Teaching Comparative

Another place to watch our language

Before we go too far into this report, it's a good idea to remember

1. "Mr. Gutseriev’s 100 percent ownership..." Is "ownership" an appropriate word here? Gutseriev and other oligarchs did not build the "companies" they controlled, nor did they "earn" the money used to "buy" them. When they ended up on the top of the heap, it meant they were the survivors of the gigantic con games played in the '90s to take over state assets during "structural adjustments."

2. "... capriciousness of the judicial system..." If the courts do not follow a rule of law, is it right to call them part of a "judicial system" without deluding ourselves about the nature of Russian governance? In the Soviet and Russian legal systems it's always been difficult to distinguish between the roles of prosecutors, defense, and judges. Is it any different than it was in the past? Would we have called Stalin's courts a judicial system?

3. "'People are fighting over assets with no limits or rules,' ..." That may be commentary, but it's not news. Refer back to the '90s once again. Yeltsin's oligarchs won those fights. Putin's oligarchs are winning now.


Arrest Ordered for Russian Oil Entrepreneur, a Critic of the Kremlin

"A Russian court issued an arrest warrant Tuesday for Mikhail S. Gutseriev [at left], a former owner of Russneft, a large young oil company, on charges of tax evasion and fraud, a month after he published a letter critical of the government on a company Web site and in a Russian business newspaper...

"Mr. Gutseriev, however, was likely to have already fled the country...

"Mr. Gutseriev’s 100 percent ownership stake in Russneft... now valued at roughly $6 billion, has been frozen by order of a Moscow court, making him the latest wealthy Russian to fall quickly from a high perch.

"His predicament sheds light on the capriciousness of the judicial system here, as well as the imperative for business executives to show loyalty to the leadership of President Vladimir V. Putin, analysts of Russian business practices said...

"'People are fighting over assets with no limits or rules,' Yulia L. Latynina, a political commentator on the Echo of Moscow radio station, said by telephone. 'People are fighting not within the law or within reason, but just out of greed.'"

---

Labels: pedagogy, politics, Russia

posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:03 AM