Thursday, March 17, 2022

The Anti-Corruption Foundation's letter to President Biden:

There are Russians that want their oppression to end (click here). I am not giving this organization angel wings, it is just that Russians that feel differently do exist. American policy should embrace people that want a secure and benevolent Russia, but, it should also be absolutely sure the people they embrace are also not connected in any way to Putin.




Two Russian oligarchs own shares in a Turkish app. The app should be discontinued in The West.

Or the two olgiarchs give their stock shares to the country of Ukriane. It is difficult at this point for NATO or the USA to move against these men bacause Turkey is an ally. It gets tricky when allies rely on businesss with stockholders that are Russian oligarchs. In general the allies don't want to hurt economies that are already abnormal from a global pandemic, but, the immorality of money flowing from Americans to Russia is a problem. These holdings are assets that should belong to Ukraine and it's people.

The two Russian oligarch stockholders are Vladimir Potanin (click here) and Arkady Volozh (click here). It is interesting in both these cases the Russian Oligarchs are doing really well and then all of a sudden in days and weeks they lose billions of dollars US.

THERE IS A PATTERN WITH RUSSIAN OLIGARCHS AND THEIR WEALTH WITH TIES TO PUTIN. THE RUSSIAN RUBLE IS WORTHLESS, YET MONEY LAUNDERING TO BENEFIT PUTIN AND RUSSIA SEEMS TO BE THE OLIGARCHES FAVORATE ACTIVITY.

If The West wants to protect it's economies, get real!

Putin cashes in his chips when he believes the pinnacle of wealth is reached. The West is left holding the bag and asking what happened here?

Financial holdings of any stocks by Russian oligarchs tied to Putin should be seized and repatriated to benefit the Ukraine people.

I would like to say The West needs to divest of stocks held by these Russian Oligarchs, however, it isn't easy to single out the PORTION of the stockholdings by the Russian oligarchs and divest of that portion. It is far better to repatriat them and not injure Western companies and benefit the Ukrainian people.

The US Secretary of the Treasury and The Federal Reserve can put a policy together that would work to be constitutional in defense of The West as well as national security.

It is just and moral to do so. Russian oligarchs assisted Putin and their intentions were never benevolent to The West.

Swiss Bankers Association says up to £162billion of Russian money is being held. Switzerland is a neutral country, (click here) but it has been part of security cooperation pacts with NATO and the European Union for many years.

The sanctions were drawn up to stop the war. Putin is determined to continue to kill Ukrainians for his own reasons while he fires generals that delivered the deaths of so many. The Russian Duma needs to remove Vladimir Putin from office as soon as possible.

17 March 2022
By Miriam Partington and Amy Lewin

If you thought the speedy delivery hype was over (click here), think again. Turkish grocery delivery startup Getir has just raised $768m at a valuation of $11.8bn.

The round was led by Mubadala, and includes previous investors Sequoia and Tiger Global, as well as the Abu Dhabi Growth Fund and Alpha Wave Global.

Getir, which last June raised $550m in Series D funding at a valuation of $7.5bn, plans to use the capital to cement its position as the leader in this industry....

It is time to seize Russian oligarch assets to pay for the defense of the Ukrainan people.

The sanctions were supposed to wake up the Russian oligarchs to demand the end of the ethnic cleansing. That hasn't worked. While the oligarchs are feeling the pain, the invasion is continuing because Putin puts himself on a different level, as the oligarchs exist at the pleasure of Putin himself. The oligarchs are the moneymakers that have allowed Putin to invade Ukraine. It is time for The West to take back what rightfully is not the Russians.

Through Putin's wallets, (click here) which are being emptied by sanctions, America and Europe hope to reach Putin and his "voice of reason." But this is a grave mistake by the West which perceives an economic threat as an existential threat to power. "As far as Putin is concerned, you can strip down the oligarchs to their underwear, put them in the city square, and he wouldn’t bat an eye,” one of Russia's richest men, who personally knows a large number of famous oligarchs, told Calcalist.
"You could say it's already happened - everyone already understands that the money is gone. The money in banks in Russia is no longer worth anything, and the banks outside Russia have mostly closed the oligarchs’ accounts, or, in a best case scenario for them, their assets have not been frozen yet. Even their children are being thrown out of prestigious boarding schools and universities. Putin himself doesn’t really care. He has completely isolated himself in recent years from everyone." The longing to isolate himself, which he has talked about for the past decade, was fueled by the two years of the pandemic, in which he moved away from everyone and secluded himself - ostensibly so as not to catch Covid, in light of his advancing age....

Ukraine is suffering and it is due to Russia. When the seige is over and it will be over, Ukraine will have to rebuild the country and reestablish it's sovereign boundaries. Ukraine will have to rebuild the infrastructure. All that is a tragedy brought on by oligarchs affiliated with Putin. It is only correct that Ukraine have the assets of these people to rebuild their country. It is right to take the oligarchs assets and end their lavish lifestyles whlle Ukrainians die.

This is the second report of people being killed while waiting in bread lines. Jimmy Hill is an American caring for a sick friend and he was trying to find his way out of Ukraine. These bread lines are being deliberatly targeted to kill innocent people.

Jimmy Hill, 67, was shot dead in Chernihiv on Wednesday while lining up to buy bread from a grocery store 

Igor Sechin
Major holdings: There are no known assets under his control, and his fortune is estimated in the broad range of $ 0.2-2.5 billion.

Alexei Mordashov
Main holdings: The richest man in Russia; Owners of Severstal, one of the largest metal manufacturers in the world; Controlling shareholder in global tourism giant TUI; The owner of National Media Group, which owns many media outlets in Russia; The owners of the Lenta retail network and the owners of the cellular operator Tele2Russia.

Gennady Tymchenko
Major holdings: Founded the oil trading company Gunvor, which mediates between the Russian oil giants and potential customers. Sold most of its holdings to its Western partner the day before the 2014 sanctions; owners of Novatek, Russia's second-largest gas producer, among the controlling shareholders of Rossiya Bank, which is considered the financier of senior government officials.

Brothers Boris & Arkady Rotenberg
Main holdings: SMP Bank, Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport and a number of construction companies, led by SGM, Russia's oil and gas infrastructure giant.

Vladimir Potanin 
Main holdings: Nornickel, one of the largest metal companies in the world.
Vagit Alekperov 
Main holdings: LUKOIL, Russia's largest oil producer.
Alisher Usmanov
Main holdings: Metalloinvest, the largest mining and metals conglomerate in Russia; MegaFon, the second largest cellular operator in Russia; and he is one of the largest investors in Yuri Milner's DST investment fund, so he actually owns shares in Twitter, Zynga, Airbnb and more.

Roman Abramovich
Main holdings: He is the controlling owner of the metal mining company EVRAZ and Chelsea Football Club.

Mikhail Fridman
Main holdings: The Alfa and LetterOne holding groups, which own a German oil company, a cellular operator in Turkey, a cellular operator in Russia, Alfa Bank, one of the largest private banks in Russia, and the X5 network, the largest retailer in Russia.
German Kahn
Main holdings: Partner in the Alfa and LetterOne holding groups.
Viktor Vekselberg
Main holdings: Renova Investment Company

Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Main holdings: The Quadrum Global Fund, which invests primarily in real estate in Europe and the United States. Finances a number of news sites in Russia that publish material against Putin's rule.

Mikhail Prokhorov
Main holdings: Onexim Bank.

Leonid Mikhelson 
Main holdings: CEO and founder of Novatek, Russia's second-largest gas producer owned by Gennady Timchenko; controlling shareholder of the chemical company Sibur, which he bought from Putin's son-in-law.

Arkady Yurievich Volozh
Main holdings: Yandex founder, "The Russian Google", which started as a search engine and e-mail service, but has expanded to almost all areas of life, including news, taxis, streaming services, online commerce and in recent years also an autonomous vehicle, which it develops, among other places, in Israel.
Yuri Milner
Major holdings: Among the owners of DST, who were among the first to invest in Facebook, Twitter, Airbnb, Spotify, Xiaomi and Alibaba.
Pavel Durov
Main holdings: Telegram

There is a pattern in the way Russian olligarchs purchase property.

The Russian oligarchs own some of the most expensive properties in London. They obtained them for the purpose of money laundering. Why can't they be seized. The Parliament and in the USA, the legislature can pass laws recognizing this global pattern of money laundering through the purchase of high end homes and pleasure boats and end this abuse of the Western economy.

 

Putin is channeling Khrushchev. Maybe Stalin more as he threatens his own people.

For all intentions and purposes, Putin is afraid of the Russian people. He hid his plans and now that he is convicted of war crimes, he is seeking to threaten the people to continue his rampage. I don't think he liked the protests and "No War..." sign on Russian television.

I expected remorse and reversal. He is not havin' it. He wants war at any cost. He can't handle the truth and the truth seems to be seeping through the Iron Curtain, his political correct imposition on the Russian people. I would like to say this is a return to the Cold War, but, that would underestimating Putin's hate.

Belarus needs to begin to measure it's involvment in the genocide of the Ukrainian people.

March 16, 2022

President Vladimir Putin (click here) warned he would cleanse Russia of the “scum and traitors” he accuses of working covertly for the U.S. and its allies, as the government steps up pressure on domestic critics of his war against Ukraine....