Vadim Rabinovich
Vadim Rabinovich is President of the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress.
"Vadim Rabinovich is Ukraine’s foremost media tycoon with one TV channel and perhaps a quarter of all newspapers. His partner is presidential advisor Aleksandr Volkov. They are also involved in commodity trading. In July 1999, Rabinovich, who is also an Israeli citizen, was expelled from Ukraine after a feud with the National Security Advisor Volodymyr Horbulin. Rabinovich also lost out in his rivalry with former acting Prime Minister Yukhum Zviahilsky, who is a major businessmen in coal industry and commodity trading. Zaviahilsky, who is also an Israeli citizen, had to flee the country for over a year, as he was publicly accused of having stolen petrol for about $25 million, but his actions were later condoned by the Ukrainain prosecutor general. The partners Grigory Surkis and Viktor Medvedchuk control the holding company Slavutich and trade around Kyiv. Surkis owns Dynamo, Kyiv, Ukraine’s best foot-ball team. Viktor Pinchuk from Dnepropetrovsk is a newcomer in the elite after his marriage to Kuchma’s daughter Elena in 1999. He is now extending his control over much of the trade and metallurgy in Dnepropetrovsk." [1]
"Vadim Rabinovich has reportedly "bought" the Green Party." [2]
Taliban links?
- "Der Spiegel, the German magazine, said in early January 2002 that Vadim Rabinovich, an Israeli citizen of Ukrainian origin, along with the former director of the Ukrainian secret service and his son sold a consignment of 150 to 200 T-55 and T-62 tanks to the Taliban. Spiegel said the deal was conducted through the Pakistani secret service and uncovered by the Russian foreign intelligence service, SVR, in Kabul, the Afghan capital. A Western intelligence source told the Public Integrity Center that Rabinovich's weapons had been airlifted by one of Bout's airfreight companies from his base in the UAE.
- "Rabinovich denied all this, and Bout said "For the record, I am not, and never have been, associated with Al Qaeda, the Taliban, or any of their officials, officers, or related organizations," Bout said, according to a copy of the statement released in the United States by one of his associates. "I am not, nor are any of my organizations, associated with arms traffickers and/or trafficking or the sale of arms of kind [sic] anywhere in the world. I am not, nor is any member of my family, associated with any military or intelligence organizations of any country." [3]
Clinton
"Clinton compromised himself again by posing with Gore for a picture with Vadim Rabinovich, Loutchansky's (Grigory Loutchansky) business partner, on Sept. 19, 1995, at a fundraiser at a posh Florida hotel. This, even though the State Department had revoked Rabinovich's visa a month earlier for being "a suspected criminal." Rabinovich had been a partner with Loutchansky from 1993-95 in a Swiss firm called Ostex. When he returned to Russia, Rabinovich prominently displayed his picture with Clinton and Gore in his Kiev office to impress clients of another company he owned. Not surprisingly, this company was under State Department scrutiny for corrupt business practices.
"Loutchansky's name surfaced again last year, when the Washington Post revealed that first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's two brothers, Tony Rodham and Hugh Rodham, were involved in a $118 million scheme to grow and export hazelnuts in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Their partner in the venture was Aslan Abashidze, who said his financial adviser was Loutchansky. Abashidze is a reputed member of a Russian organized crime family." [4]
External links
- "Interview of the President of the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress Vadim Rabinovich to Larry King", CNN, 1999.
- Anders Åslund, "Problems with Economic Transformation in Ukraine", Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Paper Presented at the Fifth Dubrovnik Conference on Post-Communist Economic Transformation, June 23-25, 1999.
- "The Yushchenko Mythos: Don't believe the U.S. government's fairy tale about what's happening in Ukraine", Antiwar, November 29, 2004.
- James Ridgeway, "Ports: All 'Bout a Dealer Named Bout", Village Voice, February 23, 2006.
- Phillip van Niekerk and André Verlöy, "Africa's 'Merchant of Death' Sold Arms to the Taliban", The Center for Public Integrity, Accessed October 2006.
