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The Quest To Freeze "Putin's Billions"
Just over a month ago, in the latest round of sanctions against Russia, and specifically Putin's inner circle of advisors and lieutenants, one person was singled out - Gennady Timchenko, part-owner of the Gunvor Group commodities trading company, the fourth largest oil trader in the world with over $90 billion in 2013 revenues.
This name was particularly notable because as part of the justification for adding Timchenko to the list of sanctioned oligarchs, the US Treasury said that "Putin has investments in Gunvor and may have access to Gunvor funds." This is curious because in 2008 The Economist also linked Putin to Timchenko. Timchenko promptly sued but later dropped the case, and The Economist issued a statement. “We accept Gunvor’s assurances that neither Vladimir Putin nor any other senior Russian political figures have any ownership in Gunvor."
Yet somehow, despite the repeated denials that Putin has a direct or indirect interest in the massive oil trading company, the Treasury department apparently knows better. As the NYT reports, "Seth Thomas Pietras, Gunvor’s corporate affairs director, said Mr. Putin “does not and never has had any ownership, direct, indirect or otherwise, in Gunvor,” nor is he “a beneficiary of Gunvor,” and “he has no access to Gunvor’s funds.” After the sanctions statement, Gunvor executives flew to Washington to meet with State Department officials and congressional aides. “We’re providing evidence but have not seen any sort of evidence from them yet and don’t know if we ever will,” Mr. Pietras said. He said the company’s banking partners had been satisfied by its explanations.
The Treasury Department, however, was not. “We remain confident that the information on the relationship between Putin and Gunvor is accurate,” said a Treasury official, who asked not to be identified in a public dispute with the company."
Still, whether or not Putin has a stake in Gunvor is of secondary importance - what matters is that tomorrow, as part of yet another round of sanctions by the US Treasury, among those likely to be on Monday’s list, are Igor Sechin, president of the Rosneft state oil company, and Aleksei Miller, head of the Gazprom state energy giant.
Which brings us to the topic of this post, namely the quest for Putin's billions.
Because if there was anything the Gunvor sanction escalation showed, is that the US is not afraid of going those who are in the Putin circle of not only trust but, certainly, money. To be sure, so far the American government has not imposed sanctions on Putin himself, and according to the NYT, officials said they would not in the short term, reasoning that personally targeting a head of state would amount to a “nuclear” escalation, as several put it. But that doesn't mean the Treasury can't go after those who are nearest to Putin, both in terms of power, and certainly money.
The problem, as the US is starting to realize, is that those alleged billions that Russia's leader may (or may not) have access to are quite difficult to track down. There is much speculation and conjecture, but the facts are still rather slim. Here is what is known:
For years, the suspicion that Mr. Putin has a secret fortune has intrigued scholars, industry analysts, opposition figures, journalists and intelligence agencies but defied their efforts to uncover it. Numbers are thrown around suggesting that Mr. Putin may control $40 billion or even $70 billion, in theory making him the richest head of state in world history.
For all the rumors and speculation, though, there has been little if any hard evidence, and Gunvor has adamantly denied any financial ties to Mr. Putin and repeated that denial on Friday.
The US may not be sure just where Putin's billions are buried preventing a laser-guided strategy, but that just means it will engage in a shotgun approach and slam all those financiers and oligarchs who are closest to Putin - even those whose goodwill is so critical to keep Russian gas flowing to Germany and the UK.
“It’s like standing in a circle and all of a sudden everyone in the circle is getting a bomb thrown on them, and you get the message that it’s getting close,” said Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, describing at a recent hearing the way the sanctions are getting closer to Mr. Putin.
Still, this does beg the question - is Putin really a billionaire? Officially, of course not.
Mr. Putin’s reported income for 2013 was just $102,000, according to a Kremlin statement this month. Over the years, he has crudely dismissed suggestions of personal wealth. “I have seen some papers about this,” he said at a news conference in 2008. “Just gossip that’s not worth discussing. It’s simply rubbish. They picked everything out of someone’s nose and smeared it on their little papers.”
How much Mr. Putin cares about money has long been a subject of debate both in Russia and in the West. On government payrolls since his days in the K.G.B., the Soviet intelligence agency, Mr. Putin to many seemed driven more by power and nationalism than by material gain. With access to government perks like palaces, planes and luxury cars, he seemingly has little need for personal wealth.
“If he really does have all that money salted away somewhere, why?” asked Bruce K. Misamore, who was the chief financial officer of Yukos Oil before the Russian government imprisoned its top shareholder, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, seized its assets and gave many of them to Mr. Sechin’s Rosneft. “What good does it do him? Is it just ego? Presumably, it’s not to pass it down to heirs. I doubt we’ll see Mr. Putin becoming one of the leading philanthropists in the world.”
Philanthropist, no. But if indeed Putin has highly confidential access to up to $70 billion, that would probably make him the wealthiest person on earth. And thus most influential.
Still, with no hard numbers and org charts highlight Putin's equity stakes and bank accounts around there world, there is mostly speculation:
The C.I.A. in 2007 produced a secret assessment of Mr. Putin’s wealth that has never been released, according to officials who have read it. The assessment, the officials said, largely tracked with assertions later made publicly by a Russian political analyst who said Mr. Putin effectively controlled holdings in Gunvor, Gazprom and Surgutneftegaz that added up to about $40 billion at the time.
... the assessment roughly mirrored estimates made publicly at the end of that year by Stanislav Belkovsky, a Russian political analyst with ties to the Kremlin whose public attack on oligarchs several years earlier had presaged the arrest and prosecution of Mr. Khodorkovsky of Yukos.
Mr. Belkovsky told European newspapers in December 2007 that Mr. Putin had amassed a fortune of “at least” $40 billion through sizable shares of some of Russia’s largest energy companies. Mr. Putin secretly controlled “at least 75 percent” of Gunvor, 4.5 percent of Gazprom and 37 percent of Surgutneftegaz, Mr. Belkovsky said, citing only unnamed Kremlin insiders.
“The reality is that Putin has others and entities to move money that he controls or that he might control ultimately,” said Mr. Zarate, the former Bush adviser. “The challenge with him is you don’t have an easy way of drawing the line to the assets he actually owns and controls currently. There’s a dimension of layering and relationships with people with whom he’s close and entities that serve as conduits that make it tricky to determine what is Putin’s and what is not.”
Then, there is the indirect way of estimating Putin's wealth:
In 2010, Sergei Kolesnikov, a businessman, published an open letter saying he had helped Mr. Putin secretly build a billion-dollar palace on the Black Sea. The Kremlin dismissed his claims as “absurd.” In 2012, Boris Y. Nemtsov, an opposition leader, released a report detailing the presidential perks at Mr. Putin’s disposal, including 20 residences, 15 helicopters, four yachts and 43 aircraft.
Indirect estimates, however, always leave much to be desired:
some hunting for Mr. Putin’s private wealth have found obstacles. Last month, Cambridge University Press declined to publish a book by its longtime author Karen Dawisha, a Miami University professor, exploring how Mr. Putin built “a kleptocratic and authoritarian regime in Russia.” The publisher wrote her saying it had “no reason to doubt the veracity” of her book, but deemed the risk of a lawsuit too high, according to letters published by The Economist. In a return letter, Ms. Dawisha called the decision “pre-emptive book burning.”
Which brings us back to Gunvor, which is sternly denying any relationship with Putin, even as the US Treasury openly rejected this explanation, with its explicit language.
Did Putin have some or all of his billions at the Cyprus-based company? Perhaps, but the cross holdings are so well-hidden not even the NSA likely knows who owns what. Indicating the complexity of Russian-oligarch org charts, here is just a "simple" summary of what Gunvor's stakeholder Timchenko owned, via Bloomberg:
The majority of Timchenko's net worth was derived from his 44 percent stake in Cyprus-based oil trader Gunvor Group, which he sold to partner Torbjorn Tornqvist on March 19, 2014, ahead of U.S. economic sanctions. Through Volga Group, his Luxembourg-based investment vehicle, he also holds 23 percent stake in publicly traded Novatek, Russia's second-largest natural gas producer; a 31.5 percent stake in petrochemical company Sibur; and 80 percent of rail company Transoil.
He owns Sibur through the holding company Sibur Ltd. with billionaire partner Leonid Mikhelson. The pair acquired the company from Gazprombank, the lending affiliate of state-controlled energy company Gazprom, in 2010 and 2011. The investment cost is calculated using the value stated by Gazprombank in December 2010, when it sold the first 25 percent for $1.3 billion. He also has an 80 percent stake in Russian construction company Stroytransgaz, which is valued using the average price-to-sales and price-to-book value multiples of three publicly traded peers: Mostotrest, Budimex and Polimex-Mostostal.
Through Volga, Timchenko holds stakes in publicly traded Rorvik Timber and Russian Sea Group, a fish farm and seafood processing company, as well as 8 percent of Bank Rossia, 12.5 percent of insurance company Sogaz, 49.1 percent of insurance company Sovag and 30 percent of coal mining company Kolmar. Gunvor holds another 30 percent of Kolmar.
Through A-group, the billionaire controls 70 percent of Avia Group, which develops ground infrastructure for the business aviation center at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, Avia Group Nord, which provides business-aviation services for flights out of Saint Petersburg's Pulkovo international airport, and a 99 stake in private jet operator Airfix Aviation. He also controls Finland's Hartwall Areena along with billionaire partners Boris and Arkady Rotenberg.
Confused yet? Here is more on the ties between the commodity magnate and the Russian president from a 2008 FT profile:
...many wonder whether Gunvor’s rapid expansion over the past five years – just as the Kremlin has moved in on private oil production – is due to more than just vision. The company has “one very good friend,” a former partner says. “He is at the very top level,” says another.
Some have speculated whether there are ties that bind Gunvor’s other co-founder, Gennady Timchenko, and Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president from 2000 until last week. As the company emerges from obscurity, some details of the connections between the two are finally becoming clear. The company claims that it has not benefited from any political favours.
The company’s rise provides a glimpse into a secretive clique of businessmen close to Mr Putin who have made immense fortunes under his presidency but have so far stayed far away from public scrutiny. Even as Mr Putin completes a stage-managed transfer to the role of prime minister, installing his hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, as president, they are finding it increasingly hard to escape the spotlight. This year, Mr Timchenko for the first time made it on to the Forbes rich list with an estimated fortune of $2.5bn.
In a scanty paper trail, corporate records from St Petersburg show Mr Timchenko and a committee headed by Mr Putin participated in one business in the early 1990s. Bankers say the company, Golden Gates, was established to build an oil terminal at St Petersburg’s port but foundered in a clash with organised crime.
Mr Timchenko’s trading company, meanwhile, was a beneficiary of a large export quota under a scandal-tainted oil-for-food scheme set up by Mr Putin when he worked as head of the city administration’s foreign economic relations committee in 1991, local parliament records show. The trader also built close ties with Surgutneftegaz, a Kremlin-loyal oil company, inviting speculation he may have built a significant stake there.
Keep in mind, this is just one billionaire in Putin's entourage: consider the spaghetti chart of cross-holdings, ownerships and stakes if one charts Putin with all his closest oligarchs. As for those who ended up "less than close" with Putin, just Google Khodorkovsky.
And somehow the Treasury is supposed to keep tabs on all such relationships and track stakeholder interests which in all likelihood were defined only by a verbal arrangement? Of course, it isn't.
Which is why in tomorrow's round of sanctions, the US Treasury will most likely push further and, as rumored, may go as far as the two most powerful men in Russia (behind Putin of course) - the heads of Rosneft and Gazprom.
Will Jack Lew's department finally sink a battleship in its shotgun approach to isolating the financial pawns, knights, bishops and rooks in Putin's chessgame? And if so, what happens if suddenly Putin realizes that the US financial trap may be getting warmer and warmer, and even the nuclear option is being contemplated. Will that be enough to force the former KGB spy to backtrack after over 2 months of opportunities to do just that? Somehow we doubt it, and in fact it will likely accelerate the Russian offensive both in the Ukraine and elsewhere around the world.
If nothing else, though, in a few more months of escalating sanctions of those most near and dear to Putin, if not Putin himself, the world may finally have its first official glimpse of what and where are "Putin's billions."
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This assumes that Obama and Yellin are in control. I disagree. They are well paid errand boys.
The Russian ex-KGB motherfucker owns like 20 fucking houses....has an arsenal of over 40 helicopters.....
Putin: a RICH mother - at the expense of Mother Russia.
In the end, he's just another thief, masquerading as a "leader"....
Thought the Arsenal was owned by Usmanov?
Yes, he seems to have adapted to "market capitalism" rather well...
Is it even about the money? Seriously. It's all about POWER! These creeps in positions of power have elevated themselves above God. In their own minds, they ARE God. At some point in time, there is going to come a fall and a judgement....I only hope all of us Little People can have a box seat to watch it. In the meantime, we're all just totally screwed......while these assclowns ride roughshod over our sorry asses.
This is off topic....but does anyone other than me have a Thai Dating site ad complete with half naked chicks in the Ad Space? It is quite distracting when I'm trying to maintain a line of thought.
"The US may not be sure just where Putin's billions are buried preventing a laser-guided strategy, but that just means it will engage in a shotgun approach and slam all those financiers and oligarchs who are closest to Putin - even those whose goodwill is so critical to keep Russian gas flowing to Germany and the UK."
"If we cut down my percentage, it might just interfere with my aim!"
Turn off the gas...hit 'em where it hurts.
Unbelievable nonsense. Putin has behaved as a nationalist interested in Russia which is a lesser Empire than the US Empire based on fiat currency printing. Yet when Putin interferes with US expansion into Western Ukraine he becomes an Oligarch driven by personal profit. In fact the global economy has no national interest---just profits across borders. In essence, Washington is attempting to portray Putin as a worse capitalist by thinking that restricting his personal wealth will change his nationalistic behavior.
Let's see what happens next.
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_04_27/Romanian-military-units-moving-towards-Ukrainian-border-2722/
und
Iran to target decoy US aircraft carrier in drills - media reportshttp://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_04_27/Iran-to-target-decoy-US-aircraft-carrier-in-drills-media-reports-8373/
edit
http://www.romania-insider.com/romanian-minister-on-combat-dolphins-at-nato-back-sea-drills-it-is-a-novelty/119982/
The President War Maniac crowd, fully supported by the media, thinks that by repeating the "Putin's-hidden-billions" nonsense enough times lots of people will believe it. This story is in some ways similar to what they've managed to do by endlessly propagandizing the holocaust myth. Eventually about half the people are stupid or gullible enough to fall for it.
Funny you should mention that. "Holocaust" (small 'H') is defined by Wiktionary as:
From French holocauste, from Late Latin holocaustum, from the neuter form of Ancient Greek ?????????? (holokaustos), from ???? (holos, “whole”) + ??????? (kaustos, “burnt”), from ???? (kai?, “I burn”)
Pronunciation[edit]- (UK) IPA(key): /?h?l?k??st/
- (US) IPA(key): /?h?l?k?st/
- (cot–caught merger) IPA(key): /?h?l?k?st/
Noun[edit]holocaust (plural holocausts)
Yet the word has been appropriated by an agenda-driven group so much so that I bet few people today know the true, original meaning of the word...
DISINFORMATION.
And here I was thinking it was a biblical reference to a religious-based cleansing.
It also get minds off of the whereabouts of the Bath House Billions.
I don't see how someone with a nuclear armed military and a knife at the throat of the Petro$ can be robbed.
Is this like mutual assured bankruptcy?!
We should see what W.O.P.R. thinks about it.
I can see a Pearl Harbor type cyber attack on the financial markets as just the ticket, of course it can be blamed on the ruskies which will get the proles amped up to start playing some "boot up your ass" country music (not that there is anything wrong with country music) and flag waving.
Most important to the Obama administration is money and special interests. So in their mind, going after Putin/Russia's money and special interests is what they think is best to hurt them. They don't have any leadership ability, foreign policy or diplomacy skills. They are doing the only thing they know. It goes back to the only thing they are good at, "thug, Chicago" politics.
how do the Kagan's support themselves? I mean since corruption is not viable as a reason to remove our "rulers"
Sorry, apostrophe in the wrong place
Sound Familiar?
One perspective is given by Vice Admiral Frank E. Beatty, who at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack was an aide to the Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox and was very close to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's inner circle, with perspicuous remarks as:
Prior to December 7, it was evident even to me... that we were pushing Japan into a corner. I believed that it was the desire of President Roosevelt, and Prime Minister Churchill that we get into the war, as they felt the Allies could not win without us and all our efforts to cause the Germans to declare war on us failed; the conditions we imposed upon Japan—to get out of China, for example—were so severe that we knew that nation could not accept them. We were forcing her so severely that we could have known that she would react toward the United States. All her preparations in a military way—and we knew their over-all import—pointed that way
All but a few know that envy is the 'evil eye'. This article must be for the unknowing few.
this kind of story is right outta the devil's anus (state department war machine).
take a big whiff.
zerohedge is subverted (smell the sell-out).
...let's try this: obama's secret billions and why he sucks.
mindless propaganda allowed onto the 'hedge presented as fact....
stupid.
Yeah. Where are the billions of Bath House, the Queen of Chicago?
Putin is the former head of the KGB.
Good luck finding his "billions."
My bet is that Putin has only got a million.
A million oz of gold that is.
All other billions are destined for the fireplace.
Technically, he was not the head, but he was a senior officer and that is good enough.
With enough effort, those assets can be forced out into the light.
Of course, this begs the question as to WHO controls the 2 of the major sources for this story :
The Economist & FT?
(not to mention NYT, UST & BBerg cuz that's gettin too tinfoilly)
strange that no one picked up on this yet.
strange but unfortunately not surprising.
stay thirsty, my friends
"Who?"
Red Shield.
push this and there'll be a for sure "shower " of 50 megaton MIRV's raining down upon and washing away this 240 yr old "experiment.
He probably has a few tons of gold buried beneath some piece of shit hunting cabin in Siberia
Me thinks Obama should return to the Chicago bath houses were he belongs!
This article is bullshit. So what if he's rich. Is this supposed to provide justification for the criminal conduct we're engaged in? Let's keep our eye on the ball shall we.
Shutting down the vodka distilleries is one thing shutting down some fiat currency account is something else. It is akin to pissing into the wind. In the end it may make you feel good but you still will need a shower.
Sanction Gunvor anyway and turn up the heat. At some point they'll have to come out in the open.
The only posts worth reading here any more are the ones with large negative votes.... this is getting to be a putin love machine........... the guy obviously sucks as bad as obummer or bushbummer or anyother fuking looser power hungry bitch that beats up everybody who dont agree with them.
You guys go ahead and suk his cok you putin luving faggots. what a bunch of weirdos..........
I know people that live in russia and most of you faggots would be dead in a week....
(: love and kisses....
You should get a refill on your prescription. High copay?
Putin's trolls do it for money. They get paid to post as part of Putin's propaganda machine. It is same shit as it was during Stalin, just different means and age of technology.
HAHAHHAH--- I cannot believe one of you actuall gave me an up arrow...
Rock on.
At least I got you guys that want to suk putins cok to respond....
Good luck to you all.....
That's not true, ...
Let's look the fact's
1.) Putin has more HARLEY's than Jay Leno
2.) Putin is a 4th DAN in real Judo, not the fake USA shit
3.) PUTIN is a man's, man
Then look at Obama, Bush, or QUAYLE...
All pussy's, all Alan Alda amerian Metro-sexual men.
This is about MEN, and you obviously by your hatred of PUTIN, in spite of your avatar, are a metro-man. ( You shave your genitals, so you don't scratch your boyfriends face ).
If the CIA and NSA don't know where every dollar (or Ruble) is located their charters should be revoked. (Actually, they should be revoked anyway, but that is another discussion.)
What fucking right does the US have to take the money of another countries leader? NONE.
Oh for the love of God...who the fuck CARES how many billions he has here ot there? HE'S PUTIN, he controls many times that and more. Does anyone seriously think this man gives a shit how much he has in some accounts, or whether they get seized or not? Go ahead, take them, and guess what? At the end of the day, he's still PUTIN. And he knows it.
If our idiots in dc were serious about working this out they would. Everything they're doing seems to indicate an intent to bring about destruction; not the least of which is our dollar which may be the only thing keeping our heads above water.
This article is old news:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-25/furious-russia-downgraded-just-...
Putin is worth 17.5 trillion. Obama can just issue another one of his executive orders, seize Putin's dough, and pay off the US debt. Or we drone him back to the stone age. Problem solved. USA, USA, USA
So its illegel for the United States to assassinate a foreign leader but its totally okay to conduct a financial assassination??
a. Formally it may be so, but if you are successful beware of getting caught.
b. There is no prohibitive § to the financial one so OK, because not forbidden says my lawyer.
c. And don´t ask questions about proscriptions to eliminate own citizens without trial.
Well, I guess we really have allowed money to dominate our way of thinking. We are so uber-capitalist, so focused on short-term profits and the value of evrything in dollars and sense, that we have completely forgotten about the OTHER motivations a person might have. We assume everyone else has this same priority, and that it would then be an exploitable weakness.
Rothschilds worth 1/2 the worlds wealth (500 trillion).
Well Hell! Those Monty Burns looking vipers need the rest. How will they ever make due with only half of everything?
Falconsixone Rothschilds worth 1/2 the worlds wealth (500 trillion).
----
Considering there is not that much created to date, I think you need to do some more research.
This is like Brewster's Millions, inflation adjusted!
Right now they're sitting around the table on 58 East 68th Street trying to come up with an anomalous event comparable to 9/11 and acceptable enough to start WW III. It's all about the reset.
Blow up a bank in SC?
Miss Lindsey wants a FF nuke to go off there so he does not have to run for re-election.
I sincerely hope Mr Putin, in actuality, has no"billions". That would be enormously entertaining.
QUESTION: Is the USA being used as the enforcer for Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron etc. vs. the Russian owned oil companies?
What is fascism?
Retweeted by Natalia Melnychuk
Daniel Sandford @BBCDanielS 22mMap of the day. From the Shell brochure about their planned shale gas project in E Ukraine...centred on Sloviansk! pic.twitter.com/FXA1qagwsH
mmmmmm, could be.
For some reason I think Putin cares little for money,
I am certain he has thirsts for greater things.
Stack On
VV Putin was never about money.
Putin's Billions!
Nazi Gold
The quality and depth of this unmitigated propaganda is fuckin' laughable. Who do they hire? It's like a cross between dungeons and dragons role playing dorks and adolecent film makers with a bondage fetish. Dry up a'holes!
Back in the Eighties Putin invested heavily in Matryoshka nesting dolls. He's been stacking for decades.
Well son of a gun.
We have a set of those we unstack and display over Christmas holidays.
Little did I know we were contributing to Putin's stack.
Man, have I been swindled!
Stack On
Here you go.
I do not comprehend the relevance of Putin´s billions in the context with Ukraine. It is no surprise to a sound observer, rulers tend to be corrupted, but just compare the magnitude of Putin´s privileges against those ones´, who export democracy and equality and by the same token are benefiters of the global crony racket, who keeps on blowing trillions. Bloody amateur Vladimir you are.
TeraByte I do not comprehend the relevance of Putin´s billions in the context with Ukraine. It is no surprise to a sound observer, rulers tend to be corrupted, but just compare the magnitude of Putin´s privileges against those ones´, who export democracy and equality and by the same token are benefiters of the global crony racket, who keeps on blowing trillions. Bloody amateur Vladimir you are.
----
Why would you expect Putin or any leftist to care about exporting democracy and equality? Your run on sentence is illogical. What you don't comprehend is that Putin, as the dominant oligarch of Russia, has the power to take Ukraine and his billions are part of the reason he has such power. kilobyte.
"Godfather, the Beehouse family is whipping our ass with their new betting system."
"Find out how it works so our guys can cash in, too."
"Godfather! Busy Beehouse as head of their family has ordered a hit on you."
"Business I don't take personally. This kind of stupidity I do. He knows the rules. Whack that Monkey! With a Hand Grenade!"
That shark he was riding a while ago got some of it......
Wild white pointer bucking can sometimes dislodge the largest wallet.....
Better focus on the work done by Putin Administration that has resurrected and risen Russia from terrible collapse.
Do NOT fuck with Vlad's money. That is unless you are the kind of masochist who gets off on smacking hornet's nest and then feeling the stings (and maybe dying from them). Is that you, Barry? Would you like that?
Yet another hugh overnight US futures ramp, DOW up 80 points, even though Asia down!, European Indexes all algorhythmically sent bright green even as new sanctions due to be announced today.
Gold just holding above $1300 but Oil showing the only sanity in this mornings session as it rises a Dollar
One could do a lot worse than visit http://eng.news.kremlin.ru/
Massive short squeeze underway as the Dow futures rise 100 points and S&P rise 10, European Indexes go crazy...sigh
lol always when there is trouble all these riches are being exposed. Last time I belive it was egypts ruler who suddenly after the regime fell was supposed to be the worlds richest man claiming 50% of all government owned coorporations.
What would be far more interesting is seeing the chinese polticians real wealth. Government coorporations controll all big businesses in the country including the banks that create the money. Now talking about banks, how´s it like over there in the country of the "free" ?
The Rothschilds control trillions....as some comments here have correctly pointed out
Cacete de Ouro The Rothschilds control trillions....as some comments here have correctly pointed out
---
And those comments incorrectly stated a number that is impossible since the world's asset value isn't even that high.
Who Owns What Of The $223 Trillion In Global WealthAll the Russian gold disappeared in about 1991 or maybe a bit earlier. Wonder who stole it..
"the quest for Putin's billions":
This alone is an impertinence. It implies they exist.
Now I read through this whole article and not a single fact was presented! Who gives me the 5 minutes of my life back?!
Putin has more than the Rothschilds will ever have: he has the love and respect of his Russian people (and of millions, if not billions other people, I might add).
Why does ZH always repeat this BS?
When will we read a ZH articlem about Julia Timoshenko's 14 billions she robbed during her short time as "Ukrainian" PM?
And when will we read articles about the hidden billions of US presidents? About the connections of lawmakers and big business?
I do not believe that Putin has amassed such huge personal wealth. He is rich for sure but not that much. However this is systemic, Putin cant stay poor when he is surrrounded by oligarchs owning billions.
How much do the Bushes, Clintons etc own. When do they get sanctionized for their wealth ? Is the KGB already preparing a list of their fortunes and how they made it ?
supermaxedout I do not believe that Putin has amassed such huge personal wealth. He is rich for sure but not that much. However this is systemic, Putin cant stay poor when he is surrrounded by oligarchs owning billions.
How much do the Bushes, Clintons etc own. When do they get sanctionized for their wealth ? Is the KGB already preparing a list of their fortunes and how they made it ?
---
Um, who came from and controls the KGB? Putin has already imprisoned at least one other oligarch competitor who was an energy magnate. Putin is known to own 4.5% of Gazprom. Look up their value and do the math. And that is just one company.
So it's just slightly more than Michael Bloomberg then... give or take a few Billion
I have no knowledge on the has he/hasn't he yea or nay on this. But.
Given just a minute's serious thought, the idea that real power and wealth for a man in his position (ex-KGB and president for 12 years) issues from notional large numbers in notional bank accounts (or the ability to increase those numbers with share options etc.) is a very narrow and simplistic way of determining 'wealth'.
Mr Putin's real wealth and 'pension' will be his knowlwdge & ability to leverage that knowledge, should the need arise, to protect himself after he (eventually) retires - we all have to get old - hopefully.
Any thought that Mr Putin will swann off after retirement to the Bahamas or the South of France is not realistic nor credible (he seems to much prefer the vigourous outdoor pursuit lifestyle anyway), so you would wonder what any mega-wealth would be used for, over and above log-cabin accommodation near a salmon stream somewhere or comfortable dacha outside Moscow.
This is the purest form of propaganda therefore - put forward a thesis that no-one prove (or perhaps more importantly, disprove) about abuse or exploitation of high office to discredit present action.
I agree and upvoted you, but who truly knows what's in a person's head? After all, THIS started out as one person's idea of a hunting lodge.
This man doesn't hunt money:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flC---s2moA
You're right - there can always be that pesky ego at work, time will tell.