I also agree. Back to Jeanne's post about how money was funneled through the NRA to Republican candidates sparked my memory of the GPS Fusion transcript ( https://docs.house.gov/meetings/IG/IG00/20180118/106796/HMTG-115-IG00-20180118-SD002.pdf) and R1's reference to McLaughlin's interpretation of it( https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/950884746082562048.html). See pages 261 and following of the first and #53-4 of later suggesting that Cypriot Holding Companies also funded RNC.
Hi everyone. There's something that I really want to say, it may be counter intuitive and sound crazy but hear me out. More than a year ago I did several deep meditations focusing on the future of Russia and Putin in particular. Those were tough for me and not much insight came out of it, except that I kept having a vision of Putin as a decrepit old man falling down the stairs and/or being pushed down the stairs and dying a very fearful agonizing death, which would then be described as an accident. I had no idea what to make of that, but now I think I have an explanation based both on my intuition as well as what I understand about Russia and the monsters Putin has chosen to surround himself with.
When the Soviet Union collapsed assets of the state were sold off to private individuals. These individuals often coming from regular families then became extremely rich and became known as the oligarchs. The line between legality and criminality was so blurred in these transactions as to be almost invisible. These oligarchs are also to a large extent tied up with the Russian mafia, as is the Russian government, in fact there's not a whole lot of distinction between the three groups. Corruption in Russia is some of the worst in the world, just assume that everyone is bought off or could be or expects to be. In fact that's largely what Alexey Navalny has been investigating all these years, systemic corruption which goes unbelievably deep. Putin is at the center of this ring, think of him like a Mafia kingpin or Don, he's the spider. But and this is a big but he rely's on the support of his other oligarchs, more than appears on the surface. Over the course of the 1990's and early 2000's many of these oligarchs siphoned their money out of Russia. They dropped it into expensive property in cities like London and New York and into foreign bank accounts. So money that used to belong to the Russian state and is now in the hands of private individuals has been stolen from Russia (I mean from benefiting the actual people of Russia).
In 2012 when Putin decided to run for reelection in Russia there erupted enormous protests against this. These protests really rattled him and he became convinced that they were orchestrated by the west against Russia (he began equating himself with the Russian state like Louis XIV "L'etat c'est moi") in particular I believe he blamed Hilary Clinton. So he needed some way of cementing power and stopping the protests, he came up with scapegoating of LGBT individuals and foreigners (westerners). This worked spectacularly well, but he needed to keep going, so he annexed Crimea and started a clandestine war in Ukraine, took control of all the airwaves in Russia and began popping out an extremely sophisticated propaganda aimed at scaring the population into undying devotion to him.
Everything he has done since 2012 stinks of someone who is desperately trying to maintain control at home and look tough abroad, it's a facade. He has thoroughly convinced his population that the west is at war with Russia and he is defending it, but his oligarchs are not that dense, they only care about money and he is beginning to jeopardize that. The sanctions are part of this but by themselves they're not enough. What is enough is that he is beginning to go to far. The nerve agent attack in Britain of this year which has exasperated the British state, the attacks on foreign elections including the U.S. He is doing too much, too fast and it's becoming too obvious.
He is risking the livelihoods of his buddies by these actions, whatever he says they still want to keep their lavish western lifestyles and the further he goes the more that's threatened. I could write several more paragraphs about this, but I'll stop before I end up writing a book.
Here is my prediction. Putin is not meant to die in his bed (no one who lives like him is really). Someone close to him will take him out, probably before 2030, and probably because of all the chaos he's created. His monsters will come home to roost. After that the Russian state collapses and I don't know what happens then.
Disclaimer: I do not wish harm on anyone, the words above reflect only probabilities not wishes.
Natalie, Thank you. You wrote, I could write several more paragraphs about this, but I'll stop before I end up writing a book. Natalie, PLEASE keep going, I want to know more. I want to read that book. Or at least for now I'd like to read a few more thousand words from you about this subject. You have added here so much to what I learned from Masche Gessen's book about Putin, which I recommend to anyone who wants to understand what we are dealing with (The Man who has with no face: The unlikely rise of Vladimir Putin).
Putin himself came into power because his predecessor President Boris Yeltsin was worried about being taken out as he became old, so he picked Putin who he thought would protect him and also would continue his legacy. It did protect Yeltsin, but Putin did not continue the democratic legacy.
While it is not legal to do an RV about Trump's death, I think it's fine to do one on Putin, since we are in the U.S.
Natalie, thank you so very, very much and kudos to you for such an extremely informative explanation and description of the historical and political background of all of this. It is truly helpful to all of us to better understand the complex ramifications of everything that has happened and could happen in the future. Very well expressed as well as explained.
Thank you so much, Jeanne and I agree. Natalie share more or as much more as you can. It is incredibly valuable and so much easier to have concise information as you have shared than attempt to read often incomplete or misinformed information when most of us lack the historical timeline or referencing abilities that you or Jeanne have accumulated, researched, or intuited.
Thank you both so very much!
Michelle, I assume you mean my post. A lot of the documents coming out of the Mueller and Congressional investigations document the complexity of the essential problem that Natalie is laying out: when the Soviet Union collapsed, its assets were sold off to individuals who became very wealthy financiers and oligarchs. These individuals and their companies essentially took their assets out of Russia so that they didn’t have to pay taxes on it in Russia. One of the ways they did this was to place the money in holding companies in foreign banks and to invest it in foreign real estate. This is money laundering. Who else engages in this activity? The Russian mafia and other organized crime groups such as drug cartels. Who benefits from this activity? Russian, Ukrainian, and American government officials. As Natalie points out, at some point the lines separating the oligarchs from organized crime groups and government officials becomes indistinguishable. How do they handle their differences? They kill, sue, bribe, undermine, and legislate against each other. To this end, their holding companies hire investigators to get dirt on each other. In the process the investigators end up working with all sides and getting dirt on everybody.
One of these investigators is Fusion GPS, a commercial business, owned by Glenn Simpson, a former investigative reporter for The Wall Street Journal, that does opposition research for Democratic and Republican political campaigns and client research for public relations and law firms on behalf of investment fund companies. One of Fusion GPS’s clients was a law firm that represented Prevezon Holdings, Ltd., which sought to overturn the Magnitsky Act and Russian ban on US adoptions of Russian children. Part of that investigation involved investigating William Browder, an American who co-founded Hermitage Capital Management, a hedge fund for Russian money for ten years. That hedge fund has a shell company that owns property in Colorado, which allowed William Browder to avoid taxes related to his hedge fund. William Browder hired Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer and auditor to investigate tax fraud. Russian government officials were not happy about this and tried Browder (in absentia) for tax fraud and Magnitsky. Magnitsky was sent to a Russian prison, where he was murdered. Browder lobbied Congress to pass the Magnitsky Act to punish Russia for Magnitsky’s death. Interpol will not return Browder to Russia.
Fusion GPS was also hired by Democratic and Republican parties to investigate candidates. In the process of investigating Donald Trump, Glenn Simpson hired Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence agent. Steele’s investigation led him to compose the Steele dossier and to share its contents with the FBI. Glenn Simpson testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in August of 2017 to explain “Fusion GPS’s activities related to the dossier compiled by Christopher Steele, the Prevezon case, and the Magnitsky Act.” Part of his testimony includes information about Fusion GPS’s investigation of Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and Michael Cohen. Part of his testimony describes Fusion GPS’s investigations of Trump’s purchase of Trump Soho and domestic and foreign golf properties. He notes that each of these individuals and purchases are related to suspicious characters related to organized crime and to shell companies whose funds trace back to holding companies for assets such as those that were taken by would-be oligarchs when the Soviet Union collapsed and for profits from organized crime in Central Asia related to child prostitution. The funds for these holding companies are in foreign banks. Among the suspicious characters is Felix Sader. Part of Simpson’s testimony also describes an internal Kremlin intelligence organization. This is what Natalie describes as headed by Putin and “the spider” at the center of this very complex web.
The shell companies supported by illegally gained money held in foreign holding companies located at foreign banks are used to support what appear to be legally constructed business transactions in real estate and legal investments in political campaigns. What Mueller's investigation is uncovering is the true source of these transactions and investments--illegally gained money. Given, Jeanne's prediction, this could mean that 26 members of Congress and the President and members of his family and cabinet were partially financed by or engaged in transactions related to money taken from the Soviet Union's banking system when the Soviet Union collapsed, the profits from child prostitution in Central Asia, the profits from drug cartels, and the profits from any other illegal organizations such as domestic and foreign mobs/mafias. It is ironic that Trump just passed this tax reform bill that benefits wealthy individuals, given that the illegally gained money held in foreign holding companies located at foreign banks is there to avoid taxation and legal scrutiny in and by any country.
Thank you, Gracesinger and Michelle. The curtain is drawn aside, the garbage is exposed. May our brothers and sisters in the "fourth estate" have the courage and resolve to shine a fierce light into those dark corners.
Gracesinger, I really haven't followed the details of this with enough attention, but didn't the Trump campaign claim that the meeting organised by Donald Jr. had to do with Russian adoptions, that are intertwined with the Magnitsky Act? In other words, did they actually admit to being involved in all that mess?
"While it is not legal to do an RV about Trump's death, I think it's fine to do one on Putin, since we are in the U.S."
--Jeanne, I had never heard this before, from you or anyone else. Illegal? How? So far, spirituality is not regulated by law enforcement, anyone is entitled to have an opinion on what they think might happen to a public figure. Illegal comes from planning an assassination or discussing assassination in real life, not in visions or dreams. Are we not still free to reflect on possible outcomes, regardless of whether and individual is a politican or not? The violent dreams I have had regarding Cheetolini's demise are just wishful thinking on my part, and not something I'd ever act on, so I'm curious as to why you're saying this now. Maybe you meant to say not ethical?
Laura, You are going too far. We know you wouldn't act, but this entire thread should be deleted.