Puntin Accused of Manipulating Trial of Foe (moved from ATSNN), page 1

posted on Jun, 1 2005 @ 08:24 PM

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A 9 year sentence was issued to a foe of Puntin, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, for tax evasion. This case has brought suspicion from many people, including President Bush. Many believe that the trial was orchestrated by Vladimir Puntin in an attempt to get back at a political rival.

news.yahoo.com
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, was sentenced to nine years in prison for tax evasion on Tuesday in a trial widely seen as orchestrated by the Kremlin to crush a political rival.

"My sentence has been decided in the Kremlin," an unrepentant Khodorkovsky, 41, said in a statement read to reporters by his lawyer.

The severe sentence -- a year short of the maximum demanded by the prosecution -- raised eyebrows in Washington and is certain to stoke concerns among investors about the high risk of doing business in President Vladimir Putin's Russia. The central Moscow court found the billionaire guilty of six of seven charges of fraud and tax evasion in a verdict that took judges 12 days to read at the climax of an 11-month trial.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

With the current state of Russia, I wouldn’t at all be surprised if this man truly is a victim of Puntin. It is interesting how other world leaders are siding with Mikhai Khodorkovsky over this case. However, very few ordinary Russians show sympathy to him. If this really was orchestrated by the Kremlin, then it shows just how bad off things are over there.

[edit on 1-6-2005 by Lethys]

[edit on 1-6-2005 by Lethys]

[edit on 1-6-2005 by Lethys]

MaskedAvatar

posted on Jun, 1 2005 @ 08:28 PM

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OMG!

Political dissidence is met with being sent to the salt mines in Russia!

This is tragic. Russia has always been the model for the land of the free, never had any problems with citizens expressing their views. How could this happen in a democracy?

Let such trends never extend to the incarceration or false imprisonment of political foes of other western democratic administrations.

[/sarcasm]

drfunk

posted on Jun, 1 2005 @ 08:45 PM

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Good riddance. Khordokovsky was one of the men who bought up the russian people's wealth for a criminally cheap price when the drunk yeltsin was in a privatizing binge. The Russian people were screwed over imo and lost billions in revenue.

Yukhos should of payed their taxes and Khordokovsky shouldn't try and screw over the people even more buy paying out politicians. It is well known that many of these companies are tax cheats and they should pay for it.

I am not going to defend this guy, he is nothing but a crook in my eyes for exploiting the situation of the russian people in the early 90s. I am glad that Yukhos was seized from him and hopefully the assets are put to much better use.

thanks,
drfunk

Muaddib

posted on Jun, 1 2005 @ 08:53 PM

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Couldn't it be because Russia has never ceased to be communist...and was never a "western democratic country?".....

Naa, that's outrageous right?....i mean there was a sham..i mean a communist coup to get the country back to it's old ways and the "good guys" from the KGB/Kremlim/Russian mafia won right?.....

Oh hey, they also call themselves socialist revolutionaries....you know, from the people's revolution..... Hey, nothing that happens in socialist revolutionary, or communist countries is bad right?.... (sarcasm off)

[edit on 1-6-2005 by Muaddib]

Vajrayana

posted on Jun, 1 2005 @ 09:01 PM

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Yep, seeing the fate of their advisors, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, even Carlyle Group is closing down it's Moscow office and wrapping up it's business dealings in Russia only a year after it had opened them.