An interesting article “Who captures “Musketeer” and why?” is printed in the last issue of Faces magazine. It’s also available on the website.

It’s informative not only in terms of studying those “innovations” that raiders have put into use to seize your property in cooperation with law enforcement authorities… The story is told by the director of an ice-cream company “Musketeer”. He tells about his ordeals, searches for law, protection, justice and righteousness in police, prosecutor’s offices and courts of law.
But the article is even more interesting to those who can read between the lines. I’ll simply quote its flashy ending:

“Corruption doesn’t exist in general. Corruption is behavior of certain authorities under definite circumstances. Litvinenko, Fedorenko, Gavriluk, Surkov – I accuse you of corruption!!!” – the director of “Musketeer” squeals, stomps his feet and angrily denounces “werewolves in epaulets”.

“But this story showed me that there are other people in law enforcement. General Repeshko, deputy prosecutor of Bachishe region, acting head of Department of Investigation of MIA Headquarters Olga Grigorievna Hobot, prosecutor Gorovoy, in my eyes you are people for whom words “honor”, “decency” are more important than money. Although many of them are being thrown by Heylik for their salvation. That’s probably why Gavriluk ran to ATO, and a young healthy man Surkov is in hospital. I respect you, honest and decent law enforcers, for not letting raider scum eat me alive!” – in the next passage the entrepreneur tries to suck up to those who are, in his opinion, on his side.

For those who can read between the lines, the moral of the story is as follows: individualists, selfish, tight-fisted, scrimping people, all those who grabbed a piece of land, state property, simply happened to be in the right place at the right time, maybe even honestly built their businesses for many years, but were apolitical, worked only for themselves and lived by the “none of my business” motto. Those who were successful, but didn’t give a penny to human rights activities, didn’t support volunteers, didn’t stand up for the oppressed, didn’t fight with lawlessness in courts and law enforcement agencies because it (oh, dear!) might hurt their business! He preferred to quietly make shady deals with people. He didn’t solve a single social problem, paid their workers like they would pay slaves, somehow existed all these years, gradually cultivating his “garden” and cherishing the hope of providing himself and his children with a comfortable old age, and then SUDDENLY confronted with something that he had always thought would bypass him!! He suddenly discovered that his business can be taken away, stolen, like any other! His business can be plundered and burned down. And those who would supposedly be on his side – the court and law enforcement – are affected by corruption that he preferred to ignore all these years, negotiate with and condone, “in case something happens”.

He faced the fact of the problem, to deal with which he had neither the experience nor associates. After all, he was never bothered with other people’s problems, and when he was the one to get into trouble – is it any wonder that he, too, turned out to be of NO USE TO ANYBODY!

Why am I sure he had no experience? It’s quite simple – in his angry tirade, he demonstrates one major misconception peculiar only to beginners that think that there are “bad” and “good guys” in the system. He praises some and scolds the others, not realizing that cop-prosecutor system is a many-headed hydra with one stomach. And its goal is the same, no matter how different one head is from another…

You have to be naïve to think that something can be done on the lower levels of the system without coordinating it with the top management that has its share from EVERYTHING. That some kind of “self-activity” is possible at the bottom levels, of which the “good king” just does not know….

And I’ll tell you what will happen next and how it will all end. The big-shot has got into the circulation! And now General Repeshko and all the others who were mentioned in the article will simply play the parts that he himself assigned to them – the good and bad cops! They will artificially create problems for him and partially solve them at times, going in circles, squeezing him like a sponge until milked dry!

At this point, I’m supposed to tell you what the moral of the story is and summarize the conclusions. But I won’t do that for you. As a classic once said – “think it out yourselves”!

Maxim Golosnoy