World according to choghok

Listening to news today I heard about Abbas Palizad being set free till next verdict by paying a bill. Abbas Palizad has used state secrets to point out high officials that used their status to illegally getting financial and political gains. Other people that had revealed state secrets were given heavy sentences before, so even allowing this to go to a second trial and Mr Palizad get out of jail during the time is astonishing and might be an evidence that powerful people are indeed behind mr Palizad.

I was thinking of this news when I suddenly come to think of Russia and its recent history. Valdimir Putin was not a guy known even inside Russia when he was chosen by then Russian President Boris Yeltsin to become the prime minister. After his step down of power Putin stepped up the ladder and became the president. Boris Yeltsin started the privatization during his time and many of the state owned businesses were sold, many of these businesses came in hand a few people called Oligarchs through illegal means. This few people organized and it resulted in a very powerful financial power in Russia. Beside factories and oil wells they also owned many media companies that showed news and formed peoples mind in Russia. Every politician or police that dared to stand up against them would be found dead or shown on TV in very compromising positions like sex act with a prostitute.

Boris Yeltsin was happy to get small amount of money to himself and his daughter and kept on drinking up the money. But Mr Putin has other things in his mind. Before getting to be president he was courted by the oligarchs and they saw him fit to be president. But when he became president he started to attack these people. If he saw them meddling in his politics he would either put them in jail or force them out of the country. The way he did things was not always the legal way. He shut down all private owned media, threw people in jail by questionable means. Even some people and journalists vanished. For example a female journalists and government critique murder was commented "She is a bigger problem for Kremlin dead than when she was alive".

When we look at the Iran today we can see parallels of course. We do have our own oligarchs, most famous one the Rafsanjani clan. We do also have a "president" that see it as his mission to clean up the system, at least in his talks. And this "president" is known for doing things outside the legal system. There have been many people also found dead and missing since his coming to power. Also the media crackdown has been hard to say the least. But unlike Putin where he was the top authority in the country Ahmadinejad has to count on Ali Khamenei's support. And unlike Putin where he felt he is on a mission for people of Russia, Ahmadinejad seems to be on a mission for Revolutionary Guardians financial and political power and the 12 Imam's return.