Why does Georgie no longer love Pootie ?

Summary: Award-winning Israel-Palestine  peace activist and journalist Alison Weir  presents a case that George Bush's recent displeasure with the Russian government has more to do with Putin's largely successful power struggle with the Russian business and energy oligarchs and crony-capitalists, who took over much of Russia's national industries and resources after the collapse of the Soviet State.  Bush's stated concerns over civil rights, democracy and  military collateral damage in Chechnya, may not be the primary motivation behind the US  ratcheting up tensions toward Putin's Russia recently.  

There have been quite a few  recent stories available to the US public through the western media, relating President George W. Bush's deepening concern , with what Bush administration spokespersons and allies describe as Russian President Vladimir Putin's turn toward  "anti-democratic" behavior, and "civil rights violations".

For example, a 02/24/05 Swisinfo story on today's Bush-Putin meeting covered the Bush concerns with Putin  gives a fairly representative summary of Bush's stated concerns :

But Bush -- who had set the tone for the meeting by predicting a march of democracy across Russia's ex-Soviet backyard -- said strong countries needed to be democratic.

"Democracies have certain things in common -- a rule of law and protection of minorities and a free press and a viable political opposition," he told a joint news conference.

"I was able to share my concerns about Russia's commitment in fulfilling these universal principles. I did so in a constructive and friendly way."

The meeting comes amid growing concern in the West that Putin is backsliding on democracy, with critics saying his tough policies towards opponents have curbed true democracy.

and further down:

Western and Russian civil rights campaigners accuse Putin of restricting democracy by abolishing the election of provincial governors, pursuing a legal vendetta against the Yukos oil company and tightening the Kremlin's grip on the media.

They also fear he is trying to stifle democratic changes across the ex-Soviet bloc, with Russian reluctance to accept free elections in Ukraine often cited as the latest example.

Russia's heavy-handed crackdown on separatists in Chechnya has also drawn Western criticism.

Giving Bush fresh ammunition, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Russia committed serious abuses, including torture and killing of civilians, on military offensives in Chechnya.

Thus, Bush et al.'s * publically expressed * concerns with Putin center upon assertions of civil rights abuse, democracy restriction and  civilian collateral damage on military offensives in Chechnya.

Okay.

Now, it seems there may be another dimension to this apparent growing US/Russia estrangement, namely that Bush-allied interests are unhappy with Putin's wresting control of resources and industries from the Russian oligarchs, that is not being widely reported to the  American public.

This other story has been recently presented by Alison Weir   a respected, award-winning freelance journalist and Israel-Palestine peace activist. Weir is  founder and  Executive Director of If Americans Knew

Alison Weir

In thoroughly referenced article:

"Do Americans Even Care? Russia, Israel and Media Omissions",

Weir describes little publicized encounters/relationships between some of the exiled Russian oligarchs, the Bush Administration, and Israel that may have a significant role on the origins and dynamics of this new tension.

From Counterpunch

The day after the [2005]State of the Union Address, two Interpol fugitives attended the "National Prayer Breakfast" held in Washington DC. The day before that, these fugitives from the law were the guests of honor at an hour-long meeting of the International Relations Committee on Capitol Hill, invited by ranking Democrat Tom Lantos (Calif.)

You would think it would be hot news when wanted men being hunted by European police suddenly pop up in the US particularly on Capitol Hill and at events attended by the US president.

Yet, there was not a single AP story in the US on any of this. [1] Not a single national network television or radio news program even mentioned these facts. In fact, Google and LexisNexis searches four days after these events took place turned up only three newspaper articles on them anywhere in the entire country. [2]

Who are these fugitives from the law, wanted by Interpol, who are meeting at the highest levels of the US government? And why didn't we learn of them?

They are Mikhail Brudno and Vladimir Dubov, Israeli-Russian partners in the giant Russian oil company Yukos. They, along with a number of their cronies, are wanted by Interpol for allegedly bilking Russian citizens out of billions of dollars. To elude Russian prosecution, these men have taken up residence in Israel. [3]

As the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz explains: "In recent years Russian authorities began investigating [Yukos], its managers and major stockholders, many of whom are of Jewish origin. The probes caused several of the managers to flee to Israel, and resulted in Khodorkovski's [Yukos CEO] arrest and a Kremlin attack on Yukos."

The fact is that Israel is an important factor in the ongoing, nation-shaking power struggle now going on in Russia. Yet AP virtually never reports this connection. For example, a few months ago in a typical AP story on this power struggle, "Report: Russia again charges Berezovsky," [4] Moscow AP Bureau Chief Judith Ingram makes no mention anywhere that Berezovsky is an Israeli citizen, or of his many connections to Israel.

The Oligarchs

Boris Berezovsky is one of seven "oligarchs," as they are known both inside and outside Russia: massively rich, powerful manipulators who through violence, theft and corruption acquired a mammoth percentage (reports range from 70 to 85 percent) of Russia's resources, from its oil to the auto industry to mass media outlets.

At the same time, the group steadily gained control over much of the country's political apparatus. Using extraordinary financial resources and insider dealing, the oligarchs handpicked prime ministers and governmental leaders and barely even bothered to do this behind the scenes.

In 1997 Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, one of the group and Russia's sometimes richest man (several of the oligarchs trade the top spot back and forth) told an interviewer before he was arrested and imprisoned by Putin last year:

"If we rank all the fields of man's activity by profitability, politics will be the most lucrative business. When we see a critical situation in the government, we draw lots in order to pick out a person from our milieu for work in power." [5]

Almost all of these oligarchs, it turns out, have significant ties to Israel. In fact, Berezovsky himself has Israeli citizenship a fact that caused a scandal of Watergate proportions in Russia in 1996 when it was exposed by a Russian newspaper. [6]

Do Berezovsky's dual loyalties really matter? Yes. In the realm of global dominance, Israel's interests and Russia's are considerably divergent. It is in Israel's interests to bring to power a regime in Russia friendly to Israel, rather than the current one under Putin, which Israeli leaders feel is supportive of its enemies. Not long ago, for example, Putin met with Syrian leaders an action highly disturbing to Israel.

Having an Israeli citizen at the highest levels of the Russian government is ideal, from Israel's point of view. In Berezovsky they had such a man. The Jerusalem Post article mentioned above is revealing. It describes Berezovsky as "the Godfather of the Oligarchs' and Kingmaker of Russia's Politics'" and reports Berezovsky's statement that "Putin's Russia is dangerous for Israel." Berezovsky goes on to assert that Putin "supports terror" in the Middle East through Russia's previous relations with Iraq and current relations with Iran. [7]

As a result of the media uproar over Berezovsky's Israeli citizenship and other events, the Oligarchs' connections to Israel are widely known in Russia and elsewhere. In Israel they are covered frequently, often with adulation, including a recent hit Israeli TV series called "The Oligarchs."

"Some of its episodes," according to Israeli writer Uri Avnery, [a peace activist with Gush Shalom] "are simply unbelievable or would have been, if they had not come straight from the horses' mouths: the heroes of the story, who gleefully boast about their despicable exploits. The series was produced by Israeli immigrants from Russia."

Weir's article also touches upon  a "Chechnya Connection", in which Avnery has  reported that "Berezovsky boasts that he caused the war in Chechnya,"  allegedly because " He [Berezovsky] was interested in the mineral resources and a prospective pipeline there".

Read and judge for yourself.

Does this matter to Americans?

AP is the major news source for the thousands of news outlets around the country who cannot afford to have their own foreign correspondents. When AP chooses not to cover something, its omission is felt throughout the nation. When national news networks and others leave out the same facts, the cover-up is almost total.

Russia, despite its current turmoil, contains enormous power. Its natural resources are gargantuan: it possesses the world's largest natural gas reserves, the second largest coal reserves, and the eighth largest oil reserves. It is the world's largest exporter of natural gas, the second largest oil exporter, and the third largest energy consumer.[14] Russia's significance on the world stage now, as in the past, is immense.

Similarly, the United States is currently the most powerful nation on earth. It is therefore essential that its citizens be accurately informed on issues of significance. Israeli citizens, Russian citizens, and citizens of nations throughout the world know the information detailed above. It is critical that American citizens be no less well informed.

For years, the neocons' push for war against Iraq was largely uncovered by the US media. For even longer, the neocons' close connections to Israel have gone largely unmentioned in mainstream American news reports. As a result, very few Americans know to what degree many of those responsible for the tragic US invasion and occupation of Iraq have been motivated by Israeli concerns.

The omission in coverage of Iraq has been profoundly disastrous, both for the Middle East and for Americans. In fact, it is quite likely that only history will show the true extent of this disaster. It is deeply troubling to see the same kind of omission occurring on Russia.

This well referenced article gives a very different, alternate view of underlying factors and what may or may not be going on in the former Soviet states and certain areas of the Middle East, that has not been shown or explained  in the western corporate media as yet.

Read the whole thing. There is more surprising stuff there.

Although not specifically dealing with Ukraine  the article  also raises obvious questions concerning recent events in Ukraine elections putting the Bush-favored Yushchenko (strongly supported by a group of so-called former oligarchs including Tymoshenko, and Poroshenko).