Thread by @SeekerOTL

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FAKE NEWS: UKRAINE EDITION

On Sept 25, 2017, a congressional hearing was held by the Committee on Financial Issues. The subject was corruption in the National Bank of Ukraine.

Rep Connie Mack of Florida was the chairman.

Well, not exactly.

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There actually isn’t a Committee on Financial Issues

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And Connie Mack hasn’t served in Congress since 2012.

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So the "hearing" was actually a press conference...held in the basement of the US Capitol.

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A Ukrainian billionaire and politician, Sergiy Taruta, and a former employee of the National Bank of Ukraine joined Mack on the panel.

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The press conference was lived streamed by the Ukrainian television channel NewsOne.

UkraNews, owned by Dmitry Firtash, also covered the event.

objectiveproject.org/2016/02/22/ins…

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The focus of the press conference was Valeriya Gontareva, former chairwoman of the national bank of Ukraine.

Gontareva oversaw the nationalization of Ukraine’s largest commercial bank, Privatbank.

kyivpost.com/wp-content/upl…
kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

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Ukrainian government officials claim they were forced to spend nearly $6 billion to cover the bank’s losses due to fraudulent lending practices and money laundering.

money.usnews.com/investing/news…

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According to the one US reporter who attended, JP Carroll, “the event was spent criticizing Hontareva.”

The organizers distributed a paper asking, “Cinderella or Wicked Stepmother?”

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Adding to the seeming legitimacy of the event was the presence of a “special guest” -- the former director of the CIA, James Woolsey.

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Woolsey didn’t merely attend; he also gave a brief speech.

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His spokesman, Jonathan Franks, told The Daily Beast, “Ambassador Woolsey was deliberately mislead about the nature of this event when he agreed to attend.”

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This is a recurring theme of Woolsey’s career - he repeatedly claims he was mislead about the true nature of a sketchy meeting.

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Franks further explained, “He (Woolsey) expected to be a member of the audience for a serious discussion of the issues facing the Ukraine, AN AREA HE’S BEEN INTERESTED IN FOR DECADES.”

Not a comforting thought for Ukrainians.

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“Perhaps he was guilty of being old fashioned, but it never occurred to him the organizers would lure him to an event in the Capitol in order to make him an involuntary participant in a sham.”

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Remember that Woolsey was one of the primary supporters of the perpetual schemer Ahmad Chalabi and his claims that Saddam Hussein had ties to Al-Qaeda.

Why should we take serious a person who serially displays such poor judgement?

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According to The Daily Beast, the person behind the sham hearing was most likely Ukrainian oligarch, Ihor Kolomoisky.

thedailybeast.com/the-allegedly-…

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Kolomoisky,the former owner of the Privatbank, had a lot of reason$ to be angry with Gontareva; he lost many millions when the bank was nationalized in Dec 2016.

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Ihor Kolomoisky is quite a character. In the increasing polarized post-Maidan Ukraine, oligarchs generally fit in one of two categories:

a) pro-Maidan, pro-EU, Ukrainian nationalist

or

b) anti-Maidan, in favor of decenteralization and better relations with Russia

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Of course, oligarchs are out for themselves, first and foremost; however, it is the nature of the Ukrainian politics that they must chose a side.

The winning oligarchs use the power of government to enrich themselves and their clans at the expense of other oligarchs.

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The biggest losers, sadly, are the Ukrainian people.

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According to Richard Sakwa in his book, “Frontline Ukraine:Crisis in the Borderlands,” Kolomoisky was an adamant supporter of the Maidan coup. “It is reputed that Kolomoisky was one of the main funders of the Maidan movement,...

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....and in particular Right Sector, a party that began as a loose grouping of radical right-wing movement”

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Also:

“Kolomoisky is active in Jewish politics, funding various projects from Jerusalem to his native Dnepropetrovsk to restore Jewish monuments and buildings, and serves as the president of the Jewish community in Ukraine.”

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Such is the absurdity and tragedy of Ukrainian politics.

Needless to say, a far right group with Jewish funding is ripe for trolling.

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But Kolomoisky made an enemy of the current President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, who was also a supporter of the Euromaidan protests.

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Kolomoisky carved out his seat of power in his native Dnepropetrovsk region and he wasn’t eager to relinquish any of power to the new government.

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He assembled his own private army to further both his business interests and his anti-Russian sentiment.

forbes.com/sites/melikkay…

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Kolomoisky offered a $10,000 bounty for captured pro-Russia militants and $1,500 per seized Kalashnikov.

news.vice.com/en_us/article/…

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Kolomoisky is also a citizen of Israel and Cyprus. (even though dual citizenship is actually illegal in Ukraine). He left Ukraine in 2015. He obtained a US visa, spent time here and now resides mostly in Switzerland.

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But he could be ready for a comeback.

Ukraine’s presidential election is set for March 31, 2019 and Kolomoisky is, allegedly, supporting Poroshenko’s opponents, including a comedian.

independent.co.uk/news/world/eur…

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I probably didn’t get everything right. Ukrainian politics is confusing and I’m not particularly interested in sorting out the politics of a country 5,000 miles away.

Unfortunately, our political leaders believe the future of Ukraine is a priority issue facing America.

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Why Woolsey is meddling in Ukraine’s affairs is anyone’s guess.

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A Senate aide with knowledge of the event told Carroll, “It was a strange event. Even by Ukrainian standards, that was an odd one….I mean, why would a former CIA director be in the basement of the Capitol for a inter-oligarch dispute?”

weeklystandard.com/jp-carroll/the…