Berezovsky ping-sky
Posted on 12/03/2006 6:29:19 AM PST by BlackJack
Power. Politics. Murder. Boris Berezovsky could teach the guys in Sicily a thing or two.
LAST NOVEMBER Ronald Lauder, billionaire heir to the Estée Lauder cosmetics fortune, traveled to Moscow to celebrate the opening of a posh boutique on Red Square. That evening Russian and American business leaders, U.S. Ambassador Thomas Pickering and President Boris Yeltsin's wife attended a party in Lauder's honor.
The host of the lavish affair? A wealthy Russian car dealer named Boris Berezovsky.
Ronald Lauder probably did not know that his host is a powerful gangland boss and the prime suspect in Russia's most famous murder investigation. Explains Lauder: "The invitations went out in President Yeltsin's name."
That Berezovsky can thus play cozy with Russia's president explains a lot of what is happening in Russia these days. Russia is a bubbling cauldron of criminal organizations--Sicily on a giant scale. Last year some 40,000 people were murdered in Russia and 70,000 disappeared--probably never to be heard of again. The murder rate in Russia is three or four times higher than in New York City.
Assassination is a tool of business competition. Scores of business leaders and media personalities have been killed. Ivan Kivelidi, a banker and founder of the Russian Business Roundtable, was murdered last year by poison (an obscure nerve toxin) applied to the rim of his coffee cup. Neither this nor any other of Russia's most famous contract killings has been solved.
In this violent world Boris Berezovsky looms like a giant shadow. Berezovsky recently claimed that he and six other top businessmen control 50% of the Russian economy. He is certainly one of the country's first dollar billionaires. His base is Logovaz, Russia's largest car dealership, but this is only the most visible tip of a golden iceberg.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
This article is from 1996. Who knows what else this guy has been up to since!
The ghosts of Stalin and Lenin still linger in that unfortunate country. No matter what it is called, Communism leaves behind the stench of corruption, suffering and death, where ever it has been allowed to take root.
The Russian people have never known anything even remotely approaching freedom. For centuries they suffered under the Tsars, only to fall under a system exponentially worse in 1917. It appears they are doing little better now, under gangster/president Putin.
Everyone knows the story. The Soviet Union collapsed. In its wake the Russians decided to relax state control and open up a little to capitalism. Obviously since most of the Russian people were poor serfs, only those people with power, connections and prestige were able to capitalize on the remains of the failed Soviet Empire. These people quickly acquired wealth and they were labeled Oligarchs. When Putin came to power, he decided that the Russian government was losing power and decided to mount a campaign against these Oligarchs. Many of these Oligarchs ended up dead and many claimed they were framed by Putin. None of the Oligarchs were saints. They were after-all, Russians.
Regards, Ivan
A Rubicon was also crossed with the use of the alpha emitter Polonium. Either way, whether State retribution/intimidation or mafiya fighting, Russia has serious problems. The West may be in for the fight of its life when you combine the Russian problem with the Islamic problem. We have a mortally wounded Russian Bear and a suicidal Islamic cult at a point in time when at least half of our leaders our Chamberlains. Glad to see Blair grow some spine on this issue. My guess is the Chamberlains and Russia will try to find some fall guys for this attack that lays the blame away from Russia.
The UK lets in lots of scum...just look at the news in the past few years.
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