Crime and Punishment for Capitalists -- (Russia's Richest Man Arrested)

This op/ed piece by some guy from the American Enterprise Institute is more telling of the United States than of Russia in many ways. He talks about Russian authorities arresting the "richest" man in Russia (an oilman) and charging him with tax evasion, fraud, forgery and embezzlement. The piece essentially is an apologist piece for the Russian oilman, and the author talks of how there is a struggle between the Russian old line who want the government (i.e. the democratic voters' representatives supposedly) to control business and the "new" line (which the author seems to support) who would let the businessmen get away with these types of things because of all the "good" things they do. He seems to argue that this is a shortcoming of Russia right now.

I just found this piece and the attitude disclosed in it to be simply incredible and amazing ... and very telling that big business should be above the law, which is essentially how it is in the U.S. Where's that indictment of Ken Lay?


Crime and Punishment for Capitalists
By LEON ARON

Published: October 30, 2003

Aron, Leon

WASHINGTON — In the predawn Siberian darkness five days ago, agents of the Russian security agency stormed the private jet of Russia's richest man. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the chief executive and principal owner of Russia's largest oil company, Yukos, was arrested and charged with tax evasion, fraud, forgery and embezzlement.

Mr. Khodorkovsky now awaits his fate in a Moscow prison, where prosecutors can hold him for up to two months while they decide whether to pursue a trial. But his arrest has already raised profound questions for post-Soviet Russia. It has exposed the complex and deep divisions within the elite and the public alike about the nature of state control over the economy, the role of big business in politics and the influence of personal wealth in what still is a poor society.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/30/opinion/30ARON.html