no rocket science to see yukos' khordakovsky is a mobster. after reading the stratfor stuff jay chen posted a few weeks ago, i was struck by the apparent mobster types that the russian oligarchs were. did a little more investigation, and found that yukos' khordakovsky was the head of the young communist organization before he got his oil goodies handed over to him by yeltsin. this link is very straightforward and brings in scenes from the godfather, goodfellas, and casablanca to aid the reader's vision of the workings of the russian government and oligarchs. the link is formatted poorly, but it's good and clear reading. the part about khordakovsky, the yukos guy, starts with "a meeting of the heads of the five families" title.
exile.ru
this next link from 2001 is written by jonathan winer, "Former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State - International Law
Enforcement." it is called "The Characteristics and Features of Russian Organized Crime." in section III you will find all kinds of interesting stuff. here is one sentence about khordakovsky, et al, "Prominent examples of this class of oligarch/criminal include Boris Beresovsky, Vladimir Gusinsky, Alexandsr Smolensky, and Mikhail Khordakovsky." in III (i) he explains how all these yeltsin buddies got so much money so fast. if all this stuff is true or even close to true, putin is doing russia and the west a service we don't yet appreciate. in section IV he talks about 2001's status of the putin/oligarch working relationships, etc. very interesting. he even says what has been grabbed by the oligarch (mobsters you will see) can only be ungrabbed by an act of state by the president. so with the acts lately of putin, we can see with 20/20 hindsight what winer (the author) is talking about with putin and the oligarchs. part V is good. part VI is very good. here is something to think about -- "In trying to describe Russia's business environment in the Yeltsin period,
Russian media wound up settling on the word "oligarchs," to describe some of the most significant participants in Russian business life. In fact, as set forth above, the oligarchs are only one component of a relatively seamless web of criminality in Russia that involves the participation of those elements of Russian society necessary to steal the resources of a nation: bureaucrats, who control licenses and resources; traders and financiers, who can move money and goods around; and muscle, who can act as a private source of "law" to insure that business deals are honored." in this sentence of section VI you can see how the western press has gotten the idea that the oligarchs were part of the private enterprise in russia. "In drug trafficking countries, such as Colombia, criminal enterprises can exercise enormous political and economic influence, and infiltrate governmental institutions and businesses, but the traffickers are viewed by everyone as external elements to the institutions they are corrupting, rather than as components of them as in Russia." sections VII and VIII are good conclusions.
so for anyone that thinks guys like khordakovsky have been wrongly jailed, etc., this article would be well worth reading.
cdi.org |
