Scrutable

Can we liberate the rest of London from non-dom billionaires as well please?

Sciolus wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 13, 2022 7:22 pm

You appear to have withdrawn from a principled objection to a pragmatic one. We are already being pragmatic. Sanctions decisions are being taken on a case-by-case basis, which is why we are still giving money to Gazprom. The fact that Chelsea is of low strategic value to the UK is why it's totally fine to act against it as a measure against Putin's allies. Your other hypotheticals would be dealt with in the same case-by-case way.

I don't understand. Surely I was showing just why it is principled not pragmatic? My intention was to show how absurd what was done would be if it was done to an Abramovich-owned supermarket, etc. So the same argument should apply to his ownership of a football club.

Police storm Fort Deripaska https://twitter.com/lbc/status/1503356371567321089?s=21

We've complained about how the police fail to act on crime. But here they are. Very prompt. Well done the met.

lpm wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 14, 2022 1:56 pm

We've complained about how the police fail to act on crime. But here they are. Very prompt. Well done the met.

Whether it's anarchists protesting inside an oligarchs mansion or women holding a vigil for a woman murdered by a met police officer, the met are sure to respond at once.

When it's government ministers breaking laws they wrote under the police's nose, or Jewish kids on a bus getting mobbed by antisemites, on the other hand...

As observed many times before, the police protect property rather than people.

They'll happily participate in abusing members of the public, but you'd jolly well better leave rich people's stuff alone.

This thread has some amazing video of the whole situation including from the interior of the building

https://twitter.com/jessicafkeyes/statu ... 71904?s=21

BBC are reporting that the police found "no protestors inside"

Four people on the balcony, but not "inside"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-60736583

The occupiers' spokesperson said that "no criminal damage had been done"* However, the police did drill through the front door to gain access.

* until proven I guess.

Panorama on Roman Abramovich tonight. Look intriguing with new allegations https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60736185

Stranger Mouse wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:42 pm

Panorama on Roman Abramovich tonight. Look intriguing with new allegations https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60736185

I thought the Sibneft allegation was old news?

EACLucifer wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 14, 2022 11:28 pm

Stranger Mouse wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:42 pm

Panorama on Roman Abramovich tonight. Look intriguing with new allegations https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60736185

I thought the Sibneft allegation was old news?

So are the Panama Papers. Doesn't mean they aren't damaging and in need of highlighting again.

dyqik wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 14, 2022 11:56 pm

EACLucifer wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 14, 2022 11:28 pm

Stranger Mouse wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:42 pm

Panorama on Roman Abramovich tonight. Look intriguing with new allegations https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60736185

I thought the Sibneft allegation was old news?

So are the Panama Papers. Doesn't mean they aren't damaging and in need of highlighting again.

I should have said an update on existing allegations

dyqik wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 14, 2022 11:56 pm

EACLucifer wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 14, 2022 11:28 pm

Stranger Mouse wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:42 pm

Panorama on Roman Abramovich tonight. Look intriguing with new allegations https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60736185

I thought the Sibneft allegation was old news?

So are the Panama Papers. Doesn't mean they aren't damaging and in need of highlighting again.

Agreed. I wasn't mocking the reporting, just noting that I remember that one from when he bought Chelsea. It's significant that it's being highlighted, given how awful our libel laws are and how litigious oligarchs tend to be.

EACLucifer wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 15, 2022 10:19 am

dyqik wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 14, 2022 11:56 pm

EACLucifer wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 14, 2022 11:28 pm

I thought the Sibneft allegation was old news?

So are the Panama Papers. Doesn't mean they aren't damaging and in need of highlighting again.

Agreed. I wasn't mocking the reporting, just noting that I remember that one from when he bought Chelsea. It's significant that it's being highlighted, given how awful our libel laws are and how litigious oligarchs tend to be.

Maybe it's hard to sue when you're under sanction and can't pay lawyers...

Chris Bryant calls for sanctions on Arron Banks and points out that Nigel Farage has received £548 thousand from RT in 2018 alone.

https://twitter.com/adamjschwarz/status ... 84427?s=21

More trouble for Abramovich, this time relating to his Portuguese citizenship. The story is a bit complicated and I'm not finding much detail in English sources.

He got his citizenship (making him the country's richest man) under a law granting Sephardic Jews (who were expelled from Portugal in 1496, four years after Spain had done the same) the right of return.

The applicant had to be certified by Portuguese Rabbis as belonging to the Sephardic community. The Sociedade Genealógica Sefardita points out here (in PT) that those Rabbis needn't be, themselves, Sephardic nor genealogists, and that they haven't seen Ambramovich's documents.

Daniel Litvak, the Rabbi who certified Ambramovich has been arrested for "influence peddling, active corruption, document forgery, money laundering, qualified tax fraud and criminal association" (in EN). The directorship of the Porto Israeli Community (one of two bodies allowed to certify Sephardic descent, the other being the Israeli Community of Lisbon - PT), had outsourced the process to Litvak and didn't know about it til nearly a month later.

The Sephardic Genealogy Society have asked the government to change the law to apply only to people with demonstrated Sephardic ancestry (see expresso.pt above). The government is already changing the law to require the demonstration of connections to the Portuguese community (as anyone applying by any other route has to). (Spain's equivalent law expired in 2019.)

OTOH the Porto Israeli Community claim it's all trumped up by antisemites:

In a statement, the Jewish community of Oporto said: “As soon as Jewish communities start making their mark in European territory, the influential antisemites in society will attempt to destroy Jewish life bit by bit, synagogue by synagogue, organisation by organisation, using the same methods once employed in the Soviet Union.”

It described the allegations against Litvak as “unbelievable anonymous denunciations” and said that while it had received the sum of €250 from Abramovich, it had “worked in full transparency and maintained rigorous and honest standards” while evaluating Sephardic ancestries.

The community also said it was no longer interested in collaborating with the Portuguese state in certifying people as Sephardic Jews. It declined to comment on whether the oligarch was a direct or indirect benefactor of the community, whether it remained confident about Abramovich’s certification, or whether it was reviewing the decision.

Nothing is proven yet. It would be a shame if an oligarch had abused a well-intentioned mechanism to right a historical wrong, and ends up making it harder for Sephardis to reclaim Portuguese citizenship. I hope that if there do turn out to have been systemic failures that those can be rectified without scrapping the whole law. And it seems a bit unfair to make the descendants of expelled people demonstrate a connection to the community they were expelled from, centuries later.

It's weird the way religion, race and modern politics intertwine sometimes. The same 1496 decree expelled Muslims from Portugal as well, but their descendants can't reclaim citizenship because Islam is doctrinally a question of observance not genealogy.

Anyway, if he does lose his Portuguese/EU citizenship he'll still be Israeli as well as Russian, so won't have to return to Putinland, and I assume he's been getting as many assets out of the EU as possible anyway.

All the papers are picking up on a story of Abramovich and Ukrainian negotiators suffering symptoms of poisoning after meeting with Russian negotiators early this month.

"Mr Abramovich was said to have shown symptoms including peeling skin on his face and hands, and red teary eyes. " (Telegraph et al)

This flat makes Donald Trump’s taste look restrained https://twitter.com/carlschreck/status/ ... TFaetOgoag

Oligarch super yachts are ending up in Vladivostok.

Welcome to Vladivostok!

On March 31, Nord, the 142-meter megayacht reportedly owned by Alexei Mordashov, a Russian steel and mining magnate, became the first of a fleet of Russian oligarch megayachts to reach the port of Vladivostok since the imposition of sanctions due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Arriving just before 9:30 a.m. local time, she settled into a dock in Golden Horn Bay, safe from the grabby hands of European authorities, who had placed Mr. Mordashov under sanctions on the last day of February. They had already detained his other megayacht, the 65-meter Lady M, in Imperia, Italy, on March 4.

Nord won’t be alone for long: It will likely soon be joined by Amadea, owned by Suleyman Kerimov, a major stakeholder in Gazprom and other state-owned companies. The 106.5-meter yacht recently made its way through the Panama Canal from the Caribbean. After a brief stop in Mexico, she headed across the Pacific for Fiji, where, I am guessing, she will resupply before turning north toward Russia’s far east. Several other yachts have gone dark in the Indian Ocean, not sharing location data for days or weeks. I anticipate they will start popping up soon in the South China Sea or the Sea of Japan.

https://project-brazen.ghost.io/yacht-w ... adivostok/

What's that phrase? "Don't put all your megayachts in one Vladivostok"

It would be a shame if anything happened to them there.

The EU, UK, US and other sanctioning entities should issue letters of marque and reprisal against the Oligarch yachts, allowing all those on the high seas to capture them and dispose of their contents.

Raise the Jolly Roger!

Herainestold wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 07, 2022 9:02 pm

The EU, UK, US and other sanctioning entities should issue letters of marque and reprisal against the Oligarch yachts, allowing all those on the high seas to capture them and dispose of their contents.

So you would dispense with the rule of law and human rights?

Millennie Al wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 09, 2022 3:55 am

Herainestold wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 07, 2022 9:02 pm

The EU, UK, US and other sanctioning entities should issue letters of marque and reprisal against the Oligarch yachts, allowing all those on the high seas to capture them and dispose of their contents.

So you would dispense with the rule of law and human rights?

Letters of marque have always been issued in accordance with law. Confiscated goods are apportioned after adjudication by an Admiralty court.
It is as lawful as sanctions.

Millennie Al wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 09, 2022 3:55 am

Herainestold wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 07, 2022 9:02 pm

The EU, UK, US and other sanctioning entities should issue letters of marque and reprisal against the Oligarch yachts, allowing all those on the high seas to capture them and dispose of their contents.

So you would dispense with the rule of law and human rights?

Wikipedia 21st-century American reconsideration of letters of marque