Suspicious advisers from Carlyle Group. The test of time. “The real crime of Khodorkovsky” ten years later. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on November 10, 2003.
On this day 20 years ago, on November 10, 2003, the American newspaper “The Washington Post” decided to demonstrate the level of ties of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev in the American political establishment. The reporter of the media outlet Greg Schneider published a short story with a self-explanatory headline: “Arrested Russian Businessman is Carlyle Group Adviser”.
"Khodorkovsky, 40, Russia's richest man and former chief executive of Yukos Oil Co., serves as an adviser to Carlyle Energy Group. He is among 15 luminaries who help the firm sort through investment opportunities in energy industries, along with the former secretary of state James A, Baker III, former British prime minister John Major, and Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Daniel Yergin”, reported Greg Schnieder. As to Daniel Yergin, he has written several books, including on oil and gas problems.
“HE IS NO LONGER MENTIONED ON THE WEBSITE OF THE COMPANY”
The author, stressing the influence of the company and the high status of people, connected with Carlyle Group, said the group “known for the glittering roster of former statesmen among its partners and advisers, has ties to both Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, the jailed Russian tycoons”. Thereat, he points out that “Khodorkovsky was arrested last months by Russian authorities for alleged fraud and tax evasion”.
“Platon Lebedev, chairman of the Group Menatep, a holding company that is the major shareholder in Yukos, was arrested in July on fraud charges. Lebedev served as an adviser to Carlyle’s European investment funds, but is no longer listed on the firm’s Web site”.
The newspaper tried to get a commentary from Carlyle Group, but “Carlyle spokesman Christopher W. Ullman declined to comment on this matter”.
Instead, the newspaper found out that “neither man has played a significant role for Carlyle”, but the firm “does not disclose its compensation to advisers”.
THEY TRADED THE BIN LADEN FAMILY FOR KHODORKOVSKY
However, not everyone assessed positively the high status of persons affiliated with “Carlyle Group”. The international portal “VoltaireNet”, having reacted to the story in the American newspaper, gave to understand that this influence structure had been founded by American special services, including George H.W. Bush, former CIA director. There also was detected the bin Laden family.
As to the latter, it is worth mentioning that the terrorist Osama bin Laden, expelled from the family for his radical views and terrorist activities, has considerably damaged not only the United States but also his own family. As early as October 2001, after the monstrous terrorist attacks, the bin Laden family had to stop its business with America, and the joint holdings with Carlyle Group were liquidated.
Still, for the Americans, as for the rest of the world, it looked like covering up tracks and the rupture on the line “Bin Laden – Bush family”.
Nevertheless, “Carlyle Group”, having changed the bin Laden family for Khodorkovsky, once again nearly got into an international scandal connected with the machinations of Yukos.
HE QUIETLY “WITHDREW FROM MIMBERSHEP”
Having understood that Lebedev and Khodorkovsky pertaining to tax crimes got into a real muddle and that there was no chance to stop the investigation with any exhortations of Russian and foreign advocates, in summer 2004, the investment group Carlyle excluded Mikhail Khodorkovsky from the list of advisers.
The press-secretary of Carlyle stated that Khodorkovsky left the company “in the middle of 2003”, but it was not officially announced, pointed out the website “Gazeta.ru”, adding with a taint of grievance that "some factors suggest that the representative of Carlyle plays cunning, and the exclusion of the former head of Yukos took place much later – after his arrest".
“REAL KHODORKOVSKY’S CRIME” TEN YEARS AGO
“The real Khodorkovsky’s crime was not the embezzlement of Russian assets for nothing during the bandit era of Yeltsin. His real crime consists in his being the key part of the Western intelligence operation aimed at dismantling and destroying the rest of Russia as a functioning state”, in such a way estimated the activity and ties of Khodorkovsky in the West Frederick William Engdahl, a well-known researcher of modern processes, American economist, author, and political analyst.
According to him, “Washington used Russians in order to try to reach its aim – to completely destroy the only remaining power on Earth with enough military capabilities to challenge "The Full Spectrum of Dominance", the strategy of the Pentagon to establish control over the whole planet”.
One can come to such conclusions not only looking at the American and British friends of Khodorkovsky, as international connections, meetings, and dialogues are sometimes an existentially necessary thing. But in this situation, there is a simple test. In fact, the Russian citizen Khodorkovsky did not come to the Russian authorities with plans to put the American oil industry under Russian control. On the contrary, he went in the opposite direction – with a plan to put under Western control the Russian oil industry. On top of it, he categorically refused to pay taxes. And everybody saw it.
“So much so, ten years later after the publication about the real crimes of Khodorkovsky, already after all the court proceedings, we all once more see Mikhail Khodorkovsky in the same place where William Engdahl saw him. Khodorkovsky, as before the arrest, but without any specious pretext, is still part of the same big Western operation against Russia. It’s an accomplished fact proved by the time”, noted the website Perigovor.ru.
(See also the previous article “On this day, they started to model a “prisoner of conscience” out of Khodorkovsky”. A specific client of human rights activists. Lobbyists of Yukos found in the United States. It’s the firm “Covington & Burling LLP” which was hired by the Group Menatep Limited for $2 million 800 thousand. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on November 9, 2003.
