Billionaires are killing us - literally

 

 

Perhaps the attention now being given to Russian oligarchs will direct us to the damaging effect billionaires have on our world today. Here is a list of the ten richest men in the world taken from Forbes magazine.

Ѕtеvе Ваllmеr: ($61.6 b), former CEO of Microsoft

Lаrrу Еllіѕоn: ($63.9 b), co-founder Oracle

Ѕеrgеу Вrіn аnd Lаrrу Раgе: ($68 b $67 b), founders of Google

Саrlоѕ Ѕlіm Неlu: ($72 b), with 40% holdings in Mexico Stock Exchange

Аmаnсіо Оrtеgа: ($81 b), owner of fashion label Zara

Маrk Zuсkеrbеrg: ($84 b), founder of Facebook

Wаrrеn Вuffеtt: ($102 b), CEO of Berkshire Hathaway

Віll Gаtеѕ: ($106 b), Microsoft founder

Веrnаrd Аrnаult: ($107 b), Chairman of LVМН, mаnufасturеr оf luхurу gооdѕ

Јеff Веzоѕ: ($140 b), founder of Amazon

Here are the ten richest Russians who, you will notice, are poverty-stricken by comparison to the list above.

Alisher Usmanov (19.5 b), investor in Facebook and Chinese electronics company company, Xiomi

Suleiman Kerimov ($15.8 b), owner of distressed companies and gold producer, Polyus

Pavel Durov (7.2 b), creaor app Telegram

Andrey Melinchenko (17.9 b), owner of fertilizer company Eurochem and coal company Surek

Gennady Timchenko ($22 b), gas producer Novatek and petrol company Sibur

Leonid Michelson, ($24.2 b), gas producer Novatek and petrol company, Sibur

Vagit Alexperov ($24.9 b)m founder of Lukoil

Vladimir Lisin ($26.2 b), majority shareholder in Novolipetsk Steel

Vladimit Potamin ($27 b), organiser of private takeover of state companies

Alexey Mordasov ($29.1 b), CEO steel company Seversta

Craig Murray former UK ambassador states that.  “Usmanov is the UK’s wealthiest man ...Through New Labour and the Tories Putin’s right-hand man has always had the special protection of the British state. I have never understood why …. Usmanov helped Putin suppress Russia’s free media through compulsory purchase …. I sent a classified report on his criminal activities from Tashkent”.

Robert Reich, economist and former US Secretary of Labour has commented recently, “When I graduated in 1968 the typical corporate CEO got twenty times the pay of the average worker. When I became Labour Secretary in 1993 the ratio was 61-to-1. Today it’s 320-to-1. Capitalism is off the rails.”

Boris Johnson has spent six holidays at this Tuscan villa as the guest of Russian billionaire, Eugeny Lebedev. Just one reason why Usmanov and other Russian oligarchs have been given eighteen months to move their ‘sanctioned’ monies.

I would recommend reading this from Craig Murray. He has moved from being brave whistleblowing diplomat to articulate investigative journalist.

Solidarity with Russian anti-war movement

 

 

 

A new coalition of anti-war socialists has formed in Russia. In the run-up to the @ProgIntl Forum for Peace. Here is a translation of their manifesto.

“We are told that opponents of this war are hypocrites - that they stand not against the war, but for the West. This is a lie. We have never been supporters of the United States and its imperialist policies.”

Replace the words ‘West' with ‘Putin' and 'the United States' with ‘Russia' and you have Keir Starmer’s words about Stop the War Coalition.

Solidarity with the anti-war movement in Russia. We have everything in common with them and nothing but contempt for the Putins and Starmers of this world

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As if in a Dream

 

 

 

 

As if in a dream, by Michael Rosen

I'm hearing radio programmes

playing Ukrainian patriotic songs

and lovingly produced discussions

about the history of Ukraine

and admiration pouring out of my radio and TV

for the brave people of Ukraine

daring to stand up to this terrible invasion

and I felt warm and sad at the same time

wrapped in the care and kindness of it all

and I was pouring out my admiration too,

and images from the TV came to me from last night

of hundreds of people squashed into a station subway

trying to get out on a train to Poland

and more sounds from the radio

of people on the border shivering and hungry and crying

not knowing if they could get out

while arcs of light flashed over apartment blocks

and the morning showed the cold grey ruins of people's homes

and I heard the words of sympathy

from our leaders

while they explained that Ukrainians

would need visas or relatives in Britain

if they want to come here

and I wasn't sure that people crushed

into the subway would have visas

or relatives here, would they?

so if they don't have visas and relatives

what happens to them in the freezing cold

on the Polish border?

and I thought about the care and kindness

coming out of my radio

and I felt uneasy

that I remember other invasions

other bombings,

and the same radio and TV stations

pouring out hours of words

on why similar bombings and invasions

were necessary and good bombings and invasions

and why those resisting were crazy and bad

and of course - as always -

why there wasn't room for people of those countries

to get out and come here

and I was left looking for the principle being defended here.

This principle can't be that it's wrong to invade

other countries.

The principle can't be that it's wrong

to bomb civilians.

The principle can't be that we must help

those who resist invasions.

The principle can't be that we must help

refugees.

But then I thought,

what's the matter with me?

what is the matter with me?

why am I looking for a principle?

Well, not a principle that lasts

or a principle that is valid in all places.

Our leaders' principles are things

they pick up, boast about

and then drop

in the hope that we can't remember anything

from before last week.

Or that we don't notice what else they do

in other parts of the world.

One moment they are friends with people

who are tyrants or backers of tyrants

and the next they are explaining to us

that the tyrants are tyrants

and friends of tyrants are the friends of tyrants

as if we didn't know that the tyrants are tyrants

and that they themselves are friends

with the friends of tyrants

as if we hadn't noticed this

as if we had now forgotten this.

And this is a cycle

that goes on and on turning,

it's turning in my mind

remembering my parents

talking of the leaders of their time

chumming up with Nazis

corporations selling oil to the Nazis

oil they would use to bomb us

and my parents talking of uncles and aunts and cousins

who criss-crossed the very same land

that the refugees are crossing now,

one who escaped

the rest who didn't

and it's a cycle

it's a cycle that grinds millions into the ground

burnt, dismembered, starved, maimed

and I am listening to the radio.

And I am listening to the radio.

More than one flag

 BBC - “It’s very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed” - Ukraine’s Deputy Chief Prosecutor, David Sakvarelidze

CBS - "This isn't Iraq or Afghanistan...This is a relatively civilized, relatively European city" - CBS foreign correspondent Charlie D’Agata

Al-Jazeera - "What's compelling is looking at them, the way they are dressed. These are prosperous, middle-class people. These are not obviously refugees trying to get away from the Middle East...or North Africa. They look like any European family that you'd live next door to."

BFM TV (France) - "We are in the 21st century, we are in a European city and we have cruise missile fire as though we were in Iraq or Afghanistan, can you imagine!?”

The Daily Telegraph - "Ukraine is an European country. It's people watch Netflix and have Instagram accounts. War is no longer something visited upon impoverished and remote population." - Daniel Hannan

ITV (UK) - "The unthinkable has happened...This is not a developing, third world nation; this is Europe.

 

Solidarity with Ukraine, of course and I’m sure that those placing the Ukrainian flag on their timelines and in their windows are not racist. But why stop with Ukraine? To stay distant from the comments above I suggest adding two other flags, Yemen and Palestine.

 

 

 

Who is Putin's Parrot?

 

 

David Lammy has accused Jeremy Corbyn of ‘parroting Putin'

Four years ago Jeremy launched a programme to tackle Putin’s friends’ tax avoidance and money laundering,. Eight years ago he backed Ukrainian miners in their strikes and ten years ago campaigned against the murder of Russian journalists who had angered Putin.

Meanwhile Lord Peter Mandelson sat on the board of Russian companies and holidayed on oligarch yachts, Rees-Mogg took a stake in Russia's largest bank and the Tories accepted millions from Putin’s friends and allies. 

 

 

After Lammy's remarks and after receiving death threats Zarah Sultana MP said: “This McCarthyite environment doesn’t just increase the threat of violence to public figures. It also threatens to weaken our democracy, radically narrowing political debate and silencing dissent to establishment opinion. This is deeply unhealthy for our society and must be challenged.”

 

You can watch and listen to Putin’s 'parrot' here at 38.18 mins

 

 

 

Cash Cow or Mushroom Cloud

 

Craig Murray, ex-UK ambassador to Uzbekistan who was sacked by Tony Blair for exposing human rights violations there, tweeted this today: “Russia—an economy the size of Italy—even with Belarus cannot quickly subjugate Ukraine. But the political classes will push the irrational fear that Russia could invade all of Europe, for Christ's sake, to feed yet more cash to the military and arms industry.”

There is no doubt in my mind that Russia, under the Putin regime, has the capability to inflict massive destruction on its enemies both at home and abroad. Call me a cynic, but I suspect that, as I write this, Russian oligarch—and Putin friend—Gennady Timchenko is clinking his champagne glass with Rees Mogg.

The following is all true, except the bits that aren’t. I imagine it goes something like this. Timchendo is telling Rees Mogg not to worry about the temporary halt to his Russian investments in Novatek and Rossiya. “Anyway,” he laughs, “didn’t you make a killing on their sale?” Mogg raises himself from the sofa and pours them both another glass of Veuve Clicquot, “Please congratulate Vlad for saying he is putting Russian nuclear forces on ‘alert’. ‘This will guarantee morre monies for arms companies from Salisbury to Seattle, St Petersburg to Severodvinsk. And as you know, my friend,” adds Mogg, “it will keep everyone terrified.”

 

Business completed, Gennady asks Mogg how his son is doing at Eton. "Has he made friends yet with any Russian boys? It will be useful for him in the future.” He taps his nose.

Back to Craig’s words. Thirty years ago, I left besieged Sarajevo on a Russian air force Ilyushin II-86. There were three other passengers on an otherwise empty cargo plane. At the front end there was a hissing samovar with an open flame. The navigator kindly poured me a cup of dark tea. He invited me to sit beside him at the front of the aircraft, below the pilot.

As we taxied for take-off, he rolled out a map and from a side drawer, took out a slide and compass. As we left the runway, he spoke some numbers into his mic to the pilot. A few moments later, he tore his headphones off and threw them aside. He looked at me and laughed. “Not work. Nothing work in this plane. No worries we will get there.” He then shouted the same numbers to the pilot.

I thought then as I think now. There will continue to be terrible suffering for the peoples of the world, but for governments, war is for profit. They have no desire to exchange their cash cow for a mushroom cloud.

 

You can read Craig Murray’s “Ukraine - How can the War End’ here

The Last Honourable Member

 

“He (Corbyn) is an apologist for the Putin regime …donors were giving to a political party that stood firm on the rule of law.” Foreign Office Minister, James Cleverly

Twelve years after Jeremy Corbyn sponsored a Parliamentary Motion accusing Putin’s Russia of Corruption and Human Rights abuses and calling for a freeze on Russian assets we have:

£27bn of UK property owned by Russians

£1.5bn of UK property owned by Putin associates

35 Russian companies owning UK properties

37 Tory MPs receiving £3.7m of donations from some of the 2,581 Russian oligarchs given UK golden visas. One of them, Yevgeny Lebedov, is a UK legislator and sits in the House of Lords (He is owner of the Evening Standard, The Independent and London Live TV).

Not far from where I live Putin’s daughter owns the largest house in London.

Meanwhile Sir Keir Starmer’s close advisers include Tony Blair, who championed Putin into power, and Peter Mandelson who has financial dealings with the Russian leader and holidays on Russian tycoon yachts.

The only good news in all this bleakness is to wake up and hear that there have been large anti-war demonstrations across Russia. Not such good news for the anti-war movement here in the UK. Eleven Labour MPs who signed Stop the War’s anti-war pledge withdrew their names after a warning from Starmer.

We must not leave Jeremy Corbyn isolated as the last ‘Honourable Member’.