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| George Soros |
George Soros, billionaire speculator and philanthropist, was in a bad mood when he addressed the US Russian Investment Conference in Boston last month. On November 6, “40 hooded goons” raided the Moscow office of his Open Russia philanthropic venture, and took away boxes of files.
The attack, Soros said, was the result of a dispute with the office’s landlord, Kantemir Karamzin, over rent. But what really irritated the great man was the fact that these raids have occurred “with impunity”. This, combined with the arrest at gun-point of oil tycoon Mikhail Khordorkovsky, leads Soros to believe Russia is heading for a dictatorship.
Soros said: “Going after Khordorkovsky gives a clear signal that no capitalist can be independent of the state. My hope was that robber capitalism would lead to legitimate capitalism. Now, we see instead state capitalism, where the state dominates the affairs of capital. This will hurt Russia’s economy very seriously.” He added: “I can hardly believe it is happening, but it is.” He questioned whether Russia should still qualify for G8 status, an echo of comments by Americans such as senator John McCain and neo-conservatives Richard Perle and Bruce Jackson.
However, many of the audience didn’t agree with Soros. Some questioned his characterization of Khordorkovsky as “the most enlightened of the oligarchs” and a modern martyr to Russian democracy. Roland Nash, chief strategist at Renaissance Capital, doubts whether Khordorkovsky intentionally let himself get arrested in defence of democracy and the free market: “Anybody who remembers the Khordorkovsky with a moustache would presumably discount that theory rather heavily.” Others suggested Khordorkovsky, having made his billions from the Russian state and US investors, did not deserve to keep his entire wealth while using it to lobby against rises in oil taxes in Russia’s legislature, the Duma.
Soros admitted that such billionaires could have an excessive influence in politics. He said: “It’s not perfect to have people with such enormous amounts of money.” Soros recently announced that he would be focusing all his financial and intellectual efforts on trying to unseat George W Bush in the 2004 elections. To start with, he donated $5 million to Moveon.org, a left-wing NGO in the US run by a 22-year-old. Soros says “it’s a matter of life and death” to defeat Bush. Bush must be wishing he had some Kalashnikov-wielding FSB agents of his own.
