Tag Archives: Russian

New Tory law to sanction Russians actually lets them off the hook

Boris Johnson and Alexander Temerko: You can imagine the conversation – “Don’t worry Alex, the fix is in so you can keep donating hundreds of thousands of quid to us via Aquind Ltd.

A law to harden and quicken UK sanctions against allies of Vladimir Putin that was fast-tracked through the House of Commons contains a clause to get them all off the hook.

The Economic Crime Bill intends to end anonymity for foreign billionaires who own land and other assets in the UK, making it harder for them to launder money into the country. Apparently they’ll be named on a register and that will stop them.

But Section 18 of the Economic Crime Bill, “Exemptions”, states:

“The Secretary of State may, by giving written notice to a person, exempt the person under this section if satisfied that to do so is necessary – (a) in the interests of national security; (b) in the interests of the economic wellbeing of the United Kingdom; (c) for the purposes of preventing or detecting serious crime.”

The Secretary of State, at the moment, is Priti Patel.

You see the problem?

The Bill makes it entirely possible for Russian oligarchs with close connections to members of the government like, perhaps, Boris Johnson to persuade them that transparency would force them to remove their assets from the UK and therefore harm the economy, and that it is in the UK’s economic interest for their identities to remain confidential.

This encourages This Writer to reason that the government has never intended to sanction Russians with close connections to it; we know no sanctions have been imposed on Russians who have donated money to the Conservative Party or any of its MPs, and now we see that the new clampdown Bill is designed to exempt them from any penalties.

This is more evidence that although the Johnson government says it supports Ukraine, it is in fact on the side of the Russians who pay their drinks bills.

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As the world sanctions, Boris Johnson and the Tories are protecting THEIR RUSSIAN DONORS

Bosom buddies: Boris Johnson with Russian industrialist Alexander Temerko. Before the Ukraine crisis, Johnson said he didn’t think there was any reason to investigate Russian influence in UK politics.

After Boris Johnson claimed the UK was the first country in the world to impose financial sanctions on Russia, to force Vladimir Putin to end his war on Ukraine, it turns out that all he did was give Russians in the UK notice to move their money somewhere else.

£100 billion per year of corrupt Russian money washes through the UK (according to Labour’s Debbie Abrahams, in Parliament as I type this) – and this has been known for nearly a decade – as Private Eye points out, and then goes on to mistakenly state that it takes a war to move the government to action.

I say mistakenly because despite all Johnson’s bluster, it seems no action has yet been taken to seize Russian assets or sanction their banks:

These are ill-gotten gains (to a huge extent) – have no doubt about that:

For an example of the UK’s treatment of Russian oligarchs, let’s look at Roman Abramovich

And here’s what’s happening to the Russian banks with money in the UK:

So: no money has been frozen; no money has been seized.

The value of Russian assets in the UK is huge:

So why the delay in action, if the UK could inflict huge damage by imposing sanctions?

There is a possible explanation – as illustrated by Clive Lewis, below:

Russian money, it seems, has been opening the doors of the UK’s Conservative MPs, as demonstrated by the list below:

“Zen & Write” makes a good point. Politicians who have taken money from people from – possibly representing – a country hostile to the UK should lose the right to sit in a UK government. Shouldn’t they?

Andy McDonald makes a hugely important point:

Exactly. What did these Russians want from our MPs – the policymakers of our government – in return for their filthy lucre?

We’re talking about huge amounts of money here. The list of donations and recipients goes on and on:

Fox was on his hind legs during Prime Minister’s Questions today (March 2):

A bit hypocritical?

(That’s Lord Evgeny Lebedev, of course.)

So this is what we’re seeing:

And this:

And this:

“Boris protecting Putin’s pals.” That is the size of it.

And at a time like this, when the UK’s government is screaming at us that it is acting against the aggression of Vladimir Putin and his people, while in fact helping them beat the sanctions imposed on them by moving their money elsewhere, we need to remember that it could have been hugely different:

And that means you can’t trust a single thing said about this by the mainstream media. How does it feel to have been fed lies for years on end?

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£2.6 million Downing Street briefing room was built by Russians. Not ‘very sensible’!

The new government media briefing room: your local parish council could have done a better job, and cheaper, but Boris Johnson gave the contract to a company based in a hostile state.

After This Site’s article yesterday showing that Boris Johnson is trying to hide the idiocy of his decisions by claiming they are “very sensible”, this:

His government paid £2.6 million to a Russian company for construction of the new media briefing room – in Downing Street, the heart of the UK government.

Despite being sued for unlawfully withholding details of contracts, the Tory government has refused to say whether the work was put out to competitive tender. It should have been, because the contract was not awarded as part of an emergency.

In fact, no details of the contract with Russian-owned Megahertz have been published.

Megahertz carried out the main work on the project, including installing computers, cameras, microphones and a control desk. Its owner Okno-TV has previously carried out similar technical work for Russian state-controlled broadcasters Russia Today, Channel One, and Public Television of Russia.

It has not been suggested that the company is influenced by the Russian government, but the question has to be asked:

Why did Boris Johnson hire a company from a country that has been designated a “hostile state” to build a communications hub for the UK government?

It’s a security nightmare.

And, after the Salisbury poisonings, a public relations disaster.

Worse still, the briefing room itself looks amateurish.

Advance photos of the space, released before it goes into daily use, show a layout that could have been put together at a village hall, with a central podium backed by two Union flags and a TV screen on one side facing rows of the kind of chairs you see stacked at the side of your local meeting-room.

It doesn’t look like a £2.6m facility. Let’s be honest, it doesn’t look like it cost £2,000.

Admittedly, the broadcasting equipment was probably expensive. But, coming from a Russian firm, who knows what might be included in it, alongside what Johnson asked for?

The work also comes after a Tory government had to end the involvement of Chinese firm Huawei in the rollout of 5G telecommunications in the UK.

So This Writer is in a rare position of agreement with Labour’s Chris Bryant, who chairs the all-party Parliamentary group on Russia, who said,

What shocks me most is that the Johnson government seems to have learnt nothing about the involvement in sensitive UK projects of companies with [links] to autocratic regimes, whether in Russia or in China.

Fundamental to the whole issue, of course, is the fact that Johnson spaffed this cash to Russia while do the dirty on nurses by giving them a pay cut.

It is clear that Johnson’s claim that he could not afford to pay any more to the people who saved so many from Covid-19 is bunkum; he’s got money to burn.

The problem is that his priorities are wrong.

Source: Exclusive: Russian-Owned Firm Played Key Role In Downing Street Media Refit | HuffPost UK

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Beyond satire: has Boris Johnson found another way to delay release of the ‘Russia Report’?

Chris Grayling: how can this become chair of an intelligence committee? He’s practically drooling in the photograph.

We are being asked to believe that the long-awaited report on Russian influence in UK politics could soon be released after Boris Johnson announced his nominations for the Parliamentary committee responsible for it.

But how can Parliament approve those nominations when he has nominated legendary dunderhead Chris Grayling to chair the committee?

Grayling is quite possibly the stupidest human being ever to infest the Palace of Westminster. His blunders are legendary and installing him as chair of a committee with the word “intelligence” in its title would be a contradiction in terms.

Even if this imbecile is cleared to chair the committee by Parliament, there is no guarantee that he won’t conform to his character and either lose the document that’s causing Boris Johnson so much concern – or destroy it.

Needless to say, Twitter has greeted the situation with both horror and hilarity:

https://twitter.com/eljgales2/status/1281360099198611457

https://twitter.com/libdemfightbac/status/1281339893298475010

Still, it is possible to see light at the end of the tunnel…

Source: Long-delayed report into Russian influence on UK politics could soon be cleared for publication | The Independent

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Do you believe Downing Street’s story that the Russia report may soon be published?

Parliament’s committee responsible for publishing the report on Russian interference in UK politics may be reconvened “imminently” – according to Downing Street sources.

Do you believe that?

Or do you think that, even if it happens, it’s only because Boris Johnson has found another way to delay the report – or hide what it says?

According to the BBC, the government is denying that Johnson has stalled the process:

A source close to the process has told me they are hopeful the committee will be confirmed by Downing Street “imminently”.

That would remove the most significant obstacle to the Russia report being published and means it could happen soon.

Number 10, meanwhile, has denied deliberately stalling the process.

The PM’s spokesman said the government wanted to get the committee up and running as soon as circumstances allowed.

But the spokesman said the last few months has seen an unprecedented situation in government and Parliament.

So the Covid crisis has made Johnson so busy he hasn’t had time to restore this vital organisation that could release damning information?

What’s he been busy doing? Changing nappies?

Apparently so. But while This Writer approves of equality in the parenting process, as prime minister, Johnson has a responsibility to the nation.

He seems to have forgotten that. But did you anything different from him?

Source: Russia report committee to be set up ‘imminently’ – BBC News

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The coronavirus is NOT A GAME: kids who play ‘Russian roulette’ by licking things could die

It’s a common enough situation in playgrounds across the world.

One kid, who fancies him- or herself as an Alpha, challenges others to do something really stupid to prove themselves in some silly way – usually involving outsmarting the nearest responsible adult.

They might make a show of doing it themselves (although it’s more likely they’ll pretend, because they aren’t stupid enough to do something they’re telling other youngsters to do).

Children often come to harm because of these silly challenges – and almost always get into trouble with the authorities.

The coronavirus has brought us a new wrinkle on this old scam – a version of Russian roulette in which kids challenge each other to lick surfaces that may or may not be infected.

How stupid would you have to be, to risk infection and possible death like that?

How desperate for acceptance into somebody else’s gang?

The craze seems to have its origin with Missouri idiot Cody Pfister, who took a video of himself licking items at his local Walmart store and posted it on the social media.

It isn’t clear whether he was saying he didn’t have the coronavirus and nor did the products, or whether he was saying he did – and was deliberately infecting the packaging on these items so other people would get it too.

As a result, local police said they had been contacted with complaints from the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK.

That’s right: people here who have seen the video have been copying it – most likely with the kind of challenge described above.

There is so much wrong with this, it’s enough to make your head spin.

Firstly, if you have children, they are supposed to be in lockdown. That means they don’t mix with other people’s kids.

So how are they being challenged to do this damned stupid thing?

Secondly, licking items on shop shelves – or elsewhere (I know of other examples but won’t be giving anybody ideas by mentioning them here) – is a filthy thing to do in its own right.

Your kids could catch any number of diseases by doing it, and end up putting a huge extra strain on the National Health Service.

Finally, coronavirus is a mass killer. Sure, children have been shown to be more resilient than some others – unless they have underlying or hidden vulnerabilities. Then they’re as likely to die as an 80-year-old with respiratory disease.

If you’re a parent and you’ve been letting your kids play with others, or haven’t been monitoring what they’ve seen on the Internet, or simply don’t know what they’ve been doing, it might be time for a serious talk.

It’s up to you, of course.

But if you don’t, you could be putting any number of other people at risk of touching infected surfaces, the NHS at risk of extra strain it doesn’t need, and your own child at risk of death.

Source: Missouri Walmart Coronavirus Licker Charged With ‘Terrorist Threat’ | News Blog

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