STOPCRIME.RU - Who Will Judge?

On Monday, July 7, 2008, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is set to meet with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the G8 summit in Japan. What will they discuss? A year and a half have passed since the death of Litvinenko. Akhmed Zakayev is safe in the arms of Vanessa Redgrave. Boris Berezovsky has had the wind taken out of his sails, having dropped the last of his money on the “Orange reforms”. Are all the arguments behind them?

Alas, no.

The agenda for the meeting of these heads of state, I suspect, has been set by Christopher Clarke, a formerly obscure judge on London’s High Court. Last week, he made an absolutely politicized decision to allow Mikhail Cherney’s suit against Oleg Deripaska to be heard in London because of (quote from Bloomberg) “the risks inherent in a trial in Russia (assassination, arrest on trumped up charges and lack of a fair trial).”

Can you imagine a situation in which, for example, the head of some Sicilian Mafia family files suit against a Rothschild or a Rockefeller in Paris? And the Parisian court then decides to hear the case in France since, according to the opinion of some judge, Henri Julien, the plaintiff might suffer some indignity or persecution in the US? Personally, I cannot imagine this, since I know exactly what kind of reaction this would provoke in the US. If one of their soldiers is captured in a foreign country, they are ready to bomb the country without hesitation. And here we are dealing with direct interference in matters of state. Would the Americans forgive this? Never!

And what about us? Does this mean that we can be treated this way?

Mikhail Cherney is not the issue, nor is Oleg Deripaska, nor even the suit itself. Judging by the latest news from Albion, it seems London has formulated a position on Russia in earnest and for a long time to come…

One of the country’s most influential newspapers , The Times of London, claims that the British intelligence community had already slipped Brown their “brief” on the upcoming meeting with the Russian president. Russia was included on the list of the chief threats facing Great Britain, garnering 3rd place even, in terms of degree of danger. Only Al-Qaeda and Iranian terrorists are deemed worse than Russia, according to British intelligence. The British Secret Service maintains that their country is “crawling” with Russian secret agents, running around London with Polonium in hand in search of criminal oligarchs wanted by Russian law-enforcement agencies.

Official representatives of M15 (Britain’s counterintelligence agency) believe “special security” should be provided to Boris Berezovsky “so as not to allow another disgraceful murder to take place on British soil.” M15 claims that at least 30 Russian spies are operating from under the cover of the Russian Embassy, and that a special unit of the Foreign Intelligence Service, under the codename Line X is engaged in large-scale industrial espionage. On top of that the 57-year head of Britain’s joint intelligence committee, Alex Allan, lost consciousness at his home and fell into a coma, and now British newspapers are searching for another Russian footprint. And don’t you doubt that they’ll try their best to find it…

I have already written on how Berezovsky made an “attempt” on his own life. I’ve also written on how Berezovsky and Cherney are linked by some criminal mischief. I’ve written on how Boris Abramovich is no longer rich, and how he needs Mikhail Semyonovich’s money like a fish needs water. There is no need for me to repeat myself here. Israel’s High Court of Justice is currently contemplating revoking Cherney’s Israeli citizenship based on the precedent of Anton Malevsky. Where will Cherney go? The answer, I suspect, came from Mikhail Cherney’s “new old friend”, Boris Berezovsky, who also helped him select some London real estate.

But how do you turn Cherney into a political refugee? This is a man who is denied entry into Switzerland, the US, France and Bulgaria (due to his suspected involvement in Russian organized crime, by the way!), a man who was deported along with his forged passport from London itself and asked never to return. And now this man is a victim of the system, is he?

No, of course not. London understands who is coming and why but has chosen to turn a blind eye to the facts. You know, sometimes it seems to me that Themis is blindfolded not because she is trying to appear objective, but rather because she is weak-sighted…

It is advantageous for London to give “protection” to Akhmed Zakayev, even though the English judiciary understand perfectly well just what kind of “human rights activist” he is. I am sure that the English judiciary knew how Berezovsky had cleaned out the country’s budget and consequently fled and that Litvinenko followed after his master based not on political motives, but out of fear of being sent to prison on criminal charges. They knew, but they covered it up and continue to. And now they are preparing to provide cover for Cherney, whose name they no doubt came across in the files of the FSB, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. They understand who this man is!

It is for precisely this reason that I claim that Christopher Clarke made a politicized decision. This is a precedent, the likes of which we have never seen before.

Perhaps, Clarke is unaware that a claim on Russian assets made by an individual who has not had any connection to Russia for many years (Chyorny has been living in Israel for 14 years) is an attempt to undermine the national interests of the country and to siphon Russian assets abroad. Perhaps, Clarke, relying on his personal opinion of the Russian legal system, will take it upon himself to decide in a London court how Russia should live from here on out. Alas, Clarke has established a dangerous precedent, which could turn London’s courts into a bargaining chip in the hands of those trying to resurrect their lost status at someone else’s expense.

The London court has demonstrated that the issue here is not a conflict between two business men who didn’t split their billions. Rather, the real issue is a lack of trust in Russia, its system, its objectivity, and ultimately, its honor.

If this has become a political matter for London, then why shouldn’t it be one for Russia? Or should we just stay quiet?

Andrey Kalitin