'..what Putin believes as did his Soviet instructors is that competition is anything but free if he has the power to affect it not in the normal way but through the use of power .. That attitude about competition comes directly from Lenin..'<blockquote>'..the Moscow commentator points to a recent remark by Putin about competition, one that shows that he doesn’t accept the idea of free competition but rather believes that, as Soviet ideologists held, free competition opens the way for the full use of administrative resources of those in power.
..what Putin believes as did his Soviet instructors is that competition is anything but free if he has the power to affect it not in the normal way but through the use of power.
That attitude about competition comes directly from Lenin, Schulman says, and it was inculcated into the minds of Soviet citizens and to none of them more than those now 50 and older who have power in the Russian Federation, “the most Soviet” of all generations arising since 1917.
..
“What progress can there be” if such thinking remains? Schulman asks rhetorically. And she answers “none” at all. For those with this habit of mind, “the Internet arose as a CIA project and thus it has developed and always will be a CIA project. States will eternally fight for resources, domestic unhappiness will be provoked from outside, law is a formality, rules a piece of paper, and justice does not exist.”
As the Moscow writer says, “the doctrine of Marx is all powerful for those who believe in it.” '
-
Putin and His Entourage Part of ‘Most Soviet Generation’ of All, Schulman Says, November 11, 2014</blockquote>
'That led me to research the origins and activities of the group around Putin — in the 1990s and before. That’s when I began to undercover quite significant allegations both of corrupt activity and of involvement in organized crime .. The West has a huge problem .. Why is Russia still a member of the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly?..'<blockquote>'..That led me to the very first election that brought Putin to power. After working closely with the electoral results down to the regional level, I came to the conclusion that Putin would not have won in the first round as he did in 2000 without fraud. I was faced with accepting the fact that Putin and the group he brought to power never planned to give it up.
That led me to research the origins and activities of the group around Putin — in the 1990s and before. That’s when I began to undercover quite significant allegations both of corrupt activity and of involvement in organized crime .. The West has a huge problem .. Why is Russia still a member of the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly? Its voting rights were suspended after the annexation of Crimea, but its membership was not.
..
Putin’s reputation as the guarantor of stability for this group is in jeopardy. That’s why he feels the need to rob from the Russian people in order to maintain his authority with this group. But the core elite now is not as small as it was when he first took power, and underwriting them will be a very expensive and continuing proposition.'
-
Author Karen Dawisha explains how Vladimir Putin and his cronies climbed to power. January 29, 2015</blockquote>
'..Russia should be excluded..'<blockquote>'..But membership in European institutions was intended to shape Russian institutions in European directions. If these institutions instead risk being undermined by Russian actions that threaten to overwhelm them, then Russia should be excluded..'
- Karen Dawisha,
Bad-Mannered Russians in the West, December 3, 2014</blockquote>
'Putin was also implicated in a criminal investigation by German authorities..'<blockquote>'..President Yeltsin and Prime Minister Gaidar hired the American private investigation firm, Kroll Associates, to track and repatriate money illegally held or taken abroad by former Communist Party and Soviet government agencies, including the KGB. They were looking for close to 50 billion dollars in untaxed revenue. Kroll uncovered hundreds of offshore bank accounts set up by former Soviet officials. As a result of Kroll’s findings, the Russian government passed a law giving it the right to confiscate funds illegally taken abroad (for more, see Bohlen, New York Times, March 3, 1992).
If money left Russia legally, however, the government could not confiscate it. In order to legally transfer money and export goods abroad, businessmen in St. Petersburg needed licenses. Deputy Mayor Putin signed thousands of licenses and contracts, legalizing a vast array of exports and transfers. An investigation into his activities by the St. Petersburg city council concluded that Putin had signed contracts before being officially authorized to do so, and at terms that included the payment of substantial commissions of between 25-50 percent to CFER for each contract and license he endorsed (the Legislative Report can be viewed at [
anticompromat.org]).
..
..Putin never suffered any legal consequences for the details uncovered by the Sal’ye Commission, despite the fact that the St. Petersburg legislature’s report called for his firing, Dawisha observed.
Putin was also implicated in a criminal investigation by German authorities in the early 2000s into the St. Petersburg Real Estate Holding Company, called SPAG. The Germans charged that SPAG had been used to launder money out of, and into, St. Petersburg from a variety of sources, including the Cali cartel..'
- Thea Cooke,
Has Vladimir Putin Always Been Corrupt? January 31, 2015</blockquote>
'..[Putin] has created a military-industrial-political-criminal complex..'<blockquote>'Putin has been a finalist every year so you might consider this a lifetime achievement award. He has been a real innovator in working with organized crime. He has created a military-industrial-political-criminal complex that furthers Russia’s and Putin’s personal interests. I think Putin sees those interests as one and the same.'
- Drew Sullivan, editor of
OCCRP'Vladimir Putin and his siloviki fused a Cold War mentality with modern organized crime strategies and technology to create a new level of transnational organized crime. The Russian-backed money laundering platforms have exploited the lack of transparency in the global financial and offshore company registrations systems to create a new criminal financial infrastructure used by crime groups from as far away as Mexico and Vietnam.'
- Paul Radu, executive director of OCCRP (
'..Putin has been named the 2014 Person of the Year by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project..')</blockquote>
'The true tragedy is that corruption, state-sponsored, energy-driven and totaling hundreds of billions annually, has mortgaged Russia’s future. Freedom has withered. Money for the investments urgently needed to make Russia innovative and prosperous has been diverted to enrich a few.'<blockquote>'Her verdict is not merely that Putin’s boast of having built a potent, efficient state that fights for the little guy and against the venality of the powerful is bunk. Her bedrock claims are that the essential character of Putin’s system is colossal corruption and that he is a prime beneficiary. The thievery, she says, has made him fabulously rich, along with a coterie of trusted friends dating back to his days as a K.G.B. officer in Communist East Germany, then as first deputy mayor in 1990s St. Petersburg, then as head of the Federal Security Service.
..
The true tragedy is that corruption, state-sponsored, energy-driven and totaling hundreds of billions annually, has mortgaged Russia’s future. Freedom has withered. Money for the investments urgently needed to make Russia innovative and prosperous has been diverted to enrich a few.
Alas, that’s what kleptocracies do.
Rajan Menon,
‘Putin’s Kleptocracy,’ by Karen Dawisha, November 25, 2014</blockquote>
Context<blockquote>
Vladimir Putin named Person of the Year for 'innovation' in 'organised crime' January 3, 2015
'Rule of law emerges from property rights.' - Karen Dawisha ("Putin's Kleptocracy - Who Owns Russia?")'..a foundation of corruption.' - '..a prolonged conflict .. [with] Russia..' - '.. Russia's weaponization of information and its implications.'(Russia's invasion of Ukraine) - 'Russian offensives in .. Ukraine' - '..Russia continues to support the separatist militias..' - '..Just as in Soviet days..''..late 2016 .. Russian politics.' - '..an insipid colonel's panic-stricken fear of losing his power..''..Putin’s peace plan .. a Russian occupation plan.' - Samantha PowerCrime of Aggression - '..aggressive war-making is illegal and criminal.'(Marxism and the Manipulation of Man) 'And the meaning itself is an idea.' - Ludwig von Mises</blockquote>