Ukraine - The Babchenko Hoax Was Part Of A Corporate Raid
The case of the death and resurrection of the Russian journalist Babchenko in Kiev is even more surreal than it seemed so far. According to Ukrainian sources and court documents the whole hoax was part of an attempt to raid and take over a private company.
Babchenko himself and the man who was hired to "kill" him had cooperated with the main branch of the Ukrainian national security service (SBU). The "operator", who is accused of having hired the "killer" for Russia, appeared in court. He claimed to have cooperated with the Ukrainian counter intelligence agency, which is side branch of the national security service. The accused "operator" is an executive of a private joint venture and has been under pressure over claims against his company. There are indications that the whole stunt may have been staged to get him "out of the way" to then take over the company he leads.
The suggestion is that high levels of the Ukrainian security services staged the whole affair not only to blame Russia but also for someone's personal gain.
In 2017 Arkady Babchenko, despised in Russia for his open hostility against its people, came via Israel to the Ukraine. He was welcome in Kiev for his anti-Russian position. Babchenko found a job with ATR, a Crimean Tatar TV station. The fine-print on the ATR website says that it "was supported by the Media Development Fund of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine".
On May 29 the Ukrainian government claimed that Babchenko had been assassinated. As usual the death of a journalist hostile to Russia was used by NATO aligned media to blame Russia, the Kremlin and Putin. That there was zero evidence that Russia was involved did not matter at all. A photo of the allegedly killed Babchenko laying in his blood emerged.
Crisis actor Arkady Babchenko - bigger
The very next day the General Prosecutor of the Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko and the head of the National Security Service (SBU) Vasyl Grytsak (also written as Hrytsak) held a press conference and presented a very alive and happy Arkady Babchenko. He had not been shot at all. The whole hoax, it was explained, was launched to find the people behind an alleged assassination campaign originating in Russia. In this official version the Russians hired some Ukrainian "operator" who then hired the "killer" to assassinate Babchenko. The hired killer told the police about it and the hoax of Babchenko's death was staged to find the culprits behind the plot.
All those western "journalists" who had believed Ukrainian government claims without any evidence and wrote unfounded accusations against Russia were not amused. The Ukrainian government exposed them as the mere propaganda tools and fools they are. The "journalist" Babchenko himself, interviewed by Bloomberg's Leonid Bershidsky, comes off as a naive and rather dim light.
Yesterday the "hired killer", one Alexey Tsymbalyuk, went public. He is a Ukrainian nationalist who had fought against the the Russia supported entities in eastern Ukraine. He has since become an orthodox priest.
bigger
via Alec Luhn - bigger
Would an operator for Russia hire an Ukrainian nationalist and priest who had fought Russian aligned entities in east-Ukraine to kill a well known anti-Russian figure? Hmmm.
The SBU did not confirm that Alexey Tsymbalyuk is the "killer" but Ukrainian media seem to believe him.
The General Prosecutor of the Ukraine named one Boris German (also written Herman) as the Russian paid "operator" who had hired Alexey Tsymbalyuk to kill Arkady Babchenko.
Boris German denies that he worked for Russia.
According to Strana.ua (Russian, machine translation), Jewgenij Solodko, the attorney of the accused "operator" Boris German, rejects the accusations against his client. Boris German (the man) is co-owner of a Ukrainian joint venture with the German (the country) company Schmeisser (also written Schmyser or Shmyser) which produces optics for sniper rifles. German's company had good relations with his customers at the Ukrainian defense ministry. He had also supported the "anti-terror-operations" of Ukrainian nazi formations against the "Russian's" in the east.
The attorney says that over the last six months German's apartment and company had been searched several times by the SBU. The SBU, he alleges, shook German down for some $70,000. The SBU, he writes, had not presented any evidence of any Russian involvement. The attorney denies that his client had any connection with Russians.
Meduza's report on German's court appearance presents a slightly different version:
The man charged with trying to organize the murder of the Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko announced in court on Thursday that he was acting as a Ukrainian counterintelligence agent.German says he started cooperating with Ukrainian counterintelligence after he was approached by an “old acquaintance” living in Moscow who “works at a Putin foundation, organizing unrest in Ukraine.” German says he was told to learn more about the flow of Russian money into Ukraine funding certain politicians and “terrorist groups.”
According to reports in the Ukrainian media, German said his acquaintance in Russia is named either Vyacheslav Pivovarkin or Vyacheslav Pivovarnik. It’s still unclear if German accuses this person of ordering Babchenko’s murder.
It is curious that the attorney of Boris German makes claims which are partly contradicting by those made by his client.
The killing, the killer and the operator who hired the killer were all fakes. Arkady Babchenko, Alexey Tsymbalyuk and Boris German all worked with this or that branch of the Ukrainian security service. All seem to have anti-Russian credentials.
But wait, the mess is even deeper.
In our piece yesterday we laid out how the Ukrainian plot and other recent incidents were arranged to discredit Russia just in time for the start of the soccer World Cup in Russia. It turns out that this was only one aspect of the hapless plot.
Bloomberg writer Leonid Bershidsky points to a piece by one Volodymyr Boiko, a "parachuting instructor in Kiev", who describes (in Ukrainian) an even darker level of the story.
Boiko quotes from official Ukrainian court reports giving their case numbers and dates. He starts (machine translated):
Just do not laugh. The imitation of the "murder" of Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, which caused such anger in international diplomatic and human rights circles, was a way to resolve the corporate dispute between the founders of the Ukrainian-German joint venture "Schmayser", whose head Boris Herman, SBU head Grytsak and the Prosecutor General Lutsenko was declared the customer of murder and terrorist, acting on the tasks of Russian special services.
The court papers show that the whole affair started in February 2016 and was about an attempt to take over a company. Since 2016 German, the executive director of the company, was fighting off creditors including the founder of the company. These creditors alleged that German or the company he led, had not paid back some loans they had made and demanded to take over the company to cover their losses. German provided that the loans had been repaid and produced receipts. The creditors alleged that the receipts were counterfeit. Several cases and many motions were filed and the whole court case ran for nearly two years. German seems to have won it.
Such attempt to take over a company via fraudulent court claims have been a distinct feature of the "wild east" after the Soviet Union broke apart. In Russia, in the Ukraine and elsewhere fraudulent legal cases, physical raids, intimidation and murder were and are regular means to grab industrial assets. As such the German case is nothing remarkable. But its further development into an absurd hoax makes it special.
As their attempt to raid German's company through a court campaign over minor loans failed, the raiders, with SBU chief Grytsak seemingly behind them, thought out a different way to go after German. Hence the Babchenko hoax and the allegations that he was an "operator" for Russia.
Volodymyr Boiko continues (machine translated):
But "getting" Herman through the police his opponents could not, because judges consistently refused to choose a precautionary measure because of the insignificance of the crime. And then the order was taken by the Department of Counterintelligence of the SBU. Apparently, it is a primitive provocation directed at the arrest of the head of the joint venture "Schmyser" in order to take away the share of the authorized capital of the enterprise, which he, according to the opponents, owns unlawfully.
The story Boiko tells is consistent with the claims German's attorney made about long ongoing SBU raids of German's apartment and company. The court paper Boiko cites seem valid. It likely is a real part of the Babchenko story, but it may still not be the whole truth.
The staged murder, with a fake cadaver, a fake killer and a fake operator behind it, was endorsed (video) at the highest levels of the Ukrainian government.
"Western" media used the hoax to accuse and defame Russia and its president Putin without the slightest supporting evidence. That alone is already a serious mess and reveals the utter failure of "western" journalism and media.
The background of the case, a takeover of a company by illegal means, demonstrates the total social failure of the "western" coup in Ukraine. The worst of the worst, robber barons like Poroschenko and criminal bankers like Kolomoisky went on to steal billions of "western" aid while the Ukrainian state fell apart. Defying the courts the power of the state is secretly abused for slapstick worthy plots to grab up industrial assets.
The victims are the people of Ukraine who get robbed of their means and their security. Russia, the permanent boogeyman of the "west", is least to blame for it.
Posted by b on June 1, 2018 at 16:33 UTC | Permalink
funny how the US/UK-established vassal puppet regime in ukraine closely resembles the ones in africa and south america. i guess you can export sociopathic ayn rand thinking anywhere and have it turn out roughly the same.
good work. it's always fun to be reminded what actual journalism looks like.
Posted by: the pair | Jun 1 2018 17:46 utc | 2
thanks b... that is pretty impressive how insane and whacked out all of these ukrainian nationals are, not to mention how they have succeeded in providing another example of how the msm at present is a real joke... i am sure the reporters are not impressed though.. the fact this story is as convoluted as it is tells me how messed up ukraine and the west are at this point.. all there attempts to smear and frame russia are looking very unstable at this point.. add this to the pile of bs that includes the white helmets, syrian defense, moderate headchoppers, and etc. etc.. i think the point is already passed where ordinary people don't trust the media as they might have in the past.. this story helps in that regard..
Posted by: james | Jun 1 2018 17:49 utc | 3
It is also possible that the Russian intelligence have cynically organized the fake murder affair with the aim of ridiculing and discrediting the western media and the western intelligence and their impatient leaders.
It could be Russia's revenge on the Skripal affair.
Posted by: Virgile | Jun 1 2018 18:20 utc | 5
The EU should get serious about admitting Ukraine to the club. It would mean much less paperwork for lonely European bachelors and there would be an immediate boom in the camouflage clothing and partially used military equipment business.
If only Poland could be a bit more reasonable about Galicia.
Posted by: dh | Jun 1 2018 18:21 utc | 6
Am a bit confused. Was it Boris Herman the German who headed the joint venture who is referred to as 'German' in the following text? His fellow victims being SBU head Grytsak and the Prosecutor General Lutsenko? The bad guys being unnamed creditors..?
Posted by: mbur | Jun 1 2018 18:49 utc | 7
Some insignificant imperfections:
line 5: ... As usual the death of a journalist hostile to Russia ...
line 27: ... the German (the country) company Schmeisser ...
line 45: ... was only one aspect ...
Other than that, another fine piece of investigative reporting!
Posted by: xor | Jun 1 2018 18:51 utc | 8
Another photo of Tsymbalyuk, posted by a Bellingcat guy. Even he's not hiding Tsymbalyuk's "Ukrainian nationalist" background .
https://twitter.com/AricToler/status/1002223184769437697/photo/1
Posted by: Brendan | Jun 1 2018 18:54 utc | 9
What an excellent B movie plot! Turn it all into a screenplay and make some money b!
Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 1 2018 18:54 utc | 10
b, perhaps you mean: "The SBU, he alleges, shook German down for some $70,000."
Posted by: Rusty Pipes | Jun 1 2018 19:18 utc | 11
Virgile, it is hard to imagine how the Russians would have been able to involve the Ukrainian president, the head of the SBU and the prime minister among others. Those people made those choices themselves. If those people are all plants of the Russian SVR (foreign secret service) then they'd be mad to burn them in such a small scale plot and certainly not all at once.
Posted by: andrew | Jun 1 2018 19:32 utc | 12
Wheels within wheels? Yet more evidence that Ukraine has not left the 1990s unfortunately.
Meanwhile, Airbus is palming off old CHC H225 helicopters (that oil workers refuse to fly in after two catastrophic crashes killing everyone aboard) to the Ukraine.
On the plus side, they will be used by '...a variety of security agencies, including the national police and border guard service..' so if they crash they'll mostly kill scum. Pardon my French. Who's paying for it?
Posted by: et Al | Jun 1 2018 19:56 utc | 13
@mbur Am a bit confused. Was it Boris Herman the German who headed the joint venture who is referred to as 'German' in the following text? His fellow victims being SBU head Grytsak and the Prosecutor General Lutsenko? The bad guys being unnamed creditors..?
Herman/German is the name of Boris (H and G are often interchangeable in translations from Russian). Boris is Ukrainian, not German (the country).
The SBU head seems to be on the side opposed to Boris German.
But I admit that I am not totally sure of that. I do not even know who is the bad guy here.
Who is really raiding the company? Boris, who is the executive who leads the company, or the former founder/creditor and his companions?
The case is confusing, the stories (not all are quoted above) contradict each other as do the various people telling them.
It seems clear the Boris German has been under SBU pressure for some time over the company and credit issue. Now he gets framed as a Russian asset by the SBU while he claims to have worked for the Ukrainian counter espionage department which is nominally part of the SBU but still a sort of separate service.
Here is a long, just published piece (in Russian) about his court appearance and what he said.
https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2018/06/01/76667-organizator
If the SBU wanted him "off the street" to let someone else take over the company they got their wish fulfilled. The judge put him under 60 days pre-trial custody.
No thanks I 'm good! Think i'l sit this one out and Google Yemen.
Posted by: Mark2 | Jun 1 2018 20:11 utc | 15
@6 dh
The EU should get serious about admitting Ukraine to the club.
Definitely. An agreement like "full membership for a guaranteed intake/redistribution of 100.000 refuges per annum" would be my favourite option. Only for the fun of it, of course.
Posted by: radiator | Jun 1 2018 20:50 utc | 16
I am not sure that we can take Meduza.io's reporting all that seriously as its agenda is anti-Russian and, like Arkady Babchenko's Crimean Tatar TV station employer, receives some funding from the US or a US agency. Although I suppose that like the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Meduza journalists do tell the truth occasionally so as to not to compete with the BBC as a complete propaganda nutcase outfit.
Whether the publicity given to the Babchenko hoax murder in deceiving a gullible Western news media will translate into success for the SBU in court is another thing. Boris Gherman may be in pre-trial detention (perhaps for his own safety) but if the court finds in his favour then what other stunt will the SBU try to pull off to shake him down? They can only pull off a successful hoax murder stunt once or twice before everyone outside Ukraine becomes suspicious and cynical.
Meanwhile real Russian journalists working in Ukraine, whether they support or don't support Russia, probably just found their jobs and their lives more endangered by the SBU than before.
Ukraine must be in really desperate straits to seize modest-sized industrial assets in the tens of thousands of US dollars, Mafia-style. It can't be long now before the country's economy and finances are put under direct control of the IMF if that organisation is to recover its loans.
Posted by: Jen | Jun 1 2018 21:01 utc | 17
What's up with the second photo? A toy ray-gun, and a toy shotgun. WTF!!
What a circus, oh well, fits the times we live in.
Posted by: ben | Jun 1 2018 21:12 utc | 18
et Al @ 13: It will be fun watching Nazis trying to fly those helioopters and crashing them. The downside is that if they crash in eastern Ukraine or near the border with Russia, you know who will get the blame.
EU taxpayers will probably have to foot the bill.
Posted by: Jen | Jun 1 2018 21:13 utc | 19
@16 Something like that might be acceptable but it should include a clause whereby NATO agrees to get the Moskals out of Donbass.
The Babchenko story needs a new twist soon before it fades away like the Skripals.
And where is Victoria Nuland Kagan these days? Perhaps she has a plan.
Posted by: dh | Jun 1 2018 21:31 utc | 20
Britain appears to be the must Russophobic country at the moment, while at least some of the U.S. elites appear to be more concerned about China. Guardian journalists Shaun Walker and Luke Harding have conducted a vicious campaign spanning years, and one suspects both are close to British intelligence (if you can call what they do intelligence). We know that English hatred of Russia goes back centuries, but there must be something else. Any opinions?
Posted by: Lochearn | Jun 1 2018 22:11 utc | 21
Radiator @ 16: You mean Ukraine should agree to accept Jabhat al Nusra, ISIS and other headchoppers currently holed up in Idlib once the Syrian Arab Army starts squeezing them into Turkey and Turkey in turn squeezes them into Europe?
Should be fun watching the Nazis and jihadis fight each other when they're supposed to be fighting the Donbass fighters.
Posted by: Jen | Jun 1 2018 22:41 utc | 22
Slightly off topic ( i apologize, but the various spellings and pronounciations of the actors in this storey are far too difficult for my poor Newfoundlander's tongue) ...i have been curious the last few years to find out:
"Who , if anyone, oversees the 'City of London'? I understand it has a special place due to history of england ....and it seems to me that all of the Financial whoremongers of the world set up shop in the 'City of London' to do their nefarious evil deeds ....but ...is there anyone actually in control of the 'City of London', other than the 'COL' itself?
PLease , anyone?
Posted by: Breadonwaters | Jun 1 2018 22:48 utc | 23
Ukraine must be in really desperate straits to seize modest-sized industrial assets in the tens of thousands of US dollars, Mafia-style. Posted by: Jen | Jun 1, 2018 5:01:58 PM | 17
We have tall tales explaining what happen, and the reality is too bizarre for some sensible explanation. Nevertheless, the mechanism behind "sizing modest-sized industrial assets" is not some nation-level policy, or even "SBU leadership", but most probably some personal feud. In a classic novel "Dead Souls" that take place "somewhere in Malorossia", written by Ukrainian born Gogol, the main character participated in a successful corrupt shakedown that unravelled wh one partner call another "popovich" = a son of Orthodox clergyman; the insult was probably in doubting membership to dvoryanstvo, the noble estate.
Corruption fosters something like feudal lord-vassal system, with patrons and clients, an insult to a client shows ill will to the patron, so disputes concerning smallish enterprises can percolate toward the top.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 1 2018 22:55 utc | 24
Very Good, well-reasoned and logical explanation, Piotr. Sounds about right for this caper.
Posted by: fast freddy | Jun 1 2018 23:04 utc | 25
Ha ha Shakespear comes to ming here.
What a load of plonkers.
Posted by: Jack | Jun 1 2018 23:04 utc | 26
Thank you b for a great morning read and laugh. Cynical laugh, that is.
@jen #17: "It can't be long now before the country's economy and finances are put under direct control of the IMF if that organisation is to recover its loans."
Thanks jen I appreciate your input here. The IMF is the mafia and they are in control in that they 'issue the permit' to minor oligarchs to steal in return for guaranteed arms purchases from the IMF primary backers. This is a deeply corrupted system and it is truly alarming.
I never did see a story on how those two enormous arms depots were destroyed in Ukraine but it must have seriously damaged the Ukrainian economy as they were all likely headed to the 'anti isis' fake war games in Africa or the ME.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jun 2 2018 0:05 utc | 28
Oh well any people 40 and under or thereabouts who use this site would be smart to pick their corporation now, because this will be SOP if the evil arseholes prevail. Sovereign entities in the form of geographically defined nation states will take a back seat as Google goes to war with Instagram, snapchat with facebook in the hope that the former FB monolith can be separated from it's now dominant overlord, instagram.
Of course the fact that Google shareholders may have neighbors in their gated community whose hedge fund is big in Instagram will make everything piquant for the un-allied masses who like their grandparents never got around to 'registering' with any of the pr1cks.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Jun 2 2018 0:48 utc | 29
Not sure if these new assertions are credible or not, but either way this escapade is full up on crazy. When the west says that Ukraine has 'western values,' is this what they mean?
Posted by: WorldBLee | Jun 2 2018 0:54 utc | 30
Breadonwaters.
City of London is run by a corporation of the same name and headed by the Lord Mayor who is elected by the corporations in the city
Posted by: Pft | Jun 2 2018 1:29 utc | 31
@ Breadonwaters asking about the City of London
Pft's answer is as good as any.
Does Newfoundland support Trust Funds or their like? Ask yourself why there is not public reporting of the largest trust funds in our Western world....maybe the same reason you don't know who pulls the strings behind the COL curtain.
To the subject of this posting by b, I think about how many other "two-bit players" the elite have groomed for disruption of this, that or whatever is needed....public manipulation by any means and morals are for weaklings sort of attitude.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 2 2018 1:45 utc | 32
"Dig a deeper hole" or "Go for the Big Lie"?
Which is more apropos?
'We found Russian hit-list of 47 people', Ukraine tells allies'
KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine, seeking to reassure its Western allies after faking the murder of a Russian dissident to thwart what it said was a plot on his life, told them on Friday its ruse led to the discovery of a hit-list of 47 people whom Russia planned to kill abroad.
Can we laugh yet?
Posted by: librul | Jun 2 2018 2:19 utc | 33
That article needs a 1 paragraph who-what-when-why-where overview before the detailed analysis starts, especially when the details are all so dubious.
In the video linked to by b, Poroshenko says:
Знаєш, просто серце сжимається, коли бачиш, як в редакціях телеканалів, як в офісах — сьогодні я бачив реакцію — я ж про це все знав, а ніхто в адміністрації про це не знав.You know, it pained my heart when I saw how in the TV channels' newsrooms, in the offices — I saw the reaction today — you see, I knew everything about it, but nobody in the administration knew about it.
Posted by: S | Jun 2 2018 3:55 utc | 35
Acquaintance from Moscow who works for a 'Putin foundation'?!
Does that even make any sense ?
Posted by: Brian | Jun 2 2018 4:14 utc | 36
Breadonwaters @ 23:
You could always contact the City of London municipal government directly:
https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-the-city/about-us/Pages/how-to-find-us.aspx
or you could read Nicolas Shaxson's book "Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men who Stole the World"
http://treasureislands.org/the-book/
Uncle Tungsten @ 28:
My guess is that those army depots were deliberately allowed to deteriorate to the point where the munitions "spontaneously" combusted. The Ukrainians are probably treating them as write-offs, figuring that these can be replaced by free ammunition from the US, Canada or other countries if they (the Ukrainians, that is) jump up and down often enough and loudly enough about the encroaching Russian "menace".
Posted by: Jen | Jun 2 2018 5:28 utc | 37
@Breadonwaters | Jun 1, 2018 6:48:51 PM | 23
The earlier answers were not correct. The Corporation of the City of London is controlled by its 13 man (naturally!) board. This is known as 'The Crown'. People naturally assume that term applies to the monarch but this is not the case, it is one of the many passive deceptions played out on us. The Lord Mayor of the City is a ceremonial role rotated on an annual basis.
To show who is really in charge consider this. Once a year the Queen turns up at one of the City gates dressed in her ordinary clothes. She awaits the Mayor who comes out in his full ceremonial regalia including chain of office. The Queen bows, thens begs permission to enter the City. So who is sovereign there?
So there was not 'a' British empire as such, but two concurrent empires as the 'Crown colonies' were all directly owned by the City and not by 'Britain'.
There are many layers of deception played out on us by these evil entities, and the status of the City is one of them. It is an epicentre of evil in this world. Unsurprisingly we are not taught any of this stuff at school, and there has never been a BBC documentary on the matter.
Posted by: Ross | Jun 2 2018 8:58 utc | 38
I don't think I want to comment more on this ridiculous farce. It must be obvious to even the daftest Brexiteer (They are uniquely stupid) that Ukrainistan is "FAIL !!"
Even a bachelor myself :) I say thank you but NO! Off course there are decent people in Ukraine, as there are in the US, we just can't hear them. I have met people from all parts of the world and you can divide them in two: Arseholes and non-arseholes.
The arseholes we just send to Coventry, the non-arseholes are maybe not aligned with your political opinion, way of life etc. but they always are respectful about their non-alignment, as you should be to them.
I am a socialist, no a Socialist, and I have conservative friends, it is not a problem, to me at least.
But Ukraine, sigh, what to do.... Well there is a nice place, where there is nature in abundance, it is called Pripyat, so if we can export the remaining xx million neo-nazis to the US and Canada, it can all be a nature reserve, under joint EU-Russian control.
And the US and Canada will be happy, their people have come home, maybe even Israel could be persuaded to the same trick...
Imagine the Zio's would have free reign on a continent, they can fight or hold marches together.
Posted by: Den Lille Abe | Jun 2 2018 9:43 utc | 39
On another note:
Denmark has had a May month with more than 350 hours of sun and almost warmest ever. Several counties prohibited garden watering.
Malmoe town in Sweden cautioning people not to use sprinklers on their lawns, the waterworks cant keep up in production. (Sweden has immense freshwater reserves, like Finland) and is a large country with only 10 million.
And Orangeturd in the WH says climate change is a hoax... I hope to see his Florida Trumpland in the swells of the Atlantic.
Posted by: Den Lille Abe | Jun 2 2018 9:51 utc | 40
Posted by: Lochearn | Jun 1, 2018 6:11:30 PM | 21
Bill Browder will be one of the reasons.
Another Russian oligarchs made by neoliberal reforms in the 1990s Thomas Piketty
According to our estimates, the offshore assets alone held by wealthy Russians exceed one year of GDP, or the equivalent of the entirety of the official financial assets held by Russian households. In other words, the natural wealth of the country, (which, let it be said in passing, would have done better to remain in the ground to limit global warming) has been massively exported abroad to sustain opaque structures enabling a minority to hold huge Russian and international financial assets. These rich Russians live between London, Monaco and Moscow: some have never left Russia and control their country via offshore entities. Numerous intermediaries and Western firms have also recouped large crumbs on the way and continue to do so today in sport and the media (sometimes this is referred to as philanthropy). The extent of the misappropriation of funds has no equal in history.
There has been an attempt to turn Russian emigres against Russia by threatening their capital - the sanctions basically warn oligarchs "not to be close to Putin".
The case of oligarchs’ “closeness to Putin” is less obvious. Any discussion of it should start with the term “oligarch,” which, when it came into broad usage in Russia in the mid-1990s, referred to a group of people who had succeeded at state capture. The reason the Putin-era elite rejects the term is that the state turned the tables on those particular people. Essentially, it captured their assets without confiscating them.
Britains main industry is financial services. Of course they have the main problem if Russia is not playing by "the rules".
Over all, Russia is disappointing Western investors.
Western oil majors have been attempting to gain access to Russia’s enormous oil reserves since the break-up of the Soviet Union, but have often found themselves stymied by local oligarchs and domestic politics.
Germany is different as they are not so much interested in financial services but business. And that business is seriously hit by sanctions not by the Russian state.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 2 2018 9:55 utc | 41
Regarding the City of London corruption cesspit: It's more apt to say that it runs Britain, rather then the British government controlling it. Think of it as the traditional world-looting centre of what's left of the English empire, still going strong, although the empire is just a fag-end of what it was, and the imperial military machine is a shrunken joke compared to its hey-day - but still killing people and destroying things overseas, and operating as an assistant attack-dog for the Anglozionist empire in its global looting operations, even now.
The City appears to operate as a handy top-of-the-range monetary and financial swindling and laundering centre for the USukiznato-axis powers (and indeed for freebooter gangsters from anywhere in the world, as long as they come with large sums of money in their hands; a leading centre for laundering global drugs-trade money, for example); with Frankfurt as a possible competitor, I suppose. It clarifies matters if you think of the City as a continuing loot-source for the small English-raj class, who are still the entrenched controllers of most of what goes or doesn't go in Britain; and think of the Conservative party in Paedominster (the London parliament) as the political-wing of the raj, in the 'democratic' politics theatre carried on there, solely to serve the rajistas' perceived interests.
The British tories and their various me-too clones in the other parties loathe like poison any hint of real, popular, glasnostic democracy, of course, and are in politics to make sure that it never takes hold in The Isles (Dáil Éireann in Eire being a rather unwelcome growth in that respect, especially as the island of Eire slides slowly towards re-unification; with the other rival national parliaments in The Isles, weak though they are currently, being seen as further irritating thorns in the English-raj class's flesh). One reason that Jeremy Corbyn and the grassroots support that he attracts are so loathed and so virulently traduced currently is because they represent a genuine upsetting threat to this centuries-old traditional arrangement. If JC makes it to Downing Street, expect to see coup d'etat scams set going to neutralise him one way or another, including lots of CoL shenanigans - though of course all done in the style of 'A Very British Coup' (qv).
Posted by: Rhisiart Gwilym | Jun 2 2018 10:23 utc | 42
Dear oh dear, seems the Keystone Cops are still alive and well in the Ukraine. Excellent forensics on this latest insult to the intelligence, well for the minority in any case. I suppose Ukraine still has a ways to go to get as smooth as the West in its false flags, but we should in all fairness give a newcomer time to get up to speed. No doubt they will soon be BS-ing with the best of them.
Posted by: Rancid | Jun 2 2018 11:51 utc | 43
The British defending the free world: According to the Independent (prolly a lie) the Royal nave sent a destroyer and a heli to "escort" a Russian "naval" vessel through the Channel... WTF!!!!
The Channel, last I remembered is International Waterway, like the belts in Denmark, and everybody can pass. Russian need no foking escort or to be harassed, they have the right like anybody, to pass through.
The British are getting increasingly annoying, maybe I should ask my European MEP if they have found a final solution to "The British Problem" namely tell them to fok off.
They are continuously trying to set of Europe in another conflict it does not want. I say we go fighting, invade and start killing civvies in Birmingham and Chelsea and central London. We will start at Westminster.
These guys are mad they will get us in another war. Which we abhor.
Foking Tory dimwits, when is the people going to wake up? Their beer is thin, their women ugly, their climate awful, what makes them so docile?
Posted by: Den Lille Abe | Jun 2 2018 14:15 utc | 44
Den Lille Abe
Of course its true, they always does this of some dumb reason,
this is from 2016 for example,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKWThC9DsiY
Posted by: Zanon | Jun 2 2018 14:31 utc | 45
Den Lille Abe | Jun 2, 2018 10:15:08 AM | 44
Their beer is thin, their women ugly, their climate awful, what makes them so docile?
Ignorance and a lack of critical thinking ability...
Posted by: V | Jun 2 2018 14:31 utc | 46
SUPPOSE SBU DID NOT SHOOT DOWN MH17
Would they still create fake video evidence just to "catch the real Russian BUK"?
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Jun 2 2018 14:35 utc | 47
I can't wait to see the movie. This story has twists and turns worthy of a suspense thriller. For comic relief, we have the western "news" media, behaving like dunces in the midst of all this intrigue.
Posted by: Bob Ford | Jun 2 2018 14:44 utc | 48
@jen @17 - I am not sure that we can take Meduza.io's reporting all that seriously as its agenda is anti-Russian
I am well aware that Meduza has an agenda but they do also provide valid news. I recently mused about this problem: On Sources And Information - The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights.
I have counterchecked the Meduza piece I quoted. It is basically a copy of an Interfax report. The English Meduza version was simply easier to quote. The facts in it are also confirmed by the longer piece I linked in comment 14.
@BreadonWaters @23 - is there anyone actually in control of the 'City of London', other than the 'COL' itself?
PLease , anyone?
In 2011 George Monbiot (who is now basically an asshole) wrote an explanation of the 'City of London' status. A bunch of banks who actually can impose their will on Britain:
The medieval, unaccountable Corporation of London is ripe for protest
The City of London is the only part of Britain over which parliament has no authority. In one respect at least the Corporation acts as the superior body: it imposes on the House of Commons a figure called the remembrancer: an official lobbyist who sits behind the Speaker's chair and ensures that, whatever our elected representatives might think, the City's rights and privileges are protected. The mayor of London's mandate stops at the boundaries of the Square Mile. There are, as if in a novel by China Miéville, two cities, one of which must unsee the other.Several governments have tried to democratise the City of London but all, threatened by its financial might, have failed. As Clement Attlee lamented, "over and over again we have seen that there is in this country another power than that which has its seat at Westminster." The City has exploited this remarkable position to establish itself as a kind of offshore state, a secrecy jurisdiction which controls the network of tax havens housed in the UK's crown dependencies and overseas territories.
@Piotr @24 - an excellent explanation.
@Palloy - That article needs a 1 paragraph who-what-when-why-where overview before the detailed analysis starts, especially when the details are all so dubious.
I have added a bit at the top but I am not sure it helps. This stuff is so unbelievably crazy that is difficult to summarize.
Den Lille Abe
You just described the fall of the Roman Empire and most other empires in history!
Ah there's hope yet! Cheered us all up no end. I'm with you bro.
Posted by: Mark2 | Jun 2 2018 15:38 utc | 51
Here's my contribution to the discussion:
https://ragheadthefiendlyterrorist.wordpress.com/2018/06/02/one-fakers-death-in-ukranazistan/
Probably not too helpful, but I had fun drawing it.
Posted by: Jihadi Colin | Jun 2 2018 15:41 utc | 52
The German company Schmeisser has denied that it has anything to do with the Ukrainian company Schmyser.
Posted by: Humbaba | Jun 2 2018 15:45 utc | 53
Corporation is old English for council,it used to be slang for working for the
council.It was the first enterprise zone in modern parlance to develop the core of London.
The original six Worshipfull Companies, or Trade Guilds own the CoL corporation.
It owns all the land within the CoL boundaries, its a landlord to the Banking scum,
not the scum itself.
As a member of one of the six Companies attending meetings at Guild Hall, its a combo
of a property managers conference/royal tea party.Hardly SPECTRE.
Posted by: Winston | Jun 2 2018 16:21 utc | 54
interesting how the conversation has spun over to the city of london.. i agree with the brief history @41 somebody offers.. also @42 Rhisiart Gwilym and Den Lille Abe's comments on this as well..
@52 jihadi.. nice artwork on the topic... thanks.
Posted by: james | Jun 2 2018 16:52 utc | 55
Posted by: Winston | Jun 2, 2018 12:21:39 PM | 54
Corporation is old English for council,it used to be slang for working for the
council.
And council in Russian is soviet.
The original six Worshipfull Companies, or Trade Guilds own the CoL corporation.
The union of councils, eh? ;-)
Posted by: hopehely | Jun 2 2018 17:03 utc | 56
In the interest of networking, useful ground roots reporting and being less dependent on this one fantastic site-Moa I'd suggest googling- '
Winter Oak Press. Totally different but heart in the right place !!!
Posted by: Mark2 | Jun 2 2018 20:43 utc | 57
B @ 49: Thanks for clarifying the source of Meduza.io's report.
Interestingly RT.com, quoting Ukranews.com, offers a different view: that Boris Gherman was framed for plotting a hit on Babchenko after he refused an offer of lenient treatment by law enforcement officers (for whatever he may have done or not done in the past, including the recent past) in return for testifying against someone else.
https://www.rt.com/news/428392-ukraine-fake-falling-appart/
"... According to ukranews.com, German was offered a deal by the investigators, who offered him leniency in exchange of testifying against a person who was not named by the officials. The source said he rejected the offer and also said the businessman works with arms procurement for the Ukrainian army.
Strana.ua said its source confirmed that German had connections in the arms business. It also added that he was apparently framed by the Ukrainian law enforcement, which offered him to take part in a sting operation.
“It was a clear set up, a provocation. Now the man, who came to him with the suggestion, has disappeared and the SBU claims he was working for the Russian intelligence, but they don’t have any clear evidence to prove it,” the source is cited as saying ..."
Posted by: Jen | Jun 2 2018 21:49 utc | 58
It was bad enough to have read the vile comments of the toxic troll calling itself 'Den Lille Abe' above, full of hateful, racist, mysogynist, terroristic and wannabe mass-murdering bile. Bad enough that he wants to massacre me and countless other civilians in Britain (actually we already have the UK state-backed ISIS trying to do that, thanks) but to see a whooping chorus of approval from many other posters was just too much to stomach.
It's bad enough to have to put up with a sinister cabal of warmongering scumbags running the West, with their corrupt and blackmailed presstitutes blaring out their lies, but when one of the few places I had hoped to hear a credible and intelligent opposition is sinking to this level I just despair. I really do.
How should I continue to persuade my countrymen to question the bellicosity of their rulers? By showing them the vicious poison of Den Lille Abe and its cheerleaders and saying "hey, these are my pals who are also opposing the empire?".
This creature and his supporters are as bad as the headchoppers themselves and their powerful sponsors. The pigs in Orwell's Animal Farm.
With a mass sentiment like this proudly on display I cannot continue to recommend this site to anyone, or link to it. I realise that the internet is full of repulsive cretins like Den Lille Abe, and that site owners are not responsible for some of the trash that is written under their articles, but filth like that surely can only harm the excellent work Mr B does (assuming he does not also agree with their position, and if he does I would be wracked with guilt for having financially supported him).
Posted by: Ash | Jun 2 2018 22:12 utc | 59
@59 ash.. i am curious.. what was the most challenging comment that den lille abe said that motivated you to say all this?
Posted by: james | Jun 2 2018 22:30 utc | 60
It's called empathy! It seems OK to distroy other people's country but not our own?
Self defence is not violence.
Tens of millions killed by the west. But when someone hypathticly points out a picture of your city being distroyed you suddenly wake up! You just got caught out. We are all equally important in this world. So please stay and help stop the madness.
Posted by: Mark2 | Jun 2 2018 22:40 utc | 61
@59 I assume you are referring to Den Lille Abe's rather ignorant comment "Their beer is thin, their women ugly, their climate awful, what makes them so docile?".
I don't see a 'whooping chorus of approval'. I thought it was pretty stupid myself but anti-British sentiment runs deep here for some reason. I know a lot of people in the UK are very unhappy about the state of things. I guess they just aren't sure what to do about it. Perhaps DLA does have a point about docility but he could apply the same standard to Scandinavia.
Posted by: dh | Jun 2 2018 22:44 utc | 62
Also may I ask your view on your own gov?and how you propose to stop there violence ?
Posted by: Mark2 | Jun 2 2018 22:44 utc | 63
Posted by: dh | Jun 2, 2018 6:44:03 PM | 62
I don't see a 'whooping chorus of approval'.
Of course not. IMO their beer is not thin at all. It is actually pretty good.
Posted by: hopehely | Jun 2 2018 22:51 utc | 64
@62 The beer isn't bad at all and they import a lot anyway for fussy drinkers. The women do tend to run a little on the heavy side these days. And the climate can be awful which is why so many of them moved to Spain. That said I think DLA needs to reflect on his opinion.
Posted by: dh | Jun 2 2018 22:56 utc | 65
Off-Guardian has an excellent article, What if Babchenko had decided to stay “dead”?
A few quotes from it with my comments.
“…at its deepest level, consensual reality is a fragile thing that can very easily have nothing to do with truth or fact or actual reality.”
At its best - when no” special interests” are manipulating an entry - this describes Wikipedia.
“…the issue was going to be “who did it?” not “was it even done?”
Not even. The whodoneit was already "answered" in the very unveiling of the “news.” The issue was going to be “how are we - who are all goodness and light and truth and freedom - going to “bring justice” to the perp?”
“See how little it occurred to any of us, even those who make a habit of interrogating narratives, to ask whether or not it really happened.”
And this is why I have been saying I have no reason to believe that the Skirpal poisoning ever really happened.
If they were meant to be dead, they’d almost certainly be dead.
If they were meant to survive, then why take the chance of actually poisoning them, regardless of what agent was allegedly used?
"Question More."
Posted by: Daniel | Jun 3 2018 1:57 utc | 66
The west's grasp of reality is but a gossamer of what's real.
b does a pretty good job of keeping us grounded.
Walk barefoot on grass and dirt...
Posted by: V | Jun 3 2018 2:56 utc | 67
ZH has a posting up now shown in the link below and followed with a couple of quotes....the writer likes "meanwhile..."
"
Meanwhile the guy who supposedly hired Tsimbalyuk, Boris L. German, 50, also says he worked for Ukrainian counter-intelligence, a claim Ukraine denies as its immediately destroys the carefully scripted, if rapidly imploding, Ukrainian narrative meant to scapegoat Russia for what has been a "fake news" story of epic proportions, emerging from the one nation that not only was the biggest foreign donor to the Clinton foundation, but has made fake news propaganda into an art form.
"
"
Meanwhile, senior Ukraine officials have been on the defensive since Wednesday, when the head of security services announced they had staged the death of Babchenko so they could track his would-be killers to Russian intelligence, a story the International Federation of Journalists slammed as idiotic, nonsensical and completely undermining Ukraine's credibility.
"
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 3 2018 3:53 utc | 68
Hiya it is a grey sunday afternoon here with the view out my back window over the back paddock obscured by a drizzle haze which is atypical for these parts where the weather at this time of year is either wet in a absolutely p1ssing down but warmish way, or dry, sunny and pink bits-shriveling cold.
I dunno what's up with that but the break from usual sunday arvo routines has given me time between the weekly family catch ups via voip to try and learn what howlingpixel a site I have been using in lieu of wikipedia is about.
I have learned sfa since a net search has only the site's own 'about' page which I will not consider; being as I never trust that sorta self serving nfo sharing.
Does anyone know any of howlingpixel's history - who runs it, pays for it etc?
Posted by: Debsisdead | Jun 3 2018 4:50 utc | 69
Debsisdead | Jun 3, 2018 12:50:40 AM | 69
Never heard of it; but found this;
https://www.easycounter.com/report/howlingpixel.com
Posted by: V | Jun 3 2018 5:17 utc | 70
Debsisdead @29
The corporate nightmare you outline has been depicted in the classic
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Merchants
by Kornbluth and Pohl. The sequel, by Pohl alone, is logical.
Posted by: Cortes | Jun 3 2018 7:13 utc | 71
Posted by: V | Jun 3, 2018 1:17:51 AM | 70
Thanks V I had seen that as one of the few non howlingpixel references to howlingpixel I could find - it appears to be some sort of net traffic counter website.
Posted by: Cortes | Jun 3, 2018 3:13:15 AM | 71
There is nothing new under the sun eh. Although must give Pohl his due, the whimper that humankind seems likely to expire with, was much less predictable in 1953 than it is in 2018.
I'm still a little hopeful that the lack of common geographic proximity will make corporate entities more difficult to unite mugs behind than nation states have found when cranking up jingoism.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Jun 3 2018 9:30 utc | 72
72
According to Wikipedia Howling Pixel is the mobile version of Wikipedia.
see Wikipedia mirrors and forks
Posted by: somebody | Jun 3 2018 10:08 utc | 73
somebody | Jun 3, 2018 6:08:10 AM | 73
That would be a good reason to steer clear of both sites, IMO.
Posted by: V | Jun 3 2018 10:13 utc | 74
In 2017 Arkady Babchenko, despised in Russia for his open hostility against its people, came via Israel to the Ukraine. He was welcome in Kiev for his anti-Russian position.
You mean he was adversarial to the Russian government. That hardly makes him "hostile" to the Russian people, but that does put his life in danger. Just ask the six journalists from Novaya Gazeta murdered during Putin's rein.
Posted by: craigsummers | Jun 3 2018 12:50 utc | 75
@craigsummers 75
Yes and no.
There is a major logical fallacy in using past criminal cases in justifying present fakes.
PS:
*Babchenko in Vilnus, 'Open Russia', 12 April 2018 "...the one who is responsible is not Putin's regime, but Russia", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaGeiabB6kM , 4:50 and 9:00
*Just ask the six journalists, -who?
Anna Politkovskaya (well known/look up), Yury Shchekochikhin (illness and suspected poisoning, 'open verdict'); Baburova (journalist) and Markelov (lawyer, not journalist), killed by a neo-Nazi couple who were caught and sentenced for life; Estemirova, run into problems, kidnapped and killed in Chechnya. And number 6 is ?
Posted by: Don Karlos | Jun 3 2018 13:45 utc | 76
Why would the suspect have hired the same hitman all at once to carry out multiple crimes that were so different?Ukraine’s National Security Agency says Boris German (who was named the suspect in Babchenko’s case on May 31) was instructed to do even more than have 30 people killed: he was also supposed to stockpile secret weapons caches throughout Ukraine. German’s lawyer says his client is the executive director of the Ukrainian-German company “Schmeisser” — the only private arms manufacturer in Ukraine.
This might explain why Boris German would have been selected to arrange the secret weapons caches, but it remains unclear why he would have been the man to entrust with the organization of 30 murders. These two crimes — the murders and the secret weapons caches — appear to be two separate projects.
From a Meduza piece suggested after the Meduza article b linked above (the 'went' link).
Has anyone seen more information about these weapons caches? Is it true that Schmeisser is the only 'private' arms manufacturer in the Ukraine?
If b's right that the interior logic of the assassination hoax is about ownership/control of the company, what is the point of the weapons caches accusation? Perhaps this also gives SBU cover to either "find" these weapons in the wrong hands or cover over/disavow past trades they don't want acknowledged. (Makes me think about Paddock in Vegas or the kid caught with all those guns in California who claimed to be with Omar Mateen and also set up... )
Or maybe this gives 'legal' cover to raid other places in search of those secreted weapons?
Posted by: Charles R | Jun 3 2018 13:56 utc | 77
Also, in the Zerohedge piece psychohistorian (~@68) linked, one picture shows Tsymbalyuk wearing a top with an embroidered swastika. The NYT article b linked above (the Russophobic link) is only willing to say that "some portray" Right Sector as neo-nazi.
Posted by: Charles R | Jun 3 2018 14:07 utc | 78
So Denmark now erects fences to keep swine fewer out of Denmark. Cool and good. (Germans are lax) but Trump is arriwing in London this summer? WTF Is fat piece of garbage to come in via the idiot British regulations ? He is....
Had he been my pig we would have had him this Christmas, he is growing stale now and too fat, only winter food is he good for. Gule ærter, Brunkål and so. Any pig will do for those courses.
Posted by: Den Lille Abe | Jun 3 2018 14:13 utc | 79
At Dh generally @ blah-blah
I don not live in the "paradise" called England, I live in Scandinavia. We are quite well off thank you. We have not got much room for you English serfs. :) There you got it. We do not respect you, because you have always voted "out". No foking go and die in obscurity.
Your idiot public shall bear the consequences as the Germans did in 1945, England is reduced to a two bit whore, I rejoice personally, as I have ancestors who died at Brit hands 200 years ago-and no repentance!! Germany paid repentance at least morally.
So please fok off. Accordinf to stats you will soon anyway. You are just taking up oxygen needed by other living stuff, snails etc.
Posted by: Den Lille Abe | Jun 3 2018 14:24 utc | 80
Posted by: somebody | Jun 3, 2018 6:08:10 AM | 73
It actually says " Like mobile version of Wikipedia" Then wikipedia rates it 'low/none'. It appears to be one of those reference sites which scrapes some wikipedia pages as well as other sources. I'm going to use it in preference to wikipedia esp for non-controversial stuff eg it had a list of cabinet members of the June 1 Italian Government before anywhere else (how I stumbled across it from a yandex search) until I know one way or another how objective it is. I don't wanna give wikipedia any page clicks at all after the Phillip Cross bizzo. If Howling Pixel is just as biased towards western propaganda I shall look for another source. We still don't know who funds it. I use an ad blocker so I dunno if it tries to pop at me - if it does, it doesn't whinge about the blocker.
In the end a reference source is still essential for background info.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Jun 3 2018 14:25 utc | 81
Ha ha, great exposé b. - it all just gets nuttier. one couldn’t make this up and put it in a movie, no way.
Ukraine was the country that ‘suffered’ the most from the USSR dissolution. In terms of GDP per capita, population, health, ‘democratic advances’ (depending on definition some are no good etc.), schooling, flourishing culture, etc.
Why exactly idk, nor does anybody else imho, as there are dozens of partial explanations.
I favor the happenstance of a collection of particularly crazed and rapacious oligarchs; being ‘rich and large’ (thus a prey), and pehaps the East-West thing, in the sense that a partition into two federated quasi-states might have saved it. Ukr. was color-revolutionized Orange in 2004, a failure, always does great harm, and no doubt the failure infuriated the W powers.
Since then it has been mad-cap downhill, its territory subject to carving. Crimea retuned to Russia (ok), and in other circs. all would have been no prob. The Donbass is now a separate territory (subject to the foreign-directed GWOT from Kiev), terrible situation, in limbo, Russia cannot take it over and Kiev cannot re-integrate it, and it cannot become independent without *massive* outside support which nobody will provide. Galicia seems to be out of control of the Center as well. (Look up news articles.) In short, Ukraine provides a terrain for ‘proxy wars’ as it is large and rich.
… and to date US and Germany (>..EU) have lost in Ukr. - Crimea and de facto the Donbass.
Bombing Yugoslavia, destroying and breaking it up sucessfully can't be repeated in Ukraine. Which leads to anger, disdain, and victim blaming, and in fine stasis for a while, and then abandonment. The IMF will continue to ‘support’ but they hate it.
Posted by: Noirette | Jun 3 2018 14:45 utc | 82
"You mean he was adversarial to the Russian government. That hardly makes him "hostile" to the Russian people, but that does put his life in danger."craigsummers@75
He appears to have made himself unpopular by dancing on the graves of the Choir which was killed, en route to Syria, in a plane crash. Unpopular, that is, with most Russians, Putin and decent people everywhere.
"Just ask the six journalists from Novaya Gazeta murdered during Putin's rein."
Are they the source of your information?
How many dozens of journalists were killed, every month, when the US, through Yeltsin reined in Russia? In the past month we have seen three journalists and several medicos killed by Israel in Gaza, with the enthusiastic support of the US government.
Posted by: bevin | Jun 3 2018 17:42 utc | 83
From AntiWar.com https://original.antiwar.com/justin/2018/05/30/the-babchenko-deception-kievs-masters-of-deceit/
A good recap of why we're where we are.
Also, B's article was linked at Antiwar.com.
[Copy of Antiwar piece deleted.
b.]
Posted by: daffyDuct | Jun 3 2018 21:18 utc | 84
@79 / 80 den lille abe.. you're obviously not trying to endear yourself to folks here at moa.. i'm not sure how many more of your posts i will read as a consequence.. i know.. you don't care, lol..
@83 bevin... thanks for articulating that for craigsummers @75
Posted by: james | Jun 3 2018 21:36 utc | 86
Regarding the question of Babchenko being a Russophobe vs. merely a critic of Putin, I think I'll repost my comment from a previous discussion.
----------------------------------
In an October 2017 interview with the 112 Ukraine TV channel, when asked about a possible future return to Russia, Babchenko replied:
“I think my return will look like this. There’s a column of U.S. Abrams tanks on Tverskaya Street. I’m sitting on the third tank, on top of it, with my camera. We arrive at the Kremlin and begin to distribute canned stew to hungry Muscovites. They all tell us: ‘No, no, we didn’t support Putin, we knew nothing, we are good people’. I think it’s going to go like that.”
In April 2018, he participated in a panel discussion at the 5th Forum of Free Russia held in Vilnius, Lithuania. Vytautas Landsbergis asked the participants whether they had a plan to deal with the reaction of “Russian fascism” to the “inevitable” break-up of “the bloody power” (Russia). Babchenko gave the following answer:
“For me personally, the optimal scenario would be to have 10 appanage principalities in place of this giant bloody monster. They’d settle their business among themselves, wage war against each other, but they wouldn’t poke their noses beyond the border anymore. I would be entirely satisfied with that. Then I would retire from my opposition and war correspondent activities and start writing books for children. For me, that would be the best scenario.”
As a sidenote, even if all national republics of Russia became independent (including Sakha Republic), Russia would still remain the largest country in the world and have a population of 117 million. The “giant monster” problem bothering Russophobes and their sponsors would not go away. That’s why Babchenko speaks of “appanage principalities” — he wants ethnic Russians to live in multiple independent states. Some of the (entirely artificial) proposed states are Cossackia (listed among “Captive Nations”), Ingria, Pomorye, the Siberian Republic, and the Far Eastern Republic.
----------------------------------
So the supposed “Putin critic” desires a military defeat for his homeland, humiliation and hunger for its citizens, and a break-up into multiple separate states warring with each other. Note that he's not talking about national republics, like Tatarstan, Chechnya, Buryatia, etc. No, he's talking about “appanage principalities”, meaning he wants ethnically Russian oblasts like Moscow oblast, Tver oblast, Yaroslavl oblast, etc. to be separate states. That's like advocating for the U.S. to be broken up into 50 states warring with each other, or for Germany to be broken up into 13 states warring with each other. It seems to me pretty clear that the man is a clinical, fanatical Russophobe who full of hate for everything and everybody Russian.
Posted by: S | Jun 3 2018 23:40 utc | 87
Re: Posted by: Rhisiart Gwilym | Jun 2, 2018 6:23:32 AM | 42
If Jeremy Corbyn ever gets elected without first clearing out the Blairites from the Parliamentary Labour Party they will take him down and destroy his Prime Ministership at the first opportunity they get.
If he didn't get this and thinks he can somehow win them over he is sadly misled and naive and living in a fantasy land. It is blindingly obvious to anyone with half a brain.
Ukraine underwent a failed color-revol. Argh... So, a coup was organised, mostly by the US but not only, see Germany. (Merkel stupidity, extension to the East for cheap labor, pushing for her fav. bozos - Klitschko and Timoshenko - lost, etc.)
The locals who ‘went with it’ were all oligarchs / pols hoping to cash in / rise, plus the raggle-taggle “nazi” types (Svoboda adherents etc.) who could be manipulated to follow on (paid as were.. Maidan demonstrators...)
When the coup happened Urk. was already close to a limping soon to be a semi-failed state - vulnerable! Typically, those who supported the coup on the inside knew this and hoped for new life, status, and money: IMF funds, privatization, US/EU investement, new profitable banking schemes, pushing new laws through Parliament, for some even believing in EU development funds, new fantasmagoric deals, great pressure on Russia for more fav. energy accords, austerity for the ‘little ppl’, etc. Becoming a sort of second Israel would do the trick —> USA-EU largesse would follow on, and flow aplenty, due to playing a proxy role and ‘attacking’ an enemy, here Russia, in mostly symbolic ways. Perspectives, wonderful.
No soap, and every single one of the oligarchs / Gvmt mafia types / lost money, position, power, status. They are too stupid - proud to admit that and still chase after a losing strategy. Even bringing down MH17 (although that was a rogue operation) didn’t work out. (Yats bailed naturally.) So the result is Eurovision, banning Russian books, Poroshenko holding on as nobody better can be found, and nutty vaudeville plots…
Posted by: Noirette | Jun 4 2018 16:18 utc | 89
@S (No. 87):
" It seems to me pretty clear that the man is a clinical, fanatical Russophobe who full of hate for everything and everybody Russian."
You are aware that Babchenko is an ethnic Ukrainian? The -enko ending of his surname is Ukrainian. Ethnic Ukrainians are the third largest ethnicity in Russia after Russians and Tatars.
Posted by: Jihadi Colin | Jun 5 2018 13:58 utc | 90
@ 90
What the heck is 'an ethnic Ukrainian' ?
His grandpa was a Zaporozhye Cossack whose wife was Jewish -that's as much as his Ukrainian line goes; one of his grand grandmothers was a Tatar; and at least in his youth he and his parents considered themselves Russian. He fought for Russia in Chechnya, second time as a volunteer. Then something switched. (At least, he was upfront an not in the money about it, unlike certain other Ukrainian-lastnamed, Skripal').
Posted by: Don Karlos | Jun 5 2018 22:48 utc | 91
As of 2004, Andrey Andreevich Kasyanchuk was the general director of "Shmeisser". Here is the jubilee (10 years of the "Schmeisser" company) interview with him on the website of the company itself.
"On the eve of the anniversary of the enterprise the correspondent of the magazine "Arms and Hunting" met with the Director General of the JV "Schmeisser" Andrei Andreevich Kasyanchuk, whose interview is offered to the readers of the magazine"
As of June 5, 2018, the company's director is Antonina Anatolyevna Kapilyan.
In particular, the owners of the company "Schmeisser":
Antonina Anatolyevna Kapilyan - 75%
Boris Lvovich German - 10%
Anton Igorevich Bondarenko - 5%
Yuri Nikolaevich Kostyanchuk - 5%
Vitaly Borisovich Mylin - 5%
It is obvious that Andrey Andreevich Kasyanchuk (who was the general director of "Schmeisser" in 2004) no longer has any relation to the company.
Voluntarily or not, that's another question. Most likely not voluntarily.
It is interesting that the "Schmeisser" website in the lower right corner indicates the following info:
"Attention! Shop, products and activities of enterprises "Schmeisser-Service", "VTK Schmeisser" DOES NOT HAVE ANY RELATIONSHIP TO THE UGJV* "SCHMEISSER"
It's about companies: "Schmeisser-Service" and "VTK Schmeisser".
It is noteworthy that both companies are linked (they even have the same phone numbers), and the main owner of both companies is Andrey Andreevich Kasyanchuk - he owns 45% of the "VTK Schmeisser" company, and he owns 28% of "Schmeisser-Service" company.
Obviously, both "VTK Schmeisser" and "Schmeisser-Service" are to some extent competitors of "Schmeisser" (10% of which is owned by Boris German), and that is why the "Schmeisser" website specifically states that it has nothing to do with "VTK Schmeisser" and "Schmeisser-Service".
Of course, I'm not saying that Andrey Andreevich Kasyanchuk (the former general director of "Schmeisser", and now the owner of "VTK Schmeisser" and "Schmeisser-Service"), being B.German's competitor, is somehow involved in a provocation aimed at arresting Boris German.
Just an observation.
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*UGJV - Ukrainian-German Joint Venture
The motive of "raider capture of the enterprise" is very likely (especially in the current Ukrainian realities), but even it may prove to be false.
In the end, if you want to capture an enterprise, then why should you arrest any secondary figure?
After all, Boris German is not the owner of "Schmeisser", he's not a "boss".
Here's what Antonina Kapilyan, the owner of the company says:
"Boris German appeared in "Schmeisser" in the summer of 2014.
German owns 10% of the company's shares, but [he] has no relation to the leadership of "Schmeisser", his voice has always been [just] deliberative".
The Director of the company, Antonina Kapilyan, calls the acquaintance with Boris German as a "casual acquaintance".
If someone wanted a raider capture, then Antonina Kapilyan would be the first to "attack", because she is the head of the company, not B.German.
Here's some info:
As of April 2009, Andrey Kosyanchuk (about whom I wrote in the previous commentary) was still the General Director of "Schmeisser".
In March 2010, Antonina Kapilyan became the owner of a 5% stake in the company, in March 2014, her share increased to 60.31%, and in early December 2015 she owned 100% of "Schmeisser" company, 50% of which she almost immediately sold to Boris German (he got 10%) and Valery Pavlyuk (he got 40%).
Just with the latter the "Schmeisser" has a serious conflict.
Here is what Valery Pavlyuk himself says in his recent interview:
"...In December 2015, I became a 40% owner of the company.At the time of my entry into the [company's] capital, Antonina Kapilyan was a 100% owner.
Me and Boris German bought our shares at the same time. I got 40%, German got 10%.
<...>...there was a raider capture of my share".
Boris German is accused (by the investigative bodies) that together with the owner of 50% (at that time) of the share and the Director of the JV "Schmeisser" Antonina Kapilyan they held a quorum without a meeting and unlawfully excluded Valery Pavlyuk from the ownership, who owned 40% of shares, and who [later] initiated the criminal case, instituted in September 2017.
As the initiator of the criminal case, Valery Pavlyuk claims that he repeatedly received threats, in particular, from Boris German.
Speaking about the threats from Boris German, Valery Pavlyuk clarifies:
"...He repeatedly threatened me to use his entire family resource to ruin my business, word for word: torture [me] with checks, hound [me] with "cops", special forces, ATO forces, officials, deputies, prosecutors, if I did not leave him and Antonina [Kapilyan] alone".
After Valery Pavlyuk was expelled from "Schmeisser", he began to have problems with his business.
Here is another excerpt from his interview:
"...Almost synchronously with the deprivation of my participation in "Schmeisser", problems began with the construction company "Marcon", which served as the main source of investment in "Schmeisser", as well as the company "Peak-Technology Group", which organizes the industrial and technological MIC park.
Since the end of 2017, "Marcon" faced a blocking of construction works on "Andreevsky downhill", where the hotel complex is being built.
To date, construction is still blocked. As a result, my co-investor, the international operator "Cadorr", left the project".
By the way, this is not a complete list of problems Valery Pavlyuk faced after his [forced] expulsion from "Schmeisser".
Boris German is a son of Lev Berkovich German, a businessman from the [wild] 90-es, the owner of the real estate trade in Ukraine. Lev German is a solid businessman with a lot of experience, besides having connections with the mafia.
In particular, Valery Pavlyuk speaks about Lev German:
"...his authority in business and political circles was well deserved, and communications and opportunities were practically unlimited.
Possibly, [he] was acquainted with a crowned king of post-Soviet mafia Seva Mogilevich...But, judging by the photos I saw in his office, he was personally acquainted and was a friend of a very wide circle of representatives of the highest political echelon - not only of Ukraine and Russia, but also the European Union. There was a whole spectrum of power - from generals to deputies and judges...
Me too used his advices until a certain point..."
Under the circumstances, it is very likely that Boris German's father, Lev German, used his political and business connections to create problems for Valery Pavlyuk because of continuing harassment of L.German's son.
Valery Pavlyuk says:
"...Boris German spoke about the widest possibilities and connections of his father.
Opportunities to create any problem through the courts, local self-government bodies, "tough gyus"...
Knowing personally Leo Berkovich [German], I do not doubt this for a second.
<...>Inspections [of my business] in violation of the legal framework began immediately after the apparent conflict over the "Schmeisser".
The physical beatings of my builders began under the guise of "public activists" actions, to which the Kiev police refused to respond.
I am sure that without such a [phone] call or influence, such behavior of law enforcement officers is impossible. Even in our days..."
Indiscriminately blaming someone (read Valery Pavlyuk) would be unreasonable, of course.
But on the other hand, the detention of Boris German can be explained including by an attempt to exert pressure on his father, Lev German (for example, to stop the obstruction of someone's business).
This kind of motive - the detention of a son to influence his father - is not new for today's Ukraine. Thus, in November 2017 a son of Arsen Avakov (Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine) was detained.
Many experts in Russia then expressed the opinion that this arrest is just an attempt to influence Arsen Avakov. Btw, Avakov Jr. himself called the case opened against him "an attempt to pressure his father".
So I think we will learn a lot more surprising about the Boris German case.
The comments to this entry are closed.
Well done b, how the fok did you see that angle?
Nevertheless, the whole story defies imagination, I mean the scrips are wilder than a 3rd rate Hollywood flick, but maybe the Ukrainian Idiot unservices watch.
Ukraine has debased itself (Further) with this, the already known connections to the vile scumbag at Bellincat, Elliot Higgins, made people wary. Now they are not wary, but fully aware of the lies.
If we keep on being bombarded like this, eventually I will doubt who I am.
Posted by: Den Lille Abe | Jun 1 2018 16:48 utc | 1