Russians are playing with fire

@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

as always u have no ******* clue

That proves I'm right.

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This article estimates Putin's personal worth at $70,000,000,000 (that's 70 billion U.S. dollars)

This Newsmax article pegs it at a much more modest $40,000,000,000 (that's $40 billion--but hey, what's a few tens of billions of dollars between friends?). Newsmax attributes the estimate to the New York Times.

I don't know if this is the story referred to by Newsmax, but this is an interesting article from the New York Times

Wikipedia quotes a figure between $40 billion and $70 billion. They cite Nina Krushchevna of the New School. They also quote Boris Nemtsov, a political opponent, who says that the Russian government has built 20 villas and palaces for Putin in the last 12 years.

Oh yeah, Putin's just a noble, disinterested public servant who wants what is best for Russia and all the russians. Rolling Eyes

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@Setanta,

Don't pay too much heed to hawk; he has NEVER responded to my direct questions about his claims on ANYTHING. NOT EVEN ONCE.

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@Setanta,

Quote:

Oh yeah, Putin's just a noble, disinterested public servant who wants what is best for Russia and all the russians.

What I said was is that Putin is not motivated by greed for money....if he was the threat of sanctions alone would have amended his behavior in Ukraine. Reports are that a lot of his wealth is all on paper, made up of ownership stakes in Russian companies, all of which are worth a lot less now than they were a year ago. Selling energy at cut rate prices to China rather than to Europe cant be good for Putins bank accounts either, but that is what he is doing.

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@hawkeye10,

What reports are those, Whackeye? Can you link them here so that we can all read them, rather than relying on your anecdotal claims? You're incredibly naïve. Have you ever heard of realpolitik? Putin has not meddled in Moldavu, he has not meddle in the Baltic States. Your "Russian empire" claim is bullshit. But he has meddled in the Ukraine, where the gas pipe line passes, and where the Black Sea fleet is based. Having secured the fleet, he now wants'to destabilize the Ukraine in a foolish attempt to recreate the situation in which the president was his puppet. He, in his turn, has his strings pulled by his plutocratic cronies. He's not so short-sighted as to just look down the road to next month or next year. His job security relies on keeping the oil and the natural gas flowing on behalf of the rich Russians who prop up his authority. Putin is not a classic dictator, he's front man for the plutocracy.

As a stooge for pro-Putin propaganda, one would think that you would understand this.

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The Donetsk rebels asked for Putin's help against Ukraine, so he simply sent them some weapons to defend themselves, it was the least he could do.
If he was REALLY looking for trouble he'd declare Donetsk part of Russia and send a massive invasion force in there to occupy it.

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@Romeo Fabulini,

I'm sure sending 10,000 troops to the eastern border of Ukraine doesn't have any message to it.

From the NYT.

Quote:

WASHINGTON — Russia has roughly doubled the number of its battalions near the Ukrainian border, Western officials said Monday, and could respond to the Kiev government’s gains there by launching a cross-border incursion with little or no warning.

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@Setanta,

Quote:

His job security relies on keeping the oil and the natural gas flowing on behalf of the rich Russians who prop up his authority.

Putin made those men rich, they owe it all to him. You have things very backwards.

Quote:

Putin is not a classic dictator,

right, because unlike garden variety dictators Putin always has an eye on reclaiming the rightful glory of the Russian Empire, it is not all about money.... or him.

Quote:

Having secured the fleet

HAHAHA....

Quote:

Having secured the floating heaps of scrap

fixed.

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Ukrainian SU-25 jet bombers hit the rebel city of Lugansk earlier this year and this civilian woman was collateral damage and was wounded in the legs, so no wonder Putin is giving them SAM's to defend themselves.
This is a still from a Liveleak video, but of course the West is trying to stop us seeing news reports like this because they're on Ukraine's side and want us to think Putin is the bad guy-

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/Lugansk2-2014jpg_zps624467e2.jpg~original

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@Romeo Fabulini,

was it really necessary to share that?

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The truth is the truth..
PS- anyway I had second thoughts and tried to delete the pic in case it upset some people but it was too late..

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@hawkeye10,

I made a promise not to call anyone dumb or stupid on this forum, but DAMN its getting hard to keep that promise!!

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@RABEL222,

RABEL222 wrote:

I made a promise not to call anyone dumb or stupid on this forum, but DAMN its getting hard to keep that promise!!

Ya, the brain trust of the West keeps assuming that Putin is a profiteer. They also keep being wrong on what he will do next. Just a year ago we got told constantly that Putin was on his way to being drummed out by mass protests. TOday he has an approval rating of 90%.

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@hawkeye10,

You really don't understand a thing about Putin's situation. He's holding on until next winter, in the belief that the European sanctions will fold. Maybe they will, maybe they won't. Putin didn't make anyone rich but himself. If he no longer delivers the goods, his political career will be over, unless he tries for a coup and a classic dictatorship. His future relies on his ability to assure the continued prosperity of the plutocrats. Ask Izzy about real estate investments of the Russian plutocrats in England. They've been getting their money out of the country for a decade, and if Putin fails, they'll drop him like a hot rock.

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@Setanta,

There's a Russian owned wine shop in London that caters for oligarchs. Some of the bottles of wine they sell cost more than most houses.

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@izzythepush,

Here we go, the shop is called Hedonism.

Quote:

Hedonism stocks more vintages of the big names than a connoisseur could ever want — 4,500 wines and 1,500 spirits. There are walls of rare Krug and Dom Pérignon champagnes, some signed by family members. A magnum of 1959 Dom Pérignon rosé, the first ever made, can be yours for £19,954. Lovers of Romanée-Conti and La Tâche could spend half a day in the Burgundy section, and most of a fortune. There are 21 and 23 vintages of each. A 2005 Romanée-Conti complete magnum set costs £101,709.

There are 15 rare vintages of Montrachet. Latour goes back to 1961, Lafite to 1949 and Pétrus to 1945. Pride of place, however, goes to the amber-coloured wall of 85 bottles of Château d’Yquem, the world’s most celebrated dessert wine, the earliest an 1811. Yes, you read that right. The bottle really is 201 years old. The price? £98,700. There are rare sherries, Cognacs, whiskies, eaux de vie, and rums. A bottle of Glenfiddich 1955 Janet Sheed Roberts, bottle number one of eight, costs £123,000.

With big names and even bigger prices, critics and assorted wine snobs have dismissed Chichvarkin as just another Russian who has brought a “more flash than class” style to W1. He’s rich, all right, and not afraid to spend. The shop alone cost £2m — “crazy expenditure. I stress when I think about it.” He has hired 15 wine experts who can speak dozens of languages between them.

http://hedonism.co.uk/about-us/reviews-/mayfairs-most-wanted-es-meets-yevgeny-chichvarkin/

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Putin never reports more income than his salary and a few modest honoraria, running from about $110,000 US to about $130,000 US per annum. Yet he is well known among collectors for his collection of rare and antique watches.

A VOA guide to Putin's yachts, palaces, cars and watches.

Conservative estimates of the value of his collection of watches put them at $700,000 US. Yet Putin just scrapes along on his modest salary. As the New Yorkers say, don't p*ss down my leg and tell me it's raining.

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@Setanta,

He's got quite a bit of wine stashed away too.

Quote:

Mr Putin has his own cave in the Cricova tunnels. Every statesman who visits the winery is accorded the honour of a personal collection, but Mr Putin's stash is noticeably bigger.

"He has been here several times - he likes this place so much he held his 50th birthday party here," Alexeev tells me. Then his face darkens. "Of course things have changed a lot since then."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28459884

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@izzythepush,

Quote:

NATO sees 'high probability' of Russian invasion in east Ukraine, Moscow says sending aid convoy
Reuters By By Adrian Croft and Sergei Karpukhin
31 minutes ago

By Adrian Croft and Sergei Karpukhin

BRUSSELS/DONETSK (Reuters) - NATO said on Monday there was a "high probability" that Russia could launch an invasion of eastern Ukraine under the guise of a humanitarian operation, but a defiant President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was sending an aid convoy into the country.

With Ukraine reporting Russia has massed 45,000 troops on its border, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso also warned Putin against any military intervention in the country.

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@cicerone imposter,

Quote:

NATO sees 'high probability' of Russian invasion in east Ukraine, Moscow says sending aid convoy

Dont they know how the resulting further isolation of Russia would deplete Putins bank accounts??? There is no way he would want to do that, Putin is all about the money...or so we are told here at A2K.

2 Replies

Russians are playing with fire

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