There is one cause of the current Russian assault on Ukraine: Vladimir Putin. Everything that he has said to justify this unjustifiable act is a lie. Since he says nothing but lies, we can ignore what he says. He is daily committing crimes against humanity.
By all accounts, Putin qualifies as a terrorist. The US set a bounty of $25 mn on the heads of each of Osama bin Laden of Al-Quaeda and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of ISIS, and they were duly executed.
Furthermore, Putin has threatened, planned and attempted to kill Zelensky (with Kadyrovites) so he is worse than bin Laden and al-Bahgdadi.
On June 22, 1941, Churchill made his most famous anti-Hitler speech:
"We are resolved to destroy Hitler and every vestige of the Nazi regime."
"We will never negotiate with Hitler or any of his gang."
Time for @POTUS to say that about today's Hitler, i.e. Putin!
A benevolent Russian businessman in California offered $1 mn for the head of Putin. Can't the USGOV raise it to $50 mn or perhaps $100 mn and get the job done? This is serious business.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Anders Åslund

Anders Åslund Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @anders_aslund

Mar 12
I have repeatedly claimed that Putin is today's Hitler. For long, it was not accepted to compare Stalin with Hitler, but then Lord Bullock published his outstanding book "Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives" in 1993 & we got a decent comparison. We need to start now with Putin.
Hitler & Putin have many similarities. I stay out of their simple backgrounds, but they were both racists, neo-imperialist, anti-democratic, alien to human values, furious & not very rational, though Hitler was fast & Putin rather slow.
Their defining moments were for Hitler the start of World War II against Poland on September 1, 1939, & for Putin the start of World War III against Ukraine on February 24, 2022. These were two unjustified & unprovoked wars of aggression, the worst international war crime.
Read 9 tweets
Mar 12
The three main sanctioning jurisdictions, the US, EU & UK should coordinate their personal sanctions of Russian oligarchs, as an oligarch sanctioned in one jurisdiction can thrive in another. Let me review the top 8 Putin oligarchs.
1. Arkady Rotenberg: sanctioned by the US & EU in 2014.
2. Yuri Kovalchuk: sanctioned by the US & EU in 2014.
3. Gennady Timchenko: sanctioned by the US in 2014, but only now by the EU & UK, Finnish citizen.
4. Boris Rotenberg: sanctioned by the US in 2014, & now by the UK, but still not by the EU. He lives in Finland & is a Finnish citizen. He owns the ice-hockey stadium in Helsinki, so US diplomats are not allowed to visit it.
Read 7 tweets
Mar 11
A few thoughts on Putin's war.
1. Putin has not been provoked. He simply wants war as in Georgia 2008 and Crimea 2014 or Syria 2015. Wars are good for his domestic popularity - rose to 88% in 2008 and 2014 - and they help hm justify more domestic repression.
2. Putin is stating clearly that he is not in war against Ukraine but against the West - the US, Europe and NATO. It is a delusion to think that the West can stay out of Putin's war. The West should instead think of how and when to fight Putin.
3. Logically, Putin's war ends when he is ousted/killed or when he runs out of soldiers, arms or money. Neither is likely to happy any time soon.
Conclusion: Make all kinds of sanctions as tough as just possible & deliver lots of arms to Ukraine.
Read 4 tweets
Mar 10
Finally, the UK has become serious, sanctioning 7 top-level Russian oligarchs.
1. Roman Abramovich owner of Chelsea FC and has stakes in steel giant Evraz and Norilsk Nickel
2. Oleg Deripaska has stakes in En+ Group
3. Igor Sechin is the CEO of Rosneft
gov.uk/government/new…
4. Andrey Kostin is Chairman of VTB bank
5. Alexei Miller is CEO of energy company Gazprom
6. Nikolai Tokarev is president of the Russia state-owned pipeline company Transneft
7. Dmitri Lebedev is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank Rossiya.
This is the first time anybody sanctions Putin's top oligarch, Abramovich, Bravo!
Sechin, Kostin and Tokarev are known to come from the KGB.
With his loyalists Sechin, Miller, Kostin and Tokarev, Putin controls the biggest state companies & they draw most money from Gazprom.
Read 4 tweets
Mar 10
Today, the EU sanctioned 160 Russians, 146 members of the Russian Federation Council (well-deserved) & 14 oligarchs as well as their family members. Are these really the right people? No, the top & worst people are not sanctioned, mainly the second level.
eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/…
The people who should have been sanctioned are
1. Roman Abramovich (too well-connected, with Chabad).
2. Iskander Makhmudov, truly terrible.
3. Suleiman Kerimov, US sanctioned, fronting for Putin on a big scale.
4. Oleg Deripaska, US sanctioned.
5. Boris Rotenberg, US sanctioned.
6. Leonid Mikhelson, co-owner of crony Timchenko in Novatek & Sibur.
7. Putin's 4 cousins that have gained at least $0.5 bn each according to Russian Forbes.
8. All Putin's childhood friends who hold money for him.
It is unfortunate that all these people have been omitted.
Read 8 tweets
Mar 8
Rethinking Russia sanctions:
1. The threat of sanctions on Russia failed as a deterrence, because the West was never credible. Western politicians talked about "sanctions to hell" ever so often but did nothing. Putin concluded that nothing would happen.
2. Putin and all his bankers claimed the sanctions of 2014 were ineffective, while @MSnegovaya and i argued that they shaved off about 2.5% of GDP each year 2014-20. Nobody cared about reality, but Russia's GDP did not grow for 7 years.
atlanticcouncil.org/wp-content/upl…
3. Before invading Ukraine, Putin thought that Western sanctions have little impact and that the West will do little in the future. He was completely wrong on both accounts. The West, especially Europe was shocked by his stupidity, lawlessness & cruelty & did everything.
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(