Jailed Russian billionaire on hunger strike (The Guardian)

[Up2Late]

(Oh No, a Jailed Billionaire on a Hunger Strike, Oh the Humanity. I don't know if I could be any LESS sympathetic.)

Jailed Russian billionaire on hunger strike

Tom Parfitt in Moscow
Wednesday August 24, 2005
The Guardian

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed Russian billionaire, announced last night that he was going on hunger strike in protest at his business associate being moved into an isolation cell. The tycoon launched his protest - in which he has vowed to deny himself water as well as food - with an attack on President Vladimir Putin.

Khodorkovsky said the recent decision to move him to a cell shared with 10 others and to put Platon Lebedev in an isolation cell was punishment for his outspoken attacks on the president. "Let the Kremlin believe that by doing this it is demonstrating power when in fact it is a demonstration of their weakness and fear," he announced through his lawyers.

"It is obvious they threw my friend into the isolation cell to take revenge against me for articles and interviews," his statement said. Khodorkovsky, 42, had confirmed that he would stand in a byelection to the state duma lower house of parliament in December. He could be allowed to run because his appeal is pending.

The former head of Yukos oil was convicted of fraud and tax evasion and jailed for nine years in May but has maintained his innocence, insisting he was prosecuted because he supported the opposition. Lebedev also got nine years.

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,2763,1554984,00.html?gusrc=rss>
(more at link above)

[JohnLocke]

1. I support Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

He's standing up to the Putin's autocratic regime. Keep it up.

[Up2Late]

4. You've got to be joking.

Khodorkovsky and his Oil Corporation buddies stole Billions from the people of Russia.

Want to guess what city in the World that has the Most Billionaires.

Times up, it's Moscow.

I'm not a big fan of Putin, but he did the right thing putting at least ONE of these Corporate Criminals in jail for a while.

He had to regain some sort of control of an out of control situation.

[burrowowl]

6. I'm with you

see post 5.
I'm 58 but at 10 I knew what it was all about.
Of course being part Mexican and discussions of U$ corporatist invasions helped.

:loveya:

[Up2Late]

10. kick n/t

:kick:

[Kicked in the Taco]

11. Very well said! eom

[Trillo]

7. I think a lot of the corporate aristocracy

just don't get how their actions affect others. Their idea of morals appears to be if its not specifically stated as unlawful, then whatever they do in pursuit of more money than any one person needs is justified. Is this simply because they can?

In the case of convicted criminals, no matter their previous economic stature, it likely means that laws were explicity broken, if they were honestly tried and prosecuted. Another line, this one of legal consensus and agreement, was breeched.

In the U.S., as probably everywhere else, Corporatists use their MONEY to influence the laws in their favor, so they can earn and accumulate more MONEY. It appears they buy the best laws their money can buy, and it appears they will even bring us pseudo-elections.

The obscene accumulation of capital seems to be an anti-social disorder of some kind. I suspect a lot of these people were seriously damaged when they were young by improper mind-programming, or they received much unintentional training, and instead of going within for answers and healing, they strike out at others in ways that inflate their own egos and fatten their own wallets.

I don't know much about this guy on hungerstrike in Russia, I read a little about him in the news months back, but instead of being concerned about humanity, he's apparently cared about MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, else why would he have accumulated so much of it?

They don't get that we're all connected to each other, and they don't get that their actions of accumulation directly and indirect affect other human beings, both in market altering ways, but also in psychosocial ways. They convince themselves that its okay to pay the worker a pittance, but pay themselves truly astronomical sums. They don't care that the middle class disappears.

It does bother me when anyone seeks to end their life, in a sad way, but that's because I have compassion. I would never seek to interfere in another human's decision to end their own life, however. (this, I guess, makes me odd) Judging by the corporate criminals in the U.S. that have only concerned themselves with THEIR MONEY at everyone else's expense, why do they deserve expressions of support? They have their MONEY, they made their choices. Isn't that enough for them? Why do they need more, more, more?

Why do they need SO MUCH more than others?

[Sandpiper]

2. I support the voluntary starvation of all corporate crooks

Starve on Mikhail!

[salib]

3. Yes!

Starve on.

He is just keeping himself in the news. Press coverage of cell transfers were not enough, and neither was his "writing" (including a call for support of the Communist Party), so now it is a hunger strike. Pathetic.

Only thing more pathetic would be if the Communist Party actually bit on this one and acknowledged the "call."

[burrowowl]

5. ROTFLOLMAO!

Yes, how many poor pensioners in Russia starve because of his ilk and it is not voluntary!
Sympathy for a laissez-faire, neo-liberal, oligarch gangsta-mobster
Love your post
: Give me a break!
When will Americans learn the meaning of words, damn taxi drivers, maids, etc. in Mexico City know what these words mean and what kind of ilk they designate. Like one can have more intelligent and informed conversation with them than a 'college-educated' U$ of Aan, terminology is known. Even some liburals confuse Hitler's NAZI Party with SOCIALISM and don't know that FASCISM is CORPORATISM! Dixit Mussolini!
To paraphase Gore Vidal: America has 2 rightwings and I add extreme-RW and ultra-extreme RW.
Love your post!

:toast:


CHEERS!

[Kicked in the Taco]

12. lol...absolutely right

Maybe he'll even give Ken Lay ideas....

[Carolab]

8. No pity for the oligarchy. n/t

[Sgent]

9. I have mixed feelings on this

If he committed real crimes, get him.

My gut tells me that Putin want's to nationalize his company, and is literally stealing from him. While I may disagree with the wealth Bill Gates has built, I don't think passing a law to nationalize say Microsoft without payment is either fair nor just.

[not systems]

13. Khodorkovsky was a red prince who stole the company from the...

Russian people.

He used his political connections to control state assets
with nothing but his privileged position as collateral.

He is a crook and is getting what he deserves.

[Sandpiper]

14. Microsoft is not a Natural Resource

It is the brain child of Bill Gates and some others. Without Bill Gates, there would be no Microsoft (aside from whether that would be good or bad).

Khodorkovsky didn't create the Russian oil reserves. They would be there with or without him.

Ergo, your comparison is not truly one of apples to apples.