#Deripaska

[head-post]

US pressures RBI to scrap Strabag share exchange deal with Deripaska

Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), the largest Western bank still operating in Russia is on the verge of abandoning a controversial €1.5bn share swap deal with sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska due to intense US pressure, IntelliNews reports.

The planned deal, which the bank had hoped to finalise this month, would have allowed RBI to repatriate about €1.5bn of its subsidiary’s earnings detained in Russia, but could also have allowed Deripaska to cash in a reportedly frozen 28% stake in Austrian construction company Strabag.

Russian authorities were expected to approve the swap deal. In February, at its 2003 results presentation, RBI said the deal should be finalised at the end of the first quarter and it would add 125 bps to its CET capital adequacy ratio. However, the deal is now likely to be cancelled, derailing one of the largest Western deals in Russia since the start of the military conflict in Ukraine.

If RBI does go ahead with the deal, Washington could impose penalties on the bank, the agency said.

Read more HERE

[nicklloydnow]

“Since Vladimir Putin launched the invasion in February 2022, emigration out of Russia has exploded, with some estimates putting the exodus at 1 million people. A recent analysis from the policy platform Re: Russia narrowed the number to 817,000-922,000.

That's contributed to a record labor shortage, with 42% of industrial firms unable to find enough workers in July, up from 35% in April.

(…)

Workers under the age of 35 now account for less than 30% of the labor force, the lowest on record going back 20 years.

And according to a report from the French Institute of International Relations, 86% of those who have left Russia are under the age of 45, and 80% have a college education. At least 100,000 IT professionals moved out of Russia in 2022, a Kremlin official estimated last year.

In addition, data also suggest the Russians who fled were significantly wealthier, as nearly 11.5% of personal savings that were in Russian banks at the end of 2021 were were transferred abroad in 2022, amounting to about 4 trillion rubles ($41.5 billion).

(…)

In fact, the Atlantic Council estimated that Russia's GDP, as measured by purchasing power parity (PPP), will fall behind Indonesia's in 2026, nearly two years earlier than would've been the case had Putin not launched his war on Ukraine. By then, they will switch places as the world's sixth and seventh largest economies by PPP.”

“Billionaire Oleg Deripaska said Russia could find its coffers empty already next year and needs investment from “friendly” countries to break the hold of sanctions on the economy.

“There will be no money already next year,” Deripaska said Thursday at the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum in Siberia. “We will need foreign investors.”

(…)

Deripaska’s comments are among the most outspoken by a prominent business leader as the government looks to turn the screws on large companies after ending last year with a record fiscal deficit and the budget still deep in the red to start 2023.

Authorities are already planning to raise additional budget revenue with proposed changes to how they tax oil companies and may wrest more money from other commodity producers by means of a one-time levy.

(…)

Speaking on Thursday, Deripaska said building “state capitalism is not an option” and warned of “serious” pressure from sanctions.

“Russia should keep developing the market economy,” he said. “A foreign investor will look at how a Russian investor makes money, what conditions exist.”

(…)

Even with many of the world’s biggest economies arrayed against Russia, it still retains access to markets with a population of 4.5 billion and accounting for $30 trillion of global gross domestic product, he said.

“We thought we were a European country,” Deripaska said. “Now, for the next 25 years, we will think more about our Asian past.”

[originalleftist]

Johnny Depp is reportedly dating a new girlfriend- a 28 year old (Depp is 61) Russian beautician and model named Yulia Valasova (this is not the first time in recent years that Depp has dated a much younger Russian woman).

Now, I'm not saying that anyone from Russia is necessarily an agent of the Kremlin. But:

The Kremlin has been reported to use agents, posing as ordinary Russian citizens, to make friends with prominent Westerners and influence them.

It is also known to seek out powerful, influential Westerners with big egos and lots of baggage (ie, Kompromat) to groom as assets, the former President being the highest-profile example.

And Depp's chief fixer Adam Waldman* previously worked with/for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, Julian Assange, and Russian foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and was involved in efforts to cover up Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

Depp is a bit of a has-been now, but he has lots of powerful friends in Hollywood, and his cause is celebrated by the MRA/incel crowd on the right, while also having some crossover/fandom appeal to other demographics (a little-known fact is that polling around the trial showed Depp's support was strongest with women and youth).

And we already know Depp is friends with the ruler of Saudi Arabia, and that a lot of the online hate directed at Heard has been traced back to Saudi bots, so evidently a foreign government thought they could use the intense hype around the trial as part of an influence campaign.

So, from where I'm standing, it looks to me VERY much like Depp is being groomed as a Russian asset.

*Its a shame that Waldman is mostly known only for his involvement in Depp v Heard (and even there, he largely flew below the radar due to being kicked off the case early on by a judge for leaking information to the media, with Camille Vasquez getting most of the attention from Depp's legal team). Waldman is a DEEPLY shady and dangerous man who has been closely-involved in efforts by a foreign enemy to undermine the United States and install fascist government, and deserves far more rigorous scrutiny (and serious legal consequences, starting with disbarment, and ending in prison).

[cristianlisandru]

ANALIZĂ | RĂZBOIUL METALELOR. Rusia este strânsă în menghina sancțiunilor, oligarhii Oleg Deripaska și Vladimir Potanin vând aluminiu și nichel în China

La mijlocul lui aprilie 2024, Statele Unite și Marea Britanie au anunțat interzicerea importurilor de aluminiu, cupru și nichel din Rusia. Este vorba despre trei metale esențiale pentru producerea unei game largi de bunuri, de la cutii de băuturi la semiconductori și vehicule electrice (EV). Izolați din cauza interdicției, marii producătorii ruși de metale vor muta rapid, iar exporturile către…

[uboat53]

A few days ago I read about a former FBI agent who's been charged with various crimes of corruption, particularly working with a notorious Russian oligarch. This FBI agent was also involved with the Clinton e-mail and Trump-Russia investigations during the 2016 campaign.

I should point out that, at this point, there's no direct indication that his role in those cases played any role in the outcome of the election, but I'll admit it doesn't make me feel comfortable about those events either.

If you're interested in more details about it, this piece does a pretty good overview:

[queenvlion]

[mariacallous]

American historian Amy Knight has been studying Russian elites for decades. She spent 18 years at the U.S. Library of Congress as a specialist in Russian and Soviet affairs and has written multiple books on the Cold War, the KGB, its post-Soviet ideological successors, and the Kremlin. Some of her most recent work focuses on the culture of political assassinations under Vladimir Putin. Meduza spoke with Knight about the trials, tribulations, and transformations of Russia’s elites since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The costly invasion of Ukraine and the muted response from many of Moscow’s most influential and affluent make it tempting to dismiss Russian elites outright. But that would be a mistake, says historian Amy Knight, who told Meduza that Vladimir Putin is forced to share power with these people, whether he likes it or not. “He depends on the entire elite,” Knight explained, adding that Russian elites in the so-called “power ministries” and elsewhere also communicate with each other, making it possible to talk about the group as a kind of class.

War weariness

Knight acknowledges that predicting Russian elites’ behavior is difficult, but she told Meduza that the fighting in Ukraine is making everyone “very war weary.” She cited oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s willingness to criticize the invasion publicly as evidence that “he too is aware that there is a lot of discontent” (even if he’s not actually a government official). “[It] makes me wonder whether there aren't some other reasons to speculate that Putin isn't completely secure,” Knight said. 

Western sanctions have “laid the groundwork for gradual and real dissatisfaction with Putin” even though “nothing has happened yet,” Knight told Meduza. She drew special attention to how the war has limited the prospects of future generations of elites, rendering children and grandchildren “captive[s] in this shell of Russia.” “It takes away any hope for the future for the younger generation — the younger generation of these government officials and law enforcement.”

Knight said she’s suspicious of the Kremlin’s capacity to buy the support of Russian elites or a new middle class. Asked if surging defense spending has won the loyalty and self-interest of a new generation of Russians, Knight told Meduza that the government’s swollen military budget still isn’t enough "to actually produce a groundswell of support for Putin.” “I think it's interesting that he's doing this, and it shows how desperate he is,” she explained, arguing that Russia’s higher defense spending is unsustainable.

Loyalty among cutthroats

What is Vladimir Putin’s recourse without broad support? According to Knight, it boils down to personal loyalty. “Without a doubt, Putin values loyalty over effectiveness,” Knight told Meduza, saying that the president’s need for faithful allies explains his reluctance to replace officials like former Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu despite failures on the job and rampant corruption. 

At the same time, Putin did fire Shoigu, and prosecutors are now waging a full-blown crackdown on many of the crooked generals who enriched themselves while the invasion of Ukraine was underway. These anti-corruption cases, said Knight, are one of the president’s key means of maintaining loyalty. After all, “he can't go around having top members of his elite shot or pushed out of windows or poisoned,” she added. Putin also keeps Russia’s elites in line by “changing the rules of the game” at various times, subjecting officials to political musical chairs. For example, he recently (and surprisingly) demoted Nikolai Patrushev from the National Security Council. (To complicate matters, Patrushev’s son joined the federal government’s cabinet as a kind of consolation prize — though months earlier, Putin pinned Russia’s spike in egg prices on the same man.)

Despite Putin’s favoritism for proven loyalists, the ties that bind Russia’s elites to the regime are fundamentally based on naked interest, argued Knight: “You can never speak of loyalty because these people can change on a dime if it means their own political survival. […] Nowadays, I think it's cynical. It's about money. It's about position. It's about getting on.” This is true regardless of the Kremlin’s outward commitment to patriotic ideology, she said, reasoning that officers in the security services and even the foreign intelligence are not likely motivated by “this whole business that Putin keeps spouting for his domestic audience about special Russian values and the church and all this.” (She pointed out that KGB officers stationed abroad in the late Soviet era demonstrated the same mercantile philosophy by starting businesses and building ties with oligarchs.)

In an environment driven by “money, political survival, and security,” elites are averse to anything that might constitute “a real rumble within the Kremlin and some sort of obvious public infighting.” “All of [Putin’s] elite are in it together in the sense that they certainly don't want to appeal to the broader population,” Knight told Meduza.

The elites’ red lines

While Knight doesn’t predict an imminent uprising against Vladimir Putin, she noted that there were likely “quite a few sympathizers with [insurrectionist Yevgeny] Prigozhin among the people who were really unhappy with the way the military was conducting the war in Ukraine.” Additionally, she told Meduza that “it's not inconceivable that some members of the elite would form a coalition, go to Putin, and pressure him to make concessions to end the war” (assuming they could recruit people who had “some control over Russia’s mechanisms of force and coercion”). “It's possible that the elite could at least pressure him and even say, look, you've got to resign. We've got to have somebody new.”

But this scenario only becomes plausible if the war in Ukraine goes sideways for Russia in a major way, and much depends on continued (and expanded) Western military support, which Knight vigorously endorses. She also told Meduza that she believes Russia’s elites would likely intervene to prevent another major escalation from Putin — namely, the use of tactical nuclear weapons (“I personally think that this is a threat, and it's an empty threat”) or the invasion of a NATO member (“they don't have the troops or the means, and there would definitely be opposition”). 

[blueiscoool]

A 2100-Year-Old Medallion of Goddess Aphrodite and a Warrior Tomb Found in Russia

Archaeologists have unearthed a silver medallion depicting the Greek goddess Aphrodite (Roma Venüs) in a 2100-year-old grave of a priestess on the northeast coast of the Black Sea.

The unique medallion depicts ten rather than the known twelve signs of the zodiac and provides insight into religious practices at the time of its creation.

The discovery, in the opinion of archaeologists, raises the possibility that the buried woman was an Aphrodite priestess, the goddess of beauty and love. The rings, silver earrings, and other grave goods that were dedicated to the goddess led to these conclusions.

The grave is among a number of striking finds unearthed this summer at a site near the shore of the Taman Peninsula in southern Russia, east of the Crimean Peninsula and between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

According to the Oleg Deripaska Volnoe Delo Foundation’s spokesman Ruben Bunyatyan, archaeologists Nikolay Sudarev and Mikhail Treister discovered the woman’s grave during the Phanagoria archaeological expedition’s 2022 summer season.

The large medallion is made of silver and shows the goddess Aphrodite in the center, surrounded by symbols portraying 10 signs of the zodiac. 

Greek historian, Hecataeus of Miletus, said that Phanagoria was founded in the sixth century B.C. by refugees from Teos, a Greek city on the coast of Anatolia now part of modern-day Turkey.

The Aphrodite medallion is surrounded by 10 embossed symbols that correspond to signs of the zodiac, including a lion for Leo, a bull for Taurus, and a scorpion for Scorpio. But the symbols for the zodiac signs Aquarius and Libra are missing, and the researchers don’t know why.

According to archaeologists, the inclusion of the zodiac indicates the medallion is a portrayal of “Aphrodite Urania” — the heavenly aspect of the goddess, as distinct from her Earthly aspect, “Aphrodite Pandemos.”

It also suggests a belief in astrology, the idea that the positions of celestial bodies can influence events on Earth, which was widespread throughout the ancient world.

The silver medallion found in the early first century B.C. grave shows the embossed head, shoulders, and hands of Aphrodite, based on other contemporary iconographic portrayals.

Such medallions were common in the territory of the Bosporan Kingdom as early as 2,300 years ago, said Maria Chashuk, senior research associate of the Phanagoria archaeological expedition.

The medallion is about 7 centimeters (2.75 inches) in diameter and 15 millimeters thick.

Medallions of the sort were used in many ways: as brooches, as headgear accessories, and as pendants.

Another intriguing find at the Black Sea site was a warrior’s tomb featuring a sword that had been made in early medieval Iran.

The large iron sword was found in the style of swords from the Sassanid, or the second Persian Empire, which ruled the areas of modern-day Iran, Iraq, Turkmenistan, and much of Afghanistan. The researchers think that the sword may have been a diplomatic gift or that it may have been taken as a military trophy.

According to the statement from the Volnoe Delo Foundation, “this massive, expensive and prestigious sword was part of the equipment of the horsemen of the era of the Great Migration,” a period when much of Europe and Western Asia was threatened by invasions of peoples from Central Asia, such as the Huns. The unique find not only reflects the tastes of the late antique warriors of the Taman Peninsula, but also suggests that in the middle of the first millennium Phanagoria had close political and cultural ties with the [Sassanid] Empire,”

The warrior’s tomb (first century B.C.) also contained fragments of a horse’s harness, buckles, belt tips, glass jugs, utensils, and wooden boxes, as well as a pottery jug, beads, a brass mirror, and a pair of iron scissors.

By Leman Altuntaş.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

On the eve of the 2016 election, the New York Times ran a sensational article stating that the FBI had told them that "none of the investigations so far have found any conclusive or direct link between Mr. Trump and the Russian government."

Now we learn that the NYT source for this story, FBI New York counterintelligence head Charles McGonigal, was on the take from Oleg Deripaska, a man assessed to be an influence agent of the Russian intelligence services. He has just entered a guilty plea on charges to that effect.

[Robert Scott Horton]

[originalleftist]

I really wish more people understood Depp v Heard, and the obscene media circus generated around it, as a Right-wing campaign to destroy a queer feminist activist, rather than as "entertainment news" about a celebrity scandal.

What do a base this conclusion on? (apologies for some of the links refusing to format properly, no matter how many times I check them.)

Here's Amber Heard campaigning for legislation to combat non-consensual pornography (which she was a target of):

This legislation, the SHIELD Act, was introduced by then Senator Kamala Harris in 2019 and has still never been passed, nor has any Federal law criminalizing non-consensual pornography.

I would also advise people to read Heard's fantastic OpEd on the subject in the New York Times, which is without exaggeration one of the most powerful pieces of advocacy that I have ever read: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/opinion/amber-heard-revenge-porn.html

During the Virginia trial Depp unsuccessfully to have Heard's nudes introduced as evidence in a live-streamed trial, as revealed in unsealed court documents: https://www.businessinsider.com/heard-lawyers-say-depp-tried-submit-nudes-evidence-report-2022-8

And then there's the OpEd for which she was sued. It never names Depp, and only briefly alludes to him, but is actually an article, written in conjunction with the ACLU, advocating for Congress to "reauthorize and strength the Violence Against Women Act" and for greater protection for sexual abuse survivors on college campuses: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ive-seen-how-institutions-protect-men-accused-of-abuse-heres-what-we-can-do/2018/12/18/71fd876a-02ed-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html

As for the attacks on Heard, and their sources:

Here is an article detailing the connections between Depp's lawyer/fixer Adam Waldman and the Kremlin, including Oleg Deripaska (a Russian oligarch sanctioned for the invasion of Ukraine), Russian Foreign Minister Sergie Lavrov, and 2016 election interference operativeJulian Assange:

More on Waldman's ties to Russia, including his efforts to obstruct the investigation into Trump/Russia, and to blackmail the US government on behalf of Julian Assange:

The Hollywood Reporter also noted Waldman as "The chief architect behind Depp's sue-'em-all strategy", and the fact that Depp was introduced to Waldman by the Saudi minister of energy, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, in 2016.

And that brings us to the Saudis.

It turns out a lot of the online hatred and harassment toward Heard can be traced back to Saudi government bots.

Why would the Saudi government give a shit about a celebrity defamation trial in the US? Well, maybe because Prince Mohamed Bin Salman (of bone-saw fame) and Depp are good friends. And perhaps because Saudi Arabia has pushed aggressively to use the film industry to improve its international reputation. As the article above notes, the Saudi government helped to finance two recent films produced by Depp to the tune of millions of dollars, and as of February 2024 "the actor's team is in talks with the Saudi government to secure "an annual seven-figure deal for him to attend events and shoot films in the country."'

In effect, then, Depp is a paid PR agent of the Saudi government.

Of course, the support was not limited to foreign actors- as noted in the article below, both Donald Trump Jr. and MAGA Congressman/alleged child sex trafficker Matt Gaetz were vocal Depp supporters, despite Depp having once joked about killing Donald Trump. And the Republicans of the House Judiciary Committee celebrated the trial verdict against Heard with a Jack Sparrow gif.

(Donald Sr. was actually surprisingly reticent about the trial considering his general inability to resist spouting bullshit on any topic- perhaps because he is above all else a petty and vindictive motherfucker, even when it would be to his political advantage not to be.)

The trial also benefited up-and-coming far Right/fascist influencers by giving them something to talk about with mass appeal outside of their usual base. I do not think for one second that its coincidence that Andrew Tate became a household name at almost the exact same time as the hight of the trial.

The following excerpt from a far Right commentator (sadly I do not recall which one, but I've kept the screenshot) elaborates on how they believed that the trial could be used, and really sums up everything that I've been trying to say here:

Depp V Heard was many things. But perhaps most significantly, in a larger cultural and political sense, it was a highly-successful fascist influence op.

[eretzyisrael]

Archaeologists have unearthed a synagogue in Russia dating back to the Second Temple Period. The structure was part of the ancient Greek city of Phanagoria, located near the Black Sea.

Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska’s Volnoe Delo Foundation is providing financial support for the excavation work, which has been taking place since 2004.

“The synagogue’s foundational structure and wall outlines, carefully preserved over time, were unearthed along the Black Sea’s picturesque Taman Peninsula,” Ruben Bunyatyan of the Foundation told Neos Kosmos, a Greek community newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia.

The archaeologists reported that the synagogue’s rectangular dimensions were 21 by 6 meters (69 by 20 feet). It was split into two chambers, each more than 60 square meters (645 square feet) in area.

Phanagoria was founded in 356 BCE by Greek colonists from Teos on the western coast of Anatolia who fled Asia Minor after their conflict with the Persian King Cyrus the Great. The city served as the capital of the Bosporan Kingdom and was an important trade hub connecting the southern Caucasus with the Maeotian Marshes.

The Second Temple was built upon the ruins of the First Temple and stood in Jerusalem from 516 BCE until 70 C.E. when it was destroyed by the Romans.

“All religious ceremonies were centered around the Temple, rendering synagogues a rarity. While the earliest synagogues date back to the third century [BCE], their construction proliferated notably during the third century [C.E.]. Thus, the Phanagoria synagogue stands as a pioneering example of these early centers of worship, casting light on an era of Jewish history rarely glimpsed,” said Bunyatyan.

[porterdavis]

Just to make sure everyone sees this:

"...the New York Times reported that the FBI saw “no link between Trump and Russia” — a week before the 2016 election — [but] the FBI agent who was just arrested over ties to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska was heading up the investigation."

The truth always comes out.

Putin bought the 2016 election for Trump and lots of people knew it at the time.

[wherelibertydwells]

On Saturday afternoon, former FBI agent Charles McGonigal, who was head of counterintelligence in the New York Field Office and a part of the investigation into supposed ties between Trump and Russia, was arrested over his alleged ties to Russia.