The big stinking tin-pot* is still pushing the “neo-Nazi” angle.
*pronounce the surname with three syllables.
Now the New York Times and other news outlets are reporting that the Lukoil board of directors have issued a statement calling for immediate cessation of hostilities. If Putin’s losing the oil oligarchs how much longer can he last?
Regardless of how this war ends, I sincerely hope the sanctions continue as long as Putin is in power… and continue as long as there’s a dictator in Russia. And the same goes for other dictators. This has got to stop.
The scumbag addresses the nation today; let’s hope he doesn’t go spewing anything along the lines of…
I think he’s backing himself into a corner if does. Considering all the protesting I’m seeing already from Russia’s citizens, it’s possible (just maybe, not that I’d put huge amounts of money on it) that Putin could be in for a bit of a surprise if he does declare martial law.
Heh, one can dream.
They seem to be heading that way. They just passed a law making it a crime for Russians to report on the Russian invasion in a way that goes against the official line. Cite.
I think most Russians are going to understand exactly what that means. The war is not going well, and the official line is bullshit. The Russian public is not stupid.
So as it relates to all of the pulling out and the quitting of partnerships with Russia, we’re (U.S.) still full partners with the space station, right? I realize that you can’t just pull the plug on that while it’s up there zipping around, but we’re still kind of best friends in that endevor, right? I mean, we should stop that. When we can.
Glad ya asked! NOPE!
Although I heard a commentator on NPR say that it is unclear the extent to which Putin needs the oligarchs versus the oligarchs need to Putin. As he said Putin’s response to “You just cost me 100 million dollars!” might be “Well do you want to keep the 200 million you’ve still got?”
How in the hell did one man manage to amass so much power?
Yeah. Combine being able to say “may I remind you any sort of real rule of law means you lose” with having filled the entities that can take the wealth and even lives of even the richest in the land, with absolutely obedient henchmen (and why the latter, is simple: “will no one rid me of this troublesome spook?” No, if they know that getting rid of him means whoever comes next will take you down hard too for having been a part of it to begin with.)
I heard someone on NPR yesterday saying that the oligarchs were really “trustees” of Putin’s, and he was the one who really exercised the full control over their assets. Same guy?
From that ISS article:
“If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from an unguided deorbit to impact on the territory of the U.S. or Europe?” Rogozin wrote. “There’s also the chance of impact of the 500-ton construction in India or China.”
Just in case you were thinking Putin is the craziest motherfucker in Russia.
Have you not been watching the Republican party in the US over the last seven years or so?
It’s complicated. Russian oligarchs that are critical of Putin or deemed too westward looking are likely to lose their assets, their freedom and possibly their life as they become the victims of a quasi-legal corruption investigation.
Shortly after Putin came to power, he made an example of an oligarch named Michael Khodorkovsky, this gifted article will give you an idea of how it works.
Putin did something similar to an American businessman named Bill Browder, an investor that purchased several Russian companies, with the intent of running them as profitable businesses. He was caught up in a Kafkaesque nightmare where a legal paper trail was created that essentially transferred his companies to different ownership, then the fraudulent owners committed tax fraud and Browder was blamed for it. This incident was behind the Magnitsky Act sanctions.
He wrote a book about it called Red Notice, that book was what piqued my interest in the subject of Russian corruption.
However, with the eyes of the world on Putin. I’m not sure he could successfully “pull a Khodorkovsky” on multiple oligarchs at the same time.
He might try, though…because Putin is a gangster at heart. Ask Robert Kraft, who’s missing one of his Super Bowl rings
If anyone deserves to be robbed by Putin, it’s Robert Kraft. Fuck that guy, too.
Stranger
I’m glad I’m not the only one thinking along those lines.
Yeah, to Hell with Kraft.
Now Russian airstrikes have destroyed a railway line near Kyiv, this severely inhibiting a refugee exit path.
I’m thinking that Putin is either thinking about hostages or ethnic cleansing. Both of which make him an asshole.