The Russian prosecution has demanded 14 years each in custody for former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his former business partner Platon Lebedev.
The two are accused of theft and money laundering with an estimated damage standing at over US $27 billion. The accused are supposed to serve their sentence in general regime colony.
Prosecution has dismissed the claims of politicization of the case citing the previous sentence.
"The position of all those who try to play down the gravity of the crimes committed by Khodorkovsky and Lebedev does not meet the interests of the state," prosecutor Valery Lakhtin was quoted by Interfax as saying.
///
Previously in US, with the applause from American people, Bernard Madoff, the self-confessed author of the biggest financial swindle in history, was sentenced to the maximum 150 years behind bars for what his judge called an "extraordinarily evil" .
Mr. Madoff's attorney, Ira Sorkin, said that Mr. Madoff was a "deeply flawed individual" but maintained that most of the fraud money went to other investors. He added that the $13 billion figure cited by the government as the net losses suffered by account holders since 1995 was overstated, since at least $1 billion in recovered assets will be returned to investors. The judge said that was irrelevant to the case.
///
Regardless of Bernard Madoff fate, U.S. officials and Western media say that Mikhail Khodorkovsky prosecution its politically motivated, while Russian prosecutors describe it as 'purely criminal'. But the complex nature of the case is often overlooked.
It's not only about a power struggle or economic fraud. Prosecutors say they have disturbing information linking Yukos' top managers to several murders. These include the deaths of the mayor of Nefteyugansk, an oil-rich town in Siberia, the killing of a bodyguard, and the murder of a Moscow businesswoman.
Nevertheless, the Russophobes in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, etc
continue to think that U.S. should be deeply concerned about the imprisonment of the
former richest man in Russia. In order to get his release, they even call him a freedom fighter. They also cynically think that the matter of this former Russian oligarch been in prison is one U.S. should not ignore. In fact, they believe that this is a serious matter for US-Russia relations and they pressure the new American leader to speak up in order to influence the Russian President and the country's courts to end his legal trouble.
In the US, former CEOs have been appearing in courtrooms for decades. Madoff recently went to jail for 150 years with the applause from the US press and American public. However, Mikhail Khodorkovsky made a lot more money illegally. He is a far worse criminal in the Russian people's view than Madoff.
We accept that the excesses of the Clinton-Bush financial bubble included illegal activities. Why is it hard to believe that some of the men who got so rich in Russia's "privatizations" are not honest businessmen?
If the prosecution of Khodorkovsky is a matter of grave concern, then why does Ken Layne and Bernie Ebbers deserve to rot in jail?
Besides sucking out Russia's wealth in billions, Khodorkovsky broke the tacit agreement that the oligarchs would stay out of politics. With blood in this hands, Khodorkovsky was funding multiple parties (including the Communists) and probably aspired to become president himself. It is difficult to fault the Russian government for striking at this dangerous (to the state security) ambitions of the man with shameless greed and no respect to the laws of the land where he rose so high. Russian leaders may anger some in the West, but on this matter they are acting in a way that Andrew Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt would understand and approve. Both men knew that big money can corrupt politics and in Russia money does not get bigger than Khodorkovsky.
Khodorkovsky made many big mistakes. He stole a lot from the state without even trying to cover his obvious dislike of Russia. He worked assiduously to woo Western politicians and friends in Israel. He did nothing to earn the respect of his fellow Russians.
As the BBCs Richard Galpin writes, most ordinary Russians will not be bothered if Mikhail Khodorkovsky is locked away in a Siberian jail for many more years.
Indeed, there is little for Medvedev to gain by trying to find a way in the Russian legal system for the release of such a negative figure. The general public (in Russia and U.S.), themselves crippled by the financial crisis, has little sympathy for the plight of billionaire swindlers.
Loading...
1:04:54
Power (Vlast) by Cathryn Collins - full 1hrby HumanityWins2,493 views
Link to this comment:
Video Responses
All Comments (0)