VLADIMIR PUTIN: WAR CRIMINAL ?

  WAR CRIMINALS IN WAITING, LURKING LIKE SPIDERS FOR A WEAKNESS DURING WHICH TO LAUNCH ATTACKS, WHILE THEIR VICTIMS ARE SLEEPING

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The West has rather obtusely been trading with evil, allowing a dictator with stated world domination ambitions for an Imperialist Russia, to accumulate sufficient wealth to launch attacks on the Ukraine.

But will it stop there? It is doubtful. Adolf Hitler did not stop, until the world plunged into war - and finally he shot himself in a bunker in Berlin. Is that how it will end for Putin?

Stragely, Vladimir Putin may have done the climate change cause a favour.

If ever there was a case for energy self-sufficiency, Vladimir Putin has presented us with a scenario that Europe, the USA and the rest of the free world should have seen coming a mile off.

But they didn't.

They were either too busy grabbing what they could for themselves. Or they were naive enough to believe that while their backs were turned, the biggest playground bully on planet earth would not strike.

Anyone who threatens to use nuclear missiles must surely be at least partly deranged, and be may sufficiently misguided or otherwise ignorant, or pig headed enough to use them.

It is bad enough having to keep such deterrents on stand-by just in case a lunatic does not get his own way and throws all his toys out of his pram. But to threaten to use them in aggression, tells us how dangerous Russia can be in the wrong hands.

In the right hands, with fully transparent elections and human rights equality for all, Russia could be an asset to sustainable development and a truly circular economy. Sadly, Vladimir Putin has demonstrated yet again, and in the views of many, that he is not the right man to lead Russia. He keeps control using fear and propaganda, presumably part of his KGB training. Not just fear, but alleged murderous executions, imprisonment and torture to control civil unrest. Thus disposing of genuine opposition at election time.

He refused to agree to phase out coal at COP26 as a feint. Gauging the reaction of China and India, with a surprise reaction from Australia, confirming to him that the main players are totally hooked on coal - addicted to cheap energy imports - and therefore likely to turn a blind eye to his HR transgressions. 

In reality, Putin needed gas, oil and coal income to continue, in order to fund his world domination agenda. And the backing of his rich Russian billionaires, who did not care that Russia was in the hands of the next Adolf Hitler, setting the planet up for World War Three. Witness Chinese indecision, with alliances over satellites.

That his customers are paying for him to plot against them may seem amusing to some.

Any way you look at it, Vladimir may have done us a favour by jumping when he jumped. But why did he jump?

He jumped when he thought the rest of the the world was busy elsewhere - and we were. Joe Biden was struggling with his domestic agenda. Boris was fighting to survive PartyGate. Europe is in perpetual turmoil. Also, because Putin realised that such a moment in time might not come again, with the Paris Agreement leading us to renewables, that would ultimately diminish his hold on nations who were dependent on his fossil fuel imports to keep their economies choking on carcinogenic fumes.

He saw the West allow Afghanistan to be taken over by the Taliban unopposed by the US, as a sign that he could do the same in the Ukraine.

All based on greed. Russia's greed for power, and the G20's (minus one) greed for continued growth based on exploitation of the planet. Regardless of global warming. It follows the G7 are impotent, having been snake charmed.

GLOBAL WARMING

Russia's invasion of the Ukraine has shown us how reliant we are on fossil fuels, when we should have been independent a long time ago. War is harmful to the planet, but in this case may have done us a favour, if it has to get worse, before it gets better.

The conflict may help to accelerate the development of solar and wind renewables, as politicians finally get it and focus up. Not on climate change, but on survival.

Renewable energy is the key to survival. Where energy equals power.

We cannot afford to keep on exploiting the world unsustainably. Continuing to use fossil fuels is making all the wrong people rich and powerful, at the expense of allowing them to build large military machines with stockpiles of fuel and cash to wage wars. Not only that, but with property overseas to escape to, if it all goes wrong. Remember the Boys From Brazil.

You cannot wage war if you don't have the operating capital to pay for military muscle, or the iron ore to make steel.

WEALTH EXPORTS

Then there is wealth, much of which comes from immoral or illegal earnings. Why did the rest of the world assist the oligarchs to buy up property in other countries with drug and other immoral earnings. The average Russian is no better off than they were under the Tsars. They are virtual slaves to be drained. If they complain, they are sent to the Gulag after being tortured by the FSB, the successor to the KGB. 

The UK is one of the most guilty countries, in not closing money laundering loopholes, with London the dirtiest capital in the world. Boris Johnson was asked by his own MPs to take action, as was David Cameron, all those years ago. Germany is suckling on Russian gas. And so it goes on.

Our leaders did nothing. A sure signal to Vladimir Putin that he could get away with almost anything.

PROSECUTIONS PENDING

Countries that attack other nations, might have to face criminal prosecution via the International Criminal Court, and the tenets of the Rome Statute of 1998. It is a criminal offence to cause hurt to another human, from your actions or failure to act to prevent harm. Aggression is also a crime.

PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN THE POTENTIAL CURES

The only way to deal with dictator bullies, is to either eliminate them (but that is illegal). Or, to limit their offensive capabilities. Of which, one way is economic sanctions.

The other way is to nuke them, in retaliation for a first strike. But they'd have to fire first. Unless, like Japan in World War Two, the human cost of conventional warfare is so staggering, that tactical nuclear bombings begin to look like the least damaging option. And that would need to be a convincing argument, because of the fallout.

But even then, the 'reasonable' rest of the world would need to stay on top of financial transactions involving potential threats to peace.

Money from any country entering another should be fully verified for authenticity. Property that has been recently purchased (in the last 15 years) could be confiscated, pending authentication.

If each country becomes energy independent, then exports and imports are the next brake to be applied.

China has gained a foothold in every country with cheap imports made using coal fired electricity generating stations. India is doing the same. Flooding the world with cheap exports.

Cut off all trade with suspect countries. That means no purchases, and sourcing alternatives. It also means no exports to those countries. No matter how tempting cheap imports may be, or revenue from exports. This includes clothing, films, and other articles that are marketed via the internet. Anything originating from Russia, must be prevented from reaching our shores by any means

It is expected that Russian and their allies, may seek to infiltrate our markets using third parties - as a smoke screen - or laundering device. Amazon and Ebay are prime examples, selling Chinese goods to unsuspecting customers in the rest of the world.

Once identified, those assisting in such plans, should also be black-balled.

Banking transactions should be suspended. Transactions in the last 10 years should be investigated, as part of a disinfection process. All Russian or other, In-Name accounts should be frozen.

Police in almost every country already cooperate to prevent the travel of convicted criminals and terrorists. All persons from suspect war criminal countries, should be treated as criminals. Meaning, no visas. No permits, save for peace talks, under a temporary White Flag of Truce.

ROBOTICS

At the moment, Russia's tanks and missiles are walking the talk. But if NATO and/or the United Nations had defensive anti-tank, and anti-missile robots in sufficient numbers (tens of thousands mass produced like cars and computers), that they might loan to any nation under attack. Any aggressive country would need to think twice before waging war.

These would be the new  defensive infantrymen designed to keep the peace. RoboCops. And we may need them when food and water shortages become a reality - as the planet continues to warm - to prevent starvation and thirst riots.

FSB - The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB RF; Federal'naya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB. Its primary responsibilities are within the country and include counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and surveillance as well as investigating some other types of serious crimes and federal law violations. It is headquartered in Lubyanka Square, Moscow's center, in the main building of the former KGB. According to the 1995 Federal Law "On the Federal Security Service", the director of the FSB is appointed by and directly answerable to the president of Russia.

The FSB is mainly responsible for the internal security of the Russian state, counterintelligence, and the fight against organized crime, terrorism, and drug smuggling, whereas overseas espionage is the primary responsibility of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, the successor to the KGB's First Directorate, as well as the GRU, a body within the Russian Ministry of Defence. However, the FSB's FAPSI conducts electronic surveillance abroad. All law enforcement and intelligence agencies in Russia work under the guidance of the FSB, if necessary.

The FSB employs about 66,200 uniformed staff, including about 4,000 special forces troops. It also employs Border Service personnel of about 160,000–200,000 border guards.

After becoming president, Vladimir Putin launched a major reorganization of the FSB. First, the FSB was placed under direct control of the President by a decree issued on 17 May 2000.

In the summer of 2006, the FSB was given the legal power to engage in targeted killing of terrorism suspects overseas if so ordered by the president.

The FSB has been criticised for corruption, human rights violations and secret police activities. Some Kremlin critics such as Alexander Litvinenko have claimed that the FSB is engaged in suppression of internal dissent; Litvinenko died in 2006 as a result of polonium poisoning. A number of opposition lawmakers and investigative journalists were murdered while investigating corruption and other alleged crimes: Sergei Yushenkov, Yuri Shchekochikhin, Galina Starovoitova, Anna Politkovskaya, Alexander Litvinenko, Paul Klebnikov, Nadezhda Chaikova, Nina Yefimova, and others. Recently, the FSB was criticised by western sources for monitoring a gathering of members of the Jehovahs Witnesses while they were about to undergo baptism rites.

After the annexation of Crimea, the FSB may also have been responsible for the forced disappearances and torture of Crimean Tatar activists and public figures. Some, such as Oleh Sentsov, have been detained and accused in politically motivated kangaroo courts.

In spite of various anti-corruption actions of the government FSB operatives and officials are routinely found in the center of various fraud, racket and corruption scandals.

FROM KGB TO THE KREMILN

It is alleged that Russia’s leader has a long record of inhumanity. He was an agent of the Soviet secret police, a Gestapo style criminal institution with a record that goes back to mass killings perpetrated by the henchmen of Soviet dictators Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. Putin knew the KGB’s record when he joined it in 1975, at the height of its crackdown on the Soviet dissident movement and just seven years after the country’s armed forces crushed the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia.

When Putin came to power in 1999, it is said that he almost certainly approved, and perhaps even orchestrated, the bombings of two apartment buildings in Moscow, in which hundreds of innocent Russians lost their lives. As Amy Knight, a specialist on the KGB, argues, the evidence makes it “abundantly clear” that the Russian security service, the FSB (which succeeded the KGB), was “responsible for carrying out the attacks.” Concludes Knight: It is “inconceivable” that the bombings would have been done “without the sanction of Putin,” who exploited the panic they created to crack down on the Chechens and present himself as an indispensable leader.

Putin used the bombings to reignite the Second Chechen War, in which he launched a massive air and land campaign that produced thousands of refugees, reduced much of the Chechen capital Grozny to rubble and killed at least 25,000 civilians.

Putin has funded, promoted, supplied and aided and abetted the Russian and pro-Russian terrorists in eastern Ukraine. Thus far, that war has taken 10,000 lives. It was Putin’s proxies who shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on July 17, 2014, killing 298 innocent people aboard.

On the corruption front, Boris Johnson and the corrupt members of his party and/or cabinet, are by comparison; mere amateurs. 

GULAG - The Gulag is recognized as a major instrument of political repression in the Soviet Union. The camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers of whom were convicted by simplified procedures, such as by NKVD troikas or by other instruments of extrajudicial punishment. In 1918–22, the agency was administered by Cheka, followed by the GPU (1922–23), OGPU (1923–34), later by the NKVD (1934–46), and in the final years by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). The Solovki prison camp, the first corrective labor camp constructed after the revolution, was established in 1918 and legalized by a decree, "On the creation of the forced-labor camps", on April 15, 1919.

The internment system grew rapidly, reaching a population of 100,000 in the 1920s. By the end of 1940, the population of Gulag camps amounted to 1.5 million The emergent consensus among scholars is that, of the 14 million prisoners who passed through Gulag camps and the 4 million who passed through Gulag colonies from 1930 to 1953, roughly 1.5 to 1.7 million perished there or died soon after their release. Some journalists and writers question the reliability of such data and instead rely heavily on memoir sources that come to higher estimations. Archival researchers have found "no plan of destruction" of the gulag population and no statement of official intent to kill them, and prisoner releases vastly exceeded the number of deaths in the Gulag. This can be partly attributed to the common practice of releasing prisoners who were either suffering from incurable diseases or near death.

Almost immediately following the death of Stalin, the Soviet establishment took steps in dismantling the Gulag system. A general amnesty was declared in the immediate aftermath of Stalin's death, though it was limited to non-political prisoners and political prisoners sentenced to no more than five years. Shortly thereafter Nikita Khrushchev was elected as First Secretary, initiating the processes of de-Stalinization and the Khrushchev Thaw, triggering a mass release and rehabilitation of political prisoners. The Gulag system ended definitively six years later on 25 January 1960, when the remains of the administration were dissolved by Khrushchev. The legal practice of sentencing convicts to penal labor, though restrained, was not fully abolished and continues to this day, although to a far more limited capacity, in the Russian Federation.

CORRUPTION INVESTIGATIONS

Putin was “The person to know in St. Petersburg,” according to Karen Dawisha, Walter E. Havighurst Professor of Political Science and Director, Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center, at a 16 April 2012 Kennan Institute discussion. In May 1990, Vladimir Putin became an advisor to St. Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchak, and then deputy mayor and head of the Committee for Foreign Economic Relations (CFER). The function of the committee was to encourage, regulate, and license the establishment of foreign trade in and by St. Petersburg. Officials in Moscow granted Putin the authorization to issue licenses and contracts to conduct foreign trade.

During the early 1990’s, billions of dollars flowed overseas from Russia. These funds came from a variety of sources, Dawisha contended, including CPSU and KGB accounts, organized crime, and receipts of sale for Russian goods bought low in the domestic market and sold high on the foreign market. President Yeltsin and Prime Minister Gaidar hired the American private investigation firm, Kroll Associates, to track and repatriate money illegally held or taken abroad by former Communist Party and Soviet government agencies, including the KGB. They were looking for close to 50 billion dollars in untaxed revenue. Kroll uncovered hundreds of offshore bank accounts set up by former Soviet officials. As a result of Kroll’s findings, the Russian government passed a law giving it the right to confiscate funds illegally taken abroad (for more, see Bohlen, New York Times, March 3, 1992).

If money left Russia legally, however, the government could not confiscate it. In order to legally transfer money and export goods abroad, businessmen in St. Petersburg needed licenses. Deputy Mayor Putin signed thousands of licenses and contracts, legalizing a vast array of exports and transfers. An investigation into his activities by the St. Petersburg city council concluded that Putin had signed contracts before being officially authorized to do so, and at terms that included the payment of substantial commissions of between 25-50 percent to CFER for each contract and license he endorsed (the Legislative Report can be viewed at http://anticompromat.org/putin/salie92.html).

Not only was the legislature concerned about the terms of the contracts, they also cited many instances of non-fulfillment. Citizens were suffering from shortages, especially food. Contracts had been issued for raw materials to go abroad in exchange for food but the contracted supplies were not arriving or arriving in incomplete shipments. A parliamentary investigation, the Sal’ye Commission, was convened to investigate the shortages and state contracts. The Sal’ye commission requested that Putin produce the contracts and licenses he authorized. Putin refused to cooperate and after being subpoenaed he released only 12 of the thousands of contracts he signed, said Dawisha.

The Sal’ye commission investigation of Putin found that there were no or negligible penalties levied against businesses that breached agreements; businesses receiving contracts held close ties to officials in the mayor’s office; most of the contracts were improperly prepared and could not stand up in a court of law; huge commissions were authorized on contracts; and firms vanished shortly after contract payments were made. Hundreds of pages of documents were recently published, on Marina Sal’ye facebook page, days after her death. Yet Putin never suffered any legal consequences for the details uncovered by the Salye Commission, despite the fact that the St. Petersburg legislature’s report called for his firing, Dawisha observed.

Putin was also implicated in a criminal investigation by German authorities in the early 2000s into the St. Petersburg Real Estate Holding Company, called SPAG. The Germans charged that SPAG had been used to launder money out of, and into, St. Petersburg from a variety of sources, including the Cali cartel. Putin was a member of the SPAG advisory board and his name on the masthead attracted Western investors to St. Petersburg. Dawisha asserted that Putin provided protection for his co-conspirators when contracts were not fulfilled, and though legal actions were taken against SPAG, none of the Russian participants were indicted (see Duparc, Le Monde, May 26, 2000 and Belton, Moscow Times, May 19, 2003).

The two cases that had produced criminal investigations (#114128, in which his role in providing a fuel monopoly to the St. Petersburg Fuel Company—a company with alleged ties to the Tambov crime family; and #18/95-238278, in which he was alleged to have used funds from the Mayor’s contingency fund for acquisition of personal property) against Putin were delayed for years and ultimately dropped. “By the time the case was to be tried,” Dawisha said, “Putin was able to claim presidential immunity.” Of the many citations now available for documenting these and other instances of Putin’s corruption, Dawisha cited Nikitinsky, Novaya gazeta, March 23, 2000; Sal’ye, Novaya gazeta, March 22, 2012; and Mukhin, www.zaks.ru/news/archive/view/83713.

Presumably, you might imagine that anyone even remotely associated with such activities might not be a person to worry much about killing innocent victims of lung cancer, so long as it does not interfere with the free flow of money into and out of his country. Cash for lives, with the phasing out of fossil fuels being a threat to the currency and goods discrepancies and misappropriation that is the hallmark of a virtual dictator who has been in power for such a long time without even a whiff of genuine democracy on the horizon.

No surprise then that Russia has teamed up with China (with Brazil in the mix somewhere) to counter US hegemony in space with increased collaboration. According to the deal, Roscosmos will install a satellite ground-monitoring station in Shanghai, with China reportedly installing parallel stations in Russia to improve tracking. GLONASS being Russia's answer to the American Global Positioning System or GPS - a network of satellites that provide real-time positioning and navigation data for public and military use.

FOOD SECURITY - Hannibal Lecter found many ways of ridding the world of inept persons in positions of trust, failing to perform adequately in the interests of the people.

When food is no longer found on supermarket shelves at affordable prices, or at all, the people will be looking around for their next meal. They need look no further than the next street, perhaps being fond of their immediate neighbors. Or, indeed working together as local gangs are formed into hunting party's.

Like the witch trials of old, that may be a perfect time to settle old scores and stock the larder with antagonists. Most efficiently, killing two birds with one stone, as into the cooking pot goes the object of the mob's discontent. Justice being served in many hot or cold dishes. A time to enjoy eating (with/or) old friends - and take stock of the ravaged world the kleptocrats left behind. We wouldn't want to be in their shoes!

WHAT IS A WAR CRIMINAL?

A Nazi war criminal is a person who kills an unarmed human being or gives the order to kill another human being outside the normal rules of engagement in times of war.

In peacetime, a War Criminal, is a politician, industrialist or other entity that conducts themselves and/or their policies such as to (in effect) murder another human being from starvation or poisoning resulting from action or inaction on their part.

This philosophy extends to causing hardship and mental stress (torture), contrary to Articles 2 and 3 of the EU's Human Rights Convention and Articles 3 and 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin is charged with planned aggression based on false propaganda.

THE DIRTIEST DOZEN: CLIMATE & HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

G20 abusers will say they had no choice. They needed to keep burning coal, gas and oil for their economies - just like the camp guards at the many concentration camps, they were forced into business as usual. In the case of the camp guards, they argued they were just following orders. But that is not true. We all have choices. There are clean alternatives, such as solar and wind power. There is no need to keep building coal fired electricity generating stations, and no need to drive carcinogenic petrol or diesel vehicles that contribute to lung cancer. We have hydrogen fuel cells, electrolyzers and zero emission electric vehicles.

If you are going to increase electricity capacity, it makes sense to invest in renewable energy, unless it is that the fossil fuel giants are lubricating the works with party donations. If that is the case, we say that such contributions should be transparently declared, that the public is informed as to what is guiding policy decisions.

LINKS & REFERENCE

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/04/meet-the-oligarchs-sanctions-russian-billionaires

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/former-tory-intelligence-chief-warns-conservative-party-over-kremlin-linked-russian-donors/ar-AAUdSaR

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/the-week-vladimir-putin-lost-control/ar-AAUBRvP
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/china-ready-to-play-a-role-in-ukraine-ceasefire/ar-AAUtc13
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/megayacht-belonging-to-long-time-ally-of-vladimir-putin-seized/ar-AAUy0lH
https://theconversation.com/ukraine-invasion-what-the-west-needs-to-do-now-expert-view-177860
https://news.yahoo.com/putins-claims-ukraine-committing-genocide-220211549.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/end-of-the-world-putin-threatens-decade-long-nuclear-winter-that-would-kill-billions/ar-AAUWaC0
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/putin-very-angry-with-own-henchmen-as-russian-leader-truly-unhappy/ar-AAUWolU

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/why-putin-is-hell-bent-on-capturing-ukraine-s-nuclear-reactors/ar-AAV0Z9J

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/editorpicks/vladimir-putin-has-fallen-into-the-dictator-trap/ar-AAV7Lky

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60593022

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/why-putin-is-hell-bent-on-capturing-ukraine-s-nuclear-reactors/ar-AAV0Z9J

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/has-vladimir-putin-always-been-corrupt-and-does-it-matter

https://www.politico.eu/article/vladimir-putin-war-criminal-inhumanity-syria/

Adolf Hitler and chum Heinrich Himmler  [Allegedly, Adolf Hitler did not die in that bunker incident C.1949.  Apparently, he was fired into England, strapped to a V1 rocket, leaving behind his false teeth.  He parachuted into Wealden that night hoping to meet some deviants, who'd arranged a new identity for their fallen comrade.  Apparently, he landed in Crowborough, shaved off his moustache and was mistaken for a council official, whereupon he infiltrated the ranks of the local council and trained them how to use his terror tactics to control the peasant civilians.

OLIGARCHS

The UK, EU, and US governments have responded to Russia's invasion of Ukraine with devastating sanctions against the billionaire businessmen perceived to be in President Vladimir Putin's inner circle.

Mr Putin has warned his allies for many years they should protect themselves against such measures, particularly as relations soured with the US and EU countries after the annexation of Crimea.

But while some of those closest to him took his advice and remained invested in Russia, others kept their money in palatial properties overseas and football clubs, and their companies remained listed on foreign stock exchanges.

They now find themselves scrambling to hold on to their assets amid the most comprehensive economic penalties imposed in the modern era. Here's what we know about some of them.

There should be an international law against profiteering from your fellow man, such that billionaires become disenfranchised (assets seized) if they cannot demonstrate corporate responsibility - and do not plough back their extreme wealth into Net Zero enterprises - by way of Carbon Offset.

Extreme wealth is dangerous. It is like a cancer, a consuming virus.

NAZI LINKS & REFERENCE

Nazi concentration 'death camp' executions

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