Plausible assessment of the new Russia by Leonid Gozman: 1. Navalny became the only oppositional alternative to Putin. 2. as long as Russia is ruled by Putin, he will not be released from prison. His release would be perceived as a victory for the protest idu.org/a-new-era-in-r…
3. Authorities have ultimately decided on a course to intensify repression. 4. Authorities realize that, even with an extremely high level of manipulation of elections and falsification of their results, they can no longer provide themselves the necessary level of control
5. In international politics, an increase in isolation and hostility towards the West is inevitable. 6. There is no confrontation and split within civilians in the country; opposition-minded citizens do not oppose other citizens & Putin’s voters are passive
7. The political confrontation has turned into a moral confrontation. 8. the country will inevitably go through a non-legal period. And there are fewer and fewer hopes that the way out of the current systemic crisis will be peaceful.
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Why Trump should rank as the worst US president ever: 1. He caused an insurrection at the US Capitol. 2. He greatly aggravated white supremacism. 3. He boosted homicide rates sharply. 4. He failed to handle a major pandemic by dismissing all preparations.
5. He brought about an unknown degree of corruption in the White House. 6. He did whatever he could to make billionaires even more privileged through lower taxes and less regulation. 7. He worked against the underprivileged on incomes, welfare, health care & education
8. He did whatever he could to aggravate the climate crisis. 9. He alienated the US from a real democracies, while defending corrupt autocracies. 10. He greatly strengthened major autocracies - China, Russia and Saudi Arabia. 11. He greatly weakened all western alliances, NATO.
Contradictory reflections on Brexit: 1. Good that the process is completed but that free trade remains. 2. Sad to see the UK leave the EU. 3. Brexit is a reflection of obsolete British upper class imperialism. 4. Sad to see that UK liberalism disappears from the EU.
5. London is likely to lose out as a financial center, but none of Frankfurt, Paris, Dublin or Amsterdam is likely to be able to take over, so Europe as a whole will probably lose. 6. The excellent UK universities are likely to lose out, losing EU money, students & researchers.
7. The UK will become ever more parochial without Erasmus students, EU researchers & EU funding. 8. I see that the children of my Swedish friends who used to go to Britain, now go to Berlin or Brussels. Boris Johnson has made Britain unfashionable in Europe. Why go backwards?
All signs suggest that Trump is Putin's servant: 1. Trump has never criticized Putin. 2. Trump has persistently opposed any action against Putin (but sometimes overruled).
3. Trump successfully sabotaged the Mueller report on his collusion with Russia, which even so as the Senate Intelligence Committee showed his collusion with the GRU (but did not say so because of Barr). 4. Trump's Russia accomplices were sentenced by US courts.
5. Trump hasten to pardon his Russia culprits, especially Manafort & Stone, the main Russian contacts. 6. Trump has made must of his money by selling real estate to Russians in New York, Miami & Palm Beach (Ruybolovlev $54 million).
How could a Russia subject be US president?!
"While Ukraine has officially backed Belarus’ peaceful protesters, Yevhen Shevchenko, a lawmaker with the Ukrainian president’s Servant of the People party, traveled to Minsk on Dec. 22 to support the country’s dictator." kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…
"On Dec. 22, Ukrainian lawmaker Shevchenko traveled to Minsk to meet with Belarusian lawmaker Andrey Savinykh, head of the Belarusian parliament’s international relations committee.
Shevchenko claimed that people in Belarus are protesting “because they are bored.”"
"In 2019, Shevchenko appeared on a Russian state-owned propaganda networks and accused “Ukrainian nationalists” of stalling the Donbas peace talks. ...Most Ukrainian politicians boycott invitations to appear on Russian TV."
A few conclusions from the Trump era: 1. The US needs far more transparency. Tax returns, incomes & assets must be declared in exact numbers, not in intervals from 1-10. 2. All offshore holdings must be declared exactly. 3. Declare the ultimate beneficiaries of all companies!
4. Prohibit the president from pursuing active business. Any assets must be held in a blind trust. 5. The president should be prohibited from hiring anybody of his family in the top of the government. 6. The president's right to offer pardon should be abolished.
7. Voters should be automatically registered by law. 8. Voter repression should be legislated to be a felony punishable with prison. 9. The electoral college should be abolished as a pre-democratic remnant.
We know very little about Trump's finances, but we do know that Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev overpaid him $54 million for one house in Palm Beach, where he has not lived. Why?
We also know that Trump has done business with three dozen of truly dubious post-Soviet businessmen in New York & Miami (see @craigunger & @tomburgis) & that Deutsche Bank that has been punished for various money laundering crimes with Russia has financed him.
Trump has fought tooth & nail to keep his finances secret. Incredibly, the US lack of transparency has allowed him to do so. This should stop. We need to know. Most of his close friends appear to be criminals to judge from their US verdicts.