Today is thirty years since the attempted coup in the USSR. 
and somehow it so happened that today we learned the name of the martyr -Zaki Anvari, who so wanted to preserve his freedom and once he got there, open up a chance for his family and friends…

I understand his desperation… I can clearly imagine how it was born… I suffer for his tragic end … 
I was also 19 years old .. and I was in Yugoslavia, as it was then.

Like many of my peers, inspired by Perestroika, freedom, the opportunity to escape from beggarly material existence, which openly dulls any light from a bright spiritual life, as the great  Erich Maria Remarque  beautifully noted:
“Money, it is true, does not bring happiness, but it is extremely calming.”

So, yes, in Yugoslavia, like many others, we brought various goods from the USSR, sold them in the markets, then bought up some other goods or just sent dollars home. Thanks to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the resulting economic imbalance, our profits were truly fabulous, like we could buy a one-bedroom apartment in our hometown for one week’s profits.

Telephones then worked for international calls with great difficulties. There was no Internet, there was no Skype, WhatsApp, Telegram, or everything else. Each call home was hand-handling through an operator, at times it was hours of waiting, scheduled days before. This was perhaps enhancing our feeling of existence abroad as in the sort of spaceship, out of the huge, often happy, but still, camp, where we grew up and lived till then. And there was a general feeling of freedom, unknown before, complete euphoria, and the brave need to create this first capital, and perhaps then, to open a hotel, a travel agency, a kindergarten, a shop, a restaurant, and so on, everyone was tagging and building their own dream. We even had a special name  “meshochniki” – bagmen, from the Russian word “meshok”, means bag, because we moved by trains, buses, cars with a huge number of heavy bags, often reaching even 500 kg per person.

 And then came this terrible day, these terrible three or four days.
The fear and numbness that I experienced, Tsunami of feelings … the “Iron Curtain” which could very likely be closed at any moment along with our dream of freedom… But, most importantly, my mother and the rest of the family were there… How to remove them, how to save them …
My acquaintances and friends received asylum in countries that had opened their doors so promptly, kindly, unusually. I hesitated since I doubt how I can leave my mother and everyone there, what are the chances to save them… To my happiness, while I was thinking about the next step, and the choice to remain in freedom with real risk to not see my beloved mom and all of the family for an undetermined time or even forever,  this whole koshmar, ended in complete victory and failure of the totalitarians.

Those, who have not experienced such moments, who have not lived locked up, within the framework of any regime, cannot even closely realize the despair of people thirsting for freedom.
The force that propelled Zaki Anvari to such a terrible step.

And if you ask what our struggle has to do with it, and what this article has to do with it, where is the space for our legal battle in it, I will be a little surprised. But I will address it and I will start first with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr: 

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

And I will explain from the very beginning- traders are pioneers in their own way, people who have taken a step on the path of financial freedom, without which the individual trustfulness is rather doubtful. The ones who feel and have stamina, determination to accept this invitation “on board”, as it is brilliantly stated in this article. We are the passionaries’ determined to achieve this skill of trading- investing while overcoming all personal flaws, must accomplish steps, without which trading success is impossible.

 What happened to our family is unfortunately a pretty diffused story by the hand of dishonest brokers – we were trapped by the promise of providing ideal brokerage services for trading in excellent US regulated markets, and the capital in exchange for our house as collateral.

Those promises followed by complete breach of all duties of the broker, UBS AG and UBS Bahamas, such as not timely execution of orders and not sending them to the stock exchange at all. And if it was not enough, the complete arrogance and disrespect for any law and custom showed up, when for the contract which was for an already ridiculous term of only 5 years, UBS Bahamas went in liquidation after merely one year and few months.

With Credit Suisse Bahamas was not even any loan, it was our capital and they did the same – no executions and charged us monstrous fees without our consent.

This broker’s behavior is another part of that hydra, a relic that keeps us all, humanity, as a prisoner of the past, in poverty for so many.

It so happened that we found ourselves to walk this path and to conduce this legal battle.

UBS still does not have a single witness, while we have all three witnesses-experts. to whom we are very thankful for their integrity, courage, support! I am the forth witness, as from the court order – four for each side.

It will be soon two years since we are waiting for the trial of our case in the Supreme Court of the Bahamas, which was postponed upon the request of the UBS Bahamas on a very interesting base – they have no witnesses-experts. As for today they still have not even one and the court continue to be silent..

In New York, the UBS’ lawyer is simply playing with technical tricks, demanding all possible procedures, while he knows that his client has no any defense.

Also, Credit Suisse, we are waiting for he court ruling upon their application to dismiss our case as time barred, which is absolutely non. While our application to dismiss the part of their defense as scandalous and vexatious, has not received yet a scheduled hearing date.

Today we can grieve for Zaki Anvari and remember and trust that justice still prevails.
 As it was thirty years ago.
And as his last words were: ” You’re the painter of your life. Don’t give the paintbrush to anyone else”

Please, pause, say nothing just absorb these words …. and have courage to meditate on the so short and tragic life of Zaki Anvari …

Yes, each of us is called to do our best in the place we are, to create a fair space of opportunity for the free painter with his brush.

I will close with blessings to all of you,

Deep gratitude for the support,
Irina