Putin e o submundo

O Moscow Times comenta o lançamento do livro "Die Gangster aus dem Osten" (Gangsters do Leste), de Jurgen Roth, que esmiuça as acusações de ligação do Putin com a máfia russa e a lavagem de dinheiro do cartel de Cali.

The French daily Le Monde was first out of the gate with the story, raising some uncomfortable questions about Putin's tenure on SPAG's supervisory board, which lasted from when he was deputy mayor of St. Petersburg in the early 1990s until he entered the Kremlin. Newsweek magazine followed a year later with a report that raised even more questions, but despite contradictory denials and clarifications from Putin's press service, the story quietly went away. Until this May, that is, when German police launched a nationwide raid on the homes and offices of more than 200 people connected with the company.

Now, as prosecutors in Germany and Liechtenstein tighten the noose and move closer to the courts, a new book has hit German bookstores offering the most in-depth look yet at SPAG, its ties with Putin, and into Rudolf Ritter, a co-founder of the company who is now awaiting trial in Liechtenstein for allegedly laundering cocaine cash for the Cali cartel.

Outro artigo no Moscow Times, critica o comportamento do chefe do Kremlim nas últimas viagens internacionais que estaria prejudicando a imagem do país.

While abroad, Yeltsin often uttered very strange statements, which sent his aides into a frenzy of spin to "clarify" what the leader meant. Putin has followed that tradition.

Last week, he "joked" in New York that freedom of expression is not being suppressed in Russia, because there was never any such freedom to begin with to suppress. In Camp David last week, Putin told a strange and potentially embarrassing story of how the Kremlin was "approached several times" by supporters of Osama bin Laden after Sept. 11, 2001, and offered an alliance that was refused only because of good personal relations with President George W. Bush.