# Muslim ban a distraction for Rosneft-gate? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 1, 2017, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-ban-a-distraction-for-rosneft-gate/778754 "2017-02-01T15:55:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-ban-a-distraction-for-rosneft-gate/778754/1 "2017-02-01T15:55:39Z")
Wednesday a week ago, Jan 25th, [Reuters](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-rosneft-privatisation-insight-idUSKBN1582OH) ran some facts about the shady sale of Russian oil shares. Two days later, Trump announced the Muslim ban. And the Muslim ban sucked up all attention this story might otherwise have gathered. Two days ago, the Daily Kos put up an easier readable article about the same facts. it’s probably a coincidence, but the Daily Kos article was removed today, no reason given. I got this snippet from the cached text: > [@](#): > > Finally, I want to highlight a story that many people haven’t noticed. On Wednesday jan 25th, Reuters reported (in great detail) how 19.5% of Rosneft, Russia’s state oil company, has been sold to parties unknown. This was done through a dizzying array of shell companies, so that the most that can be said with certainty now is that the money “paying” for it was originally loaned out to the shell layers by VTB (the government’s official bank), even though it’s highly unclear who, if anyone, would be paying that loan back; and the recipients have been traced as far as some Cayman Islands shell companies. > > Why is this interesting? Because the much-maligned Steele Dossier (the one with the golden showers in it) included the statement that Putin had offered Trump 19% of Rosneft if he became president and removed sanctions. The reason this is so interesting is that the dossier said this in July, and the sale didn’t happen until early December. And 19.5% sounds an awful lot like “19% plus a brokerage commission.” > > Conclusive? No. But it raises some very interesting questions for journalists to investigate. I wonder if this post will be removed as well. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-ban-a-distraction-for-rosneft-gate/778754/2 "2017-02-01T16:45:20Z")
Probably not but if the KGB comes knocking ------- 😉 I have a feeling the moves were made because Trump thinks they were vital to “keeping his promises” and to firm up his base support for future battles within his own party. I don’t feel distraction played any part in it all. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-ban-a-distraction-for-rosneft-gate/778754/3 "2017-02-01T16:57:26Z")
It could very well serve multiple goals. But the haste with which the ban was inacted, is suspicious. The haste and the ensuing chaos made Team Trump vulnerable to accusations of sloppy work. That is not in their advantage, and even a week advance’s warning could have prevented that. But they chose to hurry it through so fast that chaos ensued. And chaos is good when you want to distract everyone. Chaos is bad if they would have wanted to appear to carry out campaign promises in a competent manner. The official reason given for the haste and chaos: “we wanted the terrorists not to come in in the last two days” is barely plausible. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-ban-a-distraction-for-rosneft-gate/778754/4 "2017-02-01T17:44:08Z")
This conjecture is showing up in a million places on the internet. Russia has been [publicly trying to sell](https://cleantechnica.com/2016/06/21/russia-seeking-buyers-19-5-stake-state-oil-company-rosneft-ojsc-sale-china-india-table/) a 19.5% stake in Rosneft for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-ban-a-distraction-for-rosneft-gate/778754/5 "2017-02-01T18:00:00Z")
This [Reuters article](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-rosneft-privatisation-insight-idUSKBN1582OH) says, “The stake was sold for 10.2 billion euros to a Singapore investment vehicle that Rosneft said was a 50/50 joint venture between Qatar and the Swiss oil trading firm Glencore.” I’m all for conspiracy theories but is the idea that Putin _just gave a ten-billion euro stake_ in a Russian oil company to Trump? Because I can’t imagine that Trump was ever really rich enough to actually afford to buy that on his own. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-ban-a-distraction-for-rosneft-gate/778754/6 "2017-02-01T21:55:07Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > This [Reuters article](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-rosneft-privatisation-insight-idUSKBN1582OH) says, “The stake was sold for 10.2 billion euros to a Singapore investment vehicle that Rosneft said was a 50/50 joint venture between Qatar and the Swiss oil trading firm Glencore.” > > I’m all for conspiracy theories but is the idea that Putin _just gave a ten-billion euro stake_ in a Russian oil company to Trump? Because I can’t imagine that Trump was ever really rich enough to actually afford to buy that on his own. While I would agree that, minus better evidence, this isn’t particularly compelling (it’s more likely that the article was pulled because they found evidence which discredited the article than because men in suits showed up and told them to pull it), I wouldn’t say that “Putin gave something away” is particularly good evidence against. Say that Putin slips $10b to Trump in exchange of dropping the sanctions and handing Gulen over to Turkey. In return, Russia gets the Ukraine, Turkey, and access to all the money they’ve been losing due to the sanctions. I’d have to do some research to figure out how much that would all be worth, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the math works out in Russia’s favor. And, with it being Russia and all, who knows how honest they will be about giving him real numbers, or even continuing to treat his ownership percentage as valid. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-ban-a-distraction-for-rosneft-gate/778754/7 "2017-02-02T01:50:13Z")
It’s a ridiculous conspiracy theory. It’s ridiculous because you’re treating the immigration ban like it’s an otherwise isolated event, when it clearly isn’t. Trump killed the TPP, he signed an executive order on the ACA, he signed an executive order on infrastructure development, on border security, on lobbyists and on immigration. The reason he did these things isn’t to distract from Rosneft-gate, _it’s because he just became President._