| The Russian Bloke at North Battersea 09:23 - Mar 10 with 50245 views | DWQPR |
Just been sanctioned by the UK government. Now I assume that any follower of the filth buying tickets or anything associated with that lot will be breaking the law? |  |
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| The Russian Bloke at North Battersea on 20:18 - Mar 15 with 1775 views | Boston |
Happy Ides of March, Roman. Where’s Brute when ya need him? | |
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| The Russian Bloke at North Battersea on 10:31 - Mar 18 with 1333 views | eastside_r |
Can’t recommend that article enough.
Interesting, frightening and sad. |  | | |
| The Russian Bloke at North Battersea on 11:30 - Mar 18 with 1244 views | Juzzie |
What I find astonishing about the UK government's eagerness to accept the filthy lucre is that in the grand scheme of things it's not really that much money.
The article said £1.5billion (but probably more) has been spent on property.
Then there's 'investment' in football clubs, universities, galleries and so on.
Even if we take a really inflated figure, you could be looking at £100billion over 20 years.
Covid cost the taxpayer around £350-400billion in just 2 years so the Russian money isn't really that much.
So why do it? Why compromise absolutely everything for what amounts to not a lot?
Corruption and greed, that's what. UK politician's should be named, shamed, ousted for good and even jailed if appropriate. Why hasn't this happened? And on that note, what about the findings of the PM's 'partygate'? That's gone quiet all of a sudden. Yes, there's a much bigger issue at the moment but that doesn't mean other things should be brushed under the carpet. |  | | |
| The Russian Bloke at North Battersea on 11:48 - Mar 18 with 1197 views | slmrstid |
| The Russian Bloke at North Battersea on 11:30 - Mar 18 by Juzzie |
What I find astonishing about the UK government's eagerness to accept the filthy lucre is that in the grand scheme of things it's not really that much money.
The article said £1.5billion (but probably more) has been spent on property.
Then there's 'investment' in football clubs, universities, galleries and so on.
Even if we take a really inflated figure, you could be looking at £100billion over 20 years.
Covid cost the taxpayer around £350-400billion in just 2 years so the Russian money isn't really that much.
So why do it? Why compromise absolutely everything for what amounts to not a lot?
Corruption and greed, that's what. UK politician's should be named, shamed, ousted for good and even jailed if appropriate. Why hasn't this happened? And on that note, what about the findings of the PM's 'partygate'? That's gone quiet all of a sudden. Yes, there's a much bigger issue at the moment but that doesn't mean other things should be brushed under the carpet. |
Not much in the grand scheme of a country's finances, but in terms of what it can do for certain individuals (which is what they're interested in)...very much so. |  | | |
| The Russian Bloke at North Battersea on 12:02 - Mar 18 with 1164 views | Juzzie |
| The Russian Bloke at North Battersea on 11:48 - Mar 18 by slmrstid |
Not much in the grand scheme of a country's finances, but in terms of what it can do for certain individuals (which is what they're interested in)...very much so. |
Yup. hence the need to identify & take action against them. Vile parasites. | | | |
| The Russian Bloke at North Battersea on 12:30 - Mar 18 with 1088 views | Rs_Holy |
very interesting and superbly written |  | | |
| The Russian Bloke at North Battersea on 12:43 - Mar 18 with 1059 views | TacticalR |
| The Russian Bloke at North Battersea on 11:30 - Mar 18 by Juzzie |
What I find astonishing about the UK government's eagerness to accept the filthy lucre is that in the grand scheme of things it's not really that much money.
The article said £1.5billion (but probably more) has been spent on property.
Then there's 'investment' in football clubs, universities, galleries and so on.
Even if we take a really inflated figure, you could be looking at £100billion over 20 years.
Covid cost the taxpayer around £350-400billion in just 2 years so the Russian money isn't really that much.
So why do it? Why compromise absolutely everything for what amounts to not a lot?
Corruption and greed, that's what. UK politician's should be named, shamed, ousted for good and even jailed if appropriate. Why hasn't this happened? And on that note, what about the findings of the PM's 'partygate'? That's gone quiet all of a sudden. Yes, there's a much bigger issue at the moment but that doesn't mean other things should be brushed under the carpet. |
From the chapter Londongrad in Belton's book, describing the City of London in the 2000s:
'Russian companies were rushing to list their shares on Western stock exchanges, in particular in London. In 2005 alone they raised more than $4 billion in share sales in London, compared to $1.3 billion in all markets in the thirteen years after the Soviet collapse. It was firmly believed in the West that these companies, and the mostly Yeltsin-era tycoons behind them, represented Russia’s future. Despite fears aroused by the state’s takeover of Yukos, the conviction was that the growing number of offerings was a sign that Russia was maturing as a market economy.'
'Western bankers flocked to Moscow in search of fees — some in the firm belief that they were doing ‘God’s work’ by bringing the markets to the people and freeing them from the heavy hand of the state. Delegations flew in to Moscow regularly from the City of London, touting for business, stressing the benefits of London’s ‘light-touch regulation’. At a time when emerging markets across the world were booming — most notably in China and in India — Russia had become the biggest source of international offerings on the London Stock Exchange.
It was perhaps because the City of London had become so enthralled by the flood of cash that bankers and investors often chose not to worry that the next wave of Russian offerings was entirely different. The companies coming to London were now mainly the new behemoths of Putin’s state capitalism, which had zero interest in liberalising the Russian economy. The City also chose to ignore the fact that there were large gaps in the transparency of the ownership structures and the financial accounts of some of these companies. One of the reasons Russian companies were heading to London in droves was that the standards required for listing there were far less stringent than those in New York. In the US, regulations required the chief executives and finance directors of companies seeking a stock exchange listing to sign off on the accuracy of the financial accounts. If anything turned out to be not true or misleading, it was treated as a criminal offence. ‘No Russian company was ready for this. We needed another five years to clean up, maybe more,’ said Dmitry Gololobov, a Russian lawyer who worked on a US listing of global depositary receipts for Yukos, which dropped the plans due to the risks. In London, however, companies listing global depositary receipts were welcomed by a system that allowed a much lower level of due diligence, and left investors responsible for checking whether the information provided by the company was correct or not.'
'There was scant awareness that the British lords paid lavish salaries to sit on the boards of Russian companies had been granted little oversight of the corporate activities. ‘In London, money rules everything,’ said one Russian tycoon. ‘Anyone and anything can be bought. The Russians came to London to corrupt the UK political elite.’ ‘The Russians know very well how to play the game,’ said a former senior London banker with ties at the top of Kremlin power. ‘They manipulate lots of people with money. There are fifty people here I could name. What do you think all those lords are doing on the boards of Russian companies? They are being paid £500,000 a year.’
Catherine Belton, Putin's People, (2020) |  |
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