Kremlin wants to quiz exiles (click on)
The Russian investigators’ targets are Boris Berezovsky, a billionaire businessman who employed Litvinenko and is a long-standing critic of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and Akhmed Zakayev, a Chechen exile the Russians have wanted to extradite on terrorism charges, which he denies.
Let's wind this up.
Russia is a sovereign nation. It was part of a larger nation, the USSR, that dissolved after the Chernobyl Disaster (click on).
Right or wrong, there was a lot of destabilizing events in Russia. It took three months following the collapse of the USSR to retrieve the Russian spacecraft back to Earth.
The possibility of Russia becoming a democracy was to the delight of every investor in the world. At the forefront of these possiblities were oligarchs (Russian wealthy men). They used the opportunity before them to seize the assets of Russia and obtain personal wealth, among these opportunists are the men you see below who were involved with Yukos, the largest Russia oil company that existed. At the time, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was considered to be the wealthiest Russian in the country and the fifteenth wealthiest man in the world.
To capitalist societies such as the USA and those Western nations of Europe, that all seems to be in order. But, the assets these men now owned were only a short time ago those of Russia, the people of a communist nation. Within the government structure still existed the old communists. They had/have alligence to their beliefs in communism as it existed before Mikhail Gorbachev. They weren't completely wrong, in that Russian assets in the hands of a few might deprive the people of Russia a way of life. A quality of life. They were probably right.
At the time Yukos was dismantled it was said that it owed the Russian government a lot of money in taxes. The owners were accused of fraud and tax evasion. They are in a Russian prison.
The West seems to think what occurred over Yukos is wrong. That it is okay for a nation's assets to be reassigned to a few wealthy men ready and willing to play ball with Western investors direly in need of large oil supplies outside that of the Middle East. The oligarchs were viewed as men who could make Western dreams come true. This wasn't that long ago. It was somewhere around 2001 to 2002, something like that.
The oligarchs wanted it all. Some had military forces and one even a jet fighter. That is a direct threat to the sovereignty of any nation, not just Russia by the way. These men were enormously wealthy. They had power. They were like their own nations, they could buy anything, affect the outcomes of elections, influence global markets and they wanted more than they had. They wanted Russia.
Why?
Because Russia had laws that would prevent them from freely wielding power. They wanted to change all that 'in the name of democracy.' They began to seek public office and Mr. Khodorkovsky at the time Yukos was being pursued by the Russian government was running in elections for President against Vladimir Putin.
It is stated that Khodorkovsky is in prison today because he dared oppose Putin.
In all honesty.
It all depends which way you see the crystal ball.
If you see it from the stand point that Russia continued to be 'up for grabs' and there was no authority that should have opposed the conversion of Russia to a completely free democracy then one believes Putin's government torpedoed Mr. Khodorkovsky's attempt at an 'election coup.'
If, as I do, one believes the stability of a nation is important and people matter, then the crystal ball paints a very different picture and one that was already being engaged by Vladimir Putin. At the time when he was running for President and Mr. Khodorkovsky wanted to oppose him, he was actively entertaining the views by the 'old Russian Communists' and planning to put old symbols back into Russian culture. He felt that Russia was unstable and those most loyal to Russia were more important than anyone was giving them credit for.
My purpose here is not to judge the actions of Russia against Yukos or the merit or lack there of by Vladimir Putin. It is to assign blame for murders and poisonings that seem to be running rampant with those that oppose Russian authorities and among exiles. So. Do I believe the Russian government is responsible for the deaths and poisonings here? No, I don't.
I believe Boris Berezovsky, his power, his influence, his wealth and his hatred of the Russian government has used the West's rejected status by Russia to build a coalition of sympathy. I think he is either directly responsible for all this or indirectly by sanctioning assassinations while defaming his former place of citizenry.
Now, unless the evidence changes, as it may; it seems very obvious that Mr. Scaramella was the first to have contact with Mr. Litvinenko. Do I believe he would do such a thing? You betcha.
Why?
Because at the end of this rainbow is a nation called Russia within their reach if the Russian leadership can be viewed as hostile to it's own people. I believe these men are blood thirsty and ruthless without exception. I also believe the security business Mr. Berezovsky was running was legitimate but with former KGB working for him it also fronted as a way to act against the Russian government. I also believe Mr. Berezovsky is enough of a compelling figure that he could be viewed as the one man that would finance the poisonings and deaths of high profile people that actively opposed the Russian President for the sole purpose of destabizing the country that was once his homeland.
I believe Mr. Scaramella was an instrument to Mr. Berezovsky. The fact that Mr. Berezovsky is in so many places where underworld activities have manifested TO THE SAME END, that being the humiliation of a Russian President is more than suspicious. I think it is damning.
Good night.
