This could have the makings of a pretty big scandal if the British media
jump on it. Ukes in Britain might think about calling a press conference
and denounce the weakness of the Government's position.....if anyone saw
the movie Blood Diamond, similar scenario where British bankers were forced
to change their practices of laundering blood money from Africa..
On Wed, Mar 5, 2014 at 9:20 AM, <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>
> Brits appear to not want to do sanctions because the benefit from Russia's
> dirty money. Shame on them.
>
> Britain as a signator to the Budapest Memorandum of 1994 has an obligation
> to Ukraine's Territorial Integrity & Security.
>
> Think what kind of signal it says for states they wish to give up Nuclear
> Weapons -- Don't because guarantees and treaties are just words on a page.
>
>
> British Officials Oppose Sanctions Because Russia's Elite Are London's
> Cash Cows
>
> http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116857/british-sanctions-russia-would-be-bad-londons-economy
> March 4, 2014
> BY OLIVER BULLOUGH
>
> If you're looking for Russia's weak point at the moment, you could do
> worse than start at 88 West Heath Road, a house in leafy north London. It
> looks modest enough, but it would probably set you back $15 million.
>
> It is the primary residence of Andrey Yakunin. His father, Russian
> Railways chief executive Vladimir Yakunin, is a former KGB agent and
> longtime pal of President Vladimir Putin. He was also a lead organizer of
> the Sochi Olympics and heads National Glory of Russia, an organization that
> aims to protect Russians from Western culture. (In a barely-readable book
> called Problems of Contemporary World Futurology, he predicted the collapse
> of the West in 10-20 years). His wife, Natalya, is in the same trade. She
> heads Sanctity of Motherhood, which propagates the "many-child family"
> through traditional Russian values and Orthodox Christianity. Their son
> Andrey is a fund manager, a graduate of the London Business School, and a
> specialist in "mid-market business hotels," particularly ones that adjoin
> Russian train stations. His son Igor, in turn, attends a posh English
> private school.
>
> The Yakunin family is Putin's Kremlin in microcosm, a hypocritical
> spookocracy that rejects everything about the West except its money,
> houses, and consumer goods. It also encapsulates the Kremlin's weakness. If
> Putin's Ukraine adventure causes Europe to freeze assets and inconvenience
> the Kremlin elite, then Putin will find himself losing support fast -- from
> the constituency he needs the most.
>
> Putin may project a macho image by getting his guns out at any
> opportunity, but his actual power is based on elite support, and the elite
> supports him because he has made it rich beyond the dreams of avarice. For
> example, Vladimir Yakunin and Putin were neighbors in St. Petersburg. Putin
> made Yakunin head of Russian Railways, and now, Yakunin owns a palace
> outside Moscow, where the bathhouse alone has a reported floor area of
> 15,000 square feet.
>
> The Russian economy is vulnerable. The ruble has tumbled, as has Russia's
> stock market too. But that will not bother the elite, which keeps its money
> in dollars and spends as much time in the West as in Moscow -- and that
> encapsulates how hard it is for Europe to take action. In London, thousands
> of people -- the estate agent who sold 88 West Heath Road; the brokers who
> shift Andrey Yakunin's stock; the lawyers who sign off on his deals; Igor's
> teachers -- have a piece of Russian action. And this isn't just a London
> problem. Andrey Yakunin has a brother in Geneva. (There are just the two
> Yakunin boys. The appeal of the many-child family appears to have struck
> Natalya Yakunin late in life.)
>
> Other rich Russians live all over Europe -- France, Spain, Italy, Cyprus
> -- and they spend a lot of money. If Europe wants to punish Putin, it has
> to persuade its citizens to forgo that cash.
>
> Take British private schools. According to the Independent Schools
> Council, there were 2,174 Russian children boarding in the UK last year
> (Igor Yakunin is a day boy at Highgate School, so doesn't feature in the
> statistics). Average fees are $15,000 a term, meaning Britain earns
> somewhere around $100 million a year from Russians in school fees alone. If
> Prime Minister David Cameron imposes sanctions on the Russian elite, he'll
> have to explain why a quarrel in a faraway country means private schools
> should lose that revenue stream.
>
> Those pupils' parents need somewhere to stay, and they don't appear to
> like hotels. Almost five percent of "prime" properties bought in London
> last year went to Russians, according to Knight Frank, as well as three
> percent of the $3.6 billion new-build market. If the Russian cash dries up,
> some real estate agents are going to be forced to delay buying a new car,
> and Cameron has an election in 14 months' time.
>
> English law regulates many energy contracts in Russia, and oligarchs love
> using the London courts to resolve their disputes. Reports in The Lawyer
> detail the sums of money on offer, with lawyers regularly picking up
> millions from oligarch clients. More than 60 percent of the London
> Commercial Court's workload now comes from Russia and Eastern Europe, and
> the pay-offs are huge. Lord Sumption waited until he had finished defending
> Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, for a reported fee of $5 million,
> before taking up a position on Britain's Supreme Court.
>
> Cameron's re-election hopes will be boosted by a buoyant stock market, and
> more than 50 companies that operate in Russia are listed on the main market
> of the London Stock Exchange. That means a lot of work for London financial
> professionals, not least in the debt market, which has been tapped by --
> among many other -- Russian Railways.
>
> In his book, Vladimir Yakunin bemoaned the effect Western culture was
> having on his fellow Russians. "In particular, Russia demonstrates that,
> despite the inertia of civilizational consciousness, the modification of
> values will be inevitable if it is unprotected," he wrote. "China still
> shows resistance to external influences. Possibly, the continuing language
> barrier plays a role. But when the Chinese learn English, the erosion of
> Chinese civilization will accelerate."
>
> Contrast that with what he told the Itar-Tass news agency last month when
> asked to reflect on the falling ruble: To Russian Railways, "the weakening
> of the ruble is a factor that negatively affects our economy," he said.
> "Unfortunately, so far we cannot find long money in Russia... In the West,
> we find resources for a term of seven to 15 years."
>
> He did not specify where Russian Railways, or any of the other Russian
> mega-companies that have borrowed London's money in recent years, would
> find its cash when the West collapses owing to its "global attempt at
> forcing a system -- one where a minority lives -- upon the world". Nor was
> he asked where Russian Railways would find its cash were London to block
> its access to its deep pool of credit. Fortunately for him, it doesn't look
> like he'll have to: On March 3, a photographer captured a document, held by
> a government official attending a National Security Council meeting
> convened by Cameron, that says Britain "should not support, for now, trade
> sanctions -- or close London's financial centre to Russians."
>
> Historically-minded Russians are fond of quoting Lord Palmerston, a 19th
> century prime minister, who said: "Britain has no eternal allies and no
> perpetual enemies, only interests that are eternal." Not much has changed
> since then. London lives to make money, which Russians have a lot of.
>
> Oliver Bullough is the London-based author of The Last Man in Russia.
>
>
>
>
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>
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