General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBackground on Vekselberg, the oligarch who was detained by the FBI at the airport
two months ago in connection with the Mueller investigation. I had trouble deciding what to excerpt. Both Ale's current thread and the one from a month ago are worth reading.
This is all related to the Mueller team investigating the possibility of Russian oligarchs funneling money into the DT campaign.
Link to tweet
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/992522194013114368.html
15. It's useful to re-read the CNN story from April bc NYT may have gotten a name, but CNN had MUCH more interesting details about Mueller's "interaction" with the oligarchs.
16. CNN reported in April: "One area under scrutiny, sources say, is investments Russians made in companies or think tanks that have political action committees that donated to the campaign."
17. CNN further reported that another area of interest was whether oligarchs used straw donors (Americans with citizenship) to pump money into campaign/inauguration fund. Oh. Did we mention Vekselberg's cousin? Who donated $250k? WHAT a coincidence.
18. The "using straw donors" part also fits Deripaska perfectly. Just to keep score, bc CNN said it was THREE oligarchs and I stand by my guess that it was Deripaska, Vekselberg and Blavatnik. (well at least I have ONE thus far, LOL).
19. Bear in mind that Mueller searching Vekselberg's electronic devices at the airport means dude had ZERO time to delete anything from them. Also, CNN reported that this line of inquiry had been ongoing since LATE LAST YEAR.
Link to tweet
?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthreadreaderapp.com%2Fthread%2F992522194013114368.html&tfw_creator=aliasvaughn
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/981662866444038144.html
4. Mueller stopped one oligarch as his private jet landed at a NY area airport (I'll take a WILD Deripaska guess? Surely we on here will find out who was in NYC area in past couple of months). Questioned him AND searched his electronic devices. Ain't that a nice welcome.
5. A second oligarch was stopped during a recent trip to the US, though unclear whether he was searched. No Full Monty for him? How sad. But maybe he got extra perks, like an extended stay at Mueller's office.
6. Then there's the third oligarch. now HE hasn't recently travelled to the US, but Mueller's team "made an informal voluntary document and interview request" to him. Aww, come over sunshine, and enjoy the full FBI amenities!
7. ALL THREE Russian lovely flowers were questioned about a) whether they funneled cash donations, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY into Trump's campaign and b) whether they funneled money into Trump's inauguration. Now, this "directly or indirectly" is particularly interesting.
Exotica
(1,461 posts)really worth watching, Putin has tried to have it banned multiple times on YouTube, but they keep putting it back up
this version has over 7 million views
Alexei Navalny is the main (or one of them) internal Russian foe of Putin who was illegally banned from the last prezzie elections
Яхты, олигархи, девочки: охотница на мужчин разоблачает взяточника
Yachts, oligarchs, girls: the 'Huntress' of men exposes the bribe taker
the 'Huntress' is Anastasia Vashukevich, known by the pseudonym Nastya Rybka (the sex worker in the Thai jail for months now)
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,001 posts)Mikhail Prokhorov, owner of the Brooklyn Nets, ran against against Vladimir Putin as the designated liberal candidate in 2012. To the right of Prokhorov is fellow billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, an oil and aluminum magnate who is a business partner of Trump's Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. RT