Posted on 10/30/2003 5:33:02 PM PST by Brian S
By Simon Saradzhyan
Staff Writer Richard Perle, a hawkish policy adviser whose voice is heard in the Pentagon, has called for Russia to be expelled from the Group of Eight industrialized countries over the arrest of Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
"Russia should be excluded from the G-8. No [other] G-8 country is allowed to treat its leading businessmen the way Russia treated Khodorkovsky," Perle was quoted as saying in Russian translation in the Thursday issue of Kommersant. "I believe Russia is moving fast in the wrong direction."
Perle, who believes that the White House should contain the Kremlin rather than cooperate with it, has criticized the campaign against Yukos shareholders from the beginning.
"It's possible already to say that real damage is being done to the prospects for future Russian economic growth and development by what appears to be an arbitrary, capricious and vindictive campaign against a private company," he said during a Moscow seminar in July after the arrest of Yukos shareholder Platon Lebedev.
Although he resigned as chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board, Perle retains strong influence on U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and is one of the leaders of the neo-conservative camp in Washington.
The influence of this camp on President George W. Bush has waned somewhat, but it is still strong when it comes to shaping U.S. defense policy, according to Alexander Pikayev, a military specialist at the Carnegie Moscow Center. The conservatives, however, can do little to influence Washington's relations with Russia, according to both Pikayev and Ivan Safranchuk, Moscow representative of the Washington-based Center for Defense Information.
Thus, Perle's appeal alone to exclude Russia from the G-8 will probably have little practical impact on the Bush administration's policy toward Russia, the experts said. However, it may set off a new round of criticism of President Vladimir Putin's domestic policies in the U.S. Congress, Safranchuk said.
Perle may be using the Yukos affair to push his vision of foreign policy that would contain Russia rather than elevate it to the status of a strategic partner, Safranchuk said.
"One player cannot have full control of such a game," he said, referring to those carrying out the attack on Yukos. "Other players start spinning this affair to advance their interests."
Perle also criticized the campaign in Chechnya and said he hoped that Russian oil companies would be denied contracts in postwar Iraq. He said the White House should be under no illusions that the Kremlin will help to end alleged development of nuclear weapons by Iran.
Perle was forced to step down as chairman of the Defense Policy Board last spring because of a potential conflict of interest between his duties on the Pentagon board and his defense-related business activities. He remained a board member.
He is not known to have any business ties with Yukos, Safranchuk said.
The treatment of Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky might have come from Chapter one of Solzhenitszyn's "Gulag" which begins with the words: "How does one get to this clandestine archipelago?" and contiues a few sentences later ... "Those who go there, like you and me, dear reader, go there to die, most get there solely and compulsorily via arrest."
I'm still waiting for the Beltway Bastards to finally realize that all of the greed corruption and boom of the nineties can be attributed to the fact that the POTUS was a low life sociopath...and Wall Street loved him...anything goes...anything blows.
Very special guest: Gary Bauer
Campaign for Working Families and American Values author of Doing Things Right
Tune in and hear terrifying stories about: LIBERAL INSANITY!!!
You have a state run oil industry. You hand it over, lock stock and barrel to people like this guy, and it is basically a money making machine. The Russians wanted russians to own the company, employ russians, and grow the russian economy.
Then these guys turn around, sell off the assets that they were basically given for free, and screw the country.
I don't think that Russia would be bitching about a computer guy who developed a new software program on his own, selling his company off. This is different.
Richard Perle most likely has friends who are profiting in the millions of this rape of the Russian economy. I would bet when all facts come in to place, the billions that this guy earned from selling off these industries are actually a pittance compared to their actual worth.
Since he paid squat to get where he is, he is still a billionaire. The american companies are getting a bargain, and mother russia is screwed.
Perle should just keep his yap shut and not try to restart the cold war. His friends should just be thankful for the goodies they grabbed, and keep their heads down low and not be boastful about it.
It should be a crime to do what these new oil billionaires have done. If they want to sell stock, on the common market, that is fine and dandy, but it appears that much of this was insider trading, cronyism, greasing of palms in Washington and Moscow, and the Russian government has had enough.
Perle should be fired from the Defense Policy Board for his comments. Trying to restart the cold war is grounds enough for his removal.
Two thing...first Perle must either be ignorant or dispise America over treatment of Kenneth Lay and rest of guys of Enron, Worldcom, Tyco and FREE MARTHA STEWART! Political prisoner of anti business American government....oh, oops, that only reserved for Russian crooks.
Second this from Moscow Times which is mouth piece of Oligarchs...no one know where original capital for Moscow Times come from but Bere and Khodi both bail it out before.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.