[Politics] Blimey! 23 Russian diplomats expelled!!!!

[Wrong-Direction]

We can't exactly go to war with them, it'll be like an elephant standing on a snail.

Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk

 

[Thunder Bolt]

The United States, Germany, France, numerous other Allies, Labour back benchers, the SNP, Lib Dems, vast majority of parliament all fully back the government and believe Russia is responsible. It looks like it's just Putin and Corbyn who aren't convinced.

It gets worse. Corbyn’s spokesman clarifies he does not believe there is proof yet that Russia is responsible for #Salisbury - and MI5/MI6 may be wrong: “There is a history between WMDs and intelligence which is problematic, to put it mildly”.


https://twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/973921722108915712?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

The United States? Seriously? They have been deafening by their silence.

 

[Bigtomfu]

No Royals at the World Cup either, that will ruin it now

I bet Wills is right NAFFED off. He loves a bit of FOOTER.

 

[The Birdman]

Just heard that one of the Russian spy's intials was J C I wonder who that could be.

 

[Hungry Joe]

Very telling that the number is exactly 23, the number famously associated with the Illuminati. It's said that Putin (who dabbled with the organisation but never became a full member) has been increasingly 'at war' with the Illuminati in recent months. This looks to me like May demonstrating to Putin that she is working with said Illuminati against him. Google 'the 23 enigma' for more info.

Yeah, I was expecting 23.5.

 

[Bigtomfu]

The United States? Seriously? They have been deafening by their silence.

Except of course for sacking the secretary of state basically because he came out in agreement that Russia was to blame and instilling the Director of the CIA, who couldn't possibly have an agenda could he, in his place.

 

[mikeyjh]

The United States? Seriously? They have been deafening by their silence.

The rest of Europe has also been decidedly lukewarm in their solidarity - Rightly, they are probably waiting for a) Some conclusive evidence and then b) to explore all the diplomatic channels as appropriate.

 

[Insel affe]

Just heard that one of the Russian spy's intials was J C I wonder who that could be.

Oh my gosh.....

Johnny Cantor

 

[Triggaaar]

Not working today. Watching RT, Ken Livingstone is not happy about it.

What's he not happy about?

George Galloway - who works for RT, was not happy.

What's he not happy about?

 

[AmexRuislip]

They'll save space on the aircraft, if they pack them up like this

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I'm almost certainly being very ****ing naive here but .... what are they spying on these days?
I'm in no way one of those conspiracy nutters but what is going on that needs spies?

Watch this. Huge amounts of far fetched events in this series have actually come to pass.

 

[pauli cee]

Very telling that the number is exactly 23, the number famously associated with the Illuminati. It's said that Putin (who dabbled with the organisation but never became a full member) has been increasingly 'at war' with the Illuminati in recent months. This looks to me like May demonstrating to Putin that she is working with said Illuminati against him. Google 'the 23 enigma' for more info.

Great read, The Illuminati Trilogy

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Found with what appear to be strangulation marks on his neck.

Anyone who's an enemy of the motherland will be worried, rich or not.

I'd like to say personally that I think this is all anti Russia propaganda. The British government probably murdered these people just so that they could pretend it was those Russians, in order to deflect from the problems in the UK.

Like Mr Tony and the weapons inspector bloke. Murdered for claiming that maybe Saddam didn't have WMDs. Yes, it all makes sense now.

 

[albionfan37]

Very telling that the number is exactly 23, the number famously associated with the Illuminati. It's said that Putin (who dabbled with the organisation but never became a full member) has been increasingly 'at war' with the Illuminati in recent months. This looks to me like May demonstrating to Putin that she is working with said Illuminati against him. Google 'the 23 enigma' for more info.

Rolls eyes 23 times (still not enough)

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Very telling that the number is exactly 23, the number famously associated with the Illuminati. It's said that Putin (who dabbled with the organisation but never became a full member) has been increasingly 'at war' with the Illuminati in recent months. This looks to me like May demonstrating to Putin that she is working with said Illuminati against him. Google 'the 23 enigma' for more info.

Eh? That's rubbish. The REAL reason it's 23 is that Terry May and her CRONIES have signed a lucrative trade deal with JORDAN and are sending a CODED message to anyone else who wants a PIECE of it, by using the NUMBER worn by namesake Michael in the NBA when playing for the BULLS.

Jeez – some people will believe ANYTHING

 

[Fungus]

So, are we expected to believe these diplomats were identified as "spies" only AFTER the poisonings? Lucky timing.

 

[Commander]

View attachment 95140

They'll save space on the aircraft, if they pack them up like this

I hate Russian dolls.

So full of themselves.

 

[CHAPPERS]

What, if any, is the likely impact on the many Russian billionaires and (mere) millionaires who reside over here? The likes of Abramovich etc.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...g?shareToken=ed09d7718352d47f56f55a64587b0255

Scene one: A courtroom, just off the Strand in London in 2011. The room is small and functional. There are cases of mauve-and-blue files near a wall. Halogen strips illuminate lawyers making polite argument as slips of paper are passed back and forth. Lady Justice Gloster smiles as Laurence Rabinowitz, QC, the counsel for Boris Berezovsky, mispronounces the name of Roman Abramovich, the defendant. Abramovich, a few places away, remains expressionless.

Scene two: An isolation cell in Moscow in 2009. Sergei Magnitsky, a corporate lawyer who has investigated wrongdoing at the highest levels of the Russian state, is lying on the floor. He has been held without trial for 11 months. He has been beaten with batons. He has been deprived of sleep. Pleading for his life, he calls for a doctor. He is met by a phalanx of riot police, who bludgeon him to death. His only crime, according to campaigners, was to “tell the truth”.

Keep these two scenes in mind as we try to “tell the truth” about the chicanery that followed the Boris Yeltsin privatisations. This is a story that will encompass the question, ducked for so long, about whether the ownership of Chelsea Football Club should be removed from Abramovich through legal decree, but it will also call out the near-silence that has surrounded one of the biggest scandals in British sport. This is an issue that should have been confronted far earlier.

First, let’s explore why Magnitsky was murdered and why a clause in his name may soon be a part of British law. Magnitsky worked for Bill Browder, an American hedge-fund owner. As told in Browder’s startling book Red Notice, the financier had been the victim of a £150 million tax fraud from which Vladimir Putin’s associates had benefited. Magnitsky, Browder’s lawyer, had courageously named the men he believed were guilty. The Kremlin responded by having him jailed, assuming that this would be the last of it. The power of Putin is so absolute that few people dare stand up to him.

Browder had different ideas; successfully lobbying the American Congress for a change in the law to hit Putin’s cronies where it hurts most. Officials in Russia siphon off money from legitimate businesses through threat and intimidation. They then squirrel the money out of the country, into prime assets in the West, ready for their retirement and holidays, and as a bolthole to escape justice when Putin finally leaves office. The Magnitsky Act of 2012 is, in part, about confiscating that money. It is not anti-Russian, but pro the Russian people who have been swindled by gangsters and oligarchs for so long.

As Browder put it in a column in The Mail on Sunday: “It only takes a stroll through Belgravia in west London to see this. Every self-respecting member of the Putin regime has an expensive home in Britain. They like our property ownership laws, which guarantee them title and give them a safe asset abroad should they ever need to flee.

“For them, there is no greater status symbol than a townhouse in Belgrave Square or Eaton Terrace. They send their children to public school and enjoy shopping on the Kings Road. It is important to remember that Putin’s cronies have bought these grand houses with billions stolen from the Russian state. Our response should be to seize these houses, bank accounts and shares.”

Browder is right. The US has already passed a version of the Magnitsky Act and has seized the assets of dozens of corrupt Russians. The law sent a chill through Putin’s kleptocracy. We should introduce a beefed-up version of the same law. Why should anyone be allowed to benefit from defrauding their own people and then enjoy the trappings of gilded privilege in London?

And this takes us back to scene one. For, in his legal scrap with Berezovsky, Abramovich opened up for the first time about how he amassed a personal fortune of £8 billion. Jonathan Sumption, QC, his lawyer and now a judge in the Supreme Court, admitted that the auction that handed Abramovich control of Sibneft, the Russian energy giant, was “rigged”. The court also heard that it was a “stitch-up”. In essence, this was one of a series of deals in which Yeltsin handed the mineral wealth of the Russian people to the oligarchs at a fraction of its true cost in return, it is claimed, for free advertising on their TV channels in the build-up to the 1996 election.

Paul Gregory, the economist, described the Sibneft deal as “the largest single heist in corporate history and a lasting emblem of the corruption of modern Russia”. Abramovich’s involvement may only have gone so far as the “stitched-up” auction, but surely that is corruption.

For Yeltsin, the gamble worked. He won the election having trailed in the polls. As for Abramovich, who has always denied knowledge of anything corrupt, he became rich beyond his dreams. The deal enabled him to emerge victorious from the notorious aluminium wars.

He bought a fleet of yachts, helicopters, his own private Boeing and homes around the world, including a £125 million London mansion in Kensington. He also bought Chelsea FC, presumably confident that his assets would be safe in a nation that has long enjoyed the cash flowing from oligarchs. A strong UK version of the Magnitsky Act could change all that. It could enable the state to determine whether assets owned in Britain were paid for with ill-gotten cash. If our legislators have the courage to draft a rigorous clause, the deal could be looked into and it is not just Abramovich’s homes and private assets that may then be at risk, but Chelsea FC.

This could also bring to an end a long-running saga that has shamed the English game and received scant scrutiny. In football, the oligarch is mentioned affectionately for his engaging grin and enigmatic personality. People eulogise the money he has lavished on Chelsea and his charitable causes. This is moral chicanery, however.

How can a man be praised for spending a fraction of the wealth that, according to his barrister, was obtained through a stitch-up?

The closeness of Putin and Abramovich can be seen by examining Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia?, the book by Karen Dawisha, professor of political science at Miami University. “Abramovich helped fund the purchase for $50 million of Putin’s first presidential yacht,” she writes.

Regular readers will know that this subject has often been tackled in this space, triggering hate mail and anonymous threats.

As for Putin’s enemies, they have met all manner of curious ends. Berezovsky ended up dead in a locked bathroom, a ligature around his neck. A British coroner recorded an open verdict but US intelligence officials suspect an assassination.

Buzzfeed has chronicled 13 other suspicious deaths in the UK, including Alexander Perepilichnyy, who suffered a heart attack while jogging, and Alexander Litvinenko, who died after drinking tea laced with a radioactive substance. A public inquiry found that Litvinenko’s assassination was probably ordered by Putin himself. Yesterday, Nikolai Glushkov, who was a friend of Berezovsky and who testified in the case against Abramovich was also found dead.

Putin cronies act with impunity because they have, for too long, got away with it. They have never feared retribution because policy has been so lax. British political parties have taken Russian money, guaranteed anonymity for investors in London and only belatedly tackled issues such as Baltic defences and the strategic danger of Russia’s gas export monopoly.

This could be about to change. History teaches that bullies are only stopped when they are met by a stern response. That is why the Magnitsky law is not just about justice, but geopolitics. It is one of the few usable weapons that Putin and the oligarchs fear. As for Abramovich, he may be wondering, perhaps for the first time, whether that rigged auction is finally about to catch up with him.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

The rest of Europe has also been decidedly lukewarm in their solidarity - Rightly, they are probably waiting for a) Some conclusive evidence and then b) to explore all the diplomatic channels as appropriate.

This doesn't read as lukewarm imo.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...n-russian-spy-case-if-requested-idUSKCN1GP1QA

 

[vegster]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...g?shareToken=ed09d7718352d47f56f55a64587b0255

Interesting article.