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[Helgoland]

Throwing them into jail for ten years and then exiling them works equally well, yes.

[Sergarr]

Throwing them into jail for ten years and then exiling them works equally well, yes.

Here's the wikipedia on him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Khodorkovsky

Just look at this shit he pulled:

"His bank Menatep, along with other Russian banks, would hold on to government funds for months at a time in order to speculate on exchange rates and other investments, enriching the bank's owners at the expense of the designated recipients of the government funds. Investment tenders were followed by an even more infamous "give-away" of Russian state assets to select business elites—the loans-for-shares program, which introduced the term "oligarch" to describe the handful of beneficiaries. In the loans-for-shares auctions, the auctioneers were often the same as the bidders—the auctions were rigged and the state knew it. It was during this period that Khodorkovsky acquired the Yukos oil company for about $300 million through a rigged auction. Khodorkovsky subsequently went on a campaign to raise investment funds abroad, borrowing hundreds of millions. When the 1998 financial crisis struck Russia, Khodorkovsky defaulted on some of his foreign debt and took his Yukos shares offshore to protect them from creditors.[13]"

That [13] is "Hoffman, David (2002). The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia. New York: PublicAffairs. pp. 100–126."

Or this:

"In a Foreign Affairs article on the situation in 1998–99, Lee Wolosky, a former counterterrorism official under the Clinton administration, detailed how Yukos "managed to siphon off some $800 million during a span of approximately 36 weeks" in 1999 through transfer pricing, forcing Yukos' Russian subsidiaries to sell oil at a fraction of world market prices to the holding company. Wolosky also described how Khodorkovsky had engaged in massive asset stripping of Yukos subsidiaries following the 1998 financial crisis:

    After three international banks acquired approximately 30 percent of Yukos following a default on a loan to an affiliated bank, Khodorkovsky sought to turn Yukos into an empty shell. He forced it to convey its most significant asset – its controlling position in oil production subsidiaries – to unknown offshore entities. At the same time, he attempted the mother of all share dilutions: by transferring a massive number of new shares to offshore entities he is believed to control.[26]

According to Wolosky, Khodorkovsky and his colleagues, unsatisfied, continued the looting "more directly—by stealing valuable assets, including wells, equipment, and anything else that can be found on an oil field", and between 1997 and 1998, Yukos had plundered $3.5 billion worth of assets. Wolosky further blamed Khodorkovsky to be complicit in two contract killings between 1998 and 1999:

    In June 1998, the mayor of Nefteyugansk was murdered. That spring, he had led a very public crusade and hunger strike against Yukos, protesting the enormous wage and tax arrears that he argued were impoverishing the region ... The mayor had previously sent a secret cable to Prime Minister Sergey Kiriyenko requesting his assistance in the showdown. But the mayor was found dead before Kiriyenko could answer.[26]"

[26] is "Wolosky, Lee S. (March–April 2000). "Putin's Plutocrat Problem". Foreign Affairs 79 (2): 18–31. JSTOR 20049638."

He pretty much deserved that.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

Sergarr, Most Germans that died in Ukraine and Russia in WW2 were good people. But they fought for evil. Think about it.

[Helgoland]

Well yes, but hundreds of others who did the same thing are living the high life right now.
The sentence was not wrong because it was too harsh for the crime committed, but because it was arrived at despotically as opposed to one reached in a fair justice system.

[Sergarr]

The sentence was right because he was a criminal and an oligarch.
Fair justice system doesn't work against oligarchs, you know.
Just look at Rick Perry, or pretty much every Republican senator.

[scrdest]

The sentence was right because he was a criminal and an oligarch.
Fair justice system doesn't work against oligarchs, you know.
Just look at Rick Perry, or pretty much every Republican senator.

You're missing the point.

He was not convicted for being a criminal.

He was convicted for not being Putin's crony.

[Sergarr]

The sentence was right because he was a criminal and an oligarch.
Fair justice system doesn't work against oligarchs, you know.
Just look at Rick Perry, or pretty much every Republican senator.

You're missing the point.

He was not convicted for being a criminal.

He was convicted for not being Putin's crony.

It doesn't matter to me for what he was convicted. It only matter that he got the sentence fitting to his crimes.

A thief must sit in the jail. End of story.  I wish many other would also go the same route, but alas, it didn't quite happen. Maybe someday in the future.

[mainiac]

We dont punish thieves for shits and giggles, we do it to deter crime.  If he is punished for not being a crony we are deterring the wrong thing.

[scrdest]

The sentence was right because he was a criminal and an oligarch.
Fair justice system doesn't work against oligarchs, you know.
Just look at Rick Perry, or pretty much every Republican senator.

You're missing the point.

He was not convicted for being a criminal.

He was convicted for not being Putin's crony.

It doesn't matter to me for what he was convicted. It only matter that he got the sentence fitting to his crimes.

A thief must sit in the jail. End of story.  I wish many other would also go the same route, but alas, it didn't quite happen. Maybe someday in the future.

OK: Analogy - a guy steals a watch and gets away with it. The same night, a burglar decides to rob him, and as he discovers him, the burglar shoots him in the face in panic. Yay justice?

[Sergarr]

We dont punish thieves for shits and giggles, we do it to deter crime.  If he is punished for not being a crony we are deterring the wrong thing.

It deterred the oligarchs from stealing as blatantly as they did in 90s.

They do it covertly now, and in lesser amounts.

For scrdest - not justice, because stealing a watch is not a capital crime.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

Spoiler:  Specially for Guardian (click to show/hide)

[smjjames]

In fact, in 1941 almost ideal solution happened. Two main evils of the world started the war. Unfortunately world decided to support one of evils. Calmly waiting till one of empires lost and striking would be better way to handle that war

Which evil would that be? Japan and Germany? Russia wasn't the one who went 'Oh hey, lets conquer Poland today!'

Spoiler:  Specially for Guardian (click to show/hide)

I get the potato beetle (at least I think it's a potato beetle), but don't get the green leafy herb, whatever plant it is.

[Baffler]

In fact, in 1941 almost ideal solution happened. Two main evils of the world started the war. Unfortunately world decided to support one of evils. Calmly waiting till one of empires lost and striking would be better way to handle that war

Which evil would that be? Japan and Germany? Russia wasn't the one who went 'Oh hey, lets conquer Poland today!'

Spoiler:  Specially for Guardian (click to show/hide)

More: "Oh, cool, you're going for Poland? We'll grab Finland and the Baltic States while you're at it."

I'm also at a loss about the plant.

[scrdest]

In fact, in 1941 almost ideal solution happened. Two main evils of the world started the war. Unfortunately world decided to support one of evils. Calmly waiting till one of empires lost and striking would be better way to handle that war

Which evil would that be? Japan and Germany? Russia wasn't the one who went 'Oh hey, lets conquer Poland today!'

Spoiler:  Specially for Guardian (click to show/hide)

I get the potato beetle (at least I think it's a potato beetle), but don't get the green leafy herb, whatever plant it is.

Dill, I think. It's commonly used as potato seasoning.

And actually, BOTH USSR and Germany decided to 'hey let's conquer Poland today' - they divided it in secret way before the German invasion as a part of a secret protocol to the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact. And USSR invaded eastern Poland just two weeks after Germans did, and they didn't fight until much later.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

The plant is dill. (Ukrop in Russian)

That is an attempt of derogatory name from Russians, but  Ukrainians actually like that kind of name.

Potato beatle on the other hand is how we Ukrainians call seperatists collaborators because of their orange-black ribbons