Posted on 12/12/2008 11:28:50 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Russians Who Invested in 'People's IPOs' See Their Savings Vanish
By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, December 12, 2008; A01
MOSCOW -- Anatoly Sisoyev always considered himself a patriot. As a child, he lost his father to an accident in the Soviet space program. As an adult, he served 30 years in the military, retiring at the rank of major. His son followed him into the army and was killed in Chechnya at the age of 18.
Through it all, he said, his faith in the Russian government never waned.
So when he heard radio ads two years ago encouraging citizens to invest in the initial public offerings of state-owned companies, Sisoyev lined up to buy shares, first in the oil-and-gas giant Rosneft and a year later in the nation's second-largest bank, VTB.
Sisoyev had suffered in Russia's rocky transition to capitalism, but the "people's IPOs," as they were billed by the Kremlin, seemed different. Then-President Vladimir Putin endorsed the stock offerings, presenting them as a chance for ordinary Russians -- and not just the wealthy -- to own a piece of the booming economy.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1974951/posts
Russia Is the Occupied State for Khodorkovsky
Mikhail Khodorkovsky regards Russia an occupied state and blames the lack of the nation’s initiative exactly on this occupation, Novaya Gazeta reported with reference to Khodorkovsky’s talk with the lawyers.
According to Khodorkovsky, quite a few different thinkers arrived at one and the same conclusion - mentality of the Russians, the relations of people and elite, the place of special services in public life are characteristic not for the country at war but rather for the occupied country.
Since the time of Tatar and Mongolian invasion, Khodorkovsky went on, the nation has humbled that authorities owe nothing, they don’t make any agreements with people, collecting taxes not for the common targets but as a tribute, for what they aren’t accountable. It is the tradition of many centuries, former Yukos CEO pointed out.
“The freedom-loving people attempted to act differently – joining the elite, moving to the East, to the North, but hardly anything has changed in mentality of majority because of it,” Khodorkovsky explained.
Due to historical reasons, not individualism but anti-collectivism is peculiar for the Russians, i.e. the nation is unable to close ranks for solving common tasks without the leading influence of authorities.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky is serving an eight-year sentence in the colony of Krasnokamensk-town of the Chita region. The charges against him are formally economic, but their nature is political, the right defenders say.
Ping!
Just wait see what happens if oil continues to drop to $20 a barrel... Things will really heat up...
When an animal is cornered....watch out. But take solace...0bama will save us.
Those state sponsored Pooty IPOs would be just fine if the oil price wasn’t way down
I’m sure we will soon have Obama on TV encouraging us to buy shares in the new US Generalski Motovich and Chryslericheski.
Commiserations to the comrades. Seems their leadership is a lot like ours, only moreso.
Obama is the All being,Master of Time, Space and dimension.
F-em! Who cares. They deserve the best(dregs) of Capitaism !
Banking entirely on Putin (80% popularity) is always doomed. Eventually the hero falls, every time.
He’s smart though, he has a buffer now with that PM guy. With the oil collapse, he needs to (and will) give the new sucker more and more blame.
Daimler, after shedding itself of Chrysler, just purchased 20% of Kamaz, the Russian manufacturer of big ugly trucks.
There are some fine people in Russia who believe in freedom.
About three years ago, I was at a Food Lion grocery here in Durham NC and a Russian national asked for my help in calling a cab (I was talking on my cell). Turned out, he was in the Duke Executive MBA program, and needed a ride back to campus. I said I was going that way, it was only a mile or so out of my way, and I just gave him a lift. Turns out this guy was one of the executive VPs of marketing for YUKOS (I still have his card someplace). AMAZING, no? Great thing about being in an academic town.
That was just too good to pass up! He was not in a hurry, so we sat in the car and talked for almost an hour. He was prescient and predicted the state would remove the president of Yukos and said “I will be out of a job within two years.” Part of his reason for the MBA program was to develop contacts with Asian Companies, partly for a position, and partly because he was thinking of starting a company on his own.
The comment that stuck with me more than any others was how surprised he was to see so much anti-capitalism and anti-freedom here in the USA. He said that the people were benefiting from markets in the old USSR, but it was mostly the elite who were taking the money (we call that “crony capitalism”). Although he viewed the west as a model for markets, “the future is in Asia. You preach capitalism, but you are seeing it slip away. They preach communism, but they also are seeing it slip away. Markets are freer in China. I think that is where the money will be made in the next generation.”
Interesting conversation, anyway.
Interesting post/thread. Thanks to all contributors. BTTT.
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