax minimization schemes. Today Kudrin has extended his public condemnation of the Yukos shareholders to all high-level thieving, a word carefully chosen by Kudrin, that extends well beyond rigged privatization and artful tax dodging and minimization.
President Putin has taken up what this newspaper has always called his greatest challenge – taking the oligarchs by the horns, cleaning up the market place of unfair and criminal practices, and creating a fair, free business environment which is open and undiscriminatory towards all.
And your preference is Saudi Arabia, stable and tolerant country that it is?
MarMema's comments are at least worth serious consideration. When you see Western media elites complaining about the rise of fascism (one of their standard code-words), it's best to start sniffing for the rat. The media elite also regards G.W. Bush as a fascist, just to put things in a little perspective. The Western media machine is hardly an advocate of freedom and liberty.
What exactly are the relationships of Soros and some of the oligarchs Putin has gone after, MarMema? It's entirely possible that Putin is nothing more than a patriotic Russian leader who is attempting to protect his nation from the globalisy machinations of Soros & Co, which, if true, is just fine with me. (Wouldn't it be refreshing if there were a western leader who put the interests of his nation over those of the NWO and their Islamic allies.)
What about Russia's ties to Saddam?
Most likely because it was not in Russia's best interests.
Why did we chastize Putin for all those years about the war on chechnya?
(answer = because we were supporting the islamics all over the globe, including chechnya)
But we know better now, don't we? Let's hope so.
How about giving Putin a chance to learn as well.
My preference is to get it from America.
Yeah, those were in Russia's "interests" too. Too bad Russia's interests aren't America's interests.
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