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Casey Michel 🇰🇿

@cjcmichel

5 Jan

I know no one wants to talk about it, but state fracture in Northern Kazakhstan isn’t something that can be dismissed out of hand (especially given the past few years, and as KZ’s political scene turns turbulent). Quick thread 🧵:

In 1991, Yeltsin’s office claimed Russia had the right to “revisit” four different borders in the post-Soviet region.

1. Abkhazia (Russia invaded in 2008)
2. Crimea (invaded 2014)
3. Donbas (invaded 2014)
4. Northern Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan moved its capital to Astana in 1997, predicated (in part) on deterring regional separatist sentiment.

A few years later, an actual separatist plot fizzled (connected to, of all people, the fascist Eduard Limonov).

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Casey Michel 🇰🇿

@cjcmichel

29 Dec 21

Read a bunch of books in 2021! Here are my top-10 (non-fiction) reads:

1. Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, by Liaquat Ahamed, on the humanity and myopia that inflicted the Great Depression on the world—and the inflection points that got us there.

2. The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America, by James Wilson, which should be required reading for every American (and then some). Somehow manages to weave a concise story of centuries of settler-colonialism in North America, and the stories buried under myth.

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Casey Michel 🇰🇿

@cjcmichel

15 Dec 21

https://twitter.com/OrHist/status/1315864807346642944

Fascinating paper on the historical memory of imperial settler-colonial violence in Oregon, and how wonton anti-Indigenous violence was whitewashed out of Oregon's (and the Pacific Northwest's) story:

https://twitter.com/OrHist/status/1315864807346642944

'During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Americans understood the term 'pioneer' as reference to a soldier of colonialism. They specifically conceptualized pioneers... as people who were actively and often violently expelling Native people and overtaking their land.'

'A plurality of the Euro-Americans who came to mid-19th-century Oregon sought to create a racially exclusionary state... People at the federal and territorial level alike envisioned Oregon... as a White man’s republic, from which Native people had to be (or had been) expunged.'

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Casey Michel 🇰🇿

@cjcmichel

8 Dec 21

@anneapplebaum

Grateful to @anneapplebaum and @TheAtlantic for reviewing AMERICAN KLEPTOCRACY (alongside the great @tomburgis)!

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

‘Conveying the full picture of corruption, from a scheme’s inception to its long-term ramifications, is a big challenge. American Kleptocracy and Kleptopia required years of careful reporting; they both, in turn, require concentration to read.’ theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

'[Trump's] presidency should serve as a warning: If democratic societies do not wake up to the spread of corruption among self-interested rulers and their enablers, they may find themselves not just broke and impoverished, but voiceless and unfree.' theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

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Casey Michel 🇰🇿

@cjcmichel

6 Dec 21

Fantastic, in many ways unprecedented, new strategy document from the White House on countering corruption/kleptocracy: whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…

One of the clear through-lines of the new U.S. anti-corruption strategy: recognizing that the U.S. is a "significant destination for laundered proceeds of illicit activity." Specifically singles out American:

—Shell companies
—Real estate
—Private equity/hedge funds

Absolutely fantastic to see the White House specifically call out American "enabling" professionals—lawyers, accountants, trust providers, etc.

*And* the White House comes out in support of increased anti-money laundering regulations on these enablers.

whitehouse.gov/wp-content/upl…

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Casey Michel 🇰🇿

@cjcmichel

4 Dec 21

https://twitter.com/SenWhitehouse/status/1466506956441534471

Some staggering numbers in this new report, on just how open the U.S. private investment/private equity/hedge fund markets are for gargantuan money laundering schemes:

https://twitter.com/SenWhitehouse/status/1466506956441534471

The U.S. private investment market has:

—over $11 trillion dollars in assets
—~13,000 investment advisers
—minimal anti-money laundering regulations
—the "perfect confluence of factors that make it an ideal place to hide and launder the proceeds of corrupt/criminal activity"

One of the chapters of AMERICAN KLEPTOCRACY (which you can purchase now!) looks specifically at how private equity/hedge funds in the U.S. have become massive money laundering vehicles unto themselves—and which networks (and oligarchs) have taken advantage.

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