Don't have any idea where you're getting your info, but this is what I know: Immediately following the break-up of the Soviet Union, the West and Japan pitched in together to give Russia under Boris Yeltsin some $200 billion in "re-construction" aid. Three years later, when those countries asked Mr. Yeltsin what had become of the money, he could barely account for $30 billion, most of it invested in re-building Moscow and creating partnership enterprises (McDonalds and Hilton Hotel franchises, and the like). The rest of the money simply disappeared. Yeltsin was incapable of keeping track of the money and it was all spirited away by the Russian mob, under a plethora of shell companies and phony investments. It ended up in the private bank accounts of about 8 individuals, most of it in Swiss, Bahamian, and Cayman Island accounts. Eight people ended up with $170 billion, and Russia was little better off than when they had asked for the considerable sum.

Very understandably the Western countries and Japan were put off by this outright theft, and declined any further cash assistance. Then, on top of that, when several Western company execs were murdered, some in broad daylight in downtown Moscow and St. Petersburg, the Western companies' interest in investing in Russia was almost completely extinguished.

Then, there is the sudden confiscation and "nationalization" of the oil drilling and refining operations by Shell and BP in eastern Siberia, four years ago. Also, we can talk about Mikhail Kodorovsky, private businessman and owner of Yukos Oil, who didn't want to fall under Putin's thumb. He only got arrested, sits rotting in jail, and had his entire business confiscated and turned over to Putin associates.



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"All that is required for evil to triumph is for good to do nothing."

wait, who's babbling? oh, that would be you... about unlinked, unsupported bullshyt that is irrelevant to my point.... what a surprise...

i'm somehow "making stuff up?"... why don't you educate yourself a bit by actually using "The Google" and read The Cox Report, a Congressional investigation in 2000... here, i'll help you out:
http://www.fas.org/news/russia/2000/...rt00-cover.htm
oh, wait... what's that? Congress was making stuff up and i'm just repeating it?

ludicrous? yeah, you keep telling yourself that... heck, here's your chance to add ammunition to your anti-Clinton tirades, and yet you are claiming outrage that it's even mentioned... you're so wrapped up in Soviet hatred, you can't even see the forest for the trees...

two important things happened after the collapse of the Soviet Union in Dec. of 91... first, the U.S. undertook a massive effort to 'help' the former Soviet Union make a 'succesful transition' to capitalism... second, the major oil companies (including Condi's Chevron) swooped in to establish joint ventures in the newly independent, oil-rich Central Asian republics -- the Stans... both were intended to swindle massive amounts of wealth from the region... these seeds were planted by Bush 41, and expanded by Clinton/Gore.... the country was then "systematically looted, it's economy destroyed, it's currency ruined, its population rendered desperate, and it's ability to support a world-class military establishment smashed." ... when geologists realized the Caspian basin contained far less oil than they originally thought, OPEC overproduced, lowered prices for a time, and made Russian oil exports couldn't compete... can you say starvation?... i bet you liked that for those despised "commies", huh holyman?

the Rape of Russia

further, here's a bit of testimony to Congress by journalist (Wall Street Journal) Anne Williamson for the Cox Report:

"The CIA has determined that through Nordex, FPI [the International
Foundation for Privatization and Private Investment] seized the
export earnings from Russia’s natural resource companies — oil, gas,
platinum, gold, diamonds — and from industrial firms exporting
items such as steel and aluminum, and then stashed the hefty profits
in Western bank accounts. And only now, eight years almost to the
day later, do US taxpayers learn that the ‘eager, young reformers’ to
whom their resources were sent for the purpose of building a new
Russia were in league from day one with the exhausted Soviet nomenklatura
in a scheme to loot Russia’s wealth and park it in the West...

Directors stashed profits abroad, withheld employees’ wages, and
after cash famine set in, used those wages, confiscated profits and state
subsidies to ‘buy’ the workers’ shares from them. The really good stuff
— oil companies, metals plants, telecoms — was distributed to essentially
seven individuals, ‘the oligarchs,’ on insider auctions whose
results were agreed beforehand. Once effective control was established,
directors — uncertain themselves of the durability of their
claim to the newly acquired property — chose to asset strip with
impunity instead of developing their new holdings.

More from the Congressional investigation, the Cox Report:

The culmination of the Clinton administration’s fatally flawed macroeconomic
policy for Russia occurred in August 1998, when Russia’s
default on its debts and devaluation of the ruble led to the nation’s
total economic collapse. By all measurements, the disaster was worse
than America’s crash of 1929.

The disaster that began on August 17, 1998, spread immediately
throughout Russia. Millions of ordinary men and women who had
deposited their money in Russian banks lost everything. ATM and
debit cards ceased to work. Dozens of banks became insolvent and
disappeared. Angry depositors besieged Russian banks, only to learn
they had been wiped out.

Millions of senior citizens, whose meager pension income had
been suspended for months, were cut off completely. When the dust
finally settled in March 1999, the ruble — and with it, every Russian’s
life savings — had lost fully 75 percent of its value.

The devastation of Russia’s economy was worse than what America
experienced in the Great Depression. By 1932, the US gross national
product had been cut by almost one-third. But within just six months
of the 1998 crash, Russia’s economy, measured in dollars, had fallen
by more than two-thirds. From $422 billion in 1997 [the year when
The Grand Chessboard was published], Russia’s gross domestic product
fell to only $132 billion by the end of 1998.

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"They have redefined General news."

You have just proven the entire point I made. You want to take credit for posting the report?? Fine. Doesn't matter to me. But my original point remains: the U.S. taxpayer fronted some $50 billion, along with another $150 billion from other Western nations, to bail out/rebuild Russia. The money given was essentially stolen by a small group of organized criminals, call them what you will. Some were undoubtedly American citizens, but they were no doubt "inspired" by the "old Soviet nomenklatura" you cite above. You're proving my point precisely: the money was originally GIVEN to Russia by the West, but then systematically looted by criminal elements, primarily crime bosses following time-honored Sicilian mafia techniques. As a tax-payer one should be outraged, and that's why the West stopped sending over money for investment. Putin, as a key KGB (now called the "FSB") figure on the rise, knew all about it; that's what they do, tap phones, skim email, scan cell phone calls; they know everything, probably what you had for breakfast, since you're so talkative.

Me, with "Soviet hatred"??? Hate the sin, love the sinner. I've been/still travel to Russia, now some 35 times since 1991. How many times for you???

You are, as usual, blaming the wrong people. It wasn't Bush41 or even Clinton -- and, you're right, I'd not be shy about hanging this on Bill of Blue Dress IF it were true; but it's not. This was Putin's crew, all the way. It's what they do.

I suppose it was W who fed that Russian guy in London his plutonium Earl Grey??? Or who put Kodorovsky into a Russian prison?? Or who whacked those Hilton execs??? Or who hit those woman Duma members and newspaper writers??? The message is simple: cross the big bosses and you're history. It's how they do things in a country that stretches eleven time zones. But you, in your blind hatred of all things American, are searching the drain-pipes for eagles. "Mother Jones" and "Spy" magazine, indeed. You left out Walter Duranty and John Reed. Get a life.

You must have had a severely disturbed childhood. I truly pity you.


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"All that is required for evil to triumph is for good to do nothing."

interesting that you softened your post from the unnecessary antagonization that you offered... unfortunately, a bit too late, as i already capsulized your original quote...

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No problem, I'll play the way you want. Tackle or flag, doesn't matter to me.



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"All that is required for evil to triumph is for good to do nothing."

i just proved that Congress came to the conclusion that Clinton policy in rebuilding that Russian economy was deeply flawed, and American corporations cashed in... if that was the point you were trying to make, then yes i guess i did...

my god... wtf are you talking about?


again, did you even read the exerpts presented? did you bother to skim the Cox Report at all before blathering at the keyboard? "the FPI seized the export earnings... and then stashed the hefty profits in Western bank accounts." ... you can go on and on about U.S. tax payer investment, and mafiocracy tactics over there, but the fact remains that American corporations bilked the money out, in a scheme for which Enron, WorldCom, Tyco and Halliburton would be proud... that's documented...

that tells me nothing... all i can go by is your incessant habit of posting negative former Soviet Union sentiment at every turn... we won the Cold War by sabotaging their economy, and luring them into Afghanistan.... the evidence is everywhere...

i guess Congress had it wrong then... stupid Cox Report... Fog knows better, and should have testified...

what in Gawd's name are you going on about? now you're officially making things up that i never said or insinuated... is it fun for you? loser...

lol... ah yes... the third-down punt again to "you hate America"... what a sad, limited poster you've exposed yourself to be...

is this the part you'll be editing out in a few minutes when you realize it does nothing for your argument, and reveals you to be a nasty, personal-attacking hypocrite?

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well, as usual, you started shyt.... realized you were starting shyt, softened your message, then when you were dealt with, devolved back to running your mouth on a personal level.... fact is, you can't hide who you really are...

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Yes and all this under the disguise of religious extremism, my point exactly.. religious extremism, and their pious platitudes is the root of most of our world problems right now.

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"The game of football is fun when you win, when you lose it becomes a business"...Junior Seau

I think that Time should stick to its guns and continue to call the most news worthy person the 'Person of the Year.'

However Just to keep the neo-cons happy they should Photochop either a black or white cowboy hat onto the photo of each year's selection just so its crystal clear that this is a 'good' person of the year or a 'bad' one. Sure if they had named Osama in 2001 there would have been a Republican uproar; but slap a black cowboy hat on Osama and they'd have been ok.

The report concludes that there was massive theft of the taxpayer money invested in Russia. You say it was done by Americans; I say it was done primarily by the Russian mafia/ KGB agents, who are basically one and the same.

Have you ever been to Russia, or do you just like to cherry pick your foul tidbits about the place/people there and work them into yet another of your anti-estblishment rants??? It's OK, we all know the answer, 0.0001%er. You are ALONE, PC, all ALONE. Now that Molly Ivens is gone.

How convenient of you not to get it! And so typical. If the PressBoy can't be *the* "right one", nobody can be. Your style is well-documented, and I'm not the only one who has seen it. It's ALWAYS ONLY YOU who is right; everybody else is a "steaming pile, a liar, a stool, turd, clown, shrill hysteric," or something equally offensive. Constantly. It's what you do.

News flash, o stayer in Boston and America all your privileged life: Western bank accounts are the usual destination for stolen money taken from overseas, but the Caymans and Bahama, along with the good ol' standard, Switzerland, are top favs also. Where else are the criminals going to put their stolen swag?? In banks of countries controlled by other criminals?? Duh???

You wouldn't appreciate it if I told you more, so why bother. Your assertion about the "we" winning the Cold War "by sabotaging their economy, and luring them into Afghanistan" -- as if it would have been a "bad thing" even if true -- says it all about you, PressCoverage: you truly do come off as hating everything about America, and you truly do appear as loving anything that destroys America. You act like it's always only "OTHERS" whose sh!t stinks; you, so high and mighty, sh!t nothing but daffodils and thornless roses. You're in for a surprise, young man.

Would have been a step in the right direction. You have not the first clue as to how much of the world's economy is controlled by organized crime syndicates. Now stands at about 20%, by the most conservative estimate, or up to 40% depending on how one considers the Chinese system, which certainly ain't "free market". Connect the dots, if you have the guts. So easy for you to blame it all on those "evil American corporations, like Enron", but let me ask you: who arrests the mafia chiefs who control the drugs, prostitution, pornography, and other cancers in the world's societies???? That's right: nobody. Because they are all invisible.

And here I thought you actually followed the news. Seems your "press" cover is officially blown for good if you don't know about these things I just mentioned. Do your own research, I'm too busy.

Well, PC, you certainly seem to hate the America that affords YOU the luxury of going on your incessant daily rants about what is wrong with her. You punted your American identity long ago, it seems. John Reed and Walter Duranty have a nice spot waiting for you; it smells real bad and is cold as Antarctica in winter, but you'll be among your kind.


Actually, I thought I'd give you a taste of what you always give to others, like to Harry and PatsFan13, but they're both big boys; they'll deal with you.

Nasty? Personal-attacking? Hypocrite? Now here, you've finally found the category where you do excel, and by a noticeable margin. Even NEM, with whom I share virtually zero political affinity, has a heart, and is not afraid to show it; so how can anyone dislike him?? Patters, who espouses views in almost diametrical opposition to what I stand for, demonstrates human compassion. But you are the one poster here who comes off as the caricature of your avatar, a smirky, self-obsessed, self-appointed vigilante, your heart buried somewhere that no one is allowed to see.

C'mon, dude. Relax. We're all in this together. We can solve this crisis, we MUST solve this crisis. But it will never be done by climbing over the fallen bodies of others, but rather only by lifting up ourselves and those around us to be what we were created to be.


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"All that is required for evil to triumph is for good to do nothing."