IS THIS THE TRUTH ABOUT VLADIMIR PUTIN?

Putin as a Russian Hell's Angel

 

 

More than one individual has paid dearly for trying to believe in Vladimir Putin.

 

All of you may recall in the early 2000’s, when President George W. Bush had looked into the Russian, Vladi­mir Putin’s eyes, he said he had managed "to get a sense of his soul”.  Bush had said Putin was a man, “deeply committed to his country and to the best interests of his country."  However, ten years later, when Vice President Joe Biden visited Putin, he apparently determined that Bush must have been hallucinating.

Biden recalled his 2011 episode in a New Yorker Magazine profile:  “I had an interpreter, and when [Putin] was showing me his office I said, ‘It’s amazing what capitalism will do, won’t it? A magnificent office!’ Putin just laughed. “As I turned, I was this close to him.” Biden held his hand a few inches from his nose. “I said, ‘Mr. Prime Minister, I’m looking into your eyes, and I don’t think you have a soul.’  “He looked back at me, and he smiled, and he said, ‘We understand one another.’ ”  Biden then said, “This is who this guy is!”

Apparently, Putin is proving that Dubya Bush was wrong, as usual, and Vice President Biden was correct.

Many people have been fooled by this former Soviet KGB spy. 

In 2001, Mr. Bill Browder, then the head of the largest western investment fund in Russia, argued to the Washington Post that Putin was a reformer who was replacing Russia’s post-Soviet chaos with liberal capitalism and the rule of law. Yeah Right!

But by 2005, where Browder had been a major supporter, Putin then turned on him, and Brower was banned from entering Russia.  While he was being banned, his companies were seized and used by corrupt officials to steal $230 million in Russian tax receipts.  Much of that money has been rumored to have gone directly to Mr. Putin.

When a young lawyer hired by Browder exposed the whole scheme, he was arrested in Moscow by those same officials.  He eventually was so brutally mistreated that he died in prison. 

Since the death of the lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, in 2009, Browder has devoted himself almost entirely to becoming the scourge of Magnitsky’s killers, and of Putin. Thanks to Browder’s efforts, the US Congress passed a law in 2012 mandating sanctions against those involved in the Magnitsky case, along with other Russian human rights abuses.  Dozens of Russian individuals have been subjected to visa bans and asset freezes.

Browder has also posted Internet videos that document the astonishing criminality of the Russian police, Russian tax officials and their judges.  These videos are available to those with Internet access within Russia.

A book by Browder is also now available that details what he went through with Putin.  It is touted today as “required reading for any Westerners considering doing business with the Kremlin or Putin in general”.

Browder writes, “I naively thought that Putin was acting in the national interest and was genuinely trying to clean up Russia.  Only Putin was not trying to make the oligarchs honest; he was trying to make them his.”  Browder’s goal to raise Russian corporate standards was a threat to Putin’s power and the ability for Putin to continue acquiring his own personal riches.

Browder himself, along with the deceased lawyer Magnitsky, in absentia, were both subjected to a Moscow show-trial where they were both “convicted” of the same scam they exposed. Russia has twice petitioned Interpol to issue a “red notice” for the arrest of the London-based Browder, giving him the title of his own book. Interpol has refused the petitions.

In trying to understand Putin, Westerners, especially those with the power such as President Obama and the European Prime Ministers, need to listen to Mr. Browder.  Per Browder, “Putin plays by the rules of the prison yard: Any sign of weakness is an invitation for his further Russian aggression. Only resolute counterforce can alter his behavior.”  This explains his action in both the Ukraine and the Crimea.  Today, Putin is a billionaire and he could care less if the US And European sanctions are doing his country’s economy harm.  He has his money, so he will stay with doing whatever he can to get back as much of what was lost when the Berlin Wall came down with the demise of the  former Soviet Union. 

The one thing that is still true about Putin is that he truly wants Russia to again be a major Eastern super power, of course with Putin at the helm.

Browder writes today that, “I have to assume there’s a very real chance that Putin or members of his regime will have me killed someday. But if I am killed, you will know who did it.”

This individual is someone who has learned the truth about Vladi­mir Putin the hard way.  The hope is that others will take heed to what Mr. Browder has learned and will act accordingly.  But that could literally mean another Cold War or something worse.  We must remember that Putin is a man with nukes, and he has his hands within reach of the nuclear button.  Putin has shown that he generally shows no emotion regarding the deaths of the innocents that have occurred in the Ukraine and the Crimea.

As Vice President Biden had said to Vladimir, “…I’m looking into your eyes, and I don’t think you have a soul. This is who this guy is!”” 

Point well taken.

Copyright G.Ater  2015