Alisher Burkhanovich Usmanov ist einer dieser russischen Ubermilliardäre, die sich in letzter Zeit mit dem in Mode gekommenen Einkauf englischer Clubs aus der Premier League die Zeit vertreiben (muss so ne Art Game unter diesen Brüdern sein). Doch im Zuge dessen wurde er am 02.09.97 mit den Vorwürfen des Briten Craig Murray konfrontiert (der nicht irgendwer ist, sondern im Geburtsland des Oligarchen, Usbekistan, ehemals als Diplomat unterwegs war und einiges aus seiner dunklen Vergangenheit zu berichten weiß), die Wikipedia fasst zusammen:
…the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, referred to Alisher Usmanov’s conviction for various crimes – of fraud, corruption and theft of state property – in the former USSR, for which he had been jailed for six years during the 1980s, as well as making further allegations of criminal activity. Usmanov’s lawyers claim he was a political prisoner pardoned under Mikhail Gorbachev’s administration, though Murray claims the pardon was actually the work of Uzbek President Islom Karimov on the instructions of Uzbek power broker and alleged drug trafficker Gafur Rakhimov. In Murray’s words: „He was in no sense a political prisoner, but a gangster and racketeer who rightly did six years in jail.“ The article was subsequently removed by Murray’s web host under pressure from Usmanov’s legal team, who also contacted independent Arsenal blogs and websites warning them to remove any references to Murray’s allegations, and any reproduction of Craig Murray’s weblog posting.
The move to remove Murray’s posting led to other blogs reproducing the article. On 20 September 2007, Bloggerheads.com, the weblog of Tim Ireland was taken down for reproducing Murray’s article. The removal of the host server also caused the loss of other blogs belonging to the MP Boris Johnson, councillor Bob Piper and Clive Summerfield – none of which themselves had reproduced the article. However, this move by Usmanov to suppress discussion of his past has only served to unify various blogs against him.
On 25 September 2007 Clive Summerfield and Councillor Bob Piper were interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live about the controversy
tja, das ist natürlich schon doof, wie soll er jetzt seine möglicherweise abgeschlossene Wette mit den anderen Oligarchen gewinnen, wenn er wie von Murray gebrandmarkt als „Vicious Thug [teuflischer Gangster], Criminal [Verbrecher], Racketeer [erpresser], Heroin Trafficker [drogendealer] and Accused Rapist [der Vergewaltigung beschuldigt]“ dasteht?
siehe aktuellen Bericht auf Channel 4
via Journalist & Optimist und Swiss Metablog
