Oligarchy

[TsarSamuil]

Russia: Ex-Yukos CEO Khodorkovsky may have "ordered" 1998 murder of Nefteyugansk Mayor Petukhov.

Ruptly TV
Jun 30, 2015



Former CEO of Yukos oil company Mikhail Khodorkovsky will most likely be interrogated in a murder case and might be accused of murder, spokesman of the Russian Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin announced in Moscow, Tuesday.

[TsarSamuil]

Why does the Western liberal media love Russian criminals?

Bryan MacDonald, RT
30 Jul, 2015 14:04

When you lie down with the dogs, you wake up with the fleas. Western media is shattering its own credibility by soft-soaping post-Soviet criminals.
“We have lost all the things we had with Yeltsin. It’s a great tragedy for Russia and its people.” One reads the line twice, to absorb the distance between perception and reality, and to realise how superficial the media can be.

According to the Guardian’s Luke Harding, Sergei Pugachev uttered the above last week in Nice, France. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear Harding and Pugachev were trying to be funny. Alas, I do know better and they were not.

Anybody who knows even the smallest amount about Russia is fully aware that the 90s are regarded as the nation’s nadir. Most political figures of the age are about as well regarded as tooth-extraction, without anesthetic. Russians over-30 can’t help but shudder when the subject is broached. It was a stretch of extraordinary suffering in Russia. It was also a period when lawlessness ruled.

The Yeltsin-era is remembered as a time when the president was an alcohol-swilling halfwit, and Chechnya was trying to separate from the then chaotic Russian state. Supermarket shelves, while not necessarily empty, certainly lacked variety. Medical specialists were earning a meager $75 a month (if they were lucky) and life expectancy for males had dropped to a shocking 57 years.

By the start of Yeltsin’s second term, Russia's death rate had passed immediate post-war levels. Curable diseases such as measles and diphtheria had reached epidemic numbers unseen since the Romanov's ruled from Petrograd. At the same time, rates of cancer, heart disease and tuberculosis were the highest of any industrialized country in the world.

The birthrate had collapsed. In Moscow, it was as low as 8.2 per 1,000 population. Amidst all this, the world’s largest country was being run by a small clique of amazingly wealthy oligarchs. Some of them - like Berezovsky, Khodorkovsky and Gusinsky - became household names and hate figures for ordinary Russians. Rather than investing their stolen money in the Russian economy, the kleptocrats shipped their cash to New York and London. Naturally, Yeltsin was very popular with politicians in the West - especially in the US and Great Britain.

That Riviera Touch

Back in 2008, the Guardian hadn’t completed its commercially-driven about-turn to American style right-wing values. Still clinging to the compassionate British left philosophy that was once its trademark, it told the truth about Yeltsin’s Russia. The oligarchs were “about as popular with your average Russian as a man idly burning bundles of £50s outside an orphanage,” wrote Andrew Mueller.

In a bout of revisionism that would impress Plato himself, Harding and Pugachev want us to believe that 90’s Russia was a great place. In reality, it was a humiliated country on the verge of implosion; a wild society where basic human dignity was frequently absent. In the interview - in which Harding notably questions Pugachev in English - the Guardian reporter makes no attempt to query how the fugitive manages to live in the south of France after his passports were impounded in Britain. Nor does he establish why Pugachev would feel safer in Nice than in London. Proportionally, there are far more Russians on the Cote D’Azur than in the UK capital.

Pugachev is currently on an Interpol wanted list. In 2010, his Moscow bank Mezhprombank defaulted on its debts and lost its license. Since then, Russia’s Deposit Insurance Agency has been trying to prosecute the former billionaire. Back in March, Pugachev told the Financial Times that he couldn’t afford a lawyer. He revealed to Harding that he still had $70 million. British justice, while expensive, is not that expensive.

Harding’s interview with Pugachev was just the latest in a series of Western media puff-pieces where post-Soviet criminal suspects can have the past practically whitewashed in exchange for delivering a few anti-Putin sound bites.

It's "just not right"

Just imagine the London media reaction if Moscow-based financial newspaper Vedomosti, for example, began to soft-soap wanted English criminals because they were prepared to bad-mouth David Cameron? Russia’s ambassador to London, Alexander Yakovenko, mentioned on Twitter that “dozens of persons on Russia’s extradition list” are in the UK.

This was in response to David Cameron’s ‘crusade’ against dirty money. A movement he has joined with all the enthusiasm of a 'Sloane Ranger' sipping pints at a Workingman’s club in Sunderland.

There’s also the case of Andrei Borodin. Wanted in Russia on corruption and fraud charges, he bought Britain’s most expensive house for £140 million in Henley-on-Thames. That’s $218 million for a house. The UK media aren’t interested in where the money came from, of course. Alexander Lebedev, part-owner of Russia’s leading opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, has described Britain’s decision to grant Borodin asylum as “just not right.” It should be noted that Lebedev is no fan of the Kremlin, or President Putin.

Another former Guardian favorite was the late billionaire businessman Boris Berezovsky, who admitted to helping fix the 1996 Russian Presidential election, via his TV channels, as mentioned by Harding in 2013 (Berezovsky, wanted by the Russian authorities, died in strange circumstances in 2013). However, in Harding’s interview with Pugachev, he leaves unchallenged the latter’s assertion that 1996 was “Russia’s last free election.” Even former Yeltsin-era Minister Anatoly Chubais has admitted violations in the 1996 poll. This Exile magazine piece from 2007, by Alexander Zaitchik and Mark Ames, gives more background on how the West cynically ignored wrong-doing to serve its own ends.

The Kremlin critics do not necessarily have to be Russian. Georgia’s former President Mikhail Saakashvili, for example, is regularly wheeled out for some Putin bashing. Here in the Wall Street Journal for instance and also on BBC’s HARDtalk show. This particular episode probably should have been dubbed ‘Softtalk’ - the questions were so harmless. Yet what most Western media ignores is that Saakashvili is a wanted criminal suspect in his homeland.

The Western press uncritically accepts convicted Russian criminals and fugitives from justice as martyrs. In obviously PR-agency organized interviews, they are allowed to embellish their reputations to their heart’s content. However, there’s a proviso, they must bad-mouth Russia’s current government to the greatest possible extent. The more alleged insights into Putin’s ‘inner-circle’ the more prominent the puff piece will be. If you only care about moral standards when they can be used against your enemies, then you probably don't really care about moral standards.

[TsarSamuil]

Vulgar oligarch

That's what you call an upgrade! Russian billionaire unveils his £260m superyacht which is 300ft high, has eight floors and an underwater observation room - replacing his measly £190m boat.

By JOHN HUTCHINSON FOR MAILONLINE
11:19 GMT, 21 September 2015

[TsarSamuil]

Khodorkovsky faces new charges within 1998 assassination case – report.

RT.com
8 Dec, 2015 09:25

Former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky claims that investigators have summoned him for interrogation as a suspect within the probe into the 1998 assassination of a Siberian city mayor.

The news initially appeared on Khodorkovsky’s own Twitter. He published a scan of the summons that ordered him to appear in the Investigative Committee – Russia’s federal law enforcement agency dealing with especially important crimes – “for questioning as a suspect.”

The summons mentioned the criminal case that was opened after the murder of Vladimir Petukhov – the mayor of the Siberian city of Neftyugansk who came into conflict with Khodorkovsky and other Yukos stakeholders and managers and was killed on June 26, 1998 - Khodorkovsky’s birthday.

There is also a handwritten note on the document saying that it was not served due to the fact that Khodorkovsky was out of the country. The ex-tycoon currently permanently resides in Switzerland since his 2014 pardon by President Vladimir Putin, when he hurriedly left Russia.

The ex-tycoon called the law enforcers’ fresh move “a boring attempt to change the subject” He also assured his readers that he had no intention of meeting with investigators.

Russian police have already solved Petukhov’s assassination. In 2007 former head of Yukos security department Aleksey Pichugin was sentenced to life in prison for organizing the hit. In 2008 Russian court ruled that the killing was ordered by a key Yukos shareholder and Khodorkovsky’s personal friend Leonid Nevzlin. Nevzlin was also sentenced to life in prison for his role, but fled to Israel, which does not extradite criminals to Russia, and lives there to this day.

In June this year, the Investigative Committee spokesperson announced that the agency had reopened the Petukhov murder case in order to reexamine Khodorkovsky’s part in. In August, investigators attempted to question Khodorkovsky’s father, but he refused to talk to them, quoting the part of the Constitution that allows Russian citizens not to testify against themselves or their close relatives.

Investigators did not immediately comment on the summons sent to Khodorkovsky this week, but TASS news agency quoted a “well-informed” and unnamed source as saying that Khodorkovsky had been charged in absentia with complicity in the killing of the Neftyugansk mayor.

Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on fresh charges against Khodorkovsky on Tuesday, saying that reporters should address their questions directly to investigators. He added that when the president pardoned Khodorkovsky in 2013, he knew nothing about his possible role in Petukhov’s assassination.

“The information did not exist back then. It only surfaced now and became the reason for the actions currently taken by investigative bodies,” RIA Novosti quoted Peskov as saying.

Once Russia’s richest person, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested in October 2003. Following a lengthy trial, in 2005 he was convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to nine years in prison. In 2009, Khodorkovsky was charged with embezzlement and money laundering. The second trial ended in late 2010 with a sentence of another 14 extra years, minus the term that he had already served. After another legal battle, the final ruling cut the sentence to 11 years.

In December 2013, Khodorkovsky was pardoned by Putin and left Russia for Germany to visit his elderly mother.

[TsarSamuil]

Investigators press murder conspiracy charges against Khodorkovsky.

RT.com
11 Dec, 2015 12:11

Russia’s Investigative Committee has charged former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky with ordering the assassination of a Siberian city mayor, as well as two other hits that were unsuccessful.

The charges were pressed in absentia as the former Khodorkovsky no longer lives in Russia and refused to appear before investigators.

Spokesman for the Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, told reporters on Friday that Khodorkovsky is suspected of putting out a contract on Vladimir Petukhov, the mayor of Neftyugansk and his bodyguard Vyacheslav Kokoshkin. The former boss of Yukos is also suspected of ordering attempted hits on Yevgeniy Rybin, the chief of East Petroleum. Petukhov was killed in 1998 and Kokoshkin was wounded in the attack. Rybin survived two assassination attempts in 1998 and 1999, but his bodyguard and two other people were killed.

The spokesman said five primary suspects, including Yukos co-owner Leonid Nevzlin and head of Yukos’ security department Aleksey Pichugin had already been tried and sentenced, but the probe into their crimes continued until 2015 because investigators wanted to reveal their accomplices of and primarily who ordered the hits.

These efforts yielded results and investigators “reliably established” that Mikhail Khodorkovsky was involved in these murders and attempted murders, according to Markin. The spokesman noted that the oil magnate had apparently “played an especially active role in all this,” because “not a single important decision in Yukos was made without Khodorkovsky’s command.”

“According to the investigation, it was Yukos stakeholder and CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky who ordered his subordinates Nevzlin and Pichugin to kill Petukhov and Rybin, whose official activities had come into conflict with Yukos interests,” the spokesman said. He added it was obvious to the investigators that the crimes were motivated by material interests – the mayor wanted Yukos to stop evading taxes, while the Rybin had sued Yukos over material damages to his company.

“I want to assure you that the principle of not being able to evade punishment, which the Investigative Committee always prioritizes, will also work in this case,” Markin said.

Earlier this week, Khodorkovsky posted a tweet with a summons addressed to him, but received by his father. It demanded the ex-tycoon appear at the Investigative Committee on Friday “for questioning as a suspect.”

Khodorkovsky called the move “a boring attempt to change the subject” and assured his readers he had no intention of meeting the investigators.

Khodorkovsky was arrested in October 2003, and in 2005 he was convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to nine years in prison. In 2009, Khodorkovsky was charged with embezzlement and money laundering. The second trial ended in late 2010 with a sentence of 14 extra years, minus the term he had already served. After another legal battle, the final ruling cut the sentence to 11 years. In December 2013, Khodorkovsky was pardoned by Putin and left Russia for Germany to visit his elderly mother.

In 2007, the former head of Yukos’ security department Aleksey Pichugin was sentenced to life for organizing the 1998 killing of Vladimir Petukhov. In 2008, a Russian court ruled the killing had been ordered by a key Yukos shareholder and Khodorkovsky’s personal friend Leonid Nevzlin, who was also sentenced to life in prison for his role. Nevzlin fled to Israel, which does not extradite criminals to Russia, and lives there to this day.

[TsarSamuil]

Witnesses confirm Khodorkovsky’s role in assassinations – attorney.

RT.com
27 Jan, 2016 10:17

Several witnesses have told investigators that former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky played a crucial role in the 1998 assassination of a Siberian city’s mayor, a defense attorney has said.

“All the witnesses who testified against him are currently in custody. They say that they heard from someone that without my client’s participation this crime would never take place,” RIA Novosti quoted Khodorkovsky’s state-appointed defense lawyer as saying Wednesday.

The lawyer spoke in the Moscow City Court, which was looking into her request to cancel the previous ruling that ordered Khodorkovsky’s arrest. In late December, Russian investigators officially charged the ex-tycoon in the criminal case that was opened after the murder of Vladimir Petukhov, the mayor of Neftyugansk, who came into conflict with Yukos stakeholders and managers and was killed on June 26, 1998 – Khodorkovsky’s birthday. The charges of conspiracy to murder two or more people potentially carry a life sentence in Russia.

The defense attorney also told the court that the witnesses’ words could not be considered a direct proof of her client’s involvement in crime and asked the judge to cancel the arrest warrant and take Khodorkovsky off the wanted list. She added that he was neither hiding from investigators nor obstructing the probe. “He will not visit the investigators because he considers himself not guilty,” the lawyer told the court.

However, Prosecutor Valery Lakhtin countered this argument with a statement that a powerful and rich man such as Khodorkovsky could hinder justice if he remained at large. “If he is not taken into custody, Khodorkovsky can pressure witnesses into refusing to testify or giving false evidence. He can destroy forensic evidence or in some other way hamper the investigation process,” RIA Novosti quoted the prosecutor as saying.

The judge agreed with the prosecutor and declared the decision to order Mikhail Khodorkovsky's arrest in absentia legal.

On Tuesday, TASS quoted a source close to the investigators as saying that the probe into Khodorkovsky’s possible complicity in Petukhov’s assassination had been prolonged until July 30. Khodorkovsky’s spokesperson Kulle Pispanen has neither confirmed nor refuted this information, saying that her boss had not received any official warrants and did not maintain contact with the defense team.

[TsarSamuil]

Interpol issues search notice for Khodorkovsky – Russian agency.

RT.com
11 Feb, 2016 10:29

The Russian branch of Interpol has issued a search notice on former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, currently under investigation over the 1998 assassination of a Siberian City mayor, Interfax has reported.

“Russia’s national bureau of Interpol has put Khodorkovsky on the international wanted list because of the files that arrived from Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office and Investigative Committee. The decision has been forwarded to Interpol’s central bureau in Lyon,” Interfax reported on Thursday, quoting “a source acquainted with the situation.”

However, at the time of the Interfax report, Interpol’s web-site did not contain any information about Khodorkovsky.

The ex-tycoon’s press secretary Kulle Pispanen said in comments to RIA Novosti that she could not confirm the news about the search notice, adding that Khodorkovsky did not plan to make any changes to his current living arrangements. When reporters asked Pispanen about the possibility of Khodorkovsky applying for political asylum in a chosen country, she answered that the same question had been asked about three months back, and that the answer to it remains the same – Khodorkovsky has promised to think about it.

In late December 2015 the Russian law enforcement agency dealing with especially serious crimes – the Investigative Committee – said that the former head of the Yukos oil company had been arrested in absentia and put on an international wanted list. The agency spokesman elaborated that Khodorkovsky was suspected of conspiracy to murder two or more people – a crime that can carry a life sentence in Russia.

In June 2015 the Investigative Committee reported that it had re-opened the criminal case that was started after the murder of Vladimir Petukhov – the mayor of the Siberian city of Neftyugansk who came into conflict with Yukos stakeholders and managers and was killed on June 26, 1998, Khodorkovsky’s birthday.

Five primary suspects, including Yukos co-owner Leonid Nevzlin and head of Yukos’ security department Aleksey Pichugin, have already been tried and sentenced, but the probe into their crimes continued until 2015 because investigators wanted to reveal their accomplices and primarily who ordered the hits.

In December 2015 the Investigative Committee summoned Khodorkovsky for questioning as a suspect in Petukhov’s assassination. The ex-tycoon, who currently resides in Switzerland, called the law enforcers’ fresh move “a boring attempt to change the subject.” He also assured people that he had no intention of meeting with investigators.

Once Russia’s richest person, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested in October 2003. Following a lengthy trial, in 2005 he was convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to nine years in prison. In 2009, Khodorkovsky was charged with embezzlement and money laundering. The second trial ended in late 2010 with a sentence of another 14 years, minus the term that he had already served. After another legal battle, the final ruling cut the sentence to 11 years.

In December 2013, Khodorkovsky was pardoned by President Vladimir Putin and left Russia for Germany to visit his elderly mother. Later he moved to Switzerland, which is now his main place of residence.

[TsarSamuil]

Russia to get access to citizens' financial information in 80 countries.

RT.com
12 May, 2016 14:10

Russia’s Federal Tax Service has signed an international agreement on the automatic exchange of financial information. It will make the authorities’ job easier, as they won’t have to send requests to get information on the transactions of citizens abroad.

"In 2018, Russia will join the system of automatic exchange of tax information between tax authorities of different countries. This will allow us to obtain data on the financial accounts of taxpayers from more than 80 jurisdictions, including so-called offshores. [On Thursday], the Federal Tax Service signed the corresponding agreement, which will leave less room for tax fraud," said tax chief Mikhail Mishustin.

The first exchange of information for Russia will take place in 2018, providing access to financial transactions by Russian citizens abroad in 2017. Such exchange will be fully automated and be built on the OECD platform.

The agreement has been signed by over 100 jurisdictions, including popular offshores like Panama, the British Virgin Islands and Belize.

On July 1, the Russian amnesty on capital expires. Before that date, taxpayers who declare their foreign assets and bank accounts will be exempt from sanctions by the state for non-payment of taxes.

Last week the government said, "Russia’s accession to the international automatic information exchange system will provide an important tool for reducing the shadow economy and countering the use of illegal schemes for the expatriation of profit from the country."

The new agreement is expected to help Russia deal with the problem of capital outflow. Last year, capital flight amounted to $56.9 billion, down from $153 billion in 2014.

[TsarSamuil]

New Khodorkovsky case files forwarded to Interpol – prosecutors.

RT.com
17 May, 2016 13:25

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has sent documents to Interpol that could see the former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky put on an international wanted list over charges of complicity in the 1998 murder of a Siberian city mayor.

“The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office is continuing consultations with Interpol bodies over declaring Mikhail Khodorkovsky internationally wanted because this man is suspected of organizing the assassination of the Neftyugank mayor in 1998,” the chief spokesman of the agency, Aleksandr Kurennoy, told TASS on Tuesday. “So far, only a part of the requested documents were forwarded to Interpol, but in the nearest future an additional set of papers will be sent to Lyon.”

The Russian branch of Interpol declared Khodorkovsky “wanted” in February after local law enforcement reopened the case into the killing of murder of Vladimir Petukhov, the mayor of Neftyugansk, who came into conflict with Yukos stakeholders and managers and was killed on June 26, 1998, Khodorkovsky’s 35th birthday.

In late December 2015, the Russian law enforcement agency dealing with especially serious crimes, the Investigative Committee, said that the former Yukos chief had been arrested in absentia and put on an international wanted list. The agency spokesman elaborated that Khodorkovsky was suspected of conspiracy to murder two or more people – a crime that can carry a life sentence in Russia.

Also in December, Russian law enforcers sent the request to issue an international search notice for Khodorkovsky to Interpol’s headquarters in Lyon. Back then the agency rejected it, saying the case could be politically motivated.

In late April this year, Russian prosecutors told the press that Interpol had asked them for additional materials on the murder case in which Mikhail Khodorkovsky was a suspect. They also explained the agency’s initial refusal to put the former oligarch on the international wanted list by changes in Interpol policy that took place after its talks with Russia in Lyon a short time beforehand.

Back then, Kurennoy told reporters that Interpol had expressed a readiness to look into Khodorkovsky’s case again once they received the additional materials they have requested from Russia.

Khodorkovsky’s press secretary has said in comments that she was not aware of Interpol’s intention to reconsider issuing the search notice and attacked the report about the talks as a deliberate hoax, adding that the only information worth noticing should be coming not from sources, but from Interpol itself.

Once Russia’s richest person, Khodorkovsky was arrested in October 2003. Following a lengthy trial, in 2005 he was convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to nine years in prison. In 2009, Khodorkovsky was charged with embezzlement and money laundering. The second trial ended in late 2010 with a sentence of another 14 years, minus the term that he had already served. After another legal battle, the final ruling cut the sentence to 11 years.

In December 2013, Khodorkovsky was pardoned by President Vladimir Putin and left Russia for Germany to visit his elderly mother. Later he moved to Switzerland, which is now his main place of residence.

[TsarSamuil]

and what "charity" will this thief give the money to?..

Russia’s second-richest man pledges to leave all his money to charity.

RT.com
20 May, 2016 14:38

Billionaire Mikhail Fridman, whose net worth is $13.3 billion according to Forbes, is to leave his children out of his will. The businessman said he wants his children to create something on their own.

“I'm not a big fan of such public statements, but I can say that I am going to transfer all my money to charity. I don’t plan to transfer any money to my children,” Fridman said, responding to a question from the audience at the Forbes club.

He says giving a young person large amounts of money risks ruining his life. He also doesn’t want his children to participate in his Alfa Group business.

Fridman said he wants his children to follow his footsteps and create something of their own. Another reason for that is that he doesn’t want his elder daughter Laura, who is now 22, to become a focus of people with bad intentions.

The tycoon added that the same decision was made by his business partners. Fridman has four children. The youngest is 10 years old, the eldest is 22.

In 2016, Forbes Russia estimated Fridman’s wealth at $13.3 billion; he is ranked second among the richest Russians. He is the principal owner of Alfa Group, which includes Russia’s largest private commercial bank Alfa Bank, X5 Retail Group that has a chain of supermarkets in Russia, A1 TV Channel and the LetterOne investment holding.

[TsarSamuil]

Russian money returning from tax havens.

RT.com
27 May, 2016 14:20

The Kremlin policy of capital amnesty has started to pay off, as recent data from the Central Bank shows more money is returning to Russia from overseas tax havens.

The last two years saw a major inflow to Russia. In 2015, $5.2 billion came from the Bahamas and $1.9 billion from Bermuda, which is a 43 and 9 percent increase, respectively, Vedomosti daily reports, quoting Central Bank data.

Investment from the British Virgin Islands decreased, but that jurisdiction retained second place for direct investment in Russia, the newspaper added.

In December, businessman Gennady Timchenko reportedly restructured the ownership of his Volga Group. He now owns 99.9 percent of the company shares and the firm will pay taxes in Russia. Earlier, the investment company belonged to a Cyprus-based Volga Resources Ltd and Luxembourg’s VRN Sarl.

In 2014, another Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov and his partners restructured assets of the British Virgin Islands-based USM Holdings, transferring the controlling stake of the mining and metals company Metalloinvest and cellphone operator MegaFon to Russian subsidiaries.

The Russian amnesty on capital expires on July 1. Before that date, taxpayers who declare their foreign assets and bank accounts will be exempt from sanctions by the state for non-payment of taxes.

In May, Russia’s Federal Tax Service signed an international agreement on the automatic exchange of financial information, which will allow it to obtain data on the financial accounts of taxpayers from more than 80 jurisdictions, including offshore tax havens.

[TsarSamuil]

Over 20,000 sign US petition to probe Russian tycoon Khodorkovsky over 'paying’ for anti-Putin bill.

RT.com
18 Jun, 2016 05:42

A petition on “We the People” website wants the White House to investigate allegations that Russia’s Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who served prison time for embezzlement and is wanted on murder charges, donated large sums to lobby the US Congress for a “relations-damaging” law.

Since it was created on June 14, the petition has gathered over 21,400 signatures. It needs a total of 100,000 by July 14 for the document to earn a response from the White House.

The authors’ demand is based on the allegations that in 2005 then-Senator Barack Obama and his future opponent in the 2008 presidential election, John McCain, co-sponsored a resolution introduced by Joe Biden condemning the arrest and imprisonment of Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky while being sponsored by the man himself through the lobbying firm APCO Worldwide.

The report linked in the petition claims that Khodorkovsky channeled $110,000 to APCO Worldwide, headed by Margery Kraus, through two offshore firms, Corbiere Trust Co.Ltd and Palmus Trust Company Ltd, specifically to lobby the resolution S.RES.322 that labeled his criminal case as “politically motivated” and accused the Russian penal system of violating the rights of Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev.

The text of the resolution said that “the criminal justice system in Russia has not accorded Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev fair, transparent, and impartial treatment under the laws of the Russian Federation.”

Kraus is a trustee of the Institute of Modern Russia, chaired by Khodorkovsky’s son Pavel, and is a long-time Khodorkovsky supporter.

The petition argues that the resolution inflicted “irreparable damage to US-Russian relations” and should be considered a “form of political corruption” given the criminal background of Khodorkovsky, who spent 10 years in jail for embezzlement and money laundering before being pardoned by President Vladimir Putin in 2014. He is currently wanted in Russia on murder charges, since in late 2015 Russia’s Prosecutor General's Office charged Khodorkovsky with the arranging of the 1998 assassination of the mayor of the oil-rich city of Nefteyugansk.

A separate report surfaced claiming that Khodorkovsky, along with Bill Browder, the head of Hermitage Capital Management investment fund and employer of Sergey Magnitsky, resorted to the same scheme while lobbying the so-called Magnitsky Act.

The authors of the report cite the publicly available data indicating that Corbiere Trust, which is controlled by Khodorkovsky, was actively promoting the bill in 2011-12. In 2011, the company provided $135,000 to the company Orion Strategies for lobbying the Magntisky Act in three handouts each amounting to $45,000. In 2012 the lobbying activities didn’t subside, with Corbiere allocating $45,000 more than the previous year to endorse the anti-Russia legislation.

The report notes that Khodorkovsky’s company was also used by Browder to push the anti-Russian agenda into Congress along with Ashcroft Group, which is owned by former Senator and US Attorney General John Ashcroft.

The bill banned entry to the US to a list of Russian citizens that Washington held complicit in the death of the Russian accountant Magnitsky in prison in 2009. Its adoption led to a substantial cooling in Russia-US relations with Moscow retaliating by banning some American citizens from Russia on human rights grounds.

[TsarSamuil]

EXCLUSIVE: Bill Browder is CIA agent, recruited Navalny. Browder furious! Navalny sues!

Russia Insider
Jul 1, 2016



The former head of Boris Berezovsky's security service spoke about the relationship between famous blogger Alexey Navalny and the British MI6 intelligence service. He succeeded in exporting about 60 servers containing a huge amount of correspondence and documents.

Report of agent Solomon about ending Navalny's verification and the assignment of the pseudonym "freedom".

The agent got approval for a confidential cooperation with Alexei Navalny. It was mentioned that it is necessary for Navalny to arrange financial support to carry out the tasks within the framework of special operation “Shiver” to undermine the existing constitutional order in the Russian Federation. Navalny has a nickname of "freedom"

Agent Solomon is the notorious William Browder, head of Hermitage Capital, inspirer of the Magnitsky act, and a person who made a fortune in Russia in the 90's.

Correspondence between Navalny and Browder in 2006:

"Let me very frankly formulate what I want to offer. I will teach you to grab the monsters of the Russian economy by the balls. Soon you will become a hero of the minority shareholders and can have their reputational capital. Probably, and political. In return I ask you to support me when my problems come out. Am I clear?" asks Browder to Navalny. "Your information in exchange for the loyalty of my potential. However, I'm afraid you banked on the wrong figure. I could have problems even in my party. There I seem to be a nationalist," — says Navalny.

Then, under the leadership of Browder, and with his financial support, the still unknown blogger opened the cycle of revelations. At the same time the scene appears banker Vladimir Ashurkov. He dealt with money matters for "revelatory activities".

"Agent "freedom" was acquainted with the first phase of the secret denunciation of the conviction of corruption and embezzlement of Russian state assets. To implement the first phase of the plan, agent "freedom" was funded to the amount of 100 million rubles. The first part of funds, 7 million rubles, will be transferred to our authorised representative of the Moscow Helsinki Group until January 26th. Agent A. Belt".

The activities of the Hermitage Capital in Moscow has been completely phased out as auditor Sergey Magnitsky was appointed to clean up any traces that remained.

"People say that he was Browder's lawyer. This is an outright lie! He was an accountant, who was engaged in tax evasion for Browder, i.e. registered companies through which money was withdrawn from. As I was told by Magnitsky himself, these millions were withdrawn by his own chief, who, as I learned later, was Mr. Browder," recalls journalist Oleg Lurie.

When Magnitsky was arrested, Navalny wrote to Browder, "William, sincerely sorry. People get used to like those who suffer in our country I'm not saying that the suffering of Sergei is your trump card, but the more these journalists and people will learn about this suffering, the less they will want to know what is happening".

Browder's goal was to create the maximum noise possible with information, however the situation abroad with the "legal auditor" responded little.

"20th September 2009. To the Director of Central Intelligence.

A conversation between agent Solomon and an employee of MI6.

Further growth of public resonance will be gone unless we make adjustments to the plans of our ongoing special events. In his message to the agent, based on information available for it, he noted the deteriorating health of Magnitsky. It was proposed to the agent, through authorized persons in the penitentiary system of Russia, to organize a disruption of medical assistance to Magnitsky. The deterioration of his health will be designated as a medical error that could lead to his death. Please pay special attention to this information", — stated the documents.

Magnitsky was literally sacrificed. In November 2009, he died in the hospital of the "Matrosskaya Tishina" detention facility, and Browder announced that the prisoner was tortured, he was also refused medical care. And then there was the "Magnitsky list".

Here is what is said in the secret documents about it:

"January 23, 2010. Sash reports on a meeting with the agent "freedom", during which he gave the agent $300,000 for the upcoming program to support the "Magnitsky list" on social networks. The report of the agent Sash also said that the project is linked with the death of Sergei Magnitsky, and already in the early stages it greatly undermined the credibility of Russian citizens in the Russian judicial and law enforcement system. This leads to growing chaos in the Russian judicial and law enforcement system, a reduction of its credibility, and a reduction in the credibility of Vladimir Putin.

[TsarSamuil]

Russian Film Director censored by EU: Western media are misrepresenting Magnitsky - Browder case.

Russia Insider
Jul 6, 2016



Director Andrei Nekrasov: I am called a traitor for the truth about Magnitsky’s case

Why an investigative movie of the former Kremlin accuser is banned in the West

Komsomolka talked with the opposition director Andrei Nekrasov who filmed “The Magnitsky Act – Behind the Scenes”. Surprisingly this investigative movie fell under the harshest censorship in the West - its showings are being cancelled. Even though the film sheds light on why American financier William Browder, who made a fortune in Russia, is now taking revenge on Moscow. He is demanding from Western countries Magnitsky Lists - sanctions against Russian citizens. In the US such “list” is already enacted.

[TsarSamuil]

The Turning Point - Putin's new powers. Evgeny Fedorov.

New Insight
Oct 22, 2016



Recent anti-Russia hysteria originates from a fundamental power shift at the 2016 Duma elections, in which V.V.Putin finally gained control over the legislature. Big developments are coming, explains Duma deputy Evgeny Fedorov.

Senior personnel changes have already taken place at the Central Bank and the Dept of Education, while a number of Duma members at risk of manipulation due to vulnerable overseas family and financial ties have been excluded from the Duma in the latest election.

Mr Fedorov sees Washington's lines of control into the Russian state, economy and society being systematically severed, 25 years after they were established following the US’s self-declared Cold-war victory in 1991.

Several nationally-orientated parliamentary bills originating from NOD have been passing into law in Russia along what Mr Fedorov calls the country’s now irreversible path of resovereignization.