Soros is no Robin Hood, but a fellow Oligarch By Peter Myers, December 30, 2010 Khodorkovsky conviction exposes links with Soros & Rothschild. Soros is no Robin Hood, but a fellow Oligarch
(1) Khodorkovsky conviction exposes links with Soros & Rothschild. Soros is no Robin Hood, but a fellow Oligarch - Peter Myers, December 30, 2010 Around 1990, George Soros (György Schwartz) brought his Open Society Foundation - and its offspring - to Poland, Russia and other East European Communist countries. He and Jeffrey Sachs (both Jewish) introduced "Shock Therapy" - Free Trade (ie Open Borders, ie imports), Privatization and Deregulation. In more recent years, both Soros and Sachs have turned against the "Washington Consensus". Soros comes across as a chivalrous knight with a Robin Hood agenda; to the extent that even I have been in two minds about him. As I researched this article, I came across plenty of muckraking material about Soros. It's produced in several distinct camps: - for years, Larouche and ex-Larouche writers have homed in on Soros as the Mr Big of Speculation, who undid the Communist regimes via his "philanthropic" foundations which organized a "civil society" army of idealistic Lilliputian volunters; and who, in the West, ploughs his profits into New Left causes such as Radical Feminism, Gay Rights and Open-Border Immigration. A lot of Larouche literature indulges in name-calling, and is thereby unusable in serious research, but ex-Larouche writers such as F. William Engdahl maintain higher standards. - the Zionist Lobby has also come out against Soros. David Horowitz's book The Shadow Party spurred a renewed bout of investigation on my part, but in the wake of Horowotz' campaign against the Seattle bus ads featuring destroyed Palestianisn homes, I decided that I would not use Horowitz as a source. - the "Libertarian" Right in the US is the pro-Republican camp which prentends to defend the Little Guy from Big Government, but which in fact would leave Wealth and Power concentrated in the Big End of Town. They oppose Soros because he aims to bring them down and, with them, the American Empire (like Chomsky, with whom Soros has much in common). - American "patriotic" circles, whose webpages clogg Google's hits on Soros. Their ideoligical line and their resort to vulgar, vitriolic, abusive language renders their material unusable. It takes a skilled internet researcher to find ways to "weed out" their material when doing Google searches. Through such a "weeding" process, I have accumulated some solid material on Soros and his ties with Khodorkovsky, Rothschild et al., which I present below. What upsets me about Khodorkovsky, the other Oligarchs, and their western backers, is the betrayal of the long-suffering Russian people. We encouraged them to throw off totalitarianism but, when they did, instead of befriending them we sold them into slavery. Unconscionable Oligrarchs - nearly all Jewish - had no qualms about seizing the assets of the people and leaving them destitute. Gorbachev, in his rule from 1985 to 1991, removed the tyrannical aspects of Soviet life, leaving the good aspects such as equality and full employment. There was no need to further destroy it. Valdas Anelauskas was a Lithuanian dissident who fled the USSR for the US, but was then shocked to discover that he had been deceived about America being a paradise America - as presented by Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. In his book Discovering America As It Is, he favourably compares Soviet life to the American Way:
More at efn.org One wonders then, why Soros and Sachs wanted to dismantle the Soviet economy. Could it be because it was seen as being "bad for the Jews?" A Zionist account of that is Gal Beckerman's book When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry: Amazon Since 1991, Soros and Sachs seem to have changed tack - attacking the extremes of capitalism - but I have never seen them acknowledge their sins for having wrought disaster on the peoples of the former Soviet Union. Soros denounced the conviction of Khodorkovsky, showing where his true loyalties lie. He is no Robin Hood, but a fellow Oligarch, bold and shameless like the rest - who are using Western courts to try to recover the ill-gotten assets they picked up for a song under Yeltsin, and which were later impounded by Putin. Even Condoleezza Rice wrote of "looting of the country's assets by powerful people" (see item 7). The changes Jews brought to post-Soviet Russia also illustrate how they mould the West. Pavel Lounguine, a Russian Jew, writes (in item 16), "The Jewish intelligentsia always sought to democratize and liberalize Russia, bring it closer to the West. The ethnic Russian intelligentsia always wanted a Russian Orthodox power, an imperium. The Jews always wanted to turn Russia into Europe, or America. To draw it closer to civilization, and thereby away from anti-Semitism." He seems to think that Jews are idealists. Even Soros thinks the same way (about himself). This notion that they are idealistic is a major motivator of Jewish political action. Glenn Beck and David Horowitz seem to use Larouche material about Soros without acknowledgment: Larouche writers pioneered the way, but are unmentionable in respectable circles. For example, Larouche material routinely depicts Soros as a Nazi collaborator; Beck and others tread the same path, but conceal that they first came across this idea in Larouche material. What passes for debate in the United States might be better termed the perpetuation of various "war psychoses". During a war, the populace is inculcated with blind hatred of and fear of the enemy; it denies any middle ground, any common humanity. One form has a "Better Dead than Red" mentality, depicting any elevation of the Common Good above individual liberties as creeping Communism. For example, were McDonalds to be targeted for causing obesity, this would be an infringement of their liberties. These people are followers of Joseph McCarthy. He was not wrong about pro-Stalinist collaborators; but his great sin was his support for Douglas McArthur's advocacy of nuclear weapons in the Korean War. Another "war psychosis" is inculcated by the Zionist lobby - which includes much of the media. It depicts all who expose, and oppose, Jewish power as Nazis. Thus Larouche, who wants to target Soros, the Rothschilds and the Jewish Lobby, covers his own back by depicting THEM as Nazis too. Similarly, in Israeli politics, all sides depict each other as Nazis. I refuse to indulge in such name-calling, and I try to avoid material that does stoop to it. Even among those on this mailing list, there are some plagiarists. Having spent 15 years studying material of the Left and Right, I can recognize when an internet writer is using other peoples' ideas without acknowledgment. In saying this, I still acknowledge that those plagiarists have composed some good work - when it was their own work. They just need to be more careful, and not follow "internet standards" downwards. Readers are welcome to use the fruits of my research - provided they acknowledge my role. I have spent many hours following leads, and selecting and screening material, and do not take kindly to readers who disseminate it, second-hand, without naming me as the source from which they received it. From now on, those who use my material without acknowledgment will be removed from my mailing list. Further, I will name them in these bulletins. This applies even in the case of a bulletin I send out which does not contain any of my own writing. Even in this case, I have often spent hours selecting the material, editing out extraneous bits (shown "..."), and adding my own pertinent headlines aimed at articulating the most important point made in the articles. When I do add a headline, I always follow it with the original headline of the article, so that it can be picked up in subsequent Google searches. The author and date are also provided, and normally I acknowledge the sender if any. (2) Khodorkovsky paid $309 m. for Yukos; in 2003 it was worth $45 b. Sunday, November 16, 2003 ... In an auction run by his own bank, Khodorkovsky paid only $309 million for Yukos -- early this year the company was worth $45 billion. ...== Leonid Nevzlin, biggest Yukos shareholder not yet in jail, has been granted Israeli citizenship, raising eyebrows even in Jerusalem over the haste in which it was done. [source] Fact: Nevzlin resigned from Yukos to head the Russian Jewish Congress. Yukos Oil Company was a petroleum company in Russia which, until 2003, was controlled by Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and a number of other prominent Russian businessmen. ... In 2003, following a tax reassessment, the Russian government presented Yukos with a series of tax claims that amounted to $27 billion. As Yukos's assets were frozen by the government at the same time, the company was not able to pay these tax demands. [1] On August 1, 2006, a Russian court declared Yukos bankrupt.[2] Most of Yukos's assets were sold at low prices to oil companies owned by the Russian government. [3] The Parliamentary Council of Europe has condemned Russia's campaign against Yukos and its owners as manufactured for political reasons and a violation of human rights. [4] This page was last modified on 27 December 2010 at 13:40. (3) US 'deeply concerned' by conviction of Khodorkovsky; Obama has spoken frequently with Medvedev about it US 'deeply concerned' by conviction of Putin foe The Associated Press Monday, December 27, 2010; 3:47 PM HONOLULU -- The White House says the U.S. is deeply concerned about the conviction of a Russian oil tycoon who once challenged the power of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. In a statement, the White House says it is troubled by allegations of due process violations and what appears to be "an abusive use of the legal system for improper ends." The White House says the ruling undermines Russia's commitment to deepening the rule of law and hurts its ability to strengthen ties with the U.S. Putin is seen as the driving force behind the trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was convicted Monday of stealing from his own company. The White House says President Barack Obama has spoken frequently about the case with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and will closely monitor developments. == (4) White House rebuts Russia over tycoon's conviction Dec 27, 2010 In harsh tones, the White House has accused Russia of abusing its legal system in order to keep its former wealthiest citizen behind bars. A statement issued by press secretary Robert Gibbs this afternoon criticized the second conviction of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his associate, Platon Lebedev, for embezzlement and money laundering. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton issued her own critique earlier in the day. Khodorkovsky, 47, was due to be released next year after completing an eight-year sentence for fraud that also was questioned by Western authorities. But a judge convicted the former head of the now-defunct oil giant Yukos on new charges after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin compared Khodorkovsky to Bernard Madoff, who defrauded thousands of investors of billions of dollars. The Russian pair were charged with embezzling 218 million tons of oil from Khodorkovsky's company between 1998 and 2003 and laundering about $23.5 billion. Here is the White House statement: We are deeply concerned that a Russian judge today has indicated that for a second time Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev will be convicted. We are troubled by the allegations of serious due process violations, and what appears to be an abusive use of the legal system for improper ends. The apparent selective application of the law to these individuals undermines Russia's reputation as a country committed to deepening the rule of law. The Russian government cannot nurture a modern economy without also developing an independent judiciary that serves as an instrument for furthering economic growth, ensuring equal treatment under the law, and advancing justice in a predictable and fair way. The Obama administration stands in solidarity with the many people in the Russian government, in the legal system, and in civil society who are committed to strengthening the rule of law and deepening the commitment to universal values enshrined in the Russian constitution. Russia's failure to keep this commitment to universal values, including the rule of law, impedes its own modernization and ability to deepen its ties with the United States. President Obama has spoken frequently with President Medvedev about this case and others as part of their ongoing conversation about President Medvedev's important campaign to strengthen the rule of law and modernize Russia's political and economic system. We will continue to monitor closely the next stages in this case, including the fairness of the sentences and the review by higher courts during the appeals process. (Posted by Richard Wolf) (5) Hillary issues Press Statement protesting conviction of Khodorkovsky Verdict in the Khodorkovsky-Lebedev Case Press Statement Hillary Rodham Clinton Secretary of State Washington, DC December 27, 2010 Today's conviction in the second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev on charges of embezzlement and money laundering raises serious questions about selective prosecution -- and about the rule of law being overshadowed by political considerations. This and similar cases have a negative impact on Russia's reputation for fulfilling its international human rights obligations and improving its investment climate. We welcome President Medvedev's modernization plans, but their fulfillment requires the development of a climate where due process and judicial independence are respected. We will monitor the appeals process. PRN: 2010/1861 Legal nihilism triumphs in Russia Published: December 27 2010 20:01 | Last updated: December 27 2010 20:01 When Mikhail Khodorkovsky was found guilty of fraud and tax evasion in 2005, many observers were prepared to believe he was guilty as charged. The injustice was that the punishment was selective. Other Russian tycoons, the infamous "oligarchs", engaged in similar abuses in the 1990s. Only Mr Khodorkovsky, however, who had committed the cardinal sin of openly defying the then president Vladimir Putin, went to jail. This time is different. It is hard to see the new charges of which Russia's former richest man has been convicted - essentially that he stole the entire output of his Yukos oil company over several years - as anything but fanciful. Even former ministers under Mr Putin have suggested they strain credibility. At best, the case seems openly political. At worst, it looks like the latest instalment of a long-running vendetta waged by Mr Putin, now prime minister. (6) George Soros Advocates Rule of Law in Khodorkovsky Trial 24 Apr 2009 Peterson Institute for International Economics Famed investor and businessman George Soros commented on the YUKOS cases at a speech by Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington DC. During the question and answer session, Soros stated that releasing Mikhail Khodorkovsky would send a positive sign that the rule of law in Russia is improving which would in turn help the investment climate and bolster the Russian economy. He said: "I hope that the trial of Khodorkovsky will be a fair one because it's very important for the rule of law to be more properly observed in Russia. We should respond to these signs from Russia in a very constructive way when it comes to restructuring debts and generally enabling Russia to cope with its own financial crisis. We are talking about re-setting the button and it is now perhaps taking an effective form." Commenting on the recent release of YUKOS lawyer Svetlana Bakhmina, Soros added that he believed this is a positive sign. (7) Soros denounced arrest of Khodorkovsky as "persecution". Soros Foundation evicted from Russia - at gunpoint Sunday, November 16, 2003 On the eve of what was once Russia's most sacred holiday -- "Revolution Day," the anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution still celebrated as "Day of Accord and Reconciliation." -- there was neither accord nor reconciliation at the Moscow offices of the Hungarian born American billionaire George Soros. Instead, there were some 40 large men in camouflage gear with stun guns, hand trucks and moving vans at the Soros Foundation. They ordered the staff out of the building and then loaded documents and computer printouts from the past 15 years, as well as office equipment, onto their vans. The New York-based Soros Foundation that operates under the name "Open Society Institute" had spent more than $1 billion on charitable and educational projects in Russia during the past 15 years. This summer, George Soros said that he was closing out his Russian activities. Dmitry Lovrev, a lawyer for the Soros Foundation, said they had a 10-year lease on the office, that they were up-to-date with the rent. Kantimir Karamzin, speaking on behalf of the building owner claimed that no rent had been paid since 2001, and assured "there was no political motive for moving out George Soros." Perhaps Mr. Karamzin did not have all the facts. Last July, when Soros decided that he had given enough cash to Moscow, the investigation into the Yukos oil giant moved into top gear. In October, the chairman and CEO of Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was arrested. He is still in prison. There was a lot to investigate. In an auction run by his own bank, Khodorkovsky paid only $309 million for Yukos -- early this year the company was worth $45 billion. In 1998, Khodorkovsky survived charges by U.S. investigators that he had helped launder $10 billion with his own bank and the Bank of New York. Khodorkovsky, who is just 40 years old, is the richest man in Russia, worth over $15 billion. Share prices of Yukos plunged by 18 percent on his arrest and have only now begun to climb back with Khodorkovsky resigning from Yukos. He is charged with tax evasion, theft, forgery and fraud. And, what we have to remember is that the unfortunate Khodorkovsky is an oligarch -- a very rich man who helps control the policies of his country to become richer. Russians don't like oligarchs, so there is little criticism of President Vladimir Putin when he says, "It just doesn't work if you support the laws of the state when the prosecutor has got the handcuffs locked on you." But why should the Russians be bothering America's very own George Soros? Like the bold oligarch that he is, Soros denounced the arrest of Khodorkovsky as "persecution" that would force business to submit to the Russian state. "I believe that he acted within the constraints of the law in supporting political parties. I am doing the same in the United States." By this remark, George Soros was reminding us that he had given $10 million to the Democratic National Committee for "regime change" in the 2004 elections. Of course, he is acting within the constraints of the law, in the same way that Khodorkovsky was when he named his charitable organization, the "Open Russia Foundation," and said that there was no connection with the Soros "Open Society Institute" although they did fund some projects together. Khodorkovsky nabbed Lord Rothschild of London and our own inimitable Henry Kissinger for his board of directors. Gifts to American charities began to flow. Khodorkovsky joined the advisory board of the U.S. Carlyle Group, a super rich private equity fund, where he conferred in Moscow with the former Secretary of State James Baker III and former President George H. W. Bush. While Soros's largest donation of all time to the Democratic Party is not yet receiving undue attention, the arrest of Russia's richest man and the Yukos losses continues to be a major story. In less than a month, votes for the State Duma will determine the extent of support for President Putin. Putin's political party, United Russia, is running only a few points ahead of the Communist Party. Both are trying to shed the image of being fat cat bureaucrats. Of even greater concern to Putin is the large numbers of young people who are now supporting the Communists. Both major blocs could use the votes of the liberal parties that recently rallied in Moscow in support of their own positions and for the freeing of Khodorkovsky who financed both liberal groups. Prosecutors will have no problems in finding charges against many Russian tycoons involved in the "quick and dirty" privatization programs under Boris Yeltsin in the mid- 1990s. The theory, developed by the Clinton administration, was that once private property was established, the new owners would fight for democracy against a strong Communist challenge. When Yeltsin won, by very dubious means, oligarchs were given state jobs and enormous powers. At that time, Condoleezza Rice, who is now national security adviser, wrote that the Clintonistas were overlooking the "looting of the country's assets by powerful people." Under Putin, the prosecutors have for four years been building their cases and, again in theory, a rule of law may emerge. Dateline D.C. is written by a Washington-based British journalist and political observer. (8) Khodorkovsky a friend of Soros; Russia shut Soros' Open Society Institute (OSI) a few days after detaining Khodorkovsky George Soros, speculator and philanthropist 15 JANUARY 2004 George Soros, financier and philanthropist as well as an archetype of the "post-capitalist" speculator and prophet, is flattered and feared at the same time. He is responsible for the "Stock Market crash" and Maecenas in some fifty countries. Today, according to estimates, his fortune accounts for 7 billion dollars. He said he was willing to finance campaigns aimed at preventing George W. Bush's reelection, in spite of the fact that he himself saved Bush Junior from the 1990 bankruptcy and is still working with his father in the Carlyle Group, a powerful financial organization. He has been equally active in many changes of governments and has been labeled a CIA cover. Publicly committed with the US Presidential campaign to prevent George W. Bush's reelection, billionaire George Soros has unleashed a storm in Washington. Such personal decision has won the famous speculator the sympathy of all those in the world who fear Bush's reelection as President of the United States. George Soros was born in Hungary in 1930. As a result of the Second World War, he emigrated to England in 1947. There he met anticommunist philosopher Karl Popper, became his disciple and identified himself with the ideas promoted by this thinker. In 1956 he moved to the United States where he created the "first hedging funds" devoted to meet the demands of the large corporate fortunes. Since 1969, his main company, the Quantum Fund (located in tax haven countries like the Netherlands Antilles first and then Curazao [Curacao] , provides him with a mean income benefit of 34,5 % return investment per year. The man who made the Bank of England collapse George Soros has never generated any wealth, but he has enriched himself thanks to his activities in the stock market. With seven billion dollars, his personal wealth would be the 28th most important fortune in the United States, according to a classification made by the Forbes magazine in the year 2003. He has been nicknamed "The man who made the Bank of England collapse", after an operation based on the Sterling Pound (the British domestic currency) in September 1992, a stock market operation that brought him one billion dollars without batting an eyelash, at the expense and to the detriment of the United Kingdom taxpayers. Soros has become the paradigm of speculators. In spite of the fact that he also had to face great losses during the Stock Market fall in 1987, the crisis in Russia in 1998 and the implosion of the stock market speculations on Internet, Soros has been the great beneficiary of the Asian economic crisis that affected, especially, Thailand, Korea and Indonesia since 1997. President and director in charge of a great number of societies to which he would devote more than 300 million dollars, Soros became one of the greatest philanthropists of modern times. His main foundation, the Open Society Institute, takes its name after the philosophical project of his maestro Karl Popper: to build open societies, meaning an awareness of imperfections and a willingness to advance so as to create a better world. His main programs tend to defend human rights, to fight against drug-dependency, to train political leaders and to develop the freedom of information. These objectives agreed by consensus include controversial campaigns for the defense of homosexual's rights, the decriminalization of drugs and the establishment of substitution programs for drug-addicts. This charitable and progressive activity has wisely contributed to wipe off his financial predator image. Nevertheless, for many years now, many voices have suggested that his philanthropic actions are nothing but a false facade and a cover for the CIA and the State of Israel interventions in the world and that he owes his fortune to financial crimes, not to the magic fingers of "King Midas". [1] At the beginning, the Quantum Fund was administered by representatives appointed by Lord Jacob Rothschild (Mijail Khodorkovsky's proxy), Sir James Goldsmith (who was a European deputy) and Edmond Safra (main Israeli negotiator of weapons). Member of the Carlyle Group Recently, the American newspaper The Nation revealed that George Soros, through the Harken Energy and Spectrum 7 societies, was the one who, in 1990 saved George W. Bush from bankruptcy by eliminating and absorbing his debts. When asked about this by the newspaper, Soros stated that he did so in order to buy a "political influence" (sic) [2] Like his friend Khodorkovsky, George Soros joined the Carlyle Group when this company became the "financial shelter" for many in the former Bush father administration in 1992. Today, that company is the most important fortune-administration society (financial portfolio) in the world. It is in charge of administering the billionaire wealth of Bush and Bin Laden families through the societies it controls. The Carlyle Group is the eleventh provider of the Pentagon. On December 20, 2002, George Soros was sentenced to pay a fine of 2,2 million dollars by the Paris Correction Court for the commission of a financial crime, when he tried to attack the Societe Generale, a French company, in the stock market. Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group Aside from the Open Society Institute (OSI), present in almost fifty countries, George Soros has created or financed several very important and prestigious associations and foundations the Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) was one of the humanitarian organizations that submitted most of the evidences and documents against the crimes attributed to Slobodan Milosevic, thus justifying NATO intervention in Serbia. A significant part of the accusations made by this association has not yet been confirmed by the International Criminal Court for Former Yugoslavia. The International Crisis Group (ICG) was created in 1994 as a non-governmental (NGO) diplomatic organization, headed by the US Democratic Senator George Mitchell (who, later gave his name to the Report on the Israeli-Palestinian Question). Actively working in Burundi, Nigeria and Sierra Leone (African countries) at the beginning, the ICG was getting closer to NATO on the Yugoslavian crisis. It is currently presided over by Martti Ahtisaari, the former President of Finland who pretended to be negotiating with Milosevic to prevent the war. His Administrative Council gathers the elite of NATO personalities. By his side, former national security advisors like Richard Allen and Zbigniew Brzezinski, the Kuwaiti Prince Saud Nasir Al-Sabah, the former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for Former Yugoslavia, Louise Arbour, and former NATO Supreme Commander during the Yugoslavian War, General Wesley Clark. We also find some financial links like former President of The Philippines, Fidel Ramos, or the Russian oligarch Mijaíl [Mihail] Khodorkovsky, all of them members of the Carlyle Group. Likewise, some French personalities like Simone Veil, President of the Shoah Memorial, and journalist Christine Ockrent, wife of former Kosovo governor, Bernard Kouchner. In 2001, George Soros created the Democracy Coalition Project (DCP) in charge of encouraging the non-governmental forum beside the summit meetings of the Community of Democracies organized by the United States State Department. His agency includes the most important neoliberal economists. Likewise, he created a Network Media Program that bought the archives of the Radio Free Europe (one of its former leaders, Herbert Okun, forms part of OSI management), the CIA radio station during the Cold War. Besides, he has subsidized several "independent" mass media stations like B92 radio during the Yugoslavian War and today the "free" newspapers in Iraq. He controls the Project Syndicate, a mass media agency publishing editorials on political personalities in 181 international daily papers. These authors include a great number of ICG managers, as well as the cream of neoliberal economists. [3]. He argues manipulation of 9/11 victims In September 2001, shortly after the attacks George Soros participated in a working group of the Council on Foreign Relations, the club of the establishment in Washington, on the role to be played by the mass media in the war on terror. Sessions were presided over by Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke, who played an important role in the attack launched against Yugoslavia and whose wife, Kati Marton, is the OSI manager. Conclusions reached at that meeting were sent to President Bush for him to use them and convince the rest of the world of the well-founded foreign policy of the United States, mentioning and repeating once and again, the 9/11 attacks, manipulating the civil victims of these attacks to provoke compassion. He insists so as to force foreign governments not only to condemn the attacks, but also to approve his reasoning leading to a war on terror. Besides, he advises on the mass media presence in the world and supports the inclusion of New York Times supplements in large friendly newspapers. Russia expelled the Open Society Institute at the end of 2003 Recently, George Soros played an important role in the change of governments, especially in central and eastern Europe. He was particularly active in Poland, where he was, at the same time, friend of General Jaruselski and of the main official patron of the Solidarnoc (Solidarity) trade union, the Polish Bronislaw Geremek, who is currently member of the ICG administrative council. He was also very active in Hungary, his native country. It is highly probable that he also engaged in the preparation of the "Velvet Revolution" in the Czech Republic, an action that culminated with Vaclav Havel as President. He repeated the same model in Serbia to defeat Slobodan Milosevic and, recently, in Georgia against Edouard Shevarnardze. Every time he has been served and supported by Otpor-style youth organizations. He has been accused of stirring popular disturbances in Ukraine and Belarus. In order to put an end to his intervention in Russia, authorities have resorted to the pretext that the rent was not paid to expel the Open Society Institute some days after Mijaíl Khodorkovsky was detained under complot suspicions. What moves George Soros? Bearing in mind the multiple facets of the man who "made the Bank of England collapse", it is difficult to understand why he decided to invest 12 million dollars now to prevent de George W. Bush's reelection. In an interesting article published by the New Statesman [4], journalist Neil Clark affirms that the President and the billionaire, who have collaborated and cooperated for such a long time, agree on a neoliberal Empire but disagree on the way of turning it into a reality. George Soros, who for so many years has tried to humanize financial capitalism, considers that the brutality shown by George W. Bush jeopardizes the acceptance of this system by peoples. Others suggest that Soros campaign is doomed to failure and that it only serves to create a false illusion, the illusion that there is a democratic debate going on in the United States. In 2002, George Soros stated: «In ancient Rome, only the Romans could vote. Under world modern capitalism, only the Americans can vote. Brazilians, they do not vote». [5] Now, you see, this is the futre program, things are going to be even better... [1] Mystic character, King Midas transformed everything he touched in gold. [2] Cf. Bush and billionaire : How insider capitalism benefited W. par David Corn, The Nation July 17, 2002. [3] For France, economists Michel Camdessus, Daniel Cohen, Jean-Paul Fitoussi, Jean-Pierre Lehmann, Jean Pisani-Ferry; and political scientists like François Heisbourg, Pierre Nora or Jacques Rupnik [4] Cf. George Soros, NS Profile par Neil Clark, in New Statesman, 2 June 2003. [5] Public statement by George Soros at Social Forum held in Porto Alegre, Brazil. (9) Khodorkovsky: Moscow Targets another Russian Jewish Oligarch. Richard Perle & US Ambassador Alexander Vershbow (both Jewish) protest Moscow Targets Another Russian Jewish Oligarch Case Seen as Test Of Kremlin's Resolve On Economic Reform By S.A. Greene Jewish Forward Published August 01, 2003, issue of August 01, 2003. MOSCOW - It's becoming a familiar scenario: Kremlin prosecutors go after a prominent Jewish "oligarch," and Washington reacts with stern warnings that Russia is risking all the progress it has made during the last decade. Just under three years ago, the target was Vladimir Gusinsky, the press baron and founding president of the Russian Jewish Congress, who was arrested, pushed into exile and has yet to return home. Now in the limelight is billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose Yukos Oil is already the largest oil company in Russia and is set to become No. 4 in the world. With Gusinsky, freedom of speech was at stake and, ultimately, was lost: All of his old newspapers and broadcasters are now either defunct or state-controlled. With Khodorkovsky, the battle is over economic reform. Yukos has set the standard for transparency and good management, and as a result, Khodorkovsky is beholden to no one. That, apparently, makes the Kremlin uncomfortable. "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," Defense Department adviser Richard Perle told a conference at the Carnegie Moscow Center recently. American Ambassador Alexander Vershbow has made similar noises. {He's Jewish: U.S. ambassador to Russia hosts seder at official residence LINDA MOREL Jewish News of Greater Phoenix April 22, 2005/Nisan 13 5765, Volume 57, No. 34 http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/050422/russia.shtml Jewish Telegraphic Agency Did you know that the United States' ambassador to the Russian Federation is Jewish? Alexander Vershbow ... arrived in Moscow in July 2001. The next spring ... the Vershbows planned their first Passover in Russia.} Indeed, the circumstances are disquieting. A Yukos founding shareholder, Platon Lebedev, was arrested July 2 in connection with a murky 1994 privatization deal. Shortly thereafter, armed investigators spent 17 hours rifling through Yukos archives, confiscating files and computers. Khodorkovsky was called in for questioning, along with his deputy, Leonid Nevzlin, who had served as Gusinsky's temporary replacement as president of the Russian Jewish Congress. Prosecutors and investigators began dropping hints to the press about possible connections to unsolved murders, while left-wing politicians wondered aloud whether this wasn't an excellent chance to revisit the Yeltsin-era privatizations as a whole. Russian stock markets - for the last two years among the best performing in the world - deflated. Yukos, until recently the darling of foreign investors, lost nearly a third of its market capitalization. Officially Moscow has so far brushed aside American concerns over Yukos without comment, in sharp contrast to its angry response when it was chastised by the Clinton administration over the Gusinsky affair. Observers say Washington is unlikely to press the issue much further. Putin, said Andrei Piontkovsky, director of the Center of Strategic Research in Moscow, "is more important to Washington than Khodorkovsky. With the Gusinsky case, Putin was seen in the West as a former spy to be viewed with suspicion. Now he is seen as an ally, and a very important one, given the problems in Iran, North Korea and so on." Others see a different trend, however. Not long ago, the oligarchs - a handful of individuals, many of them Jewish, all of them men, who capitalized on the chaos of early reform and privatization to build financial and industrial empires - were emblematic of everything that was wrong with Russia. Nowadays, a handful of them have come to symbolize everything that is right. Thus, while Khodorkovsky once cheated British Petroleum out of its half of a joint venture, the Financial Times recently called him one of Europe's most transparent businessmen. Roman Abramovich, another oil magnate, was welcomed with open arms as the new owner of London's Chelsea Football Club. Even Boris Berezovsky, once called "the godfather of the Kremlin‚" has created an image for himself as a dissident politician as he awaits extradition hearings in London. The result is that, much as ordinary Russian Jews once served as a barometer for the state of democracy and human rights in the country, the oligarchs are becoming something of a barometer for the state of economic liberalization. "This is certainly a barometer, and it is stuck very deeply into the soil," said Tancred Golenpolsky, publisher of the International Jewish Gazette, Russia's most important Jewish-affairs journal. It's a point not lost on Khodorkovsky. He was in America at the time of Lebedev's arrest and took the opportunity to seek support among prominent Western business leaders. And when he returned to Moscow, he came out fighting. "People should understand that the authorities will begin with symbolic gestures," he said in an interview with the weekly newspaper Moskovskie Novosti. "They take someone who is more or less capable of defending themselves and press them into the ground. And then they won't have to go after the rest, because the rest will surrender on their own. We are a test run for a huge mass of people in epaulets, who will either stay in their bases or descend on society. If we don't hold our ground, everyone will drown." If there's a problem with the oligarchs as a barometer, however, it's that the measurements are inexact. If Kremlinologists could once be certain that the policy toward refuseniks represented the consensus of the politburo, Russia today is infinitely more complex. Indeed, the Yukos affair has led a number of analysts to question whether Putin is really in as much control as his image suggests. "This is not Putin going after Yukos," Piontkovsky said. "This is the old spy network that Putin brought back into power going after Yukos. On the one hand, Putin feels some solidarity with them because he used to be one of them. But he also has to be very careful not to let them get out of control, or else they will take control of him." Old cadres, meanwhile, bring old habits. Alfred Kokh, who helped the government organize the takeover of Gusinsky's media empire, volunteered in a recent interview on Russian television that in attacks on oligarchs, "antisemitism is most certainly part of the game." "The people are being programmed in such a way that I wouldn't be surprised if some rascal came up and said, 'Let's go after the Jews,'" Golenpolsky said. "The people would gladly do it. They want simple explanations, and it's very easy to replace 'Beat the oligarchs' with 'Beat the Jews.'" == Platon Lebedev is the former director of Group MENATEP, the controlling shareholder of YUKOS Oil Company. He was arrested July 2, 2003 on charges of fraud and tax evasion in relation to the privatization of Apatit, a fertilizer business. He was found guilty and is currently serving an 8-year sentence in a maximum security prison in the Polar Ural region of Siberia. Source: lebedevtrial.com March 3: Platon Lebedev's lawsuit against the Russian Federation has been registered with the European Human Rights Court. The court recently asked the Russian government to provide detailed information about the condition of Mr. Lebedev's health in prison. Source: supportmbk.com The government has arrested ethnic Russians, too-there's this guy Platon Lebedev-but the Russians have an entirely different character. The Jewish intelligentsia always sought to democratize and liberalize Russia, bring it closer to the West. The ethnic Russian intelligentsia always wanted a Russian Orthodox power, an imperium. The Jews always wanted to turn Russia into Europe, or America. To draw it closer to civilization, and thereby away from anti-Semitism. This desire meets tremendous resistance in Russia, especially from the common people, who have this view that "the kikes have looted Russia." Source: nextbook.org ... On May 31, Mikhail Khodorkovskiy and co-defendant Platon Lebedev were convicted on six charges of fraud, tax evasion, and embezzlement and sentenced to 9 years in prison after an 11-month trial Source: state.gov (10) Khodorkovsky's shares in Yukos pass to Lord Jacob Rothschild Arrested oil tycoon passed shares to banker Washington Times Washington DC, Sunday, November 2, 2003 | Backup at FPP LONDON (Agence France-Presse) -- Control of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's shares in the Russian oil giant Yukos have passed to renowned banker [the Rt Hon Lord] Jacob Rothschild, under a deal they concluded prior to Mr. Khodorkovsky's arrest, the Sunday Times reported. Voting rights to the shares passed to Mr. [sic] Rothschild, 67, under a "previously unknown arrangement" designed to take effect in the event that Mr. Khodorkovsky could no longer "act as a beneficiary" of the shares, it said. Mr. Khodorkovsky, 40, whom Russian authorities arrested at gunpoint and jailed pending further investigation last week, was said by the Sunday Times to have made the arrangement with Mr. Rothschild when he realized he was facing arrest. Mr. Rothschild (left) now controls the voting rights on a stake in Yukos worth almost $13.5 billion, the newspaper said in a dispatch from Moscow. Mr. Khodorkovsky owns 4 percent of Yukos directly and 22 percent through a trust of which he is the sole beneficiary, according to Russian analysts. From the figures reported in the Sunday Times, it appeared Mr. Rothschild had received control of all Mr. Khodorkovsky's shares. The two have known each other for years "through their mutual love of the arts" and their positions as directors of the Open Russia Foundation, Yukos' philanthropic branch, it said. Russian authorities Thursday froze billions of dollars of shares held by Mr. Khodorkovsky and his top lieutenants in Yukos -- throwing control of the country's largest oil company into limbo and causing frenzied selling on financial markets. Russian prosecutors said owners of the shares are still entitled to dividends and retain voting rights, but can no longer sell their stakes. They said the freeze was necessary as collateral for the $1 billion that Mr. Khodorkovsky and his associates are accused of misappropriating during the 1990s. Mr. Rothschild is the British head of Europe's wealthy and influential Rothschild family, and runs his own investment empire. (11) Khodorkovksy had known Rothschild for years through his Open Russia Foundation Rothschild is the new power behind Yukos Simon Bell in Moscow, Lucinda Kemeny and Andrew Porter A SENIOR MEMBER of the Rothschild banking family has emerged as the key figure in the battle for control of Yukos, the Russian oil giant. From The Sunday Times November 2, 2003 The Sunday Times can identify Lord (Jacob) Rothschild as the secret holder of the large stake in Yukos that was previously controlled by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oil company's chairman. Khodorkovsky, reputed to be Russia's richest man, was last week arrested by Russian prosecutors on charges of fraud and tax evasion. His imprisonment has triggered a trustee agreement he put in place with Rothschild a few months ago. Rothschild, 67, now controls the voting rights on a stake in Yukos worth almost £8 billion. This places him at the centre of a dispute with the Russian state. It is widely believed that the charges being brought against Khodorkovsky are a response to his political ambitions to succeed Vladimir Putin as Russia's president. Russian prosecutors tried to freeze a 44% stake in Yukos on Thursday. Their move highlighted the previously unknown arrangement that allowed voting rights to be transferred to an unnamed foreigner - Rothschild - should Khodorkovsky be unable to "act as a beneficiary" of the shares. It is thought that Khodorkovksy, 40, took this precaution when he realised he was facing arrest. The shares are held via the Gibraltar-based Menatep Group. Khodorkovksy has known Rothschild for years through their mutual love of the arts and their support for Russian development via the Open Russia Foundation. Rothschild is a multi-millionaire in his own right, with a fortune estimated at £400m. He has not been involved with NM Rothschild, the City investment bank, since walking out during a furious row 22 years ago. Rothschild went on to build his own investment empire through firms such as RIT Capital Partners, St James's Place Capital and J Rothshild Assurance. ... (12) Lord Rothschild defends Khodorkovsky; he & Kissinger founded Khodorkovsky's Open Russia Foundation Rothschild lined to take over at Yukos By James Rossiter, Evening Standard Last updated at 17:51pm on 15.07.03 RUSSIAN tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, under threat of arrest as a result of a widening probe into the country's flagship oil major Yukos, has named Lord (Jacob) Rothschild as a possible successor at the helm of the company. The fraud and tax investigations could draw in a tranche of top Yukos executives, and in these circumstances the group would approach the London banker, a company official told Russia's Kommersant newspaper. Lord Rothschild, 66, has a host of high-profile international corporate, political and banking contacts in keeping with his position as a member of the influential Rothschild banking dynasty. The obvious successor to Khodorkovsky would be the group's chief financier Platon Lebedev, but he is in jail facing fraud charges. While refusing to comment on any potential role for him at Yukos, Lord Rothschild defended the oil baron. 'Khodorkovsky is a progressive businessman who is devoted to Russia,' his office was quoted as saying. The spokesman said Lord Rothschild had no business relationship with Menatep, a Khodorkovsky company that owns 61% of Yukos. Lord Rothschild still heads J Rothschild Capital Management, the fund management business he set up nearly 20 years ago. That business is now part of the larger St James's Place Capital wealth management group chaired by Sir Mark Weinberg, a long-time friend and business associate. He is also co-founder with former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger of Khodorkovsky's Yukos-financed Open Russia Foundation, established in December 2001 to develop relations between Russia and the West. In March last year Khodorkovsky appointed former British Foreign Secretary Lord (David) Owen as chairman of Yukos International UK in London. Lord Rothschild split from his cousin Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, chairman of English investment bank NM Rothschild, to set up his own investment bank J Rothschild Assurance in the 1980s. He still runs it from the basement of a house in St James's. He quickly made a name for himself, joining forces with the late Sir James Goldsmith and Australia's Kerry Packer for an assault on BAT Industries via Anglo Leasing, one of a number of holdings in financial services companies. His latest high-profile takeover campaign was a failed attempt to take textiles group Coats Viyella private three years ago. The Yukos probe is being closely watched in Washington, which has worked hard at developing an energy relationship with Russia. (13) Rothschild, Kissinger & former U.S. ambassador Arthur Hartman were directors of Khodorkovsky's Open Russia Foundation KHODORKOVSKY GETS SOME BIG-MONEY SUPPORT By Catherine Belton St Petersburg Times Issue #884 (52), Tuesday, July 15, 2003 MOSCOW - Oligarch-under-fire Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Monday got words of support from Lord Jacob Rothschild, a key member of the powerful family whose banking empire spans centuries and continents and who has joined up with the Russian oil baron for philanthropic projects that promote ties between Russia and the West. "Khodorkovsky is a progressive businessman who is devoted to Russia," Rothschild's office said on Monday, as Khodorkovsky himself courted members of the U.S. elite in Washington. Rothschild's office, however, was unable to comment on a Kommersant report Monday that cited high-ranking anonymous sources in Yukos as saying that Rothschild could take over the reins of Group Menatep, the holding company that manages the assets of core Yukos shareholders, if its leading shareholders were incapacitated in any way. The man who is next in line to take over Khodorkovsky's business empire should anything occur, Platon Lebedev, is in jail on charges that he stole a state-owned stake in a fertilizer producer Apatit in 1994. The next in command after Lebedev is Yukos board member Yury Golubev, and should anything happen to him, Kommersant said, the chain stretches down into other hands, eventually ending with Rothschild. The Rothschilds have been seen as the power behind the throne of many a regime since the family first arrived in Britain in the late 1700s. From small beginnings lending to Europe's royal families, the empire is said to have spread into new riches in the United States and is thought to have ties to the powerful American Rockefeller dynasty. Khodorkovsky first became acquainted three years ago with Lord Rothschild, who then introduced him as a debutante into the world of leading financiers. At that time, Khodorkovsky was embarking on a big pro-Western PR drive aimed at showing that he had turned his back on the howling corporate governance violations he had committed in the past. Yukos rapidly became the darling of Western investors as it cleaned up its financial accounting, hired top Western managers and said that it was consolidating all profits centers onto the company's books. Shares in Yukos skyrocketed. His partnership with Rothschild was sealed with the creation in December 2001 of the Open Russia Foundation in London. The foundation, which awards grants to academic institutions and other not-for-profit organizations while promoting Russian art in the West, quickly expanded to the United States, where its glitzy launch in September last year was held in the heart of the U.S. establishment, the Library of Congress. The foundation board includes Rothschild, U.S. foreign policy guru Henry Kissinger and former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union Arthur Hartman. {Hartman was Jewish too. The Wikipedia page on him does not mention it, but a book does; see below} Khodorkovsky's recent efforts to promote energy ties with the West and help boost U.S. energy security - pushing for the construction of a pipeline to the Arctic port of Murmansk for crude shipments to the United States and sending a pioneering tanker of Yukos crude last year - have earned him points with the White House. As the politically charged case that some fear could prompt a new asset carve-up escalates against Yukos, a senior U.S. diplomat last week said he has asked Russian officials for clarification on what was happening. The diplomat said he was "concerned about what political agenda may be behind these steps" which, he said, could have a "certain dampening effect on the energy relationship" that the United States and Russia are building. "Khodorkovsky was one of the initiators of the new very strong energy partnership between Russia and the U.S.," said Lilia Shevtsova, a senior associate for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It is very important for the West what happens to him." Yukos spokesperson Hugo Erikssen said that Khodorkovsky was meeting Monday with business leaders in Washington, after departing from a two-day conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, that was attended by bigwigs such as Warren Buffet, Microsoft Corp.'s Bill Gates and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Erikssen would not say who exactly Khodorkovsky was seeing. A spokesperson for Menatep, Yury Kotler, confirmed that the group has established an emergency chain of command that leads from Lebedev to Golubev, but he could not say whether it stretched down to Rothschild. "Group Menatep has a lot of very powerful foreign partners. But as to whether they would take over the operative leadership of the company, I honestly don't know," he said. He could not say whether the Rothschild family has any direct stake in Khodorkovsky's companies. Rothschild's office, however, said, "Lord Rothschild has no business relationship with Menatep." (14) Former US Amasssador Arthur A. Hartman and Senator Jacob Javits were Jewish too This Wikipedia page makes no mention of Hartman being Jewish; but it does supply his middle initial: {quote} Arthur A. Hartman Arthur Adair Hartman (born March 12, 1926, in New York City) is a retired American career diplomat ... In 1974, Hartman was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs. From 1977 until 1981 he was the Ambassador to France, and from 1981 until 1987 Ambassador to the Soviet Union. This page was last modified on 21 October 2010 at 20:23. {endquote} But the following book mentions Hartman's Jewishness: Jewish claims against East Germany: moral obligations and pragmatic policy By Angelika Timm Central European University Press, 1997 {p. 100} Republican Senator Jacob Javits ... in a letter to Kissinger, urged that {p. 101} recognition of the GDSR "be witheld until there was a satisfactory settlement of the Jewish claims." His efforts were supported by Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Arthur Hartman. Hartman was Jewish and thus very sensitive to the Jewish claims issue ... {endquote} Senator Javits was Jewish too: {quote} He is interred at Linden Hill Jewish Cemetery in Queens, NY. This page was last modified on 22 December 2010 at 23:36.} {endquote} Central European University, publisher of Angelika Timm's book, was itself founded by George Soros: {quote} Central European University CEU has more than 1500 students from 100 countries and 300 faculty members from more than 30 countries. In 2005, university co-founder George Soros announced he was doubling the CEU's endowment to €400 million. ... CEU was founded in 1991 in response to the fall of communism. The founding vision was to create a university dedicated to examining the contemporary challenges of open societies and democratization. ... CEU been a pioneer in many fields: for example, it began the region's first master's degree programs in gender studies and environmental sciences. CEU emphasizes the development of open societies in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union ... On 14 October 2007 George Soros stepped down as Chairman of CEU Board. ... George Soros is a Life-CEU Trustee and serves as Honorary Chairman of the Board.[9] This page was last modified on 12 December 2010 at 23:28. {end} (15) Rothschild links with Abramovich & Khodorkovsky, and ex-MI5 & ex-CIA agents Rothschilds Run British Intelligence Operation into Russia through JNR and Diligence March 13, 2010 * 11:04PM The main investment vehicle of the Rothschilds into Russia and Eastern Europe is JNR UK Ltd, an investment bank specializing in Eastern Europe and Russia. JNR stands for Jacob and Nathaniel Rothschild. Since Feb. 2003, Nathaniel Rothschild has been director of JNR. JNR has offices in Guernsey and Switzerland. The decision to run JNR out of its Swiss and Guernsey offices was made for tax reasons. Most of the revenues are derived from outside the UK. Through JNR the Rothschilds run their operations inside Russia and Eastern Europe in conjunction with the Russian oligarchy. As previously reported, Nathaniel Rothschild, as director of JNR, is the chief advisor to Russian aluminum oligarch Oleg Deripaska and Deripaska's Rusal, the world's largest aluminum company, in which Rothschild is also heavily invested. In addition to his relationship to Oleg Deripaska, Nathaniel Rothschild's best friend is another Russian billionaire oligarch, Roman Abramovich. An earlier operation, the Wellsian, Open Russia Foundation, which was set up by the Rothschilds with Russian oligarch Khodorkovsky, was shut down in 2006 by Russian authorities after Khodorkovsky's criminal conviction. Just prior to his arrest, Khodorkovsky attempted to hand over control of the Yukos oil company to Jacob Rothschild. Khodorkovsky had a "previously unknown arrangement" with Jacob Rothschild for the latter to take control of the former's Yukos stock in the event that the former could no longer "act as a beneficiary" of the shares. This effort to give control of Yukos to Rothschild was thwarted when, in 2004, the government of Russia seized and sold Yukos's largest production unit in compensation for large back tax bills. In 2007, JNR acquired a corporate intelligence firm called Diligence to coordinate its intelligence operations in Russia as well as elsewhere. Diligence was founded in 2000 by Nick Day, a former British special forces and MI5 operative, and ex-CIA agent Mike Baker, who no longer works for the company. Day reportedly saw an opening for a new business when British companies were entering emerging markets, targeting Russia. According to Handelsblatt, more than half of their roughly 100 employees are former members of an intelligence service. Michael Howard, former UK Conservative Party leader sits on Diligence's advisory board beside Judge William Webster, former director of the CIA and FBI, and Edward Mathias, managing director of Carlyle. Diligence describes itself as an intelligence-gathering and risk-management firm. It now boasts offices in London, Washington, Moscow and Hong Kong. (16) Jews change the world around them. Russians work to preserve it - Pavel Lounguine Mommie Dearest Russia may torment Pavel Lounguine, but the filmmaker can't help himself. He keeps returning to explore their messy relationship. Born in Moscow in 1949, Pavel Lounguine worked as a screenwriter ... Lounguine divides his time between Russia and France; he spoke with Nextbook by telephone from his mother-in-law's apartment in Moscow. Many of your films pit Slavic defenders of the Russian motherland against Jews they consider despoilers of this sacred patrimony. What's less obvious is how your Jewish characters view their antagonists. In Tycoon, for example, the oligarch Platon Makovsky never reflects on the reasons for his persecution. Why not? For a Russian Jew, this is self-explanatory. He never asks himself why this is so. Or whether he is liked. He understands perfectly well that he isn't liked, and why he isn't liked, as well as the cultural context for this. What is that cultural context? Russia's greatest sorrow is the Russian nationalist-patriots, who have this deeply felt conviction that they have a right to plunder the country. It's their property, so it's their birthright. They have this absolute, proprietary attitude toward their country. Today they weep for it, and tomorrow they plunder it. And what's truly amazing is how these sentiments exist simultaneously. Then why have many Jews chosen to remain in Russia? I can't speak for others, but my attitude is: Apparently, I love her. She torments me, worries me. I hate her, so I leave and leave again, but then return and return again. Deep inside, I am very connected to her. It's very difficult to explain in words. The only way is through art, to make a film about it. Why do unloved children love their mother, or their stepmother? You once said Russian anti-Semitism was like a rain shower. Nothing pleasant, you got wet-but no sort of terror either. Is the weather clearer after 15 years of the democratic experiment? Of course a great deal has changed. I have a special perspective, because I live in France half the time. I come to Russia only to work. And much has changed: Jews are able to become wealthy, hold prestigious positions. This was never the case before. What could a Jew become under the Soviets? A doctor. A screenwriter. Not a director, though, because directing meant being in charge. And people didn't like Jews in charge. Now, thanks to their skills, quick minds, shrewdness, and an entrepreneurial spirit, Jews can advance economically, hold important positions. Also, thanks to the Chechen war, the onus of Russian xenophobia has shifted from Jews to Muslims and people from southern Russia. Another strange development is that Israel, which the USSR always viewed as a foe, has become an ally of the new Russia, perhaps because of these attacks. Russians who have never set foot outside the country, the first place they go is Israel. Something has drastically changed in what has historically been an antagonistic relationship. Classic, official anti-Semitism is decreasing. It can't disappear wholly. It survives, masquerading as something else. It's adopting a new form, in search of new ways of manifesting itself. But look, Putin just picked himself a Jewish prime minister. What do you think motivated Putin to appoint Mikhail Fradkov? It's still too early to say, but it's apparent that certain qualities possessed by Fradkov turned out to be more important than his nationality. Nationality in Russia is becoming of secondary importance. This is unprecedented. You once said that, though you are not observant, anti-Semitism makes you feel more Jewish. The improving condition of Russian Jews and recent difficulties in France beg the question: Where do you feel more Jewish? In Russia, of course. In France, I'm Russian, and in Russia, I'm a Jew. In France, a Jew is someone who wears a yarmulke, goes to synagogue. If you don't do these things, you are some other kind of person. But I'll tell you: My social circle in France, the people I hang out with, is becoming more and more Jewish. There's some kind of self-selection going on. You gravitate to your own. And what does "your own" mean? This is difficult to understand. This is a mystery, a mystical thing. Isaac Bashevis Singer, he helps me to answer this question. I am going to make a film from his novel Meshugah. He asks, what does it mean to be a Jew? He didn't go to synagogue either, wasn't particularly observant. Nonetheless, there was something unique about being Jewish for him, and all his art was devoted to figuring out what that was. Under the Soviets, Jews sought to assimilate and remain as anonymous as possible. How do Russian Jews see their position in society today? Russia is ready to accept Jews, but as people of the Magen David, as people connected to Israel. Not as individuals who aren't Russian Orthodox but also don't go synagogue. In Russia today, you have to identify with a particular group. You've got to wear a cross or a Magen David. Either be Russian or Jewish, and if you won't, then leave. But what is the Jewish perspective? Russian Jews have gotten too big for their britches. They've completely forgotten what life was like for Russian Jews before. Now there is this aggressiveness, this triumphant attitude. They've grabbed everything possible. It's a needless provocation. Things can return to the way they were at the drop of a hat. ... Arresting Khodorkovsky was a way of appealing to the masses. It was a crass, populist move to appease the popular instinct by arresting a rich Jew-a kind of PR action. Two birds with one stone-a billionaire, resented for his wealth while so many starve, and a Jew to boot. ... The government has arrested ethnic Russians, too-there's this guy Platon Lebedev-but the Russians have an entirely different character. The Jewish intelligentsia always sought to democratize and liberalize Russia, bring it closer to the West. The ethnic Russian intelligentsia always wanted a Russian Orthodox power, an imperium. The Jews always wanted to turn Russia into Europe, or America. To draw it closer to civilization, and thereby away from anti-Semitism. This desire meets tremendous resistance in Russia, especially from the common people, who have this view that "the kikes have looted Russia." In your films, Jews are creators: musicians in Luna Park and Taxi Blues, an entrepreneur in Tycoon. Why do you associate Jews first and foremost with the creative impulse? Jews change the world around them. Russians work to preserve it, and Jews to renew and improve it. This is true around the world. It's no coincidence that every regime invested in preservation rather than reform becomes anti-Semitic. (17) Dead spy Alexander Litvinenko linked to Yukos break-up Dead spy linked to Yukos break-up Daniel McGrory and Tony Halpin The Australian November 28, 2006 12:00AM A DOSSIER drawn up by Alexander Litvinenko on the Kremlin's takeover of the world's richest energy giant will be given to Scotland Yard overnight as police investigate the former KGB spy's secret dealings with some of Russia's richest men. It emerged yesterday that Mr Litvinenko travelled to Israel just weeks before he died to hand over evidence to a Russian billionaire of how agents working for President Vladimir Putin dealt with his enemies running the Yukos oil company. He passed this information to Leonid Nevzlin, the former second-in-command of Yukos, who fled to Tel Aviv in fear for his life after the Kremlin seized and then sold off the $US40 billion ($51 billion) company. ... (18) Yukos oligarchs promise "A Lifetime of Litigation" against Russia A Lifetime of Litigation Can a dead oil company still hit a gusher? Michael D. Goldhaber Focus Europe July 01, 2010 Seven years have passed since Russia began the campaign against OAO Yukos Oil Company that led to the renationalization of a business controlling more than 3 percent of world oil production, comparable in scale to Chevron Corporation. The dispossessed owners call it the biggest political expropriation in history. The fall of Yukos has generated history's biggest arbitrations-and by far the biggest human rights claim ever-with stakes as high as $100 billion. The director of the majority shareholder group, Timothy Osborne, vowed a "lifetime of litigation" against those responsible, and he is well on his way. So far, the litigation is going well for the Yukos side. The company's former management or shareholders have prevailed in jurisdictional fights in four different cases-most recently, with a surprise victory late last year at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. Now the real battle begins. In March, in a second case, the main parties finally engaged on the merits at oral hearing before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. That court is expected to render its judgment imminently. While the damages in Strasbourg are unlikely to be substantial, the decision could influence the arbitration in The Hague-where a jackpot judgment is easily imagined. (Collecting such a judgment is another matter.) And the impending human rights ruling in Strasbourg may be crucial to the more realistic hidden strategy of the former Yukos management behind the ECHR claim. To understand how the battlefronts fit together is to see the state of play in international business disputes, fought in multiple venues and requiring litigants to engage in ever more complex strategic calculus. As the Yukos dispute reaches the age of reason, it's time for a look back and a look forward. The Yukos camp has largely persuaded Western opinion leaders that it was the victim, and its lawyers speak as if they can skip straight from jurisdiction to damages without the intermediary step of proving their claims. "The Russians' best arguments were all on jurisdiction and they've lost all of them," asserts O. Thomas Johnson, Jr., of Covington & Burling, who represents minority Yukos shareholders. "The only real issue left is deciding how much Yukos was worth." Agrees Emmanuel Gaillard of Shearman & Sterling, who represents the majority shareholders in the Hague arbitration: "Russia's strategy is to postpone the inevitable point at which they lose." But Russia concedes nothing. Russia was fully justified in cracking down on a tax cheat, say its lawyers-speaking for the first time with the press in the hope of starting to reframe the public narrative. "If you begin with the premise that Yukos committed fraud," argues Michael Goldberg of Baker Botts, who counsels Russia on strategy, "then the government of any country in the world had a right to go after that fraud to the full extent of the law." Russia has no intention of rolling over on the merits. ... Who then speaks for the dismantled company? There are three camps: * The Majority Shareholders. Five Khodorkovsky friends owned about three-quarters of Yukos at its demise. Their holding company, GML Ltd. (formerly Group Menatep Ltd.), is managed by Osborne, who is a tax lawyer at London's Wiggin Osborne Fullerlove. About 70 percent of GML is owned by Leonid Nevzlin, now of Israel, to whom Khodorkovsky's stake was transferred. GML does not struggle to pay its bills. For starters, the fallen oligarchs own most of $5 billion in Swiss bank funds that Russia failed to freeze, and $850 million from the sale of a Lithuanian refinery. Through offshore entities, GML is pushing claims for expropriation and unfair treatment under the Energy Charter Treaty before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. This case is the main event, as real damages are a distinct possibility. The final curtain is three to five years away. * The Minority Shareholders. Two small European stockholder groups have separate arbitrations before the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce. RosInvestCo UK Ltd.-an affiliate of the American distressed-asset investor Elliott Associates-aims to recover up to $200 million, under the U.K.-Russia investment treaty, on an estimated purchase of less than $20 million. A Spanish fund called Renta 4 S.V.S.A. has brought a similar claim-funded by GML-under the Spain-Russia investment treaty. A final award for RosInvestCo is imminent, and for Renta about a year away, with parallel challenges to both proceedings under way in the Swedish courts. These claims are substantial only to the degree that other European investors, accounting for perhaps 5 percent of the company, follow suit. U.S. and Russian investors, representing about 15 and 5 percent of Yukos, respectively, lack the benefit of an investment treaty [see "The Battlefields," page 21]. * The Former Management. A trio of American managers hired by Khodorkovsky-Steven Theede, Bruce Misamore, and David Godfrey-form a sort of government-in-exile in Houston and Honolulu. Crucially, they have persuaded the Dutch courts to disregard Yukos's Russian bankruptcy proceedings. (Russia has appealed.) This has enabled the managers to maintain control over two sets of European subsidiaries, including Yukos Finance B.V. Through these entities, the managers can fund litigation-they estimate accessible funds at nearly $200 million-and pursue sizable asset claims. The most prominent claim they are pushing is a petition filed before bankruptcy by Yukos Oil Company at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), arguing that Russia violated its right to property, as well as due process. (It is well established that the European Convention protects the rights of companies.) The ECHR claim is the only one that covers 100 percent of the loss.Although a first judgment on the merits is expected in 2010, the appeal to a so-called Grand Chamber of the court is likely to delay the end result another year or two. If Russia's strongest arguments were on jurisdiction-as Yukos lawyers claim-the adjudicators were unimpressed. Russia was unable to block the claims of the Yukos plaintiffs at either The Hague, at the ECHR in Strasbourg, or in Stockholm. Russia thought it might get off the hook in The Hague because it never ratified the treaty under which the arbitration had been brought, the Energy Charter Treaty. No such luck. The tribunal showed persuasively that Russia routinely follows unratified treaties, while reserving the right to opt out, and that the Energy Charter Treaty contemplates such an arrangement. Nor did it bother the Hague arbitrators that a treaty designed to protect western European investors in the Soviet sphere has enabled Russians to sue Russia through offshore entities. The arbitrators gave a strict textual reading to the treaty's definition of "investment," which focuses on the claimant's place of incorporation. Like it or not, this was in keeping with virtually all arbitral precedent on the nationality of investors. In the Stockholm arbitrations the Russians got two split decisions, and somehow still lost twice. The RosInvestCo panel ruled that the treaty under consideration didn't apply directly, but the treaty's "most-favored-nation" clause allowed them to incorporate a broader treaty. The Renta panel concluded the opposite on both points. Either way, the case moved forward. At the ECHR in Strasbourg, Russia correctly observed that the victim and applicant, Yukos Oil Company, is dead. That fact made no difference to the court. "Human rights cases before the court generally also have a moral dimension," the judges ruled, "which it must take into account when considering whether to continue with the examination of an application after the applicant has ceased to exist." To bar the claim, the court reasoned, would only encourage countries to kill companies. In March the ECHR heard the case for- warded by Yukos's former management. The confidentiality requirements of international arbitration mean that the arguments in the arbitrations at The Hague and in Stockholm will largely remain secret. But the story aired in Strasbourg underlies all the claims. The central issue for each tribunal is the legitimacy of Yukos's massive tax liability. Before its demise, Yukos had set up a series of shell companies to channel profits through Russia's low-tax regional investment zones. In early 2004, Russia's tax service ruled these companies invalid. This ruling had two effects. ... Russia counsel Goldberg tells an altogether different narrative. The real story, he says, is that Khodorkovsky operated a fraudulent company and arrogantly obstructed justice when called to task. ... Goldberg rejects the basic premise of Yukos's tale: that the company would have paid the taxes if only Russia had allowed it to. On the contrary, Goldberg says the oligarchs of GML continued to pay themselves billions in dividends, while sitting on billions more. ... Peter Myers, 381 Goodwood Rd, Childers Qld 4660, Australia ph +61 7 41262296 [in Australia: 07 41262296] Related:
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