Investing in the Deep State As A Way Back For The Russians and Their Proxies...
Their outer inner circle is moving money but where shall it go?
I watched with some degree of sadness the Rage Against the Machine protests that took place in Washington the other. Is this really the best they could do? How pathetic. How shortsighted. How out of touch. How ridiculous. Is this how the mighty Russian empire plays? Sad state of affairs…
I, too, am against the war but then I am against all wars. I am not a pacifist but I do think we are too quick to war, war, war rather than to jaw, jaw, jaw. I’m for talking even—and perhaps—especially with those we hate.
It is precisely because I love peace that I have invested in and built companies that are certainly killing Russian invaders, disabling their equipments and documenting their crimes against humanity.
The irony of this isn’t lost on me. Indeed once upon a time I was falsely accused of being a Russian agent by a very Israeli compromised Senate intelligence committee. Some of the Likudnik types even trot out my visit to Julian Assange as prima facie evidence that I was naughty or something. Of course we know now what we weren’t allowed to know then — that Julian Assange was given material from the Netanyahu Israelis and not Vlad.
It needn’t be this way. We need not totally isolate the Russians. We’ve worked together with the Russians on a great many things of a scientific bent.
We might provide the oligarchs with a wish list of things to invest in now that their assets are being seized around the world.
The best way to make the Russians responsible players is to take their money and invest it for them in a post-oil world. Indeed I’m reliably told that the British have done just that.
The Russians obviously played a seminal role in the development of Google and of Facebook. Jeffrey Epstein, a Russian and Israeli and Emirati and American proxy, seemingly helped ferry money from Russian oligarchs into the tech scene in much the same way that Harvey Weinstein smuggled cash into Hollywood deals.
As the Europeans are figuring out what to do with the Russian cash we might provide alternatives that make life more tolerable.
The Financial Times makes it plain.
Switzerland has said it is legally impossible for it to confiscate the assets of sanctioned Russians held in the country, dealing a blow to European efforts to use that wealth for Ukrainian postwar reconstruction.
Until now, Bern has moved in line with the EU in freezing the assets of high-profile Russians connected to the regime of president Vladimir Putin. Switzerland holds more than SFr7.5bn ($8.1bn) in frozen Russian assets nearly one year after the invasion of Ukraine, according to the Swiss ministry of finance.
But as calls in Europe intensify for the seizure of Russian wealth held abroad to help fund Ukraine’s defence and reconstruction, Switzerland has made clear that any permanent moves against assets held in its borders would be illegal.
“The expropriation of private assets of lawful origin without compensation is not permissible under Swiss law,” the government said on Thursday. “The confiscation of frozen private assets is inconsistent with the constitution,” it added, and “violates Switzerland’s international commitments”.
The Russians have invested in all manner of tech things over the years. You know their names.
Here’s Yuri Milner in Wired. “In less than two years, Yuri Milner's fund has gone from zero equity to more than $12 billion in assets.” Huh.
Here’s Masha Bucher né Drokova, the Charlie Kirk of Putin’s Russia and onetime Jeffrey Epstein’s publicist, cofounded Worldcoin with Sam Altman of Open AI fame.
But come on.
Get better constructs, you guys.