
They Killed My Lawyer - nice1
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/12/22/they_killed_my_lawyer?page=0,0
======
raquo
The worst thing is that even though this story received a lot of attention in
Russian media and people are well aware and furious about it, there is nothing
that will be done about it. Neither the president nor the prime minister nor
the parliament nor the government nor anyone else with any power in this
country have done or are going to do anything about it. As if it's normal.

~~~
rms
The corruption allegations were ignored, but Medvedev did fire some prison
officials. :/ [http://lawandorderinrussia.org/2009/russia-fires-prison-
offi...](http://lawandorderinrussia.org/2009/russia-fires-prison-officials-
amid-inquiry-into-lawyers-death/)

~~~
e40
Yeah, once the public outrage mounts, token actions will be proffered.

------
osipov
>>It is also a story about how Stalinism and the gulags are alive and well in
Russia today.

It is difficult to convey the depth of my disgust after reading the above
sentence from the first paragraph of the article. I share both Russian and
Jewish heritages and to my dismay I frequently encounter writings that
belittle the history of Holocaust. In comparison, Stalinism and gulags are
less known to the Western audience. It is just as despicable to use Holocaust
as Stalinist atrocities to score points against political opponents. A death
of a single lawyer behind bars or the deaths of numerous enemies of the modern
Russian state should never be compared to systematic killing of millions of
innocent people.

To borrow from a comment by rms further in this thread, it is "an argument
about a difference of orders of magnitude". However morality of killing human
lives should not be counted in orders of magnitude -- there is a qualitative
difference between killing a man, a family, an ethnicity or a race. Saying
that "Stalinism and the gulags are alive today" establishes a false moral
equivalence.

Foreign Policy magazine editors should resign for allowing to publish drivel
hurtful to lives of so many people.

EDIT: With respect to comments by 'cema', I also have family in former Soviet
Union. None of them would compare the famine, repressions, kidnappings,
prisons or gulags under Stalin to what is happening in Russia today.

~~~
osipov
Digging deeper into the story, it appears that the author (Bill Browder) is
someone who profited from the criminal pillaging of Russian economy in 1990s:
"[Bill Browder's] business was very successful, profiting from the wave of
privatizations occurring in the Russia at that time"
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Browder>. May I remind you of a Hacker's
News thread that talked about Russia's corrupt oligarchs of 1990s:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=998318>.

In addition to a publication in Foreign Policy, the author managed to produce
a very polished video which is also available from YouTube:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok6ljV-WfRw>

The current politicians of Russia became popular precisely for what they've
done to Bill Browder -- they have taken back the money that was stolen from
people in the 1990s.

~~~
ellyagg
Wow, it sounds like you actually condone the spirit of what happened. As an
American it's strange to imagine celebrating rule of force over rule of law.
The US falls woefully short at times, but I can't imagine anyone cheering
fraudulent theft of tax money to pander to voters.

I also find it hard to believe someone would behave as the lawyer in this
story did merely over ill-intentioned greed.

~~~
osipov
>>As an American it's strange to imagine celebrating rule of force over rule
of law

What about Al Capone? The guy was caught on tax evasion charges, was US
government's rule of force justified in his case?

~~~
astine
What does that have to do with anything? He was in fact guilty of tax evasion,
which was in fact against the law.

~~~
andreyf
He was clearly guilty of much more than tax evasion. The rule of law failed in
regard to most of his misdeeds.

~~~
prewett
I think what usually happens is the government can prove tax evasion, but they
cannot prove "by a preponderance of evidence" (or "beyond a reasonable doubt,"
whichever is applicable here) so easily. Sure, everyone knew that Capone was
guilty of more than tax evasion, but could they _prove_ it in a way that his
high-priced lawyer could not convince a jury of his peers otherwise?

------
rms
Single page:
[http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/12/22/they_killed...](http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/12/22/they_killed_my_lawyer?page=full)

------
helveticaman
This is the kind of event that sets your credibility as a business-friendly
country back ten, twenty years. How far does the rabbit hole go in Russia? All
the way to the other side of the earth, apparently. Disgusting.

~~~
duke_sam
Well at least getting the word out will do some good. If companies stop trying
to establish a presence in Russia because of actions like this then maybe some
change will come about. The biggest problem at the moment is that Russia
supplies vast amounts of crucial energy to Europe. With that kind of leverage
it's hard to see how political leaders in the EU will have the backbone to
encourage Russia to stop acting like a corrupt dictatorship.

------
bearwithclaws
<http://lawandorderinrussia.org/>

------
jonshea
See also The Economist podcast interview with Bill Browder.
[http://audiovideo.economist.com/?fr_story=839854a8c031305662...](http://audiovideo.economist.com/?fr_story=839854a8c031305662728c147e70405f0472fa83)

------
asciilifeform
There are a number of people prattling on about "the rule of law."

"The rule of law" is not an unmitigated good, like clean air. Laws can be and
are written to benefit the lawmakers, their pets, and their puppetmasters - as
they were in 1990s Russia.

~~~
gchpaco
It's a damn sight better than "the lawmakers, their pets, and their
puppetmasters get to do whatever they want whenever they want" which is the
usual alternative.

~~~
asciilifeform
This is a permanent fact of life, in every country.

------
meterplech
I like the rule of law

------
plaes
Gah... Russian style business - you get stabbed with the knife you loaned :S

------
huhtenberg
Perhaps I am missing something obvious, but how is this HN material ?

~~~
rms
Please, please, let us not start a "not Hacker News" meta-discussion. If you
think this post is egregiously off-topic, flag it, don't complain in the
thread.

~~~
huhtenberg
I did flag it, but I am genuinely curious if I am missing some obvious reason
why this has 50+ upvotes.

~~~
rms
Something so viscerally horrible sets off an empathy reaction in many people,
and it's not obviously off-topic as it is well-written, in-depth, and not
something covered on TV news. Not to mention it does have a connection to
entrepreneurship, capitalism, and general business.

