This turned in to the parentheses post. But its too late to re-write and there are more important things to do.
I have it on reasonably good authority that our the victim had not been shy about handing it out . In a (failed deal) when asked if he had any “skeletons in the closet” he (apocryphally) replied that he would never keep them there.
Notwithstanding, in the days between Putin's appointment and his election (oh those innocent days of winter 2000) whilst traveling in St. Petersburg I was somewhat shocked to come across a number of billboards; not overly professional (oh why does that seem so true today) but the message was clear;
“We must and have to control the people” (if you agree that the“narod” are the “people”)Whilst the sentiment did not exactly fit with my liberal European views of democracy, the sentiment was understandable at the end of the Yeltsin-years.
But now as the VVP era enters its lame duck years, where are those who “must and have to control the controllers?” As an aside “lame duck” is a very lame analogy in VVP's case. More that he can no longer, if “he” ever could, keep a lid on it all. And the “all” seems to be delivered from a Makarov these days.
However despicable Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld (and you have to love the Germans for the torture indictment) et al the narod have, at least, fired a well-aimed shot over their collective bow. With luck, the British public will do the same to Blair for his foreign affairs lies and manipulation, and to Brown for his attempt to take Britain back to, well France.
Not that VVP's friends and colleagues are overly keen on using luck as a way of electing the supreme rent-taker President.
I was in danger of getting in to a “lack of democracy” rant there. I am not sure that checks and balances are exclusive to democratic institutions; witness the early VVP-years. What Russia needs is more checks and balances, not more cheques and balances (apologies).
And until it does the skeletons will be found in the podezds not the closets.
“The director general of a Russian oil consultancy company has been killed in an apparent contract killing in Moscow, officials say.
Zelimkhan Magomedov, 50, was shot twice in the head, prosecutors told Itar-Tass news agency.
Ms Magomedov was the head of the National Oil Institute Fund, which seeks to develop small and medium-sized oil and gas producers.
The killing was described as a ”contract hit“ by officials.
”A criminal case has been opened over the contract hit,“ a representative of the city prosecutor's office told Tass.
Ms Magomedov's murder is the latest in a series of apparent professional killings in Moscow.
Last month, campaigning Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead in the city, while in September, Andrei Kozlov, the deputy chairman of Russia's central bank, was killed by gunmen.
The recent murders are reminiscent of a wave of assassinations which swept through the city in the 1990s, targeting businessmen and bankers.”
[composed and posted with ecto]
[composed and posted with ecto]
Technorati Tags: Corruption, death, Putin, Russia
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