So I figure it's been a while since I've updated this thing, and with so much going on in my life right now, why not? Lately, I've been doing a whole lot of nothing. I moved down to Stamford, CT out of the hopes of finding a job, but am still looking. I have a few good leads in the hedge fund world, let's hope that pays off. Otherwise life is utterly boring. One incident in the recent news has gotten my attention (As well as the rest of the world's): the whole Litvinenko poisoning thing.
It's very strange the way the media reported this incident. Almost from the beginning, headlines all over the world directly accused Putin of having a hand in Litvinenko's death, however no one in the west reported any of the soundbites coming out of the Kremlin. All we got were a bunch of quotes from Berezovsky's cronies, who have a well know axe to grind with the Kremlin. Isn't that what you call biased reporting?
In any case, here is the story of Boris Berezovsky, in the west he is lauded as a vocal critic of Putin. Berezovsky patronizes a large group of Russian emigres critical of the current regime in the UK. He in fact put up the cash to get Litivinenko's books published. While many in the west embrace Berezovsky for his dissidence, he is in fact a far greater stooge than Putin ever war.
To begin with, Berezovsky rose to power during the chaotic privitizations of the 1990s. He was one of the handful of Russians, who through graft, underhanded dealings and general corruption was able to purchase enormous tracts of Russia's industrial base for next to nothing. Later American journalist Paul Klebnikov alledged in his book on Berezovsky that he was little more than a mobster and a goon. Supprisingly, Klebnikov turned up dead, riddled with bullets a short while later, but I am jumping ahead here.
By the late 1990s, Berezovsky was one of the richest men in Russia. He managed to attain his status through his close connections to the Yeltsin regime. Then in 2000, he suddenly fled Russia, after being rightfully charged with corruption. Many in Russia believe Berezovsky was forced to flee not because of his gross corruption, and general raping of Russia, but because he was planning a coup to overthrow Putin. Given his past 6 years in the UK, this seems highly probable.
Since his exile, Berezovsky has remained in assylum in Britain, funding a group of anti-Putin dissidents like Litvinenko.
Anyway, as I alledged earlier, in 2000, American journalist and editor of Forbers in Russia Paul Klebnikov published a book that was exetremely critical of Berezovsky. In the book, Klebnikov exposed Berezovsky for the gangster and goon that he really was. In 2004, Klebnikov was brutally murdered contract style, by a hit squad. A curious thing happened following Klebnikov's murder. It was clear as day that Berezovsky hated Klebnikov and had more than enough reason to want him dead. Hoever, after the murder a curious thing happened: all of the international media criticism was directed at the Kremlin, and not an accusatory word appeared in print directed at Berezovsky, the most likely suspect.
The Western Media took the Klebnikov murder as an oppurtunity to boost circulation by printing reader-friendly anti-Russian articles, while they omitted the fact that the British government was the one protecting the likely culprit. Countless stories poured out about the lack of the freedom of press in Russia. The most absurd part about the media shit-storm that resulted from Klebnikov's death was that Kelbnikov was pro-Putin. Yet not a word about that appeared in print, as everyone tacitly put the blame on Putin. In the end, Berezovsky, the likely culprit, got out of Klebnikov's murder unscathed, while the Kremlin's reputation was severly tarnished. What kind of message did we send to Berezovsky?
Now lets fast-forward 2 years. Both Politkovskaya and Litvinenko were relatively minor Putin critics. Niether of them had much of a following at the time of the their murder. Litvinenko was never much regarded as a critic in Russia, and as the war in Chechnya was essentially over, Politkovskaya was losing relevancy fast. At the time of her murder she was working on a story detailing Razman Kadyrov's brutal methods of oppression in Chechnya, but that's not news to anyone. In fact it's already extremely well known to anyone who has been following the war. Litvinenko had published a couple books, one of which was just a rehashing of Kremlin conspiracy theories about how they were responsible for the Moscow appartment bombings... woo hoo. In any case, it was clear to anyone looking that neither Politkovskaya nor Litvinenko were all that important critics of Putin at this point, and they were of little use to Putin's opposition ALIVE.
Both Politkovskaya and Litvinenko were killed within days of major conferences scheduled for Putin, and neither went well. Seem a bit suspicious? Politkovskaya was killed the good old-fashioned way, by a gun, whereas Litvinenko was killed in a much more exotic way, poisoned with Polonium 210. This begs another question. Why would you kill someone with Polonium 210? Keep them alive for 2 weeks dying a horific painful death? It's only common sense that if you are going to kill someone, you want to make it as quick and natual looking as possible to arrouse the least possible amount of suspicion. Additionally, given how exotic Polonium is, suspicion would inevitably be directed at a major government who could obtain the stuff. Nevertheless, it's not unlikely that Berezovsky with his billions of dollars would also be able to get his hands on the stuff. And the truth probably lies there. It made no sense for the Kremlin to go around whacking Politkovskaya, Klebnikov or Litvinenko. They gained nothing from it, except a ton of bad PR. Berezovsky has clearly tried to undermine the Kremlin in the past, could this be his latest attempt?
