Posted on 03/30/2018 2:20:16 PM PDT by GoldenState_Rose
Putin controls the Russia's state institutions, its secret police and its big state companies. Together with a few old friends from St. Petersburg, the president is tapping the big state companies through overpriced no-bid procurement, transfer pricing, asset stripping and stock manipulation. They are also making money by extorting old oligarchs and taking loans from state banks, not to be returned.
Overall assessments indicate a personal enrichment of Putin and his closest cronies of some $20 billion to $25 billion a year since 2006, a pilfering from Gazprom of $60 billion from 2004 to 2007...By now, this group would have accumulated $240 billion to $300 billion.
Businessman Bill Browder estimates that Putin is the richest man in the world, with a personal wealth of $200 billion. Total private Russian holdings abroad are assessed in the range of $800 billion to $1.3 trillion.
Putin and his friends have not accumulated their vast fortunes to consume them, but rather, to maintain power in Russia. The irony is that having undermined property rights in Russia, they — like other Russians — can only safeguard their savings abroad in countries that enjoy the rule of law, allow anonymous ownership and have sufficient financial depth for their vast fortunes.
In 2015, the U.S. treasury assessed that $300 billion a year was laundered in the United States. In a good year, the U.S. government detects 0.1 percent of that money. The reason? Anonymous companies are allowed to invest in this country. The same is true of Britain, where the National Crime Agency estimates that $125 billion is laundered annually. This must be stopped for the sake of national security.
Putin has himself said what sanctions hurt him most by complaining incessantly about the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The KKKLINTOON Foundation?...............
THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING! AND ARE HERE ALREADY!!
Maybe we can start by seizing all the money that Russia paid to Hillary.
I don’t know.
Russia and Putin particularly, do not seem a threat to America at the moment.
They just don’t. Not to me.
However, China is rolling all over us. We need to lay off Putin, and pay much more attention to equalizing our trade situation with the PRC.
Just my humble opinion.
“The Russia Scandal Just Got Much Worse … For Hillary Clinton And Barack Obama”
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/russia-scandal-uranium-one-clinton-foundation/
How about George Soros first.
Now that is a great idea.
They may be avowed enemies, but they likely use the same banks..
Putin is even richer than Soros.
People here want to have war with Russia? Nuts
Okay....and with no center, then Russia falls apart. Think things are bad now? Try dealing with oligarchs in a post Putin Russia who actually have an incentive to see the regions devolve away from Moscow so they can hold onto their assets.
I’d rather go after Soros ‘ money.
Putin needs to wiped out...
Chicoms are a far, far greater danger to the US than Putin.
Especially with all that ballistic missile technology Bill and Hillary sold them.
Agree 100%. Russia/Putin is a complete BS and a distraction from the Clinton/Democrat /Deep State/Media crimes. They are no threat to us whatsoever.
I think that George Soros is an operative for the Russian intelligence service. this is the reason why he has not been assassinated. if you look at the damage by his financial manipulation you will find it hurt foreign investors and allowed Putin to go after those business men that supported democratic reforms.
I have an idea! Lets tip off the RUSSIANS that we are going to seize their money! So maybe they can move hundreds of billions to other banks!
“Just my humble opinion.”
I agree with your opinion. Some problems are only problems because people choose to see them as such. Would the result of not seeing them as a problem harm anything? Probably not. But taking Putin’s money away...the man who has command of not only nuclear weapons, but possibly intelligence that might save American lives??? No, I don’t think he would bomb us, but he could make the world a lot more tense than it is at the moment.
And lets let other countries know we can seize their money too if we ever decide to do it!
Dilly dilly!
Russia that is part of Europe, a major energy supplier, a major military power, a nationalist power - but NOT part of the globalist, US Dollar multi-culti progressive-left new world order is, therefore, a major threat by its mere existence.
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