Dear Diary:

If I were asked whether ten million Ukrainian lives, and another ten million Russian lives, and another ten million European lives, and another ten million American lives would be too high a price to pay to keep my stolen wealth, I would answer — in a candid moment — that that was a small price which I would be more than willing to pay to keep my wealth.  However, I would add that my wealth was not stolen, but rather was justly bestowed upon me by supernatural powers.

And if I were further asked whether Ukraine becoming the 51st American state, and Russia adopting English as the state language and Catholicism as the national religion, and Siberia being ceded to China would be too high a price to pay to keep my stolen wealth, I would answer — in a candid moment — that that was a small price which I would be more than willing to pay to keep my wealth.  However, I would add, with mounting irritation, that my wealth was not stolen — can't you get that through your thick skulls? — but rather was justly bestowed upon me by supernatural powers.

And what is this wealth that I am so determined to keep that I am willing to spill oceans of blood and to destroy Russia?  Occasionally someone-or-other manages to compile a list of a few of my holdings:

And some of the tangible items in my possession are occasionally summarized by someone-or-other, never with high accuracy, but at least approaching the truth, as in the following collage which credits me with owning 22 million rubles worth of wristwatches, 20 residences, 4 yachts, 58 aircraft, and several luxury limos:

For example, among the 20 residences with which I have been credited above can be found my newly-built Black Sea Palace:

Despite tight security, a few photos of the inside of the above Black Sea Palace have been leaked, and so may be reproduced here without further harm:

And among the 58 personal aircraft with which I have been credited above is my Ilyushin-96:        Mail Online: Playboy lifestyle of a president

Again, despite tight security, a few photos of the inside of the Ilyushin-96 have been leaked, as for example the following four:

Notice my shower reflected in the mirror?  No photo of the $75,000 toilet seems to have found its way into the public domain, and I am not going to be the one who puts it there.  If the Russian people see me with too much gold, they are capable of demanding some of it for themselves.  They cannot be brought to understand that my reliance on gold has nothing to do with mere fondness for decoration.  Gold is earth's chief conduit for channelling psychic energy from higher powers to man.  To those whom the gods want to supply with psychic energy, a gold toilet, for example, accomplishes much more than merely containing human waste.

Given the large number of people that are out to get me, it makes sense to have supernatural powers on my side as much as possible, to keep channels of communication open, to continue to show respect even when the gods seem to have abandoned me.  That is why I have a gold-cased, and gold-embossed bible, and allied religious accoutrements, aboard whenever I fly.  When we run into trouble, my keeping this holy ark on my lap, lid up, my hand pressed to the bible — has helped us through many a perilous storm.  Without my golden box, or appropriate substitute, I would never set foot aboard an airplane.  He who does not take precautions does not survive.

A review of a few of the other aircraft in my personal fleet can be found here.

And among the 4 yachts that I have been credited with above, one that was too small to be mentioned, but that is nevertheless charming, is my Chaika (Seagull), which has been more comprehensively photographed than the others:         www.likecroatia.com/news-tips/putins-luxury-ship-rests-trogir

I derive great pleasure from even such a quick glance as the above at the possessions which I love so devotedly that I will pay any price to keep them.  And I never forget that what free elections, a free press, and an independent judiciary threaten me with is not only the confiscation of all that I have stolen (as my enemies would describe it), but also my imprisonment for having stolen it.  I take delight in the world repeating my disinformation that I care about Russian security, and yet I sneer at the world for being so imbecilic as to not realize that my acceptance of the NATO membership that I have been offered would make NATO by far the most powerful military coalition on earth, giving as close as it is possible to get to an absolute guarantee of territorial security to its members.  However, NATO membership would require me to permit free elections, a free press, and an independent judiciary, but which would inevitably be followed by confiscation and imprisonment, and for which reason I incite the ignorant Russian masses against NATO, and send the ignorant Russian masses to kill and be killed.  The world is quite a bit simpler than it is commonly taken to be — I spill blood because I prefer not to spend the rest of my days in prison.  But my spilling blood compounds my crime of theft, such that now my nightmare becomes some future prosecutor pointing his finger at me and intoning, "Vladimir Putin is guilty of sending young boys out to die in an attempt to cover up his theivery!  Vladimir Putin is guilty of first stealing, and then of killing to cover up his stealing!"  This is my predicament, it is the corner into which I have painted myself, as is understood by many, as for example by Anastasia Kirilenko and Daisy Sindelar and Sergei Kolesnikov:

Kremlin Whistle-Blower: "Putin Has No Option But To Stay In Power" By Anastasia Kirilenko and Daisy Sindelar   November 25, 2014   http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-putin-whistle-blower-only-option-power/26709968.html Sergei Kolesnikov   [...] Kolesnikov, who published a 2012 article in "Vedomosti" titled "Putin Forever," says the Russian leader's controversial third-term reelection convinced him that after years of criminal self-enrichment, the only way to stave off prosecution was to remain in power. "Putin's entire chain of command is built on a foundation of corruption," Kolesnikov says.  "To see power go to another party or other people would be to put themselves under enormous threat of criminal investigation and inevitable punishment." So while Putin recently dismissed the possibility of seeking president-for-life status, Kolesnikov says he and his allies are definitely looking for an exit.  They're no longer focused on money or property.  "What they're thinking about now is their lives." Kolesnikov goes so far as to suggest that Russia's campaign in Ukraine may be motivated not by imperialist nostalgia but by Putin's desperation to keep critics distracted from his massive corruption. If the Russian leader feels truly threatened, he adds, he may even resort to playing the nuclear card.  "Two years ago, any suggestion that war would break out in the center of Europe and thousands of people would die seemed like absolute nonsense," Kolesnikov says.  "Today it's an objective reality.  And we can say the same thing about the possibility of using nuclear weapons.  Maybe it's unlikely, but it's no longer nonsense."

I arrive now at one of the questions of my biography which some people find interesting — the question of whether I became corrupted only recently, or have always been corrupt.  I do not mind this question being asked, because I understand that it really enquires whether I only recently became favored of the gods, or have always been favored.  And the evidence presented below does point to the answer that, yes, I was favored by the gods, and favored not right from the very beginning of my career (that stint in Dresden allowed opportunity for only petty theft), but favored only from somewhere closer to my career's mid-point.  No living person has been as favored as I have been, the evidence of which I invite the entire world to inspect so that upon seeing it they will bow their heads in submission to him whom the gods have chosen.

A further question that others are not yet asking, but that I am being forced to ask, is why the gods seem to have just very recently withdrawn their favor, and whether this withdrawal is temporary, constituting a test of my worthiness to have the spigots of psychic energy turned back on, or whether the withdrawal is permanent, perhaps inflicted as punishment for some shortcoming or transgression.

The withdrawal of favor is evidenced all around me, and gives me nightmares.  Just look at that photograph near the top of this page (seventh image from the start) of the black-clad figure (or is it really blue?) sitting arrogantly behind the gilded coffee table in my Black Sea Palace — the figure with the three reflective stripes on his jacket.  What is he if not a Devil from the Maidan?  If he and his photographer companion are able to invade my home to take photos, why are they not able at the same time to plant bugs, or to sprinkle viruses or poisons?  What enjoyment am I able to derive from my Black Sea Palace when I know that Devils-from-the-Maidan have been sliming it?  What tranquility am I to enjoy anywhere on earth, when I know that there are other Devils-from-the-Maidan shadowing me and contaminating everything I touch, and plotting my destruction?  How can I be certain that even my closest friends and supporters are not, one-by one, being persuaded to come over to the side of the Devils-from-the-Maidan?

Did Stalin ever have his personal space invaded and sullied and contaminated in this way?  Did Hitler?  I did not want further bloodshed, but it is being forced upon me.  I am infiltrated. — Let the purge begin!  I am infested. — Let the extermination begin!

Karen Dawisha

Putin was "The person to know in St. Petersburg," according to Karen Dawisha, Walter E. Havighurst Professor of Political Science and Director, Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center, at a 16 April 2012 Kennan Institute discussion.  In May 1990, Vladimir Putin became an advisor to St. Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchak, and then deputy mayor and head of the Committee for Foreign Economic Relations (CFER).  The function of the committee was to encourage, regulate, and license the establishment of foreign trade in and by St. Petersburg.  Officials in Moscow granted Putin the authorization to issue licenses and contracts to conduct foreign trade.

During the early 1990's, billions of dollars flowed overseas from Russia.  These funds came from a variety of sources, Dawisha contended, including CPSU and KGB accounts, organized crime, and receipts of sale for Russian goods bought low in the domestic market and sold high on the foreign market.  President Yeltsin and Prime Minister Gaidar hired the American private investigation firm, Kroll Associates, to track and repatriate money illegally held or taken abroad by former Communist Party and Soviet government agencies, including the KGB.  They were looking for close to 50 billion dollars in untaxed revenue.  Kroll uncovered hundreds of offshore bank accounts set up by former Soviet officials.  As a result of Kroll's findings, the Russian government passed a law giving it the right to confiscate funds illegally taken abroad (for more, see Bohlen, New York Times, March 3, 1992).

If money left Russia legally, however, the government could not confiscate it.  In order to legally transfer money and export goods abroad, businessmen in St. Petersburg needed licenses.  Deputy Mayor Putin signed thousands of licenses and contracts, legalizing a vast array of exports and transfers.  An investigation into his activities by the St. Petersburg city council concluded that Putin had signed contracts before being officially authorized to do so, and at terms that included the payment of substantial commissions of between 25-50 percent to CFER for each contract and license he endorsed (the Legislative Report can be viewed at http://anticompromat.org/putin/salie92.html).

Not only was the legislature concerned about the terms of the contracts, they also cited many instances of non-fulfillment.  Citizens were suffering from shortages, especially food.  Contracts had been issued for raw materials to go abroad in exchange for food but the contracted supplies were not arriving or arriving in incomplete shipments.  A parliamentary investigation, the Sal'ye Commission, was convened to investigate the shortages and state contracts.  The Sal'ye commission requested that Putin produce the contracts and licenses he authorized.  Putin refused to cooperate and after being subpoenaed he released only 12 of the thousands of contracts he signed, said Dawisha.

The Sal'ye commission investigation of Putin found that there were no or negligible penalties levied against businesses that breached agreements; businesses receiving contracts held close ties to officials in the mayor's office; most of the contracts were improperly prepared and could not stand up in a court of law; huge commissions were authorized on contracts; and firms vanished shortly after contract payments were made.  Hundreds of pages of documents were recently published, on Marina Sal'ye facebook page, days after her death.  Yet Putin never suffered any legal consequences for the details uncovered by the Salye Commission, despite the fact that the St. Petersburg legislature's report called for his firing, Dawisha observed.

Putin was also implicated in a criminal investigation by German authorities in the early 2000s into the St. Petersburg Real Estate Holding Company, called SPAG.  The Germans charged that SPAG had been used to launder money out of, and into, St. Petersburg from a variety of sources, including the Cali cartel.  Putin was a member of the SPAG advisory board and his name on the masthead attracted Western investors to St. Petersburg.  Dawisha asserted that Putin provided protection for his co-conspirators when contracts were not fulfilled, and though legal actions were taken against SPAG, none of the Russian participants were indicted (see Duparc, Le Monde, May 26, 2000 and Belton, Moscow Times, May 19, 2003).

The two cases that had produced criminal investigations (#114128, in which his role in providing a fuel monopoly to the St. Petersburg Fuel Company — a company with alleged ties to the Tambov crime family; and #18/95-238278, in which he was alleged to have used funds from the Mayor's contingency fund for acquisition of personal property) against Putin were delayed for years and ultimately dropped.  "By the time the case was to be tried," Dawisha said, "Putin was able to claim presidential immunity."  Of the many citations now available for documenting these and other instances of Putin's corruption, Dawisha cited Nikitinsky, Novaya gazeta, March 23, 2000; Sal'ye, Novaya gazeta, March 22, 2012; and Mukhin, www.zaks.ru/news/archive/view/83713 [dead link].