Comments on: The Real Reason Why Putin Arrested Yukos Oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky: An eXile Classic

By: John Smith

John Smith — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:07:04 +0000

Is it just me, or is it totally hilarious that Putin is going after all the Jewish oligarchs, but doesn’t seem to be going after the Russian oligarchs with nearly as much vigor? And then he takes his shirt off for picture ops to show how big, verile, and white (true Russian) he is. So epic. Hail Putin!

By: Mike Z

Mike Z — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:17:07 +0000

btw, Russian Dude, your sugarcoated view of modern Russia is just the sort of in-denial outlook the article talks about. It’s funny how you don’t notice that by throwing around pro-Putinistic propaganda you actually prove Ames’ point, but then again, if you believe that Putin is this great-guy leader who’s strengthening Russia, you’re obviously not the sharpest tool in the box. As a Muscovite who’s been all around Russia, I can say that a) in terms of personal freedoms such as speech, press, and gatherings Russia is a hard-nosed dictatorship, and b) Putin hasn’t done anything positive that wouldn’t have happened without him.

By: Mike Z

Mike Z — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 11:55:04 +0000

In that book Friedman wrote, “Red Mafia”, about Russian mobsters in the US, Khodor gets some page space as a major scammer.

By: Bek

Bek — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:52:24 +0000

We all forget that khodorkovsky funded the biggest charity in Russia and was bent on raising a “free” generation of people. We also forget that in 200s hodiors oil company was the only transparent oil company in Russia. And if he had transported oil to china and joined with sibnedt which was his big plan he would have a transparent oil company the government couldn’t fuck around with

By: Russian Dude

Russian Dude — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:11:50 +0000

Mark, I respectfully disagree. The article’s ok, but the conclusion blows. First, Kremlin lost the war to Russian Hackers, so with the exception of Nazism, racial violence and child pornography, Russia’s Internet is unregulated. Shit man, you wouldn’t have been kicked out of Russia, had you not gone around calling KGB “whores”.

Second, Putin is actually doing good things for Russians. We’re not fucking morons, and we support him. If we didn’t support Putin, why the fuck would we vote? Everyone already knew Putin’s nominee, Medvedev was going to win. “Putin vuybral i narod podderzhal”. “Putin picked, and the people supported”. Although if Russia continues to experience economic downturn, Medvedev will have to go.

Third, I think Khodorkovsky’s arrest was great. Under Bush Big Oil ruled the US. How do you know that under Khodorkovsky, Russia would not have invaded some oil rich country, like the US did?

Fourth, the reason for the lack of free speech in Russia, is because a lot of independent minded people were lost in the turmoil of the 1990s. The number of independent journalists fucked by the Yeltsin Regime in the First Chechen War is astonishing. And by fucked I mean the government’s cooperation in turning them over to Chechen rebels.

Fifth, the people’s support is a form of checks and balances. You think Putin could fight the Mafia so damn efficiently, if he couldn’t rely on the Russian people for support? You think that without Russians on the Internet, as well as people like you, Putin would be able to fend off the PR offensive during the war with Georgia? I’d be surprised if Putin wasn’t polling Russians, to see if they approve of his policies or not.

Look man, I respect your newspaper. I do. But in this case your conclusion is shit. Decent article though.

By: Joe fuckface

Joe fuckface — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 05:00:51 +0000

The only relevant question is this: Who, with all their power and might, is Russia better off in the hands of? Free market oil tycoons, or a strongman authoritarian leader? This may have been a “fucked either way” situation, but certainly being fucked in the ass with a pencil is not as bad as being fucked in the ass with a steak knife.

By: Dr. Luny

Dr. Luny — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:23:27 +0000

The same sort of thing happend in the US around 2000, only the oil oligarchs won. All they had to do was align themselves with wall street and the insane militarist faction and steal an election, no one had to go to prison. After all, if we started sending oligarchs to prison for corruption, things could get messy. Much better to keep up the illusion that our oligarchs are good principled Horation Alger charachters. These Russians are backwards amatuers by comparison, America maintains both authoritarian control and the illusion of a free, functioning democracy, and is therefore in a much more stable position.

By: az

az — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:13:23 +0000

Well, it’s true that in Russia the checks and balances were between big business and government business at that point, but in America it would be more honest to say that power is checked and balanced by big business and 300 million idiots on both sides.

This is what the eXile needs, really, more articles about inter-faction conflicts like this where no matter who wins, we still lose, instead of these Henry Clay Frick-type stories about big evil oligarchs swindling the people and corrupting officials, because all these do is fill the likes of us with impotent rage because there is nothing we can do about it because we have no contingency plan after the “we get the pitchforks and run the kleptocrats out of town, freeing us forever” thing is done. So in the meanwhile, why not just take the elites and fuck with them, dear eXile writers?

By: Antonio Garcia

Antonio Garcia — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:39:18 +0000

I remember reading that article a few years ago about a bunch of Russian oil tycoons going to jail or something like that