Putin May Use Credit Squeeze to `Destroy' Oligarchs

[depakid]

Source: Bloomberg

Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000 vowing to destroy Russia's oligarchs ``as a class.'' Within two years, he'd driven two into exile and imprisoned another. Now, he may use the global markets meltdown to finish the job.

The $50 billion that the prime minister and President Dmitry Medvedev have pledged to lend cash-strapped companies will extend state control over business leaders. Billionaires seeking bailouts -- including Oleg Deripaska, Russia's richest man, and Mikhail Fridman -- will have to give authorities veto power over their companies' financing decisions.

``This will give the state more leverage over the country's biggest companies and main industries,'' said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib Financial Corp in Moscow. ``In 2008, there is only one real oligarch: the state.''

All this marks a reversal from a decade ago, when oligarchs bankrolled Boris Yeltsin's almost-insolvent government. As recently as April, Russia's 100 wealthiest citizens had a combined fortune equivalent to about a third of the economy, Forbes magazine estimated.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aR7ZSZbKh0so&refer=home

[tom_paine]

1. Putin showing once again he matches Bush step for step in BushPutinist Tyranny

And while Putin sounds more straightforward in his pronouncements of his objectives, one can be certain that BushPutinist Tyrants share a desire to crush their own people back into submissions.

That is definitely what the Bushies' moves these last 8 years have been about, and thus is is probably so that is what Putin's Bush-like actions are about and have been about.

[Baby Snooks]

4. Who do you think introduced Russia and China to oligarchy?

Their oligarchies are the same as ours. They are OILgarchies. And oilgarchs don't start out in communist countries with state money but rather foreign money. Connect the dots. They will lead you where they always lead you. To the Bushes. And the money that follows the Bushes.
Sometimes directly. Sometimes indirectly. Sometimes through the CIA.

And don't assume the Big Bad Wolf is eating Little Red Riding Hood. Little Red Riding Hood may be eating Big Bad Wolf.

Maybe what Putin is doing is ensuring Russia doesn't go the way of the United States. China most likely will also "crack down" on their oligarchists as well. They do tend to have a problem with citizens who take the "let them eat cake" attitude towards the rest of their society. The state does well by the oligarchists but of course as is the case with democracy, greed sets in and the oligarchists believe government should serve them. We moved from democracy to fascism. It's more difficult to move from communism to fascism. Just doesn't work well. Capitalism amazingly does work well with communism. But then oligarchy really isn't capitalistic. It is monopolistic.

[tom_paine]

14. Well, the Chinese under Mao and the Russians under Stalin were brutal beyond imagining

and without OUR help.

Having said that, I completely agree with your Red Riding Hood/Big Bad Wolf analogy.

Nothing is as it seems...not even close to what we peasants are told. At least in the old days, M$M might have withheld facts, but we could be reasonably certain (always with notable exceptions) that what facts they did give were good, and told accurately at least part of the story if not the whole.

It was a brief Murrow-Cronkite period, but now the pendudlum has swung the other way and we now have basically Third-World Propaganda with First-World Celeb and Enetertainment/Sports "news".

Infoganda. Anyway, 'nuff said about that.

To be honest, our media is such shit that it is difficult to know where along the dialPutin truly lies. This is all speculation on my part based on Amerikan Samizdat and foreign media sources, mostly.

You are right about one thing for sure. That is that it almost looked like the Russians were struggling to follow our footsteps into American-style capitalistic "freedom", post WWII - 12/12/2000 style. Which I happen to think, warts and all, was more good than bad by far and pretty damned close to real freedom for many, especially after the civil rights revolution of the 60s, now being overturned by other means by the Bushies.

But back to my point, we gavethe Russians no help in findingtheir way. We basically let them fall prey to the Russian Mafia until Putin came riding along. And, coincdience or not, yes, from where I am standing it is Putin who followed Bush into tyranny's footsteps this time, and not the other way around.

Maybe Putin IS a "new FDR for Russia" as he styles himself. I am not so sure. He displays many autocratic features more common to Bushies than FDR. So I am far from buying what Comrade Putin is selling any more than I am buying what Comrade Bush is sellling.

And I also agree that the Chinese and Russia model is a sister to the Amerikan model.

Have you read Dr. Sheldon Wolin's book on this new form of totalitarianism, which you call communistic capitalism (or fascistic, in the case of Bushmerika)? He calls it Inverted Totalitarianism.

I think we three are basically describingthe same thing (though I do not agree with Dr. Wolin's conclusions about much of pre-Bush American History, he is too extreme but correct in part, he is also spot on about post-Bush Amerikan "history".

http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/20080515_chalmers_johnson_on_our_managed_democracy

[annabanana]

2. It's a pity that Russia has no framework of self government to

fall back on in times like these..

Calling all Constitutional Carpenters!!

[sofa king]

3. Just like Ivan the Terrible and the Boyars.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3061268185454718323

(Awesome movie, by the way. Have a nice morning.)

[NOW tense]

5. Shouldn't the headline read: Putin attempts to become sole oligarch?

[NorthernSpy]

6. or, the Soleigarch, if you will...

;)

[WriteDown]

15. Funny!

:)

[doc03]

7. Russian billionaire Alexei Mordashov is my employer

Alexei Mordashov bought the company I work for back in August for $1.4 B., he now owns about 1/4 of the US steel industry. He has also bought Rouge Steel in Detroit, Bethlehem Steel's largest plant in Baltimore and has built a new steel plant in Mississippi. Mordashov is #18 on the Forbes billionaire list with $21.2 B he is number 3 in Russia. So I guess my new boss may be Vladimir Putin, so in other words the Russian government will own 1/4 of the US steel industry. I guess if we get in a war with Russia I will be working for the enemy. Oh, an Indian company owns about 1/3 of the US steel industry.

[Baby Snooks]

9. Best laid plans...

It wasn't supposed to work that way. We were supposed to end up owning them. They have all ended up owning us. And of course you have made a point that was made to Congress that Congress for some reason overlooked. We not only have foreign investors buying up American industry, we have foreign governments which in many cases are also buying up American industry. The governments of Russia and China in particular. If at some point they decide to seize the assets, they will.

In case no one has never realized this, the Bushes who have engineered most of this from the moment Prescott Bush left Ohio really are not the brightest light bulbs. Some at this point wonder if they even have filaments. The neo-conservative movement is merely the latest manifestation of the maniacal visions of Samuel Bush and will go the way of so many others like the John Birch Society. As will the Bushes themselves. Someone should put up a stone marker in Washington just the same. "Beware Those Named Bush."

There has been a call by quite a few countries for a move back to protectionism. In reality, there's little left to protect. Argentina owns something in Brazil and Brazil owns something in China and China owns something in Denmark and Denmark owns something in England. And on and on and on it goes. About the only real stability is in the overnight currency markets. And the Hong Kong banks where most of the overnight trading is handled. Trillions of dollars changing hands at the changing of the business day. Much of it being loaned overnight. Not so many trillions of dollars of late. That's why the credit market is in the shape it's in. Those who lost refuse to lose any more. Those who didn't lose refuse to risk losing anything at all.

We are headed for bad times.

[doc03]

10. When we had a meeting with our new CEO of American

operations back in August he told us we are now the #4 steel producer in the US, #2 in Russia and #2 in Italy. He said our next project was to get a coal supply and 3 days later we buy a coal company in the US. With the value of the dollar in the toilet they are picking up US industries at fire sale prices. Alexei Mordashov is only 42 years old and worth $21.2B and has 100,000 employees not bad for a young guy.

[Peace Patriot]

12. It just makes you want to laugh--somewhat maniacally. Do we even HAVE a country

any more, to wear a "flag pin" in salute of?

I am constantly reminded of the tyranny of the Church of Rome over all of Europe during the Middle Ages. It was an international cabal of completely undemocratic rulers--the Popes--not even crowned king by local lords, or cheered by local populations. They were above and beyond, but also, within, local regions and countries, controlling rulers, laws, literacy and war machines. They were acquisitive--accumulating vast tracks of land and stores of wealth, wherever they operated, and held P.R. control of over the human mind, much like our Corpo/fascists and their 'news' monopolies and P.R. departments do. Their selling point was that they held the only keys to Heaven. Be baptized, and pay them ransom, or be burned forever in the fires of Hell. The religion of today, preached by the Corpos, is as virulent, if more consumerist: buy, buy, buy and you, too, will be rich. Illogical but effective. Give the Church vast fertile lands, cathedrals, monasteries and generous stipends, and gain jewels on your crown in Heaven. Defy them, and suffer eternal damnation.

Think about our politicians and how they toady to global corporate predators--it's as if the fires of Hell threaten them if they were to speak a word of truth. And aren't a whole lot of us brainwashed by the Corpo/fascist RELIGIOUS Doctrine, that democracy = predatory capitalism--and all the Articles of Faith that are imposed upon us, about private ownership, rugged individualism, and swashbuckling codpiece 'heroes' who shoot first and ask questions later--or never ask questions. Might makes right. "The only good Indian is a dead Indian." "They hate us for our freedom." Buy, buy, buy and you, too, can be rich! And not go to Hell.

It took a thousand years for the progressive and the enlightened to overthrow the tyranny of the Church. We have a similar problem, I'm afraid, in the global corporate predators who rule over us, and now rule the world.

[Swagman]

8. poor old Boris-he was drunk most of the time. Bring him a bottle of good vodka

and the next thing you know, you own the state railways.

[Joanne98]

11. YAY!

[Blue_Tires]

13. i thought he WAS an oligarch? (or at least friends with them)?

call it what it is: a shakedown for a few euros...