country:russia

Rich Russians and Tax Havens: The Moscow Times Sits Down With Oliver Bullough
▻https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/01/22/rich-russians-and-tax-havens-the-moscow-times-sits-down-with-oliver-

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What part does Russia play in Moneyland?

Moneyland’s system was actually created by the United Kingdom during the Cold War, when the city of London was looking for a new role and invented offshores, in cooperation with the banks in Switzerland.

But it was then very quickly discovered by the Soviet Union and later by Russians. They are among the most enthusiastic money launderers and users of this system. Russia is also one of the countries that is most affected by Moneyland.

Can #crypto feed me when I’m #old ?
▻https://hackernoon.com/can-crypto-feed-me-when-im-old-5ffd0e393f50?source=rss----3a8144eabfe3--

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By Olya GreenIn the wake of this past week’s news about pension funds making their first foray into the realm of digital assets, I took a minute to explore the recent developments in the landscape of government-supported pensions to figure out why providing social security has been largely abandoned by those who once undertook to protect the retirees.Starting off with the countries that could never really boast sound dedication to funding of the social realm, let’s take a look at some recent developments in the Russian Federation. Back in December 2018, the government did something pretty outrageous, especially for those elderly who remember the heyday of the Soviet times. Suggesting that the citizens were better off making #retirement saving plans on their own instead of hoping to be (...)

#technology #blockchain

Interview with #kaggle Grandmaster, Lead Data Scientist at Dbrain: Artur Kunzin
▻https://hackernoon.com/interview-with-kaggle-grandmaster-lead-data-scientist-at-dbrain-artur-ku

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Interview with Kaggle Grandmaster, Head of Computer Vision at X5 Retail Group: Artur KuzinPart 22 of The series where I interview my heroes.Today I’m honored to be interviewing a Kaggle Grandmaster from the ods.ai community.I’m excited to be talking to Competitions GrandMaster (Ranked #29, kaggle: @n01z3) and Kernels (Ranked #159), Discussions Expert: (Ranked #58),: Artur KuzinArtur has a background in Physics and Applied Math with a Masters Degree. Currently, he is working as the Head of Computer Vision at X5 Retail Group (Largest multi-format retailer in Russia), before X5 Group- he has worked as Lead Data Scientist at Dbrain (Dbrain.io), and as a Data Scientist at Avito (the second largest classifieds site in the world, part OLX group).About the Series:I have very recently started making (...)

#artificial-intelligence #data-science #deep-learning #machine-learning

Despite Putin’s Swagger, Russia Struggles to Modernize Its Navy - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2019/02/21/world/europe/21reuters-russia-military-insight.html

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f08c-xdQeP4

President Vladimir Putin calls improving the Russian navy’s combat capabilities a priority.

The unfinished husks of three guided-missile frigates that have languished for three years at a Baltic shipyard show that is easier said than done.

Earmarked for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, the frigates fell victim to sanctions imposed by Ukraine in 2014 after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula, prompting Kiev to ban the sale of the Ukrainian-made engines needed to propel them.

With Moscow unable to quickly build replacement engines for the Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates, construction stopped. Russia is now cutting its losses and selling the three ships to India without engines.

The navy’s problems stem largely, but not exclusively, from the Ukrainian sanctions. There are also problems, for different reasons, with new equipment for the army and air force.

The picture that emerges is that Russia’s armed forces are not as capable or modern as its annual Red Square military parades suggest and that its ability to project conventional force is more limited too.

An Inside Look at #moscow’s Vibrant #coworking Culture : SOK Kurskaya
▻https://hackernoon.com/an-inside-look-at-moscows-vibrant-coworking-culture-sok-kurskaya-690bf95

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The spectacular rooftop working and dining area © Photo by Dmitry KabanovOver the past years the capital of Russia become home to more than a one million new residents, brought there by the city’s high paying jobs, including those offered by tech startups, telecom and media companies.Moscow’s got everything a digital nomad would want, including lots of coworking spaces. This one named SOK is bound to impress you.The people behind SOK have done their research and explored the best coworking spaces in Israel, Britain and Germany. They reached out to WeWork and Mindspace, and learned from their experiences.They used government data to define ‘areas of peak business activity’ and pick the perfect location. They hired not one, but several design studios and bureaus to bring their vision of the (...)

#real-estate #remote-working #sok-kurskaya

Putin threatens to target US if it deploys #missiles in Europe
▻https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/20/putin-threatens-to-target-the-us-if-it-deploys-new-missiles-in-europe.html

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Putin, in his annual address to parliament, says his country would not seek confrontation and would not take the first step in deploying missiles after the suspension of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

However, he says Russia would respond to any deployment of new intermediate-range missiles in Europe by targeting the United States itself and not just the countries where they are deployed, according to a Reuters translation.

He says he would field new weapons that would target U.S. decision-making centers.

#nucléaire #armes

Income inequality is likely worse than before the Great Depression

U.S. wealth concentration, or income inequality, has returned to levels not seen since the 1920s, and it could actually be significantly worse.

Driving the news: New research from Gabriel Zucman, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, for the National Bureau of Economic Research was unearthed recently by MarketWatch and finds that the top 1% owns about 40% of total household wealth. It reaches 40.8% when including the Forbes 400.

Further, the top 1% richest U.S. families own 40 times the average family’s wealth.

“No country (apart from Russia) for which estimates of wealth inequality are available has similarly high recorded levels of wealth inequality,” Zucman writes.

Between the lines: Perhaps the most interesting part of Zucman’s research may be his point that the top 1% of American households likely hold much more of the nation’s and the world’s wealth than anyone realizes.

“It is not enough to study wealth concentration using self-reported survey data or tax return data,” Zucman says in the report, estimating that 8% of the world’s household financial wealth is held offshore.

“Because the wealthy have access to many opportunities for tax avoidance and tax evasion—and because the available evidence suggests that the tax planning industry has grown since the 1980s as it became globalized—traditional data sources are likely to under-estimate the level and rise of wealth concentration.”

Zucman also notes that data shows the share of total wealth owned by the top 1% has increased by 9 points since 1989 and by 10 points when including the Forbes 400. In capitalized income estimates, it has increased by 11 points.

“The share of wealth owned by the bottom 90% has collapsed in similar proportions.”

▻https://www.axios.com/income-inequality-great-depression-gabriel-zucman-45ba4d26-d349-452e-9ca2-7ef
#inégalités #Grande_dépression #USA #Etats-Unis #richesse #pauvreté #statistiques #chiffres #concentration

Tentée de mttre le tag #2029...
ping @reka

Les #Etats-Unis, première #menace d’une #Europe divisée - Le Temps
▻https://www.letemps.ch/monde/etatsunis-premiere-menace-dune-europe-divisee

US poses bigger threat than Putin or Xi, say voters | World | The Times
▻https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trump-a-greater-threat-to-peace-than-xi-or-putin-polls-suggest-ds8qrr5s6

The US under President Trump is perceived as a greater threat to Europe’s security than China or Russia, according to an international opinion poll.

Mr Trump’s standing has fallen so low among America’s allies that people in France and Germany are now significantly more likely to say they trust President Putin or President Xi to “do the right thing” on the global stage. A clear majority of people in eastern European countries including Poland fear that war will break out with Russia as the US-backed liberal order threatens to dissolve into an era of renewed conflict.

Senate has uncovered no direct evidence of conspiracy between Trump campaign and Russia
▻https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-has-uncovered-no-direct-evidence-conspiracy-between-trump-campaign-n

After two years and 200 interviews, the Senate Intelligence Committee is approaching the end of its investigation into the 2016 election, having uncovered no direct evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to both Democrats and Republicans on the committee.

Le crabe EST une espèce sédentaire, et donc une ressource naturelle. Il est donc protégé par l’exclusivité de la #ZEE.

Intéressant débat juridique, avec conséquences sur la maîtrise par la Norvège de ses ressources d’hydrocarbures.

À noter, l’absence de position sur le traité du #Svalbard…

Abide by the claw : Norway’s Arctic snow crab ruling boosts claim to oil | Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-norway-eu-snowcrab-idUSKCN1Q3115

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A court delivered a painful nip to European Union fishermen on Thursday by tightening Norway’s grip on snow crab catches in the Arctic, a ruling that may also let Oslo claw more control of oil and gas from other nations.

Fishermen from the European Union must ask permission from Oslo to catch snow crab — whose meat is a delicacy for gourmets from Canada to Japan — in Arctic waters north of Norway, the Norwegian Supreme Court said in a unanimous ruling.

The court dismissed an appeal by a Latvian fishing firm and its Russian captain against fines imposed by a lower court for catching snow crab around the remote Svalbard Islands in 2017 with only an EU license.

Latvia’s Foreign Ministry said it would review the decision at a government meeting.

“Norway is tightening its grip,” in the Arctic, said Oeystein Jensen, a researcher in international law at the independent Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Oslo.

“The court clarifies that if you are going to fish, or search for oil and gas, you need permission from the Norwegian authorities,” he told Reuters.

At issue was whether the snow crab was a sedentary species living on the seabed or moves around like fish, and who gets to control the stocks.

The court agreed with non-EU member Norway that snow crabs are sedentary, like corals or oysters, and that as such under the U.N. Law of the Sea they are a resource belonging to the continental shelf of Norway extending hundreds of miles (kms) offshore.

Had Norway lost the case, the EU could have staked a claim over the snow crab and it could have been harder for Oslo to regulate access to potential oil and gas resources beneath the Arctic seabed.

“For the Norwegian coastguard this is a big relief - they can arrest any ships fishing illegally in the Svalbard area,” chief public prosecutor Lars Fause told Reuters.

The Latvian firm, SIA North Star, argued that the crabs are not sedentary because they scurry around and so should be regulated under regional fisheries accords signed by parties including the European Union, Norway and Russia.

It argued that it had a valid EU permit.

“We’re very disappointed,” defense lawyer Hallvard Oestgaard told Reuters. He said that his client would consider whether to try to appeal to international tribunals.

And SIA North Star argued that Norway is obliged under an international 1920 treaty to allow other nations access to the waters around Svalbard.

That treaty grants sovereignty to Norway but gives other signatories rights to engage in commercial activities on and around Svalbard. Russia, for instance, runs a coal mine on Svalbard.

But Oslo says rights to exploit resources around Svalbard extend only to a narrow band of just 12 nautical miles offshore. The court ruled that the Latvian catches were illegal under Norwegian law, irrespective of the Svalbard Treaty.

Fast.ai in production. Real-word text classification with ULMFiT.
▻https://hackernoon.com/fast-ai-in-production-real-word-text-classification-with-ulmfit-199769be

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I’ve overcome my skepticism about fast.ai for production and trained a text classification system in non-English language, small dataset and lots of classes with ULMFiT.About the projectMy friend and classmate, who is one of the founders of RocketBank (leading online-only bank in Russia), asked me to develop a classifier to help first-line of customer support.The initial set of constraints was pretty restricted —no labeled historical dataobfuscated personally identifiable information“we want it yesterday”mostly Russian language (hard to find pre-trained model)no access to cloud solutions due to privacy regulationsability to retrain the model if new classes arise without my involvementThe scope of work was pretty straight forward — develop a model and serving solution for incoming messages (...)

#customer-support #fastai #machine-learning #banking #artificial-intelligence

Russia considers ’unplugging’ from internet (▻https://www.bbc.com/ne...
▻https://diasp.eu/p/8508348

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Russia considers ’unplugging’ from internet

Russia may briefly disconnect from the internet as part of a test of its cyber-defences. Article word count: 623

HN Discussion: ▻https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19135085 Posted by _void (karma: 73) Post stats: Points: 114 - Comments: 85 - 2019-02-11T15:29:23Z

#HackerNews #considers #from #internet #russia #unplugging

Article content:

[1]Vladimir Putin Image copyright Reuters Image caption The net independence plan is seen as a way for Russiaʼs government to get more control over online life

Russia is considering whether to disconnect from the global internet briefly, as part of a test of its cyber-defences.

The test will mean data passing between Russian citizens and organisations stays inside the nation rather than (...)

Exclusive : #Venezuela shifts oil ventures’ accounts to Russian bank - document, sources | Article [AMP] | Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-pdvsa-banks-exclus-idUSKCN1PY0N3

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA is telling customers of its joint ventures to deposit oil sales proceeds in an account recently opened at Russia’s Gazprombank AO, according to sources and an internal document seen by Reuters on Saturday.

PDVSA’s move comes after the United States imposed tough, new financial sanctions on Jan. 28 aimed at blocking Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro’s access to the country’s oil revenue.

Supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido said recently that a fund would be established to accept proceeds from sales of Venezuelan oil.

Foreign Policy’s #Venezuela “Global Scorecard” map wrongly lumps Caribbean nations with Russia and China · Global Voices

#Maduro ou pas Maduro

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▻https://globalvoices.org/2019/02/07/foreign-policys-venezuela-global-scorecard-map-lumps-caricom-nations-w

Foreign Policy has published an infographic that purports to depict global allegiances in the Venezuela crisis. The infographic, curiously, singles out three CARICOM nations—St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica and Suriname— and mentions them in a table in the accompanying story, placing them in the “Backs Nicolás Maduro” camp alongside powers such as Russia, China, Iran and Turkey.

Here’s how the world is split on Maduro vs. Guaido, in Venezuela’s political crisis: ▻https://t.co/hm1N7Gx6fH pic.twitter.com/mdkx7l2FbZ

— Robbie Gramer (@RobbieGramer) February 6, 2019

7 mistakes #b2b startups make when expanding abroad
▻https://hackernoon.com/7-mistakes-b2b-startups-make-when-expanding-abroad-4ab345f7e27e?source=r

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7 Mistakes B2B Startups Make When Expanding Abroad7 mistakes B2B #startup founders make when expanding abroad“How do I expand abroad?” is a frequent question we get asked by early and growth stage B2B startups. This question is particularly important for European startups and companies operating from emerging markets, such as LatAm, India, Russia, and South East Asia. If your home base is not a huge domestic market (like the USA or China) and you have high growth ambitions, international expansion becomes very important very soon.The list of mistakes below is based on successes and failures we’ve seen across more than hundred B2B companies of all stages and sizes, and is complemented by the best management practices and patterns noticed by the top VCs. Avoiding these 7 mistakes in your (...)

#b2b-sales #b2b-startup #global-market-expansion

How Trump’s decision to tear up the INF nuclear treaty could spiral out of control – Alternet.org
▻https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/how-trumps-decision-to-tear-up-the-inf-nuclear-treaty-could-spiral-out-of-

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US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev signed the treaty on December 8 1987 to give effect to their declaration that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”.

The treaty prohibited the development, testing and possession of ground-launched cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of 500km to 5,500km, whether armed with nuclear or conventional warheads.

A joint statement from Reagan and Gorbachev noted:

This treaty is historic both for its objective – the complete elimination of an entire class of US and Soviet nuclear arms – and for the innovative character and scope of its verification provisions.

It entered into force on June 1, 1988. By its implementation deadline of June 1, 1991, 859 US and 1,752 Soviet missiles had been destroyed.

Reflecting the dominant Cold War architecture of nuclear arms control, the INF Treaty was bilateral. US National Security Adviser John Bolton, writing in 2011 as a private citizen, conceded the treaty had successfully “addressed a significant threat to US interests”. The threat was a surprise Soviet/Russian nuclear attack in Europe using missiles in the 500-5,500km range.

But the arms control architecture began fraying when US President George W. Bush pulled out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in 2001. Signed in 1972, the ABM controlled systems designed to counter “strategic” ballistic missiles, such as intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

With the INF Treaty now dead and another arms control treaty, New Start, set to expire in 2021, the world will be left without any limits on the two major nuclear arsenals for the first time since 1972.

The collapse of the INF Treaty and deployment of China-specific US missiles could compel China to institute counter-measures – such as rapidly expanding its warhead numbers and missile-delivery systems – to protect vital security interests, including nuclear assets deep in its interior.

China’s response in turn may trigger re-adjustments to India’s doctrine of credible minimum deterrence and could produce matching re-adjustments by Pakistan. The nuclear arsenals of both these countries is presently limited to under 150 each.

In a worst-case scenario, China, India and Pakistan could engage in a sprint to parity with the US with a rapid expansion of warhead numbers and missile-delivery capabilities, and perhaps even move to keeping a stock of nuclear weapons on high alert just like Russia and the US.

However, economic and technological limitations will constrain India and Pakistan’s ability to engage in an open-ended nuclear arms race.
Expanding arms control

The sensible alternative would be to begin urgently multilateralising the Cold War bilateral structure of nuclear arms control regimes. This means involving more countries than just Russia and the US in arms control treaties, and in particular involving China.

#Armes_nucléaires #Multilatéralisme #Traités #Guerre_froide #Guerre

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#Solidarity action with the strike of the #yellow_vests in France today at the French Embassy in #Bratislava organized by #Priama_Akcia.

▻https://www.facebook.com/154456751882/posts/10155705728851883

(De)friending in the Baltics: Lessons from Facebook’s Sputnik Crackdown - Foreign Policy Research Institute
▻https://www.fpri.org/article/2019/01/defriending-in-the-baltics-lessons-from-facebooks-sputnik-crackdown

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On January 17, Facebook shut down more than 350 pages and accounts linked to Russian state-owned media company, Rossiya Segodnya, and its radio and online service, Sputnik. Citing “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” the social media monolith nixed the 289 pages and 75 accounts tied to the outlets across the Baltic states, Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Another network of nearly 150 fake Facebook and Instagram accounts originating in Russia, but mostly operating in Ukraine, were also closed.

Accruing audiences based on neutral topics ranging from tourism, to news, medicine, food, and sports, these Sputnik-linked pages and accounts also pushed coordinated Kremlin propaganda to around 800,000 unsuspecting followers with the intent to inorganically inflate their audience and promote Rossiya Segodnya outlets—spreading mis- and disinformation, curated in support of Russian state narratives.

#pays_baltes #réseaux_sociaux #russie

World War II : Operation Barbarossa - The Atlantic
▻https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/07/world-war-ii-operation-barbarossa/100112

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Operation Barbarossa : 9 popular myths busted - History Extra
▻https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/operation-barbarossa-9-popular-myths-busted

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Mass surrenders by Soviet soldiers

“The enemy is fighting with the utmost stamina and courage,” Heeresgruppe Mitte [German Army group centre] reported to the German Army High Command on 28 June. German 4th Army described the Soviet soldiers as “exceptionally tough and stalwart.” “White” émigres who had fled Russia after the October Revolution were used to try to convince the encircled Red Army troops to surrender and join the anti-Bolshevik side, but this was “categorically refused,” according to a German Army report. Another German account reads: “What has become of the Russian of 1914–17, who ran away or approached us with his hands in the air when the firestorm reached its peak? Now he remains in his bunker and forces us to burn him out, he prefers to be scorched in his tank, and his airmen continue firing at us even when their own aircraft is set ablaze. What has become of the Russian? Ideology has changed him!”

https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/photo/2011/07/world-war-ii-operation-barbarossa/w15_11021184/main_900.jpg?1420520239

The unknown wave of mass rape on the Eastern Front

Western writers have been quite successful in establishing the terrible wave of rapes committed by Soviet soldiers in Germany and Poland towards the end of the war as a general public knowledge. For instance, in his epic book on the battle of Berlin, historian Antony Beevor deals with the rape of German or Polish women by Soviet soldiers on 28 different pages. When dealing with rape, the victim’s perspective must of course dominate, and thus it is absolutely justified and a moral obligation to deal with these atrocities. What makes the whole matter even more tragic is that German rapes of Polish and Soviet women, probably on an even larger scale and definitely preceding these Soviet rapes, are ignored by nearly all Western historians. Although probably millions of Soviet citizens, primarily women and girls, became rape victims, the topic has been grossly understudied.

There is also a widespread myth that Jews were not sexually assaulted by Germans. Evidence from all over Europe, including the occupied territories and the concentration camps, prove that this is not true. The Nazi laws against having sex with a Jewish woman only pertained in cases of consensual sex.

Even in spite of their official military and racial laws and rules, Germans of the Wehrmacht, the SS, the police, the civilian administration and their allies engaged in mass rape, including gang rape on an enormous and routine scale, in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union and Poland. The victims were Jews as well as gentiles; women and girls as well as men and boys; and victims were from the youngest of ages. There are examples of a 90-year old female rape victim as well as nine- or eight-year-old girls.

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#guerre #viol #URSS #opération_barbarossa #nazis

As The Arctic Warms, US Navy Considering Summer Transit, Bering Sea Port - Defense One
▻https://www.defenseone.com/news/2019/01/arctic-warms-us-navy-considering-summer-transit-bering-sea-port/154018

https://cdn.defenseone.com/media/img/upload/2019/01/08/AP_17116419585739/open-graph.jpg

The Arctic is heating up and changing twice as fast as the rest of the globe. Some anticipate that it could regularly be virtually ice-free in summer by 2040. That reality, coupled with Russia’s aggressiveness, is forcing the Navy to look at its ability to operate in there with thawed eyes. “You’re seeing the discussion change dramatically,” said Spencer. “We had the Navy’s [Arctic] Roadmap. We are adjusting that…and there’s more to come.”

#arctique #etats-unis #militaires

Trump lifts sanctions on firms linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska | World news | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/27/us-lifts-sanctions-oleg-deripaska-russia

Trump lifts sanctions on firms linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska
• Democrats in Congress opposed move to lift restrictions
• Deripaska is ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin

The Trump administration has lifted sanctions on three companies, including the aluminum giant Rusal, linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Democrats had led a push in Congress to continue the restrictions.

Earlier this month, Senate Republicans blocked an effort to keep the sanctions on Rusal, En+ Group and JSC EuroSibEnergo.

Some lawmakers from both parties have said it is inappropriate to ease sanctions on companies tied to Deripaska, an ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin, while special counsel Robert Mueller investigates whether Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Moscow.

Deripaska had ties with Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager. Manafort pleaded guilty in September 2018 to attempted witness tampering and conspiring against the United States.

Trump administration officials and many Republicans who opposed the effort to keep the sanctions in place said they worried about the impact on the global aluminum industry.

They also said Deripaska had lowered his stakes in the companies so he no longer controlled them, a sign the sanctions were working.
[…]
After the Treasury announcement, Rusal said Jean-Pierre Thomas had resigned as chairman and director of the company as part of the deal to lift the sanctions. Shares in Rusal jumped more than 5% in early trading in Hong Kong on Monday.

The rent is too damned high because money-laundering oligarchs bought all the real-estate to clean their oil money / Boing Boing
▻https://boingboing.net/2019/01/27/cz-edwards.html

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In an absolutely epic Twitter thread (unrolled here) author CZ Edwards lays out an incredibly compelling explanation of spiralling real-estate prices: oligarchs need to launder a lot of oil money — think Russia, Iran, ex-Soviet basket-case states, Saudi — and so they plow the money into offshore Real Estate Investment Trust that then cleans it by outbidding any actual real-estate investors or would-be homeowners, bidding up and snapping up all the property in desirable cities, and then realizing the rental income-flows as legitimate, clean money.

It’s as neat and compelling a way of describing the link between oligarchy and spiraling real-estate prices as you could ask for. Shelter is not optional, so people will spend whatever it takes to get a roof over their heads. Cities are not infinitely sprawlable, so it’s possible to corner the market on places to live in them. Eventually, the parasites will devour the hosts and leave the cities empty shells (ahem, Venice), but by then the money-launderers have sold up and moved on.

And of course, since real-estate is a great way to launder money, real-estate developers are often mobbed up af, which explains a lot about the president and his grifter inner circle.

Edwards points out that her work on money-laundering came out of her research on a novel called “Rien’s Rebellion: Kingdom” (" Once upon a time, a nation’s fate depended on an informant, a lawyer and a warrior. They all lived under a good Monarch’s leadership. Until he was assassinated.").

e. A few over-priced, stupid apartments? Does it really matter. Not as much, no, but that’s not where most of the laundering happens. It happens at the basic apartment building level. Because of a thing called a Real Estate Investment Trust. Let’s take... a California dingbat apartment building. Usually 4-8 apartments. (Earthquakes can be a problem...) They sell for $10-$20M, depending, and bring in $8K-16K month in revenue.

So... let’s say you’ve got 25 money laundry clients, all with about $3 million (after you & your washing cut) they need to invest. $75 mil? Let’s buy 6 dingbats and put them in an REIT. Which hires a management team, which collects $2K rent from each apartment, each month. 6 buildings, 8 apartments each x $2K: $96K month in revenue. The management company takes 20%.

Your money laundry clients get $76K per month of clean money- it all came from legal, legit rent investment income property. REITs clean the money better than a dry cleaner. I am oversimplifying, but not by much. There are some shell corps in there, some in Caymans or Seychelles, but also Delaware, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Nevada.

What happens when there’s not much real estate to put in a REIT?

Well, remember, there’s loss in money laundering? A REIT backed by money laundering doesn’t really care if it costs $5M for $10M for an apartment building. In a way, the $10M apartment building is better, because it cleans more money in one go. And they can outbid someone looking to own a 6 apartment dingbat.

If the REIT buys a building for an inflated price, and they’re getting clean money monthly? They can just sit on it until someone legit comes along, having convinced a bank to make them a very large mortgage on an inflated price.

Look at expensive cities. It’s not an accident.

#capitalisme #crime #spéculation

Venezuela Military Backs Maduro, as Moscow Warns U.S. Not to Intervene - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/24/world/americas/russia-venezuela-trump-pence.html

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CARACAS, Venezuela — The leader of Venezuela’s armed forces declared loyalty to President Nicolás Maduro on Thursday and said the opposition’s effort to replace him with a transitional government amounted to an attempted coup.

The pronouncement by the defense minister, Vladimir Padrino López, came a day after an opposition lawmaker proclaimed himself the country’s rightful leader during nationwide antigovernment protests and pleaded with the armed forces to abandon Mr. Maduro.

The defense minister’s declaration was a setback for the opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, whose claim to legitimacy has been backed by a number of countries, including the United States. In a further blow to the opposition, Russia warned the United States on Thursday against meddling in Venezuela, a longtime Kremlin ally.

“Any external intervention is very dangerous,” Dmitri S. Peskov, the spokesman for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, told reporters in Moscow. “We consider the attempt to usurp the top power in Venezuela as going against the foundations and principles of the international law.”

Despite Challenges, USCGC Polar Star Arrives in Antarctica – gCaptain
▻https://gcaptain.com/despite-challenges-uscgc-polar-star-arrives-in-antarctica

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The 150 crewmembers of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star have arrived in Antarctica along with a resupply vessel as part of Operation Deep Freeze, the annual mission to resupply U.S. interests in Antarctica.

The icebreaker’s arrival comes after the crew experienced multiple mechanical issues, including ship-wide power outages, and against the backdrop of the partial government shutdown that has left Coast Guard servicemembers without pay.

Homeported in Seattle, the 42-year-old Coast Guard cutter is the United States’ only operational heavy icebreaker.
[…]
The ship also experienced a leak from the shaft that drives the ship’s propeller, which halted icebreaking operations so divers could repair the seal around the shaft. A hyperbaric chamber on loan from the U.S. Navy aboard the ship allows Coast Guard divers to make external emergency repairs and inspections of the ship’s hull.

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“Protecting national interests in the Polar regions is essential to ensure the Coast Guard’s national defense strategy and search and rescue capabilities are ready for action, but in order to do so, the icebreaker fleet requires modernization,” the Coast Guard said in a press release.

If a catastrophic event were to happen, such as getting stuck in the ice, the Coast Guard would left without a self-rescue capability. By contrast, Russia currently operates more than 40 icebreakers, including several of which are nuclear powered, the Coast Guard noted.

“While we focus our efforts on creating a peaceful and collaborative environment in the Arctic, we’re also responding to the impacts of increased competition in this strategically important region,” said Adm. Karl Schultz, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. “Our continued presence will enable us to reinforce positive opportunities and mitigate negative consequences today and tomorrow.”

Présence #arctique de plus en plus symbolique,… s’il y a un pépin en Arctique maintenant, il n’y a plus qu’à attendre que le Polar Star revienne du pôle sud, en espérant que ses moteurs et auxiliaires tiennent le coup, mieux que pour le voyage aller, p. ex. !

Ex-U.S. marine held in Russia for spying was misled, says lawyer | Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-usa-espionage-whelan-idUSKCN1PG0Y4

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The lawyer for a former U.S. marine accused of spying by Russia said on Tuesday that his client had been misled before his arrest and believed that a thumb drive handed to him in a hotel room had contained holiday snaps rather than secret information.

Russia’s Federal Security Serviced detained Paul Whelan, who holds U.S., British, Canadian and Irish passports, in a Moscow hotel room on Dec. 28.

Whelan appeared in a Moscow court on Tuesday, where a judge rejected a release on bail. If found guilty of espionage, he could be jailed for up to 20 years.

Whelan, who denies the charges, was detained after receiving a thumb drive containing a list of all the employees of a secret Russian state agency, the Russian online news portal Rosbalt.ru reported this month.

Rosbalt cited an unnamed Russian intelligence source as saying that Whelan had been spying for 10 years, using the internet to identify targets from whom he could obtain information, and that the list he was caught with had long been of interest to U.S. spies.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov appeared to support that version of events, later telling reporters Whelan had been “caught red-handed” carrying out “specific illegal actions” in his hotel room.

But Vladimir Zherebenkov, Whelan’s lawyer, said on Tuesday that his client had accepted the information unknowingly.

“Paul was actually meant to receive information from an individual that was not classified,” Zherebenkov told reporters.

“These were cultural things, a trip to a cathedral, Paul’s holiday ... photographs. But as it turned out, it (the thumb drive) contained classified information.”

The lawyer said Whelan had not been able to see what was on the thumb drive because he had been detained before he had a chance to do so.