Looks like the Paradise Papers are going to be providing some interesting news for a bit (same group behind the Panama Papers from last year).
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I have to read this once again to fully absorb all the details, but just one important thing, from personal business experience - VTB bank is the organ of the Russian state and does not operate according to market rules.
VTB can intentionally invest in bad deals, support risky undertakings and lose money on purpose if it serves the interests on the Russian state. That’s why many business analysts used to scratch their heads and wonder why VTB (and Sberbank for that matter) jumped headfirst into disastrous deals - direct orders from the bosses in Kremlin.
And Milner allegedly an “apolitical figure” Yeah, right. You don’t get to sit on a council with Medvedev if you’re not a “made guy” to use the Mafia terminology.
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Loppar, are you following what’s going on in Saudia Arabia right now? Crown Prince jailing his opponents (part of an “anti-corruption effort” lol), Aramco oil deal, Russian arms purchase, helicopter crash carrying Saudi royals, etc.?
Yes, I’ve been following but I have no idea what’s going on - this is very similar to Cold War Kremlin watching and having to extract pieces of information from boring official bulletins.
Don’t forget the (alleged) Yemeni ballistic missile over Riyadh and according to Hezbollah (yes, I know) a forced removal of Lebanese PM after Saudi blackmail/threats.
Alwaleed bin Talal (more commonly known as the Fox News guy) was also among those arrested.
But this sounds like fun. It probably means Trump promised MBS that he’ll attack Iran.
The move marks a moment of reckoning for Washington’s foreign policy establishment, which struck a bargain of sorts with the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, and Yousef Al Otaiba, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the U.S. who has been MBS’s leading advocate in Washington. The unspoken arrangement was clear: The UAE and Saudi Arabia would pump millions into Washington’s political ecosystem while mouthing a belief in “reform,” and Washington would pretend to believe that they meant it. MBS has won praise for some policies, like an openness to reconsidering Saudi Arabia’s ban on women drivers.
Meanwhile, however, the 32-year-old MBS has been pursuing a dangerously impulsive and aggressive regional policy, which has included a heightening of tensions with Iran, a catastrophic war on Yemen, and a blockade of ostensible ally Qatar. Those regional policies have been disasters for the millions who have suffered the consequences, including the starving people of Yemen, as well as for Saudi Arabia, but MBS has dug in harder and harder. And his supporters in Washington have not blinked.
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What’s your take on MBS’s modernization/western(relatively…) approach? Do you think its a legitamite attempt to pull power from the al ash-sheikh or more taqiyya? Ive leaned towards the latter but some of his actions such as limiting the mutaween have had real impacts on curtailing the wahhabs. I always thought Talal was (at least in private) the more western friendly prince, I guess this little coup should shed some light on it.
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That is an excellent question… frankly, I don’t have a clue yet.
I do however know that MBS understands the power of the label “moderate” when it comes to dealing with Washington and the media. It’s such an alien concept to Islam, especially wahhabism - either you follow the word of God or you don’t which means you’re fair game for the believers.
Judging from media appearances MBS seems to be pushing this “moderation” angle and since it’s Saudi Arabia we’re talking the bar is set abysmally low - let women drive, cut down a little on public floggings and beheadings and you’re Washington’s favorite again.
For example, mullahs in Iran and even Stalin all understood that occasionally you give a little ground before clamping down later.
I can almost hear think thanks and Pentagon officials explaining how “we must invade Iran otherwise the moderate government in Saudi Arabia is in danger”. I think this is a very dangerous development for the region because he seems intent on rolling back Iranian gains in Iraq and Syria using US muscle.
So it’s more of nuanced approach doctrine-wise - since the IS experiment seems to be failing in the Middle East (but flourishing elsewhere) this could be simply a way to regroup Sunni forces before a coup de main against Iran, again using the US as a proxy.
Well, there’s no much difference in terms of worldview. They all may drink, take massive amounts of coke, regularly shuttle to Dubai for escorts and it won’t change their innate feeling of moral superiority over the “infidel”.
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I fuckin knew it…I said that from day 1… How long b4 JR gets indicted? That meeting with Ruskie lawyer not looking good. I think if they get paper trial on data company & wiki leaks email dumps its game over…but still hopeful pee tape ends up on youtube and he resigns out of pure humiliation never to be heard from again
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Between his and Papadopoulos’s testimonies, Sessions’ Keebler-elf ass has some 'splaining to do.
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Per Greek SKAI TV, it seems that the “low level intern” Papadopoulus met in late 2016 Athens with senior members of the Greek government, claimed he has acting on Trump’s behest and gave the heads up to Greek politicians and businesspeople that Russia sanctions will be lifted.
He allegedly repeated the same act in Cyprus.
A while later he flew again to Athens, but just for a day. Incidentally, Putin was in Athens that same day, meeting with the same members of the pro-Russian Greek lobby.
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TW: this is not a “got ya” or whataboutism post, no matter how someone want to take it
From the latest link via Tyler:
The transcript shows that Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff confronted Page with an email he wrote on July 8, 2016, from Moscow to the Trump campaign adviser J.D. Gordon, saying
So is this saying this dude was in Russia too or am I misreading that?
And if so, how often do people from the top two camps go and meet with foreign nationals during the election?
Honest questions, and my google-fu is weak af on this right now.
Yes, Page was in Russia. In fact, I believe he testified that he was invited to a function that Putin was going to be attending and offered his seat to Trump. As for how often candidates or campaign advisers visit with foreign nationals during an election, I don’t know but I’m pretty sure I read that other campaigns, including Romney’s, were asked how many times they met with Russians when they ran and their response was “Never”.
A quick Google search turned up this (forgive the source…lol):
Trump Jr. and other White House allies on Monday defended the sit-down by attempting to characterize it as a normal campaign exercise ― as if every presidential campaign were willing to accept help from a nameless foreign agent.
“I’ve been involved in 9 presidential campaigns … never happened, never would happen for all kinds of reasons,” said GOP consultant John Weaver, who advised the White House bids by Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
Rick Tyler, a former top aide to the presidential campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz Texas, said he would have called the FBI if approached by a foreign agent from an adversarial nation like Russia.
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I meant Schiff.
But I suppose he could have been their via Obama being potus, duh.
Oh, sorry. The way I read that was Schiff confronted Page about an email Page wrote while in Russia (he spent a lot of time there). But I could be wrong.
I literally have no idea what the writer means there in the slightest. Works both ways.
I’m way to lazy to look into it beyond what I have though, lol.
If you think that’s tough to read, you should check out the rest of the transcript. Page is an idiot. He does interview after interview and repeatedly gets backed into a corner. He continually contradicts himself or admits something that would make even the worst attorney slam his head on his desk. He also went in front of the judiciary panel without a lawyer.
I can’t stop laughing over a couple of these exchanges:
Gowdy: Did you tell anyone on the Trump campaign you were going to Russia?
Page: Definitely not.
Gowdy: No?
Page: Not directly.
Gowdy: Not directly?
Page: Well, except for the email, and Jeff Sessions.
Gowdy: Excuse me.
Page: We were at a lunch, it was my first time meeting him, ever, and after the meal, just in passing, I said, it is great that I got to meet you for a first and only time, Jeff Sessions, because I am about to go to Russia for something that has nothing to do with the Trump campaign.
Gowdy: Why would you say that?
Page: It just, sort of, you know, in passing — it slipped out.
Gowdy: Why would you say that to Jeff Sessions then, and why would you say that to any human being, ever?
Gowdy: Did you ever have any conversations that weren’t in passing?
Page: Not that I can recall. I move very quickly like a shark, and I stop for no man. To the best of my knowledge, I have never had a conversation with anyone because to me a conversation is when you really say something deep that makes the other person think, and I haven’t done that. No. I take it back. Never. Except – well, you know.
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OMFG.
Seriously?? Is Page for real?
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“I move very quickly like a shark, and I stop for no man”
I don’t have any tattoos. But if ever get one, I’m getting this.
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Lol, whut?
I refuse to believe that’s real.
That’s like bad literature.
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Need to offer a mea culpa. This was a parody that I fell for. After reading some of the responses to his testimony, and considering some of his more bizarre antics in the past, I didn’t put this out of the realm of possibility. Sorry about that.
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