Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Toss Blavatnik in with Derispaka and other ex-are they, or not? Russian billionaires who have given
millions to GOP figures and in turn gained much influence into American conservative politics.

One big question is, how close are the sympathies of these so-called ex-Russian billionaires with the interests of Russia and Putin.

From yours first

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2. How did the deal between Deripaska and McConnell happen?

In April 2018, the U.S. Treasury Department cracked down on Deripaska, imposing heavy sanctions on him. Trump moved to undermine these sanctions almost immediately. The Washington Post has the details:
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Trump’s most egregious act of sanctions malfeasance, however, came in April 2018. That was when the Treasury Department — acting with support from then-national security adviser H.R. McMaster, on his way out of the White House — imposed the first consequential Russia sanctions of the Trump years, targeting the oligarch Oleg Deripaska and his aluminum company, Rusal. The impact was swift: Rusal’s shares nosedived by more than 50 percent.

Instead of using this leverage to extract concessions from Moscow, the Trump administration immediately defanged .. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/23/us-sanctions-russia-rusal-oleg-deripaska-545660 .. the sanctions and eventually expunged .. https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-removes-rusal-from-sanctions-list-11548625924 .. Rusal from the sanctions list. To make matters worse, the Trump administration cut a deal with Deripaska, whom the Senate Intelligence Committee described as a “proxy for the Russian state and intelligence services,” allowing him to maintain control of his businesses through allies. This episode sent an unambiguous message to both Moscow and the private sector: The Trump administration had no stomach for tough sanctions against Russia.
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Indeed, the sanctions against Deripaska were only temporary, as it turned out. In December 2018, after only six months, the Trump administration was seeking to lift them entirely. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin argued that Deripaska’s control of his company had been weakened, but such was not the case. In order to kill the lifting of the sanctions, both houses of Congress had to move to stop them. Here’s what happened .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-a-mcconnell-backed-effort-to-lift-russian-sanctions-boosted-a-kentucky-project/2019/08/13/72b26e00-b97c-11e9-b3b4-2bb69e8c4e39_story.html :
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With strong Republican support, the House on Jan. 14 [2019] overwhelmingly rejected the administration plan to lift sanctions, 362 to 53.

But the effort failed in the Senate, thanks in part to McConnell and strong lobbying efforts. (Emphasis added.)

The effort to lift sanctions was led by Lord Gregory Barker, the new British chief executive of EN+, and included Republican ex-senator David Vitter (my emphasis) of Louisiana, now a lobbyist at Mercury Public Affairs, according to public lobbying records...

Just before the vote, Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) warned the Senate that providing sanctions relief “gives Vladimir Putin exactly what he wants” at a time that “Russia continues to run rampant over international norms, to meddle in democratic elections, and to destabilize the world.”
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McConnell called Schumer’s resolution “a political stunt.” And he rejected claims that he or others in the GOP were soft on Putin.

Hmmm. Old Mitchy Boy seemed pretty committed to lifting the sanctions on Deripaska. Now it gets even more interesting. From the watchdog group Restore Public Trust:
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* One day before McConnell led the vote to drop sanctions against Rusal, a McConnell ally, Craig Bouchard, had dinner with Kremlin-linked oligarch and Rusal owner, Oleg Deripaska.
* Talks about the Rusal-backed Kentucky project were in the works “long before” Rusal was sanctioned in early 2018.
( Rusal lobbyist and former Senator David Vitter was spotted outside McConnell’s office waiting for a meeting days before the bill to lift the sanctions was brought to the Senate floor.
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And from there matters proceeded. Our friends at The Moscow Project are on the case:

[...]

And I found this to be curious. David Vitter’s radical Right-wing wife Wendy was nominated for a federal judgeship in January 2018. The nomination had languished for more than a year, but in May 2019 her stalled nomination was finally pushed through by McConnell and company. David Vitter, as we saw above, was a major lobbyist pushing for lifting sanctions. A reward perhaps?

And remember: this is the same Mitch McConnell that had stymied President Obama’s efforts to publicly denounce Russian interference in the 2016 election .. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/24/580171396/biden-mcconnell-refused-to-sign-bipartisan-statement-on-russian-interference .

This is the same Mitch McConnell that blocked election security measures .. https://thefulcrum.us/congress/election-security-bills .. designed to protect the 2020 election.

So let’s sum up:

Oleg Deripaska is a Russian oligarch who used rough, brutal tactics to climb to the top, and is a good friend of one of America’s worst enemies, Vladimir Putin. Deripaska helped interfere in the 2016 U.S. election through his friendship with Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and is connected both to Russian intelligence and to Russian organized crime.

Mitch McConnell was getting financial contributions from Russian sources.

Mitch McConnell successfully fought to lift sanctions aimed at Deripaska.

Deripaska rewarded McConnell with promises of a substantial investment in Kentucky.

McConnell had made a deal with an outright enemy of the United States, a
deal that would put money into the hands of McConnell’s friends and supporters.

Why is McConnell getting away with this?

By the way, if you really want to know what happens to people who cross Deripaska, read this.

ADDENDUM FROM KOSSACK KURIOUS:

Your link - https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/12/30/2004140/-Why-is-McConnell-Getting-Away-with-the-Deripaska-Scandal
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Now to others of old on the board

Absolutely. Raw data the Steele dossier always was. Of so many this of PegVA's is one of the best to link to yours. In full again

I'm all in for a full and complete investigation of all politicians that are proven to have taken Russian money...

GOP CAMPAIGNS TOOK $7.35 MILLION FROM OLIGARCH LINKED TO RUSSIA
AUG 2017
by Ruth May, Contributor
Ruth May is a business professor at the University of Dallas and an expert on the economies of Russia and Ukraine. She wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News

Party loyalty is often cited as the reason that GOP leaders have not been more outspoken in their criticism of President Donald Trump and his refusal to condemn Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election. Yet there may be another reason that top Republicans have not been more vocal in their condemnation. Perhaps it's because they have their own links to the Russian oligarchy that they would prefer go unnoticed.

Donald Trump and the political action committees for Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Lindsey Graham, John Kasich and John McCain accepted $7.35 million in contributions from a Ukrainian-born oligarch who is the business partner of two of Russian president Vladimir Putin's favorite oligarchs and a Russian government bank.

During the 2015-2016 election season, Ukrainian-born billionaire Leonard "Len" Blavatnik contributed $6.35 million to leading Republican candidates and incumbent senators. Mitch McConnell was the top recipient of Blavatnik's donations, collecting $2.5 million for his GOP Senate Leadership Fund under the names of two of Blavatnik's holding companies, Access Industries and AI Altep Holdings, according to Federal Election Commission documents and OpenSecrets.org.

Marco Rubio's Conservative Solutions PAC and his Florida First Project received $1.5 million through Blavatnik's two holding companies. Other high dollar recipients of funding from Blavatnik were PACS representing Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker at $1.1 million, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham at $800,000, Ohio Governor John Kasich at $250,000 and Arizona Senator John McCain at $200,000.

In January, Quartz reported that Blavatnik donated another $1 million to Trump's Inaugural Committee. Ironically, the shared address of Blavatnik's companies is directly across the street from Trump Tower on 5th Avenue in New York.

Len Blavatnik, considered to be one of the richest men in Great Britain, holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and the U.K. He is known for his business savvy and generous philanthropy, but not without controversy.

In 2010, Oxford University drew intense criticism for accepting a donation of 75 million pounds from Blavatnik for a new school of government bearing his name. Faculty, alumni and international human rights activists claimed the university was selling its reputation and prestige to Putin's associates.

Blavatnik's relationships with Russian oligarchs close to Putin, particularly Oleg Deripaska, should be worrisome for Trump and the six GOP leaders who took Blavatnik's money during the 2016 presidential campaign. Lucky for them no one has noticed. Yet.

[...]

Another oligarch with close ties to Putin, Dmitry Rybolovlev, owns a 3.3 percent stake in the Bank of Cyprus. Rybolovlev is known as "Russia's Fertilizer King" and has been in the spotlight for several months as the purchaser of Trump's 60,000 square-foot mansion in Palm Beach. Rybolovlev bought the estate for $54 million more than Trump paid for the property at the bottom of the crash in the U.S. real estate market.

The convoluted web that links Putin's oligarchs to Trump's political associates and top Republicans is difficult to take in.

Trump and Putin have a common approach to governance. They rely heavily on long-term relationships and family ties. While there have been tensions between Putin and Deripaska over the years, the Kremlin came to Deripaska's rescue in 2009 when he was on the verge of bankruptcy by providing a $4.5 billion emergency loan through state-owned Vnesheconombank (VEB), where Putin is chair of the advisory board.

More and still others - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=164914500