“On February 2, during a hearing that will determine if he remains in prison for several years to come, opposition figure Alexey Navalny addressed the court, delivering a short speech in which he maintained his innocence and condemned Russia’s political and legal system for corruption and repression. Meduza publishes an English-language translation of Navalny’s courtroom remarks.”
Their translation of Alexey Navalny’s speech in court today:
I would like to begin by discussing the legal issue here, which seems to me to be paramount and a bit overlooked in this discussion. There are two people sitting right there and one of them is saying: let’s lock up Navalny because he showed up [to meet with his parole officers] on Mondays, not Thursdays. And the other says: let’s lock up Navalny because he didn’t show up immediately after coming out of his coma. But I would like everyone to remember that the essence of this trial is to lock me up over a case in which I was already exonerated — a case that’s already been recognized as fabricated.
If we look at the criminal statutes — your Honor, I hope you’ve already done this once or twice — we’ll see that the European Court of Human Rights is part [of the Russian justice system] and its decisions are binding. The Russian Federation halfway acknowledged this ruling and even paid me compensation here. Despite this, my brother spent 3.5 years in prison because of this same case. I spent an entire year under house arrest for this same case.
.
The explanation is one man’s hatred and fear — one man hiding in a bunker. I mortally offended him by surviving. I survived thanks to good people, thanks to pilots and doctors. And then I committed an even more serious offense: I didn’t run and hide. Then something truly terrifying happened: I participated in the investigation of my own poisoning, and we proved, in fact, that Putin, using Russia’s Federal Security Service, was responsible for this attempted murder. And that’s driving this thieving little man in his bunker out of his mind. He’s simply going insane as a result.
There’s no popularity ratings. No massive support. There’s none of that. Because it turns out that dealing with a political opponent who has no access to television and no political party merely requires trying to kill him with a chemical weapon. So, of course, he’s losing his mind over this. Because everyone was convinced that he’s just a bureaucrat who was accidentally appointed to his position. He’s never participated in any debates or campaigned in an election. Murder is the only way he knows how to fight. He’ll go down in history as nothing but a poisoner. We all remember Alexander the Liberator [Alexander II] and Yaroslav the Wise [Yaroslav I]. Well, now we’ll have Vladimir the Underpants Poisoner.
.
I’m standing here, guarded by the police, and the National Guard is out there with half of Moscow cordoned off. All this because that small man in a bunker is losing his mind. He’s losing his mind because we proved and demonstrated that he isn’t buried in geopolitics; he’s busy holding meetings where he decides how to steal politicians’ underpants and smear them with chemical weapons to try to kill them.
The main thing in this whole trial isn’t what happens to me. Locking me up isn’t difficult. What matters most is why this is happening. This is happening to intimidate large numbers of people. They’re imprisoning one person to frighten millions.
Such a brave and principled man. I’ll leave it to smarter people than me to say more than that.
*zhena gogolia asked if we could front-page this
Open Thread: It’s Okay If It Goes Wrong
zhena gogolia
Thank you, WaterGirl.
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
The police are being more violent than we’ve seen in previous protests.
zhena gogolia
And it should be noted — he was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison (he will serve 2.5 [assuming he isn’t murdered] because he already served one year in house arrest).
rikyrah
I am in awe of Mr. Navalny
zhena gogolia
zhena gogolia
I guess it’s just me and rikyrah!
John Revolta
Bless this guy, and God damn Vlad the Poisoner.
Millard Filmore
@zhena gogolia:
I am here also, but mostly watching Spacex SN9 blow up here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb8hB9OIwLY
zhena gogolia
leeleeFL
The courage of this man!
Orwell comes to mind here. “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
gwangung
@zhena gogolia:
The privilege of most white Americans is kinda apparent here (as well as in the reaction of the Q-crowd). The expectation in most parts of the world is that of jail cells at best, truncheons at worst.
Bill K
“Vlad the Underwear Poisoner” should be in the title.
cope
This well deserves to be front paged. It’s good to get some perspective from elsewhere in the world. Thank you.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: I cannot fathom being brave enough to go back after they tried to murder me.
I also can’t fathom being brave enough to protest in Russia. That older lady who was crying as they were arresting her last week – and then the man who basically said “take me instead” – it left me in tears.
How can people be this brave? And how can others treat people like this?
WaterGirl
@Bill K: Updated!
zhena gogolia
Amazing vid of protestors running away from police on Kuznetsky Most in Moscow.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
What, do the world leaders do nothing but watch internet porn all the time? I can’t recall a period of history were so many national leaders were this pervy.
Tenterhooks
Thanks for front-paging this. I am in awe of Mr. Navalny as well. Petty bureaucrat who accidentally fell into power is the perfect description of Putin.
schrodingers_cat
He is brave and so are the protesters protesting in Russia.
geg6
Been trying to comment for the last ten minutes. Apparently whatever was plaguing other jackals has now hit me. So I had to get the iPhone to comment.
Anyway, Navalny and the protesters in Russia are my heroes. So brave! I am in complete awe.
Mary G
I saw so many people protesting in below zero temperatures that I finally understand why Mr. Navalny went back to Russia. I thought it was nuts to return to the place where the guy in charge tried to kill you with a deadly neurotoxin, but I see that it was an act of heroic resistance that fired up millions of his country’s people to follow suit. Plus the opportunity for mocking. Putin is done and he knows it.
Dan B
How much speculation is there that Navalney will not do well in prison? Putin must be planning how long after this pseudo-trial will it be before the public has been subdued that Navalney will have an “accident” with a gang or a “health episode”. I wish for justice to be unsparing with Vlad, Modi, Orban, Trump, Mitch, and their hangers on.
SiubhanDuinne
Thank you, WG, for front-paging this (and thank you, ZG, for suggesting it be front-paged in the first place). I am in awe of
naval trainingNavalny.ETA: Fixed a stupid Autocorrect thing, which I left in so you all could see just how stupid it was.
debbie
I had to chuckle when I heard Navalny’s speech discussed on NPR this afternoon. I’d really like to see this evolve into a new nickname for Putin, namely the hero of a children’s books series, Captain Underpants.
zhena gogolia
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
And now I’ve chuckled a second time.
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne:
Naval training is very impressive!
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
This is why I don’t use underwear.
You can never be too safe.
zhena gogolia
Sorry, last one, I promise. This guy says a code word “Bryansk-Sever,” so they let him go. He must be undercover.
Sm*t Cl*de
Navalny is calling Putin a gnome.
Bill Arnold
@Dan B:
Νέμεσις (Nemesis)
(That’s a page from wikipedia history; a little more accurate.)
Or, more contemporary,
A Reckoning (clip from “Wyatt Earp”)
WaterGirl
@Dan B: Just think how Sergei Magnitsky was treated – beaten, mistreated, and finally beaten to death. I imagine that is what lies ahead for Navalny.
Ruckus
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Yes, yes you can.
NotMax
@David Merry Christmas Koch
In Russia, underwear uses you.
Bill Arnold
@Sm*t Cl*de:
Application of poison is the secret second step in the Underpants Gnomes’ plan. Revealed, through
gnomishlyclownishly bad OPSEC.geg6
I especially admire Navalny’s courage in using ridicule against Putin. Pisses him off more than anything, I bet.
debbie
@geg6:
Exactly. Mr. Barechested Macho Man becomes Foolish Child.
satby
@zhena gogolia: Glad you asked for this to be front paged. Americans can get pretty myopic about what goes on in the rest of the world. Alexey Navalny is a hero not just in Russia, but all over the world.
Fair Economist
It’s just boggling they’re imprisoning him for “violating parole” – by being flown to Germany when unconscious and on the verge of death.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
The cops were always so nice in those “Police Academy” films
Nora Lenderbee
I stole billions from the Russian people. Did they call me Vladimir the Billionaire? No. I put thousands of my enemies in jail. Did they call me Vlad the Jailer? No.
But poison one pair of underwear !
Tony Jay
A cowed and co-opted Media establishment bought and paid for by allies of the regime. A militarised security state operating outside the law and with zero accountability for crimes against civilians. A political class that serves at the pleasure of its donors and rubber-stamps whatever it’s given in return for the perks of office.
That’s the future the authoritarian nationalists of the Right have planned for every country they get their claws into. Russia is just further along the arc than the countries most of us live in, but all the pieces are in place waiting for someone suitably venal and ambitious to pick them up and dare anyone to stop them going for it.
No wonder people retreat to their bubbles. It takes some kind of moral fibre to do what Navalny is doing, knowing that most of his countrymen are just going to read about what a lying, treasonous POS he is regardless of what he actually says.
SiubhanDuinne
AFAIK, President Biden* hasn’t nominated an Ambassador to Russia yet (please correct me if he has and I’ve just missed it). It will be interesting to see his choice.
*I love typing “President Biden.”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
TMI
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: And you can trust Ruckus on that, he’s had naval training.
prostratedragon
@Mary G: Yes, the demonstrators have convinced me too that it wasn’t just glorious folly for Navalny to go back. May they ultimately get more democracy.
(And Bravo! Chef Alexy for that fine, exceedingly small dice: “Vladimir the Underwear Poisoner.”)
prostratedragon
@SiubhanDuinne: Re: your autocorrect, which is the best one I’ve seen, if the machines come to rule us anytime soon it will be because we deserve it.
burnspbesq
This is exactly what Trump would have done to LTC Vindman if he had the means and the balls.
WaterGirl
This is what love of country looks like.
Putin loves power.
Navalny loves is country, and he is willing to lay down his life for his country. His wife, also. I am in awe of their bravery.
Navalny is showing his country the difference.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I prefer navel training (photo)
MattF
Here is Navalny’s epic report on Putin’s mansion. Definitely worth watching, if you’ve got 90 minutes.
Mike in NC
This is exactly what Trump aspired to do here: steal everything not nailed down and lock up his critics. Trump was enough of a megalomaniac that he really thought he could be America’s Putin, a dictator for life who was above the law. At least half of elected Republicans were OK with it, too.
Lyrebird
@zhena gogolia: No, I just don’t type well when I’m crying.
I cannot imagine having .001 of this man’s courage.
Did you see the little clip from St. Petersburg of the riot police hitting their shields to be scary, and the crowd of people starts clapping along like it’s a rock concert?
Shana
@zhena gogolia: Nope, I’m in awe of his bravery too.
MattF
@Mike in NC: I’m guessing that Trump’s intel briefings told him that Putin is the richest man in the world. The briefers probably didn’t realize Trump concluded that, therefore, he had to take orders from Putin.
Roger Moore
@WaterGirl:
Teaching people to be brave is a key part of civil disobedience. As a white person, I tend to see civil disobedience from the standpoint of it showing oppressors how horrible their actions are, but there’s an important flip side. The protestors are showing themselves that they won’t be intimidated by the oppressor’s threats. If you know you can survive being beaten up and thrown in jail, then the oppressor will have a much harder time intimidating you with the threat of beating you up and throwing you in jail.
That intimidation is crucial to making the system work. There aren’t enough police and jail cells to beat up everyone and throw everyone in jail. If enough people can stand the amount of intimidation the government is willing to deal out, it can’t win that way. It either needs to raise the threat or fold.
Joe Falco
@debbie: I nominate Putin being calling the “Underwear Gnome” considering Navalny kept referring Putin as a small man.
MomSense
@NotMax:
HA!!
i’m rooting for the protesters. They are heroes, though I fear Russia has gone too far into dictatorship to get out.
Old Man Shadow
I hope the people of Russia arrange for a meeting very soon between Putin and the hangman and finally get a chance to live without a tyrant or tyrants living over them.
zhena gogolia
@Tony Jay:
Yes! Exactly!
zhena gogolia
@burnspbesq:
This was my nightmare of a second Trump term.
zhena gogolia
@Lyrebird:
Yes. There are so many amazing videos.
debbie
@MattF:
Colbert showed some of the report on Putin’s palace. Halfway through (he told us after the fact), he switched to interiors of Trump’s residence* and you couldn’t tell the difference. Both interiors were tacky and over-gilded.
* NYC, I assume.
zhena gogolia
@MattF:
Trump didn’t need intel briefings to know about Putin’s wealth.
neldob
What base cowards so many of the Republican representatives are. That they can’t even say what they know is the truth because they might get a primary contest. Republicans; the party of craven, abhorrent liars. Navalny for Time magazine cover and Nobel prize. I admire his courage and will try to be more courageous myself. Some human beings are just amazing.
gbbalto
@Nora Lenderbee: Well played!
MoCA Ace
Unfortunately Vlad The Underpants Poisoner did not approve of Gorbachev’s “folding” and what it did to Mother Russia. I predict raising the threat, again and again… until such time as one of his oligarchs gets squeamish about the bodies piling up and decides to intervene. The we will see if Vlad get his own underpants in a bundle. So to speak.
Subsole
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Baud 20XX: Ahead of the Curve, yet again.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
OT – If I were on the British Baking Show, I’d have to make at least one pudding covered with a savory meat based dish, and call it “The Wall”. When asked about it, I’d say “how can ya have any pudding if ya don’t eat yer meat?”
MattF
@zhena gogolia: I guess not. Pretty clear, though, that Trump regards Putin as the Big Boss.
Dan B
@Mike in NC: My partner was all excited this afternoon that some author on Thom Hartman (?) had a book on Trump being a full KGB agent. I can believe he’s been recruited since his first visit in the 80’s (no source). There are so many coincidences. The loans from Russia and very likely money laundering through NYC real estate. But I doubt that the KGB / FSB would tolerate such an undisciplined loose cannon.
schrodingers_cat
@Roger Moore: Gandhi called his non-violent protest Satyagraha, combining Satya (Truth) and agraha (insistence)
Insistence of the truth is indeed a powerful weapon
Unfortunately the ideological progeny of those who killed Gandhi and collaborated with the British rulers rule India now.
The farmers who protesting against BJP are equally brave. They are getting little to no coverage here
Rihanna amplified the protests with her tweet.
Roger Moore
@MoCA Ace:
IIRC, Putin has said he plans to retire in the reasonably near future. I’m not sure I believe him. It’s rare and difficult for anyone with as many bodies on his ledger as Putin to retire successfully.
MoCA Ace
@MoCA Ace:
I suppose the least bloody way out is for other nations to apply enough economic pressure that the oligarchs reign in VTUP and/or see that he falls out of a high window. Either way I fear Mr. Navalny’s future is to be a martyr for the cause.
MattF
@Dan B: I’d imagine that Trump would fail the KGB psychological screening. Badly.
schrodingers_cat
@Dan B: He is likely an asset not an agent.
zhena gogolia
@MattF:
Oh, yes. He wanted to emulate him. This is what terrified me all through his term.
WaterGirl
@Dan B: I saw something in the past few days that declared that Trump has been a Russian asset. I forget the details, but someone describing what one of the Russian assets had done, and it was clearly something that Trump had done. The details escape me.
Wouldn’t surprise me one bit, though
Trump is a weak, weak man.
Bill Arnold
A few days old, but relevant. (The article doesn’t say that underpants were involved in the other cases. And apologies if already linked.)
Navalny Poison Squad Implicated in Murders of Three Russian Activists (Bellingcat, January 27, 2021)
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
It’s a book by Craig Unger. I don’t think there’s anything new in it, just a synthesis of a lot of known stuff. He has some former KGB agents affirming it, but I don’t think they have direct knowledge.
MisterForkbeard
@SiubhanDuinne: I propose that Biden nominate an angry badger as our ambassador.
Subsole
@Dan B: Loose cannons are very good at damaging their own ship and killing its crew.
Also, there’s nothing more dependable than a man whose soul is for sale to the highest bidder.
I mean, really. Half of what made the last 4 years so unbelievable was the number of people shocked at the guy turning out to be what we knew he was from the jump. Not apalled, shocked.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I can also imagine Russian intelligence being quite happy to exaggerate trump’s relationship to KGB and its successor in order to sow more confusion, and discredit reports of the real relationship. I’ve seen speculation this happened with the Steele dossier.
Bill Arnold
@Bill Arnold:
Yeah, all three cases were “heart failure”; with two of them injection points were found in inspection of the bodies.
There are a few ways to stop hearts that look like natural causes; that the FSB would stoop to poison suggests incompetence (perhaps plus absolute confidence in impunity), confirmed by how they keep getting p0wned by bellingcat and others.
Faithful Lurker
@zhena gogolia: I’m reading Unger’s book now. He has direct evidence that Trump is a Russian tool, what they call a useful idiot, not an agent. The chapter that I found absolutely astounding was the account of Opus Dei, Stephan Hanson, the FBI agent turned traitor, and William Barr. It’s a well written book.
J R in WV
@MattF:
No way. Trump was owned and operated by Russian intelligence from sometime around 1987. They took ownership of his balls back then, and controlled him and his family/organization until this day.
debbie
@J R in WV:
The casino opened in 1984, so I assume the shenanigans began a few years before that.
Geoduck
Yeah, the Shaitgibbon is a useful Russian asset, but an active recruited agent? No, because he doesn’t need to be, and he’s so erratic, undisciplined and unpredictable.
MattF
@J R in WV: I’d agree that Trump would have been an easy and obvious KGB target and probably was.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
and my mind literally can’t conceive of anyone easier to manipulate? “if someone says nice things about me, I’m going to be nice to them”
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Baud
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
?
zhena gogolia
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Yay!
Poe Larity
This is known. What is not known are Russian ties to Boebert, Greene and McCarthy. It would be irresponsible to not speculate.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
frosty
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I see what you did there. Nice!
ziggy
In case this hasn’t been linked yet, here’s the documentary he recently produced about Putin, that is fueling a lot of the unrest–it is amazing! Obviously an incredible amount of work and passion went into it. I haven’t finished it yet, it’s 2 hours, with english subtitles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipAnwilMncI&feature=emb_logo
WaterGirl
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: After they fucked around with him first. Playing games while the country is burning.
Dan B
@schrodingers_cat: Yep. That’s one of the reasons I don’t listen to Thom Hartman. I love his knowledge of history and half of his vision but the other half: relentless “sky is falling” combined with “new conspiracy of the day@” gives my blood pressure fits. I can’t speak to my partner when the GOD Hartman is on, but at least he wears headphones.
Jeffro
*coughjustwaitingtotalkabout thefullBidenHarris CovidpackagethatDemsjustpassed with50votes*
*coughorthefactthattheSenate STILLdoesn’thave anorganizingresolution
Dan B
@MisterForkbeard: How about Godzilla and King Kong visit a big fancy house on the Black Sea? Better TV and you could save boatloads on diplomats if the director promises sequels at the next few bad-boy Russian plutocrats houses. Heck, even vacation homes would likely get Mrs. R. Plutocrats to light some fires under these boys.
The Pale Scot
@debbie:
“The Underpants Czar”
Translate please Zhen
Add: Drench it with diminutives
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jeffro: Might want get that cough checked out, could be the ‘rona. ?
trollhattan
Man oh man, Adam better be wrong about MTG becoming the Republican nominee. She needs to be dwelling alone in an Airstream on an iceberg.
Been in office what, a month? and I’m out of can’t evens.
WaterGirl
@Jeffro: What?????
Mike in NC
I’m currently reading a book by Malcolm Nance from 2019 — “The Plot to Betray America: How Team Trump Embraced Our Enemies, Compromised Our Security, and How We Can Fix It”. He’s written extensively on the Trump-Putin bromance and appears regularly on MSNBC.
West of the Rockies
@trollhattan:
Someone said earlier that MTG should
be played by Charlize Theron. I’m thinking
more like present-day Sally Struthers.
dexwood
@West of the Rockies:
Former SNL cast member Victoria Jackson. Right-wing nut, though, I’d hate to see her well-paid for the role.
MattF
@WaterGirl: Yup. 50-49.
Kelly
OT: NYT has Presidential precinct level voting data. Oregon’s islands of blue won the state. Mostly urban but a few rural blue precincts notably the Warm Springs Reservation. My precinct in the rural Cascade foothills 71% Trump, 27% Biden, about what I expected.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/upshot/2020-election-map.html?referringSource=articleShare
WaterGirl
@MattF: What are you guys talking about?
The Pale Scot
@MoCA Ace:
The West is responsible for what happened in Russia after Gorbachev. The US gov treated Russia as an emerging enemy. Critically the US did nothing to stop a crowd of college libertarians funded by think tanks to show up and yammer on about “privatization”. Privatization without a functioning judicial system is theft. Any chance of Russia transitioning to a private property economy was trashed by libertarian fuckheads operating under the cover of the GOP campaign against Clinton. The Clinton Administration just didn’t have the bandwidth to deal with Randian music men rampaging thru Russia. The first real opportunity to help Russians cast off their history of Czarist oppression was squandered.
Baud
@Jeffro:
Is that really worth breaking the site over?
WaterGirl
@MattF: I try to never put up 2 posts in a row, but a new post would be nice!
MattF
@WaterGirl: This.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Is it better now?
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: There is a first time for everything. Do it. Pretty please with a cherry on top. Thanks.
WaterGirl
@MattF:
WaterGirl
@WaterGirl: I just saw that Durbin said they hadn’t whipped votes, but that they “had a good feeling” so they went with it.
Not one Republican.
What would have happened if the vote had been 49-50? Could they have tried again?
schrodingers_cat
Snuggly kittehs make everything better.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
?
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: KH was around to cast the tie-breaking vote, I think. Toomey didn’t vote. Not 100% sure but remember reading it when I did a quick check of my Twitter feed.
Mike in NC
@The Pale Scot: The Clinton administration simply didn’t have a lot of interest in what was happening in Russia under Yeltsin. Then the Bush administration basically didn’t care at all.
Jeffro
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I keep trying to follow the rules, I do…
japa21
@schrodingers_cat: If it had been 49-50 Harris wouldn’t have been involved.
WaterGirl
@Jeffro: The category does say Open Thread. :-)
zhena gogolia
@The Pale Scot:
In Russian Navalny said “Vladimir Otravitel’ Trusov.” It’s hilarious in Russian — no need for any embellishment.
Brachiator
@The Pale Scot:
The Russians were big boys and girls. No one forced them to obey libertarian weasels.
The Pale Scot
@zhena gogolia:
Thank you
The Pale Scot
@Brachiator:
Russia was moving out of centuries of domestic maskerova. Only a tiny slice of the population had been exposed to non-government run news, or had exposure to western media. The ones that did were the KGB and other parts of the state apparatus. That is a very dismissive FUIGM type of statement
Steeplejack (phone)
Sebastian
@J R in WV:
They didn’t take his balls. They started flattering him. Told him he is the greatest, he should go into politics.
A few days after his return to NYC he took whole page ads ranting against NATO etc
Brachiator
@The Pale Scot:
Hmmm. No.
There were people and groups in Russia who had no interest in establishing a democracy. They were able to ignore what they did not want to hear.
Not too long ago, I listened to a historian of the region talk about how in Ukraine (the Ukraine?) and elsewhere former party officials seized and privatized government assets. So who got there first established ownership and control. Not a fair system of transforming the country into anything reasonably fair or honest.
Did the UN or any Western agency offer help in transforming the former Soviet economy? Did Gorbachev or his successors ask for assistance? Was nationalistic pride at play? I would really like to know.
I have watched nations do all kinds of stupid, self-destructive things. Even the US. The UK is tumbling into an economic wreck because of BREXIT, and they are doing it all by themselves.
The Russian elite has had a long historical chip on their shoulder with respect to dealing with the rest of Europe. I suspect that there are a number of factors behind their social and governmental problems, not just the efforts of libertarian cowboys.
zhena gogolia
@Brachiator:
The Yeltsin government took a lot of advice from Jeffrey Sachs et al. They gave the economy “shock treatment,” which was a nice theory but disastrous for the country.
The Pale Scot
@Brachiator:
FFS, that was my point. The western govs treated Eastern bloc as mortal enemies having a bad day. The only “advice” was offered by RAND and CPAC fuckheads yammering about total instant privatization NOW. Of course the sliver of apparatchiks with real world experience were going to run the board. The West dropped the chance to oh say, avoid having a nuclear armed mobster warlord oil pumping regime manipulating their governments. But who knows, maybe this is the best possible outcome and I’m just a raving idealist
The Pale Scot
@zhena gogolia:
Yes. I spent Saturdays in the library reading magazines that covered this in detail. Much of that didn’t get transferred to the Internet so all I have are memories. Of me saying Fuck! These idiots. Libertarian BS was the justification for all that shit. No rational Fin/Eco players spent a moment of interest
RaflW
@MattF: Apparently Putin had to put out a statement that a good friend of his owns the estate. Which of course just draws more attention to the lavish private compound and the cozy network of insiders who get to horde all the stolen money.
In effect, Putin owns the estate even if his name isn’t technically on the title (or however Russian oligarchs and autocrats claim ‘ownership’ besides just having all the armed guards).