Putin got his start in 1990s stealing $124 million in food aid during St Petersburg food shortage

[uhnope]

Like a boss--a mob boss.

It's like a combination of the mafia and ex-KGB runs the country. Is it any surprise Putin is going down the mini-me Stalin path? Except it's not so mini for Ukrainians.

Putin’s Way

MARINA SALYE: [through interpreter] So without going into all the details, I’ll tell you from this document, signed by Putin, all $124 million disappeared without a trace, without a trace, because from this list of materials that I have listed, not a single gram of food came.

KAREN DAWISHA: And what happened was fly-by-night companies were set up. Many of his friends, who are still around today, were behind those companies. The goods went out, and incomplete or no shipment came back. So millions, millions were made just in that episode alone.

NARRATOR: In the end, the St. Petersburg city council approved Salye’s recommendation to turn the case over to the prosecutors.

MARINA SALYE: [reading] [through interpreter] “We concluded that Putin and his assistant should be fired.”

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/foreign-affairs-defense/putins-way/transcript-74/

Whole documentary film here for free: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/putins-way/

[shenmue]

1. Son of a...

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

2. His history is one of the reasons the GOP are in love with him, he is a lying, thieving piece of

shit and republicans worship that.

[Diclotican]

3. uhnope

uhnope

You doesn't get to be rich if you do it by the numbers, at least not as he is it. And I do remember the news with the shortage of food in St-Petersburg in the early 1990s - Even though I suspect we doesn't know how much of it who was stolen, scammed away from the ones who was in desperate need of help - in many cases it came from the old enemies - the West - money and food - who then was stolen when it came in to Russia... Millions was lost that way... And it was a bad time for the russian people - specially for the ones in St-Petersburg who had great problems, it was in fact, the worst time in St-Petersburg history since 1941-43 when Germany had closed a ring of iron around the city - and planed to starve its population to death - and by shelling the city for 900 days... They managed to murder in form av hunger and illness over 500.000 of its population - but the City never fell for the siege - and in 1943, after more than 900 days - the siege was lifted partly - and the russian army was able to get some food and medical help into the city - but even then it took weeks to get the help needed - as the Red Army was ill prepared for the taste at hand - other than fight the germans who still was a danger to the City.... And even then,after the war it took years and years for St-Petersburg and its population was getting the help it was in need of - rebuilding the city from the war - it was part of the punishment Stalin made for St-Petersburg - for not bowing to his will - as St-Petersburg both before the war - under the war - and after the war, was a point of more or less open rebellion against Stalins rule. And for the ones who survived the war - also a point of great proud that the City prove for the world - that they could fight against horrible odds - when the Government was not able to defend the city against a enemy... It took 5-6 year before the rebuilding of St-Petersburg got the attention of the government - and in many cases it was not before Stalin was dead, before the city got the attention it deserved - even though the Downtown area of the city was not repaired fully before the end of the cold war - of course millions of dollars was embezzled from the founds - millions just disappeared from the founds necessary for rebuilding the City's great buildings from Peter the greatest time and forward - the great buildings, palaces and so one - but it was made - the city is some of a crown-jewel in Russia today - And comparing to the rest of Russia - rather European in origin - as it was meant to be - a showpiece for Russia to the world..

Even as the story goes - it lies on a Fundament of dead peasants - who dig the canals - and was buried in the ground when they died - it is said that more than 100.000 peasants died just in the first year - to make room for the canals - and the first foundations where the great palaces and buildings is today..

Diocletian

[newthinking]

4. "Hatchet job on Putin only demonstrates the conformist spirit permeating US journalism"

OpEdNews Op Eds 1/25/2015 at 15:30:48
Et Tu, Frontline?
By Patrice Greanville


Putin by DonkeyHotey (via flickr)


Hatchet job on Putin only demonstrates the conformist spirit permeating US journalism
______________________________

Frontline sees itself as an implacable observer of political and social reality, an uncompromising witness to contemporary history. The truth is often a lot less flattering.

As a legendary liberal franchise, Frontline has frequently produced interesting and even controversial reports on a variety of topics, including the NRA's intransigence to gun control, the abortion wars, JFK's assassination, the modern KKK, "Bush's War" (somewhat critical of the Iraq War's genesis as something of a botched, incompetent affair, but not scandalized by its sheer immorality, arrogance, systemic roots or broader purposes), and a host of other issues, but when it comes to foreign policy questions in which the American empire is again competing with some invidiously designated foe (these days the villains are again Russia and China), it behaves, conceits aside, like the rest of the conformist pack, as little more than an stenographer to power.


Given that thinly-veiled script, it doesn't take long for the show to deliver an unrelenting cascade of innuendo against Putin. Apparently the show's producers could not refrain from vacuuming up and regurgitating just about every negative cliche disseminated by the Western media since the official demonization of the Russian leader began, except that in this case, Frontline being Frontline, the closest equivalent to the New York Times on television, the weapon of choice is not so much the bludgeon favored by Fox News' crude propagandists, but the scalpel and the stiletto, the half-truths and omissions of truth, and the decapitation of context, in short the far more subtle, insidious and highly effective natural tools of the centrist corporatist liberal.

The first few minutes set the tone:

ANDREY ZYKOV, Former Police Investigator: [through interpreter] Well, of course, there has always been corruption in Russia, but building it into such a meticulous system was something only Mr. Putin has managed to do. Could Putin be held criminally responsible based on the evidence that has already been gathered? Absolutely, yes.

From that point on, it only gets worse.

Students of American propaganda usually have a problem: not the scarcity of items to prove their case, but precisely the opposite, the overabundance of material. Practically everything said or shown on mainstream media that concerns American foreign policy, especially on television, is riddled with so much bias and outright falsehood that codifying and answering such outrages on a case by case basis is simply an impossible, gargantuan task, a fact that --besides their monopolizing the mainstream media--prevents any meaningful or timely response by genuinely impartial observers.

Full story, links, and transcript:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Et-Tu-Frontline-by-Patrice-Greanville-Condemnation_Journalism_Media_Propaganda-150125-684.html

[uhnope]

5. "Shill piece on Putin only demonstrates the conformist spirit permeating Fascism Denial bloggers"

that's my quote on "Patrice Greanville". Since Opednews doesn't pay, I wonder how the Kremlin tunnels money to him? He's a stooge

[newthinking]

6. Yes, everyone who doesn't stick to your narrative is a "shill", "putin lover" etc

We know all about that kind of authoritative way of labeling and trying to shut down discussion (Mostly RW think that way). The surprise is that it happens here.

There are only two reasons to label someone like that that is just expressing an OP-ED or opinion:

Dishonesty or paranoia

[uhnope]

7. unfortunately for you, I back up everything I say with real news and legit sources

Here's the author and his blog repeating the BS conspiracy theory that Russia is pushing, and only Russia and useful fools believe:
http://www.greanvillepost.com/2014/02/07/greanvilles-tweetios/
http://www.greanvillepost.com/2014/02/07/us-regime-change-operation-in-ukraine-exposed-in-leaked-diplomatic-phone-call/

But it's pretty funny for you to discuss "labeling and trying to shut down discussion" since you are a Putin symathizer, and Putin has effectively shut down all independent media in Russia, and uses homophobic labels to forward his fascist hold on power.

[KoKo]

9. Excuse Me....

Did you even read what you just posted? It's not what you seem to think..........

?????????

[blkmusclmachine]

8. Putin got his start in 1990s stealing $124 million in food aid during St Petersburg food shortage

Savvy!