Posted on 01/04/2005 12:59:47 PM PST by Grzegorz 246
As Ukraine celebrates, Russia sinks further into darkness and despair.
Millions of people spoke in Ukraine, and their voices were heard. In a rerun of the presidential election ordered by Ukraine’s Supreme Court, Viktor Yushchenko won a convincing victory, although his opponent, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, has so far refused to concede.
Boisterous, yes, and still far from certain, but hopeful.
In Russia, though, one of the few people willing to speak freely is already in jail. He’s Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former head of the oil group Yukos, and in a letter published Tuesday in the business daily Vedomosti he denounced the Kremlin’s takeover of the group’s main production unit for far less than its true value, in a phony auction.
Yukos, which was worth $40 billion last year, is valued now at less than $2 billion, and is likely to fall further since its credit rating was lowered to "default" Tuesday by Standard & Poor’s.
Even President Vladimir Putin’s top economic adviser called the auction "the fraud of the year."
Khodorkovsky warned that the methods used to bring down Yukos, including selective justice and the retroactive application of new laws, will destroy confidence in Russia’s legal system and hurt the economy. But even more troubling, he said, was the shrinking of political freedoms — his own troubles are believed to result from Putin’s dislike of his political activities.
Putin meddled in Ukraine’s first presidential runoff and, unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to understand how much Russia could be learning from its neighbor’s newly vital politics.
The wifey is from Ukraine and reads Ukrainian websites. She said that Putin said in a speech that the Yukos situation was not about taxes it was about getting the shares in the government's hands; in other words a confiscation for re-nationalization.
Another thing she read is that the Ukrainians caught two Russian KGB agents with 3 pounds of plastic explosives. They reportedly admitted to a plot to blow up Yushkenko and Yulia Tymoshenko at a scheduled rally. In other words, Putin tried to assassinate them (again).
It's not mine.
It is really past time for GWB to warn off Putin that there will be NO resurrection of the great Police State and their Iron Curtain...and that the KGB needs to be dismantled. And fast. And if it isn't, then we are going to have to look at further regime change...
The "help" we got from Russia in Afghanistan post 9-11 really was setting us up to help the Soviet's former allies in a number of cases. Not exactly selfless acts on Putin's part...
Yeah, you don't have a political, EUfascist agenda my arse. Almost all your posts are russophobic, almost a one track mind.
What's russophobic? Your choice of posts is consistent anti-Russian almost on everything. Your whole agenda amongst things is almost a topical and only a blind man wouldn't see it. You showed up in your little clique of three EU employees with an obvious agenda. Go spin fairy tales to someone else.
"Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven". John Milton, Paradise Lost.
You got that right. Looks like the wheels are turning. He probably doesn't feel as confident as he did a few years ago.
Thanks for the ping!
Yeah, got to love how these "stories" all disappear and are never heard from again after having the desired effect of knee jerking those who believe what ever the MSM puts on their plate. I think the term is sheeple.
Your stupidity and crassness are as usual unsurpassed. Don't you have some american workers to sell out to Chinese slave labor somewhere?
Oh he knows that, he's just pushing his employer's agenda (EU). He admits to working for that corrupt organization and has had one and only one agenda on FR since I've been here and I imagine it was probably the exact same thing before I came here. Just look at his posts, at best half truths.
No, because if I did, I'd also likely be giving Putin a "Chinese massage." [hint]
You of course are pure as the driven snow and don't select articles to post and quote to support your slavish devotion to Putin. An attack on Russia's corrupt government is not "russophobic", many of us feel sorrow at that fact that Russia just never seems able to get it right, and as a consequence the average Russian suffers.
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