~*~Mining and Metals Du Jour~*~

[eik]

This article is a good summary of “Russiagate” for those who never heard about Magnitsky or Veselnitskaya before. Of course, Veselnitskaya is not “Russian government connected” lawyer. She is “Russian elites connected” lawyer – those elites that are suffering from Magnitsky law. The main paradox of modern totalitarian states like Russia is that they need external enemies to keep their population mobilized and supporting local governments (according to recent polls US is the enemy #1 in Russia). OTOH, elites are not that stupid to keep newly stolen wealth inside the country. They have foreign accounts in safe places; they buy yachts and multimillion real estate properties in Manhattan, Miami, London, France, Italy, Spain (popular Russian places). Their kids graduated prestige foreign colleges and live in Europe. So, Magnitsky law and Ukraine-related sanctions just cut them off from their money and actually from their future. Now Putin requires that all high level individuals bring their children and capital back to Russia. Some of them obeyed (like Putin’s two daughters, Lavrov’s daughter, etc.). Others couldn’t convince their adult children (who have foreign citizenship and good jobs) to go back to Russia, so have been fired.

Anyway, what this article failed to explain is how “second-hand” lawyer Veselnitskaya managed to schedule this meeting with Trump team. And that’s where we can expect next development in Russiagate. This meeting was organized by Russian oligarch, real estate developer (“The Trump of Russia”) Agas Agalarov. He used to be Trump’s partner and, according to some Russian sources, helped to finance Trump companies during his multiple bankruptcies. Nobody knows about Trump’s current financial ties to Aras Agalarov, but eventually we will:



https://theintercept.com/2017/07/11/russian-oligarch-plotted-aid-trump-named-private-intelligence-dossier/