The WH on Wed announced new sanctions on Belarus and Russian defense firms, as well as export controls designed to target “Russia’s refining capacity over the long-term," washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022…
America’s sanctions are expected to be more complicated than those imposed by the E.U., targeting not just the individuals but also their family members and companies they own
DOJ announced the creation of “Task Force KleptoCapture” to coord prosecutors and other federal
investigators in the effort to prosecute sanctions against “corrupt Russian oligarchs.” The task force will be led by a prosecutor with the U.S.A. Office for the SDNY and include leadership from the FBI, U.S. Secret Service, DHS and IRS, among other federal agencies.
In addition to the sanctions released Monday by the E.U., Western leaders vowed this week to create a new “transatlantic task force” of law enforcement to help identify, and freeze, the assets of Russian oligarchs in violation of those sanctions.
Russia’s billionaires control roughly 30 percent of the nation’s wealth — compared with roughly 15 percent in Germany and the United States — and have about as much financial wealth stashed in offshore foreign accounts as the entire Russian population has in Russia itself
Many of them have served at high levels of Putin’s government, or played an instrumental role in providing financing either for the Russian president personally or the Kremlin’s efforts abroad
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As a mob ransacked the Capitol Roger Stone hurried to pack a suitcase inside the Willard hotel. He wrapped his tailored suits in trash bags, reversed his black face mask so its “Free Roger Stone” logo was hidden, then slipped out of town for a hastily arranged private flight
“I really want to get out of here,” Stone told an aide. Stone said he feared prosecution by the incoming attorney general, Merrick Garland. “He is not a friend,” Stone said. washingtonpost.com/investigations…
Interesting that Stone allowed himself to be filmed during this period. Proves he thought everything was legal, when he was told it wasn't. He thought they would rule the world. They didn't
Just last week, many European countries were still so somnolent about the threat Russia posed to Ukraine that Germany’s spy chief was caught unawares in Kyiv when the Kremlin invasion started. He had to be extracted in a special operation. washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/…
But over just a handful of days, Europe has been shocked out of a post-Cold War era — and state of mind — in which it left many of the democratic world’s most burning security problems to the US
It has been dizzying for some of the continent’s Russia hawks, especially those in
Eastern Europe who campaigned for tougher measures against the Kremlin for years but were ignored by bigger countries including Germany, Italy and France.
People are banned from trying to “trick” or “mislead” other users, violating anyone’s “privacy or publicity rights,” or posting messages that “depict violence” or include messages related to “sexual fetishes,” “sugar babies” or “sexually suggestive”
phrases. People are also forbidden from posting anything “false,” “indecent,” “misleading,” “profane,” “obscene,” “filthy” or “otherwise objectionable.”
Russian forces will thus be arrayed along Poland’s entire 650-mile eastern border, as well as along the eastern borders of Slovakia and Hungary and the northern border of Romania.
(Moldova will likely be brought under Russian control, too, when Russian troops are able to form a land bridge from Crimea to Moldova’s breakaway province of Transnistria.)
The most immediate threat will be to the Baltic states.
Kaliningrad is the headquarters of the Russian Baltic Fleet. Since the Soviet Union broke up Russians have been able to access Kaliningrad only through Poland and Lithuania. Expect a Russian demand for a direct corridor that would put strips of the countries under Russian control