Posted on 03/01/2022 9:12:15 PM PST by nickcarraway
When Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov sold the Brooklyn Nets more than two years ago, he gave up ownership of the NBA franchise partly because of pressure from Vladimir Putin, The Post has learned.
Events that led Prokhorov’s 2019 sale of the Nets and Barclays Center to Chinese billionaire Joe Tsai stretch back five years earlier, according to sources close to the situation. At the time, the US and European Union had begun to apply sanctions on Russia for taking over Crimea.
But as tensions between the US and Russia over Crimea grew, Putin in 2016 also began pressuring Prokhorov to sell the Nets, according to sources. That’s because Putin, especially during times of political turmoil, will test the loyalty of oligarchs with assets in the West to show they won’t get too close to the US or Europe, according to one source close to the situation.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The Nets are worth far more now, but he would be forced to sell it anyway, probably at unfavorable terms.
Tsai might want to sell now, instead of a year from now, with China a pariah over their bloody invasion of Taiwan.
And who cares if he did?
Tsai is Taiwanese, born in Taipei. His grandparents fled Mao in 1949. He moved to the U.S. for school when he was 13. His wife was born in Kansas. He is a citizen of Taiwan, and Canada, although I don't know what connection to Canada he has.
So one would thing he should have no concern what the PRC thinks, and one might even assume he would be anti-PRC. But when he's talked about such matters, he sounds like Xi is standing behind him.
I would pay for the media to ask him if Taiwan is a country. Because being a citizen of Taiwan that was born there, he should be able to say it's a country. But I this suspicion his head might explode before he could answer.
Mr. Tsai is a citizen of the Republic of China, not “Taiwan.”
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