Alisher Usmanov 194


Now officially Britain’s wealthiest man, Alisher Usmanov has perhaps the world’s most carefully manicured Wikipedia entry. This article looks interesting and worrying. Can anyone do a good translation? Automatic web translators seem to struggle with it even more than usual. Please do not post any automated translations.


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194 thoughts on “Alisher Usmanov

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  • Dreoilin

    Automatic web translators are by and large a disaster. They can’t cope with idiomatic expressions.

  • Indigo

    @April Showers

    Thanks for the Hungarian original.

    If nobody on here can do anything with the translation before Wednesday I can give it to my husband to look at then – he’s Hungarian (although a bit rusty with the language now). Can’t do before – he’s in a hospital 70kms away and no transport till then!

  • Clark

    “…perhaps the world’s most carefully manicured Wikipedia entry”

    Yes; I discovered this some time last year, I think. I drew attention to the removal of correctly sourced material (at Wikipedia, this is called “vandalism”) and more senior Wikipedians applied a “neutrality of this article is disputed” tag; I see that it has been removed.

    Much dirt on Usmanov is still recorded at Wikipedia; it just doesn’t appear on the main page of the article. You have to look back through that article’s History, where you will find the large chunks of well-referenced material that someone regularly removes.

    As “Britain’s wealthiest man”, Usmanov can afford to pay his employees to sanitise his Wikipedia article. I expect Usmanov’s diligent helper(s) will show up here soon, to tell us that Craig is wrong and Usmanov is a fine, upstanding philanthropist. Hmmm. If Usmanov was really so virtuous, he wouldn’t need helpers removing sourced material about him from Wikipedia.

  • Clark

    Craig, I just noticed this part of Usmanov’s Wikipedia entry:

    “In May 2009, Digital Sky Technologies (which later changed its name to “Mail.ru Group”),[44] a company in which he owns a 32-percent stake, paid $200 million for a 1.96-percent stake in social networking website Facebook.[45]”

    Mail.ru is, of course, an e-mail provider; alliances between e-mail providers and Facebook are particularly powerful for connecting on-line interests, activities and contacts with personal identity. Interesting, since Usmanov has been convicted of blackmail, I believe.

  • Indigo

    @April Showers

    Having just read Galloway’s interview all I can say is “total shite”!

    An anti-English crowd? Crap. Anti-Farage and anti-UKIP policies, yes; anti-English, no.

    And then he had the unadultered nerve to call UKIP the third party in UK politics. Since when ? Since they took a claimed 23% in the shires and a few urban areas of England in council elections. This doesn’t yet add up to the third party in Britain.

    Why would the BBC want Galloway’s uniquely biased and largely untruthful description of events and point of view, though?

    I think we all know the answer to that.

  • Fred

    “An anti-English crowd? Crap. Anti-Farage and anti-UKIP policies, yes; anti-English, no.”

    You have evidence?

    “And then he had the unadultered nerve to call UKIP the third party in UK politics. Since when ? Since they took a claimed 23% in the shires and a few urban areas of England in council elections. This doesn’t yet add up to the third party in Britain.”

    But a YouGov poll commissioned by the Sun showed UKIP had 9% support while LibDems only had 8%.

    I think Galloway has a valid point, thuggery and bullying has no place in British politics. When a Nationalist party starts sending out thugs to threaten and intimidate the opposition it has all the hallmarks of 1930s Germany.

  • craig Post author

    Fred,

    Unfortunately you have overlooked the point – as have the media – that the group demonstrating are quite specifically opposed to the SNP. They view it as too conservative. You, like the media, substantially exaggerate the level of violence involved.

  • Indigo

    @Fred

    But a YouGov poll commissioned by the Sun showed UKIP had 9% support while LibDems only had 8%.

    It’s a poll … I’ll be prepared to admit UKIP is the third party in British politics when the election results are in for 2015.

    I think Galloway has a valid point, thuggery and bullying has no place in British politics. When a Nationalist party starts sending out thugs to threaten and intimidate the opposition it has all the hallmarks of 1930s Germany.

    Did you look at all the broadcast footage of the meeting inside the pub as well as outside? Thought not.

    There were no thugs present. They were students … outside they were vociferous, argumentative, a bit noisy and they made fun of Farage but there were no apparent threats to the person. They merely made clear that they disagreed with UKIP policies. That is called freedom of speech.

    Incidentally, the person who organised the demonstration claimed on Newsnight that a group of them had tried in the pub to engage in a dialogue with Farage but that he refused to answer their questions and insulted a female member of their company. Television footage taken in the pub appears to back up their claims for it showed that the students were attempting to talk to Farage in an non-agressive manner.

    Those taking part in the demonstration were not members of the SNP but belonged to a loose grouping of left-wing independentists. They were not sent out by the SNP who had absolutely nothing to do with the demonstration.

    Finally, you speak of “opposition” … UKIP? … In Scotland? … In Farage’s dreams!

  • Cryptonym

    “When a Nationalist party starts sending out thugs to threaten and intimidate the opposition it has all the hallmarks of 1930s Germany.”

    Should this ever happen – and do let us know if it does – you might (just then) be right, as is a stopped clock sometimes. Until then it is all falling rocks in the empty canyons of your mind. Red Fred on top is simpleton orange Billy underneath, and has the cheek to talk of threats and intimidation, when his lot wrote the book, flog the T-shirts. It has come as no surprise to learn that many of what were called Scots-Irish, hailed actually from Northumberland, Cumbria and Durham, these places becoming so much the better, relieved by the departure of so many troublemaking supremacist barbarians.

    Unoriginal, unimaginative unionist smear tactics just don’t cut it any more Fred.

    You are George Foulkes/George Galloway/Oxymoron-5 and I claim my x pairs of union flag pants.

    BritNat lectures on nationalism –oh the irony, what a clueless sycophantic hypocrite!

    Your sorry addition to the glut of toxic mainstream media claptrap and mendacious lying, the tide of suppurating spin, is superfluous, like you.

    Do fuck off Fred, take your broken records with you.

  • Fred

    “Unfortunately you have overlooked the point – as have the media – that the group demonstrating are quite specifically opposed to the SNP. They view it as too conservative. You, like the media, substantially exaggerate the level of violence involved.”

    So are you saying that the protesters weren’t members of the Radical Independence Campaign after all?

  • Fred

    “It’s a poll … I’ll be prepared to admit UKIP is the third party in British politics when the election results are in for 2015.”

    Well I wouldn’t want to deny you your little foibles so long as you accept that George was basing his statement on the current data.

    “Incidentally, the person who organised the demonstration claimed on Newsnight that a group of them had tried in the pub to engage in a dialogue with Farage but that he refused to answer their questions and insulted a female member of their company. Television footage taken in the pub appears to back up their claims for it showed that the students were attempting to talk to Farage in an non-agressive manner. ”

    Which is why one of them has been charged with breach of the peace and another with assault I suppose.

  • Fred

    “Do fuck off Fred, take your broken records with you.”

    Did you have any comment on the disgraceful events in Edinburgh or did you just decide hurling a few insults would further the discussion?

  • Cryptonym

    Yeah like that Gandhi bloke, he was thrown into jail.

    Farage came for a publicity stunt, he got one rather not to his liking. That’ll teach him.

    Crocodile tears, the sympathy string it seems is the only shot let in the unionist playbook.

    Seems he’s pocketed over £2 million quid in his MEP job, alright for some.

    Loved this: http://norrie.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/farage-a-tad-premature/

  • April Showers

    Indigo Just because I posted that please don’t think I support Farage or UKIP. I belong to no political party. Farage feeds on publicity like all the others.

    ~~~

    I was pulling out grasses from amongst a bed of lily of the valley today. The scent was overpowering although there were no bees at all to be seen. I was reminded that my parents married on this day in 1939 and that my mother is seen in the photo carrying a posy of lily of the valley. I wonder if they knew that war was coming within four months?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_World_War_II_(1939)11

  • Dreoilin

    Craig says, “You, like the media, substantially exaggerate the level of violence involved.”

    I saw UKIP MEP Roger Helmer on Channel 4 last night talking darkly about “anti-democratic shouting of slogans”. Made me hoot. I gathered from Ch4 report that the protestors were almost all students. When did students NOT shout slogans? And why shouldn’t they?

  • Indigo

    @Fred

    Firstly:
    “… so long as you accept that George was basing his statement on the current data”.

    What data? George is basing his statement on what he thinks is in George’s interests to say. As he always does.

    Secondly:
    Which is why one of them has been charged with breach of the peace and another with assault I suppose.

    There were around 100 protesters … 2 charged with minor offences makes 2% … hardly indicative of the crowd of thugs and bullies that you were claiming. The more serious of the minor charges, assault, concerned the pouring a can of coca-cola over the head of Lord Monckton, UKIP’s President in Scotland. The person charged, Mike Shaw, a student, is English – and proud of it, he says.
    The other, as you say, was breach of the peace. Here’s the definition of Breach of the Peace under Scots law.

    “The Scots law definition of a breach of the peace is “conduct severe enough to cause alarm to ordinary people and threaten serious disturbance to the community.[8]”
    Breach of the peace can include, but is not limited to, any riotous behaviours (which includes ‘rowdiness’ or ‘brawling’) and any disorderly behaviour. This behaviour doesn’t have to be noisy but still of a nature that would cause concern to other people.
    To prove a Breach of the Peace the most important things to prove is that someone was Alarmed, Annoyed or Disturbed by the incident.
    This offence can take place anywhere i.e. a house, a public street, a private office or any public space”.

    Neither of these offenses has “the hallmarks of 1930s Germany” and you should hang your head in shame for this remark.

  • Donald MacDonald

    Fred need to take his bowler hat off for a bit, it’s slipped down over his ears and eyes.

    Labourites don’t like the fact that they’re not the Left anymore, and the bowler hat and sash types don’t like their empire being taken away.

    Bit sore, eh?

  • Indigo

    @April Showers

    I didn’t for one nano-second think you supported Farage or his party! I should have said something to you when I first posted but I read Galloway’s statement and got a little hot under the collar …

    Your politics are probably like mine … injustice and bigotry in whatever form anger me … politicians don’t solve this. They never have. You can’t look to them for answers – they’re not interested no matter which political persuasion they claim.

    Recently I saw a quote from the Torah that I liked but I wish I knew how to put it into practice … Tikkun olam; essentially, “go out and heal the world”.

    On the 1st. May in France all women, female partners, wives etc. are presented, first thing in the morning, with a bunch of lily of the valley by their husbands and/or men in their family. I get mine in a small glass of water on the dining table with a pot of coffee made and brioche, butter and apricot jam! … There’s something about lily of the valley …

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)

    This thread has gone off-topic and degenerated into a slanging match centering on Nigel Farage/UKIP’s meeting in Scotland.

    Three guesses as to the identity of the commenter who kicked off this disruption and side-tracking……

    Hint : 15h22 today.

    A mere 3 hrs and 22 mins after Craig posted.

  • Cryptonym

    “[…] The more serious of the minor charges, assault, concerned the pouring a can of coca-cola over the head of Lord Monckton, UKIP’s President in Scotland”

    If true this just gets funnier and funnier; and some wag has now set it to music.

    “LAMENT on the predicament of the member of the European Parliament for South East England, Mr. Nigel Paul Farage, upon alighting in Auld Reikie, one May afternoon”

    http://logicsrock.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/the-blue-blanket-flies-again.html

  • Fred

    “What data?”

    The YouGove poll I told you about. Ignore it if you want but that is the current data so George is stating facts and you are the one fantasising. Was a time I wouldn’t have believed a party like the SNP could ever get into power, they hardly had an MP in Parliament from the end of WWII till they found that damned oil but people have their weaknesses and there will always be people like Salmond and Farage to take advantage of them. LibDem popularity has fallen fast since they sold out to the Tories, UKIP popularity is rising fast mainly by default, all the other parties are shit as well.

    You can play down the events in Edinburgh all you want but I think any rational person would agree that that is not the way forward for UK politics, everyone, no matter how odious he is must be allowed to campaign without harassment. UKIP have declared their intention to field a candidate in the Aberdeen Donside by-election and even though they won’t win they could well take votes from the SNP. No politician should be prevented from campaigning by the intimidation of a mob.

  • Fred

    “Fred need to take his bowler hat off for a bit, it’s slipped down over his ears and eyes.”

    Anyone reading this forum could get the impression all Nationalists are obnoxious little shits who are totally devoid of rational argument so just hurl ad hominem comments.

    The leader of a main UK political party goes to Edinburgh to campaign for a by-election and is shouted down harassed and intimidated by Nationalist Black Shirts and anyone who points out that this certainly is not democracy gets abuse thrown at them by Nationalist Black Shirts.

  • Indigo

    @Fred

    “What data?”

    “The YouGove poll I told you about. Ignore it if you want but that is the current data so George is stating facts and you are the one fantasising”.

    I’d like to remind you what Galloway said:

    That Farage’s barracking was, “[the] shape of things to come. It can only cause hatred between English and Scottish people.”

    That it was, “pure embarrassment for Scotland”.

    That he held, “no candle for Nigel Farage but if leaders of democratic parties with substantial support are to be driven out of Scotland under police protection, it’s not going to be much of an advertisement for visitors and investors”.

    That, “The whole event had a very anti-English character, it was very ugly. The language and behaviour of the protesters and the pathetic response of the police, who couldn’t even secure a press event held by the third party of the state, doesn’t say much for Scotland if it wishes to become independent”.

    That, “This kind of roughhouse is only justified against fascist leaders, and Farage is definitely not a fascist.”

    That, “the behaviour of the protesters brought shame on Scotland. Farage represents a lot of people in Britain. I wish it were not so but this is a democracy. Who’s next? If I hold a meeting in Edinburgh is that going to happen to me just because I don’t support Scottish independence? Alex Salmond has to make a clear an unequivocal condemnation of it and he hasn’t. He feeds on this acrimony on a national basis, on the basis of a border.”

    Now, I don’t know about you but I can find not one word in that statement of Galloway’s that says anything about a YouGov poll that makes UKIP the third party in Britain.

    I suggest that if you are going to debate on this site or any other that you first learn how to debate logically and second – don’t treat those with whom you are debating as fools.

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