← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Howard Campbell, Jr.
Thread ID: 17364 | Posts: 9 | Started: 2005-03-17
2005-03-17 18:13 | User Profile
Chubais, Russia's "Privatization" (Mafiyazation) Czar...
Russia Official Survives Bomb Attack - By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer Thursday, March 17, 2005
(03-17) 07:44 PST MOSCOW, Russia (AP) --
The architect of Russia's widely criticized post-Soviet privatization program survived an assassination attempt Thursday when assailants detonated a powerful bomb and fired at his armored limousine as the nation's top energy official headed to work.
No one was injured in the attack, which Anatoly Chubais, the head of Russia's state-controlled electricity monopoly, said he had anticipated. He also claimed to know who was responsible, although he did not name any suspects.
Chubais has said previously that he believed past threats on his life were due to his role as Russia's privatization czar in the early 1990s under former President Boris Yeltsin. The program was much maligned for essentially giving away prized state-owned business and property to so-called oligarchs with ties to high-ranking officials.
Others pointed to plans to restructure Unified Energy Systems, which Chubais has presided over since 1998, as a possible motive for the attack.
"I understand quite clearly who may have organized today's assassination attempt," said Chubais, 49. "The main thing I can say today is that everything I have done ââ¬â regarding both the reform of the country's energy sector and the unification of democratic forces ââ¬â I will continue to do with redoubled energy."
President Vladimir Putin called Chubais to ask about his condition, Chubais aide Andrei Trapeznikov said, according to the Interfax news agency.
After the bomb exploded near Chubais' armored limousine, two attackers clad in combat fatigues then sprayed the vehicle with automatic gunfire, Moscow police spokesman Alexander Alexeyev said. Nobody was wounded and the attackers fled into a nearby forest after a brief skirmish with Chubais' guards, he said.
"I had reason to expect something like this and had taken measures to strengthen security," Chubais said, appearing shaken.
Chubais told reporters that when his car came under fire, his driver sped up to escape the attack while bodyguards engaged the assailants.
Investigators said the bomb contained about 2 pounds of TNT. Russian television showed footage of Chubais' car, its hood riddled by bullets. Police launched a manhunt for the gunmen and found the alleged getaway car.
Amid speculation that the attackers might only have wanted to scare Chubais, Ekho Moskvy radio reported that an explosives expert concluded that the bomb was planted in such a way that the car could escape the blast virtually unharmed.
Russia has seen numerous murders and attempts to kill prominent business and political leaders since the 1991 Soviet collapse, and few have been solved. Chubais also was Yeltsin's chief of staff.
Chubais' plans to radically restructure the monopoly power grid have met stiff resistance from minority shareholders, as well as business rivals and state officials. In an interview last year, he said he repeatedly was threatened with assassination, but he believed the reasons were his activities as Russia's privatization czar.
Irina Khakamada, a prominent liberal politician, told Ekho Moskvy that the attack was most likely linked to the electricity reform.
"It must have been linked to difficult processes of redistribution of UES assets," she said.
Nikolai Kovalyov, a lawmaker and former chief of Russia's top KGB successor agency, also pointed to the UES reform as the most likely cause.
"We should look for the organizers among the heads of energy companies," he said, according to the Interfax news agency.
Under the energy reform plan, more than 40 regional energy companies are to be split into separate generating, transmission and marketing companies, with current shareholders receiving a stake in proportion to their current share.
Chubais also co-founded the liberal Union of Right Forces party. One of his party colleagues, Boris Nemtsov, said Chubais' political enemies had repeatedly threatened to kill him.
"It's clear to me that the attempt on his life had political roots," Nemtsov said, according to Interfax.
URL: [url]http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2005/03/17/international/i073419S52.DTL[/url]
2005-03-19 04:32 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Howard Campbell, Jr.] [VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer Thursday, March 17, 2005]... Under the energy reform plan, more than 40 regional energy companies are to be split into separate generating, transmission and marketing companies, with current shareholders receiving a stake in proportion to their current share. ...[/QUOTE] WOW! I guess the shareholders didn't like the split.
:caiphas:
2005-03-19 04:39 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Phantasm]WOW! I guess the shareholders didn't like the split.
:caiphas:[/QUOTE]
:thumbsup: Just taking their 95% off the top...not that our burgeoning Kleptocracy's much cleaner...
2005-03-19 04:46 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Howard Campbell, Jr.]:thumbsup: Just taking their 95% off the top...not that our burgeoning Kleptocracy's much cleaner...[/QUOTE] 95% off the top... :lol:
Remember Israel's guy in Panama before we invaded... Mike Harari?
They gave him the nickname, Mr. Sixty Percent.
:caiphas:
2005-03-19 04:51 | User Profile
If only we coulda given that Mossad parasite 60% of Noriega's sentence.
Didn't he have a connection with the Nugan-Hand/BCCI scandal as well?
2005-03-19 05:42 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Howard Campbell, Jr.]If only we coulda given that Mossad parasite 60% of Noriega's sentence.
Didn't he have a connection with the Nugan-Hand/BCCI scandal as well?[/QUOTE] Noriega started out being a CIA asset in Panamanian intelligence and was later trained by the Mossad. Years later when Noriega was president, Mike Harari trained his personal security force and helped him with "other" matters. International drug trafficking, weapons sales, money laundering and general intrigue were routine to this "dynamic duo." Names like Mena, Barry Seal, Jackson Stephens, Vince Foster, Robert Maxwell, Adnon Khashoggi and BCCI were all part of the plot.
With material like this to entertain... who needs Hollywood?
:tongue:
2005-03-19 06:10 | User Profile
One opinion on this is that Chubais staged this himself.
And indeed it all does look rather convenient. The facts just don't add up.
Although on the other hand it's hard to imagine his motive.
2005-03-19 06:22 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Walter Yannis]One opinion on this is that Chubais staged this himself.
And indeed it all does look rather convenient. The facts just don't add up.
Although on the other hand it's hard to imagine his motive.[/QUOTE]
To discredit the anti-Oligarchs--and ultimately Putin? To put himself forward as the NWO~Wall Street viceroy for a post-national Russia?
But staging a phony assassination attempt with bombs; machine guns and dozens of people who'd actually like to see him croaked seems overboard for stage management... :D
2005-03-19 06:32 | User Profile
It's not necessarily him who has staged this. The whole zhid mafia in exile is working against Putin.