News

[Robert Bandanza]

MOSCOW (JTA) -- Russia's Jewish billionaires lost more than two-thirds of their wealth in 2008, according to figures released by Forbes magazine.

At the same time, wealthy Jewish philanthropists with ties to the former Soviet Union also saw their fortunes drastically reduced in the latest sign that it will be difficult for the Russian-speaking Jewish community to depend on the largesse of local donors.

How the losses will curtail the billionaires' philanthropy cannot be predicted but funding, especially in Jewish education, already has seen significant cuts.

In Russia alone, Jewish billionaires collectively saw the value of their assets and holdings drop from $99.4 to $32.1 billion. A JTA analysis of the Forbes list released last week includes only those Jewish billionaires who have given to Jewish philanthropies or openly identify themselves as Jewish.

In all, 55 Russians dropped off the magazine's annual list of billionaires this year, and the 32 that remain all lost significant chunks of wealth.

Most notably, Roman Abramovich and Mikhail Fridman, who have lent significant financial support to philanthropic efforts in recent years, saw their fortunes plummet in 2008. Forbes said Fridman, No. 20 on the list, lost $14.5 billion, but the prominent Russian business daily Vedomosti said the magazine overstated his losses along with his colleagues at the Alfa Group. The group includes several other Jewish philanthropists who started a fund last year to develop Jewish identity in the region.

Abramovich, who now manages his wealth from Britain, in recent years has regularly funded the construction of synagogues and other Jewish buildings across the former Soviet Union for the Chabad-run Federation of Jewish Communities. While new construction projects are off the table for now, the projects that were in place before the economic crisis hit will be completed, said Baruch Gorin, a spokesman for the federation.

Four Russian Jews fell off the billionaires' list completely, including Moshe Kantor, the former head of the Russian Jewish Congress, who lost $1.9 billion. The list concurred with previous reports that Lev Leviev, for years the largest donor to education programs in the former Soviet Union, had lost more than two-thirds of his $4.5 billion fortune. The Or Avner school network, which he founded and continues to fund, had its budget cut by one-third.

Aside from Russia, big-name Jewish donors from Ukraine lost nearly two-thirds of their wealth as well in a country where the financial system is teetering on the edge of collapse.

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/03/...lionaires-hard

[Robert Bandanza]

Today, 12:45 PM



A Lenin monument has been attacked in the Russian city of St. Petersburg. The offenders made an 80 by 100 cm hole in the monument to the famous communist leader, allegedly using a grenade launcher or a bomb.

Around 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday, a small bomb went off on Finlandsky Station square in the city center. The explosion was aimed at the monument to the Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin, Russian news agencies reported. The monument is one of the thousands of memorials to the Soviet icon that remain all over the former USSR territory after the breakdown of the empire.

Lenin’s figure was “damaged from behind by an explosion”, the police said. Street lamps surrounding the monument were broken. No injuries were reported.

According to the reports, the hole that the explosion left in the hollow metal monument is around one meter in diameter.

Explosives experts are working at the site of the incident, trying to establish the exact type of the explosive, reportedly either a bomb or a grenade shot from a grenade-launcher.

In late February, a monument to Lenin was attacked in the Orel Region, south of Moscow. Someone fired a hunting gun several times into the figure’s head.

http://www.mosnews.com/weird/2009/04/01/lenin/

[S.P.]

Russia's Medvedev says US missile shield plans complicate arms balance

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Monday that U.S. plans for a missile shield in Europe threaten to disrupt the weapons balance between the two countries.

read full story...

[Devere]

Putin’s real crime is that he has refused to play by the rules of globalization. In fact, he has done something rather remarkable, indeed, unheard of these days in most Western countries—he has sought to pursue policies that truly are in Russia’s interest. Putin recently commented, “Russians will never allow for the development of the country along a destructive path, the way it happened in some countries in the post-Soviet space.” In other words, Putin is uninterested in Wilsonian crusades in the Middle East, undermining his own economy with suicidal free-trade pacts, driving down wages with Third World immigration, or turning over Russia’s beloved oil and gas assets to multinational corporations. Putin is doing what he was elected to do: protect Russia.

And in doing so, Putin has proven himself a true Russian patriot. Concerning immigration, Putin has instigated rules to make even Rep. Tom Tancredo appear coy. Recognizing that illegal immigrants are driving down wages in an already depressed economy as well as inciting anger among Russia’s native lower classes, Putin has steered towards a path of attrition. He has sought to reduce the presence of foreign workers at wholesale and retail markets, which had become magnets to illegal immigrants. He said that authorities should “protect the interests of Russian producers” and “the native population of Russia.” In other words, Russians first.

Encouraging.

There is genetic-saving wisdom in a strategic retreat for the White race from all over the world into Russia. Good for Russia. Good for the White race. (Too bad the dominant language in Russia is Russian -- not an easy language to learn -- even a different alphabet.) I think Russia would welcome, for instance, White South Africans. Unfortunately, an ever increasing number of White SA's can no longer AFFORD to emigrate to Russia -- as the anti-white discriminatory business governmental policies force more and more Whites into poverty. Nevertheless, many White SA's could be saved. It would be wonderful for Putin to openly encourage such a migration to one of the historical White motherlands of our people -- and to back this up by paying the emigration costs.

[Devere]

Russia's Jewish billionaires lost more than two-thirds of their wealth in 2008, according to figures released by Forbes magazine.

What is a "Russian" jewish billionaire?

An inordinantly successful jew parasite TICK bloated with unearned wealth sucked from the life-blood of White Russians and White Russia.

THERE SHOULD BE NO "RUSSIAN" JEWISH BILLIONAIRES.

(Probably, Putin agrees with this sentiment, this concept.)